Nearly 200 environmental activists were killed worldwide in 2023.
Colombia is again proving to be the most dangerous country for activists, the NGO Global Witness said in a report cited by AFP.
Some 85% of the 196 killings of environmental and land rights activists last year took place in South America.
Global Witness recorded 79 in Colombia alone, the highest number since the NGO began producing its annual report in 2012.
Most of these crimes were committed in the southwestern regions of the country, and criminal organizations are suspected of at least half of them.
In October and November, Colombia will host the UN Conference on Biodiversity (COP16) in Cali, raising safety concerns for participants.
The report also highlights the dismal record of Honduras, where 18 murders have been recorded, the highest per capita murder ratio.
In Asia, the Philippines remains the most dangerous country with 17 killings of environmental activists, with Global Witness highlighting a growing trend of kidnappings in the region.
"Since our release, the threats have not stopped," Jonila Castro and Jed Tamano, two activists who oppose Manila Bay reclamation projects in the Philippines, testified in the report.
They accuse the army of kidnapping them, even though authorities say the two women belonged to a communist insurgency they later left.
In Africa, Global Witness recorded only four deaths, but warned that this figure was likely to be a "severe underestimate" given the difficulties in gathering information.
The NGO also condemned British and US legislation that provides harsher penalties for demonstrators and activists, as well as "draconian levels of surveillance" in European Union countries.
With regard to the United Kingdom, it refers in particular to the case of three environmental activists who were banned by the courts from invoking the climate crisis in their defence and who were detained for non-compliance with the law. | BGNES
