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Mongabay investigation of sketchy forest finance schemes wins honorable mention
Mongabay contributor Glòria Pallarès earned an honorable mention in the 2025 Trace Prize for Investigative Reporting, announced May 28, for her investigation into how Indigenous communities in Peru, Bolivia and Panama were misled into handing over their rights to millions of hectares of forest. The January 2024 investigation, “False claims of U.N. backing see Indigenous […]
EU appetite for EVs drives new wave of deforestation in tropical forests
- The European Union’s demand for electric vehicles may lead to the deforestation of 118,000 hectares (291,584 acres) in critical minerals-supplying countries, according to a new report.
- Brazil, which accounts for large reserves of nickel, graphite, rare earths, lithium and niobium, would be one of the most affected countries.
- Despite the mining project’s socioenvironmental impacts, the Brazilian federal government has backed companies with financing and political support.
- Experts warn that the new minerals rush increases pressure on Indigenous communities already suffering from mining companies’ violations.
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.
- Brazil will auction 21 blocks in the Parecis Basin, an area with dense Indigenous activity, yet none of these communities have been consulted, as leaders struggle to handle existing threats such as ranchers and miners.
- Impacts on Indigenous territories include the influx of workers and machinery during research and the risk of toxic gas emissions and water pollution if projects move forward.
- The rainforest is the most promising frontier for the oil industry, with one-fifth of the world’s newly discovered reserves from 2022-24.
Methods to recognize the Amazon’s isolated peoples: Interview with Antenor Vaz
- Mongabay interviewed Antenor Vaz, an international expert on recognition methodologies and protection policies for Indigenous peoples in isolation and initial contact (PIACI), about the importance of confirming and recognizing the existence of isolated peoples.
- Vaz is a regional adviser for GTI-PIACI, an international working group committed to the protection, defense and promotion of the rights of PIACI, which recently launched a report to help governments, Indigenous organizations and NGOs prove the existence of Indigenous peoples living in isolation.
- In this interview, Vaz highlights strategies states can use to confirm and recognize the existence of isolated peoples while maintaining the no-contact principle.
Climate strikes the Amazon, undermining protection efforts
Fires raged across the Amazon rainforest in 2024, annihilating more than 4.6 million hectares of primary tropical forest—the most biodiverse and carbon-dense type of forest on Earth. That loss, which is larger than the size of Denmark, was more than twice the annual average between 2014 and 2023, according to data released last month by […]
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.
- Federal prosecutors requested the suspension of the license due to missing studies and other issues.
- A federal court stated that the proposed blasting will have a limited and controlled impact, asserting there are no Indigenous, Quilombola (Afro-Brazilian) or riverine communities living in that section of the Tocantins River — a claim that advocates say is inaccurate.
- Rock removal will impact endangered fish, Amazon turtles and the Araguaia river dolphin, which is found only in this region and feeds on fish that spawn in Pedral do Lourenço.
What does it take to expose 67 illegal airstrips in the Amazon? A year of reporting — and the trust of local communities
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. At the close of SF Climate Week, María Isabel Torres, program director of Mongabay Latam, shared how local journalism is driving environmental change across Latin America. Speaking as a Peruvian journalist based in Lima, María Isabel detailed investigations […]
Dom Phillips’ posthumous book centers on collaborative work for saving the Amazon
- On June 5, 2022, British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira were brutally killed in the Javari Valley region, in the Brazilian Amazon; Phillips was investigating illegal fishing in the region for his book.
- Three years later, the book How to save the Amazon — A journalist’s fatal quest for answers, by Phillips with contributors, will be launched beginning May 31 in the United Kingdom, the United States and Brazil, accompanied by dedicated events in the three countries.
- “Emotionally, it has several meanings for me. Firstly, because it’s like realizing Dom’s death, because he was still writing, he was still alive,” Phillips’ widow Alessandra Sampaio tells Mongabay.
- Anthropologist Beatriz Matos, Pereira’s widow, says the book is also intertwined with Pereira’s work and also with everyone who works to defend the Amazon and the Indigenous peoples. “It’s very important that this work is not interrupted. It’s very important that the stories he was telling are told.”
Ahead of hosting COP30, Brazil is set to weaken environmental licensing
- A new bill may dismantle Brazil’s environmental license framework, easing the way for infrastructure projects such as oil exploration on the Amazon coast and paving the BR-319 road, in one of the rainforest’s most preserved areas.
- 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.
- More than 1,800 Indigenous lands and Quilombola territories not fully demarcated would be ignored in the licensing process.
- The bill is still pending approval by the Chamber of Deputies, but experts say they believe the measure will be challenged in the Brazilian Supreme Court.
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.
- Research by the Federal University of Roraima identified 309 people who were victims of human trafficking between 2022 and 2024.
- In the Guyanese border town of Lethem, young women, mostly from Venezuela but also from Brazil, are trafficked into bars from across the border in Brazil, seemingly without restriction.
- Organized crime networks associated with illegal mining use elaborate recruiting tactics and exploit the vulnerability of victims, who often don’t recognize themselves as trafficked or are afraid to speak out.
Indigenous lands & protected areas are barely offsetting emissions from damage in the rest of the Amazon
The Amazon is often described as one of the planet’s most effective carbon regulation systems. Yet recent data suggest its ability to absorb carbon is increasingly concentrated in specific places. Between 2013 and 2022, nearly all of the forest’s net carbon uptake came not from the biome as a whole, but from the half of […]
Brazil advances with plan to drill oil at the mouth of the Amazon River
Brazil’s environmental agency, IBAMA, approved a key step that could soon allow Petrobras, the nation’s state oil company, to begin offshore oil drilling near the mouth of the Amazon River. In a May 19 decision, the agency greenlit a concept for an emergency response plan by Petrobras (PBR) to protect marine animals in case of […]
Meet Pedro Porras, the priest who first rediscovered Amazon ancient cities
- A Catholic priest, Pedro Porras, was the first to research and document the Amazon rainforest’s Upano Valley culture dating back 2,500 years.
- He did archaeological research all across Ecuador, often facing extremely difficult situations.
- In January 2024, a Science article on the Upano Valley culture triggered a surge of media publications around the world, falsely claiming “a lost city” had been found, ignoring Porras’ discoveries.
- In 1964, Porras was appointed professor of archaeology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE), where he established a center for archaeological research.
Report links meat giant JBS to massive destruction of jaguar habitat
- Agricultural expansion in Brazil’s Pará and Mato Grosso states has destroyed 27 million hectares (67 million acres) of jaguar habitat — an area the size of the U.K. — with 5 million hectares (12 million acres) cleared between 2014 and 2023, most of it illegally.
- A report by Global Witness links some of this deforestation to indirect suppliers of JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker, which has failed to fully uphold its pledge to eliminate illegal deforestation from its supply chain by 2025.
- The report highlights weak enforcement of environmental laws and recent attempts by local governments to reverse antideforestation policies, as agribusiness continues to wield major political and economic power.
- With Brazil hosting the COP30 climate summit later this year, campaigners are urging governments and corporations to fulfill deforestation pledges, improve supply chain traceability, and address agriculture’s growing role in greenhouse gas emissions.
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.
- According to the federal land agency, Incra, about 145,000 people are inhabiting camps all over Brazil, waiting for a plot of land.
- In one of the Amazon’s deadliest regions, a group fighting for land was besieged by a dozen armed men hired by ranchers; even in established settlements, harassment by land grabbers and lack of government support drive settlers out of their plots.
- The stalling of the land reform agenda pushes Amazonian people further into the forest, driving the cycle of deforestation, or else to the outskirts of cities, where many struggle to make a living.
Study unveils mystery of monkey yodeling — and why humans can’t compete
- Researchers found that New World monkeys can produce extreme yodeling-like sounds by rapidly switching between their vocal folds (for low tones) and specialized vocal membranes (for high tones), achieving frequency jumps up to 12 times greater than humans can manage.
- Scientists conducted their research at Bolivia’s La Senda Verde animal refuge, using recordings and electroglottographs on live monkeys.
- Humans lost these vocal membranes during evolution, trading vocal gymnastics for more stable speech that’s easier to understand.
- The complex vocalizations likely help monkeys manage social relationships and grab attention in the rainforest.
Brazil antideforestation operation blacklists more than 500 farms in the Amazon
The Brazilian government blocked 545 rural properties in the Amazonian state of Pará from selling crops and livestock both domestically and internationally, citing illegal deforestation, according to a May 6 announcement by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. The announcement marks one of Brazil’s largest uses of remote sensing to sanction agriculture activity associated […]
Even in intact Amazon forests, climate change affects bird populations: Study
- A recent study analyzed the behavior of birds that feed on insects in parts of the Amazon that have not yet been altered by human activity. Of the 29 species studied, 24 have gone through a reduction in population.
- The results point to climate change as the cause: Less rainfall and more severe droughts seem to be affecting the number of insects there, resulting in less food for the birds, which seem to be reacting by reproducing less in order to save energy.
- According to the study, an increase of just 1° C (1.8° F) in average dry season temperature in the Amazon would result in a 63% drop in the bird community’s average survival rate.
Traditional bug oil finds modern value through new research in the Amazon
- Oil made from beetle larvae is used as a traditional remedy in Brazil’s Marajó Archipelago, and is gaining scientific recognition for its medicinal and economic potential.
- Researchers are analyzing the bug oil’s bioactive properties, aiming to validate its safety and expand its promising applications in medicine, cosmetics and biotechnology.
- Growing demand for bug oil and other rainforest-derived products offers economic opportunities for local communities but also raises concerns about potential resource overexploitation, which experts say requires further impact studies.
- Scientific innovation is exploring more efficient extraction methods while preserving traditional knowledge and supporting sustainable bioeconomy development.
Lack of funds, cattle ranchers challenge Brazil’s sustainable farmers
In 2005, the Brazilian government created PDS Brasília, a sustainable settlement in the state of Pará. The settlement was designed to encourage 500 families to practice small-scale family farming, while also collectively using a standing forest to harvest its fruits and nuts, Mongabay’s Fernanda Wenzel reported in March. The 19,800-hectare (49,000-acre) settlement was created following the […]
‘We can’t talk solutions without understanding complexities: Kari Guajajara on Brazil’s Amazon
- Mongabay interviewed Kari Guajajara, a lawyer and the first Indigenous person to obtain a law degree in Brazil’s state of Maranhão, to hear her take on some of the latest and biggest events affecting Indigenous communities and forests Brazilian Amazon.
- These events include a government operation to evict illegal miners from a Munduruku territory, threats to the lives of Indigenous land defenders, the influence of the agribusiness lobby, and President Lula’s drop in popularity.
- Kari Guajajara and other Indigenous delegates came to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City to spotlight issues they face in their country.
- Kari Guajajara is a lawyer at Amazonia Alerta and a legal advisor for COIAB, a Brazilian Amazon Indigenous network.
A rare jaguar rewilding story highlights obstacles to the big cat’s conservation in Brazil
- The successful reintroduction of a young male jaguar into the Amazon Rainforest last year, following his rescue from wildfires, has highlighted the persistent threats to the species across its range.
- While there have been other successful jaguar reintroductions in Brazil, especially in the Pantanal wetlands, the species faces challenges in all Brazilian biomes—from wildfires and vehicle strikes, to retaliatory killings and poaching for body parts coveted in the Asian market.
- Jaguar reintroduction programs also face challenges, including governmental bureaucracy and the high costs involved from rescue to release, which can run as high as $180,000 per animal.
What does bioeconomy truly mean? Indigenous groups seek answer to dodge capitalist traps
- For the first time, the G20 group of the world’s biggest economies has reached a multilateral agreement on principles to develop the bioeconomy, but conflicting concepts pose obstacles for traditional communities and can lead to investments in predatory practices.
- Across the Pan-Amazon region, communities who developed the bioeconomy concept centuries ago and practice it today still have a hard time accessing its benefits.
- Experts argue that the success of the bioeconomy will depend on national and local policy decisions.
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 water drop is worrying the local population, whose livelihoods depend on balanced water bodies for small-scale agriculture, wild fruit extractives, fishing and transportation.
- The Madeira is particularly vulnerable to hydrological extremes and reached its lowest level ever recorded in September 2024.
- The Amazon has been warming since the 1980s, suffering 15 extreme droughts so far.
Marielle Ramires, Brazilian activist and environmental communicator, died on April 29th, aged 45.
When Marielle Ramires disclosed her cancer diagnosis in December 2024, she chose honesty without despair, revealing vulnerability while emphasizing resilience. Her approach was pragmatic, yet deeply hopeful. “I embraced my destiny,” she wrote, taking each step “one drop at a time.” For a woman who dedicated her life to articulating collective struggles, her illness became […]
‘Colombia’s Amazon peoples provide solutions’: Interview with José Homero Mutumbajoy
- Mongabay interviewed José Homero Mutumbajoy, an experienced Indigenous rights defender in Colombia, to hear his take on some of the latest and biggest events affecting Indigenous communities and forests in the country’s Amazon.
- Events include protests against Libero Cobre’s copper mine, the impacts of armed groups, protections of forests for isolated peoples and plans for the upcoming U.N. climate conference.
- Homero Mutumbajoy and other Indigenous delegates came to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City to spotlight issues they face in their country.
- Homero Mutumbajoy is the human rights and peace coordinator for OPIAC, the national organization for Colombia’s Amazon peoples.
The latest issues in Peru’s Amazon: Interview with Indigenous leader Julio Cusurichi
- Mongabay interviewed Julio Cusurichi Palacios, a prominent Indigenous leader from Peru, to hear his take on some of the latest and biggest events affecting Indigenous communities and forests in the country’s Amazon.
- Events include a resolution for oil palm that critics say could expand deforestation, delays in creating territories for isolated peoples, the passing of Pope Francis and the killing of Indigenous land defenders.
- Cusurichi Palacios and other Indigenous leaders came to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City to spotlight issues they face in their country.
- Julio Cusurichi Palacios has been a leader in Peru’s Amazon since the ’90s and currently serves on the national board of AIDESEP, a large Indigenous rights organization.
New report reinforces critical role of Amazonian protected areas in climate fight
- A new report has found that protected areas and Indigenous territories in the Amazon store more aboveground carbon than the rest of the rainforest.
- Protected areas and Indigenous territories were also found to serve as significant carbon sinks between 2013 and 2022, absorbing 257 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
- Protected areas in Colombia, Brazil, Suriname and French Guiana were found to be significant carbon sinks.
- The report underscores the need to protect these areas that aren’t currently threatened by deforestation as they play a critical role in offsetting emissions from other parts of the forest.
Gold rush moves closer to Amazon’s second-tallest tree
Illegal gold miners are now operating very close to the second-tallest tree in the Amazon Rainforest, Mongabay’s Fernanda Wenzel reported in April. Six giant trees, including a red angelim (Dinizia excelsa) that stands 85 meters (279 feet) tall, are found inside the Iratapuru River Sustainable Development Reserve in Brazil’s Amapá state. Despite the area’s protected status, […]
Abel Rodríguez, artist who drew a vanishing forest from memory, died April 9, age unknown
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In a modest home on the edge of Bogotá, a forest lived in exile. Redrawn leaf by leaf from memory with ink and conviction, it existed not on maps or in satellite imagery, but on sheets of paper, […]
Study suggests there are more jaguars in the Amazon than previously thought
Jaguar numbers in the Amazon Rainforest may be higher than previous estimates, according to a new large-scale study that offers the most comprehensive population snapshot to date. Using camera-trap images of jaguars (Panthera onca) across the Brazilian, Colombian, Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon, researchers calculated an average density of three jaguars per 100 square kilometers (about […]
New research finds substantial peat deposits in Colombia’s conflicted Amazon
- A new study of Colombia’s lowland forests and savannas finds that the nation may have extensive peatlands — organic wetland soils formed over thousands of years — holding as much as 70 years’ worth of Colombia’s carbon emissions. Protecting them from agricultural development is essential to preventing greenhouse gas releases.
- Researchers made peatland estimates by taking sediment cores in 100 wetlands, quantifying peat content, then building a model to predict locales for other peat-forming wetlands using satellite imaging. Peat was found in unexpected ecosystems, such as nutrient-poor white-sand forests, widespread in northern South America.
- Sampling in many locations was only possible due to the ongoing but fragile peace process between the Colombian government and armed rebel groups. In some places, security has already deteriorated and further sampling is unsafe, making this study’s scientific estimate a unique snapshot for now.
- Most Colombian peatlands are remote, but deforestation is intensifying along the base of the Andes, putting some wetlands at risk. Colombia’s existing REDD+ projects have been controversial, but opportunities may exist to combine payments for ecosystem services with peacebuilding if governance and security can be improved.
Amazon illegal miners bypass enforcement by smuggling gold into Venezuela
- Criminal groups are operating to smuggle illegal gold from the Brazilian Amazon into Venezuela, where the metal is laundered and exported overseas.
- Illegal gold traders adopted this new strategy after Brazil’s administration increased control over the metal’s commerce.
- Mongabay followed the steps of Adriano Aguiar de Castro, who, according to authorities, jumped from one gold laundering scheme to another and now is also involved with gold smuggling into Venezuela.
- The need to cross national borders brings gold trading groups closer to organized crime and poses new challenges to authorities.
New refuge helps protect Amazon’s most endangered monkey, but gaps remain
Brazil designated a refuge twice the size of Manhattan near the Amazonian city of Manaus in June 2024 to protect the pied tamarin, South America’s most endangered monkey. But almost one year later, the 15,000-hectare (37,000-acre) reserve is still being implemented institutionally, and conservationists say it falls short of what the species needs to survive. […]
Illegal gold mining creeps within a kilometer of Amazon’s second-tallest tree
- Prosecutors in Brazil’s Amapá state have warned of an illegal gold mine operating just 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from second-highest known tree in the Brazilian Amazon — an 85-meter (279-foot) red angelim.
- Illegal gold miners have been moving into Amapá in the wake of federal raids on mining hotspots in other parts of the Brazilian Amazon, including the Yanomami and Munduruku Indigenous territories.
- A surge in the gold price has fueled the miners’ destructive potential and their capacity to open new areas in highly isolated places.
Mongabay investigation spurs Brazil crackdown on illegal cattle in Amazon’s Arariboia territory
- An ongoing Brazilian government operation launched in February has removed between 1,000 and 2,000 illegal head of cattle from the Arariboia Indigenous Territory in the Amazon Rainforest.
- In June 2024, Mongabay published the results of a yearlong investigation, revealing that large portions of the Arariboia territory have been taken over for commercial cattle ranching, in violation of the Constitution; the project received funding and editorial support from the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network.
- “Your report is very similar to what we’re actually finding in the field. It showed an accurate reality and this helped us a lot in practical terms,” Marcos Kaingang, national secretary for Indigenous territorial rights at the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, told Mongabay in a video interview.
- The investigation also revealed details that authorities said they hadn’t been aware of, including the illegal shifting of the territory’s border markers, Kaingang said: “We brought it up as an important point in our discussions and we verified that the [markers] had in fact been changed.”
Indigenous aguaje tree climbers bring down profits in Peru’s Amazon — sustainably
- The aguaje, a tropical palm tree that grows in peatlands and other wetland areas in tropical South America, produces oval-shaped fruits that can be consumed raw or processed to make beverages, soap, oils and other products.
- The discovery of its market potential in the 1990s led to destructive harvesting and genetic degradation as people filed to palm swamps in the Peruvian Amazon to collect the fruits.
- Sustainable harvesting techniques, such as climbing the aguaje tree to collect the fruit instead of cutting it down, have taken hold in local communities that previously cut down the trees.
- Transportation, the lack of phone and internet connections, the impact of climate change on ecological processes and the lack of a secure market to sell aguaje fruits remain a challenge for communities.
For scandal-ridden carbon credit industry, Amazon restoration offers redemption
- As REDD projects around the world face setbacks, restoration projects in the Amazon are flourishing as a means of reviving market confidence in forest-based carbon credits.
- In Brazil, the golden goose for restoration, this business model has attracted companies from the mining and beef industries, banks, startups, and big tech.
- Federal and state governments are granting public lands to restoration companies to recover degraded areas.
- Restoration projects require substantial investments and long-term commitment, face challenges such as increasingly severe fire seasons, and deal with uncertainty over the future of the carbon market.
Tree rings reveal mercury pollution from illegal gold mining: Study
New research has found that some tropical trees in the Peruvian Amazon can be used to monitor mercury pollution from gold mining, offering an alternative to expensive air monitors. Roughly 16 million people worldwide engage in artisanal and small-scale gold mining, much of which is illegal due to environmental and human health concerns. In many […]
Brazil is speeding-up forest fire prevention to avoid dangerous tipping points in the Amazon (commentary)
- In this commentary, Robert Muggah and Ilona Szabo of the Igarapé Institute examine Brazil’s escalating forest fire crisis, highlighting a record 237,000 fires in 2024 that devastated over 30 million hectares of vegetation—most of it in the Amazon—and triggered a national environmental emergency.
- Muggah and Szabo underscore the alarming interplay between human-driven deforestation, climate change, and increasingly severe El Niño and La Niña events, warning that parts of the Amazon may tip into savanna if trends continue.
- While Brazil is pursuing a range of responses—including new technologies, indigenous fire brigades, and international cooperation—Muggah and Szabo stress the need for systemic solutions backed by smart policy, inclusive governance, and innovative financing to truly curb the crisis.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
A Kichwa women’s collective uses ecotourism to safeguard Ecuador’s Amazon
- Sani Warmi is a women’s collective that runs ecotourism activities and practices agroecology to generate income and conserve the Ecuadorian Amazon.
- Its members guide tourists around the traditional chacra — a diversified agroecological system — and introduce them to their traditional foods and practices.
- The group produces organic chocolate with cacao grown on a community plot and on their smallholdings and has a fish-farming project.
- These initiatives reduce the need to extract resources from the forest, protecting this area which is home to approximately 600 bird species.
Brazil plans new Amazon routes linking the Pacific & China’s New Silk Road
- New roads and riverways integrating the Brazilian Amazon and ports on the Pacific coast of South America are expected to be announced in 2025, reducing shipment costs to supply China.
- Brazil’s plans to build ports and roads to help move grains, beef and iron ore from the rainforest echo a development vision that dates back to the military dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s.
- Environmentalists warn the new routes boost deforestation and encourage land-grabbers and ranchers to keep exploring the Amazon as a commodity hub.
Locals debunk myths linking endangered pink river dolphins to ‘love perfumes’
A colonial-era myth about endangered pink river dolphins in the Amazon has led to a false belief that perfumes or pusangas made from their body parts are potent love potions. According to a recent Mongabay documentary, the myth has created a market for the perfumes, further endangering the dolphins. The film, released in February, follows […]
Colombia creates landmark territory to protect uncontacted Indigenous groups
- Colombia has created a first-of-its-kind territory meant to protect a group of Indigenous people living between the Caquetá and Putumayo Rivers in the Amazon Rainforest.
- The 2.7-million-acre (1,092,849-hectare) territory is the first in the country specifically designed for people living in isolation.
- The Yuri-Passé people have faced increasing pressure from illegal mining and organized crime groups, forcing neighboring Indigenous communities to reach out to the government on their behalf.
Peru’s rare peatland swamps at risk as illegal gold mining expands
- Gold mining in Madre de Dios, Peru, is destroying rare peatland swamps that serve as critical carbon sinks, a new study found.
- The study, published in Environmental Research Letters, used 35 years of NASA Landsat satellite data to track the spread of gold mining.
- It found that more than 550 hectares (1,360 acres) of peatland have been destroyed by mining over the last 35 years, with over half of it occurring in the last two years.
- At least 63 out of 219 peatland areas have been affected by mining, putting more than 10,000 hectares (about 25,000 acres) at immediate risk, with the possibility that as much as 14.5 million metric tons of carbon could be released into the atmosphere, the study said.
Pressure bears down around uncontacted tribes at the edge of Brazil’s arc of deforestation
- A family of three isolated Indigenous people got separated from their group and ended up contacting non-Indigenous society in one of the best-preserved areas of the Brazilian Amazon.
- For more than a month, agents with Funai, Brazil’s federal agency for Indigenous affairs, have been camping near the family, helping them hunt and fish.
- The group lives on the edge of the so-called arc of deforestation, in a mosaic of conservation areas and Indigenous territories that form a green barrier to oncoming pressure from land grabbers and cattle ranchers who want the land to increase their wealth.
- Besides the impact on isolated Indigenous communities, the destruction of this part of the Amazon would affect Brazil’s rain cycle and potentially unleash new viruses and bacteria, researchers warn.
World Water Day: 3 stories of resistance and restoration from around the globe
More than 2 billion people around the world live without access to safe drinkable water, as rivers, groundwater, lakes and glaciers face continued threats of pollution and overexploitation due to urbanization, environmental destruction, and climate change. This World Water Day, Mongabay looks back at some of its coverage from 2024 on how local communities are […]
Brazil declares environmental emergency ahead of 2025 fire season
Brazil has declared a nationwide environmental emergency to prevent another devastating fire season in 2025. In 2024, record-breaking blazes scorched millions of hectares of native vegetation in the Amazon Rainforest and other biodiversity-rich biomes. The measure, decreed by environment minister Marina Silva on Feb. 27, gives authorities extra powers and resources to nip wildfires in […]
Ecuador must improve conditions for uncontacted Indigenous communities, human rights court rules
- The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) ruled that Ecuador violated numerous rights of the Tagaeri and Taromenane Indigenous peoples and failed to protect them from violent attacks.
- The nomadic Tagaeri and Taromenane rely on hunting and gathering in the Amazon Rainforest, but the area has also been an attractive location for oil development and logging.
- The court ruled that Ecuador must expand protection zones where the uncontacted Indigenous communities live and improve monitoring of threats in those areas.
‘Unprecedented’ Supreme Court bill threatens Indigenous rights in Brazil
- Presented in February by Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes, a draft bill violates Indigenous people’s constitutional rights by stripping their veto power against impactful activities on their ancestral lands and adding further obstacles to an already long land demarcation process.
- Critics say the Supreme Federal Court’s act is “unprecedented” in Brazil’s history by an institution that’s entitled to protect Indigenous and minorities’ rights — as dictated by the Constitution.
- The move comes months after the same court decided those Indigenous rights couldn’t be stripped by a legislative bill, with the support of Mendes.
- Critics say the bill “brings together the main threats to Indigenous peoples” and “directly contradicts the Brazilian Constitution, the decisions of the Supreme Court itself and international human rights law.”
The rough road to sustainable farming in an Amazon deforestation hotspot
- Far from international forums and economical centers, locals in one of the Amazon deforestation hotspots seek alternatives to agribusiness and gold mines.
- Mongabay went to Pará state’s southwest and found examples of people struggling to keep sustainable initiatives in a region dominated by soy, cattle, gold and logging.
- Despite the bioeconomy buzz, people working on the ground say they miss support from banks and public administrations.
Only 5% of deforesters in Brazil’s Amazon fully paid fines, report finds
If you are caught cutting down the Amazon Rainforest illegally, chances are you will get off without being required to pay for the environmental damage. According to a recent report, only 5% of offenders have paid court-ordered fines for deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Researchers at Imazon, a Brazilian environmental research nonprofit, analyzed more than […]
Will Brazil’s President Lula wake up to the climate crisis? (commentary)
- The global climate system is even nearer than we thought to a tipping point where global warming escapes from human control. Emissions from both fossil fuel combustion and the loss and degradation of forests must be drastically reduced, beginning immediately.
- Brazil would be one of the greatest victims if global warming escapes from control, but, excepting the Ministry of Environment and Climate change, virtually the entire Brazilian government is promoting projects that will increase emissions for decades to come.
- Brazil’s President Lula so far shows no signs of waking up to the climate crisis, to its implications for Brazil, and to the climatic consequences of his current policies.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
New setbacks for Peruvian Amazon reserve put uncontacted tribes at risk
- Since 2003, Indigenous organizations have been calling for the establishment of Yavarí Mirim, an extensive reserve for hundreds of isolated Indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon.
- The reserve is heavily disputed by extractive industries for its logging and oil and gas drilling potential.
- Experts are concerned that a recent delay will endanger Indigenous groups, as their territory is increasingly encroached on by loggers and illegal drug traffickers.
Clash of worlds for the Amazon’s Cinta Larga: Interview with author Alex Cuadros
- Journalist Alex Cuadros’s latest book, “When We Sold God’s Eye: Diamonds, Murder, and a Clash of Worlds in the Amazon” tells the story of how an Indigenous group in Brazil was forced to reckon with Western culture.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Cuadros says the Cinta Larga group were introduced to Western tools and concepts by the Brazilian state, ultimately eroding part of their lifestyle.
- In a short period of time, the group began to experience money, violence, illegal logging, and mining, while some members of the Cinta Larga profited from these activities.
- “When prospectors started moving into their territory, the Cinta Larga sought them out because they were curious and wanted metal tools,” Cuadros said when explaining the complex relationship with invaders and the “outside” world.
In a seasonally flooded Amazon forest, jaguars take to the trees
- A recent study has confirmed that Amazon jaguars have developed a fascinating strategy to face seasonal river flooding: when the waters rise and flood the forests, these felines begin to live up in the trees.
- The finding, made in the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve in Brazil’s western Amazon, surprised researchers who initially thought the animals would migrate to dry lands in search of prey.
- The research monitored 14 jaguars fitted with GPS collars between 2011 and 2020; the data showed the home range of these animals during floods remained virtually unchanged from during the dry season.
- While this adaptation is unique to Amazon jaguars, experts warn that variation in rain and flood cycles, aggravated by climate change, may pose yet another threat to this already near-threatened species.
91% of Brazilian Amazon deforestation last year was illegal, report finds
Nearly all deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon in the past year was illegal, a new report finds. Between August 2023 and July 2024, 91% of forest clearing in the Amazon lacked authorization, according to an analysis by the NGO Center of Life Institute (ICV). In the Cerrado, an expanding agricultural frontier and the world’s most […]
World Wildlife Day 2025: What I learned speaking spider monkey
- Paul Rosolie is an American conservationist and author. His 2014 memoir, Mother of God, detailed his efforts to protect a tract of forest in Peru through his organization, Junglekeepers.
- In this commentary, Rosolie writes about a recent experience rescuing a spider monkey, which was struggling to stay afloat in a river.
- Rosolie describes the moment as one of profound communication. Through these encounters, he highlights the intelligence, emotion, and vulnerability of wildlife, urging us to recognize our role as stewards of the natural world before it is lost.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Land rights bill in Suriname sparks outrage in Indigenous communities
- Indigenous and Tribal communities are upset about legislation to establish their collective land rights, saying it still gives the government too much power.
- The law would remove communities’ ability to reject development projects on their land, including infrastructure, agribusiness and logging and mining concessions.
- The government would be allowed to continue developing on ancestral land if deemed in the “public interest” of the country, according to the bill.
- Activists said they could mount a legal challenge through the UN, but haven’t formalized a plan.
Yanomami youth turn to drones to watch their Amazon territory
- In the Yanomami Indigenous Land, the largest in Brazil, leaders believe in their youths’ skills to maintain their ancestors’ legacy and safeguard the future of a sprawling territory covering almost the size of Portugal.
- Located in the Brazilian Amazon between the states of Roraima and Amazonas, the Indigenous territory faced a severe humanitarian and environmental crisis with the invasion of around 20,000 illegal miners in search of gold and cassiterite.
- Trained youths can now act as multipliers of drone monitoring and watch the land against new invasions.
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