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…
Colombia 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…
Permits granted for Colombia’s Alacrán mine amid pollution, deforestation concerns
Permits granted for the construction of an industrial mining project in northern Colombia are raising concerns among residents and conservationists, who say they might lose their food and drinking water…
To save endangered trees, researchers in South America recruit an army of fungi
It’s a sunny July day during an otherwise exceptionally rainy season in the lush green mountains of Huila, in Colombia’s eastern Andes. Adriana Corrales, her assistant and a local guide…
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…
Why is violence against environmental defenders getting worse? Five things to know
In January 2023, two men mysteriously disappear after speaking out against pollution from a controversial iron ore mine in Michoacán, Mexico. The following March, climate change protesters in Austria and…
Biodiversity’s Tower of Babel: The confusion & disorientation of Convention on Biological Diversity Decision 15/9 (commentary)
Underlying parables of biblical metaphors are often only dimly remembered. The name Babel comes from the Hebrew “to confuse,” בָּלַל (bālal). The tower so ridiculed was an affront to Yahweh.…
The indelible traces of oil and gas in the Peruvian, Ecuadorian and Colombian Amazon
Petroleum geologists explore for economically significant reservoirs of oil and gas using technologies that have evolved in sophistication as the industry grew to dominate the global economy in the twentieth…
The Andes are a key supplier of gold for the Amazon Basin
One of the most remarkable placer gold fields in the world is found in the Andean piedmont in the department of Madre de Dios in southern Peru. Gold was discovered…
Can nations ever get artisanal gold mining right?
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is a pillar of stability and opportunity for at least 16 million people worldwide, particularly in rural, impoverished communities. But with these pros also…
Colombia’s coca substitution program failing to help farmers or slow deforestation
For Indigenous communities in Colombia’s Amazonian and Andean forests, coca is sacred. Many ancestral traditions, such as healing and shamanic practices, include the use and cultivation of the plant. But…
New datasets identify which crops deforest the Amazon, and where
A series of recently published data is shining a new light on patterns of deforestation in the Amazon, revealing where crops, cattle ranching and mining are encroaching on the rainforest.…
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…
The Amazon’s most fertile forests are also most vulnerable to drought: Study
The Amazon’s most fertile, productive forests, which are critical for supplying Brazil’s agricultural region with rainfall, are also the most vulnerable to drought, according to recent research that has mapped…
Industrial minerals in the Pan Amazon
The mineral resources that characterize the High Andes of Peru are conspicuously absent north of the Huancabamba Gap, the altitudinal low point in the Andes linked to the deflection zone…
Colombian victims win historic lawsuit over banana giant Chiquita
After winning a historic lawsuit, nine victims of paramilitary violence in Colombia have finally obtained justice, 17 years after they filed cases against the banana company Chiquita Brands International for…
Study says 40% of Amazon region is potentially conserved — more than officially recorded
A larger portion of the Amazonian region might be under protection or potentially conserved than official records indicate, according to a new study published in the journal One Earth. A…
Narco activity takes heavy toll on Colombia’s protected forests, satellite data show
In the middle of Colombia, where the country’s Eastern Plains and Andean ecoregions meet the Amazon Basin, a vast complex of parks, reserves and other protected areas safeguards ancient habitat…
Campesinos bring life back to a deforestation hotspot in the Colombian Amazon
Liliana Camargo remembers Cartagena del Chairá as rich in nature. In her memory, the area had the greenest mountains, the freshest water and the healthiest biodiversity in the department of…
In a village divided, farmers stall massive copper mine in Colombian Andes
JERICÓ, Colombia — Argirio Tobón Tamayo tugs down the top branch of a coffee tree covered in waxy green leaves, bending it back to reveal coffee cherries in shades of…
In Amazon’s tri-border Javari region, teens fall prey to drug gangs’ lure
The rising recruitment has gone hand in hand with an increase in coca production and deforestation in the region, which in some provinces has grown exponentially.
Tackling climate change in one of Colombia’s largest wetlands
The time it takes to cross the Ayapel swamp, the largest swamp in the department of Córdoba, northern Colombia, is a good measurement of how much this landscape has changed…
Indonesian palm oil, Brazilian beef top contributors to U.S. deforestation exposure
If you’re in the United States, your meal might come with a side of deforestation. The US imported palm oil, cattle products, soybeans, cocoa, rubber, coffee and corn linked to…
Etelvina Ramos: From coca farmer to opponent of the illegal crop
This story is part of a Mongabay series on female environmental defenders in the Amazon. Read about the lives and work of Soraida Chindoy, Maydany Salcedo, and Alis Ramírez. It…
Outdated infrastructure and oil spills: the cases of Colombia, Peru and Ecuador
All three legacy-oil pipelines in the Andean Amazon system are old. The Oleoducto Transandino Colombiano (OTC) has been operating for 53 years, followed by the Sistema de Oleoducto Transecuatoriano (SOTE)…
Faced with an extreme future, one Colombian island struggles to rebuild
No one on the Colombian island of Providencia was prepared for what happened on the night of Nov. 16, 2020. Not even Josefina Huffington, who had survived four hurricanes. That…
One of Colombia’s largest estuary ecosystems is drying up, communities warn
NUEVA VENECIA, Colombia — Sandra Milena Manjarez puts two plates of bright yellow rice topped with liza — a finger-sized mullet fish similar to a sardine — on the white…
Alis Ramírez: A defender of the Colombian Amazon now living as a refugee in New Zealand
This story is part of a Mongabay series on female environmental defenders in the Amazon. Read about the lives and work of Soraida Chindoy, Maydany Salcedo, and Etelvina Ramos. “Don’t…
A tiger cat gains new species designation, but conservation challenges remain
In 2024, Latin America’s tiger cat, previously recognized as two species, was determined by scientists to be three species — a taxonomic reshuffling that has major conservation implications for these small cats.
Mining in the Pan Amazon in pursuit of the world’s most precious metal
Gold is universally recognized as a form of money that has retained value over decades, centuries and millennia. Since it is non-corrosive and precious, approximately 95% of the gold mined…
Tropical forest loss puts 2030 zero-deforestation target further out of reach
JAKARTA — The tropics continue to lose primary forest at an alarming rate, with an area of tree cover half the size of Panama disappearing in 2023, new data from…
Maydany Salcedo: the environmental defender who catches the ire of armed groups
This story is part of a Mongabay series on female environmental defenders in the Amazon. Read about the lives and work of Soraida Chindoy, Alis Ramírez, and Etelvina Ramos. On…
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
