Environmental and land defenders play a crucial role in attempts to slow down environmental change and address power inequalities in land-use and resource development. Yet, they frequently face repression, including defamation, criminalization, and assassination. Recent policy and media coverage initiatives have provided much needed attention to the protection and support of defenders, but there has so far been little systematic analysis of patterns and determinants of repression at multiple scales. Here, we use databases providing the best available worldwide record of cases of socio-environmental conflicts and killings of defenders to identify patterns of repression and potential determinants of killings. Globally, about a third of socio-environmental conflicts involve mass mobilization, arrests and direct forms of violence. These ‘high intensity’ conflicts are more frequent in Asia and Latin America. At least 1734 killings of environmental and land defenders took place in a total of 53 countries between 2002 and 2018, most of them occurring in Brazil, the Philippines, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico and Peru. Our multivariate analysis indicates that major country-level determinants of killings include income level, foreign direct investment, dependency on mineral extraction, regime type, frequency of protest movements, and size of Indigenous populations. We suggest that more systematic reporting and analysis of repression – including through subnational level studies for which we provide testable hypotheses – can help protect and support defenders, notably through conflict-sensitive investment policies and greater accountability for abuses.

环境和土地捍卫者在减缓环境变化和解决土地使用和资源开发中的权力不平等方面起着至关重要的作用。但是，他们经常面临镇压，包括诽谤，定罪和暗杀。最近的政策和媒体报道倡议已经非常需要重视对捍卫者的保护和支持，但是迄今为止，很少有系统地分析各种规模的镇压模式和决定因素。在这里，我们使用数据库来提供社会环境冲突和捍卫者被杀事件的全球最佳可用记录，以确定镇压的模式和潜在的杀戮决定因素。在全球范围内，约三分之一的社会环境冲突涉及大规模动员，逮捕和直接形式的暴力。这些“高强度”冲突在亚洲和拉丁美洲更为常见。在2002年至2018年之间，共有53个国家至少杀害了1734名杀害环境和土地保护者，其中大多数发生在巴西，菲律宾，哥伦比亚，洪都拉斯，墨西哥和秘鲁。我们的多变量分析表明，主要的国家/地区杀手决定因素包括收入水平，外国直接投资，对矿产开采的依赖，政体类型，抗议活动的频率以及土著人口的规模。我们建议，更系统地报告和分析压制，包括通过我们提供可验证假设的国家以下级别的研究，可以帮助保护和支持维护者，尤其是通过对冲突敏感的投资政策和对滥用行为的更大责任制。