New data reveals 197 land and environmental defenders murdered in 2017, nearly four per week – Agribusiness overtakes mining for most killings

By Jonathan Watts 2 February 2018 (The Guardian) – The slaughter of people defending their land or environment continued unabated in 2017, with new research showing almost four people a week were killed worldwide in struggles against mines, plantations, poachers and infrastructure projects.The toll of 197 in 2017 – which has risen fourfold since it […]

Peru urged to ban oil firms from isolated indigenous peoples’ land

By David Hill 6 October 2017 (The Guardian) – There are more indigenous peoples living in “isolation” in Peru than any country in the world except Brazil. All live in the Amazon – the majority in poorly-protected reserves, or areas where reserves have been proposed but never established, or “protected natural areas” such as national […]

New approach to measuring forest carbon density shows tropics now emit more carbon than they capture

28 September 2017 (WHRC) – A revolutionary new approach to measuring changes in forest carbon density has helped WHRC scientists determine that the tropics now emit more carbon than they capture, countering their role as a net carbon “sink.” The shift from carbon sink to carbon “source” was caused by widespread deforestation, degradation and disturbance, […]

Global warming turns Bolivia village into a ghost town

By Ben Walker 25 August 2017 SANTIAGO K, Bolivia (InsideClimate News) – Someone’s nearly always lived in Santiago K. Cupped in the Bolivian highlands that border Chile, the small village is littered by centuries of conquest and expansion: from the pre-Incas, who ringed the surrounding hills with protective fortresses, to the gold-hungry Spanish conquistadors drawn […]

Peru’s glaciers have made it a laboratory for adapting to global warming. It’s not going well.

By Nick Miroff  7 August 2017 LAKE PALCACOCHA, Peru (The Washington Post) – After a day of bright sunshine, a chunk of ice the size of a dump truck broke off the glacier on Mount Pucaranra a few weeks ago. It plunged into the lake below and kicked up a wave nine feet high. Victor […]

These stunning timelapse photos may just convince you global warming is real

By Chelsea Harvey 3 April 2017 (Washington Post) – Melting glaciers, from Greenland to Antarctica, have become symbols of global warming — and monitoring their retreat is one major way scientists are keeping tabs on the progress of climate change. Now, scientists are trying to bring the issue a little closer to home by using […]

Photo gallery: Floods and landslides across Peru, March 2017

By David Sim24 March 2017 (International Business Times) – At least 84 people have been killed been killed in floods and landslides caused by El Niño storms wreaking havoc across Peru. About half of the country is in a state of emergency to expedite resources to the hardest hit areas, mostly in the north where […]

Failed economic development policies drive deforestation in Andean Amazon

By Mike Gaworecki20 October 2016 (mongabay.com) – Cultivation of coca, the plant from which the drug cocaine is extracted, has long been considered a “deforestation multiplier” in the Andean Amazon rainforests of Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru. For instance, a 2001 report by the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy stated: “Coca cultivation and processing […]

More than 48 children and 61,000 farm animals die in anomalous cold wave in Peruvian Andes – Cold to extend into northern forest

[Translation by Bing Translator.] 4 August 2016 (El Búho) – The situation is worrying in high altitude areas, due to enduring low temperatures. There are 300,000 hectares of natural pastures that have been damaged, which were intended to feed Alpaca livestock in these areas, and 18,735 head of cattle have died as a result of […]

Another Amazon oil spill puts Peruvian communities at risk – ‘We don’t drink river water any more. It gives us diarrhea and stomachaches’

By Barbara Fraser and Milton López Tarabochia26 June 2016 (mongabay.com) – A new oil spill from the pipeline that carries crude oil from the northern Peruvian Amazon across the Andes Mountains to the Pacific coast has raised fears of yet more pollution of the water and fish on which indigenous villages and riverside communities depend. […]

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