Giving Compass' Take:

• In this interview with Skoll Foundation, Ben Leather of Global Witness describes how indigenous people around the world are dying trying to protect their land, and what we can do to protect them.

• When governments prioritize business interests over the environment and their communities, there will be violence. It's especially important for private businesses in the mining and agriculture sector to take a stand.

• Here's how indigenous groups in Latin America are fighting back against corporations.

It was nearly noon on an early December day when the shooting started. The small indigenous community near Lake Sebu in the Philippines had again come under attack. “The soldiers came and blackened the hills,” said a villager who had been drying freshly harvested corn in the small central plaza.

The Lumad people are the largest indigenous group in the country and aggressive mining and agribusiness interests, supported by the government of Rodrigo Duterte, have systematically harassed, vilified, and killed those brave enough to protect their land, rich with minerals and fertile soil. Soldiers that day left eight dead and five maimed, including an eight-year-old child. At least 200 villagers fled.

It has never been deadlier to stand up against corporations and complicit governments seizing land and destroying the environment, says Global Witness, the watchdog NGO that exposes the economic networks behind conflict, corruption, and environmental abuse. Their annual report that tallies the death toll for land defenders came out today and it’s grim. We caught up recently with Ben Leather of Global Witness to get some context on the report. He says brazen land grabs by agribusiness interests triggered more than one massacre in 2017. He also mapped out the systemic steps necessary to begin to turn the tide towards justice.

Read the full article about environmental defenders in peril by Zachary Slobig at Skoll Foundation.