By Alisa Tang CHIANG MAI, Thailand (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A little over a decade ago, indigenous activist Joan Carling from the Philippines Cordillera region lost three colleagues in the space of a few years - all murdered in one of the world's deadliest countries for land rights defenders.Then came her turn: a relative in the military told Carling's father his daughter's name was on the "order of battle", the Philippines military's list of people, including activists, who are deemed enemies of the state."When you are on the order of battle, you are an open target for extrajudicial killings," said 53-year-old Carling."There was a time (when) suspicious men or motorbikes were following me, and I was advised to stay in the office," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.She kept her head down, hired a bodyguard, then spent several months at a U.S. university having won a fellowship for frontline human rights defenders. For decades, Carling has been at the forefront of the fight for land and the environment, which London watchdog Global Witness calls "a new battleground for human rights", with communities worldwide locked in deadly struggles against governments, companies and criminal gangs exploiting land for products like timber, minerals and palm oil.In 2015, more than three people a week were killed defending land, forests and rivers against industries, said Global Witness
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