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One day in November of last year, the Indigenous leader Julia Chuñil summoned her dog, Cholito, and ventured into the forest around her residence to search for missing farm animals. The cattle came back but Chuñil, who was 72 at the time, and her dog did not.

More than a hundred individuals participated with her family in a search lasting multiple weeks in the rugged, wet and densely overgrown landscape of Chile’s ancient Valdivian woodland. A month later, they monitored vultures for any grim signs. However, they discovered no evidence of Chuñil.

Chuñil is among one hundred forty-six territorial and ecological activists who were killed or went missing globally last year, according to a report by the campaign group Global Witness. About a third of these cases, similar to Chuñil, were from native groups – a heavy burden for populations who collectively make up only six percent of the world’s inhabitants.

Chuñil, a prominent figure of the Mapuche Indigenous community in Chile, was living on disputed territory. A decade earlier she had settled in Reserva Cora, a 2,200-acre section of the age-old Valdivian forest 500 miles below the capital, which her community claimed as an ancestral homeland.

She spent years campaigning to secure land rights for the location for her tribe. But the legal proprietor of the land, the heir of settlers, declined to surrender ownership. His intention was the area for timber extraction – the country serves as a major supplier of wood to the United States – and he sought to remove the activist. Prior to her disappearance, Julia informed allies: “If anything happens to me, you already know who did it.”

International Reporting on Attacks Against Activists

Global Witness began recording cases of deaths and disappearances of land and environmental defenders in the year 2012. From that point, it has gathered a total of two thousand two hundred fifty-three cases. Over the last ten years, the riskiest place has been Latin America. Last year it accounted for 82% of reported incidents, including forty-five Indigenous people.

“Land conflict is at the heart of aggression against defenders, and native communities are paying the highest price,” said an expert at the group. “Populations with ancestral connections to territory often lead the resistance when their lands are endangered from resource extraction and invasion. However, regardless of their critical function, they are frequently denied recognition and justice, and subjected to serious danger for defending their rightful lands.”

Nation-Specific Data and Under-reporting

Julia’s was the only incident recorded in her country during that period, although it matched a trend of the targeting of Mapuche advocates in Chile. The nation of Colombia reported forty-eight instances, making it the most lethal country overall for environmental defenders, followed by Guatemala with 20 cases, the deadliest country by population. The country of Mexico had 19 incidents, putting it in number three overall.

Under-reporting remains an issue, particularly in Asia and the African region, which registered sixteen and nine instances each, Global Witness said. In general, the previous year the lowest number of cases of killings and disappearances of environmental defenders were registered for a decade.

The lead researcher, who led the research for Global Witness, commented: “I would also like to be able to tell you that this implies a decrease in hostilities and an improvement in the conditions for activists, but unfortunately that’s not true. Rights advocates face situations of brutality that go far beyond murder. Often, aggression is evolve, grow more complex, change its face.”

Ongoing Fight for Justice

Julia’s relatives have persisted in seeking justice but their activism has exposed them to threats and harassment, too. During April, a pair of creatures from Chuñil’s home that they had intended to sell to finance legal costs were found killed, one murdered by gunfire and another by toxins. “It is, above all, a deliberate effort to block us from fighting this legal matter,” her son Pablo San Martín informed the watchdog.

The group’s report calls on governments to take steps to end the impunity of the killers of land activists by tackling the lack of rights activists have over property, reinforcing ineffective domestic judiciary frameworks, and guaranteeing defenders at risk are given adequate state protection.

“All we are asking for is a comprehensive, impartial probe to take place,” San Martín remarked of his parent’s situation. “Nearly twelve months have passed since she disappeared and we’re remain unaware about what happened. Our demand is the responsible parties to be discovered and prosecuted.”