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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>News on Ancient Civilizations</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/ancient-civilizations/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Indigenous myths reveal Amazon&#8217;s past truths: Interview with Stéphen Rostain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-myths-reveal-amazons-past-truths-interview-with-stephen-rostain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-myths-reveal-amazons-past-truths-interview-with-stephen-rostain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Oct 2025 14:14:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Peter Speetjens]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/01063151/1988_Rostain-French-Guiana-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306877</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, French Guiana, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Climate, Conservation, Culture, Drought, Environment, History, Indigenous Peoples, LiDAR, Mapping, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Now a leading archaeologist, Rostain was discouraged at first. “No one is interested in archaeology of the Amazon.”]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Born in the French city of Brest in 1962, archaeologist Stéphen Rostain has worked in the Amazon for more than 40 years, primarily in French Guiana and Ecuador. He has authored or co-authored more than 450 publications on the rainforest’s past and present, including some 45 books. In January 2024, Rostain made a big splash as the lead author of a Science paper on the Upano Valley’s “urban garden culture” in the eastern Ecuadorian Amazon. It led to an avalanche of headlines around the world, many of which overly claimed a “lost city” had been found, and sparked new interest in Amazon archaeology. “I thought perhaps 10 journalists would contact me for an interview. But I did 10 to 20 interviews a day,” Rostain told Mongabay. As director of research at the French Institute for Scientific Research, Rostain isn’t very positive about the future of the Amazon. As deforestation continues and global temperatures continue to rise, he said the Amazon has already reached a turning point and is on its way to partially becoming a savanna. The profound changes in Western thinking about the rainforest that have taken place over the past decades offer a glimmer of hope. This includes the shift in our perception of the Amazon’s past and an end to the centuries of prejudice toward Indigenous people. “Our preconception has long been that the ‘Indians’ are just savages and their oral traditions just crazy legends,” Rostain told Mongabay in June. “Thankfully, that has changed. Twenty years ago,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-myths-reveal-amazons-past-truths-interview-with-stephen-rostain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-myths-reveal-amazons-past-truths-interview-with-stephen-rostain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306877</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>An ancient Indigenous civilization endures beneath an Amazon urban soy hub</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/an-ancient-indigenous-civilization-endures-beneath-an-amazon-urban-soy-hub/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/an-ancient-indigenous-civilization-endures-beneath-an-amazon-urban-soy-hub/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2025 07:00:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Peter Speetjens]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/15130802/IMG_3640-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305898</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Climate Change, Colonization, Conflict, Conservation, Culture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Soy, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Santarém’s ceramics grace museums around the globe, yet the city’s heritage remains largely unknown in Brazil.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SANTARÉM, Brazil — Praça Rodrigues dos Santos has seen better days. The triangular plaza at the center of Santarém is broken and filled with potholes and piles of garbage. Amid the trees stands the statue of a priest. His right arm seems disproportionately large, and he holds a bible under his left arm. Next to the statue is a small pillar, too damaged to read the text on it. The plaque underneath the robed figure offers solace. “In this place used to be Ocara-Açu [the large terrain] of the Tupaiu or Tapajós indians,” it reads in Portuguese. “Here, on the day of June 22, 1661, the Jesuit father João Felipe Betendorf installed the mission of Our Lady of the Conception, which gave birth to the city of Santarém.” Praça Rodrigues dos Santos is the historic heart of the city, the place where it all began. Yet anyone passing the site would be forgiven for thinking it was just a parking lot. Overlooking the Tapajós River, one of the largest tributaries to the mightiest river of them all — the Amazon — Santarém is home to some 330,000 people. Its façade has long been dominated by the hundreds of fishing boats and ferries docked along the shore. Since 2003, the enormous Cargill soy terminal has been an added feature to the urban silhouette. Ferry boats lie neatly lined up at the Tapajós River port. Image by Peter Speetjens. Away from the happy hustle and bustle along the river, the city is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/an-ancient-indigenous-civilization-endures-beneath-an-amazon-urban-soy-hub/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305898</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Villagers in Sumatra bring ancient forest flavors back to the table</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/villagers-in-sumatra-bring-ancient-forest-flavors-back-to-the-table/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/villagers-in-sumatra-bring-ancient-forest-flavors-back-to-the-table/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jun 2025 08:13:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Turrell]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/04071834/07-Paduka-community-cooking-for-visitors_credit-Javara-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300043</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, Oceania, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Ancient Civilizations, Animals, Anthropology, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Crops, Environment, Fish, Food, Food Industry, Forests, Freshwater Fish, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Plants, Rainforests, and Rivers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Nurul Nazipah’s favorite dish to cook is one that involves going into the Muaro Jambi forest to pick from among 120 different types of herbs and edible greens that grow wild. To the untrained eye, they could be weeds in the Sumatran forest, but to Nazipah each one has its own identity. It could taste [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nurul Nazipah’s favorite dish to cook is one that involves going into the Muaro Jambi forest to pick from among 120 different types of herbs and edible greens that grow wild. To the untrained eye, they could be weeds in the Sumatran forest, but to Nazipah each one has its own identity. It could taste mild, earthy or sometimes bitter. To complete her prized rempah ratus belut dish, she also needs an eel caught fresh from the Batang Hari River. “This richly spiced traditional dish has a distinct, fresh flavor and was historically prepared only during special occasions,” Nazipah says. But it’s not just the taste of the dish that fills her with pride. She says it also showcases how rich the forest is as a resource. “Through this dish, we can highlight the potential of local food sources that are still abundant in our surroundings.” Nazipah is among the local women from the Dusun Karet Market, popularly known as Paduka, near the 7th-century Buddhist temple complex of Muaro Jambi, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The Paduka women, who cook for temple visitors, concoct their dishes using diverse traditional ingredients. They say they want to do their part to show how their home is a living landscape steeped in heritage. Dining in the grounds of the temple. Image courtesy of Javara. As their eight villages are found within the Muaro Jambi temple complex, also spelled Muarojambi, they wanted to make sure the recipes remained authentic. While they say they&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/villagers-in-sumatra-bring-ancient-forest-flavors-back-to-the-table/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/villagers-in-sumatra-bring-ancient-forest-flavors-back-to-the-table/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300043</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>DNA testing proves that cocoa originated in the Amazon and reveals robust pre-Columbian trade</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/dna-testing-proves-that-cocoa-originated-in-the-amazon-and-reveals-robust-pre-columbian-trade/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/dna-testing-proves-that-cocoa-originated-in-the-amazon-and-reveals-robust-pre-columbian-trade/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2024 11:46:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sibélia Zanon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/29103110/Digital_Inclusion_in_the_Peruvian_Amazon_-_48138694956-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285230</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Biodiversity, Cacao, Conservation, DNA, Environment, Food, Forests, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s hard to imagine the history that lies behind the cacao trees grown on agroforestry farms in the Amazon today. For a long time, people believed that cacao’s origins lay elsewhere. Archaeological evidence had pointed to what is today southern Mexico and Central America — Mesoamerica — as the birthplace of the domesticated form of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It’s hard to imagine the history that lies behind the cacao trees grown on agroforestry farms in the Amazon today. For a long time, people believed that cacao’s origins lay elsewhere. Archaeological evidence had pointed to what is today southern Mexico and Central America — Mesoamerica — as the birthplace of the domesticated form of the Theobroma cacao tree some 4,000 years ago. It was only believed to have arrived in South America later. “We would always find cacao trees in the native forest on the Upper Amazon [in Ecuador] and think of the peoples who had lived in the region thousands of years before, but at the time, we had no idea that cacao was native to the region,” says Francisco Valdez, an archaeologist at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD). At the start of the 2000s, Valdez began studying evidence that would bring new knowledge about the ancient peoples who once prospered in the Upper Amazon. His research focused on the Andean region of the Amazon River Basin, straddling modern-day Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. Among numerous findings was the surprising detection of cacao DNA on ceramic artifacts dating back thousands of years that had been used inside homes and as burial items. This led to a reevaluation of the fruit’s origin: with South American roots, the evidence showed that cacao was already circulating between 19 different pre-Columbian cultures some 5,500 years ago. “The most important characteristic of our research is the fact that it&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/dna-testing-proves-that-cocoa-originated-in-the-amazon-and-reveals-robust-pre-columbian-trade/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285230</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sri Lanka aims to restore ancient irrigation tanks in climate change plan</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/sri-lanka-aims-to-restore-ancient-irrigation-tanks-in-climate-change-plan/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/sri-lanka-aims-to-restore-ancient-irrigation-tanks-in-climate-change-plan/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Apr 2023 15:00:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/22142124/Cover-photo-Cascade-tank-system-c-IUCN-Sri-Lanka-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267775</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Ancient Civilizations, Environment, Mitigation, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ANURADHAPURA, Sri Lanka — Current climate models forewarn that Sri Lanka’s dry zone is likely to become drier due to climate change, resulting in water shortages for agriculture. A country that has twice been ranked among the top 10 countries in the climate risk index, Sri Lanka intends to revive its village tank cascade systems, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ANURADHAPURA, Sri Lanka — Current climate models forewarn that Sri Lanka’s dry zone is likely to become drier due to climate change, resulting in water shortages for agriculture. A country that has twice been ranked among the top 10 countries in the climate risk index, Sri Lanka intends to revive its village tank cascade systems, a neglected but highly efficient series of ancient irrigation systems as part of its climate adaptation strategy. A tank cascade system is a hydrologically interconnected series of tanks organized within micro-catchments in the dry zone landscape. The water released to paddy fields from one tank flows to the next, effectively sharing water from the top to the bottom and feeding many paddy lands. Each component in a cascade system adopts a specific functional purpose that can be explained in modern science even though they were designed centuries ago, according to research. A graphical representation of the tank cascade system. Image courtesy of IUCN Sri Lanka. “Restoring the tank cascade system has a wider implication from the point of view of climate change as the system has proved its resilience to extreme weather events,” said P.B. Dharmasena, former research officer at the Department of Agriculture and a specialist in soil and water management. The system can absorb shocks of natural disasters such as floods, which can be controlled by storing water, and drought impact, by reducing water loss from tanks through absorption in the surrounding environment. The cascaded tank-village system also contributes to efficient water management&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/sri-lanka-aims-to-restore-ancient-irrigation-tanks-in-climate-change-plan/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267775</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Reviving an ancient way of aquaculture at Hawaii&#8217;s Heʻeia fishpond</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/reviving-an-ancient-way-of-aquaculture-at-hawaiis-he%ca%bbeia-fishpond/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/reviving-an-ancient-way-of-aquaculture-at-hawaiis-he%ca%bbeia-fishpond/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Apr 2020 16:03:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shannon Brown]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Genevieve Belmaker]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/04/20153328/DSC4942-1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=229170</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Hawaii and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Aquaculture, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Culture, Fish, Fisheries, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Solutions, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[OAHU, Hawaii — Tucked at the base of the Ko’olau Mountains on the eastern side of the Hawaiian island of Oahu lies He’eia fishpond. Built around 800 years ago by indigenous Hawaiians, it was a thriving aquaculture site for hundreds of years, before falling into disrepair after a flood damaged its wall in 1965. Fishponds [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[OAHU, Hawaii — Tucked at the base of the Ko’olau Mountains on the eastern side of the Hawaiian island of Oahu lies He’eia fishpond. Built around 800 years ago by indigenous Hawaiians, it was a thriving aquaculture site for hundreds of years, before falling into disrepair after a flood damaged its wall in 1965. Fishponds had been declining even before then; culture and land use patterns started to change with the arrival of Captain James Cook in 1778. Ancient Hawaiians originally built almost 500 fishponds throughout the Hawaiian islands. At the time, they managed to support themselves entirely from the ponds, island agriculture, and occasional forays into the ocean for offshore fish. Today, 87% of Hawaii’s food is imported, including 63% of its seafood. Of the original 488 ponds, 20 have received restoration permits through the state of Hawaii. However, it’s difficult to determine an exact number. Some ponds have had only minor restoration work done, and don’t have a permit. At 36 hectares (88 acres) and with a perimeter of 2.1 kilometers (1.3 miles), He’eia is one of the largest. In 2017, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded a Saltonsall-Kennedy grant to the Oceanic Institute at Hawaii Pacific University (HPU) and Conservation International. The goal for the grant was to study the logistics of producing fish at three fishponds, including He’eia, and determine whether they could again be turned into productive aquaculture sites. He&#8217;eia fishpond construction utilizes ancient technologies and techniques. Photo by Shannon Brown. The three-year&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/reviving-an-ancient-way-of-aquaculture-at-hawaiis-he%ca%bbeia-fishpond/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-229170</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conserving the World’s Remaining Intact Forests (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/conserving-the-worlds-remaining-intact-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/conserving-the-worlds-remaining-intact-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jul 2017 18:15:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David WilkieMichael Painter]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/07/25173901/sabah_aerial_1802_1210PX-768x451.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=197623</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Culture, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Old Growth Forests, Primary Forests, Rainforests, Traditional People, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Intact forests are among the few places on earth where native trees and animals can fulfill their ecological roles outside the influence of industrial humankind. Some interpret “intact” to mean absent the influence of people, but people have lived within forests the world over for millennia and we are only beginning to understand how they [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Intact forests are among the few places on earth where native trees and animals can fulfill their ecological roles outside the influence of industrial humankind. Some interpret “intact” to mean absent the influence of people, but people have lived within forests the world over for millennia and we are only beginning to understand how they have – and continue to – influence them. A recent article in Science reviews plant domestication practices by pre-Columbian peoples in the Amazon, concluding that they continue to influence the composition of the forest we know today. Of the roughly 16,000 woody species the Science researchers identified within the Amazon forest, a mere 227 account for more than half of the total number of trees in the Amazon, a disproportionality that the authors refer to as “hyper-dominant.” Pre-Columbian peoples domesticated roughly 10 percent of these 227 hyper-dominant species to some degree, and according to archaeological evidence, distributed them across the Amazon basin. They thus changed forest composition by enriching the forest with useful species and creating new landscapes for domesticated plants. A Tacana woman harvesting a cacao pod in Bolivia. Photo by Mileniusz Spanowicz / WCS History has shown that people can live successfully in forests over long periods of time. Despite the massive demographic upheavals that have occurred as a result of agrarian, industrial, and digital revolutions, intact forests are still home to hunter-gatherers in Africa, Asia and the Americas. Such communities depend almost exclusively on the direct use of forest resources for food, fuel, fiber, and shelter. Forests do&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/conserving-the-worlds-remaining-intact-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-197623</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pre-Columbian Amazon settlement primarily ate fish — more sustainable?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/07/pre-columbian-amazon-settlement-primarily-ate-fish-more-sustainable/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/07/pre-columbian-amazon-settlement-primarily-ate-fish-more-sustainable/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jul 2016 14:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Salisbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/07/01200247/FEATURED-USE-444x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=187516</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Archeology, Culture, Environment, Fish, Food, Freshwater Fish, Indigenous Peoples, Rainforests, Research, Rivers, Sustainability, and Turtles]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Uncovering the history of human habitation in the Amazon rainforest is challenging. The humid, tropical climate and dynamic forest landscape, where organic materials decay rapidly, can be an enemy of archaeological remains. But researchers have persevered and over the last two decades have gathered evidence that overturns the once commonly-held theory that the ancient Amazon [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Excavations at the Hatahara prehistoric site revealed a large diversity of animal bones. The vast majority were fish, followed by reptiles, particularly river turtles. Photo courtesy of Val Moraes Uncovering the history of human habitation in the Amazon rainforest is challenging. The humid, tropical climate and dynamic forest landscape, where organic materials decay rapidly, can be an enemy of archaeological remains. But researchers have persevered and over the last two decades have gathered evidence that overturns the once commonly-held theory that the ancient Amazon was a sparsely populated, largely “pristine” wilderness. Modern archaeology instead paints a picture of a far more densely populated and heavily manipulated landscape, occupied by flourishing Pre-Columbian communities. A recent study has unearthed the first “zooarchaeological” evidence — animal bones that indicate dietary habits — for one such Central Amazonian community, located on a bluff above the confluence of the Amazon and Negro rivers between 750 and 1230 AD. Excavations at an earth mound at Hatahara, a Central Amazonian settlement on a bluff near the confluence of the Amazon and Negro rivers. Photo courtesy of Val Moraes The Hatahara site dates back even further, but during this time period the settlement had expanded to cover about 20 hectares (49.4 acres), and its residents produced ceramics, cultivated crops, and modified vegetation cover so extensively that their work indicates “intense landscape transformation related to population growth,” the researchers wrote. But what did they eat? Sieving 300 liters (79.3 gallons) of excavated sediment, from 4.5 to 9 feet beneath&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/07/pre-columbian-amazon-settlement-primarily-ate-fish-more-sustainable/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-187516</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Controversial park plans in Guatemala&#8217;s Maya Biosphere Reserve</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/06/controversial-park-plans-in-guatemalas-maya-biosphere-reserve/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/06/controversial-park-plans-in-guatemalas-maya-biosphere-reserve/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jun 2016 07:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Cuffe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/06/01201206/061616-SCuffe_MBRMirador_LaDantaVista-494x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=187168</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Ancient Civilizations, Biodiversity, Birds, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Ecology, Ecotourism, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forest Products, Forests, Governance, Green, Human Rights, Illegal Logging, Innovation, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Law Enforcement, Logging, National Parks, Organized Crime, Parks, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Forest Management, Tourism, Traditional People, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Other stories in Mongabay’s series on the Maya Biosphere Reserve: Killing of Guatemalan activist in the Maya Biosphere Reserve raises alarm Successes and many challenges in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve Communities lead the way in rainforest conservation in Guatemala You hear them before you see them. It&#8217;s a frog-like croaking, coming from the treetops below [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Other stories in Mongabay’s series on the Maya Biosphere Reserve: Killing of Guatemalan activist in the Maya Biosphere Reserve raises alarm Successes and many challenges in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve Communities lead the way in rainforest conservation in Guatemala You hear them before you see them. It&#8217;s a frog-like croaking, coming from the treetops below as the sky begins to fill with light. The jungle goes on for as far as the eye can see from up here at the top of El Tigre, a temple in the ancient Mayan city of Mirador. It&#8217;s the momentary flash of movement and color in the canopy that gives the birds away. You can&#8217;t make out the bright orange, red, and lime green on their large beaks from here, but when they move their heads, it becomes possible to pick out the keel-billed toucans (Ramphastos sulfuratus) perched in the treetops. Pink clouds streak the sky as the sun starts to rise above La Danta. One of the two tallest pyramids in the western hemisphere and among the largest in volume in the world, it looms above the canopy. Down below, the calls of endangered Guatemalan black howler monkeys (Alouatta pigra) punctuate the birds&#8217; dawn chorus here in Mirador-Rio Azul National Park, in the northern part of Guatemala&#8217;s Maya Biosphere Reserve. Keel-billed Toucan (Ramphastos sulfuratus). Photo by Rhett A. Butler. It&#8217;s a 25-mile trek to get here from the closest village. There are no roads into the ancient city of Mirador or the national&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/06/controversial-park-plans-in-guatemalas-maya-biosphere-reserve/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-187168</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Communities lead the way in rainforest conservation in Guatemala</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/06/communities-lead-the-way-in-rainforest-conservation-in-guatemala/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/06/communities-lead-the-way-in-rainforest-conservation-in-guatemala/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jun 2016 16:44:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Cuffe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/06/01201812/060916-MBRConcessions_1_Xate-440x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=186972</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Ancient Civilizations, Biodiversity, Birds, Certification, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Ecology, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forest Products, Forests, Governance, Green, Innovation, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Law Enforcement, Logging, National Parks, Organized Crime, Palm Oil, Parks, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Forest Management, Traditional People, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Other stories in Mongabay’s series on the Maya Biosphere Reserve: Killing of Guatemalan activist in the Maya Biosphere Reserve raises alarm Successes and many challenges in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve Controversial park plans in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve &#160; Marta Álvarez doesn&#8217;t miss a beat, checking each and every palm frond while she explains the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Other stories in Mongabay’s series on the Maya Biosphere Reserve: Killing of Guatemalan activist in the Maya Biosphere Reserve raises alarm Successes and many challenges in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve Controversial park plans in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve &nbsp; Marta Álvarez doesn&#8217;t miss a beat, checking each and every palm frond while she explains the workings of the busy warehouse. A harvester walks in and sets the giant bundle on his back down on the floor, which is scattered with discarded greenery. “They bring it by the bundle. The women are here to sort the xate. I&#8217;m the inspector. They leave the bunches in good condition. I go over it all, checking it,” Álvarez tells Mongabay. “See this?” She wipes some tiny insect eggs from the underside of a leaf. Harvested here in Uaxactún and in other community forest concessions in Guatemala&#8217;s Maya Biosphere Reserve, the ornamental xate (Chamaedorea elegans, C. ernesti-augusti, C. oblongata, and C. nerochlamys) palm fronds will end up adorning floral arrangements more than a thousand miles away in the United States and beyond. Xate is just one of several plants and trees that residents in the northernmost reaches of Guatemala harvest, process, and export. One of the best ways to protect the rainforest, it turns out, is to hand its management over to communities whose livelihoods depend on it. Guatemalan communities have been up to the task, engaging in the carefully regulated extraction of timber and plants while protecting their sections of the Maya Biosphere Reserve&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/06/communities-lead-the-way-in-rainforest-conservation-in-guatemala/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-186972</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Successes and many challenges in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/06/successes-and-many-challenges-in-guatemalas-maya-biosphere-reserve/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/06/successes-and-many-challenges-in-guatemalas-maya-biosphere-reserve/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jun 2016 19:04:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Cuffe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/06/01202253/MBRintro_Rainforest-448x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=186792</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Ancient Civilizations, Biodiversity, Birds, Certification, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conflict, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corruption, Crime, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Ecology, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forest Products, Forests, Governance, Green, Human Rights, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Rights, Innovation, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Law Enforcement, Logging, National Parks, Organized Crime, Palm Oil, Parks, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Forest Management, Traditional People, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Other stories in Mongabay’s series on the Maya Biosphere Reserve: Killing of Guatemalan activist in the Maya Biosphere Reserve raises alarm Communities lead the way in rainforest conservation in Guatemala Controversial park plans in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve Flashes of color move about the trees lining the path to the Waka&#8217; archaeological site inside Guatemala’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Other stories in Mongabay’s series on the Maya Biosphere Reserve: Killing of Guatemalan activist in the Maya Biosphere Reserve raises alarm Communities lead the way in rainforest conservation in Guatemala Controversial park plans in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve Flashes of color move about the trees lining the path to the Waka&#8217; archaeological site inside Guatemala’s Laguna del Tigre National Park. It&#8217;s the army ants that set things in motion. A river of ants flows across the path and into the rainforest, overturning leaves and uncovering insects along the way, and birds flock to the area to feed — at least a dozen different species. Carlos Cuz wants to double check the identification of a few, and he swipes his finger across a tablet running the iBird Pro program a visiting birder gave him. Cuz learned the Maya Q&#8217;eqchi&#8217; names for many bird species from his parents. They moved to Paso Caballos, a village inside Laguna del Tigre National Park in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, when Cuz was a young child. He later discovered his passion for birds in the forest around his new home. A guide for the Guacamayas Biological Station during the week, Cuz returned to school as an adult and has been completing his high school education on the weekends. Cuz&#8217;s favorite course so far, though, was one on bird identification the Audubon Society offered to locals two years ago. There&#8217;s no shortage of subjects for practice. More than 500 bird species live in the Maya Biosphere Reserve.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/06/successes-and-many-challenges-in-guatemalas-maya-biosphere-reserve/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-186792</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lima to restore pre-Incan aqueducts to alleviate its water crisis</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/04/lima-to-restore-pre-incan-aqueducts-to-alleviate-its-water-crisis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/04/lima-to-restore-pre-incan-aqueducts-to-alleviate-its-water-crisis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Apr 2015 16:44:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ariel Mark]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Tiffany Roufs]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2015/04/lima-to-restore-pre-incan-aqueducts-to-alleviate-its-water-crisis/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Andes, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Ancient Civilizations, Cities, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Andean community leaders show hydrologists and project developers from Lima damaged amunas. These pre-Incan canals collect excess river water in the wet season so it can recharge pools and groundwater supplies for use in the dry season. Credit: Gena Gammie. To tackle a looming water crisis, the city of Lima, Peru, is planning a series [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Andean community leaders show hydrologists and project developers from Lima damaged amunas. These pre-Incan canals collect excess river water in the wet season so it can recharge pools and groundwater supplies for use in the dry season. Credit: Gena Gammie. To tackle a looming water crisis, the city of Lima, Peru, is planning a series of green infrastructure projects, including the restoration of an ancient network of aqueducts in the mountains above the city. With a rapidly growing population of around 8.75 million Lima is the world&#8217;s second largest desert city, and no stranger to water shortages. Three main watersheds supply the city, supplemented by additional water transported in from across the Andes. The city currently faces a water deficit of 43 million cubic meters per year, even though it receives more than enough water during its extremely rainy December-through-May wet season to meet its needs year round. Much of the grasslands and wetlands in the Andes Mountains surrounding the city are degraded from livestock and agricultural activity, causing the rainfall to run off and make its way to the ocean rather than soak into the land and replenish water supplies. Climate change is likely to add to the city&#8217;s water woes — if it isn&#8217;t doing so already, Bert De Bievre, a water resource engineer with the Lima-based sustainable development organization CONDESAN (Consorcio para el Desarrollo Sostenible de la Ecorregión Andina), told mongabay.com. Girls at play in a small Andean community in a watershed that supplies Lima. Credit: Gena&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/04/lima-to-restore-pre-incan-aqueducts-to-alleviate-its-water-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-23837</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Discovery of &#8216;Lost City&#8217; spurs conservation pledge</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/03/discovery-of-lost-city-spurs-conservation-pledge/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/03/discovery-of-lost-city-spurs-conservation-pledge/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Mar 2015 16:15:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2015/03/discovery-of-lost-city-spurs-conservation-pledge/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America and Honduras]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Archeology, Biodiversity, Cattle, Conservation, Controversial, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Green, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Law Enforcement, Logging, Military, Parks, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, Science, Traditional People, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Media coverage of ruins raises controversy among scientists, but leads to stepped-up protection efforts in long-neglected region Temple at Tikal, a Mayan city in Guatemala. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Earlier this month, National Geographic made big news: the discovery of what it called a &#8220;lost city&#8221; below the thick jungles of Honduras. While the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Media coverage of ruins raises controversy among scientists, but leads to stepped-up protection efforts in long-neglected region Temple at Tikal, a Mayan city in Guatemala. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Earlier this month, National Geographic made big news: the discovery of what it called a &#8220;lost city&#8221; below the thick jungles of Honduras. While the coverage has led to scientists crying sensationalism, it also resulted this week in a commitment of protection by the Honduras President, Juan Orlando Hernández, for a long-neglected portion of the country. Located in Honduras&#8217; wild and remote La Mosquitia region, the ruins are imperiled by encroaching deforestation for cattle-ranching which the field team warned was just 20 miles away. World-renowned ethnobotanist, Mark Plotkin, who was a part of the team that first explored the centuries-old site in February, said the presidential commitment was a &#8220;bold move.&#8221; &#8220;I see this as an extremely positive and first, but it is not the end of the story,&#8221; he told mongabay.com. &#8220;Political pronouncements in capital cities need to translate into action on the ground, whereby indigenous peoples, peasant cultures, archaeologists, government officials, the military and the conservation community need to work together for the common good.&#8221; Last week, Hernández called on the nation&#8217;s military to ensure the safety of the site, as well as La Mosquitia region in general, which is likely home to many more undiscovered archeological riches. The exact location of the well-preserved ruins is being kept a secret for fear of looters. Hernández also called for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/03/discovery-of-lost-city-spurs-conservation-pledge/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-23977</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Drones to scan the Amazon rainforest for hidden civilizations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/02/drones-to-scan-the-amazon-rainforest-for-hidden-civilizations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/02/drones-to-scan-the-amazon-rainforest-for-hidden-civilizations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Feb 2015 01:35:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2015/02/drones-to-scan-the-amazon-rainforest-for-hidden-civilizations/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon and Brazil]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Civilizations, Archeology, Conservation, Drones, Environment, Forests, Green, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Technology, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Modern day signs of human activity in the Amazon rainforest. Courtesy of NASA. Click to enlarge. Researchers are planning to use drones equipped with vegetation-penetrating lasers to scan the Amazon rainforest for signs of past civilizations, reports the University of Exeter. A team led by Exeter archaeologist José Iriarte hopes the initiative will help settle [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Modern day signs of human activity in the Amazon rainforest. Courtesy of NASA. Click to enlarge. Researchers are planning to use drones equipped with vegetation-penetrating lasers to scan the Amazon rainforest for signs of past civilizations, reports the University of Exeter. A team led by Exeter archaeologist José Iriarte hopes the initiative will help settle the debate over the extent to which Earth&#8217;s largest rainforest was occupied and shaped by humans. &#8220;The data gathered through the project has the potential to estimate, for the first time, the spatial scale of past human disturbance across the entire Amazon basin,&#8221; said Iriarte in a statement. &#8220;Our project will resolve the previously overlooked role of humans as important agents of environmental change; from being viewed as the ‘noble savage’ living in harmony with ancient forests creating little or no impact on the landscape to actively shaping Amazonia through agricultural practices. In order to make informed decisions about a sustainable future, it is critical that policy-makers have a sound understanding of the historical role of humans in shaping the Amazonian landscapes and to what extent forests were resilient to historical disturbances.&#8221; The project, which is being done in partnership with the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA) and the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), among other institutions, will rely on a combination of approaches, including field-based assessment for precision and remote sensing technologies like an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) equipped with Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors for scale. LiDAR allows researchers to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/02/drones-to-scan-the-amazon-rainforest-for-hidden-civilizations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-24093</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Giant stone face unveiled in the Amazon rainforest (video)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/12/giant-stone-face-unveiled-in-the-amazon-rainforest-video/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/12/giant-stone-face-unveiled-in-the-amazon-rainforest-video/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Dec 2014 21:26:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/12/giant-stone-face-unveiled-in-the-amazon-rainforest-video/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Archeology, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Green, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Logging, Mining, Natural Gas, Oil, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Strange, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, and Videos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous group hopes the monument will help them protect an embattled Amazon reserve A still from the film, The Reunion, showing the Rostro Harakbut. A new short film documents the journey of an Amazonian tribe hiking deep into their territory to encounter a mysterious stone countenance that was allegedly carved by ancient peoples. According to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous group hopes the monument will help them protect an embattled Amazon reserve A still from the film, The Reunion, showing the Rostro Harakbut. A new short film documents the journey of an Amazonian tribe hiking deep into their territory to encounter a mysterious stone countenance that was allegedly carved by ancient peoples. According to Handcrafted Films, which produced the documentary entitled The Reunion, this was the first time the Rostro Harakbut (i.e. the countenance of the Harakbut people) has been filmed. Today, the monument&#8212;and the indigenous people in the Peruvian region&#8212;are imperiled by an influx of illegal loggers, miners, and colonists. &#8220;It was three days of rough hiking to get there, but then it was glorious,&#8221; Rainforest Foundation U.S. Program Manager, Tom Bewick, who was along during the expedition, told mongabay.com &#8220;The Rostro is extraordinary, and it really has the feeling of a guardian of the forest. Luis and Jaime, the main protagonists in the film, were genuinely awestruck.&#8221; Rising above a waterfall&#8212;and looking somewhat like the brooding stone faces of Easter Island or something out of the Lord of the Rings&#8212;this giant monument has long been known to the Harakbut people who live in the Amarakaeri Reserve. But they have kept it a secret until now. The the giant face has never been studied by archeologists, but the Harakbut believe the face is not the product of natural forces, but carved by their ancient ancestors. The Reunion from Handcrafted Films on Vimeo. Bewick says there are a number&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/12/giant-stone-face-unveiled-in-the-amazon-rainforest-video/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/12/giant-stone-face-unveiled-in-the-amazon-rainforest-video/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-24369</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Egyptian art helps chart past extinctions of big mammals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/12/egyptian-art-helps-chart-past-extinctions-of-big-mammals/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/12/egyptian-art-helps-chart-past-extinctions-of-big-mammals/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Dec 2014 14:01:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kim Smuga-Otto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/12/egyptian-art-helps-chart-past-extinctions-of-big-mammals/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Egypt, and North Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Civilizations, Animals, Biodiversity, Environment, Extinction, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Mammals, Mass Extinction, Rivers, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[What happened to Egypt&#8217;s Serengeti-like ecosystem? Art helps scientists unravel the past The scientists found that major disappearances coincided with climate and environmental changes. Click here to see a Brazilian interactive graphic of the extinctions. Graphic by: William Mariotto and Vinicius Sueiro, Estadao. Life in modern Egypt clings to the Nile River. This crowded green [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[What happened to Egypt&#8217;s Serengeti-like ecosystem? Art helps scientists unravel the past The scientists found that major disappearances coincided with climate and environmental changes. Click here to see a Brazilian interactive graphic of the extinctions. Graphic by: William Mariotto and Vinicius Sueiro, Estadao. Life in modern Egypt clings to the Nile River. This crowded green strip within the desert supports more than 2,300 people per square kilometer (6,000 per square mile). That doesn&#8217;t leave much room for wildlife. Jackals, foxes, hyenas, ibex, and a few other large mammal species manage to eke out an existence. But 6,000 years ago, all of Egypt was green and vibrant, teeming with life much like the current Serengeti. Over time, this rich ecosystem fell apart. Although the individual extinctions in this decimation are lost to history, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences constructs a model of the web of interactions among the mammals across the millennia. &#8220;You oftentimes see before and after, but in this case, you could watch what happened historically,&#8221; paleoecologist Paul Koch, of the University of California, Santa Cruz, one of the study authors, told mongabay.com. &#8220;We don&#8217;t often get to see, in detail, something collapse.&#8221; While the most common examples of ancient Egyptian art are stylized hieroglyphics, Egyptian artisans also created extensive and detailed wildlife scenes, often to illustrate famous hunts by the pharaohs. Photo by: Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, Brooklyn Museum. To build the model, the scientists didn&#8217;t look to bones and fossils;&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/12/egyptian-art-helps-chart-past-extinctions-of-big-mammals/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-24392</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A garden or a wilderness? One-fifth of the Amazon may have been savannah before the arrival of Europeans</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/07/a-garden-or-a-wilderness-one-fifth-of-the-amazon-may-have-been-savannah-before-the-arrival-of-europeans/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/07/a-garden-or-a-wilderness-one-fifth-of-the-amazon-may-have-been-savannah-before-the-arrival-of-europeans/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jul 2014 21:23:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/07/a-garden-or-a-wilderness-one-fifth-of-the-amazon-may-have-been-savannah-before-the-arrival-of-europeans/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Civilizations, Archeology, Climate Change, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Green, History, Impact Of Climate Change, Paleontology, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Science, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon rainforest in Yasuni National Park in Ecuador. Photo by: Jeremy Hance. The Amazon is the largest tropical forest on the planet, covering about 6.5 million square kilometers, although much has been lost (around 18-20 percent) in recent decades. The great forest also, very likely, contains the highest biodiversity of species on land; for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon rainforest in Yasuni National Park in Ecuador. Photo by: Jeremy Hance. The Amazon is the largest tropical forest on the planet, covering about 6.5 million square kilometers, although much has been lost (around 18-20 percent) in recent decades. The great forest also, very likely, contains the highest biodiversity of species on land; for example a single hectare in Yasuni National Park contains more tree species than all of the U.S. and Canada combined. Yet new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) finds that quite recently&#8212;just 500 years ago&#8212;a significant portion of the southern Amazon was not the tall-canopied forest it is today, but savannah. &#8220;These results were very surprising. We went to Bolivia hoping to find evidence of the kinds of crops being grown by ancient Amerindian groups, and to try to find how much impact they had on the ancient forest. What we found was that they were having virtually no effect on the forest, in terms of past deforestation, because it didn&#8217;t exist there until much later,&#8221; said lead author John Carson with the University of Reading. For centuries scientists believed the Amazon rainforest had been largely unsculpted by man, only inhabited by small bands of hunter-gatherers with a light environmental footprint. However, that view has been challenged in recent years. Deforestation across the southern band of the Amazon has revealed clear marks of human societies: large geometric earthworks, whose purpose remains unknown, but whose construction was definitely the work&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/07/a-garden-or-a-wilderness-one-fifth-of-the-amazon-may-have-been-savannah-before-the-arrival-of-europeans/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-24954</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Experts dispute recent study that claims little impact by pre-Columbian tribes in Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2012/07/experts-dispute-recent-study-that-claims-little-impact-by-pre-columbian-tribes-in-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2012/07/experts-dispute-recent-study-that-claims-little-impact-by-pre-columbian-tribes-in-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jul 2012 17:09:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2012/07/experts-dispute-recent-study-that-claims-little-impact-by-pre-columbian-tribes-in-amazon/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Archeology, Conservation, Environment, Green, History, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Science, Solutions, Strange, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Forest Management, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon forest along the Tambopata River in Peru. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. A study last month in the journal Science argued that pre-Columbian peoples had little impact on the western and central Amazon, going against a recently composed picture of the early Amazon inhabited by large, sophisticated populations influencing both the forest and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon forest along the Tambopata River in Peru. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. A study last month in the journal Science argued that pre-Columbian peoples had little impact on the western and central Amazon, going against a recently composed picture of the early Amazon inhabited by large, sophisticated populations influencing both the forest and its biodiversity. The new study, based on hundreds of soil samples, theorizes that indigenous populations in much of the Amazon were tiny and always on the move, largely sticking to rivers and practicing marginal agriculture. However, the study raised eyebrows as soon as it was released, including those of notable researchers who openly criticized its methods and pointed out omissions in the paper, such as no mention of hundreds of geoglyphs, manmade earthen structures, found in the region. &#8220;There is strong evidence of large settlements in eastern Amazonia, but our data point to different cultural adaptations in the central and western Amazon, which left vast areas with very little human imprint,&#8221; said co-author, Mark Bush, of the paper entitled &#8220;Sparse Pre-Columbian Human Habitation in Western Amazonia&#8221; in a press release. Based on 247 soil samples taken from 55 locations, the study found little evidence of charcoal, which is laid down when humans burn the rainforest. The team also looked for phytoliths, microscopic silica that is deposited after a plant dies, to find evidence of human-planted palm groves, but here too the soil samples came up short. Some researchers argue that the Amazon&#8217;s stunning biodiversity is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2012/07/experts-dispute-recent-study-that-claims-little-impact-by-pre-columbian-tribes-in-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-30662</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Humans drove rainforest into savannah in ancient Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2012/02/humans-drove-rainforest-into-savannah-in-ancient-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2012/02/humans-drove-rainforest-into-savannah-in-ancient-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Feb 2012 19:18:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2012/02/humans-drove-rainforest-into-savannah-in-ancient-africa/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Central Africa, and Congo Basin]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Ancient Civilizations, Archeology, Climate Change, Deforestation, Environment, Farming, Forests, Green, History, Impact Of Climate Change, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Savannas, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Congo rainforest today in Gabon. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Three thousand years ago (around 1000 BCE) several large sections of the Congo rainforest in central Africa suddenly vanished and became savannah. Scientists have long believed the loss of the forest was due to changes in the climate, however a new study in Science [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Congo rainforest today in Gabon. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Three thousand years ago (around 1000 BCE) several large sections of the Congo rainforest in central Africa suddenly vanished and became savannah. Scientists have long believed the loss of the forest was due to changes in the climate, however a new study in Science implicates an additional culprit: humans. The study argues that a migration of farmers into the region led to rapid land-use changes from agriculture and iron smelting, eventually causing the collapse of rainforest in places and a rise of grasslands. The study has implications for today as scientists warn that the potent combination of deforestation and climate change could flip parts of the Amazon rainforest as well into savannah. &#8220;To some extent, this large scale deforestation event shaped the African rain forest into its present-day vegetation patterns,&#8221; writes the paper&#8217;s authors, adding that &#8220;the consensus is that the forest disturbance was caused by a regional climate change. However, this episode of forest clearance occurred contemporaneously with the migration of Bantu-speaking peoples from near the modern Nigeria-Cameroon border.&#8221; Recent archeological evidence has found ceramics, stone tools, and the remnants of domestic agriculture, such as oil palm nuts. Iron-working furnaces, which would have been fueled by felled trees, have also been found. But, the researchers wonder what came first: the savannah or the farmers? In order to determine if the ancient farmers, who lived during the time when David became King of the Israelites, had impacted the rainforest,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2012/02/humans-drove-rainforest-into-savannah-in-ancient-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-31344</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Evidence mounts that Maya did themselves in through deforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/12/evidence-mounts-that-maya-did-themselves-in-through-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/12/evidence-mounts-that-maya-did-themselves-in-through-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Dec 2011 17:32:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2011/12/evidence-mounts-that-maya-did-themselves-in-through-deforestation/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Climate Change, Deforestation, Drought, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Environmental Services, Farming, Forests, Green, History, Logging, Precipitation, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Strange, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Maya city of Tulum. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Researchers have garnered further evidence for a smoking gun behind the fall of the great Maya civilization: deforestation. At the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference, climatologist Ben Cook presented recent research showing how the destruction of rainforests by the Mayan ultimately led to declines in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Maya city of Tulum. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Researchers have garnered further evidence for a smoking gun behind the fall of the great Maya civilization: deforestation. At the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference, climatologist Ben Cook presented recent research showing how the destruction of rainforests by the Mayan ultimately led to declines in precipitation and possibly civilization-rocking droughts. While the idea that the Maya may have committed ecological-suicide through deforestation has been widely discussed, including in Jared Diamond&#8217;s popular book Collapse, Cook&#8217;s findings add greater weight to the theory. Modeling by Cook and his colleagues showed that replacing rainforest with agriculture led to increasing reflectivity of the land surface, known as albedo. This increase in reflectivity changed rainfall patterns. &#8220;Farmland and pastures absorb slightly less energy from the sun than the rainforest because their surfaces tend to be lighter and more reflective,&#8221; explained Cook, with NASA&#8217;s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and Columbia University&#8217;s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York City, in a press release from AGU. &#8220;This means that there’s less energy available for convection and precipitation.&#8221; Prior to the arrival of Columbus, the central American empire cut forests far-and-wide to feed a growing population. However, they didn&#8217;t realize that they were exacerbating their own decline. By a little after 900 AD the Maya civilization had largely collapsed. Aerial view of Amazon rainforest landscape scarred by open pit gold mines. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. To tease out the smoking gun, Cook turned to the most&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2011/12/evidence-mounts-that-maya-did-themselves-in-through-deforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-31607</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists confirm ancient Egyptian knowledge: Nile crocodile is two species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/09/scientists-confirm-ancient-egyptian-knowledge-nile-crocodile-is-two-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/09/scientists-confirm-ancient-egyptian-knowledge-nile-crocodile-is-two-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Sep 2011 21:47:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2011/09/scientists-confirm-ancient-egyptian-knowledge-nile-crocodile-is-two-species/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Civilizations, Animals, Carnivores, Endangered Species, Environment, Green, History, Predators, Reptiles, Species Discovery, Strange, Top Predators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Nile crocodile in Madagascar. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. DNA has shown that the Nile crocodile is in fact two very different species: a bigger, more aggressive crocodile and a smaller, tamer species that today survives only in West Africa. While the taxonomy of the Nile crocodile has been controversial for over a century, the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nile crocodile in Madagascar. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. DNA has shown that the Nile crocodile is in fact two very different species: a bigger, more aggressive crocodile and a smaller, tamer species that today survives only in West Africa. While the taxonomy of the Nile crocodile has been controversial for over a century, the new study points out that the ancient Egyptians recognized the differences in the species and avoided the big crocodile for its rituals. While it is not uncommon for DNA to overturn long-established taxonomy, in this case the DNA results of over a hundred living crocodiles across Africa and over fifty museum specimens&#8212;including mummified crocodiles from ancient Egypt&#8212;found that what has long been considered one species is two distantly related species. In fact the larger Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) is more closely related to Caribbean crocodiles than it is to the new cryptic species, dubbed Crocodylus suchus. At first researchers were dumbfounded by these results. &#8220;I kept on sequencing it because I was convinced I was 100 percent wrong,&#8221; Evon Hekkala, lead author, told Nature. &#8220;It wasn&#8217;t even remotely related to the Nile crocodile samples I had been working on.&#8221; Greek historian, Herodotus, actually pointed this out nearly two thousand years five hundred ago after visiting Egypt. The researchers write that according to Herodotus, who has been dubbed the Father of History, &#8220;ancient Egyptian priests were cognizant of two forms [of Nile crocodile] and selectively used the smaller, more tractable form in temples and ceremonies&#8221;. DNA&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2011/09/scientists-confirm-ancient-egyptian-knowledge-nile-crocodile-is-two-species/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-32009</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Destructive farming practices of early civilization may have altered climate long before industrial era</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2009/08/destructive-farming-practices-of-early-civilization-may-have-altered-climate-long-before-industrial-era/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2009/08/destructive-farming-practices-of-early-civilization-may-have-altered-climate-long-before-industrial-era/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Aug 2009 16:43:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2009/08/destructive-farming-practices-of-early-civilization-may-have-altered-climate-long-before-industrial-era/</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Archeology, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Climate Science, Deforestation, Environment, Farming, Fires, Forests, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, History, and Strange]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2009/08/destructive-farming-practices-of-early-civilization-may-have-altered-climate-long-before-industrial-era/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-36379</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Chocolate has been a delicacy north of Mexico for a thousand years</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2009/02/chocolate-has-been-a-delicacy-north-of-mexico-for-a-thousand-years/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2009/02/chocolate-has-been-a-delicacy-north-of-mexico-for-a-thousand-years/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Feb 2009 21:58:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2009/02/chocolate-has-been-a-delicacy-north-of-mexico-for-a-thousand-years/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America and Mexico]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Archeology, Botany, Environment, and Plants]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2009/02/chocolate-has-been-a-delicacy-north-of-mexico-for-a-thousand-years/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-37038</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>European conquest of the Americas may have driven global cooling</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2008/12/european-conquest-of-the-americas-may-have-driven-global-cooling/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2008/12/european-conquest-of-the-americas-may-have-driven-global-cooling/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Dec 2008 20:28:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2008/12/european-conquest-of-the-americas-may-have-driven-global-cooling/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Civilizations, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Environment, Forests, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Rainforests, Reforestation, and Strange]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Recovery of forests following the collapse of human populations in the Americas after the arrival of Europeans may have driven the period of global cooling from 1500-1750 known as the Little Ice Age, report researchers speaking at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. By some estimates, diseases introduced by Europeans [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Recovery of forests following the collapse of human populations in the Americas after the arrival of Europeans may have driven the period of global cooling from 1500-1750 known as the Little Ice Age, report researchers speaking at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. By some estimates, diseases introduced by Europeans may have killed more than 90 percent of population on the New World within a century of first contact. The rapid depopulation led to large-scale abandonment, and subsequent reforestation, of agricultural lands in the Americas. Analyzing charcoal found in soils and lake sediments at sites across the Americas, Richard Nevle and Dennis Bird found evidence to suggest that this forest regeneration sequestered enough carbon to trigger global cooling. &#8220;We estimate that the amount of carbon sequestered in the growing forests was about 10 to 50 percent of the total carbon that would have needed to come out of the atmosphere and oceans at that time to account for the observed changes in carbon dioxide concentrations,&#8221; said Nevle, a visiting scholar in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences at Stanford. Small-holder deforestation in Suriname (top) and Borneo (bottom) The researchers focused specifically on changes in charcoal deposits at their study sites. Charcoal deposits were on the rise, indicating increasing conversion of forest for cropland, until 500 years ago when they showed an abrupt drop, coinciding with the human population crash in the Americas. The researchers compared the timing with the climate record and found a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2008/12/european-conquest-of-the-americas-may-have-driven-global-cooling/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-37717</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pre-Colombian Amazonians lived in sustainable &#8216;urban&#8217; society</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2008/08/pre-colombian-amazonians-lived-in-sustainable-urban-society/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2008/08/pre-colombian-amazonians-lived-in-sustainable-urban-society/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Aug 2008 14:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2008/12/pre-colombian-amazonians-lived-in-sustainable-urban-society/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Ancient Civilizations, Animals, Anthropology, Aquaculture, Archeology, Biodiversity, Culture, Deforestation, Environment, Fishing, Forestry, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Soy, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Forest Management, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Amazon tribes lived in sustainable &#8220;garden cities&#8221;, argues new research Researchers have uncovered new evidence to support the controversial theory that parts of the Amazon were home to dense &#8220;urban&#8221; settlements prior to the arrival of Europeans in the 15th century. The study is published this Friday in the journal Science. Conducting archeological excavations [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Amazon tribes lived in sustainable &#8220;garden cities&#8221;, argues new research Researchers have uncovered new evidence to support the controversial theory that parts of the Amazon were home to dense &#8220;urban&#8221; settlements prior to the arrival of Europeans in the 15th century. The study is published this Friday in the journal Science. Conducting archeological excavations and aerial imagery across a number of sites in the Upper Xingu region of the Brazilian Amazon, a team of researchers led by Michael Heckenberger found evidence of a grid-like pattern of 150-acre towns and smaller villages, connected by complex road networks and arranged around large plazas where public rituals would take place. The authors argue that the discoveries indicate parts of the Amazon supported &#8220;urban&#8221; societies based around agriculture, forest management, and fish farming. Heckenberger and colleagues write that the structure of settlement is similar to that found in other forest regions, rather than the centralized metropolises of Egypt and Mesopotamia. A comtemporary Kuikuro village in the Amazon rainforest. Image © Science/AAAS Kayap&oacute; shaman. The Kayap&oacute; are a Xinguano tribe that lives in the region. The researchers say that while none of the discovered towns were as large as the largest medieval or Greek towns, they had features &#8212; including an &#8220;identical formal road, always oriented northeast to southwest in keeping with the mid-year summer solstice, connected to a central plaza&#8221; &#8212; indicative of &#8220;regional planning and political organization that are hallmarks of urban society,&#8221; according to statement from the University of Florida. &#8220;These&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2008/08/pre-colombian-amazonians-lived-in-sustainable-urban-society/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-38094</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Heavily-populated Amazon was decimated by old world disease</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2008/06/heavily-populated-amazon-was-decimated-by-old-world-disease/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2008/06/heavily-populated-amazon-was-decimated-by-old-world-disease/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jun 2008 14:30:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2008/12/heavily-populated-amazon-was-decimated-by-old-world-disease/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Civilizations, Environment, Fires, Forests, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Rainforests, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Charcoal signatures: Heavily-populated Amazon was decimated by old world disease Charcoal signatures: Heavily-populated Amazon was decimated by old world disease Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com June 9, 2008 Ecologists and archaeologists agree that when Columbus struck the Americas in 1492 everything changed, but questions persist over the kind of world Columbus and his followers would soon transform. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Charcoal signatures: Heavily-populated Amazon was decimated by old world disease Charcoal signatures: Heavily-populated Amazon was decimated by old world disease Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com June 9, 2008 Ecologists and archaeologists agree that when Columbus struck the Americas in 1492 everything changed, but questions persist over the kind of world Columbus and his followers would soon transform. Recently the state of the pre-Columbian Amazon has been under increasing debate among scientists across numerous fields. In a lecture given at the ATBC conference (Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation) in Paramaribo, Suriname, Dr. Francis Mayle weighed in on the debate. The traditional view regarding pre-Columbian Amazonia goes something like this: prior to 1492 the Amazon was a virgin, pristine wilderness with only small populations of human inhabitants who had little effect on the ecosystem in which they lived. However, new ideas regarding population density in the pre-Columbian world and recent archaeological discoveries have led some to see the pre-Columbian Amazon very differently: more &#8216;cultural parkland&#8217; (a term coined by Michael J. Heckenberger) than virgin wilderness. In this theory, a heavily-populated Amazonia held complex and sedentary societies which greatly affected their environment, so much so that the pre-Columbian Amazon may have been as much a product of human maintenance as environmental factors. Still burning the Amazon for agriculture &#8211; photo by Rhett A. Butler. In his talk Francis Mayle tested the validity of the &#8216;cultural parkland&#8217; claim by employing data on charcoal in the Amazon. The presence of charcoal gives scientists an idea of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2008/06/heavily-populated-amazon-was-decimated-by-old-world-disease/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-38215</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ancient Amazon fires linked to human populations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2008/02/ancient-amazon-fires-linked-to-human-populations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2008/02/ancient-amazon-fires-linked-to-human-populations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Feb 2008 14:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2008/12/ancient-amazon-fires-linked-to-human-populations/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Ancient Civilizations, Archeology, Deforestation, Drought, Environment, Farming, Fires, Forests, Green, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Amazon fires linked to human populations Ancient Amazon fires linked to human populations Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com February 20, 2008 European contact resulted in both a steep decline in indigenous populations and burning in the Amazon rainforest &#8212; at least until now. Analysis of soil charcoal in South America confirms that from a historical [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Amazon fires linked to human populations Ancient Amazon fires linked to human populations Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com February 20, 2008 European contact resulted in both a steep decline in indigenous populations and burning in the Amazon rainforest &#8212; at least until now. Analysis of soil charcoal in South America confirms that from a historical perspective, fire is rare in the Amazon rainforest, but when it does occur, it appears linked to human activities. The research, published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, is based on dating of soil carbon, which provides a good indication of when fires occurred in Amazonia, according to lead author Mark Bush, head of the Department of Biology at Florida Institute of Technology. &#8220;Charcoal particles provide a good indication of the age of the fire in Amazonia,&#8221; he told mongabay.com via email. &#8220;Trees rot quickly in tropical forests and do not lie around on the forest floor for centuries until burned. Further, fires generally only char the outer few centimeters of the trunk. Consequently, once calibrated, the carbon-14 ages of the charcoal provide good ages for tropical fire events.&#8221; 228 14C ages for dated charcoal horizons in Amazonian soils. Pink represents the number of charcal records (i.e. fire)while purple indicates atmospheric D14C as a proxy for solar output. Turquoise indicates number of El Niño events per century. ? indicates uncertainty as to the timing of a shift in Amazonian cultural adaptations. Conducting a review of all the ages of soil charcoal published for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2008/02/ancient-amazon-fires-linked-to-human-populations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-38564</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Chocolate first used more than 3100 years ago</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2007/11/chocolate-first-used-more-than-3100-years-ago/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2007/11/chocolate-first-used-more-than-3100-years-ago/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Nov 2007 14:30:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
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											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Archeology, Green, and Paleontology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Chocolate first used more than 3100 years ago Chocolate first used more than 3100 years ago mongabay.com November 12, 2007 Cacao, the source of chocolate, was in use at least at least 3000 years ago according to evidence found by archaeologists working in Honduras. The discovery pushes back the earliest known use of cacao by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Chocolate first used more than 3100 years ago Chocolate first used more than 3100 years ago mongabay.com November 12, 2007 Cacao, the source of chocolate, was in use at least at least 3000 years ago according to evidence found by archaeologists working in Honduras. The discovery pushes back the earliest known use of cacao by 500 years. Dr. John Henderson of Cornell University and colleagues identified residue of the chemical compound theobromine, which occurs only in the cacao plant, in pottery dating to around 1150 B.C. at sites in what is now Puerto Escondido, Honduras. The find shows that Mesoamericans were making cacao beverages earlier than was previously believed. The researchers say that the cacao beverages of the era were likely &#8220;fermented drinks made from pulp, rather than chocolate-flavored drinks made from the seeds,&#8221; according to a news release from PNAS. &#8220;The style of the pottery indicates that cacao was served at important ceremonies to mark weddings and births.&#8221; Bodega Brown bottle from northern Honduras. This vessel is of the same type and form as sample 8K-31. The bottle is from the collection of the Instituto Hondureno de Antropologia e Historia, Museo de San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Image courtesy of PNAS/National Academy of Sciences (Copyright 2007). &#8220;These results support the proposition that fermenting the fruity pulp of cacao to produce a chicha-like beverage probably preceded the use of the seeds for chocolate,&#8221; write the authors. &#8220;The frothed chocolate drink, made from cacao seeds, came to be central to social and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2007/11/chocolate-first-used-more-than-3100-years-ago/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-38795</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Crop domestication originated in compost piles</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2007/08/crop-domestication-originated-in-compost-piles/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2007/08/crop-domestication-originated-in-compost-piles/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Aug 2007 14:30:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
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											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, and Mexico]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Culture, Farming, and Green]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Crop domestication originated in compost piles Crop domestication originated in compost piles mongabay.com August 19, 2007 New research lends support to the theory that backyard gardens and refuse heaps played an important role in early crop domestication. Writing in the August 17th issue of Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences, an international team of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Crop domestication originated in compost piles Crop domestication originated in compost piles mongabay.com August 19, 2007 New research lends support to the theory that backyard gardens and refuse heaps played an important role in early crop domestication. Writing in the August 17th issue of Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences, an international team of researchers provide empirical evidence of spontaneous hybridization for a legume tree (Leucaena) in Mexico based on archaeological, ethnobotanical, geographical, and genetic data. &#8220;We show that predomestication cultivation was widespread, involved numerous independent transitions from the wild to cultivation,&#8221; the authors write. &#8220;Our results suggest that backyard hybridization has played a central role in Mesoamerican crop domestication and demonstrate that the simple step of bringing species together in cultivation can provide a potent trigger for domestication.&#8221; The researchers say they found &#8220;striking parallels between Leucaena and the other major Mexican perennial domesticates Agave and Opuntia, which show very similar domestication via backyard hybridization pathways.&#8221; CITATION: Colin E. Hughes, Rajanikanth Govindarajulu , Ashley Robertson, Denis L. Filer, Stephen A. Harris, and C. Donovan Bailey (2007). Serendipitous backyard hybridization and the origin of crops. Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences Aug. 17, 2007. www.pnas.orgcgido10.1073pnas.0702193104This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2007/08/crop-domestication-originated-in-compost-piles/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-39049</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Failing water supply destroyed lost city of Angkor Wat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2007/08/failing-water-supply-destroyed-lost-city-of-angkor-wat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2007/08/failing-water-supply-destroyed-lost-city-of-angkor-wat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2007 14:30:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
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											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia and Cambodia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Civilizations, Deforestation, Drought, Environment, Green, and Remote Sensing]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Failing water supplies destroyed Angkor Wat in Cambodia Failing water supply destroyed lost city of Angkor Wat Ancient city, one of the largest ever known, done in by environmental degradation mongabay.com August 13, 2007 Deforestation may have lead to the demise of one of the world&#8217;s most extensive preindustrial settlements The ancient city of Angkor [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Failing water supplies destroyed Angkor Wat in Cambodia Failing water supply destroyed lost city of Angkor Wat Ancient city, one of the largest ever known, done in by environmental degradation mongabay.com August 13, 2007 Deforestation may have lead to the demise of one of the world&#8217;s most extensive preindustrial settlements The ancient city of Angkor in Cambodia was larger in extent than previously thought and fed by a single water system, according to a new map published by an international team of researchers. The study, published in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences, suggests that the urban settlement sustained an elaborate water management network extending over more than 1,0000 square kilometers. Analyzing hand-drawn maps, ground surveys, airborne photography, and ground-sensing radar provided by NASA, archeologist Damian Evans of the University of Sydney and colleagues identified over a thousand previously unknown manmade ponds and at least 74 long-lost temples. The research shows that Angkor was sustained by a single hydraulic system which delivered a stable water supply to the network despite unpredictable monsoon rains. &#8220;Even on a quite conservative estimate, Greater Angkor, at its peak, was therefore the world&#8217;s most extensive preindustrial low density urban complex,&#8221; wrote the authors. &#8220;The scale of the urban complex also has implications for its history and its demise.&#8221; Bayon/Angkor Thom in Cambodia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. The research supports the theory that the &#8220;overexploitation of the landscape&#8221; eventually led to the collapse of Angkor. &#8220;Angkor stands&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2007/08/failing-water-supply-destroyed-lost-city-of-angkor-wat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-39024</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Killers of renowned anthropologist sentenced in Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2007/07/killers-of-renowned-anthropologist-sentenced-in-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2007/07/killers-of-renowned-anthropologist-sentenced-in-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jul 2007 14:30:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
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											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Green, Rainforests, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Killers of renowned anthropologist sentenced in Brazil Killers of renowned anthropologist sentenced in Brazil mongabay.com July 12, 2007 The men charged with the 2005 killing of University of Vermont anthropology professor James Petersen in the Amazon rainforest were sentenced Tuesday to nearly 30 years in prison, close to the maximum under Brazilian law. Petersen, who [&#8230;]]]>
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							<![CDATA[Killers of renowned anthropologist sentenced in Brazil Killers of renowned anthropologist sentenced in Brazil mongabay.com July 12, 2007 The men charged with the 2005 killing of University of Vermont anthropology professor James Petersen in the Amazon rainforest were sentenced Tuesday to nearly 30 years in prison, close to the maximum under Brazilian law. Petersen, who had been doing pioneering research on advanced civilizations in the Amazon rainforest and had become a popular figure in the region, was shot and killed on August 13, 2005 during a robbery of a restaurant near Iranduba, a small town in the Brazilian Amazon. The two gunmen were apprehended within 24 hours, while their two accomplices were captured after a three week-manhunt through the rainforest. Peterson&#8217;s Work in the Amazon Peterson gained fame for his archeological work in the Central Amazon. Together with a handful of other researchers, Peterson collected evidence of sophisticated societies in the Amazon rainforest. These civilizations built extensive road networks, practiced large-scale agriculture, and produced elaborate pottery, but left little trace after they were wiped out by European disease in the sixteenth century. JAMES PETERSEN (1954 &#8211; 2005) One of the few remnants left behind by these populations, is their nutrient-rich soil, known locally as terra preta. The soil, easily distinguished from conventional Amazon earth by its black color and mineral richness, is thought to have been created by pre-Columbian people through a process of adding charcoal and animal bones to regular soil to create a highly fertile hybrid, ideal for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2007/07/killers-of-renowned-anthropologist-sentenced-in-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-39153</doi>				</item>
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					<title>Peanuts, cotton, squash first farmed in Peru 6,000-10,000 years ago</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2007/06/peanuts-cotton-squash-first-farmed-in-peru-6000-10000-years-ago/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2007/06/peanuts-cotton-squash-first-farmed-in-peru-6000-10000-years-ago/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jun 2007 14:30:39 +0000</pubDate>
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							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2008/12/peanuts-cotton-squash-first-farmed-in-peru-6000-10000-years-ago/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Peru]]>
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											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Archeology, Farming, Fossils, and Green]]>
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							<![CDATA[Peanuts, cotton, squash first farmed in Peru 6,000-10,000 years ago Peanuts, cotton, squash first farmed in Peru 6,000-10,000 years ago mongabay.com June 28, 2007 Anthropologists have discovered the earliest-known evidence of peanut, cotton and squash farming. The study, which show that the crops were grown in the Peruvian Andes 5,000-10,000 years ago, is published in [&#8230;]]]>
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							<![CDATA[Peanuts, cotton, squash first farmed in Peru 6,000-10,000 years ago Peanuts, cotton, squash first farmed in Peru 6,000-10,000 years ago mongabay.com June 28, 2007 Anthropologists have discovered the earliest-known evidence of peanut, cotton and squash farming. The study, which show that the crops were grown in the Peruvian Andes 5,000-10,000 years ago, is published in Friday&#8217;s issue of the journal Science. Dark brown squash seeds (C. moschata). Image courtesy of Tom D. Dillehay Location map of study area in north Peru. Image modified from Science. Using accelerator mass spectrometry to date fossilized plant matter uncovered in ancient agricultural settlements of the Ãanchoc Valley in northern Peru, a team of researchers led by Dr. Tom D. Dillehay of Vanderbilt University found that squash cultivation began around 10,000 years ago, followed by cultivation of peanuts about 8,500 years ago and cotton about 6,000 years ago. This evidence indicates that early agriculture in the Andes dates back at about 10,000 years, or roughly the same time as farming took hold in the Old World. &#8220;We believe the development of agriculture by the Ãanchoc people served as a catalyst for cultural and social changes that eventually led to intensified agriculture, institutionalized political power and new towns in the Andean highlands and along the coast 4,000 to 5,500 years ago,&#8221; said Tom D. Dillehay, an anthropologist at Vanderbilt University. &#8220;Our new findings indicate that agriculture played a broader role in these sweeping developments than was previously understood.&#8221; &#8220;The plants we found in northern Peru did&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2007/06/peanuts-cotton-squash-first-farmed-in-peru-6000-10000-years-ago/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-39296</doi>				</item>
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