Deforestation and Brazil News

RSS
2478 stories

Brazil’s land registry holds farmers accountable, but enables deforestation

Timothy J. Killeen 21 Aug 2025
The paving of the BR-319 highway would open the Amazon to further deforestation, affecting Brazil's rain cycle and endangering Indigenous communities. Image courtesy of the National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT).

Brazil’s new licensing accord is a gateway to forest destruction via the BR-319 highway (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 20 Aug 2025

Fate of iconic, and endangered, Brazilwood pits musical tradition against conservation

Fernanda Wenzel 20 Aug 2025

Brazil’s Forestry Code seeks to strengthen forest conservation, but controversies remain

Timothy J. Killeen 14 Aug 2025
Indigenous participants at the Free Land Camp on April 10, where they discuss rights, territorial protection, and their role in COP30. Image by AP Photo/Eraldo Peres.

Indigenous alliance unveils Brazil’s first Native-led emissions strategy

Aimee Gabay 9 Aug 2025
Although operations like Green Shield are useful, experts say that they are not the solution for combatting illicit activities in the Amazon in the long run, as activities such as illegal mining continue to expand. Image courtesy of the UAE Ministry of Interior.

Formalizing small-scale gold mining can reduce environmental impacts & crime (commentary)

Robert Muggah 7 Aug 2025

Surge in critical minerals claims puts Brazil’s land reform communities at risk

Maurício Angelo, Lúcio Lambranho, Fábio Bispo, Gabriela Sarmet 6 Aug 2025
mining equipment on fire

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

Mie Hoejris Dahl 6 Aug 2025

Court convictions are the exception in Amazon land-grabbing cases, study shows

Fernanda Wenzel 6 Aug 2025
Satellite imagery shows a house and cleared field on Karipuna Indigenous land. Image via Google Earth by Emilie Languedoc/Mongabay.

Invasion intensifies on Karipuna Indigenous land in the Brazilian Amazon

Shanna Hanbury 6 Aug 2025
Deforestation for oil palm plantation in Borneo, Indonesia.

Reversing deforestation relies on resource ownership (commentary)

Douglas Southgate, Brent Sohngen 5 Aug 2025
Park guide Luana Wanessa Assunção points at the remarkable Painel do Pilão, which could be the first-ever solar calendar of the Americas. Image by Peter Speetjens.

Soy crops squeeze Amazon park with 11,000-year-old rock paintings in Brazil

Peter Speetjens 4 Aug 2025
A tiger-legged monkey frog in the Amazon tropical forest.

Where there’s political will, there’s a way to stop tropical deforestation, study finds

John Cannon 24 Jul 2025
Paulo Paulino Guajajara, from left, with Laércio Guajajara, Karla Mendes and Olimpio Guajajara during Mendes's 2019 reporting trip. Paulo was killed in an ambush nine months later. Image by Karla Mendes/Mongabay.

Mongabay journalist Karla Mendes wins 2025 Oakes Award for environmental journalism

Mongabay.com 23 Jul 2025
Greenpeace Brazil took part in the Climate March in São Paulo, protesting against Bill 2159/2021 — widely known as the "devastation bill." The demonstration brought thousands of people to the streets, marching from Avenida Paulista to Favela do Moinho, in response to the bill’s threat of weakening Brazil’s environmental licensing laws. Image © Tuane Fernandes / Greenpeace.

Brazil’s Congress passes ‘devastation bill’ in major environmental setback

Fernanda Wenzel 17 Jul 2025
JBS founder José Batista Sobrinho (center) flanked by his sons, Joesley (taking a selfie) and Wesley (clapping), waves from the podium after ringing the New York Stock Exchange opening bell, Wednesday, June 25, 2025. Image by AP Photo/Richard Drew.

Now on Wall Street, JBS eyes growth amid scrutiny on deforestation & graft

Carla Ruas 17 Jul 2025
Area of burned forest in ​​the city of Apuí, Amazonas state. Image by Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real via Wikimedia Commons. (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Amazon deforestation spikes as Brazil blames criminal fires

Lucas Berti 16 Jul 2025
The BR-319 highway

Amazon’s ‘tipping point road’ gets new push with ease on licensing rules

Rafael Spuldar 14 Jul 2025

Rising heat and falling yields plague an Amazon island near COP30 host

Anna Peres/O Liberal 14 Jul 2025
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with his environmental and climate change minister, Marina Silva on his first day in office on Jan. 1.

Why is Lula still silent on Brazil’s ‘Bill of devastation?’ (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 8 Jul 2025

Meat giant profits from carbon market without halting deforestation

Bruna Bronoski, from O Joio e O Trigo 4 Jul 2025
jaguar

Jaguar population doubles around Brazil’s Iguaçu Falls 

Rhett Ayers Butler 2 Jul 2025
The critically endangered Alta Floresta Titi monkey (Plecturocebus grovesi) crossing one of the bridges in February 2025. Image courtesy of NZCBI.

Endangered primates use new canopy bridges in a Brazilian Amazon city

Shanna Hanbury 1 Jul 2025
Person kneeling in gold mine extraction site

Organized crime & gold trade are increasingly connected, report shows

Fernanda Wenzel 25 Jun 2025
Illegal gold mining inside the Munduruku and Sai Cinza Indigenous Lands

Nine takeaways on Brazil’s crackdown on illegal mining in Munduruku lands

Aimee Gabay 23 Jun 2025

In the Brazilian Amazon, sustainability policies clash with development goals

Timothy J. Killeen 20 Jun 2025
British journalist Dom Phillips on a 2022 trip to the Brazilian Amazon.

Finishing Dom Phillips’ posthumous book was ‘the hardest thing emotionally’ co-authors say

Karla Mendes 18 Jun 2025
Amazon rainforest. Credit: Rhett Ayers Butler / Mongabay

‘World’s largest’ carbon credit deal under fire as Amazon prosecutors seek repeal

Carla Ruas 17 Jun 2025
Munduruku people from the Sawré Muybu village gather in an assembly to receive feedback from Fiocruz on the hair sample test results determining levels of mercury contamination in people. Image by Joao Paulo Guimaeres via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

After crackdown on illegal miners, Indigenous Munduruku still grapple with health aftermath

Karla Mendes, Fernanda Wenzel 16 Jun 2025
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Chinese President Xi Jinping greeted each other during a recent meeting where the two countries discussed the proposed Bioceanic railway. Image courtesy of Ricardo Stuckert/PR

Brazil & China megarailway raises deforestation warnings in the Amazon

André Schröder 16 Jun 2025

Artificial nests help a rare Brazilian parrot bounce back

Mongabay.com 16 Jun 2025

New environmental licensing will build a power plant in the Cerrado and demolish a school

Guilherme Cavalcanti/Agência Pública 13 Jun 2025

you're currently offline