Bolsonaro draws battle lines in fight over Amazon indigenous lands
As Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro pushes for indigenous assimilation, the Amazon’s Sateré-Mawé people asserts its indigenous identity and land rights.
Environmental headlines
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Not in my backyard: Indonesian official fights corrupt palm concession
JAKARTA — A local official in Indonesia has mounted a non-legal challenge against the national government for permitting the development of a corruption-riddled oil palm concession in his district. Amirudin…
In Indonesia, a paper giant shuffles a litany of land conflicts
JAKARTA — One of the world’s biggest paper producers has left a trail of conflicts in its two-decade pursuit to develop pulpwood plantations on land also claimed by local communities…
Indonesia trains its citizens to deal with sea-mammal strandings
DENPASAR/JAKARTA — In November 2017, when locals spotted 10 sperm whales stranded on a beach on the island of Sumatra, they had no idea what to do. Stuck in shallow…
Bird flu in Namibia’s penguins wanes, after killing nearly 500
For more than three months, penguins living off the coast of Namibia have been battling an outbreak of bird flu. The worst of the disease seems to have passed, but…
Virus may have caused mysterious foot disease in Chile’s rare huemul deer
Between 2005 and 2010, 24 huemul deer in Chile’s Bernardo O’Higgins National Park developed a mysterious foot disease. Their hooves swelled, they limped and appeared to be in pain. In…
Can rice husk briquettes stem the tide of mangrove deforestation in Myanmar?
IRRAWADDY DELTA, Myanmar — For many in Myanmar, Cyclone Nargis was a wake-up call. When it made landfall in May 2008, it devastated the Irrawaddy Delta, a rural and low-lying…
Camera trap study finds a threatened high-elevation mammal community in Peru
Due to their remoteness, the high-altitude tropical forests of the Cerros del Sira, an isolated mountain range in the eastern Andes of central Peru, are known to harbor a diverse…
Less rainforest, less rain: A cautionary tale from Borneo
If you flew over the island of Borneo in 1950, you would see nearly unbroken, untouched forest from one end to the other. Of course, there would be villages and…
Report finds World Bank’s coal divestment pledge not stringent enough
Indonesia provides a litmus test for the World Bank’s commitment to divest from coal, with a recent report revealing its continued indirect financing of some of Indonesia’s most destructive coal-mining…
Video: Meet Indonesia’s go-to expert witness against haze-causing plantation firms
Helping the Indonesian government prosecute companies accused of environmental crimes is a risky job. Last year, Bambang Hero Saharjo, the Indonesian environment ministry’s chief expert witness against plantation companies accused…
Study documents how Sri Lanka’s protected reptiles are traded as pets
A new study has shed light on how rare lizards found only in Sri Lanka are winding up in Europe as part of the illegal trade in exotic wildlife. The…
Community buy-in stamps out elephant poaching in Zambian park
The elephant poaching epidemic continues to tear across the African continent. It’s even reached remote refuges in recent years, like the Luangwa Valley in Zambia, where poaching deaths began surging…
The extinction clock ticks for the little-known Philippine pangolin
PALAWAN, Philippines — In the wilderness of the Philippines’ southwestern island province of Palawan, dubbed the country’s last biodiversity frontier, lives a scaly mammal found nowhere else on Earth: the…
Sage spending to save species (commentary)
Weeks ago, new research uncovered that “the most deadly pathogen known to science” has, conservatively, caused the decline of more than 500 amphibian species, of which 90 are presumed to…
On one island, a microcosm of Vietnam’s environmental challenges
CAT BA ISLAND, Vietnam – While approaching Hai Phong, a major city on Vietnam’s northeast coast, it is impossible to miss signs of the country’s fast-growing economic might. GDP growth…
Peat protection rule may be a double-edged sword for Indonesia’s forests
JAKARTA — A logging prohibition in Indonesia aimed at protecting peatlands threatens a supply crunch for two of the world’s biggest paper producers that could drive them to source wood…
Jane Goodall on Leonardo DiCaprio, her 85th birthday, and the need for hope
To honor Jane Goodall, the City of Los Angeles declared her 85th birthday, April 3, 2019, to be “Dr. Jane Goodall Day” and hosted a ceremony where the conservation icon…
New paper proposes a science-based ‘Global Deal for Nature’
A paper published in Science today outlines a new “Global Deal for Nature,” officially launching an effort to establish science-based conservation targets covering all of planet Earth, including terrestrial, freshwater,…
Cities may save some species from extinction, but they don’t save species’ ecological functions
The responses of wildlife species when their natural habitat is converted into urban areas are many and varied. Urbanization is one of the leading causes of biodiversity loss around the…
