Articles by Yvette Sierra Praeli

In the Guaraní language spoken in some parts of South America, the words “Ñembi Guasu” mean “the great hideout” or “the great refuge.” Ñembi Guasu is also the name of…

Biologist Sean McHugh, along with filmmaker and photographer Jasmina McKibben, recently traveled to the Colibri cloud forest in Peru’s Pampa Hermosa district in search of the spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus).…

Illegal gold mining has led to historical rates of deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon, a recent analysis of satellite images shows. In the past two years alone, more than 184…

On Friday 28 December 2018, prosecutor Karina Garay of Peru's Specialized Environmental Prosecutor’s Office of Madre de Dios carried out her last investigation of the year. That morning, she entered…

According to a recent report by Global Witness, there is evidence of disarray and illegality in Peru’s timber industry. The report focuses on the regions of Loreto, Ucayali, and Madre…

For Adamo Diego Cusi, a search for oil in the Bolivian Amazon by the Chinese-backed company BGP Bolivia has been a terrible ordeal. His work as coordinator of environmental and…

The Ucayali region, one of the Peruvian Amazon’s most deforested areas according to the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), has an ever-growing land trafficking problem. There is increasing…

Flor Rumayna and Sara Hurtado arrived in Lima this past August from their homes in the Amazon headwaters to learn more about aerial monitoring of forests. They’d been researching new technologies…

LIMA, Peru — On Oct. 25, the Peruvian government made public its satellite surveillance data on 1,300 commercial fishing vessels plying Peru’s waters via the open-access platform Global Fishing Watch.…

Illegal mining is destroying the Amazon. Most people know this, but it is chilling to see the destruction in aerial images that show details of the mining camps, trucks and…

Laura is now part of the history of Peru. She is an Andean spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus) and the face of the first coin of one sol (equivalent to $0.31)…

A recent publication confirmed that inhabitants of the indigenous Nahua population, located in the Santa Rosa de Serjali community in the Ucayali Region of Peru, have high levels of mercury…

On April 1 the first specialized court on environmental issues was launched in Madre de Dios, Peru. The region currently has the highest number of complaints of environmental crimes in…

A photograph of Berta Cáceres, a Honduran national who was murdered two years ago for fighting against a controversial hydroelectric project, stood out at the negotiating table in Escazú, Costa…

UCAYALI REGION, Peru — Peru has passed a controversial law that makes highway construction in border areas and maintaining trucking roads in the Ucayali Region a national priority. On January…

A recent analysis of satellite images gives a glimpse into Peru’s widespread deforestation in 2017. The analysis, which was produced by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), found…

LIMA, Peru – More than two years after a massive seizure of illegal timber sent from Peru to international markets in the Dominican Republic, Mexico and the United States, much…

LORETO REGION, Peru — Starting yesterday, 868,927 hectares of forest in Peru’s Loreto Region will be protected through the creation of Yaguas National Park, comprising a mega-diverse ecosystem that, until…

LIMA, Peru — Music creates connections, unites cultures and helps to spread great ideas. This is a vision that American, Scottish, and Peruvian musicians demonstrated in a special presentation on…

NUEVA REQUENA DISTRICT, Peru — “We are going to let you pass through these lands,” was the message Segundo Gamarra Alvarado said he was told two months ago by representatives…