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The paving of the BR-319 highway would open the Amazon to further deforestation, affecting Brazil's rain cycle and endangering Indigenous communities. Image courtesy of the National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT).

Brazil’s new licensing accord is a gateway to forest destruction via the BR-319 highway (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 20 Aug 2025
Park guide Luana Wanessa Assunção points at the remarkable Painel do Pilão, which could be the first-ever solar calendar of the Americas. Image by Peter Speetjens.

Soy crops squeeze Amazon park with 11,000-year-old rock paintings in Brazil

Peter Speetjens 4 Aug 2025
Greenpeace Brazil took part in the Climate March in São Paulo, protesting against Bill 2159/2021 — widely known as the "devastation bill." The demonstration brought thousands of people to the streets, marching from Avenida Paulista to Favela do Moinho, in response to the bill’s threat of weakening Brazil’s environmental licensing laws. Image © Tuane Fernandes / Greenpeace.

Brazil’s Congress passes ‘devastation bill’ in major environmental setback

Fernanda Wenzel 17 Jul 2025
JBS founder José Batista Sobrinho (center) flanked by his sons, Joesley (taking a selfie) and Wesley (clapping), waves from the podium after ringing the New York Stock Exchange opening bell, Wednesday, June 25, 2025. Image by AP Photo/Richard Drew.

Now on Wall Street, JBS eyes growth amid scrutiny on deforestation & graft

Carla Ruas 17 Jul 2025
Area of burned forest in ​​the city of Apuí, Amazonas state. Image by Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real via Wikimedia Commons. (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Amazon deforestation spikes as Brazil blames criminal fires

Lucas Berti 16 Jul 2025
The BR-319 highway

Amazon’s ‘tipping point road’ gets new push with ease on licensing rules

Rafael Spuldar 14 Jul 2025

Rising heat and falling yields plague an Amazon island near COP30 host

Anna Peres/O Liberal 14 Jul 2025
Person kneeling in gold mine extraction site

Organized crime & gold trade are increasingly connected, report shows

Fernanda Wenzel 25 Jun 2025
Workers prep poultry at the meatpacking company JBS in the Brazilian state of Paraná. Image by Eraldo Peres/Associated Press.

Meatpacking giant JBS debuts on NYSE six months after $5m Trump donation

Shanna Hanbury 25 Jun 2025
Illegal gold mining inside the Munduruku and Sai Cinza Indigenous Lands

Nine takeaways on Brazil’s crackdown on illegal mining in Munduruku lands

Aimee Gabay 23 Jun 2025
British journalist Dom Phillips on a 2022 trip to the Brazilian Amazon.

Finishing Dom Phillips’ posthumous book was ‘the hardest thing emotionally’ co-authors say

Karla Mendes 18 Jun 2025
Amazon rainforest. Credit: Rhett Ayers Butler / Mongabay

‘World’s largest’ carbon credit deal under fire as Amazon prosecutors seek repeal

Carla Ruas 17 Jun 2025

In the Brazilian Amazon, decentralization can be a double-edged sword

Timothy J. Killeen 13 Jun 2025
Oil in Amazon

Unnoticed oil & gas threat looms for Indigenous people near Amazon blocks

Fernanda Wenzel 6 Jun 2025

Brazil set to blast 35 km river rock formation for new Amazon shipping route

André Schröder 2 Jun 2025
Dom Phillips interviewing Mariana Tobias, from the Macuxi people, at the Raposa Serra Do Sol Indigenous Territory, in northern Roraima state, in the Brazilian Amazon. © Nicoló Lanfranchi.

Dom Phillips’ posthumous book centers on collaborative work for saving the Amazon

Karla Mendes 30 May 2025
IBAMA raid to fight illegal mining in the Yanomami Indigenous Land in Roraima in December 2023. Image courtesy of IBAMA.

Amazon illegal gold mines drive sex trafficking in the Brazil-Guyana border

Elizabeth Oliveira 29 May 2025
he Upano River, in the Morona Santiago Province in Ecuador. Image courtesy of Galo Zapata-Ríos/WCS (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Meet Pedro Porras, the priest who first rediscovered Amazon ancient cities

Peter Speetjens 26 May 2025
Drone view of flooded forest in the Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.

On Amazon destruction, will Brazil President Lula’s ‘disinformation space’ be penetrated? (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 22 May 2025
Federal forces have been expelling illegal gold miners from protected areas like the Munduruku Indigenous Territory in Pará state. Image courtesy of the Federal Police. 

Amazon illegal miners smuggle gold into Venezuela

Fernanda Wenzel 15 May 2025
A young river dweller docks on the bank of the Madeira River in the late afternoon, near the town of Borba, Amazonas. Image by Bruno Kelly.

Amazon people brace for a drier future along the endangered Madeira River

Kevin Damasio 5 May 2025
Located in the Amapá state, the second-largest red angelim ever found is 85.4 meters (280 feet) tall and has a circumference of 9.8 meters (32 feet). Image courtesy of João de Matos Filho / Prodemac.

Gold rush moves closer to Amazon’s second-tallest tree

Mongabay.com 1 May 2025
Federal forces have been expelling illegal gold miners from protected areas like the Munduruku Indigenous Territory in Pará state. Image courtesy of the Federal Police. 

Amazon illegal miners bypass enforcement by smuggling gold into Venezuela

Fernanda Wenzel 22 Apr 2025
timber Brazil

Fake documents, real deforestation drive global trade in illegal Amazon timber

Fernanda Wenzel 16 Apr 2025
Amapá state is home to six of the Amazon's tallest known trees, including an 85-meter (279-foot) red angelim threatened by illegal gold mining. Image courtesy of Havita Rigamonti/Imazon/Ideflor-Bi.

Illegal gold mining creeps within a kilometer of Amazon’s second-tallest tree

Fernanda Wenzel 14 Apr 2025
Paulo’s killing has become the symbol of the guardians’ fight to protect Arariboia.

Mongabay investigation spurs Brazil crackdown on illegal cattle in Amazon’s Arariboia territory

Karla Mendes 11 Apr 2025
Restoration projects have been developed in large Amazon properties with high investments and intensive use of machinery. Image courtesy of Mombak/Raimundo Paccó.

For scandal-ridden carbon credit industry, Amazon restoration offers redemption

Fernanda Wenzel 9 Apr 2025
Munduruku Indigenous People blocked a road on March 25, protesting against the conciliation table at the Supreme Court and for the repeal of law 14.701. Image courtesy of the Pariri Association.

After outcry, Brazil Supreme Court nixes proposal for mining on Indigenous lands

Karla Mendes 3 Apr 2025
China's megaproject Chancay Port on Peru's Pacific coast, inaugurated by President Xi Jinping, is a key hub for the Belt and Road Initiative and future trade with South America, including Brazil's Amazon exports. Image courtesy of Peru’s Presidential Office (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Brazil plans new Amazon routes linking the Pacific & China’s New Silk Road

Fabio Zuker 31 Mar 2025
Pataxó and Tupinambá people rally against the time frame (marco temporal) law on March 13, 2025, in front of the Brazilian Supreme Court in Brasília. Image courtesy of CIMI.

‘Unprecedented’ Supreme Court bill threatens Indigenous rights in Brazil

Karla Mendes 19 Mar 2025
Amazon people in the BR-163 area, such as Mariana, face challenges from the economic model imposed by agribusiness, logging and gold mining. Image by Fernando Martinho.

The rough road to sustainable farming in an Amazon deforestation hotspot

Fernanda Wenzel 17 Mar 2025

Brazil’s SUDAM scandal, a case of government-backed deforestation

Timothy J. Killeen 7 Mar 2025

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