For the second consecutive year, Brazil ranked just behind Colombia in the number of murders of environmental defenders.

Worldwide, there were at least 196 deaths, equivalent to more than one homicide every two days. Of these, 25 occurred in Brazil and 79 in the neighboring country — the highest number ever recorded in a single country in one year. The data comes from the NGO Global Witness report.

The organization emphasizes that Latin America was the region with the most deaths, with 166 (85%). Considering per capita numbers, Honduras, with 18 lethal attacks, had the highest global rate.

In Brazil, the figure fell by 26% compared to 2022, when 34 environmental defenders were killed. The Brazilian data used by the NGO is collected by the Pastoral Land Commission.

The report points out that there were high expectations for the Lula government to reverse setbacks in policies that facilitated the advance of natural resource exploitation and the increased invasion of protected territories during Jair Bolsonaro's administration.

"So far, there has been progress," the text says. "The government restored funding to protect the Amazon and reinstated the indigenous affairs agency dismantled by Bolsonaro."

"However," the report notes, "policy changes remain challenging in the face of a conservative Congress dominated by ruralists, who support the interests of private landowners over public land reform."