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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.

Indigenous alliance unveils Brazil’s first Native-led emissions strategy

Aimee Gabay 9 Aug 2025

How a gecko species defied extinction on a Galápagos island

Liz Kimbrough 8 Aug 2025
Although operations like Green Shield are useful, experts say that they are not the solution for combatting illicit activities in the Amazon in the long run, as activities such as illegal mining continue to expand. Image courtesy of the UAE Ministry of Interior.

Formalizing small-scale gold mining can reduce environmental impacts & crime (commentary)

Robert Muggah 7 Aug 2025

Revealed: Brazilian state buys endangered angelsharks for school lunches

Fernanda Wenzel, Philip Jacobson 7 Aug 2025

Strategies against deforestation across the Amazon Basin

Timothy J. Killeen 7 Aug 2025

Restoration brings back fresh water, wildlife to degraded páramos in Ecuador

Ana Cristina Alvarado 7 Aug 2025
mining equipment on fire

Cross-border operation cracks down on environmental crimes in the Amazon

Mie Hoejris Dahl 6 Aug 2025
Lúcio Flávio Pinto

Lúcio Flávio Pinto: The Brazilian reporter who wouldn’t be bought or silenced

Rhett Ayers Butler 6 Aug 2025
Torres in the Amazon in 2024. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler.

She built a newsroom across 7 countries—Here’s how she did it

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 Aug 2025
Deforestation for oil palm plantation in Borneo, Indonesia.

Reversing deforestation relies on resource ownership (commentary)

Douglas Southgate, Brent Sohngen 5 Aug 2025
Park guide Luana Wanessa Assunção points at the remarkable Painel do Pilão, which could be the first-ever solar calendar of the Americas. Image by Peter Speetjens.

Soy crops squeeze Amazon park with 11,000-year-old rock paintings in Brazil

Peter Speetjens 4 Aug 2025

Centralized governance in the Guianas and economic legacy

Timothy J. Killeen 1 Aug 2025

Ecuador axes environment ministry as officials scramble to revive economy

Maxwell Radwin 1 Aug 2025
A red-lored amazon.

DNA research changes the fate of the most trafficked parrots in Colombia

Ana Cristina Alvarado 1 Aug 2025
An Indigenous group in a boat in the Ucayali River.

Recently contacted Indigenous in Peru want REDD+ and conservationists to stay away

Kimberley Brown 31 Jul 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
Black-rhino-a-Critically-Endangered-species-c-ZSL.jpg

More than 10,000 species on brink of extinction need urgent action: Study

Liz Kimbrough 30 Jul 2025

That ‘fish’ on the menu? In Brazil’s schools and prisons, it’s often shark

Philip Jacobson, Karla Mendes, Kuang Keng Kuek Ser 29 Jul 2025

Scientists & communities rush to save rare, diverse Brazilian grassland ecosystem

Letícia Klein 29 Jul 2025
Butterfly on a man's hand in Madre de Dios

Peruvian rainforest defender shot dead in suspected targeted killing

Mongabay.com 29 Jul 2025
Person standing in front of a fallen tree.

Global warming is altering storms lightning, impacting tropical forests

Sean Mowbray 28 Jul 2025
A part of Putumayo rainforest showing areas of deforestation.

Illegal roads expand in Colombia’s deforestation hotspots

Mie Hoejris Dahl 25 Jul 2025
Lena Estrada, Colombia's minister of environment. Image by Eduardo Santamaría.

Oil ‘does not guarantee stability’: Colombia’s environment minister on energy transition

Latoya Abulu 24 Jul 2025
A tiger-legged monkey frog in the Amazon tropical forest.

Where there’s political will, there’s a way to stop tropical deforestation, study finds

John Cannon 24 Jul 2025
The Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler.

Ecuador’s new protected areas law sparks debate over security, development

Maxwell Radwin 23 Jul 2025
Banner image of a cattle ranch in the Paraguayan Chaco by Peer V via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Pasture and agricultural expansion in Gran Chaco drive biodiversity loss: Study

Kristine Sabillo 23 Jul 2025
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 "devastation 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

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