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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Tue, 13 Oct 2026 08:39:08 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>Peru environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/peru/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Ashéninka leader reportedly killed while patrolling Indigenous territory is found alive</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/asheninka-leader-killed-while-patrolling-indigenous-territory-in-peru/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/asheninka-leader-killed-while-patrolling-indigenous-territory-in-peru/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Aug 2026 03:24:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/26032038/Americo_Pascuala_Tumisha-Photo-RFN-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327333</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[UPDATE (Aug. 27, 2026): The Regional Organization AIDESEP Ucayali (ORAU) has clarified that Américo Pascual Tumisha is alive and with his family. ORAU said the initial report of his killing originated with a community member who told Tumisha’s son that he had been killed. Because communications and access are limited in this remote part of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[UPDATE (Aug. 27, 2026): The Regional Organization AIDESEP Ucayali (ORAU) has clarified that Américo Pascual Tumisha is alive and with his family. ORAU said the initial report of his killing originated with a community member who told Tumisha’s son that he had been killed. Because communications and access are limited in this remote part of Yurúa, a commission from ACONADIYSH’s Border Indigenous Guard traveled by river to verify the report and confirmed that Tumisha was alive. ORAU said Indigenous leaders in the region continue to face threats linked to illegal activities and organized crime. We have amended the title and text of this piece accordingly. ORAU aclara que líder indígena Américo Pascual Tumisha se encuentra con vida y alerta sobre amenazas en Yurúa Amended story: The Ashéninka leader Américo Pascuala Tumisha who was reportedly was shot and killed on Sunday while patrolling the territory of the Onconashari Indigenous community in Peru’s Ucayali region has been found alive. According to an initial report from the Regional Organization AIDESEP Ucayali (ORAU), Pascuala had encountered people who were allegedly extracting copaiba oil without permission inside the community’s territory. That report said a confrontation followed, and he was fatally shot. Pascuala was serving as coordinator of Onconashari’s territorial surveillance committee at the time, and was previously chief of the community. ORAU subsequently clarified that Pascuala was found to be alive and with his family. It said the initial report of his killing originated with a community member who told Tumisha’s son that he had&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/asheninka-leader-killed-while-patrolling-indigenous-territory-in-peru/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/asheninka-leader-killed-while-patrolling-indigenous-territory-in-peru/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327333</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Will my president save the Amazon? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/will-my-president-save-the-amazon-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/will-my-president-save-the-amazon-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 May 2026 23:50:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Enrique Ortiz]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/23235534/amazon_241209144859raw-26-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320068</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Colombia, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forests, Governance, Politics, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the coming months, voters in Brazil, Peru, and Colombia will elect new presidents. Together, these three countries contain roughly 82% of the Amazon rainforest, making their elections consequential far beyond national borders. The future of the world’s largest tropical forest — and, by extension, global climate stability — will depend in large measure on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the coming months, voters in Brazil, Peru, and Colombia will elect new presidents. Together, these three countries contain roughly 82% of the Amazon rainforest, making their elections consequential far beyond national borders. The future of the world’s largest tropical forest — and, by extension, global climate stability — will depend in large measure on the choices their citizens make at the ballot box. More than 35 million people living in the Amazon region of these countries also depend directly on those outcomes. Brazil, home to about 62% of the Amazon, offers a stark example of how presidential policies can shape the fate of the forest. The country has experienced dramatic swings in deforestation over the past two decades. While commodity prices, global markets, climate conditions, and geopolitics all play a role, government policy has often been the decisive factor. In 2004, for example, Brazil lost more than 10 million acres of Amazon forest. By 2012, stronger environmental measures had gradually reduced that loss to less than one-sixth of that level. Those efforts relied not only on stricter enforcement, but also on cooperation with agricultural and business sectors long associated with deforestation. More recent data suggest Brazil’s renewed environmental policies have again reduced forest loss by more than 30% from the previous year. Annual deforestation in the Legal Amazon (Amazonia) from 1988-2025, according to a preliminary estimate from Brazil&#8217;s national space research institute, INPE. Annual primary forest loss in the Colombian Amazon from 2002 to 2025 (hectares). Data from the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/will-my-president-save-the-amazon-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/will-my-president-save-the-amazon-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320068</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Amazon&#8217;s silent crime crisis (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-amazons-silent-crime-crisis-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-amazons-silent-crime-crisis-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Apr 2026 17:59:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carlos NobreIlona SzaboRobert Muggah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/15175627/peru_aerial_0166-2560px-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317585</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Crime, Deforestation, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Forests, Gold Mining, Illegal Logging, Illegal Mining, Illegal Trade, Mining, Organized Crime, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon is approaching a dangerous threshold. Long understood as the world&#8217;s largest tropical forest and a critical regulator of the global climate, its future is increasingly shaped by the convergence of organized crime and environmental crime. This nexus is accelerating deforestation and degradation, worsening fire risk, undermining governance, and weakening the economic foundations needed to sustain [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon is approaching a dangerous threshold. Long understood as the world&#8217;s largest tropical forest and a critical regulator of the global climate, its future is increasingly shaped by the convergence of organized crime and environmental crime. This nexus is accelerating deforestation and degradation, worsening fire risk, undermining governance, and weakening the economic foundations needed to sustain the region. Approaching a tipping point For decades, debate over the Amazon has centered on land-use change driven by agricultural expansion and cattle ranching. These pressures remain decisive. The advance of soy cultivation and pasture continues to fragment forests and disrupt rainfall cycles. When deforestation and degradation interact with climate change and fire, many scientists warn that parts of the Amazon—especially in the eastern and southern basin—could move toward an irreversible transition to a far more degraded, savannah-like state. A widely cited body of research suggests that such a tipping dynamic may emerge when deforestation reaches roughly 20 to 25 percent in some parts of the basin, especially when compounded by rising temperatures, drought, and recurrent fire. About 14–17% of the Amazon has been cleared, depending on definition and geography. The broader scientific message is clear: continued forest loss and degradation sharply increase the likelihood of large-scale ecological disruption. Many scientists warn that parts of the Amazon, especially the eastern and southern basin, are approaching dangerous thresholds once deforestation, degradation, fire and warming are considered together. Large-scale degraded areas scorched by fires, stripped by logging and desiccated by drought add a further layer of fragility that headline deforestation figures do not fully capture.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-amazons-silent-crime-crisis-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/the-amazons-silent-crime-crisis-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317585</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Novel research finds unexpected climate resilience in up to 36% of Amazon forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/novel-research-finds-unexpected-climate-resilience-in-up-to-36-of-amazon-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/novel-research-finds-unexpected-climate-resilience-in-up-to-36-of-amazon-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2026 03:23:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/09222759/1-Palms-along-river-in-Manu-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317301</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Drought, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forest Fragmentation, Forests, Precipitation, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Temperatures, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, Trees, Water, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Reports on the health and vitality of the Amazon — often dubbed as Earth’s lungs — have been grim for years. Record drought has stressed large swaths of the world’s largest rainforest. Major Amazon River tributaries, including the Rio Negro and Madeira River, hit their lowest levels in more than a century of measurement in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Reports on the health and vitality of the Amazon — often dubbed as Earth’s lungs — have been grim for years. Record drought has stressed large swaths of the world’s largest rainforest. Major Amazon River tributaries, including the Rio Negro and Madeira River, hit their lowest levels in more than a century of measurement in 2024. And experts warn that deforestation and wildfires are tipping parts of the biome from carbon sink to source. Yet in Manaus, a city at the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, forest ecologist Flávia Costa is upbeat as she highlights what appears to be a previously underappreciated underlying Amazon reality: Her research finds that the region’s vast wetlands, or shallow water table areas, have proven to be stubbornly drought resistant through years of intensifying climate change. In fact, her long-term research reveals that palm species and other wetland trees are not just surviving drought seasons, they’re maintaining their health and even adding biomass. That could mean these areas could serve as valuable refugia, as other parts of Amazonia degrade. Significantly, these shallow water table areas compose 36% of Amazonia and have been a crucial part of the evolving rainforest ecosystem for millions of years. Sturdy, resilient palms account for one in five tree species across the Amazon, which includes parts of nine nations, and of which Brazil occupies 60%. These forested wetlands and Costa’s research represent one bright spot in the Amazon’s otherwise gloomy projected trajectory for the 21st century — forecasts built on decades&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/novel-research-finds-unexpected-climate-resilience-in-up-to-36-of-amazon-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317301</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Peru-Brazil Bioceanic Railway brings too much risk to the Amazon, experts warn</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/peru-brazil-bioceanic-railway-brings-too-much-risk-to-the-amazon-experts-warn/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/peru-brazil-bioceanic-railway-brings-too-much-risk-to-the-amazon-experts-warn/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Mar 2026 17:16:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Yvette Sierra Praeli]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/30151522/foto2-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316557</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, and Peru]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Saving Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The idea of a railway line stretching across the width of South America — from Peru on the Pacific coast to Brazil on the Atlantic — has gained steam since the inauguration of the megaport of Chancay in Peru. To complete its route, this “Bioceanic Railway,” as it’s known, would have to cross the Andes [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The idea of a railway line stretching across the width of South America — from Peru on the Pacific coast to Brazil on the Atlantic — has gained steam since the inauguration of the megaport of Chancay in Peru. To complete its route, this “Bioceanic Railway,” as it’s known, would have to cross the Andes mountain range in Peru and also the Amazon Rainforest in both countries. In July 2025, Brazil and China signed a cooperation deal to conduct feasibility studies on the railway corridor. In August 2025, Peru’s Transport and Communications Ministry presented the railway plan before the country’s Congress. Image by the Peruvian government. While the Peruvian government wasn’t present at that signing, in May that year the country’s then-economy minister, Raúl Pérez Reyes, and transport minister, César Sandoval Pozo, met with senior Chinese officials, including Fei Dongbin, president of China’s National Railway Administration, and Song Yang, the Chinese ambassador to Peru, to discuss the development of railway infrastructure in Peru. Several months later, in January 2026, the Chancay-Sierra Central section of the railway line was announced. The project was reportedly awarded to a Chinese company. The route that would continue after this section into Brazil has not yet been confirmed, but there are two proposals for crossing the Andes and the Peruvian Amazon to reach Brazilian territory. The mega construction project has prompted widespread concern due to the potential socioenvironmental impacts, especially for the section that crosses the Amazon. Compounding worries are the economic and geopolitical jousting&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/peru-brazil-bioceanic-railway-brings-too-much-risk-to-the-amazon-experts-warn/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316557</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Peru, Indigenous women work to save an ancestral potato from disappearance</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-peru-indigenous-women-work-to-save-an-ancestral-potato-from-disappearance/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-peru-indigenous-women-work-to-save-an-ancestral-potato-from-disappearance/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Mar 2026 07:02:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid Arellano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/30150135/Copia-de-IMG_2365-1-1200x800-1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316544</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology, Biodiversity, Bioeconomy, Community Forests, Conservation, Culture, Food, Indigenous Peoples, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Kashiri, the Moon, saw the young woman through a window. The celestial body descended from the sky and found her eating soil molded into the shape of a tubercle. “What you are eating is mud, not yuca,” the root of the cassava plant. “I will let you taste the true yuca,” it said. In love [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Kashiri, the Moon, saw the young woman through a window. The celestial body descended from the sky and found her eating soil molded into the shape of a tubercle. “What you are eating is mud, not yuca,” the root of the cassava plant. “I will let you taste the true yuca,” it said. In love with her, Kashiri handed a sacred seed and taught her how to plant it. This is the story that has survived through the tales of grandmothers and grandfathers of the Machiguenga people. Gabriela Loaiza Seri recalls the ancestral anecdote. The account speaks about the origin of crops in her village of San José de Koribeni, in Cusco, in southeastern Peru — the largest Indigenous Machiguenga community in the South American country. “The young woman learned how to plant yuca, magona potatoes, shonaki [an Indigenous name for a type of sweet corn root] and all the tubers we have always consumed,” she says. Since then, women have been responsible for these crops. This time-honored knowledge, however, is now facing increasing threats. The expansion of monocultures and intensive agriculture in Peru has put many of these native species at risk of disappearing, according to Loaiza Seri. To make matters worse, the introduction of new varieties and foreign crops has reduced the diversity of yucas that once secured food to Indigenous communities year-round. The arrival of external projects has also distanced the community from their chacras ( small, traditional farming plots). A member of the association Mujeres Emprendedoras&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-peru-indigenous-women-work-to-save-an-ancestral-potato-from-disappearance/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316544</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As traditional forest governance erodes in Peru, ‘ghost permits’ fill the vacuum</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/as-traditional-forest-governance-erodes-in-peru-ghost-permits-fill-the-vacuum/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/as-traditional-forest-governance-erodes-in-peru-ghost-permits-fill-the-vacuum/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Mar 2026 20:23:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Michele Calamaio]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/30182350/19_Peru_Ghost_01-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316593</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Corruption, Crime, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Logging, Natural Resources, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, timber trade, Traditional People, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[HONORIA, Peru — Jacqueline Flores sits cross-legged on a wooden platform inside a dim Asháninka maloca, the Indigenous longhouse where her dress, painted with geometric patterns, seems to merge with the resin-sweet smell of plants macerating for ceremony. Outside, the Boiling River murmurs. Inside, her voice rises in a long, trembling ícaro, part prayer, part [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[HONORIA, Peru — Jacqueline Flores sits cross-legged on a wooden platform inside a dim Asháninka maloca, the Indigenous longhouse where her dress, painted with geometric patterns, seems to merge with the resin-sweet smell of plants macerating for ceremony. Outside, the Boiling River murmurs. Inside, her voice rises in a long, trembling ícaro, part prayer, part medicine, part declaration of her identity. This South American ancestral colloquialism for ‘magic song’ serves her a specific purpose, she says: to anchor herself to something older than memory. “I’m a student of the plants,” she says, “to help humanity and people who need to ‘heal’.” In the ‘80s, Jacqueline’s ancestors were forced to leave their Asháninka territory in Peru’s central rainforest to escape the violence of the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) terrorist group. “A lot was lost,” she says. She sees it in the fragmentation of neighboring communities, internal divisions and the disappearance of shared points of reference. Her work — improving her own healing center, Pumayaku, recovering her language and reconnecting with her territory after displacement — is her answer to that loss. In the Peruvian Amazon, erosion of traditional governance is reshaping the forest as powerfully as any force of globalization, according to anthropologist Glenn Shepard. Ancestral culture fades, languages are forgotten, rituals weaken and community guidance fractures, while internal corruption can concurrently become the driving force behind deforestation and the quiet dismantling of Indigenous stewardship. As elder-based authority, ritual discipline and long-term leadership degrade, collective decision-making gives way to document-based control,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/as-traditional-forest-governance-erodes-in-peru-ghost-permits-fill-the-vacuum/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316593</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Drone-mounted eDNA hints at richness of life in the rainforest canopy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/drone-mounted-edna-hints-at-richness-of-life-in-the-rainforest-canopy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/drone-mounted-edna-hints-at-richness-of-life-in-the-rainforest-canopy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jan 2026 10:28:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/29101518/amazon_201482-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313495</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, DNA, Drones, Environment, Habitat, Rainforests, Technology, Trees, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[What’s lurking in and around the rainforest canopy? That’s a hard question to answer, especially in tall and dense forests. Traditional tracking methods, like camera traps, often miss out on elusive species that live high in the canopies. Acoustic monitoring might help detect some species, but not the relatively quiet ones. Scientists are now using [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[What’s lurking in and around the rainforest canopy? That’s a hard question to answer, especially in tall and dense forests. Traditional tracking methods, like camera traps, often miss out on elusive species that live high in the canopies. Acoustic monitoring might help detect some species, but not the relatively quiet ones. Scientists are now using a combination of drone technology and environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis to unravel the mysteries unfolding in the treetops. A team at the Environmental Robotics Lab at ETH Zürich collaborated with nonprofit organization Wilderness International to deploy drones to collect eDNA samples from rainforest canopies in Peru. Environmental DNA is the genetic material left behind in the environment by animals via their hair, fur or saliva. These flow into water or float around in the air before settling on leaves, branches and canopies. For a long time, scientists have focused on extracting genetic material from water samples to detect the animals living in a forest or ecosystem. However, this often left out arboreal, or tree-dwelling, species. “We have researchers who cover the ground level when it comes to traditional biodiversity research,” Marie Schreiber, head of science communication at Wilderness International, told Mongabay in a video interview. “But what is going on in the treetops is very difficult to understand and assess.” A team of scientists collaborated to deploy a combination of drone technology and environmental DNA analysis to collect DNA samples from treetops in the Peruvian Amazon. Image courtesy of Matthis Weber. It was to fill&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/drone-mounted-edna-hints-at-richness-of-life-in-the-rainforest-canopy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313495</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Turning the Amazon’s toxic gold mine waste liability into economic opportunity (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/formalizing-amazon-gold-mining-can-transform-a-toxic-liability-into-an-economic-opportunity-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/formalizing-amazon-gold-mining-can-transform-a-toxic-liability-into-an-economic-opportunity-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jan 2026 19:13:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/02225429/25-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312918</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Business, Commentary, Community Development, Deforestation, Development, Drivers Of Deforestation, Gold Mining, Health, Illegal Mining, Mercury, Mining, Pollution, Public Health, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Sustainable Development, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The wildcat gold mining boom that swept across the Amazon beginning in the 1970s left behind an environmental catastrophe of staggering proportions. At least 350,000 hectares (almost 865,000 acres) of forest and wetland habitat have been destroyed by placer mining operations across the Pan Amazon, with the actual figure likely far higher given the limitations [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The wildcat gold mining boom that swept across the Amazon beginning in the 1970s left behind an environmental catastrophe of staggering proportions. At least 350,000 hectares (almost 865,000 acres) of forest and wetland habitat have been destroyed by placer mining operations across the Pan Amazon, with the actual figure likely far higher given the limitations of satellite monitoring for small-scale operations and river dredges. In the Tapajós River Basin in Brazil’s Pará state, particularly the municipality of Itaituba, five decades of alluvial mining have devastated tens of thousands of hectares of riparian forest while releasing an estimated 200-500 metric tons of mercury annually into watersheds. Mercury contamination has become endemic: 75% of the population of the municipality of Santarém shows elevated mercury levels, with some residents carrying four times the WHO limit. The legacy extends far beyond the mining sites themselves, as methylmercury bioaccumulates through aquatic food webs, threatening riverside communities across millions of hectares of downstream habitat. Yet hidden within this toxic legacy lies an economic opportunity that could finance comprehensive remediation while generating more than 200,000 formal-sector jobs. The garimpeiro (wildcat miner) reliance on mercury amalgamation technology is remarkably inefficient, because mercury captures only free gold particles through physical absorption, achieving recovery rates of 40-60% from alluvial placers. The remaining 40-60% of gold remains trapped in “tailings” as fine particles, bound in mineral matrices, or simply lost to processing inefficiency. Those tailings, an existing environmental catastrophe, contain an estimated 1,400-2,100 metric tons of recoverable gold worth $90 billion&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/formalizing-amazon-gold-mining-can-transform-a-toxic-liability-into-an-economic-opportunity-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312918</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Photos: Kew Gardens&#8217; top 10 newly named plants and fungi for 2025</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/photos-kew-gardens-top-10-newly-named-plants-and-fungi-for-2025/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/photos-kew-gardens-top-10-newly-named-plants-and-fungi-for-2025/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jan 2026 23:24:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/12223115/02.-Telipogon-cruentilabrum-CREDIT-L.Baquero-03-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312879</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Botswana, Brazil, Ecuador, England, Namibia, Peru, and South Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Botany, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Fungi, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, New Discovery, Plants, Rainforests, Species Discovery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past year, scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the U.K., officially named 125 plants and 65 fungi. The new-to-science species include a parasitic fungus that turns Brazilian spiders into “zombies,” a critically endangered orchid with blood-red markings from Ecuador&#8217;s cloud forests, and a shrub named after the fire demon from the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past year, scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the U.K., officially named 125 plants and 65 fungi. The new-to-science species include a parasitic fungus that turns Brazilian spiders into “zombies,” a critically endangered orchid with blood-red markings from Ecuador&#8217;s cloud forests, and a shrub named after the fire demon from the 2004 Hayao Miyazaki film Howl&#8217;s Moving Castle. Each year, Kew releases a list of its “top 10” new plant and fungal species to showcase nature&#8217;s vast diversity, as well as its fragility, as many newly described species are already in danger. According to Kew’s “State of the World&#8217;s Plants and Fungi 2023” report, three out of four undescribed plants are threatened with extinction. One species described in 2025, Cryptacanthus ebo, a bromeliad from the Ebo Forest in Cameroon, may have already gone extinct. Each year, researchers worldwide officially name about 2,500 new plants and even more fungi. An estimated 100,000 plant species and between 2 million and 3 million fungal species remain to be described and named by science. Many of these unnamed fungi are endophytes that live entirely within plant tissues, making up the plants’ microbiomes. &#8220;Describing new plant and fungal species is essential at a time when the impacts of biodiversity loss and climate change accelerate before our eyes,&#8221; Martin Cheek, a senior research leader in Kew&#8217;s Africa team, said in a press release. &#8220;It is difficult to protect what we do not know, understand and have a scientific name for.&#8221; Although a species may be&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/photos-kew-gardens-top-10-newly-named-plants-and-fungi-for-2025/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312879</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘I’m proud to be the first published Asháninka researcher’: Richar Antonio Demetrio on bees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/im-proud-to-be-the-first-published-ashaninka-researcher-richar-antonio-demetrio-on-bees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/im-proud-to-be-the-first-published-ashaninka-researcher-richar-antonio-demetrio-on-bees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jan 2026 20:42:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Xilena Pinedo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/02202653/Richar-Demetrio-4-e1767386534375-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312570</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bees, Biodiversity, Conservation, Culture, Earth Science, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Rainforests, Science, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Indigenous Asháninka belief, bees were once spirits in human form. Stories tell of a woman who enjoyed making masato, a traditional Amazonian fermented beverage. Every day, she would boil and mash the yuca, patiently fermenting it and offering the drink to whoever stopped by. Whole families would go and sit to drink it. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Indigenous Asháninka belief, bees were once spirits in human form. Stories tell of a woman who enjoyed making masato, a traditional Amazonian fermented beverage. Every day, she would boil and mash the yuca, patiently fermenting it and offering the drink to whoever stopped by. Whole families would go and sit to drink it. The woman made more and the masato never ran out. Word spread throughout the forest until it reached Avireri, the god of creation, who went to the community to see the woman with his own eyes. He tried the masato and waited for it to run out, but it never did. Intrigued, the god looked at her and asked, “Why does your masato never run out? I’d better turn you into a bee.” Thus, the legend goes, stingless bees were born, destined from that moment on to make the sweetest honey in the Peruvian Amazon. Richar Antonio Demetrio had to leave his community in search of better formal educational opportunities, but he returned to study their knowledge using scientific methods. Image courtesy of Richar Antonio Demetrio. This story, which has been passed down from generation to generation among the more than 50,000 Asháninka who currently live in Peru, is now enshrined in a scientific paper. Published in the journal Ethnobiology and Conservation in March 2025, the study documents, for the first time, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) about stingless bees in two communities of the central Peruvian rainforest, Marontoari and Pichiquia. The study reveals that Asháninka communities&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/im-proud-to-be-the-first-published-ashaninka-researcher-richar-antonio-demetrio-on-bees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312570</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mercury, dredges and crime: Illegal mining ravages Peru’s Nanay River</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/mercury-dredges-and-crime-illegal-mining-ravages-perus-nanay-river/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/mercury-dredges-and-crime-illegal-mining-ravages-perus-nanay-river/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2025 14:37:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Enrique Vera]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/31143542/FOTO-ABRE-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312419</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Crime, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Gold Mining, Illegal Mining, Mercury, Mining, Organized Crime, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Rivers, Threats To Rainforests, Tropics, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On a small airplane, José Manuyama, a professor, frowns and shakes his head with anguish while  thousands of feet below, five dredges operated by illegal miners excavate the Nanay River Basin, in the Loreto region in the Peruvian Amazon. “They are like enormous leeches in the water,” said Manuyama. The plane has begun its second [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On a small airplane, José Manuyama, a professor, frowns and shakes his head with anguish while  thousands of feet below, five dredges operated by illegal miners excavate the Nanay River Basin, in the Loreto region in the Peruvian Amazon. “They are like enormous leeches in the water,” said Manuyama. The plane has begun its second hour of the flyover above the Nanay River and, so far, the people on board have seen about 40 dredges. The Nanay is surrounded by shiny riverbanks with an ochre hue, a result of the mercury used by the illegal miners to separate gold particles from other sediments. River mining is prohibited by Peruvian law. For Manuyama, the president of the Committee for the Defense of the Water of Iquitos, the situation is very disheartening. He says that seven years ago, the Nanay was a clear river, but the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic brought an increase in the mining rafts that have now given the river a milky appearance. Manuyama, a member of the Kukama community, is a social studies professor and is one of the 15 people on the plane, which is now flying over the Napo River. From the air, the orange pipes coming out of four dredges resemble the tentacles of a gigantic animal drilling into the river basin and disturbing the edge of the forest. Along with Manuyama are the prosecutor from the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office in Environmental Matters of Loreto (FEMA Loreto), Bratzon Saboya, and the coordinator of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/mercury-dredges-and-crime-illegal-mining-ravages-perus-nanay-river/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312419</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A new frog species emerges from Peru’s cloud forests — and it’s already at risk</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-new-frog-species-emerges-from-perus-cloud-forests-and-its-already-at-risk/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-new-frog-species-emerges-from-perus-cloud-forests-and-its-already-at-risk/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Dec 2025 22:32:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid Arellano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/30222607/O.shunkusacha-768x466.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312381</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Cloud Forests, Community-based Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Loss, Frogs, Green, Habitat Loss, Herps, Montane Forests, New Discovery, Rainforests, and Species Discovery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Deep within the cloud forests of the San Martín region of Peru lie two places so high, cold and remote that they remained virtually unexplored for decades. In 2022, and again in 2025, monitors from three Indigenous and local associations guided a team of scientists from Peru and France on a series of expeditions to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Deep within the cloud forests of the San Martín region of Peru lie two places so high, cold and remote that they remained virtually unexplored for decades. In 2022, and again in 2025, monitors from three Indigenous and local associations guided a team of scientists from Peru and France on a series of expeditions to unravel their mysteries. It was there, within the Bosques de Vaquero Biocorridor, that one of the most striking discoveries emerged: a small, previously unknown frog hidden among the fallen leaves. They named it Shunku Sacha, which in Kichawa-Lamista means “heart of the forest.” The scientific name of the new species, Oreobates shunkusacha, honors the territory where it was discovered — a place that, along with the frog, is now threatened by the rapid destruction of the forest. O. shunkusacha was formally described in a study recently published in the German journal Salamandra. Due to the threats facing the species and its small known range, the study’s authors say it should be considered endangered. A collaborative effort The research was carried out by local associations and scientists from Nature Conserv’Action and the Ararankha Association–Ecology and Conservation, who have been working in the area since 2022, with the aim of bringing science closer to local organizations that protect the forests. The species has been named Oreobates shunkusacha, with Shunku Sacha meaning “heart of the forest” in Kichawa-Lamista. In their study, researchers propose “Shunku Sacha big-headed frog” as the species’ common name. Image courtesy of Nature Conserv’Action Perú.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-new-frog-species-emerges-from-perus-cloud-forests-and-its-already-at-risk/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312381</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The year in rainforests 2025: Deforestation fell; the risks did not</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2025-deforestation-fell-the-risks-did-not/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2025-deforestation-fell-the-risks-did-not/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Dec 2025 20:11:46 +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/20/2025/12/26174503/14-brunei_251114145042_0254z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312083</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Brazil, Central Africa, Colombia, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Global, Indonesia, Latin America, Peru, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Green, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, Indigenous Peoples, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, Regulations, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Year-end review]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The story of the world’s tropical forests in 2025 was not one of dramatic reversal, but one shaped by accumulated pressure. In several regions, deforestation slowed. In others, loss continued in less visible forms, shaped by fire, degradation, and political choices not limited to large-scale clearing alone. Governments continued to speak the language of protection, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The story of the world’s tropical forests in 2025 was not one of dramatic reversal, but one shaped by accumulated pressure. In several regions, deforestation slowed. In others, loss continued in less visible forms, shaped by fire, degradation, and political choices not limited to large-scale clearing alone. Governments continued to speak the language of protection, even as infrastructure, extraction, and energy projects advanced into forest landscapes. Progress was real, though uneven, and the distance between policy commitments and conditions on the ground remained substantial. What distinguished the year was the growing influence of indirect forces, rather than a single driver of loss. Heat, drought, and past damage increasingly shaped forest outcomes, even where new clearing slowed. Commodity markets rewarded persistence more than short-lived price spikes. Finance shifted away from individual projects toward broader fiscal tools. Enforcement mattered, alongside institutional credibility and the ability to operate consistently over time. At the global level, climate diplomacy continued, with limited appetite for binding decisions. COP30 avoided collapse and deferred the hardest choices. Forests remained prominent in rhetoric while enforceable outcomes remained limited. Market-based tools—carbon credits, trade regulation, and conservation finance—advanced unevenly, shaped as much by political confidence and capacity as by technical design. Taken together, 2025 underscored that tropical forests are now shaped more by interacting systems rather than single policies. Finance, science, enforcement, conflict, and climate stress increasingly operate together, often reinforcing one another. This review traces where those systems functioned, where they faltered, and what that means for the forests caught&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2025-deforestation-fell-the-risks-did-not/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312083</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Amazon in 2026: A challenging year ahead, now off the center stage</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-amazon-in-2026-a-challenging-year-ahead-now-off-the-center-stage/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-amazon-in-2026-a-challenging-year-ahead-now-off-the-center-stage/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 14:27:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/19151029/Parque_Estadual_Encontro_das_Aguas_Thomas-Fuhrmann_2023-_01_Jaguar_-_Panthera_onca_swimming-scaled-e1710871756906-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311879</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Bioeconomy, Climate Change, Conflict, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As Belém's COP30 ended in compromise, political forces moved swiftly to accelerate destruction far from the global spotlight. 
]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon enters 2026 carrying the bitter taste of compromise. The world’s attention was fixed on Belém for the COP30 summit in November, transforming the Brazilian city into a brief, intense stage for climate diplomacy, where ambitious calls for a fossil fuel phaseout ultimately died on the negotiating floor. Yet, in 2025, the true battle for the rainforest was fought far from the Blue Zone. In the quiet shadows, powerful political forces moved to roll back environmental protections in Brazil (which holds 64% of the rainforest), successfully passing the anti-conservation bills and green-lighting critical infrastructure projects. This dual reality — grand promises versus accelerated development on the frontier — set the defining tension for the year, even as a more hopeful, grassroots movement gained momentum, finding new, valuable purpose for biodiversity in innovations, proving the rainforest is worth far more standing than cut. COP30 was wrapped in global expectations. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opened the summit by proposing a road map to enable humankind to overcome its dependence on fossil fuels in a fair and planned manner and to halt deforestation. However, the ambitious calls for a fossil fuel phaseout were excluded from the official COP outcomes. In response, Brazil, alongside the Colombian and Dutch delegations, agreed to develop road maps outside the formal U.N. process. This effort will culminate in the First International Conference on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, scheduled for April 2026, in Santa Marta, Colombia, to negotiate an equitable Fossil Fuel&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-amazon-in-2026-a-challenging-year-ahead-now-off-the-center-stage/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-amazon-in-2026-a-challenging-year-ahead-now-off-the-center-stage/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311879</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Top ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin&#8217;s COP30 reflections on Amazon conservation (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/top-ethnobotanist-mark-plotkins-cop30-reflections-on-amazon-conservation-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/top-ethnobotanist-mark-plotkins-cop30-reflections-on-amazon-conservation-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Nov 2025 21:45:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark J. Plotkin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/17210100/Suriname-2-e1763414931233-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309585</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Latin America, Peru, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Biodiversity, Botany, Commentary, Conservation, Development, Environment, Forest Products, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Medicinal Plants, Medicine, Rainforests, Research, Sustainable Development, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Medicine, Traditional People, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Having studied the healing plants and peoples of tropical South America for well over four decades, I am often asked, “What is the conservation status of the Amazon Rainforest? Is the glass half-full or half-empty?” My reply never changes. “By definition, any glass that is half-full is half-empty!” When I first traveled to the Amazon [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Having studied the healing plants and peoples of tropical South America for well over four decades, I am often asked, “What is the conservation status of the Amazon Rainforest? Is the glass half-full or half-empty?” My reply never changes. “By definition, any glass that is half-full is half-empty!” When I first traveled to the Amazon in the 1970s, the world was a different place. Most people thought of the rainforest, if they thought of it at all, as a green hell to be avoided at all costs. Soon thereafter, public perception of tropical rainforests shifted dramatically, driven by the emerging modern environmental movement. Tropical forest and river in Suriname. Image courtesy of Mark J. Plotkin. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962 and Earth Day in 1970 were milestones in generating global awareness and concern over deforestation, pesticides, pollution and species extinction, particularly in the industrialized world. However, Western scientists like Tom Lovejoy, Richard Schultes and E.O. Wilson — as well as Brazilian scientists like Marcio Ayres, Paulo Nogueiro-Neto and Paulo Vanzolini — presented a compelling case that the biological richness and fragility of tropical forests merited at least as much attention as ecosystems in the temperate regions. These scientists reframed the global image of Amazonia from “green hell” to “treasure trove of biodiversity.” The media also played a positive role. The vast scale of burning and clearing — turning a green wonderland into a red desert through major development projects like ill-planned dams or road building — shocked and horrified&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/top-ethnobotanist-mark-plotkins-cop30-reflections-on-amazon-conservation-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309585</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Peru Indigenous patrols see success &#038; struggles in combating illegal miners</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/peru-indigenous-patrols-see-success-struggles-in-combating-illegal-miners/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/peru-indigenous-patrols-see-success-struggles-in-combating-illegal-miners/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Nov 2025 15:20:23 +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/20/2022/09/30133937/Jacob-Balzani_Mayuriaga-Oil-Spill-2016-WampisNation_3500px_Extra_0073-1-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308837</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mining, Monitoring, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For several years, illegal gold mining, loggers and other invaders have impacted the territory of the Indigenous Wampís people (or Huambisa) of the northern Peruvian Amazon. To combat these threats amid a lack of state support, the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampís Nation (GTANW) formed the territorial monitoring group Charip. The group’s formation in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For several years, illegal gold mining, loggers and other invaders have impacted the territory of the Indigenous Wampís people (or Huambisa) of the northern Peruvian Amazon. To combat these threats amid a lack of state support, the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampís Nation (GTANW) formed the territorial monitoring group Charip. The group’s formation in February 2024 led to quick results. Within two months, Charip arrested three Peruvian police officers for their involvement in illegal gold mining near the Wampís community of Villa Gonzalo, on the banks of the Santiago River. A high-level commission from the Peruvian government visited the Wampís Nation a few days later and promised to eradicate illegal mining in the area. However, sources told Mongabay the state has still not fulfilled its commitments. Peru’s Ministry of Culture and the country’s Amazonas and Loreto regional governments did not respond to Mongabay’s requests for comment by the time of publication. Neither did the Sixth Jungle Brigade, the unit of the Peruvian Army responsible for conducting land, river and air patrols, especially in border areas and the Amazon, to prevent the entry of foreign personnel and support environmental conservation. In 2024, the Charip group also confiscated and destroyed at least seven mega-dredges along the Santiago River, according to a report by the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), a U.K.-based advocacy group that has supported Charip with fuel and food. When the group was formed, it had about 60 personnel to fight against illegal miners, the Charip president René Santiago Ti,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/peru-indigenous-patrols-see-success-struggles-in-combating-illegal-miners/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308837</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report urges full protection of world’s 196 uncontacted Indigenous peoples</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/report-urges-full-protection-of-worlds-196-uncontacted-indigenous-peoples/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/report-urges-full-protection-of-worlds-196-uncontacted-indigenous-peoples/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Oct 2025 14:22:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/27113221/Photo-9-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308336</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Asia, Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Latin America, Pacific Islands, Peru, South America, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Conservation, Culture, Development, Diseases, Drug Trade, Environment, extractives, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Logging, Mining, Oil Drilling, Rainforests, Uncontacted Tribes, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“My children died. My mother died. My husband died. My brothers, my sisters, my aunts and uncles. I saw the bones sticking out of their rotting corpses inside the longhouse. We were too weak to bury them. I was left alone with my two baby brothers. All my family died, and all we got in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“My children died. My mother died. My husband died. My brothers, my sisters, my aunts and uncles. I saw the bones sticking out of their rotting corpses inside the longhouse. We were too weak to bury them. I was left alone with my two baby brothers. All my family died, and all we got in return were a few machetes.” This story comes from a Matis Indigenous woman living in Brazil and speaking to an anthropologist in the 1990s. Her people were almost wiped out in the years after they were initially contacted by outsiders in the 1970s. Loggers and wildcat miners brought in diseases, mainly influenza, against which the Matis had little resistance. Testimonies like this one from the Matis Indigenous woman convinced Survival International of the urgent need to campaign to safeguard the collective rights of the Indigenous, tribal and uncontacted peoples of the world, whom the human rights organization says must be left alone and fully protected. On Oct. 27, the NGO published a 300-page report, Uncontacted Indigenous Peoples: at the Edge of Survival, documenting the past and looming threats posed by contact and offering up the experiences of numerous Indigenous peoples whose lives have been uprooted, disrupted and forever changed by contact. It states: “In particular, the rush by extractive industries and agribusiness to seize the resources of uncontacted peoples risks their total annihilation.” A Tupá Matis Indigenous person near the Itui river in the Javari Valley, Brazil. The Matis were devastated by western diseases after&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/report-urges-full-protection-of-worlds-196-uncontacted-indigenous-peoples/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308336</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The rise of anti-corruption prosecutors in the Amazon region</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/the-rise-of-anti-corruption-prosecutors-in-the-amazon-region/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/the-rise-of-anti-corruption-prosecutors-in-the-amazon-region/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Oct 2025 11:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/23235157/WhatsApp-Image-2020-05-20-at-17.20.23-2-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308243</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Corruption, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Law Enforcement, Organized Crime, Politics, Rainforests, Social Justice, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Prosecutors are lawyers employed by the state to investigate crimes and initiate judicial proceedings. Ensuring their integrity and competence is essential to judicial reform and the application of environmental law. In Brazil, allegations of political corruption by public servants are reviewed by the 5ª Câmara de Coordenação e Revisão (Combate à Corrupção) and, if warranted, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Prosecutors are lawyers employed by the state to investigate crimes and initiate judicial proceedings. Ensuring their integrity and competence is essential to judicial reform and the application of environmental law. In Brazil, allegations of political corruption by public servants are reviewed by the 5ª Câmara de Coordenação e Revisão (Combate à Corrupção) and, if warranted, referred to a regional office for prosecution. For example, the anti-corruption specialists in Curitiba (4th Region) were instrumental in uncovering the perfidy of the Lava Jato bribery and money laundering network. Although media attention focused on the presiding judge (Sergio Moro), the investigations were conducted by a dedicated team of prosecutors who relentlessly accumulated evidence against some of the most powerful individuals in Brazil. One of the shark seizures carried out by the Tumbes Prosecutor&#8217;s Office in Peru. Image courtesy of Oceana. The impact of Brazil’s anti-corruption campaign is reflected by the number of criminal cases reviewed by the 5ª Câmara, which rose from 2,500 per year in 2002 to more than 15,000 annually in 2019. Very few, however, are referred for a trial: approximately 90% of the criminal complaints reviewed in the twenty-plus years of existence of the 5ª Câmara have been dismissed for technical reasons, most commonly for lack of evidence. The lack of aggressive prosecution is also characteristic of their internal affairs unit (Corregedoria Nacional of the Conselho Nacional do Ministério Público), which recommended that 89% (940 out of 1,078) of the complaints filed against procuradores should be dismissed. The decision not&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/the-rise-of-anti-corruption-prosecutors-in-the-amazon-region/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308243</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A closer look at Peru’s Amazon reveals new mining trends, deforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/a-closer-look-at-perus-amazon-reveals-new-mining-trends-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/a-closer-look-at-perus-amazon-reveals-new-mining-trends-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Oct 2025 16:00:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/31021516/portada-min-peru-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307894</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Crime, Deforestation, Dredging, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Gold Mining, Illegal Logging, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Mining, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Rivers, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For years, gold mining has been one of Peru’s most pressing environmental challenges, with illegal operations clearing the Amazon Rainforest and polluting rivers with chemicals. The industry continues to grow, as miners spread into new parts of the country and adopt different ways of working. One recent project that maps mining operations and their expansion [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For years, gold mining has been one of Peru’s most pressing environmental challenges, with illegal operations clearing the Amazon Rainforest and polluting rivers with chemicals. The industry continues to grow, as miners spread into new parts of the country and adopt different ways of working. One recent project that maps mining operations and their expansion shows how mining has spread into the country’s northern provinces and implemented river-based extraction methods that aren’t common in other mining hotspots. Developed by Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andes Amazon Program (MAAP), the project is one of the first visualizations of Peru’s mining problem on a national scale. “Having this baseline comprehensive look at what’s happening in Peru can serve as the basis for better understanding the magnitude of illegal mining,” Matt Finer, MAAP director and senior research specialist, told Mongabay. “Then we’re getting into, ‘Where is it? Where is it increasing? Where is it decreasing?’” Gold mining caused 139,169 hectares (343,894 acres) of deforestation between 1984 and the first half of 2025, predominantly in the southern department of Madre de Dios, according to the MAAP analysis. In that department alone, MAAP found more than 2,000 pieces of mining infrastructure, including drills, chutes, dredges and mining rafts. Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon, August 2025. Source: MAAP. Madre de Dios was the focus of Peru’s Operation Mercury in 2019, in which law enforcement aggressively dismantled mine sites. It was a short-term success that saw deforestation rates slow for a couple of years before rebounding&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/a-closer-look-at-perus-amazon-reveals-new-mining-trends-deforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307894</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Peru considers stripping protections for Indigenous people and their territories</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/peru-considers-stripping-protections-for-indigenous-people-and-their-territories/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/peru-considers-stripping-protections-for-indigenous-people-and-their-territories/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Oct 2025 22:00:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/13214722/peru_220711-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307438</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, extractives, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mining, Oil, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Peru is on the verge of rolling back several longstanding protections for Indigenous people and their territories, critics warn. Several bills working their way through Congress would loosen restrictions for oil and gas drilling, and make it harder for Indigenous people to obtain protected status for their land. At the same time, government agencies have [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Peru is on the verge of rolling back several longstanding protections for Indigenous people and their territories, critics warn. Several bills working their way through Congress would loosen restrictions for oil and gas drilling, and make it harder for Indigenous people to obtain protected status for their land. At the same time, government agencies have voted down the creation of a reserve for uncontacted tribes, with some officials denying their existence. Together, the multiple policies amount to an “extermination” campaign, some advocacy groups said. “We express our outright rejection of the constant violation of human rights, as well as of the policies and regulations promoted by an oppressive, discriminatory and genocidal government, which favors criminal organizations and illegal economies,” said a September statement from the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP), which represents thousands of communities across the country. In July, lawmakers proposed modifying the country’s protected natural areas law to make it easier to extract “renewable and non-renewable resources” near and inside of protected areas. If passed, national parks and reserves would be open to oil drilling, mining, fishing and agroforestry when deemed to be in the national interest. Under the new version of the law, the creation of new protected areas would need the approval of not just the Ministry of Environment, but also the Ministry of Energy and Mines. Indigenous leaders meet with officials to discuss a proposed reserve in Loreto. Image courtesy of the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Peruvian&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/peru-considers-stripping-protections-for-indigenous-people-and-their-territories/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/peru-considers-stripping-protections-for-indigenous-people-and-their-territories/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307438</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report finds 226 Indigenous land defenders in Peru at risk of violence</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/report-finds-226-indigenous-land-defenders-in-peru-at-risk-of-violence/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/report-finds-226-indigenous-land-defenders-in-peru-at-risk-of-violence/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Sep 2025 17:25:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Yvette Sierra Praeli]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/29172239/LINA-Y-LITA-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306748</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, extractives, Forests, Human Rights, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Mining, Palm Oil, Rainforests, and trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous territories and the people who defend them in the Peruvian Amazon face a litany of growing threats, activist groups warn in a recent report. In defending their land rights in the face of incursions by criminal, extractive and infrastructure activities, Indigenous peoples run the risk of harassment, criminalization, and even death, they warn. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous territories and the people who defend them in the Peruvian Amazon face a litany of growing threats, activist groups warn in a recent report. In defending their land rights in the face of incursions by criminal, extractive and infrastructure activities, Indigenous peoples run the risk of harassment, criminalization, and even death, they warn. The “Situation of Indigenous Defenders in Ucayali, 2024” report by ProPurús and AIDESEP, an umbrella group of Indigenous associations in the Peruvian Amazon, recorded 226 cases between 2010 and 2024 of Indigenous defenders in “situations of risk” in the region. Deforestation caused by the creation of the Bolognesi–Puerto Breu road in Ucayali. Image courtesy of Upper Amazon Conservancy. The report covers the department of Ucayali; Puerto Inca province in Huánuco department to the west of Ucayali; and two districts — Padre Márquez and Contamana  — in Loreto department to the north. According to the study, one in every 13 environmental defenders in Ucayali was killed during the study period. Between 2019 and 2024 alone, 11 environmental defenders were killed here, followed by Huánuco with a toll of eight killed. The report’s findings were presented May 15 at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru in Lima. They provide a comprehensive look into the threats facing environmental defenders in the three departments, which are home to the 13 Indigenous federations and nearly 260 Indigenous communities that comprise ORAU, AIDESEP’s Ucayali chapter. Among the threats driving violence against Indigenous defenders in the Amazon, the report cites “illegal economies, including&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/report-finds-226-indigenous-land-defenders-in-peru-at-risk-of-violence/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/report-finds-226-indigenous-land-defenders-in-peru-at-risk-of-violence/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306748</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Peru court upholds 28 years in prison for loggers in Indigenous murders</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/peru-court-upholds-28-years-in-prison-for-loggers-in-indigenous-murders/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/peru-court-upholds-28-years-in-prison-for-loggers-in-indigenous-murders/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Sep 2025 19:59:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Geraldine Santos]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/22162208/WhatsApp-Image-2025-08-26-at-3.43.08-AM-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306379</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Forests, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Law, Law Enforcement, Murdered Activists, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[After 11 years, the Alto Tamaya Saweto community has finally received confirmation of convictions in the 2014 murders of Indigenous Ashéninka leaders Edwin Chota, Jorge Ríos, Leoncio Quintanísima and Francisco Pinedo. The killings occurred along the Peru-Brazil border, where the leaders had been actively campaigning against illegal logging in their territory since 2008. On Aug. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[After 11 years, the Alto Tamaya Saweto community has finally received confirmation of convictions in the 2014 murders of Indigenous Ashéninka leaders Edwin Chota, Jorge Ríos, Leoncio Quintanísima and Francisco Pinedo. The killings occurred along the Peru-Brazil border, where the leaders had been actively campaigning against illegal logging in their territory since 2008. On Aug. 25, the appeals chamber of the Superior Court of Ucayali, the department where the killings occurred, ratified the ruling of the first trial, which sentenced timber contractors José Estrada and Hugo Soria, as well as two timber workers, brothers Josimar and Segundo Atachi, to 28 years and three months of prison. “This is a historic ruling for Peru because it’s the first time the judiciary has recognized the work of Indigenous peoples in the defense of human rights and their relationship with nature,” Maritza Quispe, a constitutional lawyer of the Legal Defense Institute (IDL), told Mongabay Latam. Edwin Chota had led the committee of Ashéninka leaders who were going to Brazil to organize the defense of the Saweto forest. He was killed during the journey. Image courtesy of Anouk García. The loggers did not attend the sentencing hearing, which lasted approximately eight hours; therefore, the judiciary issued an immediate arrest warrant. “We ask the police to arrest those sentenced. If they are not in prison, there is no justice,” said Ergilia Rengifo, Ríos’ widow, after learning of the decision of the bench composed of senior judges Robin Barreda, Jonatan Basagoitia, and Marco Santa Cruz. A&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/peru-court-upholds-28-years-in-prison-for-loggers-in-indigenous-murders/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/peru-court-upholds-28-years-in-prison-for-loggers-in-indigenous-murders/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306379</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The fate of flying rivers could decide Amazon ‘tipping point,’ report says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-fate-of-flying-rivers-could-decide-amazon-tipping-point-report-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-fate-of-flying-rivers-could-decide-amazon-tipping-point-report-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Sep 2025 16:12:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/29160330/6dd22811-5a5d-4254-a6f9-7889f4a1d7cd-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306665</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Drought, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Experts often warn about the “tipping point” for the Amazon, a scenario in which the rainforest collapses into a drier, less biodiverse savanna ecosystem. But the term “tipping point” is sometimes misunderstood or generalized, some experts say, suggesting that there will be an instant change to the biome from one day to the next. In [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Experts often warn about the “tipping point” for the Amazon, a scenario in which the rainforest collapses into a drier, less biodiverse savanna ecosystem. But the term “tipping point” is sometimes misunderstood or generalized, some experts say, suggesting that there will be an instant change to the biome from one day to the next. In reality, the transition from rainforest to savanna won’t be a single incident, but rather a gradual process happening at different rates across the region, multiple studies show. Some conservationists say there’s still a fundamental confusion within the general public about what the “tipping point” would look like, and what can be done about it. “For the most part, if you’re reading about the tipping point, you’re left with the impression that it’s like a single event, and that when the Amazon reaches that tipping point, it’s going to go from rainforest to savanna,” Matt Finer, director and senior research specialist of Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andes Amazon Project (MAAP), told Mongabay. “Very rarely do you get the nuance that it’s much more complicated than that.” The MAAP team wanted to clarify the way the Amazon tipping point works, and to explain the science to a general readership who might not have access to the latest research. The team combined numerous studies to create a series of maps, revealing that not all parts of the Amazon have the same risk level. One of the main factors influencing the tipping point is how water moves within the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-fate-of-flying-rivers-could-decide-amazon-tipping-point-report-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306665</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous women in Peru use technology to protect Amazon forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indigenous-women-in-peru-use-technology-to-protect-amazon-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indigenous-women-in-peru-use-technology-to-protect-amazon-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Sep 2025 19:11:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid Arellano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/24184300/Captura-de-pantalla-2025-06-26-a-las-1.57.38-p.m-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306548</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous-led conservation and Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Logging, Mining, Rainforests, Technology, Wildtech, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2017, when Betty Rubio began patrolling the forests of her ancestral land, she began to question why she was doing it. It wasn’t easy. She knew that tackling environmental crimes such as illegal logging and mining came with risks, and that as a woman, those risks were even greater. “My children would say to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2017, when Betty Rubio began patrolling the forests of her ancestral land, she began to question why she was doing it. It wasn’t easy. She knew that tackling environmental crimes such as illegal logging and mining came with risks, and that as a woman, those risks were even greater. “My children would say to me, ‘Mom, you’re fighting for things that aren’t yours. Who’s going to thank you? You’re the only one doing it, and no one else is saying anything,’” the Kichwa forest ranger recalls. But Rubio is clear that the purpose was bigger than herself. It was about protecting food, ancestral medicines and the future, not only for Puerto Arica, her community, but also for many others living along the Napo River Basin in Loreto, the Amazonian region bordering Peru and Ecuador. At the time, she was one of only three forest monitors from her community — the other two were men — who helped launch the monitoring project led by the Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of the Eastern Amazon (known by its Spanish-language acronym, ORPIO), with support from the Rainforest Foundation US (RFUS). Since then, women have stepped into leadership roles in what was once considered an exclusively male field. Today, alongside Rubio, more than 30 women have forged new paths through the Amazon Rainforest. Betty Rubio, an Indigenous forest monitor, encourages women to get involved in monitoring their territories and forests. Image courtesy of Rainforest Foundation US. “It’s always been thought that this work&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indigenous-women-in-peru-use-technology-to-protect-amazon-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306548</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Protecting Indigenous Amazon lands may also protect public health, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/protecting-indigenous-amazon-lands-may-also-protect-public-health-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/protecting-indigenous-amazon-lands-may-also-protect-public-health-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Sep 2025 16:13:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/07100930/DSCF1540NK_Wao_nemopare_retrato_pekes-2048x1365-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306273</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aerosol Pollution, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Diseases, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Governance, Health, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Planetary Health, Pollution, Protected Areas, Public Health, Rainforests, Research, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous territories are widely recognized as vital for conserving the environment and biodiversity, but far less is known about their role in protecting human health. Only recently have researchers begun to fill in this knowledge gap and investigate how the protection of these areas can provide health benefits as well as ecosystem services. Now, a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous territories are widely recognized as vital for conserving the environment and biodiversity, but far less is known about their role in protecting human health. Only recently have researchers begun to fill in this knowledge gap and investigate how the protection of these areas can provide health benefits as well as ecosystem services. Now, a new paper analyzing the relationship between Indigenous territories and the occurrence of 21 diseases in the Amazon biome over 20 years suggests that healthy forests on protected Indigenous territories can help reduce disease incidence and risks to human health. “Indigenous forests act as a sort of shield for health,” said study lead author Júlia Rodrigues Barreto, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. Published in Communications Earth &amp; Environment, the study is the first of its kind to look at all nine Amazonian countries. Its main contribution, according to Barreto, is to convey the importance of guaranteeing land rights for Indigenous peoples across the Amazon. Indigenous village of the Huni Kuin people in Jordão, Acre. Indigenous territories with secure land rights not only reduce deforestation inside their lands in the Brazilian Amazon, but also lead to higher secondary forest growth on previously deforested areas. Image by AgniBa via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Barreto and her colleagues looked at how Indigenous territories, depending on their legal status and landscape characteristics, could influence the incidence of fire-related illnesses, as well as vector-borne and zoonotic diseases — those transmitted by insect bites or&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/protecting-indigenous-amazon-lands-may-also-protect-public-health-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306273</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New conservation area protects 53% of carbon in northern Peruvian Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-conservation-area-protects-53-of-carbon-in-northern-peruvian-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-conservation-area-protects-53-of-carbon-in-northern-peruvian-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Sep 2025 15:39:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Geraldine Santos]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/18153755/154c08ce-5194-431b-aeea-c3097c4a375a-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306194</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new regional conservation area has been created in Loreto, the largest region in Peru’s Amazon. The Medio Putumayo Algodón Regional Conservation Area is the fourth protected natural area in the Putumayo region, an area connected by the Putumayo River, which flows into Colombia. The Ministry of the Environment established the area on June 6 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new regional conservation area has been created in Loreto, the largest region in Peru’s Amazon. The Medio Putumayo Algodón Regional Conservation Area is the fourth protected natural area in the Putumayo region, an area connected by the Putumayo River, which flows into Colombia. The Ministry of the Environment established the area on June 6 by Supreme Decree to conserve 283,595 hectares (about 700,778 acres) across the districts of Pebas, Putumayo and Yaguas. Pebas is in Mariscal Ramón Castilla province, while Putumayo and Yaguas are in Putumayo province. The area contains seven different ecosystems with primary forests. Protecting this area will contribute to maintaining 53% of Loreto&#8217;s annual carbon stock. Forests are among the world’s most dynamic carbon reservoirs, as deforestation and land use changes release carbon dioxide, driving global warming. The new regional conservation area covers over 283,000 hectares (700,780 acres) of primary forest surrounding the Putumayo River. Image courtesy of Diego Pérez (Peruvian Society for Environmental Law – SPDA). Sixteen Indigenous communities are to benefit from the Medio Putumayo Algodón Regional Conservation Area. Image courtesy of Diego Pérez (SPDA). The region is the largest in Peru, covering 6,9 million hectares (17 million acres), which represents 28% of the country’s territory and 51% of the Peruvian Amazon. It is also home to the largest Indigenous population, with around 100,000 people from 27 different communities. Additionally, more than 5,000 people living in 16 Indigenous communities around the new regional conservation area, which the regional government of Loreto will manage, will&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-conservation-area-protects-53-of-carbon-in-northern-peruvian-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-conservation-area-protects-53-of-carbon-in-northern-peruvian-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306194</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Isolated tribes under threat as Peru votes down Yavarí Mirim Indigenous Reserve</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/isolated-tribes-under-threat-as-peru-votes-down-yavari-mirim-indigenous-reserve/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/isolated-tribes-under-threat-as-peru-votes-down-yavari-mirim-indigenous-reserve/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Sep 2025 16:35:37 +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/20/2025/09/08161752/foto-malocas-PIA-cuenca-Yavari-2015-AIDESEP-ORPIO-5-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305592</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Logging, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Officials in Peru last week voted against a proposal to create an Indigenous reserve in the country’s Amazonian region, where isolated tribes face threats from logging, mining and drug trafficking. The decision will likely delay efforts to protect them by several years and could lead to their displacement, critics said. The proposed Yavarí Mirim Indigenous [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Officials in Peru last week voted against a proposal to create an Indigenous reserve in the country’s Amazonian region, where isolated tribes face threats from logging, mining and drug trafficking. The decision will likely delay efforts to protect them by several years and could lead to their displacement, critics said. The proposed Yavarí Mirim Indigenous Reserve would have protected 1.17 million hectares (2.9 million acres) of Amazon Rainforest in the Loreto region, an area a fifth the size of Ireland that’s home to several Indigenous communities living in isolation. A commission reviewed anthropological evidence of the communities’ presence in the area but voted in line with the interests of business sectors and forestry concessions. “With this decision, the Peruvian state has chosen to favor economic and criminal interests over the [isolated Indigenous peoples’] right to live in peace and dignity,” the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Peruvian Amazon (ORPIO) said in a statement after the vote. “This represents a historic setback in human rights and an assault on the Amazon and its Indigenous peoples.” The commission voted eight against and five in favor. Members of ORPIO meet with the officials from the Ministry of Transport to discuss the proposed reserve. Image courtesy of ORPIOAidesep. The Matsés, Matis, Korubo, Kulina-Pano and Flecheiro Indigenous peoples live in isolation on a border area with Brazil, leaving longhouses, gardens, tools and remains of campfires as anthropological evidence of their existence. For years, Peruvian officials denied reports that the groups were real. It&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/isolated-tribes-under-threat-as-peru-votes-down-yavari-mirim-indigenous-reserve/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305592</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The making of an autonomous Indigenous nation in Peru&#8217;s Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-making-of-an-autonomous-indigenous-nation-in-peru/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-making-of-an-autonomous-indigenous-nation-in-peru/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2025 17:19:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/03161114/Wampis-6-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305368</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Crime, Culture, Environment, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Mining, Oil Drilling, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2015, leaders of the Wampís did what no other Indigenous peoples have done in Peru’s modern history: They declared themselves an autonomous nation to gain greater control over their territory. For decades, the Indigenous Wampís (or Huambisa) of the northern Peruvian Amazon have protested against oil drilling and other extractive activities in their home, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2015, leaders of the Wampís did what no other Indigenous peoples have done in Peru’s modern history: They declared themselves an autonomous nation to gain greater control over their territory. For decades, the Indigenous Wampís (or Huambisa) of the northern Peruvian Amazon have protested against oil drilling and other extractive activities in their home, to little avail. By declaring autonomy, they sought to change this. A decade on from that declaration, now in 2025, they’ve seen rays of success. But the Wampís still find themselves vying for control over their land. The chief hurdle is that the Peruvian state won’t recognize their sovereignty, say Pamuk Teófilo Kukush Pati and Tsanim Evaristo Wajai Asamat, the elected leader and the justice director, respectively, of the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampís Nation (GTANW). The pair were at London Climate Week in June to discuss the importance of their autonomy, self-determination and self-governance with business leaders, policymakers, investors and civil society representatives. “The [Peruvian] state has little interest in our autonomy, but we want to be recognized,” Teófilo told Mongabay during an interview in a small room at the back of London’s Royal Anthropological Institute. He was wearing traditional Wampís garments with utsupak (chest pieces) and tawas (multicolored feather crown). A member of the Kanus Multiservices Cooperative, a project for the economic development of farmers in the Kanus Basin, wearing a tradition Wampís utsupak (chest piece). Image courtesy of Maria Goretii/Convoca. Without this recognition, the autonomous nation has struggled to develop local&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-making-of-an-autonomous-indigenous-nation-in-peru/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305368</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>An Indigenous-led solar canoe initiative expands across the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/an-indigenous-led-solar-canoe-initiative-expands-across-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/an-indigenous-led-solar-canoe-initiative-expands-across-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Sep 2025 07:00:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/29185918/Photo-4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305211</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Ecuador, Latin America, Peru, Solomon Islands, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Rainforests, Renewable Energy, Roads, Solar Power, Solutions, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A solar-powered canoe initiative originally launched in Ecuador’s Amazon in 2017 has now expanded to Indigenous coastal communities in Brazil, Peru, Suriname and the Solomon Islands. Researchers say the effort helps communities in tropical regions reduce gasoline and diesel use, avoid road expansion and develop non-extractive income projects like tourism and forestry products businesses. Ichinki [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A solar-powered canoe initiative originally launched in Ecuador’s Amazon in 2017 has now expanded to Indigenous coastal communities in Brazil, Peru, Suriname and the Solomon Islands. Researchers say the effort helps communities in tropical regions reduce gasoline and diesel use, avoid road expansion and develop non-extractive income projects like tourism and forestry products businesses. Ichinki Tentets Tanchim Federico, a leader from the Indigenous Achuar community of Wayusentsa in Ecuador, which recently received a solar-powered canoe, told Mongabay via WhatsApp that the boat has reduced pollution by using engines that don’t release exhaust fumes in the waters and air. “[They] do not pollute the environment, especially for those who live near rivers,” he said, adding that it has saved Indigenous people the cost of purchasing fuel and oil. The Kara Solar Foundation, an Indigenous-led team of engineers, communicators, social scientists and solar technicians, created the project after Indigenous Achuar people in the southeastern Ecuadorian Amazon expressed their vision to build a solar-powered boat. Tapiatpia, the first solar canoe, survived an 1,800-kilometer (1,118-mile) journey across several Amazonian rivers and safely returned to Achuar territory in 2017. Since then, Kara Solar has delivered 12 solar-powered canoes to communities in five countries and built solar recharge stations that double as community energy centers. Six of the canoes were delivered to communities in Ecuador, two in Peru, two in Brazil, one in Suriname and one in the Solomon Islands. It has also trained members of Indigenous communities to operate and manage the systems in their&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/an-indigenous-led-solar-canoe-initiative-expands-across-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305211</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Formalizing small-scale gold mining can reduce environmental impacts &#038; crime (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/formalizing-small-scale-gold-mining-can-reduce-environmental-impacts-crime-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/formalizing-small-scale-gold-mining-can-reduce-environmental-impacts-crime-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Aug 2025 19:49:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Robert Muggah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/06153154/Columbia-Illegal-Mining-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303936</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Global, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Community Development, Corruption, Crime, Deforestation, Development, Environment, Forests, Gold Mining, Illegal Mining, Illegal Trade, Mercury, Mining, Pollution, Rainforests, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Artisanal and small-scale gold mining employs more than 15 million people globally and generates a fifth of global gold supplies. It supports 100 million people indirectly, more than any other extractive sector, yet despite its economic lifeline status, it remains the world’s largest source of mercury pollution and a growing conduit for organized crime, corruption [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Artisanal and small-scale gold mining employs more than 15 million people globally and generates a fifth of global gold supplies. It supports 100 million people indirectly, more than any other extractive sector, yet despite its economic lifeline status, it remains the world’s largest source of mercury pollution and a growing conduit for organized crime, corruption and environmental devastation. A host of international and regional agreements and programs have emerged to target illegal gold mining and associated issues, from the Minamata Convention on Mercury to the planetGOLD initiative. Against this backdrop of pollution, crime and informality, one proposed solution is investment in centralized gold processing plants. A report from the World Gold Council found that if well designed and governed, such plants can help shift workers from informal to formal employment, facilitate due diligence, curb illegal mercury use, and decouple artisanal mining from criminal and illicit economies. Promising experiences in regularizing small-scale gold production from Peru to Tanzania suggest that the focus on such plants offers more than hypothetical returns. The mercury used to amalgamate gold is cheap, effective and toxic. Studies from artisanal and small-scale mining sites across the Amazon reveal catastrophic consequences for human health and ecosystems. Investment in centralized and mercury-free processing plants could be a “missing middle” in the sector, transforming pollutant-intensive livelihoods to cleaner, safer ones. Different types of gold processing plants require different types of interventions. For example, gravimetric plants, which separate gold through density differences rather than chemical processing, require significantly less capital than&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/formalizing-small-scale-gold-mining-can-reduce-environmental-impacts-crime-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303936</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cross-border operation cracks down on environmental crimes in the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/cross-border-operation-cracks-down-on-environmental-crimes-in-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/cross-border-operation-cracks-down-on-environmental-crimes-in-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Aug 2025 16:00:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mie Hoejris Dahl]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/06152253/Illegal-Mining-Green-River-Brasil-Photo-3-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303861</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Crime, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Illegal Logging, Illegal Mining, Illegal Trade, Indigenous Peoples, Law Enforcement, Mining, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, timber trade, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MEXICO CITY – About two dozen police officers, government officials and a data specialist sat side by side in a command center in northern Bogotá, Colombia’s capital. For two weeks, they reviewed live camera footage and tracked geolocations of police actions that were part of Operation Green Shield, a field initiative targeting cross-border environmental crime [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MEXICO CITY – About two dozen police officers, government officials and a data specialist sat side by side in a command center in northern Bogotá, Colombia’s capital. For two weeks, they reviewed live camera footage and tracked geolocations of police actions that were part of Operation Green Shield, a field initiative targeting cross-border environmental crime across the Amazon Rainforest. Criminal groups engaging in destructive, illicit activities have expanded across vast stretches of the Amazon over the past decade. They move largely unimpeded across national borders within the Amazon Rainforest, where state presence is often weak and government efforts remain fragmented and siloed. Between June 23 and July 6, 2025, Operation Green Shield relied on cross-border cooperation and technology to target illegal mining, wildlife trafficking, poaching, illegal logging, fuel smuggling and illegal waste. Yet environmental crime continues to proliferate across the Amazon Basin, experts warn. The operation deployed more than 1,500 police officers across the Amazon Basin in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. They made more than 90 arrests and more than 350 coordinated simultaneous raids, seizing assets worth more than $64 million. Police seized more than 310 tons of raw minerals and 61 tons of calcium oxide (used to separate metal from ores) from illegal mining sites. They recovered more than 2,100 live animals and 6,350 dead specimens, including birds, lizards and mammals. The National Police of Peru told Mongabay they had seized lizard heads, yellow-spotted river turtles (Podocnemis unifilis), Andean foxes (Lycalopex culpaeus), caimans, parrots, sloths and other species.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/cross-border-operation-cracks-down-on-environmental-crimes-in-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303861</doi>				</item>
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