location: Colombia

location: Colombia

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After LA, fire crisis reaches Latin America — from Mexico to Argentina
- As the effects of climate change become increasingly evident, Latin American countries are facing complex circumstances when it comes to defending themselves against forest fires — and urban fires.
- In Argentinian Patagonia, fires have destroyed more than 10,100 hectares (24,958 acres) of native forests, including areas of Nahuel Huapi National Park. There are also active fires in Chile that have killed three firefighters.
- Mongabay Latam talked to specialists in order to understand what is happening in some of the territories that have been hit hardest by the fires.
- Experts agree that it is urgent for Latin American governments, which often have limited capacity, to double down on their prevention efforts and allocate sufficient resources to fire management strategies, taking timely action against forest fires.

Warming threatens flies more than bees, raising pollination concerns
- New research shows flies can tolerate temperatures 2.3°C lower than bees before losing motor function, making them particularly vulnerable to climate change and raising concerns about their crucial role as the world’s second most important pollinators.
- The study, conducted across three countries, reveals that flies’ sensitivity to heat is especially concerning for crops like chocolate that depend on fly pollination and for high-altitude ecosystems where flies are the dominant pollinators.
- Insect populations are declining by nearly 1% annually (projected 24% decrease in 30 years), prompting urgent calls for conservation as these creatures are essential for pollination, nutrient cycling, and overall ecosystem function.
- Individuals can help protect pollinators by creating diverse habitats in their yards through native plant gardening, reducing pesticide use, providing nesting sites, and supporting conservation organizations.

Indigenous communities come together to protect the Colombian Amazon
- Indigenous communities are increasingly recognized as the most effective guardians of the Amazon Rainforest, thanks to their deep-rooted beliefs that nature possesses its own life and rights, and also to their focus on long-term sustainability rather than short-term profits.
- In the Colombian Amazon’s Putumayo department, Indigenous women have come together to plant trees, collect waste, monitor water quality, launch educational campaigns, and denounce extractive activities that threaten the rainforest.
- One of the key challenges lies in blending traditional Indigenous knowledge with modern scientific approaches.
- Despite growing interest in Indigenous knowledge and preservation efforts, Indigenous communities remain underrepresented in political decision-making and the funding of conservation projects, and are also left exposed to attacks for their role as environmental defenders.

Conservation and the rise of corporations in the Pan Amazon
- Despite agreement on the importance of protecting the Amazon’s biodiversity, most people in the Pan Amazon depend directly or indirectly on conventional development and extractive production models.
- Investments by the extractive sector in the mid-nineteenth century were more successful because they were organized by multinational corporations with experience in managing operations in remote geographies (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname) or by state-owned corporations with practical knowledge of their own country (Brazil, Venezuela).
- In Brazil, some family enterprises evolved into complex holding companies that now finance expansion via joint ventures and international credit markets. A select few have chosen to raise capital by selling equity shares on domestic or international stock markets, although they typically retain majority control to maintain the family legacy.

An underground gold war in Colombia is ‘a ticking ecological time bomb’
- In Colombia’s Buriticá municipality, a gold mine owned by Chinese company Zijin has become a hotspot of environmental damage, criminal activity and conflict.
- Zijin announced earlier this year that it had lost control of 60% of its mining operations to the illegal miners, who have taken over the mine’s tunnels or collapsed them.
- Illegal mining has expanded in and around the mine, with miners using mercury, explosives and heavy machinery to extract gold, contaminating ecosystems and threatening the geological stability of the area.
- The illegal miners flock here from around the country, and are associated with the Gaitanista Army of Colombia (EGC), also known as the Gulf Clan, Colombia’s largest criminal armed group.

Indigenous runners complete seven-month journey for Mother Earth and solidarity
- In May 2024, Indigenous representatives left from opposite ends of the Western hemisphere — Alaska and Patagonia — to embark on a ceremonial relay run to fulfill ancient prophecies.
- Indigenous peoples have undertaken this intercontinental run every four years since 1992, involving sacrifice and physical exertion, to strengthen Indigenous collaborations, share ancestral wisdom, and unite their voices in a powerful display of solidarity.
- History was made this year when the two routes met in Colombia for the first time — the heart of the Americas. The routes arrived with hundreds of sacred staffs from native communities, calling for unity, spiritual regeneration, land rights, water protection and community empowerment.
- The journey concluded with a four-day meeting at the headquarters of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC), bringing together global Indigenous leaders and representatives.

The particularities of the migratory movement in Venezuela, the Guianas and Suriname
- Migration in the Colombian Amazon was not a state project but a consequence of the army’s armed conflict with the FARC and the emergence of drug trafficking that grew in its shadow.
- Although the peace process began in 2017, changes that have occurred since then have given rise to new criminal groups after the guerrillas were eradicated.
- Although the Guiana Shield has escaped large-scale deforestation, the region is home to tens of thousands of wildcat gold miners exploiting mineral resources in the thinly populated hinterlands of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.

Coffee agroforestry promises a path to EUDR compliance, but challenges remain
- Companies in the coffee sector have begun preparing for compliance with the EU’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR); among them are Nespresso and commodity trader Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC).
- For both companies, the pathway to regulatory alignment involves previous commitments to eliminating deforestation from their supply chains and sourcing coffee from farms employing agroforestry and regenerative agriculture methods.
- International NGOs such as the Rainforest Alliance are supporting companies and farmers in implementing best practices and meeting EUDR requirements.
- Despite considerable progress in the coffee sector, challenges remain, particularly in enforcing deforestation-free practices within supply chains, overcoming financial constraints, and distinguishing “forest” from “agroforest” through satellite imagery.

The year in tropical rainforests: 2024
- The year 2024 saw significant developments in tropical rainforest conservation, deforestation, and degradation. While progress in some regions provided glimmers of hope, systemic challenges and emerging threats highlighted the fragility of these ecosystems.
- Although a complete comparison of tropical forest loss in 2024 with previous years is not yet available, there are currently no indications that this year’s loss will be markedly higher. A sharp decline in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon—partially offset by widespread forest fires—suggests the overall rate of loss may be lower.
- This analysis explores key storylines, examining the political, environmental, and economic dynamics shaping tropical rainforests in 2024.

Experts question benefits of Colombian forestation project led by top oil trader
- Trafigura, one of the world’s largest oil traders, has recently invested $100 million to grow 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of forest in the eastern plains of Colombia’s Vichada department.
- The company says it aims to plant mixed-species trees, but has seeded primarily eucalyptus trees — nonnative species notorious for hogging water resources.
- That’s prompted skepticism from experts about the project, on top of the fact that the area Trafigura plans to turn into forest was never a forest to begin with.
- Even as the initiative vows to produce and sell carbon credits to slow the climate crisis, the company is simultaneously encouraging oil production and trade in Colombia.

What’s the TFFF? A forest finance tool ‘like no other’ shows potential

In 2023, at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, the Brazilian government proposed a new funding mechanism to help tropical nations keep their forests standing. They called it the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), and its incentive is relatively simple: using satellite monitoring in participating nations to determine which ones have preserved their forests, and […]
Women in Putumayo turn to fish farming and away from the coca industry
- A women-led fish farming initiative in Colombia’s Putumayo department offers an alternative to the coca economy, challenging both environmental damage and traditional gender roles.
- Wedged between the Ecuadorian border and the fringes of the Amazon, Putumayo has long been heavily affected by armed conflict and coca cultivation, resulting in high levels of violence and human rights abuses.
- The initiative empowers women, challenging traditional gender roles in rural Colombia by providing stable, legal income and reducing dependency on the dangerous coca economy.
- Financial constraints, limited government support, lack of infrastructure, as well as persistent threats from armed groups hinder the development of alternatives to coca farming.

In Colombia, a simple fencing fix offers a win-win for wildlife and ranchers
- The lowland or South American tapir (Tapirus terrestris), a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List, has lost an estimated 50% of its habitat to deforestation caused largely by cattle ranching.
- Cattle ranching is a leading cause of deforestation in Colombia’s Orinoquía and Amazonian regions.
- A recent study shows that a simple fencing technique to contain cattle while allowing for smaller mammals to pass through protects ranchers’ livestock while improving forest habitat.
- The study is a promising start for coexistence research, experts say, as other tapir populations across Latin America face similar interactions with humans as their habitat becomes increasingly fragmented.

Indigenous guardians embark on a sacred pact to protect the lowland tapir in Colombia
- An Indigenous-led citizen conservation project in the community of Musuiuiai in Putumayo, Colombia, aims to obtain data on the lowland tapir’s presence and understand the environmental factors affecting the species.
- According to spiritual beliefs, a divination from an elder in the 1990s pushed the community to move to a high-priority region for tapir conservation. Beliefs in the mammal’s sacred status supports conservation efforts.
- The lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris) is listed as vulnerable to extinction on the IUCN Red List; in Colombia, it’s threatened by habitat loss and hunting.
- Using a biocultural approach to conservation, Musuiuiai was named an Indigenous and Community Conserved Area (ICCA), whose members now hope to reduce tapir hunting in neighboring tribes through outreach and collaboration.

New ‘Cali Fund’ plans to make companies pay for benefiting from nature

Banner image of a coral reef in Indonesia by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

A new global fund for conservation seeks to make corporations share part of their profits of benefiting from using genetic data from animals, plants or microorganisms in nature. Named the Cali Fund, the new finance mechanism was born out of the recently concluded United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity summit, or COP16, held in Cali, […]
The rubber boom and its legacy in Brazil, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia
- In the Amazon, the rubber boom was facilitated by new technological developments, industrialization and political change.
- While in Brazil the rubber barons used a form of debt slavery with their workers, in Bolivia the rubber boom was dominated by pioneers from Santa Cruz who had established cattle ranches in the Beni during the nineteenth century.
- In Peru, the boom was based on the exploitation of Castilla species rather than Hevea, resulting into a much more destructive process, which developed a particularly cruel and exploitive slave-labor system.

The underreported killing of Colombia’s Indigenous land guardian, ‘The Wolf’ (Photos)
- Carlos Andrés Ascué Tumbo, a 30-year-old Indigenous land guardian and educator, was the 115th social leader killed in Colombia this year.
- He served as a member of the Kiwe Thegnas (or Indigenous Guard of Cauca) and protected the communities’ forests, land and youth from illegal armed groups and coca cultivation.
- The Indigenous territory and land surrounding it has become a hub for drug trafficking causing deforestation and land degradation.
- Mongabay spoke with members of Carlos’ family and community to gather more information on the underreported details of his life and killing.

$100k prize awarded in honor of ‘father of biodiversity’ Thomas Lovejoy

Two champions of Amazon Rainforest conservation have been awarded the inaugural Thomas E. Lovejoy Prize at the United Nations biodiversity summit, COP16, currently underway in Cali, Colombia. The cash prize of $100,000 each was awarded Oct. 29 to agronomy and forest engineer Marc Dourojeanni from Peru and Indigenous advocate Belén Páez from Ecuador. The prize […]
In Colombia, guerrilla groups decide the fate of the Amazon
- One of Colombia’s biggest active FARC dissident groups is the Central Armed Command (EMC), controlling much of the Amazon rainforest in the departments of Guaviare, Meta and Caquetá.
- Some experts argue that there’s a direct correlation between the EMC’s actions and deforestation trends in the Amazon. Between 2022 and 2023, deforestation dropped by 51% when the group was cooperating with government peace talks.
- With those peace talks breaking down, deforestation is on the rise again. Critics are calling on the government to prioritize the environment in future negotiations.

Colombia decree recognizes Indigenous people as environmental authorities
- The Colombian government has issued a decree that recognizes Indigenous peoples as environmental authorities in their territories.
- The decree gives new powers to Indigenous peoples to protect ecosystems, manage and conserve their territories and resources, plan budgets and make decisions about land use.
- Indigenous peoples have welcomed the decree, which they told Mongabay is a key step toward historical justice.
- The government has received some pushback from peasant farmers who feel ignored and government agencies that argue this could negatively impact environmental management in the country.

‘Glimmers of promise’ for 30×30 goal as UN report calls for boosted efforts
- A new report reveals that 17.6% of terrestrial areas and 8.4% of marine areas are now under protection, ahead of a 2030 deadline to protect 30% of lands and waters.
- The report comes as countries gather in Cali, Colombia, for the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16) to discuss how to turn global conservation targets into national actions.
- One solution may be recognizing Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ territories, which cover at least 13.6% of global terrestrial areas, but this must happen with consent and respect for self-determined governance systems.
- While more than two-thirds of Key Biodiversity Areas are either partially or fully protected, significant gaps remain in ecological connectivity, with only 8.52% of land both protected and connected.

Deforestation plunges but environmental threats remain as Colombia hosts COP16
- As global leaders, experts, activists and Indigenous voices meet this October in the Colombian city of Cali at the U.N. Biodiversity Conference, COP16, missteps and successes within President Gustavo Petro’s environment agenda are watched closely.
- COP16 occurs two years after the country’s first-ever left-wing president was sworn in, pledging to turn Colombia into “a leader in the protection of life,” as his four-year plan centers on energy transition, Indigenous causes and tackling climate change.
- But while praised internationally for his efforts to promote conservation, shift away from fossil fuels and surround himself with green-abiding authorities, Petro remains under pressure, as many of his environmental proposals are still on paper, upholding Colombia’s long-lasting socioenvironmental struggles.
- Experts attribute a lack of sufficient environmental resolutions to various factors, including a Congress resistant to government initiatives, challenges in curbing deforestation and Colombia’s status as the most dangerous country for environmental defenders, as highlighted by recent reports.

Indigenous territories & peoples are key to achieving COP16’s 30×30 target (commentary)
- It is just a few days until the beginning of COP16 when countries worldwide will meet to discuss biodiversity protection in Cali, Colombia.
- These discussions cannot happen without considering the role of Indigenous communities in protecting biodiversity and thriving ecosystems, argues a new op-ed by the Solomon Islands Minister for Environment and Colombia’s Technical Secretary at the National Commission of Indigenous Territories.
- “We Indigenous peoples are the best protectors of the environment, and against all odds, we are resisting colonial processes and threats…The negotiators at COP16 must ensure full, effective, and equitable inclusion of Indigenous peoples,” they argue.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

At COP16, conservationists will be neighbors with the legacy of fortress conservation (commentary)
- This month, the U.N. biodiversity conference, COP16, will be held in Cali, Colombia, at the foothills of Los Farallones de Cali — a national park with a history of “fortress conservation” methods that have displaced local people.
- These methods have generated lasting tensions between state-sponsored conservation groups and the people who reside in and depend on their local environment.
- Illegal gold mining presents complex challenges for conservationists and officials, with even some of the most essential stakeholders in preserving the local environment of Los Farallones becoming involved in its destruction due to economic necessity.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

The people who make up the Pan-Amazonian melting pot: regional demographics
- Based on current trends, the Pan Amazon should have a total population of about sixty million by 2050 and stabilize at about 65 million by 2100.
- Currently, the Pan Amazon is home to approximately 43 million people. Of these, 80% are represented by immigrants or their descendants.
- Although there was a major population growth in the 1970s and 19880s, birth rates have been gradually decreasing and stabilzing.

CHAPTER 6. Culture and demographics defines the Pan Amazon’s present
- The dynamics unfolding across the Pan Amazon have been centuries in the making, with drivers of deforestation and ecosystem degradation evolving as a result of social and economic change.
- A colonial focus on resource exploitation, development policies and migration as well as the resistance of Indigenous peoples have transformed the Amazon.
- Latin America’s repeated failure to capitalize on the inherent advantages of its natural and human capital has been blamed on economic mismanagement, endemic corruption, entrenched inequality, legal insecurity and market cycles that undermine periodic attempts at reform.

Permits granted for Colombia’s Alacrán mine amid pollution, deforestation concerns
- Canadian mining company Cordoba Minerals and the Chinese JCHX Mining Management Co. are getting closer to opening the Alacrán mine, located in Puerto Libertador, in Colombia’s Córdoba department, rich with gold, silver and copper.
- The area has been the site of artisanal, illegal and industrial mining for decades, resulting in deforestation and the pollution of local water bodies.
- Critics of Alacrán say the operation will only exacerbate problems in the area, and called on the government to hold mining companies accountable for harmful practices.

To save endangered trees, researchers in South America recruit an army of fungi
- Mycorrhizal fungi live in symbiosis with plants, providing them with nutrients necessary to thrive and potentially playing a key part in preserving threatened species.
- Although research into mycorrhizae has so far been sparse in Latin America, efforts are gaining momentum, with experts studying how the fungi could help save the Colombian black oak, an endangered, endemic species.
- In Huila, Colombia, local communities are successfully working with researchers on a black oak restoration project using seeds “inoculated” with fungi.

Clearest picture yet of Amazon carbon density could help guide conservation
- A combination of machine-learning models and satellite readings show that the Amazon Rainforest contains 56.8 billion metric tons of aboveground carbon, or more than one and a half times what humanity emitted in 2023.
- The map is the result of an analysis of data measuring tree cover, tree height and the carbon storage of trees, and yields one of the most precise estimates to date.
- The highest carbon levels are located in the southwest Amazon — specifically southern Peru and western Brazil — and in the northeast Amazon, in countries like French Guiana and Suriname. The findings could help conservationists and policymakers choose more effective conservation strategies in the future.
- The report concluded that, as a whole, the Amazon Rainforest is still acting as a carbon sink rather than a carbon emitter, a key to keeping global temperatures below 1.5°C (2.7°F) and preventing climate change.

Why is violence against environmental defenders getting worse? Five things to know
- Global Witness’s latest annual report shows that at least 196 people were killed last year defending the environment, up from 177 killed in 2022.
- Latin America is still the most violent region for defenders, with 166 killed in 2023. But other regions have been showing worrying trends, as well.
- The report calls for better data collection and transparency, which could help identify who is being targeted with violence and how.

Colombia voluntary biodiversity credit methodology is first to be approved

Cercarbono, a Colombia-based certifier of carbon projects, has approved a methodology that can be used to generate voluntary biodiversity credits, an emerging finance scheme aimed at supporting biodiversity conservation. This methodology, developed by U.S.-based company Savimbo in collaboration with the Indigenous peoples and local communities in Colombia’s Amazon, is the first of its kind to be […]
Biodiversity’s Tower of Babel: The confusion & disorientation of Convention on Biological Diversity Decision 15/9 (commentary)
- Decision 15/9 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was envisioned as a multilateral mechanism to fund conservation via the sharing of benefits arising from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources (DSI).
- Hailed as a landmark, what royalties would be paid for this “natural information” and via what means are still unclear as the CBD enters a new round of negotiations soon in Cali, Colombia.
- To make the Decision operational there, delegates met in Montreal this month, and it’s still not certain if biodiversity-rich nations will be fairly compensated, but a new op-ed contends that “The appropriate interpretation of genetic resources as ‘natural information’ would imply economic rents in the benefits to be shared.”
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

The indelible traces of oil and gas in the Peruvian, Ecuadorian and Colombian Amazon
- This section focuses on the first exploratory discoveries in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, where the abundance of oil and gas has had a great impact on the forests and those who depend on their existence.
- In Ecuador, to this day, a lawsuit has been filed against Texaco (now Chevron) for the numerous abandoned oil wells contaminating rivers and previously forested lands. In Peru, a similar situation exists in the case of oil Blocks 8 and 192.
- Although Colombia has invested less in oil exploration compared to its two neighboring countries, the potential for hydrocarbon exploitation in the Putumayo and Caquetá river basins is enormous. There, dozens of Indigenous communities have long been pointing out the problems associated with extractive industries that afflict their livelihoods.

The Andes are a key supplier of gold for the Amazon Basin
- In recent decades, gold mining in Peru is no longer only taking place in the Andean areas but also in the Amazon. There, illegal miners are increasingly exploiting the precious metal found in alluvial deposits.
- A similar situation can be observed in the Bolivian Yungas, very close to the Peruvian border in the Madre de Dios region. Despite operations against illegal mining, the activity persists.
- On the border of Ecuador and Peru, much of the area comprising the mineral-rich Cordillera del Condor has been set aside as a protected area or Indigenous territory, but there are still large areas open to mining, particularly in Ecuador where multinational corporate miners are investing in both copper and gold mines.

Can nations ever get artisanal gold mining right?
- For at least 16 million people worldwide, artisanal small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is a pillar of stability and opportunity, particularly in rural, impoverished communities. But the industry is responsible for a great deal of environmental damage, such as deforestation and contamination.
- Mining requires the use of harmful chemicals such as mercury, which pollutes air, soil and water, threatening biodiversity and human health.
- The U.N. Minamata Convention on Mercury, an international treaty to regulate and eradicate mercury use, came into force in 2017, but its success depends on effective implementation and enforcement by nation-states.
- Countries such as Ghana, which ratified the agreement in 2017, have laws to regulate the industry and safeguard the environment, but implementation has been weak, according to industry experts.

Colombia’s coca substitution program failing to help farmers or slow deforestation
- Colombia’s PNIS program, launched after the 2016 peace deal to offer coca growers alternative livelihoods in exchange for eradicating their crops, is failing to achieve its goals due to design, implementation and security issues.
- Many coca leaf growers and pickers who voluntarily committed to the program said that despite eradicating their crops, they haven’t received the agreed technical or financial support from the government.
- As a result, some have found themselves in a worse socioeconomic situation than before, and many have had to turn to illegal mining to survive.
- Coca production has actually increased in Colombia since the start of the program, as has deforestation in and around areas with PNIS agreements, leading some experts to conclude the program has done more harm than good.

New datasets identify which crops deforest the Amazon, and where
- Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM), the Atlas of Pastures and Amazon Mining Watch have released or updated satellite data and visualization tools this year that show what crops are grown in the Amazon, where cattle ranching overlaps with other kinds of land use and how much of the rainforest is being cleared for mining.
- Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Amazon Project (MAAP) compiled the data into one report this month, creating an “overall estimate” of land use across the nine Amazon countries.
- Some of the crops are well-known drivers of deforestation, such as soy, but lesser-discussed crops are also present in the region, such as rice and sorghum.

New relatives of the cacao tree uncovered in old plant collections
- Scientists have described three new species of plants closely related to the cacao tree, highlighting the importance of dried herbarium collections in uncovering hidden biodiversity.
- The newly described species, native to the Amazon Basin, are already facing conservation challenges, with two potentially qualifying as vulnerable to extinction.
- While these new species could potentially offer genetic resources for developing more climate-resilient cacao varieties, some say it’s too soon to predict practical impacts for chocolate production.
- The findings underscore the urgency of conservation efforts in the Amazon region, not only for these newly described species but for countless others still unknown to science.

The Amazon’s most fertile forests are also most vulnerable to drought: Study
- Researchers at the University of Arizona analyzed 20 years of satellite data to understand how different Amazon forest ecosystems respond to drought. They found that variations in water-table depth, soil fertility and tree height influence forests’ response to droughts.
- In the southern Amazon, experts observed a strong relationship between groundwater availability and the forests’ drought resilience. But the situation was more complex in the northern Amazon, where drought vulnerability depended on a combination of factors, including water availability, soil fertility and tree height.
- The study suggests scientists may have overestimated the risk of drought-related tree death — and the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere as a result — in the southern Amazon. However, long droughts, like the current one across the Amazon, can push these forests to the brink of collapse.
- The researchers created a map of drought resilience across the Amazon Basin, which shows that forests at high risk of deforestation are also most vulnerable to drought. These forests also play a key role in regional weather patterns by feeding the “atmospheric river” that brings rainfall to major agricultural areas.

An Indigenous-led biodiversity credit scheme in the Colombian Amazon

A U.S.-based company Savimbo has an unusual biodiversity credit scheme on offer, reports Mongabay’s Shreya Dasgupta. “It is the only for-profit, biodiversity credit company that has been bringing Indigenous people to sit down in internal private meetings that are just between us and Savimbo to think about what biodiversity credit looks like for us, and […]
Industrial minerals in the Pan Amazon
- The Brazilian Amazon hosts a huge mineral wealth, ranging from bauxite and cassiterite to tin, nobium, tantalum and coltan, providing raw materials for the steel industry, electronics, technology and medical sectors.
- This mineral abundance has also been enormously detrimental to ecosystems and Indigenous people across the region.
- Many of the mines that were once state-run are now managed by Canadian and Chinese transnational corporations. As global demand for rare earth elements increases, production in the mines will have to diversify.

Colombian victims win historic lawsuit over banana giant Chiquita
- Following 17 years of legal proceedings, victims of paramilitary violence in Colombia have obtained justice, as a jury found the banana company Chiquita Brands International liable for financing the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) paramilitary group.
- Between 1997 and 2004, Chiquita paid the AUC around $1.7 million to protect them against a rival paramilitary group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which had threatened its employees and business operations; meanwhile, the AUC’s death squads murdered several thousands of people.
- The ruling is historic because it’s the first time an American jury has held a major U.S. corporation liable for complicity in serious human rights abuses in another country; victims’ families will receive $38.3 million in compensation.
- According to the victims’ legal team, this new ruling opens the way for thousands of others to seek restitution.

Study says 40% of Amazon region is potentially conserved — more than officially recorded
- A new study reveals that more than 40% of land across nine Amazonian countries is under some form of conservation management, significantly higher than the 28% reported in official records.
- The research highlights the crucial role of Indigenous peoples and local communities in conservation, with Indigenous territories covering 16% of the total land area of the nine Amazonian countries and community-managed conservation areas adding another 3.5%.
- Despite these findings, the Amazon still faces serious threats from deforestation, fire and climate change, leading some experts to question whether the global “30×30” conservation target is adequate.
- The study’s authors propose a new inventory approach to conservation planning, emphasizing the need to understand existing conservation efforts and governance structures before creating new protected areas or allocating resources.

Narco activity takes heavy toll on Colombia’s protected forests, satellite data show
- Deforestation inside protected areas in central Colombia appears to be picking up pace this year, suggesting the steep drop-off from 2022-2023 was just a blip, according to satellite data.
- The most affected areas include Llanos del Yarí Yaguara II Indigenous Reserve, two national natural parks — Sierra de la Macarena and Tinigua — and the surrounding La Macarena Special Management Area.
- Threats to the region and its protected areas include agricultural expansion, along with the cultivation of illegal crops such as coca and marijuana, and illegal gold mining.
- The region’s protected areas are increasingly falling under the control of armed groups emboldened and funded by the drug industry, according to monitoring agencies and local residents interviewed by Mongabay.

Campesinos bring life back to a deforestation hotspot in the Colombian Amazon
- More than 700 campesinos from the municipality of Cartagena del Chairá have started restoring 4,762 hectares (11,767 acres) of degraded rainforest in one of Colombia’s deforestation hotspots. To date, they’ve planted almost a million trees.
- In collaboration with researchers from SINCHI, the Amazonian Scientific Research Institute, and the Association of Community Action Boards (Asojuntas), the families have recorded more than 600 plant and more than 100 animal species in the area.
- Environmental education, research and restoration activities have also included children and teenagers from several communities, with many young people motivated to pursue environmental careers by applying to universities.

In a village divided, farmers stall massive copper mine in Colombian Andes
- A group of farmers and villagers are resisting the construction of a large copper mine in Colombia’s tropical Andes, where agriculture is a key industry; they recently blocked the company from completing environmental impact studies required by the Colombian government.
- International gold mining giant AngloGold Ashanti has been working for more than a decade to obtain a license to extract nearly 1.4 million metric tons of copper from within the mountains surrounding the town of Jericó.
- The company has also integrated into the town, supporting social programs, youth activities and local businesses; residents are divided over the mine, and many view it as a welcome social and economic boost for Jericó.

In Amazon’s tri-border Javari region, teens fall prey to drug gangs’ lure
- Residents of the tri-border region between Brazil, Colombia and Peru have reported an increase in the recruitment of teenagers to work in illegal logging and coca farms.
- Although no official data exist for the human trafficking problem, sources in the three countries say hundreds of young Indigenous and riverine teens are being recruited by drug traffickers and threatened with death if they try to leave.
- The rising recruitment has gone hand in hand with an increase in coca production and deforestation in the region, which in some provinces has grown exponentially.
- This report is the result of an investigative partnership between Mongabay and Peruvian outlet La Mula.

Tackling climate change in one of Colombia’s largest wetlands
- La Mojana, a complex network of more than 500,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) of different types of wetlands, has drastically deteriorated in recent decades.
- Thousands of farmers are working to restore their livelihoods, and the swamps, marshes and streams they inhabit.
- By doing so, they hope that floods and droughts, which are becoming more unpredictable and more severe than ever due to climate change, will affect them less.

Indonesian palm oil, Brazilian beef top contributors to U.S. deforestation exposure
- A new report reveals that the United States imported palm oil, cattle products, soybeans, cocoa, rubber, coffee and corn linked to an area of tropical deforestation the size of Los Angeles between October 2021 and November 2023.
- Palm oil from Indonesia was the largest contributor to deforestation, followed by Brazil due to cattle grazing.
- The report by Trase, commissioned by Global Witness, found that the U.S. continues to import deforestation-linked commodities while awaiting the passage of the FOREST Act, which aims to prohibit imports of products linked to illegal deforestation.
- Experts emphasize the need for action from companies, governments, financial institutions and citizens to stop commodity-driven forest loss, urging support for smallholders, increased transparency in supply chains, and the passage of the FOREST Act in the U.S.

Etelvina Ramos: From coca farmer to opponent of the illegal crop
- Etelvina Ramos’ story encompasses the war in the Colombian Amazon. She grew up alongside coca crops, witnessed several massacres, and was displaced by violence due to the illicit, but profitable, crop.
- Now, at 52 years old, she is fighting to replace coca.
- Etelvina Ramos has a mission that is contrary to the interests of the drug trafficking industry: through her work in the Workers’ Association of Curillo (ASTRACUR), she is seeking the approval of a rural reserve. This would make it possible to close the pathway to coca production and illegal mining.
- Due to her work as an environmental and land defender, she frequently faces threats by illegal armed groups. She admits that she has learned to live with the fear of death.

Outdated infrastructure and oil spills: the cases of Colombia, Peru and Ecuador
- Outdated oil pipelines built by foreign companies in the Andean Amazon have repeatedly put at risk ecosystems and Indigenous communities in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, exposing them to oil spills and wide-scale contamination.
- Unlike modern extractive infrastructure, those pipelines are built on the surface, making them vulnerable to the elements, accidents and sabotage. For example, in Putumayo, Colombia, oil infrastructure was attacked more than 1,000 times between 1986 and 2015, triggering at least 160 oil spills.
- Highly dependent on oil revenues, governments in the region are unlikely to give up on the income provided by the old pipelines in order to remedy environmental impacts that affect a small percentage of their population.

Faced with an extreme future, one Colombian island struggles to rebuild
- In 2020, Hurricane Iota destroyed most of the housing and infrastructure on the Island of Providencia, in Colombia’s Caribbean archipelago of San Andres.
- Although the government sent aid and rebuilt homes, communities complained they were left out of the consultation process and that the reconstruction had been poorly done, without addressing the island’s increased vulnerability to climate change.
- Locals sued the government, obtaining a reopening of consultations, which the new left-wing government has agreed must reach a solution that accords with the islanders’ traditional customs.
- More than 700 islands in the Caribbean could be increasingly exposed to more extreme weather, as climate change threatens to make events such as hurricanes more destructive.

One of Colombia’s largest estuary ecosystems is drying up, communities warn
- Decades of sediment pollution, contamination and government infrastructure projects have disrupted the natural flow of saltwater and freshwater into the Ciénaga Grande of Santa Marta, one of Colombia’s key wetlands and a major estuary on the Caribbean Sea.
- Fish stocks have also plummeted, with profitable, big species being replaced by smaller ones and leaving fishing communities without their livelihoods.
- Although authorities claim that they are investing in the region, locals complain the autonomous corporation in charge is not taking steps to dredge the canals and that there isn’t enough transparency on how the money is being spent.

Alis Ramírez: A defender of the Colombian Amazon now living as a refugee in New Zealand
- Because of her opposition to mining, indiscriminate logging in forests and the social and environmental consequences of oil exploration, María Alis Ramírez was forced to abandon her farm in Caquetá, in southern Colombia, and move across the world.
- The various threats she received because of her work as an environmental defender forced her and her family to first move to New Zealand, where she arrived as a refugee in 2019.
- According to reports by human rights organization Global Witness, Colombia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for environmental and land defenders.
- In New Zealand, she says she can live with a sense of tranquility that would be impossible in Colombia. Although Alis Ramírez is now safe, she has not stopped thinking about her country, the jungle and the river that was alongside her throughout her childhood.

A tiger cat gains new species designation, but conservation challenges remain
- Two Latin American tiger cat species were previously recognized by science in 2013: the southern tiger cat (Leopardus guttulus) and northern tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus). Both are considered vulnerable according to the IUCN Red List.
- But a paper published in January 2024 described a third, new tiger cat species; Leopardus pardinoides. Dubbed the clouded tiger cat, the species is found in high-altitude cloud forests in Central and South America. This taxonomic reshuffling has major conservation implications for the group as a whole, said experts.
- In addition to proposing the new species, the authors reassessed the tiger cats’ distribution and current status. New data indicate that the small wildcats are not present in areas where they were previously assumed to be, which has slashed their remaining habitat considerably.
- Experts warn that these little-known wildcat species have long flown under the conservation radar. Urgent action is required to protect them in the long term against a litany of threats, including habitat loss, persecution and disease transmission from domestic animals.

Mining in the Pan Amazon in pursuit of the world’s most precious metal
- Gold exploitation is usually carried out by large mining companies with dedicated subsidiaries. However, the exploration companies in charge of discovering the ore are usually small specialized companies.
- The environmental and social impacts of corporate gold mines are similar to those of other industrial polymetallic mines; they vary though according to the type of mining – underground or at the surface – and to the type of ecosystems they overlap.
- Illegal miners are the source of two of the most insidious environmental and social impacts associated with the extractive industries in the Pan Amazon: floodplain destruction and mercury pollution. About 20% of total annual gold production comes from illegal mining.

Tropical forest loss puts 2030 zero-deforestation target further out of reach
- The overall rate of primary forest loss across the tropics remained stubbornly high in 2023, putting the world well off track from its net-zero deforestation target by 2030, according to a new report from the World Resources Institute.
- The few bright spots were Brazil and Colombia, where changes in political leadership helped drive down deforestation rates in the Amazon.
- Elsewhere, however, several countries hit record-high rates of forest loss, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bolivia and Laos, driven largely by agriculture, mining and fires.
- The report authors call for “bold global mechanisms and unique local initiatives … to achieve enduring reductions in deforestation across all tropical front countries.”

Maydany Salcedo: the environmental defender who catches the ire of armed groups
- In southwestern Colombia, Maydany Salcedo, 49, faces constant threats to her life and that of her family due to her opposition to illegal activities of armed groups in the region.
- She founded Asimtracampic, an organization that works to ensure that no more coca (an addictive plant which cocaine is derived from) is planted in the region, and that deforestation does not increase.
- The organization opposes the expansion of the agricultural frontier in the Amazon, illicit crops, oil pollution, deforestation and all activities that pose a risk to the environment and territory.
- A victim of the constant violence in the region since she was raped by guerillas as a child, Salcedo is under 24/7 security protection. Despite these threats, she has not abandoned her dream of creating biological corridors for the vulnerable species that live in Piamonte, among which include the Caquetá titi monkey, which is endemic to the region.

PalmWatch platform pushes for farm-to-fork traceability of palm oil
- PalmWatch, an online, open-source tool, is seeking to bring greater transparency to the global palm oil supply web, to better help consumers trace the impact of the commodity.
- A key hurdle to transparency has long been the fact that batches of palm oil and their derivatives sourced by consumer brands like Nestlé and PepsiCo potentially contain product from hundreds of mills processing palm fruit from thousands of plantations.
- By scraping various websites with mill disclosure data and standardizing the information in one place, PalmWatch can come up with a supply chain map that can link specific mills, suppliers and consumer brands to harms associated with palm oil.
- Advocacy groups have welcomed the launch of the tool, saying it will allow for improved targeting of campaigns to get brands to push for more sustainable practices in their supply chains.

Soraida Chindoy: the Indigenous guardian defending the sacred Putumayo mountains
- An Indigenous woman from the Inga community in the Condagua reservation in Putumayo, Colombia, is leading the struggle against a Canadian mining company that plans to mine the community’s sacred mountains for copper and molybdenum.
- Within Soraida Chindoy’s territory is the Doña Juana-Chimayoy páramo, where eight rivers have their source and where there are 56 lagoons. The site, where the Amazon rainforest and the Andes meet, is sacred to the Indigenous population.
- Her campaign against mining was borne of tragedy. In 2017, she and her family were among the almost 22,000 people affected by the landslide in Mocoa, when Mother Earth provided a stark warning as to why it is so important to take care of her.

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