They were killed by their own army. On December 3, while members of the Taboli-manubo people on the Philippine island of Mindanao were farming and doing housework, the army began shelling their neighborhood and spraying them with gunfire from all directions. Eight people were killed.

The dead included Datu Victor Danyan, a leader of protests against the expansion of a coffee plantation by an agribusiness firm, and four of his family members. Danyan had long been involved in resisting the company, Silvicultural Industries Inc., whose operation had taken over ancestral land and threatened the community’s livelihood. More were injured in the attack, and 200 were forced to evacuate the area, abandoning the fields they had sought to preserve. While the Taboli-manubo people believe the cause of the attack was their resistance to Silvicultural Industries, the Philippine army disputes this.

This was one of many attacks on land and environmental defenders in 2017 recorded by Global Witness, which defines such defenders as those who take peaceful action when land, forests, or rivers are encroached upon by industry, whether as members of the local community, or as activists, journalists, or lawyers.

In a new report released Tuesday, the anti-corruption watchdog organization says that 2017 was the deadliest year for land and environmental defenders since it began keeping track in 2012, with a total of 207 defenders killed worldwide. The report attributes this increase to a surge of killings related to agribusiness opposition, as well as better reporting on the issue. Global Witness says the true number of deaths is even higher, and “many, many more were attacked, threatened, and criminalized.”

The highest number of killings was recorded in Brazil, which accounted for more than a quarter of reports. Brazil was followed by the Philippines, as well as Colombia and Mexico. Agribusiness was the most dangerous industry to oppose, a first since reporting began, although resistance to mining, poaching, and logging continued to be risky as well. Indigenous people remained a disproportionate target of attacks.

Although Global Witness identified government actors as the suspected perpetrators in 56 of the deaths, governmental culpability likely plays a role in many more. Officials are often in league with business interests, cutting local communities out of decision-making and creating a “culture of impunity,” according to the report.

“Perpetrators feel emboldened by the cumulative impact of these murders. Government is guilty by omission because they’re not prosecuting these crimes, and a lot of times, they’re guilty by collusion,” Ben Leather, one of the authors of the report, told The Intercept. Thus, deaths attributed to local militias, gangs, or businesses themselves still often involve government complicity. “Tackling impunity is possibly the only way to really end this in the long term,” Leather added.