Waldo Valer Salas, our expedition guide, launched two firecrackers in the air, producing a loud echo that reverberated in the rainforest. That was the only way to announce the arrival…
The two food production systems that support Bolivia — family farming and agribusiness — are being hit by the worst drought in the last quarter century and one of the…
olivia’s TIPNIS Highway — defeated by mass protests from indigenous groups and environmentalists — rates as one of the most controversial Latin American construction projects of recent years. The role…
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…
Author's note: The data that underpins this post is updated on a regular basis on Mongabay's rainforest site: Amphibians, Birds, Fish, Mammals, Reptiles, Vascular Plants. September 26, 2021 update: this…
The discoveries include three new frogs, three new catfish, and one new lizard species.
Many timber woods of conservation concern are hard to distinguish anatomically from species resembling them, especially when the wood sample lacks leaves or other botanical features. For instance, big-leaf mahogany…
Scientists on a multi-year expedition in Bolivia's Madidi National Park have recorded nearly a thousand species of butterflies – with many more expected to come. Madidi National Park sits along…
Bolivia's Tacana communities have developed successful sustainable land-use methods, for which they were awarded the prestigious Equator Prize during a ceremony at COP21 in Paris.
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…
Destruction of primary forests across the Amazon basin has declined significantly since the 2000s, finds research published Monday by a group of Latin American social and environmental organizations known as…
The United Nations today announced 21 winners of the 2015 Equator Prize, a prestigious award that recognizes community-led environmental initiatives. The winners, selected from a pool of 1,461 nominations across…
A major expedition happening right now in Bolivia's Madidi National Park is aimed at figuring out just how many vertebrates live in this little-explored region. But along the way, it's also shedding light on the park's invertebrate diversity.
Identidad Madidi is bringing biologists to little-known parts of Madidi National Park, where they are finding some surprising things.
More than four years of sporadic political conflict came to a head in June 2015, when Bolivian President Evo Morales announced plans to resume construction on a controversial highway that…
On the heels of calling for global action to combat climate change, Pope Francis on Thursday issued an apology for "sins" the Catholic church committed against the indigenous people in…
Bolivia has opened millions of hectares of protected areas to oil and gas extraction, reports The Guardian. The law, passed last month, grants exploration rights in at least 11 of…
Bolivia's government, supported by some small and most large producers, pushes to expand agricultural lands at the expense of the nation's environment. In April 2015, small-scale Bolivian farmers who painstakingly…
Toribia Lero, an indigenous leader from the faction of the indigenous organization CONAMAQ (National Council of Ayllus and Markas of Qullasuyu) that is not recognized by the government sits for…
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…
Cleared Cerrado in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Photo by Rhett A. Butler China has been investing heavily in Latin America’s natural resources and crude oil. Recently, the country even pledged to…
PLEASE NOTE: Please see this page for the latest numbers Current deforestation rate: alerts are up over this time last year Nearly two-thirds of the Amazon rainforest is located in…
MAAP image of the week #2: Deforestation by United Cacao for eventual chocolate production in Peru. A new platform will provide critical near-real time information and analysis on emerging threats…
Click charts to enlarge Loss of tropical forests accelerated roughly 60 percent during the 2000s, argues a paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The findings contradict previous research…
Other Special Reporting Initiative reporting by Barbara Fraser How do parks affect the poor? Jury's still out, some experts say Innovating Brazil nuts: a business with roots in the rainforest…
Poison dart frog in Yasuni National Park. Some scientists believe the park is in the epicenter of the most biodiverse region on the planet, yet Ecuador has been exploiting the…
Enchanted lakes and magic hills: how traditional stories support conservation and abundance "Long ago, when animals were gente..." Those words, uttered countless times by indigenous Amazonian storytellers, blur the boundary…
This is the second part of a two-part series. Part I outlines the expansion announcement. In an August 14 announcement, Bolivian Vice President, Alvaro Garcia Linera, laid out an ambitious…
Illegal clearing for agriculture caused almost 50 percent of the world's forest loss Nearly 50 percent of tropical deforestation to make room for commercial agriculture between 2000 and 2012 was…
This is the first part of a two-part series. Part II discusses in more detail the proposal's possible impact on Bolivia's forests. On August 14, the Bolivian Vice President, Alvaro…
