Forest Trackers News

The stories in this series are powered by Places to Watch, a Global Forest Watch (GFW) initiative designed to quickly identify concerning forest loss around the world and catalyze further investigation of these areas. Places to Watch draws on a combination of near real-time deforestation alerts, automated algorithms and field intelligence to identify new areas on a monthly basis. In partnership with Mongabay, GFW is supporting data-driven journalism by providing data and maps generated by Places to Watch. Mongabay maintains complete editorial independence over the stories reported using this data. Sign up for monthly email updates featuring these stories from GFW.

Narco airstrips beset Indigenous communities in Peruvian Amazon

Mongabay Latam 9 Dec 2024

Drug trafficking and illegal logging threaten Indigenous communities in Peru

Gloria Alvitres 26 Aug 2021

Malayan tapir

Deforestation surge continues amid deepening uncertainty in Myanmar

Carolyn Cowan 23 Aug 2021

Indigenous Amazonian communities bear the burden of Ecuador’s balsa boom

Diego Cazar Baquero 17 Aug 2021

Image courtesy of Fernanda Meirelles, Idesam/ Observatório BR-319.

Illegal deforestation intensifies along Brazilian highway as agribusiness hopes swell

Ana Ionova 23 Jul 2021

As soy frenzy grips Brazil, deforestation closes in on Indigenous lands

Ana Ionova 21 Jul 2021

Deforestation of endangered wildlife habitat continues to surge in southern Myanmar

Morgan Erickson-Davis 25 Jun 2021

Deforestation spikes in Virunga National Park, DRC

Morgan Erickson-Davis 18 Jun 2021

A fire burns in Xingu Indigenous Park in 2016. Image by Ibama via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Slash-and-burn clearing nears Indigenous park as Brazil’s fire season ignites

Morgan Erickson-Davis 10 Jun 2021

Jaguars still roam the Chaco, but they require large tracts of contiguous forest to survive and reproduce. As forest is destroyed, fewer of these intact landscapes exist. Photo by Eduardo Merille via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).

New areas of primary forest cleared in Brazil’s ‘lawless’ Lábrea

Liz Kimbrough 9 Jun 2021

Africa's largest population of eastern chimpanzees live in Bili-Uéré. Image by gombe069 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Deforestation intensifies in northern DRC protected areas

Morgan Erickson-Davis 2 Jun 2021

Drugs, fire, settlers poised to wipe out one of Paraguay’s most biodiverse forests

Aldo Benítez 27 May 2021

New clearing of forest in protected area in Brazil linked to mining

Liz Kimbrough 27 May 2021

Settlers invading, deforesting Colombian national parks ‘at an unstoppable speed’

Antonio José Paz Cardona 19 May 2021

Casinos, condos and sugar cane: How a Cambodian national park is being sold down the river

James Fair 4 May 2021

Drugs and agriculture cause deforestation to skyrocket at Honduran UNESCO site

Karen Paredes, Leonardo Guevara, Lesly Frazier 30 Apr 2021

Keo Seima forest. Image by user Pygathrix nigripes via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Deforestation ramps up in Cambodia’s Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary

Morgan Erickson-Davis 26 Apr 2021

Cattle-driven clearing continues in Brazil’s Triunfo do Xingu protected area

Liz Kimbrough 16 Apr 2021

New palm oil frontier sparks scramble for land in the Brazilian Amazon

Ana Ionova 12 Apr 2021

Deforestation rises in Colombia’s Chiribiquete National Park as cattle invade

Antonio José Paz Cardona 2 Apr 2021

A protest against land-grabbing held in front of the Land Management Ministry in September, 2020. Image by Gerald Flynn.

‘What other country would do this to its people?’ Cambodian land grab victims seek int’l justice

Gerald Flynn, Phoung Vantha 1 Apr 2021

Deforestation surge threatens endangered species in Tanintharyi, Myanmar

Morgan Erickson-Davis 30 Mar 2021

Thriving population of endangered monkeys gives hope to conservationists

Veronika Perkova 23 Mar 2021

Ouch Leng nails a sign prohibiting logging in Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary. Image courtesy of the Goldman Environmental Prize.

Cambodians fight the ‘cancer’ eating away at Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary

Gerald Flynn, Phoung Vantha 18 Mar 2021

Greater bamboo lemur (Prolemur simus). Image by Charles J. Sharp via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Slash-and-burn farming eats away at a Madagascar haven for endangered lemurs, frogs

Edward Carver 9 Mar 2021

Drone image of alleged clearing for luxury residential estates in Bokor National Park. Image courtesy of Mother Nature Cambodia.

‘A disgrace’: Luxury housing plans threaten Cambodia’s Bokor National Park

Chris Humphrey 25 Feb 2021

Smallholder agriculture cuts into key Sumatran tiger habitat

Rachel Fritts 26 Jan 2021

Photo by the members of the community of Santa Martha.

Indigenous Cacataibo of Peru threatened by land grabbing and drug trade

Enrique Vera 15 Jan 2021

Despite the fear instilled by the armed narco-terrorist groups, the Indigenous Siona have organized to monitor their territory and prevent further deforestation. Photo: Mateo Barriga Salazar / Amazon Frontlines

Colombian and Ecuadorian Indigenous communities live in fear as drug traffickers invade

Ana Cristina Basantes 8 Jan 2021

Cocaine production driving deforestation into Colombian national park

René Mora 7 Jan 2021

Industrial agriculture threatens a wetland oasis in Bolivia

Gustavo Jiménez Gonzáles 30 Dec 2020

Illegal deforestation rises in South America’s Indigenous territories, parks

Vanessa Romo 29 Dec 2020

Satellite imagery shows fires spreading across Pantanal Matogrossense National Park in early November 2020.

‘Devastating’ fires engulf Brazilian Pantanal wetlands – again

Ana Ionova 23 Dec 2020

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Why are the British flooding parts of their coast? Once farmland protected by flood defenses, Steart Marshes in southwest England now thrives as a restored salt marsh. As the defences weakened, the land became increasingly vulnerable to flooding. Instead of rebuilding defenses, conservationists, the government and local communities made a bold choice to let the sea reclaim the landscape. Just over 10 years ago the sea wall was breached, allowing the sea to take over the land, transforming the area into a vital wetland habitat. Salt marshes, which have declined by 85% in the U.K. since the 19th century, play a crucial role in coastal ecosystems. They provide shelter for wetland wildlife, act as natural flood defenses by absorbing storm surges, stabilize coastlines against erosion, and store carbon to help combat climate change. Managed by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Steart Marshes now provides a model for future restoration projects, proving that working with nature can protect communities while rebuilding lost habitats.

Wooded landscape in Kõrvemaa Nature Park, Estonia. Image courtesy of Ireen Trummer via Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0.

Rainstorm over Pillcopata in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Rhett Butler/Mongabay.

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