It's hard to mistake an arapaima for anything else: these massive, heavily-armored, air-breathing fish (they have to surface every few minutes) are the megafauna of the Amazon's rivers. But despite…
A federal judge in Brazil has ordered the suspension of construction activities on the Teles Pires due to shortcomings in the environmental licensing process, including the project's impacts on three…
150 indigenous protesters have once again occupied the Belo Monte dam site in an effort to block the controversial project, reports Amazon Watch, an NGO that is helping lead the…
Everyone knows the tiger, the panda, the blue whale, but what about the other five to thirty million species estimated to inhabit our Earth? Many of these marvelous, stunning, and…
This week an international team is setting off on a unique journey, aiming to be the first to descend the Amazon River using inflatable Stand Up Paddle boards. The group,…
Bacteria living in the Amazon River digest nearly all wood plant matter that enters the river before it reaches the Atlantic Ocean, triggering the release of carbon locked up in…
The Amazon River's hydrological cycle has become more extreme over the past two decades with increasing seasonal precipitation across much of the basin despite drier conditions in the southern parts…
Deforestation may significantly decrease the hydroelectric potential of tropical rainforest regions, warns a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. The study, led by Claudia M.…
On Thursday roughly 200 indigenous people launched an occupation of a key construction site for the controversial Belo Monte dam in the Brazilian Amazon. The protestors, who represent communities that…
Scientists have documented an entirely new genus of fish from a river in the Amazon rainforest. The fish, dubbed Cyanogaster noctivaga or the blue-bellied night wanderer, is described in the…
Leaders of more than two dozen Kayapó indigenous communities have rejected a $9 million offer from Brazilian state energy company Eletrobras to fund development projects in their region due to…
Belo Monte location. Courtesy of Google Earth. Brazil's Federal Public Ministry rejected a proposed gold mining project adjacent to a controversial dam site in the heart of the Amazon rainforest,…
The Amazon Basin, showing the main river sub-basins, including the Araguaia-Tocantins. Numbers indicate Llanos de Moxos savannas (1),Maranon-Ucayali palm swamps (2), Bananal savannas (3), Negro campinas (4), Roraima savannas (5),…
Construction of a canal for the Belo Monte Dam project, near Altamira taken by Daniel Beltrá for Greenpeace. Once completed, the Belo Monte Dam will be the third largest in…
Belo Monte location. Courtesy of Google Earth. Brazil's National Development Bank (BNDES) on Monday announced it has approved a $10.8 billion (22.5 billion Brazilian reais) loan to the consortium that…
Brazil's Supreme Court orders Belo Monte dam construction to resume Construction of the Belo Monte Dam project, near Altamira. Photo by © Greenpeace/Daniel Beltra.. Brazil's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered…
Brazil's Supreme Court overruled the Federal Appeals Court's decision on August 28, 2012. Construction resumed the same day. Construction site of the Belo Monte Dam and hydropower project, near Altamira.…
A creature discovered by engineers building a dam in the Amazon is a type of caecilian, a limbless amphibian that resembles an earthworm or as some are noting, part of…
Belo Monte protest. Photo credit: Mitchell Anderson. Indigenous leaders from six Amazon tribes have asked the Brazilian government to immediately suspend the installation license for the controversial Belo Monte dam,…
Belo Monte protest. Photo credit: Atossa Soltani/ Amazon Watch / Spectral Q. Brazil's ambitious plans to build 30 dams in the Amazon basin could trump the country's efforts to protect…
The image was a collaboration between aerial artist John Quigley and a committee of indigenous peoples including Aldamir Sataré-Mawé (Amapá), Sheyla Juruna (Pará), Dione Vison Terena (Mato Groso do Sul),…
Belo Monte protest. Photo credit: Atossa Soltani/ Amazon Watch / Spectral Q. In an symbolic protest of the giant Belo Monte Dam, Friday morning some 300 locals dug a channel…
Lake Balbina, a man-made reservoir created to supply hydroelectric power to the city of Manaus in Brazil. The Balbina dam in Brazil flooded some 2,400 square kilometers (920 square miles)…
Construction of the Belo Monte Dam project, near Altamira. Photo by © Greenpeace/Daniel Beltra. More than 150 demonstrators protested outside Vale's headquarters in Rio de Janeiro during the Brazilian mining…
150 new dams may destroy connectivity of the Amazon River to the Andes and drive deforestation. Construction of a canal for the Belo Monte Dam project, near Altamira taken by…
Philip M. Fearnside is a Research Professor at the National Institute for Research in the Amazon (INPA) in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil since 1978. Author of over 450 publications, his honors…
Federal public prosecutors in Brazil have challenged a plan to strip protected status from 86,288 hectares of land to make way for five new dams, reports International Rivers. The challenge…
Aerial photo of an Amazon rainforest tributary in Peru. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. The common view of the Amazon is that it is one massive, unbroken forest. This impression…
Climatic gradient across the Amazon basin. The hydrologic Amazon basin is demarcated by a thick blue line; the mean daily precipitation during the three driest months of the year are…
Indigenous communities do not have the right to free, prior and informed consultation on the Belo Monte dam because its infrastructure and reservoirs would not be physically located on tribal…