“Protecting Environmental Defenders: making peace with nature” first appeared in https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories .
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The executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Inger Anderson, recently delivered a speech to the Economic Commission to Latin America and the Caribbean. In her speech she noted that “over 212 environmental defenders were killed in 2019” and over two thirds of these deaths were within Latin America.
Moreover, she noted that “unscrupulous companies in the agribusiness, oil and gas, and mining sectors have regularly and consistently driven attacks against environmental defenders. These are also the industries contributing the most to climate change and nature loss through deforestation and increasing carbon emissions”.
She also pointed out that “protecting defenders and enabling them to manage their lands will help to address the three planetary crises. This is because areas managed by indigenous peoples and local communities – who make up a large percentage of defenders – have been consistently shown to suffer less degradation”.