Since the first scientific critiques of fossil fuels, oil companies have gone from being the "wealth of nations" to "destroyers of the planet." In financial market terms, they have become…
Latin American cartels once were masters of the drug trade, but spikes in prices led them into controlling a new venture.
A Brazilian state was set to close a massive $180 million carbon credit deal, but now faces an escalating legal battle, accused of violating national laws and Indigenous rights, potentially ruining the project.
The most deforested biome in Brazil, the Cerrado lost 700,000 hectares (1.7 million acres) of native vegetation in 2024. Now, it is about to receive a thermoelectric plant 30 kilometers…
JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has revoked four out of five nickel mining permits in the Raja Ampat archipelago following a public outcry over mining in one of the world’s…
JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has suspended nickel mining in the Raja Ampat archipelago, citing multiple environmental violations by companies operating in the ecologically sensitive islands. The move follows viral…
Brazil, which accounts for large reserves of nickel, graphite, rare earths, lithium and niobium, would be one of the most affected countries.
While oil prospects in the Amazon north shore attract international attention, the offer of exploration blocks around Indigenous territories goes unnoticed in Mato Grosso state.
SINGAPORE — The EU’s landmark anti-deforestation law is under fire for a risk classification system that critics say overlooks illegal logging and governance failures — potentially undermining the very goal…
ANTANANARIVO — At the end of April, a team of researchers scouring a scarred area of spiny forest in southwestern Madagascar came across three individuals of a critically endangered chameleon…
The Brazilian environmental agency, IBAMA, approved a license to blast a natural rock barrier on the Tocantins River in Pará state to enable boats to pass during the dry season, as part of wider efforts to build a massive waterway for commodities.
The new rules, considered unconstitutional by experts, would benefit around 80% of the ventures with a self-licensing process that exempts environmental impact studies and mitigation measures.
Poverty and poor border controls have allowed young women to be trafficked into the sex trade catering to illegal gold miners in Brazil’s border areas with countries like Guyana and Venezuela.
Agricultural expansion in two Brazilian states has cleared a U.K -sized area of jaguar habitat, nearly a fifth of which occurred in the last decade alone, a new report shows.…
Macaúba palm, also known as macaw palm, grows all over the Americas. Now, a drive by the Brazilian government to incentivize the decarbonization of the transportation and aviation sectors has…
The island of New Guinea is famed for its eye-popping diversity of plants, animals and human cultures. Estimated to host one-tenth of Earth’s species, it’s the world’s second-largest island and…
A recent report by the nonprofit Instituto Centro de Vida (ICV) found that the operations of French retailer Casino Group in Brazil could be linked to more than half a…
The Madeira River, the largest tributary of the Amazon, has been losing water flow over the last 20 years while facing severe droughts.
Jimmy Brown has lived less than a mile from the Drax wood pellet manufacturing plant in the tiny town of Gloster in Amite County, Mississippi, since it opened in 2016.…
JAKARTA — A palm oil company is gearing up to expand into critical orangutan habitat in Indonesian Borneo, raising alarms over the survival of the critically endangered great apes. PT…
Mongabay followed the steps of Adriano Aguiar de Castro, who, according to authorities, jumped from one gold laundering scheme to another and now is also involved with gold smuggling into Venezuela.
JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has raised serious concerns over the European Union Deforestation Regulation, or EUDR, saying it imposes a heavy administrative burden on smallholders while lacking clarity and…
"Everyone does it." That’s how the representative of a sawmill described the practice of selling fake documents to illegal timber from the Brazilian Amazon as legitimate, a fraud known as…
Illegal gold miners have been moving into Amapá in the wake of federal raids on mining hotspots in other parts of the Brazilian Amazon, including the Yanomami and Munduruku Indigenous territories.
As REDD projects around the world face setbacks, restoration projects in the Amazon are flourishing as a means of reviving market confidence in forest-based carbon credits.
BOGOTÁ — In June 2022, Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla member, was elected as Colombia’s first avowedly leftist president, promising to fight inequality, bring “total peace” to the country, and…
Brazil's Supreme Court backed down and withdrew its proposal to open up Indigenous territories to mining and economic activities from a controversial bill that critics say violates the Constitution.
Brazil’s plans to build ports and roads to help move grains, beef and iron ore from the rainforest echo a development vision that dates back to the military dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s.
Dutch forest campaigners are claiming a significant victory over one of the Netherlands’ top energy providers, Vattenfall, after the company decided in late February to cancel plans to build the…
Presented in February by Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes, a draft bill violates Indigenous people's constitutional rights by stripping their veto power against impactful activities on their ancestral lands and adding further obstacles to an already long land demarcation process.
JAKARTA — The Norwegian government is monitoring growing concerns over Indonesia’s decision to appoint political figures with little climate expertise to oversee a climate forestry program largely financed by Norway.…
Mongabay went to Pará state’s southwest and found examples of people struggling to keep sustainable initiatives in a region dominated by soy, cattle, gold and logging.
