The Brooklyn Bridge needs a makeover. Is rainforest lumber still in style?
PETÉN, Guatemala — Once or twice a year, a jaguar visits Uaxactun at night. It slinks under the great stone pyramids built by the ancient Mayans and past the moonlit…
Mongabay series: Latin America
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.
‘Throw them overboard’: Brazil mine disaster victims bullied over compensation
“I’m the one who called the meeting; I’m going to set the tone,” says Viviane Aguiar, a lawyer representing the Renova Foundation, interrupting Valeriana Gomes de Souza, a cattle farmer…
Extinct in the wild, a Brazilian bird makes a tentative return to the jungle
Extinct in its habitat for at least three decades, the Alagoas curassow (Pauxi mitu) is now back in the jungle and facing a test of survival, thanks to the joint efforts of more than a dozen institutions to pull this pheasant-like bird back from the brink.
Brazil investigates agribusiness bribes to judges for favorable land rulings
Listed by Brazil’s National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) as one of the largest cases of land grabbing in Brazil, the Condomínio Cachoeira do Estrondo Agribusiness venture occupies…
Indigenous group scores legal victory as dam floods their lands
A brief legal battle related to the Barro Blanco hydroelectric project in western Panama concluded late last month in a rare triumph for the impacted indigenous communities who have opposed…
Violence against indigenous people high, as land conflicts heat up
In August 2015, about a thousand Guarani-Kaiowá indigenous people invaded nine farms in the southern part of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul as part of a plan for…
Barro Blanco dam in limbo after Ngäbe-Bugle Congress rejects agreement
he fate of the contentious Barro Blanco dam in western Panama remains uncertain after the Ngäbe-Bugle General Congress voted down a month-old agreement reached between the country’s President and Silvia…
Deficient water systems, poor sanitation driving Zika in Brazil
aria Josefa de Oliveira stands in the doorway of her home in the Imbiribeira neighborhood of Recife — a city of 3.7 million in northeast Brazil. The bars on the…
Rio Olympic organizers fail to meet all environmental goals
hen Rio de Janeiro won the bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games — set to begin on August 5th — the Brazilian government committed itself to cleaning up…
Samarco chief faces criminal investigation over collapsed Brazil dam
razilian prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into alleged environmental crimes by Roberto Carvalho, the chief executive of Samarco, the firm held responsible for the country’s largest-ever environmental disaster. Samarco’s…
Nicaragua Canal would threaten endangered species says study
planned trans-oceanic canal in Nicaragua could spell disaster for jaguars and other large mammals, according to a new study by researchers at Panthera, Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC) and Michigan State…
Lake Maracaibo: an oil development sacrifice zone dying from neglect
n July 1914 oil drilling activities were formally initiated in the state of Zulia, in western Venezuela, with the opening of the historic Zumaque I oil well on the east…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Mennonite colony builds bridge, clears forest in Bolivian protected areas
- Satellites show deforestation surging in Indonesia’s Tesso Nilo National Park
- Large-scale logging in Cambodia’s Prey Lang linked to politically-connected mining operation
- Pasture replaces large tract of intact primary forest in Brazilian protected area
Oceans
- A year before deep-sea mining could begin, calls for a moratorium build
- WTO ban on ‘harmful’ subsidies won’t impact small-scale fishers, Indonesia says
- Experts fear end of vaquitas after green light for export of captive-bred totoaba fish
- Nickel, Tesla and two decades of environmental activism: Q&A with leader Raphaël Mapou
Amazon Conservation
- Swiss pledge to stop illegal gold imports from Brazil Indigenous reserves
- At 30, Brazil’s Yanomami reserve is beset by mining, malaria and mercury
- Pasture replaces large tract of intact primary forest in Brazilian protected area
- Ecuador’s Pastaza province, Indigenous groups collaborate on forest conservation
Land rights and extractives
- Coal mining threatens Ethiopia’s ancient coffee forest
- Proposed copper and gold mine threatens the world’s ‘second Amazon’ in PNG
- In Indonesian Borneo, a succession of extractive industries multiplies impacts, social fractures
- Illegal mining threatens one of the last forest links between the Andes and Ecuador’s Amazon
Endangered Environmentalists
- A look at violence and conflict over Indigenous lands in nine Latin American countries
- Citizen participation: a key achievement at the first COP to the Escazú Agreement
- “We are on the front line”: Q&A with Indigenous land defender Adiela Jineth Mera Paz
- Death threats and friction with military force Guatemalan rangers to flee
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
- In prioritizing conservation, animal culture should be a factor, study says
- Young forests can help heal tropical aquatic ecosystems: Study
- How sharing and learning from failures can transform conservation (commentary)
- Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- In Laos, a ‘very dangerous dam’ threatens an ancient world heritage site
- Bali’s new highway project sparks concerns about agriculture and conservation areas
- Deforestation notches up along logging roads on PNG’s New Britain Island
- Plantations and roads strip away Papua’s forests. They’re just getting started
