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Illegal mining areas inside Yanomami land near the Mucajaí River.

Brazil tackles illegal miners, but finds their mercury legacy harder to erase

Sean Mowbray 16 Mar 2023

Colombia, Ecuador announce alert system to protect Indigenous Awá from armed groups

Maxwell Radwin 10 Mar 2023

Struggles loom as Bolivia prepares new plan to clean up its mercury problem

Maxwell Radwin 9 Mar 2023
Since the beginning of the operation, government environmental agents have been destroying the logistical support of illegal mining, such as an airplane, a helicopter and a tractor, and have seized weapons and boats. Image courtesy of IBAMA by Ricardo Campos.

Lula government scrambles to overcome Yanomami crisis, but hurdles remain

Jenny Gonzales 6 Mar 2023
Anthony Adejuwon points at the polluted water.

‘Brought down by gold’: Communities and nature suffer amid Nigerian bonanza

Gabriel Ogunjobi 3 Mar 2023
Part of a Yanomami community.

Yanomami crisis sparks action against illegal gold in the Amazon

André Schröder 28 Feb 2023
A mining pit transformed into an artificial lake after a mining company’s semi-mechanized operations. Image © Yannick Kenné.

Treacherous pits and lakes left in the wake of Cameroon’s abandoned mining sites

Yannick Kenné 24 Feb 2023

Newly described DiCaprio’s snake and others threatened by mining in Ecuador and Panama

Liz Kimbrough 23 Feb 2023

‘Mercury is a complex problem’: Q&A with Colombian Mining Minister Irene Vélez Torres

Charlie Espinosa and Charles Lyons 20 Feb 2023

For some Colombians, vows of mining reform are just a flash in the pan

Charlie Espinosa and Charles Lyons 20 Feb 2023
Deforestation in the Amazon.

The $20m flip: The story of the largest land grab in the Brazilian Amazon

Fernanda Wenzel 14 Feb 2023

Mechanization of illegal gold mining threatens Ghana’s forests

Elodie Toto 8 Feb 2023

Is El Salvador preparing to reverse its landmark mining ban?

Maxwell Radwin 7 Feb 2023
Mining rafts and dredges on the Puré River.

Illegal mines and “floating towns” on the Puré River leave uncontacted Indigenous peoples at risk

Pilar Puentes 6 Feb 2023

Element Africa: Lead poisoning, polluted rivers, and ‘calamitous’ mining regulation

Mongabay.com 31 Jan 2023

Indigenous communities threatened as deforestation rises in Nicaraguan reserves

Maxwell Radwin 30 Jan 2023
An overflight conducted by Greenpeace and Instituto Socioambiental in December 2022 spotted four excavators near an illegal road recently discovered inside the Yanomami Indigenous territory, one of the most endangered areas of Indigenous lands in the Brazilian Amazon.

Illegal road found in Yanomami land accelerates destruction

Dimitri Selibas 26 Jan 2023
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited an Indigenous hospital and the Indigenous health support house in Boa Vista.

Yanomami health disaster prompts outrage as Lula vows to tackle crisis

Sarah Brown 25 Jan 2023

Dammed, now mined: Indigenous Brazilians fight for the Xingu River’s future

Andrew Johnson 12 Jan 2023
Triunfo do Xingu, a sustainable development reserve in the Brazilian state of Pará, has in recent years become the epicenter of the forest destruction gripping the Amazon Rainforest. Cattle ranching is responsible for much of the destruction, but wildcat mining and land grabbing are fast advancing too. Across the reserve, toppled trees, open-pit mines and charred jungle are a common sight. Image by Ana Ionova for Mongabay.

Deforestation ‘out of control’ in reserve in Brazil’s cattle capital

Ana Ionova 11 Jan 2023

Venezuela’s Yapacana National Park suffering increasing mining deforestation: report

Maxwell Radwin 11 Jan 2023

Weakening of agrarian reform program increases violence against settlers in Brazilian Amazon

Andrew Johnson 10 Jan 2023
Tanzanian police officer in dull green riot gear and helmet, pictured against the sky guarding waste dump site at Barrick Gold's North Mara mine. Image courtesy Catherine Coumans / Mining Watch.

Element Africa: Deadly violence and massive graft at Tanzania and DRC mines

Mongabay.com 31 Dec 2022

In Brazil’s Amazon, land grabbers scramble to claim disputed Indigenous reserve

Ana Ionova 29 Dec 2022
Acampamento Terra Livre Indigenous protest in Brazil, April 6, 2022. Image by Mídia NINJA Via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0).

Top 10 notable Indigenous stories of 2022

Latoya Abulu 28 Dec 2022

Gold mining invades remote protected area in Ecuador

Antonio José Paz Cardona 21 Dec 2022
Fire fighters putting out forest fire in Riau, Indonesia.

New criminal code rings alarms for environmental protection in Indonesia

Basten Gokkon 6 Dec 2022
Waikas, Raraima, Brazil September 1st 2022 Robervaldo a young Yek'wana that used to work in a Garimpo. Photographed in his community Waikas near the venezuelian border. Photo © Victor Raison 2022, all rights reserved.

Indigenous youths lured by the illegal mines destroying their Amazon homeland

Victor Raison; Jean-Mathieu Albertini 30 Nov 2022
Saliou Hassana, a 17-year-old gold miner, extracting and collecting gold nuggets using mercury at Kambélé III. Image © Yannick Kenné.

About 72% of gold miners poisoned with mercury at artisanal mining sites in Cameroon

Yannick Kenné 29 Nov 2022

U.N. report calls for the ban of mercury trade and its use in gold mining

Peter Speetjens 24 Nov 2022

COP27: ‘Brazil is back’ to fight deforestation, Lula says, but hurdles await

Alec Luhn 17 Nov 2022
Lowland forest

Myanmar communities decry disempowerment as forest guardians since 2021 coup

Carolyn Cowan 17 Nov 2022

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