Colombia deadliest country for environmentalists in 2023, rights group says

By Oliver Griffin

BOGOTA (Reuters) -Colombia, host nation for this year's United Nations COP16 biodiversity conference, was the deadliest country for environmentalists and land rights defenders in 2023, with a record 79 killed, according to UK advocacy group Global Witness.

The number of murdered environmental activists was the highest Global Witness has ever recorded for a single country in any given year since it started monitoring such killings in 2012, it said in its annual report published on Monday.

"The figure is really chilling," Laura Furones, senior adviser to Global Witness' land and environmental defenders campaign, said, adding that the report's findings were conservative and figures likely incomplete.

Globally, 196 environmentalists and land activists were killed in 2023, Global Witness said, with Latin America overwhelmingly leading the way, accounting for 85% of the slayings.

The findings on Colombia are a sharp contrast to promises from the government of President Gustavo Petro, who took office in 2022 and has pledged to end the country's 60-year conflict and pursue environmental justice for communities.

Peace processes with various armed groups - which are sometimes implicated in environmentalists' killings - have faltered, and though deforestation fell to a 23-year low last year, the environment ministry has warned of an increase in 2024.

It is "dishonorable" to top the Global Witness list, Colombia's government said in a statement late on Monday.

"The national government recognizes the serious situation that is derived from socio-ecological conflicts associated with drug trafficking, extractavist practices connected to illicit economies and the reconfiguration of the armed conflict," the government added.

Colombia was also the deadliest country for environmentalists in 2022, according to Global Witness, when at least 60 were killed.

"The figure is very embarrassing for us in the country," said Astrid Torres, coordinator for Somos Defensores, a Colombian human rights group. Torres said the issue was not just the responsibility of the sitting government but also of state institutions, such as prosecutors and local authorities.

A spokesperson for Colombia's government said it was working on a response.

Last year a Reuters investigation found that murders of environmentalists in Colombia resulted in long-lasting negative effects on conservation and that some municipalities where activists were killed saw significant spikes in deforestation.

At an event to launch the COP 16 agenda in Bogota in July, Colombia's vice president, Francia Marquez - a winner of the Goldman Environmental prize for activism in 2018 - said the conference would honor those killed.

"It fills my heart with emotion to see this dream that was held for so many years by environmental leaders, many who are not with us today, who were sadly murdered in our country," she said. "This global event is a tribute to those voices."

(Reporting by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Leslie Adler)