Introduction

Studies in critical and green criminology have highlighted how the repression of activism, and of eco-justice activism in particular, is increasing and becoming more pernicious all over the world (Maroto et al, 2019; Ruggiero, 2021a; Vegh Weiss, 2021a; Szalai, 2021). This literature has stressed the fact that state repression is often accompanied by the discrediting and depoliticizing of eco-justice movements, with the latter often being misrepresented as ‘eco-terrorist’ and ideological enemies impeding economic progress (Hasler et al, 2020). Attempts to discredit, delegitimize, depoliticize, silence and marginalize activists have been understood by Ferree (2004) as falling with the concept ‘soft repression’ – a non-violent form of repression that nonetheless has negative impacts on social movements and their mobilization. Indeed, as Jämte and Ellefsen (2020) suggested, when a social movement is labelled and stigmatized, activists tend to be less open about their involvement with it to avoid being outed and receive social sanctions; in turn, this has a negative impact on the mobilization of social movements, in particular, social movements that are more open and inclusive (see also Muncie, 2020).

After being framed as ‘enemies’ through soft repression, ecojustice movements are also often the target of hard repression (or ‘over-criminalization’) (see Vegh Weiss, 2021b) through violence, harassment, surveillance and criminalization. In some instances, activists are not just criminalized but even killed for their grievances and fighting. The killing of environmental activists is most common in the Global South, where in the year 2020 alone, 227 deaths were recorded, making it ‘the most dangerous year on record for people defending their homes, land and livelihoods, and the ecosystems vital for biodiversity and the climate’ (Global Witness, 2021: 10). Using the Environmental Justice Atlas, Scheidel et al (2020) suggested that killings, violence and criminalization tend to occur more often in mining and land conflicts, and where Indigenous groups are involved in protesting and mobilizing. In the case of Brazil, the killing of environmental activists has also been deemed to have been incited by its right-wing populist leaders (see Toledo et al, 2021; Bombardi and Porto Almeida, 2022).