Environmental crime News

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Seven years after Brazil’s worst dam disaster, mining operations bounce back

Felipe S. Duran, Mylena Melo 16 Feb 2026
Tanoh Jallah, a resident of one of the towns in the IFC complaint, said all the good farmland was taken by Salala.

Community complaints in limbo as Socfin cuts ties with Earthworm Foundation

Ashoka Mukpo, Victoria Schneider 10 Feb 2026

Five detained over alleged hunting in Javan leopard habitat

Basten Gokkon 29 Jan 2026
Two members of the Prey Preah Roka Community Network – a grassroots activism group made up of communities around the wildlife sanctuary - document an illegally logged tree in the wildlife sanctuary. The grassroots group regularly patrol the wildlife sanctuary, documenting any illegal logging they come across by marking GPS coordinates, as well as taking a note of the species and diameter of the trees. Image by: Andy Ball / Mongabay.

Environmental crime prevention is moving into the diplomatic mainstream (commentary)

Robert Muggah 8 Jan 2026
Foothills of the Atewa forest range, one of several ecologically sensitive areas where mining permits have been issued. Image by Ahtziri Gonzalez/CIFOR via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Ghana repeals legislation that opened forest reserves to mining

Awudu Salami Sulemana Yoda 8 Jan 2026
Rescuers search for victims at the site of a landslide in Suwawa on Sulawesi Island in July 2024.

Indonesia’s illegal gold boom leaves a toxic legacy of mercury pollution

Sarjan Lahay, Junaidi Hanafiah, Teguh Suprayitno 7 Jan 2026
Guatemala accounted for 13% of the environmental defenders killed or disappeared across the world in 2024, as documented by Global Witness. Image courtesy of the Guatemalan President’s Office.

Guatemala’s eco defenders reel from surge in killings and persecution

Gonzalo Ortuño López 2 Jan 2026
The mining dredges installed along the Nanay River have begun to consume sections of forest. Image courtesy of FCDS Peru.

Mercury, dredges and crime: Illegal mining ravages Peru’s Nanay River

Enrique Vera 31 Dec 2025

Rio Doce communities still live with toxic water, 10 years after Mariana disaster

Ramana Rech 17 Dec 2025

Illegal fishing, other maritime threats cost Western Indian Ocean $1b a year: Report

Anne Nzouankeu 12 Dec 2025

Environmental activists remain jailed in Cambodia on Human Rights Defenders Day

Mongabay.com 9 Dec 2025

‘It’s not safe to live here.’ Colombia is deadliest country for environmental defenders

Associated Press 8 Dec 2025

South Africa withdraws abalone listing even as illegal trade threatens species

Victoria Schneider 8 Dec 2025
Devastation left behind by illegal gold mining within the borders of the Sararé Indigenous territory in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Image courtesy of IBAMA.

Brazilian Amazon’s most violent city tied to illegal gold mining on Indigenous land

Shanna Hanbury 3 Dec 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.

What was achieved for Indigenous peoples at COP30?

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 27 Nov 2025
A juvenile orange-fronted parakeet seized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in California.

It’s ‘whack-a-mole’: Alarming rise in pet trade fuels wildlife trafficking into California

Spoorthy Raman 25 Nov 2025
A male Vallarta mud turtle, one of the 40 seized as part of the operation, cared for at the Guadalajara Zoo.

Massive turtle bust in Mexico reveals ‘Wild West’ of wildlife trafficking

Spoorthy Raman 14 Nov 2025

After 6 years, trial in Indigenous forest guardian killing pushed to 2026

Karla Mendes 7 Nov 2025

Indigenous delegates prepare for COP30 with focus on justice, land and finance

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 7 Nov 2025

Interpol announces a new global fight against illegal deforestation

Associated Press 5 Nov 2025
Timber illegally extracted from the Amazon by Ricardo Stoppe's group was sold to the USA and Europe.

Brazil charges 31 people in major carbon credit fraud investigation

Shanna Hanbury 4 Nov 2025
Trawlers docked outside Sihanoukville. Screenshot from ‘Illegal fishing and land grabs push Cambodian coastal communities to the brink’ by Andy Ball / Mongabay.

Chaos on Cambodia’s Coast

Mongabay.com 3 Nov 2025

Amid systemic corruption, Amazon countries struggle to fight environmental crime

Timothy J. Killeen 31 Oct 2025

Radioactive leak in Banten exposes workers to danger & reveals regulatory failures

Anggita Raissa 25 Oct 2025

The rise of anti-corruption prosecutors in the Amazon region

Timothy J. Killeen 24 Oct 2025
Soldiers from the PROLANSATE Foundation on patrol

Why is protecting this Honduran lagoon so dangerous? 

Fritz Pinnow, Sam Lee 22 Oct 2025
Two members of the Prey Preah Roka Community Network – a grassroots activism group made up of communities around the wildlife sanctuary - document an illegally logged tree in the wildlife sanctuary. The grassroots group regularly patrol the wildlife sanctuary, documenting any illegal logging they come across by marking GPS coordinates, as well as taking a note of the species and diameter of the trees. Image by: Andy Ball / Mongabay.

New book unearths environmental crime’s psychological roots

Mike DiGirolamo 21 Oct 2025

Rescued African gray parrots return to DRC forests

Didier Makal 21 Oct 2025

A closer look at Peru’s Amazon reveals new mining trends, deforestation

Maxwell Radwin 17 Oct 2025
Timber is sorted for transport in Uruará in the state of Pará.

Amazon countries use variety of legal tools to fight environmental crime

Timothy J. Killeen 10 Oct 2025
Palm civet in a wildlife farm in Dong Nai Province, Viet Nam. Image courtesy of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

New global guidelines needed to rein in the wildlife pet trade (commentary)

Elizabeth Bennett 7 Oct 2025
Miners pan for gold at a gold mine in El Callao, Bolivar state, Venezuela, Friday, April 28, 2023. Miners pan for hours in ponds where standing water fosters mosquitos that transmit diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever. Photo by: AP Photo/Matias Delacroix.

Amid Venezuela’s illegal gold heist are armed groups, gangs & elites, report says

Aimee Gabay 2 Oct 2025

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