https://news.mongabay.com/list/amazon/ Environmental science and conservation news Fri, 17 Nov 2023 04:37:44 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.2 https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png https://news.mongabay.com/list/amazon/ 32 32 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/why-has-deforestation-reached-record-levels-in-bolivia-commentary/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/why-has-deforestation-reached-record-levels-in-bolivia-commentary/#respond 15 Nov 2023 22:38:58 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275483 - Last year for example, Bolivia lost more primary forest than any previous year on record, almost double the amount during the Morales presidency.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/why-has-deforestation-reached-record-levels-in-bolivia-commentary/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/how-the-u-s-financial-system-props-up-illegal-logging-and-mining/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/how-the-u-s-financial-system-props-up-illegal-logging-and-mining/#respond 14 Nov 2023 16:09:54 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275406 - The FACT Coalition, a group advocating for a fair tax system in the U.S., recently made the case that more attention needs to be paid to “financial secrecy” in conservation circles fighting climate change, deforestation and pollution.
- Weak regulation of shell companies, financial institutions and the real estate market make it too easy for environmental criminal activity to hide illicit funds in the U.S., the coalition said.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/how-the-u-s-financial-system-props-up-illegal-logging-and-mining/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/shell-affiliate-accused-of-violating-indigenous-rights-in-carbon-credit-contracts/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/shell-affiliate-accused-of-violating-indigenous-rights-in-carbon-credit-contracts/#respond 14 Nov 2023 14:42:29 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275364 - The company attempted to double its forest area with six projects on Indigenous lands to offset the emissions of large global polluters.
- At the Alto Rio Guamá Indigenous Territory in the state of Pará, Indigenous people allege that the carbon credit-generating company pressed communities to sign blank sheets of paper; Funai’s legal office received an offer of 50 million reais ($10.1 million) in advance for the signatures of Kayapó communities.
- Negotiations were led by a former Lava-Jato prosecutor who had also worked for Indigenous causes; after Indigenous rights violations were reported, Carbonext requested that the contracts be annulled; the Federal Prosecutor’s Office says the company may be investigated for possible damage and violations to the Indigenous communities involved.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/shell-affiliate-accused-of-violating-indigenous-rights-in-carbon-credit-contracts/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/deforestation-in-the-brazilian-amazon-falls-22-in-2023/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/deforestation-in-the-brazilian-amazon-falls-22-in-2023/#respond 11 Nov 2023 00:21:47 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275286 - INPE’s analysis of satellite imagery found that forest clearing in the Brazilian Amazon totaled 9,001 square kilometers, an area approximately the size of Puerto Rico.
- INPE’s estimate is preliminary. Final data for the “deforestation year” is expected to come out in the second quarter of 2024.
- Nevertheless, the data is seen as a sign that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s efforts to curb deforestation is having an effect after a period of rising forest loss under Jair Bolsonaro.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/deforestation-in-the-brazilian-amazon-falls-22-in-2023/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/study-links-pesticides-to-child-cancer-deaths-in-brazilian-amazon-cerrado/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/study-links-pesticides-to-child-cancer-deaths-in-brazilian-amazon-cerrado/#respond 10 Nov 2023 17:30:06 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275270 - The researchers estimate that 123 childhood deaths during the 2008-19 period are associated with exposure to pesticides from the soy fields, amounting to half the deaths of children under 10 from lymphoblastic leukemia in the region.
- Experts say that the research is just the tip of the iceberg, and many other diseases and deaths may be associated with chemicals used in crops; further studies are needed.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/study-links-pesticides-to-child-cancer-deaths-in-brazilian-amazon-cerrado/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/amazon-deforestation-has-a-regional-not-just-local-impact-study/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/amazon-deforestation-has-a-regional-not-just-local-impact-study/#respond 10 Nov 2023 08:00:46 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275189 - Researchers analyzed satellite readings of surface temperatures at 3.7 million different data points across the Amazon where forest loss had occurred between 2001 and 2020.
- They found that localized deforestation had a strong impact on regional warming.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/amazon-deforestation-has-a-regional-not-just-local-impact-study/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/amazon-women-create-sweet-business-success-with-wild-vitamin-c-packed-fruit/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/amazon-women-create-sweet-business-success-with-wild-vitamin-c-packed-fruit/#respond 09 Nov 2023 16:12:39 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275215 - The business has been able to produce four to 14 tons of fruit pulp per year for sale around the country, while sustainably managing the plant species’ population.
- The women played a pioneering role in Colombia by showing that non-timber forest resources could be used to generate income in areas of protected rainforest.
- The sustainable use of such resources has become a successful conservation strategy that has received praise from scientific institutes and environmental authorities.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/amazon-women-create-sweet-business-success-with-wild-vitamin-c-packed-fruit/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/can-digital-twins-help-save-the-amazon-commentary/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/can-digital-twins-help-save-the-amazon-commentary/#respond 02 Nov 2023 18:51:03 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274957 - Considering the degree of threat facing the Amazon and its global importance, it is critical to develop better methods for monitoring and comprehending this ecosystem.
- Carlo Ratti, the director of MIT’s Senseable City Lab, and Robert Muggah, the co-founder of the Igarapé Institute, argue that creating a “digital twin” of the Amazonian ecosystem could potentially serve as a means to aid its preservation while fostering a regional bioeconomy.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/can-digital-twins-help-save-the-amazon-commentary/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/amazon-drought-much-damage-still-to-come-commentary/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/amazon-drought-much-damage-still-to-come-commentary/#respond 01 Nov 2023 07:00:32 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274890 - Together, these drought conditions extend to almost the entire Amazon, and they are expected to last until at least mid-2024.
- These phenomena are all aggravated by global warming.
- This is a commentary and does not necessarily reflect the views of Mongabay. It is an updated translation of a text by the authors that is available in Portuguese on Amazônia Real.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/amazon-drought-much-damage-still-to-come-commentary/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/amazon-recovery-offers-hope-of-big-rewards-but-poses-equally-big-challenges/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/amazon-recovery-offers-hope-of-big-rewards-but-poses-equally-big-challenges/#respond 31 Oct 2023 18:31:46 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274870 - Reforestation pledges have promised to replant more than 12 million hectares (30 million acres) in the coming decade.
- Carbon credit enthusiasts say they believe the market could inject billions into the region and pay for reforestation.
- Experts are skeptical that either of these plans would work at the scale needed, as landowners often see value in clearing the forest.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/amazon-recovery-offers-hope-of-big-rewards-but-poses-equally-big-challenges/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/people-and-nature-suffer-as-historic-drought-fuels-calamitous-amazon-fires/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/people-and-nature-suffer-as-historic-drought-fuels-calamitous-amazon-fires/#respond 24 Oct 2023 20:49:36 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274610 - Surrounded by fires, Manaus, the state capital, has been shrouded in a thick layer of smoke, increasing the number of medical emergencies for respiratory problems.
- Researchers writing in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution say fires have become the main factor in the degradation of the Brazilian Amazon, threatening to undo the results of environmental protection policies.
- Water levels in the Solimões, Negro, Madeira and other great Amazonian rivers have dropped to unprecedented levels, forcing families to live on boats and drag themselves through the mud in search of water and food.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/people-and-nature-suffer-as-historic-drought-fuels-calamitous-amazon-fires/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/lula-blocks-time-frame-bill-new-clashes-with-congress-in-sight/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/lula-blocks-time-frame-bill-new-clashes-with-congress-in-sight/#respond 24 Oct 2023 17:12:30 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274602 - While some Indigenous activists lament that the bill wasn’t fully rejected, many hail the partial veto as a win for human rights and the protection of the Constitution.
- The vetoed bill now returns to Congress, where Lula’s decision will be upheld or rejected; if rejected, the time frame bill will be enacted, in a major blow to Indigenous rights and environmental protection, experts say.
- The veto sparked outrage among Brazil’s powerful rural lobby, which vowed to reject Lula’s changes to the bill, although any decision made in Congress can be challenged in the Supreme Court.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/lula-blocks-time-frame-bill-new-clashes-with-congress-in-sight/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/new-satellite-readings-show-full-extent-of-mining-in-the-amazon-rainforest/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/new-satellite-readings-show-full-extent-of-mining-in-the-amazon-rainforest/#respond 24 Oct 2023 16:48:58 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274557 - The map show 58 instances of illegal mining in virtually every Amazonian country (Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana), 49 of them illegal.
- The map also shows that there were 36 instances of mining activity overlapping with a protected area or Indigenous territory.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/new-satellite-readings-show-full-extent-of-mining-in-the-amazon-rainforest/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/the-amazons-archaeology-of-hope-qa-with-anthropologist-michael-heckenberger/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/the-amazons-archaeology-of-hope-qa-with-anthropologist-michael-heckenberger/#respond 18 Oct 2023 07:00:50 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274170 - In this interview for Mongabay, he tells how he and his colleagues have been practicing an “archeology of hope” — helping the Indigenous peoples in the region to prepare for climate change, using ancestral knowledge pulled out from archaeological research.
- “It should be the default, not the exception, to assume that there were Indigenous people living or dwelling in some way on almost every inch of Brazilian land,” he says about the marco temporal thesis, which aims to limit new Indigenous territories, now being discussed in Brazilian Congress.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/the-amazons-archaeology-of-hope-qa-with-anthropologist-michael-heckenberger/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/fishing-ban-extension-raises-hopes-for-iconic-amazon-pink-river-dolphin/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/fishing-ban-extension-raises-hopes-for-iconic-amazon-pink-river-dolphin/#respond 16 Oct 2023 07:00:29 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274034 - Even though the dolphin isn’t fished for human consumption, it’s become endangered over the decades because fishers use its flesh as bait for catching piracatinga catfish.
- The Brazilian government earlier this year renewed a moratorium on fishing of piracatinga, first imposed in 2014, in the hope of saving the dolphin, but experts say fishers have just been ignoring the rule.
- The measure became even more relevant in October following the detection of more than 100 dead dolphins in an Amazon lake — experts suspect that the deaths are directly linked to the extreme drought affecting the region.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/fishing-ban-extension-raises-hopes-for-iconic-amazon-pink-river-dolphin/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/despite-severe-drought-amazon-deforestation-continues-to-slow/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/despite-severe-drought-amazon-deforestation-continues-to-slow/#respond 13 Oct 2023 23:41:47 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274294 - INPE’s near-real-time deforestation monitoring system, DETER, detected 629 square kilometers of forest clearing in September, a 57% drop from last September.
- This decline in forest loss has occurred despite a severe drought that is affecting vast swathes of the Brazilian Amazon, drying up rivers and worsening the spread of agricultural fires.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/despite-severe-drought-amazon-deforestation-continues-to-slow/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/brazil-strikes-intruders-of-amazons-most-deforested-indigenous-land/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/brazil-strikes-intruders-of-amazons-most-deforested-indigenous-land/#respond 11 Oct 2023 18:32:58 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274220 - Human rights activists praise the move as Indigenous communities within these lands continue to struggle against soaring levels of deforestation and decades-old conflicts with outsiders.
- Insiders say that federal agencies are temporarily relocating Indigenous people to villages far from invader settlements to ensure their safety.
- The Parakanã people from the Apyterewa Territory lament that local authorities in Pará are rallying in Brazil’s capital Brasília to suspend operations and allow the illegal invaders to remain on the land.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/brazil-strikes-intruders-of-amazons-most-deforested-indigenous-land/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/cacao-and-cupuacu-emerge-as-amazons-bioeconomy-showcases/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/cacao-and-cupuacu-emerge-as-amazons-bioeconomy-showcases/#respond 04 Oct 2023 07:00:56 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273763 - Selling high-end chocolate made from both of these closely related pods increases the value of the products and also allows local communities to earn higher incomes, thereby giving them an incentive not to deforest.
- Portable biofactories are also set to teach traditional communities how to make bean-to-bar premium chocolate products, helping to increase the value of the raw cacao by up to 2,000%.
- These projects are part of an emerging bioeconomy in the Amazonian region, which experts say will keep the rainforest standing while also lifting the region’s population out of poverty.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/cacao-and-cupuacu-emerge-as-amazons-bioeconomy-showcases/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/amazon-drought-cuts-river-traffic-leaves-communities-without-water-and-supplies/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/amazon-drought-cuts-river-traffic-leaves-communities-without-water-and-supplies/#respond 03 Oct 2023 18:35:33 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273834 - This year’s drought is exacerbated by two simultaneous natural events, the main one being El Niño, that inhibit the formation of rain clouds, further reducing the already low rainfall recorded during the dry season.
- More than 100 Amazonian river dolphins were found dead in a lake in Amazonas state, likely due to high water temperatures and low water levels, according to researchers.
- The state of Amazonas is preparing for the worst drought in its history, which will affect 500,000 people by the end of October; the federal government has created a task force to mitigate the impacts, promising to send water, food and medicine.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/amazon-drought-cuts-river-traffic-leaves-communities-without-water-and-supplies/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/new-online-map-tracks-threats-to-brazilian-amazons-uncontacted-indigenous-peoples/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/new-online-map-tracks-threats-to-brazilian-amazons-uncontacted-indigenous-peoples/#respond 27 Sep 2023 15:02:52 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273644 - The exact location of uncontacted communities is deliberately displaced on the map to avoid any subsequent attacks against them from those who engage in illegal activity in or near their territories.
- The tool can help Indigenous agencies deploy more effective protective actions to fend off threats such as diseases and environmental destruction, which can wipe out vulnerable populations.
- Activists hope the platform will help create a vulnerability index that ranks uncontacted populations according to the severity of threats against them, which can promote stronger public policies.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/new-online-map-tracks-threats-to-brazilian-amazons-uncontacted-indigenous-peoples/feed/ 0