New Brazil bill puts cattle pasture over Pantanal wetland
Lawmakers in Brazil have approved a bill that allows extensive ranching and tourism in protected areas of the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland. The move by the legislature in…
Articles by Sarah Brown
Sarah is a freelance journalist with a passion for the environment, sustainability and travel. Her work has been featured in the Evening Standard, Atlas Obscura, World Travel Magazine, among others. Follow her on Twitter at @BrSarahTr (https://twitter.com/BrSarahTr)
Violence persists in Amazon region where Pereira and Phillips were killed
Less than two months since the killing of British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira in early June, armed illegal gold miners reportedly intimidated government rangers near…
Organized crime drives violence and deforestation in the Amazon, study shows
The deaths of journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous rights defender Bruno Pereira in June this year exposed an interlocking web of crime involving drug trafficking, money laundering, and illegal fishing…
Brazil’s new deforestation data board sparks fear of censorship of forest loss, fires
This past June, scientists and researchers gathered outside the office of INPE, Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research, in the municipality of São José dos Campos. They were there to…
In Brazil, an Indigenous land defender’s unsolved killing is the deadly norm
Tangãi Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau recalls the evening of April 17, 2020, when his brother left their village deep in the Amazon rainforest to go out for a routine motorbike ride. It was…
Government inaction sees 98% of deforestation alerts go unpunished in Brazil
The Jair Bolsonaro presidency in Brazil has been marked by loosening regulations and budget cuts for environmental agencies, leading to soaring rates of Amazon destruction since he took office in…
Training on pasture recovery is a win-win for Brazil’s cattle ranchers and forests
Training cattle ranchers in Brazil to recover degraded pastures could curb carbon dioxide emissions, scale down deforestation for agriculture in the Amazon and Cerrado biomes, and increase their income, according…
Forest loss shows stopgap decrees failing to protect Brazil’s isolated Indigenous
Legal restrictions meant to protect Brazil’s Indigenous territories from outside threats are failing to deter illegal deforestation and cattle ranching, fueling fears for the safety of uncontacted and isolated Indigenous…
Brazil Congress fast-tracks ‘death package’ bill to mine on Indigenous lands
As thousands of people protested in Brazil’s capital against a “death package” of bills deemed anti-environmental and anti-Indigenous, the lower house of Congress agreed to fast-track one of those bills,…
In destroying the Amazon, big agribusiness is torching its own viability
The transition zone between the Amazon and the Cerrado, where the world’s greatest rainforest melds into its largest tropical savanna, is heating up, posing severe threats to both biomes, a…
Brazil agrochemical bill nears passage in Bolsonaro’s ‘agenda of death’
Brazil’s lower house of congress has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would loosen regulations for the use of pesticides, raising concerns that approval in the Senate would unleash further environmental…
Déjà vu for Indigenous villagers in Brazil as floods leave them homeless again
Three years after the collapse of a mining dam forced them from their homes in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, a small community of Pataxó and Pataxó Hãhãhãe Indigenous peoples face…
Cattle boom in Brazil’s Acre spells doom for Amazon rainforest, activists warn
With about 80% of its forests still untouched, Acre is one of Brazil’s least-deforested Amazonian states. Bordered by Peru on the west, it represents just 1.7% of Brazil’s huge land…
Math campus multiplies threats to Rio de Janeiro’s dwindling Atlantic Forest
RIO DE JANEIRO – Horto, a secluded neighborhood in the south of Rio de Janeiro with a view of the famed Christ the Redeemer statue, is enveloped by forest. Tropical…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Deforestation intensifies in northern Malaysia’s most important water catchment
- Authorities and Yobin communities clash as deforestation spikes in Indian national park
- Mennonite colony builds bridge, clears forest in Bolivian protected areas
- Satellites show deforestation surging in Indonesia’s Tesso Nilo National Park
Oceans
- Love ‘em and loathe ‘em: Mediterranean grapples with tasty, voracious invasive crabs
- Overlooked and at risk, seagrass is habitat of choice for many small-scale fishers
- Amid haggling over deep-sea mining rules, chorus of skepticism grows louder
- Sea life may downsize with ocean warming — bringing challenging impacts
Amazon Conservation
- Brazil’s new deforestation data board sparks fear of censorship of forest loss, fires
- First-of-its-kind freshwater mangroves discovered in Brazil’s Amazon Delta
- Swiss pledge to stop illegal gold imports from Brazil Indigenous reserves
- At 30, Brazil’s Yanomami reserve is beset by mining, malaria and mercury
Land rights and extractives
- Organized crime drives violence and deforestation in the Amazon, study shows
- Worries and whispers in Vietnam’s NGO community after activist’s sentencing
- Displaced by a dam, women defenders fight for their land rights in Colombia
- Amazonian communities in Peru try to keep oil-rich Block 64 in their own hands
Endangered Environmentalists
- Worries and whispers in Vietnam’s NGO community after activist’s sentencing
- Scientists call for end to violence against Amazon communities, environmental defenders
- Indigenous advocates sense a legal landmark as a guardian’s killing heads to trial
- In Brazil, an Indigenous land defender’s unsolved killing is the deadly norm
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- A utopia of clean air and wet peat amid Sumatra’s forest fire ‘hell’
- 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
Conservation Effectiveness
- Nepal was supposed to double its tiger population since 2010. It tripled it
- In prioritizing conservation, animal culture should be a factor, study says
- Young forests can help heal tropical aquatic ecosystems: Study
- How sharing and learning from failures can transform conservation (commentary)
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- In Laos, a ‘very dangerous dam’ threatens an ancient world heritage site
- Bali’s new highway project sparks concerns about agriculture and conservation areas
- 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
