A solar-powered canoe initiative originally launched in Ecuador’s Amazon in 2017 has now expanded to Indigenous coastal communities in Brazil, Peru, Suriname and the Solomon Islands. Researchers say the effort…
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining employs more than 15 million people globally and generates a fifth of global gold supplies. It supports 100 million people indirectly, more than any other…
MEXICO CITY – About two dozen police officers, government officials and a data specialist sat side by side in a command center in northern Bogotá, Colombia’s capital. For two weeks,…
As Mongabay continues to expand its impact across the globe, few leaders embody the spirit of its mission more fully than Maria Isabel Torres, the Program Director of Mongabay Latam.…
Indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon who have only recently come into contact with the outside world say they want conservation projects to stay out of their territory, along with…
A new report by the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the U.S. National Drought Mitigation Center has revealed the most widespread and damaging impacts of last year’s severe…
MEXICO CITY — In 2017, as part of an international treaty, Mexico started phasing down mercury production and eliminating its use in gold mining, citing major environmental and public health…
The Andean nations are unitary republics by history and constitution. Consequently, the push to devolve power to lower jurisdictions is less obvious and its degree of implementation variable. Over the…
On April 13, 2025, members of the community forest monitoring committee from the Kakataibo Indigenous community faced an attack while carrying out a routine patrol of their ancestral territory in…
Many conservationists dedicated to protecting the endangered Andean cat have never seen one in the wild, with the species known to science by just a few photos until the late…
Dramatic cuts to USAID funding earlier this year have slammed conservation organizations around the world. But some NGOs, like World Neighbors, have been able to continue their conservation projects with…
Financing for the fossil fuel sector from the world's largest banks surged in 2024 to $869 billion, according to a recent report by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and other…
Oil palm is a crop whose derivatives have multiple uses, resulting in staggering global demand. Because of this, Peru’s Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (MIDAGRI in Spanish) has developed…
Attracted by bait, sea turtles off the coast of southern Peru often get caught on fishing hooks intended for mahi-mahi. Releasing the turtles is complicated as they’re heavy animals, and…
As Linda Alvarado, a young Indigenous Yine leader, travels through the forest in the depths of the Peruvian Amazon, she collects clusters of murumuru seeds. These honeycomb-shaped structures fall from…
From Lucas do Rio Verde, a major agricultural hub in the state of Mato Grosso, the railway would be built from scratch, advancing into the Amazon’s Arc of Deforestation.
Protected areas such as national parks, nature reserves and Indigenous lands are the foundation of biodiversity conservation. However, climate change is threatening their effectiveness in safeguarding wildlife, ecosystem services and…
Back in 2010, Peru and Brazil signed an energy agreement that included the construction of several hydroelectric power plants in the Peruvian Amazon, which were meant to provide power to…
In the late 1990s, academics developed a variant of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) methodology known as a strategic environmental assessment (SEA). Originally conceived as a super-EIA, the scope of…
Before 1988, Brazil had no contingency plans for unexpected encounters with Indigenous peoples living in isolation. If government officials, developers or explorers accidentally stumbled upon a camp, the protocol was…
“They’re big, like an overweight Peruvian dog,” is how photographer Santiago Romaní describes giant otters (Pteronura brasiliensis). In 2022, on his trip to the Imiría Regional Conservation Area, a protected…
Fish farms boomed globally in recent decades — more than half the world’s seafood now comes from aquaculture — but it’s not a boom all environmentalists support. One argument that critics…
Administrative law is based on legislation that creates, organizes and defines the responsibilities of government agencies. As such, the regulatory apparatus of the modern state is the product of laws…
This is the first of three interviews with Indigenous representatives at the United Nations about the latest issues in their country's Amazon forests. Read the interview about the Colombian Amazon…
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…
Seven environmental activists from around the world will be awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize on April 21. Known as the “Green Nobel Prize,” the Goldman Prize honors activists from the…
One unusual characteristic of Latin American nations is their proclivity to adopt new constitutions that reflect periodic swings in political philosophies. These documents are notable for their length and the…
The large leaves of the aguaje, a tropical palm tree that grows in the peatlands and other seasonal wetland areas in tropical South America, form a rounded crown on its…
When markets fail to manage the supply of and demand for goods and services, the outcome is referred to as ‘market failure’. There are multiple causes for market failure, but…
In the early hours of Dec. 22, 2024, fishermen working in the Talara Sea in northern Peru hauled in their nets. But instead of the day's catch, they found oil…
Hidden within the Amazon Rainforest are rare, carbon-rich ecosystems known as peatlands, a type of swamp forest that’s key to combatting climate change through its capacity to absorb and store…
It’s November, springtime in Cancas, a coastal community in northern Peru, and the sea is calm; it only gets rough at the beginning of summer, which in the Southern Hemisphere…
