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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>Latin America environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/latin-america/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Indigenous knowledge x tech in the search for a tiny Amazon monkey</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-knowledge-x-tech-in-the-search-for-a-tiny-amazon-monkey/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-knowledge-x-tech-in-the-search-for-a-tiny-amazon-monkey/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Sep 2026 10:40:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/11083700/Pygmy_marmoset_Peter_Kerrawn_B-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=329438</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Acoustic, Animals, Bioacoustics, Biodiversity, Business, Camera Trapping, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Culture, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Education, Environment, forest degradation, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Mammals, Monitoring, Monkeys, Pet Trade, Pets, Primates, Technology, Trade, Traditional Knowledge, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[How do you search for the world&#8217;s smallest monkey? Earlier this year, Nicolás Schuldt Durán took on this task after he was approached by members of an Indigenous community in Ecuador. Ever since, he’s been tapping into the knowledge of the Siekopai people and combining it with passive acoustic monitoring technology to look for pygmy [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[How do you search for the world&#8217;s smallest monkey? Earlier this year, Nicolás Schuldt Durán took on this task after he was approached by members of an Indigenous community in Ecuador. Ever since, he’s been tapping into the knowledge of the Siekopai people and combining it with passive acoustic monitoring technology to look for pygmy marmosets. Spoiler alert: They’re still looking for this elusive species. Working in the Siekoya Remolino community in Ecuador, Durán is collaborating with Indigenous community members to track pygmy marmosets (Cebuella pygmaea), locally called leoncillo, and gather data on where they live and how they’re faring. “The community has already been setting up camera traps and running a territorial monitoring program to catch hunters and loggers,” Durán, founder of conservation technology organization Neblina Labs, told Mongabay in a video interview. “This is just adding one more tool to their toolkit to monitor biodiversity.” Pygmy marmosets are threatened by the illegal pet trade as well as deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest. Image by David Reece via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0). Pygmy marmosets, native to the western Amazon Basin, are so small that an adult weighs only 140-150 grams (about 5 ounces), or the weight of a small apple. They live high up in trees and are known for their high-pitched calls, including whistles that are often in the ultrasonic range and which they use to communicate with one another. Classified as vulnerable to extinction, these primates are threatened by the illegal pet trade as well as deforestation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-knowledge-x-tech-in-the-search-for-a-tiny-amazon-monkey/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-knowledge-x-tech-in-the-search-for-a-tiny-amazon-monkey/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-329438</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon Fund grantees fear a new funding freeze after Brazil’s election</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/amazon-fund-grantees-fear-a-new-funding-freeze-after-brazils-election/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/amazon-fund-grantees-fear-a-new-funding-freeze-after-brazils-election/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Sep 2026 17:34:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/10150522/1_Ricardo-Oliveira-_Instituto-Mamiraua-pirarucu-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=329406</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Bioeconomy, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Fish, Freshwater Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Monitoring, Politics, Tropical Deforestation, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The fund helped Brazil reach a 10-year low in deforestation, but conservationists are bracing for a potential sharp policy U-turn.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2018, the Amazon Fund chose to support a project in the Brazilian Amazon helping 614 families engaged in babassu coconut breaking in 11 traditional communities. Encroached on by soy farming and cattle ranching, the families in the state of Tocantins would receive financial support to keep producing oil, flour and handicrafts from this unique Amazonian fruit while reinforcing their role as guardians of the forest. But the promise was short-lived. Jair Bolsonaro took office as Brazil’s president in January 2019, and immediately set his far-right agenda to work dismantling the country’s environmental frameworks and freezing the Amazon Fund’s contributions. The fund was created in 2008, with initial donations from Norway and Germany to reward Brazil for its success in reducing Amazonian deforestation. Over the last 18 years, it has benefited 288,000 people and supported 144 projects in forest restoration, sustainable production, firefighting, inspections and monitoring of environmental crimes, and Indigenous issues. “It is one of the world’s leading funds for investing in projects that protect the rainforest,” said Rayandra Araújo, climate policy specialist at Talanoa, a Brazilian climate think tank. When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva replaced Bolsonaro, returning to the presidency in January 2023, he revived the Amazon Fund’s operations. The babassu coconut breaker project, led by the group Alternatives for Small-Scale Farming in Tocantins (APA-TO), was again considered and began implementation in April 2026. “The project was on hold for almost 10 years,” says Selma Yuki Ishii, the project coordinator and technical director at APA-TO. With Lula,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/amazon-fund-grantees-fear-a-new-funding-freeze-after-brazils-election/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/amazon-fund-grantees-fear-a-new-funding-freeze-after-brazils-election/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-329406</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Huge AI data center project blindsides water-stressed town in Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/huge-ai-data-center-project-blindsides-water-stressed-town-in-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/huge-ai-data-center-project-blindsides-water-stressed-town-in-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Sep 2026 12:00:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Naira Hofmeister]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/08190834/Headerfeat-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328289</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Business, Conflict, Data centers, Development, Environment, Governance, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Mining, Natural Resources, Resource Conflict, Technology, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As water wells turn to dust, local leaders learn of the massive facility firsthand from reporters.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PARACATU, Brazil — As the president of Paracatu’s city council, Manoel Alves is used to being courted by companies and executives that want his blessing for new business. But on a Thursday afternoon in May 2026, he was upset talking on the phone about a data center planned for his city, about which he was informed by reporters. “I just heard the data center construction will start in two months. Don’t you guys know about this either?” Alves asked someone at the mayor&#8217;s office. The answer from the other side of the call was “no”, the same received from all interviewees: Local authorities, business owners, farmers, and citizens. “It is some new hotel concept?” a major restaurant owner in the city asked. “A dentist?” a citizen in Paracatu’s main square questioned. “Data center? What is this?” queried the guardian of an 18th-century church. Read it in Portuguese. The data center in Paracatu, a municipality located a three-hour drive from Brazil’s capital, Brasília, is not just any data center, but a 1-gigawatt data center, which will be larger than the combined total of all data centers currently installed in the country, which use around 800 megawatts. Or similar to one of the gigantic projects that are part of the Stargate initiative, one of the world&#8217;s largest artificial intelligence infrastructure networks, strongly supported by the U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. Paracatu’s data center is being planned by Atlas Renewable Energy, owned by an arm of the global asset manager BlackRock, which already&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/huge-ai-data-center-project-blindsides-water-stressed-town-in-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/huge-ai-data-center-project-blindsides-water-stressed-town-in-brazil/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328289</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous land back in Chile brings mixed bag of environmental outcomes: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-land-back-in-chile-brings-mixed-bag-of-environmental-outcomes-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-land-back-in-chile-brings-mixed-bag-of-environmental-outcomes-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2026 18:59:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/09154250/Pictures-of-the-Week-Latin-America-and-Caribbean-Photo-Gallery-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=329292</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Chile, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Degraded Lands, forest degradation, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Livestock, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Plantations, Protected Areas, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous land restitution in Chile came with a mixed bag of environmental outcomes and did not boost natural forest cover, according to a new study published in Nature Sustainability. While the return of ancestral lands gave the Indigenous Mapuche communities in southern Chile greater control over how their land was used — leading to an [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous land restitution in Chile came with a mixed bag of environmental outcomes and did not boost natural forest cover, according to a new study published in Nature Sustainability. While the return of ancestral lands gave the Indigenous Mapuche communities in southern Chile greater control over how their land was used — leading to an increase in grasslands for livestock production and a reduction in non-native tree plantations — it did not improve biodiversity, carbon sequestration or erosion control. Researchers say these findings challenge long-held assumptions that Indigenous self-determination automatically equates to positive changes in natural forests, carbon sequestration or biodiversity. “In the past, conservation advocates have at times adopted romanticized views of what such self-determination would mean, assuming that Indigenous communities will always choose to allocate land towards more ‘natural’ uses,” said study co-author Robert Heilmayr, an associate professor at the University of California Santa Barbara in the U.S. He told Mongabay over email that the new research “complicates this narrative,” arguing that true self-determination only emerges when Indigenous communities define for themselves what land uses align with their needs and values. The study set out to understand how Indigenous land restitution in Biobío, Araucanía, Los Ríos and Los Lagos reshapes the environment. It did so by analyzing satellite and administrative data from 1,577 properties across 36 communities to compare land use and environmental outcomes before and after land restitution. Researchers focused on what happened after a Chilean land restitution program, known as the Chilean Indigenous Land and Water&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-land-back-in-chile-brings-mixed-bag-of-environmental-outcomes-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-329292</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Colombia’s Indigenous guardians adapt as pressures mount on the ‘Heart of the World’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/colombias-indigenous-guardians-adapt-as-pressures-mount-on-the-heart-of-the-world/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/colombias-indigenous-guardians-adapt-as-pressures-mount-on-the-heart-of-the-world/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2026 07:00:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Roberto Maccariello]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/08210725/0002-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=329184</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Culture, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Mining, Religions, Social Conflict, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[RIOHACHA, Colombia — Amid the low slopes of a tropical dry forest, families from the Wiwa community of Gomke are building a new home. Their ancestral settlement lies higher on a lush mountain in the town of Dibulla, overlooking the Caribbean coast in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Across this region, many Indigenous communities [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[RIOHACHA, Colombia — Amid the low slopes of a tropical dry forest, families from the Wiwa community of Gomke are building a new home. Their ancestral settlement lies higher on a lush mountain in the town of Dibulla, overlooking the Caribbean coast in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Across this region, many Indigenous communities have been forcibly displaced by climate-related disasters or uprooted by armed actors. Gomke’s move to lower terrain, however, is described by community representatives as voluntary: a collectively led adaptation strategy to protect social, educational and spiritual cohesion amid intensifying climate pressures and the presence of paramilitary groups. They call their new settlement Shegunamke. Shegunnamke is a recently rebuilt Wiwa village. Severe weather events and the spread of paramilitary violence have made their home village increasingly isolated and dangerous. In response, the community is building a new settlement in a safer and more accessible location in order to preserve its social and spiritual structures. Image by Roberto Maccariello. The Wiwa have also acquired other parcels of land elsewhere in the Sierra, including at higher elevations. “We have left [those] untouched so that rivers, springs and bodies of water do not die,” said Roberto Carlos Coronado Calvo, rector of Shenzhawimaku, the Wiwa educational institution that combines conventional learning with the community’s language, culture, knowledge systems and relationship to the territory. “If we begin clearing and cutting into the páramo [ecosystem], how can we guarantee life for those living below?” Across the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, known&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/colombias-indigenous-guardians-adapt-as-pressures-mount-on-the-heart-of-the-world/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-329184</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Riverside families in the Amazon change meals as mercury poisons staple fish</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/riverside-families-in-the-amazon-change-meals-as-mercury-poisons-staple-fish/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/riverside-families-in-the-amazon-change-meals-as-mercury-poisons-staple-fish/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Sep 2026 18:59:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Karla Mendes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/26162833/BANNER-Karla_Renata-Guacebe-PXL_20250518_143520458.jpg.00_00_03_13.Still001-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327497</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Crime, Environment, Gold Mining, Governance, and Illegal Mining]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A database built by Mongabay Latam, based on the analysis of scientific studies that gathered more than 7,000 samples from humans and 5,900 from fish, identified the areas most affected by mercury contamination in the Madeira River, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LAGO DO PURUZINHO/KARIPUNA INDIGENOUS TERRITORY/CALAMA, Brazil — The Lake Puruzinho community sits on a clear, fish-rich lake in the Brazilian Amazon, an area that, at first glance, resembles paradise. Just 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the city of Humaitá in Amazonas state, the community is soundtracked by two contrasting noises: the song of birds like the crested oropendola as it flies in search of fruit, and the thunderous engines of vessels plying the Madeira River. For decades, the approximately 170 residents of the riverside community ate fish from the lake, but that changed when they learned about mercury — and discovered that large quantities of the heavy metal were being dumped into the Madeira by illegal gold mining. The river, which feeds Lake Puruzinho and is a tributary of the Amazon, receives an estimated 10-50 metric tons of mercury from dredges used in gold mining. &#8220;There was a lot of mercury in our hair [because] of the fish, the tucunaré, which we eat a lot,&#8221; says Maria Rogelina Soares da Silva dos Santos, a fisher and homemaker, at the door of her house, located on the shore of Lake Puruzinho. &#8220;It was a huge scare.&#8221; She’s referring to studies by researchers at the Federal University of Rondônia (UNIR), in which she has participated for 26 years. The research examines how mercury contamination affects fish and, ultimately, human health, focusing on pregnant women, breastfeeding women, and children in communities along the Madeira River. The studies revealed, in recent years, the presence&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/riverside-families-in-the-amazon-change-meals-as-mercury-poisons-staple-fish/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327497</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Peru, mercury leaves a toxic footprint on those who depend on a river</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/in-peru-mercury-leaves-a-toxic-footprint-on-those-who-depend-on-a-river/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/in-peru-mercury-leaves-a-toxic-footprint-on-those-who-depend-on-a-river/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Sep 2026 18:51:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Salazar Vega]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/26152747/Maternidad_I4A6126-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327449</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Crime, Environment, Gold Mining, Governance, and Illegal Mining]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay reviewed nearly three decades of scientific research on the impact of heavy metals and traveled to several Amazonian communities to track the course of mercury contamination.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MADRE DE DIOS, Peru — “Bayolet, my little daughter, had some tests when she was five years old,” says Gladys Ordoñez, a mother from the Shintuya Indigenous community, located on the banks of the Madre de Dios River, in the Peruvian Amazon. “She had already fainted twice at school, and we didn&#8217;t know why … That&#8217;s where they found mercury.” Ordoñez still remembers the group of “outsiders” who arrived a decade ago to take blood and hair samples. Weeks later, they returned to warn that the fish the community was consuming — its main source of food — could be contaminated. “We said no, that it couldn&#8217;t be,” says María Santos, another mother from the community. “We don&#8217;t mine for gold here. There is no mining here”. But its source was not in the village: Upstream, illegal gold mining was pouring mercury into the rivers that flow through the Madre de Dios region. Fish came into contact with the heavy metal and traveled downstream before reaching the plates of dozens of local families. Eleven years later, the problem persists. Little Bayolet is now 16 years old. In her fourth year of secondary school, she says she still finds it difficult to concentrate when taking lessons. According to Bayolet, her greatest wish is to finish school so she can take nursing classes. She remembers feeling constant fatigue in the classroom, along with tiredness and weakness. After her diagnosis of mercury exposure, she says she only received treatment for anemia. Bayolet was&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/in-peru-mercury-leaves-a-toxic-footprint-on-those-who-depend-on-a-river/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/in-peru-mercury-leaves-a-toxic-footprint-on-those-who-depend-on-a-river/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2026/08/19152603/4I4A5955-5.mp4" length="3763673" type="video/mp4" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327449</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mercury threatens over 160 communities in Bolivia’s Beni River basin</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/mercury-threatens-over-160-communities-in-bolivias-beni-river-basin/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/mercury-threatens-over-160-communities-in-bolivias-beni-river-basin/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Sep 2026 18:44:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Iván Paredes Tamayo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/26144848/AA-FOTO-PRINCIPAL1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327431</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Crime, Gold Mining, Governance, and Illegal Mining]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay found that 39 communities in Bolivia are suffering from mercury poisoning and that 125 more face a similar risk.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BENI, Bolivia — Gilberto Vaca Muiba fears that the mercury in his body will end his life. Yet, the fear does not change his routine. He takes his old fishing rod, walks toward the river, and waits patiently for the meal of the day. He is on his knees on one of the shores of the Beni River, in the Bolivian Amazon, waiting for a fish to bite — so he can take the food home. It is a July afternoon in the Bolivian community of Puerto Yumani, and he has just caught a small surubí. The local fish is likely contaminated with mercury, but he brings it to his table nonetheless. Puerto Yumani is one of the five Indigenous communities Mongabay visited along a 41-kilometer (25.48 miles) stretch of the Beni River. The other four are Carmen Soledad and Puerto Motor, in the municipality of Rurrenabaque (in the Beni department), and Eyiyoquibo and Buena Vista, in the municipality of San Buenaventura (north of La Paz department). All these territories, belonging to the Tacana, Leco, and Ese Ejja Indigenous peoples, are exposed to mercury contamination arising in the river. Because of that, the Beni River is perceived in two ways: As a source of subsistence for the communities but also as the center of all their ills. “We eat fish every day; it is our common diet because buying meat or chicken is too expensive for us. In the rivers, we have our food, but this very food is contaminated.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/mercury-threatens-over-160-communities-in-bolivias-beni-river-basin/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/mercury-threatens-over-160-communities-in-bolivias-beni-river-basin/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327431</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why is Amazonian wildlife turning up at a Bangkok market?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/why-is-amazonian-wildlife-turning-up-at-a-bangkok-market/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/why-is-amazonian-wildlife-turning-up-at-a-bangkok-market/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Sep 2026 14:03:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/07110651/1.-POSSIBLE-BANNER-DSC05680-copy-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328961</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Latin America, Oceania, South America, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Rights, Animals, Biodiversity, Business, Crime, Environmental Law, Ethics, Governance, Health, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Law, Pet Trade, Pets, Trade, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK, Thailand — In the narrow alleys of Bangkok’s Chatuchak Market, the world’s wildlife is for sale. Ensnared in jungles, fished out of rivers and plucked from wetlands across the globe, hundreds of exotic species are packed onto transcontinental flights only to end up on display in what experts say ranks as one of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK, Thailand — In the narrow alleys of Bangkok’s Chatuchak Market, the world’s wildlife is for sale. Ensnared in jungles, fished out of rivers and plucked from wetlands across the globe, hundreds of exotic species are packed onto transcontinental flights only to end up on display in what experts say ranks as one of the largest wildlife markets on Earth. Here, alongside Thai milk tea vendors and mango sticky rice stalls, visitors need only veer a few steps from the tourist path to end up in the market’s “Pets” zone — an arguably liberal use of the term. This section of the market hosts a menagerie of domestic and wild animals alike, often crammed into cages with little water and no respite from temperatures that soar beyond 32° Celsius (90° Fahrenheit). From Africa, there are spurred tortoises, fennec foxes, gray parrots, serval cats, and ball pythons. Giant bush babies retail for 48,000 baht (about $1,450), with signs advertising the nocturnal African primates as &#8220;newly arrived.&#8221; Miniscule meerkats dressed in tutus, sometimes presented in petting zoo sandboxes, are among the most plentiful animals at Chatuchak. Masked palm civets, sugar gliders, squirrels, rainbow lorikeets, and eclectus parrots are on offer from Asia and Oceania. As are baby raccoons, prairie dogs, iguanas, goats, cats, baby pigs, among others. Much of the planet is represented in this market; meerkats, like the one pictured here, hail from Southern Africa and are dressed up to be sold as an adorable pet. Image by Gloria Dickie. To&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/why-is-amazonian-wildlife-turning-up-at-a-bangkok-market/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/why-is-amazonian-wildlife-turning-up-at-a-bangkok-market/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328961</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Plastic pollution hotspots’ spawn a public health crisis across Latin America</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/plastic-pollution-hotspots-spawn-a-public-health-crisis-across-latin-america/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/plastic-pollution-hotspots-spawn-a-public-health-crisis-across-latin-america/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Sep 2026 13:33:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark Hillsdon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/08133303/AP21097556420581-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=329024</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Dominican Republic, Global, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Paraguay]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Circular Economy, Governance, Health, International Trade, Microplastics, Planetary Health, Plastic, Pollution, Public Health, Recycling, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Since China banned the import of plastic waste in 2018, plastic pollution has been having a growing impact on the people and ecosystems of Latin America. As the region imports an increasing amount of the world’s used and discarded plastic, new research shows that waste infrastructure in many countries is already buckling under the strain [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Since China banned the import of plastic waste in 2018, plastic pollution has been having a growing impact on the people and ecosystems of Latin America. As the region imports an increasing amount of the world’s used and discarded plastic, new research shows that waste infrastructure in many countries is already buckling under the strain of dealing with domestic trash. As a result, much of the imported plastic is leaking out into the environment, with experts and the U.N. warning of major consequences for human health. A study published in April found that seven countries in the region — the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Paraguay — have become plastic pollution hotspots, or PPHs, where high imports of low-quality plastics meet high rates of mismanaged waste. Global plastic waste generation reached 353 million metric tons in 2019 alone, of which 72% ended up being landfilled or dumped and just 9% was recycled, according to an OECD report. Much of the world’s plastic waste was previously destined for China, but in 2018 the country banned those imports. While Malaysia and Thailand took up much of the slack, Latin America also started importing more plastic waste, although the region has historically been an importer of difficult-to-recycle plastics. “Certain countries in Latin America have started importing more waste but they haven’t actually got the capacity to deal with [it],” Veronica Herrera, lead author of April study and an associate professor at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/plastic-pollution-hotspots-spawn-a-public-health-crisis-across-latin-america/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/plastic-pollution-hotspots-spawn-a-public-health-crisis-across-latin-america/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-329024</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Key tree species boost Amazon forest restoration, new study shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/key-tree-species-boost-amazon-forest-restoration-new-study-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/key-tree-species-boost-amazon-forest-restoration-new-study-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2026 18:55:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/03074352/1.-LEAF-MPEG_Centro-Capoeira-cortado-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328521</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Biodiversity, Biology, Business, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Climate Science, Conflict, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Culture, Drones, Earth Science, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Finance, Forest Regeneration, Forestry, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Land Grabbing, Mitigation, Plants, Research, Resource Conflict, Restoration, Science, Secondary Forests, Solutions, Species, Sustainability, Sustainable Forest Management, Technology, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Regrowing Amazon forests face a quiet collapse if fast pioneer trees die without stronger successors.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A few tree species are key to restoring biodiversity and carbon storage in deforested areas of the Brazilian Amazon, suggests an article published in June in Global Change Biology. Researchers examined 102 plots under natural regeneration in four municipalities in Pará state — Bragantina, Marabá, Paragominas and Santarém — and concluded that a range of 15 to 25 species accounted for nearly half of the trees present and half of the plots’ carbon stocks. ​Among these species are the embaúba (Cecropia palmata), the tatapiririca (Tapirira guianensis), the ingá-vermelho (Inga alba), and the araticum-bravo (Annona exsucca). ​This relatively short list of hyperdominant species could “guide assisted restoration and enrichment strategies” in the Amazon, the researchers said, and help Brazil meet the goal of restoring 12 million hectares (30 million acres) of forests by 2030, an area roughly the size of North Korea. ​“These areas are already restoring [ecological] services and biodiversity,” Fernando Elias, a researcher in Pará&#8217;s Emílio Goeldi Museum and the coordinator of the study, told Mongabay. “That is why it is so important to understand how these forests behave.” According to Elias, the Brazilian Amazon has more than 140,000 square kilometers (around 57,000 square miles) of regrowing forests in areas previously deforested, known as secondary forests. In many cases, these lands have been abandoned after being used for cattle ranching. ​Most of it has the potential to recover naturally, without the need to plant a single seed. Close monitoring, however, is necessary to control fires, cattle ranching and land&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/key-tree-species-boost-amazon-forest-restoration-new-study-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/key-tree-species-boost-amazon-forest-restoration-new-study-shows/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328521</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Planned Bolivia-Brazil highway threatens Chiquitania dry forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/planned-bolivia-brazil-highway-threatens-chiquitania-dry-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/planned-bolivia-brazil-highway-threatens-chiquitania-dry-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2026 15:08:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Iván Paredes Tamayo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/03131309/1-Deforestacion-Chiquitania-EDUARDO-FRANCO-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328580</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Commodity agriculture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Soy, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz signed an agreement to begin technical studies for a highway connecting the municipality of San Ignacio de Velasco in the Chiquitania region with the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On July 31, politicians and agribusiness leaders from Bolivia and Brazil gathered in the eastern Bolivian city of San Ignacio de Velasco. There, Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz signed an agreement to begin technical studies for a highway connecting San Ignacio de Velasco to Marfil, a point on the border with Brazil. A second section of the road will extend into Brazil toward the municipality of Vila Bela da Santíssima Trindade. Experts told Mongabay the project will cause severe environmental damage, driving deforestation and land-use change to make way for soy fields and cattle ranches on the Bolivian side. San Ignacio de Velasco lies in the heart of the Bolivian Chiquitania, a region of vast tropical dry forests. The municipality has 67,103 inhabitants, according to the 2024 census. On July 31, its small airfield briefly became an international airport as some 15 private planes landed there. Except for the Bolivian presidential plane, every aircraft belonged to Brazilian businesspeople and politicians. Among them was Eraí Maggi, known in Brazil as the &#8220;soy king.&#8221; Planes from Brazil arrive in San Ignacio de Velasco for the signing of the highway agreement. Image courtesy of the Bolivian government. San Ignacio de Velasco, which holds 3.4 million hectares (8.4 million acres) of Chiquitano forest, or 6.2% of Bolivia&#8217;s total forest cover, has become the country&#8217;s epicenter of deforestation, according to reporting by Nómadas magazine in 2025. The Institute for Socio-Economic Research (IISEC) at the Bolivian Catholic University (UCB) found that between 2017 and 2023, agricultural expansion&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/planned-bolivia-brazil-highway-threatens-chiquitania-dry-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/planned-bolivia-brazil-highway-threatens-chiquitania-dry-forest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328580</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mexico-Brazil oil deal raises concern for ecosystems and energy transition</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/mexico-brazil-oil-deal-raises-concern-for-ecosystems-and-energy-transition/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/mexico-brazil-oil-deal-raises-concern-for-ecosystems-and-energy-transition/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2026 10:02:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Daniel Shailer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/10060125/AP24088006980479-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328312</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, Mexico, North America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ecosystems, Energy, Energy Transition, Fossil Fuels, and Oil]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Environmental organizations have raised concerns that a recent partnership between the state petrochemical companies of Brazil and Mexico will commit both nations to decades of fossil fuel production, increase the risk of oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico, and displace coastal communities with industrial expansion. On June 23, Brazil’s Petrobras and Mexico’s Pemex announced [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Environmental organizations have raised concerns that a recent partnership between the state petrochemical companies of Brazil and Mexico will commit both nations to decades of fossil fuel production, increase the risk of oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico, and displace coastal communities with industrial expansion. On June 23, Brazil’s Petrobras and Mexico’s Pemex announced a two-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) outlining their collaboration. The document itself was not published, but in a short press release, the companies describe cooperating to “increase production in deepwater” and “mature fields … in the Gulf of Mexico”. The agreement also refers to ancillary fossil fuel products such as fertilizers, biofuels and carbon capture, according to the release. Mexico extracts the majority of its fossil fuels from the southern Gulf of Mexico, but has seen production declining in recent decades. Although the partnership is aimed to increase the country’s energy sovereignty, energy researchers and environmentalists say questions remain about the terms of the deal and its repercussions. “This is an effort from the Mexican administration to increase oil barrels, but at what cost,” Renata Terrazas, vice president, Mexico, of marine environmental group Oceana, said to Mongabay over video call. “Right now we’re just guessing. There’s no transparency about what this actually means, and that’s one of the things that we fear the most.” The partnership comes after Pemex suffered two major safety incidents this spring. In February, an exploratory natural gas well near Las Choapas, Veracruz, exploded and continued to release smoke and gas&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/mexico-brazil-oil-deal-raises-concern-for-ecosystems-and-energy-transition/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/mexico-brazil-oil-deal-raises-concern-for-ecosystems-and-energy-transition/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328312</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Michael Painter put Indigenous land rights at the center of conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/michael-painter-put-indigenous-land-rights-at-the-center-of-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/michael-painter-put-indigenous-land-rights-at-the-center-of-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Sep 2026 22:12:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/03014353/mike-painter-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328252</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, Chaco, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Dry Forests, Ethics, Forests, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Obituary, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the Bolivian Chaco, the Isoceño Guaraní did not need conservationists to tell them that their land was under pressure. Agricultural settlement was pushing into the region, and their organization, the Capitanía de Alto y Bajo Izozog (CABI), had its own territorial aims. What outsiders could provide was scientific expertise, legal support, money, and access [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the Bolivian Chaco, the Isoceño Guaraní did not need conservationists to tell them that their land was under pressure. Agricultural settlement was pushing into the region, and their organization, the Capitanía de Alto y Bajo Izozog (CABI), had its own territorial aims. What outsiders could provide was scientific expertise, legal support, money, and access to institutions that could help turn those claims into recognized rights. Working with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), CABI developed the proposal for Kaa-Iya del Gran Chaco National Park, which Bolivia created in 1995. At 3.4 million hectares, it was enormous even by the standards of South American protected areas. CABI became its co-administrator. The partnership also helped develop a mechanism for securing Indigenous land under Bolivia’s agrarian reform law. It was used to title 273,000 hectares for the Ayoreode and 560,000 hectares for the Isoceño Guaraní, as well as land for 43 Chiquitano communities. WCS says the process helped establish precedents for Indigenous land titling elsewhere in Bolivia. Michael Painter arrived at WCS in 1997 to direct the Kaa-Iya project. For an ecological anthropologist, its implications were hard to miss. Conservation did not have to mean setting land aside and then persuading the people living around it to cooperate. Indigenous organizations could be conservation partners in their own right, with territorial goals, political interests, and knowledge of their own. A useful role for an organization such as WCS was sometimes to strengthen their ability to deal with governments, companies, donors, and conservationists themselves. Painter,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/michael-painter-put-indigenous-land-rights-at-the-center-of-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/michael-painter-put-indigenous-land-rights-at-the-center-of-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328252</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Invaders storm Indigenous Amazon land, threatening isolated people</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/invaders-storm-indigenous-amazon-land-threatening-isolated-people/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/invaders-storm-indigenous-amazon-land-threatening-isolated-people/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Sep 2026 17:05:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee GabayElisângela Mendonça]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/04162433/Ituna_Itata-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328402</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Cattle, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Uncontacted Tribes]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Nearly 200 people have invaded the Ituna/Itatá Indigenous Land in Brazil’s Pará state since mid‑August, smashing through the Indigenous Affairs Agency (Funai)&#8217;s gates, tearing down warning signs and setting up camps inside a territory reserved for uncontacted Indigenous peoples. The surge followed the creation of the Bacajaí Environmental Protection Area (APA Bacajaí) under a new [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nearly 200 people have invaded the Ituna/Itatá Indigenous Land in Brazil’s Pará state since mid‑August, smashing through the Indigenous Affairs Agency (Funai)&#8217;s gates, tearing down warning signs and setting up camps inside a territory reserved for uncontacted Indigenous peoples. The surge followed the creation of the Bacajaí Environmental Protection Area (APA Bacajaí) under a new state law that completely overlaps the federally protected Indigenous land, creating legal confusion that authorities say has been weaponized by land‑grabbers to justify occupation for cattle ranching and other agricultural activities. Federal prosecutors and the Public Defender’s Office have warned of an imminent risk of violent confrontation and possible genocide against the isolated Igarapé Ipiaçava people. Since 2011, a series of temporary land-use restriction orders, which prohibit unauthorized individuals from entering Ituna/Itatá, protected the vulnerable population. Brazil’s Indigenous Affairs Agency, Funai, renewed the precautionary measure in 2025. The first reported invasions occurred a day after Pará published the new state law in the Official Gazette on August 12, 2026, announcing the creation of the APA Bacajaí in the municipalities of Altamira and Senador José Porfírio. The APA covers about 142,400 hectares (351,880 acres) of land in the Brazilian Amazon, which overlaps “100% with the Ituna/Itatá Indigenous Land”. The bill, which was introduced in June by Pará state representative (state deputy) Francisco Torres de Paula Filho, also known as Torrinho Torres, was unanimously approved and made law one month later. “What was on August 13th limited to indications of opening access routes and destruction of territorial&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/invaders-storm-indigenous-amazon-land-threatening-isolated-people/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/invaders-storm-indigenous-amazon-land-threatening-isolated-people/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328402</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Drought is deepening a health crisis among Peru’s recently contacted Indigenous Matsés</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/drought-is-deepening-a-health-crisis-among-perus-recently-contacted-indigenous-matses/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/drought-is-deepening-a-health-crisis-among-perus-recently-contacted-indigenous-matses/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Sep 2026 15:50:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/02152641/contacted-Indigenous-Matses-8-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328366</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Diseases, Drought, Environment, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Health, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, and Public Health]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[REQUENA, Peru — Until a century ago, few Matsés had ever been in contact with a white person before. The Indigenous people lived in a remote area of the Amazon Rainforest, along the border of Peru and Brazil, in seminomadic forest settlements between the Javari, Yaquerana and Gálvez rivers. There, wild meat was abundant — [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[REQUENA, Peru — Until a century ago, few Matsés had ever been in contact with a white person before. The Indigenous people lived in a remote area of the Amazon Rainforest, along the border of Peru and Brazil, in seminomadic forest settlements between the Javari, Yaquerana and Gálvez rivers. There, wild meat was abundant — and they could hide from outsiders and rival groups. Roberto Necca Tumi Unan had just returned from a swim in the river when Mongabay arrived at his rectangular wooden stilt house for an interview. He’s one of the community&#8217;s last surviving elders, born before first voluntary contact with the outside world in the 1960s. Necca recalled how, on a few rare occasions, while cutting hunting trails through the dense jungle undergrowth alongside older men from his family, they would hear the alien sounds of outsiders. The men would quickly vanish into the undergrowth, covering themselves with damp leaves so the outsiders wouldn’t find them. “That had been a great fear for us because confrontation between mestizos and the Matsés before contact was dangerous,” he said. The Matsés, tired of conflict and displacement, said they chose to make contact with missionaries from the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), an evangelical nonprofit, in 1969. While this initial contact brought some peace, it also marked the beginning of a decades-long struggle against deadly diseases. By 1981, the Matsés population, who had settled in Yaquerana district, in Peru’s Loreto department, was plagued by severe epidemics of influenza and pneumonia.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/drought-is-deepening-a-health-crisis-among-perus-recently-contacted-indigenous-matses/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/drought-is-deepening-a-health-crisis-among-perus-recently-contacted-indigenous-matses/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328366</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tiago Karaí and Laudiceia Benites helped reclaim Guarani land. They died with their children in an accident last month.</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/tiago-karai-and-laudiceia-benites-helped-reclaim-guarani-land-they-died-with-their-children-in-an-accident-last-month/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/tiago-karai-and-laudiceia-benites-helped-reclaim-guarani-land-they-died-with-their-children-in-an-accident-last-month/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Sep 2026 17:45:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/01165317/20220223_fellipeabreu_guarani_122061-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328206</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Obituary]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On August 14th, seven people from Tekoa Kalipety were traveling between Guarani communities with seeds. They had spent the week checking in on relatives, praying at Porto Lindo, and sharing traditional seeds harvested back home in southern São Paulo. They were on their way to another Indigenous territory when, on that evening, a semitrailer carrying [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On August 14th, seven people from Tekoa Kalipety were traveling between Guarani communities with seeds. They had spent the week checking in on relatives, praying at Porto Lindo, and sharing traditional seeds harvested back home in southern São Paulo. They were on their way to another Indigenous territory when, on that evening, a semitrailer carrying maize detached from a truck and struck their car. Tiago Honório dos Santos, known as Tiago Karaí, 34, died with his wife, Kerexu Laudiceia Benites, 31; their children, Tadeu, 14, and Luna, seven; Tiago’s sister, Kerexu Cleonice Honório dos Santos; and two other members of Kalipety, Ileo Benites and Genilson Euzébio Karay Mirim. The truck driver fled the scene. Karaí Tiago speaks at an event about community-based tourism based on his experience at TI Tenondé Porã, in 2019. Photo by Rafael Hupsel/ISA Tiago was born in a Guarani village near the coast of São Paulo state. His parents moved to the Tenondé Porã Indigenous Territory before he was two. At the Guarani Gwyra Pepó school, he wondered why children were taught so little about Guarani life. After finishing secondary school at 19, he returned to the school as a teacher. Known then as Karaí Tataendy, he taught Guarani language and culture to primary-school children. He believed they needed to know both Guarani and non-Indigenous ways of life. Teaching their own language gave them something he had found missing when he sat in the same classrooms. In 2013, Guarani families began reclaiming ancestral sections of Tenondé&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/tiago-karai-and-laudiceia-benites-helped-reclaim-guarani-land-they-died-with-their-children-in-an-accident-last-month/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/tiago-karai-and-laudiceia-benites-helped-reclaim-guarani-land-they-died-with-their-children-in-an-accident-last-month/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328206</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists use mining data to build malaria alert system in the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/scientists-use-mining-data-to-build-malaria-alert-system-in-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/scientists-use-mining-data-to-build-malaria-alert-system-in-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Sep 2026 14:21:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/01140632/mg_9069-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328177</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation Solutions, Crime, Diseases, Gold Mining, Governance, Health, Illegal Mining, Mining, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A 1% increase in illegal mining led to a 24% spike in malaria cases among the Yanomami, prompting a new data-driven defense.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A study detailing the links between illegal gold mining and malaria cases in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory in the Brazilian Amazon won second place in the MapBiomas Award, announced in July. The research collective produces data on land use in Brazil and recognizes initiatives that use this information to promote conservation. The study examined the explosion in malaria cases under the government of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president from January 2019 to 2022, whose far-right policies encouraged illegal miners to invade Brazil&#8217;s largest Indigenous land, home to 31,567 Yanomami. Known locally as garimpeiros, the illegal miners spread disease, contaminated water sources with mercury, and scared away wildlife, prompting a humanitarian crisis in the territory straddling the states of Roraima and Amazonas. Using satellite imagery and data from the Ministry of Health, researchers led by Márcia Castro, from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the U.S., found that a 1% increase in the mined area in the Yanomami territory was associated with a 24% increase in monthly malaria cases. The study, published in November 2025 in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, shows that malaria also increased in areas without mining activity but still used as routes by the miners. “The garimpeiros move around a lot because they have to bring in supplies and machinery,” Castro told Mongabay. “When you pass through these areas, you’re a carrier of the parasite as you walk, and you can get bitten by a mosquito along the way. And just like that, [the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/scientists-use-mining-data-to-build-malaria-alert-system-in-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328177</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Ecuador’s Intag Valley, communities build their own micro-hydropower plant</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/in-ecuadors-intag-valley-communities-build-their-own-micro-hydropower-plant/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/in-ecuadors-intag-valley-communities-build-their-own-micro-hydropower-plant/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Sep 2026 12:55:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/01123136/HidroAguagrun-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328157</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Development, Energy, Environment, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Natural Resources, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Ecuador’s Intag Valley, one of the major watersheds that supply the country’s Imbabura province in the north, 19 families from four communities are developing a 300-kilowatt (kW) run-of-river hydropower plant — a project that generates electricity by capturing the Aguagrún River’s natural flows without the construction of a large dam or water storage reservoir. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Ecuador’s Intag Valley, one of the major watersheds that supply the country’s Imbabura province in the north, 19 families from four communities are developing a 300-kilowatt (kW) run-of-river hydropower plant — a project that generates electricity by capturing the Aguagrún River’s natural flows without the construction of a large dam or water storage reservoir. Engineers say this makes them less environmentally impactful. The families, which are from the communities of Cerro Pelado, Chinipamba, Nangulvi Bajo and Barcelona, own 90% of the HidroAguagrún project. Registered as a business since 2022, half of the revenue raised from selling electricity to the national grid will go directly into a trust for conservation activities, such as the protection of cloud forests. The idea to create a small hydropower plant came from a general concern among the families about water availability in the region and the impact of the climate crisis, said Jorge Guachagmira, the president of the Río Aguagrún Renewable Energy Production Association, which represents the 19 families of the micro-basin and surrounding areas. “We live in a remnant of the natural world, and our daily activities are affected by the expansion of the exploitation frontier, such as agriculture, livestock farming, logging or deforestation of natural ecosystems,” he told Mongabay in a video call. “By expanding the agricultural frontier, we are generating greater water insecurity, water instability and climate instability.” The community of Barcelona, which depends on the Aguagrún River micro-basin within the Cotacachi canton, Imbabura province, Ecuador. Image by Denis Laporta. Ecuador,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/in-ecuadors-intag-valley-communities-build-their-own-micro-hydropower-plant/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328157</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Environmental crimes don’t stop at borders. Neither can the reporting</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/environmental-crimes-dont-stop-at-borders-neither-can-the-reporting/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/environmental-crimes-dont-stop-at-borders-neither-can-the-reporting/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Aug 2026 15:53:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/28214737/daniela-Guainia-4-2026-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327670</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Interviews, Interviews With Environmental Journalists, and Journalism]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[High gold prices have fueled illegal mining across the Amazon. As Brazil tightened controls on the trade, criminal groups found another route through Venezuela, where it could be laundered and then exported overseas, according to a Mongabay investigation published last year. Documenting the trade required journalists in three countries to work together—an approach Daniela Quintero [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[High gold prices have fueled illegal mining across the Amazon. As Brazil tightened controls on the trade, criminal groups found another route through Venezuela, where it could be laundered and then exported overseas, according to a Mongabay investigation published last year. Documenting the trade required journalists in three countries to work together—an approach Daniela Quintero considers essential because environmental crimes rarely respect national borders. Near the Mavicure Hills with residents of the El Venado Indigenous Reserve. Credit: Rhett A. Butler As investigations editor at Mongabay Latam, Bogotá-based Quintero develops projects that combine field reporting with official records, satellite imagery, scientific papers, and legal documents. She also coordinates Mongabay’s Nature Crimes Fellowship, working with journalists from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru on investigations in the Amazon and the Pacific. Quintero previously covered environmental issues and worked in the investigative unit at El Espectador before joining Mongabay in early 2025. Her reporting has ranged from glass-eel fisheries in the Dominican Republic to the gold smuggling story. Ahead of Mongabay Latam’s PUMA FEST in July, I traveled with Quintero to Colombia’s Guainía department, where I interviewed her about her work and her path into environmental journalism. Daniela Quintero Diaz An interview with Daniela Quintero &nbsp; Mongabay: Can you introduce yourself? Daniela Quintero: I&#8217;m a Colombian journalist and sociologist based in Bogotá. I&#8217;m an investigations editor at Mongabay Latam, where I develop and edit cross-border investigations into nature crimes and environmental issues across Latin America. Mongabay: What does a normal day at Mongabay look like&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/environmental-crimes-dont-stop-at-borders-neither-can-the-reporting/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327670</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For 50 years, Philip Fearnside has calculated the costs of losing the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/for-50-years-philip-fearnside-has-calculated-the-costs-of-losing-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/for-50-years-philip-fearnside-has-calculated-the-costs-of-losing-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Aug 2026 00:04:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/30150821/fearnside-header-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327527</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Dams, Deforestation, Development, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Infrastructure, Rainforests, Roads, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At a September 2021 public hearing in Manaus, Philip Fearnside read from a prepared statement laying out his case against repaving BR-319, the highway between Manaus and Porto Velho, two cities in the Amazon. He called the project economically unviable, argued Brazil’s licensing process was broken, and warned that road would trigger “catastrophic” deforestation. People [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At a September 2021 public hearing in Manaus, Philip Fearnside read from a prepared statement laying out his case against repaving BR-319, the highway between Manaus and Porto Velho, two cities in the Amazon. He called the project economically unviable, argued Brazil’s licensing process was broken, and warned that road would trigger “catastrophic” deforestation. People in the crowd started booing. Fearnside tried to keep speaking over the noise in his American-accented Portuguese, but someone killed his microphone. He was followed by Sérgio Kruke from the Movimento Conservador Amazonas, a vocal ally of then-president Jair Bolsonaro. Kruke pointed at Fearnside and asked why an American had any business telling Brazilians what to do with their land, adding that they had the right to cut down every tree in the forest if they chose. The audience cheered him on. “This house is ours!” Kruke shouted. The atmosphere was completely different earlier this month at the National Institute for Amazonian Research, or INPA. For two hours, researchers and former students held an event recognizing Fearnside’s 50 years of field research in the Amazon, work that made him one of the most recognized authorities on Earth’s largest rainforest. Carlos Nobre spoke about meeting him at INPA in the 1970s, before his own climate career took off, and how they collaborated on pioneering measurements of forest-atmosphere gas exchange. Susanna Hecht recalled running into Fearnside at a Belém bar while hunting for a dissertation topic. He suggested Acre, which is where she ended up doing her&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/for-50-years-philip-fearnside-has-calculated-the-costs-of-losing-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/for-50-years-philip-fearnside-has-calculated-the-costs-of-losing-the-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327527</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Under protection: The environmentalist’s widow in Brazil who had to disappear to survive</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/under-protection-the-environmentalists-widow-in-brazil-who-had-to-disappear-to-survive/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/under-protection-the-environmentalists-widow-in-brazil-who-had-to-disappear-to-survive/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Aug 2026 14:20:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Felipe Sabrina]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/28140713/AP19273713038690-snake-on-road-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327753</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Culture, Deforestation, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Illegal Logging, Law, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At around 1 a.m. on April 29, 2026, in a courtroom in Maranhão’s Bom Jardim district, Judge Philipe Silveira da Cunha publicly decided the fate of former military police officer Francisco da Silva Sousa. “The defendant is sentenced to 35 years and four months in prison, to be served initially in a closed facility,” he [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At around 1 a.m. on April 29, 2026, in a courtroom in Maranhão’s Bom Jardim district, Judge Philipe Silveira da Cunha publicly decided the fate of former military police officer Francisco da Silva Sousa. “The defendant is sentenced to 35 years and four months in prison, to be served initially in a closed facility,” he announced into the microphone. Judge Cunha stood before the defendant, jurors, prosecutors and defense and prosecution lawyers under the white lights of the courtroom, ending a trial that had lasted more than 16 hours since it began the previous morning. The 66-year-old former police officer went straight from the courtroom to prison. A jury found Da Silva, as he is known, guilty of orchestrating the murder of 54-year-old environmentalist and peasant farmer Raimundo dos Santos Rodrigues and the attempted murder of his wife Maria*, who was 37 at the time. The crime took place on Aug. 25, 2015, in the Bom Jardim district, inside the Gurupi Biological Reserve in northeastern Brazil. The reserve is a federally protected area and managed by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), the federal agency overseeing protected areas. Since 2009, Raimundo, Maria, their six children and about 38 other peasant families had been living in the Brejinho Rio da Onça II community encampment inside the reserve. They were waiting for the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) to regularize their status as formal settlers, either on that site or on another plot of land where they&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/under-protection-the-environmentalists-widow-in-brazil-who-had-to-disappear-to-survive/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327753</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous water systems gain ground as climate pressures intensify in Bolivia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indigenous-water-systems-gain-ground-as-climate-pressures-intensify-in-bolivia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indigenous-water-systems-gain-ground-as-climate-pressures-intensify-in-bolivia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Aug 2026 10:00:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anastasia Austin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/25151101/restoring-pauros-credit-MAPEKO-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327250</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate Change, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Drinking Water, Ecosystems, Freshwater, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Landscape Restoration, Natural Resources, Nature-based climate solutions, Restoration, Solutions, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA, Bolivia — When Rolando Ágreda was 16, a severe drought hit his community of Ascensión de Guarayos in the Bolivian Amazon in 2022. Rumors spread that the municipality’s only water reservoir was dwindling. But it was the communal spring-fed pool, or paúro, that Ágreda had been visiting since childhood that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA, Bolivia — When Rolando Ágreda was 16, a severe drought hit his community of Ascensión de Guarayos in the Bolivian Amazon in 2022. Rumors spread that the municipality’s only water reservoir was dwindling. But it was the communal spring-fed pool, or paúro, that Ágreda had been visiting since childhood that evaporated first. “Confusion was the strongest feeling,” Ágreda says in a video call. “But also sadness, because for everyone I know that place represents joy.” According to the Guarayú Indigenous People, who settled the area around Ágreda’s village of Ascensión de Guarayos in the 18th and 19th centuries, woodland spirits guard the paúros, and the community is responsible for maintaining them. But with urbanization, the arrival of non-indigenous Bolivians, and modern water infrastructure, this Indigenous knowledge had nearly disappeared. Ágreda says only three of his 28 classmates knew about paúros. “The others didn’t. It was easy not to know because [the paúros] had been neglected: The grass was so overgrown that they looked like abandoned lots. You would never imagine that there was a pool of water in the middle,” he says. A mural in Ascensión de Guarayos, where ranching is putting pressure on nature. Image by Douwe den Held. With help from his teachers, Ágreda launched a districtwide competition during the spring semester of 2022 to restore paúros across the municipality, which involved locating them, removing trash and clearing vegetation from the walls so water could filter through. By June 2022, they had restored&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indigenous-water-systems-gain-ground-as-climate-pressures-intensify-in-bolivia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327250</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ashéninka leader reportedly killed while patrolling Indigenous territory is found alive</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/asheninka-leader-killed-while-patrolling-indigenous-territory-in-peru/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/asheninka-leader-killed-while-patrolling-indigenous-territory-in-peru/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Aug 2026 03:24:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/26032038/Americo_Pascuala_Tumisha-Photo-RFN-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327333</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[UPDATE (Aug. 27, 2026): The Regional Organization AIDESEP Ucayali (ORAU) has clarified that Américo Pascual Tumisha is alive and with his family. ORAU said the initial report of his killing originated with a community member who told Tumisha’s son that he had been killed. Because communications and access are limited in this remote part of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[UPDATE (Aug. 27, 2026): The Regional Organization AIDESEP Ucayali (ORAU) has clarified that Américo Pascual Tumisha is alive and with his family. ORAU said the initial report of his killing originated with a community member who told Tumisha’s son that he had been killed. Because communications and access are limited in this remote part of Yurúa, a commission from ACONADIYSH’s Border Indigenous Guard traveled by river to verify the report and confirmed that Tumisha was alive. ORAU said Indigenous leaders in the region continue to face threats linked to illegal activities and organized crime. We have amended the title and text of this piece accordingly. ORAU aclara que líder indígena Américo Pascual Tumisha se encuentra con vida y alerta sobre amenazas en Yurúa Amended story: The Ashéninka leader Américo Pascuala Tumisha who was reportedly was shot and killed on Sunday while patrolling the territory of the Onconashari Indigenous community in Peru’s Ucayali region has been found alive. According to an initial report from the Regional Organization AIDESEP Ucayali (ORAU), Pascuala had encountered people who were allegedly extracting copaiba oil without permission inside the community’s territory. That report said a confrontation followed, and he was fatally shot. Pascuala was serving as coordinator of Onconashari’s territorial surveillance committee at the time, and was previously chief of the community. ORAU subsequently clarified that Pascuala was found to be alive and with his family. It said the initial report of his killing originated with a community member who told Tumisha’s son that he had&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/asheninka-leader-killed-while-patrolling-indigenous-territory-in-peru/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327333</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Plans of Peru’s new administration spur concern among environmentalists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/plans-of-perus-new-administration-spur-concern-among-environmentalists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/plans-of-perus-new-administration-spur-concern-among-environmentalists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2026 09:38:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/17050949/peru_221217-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327225</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Crime, Development, Energy, Energy Security, Energy Transition, Environmental Policy, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Natural Resources, Organized Crime, Politics, Pollution, Renewable Energy, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi from the Popular Force Party was sworn in as the new president of Peru on July 28. Fujimori, who has pledged to tackle insecurity using greater force and militarization, narrowly defeated her left-wing opponent Roberto Sánchez by fewer than 50,000 votes on June 7. The new president has promised to expand [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi from the Popular Force Party was sworn in as the new president of Peru on July 28. Fujimori, who has pledged to tackle insecurity using greater force and militarization, narrowly defeated her left-wing opponent Roberto Sánchez by fewer than 50,000 votes on June 7. The new president has promised to expand fossil fuel production and mining across the country, raising concerns among environmentalists and Indigenous leaders about the future of the Peruvian Amazon, as well as its international commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) — a national climate action plan under the Paris Agreement. The country submitted its first NDC in 2016, which was then updated in 2020 and 2025. In its plan, it has committed to diversify renewable energy sources, strengthen sustainable transportation, reduce deforestation, protect natural areas and support Indigenous and local communities, among other mitigation priorities. Experts, environmentalists and Indigenous leaders expressed concerns about the government’s plans, particularly Fujimori’s promise to expand the exploration and exploitation of energy resources, such as the promotion of new lots in the Amazon and the northern coast. Peru&#8217;s President Keiko Fujimori, center, poses for a group photo with members of her cabinet at the government palace in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo) “The current government is a bit pragmatic in its decisions because they are really driven by wanting development without considering the consequences for the Amazonian peoples,” Matsés Indigenous leader Leo Chuma Teca Beso told Mongabay&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/plans-of-perus-new-administration-spur-concern-among-environmentalists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327225</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How a rare bird sparked a wildlife movement across 16 villages in Guyana</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/how-a-rare-bird-sparked-a-wildlife-movement-across-16-villages-in-guyana/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/how-a-rare-bird-sparked-a-wildlife-movement-across-16-villages-in-guyana/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 23:26:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gentry Hale]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/24145023/red-siskin-Spinus-cucullatus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327131</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Guyana, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Culture, Endangered Species, Indigenous Peoples, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[WICHABAI, Guyana — At sunrise in Guyana’s South Rupununi, Leroy Ignacio stops beside a tree scored with large claw marks. The animal responsible was a giant anteater. “They even rub their backs on the trunk to leave a scent behind,” says Ignacio, president of the South Rupununi Conservation Society (SRCS), as he demonstrates the motion. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[WICHABAI, Guyana — At sunrise in Guyana’s South Rupununi, Leroy Ignacio stops beside a tree scored with large claw marks. The animal responsible was a giant anteater. “They even rub their backs on the trunk to leave a scent behind,” says Ignacio, president of the South Rupununi Conservation Society (SRCS), as he demonstrates the motion. Indigenous researchers had long observed anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) climbing and marking trees, behaviors previously documented by scientists only in isolated cases. Working with four Indigenous communities, SRCS placed cameras at trees identified by locals. The resulting 883 recorded visits suggested the solitary animals use the trees to communicate. For nearly a quarter-century, SRCS has built a multi-community approach to conservation grounded in traditional knowledge. Its members are villagers, farmers and teachers who work with participating communities to research wildlife, develop conservation guidelines and teach local ecology. Before SRCS, Indigenous-led conservation in the Rupununi was mostly in the form of scattered projects and traditional stewardship by Makushi and Wapichan communities. But the discovery of an endangered bird, the red siskin (Spinus cucullatus), gave several South Rupununi communities a reason to organize across village boundaries. A flock of red siskins in Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo, Guyana. Image by Nick Athanas via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). A multi-community movement It all began with a scientific trip, recounts Ignacio. In 2000, researchers from the Smithsonian and the University of Kansas, both in the U.S., came to the South Rupununi to survey birds. Duane De Freitas and other young Indigenous residents&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/how-a-rare-bird-sparked-a-wildlife-movement-across-16-villages-in-guyana/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327131</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Dragonflies help protect water and ancestral Indigenous languages in Colombia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/dragonflies-help-protect-water-and-ancestral-indigenous-languages-in-colombia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/dragonflies-help-protect-water-and-ancestral-indigenous-languages-in-colombia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 12:22:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Manuel Fonseca]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/24120153/Hylaeonympha-magoi-1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326671</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity Hotspots, Citizen Science, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Ecosystems, Ecotourism, Freshwater, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Insects, Research, Tourism, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Every dragonfly story starts in the water, and Guainía, known as the land of many waters, should be the Olympus of these insects. The mix of waters from the Orinoquia and the Amazon with the vast pristine rainforest should make this region a dragonfly biodiversity hotspot. But little to nothing is known about the diversity [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Every dragonfly story starts in the water, and Guainía, known as the land of many waters, should be the Olympus of these insects. The mix of waters from the Orinoquia and the Amazon with the vast pristine rainforest should make this region a dragonfly biodiversity hotspot. But little to nothing is known about the diversity of these flying predators in this remote part of eastern Colombia. “When we started, very little was known; there were about 10 reported species,” Yiselle Cano, a doctoral candidate at the National University of La Plata, Argentina, and biodiversity leader of the project Dragones Guainía, told Mongabay in a video call. With rubber boots, long-sleeved shirts, hats and sweeping nets, Cano and her colleague Jenilee Montes go out every day and explore the waters of the Guainía in search of these insects. From small puddles to the deep-red waters of the Inirida River, these Colombian researchers have spent the last three years collecting and identifying dragonflies and damselflies in order to understand what is still left to protect, according to Cano. “I think we must be close to 120 species by now,” Cano said. “It’s a hugely diverse group, because it includes dragonflies native to the Orinoco, Amazonas and dragonflies that are endemic to the Guiana Shield.” Guainía, also known as the land of many waters, is a remote biodiversity hotspot at the meeting point of the Amazon Rainforest, the Orinoco River basin and the Guyana Shield. Image courtesy of Jenilee Montes. This discovery is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/dragonflies-help-protect-water-and-ancestral-indigenous-languages-in-colombia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326671</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil’s unique data center boom rides on clean power despite social burden</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/brazils-unique-data-center-boom-rides-on-clean-power-despite-social-burden/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/brazils-unique-data-center-boom-rides-on-clean-power-despite-social-burden/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 09:00:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Francisco AmorimLaís MartinsNaira Hofmeister]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/21192238/Headerfeat-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326903</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Caatinga, Cerrado, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Artificial Intelligence, Data centers, Energy, Natural Resources, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Technology, and Wind Power]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Corporations benefit from wasted energy, while locals pay for grid upgrades and endure noise and water threats.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The global appetite for artificial intelligence is pushing Brazil to lead an unprecedented move in the world regarding data centers. While around the globe, big tech struggles to find energy to power the infrastructures that store and process data, in Brazil the story is just the opposite: Data center proposers come from the power industry itself — more precisely, renewable energy. An exclusive analysis conducted by The Intercept Brasil and Mongabay (read it in Portuguese) revealed that 65% of the requests to connect data centers to the main power grid originated from renewable energy companies — considering only plans presented to the Ministry of Mines and Energy through December 2025. By that date, 68 connection requests had been reported across 37 Brazilian municipalities. A combination of factors explains this phenomenon, starting with the extraordinary amount of electricity required to power data centers. The International Energy Agency projects that global data center energy consumption will double in the coming years, potentially reaching 945 TWh by 2030 — equivalent to Japan&#8217;s total consumption — with artificial intelligence accounting for 40% of that figure. With a predominantly renewable energy mix, Brazil has become an attractive destination for data centers. “We are a vast source of opportunities for those looking to invest in the decarbonization of energy mixes,” proclaimed Brazil’s Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, in January 2025 during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland — a trip undertaken with the mission of promoting Brazil to global investors, particularly those in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/brazils-unique-data-center-boom-rides-on-clean-power-despite-social-burden/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326903</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wind energy surplus fuels unregulated data centers in Brazil&#8217;s dry land</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/wind-energy-surplus-fuels-unregulated-data-centers-in-brazils-dry-land/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/wind-energy-surplus-fuels-unregulated-data-centers-in-brazils-dry-land/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 09:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Laís Martins]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/21204526/Headerfeat-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
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											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Caatinga, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Data centers, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Law, Natural Resources, Protected Areas, Regulations, Renewable Energy, Resource Conflict, Technology, and Wind Power]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A renewable boom brought high rents and noise, and now, a shadowy tech expansion is arriving unannounced.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GENTIO DO OURO, Brazil — From the main square in Gentio do Ouro, in northern Bahia state, you&#8217;ll see what appears in almost every small Brazilian town: The city hall, a bank branch, a bandstand and a sign with the town’s name. What distinguishes this landscape is on the horizon: Regardless of which direction you look, you&#8217;ll see giant windmills used to generate energy. The town was put on the wind turbine map more than 15 years ago, and now has 28 active wind farms, according to data from the Energy Transition Observatory. The turbines, however, don&#8217;t make Gentio do Ouro, on the outskirts of the beautiful landscapes of the Chapada Diamantina mountains, a sustainable hub. In the main square, a sculpture of a gold nugget is a nod to mining, an activity that runs strong in the region. And yet another outside influence is gaining traction: A plan to make this peaceful town a data center backyard. Similar to factories, these facilities process everything that is done on the internet — using lots of energy, benefiting few people, hiring even less and bringing about a new wave of environmental impacts. Although it has only 11,000 citizens, Gentio do Ouro is targeted by 12 requests to connect data centers to the energy grid. At the front of this race are the same companies that filled the region with wind turbines, impacting threatened biomes and even disturbing the sleep of the wind farms’ neighbors. One of the main streets in Gentio&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/wind-energy-surplus-fuels-unregulated-data-centers-in-brazils-dry-land/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326800</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Drugs are becoming institutionalized: Interview with Ticuna leader in Peru’s Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/drugs-are-becoming-institutionalized-interview-with-ticuna-leader-in-perus-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/drugs-are-becoming-institutionalized-interview-with-ticuna-leader-in-perus-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Aug 2026 17:11:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/20165723/Ticuna-4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326821</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Environment, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Interviews, and Law]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Francisco Hernández Cayetano, president of the Federation of Ticuna and Yagua Communities of the Lower Amazon (FECOTYBA), is raising the alarm about the latest threats related to drug trafficking in the Amazon’s tri-border area. Living along riverbanks and lowland forests in the remote area where Peru, Colombia and Brazil meet, the Ticuna and Yagua people [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Francisco Hernández Cayetano, president of the Federation of Ticuna and Yagua Communities of the Lower Amazon (FECOTYBA), is raising the alarm about the latest threats related to drug trafficking in the Amazon’s tri-border area. Living along riverbanks and lowland forests in the remote area where Peru, Colombia and Brazil meet, the Ticuna and Yagua people find themselves in a hotspot for crime — and it is embedding in their communities. Tri-border areas in the Amazon often have a weak state presence that allows drug traffickers and other criminal groups to move drugs, gold and timber freely. As a 2024 report by Crisis Group, an independent organization, revealed, criminal activities in these areas can bring insecurity, violence and environmental damage to Indigenous peoples and their territories. “Our concern is very strong because most of the communities — almost 60 to 70% of the forests — are deforested due to drug trafficking,” Hernández tells Mongabay. “This causes certain problems, for example, children working in the [coca] fields, as well as women. It&#8217;s hitting us hard, especially the Ticuna youth.” Hernández, who comes from a Ticuna community known as Cushillo Cocha in the lowland rainforest region, says that the arrival of drug traffickers and illegal miners has brought social instability, deforestation and the contamination of waterways by chemicals used for mining and cocaine production. It has also created the conditions for a serious substance abuse problem among Indigenous youth. Drawn to coca fields for work, Ticuna children start smoking, taking drugs and drinking&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/drugs-are-becoming-institutionalized-interview-with-ticuna-leader-in-perus-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326821</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous fishers rethink shark hunting &#038; protect species on Colombia’s coast</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indigenous-fishers-rethink-shark-hunting-protect-species-on-colombias-coast/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indigenous-fishers-rethink-shark-hunting-protect-species-on-colombias-coast/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Aug 2026 06:00:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Euan Wallace]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/19153718/DSC04428-2-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326694</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Citizen Science, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Crime, Ecosystems, Environment, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Research, Science, and Sharks]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LA GUAJIRA, Colombia — Feet from the ocean, four sharks and a ray lie dead on the wind-battered sand. Above them stands Wilfrido Arends, 46. The blade of a short knife glints in his hand. Carefully, he bends down to cut a small fin from the underside of one shark — an endangered species known [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LA GUAJIRA, Colombia — Feet from the ocean, four sharks and a ray lie dead on the wind-battered sand. Above them stands Wilfrido Arends, 46. The blade of a short knife glints in his hand. Carefully, he bends down to cut a small fin from the underside of one shark — an endangered species known as a blacknose (Carcharhinus acronotus). He hands the sample to a woman next to him, who places it delicately in a vial. A tape measure is passed over the still glistening back of the dead shark. Each measurement is read out and noted down. Arends, a fisher from Colombia&#8217;s Wayuu Indigenous community, is spearheading shark research and conservation in Punta Gallinas, a Wayuu community where shark meat is part of the traditional diet. Home to around 50 families, the community sits at the northernmost tip of South America. &#8220;If we wipe out our sharks, I think that further down the line we will miss them,&#8221; says Arends, who is known locally as &#8220;Caracas.&#8221; Together with researchers from Colombian shark conservation initiative Proyecto Puyuii, Arends and other Wayuu fishers are documenting shark diversity in the largely unstudied waters of La Guajira. &#8220;There&#8217;s almost no data on anything,&#8221; says Diego Cardeñosa, a marine biologist at Florida International University in the U.S. A member of Proyecto Puyuii, he has been training Wayuu fishers to record the shark species they catch. Wayuu fishers and Puyuii researchers measure the carcass of a caught blacknose shark, an endangered species. Image by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indigenous-fishers-rethink-shark-hunting-protect-species-on-colombias-coast/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326694</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tapirs, bats and nests: How plastic infiltrates Amazonian wildlife</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/tapirs-bats-and-nests-how-plastic-infiltrates-amazonian-wildlife/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/tapirs-bats-and-nests-how-plastic-infiltrates-amazonian-wildlife/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Aug 2026 21:12:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tiago da Mota e Silva]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/18210249/tapir-in-suriname-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326600</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Microplastics in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bats, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Fish, Freshwater Fish, Health, Mammals, Microplastics, Plastic, Pollution, Protected Areas, Water Pollution, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At the mouth of the Amazon River, birds are already building blue nests out of discarded plastic.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the third and final article in a special series on microplastics in the Amazon. Read the first story here and the second story here. MANAUS, Brazil — Traveling by boat up the Negro River from Amazonas state capital Manaus, it takes eight to nine hours to cover the 100 kilometers (62 miles) to Anavilhanas National Park. This protected area preserves one of the world’s largest freshwater archipelagos, comprising more than 400 islands and 60 lakes. They include Prato Lake, which is about 3.5 kilometers (about 2 miles) long and 1.5 kilometers (nearly 1 mile) wide. Yet, even here, in a protected area far from urban pressures, microplastics were found in the digestive tracts of fish. A recent study found an average concentration of 0.25 particles per liter of microplastics in the waters of Prato Lake. The particles were also present in the fish analyzed, regardless of their feeding habits, averaging 3.3 particles per individual. In total, about eight out of every 10 fish contained microplastics, despite living in a preserved area far from urban centers. “As a result of the entire connectivity dynamic that exists between aquatic environments in the Amazon, plastic is found even in the most remote places,” said co-author of the study Adalberto Val, a biologist from the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA). Plastic’s likely journey begins long before it reaches the lake. Most of the particles found in the fish consisted of filaments of polyamide, also known as nylon, alongside fragments of materials&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/tapirs-bats-and-nests-how-plastic-infiltrates-amazonian-wildlife/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326600</doi>				</item>
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