Global Witness says environmentalist killings up by a fifth

According to campaign group Global Witness, killings of environmental activists have risen by 20% in the last year.  In a report published by the organisation, 116 deaths worldwide in 2014, including 29 in Brazil, 25 in Colombia and 15 in the Philippines, were revealed. Activists also reportedly faced abduction and other threats if they interfered in corporate or state interests, it added.

The report revealed that last year saw a spike in killings related to hydropower programs with fourteen people died defending their land and rivers against dam projects.

The report named Honduras as the most dangerous country for environmental activists, because of "regressive laws" and a climate of "near total impunity". The country has the highest reported number of killings per capita, with 111 deaths recorded since 2002.

The report also showed that members of indigenous groups were increasingly involved in the "scramble for land and natural resources" and accounted for 40% of all deaths last year.

According to reports, four Peruvian tribal leaders were murdered on their way to a meeting to discuss ways to stop illegal logging, furthermore Berta Caceres, an indigenous Lenca woman, told the report's authors that she had she had received numerous death threats because of her opposition to a dam that would force her community off their ancestral land. She claims she has been forced to live a "fugitive existence".

The report showed that activists are often portrayed as enemies of the state, with some countries using anti-terror legislation to target them. The campaign group urged governments and the international community to monitor, investigate and punish those behind what it called a hidden crisis.