Indigenous peoples and Amazon News

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Demetrio carrying out monitoring tasks. Image courtesy of Richar Antonio Demetrio.

When Indigenous knowledge enters the scientific record

Rhett Ayers Butler 12 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
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
Demetrio carrying out monitoring tasks. Image courtesy of Richar Antonio Demetrio.

‘I’m proud to be the first published Asháninka researcher’: Richar Antonio Demetrio on bees

Xilena Pinedo 2 Jan 2026
Rainforest in Brunei in 2025. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

The year in rainforests 2025: Deforestation fell; the risks did not

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Dec 2025
A jaguar

The Amazon in 2026: A challenging year ahead, now off the center stage

Alexandre de Santi 22 Dec 2025

Hope, solidarity & disappointment: A familiar mix for Indigenous delegates at COP30

Hans Nicholas Jong 10 Dec 2025
A soy plantation borders native Cerrado vegetation, highlighting pressures on Brazil’s ecosystems and the need for community-led bioeconomy alternatives.

New financial tools boost traditional bioeconomy projects in the Amazon

Sarah Brown 8 Dec 2025
Satellite image showing the destruction of the Sararé Indigenous Territory in Mato Grosso state, Brazil, left behind by illegal gold mining. Image via Google.

One small Indigenous territory emerges as illegal mining hotspot in Brazil’s Amazon

Shanna Hanbury 28 Nov 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
The Wai Wai Indigenous people carry Brazil nuts through the rainforest in 50-kilo bags.

Brazil nut hauling effort gets easier with zip lines and ‘Amazon Waze’

Fernanda Wenzel 26 Nov 2025
Global March of Indigenous Peoples at COP30 in Belém. Image courtesy of Bruno Peres/Agência Brasil.

Brazil aims for alternative route to fossil fuel road map after COP30 failure

Carla Ruas 25 Nov 2025
Marina Silva, Brazil's Minister of the Environment and Climate Change (left), Fernando Haddad, Brazil's Minister of Finance (center), and Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sônia Guajajara (right) during a press conference on the Tropical Forest Forever Fund (TFFF). Image courtesy of Rafa Neddermeyer/COP30 Brasil Amazônia/PR.

Brazil’s forest fund faces a slow takeoff at COP30 despite initial support

Carla Ruas 24 Nov 2025
Banzeiro da Easperanza in Belem. Photo by Lucas Boony

A forest worth more standing: Virgilio Viana on what it will take to protect the Amazon

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 Nov 2025
Environmentalists say traffic from large vessels could affect the migration and reproduction of Amazonian turtles in the Monte Cristo tabuleiro, one of the largest turtle sanctuaries in Brazil. Image courtesy of Roberto Lacava/Ibama.

Amazon Indigenous groups fight soy waterway as Brazil fast-tracks dredging

André Schröder 19 Nov 2025
Tropical forest and river in Suriname. Image courtesy of Mark J. Plotkin.

Top ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin’s COP30 reflections on Amazon conservation (analysis)

Mark J. Plotkin 17 Nov 2025

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

Karla Mendes 7 Nov 2025
A cassava farmer checks his crops in the Juma Reserve in the Brazilian Amazon, circa 2011. Cassava serves as both an important commercial crop and a subsistence crop by Indigenous and traditional peoples.

Witch Hunt: Virulent fungal disease attacks South America’s cassava crop

Gloria Dickie 5 Nov 2025

Critical minerals drive legalization of mining on Amazon Indigenous lands

Lucas Berti 3 Nov 2025
Banyan tree in Vietnam. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler.

What might lie ahead for tropical forests (analysis)

Rhett Ayers Butler 2 Nov 2025
Dozens of Mashco Piro people appeared on a riverbank in Peru in 2024, just a few miles from logging concessions. The Mascho Piro are Indigenous nomadic hunter-gatherers who inhabit Manú National Park in the Madre de Dios region of Peru. They have in the past actively avoided contact with outsiders.

Report urges full protection of world’s 196 uncontacted Indigenous peoples

Sue Branford 27 Oct 2025
Beatriz Matos (left) and Alessandra Sampaio (right), widows of Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips,

Dom Phillips & Bruno Pereira ‘would be killed again,’ Indigenous leader says

Karla Mendes 24 Oct 2025
Female Indigenous guardians. Image by Brandi Morin.

Indigenous guardians successfully keep extractives out of Ecuador’s Amazon forests

Brandi Morin 22 Oct 2025

Voices from the Land

Mongabay.com 15 Oct 2025
Banner image: Houses of Shawi community residents on the banks of the Paranapura River in Peru.

New road in Peruvian Amazon sparks fear of invasion among Indigenous Shawi

Geraldine Santos 8 Oct 2025
One of Tanaru’s temporary homes. Image courtesy of Funai.

Brazil Supreme Court creates park to honor last man of the Tanaru people

Shanna Hanbury 8 Oct 2025
A young Rostain takes a break along a river in French Guiana, where he started his archaeological career in the late 1980s.

Indigenous myths reveal Amazon’s past truths: Interview with Stéphen Rostain

Peter Speetjens 1 Oct 2025
Lina Ruiz and Lita Rojas outside of the court in Ucayali after hearing the first ruling. Image by Hugo Alejos.

Report finds 226 Indigenous land defenders in Peru at risk of violence

Yvette Sierra Praeli 29 Sep 2025
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Environment Minister Marina Silva attend the launch of a program to reduce deforestation and forest fires in the Amazon, in April 2024.

New deal pushes Amazon’s controversial ‘tipping point road’ ahead

Rafael Spuldar 29 Sep 2025
The second instance court sentencing in the Saweto case was held August 25 and lasted approximately eight hours. Image by Geraldine Santos.

Peru court upholds 28 years in prison for loggers in Indigenous murders

Geraldine Santos 26 Sep 2025
BR-364 paved the way for the widespread conversion of Amazon Rainforest in Rondônia into land for agriculture and cattle ranching. Image courtesy of Cleber Carvalho/Ministério dos Transportes.

Brazil’s first private Amazon road paves new trade route to China

André Schröder 25 Sep 2025

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