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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>Guatemala environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/guatemala/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Ancient Maya knowledge helps Guatemalan farmers cut agrochemical use</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/ancient-maya-knowledge-helps-guatemalan-farmers-cut-agrochemical-use/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/ancient-maya-knowledge-helps-guatemalan-farmers-cut-agrochemical-use/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jun 2026 11:05:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark Hillsdon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/09105544/Actividad-control-de-plagas-y-preparacion-de-insecticidas-caseros-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320767</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Crops, Farming, Indigenous Peoples, Pesticides, Pollinators, Soil Carbon, Solutions, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the mountain villages of Guatemala’s Western Highlands, farmers are combining ancient Maya knowledge with modern sustainable farming techniques to protect their crops from pests and disease. Smallholders are creating homemade biopesticides using plants with strong smells and flavors to deter pests on their family plots. This is helping to cut back on the use [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the mountain villages of Guatemala’s Western Highlands, farmers are combining ancient Maya knowledge with modern sustainable farming techniques to protect their crops from pests and disease. Smallholders are creating homemade biopesticides using plants with strong smells and flavors to deter pests on their family plots. This is helping to cut back on the use of increasingly expensive agrochemicals, many of which have been labeled as dangerous to human health and linked to soil degradation. About 60 Guatemalan communities in the Western Highland departments of Sololá and Huehuetenango, as well as Chiquimula in the east, are working to revive these traditional techniques with support from the international development organization World Neighbors. Their focus is to restore and strengthen traditional knowledge, combining it with agroecological practices that help families produce surplus food they can sell to boost household incomes. “Traditional farming techniques are becoming popular because they are simple practices to apply, use local resources, and have proven to be effective,” Dayani Roche, a program associate at World Neighbors, told Mongabay via email. Rather than a single ancient recipe, farmers are using “a living combination of ancestral knowledge, local experimentation and more recent agroecological practices,” he said, which are “safer for families, soil, water and biodiversity than many chemical alternatives.” The Maya civilization, which once stretched across modern-day Central America, had a rich history of farming dating back to 2000 B.C.E. Its most celebrated agriculture system is the milpa, a form of intercropping that involves a mix of maize, beans and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/ancient-maya-knowledge-helps-guatemalan-farmers-cut-agrochemical-use/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/ancient-maya-knowledge-helps-guatemalan-farmers-cut-agrochemical-use/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320767</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Guatemala, new AI technology will be ‘listening’ for illegal deforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-guatemala-new-ai-technology-will-be-listening-for-illegal-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-guatemala-new-ai-technology-will-be-listening-for-illegal-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2026 21:05:18 +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/20/2026/04/29202354/f.-BANNER-2000px-2-Rony-Scarlet-Macaw-High-res-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318295</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Logging, Monitoring, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Technology, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[FLORES, Guatemala — This March, rangers on patrol in the Maya Forest came across the feathers of hunted birds and paths that had been cleared through the trees. These led them to a 2-hectare (5-acre) opening in the forest where squatters likely planned to settle and then expand. The people who’d cleared the forest were [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[FLORES, Guatemala — This March, rangers on patrol in the Maya Forest came across the feathers of hunted birds and paths that had been cleared through the trees. These led them to a 2-hectare (5-acre) opening in the forest where squatters likely planned to settle and then expand. The people who’d cleared the forest were nowhere to be found. The deforestation had occurred around eight days before, the rangers guessed. Even with camera traps and other technology, there’d been almost no way to detect it in real time. Rapid response has long been a challenge for conservationists in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, which spans 2.2 million hectares (5.3 million acres) across northern Guatemala. The reserve is a patchwork of national parks, logging concessions and biological corridors, some of them under pressure from cattle ranching and illegal logging. “If we’re going out regularly to a site every two or three months, and something happens a day after the last visit, then two or three months will go by with no information,” said Rony García Anleu, director of biological research at the Guatemala office of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). A new project in the reserve aims to decrease ranger response times with bioacoustics devices that can “listen” for illegal activity, using AI models trained to identify sounds associated with logging, hunting and other crimes. It’s part of the $100 million AI for Climate and Nature Grand Challenge, run by the Bezos Earth Fund for innovative uses of artificial intelligence for tackling&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-guatemala-new-ai-technology-will-be-listening-for-illegal-deforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-guatemala-new-ai-technology-will-be-listening-for-illegal-deforestation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318295</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Plastic household waste burned as fuel on rise in Global South, risking health</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/plastic-household-waste-burned-as-fuel-on-rise-in-global-south-risking-health/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/plastic-household-waste-burned-as-fuel-on-rise-in-global-south-risking-health/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Feb 2026 18:34:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
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					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313269</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Central America, Global, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Climate, Conservation, Developing Countries, Environment, Health, Planetary Health, Plastic, Pollution, Public Health, Toxicology, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Burning plastic waste for household fuel, or to manage household waste, may be far more prevalent in poor urban areas in developing countries than previously thought, raising serious environmental pollution and public health concerns for individuals, families and communities. That’s according to a new global study that surveyed more than 1,000 “key informants,” including researchers, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Burning plastic waste for household fuel, or to manage household waste, may be far more prevalent in poor urban areas in developing countries than previously thought, raising serious environmental pollution and public health concerns for individuals, families and communities. That’s according to a new global study that surveyed more than 1,000 “key informants,” including researchers, government workers and community leaders, from cities in 26 countries across the Global South. The researchers found that one-third of respondents are aware of households that are burning plastic, while 16% stated they’ve burned plastic in their own household. Burning plastic “has been integrated into household energy practices in numerous and diverse ways in many urban communities,” the authors write. Bishal Bharadwaj, lead author of the study and a researcher at the University of Calgary, says the issue has been largely overlooked, as it is occurring in marginalized and largely out-of-sight neighborhoods within cities. “The practice is more widespread than we thought,” he says. Bharadwaj published a paper in 2025 outlining how this practice is growing in the Global South, but this new paper adds in-depth data. The current research also comes against a backdrop of experts warning that the regular practice of open burning of plastic represents an “urgent global health issue” as communities increasingly resort to burning plastic as a fuel source and to tackle a rapidly growing plastic waste disposal crisis. Plastic and other waste in a cooking stove in Guatemala. Household burning of plastic raises health concerns due to close and prolonged&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/plastic-household-waste-burned-as-fuel-on-rise-in-global-south-risking-health/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313269</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Guatemala’s eco defenders reel from surge in killings and persecution</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/guatemalas-eco-defenders-reel-from-surge-in-killings-and-persecution/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/guatemalas-eco-defenders-reel-from-surge-in-killings-and-persecution/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jan 2026 07:57:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gonzalo Ortuño López]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/02075043/portada-gt-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312504</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, Latin America, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Politics, Protected Areas, Resource Conflict, Social Conflict, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Environmental and territorial defenders in Guatemala face a critical moment as violence targeting them increases across the country. In 2024, at least 20 such defenders were killed for their work, up from four in 2023, according to a report by advocacy NGO Global Witness. The country was second only to Colombia in the number of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Environmental and territorial defenders in Guatemala face a critical moment as violence targeting them increases across the country. In 2024, at least 20 such defenders were killed for their work, up from four in 2023, according to a report by advocacy NGO Global Witness. The country was second only to Colombia in the number of defenders killed or disappeared, accounting for 13% of the total cases identified worldwide by Global Witness. As a proportion of the country’s population, the number also leaves Guatemala with the highest rate of killings of environmental defenders in the world. The report says that at least 10 of those killed were Indigenous or campesino individuals. Since 2012, Global Witness has documented 106 killings and disappearances of environmental defenders in Guatemala, half of them Indigenous people and a fifth campesinos, who were engaged in defending their rights to land or opposing the extraction of natural resources. Mongabay Latam interviewed the report authors, along with activists and defenders, who agreed that the main factors behind the increase in violence are a land distribution system that has historically benefited the elite, the continued violation of Indigenous peoples’ rights, and the spread of organized crime. The Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) has reported killings and criminalization of its members. Image courtesy of CCDA. The new political landscape When Bernardo Arévalo took office as president in January 2024, he and his party, Movimiento Semilla, had the broad backing of Guatemala’s Indigenous peoples. But this hasn’t translated into a reduction&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/guatemalas-eco-defenders-reel-from-surge-in-killings-and-persecution/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312504</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Guatemala, young Kaqchikel Maya protect their sacred forest with open mapping</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/in-guatemala-young-kaqchikel-maya-protect-their-sacred-forest-with-open-mapping/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/in-guatemala-young-kaqchikel-maya-protect-their-sacred-forest-with-open-mapping/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Sep 2025 12:00:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Monica Pelliccia]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/17085258/1-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306103</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, Drones, Fires, Forest Loss, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabbing, Mapping, Protected Areas, Reforestation, Technology, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SAN JOSÉ POAQUIL, Guatemala — The last rays of daylight filter through the trees as Andres “Tata” López, 56, the local Maya mayor, greets his neighbors coming to source water in the communal forest of San José Poaquil, a municipality in the department of Chimaltenango, a two-hour drive west of Guatemala City. The forest, a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SAN JOSÉ POAQUIL, Guatemala — The last rays of daylight filter through the trees as Andres “Tata” López, 56, the local Maya mayor, greets his neighbors coming to source water in the communal forest of San José Poaquil, a municipality in the department of Chimaltenango, a two-hour drive west of Guatemala City. The forest, a critical source of water and a place considered sacred by the community, is managed by the Cofradía Ancestral Maya and the Indigenous mayor’s office, entities that promote ecosystem conservation and reforestation across generations. At its entrance is a small ceremonial altar used to make offerings to nature or burn corn on solemn occasions. Here, the community of San José Poaquil, whose members are all Indigenous Kaqchikel Maya, took part in an open mapping project that provided them with data to protect their forest against deforestation and other illicit activities, including illegal logging, forest fires and poaching. Training the community to use technology has enabled them to take ownership in managing their ancestral territory and access funding for the environmental services they provide. The open mapping project began in 2022, when a group of young volunteers started georeferencing work using photography. They mapped 75 hectares (185.3 acres) of the communal forest, showing the area&#8217;s natural and social characteristics as well as sites valued by the community, such as sacred places, water sources and places to collect medicinal plants. They also highlighted potential threats, such as agricultural encroachment, fires and areas where forest products are illegally extracted.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/in-guatemala-young-kaqchikel-maya-protect-their-sacred-forest-with-open-mapping/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306103</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Guatemala closes oil field, increases security in Maya Biosphere Reserve</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/guatemala-closes-oil-field-increases-security-in-maya-biosphere-reserve/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/guatemala-closes-oil-field-increases-security-in-maya-biosphere-reserve/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Sep 2025 16:09:01 +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/20/2025/09/05160105/540547179_1219827613518092_5132558235579538579_n-768x500.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305502</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cattle, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Law Enforcement, Logging, Oil Drilling, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Ranching, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Officials in Guatemala have announced plans to occupy a recently closed oil field with the aim of increasing enforcement in protected areas badly hit by organized crime. The Xan oil field inside Laguna del Tigre National Park, in northern Guatemala, will become a base for military and law enforcement personnel tasked with protecting the rainforest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Officials in Guatemala have announced plans to occupy a recently closed oil field with the aim of increasing enforcement in protected areas badly hit by organized crime. The Xan oil field inside Laguna del Tigre National Park, in northern Guatemala, will become a base for military and law enforcement personnel tasked with protecting the rainforest from illegal cattle ranching, logging and drug trafficking. The move has been billed as a major security and conservation win while also reducing the country’s economic dependence on fossil fuels. “This marks the beginning of a process of taking control of a vast portion of the national territory that has long been open to all kinds of actors who often exploit it for illicit activities,” President Bernardo Arévalo said during a speech about the new facility. The oil field, formerly operated by Anglo-French firm Perenco, produced between 5,000 and 7,000 barrels of crude oil a day, accounting for around 90% of national output. But the extraction process was water-intensive and posed pollution risks, leading the government to deem it unprofitable. The operation was also controversial because of its location inside Laguna del Tigre National Park, a 337,899-hectare (834,967-acre) protected area within the Maya Biosphere Reserve. The reserve spans millions of hectares and connects northern Guatemala with protected forests in Belize and southern Mexico, creating one of the largest biological corridors in Mesoamerica. The government chose not to renew the oil concession, which ended last month, but Perenco will still operate a pipeline until 2044. The&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/guatemala-closes-oil-field-increases-security-in-maya-biosphere-reserve/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305502</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Local forest governance helps jaguars and forests flourish in Guatemala</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/local-forest-governance-helps-jaguars-and-forests-flourish-in-guatemala/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/local-forest-governance-helps-jaguars-and-forests-flourish-in-guatemala/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2025 16:00:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Monica Pelliccia]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/25091021/DJI_0214-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304173</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Jaguars, Protected Areas, Research, Solutions, Sustainable Forest Management, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CRUCE A LA COLORADA, Guatemala — It’s mid-May and Luis Antonio Juarez, also known as Tonito, has just received a phone alert about a wildfire in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. In his community, Tonito is the resident in charge of monitoring wildlife activities. The area affected by the fire is also home to jaguars in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CRUCE A LA COLORADA, Guatemala — It’s mid-May and Luis Antonio Juarez, also known as Tonito, has just received a phone alert about a wildfire in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. In his community, Tonito is the resident in charge of monitoring wildlife activities. The area affected by the fire is also home to jaguars in the reserve, so he quickly launches a drone to check the situation from above. As the drone takes flight from the entrance of the community, turkeys gobble loudly and a little boy fires a plastic gun into the air. Tonito lives in Cruce a la Colorada, a community of 115 families located in the central part of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, in northern Guatemala, on the border with Mexico and Belize. Here, the jaguar (Panthera onca) is an icon and an umbrella species: protecting it safeguards many others within the same habitat. But jaguars face numerous threats, including extensive illegal ranching that clears forests and leads to wildfires. To protect the feline’s habitat, the local community works tirelessly, patrolling the forests every day, monitoring the flora and fauna, and tracking wildfires. The Cruce a la Colorada Integral Forestry Association (AFICC), along with the 12 other forest community concessions in the reserve, have long-term contracts with Guatemala&#8217;s National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP) to protect the Maya Biosphere Reserve and its fauna. “The forest management carried out by community members who live and depend on the forest has been fundamental to maintaining the integrity of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/local-forest-governance-helps-jaguars-and-forests-flourish-in-guatemala/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/local-forest-governance-helps-jaguars-and-forests-flourish-in-guatemala/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304173</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Open burning of plastic is an escalating public health threat, say experts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/open-burning-of-plastic-is-an-escalating-public-health-threat-say-experts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/open-burning-of-plastic-is-an-escalating-public-health-threat-say-experts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jul 2025 16:19:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/16132324/Image_9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302653</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Central America, Ghana, Guatemala, Malawi, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Fires, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Health, Microplastics, Planetary Health, Plastic, Pollution, Public Health, Recycling, Toxicology, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When Tiwonge Mzumara-Gawa was a child, her mother sent her to market with a basket woven from grasses. “But now we don&#8217;t do that,” she says, because plastic has taken over most utilitarian purposes in today’s Malawi. “You go and you get a plastic carrier, and they&#8217;re usually not reusable plastics.” In many Malawi communities, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Tiwonge Mzumara-Gawa was a child, her mother sent her to market with a basket woven from grasses. “But now we don&#8217;t do that,” she says, because plastic has taken over most utilitarian purposes in today’s Malawi. “You go and you get a plastic carrier, and they&#8217;re usually not reusable plastics.” In many Malawi communities, and across poorer nations worldwide, there is no waste collection or proper disposal. Instead, families faced with an onslaught of cheap plastic products — including single-use bags, bottles and diapers — commonly burn the waste in pits beside their homes. With a growing number of developing-world communities living beneath a pall of toxic petrochemical plastic smoke, Mzumara-Gawa is sounding the alarm. Now an ecologist at the Malawi University of Science and Technology and an environmental advocate with the NGO Tearfund, she says the widespread open burning of plastics is taking an increasingly heavy public health and environmental toll that is largely being ignored. Experts warn that many communities are resorting to the burning of plastic waste in households as fuel, while burning by industry to make energy is also becoming common. Add to this the vast volume of plastic waste dumped by the Global North on the Global South — waste that often ends up being incinerated without pollution controls. A dump site in Malaysia, a nation that recently blocked U.S. plastic waste exports. Shipments of plastic products and plastic waste from the Global North to the Global South are creating a flood of plastics&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/open-burning-of-plastic-is-an-escalating-public-health-threat-say-experts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/open-burning-of-plastic-is-an-escalating-public-health-threat-say-experts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302653</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nearly half of tree species in Mexico and Central America threatened with extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/nearly-half-of-tree-species-in-mexico-and-central-america-threatened-with-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/nearly-half-of-tree-species-in-mexico-and-central-america-threatened-with-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jul 2025 13:48:46 +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/20/2018/08/30153330/costa_rica_osa_0077-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302104</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Central America, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Extinction, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Green, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Lions have been dubbed the king of the jungle, but one could argue the real royalty are the trees, the massive woody beasts that hold down the land and root the web of life that teems around them. In Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America), which hosts 10% of all plant life on Earth despite covering [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Lions have been dubbed the king of the jungle, but one could argue the real royalty are the trees, the massive woody beasts that hold down the land and root the web of life that teems around them. In Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America), which hosts 10% of all plant life on Earth despite covering only 0.5% of the planet’s land surface, nearly half of all tree species are in trouble. Of the 4,046 known tree species found only in Mesoamerica, 1,867, or 46%, are threatened with extinction, according to a new study published in the journal Plants, People, Planet. The research represents the first comprehensive assessment of Mesoamerican trees. The study was part of the Global Tree Assessment, a decade-long initiative to evaluate the conservation status of all the world&#8217;s tree species. Researchers used the standards of the IUCN Red List, which tracks how close species are to disappearing worldwide. The IUCN Red List categorizes species into nine groups, ranging from not evaluated to extinct, by considering factors such as population decline, habitat loss, and population size. Before this assessment, less than 20% (700) of the tree species of the region had been assessed on the IUCN Red List before 2019. Fungi in Costa Rica. Through their entire life cycle and beyond, tropical trees host an abundance of life. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.com. &#8220;It&#8217;s an important study — essentially a clarion call for conserving endangered tree species in Mesoamerica,&#8221; William Laurance, a tropical ecologist at James&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/nearly-half-of-tree-species-in-mexico-and-central-america-threatened-with-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/nearly-half-of-tree-species-in-mexico-and-central-america-threatened-with-extinction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302104</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservation tech without Indigenous knowledge and local context has limits (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/conservation-tech-without-indigenous-knowledge-and-local-context-has-limits-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/conservation-tech-without-indigenous-knowledge-and-local-context-has-limits-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2025 15:26:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marco Acevedo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/28151027/20240730_161302-e1748446039264-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299791</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Reforestation, Technology, Traditional Knowledge, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Technology can be a powerful ally in conservation, but it’s not a silver bullet. Too often, tools like drones, GPS apps or satellite imagery are introduced as standalone solutions, disconnected from those who have stewarded these ecosystems for generations. What’s missing isn’t innovation. It’s inclusion. Local and Indigenous communities bring centuries of knowledge, experience and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Technology can be a powerful ally in conservation, but it’s not a silver bullet. Too often, tools like drones, GPS apps or satellite imagery are introduced as standalone solutions, disconnected from those who have stewarded these ecosystems for generations. What’s missing isn’t innovation. It’s inclusion. Local and Indigenous communities bring centuries of knowledge, experience and care to the lands they protect. Even the most sophisticated technology can fall short when this wisdom is overlooked. The spread of geospatial tools has opened exciting new possibilities: communities can now track deforestation, monitor biodiversity and respond to threats in real time. But there are barriers: limited internet, high costs and steep learning curves make adoption uneven, especially in rural and Indigenous areas. In Guatemala, an Indigenous woman works with EcoLogic staff to monitor forest health, merging ancestral knowledge with modern tools. Image courtesy of Lucy Calderón/EcoLogic Development Fund. And there are deeper concerns: Satellite data might detect forest loss, but it can’t recognize the subtle shifts in plant behavior or animal migration patterns that locals notice immediately. Without safeguards and clear ownership agreements, sensitive information can be misused, undermining trust and sovereignty. In short, no matter how advanced the tool, it cannot replace lived experience. Conservation is not just a technical task. It’s relational, cultural and deeply human. Technology means little without trust The success of any conservation project depends on how well it is integrated into community life. When new tools are introduced without respect for traditional ways of knowing, they can&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/conservation-tech-without-indigenous-knowledge-and-local-context-has-limits-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/conservation-tech-without-indigenous-knowledge-and-local-context-has-limits-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299791</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>German supermarket palm oil linked to Indigenous rights abuses in Guatemala</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/german-supermarket-palm-oil-linked-to-indigenous-rights-abuses-in-guatemala/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/german-supermarket-palm-oil-linked-to-indigenous-rights-abuses-in-guatemala/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 May 2025 20:59:39 +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/20/2025/05/19203500/Feature-19-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299227</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, International Trade, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Palm Oil, Politics, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A German supermarket and its supplier are under fire for alleged human right violations against Indigenous communities in Guatemala, where much of their palm oil is sourced. Since 2019, human rights groups have been filing complaints against German supermarket chain Edeka and palm oil supplier NaturAceites, claiming the companies failed to respond to concerns from [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A German supermarket and its supplier are under fire for alleged human right violations against Indigenous communities in Guatemala, where much of their palm oil is sourced. Since 2019, human rights groups have been filing complaints against German supermarket chain Edeka and palm oil supplier NaturAceites, claiming the companies failed to respond to concerns from Indigenous communities in El Estor, Guatemala, about land grabs, mistreatment of workers, and pollution of drinking water. There was also an alleged failure by certification groups to ensure the supply chain was free of environmental and human rights abuses, according to a complaint from this February. “There’s a rights dispute between the company and the community, who has traditionally inhabited these lands,” Laura Duarte Reyes, senior legal adviser for the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, an NGO, told Mongabay. “What they are actually asking is not even that the company disappear or stop production, but that they respect the areas where they have subsistence crops and that they can live without all the violence and criminalization.” Palm oil companies arrived in the municipality of El Estor in the late 1990s, promising job security and benefits to many of the Indigenous families recovering from the country’s civil war. The families say they were offered education, health care, roads, streetlights, drinking water and salaries, among other things. Because verbal agreements are customary in their communities, many residents never signed anything with their employers. The palm oil cultivated in El Estor helped produce different kinds of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/german-supermarket-palm-oil-linked-to-indigenous-rights-abuses-in-guatemala/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/german-supermarket-palm-oil-linked-to-indigenous-rights-abuses-in-guatemala/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299227</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agriculture, illegal ranching and roads threaten the jaguar in Mesoamerica</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/agriculture-illegal-ranching-and-roads-threaten-the-jaguar-in-mesoamerica/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/agriculture-illegal-ranching-and-roads-threaten-the-jaguar-in-mesoamerica/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Feb 2025 09:29:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid Arellano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/30123023/04110011_V1.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293586</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Jaguars, Protected Areas, Ranching, Roads, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Jaguar have always disregarded national borders, but some threats are keeping the big cats contained within the territories that they inhabits. The spread of extensive monoculture plantations, illegal ranches, forest fires, roads and hunters are putting severe pressure on this apex predator’s habitats in Mesoamerica, the region that includes Mexico and the countries of Central [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Jaguar have always disregarded national borders, but some threats are keeping the big cats contained within the territories that they inhabits. The spread of extensive monoculture plantations, illegal ranches, forest fires, roads and hunters are putting severe pressure on this apex predator’s habitats in Mesoamerica, the region that includes Mexico and the countries of Central America. To ensure that the emblematic feline survives in this area, conservationists say it’s crucial to protect a stretch of wildlife corridor that passes through northern Guatemala, crosses into Belize, and reaches up to northern Honduras. Throughout this entire region, there are key sites for safeguarding jaguars (Panthera onca). Known as Jaguar Conservation Units (JCUs), they host stable jaguar populations — or could, if some prevailing pressures were eliminated — and are united by connecting corridors. “The loss of any of these areas would cut off the jaguar populations’ connectivity at a regional level,” says Roberto Salom-Pérez, Latin America director for the big cat conservation NGO Panthera. A jaguar in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. Image courtesy of WCS Guatemala. For many scientists, organizations and governments, the challenge is implementing the Jaguar Corridor Initiative. The initiative aims to improve the connectivity between populations of the Americas’ largest feline throughout its entire range, which stretches from Mexico in the north to Argentina in the south. Similarly, an unprecedented global agreement to save the jaguar, which began in late 2018, continues to work toward the conservation of the species before 2030, ensuring that there are 30&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/agriculture-illegal-ranching-and-roads-threaten-the-jaguar-in-mesoamerica/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/agriculture-illegal-ranching-and-roads-threaten-the-jaguar-in-mesoamerica/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293586</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Grassroots efforts sprout up to protect Central America’s Trifinio watershed</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/grassroots-efforts-sprout-up-to-protect-central-americas-trifinio-watershed/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/grassroots-efforts-sprout-up-to-protect-central-americas-trifinio-watershed/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2024 16:21:33 +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/20/2024/12/13213804/WhatsApp-Image-2024-12-13-at-2.32.57-PM-1-768x450.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291605</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Cattle, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Drinking Water, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Lakes, Pesticides, Politics, Pollution, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, Rivers, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, Water, Water Pollution, Wildlife, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ESQUIPULAS, Guatemala — An estimated 8 million migrants have entered the U.S. during the Biden administration, the highest number in centuries. Many still come from the so-called Northern Triangle, made up of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, as they seek to escape gang violence and a lack of employment. But there’s another driver of migration [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ESQUIPULAS, Guatemala — An estimated 8 million migrants have entered the U.S. during the Biden administration, the highest number in centuries. Many still come from the so-called Northern Triangle, made up of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, as they seek to escape gang violence and a lack of employment. But there’s another driver of migration that officials sometimes overlook: climate change. Dry seasons in Central America are getting longer and hotter all the time, and rural families can’t grow enough crops to feed their families. More than 3 million people were expected to face crisis-level food insecurity earlier this year, potentially driving them out of the region. They also lack access to clean drinking water. “The problems of extreme poverty, low access to services, a highly aggravated and vulnerable population — all of that is made worse by the consequences of climate change,” said Berta Medrano, head of the Gaia Association, a conservation group that works in all three countries. Governments in the region are still working to develop policies that address crop failure and climate change-resilient jobs in hopes of slowing migration. The international community, whether in the form of NGOs or government agencies like USAID, are also very present in the region. But some parts of the problem may not be receiving enough attention. One major watershed running through Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador has been so polluted and industrialized that 20% of it could dry up by 2050, according to a U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/grassroots-efforts-sprout-up-to-protect-central-americas-trifinio-watershed/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/grassroots-efforts-sprout-up-to-protect-central-americas-trifinio-watershed/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291605</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A deadly fly is spreading through Central America. Experts blame illegal cattle ranching</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/a-deadly-fly-is-spreading-through-central-america-experts-blame-illegal-cattle-ranching/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/a-deadly-fly-is-spreading-through-central-america-experts-blame-illegal-cattle-ranching/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Nov 2024 17:03:10 +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/20/2021/10/15140350/FEATURE1-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290005</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Cattle, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, International Trade, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Ranching, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MEXICO CITY — Illegal cattle ranching in Central America has led to the spread of a deadly parasite long thought to be eradicated, and conservationists are calling for tighter controls before it reaches Mexico and the US. An outbreak of new world screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax)  — a fly that infects warm-blooded animals — is the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MEXICO CITY — Illegal cattle ranching in Central America has led to the spread of a deadly parasite long thought to be eradicated, and conservationists are calling for tighter controls before it reaches Mexico and the US. An outbreak of new world screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax)  — a fly that infects warm-blooded animals — is the direct result of cattle smuggling through protected areas across Central America, conservationists said. Unregulated movement of livestock has accelerated transmission, and could cost the region millions of dollars if officials don’t act soon. “The screwworm outbreak highlights an urgent need for tighter regulation in the cattle trade across Mesoamerica, as the unchecked movement of illegal cattle exacerbates both environmental and health issues,” said Chris Jordan, Latin America Director for Re:wild, a conservation group. “…Tackling this requires cooperation from companies, industry leaders and governments, who must step up to prevent contraband cattle from crossing borders unchecked.” New world screwworms lay their eggs in the open wounds of cattle and other animals, with the resulting larva feeding on live flesh until the host dies. It can be disastrous for agribusiness and countries relying on beef exports. A joint US campaign in the 1980s and 90s helped eradicate screwworm from Central America and Mexico. But last year, the fly reappeared unexpectedly, this time in Panama. Experts believe it traveled from South America through the thick jungles of the Darien Gap, which had previously kept the parasite at bay for nearly thirty years. Experts still don’t know if the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/a-deadly-fly-is-spreading-through-central-america-experts-blame-illegal-cattle-ranching/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/a-deadly-fly-is-spreading-through-central-america-experts-blame-illegal-cattle-ranching/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290005</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Failed U.S. ‘war on drugs’ endangers Central American bird habitats, study warns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/failed-u-s-war-on-drugs-endangers-central-american-bird-habitats-study-warns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/failed-u-s-war-on-drugs-endangers-central-american-bird-habitats-study-warns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2024 16:47:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Boris van der Spek]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/03154121/Golden-cheeked_Warbler_male-Kerr_WMA-TX_-_2015-05-24at13-39-5312_21618131341-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286890</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, and Nicaragua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Deforestation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Rainforests, Research, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Every year, between November and February, the golden-cheeked warbler makes its way down from the U.S. state of Texas to Central America. But as it travels to find refuge from the winter, this tiny, endangered bird, Setophaga chrysoparia, with its bright-yellow cheeks and a buzzing song, seems unable to evade habitat loss. More than 90% [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Every year, between November and February, the golden-cheeked warbler makes its way down from the U.S. state of Texas to Central America. But as it travels to find refuge from the winter, this tiny, endangered bird, Setophaga chrysoparia, with its bright-yellow cheeks and a buzzing song, seems unable to evade habitat loss. More than 90% of the golden-cheeked warbler population winters in a region that is at increased risk of deforestation, experts are warning. It isn’t alone. Dozens of migratory and native forest birds in Central America could see as much as two-thirds of their habitats threatened by encroaching narco-trafficking activity that drives deforestation, according to recently published research. More than half of the migratory species analyzed had more than a quarter of their global populations in landscapes that have become more vulnerable to drug-related deforestation in Central America. And this is only for the migratory species that breed in North America, the study authors say. The Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. Large-scale deforestation in the region has been linked, in part, to narco-trafficking, say experts. Image courtesy of CIFOR via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). They found that antidrug policies can push narco-trafficking into more remote forest areas, many of which represent important bird landscapes. Some of the areas that have become more vulnerable as a result lie within Central America’s Five Great Forests: the Maya Forest in Guatemala, the Indio-Maiz in Nicaragua, the Tortuguero in Costa Rica, and the Moskitia in Honduras. The study found that since 1970, deforestation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/failed-u-s-war-on-drugs-endangers-central-american-bird-habitats-study-warns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286890</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A Guatemalan reserve turns from civil war refuge to deforestation hotspot</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/a-guatemalan-reserve-turns-from-civil-war-refuge-to-deforestation-hotspot/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/a-guatemalan-reserve-turns-from-civil-war-refuge-to-deforestation-hotspot/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jul 2024 19:29:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bobby Bascomb]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/22191248/belize_8749-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284738</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Mexico]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Cattle, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Primates, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Ranching, Tropical Forests, UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay reported in 2023 that thousands of hectares of forest were felled, likely for cattle ranching and airstrips for drug trafficking. Since then, the situation appears to have grown worse. Preliminary satellite data collected by Global Forest Watch show deforestation is pushing westward into the park, an area of previously intact forest. Roughly one-third of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay reported in 2023 that thousands of hectares of forest were felled, likely for cattle ranching and airstrips for drug trafficking. Since then, the situation appears to have grown worse. Preliminary satellite data collected by Global Forest Watch show deforestation is pushing westward into the park, an area of previously intact forest. Roughly one-third of the park’s primary forest has been cleared since GFW began tracking it in 2002. Sierra del Lacandón National Park is a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s home to more than 300 species of birds and dozens of amphibian, mammal and reptile species. The ecological importance of the area extends beyond the boundaries of the park itself. It’s a critical biological corridor between the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala and the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve in Mexico, allowing wildlife such as scarlet macaws (Ara macao) and Baird’s tapirs (Tapirus bairdii) to safely move between protected areas. Without it, critically endangered species including the Yucatán black howler monkey (Alouatta pigra) and near-threatened jaguar (Panthera onca) can’t freely move through the region to find resources and mates needed for the survival of the species. When the park was founded in 1990, it was already home to roughly 20,000 people. Many moved there seeking safety amid Guatemala’s brutal civil war that began in the 1960s when the U.S. government backed a coup against a democratically elected leftist government. The government ordered the redistribution of undeveloped land from large landowners to landless farmers. It also required wealthy landowners to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/a-guatemalan-reserve-turns-from-civil-war-refuge-to-deforestation-hotspot/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/a-guatemalan-reserve-turns-from-civil-war-refuge-to-deforestation-hotspot/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284738</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Organized crime puts unprecedented pressure on Guatemala’s largest rainforest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/organized-crime-puts-unprecedented-pressure-on-guatemalas-largest-rainforest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/organized-crime-puts-unprecedented-pressure-on-guatemalas-largest-rainforest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 May 2024 14:14:24 +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/20/2024/05/17170319/Feature-768x450.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282232</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Criminal groups have made a renewed push into one of Guatemala’s largest rainforests this year. As new trails open up and fires spread, officials have raised concern not just about deforestation but potentially losing control of the area altogether. The Maya Biosphere Reserve, stretching 2.2 million hectares (5.3 million acres) across northern Guatemala’s Petén department, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Criminal groups have made a renewed push into one of Guatemala’s largest rainforests this year. As new trails open up and fires spread, officials have raised concern not just about deforestation but potentially losing control of the area altogether. The Maya Biosphere Reserve, stretching 2.2 million hectares (5.3 million acres) across northern Guatemala’s Petén department, has seen a wave of land invasions in areas that have historically gone untouched. Many of the invaders are well-armed and have the backing of organized crime, experts say. “The lack of governance in the protected areas of Petén has caused the usurpation of lands, deforestation and the establishment of illegal livestock farming, which become high-risk areas and sources of imminent forest fires,” more than a dozen environmental NGOs said in a statement. The reserve is made up of dozens of national parks, biological corridors and land concessions, each with their own unique conservation challenges. This year, authorities have made arrests in areas that have long struggled with incursions, such as Laguna del Tigre National Park and Sierra del Lacandón National Park. But they’ve also made surprising arrests in areas that usually see fewer threats, like Naachtún-Dos Lagunas Biotope and Mirador-Río Azul National Park. Those arrested are often more heavily armed than in the past, something that park guards — who aren’t armed — can’t always handle on their own. Even though many patrols take place with personnel from the National Civil Police and military, the guards say they’re worried about escalating confrontations. In March,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/organized-crime-puts-unprecedented-pressure-on-guatemalas-largest-rainforest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/organized-crime-puts-unprecedented-pressure-on-guatemalas-largest-rainforest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282232</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rehabilitation of Guatemalan fauna highlights opacity of illegal wildlife trade</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/rehabilitation-of-guatemalan-fauna-highlights-opacity-of-illegal-wildlife-trade/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/rehabilitation-of-guatemalan-fauna-highlights-opacity-of-illegal-wildlife-trade/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Mar 2024 18:45:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Cuffe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/07183343/hsus_photo_624064-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279592</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, Mammals, Poaching, Rainforests, Research, Species, trafficking, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[EL ARROZAL, Guatemala – A Yucatán black howler monkey, an endangered species, swung from a branch in its enclosure at the ARCAS wildlife rescue center in northern Guatemala. It was just days away from being released back into the wild in November 2023 along with two other black howler monkeys (Alouatta pigra) rescued from the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[EL ARROZAL, Guatemala – A Yucatán black howler monkey, an endangered species, swung from a branch in its enclosure at the ARCAS wildlife rescue center in northern Guatemala. It was just days away from being released back into the wild in November 2023 along with two other black howler monkeys (Alouatta pigra) rescued from the illegal pet trade. They hadn’t spent much time in captivity. “As a general rule, the less time animals have been with humans outside of ARCAS, the greater their chance of being released,” said Alejandro Morales, a veterinarian and coordinator of animal health at the center run by ARCAS, the Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Association. The ARCAS center sits at the southern edge of Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve, a patchwork of national parks, other protected areas, community forest concessions and other multiuse areas, and a buffer zone. The NGO was created in 1989, just ahead of the reserve’s establishment in 1990. A group of golden-fronted woodpecker (Melanerpes aurifrons) being released in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. Image by Santiago Bill/AP Images for The Humane Society of the United States. In another enclosure at the center, rambunctious white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus) seized in poor health from wildlife traffickers have no chance of release in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. Even if they could be rehabilitated for life in the wild, their habitat range is further south, in Panama, Colombia and Ecuador — not Guatemala. The illegal wildlife trade in Guatemala carries on with little clarity and little control&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/rehabilitation-of-guatemalan-fauna-highlights-opacity-of-illegal-wildlife-trade/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/rehabilitation-of-guatemalan-fauna-highlights-opacity-of-illegal-wildlife-trade/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279592</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Palm oil giants push out smallholders in Guatemala; deforestation risks remain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/palm-oil-giants-push-out-smallholders-in-guatemala-deforestation-risks-remain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/palm-oil-giants-push-out-smallholders-in-guatemala-deforestation-risks-remain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jan 2024 12:07:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/08115245/2.Pescador-del-Rio-la-Pasion-Barrio-Pescador-Sayaxche-11-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277447</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, Research, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mario Rene Xol used to enjoy life in Aldea Tierra Negra, an Indigenous village bordering the Lachuá-Ik&#8217;bolay Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) in northeastern Guatemala. Since the arrival of palm oil in 2006, Xol saw all but three small farms sold off to the land’s new owners: Industria Chiquibul, one of the 14 palm oil mills [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mario Rene Xol used to enjoy life in Aldea Tierra Negra, an Indigenous village bordering the Lachuá-Ik&#8217;bolay Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) in northeastern Guatemala. Since the arrival of palm oil in 2006, Xol saw all but three small farms sold off to the land’s new owners: Industria Chiquibul, one of the 14 palm oil mills operating in the region. Today, at least two-thirds of Xol’s community work for them as the subsistence farming community shifted toward minimum-wage jobs offered by the palm mill. Families of turtles near his house, once common along the San Román River that was diverted to irrigate the palm plantations, are now a rare sight, as are the fish and shrimp he used to catch with his family. Swarms of insects plague the residents. “We used to live much better when there was no palm,” he told Mongabay in a telephone call. “My home today is surrounded by thousands of flies. It’s horrible — you can’t even eat outside or sit on the patio anymore.” Oil palm fruit. Image by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay. In 2019, Xol was fired from his informal manual labor position after trying to organize better working conditions. In the same year, Cargill suspended trade with Industria Chiquibul after the latter declined an independent labor audit in response to allegations of labor rights violations. Still, the palm oil company sells to multinational giants Bimbo, Mondelez and PepsiCo. The oil extracted from palm fruits is present in most industrialized products today, including&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/palm-oil-giants-push-out-smallholders-in-guatemala-deforestation-risks-remain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277447</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Guatemala braces for unprecedented year of deforestation in Maya reserve</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/guatemala-braces-for-unprecedented-year-of-deforestation-in-maya-reserve/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/guatemala-braces-for-unprecedented-year-of-deforestation-in-maya-reserve/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Nov 2023 14:19:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/29190910/Unidad_de_Manejo_Suchital-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276036</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Mongabay Data Studio, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Central America’s largest protected area is in for a difficult year next year. The Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala is facing increased pressure from cattle ranching at the same time that drought threatens to spark an unprecedented wave of fires. Meanwhile, a tumultuous government transition could leave environmental agencies without enough funding and resources to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Central America’s largest protected area is in for a difficult year next year. The Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala is facing increased pressure from cattle ranching at the same time that drought threatens to spark an unprecedented wave of fires. Meanwhile, a tumultuous government transition could leave environmental agencies without enough funding and resources to keep up with it all. “We’re never completely sure if it’s going to play out like we think it will,” said Víctor Hugo Ramos, adviser for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Mesoamerica program. “But the factors that we’re observing do lead us to recommend preparing for a bad year — or very bad year.” The reserve stretches 21,602 square kilometers (8,341 square miles) across northern Guatemala and is divided up into different parks, concessions and biological corridors, some more badly hit by deforestation than others. In the west, Laguna del Tigre National Park and Sierra del Lacandón National Park have suffered from illegal cattle ranching and the expansion of informal settlements, sometimes with ties to organized crime. Officials established a “shield” of firebreaks and patrol paths within intact habitats to keep illegal settlers and deforestation from advancing farther east. But in June, a patrol discovered campsites and land-grabbing demarcation lines cut into the trees that broke through the shield for the first time in years. Even more worryingly, the paths led all the way to the Mexican border, suggesting that criminal groups may be working with rural communities to push onto new land. “It set off&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/guatemala-braces-for-unprecedented-year-of-deforestation-in-maya-reserve/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276036</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Restoring degraded forests may be key for climate, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/restoring-degraded-forests-may-be-key-for-climate-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/restoring-degraded-forests-may-be-key-for-climate-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Oct 2023 15:41:20 +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/20/2023/07/04151943/Pesalat-Reforestation-Project-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274049</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Central America, Costa Rica, Global, Guatemala, Latin America, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Ecosystems, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Logging, Mapping, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Reforestation, Research, Restoration, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Sustainable Forest Management, Timber, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new global analysis focuses on the climate benefits of restoring degraded forest areas instead of replanting trees in deforested areas. Researchers mapped forests worldwide to find areas that could support more trees and wildlife if restored. The study reveals that degraded forests, which retain 50-80% of their potential tree density, cover more than 1.5 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new global analysis focuses on the climate benefits of restoring degraded forest areas instead of replanting trees in deforested areas. Researchers mapped forests worldwide to find areas that could support more trees and wildlife if restored. The study reveals that degraded forests, which retain 50-80% of their potential tree density, cover more than 1.5 billion hectares (3.7 billion acres) worldwide. Focusing restoration efforts in these damaged forest ecosystems may deliver rapid gains for carbon storage and wildlife habitat connectivity. Degraded forests are those with reduced canopy cover, biodiversity loss, soil erosion, altered water cycles, heightened susceptibility to pests and diseases and diminished overall health and functionality. Causes range from unsustainable logging and shifting cultivation to wildfires, overgrazing and climate change impacts. Forest restoration potential by intervention type. Areas with reforestation potential are mapped together with areas of degraded forest with potential for recovery. Figure from Rayden et al 2023. Degraded forests are cheaper and easier to restore than completely cleared lands, the authors say, and allowing them to regrow naturally (via natural or assisted natural regeneration) can rapidly recapture lost carbon. The authors argue that considering degraded forests significantly expands the area that could be targeted by restoration programs and would better reflect the full range of opportunities to pull carbon from the air into the plant biomass and soil of the forest. The study combined remote sensing data on current tree cover with models of forest biomass potential. This allowed the researchers to map degraded forests globally that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/restoring-degraded-forests-may-be-key-for-climate-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274049</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agroecology schools help communities restore degraded land in Guatemala</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/agroecology-schools-help-communities-restore-degraded-land-in-guatemala/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/agroecology-schools-help-communities-restore-degraded-land-in-guatemala/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Jul 2023 16:29:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/07063846/Florinda-Dominga-Par-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270654</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology, Covering the Commons, and Industry and People]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Economics, Education, Farming, Food, Food Industry, Food Prices, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Industrial Agriculture, Solutions, Subsistence Agriculture, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Every Friday at 7:30 a.m., María Isabel Aguilar sells her organic produce in an artisanal market in Totonicapán, a city located in the western highlands of Guatemala. Presented on a handwoven multicolor blanket, her broccoli, cabbage, potatoes and fruits are neatly organized into handmade baskets. Aguilar is in a cohort of campesinos, or small-scale farmers, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Every Friday at 7:30 a.m., María Isabel Aguilar sells her organic produce in an artisanal market in Totonicapán, a city located in the western highlands of Guatemala. Presented on a handwoven multicolor blanket, her broccoli, cabbage, potatoes and fruits are neatly organized into handmade baskets. Aguilar is in a cohort of campesinos, or small-scale farmers, who took part in farmer-led agroecology schools in her community. As a way out of the cycle of hunger and poverty, she learned ecological principles of sowing, soil conservation, seed storage, propagation and other agroecological practices that have provided her with greater autonomy, self-sufficiency and improved health. “We learned how to develop insecticides to fend off pests,” she said. The process, she explained, involves a purely organic cocktail of garlic, chile, horsetail and other weeds and leaves, depending on what type of insecticide is needed. “You want to put this all together and let it settle for several days before applying it, and then the pests won’t come.” “We also learned how to prepare fertilizer that helps improve the health of our plants,” she added. “Using leaves from trees or medicinal plants we have in our gardens, we apply this to our crops and trees so they give us good fruit.” The expansion of large-scale agriculture has transformed Guatemala’s ancestral lands into intensive monoculture plantations, leading to the destruction of forests and traditional practices. The use of harmful chemical fertilizers, including glyphosate, which is prohibited in many countries, has destroyed some livelihoods and resulted in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/agroecology-schools-help-communities-restore-degraded-land-in-guatemala/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/agroecology-schools-help-communities-restore-degraded-land-in-guatemala/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270654</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A Guatemalan town fights to bar gold mining and save its waters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/a-guatemalan-town-fights-to-bar-gold-mining-and-save-its-waters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/a-guatemalan-town-fights-to-bar-gold-mining-and-save-its-waters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 May 2023 06:58:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jorge Rodríguez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/05164523/DJI_0531-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268330</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Freshwater, Gold Mining, Governance, Mining, Politics, Protected Areas, Rivers, Water Pollution, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 1997, people in Asunción Mita, a municipality in eastern Guatemala, weren’t really thinking that mining could arrive close to home. But that same year, the country’s Ministry of Energy and Mines granted mining company Entre Mares S.A. a permit to start exploration on a little more than 100 square kilometres (39 square miles) in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 1997, people in Asunción Mita, a municipality in eastern Guatemala, weren’t really thinking that mining could arrive close to home. But that same year, the country’s Ministry of Energy and Mines granted mining company Entre Mares S.A. a permit to start exploration on a little more than 100 square kilometres (39 square miles) in the department of Jutiapa, where the town is located. “We believed that the place where they would dig had no value,” says Armando Teo Villeda, a local member of the Community Development Council. “We called them garrobera lands,” he says, referring to the black iguana, a lizard native to Centra America. Over the following six years, Entre Mares, which at the time was a subsidiary of the Canadian gold mining corporation Goldcorp, explored the region for gold, silver, nickel, cobalt, chromium, lead, zinc, antimony and rare-earth elements. In 2004, its exploration area was reduced by more than 85% as the company submitted incomplete activity reports and its permits expired. But Entre Mares continued to pursue the acquisition of a license to exploit the land, which required presenting to authorities an initial environmental impact study (IEIS). By July 2007, the state already had rejected the IEIS twice. After a third submission containing barely any changes, in August 2007, the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources granted Entre Mares the license to mine in Cerro Blanco, an area located just 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the center of Asunción Mita. Entre Mares began exploitation underground, but&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/a-guatemalan-town-fights-to-bar-gold-mining-and-save-its-waters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/a-guatemalan-town-fights-to-bar-gold-mining-and-save-its-waters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268330</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Guatemala national park nearing ‘collapse’ amid land grabbing, deforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/guatemala-national-park-nearing-collapse-amid-land-grabbing-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/guatemala-national-park-nearing-collapse-amid-land-grabbing-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 May 2023 08:00:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/04061611/FttxW9zWAAEqBI2-1-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268242</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Cattle, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Logging, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Officials are struggling to keep up with an increasing wave of deforestation in one of Guatemala’s largest protected areas, where squatters are clearing the rainforest to make room for settlements, roads, cattle ranching and airstrips for drug planes. Sierra del Lacandón National Park, which sits on the Mexican border, has lost thousands of hectares of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Officials are struggling to keep up with an increasing wave of deforestation in one of Guatemala’s largest protected areas, where squatters are clearing the rainforest to make room for settlements, roads, cattle ranching and airstrips for drug planes. Sierra del Lacandón National Park, which sits on the Mexican border, has lost thousands of hectares of forest over the last two years, raising concerns among government officials and conservationists that the protected area may soon be lost to illegal actors. “I believe we are on our way to a serious collapse,” said Javier Márquez, executive director of Defensores de la Naturaleza, one of the organizations managing the park. Deforestation is pushing closer and closer to previously untouched areas of the park, Márquez said. Data collated by Global Forest Watch show that fire activity has not only spiked well above yearly averages but also advanced farther west, where the forest is mostly still intact. At risk are over 200,000 hectares (nearly 500,000 acres) of protected land and the health of the Usumacinta river basin, which acts as a biological corridor together with other ecosystems in the region. It’s home to 56 species of fish, 24 species of amphibians, 60 species of reptiles, 326 species of birds and 69 species of mammals, as well as over 30 archeological sites from Mayan and other Mesoamerican civilizations. Fire alerts in Sierra del Lacandón National Park. The park makes up one piece of the larger Maya Biosphere Reserve, which covers over 2 million hectares (5.1 million&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/guatemala-national-park-nearing-collapse-amid-land-grabbing-deforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/guatemala-national-park-nearing-collapse-amid-land-grabbing-deforestation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268242</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Guatemala landfill feeds ‘trash islands’ hundreds of miles away in Honduras</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/guatemala-landfill-feeds-trash-islands-hundreds-of-miles-away-in-honduras/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/guatemala-landfill-feeds-trash-islands-hundreds-of-miles-away-in-honduras/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Dec 2022 07:30:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Daniel]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/16145351/Feature-3-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263718</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Governance, Infrastructure, Oceans, Politics, Pollution, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GUATEMALA CITY — After heavy rains, hotel workers and other residents in Honduras walk up and down beaches picking up everything from plastic bottles to toys to medical waste. They’ve become experts at garbage cleanup. It piles up in the sand if they don’t move quickly, and then tourists might complain or even stop coming, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GUATEMALA CITY — After heavy rains, hotel workers and other residents in Honduras walk up and down beaches picking up everything from plastic bottles to toys to medical waste. They’ve become experts at garbage cleanup. It piles up in the sand if they don’t move quickly, and then tourists might complain or even stop coming, which could be disastrous for the many residents who rely on work in local hotels and shops. Some towns on Honduras’s Caribbean coast have banned single-use plastics and implemented more rigorous recycling plans. But the trash keeps coming. A lot of it, it turns out, doesn’t come from the locals, but rather from landfills and illegal dumping sites hundreds of miles away, in inland Honduras and neighboring Guatemala. “It goes into the food chain and even disrupts coral,” says Jenny Myton, the conservation program director at the Coral Reef Alliance. “This affects everything — animal life and health, but also the economy and tourism.” Guatemala’s 485-kilometrer (300-mile) Motagua River is one of the biggest conduits of this torrent of waste. An estimated 20,000 metric tons of trash from the Guatemala City landfill and illegal dumping sites flows into the river on its way to the Caribbean each year. Ocean currents push it northeast, where it washes up on the beaches of Tela and other Honduran towns. The rest of it can stay floating out at sea for as long as six months before sinking to the bottom. The problem has elicited cleanup efforts, recycling programs&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/guatemala-landfill-feeds-trash-islands-hundreds-of-miles-away-in-honduras/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263718</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bill threatens more oil extraction, roads in Guatemala’s protected forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/bill-threatens-more-oil-extraction-roads-in-guatemalas-protected-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/bill-threatens-more-oil-extraction-roads-in-guatemalas-protected-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Dec 2022 18:05:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Daniel]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/09161903/feature-1-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263441</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Roads, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[FLORES — One of Guatemala’s most under-threat protected areas may face future oil and gas development, as lawmakers consider whether to expand extractive activities in the region and the construction of additional pipelines. A bill in Guatemala’s congress would not only renew a contract for the current oil and gas pipeline that already operates in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[FLORES — One of Guatemala’s most under-threat protected areas may face future oil and gas development, as lawmakers consider whether to expand extractive activities in the region and the construction of additional pipelines. A bill in Guatemala’s congress would not only renew a contract for the current oil and gas pipeline that already operates in Laguna del Tigre National Park, but also make it easier for potential expansion of drilling and pipeline construction. The park, located in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, part of the largest rainforest in Mesoamerica, has been inundated with cattle ranching, squatters and loggers, raising questions about whether it would be better in the long run to risk development in the area for the good of the national economy. “In the area of the park, under all that natural wealth and around the wetlands, there’s so much oil and without a doubt the state will facilitate that through contracts,” said Rosita Contreras, Executive Director of ProPeten, which works with communities in the area. Current oil extraction in Guatemala is conducted by Perenco, a European oil and gas company that has thousands of wells across 14 countries in Latin America, Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia. Its Xan field in Guatemala currently produces between 5,000 and 7,000 barrels of crude oil a day, or around 90% of national output. The bill would renew Perenco’s contract on the land, originally granted in 2001, while also eliminating the 40-year limit that requires periodic review of the contract terms, allowing the company&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/bill-threatens-more-oil-extraction-roads-in-guatemalas-protected-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-263441</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Environmental ‘superministry’ bill raises alarm in Guatemala</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/environmental-superministry-bill-raises-alarm-in-guatemala/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/environmental-superministry-bill-raises-alarm-in-guatemala/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Nov 2022 13:17:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Cuffe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/22090126/8-lake-atitlan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=262624</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Guatemala, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Protected Areas, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala – A controversial bill that would merge Guatemala’s protected areas council and lake watershed management agencies into the country’s environmental ministry has sparked sustained pushback from environmental organizations, while affected institutions have highlighted significant legal gaps in the proposed law. The potential takeover of the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP) by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala – A controversial bill that would merge Guatemala’s protected areas council and lake watershed management agencies into the country’s environmental ministry has sparked sustained pushback from environmental organizations, while affected institutions have highlighted significant legal gaps in the proposed law. The potential takeover of the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP) by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) has been the main point of contention for nongovernmental groups. Dubbed the environmental ‘superministry’ bill by opponents, the proposed law would scrap the council structure, which includes civil society participation at the highest level, and it does not address the future status of the many communities and environmental groups that have cooperation and co-management agreements with CONAP. The president of Congress and other ruling alliance legislators introduced the bill earlier this year, arguing that the various environmental agencies operating separately led to excessive bureaucracy and little action and that they should be centralized. The bill was given a green light by the Congressional Committee for the Environment in August and it was scheduled for an initial discussion on the floor in October but was withdrawn from the agenda at the outset of the session. The bill could be placed back on a session agenda without warning at any time. A controversial bill would merge the watershed management authorities for Lake Izabal (pictured) and three other lakes into an environmental ‘superministry’. Image by Sandra Cuffe. “What worries us most is CONAP, which was established by law in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/environmental-superministry-bill-raises-alarm-in-guatemala/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-262624</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Guatemalans strongly reject mining project in local referendum</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/guatemalans-strongly-reject-mining-project-in-local-referendum/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/guatemalans-strongly-reject-mining-project-in-local-referendum/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Sep 2022 18:11:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Cuffe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/23181059/ed.at-voting-table-1-scaled-e1663956687497-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=260637</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Latin America]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Gold Mining, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mining, Politics, Pollution, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ASUNCIÓN MITA, Guatemala – Cecilia López and Luz Elena González were in good spirits as they left, walking beneath blue and white plastic streamers strung across the school property in the community of Tiucal. The 24-year-old friends had just voted in a referendum on mining in the municipality of Asunción Mita, home to more than [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ASUNCIÓN MITA, Guatemala – Cecilia López and Luz Elena González were in good spirits as they left, walking beneath blue and white plastic streamers strung across the school property in the community of Tiucal. The 24-year-old friends had just voted in a referendum on mining in the municipality of Asunción Mita, home to more than 50,000 people in southeastern Guatemala. “This is something that affects everyone,” López told Mongabay, explaining that residents in their farming village are worried mining could pollute the water and soil, affecting onion, maize, bean and other crops. “They say it is development, but the land is where our food comes from,” said González, a middle school teacher. “We hope the votes are no to mining.” In a banner hanging above a street in Asunción Mita, the municipal government encourages residents to vote in a Sept. 18 referendum on mining. Image by Sandra Cuffe. The vast majority of participating voters rejected metallic mining projects in the referendum held on September 18 in Asunción Mita. Residents are concerned about the impacts a Canadian-owned gold mining project would have on local water sources and a major river downstream in nearby El Salvador. Following the vote, however, the mining company, Guatemalan Ministry of Energy and Mines and industry groups have all contested the legality of the referendum. Casting their ballots at the same six polling stations used in general elections, 87.98% of participating registered voters in Asunción Mita rejected mining. Of the 8,503 participants, 7,481 residents voted against mining,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/guatemalans-strongly-reject-mining-project-in-local-referendum/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-260637</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A look at violence and conflict over Indigenous lands in nine Latin American countries</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/a-look-at-violence-and-conflict-over-indigenous-lands-in-nine-latin-american-countries/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/a-look-at-violence-and-conflict-over-indigenous-lands-in-nine-latin-american-countries/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 May 2022 18:58:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid ArellanoYvette Sierra Praeli]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/31174259/tierra-de-resistentes-patricia-gualinga-5-17-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256593</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Endangered Environmentalists and Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conflict, Conservation, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Environmental Law, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mongabay Data Studio, Politics, Resource Conflict, Social Conflict, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For years, Ruth Alipaz has been fighting against the Chepete-El Bala hydroelectric project. The project involves the construction of two reservoirs that together would flood at least 66,200 hectares (163,500 acres) of land and displace more than 5,000 people, the majority of them Indigenous communities. “They came to my village to threaten me because of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For years, Ruth Alipaz has been fighting against the Chepete-El Bala hydroelectric project. The project involves the construction of two reservoirs that together would flood at least 66,200 hectares (163,500 acres) of land and displace more than 5,000 people, the majority of them Indigenous communities. “They came to my village to threaten me because of my opposition to mining companies,” said Alipaz, a leader of the Indigenous community of San José de Uchupiamonas, in Bolivia. “They asked me: ‘What are you going to do when they come for you and blow your head off with dynamite? Let’s see if you’ll carry on resisting then’.” Ruth Alipaz Cuqui, an Indigenous leader from Bolivia. Image courtesy of Flor Ruíz. Threats are a part of everyday life for Indigenous leaders in Latin America. They are part of a growing wave of violence that has, in recent years, left a shocking number of bodies in its wake: between 2012 and 2020, 363 male and female activists from Indigenous communities were murdered. “In all our reports, Indigenous people make up, on average, one third of the total number of murdered environmental defenders on a global scale, a tremendously high figure considering only 4% of the world’s population are Indigenous peoples,” says Marina Comandulli, a campaign officer for Global Witness, a human rights non-governmental organization. The most critical situation is in Colombia, where 117 Indigenous people have been murdered in the aforementioned period – the highest figure on the South American continent. “Nobody dares to speak&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/a-look-at-violence-and-conflict-over-indigenous-lands-in-nine-latin-american-countries/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/a-look-at-violence-and-conflict-over-indigenous-lands-in-nine-latin-american-countries/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256593</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tale of two pandemics as mining thrived while communities faced restrictions</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/tale-of-two-pandemics-as-miners-thrived-while-communities-faced-restrictions/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/tale-of-two-pandemics-as-miners-thrived-while-communities-faced-restrictions/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 May 2022 17:36:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Cuffe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/24173014/50804490727_bd9f1f6411_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256295</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation, Land rights and extractives, and Latin America]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Guatemala, Latin America, Mexico, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mining, Pandemics, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CASILLAS, Guatemala — Evelin Cante got involved in the protest camp right from the start. Her village isn’t far from the Escobal silver mine in southern Guatemala, and she was worried about its impacts on the environment and local homes, especially from the detonations at the mine site. Indigenous Xinka communities and other area residents [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CASILLAS, Guatemala — Evelin Cante got involved in the protest camp right from the start. Her village isn’t far from the Escobal silver mine in southern Guatemala, and she was worried about its impacts on the environment and local homes, especially from the detonations at the mine site. Indigenous Xinka communities and other area residents were never consulted about the mine, and in 2017 they set up a roadside encampment to block entry to trucks carrying mine supplies and equipment. &#8220;I have been supporting the resistance here since it began,&#8221; Cante told Mongabay by the encampment next to the town of Casillas, 60 kilometers (37 miles) southeast of Guatemala City. &#8220;I have children and I do not want to leave them without water.&#8221; A month to the day after the encampment began, the country&#8217;s Supreme Court suspended the mine&#8217;s license pending consultation with the affected Xinka population. Five years later, a pre-consultation process is still underway and so are the encampment actions to enforce the suspension. Paola Coronado (right) listens to a Xinka leader speak in Guatemala City after a May 2022 gathering of communities affected by Pan American Silver. Image courtesy of Sandra Cuffe. But the COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges for mine-affected communities. Health concerns and restrictions limited community actions, while violence against local leaders involved in the resistance movement continued — and not just in Guatemala. Across Latin America, the pandemic has generated new pressures and restrictions on communities, while mining industry activity, deregulation efforts and violence have&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/tale-of-two-pandemics-as-miners-thrived-while-communities-faced-restrictions/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256295</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous community takes Guatemalan land rights fight to international court</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/indigenous-community-takes-guatemalan-land-rights-fight-to-international-court/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/indigenous-community-takes-guatemalan-land-rights-fight-to-international-court/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Feb 2022 22:41:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Cuffe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/09221731/Goldman-Environmental-Prize-scaled-e1644445588961-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=252562</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Latin America]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environmental Law, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Law, and Mining]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala – An Indigenous community engaged in a decades-long struggle for land rights in Guatemala is bringing its battle to an international court this week in a case that could have far-reaching implications for Indigenous rights and mining activity. The Maya Q’eqchi’ community of Agua Caliente Lote 9 is presenting its case against [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala – An Indigenous community engaged in a decades-long struggle for land rights in Guatemala is bringing its battle to an international court this week in a case that could have far-reaching implications for Indigenous rights and mining activity. The Maya Q’eqchi’ community of Agua Caliente Lote 9 is presenting its case against the State of Guatemala to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in a hearing Wednesday. A ruling is tentatively expected within a year. Collective land rights in Agua Caliente Lote 9, located roughly 300 kilometers (186 miles) northeast of Guatemala City, are the core issue. However, the case also addresses a nearby nickel mining project that has been tied to conflict and violence for more than 60 years. The ongoing operation of the ferronickel processing plant. Image courtesy of James A. Rodriguez. “We are seeking substantiative measures,” said Leonardo Crippa, a senior attorney at the U.S.-based Indian Law Resource Center. The Agua Caliente Lote 9 case will give the court an opportunity to rule on recognition of Indigenous peoples’ rights to sovereignty over their natural resources, according to Crippa. He has been working on Indigenous collective land rights cases for years, including that of Agua Caliente Lote 9. “We hope the court orders the state to establish legislative and other measures to recognize the right of communities to collective property over lands they possess and to use, develop, control and benefit from the natural resources that are in their territories,” Crippa told Mongabay. Now owned&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/indigenous-community-takes-guatemalan-land-rights-fight-to-international-court/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-252562</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Across Latin America, palm oil violations abound — with little accountability</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/across-latin-america-palm-oil-violations-abound-with-little-accountability/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/across-latin-america-palm-oil-violations-abound-with-little-accountability/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jan 2022 11:55:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tras las huellas de la palma alliance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maria Angeles Salazar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/01/05114605/Portada_Palmas_2-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=251469</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Crime, Deforestation, Environment, Logging, Monocultures, Palm Oil, and Plantations]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Palm oil producers across several Latin American countries have been the subject of complaints about their environmental practices, an analysis of official records has found, but these complaints rarely result in meaningful change in the industry. Five Latin American countries are among the 10 largest palm oil producers in the world: Colombia ranks fourth, Guatemala [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Palm oil producers across several Latin American countries have been the subject of complaints about their environmental practices, an analysis of official records has found, but these complaints rarely result in meaningful change in the industry. Five Latin American countries are among the 10 largest palm oil producers in the world: Colombia ranks fourth, Guatemala sixth, Honduras seventh, Brazil ninth and Ecuador 10th. Together, they accounted for almost $55 billion in palm oil sales in 2020. These countries share something else in common: Their expansive oil palm plantations are a significant cause of social and environmental grievances. A study published in the Journal of Rural Studies in January 2021 details the “conflicts between oil palm smallholders (often migrant settlers) and forest-dependent (indigenous and Afro-descendant) communities opposing this industry.” Deforestation is another serious issue to varying extents in each country. A study published in the journal Science in 2018 identified monocultures, including oil palm, as one of the main drivers of forest loss worldwide. How much of this deforestation is legal? How effectively do these countries oversee the industry and sanction it when necessary? And how can citizens and Indigenous communities know the environmental record of a company in their country? A team of Mongabay Latam journalists, in partnership with media outlets from four of the world’s largest palm oil-producing countries — Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Ecuador — investigated the environmental impacts of the industry. Agencia Ocote (Guatemala), Contracorriente (Honduras) and La Barra Espaciadora (Ecuador) filed requests for all of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/across-latin-america-palm-oil-violations-abound-with-little-accountability/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-251469</doi>				</item>
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