On today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we speak with Chris Fagan about the investigative report he recently filed for Mongabay that revealed a large-scale illegal land invasion encroaching on national parks and indigenous reserves in the Peruvian Amazon.

Many of the land grabbers are from a region of Peru notorious for cocaine production, Fagan found, and were recruited by land traffickers to join agricultural associations focused on growing cacao, though the traffickers’ ultimate goal is likely to grow coca, the raw material cocaine is made from.

While traveling up the Sepahua River with indigenous guides who are part of local vigilance committees dedicated to protecting the land, Fagan counted more than 250 plots of land illegally parceled out. Some of those parcels were still untouched, but others had already been deforested and converted to cropland.

Fagan, who has worked in the Peruvian Amazon for over 15 years as executive director of the Upper Amazon Conservancy, joins us today to discuss the findings of his investigation, what it was like to encounter the deforestation he and his guides discovered deep in the Amazon rainforest, and who is responsible for evicting the land grabbers. You can read his investigative report here on Mongabay.

Here’s this episode’s top news:

• Revealed: Government officials say permits for mega-plantation in Papua were falsified
• Hopes dim as COP25 delegates dicker over Article 6 and world burns: critics
• Newly spotted calves boost Javan rhino population to 72

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Follow Mike Gaworecki on Twitter: @mikeg2001

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