Environmental activist Berta Cáceres won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015 for successfully halting the Agua Zarca project, a massive hydropower development along the Gualcarque River in her native Honduras. On March 3, 2016, 10 years ago this month, gunmen hired by executives of the company building the dam assassinated her for her activism. Since then, Berta has become a global symbol of courage and sacrifice in the face of greed and violence. Her legacy is powerful, but her martyrdom for simply protecting her community is unacceptable.

In January, an independent group of experts appointed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released a comprehensive report on the assassination. They found that Berta’s murder was the result of a coordinated criminal operation to defeat opposition to the Agua Zarca project. Worse, international development funds intended for the hydroelectric project were diverted to the purchase of Indigenous land, surveillance, armed incursions, and Berta’s murder.

Berta’s assassination is not an isolated case. Many environmental defenders’ stories resemble David vs. Goliath, as they frequently tangle with powerful, well-funded industries and governments — and the webs of corruption that sometimes link them. According to Global Witness, 2,253 environmental activists have been killed worldwide since 2012, and many more have been victimized. In September 2025, Global Witness reported that at least 146 land and environmental defenders were killed or disappeared in 2024, with a plurality in Latin America. According to the World Economic Forum, at least 175 park rangers were killed in the line of duty across 41 countries in the same year.

In 2024, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Brazil and the Philippines were among the most dangerous countries for environmental defenders. Global Witness found that opposition to mining and drilling remains the leading cause of such killings worldwide. Indigenous peoples and small-scale farmers are the most affected, with 45 defenders from those communities killed or disappeared in 2024. Clearly, environmental activism can be a dangerous profession, especially in countries where the rule of law is weak.

This cannot stand.

What can be done to protect these environmental champions and allow them to pursue their work free of threats to their lives and livelihoods? Step one is understanding the nature of the problem.

Environmentalists face threats beyond physical security. They are subjected to surveillance and cyberattacks. The nonprofit organizations that activists use as platforms for their advocacy are also threatened or forced to shut down. Many environmental defenders face campaigns of misinformation aimed at discrediting them. In many authoritarian countries, any organization accepting foreign donations is labeled a foreign agent involved in espionage. Together, these threats sometimes reach a level where exile is the only option to keep environmental leaders safe.

The organization I direct, the Goldman Environmental Foundation, allocates funds each year to keep Goldman Prize winners safe. Sadly, this has become critical for both past and present prize winners. Since launching the Defense of Prize Winners program in 2015, we’ve learned that a key to safeguarding them is being proactive about addressing risk. Fortunately, a cottage industry of security firms helps assess risks, makes recommendations to mitigate threats, and implements safety measures. Composed largely of former intelligence operatives and ex-military special forces members, these firms are essential to protecting environmental defenders worldwide.

Governments have also responded. In 2018, 24 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean signed the Escazú Agreement, the world’s first binding international treaty to mandate specific protections for environmental human rights defenders. Article 9.1 of the treaty requires states to ensure a safe and enabling environment for environmental defenders so they can act without threats, restrictions or insecurity. Admittedly, this agreement is still new and its implementation varies from place to place.

Protections for environmental activists are more than rhetorical: In May 2019, Francia Márquez, who won the 2018 Goldman Prize for defending her Afro-Colombian community from illegal gold mining, was the target of a grenade and gunfire attack during a meeting with other environmental leaders. Her government-appointed bodyguards were injured while thwarting the attack. Francia was later elected vice president of Colombia, becoming the first Afro-Colombian to hold the office.

While member governments need to prioritize implementing the treaty, efforts are already underway to replicate the Escazú Agreement in other regions. Notably, 2019 Goldman Prize winner Alfred Brownell, a lawyer and environmental advocate who was exiled from Liberia for his work limiting the impact of the palm oil industry, is spearheading an effort to negotiate a similar agreement for Africa. Alfred founded Global Climate Legal Defense to provide legal representation to environmental defenders facing criminalization, lawsuits, abductions and killings. Civil society leaders from across Africa are organizing under the banner of Environmental Rights Africa, a coalition seeking a binding African environmental rights agreement inspired by the Escazú model. Alfred believes this process will yield a new treaty within five years.

Philanthropy also plays a role in addressing these risks. In recent years, several alliances among funders have formed to address the problem. For example, the Environmental Defenders Collaborative was established in 2017 by a group of private funders who came together to support environmental defenders globally. Berta’s assassination was a driving force behind its formation. The founding donors pooled resources to increase access to funding and strategic support for environmental human rights defenders facing intimidation, criminalization and violence. Alison Wright, the fund’s director, says the number of member funders has since grown to 23, reflecting growing concern among philanthropic institutions about risks to environmental defenders.

After Berta Cáceres’s martyrdom, the Honduran government named her a national heroine and, in January, issued a new banknote bearing her image. Today, a decade after her brutal murder, she remains a global symbol of environmental injustice.

Thanks to the tireless work of COPINH, an environmental group co-founded by Berta in 1993, most of the perpetrators of her assassination were eventually tried, convicted and sentenced. But reversing the trends that led to her murder — and the ongoing repression of thousands of fellow environmental activists around the world — will take time, sustained investment, and the political will to implement zero tolerance for threats against environmental activists.

Concerned citizens should ask elected officials to enforce existing laws and treaties and ensure that environmental leaders are free to pursue their activism on behalf of Planet Earth and their communities, free from threats to their lives and livelihoods.

Michael Sutton is the executive director of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, and previously worked with the U.S. National Park Service, WWF, the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, the California Fish and Game Commission, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the National Audubon Society.

Banner image: Indigenous river defenders demonstrate against dams on Brazilian river systems. Image courtesy of Amazon Watch.

Related audio from Mongabay’s podcast: A conversation with a recent Indigenous winner of the Goldman Prize, Murrawah Maroochy Johnson, whose leadership defeated a coal mega-project in Australia, listen here:

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