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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/ecuador/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>Ecuador environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/ecuador/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Ecuador failing to end Yasuní oil drilling: Interview with Waorani leader Juan Bay</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ecuador-failing-to-end-yasuni-oil-drilling-interview-with-waorani-leader-juan-bay/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ecuador-failing-to-end-yasuni-oil-drilling-interview-with-waorani-leader-juan-bay/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 May 2026 14:23:42 +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/20/2026/05/13134716/21303977088_8474f7875c_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319326</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Conservation, Amazon Destruction, Amazon Mining, Amazon People, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Interviews, Land Rights, Mining, Oil, Oil Drilling, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Threats To The Amazon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2023, Ecuadorians voted for a binding referendum to end oil drilling in the 43-ITT oil block in Yasuní National Park. In 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) echoed the call in a ruling for the Ecuadorian state to do more to protect uncontacted Indigenous peoples whose territories overlap with the park. But [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2023, Ecuadorians voted for a binding referendum to end oil drilling in the 43-ITT oil block in Yasuní National Park. In 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) echoed the call in a ruling for the Ecuadorian state to do more to protect uncontacted Indigenous peoples whose territories overlap with the park. But nearly three years since the referendum, and a year since the court ruling, the Ecuadorian government has still not closed the 43-ITT block. Juan Bay, the president of the Waorani Nation (NAWE), whose ancestral territory overlaps with the park, recently traveled to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in New York to denounce the lack of progress and express his frustrations with the state. The Aug. 20, 2023, referendum saw the majority of voters choose to halt all future oil drilling in Yasuní, which involved the closure of 43-ITT and the creation of a commission to oversee the implementation of the results. The government had one year to withdraw from the oil block, by August 2024, but there’s been little progress since then. Bay said only 10 out of 247 oil wells in the block have been shut down. “More than a year has passed [since the deadline] and the government is doing nothing to shut down that [operation] and leave the resource in the ground, which is the will of the Ecuadorian people,” Mariana Yumbay Yallico, a Waranka woman and member of Ecuador’s National Assembly, representing Bolívar province, told Mongabay at the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ecuador-failing-to-end-yasuni-oil-drilling-interview-with-waorani-leader-juan-bay/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ecuador-failing-to-end-yasuni-oil-drilling-interview-with-waorani-leader-juan-bay/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Inside the fight to save the little-known Galápagos petrel</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/inside-the-fight-to-save-the-little-known-galapagos-petrel/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/inside-the-fight-to-save-the-little-known-galapagos-petrel/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2026 14:02:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Ocean wildlife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Birds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation Solutions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Critically Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[endemism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Habitat Degradation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Happy-upbeat Environmental]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Invasive species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nature-based climate solutions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[predators]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife Conservation]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/30134940/Image_4_petrel-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318478</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Galapagos, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Invasive Species, Marine Birds, Protected Areas, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Critically endangered Galápagos petrels spend much of their life at sea, but as they return to breed in the only place they call home, a litany of threats awaits. Over the last 60 years, in particular until the 1980s, the population of the Galápagos petrel (Pterodroma phaeopygia) declined significantly, with only 15,000 individuals remaining today, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Critically endangered Galápagos petrels spend much of their life at sea, but as they return to breed in the only place they call home, a litany of threats awaits. Over the last 60 years, in particular until the 1980s, the population of the Galápagos petrel (Pterodroma phaeopygia) declined significantly, with only 15,000 individuals remaining today, according to the latest IUCN Red List assessment of the species. And although that number could be as high as 20,000 as new colonies are being discovered, pressure from invasive species that prey on the bird and degrade its habitat keeps the petrel on the edge. But decades-long conservation efforts have refined strategies to protect these seabirds, while a new initiative will involve thousands of Galápagos private landowners in securing their fragile nesting grounds. “Even though it&#8217;s an oceanic bird, you don&#8217;t see them that often,” Paola Sangolquí, a marine conservation coordinator with Ecuadorian NGO Jocotoco, told Mongabay in a video interview. The petrels spend most of their time out on the open water, hunting squid and fish. When they return to land, it’s to the upland and remote areas of the Galápagos islands of San Cristóbal, Floreana, Santa Cruz, Isabela and Santiago, where they nest in burrows or natural crevices. These tend to be far from the islands’ human settlements, and because the birds are also largely nocturnal, that makes them even more difficult to spot. “They nest in these foggy, misty areas up in the highlands, surrounded by dense vegetation,” Sangolquí says. “It&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/inside-the-fight-to-save-the-little-known-galapagos-petrel/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>AI tool tracks spread of illegal gold mining in Amazon protected areas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ai-tool-tracks-spread-of-illegal-gold-mining-in-amazon-protected-areas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ai-tool-tracks-spread-of-illegal-gold-mining-in-amazon-protected-areas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Apr 2026 09:56:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Loss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gold Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Illegal Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Communities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous territories]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land tenure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/11143403/foto_58-edit-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317945</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Mining, Artificial Intelligence, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Gold Mining, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Rights, Mining, and Satellite Imagery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In July 2025, the Indigenous Shuar people celebrated the end of a decade-long struggle when they received official titles for three communities — the Shuar Tunants, Kampan and Tsuntsuim –- within the Kutukú Shaimi Protected Forest, in the south of the Ecuadorean Amazon. But in one of those communities, satellite imagery shows that between August [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In July 2025, the Indigenous Shuar people celebrated the end of a decade-long struggle when they received official titles for three communities — the Shuar Tunants, Kampan and Tsuntsuim –- within the Kutukú Shaimi Protected Forest, in the south of the Ecuadorean Amazon. But in one of those communities, satellite imagery shows that between August and December 2025, a gaping hole appeared in the forest around a riverbend — a mining scar. Despite the Tunants territory’s newly formalized status, deforestation due to gold mining nearly tripled, reaching 2 hectares (5 acres) in size in the last three months of 2025, according to Amazon Mining Watch Panorama, a new quarterly report. The report shows that deforestation due to illegal gold mining continues to grow across the Amazon, threatening protected parts of the rainforest. In total, 6,000 hectares (more than 14,800 acres) — about seven times the size of Central Park in New York City — of new mining scars appeared across protected areas and Indigenous territories over the last three months of 2025. This mining is presumed to be illegal, as most Amazonian countries have legislation prohibiting mining in Indigenous territories and protected areas, with experts warning that greater law enforcement is needed. Most of the deforestation caused by mining during that period took place in Brazil, with roughly 2,000 hectares (about 5,000 acres) of forest being cleared. This was followed by Peru with 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres), and Guyana with 900 hectares (about 2,200 acres). New mining scars were also&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ai-tool-tracks-spread-of-illegal-gold-mining-in-amazon-protected-areas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Luis Yanza, campaigner who battled big oil in the Amazon rainforest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/luis-yanza-campaigner-who-battled-big-oil-in-the-amazon-rainforest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/luis-yanza-campaigner-who-battled-big-oil-in-the-amazon-rainforest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Apr 2026 01:37:53 +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/20/2026/04/21013032/Luis-Yanza-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317840</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Environmental Law, extractives, Fossil Fuels, Indigenous Peoples, Obituary, Oil, Oil Drilling, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For much of the late 20th century, oil development in the Ecuadorian Amazon proceeded with little restraint. Wastewater and drilling residues were discharged into rivers or left in open pits. Forest was cleared. Communities downstream relied on contaminated water for drinking, cooking, and bathing. Over time, residents reported rising rates of illness, including cancers and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For much of the late 20th century, oil development in the Ecuadorian Amazon proceeded with little restraint. Wastewater and drilling residues were discharged into rivers or left in open pits. Forest was cleared. Communities downstream relied on contaminated water for drinking, cooking, and bathing. Over time, residents reported rising rates of illness, including cancers and respiratory disease. People might argue about the scale of the contamination, but no one could argue that it wasn&#8217;t visible. By the early 1990s, the region had become a test of whether affected communities could use the law to hold a multinational oil company to account. That effort took shape as a long legal battle against Texaco, later acquired by Chevron. It moved between jurisdictions, from New York to Ecuador, and drew in tens of thousands of plaintiffs from Indigenous and settler communities. The case would last decades. It required organizing across remote territories, gathering testimony and evidence, and sustaining attention in a legal process designed to exhaust both. Luis Yanza was central to that work. He died on March 27th 2026, from cancer, after years spent in the same landscapes where contamination was alleged to have taken hold. His role was not primarily in courtrooms. While lawyers argued motions and judges weighed jurisdiction, he traveled the back roads and rivers of the northern Amazon, meeting communities, explaining the case, and maintaining a coalition that spanned more than 80 villages and several Indigenous peoples. Luis Yanza in his youth. Yanza grew up in Lago Agrio,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/luis-yanza-campaigner-who-battled-big-oil-in-the-amazon-rainforest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<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[Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Conservation, Amazon Rainforest, Carbon Finance, climate finance, Commentary, Conservation Finance, Ecosystem Finance, Environment, Finance, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Rights, Rainforests, Redd, Redd And Communities, 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>
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						<item>
					<title>Is the Galápagos damselfish extinct?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/is-the-galapagos-damselfish-extinct/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/is-the-galapagos-damselfish-extinct/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Apr 2026 01:06:25 +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/20/2026/04/05013742/Galapagos_damselfish-Azurina_eupalama-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316982</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Galapagos, Latin America, Pacific Ocean, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change And Biodiversity, El Nino, Endangered Species, Extinction, Extinction And Climate Change, Fish, Islands, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Biodiversity, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; A small, blue-gray fish that once gathered in loose schools along the rocky shores of the Galápagos Islands has become the subject of a more precise question: whether it is already gone. The Galápagos damselfish (Azurina eupalama) has not been recorded since 1983. Before that, it was regularly encountered. Specimens were collected by nearly [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; A small, blue-gray fish that once gathered in loose schools along the rocky shores of the Galápagos Islands has become the subject of a more precise question: whether it is already gone. The Galápagos damselfish (Azurina eupalama) has not been recorded since 1983. Before that, it was regularly encountered. Specimens were collected by nearly every major scientific expedition to the islands across the 20th century, and divers could expect to find it at multiple sites. Its disappearance has therefore drawn attention not only for its outcome, but for its abruptness. Azurina eupalama, engraving of type specimen from Heller &#038; Snodgrass (1903). A recent paper by Jack Stein Grove and Benjamin Victor revisits the evidence and concludes that the species is now likely extinct. The paper, published in the Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, assembles historical records, ecological context, and decades of unsuccessful searches to argue that the absence is no longer plausibly explained by oversight. The timing points to a specific event. The last confirmed sighting came in the aftermath of the 1982–83 El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), one of the most intense on record. During such episodes, the cold, nutrient-rich upwelling that sustains the Galápagos marine ecosystem weakens or stops. Warmer, less productive water spreads across the archipelago, reducing plankton availability and disrupting food webs. For a species like the Galápagos damselfish, this would have been consequential. It was an obligate planktivore, dependent on the steady supply of microscopic organisms that thrive under normal upwelling conditions. It&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/is-the-galapagos-damselfish-extinct/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>Return of the giant tortoises</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/04/return-of-the-giant-tortoises/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/04/return-of-the-giant-tortoises/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Apr 2026 21:20:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sam Lee]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sam Lee]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/02211927/%40RashidCruz_SantaCruz-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=316877</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Galapagos, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Turtles And Tortoises, and Wildilfe]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For the first time in nearly two centuries, giant tortoises are once again roaming Floreana Island in the Galápagos, a conservation milestone more than a decade in the making.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For the first time in nearly two centuries, giant tortoises are once again roaming Floreana Island in the Galápagos, a conservation milestone more than a decade in the making.This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/04/return-of-the-giant-tortoises/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Extinction—or just unseen? What Centinela reveals about biodiversity data gaps</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/extinction-or-just-unseen-what-centinela-reveals-about-biodiversity-data-gaps/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/extinction-or-just-unseen-what-centinela-reveals-about-biodiversity-data-gaps/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Mar 2026 00:59:42 +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/20/2026/03/27234141/Dracontium_croatii-168689532-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316449</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Botany, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Extinction Debt, Fragmentation, Habitat Loss, and Plants]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 1991, botanists Calaway Dodson and Alwyn Gentry advanced a striking proposition. Surveying a rapidly deforested ridge in western Ecuador, they suggested that dozens of plant species known only from that site—Centinela—had likely vanished with the forest. The idea was later distilled into the “Centinelan extinction hypothesis”: that habitat clearing can trigger the immediate, global [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 1991, botanists Calaway Dodson and Alwyn Gentry advanced a striking proposition. Surveying a rapidly deforested ridge in western Ecuador, they suggested that dozens of plant species known only from that site—Centinela—had likely vanished with the forest. The idea was later distilled into the “Centinelan extinction hypothesis”: that habitat clearing can trigger the immediate, global extinction of narrowly distributed species. It was a powerful claim. It gave a concrete example of how biodiversity loss might unfold in tropical forests, where many species appear rare, localized, and poorly documented. It also rested on a deeper uncertainty. In such systems, what has not been recorded is often treated as if it does not exist. A 2024 reassessment, published in Nature Plants, returns to Centinela using decades of additional collections and records. Drawing on herbarium records, literature, expert input, and targeted field surveys, the authors reconstruct what is known about the site’s flora. Their conclusion is straightforward. Nearly all of the species once thought endemic to Centinela have been found elsewhere. Of 98 putative microendemics, 99% are now known from other locations. Landscape of Centinela, Ecuador, and five plant species once hypothesized to have gone extinct in the region but now confirmed as extant. a, A typical landscape dominated by pasture and agriculture, with small remnant patches of forest (Photo by J. Nicolás Zapata). b–d, Herbs Gasteranthus extinctus (b), Gasteranthus atratus (Gesneriaceae) (c) and Dracontium croatii (Araceae) (d). e,f, Trees Browneopsis macrofoliolata (Fabaceae) (e) and Amyris centinelensis (Rutaceae) (f). Photos b–f by John&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/extinction-or-just-unseen-what-centinela-reveals-about-biodiversity-data-gaps/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>Ecuador’s new ecological corridor connects Andes and Amazon ecosystems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/ecuadors-new-ecological-corridor-connects-andes-and-amazon-ecosystems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/ecuadors-new-ecological-corridor-connects-andes-and-amazon-ecosystems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Mar 2026 19:54:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife Corridors]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/09194846/WCS_Llanganates-RBY_-%C2%A9-Victor-Utreras-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315451</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Corridors, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador has announced the creation of a new biological corridor designed to connect the eastern ranges of the Andes with the Amazon Rainforest, part of a larger initiative to strengthen ecological connectivity and protect biodiversity. The Llanganates–Yasuní Connectivity Corridor, officially announced this month, spans 2,159 square kilometers (834 square miles) across two provinces, connecting Llanganates [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador has announced the creation of a new biological corridor designed to connect the eastern ranges of the Andes with the Amazon Rainforest, part of a larger initiative to strengthen ecological connectivity and protect biodiversity. The Llanganates–Yasuní Connectivity Corridor, officially announced this month, spans 2,159 square kilometers (834 square miles) across two provinces, connecting Llanganates National Park with Yasuní Biosphere Reserve. It’s one of several projects in the country aiming to preserve ecological connectivity between the Andes and Amazon, a transition zone vital for species adaptation as climate change and human pressure reshape habitats. “By securing ecological connectivity between the Andes and the Amazon, we are helping safeguard biodiversity, strengthen climate resilience, and support local communities whose livelihoods depend on healthy ecosystems,” WCS Ecuador country director Sebastian Valdivieso said in a press release. “This corridor reflects the power of collaboration between national authorities, local governments, civil society and international partners.” Yasuní Biosphere Reserve covers 27,564 km2 (10,643 mi2) of Amazon Rainforest, while Llanganates National Park covers 2,197 km2 (848 mi2) of high-elevation ecosystems in the Andes. The two protected areas appear close on a map but are actually separated by significant elevation differences, with parts of Llanganates reaching around 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) above sea level. Now, the corridor allows “altitudinal connectivity” between the two protected areas, according to WCS Ecuador, one of the organizations overseeing the project. The corridor will help protect species that need to migrate between different elevations, such as the black-and-chestnut eagle (Spizaetus isidori). It could&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/ecuadors-new-ecological-corridor-connects-andes-and-amazon-ecosystems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>China’s Pacific squid fishery rife with labor, fishing abuses: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/chinas-pacific-squid-fishery-rife-with-labor-fishing-abuses-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/chinas-pacific-squid-fishery-rife-with-labor-fishing-abuses-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Mar 2026 15:47:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Francesco De Augustinis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/03141824/39-with-seabird-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315118</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Chile, China, East Asia, Ecuador, Global, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Cruelty, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Environment, Environmental Crime, Environmental Law, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Forced labor, Illegal Fishing, Law, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Biodiversity, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, Saltwater Fish, Wildlife, Wildlife Conservation, and Wildlife Crime]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Labor abuses including violence, debt bondage and withheld wages and medical care, overfishing, shark finning, marine mammal killings: A new report exposes bad practices and a weak regulatory framework governing the jumbo flying squid fishery in the Southeast Pacific Ocean. The report was launched on Feb. 19, just days before the annual meeting of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Labor abuses including violence, debt bondage and withheld wages and medical care, overfishing, shark finning, marine mammal killings: A new report exposes bad practices and a weak regulatory framework governing the jumbo flying squid fishery in the Southeast Pacific Ocean. The report was launched on Feb. 19, just days before the annual meeting of the commission of the South Pacific Regional Fishery Management Organisation (SPRFMO), the intergovernmental body that manages the fishery. The report drew on interviews with 81 fishers, mainly Indonesian sailors who worked between 2021 and 2025 on 60 Chinese vessels targeting jumbo flying squid (Dosidicus gigas) in the region. “Our interviews revealed that these vessels are engaged in widespread fisheries abuses and labor abuses,” Dominic Thomson, head of the investigation for U.K.-based NGO the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), told Mongabay. Jumbo flying squid, also known as Humboldt squid, are large-bodied animals averaging 50 to 80 centimeters (20 to 31 inches) in length. They concentrate in the South Pacific Ocean, off the coast of South America, where they play a key mid-trophic role in the marine ecosystem, serving both as a predator of smaller species and as prey for sharks, swordfish, sperm whales, dolphins and other marine life. The species is among the most commercially important squid species, accounting for about 30% of global squid landings. The fishery involves South American countries fishing mainly within their exclusive economic zones (EEZs): Ecuador, Chile and Peru. The latter has for decades been the world&#8217;s leading producer. In the last decade,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/chinas-pacific-squid-fishery-rife-with-labor-fishing-abuses-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>In Ecuador’s Chocó, roads shape the fate of the rainforest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-ecuadors-choco-roads-shape-the-fate-of-the-rainforest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-ecuadors-choco-roads-shape-the-fate-of-the-rainforest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Feb 2026 19:05:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Communities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infrastructure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Conflict]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[roads]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/06153811/DJI_20250923101309_0020_V-2-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313840</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Choco Forest, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, and Governance]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[HOJA BLANCO, Ecuador — Some parts of the rainforest in northwestern Ecuador used to be so dense and impenetrable that only a few hundred people were believed to live there. Even when loggers moved into the area in the 1980s and 1990s, setting up the first roads, it would take hours to travel only a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[HOJA BLANCO, Ecuador — Some parts of the rainforest in northwestern Ecuador used to be so dense and impenetrable that only a few hundred people were believed to live there. Even when loggers moved into the area in the 1980s and 1990s, setting up the first roads, it would take hours to travel only a few miles. It’s one of the rainiest regions on the planet, and the terrain rises sharply into the western Andes before dropping off into rivers and valleys. Because it was so inaccessible, the area remained one of the most biodiverse on the planet, with thousands of endemic plant species and hundreds of birds and amphibians. But in recent decades, much of that biodiversity has been lost. The region, known as the Chocó, has experienced historic deforestation, with only around 3% of its lower-elevation forest — below 900 meters (3,000 feet) — still remaining. In one area of the Chocó, in Esmeraldas province, the rise in deforestation coincided with the arrival of timber companies like Endesa-Botrosa, which built some of the first roads while logging the forest. Even when the companies reduced their work in the area a few years ago, deforestation continued to pose a major threat — largely because the companies left behind roads that people want to extend, conservation groups in the area say. Today, many of the roads that used to take hours to navigate are relatively clean and patched up, allowing people from other parts of the country to move in.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-ecuadors-choco-roads-shape-the-fate-of-the-rainforest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>Abandoned tuna-fishing devices pollute the Galápagos Marine Reserve</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/abandoned-tuna-fishing-devices-pollute-the-galapagos-marine-reserve/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/abandoned-tuna-fishing-devices-pollute-the-galapagos-marine-reserve/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Feb 2026 17:35:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marlowe Starling]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/05155327/a.-BANNER-GP01Y49-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313784</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Galapagos, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Biodiversity, Marine Conservation, Marine Ecosystems, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Pollution, Saltwater Fish, Tuna, Water Pollution, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SANTA CRUZ, GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS, Ecuador — “Good morning,” Walter Borbor, a social media-famous fisher, says to his followers in a 2022 Instagram video. “What we have here is a plantado.” He points to a large black floating device with a trailing rope that’s wrapped around the tail of a decomposing whale — right in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[SANTA CRUZ, GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS, Ecuador — “Good morning,” Walter Borbor, a social media-famous fisher, says to his followers in a 2022 Instagram video. “What we have here is a plantado.” He points to a large black floating device with a trailing rope that’s wrapped around the tail of a decomposing whale — right in the middle of the Galápagos Marine Reserve. Plantado is the local name for a fish aggregating device (FAD), a tool industrial tuna fleets commonly deploy to attract numerous tuna they can scoop up all at once. Modern drifting FADs have been used since the 1980s to improve fishing efficiency. Over the past 25 years, they’ve become the primary tuna fishing method, according to a May study in the journal Science. Meanwhile, Ecuador’s tuna fleet grew by roughly half over the same period. Both factors have contributed to more and more abandoned FADs drifting into the Galapagos Marine Reserve from international fleets, sources told Mongabay. Abandoned FADs pose numerous problems. They shed plastic as they break down, damage coral reefs and collide with artisanal fishing boats. Inti Keith, a researcher with the Charles Darwin Foundation, a Galápagos-based science and conservation group, said scientists routinely find sharks, turtles, sea lions, seabirds and other wildlife entangled in the netting — or worse, dead. Now, Galápagos agencies and organizations are banding together to better track and collect these devices. But the root of the issue — their deployment outside the marine reserve — remains a challenge. Yellowtail surgeonfish (Prionurus punctatus)&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/abandoned-tuna-fishing-devices-pollute-the-galapagos-marine-reserve/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Data show oil and gas blocks cover one-fourth of Ecuador, mostly in the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/data-show-oil-and-gas-blocks-cover-one-fourth-of-ecuador-mostly-in-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/data-show-oil-and-gas-blocks-cover-one-fourth-of-ecuador-mostly-in-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jan 2026 17:47:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Bobbybascomb]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/29174638/AP25074585755550-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=313514</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Mining, Development, Natural Gas, Oil Drilling, and Threats To The Amazon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador has 65 oil and gas lease blocks, 88% of them in the Amazon, covering a quarter of the country’s total area. That’s according to a new data set from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). Many of the lease blocks overlap with several Indigenous territories, including the Cuyabeno-Imuya Intangible Zone, which is home to 11 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador has 65 oil and gas lease blocks, 88% of them in the Amazon, covering a quarter of the country’s total area. That’s according to a new data set from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). Many of the lease blocks overlap with several Indigenous territories, including the Cuyabeno-Imuya Intangible Zone, which is home to 11 Indigenous communities from the Secoya, Siona, Cofán, Kichwa and Shuar nations. Oil and gas leases also overlap with other Indigenous Shuar communities in Pastaza and Morona Santiago provinces, among others. A Mongabay estimate based on the dataset found that roughly 21% of the leases overlap with protected areas and 61% overlap with Indigenous territories in Ecuador. Image by Andrés Alegría/Mongabay. The SEI data set also shows lease blocks overlapping with protected areas, including the west side of Yasuní National Park.  In a historic referendum in 2023, more than 5.2 million Ecuadorians voted to halt all current and future oil drilling in the park. Cofán-Bermejo Ecological Reserve (RECB) and Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, both home to a great diversity of wildlife including pink river dolphins (Inia geoffrensis) and jaguars (Panthera onca), also host active oil and gas production blocks, according to the data. Combined, the blocks cover 7 million hectares (17 million acres), one-fourth of Ecuador’s total land area. Alexandra Almeida, president of Ecuadorian environmental organization Acción Ecológica, told Mongabay via WhatsApp messages that the chemicals used for oil production are highly toxic to both the environment and human health. “Many of these are released into the environment&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/data-show-oil-and-gas-blocks-cover-one-fourth-of-ecuador-mostly-in-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Photos: Kew Gardens&#8217; top 10 newly named plants and fungi for 2025</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/photos-kew-gardens-top-10-newly-named-plants-and-fungi-for-2025/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/photos-kew-gardens-top-10-newly-named-plants-and-fungi-for-2025/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jan 2026 23:24:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Lizkimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Botany]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[forest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fungi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Happy-upbeat Environmental]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kew Royal Botanic Gardens]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New Discovery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[new species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Plants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/12223115/02.-Telipogon-cruentilabrum-CREDIT-L.Baquero-03-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312879</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Botswana, Brazil, Ecuador, England, Namibia, Peru, and South Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Botany, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, New Discovery, New Species, Plants, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past year, scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the U.K., officially named 125 plants and 65 fungi. The new-to-science species include a parasitic fungus that turns Brazilian spiders into “zombies,” a critically endangered orchid with blood-red markings from Ecuador&#8217;s cloud forests, and a shrub named after the fire demon from the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past year, scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the U.K., officially named 125 plants and 65 fungi. The new-to-science species include a parasitic fungus that turns Brazilian spiders into “zombies,” a critically endangered orchid with blood-red markings from Ecuador&#8217;s cloud forests, and a shrub named after the fire demon from the 2004 Hayao Miyazaki film Howl&#8217;s Moving Castle. Each year, Kew releases a list of its “top 10” new plant and fungal species to showcase nature&#8217;s vast diversity, as well as its fragility, as many newly described species are already in danger. According to Kew’s “State of the World&#8217;s Plants and Fungi 2023” report, three out of four undescribed plants are threatened with extinction. One species described in 2025, Cryptacanthus ebo, a bromeliad from the Ebo Forest in Cameroon, may have already gone extinct. Each year, researchers worldwide officially name about 2,500 new plants and even more fungi. An estimated 100,000 plant species and between 2 million and 3 million fungal species remain to be described and named by science. Many of these unnamed fungi are endophytes that live entirely within plant tissues, making up the plants’ microbiomes. &#8220;Describing new plant and fungal species is essential at a time when the impacts of biodiversity loss and climate change accelerate before our eyes,&#8221; Martin Cheek, a senior research leader in Kew&#8217;s Africa team, said in a press release. &#8220;It is difficult to protect what we do not know, understand and have a scientific name for.&#8221; Although a species may be&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/photos-kew-gardens-top-10-newly-named-plants-and-fungi-for-2025/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>The rise of CC35 and the business behind its climate deals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/carbon-and-charisma-how-climate-network-cc35-tricked-its-way-to-the-limelight/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/carbon-and-charisma-how-climate-network-cc35-tricked-its-way-to-the-limelight/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 22:32:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Pallares]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carbon Accounting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carbon Emissions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Carbon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[greenhouse gas emissions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law Enforcement]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/26194650/Landscape-1-Parque-Nacional-El-Impenetrable-Matias-Rebak-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311902</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Latin America, South America, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Carbon Credits, Carbon Finance, carbon markets, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, Conservation, Corporate Responsibility, Deforestation, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Forest Carbon, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Peoples, and Mongabay investigation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This investigation was produced with support from the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). Isabel Alarcón contributed reporting from Ecuador. BARCELONA — Covering more than 65 million hectares (160 million acres) across Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, the Gran Chaco is South America’s second-largest forest after the Amazon Rainforest. Over the last decades, the dry forest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This investigation was produced with support from the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). Isabel Alarcón contributed reporting from Ecuador. BARCELONA — Covering more than 65 million hectares (160 million acres) across Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, the Gran Chaco is South America’s second-largest forest after the Amazon Rainforest. Over the last decades, the dry forest ecosystem that fosters thousands of plant and animal species and 9 million people has lost about a quarter of its area to agriculture. In 2024, the Gran Chaco was especially threatened in Argentina’s Santiago del Estero province, where it lost 54,000 hectares (133,000 acres) of forest. A few years earlier, the province’s forest ecosystem was the object of an announcement at COP26 in Glasgow, U.K. On Nov. 2, 2021, Global Carbon Parks Inc., a Miami-based startup, announced a $200-million carbon contract with the province of Santiago del Estero that, according to several sources, would support nature conservation and decarbonization in the region. The startup aimed to trade in carbon credits from subnational protected areas. The announcement of the public-private arrangement was hosted by Capital Cities 35 (CC35), a climate alliance of mayors across the Americas that aims to build capacity to tackle climate change, implement the Paris Agreement and the U.N.’s 2030 Agenda. But findings from a Mongabay investigation suggest that the secretary-general of CC35, Argentinian Sebastián Navarro, used his position at CC35 in ways that benefited private carbon businesses like Global Carbon Parks, which he controlled through majority stakeholder Ethic International, Inc, a holding company&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/carbon-and-charisma-how-climate-network-cc35-tricked-its-way-to-the-limelight/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>The Amazon in 2026: A challenging year ahead, now off the center stage</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-amazon-in-2026-a-challenging-year-ahead-now-off-the-center-stage/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-amazon-in-2026-a-challenging-year-ahead-now-off-the-center-stage/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 14:27:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/19151029/Parque_Estadual_Encontro_das_Aguas_Thomas-Fuhrmann_2023-_01_Jaguar_-_Panthera_onca_swimming-scaled-e1710871756906-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311879</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Amazon Agriculture, Amazon Destruction, Amazon People, Bioeconomy, Climate Change, Conflict, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Groups, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforest Deforestation, Threats To Rainforests, and Threats To The Amazon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As Belém's COP30 ended in compromise, political forces moved swiftly to accelerate destruction far from the global spotlight. 
]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon enters 2026 carrying the bitter taste of compromise. The world’s attention was fixed on Belém for the COP30 summit in November, transforming the Brazilian city into a brief, intense stage for climate diplomacy, where ambitious calls for a fossil fuel phaseout ultimately died on the negotiating floor. Yet, in 2025, the true battle for the rainforest was fought far from the Blue Zone. In the quiet shadows, powerful political forces moved to roll back environmental protections in Brazil (which holds 64% of the rainforest), successfully passing the anti-conservation bills and green-lighting critical infrastructure projects. This dual reality — grand promises versus accelerated development on the frontier — set the defining tension for the year, even as a more hopeful, grassroots movement gained momentum, finding new, valuable purpose for biodiversity in innovations, proving the rainforest is worth far more standing than cut. COP30 was wrapped in global expectations. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opened the summit by proposing a road map to enable humankind to overcome its dependence on fossil fuels in a fair and planned manner and to halt deforestation. However, the ambitious calls for a fossil fuel phaseout were excluded from the official COP outcomes. In response, Brazil, alongside the Colombian and Dutch delegations, agreed to develop road maps outside the formal U.N. process. This effort will culminate in the First International Conference on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, scheduled for April 2026, in Santa Marta, Colombia, to negotiate an equitable Fossil Fuel&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-amazon-in-2026-a-challenging-year-ahead-now-off-the-center-stage/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>Drug gangs in Ecuador and Peru also involved in shark fin trafficking: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/drug-gangs-in-ecuador-and-peru-also-involved-in-shark-fin-trafficking-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/drug-gangs-in-ecuador-and-peru-also-involved-in-shark-fin-trafficking-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2025 14:02:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/19130809/dji_fly_20250711_103220_0053_1752262462429_photo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=311739</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador and Peru]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Drug Trade, Fishing, Illegal Trade, Oceans, shark finning, Sharks, Sharks And Rays, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Narcotrafficking gangs operating out of Manabí, a coastal province of Ecuador, are also involved in trafficking shark fins alongside their drug operations, according to a recent investigation by Ecuadorian news agency Código Vidrio. Evidence from wiretaps, surveillance and raids seen by Código Vidrio reporters suggests that gangs are capturing and finning sharks and transporting the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Narcotrafficking gangs operating out of Manabí, a coastal province of Ecuador, are also involved in trafficking shark fins alongside their drug operations, according to a recent investigation by Ecuadorian news agency Código Vidrio. Evidence from wiretaps, surveillance and raids seen by Código Vidrio reporters suggests that gangs are capturing and finning sharks and transporting the fins as a secondary income stream alongside cocaine and fuel. According to Código Vidrio, Ecuadorian police say that shark fin shipments pass through the Galápagos Islands, where fins are preserved and stored, en route to Asia. Carlos Ortega, the head of Ecuador’s antinarcotics police, told Código Vidrio that authorities seized two fishing vessels in 2024 and 2025 near the Galápagos carrying a combined 27 metric tons of shark fins. In both cases, the crews were on the same route that criminal groups use to deliver cocaine to Central America and the U.S., Ortega said. Shark fishing is illegal in Ecuador, but a 2007 law allows for the sale of sharks caught as bycatch. This loophole has since made Ecuador a top exporter of shark fins, despite the ban on targeted fishing. Código Vidrio’s findings follow an October 2025 Mongabay Latam investigation that revealed that Los Choneros and Los Lobos, two drug gangs, had teamed up with sea pirates to expand into fishing. Artisanal fishers in Ecuador and Peru told Mongabay the gangs had seized control of ports and forced fishers to pay them part of their earnings. Other fishers are pushed into the high-risk activity&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/drug-gangs-in-ecuador-and-peru-also-involved-in-shark-fin-trafficking-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>All new roads lead to increased deforestation in Ecuador’s Indigenous territory</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/all-new-roads-lead-to-increased-deforestation-in-ecuadors-indigenous-territory/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/all-new-roads-lead-to-increased-deforestation-in-ecuadors-indigenous-territory/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2025 09:40:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ana Cristina Alvarado]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/19093425/vias-achuar-2025-09-15-19h12m48s546-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311713</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Forests, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Logging, Primary Forests, and Roads]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Between March and May 2025, at least eight children from the Achuar Indigenous community died of leptospirosis in the southern Ecuadorian Amazon. The disease is preventable with access to safe drinking water and timely treatment. But these two conditions are absent in Taisha, one of the poorest five cantons in Ecuador and the one with [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Between March and May 2025, at least eight children from the Achuar Indigenous community died of leptospirosis in the southern Ecuadorian Amazon. The disease is preventable with access to safe drinking water and timely treatment. But these two conditions are absent in Taisha, one of the poorest five cantons in Ecuador and the one with lowest coverage of basic services. Months earlier, provincial and canton authorities built access roads to Taisha, promising to address this neglect. But these projects — implemented without the full consent of the Achuar, environmental control strategies and, in some cases, technical criteria or permits — had fatal consequences. Two Achuar people were murdered. Illegal loggers used the roads and took advantage of the lack of control on the part of authorities to reach Achuar territory. The demand for timber quickly found supply in a canton where almost eight out of 10 people live in poverty or extreme poverty, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC). Taisha also makes up a large part of Achuar territory, which is home to “one of the best-preserved and most biodiverse forests in Ecuador,” according to a recent report by the organization Amazon Conservation’s Andean Amazon Monitoring Program (MAAP). Several Achuar sold the illegal loggers timber from the cedro (Cedrelo odorata) and chuncho (Cedrelinga cateniformis) tree species from their land, says Waakiach Kuja, president of the Achuar Nation of Ecuador (NAE), who gave an interview to Mongabay Latam after coordinating the transfer of a sick community member&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/all-new-roads-lead-to-increased-deforestation-in-ecuadors-indigenous-territory/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>‘Neither appropriate nor fair’: Ecuador ordered to pay oil giant Chevron $220m</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/neither-appropriate-nor-fair-ecuador-ordered-to-pay-oil-giant-chevron-220m/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/neither-appropriate-nor-fair-ecuador-ordered-to-pay-oil-giant-chevron-220m/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Dec 2025 09:38:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/18093639/AP274741873870-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=311600</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Fossil Fuels, Freshwater, Indigenous Peoples, Oil, Oil Drilling, Oil Spills, Pollution, Rainforest Conservation, Rainforest Destruction, Threats To Rainforests, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous and rural communities in Ecuador’s Amazon have condemned an international arbitration ruling that ordered Ecuador to pay more than $220 million to U.S. oil giant Chevron. The sum is to compensate the company for alleged denial of justice in a trial that found Chevron, operating through its predecessor Texaco, guilty of widespread environmental damage [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous and rural communities in Ecuador’s Amazon have condemned an international arbitration ruling that ordered Ecuador to pay more than $220 million to U.S. oil giant Chevron. The sum is to compensate the company for alleged denial of justice in a trial that found Chevron, operating through its predecessor Texaco, guilty of widespread environmental damage in northeastern Ecuador. The Union for People Affected by Texaco’s Oil Operations (UDAPT), which represents six Indigenous nations and 80 communities, said the decision forces the Ecuadorian public to compensate a company after it caused one of the worst environmental disasters in the region’s history. “It is neither appropriate nor fair. Chevron came to Ecuador, took more than $30 billion from the oil it extracted, polluted the Amazon, caused the extinction of peoples and the deaths of hundreds of people from cancer,” the organization wrote in a statement. “The affected communities took the company to court and won, yet now the entire country has to pay.” In 1993, residents in the Lago Agrio oil basin sued Texaco, later acquired by Chevron, for environmental damage caused during its operations from 1964-1992. Ecuadorian courts found the company had opted for a substandard oil waste disposal system, which dumped more than 16 billion gallons (61 billion liters) of toxic water in at least 880 unlined open pits across the Amazon Rainforest. These pools contaminated groundwater, soil and rivers that local communities depended on for drinking, fishing, bathing and more, the rulings said. Oil spills and gas flaring were&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/neither-appropriate-nor-fair-ecuador-ordered-to-pay-oil-giant-chevron-220m/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Noisy traffic is making Galápagos’ yellow warblers angry</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/noisy-traffic-is-making-galapagos-yellow-warblers-angry/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/noisy-traffic-is-making-galapagos-yellow-warblers-angry/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Dec 2025 21:20:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/15212008/YellowWarblerPair-e1747736581772-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=311439</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador and Galapagos]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Environment, Research, Roads, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A recent study found that birds that live closer to roads display more aggression than birds of the same species that live farther away from noisy vehicles, Mongabay’s Spoorthy Raman reported. Researchers looked at the behavioral differences of male Galápagos yellow warblers (Setophaga petechia aureola) on two islands of the Galápagos, an Ecuadorian archipelago in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A recent study found that birds that live closer to roads display more aggression than birds of the same species that live farther away from noisy vehicles, Mongabay’s Spoorthy Raman reported. Researchers looked at the behavioral differences of male Galápagos yellow warblers (Setophaga petechia aureola) on two islands of the Galápagos, an Ecuadorian archipelago in the Pacific Ocean known for its rich biodiversity. Within known territories of 38 male yellow warblers on the islands, the researchers played prerecorded songs of an intruding warbler on a speaker. To some recordings, they had added traffic noises, while the others only had warbler calls. Male yellow warblers tend to shoo away other males that wander into their territory with songs. On both islands, the researchers found the same pattern in response: Male birds that lived closer to the roads were more aggressive when the speaker played recordings of an intruding bird’s song with added traffic noise than those that lived far away from roads. The birds living closer to roads circled the speaker in closer proximity, rather than simply singing — behavior associated with aggression and higher risk of physical conflict. The birds also increased the lower-pitched noises in their song, presumably to be heard over the traffic noise, while those living far from the roads sang in higher pitches. “Many species may adjust their behaviors and be able to live near noise, but the most sensitive species are likely not able to change their behaviors or deal with the stress of daily&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/noisy-traffic-is-making-galapagos-yellow-warblers-angry/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>Across Latin America populist regimes challenge nature conservation goals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/across-latin-america-populist-regimes-challenge-nature-conservation-goals/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/across-latin-america-populist-regimes-challenge-nature-conservation-goals/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Dec 2025 12:00:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[agribusiness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[extractives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous territories]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Industrial Agriculture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oil Drilling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Threats To The Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/05172501/reunion-ex-presidentes-achivo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310658</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Commodity agriculture, Conservation, Environmental Law, extractives, Forest Destruction, Governance, Government, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Land Rights, Oil Drilling, and Threats To The Amazon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The election of populist politicians seldom bodes well for the people of the Amazon or the conservation of its biodiversity and ecosystem services. Most are just stylistic versions of the generic politician: individuals motivated by self-interest who portray themselves as champions of the common man or woman. Occasionally, however, a charismatic individual appears who succeeds [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The election of populist politicians seldom bodes well for the people of the Amazon or the conservation of its biodiversity and ecosystem services. Most are just stylistic versions of the generic politician: individuals motivated by self-interest who portray themselves as champions of the common man or woman. Occasionally, however, a charismatic individual appears who succeeds beyond the normal confines of the political arena to completely dominate electoral politics. Almost invariably, this person will have authoritarian tendencies and work to weaken institutional integrity, pervert electoral systems and persecute the opposition using a corrupt judicial system. They can arise from either the left or right, but they share a disdain for democratic principles and the rule of law. Populist demagogues are adept at appealing to the emotions of the so-called common man or woman; they employ simple language and use slogans that resonate with the public&#8217;s frustrations with the slow (or nonexistent) pace of economic and social reform. They use polarising rhetoric to exploit societal divisions projected as ‘us versus them’, which may be racial, geographic, class or a combination of all three. Exploiting anger at the status quo is common to their political playbook, an easy tactic because of the self-dealing of elites who have enriched themselves while underinvesting in the working poor. Invariably, they promise simplistic solutions to complex issues, ignoring both science and economic theory. The assault on elites is usually extended to foreign organizations, particularly those associated with multilateral organisations controlled by the advanced economies. This sets the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/across-latin-america-populist-regimes-challenge-nature-conservation-goals/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Countries overwhelmingly support bid to bar Galápagos iguanas from international trade</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/countries-overwhelmingly-support-bid-to-bar-galapagos-iguanas-from-international-trade/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/countries-overwhelmingly-support-bid-to-bar-galapagos-iguanas-from-international-trade/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Dec 2025 19:25:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/03191832/marine-iguana-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=310554</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador and Galapagos]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Illegal Trade, Lizards, Reptiles, Wildlife, Wildlife Conservation, Wildlife Crime, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Four species of iguanas from the Galápagos Islands have received the highest protection against international commercial trade at the ongoing summit of CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The Galápagos land iguana (Conolophus subcristatus), Galápagos pink land iguana (C. marthae), Barrington land iguana (C. pallidus) and marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) are found [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Four species of iguanas from the Galápagos Islands have received the highest protection against international commercial trade at the ongoing summit of CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The Galápagos land iguana (Conolophus subcristatus), Galápagos pink land iguana (C. marthae), Barrington land iguana (C. pallidus) and marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) are found only on the islands that inspired Darwin’s theory of evolution. All are threatened by climate change and invasive species. Ecuador, which governs the Galápagos Islands, submitted two separate proposals to list the land iguana species and the marine iguana on CITES Appendix I, which prohibits all commercial international trade. Both proposals were accepted by consensus, without any opposition expressed by the parties to CITES, comprised of 184 countries and the European Union. Previously, all four Galápagos iguanas were listed on Appendix II, meaning their legal trade was permitted, under strict import and export requirements. Recently, however, researchers found a suspicious rise in traded Galápagos iguanas, with export permits issued by countries where none of the species are native. Ecuador, the only country where the reptiles are found in the wild, has not issued any export permits for them, raising concerns about illegal trade. All Galápagos iguanas are nationally protected in Ecuador, and removing them from the wild or selling them is illegal. But these reptiles fetch top dollar on the black market from reptile collectors and private zoos, and traffickers have been caught attempting to smuggle them from the islands. CITES data show that in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/countries-overwhelmingly-support-bid-to-bar-galapagos-iguanas-from-international-trade/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>In Ecuador’s Yasuní, cameras reveal the wild neighbors visitors rarely see</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-ecuadors-yasuni-cameras-reveal-the-wild-neighbors-visitors-rarely-see/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-ecuadors-yasuni-cameras-reveal-the-wild-neighbors-visitors-rarely-see/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Dec 2025 10:28:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ana Cristina Alvarado]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/02102105/jaguar-portada-enhanced-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310427</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Indigenous Peoples, Technology, Technology And Conservation, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador’s northern Amazon is home to some of the most biodiverse areas on the planet, including Yasuní National Park. But visitors are rarely able to see iconic large mammals like deer, lowland tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) or the mythic jaguar (Panthera onca). In the middle of the dense jungle, the only tangible evidence of these creatures [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador’s northern Amazon is home to some of the most biodiverse areas on the planet, including Yasuní National Park. But visitors are rarely able to see iconic large mammals like deer, lowland tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) or the mythic jaguar (Panthera onca). In the middle of the dense jungle, the only tangible evidence of these creatures is usually their tracks. However, the Sani Lodge, a community-run ecotourism venture in Yasuní, is deploying camera traps to document wildcats, rodents, primates and other mammals that share the same paths as humans — and are closer than they seem. “The footage shows that the animals are watching and listening to us,” says Javier Hualinga, a naturalist guide and former manager of the Sani Isla Kichwa community tourism project, which sits inside the national park and south of Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve. Covering 31,000 hectares (76,000 acres), the Sani Lodge is owned and run by the Indigenous Kichwa community. Even for Hualinga — who uses his honed senses to find monkeys 40 meters (130 feet) up in the trees, amphibians camouflaged between leaves, and insects disguised as branches — locating a wildcat is like looking for a needle in a haystack. For this reason, the camera-trap project is an opportunity to show clients the wildlife they help to preserve with their visit. Wildcats like pumas often approach and investigate the camera traps. Image courtesy of fStop Foundation. Sani Lodge, which opened in 2002, has become a buffer against oil exploitation, the advance of the agricultural frontier,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-ecuadors-yasuni-cameras-reveal-the-wild-neighbors-visitors-rarely-see/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Afro-descendant territories slash deforestation, lock in carbon, study shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/afro-descendant-territories-slash-deforestation-lock-in-carbon-study-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/afro-descendant-territories-slash-deforestation-lock-in-carbon-study-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Nov 2025 10:02:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gonzalo Ortuño López]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/28095807/portada-mujeres-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310290</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Latin America, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Conservation, Carbon Dioxide, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Protected Areas, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Afro-descendant peoples in Latin America have historically been guardians of nature, but their role could be more important than previously estimated. New research carried out in four Amazonian countries — Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Suriname — has revealed that their territories have achieved lower levels of deforestation and greater conservation of biodiversity than other protected [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Afro-descendant peoples in Latin America have historically been guardians of nature, but their role could be more important than previously estimated. New research carried out in four Amazonian countries — Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Suriname — has revealed that their territories have achieved lower levels of deforestation and greater conservation of biodiversity than other protected areas. The study, funded by Conservation International and published in the journal Communications Earth &amp; Environment, is the first to use statistics, georeferenced information and historical context to measure the contributions of Afro-descendant populations to conservation. Afro-descendant people were taken as slaves from Africa to Latin America, where many fled into the wilderness in search of freedom. One of the study’s most significant findings is the sustained reduction of deforestation in Afro-descendant lands. Here the study found that forest loss was lower, depending on location, than in protected areas. For example, deforestation rates in Afro-descendant lands were 29% lower when the lands were inside protected areas, 36% lower when they were outside protected areas, and 55% lower when they were on the edge of these areas. “It confirms that we are the guardians of these Amazonian lands; we have been doing this sustainably for over 400 years,” says Hugo Jabini, Saramaka Maroon leader and winner of the 2009 Goldman Prize for defending Afro-descendant rights in Suriname. What’s more, Afro-descendant territories are vital for tropical biodiversity: the researchers found that they host habitat for more than 4,000 species of amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles. At least&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/afro-descendant-territories-slash-deforestation-lock-in-carbon-study-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>How community custody empowered Ecuador’s crab catchers and revived its mangroves</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/how-community-custody-empowered-ecuadors-crab-catchers-and-revived-its-mangroves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/how-community-custody-empowered-ecuadors-crab-catchers-and-revived-its-mangroves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Nov 2025 11:36:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alexis Serrano Carmona]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/26113112/Portada-cangrejeras-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310173</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Dioxide, Conservation, Ecosystems, Fisheries, Fishing, Forest Carbon, Forests, and Mangroves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Puerto Buenavista Island is home to a small village of crab catchers and fishers in the middle of the waters of the Gulf of Guayaquil in Ecuador. There are only 30 families, 140 people, and their homes, built very close to each other, form a line of blues, reds, yellows and greens. Access to Puerto [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Puerto Buenavista Island is home to a small village of crab catchers and fishers in the middle of the waters of the Gulf of Guayaquil in Ecuador. There are only 30 families, 140 people, and their homes, built very close to each other, form a line of blues, reds, yellows and greens. Access to Puerto Buenavista is only via an artisanal pier, made of wood so delicate that it looks like it could fall apart at any time. Along the shore, heavily eroded by the water that hits it every rainy season, 10 crab catchers gather to have a conversation. The journey to Puerto Buenavista is a one-hour boat ride from Caraguay Market, in southern Guayaquil. The brackish water along the way is a mixture of currents from the Daule and Babahoyo rivers and the Pacific Ocean. Throughout the entire trip, one is surrounded by the intense green mangrove forests, interrupted only along a few stretches by pools used for shrimp farming. The crab catchers discuss their fishing routines, the way they distinguish between male and female crabs just by sight, and their method of luring crabs out of their burrows using a meter-long rod. But they also discuss the “rounds” they make for vigilance, making sure that no one cuts down, damages or invades the mangrove forests. They are crab catchers, they say proudly. But they are also guardians — the guardians of the mangroves. Hectare for hectare, a mangrove forest can store five to seven times as much&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/how-community-custody-empowered-ecuadors-crab-catchers-and-revived-its-mangroves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>IDB financed meat &#038; poultry company that polluted Indigenous Ecuador lands: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/idb-financed-meat-poultry-company-that-polluted-indigenous-ecuador-lands-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/idb-financed-meat-poultry-company-that-polluted-indigenous-ecuador-lands-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Nov 2025 11:31:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ana Cristina Alvarado]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/21111703/Portada-BID-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309959</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Farming, Food Industry, Health, Indigenous Peoples, Medicinal Plants, Pollution, Traditional Knowledge, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Peripa, an Indigenous Tsáchila village in Ecuador, there are still traditional healers, but medicinal plants are disappearing. Rivers no longer heal — instead, they make people sick. In the late 1990s, the company Pronaca set up pig farms nearby, in the province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, southwest of Quito. Soon after, residents [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Peripa, an Indigenous Tsáchila village in Ecuador, there are still traditional healers, but medicinal plants are disappearing. Rivers no longer heal — instead, they make people sick. In the late 1990s, the company Pronaca set up pig farms nearby, in the province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, southwest of Quito. Soon after, residents noticed that surface and groundwater sources were no longer safe. After almost 30 years in which locals’ complaints to Ecuador’s state institutions remained unanswered, a new report on Pronaca confirms decades of pollution and violations in the Tsáchila Indigenous Territory. The report, released in September, was prepared by the Independent Consultation and Investigation Mechanism (MICI) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group. “Water was one of the main sources of power for the poné [healers], and purification baths were performed in the rivers. Now, if someone visits us and goes into the river, they will come out with a skin disease,” Ricardo Calazacón, a Tsáchila resident of Peripa, told Mongabay Latam. “If there are no reparations, what will happen to us, since most of us are healers and farmers?” he asked. Calazacón and his family have been leading the defense of their ancestral territory for 25 years. For them, the MICI report represents a victory, but they recognize that the claims will not be resolved until they obtain reparations. Ricardo Calazacón is among the Tsáchila Indigenous people seeking reparations after decades of pollution. Image courtesy of Ricardo Calazacón. The IDB entered the picture when it&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/idb-financed-meat-poultry-company-that-polluted-indigenous-ecuador-lands-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Ecuador freezes bank accounts of Indigenous leaders, land defenders</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/ecuador-freezes-bank-accounts-of-indigenous-leaders-land-defenders/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/ecuador-freezes-bank-accounts-of-indigenous-leaders-land-defenders/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Nov 2025 18:29:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kimberley Brown]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/10/02134730/Forest-Guardians_-Photo-Jeronimo-Zuniga-2-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309507</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conflict, Environment, Finance, Indigenous Peoples, Politics, and Social Conflict]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Since September 2025, dozens of Indigenous leaders and organizations, land rights activists and nonprofits in Ecuador have reportedly been unable to access their funds, after a state institution blocked their bank accounts. Judges have recently ordered the government to lift the freeze on a few accounts, but most remain in place. The bank account freezes [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Since September 2025, dozens of Indigenous leaders and organizations, land rights activists and nonprofits in Ecuador have reportedly been unable to access their funds, after a state institution blocked their bank accounts. Judges have recently ordered the government to lift the freeze on a few accounts, but most remain in place. The bank account freezes come at a time of protests, rising social tensions, and President Daniel Noboa’s repeated warnings against organizations he says seek to topple the government. Just weeks before, the National Assembly passed a new law, advertised as a tool against organized crime, that monitors and regulates the finances of NGOs, nonprofits, foundations and social movements operating in the country. Sources say their accounts were frozen without warning or explanation. While some account freezes have been lifted, many have remained in place for over six weeks. Indigenous leaders say this has created a hazard for their assemblies, environmental efforts and other social organizing. The Ministry of Interior denied Mongabay’s various requests for comment, stating via WhatsApp that “this topic is with the UAFE [Financial and Economic Analysis Unit, the body in charge of investigating suspected money laundering cases].” Neither the UAFE, Ecuador’s superintendency of banks, nor the attorney general’s office responded to requests for an interview. Protest in Ecuador, September 24, 2025. Image by to La Raiz / Lanceros Digitales. The national Indigenous federation CONAIE was the first to denounce bank account freezes on Sept. 19, the day after they announced a national strike to protest President&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/ecuador-freezes-bank-accounts-of-indigenous-leaders-land-defenders/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Amid systemic corruption, Amazon countries struggle to fight environmental crime</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/amid-systemic-corruption-amazon-countries-struggle-to-fight-environmental-crime/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/amid-systemic-corruption-amazon-countries-struggle-to-fight-environmental-crime/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2025 11:00:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law Enforcement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Threats To The Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/24000235/territorios_colectivos4mongabay-latam-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308249</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Andes, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Corruption, Crime, Environment, Environmental Crime, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Governance, Law, Law Enforcement, and Threats To The Amazon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The most powerful individuals in courtrooms are the judges. Their leadership is essential for bringing any type of reform to fruition, be it an anti-corruption campaign or an ‘all-of-government’ drive to fight environmental crime. In the Andean Republics, their involvement in crimes of commission via bribery and extortion is a major source of judicial corruption. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The most powerful individuals in courtrooms are the judges. Their leadership is essential for bringing any type of reform to fruition, be it an anti-corruption campaign or an ‘all-of-government’ drive to fight environmental crime. In the Andean Republics, their involvement in crimes of commission via bribery and extortion is a major source of judicial corruption. In Brazil, judges are more likely to commit crimes of omission with delaying tactics that allow cases to spend years in a state of suspended litigation. In Brazil, efforts to reform the judiciary are managed by the Conselho Nacional de Justiça (CNJ), which, like the prosecutorial system, has an internal affairs unit (Corregedoria) that monitors the ethical conduct of its members. Although the CNJ has an impressive data management system that it uses to track its massive caseload, the Corregedoria does not provide (easily understandable) statistics that reveal its record in fighting judicial corruption. An investigative journalist with expertise in legal affairs reviewed data from the CNJ in 2012 and reported that 5,917 cases had been processed, of which 1,637 had been adjudicated at trial, leading to 205 convictions, while 2,918 were dismissed on technicalities or because of the statute of limitations. A separate study spanning 2005 to 2017 found that 82 judges had been subject to disciplinary action, which forced 53 into compulsory retirement, a punishment that removed them from the courts but did not deprive them of their pension. Despite the reforms, the system remains opaque, and there are few reports in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/amid-systemic-corruption-amazon-countries-struggle-to-fight-environmental-crime/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>The rise of anti-corruption prosecutors in the Amazon region</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/the-rise-of-anti-corruption-prosecutors-in-the-amazon-region/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/the-rise-of-anti-corruption-prosecutors-in-the-amazon-region/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Oct 2025 11:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law Enforcement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Threats To The Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/23235157/WhatsApp-Image-2020-05-20-at-17.20.23-2-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308243</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Rainforest, Corruption, Crime, Environmental Crime, environmental justice, Environmental Law, Governance, Government, Organized Crime, Politics, and Threats To The Amazon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Prosecutors are lawyers employed by the state to investigate crimes and initiate judicial proceedings. Ensuring their integrity and competence is essential to judicial reform and the application of environmental law. In Brazil, allegations of political corruption by public servants are reviewed by the 5ª Câmara de Coordenação e Revisão (Combate à Corrupção) and, if warranted, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Prosecutors are lawyers employed by the state to investigate crimes and initiate judicial proceedings. Ensuring their integrity and competence is essential to judicial reform and the application of environmental law. In Brazil, allegations of political corruption by public servants are reviewed by the 5ª Câmara de Coordenação e Revisão (Combate à Corrupção) and, if warranted, referred to a regional office for prosecution. For example, the anti-corruption specialists in Curitiba (4th Region) were instrumental in uncovering the perfidy of the Lava Jato bribery and money laundering network. Although media attention focused on the presiding judge (Sergio Moro), the investigations were conducted by a dedicated team of prosecutors who relentlessly accumulated evidence against some of the most powerful individuals in Brazil. One of the shark seizures carried out by the Tumbes Prosecutor&#8217;s Office in Peru. Image courtesy of Oceana. The impact of Brazil’s anti-corruption campaign is reflected by the number of criminal cases reviewed by the 5ª Câmara, which rose from 2,500 per year in 2002 to more than 15,000 annually in 2019. Very few, however, are referred for a trial: approximately 90% of the criminal complaints reviewed in the twenty-plus years of existence of the 5ª Câmara have been dismissed for technical reasons, most commonly for lack of evidence. The lack of aggressive prosecution is also characteristic of their internal affairs unit (Corregedoria Nacional of the Conselho Nacional do Ministério Público), which recommended that 89% (940 out of 1,078) of the complaints filed against procuradores should be dismissed. The decision not&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/the-rise-of-anti-corruption-prosecutors-in-the-amazon-region/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>Indigenous guardians successfully keep extractives out of Ecuador&#8217;s Amazon forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-guardians-successfully-keep-extractives-out-of-ecuadors-amazon-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-guardians-successfully-keep-extractives-out-of-ecuadors-amazon-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Oct 2025 22:31:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Brandi Morin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/22222210/Female-Indigenous-guard-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308057</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Illegal Deforestation, Indigenous-led conservation, Land rights and extractives, and Latin America]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Biodiversity, Amazon Conservation, Amazon Logging, Amazon Mining, Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Women, Conservation, Environmental Activism, extractives, Forests, Human Rights, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Culture, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Threats To The Amazon, and Women in conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PAKAYAKU TERRITORY, Ecuador — Deep in the heart of Ecuador&#8217;s Amazon, where the Bobonaza River winds through ancient forests in Pastaza province, Sacha Gayas spreads out a hand-drawn map across her wooden kitchen table. Her fingers, stained with the rich earth of her homeland, trace the boundaries of 71,000 hectares (175,000 acres) of lands that her [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[PAKAYAKU TERRITORY, Ecuador — Deep in the heart of Ecuador&#8217;s Amazon, where the Bobonaza River winds through ancient forests in Pastaza province, Sacha Gayas spreads out a hand-drawn map across her wooden kitchen table. Her fingers, stained with the rich earth of her homeland, trace the boundaries of 71,000 hectares (175,000 acres) of lands that her people have silently guarded for generations. &#8220;We are the hidden people,&#8221; she tells Mongabay. Gayas, 50, has spent decades defending what she and other Kichwa people of the Pakayaku community say outsiders cannot see or understand. For decades, the community living in lush Amazonian rainforests has successfully kept unsustainable logging, mining and oil extraction activities out of these lands while preserving their cultural traditions and ecological knowledge. In July, Mongabay visited the community to see the story of their resistance and conservation of vast forests, which few have been allowed to witness firsthand. Deep in Ecuador’s Amazon, where the Bobonaza River winds through ancient forests in Pastaza province. Image by Brandi Morin. Standing just 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall, Gayas commands the attention of those around her with every word. Her shoulder-length black hair gleams with the fresh application of wituk, a natural dye harvested from fruit plants that grow in the community&#8217;s backyards. Across her face, intricate designs painted in the same wituk ink create bold geometric patterns that will remain for a week — a canvas showing her identity as a guardian of this remote community. Seated at her wooden kitchen table in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-guardians-successfully-keep-extractives-out-of-ecuadors-amazon-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>MPs across Latin America unite to stop fossil fuels in the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/mps-across-latin-america-unite-to-stop-fossil-fuels-in-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/mps-across-latin-america-unite-to-stop-fossil-fuels-in-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Oct 2025 13:05:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mie Hoejris Dahl]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[extractives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Loss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[greenhouse gas emissions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Communities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law Enforcement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oil Drilling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Threats To The Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/14165711/amazon_241209121112x-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307268</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Latin America, and Peru]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Conservation, Amazon Mining, Deforestation, Environmental Politics, Governance, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Rights, Mining, Natural Gas, Oil Drilling, Protected Areas, Saving The Amazon, and Threats To The Amazon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BOGOTÁ, Colombia and SÃO PAULO, Brazil — On Oct. 7 in Brazil’s National Congress in Brasília, lawmakers, Indigenous leaders and civil society representatives gathered to present a global parliamentary investigation into the effort to phase out fossil fuels in the Amazon. The investigation, led by Parliamentarians for a Fossil-Free Future, a network of more than [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BOGOTÁ, Colombia and SÃO PAULO, Brazil — On Oct. 7 in Brazil’s National Congress in Brasília, lawmakers, Indigenous leaders and civil society representatives gathered to present a global parliamentary investigation into the effort to phase out fossil fuels in the Amazon. The investigation, led by Parliamentarians for a Fossil-Free Future, a network of more than 900 lawmakers from 96 countries, resulted in a report, which documents the impacts of fossil fuel activities in the Amazon, including deforestation, pollution and social conflicts, and proposes how to move toward a fossil-free Amazon. Prior to presenting the report, parliamentarians from Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador put forward bills in their national legislatures to stop fossil fuel expansion in the Amazon regions of their countries. A parliamentarian in Bolivia presented a bill along the same lines on Oct. 7, following the release of the report. It is the first time parliamentarians have united in a call for a no-expansion zone for fossil fuels in the Amazon, presenting law proposals in five of the Amazon’s nine countries. The parliamentarians hope COP30 in Belém will put a special focus on the Amazon, the world’s largest tropical rainforest, as a key piece in addressing global climate change. Yet, fossil fuel extraction remains central to many Amazon economies, with countries continuing to invest heavily in petroleum projects. Oil and gas fuel the Amazon’s crisis Oil and gas exploration covers about 1.3 million square kilometers (more than 500,000 square miles) in the Amazon — roughly double the size of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/mps-across-latin-america-unite-to-stop-fossil-fuels-in-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>Whose Amazon is it?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2025/10/whose-amazon-is-it/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2025/10/whose-amazon-is-it/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Oct 2025 01:10:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John CannonLatoya Abulu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rohini Alamgir]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/07010752/Pekeya-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=specials&#038;p=307127</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Whose Amazon is it?]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Conservation, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Human Rights, Indigenous Communities, Land Rights, Protected Areas, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the Ecuadorian Amazon, overlapping land claims and state-issued agreements have intensified a territorial dispute between Indigenous nations living in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, a protected area. This Mongabay special series investigates the legal, cultural and political dimensions of the conflict — between the Siekopai Nation and the Kichwa de Zancudo Cocha — and the potential [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the Ecuadorian Amazon, overlapping land claims and state-issued agreements have intensified a territorial dispute between Indigenous nations living in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve, a protected area. This Mongabay special series investigates the legal, cultural and political dimensions of the conflict — between the Siekopai Nation and the Kichwa de Zancudo Cocha — and the potential repercussions for conservation in protected areas. The four-part series draws on legal documents and interviews to examine how land titles and convenios — temporary, state-issued conservation agreements — are being used and challenged. The case raises wider questions about Indigenous land rights, conservation governance, and the state’s role in managing overlapping claims in a global biodiversity hotspot.This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2025/10/whose-amazon-is-it/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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