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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>Suriname environmental news</title>
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				<item>
					<title>AI tool tracks spread of illegal gold mining in Amazon protected areas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ai-tool-tracks-spread-of-illegal-gold-mining-in-amazon-protected-areas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ai-tool-tracks-spread-of-illegal-gold-mining-in-amazon-protected-areas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Apr 2026 09:56:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Loss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gold Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Illegal Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Communities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous territories]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land tenure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
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											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Mining, Artificial Intelligence, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Gold Mining, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Rights, Mining, and Satellite Imagery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In July 2025, the Indigenous Shuar people celebrated the end of a decade-long struggle when they received official titles for three communities — the Shuar Tunants, Kampan and Tsuntsuim –- within the Kutukú Shaimi Protected Forest, in the south of the Ecuadorean Amazon. But in one of those communities, satellite imagery shows that between August [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In July 2025, the Indigenous Shuar people celebrated the end of a decade-long struggle when they received official titles for three communities — the Shuar Tunants, Kampan and Tsuntsuim –- within the Kutukú Shaimi Protected Forest, in the south of the Ecuadorean Amazon. But in one of those communities, satellite imagery shows that between August and December 2025, a gaping hole appeared in the forest around a riverbend — a mining scar. Despite the Tunants territory’s newly formalized status, deforestation due to gold mining nearly tripled, reaching 2 hectares (5 acres) in size in the last three months of 2025, according to Amazon Mining Watch Panorama, a new quarterly report. The report shows that deforestation due to illegal gold mining continues to grow across the Amazon, threatening protected parts of the rainforest. In total, 6,000 hectares (more than 14,800 acres) — about seven times the size of Central Park in New York City — of new mining scars appeared across protected areas and Indigenous territories over the last three months of 2025. This mining is presumed to be illegal, as most Amazonian countries have legislation prohibiting mining in Indigenous territories and protected areas, with experts warning that greater law enforcement is needed. Most of the deforestation caused by mining during that period took place in Brazil, with roughly 2,000 hectares (about 5,000 acres) of forest being cleared. This was followed by Peru with 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres), and Guyana with 900 hectares (about 2,200 acres). New mining scars were also&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ai-tool-tracks-spread-of-illegal-gold-mining-in-amazon-protected-areas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mennonites from Belize spark deforestation fears with new settlement plans in Suriname</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/mennonites-from-belize-spark-deforestation-fears-with-new-settlement-plans-in-suriname/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/mennonites-from-belize-spark-deforestation-fears-with-new-settlement-plans-in-suriname/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Apr 2026 15:55:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforest Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Threats To The Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
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					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317187</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Central America, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, and Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SHIPYARD, Belize — Mennonite families in Belize are preparing to move to Suriname to establish massive farming communities in a heavily forested area, multiple sources told Mongabay, raising concerns that they may soon be cutting down trees to grow crops. The deal could cost millions of dollars and cover more land than the U.S. city [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SHIPYARD, Belize — Mennonite families in Belize are preparing to move to Suriname to establish massive farming communities in a heavily forested area, multiple sources told Mongabay, raising concerns that they may soon be cutting down trees to grow crops. The deal could cost millions of dollars and cover more land than the U.S. city of Baltimore, according to documents reviewed by Mongabay. The potential move comes amid debate by officials in Suriname over how to increase domestic food production without compromising one of the highest levels of forest cover in the world. Belizean Mennonites have traveled to Suriname at least six times in recent years to scout thousands of hectares of land and learn about local regulations, working with businessmen who have spent the past several years trying to attract the famously agro-savvy Mennonites from different parts of Central and South America. Across Latin America, Mennonites have also been criticized for illegal deforestation, circumventing environmental regulations, and settling on land with disputed or unclear titles. Some critics say the arrival of Mennonites in Suriname could threaten the rainforest, which covers about 93% of the country. “Any activity by Mennonites in Suriname to me is disturbing,” said Ben D’Leon​, a member of the NGO Amazon Conservation Team, Guianas, speaking in a personal capacity. “I’m simply basing that on the factual evidence on this continent. If you look at anywhere that they’ve been active, I don’t believe we can see a trend of positive outcomes for nature and Indigenous and tribal&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/mennonites-from-belize-spark-deforestation-fears-with-new-settlement-plans-in-suriname/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Another controversial land deal in Suriname threatens the Amazon Rainforest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/another-controversial-land-deal-in-suriname-threatens-the-amazon-rainforest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/another-controversial-land-deal-in-suriname-threatens-the-amazon-rainforest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Feb 2026 18:05:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[agribusiness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Agriculture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Conflict]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforest Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Threats To The Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/11180039/a.-31095596322_74911c9d69_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314134</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Guiana Shield, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Land Conflict, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Officials in Suriname are trying to cancel a controversial agribusiness contract that could result in the clearance of over a hundred thousand hectares of Amazon rainforest, risking the country’s carbon-negative status. In 2024, the agriculture ministry partnered with a private company to develop 113,465 hectares (280,378 acres) of rainforest for industrial agriculture in the northwestern [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Officials in Suriname are trying to cancel a controversial agribusiness contract that could result in the clearance of over a hundred thousand hectares of Amazon rainforest, risking the country’s carbon-negative status. In 2024, the agriculture ministry partnered with a private company to develop 113,465 hectares (280,378 acres) of rainforest for industrial agriculture in the northwestern district of Nickerie. Although development wasn’t immediately carried out, the legal framework remains in place and has allowed clearing to begin in recent months. “This is not just a local issue. This is a regional issue because of the role rainforests play on the continent,” John Goedschalk, a climate advisor to Suriname’s president, told Mongabay. “The continued deforestation in the Guiana Shield endangers access to water for people all the way to Argentina.” The land is being developed through a public-private partnership between the Ministry of Agriculture and Suriname Green Energy Agriculture N.V., a private company working in agriculture and bioenergy. The company began clearing the forest despite not receiving permits from the National Environmental Authority (NMA), government officials said in internal emails reviewed by Mongabay. The area almost completely overlaps with logging concessions regulated by multiple-use and sustainability regulations designed to protect primary forest. The company has also hired Mennonites, members of a conservative Protestant denomination, to work on the land, reigniting fears that the religious group will establish large farming communities that rapidly expand into forested areas, as has happened in other parts of the region. Suriname Green Energy Agriculture and the agriculture&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/another-controversial-land-deal-in-suriname-threatens-the-amazon-rainforest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Turning the Amazon’s toxic gold mine waste liability into economic opportunity (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/formalizing-amazon-gold-mining-can-transform-a-toxic-liability-into-an-economic-opportunity-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/formalizing-amazon-gold-mining-can-transform-a-toxic-liability-into-an-economic-opportunity-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jan 2026 19:13:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/02225429/25-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312918</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Destruction, Amazon Mining, Analysis, Business, Commentary, Community Development, Deforestation, Development, Drivers Of Deforestation, Gold Mining, Health, Illegal Mining, Mercury, Pollution, Public Health, Rainforest Mining, Sustainable Development, Threats To The Amazon, Tropical Deforestation, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The wildcat gold mining boom that swept across the Amazon beginning in the 1970s left behind an environmental catastrophe of staggering proportions. At least 350,000 hectares (almost 865,000 acres) of forest and wetland habitat have been destroyed by placer mining operations across the Pan Amazon, with the actual figure likely far higher given the limitations [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The wildcat gold mining boom that swept across the Amazon beginning in the 1970s left behind an environmental catastrophe of staggering proportions. At least 350,000 hectares (almost 865,000 acres) of forest and wetland habitat have been destroyed by placer mining operations across the Pan Amazon, with the actual figure likely far higher given the limitations of satellite monitoring for small-scale operations and river dredges. In the Tapajós River Basin in Brazil’s Pará state, particularly the municipality of Itaituba, five decades of alluvial mining have devastated tens of thousands of hectares of riparian forest while releasing an estimated 200-500 metric tons of mercury annually into watersheds. Mercury contamination has become endemic: 75% of the population of the municipality of Santarém shows elevated mercury levels, with some residents carrying four times the WHO limit. The legacy extends far beyond the mining sites themselves, as methylmercury bioaccumulates through aquatic food webs, threatening riverside communities across millions of hectares of downstream habitat. Yet hidden within this toxic legacy lies an economic opportunity that could finance comprehensive remediation while generating more than 200,000 formal-sector jobs. The garimpeiro (wildcat miner) reliance on mercury amalgamation technology is remarkably inefficient, because mercury captures only free gold particles through physical absorption, achieving recovery rates of 40-60% from alluvial placers. The remaining 40-60% of gold remains trapped in “tailings” as fine particles, bound in mineral matrices, or simply lost to processing inefficiency. Those tailings, an existing environmental catastrophe, contain an estimated 1,400-2,100 metric tons of recoverable gold worth $90 billion&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/formalizing-amazon-gold-mining-can-transform-a-toxic-liability-into-an-economic-opportunity-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>The Amazon in 2026: A challenging year ahead, now off the center stage</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-amazon-in-2026-a-challenging-year-ahead-now-off-the-center-stage/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-amazon-in-2026-a-challenging-year-ahead-now-off-the-center-stage/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 14:27:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/19151029/Parque_Estadual_Encontro_das_Aguas_Thomas-Fuhrmann_2023-_01_Jaguar_-_Panthera_onca_swimming-scaled-e1710871756906-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311879</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Amazon Agriculture, Amazon Destruction, Amazon People, Bioeconomy, Climate Change, Conflict, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Groups, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforest Deforestation, Threats To Rainforests, and Threats To The Amazon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As Belém's COP30 ended in compromise, political forces moved swiftly to accelerate destruction far from the global spotlight. 
]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon enters 2026 carrying the bitter taste of compromise. The world’s attention was fixed on Belém for the COP30 summit in November, transforming the Brazilian city into a brief, intense stage for climate diplomacy, where ambitious calls for a fossil fuel phaseout ultimately died on the negotiating floor. Yet, in 2025, the true battle for the rainforest was fought far from the Blue Zone. In the quiet shadows, powerful political forces moved to roll back environmental protections in Brazil (which holds 64% of the rainforest), successfully passing the anti-conservation bills and green-lighting critical infrastructure projects. This dual reality — grand promises versus accelerated development on the frontier — set the defining tension for the year, even as a more hopeful, grassroots movement gained momentum, finding new, valuable purpose for biodiversity in innovations, proving the rainforest is worth far more standing than cut. COP30 was wrapped in global expectations. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opened the summit by proposing a road map to enable humankind to overcome its dependence on fossil fuels in a fair and planned manner and to halt deforestation. However, the ambitious calls for a fossil fuel phaseout were excluded from the official COP outcomes. In response, Brazil, alongside the Colombian and Dutch delegations, agreed to develop road maps outside the formal U.N. process. This effort will culminate in the First International Conference on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, scheduled for April 2026, in Santa Marta, Colombia, to negotiate an equitable Fossil Fuel&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-amazon-in-2026-a-challenging-year-ahead-now-off-the-center-stage/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>In Guyana and Suriname, offshore oil and environmental interests clash</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-guyana-and-suriname-offshore-oil-and-environmental-interests-clash/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-guyana-and-suriname-offshore-oil-and-environmental-interests-clash/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Dec 2025 11:00:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fossil Fuels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[greenhouse gas emissions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[offshore extraction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oil Drilling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Policy]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/28184116/PORTADA-Suriname-Rhett-A-Butler-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310334</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Guyana, Latin America, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Corruption, Energy Politics, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Government, Offshore Drilling, Oil Drilling, Politics, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Note: this piece was written prior to 2025, but was only published in December 2025. Jennifer Geerlings-Simons is currently president of Suriname and spoke to Mongabay in November 2025. Both Guyana and Suriname have hybrid republican/parliamentary electoral systems that reflect their colonial heritage. In Guyana, the president is elected by a first-past-the-post outcome that sums [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Note: this piece was written prior to 2025, but was only published in December 2025. Jennifer Geerlings-Simons is currently president of Suriname and spoke to Mongabay in November 2025. Both Guyana and Suriname have hybrid republican/parliamentary electoral systems that reflect their colonial heritage. In Guyana, the president is elected by a first-past-the-post outcome that sums the votes for candidates of his/her party standing for election to the National Assembly (i.e., plurality of votes). In Suriname, the president is elected either by a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly or by a simple majority in the People’s Assembly, which is composed of all members of the National Assembly, as well as the elected members of district and local legislatures. In both countries, the president, once elected, has an exceptionally strong constitutional mandate as head of state and head of government. In Guyana, major parties all trace their foundation to historical figures who ruled as authoritarian leaders, including Forbes Burnham, the founder of the People&#8217;s National Congress Reform (PNCR), and Cheddi Jagan, who led what would eventually be the People&#8217;s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C). The founders are long dead, but their parties have stayed relevant because they have created institutional organisations that span all levels of the state. Guyanese politics are effectively divided along ethnic lines, with the PNCR primarily representing Afro-Guyanese, who make up around thirty per cent of the country’s population, while the PPP/C mostly represents Indo-Guyanese, who account for around forty per cent. The PPP/C governed Guyana for 23 years&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-guyana-and-suriname-offshore-oil-and-environmental-interests-clash/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>Afro-descendant territories slash deforestation, lock in carbon, study shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/afro-descendant-territories-slash-deforestation-lock-in-carbon-study-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/afro-descendant-territories-slash-deforestation-lock-in-carbon-study-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Nov 2025 10:02:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gonzalo Ortuño López]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/28095807/portada-mujeres-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310290</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Latin America, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Conservation, Carbon Dioxide, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Protected Areas, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Afro-descendant peoples in Latin America have historically been guardians of nature, but their role could be more important than previously estimated. New research carried out in four Amazonian countries — Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Suriname — has revealed that their territories have achieved lower levels of deforestation and greater conservation of biodiversity than other protected [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Afro-descendant peoples in Latin America have historically been guardians of nature, but their role could be more important than previously estimated. New research carried out in four Amazonian countries — Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Suriname — has revealed that their territories have achieved lower levels of deforestation and greater conservation of biodiversity than other protected areas. The study, funded by Conservation International and published in the journal Communications Earth &amp; Environment, is the first to use statistics, georeferenced information and historical context to measure the contributions of Afro-descendant populations to conservation. Afro-descendant people were taken as slaves from Africa to Latin America, where many fled into the wilderness in search of freedom. One of the study’s most significant findings is the sustained reduction of deforestation in Afro-descendant lands. Here the study found that forest loss was lower, depending on location, than in protected areas. For example, deforestation rates in Afro-descendant lands were 29% lower when the lands were inside protected areas, 36% lower when they were outside protected areas, and 55% lower when they were on the edge of these areas. “It confirms that we are the guardians of these Amazonian lands; we have been doing this sustainably for over 400 years,” says Hugo Jabini, Saramaka Maroon leader and winner of the 2009 Goldman Prize for defending Afro-descendant rights in Suriname. What’s more, Afro-descendant territories are vital for tropical biodiversity: the researchers found that they host habitat for more than 4,000 species of amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles. At least&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/afro-descendant-territories-slash-deforestation-lock-in-carbon-study-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>Why don’t forest protectors get paid? asks Suriname’s president</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/why-dont-forest-protectors-get-paid-asks-surinames-president/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/why-dont-forest-protectors-get-paid-asks-surinames-president/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Nov 2025 10:34:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/03214304/Atjoni_en_Pokigron_Surinamerivier-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=309956</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[South America and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Politics, Forests, Gold Mining, Governance, Green, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Protected Areas, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. At the U.N. Climate Change Conference, COP30, in Brazil, Suriname is taking a large step into the spotlight, reports Mongabay’s Max Radwin. With about 93% forest cover and a status as one of only three nations to boast [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. At the U.N. Climate Change Conference, COP30, in Brazil, Suriname is taking a large step into the spotlight, reports Mongabay’s Max Radwin. With about 93% forest cover and a status as one of only three nations to boast net-negative carbon emissions, the country is punching above its weight. Less usual is its insistence that countries that keep their forests intact should be paid. President Jennifer Geerlings‑Simons, in office since July, is driving that message. She argues that the frameworks set by the Paris Agreement and the Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes exist in principle, but not in practice. “People who actually took care of the forest and it’s still there … don’t get anything. They get a pat on the back and that’s it,” she told Radwin in Suriname. Her point has two threads. The first is the tension between conservation and development. Suriname has committed to preserving some 150,000 square kilometers (58,000 square miles) of rainforest by creating protected areas and recognizing Indigenous and Maroon territories. And yet the country also intends to press ahead with offshore oil projects. She frames the revenue from those projects as the means to pay for stronger oversight of gold and bauxite mining, and to fund tourism and infrastructure. She said the forest isn’t idle land — it stands on “many riches like gold, diamonds, bauxite and more. If we want to keep it standing, we’ll have&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/why-dont-forest-protectors-get-paid-asks-surinames-president/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Top ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin&#8217;s COP30 reflections on Amazon conservation (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/top-ethnobotanist-mark-plotkins-cop30-reflections-on-amazon-conservation-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/top-ethnobotanist-mark-plotkins-cop30-reflections-on-amazon-conservation-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Nov 2025 21:45:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark J. Plotkin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/17210100/Suriname-2-e1763414931233-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309585</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Latin America, Peru, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Rainforest, Analysis, Biodiversity, Biodiversity And Medicine, Botany, Commentary, Conservation, Development, Environment, Ethnobotany, Forest Products, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Medicinal Plants, Medicine, Rainforest People, Rainforests, Research, Sustainable Development, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Medicine, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Having studied the healing plants and peoples of tropical South America for well over four decades, I am often asked, “What is the conservation status of the Amazon Rainforest? Is the glass half-full or half-empty?” My reply never changes. “By definition, any glass that is half-full is half-empty!” When I first traveled to the Amazon [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Having studied the healing plants and peoples of tropical South America for well over four decades, I am often asked, “What is the conservation status of the Amazon Rainforest? Is the glass half-full or half-empty?” My reply never changes. “By definition, any glass that is half-full is half-empty!” When I first traveled to the Amazon in the 1970s, the world was a different place. Most people thought of the rainforest, if they thought of it at all, as a green hell to be avoided at all costs. Soon thereafter, public perception of tropical rainforests shifted dramatically, driven by the emerging modern environmental movement. Tropical forest and river in Suriname. Image courtesy of Mark J. Plotkin. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962 and Earth Day in 1970 were milestones in generating global awareness and concern over deforestation, pesticides, pollution and species extinction, particularly in the industrialized world. However, Western scientists like Tom Lovejoy, Richard Schultes and E.O. Wilson — as well as Brazilian scientists like Marcio Ayres, Paulo Nogueiro-Neto and Paulo Vanzolini — presented a compelling case that the biological richness and fragility of tropical forests merited at least as much attention as ecosystems in the temperate regions. These scientists reframed the global image of Amazonia from “green hell” to “treasure trove of biodiversity.” The media also played a positive role. The vast scale of burning and clearing — turning a green wonderland into a red desert through major development projects like ill-planned dams or road building — shocked and horrified&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/top-ethnobotanist-mark-plotkins-cop30-reflections-on-amazon-conservation-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>Suriname&#8217;s plan to capitalize on carbon: Q&#038;A with President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/surinames-plan-to-capitalize-on-carbon-qa-with-president-jennifer-geerlings-simons/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/surinames-plan-to-capitalize-on-carbon-qa-with-president-jennifer-geerlings-simons/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Nov 2025 15:22:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[agribusiness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Agriculture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Carbon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Loss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gold Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Communities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Groups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infrastructure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Conflict]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Grabbing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law Enforcement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oil Drilling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforest Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Threats To The Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Deforestation]]></category>
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					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308750</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[South America and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Amazon Mining, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Forests, Gold Mining, Governance, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Logging, Mining, Protected Areas, Rainforest Conservation, Rainforest Deforestation, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforest Mining, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PARAMARIBO, Suriname — With the U.N. Climate Change Conference coming up next week, Suriname finds itself at the center of a global debate about how to reduce carbon emissions and prevent deforestation. COP30 will see nearly 200 countries converge on the city of Belém in the Brazilian Amazon, with multiple climate policy solutions on the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PARAMARIBO, Suriname — With the U.N. Climate Change Conference coming up next week, Suriname finds itself at the center of a global debate about how to reduce carbon emissions and prevent deforestation. COP30 will see nearly 200 countries converge on the city of Belém in the Brazilian Amazon, with multiple climate policy solutions on the agenda. Neighboring Suriname, despite its small size and influence, will have a uniquely large voice at the event. The South American country has managed to keep 93% of its national forest cover and boasts net-negative carbon emissions, meaning it absorbs more CO₂ than it emits — a rare feat achieved by only two other countries: Panama and Bhutan. As a member of multiple international coalitions, including the G-Zero Forum, Suriname has used its conservation success to lead calls for Indigenous rights, biodiversity protections, and financial compensation for smaller countries that have already met emissions targets. President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, who took office in July, has been especially vocal about pinning down the frameworks for international carbon markets, which would allow nations to buy and sell credits earned from emissions reductions. The Paris Agreement establishes frameworks for doing this, but Geerlings-Simons says countries still aren’t seeing the money that they should. Carbon-emitting countries need to be held accountable, she says, and countries conserving their forests must see real compensation. During Climate Week in New York in September, her government pledged to formally conserve 90% of Suriname’s rainforest — more than 150,000 square kilometers (58,000 square miles) —&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/surinames-plan-to-capitalize-on-carbon-qa-with-president-jennifer-geerlings-simons/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Amid systemic corruption, Amazon countries struggle to fight environmental crime</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/amid-systemic-corruption-amazon-countries-struggle-to-fight-environmental-crime/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/amid-systemic-corruption-amazon-countries-struggle-to-fight-environmental-crime/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2025 11:00:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law Enforcement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Threats To The Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/24000235/territorios_colectivos4mongabay-latam-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308249</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Andes, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Corruption, Crime, Environment, Environmental Crime, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Governance, Law, Law Enforcement, and Threats To The Amazon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The most powerful individuals in courtrooms are the judges. Their leadership is essential for bringing any type of reform to fruition, be it an anti-corruption campaign or an ‘all-of-government’ drive to fight environmental crime. In the Andean Republics, their involvement in crimes of commission via bribery and extortion is a major source of judicial corruption. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The most powerful individuals in courtrooms are the judges. Their leadership is essential for bringing any type of reform to fruition, be it an anti-corruption campaign or an ‘all-of-government’ drive to fight environmental crime. In the Andean Republics, their involvement in crimes of commission via bribery and extortion is a major source of judicial corruption. In Brazil, judges are more likely to commit crimes of omission with delaying tactics that allow cases to spend years in a state of suspended litigation. In Brazil, efforts to reform the judiciary are managed by the Conselho Nacional de Justiça (CNJ), which, like the prosecutorial system, has an internal affairs unit (Corregedoria) that monitors the ethical conduct of its members. Although the CNJ has an impressive data management system that it uses to track its massive caseload, the Corregedoria does not provide (easily understandable) statistics that reveal its record in fighting judicial corruption. An investigative journalist with expertise in legal affairs reviewed data from the CNJ in 2012 and reported that 5,917 cases had been processed, of which 1,637 had been adjudicated at trial, leading to 205 convictions, while 2,918 were dismissed on technicalities or because of the statute of limitations. A separate study spanning 2005 to 2017 found that 82 judges had been subject to disciplinary action, which forced 53 into compulsory retirement, a punishment that removed them from the courts but did not deprive them of their pension. Despite the reforms, the system remains opaque, and there are few reports in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/amid-systemic-corruption-amazon-countries-struggle-to-fight-environmental-crime/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>In the Guyana Shield, the fight against deforestation is not ambitious enough</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-the-guyana-shield-the-fight-against-deforestation-is-not-ambitious-enough/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-the-guyana-shield-the-fight-against-deforestation-is-not-ambitious-enough/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Oct 2025 16:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Loss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Illegal Logging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Grabbing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law Enforcement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Threats To The Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/14122852/mining-deforestation-suriname-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306925</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Guyana, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Biodiversity, Climate Change, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Rainforest Deforestation, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The three Guiana Shield countries do not suffer from high deforestation levels, which should render their commitments to eradicate deforestation more credible. Nonetheless, some government officials continue to promote conventional development polices. Guyana’s most recent NDC commits the government to implementing regulations and incentive programmes to avoid deforestation and forest degradation, along with a comprehensive [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The three Guiana Shield countries do not suffer from high deforestation levels, which should render their commitments to eradicate deforestation more credible. Nonetheless, some government officials continue to promote conventional development polices. Guyana’s most recent NDC commits the government to implementing regulations and incentive programmes to avoid deforestation and forest degradation, along with a comprehensive land use plan that purposes to rationally exploit the nation’s resources. Presumably, these commitments will be financed by the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF), a jurisdictional REDD+ programme established in 2010 following an agreement between Guyana and Norway to maintain (and further reduce) Guyana’s historically low deforestation rates. As of January 2024, the fund had received US$ 150 million in payments, of which about US$ 70 million have been disbursed to support a variety of projects, from developing a national green development plan to formalising titles of Indigenous territories. Guyana has also joined the ART system for future trade in REDD+ credits. Suriname has made a similar commitment in its NDC by emphasizing its status as a high cover – low deforestation country (HFLD) and its expectations that the international community will provide financial support to help maintain (and improve) the status quo. The country recently filed to claim REDD+ credits using a UN-approved mechanism similar to the jurisdictional approach used by Guyana; it is also essentially demanding compensation for its historically low levels of GHG emissions from deforestation. Mennonites burn the trees first, then cut the trunks and lastly prepare the land for crops.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-the-guyana-shield-the-fight-against-deforestation-is-not-ambitious-enough/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>Protecting Indigenous Amazon lands may also protect public health, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/protecting-indigenous-amazon-lands-may-also-protect-public-health-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/protecting-indigenous-amazon-lands-may-also-protect-public-health-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Sep 2025 16:13:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Loss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Communities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Conflict]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Deforestation]]></category>
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					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306273</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aerosol Pollution, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Diseases, Health, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Nature And Health, Planetary Health, Pollution, Public Health, Rainforest Deforestation, Threats To Rainforests, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous territories are widely recognized as vital for conserving the environment and biodiversity, but far less is known about their role in protecting human health. Only recently have researchers begun to fill in this knowledge gap and investigate how the protection of these areas can provide health benefits as well as ecosystem services. Now, a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous territories are widely recognized as vital for conserving the environment and biodiversity, but far less is known about their role in protecting human health. Only recently have researchers begun to fill in this knowledge gap and investigate how the protection of these areas can provide health benefits as well as ecosystem services. Now, a new paper analyzing the relationship between Indigenous territories and the occurrence of 21 diseases in the Amazon biome over 20 years suggests that healthy forests on protected Indigenous territories can help reduce disease incidence and risks to human health. “Indigenous forests act as a sort of shield for health,” said study lead author Júlia Rodrigues Barreto, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. Published in Communications Earth &amp; Environment, the study is the first of its kind to look at all nine Amazonian countries. Its main contribution, according to Barreto, is to convey the importance of guaranteeing land rights for Indigenous peoples across the Amazon. Indigenous village of the Huni Kuin people in Jordão, Acre. Indigenous territories with secure land rights not only reduce deforestation inside their lands in the Brazilian Amazon, but also lead to higher secondary forest growth on previously deforested areas. Image by AgniBa via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Barreto and her colleagues looked at how Indigenous territories, depending on their legal status and landscape characteristics, could influence the incidence of fire-related illnesses, as well as vector-borne and zoonotic diseases — those transmitted by insect bites or&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/protecting-indigenous-amazon-lands-may-also-protect-public-health-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>An Indigenous-led solar canoe initiative expands across the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/an-indigenous-led-solar-canoe-initiative-expands-across-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/an-indigenous-led-solar-canoe-initiative-expands-across-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Sep 2025 07:00:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/29185918/Photo-4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305211</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Ecuador, Latin America, Peru, Solomon Islands, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Biodiversity, Amazon Conservation, Amazon Rainforest, Conservation Solutions, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Peoples, Renewable Energy, Roads, Solar Power, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A solar-powered canoe initiative originally launched in Ecuador’s Amazon in 2017 has now expanded to Indigenous coastal communities in Brazil, Peru, Suriname and the Solomon Islands. Researchers say the effort helps communities in tropical regions reduce gasoline and diesel use, avoid road expansion and develop non-extractive income projects like tourism and forestry products businesses. Ichinki [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A solar-powered canoe initiative originally launched in Ecuador’s Amazon in 2017 has now expanded to Indigenous coastal communities in Brazil, Peru, Suriname and the Solomon Islands. Researchers say the effort helps communities in tropical regions reduce gasoline and diesel use, avoid road expansion and develop non-extractive income projects like tourism and forestry products businesses. Ichinki Tentets Tanchim Federico, a leader from the Indigenous Achuar community of Wayusentsa in Ecuador, which recently received a solar-powered canoe, told Mongabay via WhatsApp that the boat has reduced pollution by using engines that don’t release exhaust fumes in the waters and air. “[They] do not pollute the environment, especially for those who live near rivers,” he said, adding that it has saved Indigenous people the cost of purchasing fuel and oil. The Kara Solar Foundation, an Indigenous-led team of engineers, communicators, social scientists and solar technicians, created the project after Indigenous Achuar people in the southeastern Ecuadorian Amazon expressed their vision to build a solar-powered boat. Tapiatpia, the first solar canoe, survived an 1,800-kilometer (1,118-mile) journey across several Amazonian rivers and safely returned to Achuar territory in 2017. Since then, Kara Solar has delivered 12 solar-powered canoes to communities in five countries and built solar recharge stations that double as community energy centers. Six of the canoes were delivered to communities in Ecuador, two in Peru, two in Brazil, one in Suriname and one in the Solomon Islands. It has also trained members of Indigenous communities to operate and manage the systems in their&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/an-indigenous-led-solar-canoe-initiative-expands-across-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Half a million hectares of rainforest were saved — in part thanks to journalism</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/half-a-million-hectares-of-rainforest-were-saved-in-part-thanks-to-journalism/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/half-a-million-hectares-of-rainforest-were-saved-in-part-thanks-to-journalism/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jun 2025 09:54:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/24190027/suriname_2819-16X9-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=301265</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Journalism, Environmental Politics, Governance, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Hope and optimism, Journalism, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In a packed event held in Palo Alto, California, at the end of SF Climate Week in April, Willie Shubert, the vice president of programs and executive editor at Mongabay, shared a compelling example of how Mongabay’s journalism [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In a packed event held in Palo Alto, California, at the end of SF Climate Week in April, Willie Shubert, the vice president of programs and executive editor at Mongabay, shared a compelling example of how Mongabay’s journalism is making a real-world impact. He described how Mongabay’s consistent, beat-focused coverage helped prevent the deforestation of 535,000 hectares (1.32 million acres) of Amazon Rainforest in Suriname — an area equivalent to more than 15% of global annual primary tropical forest loss. For years, Mongabay reporters had tracked the expansion of Mennonite agricultural communities across Latin America, using satellite imagery, field research and on-the-ground verification. By treating incremental developments — such as new bridges into areas adjacent to protected areas zones — as newsworthy early-warning signs, our journalists built a network of trusted sources and strong relationships with local communities. This trust paid off when a confidential source leaked a secret agreement to convert vast areas of rainforest for new agricultural settlements for Mennonite colonists. Mongabay broke the story in December 2023 with satellite analysis from the nonprofit Amazon Conservation. By January, lawmakers, civil society groups and Indigenous communities mounted an outcry. The pilot project was cancelled soon after, and the larger initiative was halted by court injunction. Shubert emphasized that this result wasn’t the product of a single investigation, but of daily, consistent journalism — showing how long-term commitment to covering environmental beats can&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/half-a-million-hectares-of-rainforest-were-saved-in-part-thanks-to-journalism/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Climate strikes the Amazon, undermining protection efforts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/climate-strikes-the-amazon-undermining-protection-efforts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/climate-strikes-the-amazon-undermining-protection-efforts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jun 2025 14:53:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/28140600/GP0SU1T9Q_24_1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=300240</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, forest degradation, Forest Fires, Forests, Governance, Green, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and wildfires]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Fires raged across the Amazon rainforest in 2024, annihilating more than 4.6 million hectares of primary tropical forest—the most biodiverse and carbon-dense type of forest on Earth. That loss, which is larger than the size of Denmark, was more than twice the annual average between 2014 and 2023, according to data released last month by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Fires raged across the Amazon rainforest in 2024, annihilating more than 4.6 million hectares of primary tropical forest—the most biodiverse and carbon-dense type of forest on Earth. That loss, which is larger than the size of Denmark, was more than twice the annual average between 2014 and 2023, according to data released last month by World Resources Institute&#8217;s Global Forest Watch. It was the highest loss for the biome since annual records began in 2002. Sixty percent of that destruction was caused by fire—a record high. If all tree cover is counted, the toll climbs to nearly 6.2 million hectares. Brazil bore the brunt, losing 2.78 million hectares of primary forest. Bolivia saw a 586% increase over its 10-year average, as did Guyana. In Brazil, deforestation has plunged under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who moved swiftly to reassert environmental governance. But nature had other plans. Blistering temperatures and the worst drought in 70 years—fueled by climate change and compounded by El Niño—turned routine agricultural burns into runaway infernos. Lula’s reforms proved no match for an accelerating climate crisis or the long tail of past mismanagement. Annual deforestation (Aug 1-Jul 31), according to INPE. Deforestation is tracked separately from forest loss due to fire. Monthly deforestation alerts (excluding fire) from INPE and Imazon, an organization that independently tracks deforestation. In Bolivia, policy choices stoked the fires. The government removed export quotas on beef and soy, cut import taxes on agrochemicals, and offered debt relief to those affected by fire—effectively&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/climate-strikes-the-amazon-undermining-protection-efforts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>What’s at stake for the environment in Suriname’s upcoming elections?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-surinames-upcoming-elections/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-surinames-upcoming-elections/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 May 2025 18:22:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gold Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/23175612/UN71064235-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299592</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[South America and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate Change, Climate Change Politics, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Mining, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Suriname, one of the most forested countries in the world, will hold elections this weekend for parliament and set up a vote for the next president. The outcome could determine whether the forest remains largely intact or succumbs to logging, agribusiness, mining and other threats that many officials argue are vital to economic growth. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Suriname, one of the most forested countries in the world, will hold elections this weekend for parliament and set up a vote for the next president. The outcome could determine whether the forest remains largely intact or succumbs to logging, agribusiness, mining and other threats that many officials argue are vital to economic growth. The vote will also be pivotal for Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities fighting for their ancestral land rights. Elections in Suriname differ from most countries in South America. Voters will elect members for all 51 seats of the National Assembly, who will then choose the president, usually the leader of a majority party or coalition. The incumbent, President Chandrikapersad Santokhi, is a likely candidate, although he’s faced sinking popularity in the runup to the elections, and even asked the country for “more time” to carry out his agenda. Recent opinion polls show that his Progressive Reform Party is losing support with the country, with most people saying they want new leadership. Santokhi has done little to publicly support conservation of the Amazon Rainforest, instead pushing for development that has led to deforestation. Approximately 93% of Suriname is covered by rainforest, making it one of the few countries that acts as a carbon sink, absorbing more CO2 than it emits. For this reason, forest loss can be a sensitive political issue for many citizens. Mennonites visiting a farm during a trip through Suriname. (Photo courtesy of Adrián Barbero) Under Santokhi’s watch, officials planned a three-year pilot program that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-surinames-upcoming-elections/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Land rights bill in Suriname sparks outrage in Indigenous communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/land-rights-bill-in-suriname-sparks-outrage-in-indigenous-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/land-rights-bill-in-suriname-sparks-outrage-in-indigenous-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Feb 2025 16:48:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Communities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Groups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Conflict]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Logging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/27172858/11-2-1-768x450.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295104</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Threats To Rainforests, Tribal Groups, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Officials in Suriname are considering legislation that would finally establish territorial rights for Indigenous and Tribal communities. But not everyone is happy with the language of the bill, and some are even hoping it will fail to pass. Recent changes to a collective rights bill in Suriname are supposed to reinforce the legal status of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Officials in Suriname are considering legislation that would finally establish territorial rights for Indigenous and Tribal communities. But not everyone is happy with the language of the bill, and some are even hoping it will fail to pass. Recent changes to a collective rights bill in Suriname are supposed to reinforce the legal status of Indigenous and Tribal communities and grant them autonomy over natural resources, but critics say it could actually do the opposite, stripping their control of the land while giving the government the power to keep developing. “[The law] only has value for those who don’t sincerely want to legally recognize and protect the collective rights of Indigenous and Tribal peoples in accordance with international standards,” said a statement from the Association of Village Leaders (VIDS), which represents all 51 villages in Suriname. “…It’s an insult to the government itself if it wants to be known as a government that adheres to the principles of the rule of law.” Suriname was supposed to grant land rights to communities back in 2007, when the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) ruled that logging and mining operations were a threat to their “cultural survival.” But over the last decade, officials have delayed legalizing the official map for the estimated 138,000 Indigenous and Tribal people in the country, who live across over a million hectares (2.4 million acres) of forest. Deforestation from logging in Suriname. Photo by Riano Gunther/ILC. Several versions of a land rights bill have failed or stalled in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/land-rights-bill-in-suriname-sparks-outrage-in-indigenous-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Plans for bauxite mine in Suriname reignite Indigenous land rights debate</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/plans-for-bauxite-mine-in-suriname-reignite-indigenous-land-rights-debate/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/plans-for-bauxite-mine-in-suriname-reignite-indigenous-land-rights-debate/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jan 2025 18:10:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Communities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforest Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Deforestation]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/16174856/Feature-13-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293049</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, FPIC, Governance, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Mining, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Plans for a major mining project in western Suriname have sounded alarms in nearby Indigenous communities, who say that the project will destroy local ecosystems, violate their land rights and encroach on their traditional ways of life. A bauxite mine run by Chinese corporation Chinalco could begin operating in 2026, with first construction work planned [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Plans for a major mining project in western Suriname have sounded alarms in nearby Indigenous communities, who say that the project will destroy local ecosystems, violate their land rights and encroach on their traditional ways of life. A bauxite mine run by Chinese corporation Chinalco could begin operating in 2026, with first construction work planned for the middle of this year. The scale of the project has worried activists, who say the government is prioritizing the economy over the rights of its citizens. “There’s nothing wrong with looking to improve infrastructure. There’s nothing wrong with looking to bring jobs — that’s absolutely great,” John Goedschalk, head of Climate Change Advisory Services, a climate and conservation consulting group, told Mongabay. “But let’s do it right. Let’s do it in a way that doesn’t take away the rights of people to live where they live.” If approved by parliament, the 30-year project will allow Chinalco to produce around 6 million tons of bauxite annually on a 280,000-hectare (691,895-acre) site. The mineral is used in the production of aluminum and has been a cornerstone of Suriname’s economy for decades. A Scarlet ibis (Eudocimus ruber) in Suriname. Photo by Tim Strater via Wikimedia. The mine, located near the village of Bakhuis, will require refurbishing and expanding infrastructure for a harbor and railroad built in the 1970s, and gives the company “priority right” to use the Corantijn river for dredging, a process involving the removal of riverbed sediment. The company also has first rights to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/plans-for-bauxite-mine-in-suriname-reignite-indigenous-land-rights-debate/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>The particularities of the migratory movement in Venezuela, the Guianas and Suriname</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-particularities-of-the-migratory-movement-in-venezuela-the-guianas-and-suriname/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-particularities-of-the-migratory-movement-in-venezuela-the-guianas-and-suriname/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Dec 2024 17:03:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amazon mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amazon Rainforest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[forest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Communities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Population]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/07153906/RioCauca-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292382</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, French Guiana, Guiana Shield, Latin America, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Drought, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Human Migration, Migration, Mining, and Population]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The modern history of internal migration in Colombia began in a manner that was not unlike the processes organized by the governments in Brazil and the other Andean countries in the 1960s and early 1970s. However, that process was derailed first by a civil war and subsequently by the production of illicit drugs, largely because [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The modern history of internal migration in Colombia began in a manner that was not unlike the processes organized by the governments in Brazil and the other Andean countries in the 1960s and early 1970s. However, that process was derailed first by a civil war and subsequently by the production of illicit drugs, largely because of tactics pursued by the Fuerzas Armada Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). The conflict effectively suppressed state infrastructure investment while freezing land acquisition by middle-class families and investors. At the same time, however, it fuelled the migration of displaced peasants, who opted to cultivate coca under the protective umbrella of the FARC. The conflict officially ended in 2017 via the so-called Peace Process, which brought momentous change to the Colombian Amazon. The FARC no longer exists as an organized military entity, but it has been replaced by criminal groups composed of demobilized guerillas and militia members. Unfortunately, the state has not established a meaningful presence in the region and the cessation of hostilities has triggered a land rush supercharged by the drug trade and the cattle industry. Two young people ride a motorbike on the street that divides Tabatinga in Brazil from Leticia in Colombia. Crime rates have risen sharply in the region. Image by Ivan Brehaut. Migratory pathways Before the civil war, the administration of President Carlos Lleras Restrepo (1966–1970) created the Instituto Nacional de Colonización (INCOR) in an attempt to respond to the demand for land by the rural poor. The strategy was supported&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-particularities-of-the-migratory-movement-in-venezuela-the-guianas-and-suriname/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>The year in tropical rainforests: 2024</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-year-in-tropical-rainforests-2024/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-year-in-tropical-rainforests-2024/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Dec 2024 00:25:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/24155125/Slide1-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292245</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Brazil, Colombia, Congo, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Ecuador, Global, Indonesia, Latin America, Peru, South America, Southeast Asia, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Ecosystem Finance, Environment, Environmental Politics, Featured, Fires, Forest Fires, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Green, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, Indigenous Peoples, Protected Areas, Rainforest Conservation, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, Regulations, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Saving Rainforests, Saving The Amazon, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, Year in review - rainforests, and Year-end review]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The year 2024 saw significant developments in tropical rainforest conservation, deforestation, and degradation. While progress in some regions provided glimmers of hope, systemic challenges and emerging threats highlighted the fragility of these ecosystems. Although a complete comparison of tropical forest loss in 2024 with previous years is not yet available, there are currently no indications [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The year 2024 saw significant developments in tropical rainforest conservation, deforestation, and degradation. While progress in some regions provided glimmers of hope, systemic challenges and emerging threats highlighted the fragility of these ecosystems. Although a complete comparison of tropical forest loss in 2024 with previous years is not yet available, there are currently no indications that this year’s loss will be markedly higher. A sharp decline in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon—partially offset by widespread forest fires—suggests the overall rate of loss may be lower. This analysis explores key storylines that shaped tropical rainforests in 2024. &nbsp; Previous year-in-reviews: 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | The 2010s | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2009 Contents Brazil | Suriname | Indonesia | Congo Basin | EUDR | Conservation finance | Carbon market | Biodiversity credits | Forest science | Remote sensing | 30&#215;30 | Illegality in the Amazon | Politics A respite in the Brazilian Amazon: Deforestation declines amid rising fires The Brazilian Amazon experienced a notable decline in deforestation in 2024, offering a rare glimmer of optimism for the embattled rainforest. According to Brazil&#8217;s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), forest loss fell by 30.6% between August 2023 and July 2024, reaching its lowest level in nine years. The 6,288 square kilometers of rainforest cleared—a swath roughly the size of Delaware—marks the smallest annual loss since 2015. The slowdown is part of a three-year trend&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-year-in-tropical-rainforests-2024/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-year-in-tropical-rainforests-2024/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mining drove 1.4m hectares of forest loss in last 2 decades: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2024/11/mining-drove-1-4m-hectares-of-forest-loss-in-last-2-decades-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2024/11/mining-drove-1-4m-hectares-of-forest-loss-in-last-2-decades-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Nov 2024 03:05:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kristine Sabillo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/05030351/rainforest-indonesia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=289677</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Europe, Ghana, Guyana, Indonesia, Myanmar, North America, Peru, Russia, South America, Suriname, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Green, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Logging, Mining, Protected Areas, Rainforest Conservation, Rainforest Deforestation, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Global mining activity is increasingly destroying forests, including protected areas, according to a recent analysis. Between 2001 and 2020, nearly 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres) of tree cover, an area a third the size of Denmark, was lost from mining-related activity, the analysis from the World Resources Institute (WRI) found. The associated greenhouse gas [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Global mining activity is increasingly destroying forests, including protected areas, according to a recent analysis. Between 2001 and 2020, nearly 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres) of tree cover, an area a third the size of Denmark, was lost from mining-related activity, the analysis from the World Resources Institute (WRI) found. The associated greenhouse gas emissions amounted to about 36 million metric tons annually, the authors write, similar to Finland’s fossil fuel emissions in 2022. Of the total tree cover loss, some 450,000 hectares (1.1 million acres) were in tropical primary rainforests, 260,000 hectares (643,000 acres) were in lands governed by Indigenous peoples and local communities, and 150,000 hectares (371,000 acres) were in protected areas. Nearly 90% of the mining-related tree cover loss was concentrated in just 11 countries: Indonesia, Brazil, Russia, the U.S., Canada, Peru, Ghana, Suriname, Myanmar, Australia and Guyana. “Cutting down trees not only destroys habitats and pushes species toward extinction but also worsens climate change by releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,” Radost Stanimirova, the report’s co-author and research associate at WRI, told Mongabay in an email. “Additionally, many Indigenous communities rely on these forests for food, medicine, and their cultural practices.” The report notes that mining’s contribution to the overall global tree cover loss is smaller than other drivers of deforestation, such as forestry, which caused 130 million hectares (321 million acres) of tree cover loss, or wildfires (90 million hectares, or 222 million acres) in the same period. However, Stanimirova said the regional impacts&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2024/11/mining-drove-1-4m-hectares-of-forest-loss-in-last-2-decades-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>A nesting haven for sea turtles in Suriname is fading away</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/a-nesting-haven-for-sea-turtles-in-suriname-is-fading-away/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/a-nesting-haven-for-sea-turtles-in-suriname-is-fading-away/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Oct 2024 11:21:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Stefanie Lauchman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Animals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[biodiversity loss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Climate Change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Climate Change And Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Habitat Degradation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Habitat Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Habitat Loss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infrastructure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marine Animals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marine Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wildlife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife Conservation]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/07110819/1024px-Braamspunt-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288294</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[South America and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change And Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Habitat Destruction, Marine Biodiversity, Mining, Oceans, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BRAAMSPUNT BEACH, Suriname — As little as five years ago, parts of the beach here were  500 meters or wider, more than a quarter of a mile, says Kiran Balrampersad. “Now,” he says, “there are only 10-12 meters [33-39 feet] left.” For more than a decade, Balrampersad has guided sea turtle tours on Braamspunt Beach, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BRAAMSPUNT BEACH, Suriname — As little as five years ago, parts of the beach here were  500 meters or wider, more than a quarter of a mile, says Kiran Balrampersad. “Now,” he says, “there are only 10-12 meters [33-39 feet] left.” For more than a decade, Balrampersad has guided sea turtle tours on Braamspunt Beach, located on the east bank of the mouth of the Suriname River, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Suriname’s capital, Paramaribo. “I have witnessed erosion taking place at an accelerated rate every year,” Balrampersad tells Mongabay. Braamspunt is one of the few sandy beaches in Suriname, where sea turtles, including leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), green (Chelonia mydas) and olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea), all threatened species, come to lay their eggs every February to August. The beach’s rapid shrinking, driven by climate change impacts and sand mining, is threatening the species, already under pressure from excessive hunting and habitat destruction. The rapid erosion of Braamspunt not only threatens these turtles&#8217; nesting success but also disrupts the delicate balance of the marine ecosystems that the animals help sustain. Braamspunt is also important for the coastal defense of Paramaribo against rising sea levels. A nesting haven is retreating Braamspunt’s plight isn’t a singular case in the region, research shows. The study by WWF with Dutch research institute Deltares and Delft Technical University documents how turtle nesting beaches in Suriname and neighboring Guyana and French Guiana are undergoing the same phenomenon. The rapid erosion of Braamspunt Beach threatens turtle species&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/a-nesting-haven-for-sea-turtles-in-suriname-is-fading-away/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Amazon is ablaze again. What it means for us (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/the-amazon-is-ablaze-again-what-it-means-for-us-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/the-amazon-is-ablaze-again-what-it-means-for-us-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Sep 2024 00:08:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark J. Plotkin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/27150306/amazon_201359_24-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287959</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Botany, Climate Change, Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystem Services, Editorials, Environment, Ethnobotany, Fires, Forest Fires, Forest People, Forests, Green, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Medicinal Plants, Precipitation, Rainforest People, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and wildfires]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, the world watched in horror as images of the Amazon rainforest ablaze flooded the news. Over 70,000 wildfires raged uncontrollably, killing wildlife, filling hospitals with patients struggling to breathe, polluting rivers, halting air traffic, and casting a dark pall over Brazil’s largest cities. And now, it&#8217;s happening again. Climate change is no longer [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, the world watched in horror as images of the Amazon rainforest ablaze flooded the news. Over 70,000 wildfires raged uncontrollably, killing wildlife, filling hospitals with patients struggling to breathe, polluting rivers, halting air traffic, and casting a dark pall over Brazil’s largest cities. And now, it&#8217;s happening again. Scorched earth on the banks of the drought-stricken Xingu River in the Capoto-Jarina Indigenous Territory on September 12th, 2024. Photo © Marizilda Cruppe / Greenpeace. Fire on the banks of the drought-stricken Xingu River in the Capoto-Jarina Indigenous Territory on September 12th, 2024. Photo © Marizilda Cruppe / Greenpeace. Climate change is no longer a distant threat; it’s here, growing more severe with each year. We are witnessing an increase in extreme weather events—more frequent and intense hurricanes, floods, and droughts. Rising sea levels are flooding coastlines, endangering entire island nations as well as major American cities like New York and my hometown of New Orleans. Worsening heatwaves are threatening to make vast regions of the Middle East and Indian subcontinent uninhabitable. Climate refugees and drought can only lead to more human misery and additional conflict. Number of fire hotspots detected by the Aqua satellite across Brazilian biomes between Jan 1 and Sep 26, 1998-2024, according to INPE. Number of fire hotspots detected by the Aqua satellite across the Brazilian Amazon (Amazonia) between Jan 1 and Sep 26, 1998-2024, according to INPE. Ironically, some of South America’s most traditional peoples were among the first to raise the alarm about global&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/the-amazon-is-ablaze-again-what-it-means-for-us-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Clearest picture yet of Amazon carbon density could help guide conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/clearest-picture-yet-of-amazon-carbon-density-could-help-guide-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/clearest-picture-yet-of-amazon-carbon-density-could-help-guide-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Sep 2024 10:00:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amazon Rainforest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carbon Sink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conservation technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[forest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Carbon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[greenhouse gas emissions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mapping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforest Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/10164850/Feature-12-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287218</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Mapping, Rainforest Conservation, Rainforests, Research, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Cutting-edge machine-learning models have created one of the most detailed, high-resolution maps yet of aboveground carbon density in the Amazon Rainforest, revealing where the forest is most intact and what areas are most in need of conservation attention. A combination of machine-learning models and satellite readings show that the Amazon Rainforest contains 56.8 billion metric [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Cutting-edge machine-learning models have created one of the most detailed, high-resolution maps yet of aboveground carbon density in the Amazon Rainforest, revealing where the forest is most intact and what areas are most in need of conservation attention. A combination of machine-learning models and satellite readings show that the Amazon Rainforest contains 56.8 billion metric tons of aboveground carbon, or the amount of carbon contained in plants on the surface of the Amazon. It’s one of the most precise estimates to date and amounts to more than one and a half times global emissions in 2023. “I was just really mesmerized by the data,” Matt Finer, director and senior research specialist of Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), told Mongabay. “You just put your glasses on and you can suddenly see. The carbon feature of the Amazon is suddenly clear.” The map is the result of an MAAP analysis of data from the Forest Carbon Diligence program run by Earth-imaging outfit Planet, which measures tree cover, tree height and the carbon storage of trees. It also used high-resolution airborne lidar data (a technology that employs lasers to scan an area, much like radar), combined with a global carbon data set from NASA satellite readings. The result was one of the most precise readings ever of forest carbon in the Amazon, showing which areas are the densest and providing clues to what conservation approaches are the most effective. According to the map, the highest carbon levels are located&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/clearest-picture-yet-of-amazon-carbon-density-could-help-guide-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Indigenous communities sidelined for Suriname’s new carbon credit program, critics say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/indigenous-communities-sidelined-for-surinames-new-carbon-credit-program-critics-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/indigenous-communities-sidelined-for-surinames-new-carbon-credit-program-critics-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Aug 2024 20:14:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carbon Emissions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Climate Change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Climate Change And Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[forest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Carbon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global warming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[greenhouse gas emissions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Communities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Groups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Conflict]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforest Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/26162625/9-1-768x450.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286523</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Forest Carbon, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Rainforest Deforestation, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Local and Indigenous communities in Suriname are speaking out about a new carbon credit trading scheme that they say the government pushed through without consulting them. They’re worried they’ve been left out of forest conservation policies and revenue sharing tied to land that they have ancestral claims to. The government in Suriname announced an offering [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Local and Indigenous communities in Suriname are speaking out about a new carbon credit trading scheme that they say the government pushed through without consulting them. They’re worried they’ve been left out of forest conservation policies and revenue sharing tied to land that they have ancestral claims to. The government in Suriname announced an offering of the world’s first sovereign carbon credits through the UNFCCC Paris Agreement framework, allowing the country to issue and trade carbon credits with other countries and the private sector. But communities living in the forests that made the credits possible say the government rushed the process and didn’t take them into account. &#8220;The people who&#8217;ve really been caring for the forest and who need to be strengthened first and foremost are kind of a side note. They&#8217;re kind of an afterthought,&#8221; John Goedschalk, head of Climate Change Advisory Services, told Mongabay. &#8220;&#8230;The government put together this whole process and this whole system, and then they went to the communities and said, &#8216;Oh, by the way, this is it.&#8217; I mean, that&#8217;s just wrong on so many levels.&#8221; Carbon credits allow businesses and countries to offset their greenhouse gas emissions, in many cases by applying the credits to rainforests with high levels of biodiversity. Rainforest carbon credits in Suriname are meant to preserve the Amazon and cancel out other emissions abroad. Suriname is covered by approximately 93% Amazon Rainforest and is one of the only countries in the world with net-negative carbon emissions, positioning it as a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/indigenous-communities-sidelined-for-surinames-new-carbon-credit-program-critics-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>Mining gold in the greenstone belt of Panamazonia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/mining-gold-in-the-greenstone-belt-of-panamazonia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/mining-gold-in-the-greenstone-belt-of-panamazonia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Aug 2024 10:39:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/06193521/ch5_guayana-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285789</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, French Guiana, Latin America, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Mining, Gold Mining, Illegal Mining, Illegal Trade, and Mining]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Greenstone belts are zones of metamorphic and volcanic rocks that occur within ancient (Archean) formations dominated by granite and gneiss. They are common to most of the cratons in the world and are often associated with world-class gold deposits. The most important greenstone belt in the Pan Amazon is Barama-Mazaruni supergroup, which occurs as a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Greenstone belts are zones of metamorphic and volcanic rocks that occur within ancient (Archean) formations dominated by granite and gneiss. They are common to most of the cratons in the world and are often associated with world-class gold deposits. The most important greenstone belt in the Pan Amazon is Barama-Mazaruni supergroup, which occurs as a non-contiguous band of rocks in Eastern Venezuela and Guyana, then reappears in Suriname and French Guiana and then further south in Amapá. Altogether, this geological formation covers about 13 million hectares (32 million acres). Top: The greenstone belt of the Guiana Shield is a discontinuous band of ultramafic volcanic rocks located within the Archean and Proterozoic formations of the Amazon Craton. They are the source of the extraordinarily rich gold deposits along the northern coast of the South American continent. Bottom: Annual rates of deforestation on wildcat mining landscapes in the jurisdictions of the Guiana Coast. Data sources: Gomez Tania et al (2019) and RAISG (2022). Venezuela Apparently, the richest portion of this geological province is in the Venezuelan state of Bolivar where small-scale placer mining began in the 1930s. The spike in gold prices in 1980 motivated thousands of adventurers to migrate into the region to work the surface (saprolite) gold deposits using hydraulic mining techniques. Most settled near two frontier towns: El Callão in the North and Las Claritas in the South. The wildcat miners shared these landscapes with three state-owned concessions that were created in the 1970s to exploit the richest and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/mining-gold-in-the-greenstone-belt-of-panamazonia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>New datasets identify which crops deforest the Amazon, and where</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/new-datasets-identify-which-crops-deforest-the-amazon-and-where/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/new-datasets-identify-which-crops-deforest-the-amazon-and-where/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Aug 2024 21:30:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Agriculture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[forest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Loss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mapping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforest Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/02212440/amazon_200260-768x358.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285624</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Amazon Mining, Animals, Cattle, Cattle Pasture, Cattle Ranching, Conservation, data, data collection, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Mapping, Mining, Rainforest Mining, Research, satellite data, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A series of recently published data is shining a new light on patterns of deforestation in the Amazon, revealing where crops, cattle ranching and mining are encroaching on the rainforest. Several monitoring organizations — including the Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM), the Atlas of Pastures and Amazon Mining Watch — have released or updated satellite data and visualization tools [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A series of recently published data is shining a new light on patterns of deforestation in the Amazon, revealing where crops, cattle ranching and mining are encroaching on the rainforest. Several monitoring organizations — including the Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM), the Atlas of Pastures and Amazon Mining Watch — have released or updated satellite data and visualization tools this year that show what kinds of crops are being grown, where cattle ranching overlaps with other kinds of land use and how much of the rainforest is being cleared for mining. “We’re seeing all these products starting to come out with all these recent advances in satellite imagery, machine learning and AI,” Matt Finer, director and senior research specialist of Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), told Mongabay. “To be able to do a direct comparison between crops, cattle and mining — I think it’s very compelling.” MAAP compiled the data into one report this month, creating an “overall estimate” of land use across the nine Amazon countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Suriname, French Guyana and Guyana. It could help identify new patterns and trends in drivers of deforestation, Finer said. The data shows that at least 40 different crops are present in the Amazon, amounting to over 106 million hectares (261 million acres), or around 13% of the biome, according to SPAM, a crop distribution platform. Some of the crops are well-known drivers of deforestation, such as soy, which covers over 67.5 million hectares (166 million acres)&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/new-datasets-identify-which-crops-deforest-the-amazon-and-where/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>As logging booms in Suriname, forest communities race to win land rights</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/as-logging-booms-in-suriname-forest-communities-race-to-win-land-rights/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/as-logging-booms-in-suriname-forest-communities-race-to-win-land-rights/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jul 2024 17:06:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forestry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gold Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Communities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Groups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Conflict]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Logging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforest Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforest Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[timber]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/05164157/6-768x450.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284079</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[South America and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Forests, Gold Mining, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Logging, Mining, Pollution, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Suriname has some of the largest, most intact rainforests in the world. The Amazon covers around 93% of its surface area, making it one of the only countries with a net-negative carbon footprint. But at the same time, timber and mining concessions are expanding through the forest, with multinational companies moving in on Indigenous lands. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Suriname has some of the largest, most intact rainforests in the world. The Amazon covers around 93% of its surface area, making it one of the only countries with a net-negative carbon footprint. But at the same time, timber and mining concessions are expanding through the forest, with multinational companies moving in on Indigenous lands. Despite its environmental track record, Suriname is still the only country in South America that hasn’t formally recognized the territorial rights of Indigenous and Maroon peoples trying to conserve the rainforest. Years of legal challenges have stalled, and the government continues to advance projects that threaten widespread deforestation and pollution. “[Indigenous groups] have endured historical injustices and ongoing challenges in defending their forests and their rights from commercial logging and mining, which are increasingly weakening their legal capacity to control and manage their forests sustainably,” the International Land Coalition (ILC), an alliance of groups advocating land governance, said a recent report. At the center of the fight are the Saamaka peoples, who occupy 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres) of land, 80% of which is still untouched forest. The Afro-descendent Saamaka, whose ancestors escaped slavery by moving into the forest, are made up of six tribal groups and represent about a fifth of the country’s total population. A Saamaka woman in Suriname. Photo by Riano Gunther/ILC In 2007, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) ordered the government to demarcate Saamaka territory according to ancestral claims, with the goal of giving them control over the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/as-logging-booms-in-suriname-forest-communities-race-to-win-land-rights/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study says 40% of Amazon region is potentially conserved — more than officially recorded</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/study-says-40-of-amazon-rainforest-is-protected-more-than-officially-recorded/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/study-says-40-of-amazon-rainforest-is-protected-more-than-officially-recorded/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jul 2024 20:13:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Lizkimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[forest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Fires]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforest Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/18041629/peru_220697-e1718684422579-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283961</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Green, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A larger portion of the Amazonian region might be under protection or potentially conserved than official records indicate, according to a new study published in the journal One Earth. A team of international researchers found that more than 40% of land across the nine Amazonian countries is under some form of conservation management, significantly higher [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A larger portion of the Amazonian region might be under protection or potentially conserved than official records indicate, according to a new study published in the journal One Earth. A team of international researchers found that more than 40% of land across the nine Amazonian countries is under some form of conservation management, significantly higher than the 28% reported in official records. This figure includes all biomes in the region such as the Amazon rainforest, the Cerrado, Atlantic forest, the Chaco, and Pantanal. In the Amazon rainforest alone, 62.44%  of land is under some sort of area-based conservation. To arrive at this number, the authors looked beyond traditional protected areas such as national parks and nature reserves. They gathered information from scientific papers, legal documents and local knowledge to include land managed by Indigenous peoples, community-based natural resource management areas, regions covered by payment for ecosystem services programs and even sustainably managed forest production areas. The researchers say this method provides a more complete picture of conservation efforts than current tracking systems and will help others assess the effectiveness of different types of conservation governance systems. &#8220;Knowing who is governing these lands and how, as well as recognizing their visions related to conservation, is the first step to collectively planning for a fair and feasible future for our planet,&#8221; Siyu Qin, a lead author of the study, told Mongabay. Figure from Qin et al 2024 illustrating the types of conservation areas considered in the study. Women from the Sinangoe Indigenous&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/study-says-40-of-amazon-rainforest-is-protected-more-than-officially-recorded/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Landmark ruling in Suriname grants protections to local and Indigenous communities — for now</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/landmark-ruling-grants-protections-to-local-and-indigenous-communities-for-now/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/landmark-ruling-grants-protections-to-local-and-indigenous-communities-for-now/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jun 2024 17:04:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Agriculture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/17183550/feature-2-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283129</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Farming, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Law, Protected Areas, Rainforest Deforestation, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A court in Suriname has halted development on hundreds of thousands of hectares of Amazon Rainforest, much of it occupied by local and Indigenous people. The landmark ruling could give new autonomy to native communities and make it harder for projects to develop on primary forest in the future. The court approved an injunction filed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A court in Suriname has halted development on hundreds of thousands of hectares of Amazon Rainforest, much of it occupied by local and Indigenous people. The landmark ruling could give new autonomy to native communities and make it harder for projects to develop on primary forest in the future. The court approved an injunction filed on behalf of twelve Indigenous and maroon groups who were concerned about losing approximately 535,000 hectares (1,322,013 acres) of rainforest to agricultural development. The projects would have been carried out by Mennonites, the Ministry of Agriculture and private entities. “This gives an interim measure of protection to local and Indigenous communities,” said John Goedschalk, head of Climate Change Advocacy Services, who has been fighting the land deals. “This battle isn’t over, but this is a good first step.” After reviewing the injunction, the court said the government doesn’t have the right to grant land without free, prior and informed consent, a process in which developers meet with residents to explain how projects would impact daily life. Without that process, burial grounds, areas for hunting and other cultural traditions of tribal living could be at risk, the court said in its ruling. Suriname is the only country in South America that doesn’t legally recognize ancestral territory for Indigenous, maroon and other local peoples. While the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has touched on the issue in past cases regarding Suriname, this is the first time that a domestic court has acknowledged territorial rights for local and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/landmark-ruling-grants-protections-to-local-and-indigenous-communities-for-now/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Suriname cancels controversial Mennonite pilot program, but bigger problems loom</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/suriname-cancels-controversial-mennonite-pilot-program-but-bigger-problems-loom/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/suriname-cancels-controversial-mennonite-pilot-program-but-bigger-problems-loom/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Mar 2024 19:25:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Agriculture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[forest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Loss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Communities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Industrial Agriculture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Conflict]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforest Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/13145554/Unfinished_highway_into_the_jungle_-_Suriname_23826555866-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280123</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Forests, Governance, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The government in Suriname said it cancelled a controversial pilot program that would have brought hundreds of Mennonites to the country to carry out agricultural activity, likely in forested areas. Suriname President Chan Santokhi confirmed to local media this week that he shuttered a pilot program setting aside 30,000 hectares (74,131 acres) for 50 Mennonite [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The government in Suriname said it cancelled a controversial pilot program that would have brought hundreds of Mennonites to the country to carry out agricultural activity, likely in forested areas. Suriname President Chan Santokhi confirmed to local media this week that he shuttered a pilot program setting aside 30,000 hectares (74,131 acres) for 50 Mennonite families, easing some fears that the country was on the verge of destroying large parts of the Amazon Rainforest. “We in the international conservation movement congratulate President Santokhi and the people of Suriname for taking a thoughtful and considered move in deciding how best to manage the country’s resources for the benefit of all the country’s citizens,” said President of Amazon Conservation Team Mark Plotkin. Currently, the Amazon Rainforest covers nearly 93% of the country’s total surface area. Photo by David Evers via Flickr The three-year pilot program worried opposition politicians, conservation groups and Indigenous communities because of Mennonite colonies’ history of widespread deforestation in other parts of the region. In Bolivia, colonies have cleared hundreds of thousands of hectares of Amazon Rainforest over the last two decades. In southern Mexico, a handful of colonies have been tied to thousands of hectares of deforestation since the early 2010s. Similar activity in Suriname would threaten the country’s net-negative carbon emission status, critics of the project said. Currently, the Amazon Rainforest covers nearly 93% of the country’s total surface area. A representative of Terra Invest, the company facilitating the relocation of the Mennonites, said they wanted more&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/suriname-cancels-controversial-mennonite-pilot-program-but-bigger-problems-loom/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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