In Humaitá, a town located on the banks of the Madeira River and on the crossroads of two Amazonian major highways, a local infrastructure project is touted to bring growth and progress. But it fuels fears of deforestation as the agricultural frontier advances.
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Anglo American, eyeing copper on protected indigenous land, failed to consult Amazonian community
British mining giant Anglo American made copper mining research applications on the Sawré Muybu Indigenous Territory, in the Brazilian Amazon, without consulting them.
Amazon’s largest city dumps almost everything in the river
Jeane Moura da Silva, 34, is a member of the third generation of residents of Educandos Creek, in the south end of Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon region. She lives with her three daughters, husband and grandson in the same place where her grandmother was born and raised and where everyone in the […]
Sargassum: Brown Tide Threatens the Caribbean
A decade after the first sargassum blooms were spotted in the South Atlantic, these massive brown mats of macro-algae represent one of the largest ecological threats to the Caribbean, a megadiverse region whose tens of millions of inhabitants heavily depend on tourism and natural resources.
Murky Waters: Amazon Destruction Linked to the Largest Belt of Algae on the Planet
Scientists are examining why banks of sargassum in the Atlantic have proliferated explosively over the past decade, fouling the Caribbean and extending to the coast of Africa. Growing discharges of organic pollutants from the Amazon River are now believed to be a major cause.
Brazil’s isolated tribes in the crosshairs of miners targeting Indigenous lands
Mined Amazon has revealed 1,265 pending requests to mine in 26 Indigenous territories in Brazil that are home to isolated tribes. In 2020, half of the requests filed with the ANM were on lands with isolated tribes. Indigenous groups have filed a lawsuit with Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court against the government, and avert a “real risk of genocide” due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘Do I deserve to die for speaking on behalf of a people?’
Eronilde Fermin is the chief of the Omágua Kambeba in São Paulo de Olivença, in the Brazilian Amazon. The following is an account of the struggle of unequal forces she faces when trying to guarantee indigenous education, medical care during the pandemic, and protection against invaders.
‘Defending the jungle is defending community life,‘ says leader from Ecuadorian Amazon
Rosa Aranda faces two miseries. One in her own body: she was infected by Covid-19. The other is the historical pollution generated by the oil industry, which threatens the territory in which she lives, Piwiri, in the Ecuadorian Amazon forest.
Defenders of the sacred hills
In Vaupés, a department in the Colombian Amazon, indigenous peoples cling to their beliefs to protect themselves from mining. A concession for the exploitation of coltan angers three communities: the leaders are threatened and their right to prior consultation has been violated.
Want to help contain the Amazon crisis? Here some ways
People from all over offering to volunteer and donate to local actions in the Brazilian forest. If you want to help, this is an initial list of NGOs