By Witness Radio team
A new global analysis report highlights a concerning rise in attacks against land and environmental defenders, aiming to inspire urgent policy and advocacy responses to this escalating violence.
The 2025 Hidden Iceberg Report reveals that nearly 2,500 non-lethal attacks against land and environmental defenders were documented across 75 countries in just two years. These attacks range from threats and surveillance to arbitrary arrests and online harassment.
The report findings by the Alliance for Land, Indigenous and Environmental Defenders (ALLIED), a global network of civil society actors that supports and protects Indigenous, Land, and Environmental Defenders, cover the period 2023-24, with Indigenous communities targeted in 1 out of every 3 cases.
According to the report, these attacks rarely make the news, yet they are often early warnings of lethal violence. Studies define lethal attacks as attacks designed to kill or cause serious harm, while non-lethal attacks aim to incapacitate or control a target temporarily.
As civic space continues to shrink worldwide, defenders and communities affected by development projects are increasingly silenced when defending their community rights or territorial land rights, which are often infringed upon by governments or project implementers.
“Every killing we document is preceded by multiple threats, intimidation attempts, and harassment, but states rarely report these cases. What we see publicly is only the tip of the iceberg.” The report mentions.
“We also saw in 2023 and 2024 that attacks against environmental concern groups expanded. Representing 10.7% of all attacks, the largest number of such attacks were registered in the United States, followed by Mexico, Uganda, and the United Kingdom.” Eva Hershaw, Global Data Lead at the International Land Coalition and Co-Chair of the ALLIED Data Working Group, revealed during the report launch.
The findings paint a stark picture where Latin America accounts for 58% of all documented non-lethal attacks, with Colombia, Guatemala, Brazil, Honduras, and Mexico emerging as persistent hotspots.
“Indigenous communities are attacked not because they are weak, but because they are powerful,” said Carla García, a legal expert from Guatemala. “They protect forests, rivers, and territories that governments and corporations want to exploit. Intimidation becomes a deliberate strategy to silence them.”
In Africa, violence against defenders takes gendered forms, with women facing online abuse, sexual violence, and social stigmatization.
“When women stand up against land grabbing or destructive projects, the attacks go beyond
threats. They target women’s dignity, their families, and their bodies. Many cases are never reported because the fear of retaliation is overwhelming,” Tawonga explained.
She adds that Environmental defenders in Africa are often brutalized by the very systems meant to protect them, making the reporting of attacks both risky and rare.
Across many African countries, environmental defenders operate in contexts characterized by state surveillance, intimidation, and harassment, with security legislation and cyber laws often used to silence them. On top of that, defenders are frequently stigmatized as anti-development or anti-investment. And this harmful narrative, usually pushed by governments and private actors, paints defenders as enemies of national progress.” She added.
One primary concern is the lack of reliable data on attacks, which should motivate policymakers and institutions to improve reporting mechanisms and foster accountability.
“This data gap is not accidental. It is the result of deep structural and systemic limitations that conceal the true scale of violence against environmental defenders here in Africa,” Tawonga explained.
The analysis identifies large‑scale industrial agriculture, livestock, and mining as the sectors most frequently targeted, guiding advocacy efforts toward these high-risk areas to enhance protective measures.
The defenders raising concerns about industrial agriculture and livestock operations were most consistently targeted. They faced the highest number of attacks, representing 29% of the total. We see that three out of every four attacks raising concerns about these business sectors were concentrated in Honduras, Colombia, Brazil, and Guatemala. After industrial agriculture and livestock, mining was the next most common sector connected with attacks.” Eva added
As the climate crisis deepens and competition over land intensifies, the report warns that attacks on environmental defenders will likely worsen unless governments, corporations, and international institutions act decisively.
The report calls on states to strengthen and sustain mechanisms for collecting and reporting data, support national human rights institutions with mandates to monitor violations, and commit to transparency regarding violence against defenders. It also urges businesses to adopt and implement public policy commitments that recognize and protect the vital role of human rights defenders.
