location: Latin America

location: Latin America

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Tiago Karaí and Laudiceia Benites helped reclaim Guarani land. They died with their children in an accident last month.
- Guarani leaders Tiago Karaí and Kerexu Laudiceia Benites died with their two children and three other members of Tekoa Kalipety when a semitrailer struck their car on August 14. Tiago was 34; Laudiceia was 31.
- Tiago began as a teacher of Guarani language and culture before helping reclaim parts of the Tenondé Porã Indigenous Territory and organizing campaigns over land rights, railway impacts, and environmental protection.
- Laudiceia taught philosophy and history, studied traditional medicines, and helped maintain the family’s prayer house. Tiago’s sister Cleonice, who also died in the accident, was a ceremonial singer, midwife, and leader of Guarani women’s gatherings.
- The group was visiting relatives and sharing traditional seeds with Guarani communities facing land shortages. The semitrailer that struck them was carrying maize for industrial agriculture.

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.

In Ecuador’s Intag Valley, communities build their own micro-hydropower plant
- In Ecuador’s Intag Valley, 19 families are developing a 300-kilowatt hydropower project that can provide an alternative source of income to the large-scale extractive and productive industries that are common in the Imbabura province.
- The communities own 90% of the HidroAguagrún project and half of its net electricity revenue will go directly into a trust for conservation activities once the plant is fully operational.
- The project offers a potential model for community-owned renewable energy, but replicability depends on community willingness and cohesion, water availability and funding.

Environmental crimes don’t stop at borders. Neither can the reporting
- Daniela Quintero is a Colombian journalist and sociologist who develops and edits cross-border investigations as investigations editor at Mongabay Latam.
- Her work combines field reporting with official records, environmental databases, satellite imagery, scientific literature, and legal documents.
- Quintero has reported on glass-eel fishing in the Dominican Republic and the smuggling and laundering of illegally mined Amazonian gold through Venezuela.
- Quintero spoke with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler in the Colombian Amazon in July 2026 about her career, investigative methods, and interest in environmental journalism.

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.

7 Indigenous Guarani killed after loose grain trailer hits car in central Brazil
Seven Indigenous Guarani, including two children and a prominent community leader, were killed Aug. 14 in a crash with a grain cargo trailer that reportedly broke loose from the truck pulling it in central Brazil. All seven were from Kalipety village in the Tenondé Porã Indigenous Territory in São Paulo state. A fisher who witnessed […]
Under protection: The environmentalist’s widow in Brazil who had to disappear to survive
- In 2015, environmentalist Raimundo dos Santos Rodrigues was murdered in an ambush inside the Gurupi Biological Reserve in Brazil’s Maranhão state, where he served as a member of the advisory board.
- A local rancher, who was illegally logging inside the reserve, orchestrated the killing.
- Rodrigues’ wife Maria survived the attack but has spent more than 10 years living in another state in a government protection program.
- Maria experiences a contradiction in her new life: She had to be made invisible by the state to survive the state’s failure to investigate and prosecute socio-environmental crimes.

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 […]
El Niño is disrupting the Pacific’s marine food web from the bottom up
As the 2026 El Niño strengthens in the equatorial Pacific, satellites are capturing the first major signs of disruption to the marine food web. According to by NASA’s Earth Observatory observations, satellite measurements show a substantial drop in surface concentrations of chlorophyll across the Central Pacific compared with neutral conditions in June 2025. Chlorophyll is […]
Indigenous water systems gain ground as climate pressures intensify in Bolivia
- When a 2022 drought hit Bolivia’s Ascensión de Guarayos, restoring traditional paúros helped the community survive after the municipal reservoir ran dry.
- The youth-led effort to revive paúros has grown into a broader conservation project, including a legally protected urban ecological corridor.
- The initiative is part of a global trend to restore Indigenous water systems as low-cost, climate-resilient solutions to growing water scarcity.
- Experts say blending traditional and modern approaches can strengthen water security — but only if local communities lead and retain control.

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.

Plans of Peru’s new administration spur concern among environmentalists
- On July 28, Peru inaugurated its new leader, Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi, from the Popular Force Party.
- Fujimori says she will expand fossil fuel production and mining across the country, as well as road, rail and port networks to facilitate extractive and productive projects.
- Mongabay spoke with legal experts, environmentalists and Indigenous leaders about the government’s plans and what it might mean for the country’s energy transition commitments and the environment.

How a rare bird sparked a wildlife movement across 16 villages in Guyana
- The documentation of the endangered red siskin, a rare bird, in Guyana inspired the creation of the South Rupununi Conservation Society.
- The organization has built a multi-community grassroots conservation approach that is grounded in traditional knowledge, organizes across 16 village boundaries and includes Indigenous villagers, farmers and teachers who research wildlife, develop conservation guidelines and teach local ecology.
- Projects include community conservation zones to protect wildlife such as giant anteaters, the genetic documentation of species and monitoring.
- Short-term funding, development pressure and cultural change threaten the model, even as communities invest their own money into projects.

Xokleng Indigenous people plant thousands of critically endangered pine in Brazil
The Xokleng Indigenous people of Santa Catarina state of southern Brazil have planted nearly a 100,000 seedlings of a critically endangered native tree, Mongabay contributor Letícia Klein reported. The Brazilian pine (Araucaria angustifolia), or araucária, can grow more than 50 meters (164 feet) tall and has a straight trunk with a broad crown of branches […]
Dragonflies help protect water and ancestral Indigenous languages in Colombia
- Researchers investigating Colombia’s remote region of Guainía have identified nearly 120 dragonfly and damselfly species, uncovering a biodiversity hotspot for these insects.
- Dragonflies rely on pristine freshwater ecosystems, but their aquatic habitats face growing pressure from regional deforestation, unmanaged waste and exponential tourism.
- By naming in their ancestral languages and monitoring local dragonflies, communities are deepening their understanding of ecosystem health and connecting biodiversity and ancestral wisdom with water protection.

Brazil’s unique data center boom rides on clean power despite social burden
- An exclusive analysis found at least 36 renewable energy companies have pivoted toward building massive server hubs to cash in on excess generation.
- Nearly 80% of slated districts overlap with traditional lands where communities are unaware of industrial risks to hydrological cycles and biodiversity.
- Government officials marketed the country’s green matrix to global investors while leveraging the power surplus in high-stakes trade talks with the United States.

Wind energy surplus fuels unregulated data centers in Brazil’s dry land
- The energy firm Serena filed 12 requests to build data centers in a remote town of only 11,000 people already affected by wind farms in Brazil.
- The project sits in a protected area, stressing the waters of the Itaparica Lagoon, local fishers and Quilombola communities.
- Tech firms in Brazil are exploiting a lack of specific regulations and renewable power surplus to plan data centers without undergoing environmental licensing.

Patricio Segura, journalist who defended Patagonia’s rivers, died of hantavirus, aged 54
The fight to stop five dams on the Baker and Pascua rivers began in one of Chile’s least populous regions, far from Santiago, where national energy policy was set. HidroAysén said Chile needed the project to meet rising demand for electricity. Patricio Segura, working from Aysén in Chilean Patagonia, spent years picking apart that case. […]
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.

Indigenous fishers rethink shark hunting & protect species on Colombia’s coast
- In the Colombian department of La Guajira, at South America’s northernmost tip, Indigenous Wayuu fishers from the community of Punta Gallinas are working with marine biologists to conserve and document shark populations.
- Despite a 2021 law banning targeted shark and ray fishing in Colombia, the meat remains a vital protein source in one of the country’s most remote and food-insecure regions.
- Colombian shark conservation initiative Proyecto Puyuii is working with Wayuu fishers to record shark species in the understudied waters of La Guajira, implementing sustainability measures such as larger-mesh nets, safe release techniques and avoiding longlines.
- With sustainable tourism touted as a potential economic alternative to shark fishing, some fishers argue that compensation will need to be offered before they can afford to stop.

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.

As an industry and a cooking ingredient, seaweed is gaining ground in Brazil
- In Paraty, Brazil, a Caiçara family has transformed seaweed cultivation into gastronomy, educational tourism and a source of income. The venture is driven by strong female participation and a deep connection to their territory.
- Originally introduced in Brazil to supply the carrageenan industry, the macroalgae Kappaphycus alvarezii is also being used as a biofertilizer and increasingly as a food item..
- Its farming also supports ecological balance. It produces oxygen, absorbs carbon and helps improve water quality by filtering out excess nutrients.
- Experts say the expansion of seaweed farming in Brazil faces bottlenecks in credit, marketing, technology and regulation. New research networks and public policies are attempting to organize the sector as part of the country’s growing bioeconomy.

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.

Increasingly rare: Jaguarundi moves up a notch on the endangered species list
- The jaguarundi needs more attention, researchers say. This small cat, ranging from Mexico to Argentina, was recently recategorized from least concern to near threatened on the IUCN Red List.
- Despite the species’ large territory, monitoring data suggests it’s rare, now among the least abundant felids across its range. Conservationists also warn some populations are in decline due to human-wildlife conflict, dangerous roadways, attacks by dogs and infectious disease.
- With relatively little field study or funding for research, there are huge gaps in researchers’ understanding of this cat, but conservationists hope this change in conservation status will spark greater attention.

Is this the world’s loneliest tree?
The last known wild individual of Dendroseris neriifolia hangs off the side of a steep cliff on a remote island. To try to prevent its total extinction in the wild, conservationists recently went to great lengths—and heights—to collect seeds from the tree. They have begun trials to cultivate them with the help of the Millennium […]
The king of the Andes: How a village learned to coexist with condors
PÁRAMO EL ALMORZADERO, Colombia — Doris Torres is a sheepherder who grew up seeing Andean condors as enemies. In this remote village high in the Colombian Andes, the birds were blamed for livestock losses and often killed through poisoning or shooting — persecution that helped push their population to the brink. But as Torres learned […]
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.

How a Brazilian Indigenous ethnobotanist & elders recorded their people’s medicinal knowledge
- In an unprecedented participatory ethnobotany approach, Hemerson Dantas dos Santos Pataxó HãHãHãi, a Brazilian Indigenous ethnobotanist, documented alongside his people their traditional medicinal practices: cataloging 175 medicinal plants, many of which had their use reaffirmed in scientific literature.
- Mongabay visited Hemerson and spoke with several Indigenous elders who survived violent land conflicts about their medicinal knowledge and their efforts to protect it in the Caramuru/Paraguassu Indigenous Territory, a land illegally occupied by cattle farmers for decades in Brazil’s Bahia state.
- Samples of plants collected by Hemerson are being kept at an internationally registered herbarium, and he’s finalizing a book in the hope of keeping the knowledge of the species and ancestral healing practices alive for his people’s future generations.
- The work carried out with his people was essential to make “immortal” the knowledge of the elders, Hemerson said, describing them as “living libraries” and “Guardians of Memories.”

Brazil Supreme Court upholds laws that led to downfall of Amazon soy moratorium
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s Supreme Court has upheld state laws denying tax incentives to farmers who adhered to the country’s soy moratorium. The court also affirmed the constitutionality of the voluntary agreement. For nearly 20 years, the pact barred the purchase of soy grown on deforested Amazon land. Major grain traders withdrew from […]
Bolsonaro’s easing of gun control fueled illegal hunting, study indicates
- A new study points to the easing of gun restrictions during the administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro as a primary driver of illegal wildlife hunting in Brazil.
- By mapping social media posts, researchers documented more than 4,000 animals killed from 157 native species across the country, coinciding with a surge in gun purchases by sport hunters.
- The primary hotspots are concentrated in the Amazon’s Arc of Deforestation, where forest loss, environmental degradation, gun availability and agricultural expansion compound pressure on wildlife.
- Researchers are calling for stricter firearm controls, stronger law enforcement and coordinated conservation policies to curb an environmental impact they describe as silent and widespread.

Key Amazon cases reach Brazil’s Supreme Court following Lula’s defeats in Congress
SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s Supreme Court is set to decide cases that could reshape protections for the Amazon rainforest and Indigenous communities. These cases involve Indigenous land rights, environmental safeguards, and infrastructure projects. Congress approved measures that environmentalists say violate constitutional rights, but President Lula vetoed some. Lawmakers overrode these objections, sending disputes to […]
Brazil’s wildcats face multiple diseases due to habitat fragmentation
- Throughout Brazil, the contact between domestic cats and wild felines has been exposing threatened, biologically vulnerable feral species to diseases, which can reduce their populations.
- According to experts, habitat fragmentation is a common denominator of this crisis, from the Amazon to the Pampa, where felines are forced to leave the boundaries of their native areas and approach sites modified by human action.
- From the imposing jaguar to one of the smallest and rarest, the pampas cat, no Brazilian feline escapes the risks of contracting fungi, bacteria, parasites, and known viral diseases, such as feline leukemia and others.
- Studies and veterinarians warn that mass vaccination of domestic animals and the preservation of natural areas are key pieces to address this problem.

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.

Decades after bottom trawling, Chilean seamounts remain degraded
- A new study found seamounts in Chile’s Juan Fernández Archipelago remained degraded 25 years after bottom trawling took place there, while an ecologically similar seamount outside of the archipelago, where no bottom trawling had been recorded, continued to support deep-sea habitats, including coral and sponge communities.
- The researchers also found that the degraded seamounts in the archipelago had become inundated with sea urchins, which they hypothesized could be preventing the recovery and regrowth of coral communities.
- While the lead author of the study said the research points to the destructiveness of bottom trawling, an outside expert said bottom trawling is not as destructive in some other marine environments, such as sandy, naturally dynamic seabed habitats.
- While the study’s authors call for protection of these surveyed seamounts, experts acknowledge that protection may not be enough if destruction has already occurred.

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 […]
These mice live on volcano summits at extreme elevations. Study finds how
The Andean leaf-eared mouse thrives at extreme elevations where most other mammals wouldn’t survive. At these altitudes, oxygen levels are low; temperatures are permanently below freezing; and humans can’t survive for long without oxygen masks and insulated clothing. Yet, the mighty mouse is right at home, and scientists have now figured out the biological adaptations […]
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.

Nicaragua’s gold boom is now encroaching on protected areas and Indigenous land
- Mining concessions have begun to encroach on protected areas and Indigenous and Afro-descendant territory, the result of a mining boom that began in 2022, according to a new investigation from community-based Indigenous group Wangki.
- Since 1994, Nicaragua has granted 213 mining concessions covering more than 2.4 million hectares (5.9 million acres), representing approximately 20% of the country’s total land area. A significant portion of that — 113 of the concessions — has only been granted in the last three years.
- The Nicaraguan government has signed trade agreements, passed new laws, and revised environmental regulations to help accelerate the expansion of the mining sector, especially by Chinese companies.
- Pollution and deforestation from mining threaten ancestral traditions, and make it harder to practice subsistence farming and find clean drinking water, the investigation said.

PUMA FEST and the community Mongabay Latam has helped build
- Mongabay Latam marked its tenth anniversary with PUMA FEST, a Bogotá gathering that drew 400 participants for talks, workshops, and collaboration on environmental reporting.
- The newsroom is led by editors in Latin America and works with journalists across the region, developing coverage and editorial priorities in response to local conditions.
- Its wider contribution includes more than 90 media partnerships, the Puma Network, and training for Indigenous journalists from Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia.
- During the Gabo Festival, the team also staged Los Vuelos de la Muerte, adapting its award-winning investigation into clandestine airstrips in the Peruvian Amazon for the theater.

Researchers find ‘priority zones’ for yellow fever vaccination of golden lion tamarins
- Golden lion tamarins, an endangered species of monkey endemic to Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, are susceptible to yellow fever: An outbreak in 2017-2019 wiped out roughly 30% of the population.
- A new study finds that certain environmental factors, including habitat connectivity and human population, were linked to higher numbers of deaths during the outbreak.
- Scientists have identified areas where tamarins could be at high risk for yellow fever transmission, which could help guide vaccination efforts and help protect the monkeys in the event of another deadly outbreak.

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.

Scientists call on countries to act on ‘forgotten’ sawfish teeth trade
- Teeth of critically endangered sawfish species continue to be used as cockfighting spurs in Latin America despite bans from cockfighting organizations, a new study found.
- Researchers interviewed cockfighting practitioners in Peru, where the sport is widely prevalent, and leaders from cockfighting associations in Peru, Mexico, Ecuador and Puerto Rico to understand the dynamics of this illegal trade.
- The study found sawfish teeth are sold for anywhere between $25 and $400 per pair, making them some of the most valuable wildlife products. Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Brazil and Colombia supply most of the teeth, while Peru tops the list of consumers.
- All commercial international trade in sawfish is prohibited under CITES, and the fish is a protected species across Latin America. Scientists call on countries to enforce their laws and on CITES to act against hidden illicit trade.

In Michoacán, Mexico, drying soil threatens water supplies and avocados, says study
- Avocados are grown year-round in the southwestern Mexican state of Michoacán, which exports more than 1 million metric tons of avocados annually.
- A recent study in Michoacán found that between 2001 and 2018, soils with high avocado productivity lost 38 liters per cubic meter of water annually.
- Illegal logging of high-altitude forests to accommodate new avocado plantations simultaneously depletes the aquifer, as avocado trees consume 4-5 times more water than native pines.
- If the trend continues, Michoacán’s avocado-growing areas are expected to suffer increased water stress in the short term, negatively affecting both agricultural production and drinking water access in the region.

Ten years of Mongabay Latam
- Mongabay Latam marks ten years of providing daily environmental news across Spanish-speaking Latin America, with stories distributed through a broad network of mainstream and independent media partners.
- Its locally led reporting has documented environmental change across some of the world’s most biologically and culturally diverse landscapes, while placing Indigenous peoples and other affected communities at the center of the coverage.
- Investigations by the bureau and its partners have contributed to government interventions, land restitution, enforcement action, and greater scrutiny of illegal mining, deforestation, organized crime, and other environmental threats.
- These achievements reflect the work of Mongabay Latam’s staff, contributors, and media partners throughout the region, supported by funders who have sustained independent public-interest journalism.

For Brazil’s Xokleng people, saving a sacred tree means saving their culture
- The Zág Institute, an initiative of the Laklãnõ/Xokleng Indigenous people, is restoring the Brazilian pine on their traditional territory in the state of Santa Catarina.
- Sacred to the Indigenous people, the Brazilian pine is a critically endangered species; replanting it is seen as a way of strengthening their identity.
- Nearly 100,000 seedlings have been planted across 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres), in the process restoring water sources and degraded land.
- The reforestation project involves the whole community in planting the seedlings, which is done through collective efforts throughout the year and also by donating them to Indigenous families.

Third year of wildfires threaten isolated Indigenous group in Bolivia
Wildfires have burned thousands of hectares of forest and savanna in the Chacobo-Pacahuara Indigenous territory in the Beni department of northern Bolivia, according to satellite imagery and on-the-ground sources. The fires likely resulted from illegal burns in pastures surrounding the Indigenous territory. The fires hit Chacobo-Pacahuara in September and October 2025, the third consecutive year […]
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.

Health fears linger in a Brazilian neighborhood built over oil waste
- Official documents show the historic presence of benzene and other contaminants in São Sebastião’s Itatinga neighborhood. Despite reports of illnesses, an epidemiological study planned for assessing the impacts on the population has never been conducted.
- Documents from multiple agencies show the historic presence of oil-derived contaminants, including benzene, in a residential area of the Itatinga neighborhood in São Sebastião, São Paulo.
- For decades, locals have reported cases of cancer, vision loss and respiratory and neurological problems, but a main study intended to look into the health impacts of exposure has never been conducted.
- In 2025, the Cross-Sectional Health Study planned under a Conduct Adjustment Commitment was replaced with funds to be transferred to the city, leaving one of the community’s core demands unanswered.

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 […]

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