Latin America News

Female Indigenous guardians. Image by Brandi Morin.

Indigenous guardians successfully keep extractives out of Ecuador’s Amazon forests

Brandi Morin 22 Oct 2025

Achiote trees in a Kwicha community in Pastaza province

Ecuador’s Pastaza province, Indigenous groups collaborate on forest conservation

Dimitri Selibas 11 Apr 2022

Sabino Gualinga, Amazon shaman and defender of the ‘living forest,’ passes away

Kimberley Brown 23 Feb 2022

Q'eqchi ownership of the land.

Indigenous community takes Guatemalan land rights fight to international court

Sandra Cuffe 9 Feb 2022

Politicized Indigenous affairs agency puts Brazil’s uncontacted groups at risk

Shanna Hanbury 9 Feb 2022

Waorani women

Ecuador’s top court rules for stronger land rights for Indigenous communities

Kimberley Brown 9 Feb 2022

Sixty of one, half a dozen of the other: Rare magnolias get a new start in Ecuador’s Chocó

Liz Kimbrough, Maxwell Radwin 31 Jan 2022

Death threats and friction with military force Guatemalan rangers to flee

Maxwell Radwin 20 Dec 2021

French deforestation database pressures Brazilian soy traders to clean up supply chain

Maxwell Radwin 14 Dec 2021

In southern Colombia, Indigenous groups fish and farm with the floods

Maxwell Radwin 8 Dec 2021

Indigenous community saves Colombia’s poison dart frog from coca and logging

Maxwell Radwin 30 Nov 2021

Venezuelans hit by cooking gas shortages look to forests for firewood

Maxwell Radwin 24 Nov 2021

In Mexico City’s urban sprawl, an unexpected illegal logging network thrives

Maxwell Radwin 5 Nov 2021

Deforestation from cattle ranching also hurts rivers in Nicaragua, study says

Maxwell Radwin 22 Oct 2021

Paraguay failed to stop soy farms from poisoning Indigenous land, UN says

Maxwell Radwin 21 Oct 2021

Environmental defenders in Nicaragua denounce government crackdown as elections loom

Maxwell Radwin 13 Oct 2021

Half of burned forests across Latin America don’t survive, study finds

Nicolás Bustamante Hernández 20 Aug 2021

Hotter and drier: Deforestation and wildfires take a toll on the Amazon

Ignacio Amigo 20 Jul 2021

Brazil prosecutors seek ban on all gold mining in hard-hit Amazonian region

Fernanda Wenzel 16 Jul 2021

Environmental defenders in Ecuador aren’t safe, new report shows

Kimberley Brown 9 Jul 2021

Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge needs a makeover. Is rainforest lumber still in style?

Ashoka Mukpo 8 Jul 2021

Exhibition showcases Claudia Andujar’s half-century fight for the Yanomami

Sue Branford 24 Jun 2021

‘Throw them overboard’: Brazil mine disaster victims bullied over compensation

Alice Maciel 6 May 2021

Extinct in the wild, a Brazilian bird makes a tentative return to the jungle

Pedro Biondi 2 Dec 2019

Brazil investigates agribusiness bribes to judges for favorable land rulings

Maurício Angelo 27 Nov 2019

Manolo Miranda, an indigenous leader recently acquitted of charges in a suit brought by the Barro Blanco dam's construction company, at a protest over the dam in August, 2016. Photo by Camilo Mejia Geraldo for Mongabay.

Indigenous group scores legal victory as dam floods their lands

Camilo Mejia Giraldo 12 Oct 2017

Violence against indigenous people high, as land conflicts heat up

Carolina Torres 18 Oct 2016

Barro Blanco dam in limbo after Ngäbe-Bugle Congress rejects agreement

Camilo Mejia Giraldo 14 Oct 2016

Deficient water systems, poor sanitation driving Zika in Brazil

Zoe Sullivan 29 Jul 2016

Rio Olympic organizers fail to meet all environmental goals

Jenny Gonzales 28 Jul 2016

Samarco chief faces criminal investigation over collapsed Brazil dam

Zoe Sullivan 27 Jul 2016

Nicaragua Canal would threaten endangered species says study

Lindsay Fendt 9 May 2016

Lake Maracaibo: an oil development sacrifice zone dying from neglect

Jeanfreddy Gutiérrez Torres 3 May 2016

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In the cloud forests of Brava, Cabo Verde, community youth bend over thorny shrubs, pulling out these invasive plants that choke the native orchids and grasslands. Not far away, herders guide their cattle through cleared pastures, benefiting directly from the restoration work. These community members are inspired by an initiative that commenced thousands of kilometers away in India, where villagers and conservationists are wrestling with Lantana camara, an ornamental plant from Central America that has spread like wildfire, threatening forests, wildlife, and livelihoods alike. Yet in both places, these struggles are not just about removing a plant—they are about securing a future where people and ecosystems can coexist. Image courtesy of the author.

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