Articles by Genevieve Belmaker

Upon traveling through Lechemayo, a town in the Puno region of Peru, many visitors come to the conclusion that the town is a hub for fuel sales. The strong smell…

SAN GABÁN, Peru — "We have to sit down and talk," says Julián* as he shakes off his rain-soaked cape and looks for a dry spot among the scattered stones…

Colombian authorities have announced they will investigate 33 gas stations for allegedly selling an estimated 70 million gallons (265 million liters) of gasoline to cocaine producers in rural regions of…

Slowly but surely, thinking and talking about gender equality has become normal in much of modern life, from the actor Benedict Cumberbatch demanding equal pay for his female co-stars, to…

The consumption of palm oil-based biofuels fell 70 percent in Norway last year, following a government policy change on the purchase of the commodity that is being blamed for rampant…

As the impacts of climate change become more apparent worldwide, members of the public are connecting more weather events to the phenomenon. In March and April, for example, extreme heat…

Walking through the tropical forest undergrowth in the Amazonian heat, Elmer Hualinga suddenly stops to observe how tree roots have grown around a rusty barrel. Close by, the remains of…

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — Coffee is one of Vietnam’s most important agricultural products, a crop that grows so well in the country’s Central Highlands that it has become…

For almost four years, the teams of researchers traveled by boat up winding rivers, setting up base camps inside dense rainforests for weeks or months at a time as they…

KUTUPALONG, Bangladesh — Where a year ago there were only the desolate remains of a forest scythed from hills to house hundreds of thousands in the world's largest refugee camp,…

GEORGETOWN, Guyana - From the time I was old enough to recognize my real desires and ambitions, I knew I wanted to be a journalist. I had always been a…

Life in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is often defined by invisible power with little sympathy for the country’s citizens. Poor living conditions rarely change as elections are determined…

QUITO, Ecuador — Environmentalists have made a major advancement in saving the last remaining bit of rainforest in Colombia’s Magdalena Valley by expanding El Paujil Nature Reserve. The reserve is…

ADDIS ABABA — Five miles northwest of Addis Ababa’s thriving city center is the lush Gullele Botanic Garden (GBG), the first well-established site of its kind in Ethiopia that covers…

BOGOTA - Renowned environmental activist and Goldman Prize winner Francia Márquez has survived an attack against a meeting of Afro-Colombian human rights defenders by unknown gunmen in southwest Colombia. During…

I’ve been sitting on a bench inside the small waiting room at the Liberia Business Registry just off the main drag in downtown Monrovia when the phrase pops into my…

QUITO, Ecuador — The indigenous Waorani community in Ecuador won a historic lawsuit against the government late last month, when a three-judge panel ruled that a consultation process conducted with…

SENKELE, Ethiopia — In the tall-grass woodland of the Great Rift Valley in southern Ethiopia lies the Senkele Swayne’s Hartebeest Sanctuary. The area has long been a home to the…

TANINTHARYI, Myanmar — Most of the waterways surrounding the islands of the Mergui archipelago in the Andaman Sea are lined with mangroves, and the one leading into the island of…

IRRAWADDY DELTA, Myanmar — Just as dawn was breaking on a balmy morning this past January, U Khin Win left his home with a pair of black rubber boots and…

IRRAWADDY DELTA, Myanmar — For many in Myanmar, Cyclone Nargis was a wake-up call. When it made landfall in May 2008, it devastated the Irrawaddy Delta, a rural and low-lying…

CAT BA ISLAND, Vietnam – While approaching Hai Phong, a major city on Vietnam’s northeast coast, it is impossible to miss signs of the country’s fast-growing economic might. GDP growth…

An illegal timber trade supply chain stretching from Chinese companies operating out of two countries in West Africa to major hardware stores located throughout the U.S. has been uncovered. A…

RANONG, Thailand — Beyond a metal gate in Ranong, a port town in southern Thailand, a warehouse is filled nearly wall to wall and floor to ceiling with bags of…

Every year, millions of wildebeests, gazelles and zebras migrate between Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, in one of the most iconic wildlife shows…

One-sixth of the carbon footprint of the average diet in the European Union can be directly linked to deforestation in tropical countries, according to a new study from researchers at…

When the Trump administration slapped tariffs on aluminum and other products imported to the United States in early 2018, the move was widely seen as a major turn from a…

One person has reportedly died and another was injured after police in Colombia cracked down on a protest by indigenous groups demanding a meeting with the country’s president over land…

When then-President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Joseph Kabila hoisted himself into a tractor to celebrate the first harvest of the Bukanga Lonzo agro-industrial park on March 5, 2015,…

JUYUINTSA, Ecuador — More than 75 elders and community leaders gathered last week in the Shiwiar community of Juyuintsa, located in Ecuador’s far eastern Amazon rainforest, just at the border…