(Leia essa matéria em português no The Intercept Brasil. You can also read Mongabay’s series on the Tapajós Basin in Portuguese at The Intercept Brasil here.) The Tapajós River Basin…
Massive forest fires in the Congo and Amazon, surging deforestation in Brazil, and tentative steps toward reform in Indonesia and Myanmar: there were no shortage of major happenings in tropical…
(Leia essa matéria em português no The Intercept Brasil; You can also read this article in Portuguese at The Intercept Brasil). razil’s conservative National Congress has rushed to pass a wave of…
Many companies that deal in commodities such as beef, timber, palm oil and soy beans know that the production of these items can come at the cost of forests. But…
Brazil is forging ahead with plans to build a vast hydropower dam complex in the heart of the Amazon that would convert the now remote and wild Tapajós river system…
An oil spill was detected on the Teles Pires River, a major tributary of the Tapajós River in a remote part of the Amazon Basin on Sunday, November 13th. The…
The expanse of tropical savanna in Brazil known as the Cerrado faces an uncertain future, as a decades-old trajectory toward more agriculture continues. But a recent report holds that with…
More than 90 countries have now ratified the Paris Climate Agreement, which will enter into force tomorrow. Just 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas…
In August 2015, about a thousand Guarani-Kaiowá indigenous people invaded nine farms in the southern part of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul as part of a plan for…
“People need to bring cups, plates, etc., but not everyone who is coming is going to have access to facebook. And no one said this on the radio!. So we…
From the speeding boat, the jungle was a single block of green, its shades recycled across the riverbank and reflected on the thick, black water. The steam rolling from the…
n early August, the Brazilian government unexpectedly cancelled the São Luiz do Tapajós hydroelectric power station, the largest of a series of major dams planned along the Tapajós River and…
Last July, the Brazilian Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Blairo Maggi presented in Washington D.C. investment opportunities to expand Brazilian agribusiness. He emphasized investment in infrastructure, including works to connect…
n the eve of the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, indigenous leaders and human rights advocates spoke out today to highlight the rising violence against indigenous people…
mazonia’s surge in hydropower development threatens numerous species with extinction, and puts unique habitats at risk, warns a recent study. River dolphins, giant otters, turtles, fish, birds and monkeys will…
Halting deforestation is such a critical part of combating climate change that it was enshrined in the Paris Climate Agreement as a standalone article — yet few countries systematically monitor…
s night falls on the Areia Homestead Project, forty kilometers from the town of Trairão, in the western portion of Pará state, the silence is cut short by the roar…
t least eight mammals not yet cataloged by science were discovered during the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for Brazil’s Sao Luiz do Tapajós hydropower plant, proposed for the western part…
The Brazilian soy industry has indefinitely extended a landmark moratorium on rainforest clearing for soybean production. The agreement, first signed in 2006 after a Greenpeace campaign, had previously been renewed…
Commission in the Brazilian Senate — cloaked by the political turmoil in Brasilia — has quietly approved a constitutional amendment that would shred the environmental safeguards currently required for public…
hinese construction companies are trying to gain a larger foothold on infrastructure projects — especially hydroelectric dams — in the Amazon, a region and sector in which large Brazilian construction…
Forest conversion for agriculture in Colombia. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Over 62 million hectares (240,000 square miles) of forest across Latin America — an area roughly the size of…
While deforestation for soy production in the Brazilian Amazon has slowed since the establishment of a deforestation moratorium in 2006, clearing for soy has increased sharply in recent years in…
Deforestation for soy in the Brazilian Amazon and cerrado. Data from Gibbs et al 2015, photo by Rhett A. Butler. Click image to enlarge. The moratorium on forest conversion established…
Large-scale deforestation in the tropics could drive significant and widespread shifts in rainfall distribution and temperatures, potentially affecting agriculture both locally and far from where forest loss is occurring, concludes…
Lone Brazil nut tree standing in an area recently cleared for soy in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, in 2009. Photos by Rhett A. Butler The Brazilian soy industry…
Report argues that a jurisdiction-based approach could be a solution if commodity certification fails to reduce deforestation Cattle pasture and a forest reserve in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Photo by Rhett…
Forest and soybean fields in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Photos by Rhett Butler. Soy consumption in China and Europe is having significant ecological impacts in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso,…
In past decade, Brazil has done the carbon equivalent of taking every car off America's roads for three years Brazil's success in reducing deforestation in the world's largest rainforest has…
Soy traders and producers in the Brazilian Amazon agreed to extend a moratorium on soybeans produced in recently deforested areas for another year, reports Greenpeace. The moratorium, renewed Friday, has…
