At least 200 environmental activists, with 40 percent from indigenous tribes, were murdered worldwide in 2016, according to Global Witness, a watchdog organization.

The tally was double the number slain two years earlier and the highest since the nongovernmental organization began tracking such violence in 2002.

Fatal attacks against activists have become more widespread, occurring in 24 countries in 2016, compared to 16 the year before.

Brazil, Colombia and the Philippines accounted for more than half of the confirmed deaths, followed by India, Honduras, Nicaragua, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Bangladesh. Sixty percent of those murdered were from Latin America.