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One day in November of last year, the Indigenous leader Julia Chuñil called for her dog, Cholito, and ventured into the woods around her residence to look for lost livestock. The animals returned but Julia, who was 72 at the time, and her dog never reappeared.

Over a hundred individuals participated with her family in a hunt lasting multiple weeks in the steep, rain-soaked and densely overgrown terrain of the nation of Chile’s pristine Valdivian forest. After a month, they even kept an eye on scavenger birds for any disturbing clues. But they found no trace of the missing woman.

Chuñil is among 146 land and environmental defenders who were murdered or disappeared around the world last year, as reported by a study by the advocacy organization the monitoring entity. Roughly one-third of those, like her, were from Indigenous communities – a heavy burden for populations who collectively constitute just 6% of the world’s inhabitants.

Chuñil, a leader of Chile’s indigenous Mapuche, was residing in disputed land. A decade earlier she had settled in a protected forest area, a 900-hectare section of the age-old Valdivian ecosystem 800 kilometers south of the capital, which her community asserted as an ancestral territory.

For many years she advocating to secure property titles for the location for her tribe. But the site’s nominal owner, the descendant of settlers, declined to surrender ownership. He wanted the site for logging – Chile is a significant supplier of lumber to the United States – and he wanted rid of Chuñil. Prior to her disappearance, Chuñil told supporters: “If anything happens to me, you already know who is responsible.”

Global Reporting on Violence Against Activists

The organization started documenting incidents of deaths and disappearances of territorial and ecological defenders in the year 2012. From that point, it has collated a total of two thousand two hundred fifty-three cases. Over the last ten years, the riskiest region has been Latin America. Last year it represented 82% of cases, which involved forty-five native individuals.

“Land conflict lies at the core of aggression against defenders, and Indigenous peoples are paying the highest price,” said an expert at the group. “Communities with ancestral connections to territory often lead the resistance when their territories are endangered from resource extraction and invasion. However, regardless of their critical function, they are frequently refused recognition and legal redress, and subjected to grave risk for defending their rightful lands.”

Nation-Specific Statistics and Under-reporting

Julia’s was the sole case recorded in her nation last year, even though it fitted a trend of the singling out of Mapuche advocates in the country. Colombia reported forty-eight cases, making it the deadliest nation in total for ecological activists, then came Guatemala with twenty cases, the deadliest nation by population. Mexico had 19 cases, putting it in third place overall.

Incomplete data continues to be a problem, especially in Asia and the African region, which recorded 16 and 9 instances each, the monitor said. Overall, last year the lowest number of incidents of killings and disappearances of environmental defenders were registered in ten years.

Laura Furones, who conducted the investigation for the organization, commented: “I would also like to be able to tell you that this implies a reduction of violence and an enhancement in the conditions for activists, but sadly that’s not the case. Rights advocates face situations of violence that go far beyond homicide. Often, aggression is transform, become more sophisticated, alter its appearance.”

Ongoing Fight for Accountability

Chuñil’s family have continued to pursue legal resolution but their activism has made them a target of threats and intimidation, as well. In April, a pair of creatures from her property that they had planned to auction to finance legal costs were found killed, one murdered by gunfire and another by toxins. “It is, above all, a deliberate attempt to prevent us from fighting this legal matter,” her son a family member told Global Witness.

Their analysis calls on governments to act to end the lack of punishment of the perpetrators of environmental defenders by tackling the absence of legal entitlements activists have over property, reinforcing ineffective national legal systems, and ensuring defenders at risk are given adequate government security.

“Our sole request is a comprehensive, impartial investigation to take place,” the son said of his mother’s case. “Nearly twelve months have passed since she vanished and we’re remain unaware about the events. We want those behind this to be discovered and prosecuted.”