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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/venezuela/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>Venezuela environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/venezuela/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>AI tool tracks spread of illegal gold mining in Amazon protected areas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ai-tool-tracks-spread-of-illegal-gold-mining-in-amazon-protected-areas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ai-tool-tracks-spread-of-illegal-gold-mining-in-amazon-protected-areas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Apr 2026 09:56:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/11143403/foto_58-edit-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317945</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Gold Mining, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Mining, Protected Areas, and Satellite Imagery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In July 2025, the Indigenous Shuar people celebrated the end of a decade-long struggle when they received official titles for three communities — the Shuar Tunants, Kampan and Tsuntsuim –- within the Kutukú Shaimi Protected Forest, in the south of the Ecuadorean Amazon. But in one of those communities, satellite imagery shows that between August [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In July 2025, the Indigenous Shuar people celebrated the end of a decade-long struggle when they received official titles for three communities — the Shuar Tunants, Kampan and Tsuntsuim –- within the Kutukú Shaimi Protected Forest, in the south of the Ecuadorean Amazon. But in one of those communities, satellite imagery shows that between August and December 2025, a gaping hole appeared in the forest around a riverbend — a mining scar. Despite the Tunants territory’s newly formalized status, deforestation due to gold mining nearly tripled, reaching 2 hectares (5 acres) in size in the last three months of 2025, according to Amazon Mining Watch Panorama, a new quarterly report. The report shows that deforestation due to illegal gold mining continues to grow across the Amazon, threatening protected parts of the rainforest. In total, 6,000 hectares (more than 14,800 acres) — about seven times the size of Central Park in New York City — of new mining scars appeared across protected areas and Indigenous territories over the last three months of 2025. This mining is presumed to be illegal, as most Amazonian countries have legislation prohibiting mining in Indigenous territories and protected areas, with experts warning that greater law enforcement is needed. Most of the deforestation caused by mining during that period took place in Brazil, with roughly 2,000 hectares (about 5,000 acres) of forest being cleared. This was followed by Peru with 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres), and Guyana with 900 hectares (about 2,200 acres). New mining scars were also&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ai-tool-tracks-spread-of-illegal-gold-mining-in-amazon-protected-areas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317945</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Venezuela’s new mining law could spell disaster for the Amazon, critics warn</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/venezuelas-new-mining-law-could-spell-disaster-for-the-amazon-critics-warn/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/venezuelas-new-mining-law-could-spell-disaster-for-the-amazon-critics-warn/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2026 18:39:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/10181944/AP26023620673399-1-768x500.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317348</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Gold Mining, Governance, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Law, Mining, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Venezuela is close to passing a law to update the country’s mining regulations and attract private investment in gold, silver, coltan and other minerals. But advocacy groups say the law may end up exacerbating deforestation and pollution in mining areas where environmental damage is already an issue. The legislation is part of a broader effort [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Venezuela is close to passing a law to update the country’s mining regulations and attract private investment in gold, silver, coltan and other minerals. But advocacy groups say the law may end up exacerbating deforestation and pollution in mining areas where environmental damage is already an issue. The legislation is part of a broader effort to bring in international investment following the January capture of President Nicolás Maduro by the United States, which has expressed interest in Venezuela’s natural resources. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez introduced the bill to the National Assembly in early March, outlining a framework to allow private investment in mining while maintaining strong state control over the sector. While some environmental protections are included in the bill, critics say they’re not rigorous enough to prevent ongoing deforestation or human rights abuses in mining zones. The law passed by unanimous vote April 9 and now needs official approval from Rodríguez. “We denounce that this legal and political framework, rather than being a regulatory instrument for control and transparency, will only generate a veneer of legality for the current systematic plundering of the Amazon and the Guiana Shield, deepening the serious environmental deterioration and the violation of human rights that are taking place,” said a statement signed by 15 advocacy groups. The law reinforces state control over the country’s mineral resources while creating pathways for outside investment, allowing authorized private companies and joint ventures with the state to participate in mining operations. It also formalizes artisanal mining, requiring miners&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/venezuelas-new-mining-law-could-spell-disaster-for-the-amazon-critics-warn/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/venezuelas-new-mining-law-could-spell-disaster-for-the-amazon-critics-warn/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317348</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New mapping data show where oil blocks threaten Venezuela’s protected areas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/new-mapping-data-show-where-oil-blocks-threaten-venezuelas-protected-areas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/new-mapping-data-show-where-oil-blocks-threaten-venezuelas-protected-areas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Mar 2026 18:42:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/19182802/AP25017551668547-1-768x500.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315993</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Infrastructure, Oil Drilling, Oil Spills, Politics, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Since the U.S. ousted Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, earlier this year, officials in Caracas have been looking for ways to increase oil production, including by attracting foreign private investment. In February, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright visited facilities operated by Chevron and met with interim government officials, describing plans to unlock “Venezuela’s enormous potential.” New [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Since the U.S. ousted Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, earlier this year, officials in Caracas have been looking for ways to increase oil production, including by attracting foreign private investment. In February, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright visited facilities operated by Chevron and met with interim government officials, describing plans to unlock “Venezuela’s enormous potential.” New supply contracts are routing Venezuelan crude to U.S. refineries while a new reform law is supposed to attract foreign oil companies with lower taxes and other incentives. Increased production could have an adverse environmental impact as activity ramps up, many conservation groups say. In Venezuela, oil blocks overlap with protected areas, and leaks have been a problem for decades. “From an environmental point of view, an immediate reactivation without investment in infrastructure is almost a sure formula for environmental damage from spills,” Eduardo Klein, a marine ecology professor at Simón Bolívar University in Caracas, told Mongabay. New mapping analysis by Mongabay reveals the extent of the potential threat to the country’s numerous ecosystems, including mangrove forests, seagrass meadows, coral reefs and Amazon rainforest, among others. The map was made with data from the World Database of Protected Areas and oil block maps from ProVita, an environmental nonprofit. It shows that Venezuela has 538,883 square kilometers (208,064 square miles) of protected areas and 177,843 km2 (68,666 mi2) of oil blocks, some of them already in production and others in the pre-exploration or exploration phases. An estimated 70,785 km2 (27,330 mi2) — or around 13% — of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/new-mapping-data-show-where-oil-blocks-threaten-venezuelas-protected-areas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/new-mapping-data-show-where-oil-blocks-threaten-venezuelas-protected-areas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315993</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How US intervention could deepen Venezuela’s environmental crisis</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/how-us-intervention-could-deepen-venezuelas-environmental-crisis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/how-us-intervention-could-deepen-venezuelas-environmental-crisis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jan 2026 17:32:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/20165903/AP25285837186921-1-768x500.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313124</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forests, Gold Mining, Governance, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Mining, Oil, Oil Drilling, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When U.S. forces entered Venezuela earlier this month and removed President Nicolás Maduro, officials framed the intervention as a strategic economic opportunity. President Donald Trump repeatedly pointed to the country’s oil reserves and rare earth minerals, saying U.S. companies stood to earn billions of dollars. Less attention has been paid to the environmental risks of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When U.S. forces entered Venezuela earlier this month and removed President Nicolás Maduro, officials framed the intervention as a strategic economic opportunity. President Donald Trump repeatedly pointed to the country’s oil reserves and rare earth minerals, saying U.S. companies stood to earn billions of dollars. Less attention has been paid to the environmental risks of his plan. More than half of Venezuela is covered by forest, some of it in the Amazon Basin. It also has grasslands, wetlands and thousands of kilometers of Caribbean coastline. These ecosystems were already under strain under the Maduro government, but critics warn that foreign intervention could intensify the damage. “If environmental risks aren’t taken into account in this process, we’re probably facing a potential environmental catastrophe of a very large magnitude,” Eduardo Klein, a marine ecology professor at Simón Bolívar University in Caracas, told Mongabay. Venezuela has an estimated 300 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, the largest in the world. Yet it produces slightly less than a million barrels a day, far below many other oil-producing countries with smaller reserves. By international standards, Venezuela’s oil is heavier than in other parts of the world, making it more costly and requiring special processing equipment. The government has also allowed pipelines and refineries to fall into disrepair over the last 20 years, the result of financial mismanagement, corruption, an untrained workforce and sanctions. In 2024, there were at least 65 oil spills across eight states, according to the Venezuelan Observatory for Political Ecology. It also&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/how-us-intervention-could-deepen-venezuelas-environmental-crisis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/how-us-intervention-could-deepen-venezuelas-environmental-crisis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313124</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Amazon in 2026: A challenging year ahead, now off the center stage</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-amazon-in-2026-a-challenging-year-ahead-now-off-the-center-stage/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-amazon-in-2026-a-challenging-year-ahead-now-off-the-center-stage/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 14:27:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/19151029/Parque_Estadual_Encontro_das_Aguas_Thomas-Fuhrmann_2023-_01_Jaguar_-_Panthera_onca_swimming-scaled-e1710871756906-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311879</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Bioeconomy, Climate Change, Conflict, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As Belém's COP30 ended in compromise, political forces moved swiftly to accelerate destruction far from the global spotlight. 
]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon enters 2026 carrying the bitter taste of compromise. The world’s attention was fixed on Belém for the COP30 summit in November, transforming the Brazilian city into a brief, intense stage for climate diplomacy, where ambitious calls for a fossil fuel phaseout ultimately died on the negotiating floor. Yet, in 2025, the true battle for the rainforest was fought far from the Blue Zone. In the quiet shadows, powerful political forces moved to roll back environmental protections in Brazil (which holds 64% of the rainforest), successfully passing the anti-conservation bills and green-lighting critical infrastructure projects. This dual reality — grand promises versus accelerated development on the frontier — set the defining tension for the year, even as a more hopeful, grassroots movement gained momentum, finding new, valuable purpose for biodiversity in innovations, proving the rainforest is worth far more standing than cut. COP30 was wrapped in global expectations. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opened the summit by proposing a road map to enable humankind to overcome its dependence on fossil fuels in a fair and planned manner and to halt deforestation. However, the ambitious calls for a fossil fuel phaseout were excluded from the official COP outcomes. In response, Brazil, alongside the Colombian and Dutch delegations, agreed to develop road maps outside the formal U.N. process. This effort will culminate in the First International Conference on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, scheduled for April 2026, in Santa Marta, Colombia, to negotiate an equitable Fossil Fuel&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-amazon-in-2026-a-challenging-year-ahead-now-off-the-center-stage/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311879</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The price of gold: In Venezuela, mining threatens Indigenous Pemón</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/the-price-of-gold-in-venezuela-mining-threatens-indigenous-pemon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/the-price-of-gold-in-venezuela-mining-threatens-indigenous-pemon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Nov 2025 11:55:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Catherine Ellis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/11113816/Canaima-National-Park-is-known-for-its-large-tepuis-CREDIT-Catherine-Ellis-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309229</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Gold Mining, Illegal Mining, Illegal Trade, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Mining, National Parks, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Rivers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CÚCUTA, Colombia — When Daniel Romero worked at a river mine in Canaima National Park, in southeastern Venezuela, he would wait until the sun had slipped behind the ancient sandstone tepuis before heading to the raft. Sometimes he thought of his grandparents tending to their conucos — small garden plots — and gliding across mirror-black [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CÚCUTA, Colombia — When Daniel Romero worked at a river mine in Canaima National Park, in southeastern Venezuela, he would wait until the sun had slipped behind the ancient sandstone tepuis before heading to the raft. Sometimes he thought of his grandparents tending to their conucos — small garden plots — and gliding across mirror-black and amber rivers in dugout canoes. They had always opposed mines encroaching on their ancestral lands. Romero, a tour guide from the Pemón Indigenous group, who spoke to Mongabay by phone, never imagined he’d end up working in one. Though grueling, he became used to mud-caked skin, roaring machines and his torchlight revealing silt-clouded rivers as he hunted for gold. Mining for gold, as well as other resources such as coltan and rare earths, has expanded in southern Venezuela since the early 2000s, accelerating over the past decade. It is now rife in areas controlled by state, armed and criminal actors and has drawn in many Indigenous communities seeking to earn a living. It is now spilling into protected areas like Canaima National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to Angel Falls, the world’s tallest uninterrupted waterfall at 979 meters (3,212 feet). A May 2025 World Heritage Watch report based on data from SOS Orinoco found five mining sites and two expansions appeared in the park. Between 2000 and 2023, mined areas grew by more than 1,300%, from 122 hectares (301 acres) to 1,582 hectares (3,909 acres), while another 73 hectares (180 acres)&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/the-price-of-gold-in-venezuela-mining-threatens-indigenous-pemon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309229</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Across the Amazon, impunity among politicians remains chronic</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/across-the-amazon-impunity-among-politicians-remains-chronic/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/across-the-amazon-impunity-among-politicians-remains-chronic/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Nov 2025 09:56:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/03011742/OverviewPist058-059-065-082-084_SPOT2022-07-30-1-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308702</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, Brazil, Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Corruption, Environment, Governance, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Brazil and the Andean Republics all have constitutional provisions establishing special protocols for the prosecution of elected officials. These supposedly were conceived to ensure public servants are held accountable for misdeeds, while protecting them from frivolous or politically motivated prosecution. This special status, however, has created a two-tiered justice system that protects politicians from the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Brazil and the Andean Republics all have constitutional provisions establishing special protocols for the prosecution of elected officials. These supposedly were conceived to ensure public servants are held accountable for misdeeds, while protecting them from frivolous or politically motivated prosecution. This special status, however, has created a two-tiered justice system that protects politicians from the consequences of their malfeasance, because their trials are usually delayed until charges are dismissed on technicalities, because of the statute of limitations, or because they have been acquitted by magistrates corrupted by the political process. The most notorious is Brazil’s ‘Foro Privilegiado’, which stipulates that only the Tribunal Supremo Federal (TSF) has the authority to preside over a criminal trial for the president, vice president, members of Congress and other high-level appointed officials, while governors, judges and other elected officials enjoy similar, if less conspicuous, forms of legal shelter. These constitutional provisions apply to more than 22,000 authorities, a staggering number that separates their potential prosecution from the criminal justice system that applies to everybody else. The judicial authorities that played major roles in the Lava Jato bribery scandal. Top (left to right): Sergio Moro (Juiz de 13ª Vara Criminal Federal de Curitiba), who presided over the investigation and trials of leading businessmen; Deltan Dallagnol (Procurador da República), who led the Operação Lava Jato investigation and the team that prosecuted most of the private citizens; and Rodrigo Janot (Procurador-General da República), who initiated legal action targeting elected officials and cabinet ministers protected by Foro Privilegiado.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/across-the-amazon-impunity-among-politicians-remains-chronic/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308702</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The rise of anti-corruption prosecutors in the Amazon region</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/the-rise-of-anti-corruption-prosecutors-in-the-amazon-region/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/the-rise-of-anti-corruption-prosecutors-in-the-amazon-region/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Oct 2025 11:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/23235157/WhatsApp-Image-2020-05-20-at-17.20.23-2-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308243</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Corruption, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Law Enforcement, Organized Crime, Politics, Rainforests, Social Justice, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Prosecutors are lawyers employed by the state to investigate crimes and initiate judicial proceedings. Ensuring their integrity and competence is essential to judicial reform and the application of environmental law. In Brazil, allegations of political corruption by public servants are reviewed by the 5ª Câmara de Coordenação e Revisão (Combate à Corrupção) and, if warranted, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Prosecutors are lawyers employed by the state to investigate crimes and initiate judicial proceedings. Ensuring their integrity and competence is essential to judicial reform and the application of environmental law. In Brazil, allegations of political corruption by public servants are reviewed by the 5ª Câmara de Coordenação e Revisão (Combate à Corrupção) and, if warranted, referred to a regional office for prosecution. For example, the anti-corruption specialists in Curitiba (4th Region) were instrumental in uncovering the perfidy of the Lava Jato bribery and money laundering network. Although media attention focused on the presiding judge (Sergio Moro), the investigations were conducted by a dedicated team of prosecutors who relentlessly accumulated evidence against some of the most powerful individuals in Brazil. One of the shark seizures carried out by the Tumbes Prosecutor&#8217;s Office in Peru. Image courtesy of Oceana. The impact of Brazil’s anti-corruption campaign is reflected by the number of criminal cases reviewed by the 5ª Câmara, which rose from 2,500 per year in 2002 to more than 15,000 annually in 2019. Very few, however, are referred for a trial: approximately 90% of the criminal complaints reviewed in the twenty-plus years of existence of the 5ª Câmara have been dismissed for technical reasons, most commonly for lack of evidence. The lack of aggressive prosecution is also characteristic of their internal affairs unit (Corregedoria Nacional of the Conselho Nacional do Ministério Público), which recommended that 89% (940 out of 1,078) of the complaints filed against procuradores should be dismissed. The decision not&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/the-rise-of-anti-corruption-prosecutors-in-the-amazon-region/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308243</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In the Guyana Shield, the fight against deforestation is not ambitious enough</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-the-guyana-shield-the-fight-against-deforestation-is-not-ambitious-enough/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-the-guyana-shield-the-fight-against-deforestation-is-not-ambitious-enough/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Oct 2025 16:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/14122852/mining-deforestation-suriname-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306925</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Guyana, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Illegal Logging, Land Grabbing, Law Enforcement, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The three Guiana Shield countries do not suffer from high deforestation levels, which should render their commitments to eradicate deforestation more credible. Nonetheless, some government officials continue to promote conventional development polices. Guyana’s most recent NDC commits the government to implementing regulations and incentive programmes to avoid deforestation and forest degradation, along with a comprehensive [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The three Guiana Shield countries do not suffer from high deforestation levels, which should render their commitments to eradicate deforestation more credible. Nonetheless, some government officials continue to promote conventional development polices. Guyana’s most recent NDC commits the government to implementing regulations and incentive programmes to avoid deforestation and forest degradation, along with a comprehensive land use plan that purposes to rationally exploit the nation’s resources. Presumably, these commitments will be financed by the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF), a jurisdictional REDD+ programme established in 2010 following an agreement between Guyana and Norway to maintain (and further reduce) Guyana’s historically low deforestation rates. As of January 2024, the fund had received US$ 150 million in payments, of which about US$ 70 million have been disbursed to support a variety of projects, from developing a national green development plan to formalising titles of Indigenous territories. Guyana has also joined the ART system for future trade in REDD+ credits. Suriname has made a similar commitment in its NDC by emphasizing its status as a high cover – low deforestation country (HFLD) and its expectations that the international community will provide financial support to help maintain (and improve) the status quo. The country recently filed to claim REDD+ credits using a UN-approved mechanism similar to the jurisdictional approach used by Guyana; it is also essentially demanding compensation for its historically low levels of GHG emissions from deforestation. Mennonites burn the trees first, then cut the trunks and lastly prepare the land for crops.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-the-guyana-shield-the-fight-against-deforestation-is-not-ambitious-enough/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306925</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amid Venezuela’s illegal gold heist are armed groups, gangs &#038; elites, report says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/amid-venezuelas-illegal-gold-heist-are-armed-groups-gangs-elites-report-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/amid-venezuelas-illegal-gold-heist-are-armed-groups-gangs-elites-report-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Oct 2025 14:57:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/02133441/AP23136547644568-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306973</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Crime, Environment, Gold Mining, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Mercury, Organized Crime, Rainforest Destruction, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[According to a new report, most of Venezuela’s gold is smuggled and laundered internationally through shell companies and opaque supply chains, including to the U.S. The operations are often controlled by military elites, guerrilla groups and transnational gangs, which exploit several loopholes and gaps in the U.S. financial and trade systems, the report by the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[According to a new report, most of Venezuela’s gold is smuggled and laundered internationally through shell companies and opaque supply chains, including to the U.S. The operations are often controlled by military elites, guerrilla groups and transnational gangs, which exploit several loopholes and gaps in the U.S. financial and trade systems, the report by the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition says. The impact on Amazon forests, water and Indigenous communities is “devastating,” the authors write. They suggest several policy changes in the U.S. to prevent the transfer of illegal gold into the country, such as tightening oversight, closing legal loopholes and restoring domestic enforcement capacity, which has been dramatically reduced over the years due to the prioritization of resources to curb narcotics trafficking. The current U.S. government&#8217;s approach to drugs and gangs from Venezuela, which included strikes on alleged drug boats, is one they say shouldn&#8217;t be replicated for illegal gold as it &#8220;isn&#8217;t working&#8221; and the costs &#8220;are considerable.&#8221; “A militaristic, hardline U.S. response to illegal gold mining in the region would be both unwise and ineffective,” Julia Yansura, the FACT Coalition’s program director for environmental crime and illicit finance and co-author of the report, told Mongabay via email. “First off, many of our allies in the region have already tried this, sending in troops for rapid, military style &#8216;strikes&#8217; against illegal mining sites. &#8220;What we are urging the U.S. to do is to employ new tools from the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing toolbox. By cutting&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/amid-venezuelas-illegal-gold-heist-are-armed-groups-gangs-elites-report-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306973</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Protecting Indigenous Amazon lands may also protect public health, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/protecting-indigenous-amazon-lands-may-also-protect-public-health-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/protecting-indigenous-amazon-lands-may-also-protect-public-health-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Sep 2025 16:13:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/07100930/DSCF1540NK_Wao_nemopare_retrato_pekes-2048x1365-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306273</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aerosol Pollution, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Diseases, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Governance, Health, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Planetary Health, Pollution, Protected Areas, Public Health, Rainforests, Research, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous territories are widely recognized as vital for conserving the environment and biodiversity, but far less is known about their role in protecting human health. Only recently have researchers begun to fill in this knowledge gap and investigate how the protection of these areas can provide health benefits as well as ecosystem services. Now, a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous territories are widely recognized as vital for conserving the environment and biodiversity, but far less is known about their role in protecting human health. Only recently have researchers begun to fill in this knowledge gap and investigate how the protection of these areas can provide health benefits as well as ecosystem services. Now, a new paper analyzing the relationship between Indigenous territories and the occurrence of 21 diseases in the Amazon biome over 20 years suggests that healthy forests on protected Indigenous territories can help reduce disease incidence and risks to human health. “Indigenous forests act as a sort of shield for health,” said study lead author Júlia Rodrigues Barreto, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. Published in Communications Earth &amp; Environment, the study is the first of its kind to look at all nine Amazonian countries. Its main contribution, according to Barreto, is to convey the importance of guaranteeing land rights for Indigenous peoples across the Amazon. Indigenous village of the Huni Kuin people in Jordão, Acre. Indigenous territories with secure land rights not only reduce deforestation inside their lands in the Brazilian Amazon, but also lead to higher secondary forest growth on previously deforested areas. Image by AgniBa via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Barreto and her colleagues looked at how Indigenous territories, depending on their legal status and landscape characteristics, could influence the incidence of fire-related illnesses, as well as vector-borne and zoonotic diseases — those transmitted by insect bites or&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/protecting-indigenous-amazon-lands-may-also-protect-public-health-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306273</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Venezuela tries an environmental rebrand, but critics aren’t buying it</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/venezuela-tries-an-environmental-rebrand-but-critics-arent-buying-it/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/venezuela-tries-an-environmental-rebrand-but-critics-arent-buying-it/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Aug 2025 17:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/19163522/AP25015830394905-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304551</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forests, Law, Mining, Politics, Pollution, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the last few years, the Venezuelan government has taken a surprising interest in the environment. President Nicolás Maduro, usually silent on the topic, recently posted on social media about a “green Venezuela.” He announced a “world congress of eco-socialism” for December and has called for greater support for countries impacted by climate change. Yet [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the last few years, the Venezuelan government has taken a surprising interest in the environment. President Nicolás Maduro, usually silent on the topic, recently posted on social media about a “green Venezuela.” He announced a “world congress of eco-socialism” for December and has called for greater support for countries impacted by climate change. Yet for many observers, the environmental rhetoric rings hollow. Oil spills continue to pollute the country’s coastline, and illegal gold mining has expanded into protected areas, often with tacit government approval. What Maduro is really after, critics say, is new revenue and a cleanup of the country’s reputation. “There has been an attempt to reintegrate Maduro’s government into the international community through green policy announcements,” an activist, who wished to remain anonymous due to security concerns, told Mongabay. “&#8230;It would be somewhat naïve to think there’s a genuine environmental interest here.” Last month, Maduro unveiled the Gran Misión Madre Tierra, or “Great Mother Earth Mission,” designed to address Venezuela’s climate emergency. Among other things, the mission mandates the creation of new reforestation efforts, climate change adaptation and response programs, a national waste management initiative, and sustainable agricultural practices. The mission also includes expanding environmental education in schools and protecting the headwaters of the country’s rivers in the Andes and páramos. Critics say the mission strategically omits some of the country’s most pressing environmental issues, such as illegal gold mining. Last year, Venezuela lost an estimated 9,531 hectares (23,552 acres) of rainforest to mining, largely overseen by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/venezuela-tries-an-environmental-rebrand-but-critics-arent-buying-it/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304551</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Centralized governance in the Guianas and economic legacy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/centralized-governance-in-the-guianas-and-economic-legacy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/centralized-governance-in-the-guianas-and-economic-legacy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Aug 2025 22:21:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/31190904/animals_03234-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303560</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Guyana, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Energy, Environment, Governance, Hydroelectric Power, Infrastructure, Mining, Politics, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Venezuela has a long history of federal government, and twelve of its 22 constitutions have included the word ‘Federal’ in the title, including the first, in 1811. Most of these federal regimes were established in the nineteenth century, however, and an extended period of military rule between 1900 and 1958 established a centralized governing philosophy [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Venezuela has a long history of federal government, and twelve of its 22 constitutions have included the word ‘Federal’ in the title, including the first, in 1811. Most of these federal regimes were established in the nineteenth century, however, and an extended period of military rule between 1900 and 1958 established a centralized governing philosophy that continues to dominate political affairs in the country. Venezuela has all the trappings of a federal state, including regional assemblies and the direct election of regional authorities, but the reality is the predominance of a central government that is authoritarian in nature. There was a brief period when federalist principles left a mark on the Amazonian states, when the country established the Corporación Venezolana de Guayana (CVG) in 1960. This was followed by two decades of investment in hydropower, mining and industrial development. The legacy of these investments persists today in the county’s dependence on the Guri hydropower facility. The mining industry has been in decline for more than a decade and the metal refineries are barely functioning. In 2024, Venezuela is essentially a failed state, and the collapse of its formal institutions has led the national government to declare military rule in Bolívar and Amazonas states. Crack in Diablo Mountain, Venezuela. Image by Rhett A. Butler. Guyana and Suriname are small, centralized republics where the national government is responsible for policy development and the delivery of basic services, although it may administer them via local jurisdictions, which are called Regional Democratic Councils in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/centralized-governance-in-the-guianas-and-economic-legacy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303560</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Communities and ecosystems in Venezuela learn to adapt to life after glaciers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/communities-and-ecosystems-in-venezuela-learn-to-adapt-to-life-after-glaciers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/communities-and-ecosystems-in-venezuela-learn-to-adapt-to-life-after-glaciers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jun 2025 15:56:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeanfreddy Gutiérrez TorresMaría Fernanda Rodríguez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/30143735/A-scientist-from-Venezuelas-Last-Glacier-project-collects-ice-samples-from-La-Corona-in-December-2023-for-study.-Photo_-Stefano-Pozzebon-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301647</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Ecosystems, extractives, Fossil Fuels, Freshwater, Glaciers, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Mitigation, Mountains, Plants, Research, and Tourism]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MÉRIDA, Venezuela- José Betancourt, 75, climbed to the glacier of Pico Bolívar, Venezuela&#8217;s highest peak, 158 times before it disappeared in 2017. He’s also summited the nearby Pico Humboldt, the country’s second-highest peak, more than 100 times. At 4,925 meters (16,158 feet), Humboldt still has a glacier — for now. In 2023, scientists demoted the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MÉRIDA, Venezuela- José Betancourt, 75, climbed to the glacier of Pico Bolívar, Venezuela&#8217;s highest peak, 158 times before it disappeared in 2017. He’s also summited the nearby Pico Humboldt, the country’s second-highest peak, more than 100 times. At 4,925 meters (16,158 feet), Humboldt still has a glacier — for now. In 2023, scientists demoted the ever-shrinking glacier, La Corona, covering an area barely larger than two football fields, to ice field status. Venezuela has become the first tropical country to lose all its glaciers. But with most of the ice gone, the mountains are seeing new life emerge, and local communities are seeking to reinvent the identity of the city of Mérida, a place once known for its eternal snows. In the early 1900s, Sierra Nevada de Mérida National Park in western Venezuela was home to more than 10 prominent glaciers formed during the last glacial period, about 21,500 years ago. These sat atop the peaks of El Toro, El León, Espejo, Bolívar, La Concha, Bonpland and Humboldt. Their retreat first became visible at the end of the 19th century. In 1890, Venezuelan writer and historian Tulio Febres Cordero wrote: “It has been said for some time that the snow in the mountains is diminishing; and the older neighbors point out with sadness the places where the snow has completely disappeared. The decrease is slow, but unfortunately true.” The 1956 International High Mountain Ski Competition at Pico Espejo in the Sierra Nevada de Mérida, the only one in Venezuela. Image&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/communities-and-ecosystems-in-venezuela-learn-to-adapt-to-life-after-glaciers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301647</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon illegal gold mines drive sex trafficking in the Brazil-Guyana border</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/amazon-illegal-gold-mines-drive-sex-trafficking-in-the-brazil-guyana-border/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/amazon-illegal-gold-mines-drive-sex-trafficking-in-the-brazil-guyana-border/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2025 07:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Oliveira]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/23174416/OPERAO1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299597</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Guyana, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conflict, Crime, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Mining, Organized Crime, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Poverty and poor border controls have allowed young women to be trafficked into the sex trade catering to illegal gold miners in Brazil’s border areas with countries like Guyana and Venezuela.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BOA VISTA, Brazil — After crossing the Brazilian border into the town of Lethem in Guyana, a billboard declares that human trafficking is a crime. It’s a jarring message in this otherwise tranquil town with its streets full of stores selling products imported from China. Those are just some of the products that draw traders here from across the border in the Brazilian city of Bonfim, 132 kilometers (82 miles) away from the capital of Boa Vista, the Amazonian state of Roraima. Separated by the Tacutu River (or Takutu in Guyana), the cities are easily accessible by the BR-401 highway. I crossed the border from Brazil into Guyana without being subjected to any inspections, despite the presence of a Federal Police post on the Brazilian side. Over the course of seven days in Roraima, three sources told me that traffickers in Boa Vista often recruit girls in Roraima and take them to Lethem, where they’re dragged into the sex trade at bars catering to gold miners. In Guyana, prostitution is prohibited and mining operations are supervised. However, sources who requested anonymity for security reasons told Mongabay that the sexual exploitation of young women, including Brazilians and especially Venezuelans, routinely occurs. In general, according to the sources, bars and other places frequented by young people in Boa Vista are targets for groomers working for organized crime networks that have invested heavily in mining activities in the Amazon. They lure girls and young women with invitations to business trips and promises of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/amazon-illegal-gold-mines-drive-sex-trafficking-in-the-brazil-guyana-border/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299597</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous delegates at the U.N. raise alarm on isolated peoples in the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/indigenous-delegates-at-the-u-n-raise-alarm-on-voluntary-isolated-peoples/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/indigenous-delegates-at-the-u-n-raise-alarm-on-voluntary-isolated-peoples/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Apr 2025 15:52:22 +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/20/2021/02/20201745/isolados-funai-uncontacted-indigenous-javari-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298208</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Environmental Policy, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Logging, Mining, Rainforests, and Uncontacted Tribes]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This story is published through the Indigenous News Alliance. At the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues — the world’s largest convening of Indigenous peoples — Indigenous leaders from South America are taking the chance to spotlight threats facing isolated peoples (also known as uncontacted people). Deforestation is closing in on some communities in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story is published through the Indigenous News Alliance. At the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues — the world’s largest convening of Indigenous peoples — Indigenous leaders from South America are taking the chance to spotlight threats facing isolated peoples (also known as uncontacted people). Deforestation is closing in on some communities in the Amazon and many lack official recognition of records of their existence, say representatives at the 10-day gathering in the U.N. headquarters in New York City. They are holding multiple events in the city, including launching a book with strategies to recognize their presence and sharing solutions to protect the lands they depend on. “There needs to be greater respect, protection and land demarcation for these peoples,” said Bushe Matis, general coordinator of the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Vale do Javari (UNIVAJA). “It’s important for us Indigenous peoples who came to New York to raise our voices for them.” The rights of isolated Indigenous peoples are guaranteed in international legislation and some national laws, such as the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO Convention 169). However, these are at times violated by states, companies, and invaders searching for land. In some cases, they are unprotected because states, including Venezuela and Paraguay, don’t recognize them. Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact, also known as PIACI, are threatened by the exploitation of natural resources, drug trafficking, illegal logging, and mining in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/indigenous-delegates-at-the-u-n-raise-alarm-on-voluntary-isolated-peoples/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298208</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservation and the rise of corporations in the Pan Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/conservation-and-the-rise-of-corporations-in-the-pan-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/conservation-and-the-rise-of-corporations-in-the-pan-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jan 2025 14:15:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/02165845/PORTADA-rio-das-mortes-brazil_1119-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292619</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Latin America, Peru, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community Development, Conservation, Corporations, Deforestation, extractives, Forest Loss, Forests, Human Migration, Land Grabbing, Logging, Migration, Mining, Palm Oil, Population, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The constituency for the conservation of the Pan Amazon is broad-based and diverse. Academics and civil society organizations have been successful in framing conservation of the Amazon as an issue of global importance. They have formed an alliance with Indigenous and traditional peoples, and have convinced a majority of urban populations that the Amazonian ecosystem [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The constituency for the conservation of the Pan Amazon is broad-based and diverse. Academics and civil society organizations have been successful in framing conservation of the Amazon as an issue of global importance. They have formed an alliance with Indigenous and traditional peoples, and have convinced a majority of urban populations that the Amazonian ecosystem is a natural asset that will benefit future generations. Most citizens of the region’s subnational jurisdictions also support the principles of sustainable development and generally accept the consensus view of the need to conserve the region’s biodiversity and ecosystem services. Nonetheless, this generalized support has not translated into a change in the production systems that are driving deforestation and other forms of environmental degradation. This apparent contradiction is the logical result of people’s economic dependence on conventional development. Most citizens of the Pan Amazon depend either directly or indirectly on extractive production models and the economic growth that occurs when natural capital is converted into financial capital. Advocates for conventional development likewise originate from a similarly broad and diverse populace, but this view is particularly strong in communities composed of recent immigrants and their descendants who live on or near the agricultural frontier. They include obvious stakeholders, such as farmers, ranchers and miners, but also their employees, service providers and supply chain intermediaries. Proponents of orthodox development occupy key positions in the conventional economy and consequently have an outsized influence on decisions that drive investment. This group includes the executives of banks, construction companies, manufacturing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/conservation-and-the-rise-of-corporations-in-the-pan-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-292619</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The particularities of the migratory movement in Venezuela, the Guianas and Suriname</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-particularities-of-the-migratory-movement-in-venezuela-the-guianas-and-suriname/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-particularities-of-the-migratory-movement-in-venezuela-the-guianas-and-suriname/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Dec 2024 17:03:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/07153906/RioCauca-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292382</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Colombia, French Guiana, Guiana Shield, Latin America, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Drought, Forests, Human Migration, Indigenous Peoples, Migration, Mining, Population, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The modern history of internal migration in Colombia began in a manner that was not unlike the processes organized by the governments in Brazil and the other Andean countries in the 1960s and early 1970s. However, that process was derailed first by a civil war and subsequently by the production of illicit drugs, largely because [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The modern history of internal migration in Colombia began in a manner that was not unlike the processes organized by the governments in Brazil and the other Andean countries in the 1960s and early 1970s. However, that process was derailed first by a civil war and subsequently by the production of illicit drugs, largely because of tactics pursued by the Fuerzas Armada Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). The conflict effectively suppressed state infrastructure investment while freezing land acquisition by middle-class families and investors. At the same time, however, it fuelled the migration of displaced peasants, who opted to cultivate coca under the protective umbrella of the FARC. The conflict officially ended in 2017 via the so-called Peace Process, which brought momentous change to the Colombian Amazon. The FARC no longer exists as an organized military entity, but it has been replaced by criminal groups composed of demobilized guerillas and militia members. Unfortunately, the state has not established a meaningful presence in the region and the cessation of hostilities has triggered a land rush supercharged by the drug trade and the cattle industry. Two young people ride a motorbike on the street that divides Tabatinga in Brazil from Leticia in Colombia. Crime rates have risen sharply in the region. Image by Ivan Brehaut. Migratory pathways Before the civil war, the administration of President Carlos Lleras Restrepo (1966–1970) created the Instituto Nacional de Colonización (INCOR) in an attempt to respond to the demand for land by the rural poor. The strategy was supported&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-particularities-of-the-migratory-movement-in-venezuela-the-guianas-and-suriname/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292382</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Long-running tropical forest research stalls amid Venezuelan crisis</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/long-running-tropical-forest-research-stalls-amid-venezuelan-crisis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/long-running-tropical-forest-research-stalls-amid-venezuelan-crisis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Nov 2024 17:56:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tony Frangie Mawad]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/04121335/Rhett-Butler-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289628</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Law Enforcement, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Threats To Rainforests, Trees, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[José Rafael Lozada had systematically monitored forest plots for almost 25 years in the Caparo Forest Reserve, the last tropical rainforest of Venezuela’s western plains, when about 300 peasant families entered the reserve in January 2018, seeking to establish crop plots. “We, students and professors, went to the field to talk with the invaders, face [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[José Rafael Lozada had systematically monitored forest plots for almost 25 years in the Caparo Forest Reserve, the last tropical rainforest of Venezuela’s western plains, when about 300 peasant families entered the reserve in January 2018, seeking to establish crop plots. “We, students and professors, went to the field to talk with the invaders, face to face, and it was very tense,” says Lozada, emeritus ecology professor from the University of the Andes (ULA) in western Venezuela. Venezuela has some of the longest monitoring projects of forest plots established in the tropics, through which researchers seek to understand how old-growth forests function. Caparo is one of them. “It was a pioneering” project in the Amazon Basin, says Rafael Herrera Fernández, emeritus researcher from the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research, who started monitoring forest plots in the Río Negro Basin, in the state of Amazonas, in 1973. “You had many scientists for a long time in many plots measuring thousands and thousands of trees, working with local people”, he says. But in recent years, both the forests and research efforts have become increasingly threatened by the country’s social and economic crises. Jacaranda copaia tree in the Caimital dry forest in the Venezuelan plains. Image taken during one of the re-measurement campaigns. Image by Emilio Vilanova. Some of the plots studied by ULA scientists date to the early 1950s, when Jean Pierre Veillon and Hans Lamprecht, two Swiss forestry engineers and ULA professors, established the first plots. Veillon himself designated 72 plots&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/long-running-tropical-forest-research-stalls-amid-venezuelan-crisis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289628</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As Venezuela&#8217;s crisis rolls on, its wildlife is increasingly at risk</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/as-venezuelas-crisis-rolls-on-its-wildlife-is-increasingly-at-risk/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/as-venezuelas-crisis-rolls-on-its-wildlife-is-increasingly-at-risk/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Nov 2024 14:27:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mie Hoejris Dahl]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/07114207/Roraima-Venezuela9-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289715</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Law Enforcement, Poaching, Politics, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CANAIMA, Venezuela – Along Venezuelan roads, you come across a variety of wildlife, from parrots and parakeets to sloths and monkeys. The trade in threatened species has become so normalized that many locals don’t even realize that their roadside business may constitute illegal wildlife trafficking, often right under the noses of authorities who turn a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CANAIMA, Venezuela – Along Venezuelan roads, you come across a variety of wildlife, from parrots and parakeets to sloths and monkeys. The trade in threatened species has become so normalized that many locals don’t even realize that their roadside business may constitute illegal wildlife trafficking, often right under the noses of authorities who turn a blind eye. “People sell wildlife on the streets, right next to the police,” says a Venezuelan source speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals. They recall being invited to dinner somewhere in the country’s south, where they were shocked by what was served: a puma cub. The hosts kept the skins and bones in a freezer, ready for sale. Despite reporting the incident to the authorities, nothing changed: “They ignore this,” the source says, disappointment evident in their voice. Amid the worst economic collapse outside of wartime in nearly half a century, an ongoing political crisis, and a humanitarian crisis that has contributed to about one-fourth of the population fleeing the country, environmental concerns and wildlife preservation are often overlooked in Venezuela. In southern Venezuela, a troubling combination of gold mining, logging, agriculture, luxury tourism, and the consumption and trafficking of wildlife has intensified over the past decade, threatening one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. Exploitation occurs with minimal oversight and few repercussions. Locals who scramble to cover basic needs vie with criminal transnational groups to reap profits from an already ravaged ecosystem. Illegal hunting and trafficking of rare birds,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/as-venezuelas-crisis-rolls-on-its-wildlife-is-increasingly-at-risk/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289715</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Clearest picture yet of Amazon carbon density could help guide conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/clearest-picture-yet-of-amazon-carbon-density-could-help-guide-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/clearest-picture-yet-of-amazon-carbon-density-could-help-guide-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Sep 2024 10:00:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/10164850/Feature-12-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287218</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Mapping, Rainforests, Research, Satellite Imagery, Technology, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Cutting-edge machine-learning models have created one of the most detailed, high-resolution maps yet of aboveground carbon density in the Amazon Rainforest, revealing where the forest is most intact and what areas are most in need of conservation attention. A combination of machine-learning models and satellite readings show that the Amazon Rainforest contains 56.8 billion metric [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Cutting-edge machine-learning models have created one of the most detailed, high-resolution maps yet of aboveground carbon density in the Amazon Rainforest, revealing where the forest is most intact and what areas are most in need of conservation attention. A combination of machine-learning models and satellite readings show that the Amazon Rainforest contains 56.8 billion metric tons of aboveground carbon, or the amount of carbon contained in plants on the surface of the Amazon. It’s one of the most precise estimates to date and amounts to more than one and a half times global emissions in 2023. “I was just really mesmerized by the data,” Matt Finer, director and senior research specialist of Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), told Mongabay. “You just put your glasses on and you can suddenly see. The carbon feature of the Amazon is suddenly clear.” The map is the result of an MAAP analysis of data from the Forest Carbon Diligence program run by Earth-imaging outfit Planet, which measures tree cover, tree height and the carbon storage of trees. It also used high-resolution airborne lidar data (a technology that employs lasers to scan an area, much like radar), combined with a global carbon data set from NASA satellite readings. The result was one of the most precise readings ever of forest carbon in the Amazon, showing which areas are the densest and providing clues to what conservation approaches are the most effective. According to the map, the highest carbon levels are located&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/clearest-picture-yet-of-amazon-carbon-density-could-help-guide-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/clearest-picture-yet-of-amazon-carbon-density-could-help-guide-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287218</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Venezuela, natural regeneration helps restore a threatened cloud forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/in-venezuela-natural-regeneration-helps-restore-a-threatened-cloud-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/in-venezuela-natural-regeneration-helps-restore-a-threatened-cloud-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Sep 2024 10:47:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[María Fernanda Rodríguez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/10103331/El-Tambor-is-the-name-of-a-massif-found-in-the-San-Eusebio-cloud-forest-located-in-western-Venezuela-in-the-tropical-Andes.-Photo-El-Tambor-Project-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287190</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Birds, Cloud Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Regeneration, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Protected Areas, and Restoration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;And this big one?&#8221; Ancelmo Dugarte asks his 3-year-old son, Marco Antonio, pointing to a towering pine in front of them. &#8220;Pino laso,&#8221; the little voice replies. &#8220;And this one? What&#8217;s this called?&#8221; Dugarte asks again, now touching the leaf of a plant. &#8220;Laurel baboso,&#8221; Marco Antonio answers. His father repeats it once more, as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;And this big one?&#8221; Ancelmo Dugarte asks his 3-year-old son, Marco Antonio, pointing to a towering pine in front of them. &#8220;Pino laso,&#8221; the little voice replies. &#8220;And this one? What&#8217;s this called?&#8221; Dugarte asks again, now touching the leaf of a plant. &#8220;Laurel baboso,&#8221; Marco Antonio answers. His father repeats it once more, as part of his mission to teach his son all the dozens of native plant species close to his home. This conversation between Dugarte and his son took place in 2019 amid the cloud forest of El Tambor, located in the Sierra de La Culata National Park, in Mérida, Venezuela. They live in San Eusebio, a town close to the cloud forest, where Dugarte volunteers with the El Tambor Project, created in 2018 in order to help restore the forest with native plants with community participation. Over the past four years, El Tambor Project has successfully produced more than 15,000 plants belonging to nearly 50 native tree species, primarily from families such as Myrtaceae, Lauraceae, Podocarpaceae and Melastomataceae. This project seeks to restore approximately 22,000 hectares (54,300 acres) of cloud forest. A biodiversity hotspot, this area hosts more than 200 species of birds, 50 species of mammals, 153 species of orchids and 150 species of bromeliads. El Tambor Project is made up of seven people but they also count on the volunteer work of dozens of people who live in the communities near the cloud forest. Image courtesy of El Tambor Project. Since 2012, Ana Quevedo&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/in-venezuela-natural-regeneration-helps-restore-a-threatened-cloud-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287190</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mining gold in the greenstone belt of Panamazonia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/mining-gold-in-the-greenstone-belt-of-panamazonia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/mining-gold-in-the-greenstone-belt-of-panamazonia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Aug 2024 10:39:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/06193521/ch5_guayana-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285789</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, French Guiana, Latin America, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Gold Mining, Illegal Mining, Illegal Trade, and Mining]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Greenstone belts are zones of metamorphic and volcanic rocks that occur within ancient (Archean) formations dominated by granite and gneiss. They are common to most of the cratons in the world and are often associated with world-class gold deposits. The most important greenstone belt in the Pan Amazon is Barama-Mazaruni supergroup, which occurs as a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Greenstone belts are zones of metamorphic and volcanic rocks that occur within ancient (Archean) formations dominated by granite and gneiss. They are common to most of the cratons in the world and are often associated with world-class gold deposits. The most important greenstone belt in the Pan Amazon is Barama-Mazaruni supergroup, which occurs as a non-contiguous band of rocks in Eastern Venezuela and Guyana, then reappears in Suriname and French Guiana and then further south in Amapá. Altogether, this geological formation covers about 13 million hectares (32 million acres). Top: The greenstone belt of the Guiana Shield is a discontinuous band of ultramafic volcanic rocks located within the Archean and Proterozoic formations of the Amazon Craton. They are the source of the extraordinarily rich gold deposits along the northern coast of the South American continent. Bottom: Annual rates of deforestation on wildcat mining landscapes in the jurisdictions of the Guiana Coast. Data sources: Gomez Tania et al (2019) and RAISG (2022). Venezuela Apparently, the richest portion of this geological province is in the Venezuelan state of Bolivar where small-scale placer mining began in the 1930s. The spike in gold prices in 1980 motivated thousands of adventurers to migrate into the region to work the surface (saprolite) gold deposits using hydraulic mining techniques. Most settled near two frontier towns: El Callão in the North and Las Claritas in the South. The wildcat miners shared these landscapes with three state-owned concessions that were created in the 1970s to exploit the richest and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/mining-gold-in-the-greenstone-belt-of-panamazonia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285789</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New datasets identify which crops deforest the Amazon, and where</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/new-datasets-identify-which-crops-deforest-the-amazon-and-where/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/new-datasets-identify-which-crops-deforest-the-amazon-and-where/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Aug 2024 21:30:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/02212440/amazon_200260-768x358.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285624</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Cattle, Conservation, data, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Mapping, Mining, Pasture, Rainforests, Ranching, Remote Sensing, Research, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A series of recently published data is shining a new light on patterns of deforestation in the Amazon, revealing where crops, cattle ranching and mining are encroaching on the rainforest. Several monitoring organizations — including the Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM), the Atlas of Pastures and Amazon Mining Watch — have released or updated satellite data and visualization tools [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A series of recently published data is shining a new light on patterns of deforestation in the Amazon, revealing where crops, cattle ranching and mining are encroaching on the rainforest. Several monitoring organizations — including the Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM), the Atlas of Pastures and Amazon Mining Watch — have released or updated satellite data and visualization tools this year that show what kinds of crops are being grown, where cattle ranching overlaps with other kinds of land use and how much of the rainforest is being cleared for mining. “We’re seeing all these products starting to come out with all these recent advances in satellite imagery, machine learning and AI,” Matt Finer, director and senior research specialist of Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), told Mongabay. “To be able to do a direct comparison between crops, cattle and mining — I think it’s very compelling.” MAAP compiled the data into one report this month, creating an “overall estimate” of land use across the nine Amazon countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Suriname, French Guyana and Guyana. It could help identify new patterns and trends in drivers of deforestation, Finer said. The data shows that at least 40 different crops are present in the Amazon, amounting to over 106 million hectares (261 million acres), or around 13% of the biome, according to SPAM, a crop distribution platform. Some of the crops are well-known drivers of deforestation, such as soy, which covers over 67.5 million hectares (166 million acres)&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/new-datasets-identify-which-crops-deforest-the-amazon-and-where/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285624</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Amazon’s most fertile forests are also most vulnerable to drought: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/the-amazons-most-fertile-forests-are-also-most-vulnerable-to-drought-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/the-amazons-most-fertile-forests-are-also-most-vulnerable-to-drought-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jul 2024 17:41:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Asher]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/26164842/MNS-4545-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285169</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Latin America, Peru, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Deforestation, Drought, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Land Conflict, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon’s most fertile, productive forests, which are critical for supplying Brazil’s agricultural region with rainfall, are also the most vulnerable to drought, according to recent research that has mapped drought resilience across the basin. An international team of researchers analyzed 20 years of satellite data to understand why some forests might be more resilient [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon’s most fertile, productive forests, which are critical for supplying Brazil’s agricultural region with rainfall, are also the most vulnerable to drought, according to recent research that has mapped drought resilience across the basin. An international team of researchers analyzed 20 years of satellite data to understand why some forests might be more resilient to drought than others and focused on the underlying mechanisms behind different responses of forests across the basin. The study, published in Nature, used water-table depth, soil fertility and tree height to define different intact forest ecotopes in the Amazon and looked at how much growth and photosynthesis was happening in these ecotopes during “once-in-a-century”, major drought events in 2005, 2010 and 2015. Results showed that forests behaved differently according to their position in the basin. In forests with deep water tables, such as Brazil’s Tapajós National Forest, tall trees with deeper root networks are more resilient to droughts. Image courtesy of Tyeen C. Taylor. In the southern Amazon, where soil fertility tends to be high, researchers found a strong relationship between groundwater availability and the forests’ resilience to drought. Shallow water tables, where soil water is plentiful even in the dry season, protected the forests from the harmful effects of droughts. This allowed forests to thrive during short droughts, by taking advantage of the additional sunlight and increased availability of oxygen to their roots. The result was an overall greening effect in shallow-water-table forests during moderate droughts. Forests’ responses to drought were more complex&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/the-amazons-most-fertile-forests-are-also-most-vulnerable-to-drought-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-285169</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Short on funds and long on risk, Venezuelan conservation groups worry for future</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/short-on-funds-and-long-on-risk-venezuelan-conservation-groups-worry-for-future/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/short-on-funds-and-long-on-risk-venezuelan-conservation-groups-worry-for-future/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jul 2024 10:28:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/24172832/31889442710_d0b8c8fbe1_k-1-768x500.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284982</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Funding, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, NGOs, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Conservation has become a near-impossible task in many parts of Venezuela. Government funding has dried up, political pressure has scared away international donors, and criminal groups continue to overpower the areas where the worst deforestation is happening. As the country prepares for an election at the end of the month — one that could be [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Conservation has become a near-impossible task in many parts of Venezuela. Government funding has dried up, political pressure has scared away international donors, and criminal groups continue to overpower the areas where the worst deforestation is happening. As the country prepares for an election at the end of the month — one that could be rigged in the ruling party’s favor — many environmental groups are quietly wondering how they’re going to survive another six years under President Nicolás Maduro. “Environmental organizations, as well as Indigenous leaders, are finding it increasingly difficult to do their work,” said Olnar Ortiz, national coordinator for the Indigenous Peoples Penal Forum, a legal aid NGO. “It’s really difficult to go [to Venezuela] yourself because of the security issues and how hard it is to get access.” In recent years, the Maduro government has become even more hostile to NGOs, intergovernmental groups and nonprofits. In February, a U.N. human rights agency was expelled for alleged dissident behavior. Last year, the head of the Red Cross was removed by the Supreme Court. While environmental groups can sometimes stay out of government crosshairs by doing less controversial work, such as in biodiversity, they still have to be careful, several groups told Mongabay. On the coast, even trying to clean up oil spills can be a prickly subject for the government. Groups have been blocked from cleanup efforts, presumably because it would expose the true environmental impact of the accidents and shine a light on government negligence. Researchers&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/short-on-funds-and-long-on-risk-venezuelan-conservation-groups-worry-for-future/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284982</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What’s at stake for the environment in Venezuela’s upcoming election?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-venezuelas-upcoming-election/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-venezuelas-upcoming-election/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2024 10:00:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/22155850/8078455784_1906e170da_o-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284504</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forestry, Forests, Gold Mining, Governance, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Law, Logging, Mining, Oil, Oil Spills, Politics, Pollution, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The lead up to Venezuela’s presidential election, scheduled for this Sunday, July 28, hasn’t been about the candidates’ experience or the viability of their policies. The focus has been on whether the elections will look anything close to free and fair. Critics have expressed concern about the disqualification of opposition candidates and the absence of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The lead up to Venezuela’s presidential election, scheduled for this Sunday, July 28, hasn’t been about the candidates’ experience or the viability of their policies. The focus has been on whether the elections will look anything close to free and fair. Critics have expressed concern about the disqualification of opposition candidates and the absence of outside electoral observers. President Nicolás Maduro is running for a third consecutive term despite overwhelming opposition to his regime, which came to power in 2013 as the successor to Hugo Chávez. This time around, Maduro faces a relatively unknown candidate in Edmundo González Urrutia, a former diplomat. He took over after two other candidates were disqualified by the regime due to administrative errors in the registration process and unfounded corruption charges. There has been little room for discussion about environmental issues, despite the fact that the country has plunged into a crisis so severe that many observers now call it an ecocide. Mining has torn through the Amazon Rainforest. A neglected oil industry has polluted the coast. Protected areas are plundered for their timber and exotic species. Funds for scientific research have all but dried up. Funds for park guards have dwindled, as well. González Urrutia’s campaign has focused more on restoring free and fair elections and fixing the economy, the collapse of which has forced over 7.7 million people to migrate. But it’s inevitable that his government also addresses the environmental crisis at some point, even if just indirectly. The opposition has traditionally vied&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-venezuelas-upcoming-election/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284504</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Industrial minerals in the Pan Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/more-industrial-minerals-on-brazils-borders-with-ecuador-venezuela-and-colombia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/more-industrial-minerals-on-brazils-borders-with-ecuador-venezuela-and-colombia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jul 2024 08:59:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/10025349/PORTADA-ECUADOR-Y-BRASIL-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284180</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Energy, Environment, extractives, Gold Mining, Industry, and Mining]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The mineral resources that characterize the High Andes of Peru are conspicuously absent north of the Huancabamba Gap, the altitudinal low point in the Andes linked to the deflection zone that created the Amazon Rift Valley. There is, however, an unusual mountain range located east of the Cordillera Oriental on the border between Peru and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The mineral resources that characterize the High Andes of Peru are conspicuously absent north of the Huancabamba Gap, the altitudinal low point in the Andes linked to the deflection zone that created the Amazon Rift Valley. There is, however, an unusual mountain range located east of the Cordillera Oriental on the border between Peru and Ecuador. The Cordillera del Condor is a fold and thrust belt created in one of the earlier phases of the Andean orogeny when magmatic plutons were intruded into older sedimentary strata that created copper porphyries with significant mineral resources. There are several mines under development, but the most advanced is the Mirador Project, which will exploit an estimated 3.1 million tonnes of copper, 3.2 million ounces of gold and 25 million ounces of silver. This is Ecuador’s first industrial-scale open-pit mine and will include a processing facility that will convert the ore into a concentrate. The mine, which has a projected lifespan of thirty years, is being developed with Chinese capital and will generate billions of dollars in royalty and tax revenues, while contributing to the balance of payments equation that motivates finance ministries. There are four other copper mines and two industrial-scale gold mines under development. On the Peruvian side of the border, wild-cat gold miners are active, but there are no economically significant reserves of copper or other base metals. The copper porphyries in the Northern Andes Ecuador and Southern Colombia are renowned for their volcanoes that are commonly associated with copper and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/more-industrial-minerals-on-brazils-borders-with-ecuador-venezuela-and-colombia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284180</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brasil, Venezuela and Peru: the geography of industrial metals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/brasil-venezuela-and-peru-the-geography-of-industrial-metals/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/brasil-venezuela-and-peru-the-geography-of-industrial-metals/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jul 2024 16:38:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/03180233/suplain-chain-in-PARA-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284014</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, Peru, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Development, Forests, Gold Mining, Mining, Rainforest Destruction, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There are a multitude of mineral ores used to produce industrial metals, which can be organized into four major groups with similar geological histories. Iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) are essential components to steel and, as such, are in constant demand by manufacturers and the construction industries. Ferro-manganese ores are found within the ancient sedimentary [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There are a multitude of mineral ores used to produce industrial metals, which can be organized into four major groups with similar geological histories. Iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) are essential components to steel and, as such, are in constant demand by manufacturers and the construction industries. Ferro-manganese ores are found within the ancient sedimentary rocks that were created when the first photosynthetic organisms were transforming the Earth’s atmosphere during the Archean Eon as oxygen reacted with dissolved iron in primeval oceans to create ferrous oxides, hematite and magnetite (FeO, Fe2O3, Fe3O4). These ancient sedimentary rocks were uplifted during the ancient orogenies that moulded the Amazon Craton and occur in three separate landscapes of the Eastern Amazon: the Carajás province in Eastern Pará, a similar area across the Amazon River in Amapá and the Imataca formation just south of the Orinoco River in Venezuela. Base metals, particularly copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), molybdenum (Mo), nickel (Ni) and lead (Pb), are used by a wide range of industries, but are particularly important for electrical devices and industrial alloys. These industrial metals tend to occur in polymetallic ores associated with magma that originated deep within the Earth’s crust; ore bodies are found along the margins of magmatic intrusion or within fissures in the surrounding matrix rock. On the Amazon Craton, intrusions are associated with ancient orographic events and their idiosyncratic distribution reflects the complex geological evolution of the Precambrian Era. In the Andes, intrusions exist as ‘porphyries’ that are linked to relatively recent&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/brasil-venezuela-and-peru-the-geography-of-industrial-metals/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284014</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study says 40% of Amazon region is potentially conserved — more than officially recorded</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/study-says-40-of-amazon-rainforest-is-protected-more-than-officially-recorded/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/study-says-40-of-amazon-rainforest-is-protected-more-than-officially-recorded/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jul 2024 20:13:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/18041629/peru_220697-e1718684422579-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283961</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A larger portion of the Amazonian region might be under protection or potentially conserved than official records indicate, according to a new study published in the journal One Earth. A team of international researchers found that more than 40% of land across the nine Amazonian countries is under some form of conservation management, significantly higher [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A larger portion of the Amazonian region might be under protection or potentially conserved than official records indicate, according to a new study published in the journal One Earth. A team of international researchers found that more than 40% of land across the nine Amazonian countries is under some form of conservation management, significantly higher than the 28% reported in official records. This figure includes all biomes in the region such as the Amazon rainforest, the Cerrado, Atlantic forest, the Chaco, and Pantanal. In the Amazon rainforest alone, 62.44%  of land is under some sort of area-based conservation. To arrive at this number, the authors looked beyond traditional protected areas such as national parks and nature reserves. They gathered information from scientific papers, legal documents and local knowledge to include land managed by Indigenous peoples, community-based natural resource management areas, regions covered by payment for ecosystem services programs and even sustainably managed forest production areas. The researchers say this method provides a more complete picture of conservation efforts than current tracking systems and will help others assess the effectiveness of different types of conservation governance systems. &#8220;Knowing who is governing these lands and how, as well as recognizing their visions related to conservation, is the first step to collectively planning for a fair and feasible future for our planet,&#8221; Siyu Qin, a lead author of the study, told Mongabay. Figure from Qin et al 2024 illustrating the types of conservation areas considered in the study. Women from the Sinangoe Indigenous&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/study-says-40-of-amazon-rainforest-is-protected-more-than-officially-recorded/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283961</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Venezuela: Water crisis looms as deforestation spreads in Yacambú National Park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/venezuela-water-crisis-looms-as-deforestation-spreads-in-yacambu-national-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/venezuela-water-crisis-looms-as-deforestation-spreads-in-yacambu-national-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jun 2024 19:59:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/25175327/WhatsApp-Image-2024-06-25-at-11.49.35-AM-1-768x450.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283655</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Andes, Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Politics, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Millions of people in northwestern Venezuela could be at risk of losing access to clean drinking water if more effort isn’t given to conserving natural watersheds and protected forests, environmentalists say. Illegal settlements have pushed into important protected areas like Yacambú National Park in the state of Lara, degrading forests that serve as natural aquifers [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Millions of people in northwestern Venezuela could be at risk of losing access to clean drinking water if more effort isn’t given to conserving natural watersheds and protected forests, environmentalists say. Illegal settlements have pushed into important protected areas like Yacambú National Park in the state of Lara, degrading forests that serve as natural aquifers for multiple cities and towns. If those aquifers disappear, millions could face water scarcity in the years to come, experts believe. “This is a situation that has happened before, but it wasn’t that pronounced and it wasn’t really a threat,” said Alzehy Colmenárez, a member of the Forest Guardians movement in Lara, an informal environmental activist group. He added, “It’s really urgent that we attack this situation because if this continues for another five years, we won’t have any water.” The 270-square-kilometer (103-square-mile) Yacambú National Park sits near the Venezuelan Andes, giving it a mix of tropical moist forest and savanna. It also happens to sit just south of Barquisimeto, one of the largest cities in the country, with a population of around a million people. The Yacambú River connects to 25 smaller watersheds and tributaries that serve eight municipalities in and around the city, as well as jurisdictions in the neighboring state of Portuguesa. An illegal structure built by squatters in the park. Photo courtesy of Forest Guardians. Like most protected areas in Venezuela, Yacambú National Park has a written protection plan with conservation objectives designed to the specific needs of its flora and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/venezuela-water-crisis-looms-as-deforestation-spreads-in-yacambu-national-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283655</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Venezuela&#8217;s shrimp farms push for sustainability against hardship and oil spills</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/venezuelas-shrimp-farms-push-for-sustainability-against-hardship-and-oil-spills/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/venezuelas-shrimp-farms-push-for-sustainability-against-hardship-and-oil-spills/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 May 2024 13:12:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeanfreddy Gutiérrez TorresMaría Fernanda Rodríguez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/15123133/Water-treatment-plan-for-shrimps-farms-in-Zulia-state-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282120</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aquaculture, Biodiversity, Ecosystems, Food, Food Industry, Freshwater, Lakes, Law, Mining, Oil Spills, Pollution, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Most of Venezuela’s shrimp farms sit on the eastern shore of Lake Maracaibo, a brackish lagoon covering an area larger than the island of Sicily in the country’s northwest. This region is also Venezuela’s oil-production hub, and throughout the years, hundreds of oil spills have polluted the waters near the farms and damaged marine ecosystems [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Most of Venezuela’s shrimp farms sit on the eastern shore of Lake Maracaibo, a brackish lagoon covering an area larger than the island of Sicily in the country’s northwest. This region is also Venezuela’s oil-production hub, and throughout the years, hundreds of oil spills have polluted the waters near the farms and damaged marine ecosystems that host native species of crustaceans. Yet despite this, Venezuela’s shrimp industry has grown exponentially in the last 25 years.   The sector, which exports about 95% of its production, has managed to tackle environmental threats from a deteriorating oil infrastructure and economic difficulties by switching its practices. But while recognized abroad for their progress, shrimp farmers still face hurdles at home. Shrimp farming in Venezuela reportedly began in 1972, with the first experiments in the cultivation of native species of white shrimp (Litopenaeus schmitti) and pink shrimp (Litopenaeus brasiliensis), followed by the first imports in 1986 of immature Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) from Texas, and the first spawning the following year. This was the first step by the Venezuelan government to initiate commercial shrimp farming in the country. During the 1990s, production grew rapidly due to several political, economic and environmental factors: government facilities to obtain production permits, domestication of imported shrimp species, absence of viral diseases, increased investment, and attractive conditions for imports. By 1995, seven farms and one independent larviculture laboratory were operating; four of the farms and the lab were in eastern Venezuela. With the turn of the century, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/venezuelas-shrimp-farms-push-for-sustainability-against-hardship-and-oil-spills/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282120</doi>				</item>
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