Chico Mendes
Amazon rubber tapper and union leader who organised peaceful stand-offs against forest clearance and championed extractive reserves. He was shot dead at his home in Xapuri in 1988.
Environmental defenders
Remembering those who lost their lives defending people, places and the living world
These profiles honour people who died in connection with defending land, forests, rivers, communities and environmental justice. We do not sensationalise their deaths, and we only state what reliable sources establish.
Berta Cáceres
Lenca leader who co-founded COPINH and led the campaign against the Agua Zarca dam on the Gualcarque River. She was shot dead at her home in 2016.
Sister Dorothy Stang
US-born Catholic sister who spent decades supporting small farmers and sustainable land use in the Brazilian Amazon. She was shot dead near Anapu in 2005.
Ken Saro-Wiwa
Ogoni writer and MOSOP leader who campaigned non-violently against oil pollution in the Niger Delta. He was hanged by Nigeria's military government in 1995 after a widely condemned tribunal.
Isidro Baldenegro López
Tarahumara farmer and community leader who led non-violent resistance to logging in the Sierra Madre, winning the Goldman Prize in 2005. He was shot dead in 2017.
How we describe how someone died
Each profile carries exactly one label, chosen from what the sources support, with legal outcomes described in the text:
- Confirmed killing
- Alleged killing
- Death during environmental conflict
- Death while engaged in environmental defence
- Cause of death disputed
- Circumstances under investigation
- Executed by the state
We never say someone was "killed for environmental activism" unless reliable sources substantiate it. Labels are reviewed when new court rulings or investigations are published.