Sites: news | india | latam | brasil | indonesia
Feeds: news | india | latam | brasil | indonesia
topic: Amazon Rainforest
Social media activity version | Lean version
Collapses of Amazon riverbanks threaten communities and shipping routes
- Extreme droughts, human interventions and growing boat traffic are contributing to riverbank collapses that endanger riverside communities in the Brazilian Amazon.
- Four public river ports in Amazonas state have been damaged by riverbank collapses in the past decade, prompting concerns about the safety of Amazon port infrastructure.
- Brazil’s Federal Public Ministry is investigating alleged failures to prevent collapses at regional ports that connect riverside communities and provide access to essential services.
New financial tools boost traditional bioeconomy projects in the Amazon
- The Brazil Restoration and Bioeconomy Finance Coalition (BRB FC), an alliance of NGOs, funders and financial institutions, aims to mobilize $10 billion by 2030 to support Indigenous and traditional communities-led enterprises.
- By supporting these initiatives, BRB FC and other projects seek to help communities restore millions of hectares of degraded land in the Amazon rainforest, the Cerrado savanna, the semiarid Caatinga, and the Atlantic Forest.
- Existing conventional financial systems often exclude grassroots initiatives due to rigid, centralized requirements that clash with local governance and realities.
- With the shift championed by BRB FC, proponents say low-bureaucracy funding models can effectively reach and empower forest-based communities while supporting the bioeconomy.
Amazon’s stingless bee propolis shows potent healing power, studies show
- Researchers in Brazil identified anti-inflammatory properties of a cream made with the propolis of Amazon stingless bees, with results similar to commercial healing ointments.
- Stingless bees (meliponines) are the primary pollinators for the açaí berry, making their conservation crucial for both the Amazon ecosystem and a billion-dollar global industry.
- For one Amazon family, swapping cattle ranching for beekeeping and cosmetics is a real-world example of a bioeconomy that experts say offers a powerful alternative to deforestation.
New agreement aims to streamline Amazon Rainforest protection efforts
- A new agreement announced at the COP30 climate talks in Brazil intends to unify countries and institutions from around the world to monitor and protect the Amazon Rainforest.
- The Mamirauá Declaration aims to develop a streamlined framework that will unify various long-term efforts to streamline data gathering and analysis.
- The agreement focuses on the active participation of Indigenous peoples and local communities in monitoring; it also calls for more capacity building in countries in the Amazon Basin.
What was achieved for Indigenous peoples at COP30?
- The two-week COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, saw the largest global participation of Indigenous leaders in the conference’s history.
- With the adoption of measures like the Intergovernmental Land Tenure Commitment, a $1.8 billion funding pledge, and the launch of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), the summit resulted in historic commitments to secure land tenure rights for Indigenous peoples, local communities and Afro-descendant people.
- Yet despite these advances, sources say frustrations grew as negotiators failed to establish pathways for rapid climate finance for adaptation, loss and damage, or to create road maps for reversing deforestation and phasing out fossil fuels.
- While some pledges appear ambitious, Indigenous delegates say effective implementation of the pledges will depend on government transparency and accountable use of funds.
Top ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin’s COP30 reflections on Amazon conservation (analysis)
- The global battle to mitigate climate change cannot be won in the Amazon, but it can certainly be lost there, writes top ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin in a new analysis for Mongabay. Though he’s well-known for investigating traditional uses of plants in the region, he’s also a keen observer of and advocate for Indigenous communities and conservation there.
- Compared to the 1970s, he writes, the Amazon enjoys far greater formal protection, understanding and attention, while advances in technology and ethnobotany have revealed new insights into tropical biodiversity, and Indigenous communities — long the guardians and stewards of this ecosystem — are increasingly recognized as central partners in conservation, and their shamans employ hallucinogens like biological scalpels to diagnose, treat and sometimes cure ailments, a technology that is increasingly and ever more widely appreciated.
- “The challenge now is to ensure that the forces of protection outpace the forces of destruction, which, of course, is one of the ultimate goals of the COP30 meeting in Belém,” he writes.
- This article is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Strategic ignorance, climate change and Amazonia (commentary)
- With the support of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, essentially all of Brazil’s government outside of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change is promoting actions that push us toward tipping points, both for the Amazon Rainforest and the global climate.
- Crossing any of these tipping points would result in global warming escaping from human control, with devastating consequences for Brazil that include mass mortalities.
- The question of whether Brazil’s leaders understand the consequences of their actions is relevant to how they will be judged by history, but the climatic consequences follow automatically, regardless of how these actions may be judged, a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
On the frontline of the Amazon land war
TERRA NOSSA, Brazil — In 2024, Mongabay investigative reporter Fernanda Wenzel traveled to one of the most dangerous spots in the Brazilian Amazon — a region where a silent land war is destroying the forest and costing lives. Her goal: to understand why three groups are locked in conflict here — land grabbers, settlers, and […]
Peru Indigenous patrols see success & struggles in combating illegal miners
- In 2024, the Wampís Indigenous nation formed the territorial monitoring group Charip to combat the expansion of illegal gold mining, loggers and other invaders in their territory in the Peruvian Amazon.
- Charip combines traditional knowledge with monitoring technology but lacks the financial resources to expand its control posts and cover more ground.
- Members of the group are unpaid, which has led to a decline in the number of available guards.
Indigenous delegates prepare for COP30 with focus on justice, land and finance
- The 2025 U.N. climate conference, COP30, will run from Nov. 10-21 in Belém, Brazil, and is expected to host the largest participation of Indigenous peoples in the conference series’ history, with more than 3,000 Indigenous delegates registered.
- Mongabay spoke with some of the delegates from Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific about their expectations for the conference and their objectives.
- They’re calling for recognition of Indigenous lands as a climate solution, a just energy transition, protection for forest defenders, and financial pledges that ensure at least 20% of forest conservation funds be directed to Indigenous and local communities.
- COP30 is expected to launch initiatives such as the Belém Action Mechanism for a just transition and the Tropical Forest Forever Facility. In the lead up to the conference, governments and donors also announced major commitments to recognize customary lands and provide funding support land rights.
These banks fund oil & gas in the Amazon amid climate crisis: Report
- Since 2016, banks have provided $15 billion in direct financing for oil and gas extraction in the Amazon, according to a Stand.earth analysis of transactions from 330 banks.
- Between January 2024 and June 2025, direct financing added up to $2 billion, with more than 80% benefiting just six oil and gas companies.
- Some banks have scaled back this type of financing, mostly due to the adoption of Amazon exclusion policies, but none have stopped completely.
- The continued financing of oil and gas extraction in the Amazon comes amid a wider rollback of banks’ sustainability pledges and an increase in fossil fuel financing globally.
Critical minerals drive legalization of mining on Amazon Indigenous lands
- Brazilian lawmakers are advancing controversial bills to legalize mining on Indigenous lands, where hundreds of mining bids have already been filed, as the nation positions itself as a key supplier for the energy transition.
- The proposed expansion of mining would intensify deforestation and mercury pollution, bringing violence to Indigenous communities and threatening the Amazon, reports show.
- The move raises concerns among Indigenous organizations and experts, who warn that the bills are unconstitutional and may be taken without properly consulting traditional communities.
Brazil’s Amazon deforestation falls 11% even as fires surge to record levels
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest fell by 11% from August 2024 to July this year, the government said Thursday, even as wildfires tracked by Brazil’s space agency surged to record levels amid a severe drought. According to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), 5,796 square kilometers (2,238 square miles) of forest were […]
Belém faces its social and natural demons as host to COP30
- Deforestation and the city’s historic shift from rivers to roads led to a massive influx of people into low-lying baixadas, where 57% of residents lack services, such as sewage, and are highly prone to flooding.
- The lack of trees in one of the Amazon’s most revered cities, especially in poor neighborhoods, contributes to projections that Belém will face 222 days of extreme heat by 2050.
- Experts argue that the infrastructure projects being implemented don’t offer sustainable solutions, reflecting a long-term failure to address Belém’s water and sewage crises.
Dom Phillips & Bruno Pereira ‘would be killed again,’ Indigenous leader says
- Three years after the killings of British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, threats remain in the Javari Valley, in the Brazilian Amazon, despite government efforts to halt violence in the region, prominent Indigenous leader Beto Marubo said.
- “The factors that caused the killings remain the same: drug trafficking and the increase in invasions of Indigenous lands,” Marubo told Mongabay in an interview in São Paulo.
- Phillips and Pereira were killed while the British journalist was investigating illegal fishing in the region for his book; Marubo was one of the contributors who helped to finish the book, launched in May in the U.S., Brazil and the U.K.
- Aware of the importance of the book, Marubo made a commitment to help promote the book. to elevate the voice of those who lost their lives defending the Amazon: “Despite all these deaths — not only Dom and Bruno, but also Chico Mendes, Dorothy Stang and so many others who die for the protection of the environment — they are forgotten, they are relegated; they are just numbers, just records in our history.”
The rise of anti-corruption prosecutors in the Amazon region
- One of the most critical links in enforcing environmental laws is the public prosecutor’s office. Across the region, its efficiency varies, with the majority of cases still under investigation or dismissed.
- Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru have focused on strengthening anti-corruption prosecutors’ offices. One of the most high-profile cases was Lava Jato, which led to the arrest of officials and businesspeople in different parts of South America.
- However, in countries such as Bolivia and Venezuela, prosecutors have used the judicial system to attack corruption in the political opposition.
Indigenous guardians successfully keep extractives out of Ecuador’s Amazon forests
- For generations, the Pakayaku community in Ecuador’s Amazon has successfully kept unsustainable mining, logging and oil extraction activities out of forests while preserving their cultural traditions and ecological knowledge.
- Mongabay visited the community to see their guardian program, made up of 45 women warriors who constantly patrol 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres) of rainforest to detect incursions — which few have been allowed to witness firsthand.
- The community created a “plan of life” map that details their vision, identity and economic alternatives to extraction.
- Leaders worry Ecuador’s concentration on courting international investment in sectors like mining and natural gas could threaten the forests.
Voices from the Land
cIndigenous peoples are experiencing firsthand the impacts of the environmental and climate crises on their lands and communities. This commentary series, produced by the collective Passu Creativa with the support of Earth Alliance, is written by Indigenous leaders from around the world, including Goldman Prize winners, political officials, and representatives of grassroots movements. These leaders […]
Copper rush pushes Vale to ramp up mining near Amazonian protected areas
- Mining giant Vale has obtained a preliminary license for its Bacaba project, the first step toward doubling its copper production in the Brazilian Amazon over the next decade.
- Experts warn the expansion, near several conservation areas, will worsen deforestation, increase water stress and raise the risk of pollution.
- The global demand for copper is expected to rise by more than 40% by 2040, and almost all of Brazil’s known reserves are in the Amazon.
There’s far less land available for reforestation than we think, study finds
- In recent years, policymakers have made pledges for huge tree-planting projects a cornerstone for meeting national carbon reduction goals, while doing little to seriously cut fossil fuel emissions. But a new study shows the carbon sequestration estimates made for those forestation projects may be wildly optimistic.
- The new research determined that land found suitable for forestation in past studies — an area about the size of India — shrank by as much as two-thirds when adverse impacts on biodiversity, food security and water resources were taken into account.
- When the new study figured in environmental and social constraints, the potential for existing tree-planting pledges to store a promised 40 gigatons of carbon by 2050, was reduced to just 12.5 gigatons — a significant sum, but far from what’s needed to offset continued fossil fuel use.
- The new study urges policymakers to be more pragmatic in their planting strategies, and prioritize lands best slated for permanent reforestation. Other researchers urge decision-makers to put more effort and money into protecting already existing biodiverse forests, which hold high carbon storage potential.
Amid Venezuela’s illegal gold heist are armed groups, gangs & elites, report says
- A new report by the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition says at least 86% of Venezuela’s gold is produced illegally and is often controlled by military elites, guerrilla groups and transnational gangs.
- Approximately 70% of what is produced, valued at more than $4.4 billion in 2021, is smuggled and laundered internationally through shell companies and opaque supply chains, including to the U.S.
- Illegal gold mining has led to several socioenvironmental impacts in Indigenous communities, such as mercury poisoning, sexual exploitation, forced labor and deforestation.
- The authors of the report propose several policy solutions the U.S. can implement to address the issue, including tightening oversight, closing legal loopholes and restoring enforcement capacity.
Indigenous myths reveal Amazon’s past truths: Interview with Stéphen Rostain
- Recent archaeological findings, bolstered by laser-based lidar mapping and by archaeologist Stéphen Rostain, reveal that the Amazon supported vast and complex ancient urban societies.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Rostain says the ancient Upano Valley culture in Ecuador collapsed due to severe drought, offering a stark warning for the Amazon’s current climate vulnerability.
- Rostain says he’s hopeful that a new archaeological understanding of the Amazon will challenge centuries of prejudice against Indigenous people and offer answers for the future.
Seven Indigenous paths to protect the Amazon: Voices from the land (commentary)
- Indigenous leaders representing more than 511 peoples from the Amazon Basin met in Brasília to discuss the solutions they are implementing in their territories to address the global climate crisis, Indigenous authors of this commentary say.
- They affirm seven commitments, which they say can help change the course of the climate crisis.
- “The Amazon is close to the point of no return,” they write in this opinion piece. “Avoiding this is a shared and urgent responsibility. Strong and respectful alliances with Indigenous peoples are the best strategy for protecting life.”
- This commentary is part of the Voices from the Land series, a compilation of Indigenous-led opinion pieces. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.
First review of Amazon plastic pollution finds widespread contamination
Plastic pollution is widespread across the Amazon Rainforest’s rivers, plants and animals, according to a recent study. Previous research suggests up to 10% of total plastics in the ocean arrive there via the vast network of waterways that’s the Amazon Basin. To understand how and where plastic pollution is present within the basin itself, researchers […]
New deal pushes Amazon’s controversial ‘tipping point road’ ahead
- Brazil’s President Lula has personally cemented his support for the project and set his cabinet to work out a deal to renew the BR-319 highway, which passes through one of the most preserved areas of the Amazon.
- Scientists warn the highway will create a “fishbone effect” of illegal side roads, fueling deforestation that could push the Amazon past a critical tipping point and trigger its irreversible conversion into a savanna.
- A recent congressional reform, labeled the “Devastation Bill” by activists, allows strategic projects like BR-319 to bypass full environmental reviews and shifts approval authority to a politically appointed council.
Peru court upholds 28 years in prison for loggers in Indigenous murders
- Eleven years after the murders of four Indigenous leaders of the Alto Tamaya Saweto community, an appeals court ratified the sentences for four loggers.
- The judges upheld the initial sentence of 28 years and three months in prison for loggers José Estrada and Hugo Soria, as well as brothers Josimar and Segundo Atachi.
- Meanwhile, Eurico Mapes Gómez, accused by the Public Ministry of being a third material author of the murders, was not sentenced, having been a fugitive of justice since 2022, when the first trial took place.
- The defendants failed to attend the hearing, and an arrest warrant was issued for the four loggers.
Ethnologist Martín von Hildebrand awarded Lovejoy Prize for Amazon conservation
The second recipient of the Thomas E. Lovejoy Prize, launched in 2024, was announced Sept. 23 at the Central Park Zoo in New York City, during New York’s climate week. Martín von Hildebrand, an ethnologist and anthropologist, won the award for his decades of work with Indigenous communities in the Colombian Amazon, helping them secure […]
Indigenous women in Peru use technology to protect Amazon forests
- Kichwa, Ticuna and Matsés women are leading forest patrols and training other women in the use of technology such as GPS, drones and satellite alerts.
- They are protecting the forest not only as an ecosystem, but also as a vital source of life, food, medicine and cultural heritage for their communities.
- Studies show that access to such technology has helped Indigenous communities significantly reduce forest loss.
- Through cunas, community childcare spaces, women are able to participate actively in forest monitoring workshops while passing ancestral knowledge to new generations, ensuring cultural continuity.
Indigenous fishers lead science-backed conservation of Colombia’s wetlands
- A community-based monitoring project is helping protect the rich diversity of freshwater fish species in the Ramsar-listed wetlands in the Colombian Amazon.
- By combining ancestral knowledge with scientific tools, Indigenous Amazonian leaders say their communities are strengthening their connection to their territory.
- Community monitoring and training efforts have helped inform fishing regulations to better protect ecosystems and ensure the sustainability of local populations’ livelihoods.
The mire of Brazil’s BR-319 highway: Deforestation, development, and the banality of evil (commentary)
- Brazil’s BR-319 highway project is moving inexorably forward toward approval and construction, with the individual actors in the different government agencies acting to fulfill their assigned duties despite the overall consequence being potentially disastrous for Brazil and for global climate.
- The bureaucratic system failure this represents was codified as the “banality of evil” by Hannah Arendt, a problem that applies to many bureaucracies around the world, resulting in major impacts for the environment.
- President Lula is in a position to act on behalf of the wider interests of Brazil, but so far, he has isolated himself in a “disinformation space” that excludes consideration of the overall impacts of BR-319 and other damaging proposals in the Amazon.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
The formula that reduced deforestation in Brazil in the 21st century
- In 2009, the Brazilian government made a commitment to the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to decrease deforestation by 80% by 2020, but exceeded that target in 2012, when the annual deforestation rate was only 20% of its twenty-year historical mean.
- The Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (PPCDAm) is considered one of Lula da Silva’s major wins during his first two terms as president. Although the initiative did not eliminate deforestation, its policies succeeded in changing human behavior and business models on the forest frontier.
- In 2019, president Jair Bolsonaro defunded the programme’s law-and-order components and dissolved the PPCDAm, while running limited activities to combat deforestation.
- Once Lula de Silva got re-elected in 2023, he revived the program, which now focuses less on command-and-control measures like deforestation fines and land-use planning, and more on promoting sustainable livelihoods.
New conservation area protects 53% of carbon in northern Peruvian Amazon
- Peru’s government has established the Medio Putumayo Algodón Regional Conservation Area in the Loreto region of the Amazon Rainforest.
- This new protected area holds 53% of Peru’s carbon stock, which will be conserved by preventing deforestation in the region.
- The regional conservation area covers more than 283,000 hectares of primary rainforest along the Putumayo River, which links Peru and Colombia.
- The area will benefit 16 Indigenous communities, including the Murui (Huitoto), Yagua, Ocaina, Kukama Kukamiria, Kichwa, Maijuna and Bora peoples.
An ancient Indigenous civilization endures beneath an Amazon urban soy hub
- Ocara-Açu, a vast precolonial Amazon settlement, underlies the modern-day city of Santarém in Brazil, once serving as the core of a regional network that may have housed up to 60,000 people before the invasion of Europeans.
- Occasionally, Santarém’s rich Indigenous heritage surfaces through the cracks in the urban concrete, although archaeological sites have disappeared as a result of urban expansion, agriculture, and the construction of a soy terminal by commodities giant Cargill.
- Archaeological discoveries in the Santarém region challenge the long-held belief that the Amazon was too harsh to sustain large, complex human cultures, revealing a radically different urban paradigm.
Brazil can green its environmental crime-fighting in the Amazon (commentary)
- Brazil’s special operations unit known as the Grupo de Especialização de Fiscalização (GEF) targets destructive criminal groups involved in illegal gold mining in the Amazon, which encroaches on territories inhabited by Indigenous communities and releases heavy metals such as mercury into the environment.
- While GEF’s strikes against such operations are often effective in disrupting them, their methods can also be destructive, as they typically rely on burning mining equipment and infrastructure.
- A new op-ed argues that GEF should add environmental stewardship to its operations: “Fighting illegal gold mining cannot rely on destruction alone. Protecting the rainforest can mean transforming enforcement into a tool for healing.”
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
The making of an autonomous Indigenous nation in Peru’s Amazon
- The Wampís Indigenous people of northern Peru have spent decades resisting the expansion of oil drilling and other extractive projects in their Amazonian territory.
- In 2015, they became the first Indigenous group in the country to declare themselves an autonomous nation.
- While this has led to some positive results in the form of security and conservation work, the Wampís lack the resources to develop productive initiatives and expand guard posts across their 1.3-million-hectare (3.2-million-acre) territory.
- The state has not recognized the autonomous nation, a requirement for the Wampís people to receive direct funding from the state and international donors.
An Indigenous-led solar canoe initiative expands across the Amazon
- Eight years since its launch, a solar-powered canoe initiative by the Kara Solar Foundation in Ecuador has expanded to Indigenous coastal communities in Brazil, Peru, Suriname and the Solomon Islands.
- Kara Solar representatives and Indigenous leaders say the project leads to a decrease in gasoline and diesel use that pollute waterways, reduces the need for road expansion and helps communities develop non-extractive income projects.
- By 2030, they hope to expand and support the operation of 10,000 solar-powered boats across the Amazon Basin and build a network of Indigenous-owned and operated recharge stations.
- But access to the required large amount of financing or investment remains a challenge and the project is exploring funding models for communities.
Indigenous people gain formal role in Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization
The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) recently announced the creation of a formal role for Indigenous peoples, giving them a voice for the first time in one of the Amazon Basin’s most important intergovernmental bodies. The announcement was made during ACTO’s fifth summit of presidents of Amazonian countries in Bogotá, Colombia, marking a historic shift […]
Brazil’s new licensing accord is a gateway to forest destruction via the BR-319 highway (commentary)
- Brazil’s planned reconstruction of the BR-319 federal highway is linked to plans for five state highways and a huge oil and gas project that would open a vast area of Amazon Rainforest to deforestation.
- A new “accord” between the environment and transportation ministries would contract the drafting of a plan for governance in a strip extending 50 kilometers (31 miles) on either side of BR-319.
- The two ministries expect the accord’s “Sustainable BR-319” plan to allow environmental approval of the BR-319 reconstruction project. In doing so, it can be expected to serve as a gateway to destruction, a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Brazil’s Forestry Code seeks to strengthen forest conservation, but controversies remain
- Suffering repeated changes, Brazil’s Forest Code regulates protected areas and forest management on private property, as well as commercialization of forest products.
- If a landholder exceeds the legally permitted area eligible for conversion, they are legally required to restore the forest to meet the Code’s requirements.
- In 2012, the Forest Code was modified to lessen restoration requirements under certain circumstances and freed landholders of liability for any fines or damages linked to forest clearing prior to 2008.
Cross-border operation cracks down on environmental crimes in the Amazon
- Between June 23 and July 6, 2025, police forces from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru joined forces in a cross-border law enforcement initiative targeting environmental crimes like illegal mining, wildlife trafficking and illegal logging.
- Coordinated by the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Interior, Operation Green Shield led to more than 90 arrests and the seizure of assets worth more than $64 million. Authorities also rescued more than 2,100 live animals and recovered 6,350 dead specimens.
- Reactions among local communities were mixed. While some locals were involved in illicit activities, others condemned the environmental destruction and feared reprisals from armed criminal groups operating in their territories.
- Although the operation disrupted environmental crimes, experts warn the offenses may shift to other areas. They stress the urgent need for sustainable development alternatives to address the root causes driving illegal activities in the Amazon.
Centralized governance in the Guianas and economic legacy
- Investments made in the Guianas, including Venezuela as a bordering and Amazonian country, are not in line with the federal model of countries such as Brazil.
- In Venezuela, which is seen today as a failed state, military rule was declared in several states.
- In Suriname and Guyana, despite centralization in their limited territories, the national government can generate policies and provide basic services through local jurisdictions.
Report reveals severe impact of last year’s drought on Amazonian communities
- A new U.N. report documents some of the most widespread and damaging impacts of the 2023-24 drought in the Amazon basin, which affected hundreds of thousands of Amazonian people.
- The main impacts were impeded transportation, drinking water shortages, deaths of aquatic wildlife and wildfires.
- In 2023, the drought led to a loss of 3.3 million hectares (8.1 million acres) of surface water relative to 2022 and nine Amazon countries experienced extremely high temperatures and their lowest rainfall in 40 years.
- Researchers warn that droughts are expected to worsen as climate change continues.
Why is Lula still silent on Brazil’s ‘Bill of devastation?’ (commentary)
- A bill that would essentially eliminate Brazil’s environmental licensing system is moving rapidly toward approval by a large anti-environmental majority in Congress.
- An amendment has been added to the bill allowing “strategic” projects, such as the mouth-of-the-Amazon oilfields and the BR-319 highway, to get accelerated licensing with a deadline for approval, after which approval would be automatic.
- President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has not supported his environment minister in opposing the bill, and has not mobilized his supporters in Congress to push against it.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Indigenous rubber bounces back for Amazon conservation and higher income
- Rubber tapping in the forest was once the main Amazonian economic activity, and now an Indigenous group is bringing it back.
- Partnering with Brazilian organizations, Indigenous Gavião communities find they can simultaneously protect the forest and its cultural heritage while boosting their own livelihoods through the wild rubber trade.
- The initiative is part of a broader Indigenous-led bioeconomy movement in the Amazon that attracts younger generations by combining traditional practices with technical training and earning opportunities.
- Despite promising results, challenges such as drought and limited private sector engagement highlight the need for increased investment to scale up forest-based alternatives.
From apps to Indigenous guardians: Ways we can save rainforests
Deforestation figures can be frustrating to look at, but there are a number of success stories when it comes to protecting tropical forests that we can learn from, Crystal Davis, global program director at the World Resources Institute, says in a recent Mongabay video. “We know what works. We know how to do it,” Davis […]
Indigenous guards: The shield of Colombia’s Amazon
- For years, using organization and collaboration, unarmed guards in Colombia have acted as protective barriers of territories, the environment and communities.
- These days, the guards combine their traditional knowledge with monitoring technology, such as GPS and satellite imagery, so the data can be used by government entities.
- Working to protect their territory has put them in danger: Between 2014 and 2024, at least 70 Indigenous guardians have been killed in Colombia.
- A team of journalists tracked five cases in the Colombian departments of Amazonas, Putumayo and Guainía to get a firsthand look at these defense processes and the risks Indigenous guardians face.
Regulation on oil palm expansion in Peru’s Amazon could endanger forests, say critics
- A resolution issued by Peru’s Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (MIDAGRI) aims to boost the sustainable development of palm oil production in the country.
- Critics argue that it will lead to increased deforestation and that Indigenous organizations were excluded from the regulation’s drafting process.
- Oil palm is cultivated to obtain palm oil, which is used as a raw material in beauty products, toiletries, food and biodiesel.
- The regulation adds to at least two other recent measures by the Peruvian government with potential environmental impacts.
Nine takeaways on Brazil’s crackdown on illegal mining in Munduruku lands
Mongabay published a five-part series delving into Brazil’s ongoing operation to evict illegal gold miners from Munduruku Indigenous territories, deep in the Amazon Rainforest. While there has been some disruption to mining in the region, Munduruku organizations told Mongabay the operation is not yet completely successful, with small groups of illegal miners, or garimpeiros, still […]
World Rainforest Day and the state of Earth’s most vital rainforests
June 22 marks World Rainforest Day, launched in 2017 by Rainforest Partnership to highlight the critical role of tropical forests. These ecosystems stabilize the climate, regulate rainfall, store vast amounts of carbon, and support most of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. Yet despite their importance, 2024 proved to be a devastating year. Fires ravaged millions of […]
On World Rainforest Day, stories of Amazon danger and resistance
Rainforests are among the most critical ecosystems on Earth. Home to roughly half of all terrestrial species, they provide oxygen and habitat, and help regulate regional rain and weather patterns. In honor of World Rainforest Day on June 22, we look at two recent Mongabay investigations that shed light on the challenges and triumphs in […]
Finishing Dom Phillips’ posthumous book was ‘the hardest thing emotionally’ co-authors say
- How to save the Amazon: A journalist’s fatal quest for answers, a posthumous book by British journalist Dom Phillips with contributors, is being launched in the United Kingdom, the United States and Brazil, accompanied by dedicated events in the three countries.
- On June 5, 2022, Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira were brutally killed in the Javari Valley region, in the Brazilian Amazon; Phillips was investigating illegal fishing in the region for his book.
- Right after the tragedy, Jonathan Watts, fellow British journalist based in Brazil and a close friend of Phillips’, led a group of expert writers to finish Phillips’ book; hundreds of people collaborated from writing, editing and translating the chapters to donating money to finish the book.
- “For me, it’s all about collaboration and solidarity. That’s really what this is: a gesture of,” Watts says.
After crackdown on illegal miners, Indigenous Munduruku still grapple with health aftermath
- In November 2024, the Brazilian government launched an operation to oust illegal gold miners from the Munduruku Indigenous Territory in the Amazon Rainforest.
- However, there was little government action to address health issues in the aftermath of the destruction wrought by gold mining, Indigenous leaders and experts say.
- A wide range of diseases linked to mercury contamination and other environmental destruction derived from illegal gold mining spread in Munduruku lands, including diarrhea, itchiness, flu, fever, childhood paralysis and brain problems.
- Munduruku leaders sent a letter to the federal government requiring actions to provide health assistance to their people, detailing a list of required actions, including measures to combat mercury contamination, malaria, food insecurity and lack of drinking water.
It’s time to pay the true value of tropical forest conservation (commentary)
- Conserving the world’s tropical forests requires large-scale and predictable finance, a new op-ed by Brazilian officials argue in making their case for the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), a finance regime that will be discussed at this year’s U.N. climate summit (COP30) in their nation.
- The TFFF would pay a fixed price per hectare of tropical forest conserved or restored, providing positive incentives aligned with national fiscal planning via a funding model that blends public investment and private market borrowing.
- “The time to act boldly for our forests is now. The TFFF is not only possible — it is essential. We are calling on the world to join us,” they write.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Strategic planning for development in the Pan Amazon
- The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) was conceived to broaden Environmental Impacts Assessments and consider long-term, indirect and cumulative impacts, as well as alternative development scenarios.
- In the early 2000s, these SEAs generated a great deal of interest and were applied to several high-profile projects in the Amazon.
- Beyond looking at impacts, they evaluated impacts on forests, the expansion of secondary roads, potential real estate speculation, agriculture and deforestation and how they would affect biodiversity and livelihoods.
Why Brazil should abandon its plans for oil and gas in Amazonia (commentary)
- The Brazilian government has major plans for oil and gas extraction both in the Amazon Rainforest and offshore — including at the mouth of the Amazon River — with a drilling rights auction scheduled for June 17 for fields both in the forest and offshore.
- Under intense pressure, the head of the federal environmental agency has now overridden his technical staff to allow the proposed mouth-of-the-Amazon project to move forward for approval.
- In addition to the risk of an uncontrollable oil spill, the economics of opening this and other new oilfields implies continued extraction long past the time when burning fossil fuels must cease if a global climate catastrophe is to be avoided.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Methods to recognize the Amazon’s isolated peoples: Interview with Antenor Vaz
- Mongabay interviewed Antenor Vaz, an international expert on recognition methodologies and protection policies for Indigenous peoples in isolation and initial contact (PIACI), about the importance of confirming and recognizing the existence of isolated peoples.
- Vaz is a regional adviser for GTI-PIACI, an international working group committed to the protection, defense and promotion of the rights of PIACI, which recently launched a report to help governments, Indigenous organizations and NGOs prove the existence of Indigenous peoples living in isolation.
- In this interview, Vaz highlights strategies states can use to confirm and recognize the existence of isolated peoples while maintaining the no-contact principle.
Indigenous lands & protected areas are barely offsetting emissions from damage in the rest of the Amazon
The Amazon is often described as one of the planet’s most effective carbon regulation systems. Yet recent data suggest its ability to absorb carbon is increasingly concentrated in specific places. Between 2013 and 2022, nearly all of the forest’s net carbon uptake came not from the biome as a whole, but from the half of […]
Impacts of development come under higher scrutiny in the Pan Amazon
- Environmental impact assessments for development projects in Amazon countries have evolved from highly biased, centralized procedures to more rigorous processes that aim to avoid conflicts of interest.
- EIAs have also become increasingly focused on the social impacts of development and on how to mitigate them or compensate affected communities.
- Large-scale development projects are generally reviewed by national-level entities while less controversial initiatives can be attributed to regional governments.
On Amazon destruction, will Brazil President Lula’s ‘disinformation space’ be penetrated? (commentary)
- Brazil’s President Lula apparently lives in a “disinformation space” surrounded by ministers promoting projects that destroy the Amazon Rainforest and lock in petroleum extraction for decades to come, a new opinion piece argues.
- Among these projects are the BR-319 highway and its associated side roads; the distribution of government land to known deforesters; and opening new oilfields at the mouth of the Amazon River.
- Lula’s support for these proposals is leading Brazil to a climate catastrophe that would devastate the country, the author writes, and the two key ministers who should be the ones to explain to the president the consequences of these projects are apparently not penetrating Lula’s disinformation space.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Delay in land reform fuels new wave of settlers and violence in the Amazon
- Grassroots organizations are settling new areas in the Brazilian Amazon amid disappointment that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been slow to jump-start the stalled land reform agenda.
- According to the federal land agency, Incra, about 145,000 people are inhabiting camps all over Brazil, waiting for a plot of land.
- In one of the Amazon’s deadliest regions, a group fighting for land was besieged by a dozen armed men hired by ranchers; even in established settlements, harassment by land grabbers and lack of government support drive settlers out of their plots.
- The stalling of the land reform agenda pushes Amazonian people further into the forest, driving the cycle of deforestation, or else to the outskirts of cities, where many struggle to make a living.
Study unveils mystery of monkey yodeling — and why humans can’t compete
- Researchers found that New World monkeys can produce extreme yodeling-like sounds by rapidly switching between their vocal folds (for low tones) and specialized vocal membranes (for high tones), achieving frequency jumps up to 12 times greater than humans can manage.
- Scientists conducted their research at Bolivia’s La Senda Verde animal refuge, using recordings and electroglottographs on live monkeys.
- Humans lost these vocal membranes during evolution, trading vocal gymnastics for more stable speech that’s easier to understand.
- The complex vocalizations likely help monkeys manage social relationships and grab attention in the rainforest.
Traditional bug oil finds modern value through new research in the Amazon
- Oil made from beetle larvae is used as a traditional remedy in Brazil’s Marajó Archipelago, and is gaining scientific recognition for its medicinal and economic potential.
- Researchers are analyzing the bug oil’s bioactive properties, aiming to validate its safety and expand its promising applications in medicine, cosmetics and biotechnology.
- Growing demand for bug oil and other rainforest-derived products offers economic opportunities for local communities but also raises concerns about potential resource overexploitation, which experts say requires further impact studies.
- Scientific innovation is exploring more efficient extraction methods while preserving traditional knowledge and supporting sustainable bioeconomy development.
‘We can’t talk solutions without understanding complexities: Kari Guajajara on Brazil’s Amazon
- Mongabay interviewed Kari Guajajara, a lawyer and the first Indigenous person to obtain a law degree in Brazil’s state of Maranhão, to hear her take on some of the latest and biggest events affecting Indigenous communities and forests Brazilian Amazon.
- These events include a government operation to evict illegal miners from a Munduruku territory, threats to the lives of Indigenous land defenders, the influence of the agribusiness lobby, and President Lula’s drop in popularity.
- Kari Guajajara and other Indigenous delegates came to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City to spotlight issues they face in their country.
- Kari Guajajara is a lawyer at Amazonia Alerta and a legal advisor for COIAB, a Brazilian Amazon Indigenous network.
Indigenous youth at the U.N. share environmental setbacks and solutions
- Indigenous leaders from around the world converged in New York for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues from April 21 to May 2, 2025, discussing how states have, or have not, protected the rights of Indigenous peoples.
- Conversations range from the environmental effects of extractive industries to climate change.
- Young people in attendance often work alongside elders and leaders to come up with solutions and address ongoing challenges.
- Grist interviewed seven Indigenous youth attending UNPFII this year hailing from Africa, the Pacific, North and South America, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Arctic.
In the Pan Amazon, regulators struggle to punish environmental crimes
- Escaping legal liability in the Pan Amazon is likely, as courts are overwhelmed with cases, which end up reaching their statute of limitations.
- Governments in the region began by joining international conventions and agreements, which have also served for the creation of ministries of the environment and public policies to implement intergovernmental agreements.
- In Brazil, the authority of the Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis (IBAMA) stems from the Brazilian Constitution of 1988, which mandates protection of the environment for present and future generations.
‘Colombia’s Amazon peoples provide solutions’: Interview with José Homero Mutumbajoy
- Mongabay interviewed José Homero Mutumbajoy, an experienced Indigenous rights defender in Colombia, to hear his take on some of the latest and biggest events affecting Indigenous communities and forests in the country’s Amazon.
- Events include protests against Libero Cobre’s copper mine, the impacts of armed groups, protections of forests for isolated peoples and plans for the upcoming U.N. climate conference.
- Homero Mutumbajoy and other Indigenous delegates came to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City to spotlight issues they face in their country.
- Homero Mutumbajoy is the human rights and peace coordinator for OPIAC, the national organization for Colombia’s Amazon peoples.
New report reinforces critical role of Amazonian protected areas in climate fight
- A new report has found that protected areas and Indigenous territories in the Amazon store more aboveground carbon than the rest of the rainforest.
- Protected areas and Indigenous territories were also found to serve as significant carbon sinks between 2013 and 2022, absorbing 257 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
- Protected areas in Colombia, Brazil, Suriname and French Guiana were found to be significant carbon sinks.
- The report underscores the need to protect these areas that aren’t currently threatened by deforestation as they play a critical role in offsetting emissions from other parts of the forest.
Gold rush moves closer to Amazon’s second-tallest tree
Illegal gold miners are now operating very close to the second-tallest tree in the Amazon Rainforest, Mongabay’s Fernanda Wenzel reported in April. Six giant trees, including a red angelim (Dinizia excelsa) that stands 85 meters (279 feet) tall, are found inside the Iratapuru River Sustainable Development Reserve in Brazil’s Amapá state. Despite the area’s protected status, […]
Abel Rodríguez, artist who drew a vanishing forest from memory, died April 9, age unknown
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In a modest home on the edge of Bogotá, a forest lived in exile. Redrawn leaf by leaf from memory with ink and conviction, it existed not on maps or in satellite imagery, but on sheets of paper, […]
Study suggests there are more jaguars in the Amazon than previously thought
Jaguar numbers in the Amazon Rainforest may be higher than previous estimates, according to a new large-scale study that offers the most comprehensive population snapshot to date. Using camera-trap images of jaguars (Panthera onca) across the Brazilian, Colombian, Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon, researchers calculated an average density of three jaguars per 100 square kilometers (about […]
Indigenous delegates at the U.N. raise alarm on isolated peoples in the Amazon
- Indigenous delegates at the 24th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues called attention to the threats faced by Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact, or PIACI.
- Isolated peoples are affected by the exploitation of natural resources in their territories, drug trafficking, logging, and other illegal economies.
- Indigenous peoples and organizations at the forum urged states to adopt a territorial corridors initiative and to implement policies, standards and cross-border mechanisms to secure their territories and rights.
- There are 188 records of isolated Indigenous peoples in South America, however national governments officially recognize 60.
Building environmental laws across Amazon countries
- Some of the first environmental laws passed in Pan Amazon countries established national protected area systems and the entities that would manage them.
- Environmental Impact Assessments have played an increasingly important role in governments’ approving development projects, especially with regard to respecting Indigenous communities’ rights.
- In line with their Paris Agreement commitments, countries in the Amazon Basin still need to develop legislation that regulates carbon markets and offsets.
Amazon illegal miners bypass enforcement by smuggling gold into Venezuela
- Criminal groups are operating to smuggle illegal gold from the Brazilian Amazon into Venezuela, where the metal is laundered and exported overseas.
- Illegal gold traders adopted this new strategy after Brazil’s administration increased control over the metal’s commerce.
- Mongabay followed the steps of Adriano Aguiar de Castro, who, according to authorities, jumped from one gold laundering scheme to another and now is also involved with gold smuggling into Venezuela.
- The need to cross national borders brings gold trading groups closer to organized crime and poses new challenges to authorities.
Fake documents, real deforestation drive global trade in illegal Amazon timber
- A report from the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) tracked the equivalent of 1,828 shipping containers of illegal wood sourced in the state of Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon.
- Nearly 3% of this timber was exported to U.S. and European companies, violating commercial rules forbidding illegal timber imports into those markets.
- One of the most coveted species by international markets is ipê, a tropical hardwood whose price increases twentyfold along the supply chain.
- Exports point to flaws in the Brazilian tracking system and impunity for offenders as the main reasons for the persistent widespread illegality of logging.
Nature protection is part of fundamental law in Amazon countries
- The constitutions of Pan Amazon countries contain at least one article on the state’s obligation to protect the environment.
- Brazil’s 1988 Constitution was the first in the Pan Amazon to include access to a healthy environment as a basic human right.
- Ecuador constitutionally recognizes the rights of nature or of Mother Earth (Pachamama).
Tree rings reveal mercury pollution from illegal gold mining: Study
New research has found that some tropical trees in the Peruvian Amazon can be used to monitor mercury pollution from gold mining, offering an alternative to expensive air monitors. Roughly 16 million people worldwide engage in artisanal and small-scale gold mining, much of which is illegal due to environmental and human health concerns. In many […]
Brazil plans new Amazon routes linking the Pacific & China’s New Silk Road
- New roads and riverways integrating the Brazilian Amazon and ports on the Pacific coast of South America are expected to be announced in 2025, reducing shipment costs to supply China.
- Brazil’s plans to build ports and roads to help move grains, beef and iron ore from the rainforest echo a development vision that dates back to the military dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s.
- Environmentalists warn the new routes boost deforestation and encourage land-grabbers and ranchers to keep exploring the Amazon as a commodity hub.
Chinese business in the Amazon generates controversy
- In recent years, several corruption scandals emerged, involving Chinese companies and businessmen in the Pan Amazon region.
- In countries like Bolivia, they were found to have bribed authorities to obtain benevolent licenses, including the sale of shares in the state-owned YPFB. In Peru and Ecuador, manipulation of the contracting system to benefit the Chinese company was reported.
- Countries that have been more successful in tackling corruption have in place better governance systems, stronger institutions and judicial systems.
Pressure bears down around uncontacted tribes at the edge of Brazil’s arc of deforestation
- A family of three isolated Indigenous people got separated from their group and ended up contacting non-Indigenous society in one of the best-preserved areas of the Brazilian Amazon.
- For more than a month, agents with Funai, Brazil’s federal agency for Indigenous affairs, have been camping near the family, helping them hunt and fish.
- The group lives on the edge of the so-called arc of deforestation, in a mosaic of conservation areas and Indigenous territories that form a green barrier to oncoming pressure from land grabbers and cattle ranchers who want the land to increase their wealth.
- Besides the impact on isolated Indigenous communities, the destruction of this part of the Amazon would affect Brazil’s rain cycle and potentially unleash new viruses and bacteria, researchers warn.
Officials share strategies to stop spread of illegal miners from Munduruku land
- An eviction operation to remove illegal miners from the Munduruku Indigenous Territory has been underway since November 2024.
- While the actions so far have led to a reduction in illegal mining, Munduruku organizations and officials have raised concerns that miners will return or migrate to conservation units once security forces withdraw — as is common.
- Researchers and federal officials said the government should maintain a long-term presence in territories, as well as carry out actions to target high-level criminals and implement a recovery plan to ensure Indigenous peoples involved in mining have other options.
- A leader of the federal task force told Mongabay the National Public Security Force and Funai will remain in the region with patrol actions and the other agencies will carry out inspection and control actions to prevent the miners from trying to return.
Brazil’s Lava Jato investigation: the biggest corruption scandal of the last decade
- The federal investigation Lava Jato destabilized Brazil’s governments and political class, as it revealed that private interests mixed with government corruption worked to defraud Petrobras, the country’s largest enterprise.
- Although a vast majority of those arrested were convicted of fraud, bribery and money laundering, the losses were in the millions for both the state-owned Petrobras and the 13 companies involved in the scheme.
- At the same time, Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht actively participated in developing infrastructure in Peru, overcharging the government by at least US$283 million on contracts between 1998 and 2015. The deals into question include high-profile infrastructure projects in the Peruvian Amazon.
Pause to USAID already having impacts on community conservation in the Amazon
- U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on foreign aid funding during his first day in office, affecting hundreds of sustainability, health and environmental programs worldwide.
- The funding pause will impact environmental projects in the Amazon Rainforest, including community-led conservation projects that halt deforestation, and may put the safety of environmental defenders who depend on security assistance from USAID in jeopardy, say sources.
- Indigenous leaders told Mongabay that programs in their territories were frozen immediately and they are yet to receive any information about what happened and if the projects will ever resume.
- Some conservationists and Indigenous leaders said USAID funding has also led to issues within communities and countries, like political interference, and that the funding pause highlights the dangers of dependency on foreign aid.
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 […]
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.
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.
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, […]
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 […]
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.
Brazil’s shipping channel plans in Amazonian rivers will worsen climate change, experts warn
- Dredging and rock-blasting ever-drier rivers for new channels in Brazil might not achieve agribusiness’s goal of cheaper, year-round transport, experts warned, suggesting existing railways as price-comparable and more climate-resilient.
- Though waterway transport is promoted as lowering emissions, in fact proposed new shipping channels on the Tocantins and Madeira rivers increase carbon emissions and deforestation, experts told Mongabay.
- New shipping channel plans used old water data, stopping in 2017 for the Tocantins channel, and didn’t do climate risk projections or climate impact studies. Experts urge these studies must be done, or risk tens of billions of investments in rock-blasting and dredging river beds, leaving “ruins” and “abandoned projects.”
- An August lawsuit by federal prosecutors charges that licensing of rock-blasting and dredging in a 500-km stretch of the Tocantins River in Brazil is an illegal “trick” to circumvent legally required full environmental review of the whole Araguaia-Tocantins channel, for which an economic-technical feasibility study was never done. In March 2022, Ibama’s licensing director determined it was “unviable.”
The fuel that moves people: the Ecuadorian case
- In Ecuador, the main areas of colonization were a north-south corridor along the base of the Andes and the Sucumbíos-Orellana quadrant, the country’s major oil-producing region.
- Since the 1970s, populations in both areas have grown significantly. The Andean zone went from 160,000 inhabitants to more than 520,000 in 2017; in parallel, the population in the provinces of Sucumbíos and Orellana increased from less than 12,000 to more than 350,000.
- Colonization also led to the invasion of lands of the indigenous Shuar, which prompted an unusual effort on their part to protect their territory. Today, the area specializes in cattle production and seeks to establish a niche market for high-quality beef for the domestic market.
Water returns to Amazon rivers amid historic drought
The Amazon River and its tributaries, which make up the largest freshwater basin in the world, are showing signs of recovery after dropping to record-low levels between September and November 2024. Abnormally low rainfall and high temperatures across the Amazon caused water levels to plummet, shutting down river transport, isolating communities and leaving industries without […]
Bolivia’s internal colonization and its March to the East
- Bolivia’s current configuration and its final area were consolidated after the Chaco War and after the country ceded Acre to Brazil and its coastal provinces to Chile.
- Since then, the need to occupy vast territories allowed for wide-scale deforestation, especially in the Chapare and the alluvial plain of Santa Cruz.
- In the department of Santa Cruz, population grew from about 300,000 in 1960 to more than three million in 2022. Although 70 % of this growth has been concentrated in the metropolitan area of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the urban economy continues to rely heavily on agriculture.
Amazon Airstrips
Mongabay and Earth Genome detected 67 clandestine airstrips used for drug transport in the Peruvian regions of Ucayali, Huánuco and Pasco. The analysis used artificial intelligence to visually search through satellite information and cross-reference the results with official sources and field reports. Most of these illegal airstrips are located in and around Indigenous communities, reserves […]
‘Trump is a disease’, says Yanomami shaman Davi Kopenawa
- In addition to being a shaman, Davi Kopenawa is a shaman and a political leader active in denouncing the gold miners who illegally invaded the Yanomami Indigenous Land, in the Brazilian Amazon.
- The Yanomami, who inhabit Brazil’s largest Indigenous Land, still face a humanitarian and health crisis, worsened by the invasion of 70,000 illegal miners. Increased under the Jair Bolsonaro government, the invasion brought diseases and contaminated rivers with mercury.
- In this interview, Kopenawa criticizes the environmental and social impacts of administrations led by politicians such as Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump.
Brazil beef industry still struggling with deforestation from indirect suppliers, survey finds
- Surveys of Brazil’s beef industry found there is still a serious lack of transparency throughout the supply chain, including from slaughterhouses and retailers. If better regulations aren’t implemented, they could be exposed to 109 million hectares (270 million acres) of deforestation by 2025.
- The survey was conducted by Radar Verde, a cattle monitoring initiative made up of several climate groups. It reviewed the regulations and exposure to deforestation of dozens of companies in Brazil.
- Indirect suppliers of beef are the most difficult to track, the survey found, with none of the 132 companies or 67 retailers competently able to demonstrate whether cattle had been raised on illegally deforested land.
- Struggles to monitor indirect suppliers could pose a challenge for companies trying to meet the EU deforestation-free products regulation (EUDR), which will require suppliers to prove beef and other commodities exported to the EU aren’t sourced to illegally deforested land.
The effects of mass migration in Brazil in the second half of the twentieth century
- The latest wave of migration to the Amazon countries was sustained by a new process of colonization. In Brazil, Operação Amazônia used land grants, tax exemptions and a progressive land tax that encouraged forest to cropland or pasture conversion in order to occupy areas bordering neighboring countries.
- In 1972, the federal government launched POLAMAZÔNIA, which designated fifteen landscapes as priority areas for expanding mineral, livestock and agro-industrial production.
- In 1981 the POLONOROESTE programme – which included infrastructure development, agricultural extension, land title administration and healthcare – has been criticized for unleashing deforestation and harming Indigenous communities.
Five-year rainforest tech competition culminates with four winners
- Limelight Rainforest, a team of ecologists, robotics engineers and Indigenous scientists, has won first place in a $10 million rainforest tech competition.
- At the finals in Brazil in July, the team deployed canopy rafts, drones and artificial intelligence models to identify and detect the highest amount of biodiversity from a forest plot within 24 hours.
- Three other teams were also recognized for their work in developing tech solutions to monitor rainforests around the world.
- The five-year XPRIZE Rainforest competition was launched in 2019 to identify solutions to automate rainforest monitoring.
Weak laws on native seeds undermine Brazil reforestation efforts: Study
A recent study found that collectors of seeds of native plant species in Brazil lack the legal framework needed to achieve the nation’s large-scale reforestation goal. Last month, Brazil announced a reforestation plan for 12 million hectares (30 million acres) of degraded land over the next five years, an area half the size of the […]
Brazil renews plan to restore degraded land half the size of the UK
Brazil recently announced a plan to restore an area of degraded land about half the size of the U.K. by 2030, in a bid to combat climate change and biodiversity loss. The Planaveg 2.0 initiative, launched at the U.N. biodiversity summit, COP16, in Colombia on Oct. 28, aims to restore 12 million hectares (30 million […]
Evolution of the Pan Amazon in the post-Jesuit era
- Once the economy fostered by the Jesuits withered away, the population, now much diminished, reverted to the subsistence livelihoods that had always been a mainstay of the region.
- The pace of colonization in the Portuguese Amazon accelerated following the Jesuits’ expulsion. The Companhia de Comércio do Grão-Pará e Maranhão’s primary business model was to accelerate the African slave trade in the coastal provinces of Maranhão, but it also radically changed the economics and demographics of the Amazon floodplain.
- In the case of Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana, after the abolition of slavery, the countries imported labor from India (under the rule of the British Empire) and from the Dutch East Indies. Their shared history is more similar to that of the Caribbean than that of the Amazon.
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.
Impacts and legacies of migration across the Pan Amazon
- Although represented by only a few thousand people across 150 years, the Jesuits left a major social and cultural impact on native communities across the Pan Amazon. Their aim was to create autonomous communities based on early Renaissance concepts of equality and a spiritual vision based on the Christian Gospels. But in practice, they worked closely for the political and military interests of the colonies.
- Jesuits settled in remote places and border areas after being invited by colonial authorities interested in taking advantage of the native population’s labor force. But their arrival triggered the collapse of the Indigenous populations of the Western Amazon. Only in the late 17th century, more than 140,000 people died because of diseases brought by the outsiders.
- The success of the Jesuits and the religious colonialism that characterized the Catholic Church in the 17th century motivated other religious orders to follow similar missionary programs.
Illegal logging footprint in the Amazon expanded by a fifth, report finds
Illegal logging in the Amazon jumped by 19% over the past year, according to a new report. Between August 2022 and July 2023, some 126,000 hectares, or 311,000 acres, of forest were cleared illicitly, equivalent to cutting timber from 350 football fields every day without environmental authorization. Experts point to a troubling shift: as illegal […]
Rural-urban migration across the Amazon Basin
- After 2000, migration from rural to urban areas across the Pan Amazon intensified, as people started moving to either main urban centers or cities in the highlands or on coastlines.
- In Brazil, already by 2000, about 70% of the population was in urban centers. Most of the small and medium-size cities developed alongside extractive or agricultural activities doubled their population between 2000-2010.
- From the early 1990s to early 2000s, in the Colombian Amazon, civil violence boosted the movement of millions of people into cities, while the country’s peace agreement slowed down migration. But land grabbing and incoming rural investors could kickstart another urban population boom.
Brazil upgrades park to protect Amazon’s tallest tree, allows tourism
South America’s tallest tree, a 400-year-old red angelim in the northern tip of the Brazilian Amazon, is the star of a newly created conservation area called the Giant Trees of the Amazon State Park. The area was officially sectioned off from the larger Paru State Forest on Sept. 30 for stronger protection. At 88.5 meters […]
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.
Brazil judge fines slaughterhouses for Amazon deforestation
A judge in Brazil has imposed fines totaling 4.2 million reais, or $762,000, against two beef producers and three ranchers for deforestation in a protected part of the Amazon Rainforest. The Sept. 4 ruling was in response to illegal cattle ranching in the Jaci Paraná Extractive Reserve in Rondônia state. The companies fined were Frigon […]
Amazon River and tributaries at record low levels
The Amazon Rainforest’s main rivers are drying out due to an unprecedented drought exacerbated by climate change. Levels have continued to drop since Mongabay’s Sept 9. feature by Fernanda Wenzel. Major rivers such as the Madeira and Negro continue to beat record lows, disrupting life for Indigenous communities and raising concerns about economic and environmental […]
Report links killings to environmental crimes in Peru’s Amazon
- A new report from the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) says the Peruvian Amazon is experiencing a rise in murders against environmental defenders, most of which are related to illegal activities such as mining, logging and coca cultivation.
- Between 2010 and 2022, an estimated 29 environmental defenders were killed in the region.
- The frequency of killings has increased in recent years, with almost half taking place after 2020.
- Indigenous leaders and researchers said many of these killings remain unsolved while the state remains largely absent in protecting communities in these remote regions.
Record number of Indigenous land titles granted in Peru via innovative process (commentary)
- Land titles have proven to be the most effective way to protect Indigenous peoples’ land from deforestation, with such territories experiencing a 66% decrease in deforestation, and therefore protecting these forests for generations to come.
- Recently, 37 land titles were secured in the Peruvian Amazon in record time, between June 2023 to May 2024, via a partnership between two NGOs and the Peruvian government, using an innovative, low-cost, high-impact model to expedite the process.
- “We believe this model can be replicated in other regions of the Amazon and perhaps even beyond,” the authors of a new op-ed write.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.
Peruvian logger loses FSC label after latest clash with isolated Mashco Piro
- The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has suspended the certification of Maderera Canales Tahuamanu (MCT), a logging company whose concession borders Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve in the Peruvian Amazon.
- The company is accused of encroaching on the traditional territory of the Mashco Piro, an Indigenous group that lives in voluntary isolation and went viral after video captured the tribe on a beach.
- The suspension follows an incident in which at least two loggers were shot dead with arrows, one injured and several others are missing during a confrontation with the Mashco Piro.
- The FSC suspension takes effect Sept. 13 and will last eight months — a move Indigenous rights advocates say is welcome but short of the full cancelation they deem necessary to protect the isolated tribe.
In the Brazilian Amazon, seedlings offer hope for drying rivers
- In Brazil’s Maranhão state, the advance of monoculture and decades of forest destruction have driven a shift in precipitation patterns, diminishing rains and drying out springs that feed important rivers.
- This represents a major threat for the Guajajara Indigenous people, for whom these springs hold spiritual significance and guarantee the health of the rivers they depend on for fishing, bathing, drinking and cultural rituals.
- In an effort to restore drying springs, Indigenous people in the Rio Pindaré reserve are mapping headwaters and planting species native to the Amazon rainforest – like buriti, pupunha and açaí palms – along their margins.
- Scientists say this type of reforestation could help restore balance to water cycles in the region, mitigating the broader impacts of drought and climate change.
Could the ‘rights of nature’ save Yasuní and keep its oil in the ground? (commentary)
- Nearly 60% of Ecuador’s voters supported a referendum last year to stop oil drilling in the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oil field, which would protect the nature of Yasuní National Park and its Indigenous communities, while keeping a billion barrels of oil in the ground.
- People worked for a decade to bring this to a popular vote, but the nation’s current crises have shaken the government’s resolve to enforce the rule. Now, advocates are turning to a relatively new legal instrument, the ‘rights of nature,’ to cement the decision.
- “The vote to protect the Yasuní was not based on the rights of nature, but on the right of people to participate in decisions on matters of public interest. The rights of nature, however, provides a path forward to protect the Yasuní,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.
At the ‘Biodiversity Olympics,’ scientists work to democratize rainforest tech
- Over the course of three weeks in July, six teams showcased technology that could potentially automate biodiversity monitoring in rainforests.
- The event in Manaus, Brazil, was the final round of testing for a $10 million competition organized by the nonprofit XPRIZE Foundation.
- Most of the teams deployed drones and AI models, and also used environmental DNA analysis to identify plants and animals in the forest.
- In addition to gauging how the teams presented scalable and affordable solutions, the competition also judged them on how they collaborated with Indigenous communities in Brazil.
One year after oil referendum, what’s next for Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park?
- On Aug. 20, 2023, Ecuador voted to halt all future oil drilling in Yasuní National Park, a sensitive protected area in the country’s eastern Amazon. Officials were given one year to withdraw from the 43-ITT oil block, and failure to comply could result in a lawsuit through the Constitutional Court and the dismissal of all officials involved.
- One year later, the government has not yet made much progress on the closure of the 43-ITT oil block, besides the creation of a commission and Indigenous groups groups they are not involved in the process.
- As a result of the country’s national crisis in Ecuador, violence and debts, President Daniel Noboa told local media in January that he would consider a moratorium to the referendum results due to the country’s dependence on income from oil production.
- In Ecuador, a group of economists have also proposed a series of economic alternatives to oil extraction in Yasuní, as well as a new sustainable, post-extractive vision for the country.
Tree bark removes atmospheric methane, study finds
New research suggests trees’ bark, along with their resident microbes, may play a significant role in reducing atmospheric methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Trees have long been recognized for their ability to sequester carbon dioxide, but the study suggests that their capacity to absorb greenhouse gases more broadly could be roughly 10% higher than previous […]
Peru’s isolated Mashco Piro tribe attacks loggers in their ancestral territory
Members of the uncontacted Mashco Piro tribe in Peru recently used bows and arrows to attack loggers working near their reserve. At least one logger was seriously injured and possibly two others as well, according to Survival International, an NGO that advocates for Indigenous rights worldwide. The recent violence follows shortly after the release of […]
Brazil cites Mongabay reporting in recommendation to suspend ‘rotten’ carbon credit projects
Brazilian authorities announced a recommendation to suspend all ongoing and future REDD+ and carbon credit projects on Indigenous and traditional territories in the state of Amazonas. The announcement follows a series of reports by Mongabay and others highlighting the potential problem of timber laundering associated with REDD+ projects. REDD+, short for reducing emissions from deforestation […]
Oil and gas expansion threatens Peru’s isolated Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples in Peru living in voluntary isolation or only recently contacted by the outside world face continued threat from expanding oil and gas activities in their reserves, a new report by the nonprofit Earth Insight has found. According to Peru’s Ministry of Culture, the country has some 7,500 Indigenous people living in isolation and […]
No plans, no progress make Peru’s energy transition uncertain
- In Peru, greenhouse gas emissions come primarily from land use change, followed by oil and gas-fired power generation.
- Renewable wind, solar and biomass energy accounts for 6% of the country’s power, although the goal is to reach 20% by 2030.
- According to experts that spoke to Mongabay Latam, the Peruvian energy policy is not fit for purpose and the country lacks a direction of travel for its energy transition.
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.
Are the Amazon’s biggest trees dying? Forest coroners investigate
- As tropical forests are degraded and decline at increasing rates the world over, the fate of these forests’ largest trees remains unknown.
- Big trees store a huge amount of carbon, so assessing their current mortality rates and causes of death (especially due to escalating climate change) is vital to calculating how much tropical forest carbon sinks could decline in the future.
- The Gigante project, getting started in the Brazilian Amazon in June 2024, is initiating an innovative new protocol utilizing detailed drone surveys combined with ground truthing to evaluate tropical big tree mortality.
- The project has begun an identical survey in Panama and will conduct others in Malaysia, Cameroon and at another Amazon location. Knowledge of how tropical big trees are faring could help improve climate model accuracy. A Mongabay reporting team joined the Gigante project in Brazil at the start of this groundbreaking work.
Organized crime brings renewed threats to Yanomami in Brazil
- Government efforts to evict several thousand illegal miners from the Yanomami Indigenous Territory have so far been insufficient, as organized crime groups work with miners to confront state agents.
- Miners receive logistical, financial and weapons support from criminal groups, such as the First Capital Command (PCC), which has complicated actions by the country’s environmental protection agency (IBAMA), which fights miners with a reduced budget and resources.
- Meanwhile, hundreds of Yanomamis continue to suffer from disease, mercury contamination in their rivers, severe malnutrition, attacks and deaths.
Mineral hotspots in the Pan Amazon
- There are three important macro-regions where geographic conditions are favorable for mining extraction: The Amazon Craton, the Andes Mountains and the Western Amazon Sedimentary Plain.
- Geophysicists are still debating the details of the geological history of the Amazon Craton, but they all agree that it was created and has been modified repeatedly by tectonic forces over billions of years.
- Two sedimentary basins in the central part of South America are the source of the region’s oil and gas reserves.
Wai Wai people’s push for direct access to Brazil nut market
RORAIMA STATE, Brazil — The Wai Wai people, an Indigenous community residing in the dense forest interiors of northern Brazil and neighboring Guyana, hold Brazil nuts in deep cultural and economic significance. These nuts are not just a staple in their diet but also play a crucial role in their livelihoods. In the modern-day, Brazil […]
If forests truly drive wind and water cycles, what does it mean for the climate?
- Theoretical physicists Anastassia Makarieva and Viktor Gorshkov developed the controversial “biotic pump” theory more than a decade ago, which challenges traditional climate and hydrological science.
- The theory posits that forests drive moisture-laden air currents, thereby governing wind and rain and implying that further global forest loss could have unknown effects on weather and water supplies.
- While yet to be disproven or validated, some scientists say it’s vitally important to study and test this theory, and potentially include it in climate-modeling scenarios.
- Makarieva joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss the theory and its implications for future climate modeling with co-host Rachel Donald.
Weak banking regulations leave two-thirds of Amazon vulnerable to oil and gas
- A joint investigation by several conservation groups looked at more than 560 financial transactions involving more than 280 banks and 80 oil and gas companies with activities in the Amazon.
- It concluded that what the banks claim to be doing for the environment is far different from the “true impacts of their policies.”
- Some of the biggest bankrollers of oil and gas (Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Itaú Unibanco, Santander, Bank of America) only apply their policies to about a third of the rainforest, leaving the rest vulnerable to potential environmental destruction.
- The report said banks need to end their relationships with all oil and gas companies in the Amazon if countries in the region are going to protect 80% of the rainforest by 2025.
Global markets and their effects on resource exploitation in the Pan Amazon
- Extractive companies operate to maximize their profits as global demand is highly fluctuating. Prior to 2000, the prices of industrial minerals were at historical lows, but jumped through the next two decades as China began its infrastructure boom.
- As of January 2023, another commodity boom appears to be underway. In part, this is due to the war in Ukraine and the (as yet unknown) dimensions and duration of the sanctions regime imposed on Russia by the United States, the European Union and their allies in Asia-Pacific.
- As minerals required by the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy are plentiful in the Pan Amazon, there will be significant economic pressure to develop those resources.
- Governments in the Pan Amazon are predisposed to support the mining and hydrocarbon industries because they are export-oriented and generate revenues for the state.
Interview with the award-winning directors of ‘We Are Guardians’
In this episode of Mongabay Sessions, join Romi Castagnino, Mongabay’s Associate Video Producer, as she delves into an insightful interview with the directors of the acclaimed documentary We Are Guardians. Featuring Edivan Guajajara, Chelsea Greene, and Rob Grobman, this film is a powerful exploration of the Amazon’s ongoing battle for survival. We Are Guardians weaves […]
State management and regulation of extractive industries in the Pan Amazon
- Extractive industries have become economic and political pillars across all Pan Amazon countries. Relationships between states and private companies in the region are managed via three main models: concessions, production sharing agreements, and service contracts, with the usage of those models varying across the region.
- In all cases, corruption, bad governance and adverse social conditions prevent the exploitation of resources in the Pan Amazon from being sustainable and generating real wealth.
- States capture revenues from extractive industries in different ways: via royalties, corporate income taxes and profits from state-owned companies. These are complimented by licensing fees, property taxes and signing bonuses as well as windfall-profit taxes.
A short walk through Amazon time: Interview with archaeologist Anna Roosevelt
- Anna Roosevelt has been working in the Amazon for four decades and her pivotal research has changed the knowledge of the rainforest’s occupation.
- In an interview with Mongabay, she explains how her research led to evidence of much older Amazon settlements than previously thought, challenging a decades-long scientific consensus about how Indigenous people related to the forest.
- “One reason I was able to make some great discoveries is because of how opinionated archaeologists in the mid-20th century were. I only benefited from their mistakes,” she said.
- Roosevelt said the recent hype regarding the “garden cities” in Ecuador is “annoying”, as it is not a new discovery and it ignores older research from Latin American archaeologists.
What’s really at stake in the Venezuela-Guyana land dispute? (commentary)
- Venezuela recently deployed military forces to the Guyanese border in what may be an attempt to annex part of the smaller country’s national territory.
- Media coverage has generally focused on the rich natural resources of the area which Venezuela may be interested in– including oil, gold, and diamonds–but others including the region’s Indigenous peoples say its ecological role is just as important for Guyana to protect.
- “If we truly value this land – not only for its natural resources but for its unique beauty, its cultural and biological diversity, and its outsized role in combating climate change – then we must defend it from foreign interests and extractive industries in equal measure,” argues a Goldman Prize-winning Indigenous leader from the region in a new op-ed.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Jaguar release offers a lifeline to Gran Chaco’s lonely big cats
- On March 15, the first female jaguar was released into El Impenetrable National Park in northern Argentina in the hope she will mate with resident males.
- Just 10 male jaguars live in Argentina’s Gran Chaco region, with the last confirmed female sighting there 35 years ago, meaning a viable jaguar population is impossible without rewilding efforts.
- By increasing numbers in El Impenetrable, rewilding experts aim to bridge Argentina’s disperse jaguar populations and promote genetic diversity between them.
- The NGO Rewilding Argentina has been working with local communities to develop an ecotourism-centered economy to boost the chances of the jaguars’ survival.
How to reward tropical forest conservation: Interview with Tasso Azevedo
- A new initiative led by Brazil’s Ministry of the Environment plans to financially reward conservationists of the planet’s tropical forests.
- In an interview with Mongabay, one of the system’s creators, Tasso Azevedo, details the financial instrument, called Tropical Forests Forever.
- Countries that join the system will receive a fixed amount for each hectare of forest preserved or recovered, but the amount will be deducted if they allow deforestation.
- The Brazilian government estimates that $250 billion is needed to kickstart the operation.
Mineral commodities: the wealth that generates most impacts in the Pan Amazon | Chapter 5 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon”
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- The paradox of minerals is that thousands of families depend on their exploitation and the economic activities generated, but at the same time suffer the impacts on their ecosystems, livelihoods and health.
- According to Killeen, governments know that the promotion of mineral development generates an unfavorable balance of payments in the long term. Thus, the overall cost-benefit equation may require a different development strategy.
- In the meantime, people living in the surrounding of projects are often torn between the desire for employment (however temporary) and the fear of environmental impacts that persist for decades.
Ancient giant river dolphin species found in the Peruvian Amazon
- Paleontologists discovered a fossilized skull of a newly described species of giant freshwater dolphin in the Peruvian Amazon, which lived around 16 million years ago and is considered the largest-known river dolphin ever found.
- The ancient creature, measuring 3-3.5 meters (9.8-11.5 feet), was surprisingly related to South Asian river dolphins rather than the local, living Amazon river pink dolphin and shared highly developed facial crests used for echolocation.
- The discovery comes at a time when the six existing species of modern river dolphins face unprecedented threats, with their combined populations decreasing by 73% since the 1980s due to unsustainable fishing practices, climate change, pollution, illegal mining and infrastructure development.
- Conservation efforts are underway, including the signing of the Global Declaration for River Dolphins by nine countries and successful initiatives in China and Indonesia, highlighting the importance of protecting these critical species that serve as indicators of river ecosystem health.
Reforestation and restoration: Two ways to make the Pan Amazon greener
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Efforts to save agroforestry zones require long-term patience and heavy investment, but ensure that plantations sequester up to 20% of the carbon stored in a natural forest, and even more carbon can be retained through natural habitat restoration.
- Killeen explains that tropical areas need to retain around 70% of their canopy cover to maintain the atmospheric recycling that sustains historical rainfall levels. In the southern Amazon, this would need to be applied to 15 million hectares with an investment of between $20 and $100 billion.
- For the author, these issues are all the more urgent as the threat of climate change is accelerating the Pan-Amazonian region to an irreversible tipping point. Are carbon markets providing incentives that ‘reward’ conservation in the Pan-Amazonian region?
Reconciling conservation agriculture and agroforestry for sustainability
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- In this section, Killeen focuses on land management that seeks to reconcile the technologies of modern agriculture with the worn-out practices of organic farming.
- It also analyzes the case of livestock farmers, who are not as likely to change their land management practices, as they have an underutilized surplus that has suffered from mismanagement.
- For Killeen, smallholder farmers should be more willing to diversify such production systems and adopt practices that increase resilience. Because mitigating risk is essential to their livelihoods: without crops comes bankruptcy and hunger. This is the case in countries such as Ecuador and Peru, where smallholder farmers occupy more than 90% of previously deforested areas.
Squeezed-out Amazon smallholders seek new frontiers in Brazil’s Roraima state
- As infrastructure projects and soy plantations pump up land values in the Brazilian Amazon, smallholders are selling up and moving to more distant frontiers, perpetuating a cycle of displacement and deforestation.
- The isolated south of Roraima state has become a priority destination for these migrants, who buy land from informal brokers with questionable paperwork; much of the land has been grabbed from the vast undesignated lands of the Brazilian government.
- Although the appetite for land grabs has diminished since the start of the Lula administration, the region has seen an increase in deforestation in recent years.
Bolivia’s El Curichi Las Garzas protected area taken over by land-grabbers
- Curichi Las Garzas is a natural refuge where thousands of wood storks (Mycteria americana) arrive each year to reproduce before continuing their journey.
- Land grabbers have destroyed 300 of the protected area’s 1,247 hectares in the municipality of San Carlos, planting rice and soybean crops.
- The encroachers claim to have endorsement from the INRA (Bolivia’s National Institute of Agrarian Reform), but the INRA has denied this and has asked the mayor to intervene. In the last three months, more than 4,500 deforestation alerts have been recorded along with a peak of 42 fire alerts, the highest number for the last 10 years.
Land irrigation as an obstacle to agricultural intensification in Mato Grosso
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- In this section, Killeen looks at industrialized crops in Brazil, specifically in Mato Grosso, where irrigation is expected to be heavily impacted by decreasing rainfall as a result of climate change and deforestation.
- The outlook over the next few years is grim. While current extraction levels are within parameters, the effective expansion rate of 10% per year will eventually outstrip surface water supplies, increasing demand for groundwater.
- According to studies conducted in Mato Grosso, the combined surface and groundwater resources could support 3.9 million hectares of agriculture.
What is most convenient in land distribution?
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Predictions indicate that an ecological tipping point will be crossed when 25% of the Amazon’s forests will have been converted to agriculture, just a few percentage points from the current 18%. How can deforestation be halted?
- There are two approaches taken by specialists and academics: the savings approach, which involves using technology to intensify production on the land; and the sharing approach, which seeks to diversify production systems.
- For Killeen, both approaches could be applicable but their social, economic and environmental impacts will vary dramatically depending on where they are applied and on what scale.
Authorities struggle to protect Bolivian national park from drug-fueled deforestation
- Amboró National Park and Integrated Management Natural Area is located in the Santa Cruz department of central Bolivia, at the confluence of three different ecosystems: the Amazon, the northern Bolivian Chaco and the Andes.
- Amboró has been losing forest cover to illicit activities such as the cultivation of coca crops for the production of cocaine.
- National and departmental officials say Amboró authorities aren’t doing enough to keep encroachers out of the park.
- But rangers in Amboró say they don’t have enough resources to effectively enforce regulation.
In the Amazon, what happens to undesignated public lands?
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Indigenous communities compete with other stakeholders with economic, demographic and political power. Among them, the livestock, agricultural and logging sectors stand out. This competition for land includes the interests of mining companies and the oil and gas industry.
- Broadly speaking, there are still important areas of public lands waiting to be assigned as protected areas, Indigenous reserves or open to some type of sustainable development.
- Therefore, it is important to understand that insecure and uncertain land is directly related to the deforestation crisis. Hoarders and settlers appropriate public lands due to the incomplete nature of land records.
Ecuador, Colombia and the Guiana Shield join the planning of sustainable land use
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- This section shows how land use planning in Ecuador loses value if it is not accompanied by programs that motivate landowners to reform their business models and reward forest communities.
- Likewise, in countries like Colombia the challenge is not access to information or technical capacity, but rather the weak presence of the State in various areas of the country that live without law. Finally, although Suriname, Guyana and Venezuela were late in planning the development of their forested areas, the deforestation factors linked to agriculture and infrastructure are quite low.
- Despite this, the threats facing these countries include new offshore oil and gas reserves, as well as small and medium-scale gold mining.
Giant anaconda species found on Waorani Indigenous land in Ecuador
- A new species of giant anaconda has been found in the Bameno region of Baihuaeri Waorani Territory in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
- The largest snake the team found in Waorani territory was a female anaconda that measured 6.3 meters (20.7 feet) long from head to tail, but there are Indigenous reports of larger individuals.
- As apex predators, anacondas play a vital ecological role in regulating prey populations like fish, rodents, deer and caimans.
- Anacondas face a number of threats across their range, including habitat loss from deforestation, hunting by humans and pollution from oil spills.
Megafires are spreading in the Amazon — and they are here to stay
- Wildfires consuming more than 100 square kilometers (38 square miles) of tropical rainforest shouldn’t happen, yet they are becoming more and more frequent.
- Because of its intense humidity and tall trees, fire does not occur spontaneously in the Amazon; usually accidental, forest fires are caused by uncontrolled small fires coming from crop burning, livestock management or clear-cutting.
- Scientists say the rainforest is becoming increasingly flammable, even in areas not directly related to deforestation; fire is now spreading faster and higher, reaching more than 10 meters (32 feet) in height.
Low implementation of land use maps in Andean countries affects conservation outcomes and agricultural productivity
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Land-zoning in Peru and Bolivia has had positive and adverse outcomes, with land speculation and focus on agriculture often precluding sustainable development and promoting deforestation.
- The 2013 Sembrando Bolivia programme, central to the government’s goal of expanding the agricultural footprint, sped up land tenure regularization on properties deforested between 1996 and 2013 and issued new forest-clearing permits for 154,000 hectares. Originally intended to foster forest conservation, the programme was used to promote deforestation in favor of agricultural production in the Bolivian Amazon.
Land use planning helps advance conservation in Brazil
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- In addition to regulating land tenure, land-use zoning and planning have been used across the Amazon Basin, as countries have aimed to protect forests and prevent the encroachment of agricultural frontiers.
- In Brazil,the Zonificación Ecológica Económica (ZEE) coincided with a parallel effort to protect large swathes of the Amazon and provided technical criteria and legal support for the creation of dozens of conservation units and Indigenous territories.
In Brazil’s soy belt, community seed banks offer hope for the Amazon
- In Brazil’s state of Mato Grosso, monoculture has replaced large swathes of the Amazon rainforest and ushered in changes in climate patterns, including severe droughts and scarce rains, according to climate experts.
- Traditional and Indigenous peoples are looking to counter the impacts of large-scale soy plantations in the region by setting up community seed banks and reforesting degraded lands with species native to the Amazon.
- Experts say seed initiatives could play a key role in restoration efforts as Brazil scrambles to rehabilitate 60,000 square kilometers (23,160 square miles) of deforested land by 2030 and agribusiness faces global demands to reverse the damage it has inflicted on the Amazon.
- Seed banks could also help restore the biodiversity being lost in the Amazon, preserve species central to Indigenous cultures, and mitigate climate change, locally and globally.
The creation of settlements in the Ecuadorian Amazon | Chapter 4 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon”
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
Report shows Peru failed to stop Amazon deforestation for palm oil and cacao
- A new report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) reveals that about 13,000 hectares (32,000 acres) of Amazon forest in the Peruvian regions of Loreto and Ucayali have been cleared after being purchased by several palm oil and cacao companies between 2012 and 2021.
- The investigation stresses that systemic failures in Peru’s governance, particularly in land title allocation, have allowed corporations to acquire land unlawfully, deforest without permits, disregard environmental rules, avoid fines and violate community rights. Between 2012 and 2018, almost all deforestation in Loreto and Ucayali had no legal permits, the report says.
- Some of the palm oil from these companies has been shown to enter the supply chains of major multinational companies, including Kellogg’s, Nestlé and Colgate.
- Peru’s recent approval of its new forest law, which pardons all historical illegal deforestation on rural properties or areas cleared for agriculture, will only give a license to these companies to continue damaging the environment, the EIA warns.
A particular agrarian reform process in Peru | Chapter 4 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon”
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
How to achieve the regularization of rural land in private properties in Peru? | Chapter 4 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon”
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
A coalition created by a demand for land is splintered by a competition for territory | Chapter 4 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon”
- The political movement that brought Evo Morales to power incorporated a latent conflict between highland and lowland Indigenous communities.
- Attempt to build highways revealed that Evo Morales would not honour his campaign promises to lowland Indigenous groups when it conflicted with the interests of the more numerous and politically assertive interculturales.
- INRA has done a fairly competent job of processing the huge backlog of land claims, but there is no indication that any government will end the distribution of public land.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
How Bolivia pioneered agrarian reform in South America
- Continuing with the experiences by country, this time it is the turn of Bolivia, which had its first approach to the distribution of public lands in the 1950s. Later, between the ’60s and ’70s, these measures caused migrations from the high Andean areas to the valleys and Amazonian areas.
- Although neoliberal measures were applied in Bolivia in the ’80s and ’90s, when the 21st century arrived, the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) political party got consolidated and Evo Morales rose to presidency, following a focus on the demands of Indigenous peoples.
- To date, efforts have focused on complying with the ‘función económico – social (FES),’ or the Economic-Social Function. In other words, owners must use the land or lose it.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
Terra Legal program to regularize small property owners | Chapter 4 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon”
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
INCRA as a regulatory agency | Chapter 4 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon”
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
Agrarian reform agencies and national land registry systems in the Pan Amazon
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
The dynamics of violence in pursuit of land in the Pan Amazon
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
Land in the Pan Amazon, the ultimate commodity: Chapter 4 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon”
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
Detailed NASA analysis finds Earth and Amazon in deep climate trouble
- A NASA study analyzed the future action of six climate variables in all the world’s regions — air temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, short- and long wave solar radiation and wind speed — if Earth’s average temperature reaches 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, which could occur by 2040 if emissions keep rising at current rates.
- The authors used advanced statistical techniques to downscale climate models at a resolution eight times greater than most previous models. This allows for identification of climate variations on a daily basis across the world, something essential since climate impacts unfold gradually, rather than as upheavals.
- The study found that the Amazon will be the area with the greatest reduction in relative humidity. An analysis by the Brazilian space agency INPE showed that some parts of this rainforest biome have already reached maximum temperatures of more than 3°C (5.4°F) over 1960 levels.
- Regardless of warnings from science and Indigenous peoples of the existential threat posed by climate change, the world’s largest fossil fuel producers, largely with government consent, plan to further expand fossil fuel exploration, says a U.N. report. That’s despite a COP28 climate summit deal “transitioning away from fossil fuels.”
Other financial systems in the agricultural practice of the Amazon
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
Rural finance in the Pan Amazon: the Brazil success case
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
Science panel presents COP28 with blueprint for saving the Amazon
- Five policy briefs launched at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai highlight the critical challenges facing the Amazon Basin, as well as the immediate actions and solutions needed to ensure a sustainable future for the region’s ecosystems and the 47 million people living there.
- The reports, published by the Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA), a high-level science body, cover cross-cutting topics, from root causes of deforestation and rethinking Amazon infrastructure to restoration and finance solutions.
- Stressing the urgency of preventing the rainforest from crossing a tipping point into a dry scrubland, the panel calls for leveraging nature-based solutions and Indigenous knowledge to consolidate new social bioeconomies that can “leave forests standing and rivers flowing.”
- Based on a previous SPA brief, Brazil launched Arcs of Reforestation, a $205 million program to restore 6 million hectares (15 million acres) of deforested and degraded forest land in some of most affected parts of the Brazilian Amazon.
Roundtables and certification schemes in the Pan-Amazon
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
Mining company Belo Sun sues environmental defenders in intimidation tactic, NGOs say
- Canadian mining company Belo Sun has filed a lawsuit against community leaders and environmental rights defenders, including members of Amazon Watch and International Rivers, for their alleged support or involvement in the illegal occupation of company-owned land.
- A coalition of environmental lawyers and human rights activists say the lawsuit is an intimidation tactic part of a pattern the company uses to silence and weaken those who speak against its operations near the biodiverse Xingu River.
- Belo Sun denies persecuting or threatening environmental defenders and says it is only acting to preserve its rights, preserve the rights of the protesters and stop criminal activity.
- The lawyers of those accused have started to provide their defense in court and plan to present a complaint of the lawsuit to the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the U.N.
Amazon deforestation declines but fossil fuels remain contentious, COP28 shows
- COP28 celebrates the strong downward trend in deforestation in the Amazon over the last year, but also reveals a conflict between Amazonian nations over fossil fuels.
- Colombia has stopped all new oil exploration contracts in a bid to eliminate dependency on the fossil fuel economy. On the other hand, Brazil announced plans that could make it the world’s fourth-largest oil producer by the end of this decade.
- Indigenous groups who live and depend on the Amazon Rainforest lament that they haven’t been heard or involved in important decision-making during COP28 that would ultimately impact them.
- Experts say that international finance is “fundamental” for climate action, and while this theme has been on the table at COP28, there has been no tangible action that would meet the scale required to preserve the Amazon Rainforest.
Safety of Peru’s land defenders in question after killing of Indigenous leader in the Amazon
- Quinto Inuma was killed on November 29 while traveling to the Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu community in Peru’s Amazon following a meeting of environmental defenders.
- For years, the Indigenous Kichwa leader had been receiving threats for his work trying to stop invasions, land trafficking, drug trafficking and illegal logging in his community, forcing him to rely on protection measures from the Ministry of Justice.
- After Inuma’s death, a group of 128 Indigenous communities released a statement appealing for justice and holding the Peruvian state reponsible for its inaction and ineffectivtieness in protecting the lives of human rights defenders in Indigenous territories. Several other Indigenous leaders who receive threats have requested protection measures from the state but have not gotten a response.
- According to an official in the Ministry of Justice, providing the Kichwa leader with protection measures was very complex because he lived in a high-risk area. The only thing that could be done, they said, is to provide permanent police protection, which wasn’t possible for the local police.
Coca in the Amazon – The anti-development crop
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
Local and national food crops in the Andean Amazon
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
Peru’s crackdown on illegal gold mining a success, but only briefly, study shows
- Peru’s state intervention against illegal gold mining in the Madre de Dios region succeeded in halting the activity for a couple of years, pushing miners into concessions allowing mining, according to recent research.
- Operation Mercury, which ran between 2019-2020, led to the abandonment of almost all targeted illegal mining sites in La Pampa, an area found in the buffer zone of a major national park.
- But while there’s been some forest regeneration in the affected areas since then, this has been undone by even higher rates of deforestation in the legal mining areas where the miners have moved into.
- Experts also say the effort has been unsustainable, as law enforcement in the area has waned and miners have started to come back, with the COVID-19 pandemic playing a major role in cutting enforcement budgets.
Brazil cattle traceability program to limit deforestation in Pará state
- A new traceability program will keep tabs on the millions of cattle present throughout the state of Pará, in northern Brazil, where the Amazon Rainforest has been hit especially hard by deforestation from cattle ranching.
- The tagging program aims to monitor all transported cattle transported through the state by December 2025 and the permanent herd of approximately 24 million cattle by December 2026.
- The program was created last week through a decree signed by Pará governor Helder Barbalho following the introduction of the Leaders Declaration on Food Systems, Agriculture and Climate Action at COP28, the annual UN climate conference.
Ancient Amazon earthwork findings spotlight Indigenous land struggles today
- The authors of a new study say they have found 24 previously unrecorded pre-Columbian earthworks in the Amazon, and they estimate there may be more than 10,000 such sites still hidden throughout the forest.
- Ancient earthwork structures represent one of the types of formations found in the Amazon that provide evidence of Indigenous occupation by pre-Columbian earth-building societies.
- An airborne sensor was used to scan data from areas of the Amazon in what the scientists say is “groundbreaking” research.
- This research demonstrates that the Amazon has long been home to Indigenous peoples and is also important for organizations and communities in their efforts to demarcate new Indigenous territories, the general coordinator of the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB) says.
The man who made a pact with wild bees in Colombia’s Amazon
- Delio de Jesús Suárez Gómez, a member of the Indigenous Tucano community in Colombia, is combining ancestral knowledge with science to help pollinating bees survive the harsh conditions of life in the rainforest.
- In return, the bees provide honey for families, which is sold, and boosts the communities’ food and fruit supply through pollination.
- The newly-formed group Asomegua (Asociación de Meliponicultores del Guainía) is the result of a decade of beekeeping in La Ceiba, a community on the banks of the Inírida River near the famous Mavicure Hills.
- Bee populations around the world, which participate in the pollination of 75% of the world’s food crops, are on the decline, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
High quality cacao in Amazonia
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
Cultivation and processing of Amazonian coffees
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
Paradise lost? Brazil’s biggest bauxite mining firm denies riverine rights
- Mineração Rio do Norte (MRN), Brazil’s largest bauxite producer, launched a new mining project in the Amazon region in 2019 but failed to notify and consult four impacted traditional riverine communities that have been established for generations. The villages say their lives are heavily impacted.
- MRN’s stance of no significant impact is backed by IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency, because it only is required to recognize Indigenous and Quilombola populations as legitimate traditional peoples guaranteed prior, free, informed consultation — a right enshrined in international law.
- Other traditional riverine communities are being denied such a right, say critics who are calling on President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government to instruct IBAMA to reduce the impact of mining on riverine communities.
- Action by IBAMA could help preserve the way of life for hundreds of traditional riverine people likely to be affected by a series of new mines planned by MRN. The ruling could also act as a precedent for other traditional communities not currently guaranteed prior, free, informed consultation.
Brazil’s biggest bauxite mining firm denies riverine rights
ORIXIMINÁ, Pará state, Brazil — In 2019, Mineração Rio do Norte (MRN), Brazil’s largest bauxite producer, initiated a controversial new mining project in the Amazon region without notifying or consulting four traditional riverine communities that have thrived there for generations. These villages report significant disruptions to their way of life due to the mining activities. […]
Jane Goodall and Dax Dasilva partner with Amazon Indigenous youth for new Roots & Shoots program
- Jane Goodall is partnering with Dax Dasilva to bring her Roots & Shoots youth program to the Brazilian Amazon to help equip Indigenous youth to protect their ancestral lands.
- On Goodall’s first in-depth visit to the Amazon, she and Dasilva met with Juma Xipaya, who leads resistance against dams and illegal mining and logging in her indigenous territory of the Xipaya, located in Brazil’s Pará state.
- Deforestation and climate change are drying and degrading the Amazon rainforest, and this year saw historic droughts across the region.
- Indigenous territories remain important strongholds for safeguarding the remaining Amazon Rainforest.
Coffee and cacao in the Pan Amazon
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
Biofuels in the Pan Amazon
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
Mongabay CEO discusses slowdown in Amazon loss and other positive news
- It’s been an eventful couple of months for the Amazon Rainforest and for the Mongabay newsroom.
- Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) recently shared data showing a 22% decline in deforestation for the year ending July 31, 2023.
- In other exciting news, Mongabay was awarded the prestigious 2023 Biophilia Award for Environmental Communication recently. Past winners have included Pulitzer-winning journalist Elizabeth Kolbert and The Guardian.
- Mongabay has also just launched an entirely new bilingual bureau in Africa. Here to discuss all these developments on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast is CEO and editor-in-chief Rhett Butler.
Why has deforestation reached record levels in Bolivia? (commentary)
- “While food insecurity and a wavering economy require immediate action, the economic over-reliance on the extraction, or cutting down, of natural resources is pushing Bolivia’s forests towards a potential tipping point,” the writer of a new op-ed argues.
- Last year for example, Bolivia lost more primary forest than any previous year on record, almost double the amount during the Morales presidency.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
What does oil palm require to reach international markets?
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
Palm oil cultivation in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
Amazon deforestation has a regional, not just local impact: study
- A new study found that deforestation in the Amazon doesn’t just raise temperatures in the areas where the deforestation took place but rather throughout the entire region.
- Researchers analyzed satellite readings of surface temperatures at 3.7 million different data points across the Amazon where forest loss had occurred between 2001 and 2020.
- They found that localized deforestation had a strong impact on regional warming.
Oil palm in the Pan Amazon
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
Agriculture in the Pan-Amazon: Swine and poultry – Adding value to farm production
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023 and 2024.
Lifted sanctions on gold, oil could slow conservation efforts in Venezuela
- Last month, the U.S. agreed to lift some sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and gas and gold, some of the country’s largest industries, but also its most environmentally hazardous.
- Eased restrictions could allow neighboring countries with illegal mining, such as Suriname, Brazil, Guyana and Colombia, to launder gold through Venezuela’s new legal channels.
- Spills from oil and gas fields may continue as before given the government’s disregard for infrastructure maintenance, such as fixing pipes and replacing worn-down tanks.
Agriculture in the Pan Amazon: Industrial infrastructure for grains and cereals
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Agriculture in the Pan Amazon: Global markets for soybean and corn crops
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Intensive agriculture in the Pan Amazon: Soy, maize and other field crops
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Livestock farming in the Andean Amazon and the rest of the Amazon
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
National versus global markets – beef in the Brazilian Amazon
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Industrial infrastructure in the Pan Amazon
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Agriculture in the Pan Amazon: Beef production models
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Agriculture: profitability determines land use | Chapter 3 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon”
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Sustainable infrastructure in the Pan Amazon: In search of an oxymoron
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Investing in the Pan Amazon: How China’s investment operates
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Infrastructure in the Pan Amazon: Public-private partnerships
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Infrastructure in the Pan Amazon – Finance: What is new and what is not
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Infrastructure in the Pan Amazon: Railroad development
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Infrastructure in the Pan Amazon: Waterway options
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Amazonian Indigenous leaders call for 80×2025 at Climate Week (commentary)
- As the world gathers in New York for Climate Week, Indigenous leaders are calling on UN delegates, environmental organizations, and the research community to back a stronger goal for Amazon protection.
- A central element of the “Amazonia For Life” campaign endorsed by 511 Indigenous nations across Amazonia and 1,200 organizations around the world, it calls on governments to protect at least 80% of the Amazon by 2025.
- “As a mother, a grandmother and a voice for a coalition of Indigenous peoples…I urge every state and each one of you to join us in our fight to protect at least 80% of Amazonia by 2025,” a new op-ed states.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
In Roraima, Indigenous communities forge sustainable solutions amid threats
- Sustainable farming, mercury-free fishing and circular trade are among the strategies Amazon Indigenous peoples have been developing to survive in one of the most hostile states for Indigenous people in Brazil.
- Territorial and Environmental Management Plans (PGTAs) are one of the Indigenous-led tools for communities to create strategies to manage their natural resources and provide income for families in their territories.
- For long-term survival, these sustainable initiatives require investments, but previous experience has shown that a top-down approach is often counterproductive.
- But even as they achieve successes with various initiatives, monoculture agribusiness, illegal mining and land grabbing continue to threaten their livelihoods.
In the Amazon, global competition drives bulk transport systems
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
The future of hydropower in the Pan Amazon
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Hydropower in the Pan Amazon: An overview of the private energy sector in Ecuador and China’s role
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Hydropower in the Pan Amazon: A look at the private energy sector in Peru
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Hydropower in the Pan Amazon: Bolivia seeks an energy export model
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Hydropower in the Pan Amazon: Río Trombetas and Calha Norte
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Hydropower in the Pan Amazon: The Tapajós Basin and the prevalence of Indigenous rights
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Hydropower in the Pan Amazon: Belo Monte and the Río Xingu
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Ecuador referendum halts oil extraction in Yasuní National Park
- Millions of people participated in a nationwide referendum to determine whether crude oil should remain in the ground indefinitely at a site inside Yasuní National Park in Ecuador’s eastern Amazon.
- More than 5.2 million people voted in favor compared with 3.6 million against, solidifying protections for Indigenous communities living in voluntary isolation.
- The referendum took place alongside presidential and legislative elections as well as a referendum on halting mining in the Chocó Andino de Pichincha. That referendum received nearly 70% support from voters.
Hydropower in the Pan Amazon: The Madeira Hydropower Complex
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Hydropower in the Pan Amazon: Tucuruí and the Tocantins Cascade
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Hydropower in the Pan Amazon: The Guri complex and the Caroni Cascade
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Hydropower in the Pan Amazon: A shift toward reduced impact facilities, but the controversy continues
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Protecting the Amazon requires fresh thinking, veteran ecologist argues
- An ecologist and conservation biologist with 30 years of experience living in the Amazon region, Tim Killeen wants conservationists to think outside the box when it comes to incentivizing Amazon protection.
- He likens changing the deforestation pathway of the Pan Amazon to “turning an ocean liner” in that “pressure must be applied to the rudder of state” over a long period of time to drive change.
- That change, he says, must come from taking into consideration a variety of economic factors and pressures that each state in the Amazon faces, to provide viable ideas and solutions that incentivize forest protection.
- On this episode of Mongabay’s podcast, Killeen shares some key points from the second edition of his book, A Perfect Storm in the Amazon Wilderness; what inspired him to work in conservation; his advice for up-and-coming conservationists; and what gives him hope.
Infrastructure in the Pan Amazon: The Guiana Shield and the Coastal Plain
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Infrastructure in the Andean Amazon: The Carretera Marginal de la Selva
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
AI unlocks secrets of Amazon river dolphins’ behavior, no tagging required
- Freshwater dolphins in the Amazon Basin navigate through flooded forests during the wet season using their flexible bodies and echolocation clicks.
- Researchers have combined advanced acoustic monitoring and AI to study the habits of endangered pink river dolphins (boto) and tucuxi in seasonally flooded habitats.
- They used hydrophones to record sounds in various habitats and employed convolutional neural networks (CNN) to classify the sounds as either echolocation clicks, boat engine noises, or rain — with high accuracy.
- Understanding the dolphins’ movements and behaviors can aid conservation efforts to protect these endangered species, as they face various threats such as fishing entanglement, dam construction, mining, agriculture and cattle ranching.
The Andean republics of the Pan Amazon
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
The Human-Modified Landscapes (HML) and the Brazilian highway network
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Roads are primary vectors of deforestation in the Pan Amazon
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Infrastructure defines the future: Chapter 2 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon”
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.
Current policy approaches in the Amazon: certainly necessary, but are they sufficient?
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- This is part of chapter 1 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” see the bottom of this page for links to all the excerpts.
The challenge of the future (and lessons from the recent past) in the Pan Amazon
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- This is part of chapter 1 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” see the bottom of this page for links to all the excerpts.
Six months on, the Yanomami crisis continues amid rising violence
- Local groups and family members have appealed to the federal government to join the investigation of the death of Indigenous health worker Angelita Prororita, whose remains were recently found.
- The case underscores the continued violence that hampers the region, where illegal gold miners have threatened and harmed the Indigenous populations.
- In addition, the illegal mining has contaminated local waters and led to a humanitarian crisis of malnutrition, malaria, pneumonia, and other illnesses that have increased child mortality rates and, six months on, continues.
Monetizing nature: The under-explored power of the Amazon’s natural capital
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- This is part of chapter 1 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” see the bottom of this page for links to all the excerpts.
An Indigenous revival in the Pan Amazon
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- This is part of chapter 1 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” see the bottom of this page for links to all the excerpts.
Fishing, dams and dredging close in on Peru’s river dolphins, study shows
- Amazon river dolphins in Peru are facing increasing threats from human activity, including fishing, proposed construction of dams, and dredging operations
- A study tracked the movements of dolphins in relation to fishing areas, dams and dredging sites, and found that 89% of their home range is subject to fishing activity.
- The research team observed that the dolphins in the study were, on average, located roughly 252 kilometers (157 miles) from the nearest proposed dam and 125 km (78 mi) from the closest proposed dredging site.
- The construction of the Amazon Waterway, aimed at improving navigability along waterways in Peru, involves dredging sites across four main rivers in the basin and could lead to ship collisions with dolphins, increased underwater noise, and habitat degradation.
Bill stripping Peru’s isolated Indigenous people of land and protections scrapped
- A bill proposing to strip lands and protections of Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact was rejected by three congressional commissions at the end of June — permanently shelving it before it could reach Congress.
- The bill, which was proposed by a congressman from Peru’s oil-rich Loreto region and supported by the regional government and businessmen, aimed to shift responsibility for the creation of Indigenous reserves from the national government to the regional governments and re-evaluate whether to keep existing Indigenous reserves.
- Indigenous organizations, civil society and Peru’s Ministry of Culture, responsible for creating Indigenous reserves, say the proposed bill was illegal and would have endangered the lives of isolated communities.
The largest land set-aside in history
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- This is part of chapter 1 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” see the bottom of this page for links to all the excerpts.
Brazil nut harvesting proves a win-win for forest and community livelihood
- In the Calha Norte region of Brazil’s Pará state, home to the broadest mosaic of conservation units and Indigenous territories on the planet, communal Brazil nut harvesting is proving to be a winning opportunity for the future of the Amazon Rainforest.
- Communities of nut gatherers living on the banks of the Paru River have practiced their traditional nut-gathering lifestyle for generations, grounded in the understanding that without an intact forest, there are no Brazil nuts.
- Some 300,000 people throughout the Brazilian Amazon depend on the Brazil nut production chain for their living.
- The nut market, however, has not yet recovered from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and a severe drought in 2016.
Environmental governance in the Amazon
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- This is part of chapter 1 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” see the bottom of this page for links to all the excerpts.
Environmental policy and action on the ground in the Amazon
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- This is part of chapter 1 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” see the bottom of this page for links to all the excerpts.
Climate change and moisture recycling in the Amazon
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- This is part of chapter 1 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” see the bottom of this page for links to all the excerpts.
Forest ecology and carbon dynamics in the Amazon
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- This is part of chapter 1 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” see the bottom of this page for links to all the excerpts.
Rare Amazon dark soils could help forest restoration, study shows
- A recent study shows that Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs), through their high nutrient and microbiological contents, could help to restore deforested areas in the Amazon region.
- Furthermore, these unique soils, enriched with beneficial microorganisms like bacteria and archaea, can boost the fertility of typically nutrient-depleted soils in the Amazon region.
- Building on these findings, researchers plan to further analyze the composition and microorganisms of ADEs, aiming to help restore and conserve the Amazon Rainforest.
The natural history of the Amazon Rainforest
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- This is part of chapter 1 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” see the bottom of this page for links to all the excerpts.
Understanding the conventional economy of the Pan Amazon
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- This is part of chapter 1 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” see the bottom of this page for links to all the excerpts.
The political economy of the Pan Amazon
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- This is part of chapter 1 of “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” see the bottom of this page for links to all the excerpts.
Feeds: news | india | latam | brasil | indonesia