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Humberto Mendes feeding a blue-and-yellow macaw. Image courtesy of Chris Biro.

Blue-and-yellow macaws return to São Paulo skies after 50 years, thanks to flying lessons

Mongabay.com 23 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
An ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) in the Peruvian Amazonian rainforest (Cocha Cashu Biological Station), recorded through camera trapping. Photo credit: Fortunato Rayan.

Videos capture an unlikely alliance between ocelots and opossums in the Amazon

Rhett Ayers Butler 18 Jul 2025
Heavy rainfall in Colombia and Venezuela caused deadly landslides and widespread flooding in June. A new analysis now points to rapid urbanization, deforestation, mining and overgrazing as having reduced the region’s climate resilience. 
 “The rapid growth of population and informal settlements in areas prone to landslides, particularly in Colombia, puts people and infrastructure at risk,” the World Weather Attribution (WWA), a network of scientists evaluating extreme weather events, said in its latest rapid analysis. It said the informal communities are growing as people seek livelihoods in cities or are displaced due to conflict. Roop Singh, report co-author from the Netherlands-based Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, said at a media briefing that pasture- and agriculture-driven deforestation rose over the past two decades, increasing “the risk of landslides because tree roots are no longer binding and anchoring the soils.”
 The heavy rains during the last week of June triggered widespread flooding and damage in Colombia; a landslide in Antioquia department killed 27 people. In Venezuela, rivers overflowed, and smaller landslides cut off rural communities. WWA said in its report that rains in these regions had persisted since April, and that the June rain fell on already saturated ground where the deadly landslide occurred, and in rivers with already high levels of water. The scientists examined the total rainfall from April-June this year over the Magdalena River catchment in Colombia and the Falcón and Maracaibo basins in Venezuela. They also studied data on the accumulated rainfall from June 20-24 in the affected states in the Venezuelan Llanos, a grassland plain. “Neither events were particularly extreme,” Mariam Zachariah, co-author and research associate at Imperial College London, said at the briefing. The WWA analysis showed the heavy rain that fell in June is common, expected every 10 years in Colombia and every three years in Venezuela. The scientists also used climate models to understand the influence of human-induced climate change on the rains, but the findings were inconclusive. Instead, the models projected a drying trend for Colombia and mixed results for Venezuela. Friederike Otto, co-author and climate science professor at Imperial College London, said not being able to show clear linkages to climate change doesn’t mean there’s no influence. The researchers attributed some of the uncertainty to a lack of long-term observational weather data and weather stations in the region. “Unfortunately, extreme weather is not well understood in northern South America,” Paola A. Arias, a professor at the University of Antioquia, said in a statement. “We urgently need more investment in climate science to understand shifting risks and prepare for what’s ahead. More science will save lives." Zachariah said Colombia and Venezuela must prepare for both rainfall and drought, and build resilience to extreme weather. Banner image: People look at their destroyed home after a deadly landslide was triggered by heavy rain in Colombia’s Antioquia department on June 25, 2025. Image by AP Photo/Fredy Amariles.

Deadly landslide and flooding in Colombia and Venezuela linked to rapid urbanization

Kristine Sabillo 18 Jul 2025
Illegal and unregulated gold mining in the La Pampa area near Puerto Maldonado, Peru. Photo courtesy Jason Houston/Upper Amazon Conservancy.

In the Andes, decentralization fails to address environmental harm

Timothy J. Killeen 17 Jul 2025
Greenpeace Brazil took part in the Climate March in São Paulo, protesting against Bill 2159/2021 — widely known as the Destruction Bill. The demonstration brought thousands of people to the streets, marching from Avenida Paulista to Favela do Moinho, in response to the bill’s threat of weakening Brazil’s environmental licensing laws. Image © Tuane Fernandes / Greenpeace.

Brazil’s Congress passes ‘devastation bill’ in major environmental setback

Fernanda Wenzel 17 Jul 2025
JBS founder José Batista Sobrinho (center) flanked by his sons, Joesley (taking a selfie) and Wesley (clapping), waves from the podium after ringing the New York Stock Exchange opening bell, Wednesday, June 25, 2025. Image by AP Photo/Richard Drew.

Now on Wall Street, JBS eyes growth amid scrutiny on deforestation & graft

Carla Ruas 17 Jul 2025
Area of burned forest in ​​the city of Apuí, Amazonas state. Image by Bruno Kelly/Amazônia Real via Wikimedia Commons. (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Amazon deforestation spikes as Brazil blames criminal fires

Lucas Berti 16 Jul 2025
Ana Toni, CEO of COP30, photographed in June. Image courtesy of Paulo Pinto/Agência Brasil.

As Brazil expands oil, COP30 head urges rich nations to phase out fossil fuels first

Karla Mendes, Shanna Hanbury 16 Jul 2025
Butterflies in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve in Ecuador’s Amazon.

Landmark Indigenous land title in Ecuador protected area still in limbo

Latoya Abulu | John Cannon 16 Jul 2025
Boat in the Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve in Ecuador's Amazon. Image by Ranil Wijeyratne via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Landmark Indigenous land title in Ecuadorian Amazon reserve mired in controversy

Latoya Abulu | John Cannon 15 Jul 2025
Community members review a map of Pë’këya.

Indigenous groups debate use of land agreements in Ecuador’s protected areas

Latoya Abulu | John Cannon 15 Jul 2025
“Pëkëya” is the name of the ancestral heartland of the Siekopai people in their native language, Paicoca and is located along the Lagartococha River.

Ecuador’s government promised same land in the Amazon to two Indigenous peoples

Latoya Abulu | John Cannon 14 Jul 2025

Attack on Indigenous land defenders in Peru reveals snags in protection system

Yvette Sierra Praeli 14 Jul 2025
The BR-319 highway

Amazon’s ‘tipping point road’ gets new push with ease on licensing rules

Rafael Spuldar 14 Jul 2025

Brazil’s Arariboia set to be the first Indigenous land with legal cattle

Karla Mendes 14 Jul 2025

Rising heat and falling yields plague an Amazon island near COP30 host

Anna Peres/O Liberal 14 Jul 2025
A member of the U’wa Indigenous group in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

U’wa people await implementation of landmark court ruling against Colombian gov’t

Antonio José Paz Cardona 11 Jul 2025
Hydrogen storage tanks are visible at the Iberdrola green hydrogen plant in Puertollano, central Spain, March 28, 2023.

Locals fear Chile’s new port project for green energy will disrupt ecosystems

Aimee Gabay 11 Jul 2025
Purple and gray Wellington’s solitary corals. Image courtesy of Inti Keith/Charles Darwin Foundation.

Coral once feared extinct rediscovered in the Galápagos after 25 years

Shanna Hanbury 11 Jul 2025
The Andean cat is a rare and endangered species highly specialized to life in the high Andes. It’s estimated that around 2,000 mature individuals, living in fragmented populations, are spread very thinly over a vast alpine expanse in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru.

Endangered Andean cat is imperiled by climate change and its solutions

Sean Mowbray 10 Jul 2025
Plans to blast the Pedral do Lourenço rock formation in the Tocantins River have been suspended by a court. Image courtesy of Antonio Cavalcante/Ascom Setran-PA.

Brazil court halts plan to blast 35-km river rock formation hosting endangered species

Shanna Hanbury 10 Jul 2025

Suspicions surround international legal trade in Galápagos iguanas

Spoorthy Raman 10 Jul 2025
Some Amazonian communities have reported harvests declining by up to 80% due to El Niño.

Iconic Brazil nut crop plunges after extreme drought, skyrocketing prices

Fernanda Wenzel, Karla Mendes 10 Jul 2025
Mamirauá and Amanã sustainable development reserves. Image by Daniel Marques via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

Community patrolling reduces crime numbers in the Amazon, study shows

Fernanda Biasoli 10 Jul 2025
Illegal dredger in the Caquetá River. Image courtesy of Juan Carlos Contreras.

Indigenous Amazonians win landmark ruling against mercury pollution in Colombia

Iván Paredes Tamayo 9 Jul 2025
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with his environmental and climate change minister, Marina Silva on his first day in office on Jan. 1.

Why is Lula still silent on Brazil’s ‘Bill of devastation?’ (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 8 Jul 2025
Latex collected from the trees is pressed and formed into blocks, which are easier to transport from the territory.

Indigenous rubber bounces back for Amazon conservation and higher income

Sarah Brown 8 Jul 2025
A community member catching fish in the Fluvial Star of Inírida, where the Guaviare, Atabapo and Inírida rivers meet. Image courtesy of Camilo Díaz for WWF Colombia.

The guardians of the Amazon who work without pay — or fear

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 Jul 2025
A woman chants slogans during a march towards the Palace of Justice during the celebrations of "La Pachamama," or Mother Earth Day in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023. The group´s protest that coincides with “La Pachamama Day” is also directed against a provincial constitutional reform they claim is an attempt against their ancestral rights to lands that the state aims to use for lithium mining. (AP Photo/R

In Latin America, energy transition stirs a rise in human rights lawsuits

Aimee Gabay 4 Jul 2025
An alert sign: a stranded marine specimen documented by IEPA scientists along the Amapá coast. The case is part of ongoing efforts to monitor aquatic fauna.

Seismic noise from oil companies threatens Amazon River Mouth marine life

Rudja Santos 4 Jul 2025
The giant otter Coco and her pups. Image courtesy of Sebastian Navajas/Rewilding Argentina.

Giant river otter returns to Argentina after almost four decades

Shanna Hanbury 3 Jul 2025

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