InfoAmazonia visited location where illegal mercury is sold along the border between Bolivia and Brazil, for illegal use by wildcat gold mining operations in Amazonia. After the Minamata Convention, Bolivia became the world’s largest mercury importer and it is estimated that half of the metal is sold as contraband to neighboring countries including Brazil, which has eliminated its legal mercury imports.
Category: Brazil
The challenges Lula will face to eradicate illegal deforestation in Amazonia by 2028
Specialists focus on the difficulties the new 2023 administration faces to reach the goal promised by the Bolsonaro administration at COP26 last year. Escalating deforestation rates could keep Brazil from carrying out its promise.
Protected areas absorb 27% of greenhouse gas emissions in Amazonia
A Brazilian Climate Observatory study found that the dense vegetation in the states of Amazonas and Amapá, regions whose territories are more than half composed of Conservation Units and Indigenous Territories, was able to remove all the CO2e that had been released to their atmosphere in 2021.
Four years of Bolsonaro’s Amazon destruction, in satellite imagery
Deforestation in the Amazon has spiraled out of control during Jair Bolsonaro’s as president. InfoAmazonia and PlenaMata have illustrated the destruction using satellite imagery.
Pro-environment bloc in the Chamber shrinks by 20%, but gains heavyweight names
Brazilians elect 81 federal deputies committed to the environmental cause, 20 fewer than in the current legislature. Former environment minister Marina Silva and indigenous leader Sônia Guajajara promise to heat up debates on the issue in Brasília.
Deforestation in the Amazon in the month of July increases by 160% during the past three years of the Bolsonaro administration
An area the size of the city of São Paulo was deforested in the Amazon in July 2022 alone. Pará state leads the monthly ranking; however, the cumulative total for the year shows Amazonas state in the lead for the first time. Estimates suggest that the annual rate of deforestation in the biome will be the highest since 2006.
Luciana Gatti: ‘We are wrecking our rain-making factory’
A scientist at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, with almost two decades’ research on the Amazon for, has carried out a ground-breaking analysis of how deforestation puts agricultural production at risk and turns Brazil into a driver of climate change.
A legacy of broken promises
Lindaura Cariajano Chuje scrambled up the riverbank and strode into the forest, following a path only she could see. A step ahead of her, a young man with a machete cleared the way as she gave instructions: A little to the left, a bit to the right, now straight ahead. It was a muggy morning […]
Study reveals how Illegal cattle from Brazilian indigenous land goes to the shelves of French supermarket chain
A French court received new complaints in a groundbreaking lawsuit that investigates Casino Group for selling meat from indigenous lands. Organizations have traced herds from the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau Indigenous land in Brazil and calculated compensation for social, cultural, and health damages
From mining to fish: how mercury contaminates the Munduruku Indigenous community
Carnivorous fish are among the most consumed by the Munduruku and the most contaminated by mercury. Scientists suspect the toxic metal, found in the bodies of the members of this indigenous community is seriously affecting the health of adults and children who are born with malformations and developmental delays. Munduruku women already avoid getting pregnant.