People who defend the land are being killed at an alarming rate. According to human rights group Global Witness, 2024 was the deadliest year on record, with a total of 324 land and environmental defenders killed or disappeared.1 Indigenous peoples, who protect much of the world’s remaining biodiversity, are disproportionately targeted.
This is particularly true in West Papua, which has been under occupation by Indonesia since the 1960s. Since then up to a quarter of West Papuans have been killed. The exceptionally biodiverse region is home to the world’s second largest expanse of rainforest – land that is increasingly under threat from palm oil cultivation, mining and industrial agriculture. In the regency of Merauke, near the border with Papua New Guinea, Indonesia is rapidly clearing three million hectares of land in the world’s largest ever deforestation project. Political tensions are escalating, with Indonesian security forces cracking down on protesters and arbitrarily detaining activists. The situation is enabled by British-linked military training, defence co-operation and financial flows.2
