A new report says killings of land and environmental activists rose in 2017. The environmental and human rights group Global Witness reports that Mexico and the Philippines registered sharp increases in such murders last year. And it says Brazil had the most ever registered killings of activists in a single country. Global Witness said at least 207 people protecting land and resources from business interests were killed last year. This was up from 201 killed in 2016, it noted. That makes 2017 the deadliest year since the group began recording deaths of land and environmental activists in 2015.

Global Witness said that the numbers were probably higher because of the difficulties of identifying and confirming such killings.

Consumer demand has often pressured agricultural businesses to expand production of crops like coffee, palm oil, and sugar cane. For the first time, more activists were killed in conflicts with agribusiness instead of mining, Global Witness said. Ben Leather prepared the report for the group. He told the Associated Press that the rising number of killings is clear evidence that governments and businesses are not serious about solving the problem.

Leather added that having more deadly conflicts tied to agriculture "should serve as a wake-up call to those businesses and to those investing in large-scale agriculture that they need to be better, too, and ensure that their money isn't funding this violence.”

The struggle to control the Amazon's natural resources often leads to conflict in Brazil. It remained the deadliest country for land activists, with 57 people killed last year. This is the highest number in a single year in any country since Global Witness began counting.

But there were also surprising increases in other countries. The Philippines had 48 land activists killed. That is the most ever for any Asian country and represents a 70 percent jump from 2016 levels. In Mexico, the number rose from three to 15. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, 13 people were killed. Twelve of them were park rangers protecting wildlife.

Aliqismet BADALOV,
“Khalq qazeti”