These are the Murders You Don’t Hear About
Environmental activists are killed every year for defending land
In the 1960s, a grey-haired American nun, Sister Dorothy Stang, was sent on a missionary to Brazil to help poor families get back on their feet. During her time there, she noticed destruction against the Amazon rainforest caused by man-made practices like illegal logging, cattle ranching, and the political corruption that surrounded it all in the name of capitalism. By the 1990s, Stang was placed on a “Death List” by local industry power players.
On February 12, 2005, while walking on an Amazon dirt road, Stang was approached by two gunmen. She reached for her Bible and began reading a passage out loud before she was shot six times and killed.
Stang was said to have refused protection by local government multiple times because she felt that simply being a nun would protect her. After all, how could one fathom ever harming a nun in her 70s who devoted her entire life to helping others? The reality is that Stang serves as the antithesis of good versus evil. She perished from taking actions to preserve the land against man-made destruction and sadly, she’s not the only one. In fact, hundreds of land defenders and environmental activists just like Stang are being killed at an astonishing rate.
According to National Geographic, 2017 was the deadliest year for environmental activists. The Guardian reported that 207 environmental defenders were killed in 2017 while protecting their community’s land or natural resources. That’s roughly four people killed per week and that doesn’t even account for all the people who are violently attacked but survive.
Some of the most high-risk places for environmental activists and land defenders include Brazil as the most dangerous, followed by the Philippines, Columbia, and Mexico. Environmental activists in Brazil are now even up against Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro, who has openly stated that environmental restrictions on the Amazon are getting in the way of the country’s development.
A press release following a Global Witness report states, “The report shows a huge rise in killings linked to consumer products. Brutal attacks on those defending their land from destructive agriculture — such as land grabs for palm oil, used in household goods like soap, and coffee — are on the rise.”
In the same Global Witness report, “Agribusiness,” the agriculture conducted on commercial products, was officially named as the most dangerous sector “overtaking mining or the first time ever, with 46 defenders (in 2017) killed protesting against the way goods we consume are being produced.” Other major industries driving attacks are mining, poaching, logging, and water and dams.
Indigenous people are at a particularly high risk as they are so often compelled to become land defenders from forced displacement and man-made projects like pipelines. Just think of the fight for Standing Rock Indian Reservation in the U.S. just a few short years ago, where so many protested the Dakota Access Pipeline project to fight for their sacred land.
In that same year, we saw the brutal murder of Berta Cáceres, a Lenca indigenous woman, and human rights defender. Cáceres was a front line defender territory of the rights of the indigenous Lenca people for more than 20 years. On March 2, 2016, Cáceres was murdered in her home by four men, two of whom had connections to a company building a dam on the territory which she had opposed.
As more stories come to light — improvement is finally being shown — In its 2018 report, Global Witness stated, “Tracking the deaths of environmental defenders in real time means we can show that the number of killings have leveled off for the first time in four consecutive years. As the international community sits up and listens to these hidden stories, there is a momentum for renewed pressure on companies and investors to take more responsibility and further scrutinize governments who have allowed those who kill to get away with it.”
Although an improvement, people should never be killed for defending land against consumerism. If we don’t protect sacred land, who will? The earth was not created to be bulldozed and abused for the sake of products, no matter how much we think we need them.
It’s hard not to reflect on the irony of the fact that the richest man in modern history, who’s taken over the world with online consumerism, has named his company after that same rainforest that Stang fought so hard to protect.
