Cacao and cupuaçu emerge as Amazon’s bioeconomy showcases
A handful of pioneering Amazonian chocolatiers are promoting keeping the rainforest standing by taking advantage of two forest products: cacao and cupuaçu.
Articles by Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown is a freelance journalist with a passion for the environment, sustainability and travel. Her work has been featured in the Evening Standard, Atlas Obscura and World Travel Magazine, among others. Follow her on Twitter via @BrSarahTr.
New online map tracks threats to uncontacted Indigenous peoples in Brazil’s Amazon
RIO DE JANEIRO — Monitoring the threats that uncontacted traditional peoples face in the Brazilian Amazon is set to become easier for Indigenous rights activists and agencies, thanks to a…
Brazil Supreme Court quashes time frame proposal in win for Indigenous rights
Brazil’s Supreme Court voted against the highly controversial time frame proposal, a legal challenge that would have stripped Indigenous rights and opened up traditional territories to mining and agribusiness.
‘We don’t have much time’: Q&A with climate scientist Pierre Friedlingstein
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Brazil cap-and-trade carbon framework in sight, but agriculture gets a pass
Brazil’s Senate is expected to vote this month on a bill introducing a cap-and-trade carbon market aimed at regulating industry emissions.
A tale of two biomes as deforestation surges in Cerrado but wanes in Amazon
Brazil has managed to bring down spiraling rates of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest in the first half of this year, but the neighboring Cerrado savanna has seen a wave of environmental destruction during the same period.
Amazon Summit nations agree on saving rainforest — but not on conservation goals
Environmental organizations lament the lack of consensus over zero-deforestation targets among the nations and criticize the failure to mention fossil fuel exploration in the declaration.
Amazon Summit sparks hope for coordinated efforts from the rainforest nations
From Aug. 7-9, eight Amazonian nations will meet in Brazil hoping to agree on future joint strategies that will protect the rainforest while sustainably developing the region.
Sweet solution: Armadillo-friendly honey helps Brazil beekeepers, giant armadillos
One NGO promotes coexistence between beekeepers and giant armadillos by certifying beekeepers who use mitigation measures to prevent attacks on beehives, allowing them to sell armadillo-friendly honey at a higher price.
A standing Amazon Rainforest could create an $8 billion bioeconomy: Study
It will take an investment of more than $500 billion by 2050 to implement a new economy, but the costs of not doing this “could be much higher,” say the study authors.
As one Brazilian state takes up carbon trading, others may fall for the ‘illusion’
A recent agreement will allow the Brazilian state of Tocantins to sell carbon credits to Swiss oil-trading company Mercuria.
No new mining operations on Yanomami land after raids and deaths
The alerts of illegal mining in the Yanomami Indigenous Land have zeroed for the first time since 2020, according to satellite monitoring by the Brazilian Federal Police.
A mega-highway threatens South America’s vulnerable Gran Chaco
The Gran Chaco, South America’s second-largest forest after the Amazon, has been steadily replaced by croplands and cattle ranches for decades. Now, the semiarid lowland faces a new threat: the…
World Bank: Brazil faces $317 billion in annual losses to Amazon deforestation
The value is seven times higher than profits from commodities taken from the rainforest, the report concludes.
Amazon Rainforest loss could reach new height in just 5 years, study says
Within just five years, the Amazon Rainforest could lose half the total forest cover that it lost in the first 20 years of this century, a recent study has shown,…
Mouth of the Amazon oil exploration clashes with Lula’s climate promises
State-owned Petrobras has requested a license to investigate an oil site in a region in the north of Brazil where the Amazon River meets the Atlantic Ocean.
‘I’ll keep fighting’: Indigenous activist and Goldman winner Alessandra Munduruku
In an interview with Mongabay, Alessandra discusses what the prize means to her, the policy changes in Brazil, and the current crisis in the Munduruku territory.
New zipline on Rio’s Sugarloaf raises outcry from conservationists
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — With boundless ocean views to one side and urban sprawl to the other, the Sugarloaf has long been one of Rio de Janeiro’s most iconic…
Report sums up Bolsonaro’s destruction legacy and Amazon’s next critical steps
After four years of environmental destruction, Brazil has reached a crossroads that will determine the fate of its biomes and its role in the global climate crisis. In its first…
Make it local: Deforestation link to less Amazon rainfall tips activism shift
Scientists and activists have tirelessly campaigned for the protection of forests to mitigate rising global temperatures and preserve humanity’s future. For some local Amazonian communities, who depend on logging, mining…
Restoration turns pastures into wildlife haven in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest
CACHOEIRAS DE MACACU, Brazil — Gesturing across the still, green water reflecting the backdrop of forest-clad mountains, Nicholas Locke told of the time when this flourishing wetland was once a…
Lula wants to mirror Amazon’s lessons in all biomes, but challenges await
Between 2004 and 2012, Brazil was able to slash deforestation by nearly 84% with a series of policies known as PPCDAm, a major instrument in reducing environmental destruction in the…
US pledges Amazon Fund donation, renewing hope for the rainforest
The revival of the Amazon Fund at the start of this year was considered a major victory for the protection of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest after former President Jair Bolsonaro…
Yanomami health disaster prompts outrage as Lula vows to tackle crisis
At least 570 Indigenous Yanomami infants have died over the past four years from treatable diseases such as diarrhea and malaria, an average of three every week, highlighting the ongoing…
Ecotourism and education: Win-win solution for Pantanal jaguars and ranchers
Examining the torn remains of a calf, Paul Raad saw evidence of a jaguar attack. Most big cats grip the throat to bring down their prey, but jaguars prefer to…
Series of small dams pose big cumulative risk to Amazon’s fish and people
Large hydropower dams that obstruct the Amazon basin have long come under fire for their environmental and cultural impact — Belo Monte being the most prominent example. Yet a bigger…
Amazon’s tallest tree at risk as deforestation nears
The protected swathes of primary Amazon Rainforest in the Paru State Forest in the north of Brazil became the fifth-most deforested conservation unit in October, official data show. Illegal land-grabbing…
Delayed Indigenous ‘Man of the Hole’ burial reveals dispute over his land
For 26 years, the last member of the Tanaru people resisted contact and lived alone in his protected land in the Brazilian state of Rondônia. Ranchers and miners had massacred…
Growing soy on cattle pasture can eliminate Amazon deforestation in Brazil
Soy cultivation and cattle ranching are two of the biggest drivers of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. But instead of clearing more forest area for farmland, what if soy was…
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