Andes News

The cloud forest ecoregion of the Colombian Andes is arguably the most biodiverse in the world. A moist climate, varying altitudes, and high rates of endemism create idyllic conditions for…

Cultivation of coca, the plant from which the drug cocaine is extracted, has long been considered a “deforestation multiplier” in the Andean Amazon rainforests of Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru. For…

An ongoing expedition in Bolivia's Madidi National Park has recorded its 1,000th bird species, highlighting the park as a hotspot of avian biodiversity. The park is thought to contain more…

orsino Huallata Ibarra was helping his parents round up their herd of llamas at their home in the Bolivian countryside when the sound of gunshots made him jump. Scanning the…

The Wildlife Conservation Society has a long, proven track record of environmental stewardship. So when the New York City-based group recently announced an ambitious new global conservation strategy, Mongabay got…

Researchers find small-scale farming may lead to a loss of "650 million years of evolutionary history."

Two new cloud forest reserves in the Colombian Andes have been established to protect a number of rare, endangered species, including the Silvery-brown bare-face tamarin (Saguinus leucopus), a monkey found…

At 4,500 meters altitude, almost 15,000 feet, there are no trees; nothing at all to stop the icy wind blasting across the highlands of the southern Andes. Juan Yupanqui stands…

This is Alvaro Huaman, in the uniform of the ronda, with Jhuliño and his baby brother. Jhuliño's real name was Egler, but from a young age, he had been obsessed…

The Napo Watershed forms one of the last free-flowing river corridors of the Amazon Basin, and is an important tourism destination where visitors can immerse themselves in stunning rainforest scenery…

NCI's buriti project helps local communities benefit while protecting areas of this wild palm , working to provide added value sales of palm fruit and extracts. Courtesy of NCI. One…

More than 150 dams are currently planned for five of the six major Andean tributaries of the Amazon River. Damming those large, free-flowing streams would provide hydropower to half a…

Liz Kimbrough with co-research by Anjali Kumar As South American countries begin to move beyond fossil fuels, many are looking to hydropower. The rivers flowing from the Andes Mountains down…

Article by Liz Kimbrough with co-research by Anjali Kumar Most "run-of-river" hydroelectric dams in the Amazon Basin are used to divert all of the flow away from the natural river…

Skin texture variation in one mutable rainfrog (Pritimantis mutabilis), which changes from spiny at 0 seconds to smooth at 330 seconds. Photo courtesy of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean…

Andean community leaders show hydrologists and project developers from Lima damaged amunas. These pre-Incan canals collect excess river water in the wet season so it can recharge pools and groundwater…

A pastured sheep near the Chimborazo volcano in the Ecuadorian Andes. Photo by Guido Alvarez. As tropical forests around the world are cleared for human development, scientists and conservationists are…

This article is the first in a two-part series about the shortcomings of protected area definition in Peru. Read the second part here. Many of the world's protected areas may…

A pale-headed brush-finch (Altapetes pallidiceps)., one of the most endangered birds in the world. An unassuming brown bird, tiny both in body and population size, hovers on the edge of…

In 1970 researchers uncovered the Tandayapa Andean toad (Andinophryne olallai), previously unknown to science, in the Pichincha Province of Ecuador. Given that only a single individual was discovered, even after…

This potentially new lizard species was discovered on the last day of a survey in a cloud forest in Andean Peru. Photo: Luis Mamani. A group of Peruvian and Mexican…

Rediscovered mammal had been slaughtered by the Inca hundreds of years ago The Machu Picchu arboreal chinchilla rat come back to life! Photo by: Roberto Quispe. Below one of the…

Peru lost nearly a quarter-million hectares of forest in 2012 In 1988, when British environmentalist Norman Myers first described the concept of a “biodiversity hotspot” - an area with at…

The Perijá brush-finch has only recently been considered a species in its own right. Photo by: Trevor Ellery. A coalition of conservation groups have established a new protected area in…

Deforestation often shunted to highlands Carbon-centric conservation programs, such as REDD+ (Reduce CO2 Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation), seek to lower greenhouse gas emissions by preventing forest loss through protection…

The term "marsupial frog" might sound like a hoax, but, believe it or not, it's real. Recently, herpetologists welcomed a new species, known as Gastrotheca dysprosita and described in the…

Andean Condor. Photo by Francisco Sornoza. Conservationists have acquired a 2,800-ha (7,000-acre) property that completes the acquisition of some 108,000 ha of key Andean Condor habitat in Ecuador. The lands…

One of the richest ecosystems on the planet may not survive a hotter climate without human help, according to a sobering new paper in the open source journal PLoS ONE.…

Last month scientists unveiled a remarkable discovery: a new mammal in the order Carnivora (even though it mostly lives off fruits) in the Andean cloud forests. This was the first…

Since its announcement on Thursday, the olinguito—the world's newest mammal—has taken the world by storm. Hundreds of articles have been written about the new species, while its cuddly appearance has…