Brazil’s Congress passes ‘devastation bill’ in major environmental setback
As Brazil gears up to lead COP30, its Congress pushes the worst environmental setback in 40 years.
Rainforest Deforestation News
Now on Wall Street, JBS eyes growth amid scrutiny on deforestation & graft
The world's largest meatpacker had a long journey to the U.S. stock market, one full of reports of greenwashing and corruption.
Amazon deforestation spikes as Brazil blames criminal fires
A new and alarming pattern of destruction is emerging in the rainforest, challenging Brazilian authorities ahead of COP30.
Amazon’s ‘tipping point road’ gets new push with ease on licensing rules
As a controversial bill passes in Brazil, environmentalists prepare for the "last stand" to save the Amazon.
Mennonite farming in Belize threatens essential biological corridor, critics say
A stretch of rainforest in Belize that allows wildlife to pass freely between protected areas is under threat of deforestation, and conservationists are scrambling to contain the damage. Mennonites, a…
Rising heat and falling yields plague an Amazon island near COP30 host
A short boat ride from Belém, an Amazon island offers a living lesson of the climate crisis that leaders will debate.
Meat giant profits from carbon market without halting deforestation
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…
Forest corridors protect Colombia’s critically endangered brown spider monkey
In Colombia’s Middle Magdalena region, a patchwork of forest corridors is linking up isolated populations of the critically endangered brown spider monkey (Ateles hybridus). Composed of native and fruit-bearing trees,…
Nicaragua government tied to illegal land invasions in wildlife refuge, documents suggest
A protected wildlife refuge in Nicaragua has suffered a wave of deforestation in recent years, fueled by controversial land deals allowing settlers to clear the rainforest for farming, mining and…
Organized crime & gold trade are increasingly connected, report shows
Latin American cartels once were masters of the drug trade, but spikes in prices led them into controlling a new venture.
Protecting the Darién Gap: Interview with Panama national parks director Luis Carles Rudy
METETÍ, Panama — Darién National Park covers around 575,000 hectares, or 1.42 million acres, of rainforest at Panama’s southern border with Colombia, where Central and South America meet. It’s one…
UN calls out Indonesia’s Merauke food estate for displacing Indigenous communities
JAKARTA — United Nations rights officials have raised the alarm over alleged human rights abuses and environmental destruction linked to a massive plantation project in the Indonesian district of Merauke.…
‘World’s largest’ carbon credit deal under fire as Amazon prosecutors seek repeal
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.
Wildfires push tropical forest loss in Latin America to record highs
MEXICO CITY — In 2024, six Latin American countries were in the top 10 nations with the highest loss of tropical primary forest, according to recent data from the University…
It’s time to pay the true value of tropical forest conservation (commentary)
Tropical forests help regulate the global climate, host irreplaceable biodiversity and provide fresh water resources. Plus forests in general are the source of livelihoods for more than a billion people — so our…
Uniting plantations to save Bornean elephants: Interview with Farina Othman
In 2006, Farina Othman heard a loud boom when she was observing a group of Bornean elephants in a forest in the Lower Kinabatangan area, one of the largest floodplains…
EU appetite for EVs drives new wave of deforestation in tropical forests
Brazil, which accounts for large reserves of nickel, graphite, rare earths, lithium and niobium, would be one of the most affected countries.
Unnoticed oil & gas threat looms for Indigenous people near Amazon blocks
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.
Why Brazil should abandon its plans for oil and gas in Amazonia (commentary)
On May 19, the head of IBAMA, Brazil’s federal environmental agency, overrode the technical opinion of the agency’s licensing department and issued a decision allowing proposed oil drilling in the…
EUDR risk classifications omit governance & enforcement failures, critics say
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…
Brazil set to blast 35 km river rock formation for new Amazon shipping route
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.
Ahead of hosting COP30, Brazil is set to weaken environmental licensing
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.
Amazon illegal gold mines drive sex trafficking in the Brazil-Guyana border
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.
In New Guinea, megadiverse lowland forests are most at risk of deforestation
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…
Delay in land reform fuels new wave of settlers and violence in the Amazon
Grassroots organizations are settling new areas in the Brazilian Amazon amid disappointment that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been slow to jump-start the stalled land reform agenda.
New forest loss data beef up Amazon deforestation case against Casino Group
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…
Attacks on Cambodian environmental journalist continue to pile up
BANGKOK — Ouk Mao, a Cambodian environmental journalist, was reporting on the continued logging of Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary when he was attacked on March 24 by a group of men…
In Côte d’Ivoire a changing climate hits farmers and markets alike
ABIDJAN — In recent months, the town of Soubré in the southwest of Côte d’Ivoire has experienced a shortage of staple products in local markets. Some of the most widely…
Indonesia’s deforestation claims under scrutiny over ‘cherry-picked’ data
JAKARTA — Researchers have called out the Indonesian government’s claim of having reduced deforestation by 90% over the past decade, pointing to cherry-picked data and a skewed baseline that paint…
Amazon people brace for a drier future along the endangered Madeira River
The Madeira River, the largest tributary of the Amazon, has been losing water flow over the last 20 years while facing severe droughts.
The latest issues in Peru’s Amazon: Interview with Indigenous leader Julio Cusurichi
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…
New report reinforces critical role of Amazonian protected areas in climate fight
A new report adds to the already overwhelming case that protected areas and Indigenous territories in the Amazon Rainforest serve as a critical carbon sink. The report, based on satellite…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Narco airstrips beset Indigenous communities in Peruvian Amazon
- 15 illegal narco-trafficking airstrips found near Peru Indigenous communities
- Satellite data show bursts of deforestation continue in Indonesian national park
- Fires rip through Indigenous territories in Brazilian Amazon
Oceans
- Global tracking study reveals marine megafauna hotspots lie largely unprotected
- First-ever assessment highlights threats to Atlantic cold-water corals
- Major coral loss in Vietnam’s first marine protected area: Study
- When heat waves hit, clownfish shrink to survive, study finds
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
- Indigenous Amazonians win landmark ruling against mercury pollution in Colombia
- Indigenous Bajo suffer child deaths & toxic sludge amid green energy push
- ‘Colombia’s Amazon peoples provide solutions’: Interview with José Homero Mutumbajoy
- Should mining companies consider no-go zones where isolated Indigenous peoples live? (Commentary)
Endangered Environmentalists
- Environmental & rights activists flee and hide as M23 captures DRC’s cities
- Environmental journalist in Cambodia shot and killed by suspected logger
- Vietnam sentences yet another energy expert over renewables research
- Mother Nature Cambodia activists sentenced to prison — again
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
- An ‘ocean grab’ for a property megaproject leaves Jakarta fishers grounded
- 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
