Climate change threatens to push endemic species in the Cerrado, Brazil’s vast tropical savanna, into extinction while allowing the spread of species already commonplace elsewhere, a new study says. This…
The homegrown banks that back the flood of soy into China have with little knowledge of the deforestation their funding is potentially supporting, according to the nonprofit CDP, an international…
Indigenous women have a long leadership tradition in the Amazon and across Brazil, but perhaps never more so than since the election of Jair Bolsonaro, whose policies they oppose.
Business-as-usual Brazilian deforestation could result in loss of 606,000 square kilometers of forest by 2050, triggering local temperature rise of up to 1.45 degrees Celsius: study.
Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons and Lidl accused of buying corned beef sourced from Brazilian supplier JBS, a firm notorious for large-scale corruption and Amazon deforestation.
A new report urges the EU — a major Brazilian trading partner — to pressure the Bolsonaro government to end its regressive indigenous and environmental policies.
Bolsonaro has consolidated his authority, firing top environmental officials and replacing them with military officers, and easing environmental fines.
Soy, cattle and timber producers charged with illegal Amazon deforestation continue to trade actively with international markets and to be financed by global investors.
A farm newly placed on the Brazilian Ministry of Labor’s “Dirty List” had been certified by Starbucks and Nestlé; both have since ceased buying coffee from the farm.
Brazil’s government is fast tracking pesticides with record speed, despite warnings by critics that some are exceedingly toxic and unhealthy while others are unneeded.
If Brazil alone were to cover the US-China soy deficit, land area dedicated to soy in Brazil could increase by 39 percent, with a loss of up to 13 million hectares of forest.
Analysis of new satellite data released by the Brazilian government links international soy exports to major deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado.
Brazil’s president met with Donald Trump this week, with trade and agribusiness topping the agenda; a USAID $100 million Amazon biodiversity impact investment fund was also advanced.
80% of Brazilian deforestation between 2000-2014 resulted from new pasture creation, with 20% directly due to new croplands; however, land speculation drove the process.
Cargill, Bunge, ADM, Louis Dreyfus, Glencore Agriculture, and Chinese firm COFCO have agreed to reveal soy supply chain data for 25 “high risk” areas – a step toward zero deforestation.
Weakening of Brazil’s Forest Code by Congress in 2012 and by the Supreme Court in 2018 could free Amazon landowners to clear 15 million hectares of once protected forest: study.
Top ministers say ban on leasing indigenous land to agribusiness must end during PR event held at indigenous reserve where commercial GMO commodity crops are illegally grown.
“We came here to get our cattle back. Are you releasing them?” shouted Jossone Lopes Leite from horseback. The 38-year-old Cerrado rural settlement leader – joined by five community members…
An upcoming Amazon Synod at which Catholic clergy from nine Amazon nations will discuss ecological, indigenous and climate issues is seen by Brazil as international interference.
Federal litigators warn of “imminent genocide” for the Karipuna people, while at least 14 indigenous reserves have been threatened or invaded. Bolsonaro government slow to act, say critics.
Newly appointed Minister of Infrastructure Tarcísio Freitas is resolved to build new Amazon roads and railroads, but expresses limited patience for environmental or indigenous concerns.
A wave of announcements by the Bolsonaro administration threatens indigenous reserves, could worsen deforestation and bring major environmental harm: experts.
Bolsonaro has backed off from Paris withdrawal “for now,” but his actions imply emissions exceeding Brazil’s carbon cut pledge.
A Brazilian official last week announced plans to build an Amazon River bridge, Trombetas River dam, and highway thru what he called “desert-like” rainforest.
Agribusiness, well backed by government, is hailed an “economic miracle.” But family farms, with nominal help, provide 70% of the food Brazilians eat.
The Cerrado biome, covering 20 percent of Brazil, has seen rapid deforestation in the 21st century; a recent report says that much of this is driven by soy grown to feed livestock, which feeds Brazilians.
Indigenous groups, quilombolas, agrarian reform settlements, and environmentalists are all responding to the new president’s early moves which could undermine past protections.
FUNAI moved rapidly before Christmas to safeguard the isolated Kawahiva indigenous group from intruders into their territory – two weeks before Pres. Bolsonaro took office.
As Grainrail, the BR-163 and BR-319 highways, and other transport projects improve Amazon access, they attract land thieves ready to kill.
The choice of Ricardo Salles as environment minister, and many generals for top posts, leaves activists concerned over a potentially repressive, anti-democratic government.
