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Lula pushes oil drilling at mouth of Amazon despite climate risks
- Despite his climate leadership stance ahead of COP30, Brazilian President Lula da Silva is pushing to approve oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon.
- Lula argues that oil revenues will fund Brazil’s energy transition. Critics say this is a flawed justification for expanding oil extraction under the guise of financing climate solutions.
- If projects get the green light, activists highlight the potential for significant environmental damage, including threats to biodiversity and Indigenous communities.
- Critics fear that approving this project will set a precedent for further oil exploration in the Amazon region, worsening environmental risks. In June, Brazil’s petroleum agency will auction more than 300 oil blocks across the country, including 47 at the mouth of the Amazon and 21 onshore in central Brazil.
Vicuña poop creates biodiversity hotspots as glaciers retreat rapidly
- The vicuña, a wild relative of the llama, could help reestablish plants in barren areas where glaciers have melted, according to a recent study in the high Andes of Peru.
- As vicuñas tend to poop in the same places, they establish communal latrines where soils have much higher moisture, organic matter, nutrients and microorganisms than surrounding areas formerly covered by ice.
- Researchers say they believe these more nutrient-rich soil patches can speed up plant colonization by as much as a century and provide refuge for plant species moving uphill as temperatures increase.
- Peru is losing its glaciers at a worrying speed, with research pointing out that in the Central Andes, between 84% and 98% of their glaciers might disappear by 2050.
Randy Borman (1955-2025): An unlikely guardian of the Amazon rainforest
- Randy Borman, a leader of the Cofan people of the Ecuadorian Amazon, died on February 17th.
- Born to American missionaries in the Amazon, he was raised among the Cofán people and became a lifelong advocate for their land and rights.
- Borman led efforts to gain legal recognition for over a million acres of Cofán territory, ensuring long-term Indigenous control of a vast stretch of rainforest.
- Randy coordinated and helped lead four Rapid Biological Inventories with Chicago Field Museum biologists and local scientists to establish protected areas.
As the rainforest gets drier, Amazon Indigenous groups thirst for clean water
- The 2024 extreme and historical drought that hit the Amazon exposed a chronic problem: access to drinking water and sanitation in Indigenous lands, where only a third of households have proper water supply systems.
- In some Amazon rivers in Brazil, cases of diseases related to inadequate basic sanitation, such as malaria and acute diarrhea, have been increasing amid climate change and population growth.
- Indigenous organizations have been demanding the implementation of adapted infrastructures in the villages, such as water tanks, wells, cesspools and septic tanks.
- The Brazilian federal government already has resources and plans to begin addressing these issues.
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.
The culture of corruption across the Amazon Basin
- Across countries in the Amazon Basin corruption remains a deeply entrenched phenomenon as society has a higher tolerance of fraudulent behavior.
- Corruption encompasses many types of behavior, which can subvert multiple publicly funded activities, while spanning multiple sectors and jurisdictions (national, regional, local).
- Non-elite corruption is more acute in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador and less in Colombia, Brazil, Guyana and Suriname, while elite corruption is widespread and flagrant, with wrongdoers enjoying high levels of impunity.
Deforestation boom in Gran Chaco raises alarm over Argentina’s forest law
- The Gran Chaco was hit by a rise in deforestation in 2024, damaging the dry forest ecosystem that spans an area more than one and a half times the size of California across Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil.
- In 2024, Argentina lost 149,649 hectares (369,791 acres) of its approximately 52.6 million hectares (130 million acres) of Gran Chaco forest — most of it from agriculture and fires, according to a Greenpeace report.
- The problem may stem from a flawed categorization system in which provincial governments are supposed to rate the rigor of forest protections in different areas.
- Critics of the system say it’s out of date and easily manipulated to allow development in forested areas that should otherwise be protected or exploited sustainably.
In the high Andes, a dream to restore a special forest takes root
- In 2024, the United Nations recognized seven landmark projects worldwide as outstanding examples of success under its ongoing Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030).
- One of them was Acción Andina (Andean Action), an initiative that has launched 23 restoration and conservation projects focused on the high-altitude Polylepis forests of Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and Ecuador.
- More than 25,000 people from 200 communities have restored nearly 5,000 hectares (12,400 acres) of these forest and protected more than 11,250 hectares (27,800 acres) of existing woodland.
- The initiative next aims to expand into Colombia and Venezuela.
Two South American scientists win ‘environmental Nobel’ on human-nature divide
Two scientists from South America won the 2025 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement on Feb. 11 for their work on the often-overlooked connection between human societies and the natural world. The winners, Argentinian ecologist Sandra Díaz and Brazilian anthropologist Eduardo Brondízio, will share a $250,000 award, marking the first time individuals from South America have […]
Cargill weakens Amazon no-deforestation vow, raising concerns about wider backslide
Commodity-trading giant Cargill recently signaled that it will weaken its no-deforestation commitments in the Amazon Rainforest, an investigation by Repórter Brasil has revealed. In its latest sustainability report, released in December 2024, Cargill changed how it measures deforestation in its soy supply chain. It had initially committed to following the guidelines of the Amazon Soy […]
‘I’m Still Here’ Eunice Paiva’s pivotal role in Brazil’s Indigenous & environmental rights
- The critically acclaimed film ‘I’m Still Here’ focuses on the personal and political history of Eunice Paiva but offers glimpses of her Indigenous rights work as a lawyer — a rarity in Brazil’s 1980s.
- Paiva is a famed lawyer who went into the field in her 40s after the kidnapping and killing of her husband by Brazil’s military dictatorship.
- Eunice Paiva’s role was critical to the acknowledgement of Indigenous rights in the Constitution of 1988 and the demarcation of Yanomami land in the Amazon Rainforest.
- Mongabay speaks to sources who were close to Eunice Paiva, including a family friend, Indigenous leaders and lawyers, to document her impact on Indigenous rights and the environmental movement in Brazil’s history.
Forest communities craft recommendations for better ART TREES carbon credit standard
- Fourteen organizations representing Indigenous peoples and local communities across Central and South America submitted recommendations to Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) to demand transparent and inclusive carbon market standards at the jurisdictional level.
- The three major recommendations call for more transparency, inclusivity and accountability in jurisdictional programs of the voluntary carbon market through ensuring rights, free, prior and informed consent, and improved access to fair and equitable benefit-sharing.
- Analyzing the shortcomings of voluntary carbon markets surrounding their standards and certification, the signatories are demanding robust mechanisms that existing standards fail to meet or national legislation fails to implement.
- While opinions on voluntary carbon markets remain largely divided, Indigenous leaders and researchers say properly implementing these recommendations can help the carbon market address a $4.1 trillion gap in nature financing by 2050 and support communities.
Brazil has seen a 460% increase in climate-related disasters since the 1990s
- An unprecedented study analyzed data from 1991 to 2023 and found that each 0.1°C increase in average global air temperature led to 360 new climate disaster events and damages in Brazil amounting to R$ 5.6 billion ($970 million).
- The global warming process has accelerated over the current decade, resulting in an average of 4,077 recorded climate-related disasters per year in Brazil, compared to 725 per year during the 1990s — an increase of 460%.
- The extreme events recorded over the period — totaling 64,280 — include droughts, floods and storms in 5,117 Brazilian municipalities; over 219 million people were affected, 78 million of whom during the last four years.
- Despite the increased number of disasters and the damage they caused, Brazil’s federal budget for risk and disaster management has been cut every year between 2012 and 2023 by an average of R$ 200 million ($34.6 million) per year.
Mining dredges return to Amazon River’s main tributary, months after crackdown
- Five months after a major operation by federal forces, illegal mining dredges are back on the Madeira River in the Brazilian Amazon.
- The return of the floating structures shows the resilience of illegal gold mining in the Amazon, which destroys the riverbeds and contaminates the water with mercury.
- As the federal administration closes miners’ siege of Indigenous territories, the illegal miners are migrating to less-monitored areas, experts says.
Ecuador’s next debt-for-nature deal falls short of Indigenous involvement
- Following the success of its first debt-for-nature swap for the Galapagos, Ecuador received $460 million dollars that will be allocated to the conservation of the Amazon.
- The financial organizations involved in the ‘the Amazon Biocorridor Fund’ have publicized the involvement of Indigenous peoples in the process. However, Indigenous leaders have denied these claims and say they have not been involved in full participation.
- On a positive side, the conservation objectives were set based on scientific work by Ecuador’s National Institute of Biodiversity (INABIO), which identified the areas that need to be prioritized based on the richness of their biodiversity.
- The Amazon Biocorridor Fund is set to begin operating this year, and will do so under the supervision of civil society organizations, seeking transparency in the management of resources.
The Pan Amazon as a hotspot of cultural diversity
- The Amazon is known not only for its biodiversity, but also for its cultural richness, built by Indigenous nations and other groups that have migrated to the region over the past 500 years.
- Indigenous communities in the region include those that have experienced various amounts of cultural loss and/or modification of their cultural traditions, as well as urban dwellers who retain their ethnic identity while partially joining a different stakeholder group.
- Non-governmental organizations provide a moral counterweight to many of the forces that make frontier societies unfair, representing both conservative and progressive viewpoints that reflect the diversity of Pan Amazonian society.
In Brazil, free-flight lessons help teach macaws to survive in the wild
- In an unprecedented project in the municipality of São Simão, blue-and-yellow macaws born in captivity were trained in free-flight techniques before being introduced into the wild.
- Traditionally, in psittacine reintroduction projects, captive chicks are only released into the wild at 2 or 3 years of age; with no experience in finding food or defending themselves against predators, many end up dying.
- According to the project’s coordinators, the initiative could signal a new method to be used in parrot and macaw reintroduction programs, offering lower costs and higher chances of success.
Mongabay series on illegal timber and cattle wins honorable mention in Brazil journalism prize
Blood Timber, a Mongabay series on illegal logging and cattle ranching in the eastern Brazilian Amazon, has received an honorable mention at the recent Banrisul ARI Journalism Award, a prize recognizing excellence in journalism in Brazil. The three-part series by journalist Karla Mendes revealed a correlation between environmental crimes and killings of Indigenous Guajajara people, […]
Report reveals staggering levels of wildlife trafficking in Hispanic America
- Crimes against wildlife increasingly threaten biodiversity in Latin America, which is home to 40% of the world’s plant and animal species.
- Between 2017 and 2022, almost 2,000 wildlife seizures and poaching incidents were recorded in the region, according to a recent report. The analysis looked at poaching and trafficking covered in the media in 18 countries across Hispanic America.
- The incidents involved more than 100,000 wild animals and birds, a vast majority of them live, belonging to nearly 700 species; reptiles represented more than half of the seized wildlife.
- The report calls for increased resources to fight wildlife crimes, better law enforcement and strengthening cooperation between countries in the region to combat wildlife crimes.
Indigenous protests in Brazil topple law seen as threat to rural schools
After 23 days of protests, Indigenous groups and teachers in the Brazilian state of Pará have successfully pressured Governor Helder Barbalho to revoke a controversial education law that favored online learning in remote communities and slashed benefits for teachers. The protests erupted in the state capital Belém, host city of the next U.N. climate summit, […]
Handcrafted woodwork helps save an Amazonian reserve, one tree at a time
- A community in the Brazilian Amazon is transforming fallen trunks and dead trees into everyday items and art pieces.
- Household utensils, furniture, miniature trees and jewelry made with forest seeds are some items being produced by women and youth in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve.
- The woodshop sits in a region where rubber tappers have fought for environmental and labor rights for ago, and which still faces deforestation pressure.
Why is this endangered dolphin being killed to make “love perfumes”? | Wild Targets
IQUITOS, Peru – The Plight of the Pink River Dolphin is a short documentary investigating the illegal exploitation of endangered pink river dolphins in the Amazon, driven by a myth about their magical properties. The film reveals how pusangas—perfumes made from dolphin oil and body parts—are sold in markets and online, despite the species being protected […]
What’s at stake for the environment in Ecuador’s upcoming election?
- Ecuador will hold presidential elections on Feb. 9, with incumbent center-right Daniel Noboa facing left-wing challenger Luisa González.
- Both candidates have prioritized security concerns and the economy over environmental issues like climate change, deforestation and water scarcity, but do have some policy proposals that could be promising.
- Noboa and González both promise to increase protections for forests, protected areas and Indigenous communities, but also plan to continue attracting foreign investment in mining, oil and gas, and other activities that threaten Ecuador’s vulnerable ecosystems.
In Ecuador, a mountain shrub could hold the key to restoring a precious ecosystem
- The spread of agriculture, including the use of fires to clear native vegetation, have devastated Ecuador’s páramo, a high-altitude ecosystem that represents a critical source of drinking water for local communities.
- Reforestation of frailejones, a rare shrub species that helps trap humidity from the air and filter water to the ground, may prove key to restoring the ecosystem.
- A privately financed initiative in Ecuador is researching how to grow the shrub at scale in a nursery for mass replanting, but faces teething challenges in this first-of-its-kind initiative for the country.
A cattle ranch is the unlikely scene for saving a fox found only in Brazil
- The hoary fox is the only canine endemic to both the Cerrado biome and Brazil; it’s now trying to survive among cattle pastures and soy plantations.
- Other threats resulting from human contact include road accidents, conflicts with domestic dogs, and various diseases.
- Seeking to protect the species, the Raposinha do Pontal Project combines research, conservation and community engagement on a cattle farm in Goiás state, southern Brazil.
Amazonian manatees are gardeners of the forests, research shows (cartoon)
Confirming a previously hypothesised role of the Amazonian manatee as a gardener of the forests, biologist Michelle Guterres’ study adds another cap to the already impressive portfolio of this gentle giant. Amazonian manatees are listed ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red list because of hunting, climate change, droughts and habitat loss. Banner image: Amazonian manatees at a rescue […]
Brazilian soy farms and cattle pastures close in on a land where the grass is golden
- Deforestation, wildfires, illegal land use and climate changes are sources of concern for the traditional Afro-Brazilian quilombola communities in Brazil’s Jalapão region.
- Communities here rely on the sustainable harvest of the region’s native “golden grass” to craft traditional items that provide their main source of income.
- Jalapão is home to the largest mosaic of protected areas in the Cerrado, the savanna biome where the most the deforestation in Brazil occurs today: 5 million hectares (12.4 million acres) of native vegetation have been lost over the last six years.
- Jalapão’s golden grass has earned a Geographical Indication seal, giving the communities bragging rights and exclusivity for the product; but local craftspeople say there’s less of the grass to be found in the humid areas where it grows.
Amazon states lead rebellion on environmental enforcement
- Brazilian Amazon states are leading an offensive against environmental regulations in the Amazon and beyond.
- The movement gained momentum in October when Brazil’s granary, Mato Grosso state, approved a bill undermining a voluntary agreement to protect the Amazon from soy expansion.
- Before Mato Grosso, other Amazon states like Acre and Rondônia had already approved bills reducing protected areas and weakening the fight against illegal mining.
- With its economy highly reliant on agribusiness, Mato Grosso is considered a successful model for other parts of the Amazon.
Agriculture, illegal ranching and roads threaten the jaguar in Mesoamerica
- Jaguar habitats in the Mesoamerica region, spanning Mexico and Central America, are under severe threat from deforestation, illegal ranching, monoculture plantations, forest fires, and hunting, which disrupt connectivity between populations.
- Conservation efforts have focused on maintaining wildlife corridors, particularly in Guatemala, Belize and Honduras, to preserve genetic diversity and prevent population fragmentation.
- Local and international initiatives, such as the Jaguar Corridor Initiative and Jaguar 2030 plan, aim to protect Jaguar Conservation Units (JCUs) and promote sustainable land-use alternatives to deforestation.
- Collaboration between governments, NGOs and Indigenous communities is crucial to securing jaguar populations, as well as the broader ecosystems they help regulate, experts say.
Collective action, civil disobedience and blockades in the Amazon
- Rebellion by Indigenous people and centuries-long resistance to domination by European and Creole elites inspired more frequent protests against inequality and working conditions across the Amazon Basin.
- Non-violent resistance tactics in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and less in Colombia – which included blocking highways, disrupting commerce and threatening the survival of governments – were pioneered by campesino organizations protesting the unequal distribution of land.
- In Brazil, unequal land distribution is the main feature of an inequitable economic system that has driven tens of thousands of landless peasants to invade the properties of absent landholders.
On a São Paulo eco-farm, Brazil’s landless movement makes its case for occupation
- Founded by peasants and progressive members of the Catholic Church, the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) advocates for a fair distribution of land ownership, agrarian reform and agroecological practices in Brazil.
- To achieve its goals, MST occupies rural lands lying idle to force the Brazilian state to implement its constitutional duty to expropriate and redistribute such lands if they aren’t serving the public good.
- On May 21, 2024, Brazil’s lower House of Congress passed a bill that would penalize people occupying public or private land by excluding them from receiving any public benefits, including those related to agrarian reform programs.
Yanomami sees success two years into Amazon miner evictions, but fears remain
- Brazil’s federal government celebrated a decrease in deaths and the decline in gold mining two years after agents started to evict invaders on the Yanomami Indigenous territory in the Amazon.
- The Yanomami report that rivers are cleaner, and people are finally healthy enough to work in fields and resume rituals.
- Once estimated as 20,000 in the territory, hundreds of illegal miners still remain and may expand business at the slightest sign of the security forces withdrawing.
Drop in Amazon deforestation confirmed, but degradation soars 497% in 2024
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped by 7% in 2024 compared to 2023, according to an analysis by Imazon, a Brazil-based organization that uses satellite imagery to monitor changes in the world’s largest rainforest. However, the news was not entirely positive for conservation efforts: forest degradation skyrocketed by 497%, driven primarily by fires that scorched […]
Blob-headed fish and four mammals among 27 newly described species in Peru’s Alto Mayo
- Researchers, along with Indigenous Awajún community members have described 27 new-to-science species including a squirrel representing an entirely new genus, a semiaquatic mouse with webbed toes, a spiny mouse, short-tailed fruit bat, three new amphibians, eight new fish, a land-walking swamp eel, 10 new butterflies, and two new dung beetles.
- The 38-day expedition in Peru’s Alto Mayo region used traditional survey methods and modern technology to document more than 2,000 species in an area home to many people.
- The partnership highlighted how Indigenous knowledge complemented scientific research, with Awajún community members helping locate rare species while learning scientific methods, though many “discoveries” were species their people had known about for generations.
- The Alto Mayo region faces significant deforestation pressure from farming expansion, prompting Conservation International to pursue various protection strategies including ecological restoration zones and sustainable enterprises like agroforestry.
Calls for protection as new images emerge of uncontacted Amazonian tribe
- Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency, Funai, recently released unprecedented images of a group of nine men from an uncontacted tribe in the Massaco Indigenous Territory, in the Amazon region.
- Funai’s monitoring activities also confirmed the presence of uncontacted groups in the Kawahiva do Rio Pardo Indigenous Territory, also in the Amazon; in the latter case, however, agents also found a campsite set up by outsiders inside the territory, in an area where the isolated tribe had previously been recorded.
- Indigenous rights groups say they’re concerned about the situation of isolated and uncontacted Indigenous groups in Brazil, particularly the Kawahiva, whose presence was only officially confirmed 26 years ago.
- A Supreme Federal Court decision from late 2024 ordered Funai to set up a time frame for completing the demarcation process of the Kawahiva do Rio Pardo territory, which it hasn’t yet published.
Early results suggest communities stop logging during basic income pilot project
- An unconditional cash-transfer pilot project for Indigenous peoples in Peru’s Amazon is underway to help support families who turn to unsustainable or illegal forest activities due to economic stress and food insecurity.
- According to the latest internal assessment of the project, three communities are no longer engaging in illegal forest activities, like logging, to make ends meet.
- There are not yet any independent assessments on the conservation impacts of the two-year pilot project, which ends in November 2025.
- The impacts of a ‘conservation basic income’ for communities living near sensitive biodiversity-rich areas is under debate, and the scant available evidence can both point in favor or against it depending on the context.
EUDR divides Brazil’s environmental and agribusiness authorities
- The Brazilian authorities in charge of environmental protection and agribusiness have taken opposing positions on the EUDR, the European Union’s new antideforestation regulation.
- Once it comes into effect in December 2025, the EUDR will require that products imported into the EU containing one of seven key commodities aren’t sourced from areas that were deforested after December 2020.
- These products include soy, cattle, rubber, coffee and timber, of which Brazil is a major global producer and exporter.
- While the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock has criticized the EUDR and pushed for its implementation to be postponed, the federal environmental agency, IBAMA, has welcomed the regulation as an important instrument to help tackle deforestation and an opportunity for agribusiness to become more transparent and sustainable.
‘We’re getting back on track’: Interview with IBAMA head Rodrigo Agostinho
- Rodrigo Agostinho, head of IBAMA, Brazil’s federal environmental agency, for two years now, spoke with Mongabay about the progress of his agency and the challenges it faces in protecting the country’s biomes after four years of regression under former president Jair Bolsonaro.
- Agostinho revealed plans to strengthen the agency and try to reach the 2030 zero-deforestation goal before the deadline, with investments in cutting-edge technology and artificial intelligence: “IBAMA went four years without using satellite images for embargoes. We’ve taken that up again with full force”.
- Agostinho also detailed IBAMA’s restructuring plans, with the opening of offices in the Amazon and support from financial authorities to cut off funding for embargoed areas: “We embargo them due to deforestation, and then that person can’t get agricultural financing anymore.”
In the Pan Amazon, inequality and informality fuel informal economies
- In the mid-twentieth century, the combination of poverty and inequality generated political instability that gave rise to socialist and nationalist movements in different Amazonian countries.
- In societies as stratified as those of the Pan Amazon, shaped by class, ethnicity and geography, inequality is sustained by very real and concrete structural barriers.
- This has resulted in the exponential growth of the informal economy, in which people do not pay taxes to their governments. Irregularities extend to the rural economy, in which smallholder farmers and miners operate without regulation, often damaging ecosystems.
As Gálapagos ecotourism booms, top naturalist guide urges sustainability
- Galápagos National Park and the marine reserve protecting the islands’ surrounding waters welcome 300,000 visitors a year and support sustainable fisheries and tourism jobs for about 30,000 residents.
- The Ecuadorian government restricts the number of visitors accessing each island or dive site daily, and requires each tourist or group to hire a guide to accompany them, ensuring that maximum ecological information is shared and that park rules aimed at protecting the unique flora and fauna are followed.
- Many hundreds of Galápagos residents work year-round in this capacity, like veteran guide Marco Andres Vizcaino Garcia, who Mongabay interviewed about the challenges and opportunities he sees for ecotourism, conservation and research across these iconic islands he calls home.
This rescue center saves Rio’s wildlife from poachers | Wild Targets
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – In September 2024, Vida Livre Institute, a wildlife rescue center, received an unusual call from the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden staff. They were sending over two monkeys who were behaving strangely and had to be assessed by the Institute’s veterinarian. After running a few tests, the vet confirmed that […]
Indigenous communities rise up against prison projects in Ecuador
- During his 2023 campaign, Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa, today the country’s president, promised to build two new maximum-security prisons as a way to tackle rising violence and gang-controlled prisons.
- Both prisons were planned in areas with sensitive ecosystems and claimed by Indigenous communities; yet the state failed to seek the consent of the communities, as required under Ecuador’s Constitution.
- One prison has been under construction in the coastal province of Santa Elena since June 2024, for which 30 hectares (74 acres) of tropical dry forest, one of Ecuador’s most threatened ecosystems, have so far been cleared, triggering local community protests.
- The second prison was planned for the Amazonian community of Archidona in Napo province; but after two weeks of intense protests in December, the government decided to move the project to Santa Elena, just 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the other project.
Study shows degradation changes a forest’s tree profile and its carbon storage
- In highly deforested landscapes and degraded forests, large-seeded big trees are losing out to opportunistic, fast-growing species, a recent study has found.
- Having examined 1,207 tree species across 271 forest plots in six Brazilian regions in the Amazon Rainforest and Atlantic Forest, the study shows that tree species normally dominating landscapes with a high forest cover seem to be in decline.
- The researchers suggest this is because the relatively large wildlife needed to disperse large seeds disappear early on from human-modified landscapes, allowing trees with smaller seeds, and thus smaller dispersers like birds, to dominate the forestscape.
- As forests become increasingly degraded, they lose their functional characteristics, as soft-wood, fast-growing trees have less ability to store carbon, are less resistant to fire and drought, and generally die younger.
Traditional ecological knowledge isn’t dying — it’s adapting and transforming (Commentary)
- Traditional ecological knowledge in the central Peruvian Amazon is not simply being lost to time, but is rather adapting and evolving to a new modern context.
- Ecotourism is providing important job opportunities for Peruvian Amazonian young adults.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, and not necessarily Mongabay.
Brazil’s ‘innovative’ reforestation agenda discussed in Davos (commentary)
- At the World Economic Forum 2025 in Davos this week, a coalition of leaders from across Brazilian sectors will discuss the integrated, pre-competitive agenda needed to scale forest restoration.
- Forest restoration is a key part of successful climate action, providing carbon removal, biodiversity protection and sustainable economic growth, but it requires immediate investment and action, the authors of a new op-ed write.
- Brazil’s coordinated approach across business, finance, and conservation sectors has resulted in approximately $528 million in restoration investments in the past 18 months, setting a global example for impactful forest restoration and climate action.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.
Probe details the playbook of one of Amazon’s top land grabbers
- Professional land grabbers operating in the Brazilian Amazon have sophisticated strategies to steal and deforest public lands and get away with it.
- According to the Federal Police, Bruno Heller is one of Amazon’s largest deforesters and relied on legal and technical advice, including a fake contract, bribing police officers, and near-real-time monitoring of deforestation work through satellite imagery, investigators said.
- Low penalties and hurdles faced by federal bodies in seizing back stolen lands from criminals have spurred the land-grabbing industry in Brazil.
Plans for bauxite mine in Suriname reignite Indigenous land rights debate
- A bauxite mine run by Chinese corporation Chinalco could begin operating next year, endangering a 280,000-hectare (about 692,000 acres) area of western Suriname inhabited by Indigenous communities.
- The mine will require refurbishing and expanding infrastructure for a harbor and railroad built in the 1970s, and gives the company “priority right” to use the Corantijn river for dredging.
- Indigenous groups said they weren’t properly consulted about the project and that the government is unfairly labeling their territory as public domain.
Vested interests and social tribes in the Pan Amazon
- Local and regional actors, particularly commercial and landowner elites in mid-sized cities, play an important role in the expansion and improvement of road networks. In Brazil, lobbying by private interests played a big role in the development of Rodovia Transamazônica and BR-319.
- In Brazil, agribusinesses exert political power via the Frente Parlamentar da Agropecuária (FPA), often referred to as the Bancada Ruralista, a multi-party congressional voting bloc.
- One of the most significant accomplishment of the ruralistas was their 2012 campaign to modify Brazil’s the Forest Code. Changes included amnesty for property owners who had illegally deforested land before 2008 and adjusted requirements to reforest portions of landholdings that had exceeded legal deforestation limits.
Mongabay documentary spotlights Indigenous alliance to protect Amazon headwaters
Mongabay’s new short documentary The Time of Water premiered Dec. 16 at the Barcelona Center for Contemporary Culture, in Spain. Directed by Pablo Albarenga and produced with support from the Pulitzer Center and OpenDemocracy, the 18-minute documentary explores the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance and its fight to protect one of the world’s most vital sources […]
Brazil’s Amazon shipping plan faces criticism for environmental and social impact
Brazil is set to approve a controversial expansion of 2,000 kilometers, or more than 1,200 miles, of new shipping channels in the Amazon. With a price tag in the billions of reais, the expansion is needed to ensure cheaper, more efficient transportation of agricultural commodities out of the Amazon, the government says. But an investigation by […]
Krahô women lead Indigenous guard to protect territory in Brazil
- Indigenous women from Krahô communities in Brazil’s Tocantins state have formed a surveillance group to protect their ancestral territory from invaders.
- The thirteen Krahô Warriors received training in surveillance and carry out operations for 15 days each month.
- They plan and implement territorial protection actions based on Krahô traditions and ways of life.
- The Kraolândia Indigenous Land (TI) is under pressure from loggers, hunters, charcoal factories, and agribusinesses that surround the territory.
World’s record heat is worsening air pollution and health in Global South
- 2024 was the hottest year on record, producing intense, long-lasting heat waves. Climate change-intensified extreme events last year included the formation of vast heat domes — areas of high pressure that stalled and persisted above continental land masses in Asia, Africa, South and North America, and Europe.
- Heat domes intensify unhealthy air pollution from vehicles, industry, wildfires and dust storms. When a heat wave gripped New Delhi, India, last summer, temperatures soared, resulting in unhealthy concentrations of ground-level ozone — pollutants especially unhealthy for outdoor workers.
- When climate change-driven heat, drought and record wildfires occurred in the Brazilian Amazon last year, the fires produced massive amounts of wood smoke containing dangerous levels of toxic particulates that cause respiratory disease. Indigenous people living in remote areas had little defense against the smoke.
- Intense heat also impacted Nigeria in 2024, where major dust storms and rising temperatures created conditions that helped increased cases of meningitis — a sometimes deadly disease, especially in poor areas. Escalating climate change is expected to exacerbate pollution and worsen public health in the future.
After a searing Amazon fire season, experts warn of more in 2025
- South America recorded the highest number of fire outbreaks in 14 years in 2024, with Brazil at the epicenter of the crisis.
- In the Amazon, fire outbreaks grew out of control even amid a sharp reduction in deforestation rates, indicating deforesters are relying on fire as a new technique to clear land.
- Experts are urging more investment in fire prevention since the rainforest may face another intense fire season in 2025.
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.
Latin America in 2024: politics, turmoil and hope
- In 2024, Latin America continued facing chronic issues of deforestation, ecosystem contamination, violence, habitat loss and political turmoil.
- Changes brought on by presidential elections in several countries have not brought on significant changes for the environment, at least not yet, with effects still to be seen in the years to come.
- Increased criminal activity in the region remains a serious obstacle to conservation work, endangering local and Indigenous communities, while highlighting governments’ inability to tackle narco-trafficking and its associated consequences.
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.
Amazon communities reap the smallest share of bioeconomy profits
- Recently praised by environmentalists, governments and companies as a solution for rainforest conservation, bioeconomy has been practiced for centuries by Amazon’s traditional communities.
- Despite their key role in generating income from the standing forest, these communities continue to reap the smallest share of the profits, according to a new book.
- Traditional people need more financing, better access to energy and improved roads to get their products into the market.
Conservation corridors provide hope for Latin America’s felines
- Latin America’s feline species are losing their habitat and becoming trapped in small patches.
- Scientists are concerned about isolated populations and trapped individuals that are unable to migrate. This isn’t the only threat: reprisal hunting, vehicle collisions and the incursion of feral and undomesticated dogs into wild areas means that many cats could be on the path to extinction.
- Researchers say biological corridors are vital for their conservation.
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.
Camera traps reveal first jaguar in northwestern Ecuador forests in years
Two separate camera-trap surveys have captured videos and images of jaguars in two different forests in Ecuador’s northwest, where the animal hadn’t been spotted for several years. Subsequent analysis confirmed that it was the same individual moving between the two forests, according to a new study. The first camera-trap survey by researchers from the Central […]
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