Hotel built without permits on disputed land riles neighboring Paracas reserve in Peru
PARACAS, Peru — As the sun set over Paracas Bay on April 7, 2023, a beachside hotel flashed with the lights of an electronic music party. Seen from afar, the…
Peru News
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…
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…
Wildcat miners: will cyanide displace mercury?
The activities of wildcat miners in the Pan Amazon has become an increasing issue of concern over the past five years; in part, because their numbers have exploded, but also…
Report links killings to environmental crimes in Peru’s Amazon
Ten years ago, four Indigenous Asháninka environmental defenders were murdered in the forests near their community of Saweto in Peru’s Amazon Ucayali region. In 2023, a court in Pucallpa found…
Record number of Indigenous land titles granted in Peru via innovative process (commentary)
In a defining moment for the rights of Indigenous peoples in Peru, 37 land titles were secured in the Amazon in record time, from June 2023 to May 2024. This…
The future of extractive industries in the Pan Amazon
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,…
Peruvian logger loses FSC label after latest clash with isolated Mashco Piro
The Forest Stewardship Council has suspended its certification of a controversial logging company in the Peruvian Amazon accused of encroaching on the traditional territory of the Mashco Piro, an Indigenous group…
The challenge of the next oil and gas investments further in the Pan Amazon
Ucayali Basin and the Camisea Megacampo Further south in Peru, the Ucayali Basin occupies a broad stretch of the Andean foothills and adjacent piedmont. It is a foreland basin located…
China accepts U.N. recommendations to improve environmental conflicts in Latin America
It’s been a little over a decade since China launched its Belt and Road Initiative, a global program to improve relations with Latin America and other developing regions through trillions…
How a fun women’s gathering led to small wildcat conservation in Peru’s Andes
Ida Auris Arango remembers the day in 2023 when she stumbled upon the Andean cat and its young on the mountainside. While shepherding her alpacas, she heard her dog barking…
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…
Petroperú’s financial troubles could mean no oil spill remediation, communities fear
On Sept. 11, 2022, Olivia Bisa Tirko received a call from a forest guard who informed her of an oil spill in the territory of the Chapra Nation in the…
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…
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.…
No plans, no progress make Peru’s energy transition uncertain
“Three years ago, I bought a solar panel so we could have light at home. Before that, we could only light our house with candles. We don’t have power, so…
Tía María copper mine set to open in Peru despite community backlash
After years of delays, officials in Peru said they’re moving forward with the construction of a controversial copper mine despite concerns from local communities that the project could pollute rivers…
New Indigenous reserve in the Amazon among first steps to protect peoples in isolation
In May 2024, Indigenous organizations in Peru’s Amazon achieved a milestone in a campaign that lasted for almost two decades. Indigenous peoples living in isolation and initial contact (PIACI) will…
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…
After isolated tribes’ rare appearance in Peruvian Amazon, big questions remain for their future
As images of dozens of isolated Indigenous Mashco Piro men and boys on a beach in the Peruvian Amazon sparked huge worldwide media coverage, questions remain about whether the government…
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…
Peruvian bills could imperil marine biodiversity & artisanal fishing, experts say
In early April, 13 leaders representing more than 60 artisanal fishing unions traveled to the city of Lima from different parts of the Peruvian coast. Their aim: stopping the approval…
In Peru, conservationists and archaeologists unite to save a threatened gecko
LIMA — For more than two decades, José Pérez Zúñiga, a researcher at Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, has set out at night to search by the light of a…
Brasil, Venezuela and Peru: the geography of industrial metals
There are a multitude of mineral ores used to produce industrial metals, which can be organized into four major groups with similar geological histories. Iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) are…
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…
The most prominent mining companies in the Pan Amazon – a review
Vale SA Brazil’s second most valuable company is also the fifth largest global mining corporation. In 2022, it was as ranked by the Refinitiv ESG framework as best in its…
Peru puts endemic fog oasis under protection
Peru has granted formal conservation status to Lomas y Tillandsiales de Amara y Ullujaya, a unique fog oasis ecosystem on the arid Peruvian coastline. The state-owned land, which spans 6,449 hectares…
In Peru’s Madre de Dios, deforestation from mining brings huge economic losses
Mining can take its toll on the environment when done irresponsibly, especially in vulnerable ecosystems like the Amazon Rainforest. Deforestation and river pollution are common complaints from communities living near…
Solutions to avoid loss of environmental, social and governance investment
There are now very few global corporations that deny climate change. Senior executives have finally realized their future as profit-making enterprises depend on their ability to make money on a…
Weak banking regulations leave two-thirds of Amazon vulnerable to oil and gas
There are hundreds of oil and gas operations across the Amazon Rainforest. And while critics have gone after them for reckless environmental damage, those companies also don’t work alone. They…
In the Pan Amazon, environmental liabilities of old mining have become economic liabilities
Although new mines use state-of-the-art technology, the industry also has a legacy of ageing containment dams at older mines, particularly shuttered mines that no longer generate revenues to finance improvements…
Peru approves the creation of long-awaited marine protected area
In April, after 10 years of negotiations, Peru’s Council of Ministers approved the creation of the Grau Tropical Sea National Reserve. To Peruvians, it is a much-awaited marine protected…
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
- 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
- $35m debt-for-nature deal aims to protect Indonesia’s coral reefs
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
