US official development assistance falls 56.9% in 2025, OECD reports

Global Witness documents 124 land defender killings in 2025

US official development assistance fell 56.9% in 2025 from the previous year, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, accounting for about three-fourths of the overall decline in aid among its Development Assistance Committee members. The figure appeared in a Global Witness report on the 124 killings of land and environmental defenders documented worldwide in 2025 — down from the 142 killings and four long-term disappearances the organization recorded in 2024.

Global Witness said the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development under President Donald Trump had “particularly serious implications” for land and environmental defenders because the agency previously supported initiatives that helped Indigenous communities manage and protect their territories. The organization cautioned that the year-over-year decline in documented killings should not necessarily be interpreted as an improvement because violence against defenders is likely underreported.

“While the number of killings decreased, we have seen that cases of criminalization have somehow increased,” Juliana Vélez Echeverri, a senior campaigner at Global Witness, told Mongabay Latam.

Latin America accounted for 105 of the 124 deaths, nearly 85% of the global total. Colombia recorded 39 killings, the highest number of any country for the fourth consecutive year, while Brazil reported 26, more than double the 12 documented there in 2024. Together, the two countries accounted for more than half of the killings recorded worldwide. Honduras reported 12 killings, followed by Mexico with 10, Guatemala with eight, Peru with four and Nicaragua and Ecuador with three each, according to the report.

Global Witness linked land disputes to 84 of the 124 killings documented in 2025. Mining and other extractive industries were linked to 11 deaths, logging interests to eight and agribusiness to six. More than one-third of the killings had suspected links to organized crime or hired killers, according to the report.

Small-scale farmers and Indigenous people were particularly affected. Global Witness identified 47 of those killed as small-scale farmers and 44 as Indigenous people. In Colombia, 35 of the country’s 39 killings were linked to land conflicts, according to Colombian newspaper El Espectador. Thirteen occurred in the southwestern department of Cauca, including four members of Indigenous guards.

The report also highlighted efforts by communities to protect themselves as threats from illegal mining, logging, drug trafficking and land seizures continue. In Peru’s Amazon region, the Indigenous Kakataibo people formally established their own guard in 2022 after a series of killings and threats against community leaders. Six Kakataibo leaders have been killed since 2020.

The guard has since grown to more than 150 members operating across 10 communities, where members patrol Indigenous territory and monitor illegal activities.

“In our territory, we used to walk freely. We could hunt, we could fish, enjoy our forest, but not today,” Segundo Ispón, commander of the Kakataibo Indigenous Guard, told Mongabay Latam. “We have to be alert. We have to be careful.”

Global Witness said it has documented 2,375 killings and long-term disappearances of land and environmental defenders worldwide since it began tracking the violence in 2012.