UNCOVERING THE HIDDEN ICEBERG 2023

NEW DATA SHOWS ALARMING PATTERNS OF ATTACKS AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, LAND AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS

Worldwide, the climate crisis has lent an urgency to the defence of land, territories and natural resources, while the green transition has also posed new threats to defenders. Violence against Indigenous Peoples, land and environmental defenders has continued unabated, with Indigenous communities, which protect some of the most important global biodiversity hotspots and carbon sinks, being disproportionately targeted. Impunity prevails at alarming rates while defenders are criminalized and subjected to legal harassment by private actors through laws used to curb opposition.

New ALLIED data – a combined dataset produced by a group of local, regional and global data collectors – uncovers the hidden iceberg of non-lethal attacks against Indigenous, land and environmental defenders1 (ILED), as well as their organizations and communities. The data reveals extensive patterns of violence that can precede the killing of these defenders. Likewise, they also represent a crucial opportunity for intervention.