Dorothy Stang

Dorothy Stang joined the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Ohio and was sent to Brazil in 1966, settling eventually in the state of Pará in the Amazon, where the government had encouraged poor families to move and farm land that was simultaneously being claimed by ranchers and logging companies. She worked with these settler communities for decades, helping organise land claims, sustainable farming methods and schools, and became a naturalised Brazilian citizen.

Her advocacy put her directly in the path of powerful local landowners. She testified against illegal logging, helped farmers document legal land titles, and refused repeated warnings to stop, even after being placed on threat lists that circulated locally for years. Colleagues said she carried a Bible rather than any form of protection and continued walking the same roads despite knowing the risk.

On 12 February 2005, two gunmen hired by a rancher shot her six times at close range on a rural road near Anapu, killing her at seventy-three. The murder drew international attention to violence against Amazon land defenders, and Brazil later increased protected areas in the region partly in response. The rancher who ordered her killing, Vitalmiro Moura, was eventually convicted and sentenced to thirty years in prison after a lengthy legal process.