As cliché as it is, I’m not ashamed to admit that it was Greta Thunberg who opened my eyes to the world of environmental activism. Aged 15, I resonated so deeply with her message; that even something as vital as education is worth sacrificing where the future of the planet is at stake. She inspired me to learn more about the cause, within weeks I was a staunch vegan and had joined every youth environmental organisation in the area. I had found my passion, and as a result of my tendency to hyper-fixate, I committed to it with everything I had.

In the months leading up to my move to Honduras, the piece of unsolicited advice I received time and time again was to be wary of the drug cartels and resulting gang violence. In fact, that seemed to be the only thing that anyone knew about Honduras, or the rest of Central America for that matter. Perhaps the only downside of the UK’s imperial reach never quite making it to Latin America, is that for most Brits, Latin America is the lawless land of the Narcos, and little else. But alas, that is an issue for another piece.

When conducting my own (less biased) research, I uncovered that where murder was concerned, the number one way to put a target on my back would not be to get caught in gangster crossfire, but rather to assert myself as an environmental activist.

In a seven-year period in Honduras, more than 120 people are known to have been killed due to their environmental activism. Many others are still missing, and far greater figures still were imprisoned, or their lives threatened due to their beliefs.

The fight against the construction of several dams, including the Agua Zarca and Los Encinos dams produced numerous deaths. The bodies often appeared dismembered or visibly tortured.

The occurrence which attracted the most attention was the death of Berta Cáceres in 2016. In the years leading up to her death, Cáceres had been fighting the construction of a hydroelectric dam which would destroy a vital water source for the nearby indigenous Lenca people. She was awarded the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize for exceptional bravery in environmental activism. In her moving acceptance speech, she said that “Mother Nature – militarised, fenced-in, poisoned – demands that we take action” .

Seven men were eventually charged with Cáceres’ death – two with links to the company who own the damn (DESA), and four connected to the Honduran army. A former member of the Honduran military confirmed that Cáceres’ name, alongside many other environmental activists, had been placed on a military hit list. David Castillo, former general manager of DESA was sentenced to 22 years for his role in Cáceres’ murder. However, the day after his sentencing there was a major protest in the streets of Honduras’ capital  – Tegucigalpa – demanding investigation into the wealthy Atala family. Many believe that this family, with a myriad of political and business ties, were the real authors of the murder.

The sad and likely truth, is that rather than there being a sole perpetrator of Cáceres’ murder, there were several groups competing to get there first.

In my first few weeks in Honduras, knowing the nature of the environmental debate, I tentatively asked some questions about: how much the subject was discussed, the government’s relationship to the matter, and whether people still talked about the death of Cáceres. The man I asked, a school teacher in the small town I was working in, reacted as though I had asked for his partnership in my plan to abduct the president and stage a coup. He told me calmy, but firmly, that if I wanted to stay out of trouble, I was never to ask questions like those again. In a way reminiscent of a dystopian thriller movie, he told me that I could never be sure who was listening.

I accepted this, and avoided discussing it… for a month or two. I met through a friend a man who worked in the mayor’s office in my town. He was passionate about the environment, and was establishing a group of volunteer firefighters to help mitigate the consequences of rainforest wildfires. I trusted him, so when the time was right, I asked him to share everything he knew about the governments’ role in murdering environmentalists.

For the hours that followed he shared some harrowing truths about the political and environmental situation in Honduras; he described his personal relation to people that had been killed defending the natural world; how the meat industry alone was responsible for hundreds of death threats; and how the government was complicit in almost every murder. He told me about a blog where people would share their experiences of their voices being supressed by those in power, and the rate at which those same people would disappear.

The reality of this situation in Honduras is far more severe than anything which exists on the internet will convey. It is simply too dangerous for anyone to tell the truth.