Sara Meléndez, an Indigenous environmental defender in Peru, whose brother was killed after opposing coca cultivation on community land. Leslie Searles / Global Witness

At least 124 people were murdered last year for defending their forests, farms, or waterways from destruction or degradation, according to a stark new report. Its authors say that deep cuts to foreign aid by wealthy nations have weakened human rights groups that support environmental defenders.

“The effects of these budget cuts are not abstract,” said Juliana Vélez Echeverri , a senior campaigner with the watchdog group Global Witness, which published the report . “In Colombia, projects working to promote and protect human rights and support defenders have been hit by the sudden drop in foreign aid, particularly from the U.S.”

Land disputes were linked to more than half of the killings of environmental defenders last year, while roughly a third of those killed were Indigenous people, according to the report.…