'It’s not safe to live here.' Colombia is deadliest country for environmental defenders

PUERTO ASIS, Colombia (AP) — Jani Silva sits inside the wooden house she built on the banks of Colombia’s Putumayo River — a home she hasn't slept in for more than eight years.

The longtime environmental activist has been threatened for work that includes protecting part of the Amazon from oil and mining exploitation. She describes a tense escape one night through a back window after community members tipped her that armed men were outside.

“Since leaving because of the threats, I’m afraid ... it’s not safe to live here,” she told The Associated Press. She only comes now for brief daytime visits when accompanied by others. “The two times I’ve tried to come back and stay, I’ve had to run away.”

Activists like Silva face steep risks in Colombia, the deadliest country in the world for people protecting land and forests. Global Witness, an international watchdog monitoring attacks on activists, recorded 48 killings in Colombia in 2024, nearly a third of all cases worldwide.

Colombia says it protects activists through its National Protection Unit, which provides bodyguards and other security measures. Officials also point to recent court rulings recognizing the rights of nature and stronger environmental oversight as signs of progress.

Silva, 63, now lives under guard in Puerto Asis, a river town near the Ecuador border. She has had four full-time bodyguards for 12 years provided by the National Protection Unit. Yet the threats have not pushed her from her role at ADISPA, the farming association that manages the Amazon Pearl reserve she previously lived on and has worked to protect.

“I have a calling to serve,” Silva said. “I feel like I am needed … there is still so much to do.”

Colombia's ministries of Interior, National Defense and Environment did not respond to requests for comment.

About 15,000 people nationwide receive protection from the NPU, the Interior Ministry said in a 2024 report. They include environmental and human rights defenders, journalists, local officials, union leaders and others facing threats, though watchdog groups say protections often fall short in rural conflict zones.

The Amazon Pearl is home to roughly 800 families who have spent decades trying to keep out oil drilling, deforestation, illicit crops and the armed groups that enforce them. Silva describes the community-run reserve, about 30 minutes by boat down the Putumayo from Puerto Asis, as “a beautiful land … almost blessed, for its biodiversity, forests and rivers.”

The preserve's 227 square kilometers (87 square miles) host reforestation projects, programs to protect wetlands and forest threatened by oil exploration and efforts to promote agroecology. The farming association has community beekeeping projects to support pollination and generate income, organizes community patrols, supports small sustainable farming and has carried out major restoration, including cultivating more than 120,000 native seedlings to rebuild degraded riverbanks and forest corridors.

Silva has been a main voice challenging oil operations inside the reserve. As president of ADISPA, she documented spills, deforestation and road-building tied to Bogota-based oil company GeoPark's Platanillo block and pushed environmental regulators to investigate.

Advocates say those complaints, along with ADISPA’s efforts to keep new drilling and mining out, have angered armed groups that profit from mining and oil activity in the region.

GeoPark said it complies with Colombian environmental and human-rights regulations and has not received environmental sanctions since operations began in 2009.

The company maintains formal dialogue with local communities, including Silva, and “categorically rejects” threats or links to armed groups and its activities require environmental licenses and undergo regular inspections, GeoPark said in a written statement to the AP.

Rubén Pastrana, 32, runs one of the Pearl’s beekeeping projects in the riverbank community of San Salvador, where ADISPA works with children using native stingless bees to teach biodiversity and forest conservation.

“They’re very gentle,” he said of the bees, and their calm nature lets children learn without fear.

More than 600 families now take part in conservation and agroecology projects, many launched through community initiative.

“The first project was started on our own initiative,” Silva said. “We started setting up nurseries at our homes … and reforesting the riverbank.”

Women exchanged native seeds and organized replanting drives, and the community agreed to temporary hunting bans after seeing pregnant armadillos killed — a move Silva said allowed wildlife to recover. Families now map their plots to balance production with conservation.

Armed groups known locally as Comandos de la Frontera, or Border Commandos, operate throughout this stretch of Putumayo, controlling territory, river traffic and parts of the local economy.

The Commandos emerged after Colombia’s 2016 peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the Marxist guerrilla army whose demobilization ended a half-century conflict but left power vacuums across the Amazon and Pacific regions. In places like Putumayo, those gaps were quickly filled by FARC dissidents, former paramilitaries and other criminal networks.

The Commandos enforce control through extortion, illegal taxation and by regulating, or profiting from, coca cultivation, clandestine mining and key river routes. Residents say the group forces some communities to perform unpaid labor or face fines, further eroding livelihoods in an area where most families rely on tending their farms.

The AP saw illegal coca growing near the beekeeping project via drone imagery.

Human Rights Watch on Friday said armed groups in Putumayo have tightened their control over daily life and committed serious abuses against civilians including forced displacement, restricting movement and targeting local leaders.

Andrew Miller, head of advocacy at the U.S.-based advocacy group Amazon Watch, said Colombian authorities must go beyond providing bodyguards and prosecute those behind threats and attacks on defenders.

Pastrana, from the beekeeping project, said Silva’s long-term vision has nurtured new leaders and guided young people, helping them develop the grounding to resist recruitment by armed groups.

Silva's daughter, Anggie Miramar Silva, is part of ADISPA’s technical team. The 27-year-old grew up inside the reserve’s community process and watched her mother move constantly between meetings, workshops and patrols, pushing others to defend the land.

She admires that resolve, even as she lives with the same fear that trails her mother. While people often suggest she might one day take her mother’s place, she is not convinced.

“My mother’s work is extremely hard," Miramar said. “I don’t know if I would be willing to sacrifice everything she has.”

Jani Silva knows the risks. But stopping doesn't feel like an option.

“We have to continue defending the future," she said, "and we need more and more people to join this cause.”

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

A girl waits at the port in Puerto Asis, Colombia, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

Anggie Miramar poses for a photo on the outskirts of Puerto Asis, Colombia, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

Ruben Pastrana explains to the group about sustainable projects on the outskirts of Puerto Asis, Colombia, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

One of the community's sustainable projects is visible on the outskirts of Puerto Asis, Colombia, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

A woman organizes the crops of one of the community's sustainable projects on the outskirts of Puerto Asis, Colombia, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

People look at chickens, one of the projects in the community, on the outskirts of Puerto Asis, Colombia, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

A girl looks out the window at the Amazon Pearl community farming project on the outskirts of Puerto Asis, Colombia, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

Rainbows cross the Putumayo River on the outskirts of Puerto Asis, Colombia, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

A bee approaches an aloe vera flower, part of the crops of one of the community's sustainable projects, on the outskirts of Puerto Asis, Colombia, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

A person extracts honey from bees on the outskirts of Puerto Asis, Colombia, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

Community members open an apiary on the outskirts of Puerto Asis, Colombia, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

Ruben Pastrana poses for a photo on the outskirts of Puerto Asis, Colombia, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

A small coca crop is visible on the outskirts of Puerto Asis, Colombia, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

Jani Silva, 63, gets off a boat, on the outskirts of Puerto Asis, Colombia, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

Jani Silva, 63, sails in a boat on the Putumayo River, on the outskirts of Puerto Asis, Colombia, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

LONDON (AP) — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met French, German and British leaders in London on Monday amid what Kyiv’s European allies described as a “decisive time” in the U.S.-led effort to end Russia's war in Ukraine.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer held talks with Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the British leader’s 10 Downing St. residence to try to strengthen Ukraine’s hand.

In an exchange with reporters on Sunday night, U.S. President Donald Trump appeared frustrated with Zelenskyy, claiming the Ukrainian leader “hasn’t yet read the proposal.”

“Russia is, I believe, fine with it, but I’m not sure that Zelenskyy’s fine with it,” Trump said in Washington. “His people love it, but he hasn’t read it.”

It’s not clear why Trump thought Zelenskyy hadn’t read the plan or who he was saying loved it. Ukrainian officials have made sparing comments about it and few details of the negotiations have been made public.

Starmer, Macron and Merz took a more supportive stance toward Kyiv in comments before their Monday meeting. The U.K. leader said the push for peace was at a “critical stage,” and stressed the need for "a just and lasting ceasefire.”

Merz, meanwhile, said he was “skeptical” about some details in documents released by the U.S. “We have to talk about it. That’s why we are here,” he said. “The coming days … could be a decisive time for all of us."

Zelenskyy said late Sunday that his talks with European leaders this week in London and Brussels will focus on security, air defense and long-term funding for Ukraine’s war effort. The leaders are working to ensure that any ceasefire is backed by solid security guarantees both from Europe and the U.S. to deter Russia from attacking again.

U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators completed three days of talks on Saturday aimed at trying to narrow differences on the U.S. administration’s peace proposal.

Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram that talks had been “substantive” and that National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov and Chief of the General Staff Andrii Hnatov were traveling back to Europe to brief him.

A major sticking point in the plan is the suggestion that Kyiv must cede control of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine to Russia, which illegally occupies most but not all of the territory. Ukraine and its European allies have balked at the idea of handing over land.

Starmer said he “won’t be putting pressure” on Zelenskyy to accept a peace settlement.

“The most important thing is to ensure that if there is a cessation of hostilities, and I hope there is, it has to be just and it has to be lasting, which is what we will be focused on this afternoon,” he told broadcaster ITV.

Trump has had a hot-and-cold relationship with Zelenskyy since winning a second term, insisting the war was a waste of U.S. taxpayers’ money. Trump has also repeatedly urged the Ukrainians to cede land to Russia to end the nearly four-year conflict.

The European talks follow the publication of a new U.S. national security strategy that alarmed European leaders and was welcomed by Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the document, which spells out the administration’s core foreign policy interests, was largely in line with Moscow’s vision.

“The nuances that we see in the new concept certainly look appealing to us,” he said Monday. “It mentions the need for dialogue and building constructive, friendly relations. This cannot but appeal to us, and it absolutely corresponds to our vision. We understand that by eliminating the irritants that currently exist in bilateral relations, a prospect may open for us to truly restore our relations and bring them out of the rather deep crisis.”

The document released Friday by the White House said the U.S. wants to improve its relationship with Russia after years of Moscow being treated as a global pariah and that ending the war is a core U.S. interest to “reestablish strategic stability with Russia.”

The document also says NATO must not be “a perpetually expanding alliance,” echoing another complaint by Russia. It was scathing about the migration and free speech policies of longstanding U.S. allies in Europe, suggesting they face the “prospect of civilizational erasure” due to migration.

Starmer’s government has declined to comment on the document, saying it is a matter for the U.S. government.

Russia continued to attack Ukraine amid the diplomatic efforts.

Russian drones struck high-rise apartments in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Okhtyrka overnight, injuring seven people, according to the head of the regional administration, Oleh Hryhorov. He said the building was extensively damaged.

In the northern city of Chernihiv, a Russian drone exploded outside a residential building, injuring three people, regional head Viacheslav Chaus said. The attack also damaged a kindergarten, gas lines and cars.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia fired 149 drones at the country overnight, with 131 neutralized and 16 others striking their targets.

Meanwhile, Russian air defenses destroyed 67 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Defense Ministry said. The drones were shot down over 11 Russian regions, it said.

Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and French President Emmanuel Macron at 10 Downing Street, in London, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (Toby Melville/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street, London, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, Larry the cat, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office walks past. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

From left, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron meet at 10 Downing Street, in London, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (Toby Melville/Pool Photo via AP)

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gestures while speaking as he takes part in a joint news conference with the Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin in Dublin, Ireland, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)

FILE - French President Emmanuel Macron, right, welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Dec. 1, 2025 before a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, a rescue worker puts out a fire of a residential building damaged by a Russian strike in Sumy region, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, a rescue worker puts out a fire of a car in front of a residential building damaged by a Russian strike in Sumy region, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)