‘I am Indigenous, not pardo’: Push for self-declaration in Brazil’s census
RIO DE JANEIRO — When the Portuguese fleet led by Pedro Álvares Cabral landed in Brazil in 1500, Pero Vaz de Caminha, a knight serving as the secretary to the…
Articles by Karla Mendes
Karla Mendes is an award-winning Brazilian journalist working as a Rio de
Janeiro-based Contributor Editor for Mongabay. She has been working as a correspondent for international outlets since 2015 and she specialised in covering environmental, land and property rights issues since 2017. She worked as a land and property rights correspondent for the Thomson Reuters Foundation between August 2017 and December 2018. Prior to that, Karla was a business reporter for over 10 years in Rio, Madrid, Brasilia and Belo Horizonte, including with newspapers O Globo, O Estado de S. Paulo, Expansión and news agency S&P Global Market Intelligence. Karla has a Master in Investigative and Data Journalism from the University of King’s College, Canada, and an MBA in finance from São Paulo’s Fundação Instituto de Administração (FIA). She is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Image by Fábio Nascimento
In Rio de Janeiro, Indigenous people fight to undo centuries of erasure
RIO DE JANEIRO — Maracanã, Ipanema, the Lapa Arches, the Church of Our Lady of Glory of Outeiro … Millions of the visitors who flock to Brazil’s most famous city…
‘We are made invisible’: Brazil’s Indigenous on prejudice in the city
Mongabay starts publishing today a series of data-driven multimedia stories on Brazil’s Indigenous people living in urban areas, including the metropolitan centers of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Brasília, showing that Indigenous people are much closer to most Brazilians than they realize
Brazil prosecutors cite Mongabay probe in new legal battle against palm oil firms
A recent Mongabay investigation into Brazil’s palm oil supply chain will be included in up to two legal actions targeting Biopalma, whose use of pesticides led to water contamination in an Indigenous reserve in the Amazon.
Déjà vu as palm oil industry brings deforestation, pollution to Amazon
A Portuguese language version of this report is published on Mongabay Brasil TOMÉ-AÇU, Brazil — Guided by an Indigenous leader, we drove down dusty roads in the Turé-Mariquita Indigenous Reserve, a…
‘Guardian of the Forest’ ambushed and murdered in Brazilian Amazon
An indigenous Guajajara leader was reported murdered by loggers Friday, adding to rising violence occurring against forest protectors under the Jair Bolsonaro government.
Brazilian Amazon fires scientifically linked to 2019 deforestation: report
At least 125,000 hectares (310,000 acres) of Amazon rainforest in Brazil were cleared in 2019 and then burned this August to prepare the land for conversion to agriculture — Mongabay exclusive.
Germany cuts $39.5 million in environmental funding to Brazil
Displeased with rising deforestation rates and the anti-environmental policies of Pres. Jair Bolsonaro, Germany has cut funding for projects in the Brazilian Amazon, Atlantic Forest and Cerrado biomes.
Future of Amazon deforestation data in doubt as research head sacked
Brazil’s Bolsonaro government, angered over rising Amazon deforestation statistics, has fired the head of INPE, Brazil’s highly regarded satellite monitoring program.
New film reveals at-risk ‘uncontacted’ Awá tribe in Brazilian Amazon
Documentary offers a glimpse of the uncontacted Awá Guajá indigenous group, who live in the highly threatened Araribóia reserve in Brazil’s Maranhão state.
Deforestation drops in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, but risks remain: experts
Satellite imaging detects 9.3 percent decline in deforestation, a reduction totaling 1,163 hectares in the Mata Atlântica biome between 2017 and 2018.
Experts deny alleged manipulation of Amazon satellite deforestation data
Bolsonaro officials say Brazilian Amazon deforestation data is being manipulated, but offer no evidence. Early data, though not definitive, shows a 2019 increase in deforestation.
Brazil’s Congress reverses Bolsonaro, restores Funai’s land demarcation powers
Brazil’s National Congress has overturned changes set by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro that transferred the decision-making power of indigenous reserves demarcation to the Ministry of Agriculture. The move gives that…
‘Resisting to exist’: Indigenous women unite against Brazil’s far-right president
Indigenous women have a long leadership tradition in the Amazon and across Brazil, but perhaps never more so than since the election of Jair Bolsonaro, whose policies they oppose.
China, EU, US trading with Brazilian firms fined for Amazon deforestation: report
Soy, cattle and timber producers charged with illegal Amazon deforestation continue to trade actively with international markets and to be financed by global investors.
Brazil Supreme Court land demarcation decision sparks indigenous protest
Top court rules against request to stop Agriculture Ministry from taking over indigenous land demarcation, prompting indigenous people to hold major march on Supreme Court.
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Deforestation notches up along logging roads on PNG’s New Britain Island
- Deforestation threatens tree kangaroo habitat in Papua New Guinea
- Fate of Malaysian forests stripped of protection points to conservation stakes
- Deforestation sweeps national park in Brazil as land speculators advance
Oceans
- Changes to global fisheries subsidies could level the playing field for traditional coastline communities
- Two threatened whale groups had a mini baby boom, but not because of lockdown
- Nitrogen: The environmental crisis you haven’t heard of yet
- Sea turtles: Can these great marine migrators navigate rising human threats?
Amazon Conservation
- Amazon, meet Amazon: Tech giant rolls out rainforest carbon offset project
- Rich countries may be buying illegal gold that’s driving Amazon destruction
- New study offers latest proof that Brazilian Amazon is now a net CO2 source
- With their land on the line, Indigenous Brazilians gather for landmark ruling
Land rights and extractives
- ‘On the map’: App shines light on 5,000 ‘invisible’ families in Brazil’s Cerrado and beyond
- As illegal logging route in Peru nears Brazil, Indigenous groups warn of calamity
- Vale told Brazil communities they were in danger. They say Vale wants their land
- With their land on the line, Indigenous Brazilians gather for landmark ruling
Endangered Environmentalists
- The Kichwa woman fighting drug traffickers and loggers in the Peruvian Amazon
- Rights groups demand end to Cambodia’s persecution of green activists
- With Indigenous rights at stake in Brasília, a territory is attacked in Paraty
- Brazil’s Bolsonaro vowed to work with Indigenous people. Now he’s investigating them
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- From Flores to Papua: Meet 10 of Indonesia’s mangrove guardians
- Why I stand for my tribe’s forest: It gives us food, culture, and life (commentary)
- Reforesting a village in Indonesia, one batch of gourmet beans at a time
- Restoring Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, one small farm at a time
Conservation Effectiveness
- Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?
- ‘Bad science’: Planting frenzy misses the grasslands for the trees
- A Malagasy community wins global recognition for saving its lake
- Scientists in Costa Rica are growing new corals to save reefs
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Deforestation notches up along logging roads on PNG’s New Britain Island
- Plantations and roads strip away Papua’s forests. They’re just getting started
- Indonesian farmers refuse to budge for train line through karst landscape
- UNESCO calls for closure of road running through World Heritage park in Papua
