“Environmentalists face tangible interests”: interview by Stefan Peters for the Schweizer Radio und Fernseher
CAPAZ Academic Director Prof. Dr. Stefan Peters was interviewed by the Swiss news cannel SRF, Schweizer Radio und Fernseher about the dangers that being an environmentalist involves in Colombia. According to the NGO Global Witness, 65 environmental leaders were murdered in the country in 2020.
“Environmentalists face tangible interests. There is a development model in Colombia and other Latin American countries called extractivism, which environmentalists often oppose, as they do tangible economic interests”, Prof. Peters said in explaining why this work can become so dangerous.
Peters also explained that Covid-19 added an additional degree of difficulty to protecting the work of these people, as “several institutions, NGOs, church organizations, and journalists, simply could not continue to work in the particularly remote areas and often withdrew. Those who might well be able to provide some protection were no longer there”.
Read or listen to the rest of the programme (in German) where you can also hear the testimony of Celia Umenza, an environmental leader who has worked in the fight against gold prospectors, mining, and water pollution in the department of Cauca.
Prof. Peters’ work on environmental issues has not only been related to the topic of environmental leaders. He co-authored a chapter on extractivism and deforestation in the Executive Summary of the Amazon Analysis Report, recently presented at the 76th UN General Assembly in New York. Over 200 scientists worked and researched to provide a comprehensive analysis of the state of the Amazon basin, offering solutions and alternatives for sustainable development to prevent major catastrophic events in the region.