More than 140,000 hectares (346,000 acres) of primary forest in the Venezuelan Amazon were lost between 2016 and 2020, deforestation that was driven by illegal mining, agricultural expansion, and fires. This is according to a report generated using extremely high-resolution satellite images and published by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP). This significant […]
Tag: amazon deforestation
WWF’s first jaguar collaring mission reveals flourishing population on Amazonian island
WWF has collaborated with partners to successfully tag three wild jaguars with special collars, allowing scientists to better monitor and understand the behaviour of this iconic species. The mission, part-funded by WWF-UK and undertaken by WWF-Brazil, theInstituto Onça-PintadaandInstituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade, took place on a protected Amazonian island off the coast of […]
Why I support the California Tropical Forest Standard (commentary)
The Amazon is a rich, beautiful, and magical place. I’ve visited this vast region on several occasions to learn about the indigenous communities who live there and protect it, and to raise awareness of their struggle, as part of the organization I co-founded, REVERB. The indigenous leaders I met told me how deeply they depend […]
Former Brazilian enviro ministers blast Bolsonaro environmental assaults
Eight former Brazilian environment ministers launched a manifesto in São Paulo on 8 May in which they fiercely criticized President Jair Bolsonaro’s environmental policies. In an unusual move, they condemned the administration for “a series of unprecedented actions that are destroying the capacity of the environment ministry to formulate and carry out public policies” and […]
Bird extravaganza: scientists discover 15 new species of birds in the Amazon
From 2000-2009, scientists described on average seven new bird species worldwide every year. Discovering a new bird is one of the least common of any species group, given that birds are highly visible, mobile, and have been scrutinized for centuries by passionate ornithologists and birders. But descriptions this year already blows away the record year […]