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One day last November, the Indigenous leader Julia Chuñil called for her dog, Cholito, and ventured into the woods near her residence to search for lost livestock. The cattle came back but Chuñil, who was 72 at the time, and Cholito never reappeared.

Over a hundred individuals participated with her family in a hunt lasting multiple weeks in the rugged, rain-soaked and thickly vegetated terrain of the nation of Chile’s ancient Valdivian forest. After a month, they even kept an eye on vultures for any grim signs. However, they found no trace of Chuñil.

Chuñil is among one hundred forty-six territorial and ecological activists who were murdered or went missing around the world in the previous year, according to a report by the advocacy organization the monitoring entity. About a third of those, like her, were from native groups – a heavy burden for peoples who collectively make up just 6% of the global inhabitants.

The activist, a prominent figure of Chile’s indigenous Mapuche, was residing in contested land. Ten years ago she had moved on to a protected forest area, a 2,200-acre portion of the age-old Valdivian forest 500 miles south of Santiago, which her people asserted as an historical territory.

She spent years advocating to secure property titles for the location for her tribe. However, the site’s nominal owner, the descendant of settlers, declined to relinquish control. He wanted the site for logging – the country serves as a significant supplier of lumber to the US – and he wanted rid of the activist. Prior to her disappearance, Julia told supporters: “Should harm come to me, it will be clear who did it.”

Global Documentation on Attacks Against Defenders

The organization started documenting incidents of deaths and vanishing acts of territorial and ecological defenders in 2012. From that point, it has collated a total of two thousand two hundred fifty-three cases. For the past decade, the riskiest place has been Latin America. In 2024 it accounted for 82% of reported incidents, which involved 45 native individuals.

“Territorial disputes is at the heart of violence against activists, and Indigenous peoples are paying the highest price,” stated a senior policy adviser at Global Witness. “Communities with ancestral connections to territory often lead the resistance when their territories come under threat from resource extraction and invasion. However, regardless of their critical function, they are often refused acknowledgment and legal redress, and subjected to grave risk for protecting their legitimate territories.”

Nation-Specific Statistics and Under-reporting

Chuñil’s was the sole case documented in her nation during that period, although it matched a pattern of the singling out of Mapuche advocates in the country. The nation of Colombia reported forty-eight cases, making it the deadliest country overall for environmental defenders, followed by the country of Guatemala with 20 cases, the most dangerous nation per capita. Mexico had 19 cases, placing it at third place in the ranking.

Incomplete data remains an issue, particularly in the Asian continent and the African region, which registered 16 and nine instances each, the monitor noted. Overall, the previous year the fewest cases of killings and disappearances of land activists were registered for a decade.

Laura Furones, who conducted the research for the organization, said: “It would be gratifying to report that this suggests a decrease in violence and an enhancement in the situation for defenders, but unfortunately that’s not true. Rights advocates confront realities of brutality that extend well past homicide. What violence often does is transform, become more sophisticated, alter its appearance.”

Ongoing Struggle for Justice

Julia’s relatives have continued to pursue justice but their advocacy has exposed them to threats and harassment, too. During April, two animals from Chuñil’s home that they had intended to sell to finance court expenses were discovered dead, one murdered by gunfire and another by toxins. “It is, above all, a intentional effort to block us from pursuing this legal matter,” her son a family member told the watchdog.

The group’s report calls on governments to act to end the impunity of the killers of land activists by addressing the absence of rights activists have over property, strengthening ineffective national legal systems, and ensuring endangered advocates are provided sufficient government security.

“Our sole request is a comprehensive, impartial probe to be conducted,” the son said of his mother’s situation. “It’s been almost a year since she vanished and we’re remain unaware about what happened. Our demand is the responsible parties to be discovered and prosecuted.”