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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/land-rights/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Thu, 08 Oct 2026 23:00:02 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Land Rights</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/land-rights/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>International pledge to fund forest rights exceeds target, but direct funding remains low</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/international-pledge-to-fund-forest-rights-exceeds-target-but-direct-funding-remains-low/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/international-pledge-to-fund-forest-rights-exceeds-target-but-direct-funding-remains-low/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Oct 2026 17:23:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/07154220/AP24302739182917-Jayapura-Papua-province-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331812</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Justice, Community Development, Community Forests, Conservation, Culture, Deforestation, Environment, Finance, Funding, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Law, Politics, Protected Areas, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Funders of the $1.7 billion pledge to support Indigenous peoples and local communities’ land rights, announced at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, say they have exceeded the target by 35%, delivering $2.35 billion between 2021 and 2025. According to the final report of the Forest Tenure Funders Group (FTFG), in 2025 alone, donors [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Funders of the $1.7 billion pledge to support Indigenous peoples and local communities’ land rights, announced at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, say they have exceeded the target by 35%, delivering $2.35 billion between 2021 and 2025. According to the final report of the Forest Tenure Funders Group (FTFG), in 2025 alone, donors provided about $486 million. Sources say the five-year pledge was a major accomplishment, but problems around direct access, regional inequality, funding for women and youth and aid sustainability persist. In 2025, only 7.2% went directly to Indigenous and local community organizations, the latest report found, while the vast majority still flowed through intermediaries, such as NGOs, consultancies and development banks. According to recently updated data in the report, the share of direct funding has increased over the five-year period, from 2.9% of the $351 million provided by donors in 2021, decreasing to 2.1% of the $514 million in 2022. By 2023, this number had risen to 10.6% of the $533 million provided that year, and in 2024, 7.6% of the $467 million provided went directly to these groups. “The pledge was good news, but the figure of the result doesn&#8217;t tell us how much actually reached the territories,” Myrna Cunningham Kain, of the Indigenous Miskito community of Waspam and chair of the Guiding Committee at the Pawanka Fund, told Mongabay over email. The Pawanka Fund is a global organization led by Indigenous people that channels financial and technical resources directly to Indigenous peoples and other&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/international-pledge-to-fund-forest-rights-exceeds-target-but-direct-funding-remains-low/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/international-pledge-to-fund-forest-rights-exceeds-target-but-direct-funding-remains-low/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331812</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia passes agrarian reform law amid concerns over land protections</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indonesia-passes-agrarian-reform-law-amid-concerns-over-land-protections/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indonesia-passes-agrarian-reform-law-amid-concerns-over-land-protections/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Sep 2026 13:18:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/09/21161207/IMG-20230907-WA0029-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331043</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Reform, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Law, Resource Conflict, and Social Conflict]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s parliament has passed a law intended to resolve long-running land conflicts and curb land concentration, but civil society groups say provisions in the final draft could limit redistribution, leave state-controlled land difficult to challenge and expose some land occupants to criminal charges. The House of Representatives, known as the DPR, approved the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s parliament has passed a law intended to resolve long-running land conflicts and curb land concentration, but civil society groups say provisions in the final draft could limit redistribution, leave state-controlled land difficult to challenge and expose some land occupants to criminal charges. The House of Representatives, known as the DPR, approved the Agrarian Reform Regulation Law on Sept. 22, after lawmakers and the government agreed on the bill the previous day. The law establishes a framework for resolving structural conflicts over agrarian land ownership, restoring land rights and redistributing land, among other aims. The final enacted text has not yet been made publicly available, leaving some details of how the law will operate unclear. The debate over the efficacy and the implementation of the law comes amid a long-standing pattern of land disputes in Indonesia. The Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA), an advocacy group, reportedly recorded 3,234 agrarian conflicts affecting 7.4 million hectares (18.3 million acres) and 1.8 million households between 2015 and 2024. KPA and other advocates have argued that many conflicts arise from overlapping government authority, land allocations and competing claims involving communities, companies and state institutions. Indigenous communities, farmers and fisherfolk can be affected when their customary or livelihood areas overlap with concessions, state-designated land or infrastructure projects. The new law is intended to address what lawmakers describe as fragmented authority and regulations that have complicated conflict resolution. The parliament said the bill’s provisions include land-use planning and controls, mechanisms for resolving conflicts and restoring&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indonesia-passes-agrarian-reform-law-amid-concerns-over-land-protections/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indonesia-passes-agrarian-reform-law-amid-concerns-over-land-protections/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331043</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Nepal, women seek ownership rights to the lands they tend</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/in-nepal-women-seek-ownership-rights-to-the-lands-they-tend/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/in-nepal-women-seek-ownership-rights-to-the-lands-they-tend/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Sep 2026 16:50:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Haven Sager]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/23143406/paddy-field-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=330580</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Culture, Environment, Farming, Gender, Land Rights, and Law]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[POKHARA, Nepal — Before Binita Bishwokaarma understood Nepal’s property laws, she understood the work required to sustain a farm. Growing up in the village of Sindhupalchok, east of the capital, Kathmandu, she spent much of her time helping her mother around the house and in the fields while her father worked in the city. It’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[POKHARA, Nepal — Before Binita Bishwokaarma understood Nepal’s property laws, she understood the work required to sustain a farm. Growing up in the village of Sindhupalchok, east of the capital, Kathmandu, she spent much of her time helping her mother around the house and in the fields while her father worked in the city. It’s a common scenario in Nepal, where gendered divisions of agricultural labor are widespread. For Bishwokaarma, that meant she and her mother grew maize, potatoes, garlic and other vegetables. She participated in the entire agricultural cycle, from preparing fields and planting crops to harvesting them. She enjoyed plowing the most, but it was physically demanding because the family lacked modern machinery. “We didn&#8217;t have tractors,” she said. “So, everything, start to ending, we had to do with our own hands. It was really hard.” It’s what many women and girls experience. And yet, their prospects for owning the land they tend are slim: Despite gender equality under the law, in Nepal, property rights rest mostly with men. Still, it’s women — accounting for nearly 70% of the country’s farming population — whom Bishwokaarma credits most with caring for the land. Throughout her childhood, she saw how dedicated women were to conserving their environment. She explained that many women learn from childhood how to keep the soil healthy and reduce pests naturally through mixed cropping, crop rotation and intercropping. Farmers harvest paddy at Bhaktapur, Nepal. Agriculture is the main source of food, income and employment for the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/in-nepal-women-seek-ownership-rights-to-the-lands-they-tend/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-330580</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Huge AI data center project blindsides water-stressed town in Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/huge-ai-data-center-project-blindsides-water-stressed-town-in-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/huge-ai-data-center-project-blindsides-water-stressed-town-in-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Sep 2026 12:00:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Naira Hofmeister]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/08190834/Headerfeat-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328289</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Business, Conflict, Data centers, Development, Environment, Governance, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Mining, Natural Resources, Resource Conflict, Technology, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As water wells turn to dust, local leaders learn of the massive facility firsthand from reporters.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PARACATU, Brazil — As the president of Paracatu’s city council, Manoel Alves is used to being courted by companies and executives that want his blessing for new business. But on a Thursday afternoon in May 2026, he was upset talking on the phone about a data center planned for his city, about which he was informed by reporters. “I just heard the data center construction will start in two months. Don’t you guys know about this either?” Alves asked someone at the mayor&#8217;s office. The answer from the other side of the call was “no”, the same received from all interviewees: Local authorities, business owners, farmers, and citizens. “It is some new hotel concept?” a major restaurant owner in the city asked. “A dentist?” a citizen in Paracatu’s main square questioned. “Data center? What is this?” queried the guardian of an 18th-century church. Read it in Portuguese. The data center in Paracatu, a municipality located a three-hour drive from Brazil’s capital, Brasília, is not just any data center, but a 1-gigawatt data center, which will be larger than the combined total of all data centers currently installed in the country, which use around 800 megawatts. Or similar to one of the gigantic projects that are part of the Stargate initiative, one of the world&#8217;s largest artificial intelligence infrastructure networks, strongly supported by the U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. Paracatu’s data center is being planned by Atlas Renewable Energy, owned by an arm of the global asset manager BlackRock, which already&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/huge-ai-data-center-project-blindsides-water-stressed-town-in-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328289</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous land back in Chile brings mixed bag of environmental outcomes: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-land-back-in-chile-brings-mixed-bag-of-environmental-outcomes-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-land-back-in-chile-brings-mixed-bag-of-environmental-outcomes-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2026 18:59:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/09154250/Pictures-of-the-Week-Latin-America-and-Caribbean-Photo-Gallery-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=329292</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Chile, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Degraded Lands, forest degradation, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Livestock, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Plantations, Protected Areas, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous land restitution in Chile came with a mixed bag of environmental outcomes and did not boost natural forest cover, according to a new study published in Nature Sustainability. While the return of ancestral lands gave the Indigenous Mapuche communities in southern Chile greater control over how their land was used — leading to an [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous land restitution in Chile came with a mixed bag of environmental outcomes and did not boost natural forest cover, according to a new study published in Nature Sustainability. While the return of ancestral lands gave the Indigenous Mapuche communities in southern Chile greater control over how their land was used — leading to an increase in grasslands for livestock production and a reduction in non-native tree plantations — it did not improve biodiversity, carbon sequestration or erosion control. Researchers say these findings challenge long-held assumptions that Indigenous self-determination automatically equates to positive changes in natural forests, carbon sequestration or biodiversity. “In the past, conservation advocates have at times adopted romanticized views of what such self-determination would mean, assuming that Indigenous communities will always choose to allocate land towards more ‘natural’ uses,” said study co-author Robert Heilmayr, an associate professor at the University of California Santa Barbara in the U.S. He told Mongabay over email that the new research “complicates this narrative,” arguing that true self-determination only emerges when Indigenous communities define for themselves what land uses align with their needs and values. The study set out to understand how Indigenous land restitution in Biobío, Araucanía, Los Ríos and Los Lagos reshapes the environment. It did so by analyzing satellite and administrative data from 1,577 properties across 36 communities to compare land use and environmental outcomes before and after land restitution. Researchers focused on what happened after a Chilean land restitution program, known as the Chilean Indigenous Land and Water&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-land-back-in-chile-brings-mixed-bag-of-environmental-outcomes-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-329292</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Michael Painter put Indigenous land rights at the center of conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/michael-painter-put-indigenous-land-rights-at-the-center-of-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/michael-painter-put-indigenous-land-rights-at-the-center-of-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Sep 2026 22:12:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/03014353/mike-painter-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328252</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, Chaco, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Dry Forests, Ethics, Forests, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Obituary, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the Bolivian Chaco, the Isoceño Guaraní did not need conservationists to tell them that their land was under pressure. Agricultural settlement was pushing into the region, and their organization, the Capitanía de Alto y Bajo Izozog (CABI), had its own territorial aims. What outsiders could provide was scientific expertise, legal support, money, and access [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the Bolivian Chaco, the Isoceño Guaraní did not need conservationists to tell them that their land was under pressure. Agricultural settlement was pushing into the region, and their organization, the Capitanía de Alto y Bajo Izozog (CABI), had its own territorial aims. What outsiders could provide was scientific expertise, legal support, money, and access to institutions that could help turn those claims into recognized rights. Working with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), CABI developed the proposal for Kaa-Iya del Gran Chaco National Park, which Bolivia created in 1995. At 3.4 million hectares, it was enormous even by the standards of South American protected areas. CABI became its co-administrator. The partnership also helped develop a mechanism for securing Indigenous land under Bolivia’s agrarian reform law. It was used to title 273,000 hectares for the Ayoreode and 560,000 hectares for the Isoceño Guaraní, as well as land for 43 Chiquitano communities. WCS says the process helped establish precedents for Indigenous land titling elsewhere in Bolivia. Michael Painter arrived at WCS in 1997 to direct the Kaa-Iya project. For an ecological anthropologist, its implications were hard to miss. Conservation did not have to mean setting land aside and then persuading the people living around it to cooperate. Indigenous organizations could be conservation partners in their own right, with territorial goals, political interests, and knowledge of their own. A useful role for an organization such as WCS was sometimes to strengthen their ability to deal with governments, companies, donors, and conservationists themselves. Painter,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/michael-painter-put-indigenous-land-rights-at-the-center-of-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328252</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous groups renew legal challenge to Indonesian conservation law</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indigenous-groups-renew-legal-challenge-to-indonesian-conservation-law/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indigenous-groups-renew-legal-challenge-to-indonesian-conservation-law/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2026 01:20:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Yenni Kwok]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/12152721/Wanaparahita-Bali-Ardana-9-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326060</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Culture, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Reform, Land Rights, and Law]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indigenous groups in Indonesia have made a legal challenge to parts of a new conservation law. The groups say it could allow the government to designate their ancestral lands as conservation areas without their consent and threaten their land rights. The Coalition for Equitable Conservation, which comprises the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indigenous groups in Indonesia have made a legal challenge to parts of a new conservation law. The groups say it could allow the government to designate their ancestral lands as conservation areas without their consent and threaten their land rights. The Coalition for Equitable Conservation, which comprises the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), civil society groups and representatives of Indigenous and local communities, filed the lawsuit on July 8, 2026. The case seeks to overturn provisions of Indonesia’s 2024 conservation law that the groups say threaten the rights of communities living on ancestral lands, community-managed areas, coastal regions, small islands and conservation zones. The new petition follows the Constitutional Court&#8217;s rejection of a separate procedural challenge to the law in July 2025, prompting the coalition to pursue a substantive review of the disputed articles. During a hearing on Aug. 6, 2026, the Constitutional Court was due to hear arguments from the government and the House of Representatives (DPR), which drafted the 2024 law. However, Chief Justice Suhartoyo postponed the hearing until Aug. 24 after both the government and the parliament said they were not ready to present their positions. Indigenous peoples and local communities from the Coalition for Equitable Conservation file a judicial review of the 2024 conservation law at the Indonesian Constitutional Court in Jakarta on July 8, 2026. Image courtesy of AMAN. The petitioners expressed their disappointment with the delay. &#8220;The government and the DPR&#8217;s failure to present their statements before the Constitutional&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indigenous-groups-renew-legal-challenge-to-indonesian-conservation-law/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326060</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sacred places &#038; living lands: How Indigenous Sámi peoples steward biodiversity (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/sacred-places-living-lands-how-indigenous-sami-peoples-steward-biodiversity-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/sacred-places-living-lands-how-indigenous-sami-peoples-steward-biodiversity-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Aug 2026 17:00:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Emil Siekkinen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/20210251/42563317632_160197344f_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325594</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, Finland, Global, Norway, and Sweden]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Culture, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Religions, Sustainability, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Modern conservation is often traced to the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in the U.S. in 1872. In Sweden, a similar milestone came with the founding of Sarek National Park in 1909, partly intended to protect the endangered brown bear of the far north. Yet, long before states established national parks and environmental agencies, people [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Modern conservation is often traced to the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in the U.S. in 1872. In Sweden, a similar milestone came with the founding of Sarek National Park in 1909, partly intended to protect the endangered brown bear of the far north. Yet, long before states established national parks and environmental agencies, people across the world protected landscapes through religion, customary law, and Indigenous stewardship. In Japan, Shinto shrine forests have been preserved for centuries. In India, villagers continue to maintain sacred groves. Ethiopia’s churches and monasteries are often encircled by protected forests, while parts of rural Italy still contain sacred landscapes rooted in traditions older than Christianity itself. Some are associated with Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and ecology; others may descend from sites once dedicated to Jupiter. A growing body of research suggests that such places have often functioned — intentionally or otherwise — as informal systems of conservation. In 2021, the researcher Piero Zannini and his colleagues published a systematic review of sacred natural sites and biodiversity conservation. Examining studies from around the world, they found that sacred natural sites frequently contained greater biodiversity, more intact vegetation, and better-preserved ecosystems than surrounding landscapes. Sacred places, they argued, often operate as effective forms of conservation grounded not in state bureaucracy or scientific management, but in cosmology, ritual, and local tradition. Sami people in Enontekiö, Finland, at the summit of Saana Fell, which they consider sacred. Image by Ninara via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/sacred-places-living-lands-how-indigenous-sami-peoples-steward-biodiversity-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/sacred-places-living-lands-how-indigenous-sami-peoples-steward-biodiversity-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325594</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Land records reveal how Mennonites are reshaping Belize’s forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/land-records-reveal-how-mennonites-are-reshaping-belizes-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/land-records-reveal-how-mennonites-are-reshaping-belizes-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2026 18:45:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/31152733/1-FEATURE--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324951</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize and Central America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Cattle, Conservation, Crops, Culture, Encroachment, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Farming, Food, Forest Fragmentation, Forests, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Land Rights, Livestock, Monocultures, Plantations, Politics, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Ranching, Regulations, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SPANISH LOOKOUT, Belize — When the Mennonite community here purchased a property four years ago in the middle of the Maya Forest Corridor, a government-recognized stretch of land designed to connect forests in the region, conservation groups were concerned. Community members began clearing land before completing an environmental impact assessment, resulting in fires and pollution, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SPANISH LOOKOUT, Belize — When the Mennonite community here purchased a property four years ago in the middle of the Maya Forest Corridor, a government-recognized stretch of land designed to connect forests in the region, conservation groups were concerned. Community members began clearing land before completing an environmental impact assessment, resulting in fires and pollution, according to one report. In addition, Mennonites beat a conservation coalition that had also wanted to purchase the land for the corridor. The battle for that piece of real estate is just one example of how Mennonites conduct business in Belize, and how those moves have led to extensive deforestation. The small Central American country, flanked by Mexico, Guatemala and the Caribbean Sea, is about the size of the U.S. state of New Jersey, but its dense jungle is now much smaller than it once was. The nation lost around 20% of its forest cover between 2001 and 2025 — more than 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres), similar to the U.S. state of Rhode Island. Much of the deforestation in Belize has been tied to Mennonites, the conservative and largely insular Christian denomination that began migrating to Belize more than six decades ago, cutting down the rainforest to establish new colonies. While reports documenting Mennonites and deforestation are common, far less understood is the corporate machinery they’ve put in place for this expansion. Mongabay conducted extensive interviews and reviewed dozens of land records to better understand the way Mennonites became one of the most prolific land&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/land-records-reveal-how-mennonites-are-reshaping-belizes-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/land-records-reveal-how-mennonites-are-reshaping-belizes-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324951</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Palm oil expansion reignites decade-old Indigenous land conflict in Indonesia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/palm-oil-expansion-reignites-decade-old-indigenous-land-conflict-in-indonesia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/palm-oil-expansion-reignites-decade-old-indigenous-land-conflict-in-indonesia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2026 03:49:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas JongNiken D. Sitoningrum]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/31032649/image-32-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325017</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Business, Conflict, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Crops, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Palm Oil, Rainforest Destruction, Social Conflict, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Two palm oil companies embroiled in a long-running land dispute with an Indigenous community in Indonesian Borneo have resumed the clearing of rainforest and other land to expand their plantations for the first time in more than a decade. In June 2025, the Indigenous Dayak Benuaq community of Muara Tae reported that the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Two palm oil companies embroiled in a long-running land dispute with an Indigenous community in Indonesian Borneo have resumed the clearing of rainforest and other land to expand their plantations for the first time in more than a decade. In June 2025, the Indigenous Dayak Benuaq community of Muara Tae reported that the two companies — PT Borneo Surya Mining Jaya (BSMJ), owned by Singapore-listed First Resources, and PT Munte Waniq Jaya Perkasa (MWJP), a subsidiary of Malaysia-owned TSH Resources — had restarted land clearing and evictions in what the community says is its ancestral territory. The latest activities mark a new chapter in one of Indonesia&#8217;s highest-profile land conflicts involving the palm oil industry, which Mongabay covered in an in-depth report in 2015. Eviction activity using heavy equipment by PT BSMJ as of 2 June 2026 (c) Kaoem Telapak The dispute dates back to 2011-2012, when BSMJ and MWJP began bulldozing rainforest in an area claimed by Muara Tae, a village in West Kutai district, East Kalimantan province. The companies say they bought leasehold rights from residents of Muara Ponak, a village next to Muara Tae. But Muara Tae has contended the companies colluded with individuals in Muara Ponak who fraudulently signed away hundreds of hectares of Muara Tae’s communally held land, in exchange for hundreds of millions of rupiah in compensation. The district government facilitated the transactions by redrawing the Tae-Ponak border, increasing the latter’s territory at the expense of the former. The district chief at&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/palm-oil-expansion-reignites-decade-old-indigenous-land-conflict-in-indonesia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/palm-oil-expansion-reignites-decade-old-indigenous-land-conflict-in-indonesia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325017</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous Parakanã fear election U-turn may spark new invasions in Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/indigenous-parakana-fear-election-u-turn-may-spark-new-invasions-in-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/indigenous-parakana-fear-election-u-turn-may-spark-new-invasions-in-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2026 19:08:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/28112147/1.-Bruno-Peres_Agencia-Brasil_2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324673</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Law, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Expelled loggers hope for a political shift to reclaim Indigenous land like bacteria adapting to an antibiotic.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For years, the Parakanã Indigenous people were restricted to less than a third of their territory, isolated in the middle of a vast pasture area occupied by around 100,000 heads of cattle. Illegal gold mining, illegal logging and land grabbing also proliferated inside their land, the Apyterewa Indigenous land, located in Brazil’s River Xingu basin, in Pará state. ​“It is historically the most deforested Indigenous territory in Brazil, and perhaps in the world,” said Wallace Lopes, an environmental analyst in Brazil&#8217;s federal environmental agency, IBAMA. ​The peak of deforestation happened amid the administration of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), who dismantled the country&#8217;s environmental enforcement. In 2022, an area nearly the size of Paris (102.23 kilometers squared or 25,261 acres) was cleared inside the Apyterewa land, according to Brazil&#8217;s space agency, INPE. ​“It was a massive deforestation,” Wenatoa Parakanã, the president of the Tato’á Association, which represents the Parakanã, told Mongabay. “All we can see now is pasture.” The invaders were estimated at 3,000 individuals, more than four times the Indigenous population (730). After two failed attempts by previous administrations to remove the intruders in 2013 and 2017, they felt confident enough to build a small village inside the Indigenous land, with two gas stations, bars, churches and even a school. The task force in Apyterewa Indigenous land to remove invaders counted on the support of Brazil’s Federal Police, Army and the National Force. Image by the Indigenous People Ministry (MPI). Things started to change in 2023, when leftist President&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/indigenous-parakana-fear-election-u-turn-may-spark-new-invasions-in-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/indigenous-parakana-fear-election-u-turn-may-spark-new-invasions-in-brazil/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324673</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Khuiusi Khisêtjê helped his people recover their land and future in the Xingu</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/khuiusi-khisetje-helped-his-people-recover-their-land-and-future-in-the-xingu/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/khuiusi-khisetje-helped-his-people-recover-their-land-and-future-in-the-xingu/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2026 17:37:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/24173326/Khuiusi-Khisetje-Christian-Braga-ISA-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324519</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Obituary, Rainforests, and Soy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The plane sprayed the soy fields beside the forest. Residents of Khikatxi said the single-engine aircraft appeared several times during each harvest and passed over Wawi Indigenous Territory. They worried about pesticides reaching their water, gardens, animals, and homes. For years, Khuiusi Khisêtjê watched the farms advance around his people’s land. In 2018 he made [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The plane sprayed the soy fields beside the forest. Residents of Khikatxi said the single-engine aircraft appeared several times during each harvest and passed over Wawi Indigenous Territory. They worried about pesticides reaching their water, gardens, animals, and homes. For years, Khuiusi Khisêtjê watched the farms advance around his people’s land. In 2018 he made a decision.. The community would rebuild its village ten kilometers deeper in the forest. Leaving a village is difficult. Houses must be rebuilt, paths cleared, gardens planted, and daily routines restored. The old place contained years of work and memory. Khuiusi Khisêtjê had already lived through several such upheavals. He knew what was lost when people were forced from their land. He also knew when it had become unsafe to remain. The move took the Khisêtjê farther from the expanding agricultural frontier. It was one more decision in a life devoted to the survival of his people. Khuiusi, who died in Goiânia on July 3rd, at about 80, belonged to a generation that saw the Khisêtjê come close to extinction. He was born when his people still lived beyond the settled frontiers of central Brazil. Their villages lay among rivers, forest, and savanna in a region that would later form part of the Xingu Indigenous Territory and the adjoining Wawi Indigenous Territory in Mato Grosso. Contact with outsiders brought disease, violence, and displacement. Epidemics killed older people who held knowledge of the land, ceremonies, songs, and family histories. Khuiusi lost his father and many of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/khuiusi-khisetje-helped-his-people-recover-their-land-and-future-in-the-xingu/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/khuiusi-khisetje-helped-his-people-recover-their-land-and-future-in-the-xingu/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324519</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fossil fuel-based mega projects displace locals in Bangladesh, pushing youth out</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fossil-fuel-based-mega-projects-displace-locals-in-bangladesh-pushing-youth-out/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fossil-fuel-based-mega-projects-displace-locals-in-bangladesh-pushing-youth-out/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jul 2026 13:07:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Eyamin Sajid]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/13123859/Matarbari-coal-power-plant04-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323215</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Coal, Coastal Ecosystems, Developing Countries, Development, Economics, Energy, Environment, Fisheries, Fishing, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Land Rights, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Eid is usually a day of laughter and joy for most people in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation of 170 million in South Asia. But for Muhammad Gura Miya, it became a day of sadness and mourning after his only son left home on Eid in 2025 and never returned. Gura Miya, a 65-year-old resident of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Eid is usually a day of laughter and joy for most people in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation of 170 million in South Asia. But for Muhammad Gura Miya, it became a day of sadness and mourning after his only son left home on Eid in 2025 and never returned. Gura Miya, a 65-year-old resident of Maheshkhali sub-district of Bangladesh’s southeastern coastal district Cox’s Bazar, now spends his days in distress over the loss of his son. “He was my only hope and support. I don’t know where he is, or whether he is alive or dead,” Miya said. Miya is not alone. Mongabay spoke with dozens of families whose sons or household heads are missing or dead after attempting to migrate to Malaysia for work. On April 14, 2026, a small boat carrying around 250 people, including Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingya refugees, capsized in the Andaman Sea while en route to Malaysia. Only nine people were rescued; the rest remain missing. Young, unskilled people in this coastal area are risking illegal migration across the Bay of Bengal in small boats as fossil fuel projects, ports and petrochemical complexes threaten their ancestral livelihoods. A study on irregular migration from Bangladesh to Malaysia through the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea found that Cox’s Bazar has become a new hub for human trafficking to Malaysia. Construction of Matarbari deep sea port. Image by Muhammad Mostafigur Rahman. A ship at the construction of Matarbari deep sea port. Image by Muhammad Mostafigur Rahman.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fossil-fuel-based-mega-projects-displace-locals-in-bangladesh-pushing-youth-out/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323215</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New Indonesia roadmap aims to protect Indigenous knowledge for biodiversity</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/new-indonesia-roadmap-aims-to-protect-indigenous-knowledge-for-biodiversity/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/new-indonesia-roadmap-aims-to-protect-indigenous-knowledge-for-biodiversity/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jul 2026 03:12:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/13105611/Penjaga-laut-kaombo-samuruu-kredit_-SIEJ-JPG-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322302</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[30x30 conservation target, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Ecosystems, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Law, Protected Areas, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government is developing a roadmap to protect local wisdom in biodiversity conservation, a move aimed at strengthening the recognition and protection of Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) whose traditional practices have long safeguarded some of the country&#8217;s richest ecosystems. The roadmap, the drafting of which began in June 2026, comes [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government is developing a roadmap to protect local wisdom in biodiversity conservation, a move aimed at strengthening the recognition and protection of Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) whose traditional practices have long safeguarded some of the country&#8217;s richest ecosystems. The roadmap, the drafting of which began in June 2026, comes as Indonesia seeks to implement its commitments under the multilateral treaty Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF). The KM-GBF is a global agreement adopted in 2022 that recognizes the important role of Indigenous peoples and local communities in achieving biodiversity conservation. One of the framework&#8217;s targets, known as target &#8220;30&#215;30,&#8221; calls for conserving 30% of the world&#8217;s land and sea by 2030 while respecting the rights, territories and knowledge of Indigenous peoples. Indonesia is one of the world&#8217;s most biodiverse countries, harboring some of the planet&#8217;s highest levels of species richness and endemism. It is also home to an estimated 50 million to 70 million Indigenous people, or around one-fifth of the country&#8217;s population. Many of these communities inhabit forests, coasts and other ecosystems with exceptional biodiversity. According to the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples&#8217; and Community Conserved Areas and Territories Indonesia (WGII), a coalition of NGOs documenting community conservation, its spatial analysis identified more than 29 million hectares (71.6 million acres) of Indigenous territories and community-managed areas with the potential to qualify as Indigenous Peoples&#8217; and Community Conserved Areas and Territories (ICCAs). Nearly 70% of these areas overlap&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/new-indonesia-roadmap-aims-to-protect-indigenous-knowledge-for-biodiversity/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/new-indonesia-roadmap-aims-to-protect-indigenous-knowledge-for-biodiversity/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322302</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deforestation is just a symptom. The disease is de-governance (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/deforestation-is-just-a-symptom-the-disease-is-de-governance-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/deforestation-is-just-a-symptom-the-disease-is-de-governance-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 15:38:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ambrosius Ruwindrijarto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/28002821/brunei_251114141317_0047z-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321618</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For decades, deforestation has been treated as the central problem. It’s measured in hectares lost, monitored through satellites, and addressed through conservation programs, carbon mechanisms, and development interventions. Yet despite billions of dollars invested, forests continue to decline. What if we have been diagnosing it wrong? Deforestation is not the disease. It is a symptom. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For decades, deforestation has been treated as the central problem. It’s measured in hectares lost, monitored through satellites, and addressed through conservation programs, carbon mechanisms, and development interventions. Yet despite billions of dollars invested, forests continue to decline. What if we have been diagnosing it wrong? Deforestation is not the disease. It is a symptom. The deeper problem is the erosion of governance over territory, over resources, and ultimately, over the future itself. To see this more clearly, it helps to begin not with global statistics, but with a people and place, like Namblong, in Indonesian Papua, an Indigenous territory spanning more than 52,000 hectares (128,500 acres) that’s governed by a tribe of 44 clans. Around 42,000 hectares (almost 104,000 acres) remain forested as a living landscape shaped by generations of customary governance. When oil palm concessions entered this territory with legal permits, a fundamental question emerged: Who decides the future of this forest? Is it the company holding the concession, the government that issued it, or the Indigenous community whose identity and survival are inseparable from the land? Deforestation outside of Manokwari, West Papua, Indonesia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. This question points to a broader reality. Across Indonesia, and much of the world, Indigenous territories have been systematically stripped of effective governance. They are treated as empty land available for extraction or intervention. Concessions are issued, projects are introduced, and external solutions are layered onto landscapes that already have their own systems of authority Even well-intentioned efforts often&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/deforestation-is-just-a-symptom-the-disease-is-de-governance-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/deforestation-is-just-a-symptom-the-disease-is-de-governance-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321618</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Illegal miners adapt their strategies in Yanomami Amazon territory</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/illegal-miners-adapt-their-strategies-in-yanomami-amazon-territory/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/illegal-miners-adapt-their-strategies-in-yanomami-amazon-territory/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jun 2026 21:29:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rubens Valente]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/12213126/06_rio_garimpo_yanomami-fernando_frazao-agencia_brasil-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321083</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Forests, Gold Mining, Governance, Health, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Mining, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BRASÍLIA — Illegal miners have adapted their tactics in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory as Brazilian authorities seek to remove all the illegal occupants from the Amazon land, according to a recent report. Since a peak in illegal mining in 2022, there have been &#8220;significant and successive reductions&#8221; in the rainforest from 2023 to 2025,  researchers [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BRASÍLIA — Illegal miners have adapted their tactics in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory as Brazilian authorities seek to remove all the illegal occupants from the Amazon land, according to a recent report. Since a peak in illegal mining in 2022, there have been &#8220;significant and successive reductions&#8221; in the rainforest from 2023 to 2025,  researchers using satellite imagery found. However, &#8220;mining activity was not completely eradicated,&#8221; as miners change how they operate, decentralize and move to borders. Sources also raise concerns about the health of isolated Indigenous people, who are at risk of the spread of malaria linked to illegal mining. In 2024 and 2025, mining impacted 129 hectares (318.7 acres) of land, down from about 1,800 hectares (4,448 acres) in 2022. The report, conducted by the NGO Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) and Amazon Conservation, said the steep decline is a reflection of the operations initiated by the Brazilian government in 2023, when president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva came to power and declared a health emergency due to widespread disease and mercury contamination in rivers from mining. “Illegal mining activity, the invaders, continue on Yanomami land, but the rest have already been expelled,”  Dário Kopenawa Yanomami, vice-president of HAY (the Hutukara Yanomami Association) and son of Davi Kopenawa, a spokesman for the Yanomami people, told Mongabay. “The government has carried out many operations, but other invaders, miners, are difficult to remove. They remain in some specific locations, such as border areas with Guyana and Venezuela. These miners who are on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/illegal-miners-adapt-their-strategies-in-yanomami-amazon-territory/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/illegal-miners-adapt-their-strategies-in-yanomami-amazon-territory/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321083</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A blueprint for effective activism 10 years after defeating a dam in Borneo (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-blueprint-for-effective-activism-10-years-after-defeating-a-dam-in-borneo-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-blueprint-for-effective-activism-10-years-after-defeating-a-dam-in-borneo-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jun 2026 18:59:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jessica MerrimanJoe Lamb]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/09193920/Baram-dam-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320891</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Analysis, Commentary, Community Development, Conservation, Dams, Development, Ecosystems, Energy, Environment, Forests, Freshwater, Governance, Human Rights, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Rivers, Tropical Forests, and Tropics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In October 2015, Indigenous activists from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Brazil, the United States, and Honduras, together with delegates from longhouse communities throughout the Malaysian state of Sarawak, gathered at Tanjung Tepalit, an Indigenous Kenyah village on the Baram River on the island of Borneo. They called the gathering WISER: the World Indigenous Summit [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In October 2015, Indigenous activists from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Brazil, the United States, and Honduras, together with delegates from longhouse communities throughout the Malaysian state of Sarawak, gathered at Tanjung Tepalit, an Indigenous Kenyah village on the Baram River on the island of Borneo. They called the gathering WISER: the World Indigenous Summit on Environment and Rivers. Tanjung Tepalit hosted the gathering because the village, along with more than two dozen others along the river, was scheduled to be drowned. The Baram Dam, a 1,200-megawatt hydroelectric mega project backed by the Sarawak state government and aligned with a regional industrial development scheme called the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), would have flooded an area of more than 400 square kilometers (more than 150 square miles) and displaced an estimated 20,000 Kenyah, Kayan, and Penan people. Muslims, Catholics, Evangelicals, Buddhists, agnostics, and people who followed traditional Indigenous religions were among the attendees. As we gathered, Peter Kallang, the Kenyah founder and chair of the local advocacy group SAVE Rivers, addressed the assembly: &#8220;We are people of many faiths,&#8221; he said, &#8220;but we are united in one mission. To protect our forest homes and our ways of life.&#8221; In one sense the WISER gathering was a strategy meeting to coordinate an international coalition against a state-corporate project. In another, and perhaps deeper sense, WISER was rooted in something older. It was an assertion that the values that hold communities to their land across generations — the sanctity of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-blueprint-for-effective-activism-10-years-after-defeating-a-dam-in-borneo-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320891</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>U.S. defense spending on critical minerals surges in the last decade</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/us-defense-spending-on-critical-minerals-surges-in-the-last-decade/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/us-defense-spending-on-critical-minerals-surges-in-the-last-decade/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jun 2026 00:27:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/09124419/4-Wild-horses-gallop-on-the-Fort-McDermitt-Paiute-Shoshone-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320809</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Critical Minerals, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Finance, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industry, Land Rights, Military, Mining, Mongabay investigation, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past decade, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) spending for critical minerals transformed from virtually nonexistent into a major revenue stream, with the last five years delivering a dramatic surge in both contract volume and dollar value. The Pentagon and other defense-adjacent agencies&#8217; growing appetite for these projects is already visible in affected [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past decade, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) spending for critical minerals transformed from virtually nonexistent into a major revenue stream, with the last five years delivering a dramatic surge in both contract volume and dollar value. The Pentagon and other defense-adjacent agencies&#8217; growing appetite for these projects is already visible in affected communities. Several of these communities impacted by DoD-funded projects told Mongabay that state backing has fast-tracked approvals without essential environmental safeguards or meaningful consultation by companies. For this research, Mongabay aggregated information from the USAspending database — an official open data source of federal spending information — about U.S. Department of Defense grants spending on critical mineral projects for military purposes between 2015 and 2025. This figure excludes Pentagon contracts, which is a major way that the Department of Defense (DoD) spends its money. The actual amount is likely larger given that some projects may not be public due to national security reasons, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). We decided to focus only on grants, as other types of contracts are generally non-binding and do not guarantee federal spending. Mongabay found that the federal agency provided an estimated $621 million on grants for critical mineral projects for defense purposes over the period, according to the USAspending database. Between 2021 and 2025, the DoD secured 24 agreements worth nearly $550 million (549.7 million) — up from just $31.3 million for three contracts in the previous five-year period. It poured the most funding into lithium&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/us-defense-spending-on-critical-minerals-surges-in-the-last-decade/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/us-defense-spending-on-critical-minerals-surges-in-the-last-decade/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320809</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Peru and Brazil, extractivism threatens Indigenous people in isolation: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-peru-and-brazil-extractivism-threatens-indigenous-people-in-isolation-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-peru-and-brazil-extractivism-threatens-indigenous-people-in-isolation-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jun 2026 21:58:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/18170846/6-Yavari-Tapiche-Territorial-Corridor-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320678</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, extractives, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, Land Rights, Mining, Oil Drilling, Protected Areas, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact (PIACI) in the Yavarí-Tapiche Territorial Corridor, one of the largest contiguous, intact forests in the Amazon and home to the world’s highest concentrations of PIACI, are under threat by extractive and large-scale industrial activities, which pose an existential threat to its inhabitants and the ecosystems they depend [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact (PIACI) in the Yavarí-Tapiche Territorial Corridor, one of the largest contiguous, intact forests in the Amazon and home to the world’s highest concentrations of PIACI, are under threat by extractive and large-scale industrial activities, which pose an existential threat to its inhabitants and the ecosystems they depend on. This is according to a new report co-authored by Earth Insight, the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the East (ORPIO), the Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB) and the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP). The report finds that oil and gas blocks overlap with 10% of the 16-million-hectare (39.5-million-acre) corridor, including almost 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) of intact tropical moist forest, 907,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) of Key Biodiversity Areas and 713,000 hectares (1.8 million acres) of protected areas. “Pressure from hydrocarbons is increasing on the Peruvian side of the Yavarí Tapiche corridor,” Edith Espejo, senior program manager at Earth Insight and author of the report, told Mongabay over WhatsApp messages. “Our report serves as a warning for the irreversible harm that could take place if these oil blocks move into this corridor. Mining concessions within and on the peripheries of the corridor also pose a threat of encroachment and contamination of waterways.” A critical corridor for ecosystems and Indigenous communities The Yavarí-Tapiche Corridor covers Brazil’s western border states of Amazonas and Acre and Peru’s Loreto and Ucayali departments in the Amazon&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-peru-and-brazil-extractivism-threatens-indigenous-people-in-isolation-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-peru-and-brazil-extractivism-threatens-indigenous-people-in-isolation-report/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320678</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rights groups renew call to free jailed Cambodian environmental activists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rights-groups-renew-call-to-free-jailed-cambodian-environmental-activists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rights-groups-renew-call-to-free-jailed-cambodian-environmental-activists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jun 2026 02:51:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/02191933/Phuon-Keorasmey-another-prominent-figure-of-Mother-Nature-Cambodia-is-arrested-on-July-2-2024_banner-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320620</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Climate Change, Community Development, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corruption, Crime, Deforestation, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Governance, Human Rights, Land Rights, Mining, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Seven hundred days after activists from the environmental group Mother Nature Cambodia were imprisoned on charges widely regarded as retaliatory for their activism, 73 international and Cambodian civil society organizations have renewed calls for their unconditional release. After a trial lasting just over a month, 10 activists from Mother Nature Cambodia were sentenced [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Seven hundred days after activists from the environmental group Mother Nature Cambodia were imprisoned on charges widely regarded as retaliatory for their activism, 73 international and Cambodian civil society organizations have renewed calls for their unconditional release. After a trial lasting just over a month, 10 activists from Mother Nature Cambodia were sentenced on July 2, 2024, to between six and eight years in prison. Only five of the defendants attended the hearings, which saw Long Kuntha, 28, Ly Chandaravuth, 26, Phuon Keoraksmey, 25, and Thun Ratha, 34, each sentenced to six years behind bars for plotting against the government; fellow activist Yim Leanghy, 36, received an eight-year sentence for both plotting against the government and insulting the king. The five activists who did not attend the trial were sentenced in absentia. The appeals hearing for all 10 convicted activists was slated to take place on June 2, but has been postponed indefinitely by the Phnom Penh Court of Appeals. “The MNC5 are incarcerated in prisons in overcrowded and harsh living conditions, separated from each other and spread out all across Cambodia, hundreds of kilometers away from their families and legal counsel,” wrote the 73 NGOs in an open letter addressed to Prime Minister Hun Manet. “The … NGOs who have signed this letter sincerely request you take immediate action to ensure the unjust convictions of these five activists are reversed either prior to or at their upcoming appeals court hearing in Phnom Penh, and that their freedom&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rights-groups-renew-call-to-free-jailed-cambodian-environmental-activists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320620</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>It&#8217;s time to engage Mennonite communities in reducing deforestation across Latin America (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jun 2026 21:16:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/08174714/CH_20220608_0015-Edit-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320555</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Analysis, Avoided Deforestation, Commentary, Community Development, Deforestation, Development, Forests, Governance, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Rainforests, Religions, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the global debate over tropical deforestation, the usual cast of villains is well established: agribusiness, global supply chains, cattle ranchers, and governments granting land concessions for political support. One actor rarely appears in this narrative yet has played a consequential role in transforming the South American lowland frontier: The Mennonite agricultural colonist. For more [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the global debate over tropical deforestation, the usual cast of villains is well established: agribusiness, global supply chains, cattle ranchers, and governments granting land concessions for political support. One actor rarely appears in this narrative yet has played a consequential role in transforming the South American lowland frontier: The Mennonite agricultural colonist. For more than five decades, Mennonite communities have functioned as systematic agents of agricultural frontier expansion in the Gran Chaco and Andean Amazon, methodically clearing forests, draining wetlands, and catalyzing waves of deforestation that extend far beyond any individual colony. Mennonite communities operate within the law. They purchase land through formal channels, build permanent communities, and transfer agronomic knowledge to surrounding populations. Their values emphasize hard work, communal solidarity, and a theological relationship to land as stewardship. None of this changes the ecological outcome: Wherever a Mennonite colony is established, forests fall. Faith, mobility and colony formation Mennonites are an Anabaptist denomination rooted in the 16-century Reformation, distinguished by pacifism, communal life, and cultural separation from mainstream society. Conservative congregations — whose ancestors moved from Russia to Canada, then to Mexico, Belize and South America — are organized around a local congregation that functions simultaneously as a religious community, governance structure, credit cooperative and social welfare system. When a colony is established, it is an orderly community with collective decision-making, shared infrastructure, and a coherent plan for the future. Forest being cut, burned, and prepared by a Mennonite colony before planting crops. Image courtesy of Mario Silvero.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320555</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Legal protections for Brazil’s isolated Indigenous peoples: Interview with prosecutor Daniel Luís Dalberto</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/legal-protections-for-brazils-isolated-indigenous-peoples-interview-with-prosecutor-daniel-luis-dalberto/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/legal-protections-for-brazils-isolated-indigenous-peoples-interview-with-prosecutor-daniel-luis-dalberto/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jun 2026 13:21:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/03125631/1-Tawaya-Village-of-the-Matis-people-in-Javari-Valley-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320530</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Land Rights, Law, Rainforests, and Saving Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The year 2011 marked the first time a land-use restriction order was enforced for the Ituna/Itatá Indigenous Territory, a swath of Brazilian Amazon roughly twice the size of Singapore and home to people living in voluntary isolation. The order was meant to protect the latter by prohibiting unauthorized individuals from entering — but rates of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The year 2011 marked the first time a land-use restriction order was enforced for the Ituna/Itatá Indigenous Territory, a swath of Brazilian Amazon roughly twice the size of Singapore and home to people living in voluntary isolation. The order was meant to protect the latter by prohibiting unauthorized individuals from entering — but rates of forest loss and invasions grew. In 2019, Ituna/Itatá was one of the Indigenous territories with the highest forest loss, primarily due to illegal land grabbers. In Brazil, land-use restriction orders exist to protect isolated Indigenous peoples and are a temporary tool in cases where the demarcation process to formalize the protected status and boundaries of Indigenous territories are not yet complete. But as recent Mongabay reporting has shown, they’re often renewed many times over for years while the formal land titling stalls, and aren’t always effective at protecting isolated peoples’ lands from invaders. Following one of the latest land-use restriction orders in 2022 for the Ituna/Itatá territory, the area lost 2,211 hectares (5,464 acres) of tree cover, or about 1.5% of its total area, according to satellite analysis by Mongabay. The most recent renewal was in 2025. Brazilian federal public prosecutor Daniel Luís Dalberto, head of the office for recently contacted Indigenous peoples and those living in voluntary isolation, told Mongabay in a recent interview that while the legal measure is important, it should have “a short time frame, until the Indigenous territory is demarcated as quickly as possible,” and should be accompanied by other&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/legal-protections-for-brazils-isolated-indigenous-peoples-interview-with-prosecutor-daniel-luis-dalberto/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/legal-protections-for-brazils-isolated-indigenous-peoples-interview-with-prosecutor-daniel-luis-dalberto/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320530</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brooklyn Rivera, defender of Nicaragua’s Indigenous lands, dies in detention</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2026 16:19:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/01190642/Brooklyn-Rivera-La-Prensa-1600x900-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320434</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, Mesoamerica, and Nicaragua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Endangered Environmentalists, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, and Obituary]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[La Moskitia, on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, is often treated in Managua as a frontier: timber, gold, cattle, rivers, votes, and military concern. To the Miskitu, Sumu-Mayangna, Rama, Garífuna, and Creole peoples who live there, it is older than the Nicaraguan state. Its forests, savannas, rivers, and marine life are part of a political claim as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[La Moskitia, on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, is often treated in Managua as a frontier: timber, gold, cattle, rivers, votes, and military concern. To the Miskitu, Sumu-Mayangna, Rama, Garífuna, and Creole peoples who live there, it is older than the Nicaraguan state. Its forests, savannas, rivers, and marine life are part of a political claim as well as a homeland. The demand has long been plain enough: land, autonomy, and a say over what happens there. Brooklyn Rivera Bryan spent most of his life carrying that demand into war, negotiation, electoral politics, exile, and prison. Known in Miskitu communities as Taupla Brooklyn, he died on May 30th, aged 73, in the custody of Daniel Ortega’s government. He had been detained since September 2023. For months the government denied holding him. It later acknowledged his imprisonment. No public trial was held. His family was denied visits. His public life began after the Sandinista revolution of 1979, when the new government sought to draw the Atlantic Coast into a national project directed from the Pacific. The Miskitu experience of that project was marked by surveillance, arrests, violence, and forced displacement. In 1981 Rivera was arrested while leading Misurasata, an Indigenous organization whose name linked the Miskitu, Sumu, Rama, and Sandinistas. By 1982, thousands of Miskitu had been moved from villages along the Río Coco. Many fled to Honduras. Rivera’s cause was narrower and more durable than the Cold War frame around him: an autonomous Indigenous territory in Yapti Tasba, the aboriginal homeland. That&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320434</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Same dangerous project’: Fury after Indonesia revives disputed mine</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/same-dangerous-project-fury-after-indonesia-revives-disputed-mine/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/same-dangerous-project-fury-after-indonesia-revives-disputed-mine/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 May 2026 06:04:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/25160257/AKSI-WARGA-DAIRI-MENOLAK-TAMBANG-5-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319967</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conflict, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Disasters, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mining, Pollution, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s environment ministry has issued a new approval for a controversial zinc and lead mine in an earthquake-prone region of Sumatra Island, less than a year after a Supreme Court ruling forced it to rescind its earlier approval. Critics of the project have slammed the U-turn, pointing out that nothing has fundamentally changed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s environment ministry has issued a new approval for a controversial zinc and lead mine in an earthquake-prone region of Sumatra Island, less than a year after a Supreme Court ruling forced it to rescind its earlier approval. Critics of the project have slammed the U-turn, pointing out that nothing has fundamentally changed in that time. The new approval was issued for an environmental impact assessment that updates the previous assessment produced by PT Dairi Prima Mineral (DPM) for the mine in Dairi district, North Sumatra province. That earlier impact assessment, known as an Amdal in Indonesian, was faulted by nearby residents and experts for a plan to hold mining waste sludge behind a dam — a recipe for disaster, they contended, in a highly earth-quake prone region. The updated Amdal does away with the proposed permanent tailings dam, and instead proposes mixing the mining waste with cement and water and injecting it into mined-out voids underground, a process known as cemented paste backfill. But residents who successfully petitioned Indonesia’s highest court to void the earlier Amdal say the new one changes nothing in terms of minimizing the risk that the mine and its waste will pose to nearby communities. “I am disgusted,” said 65-year-old Rainim Purba from Pandiangan village in Dairi. “DPM is only hiding the same dangerous project in slightly different packaging.” She said the Supreme Court ruling from 2024 was meant to ensure the mine didn’t get environmental approval. “So is the [environment] ministry not&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/same-dangerous-project-fury-after-indonesia-revives-disputed-mine/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/same-dangerous-project-fury-after-indonesia-revives-disputed-mine/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319967</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ecuador failing to end Yasuní oil drilling: Interview with Waorani leader Juan Bay</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ecuador-failing-to-end-yasuni-oil-drilling-interview-with-waorani-leader-juan-bay/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ecuador-failing-to-end-yasuni-oil-drilling-interview-with-waorani-leader-juan-bay/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 May 2026 14:23:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/13134716/21303977088_8474f7875c_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319326</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Interviews, Land Rights, Mining, Oil, Oil Drilling, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2023, Ecuadorians voted for a binding referendum to end oil drilling in the 43-ITT oil block in Yasuní National Park. In 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) echoed the call in a ruling for the Ecuadorian state to do more to protect uncontacted Indigenous peoples whose territories overlap with the park. But [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2023, Ecuadorians voted for a binding referendum to end oil drilling in the 43-ITT oil block in Yasuní National Park. In 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) echoed the call in a ruling for the Ecuadorian state to do more to protect uncontacted Indigenous peoples whose territories overlap with the park. But nearly three years since the referendum, and a year since the court ruling, the Ecuadorian government has still not closed the 43-ITT block. Juan Bay, the president of the Waorani Nation (NAWE), whose ancestral territory overlaps with the park, recently traveled to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in New York to denounce the lack of progress and express his frustrations with the state. The Aug. 20, 2023, referendum saw the majority of voters choose to halt all future oil drilling in Yasuní, which involved the closure of 43-ITT and the creation of a commission to oversee the implementation of the results. The government had one year to withdraw from the oil block, by August 2024, but there’s been little progress since then. Bay said only 10 out of 247 oil wells in the block have been shut down. “More than a year has passed [since the deadline] and the government is doing nothing to shut down that [operation] and leave the resource in the ground, which is the will of the Ecuadorian people,” Mariana Yumbay Yallico, a Waranka woman and member of Ecuador’s National Assembly, representing Bolívar province, told Mongabay at the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ecuador-failing-to-end-yasuni-oil-drilling-interview-with-waorani-leader-juan-bay/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ecuador-failing-to-end-yasuni-oil-drilling-interview-with-waorani-leader-juan-bay/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319326</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New data platform aims to reduce conflicts between First Nations and businesses in Canada</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/new-data-platform-aims-to-reduce-conflicts-between-first-nations-and-businesses-in-canada/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/new-data-platform-aims-to-reduce-conflicts-between-first-nations-and-businesses-in-canada/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 May 2026 22:28:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Olivia Ferrari]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/12182459/First-Nations-elders-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319228</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Conflict, Conservation, data, Environment, Environmental Law, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When Robert Jago’s brother-in-law, a local politician in Montreal, Canada, shared a photo on Facebook greeting Indigenous leaders, Jago said he immediately knew the leaders as frauds. “They were kind of a fake meetup band,” said Jago, whose podcast explores the phenomenon of groups pretending to be Indigenous. “People know so little, they get suckered [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Robert Jago’s brother-in-law, a local politician in Montreal, Canada, shared a photo on Facebook greeting Indigenous leaders, Jago said he immediately knew the leaders as frauds. “They were kind of a fake meetup band,” said Jago, whose podcast explores the phenomenon of groups pretending to be Indigenous. “People know so little, they get suckered in by fake bands.” Working in government relations for his own Kwantlen First Nation, Jago himself has encountered a fake band trying to convince local towns they were the only official First Nation in Kwantlen territory — even casting doubt on the authenticity of the Kwantlen themselves. “People in [the federal] government… didn’t know where to turn, or what information was authoritative,” Jago said. “They didn’t know [much] about First Nations.” He observed the same trend between businesses seeking to launch extractive projects ­— despite having consultants — and Indigenous communities. It’s one of the reasons why Jago founded KnowledgeKeepr, an Indigenous-led comprehensive data platform on every First Nation in Canada. The platform holds profiles on 638 First Nations across the country, including information on governance structure, chiefs’ contact information, legal records, financial statements, reserve and traditional land boundaries, and other public records. A goal of the platform, according to its creators, is to reduce conflicts between extractive industries and Indigenous peoples. In Canada, there are plans underway to expand extractive projects across the country — including with a series of critical mineral mining, clean energy and trade corridors in the Arctic region — which&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/new-data-platform-aims-to-reduce-conflicts-between-first-nations-and-businesses-in-canada/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/new-data-platform-aims-to-reduce-conflicts-between-first-nations-and-businesses-in-canada/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319228</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>EU deforestation law risks leaving Honduran coffee farmers behind</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/eu-deforestation-law-risks-leaving-honduran-coffee-farmers-behind/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/eu-deforestation-law-risks-leaving-honduran-coffee-farmers-behind/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2026 15:15:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Weiss]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/11150207/6-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319115</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, European Union, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Coffee, Commodity agriculture, Deforestation, EUDR, Farming, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, International Trade, Land Rights, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Reinerio Zepeda is 88 and for almost a century has made his living from arabica coffee, grown in the shade at his finca, or ranch, near Minas de Oro in central Honduras. “I love the peace up here, the trees and the birds,” he tells Mongabay by phone. Zepeda is one of the 98,000 coffee [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Reinerio Zepeda is 88 and for almost a century has made his living from arabica coffee, grown in the shade at his finca, or ranch, near Minas de Oro in central Honduras. “I love the peace up here, the trees and the birds,” he tells Mongabay by phone. Zepeda is one of the 98,000 coffee growers registered in the country, most of whom, according to recent data, own less than 3 hectares (7 acres) of land. Zepeda, like many of his neighbors, has been selling his coffee to intermediaries and is wondering what the next year will bring as he will need to meet several requirements to make his supply chain traceable. Starting January 2027, only farmers whose land wasn’t cleared after Dec. 31, 2020, will be able to send their commodities into the European Union, according to the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). “I have heard something on TV about Europe being concerned about deforestation, but nobody has showed up here to explain it to me,” says Zepeda, adding he’s more worried about falling prices than the bureaucracy in Brussels. “I haven’t cut trees; that would be crazy because I need them to produce my coffee. Everybody can come up here and check.” More than half of Honduras’s coffee exports end up in the EU, representing about 5% of the national GDP. Domestically, the coffee industry generates more jobs than any other sector (1.1 million) and brings in more foreign exchange than any other economic activity. Around 120,000 smallholder families make a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/eu-deforestation-law-risks-leaving-honduran-coffee-farmers-behind/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/eu-deforestation-law-risks-leaving-honduran-coffee-farmers-behind/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319115</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Crime affects 32% of Amazon Indigenous areas, says study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/crime-affects-32-of-amazon-indigenous-areas-says-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/crime-affects-32-of-amazon-indigenous-areas-says-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2026 13:00:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Yvette Sierra Praeli]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/11120818/Indigenous-communities-face-changes-to-their-ways-of-life-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319088</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Crime, Economics, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Logging, Mining, Organized Crime, Threats To Rainforests, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A report by advocacy group Amazon Watch highlights how deeply criminal activity and the militarized state responses that they’ve triggered have impacted Indigenous communities across much of the Amazon Rainforest. “The Amazon Under Siege: How Crime and Militarization Threaten Indigenous Peoples” looks at seven case studies in five countries: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Venezuela. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A report by advocacy group Amazon Watch highlights how deeply criminal activity and the militarized state responses that they’ve triggered have impacted Indigenous communities across much of the Amazon Rainforest. “The Amazon Under Siege: How Crime and Militarization Threaten Indigenous Peoples” looks at seven case studies in five countries: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Venezuela. It describes how illicit activities and state repression are transforming the ways of life and cultural habits of Indigenous peoples, as well as undermining their self-determination and collective rights. “Across the Amazon, activities such as illicit gold mining, drug trafficking, illegal logging, wildlife trafficking, fuel smuggling, and human trafficking increasingly operate as interconnected systems,” says the report, published in April. “These economies share routes, infrastructure, financing, and armed protection mechanisms, allowing criminal organizations to diversify income streams, reduce risks, and adapt rapidly to market fluctuations and government pressure.” Illegal mining destroys forests and affects Indigenous communities in the Amazon. Image courtesy of Amazon Watch. As a result of this spiral of violence, at least 296 environmental defenders have been killed in the Amazon since 2012, with Colombia and Brazil being the most dangerous nations for those who defend nature. The report says criminal networks already affect 67% of Amazonian municipalities and have subjected 32% of Indigenous territories to dispute among armed groups. The report also says that military-oriented state strategies and actions in response to organized crime have repeatedly failed. “The state’s response often makes things worse,” said co-author Raphael Hoetmer, director of the Western&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/crime-affects-32-of-amazon-indigenous-areas-says-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319088</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Paraguay expanded a reserve in the Gran Chaco. Why is deforestation still rising there?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/paraguay-expanded-a-reserve-in-the-gran-chaco-why-is-deforestation-still-rising-there/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/paraguay-expanded-a-reserve-in-the-gran-chaco-why-is-deforestation-still-rising-there/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2026 16:59:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/08165707/Foto-12-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318947</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Paraguay, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than a decade ago, officials in Paraguay expanded a biosphere reserve in the Gran Chaco, hoping to protect more of the world’s largest tropical dry forest and the Indigenous communities who live there. But a lack of enforcement has left the reserve vulnerable to deforestation caused by agribusiness and cattle ranching, observers say. Approximately [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More than a decade ago, officials in Paraguay expanded a biosphere reserve in the Gran Chaco, hoping to protect more of the world’s largest tropical dry forest and the Indigenous communities who live there. But a lack of enforcement has left the reserve vulnerable to deforestation caused by agribusiness and cattle ranching, observers say. Approximately 2.78 million hectares (6.87 million acres) were added to Paraguay’s Chaco Biosphere Reserve in 2011, yet the area continues to be one of the country’s worst hit by forest loss, according to satellite imagery analyzed by Mongabay. Indigenous groups say regulations are selectively upheld, allowing landowners to clear the forest. “In practice, the biosphere reserve hasn’t gone beyond being just a designation, a protection category, without actually advancing to a stage of regulation or stronger control over human activity,” said Miguel Ángel Alarcón, general coordinator of Iniciativa Amotocodie, a nonprofit that helps the Indigenous Ayoreo defend their forests in the Gran Chaco. The biome has some of the highest deforestation rates in the world, with around 5.2 million hectares (12.8 million acres) lost between 2000 and 2020. As the forest shrinks, Indigenous Ayoreo-Totobiegosode have struggled to maintain customs dependent on their voluntary isolation. They rely on the forest for food, shelter and medicine, and don’t have immunity to many outside diseases. “They live running from one place to another because they’re frightened of the loud noises of the machinery,” said Guei Basui Picanerai, secretary of the Guidai and Ducodegosode Ayoreo Association of Paraguay, which represents&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/paraguay-expanded-a-reserve-in-the-gran-chaco-why-is-deforestation-still-rising-there/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318947</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Despite restrictions, forest loss continued on Ituna land, home to isolated people</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/despite-restrictions-forest-loss-continues-on-ituna-land-home-to-isolated-people/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/despite-restrictions-forest-loss-continues-on-ituna-land-home-to-isolated-people/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 May 2026 19:46:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/04162414/Ituna_Itata-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318685</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cattle, Conservation, data, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Livestock, Ranching, Remote Sensing, and Uncontacted Tribes]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Illegal invasions in the Ituna/Itatá Indigenous territory in Brazil’s Pará state, home to isolated Igarapé Ipiaçava Indigenous people, has continued since 2022, during one of the latest land use restriction orders meant to protect the territory, according to satellite analysis by Mongabay. Between 2022 and 2025, data from Global Forest Watch show the area lost [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Illegal invasions in the Ituna/Itatá Indigenous territory in Brazil’s Pará state, home to isolated Igarapé Ipiaçava Indigenous people, has continued since 2022, during one of the latest land use restriction orders meant to protect the territory, according to satellite analysis by Mongabay. Between 2022 and 2025, data from Global Forest Watch show the area lost 2,211 hectares (5,463 acres) of tree cover. But, in the last few years, forest loss has plummeted significantly in what was one of the most deforested Indigenous lands following operations by the country’s Indigenous affairs agency, Funai. Cleiton Gabriel, the coordinator of the Middle Xingu Ethno-Environmental Protection Front, a specialized Funai unit, told Mongabay via WhatsApp that the forest loss in Ituna/Itatá is caused by land-grabbers who clear the forest without authorization for cattle ranching and other agricultural activities. “The deforestation in the Ituna/Itatá region historically stems from the illegal occupation of the territory,” Gabriel explained. “This is driven by land grabbing, the establishment of agricultural activities, especially intensive livestock farming, and also smaller-scale laboratory operations, mainly cocoa processing.” The land use restriction order, which prohibits unauthorized individuals from entering Ituna/Itatá, has been in place since 2011 to protect the isolated people. The precautionary measure has been renewed six times, the most recent being in 2025. Global Forest Watch data show that Ituna/Itatá was the third-most deforested area in Brazil between 2011, the year of the first land restriction order, and 2021. It was the most deforested Indigenous land in 2019. This has affected Funai’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/despite-restrictions-forest-loss-continues-on-ituna-land-home-to-isolated-people/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318685</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>AI tool tracks spread of illegal gold mining in Amazon protected areas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ai-tool-tracks-spread-of-illegal-gold-mining-in-amazon-protected-areas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ai-tool-tracks-spread-of-illegal-gold-mining-in-amazon-protected-areas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Apr 2026 09:56:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/11143403/foto_58-edit-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317945</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Gold Mining, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Mining, Protected Areas, and Satellite Imagery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In July 2025, the Indigenous Shuar people celebrated the end of a decade-long struggle when they received official titles for three communities — the Shuar Tunants, Kampan and Tsuntsuim –- within the Kutukú Shaimi Protected Forest, in the south of the Ecuadorean Amazon. But in one of those communities, satellite imagery shows that between August [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In July 2025, the Indigenous Shuar people celebrated the end of a decade-long struggle when they received official titles for three communities — the Shuar Tunants, Kampan and Tsuntsuim –- within the Kutukú Shaimi Protected Forest, in the south of the Ecuadorean Amazon. But in one of those communities, satellite imagery shows that between August and December 2025, a gaping hole appeared in the forest around a riverbend — a mining scar. Despite the Tunants territory’s newly formalized status, deforestation due to gold mining nearly tripled, reaching 2 hectares (5 acres) in size in the last three months of 2025, according to Amazon Mining Watch Panorama, a new quarterly report. The report shows that deforestation due to illegal gold mining continues to grow across the Amazon, threatening protected parts of the rainforest. In total, 6,000 hectares (more than 14,800 acres) — about seven times the size of Central Park in New York City — of new mining scars appeared across protected areas and Indigenous territories over the last three months of 2025. This mining is presumed to be illegal, as most Amazonian countries have legislation prohibiting mining in Indigenous territories and protected areas, with experts warning that greater law enforcement is needed. Most of the deforestation caused by mining during that period took place in Brazil, with roughly 2,000 hectares (about 5,000 acres) of forest being cleared. This was followed by Peru with 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres), and Guyana with 900 hectares (about 2,200 acres). New mining scars were also&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ai-tool-tracks-spread-of-illegal-gold-mining-in-amazon-protected-areas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317945</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Living with wildlife, bearing the cost</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/living-with-wildlife-bearing-the-cost/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/living-with-wildlife-bearing-the-cost/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Apr 2026 00:20:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/14170616/south_africa_kruger_260525-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317125</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Central African Republic, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Elephants, Environment, Human-wildlife Conflict, Land Rights, National Parks, Parks, Politics, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“Let us stop talking about human-wildlife conflict. Some of us live with this reality and we pay a heavy price for sharing space with wildlife.” The remark was made by a community leader at the 2023 Community-led Conservation Congress in Namibia. It was not framed as a critique of conservation policy so much as a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“Let us stop talking about human-wildlife conflict. Some of us live with this reality and we pay a heavy price for sharing space with wildlife.” The remark was made by a community leader at the 2023 Community-led Conservation Congress in Namibia. It was not framed as a critique of conservation policy so much as a correction to how it is described. The phrase “human-wildlife conflict” appears frequently in reports and strategies, often as a category that can be measured and managed. For those living closest to wildlife, the experience it refers to is less abstract and less contained. “Have you ever seen how an elephant kills a person?” the same speaker asked. What followed was a detailed account of a fatal encounter during a routine trip to collect firewood: the animal catching up to a woman as she ran, throwing her, and then crushing her body. The description is difficult to read. It is also part of what is being described when conflict is reduced to a term. Elsewhere, the cost is expressed in more tangible terms, as recounted by Kendi Borona in a commentary published on Mongabay last September. A farmer in East Africa described taking out a loan to shift from pastoralism to agriculture after repeated livestock losses. He leased land, planted tomatoes, and paid someone to guard the fields through the night. When the crop was ready, heavy rain prevented the vehicle from reaching the farm. During that delay, elephants entered and consumed the harvest. The loss&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/living-with-wildlife-bearing-the-cost/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317125</doi>				</item>
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