The Peruvian Tropical Pacific Sea (Mar Pacífico Tropical Peruano) is a paradise where cold and warm currents come together, making this a biodiversity hotspot along Peru's coast. The local ecosystem is…
The province of Morona Santiago is located in the middle of Ecuador's Amazon region, and is home to the Shuar and Achuar indigenous peoples. Its most famous landmark, Sangay National Park, was…
In a local indigenous language, Guatemala means “land of many trees”. However, today only 34.7% of its territory is still covered with canopy. In only 50 years, between 1950 and…
A small migration wave takes place every year in Brazil's indigenous community of Condá, on the border between Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul states. It is there, in…
The new law that bans mining in Colombia's moorlands took years to materialize, and was the product of multiple activist campaigns, lawsuits, and pressure from civil society to preserve one of the world's most sensitive…
Two weeks ago, the activist Berta Cáceres was shot and killed while she slept in her home, in the city of La Esperanza, in western Honduras.The news of her assassination travelled around the world…
The Nineties were a decade that stood out for Venezuelans, because they discovered that the were garimpeiros in the south of the country. These traditional miners from Brazil, drawn by the gold rush,…
If you were to fly over Central America on a small plane, from north to south, starting in Guatemala and ending in Panama, you'd be able to see isolated yet…
In January of 2007, the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights received a formal complaint filed as Case 12,639, about the Kaliña and Lokono indigenous peoples of Suriname. The case presented the dilemma faced…
More than one month has passed since approximately 3,000 barrels of crude oil ended up in various tributaries of Peru's Amazon River --two oil spills that were the responsibility of state…
Two back-to-back oil spills have left indigenous communities in Peru's northern Amazon, along the Chirico and Marañón rivers, in a really bad shape. The crude oil has traveled thousands of miles since…
Berta Cáceres' colleagues allegedly kept a eulogy for her for years, one they never hoped to use. "Her murder would not surprise [them]," read last year's Goldman Environmental Prize announcement, published when Cáceres…
The Colombian production has won most of the biggest international film awards, among them the Art Cinema Award at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and recently, it was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the…
Peru may be playing a more visible role in climate negotiations, especially related to conservation of its tropical forests. But despite this, deforestation has been increasing over the past 15…
The images being shared on social media and by the international press these days show to the average eye what the impacts of a broken oil pipeline can be: water dyed deep black,…
On January 30, 2015, Bolivian president Evo Morales gave the green light to oil exploration in Lliquimuni, north of the capital, La Paz. The Lliquimuni Block is located on a mountain…
The Pacoche Reserve in Ecuador's Manabí department, is located in one of the few areas with a standing native semi-arid tropical forest on the country's Pacific coast. Within its 13 hectares is the…
Agriculture in Argentina has expanded at an accelerated rate in the past twenty years due to technological advances, the use of genetically modified crops, and, in particular, to the cultivation of…
For nearly five months now, Liana Azeredo avoids walking the streets of Rio de Janeiro during the day. Even under the intense heat of the city, she also prefers long…
Green wooden crosses line the edges of the open air auditorium overlooking the highlands of Chiapas, in southern Mexico. Below the cement floor lies the tomb where 45 Maya Tzotzil…
Tomorrow, Brazil's Senate could be voting on a new measure which would speed up the process required to obtain environmental licenses for infrastructure projects. Dubbed as PLS 654/2015, the bill is…
Nine months ago, the water of La Pasión River showed up smelling foul and covered with dead and poisoned fish. Soon after, hundreds of fishermen of Sayaxché —the largest nearby river…
“We're no longer the men of the lake. If the lake goes, we will too.” With these words, Simiano Valero expresses his sadness over the disappearance of Poopó Lake, the second…
In an unexpected decision that received much applause, Colombia has closed its doors to mining and oil companies that are seeking to extract resources from the Andes. The decision by Colombia's highest court…
The drop in commodity prices —for products sold by the weight like oil, and minerals, for example— has had a serious impact on the Brazilian economy. The South American country will have…
Pedro López Macusi recalls the day in 2013 when a boatload of government officials moored at his village on the Urituyacu River, a remote waterway in the northeastern Peruvian Amazon,…
Indigenous leaders from across Ecuador have been coming together in recent years, as oil exploration has ramped up in the Amazon region where many of them live. Last week, they united once…
For decades, the Canaticu River on Marajó Island —the world's largest fluvial island, located in the Amazon river delta— provided the main source of livelihood for its local population. Over…
On January 6, two men happened to be near San José church in the Lima district of Jesús María, when they were stopped by various agents from the Office Against Illegal…
Much is known and has been studied about the rampant deforestation in Madre de Dios due to illegal mining and logging. The destruction of primary forest in Peru's Amazon region has left…