As the demand for critical minerals intensifies with the energy transition, the need for a rights-based approach to mining, focused on respect, is more relevant than ever. This approach relies…
Across South America, Indigenous communities have often considered territorial protection to be the main responsibility of men, while women typically assume roles as caretakers of the household, family, and community.…
BANJARMASIN, Indonesia — In October 2023 in the Indigenous Dayak village of Bangkal, Indonesian police fired on farmers demonstrating against PT Hamparan Masawit Bangun Persada (HMBP), a palm oil plantation…
South America recorded the highest number of fire outbreaks in 14 years in 2024, with Brazil at the epicenter of the crisis.
JAKARTA — In a controversial speech, Indonesia’s new president argued oil palm plantations are like forests, calling for their expansion by stating, ‘oil palms are trees … they’ve got leaves.’”…
The Amazon Rainforest, where next year’s COP30 climate summit will be hosted, is reeling from two consecutive years of severe drought, with major rivers at record lows, leading to water shortages and transportation disruptions for local communities.
2024 was a year marked by a COP climate summit so dismal that many governments and analysts questioned whether the annual meetings are even worth holding. While world leaders failed…
EAST HALMAHERA, Indonesia — Halik Fanen and his wife, Fatimun, spent much of the day sifting the couple’s inheritance into seven plastic sacks near the east of Indonesia’s Halmahera Island.…
JAKARTA — Indonesia’s plan to clear rainforests half the size of Switzerland for sugarcane plantations isn’t just an agricultural gamble, experts warn — it’s a potential environmental catastrophe. A new…
2024 was a big year for Indigenous lands worldwide, whether through land rights gains, land grabbing, restoring spiritual connections to lands, or analyzing how these lands support biodiversity conservation. Land…
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil — When President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva walked up the ramp of the Presidential Palace arm in arm with Cacique Raoni, one of Brazil's most prominent…
In 15 conservation units, illegal gold miners destroyed 330 hectares (815 acres) — an area close to the size of Central Park in New York City — in only two months.
“I tried to live a normal life,” Yana, 31, tells Mongabay. In 2020, after the Philippine government forcibly shut down schools for the Indigenous Lumad in the country’s south, Yana,…
ENGGANO ISLAND, Indonesia — Milson Kaitora’s grandparents never had trouble finding water to grow food here on Enggano Island. But today, coastal abrasion is pushing back the shoreline of Milson’s…
Most of the exported timber belongs to the almost-extinct ipê species and was sent to a company in Portugal.
Researchers suggest that recycling gold could dramatically reduce harmful emissions, along with other solutions such as formalizing mining, adopting clean technologies, and improving gold supply chain transparency.
Mongabay examined four REDD+ projects in Pará state and found that all were developed in partnership with sawmill owners with a long history of environmental fines.
Significant inconsistencies and gaps in governmental policies for peatland science and protection in Peru’s Imiría Regional Conservation Area have impacted the livelihoods of Indigenous Shipibo residents, according to a new…
EAST HALMAHERA, Indonesia — The dense forest near the village of Dodaga in the island district of East Halmahera means the world to Sumean Gebe, 42, who lives here with…
SERRO, Minas Gerais — Nature has always been intrinsic to life in Queimadas, a quilombo community located in an environmental buffer zone where the Cerrado and the Atlantic forest meet.…
A Tanzanian journalist contributed to this report, but has requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the story. OLOLOSOKWAN, Tanzania — Just days after rangers from Serengeti National Park…
One of the priority areas is along the BR-319 highway, where experts warn deforestation may increase fourfold under another government plan to pave the highway.
In a landmark ruling in May 2017, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights affirmed the Indigenous Ogiek’s status as ancestral owners of the Mau Forest in Kenya and…
Encompassing some 2,700 square kilometers, Mau Forest is considered the most important water catchment in western Kenya, providing water to millions of people. But recent satellite data reveal that Mau…
Initial results from Harvard reveal high levels of mercury in the Madeira, although still below the limit recommended by Brazil’s authorities.
According to the lawsuit, the government had failed to consult the local communities.
Dutch researcher and tree expert Hans ter Steege is the founder of the Amazon Tree Diversity Network, which brings together hundreds of scientists studying the rainforest to map and understand the region’s biodiversity.
ITINGA, Minas Gerais, Brazil — It is the middle of the night in Minas Gerais, and work at the lithium mine in Jequitinhonha Valley does not stop. Noise from hundreds…
Nov. 1 marked the five-year anniversary of the killing of Indigenous forest guardian Paulo Paulino Guajajara and the attempted killing of fellow guardian Laércio Guajajara in an alleged ambush by loggers in the Arariboia Indigenous Territory in the Brazilian Amazon; the suspects haven’t been tried yet.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's administration failed to openly discuss the country's nationally determined contribution (NDC) and allocated small budgets for climate transition.
TANGERANG, Indonesia — Joy sat by the seashore on the outskirts of Jakarta patching up his fishing nets, repairing each tear with practiced stitches while a clutch of women shelled…
Many Mura residents, most of whom are concerned about the impact the project will have on the environment and their livelihoods, say the company did not consult them and instead co-opted leaders and falsified documents.
