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Dams limited the natural flow of the Madeira River, disrupting the currents that fish need and causing up to a 90% reduction in stocks in some locations. Image by Kelvily Santos de Souza for Mongabay.

Fishers denounce plummeting fish stocks following Amazon hydroelectric dam

Mongabay.com 12 Feb 2026
A small airplane used for the illegal mining network is set on fire by IBAMA inspectors in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory.

Brazil mining boss sentenced for illegal gold operation on Indigenous land

Shanna Hanbury 12 Feb 2026
Shepherd Ida Auris Arango at her home in the Peruvian Andes, near puma habitat.

In Peru’s Andes, Quechua women turn human-wildcat conflict into coexistence

Mongabay.com 11 Feb 2026
Aerial view of the Caramuru-Paraguassu Indigenous Territory in Brazil's northeastern Bahia state. Although the territory was officially recognized in 1926, it was illegally occupied by cattle ranchers for decades, which changed its climate, soil and forest characteristics. Image by Karla Mendes/Mongabay.

Brazil’s Atlantic Forest Indigenous lands show strong restoration gains

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 11 Feb 2026
A humpback whale breaching in Alaskan waters.

Indigenous concerns surface as U.S. agency considers seabed mining in Alaskan waters

Anita Hofschneider 11 Feb 2026
In the village of Três Maria in Mato Grosso, Brazil, a woman holds a sample of babassu coconut. The community initiative to protect the biome and fruit extraction in the Cerrado received a Xavante Award from the Podáali Fund.

‘We have to bring trust’ into funding talks: Valéria Paye on Indigenous-led funds

Holly C. Jonas, Alexandre de Santi 9 Feb 2026
Canada Jay in Sax-Zim Bog. Canada Jays are a quintessential northwoods bird that utilize Black Spruce and Tamarack Bogs for foraging and nesting. Image by Friends of Sax-Zim Bog (FOSZB).

Communities join global push to protect European, Arctic & US peatlands

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 5 Feb 2026
Mulkharka residents who oppose the Nagmati Dam project and are campaigning to stop construction.

A dam threatens Nepal’s Indigenous community; they want it on the ballot

Bibek Bhandari 4 Feb 2026

New data highlight Peru’s growing oil and gas footprint in the Amazon

Aimee Gabay 30 Jan 2026
Papuan Indigenous people and activists hold a protest against Merauke Food Estate in front of the Defense Ministry office in Jakarta in 2024.

Indonesia fast-tracks final permit for Papua rice megaproject without Indigenous consent

Hans Nicholas Jong 29 Jan 2026
The Dayak Bahau community in Long Isun expresses its complaint. Image courtesy of Accountability Counsel.

World Bank carbon program risks further infringing upon rights of Indonesian Indigenous community (commentary)

Fuat Edi Kurniawan, Sadar Ginting, Anna Christi Suwardi 28 Jan 2026
Rainim Purba gives a speech and attempts to climb a fence during a protest urging the ministry of environment to revoke PT DPM’s environmental permit in Jakarta, May 2025.

The long struggle of women farmers to halt a zinc mine in North Sumatra

Tonggo Simangunsong 26 Jan 2026

José Zanardini, the priest who tried to reconcile faith and Indigenous autonomy

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Jan 2026
In the weeks since the deforestation in May, banda organizers launched a campaign to replant 20,000 saplings.

World Bank watchdog looks into Nepal cable car project amid Indigenous outcry

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 23 Jan 2026
An Indigenous Tikuna man in the Amazon Rainforest in Colombia. Some researchers oppose the idea that human cultures would have been limited and determined by the environment, and that supports the notion that human cultures have modified the environment as desired. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

What it will take to protect the Amazon, according to Virgilio Viana

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Jan 2026
A man holds a chicken as he walks on log used as a makeshift bridge at a village affected by a flash flood in Batang Toru, Dec. 1.

Indonesia revokes forest and mine permits over role in deadly Sumatra landslides

Hans Nicholas Jong 22 Jan 2026
Sulphur buckwheat seedlings at the Nupqu Native Plant Nursery in British Columbia.

Growing native plants to heal land at Indigenous owned nursery in British Columbia

Ruth Kamnitzer 21 Jan 2026
Product of the women's keeping initiative. Photo credit: Felipe Rodriguez

Conservation’s unfinished business

Rhett Ayers Butler 12 Jan 2026
Rainforest rainbow in Sabah. Image by Rhett Butler for Mongabay.

AI-centered conservation efforts can only be ethical if Indigenous people help lead them (commentary)

McKalee Steen, Magali de Bruyn 9 Jan 2026

Indigenous women lead a firefighting brigade in Brazil’s Cerrado

Mongabay.com 7 Jan 2026
The Indigenous Macaquiño community on the banks of the Vaupés River in Colombia’s Vaupés region. Image by Aimee Gabay/Mongabay.

Urban sprawl and illegal mining reshape a fragile Amazon frontier

Aimee Gabay 6 Jan 2026
A woman from the Indigenous Macaquiño community in Vaupés pushes her boat across the Vaupés River towards her traditional forest garden, or chagra. Image by Aimee Gabay/Mongabay.

Cultural changes shift an Indigenous community’s relationship with the Amazon forest

Aimee Gabay 5 Jan 2026
Rogério Barros, young extractive leader and son of Raimundão Barros, at the Chico Mendes extractive reserve

Massive Amazon conservation program pledges to put communities first

Constance Malleret 5 Jan 2026
Trekking through the Cardamom Tented Camp concession in Botum Sakor National Park Photo by Gerald Flynn

Carving up the Cardamoms

5 Jan 2026
The Amazon rainforest. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler.

The climate fight may not be won in the Amazon, but it can be lost there

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 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
A baird's tapir goes for dip. Image by Bernard Dupont via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Deforestation climbs in Central America’s largest biosphere reserve

Morgan Erickson-Davis 31 Dec 2025

Southeast Asia’s 2025 marked by fatal floods, fossil fuel expansion and renewed mining boom

Carolyn Cowan, Gerald Flynn 29 Dec 2025
Indigenous people attend the People's Summit during the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30). Photo by Rafa Pereira/COP30.

Top 10 Indigenous news stories that marked 2025

Aimee Gabay 29 Dec 2025
On their way back from a day of fishing, fishers shared information on where, how, when and how much they spent to catch fish as well as the amount and the species caught. Researchers present at the daily landings collect information to quantify and identify the fish, take biometric measurements and photos of all captured fish, and systematize the data, allowing researchers to identify which fish came from which vessel. Image courtesy of Igor Hister Lourenço.

Amazon fishers help scientists map dam harms to Madeira River stocks

Karla Mendes 29 Dec 2025
A Magar local affected by the Tanahu Hydropower project. Image by Sanjog Laapaa Magar, INWOLAG.

Fights against development projects marks 2025 for Nepal’s Indigenous people

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 29 Dec 2025
Part of the proposed the Great Koala National Park. Image courtesy of Paul Hilton/Earth Tree Images.

Conservation wins in 2025 that pushed us closer to the 30×30 goal

Bobby Bascomb 26 Dec 2025

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