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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/french-guiana/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:18:44 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>French Guiana environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/french-guiana/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Most wildlife AI focuses on the ground. This model looks up in the trees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/most-wildlife-ai-focuses-on-the-ground-this-model-looks-up-in-the-trees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/most-wildlife-ai-focuses-on-the-ground-this-model-looks-up-in-the-trees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 06:46:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/28053452/Saimiri_sciureus-1_Luc_Viatour-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320225</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Central America, Costa Rica, French Guiana, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Artificial Intelligence, Birds, Camera Trapping, Conservation, data, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Mammals, Primates, Research, Seed Dispersal, Species, Technology, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When it comes to decoding camera-trap images, artificial intelligence has become all the rage, especially for terrestrial animals, or those that dwell on the ground. But for more evasive species living high up in trees, the technology is still lacking. A newly developed AI model aims to fill that gap. TropiCam-AI was developed to detect [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When it comes to decoding camera-trap images, artificial intelligence has become all the rage, especially for terrestrial animals, or those that dwell on the ground. But for more evasive species living high up in trees, the technology is still lacking. A newly developed AI model aims to fill that gap. TropiCam-AI was developed to detect and identify arboreal, or tree-dwelling, species in a part of the world where they abound: the tropical forests of the Americas. Scientists built the model to address the voids that exist in identifying arboreal mammals and birds. “We set up TropiCam-AI with the objective of developing a tool that is specifically meant for neotropical camera-trapping surveys targeting the canopy,” Andrea Zampetti, lead author of the study and Ph.D. candidate in animal biology at the Sapienza University of Rome, told Mongabay in a video interview. Zampetti’s work was done in collaboration with the TROPECOLNET project at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, led by Ana Benítez-López. Arboreal species play a key role in ecosystems. They serve as important seed dispersers, with studies finding that primates, small mammals and birds consume up to 90% of plant species in tropical rainforests. However, these are tree-dependent species that, by their very nature, are especially threatened by deforestation, underscoring the need to study, track and monitor them for conservation purposes. A study published earlier this year by Zampetti and colleagues notes that “arboreal camera trapping remains severely underrepresented compared to AI trained on terrestrial images.” AI models for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/most-wildlife-ai-focuses-on-the-ground-this-model-looks-up-in-the-trees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/most-wildlife-ai-focuses-on-the-ground-this-model-looks-up-in-the-trees/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320225</doi>				</item>
						<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, Bioeconomy, Climate Change, Conflict, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</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>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-amazon-in-2026-a-challenging-year-ahead-now-off-the-center-stage/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311879</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Witch Hunt: Virulent fungal disease attacks South America’s cassava crop</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/witch-hunt-virulent-fungal-disease-attacks-south-americas-cassava-crop/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/witch-hunt-virulent-fungal-disease-attacks-south-americas-cassava-crop/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Nov 2025 16:20:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/04133603/0-Amazon64_lo_2_5658784964-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308791</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Asia, Brazil, French Guiana, Laos, Latin America, South America, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate, Climate Change, Commodity agriculture, Conservation, Crops, Diseases, Environment, Farming, Food, food security, Fungi, Indigenous Peoples, Rainforests, Subsistence Agriculture, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As smallholder farmers in French Guiana walked their fields in 2023, they noted a disturbing pattern. Their healthy cassava plants, once green and thriving, had begun to turn yellow. Leaves wilted, stalks withered, and small shoots looking like broomsticks sprouted from the plants. When they dug up their harvest, instead of unearthing large foot-long bunches [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As smallholder farmers in French Guiana walked their fields in 2023, they noted a disturbing pattern. Their healthy cassava plants, once green and thriving, had begun to turn yellow. Leaves wilted, stalks withered, and small shoots looking like broomsticks sprouted from the plants. When they dug up their harvest, instead of unearthing large foot-long bunches of cassava, they found only stunted roots. The farmers reported the crisis to agricultural authorities, desperate to find a cure for their threatened crop. When international scientists arrived in 2024 to investigate the blight, they recognized their foe immediately. The witch had arrived in Latin America. Witches’ broom disease is a fungal pathogen, Ceratobasidium theobromae, that has been wreaking havoc on cassava crops in Southeast Asia for more than a decade, crippling yields and fueling economic hardship across that region. Plant scientists had hoped to contain the fungal pathogen to Asia. But since its arrival in South America in 2023, the disease — which attacks the plant’s vascular system — has spread into at least three Amazonian nations: It arrived first in French Guiana, is likely in Suriname, and is now sweeping through cassava production regions in the neighboring northern Brazilian state of Amapá, where it has decimated entire fields, and is also present in Pará state. Cooking cassava in Brazil. Cassava, also known as manioc and yuca, and for its tapioca flour, is native to South America, and an excellent source of carbohydrates. Image by Dennis G. Jarvis via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/witch-hunt-virulent-fungal-disease-attacks-south-americas-cassava-crop/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/witch-hunt-virulent-fungal-disease-attacks-south-americas-cassava-crop/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308791</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous myths reveal Amazon&#8217;s past truths: Interview with Stéphen Rostain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-myths-reveal-amazons-past-truths-interview-with-stephen-rostain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-myths-reveal-amazons-past-truths-interview-with-stephen-rostain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Oct 2025 14:14:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Peter Speetjens]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/01063151/1988_Rostain-French-Guiana-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306877</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, French Guiana, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Climate, Conservation, Culture, Drought, Environment, History, Indigenous Peoples, LiDAR, Mapping, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Now a leading archaeologist, Rostain was discouraged at first. “No one is interested in archaeology of the Amazon.”]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Born in the French city of Brest in 1962, archaeologist Stéphen Rostain has worked in the Amazon for more than 40 years, primarily in French Guiana and Ecuador. He has authored or co-authored more than 450 publications on the rainforest’s past and present, including some 45 books. In January 2024, Rostain made a big splash as the lead author of a Science paper on the Upano Valley’s “urban garden culture” in the eastern Ecuadorian Amazon. It led to an avalanche of headlines around the world, many of which overly claimed a “lost city” had been found, and sparked new interest in Amazon archaeology. “I thought perhaps 10 journalists would contact me for an interview. But I did 10 to 20 interviews a day,” Rostain told Mongabay. As director of research at the French Institute for Scientific Research, Rostain isn’t very positive about the future of the Amazon. As deforestation continues and global temperatures continue to rise, he said the Amazon has already reached a turning point and is on its way to partially becoming a savanna. The profound changes in Western thinking about the rainforest that have taken place over the past decades offer a glimmer of hope. This includes the shift in our perception of the Amazon’s past and an end to the centuries of prejudice toward Indigenous people. “Our preconception has long been that the ‘Indians’ are just savages and their oral traditions just crazy legends,” Rostain told Mongabay in June. “Thankfully, that has changed. Twenty years ago,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-myths-reveal-amazons-past-truths-interview-with-stephen-rostain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-myths-reveal-amazons-past-truths-interview-with-stephen-rostain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306877</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Protecting Indigenous Amazon lands may also protect public health, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/protecting-indigenous-amazon-lands-may-also-protect-public-health-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/protecting-indigenous-amazon-lands-may-also-protect-public-health-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Sep 2025 16:13:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/07100930/DSCF1540NK_Wao_nemopare_retrato_pekes-2048x1365-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306273</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aerosol Pollution, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Diseases, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Governance, Health, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Planetary Health, Pollution, Protected Areas, Public Health, Rainforests, Research, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous territories are widely recognized as vital for conserving the environment and biodiversity, but far less is known about their role in protecting human health. Only recently have researchers begun to fill in this knowledge gap and investigate how the protection of these areas can provide health benefits as well as ecosystem services. Now, a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous territories are widely recognized as vital for conserving the environment and biodiversity, but far less is known about their role in protecting human health. Only recently have researchers begun to fill in this knowledge gap and investigate how the protection of these areas can provide health benefits as well as ecosystem services. Now, a new paper analyzing the relationship between Indigenous territories and the occurrence of 21 diseases in the Amazon biome over 20 years suggests that healthy forests on protected Indigenous territories can help reduce disease incidence and risks to human health. “Indigenous forests act as a sort of shield for health,” said study lead author Júlia Rodrigues Barreto, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. Published in Communications Earth &amp; Environment, the study is the first of its kind to look at all nine Amazonian countries. Its main contribution, according to Barreto, is to convey the importance of guaranteeing land rights for Indigenous peoples across the Amazon. Indigenous village of the Huni Kuin people in Jordão, Acre. Indigenous territories with secure land rights not only reduce deforestation inside their lands in the Brazilian Amazon, but also lead to higher secondary forest growth on previously deforested areas. Image by AgniBa via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Barreto and her colleagues looked at how Indigenous territories, depending on their legal status and landscape characteristics, could influence the incidence of fire-related illnesses, as well as vector-borne and zoonotic diseases — those transmitted by insect bites or&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/protecting-indigenous-amazon-lands-may-also-protect-public-health-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/protecting-indigenous-amazon-lands-may-also-protect-public-health-study-says/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306273</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rainwater reveals the hidden life of rainforest canopies, study shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/rainwater-reveals-the-hidden-life-of-rainforest-canopies-study-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/rainwater-reveals-the-hidden-life-of-rainforest-canopies-study-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2025 17:45:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/09172519/fouquet_IMG_3248_Trachycephalus_hadroceps-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305681</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, French Guiana, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bats, Climate Change, Community Development, Conservation, Deforestation, DNA, Ecology, Forests, Insects, Monitoring, Planetary Boundaries, Plantations, Rainforests, Sloths, Species, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the rainforest, much of life dwells in the tree canopy. But getting up there to study it isn&#8217;t easy. By the time a human has clumsily lumbered up from the ground, most of the critters have scattered. So a team of researchers had an idea: Why not collect the rainwater that trickles down through [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the rainforest, much of life dwells in the tree canopy. But getting up there to study it isn&#8217;t easy. By the time a human has clumsily lumbered up from the ground, most of the critters have scattered. So a team of researchers had an idea: Why not collect the rainwater that trickles down through the trees and analyze the water for traces of DNA? Every living thing, from the tiniest moss to the largest monkey, sheds microscopic pieces of itself. Cells slough off. Saliva droplets land on leaves. Waste products get deposited on branches. When rain falls through the forest canopy, it washes all this biological debris downward, creating what scientists call rainwash, a carrier of environmental DNA, or eDNA. To gather the rainwash, researchers repurposed ordinary umbrellas, drilling holes and attaching tubes to funnel water into collection devices, and hung them under trees in the Amazonian forests of French Guiana. Researchers repurposed umbrellas into low-cost rainwash collectors to study life in the canopy of French Guiana. Image courtesy of Amaia Iribar, CRBE, CNRS. &#8220;We wanted to develop something low cost and easily usable for all the local actors for conservation,&#8221; Lucie Zinger, a researcher at the France-based Center for Biodiversity and Environmental Research (CBRE), told Mongabay. &#8220;So, the idea of the umbrella comes from something cheap and easy to use.&#8221; The resulting study, published in Science Advances, found that the rainwater eDNA method detected a remarkable diversity of life in the canopy: 562 different taxa across plants, vertebrates&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/rainwater-reveals-the-hidden-life-of-rainforest-canopies-study-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/rainwater-reveals-the-hidden-life-of-rainforest-canopies-study-shows/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305681</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The particularities of the migratory movement in Venezuela, the Guianas and Suriname</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-particularities-of-the-migratory-movement-in-venezuela-the-guianas-and-suriname/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-particularities-of-the-migratory-movement-in-venezuela-the-guianas-and-suriname/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Dec 2024 17:03:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/07153906/RioCauca-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292382</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Colombia, French Guiana, Guiana Shield, Latin America, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Drought, Forests, Human Migration, Indigenous Peoples, Migration, Mining, Population, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The modern history of internal migration in Colombia began in a manner that was not unlike the processes organized by the governments in Brazil and the other Andean countries in the 1960s and early 1970s. However, that process was derailed first by a civil war and subsequently by the production of illicit drugs, largely because [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The modern history of internal migration in Colombia began in a manner that was not unlike the processes organized by the governments in Brazil and the other Andean countries in the 1960s and early 1970s. However, that process was derailed first by a civil war and subsequently by the production of illicit drugs, largely because of tactics pursued by the Fuerzas Armada Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). The conflict effectively suppressed state infrastructure investment while freezing land acquisition by middle-class families and investors. At the same time, however, it fuelled the migration of displaced peasants, who opted to cultivate coca under the protective umbrella of the FARC. The conflict officially ended in 2017 via the so-called Peace Process, which brought momentous change to the Colombian Amazon. The FARC no longer exists as an organized military entity, but it has been replaced by criminal groups composed of demobilized guerillas and militia members. Unfortunately, the state has not established a meaningful presence in the region and the cessation of hostilities has triggered a land rush supercharged by the drug trade and the cattle industry. Two young people ride a motorbike on the street that divides Tabatinga in Brazil from Leticia in Colombia. Crime rates have risen sharply in the region. Image by Ivan Brehaut. Migratory pathways Before the civil war, the administration of President Carlos Lleras Restrepo (1966–1970) created the Instituto Nacional de Colonización (INCOR) in an attempt to respond to the demand for land by the rural poor. The strategy was supported&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-particularities-of-the-migratory-movement-in-venezuela-the-guianas-and-suriname/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-particularities-of-the-migratory-movement-in-venezuela-the-guianas-and-suriname/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292382</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Clearest picture yet of Amazon carbon density could help guide conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/clearest-picture-yet-of-amazon-carbon-density-could-help-guide-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/clearest-picture-yet-of-amazon-carbon-density-could-help-guide-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Sep 2024 10:00:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/10164850/Feature-12-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287218</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Mapping, Rainforests, Research, Satellite Imagery, Technology, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Cutting-edge machine-learning models have created one of the most detailed, high-resolution maps yet of aboveground carbon density in the Amazon Rainforest, revealing where the forest is most intact and what areas are most in need of conservation attention. A combination of machine-learning models and satellite readings show that the Amazon Rainforest contains 56.8 billion metric [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Cutting-edge machine-learning models have created one of the most detailed, high-resolution maps yet of aboveground carbon density in the Amazon Rainforest, revealing where the forest is most intact and what areas are most in need of conservation attention. A combination of machine-learning models and satellite readings show that the Amazon Rainforest contains 56.8 billion metric tons of aboveground carbon, or the amount of carbon contained in plants on the surface of the Amazon. It’s one of the most precise estimates to date and amounts to more than one and a half times global emissions in 2023. “I was just really mesmerized by the data,” Matt Finer, director and senior research specialist of Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), told Mongabay. “You just put your glasses on and you can suddenly see. The carbon feature of the Amazon is suddenly clear.” The map is the result of an MAAP analysis of data from the Forest Carbon Diligence program run by Earth-imaging outfit Planet, which measures tree cover, tree height and the carbon storage of trees. It also used high-resolution airborne lidar data (a technology that employs lasers to scan an area, much like radar), combined with a global carbon data set from NASA satellite readings. The result was one of the most precise readings ever of forest carbon in the Amazon, showing which areas are the densest and providing clues to what conservation approaches are the most effective. According to the map, the highest carbon levels are located&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/clearest-picture-yet-of-amazon-carbon-density-could-help-guide-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287218</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mining gold in the greenstone belt of Panamazonia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/mining-gold-in-the-greenstone-belt-of-panamazonia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/mining-gold-in-the-greenstone-belt-of-panamazonia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Aug 2024 10:39:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/06193521/ch5_guayana-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285789</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, French Guiana, Latin America, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Gold Mining, Illegal Mining, Illegal Trade, and Mining]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Greenstone belts are zones of metamorphic and volcanic rocks that occur within ancient (Archean) formations dominated by granite and gneiss. They are common to most of the cratons in the world and are often associated with world-class gold deposits. The most important greenstone belt in the Pan Amazon is Barama-Mazaruni supergroup, which occurs as a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Greenstone belts are zones of metamorphic and volcanic rocks that occur within ancient (Archean) formations dominated by granite and gneiss. They are common to most of the cratons in the world and are often associated with world-class gold deposits. The most important greenstone belt in the Pan Amazon is Barama-Mazaruni supergroup, which occurs as a non-contiguous band of rocks in Eastern Venezuela and Guyana, then reappears in Suriname and French Guiana and then further south in Amapá. Altogether, this geological formation covers about 13 million hectares (32 million acres). Top: The greenstone belt of the Guiana Shield is a discontinuous band of ultramafic volcanic rocks located within the Archean and Proterozoic formations of the Amazon Craton. They are the source of the extraordinarily rich gold deposits along the northern coast of the South American continent. Bottom: Annual rates of deforestation on wildcat mining landscapes in the jurisdictions of the Guiana Coast. Data sources: Gomez Tania et al (2019) and RAISG (2022). Venezuela Apparently, the richest portion of this geological province is in the Venezuelan state of Bolivar where small-scale placer mining began in the 1930s. The spike in gold prices in 1980 motivated thousands of adventurers to migrate into the region to work the surface (saprolite) gold deposits using hydraulic mining techniques. Most settled near two frontier towns: El Callão in the North and Las Claritas in the South. The wildcat miners shared these landscapes with three state-owned concessions that were created in the 1970s to exploit the richest and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/mining-gold-in-the-greenstone-belt-of-panamazonia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285789</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study says 40% of Amazon region is potentially conserved — more than officially recorded</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/study-says-40-of-amazon-rainforest-is-protected-more-than-officially-recorded/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/study-says-40-of-amazon-rainforest-is-protected-more-than-officially-recorded/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jul 2024 20:13:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/18041629/peru_220697-e1718684422579-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283961</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A larger portion of the Amazonian region might be under protection or potentially conserved than official records indicate, according to a new study published in the journal One Earth. A team of international researchers found that more than 40% of land across the nine Amazonian countries is under some form of conservation management, significantly higher [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A larger portion of the Amazonian region might be under protection or potentially conserved than official records indicate, according to a new study published in the journal One Earth. A team of international researchers found that more than 40% of land across the nine Amazonian countries is under some form of conservation management, significantly higher than the 28% reported in official records. This figure includes all biomes in the region such as the Amazon rainforest, the Cerrado, Atlantic forest, the Chaco, and Pantanal. In the Amazon rainforest alone, 62.44%  of land is under some sort of area-based conservation. To arrive at this number, the authors looked beyond traditional protected areas such as national parks and nature reserves. They gathered information from scientific papers, legal documents and local knowledge to include land managed by Indigenous peoples, community-based natural resource management areas, regions covered by payment for ecosystem services programs and even sustainably managed forest production areas. The researchers say this method provides a more complete picture of conservation efforts than current tracking systems and will help others assess the effectiveness of different types of conservation governance systems. &#8220;Knowing who is governing these lands and how, as well as recognizing their visions related to conservation, is the first step to collectively planning for a fair and feasible future for our planet,&#8221; Siyu Qin, a lead author of the study, told Mongabay. Figure from Qin et al 2024 illustrating the types of conservation areas considered in the study. Women from the Sinangoe Indigenous&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/study-says-40-of-amazon-rainforest-is-protected-more-than-officially-recorded/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/study-says-40-of-amazon-rainforest-is-protected-more-than-officially-recorded/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283961</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New satellite readings show full extent of mining in the Amazon Rainforest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/new-satellite-readings-show-full-extent-of-mining-in-the-amazon-rainforest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/new-satellite-readings-show-full-extent-of-mining-in-the-amazon-rainforest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Oct 2023 16:48:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/24164422/Feature-1-1-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274557</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Mapping, Mining, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this month, the leaders of eight countries in South America signed the Belém Declaration, billed as a landmark step towards saving the Amazon Rainforest. But it was criticized for its weak language and lack of concrete strategies, raising questions about whether current policies are on track to meet conservation targets. When it comes to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this month, the leaders of eight countries in South America signed the Belém Declaration, billed as a landmark step towards saving the Amazon Rainforest. But it was criticized for its weak language and lack of concrete strategies, raising questions about whether current policies are on track to meet conservation targets. When it comes to illegal mining, one of the top drivers of deforestation and pollution in the region, the declaration mentions monitoring fisheries and water quality at sites using mercury — but not much else. “There’s this text about preventing and combatting illegal mining, including strengthening international cooperation, but there’s no specifics there. A first step to addressing illegal mining is to get a good handle on where it is,” Matt Finer, senior research specialist at Amazon Conservation and the Director of Monitoring of the Amazon Project (MAAP), told Mongabay. A new report from MAAP compiles some of the most up-to-date and extensive analysis of mining in the Amazon, revealing hot spots and conflict areas that suggest combatting the problem is going to be easier said than done, even with the Belém Declaration. The map shows 58 cases of illegal mining in virtually every Amazonian country (Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Suriname and Guyana), 49 of them illegal. Each case highlighted on the map represents an area where numerous individual operations are taking place. There’s a notable concentration of them in southern Peru and eastern Brazil, the map shows. “I think it’s one thing to say in a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/new-satellite-readings-show-full-extent-of-mining-in-the-amazon-rainforest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274557</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>France seeks EU okay to fund biomass plants, burn Amazon forest to power Spaceport</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/france-seeks-eu-okay-to-fund-biomass-plants-burn-amazon-forest-to-power-spaceport/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/france-seeks-eu-okay-to-fund-biomass-plants-burn-amazon-forest-to-power-spaceport/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Feb 2023 16:37:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/23150019/1-Sentinel-2A_satellite_-_liftoff_-_18448230354-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265881</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Conservation and Bioenergy]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Europe, European Union, France, and French Guiana]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Seemingly contrary to French President Macron’s green image, France is asking for an EU policy exemption to make biomass energy for Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana — resulting in the clearing and burning of rainforest.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[France, which hosted the historic 2015 Paris Climate Agreement meeting, and will soon co-host an international summit to help preserve the world’s three largest remaining rainforests, is seeking a European Union policy exemption that would allow for subsidies that could result in the clearcutting of thousands of hectares of intact, biodiverse Amazon rainforest for bioenergy production. If that plan goes ahead, the cut trees and woody biomass grown on the deforested land in French Guiana would provide fuel new biomass plants, helping power Europe’s Spaceport for decades. In early February, political allies of French President Emmanuel Macron quietly introduced the proposal as an amendment in the final stages of negotiations on the EU’s third Renewable Energy Directive (REDIII). The directive’s overarching goal is to provide the policies for complying with continental law to reduce EU carbon emissions by 55% by 2030. Within REDIII are new regulations aimed at limiting subsidies and wood harvested from native forests for the purpose of making wood pellets to burn for energy generation. However, the latest iteration of RED continues to define woody biomass as a carbon neutral, renewable energy source, even though a host of studies show it to “release higher levels of emissions than coal,” and despite the fact that trees cut to make biomass and then regrown over many decades cannot achieve carbon neutrality within the urgent timeframe required to effectively curb the climate crisis. More than 98% of French Guiana is covered by intact, biodiverse mangrove and tropical forest. But France&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/france-seeks-eu-okay-to-fund-biomass-plants-burn-amazon-forest-to-power-spaceport/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265881</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Population cycles explain white-lipped peccary’s ups and downs, study shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/population-cycles-explain-white-lipped-peccarys-ups-and-downs-study-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/population-cycles-explain-white-lipped-peccarys-ups-and-downs-study-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Dec 2022 14:42:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark Hillsdon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/06000541/peccary-1-CREDIT-Jose-Fragoso-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263262</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Extinction, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Mammals, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists say they have solved the mystery behind the periodic disappearance and reappearance of the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) across huge areas of central and South America. A new study suggests that white-lipped peccary populations become so big that they over-shoot their resources, which weakens the animals and makes them more vulnerable to disease and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists say they have solved the mystery behind the periodic disappearance and reappearance of the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) across huge areas of central and South America. A new study suggests that white-lipped peccary populations become so big that they over-shoot their resources, which weakens the animals and makes them more vulnerable to disease and starvation. And while it is natural for animal populations to fluctuate, in the case of the white-lipped peccary, sudden crashes are cyclical and synchronized over a vast area. The cycles take place over a 20- to 30-year period, with a rapid five-year decline and then a period of up to 12 years when peccaries completely disappear from an area. This can often occur simultaneously at a regional or even national level, as in the case of French Guiana. Locations of white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) disappearances. Brown dots mark disappearances of small or unknown areal extent. Image courtesy of Jose Fragoso. Published in PLOS ONE, the multidisciplinary study was more than 30 years in the making and combines state-of-the-art modeling and on-the-ground observations with historical research and Indigenous knowledge. The research is thought to be the first documentation of how animal populations rise and fall naturally in the case a Neotropical (New World) species. Considered a keynote species, the white-lipped peccary is a hoofed, pig-like mammal that lives in large herds of up to 100 animals and roams vast territories. Their foraging, digging and trampling makes them important ecological engineers, as they open up areas that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/population-cycles-explain-white-lipped-peccarys-ups-and-downs-study-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263262</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How close is the Amazon tipping point? Forest loss in the east changes the equation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/how-close-is-the-amazon-tipping-point-forest-loss-in-the-east-changes-the-equation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/how-close-is-the-amazon-tipping-point-forest-loss-in-the-east-changes-the-equation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Sep 2022 16:25:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/05201612/GP1SZFTN_greenpeace_amazon-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=260453</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Drought, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forests, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists warn that the Amazon is hurtling toward a tipping point, beyond which it would begin to transition from lush tropical forest into a dry, degraded savanna, unable to support the immense diversity of life that call the world’s largest rainforest home. This change could be triggered when 25% of the forest has been lost [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists warn that the Amazon is hurtling toward a tipping point, beyond which it would begin to transition from lush tropical forest into a dry, degraded savanna, unable to support the immense diversity of life that call the world’s largest rainforest home. This change could be triggered when 25% of the forest has been lost under current climate pressures, scientists estimate. So how close are we to the tipping point? To answer that question, we need to know how much of the original Amazon forest biome has been lost. “Surprisingly, we did not find any actual definitive studies that answered this question directly,” Matt Finer, senior research specialist and director of the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), a U.S.-based nonprofit, told Mongabay. So, about three years ago, MAAP set out to do exactly that. In a newly released report, MAAP estimates that 13.2% of the original Amazon forest biome has been lost due to deforestation and other causes. This equates to more than 85 million hectares (211 million acres), an area about one-tenth the size of the United States or China. Map showing total forest loss in the original Amazon forest biome. An estimated 13.2% has been lost due to deforestation and other causes. Data from Amazon Conservation Association and MAAP. The original Amazon biome forest prior to European colonization: more than 647 million hectares (1.6 billion acres). Data from Amazon Conservation Association and MAAP. To arrive at this number, MAAP first had to create a map of the original Amazon&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/how-close-is-the-amazon-tipping-point-forest-loss-in-the-east-changes-the-equation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/how-close-is-the-amazon-tipping-point-forest-loss-in-the-east-changes-the-equation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-260453</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Researchers compile largest-ever photo database of Amazon wildlife</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/researchers-compile-largest-ever-photo-database-of-amazon-wildlife/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/researchers-compile-largest-ever-photo-database-of-amazon-wildlife/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 May 2022 10:27:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/20103753/spectacled-bear-Tremarctos-ornatus-also-known-as-the-Andean-bear-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256021</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Conservation, data, Photos, Rainforests, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the world’s largest rainforest, wildlife crawls, hops, flies and prowls through every nook and cranny. Most animals are adept at hiding from humans, though, so finding them can be tough. To do so, many researchers rely on camera traps — motion sensing, often camouflaged cameras placed strategically throughout the forest. Scientists have been gathering [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the world’s largest rainforest, wildlife crawls, hops, flies and prowls through every nook and cranny. Most animals are adept at hiding from humans, though, so finding them can be tough. To do so, many researchers rely on camera traps — motion sensing, often camouflaged cameras placed strategically throughout the forest. Scientists have been gathering camera trap images across the Amazon for the past few decades, but that data has remained scattered, until now. A group of researchers have compiled more than 154,000 records of camera trap images, recording 317 species: 185 birds, 119 mammals and 13 reptiles. The new data paper, published in the journal Ecology, draws upon records from 147 scientists representing 122 research institutions and was led by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Friedrich Schiller University Jena. (Left) Omar Andy, Walter Andy and Abner Andy, Kichwa parabiologists from Nueva Providencia in Yasuní National Park, and (right) Miguel Angel Pozo, from Ministry of the Environment of Ecuador, and Julia Salvador, WCS Ecuador, fixing camera traps in the forest. Images by WCS. This is the first study to compile and standardize camera trap images from across the Amazon at this scale, and covers Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. &#8220;The dataset provides basic information about species presence and abundance in the forest and can be used to answer questions on an Amazon scale,&#8221; Ana Carolina Antunes, the lead author of the study told Mongabay in an email. The thousands of images “will&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/researchers-compile-largest-ever-photo-database-of-amazon-wildlife/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/researchers-compile-largest-ever-photo-database-of-amazon-wildlife/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256021</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The political economy of the Pan-Amazon (book excerpt)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/the-political-economy-of-the-pan-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/the-political-economy-of-the-pan-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Apr 2021 17:47:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/04/22174447/amazon_201729_header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=241861</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Books, Cattle, Coffee, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forests, Gold Mining, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mining, Oil, Politics, Rainforests, Ranching, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Editor&#8217;s note: Tim Killeen provides an update on the state of the Amazon in his new book “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon Wilderness – Success and Failure in the Fight to save an Ecosystem of Critical Importance to the Planet.” The book provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Editor&#8217;s note: Tim Killeen provides an update on the state of the Amazon in his new book “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon Wilderness – Success and Failure in the Fight to save an Ecosystem of Critical Importance to the Planet.” The book provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the Amazon’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models vying for space within the regional economy. The narrative explains the social and economic realities that constrain the decisions of stakeholder groups and economic actors and motivates them to act as they do. It also identifies the policies that have created a foundation for change in the region, as well as those that are not delivering the benefits their advocates had hoped to generate. Mongabay will publish excerpts from the Killeen’s book, which will be released by The White Horse Press in serial format over the course of the next year (Killeen is also working to adapt the book into Spanish and Portuguese). In this first installment, we provide a section from Chapter One: The State of The Amazon. Sunrise over the Amazon rainforest. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler The political economy of the Pan-Amazon Politics is idiosyncratic to each country, but trends in economic policies span borders. The political economy of the Pan Amazon is the legacy of strategic development plans that began in the mid decades of the twentieth century when the Amazonian&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/the-political-economy-of-the-pan-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/the-political-economy-of-the-pan-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-241861</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Exposing organized crime in the Amazon: Q&#038;A with Robert Muggah of the Igarapé Institute</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/exposing-organized-crime-in-the-amazon-qa-with-robert-muggah-of-the-igarape-institute/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/exposing-organized-crime-in-the-amazon-qa-with-robert-muggah-of-the-igarape-institute/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Apr 2021 13:29:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Daniel]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/08/30105706/1024px-Floresta_Nacional_do_Jamanxim_Para%CC%81_35879452422-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=241274</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Illegal Deforestation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Crime, data, Deforestation, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Interviews, Law Enforcement, Logging, Organized Crime, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, Wildlife Trafficking, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay caught up with Igarapé Institute co-founder Robert Muggah this week to discuss Ecocrime, a new data visualization platform that combines visual storytelling with access to raw data on environmental crime in the Amazon. This interview has been edited for style and clarity. &#160; Mongabay: What prompted you to create the platform? Robert Muggah: The Amazon [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay caught up with Igarapé Institute co-founder Robert Muggah this week to discuss Ecocrime, a new data visualization platform that combines visual storytelling with access to raw data on environmental crime in the Amazon. This interview has been edited for style and clarity. &nbsp; Mongabay: What prompted you to create the platform? Robert Muggah: The Amazon is facing a catastrophic tipping point. Levels of deforestation and degradation &#8211; most of it illegal &#8211; are accelerating. Global attention to it is episodic at best. The COVID-19 crisis has reduced visibility of the issue, especially as governments, business and civil societies are preoccupied with their own challenges. The Igarape Institute is determined to ensure there is a more regular drumbeat of information available about the range of environmental crimes that are being committed in the region. With more transparency, we hope to strengthen accountability and action to pull the Amazon back from the brink. There are still tremendous knowledge gaps when it comes to environmental crime in the Amazon. Many governments, businesses and advocacy groups are focused on just one part of a very complex problem. Understanding the ways in which different types of crimes &#8211; land grabbing, illegal logging, wildcat mining, the wildlife trade &#8211; and the networks that sustain them is a first step. Recognizing the different types of illegalities occurring at every stage of the criminal supply chain is no less important. The Institute has drawn on a combination of remote sensing tools and investigative research to help present data&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/exposing-organized-crime-in-the-amazon-qa-with-robert-muggah-of-the-igarape-institute/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/exposing-organized-crime-in-the-amazon-qa-with-robert-muggah-of-the-igarape-institute/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-241274</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>French Guiana soy biofuel power plants risk massive Amazon deforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/french-guiana-soy-biofuel-power-plants-risk-massive-amazon-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/french-guiana-soy-biofuel-power-plants-risk-massive-amazon-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Dec 2020 16:30:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/12/02161530/BANNER-IMAGE-FG-768x449.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=237442</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Conservation and Amazon Infrastructure]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Europe, France, French Guiana, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biofuels, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forests, Governance, Green, Infrastructure, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Renewable Energy, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[South America’s French Guiana, a French overseas department, is slated for major new liquid biofuel power stations, fueled by soy plantations that will cause largescale Amazon deforestation, say environmentalists.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The heavily forested port of Larivot in Cayenne, French Guiana, where a 120-megawatt soy liquid biofuels energy station is planned. Image courtesy of Francois Kuseni. French Guiana, an overseas department of France on the northeast coast of South America, lies mostly within Amazonia. Bordered by Suriname and Brazil, 98% of this Indiana-sized area is covered by dense rainforests and mangrove — ecosystems chockful of biodiversity, critical to climate change mitigation, and now in the crosshairs of France’s long-term energy policy. The French government launched a multiyear plan in 2018 to convert French Guiana’s aging energy infrastructure to power stations that will mostly burn biofuels — with major negative implications for the region’s wildlife, rainforests, carbon emissions, and by extension, global climate change mitigation. “A local government representative has authorized the establishment of an oil-fired power station in a mangrove forest two miles from the edge of the Amazon forest,” says Francois Kuseni, an environmental activist and member of French Guiana’s Ecology Party from Cayenne, French Guiana’s capital city. In addition, “The government has promised a study of two years to supply the power station with bio oil. The representative said explicitly that they want to grow the soy plants [to be made into biofuel] locally.” The overarching concern: French Guiana has limited available farmland (the region imports 80% of its food), so growing soy as a biofuel could lead to massive deforestation in a part of Amazonia already suffering widespread ecological devastation: French Guiana borders on the Brazilian Amazon where&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/french-guiana-soy-biofuel-power-plants-risk-massive-amazon-deforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-237442</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Expedition finds new humpback breeding ground and sends first deep divers to Amazon Reef</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/expedition-finds-new-humpback-breeding-ground-and-sends-first-deep-divers-to-amazon-reef/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/expedition-finds-new-humpback-breeding-ground-and-sends-first-deep-divers-to-amazon-reef/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Oct 2019 16:24:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/10/04155123/deep-divers_1210px-768x451.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=223117</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Ocean, Brazil, French Guiana, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Oceans, and Whales]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A scientific expedition launched by environmental NGO Greenpeace has discovered a new humpback breeding ground off the coast of French Guiana and sent the first-ever deep divers down to the Amazon Reef. A number of marine species, from whales and dolphins to sea turtles and sharks, are known to migrate through the waters off the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A scientific expedition launched by environmental NGO Greenpeace has discovered a new humpback breeding ground off the coast of French Guiana and sent the first-ever deep divers down to the Amazon Reef. A number of marine species, from whales and dolphins to sea turtles and sharks, are known to migrate through the waters off the coast of French Guiana, the same biodiversity-rich waters that harbor the Amazon Reef, which was discovered in 2016. Scientists with the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) onboard the Greenpeace ship MY Esperanza observed several different species of marine megafauna during the expedition, including Bryde’s Rorquals, false and pygmy killer whales, silky sharks, Melon Head dolphins, and spotted dolphins. The scientists also discovered and documented humpbacks as well as tropical whale species feeding and breeding in the area, which they say is a first. A school of fish in the Amazon Reef. To study marine life in the area, French scientists from the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) are with Greenpeace during the Amazon Reef leg of the Protect the Oceans year-long tour. Photo © Pierre Baelen / Greenpeace. “This expedition confirms that the region is more than a migratory route for some species; for the first time, we have seen tropical whales feeding in this area,” Olivier Van Canneyt, a marine biologist with CNRS, said in a statement. “We also observed humpback whales with their young; their presence confirms that it is also a vital place of breeding and breastfeeding.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/expedition-finds-new-humpback-breeding-ground-and-sends-first-deep-divers-to-amazon-reef/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-223117</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Vatican calls landmark meeting to conserve Amazon, protect indigenous peoples</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/vatican-calls-landmark-meeting-to-conserve-amazon-protect-indigenous-peoples/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/vatican-calls-landmark-meeting-to-conserve-amazon-protect-indigenous-peoples/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Oct 2019 11:52:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/10/04111132/BANNER-POPE-1-USE-768x446.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=223112</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Conservation and Conservation and Religion]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Christianity, Climate Change, Conservation, Controversial, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Culture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Ethics, Ethnocide, Forest Destruction, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Land Conflict, Land Use Change, Mining, Politics, Pope, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Religions, Saving Rainforests, Social Conflict, Social Justice, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[3TFAA2019]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Starting October 6, the Catholic Church will hold its first ever synod focused on an ecological biome. Bishops, indigenous leaders and activists will meet and set plans to help save the Amazon.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Seeing the Amazon gravely at risk, the Vatican has called a conference to help protect the world&#8217;s largest remaining rainforest. Image by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay. Moved by the plight and oppression of indigenous peoples while visiting the Peruvian Amazon in January 2018, Pope Francis called then for the first-ever meeting of bishops from a single ecological region — the Amazon. The three-week meeting, or synod, starts October 6 in Rome and will bring together Catholic bishops, indigenous leaders and environmental advocates from nine South American countries within the Amazon region to focus on human rights, environmental protection and climate change. It could not be more timely. The immensely destructive wildfires in Brazil’s rainforest this August captured global attention. The spread of illegal gold mining and resulting devastation of forests in southern Peru threatens one of the most biodiverse regions on earth. The end of a 50-year civil war in Colombia, but continued instability there, has opened areas once too dangerous to enter to massive deforestation and international exploitation. Meanwhile, indigenous peoples are deeply concerned over further erosion of their rights, cultures and ancestral homes in Amazonia, while fearing for their lives as violence against activists and tribal leaders mounts. This is especially true in Brazil, where they face a hostile president and government policies aimed at opening indigenous reserves to mining and agribusiness. In fact, the Brazilian government of President Jair Bolsonaro, fearful of the synod’s influence and seeing it as an attack on national sovereignty, has reacted&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/vatican-calls-landmark-meeting-to-conserve-amazon-protect-indigenous-peoples/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/vatican-calls-landmark-meeting-to-conserve-amazon-protect-indigenous-peoples/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-223112</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Shocking news: There are actually three species of electric eel in the Amazon, not one</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/shocking-news-there-are-actually-three-species-of-electric-eel-in-the-amazon-not-one/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/shocking-news-there-are-actually-three-species-of-electric-eel-in-the-amazon-not-one/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Sep 2019 14:38:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/09/13142531/electric-eel_1210px-768x451.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=222494</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Environment, Fish, Freshwater Fish, Research, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There are now three recognized species of electric eel after two new species were described to science in a paper published in Nature Communications this week. One of the new eel species is capable of generating a shock of as much as 860 volts, the most powerful electrical discharge ever discovered in any known animal. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There are now three recognized species of electric eel after two new species were described to science in a paper published in Nature Communications this week. One of the new eel species is capable of generating a shock of as much as 860 volts, the most powerful electrical discharge ever discovered in any known animal. A mostly nocturnal species found in freshwater habitats in Mexico and South America, the electric eel (Electrophorus electricus) belongs to the knifefish family and is more closely related to catfish and carp than other eels. It was first described more than 250 years ago by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus. But now a team of scientists led by Carlos David de Santana, an associate researcher at the US Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, has determined that E. electricus is in fact three distinct species. De Santana and team collected 107 electric eel specimens from different parts of the Amazon in Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname. They then analyzed the specimens’ mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, morphology, ecological data, and voltage discharge to conclude that the eels actually represented three different species. David Santana looking for electric fish in the National Forest, Amapá. Photo Credit: E. Kuano. &#8220;Their body shape is highly conserved. It has not changed much during 10 million years of evolution,” Santana said in a statement. “Only a few details of their external morphology distinguish them, and only an integrated analysis of morphology, genetics and ecology was able to make robust distinctions between&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/shocking-news-there-are-actually-three-species-of-electric-eel-in-the-amazon-not-one/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-222494</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How tropical deforestation and land-use change is driving emerging infectious diseases</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/how-tropical-deforestation-and-land-use-change-is-driving-emerging-infectious-diseases/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/how-tropical-deforestation-and-land-use-change-is-driving-emerging-infectious-diseases/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Dec 2016 20:44:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/12/20200829/Lowland_rainforest_Masoala_National_Park_Madagascar_4026784053-683x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=191838</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[French Guiana and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Deforestation, Diseases, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Land Use Change, Rainforests, Research, Rivers, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Tropics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There’s already ample evidence of the ways environmental degradation can contribute to the spread of infectious diseases, and now a recent study provides an example of how the disruptions to an ecosystem caused by deforestation and other land-use change can help spread a bacterial pathogen. There are about 250 known human emerging infectious diseases, which [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There’s already ample evidence of the ways environmental degradation can contribute to the spread of infectious diseases, and now a recent study provides an example of how the disruptions to an ecosystem caused by deforestation and other land-use change can help spread a bacterial pathogen. There are about 250 known human emerging infectious diseases, which are those that have recently appeared within a human population or those with an incidence rate or geographic range that is rapidly increasing. Rapid urbanization in developing countries and human population encroachment are known to help drive outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases. Mosquitoes that transmit the Zika virus, for instance, thrive in artificial habitats created by humans, including urban waste such as uncollected garbage piles or old cans, barrels, and tires that collect water and provide a breeding ground for the insects. As noted by the authors of a study published earlier this month in the journal Science Advances, many of the known emerging infectious diseases have been traced to tropical rainforests, especially freshwater aquatic systems. The study shows that the collapse of a freshwater food-web driven by deforestation and land-use change led to the increased prevalence of a bacterial pathogen called Mycobacterium ulcerans, which causes a skin disease in humans known as Buruli ulcer. According to the World Health Organization, Buruli ulcer has been reported in 33 countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Western Pacific. Treating the disease involves a complex process that can involve surgery and skin grafting, but even then&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/how-tropical-deforestation-and-land-use-change-is-driving-emerging-infectious-diseases/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-191838</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deforestation declines in the Amazon rainforest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/10/deforestation-declines-in-the-amazon-rainforest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/10/deforestation-declines-in-the-amazon-rainforest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Oct 2015 02:30:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2015/10/03151310/DEFORESTACION_AMAZONIA_MAPA-1500-457x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Rainforests, and Satellite Imagery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Destruction of primary forests across the Amazon basin has declined significantly since the 2000s, finds research published Monday by a group of Latin American social and environmental organizations known as The Amazonian Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG). The study, released as a report with a detailed map of deforestation, indicates that deforestation between 2010 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Destruction of primary forests across the Amazon basin has declined significantly since the 2000s, finds research published Monday by a group of Latin American social and environmental organizations known as The Amazonian Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG). The study, released as a report with a detailed map of deforestation, indicates that deforestation between 2010 and 2013 fell sharply both inside and outside the Brazilian Amazon. The findings are significant because they are the first to document change in primary forest in the Amazon outside of Brazil. The decline in Brazil&#8217;s deforestation has been widely reported due to the country&#8217;s advanced monitoring system. Less well-known is the trend in non-Brazilian countries. Data for those countries from other sources, like the U.N. and Global Forest Watch, do not break down forest loss by biome or look only at gross and net forest loss, rather than deforestation specifically. &#8220;The Global Forest Watch data includes forest changes including secondary growth forests and plantations; the RAISG report change is primary forests,&#8221; said Carlos Souza of Imazon, a Brazilian NGO that is one of the partners in the research. The report, which is available in Spanish, shows that average annual deforestation in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Suriname fell significantly for the 2010-2013 period relative to 2005-2010. Only Venezuela and French Guiana experienced increases in deforestation. The trend in Venezuela was particularly troubling, rising steadily since 2000. Overall, annual deforestation across the non-Brazilian Amazon fell 55 percent from an average of 11,480 square kilometers&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/10/deforestation-declines-in-the-amazon-rainforest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-149318</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What&#8217;s the current deforestation rate in the Amazon rainforest?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/05/whats-the-current-deforestation-rate-in-the-amazon-rainforest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/05/whats-the-current-deforestation-rate-in-the-amazon-rainforest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 May 2015 23:44:00 +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/20/2018/06/24173839/brazil_0322_SHARP_TW-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2015/05/whats-the-current-deforestation-rate-in-the-amazon-rainforest/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PLEASE NOTE: Please see this page for the latest numbers Current deforestation rate: alerts are up over this time last year Nearly two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest is located in Brazil, making it the biggest component in the region&#8217;s deforestation rate. Helpfully, Brazil also has the best systems for tracking deforestation, with the government and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PLEASE NOTE: Please see this page for the latest numbers Monthly deforestation according to INPE&#8217;s deforestation alert system, DETER, and Imazon&#8217;s SAD system. Imazon is a Brazilian NGO that tracks deforestation independently of the Brazilian government. Current deforestation rate: alerts are up over this time last year Nearly two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest is located in Brazil, making it the biggest component in the region&#8217;s deforestation rate. Helpfully, Brazil also has the best systems for tracking deforestation, with the government and Imazon, a national civil society organization, releasing updates on a quarterly and monthly basis using MODIS satellite data, respectively. Both the Brazilian government and Imazon release more accurate data on an annual basis using higher resolution Landsat satellite imagery. For other Amazon countries — primarily Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia since Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana are mostly outside the true Amazon basin watershed — the most reliable source for regular updates is Global Forest Watch, a platform that aggregates data from a many different sources. Currently Global Forest Watch has FORMA, a near-real-time forest cover monitoring system that also uses MODIS, and annual estimate made by a group of researchers led by a team at the University of Maryland. Variance in monthly deforestation Month-to-month deforestation is highly variable leading to frequent misreporting in the media. Both MODIS and Landsat cannot penetrate cloud cover, so during the rainy season — from roughly November to April — estimates are notoriously unreliable when compared to the same month a year&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/05/whats-the-current-deforestation-rate-in-the-amazon-rainforest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-23672</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rainforests: 10 things to watch in 2015</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/01/rainforests-10-things-to-watch-in-2015/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/01/rainforests-10-things-to-watch-in-2015/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jan 2015 17:28:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2015/01/rainforests-10-things-to-watch-in-2015/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Congo Basin, Cote D'Ivoire, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Ecuador, French Guiana, Ghana, Guyana, Indonesia, Myanmar, Peru, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Dams, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forests, Green, Logging, Palm Oil, Rainforests, Redd, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[What&#8217;s in store for rainforests in the new year.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[What&#8217;s in store for rainforests in the new year.This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/01/rainforests-10-things-to-watch-in-2015/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-24271</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Gold mining expanding rapidly along Guiana Shield, threatening forests, water, wildlife</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/10/gold-mining-expanding-rapidly-along-guiana-shield-threatening-forests-water-wildlife/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/10/gold-mining-expanding-rapidly-along-guiana-shield-threatening-forests-water-wildlife/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Oct 2014 19:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dr Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/10/gold-mining-expanding-rapidly-along-guiana-shield-threatening-forests-water-wildlife/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guiana Shield, Guyana, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Dolphins, Environment, Forests, Gold Mining, Green, Habitat Loss, Mining, Primates, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Land cleared for mines spotted by innovative mapping technology Gold mining is on the rise in the Guiana Shield, a geographic region of South America that holds one of the world’s largest undisturbed tract of rainforest. Mining is a key driver of forest cover change, and while deforestation rates from mining remain lower overall in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Land cleared for mines spotted by innovative mapping technology Gold mining is on the rise in the Guiana Shield, a geographic region of South America that holds one of the world’s largest undisturbed tract of rainforest. Mining is a key driver of forest cover change, and while deforestation rates from mining remain lower overall in the Guiana Shield than in some other areas in South America, this region, with its unique biodiversity and expansive areas of connected forests, is certainly a place to watch. And watching we are. SarVision, a spin-off from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, is employing the best use of open data by processing both radar and common optical satellite imagery (e.g., Landsat) to significantly improve monitoring techniques for the Guiana Shield region. Mongabay.com spoke with Niels Wielaard, executive director of SarVision about these new monitoring techniques and the mining situation in the Guiana Shield. Spatial distribution of forest cleared for mining expansion in the Guiana Shield during the period 2000-2013 (red). Result based on semi-automated analysis of more than 2,500 satellite images (MODIS, Landsat and ALOS PALSAR). Image processing: SarVision. Satelite imagery courtesy of USGS/NASA, JAXA/METI. Click to enlarge. “We have now developed the most comprehensive mining-specific forest loss dataset to date, with unprecedented geographic and temporal coverage (i.e., the entire Guiana Shield and annually for 2000-2013, with current updates in the works),” Wielaard said. “This has not been available before. Our tentative results show that [mining] expansion is still increasing rapidly…” Forest change can be&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/10/gold-mining-expanding-rapidly-along-guiana-shield-threatening-forests-water-wildlife/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-24548</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How do we save the world&#8217;s vanishing old-growth forests?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/08/how-do-we-save-the-worlds-vanishing-old-growth-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/08/how-do-we-save-the-worlds-vanishing-old-growth-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Aug 2014 20:18:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/08/how-do-we-save-the-worlds-vanishing-old-growth-forests/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Ecuador, French Guiana, Gabon, Guyana, Indonesia, Latin America, Myanmar, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Russia, South America, Suriname, United States, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, boreal forests, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mass Extinction, Old Growth Forests, Politics, Primary Forests, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Forest Management, Temperate Forests, Traditional People, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists say both rich and developing countries must recognize primary forests as a conservation priority. Primary rainforest in Imbak Canyon in the state of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The forest is home to pygmy elephants, clouded leopard, orangutans, banteng, and proboscis monkeys among thousands of other species. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. There&#8217;s nothing in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists say both rich and developing countries must recognize primary forests as a conservation priority. Primary rainforest in Imbak Canyon in the state of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The forest is home to pygmy elephants, clouded leopard, orangutans, banteng, and proboscis monkeys among thousands of other species. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. There&#8217;s nothing in the world like a primary forest, which has never been industrially logged or cleared by humans. Common characteristics of these forests include ancient trees, significant dead wood, little undergrowth due to canopy shade, and high biodiversity, including many species found no-where else. They are often described as cathedral-like, due to pillar-like trees and carpet-like undergrowth. Yet, the world&#8217;s primary forests&#8212;also known as old-growth forests&#8212;are falling every year, and policy-makers are not doing enough to stop it according to a new paper in Conservation Letters. &#8220;Primary forests have qualities not held by secondary forests, young re-growth forests, and plantation forests: they hold more biodiversity, store more carbon, and deliver better quality fresh water,&#8221; lead author, Brendan Mackey with Griffith University, told mongabay.com. &#8220;They are also home to indigenous peoples, their traditions and sustainable livelihoods.&#8221; Anyone who has visited a primary forest can usually see the difference between these and the more common secondary forests worldwide. There are also hidden qualities, such as increased carbon storage, freshwater protection, precipitation recycling, and biodiversity conservation. In fact, it&#8217;s been estimated that up to a staggering 57 percent of tropical species depend on primary forests for survival. If the world is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/08/how-do-we-save-the-worlds-vanishing-old-growth-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-24759</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Spectacular new beetle discovered in French Guiana</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/01/spectacular-new-beetle-discovered-in-french-guiana/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/01/spectacular-new-beetle-discovered-in-french-guiana/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jan 2014 15:29:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Devitt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Tiffany Roufs]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/01/spectacular-new-beetle-discovered-in-french-guiana/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[French Guiana and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Beetles, Environment, Green, Insects, Invertebrates, Rainforests, and Species Discovery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The discovery of a new, bi-colored beetle species in the lowland rainforest of French Guiana just added a little pizzazz to the ranks of the Pseudomorphini tribe of beetles. With wing cases (elytra) that sport black spots against a rusty red background, the newcomer was dubbed Guyanemorpha spectabilis, or the spectacular Guyane false-form beetle, by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The discovery of a new, bi-colored beetle species in the lowland rainforest of French Guiana just added a little pizzazz to the ranks of the Pseudomorphini tribe of beetles. With wing cases (elytra) that sport black spots against a rusty red background, the newcomer was dubbed Guyanemorpha spectabilis, or the spectacular Guyane false-form beetle, by entomologist Terry Erwin in the journal ZooKeys. The new beetle is one of hundreds collected by The Entomological Society Antilles-Guyane as part of an ongoing effort to inventory the insect biodiversity in French Guiana’s protected areas. But unlike most of its unremarkably-colored kin, Guyanemorpha spectabilis is the first flashy pseudomorphine to show up in the Western Hemisphere. Spectacular Guyane False-form beetle, a colorful new species found in French Guiana. Photo credit: Karolyn Darrow, Department of Entomology at the Smithsonian Institution. “This surprising large and colorful pseudomorphine came as a shock to me, as all other species of the Tribe in the Western Hemisphere are quite dull brown, dark reddish, or blackish with no, or little, color contrast on the upper surface,” explains Erwin with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. “In the world of entomology this new species can be only compared in its rare characteristics to the Olinguito, a new carnivore species which charmed the world and just recently described by Kris Helgen.” In addition to its colorful attributes, the new species from French Guiana is also big by comparison to other beetles in the Western Hemisphere measuring a little more than 13&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/01/spectacular-new-beetle-discovered-in-french-guiana/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-25796</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deforestation rates for Amazon countries outside Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/06/deforestation-rates-for-amazon-countries-outside-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/06/deforestation-rates-for-amazon-countries-outside-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jun 2013 21:41:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2013/06/deforestation-rates-for-amazon-countries-outside-brazil/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, and Satellite Imagery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation rising in non-Brazilian Amazon countries Editors note (7/7/13): Re-analysis of the original data has led to revision of the annual forest loss data. Deforestation has sharply increased in Amazon rainforest countries outside of Brazil, finds a new analysis based on satellite data. Researchers from Terra-i and O-Eco&#8217;s InfoAmazonia team have developed updated forest cover [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Deforestation rising in non-Brazilian Amazon countries Editors note (7/7/13): Re-analysis of the original data has led to revision of the annual forest loss data. Deforestation has sharply increased in Amazon rainforest countries outside of Brazil, finds a new analysis based on satellite data. Researchers from Terra-i and O-Eco&#8217;s InfoAmazonia team have developed updated forest cover maps for Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, French Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. The results reveal an increasing trend in forest clearing since 2004. Peru had the largest extent of forest loss in 2012, losing 162,000 hectares, an increase of 65,000 ha or 67 percent over 2011. Venezuela (12,600 ha), Suriname (8,506 ha), and Guyana (6,981 ha) followed. In terms of percentage change, Suriname (84 percent) and Guyana (69 percent) had the largest rate of increase over the period. Bolivia saw an 83 percent decrease in deforestation. InfoAmazonia&#8217;s analysis also looked at deforestation at a subnational level, including states, departments, and municipalities as well as protected areas, indigenous reserves, and ecosystems. Loreto, Peru had the largest forest loss in 2012 &#8212; 25,544 ha. Caquetá, Colombia saw its deforestation rate jump 193 percent. Among parks, Pacaya Samiria (3,325 ha) in Peru, Imataca (1,356 ha), the Upper Orinoco-Cassiquiare (819 ha) in Venezuela, and Noord Saramaccan (581 ha) in Suriname saw the highest forest loss. The Iquitos várzea &#8212; floodplain forest along the main stem of the Amazon &#8212; lost the largest area of forest among eco-regions both in 2012 (24,094 ha) and over the nine-year period (151,675 ha).&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/06/deforestation-rates-for-amazon-countries-outside-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-28791</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Relative of the &#8216;penis snake&#8217; discovered in South America (photos)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/03/relative-of-the-penis-snake-discovered-in-south-america-photos/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/03/relative-of-the-penis-snake-discovered-in-south-america-photos/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Mar 2013 22:56:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2013/03/relative-of-the-penis-snake-discovered-in-south-america-photos/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[French Guiana and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animal Behavior, Animals, Environment, Green, Herps, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new species of caecilian &#8211; a worm-like amphibian &#8211; has been discovered in the rainforests of French Guiana. The new species is called Microcaecilia dermatophaga or &#8216;little skin-eating caecilian&#8217; in reference to the feeding habits of young caecilians, which peel and eat their mother&#8217;s skin. The mother isn&#8217;t injured by this process &#8212; she [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[A new species of caecilian &#8211; a worm-like amphibian &#8211; has been discovered in the rainforests of French Guiana. The new species is called Microcaecilia dermatophaga or &#8216;little skin-eating caecilian&#8217; in reference to the feeding habits of young caecilians, which peel and eat their mother&#8217;s skin. The mother isn&#8217;t injured by this process &#8212; she grows an extra layer of fat-rich skin during this phase of development. Adult caecilians feed on termites and earthworms and spend most of their time living underground or in leaf litter in tropical regions. Adult Microcaecilia dermatophaga. Courtesy of Wilkinson et al. (2013) “What we’ve found is another species that’s a skin-feeder, but most importantly, it’s another species that’s quite distantly related to other skin-feeders we’ve found, meaning that skin-feeding is probably an ancestral characteristic for caecilians,” study co-author Emma Sherratt of Harvard University was quoted as saying by the Natural Environment Research Council. Little else is known about the new species, which is related to Atretochoana eiselti, the so-called &#8220;penis snake&#8221; &#8212; also a type of caecilian &#8212; that turned up in an Amazon river tributary last year when engineers were draining a tributary of the Amazon for the construction of a hydroelectric dam. Almost nothing is known about Atretochoana eiselti other than it is aquatic and can reach a length of at least 75 cm (30 inches). Another caecilian, Atretochoana eiselti, turned up last year. Observers immediately noted its resemblance to a part of the male anatomy. Photo by Matt Roper Microcaecilia dermatophaga&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/03/relative-of-the-penis-snake-discovered-in-south-america-photos/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-29315</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Gold mine approved in French Guiana&#8217;s only national park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/01/gold-mine-approved-in-french-guianas-only-national-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/01/gold-mine-approved-in-french-guianas-only-national-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jan 2013 18:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2013/01/gold-mine-approved-in-french-guianas-only-national-park/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Europe, France, French Guiana, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Diseases, Ecotourism, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Gold Mining, Governance, Green, Malaria, Mining, Parks, Pollution, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Rivers, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Limonade River in French Guiana. The French government has approved a new gold mine near the river, which locals depend on. Photo by: Sébastien Brosse. Tensions have risen in the small Amazonian community of Saül in French Guiana after locals discovered that the French government approved a large-scale gold mining operation near their town&#8212;and inside [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Limonade River in French Guiana. The French government has approved a new gold mine near the river, which locals depend on. Photo by: Sébastien Brosse. Tensions have risen in the small Amazonian community of Saül in French Guiana after locals discovered that the French government approved a large-scale gold mining operation near their town&#8212;and inside French Guiana&#8217;s only national park&#8212;against their wishes. Run by mining company, Rexma, locals and scientists both fear that the mine would lead to deforestation, water pollution, and a loss in biodiversity for a community dependent on the forest and ecotourism. The gold mine isn&#8217;t necessarily illegal despite occurring inside the Guiana Amazonian Park. Tropical ecologist Sébastien Brosse, who has long worked in the region, says that a portion of the park is open to such activities. &#8220;[Gold mining company] Rexma asked for a permit in the &#8216;free adhesion&#8217; zone of the national park where industrial activities are not systematically excluded,&#8221; he explained to mongabay.com. However, he adds that such industrial projects must be &#8220;submitted to the agreement of the national park and of the local population.&#8221; Here the reaction has been clear. &#8220;Since the beginning, both refused this mining project,&#8221; Brosse says, who has studied the negative impact of gold mining on local fish and algae. A fish (Charax pauciradiatus) from Limonade River. Photo by: Sébastien Brosse. Rexma&#8217;s proposal was approved by the French government&#8217;s minister of Production Recovery, Arnaud Montebourg, last year. While the project was initially pushed forward under the past administration, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/01/gold-mine-approved-in-french-guianas-only-national-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-29753</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deforestation rate falls across Amazon rainforest countries</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2012/12/deforestation-rate-falls-across-amazon-rainforest-countries/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2012/12/deforestation-rate-falls-across-amazon-rainforest-countries/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Dec 2012 01:54:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2012/12/deforestation-rate-falls-across-amazon-rainforest-countries/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Dams, Energy, Environment, Gold Mining, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mining, Oil, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, and Roads]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Dec 8, 2012 update: Tim Killeen of WWF says that the analysis highlighted below appears to exclude extensive deforestation in part of Bolivia. See the comments for more details. It&#8217;s not just Brazil where the deforestation rate is falling. Rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. The average annual rate of deforestation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Dec 8, 2012 update: Tim Killeen of WWF says that the analysis highlighted below appears to exclude extensive deforestation in part of Bolivia. See the comments for more details. It&#8217;s not just Brazil where the deforestation rate is falling. Rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. The average annual rate of deforestation across Amazon rainforest countries dropped sharply in the second half of the 2000s, reports a comprehensive new assessment of the region&#8217;s forest cover and drivers of deforestation. While the drop in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has been widely reported, several other Amazon countries saw their rates of forest loss drop as well, according to the report, which was published by a coalition of 11 Latin American civil society groups and research institutions that form the Amazonian Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG). The atlas shows the sharpest decline occurred in the tiny nation of Suriname, where deforestation fell 80 percent from 938 square kilometers between 2000 and 2005 to just 191 sq km between 2005 and 2010. Brazil (61 percent drop), Venezuela (46 percent), Ecuador (18 percent), Guyana (17 percent), and Bolivia (17 percent) followed. Brazil experienced the overall largest drop in deforestation in terms of overall area, going from 138,804 sq km to 54,181 sq km between the two periods. Deforestation increased in Peru (4 percent), Colombia (32 percent), and French Guiana (40 percent). Overall deforestation across the Amazon fell by 53 percent between the two periods. Meanwhile the extent of indigenous territories&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2012/12/deforestation-rate-falls-across-amazon-rainforest-countries/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-29917</doi>				</item>
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