Environmental governance in the Amazon
The Pan Amazon nations have constitutions that were reformed or rewritten in the last decades of the twentieth century. Previous versions either ignored nature or incorporated a simple clause assigning…
Articles by Timothy J. Killeen
Environmental policy and action on the ground in the Amazon
From the outset, academics realised that the development programmes being deployed across the Amazon in the 1960s and 1970s would bring irreversible harm. Attempts to promote conservation were a natural…
Climate change and moisture recycling in the Amazon
Starting in the 1990s, ecosystem ecologists and atmospheric scientists in the Brazilian space agency embarked on a sophisticated collaboration with NASA and other international research institutions; their goal was to…
Forest ecology and carbon dynamics in the Amazon
A tropical rainforest is composed of thousands of species of long-lived trees, each with a natural history characterized by unique morphological, physiological and reproductive attributes. Very little was known about…
The natural history of the Amazon Rainforest
In the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries, scientists affiliated with institutions in the Northern Hemisphere organized most expeditions into the Amazon. These botanists, zoologists and anthropologists were…
Understanding the conventional economy of the Pan Amazon
The economies of nations are traditionally evaluated by their gross domestic product (GDP), a metric that measures the total economic output of a nation. The GDP of the Pan Amazon…
The political economy of the Pan Amazon
Politics is idiosyncratic to each country, but trends in economic policies span borders. The political economy of the Pan Amazon is the legacy of strategic development plans that began in…
The geography of environmental degradation in the Amazon
The Pan Amazon spans approximately 825 million hectares, of which approximately ninety million hectares have been lost to deforestation; this corresponds to ~13% of the original forest cover. At first…
Drivers of environmental degradation in the Amazon
Why do people clear forest? To anybody who has lived on the forest frontier, the answer is as simple as it is obvious: it is essential to the livelihoods of…
The state of the Amazon: Chapter 1 of “A Perfect Storm”
The Amazon, home to the largest tropical forest on the planet, is an irreplaceable natural asset with enormous biodiversity and a critically important component in global carbon and water cycles.…
Forest declarations are nice, but profitability determines land use in the Amazon (Book excerpt)
Editor’s note: Tim Killeen provides an update on the state of the Amazon in his new book “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon Wilderness – Success and Failure in the Fight…
New transport infrastructure is opening the Amazon to global commerce
Editor’s note: Tim Killeen provides an update on the state of the Amazon in his new book “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon Wilderness – Success and Failure in the Fight…
The political economy of the Pan-Amazon (book excerpt)
Editor's note: Tim Killeen provides an update on the state of the Amazon in his new book “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon Wilderness – Success and Failure in the…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Cut down once again: Uncontrolled logging puts new Sahel reforestation projects at risk
- VIDEO: The truth about Cambodia’s Prey Lang sanctuary | Chasing Deforestation
- New concession in Botum Sakor National Park handed to Cambodia’s Royal Group
- Elephants invade as habitat loss soars in Nigerian forest reserve
Oceans
- Indonesian village forms coast guard to protect octopus in Mentawai Islands
- From rat-ridden to reserve, Redonda is an island restoration role model
- Seventy-plus nations sign historic high seas treaty, paving way for ratification
- First Nation and scientists partner to revive climate-saving eelgrass
Amazon Conservation
- Cacao and cupuaçu emerge as Amazon’s bioeconomy showcases
- Amazon drought cuts river traffic, leaves communities without water and supplies
- New online map tracks threats to uncontacted Indigenous peoples in Brazil’s Amazon
- Brazil Supreme Court quashes time frame proposal in win for Indigenous rights
Land rights and extractives
- Indigenous community fighting a mine in Palawan wins a milestone legal verdict
- Son of slain Quilombola leader will still strive for community’s rights
- South Africa community members decry traditional leaders’ power amid mine plans
- Can upcoming referendum in Ecuador stop oil drilling in Yasuní National Park?
Endangered Environmentalists
- Vietnamese environmentalist sentenced to 3 years in prison for tax evasion
- Son of slain Quilombola leader will still strive for community’s rights
- Video: Five Tembé Indigenous activists shot in Amazonian ‘palm oil war’
- Indigenous activists demand justice after 5 shot in Amazonian ‘palm oil war’
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
- After 20 years and thousands of trees planted, Kalimantan’s veteran forester persists
- Aziil Anwar, Indonesian coral-based mangrove grower, dies at 64
- A utopia of clean air and wet peat amid Sumatra’s forest fire ‘hell’
Conservation Effectiveness
- Forest restoration can fare better with human helping hand, study shows
- From rat-ridden to reserve, Redonda is an island restoration role model
- Video: Rice as a peace offering in India’s human-elephant conflict capital
- Group certification helps Malaysia’s Sabah aim for palm oil sustainability
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
- To build its ‘green’ capital city, Indonesia runs a road through a biodiverse forest
- Robust river governance key to restoring Mekong River vitality in face of dams
