About the project
Global Witness recorded, in 2020, 227 murders of environmental activists around the world. Evidence gathered by NGOs seems to indicate that: Competition over resources creates conflict; transnational corporations instigate action; state agents, private security guards, or paramilitary squadrons execute. But what criminologists call the dark figure of crime – a gap in the reliability of reported crime statistics – casts a shadow of doubt over what we think we know and renders incommensurable what we do not know.
The dark figure of crime is an issue of method, caused by failures in registering and reporting – that is, in ‘capturing’ reality. The Environmental Defenders’ Project addresses the homicides of defenders, methodologically. It combines a variety of tools of measurement and understanding, from the social and natural sciences, to transform dark figure-obscurity into clarity.
Method
The project gathers all existing sources of information about murders of environmental activists. These sources include: 1) interviews with environmental defenders, NGO representatives, state agents, and business employees; 2) a large database of academic, official, and grey-literature on the phenomenon; 3) newspaper reports.
Objectives
The environmental defenders’ project:
- Identifies the blind sports we have on the issue
- Finds new methodologies to gain a deeper understanding of this crime
- Builds a database of knowledge to understand the murders of environmental defenders
Outcomes
The project deals with corporations, governments and armies; environmental degradation and social conflict; and statistics and methodology. Yet, human beings – being murdered in appalling numbers – lie at its heart. Ultimately, the project will give us a body of knowledge to guide us in defending the defenders.
Financing
The project is funded by the stimulating grants scheme of the University of Oslo.