Road construction imperils tree kangaroo recovery in PNG
As recently as 1980, hunters in the forests of the Torricelli Mountains of northwestern Papua New Guinea could count on bagging at least a couple of tree kangaroos in a…
Mongabay series: Indigenous Peoples and Conservation
Indigenous peoples’ stewardship of natural resources is increasingly being recognized as a critical priority in efforts to combat climate change, protect biodiversity, and maintain the ecosystems that sustain the planet. Yet indigenous communities continue to face grave threats when it comes to protecting their lands. Some indigenous peoples are challenged by governments’ failure to recognize their land rights and the loss of traditional knowledge, which erodes cultural identity. The Indigenous Peoples and Conservation project will produce a series of journalistic stories that explore threats to indigenous peoples’ territories and showcase successful indigenous-led conservation initiatives.
Killings, invasions escalate in fight for land in Brazil’s Maranhão state
A recent spate of violence related to land conflicts in northeastern Brazil has targeted Indigenous people and small-scale farmers, raising concerns from activists about impunity in the region. On July…
‘I am Indigenous, not pardo’: Push for self-declaration in Brazil’s census
RIO DE JANEIRO — When the Portuguese fleet led by Pedro Álvares Cabral landed in Brazil in 1500, Pero Vaz de Caminha, a knight serving as the secretary to the…
In Rio de Janeiro, Indigenous people fight to undo centuries of erasure
RIO DE JANEIRO — Maracanã, Ipanema, the Lapa Arches, the Church of Our Lady of Glory of Outeiro … Millions of the visitors who flock to Brazil’s most famous city…
Exhibition showcases Claudia Andujar’s half-century fight for the Yanomami
The renowned photographer endured the Nazi occupation. Settling in Brazil, she fought for the founding of the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, long under attack by illegal miners. A new photo exhibition celebrates her life and the Yanomami people.
Amazon dams: No clean water, fish dying, then the pandemic came
Indigenous people living near the Teles Pires and São Manoel dams in the Brazilian Amazon say the projects have polluted their river, causing health problems and wrecking the fishery. COVID-19 made things worse.
In Brazil’s most Indigenous city, prejudice and diversity go hand in hand
In São Gabriel da Cachoeira, a municipality in northern Amazonas state, the traditions and culture of 32 ethnic groups are the hallmarks of a daily life rich in diversity. But even here, traditional peoples face discrimination.
‘Listening to communities must go beyond ticking compliance boxes’, says Peter Kallang, a Kenyah leader
Community-led conservation approaches are working, says Peter Kallang, a Kenyah leader in Sarawak who led a successful campaign to block a mega-dam project.
Land conflicts in Brazil break record under Bolsonaro
Land conflicts in Brazil hit 1,576 cases in 2020, the highest number ever recorded by the Catholic Church-affiliated Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), which has been keeping track of the issue…
Illegal miners fire shots, burn homes in Munduruku Indigenous Reserve
Wildcat miners fired shots and set houses ablaze in an Indigenous village in the Brazilian Amazon this week, fueling worries among Indigenous rights groups of further violent attacks by gold…
Indigenous in São Paulo: Erased by a colonial education curriculum
In Brazil's biggest city, descendants of the original inhabitants live in invisibility and struggle to keep their traditions despite São Paulo’s celebrated cultural diversity
Recognizing the true guardians of the forest: Q&A with David Kaimowitz
Over the past 20 years, the conservation sector has increasingly recognized the contributions Indigenous communities have made toward achieving conservation goals, including protecting biodiversity and maintaining ecosystems that sustain us.…
‘We are made invisible’: Brazil’s Indigenous on prejudice in the city
Mongabay starts publishing today a series of data-driven multimedia stories on Brazil’s Indigenous people living in urban areas, including the metropolitan centers of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Brasília, showing that Indigenous people are much closer to most Brazilians than they realize
Timber organization’s backing ‘one step’ toward ‘peace park’ in Borneo
An intergovernmental organization representing countries that produce the bulk of the world’s timber has thrown its support behind a decade-long effort to protect the last remaining primary forest in the…
COVID-19 and rainforest fires set up potential public health crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic and the arrival of fire season in two of the world’s major rainforests are on a collision course, scientists and public health researchers say, and the results…
Bison: (Back) home on the range
As a young boy living on South Dakota’s Rosebud Indian Reservation, Wizipan Little Elk remembers the first time he saw a buffalo herd. The experience ignited a passion, and at…
Chief Raoni, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, presides over historic meeting with over 600 indigenous leaders in Brazil
In January, indigenous leaders from 47 tribes participated in a historic event in a Kayapó village in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Chief Raoni Metuktire called the meeting to articulate a response to the Bolsonaro administration’s incendiary rhetoric and aggressive actions against the country’s indigenous population.
Xavante tribe digs in as Brazil reneges on vow not to build a road in their reserve
For more than 50 years, the Xavante indigenous group has been fighting to regain sovereignty of the Marãiwatsédé Indigenous Reserve in Mato Grosso state. The most recent obstacle is the federal government's plan to pave BR-158, the interstate highway that cuts through the middle of the reserve.
Fines for Amazon fires may go to indigenous communities under new bill
Joenia Wapichana is the first indigenous woman to be elected a federal representative in Brazil. Last year, she submitted a bill to Congress proposing that funds collected from fines for environmental infractions committed on indigenous lands be returned to native peoples.
‘Everything is dying’: Q&A with Brazilian indigenous leader Alessandra Munduruku
SANTARÉM, Brazil, and BERLIN — I got off the mototaxi, a means of transportation that is part of everyday life in several cities in the Amazon, took off the helmet…
Indigenous-managed lands found to harbor more biodiversity than protected areas
New research bolsters the case for indigenous-led land management as a crucial conservation solution. The study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Policy last month, focused on land and…
Forests and forest communities critical to climate change solutions
How we use the planet’s land, including forests, will make a huge difference in determining the path of climate change in the future, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate…
Venezuela’s isolated indigenous groups under siege from miners, disease and guerrillas
This story originally appeared on Mongabay Latam as part of a special series on threats facing isolated indigenous peoples in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela. Other stories in the series…
First Nations have created a robust conservation economy in Great Bear Rainforest: Report
Over the past decade, First Nations have created a robust conservation economy in Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest, one of the largest old-growth temperate rainforests left in the world, through investments…
Dam in Ethiopia has wiped out indigenous livelihoods, report finds
Scientists call it flood-retreat agriculture. As a swollen river blankets a dry plain and then recedes, it replenishes the thin soil with enough nutrients to sprout grass for cattle and…
Study reveals a fragile web of knowledge linking plants to people
“I once asked a Matapí elder if he could spare an hour or two to tell me about what palms he knew, and how he used them,” says Rodrigo Cámara-Leret,…
Gold, wood, religion: Threats to Colombia’s isolated indigenous peoples
This story originally appeared on Mongabay Latam as part of a special series on threats facing isolated indigenous peoples in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela. Other stories in the series…
Ecuador’s isolated indigenous tribes: Stuck between oil and state neglect
This story originally appeared on Mongabay Latam as part of a special series on threats facing isolated indigenous peoples in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela. Other stories in the series…
Mercury poisoning chief among health problems facing Peru’s uncontacted tribes
This story originally appeared on Mongabay Latam as part of a special series on threats facing isolated indigenous peoples in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela. Other stories in the series…
Conceived in a dream, new solar canoe will serve Amazon tribes
A group of 20 men, women, and children, mostly members of the Achuar and Shuar indigenous communities, move through dense jungle near a military base in the town of Shell…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Illegal deforestation intensifies along Brazilian highway as agribusiness hopes swell
- As soy frenzy grips Brazil, deforestation closes in on Indigenous lands
- Deforestation of endangered wildlife habitat continues to surge in southern Myanmar
- Deforestation spikes in Virunga National Park, DRC
Oceans
- Philippines banks on new fisheries management system, but rollout is rocky
- For manta rays, parasitic hitchhikers can be a pain in the rear, study finds
- ‘Mismanaged to death’: Mexico opens up sole vaquita habitat to fishing
- Building back Miami’s Biscayne Bay: Do natural solutions hold hope?
Amazon Conservation
- Illegal deforestation intensifies along Brazilian highway as agribusiness hopes swell
- Lessons from the 2021 Amazon flood (commentary)
- Amazon and Cerrado deforestation, warming spark record drought in urban Brazil
- As soy frenzy grips Brazil, deforestation closes in on Indigenous lands
Land rights and extractives
- Ethnic communities in Myanmar opposing a coal plant see their fight get harder
- Brazil prosecutors seek ban on all gold mining in hard-hit Amazonian region
- Killings, invasions escalate in fight for land in Brazil’s Maranhão state
- ‘Red-carded’ Australian miner signals intention to play on in Greenland
Endangered Environmentalists
- Rights groups demand end to Cambodia’s persecution of green activists
- With Indigenous rights at stake in Brasília, a territory is attacked in Paraty
- Brazil’s Bolsonaro vowed to work with Indigenous people. Now he’s investigating them
- Intimidation of Brazil’s enviro scientists, academics, officials on upswing
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- From Flores to Papua: Meet 10 of Indonesia’s mangrove guardians
- Why I stand for my tribe’s forest: It gives us food, culture, and life (commentary)
- Reforesting a village in Indonesia, one batch of gourmet beans at a time
- Restoring Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, one small farm at a time
Conservation Effectiveness
- Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?
- ‘Bad science’: Planting frenzy misses the grasslands for the trees
- A Malagasy community wins global recognition for saving its lake
- Scientists in Costa Rica are growing new corals to save reefs
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Indonesia’s Gorontalo road runs into forest, swerves environmental checks
- A road project in Indonesia’s Gorontalo carves a path of graft and grief
- NGOs call for alternative routes for Bornean road to avoid wildlife habitat
- Irrigation dams threaten Thailand’s tiger forests, say conservationists
