Standing up for the Earth is a dangerous pursuit. A devastating tally released Monday counts 164 environmentalists killed for their efforts in 2018. And that number is probably an underestimation.

The annual report from international NGO Global Witness tracked the murders and enforced disappearances of activists around the world working to protect ecosystems, preserve natural resources being depleted by mining, agriculture and other huge and destructive industries, and defend the rights of indigenous people to their native lands.

In addition to gathering data on murders, attacks on and intimidation of what it calls land and environmental defenders, the 2019 Global Witness report highlighted the insidious ways large corporations and governments including our own are complicit in the rampant violence and harassment.

Three Dead Every Week

The report found that 164 environmental activists around the world were murdered in 2018, and countless more were silenced through violent attacks, arrests, death threats or lawsuits. The number which averages out to three deaths per week was a drop from the previous years count of 207 , but Global Witness senior campaigner Alice Harrison doesnt take much comfort in that.

Harrison told HuffPost, Deaths were down last year, but violence and widespread criminalization of people defending their land and our environment were still rife around the world.

The drop in killings masks another gruesome reality, said Harrison. Our partners in Brazil and many other countries have noted a spike in other forms of non-lethal attacks against defenders often attacks so brutal theyre just shy of murder.

Brazil has topped the list for the number of killings since Global Witness, which focuses on natural resource conflicts and human rights, released its first report in 2012, but fell this year. Its 20-person death count put it at No. 4, behind the Philippines (where there were 30) and Colombia (24). Third on the list was India, with 23 deaths, 13 of which came from a single incident, when police shot into crowds of people protesting a copper mine in the state of Tamil Nadu . Dozens more were injured.