Indigenous guardians protecting the Amazon Trapeze continue to face challenges
Olegario Sánchez Pinto, 74, wakes up at 7 a.m. every day to complete all the tasks he must perform as a member of the Indigenous guard in the Colombian community…
Rainforests News
New agreement aims to streamline Amazon Rainforest protection efforts
A new agreement that aims to streamline the monitoring and protection of the Amazon Rainforest was announced at the COP30 climate summit that wrapped up this week in Belém, Brazil.…
What’s at stake for the environment in Honduras’ presidential election?
Honduras will hold elections Nov. 30 for president and all 128 seats in Congress. The winners will hold office for the next four years, shaping the country’s environmental policies at…
DRC hit by record deforestation in 2024, satellite data show
Africa’s great Congo Basin rainforest, often called the Earth’s second lung, covers an area about the size of India. Millions of people depend directly on the forest for food, energy…
Saving forests won’t be enough if fossil fuels beneath them are still extracted, experts warn
BELÉM, Brazil — A new analysis warns that the world is overlooking a major source of future emissions hidden beneath tropical forests — and that Brazil’s newly launched Tropical Forest Forever…
Norway’s multibillion-dollar bet on forests: An interview with Minister Eriksen
With the announcement of two major forest finance initiatives at the climate talks in Belém, Brazil, there is renewed hope that the Congo Basin, home to the world’s second-largest tropical…
Why are Amazonian trees getting ‘fatter’?
How have the trees in Amazonia reacted to the rise in CO2 emissions in recent centuries? It is common knowledge that, of all greenhouse gases, CO2 is the most responsible…
A forest worth more standing: Virgilio Viana on what it will take to protect the Amazon
The first time Virgilio Viana saw the Amazon up close, he was a 16-year-old with a backpack, two school friends and very little sense of what he was walking into.…
The land deal threatening a vital piece of Bolivia’s Chiquitano dry forest
A large forest in eastern Bolivia is on the verge of being sold to an international agriculture company, raising concerns that it might be razed to make room for new…
Indigenous Dayak resist new southern Borneo national park amid global protection deficit
BANJARMASIN, Indonesia — A growing coalition of Indigenous communities, students and civil society organizations from Borneo is rallying against fast-moving plans to establish a new national park in the remote…
Indonesia labeled ‘Fossil of the Day’ for echoing industry talking points at COP30
BELÉM, Brazil — For the Indonesian delegation at COP30, the summit was meant to be a showcase for its climate diplomacy and growing carbon market ambitions. Instead, it was publicly…
Top ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin’s COP30 reflections on Amazon conservation (analysis)
Having studied the healing plants and peoples of tropical South America for well over four decades, I am often asked, “What is the conservation status of the Amazon Rainforest? Is…
Strategic ignorance, climate change and Amazonia (commentary)
We all know that “ignorance of the law is no excuse,” but in daily life, ignorance of the consequences of one’s actions is, indeed, an excuse that shields us from…
Cautious win for Indigenous groups in Malaysia as palm oil firm pauses forest clearing
Indigenous activists in central Sarawak state in Malaysian Borneo have declared victory, at least temporarily, after palm oil firm Urun Plantations agreed to a moratorium on clearing land in a…
A blueprint for communicating about the Amazon rainforest (commentary)
I recently contributed a section on how to communicate about the Amazon for the “Amazonia in Danger” report, a collection of 22 articles written by 55 authors from different fields.…
Three tracks to rescue 1.5°C: fossil exit, forest protection, and nature’s carbon (commentary)
The planet just crossed a grim milestone: last year’s global temperature averaged more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, shredding our margin for error under the Paris Agreement. That doesn’t doom…
After 6 years, trial in Indigenous forest guardian killing pushed to 2026
Six years after the killing of Indigenous forest guardian Paulo Paulino Guajajara and the attempted killing of fellow guardian Laércio Guajajara in the Brazilian Amazon, the trial of the two…
New pledge, old problems as Indonesia’s latest Indigenous forest promise draws skepticism
BELÉM, Brazil — Indonesia has pledged to recognize the rights of Indigenous and customary communities to 1.4 million hectares, about 3.5 million acres, of forests by 2029. It’s a move…
UNESCO biosphere listing raises hope, questions for Malaysia’s Kinabatangan floodplain
Malaysia’s Kinabatangan floodplain, home to orangutans, pygmy elephants and proboscis monkeys, has officially joined UNESCO’s global network of biosphere reserves, protected areas of high biological and cultural diversity. Covering 413,866…
Climate finance must reach Indigenous communities at COP30 & beyond (commentary)
As the COP30 climate summit in the Amazon draws near, pressure is mounting to get funding directly into the hands of Indigenous and local community organizations who are the frontline…
Brazil can protect its forests while growing its economy, says Arapyaú’s Renata Piazzon
Brazil’s climate conversation has a habit of returning to the same question: how can a country that depends so much on its natural riches also protect them? Renata Piazzon, who…
Suriname’s plan to capitalize on carbon: Q&A with President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons
PARAMARIBO, Suriname — With the U.N. Climate Change Conference coming up next week, Suriname finds itself at the center of a global debate about how to reduce carbon emissions and…
As Ghana ships first ‘gold standard’ timber to EU, questions about FLEGT’s future remain (commentary)
Ghana has become the first African country to win fast-lane access to European Union markets for its timber. A trading license negotiated with the European Commission over 16 years means…
Beyond deforestation: redesigning how we protect and value tropical forests (analysis)
Heading into COP30, where tropical forests are set to be a central theme, it seemed worth looking today’s trajectories a little further forward and imagine where they might lead. Part…
What might lie ahead for tropical forests (analysis)
Heading into COP30, where tropical forests are set to be a central theme, it seemed worth attempting a thought experiment: to trace today’s trajectories a little further forward and imagine…
Heading into COP, Brazil’s Amazon deforestation rate is falling. What about fires?
As the world’s attention turns toward COP30 in Belém next month, the story of Brazil’s Amazon is shifting—though not quite in a straightforward way. According to the government’s satellite-based monitoring…
Belém faces its social and natural demons as host to COP30
Once a major river city, Belém turned its back on the water, leaving 40% of its urban area vulnerable to floods.
Report urges full protection of world’s 196 uncontacted Indigenous peoples
“My children died. My mother died. My husband died. My brothers, my sisters, my aunts and uncles. I saw the bones sticking out of their rotting corpses inside the longhouse.…
Forest Declaration Assessment reveals a forest paradox
The world’s forests tell two stories at once. Even as chainsaws advance, new trees are rising in their wake. More than 11 million hectares of tropical moist forest—an area roughly…
Indigenous guardians successfully keep extractives out of Ecuador’s Amazon forests
PAKAYAKU TERRITORY, Ecuador — Deep in the heart of Ecuador's Amazon, where the Bobonaza River winds through ancient forests in Pastaza province, Sacha Gayas spreads out a hand-drawn map across her…
Indigenous monitoring project helps protect isolated peoples in Colombia’s Amazon
In Colombia’s Amazon, two communities have worked for more than a decade to guard their territory and to protect the right of other Indigenous peoples to remain isolated. The community…
Mamai Lucille Williams, a quiet symbol of dignity amid destruction, has died, aged about 93
When the miners came, Mamai Lucille Williams was well into her eighties. Her house in Karisparu, a Patamona village high in Guyana’s North Pakaraimas, stood on the same patch of…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Satellite data show burst of deforestation in Myanmar rare earth mining hotspots
- 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
Oceans
- Scientists call for stronger action to save Indonesia’s vanishing seagrass meadows
- Antarctic conservation summit closes with stalemate on MPAs & krill fishing rules
- Norway’s proposal to double krill harvests raises tension at Antarctic conservation summit
- Nickel mining threatens Raja Ampat ecosystems, communities & conservation: Report
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
- Lithium mining may threaten a precious resource — water: Voices from the land (commentary)
- Indigenous guardians successfully keep extractives out of Ecuador’s Amazon forests
- Amid Venezuela’s illegal gold heist are armed groups, gangs & elites, report says
- Indigenous women in Peru use technology to protect Amazon forests
Endangered Environmentalists
- A killing with precedent: Kaiowá man’s murder fits a pattern in Brazil
- 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
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
