Amazon
In Brazilian Amazon, mining harm comes from beyond just the mines, study shows
Opening up protected areas to mining in the Brazilian Amazon could have an even bigger impact than previously thought, according to a study published in Nature Sustainability earlier this year. The study focused on the nine protected areas that make up most of the National Reserve of Copper and Associates (RENCA) in the Amazonian states […]
2022 Amazon fires tightly tied to recent deforestation, new data show
This year’s Amazon fire season was milder than the previous two years, but there were still nearly 1,000 major fires, many of them in recently cleared areas in the Brazilian Amazon, highlighting a key link between deforestation and fires. Using ground and atmospheric data, the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) documented 983 major […]
Where is the money? Brazil, Indonesia and Congo join forces in push for rainforest protection cash
The world’s three forest giants — Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — have signed a joint statement calling for the negotiation of new payment mechanisms to preserve the tropical rainforests that help regulate the world’s climate and house millions of plants and animals. The announcement marks the beginning of a strategic […]
Following the impacts of palm oil alliance: Violated regulations and penalty proceedings
Palm oil production is leaving a deep mark on the rivers and forests of Latin America. Between 2010 and 2021, at least 298 cases were opened against 170 palm oil companies and producers in just six countries across the region. The violation of environmental regulations, deforestation, diverting watercourses and water hoarding, among other crimes, were […]
Delayed Indigenous ‘Man of the Hole’ burial reveals dispute over his land
For 26 years, the last member of the Tanaru people resisted contact and lived alone in his protected land in the Brazilian state of Rondônia. Ranchers and miners had massacred his family members in the early 1990s, and little was known about the secretive man other than his habit of digging 3-meter- (9.8-foot-) deep pits […]
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 […]
Shady contracts, backdoor deals spur illegal gold mining in Bolivian Amazon
LA PAZ — Gold is Bolivia’s second-biggest export, valued at more than $1 billion annually and employing hundreds of thousands of people in the country. But much of that gold has uncertain origins, coming from somewhere deep in the Amazon rainforest, where environmental regulations often go unenforced. Setting up camp in secluded parts of the […]
Growing soy on cattle pasture can eliminate Amazon deforestation in Brazil
Soy cultivation and cattle ranching are two of the biggest drivers of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. But instead of clearing more forest area for farmland, what if soy was grown on unused pastureland? That’s what a recently published study sought to model. It found that deforestation could be eliminated and carbon emissions slashed if […]
Bolsonaro loses election but finds big support in Amazon Arc of Deforestation
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected president of Brazil on Oct. 30 in a close runoff with incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro. But voters of eight out of the 10 most deforested Brazilian municipalities in the Amazon in 2021 chose Bolsonaro. The survey was done by the Climate Observatory, a network of Brazilian civil society […]
To save threatened Amazon primates in Brazil, turn them into the main attraction
You probably haven’t heard of Vieira’s titi, a monkey found only in the Brazilian Amazon. Until recently, even researchers knew so little about it that they couldn’t determine its conservation status for the IUCN Red List. But that changed this year when a new assessment of the species, Plecturocebus vieirai, determined it should be categorized […]