Murder and intimidation: threats against environmental activists

Nowhere is the commitment to environmental protection as dangerous as in Latin America. In a new report, the investigative data journalism project Tierra de Resistentes draws a shocking conclusion.

by Stefanie Binder, DW Akademie

“Which Honduran media has enough resources of its own to research nearly 700 cases of threats against environmental activists? None of them do!” said Jennifer Avila Reyes, co-founder of the independent cross-media research platform, Contracorriente.

After Brazil, Honduras is the most dangerous country in Latin America for environmentalists. Conditions there are also extremely difficult for conducting independent journalism.

Transnational cooperation with the Tierra de Resistentes project has enabled Contracorriente to conduct extensive research and reports on the Tolupan people in Yoro, an indigenous community facing serious threats for resisting attempts to destroy its lands.

If it weren’t for the project, said Avila Reyes, authorities would refuse to give Contracorriente information about the cases, adding that those affected are also afraid to talk. “But because we’re part of a major project that involves several media and that has an international reach, this has opened doors,” she said.

Tierra de Resistentes aims to raise public awareness about the commitment of numerous Latin American environmental activists who have faced threats or have been murdered. The living database is also a source for other media workers and for scientists and political analysts. In addition to data visualization, the project also tells the stories of the people behind the numbers using video, audio, and text formats.

Initial figures were published in spring 2019. Since then, Consejo de Redacción has updated the database and the accompanying website and has added cases and countries. The head of the organisation, Camilo Amaya, has already witnessed the first successes.

“The pressure of public opinion through reporting has led the government in Colombia to start recognizing that there is a system behind the murders, expulsions and violence against activists,” said Amaya.

Almost 2,400 cases of violence

Tierra de Resistentes’ latest figures are shocking. Over the last 11 years, there have been 2,367 documented cases of violence against environmental activists in Latin America.

Tierra de Resistentes: local research and transnational cooperation is fundamental to the project

© Tierra de Resistentes

The database includes ten countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela, Argentina, and Honduras. Six are among the world’s ten most dangerous countries for environmental activists.

A team of 50 journalists, photographers and camera operators conducted the research in government institutions, press archives, civil society organizations and in the communities affected.

“There were previous attempts to document the threats but they weren’t able to provide this range of data let alone assess the circumstances journalistically,” said Andrés Bermúdez Liévano, chief editor of Tierra de Resistentes.

Much broader picture of situation

In 2016, UN Special Rapporteur Michel Forst published his first report on the situation of environmental activists worldwide. Since then, few statistics have been collected regionally or globally. Bermúdez said it remains unclear as to the full extent of the threats or scope of aggression, and that the figures available focus primarily on the number of activists killed. In response, Tierra de Resistentes has been documenting various types of violence such as physical attacks, expulsions, legal harassment and sexual assaults. This has provided a much broader picture of the situation in all ten countries studied.

Ethnic minorities particularly affected

The data shows that almost half (48 percent) of the violent actions documented were directed against members of ethnic minorities. Eleven of the 159 indigenous groups affected are thought to be dying out. Another sad fact, said Bermúdez, is that “these people are often portrayed as underdeveloped instead of being recognized as protectors of a common good.” Attackers use this to as a kind of justification for their assaults.

Environmental activists protect themselves with bulletproof vests in El Hatillo, César Department in Colombia

© Carlos Alberto Gómez

Tierra de Resistentes aims not only to collect the data but to also to find and reveal patterns. For example, the project has shown that activists involved in land conflicts are most at risk and that the threat comes primarily from the agricultural industry.

In the Amazon region, the degree and extent of violence are particularly high. Tierra de Resistentes’ reports show that dozens of ancestral lands, indigenous communities and national parks across the Amazon basin have been the targets of attacks and criminal interests.

There are, for example, documented cases of newcomers taking over indigenous areas, of the military attacking indigenous leaders, oil companies denying responsibility for contaminated water sources, drug dealers forcing communities to cultivate coca plants, park rangers being murdered and loggers acting against those resisting.

Projects like Tierra de Resistentes are also relevant in a global context. Public discussions on climate change have greatly increased worldwide as has the interest in those protecting the global climate. Journalists at Tierra de Resistentes hope that their solidly researched data they provide will advance the debate and will also lead to lawsuits in the countries affected. This is because one of the most serious problems in Latin America is the lack of criminal prosecutions.

The project has published 29 reports and an unprecedented database with 2,367 attacks against environmental leaders in the last 11 years in Latin America

© Tierra de Resistentes

Tierra de Resistentes

(“Land of the Resistant”) is a multinational investigative data journalism project initiated by the Colombian jour nalists’ organization Consejo de Redacción with support from DW Akademie. By documenting organized violence against Latin American environmental activists, the project aims to increase awareness for the commitment of the activists and their communities. The database includes threats and murder.

tierraderesistentes.com