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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=drug-trade&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/drug-trade/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>News on Drug Trade</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/drug-trade/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Report reveals Cambodia’s appetite for tigers, rhinos and other endangered wildlife</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/report-reveals-cambodias-appetite-for-tigers-rhinos-and-other-endangered-wildlife/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/report-reveals-cambodias-appetite-for-tigers-rhinos-and-other-endangered-wildlife/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jul 2026 13:02:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/20152557/tiger1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324051</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Cambodia, Global, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Critically Endangered Species, Drug Trade, Endangered Species, Environmental Law, Governance, Illegal Trade, Megafauna, Organized Crime, Poaching, Rhinos, Threatened species, Tigers, Trade, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tiger bone wines in exquisite bottles. Tiger cubs sold alive as pets or served as a culinary delicacy alongside pangolin and cobra meat at exclusive restaurants. Rooms filled with rhino horns and elephant ivory, stacks of freshly skinned tiger pelts and bags of pangolin scales. Jewelry made from protected corals and ivory. This is just [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tiger bone wines in exquisite bottles. Tiger cubs sold alive as pets or served as a culinary delicacy alongside pangolin and cobra meat at exclusive restaurants. Rooms filled with rhino horns and elephant ivory, stacks of freshly skinned tiger pelts and bags of pangolin scales. Jewelry made from protected corals and ivory. This is just a glimpse of the thriving illegal wildlife trade in Cambodia discovered by undercover investigators from Earth League International (ELI), a U.S.-based NGO that probes environmental crime. From 2025-26, ELI investigators mapped out the people involved in this illicit enterprise and identified five main kingpins allegedly running it. They gathered details on how cartels smuggle wildlife and their parts, what they sell and who their main customers are. They also linked this black-market trade with human and drug trafficking networks and scam centers operating out of Cambodia that defraud their targets. The investigators’ findings of this operation — named Sandokan after a fictional 19th-century pirate from Southeast Asia — are published in a new report. The yearlong investigation revealed a huge demand for wildlife products within Cambodia, fueled by wealthy Chinese and Cambodian buyers. An elephant tusk offered for sale to undercover investigators. Image courtesy of Earth League International. “It&#8217;s a trafficking enterprise, and a good example of what happens when you don&#8217;t do anything … they grow and grow and grow, and at the end, the damage is substantial,” said Andrea Crosta, executive director of ELI. “The big surprise was the incredible quantity of wildlife&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/report-reveals-cambodias-appetite-for-tigers-rhinos-and-other-endangered-wildlife/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324051</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How narcos moved 108 tons of timber infused with drugs from Bolivia to Chile</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-narcos-moved-108-tons-of-timber-infused-with-drugs-from-bolivia-to-chile/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-narcos-moved-108-tons-of-timber-infused-with-drugs-from-bolivia-to-chile/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jul 2026 13:30:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Iván Paredes Tamayo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/10131149/Chile-run-anti-drug-operation-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323075</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Chile, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Crime, Drug Trade, Environment, Forest Products, Forestry, Governance, Illegal Trade, Law, Timber, timber trade, Trade, trafficking, and Tropical hardwoods]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[New risks to South American forests emerge as trees becomes a key element in drug trafficking.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new case has exposed the connection between drug trafficking webs and the export of timber from the Amazon and other regions of Bolivia. After Chile announced in June the largest drug seizure — 108 tons of cocaine and ketamine — in its history, authorities confirmed the substances were detected impregnated in Bolivian wood planks. This is not the first time shipments of the so-called “narco-timber” have been caught: The illicit practice dates back at least 20 years, using the same recurring routes. Mongabay accessed prosecutorial sources in both Chile and Bolivia, two Andean nations in South America sharing a land border of 861 kilometers (535 miles). According to investigations in Chile, 32 shipments were made from Bolivia by 15 timber companies, mostly in 2026. In financial terms, the total amount of drugs moved through this system had a value exceeding $8.3 billion in international markets, according to the breakdown. “It is a six-month investigation developed by the Prosecutor&#8217;s Office of Arica [a northern Commune], the Maritime Police, and the National Customs Service of Chile, which culminated in the detection of 45 contaminated containers [with drugs] in the ports of Arica, Valparaíso, and San Antonio,” the Prosecutor&#8217;s Office of Arica and Parinacota stated in a report. Cocaine and ketamine impregnated in timber were detected in Arica, northern Chile. Image courtesy of the National Customs Service of Chile. The timber shipments departed from Bolivia, mainly from the departments of Pando, Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, Beni and La Paz. The cargoes had ports&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-narcos-moved-108-tons-of-timber-infused-with-drugs-from-bolivia-to-chile/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323075</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Death and exile: A war plagues Indigenous Jiw and Nukak in the Colombian Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/death-and-exile-a-war-plagues-indigenous-jiw-and-nukak-in-the-colombian-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/death-and-exile-a-war-plagues-indigenous-jiw-and-nukak-in-the-colombian-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jun 2026 19:15:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Pilar Puentes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/19190508/banner-1-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321516</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Crime, Drug Trade, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[By late May, at least 48 people were killed in rural areas of Colombia following clashes between the FARC guerrilla dissident groups controlled by the aliases “Calarcá” and “Iván Mordisco.”]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Since the end of May, rural areas of San José del Guaviare, the capital city of the Guaviare department in the Colombian Amazon, have once again been turned into a war zone. A series of clashes between dissident cells of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), demobilized in 2016, and commanded by Alexander Díaz Mendoza, alias “Calarcá,” and Néstor Gregorio Vera Fernández, alias “‘Iván Mordisco,” has resulted in the deaths of at least 48 people. The warfare between the two armed groups concentrates on a strategic area for illicit economies on the Guaviare River, a tributary of the Orinoco River. The rural community of Cumare, as well as the Nukak and Jiw Indigenous people of the Barranco Colorado Reserve (an ancestral territory in San José del Guaviare), started hearing gunshots and rushed to hide. Since that frightening day, May 26, they have avoided leaving their homes. “People are on maximum alert; no one moves because they fear being caught in the middle of the confrontation,” said a resident of Charras, another rural area of San José del Guaviare, who requested anonymity for safety reasons. “We knew something like this could happen. A bomb fell in the middle of a sports field here in the Siberia rural district,” said a woman who has witnessed the clashes since their very beginning; she also requested anonymity. Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez stated, “The criminal structures of alias ‘Mordisco’ and ‘Calarcá’ fought in the Barranco Colorado sector, jurisdiction of San José del Guaviare,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/death-and-exile-a-war-plagues-indigenous-jiw-and-nukak-in-the-colombian-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/death-and-exile-a-war-plagues-indigenous-jiw-and-nukak-in-the-colombian-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321516</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>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>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306748</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>An underground gold war in Colombia is ‘a ticking ecological time bomb’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/an-underground-gold-war-in-colombia-is-a-ticking-ecological-time-bomb/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/an-underground-gold-war-in-colombia-is-a-ticking-ecological-time-bomb/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2024 15:00:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Joshua Collins]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/27141118/DSC_0767-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292234</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Environment, extractives, Freshwater, Gold Mining, Illegal Mining, and Mining]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Nearly 100 underground tunnels, running a combined length of more than 84 kilometers, or 52 miles, crisscross and plunge into the depths of the mountain that hosts the Zijin gold mine in Buriticá, northeastern Colombia. Since 2021, those tunnels have been invaded by informal miners associated with Colombia’s largest criminal armed group, the Gaitanista Army [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nearly 100 underground tunnels, running a combined length of more than 84 kilometers, or 52 miles, crisscross and plunge into the depths of the mountain that hosts the Zijin gold mine in Buriticá, northeastern Colombia. Since 2021, those tunnels have been invaded by informal miners associated with Colombia’s largest criminal armed group, the Gaitanista Army of Colombia (EGC), called the “Gulf Clan” by the government, who are digging their own honeycomb of tunnels into the same massive gold deposits. Confrontations between the informal miners Zijin security personnel have at times escalated into underground gun battles. And as the mine acts as a magnet for increasing criminality, both social and environmental destruction have followed. Residents describe the situation as “a ticking ecological time bomb.” Some say they worry that the thousands of poorly constructed tunnels built by the informal miners are in danger of collapsing the mountain entirely — a fear also expressed after investigations by the Mining, Environmental and Agrarian Office of Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office. Concerns over contamination In a public statement from July, the AGO warned that illegal mining is creating “grave environmental consequences” that include “structural geological risk to the base” of the mountain where the Zijin mine is located. “All mining, legal or illegal, contributes to ecological damage, and potentially threatens water tables via underground aquifers, causes deforestation and in turn these phenomena threaten biodiversity,” Oscar Alejandro Pérez-Escobar, a Colombian researcher at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the U.K., told Mongabay. “The region where Buriticá&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/an-underground-gold-war-in-colombia-is-a-ticking-ecological-time-bomb/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292234</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>High-flying concessions: Clandestine airstrips, coca crops invade Ucayali’s forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/high-flying-concessions-clandestine-airstrips-coca-crops-invade-ucayalis-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/high-flying-concessions-clandestine-airstrips-coca-crops-invade-ucayalis-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2024 09:52:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Latam]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/02121205/Foto-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291020</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Airstrips]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Forests, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Zooming in on the Peruvian jungle, many hectares of deforestation can be seen amid the thick vegetation, like huge scars hidden among the foliage. They’re dispersed between the forests in the departments of Ucayali, Loreto, Huánuco, Madre de Dios, Pasco and Cusco. Some are very close to rivers, others just meters away from tracks or [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Zooming in on the Peruvian jungle, many hectares of deforestation can be seen amid the thick vegetation, like huge scars hidden among the foliage. They’re dispersed between the forests in the departments of Ucayali, Loreto, Huánuco, Madre de Dios, Pasco and Cusco. Some are very close to rivers, others just meters away from tracks or roads, and many are in the middle of protected areas. After more than 10 months of research, a team coordinated by Mongabay Latam confirmed that these openings in the middle of the jungle are clandestine airstrips. Many of them are built in or around native communities’ territories, close to protected areas or inside Indigenous reserves. With information obtained from the Peruvian police’s antinarcotics unit, DIRANDRO; the departmental government of Ucayali, GORE Ucayali; OpenStreetMap; and used an AI visual search to review satellite imagery, we identified a total of 128 illegal airstrips across six departments in the Peruvian Amazon. We confirmed the presence of 76 of these through approximately 60 interviews with Indigenous leaders, community members, prosecutors, experts and civil servants. Of this number, 45 are in Ucayali and were built for drug trafficking. The collaboration with Earth Genome was supported by the Pulitzer Center. “We found drug laboratories and clandestine airstrips mostly in the [province] of Atalaya [in Ucayali],” said Pedro Velásquez, deputy prosecutor of the Ucayali Special Prosecutor’s Office for Illicit Drug Trafficking. “Drug traffickers often use native communities or hard-to-access areas with no land registry and position themselves there; they know which areas&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/high-flying-concessions-clandestine-airstrips-coca-crops-invade-ucayalis-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/high-flying-concessions-clandestine-airstrips-coca-crops-invade-ucayalis-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291020</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Peru&#8217;s modern history of migration and settlement</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/perus-modern-history-of-migration-and-settlement/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/perus-modern-history-of-migration-and-settlement/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Dec 2024 10:20:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/11154913/wayquecha-peru_220139-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291467</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Cities, coca plantations, Corruption, Deforestation, Human Migration, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Migration, Mining, Palm Oil, Plantations, Population, Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Policies designed to occupy and populate the Peruvian Amazon began about seventy years ago with the construction of a trunk highway connecting Pucallpa on the Ucayali River with Lima. Named after a Peruvian historian, the construction of the Carretera Federico Basadre is a landmark event in the nation’s history, because it provided the first reliable [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Policies designed to occupy and populate the Peruvian Amazon began about seventy years ago with the construction of a trunk highway connecting Pucallpa on the Ucayali River with Lima. Named after a Peruvian historian, the construction of the Carretera Federico Basadre is a landmark event in the nation’s history, because it provided the first reliable means of communication between the capital and the Amazonian provinces that make up more than fifty per cent of Peru’s territory. The next major initiative began when the government added a northern spur through the montane forests of the Huallaga Valley, which was intended to integrate its northern Amazonian provinces while opening a lush tropical valley to agricultural development. Construction of these two highways was financed with state resources in the 1970s, when a left-wing military government had limited access to international finance. After a return to civilian government in the 1980s, multilateral institutions financed several project-based initiatives, but these were soon sidelined when the country entered a period of civil unrest that impeded economic growth and foreign investment. The economy improved in the 1990s following the end of the civil war, and the government, then led by Alberto Fujimori, initiated a series of system-wide investments in transportation infrastructure using public money leveraged with loans from the IDB. The system-wide approach was complemented in 2000 with the Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America (IIRSA), which improved the strategic planning of highway investments in general, while promoting public-private partnerships (PPP) to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/perus-modern-history-of-migration-and-settlement/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/perus-modern-history-of-migration-and-settlement/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291467</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Narco airstrips beset Indigenous communities in Peruvian Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/narco-airstrips-beset-indigenous-communities-in-peruvian-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/narco-airstrips-beset-indigenous-communities-in-peruvian-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Dec 2024 12:18:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Latam]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/03100239/PISTA-CHANCHAMAYO-ABRE-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291108</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Airstrips and Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Forests, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The boat comes to a halt, shuddering against the dirt bank that rises from the edge of the Ucayali River. Sixto, tanned and with a frown cutting deep furrows across his forehead, jumps ashore. He strides up to a flat area dotted with banana plantations, yucca crops and scattered foliage. He raises his hand and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The boat comes to a halt, shuddering against the dirt bank that rises from the edge of the Ucayali River. Sixto, tanned and with a frown cutting deep furrows across his forehead, jumps ashore. He strides up to a flat area dotted with banana plantations, yucca crops and scattered foliage. He raises his hand and waves. He then follows a path that penetrates a wall of trees, passes through mudflats and traces the undergrowth that thickens the forest. He doesn’t speak. He knows where to go, and that’s all that’s needed. At intervals he says, barely whispering: “It won’t be long now.” During each stretch, as he keeps up his pace, Sixto scans the horizon, although it’s always the same scene of trees and scattered green. The dense jungle he passes through lies in Tahuanía district, Atalaya province, in the Peruvian Amazon. Thirty-four minutes into this trek along this tangled route, the roof formed by the treetops suddenly opens up to reveal a huge rectangle of bare earth. “It is 985 meters [3,232 feet], a big ‘cancha’ [field],” he whispers, and points to the other end: “We’ve arrived.” No drug planes have taken off yet from this clandestine airstrip. This stretch was prepared five years ago, but with the COVID-19 outbreak, there was no need for traffickers to find new ways to get their drug shipments out, Sixto recalls, now less tense, more talkative. He was one of the young men who prepared the land after it was cleared. He&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/narco-airstrips-beset-indigenous-communities-in-peruvian-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/narco-airstrips-beset-indigenous-communities-in-peruvian-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291108</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>15 illegal narco-trafficking airstrips found near Peru Indigenous communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/15-illegal-narco-trafficking-airstrips-found-near-peru-indigenous-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/15-illegal-narco-trafficking-airstrips-found-near-peru-indigenous-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Dec 2024 09:54:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Latam]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/27113614/Huacamayo-Abridor-3-Max-Cabello-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290775</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Airstrips and Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Forests, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The hum of a small plane is heard overhead during a community assembly, but no one looks up. Conversation rises naturally over the sound as the engine’s intense roar fades into the background. The aircraft takes five minutes to pass over an Indigenous community located between the districts of Yuyapichis and Puerto Bermúdez, its course [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The hum of a small plane is heard overhead during a community assembly, but no one looks up. Conversation rises naturally over the sound as the engine’s intense roar fades into the background. The aircraft takes five minutes to pass over an Indigenous community located between the districts of Yuyapichis and Puerto Bermúdez, its course traceable by simply following the sound — today, the plane is hidden from view by clouds. On the morning of Sunday, April 21, 2024, this Yanesha community, nestled between the regions of Huánuco and Pasco in Peru’s central rainforests, is hosting a gathering of Indigenous residents from Huánuco and its two annexes. Some have arrived by boat, navigating up the Pachitea River, which forms at the confluence of the Pichis and the Palcazu rivers. At least 200 people are present, focused on discussing one central concern: securing legal titles for their lands. Nothing else can distract them today — not the sound of the small plane, nor the clandestine airstrips surrounding the community that daily serve drug trafficking. Yanesha community members on the way to their community assembly. Image by Mongabay Latam. “Didn’t you hear what was happening earlier? That’s them. I don’t know where they are going,” a local source told us in hushed tones, confirming the aircraft’s departure. “From here, whatever they take with them will go to other areas of Yuyapichis. That’s where they fly,” he says. “It used to be more regular, busier. There was even a bit of money in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/15-illegal-narco-trafficking-airstrips-found-near-peru-indigenous-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290775</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The illegal runways exposing the Kakataibo people to drug violence in Peru</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-illegal-runways-exposing-the-kakataibo-people-to-drug-violence-in-peru/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-illegal-runways-exposing-the-kakataibo-people-to-drug-violence-in-peru/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Nov 2024 12:30:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Latam]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/29150332/edited-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290700</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Airstrips and Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Forests, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The audience erupts into cheers and applause. The emcee has just announced the four finalists of the “Miss Juan Chávez Muquinuy” beauty pageant, who take the stage for their final walk down the runway. The competitors are all schoolgirls between 13 and 15 years old, parading in tops, shorts and platform heels. It&#8217;s 8 p.m., [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The audience erupts into cheers and applause. The emcee has just announced the four finalists of the “Miss Juan Chávez Muquinuy” beauty pageant, who take the stage for their final walk down the runway. The competitors are all schoolgirls between 13 and 15 years old, parading in tops, shorts and platform heels. It&#8217;s 8 p.m., and although there&#8217;s no electricity in the village, the ceremony venue is lit using solar panels, and music booms through two huge speakers. &#8220;Until three years ago, the winner was decided by the number of raffle tickets sold by each salon. Now we celebrate properly,&#8221; the mother of one of the contestants says. Nearly the whole village is gathered to witness the coronation of a new queen in an Indigenous community of the Kakataibo ethnic group, located in the province of Padre Abad, in the jungle of Peru&#8217;s Ucayali region. The Kakataibo are a warrior people who have historically lived between the regions of Loreto, Ucayali and Huánuco, in a vast territory split in two by the Federico Basadre Highway. In the northern area they live with the Indigenous Shipibo-Conibo people, in the towns of Nuevo Edén, La Cumbre, Muruinia, Santa Rosita de Apua, Santa Rosa, Yamino and Mariscal Cáceres. In the south, they reside in the Native communities of Santa Martha, Puerto Nuevo, Sinchi Roca I, Sinchi Roca II, Unipacuyacu and Puerto Azul. These groups have a key cultural role, as they form a security cord around the Kakataibo North and South Indigenous Reserve,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-illegal-runways-exposing-the-kakataibo-people-to-drug-violence-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-290700</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Women in Putumayo turn to fish farming and away from the coca industry</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/women-in-putumayo-turn-to-fish-farming-and-away-from-the-coca-industry/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/women-in-putumayo-turn-to-fish-farming-and-away-from-the-coca-industry/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Nov 2024 21:00:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Iñigo Alexander]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/11/08194939/DSC_5135-copia-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290868</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Women Defenders of the Colombian Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Aquaculture, Biodiversity, coca plantations, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Forest Loss, Freshwater Fish, Illegal Trade, Indigenous Peoples, Land Conflict, Politics, Sustainability, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[EL VENADO, Colombia — Until recently, the rolling green hills surrounding the tiny Colombian community of El Venado were covered with illegal coca plantations. Deep in the southern state of Putumayo and away from government oversight, Graciela Castillo, like many other locals, grew coca, a key ingredient in the production of cocaine. Putumayo&#8217;s economy has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[EL VENADO, Colombia — Until recently, the rolling green hills surrounding the tiny Colombian community of El Venado were covered with illegal coca plantations. Deep in the southern state of Putumayo and away from government oversight, Graciela Castillo, like many other locals, grew coca, a key ingredient in the production of cocaine. Putumayo&#8217;s economy has long been tethered to coca production, with the illicit drug trade providing a stable and reliable economic lifeline for rural communities. But this has also exposed them to armed groups, human rights abuses and instability. Seeking an alternative, Castillo and other local women have switched to fish farming, which allows them to make a living, distance themselves from violence and fight against gender stereotypes. &#8220;The conflict has been going on for many years and now it has become more visible,&#8221; says Castillo, whose brother was killed in 1995 as part of the wider conflict in Putumayo, while she and her family had to move. &#8220;People are no longer silent, they are speaking up, but before you had to watch and keep quiet, otherwise you would be killed or displaced,&#8221; she tells Mongabay. Pushed by necessity, Castillo eventually returned to Putumayo to work in the coca fields; but as she continued facing insecurity, she sought a different livelihood. She is now a member of the local fishing cooperative Asociación de Piscicultoras y Productoras Agropecuarias El Progreso, known by its acronym ASOPPAEP, a female-led collective established in 2013 that focuses on a legal, safer alternative to the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/women-in-putumayo-turn-to-fish-farming-and-away-from-the-coca-industry/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290868</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The underreported killing of Colombia’s Indigenous land guardian, ‘The Wolf’ (Photos)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-underreported-killing-of-colombias-indigenous-land-guardian-the-wolf-photos/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-underreported-killing-of-colombias-indigenous-land-guardian-the-wolf-photos/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Nov 2024 16:27:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anna AbrahamCesar QuirozTony Kirby]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/06162247/3-His-fellow-guardians-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289737</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Media, Murdered Activists, Organized Crime, Politics, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BOGOTÁ, Colombia — While music played in Bogotá&#8217;s streets and a sense of victory filled the air after a long protest, Ana Graciela received a new appointment on her calendar: the funeral of Carlos Andrés Ascué Tumbo. Nicknamed Lobo (meaning “wolf” in Spanish), the esteemed Indigenous guardian and educational coordinator was killed Aug. 29, while his [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BOGOTÁ, Colombia — While music played in Bogotá&#8217;s streets and a sense of victory filled the air after a long protest, Ana Graciela received a new appointment on her calendar: the funeral of Carlos Andrés Ascué Tumbo. Nicknamed Lobo (meaning “wolf” in Spanish), the esteemed Indigenous guardian and educational coordinator was killed Aug. 29, while his fellow guardians, the Kiwe Thegnas (or Indigenous Guard of Cauca) were protesting for better security in Cauca, Colombia. The region has increasingly become dangerous with incursions by illegal armed groups. “The situation is tough. Women and children are being killed [almost] every day,” said Ana Graciela Tombé, coordinator of the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca. The Bogotá protest gathered more than 4,000 people, in what is known as a minga in the Andean tradition, against escalating violence in the region. After eight days, on Aug. 28, the Indigenous communities succeeded in getting President Gustavo Petro to sign a new decree, the Economic and Environmental Territorial Authority, which grants Indigenous territories greater autonomy to take judicial action against violence within their lands. But the sentiment is bittersweet for the Indigenous Nasa and Misak activists in Ana’s homeland of Cauca, particularly in Pueblo Nuevo, a nationally recognized Indigenous territory (resguardo). They’ve lost a dear leader and role model, impassioned with protecting their ancestral territory, forests and youth from illegal armed groups. Labeled the deadliest country for environmental defenders in 2023, Carlos, 30, was the 115th social leader killed in Colombia this year, according to the Development and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-underreported-killing-of-colombias-indigenous-land-guardian-the-wolf-photos/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289737</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservationists mobilize to save Sierra Leone national park and its chimpanzees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/as-deforestation-advances-conservationists-mobilize-to-save-sierra-leone-national-park-and-its-chimpanzees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/as-deforestation-advances-conservationists-mobilize-to-save-sierra-leone-national-park-and-its-chimpanzees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Nov 2024 17:44:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mohamed Fofanah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/31214805/6x8IMG_7169-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289529</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Apes, Cattle, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, National Parks, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Ranching, and Reforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Standing at an altitude of 1,945 meters (6,381 feet), Mount Bintumani is the highest peak of the Loma Mountains, which is the highest mountain range in Sierra Leone, and the tallest peak in West Africa. The area around Mount Bintumani was designated a non-hunting forest reserve in 1952 and became Loma Mountains [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Standing at an altitude of 1,945 meters (6,381 feet), Mount Bintumani is the highest peak of the Loma Mountains, which is the highest mountain range in Sierra Leone, and the tallest peak in West Africa. The area around Mount Bintumani was designated a non-hunting forest reserve in 1952 and became Loma Mountains National Park (LMNP) in 2012. LMNP covers an area of 33,201 hectares and a medley of ecosystems, from montane tropical forests and grasslands to sub-montane rainforests, shrub savanna and dry forests. These ecosystems support a wide array of wildlife, including around a dozen species of primates such as red colobus (Piliocolobus badius), black and white colobus (Colobus polykomos) and sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys). Other threatened animals found in the park include Jentink’s duikers (Cephalophus jentinki), leopards (Panthera pardus) and — at lower elevations — forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) and pygmy hippopotamuses (Choeropsis liberiensis).  Because of their elevation, the Loma Mountains also host a rich bird diversity including many species that do not occur elsewhere in the country — and five that are globally threatened. But perhaps the park’s most famous denizen is the chimpanzee. LMNP is home to around 1,390 critically endangered western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus), according to a survey in 2019 conducted by Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, a research and conservation organization that began as a rehabilitation center for orphaned chimpanzees. However, this unique and imperiled chimp subspecies, along with a host of other wildlife, are facing habitat loss due to incursions into the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/as-deforestation-advances-conservationists-mobilize-to-save-sierra-leone-national-park-and-its-chimpanzees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289529</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report links killings to environmental crimes in Peru’s Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/report-links-killings-to-environmental-crimes-in-perus-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/report-links-killings-to-environmental-crimes-in-perus-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Sep 2024 14:08:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/12113216/people-boat-peru-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287329</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Logging, Murdered Activists, Organized Crime, Politics, Rainforests, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ten years ago, four Indigenous Asháninka environmental defenders were murdered in the forests near their community of Saweto in Peru’s Amazon Ucayali region. In 2023, a court in Pucallpa found three loggers guilty of aggravated homicide against the leaders, sentencing them to 28 years and three months in prison. However, this case has since been [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ten years ago, four Indigenous Asháninka environmental defenders were murdered in the forests near their community of Saweto in Peru’s Amazon Ucayali region. In 2023, a court in Pucallpa found three loggers guilty of aggravated homicide against the leaders, sentencing them to 28 years and three months in prison. However, this case has since been appealed. Today, members of the Asháninka community say they continue to fear for their lives. “The problem is still there,” said the wife of one of the four leaders, who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons. “I am in trouble and so is the community. For the loggers, this work is not finished. They keep cutting down the trees in the village, and they say if you come to bother us, you will be killed.” According to a new report by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), the estimated 29 environmental defenders killed in the Peruvian Amazon between 2010 and 2022 may be connected to environment-related crimes, such as illegal mining, logging and coca cultivation. This is because many of the killings disproportionately occurred in geographic clusters that coincide with these activities. This violence has increased in recent years with almost half of the killings occurring since 2020. The wife of one of the Indigenous leaders killed in 2014 told Mongabay that she had to leave the community to seek safety in a nearby city. This has been a huge challenge, as she previously relied on the forest to sustain herself and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/report-links-killings-to-environmental-crimes-in-perus-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287329</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Colombia’s coca substitution program failing to help farmers or slow deforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/colombias-coca-substitution-program-failing-to-help-farmers-or-slow-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/colombias-coca-substitution-program-failing-to-help-farmers-or-slow-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Aug 2024 15:45:09 +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/20/2024/08/09151550/agriculture-colombia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285944</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Crops, Culture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Drug Trade, Economics, Environment, Environmental Law, Farming, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Politics, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For Indigenous communities in Colombia’s Amazonian and Andean forests, coca is sacred. Many ancestral traditions, such as healing and shamanic practices, include the use and cultivation of the plant. But ever since the mid-1980s, when the global demand for cocaine peaked, the coca leaf became associated with other phenomena: environmental degradation, poverty and violence. According [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For Indigenous communities in Colombia’s Amazonian and Andean forests, coca is sacred. Many ancestral traditions, such as healing and shamanic practices, include the use and cultivation of the plant. But ever since the mid-1980s, when the global demand for cocaine peaked, the coca leaf became associated with other phenomena: environmental degradation, poverty and violence. According to experts and coca leaf growers and pickers, known as cocaleros, government efforts to control these issues have been inefficient. Coca production and deforestation continue to skyrocket in the country. As part of the landmark 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group, which set out to correct unequal land use caused by internal displacement, the government developed the National Comprehensive Program for the Substitution of Illicit Crops. Known as the PNIS, it sought to get farmers to voluntarily give up growing coca in favor of legal alternatives, as part of efforts to help coca-growing communities overcome conditions of poverty and marginalization. “We joined the substitution program to eradicate coca and because here you need money to invest in a project,” a farmer from the municipality of Tumaco, not named for security reasons, told the land research network Observatorio de Tierras. Like many others, the farmer said he trusted in the promises of the program and signed an agreement with the PNIS, “but they didn’t come here with food aid, they didn’t come here with anything,” he said. “We need help, my children are in school&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/colombias-coca-substitution-program-failing-to-help-farmers-or-slow-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-285944</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Narco activity takes heavy toll on Colombia’s protected forests, satellite data show</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/narco-activity-takes-heavy-toll-on-colombias-protected-forests-satellite-data-show/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/narco-activity-takes-heavy-toll-on-colombias-protected-forests-satellite-data-show/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 May 2024 18:52:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/31181042/Macarena-satellite-banner-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282835</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Environment, Forest Loss, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Reserves, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Mongabay Data Studio, National Parks, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Violence, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the middle of Colombia, where the country’s Eastern Plains and Andean ecoregions meet the Amazon Basin, a vast complex of parks, reserves and other protected areas safeguards ancient habitat and the biodiversity contained within. Or at least it’s supposed to. However, human activity has been chipping away at the region’s forests for years ­— [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the middle of Colombia, where the country’s Eastern Plains and Andean ecoregions meet the Amazon Basin, a vast complex of parks, reserves and other protected areas safeguards ancient habitat and the biodiversity contained within. Or at least it’s supposed to. However, human activity has been chipping away at the region’s forests for years ­— and not even its protected areas are immune. Satellite data collated by the University of Maryland and visualized on the Global Forest Watch (GFW) monitoring platform shows a surge of deforestation in protected areas in central Colombia so far in 2024. The most affected areas include Llanos del Yarí Yaguara II Indigenous Reserve, two national natural parks — Sierra de la Macarena and Tinigua — and the surrounding Macarena Special Management Area. Satellite data show ongoing forest loss within a complex of protected areas in central Colombia. (Note: the data used to show location and extent of Llanos del Yarí Yaguara II Indigenous Reserve for this map differs from the data used for analysis referenced in the story.) In Llanos del Yarí, the data (which extend back to the turn of the century) show forest loss rising in earnest between 2014 and 2015, peaking in 2022. In total, between 2014 and 2023, the Indigenous reserve lost 11% of its primary tree cover, according to GFW. The reserve experienced a bit of a reprieve in 2023, with GFW showing deforestation dropping by more than 60%. However, preliminary data for 2024 and satellite imagery from Planet Labs&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/narco-activity-takes-heavy-toll-on-colombias-protected-forests-satellite-data-show/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282835</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ecuador’s Los Lobos narcotrafficking gang muscles in on illegal gold mining</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/ecuadors-los-lobos-narcotrafficking-gang-muscles-in-on-illegal-gold-mining/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/ecuadors-los-lobos-narcotrafficking-gang-muscles-in-on-illegal-gold-mining/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2024 14:00:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Arturo TorresDan Collyns]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/27182022/DSC02922-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282540</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Drug Trade, Environment, Gold Mining, Governance, Illegal Mining, Illegal Trade, Indigenous Peoples, Land Conflict, Law Enforcement, Military, Mining, National Parks, Protected Areas, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The road leading to Podocarpus National Park winds around lush, forested mountains that seem to stretch endlessly on the horizon. Covering 1,463 square kilometers (565 square miles), the park stretches from the foothills of the eastern Andes into the rainforest, straddling the southern Ecuadorian provinces of Loja to the west and Zamora Chinchipe to the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The road leading to Podocarpus National Park winds around lush, forested mountains that seem to stretch endlessly on the horizon. Covering 1,463 square kilometers (565 square miles), the park stretches from the foothills of the eastern Andes into the rainforest, straddling the southern Ecuadorian provinces of Loja to the west and Zamora Chinchipe to the east. It extends from the foggy alpine shrubland known as the páramo, at 3,600 meters (11,800 feet) above sea level, down into tropical forest at 900 m (3,000 ft), with waterfalls and boulder-strewn crystalline rivers like the Bombuscaro. But even this remote place named after the only genus of conifer trees in South America has not escaped the crime wave sweeping Ecuador, as a single criminal gang, Los Lobos, has extended its grip deep into the heart of the park in the last few years. According to intelligence reports seen by Mongabay and Ecuadorian investigative news outlet Código Vidrio from September 2023, an estimated 2,200 people — Ecuadorians as well as Peruvians, Colombians and Venezuelans — were working illegally in a dozen different sites inside the park. They include those who charge dynamite to blow open rocks and open up tunnels, cart pushers and rock grinders, as well as those supplying food, fuel, drugs like cocaine and marijuana, and even sex workers. So remote were the spots in an area known as San Luis, deep inside the park, it took specially trained jungle troops 12 hours by foot to reach the zone. Dense vegetation in the Podocarpus National&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/ecuadors-los-lobos-narcotrafficking-gang-muscles-in-on-illegal-gold-mining/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282540</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Amazon’s tri-border Javari region, teens fall prey to drug gangs’ lure</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/in-amazons-tri-border-javari-region-teens-fall-prey-to-drug-gangs-lure/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/in-amazons-tri-border-javari-region-teens-fall-prey-to-drug-gangs-lure/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 May 2024 16:54:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ivan BrehautRodrigo PedrosoVictoria Carlos]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/24134840/3-triple-border-frontier-Ivan-Brehaut-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282480</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Illegal Deforestation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Colombia, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conflict, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Drug Trade, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The rising recruitment has gone hand in hand with an increase in coca production and deforestation in the region, which in some provinces has grown exponentially.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAVARI VALLEY, Brazil/Colombia/Peru — When teenager Isaías was offered work in the coca fields along the Javari River, he saw an opportunity to change his life. To endure the rigors of the rainforest and a heavy workload, the pay was double what he could get in the nearby towns of Santa Rosa, Islandia, Atalaia or Tabatinga — all part of the tri-border area between Peru, Colombia and Brazil in the Amazon. Isaías would be paid 500 Peruvian soles in advance, about $135, or the equivalent in Colombian pesos or Brazilian reais. At least, that was the story Isaías told his mother in August 2023, months after the last time he contacted his family. Since then, Isaías’s mother has seen him on only one occasion. He looked slender and solemn, as if he would rather not see her again. They crossed paths by chance when he was getting off a motorcycle carrying packages in the port of Tabatinga, in Brazil, bordering the Colombian town of Leticia. Between these towns and the opposite bank of the Amazon River lies the island of Santa Rosa, in Peruvian territory, making this site the confluence of three countries and two rivers: the Amazon and the Javari. Isaías greeted his mother, gave her 100 soles (about $27), a half smile, and said “I&#8217;m going home soon” — a promise never fulfilled. The teenager&#8217;s last known whereabouts are believed to be somewhere in the rainforest between the Amazon and Javari, on the Peruvian side of the border,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/in-amazons-tri-border-javari-region-teens-fall-prey-to-drug-gangs-lure/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282480</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Photos confirm narcotraffickers operating in Peru’s Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/photos-confirm-narcotraffickers-operating-in-perus-kakataibo-indigenous-reserve/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/photos-confirm-narcotraffickers-operating-in-perus-kakataibo-indigenous-reserve/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 May 2024 11:27:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Yvette Sierra Praeli]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/17112130/Reserva-Indigena-Kakataibo-Norte-15-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282211</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[coca plantations, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Environment, Forests, Green, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Logging, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A wide strip of land cuts through the dense Amazon canopy in Peru’s Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve as shown by a photograph taken during a flyover on March 15, 2024. The images provide evidence of a clandestine landing strip in the middle of a protected area for tribes living in voluntary isolation. Established in 2021, the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A wide strip of land cuts through the dense Amazon canopy in Peru’s Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve as shown by a photograph taken during a flyover on March 15, 2024. The images provide evidence of a clandestine landing strip in the middle of a protected area for tribes living in voluntary isolation. Established in 2021, the reserve is now “by far the most invaded Indigenous territory in the entire country,” according to Julio Cusurichi, a member of the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP). The March flyover across the northern and southern sectors of the reserve also observed additional slashes through the thick rainforest, as well as large quantities of illicit coca crops, confirming that large-scale drug trafficking is occurring inside the reserve. A deforested area in the southern sector of the Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve. Image courtesy of AIDESEP. “It’s very concerning because this territory is for protecting our communities in isolation; at the same time, it’s terrifying to see that drug trafficking is unstoppable,” said an Indigenous leader with the Native Federation of Kakataibo Communities (FENACOKA), who participated in the flyover and is not being named for their safety. “The more we report, the more they accelerate and advance.” The flyover was organized by AIDESEP, together with Indigenous leaders from FENACOKA and representatives from Peru’s Ministry of Culture. The Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve was established in July 2021. Images of devastation The flyover took a closer look at 12 locations identified by satellite mapping in May 2023,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/photos-confirm-narcotraffickers-operating-in-perus-kakataibo-indigenous-reserve/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282211</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Etelvina Ramos: From coca farmer to opponent of the illegal crop</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/etelvina-ramos-from-coca-farmer-to-opponent-of-the-illegal-crop/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/etelvina-ramos-from-coca-farmer-to-opponent-of-the-illegal-crop/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Apr 2024 10:22:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Diana María Pachón]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/26100743/3-Etelvina-PORTADA-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281439</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Women Defenders of the Colombian Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, coca plantations, Conservation, Crime, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Farming, Forests, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This story is part of a Mongabay series on female environmental defenders in the Amazon. Read about the lives and work of Soraida Chindoy, Maydany Salcedo, and Alis Ramírez. It was when Etelvina Ramos Campo was four years old that she first became aware that she could die. In her nightmares, a boa surrounded her, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story is part of a Mongabay series on female environmental defenders in the Amazon. Read about the lives and work of Soraida Chindoy, Maydany Salcedo, and Alis Ramírez. It was when Etelvina Ramos Campo was four years old that she first became aware that she could die. In her nightmares, a boa surrounded her, broke her fragile bones and left her body at the mercy of other beasts. Almost half a century later, a snake is no longer the antagonist of her sleepless nights but the trigger of a gun held by those who want her dead. Etelvina Ramos arrived in the Amazon at four years old because her father, José Antonio Ramos, promised to earn an inheritance for her and her ten siblings in a new land: a place where water flowed abundantly and food was so fresh that it seemed to be still alive. In 1977, her family — her mother, father, and siblings — abandoned Santander de Quilichao, the second-largest city in Cauca Department, Colombia. After almost a full day on a bus, passing trails and towns that became smaller and smaller, they arrived in Puerto Caicedo, in Putumayo Department. It was at the end of the road and what seemed like the end of the populated world. There, the family seemed to step into another reality, into the Colombian Amazon, with hundred-year-old trees, marmosets, deer, armadillos, large rodents, parrots, tigers, snakes, and a forest so thick that Etelvina Ramos&#8217; father had to walk through it&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/etelvina-ramos-from-coca-farmer-to-opponent-of-the-illegal-crop/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/etelvina-ramos-from-coca-farmer-to-opponent-of-the-illegal-crop/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281439</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Maydany Salcedo: the environmental defender who catches the ire of armed groups</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/maydany-salcedo-the-environmental-defender-who-catches-the-ire-of-armed-groups/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/maydany-salcedo-the-environmental-defender-who-catches-the-ire-of-armed-groups/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Apr 2024 15:33:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maria Fernanda Lizcano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/28152641/4-Maydany-Salcedo-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280408</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Women Defenders of the Colombian Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[coca plantations, Conflict, Conservation, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Violence, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This story is part of a Mongabay series on female environmental defenders in the Amazon. Read about the lives and work of Soraida Chindoy, Alis Ramírez, and Etelvina Ramos. On April 10, 2023, at 11:30 a.m., four men arrived at Maydany Salcedo’s house. “I’m with the target and awaiting instructions,” was a phrase repeated several [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story is part of a Mongabay series on female environmental defenders in the Amazon. Read about the lives and work of Soraida Chindoy, Alis Ramírez, and Etelvina Ramos. On April 10, 2023, at 11:30 a.m., four men arrived at Maydany Salcedo’s house. “I’m with the target and awaiting instructions,” was a phrase repeated several times by one of the men on the phone with his boss, paralyzing Salcedo with fear. The man stood at the door of her house while the three others walked around inside, weapons in their hands. The men forced Salcedo to prepare food for them while they talked, prolonging her nightmare. The men presented themselves as members of Border Command (Comandos de Frontera), a residual organized armed group (GAOR) that emerged following the peace process in Colombia. It is made up of former guerillas and paramilitaries seeking control of drug trafficking, extortion, and illegal mining in the southwestern part of Colombia. This territory was controlled by the former Southern Bloc of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). “We hope you’ll stop what you’ve been doing–we know how many times your dog goes out to pee, we’ll finish off the smallest things in your life: your dog and two grandchildren,” they threatened her. She begged not to be killed in front of the children, but they did not intend to kill her. The men warned Salcedo that she could not return to Piamonte, a municipality in the Bota Caucana region, which borders the departments of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/maydany-salcedo-the-environmental-defender-who-catches-the-ire-of-armed-groups/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280408</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bolivia’s El Curichi Las Garzas protected area taken over by land-grabbers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/bolivias-el-curichi-las-garzas-protected-area-taken-over-by-land-grabbers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/bolivias-el-curichi-las-garzas-protected-area-taken-over-by-land-grabbers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Mar 2024 16:09:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nelfi Fernández Reyes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/06150106/1-MS-RESERVA-LAS-GARZAS-14-min-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279563</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Dry Forests, Environment, Fires, Forest Loss, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, Jaguars, Montane Forests, National Parks, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Regardless of what satellite images show, inhabitants who have illegally planted crops within the protected area told committee officials that they “take care of Curichi”, because each union member’s rice plots do not exceed three hectares. Behind their crops, a row of trees is visible in the background. So, on approaching the area, the officials [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Regardless of what satellite images show, inhabitants who have illegally planted crops within the protected area told committee officials that they “take care of Curichi”, because each union member’s rice plots do not exceed three hectares. Behind their crops, a row of trees is visible in the background. So, on approaching the area, the officials were understandably surprised to discover that more crops lay behind the trees. The Global Forest Watch (GFW) satellite monitoring platform confirms this loss of forest cover. Images show that some 5,005 deforestation alerts were recorded between August 2022 and November 2023. Vitally, 4,558 of that total were generated between October and November 2023 alone. Each deforestation alert represents a loss of 30×30 meters of tropical forest, equivalent to the size of a basketball court. These figures disprove what agricultural union members told officials, saying “this has been going on for 20 years.” Active fire alerts picked up by VIIRS, NASA’s monitoring technology, also reveal that 42 hot spots were recorded between September and November 2023, the highest number for a decade. Fire is often used to clear land in preparation for planting crops. Councilwoman Mónica Vaca Gil, one of the committee members, was shocked by the extent of the damage. She says that she had tried to inspect the reserve in 2021, but was unable to complete her visit because the invaders took the local guide hostage and repeatedly assaulted him, eventually breaking his nose. On that occasion, she says, together with four other council&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/bolivias-el-curichi-las-garzas-protected-area-taken-over-by-land-grabbers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279563</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Authorities struggle to protect Bolivian national park from drug-fueled deforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/authorities-struggle-to-protect-bolivian-national-park-from-drug-fueled-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/authorities-struggle-to-protect-bolivian-national-park-from-drug-fueled-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Mar 2024 02:20:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Iván Paredes TamayoNelfi Fernández Reyes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/01022247/IMG_9911-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279354</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Dry Forests, Environment, Fires, Forest Loss, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, Jaguars, Montane Forests, National Parks, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2020, a Mongabay reporting team visited Bolivia’s Amboró National Park and Integrated Management Natural Area and found that portions of its protected forest had been cleared and replaced by illegal coca crops. Coca is a plant native to South America and is used to produce cocaine. Satellite imagery and data show that deforestation has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2020, a Mongabay reporting team visited Bolivia’s Amboró National Park and Integrated Management Natural Area and found that portions of its protected forest had been cleared and replaced by illegal coca crops. Coca is a plant native to South America and is used to produce cocaine. Satellite imagery and data show that deforestation has increased in Amboró since then. However, Vice Minister of Social Defense and Controlled Substances, Jaime Mamani, told Mongabay and El Deber reporters that authorities had eradicated some 443 hectares (1,094 acres) of coca crops in the park as of October 2023. Global Forest Watch recorded some 256,000 deforestation alerts between November 2021 and November 2023 in Amboró. Each of the alerts represents the loss of 30 square meters of tropical forest (98.4 square acres). Many of these alerts coincided with fire activity in the park. Román Vitrón, an environmental expert who has worked in the National Service of Protected Areas (known by its Spanish acronym, Sernap) and is familiar with the issues affecting Amboró, said it is highly likely this recent deforestation was done for the purpose of coca cultivation. “Do you think someone interested in planting banana or papaya will go into the park to clear [areas] given how hard it is to get here by foot?” Vitrón told reporters. Vitrón added that coca leaves can be harvested up to four times per year, which makes the crop highly profitable. Andreína Tolavi, former Amboró park director, announced the presence of coca inside the park in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/authorities-struggle-to-protect-bolivian-national-park-from-drug-fueled-deforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/authorities-struggle-to-protect-bolivian-national-park-from-drug-fueled-deforestation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279354</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Safety of Peru’s land defenders in question after killing of Indigenous leader in the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/safety-of-perus-land-defenders-in-question-after-killing-of-indigenous-leader-in-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/safety-of-perus-land-defenders-in-question-after-killing-of-indigenous-leader-in-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Dec 2023 16:19:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Geraldine SantosGloria Alvitres]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/07160237/Foto1_Asesinato-lider-indigena-Quinto-Inuma-foto-personal-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276407</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Latin America]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Logging, Murdered Activists, Organized Crime, Politics, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Kichwa leader Quinto Inuma Alvarado, president the Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu community, was murdered last Wednesday, November 29, in the San Martín region of the Peruvian Amazon. The crime took place around five p.m. when the activist was traveling with several relatives on the Yanayacu River. When his boat hit a tree and got stuck, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Kichwa leader Quinto Inuma Alvarado, president the Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu community, was murdered last Wednesday, November 29, in the San Martín region of the Peruvian Amazon. The crime took place around five p.m. when the activist was traveling with several relatives on the Yanayacu River. When his boat hit a tree and got stuck, a group of masked men ambushed him, shooting him several times. Days before, in the city of Pucallpa, in the region of Ucayali, Inuma informed other environmental defenders and activists of what was happening in his community: invasions, land trafficking, drug trafficking and illegal logging. It wasn’t the first time that he’d spoken out. But no one in attendance knew it would be the last time he would. “They murdered him for defending the community from loggers,” his nephew Víctor Inuma told Mongabay Latam. “My uncle had been demanding police intervention since the pandemic. No one listened to him…We ask that this be investigated. We’re unprotected without him now.” Quinto Inuma carried out patrols in the forest with other members of the Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu community. Image courtesy of Quinto Inuma. Community vice president Meister Inuma Pérez and Inuma’s niece Axceldina Tapullima were also on the boat during the ambush. Inuma Pérez had to hide in the forest to avoid being killed and Tapullima was shot in the leg. Seven other Indigenous leaders have requested protection from the Ministry of Justice because of similar threats, according to Marisol García, the Kichwa leader of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/safety-of-perus-land-defenders-in-question-after-killing-of-indigenous-leader-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-276407</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As Colombia’s coca economy crashes, new opportunities — and threats — arise</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/as-colombias-coca-economy-crashes-new-opportunities-and-threats-arise/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/as-colombias-coca-economy-crashes-new-opportunities-and-threats-arise/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Nov 2023 21:12:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mie Hoejris Dahl]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/02/12111615/colombia_0066z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275446</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, coca plantations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Drug Trade, Environment, Farming, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Land Conflict, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BOGOTÁ — In the world’s major cities, partygoers do lines of cocaine, far removed from the environmental and human costs of consuming this white powder. Most are likely unaware that in Colombia’s tropical forests, farmers have cleared large swaths of land to grow coca, the plant from which cocaine is produced. Tibú municipality, located in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BOGOTÁ — In the world’s major cities, partygoers do lines of cocaine, far removed from the environmental and human costs of consuming this white powder. Most are likely unaware that in Colombia’s tropical forests, farmers have cleared large swaths of land to grow coca, the plant from which cocaine is produced. Tibú municipality, located in the Catatumbo region in northeastern Colombia, on the border with Venezuela, is the country’s top coca producer by area, with 22,000 hectares (54,400 acres) of land dedicated to cultivating the crop. Between 2001 and 2022, Tibú lost 111,000 hectares (274,000 acres) of tree cover, or the equivalent of about 150,000 soccer fields, due to a variety of factors. “We’re most of all a coca region,” says Edecio José Ramírez Pabón, a 70-year-old farmer from Tibú. Coca farming is the world’s largest illicit agribusiness, requiring vast amount of land. Colombia leads the world in coca production, accounting for about 60% percent of global supply. To keep up with demand, growers have continuously expanded their cultivated area, which in 2022 amounted to 230,000 hectares (568,000 acres), a 13% increase from the previous year. Cocaine production has been longtime driving deforestation in Colombia, but its indirect impact on the environment is much bigger. Image by Rhett A. Butler. But in Tibú, coca production — and with it, most of the local rural economy — largely ground to a halt since early last year, Ramírez Pabon tells Mongabay. That’s in response to coca prices dropping by more than 40%&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/as-colombias-coca-economy-crashes-new-opportunities-and-threats-arise/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/as-colombias-coca-economy-crashes-new-opportunities-and-threats-arise/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275446</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Drug trafficking imperils national park and Indigenous reserves in the Peruvian Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/drug-trafficking-imperils-national-park-and-indigenous-reserves-in-the-peruvian-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/drug-trafficking-imperils-national-park-and-indigenous-reserves-in-the-peruvian-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Nov 2023 17:50:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Enrique Vera]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/03174450/1-Montanas-Otishi-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274969</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Community-based Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Environment, Forest Loss, Green, Habitat Loss, Illegal Trade, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Mongabay Data Studio, Montane Forests, National Parks, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[AYACUCHO, Peru — From the sky, cleared areas periodically interrupted the green grasslands and steep mountains of the Asháninka Communal Reserve and Otishi National Park in Peru. Wide expanses of deforested land lay scattered between mountain peaks. Via helicopter, Mongabay Latam reporters observed an immense mosaic of trees, pastures and agriculture, but crops couldn’t be [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[AYACUCHO, Peru — From the sky, cleared areas periodically interrupted the green grasslands and steep mountains of the Asháninka Communal Reserve and Otishi National Park in Peru. Wide expanses of deforested land lay scattered between mountain peaks. Via helicopter, Mongabay Latam reporters observed an immense mosaic of trees, pastures and agriculture, but crops couldn’t be identified from the air. Operated by the Peruvian Armed Forces, the helicopter began its flight at the southern ends of the reserves before following coordinates to several areas identified by Peru’s National Service of Natural Protected Areas (SERNANP) as showing signs of deforestation. Whenever the cloud cover relented, the pilot flew close to deforested areas. On this particular afternoon in May 2023, there were no signs of illegal loggers, but a wide path winding along one side of the forest was the most likely evidence of human activity. For more than two hours, the military helicopter flew over similar scenes: extensive jungle pockmarked by scattered scars of forest destruction. The helicopter also hovered over two long stretches of rocky, rectangular cleared land in the middle of the rainforest. “[These] are unauthorized airstrips and it appears they are inactive,” said Jeff Morgan, the executive director of Global Conservation, an international organization working  to protect endangered ecosystems. An airstrip near Otishi National Park, which allows planes to transport illicit cargo in and out of the park. Image by Planet Labs via Global Forest Watch. A Mongabay Latam analysis of satellite imagery captured by Planet Lab found evidence&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/drug-trafficking-imperils-national-park-and-indigenous-reserves-in-the-peruvian-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-274969</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Drug trafficking fuels other deforestation drivers in the Amazon: report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/drug-trafficking-fuels-other-deforestation-drivers-in-the-amazon-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/drug-trafficking-fuels-other-deforestation-drivers-in-the-amazon-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Jul 2023 17:33:29 +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/20/2023/07/14172641/FEATURE-18-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270952</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Latin America, Peru, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate Change, coca plantations, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Mining, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon Rainforest is the largest in the world and a key player in regulating global water and carbon cycles. It also happens to be home to sophisticated criminal networks that make conservation efforts dangerous and complicated. Some of them target the rainforest specifically, trafficking timber and wildlife to far reaches of the planet. But [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon Rainforest is the largest in the world and a key player in regulating global water and carbon cycles. It also happens to be home to sophisticated criminal networks that make conservation efforts dangerous and complicated. Some of them target the rainforest specifically, trafficking timber and wildlife to far reaches of the planet. But others are more peripheral, like producing and trafficking drugs. The traditional thinking has been that drug cartels impact the rainforest through the cultivation of coca — like any other crop producer, they’re clearing trees to make room for an agricultural commodity. That thinking, however, has become more sophisticated over recent years, giving way to the idea that drug trafficking can trickle down into other harmful activities. Even this year’s global report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime made a point of focusing on the ways in which criminal activities that might have been previously overlooked have serious impacts on the environment. “The direct impact of coca cultivation on deforestation is minimal but indirectly it can act as a catalyst for deforestation,” the report said. It also suggests that, as some groups grow, they diversify into businesses that more directly rely on abusing natural resources. Mining in Amazonas, Brazil. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia) It’s true that, in order to have a successful cocaine trafficking business, part of the forest needs to be cleared to make room for the cultivation of coca, which can then give way to a secondary timber trafficking business and the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/drug-trafficking-fuels-other-deforestation-drivers-in-the-amazon-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/drug-trafficking-fuels-other-deforestation-drivers-in-the-amazon-report/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270952</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Guatemala national park nearing ‘collapse’ amid land grabbing, deforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/guatemala-national-park-nearing-collapse-amid-land-grabbing-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/guatemala-national-park-nearing-collapse-amid-land-grabbing-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 May 2023 08:00:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/04061611/FttxW9zWAAEqBI2-1-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268242</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Cattle, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Logging, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Officials are struggling to keep up with an increasing wave of deforestation in one of Guatemala’s largest protected areas, where squatters are clearing the rainforest to make room for settlements, roads, cattle ranching and airstrips for drug planes. Sierra del Lacandón National Park, which sits on the Mexican border, has lost thousands of hectares of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Officials are struggling to keep up with an increasing wave of deforestation in one of Guatemala’s largest protected areas, where squatters are clearing the rainforest to make room for settlements, roads, cattle ranching and airstrips for drug planes. Sierra del Lacandón National Park, which sits on the Mexican border, has lost thousands of hectares of forest over the last two years, raising concerns among government officials and conservationists that the protected area may soon be lost to illegal actors. “I believe we are on our way to a serious collapse,” said Javier Márquez, executive director of Defensores de la Naturaleza, one of the organizations managing the park. Deforestation is pushing closer and closer to previously untouched areas of the park, Márquez said. Data collated by Global Forest Watch show that fire activity has not only spiked well above yearly averages but also advanced farther west, where the forest is mostly still intact. At risk are over 200,000 hectares (nearly 500,000 acres) of protected land and the health of the Usumacinta river basin, which acts as a biological corridor together with other ecosystems in the region. It’s home to 56 species of fish, 24 species of amphibians, 60 species of reptiles, 326 species of birds and 69 species of mammals, as well as over 30 archeological sites from Mayan and other Mesoamerican civilizations. Fire alerts in Sierra del Lacandón National Park. The park makes up one piece of the larger Maya Biosphere Reserve, which covers over 2 million hectares (5.1 million&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/guatemala-national-park-nearing-collapse-amid-land-grabbing-deforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/guatemala-national-park-nearing-collapse-amid-land-grabbing-deforestation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268242</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Colombia, Ecuador announce alert system to protect Indigenous Awá from armed groups</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/colombia-ecuador-announce-alert-system-to-protect-indigenous-awa-from-armed-groups/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/colombia-ecuador-announce-alert-system-to-protect-indigenous-awa-from-armed-groups/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Mar 2023 17:34:26 +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/20/2023/03/10173312/new-feature-768x450.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266352</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, coca plantations, Crime, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Gold Mining, Governance, Human Rights, Illegal Logging, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Logging, Mining, Organized Crime, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Colombia and Ecuador are implementing a new joint alert system along their shared border in an effort to increase protections for Indigenous communities suffering violent attacks from organized crime groups. The two countries announced a system designed to improve information-sharing and make alerts about risks of violence against residents who live near the border, many [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Colombia and Ecuador are implementing a new joint alert system along their shared border in an effort to increase protections for Indigenous communities suffering violent attacks from organized crime groups. The two countries announced a system designed to improve information-sharing and make alerts about risks of violence against residents who live near the border, many of whom are Awá Indigenous people. “We’re hoping to alert the Colombian and Ecuadorian state about this string of rights violations so they’ll take the necessary and urgent measures, and prevent the continuing violation of human rights happening on both sides of the border,” Ecuador Ombudsman César Córdova Valverde said at a press conference in Bogotá. There are around 29,000 Awá in the area, according to the Colombian Ombudsman office. Since last August, more than 10,000 of them have been forcibly displaced or suffered threats, intimidation, torture or forced recruitment, according to the Human Rights Observatory of the Awá People&#8217;s Indigenous Unit (Unipa). There were also 14 deaths. Deforestation in Putumayo during a military operation in November 2022. (Photo courtesy of Colombian Armed Forces) Organized crime has run rampant along the Colombian-Ecuador border for years, with a weak or non-existent government presence making it easy for guerrilla and drug trafficking groups to move back and forth across the border as they cultivate coca and mine gold illegally. The activities have contributed to what the UN called “physical and cultural extermination” of the Awá. Ombudsmen from both countries urged Colombia’s Ministry of the Interior and Ecuador’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/colombia-ecuador-announce-alert-system-to-protect-indigenous-awa-from-armed-groups/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/colombia-ecuador-announce-alert-system-to-protect-indigenous-awa-from-armed-groups/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266352</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Panic’ sets in as armed groups occupy, deforest Colombian national park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/panic-sets-in-as-armed-groups-occupy-deforest-colombian-national-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/panic-sets-in-as-armed-groups-occupy-deforest-colombian-national-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Dec 2022 23:20:53 +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/20/2022/12/12232549/02-IMG_7724-scaled-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263495</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Environment, Forests, Governance, Green, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, National Parks, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Once covering an expanse of more than 2,140 square kilometers (826 square miles) of the Colombian Amazon Rainforest, Tinigua National Natural Park has lost 29% of its forests over the past 20 years. Much of this loss has occurred only since 2018, when the park lost nearly 6% of its tree cover in a single [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Once covering an expanse of more than 2,140 square kilometers (826 square miles) of the Colombian Amazon Rainforest, Tinigua National Natural Park has lost 29% of its forests over the past 20 years. Much of this loss has occurred only since 2018, when the park lost nearly 6% of its tree cover in a single year. Deforestation in Tinigua shows no sign of stopping, with 2022 marking the fifth consecutive year in which the park has topped the list of Colombian protected areas most severely affected by forest loss. Satellite data and imagery from Global Forest Watch show ever-growing clearings eating away at the increasingly fragmented rainforest, the bulk happening during the first half of the year. “In the monitoring we did, around 8,000 hectares [19,770 acres] of land were deforested between 2021 and 2022,” said Luz Alejandra Gómez, coordinator of the Geographic Information Systems team at the Foundation of Conservation and Sustainable Development (FCDS). “This puts the integrity of the protected area at risk.” Satellite imagery captured October 2022 by Planet Labs shows much of Tinigua National Natural Park has lost its forest cover. Deforestation has been particularly active in the southern portion of the park. Gómez added that FCDS found that “land-grabbing and land appropriation” are behind much of Tinigua’s forest loss. “Vast expanses of forest have been lost in order to transform it into pasture, introduce cattle ranching, occupy the land or build roads,” Gómez said. “This is what we have seen happening inside the protected area.”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/panic-sets-in-as-armed-groups-occupy-deforest-colombian-national-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263495</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous communities in Peru ‘living in fear’ due to deforestation, drug trafficking</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/indigenous-communities-in-peru-living-in-fear-due-to-deforestation-drug-trafficking/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/indigenous-communities-in-peru-living-in-fear-due-to-deforestation-drug-trafficking/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Dec 2022 22:10:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Yvette Sierra Praeli]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/02205008/1202-puerto-nuevo-sat-november-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263225</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Environment, Forests, Governance, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The territory belonging the Indigenous Kakataibo community of Puerto Nuevo comprises some 680 square kilometers (263 square miles) of rainforest between the regions of Huánuco and Ucayali in central Peru. Or, more accurately, it once did. Satellite data from Global Forest Watch show the territory was relatively unscathed until 2013 when deforestation surged; by 2021 the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The territory belonging the Indigenous Kakataibo community of Puerto Nuevo comprises some 680 square kilometers (263 square miles) of rainforest between the regions of Huánuco and Ucayali in central Peru. Or, more accurately, it once did. Satellite data from Global Forest Watch show the territory was relatively unscathed until 2013 when deforestation surged; by 2021 the territory had lost nearly 15% of its tree cover. Global Forest Watch data and imagery suggest forest loss in the territory may have accelerated further in 2022, and local and regional authorities have uncovered many new incursions into Indigenous land. Satellite data visualized on Global Forest Watch show tree cover loss (pink) advancing into the territory of the Puerto Nuevo Indigenous community (green). “We found them cutting down trees with a chainsaw,” said the leader of a Puerto Nuevo patrol group who wished to remain anonymous for safety concerns. “They were hardly an hour and a half away [from the community], and we confiscated their machinery, like five chainsaws, fuel and a motorcycle that they had at that time.” The leader said the patrol group visited the site in early September after being tipped off by Peruvian environmental organization Association for Research and Integrated Development (AIDER). In addition to active deforestation, the leader said the group also uncovered residential structures and illegal fields of coca, a shrub used in the production of cocaine. Members of the Indigenous community of Puerto Nuevo found residential structures and coca crops in their territory. Image courtesy of Puerto Nuevo.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/indigenous-communities-in-peru-living-in-fear-due-to-deforestation-drug-trafficking/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263225</doi>				</item>
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