For several years, illegal gold mining, loggers and other invaders have impacted the territory of the Indigenous Wampís people (or Huambisa) of the northern Peruvian Amazon. To combat these threats…
As the Brazilian city of Belém prepares for this year’s U.N. climate conference, COP30, Indigenous leaders worldwide say they’re getting ready to have their demands addressed. Dubbed the “nature COP”…
Once a major river city, Belém turned its back on the water, leaving 40% of its urban area vulnerable to floods.
SÃO PAULO AND RIO DE JANEIRO — Despite government efforts to halt violence in the Amazon region where British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira were killed three…
PAKAYAKU TERRITORY, Ecuador — Deep in the heart of Ecuador's Amazon, where the Bobonaza River winds through ancient forests in Pastaza province, Sacha Gayas spreads out a hand-drawn map across her…
The metal needed in electric cars and solar panels comes with a high cost for Amazonian communities.
All the Pan Amazon nations have legal systems based on Civil (Napoleonic) Law, where courts follow rules established by ‘codes’, which are statutory rulebooks that describe specific infractions and their…
BOGOTÁ, Colombia and SÃO PAULO, Brazil — On Oct. 7 in Brazil’s National Congress in Brasília, lawmakers, Indigenous leaders and civil society representatives gathered to present a global parliamentary investigation…
Shawi Nation leaders ask if the road is a mere gateway for mining companies set to enter their territory.
Josep “Pep” Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project, says he believes countries large and small need to think twice before pledging to collectively plant billions of trees as…
This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections…
Indigenous territories and the people who defend them in the Peruvian Amazon face a litany of growing threats, activist groups warn in a recent report. In defending their land rights…
Brazil’s environment minister bets on safeguards for the highway, but history shows similar plans have failed.
Experts often warn about the “tipping point” for the Amazon, a scenario in which the rainforest collapses into a drier, less biodiverse savanna ecosystem. But the term “tipping point” is…
In 2017, when Betty Rubio began patrolling the forests of her ancestral land, she began to question why she was doing it. It wasn’t easy. She knew that tackling environmental…
When Fredy Yavinape was a young child, he didn’t know the biological concept of an “umbrella species.” These are species that require large areas of undisturbed habitat to survive, which…
The continued failure to halt the BR-319 highway cutting through the Brazilian Amazon is an example of the systemic problem identified by Hannah Arendt in her study of the minister…
In Brazil’s southern Amazonian region, where the notorious “arc of deforestation” has been expanding since the 1970s, forest loss is reshaping the region’s atmospheric water cycle. As the Amazon Rainforest…
In 2015, leaders of the Wampís did what no other Indigenous peoples have done in Peru’s modern history: They declared themselves an autonomous nation to gain greater control over their…
A solar-powered canoe initiative originally launched in Ecuador’s Amazon in 2017 has now expanded to Indigenous coastal communities in Brazil, Peru, Suriname and the Solomon Islands. Researchers say the effort…
The CAR is an obligatory land registry for all rural properties in Brazil. The CAR was created because the national rural land registry (Sistema Nacional de Cadastro Rural (SNCR) developed…
Brazil's bioeconomy efforts are unlocking surprising global applications for a homegrown plant known as a local remedy and seasoning.
The most consequential of strategies regarding forests has been Brazil’s longstanding policy to obligate landholders to conserve forest and other natural habitats on their properties. There have been three major…
Political will is among the most important factors in preventing tropical deforestation, according to a group of experts surveyed for a new study — with strong political commitment often arising…
This is Part 4 of a four-part series on Indigenous land rights in Ecuador. Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. Twenty months after a landmark court ruling in…
This is Part 3 of a four-part series on Indigenous land rights in Ecuador. Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 4. A landmark land title in an Amazon protected…
This is Part 2 of a four-part series on Indigenous land rights in Ecuador. Read Part 1, Part 3 and Part 4. In Ecuador’s Amazon, the use of agreements with…
This is Part 1 of a four-part series on Indigenous land rights in Ecuador. Read Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4. In Ecuador, a 2023 court decision that recognizes…
A vital Amazonian superfood suddenly vanishes, leaving thousands of Indigenous and extractivist families reeling.
Rubber tapping in the forest was once the main Amazonian economic activity, and now an Indigenous group is bringing it back.
As oil companies push for drilling on the Amazon coast, an underwater war silences the ocean’s most vocal creatures.
In early February, in downtown Bogotá, Colombia, Luis Alfredo Acosta recited a line in a book from memory: “I am from the rainforest because I smell like the rainforest; I…
