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Colombia deadliest nation for environmentalists in 2023, rights group says

Colombia, host country for this year's United Nations COP16 biodiversity conference, was the most dangerous nation for ecologists and land rights defenders in 2023, with a record 79 eliminated according to UK advocacy group Worldwide Witness.

The variety of murdered environmental activists was the greatest Worldwide Witness has actually ever recorded for a single nation in any given year because it began monitoring such killings in 2012, it stated in its yearly report released on Monday.

The figure is actually chilling, Laura Furones, senior adviser to Worldwide Witness' land and ecological defenders campaign, stated, adding that the report's findings were conservative and figures most likely insufficient.

Worldwide, 196 ecologists and land activists were eliminated in 2023, International Witness stated, with Latin America extremely blazing a trail, representing 85% of the slayings.

The findings on Colombia are a sharp contrast to pledges from the federal government of President Gustavo Petro, who took workplace in 2022 and has vowed to end the nation's 60-year dispute and pursue ecological justice for neighborhoods.

Peace processes with different armed groups - which are in some cases implicated in ecologists killings - have failed, and though logging fell to a 23-year low last year, the environment ministry has warned of a boost in 2024.

Colombia was likewise the most dangerous nation for ecologists in 2022, according to International Witness, when at least 60 were killed.

The figure is very awkward for us in the country, said Astrid Torres, coordinator for Somos Defensores, a. Colombian human rights group. Torres said the problem was not simply. the responsibility of the sitting government however likewise of state. organizations, such as prosecutors and regional authorities.

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

Last year a Reuters investigation discovered that murders of. environmentalists in Colombia resulted in long-lasting unfavorable. effects on preservation and that some towns where. activists were killed saw significant spikes in logging.

At an event to release the police officer 16 program in Bogota in July,. Colombia's vice president, Francia Marquez - a winner of the. Goldman Environmental reward for advocacy in 2018 - stated the. conference would honor those eliminated.

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

(source: Reuters)