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Indigenous communities face changes to their ways of life due to the presence of illegal economies. Image courtesy of Amazon Watch.

Crime affects 32% of Amazon Indigenous areas, says study

Yvette Sierra Praeli 11 May 2026

Nigeria arrests suspected pangolin trafficking kingpin on the run

Spoorthy Raman 27 Apr 2026
Two suspects were arrested in Kenya in January with 110 kg of ivory. Image courtesy of Freeland.

After 110-kilo ivory bust, familiar questions over Kenya’s follow-through

Charles Mpaka 23 Apr 2026
Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon in 2011. Photo by Rhett Butler.

The Amazon’s silent crime crisis (commentary)

Carlos Nobre, Robert Muggah, Ilona Szabo 15 Apr 2026
Pangolins are one of the most in-demand wildlife in Asia, used in traditional chinese medicine preparations. After Chinese pangolins plummeted by about 90% in the 2000s, traffickers shifted to African species.

Asia now hub of growing illegal wildlife trade across 100+ countries, study shows

Spoorthy Raman 30 Mar 2026
Indigenous protesters and self-proclaimed river defenders demonstrate against Brazilian dams. Image courtesy of Amazon Watch.

A decade after the death of Berta Cáceres, we can no longer tolerate threats to environmental activists (commentary)

Michael Sutton 17 Mar 2026

Colombia poised for another drop in deforestation in 2025, data show

Maxwell Radwin 16 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
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

In the Amazon, lack of transparency and corruption undermine the environment

Timothy J. Killeen 15 Dec 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

The rise of anti-corruption prosecutors in the Amazon region

Timothy J. Killeen 24 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
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
Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica

Controlling wildlife crime saves more than species (commentary)

Kumar Paudel 10 Sep 2025
Miners work at a legal mining concession in Huaypetue, Madre de Dios, Peru. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Mexico’s rising mercury trade fuels toxic gold mining in Latin America: Report

Maxwell Radwin 30 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
Thai authorities seized more than 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of ivory hidden in luggage shipped out from Congo to Laos via Bangkok in 2015.

Large-scale illegal wildlife shops in Laos found scamming Chinese tourists

Mongabay.com 22 Jul 2025
Mamiraua reserve. Image courtesy of Thiago A. Lacerda via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Community patrols can slash environmental crime by 80% (commentary)

Caetano Franco 21 Jul 2025
Data from transmitters helped the team identify corridors that are critical for the movements of the thick-billed parrots, which are endangered birds endemic to Mexico.

How drug cartels destroy the last habitat of Mexico’s thick-billed parrot (commentary)

Andrew-James Anthony 14 Jul 2025
Person kneeling in gold mine extraction site

Organized crime & gold trade are increasingly connected, report shows

Fernanda Wenzel 25 Jun 2025

Panama boosts protections in the Darién Gap, but deforestation threats still loom

Maxwell Radwin 24 Jun 2025
Glass eels are a juvenile form of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla), a species that undergoes an incredible 10,000 kilometer (6,200 mile) migration. Photo courtesy of Alessandro Cresci.

Glass eel smuggling booms despite bans, leaving species on the brink

Keith Anthony Fabro 23 Jun 2025
Pangolin at the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre in 2022

High-profile wildlife trafficking case tests Malawi’s conservation commitment

Madalitso Wills Kateta 10 Jun 2025
A tokay gecko.

Environmental crimes are often hidden by ‘flying money’ laundering schemes (commentary)

Andrea Crosta 6 Jun 2025
Lions in Mozambique.

After terror attacks, Mozambique nature reserve faces ‘new reality’

Ashoka Mukpo 2 Jun 2025
IBAMA raid to fight illegal mining in the Yanomami Indigenous Land in Roraima in December 2023. Image courtesy of IBAMA.

Amazon illegal gold mines drive sex trafficking in the Brazil-Guyana border

Elizabeth Oliveira 29 May 2025
Banner image: A truck carries logs cut from the Amazon Rainforest in the state of Rondônia. Image courtesy of Vicente Sampaio/Imaflora.

The world needs a new UN protocol to fight environmental crime (commentary)

Robert Muggah 15 May 2025
Federal forces have been expelling illegal gold miners from protected areas like the Munduruku Indigenous Territory in Pará state. Image courtesy of the Federal Police. 

Amazon illegal miners smuggle gold into Venezuela

Fernanda Wenzel 15 May 2025
Federal forces have been expelling illegal gold miners from protected areas like the Munduruku Indigenous Territory in Pará state. Image courtesy of the Federal Police. 

Amazon illegal miners bypass enforcement by smuggling gold into Venezuela

Fernanda Wenzel 22 Apr 2025
Illegal logging observed in Gunung Palung National Park, Indonesian Borneo

Indonesia strengthens forest monitoring with new tool to meet EU deforestation law

Hans Nicholas Jong 21 Apr 2025
Nigerian authorities with pangolin scales seized in Lagos in April. Image courtesy of Nigeria Customs Service.

Nigerian authorities seize nearly 4 tons of pangolin scales, arrest five suspects

Spoorthy Raman 15 Apr 2025

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