Colombian farmers turn deforested land into sustainable Amazonian farms
The town of San José del Fragua is just over an hour's drive from Florencia, the capital of the department of Caquetá, in southern Colombia. On one side of the…
Latin America had the most attacks on environmental defenders in 2022, says report
The human rights organization Front Line Defenders has published its Global Analysis 2022, a report on the state of people who have dedicated their lives to defending the environment, Indigenous…
Not all parts of the Amazon will survive future droughts, study says
MEXICO CITY — As climate change continues to choke off rainfall, many parts of the Amazon are facing a higher probability of dying off from drought than previously thought. A…
World’s ‘largest’ tropical reforestation project slowed by Covid, Bolsonaro, fires
Conservation International and its partners pledged to plant 73 million trees in the Brazilian Amazon in 2017. Only 20% of that goal has been met, with the pandemic, the anti-environmental presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, and fires taking a toll.
How will climate change affect Latin America? Scientists respond to IPCC report
The effects of rising global temperatures are becoming increasingly apparent. Heat waves, droughts, torrential rains and flooding are becoming more frequent. In the first three months of 2023, Latin America…
‘Many features of the Amazon are man-made’: Q&A with archaeologist Eduardo Neves
Neves has studied human occupation of the Amazon for 30 years and found evidence of rice, manioc and palm tree cultivation dating back thousands of years.
In a Bolivian protected area torn up for gold, focus is on limiting damage
LA PAZ — At dawn in Apolobamba, in the Bolivian highlands, groups of vicuña and alpaca — some sheared, some shaggy — amble around looking for scrub to graze on,…
More evidence backs Indigenous territories as best safeguard against Amazon deforestation
Protected areas and Indigenous territories in the Amazon Rainforest experienced just one-third the amount of primary forest loss as non-protected areas, according to a new report. The Monitoring of the…
A frontline view of the fight against illegal mining in Yanomami territory
YANOMAMI INDIGENOUS TERRITORY, Brazil – Four officers from IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental protection agency, throw themselves from a helicopter into the murky waters of the Uraricoera River below and swim toward…
Still time to save Brazil’s Cerrado, study shows, but it’s running out fast
Brazil’s Cerrado may not be a household name like the neighboring Amazon Rainforest, but this vast savanna biome is even more threatened and fragmented. A new study now shows there’s…
Brazil’s President Lula recognizes six Indigenous lands, and says more to come
SÃO PAULO — Last Friday, Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed documents officially recognizing six Indigenous lands across the country. After years of stalling due to opposition by…
After Bruno Pereira’s murder, widow Beatriz Matos strives for Indigenous rights
“One of the most important days of my life,” are the words that anthropologist Beatriz Matos uses to describe her February visit to the Javari Valley on her first project…
Questions over accounting and inclusion mar Guyana’s unprecedented carbon scheme
In part of the world’s first nationwide distribution of carbon credits, the government of Guyana announced Indigenous communities will receive millions as it signed off on a $750 million carbon…
Colombia: Scientists explore remote seamounts to protect hammerhead sharks
In 1995, when Colombia protected the island of Malpelo by setting up the Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary, the area had a recorded 43 species of crustaceans, six species of…
Mouth of the Amazon oil exploration clashes with Lula’s climate promises
State-owned Petrobras has requested a license to investigate an oil site in a region in the north of Brazil where the Amazon River meets the Atlantic Ocean.
Operation Artemis: Colombia’s failed military operation to stop deforestation
*This report is part of a journalistic collaboration between Mongabay Latam and Cuestión Pública, a Colombian news source. In 2019, the Colombian government launched a military offensive against deforestation known…
‘I’ll keep fighting’: Indigenous activist and Goldman winner Alessandra Munduruku
In an interview with Mongabay, Alessandra discusses what the prize means to her, the policy changes in Brazil, and the current crisis in the Munduruku territory.
Violence escalates in Amazonian communities’ land conflict with Brazil palm oil firm
A new wave of land conflicts between a major palm oil company and local communities has recently broken out in the Brazilian Amazon, raising concerns about escalating violence in the…
A mountain of gold: Mining titles threaten Indigenous lands in Guainía, Colombia
*This report is part of a journalistic collaboration between Mongabay Latam and Vorágine, a Colombian news source. Cecilia García Barros is seated atop the peak of Mavicure Hill, a rocky,…
Professional services abound for Amazon land grabbers seeking legitimacy
Engineers and realtors from southern Pará take advantage of their knowledge to abet land grabbers.
Community pine nut harvests help protect Brazil’s araucaria trees
SANTA CATARINA, BRASIL — A serene orange hue cuts across the horizon with the first rays of sunlight as dawn breaks in the mountainous countryside of Brazil’s second-most southerly state,…
Meet the 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners
Six grassroots environmental activists received the Goldman Environmental Prize on April 24. Known as the "Green Nobel Prize," the Goldman Prize honors environmental activists from the six continental regions. The…
Home to rare corals, a Chilean fjord declines in spite of protection
The Comau, Reñihue and Reloncaví fjords, located in southern Chile’s Los Lagos region, are one-of-a-kind natural laboratories that host diverse species of crustaceans, sea anemones, sea cucumbers, polychaetes and corals.…
‘Don’t buy Brazilian gold’: Q&A with Indigenous leader Júnior Hekurari Yanomami
When asked if he had a message for the world, Júnior Hekurari Yanomami was emphatic: “Don’t buy Brazilian gold.” Júnior, 36, from the Surucucu community on Brazil’s largest and most…
Indigenous women in Colombia protect rich Amazonian wetland from overfishing
For Indigenous women in the Amazon, the wetland of Lake Tarapoto is a living classroom. The women consider it not just a home for the fish they rely on to…
Chilean chinchilla faces new threat from copper mine near national reserve
Las Chinchillas National Reserve is located in the hills of the Coquimbo region, in the province of Choapa, where more than a decade-long drought has turned the earth yellow. The…
New zipline on Rio’s Sugarloaf raises outcry from conservationists
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — With boundless ocean views to one side and urban sprawl to the other, the Sugarloaf has long been one of Rio de Janeiro’s most iconic…
Conservationists unite to tackle Latin America’s dog threat to wild cats
On July 18, 2021, a camera trap in the Alto del Nudo region of Colombia captured a pack of free-ranging dogs wandering along a remote forest trail. The next day, an Andean…
Guyana gets ‘Drilled’: Weighing South America’s latest oil boom with Amy Westervelt
The South American nation of Guyana, whose economy traditionally has relied on tourism, agriculture, and fishing, has begun business with oil giant ExxonMobil to make a massive offshore oil drilling…
Study attempts to foresee the future of Amazonian mammals if the rainforest turns into savanna
If increasing global warming and deforestation were to transform Amazonia into an irreversibly degraded dry savanna, what could happen to the approximately 300 species of mammals that live there? These…
