Brazil recorded 26 killings of land and environmental defenders in 2025, more than double the 12 murders counted in 2024. The rise took the country from fourth to second place in the global ranking of the NGO Global Witness, released on Wednesday (Sept. 16), returning Brazil to the position it held in 2022 and 2023.

At least 124 defenders were killed worldwide in 2025, bringing the total of documented killings and disappearances since 2012, when the London-based group began its annual count, to 2,375. This year's edition is titled Collective power. Latin America concentrated 85% of the cases, about 105 deaths. Colombia led the list for the fourth consecutive year, with 39 killings, followed by Brazil; the two countries together accounted for 52% of last year's murders. Honduras and the Philippines had 12 cases each, Mexico 10 and Guatemala 8.

Land in dispute

Nearly all the Brazilian cases documented in 2025 had land disputes as their main cause, according to the report: seven were tied to Indigenous territories and 14 to smallholder farmers. Rondônia and Pará, two Amazon states, together accounted for half of the deaths. There, traditional communities face the pressure of expanding farming and extractive frontiers, often through land grabbing known in Brazil as grilagem.

"The lack of resolution on their land rights leaves Indigenous peoples and small farmers exposed to land grabbing, intimidation and violence," said Gabriella Bianchini, head of partnerships at Global Witness.

The increase came in the same year Brazil hosted COP30, the UN climate summit, in Belém, an event with record Indigenous participation that included commitments on territorial rights.

Collective protection

These communities, however, are not passive. "They are organising, going to the law and developing their own strategies to defend their territories and their rights," Bianchini said. The report documents collective protection mechanisms such as territorial patrols, early warning systems and community monitoring networks. Worldwide, 44 Indigenous people were killed in 2025, including seven members of Indigenous guards; in Peru, Kakataibo communities run an Indigenous guard that patrols their land against organised crime and illegal coca crops.

Globally, land disputes were associated with more than half of the 2025 killings. Mining was linked to 11 deaths, logging to eight and agribusiness to six, and more than a third of the cases involved organised crime or hitmen. "Defenders are the world's eyes and ears on the ground. It's thanks to them that we know when ecosystems are being destroyed, where forests are being cleared or rivers polluted," wrote Toby Hill, the report's lead author.