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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/rainforest-destruction/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:56:03 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Rainforest Destruction</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/rainforest-destruction/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>New analysis breaks down 2025 Amazon deforestation, with good news and bad news</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/new-analysis-breaks-down-2025-amazon-deforestation-with-good-news-and-bad-news/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/new-analysis-breaks-down-2025-amazon-deforestation-with-good-news-and-bad-news/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jun 2026 15:40:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/24001802/AP26169513813986-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321708</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Beef, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forests, Heatwave, Industrial Agriculture, Land Use Change, Logging, Meat, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Secondary Forests, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Each year, researchers at the University of Maryland’s GLAD Lab in the U.S. develop one of the most important data sets on global forest loss. The data is derived from NASA and European Space Agency satellite imagery and, in the Amazon Rainforest, often helps environmental groups and government officials make decisions about conservation. The figures [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Each year, researchers at the University of Maryland’s GLAD Lab in the U.S. develop one of the most important data sets on global forest loss. The data is derived from NASA and European Space Agency satellite imagery and, in the Amazon Rainforest, often helps environmental groups and government officials make decisions about conservation. The figures for 2025 were published at the end of April, following months of processing and quality checks. But a comprehensive analysis, highlighting year-on-year trends and hotspots, was only recently released by Mapping of the Andes Amazon Project (MAAP), an Amazon Conservation initiative to track forest loss in the Amazon basin. While the data suggests that several metrics for measuring forest loss are down from previous years, they’re still concerningly high overall, researchers said. Agriculture, cattle ranching and mining continue to destroy hundreds of thousands of hectares of primary forest, often in protected areas and Indigenous territory. “I have a hard time saying it’s good news if deforestation is lower than previous years, but was still a million [hectares],” Matt Finer, MAAP director and senior research specialist, told Mongabay. He said it’s far from the zero-deforestation rate needed in the region. A: Soy frontiers of southeast Brazil; B: Soy frontiers of southern Bolivia; C: Trans-Amazonian Highway; D: BR-364; E: Agricultural areas in central Peru; F: Arc of deforestation in northwest Colombia; G: Gold mining areas in southern and central Peru: H: Gold mining areas in northern Ecuador; I: Gold mining areas in Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname; J: Indigenous&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/new-analysis-breaks-down-2025-amazon-deforestation-with-good-news-and-bad-news/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/new-analysis-breaks-down-2025-amazon-deforestation-with-good-news-and-bad-news/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321708</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pulp and paper giant APRIL&#8217;s supplier choices put FSC remedy process to the test</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-aprils-supplier-choices-put-fsc-remedy-process-to-the-test/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-aprils-supplier-choices-put-fsc-remedy-process-to-the-test/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 04:12:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/23034155/signal-2026-06-01-105626_002-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321620</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Kalimantan, Global, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Certification, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Products, Forestry, Forests, Industry, International Trade, Land Use Change, Logging, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Threats To Rainforests, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL&#8217;s recent decision to lower its deforestation commitments and source wood from two companies associated with extensive recent forest loss has created a new challenge for its relationship with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), with environmental groups urging the world&#8217;s leading forestry certifier to terminate the already suspended reassociation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL&#8217;s recent decision to lower its deforestation commitments and source wood from two companies associated with extensive recent forest loss has created a new challenge for its relationship with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), with environmental groups urging the world&#8217;s leading forestry certifier to terminate the already suspended reassociation process. In late May, APRIL announced it was reviewing its decade-old Sustainable Forest Management Policy (SFMP) 2.0 and lowering its deforestation cutoff date from 2015 to Dec. 31, 2020. The move allows Indonesia&#8217;s second-largest pulp and paper producer to source wood from PT Industrial Forest Plantation (IFP) and PT Mayawana Persada (Mayawana), two companies that have experienced some of the country&#8217;s largest recent forest losses. APRIL said the decision was necessary to address fibre shortages after the Indonesian government revoked the operating permits of four of its long-term suppliers earlier this year, affecting around 15% of its wood supply in Riau Province. According to data from the forest-monitoring platform Nusantara Atlas, together, IFP and Mayawana lost nearly 80,000 hectares (197,684 acres) of forest­­­­­ — an area almost half the size of London — between 2015 and 2024, including more than 54,000 hectares (133,436 acres) after 2020. This is more than any other forestry companies in Indonesia. Deforestation in the concession of PT Mayawana Persada, September 2020–April 2024 © Earthsight. Image source: Sentinel-2 via Copernicus Browser Environmental groups have criticized the move, arguing that it weakens a longstanding no-deforestation safeguard and sends a message that companies&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-aprils-supplier-choices-put-fsc-remedy-process-to-the-test/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321620</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study offers first map of Amazon’s climate-resilient upslope corridors</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/study-offers-first-map-of-amazons-climate-resilient-upslope-corridors/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/study-offers-first-map-of-amazons-climate-resilient-upslope-corridors/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 14:26:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/22132538/howler-monkey-in-amazon-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321550</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Andes, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Earth Science, Ecosystems, Environment, Impact Of Climate Change, Mapping, Planetary Boundaries, Planetary Health, Rainforest Destruction, Research, and Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Amazon-based scientists have long known that rapidly rising temperatures mean that places where species live today won’t be where they live tomorrow. For a vast number of species — ranging from insects, birds and primates to all manner of plants — upslope migration could present a potential, though perilous, pathway to resilience and survival during [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Amazon-based scientists have long known that rapidly rising temperatures mean that places where species live today won’t be where they live tomorrow. For a vast number of species — ranging from insects, birds and primates to all manner of plants — upslope migration could present a potential, though perilous, pathway to resilience and survival during the climate crisis. This knowledge has raised a vital question: What are the most likely and best protected routes by which species across the Amazon’s broad expanse can relocate upward, helping preserve biodiversity, and hopefully keeping intact the ecosystem services tropical forests now deliver? In what is deemed the first region-wide assessment of Amazonia’s climate resilience and connectivity, a new study points to the western part of the biome, particularly the Andean spine of Peru, as the most viable upslope corridors. According to researchers, this region has the highest concentration of key components needed to support species survival — including major elevation gradients, large established protected areas, and connected forested corridors to facilitate upslope species migration. The scientists pinpointed additional potential corridors in southwestern Colombia, northern Brazil, northern Bolivia, north-central Guyana, and western Suriname. But these areas are disadvantaged due to fewer protected areas, with connectivity in many locales broken by forest fragmentation due to deforestation and oil and gas drilling. Published in May in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation, the new study, titled “A regional-scale assessment of climate-resilient corridors and connectivity in the Amazon,” was undertaken with the goal of providing findings that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/study-offers-first-map-of-amazons-climate-resilient-upslope-corridors/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321550</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pulp and paper giant APRIL adds major deforesters as suppliers after revising sustainability policy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-april-adds-major-deforesters-as-suppliers-after-revising-sustainability-policy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-april-adds-major-deforesters-as-suppliers-after-revising-sustainability-policy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jun 2026 15:12:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/15111219/DJI_0028-min-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321412</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Kalimantan, Global, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Business, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, EUDR, Forest Products, Forestry, Forests, Great Apes, Habitat Loss, Law, Orangutans, Primates, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Timber, timber trade, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL made recent changes that are concerning to environmental groups. These changes include suspending and reviewing its flagship sustainability policy, lowering its deforestation commitments, and sourcing wood from two companies responsible for some of Indonesia&#8217;s largest recent forest losses. The company, part of the Singapore-headquartered Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL made recent changes that are concerning to environmental groups. These changes include suspending and reviewing its flagship sustainability policy, lowering its deforestation commitments, and sourcing wood from two companies responsible for some of Indonesia&#8217;s largest recent forest losses. The company, part of the Singapore-headquartered Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) group, the world’s largest manufacturer of viscose rayon, said the changes are needed to align its policies with international standards and secure fiber supplies following the loss of several long-term suppliers. Environmental groups, however, said the move weakens a key safeguard that APRIL has long cited as evidence of its no-deforestation commitments. The controversy centers on APRIL&#8217;s decision to add Indonesian concessions PT Industrial Forest Plantation (IFP) and PT Mayawana Persada (Mayawana) as its wood suppliers, integral to manufacturing viscose. Both companies, based on Kalimantan, have experienced extensive forest loss in recent years and have been repeatedly criticized by environmental groups. Previously, RGE and its subsidiaries, including APRIL, pledged not to source wood from plantations linked with deforestation since 2015. It is a pledge the company had reportedly broken. Its new corporate promise lowers the cutoff date to 2020, drawing sharp criticism from environmental groups. APRIL said IFP began delivering wood fiber to the company in May 2026. However, vessel-tracking data reviewed by Mongabay indicated that at least five barges carrying timber from the vicinity of IFP&#8217;s operations in Central Kalimantan were tracked traveling to Futong Port in Riau between mid-March and mid-April. Futong serves&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-april-adds-major-deforesters-as-suppliers-after-revising-sustainability-policy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321412</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Growing appetite for açaí is damaging bird diversity in the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/growing-appetite-for-acai-is-damaging-bird-diversity-in-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/growing-appetite-for-acai-is-damaging-bird-diversity-in-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jun 2026 17:15:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Suzana Camargo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/15162629/17-white-throated-toucan-Ramphastos-tucanus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321214</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Environment, Food, Food Industry, Industrial Agriculture, Monocultures, Plantations, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Your refreshing smoothie bowl might be silencing the white-throated toucan and the razor-billed curassow.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;Ah-sigh-ee.” Perhaps you don’t yet know the correct pronunciation of this Amazonian fruit, but chances are high that you’ve already seen its name – açaí – on some menu, especially in cafes and small shops specializing in healthy eating, sold mainly as the primary ingredient in bowls, smoothies, ice creams or juices. In Brazil, about 95% of the production of this small, round and very dark-purple fruit is concentrated in the Amazonian state of Pará. It’s a staple of the local diet, where it’s consumed, blended, with fish, cassava flour and other Amazonian ingredients. But because of its nutritional benefits, being rich in antioxidants and fibers, and having high energy value, açaí’s fame as a “superfood” quickly reached other Brazilian regions and, eventually, other countries. But the increase in fruit production to meet both national and international demand is reducing bird diversity in the floodplain forests of the Amazon. According to a study recently published in the journal Biological Conservation, areas with a higher density of açaí palm trees show a 28% decline in the number of bird species. “Our goal was to understand the consequences of the expansion of açaí cultivation and its various forms of management on birds, with a primary focus on frugivores, those that feed on fruits,” study co-author Raphael de Vasconcelos Nunes, a biologist at the Federal University of Pará, told Mongabay. According to Nunes, floodplain forests are already among the most impacted forest environments in the Amazon. They’re located on riverbanks and undergo constant&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/growing-appetite-for-acai-is-damaging-bird-diversity-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-321214</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Ecuador, an Indigenous community goes thirsty despite its two rivers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-ecuador-an-indigenous-community-goes-thirsty-despite-its-two-rivers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-ecuador-an-indigenous-community-goes-thirsty-despite-its-two-rivers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jun 2026 07:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gabriela Verdezoto Landívar]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/11163242/MUJERES-Y-NINAS-CAPIRONA-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321009</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Crime, Drinking Water, Environment, Environmental Law, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Mining, Pollution, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Rivers, Social Justice, Water, Water Pollution, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the mining-plagued Ecuadorian Amazon, not even two rivers are enough to ensure safe water for an Indigenous community.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The man&#8217;s cheekbones are painted with achiote, a red pigment extracted from the seeds of the Bixa orellana plant. He wears a thin headband over his gray hair, and a traditional green shirt with yellow and blue trim on the collar and sleeves. In his right hand, he holds a wooden spear, 2.5 meters long, or just over 8 feet, made from the chonta palm (Bactris gasipaes). He stares at the journalist. His dark eyes widen as he laments the occurrence of several cases of community residents, including children, suffering from fungal infections. “Even two people have already died from stomach pain, and at the hospital, they said: ‘Maybe it’s the water.’” The video was first broadcast on Sept. 28, 2024, on an Ecuadorian national news program. The man recorded is Galo Villamil, one of the leaders of the Capirona community, an Indigenous Kichwa resistance enclave in the Ecuadorian Amazon. One year before, in 2023, 22-year-old Joana Ashanga and her 2-year-old nephew, Ville Ashanga, were victims of what the community considers the fatal consequence of river pollution. “Despite the complaints, official reports from the [Ecuadorian] Ministry of Health made no mention of links between the pollution and the deaths, which generated distrust and outrage,” said Linda Tapuy, president of the Capirona community, before an audience at a university auditorium in Ecuador’s capital, Quito, two years after the deaths. The victims’ death certificates said the cause of death was “unknown.” For the Indigenous group, appearing in that television news story was&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-ecuador-an-indigenous-community-goes-thirsty-despite-its-two-rivers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321009</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil carves an Amazon national park to make room for grain railway</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brazil-carves-national-park-to-make-room-for-grain-railway/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brazil-carves-national-park-to-make-room-for-grain-railway/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jun 2026 18:06:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[André Schröder]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/11142851/003_FlorestaJamanxim_ViniciusMendonca-Ibama-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320998</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Infrastructure, Logging, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Brazil's Supreme Court ruling revives a controversial Amazon railway and sets a precedent about protected areas.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A ruling by Brazil’s Supreme Court has given new momentum to one of the most controversial infrastructure projects in the Brazilian Amazon: The Ferrogrão railway. The plan is to link Sinop, in the grain-producing state of Mato Grosso, to the port of Miritituba in Pará, a key commodity export hub on the Tapajós River. Conceived by the agribusiness sector to reduce grain transportation costs, Ferrogrão is a priority project for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration, despite warnings about its potential impacts on Indigenous territories and protected forests in an Amazon region already under significant socio-environmental pressure. In May, the justices upheld a 2017 law that removed 862 hectares (2,130 acres) from Jamanxim National Park, a conservation unit located in Pará state, to allow Ferrogrão to pass through the protected area. The initiative had been challenged on the grounds that Brazil’s Federal Constitution requires a formal law to reduce the size of protected areas, rather than the conversion into law of a provisional measure issued by the executive branch. “The STF decision does not give the green light to the Ferrogrão project, which still must undergo environmental studies and the licensing process,” said Alice Dandara de Assis Correia, an attorney at Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), a nonprofit that advocates for environmental and Indigenous rights. “But the courts have ruled that specially protected areas can be altered through an expedited process, an extremely dangerous shortcut that could pave the way for Congress to approve similar changes in other protected areas facing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brazil-carves-national-park-to-make-room-for-grain-railway/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brazil-carves-national-park-to-make-room-for-grain-railway/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320998</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon resilient to fire, but diversity loss still a threat, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/amazon-resilient-to-fire-but-diversity-loss-still-a-threat-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/amazon-resilient-to-fire-but-diversity-loss-still-a-threat-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 May 2026 15:38:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Suzana Camargo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/21110818/tiger-striped-leaf-frog-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319900</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Fires, Forest Loss, Forests, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Experiment shows the Amazon can recover after fires, but the new forest is a “poorer” version of its former self.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2024, the Brazilian Amazon faced one of the worst fire seasons in its history: 15.6 million hectares (38.5 million acres) were burned, an area the size of Portugal, of which 43% consisted of forest vegetation. According to data from MapBiomas, a collaborative network mapping land use in Brazil, the area destroyed by flames was 117% higher than the historical average. Now, a group of scientists has found a surprising capacity for forest regeneration after fires, although biodiversity loss persisted. The results were presented in a two-decade study in the southeastern Amazon that attempts to predict the risks the world’s greatest rainforest faces as deforestation, reduced precipitation and long-term droughts become more frequent. “Our study brings a message of hope,” said lead author Leandro Maracahipes, a researcher at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) in Brazil and at Yale University in the U.S. “It demonstrates that a highly degraded forest can recover even after many disturbances.” Maracahipes emphasized, however, that this regeneration gives rise to a new type of forest. “It is a new ecosystem. Although it can recover, this forest is much poorer, with a greater number of generalist species, much more vulnerable to new disturbances,” he told Mongabay. Aerial photography of the Amazon Rainforest. Image courtesy of Leandro Maracahipes. Study authors and members of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) during field research. Image courtesy of Rafael Oliveira. A greater impact on forest edges The experiment began in 2004, during a peak of deforestation in the Amazon, and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/amazon-resilient-to-fire-but-diversity-loss-still-a-threat-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/amazon-resilient-to-fire-but-diversity-loss-still-a-threat-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319900</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ecuador failing to end Yasuní oil drilling: Interview with Waorani leader Juan Bay</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ecuador-failing-to-end-yasuni-oil-drilling-interview-with-waorani-leader-juan-bay/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ecuador-failing-to-end-yasuni-oil-drilling-interview-with-waorani-leader-juan-bay/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 May 2026 14:23:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/13134716/21303977088_8474f7875c_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319326</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Interviews, Land Rights, Mining, Oil, Oil Drilling, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2023, Ecuadorians voted for a binding referendum to end oil drilling in the 43-ITT oil block in Yasuní National Park. In 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) echoed the call in a ruling for the Ecuadorian state to do more to protect uncontacted Indigenous peoples whose territories overlap with the park. But [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2023, Ecuadorians voted for a binding referendum to end oil drilling in the 43-ITT oil block in Yasuní National Park. In 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) echoed the call in a ruling for the Ecuadorian state to do more to protect uncontacted Indigenous peoples whose territories overlap with the park. But nearly three years since the referendum, and a year since the court ruling, the Ecuadorian government has still not closed the 43-ITT block. Juan Bay, the president of the Waorani Nation (NAWE), whose ancestral territory overlaps with the park, recently traveled to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in New York to denounce the lack of progress and express his frustrations with the state. The Aug. 20, 2023, referendum saw the majority of voters choose to halt all future oil drilling in Yasuní, which involved the closure of 43-ITT and the creation of a commission to oversee the implementation of the results. The government had one year to withdraw from the oil block, by August 2024, but there’s been little progress since then. Bay said only 10 out of 247 oil wells in the block have been shut down. “More than a year has passed [since the deadline] and the government is doing nothing to shut down that [operation] and leave the resource in the ground, which is the will of the Ecuadorian people,” Mariana Yumbay Yallico, a Waranka woman and member of Ecuador’s National Assembly, representing Bolívar province, told Mongabay at the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ecuador-failing-to-end-yasuni-oil-drilling-interview-with-waorani-leader-juan-bay/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ecuador-failing-to-end-yasuni-oil-drilling-interview-with-waorani-leader-juan-bay/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319326</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Paraguay expanded a reserve in the Gran Chaco. Why is deforestation still rising there?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/paraguay-expanded-a-reserve-in-the-gran-chaco-why-is-deforestation-still-rising-there/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/paraguay-expanded-a-reserve-in-the-gran-chaco-why-is-deforestation-still-rising-there/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2026 16:59:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/08165707/Foto-12-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318947</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Paraguay, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than a decade ago, officials in Paraguay expanded a biosphere reserve in the Gran Chaco, hoping to protect more of the world’s largest tropical dry forest and the Indigenous communities who live there. But a lack of enforcement has left the reserve vulnerable to deforestation caused by agribusiness and cattle ranching, observers say. Approximately [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More than a decade ago, officials in Paraguay expanded a biosphere reserve in the Gran Chaco, hoping to protect more of the world’s largest tropical dry forest and the Indigenous communities who live there. But a lack of enforcement has left the reserve vulnerable to deforestation caused by agribusiness and cattle ranching, observers say. Approximately 2.78 million hectares (6.87 million acres) were added to Paraguay’s Chaco Biosphere Reserve in 2011, yet the area continues to be one of the country’s worst hit by forest loss, according to satellite imagery analyzed by Mongabay. Indigenous groups say regulations are selectively upheld, allowing landowners to clear the forest. “In practice, the biosphere reserve hasn’t gone beyond being just a designation, a protection category, without actually advancing to a stage of regulation or stronger control over human activity,” said Miguel Ángel Alarcón, general coordinator of Iniciativa Amotocodie, a nonprofit that helps the Indigenous Ayoreo defend their forests in the Gran Chaco. The biome has some of the highest deforestation rates in the world, with around 5.2 million hectares (12.8 million acres) lost between 2000 and 2020. As the forest shrinks, Indigenous Ayoreo-Totobiegosode have struggled to maintain customs dependent on their voluntary isolation. They rely on the forest for food, shelter and medicine, and don’t have immunity to many outside diseases. “They live running from one place to another because they’re frightened of the loud noises of the machinery,” said Guei Basui Picanerai, secretary of the Guidai and Ducodegosode Ayoreo Association of Paraguay, which represents&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/paraguay-expanded-a-reserve-in-the-gran-chaco-why-is-deforestation-still-rising-there/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/paraguay-expanded-a-reserve-in-the-gran-chaco-why-is-deforestation-still-rising-there/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318947</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forests, fires and fragile gains: Interview with WRI’s Elizabeth Goldman</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/forests-fires-and-fragile-gains-interview-with-wris-elizabeth-goldman/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/forests-fires-and-fragile-gains-interview-with-wris-elizabeth-goldman/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2026 15:38:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/22033832/indonesia_sulawesi_171331_23-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319011</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Brazil, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Global, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate Change, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forests, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[According to new data from the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch platform, losses of global tropical primary forest loss slowed by 36% in 2025. For scientists, policymakers and environmental groups who track deforestation, this assessment is a welcome note of optimism. “It’s a better year, but it’s just one year,” said Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[According to new data from the World Resources Institute’s Global Forest Watch platform, losses of global tropical primary forest loss slowed by 36% in 2025. For scientists, policymakers and environmental groups who track deforestation, this assessment is a welcome note of optimism. “It’s a better year, but it’s just one year,” said Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of GFW. Despite the drop, more than 4.3 million hectares (10.6 million acres) of tropical primary forest — an area larger than Switzerland — vanished in 2025 alone, she said. And the improvement is fragile: “If 2025 had been another bad fire year like 2024, we’d be telling a very different story.” For Goldman, the data are less a cause for celebration than an opportunity for reflection: a chance to understand what worked, why, and how those conditions might be replicated elsewhere. In an interview with Mongabay, she shared her anxiety over 2026, which has begun under the shadow of a new El Niño cycle likely to bring hotter and drier conditions across the tropics. “That’s going to be the real test,” she said. “We could see the same kind of fire-driven loss we saw in 2024 if the right measures aren’t in place.” Aerial view of Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Primary forest loss in the DRC declined by 5% between 2024 and 2025. Along with Brazil and Indonesia, the DRC is one of the top three countries for total remaining tropical forest cover. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Mongabay: Let’s start with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/forests-fires-and-fragile-gains-interview-with-wris-elizabeth-goldman/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/forests-fires-and-fragile-gains-interview-with-wris-elizabeth-goldman/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319011</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deforestation and warming could push Amazon to tipping point by 2040s: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/deforestation-and-warming-could-push-amazon-to-tipping-point-by-2040s-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/deforestation-and-warming-could-push-amazon-to-tipping-point-by-2040s-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 14:10:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07103744/amazon-forest-fire-burning-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318926</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Fires, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation coupled with climate change is rapidly pushing the Amazon Rainforest toward a perilous tipping point that could come much sooner than previously thought. That’s the warning from a new paper, published in Nature, which determined that deforestation of 22-28% of the rainforest, combined with 1.5-1.9° Celsius (2.7-3.4° Fahrenheit) of global warming, could trigger a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation coupled with climate change is rapidly pushing the Amazon Rainforest toward a perilous tipping point that could come much sooner than previously thought. That’s the warning from a new paper, published in Nature, which determined that deforestation of 22-28% of the rainforest, combined with 1.5-1.9° Celsius (2.7-3.4° Fahrenheit) of global warming, could trigger a widespread transformation of the biome as early as the 2040s. Researchers found that crossing this deforestation/global temperature threshold could lead to more than two-thirds of the rainforest becoming degraded or transitioning to a savanna ecosystem. Currently, about 17-18% of the Amazon is deforested and 1.5°C of warming over preindustrial levels is likely to be officially reached by 2030, while scientists say it is increasingly likely 2°C (3.6°F) of warming may be surpassed by 2050. In the worst-case scenario, “This critical [Amazon] threshold could be reached as early as the 2040s,” Nico Wunderling, first author on the paper and a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told Mongabay in an interview. “Although I&#8217;d be a little bit more optimistic: If current [downward] trends [for] Brazilian deforestation continue, then deforestation-wise, we might not reach [the tipping point] by mid-century.” “I think we can confidently say that the more deforestation happens, the lower this global warming threshold becomes,” said Arie Staal, study co-author and an assistant professor at Utrecht University. For Carlos Nobre, a professor at the University of São Paulo and co-chair of the Science Panel for the Amazon, who wasn’t involved in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/deforestation-and-warming-could-push-amazon-to-tipping-point-by-2040s-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318926</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil bill aims to ban satellite tool used to slow Amazon deforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-bill-aims-to-ban-satellite-tool-used-to-slow-amazon-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-bill-aims-to-ban-satellite-tool-used-to-slow-amazon-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2026 18:06:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/30115532/airbus_earthrise-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318472</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Conservation, Crime, data, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Illegal Mining, Law, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Regulations, Remote Sensing, and Satellite Imagery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The agribusiness caucus is pushing restrictions on the technology that has helped halve deforestation since 2023.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[​In May 2025, a delegation of angry politicians and agribusinessmen from the Brazilian state of Pará traveled to the national capital to protest against the actions of the federal environmental agency, IBAMA. Their frustration stemmed from embargoes imposed by IBAMA on 544 rural properties in the municipality of Altamira, one of the Amazon’s deforestation hotspots. In each case, satellite imagery had detected illegal forest clearing, prompting authorities to block the areas from further production activities. ​“Everyone came here to present their concerns and ask for solutions regarding productive areas in the state of Pará,” Pará Governor Helder Barbalho said at the time. ​Almost a year later, their resentment has been distilled into a new bill proposing a ban on the so-called remote embargoes. Today, IBAMA uses satellite imagery to identify where illegal deforestation is occurring. Once they detect a recently deforested area, environmental agents verify whether there’s an environmental license authorizing that clearance — in the Amazon, around 90% of forest felling is illegal. If there’s no authorization, the agency issues an embargo as a preventive measure from behind its computers. The system is one of the tools that helped the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva halve deforestation numbers in the Amazon since taking office at the start of 2023. “Today we have a wealth of ultra-high-resolution satellite imagery, and we can cross-reference information from various databases,” Wallace Lopes, a representative of the federal environmental agents association, ASCEMA, told Mongabay. ​Jair Schmitt, director of environmental protection and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-bill-aims-to-ban-satellite-tool-used-to-slow-amazon-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-318472</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tropical forest loss falls in 2025, but world still off track on deforestation goals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/tropical-forest-loss-falls-in-2025-but-world-still-off-track-on-deforestation-goals/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/tropical-forest-loss-falls-in-2025-but-world-still-off-track-on-deforestation-goals/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Apr 2026 04:10:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/02182850/brunei_251115221947_0687z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318333</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Bolivia, Brazil, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Global, Indonesia, Latin America, and Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate Change, Commodity agriculture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forests, Mining, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Tropical primary forest loss fell sharply in 2025, dropping 36% from the record highs of the previous year, according to new data from a long-running satellite monitoring project. Non-fire forest loss also declined by 23%, reaching its lowest level in a decade, according to the data from the University of Maryland’s Global Land [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Tropical primary forest loss fell sharply in 2025, dropping 36% from the record highs of the previous year, according to new data from a long-running satellite monitoring project. Non-fire forest loss also declined by 23%, reaching its lowest level in a decade, according to the data from the University of Maryland’s Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) laboratory and visualized on the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Global Forest Watch platform. The drop suggests that policy and enforcement can make be effective in protecting tropical primary forests, which are critical for biodiversity, water provision, carbon storage, food and medicine, cultural identity and more. But researchers say the headline figures mask a more complex reality and may say more about fewer fires than real progress, as forests across the tropics continue to move in the same direction: toward less forest and, in many places, faster rates of loss. “A drop of this scale in a single year is encouraging — it shows what decisive government action can achieve,” said Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of Global Forest Watch. Even so, total loss remains high. The tropics lost 4.3 million hectares (10.6 million acres) of primary forest in 2025 — an area larger than Switzerland, and still 46% higher than a decade ago. That’s the equivalent of about 11 football fields’ worth of forests being razed every minute. At current rates, the world remains far off track from the 2030 goal of halting and reversing forest loss, a pledge made by more than&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/tropical-forest-loss-falls-in-2025-but-world-still-off-track-on-deforestation-goals/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318333</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Vaupés River contamination identified near rapidly expanding Amazonian town</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/vaupes-river-contamination-identified-near-rapidly-expanding-amazonian-town/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/vaupes-river-contamination-identified-near-rapidly-expanding-amazonian-town/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Apr 2026 21:48:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/21211556/IMG_3726-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317894</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Colombia, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cities, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Rivers, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, Tropics, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[VAUPÉS, COLOMBIA — Traditionally, for members of the Indigenous Macaquiño community in the southeastern Colombian Amazon, the Vaupés River is not just a source of water, but a living being that must be respected. It supports all kinds of life, including fish, which have sustained the community for generations. Now, as a nearby Amazonian town [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[VAUPÉS, COLOMBIA — Traditionally, for members of the Indigenous Macaquiño community in the southeastern Colombian Amazon, the Vaupés River is not just a source of water, but a living being that must be respected. It supports all kinds of life, including fish, which have sustained the community for generations. Now, as a nearby Amazonian town upstream rapidly transforms into an expanding urban municipality and increasingly brings untreated wastewater from its poorly constructed treatment plant to the banks of Macaquiño, that same water is bringing them sickness and disease, residents say. During a visit to Macaquiño in September 2025, community members told Mongabay the Vaupés River is contaminated by untreated sewage dumped into it in the town of Mitú. “It’s like an atomic bomb coming out of the sewer,” said Julian de Jesus Madrid Correa, a member of the Macaquiño community. He said it causes rashes, itches and fevers, especially in children, and has begun to spread diseases, such as dengue and hepatitis. The Indigenous Macaquiño community on the banks of the Vaupés River in Colombia’s Vaupés region. Image by Aimee Gabay/Mongabay. To verify what the community told us, Mongabay obtained water quality studies from the Corporation for Sustainable Development of the Northern and Eastern Amazon. Its latest report, which contains results from water samples taken in 2025 across four sites in Mitú, confirms there is contamination above safe limits in the Vaupés River that could impact public health and the quality of the aquatic ecosystem. Fecal coliforms (fecal bacteria), which&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/vaupes-river-contamination-identified-near-rapidly-expanding-amazonian-town/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317894</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil taps legal loophole to issue bids for Amazon ‘tipping point’ road</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-taps-legal-loophole-to-issue-bids-for-amazon-tipping-point-road/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-taps-legal-loophole-to-issue-bids-for-amazon-tipping-point-road/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Apr 2026 15:37:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/20152755/whatsapp-image-2025-07-04-at-162130-1600x728-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317801</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A strategic shift in law clears the way for a highway that scientists warn will push the Amazon to a tipping point.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Heavy machinery will soon be working on the road that may determine the future of the Amazon Rainforest: On April 13, the Brazilian government issued calls for four bids to pave the controversial BR-319 highway. Inaugurated in 1976 to connect two major Amazonian municipalities, Manaus and Porto Velho, the BR-319 runs 885 kilometers (550 miles) and crosses one of the best-preserved areas of the Brazilian Amazon, home to 69 Indigenous territories and 41 conservation units. The middle section of the highway was never fully paved, and after decades of abandonment, it became undrivable, especially during the rainy season. Paving this 339-km (211-mi) critical stretch has long been advocated by locals, politicians and businesspeople, who currently rely on plane or boat to travel. Paving the road to improve connectivity, however, would come at a high environmental cost. Scientists say upgrading BR-319 may push the rainforest to a tipping point, transforming it into a much drier, less biodiverse ecosystem. However, the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who came to office on a pro-environmental platform, is exploiting an environmental licensing loophole to announce it will start roadworks in the second half of this year. It has budgeted 1.3 billion reais ($260 million) for the project. “The idea is to get started quickly, with independent mobilizations, taking advantage of the Amazonian summer and making as much progress as possible,” Fabrício Galvão, general director of the National Department of Transportation Infrastructure (DNIT), said at the project announcement. In October, Lula will run&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-taps-legal-loophole-to-issue-bids-for-amazon-tipping-point-road/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317801</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Novel research finds unexpected climate resilience in up to 36% of Amazon forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/novel-research-finds-unexpected-climate-resilience-in-up-to-36-of-amazon-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/novel-research-finds-unexpected-climate-resilience-in-up-to-36-of-amazon-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2026 03:23:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/09222759/1-Palms-along-river-in-Manu-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317301</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Drought, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forest Fragmentation, Forests, Precipitation, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Temperatures, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, Trees, Water, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Reports on the health and vitality of the Amazon — often dubbed as Earth’s lungs — have been grim for years. Record drought has stressed large swaths of the world’s largest rainforest. Major Amazon River tributaries, including the Rio Negro and Madeira River, hit their lowest levels in more than a century of measurement in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Reports on the health and vitality of the Amazon — often dubbed as Earth’s lungs — have been grim for years. Record drought has stressed large swaths of the world’s largest rainforest. Major Amazon River tributaries, including the Rio Negro and Madeira River, hit their lowest levels in more than a century of measurement in 2024. And experts warn that deforestation and wildfires are tipping parts of the biome from carbon sink to source. Yet in Manaus, a city at the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, forest ecologist Flávia Costa is upbeat as she highlights what appears to be a previously underappreciated underlying Amazon reality: Her research finds that the region’s vast wetlands, or shallow water table areas, have proven to be stubbornly drought resistant through years of intensifying climate change. In fact, her long-term research reveals that palm species and other wetland trees are not just surviving drought seasons, they’re maintaining their health and even adding biomass. That could mean these areas could serve as valuable refugia, as other parts of Amazonia degrade. Significantly, these shallow water table areas compose 36% of Amazonia and have been a crucial part of the evolving rainforest ecosystem for millions of years. Sturdy, resilient palms account for one in five tree species across the Amazon, which includes parts of nine nations, and of which Brazil occupies 60%. These forested wetlands and Costa’s research represent one bright spot in the Amazon’s otherwise gloomy projected trajectory for the 21st century — forecasts built on decades&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/novel-research-finds-unexpected-climate-resilience-in-up-to-36-of-amazon-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317301</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As EU-Mercosur agreement goes into effect, environmentalists raise red flags</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/as-eu-mercosur-agreement-goes-into-effect-environmentalists-raise-red-flags/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/as-eu-mercosur-agreement-goes-into-effect-environmentalists-raise-red-flags/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Apr 2026 21:56:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ramana Rech]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/08214604/07_05_2022_Ato_alusivo_a_visita_a_23a_Feira_Nacional_da_Soja_52057648056-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317212</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, European Union, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Commodity agriculture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Economics, Environment, Environmental Law, Law, Law Enforcement, Mining, Pesticides, Rainforest Destruction, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, and Soy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In March, after decades of negotiations, the free trade agreement between Mercosur nations and the European Union (EU) was ratified by Paraguay, the last founding member of the Latin American bloc to give the green light to the deal. Already in its final stage, the document will be provisionally implemented in May, 2026, according to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In March, after decades of negotiations, the free trade agreement between Mercosur nations and the European Union (EU) was ratified by Paraguay, the last founding member of the Latin American bloc to give the green light to the deal. Already in its final stage, the document will be provisionally implemented in May, 2026, according to the European Commission. The agreement is being hailed as an economic boon for both EU and Latin American nations. However, it may cause a series of environmental impacts. According to various NGOs and environmental advocates, major problems for Latin America could include expansion of deforestation, mining, and pesticide imports and use. Other experts argue that the agreement could impose a series of environmental rules on already existing global trade – in addition to facilitating knowledge exchange among the parties. Good for trade, bad for the environment? Mercosur, as it’s known in Spanish, and Mercosul, in Portuguese, has been dubbed the Southern Common Market. It represents one of the world’s leading economic blocs, and its fifth-largest economy. It is composed of five member countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia) and seven associate members (Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and most recently Panama). In general terms, the treaty between Mercosur nations and the European Union provides for gradual reduction of import tariffs between the two continental blocs. In late February, the Brazilian government stated that the EU “commits to eliminating import tariffs on approximately 95% of goods that account for 92% of the value of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/as-eu-mercosur-agreement-goes-into-effect-environmentalists-raise-red-flags/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317212</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Unwrapping deforestation: Your chocolate Easter bunny may harm the environment</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/unwrapping-deforestation-your-chocolate-easter-bunny-may-harm-the-environment/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/unwrapping-deforestation-your-chocolate-easter-bunny-may-harm-the-environment/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Apr 2026 11:45:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elisângela Mendonça]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/01093153/a.-makabera-easter-bunny-7037615-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316699</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[United Kingdom and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cacao, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Food, Forest Destruction, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, International Trade, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Regulations, Supply Chain, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies fill British families’ baskets this holiday season, a new report reveals that West Africa continues to be deforested to meet the United Kingdom’s growing demand for cocoa. In 2025 alone, cocoa imported into the U.K. contributed to more than 2,000 hectares (about 4,940 acres) of deforestation, according to an [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies fill British families’ baskets this holiday season, a new report reveals that West Africa continues to be deforested to meet the United Kingdom’s growing demand for cocoa. In 2025 alone, cocoa imported into the U.K. contributed to more than 2,000 hectares (about 4,940 acres) of deforestation, according to an exclusive analysis by climate NGO Global Witness shared with Mongabay. The findings come more than four years after the U.K. passed its Environment Act, which promised to strip illegal deforestation from the nation’s supply chains. But additional regulations for implementing the law have not been put in place, and the government declines to say when they might be enacted. While the government has failed to set rules, consumers remain at risk of buying chocolate and other goods that contribute to the climate crisis, even as they reach for foods stamped as sustainable, experts say. Last week, a coalition of chocolate manufacturers, British supermarkets and NGOs hosted an All-Party Parliamentary Group event on global deforestation at the House of Commons in London. The group gathered to urge the government to finally regulate commodities at risk for links to deforestation and provide more clarity to the industry. The U.K. Cocoa Coalition is formed of major firms, such as Ferrero Rocher and Hershey; retailers Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Marks &amp; Spencer; and several nonprofit organizations, including the World Wildlife Fund. The U.K. Cocoa Coalition met in an event in Parliament last week. Image courtesy of the NGO Forest Coalition.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/unwrapping-deforestation-your-chocolate-easter-bunny-may-harm-the-environment/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316699</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Peru-Brazil Bioceanic Railway brings too much risk to the Amazon, experts warn</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/peru-brazil-bioceanic-railway-brings-too-much-risk-to-the-amazon-experts-warn/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/peru-brazil-bioceanic-railway-brings-too-much-risk-to-the-amazon-experts-warn/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Mar 2026 17:16:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Yvette Sierra Praeli]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/30151522/foto2-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316557</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, and Peru]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Saving Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The idea of a railway line stretching across the width of South America — from Peru on the Pacific coast to Brazil on the Atlantic — has gained steam since the inauguration of the megaport of Chancay in Peru. To complete its route, this “Bioceanic Railway,” as it’s known, would have to cross the Andes [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The idea of a railway line stretching across the width of South America — from Peru on the Pacific coast to Brazil on the Atlantic — has gained steam since the inauguration of the megaport of Chancay in Peru. To complete its route, this “Bioceanic Railway,” as it’s known, would have to cross the Andes mountain range in Peru and also the Amazon Rainforest in both countries. In July 2025, Brazil and China signed a cooperation deal to conduct feasibility studies on the railway corridor. In August 2025, Peru’s Transport and Communications Ministry presented the railway plan before the country’s Congress. Image by the Peruvian government. While the Peruvian government wasn’t present at that signing, in May that year the country’s then-economy minister, Raúl Pérez Reyes, and transport minister, César Sandoval Pozo, met with senior Chinese officials, including Fei Dongbin, president of China’s National Railway Administration, and Song Yang, the Chinese ambassador to Peru, to discuss the development of railway infrastructure in Peru. Several months later, in January 2026, the Chancay-Sierra Central section of the railway line was announced. The project was reportedly awarded to a Chinese company. The route that would continue after this section into Brazil has not yet been confirmed, but there are two proposals for crossing the Andes and the Peruvian Amazon to reach Brazilian territory. The mega construction project has prompted widespread concern due to the potential socioenvironmental impacts, especially for the section that crosses the Amazon. Compounding worries are the economic and geopolitical jousting&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/peru-brazil-bioceanic-railway-brings-too-much-risk-to-the-amazon-experts-warn/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316557</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As traditional forest governance erodes in Peru, ‘ghost permits’ fill the vacuum</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/as-traditional-forest-governance-erodes-in-peru-ghost-permits-fill-the-vacuum/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/as-traditional-forest-governance-erodes-in-peru-ghost-permits-fill-the-vacuum/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Mar 2026 20:23:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Michele Calamaio]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/30182350/19_Peru_Ghost_01-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316593</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation, Land rights and extractives, and Latin America]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Corruption, Crime, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Logging, Natural Resources, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, timber trade, Traditional People, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[HONORIA, Peru — Jacqueline Flores sits cross-legged on a wooden platform inside a dim Asháninka maloca, the Indigenous longhouse where her dress, painted with geometric patterns, seems to merge with the resin-sweet smell of plants macerating for ceremony. Outside, the Boiling River murmurs. Inside, her voice rises in a long, trembling ícaro, part prayer, part [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[HONORIA, Peru — Jacqueline Flores sits cross-legged on a wooden platform inside a dim Asháninka maloca, the Indigenous longhouse where her dress, painted with geometric patterns, seems to merge with the resin-sweet smell of plants macerating for ceremony. Outside, the Boiling River murmurs. Inside, her voice rises in a long, trembling ícaro, part prayer, part medicine, part declaration of her identity. This South American ancestral colloquialism for ‘magic song’ serves her a specific purpose, she says: to anchor herself to something older than memory. “I’m a student of the plants,” she says, “to help humanity and people who need to ‘heal’.” In the ‘80s, Jacqueline’s ancestors were forced to leave their Asháninka territory in Peru’s central rainforest to escape the violence of the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) terrorist group. “A lot was lost,” she says. She sees it in the fragmentation of neighboring communities, internal divisions and the disappearance of shared points of reference. Her work — improving her own healing center, Pumayaku, recovering her language and reconnecting with her territory after displacement — is her answer to that loss. In the Peruvian Amazon, erosion of traditional governance is reshaping the forest as powerfully as any force of globalization, according to anthropologist Glenn Shepard. Ancestral culture fades, languages are forgotten, rituals weaken and community guidance fractures, while internal corruption can concurrently become the driving force behind deforestation and the quiet dismantling of Indigenous stewardship. As elder-based authority, ritual discipline and long-term leadership degrade, collective decision-making gives way to document-based control,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/as-traditional-forest-governance-erodes-in-peru-ghost-permits-fill-the-vacuum/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/as-traditional-forest-governance-erodes-in-peru-ghost-permits-fill-the-vacuum/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316593</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Contested Amazon dam called to review water flow as river ecosystem fails</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/contested-amazon-dam-called-to-review-water-flow-as-river-ecosystem-fails/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/contested-amazon-dam-called-to-review-water-flow-as-river-ecosystem-fails/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Mar 2026 17:45:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[André Schröder]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/19165434/005_canais_seco_transporte_ISA-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315988</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conflict, Dams, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Fisheries, Freshwater Fish, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Rainforest Destruction, Renewable Energy, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Locals warned Belo Monte would kill the river, and now the plant faces a turning point as prophecies become real.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[After 10 years of operation, the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant in Pará state has yet to resolve its most severe local impact: the reduction in water flow in the Volta Grande do Xingu. The 130-kilometer (81-mile) bend on the river in the Brazilian Amazon is rich in biodiversity and vital to Indigenous peoples and riverine communities. Belo Monte is the largest hydropower plant in the Amazon and the second-largest in Brazil. Since construction plans began, local and Indigenous communities have been warning that the plant could disrupt the Xingu ecosystem and livelihoods. Ensuring sufficient river flow was a nonnegotiable condition of the project&#8217;s environmental licensing, but Belo Monte’s operator has invoked Brazil’s energy security to avoid reviewing the volume of water diverted from the Xingu River. Technical reports by the federal environmental agency, IBAMA, alongside independent monitoring by researchers, have confirmed early warnings and pointed to grave and irreparable impacts across the Volta Grande (Big Bend) as Belo Monte began operating in 2016. Subnormal water levels have dried flooded forests and ironstone formations, disrupting reproduction and causing physical deformities and massive mortality among fish and turtle species, many of which are endemic to the region and critically endangered. “The Xingu is a highly unique river,” Lúcia Rapp Py-Daniel, a biologist and researcher at the National Institute for Amazonian Research, told Mongabay by phone. “Several species of fauna and flora have adapted to the rapids flowing over an almost continuous bed of rock that exists only there. We are seeing a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/contested-amazon-dam-called-to-review-water-flow-as-river-ecosystem-fails/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/contested-amazon-dam-called-to-review-water-flow-as-river-ecosystem-fails/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315988</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘We do not have time’: Interview with MEP Delara Burkhardt on the EUDR’s second delay</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/we-do-not-have-time-interview-with-mep-delara-burkhardt-on-the-eudrs-second-delay/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/we-do-not-have-time-interview-with-mep-delara-burkhardt-on-the-eudrs-second-delay/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Mar 2026 22:01:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/11214717/Still-2026-03-01-174516_2.3.1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315607</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, EUDR, Forest Destruction, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Illegal Logging, Logging, Palm Oil, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Soy, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2023, when the European Parliament passed a law meant to keep products linked to deforestation out of the EU single market, environmentalists were riding high. The landmark piece of legislation, called the European Union Deforestation-free Regulation, or EUDR, had won the support of an overwhelming majority of lawmakers as part of the EU’s Green [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2023, when the European Parliament passed a law meant to keep products linked to deforestation out of the EU single market, environmentalists were riding high. The landmark piece of legislation, called the European Union Deforestation-free Regulation, or EUDR, had won the support of an overwhelming majority of lawmakers as part of the EU’s Green Deal. Opposition from commodity-producing countries like Brazil and Malaysia hadn’t derailed the law, which looked like it would promptly cruise into force. And then the winds changed. The 2024 EU elections sent parliament into a sharp rightward turn, partly caused by a “greenlash” against the cost of bold environmental and climate policies. Afterward, the new parliament amended the EUDR to weaken its requirements and decided to delay its implementation for a year, with a spokesperson for the ascendant center-right voting bloc calling it a “bureaucratic monster.” Late last year, the law was delayed for a second time — raising concerns over whether it will now be implemented at all. To get a better understanding of the politics behind the repeated delays and what they say about the EU’s environmental agenda, Mongabay’s Ashoka Mukpo caught up with Germany’s Delara Burkhardt at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. One of the youngest members of parliament, Burkhardt has been the lead negotiator on the EUDR for the Socialists and Democrats Group. The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Mongabay: I wanted to start by asking you: what is the EUDR and why is it&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/we-do-not-have-time-interview-with-mep-delara-burkhardt-on-the-eudrs-second-delay/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/we-do-not-have-time-interview-with-mep-delara-burkhardt-on-the-eudrs-second-delay/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315607</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Concern among Indigenous leaders, relief for a few, as Amazon Soy Moratorium falters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/concern-among-indigenous-leaders-relief-for-a-few-as-amazon-soy-moratorium-falters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/concern-among-indigenous-leaders-relief-for-a-few-as-amazon-soy-moratorium-falters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Mar 2026 18:33:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rubens Valente]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/03170640/AP23126774484902-scaled-e1772557745837-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315066</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Agribusiness, Indigenous Peoples and Conservation, and Latin America]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BRASÍLIA — Indigenous leaders and researchers in Brazil say an end to a key zero-deforestation agreement, the Amazon Soy Moratorium, will increase deforestation around Indigenous lands and encourage the invasion of their territories for soy farming. Already, some are pointing to forest loss advancing near one Indigenous land following efforts to curtail the agreement. Meanwhile, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BRASÍLIA — Indigenous leaders and researchers in Brazil say an end to a key zero-deforestation agreement, the Amazon Soy Moratorium, will increase deforestation around Indigenous lands and encourage the invasion of their territories for soy farming. Already, some are pointing to forest loss advancing near one Indigenous land following efforts to curtail the agreement. Meanwhile, a few Indigenous leaders are seeing an economic opportunity as companies pull out of the agreement. Members in communities that sell soy farmed on their lands say they already do so sustainably and that the agreement unfairly penalizes their product. Mongabay spoke with stakeholders across various sectors, from Indigenous leaders and corporate entities, to conservationists and government officials — people across Brazil’s political spectrum — to get their take on what the possible dissolution of the moratorium may mean for Indigenous peoples and their lands in the Amazon. A section of the Amazon rainforest stands next to soy fields in Belterra, Para state, Brazil, on Nov. 30, 2019. Image by AP Photo/Leo Correa. The moratorium is a voluntary pact between companies, public agencies and NGOs to reduce deforestation in the Amazon. Participants agree to ban from their supply chains any soy produced in areas of the Amazon deforested after July 2008. While the expansion of soy farms grew by 361% from 2006 to 2023 as farmers prioritized converting already cleared lands, fresh deforestation in the Amazon for soy farms dramatically dropped to 1% in the first 10 years after the agreement came into force in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/concern-among-indigenous-leaders-relief-for-a-few-as-amazon-soy-moratorium-falters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/concern-among-indigenous-leaders-relief-for-a-few-as-amazon-soy-moratorium-falters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315066</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Malaria outbreak among Indigenous Pirahã linked to forest loss, satellite data find</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malaria-outbreak-among-indigenous-piraha-linked-to-forest-loss-satellite-data-find/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malaria-outbreak-among-indigenous-piraha-linked-to-forest-loss-satellite-data-find/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Feb 2026 18:16:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/17111402/A_Piraha_family-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314338</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Diseases, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Health, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Logging, Malaria, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Social Justice, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tucked into Brazil’s Amazon forest, along the Maici River where recently contacted Pirahã people live, journalists observed a dramatic uptick in forest loss. According to data from Global Forest Watch, the Pirahã Indigenous Territory lost 3,200 hectares (7,900 acres) of tree cover in 2024, roughly the size of more than 6,000 soccer fields, representing the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tucked into Brazil’s Amazon forest, along the Maici River where recently contacted Pirahã people live, journalists observed a dramatic uptick in forest loss. According to data from Global Forest Watch, the Pirahã Indigenous Territory lost 3,200 hectares (7,900 acres) of tree cover in 2024, roughly the size of more than 6,000 soccer fields, representing the largest spike of deforestation between 2001 and 2024. But the cause was beyond the usual culprits of deforestation in the Amazon. In fact, national authorities say, it was part of an effort to address issues vulnerable Indigenous communities face following land invasions: food insecurity and the spread of diseases. The recent spike is mostly due to land clearings to improve food security and a health crisis in the affected population, said Daniel Cangussu, coordinator of the Madeira Ethno-Environmental Protection Front (FPE Madeira-Purus), a branch of Funai, Brazil’s Indigenous agency, which specializes in monitoring and protecting isolated and recently contacted people in the southern Amazonas region. Cangussu said via WhatsApp that Funai and the Pirahã people cleared land to plant crops such as cassava for the roughly 800 people who live there. For several decades, the Pirahã Indigenous people have faced a multitude of issues, from illegal loggers and hunters to invasions by outsiders seeking to extract natural resources from their territory in Brazil’s Amazonas state. Wildlife that people would hunt have been scared away, and fish stocks also declined due to the destruction. In recent years, government officials discovered the population was suffering from a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malaria-outbreak-among-indigenous-piraha-linked-to-forest-loss-satellite-data-find/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malaria-outbreak-among-indigenous-piraha-linked-to-forest-loss-satellite-data-find/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314338</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon deforestation may rise 30% as major traders exit historic soy pact</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-deforestation-may-rise-30-as-major-traders-exit-historic-soy-pact/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-deforestation-may-rise-30-as-major-traders-exit-historic-soy-pact/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Feb 2026 20:09:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/02195242/AP24305472746663-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313652</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Climate Change, Conflict, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As global soy giants walk away from a landmark pact, land grabbers move in to clear the forest for new crops. ]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Major soy traders operating in Brazil announced in early January that they would abandon one of the world&#8217;s most successful zero-deforestation agreements, known as the soy moratorium. As a result, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon may increase by up to 30% by 2045, according to the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), pushing the rainforest toward the much-feared tipping point. The coup de grâce to the 20-year-long soy moratorium, under which companies voluntarily agreed to ban soy grown in areas deforested after 2008, came from the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries(Abiove). Representing some of the world&#8217;s largest soy traders, like Cargill, Bunge, Amaggi and ADM, the trade association announced in a statement on Jan. 5 that it “began negotiations to withdraw from the Soy Moratorium Commitment Agreement.” Brazil is the world&#8217;s largest soy exporter, and Abiove&#8217;s members account for nearly 45% of these shipments, according to 2022 data from commodity supply-chain watchdog Trase. The decision followed a new law in Mato Grosso state, Brazil&#8217;s largest soy producer. The legislation, which went into effect Jan. 1, allows the state government to suspend tax breaks to companies adopting environmental criteria beyond those required by Brazilian law, such as the soy moratorium. In Brazil, deforestation is permitted under rules for each biome — 20% for properties in the Amazon, 65-80% in the Cerrado, and so on. This means that a farmer who deforested their land after 2008 couldn’t sell soy to moratorium members even when complying with Brazilian deforestation laws. “Abiove understands that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-deforestation-may-rise-30-as-major-traders-exit-historic-soy-pact/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313652</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia fast-tracks final permit for Papua rice megaproject without Indigenous consent</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-fast-tracks-final-permit-for-papua-rice-megaproject-without-indigenous-consent/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-fast-tracks-final-permit-for-papua-rice-megaproject-without-indigenous-consent/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jan 2026 08:43:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/19120029/GP0SU2V3B_Low-res-800px-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313486</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Food, Food Vs Forests Debate, Forests, FPIC, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Rice, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indigenous rights activists have condemned the Indonesian government’s decision to grant 328,000 hectares (810,505 acres) of cultivation rights for a massive rice plantation project in Papua, warning that the final land permit was issued at unusually rapid speed, compared with the years-long process typically required for large-scale plantation permits. The process is also [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indigenous rights activists have condemned the Indonesian government’s decision to grant 328,000 hectares (810,505 acres) of cultivation rights for a massive rice plantation project in Papua, warning that the final land permit was issued at unusually rapid speed, compared with the years-long process typically required for large-scale plantation permits. The process is also criticized for taking place without the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of Indigenous communities whose customary lands are affected. The permit — known as Hak Guna Usaha (HGU) — is the last and most decisive license required before large-scale agricultural operations can begin. Activists say its issuance reflects a pattern of fast-tracked regulatory changes under the government’s food estate program that sideline Indigenous land rights and environmental safeguards in the name of national food security. They warn that the project risks triggering large-scale deforestation, land dispossession and social conflict in southern Papua, echoing past food estate failures elsewhere in Indonesia. Map of area earmarked for the rice project in Merauke. Image courtesy of Pusaka. Since the government announced plans to establish vast rice fields in southern Papua in early 2024, the project has advanced rapidly. Civil society groups report the deployment of heavy machinery and security forces to support land clearing and infrastructure development in areas earmarked for the project. The legal groundwork has moved just as quickly. In September 2025, the government reclassified 486,939 hectares (1.2 million acres) of forest estate into non-forest land (Areal Penggunaan Lain (APL), or ‘Area for Other Land&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-fast-tracks-final-permit-for-papua-rice-megaproject-without-indigenous-consent/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-fast-tracks-final-permit-for-papua-rice-megaproject-without-indigenous-consent/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313486</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Brazil, planting forests for carbon credits could help ecosystem restoration</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-brazil-planting-forests-for-carbon-credits-could-help-ecosystem-restoration/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-brazil-planting-forests-for-carbon-credits-could-help-ecosystem-restoration/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jan 2026 11:12:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/23110048/AMAZON-MARANHAO-Entre-Rios-Project-4-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313254</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology, Agroforestry, Business, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, climate finance, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Forest Regeneration, Forestry, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Rainforest Destruction, and Sustainable Forest Management]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Eunápolis, in the south of the Brazilian state of Bahia, the clearing of Atlantic Forest for agriculture started centuries ago, leaving a patchwork of cattle pastures, monocultures and degraded land. Between 11% and 25% of Brazil’s native vegetation is in a process of degradation related to deforestation, while 22% of its pasture is severely [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Eunápolis, in the south of the Brazilian state of Bahia, the clearing of Atlantic Forest for agriculture started centuries ago, leaving a patchwork of cattle pastures, monocultures and degraded land. Between 11% and 25% of Brazil’s native vegetation is in a process of degradation related to deforestation, while 22% of its pasture is severely degraded. To reverse this, efforts are underway across the country to recover ecosystems and their services, a vital help in climate change mitigation. Since 2022, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) away from the city of Eunápolis, restoration efforts have been ongoing on the Ouro Verde farm to bring back Atlantic Forest species on hundreds of hectares of unproductive cattle pasture. Currently, 344 hectares (850 acres) of forest have been restored. “In two years, you’ve gone from degraded pasture, extremely damaged, sandy soil, to a forest with more than 60 species, trees more than 4 meters [13 feet] high. It looks like a forest,” said Miguel Moraes, director of projects at re.green, the Brazilian company behind the Ouro Verde project. Founded in 2021, re.green aims to restore 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of tropical forests across the Amazon and Atlantic Forest, while selling carbon credits and generating benefits beyond carbon capture. “We’d like to be a leader showing that there are different models of monetizing forests and natural ecosystems that don’t just generate benefits for the climate, but also for people and biodiversity,” Moraes told Mongabay in a video interview. Restored forest at re.green&#8217;s Ouro&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-brazil-planting-forests-for-carbon-credits-could-help-ecosystem-restoration/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313254</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia revokes forest and mine permits over role in deadly Sumatra landslides</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-revokes-forest-and-mine-permits-over-role-in-deadly-sumatra-landslides/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-revokes-forest-and-mine-permits-over-role-in-deadly-sumatra-landslides/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jan 2026 01:38:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/09070406/man-with-chicken-Batang-Toru-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313214</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Aceh, Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, and West Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Apes, Biodiversity, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Forestry, Forests, Gold Mining, Great Apes, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Mining, Orangutans, Plantations, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has revoked the permits of 28 companies over environmental violations that authorities say exacerbated the deadly floods and landslides that struck the island of Sumatra in late 2025. The revocations follow an audit carried out by a government task force responsible for forest area enforcement after disasters triggered by Cyclone [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has revoked the permits of 28 companies over environmental violations that authorities say exacerbated the deadly floods and landslides that struck the island of Sumatra in late 2025. The revocations follow an audit carried out by a government task force responsible for forest area enforcement after disasters triggered by Cyclone Senyar in November 2025, which killed about 1,200 people across Indonesia’s main western island. The audit found that the 28 companies had violated various rules, including the 2009 law on environmental protection, and bore responsibility for environmental damage linked to the disasters. Authorities still haven’t disclose detailed findings or evidence for each case. The audit results were presented to President Prabowo Subianto during an online meeting on Jan. 19. “Based on that report, the president decided to revoke the permits of 28 companies that were proven to have committed violations,” State Secretariat Minister Prasetyo Hadi said at a press conference on Jan. 20, as quoted by CNBC Indonesia. The move signals a shift in how administrative enforcement is framed in Indonesia, with permit sanctions now explicitly justified by post-disaster accountability rather than routine compliance alone. The revoked permits include 22 forest utilization permits (PBPH) for operating in natural and plantation forests, covering a combined area of about 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) — roughly one-third the size of Belgium — as well as six mining, plantation and timber forest product utilization permits (PBPHHK). Among the affected permit holders is major pulpwood producer PT Toba&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-revokes-forest-and-mine-permits-over-role-in-deadly-sumatra-landslides/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313214</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How US intervention could deepen Venezuela’s environmental crisis</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/how-us-intervention-could-deepen-venezuelas-environmental-crisis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/how-us-intervention-could-deepen-venezuelas-environmental-crisis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jan 2026 17:32:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/20165903/AP25285837186921-1-768x500.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313124</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forests, Gold Mining, Governance, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Mining, Oil, Oil Drilling, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When U.S. forces entered Venezuela earlier this month and removed President Nicolás Maduro, officials framed the intervention as a strategic economic opportunity. President Donald Trump repeatedly pointed to the country’s oil reserves and rare earth minerals, saying U.S. companies stood to earn billions of dollars. Less attention has been paid to the environmental risks of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When U.S. forces entered Venezuela earlier this month and removed President Nicolás Maduro, officials framed the intervention as a strategic economic opportunity. President Donald Trump repeatedly pointed to the country’s oil reserves and rare earth minerals, saying U.S. companies stood to earn billions of dollars. Less attention has been paid to the environmental risks of his plan. More than half of Venezuela is covered by forest, some of it in the Amazon Basin. It also has grasslands, wetlands and thousands of kilometers of Caribbean coastline. These ecosystems were already under strain under the Maduro government, but critics warn that foreign intervention could intensify the damage. “If environmental risks aren’t taken into account in this process, we’re probably facing a potential environmental catastrophe of a very large magnitude,” Eduardo Klein, a marine ecology professor at Simón Bolívar University in Caracas, told Mongabay. Venezuela has an estimated 300 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, the largest in the world. Yet it produces slightly less than a million barrels a day, far below many other oil-producing countries with smaller reserves. By international standards, Venezuela’s oil is heavier than in other parts of the world, making it more costly and requiring special processing equipment. The government has also allowed pipelines and refineries to fall into disrepair over the last 20 years, the result of financial mismanagement, corruption, an untrained workforce and sanctions. In 2024, there were at least 65 oil spills across eight states, according to the Venezuelan Observatory for Political Ecology. It also&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/how-us-intervention-could-deepen-venezuelas-environmental-crisis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313124</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia sues 6 companies over alleged links to deadly floods &#038; landslides</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-sues-6-companies-over-alleged-links-to-deadly-floods-landslides/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-sues-6-companies-over-alleged-links-to-deadly-floods-landslides/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jan 2026 06:21:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/03233535/AP25336560227612-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313083</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Apes, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Disasters, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Gold Mining, Great Apes, Hydroelectric Power, Law, Law Enforcement, Mammals, Mining, Orangutans, Palm Oil, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — In the wake of the deadly floods and landslides that struck Indonesia in late 2025, the nation’s environment ministry has sued six companies, seeking 4.8 trillion rupiah ($284 million) in environmental damages linked to the disasters. Following devastating floods and landslides triggered by Cyclone Senyar in November, which killed more than 1,100 people [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — In the wake of the deadly floods and landslides that struck Indonesia in late 2025, the nation’s environment ministry has sued six companies, seeking 4.8 trillion rupiah ($284 million) in environmental damages linked to the disasters. Following devastating floods and landslides triggered by Cyclone Senyar in November, which killed more than 1,100 people across Indonesia’s main western island of Sumatra, the ministry launched an investigation into 70 companies operating in the region to examine possible links between corporate activities and the disasters. This week, the environment ministry’s law enforcement department announced the preliminary results of its investigation. Six companies, it said, were responsible for alleged damage to watersheds in North Sumatra province, involving the clearing of 2,516 hectares (6,217 acres) of rainforest, particularly in and around the Batang Toru and Garoga watersheds. “The reason these companies are being sued is that, based on expert studies, alleged environmental damage was found around the Garoga watershed and the Batang Toru watershed,” said Dodi Kurniawan, the director of environmental dispute resolution at the ministry, during a press conference in Jakarta on Jan. 15. Sentinel-2 imagery (natural colors, 10-meter spatial resolution) over the rainforest of Batang Toru, home to the Tapanuli orangutan, taken before and after the extreme rainfall event that caused havoc in Sumatra in late November 2025. The before image was taken on Oct. 27, 2025; the after image on Dec. 3, 2025, showing patches of bare soil suddenly appearing. Image courtesy of TheTreeMap. The steep rainforest hills of Batang&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-sues-6-companies-over-alleged-links-to-deadly-floods-landslides/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313083</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Colombia poised for another drop in deforestation in 2025, data show</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/colombia-poised-for-another-drop-in-deforestation-in-2025-data-show/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/colombia-poised-for-another-drop-in-deforestation-in-2025-data-show/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jan 2026 19:58:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/15211439/AP25339572345149-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313048</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forests, Logging, Mining, Organized Crime, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation in Colombia appears to have declined in 2025, with notable reductions in several departments that have historically struggled with forest loss. An estimated 36,280 hectares (89,650 acres) of forest were lost during the first three quarters of the year, a 25% drop from the 48,500 hectares (about 119,850 acres) recorded over the same period [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation in Colombia appears to have declined in 2025, with notable reductions in several departments that have historically struggled with forest loss. An estimated 36,280 hectares (89,650 acres) of forest were lost during the first three quarters of the year, a 25% drop from the 48,500 hectares (about 119,850 acres) recorded over the same period in 2024, according to the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM), a government agency. The figures only account for January to September, as data for the final quarter of the year are still being processed. Officials celebrated the results while stressing the need to continue improving forest conservation strategies. “The sustained reduction of deforestation in the Amazon is the result of collaboration between the national government and communities, through ecological restoration actions, voluntary conservation agreements, strengthening of sustainable production chains and forest management,” the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development said in a December statement. Colombia has around 60 million hectares (148 million acres) of forest cover, representing more than half of its total land area. This includes the Amazon Rainforest and savanna ecosystems like the Orinoquía. For decades, the country has struggled to slow the spread of cattle ranching and agriculture as well as illicit crops like coca, the primary ingredient in cocaine. In 2025, many of the worst-hit departments also saw the largest drops in forest loss, signaling progress in addressing some of these long-standing drivers. “When the figures are low, we should take advantage and strengthen actions to reduce threats,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/colombia-poised-for-another-drop-in-deforestation-in-2025-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-313048</doi>				</item>
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