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		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?location=brazil&#038;topic=rainforests&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/brazil/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sun, 09 Aug 2026 07:06:56 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>Brazil environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/brazil/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Amazon deforestation alerts fall to lowest level since 2013, Brazilian data show</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/amazon-deforestation-alerts-fall-to-lowest-level-since-2013-brazilian-data-show/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/amazon-deforestation-alerts-fall-to-lowest-level-since-2013-brazilian-data-show/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Aug 2026 00:08:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/09000336/colombia_260721054538_0462z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325718</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has fallen to its lowest level in 13 years, according to new satellite data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), continuing a decline that began after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returned to office in 2023. INPE’s DETER alert system detected 2,874 square kilometers (1,110 square miles) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has fallen to its lowest level in 13 years, according to new satellite data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), continuing a decline that began after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returned to office in 2023. INPE’s DETER alert system detected 2,874 square kilometers (1,110 square miles) of deforestation in the Amazon between August 1, 2025, and July 31, 2026. That was 36% below the previous 12-month period and 55.6% below the average of the preceding decade. The total is the lowest since INPE introduced the current DETER system in 2015. Including data from its predecessor system, the last time alerts were lower was the 2012/13 deforestation year, when 2,766 sq km were recorded. Accumulated deforestation for Aug 1-Jul 31 in recent years according to INPE&#8217;s DETER alert system. Image by Mongabay DETER is designed as a rapid-response system for enforcement agencies. It uses satellite imagery to identify new forest clearing quickly enough for authorities to investigate and intervene. It differs from PRODES, INPE’s higher-resolution annual monitoring system, which provides Brazil’s official deforestation rate. Preliminary PRODES figures for the year ending July 31 are expected in October or November. PRODES data for the year ending July 2025 had already put Amazon forest loss at its lowest level in 11 years. The latest DETER figures indicate that clearing fell further during the following year. If PRODES shows a decline similar to that recorded by DETER, Brazil could register its lowest official Amazon deforestation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/amazon-deforestation-alerts-fall-to-lowest-level-since-2013-brazilian-data-show/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325718</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Khuiusi Khisêtjê helped his people recover their land and future in the Xingu</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/khuiusi-khisetje-helped-his-people-recover-their-land-and-future-in-the-xingu/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/khuiusi-khisetje-helped-his-people-recover-their-land-and-future-in-the-xingu/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2026 17:37:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/24173326/Khuiusi-Khisetje-Christian-Braga-ISA-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324519</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Obituary, Rainforests, and Soy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The plane sprayed the soy fields beside the forest. Residents of Khikatxi said the single-engine aircraft appeared several times during each harvest and passed over Wawi Indigenous Territory. They worried about pesticides reaching their water, gardens, animals, and homes. For years, Khuiusi Khisêtjê watched the farms advance around his people’s land. In 2018 he made [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The plane sprayed the soy fields beside the forest. Residents of Khikatxi said the single-engine aircraft appeared several times during each harvest and passed over Wawi Indigenous Territory. They worried about pesticides reaching their water, gardens, animals, and homes. For years, Khuiusi Khisêtjê watched the farms advance around his people’s land. In 2018 he made a decision.. The community would rebuild its village ten kilometers deeper in the forest. Leaving a village is difficult. Houses must be rebuilt, paths cleared, gardens planted, and daily routines restored. The old place contained years of work and memory. Khuiusi Khisêtjê had already lived through several such upheavals. He knew what was lost when people were forced from their land. He also knew when it had become unsafe to remain. The move took the Khisêtjê farther from the expanding agricultural frontier. It was one more decision in a life devoted to the survival of his people. Khuiusi, who died in Goiânia on July 3rd, at about 80, belonged to a generation that saw the Khisêtjê come close to extinction. He was born when his people still lived beyond the settled frontiers of central Brazil. Their villages lay among rivers, forest, and savanna in a region that would later form part of the Xingu Indigenous Territory and the adjoining Wawi Indigenous Territory in Mato Grosso. Contact with outsiders brought disease, violence, and displacement. Epidemics killed older people who held knowledge of the land, ceremonies, songs, and family histories. Khuiusi lost his father and many of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/khuiusi-khisetje-helped-his-people-recover-their-land-and-future-in-the-xingu/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324519</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can harpy eagles attack humans? Amazon case rekindles scientific debate</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/can-harpy-eagles-attack-humans-amazon-case-rekindles-scientific-debate/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/can-harpy-eagles-attack-humans-amazon-case-rekindles-scientific-debate/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jul 2026 17:54:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tiago Mota e Silva]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/16175052/Harpia_chega_ao_ninho_com_um_macaco-prego-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323731</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Guyana, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Deforestation, Forests, Human-wildlife Conflict, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a remote area of French Guiana, a 29-year-old woman was attacked by a harpy, considered the world’s largest eagle, in October 2023. In an area with extensive tracts of preserved forest, such interactions between humans and wildlife are extremely rare but garner widespread media attention and scientific interest. A recently published study highlighted this [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a remote area of French Guiana, a 29-year-old woman was attacked by a harpy, considered the world’s largest eagle, in October 2023. In an area with extensive tracts of preserved forest, such interactions between humans and wildlife are extremely rare but garner widespread media attention and scientific interest. A recently published study highlighted this incident. The attack took place about 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the closest village, near the Kourou River, as a group of 11 tourists and a local guide walked a trail. The harpy (Harpia harpyja) had perched about 6 meters (20 feet) high when it was spotted. Seeing no apparent signs of aggressive behavior, part of the group kept walking, while the woman and her partner stayed behind for a few minutes to photograph it. When the couple resumed their walk on the trail, the harpy dove and struck the back of her head. Since 2016, biologist Everton Miranda has been monitoring harpy eagles, considered a flagship species for Amazon conservation. He stressed how rare these cases are: “It’s extremely uncommon, just as it is for other large South American predators such as jaguars or crocodiles,” he explained. Miranda has co-authored a recent scientific article on the case, together with French-Guianan experts. This was the first harpy eagle attack ever recorded and described by researchers. In academia, there is resistance to publish cases like this, according to the biologist. “They fear that giving visibility to attacks will increase stigma, because we know there are many harpies killed because people&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/can-harpy-eagles-attack-humans-amazon-case-rekindles-scientific-debate/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323731</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How Brazil’s federal fiscal policy hinders Amazon Rainforest conservation (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-brazils-federal-fiscal-policy-hinders-amazon-rainforest-conservation-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-brazils-federal-fiscal-policy-hinders-amazon-rainforest-conservation-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2026 14:05:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[João Gabriel de Araujo Oliveira]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/04/10170753/amazon_200509-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323538</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment, Finance, Forests, Governance, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The forests of the Brazilian Amazon are, by any measure, among the most important ecosystems on Earth. They absorb carbon on a planetary scale, regulate rainfall across South America, and shelter biodiversity that science is still cataloging. International negotiations, carbon markets, and diplomatic agreements all rest on the assumption that these forests will remain standing. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The forests of the Brazilian Amazon are, by any measure, among the most important ecosystems on Earth. They absorb carbon on a planetary scale, regulate rainfall across South America, and shelter biodiversity that science is still cataloging. International negotiations, carbon markets, and diplomatic agreements all rest on the assumption that these forests will remain standing. Yet while the Amazon spans nine Brazilian states, the three whose territory is most overwhelmingly forest — and which therefore carry the heaviest share of the conservation burden — are among the poorest and most fiscally dependent in the country. The states of Amapá, Acre, and Amazonas operate on budgets so dependent on federal transfers that they have almost no fiscal room to act on their own. That is not a coincidence. It is a design flaw in Brazil&#8217;s fiscal constitution, and it is getting worse. The argument here is simple: Brazil cannot credibly lead global climate diplomacy while its Amazonian states remain fiscally trapped. The forest will not protect itself. And the states responsible for protecting it do not have the money to do so. Tropical forest near Atalaia do Norte, Amazonas, Brazil. Image by Gloria Pallares for Mongabay. What the budgets show Amapá is larger than Ecuador. Nearly three-quarters of its territory is classified as federally protected land — national parks, Indigenous reserves, and conservation units — that the state is legally obligated to maintain but receives no specific compensation for. In 2025, more than 60% of its entire state budget came from&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-brazils-federal-fiscal-policy-hinders-amazon-rainforest-conservation-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323538</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Dark earth: Ancient Amazonian soil can boost forest restoration, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/dark-earth-ancient-amazonian-soil-can-boost-forest-restoration-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/dark-earth-ancient-amazonian-soil-can-boost-forest-restoration-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jul 2026 18:18:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Evanildo da Silveira]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/08100220/20260708_044730-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322832</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Atlantic Forest, Brazil, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Culture, Earth Science, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Recovery, Forest Regeneration, Forests, Fungi, Indigenous Peoples, Microorganisms, Rainforests, Research, Restoration, Science, Solutions, Sustainability, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Pink ipê trees grow taller and faster thanks to a microscopic boost from an ancestral formula.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Soil created centuries ago by Indigenous peoples in the Amazon could help speed up recovery of degraded lands, changing the way ecological restoration is approached in Brazil. A study conducted by researchers from the University of São Paulo’s Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture (CENA-USP), Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) Western Amazon, and the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA) found that small amounts of Amazonian dark earth (ADE) significantly increased native tree growth under real field conditions. The results, published in January 2026 in the academic journal Springer Nature, caught experts’ attention especially regarding Handroanthus avellanedae, locally known as pink ipê, a species found in both the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest. After just 180 days, seedlings grown with modest amounts of ADE were up to 55% taller and 88% larger in stem diameter than those grown without the anthropogenic soil — that is, soil resulting from human action, the study found. Findings were also notable for paricá (Schizolobium amazonicum), another Amazonian species widely used in reforestation and also in the timber industry due to its fast growth. On average, they grew 20% more and had stems that were 15% larger in diameter. Professor Tsai Siu Mui, one of the study’s co-authors, stands between trees cultivated with Amazonian dark earth (left) and without that dark soil (right) after six months of experimentation. Image courtesy of Tsai Siu Mui. The study underscores the scientific potential of Amazonian dark earth, also known as “Indigenous dark earth.” It is an extremely fertile, organic-rich dark&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/dark-earth-ancient-amazonian-soil-can-boost-forest-restoration-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322832</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Targeted conservation in Brazil could help protect the Amazon’s flying rivers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/targeted-conservation-in-brazil-could-help-protect-the-amazons-flying-rivers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/targeted-conservation-in-brazil-could-help-protect-the-amazons-flying-rivers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jul 2026 10:41:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/11/30151709/brazil-soy-amazon-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322348</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Development, Drivers Of Deforestation, Drought, Forests, Impact Of Climate Change, Infrastructure, Rainforests, Rivers, and Roads]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Twenty years ago, a meeting of scientists that included Brazilian climatologist Carlos Nobre coined the term “flying rivers” to describe the water vapor moving from east to west in the atmosphere over the Amazon Basin. These flows are carried from the Atlantic Ocean by the forest’s continuous recycling of moisture through evapotranspiration, a process where [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Twenty years ago, a meeting of scientists that included Brazilian climatologist Carlos Nobre coined the term “flying rivers” to describe the water vapor moving from east to west in the atmosphere over the Amazon Basin. These flows are carried from the Atlantic Ocean by the forest’s continuous recycling of moisture through evapotranspiration, a process where water is transferred from soil and plants to the atmosphere. Sometimes called “aerial rivers,” they provide vital rainfall across South America. Scientists have long studied the Amazon Basin’s impact on rainfall in southern Brazil, but much less attention has been given to its importance for Andean countries, even though flying rivers provide more than 70% of precipitation in parts of southern Peru and northern Bolivia. A recent white paper from the NGO Amazon Conservation highlights flying rivers’ transnational effects by showing how deforestation in Brazil risks reducing rainfall in Peru and Bolivia. It builds on earlier research by Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andes Amazon Program (MAAP), which mapped the flying rivers’ pathways through the wet, dry and transition seasons and identified the most sensitive areas in the Andean Amazon. The new report identifies the forests at risk of being cleared along these pathways and offers recommendations for how to protect the invisible moisture flows. “It is more critical that forest is retained along the pathway than in other places, because the [flying] rivers do take a specific course, and if forest cover was to be removed along that path, then it would affect the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/targeted-conservation-in-brazil-could-help-protect-the-amazons-flying-rivers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322348</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fire surge in 2025 threatened isolated peoples in Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/fire-surge-threatens-indigenous-livelihoods-and-isolated-peoples-in-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/fire-surge-threatens-indigenous-livelihoods-and-isolated-peoples-in-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jun 2026 13:12:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/24122348/2-Firefighters-from-the-Chico-Mendes-Institute-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321761</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Fires, Forests, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2025, fires were responsible for a significant spike in forest loss in three territories in Brazil that are home to Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation, according to Global Forest Watch data analyzed by Mongabay. Indigenous leaders from the Alto Turiaçu, Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, and Apiaká do Pontal e Isolados Indigenous territories, told Mongabay that fire [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2025, fires were responsible for a significant spike in forest loss in three territories in Brazil that are home to Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation, according to Global Forest Watch data analyzed by Mongabay. Indigenous leaders from the Alto Turiaçu, Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, and Apiaká do Pontal e Isolados Indigenous territories, told Mongabay that fire is a growing threat to their way of life and the isolated Indigenous people who share the same lands. It affects their productive practices and destroys the biodiversity and vegetation they depend on for hunting and gathering, thereby leading to food insecurity. Damage to health, such as respiratory problems caused by the smoke, is another impact frequently mentioned by sources Mongabay spoke to. “The communities suffer from health problems caused by the smoke, difficulties in mobility, and food insecurity because several planting areas are affected,” Almir Narayamoga Suruí, a Paiter Suruí Indigenous community member from the Sete de Setembro Indigenous Territory that straddles the Amazonian states of Rondônia and Mato Grosso, told Mongabay via WhatsApp. “Culturally, the impact is also very strong because the forest for us is not just a natural resource; it is part of our spirituality, our history, and our identity. When an area of the forest is destroyed, we also lose part of our memory and the traditional knowledge transmitted by our ancestors.” Mongabay looked at forest loss and its dominant drivers across territories in Brazil with recognized isolated Indigenous peoples, using Global Forest Watch (GFW) drivers data that rely on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/fire-surge-threatens-indigenous-livelihoods-and-isolated-peoples-in-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/fire-surge-threatens-indigenous-livelihoods-and-isolated-peoples-in-brazil/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321761</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>South America’s farms depend, in part, on a healthy Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/south-americas-farms-depend-in-part-on-a-healthy-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/south-americas-farms-depend-in-part-on-a-healthy-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 08:30:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/22052817/amazon_201362-26x-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321533</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Drought, Ecosystem Services, El Nino, Environment, Environmental Policy, Environmental Services, Fires, forest degradation, Forests, Hydroelectric Power, Natural Capital, Nature-based climate solutions, Precipitation, Rainforests, Restoration, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; The Amazon is often described in terms of how much carbon it stores. It also moves vast amounts of water. Its trees draw moisture from the soil and return it to the air through transpiration. Some rain caught by the canopy also evaporates back into the atmosphere. That moisture falls again, some of it [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; The Amazon is often described in terms of how much carbon it stores. It also moves vast amounts of water. Its trees draw moisture from the soil and return it to the air through transpiration. Some rain caught by the canopy also evaporates back into the atmosphere. That moisture falls again, some of it inside the basin and some of it far downwind. For much of South America, the forest helps sustain rainfall, farming, hydropower, and urban water supplies. A recent paper in Nature, by Nico Wunderling and colleagues, gives this hydrological role greater weight in the climate case for the Amazon. The authors used a dynamical systems model and atmospheric moisture tracking to estimate how deforestation and warming interact across the basin. Without deforestation, their model finds a critical global warming threshold of about 3.7 to 4.0 degrees Celsius, beyond which up to a third of the Amazon forest risks losing stability. When deforestation is included, the risk becomes much larger at a lower level of warming. Under deforestation of 22% to 28% of the biome and warming of 1.5 to 1.9 degrees Celsius, the model finds a near system-wide transition affecting 62% to 77% of the forest. Rain over the Amazon. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler Those numbers should be treated carefully. The Amazon is not a single ecological unit. Western forests, southern forests, flooded forests, upland forests, secondary forests, and fire-damaged edges differ in species composition, rainfall, soils, and drought tolerance. A model cannot capture every&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/south-americas-farms-depend-in-part-on-a-healthy-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/south-americas-farms-depend-in-part-on-a-healthy-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321533</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Illegal miners adapt their strategies in Yanomami Amazon territory</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/illegal-miners-adapt-their-strategies-in-yanomami-amazon-territory/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/illegal-miners-adapt-their-strategies-in-yanomami-amazon-territory/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jun 2026 21:29:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rubens Valente]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/12213126/06_rio_garimpo_yanomami-fernando_frazao-agencia_brasil-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321083</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Land rights and extractives and Latin America]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Forests, Gold Mining, Governance, Health, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Mining, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BRASÍLIA — Illegal miners have adapted their tactics in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory as Brazilian authorities seek to remove all the illegal occupants from the Amazon land, according to a recent report. Since a peak in illegal mining in 2022, there have been &#8220;significant and successive reductions&#8221; in the rainforest from 2023 to 2025,  researchers [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BRASÍLIA — Illegal miners have adapted their tactics in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory as Brazilian authorities seek to remove all the illegal occupants from the Amazon land, according to a recent report. Since a peak in illegal mining in 2022, there have been &#8220;significant and successive reductions&#8221; in the rainforest from 2023 to 2025,  researchers using satellite imagery found. However, &#8220;mining activity was not completely eradicated,&#8221; as miners change how they operate, decentralize and move to borders. Sources also raise concerns about the health of isolated Indigenous people, who are at risk of the spread of malaria linked to illegal mining. In 2024 and 2025, mining impacted 129 hectares (318.7 acres) of land, down from about 1,800 hectares (4,448 acres) in 2022. The report, conducted by the NGO Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) and Amazon Conservation, said the steep decline is a reflection of the operations initiated by the Brazilian government in 2023, when president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva came to power and declared a health emergency due to widespread disease and mercury contamination in rivers from mining. “Illegal mining activity, the invaders, continue on Yanomami land, but the rest have already been expelled,”  Dário Kopenawa Yanomami, vice-president of HAY (the Hutukara Yanomami Association) and son of Davi Kopenawa, a spokesman for the Yanomami people, told Mongabay. “The government has carried out many operations, but other invaders, miners, are difficult to remove. They remain in some specific locations, such as border areas with Guyana and Venezuela. These miners who are on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/illegal-miners-adapt-their-strategies-in-yanomami-amazon-territory/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/illegal-miners-adapt-their-strategies-in-yanomami-amazon-territory/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321083</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon deforestation alerts fall to lowest 12-month level since 2014, show Brazilian data</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/amazon-deforestation-alerts-fall-to-lowest-12-month-level-since-2014-show-brazilian-data/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/amazon-deforestation-alerts-fall-to-lowest-12-month-level-since-2014-show-brazilian-data/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Jun 2026 00:11:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/14081817/GP0SU6O28_crop2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321123</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Satellite alerts suggest deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is continuing to fall, putting the country on pace for one of its lowest forest-clearing years in more than a decade. The decline comes as climate scientists warn that a likely strong El Niño could still bring a difficult fire season, even if clear-cutting remains low. New [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Satellite alerts suggest deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is continuing to fall, putting the country on pace for one of its lowest forest-clearing years in more than a decade. The decline comes as climate scientists warn that a likely strong El Niño could still bring a difficult fire season, even if clear-cutting remains low. New data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, or INPE, show that its DETER alert system detected 370 square kilometers (143 square miles) of deforestation in the Amazon in May. That was down from 960 km2 (370 mi2) in May 2025, a decline of about 61%. Data from INPE&#8217;s DETER and Imazon&#8217;s SAD detection systems showing deforestation in the Legal Amazon (&#8220;Amazonia&#8221;) from Aug 1 to May 31 since 2008. Image by Mongabay Data from INPE&#8217;s DETER and Imazon&#8217;s SAD detection systems showing deforestation in the Legal Amazon (&#8220;Amazonia&#8221;). Image by Mongabay May is an important month in the Amazon deforestation calendar. It often marks the transition toward the drier season, when forest clearing and burning tend to increase across parts of the southern and eastern Amazon. Monthly satellite figures can vary because of cloud cover, timing and the way alerts are processed, but the latest data extend a longer downward trend. Over the past 12 months, DETER registered 3,182 square kilometers of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. That compares with 4,633 square kilometers during the same period a year earlier. The total is the lowest for any 12-month period in the DETER record dating&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/amazon-deforestation-alerts-fall-to-lowest-12-month-level-since-2014-show-brazilian-data/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/amazon-deforestation-alerts-fall-to-lowest-12-month-level-since-2014-show-brazilian-data/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321123</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil carves an Amazon national park to make room for grain railway</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brazil-carves-national-park-to-make-room-for-grain-railway/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brazil-carves-national-park-to-make-room-for-grain-railway/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jun 2026 18:06:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[André Schröder]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/11142851/003_FlorestaJamanxim_ViniciusMendonca-Ibama-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320998</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Infrastructure, Logging, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Brazil's Supreme Court ruling revives a controversial Amazon railway and sets a precedent about protected areas.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A ruling by Brazil’s Supreme Court has given new momentum to one of the most controversial infrastructure projects in the Brazilian Amazon: The Ferrogrão railway. The plan is to link Sinop, in the grain-producing state of Mato Grosso, to the port of Miritituba in Pará, a key commodity export hub on the Tapajós River. Conceived by the agribusiness sector to reduce grain transportation costs, Ferrogrão is a priority project for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration, despite warnings about its potential impacts on Indigenous territories and protected forests in an Amazon region already under significant socio-environmental pressure. In May, the justices upheld a 2017 law that removed 862 hectares (2,130 acres) from Jamanxim National Park, a conservation unit located in Pará state, to allow Ferrogrão to pass through the protected area. The initiative had been challenged on the grounds that Brazil’s Federal Constitution requires a formal law to reduce the size of protected areas, rather than the conversion into law of a provisional measure issued by the executive branch. “The STF decision does not give the green light to the Ferrogrão project, which still must undergo environmental studies and the licensing process,” said Alice Dandara de Assis Correia, an attorney at Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), a nonprofit that advocates for environmental and Indigenous rights. “But the courts have ruled that specially protected areas can be altered through an expedited process, an extremely dangerous shortcut that could pave the way for Congress to approve similar changes in other protected areas facing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brazil-carves-national-park-to-make-room-for-grain-railway/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brazil-carves-national-park-to-make-room-for-grain-railway/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320998</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Legal protections for Brazil’s isolated Indigenous peoples: Interview with prosecutor Daniel Luís Dalberto</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/legal-protections-for-brazils-isolated-indigenous-peoples-interview-with-prosecutor-daniel-luis-dalberto/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/legal-protections-for-brazils-isolated-indigenous-peoples-interview-with-prosecutor-daniel-luis-dalberto/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jun 2026 13:21:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/03125631/1-Tawaya-Village-of-the-Matis-people-in-Javari-Valley-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320530</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Land Rights, Law, Rainforests, and Saving Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The year 2011 marked the first time a land-use restriction order was enforced for the Ituna/Itatá Indigenous Territory, a swath of Brazilian Amazon roughly twice the size of Singapore and home to people living in voluntary isolation. The order was meant to protect the latter by prohibiting unauthorized individuals from entering — but rates of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The year 2011 marked the first time a land-use restriction order was enforced for the Ituna/Itatá Indigenous Territory, a swath of Brazilian Amazon roughly twice the size of Singapore and home to people living in voluntary isolation. The order was meant to protect the latter by prohibiting unauthorized individuals from entering — but rates of forest loss and invasions grew. In 2019, Ituna/Itatá was one of the Indigenous territories with the highest forest loss, primarily due to illegal land grabbers. In Brazil, land-use restriction orders exist to protect isolated Indigenous peoples and are a temporary tool in cases where the demarcation process to formalize the protected status and boundaries of Indigenous territories are not yet complete. But as recent Mongabay reporting has shown, they’re often renewed many times over for years while the formal land titling stalls, and aren’t always effective at protecting isolated peoples’ lands from invaders. Following one of the latest land-use restriction orders in 2022 for the Ituna/Itatá territory, the area lost 2,211 hectares (5,464 acres) of tree cover, or about 1.5% of its total area, according to satellite analysis by Mongabay. The most recent renewal was in 2025. Brazilian federal public prosecutor Daniel Luís Dalberto, head of the office for recently contacted Indigenous peoples and those living in voluntary isolation, told Mongabay in a recent interview that while the legal measure is important, it should have “a short time frame, until the Indigenous territory is demarcated as quickly as possible,” and should be accompanied by other&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/legal-protections-for-brazils-isolated-indigenous-peoples-interview-with-prosecutor-daniel-luis-dalberto/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/legal-protections-for-brazils-isolated-indigenous-peoples-interview-with-prosecutor-daniel-luis-dalberto/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320530</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Amazon’s path from crisis to durability</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-amazons-path-from-crisis-to-durability/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-amazons-path-from-crisis-to-durability/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 23:05:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/28225126/amazon_201628_26-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320267</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Bioeconomy, Conservation Finance, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Rights, Land Use Change, Law Enforcement, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the Amazon, a forest can remain on the map while losing much of what makes it function. The Amazon rainforest is often discussed through a few familiar measures: deforestation, carbon, protected areas, and tipping points. Each is useful. But they do not fully explain why biodiversity continues to decline even where maps still show [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the Amazon, a forest can remain on the map while losing much of what makes it function. The Amazon rainforest is often discussed through a few familiar measures: deforestation, carbon, protected areas, and tipping points. Each is useful. But they do not fully explain why biodiversity continues to decline even where maps still show forest, laws exist, and international pledges sound ambitious. A territory can be recognized and still be invaded. A satellite can detect illegal clearing and still fail to trigger a penalty. A story can describe crisis and still leave readers unsure what can be done. Six gaps help explain the problem: finance and forest economy, governance, enforcement, forest function, Indigenous rights, and narrative. They overlap in ways that make each harder to close. The finance and forest-economy gap Protecting forests costs money every year. It requires staff, transport, monitoring, community work, legal support, fire control, restoration, and the ability to respond when illegal actors arrive. Yet the money available for those tasks remains far below the scale of the problem. Globally, UNEP estimates that forest investments need to reach about $300 billion a year by 2030 to meet climate, biodiversity, and land-degradation targets. The report also notes that this figure excludes some enabling conditions, including governance and law enforcement, which means the true need is probably higher. The Brazilian Amazon shows the imbalance more clearly. WWF and Conservation Strategy Fund estimate that Brazil needs about $12.8 billion a year to meet forest policy goals. Current positive&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-amazons-path-from-crisis-to-durability/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320267</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil has protected much of the Amazon. It now has to pay for it.</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/brazil-has-protected-much-of-the-amazon-it-now-has-to-pay-for-it/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/brazil-has-protected-much-of-the-amazon-it-now-has-to-pay-for-it/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 May 2026 00:35:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/25225357/amazon_200260-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320088</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Forests, Funding, Parks, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon, one of the most basic questions is not where the boundary lies. It is whether anyone has the money to manage what sits inside it. A reserve may exist in law. It may appear on maps, in international pledges, and in official counts of how much of Brazil [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon, one of the most basic questions is not where the boundary lies. It is whether anyone has the money to manage what sits inside it. A reserve may exist in law. It may appear on maps, in international pledges, and in official counts of how much of Brazil is under protection. On the ground, though, management depends on less visible things: staff, fuel, boats, radios, boundary markers, fire brigades, monitoring, community work, and the ability to respond when illegal miners, loggers, poachers, or land-grabbers arrive. A protected area without these things is still protected, but only in a narrow administrative sense. A gap measured in money A new paper in Environmental Conservation puts numbers to this gap. The study, by Helenilza Ferreira Albuquerque Cunha and colleagues, examined funding deficits in 300 federal protected areas in Brazil between 2014 and 2023. Together, those areas cover nearly 750,000 square kilometers, representing most of the protected areas managed by ICMBio, Brazil’s federal biodiversity agency. The researchers compared actual spending with evidence-based estimates of the minimum cost of managing each site. In 2023, 72% of the protected areas they studied were underfunded. The combined shortfall was equivalent to about $958 million in purchasing-power terms. The gap was largest in the Amazon. According to the paper, Amazonian protected areas had an average funding deficit of 79.2% in 2023. In practical terms, they received about one-fifth of what they needed. In the Atlantic Forest, the average deficit was 27.6%.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/brazil-has-protected-much-of-the-amazon-it-now-has-to-pay-for-it/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/brazil-has-protected-much-of-the-amazon-it-now-has-to-pay-for-it/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320088</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Will my president save the Amazon? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/will-my-president-save-the-amazon-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/will-my-president-save-the-amazon-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 May 2026 23:50:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Enrique Ortiz]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/23235534/amazon_241209144859raw-26-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320068</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Colombia, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forests, Governance, Politics, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the coming months, voters in Brazil, Peru, and Colombia will elect new presidents. Together, these three countries contain roughly 82% of the Amazon rainforest, making their elections consequential far beyond national borders. The future of the world’s largest tropical forest — and, by extension, global climate stability — will depend in large measure on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the coming months, voters in Brazil, Peru, and Colombia will elect new presidents. Together, these three countries contain roughly 82% of the Amazon rainforest, making their elections consequential far beyond national borders. The future of the world’s largest tropical forest — and, by extension, global climate stability — will depend in large measure on the choices their citizens make at the ballot box. More than 35 million people living in the Amazon region of these countries also depend directly on those outcomes. Brazil, home to about 62% of the Amazon, offers a stark example of how presidential policies can shape the fate of the forest. The country has experienced dramatic swings in deforestation over the past two decades. While commodity prices, global markets, climate conditions, and geopolitics all play a role, government policy has often been the decisive factor. In 2004, for example, Brazil lost more than 10 million acres of Amazon forest. By 2012, stronger environmental measures had gradually reduced that loss to less than one-sixth of that level. Those efforts relied not only on stricter enforcement, but also on cooperation with agricultural and business sectors long associated with deforestation. More recent data suggest Brazil’s renewed environmental policies have again reduced forest loss by more than 30% from the previous year. Annual deforestation in the Legal Amazon (Amazonia) from 1988-2025, according to a preliminary estimate from Brazil&#8217;s national space research institute, INPE. Annual primary forest loss in the Colombian Amazon from 2002 to 2025 (hectares). Data from the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/will-my-president-save-the-amazon-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/will-my-president-save-the-amazon-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320068</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon resilient to fire, but diversity loss still a threat, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/amazon-resilient-to-fire-but-diversity-loss-still-a-threat-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/amazon-resilient-to-fire-but-diversity-loss-still-a-threat-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 May 2026 15:38:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Suzana Camargo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/21110818/tiger-striped-leaf-frog-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319900</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Fires, Forest Loss, Forests, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Experiment shows the Amazon can recover after fires, but the new forest is a “poorer” version of its former self.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2024, the Brazilian Amazon faced one of the worst fire seasons in its history: 15.6 million hectares (38.5 million acres) were burned, an area the size of Portugal, of which 43% consisted of forest vegetation. According to data from MapBiomas, a collaborative network mapping land use in Brazil, the area destroyed by flames was 117% higher than the historical average. Now, a group of scientists has found a surprising capacity for forest regeneration after fires, although biodiversity loss persisted. The results were presented in a two-decade study in the southeastern Amazon that attempts to predict the risks the world’s greatest rainforest faces as deforestation, reduced precipitation and long-term droughts become more frequent. “Our study brings a message of hope,” said lead author Leandro Maracahipes, a researcher at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) in Brazil and at Yale University in the U.S. “It demonstrates that a highly degraded forest can recover even after many disturbances.” Maracahipes emphasized, however, that this regeneration gives rise to a new type of forest. “It is a new ecosystem. Although it can recover, this forest is much poorer, with a greater number of generalist species, much more vulnerable to new disturbances,” he told Mongabay. Aerial photography of the Amazon Rainforest. Image courtesy of Leandro Maracahipes. Study authors and members of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) during field research. Image courtesy of Rafael Oliveira. A greater impact on forest edges The experiment began in 2004, during a peak of deforestation in the Amazon, and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/amazon-resilient-to-fire-but-diversity-loss-still-a-threat-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/amazon-resilient-to-fire-but-diversity-loss-still-a-threat-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319900</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists race to study the Amazon’s frogs before they disappear</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/scientists-race-to-study-the-amazons-frogs-before-they-disappear/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/scientists-race-to-study-the-amazons-frogs-before-they-disappear/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 May 2026 19:45:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tiago da Mota e Silva]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/12192320/fc4a5294-9326-47c3-ab99-0eeae5c82be9-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319270</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon and Brazil]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Freshwater, Frogs, Rainforests, Science, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MANAUS, Brazil — Crouched over the leaf litter, where dry leaves accumulate on the forest floor, a researcher tries to capture a distinct croak using a directional microphone. Identifying the sound of a small frog is often one of the conclusive proofs that a new species has been found. It’s nighttime. He wears long clothing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MANAUS, Brazil — Crouched over the leaf litter, where dry leaves accumulate on the forest floor, a researcher tries to capture a distinct croak using a directional microphone. Identifying the sound of a small frog is often one of the conclusive proofs that a new species has been found. It’s nighttime. He wears long clothing as protection against mosquitoes and ants, and boots to keep his feet dry. Finding amphibians in the Amazon doesn’t require high-tech equipment; it actually dates back to explorations by early-20th-century naturalists. That’s how biologist Igor Kaefer, a professor at the Federal University of Amazonas in Brazil, describes a typical day of fieldwork in search of amphibians in the Amazon. Kaefer was part of a group responsible for describing Amazophrynella bilinguis in 2019. The very description of the little toad gives an idea of ​​how difficult it is to find: females measure about 2 centimeters (less than an inch), and their brown head and back make them “disappear” among the leaves and branches. Home to an estimated 1,525 species of amphibians, the Amazon Basin is the most diverse ecosystem in the world when it comes to frogs, an order that includes toads and tree frogs. However, occurrence records have been confirmed for only about 810 of those. So going into the field and finding a new-to-science species is not unlikely. “In almost every inventory conducted in a remote area, you come back with more than one new species for synthesis,” Kaefer says. But finding a species&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/scientists-race-to-study-the-amazons-frogs-before-they-disappear/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319270</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New Jaguar Rivers Initiative aims to reconnect South America’s fragmented ecosystems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/new-jaguar-rivers-initiative-aims-to-reconnect-south-americas-fragmented-ecosystems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/new-jaguar-rivers-initiative-aims-to-reconnect-south-americas-fragmented-ecosystems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 May 2026 17:53:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/12173643/DJI_20260130181816_0097_D_ph.Arnaud-Hiltzer-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319235</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Latin America, Paraguay, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Forced to quarantine at a ranger station during the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of researchers in northern Argentina passed the time by monitoring wildlife around a lagoon on the Bermejo River. One day, something unexpected appeared in the water: a giant river otter, thought to be extinct in the country for nearly 50 years. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Forced to quarantine at a ranger station during the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of researchers in northern Argentina passed the time by monitoring wildlife around a lagoon on the Bermejo River. One day, something unexpected appeared in the water: a giant river otter, thought to be extinct in the country for nearly 50 years. The researchers paddled out in kayaks to photograph the animal, which soon began building a den beside their station, allowing them to monitor its behavior. They eventually launched a campaign for its protection. “We couldn’t believe it. It was like it had come looking for us,” recalled Sofía Heinonen, executive director of the nonprofit Rewilding Argentina, the group working at the ranger station. “Everyone’s reaction was that it was as if everything seemed to be aligning too perfectly. The encounter was so powerful that we were practically stunned.” Giant otters (Pteronura brasiliensis) are the largest otter species in the world, reaching nearly 2 meters (6 feet) in length and weighing up to 32 kilograms (70 pounds). They are highly social, typically living in family groups that communicate with a variety of calls. Heinonen and her team said they believe this otter came downstream from neighboring Paraguay. The sighting, inside El Impenetrable National Park, is about 140 kilometers (87 miles) south of the Paraguayan border. They wondered how many other otters might still be out there, and how their habitat connected to allow one to reach Argentina. Rewilding Argentina has been working in the country for more&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/new-jaguar-rivers-initiative-aims-to-reconnect-south-americas-fragmented-ecosystems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/new-jaguar-rivers-initiative-aims-to-reconnect-south-americas-fragmented-ecosystems/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319235</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What tree rings reveal about climate change in the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/what-tree-rings-reveal-about-climate-change-in-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/what-tree-rings-reveal-about-climate-change-in-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2026 20:41:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Luís Patriani]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/11203908/3e9d00bd-2908-45d2-adc1-d7519aea0a7c-e1778532089593-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319162</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon and Brazil]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Drought, Rainforests, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2024, the Amazon region felt the effects of one of the worst droughts in its recorded history — if not the worst. At the port of Manaus, the largest city along the course of the Amazon River, the water level reached 12.68 meters (41.60 feet), the lowest level since measurements began there in 1902. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2024, the Amazon region felt the effects of one of the worst droughts in its recorded history — if not the worst. At the port of Manaus, the largest city along the course of the Amazon River, the water level reached 12.68 meters (41.60 feet), the lowest level since measurements began there in 1902. It was even worse than in 2023, when high temperatures in Lake Tefé, upstream of Manaus, killed river dolphins. Successive years of record heat and drought have left scientists asking whether the whole Amazon Basin drying up as a result of more intense cycles of El Niño and La Niña, which alter ocean surface temperatures and interfere with atmospheric circulation, compounded by persistent deforestation. With little data available on the region, scientists from the universities in the U.K. and from Brazil’s National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA) sought answers that could be provided by the very trees in the Amazon Rainforest. They focused on the chronology of growth rings formed annually in tree trunks, using a method known as dendrochronology. In addition to determining the age of a tree, it can reconstruct past climate conditions, and in this case it revealed an even more complex problem. Their findings highlighted the extreme variations in rainfall seasonality over the last four decades, with the hydrological cycle disrupted by increasingly rainy wet seasons and increasingly severe dry seasons. A researcher takes a sample of a courbaril tree (Hymenaea courbaril) in the southern Amazon for study. Image courtesy of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/what-tree-rings-reveal-about-climate-change-in-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/what-tree-rings-reveal-about-climate-change-in-the-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319162</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forests, fires and fragile gains: Interview with WRI’s Elizabeth Goldman</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/forests-fires-and-fragile-gains-interview-with-wris-elizabeth-goldman/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/forests-fires-and-fragile-gains-interview-with-wris-elizabeth-goldman/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2026 15:38:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/22033832/indonesia_sulawesi_171331_23-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319011</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Brazil, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Global, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate Change, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forests, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[According to new data from the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch platform, losses of global tropical primary forest loss slowed by 36% in 2025. For scientists, policymakers and environmental groups who track deforestation, this assessment is a welcome note of optimism. “It’s a better year, but it’s just one year,” said Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[According to new data from the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch platform, losses of global tropical primary forest loss slowed by 36% in 2025. For scientists, policymakers and environmental groups who track deforestation, this assessment is a welcome note of optimism. “It’s a better year, but it’s just one year,” said Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of GFW. Despite the drop, more than 4.3 million hectares (10.6 million acres) of tropical primary forest — an area larger than Switzerland — vanished in 2025 alone, she said. And the improvement is fragile: “If 2025 had been another bad fire year like 2024, we’d be telling a very different story.” For Goldman, the data are less a cause for celebration than an opportunity for reflection: a chance to understand what worked, why, and how those conditions might be replicated elsewhere. In an interview with Mongabay, she shared her anxiety over 2026, which has begun under the shadow of a new El Niño cycle likely to bring hotter and drier conditions across the tropics. “That’s going to be the real test,” she said. “We could see the same kind of fire-driven loss we saw in 2024 if the right measures aren’t in place.” Aerial view of Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Primary forest loss in the DRC declined by 5% between 2024 and 2025. Along with Brazil and Indonesia, the DRC is one of the top three countries for total remaining tropical forest cover. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Mongabay: Let’s start with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/forests-fires-and-fragile-gains-interview-with-wris-elizabeth-goldman/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/forests-fires-and-fragile-gains-interview-with-wris-elizabeth-goldman/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319011</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What Indigenous youth filmmaking reveals about environmental communication (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/what-indigenous-youth-filmmaking-reveals-about-environmental-communication-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/what-indigenous-youth-filmmaking-reveals-about-environmental-communication-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 16:38:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jamille Pinheiro Dias]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07162429/DSC_1829-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318951</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Atlantic Forest, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Arts, Commentary, Communication, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Film, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Rainforests, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A machete is typically an instrument for clearing dense brush or, in a certain kind of movie, for fending off a terrifying monster. Yet, deep in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil’s Bahia state, I learned that a machete is also used for a much friendlier purpose: slicing green mangoes to eat with salt. That simple, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A machete is typically an instrument for clearing dense brush or, in a certain kind of movie, for fending off a terrifying monster. Yet, deep in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil’s Bahia state, I learned that a machete is also used for a much friendlier purpose: slicing green mangoes to eat with salt. That simple, unexpected twist — where anticipated horror dissolves into communal joy — captures exactly what happened when we asked the students in the Indigenous Tupinambá villages of Serra do Padeiro and Tukum what kind of movies they liked. The room immediately buzzed with a rapid-fire list: K-dramas, slapstick comedies, high-speed action, or blood-chilling horror. Before anyone had even picked up a camera, the space was already overflowing with a multiplicity of cinematic worlds and different ideas about what a story could be. I had traveled to southern Bahia in March 2026 with Indigenous filmmaker Olinda Tupinambá and a group of creatives. As a researcher at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study, I am co-developing our project titled “Environmental Education and Film in the Atlantic Forest: Eco-Activism Through Indigenous Perspectives” with support from the British Academy. Our goal was simple: to demystify filmmaking by using everyday smartphones as creative tools, and to challenge what audiences often assume about Indigenous cinema. Students, project leads, and facilitators during the workshop in the Serra do Padeiro village, Tupinambá de Olivença Territory (Bahia, Brazil), part of the British Academy–funded Environmental Education and Film in the Atlantic Forest: Eco-Activism Through&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/what-indigenous-youth-filmmaking-reveals-about-environmental-communication-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/what-indigenous-youth-filmmaking-reveals-about-environmental-communication-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318951</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil bill aims to ban satellite tool used to slow Amazon deforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-bill-aims-to-ban-satellite-tool-used-to-slow-amazon-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-bill-aims-to-ban-satellite-tool-used-to-slow-amazon-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2026 18:06:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/30115532/airbus_earthrise-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318472</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Conservation, Crime, data, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Illegal Mining, Law, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Regulations, Remote Sensing, and Satellite Imagery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The agribusiness caucus is pushing restrictions on the technology that has helped halve deforestation since 2023.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[​In May 2025, a delegation of angry politicians and agribusinessmen from the Brazilian state of Pará traveled to the national capital to protest against the actions of the federal environmental agency, IBAMA. Their frustration stemmed from embargoes imposed by IBAMA on 544 rural properties in the municipality of Altamira, one of the Amazon’s deforestation hotspots. In each case, satellite imagery had detected illegal forest clearing, prompting authorities to block the areas from further production activities. ​“Everyone came here to present their concerns and ask for solutions regarding productive areas in the state of Pará,” Pará Governor Helder Barbalho said at the time. ​Almost a year later, their resentment has been distilled into a new bill proposing a ban on the so-called remote embargoes. Today, IBAMA uses satellite imagery to identify where illegal deforestation is occurring. Once they detect a recently deforested area, environmental agents verify whether there’s an environmental license authorizing that clearance — in the Amazon, around 90% of forest felling is illegal. If there’s no authorization, the agency issues an embargo as a preventive measure from behind its computers. The system is one of the tools that helped the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva halve deforestation numbers in the Amazon since taking office at the start of 2023. “Today we have a wealth of ultra-high-resolution satellite imagery, and we can cross-reference information from various databases,” Wallace Lopes, a representative of the federal environmental agents association, ASCEMA, told Mongabay. ​Jair Schmitt, director of environmental protection and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-bill-aims-to-ban-satellite-tool-used-to-slow-amazon-deforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-bill-aims-to-ban-satellite-tool-used-to-slow-amazon-deforestation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318472</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tropical forest loss falls in 2025, but world still off track on deforestation goals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/tropical-forest-loss-falls-in-2025-but-world-still-off-track-on-deforestation-goals/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/tropical-forest-loss-falls-in-2025-but-world-still-off-track-on-deforestation-goals/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Apr 2026 04:10:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/02182850/brunei_251115221947_0687z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318333</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Bolivia, Brazil, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Global, Indonesia, Latin America, and Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate Change, Commodity agriculture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forests, Mining, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Tropical primary forest loss fell sharply in 2025, dropping 36% from the record highs of the previous year, according to new data from a long-running satellite monitoring project. Non-fire forest loss also declined by 23%, reaching its lowest level in a decade, according to the data from the University of Maryland’s Global Land [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Tropical primary forest loss fell sharply in 2025, dropping 36% from the record highs of the previous year, according to new data from a long-running satellite monitoring project. Non-fire forest loss also declined by 23%, reaching its lowest level in a decade, according to the data from the University of Maryland’s Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) laboratory and visualized on the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Global Forest Watch platform. The drop suggests that policy and enforcement can make be effective in protecting tropical primary forests, which are critical for biodiversity, water provision, carbon storage, food and medicine, cultural identity and more. But researchers say the headline figures mask a more complex reality and may say more about fewer fires than real progress, as forests across the tropics continue to move in the same direction: toward less forest and, in many places, faster rates of loss. “A drop of this scale in a single year is encouraging — it shows what decisive government action can achieve,” said Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of Global Forest Watch. Even so, total loss remains high. The tropics lost 4.3 million hectares (10.6 million acres) of primary forest in 2025 — an area larger than Switzerland, and still 46% higher than a decade ago. That’s the equivalent of about 11 football fields’ worth of forests being razed every minute. At current rates, the world remains far off track from the 2030 goal of halting and reversing forest loss, a pledge made by more than&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/tropical-forest-loss-falls-in-2025-but-world-still-off-track-on-deforestation-goals/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318333</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Heat, fires and agribusiness squeeze traditional Amazon açaí harvesters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/heat-fires-and-agribusiness-squeeze-traditional-amazon-acai-harvesters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/heat-fires-and-agribusiness-squeeze-traditional-amazon-acai-harvesters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Apr 2026 07:00:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carla Ruas]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/23204151/e.-GP0STPODX_Low-res-800px-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318072</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Bees, Bioeconomy, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Crops, Drought, El Nino, Environment, Farming, Fires, Food, Forests, Heatwave, Indigenous Peoples, Monocultures, Rainforests, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The global craze for açaí is driving a plantation boom that leaves the forest’s original harvesters behind.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ACARÁ, Brazil — “I’ve spent my whole life working with açaí,” said Eliseu Carvalho, 57, who cultivates the berry in a floodplain area next to his home in the municipality of Acará, in the Brazilian state of Pará. “I’ve always made a living from it.” But after a devastating wildfire near his community, Carvalho is now considering abandoning açaí harvesting altogether. Acará is one of the most productive açaí regions in the state of Pará, with thousands of small-scale producers working in forest patches and along riverbanks. In 2024, the municipality was severely affected by an intense wildfire season. More than 18 million hectares (44.5 million acres) — an area the size of Cambodia — burned in the Amazon that year, according to the Brazilian collaborative research network MapBiomas. Most of the burning occurred in forest areas, threatening frontline communities. Carvalho said he watched the flames burn for more than 20 days and consume almost 30 hectares (74 acres) of forestland. Prolonged drought conditions had left the humid vegetation unusually dry, leaving it much more susceptible to fire. “The flames spread through roots and organic matter,” he told Mongabay in Acará. “We would put them out on the surface, but they kept burning underground.” Açaí farmer Eliseu Carvalho shows his land in Acará, where a devastating wildfire burned down their açaí production in 2024. Image by Carla Ruas. When firefighters and volunteers finally managed to control the fire, about 2 hectares (5 acres) of açaí palms had burned to the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/heat-fires-and-agribusiness-squeeze-traditional-amazon-acai-harvesters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318072</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil taps legal loophole to issue bids for Amazon ‘tipping point’ road</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-taps-legal-loophole-to-issue-bids-for-amazon-tipping-point-road/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-taps-legal-loophole-to-issue-bids-for-amazon-tipping-point-road/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Apr 2026 15:37:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/20152755/whatsapp-image-2025-07-04-at-162130-1600x728-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317801</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A strategic shift in law clears the way for a highway that scientists warn will push the Amazon to a tipping point.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Heavy machinery will soon be working on the road that may determine the future of the Amazon Rainforest: On April 13, the Brazilian government issued calls for four bids to pave the controversial BR-319 highway. Inaugurated in 1976 to connect two major Amazonian municipalities, Manaus and Porto Velho, the BR-319 runs 885 kilometers (550 miles) and crosses one of the best-preserved areas of the Brazilian Amazon, home to 69 Indigenous territories and 41 conservation units. The middle section of the highway was never fully paved, and after decades of abandonment, it became undrivable, especially during the rainy season. Paving this 339-km (211-mi) critical stretch has long been advocated by locals, politicians and businesspeople, who currently rely on plane or boat to travel. Paving the road to improve connectivity, however, would come at a high environmental cost. Scientists say upgrading BR-319 may push the rainforest to a tipping point, transforming it into a much drier, less biodiverse ecosystem. However, the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who came to office on a pro-environmental platform, is exploiting an environmental licensing loophole to announce it will start roadworks in the second half of this year. It has budgeted 1.3 billion reais ($260 million) for the project. “The idea is to get started quickly, with independent mobilizations, taking advantage of the Amazonian summer and making as much progress as possible,” Fabrício Galvão, general director of the National Department of Transportation Infrastructure (DNIT), said at the project announcement. In October, Lula will run&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-taps-legal-loophole-to-issue-bids-for-amazon-tipping-point-road/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317801</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Amazon&#8217;s silent crime crisis (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-amazons-silent-crime-crisis-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-amazons-silent-crime-crisis-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Apr 2026 17:59:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carlos NobreIlona SzaboRobert Muggah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/15175627/peru_aerial_0166-2560px-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317585</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Crime, Deforestation, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Forests, Gold Mining, Illegal Logging, Illegal Mining, Illegal Trade, Mining, Organized Crime, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon is approaching a dangerous threshold. Long understood as the world&#8217;s largest tropical forest and a critical regulator of the global climate, its future is increasingly shaped by the convergence of organized crime and environmental crime. This nexus is accelerating deforestation and degradation, worsening fire risk, undermining governance, and weakening the economic foundations needed to sustain [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon is approaching a dangerous threshold. Long understood as the world&#8217;s largest tropical forest and a critical regulator of the global climate, its future is increasingly shaped by the convergence of organized crime and environmental crime. This nexus is accelerating deforestation and degradation, worsening fire risk, undermining governance, and weakening the economic foundations needed to sustain the region. Approaching a tipping point For decades, debate over the Amazon has centered on land-use change driven by agricultural expansion and cattle ranching. These pressures remain decisive. The advance of soy cultivation and pasture continues to fragment forests and disrupt rainfall cycles. When deforestation and degradation interact with climate change and fire, many scientists warn that parts of the Amazon—especially in the eastern and southern basin—could move toward an irreversible transition to a far more degraded, savannah-like state. A widely cited body of research suggests that such a tipping dynamic may emerge when deforestation reaches roughly 20 to 25 percent in some parts of the basin, especially when compounded by rising temperatures, drought, and recurrent fire. About 14–17% of the Amazon has been cleared, depending on definition and geography. The broader scientific message is clear: continued forest loss and degradation sharply increase the likelihood of large-scale ecological disruption. Many scientists warn that parts of the Amazon, especially the eastern and southern basin, are approaching dangerous thresholds once deforestation, degradation, fire and warming are considered together. Large-scale degraded areas scorched by fires, stripped by logging and desiccated by drought add a further layer of fragility that headline deforestation figures do not fully capture.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-amazons-silent-crime-crisis-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317585</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Novel research finds unexpected climate resilience in up to 36% of Amazon forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/novel-research-finds-unexpected-climate-resilience-in-up-to-36-of-amazon-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/novel-research-finds-unexpected-climate-resilience-in-up-to-36-of-amazon-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2026 03:23:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/09222759/1-Palms-along-river-in-Manu-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317301</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Drought, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forest Fragmentation, Forests, Precipitation, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Temperatures, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, Trees, Water, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Reports on the health and vitality of the Amazon — often dubbed as Earth’s lungs — have been grim for years. Record drought has stressed large swaths of the world’s largest rainforest. Major Amazon River tributaries, including the Rio Negro and Madeira River, hit their lowest levels in more than a century of measurement in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Reports on the health and vitality of the Amazon — often dubbed as Earth’s lungs — have been grim for years. Record drought has stressed large swaths of the world’s largest rainforest. Major Amazon River tributaries, including the Rio Negro and Madeira River, hit their lowest levels in more than a century of measurement in 2024. And experts warn that deforestation and wildfires are tipping parts of the biome from carbon sink to source. Yet in Manaus, a city at the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, forest ecologist Flávia Costa is upbeat as she highlights what appears to be a previously underappreciated underlying Amazon reality: Her research finds that the region’s vast wetlands, or shallow water table areas, have proven to be stubbornly drought resistant through years of intensifying climate change. In fact, her long-term research reveals that palm species and other wetland trees are not just surviving drought seasons, they’re maintaining their health and even adding biomass. That could mean these areas could serve as valuable refugia, as other parts of Amazonia degrade. Significantly, these shallow water table areas compose 36% of Amazonia and have been a crucial part of the evolving rainforest ecosystem for millions of years. Sturdy, resilient palms account for one in five tree species across the Amazon, which includes parts of nine nations, and of which Brazil occupies 60%. These forested wetlands and Costa’s research represent one bright spot in the Amazon’s otherwise gloomy projected trajectory for the 21st century — forecasts built on decades&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/novel-research-finds-unexpected-climate-resilience-in-up-to-36-of-amazon-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317301</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous &#038; community leaders say, ‘secure forest financing with us, not for us’ (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indigenous-leaders-say-secure-forest-financing-with-us-not-for-us-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indigenous-leaders-say-secure-forest-financing-with-us-not-for-us-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Apr 2026 19:27:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Inés Morales LastraJosé IvanildoLevi Sucre]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/18204154/amazon_241209144749x-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317133</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[climate finance, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Rainforests, Redd, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Forest Management, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In recent years, we have seen clear signs that the global market for forest and nature-based carbon credits is gaining momentum. More and more companies and governments are turning to forests as part of their climate strategies, and analysts expect this trend to continue as demand grows for solutions that deliver real and verifiable benefits for the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In recent years, we have seen clear signs that the global market for forest and nature-based carbon credits is gaining momentum. More and more companies and governments are turning to forests as part of their climate strategies, and analysts expect this trend to continue as demand grows for solutions that deliver real and verifiable benefits for the climate, nature and people. Recent market assessments show sustained activity in the voluntary carbon market in 2025 and project further growth toward 2026, particularly for high-integrity credits linked to nature and forests. For those of us who live in and protect tropical forests, this is an important moment. As government forest protection programs, known as jurisdictional REDD+, begin to operate on a larger scale, covering entire forest countries or states, more funding will flow through systems that affect our territories, our livelihoods and our future. Whether this expansion strengthens our autonomy and benefits our communities or repeats old patterns of exclusion will depend, above all, on the full participation of our peoples in the process that determines how the benefits and revenues from these transactions are shared. We write as Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and traditional forest harvesting community leaders. From our perspective, how benefits are shared is not a technical detail or a box to check for governments seeking to sell credits, or companies buying them. It is central to ensuring that transactions are fair and that our rights are respected, and central to the very survival of our way of life. Indigenous and community leaders like this Kichwa guide in the Ecuadorian Amazon should help point the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indigenous-leaders-say-secure-forest-financing-with-us-not-for-us-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317133</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Peru-Brazil Bioceanic Railway brings too much risk to the Amazon, experts warn</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/peru-brazil-bioceanic-railway-brings-too-much-risk-to-the-amazon-experts-warn/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/peru-brazil-bioceanic-railway-brings-too-much-risk-to-the-amazon-experts-warn/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Mar 2026 17:16:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Yvette Sierra Praeli]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/30151522/foto2-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316557</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, and Peru]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Saving Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The idea of a railway line stretching across the width of South America — from Peru on the Pacific coast to Brazil on the Atlantic — has gained steam since the inauguration of the megaport of Chancay in Peru. To complete its route, this “Bioceanic Railway,” as it’s known, would have to cross the Andes [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The idea of a railway line stretching across the width of South America — from Peru on the Pacific coast to Brazil on the Atlantic — has gained steam since the inauguration of the megaport of Chancay in Peru. To complete its route, this “Bioceanic Railway,” as it’s known, would have to cross the Andes mountain range in Peru and also the Amazon Rainforest in both countries. In July 2025, Brazil and China signed a cooperation deal to conduct feasibility studies on the railway corridor. In August 2025, Peru’s Transport and Communications Ministry presented the railway plan before the country’s Congress. Image by the Peruvian government. While the Peruvian government wasn’t present at that signing, in May that year the country’s then-economy minister, Raúl Pérez Reyes, and transport minister, César Sandoval Pozo, met with senior Chinese officials, including Fei Dongbin, president of China’s National Railway Administration, and Song Yang, the Chinese ambassador to Peru, to discuss the development of railway infrastructure in Peru. Several months later, in January 2026, the Chancay-Sierra Central section of the railway line was announced. The project was reportedly awarded to a Chinese company. The route that would continue after this section into Brazil has not yet been confirmed, but there are two proposals for crossing the Andes and the Peruvian Amazon to reach Brazilian territory. The mega construction project has prompted widespread concern due to the potential socioenvironmental impacts, especially for the section that crosses the Amazon. Compounding worries are the economic and geopolitical jousting&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/peru-brazil-bioceanic-railway-brings-too-much-risk-to-the-amazon-experts-warn/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316557</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study finds deforestation accounts for major Amazon rainfall decline</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/study-finds-deforestation-accounts-for-major-amazon-rainfall-decline/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/study-finds-deforestation-accounts-for-major-amazon-rainfall-decline/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Mar 2026 18:59:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Logan Rance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/14142838/2-Amazon-logging-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316342</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Climate Science, Deforestation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Impact Of Climate Change, Mitigation, Precipitation, Rainforests, Reforestation, Research, Threats To Rainforests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Forest loss, along with climate change, is changing the resilience of the Amazon Rainforest. By disrupting the movement of moisture through the atmosphere, deforestation is reducing rainfall and extending the dry season, especially in the southern Amazon Basin. But according to recent research, the impacts of large-scale deforestation could be much bigger than climate models [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Forest loss, along with climate change, is changing the resilience of the Amazon Rainforest. By disrupting the movement of moisture through the atmosphere, deforestation is reducing rainfall and extending the dry season, especially in the southern Amazon Basin. But according to recent research, the impacts of large-scale deforestation could be much bigger than climate models have estimated for the region. A study published in Nature Communications found that between 52% and 72% of the rainfall decline in the southern Amazon Basin over the last four decades can be attributed to deforestation. Between 1980 and 2019, annual precipitation in the area has dropped by 8-11%. Additionally, researchers determined that rainfall decline was not just attributed to local forest loss, but to deforestation in upwind regions across South America. “Many studies only focus on the local scale, and local land-atmosphere feedback,” Jiangpeng Cui, associate professor at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research and lead author of the study, told Mongabay in an interview. “We combined observational data, like precipitation and evapotranspiration, with moisture tracking across South America. … This way we can know how [deforestation] changes vapor movement from one place to another.” Since 1985, natural forest cover in South America has declined by 16%, largely due to human-caused deforestation. In the Brazilian Amazon, which lost one-fifth of its forest cover between 1970 and 2019, primary forest is frequently converted to agricultural land or destroyed by wildfires. According to the study, cutting down large swaths of forest reduces the available evapotranspiration that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/study-finds-deforestation-accounts-for-major-amazon-rainfall-decline/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316342</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Behind the scenes of the Amazon’s gold rush: Director Richard Ladkani on the making of ‘Yanuni’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/behind-the-scenes-of-the-amazons-gold-rush-director-richard-ladkani-on-the-making-of-yanuni/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/behind-the-scenes-of-the-amazons-gold-rush-director-richard-ladkani-on-the-making-of-yanuni/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Mar 2026 19:18:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/25184957/YANUNI_Juma_Xipaia_home_village1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316291</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond the screen: DCEFF and Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conflict, Crime, Deforestation, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Gold Mining, Human Rights, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mining, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Austrian director and cinematographer Richard Ladkani knew little about the Amazon Rainforest before he decided to make a film about it. It was 2019. Fires raged across the Amazon. Ladkani had just finished his film Sea of Shadows, about the desperate effort to rescue the critically endangered vaquita porpoise in the Sea of Cortés and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Austrian director and cinematographer Richard Ladkani knew little about the Amazon Rainforest before he decided to make a film about it. It was 2019. Fires raged across the Amazon. Ladkani had just finished his film Sea of Shadows, about the desperate effort to rescue the critically endangered vaquita porpoise in the Sea of Cortés and the drug cartels and traffickers threatening its habitat. He was inhaling news about the fires, which got him thinking: “Is there a movie out there that really explains to people, emotionally, that this is our Amazon? That we&#8217;re losing not a remote place far away in Brazil or South America, but that this actually relates to us, wherever you live on the planet?” Ladkani soon found that the impact-driven film he envisioned did not exist. And so, the first seeds of Yanuni were sown. Filmed across two worlds, the Brazilian capital Brasília and a remote village in the Xipaya Indigenous Territory, the documentary film focuses on Juma Xipaia, an Indigenous chief from the Brazilian Amazon. It centers her ongoing effort to confront illegal gold miners, land grabbers and multinational corporations threatening the Amazon’s forests, alongside her husband, Hugo Loss, the head of special operations at Brazil’s environmental protection agency, IBAMA, who leads dangerous operations to crack down on illegal mining deep in the rainforest. The film captures the personal realities environmental defenders face in the Amazon and features rare video of an IBAMA mission to combat illegal miners. Juma Xipaia is central to the movie&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/behind-the-scenes-of-the-amazons-gold-rush-director-richard-ladkani-on-the-making-of-yanuni/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316291</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mining rush for critical minerals threatens Amazon land reform settlements</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/mining-rush-for-critical-minerals-threatens-amazon-land-reform-settlements/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/mining-rush-for-critical-minerals-threatens-amazon-land-reform-settlements/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Mar 2026 18:49:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Cícero Pedrosa NetoIsabel HarariSam Cowie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/09165555/para-mining-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315432</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Cities, Conservation, Copper, Critical Minerals, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Industry, Land Conflict, Mining, Politics, Pollution, Rainforests, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Families awaiting land reform in the Amazon now face a surge in mining that can destroy their chance at a decent life.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Leia em português. &nbsp; PARAUAPEBAS, Brazil — On a dirt road that cuts through the Rio Novo settlement in the southeast of Pará state, battered motorcycles carry small loads of organic food to sell in the city, while passing trucks loaded with minerals for export. Parauapebas, Brazil’s so-called “mining capital,” hosts numerous rural worker communities, including the 5,000 families of Terra e Liberdade, the largest landless encampment in Brazil. The city is also home to the largest open-pit iron ore mine in the world, in addition to other valuable deposits. The scene of historical land conflicts, such as the Eldorado dos Carajás massacre, in which 21 people died after being shot by military police during a protest in 1996, southeastern Pará is now witnessing a new front of dispute. Driven by the energy transition, mining companies are eyeing land in already established agrarian reform settlements, seeking deposits of three minerals essential to the arms and high-tech industries: copper, manganese and nickel. These elements are used in equipment such as chips, wind turbines, electric cars, military jets and warships. An exclusive survey by Repórter Brasil in partnership with Mongabay, based on data from the National Mining Agency (ANM), identified 676 mining processes for copper, manganese and nickel in Carajás since 1969. A quarter of them (166) were filed in the last five years (2021–25). Illegal copper mining area in the Carajás region, southeastern Pará. Image courtesy of Cícero Pedrosa/Repórter Brasil. Of the total number of requests, 292 (43%) relate to 82&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/mining-rush-for-critical-minerals-threatens-amazon-land-reform-settlements/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315432</doi>				</item>
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