Honduras, where defending nature is a deadly business

In the first in a series, Yale Environment 360 reports from Honduras where Berta Ciceres fought to protect native lands and paid for it with her life - one of hundreds of victims in this disturbing global trend

They came for her late one evening last March, as Berta Ciceres prepared for bed. A heavy boot broke the back door of the safe house she had just moved into. Her colleague and family friend, Gustavo Castro, heard her shout, "Who's there?" Then came a series of shots. He survived. But the most famous and fearless social and environmental activist in Honduras died instantly. She was 44 years old. It was a cold-blooded political assassination.

Berta Ciceres knew she was likely to be killed. Everybody knew. She had told her daughter Laura to prepare for life without her. The citation for her prestigious Goldman Environmental prize, awarded in the US less than a year before, noted the continued death threats, before adding: "Her murder would not surprise her colleagues, who keep a eulogy - but hope to never have to use it."