Act now or lose the Pantanal forever (commentary)
The Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland, is on fire. This precious ecosystem, teeming with unique flora and fauna, should be treasured. Instead, it is being pushed to extinction by…
Brazil News
Delays in land titling threaten the conservation success of quilombos in Brazil
Titled quilombo territories — traditional Brazilian communities originally formed by runaway enslaved people — have significantly lower deforestation rates, making them crucial for conserving Brazil's natural biomes.
Deforestation remains low, but fires surge in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest
The rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has remained near a six-year low despite a surge in the number of fires burning in Earth’s largest rainforest, according to data…
‘World’s largest’ carbon credit deal in the Amazon faces bumpy road ahead
The Brazilian state of Pará has agreed to sell millions of carbon credits to multinational corporations, including Amazon, Bayer and Walmart Foundation, but many challenges loom.
Indigenous communities in the Amazon fight for full recognition
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Amazonian lowlands were home to several hundred ethnic groups living in tens of thousands of villages with a population estimated at between four…
Prospect of mining is a bitter pill for Afro-Brazilian community known for its honey
When Júlio de Castro began beekeeping in 1986, he never imagined he and his family would one day own the 500 hives they maintain today, producing up to 10 metric…
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…
New conservation model calls for protecting Amazon for its archaeological riches
Researchers in Brazil are lobbying to register archaeological sites as national monuments, which would confer a new layer of protection status to parts of the rainforest.
Brazil dredges Amazon rivers to ease drought isolation, raising environmental concerns
The environmental risks of dredging include ecosystem disruption, increased erosion, water contamination, and harm to aquatic species such as manatees and river dolphins.
The Amazon is ablaze again. What it means for us (commentary)
In 2019, the world watched in horror as images of the Amazon rainforest ablaze flooded the news. Over 70,000 wildfires raged uncontrollably, killing wildlife, filling hospitals with patients struggling to…
Brazil’s race to approve the end of the Amazon: The BR-319 highway needs a new environmental impact assessment (commentary)
The proposed reconstruction of Brazil’s BR-319 (Manaus-Porto Velho) highway (Figure 1) needs a new environmental impact assessment (EIA). No rational decision can be made on going ahead with this project…
‘We need white men on our side to save the Amazon from destruction,’ 92-year-old Indigenous Chief Raoni says
Indigenous leaders gathered at New York Climate Week to call on global leaders to address the unprecedented drought and wildfire crisis in the Amazon Rainforest.
Police murder Guarani man as Brazil struggles with Indigenous land demarcation
Military police in Brazil last week killed an Indigenous Guarani Kaiowá man and wounded several others during altercations over contested land, which the communities have been trying to take formal…
Why the Maxakali people are calling on their spirits to recover the Atlantic Forest
MAXAKALI INDIGENOUS LAND, Brazil — Instead of cattle, the Indigenous. And nothing else changes in the landscape as soon as one crosses the sign announcing the entrance to the Maxakali…
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…
Brazil’s BR-319 highway disaster: Yet another maneuver (commentary)
On September 14, Brazil’s National Department of Transportation Infrastructure (DNIT) submitted to the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region (TRF1) a consultancy report that DNIT had contracted from Engespro…
What will the Brazilian food industry do about plastic packaging?
Plastic waste is a global problem, and the food sector is one of its main drivers. It only takes a quick visit to a supermarket to realize this: With the…
Report exposes meatpackers’ role in recent chemical deforestation in Brazil
A new report links Brazil's top meatpackers — JBS, Marfrig and Minerva — to widespread deforestation across the Pantanal, Amazon and Cerrado; of five farms investigated between October 2023 and February 2024, 86% of the destruction occurred in the Pantanal.
Experts call for urgent action as invasive species threatens Brazil mangroves
During a field trip in May 2023 to the Cubatão mangroves in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, a cluster of white flowers puzzled biologists Geraldo Eysink and Edmar Hatamura.…
How the Brazilian military sabotaged protection of Indigenous people in the Amazon
Reports show it failed (or sabotaged) airspace control and food deliveries to the Indigenous people, who suffer from malnutrition as a result of mercury contamination from illegal mining.
Wildcat miners: will cyanide displace mercury?
The activities of wildcat miners in the Pan Amazon has become an increasing issue of concern over the past five years; in part, because their numbers have exploded, but also…
Clearest picture yet of Amazon carbon density could help guide conservation
Cutting-edge machine-learning models have created one of the most detailed, high-resolution maps yet of aboveground carbon density in the Amazon Rainforest, revealing where the forest is most intact and what…
Extreme drought pushes Amazon’s main rivers to lowest-ever levels
Experts say the outlook for the next months is even worse, putting researchers on alert for the possibility of Amazon’s worst drought ever.
Resilient and resourceful, Brazil’s illegal gold capital resists government crackdown
Following regulatory changes and heavier enforcement of the gold trade, the Amazonian municipality of Itaituba, notorious as Brazil’s illegal gold capital, is struggling to deal with the new restrictions.
The future of extractive industries in the Pan Amazon
In January 2023, the federal government of the United States issued landmark decisions affecting two controversial projects to exploit mineral resources on public lands. One was an industrial-scale copper mine,…
Drought forces Amazon Indigenous communities to drink mercury-tainted water
River levels in parts of the Brazilian Amazon are even lower than in 2023, when the region experienced its worst drought.
Nearly all Brazilian gold imported by EU is likely illegal, report says
That amounts to 1.5 metric tons of the precious metal in 2023, sourced from wildcat mines known as garimpos, which have a long history of illegality and opaqueness.
Brazil launches ‘war’ on widespread fire outbreaks & criminal arsonists
Fire outbreaks are setting records all over Brazil, with flames burning the Amazon, the Cerrado, the Pantanal and the São Paulo state.
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…
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…
Study shows most Amazon beef & soy demand comes from Brazil — not exports
The article, published in Nature Sustainability, concluded that the domestic market answered for three times more deforestation than international sales.
The challenge of the next oil and gas investments further in the Pan Amazon
Ucayali Basin and the Camisea Megacampo Further south in Peru, the Ucayali Basin occupies a broad stretch of the Andean foothills and adjacent piedmont. It is a foreland basin located…
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
