The people who make up the Pan-Amazonian melting pot: regional demographics
One reason it is possible to be optimistic about the future of the Pan Amazon is that none of the countries must deal with an impending demographic explosion. This was…
Amazon Rainforest News
CHAPTER 6. Culture and demographics defines the Pan Amazon’s present
Infrastructure investments, agricultural production systems, land speculation and the exploitation of mineral resources have all been identified as drivers of deforestation and hydrological degradation in the Pan Amazon. These forces…
Report links killings to environmental crimes in Peru’s Amazon
Ten years ago, four Indigenous Asháninka environmental defenders were murdered in the forests near their community of Saweto in Peru’s Amazon Ucayali region. In 2023, a court in Pucallpa found…
Record number of Indigenous land titles granted in Peru via innovative process (commentary)
In a defining moment for the rights of Indigenous peoples in Peru, 37 land titles were secured in the Amazon in record time, from June 2023 to May 2024. This…
Peruvian logger loses FSC label after latest clash with isolated Mashco Piro
The Forest Stewardship Council has suspended its certification of a controversial logging company in the Peruvian Amazon accused of encroaching on the traditional territory of the Mashco Piro, an Indigenous group…
In the Brazilian Amazon, seedlings offer hope for drying rivers
RIO PINDARÉ INDIGENOUS TERRITORY, Brazil – Under the emerald canopy of the Amazon rainforest, Janaína Guajajara peered into a murky pool of water barely larger than a bathtub. Along its…
Could the ‘rights of nature’ save Yasuní and keep its oil in the ground? (commentary)
With the past 10 years, the hottest on record, and four days in July the hottest ever recorded, the climate emergency is coming ever more into focus. Directly linked to…
At the ‘Biodiversity Olympics,’ scientists work to democratize rainforest tech
If long-term field research is like a marathon, then this was the 100-meter sprint. Over the course of 72 hours, participants scrambled to gather biodiversity data, analyze it, and generate…
One year after oil referendum, what’s next for Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park?
One year since Ecuador citizens voted on Aug. 20, 2023, to halt all future oil drilling in Yasuní National Park, the government is nowhere near close to meeting its deadline.…
No plans, no progress make Peru’s energy transition uncertain
“Three years ago, I bought a solar panel so we could have light at home. Before that, we could only light our house with candles. We don’t have power, so…
New relatives of the cacao tree uncovered in old plant collections
Scientists have uncovered a surprising find from the Amazon Basin: three new species of plants closely related to Theobroma cacao, the tree that gives us chocolate. This finding, made by…
Are the Amazon’s biggest trees dying? Forest coroners investigate
AMAZONAS, Brazil: Two researchers wearing long-sleeved shirts and pants to resist mosquitos, and high boots to block snake bites, gaze at a shattered tree. It lies on the ground garlanded…
Organized crime brings renewed threats to Yanomami in Brazil
As criminal groups combine forces with miners in Brazil’s Yanomami Indigenous Territory, officials have found it more difficult to control the spread of crime and violence that have killed hundreds…
Mineral hotspots in the Pan Amazon
The mineral resources of the Pan Amazon are not randomly distributed across the region but are located on landscapes with specific geological histories. There are three conspicuous macro regions: A.…
Weak banking regulations leave two-thirds of Amazon vulnerable to oil and gas
There are hundreds of oil and gas operations across the Amazon Rainforest. And while critics have gone after them for reckless environmental damage, those companies also don’t work alone. They…
Global markets and their effects on resource exploitation in the Pan Amazon
Investment capital flows when prices are high, but companies scale back investments when they fall. Nonetheless, companies do not often abandon projects once underway; in part, this is a natural…
State management and regulation of extractive industries in the Pan Amazon
The extractive industries are strategic components of the economy of all Amazonian countries, but their importance varies greatly. Mineral extraction creates tangible economic benefits for a sovereign state. Converting a…
A short walk through Amazon time: Interview with archaeologist Anna Roosevelt
Roosevelt said the recent hype regarding the “garden cities” in Ecuador is “annoying”, as it is not a new discovery and it ignores older research from Latin American archaeologists.
What’s really at stake in the Venezuela-Guyana land dispute? (commentary)
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has deployed military troops, light tanks, missile-equipped patrol boats, and armored carriers to the Guyanese border in what appears to be a brazen threat to claim…
Jaguar release offers a lifeline to Gran Chaco’s lonely big cats
The lowland forest of El Impenetrable National Park in northern Argentina sprawls across the hot, swampy green of the Gran Chaco biome, home to South America’s largest mammals and thousands…
How to reward tropical forest conservation: Interview with Tasso Azevedo
Tasso Azevedo, one of the creators of Tropical Forests Forever, details the financial instrument envisaged to reward conservation.
Mineral commodities: the wealth that generates most impacts in the Pan Amazon | Chapter 5 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon”
Mineral extraction is a major cause of contention among the inhabitants of the Pan Amazon. Thousands of families depend on economic activity that originates, directly or indirectly, from the mining…
Ancient giant river dolphin species found in the Peruvian Amazon
A team of paleontologists found a giant fossilized skull along the shore of the Napo River in the Peruvian Amazon. To their surprise, the relic belonged to a newly described…
Reforestation and restoration: Two ways to make the Pan Amazon greener
One of the benefits of agroforestry and plantation forestry is the ability of tree crops to capture and store carbon in their above-ground biomass. Although they must be renovated (cut…
Reconciling conservation agriculture and agroforestry for sustainability
There are three fundamental rules of financial planning: (1) save continuously, (2) invest in a diversified portfolio of assets and (3) exercise patience via a long-term strategy. This common-sense advice…
Squeezed-out Amazon smallholders seek new frontiers in Brazil’s Roraima state
As infrastructure projects and soy plantations pump up land values in the Brazilian Amazon, smallholders are selling up and moving to more distant frontiers, perpetuating a cycle of displacement and deforestation.
Bolivia’s El Curichi Las Garzas protected area taken over by land-grabbers
Regardless of what satellite images show, inhabitants who have illegally planted crops within the protected area told committee officials that they “take care of Curichi”, because each union member’s rice…
Land irrigation as an obstacle to agricultural intensification in Mato Grosso
The agro-industrial farms of Mato Grosso are among the most efficient on the planet; they benefit from abundant rainfall and a long rainy season, which allows them to plant and…
What is most convenient in land distribution?
The creation of protected areas and Indigenous reserves offers the best hope for conserving the biodiversity of the Amazon; however, the management of the human modified landscapes will determine whether…
Authorities struggle to protect Bolivian national park from drug-fueled deforestation
In 2020, a Mongabay reporting team visited Bolivia’s Amboró National Park and Integrated Management Natural Area and found that portions of its protected forest had been cleared and replaced by…
In the Amazon, what happens to undesignated public lands?
Undesignated public land One of the objectives of the ZEE process was to assist the nations of the Pan Amazon to allocate their public lands among different constituencies and stakeholder…
Ecuador, Colombia and the Guiana Shield join the planning of sustainable land use
Ecuador The territorial planning framework in Ecuador is known as the Plan de Desarrollo y Ordenamiento Territorial (PDOT). It is one component in an ambitious effort to articulate a Plan…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- In Brazil’s Amazon, land invasions — and fires — threaten a protected reserve
- A Guatemalan reserve turns from civil war refuge to deforestation hotspot
- Narco activity takes heavy toll on Colombia’s protected forests, satellite data show
- Photos confirm narcotraffickers operating in Peru’s Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve
Oceans
- As tidal power rides a wave of clean energy optimism, pitfalls persist
- Plan for close season rings alarm bells for Liberia’s artisanal fishers
- Lab-grown corals resisted bleaching during Caribbean’s worst marine heat wave
- Six months after first Houthi ship sinking, attacks slick Red Sea with oil
Amazon Conservation
- ‘World’s largest’ carbon credit deal in the Amazon faces bumpy road ahead
- New conservation model calls for protecting Amazon for its archaeological riches
- Brazil dredges Amazon rivers to ease drought isolation, raising environmental concerns
- ‘We need white men on our side to save the Amazon from destruction,’ 92-year-old Indigenous Chief Raoni says
Land rights and extractives
- Peruvian logger loses FSC label after latest clash with isolated Mashco Piro
- In the DRC, a government commission is taking funds owed to people relocated by mines
- A national park and its rangers in Bolivia endure persisting road construction, illegal mining
- Can nations ever get artisanal gold mining right?
Endangered Environmentalists
- Vietnam sentences yet another energy expert over renewables research
- Mother Nature Cambodia activists sentenced to prison — again
- Mongabay video screening at Chile’s Supreme Court expected to help landmark verdict in Brazil
- Indonesian activist freed in hate speech case after flagging illegal shrimp farms
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- On a Borneo mountainside, Indigenous Dayak women hold fire and defend forest
- Fenced in by Sulawesi national park, Indigenous women make forestry breakout
- In Borneo, the ‘Power of Mama’ fight Indonesia’s wildfires with all-woman crew
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
Conservation Effectiveness
- How effective is the EU’s marquee policy to reduce the illegal timber trade?
- How sharing and learning from failures can transform conservation (commentary)
- Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?
- Failure in conservation projects: Everyone experiences it, few record it
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Study: Indonesia’s new capital city threatens stable proboscis monkey population
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
- To build its ‘green’ capital city, Indonesia runs a road through a biodiverse forest
