Crimes against the Climate: Violence and Deforestation in the Amazon

By Bram Ebus and Ulrich Eberle

The fires and clearcutting rampant in the Amazon have stoked global concern about the future of the world’s largest rainforest, which plays a vital role in containing climate change by absorbing the carbon dioxide produced by combustion of fossil fuels. What can get lost in the international debate is that organised crime is a major driver of this environmental destruction. Curbing the activity of illicit groups in the region is imperative, not just because of the environmental degradation these organisations inflict, but the increasing danger they pose to communities in the region.

Levels of violence in the Amazon are high, even by the standards of Latin America and the Caribbean, a region that, with only 8 per cent of the global population, accounts for 29 per cent of homicides worldwide. Homicide rates in the Amazon, moreover, surpass regional averages. This violence occurs in rural areas and smaller cities that tend to be under the radar of national governments, and is therefore widely overlooked.

Within the Amazon, territories that are host to legal and illegal logging and mining, coca cultivation and drug trafficking suffer both the worst ecological damage and the most violence. These areas often overlap with the ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples, who historically have played a crucial role in safeguarding the rainforest. Not surprisingly, crime rings plundering the Amazon’s bounty have made environmental activists their prime targets. In 2022, one in five killings of land and environmental defenders worldwide took place in the Amazon, with Colombia and Brazil the two most dangerous countries for this work.

The relationship between the escalating climate crisis and violent crime is finally getting the attention it warrants. The 28th UN climate summit, or COP28, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, features “peace” on its agenda for the first time in this gathering’s history. By examining the interplay of violence and climate in different parts of the immense rainforest – the Amazon basin covers as much territory as India and the European Union combined – states and foreign partners can start to identify ways to protect it and the people who reside there. In three parts of the Amazon, as detailed below, the interplay between crime and environmental exploitation shine through.

Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2023. 15p.