Colombia News

RSS
718 stories
View of Chiribiquete National Park.

Deforestation & illegal roads advancing fast in Colombia’s largest natural area

Iván Paredes Tamayo 19 Aug 2025

Violent guerrillas are taking Colombia’s children. Unarmed Indigenous groups are confronting them

Associated Press 12 Aug 2025
mining equipment on fire

Cross-border operation cracks down on environmental crimes in the Amazon

Mie Hoejris Dahl 6 Aug 2025
A red-lored amazon.

DNA research changes the fate of the most trafficked parrots in Colombia

Ana Cristina Alvarado 1 Aug 2025
Miners work at a legal mining concession in Huaypetue, Madre de Dios, Peru. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Mexico’s rising mercury trade fuels toxic gold mining in Latin America: Report

Maxwell Radwin 30 Jul 2025
A part of Putumayo rainforest showing areas of deforestation.

Illegal roads expand in Colombia’s deforestation hotspots

Mie Hoejris Dahl 25 Jul 2025
Lena Estrada, Colombia's minister of environment. Image by Eduardo Santamaría.

Oil ‘does not guarantee stability’: Colombia’s environment minister on energy transition

Latoya Abulu 24 Jul 2025
Heavy rainfall in Colombia and Venezuela caused deadly landslides and widespread flooding in June. A new analysis now points to rapid urbanization, deforestation, mining and overgrazing as having reduced the region’s climate resilience. 
 “The rapid growth of population and informal settlements in areas prone to landslides, particularly in Colombia, puts people and infrastructure at risk,” the World Weather Attribution (WWA), a network of scientists evaluating extreme weather events, said in its latest rapid analysis. It said the informal communities are growing as people seek livelihoods in cities or are displaced due to conflict. Roop Singh, report co-author from the Netherlands-based Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, said at a media briefing that pasture- and agriculture-driven deforestation rose over the past two decades, increasing “the risk of landslides because tree roots are no longer binding and anchoring the soils.”
 The heavy rains during the last week of June triggered widespread flooding and damage in Colombia; a landslide in Antioquia department killed 27 people. In Venezuela, rivers overflowed, and smaller landslides cut off rural communities. WWA said in its report that rains in these regions had persisted since April, and that the June rain fell on already saturated ground where the deadly landslide occurred, and in rivers with already high levels of water. The scientists examined the total rainfall from April-June this year over the Magdalena River catchment in Colombia and the Falcón and Maracaibo basins in Venezuela. They also studied data on the accumulated rainfall from June 20-24 in the affected states in the Venezuelan Llanos, a grassland plain. “Neither events were particularly extreme,” Mariam Zachariah, co-author and research associate at Imperial College London, said at the briefing. The WWA analysis showed the heavy rain that fell in June is common, expected every 10 years in Colombia and every three years in Venezuela. The scientists also used climate models to understand the influence of human-induced climate change on the rains, but the findings were inconclusive. Instead, the models projected a drying trend for Colombia and mixed results for Venezuela. Friederike Otto, co-author and climate science professor at Imperial College London, said not being able to show clear linkages to climate change doesn’t mean there’s no influence. The researchers attributed some of the uncertainty to a lack of long-term observational weather data and weather stations in the region. “Unfortunately, extreme weather is not well understood in northern South America,” Paola A. Arias, a professor at the University of Antioquia, said in a statement. “We urgently need more investment in climate science to understand shifting risks and prepare for what’s ahead. More science will save lives." Zachariah said Colombia and Venezuela must prepare for both rainfall and drought, and build resilience to extreme weather. Banner image: People look at their destroyed home after a deadly landslide was triggered by heavy rain in Colombia’s Antioquia department on June 25, 2025. Image by AP Photo/Fredy Amariles.

Deadly landslide and flooding in Colombia and Venezuela linked to rapid urbanization

Kristine Sabillo 18 Jul 2025
Illegal and unregulated gold mining in the La Pampa area near Puerto Maldonado, Peru. Photo courtesy Jason Houston/Upper Amazon Conservancy.

In the Andes, decentralization fails to address environmental harm

Timothy J. Killeen 17 Jul 2025
A member of the U’wa Indigenous group in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

U’wa people await implementation of landmark court ruling against Colombian gov’t

Antonio José Paz Cardona 11 Jul 2025
Illegal dredger in the Caquetá River. Image courtesy of Juan Carlos Contreras.

Indigenous Amazonians win landmark ruling against mercury pollution in Colombia

Iván Paredes Tamayo 9 Jul 2025
A community member catching fish in the Fluvial Star of Inírida, where the Guaviare, Atabapo and Inírida rivers meet. Image courtesy of Camilo Díaz for WWF Colombia.

The guardians of the Amazon who work without pay — or fear

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 Jul 2025
brown spider monkey Colombia

Forest corridors protect Colombia’s critically endangered brown spider monkey

Sean Mowbray 2 Jul 2025

Indigenous communities left in the dark on carbon scheme on their land

Rhett Ayers Butler 1 Jul 2025
A member of the Indigenous Tikuna nation paddling a dugout canoe on a tributary of the Amazon in Colombia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

The cost of conservation without consent: Astrid Puentes on rights-based environmentalism

Rhett Ayers Butler 30 Jun 2025
Graphic image by Sara Arredondo – Baudó Agencia Pública.

Indigenous guards: The shield of Colombia’s Amazon

Daniela Quintero Díaz 26 Jun 2025

Colombian waste pickers inundate iconic Bogota square with plastic bottles to protest falling wages

Associated Press 26 Jun 2025
bird Colombia

In Colombia, bird-watching brings tourism and a love for conservation

Charlie Cordero 23 Jun 2025

Wildfires push tropical forest loss in Latin America to record highs

Mie Hoejris Dahl 17 Jun 2025
Woman standing next to a tree.

Making nature a healing place: Interview with Colombia’s Enilda Jiménez

Manuel Fonseca 10 Jun 2025

Strategic planning for development in the Pan Amazon

Timothy J. Killeen 6 Jun 2025

Illegal wood from Colombia’s rainforests enters US and EU supply chains

Mie Hoejris Dahl 6 May 2025
An Inga leader from the Yunguillo reserve, José Homero Mutumbajoy is the human rights and peace coordinator for OPIAC. Image courtesy of José Homero Mutumbajoy.

‘Colombia’s Amazon peoples provide solutions’: Interview with José Homero Mutumbajoy

Latoya Abulu 1 May 2025

Abel Rodríguez, artist who drew a vanishing forest from memory, died April 9, age unknown

Rhett Ayers Butler 1 May 2025
Jaguar siblings in Poconé, Brazil. Image by Bernard Dupont via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Study suggests there are more jaguars in the Amazon than previously thought

Shanna Hanbury 1 May 2025
Voluntarily isolated people in the Javari Valley in the Brazilian Amazon. Photo credit: FUNAI.

Indigenous delegates at the U.N. raise alarm on isolated peoples in the Amazon

Aimee Gabay 25 Apr 2025
Members of the international study team pull a peat core from a wetland in the Colombian Amazon.

New research finds substantial peat deposits in Colombia’s conflicted Amazon

Erik Iverson 23 Apr 2025
A part of Putumayo rainforest showing areas of deforestation.

Armed groups, cattle ranchers drove 35% rise in Colombia’s deforestation in 2024

Antonio José Paz Cardona 18 Apr 2025
Susana Muhamad interacts with an Indigenous representative.

Colombia’s green transition should be inclusive: Interview with Susana Muhamad, former environment minister

Mie Hoejris Dahl 8 Apr 2025
Euperfadis Cardenas Vargas in his finca (2 hectarias of Cacao) Photo © Victor Raison

Colombian farmers switch from coffee to cacao as temperature and prices soar

Victor Raison 4 Apr 2025
The chosen Saakhelu tree, honored with offerings of chicha, stands as an axis, connecting the community to its environment and the divine. Image by Anna Abraham and Tony Kirby.

Photos: Colombia’s Indigenous Nasa push back against cultural loss to reconnect with nature

Anna Abraham, Tony Kirby 2 Apr 2025
Bernardo Vallejo inspects in Finca Las Brisas. Image © Victor Raison.

Colombia’s coffee farmers try to balance innovation and tradition to adapt to climate change

Victor Raison 1 Apr 2025

you're currently offline