Inspired by the Global Witness report highlighting the terrible toll of killings of those who seek to defend their rights to land, water and their own way of life.

Founded in 2011 by women journalists, Agência Pública is the first non-profit agency for investigative journalism in Brazil.

This blog selects stories and news relating to Latin America from the monthly London Mining Network (LMN) newsletter, with additional research supplied by LAB.

David Lehmann is a senior editor at LAB. A social scientist who has worked all his life on and in Latin America, he writes on subjects including agricultural development, religion and multiculturalism.

Sue Branford is a senior editor at LAB, specializing in Brazil, the Amazon and the environment. Her blogs collect some of her diary accounts of trips to the Amazon and other themes she has pursued in her reporting.

Jan Rocha is a former correspondent for the BBC and the Guardian and lives in São Paulo, Brazil. She is the author of a number of LAB books, and contributes this regular column for LAB, known for its incisive analysis of current Brazilian politics.

Long-read articles sharing first-hand experiences and expert analysis from our partners in Latin America – activists and campaigners, artists, journalists and academics.

Here, LAB contributors reflect on the books, films, music photography and artwork speaking up for social and environmental justice in Latin America.

Dan Baron is a performance educator, living in the Amazonian afro-indigenous community of Cabelo Seco, Pará.