location: Amazon

location: Amazon

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Brazil election could put 95% of the Amazon under right-wing governments
- After a cycle of left-wing administrations, four out of nine Amazonian nations are currently under right-wing leadership that favors exploitation of natural resources over conservation.
- Brazil could be next after October’s elections, which could put up to 95% of the Amazon under mining- and agribusiness-friendly administrations.
- According to experts, the Amazon Rainforest’s already challenging environmental situation could reach a dangerous tipping point if regional leaders abandon environmental cooperation.

Since US intervention, Venezuela’s illegal mining crisis has only worsened, critics say
- In January, U.S. armed forces removed Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro from office and began opening the mining sector to foreign investment.
- Over the last eight months, officials have passed mining reforms, taken down leaders of criminal groups, and raided illegal mine sites. Nevertheless, observers say the illegal mining crisis is getting worse, not better.
- Illegal mining has expanded this year, in some cases in protected areas, and criminal groups involved in mining have tightened their hold in many parts of the country, experts say.

The push for a sustainable artisanal mining in the Peruvian Amazon
MADRE DE DIOS, Peru — In Madre de Dios, in the Peruvian Amazon, thousands of people depend on gold mining, while the spread of mercury and deforestation are transforming the country’s most biodiverse tropical forest. In La Pampa, one of the region’s main gold mining hubs, a formalized artisanal mining operation is trying to prove […]
Indigenous knowledge x tech in the search for a tiny Amazon monkey
- Conservationists are collaborating with Indigenous communities in Ecuador to look for the world’s smallest monkey.
- Pygmy marmosets live high up in trees and are hard to monitor visually; they’re also a key indicator of how forests are faring in the face of deforestation and degradation.
- Conservationists are using passive acoustic monitoring to find the monkeys; they’re also training the communities on using the technology for the future.

Amazon Fund grantees fear a new funding freeze after Brazil’s election
- As Brazil approaches a pivotal presidential election, grantees of the Amazon Fund warn that a radical change in administration could derail its recent momentum, which saw annual financing quadruple.
- While the fund helped drive Amazonian deforestation to its lowest level in a decade, experts warn a new disruption would have greater impacts amid the growing climate crisis.
- International donors are already signaling caution, as widespread anxiety reflects the trauma of 2019, when the previous government dismantled Brazil’s environmental frameworks.

Riverside families in the Amazon change meals as mercury poisons staple fish
- A database built by Mongabay Latam, based on the analysis of scientific studies that gathered more than 7,000 samples from humans and 5,900 from fish, identified the areas most affected by mercury contamination in the Madeira River, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon.
- Mongabay Latam investigated the impact of mercury contamination on the health of the most affected communities: Lake Puruzinho in the state of Amazonas, and the riverside community of Calama and the Karipuna Indigenous Territory, in Rondônia state.
- Studies show that mercury concentrations among residents of Lake Puruzinho are among the highest recorded in the Madeira River Basin and well above what the World Health Organization considers safe, prompting residents to change their eating habits.
- High levels of mercury in Amazonian communities are related to fish consumption, their main source of protein; the accumulation of mercury in humans can cause serious health damage, such as motor and neurological problems, researchers say.

In Peru, mercury leaves a toxic footprint on those who depend on a river
- Mongabay reviewed nearly three decades of scientific research on the impact of heavy metals and traveled to several Amazonian communities to track the course of mercury contamination.
- Previous studies reviewed found that one-third of the children evaluated in the Amarakaeri Indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon grew up with mercury levels in their hair that exceed the limit established by the World Health Organization (WHO).
- The pollution does not remain within mining enclaves: Mercury travels through the river and reaches Indigenous peoples who are unrelated to the mining practice, while pregnant women and newborns show exposure to mercury and lead, with impacts on infant development and birth weight.
- Meanwhile, the state budget for caring for those affected is minimal, and Peru lacks laboratories to measure methylmercury levels — the most toxic form of this metal, associated with fish consumption.

Mercury threatens over 160 communities in Bolivia’s Beni River basin
- Mongabay found that 39 communities in Bolivia are suffering from mercury poisoning and that 125 more face a similar risk.
- The findings were part of a scientific and geographic analysis covering 42 investigations published over 27 years. Seven were conducted in Bolivia.
- The Indigenous and riverside communities affected consume fish daily. Mongabay’s database showed that the protein is contaminated with mercury in at least 17 communities.
- Mongabay reached five Indigenous communities located on the banks of the Beni River (northern Bolivia). In some of them, such as Santa Rosita, mercury levels are nine times higher than the limit permitted by the World Health Organization.

New analysis maps mercury threat to 951 Amazon communities in three countries
For the first time, Mongabay Latam analyzed 39 scientific studies published between 1997 and 2024 that confirm that 249 Indigenous and riverside communities in Peru, Bolivia and Brazil have been exposed to mercury contamination. Nearly all of them exceed the limits considered safe by the World Health Organization. The stories reported by three journalistic teams […]
New-to-science Amazon frog stands out for its slow ‘lazy’ song
Scientists recently described a new species of a tiny brown frog found in the Amazonian floodplain forests of Ecuador and northwestern Brazil. It looks nearly identical to related species but its slow, widely spaced out call sets it apart, researchers note in a study. “I’ve had to get into arguments because people said the frog […]
Why is Amazonian wildlife turning up at a Bangkok market?
- The sheer numbers and vast array of Latin American wildlife species offered for sale in one of Southeast Asia’s largest wildlife markets, in Thailand, has been steadily rising over the past two years, observers say, alongside animals from across the globe.
- The trend points to a broader shift in the global wildlife trade, with more species coming out of the imperiled Amazon and many of them sold as pets.
- Trafficked animals are often laundered from other South American countries through Peru, where regulations make it easier to export species abroad.
- Many of these species are threatened, plucked from the wild, and then face abhorrent conditions during the journey from the Amazon to Asia, raising further animal welfare concerns; many perish during transit.

Key tree species boost Amazon forest restoration, new study shows
- A study in Global Change Biology shows that just 15 to 25 tree species make up nearly half of the trees and carbon stocks in regrowing Amazon forests.
- While pioneer species grow quickly, experts warn that forests need a robust succession of stronger trees to avoid ecological decline over time.
- Understanding these forest dynamics may help Brazil meet its international pledge to restore 12 million hectares (30 million acres) of forest by 2030.

Planned Bolivia-Brazil highway threatens Chiquitania dry forest
- Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz signed an agreement to begin technical studies for a highway connecting the municipality of San Ignacio de Velasco in the Chiquitania region with the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.
- Brazilian businesspeople looking to buy land in the Chiquitano forest for cattle ranching and soy farming are driving the project.
- Brazilian businessman Eraí Maggi, known as the “soy king,” is a central figure behind this agricultural expansion into Bolivia.
- Experts warn the road will accelerate deforestation in the Chiquitania, the largest tropical dry forest in the Americas, in a country that already ranks second globally in tropical forest loss.

Drought is deepening a health crisis among Peru’s recently contacted Indigenous Matsés
- Since initiating contact with the outside world in 1969, the Matsés Indigenous people of the northeastern Peruvian Amazon have faced a barrage of epidemics.
- During a recent visit to the Matsés reserve, Mongabay found a population still suffering from outbreaks of deadly malaria and hepatitis B, exacerbated by state neglect and environmental threats like drought.
- Matsés leaders, anthropologists, and health experts warn that exposure could be fatal for isolated groups neighboring Matsés land, as well as those in nearby reserves across the wider Yavarí-Tapiche Territorial Corridor.
- Drought and an intensifying El Niño could further compound these health pressures by disrupting rainfall patterns, creating conditions that allow malaria-bearing mosquitoes to proliferate and affecting river transport for medical care.

Scientists use mining data to build malaria alert system in the Amazon
- Researchers have found a direct link between illegal mining, miners’ routes, and malaria cases in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory in Brazil.
- Now, they’re working on an alert system that will rely on mining data to warn local health agents about the risk of a malaria outbreak.
- The number of malaria cases dropped sharply after authorities expelled illegal miners from the Yanomami land, but Indigenous people worry the potential return of a right-wing government after October’s election could revive the humanitarian crisis.

For 50 years, Philip Fearnside has calculated the costs of losing the Amazon
- Philip Fearnside has spent 50 years studying the practical limits of Amazon development, beginning with the agricultural settlements built along Brazil’s Trans-Amazonian Highway. His work repeatedly asked who benefits from projects and who bears their longer-term costs.
- He produced influential research on deforestation, forest carbon, tropical dams, and the wider effects of roads, often challenging official assumptions about emissions and economic viability. He later contributed to the IPCC’s work on climate change.
- Fearnside has paired research with public engagement, publishing in Portuguese, writing for Amazônia Real and Mongabay, speaking to journalists, and testifying on projects including the BR-319 highway. That role has also made him a target of hostility, including at a 2021 public hearing where his microphone was cut.
- Former students and colleagues credit him with generous, exacting mentorship and an unusual command of the scientific literature. At a recent tribute at Brazil’s National Institute for Amazonian Research, he rejected any suggestion of a farewell: he intends to keep working.

Brazil relaxes Belo Monte water rule amid El Niño-fueled Amazon drought risk
Brazilian authorities have temporarily relaxed an environmental rule for the Belo Monte hydropower plant on the Xingu River in the northeastern Amazon. The change comes in anticipation of another potentially severe, El-Niño-fueled dry season. Under the temporary measure, Belo Monte’s operator Norte Energia can cut the flow of the dam’s 119 square-kilometer (46 square-mile) intermediate […]
Ashéninka leader reportedly killed while patrolling Indigenous territory is found alive
- Ashéninka leader Américo Pascuala Tumisha was reportedly shot and killed Aug. 23 while patrolling the territory of the Onconashari Indigenous community in Peru’s Ucayali region. He was subsequently found to be alive.
- Onconashari residents have reported incursions linked to unauthorized copaiba extraction since at least 2020, including threats against community members who objected.
- The community has a long history of territorial monitoring and in 2025 received formal government recognition for its Forest Surveillance and Control Committee, which Pascuala later coordinated.
- Global Witness has documented more than 60 killings and disappearances of environmental and land defenders in Peru since 2012; AIDESEP says at least 38 Indigenous defenders were killed in the Peruvian Amazon between 2014 and 2026.

Drugs are becoming institutionalized: Interview with Ticuna leader in Peru’s Amazon
- Mongabay interviewed Francisco Hernández Cayetano, president of the Federation of Ticuna and Yagua Communities of the Lower Amazon, about substance abuse problems affecting Ticuna youth.
- He says many youth are addicted to drugs and alcohol, which they picked up while working as coca harvesters for drug traffickers due to a lack of alternative employment options.
- The arrival of narcotraffickers, as well as illegal miners, has also led to deforestation and water pollution in Peru.
- In this interview with Mongabay, Hernández describes efforts to bring Ticuna leaders from the Amazon’s tri-border area together to discuss solutions to their shared problems.

Brazil marks borders for isolated Indigenous group in the Amazon after decades
Agents of Brazil’s Indigenous agency, FUNAI, spent 60 days in June and July 2026 physically marking the borders of the Rio Pardo Kawahiva Indigenous Territory. The 411,000-hectare (1 million-acre) area in the Amazon biome of Mato Grosso state is home to the Kawahiva, an isolated Indigenous group. The government agency confirmed the presence of the […]
Tapirs, bats and nests: How plastic infiltrates Amazonian wildlife
- Studies have found microplastics in various species of Amazonian wildlife, including fish, tapirs, crabs and bats, even within protected areas far from major urban centers.
- Contamination spreads through multiple routes, traveling from small forest streams known as igarapés to the mouth of the Amazon River, where birds are building “blue nests” out of plastic debris.
- Although the toxic effects on animals remain poorly understood, data show that microplastics cross between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, potentially impacting the entire food chain.

Fatal barge crashes fuel fear over Madeira River waterway expansion in Brazil
- Brazil is planning to dredge the Madeira River to boost grain exports despite recent fatal barge collisions and poor dialogue with local communities.
- In addition to accidents, expanded traffic and dredging pose risks of erosion, water pollution, harm to aquatic species and fishing.
- As national elections approach, communities worry that politicians will prioritize agribusiness over the safety of those who rely on the river to access doctors, schools, work, trade and daily routines.

Among the sacred hills of Colombia’s Guainía
I had been struck by photographs of the Cerros de Mavicure rising above the forest and the Inírida River in eastern Colombia. The dark rock, exposed against an almost unbroken expanse of green, seemed unlike anywhere else I had visited in the Amazon. Last month, ahead of Mongabay Latam’s PUMA FEST in Bogotá, I finally […]
New studies portray Amazon as surprisingly resilient, but tipping point looms
- Three 2026 studies reveal that the Amazon can regrow quickly, but deforestation and warming could trigger a system-wide tipping point in the next 15 years.
- Research also shows that repeated wildfires are replacing fire-resistant specialist trees with generalist species, halving biodiversity at forest edges despite a closing canopy.
- According to research, extreme conditions have increased tree mortality due to hydraulic failure, which is key to understanding the forest’s shrinking carbon sinks.
- Ending deforestation is necessary and achievable, but must be combined with global actions to curb climate change, say experts.

In Amazon rivers, fish breathe and ingest plastics
- Following proof of the presence of microplastics in Amazonian rivers, streams and lakes, researchers are investigating how these particles affect fish health and physiology.
- A study highlights the risks associated with microplastics in the air-breathing organs of the pirarucu, a giant fish that must rise to the surface to breathe.
- Studies conducted with Amazonian fish show microplastics in their gills and digestive tracts, and experiments with the tamoatá point to increased stress and weight loss.
- Scientists warn of risks to human health in a region where fish is a dietary staple; in Brazil’s Amazonas state, average annual consumption is 14 kilos per person, five times the national average.

Mariano Cenamo, advocate for a sustainable Amazon bioeconomy, has died, aged 46
- Mariano Cenamo spent more than two decades trying to make standing forests economically competitive with cattle ranching and other activities driving Amazon deforestation, helping establish Idesam and later backing a new generation of sustainable businesses.
- His work evolved from early efforts on forest carbon and REDD+ to agroforestry, bioeconomy ventures, investment, and entrepreneurship, always centered on creating practical sources of income for people living in the Amazon.
- Drawing on Cenamo’s own writings and interviews, as well as Vanessa Adachi’s posthumous portrait in Reset, this obituary explores the ideas, motivations, and personal style behind one of the Amazon’s most influential environmental entrepreneurs.
- Cenamo died on July 10 after several years with cancer. He was 46.

Amazon deforestation alerts fall to lowest level since 2013, Brazilian data show
- INPE’s DETER system recorded 2,874 sq km of Amazon deforestation alerts from August 2025 through July 2026, down 36% from the previous year and 55.6% below the preceding 10-year average.
- The total is the lowest since 2013 when earlier DETER data are included. If the trend is confirmed by the higher-resolution PRODES system, Brazil could record its lowest official Amazon deforestation rate since monitoring began in 1988.
- The decline has coincided with stronger environmental enforcement under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Alerts also fell in the Cerrado, Caatinga, Atlantic Forest, and Pampa, with the Cerrado reaching a five-year low.
- Despite the decline in clear-cutting, the Amazon remains vulnerable to logging, drought, forest degradation, and fire, which can cause substantial ecological damage without immediately appearing in deforestation statistics.

Suriname moves to evict Mennonites and illegal Amazon settlers
- The government in Suriname has created a task force to crack down on land developers who illegally clear the Amazon Rainforest for agriculture and cattle ranching.
- Many areas under development are connected to Mennonites who migrated to the country from other parts of the region to help meet a domestic demand for food production.
- Conservationists warn that the group’s history of industrial-scale clearing and unauthorized ranching in other nations puts the rainforest at risk.
- Some Mennonites have received a deurwaardersexploot, a written notice delivered by a bailiff to appear in court, according to Suriname President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons.

Amazon canopy bridges enable 15,000 wildlife crossings without a single roadkill
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Roads through Brazil’s forests divide primate habitat and sometimes force animals that normally remain in the canopy onto the ground. Researchers in the Amazon are testing rope bridges that allow them to cross above traffic. Eight bridges were […]
Doña Oscarina, master ceramicist, documented Indigenous knowledge along the Tiquié River
- Doña Oscarina Caldas Azevedo was a Desana master ceramicist, farmer, teacher, and Indigenous environmental researcher from Brazil’s upper Rio Negro region.
- As the first woman to serve as an Indigenous Environmental Management Agent on the Tiquié River, she helped bring women’s agricultural knowledge into environmental monitoring.
- She documented crop cycles, rainfall, river levels, and community life, while cultivating 18 varieties of cassava and preserving knowledge of ceramics, medicinal plants, and ritual practice.
- Through teaching, research, publications, and international forums, she worked to ensure that younger generations could continue applying and expanding this knowledge.

Brazil’s mining agency under fire over corruption and omission probes
- Federal prosecutors are suing the Brazilian mining agency for failing to monitor wildcat gold mines in the Brazilian Amazon.
- Illegal miners take advantage of the agency’s lack of oversight and name small areas as the origins of tons of gold that have actually been taken from protected areas.
- Measures implemented in the past few years have contributed to a sharp decrease in gold laundering in Brazil, but illegal metal is now being smuggled out of the country.
- ANM’s top officials are also under investigation for receiving bribes to favor mining companies.

The global gold rush consuming the Amazon (commentary)
- Record gold prices and rising global demand are increasing the incentives for illegal mining across the Amazon, including in protected areas and Indigenous territories.
- Illicit gold can be laundered into legal markets through false documentation, shell companies, traders, and refiners, while mining damages rivers, forests, and communities through deforestation, sediment, mercury contamination, and diesel emissions.
- Central banks and other major buyers should impose stronger sourcing, traceability, audit, and due-diligence requirements to make illegal gold harder to sell, argues Robert Muggah, co-founder and research director of the Igarapé Institute.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Indigenous Parakanã fear election U-turn may spark new invasions in Brazil
- The Parakanã Indigenous people are reoccupying their territory in Pará state after the eviction of around 3,000 invaders by federal forces.
- The intruders, however, are ready to come back if Brazil’s next administration carries a new anti-environmental agenda in 2027.
- Experts compare illegal activities such as gold mining to powerful bacteria that may return even stronger if you don’t use the proper antibiotic.
- Also in Pará, the state administration has the challenge of keeping deforestation under control after a successful operation in the Triunfo do Xingu Environmental Protection Area.

Brazil court orders recognition of Indigenous land and apology for historic atrocities
A federal judge in Brazil has given the country’s government 24 months to recognize the traditional territory of the Kajkwakratxi-Tapayuna Indigenous people in the northwestern state of Mato Grosso. The court accepted evidence from federal prosecutors that detailed decades of government inaction following massacres, forced displacement and other human rights violations against the Kajkwakratxi-Tapayuna people. […]
Fishers fight for solutions as Brazil lists tambaqui as threatened
- One of the most cooked fish in the Brazilian Amazon, the tambaqui was included in the official national list of threatened species, triggering fear of losses from Amazon small-scale fishers who depend on the species for their livelihood.
- The tambaqui was classified as vulnerable due to projections of a 43.4% overall population decline over three generations as it’s targeted by intense fishing.
- Starting at the end of October, its fishing could be prohibited in Brazil if a recovery plan isn’t implemented, according to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.
- The gray triggerfish was also included in the list of 490 fish and invertebrate threatened fauna, triggering reactions from artisanal fishers and the fishing industry.

End of Brazil’s Soy Moratorium risks millions of hectares of Amazon rainforest: Study
Millions of hectares of Amazon rainforest are newly at risk of being legally deforested, a new study estimates. The potential increase in deforestation comes as soy companies have terminated their voluntary participation in the Amazon Soy Moratorium, a private-sector agreement that barred signatories from buying soy grown on land deforested after 2008. Researchers found 9.1 […]
Khuiusi Khisêtjê helped his people recover their land and future in the Xingu
- Khuiusi Khisêtjê assumed leadership after disease and violence reduced his people to around 50 and killed many of their elders.
- He helped recover the Wawi Indigenous Territory, which contained ancestral villages, sacred places, and the graves of Khisêtjê relatives.
- He worked to preserve Khisêtjê songs, language, oral history, and cultural knowledge while preparing younger leaders to navigate Brazilian institutions.
- As soy farms and pesticide use expanded around the territory, he continued defending the land and, in 2018, led his community deeper into the forest.

An Indigenous take on Colombia’s new gov’t: Interview with a Putumayo Indigenous leader
- Mongabay interviewed Marino Peña, a prominent Indigenous leader from Colombia’s Putumayo region, to hear his take on the incoming government’s plans and how it might affect Indigenous communities and forests in Colombia.
- Abelardo de la Espriella, from the far-right Defenders of the Homeland party, won Colombia’s runoff election on June 11 and will be inaugurated on Aug. 7.
- De la Espriella says he will expand fossil fuel production and mining across the country and has promised to tackle violence using greater force and militarization.
- In this interview with Mongabay, Peña explains that the atmosphere on the ground is tense, in part because de la Espriella’s policies might exacerbate existing conflicts linked to a controversial copper mine in the region.

Amazon tree rings reveal more intense drought and rainfall in the rainforest
Tree rings from the Amazon show that the world’s largest rainforest has developed wetter wet seasons and drier dry seasons over the past four decades. The findings point to intense seasonal swings that can cause significant harm to biodiversity and suggest that widespread drying out across the entire Amazon basin is unlikely. Researchers collected tree […]
Zero roadkill as Amazon canopy bridges secure 15,000 crossings
- Project Reconecta installed eight rope bridges in a municipality in Brazil, and a 15-month study used camera traps to document thousands of arboreal wildlife adapting to new aerial crossings.
- Safe road passages enable seed dispersal and gene diversity, reversing the “domino effect” of biodiversity loss that begins when highways split habitats.
- Reconecta’s creator, biologist Fernanda Abra, a National Geographic Explorer and winner of the Whitley Award, is now expanding these low-cost conservation tools to other Brazilian biomes and neighboring Suriname.
- Brazil’s federal transport department has officially designated the rope bridge design as the recommended national standard for highways to curb the millions of wildlife deaths recorded on roads annually.

Amazon deforestation falls to 10-year low in first half of 2026
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has fallen to its lowest level in the past 10 years, according to satellite data published by Brazil’s National Space Agency (INPE). Between January and June 2025, a total of 2,090 square kilometers (807 square miles) of deforestation was recorded in the Brazilian Amazon. In the same months of 2026, […]
Brazil lists the Amazon river turtle as endangered for the first time
- The cágado-iaçá, or six-tubercled Amazon River turtle, had its risk elevated from near threatened to endangered, entering Brazil’s official list of fauna species threatened with extinction for the first time.
- Despite protection and conservation efforts, cágado-iaçá’s populations over the past 36 years declined by more than 50% in Amazonas and western Pará states, according to official data.
- The species is widely consumed in the northern region, alongside the yellow-spotted river turtle and the Amazon turtle, which remain in a less concerning category, according to ICMBio.
- The hyacinth macaw, the black howler monkey and the red silky anteater were reclassified as vulnerable, adding to the list of 790 species recently published.

How Brazil’s federal fiscal policy hinders Amazon Rainforest conservation (commentary)
- The three Brazilian states whose territory is mostly Amazon Rainforest — and carry the heaviest share of its conservation burden — are among the poorest and most fiscally dependent in the country.
- Amapá, Acre, and Amazonas operate on budgets so dependent on federal funding that they have almost no ability to act on their own, yet they are also precluded from developing their economies within their vast and federally protected swaths of forest.
- “It is a design flaw in Brazil’s fiscal constitution, and it is getting worse,” a new op-ed argues. “Brazil cannot credibly lead global climate diplomacy while its Amazonian states remain fiscally trapped.”
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Women Defenders of the Colombian Amazon
Colombia is among the most dangerous countries for environmental defenders. Yet here, women stand as frontline defenders of both nature and culture. Mongabay is documenting the women protecting forests, rivers and ancestral territories by strengthening traditional governance and reviving ancestral stewardship while confronting coca traffickers and illegal miners. In this Special Issue, meet the women […]
How narcos moved 108 tons of timber infused with drugs from Bolivia to Chile
- Chilean authorities found drug-impregnated wood as part of the country’s largest-ever narcotics seizure, which uncovered 108 tons of cocaine and ketamine in cargoes of timber, according to officials.
- In neighboring Bolivia, the origin of the so-called “narco-timber,” raids were conducted at sawmills in the departments of Santa Cruz, Pando, Beni and La Paz. The investigation is also expected to expand to Cochabamba.
- The method to impregnate drugs in forest-sourced wood is seen as highly sophisticated and makes it difficult for authorities and even trained canines to detect.
- Part of the wood used by criminal networks comes from Amazonian regions in Bolivia, posing risks to tropical forests.

Dark earth: Ancient Amazonian soil can boost forest restoration, study finds
- Researchers from the University of São Paulo and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation showed in a study that the ancient organic-rich soil known as Amazonian dark earth (ADE) boosted seedling growth under real field conditions.
- The investigation suggests ADE could work as a “biological engineer” by reshaping the soil’s microbiome, increasing beneficial fungal diversity and reducing pathogenic microbes that hinder tree growth.
- With conservation in mind, scientists are now working to isolate these micro-organisms to develop bioinputs for forest restoration without disturbing the original Amazonian dark-earth deposits.

A fraction of promised climate money reaches Amazon communities: Interview with Latimpacto’s leaders
- Despite major funding pledges for the Amazon, much of the promised capital never reaches Indigenous peoples and local communities, often because funding structures are poorly aligned with on-the-ground realities.
- Latimpacto, a Colombia-based philanthropic network, is working to close this gap through initiatives that train funders, support locally led innovation and integrate Indigenous knowledge into conservation and development projects.
- Mongabay spoke with Latimpacto’s leaders, Carolina Suárez Visbal and Juan David Ferreira, who say the organization is also advocating for stronger domestic philanthropy across Latin America, arguing that better tax incentives, trust-based grantmaking, and patient, flexible capital are needed to complement international funding.
- Suárez Visbal and Ferreira say they see greater collaboration between Latin America and Southeast Asia as a key opportunity, calling for shared funding mechanisms and knowledge exchange to strengthen conservation of tropical forests and broader socioecological resilience.

Roads, loggers close in on an unprotected refuge for isolated Kakataibo
- Isolated peoples and forests in the Kakataibo Extremo Norte area of the Peruvian Amazon are under threat from illegal loggers, drug traffickers, the construction of illegal roads, and multiple forestry concessions.
- Indigenous leaders and organizations have sought formal recognition for the area as an Indigenous reserve since 2021, but the Ministry of Culture rejected the application in 2023 because it relates to isolated Kakataibo people who are already recognized by the Peruvian state and receive protections in a nearby reserve.
- Sources told Mongabay that threats to the area’s isolated groups are increasing, exposing them to significant risk due to their extreme vulnerability.
- To apply for a new reserve, the Ministry of Culture said organizations should carry out a new study on the presence of isolated peoples in the region, but sources say studies have already been done and that they lack the finance to do them again.

María Laura Tolmos, 37, turned a childhood in the Amazon into her life’s work
- María Laura Tolmos, who died of breast cancer on June 21st in Barcelona, aged 37, grew up in the Peruvian Amazon, where the forest became the foundation of her life and work.
- A forest scientist trained in Peru and Germany, she completed a Ph.D. in forest sciences and forest ecology at the University of Göttingen in 2024.
- At Wilderness International, she served as co-director of science and helped found Wilderness International Perú, bringing rigor, field knowledge, and institutional trust to its conservation work.
- In the field, she was exacting and deeply alive to nature, whether checking research methods, sleeping in a hammock in the forest, joining night surveys, or noticing the species and details others passed by.

Brazil boosts budget and number of firefighters amid strong El Niño forecast
Brazil has increased wildfire spending and has hired a record number of federal firefighters in anticipation of extreme drought in the Amazon due to what could be one of the strongest El Niño events in more than a century. The El Niño climate pattern, which emerges from unusually warm waters in the tropical Pacific, typically […]
Brazil’s expanding offshore oil frontier puts biodiversity at risk: study
- Fossil fuel exploration off the northeast coast of Brazil presents a greater cumulative risk of oil spills than previously expected, according to new modeling.
- Seagrass meadows and deep-water reefs in the Potiguar Basin are at greatest risk, as well as portions of the coasts of Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte and Amapá states.
- As the Brazilian government is pursuing rapid expansion of oil exploration in the region, researchers recommend prioritizing preparedness for emergencies where pollution would likely spread, and expanding Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in low-risk areas.
- Campaigners worry that MPAs might restrict local fishing communities or be implemented too slowly.

Dutch importers linked to suspect Amazon timber, investigation finds
- Wood from a Brazilian logging company banned several times for violating regulations may have ended up in the Netherlands, according to an investigation by campaign group Earthsight.
- The bans on logging company Samise stemmed from suspicions of, among other violations, illegal extraction, and resulted in fines and community service orders for the company.
- Yet Samise’s timber went on to be imported by Dutch companies GWW Houtimport, Van den Berg Hardhout, and Hoogendoorn Hout, via Brazilian exporter Greenex, according to the investigation.
- Earthsight called for rigorous implementation of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which is scheduled to go into effect at the end of the year.

Crackdown lets rainforest reclaim illegal road in rare win for the Amazon
- Recent satellite images show forest closing over the path of an illegal road that nearly severed the Xingu Socioenvironmental Corridor in 2022.
- In early 2023, civil society pressure put the road at the top of the government’s agenda, leading to enforcement operations and a sharp decline in new illegal road openings across the Xingu Basin.
- Conservationists warn the gains remain fragile: Invaded Indigenous territories face violent backlash, illegal mining is regrouping, and this year’s elections could redefine Brazil’s environmental policies.

Targeted conservation in Brazil could help protect the Amazon’s flying rivers
- The Amazon’s atmospheric moisture flows known as “flying rivers” provide over 70% of rainfall in parts of southern Peru and northern Bolivia, but they are threatened by deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
- According to a new report by the NGO Amazon Conservation, the lack of protections for areas known as undesignated public forests and road development projects pose a deforestation risk that would disrupt the flying rivers during dry and transition seasons.
- Research shows that the Amazon is already experiencing longer dry seasons, which in turn affects the forest’s capacity to recycle moisture for the flying rivers.
- Conservation targeting the forests that are most important for recycling atmospheric moisture could help maintain the flying rivers, the report proposes.

Secret Amazon species may be new source of ibogaine for addiction treatment
- A new harvesting method allows an undisclosed Amazon plant to provide production of ibogaine, a psychedelic compound known for its largely unregulated and understudied properties in helping chemical addiction.
- Regarded as sacred in Gabon, the iboga plant that’s the primary source of ibogaine has been subject to poaching and smuggling, leading to the decline of its natural reserves and encouraging researchers to seek out alternatives.
- The substance is at the center of a new political and scientific movement to advance medicinal studies of natural compounds labelled today as illegal drugs.

As Amazon oil drilling begins, scientists warn of risks to a little-known reef
- Brazilian state oil and gas company Petrobras has started drilling in the Equatorial Margin after years of political, scientific and environmental disputes over the risks posed by oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon River.
- Researchers warn that the Amazon Reef system harbors a wealth of biodiversity and has not been widely studied, despite being close to Petrobras’s exploration block.
- Scientists disagree about the composition and extent of the Amazonian reefs, while environmentalists denounce attempts to downplay their ecological importance.
- Experts warn that an oil spill could reach mangroves, small-scale fisheries, and even neighboring countries, due to strong marine currents in the area.

Amazon floodplains cocoa offers a climate-resilient and sustainable chocolate
- Traditional communities in Pará, Brazil’s top cocoa-producing state, are managing native species that naturally resist pests and extreme weather.
- The dense forest canopy of the floodplains provides natural irrigation and protection for cocoa trees against extreme droughts, heavy rain and pests.
- Global demand for organic and ethically sourced chocolate is expected to rise, positioning Amazonian states to fill international supply gaps, despite hurdles.
- Experts compare Pará’s emerging artisanal chocolate sector to Burgundy wine or Ethiopian coffee due to the unique “terroir” flavors of its native beans.

Fire surge in 2025 threatened isolated peoples in Brazil
- In 2025, fires caused a significant spike in forest loss in Indigenous territories in Brazil that are home to peoples living in voluntary isolation: Alto Turiaçu, Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, and Apiaká do Pontal e Isolados.
- According to data from Global Forest Watch, fires were responsible for nearly all of the forest loss in each of the territories, destroying mostly primary forest.
- Indigenous leaders told Mongabay that fires are a threat to their way of life, including those living in voluntary isolation, negatively impacting health, vegetation, biodiversity, and food security.
- A climate expert warns the upcoming El Niño, predicted to be stronger than the 2023-2024 event, will likely lead to warmer temperatures and drier conditions across the Amazon Basin, making it more prone to fires.

Brazil curbs Amazon deforestation in Piripkura, but ranchers’ cattle linger
- A crackdown by the Brazilian government on land-grabbers who establish cattle ranches and other agricultural activities in the Piripkura Indigenous Territory, home to the last two known isolated Piripkura people, have seen some success with tree cover loss in 2025 down.
- While there was very little deforestation from 2024-2025, authorities told Mongabay that 1,000 cattle left by the invaders still remain in the territory, and they have still not received authorization from the federal government to remove them.
- The presence of cattle encourages ranchers to enter the land to care for them, said sources, though some remain there legitimately.
- Authorities have implemented a succession of land use restriction orders since 2008 to prevent the entry of land grabbers, though a recent court decision has provisionally allowed some ranchers to remain in the Indigenous land until the conclusion of the demarcation process.

Study offers first map of Amazon’s climate-resilient upslope corridors
- Worsening climate change creates enormous challenges for ecosystems and individual species. As the world warms, plants and animals must quickly migrate to cooler places to stay resilient and survive. But today such migrations are often blocked by deforestation, human infrastructure and lack of conserved lands.
- In the tropics, vast lowlands can require species to move large distances north or south to escape warming. The most rapid path to climate-resilience is upslope migration, with plants and animals relocating shorter distances uphill to cooler places.
- A new study has mapped major elevational gradients in the Amazon that offer the best possibility for connectivity and upslope relocation in the biome — overlaying elevational gradients, amount of forest cover, fragmentation and protected areas.
- This broad-brush research could aid policymakers in identifying the most viable upslope corridors, helping nations and NGOs target best opportunities for land protection to enhance connectivity and aid species survival.

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