Peru: Rise in murders against environmental defenders is linked to illegal activities such as mining, logging and coca cultivation, says report
"Report links killings to environmental crimes in Peru’s Amazon", 12 September 2024
...According to a new report by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), the estimated 29 environmental defenders killed in the Peruvian Amazon between 2010 and 2022 may be connected to environment-related crimes, such as illegal mining, logging and coca cultivation. This is because many of the killings disproportionately occurred in geographic clusters that coincide with these activities. This violence has increased in recent years with almost half of the killings occurring since 2020...
Many other communities in the Peruvian Amazon have been impacted by environmental conflicts that have led to widespread deforestation and the killings of environmental defenders, the MAAP report said...
Herlin Odicio, an environmental defender from the Kakatibo Indigenous community in the Peruvian department of Ucayali, told Mongabay that his community has been threatened by illegal loggers and coca producers for many years...
Odicio said loggers, drug traffickers and miners used to work alone in the past, but they have now merged. “Drug traffickers work together with loggers. The loggers open the road and give [miners] access to get from one place to another”...