Future of the 328 forest conservation units in Brazilian Amazon to be determined by Federal Supreme Court – “Brazil is currently experiencing an unprecedented offensive against the conservation units”

[Translation by Google.]16 August 2017 (Imazon) – The future of the 328 Federal Conservation Units (UCs), in addition to hundreds of states, throughout Brazil can be decided this week by the Federal Supreme Court (STF). This Wednesday (16 August 2017), two Direct Actions of Unconstitutionality (ADIs) – 4717 and 3646 – that deal with the […]

China is driving a boom in Brazil mining, but at what cost? “This voracious mining is not just very predatory for the ecosystem, it is economically predatory to the nation. In the long run, it is disastrous.”

By Milton Leal 31 July 2017 (Diálogo Chino) – In the middle of northern Brazil’s Amazon jungle, digging equipment rasps at the bottom of a giant iron ore mine. Here in the municipality of Canaã dos Carajás in the Serra dos Carajás in Brazil’s Pará state, some 1,600 miles northwest of Rio de Janeiro, Chinese […]

Asia’s enigmatic clouded leopard threatened by palm oil plantations

By Sean Mowbray 17 August 2017 (Mongabay) – Tigers and orangutans are the well-known faces of the palm oil crisis. But the enigmatic clouded leopard is equally threatened and almost unknown in comparison. Conservationists are looking at ways to make palm oil plantations work for it, rather than against it. “We know very little about […]

As once-mighty Cauvery River dies, India could be facing its “greatest human catastrophe” ever

By Desmond Ng and Tamal Mukherjee 25 July 2017 INDIA (Channel New Asia) – Much of the once bountiful and lush-green rice fields was reduced to a dry, yellow-brown landscape, after successive years of scanty rainfall and severe drought. For farmer Mr Vijayakumar, 52, the rice crop was his family’s sole source of income. Hit […]

Loss of fertile land fuels looming crisis across Africa – “We are basically reaching the end of the road”

By Jeffery Gettleman 29 July 2017 LAIKIPIA, Kenya (The New York Times) – The two elders, wearing weather-beaten cowboy hats with the strings cinched under their chins, stood at the edge of an empty farm, covering their mouths in disbelief. Their homes — neat wooden cabins — had been smashed open. All their cattle had […]

Global tree cover loss remains high – In 2015, the world lost nearly 20 million hectares of tree cover, an area the size of Uganda

By Mikaela Weisse, Elizabeth Dow Goldman, Nancy Harris, Matt Hansen, Peter Potapov, and Svetlana Turubanova 17 July 2017 (World Resources Institute) – Global Forest Watch released new satellite-based data showing how forests around the world changed in the year 2015. The data, produced through the analysis of roughly a million satellite images by the University […]

2016 saw a record 200 killings of people defending their land, forests, and rivers against destructive industries

13 July 2017 (Global Witness) – It has never been deadlier to take a stand against companies that steal land and destroy the environment. Our new report Defenders of the Earth found that nearly four people were murdered every week in 2016 protecting their land and the natural world from industries like mining, logging and […]

Lake Tanganyika hit by global warming, overfishing, and refugees

16 June 2017 (BBC) – Millions of people rely on Lake Tanganyika for their livelihoods. But the second largest lake in Africa is in crisis. It is suffering from the effects of climate change, over-fishing, and deforestation and has been nominated by the Global Nature Fund as the “most threatened lake of the year”. The […]

Brazil: Increase in number indigenous activists killed as political crisis threatens Amazon – “The situation in the country is deteriorating”

By Joe Sandler Clarke and Sam Cowie 5 June 2017(Energydesk) – There has been a significant increase in the number of indigenous people and environmental activists killed over land disputes in Brazil, as human rights experts warn of a dangerous political mood in the nation. New research shared with Energydesk by Brazilian human rights NGO […]

Brazil’s Temer vetoes opening up Amazon rainforest for development, but changes likely

By Renata Brito 19 June 2017 RIO DE JANEIRO (Associated Press) – President Michel Temer has vetoed legislation that would have reduced the size of Brazil’s protected environmental reserves, most of them in the Amazon region. Temer tweeted the news of his vetoes on Monday in exchanges with supermodel Gisele Bundchen and the World Wildlife […]

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