London & Srinagar, India — At least 124 land and environmental defenders were killed around the world in 2025 while protecting forests, rivers, farmland and Indigenous territories, according to a new report by Global Witness that warns violence against activists remains widespread even as recorded killings have declined from previous years. The report, titled Collective…
New Global Witness figures bring the total killed and disappeared since 2012 to 2,375 Just two South American countries – Colombia and Brazil – accounted for 52% of the 2025 killings In Asia, defenders are facing a rising tide of criminalisation and intimidation Globally, more than three quarters of those killed were small-scale farmers, Indigenous…
First all-women cohort of winners hails from Colombia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, the UK and the US. This year’s prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize has been awarded to six grassroots environmental activists from around the world for their efforts to fight climate change and save biodiversity. For the first time since the prize was…
This is the second article examining the environmental cost of modern warfare. The first article in the series explored war as a powerful, compressed engine of pollution. Here we ask a harder question: when environmental destruction is not incidental, but deliberate, should it be declared a crime against the Earth? Read part one Environmental lawyer…
Football superstar Christiano Ronaldo. PHOTO/UGC/CR7Facebook. By PATRICK MAYOYO [email protected] The Seventh United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-7) passed a landmark resolution urging governments worldwide to leverage the power of sport to advance sustainability and environmental resilience. The resolution, which underscores the UN’s ongoing commitment to sustainable development, highlights the potential of sport not only as a…
Thirty-six new programs and projects from the GEF family of funds will benefit 59 countries, including 21 Small Islands Developing States and 21 Least Developed Countries. PHOTO/GEF. By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT [email protected] The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has announced the approval of more than $372 million in new funding to implement 36 innovative programs and projects…
Lebo Masalesa, Managing Executive: Mobile Networks at Telkom. Telkom is making solid progress on its net‑zero strategy, which not only greens its network, but also builds a more resilient infrastructure that supports its universal access goals. This is according to Lebo Masalesa, Managing Executive: Mobile Networks at Telkom, who is spearheading the telco’s network modernisation…
Campaigners are hailing today’s COP30 launch of a new global initiative aimed at advancing the recognition, protection, and participation of environmental defenders in climate decision and policy-making. Co-created with more than 300 environmental activists and defenders across Latin America, Africa, Asia-Pacific and beyond, the new Leaders Action Network for Environmental Activists and Defenders (LEAD) initiative…
Africa Must Pay Its Health Debt — Before the Planet Collects Africa’s most significant health crisis isn’t the next virus. It’s the quiet epidemic of polluted rivers, contaminated soil, and sick people left behind by decades of industrial neglect. From Ghana’s Galamsey pits to the oil-blackened streams of the Niger Delta, the continent has become…
The world’s oceans are bearing the brunt of a triple environmental crisis, according to the European Union’s Earth monitors: global warming, pollution and declining biodiversity. The EU Copernicus programme warns that Africa’s coasts, buffeted by marine heatwaves and rising sea levels, are especially vulnerable. “The ocean is changing rapidly, with record extremes and worsening impacts,”…
