Colombia, host of this year’s UN COP16 biodiversity conference, is set to become the deadliest country for environmental and land rights defenders in 2023, with a record 79 deaths, according to British advocacy group Global Witness.
The number of murdered environmental activists was the highest ever recorded in a single country in a single year since Global Witness began monitoring such killings in 2012, the group said in its annual report released on Monday.
“These numbers are truly frightening,” said Laura Frones, senior adviser to Global Witness’ land and environmental campaigns, adding that the report’s findings were conservative and the figures were likely incomplete.
According to Global Witness, 196 environmental and land activists will be murdered worldwide in 2023, with Latin America accounting for the vast majority, 85% of the deaths.
The findings for Colombia contrast with promises made by the government of President Gustavo Petro, who takes office in 2022 and has pledged to end the country’s 60-year-old conflict and pursue environmental justice for local communities.
A stalled peace process with various armed groups suspected of being behind the killings of environmental activists has led to deforestation falling to a 23-year low last year, but the environment ministry has warned it will rise in 2024.
Colombia is also the deadliest country for environmentalists in 2022, with at least 60 deaths, according to Global Witness.
“These figures are very embarrassing for us in Colombia,” said Astrid Torres, coordinator of the Colombian human rights group Somos Defensores. Torres said the problem was not only the fault of the current government, but also of state institutions such as prosecutors and local authorities.
A Colombian government spokesman said they were working on a response.
A Reuters investigation last year found that the killings of environmental activists in Colombia have had long-term negative effects on conservation, with deforestation soaring in some of the municipalities where activists were killed.
At the COP16 agenda launch event in Bogotá in July, Colombia’s Vice President Francia Márquez, winner of the 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize for activism, said the conference would commemorate the victims.
“I was heartbroken by this dream that has been cherished for so many years by environmental leaders, many of whom are no longer with us and who, sadly, have been murdered in this country,” she said. “This global event is a tribute to those voices.”