Amazon Destruction
Shipibo communities create Indigenous guard to protect Peruvian Amazon from deforestation
Drug trafficking, logging, oil palm plantations, oil spills, highways, illegal fishing, expanding Mennonite communities — in the Peruvian Amazon, there’s no shortage of threats against Indigenous peoples or their lands. But now the Shipibo-Konibo-Xetebo people, living in the department of Ucayali, near the border with Brazil, have taken steps to protect themselves from the barrage […]
Amazon Rainforest loss could reach new height in just 5 years, study says
Within just five years, the Amazon Rainforest could lose half the total forest cover that it lost in the first 20 years of this century, a recent study has shown, as deforestation rates continue to accelerate in almost all nine Amazonian countries. From 2001-20, the rainforest lost 542,581 square kilometers (209,492 square miles), an area […]
Climate change lawsuits take aim at French bank BNP Paribas
One of Europe’s biggest banks is facing two ambitious new lawsuits that claim it finances some of the worst contributors to environmental destruction and climate change. French bank BNP Paribas is being sued by a group of environmental and human rights advocacy groups that allege it provides financial services to oil and gas companies as […]
Amazonian countries must act together to reverse rainforest loss, experts say
A transnational, large-scale restoration strategy for the Amazon basin would allow the countries that share it to create an alternative future for the world’s largest tropical forest, by making it resilient to climate change and reaping social and economic benefits for the people in the region, according to a recent report by the Science Panel […]
Historic EU law against deforestation-linked imports ignores Brazil’s Cerrado
Officials and NGOs have hailed the European Union’s agreement on a law banning the import of commodities associated with deforestation, but say it falls short of protecting areas typically not considered forests yet nevertheless of huge ecological importance. Among the responses to the law are that it’s a “landmark,” “groundbreaking,” “radical,” a “great opportunity” for […]
Deforestation is pushing Amazon to ‘point of no return’: WWF report
Deforestation is pushing the Amazon rainforest dangerously close to its tipping point, and the effects could soon be felt across the globe. A new report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), called the Living Amazon Report, warns that threats to the Amazon have worsened in recent years, and could result in the disappearance of the […]
Beef is still coming from protected areas in the Amazon, study shows
Some of the world’s largest beef exporters are still buying cattle that grazed in protected areas of the Amazon rainforest, despite commitments to stop this practice, according to a new study. The report, published today in the journal Conservation Letters found that millions of cattle grazed in protected areas (PAs) in the Brazilian states of Mato […]
How close is the Amazon tipping point? Forest loss in the east changes the equation
Scientists warn that the Amazon is hurtling toward a tipping point, beyond which it would begin to transition from lush tropical forest into a dry, degraded savanna, unable to support the immense diversity of life that call the world’s largest rainforest home. This change could be triggered when 25% of the forest has been lost […]
Big banks fund the heavy machinery used for Amazon deforestation, report says
The deforestation sweeping across the Brazilian Amazon is driven largely by industrial agriculture, mining and cattle ranching. But those activities wouldn’t be possible without heavy machinery like bulldozers and tractors, and the big banks that often finance their purchase. Questionable business practices, weak government oversight and a lack of transparency make buying heavy machinery in […]
2021 tropical forest loss figures put zero-deforestation goal by 2030 out of reach
JAKARTA — Tropical forest loss remained consistently high in 2021 with no sign of slowing down, despite commitments by companies and governments to curb deforestation, according to new data from the University of Maryland. The data, available on the Global Forest Watch platform managed by the World Resources Institute (WRI), show that tropical countries lost […]