This story is published through the Indigenous News Alliance. At the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues — the world’s largest convening of Indigenous peoples — Indigenous leaders from…
This is the second part of a three-part series on underreported issues involving Canadian mining companies and Indigenous peoples or local communities. Read part one here. Shrouded in the lush…
For members of the Sani Warmi collective in Amazonian Ecuador, the day begins before sunrise. They tend to the chacra — their agroforestry garden — and harvest plantain, yuca, palm…
Plastic waste is increasingly causing problems for fishers. Fishnets bring up bottles, propellers get tangled in bags, water pumps get clogged with debris, and boats collide with bags of trash.…
In the last decade, the Pan Amazon has seen a substantial increase in the presence of Chinese companies, either as direct investors or as contractors building infrastructure for governments financed…
An international court published its ruling this month that the Ecuadorian government was responsible for a long list of human rights violations against uncontacted Indigenous communities in the Amazon Rainforest.…
The largest and most infamous corruption scandal of the last decade began with a criminal investigation into the operations of Brazil’s largest corporation: Petrobras. The scandal got its name because…
Aotearoa New Zealand spent years spearheading the introduction of a new set of rules governing bottom trawling in the South Pacific Ocean, which more than a dozen countries adopted by…
Can a tropical forest mend itself? After trees are cut down and wildlife flees, do microbes on the dank, leafy floor and woody giants with epiphyte-laden crowns come back; do…
Randy Borman was never meant to be Cofán. And yet, from the moment he was born in 1955, deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, he belonged to them. His parents, American…
Three years ago, while exploring the Mojanda mountain range in Ecuador, a team of researchers from a local NGO and a government research institute stumbled upon a small, unusual mouse.…
In December 2024, Ecuador completed a debt-for-nature swap to support Amazon conservation through the creation of the Amazon Biocorridor. While this provides economic relief, Amazonian leaders contend they were not…
The last time Ecuador held elections, in 2023, the country’s national assembly had been dissolved and then-President Guillermo Lasso had faced potential impeachment for a corruption scandal involving embezzlement of…
EL ÁNGEL, Ecuador — The view outside from this eco-hotel in northern Ecuador reveals vast hillsides still scarred by fires. In late January 2024, large flames roared past the wooden…
GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS — Marco Andres Vizcaino Garcia is probably the most qualified naturalist guide a person could hire during their visit to Galápagos National Park and its adjacent marine reserve.…
Intense protests flared up last December in communities opposed to Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa’s plans to build two maximum-security prisons in sensitive ecosystems and Indigenous territories without consulting local populations.…
In the late 1990s, the Kichwa community of Sani Isla, in northern Ecuador's Amazon region, learned that the oil company Occidental (Oxy) had plans to conduct exploration on their communal…
The year 2024 saw significant developments in tropical rainforest conservation, deforestation, and degradation. While progress in some regions provided glimmers of hope, systemic challenges and emerging threats highlighted the fragility…
This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Reporting Grant. YURIMAGUAS, Alto Amazonas, Peru — The boat sets sail early in the morning. The plan is to…
Throughout most of the twentieth century, the Ecuadorian authorities pursued a geopolitical strategy that reflected a long-held conviction that they were cheated out of large territories in the Western Amazon.…
As we've watched the biodiversity COP in Colombia and then the climate COP negotiations in recent weeks, the urgency of addressing the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss…
In the sunbaked Galápagos Islands, a male finch perches on a branch, hearing what sounds like another bird's song. But something's not quite right. The song is slower and simpler,…
Because of their privileged status as a transnational religious institution and their allegiance to the pope, the Jesuits enjoyed considerable autonomy from both the Spanish and Portuguese crowns. This status…
Most of the Pan Amazonian population consists of immigrants or their descendants. They arrived over centuries, motivated by historical events that moulded their self-identity. This diverse assemblage of people represents…
Ryan Killackey, who passed away on October 4, 2024 at the age of 46, was a tireless defender of the natural world, a voice for Indigenous peoples, and a documentarian…
At just six years old, Nemonte Nenquimo understood that there were two worlds. The first one was where her oko (a big house where she lived in the rainforest) existed.…
About a quarter of Ecuador’s gold exports from small-scale mining in 2023 originated from just three companies: Rockgolden, Rocadorada and Soul Metals. Their exports of $268 million in gold just…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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.…
