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Imperiled Amazon freshwater ecosystems urgently need basin-wide study, management
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on February 1st, 2016
Mongabay: The Amazon’s freshwater ecosystems are at risk because current policy and existing protected areas fail to protect the connectivity of the water cycle, scientists warn. The new study, published in Global Change Biology, examines the factors degrading the Amazon basin’s hydrological connectivity: the movement of water — and with it the life-giving matter, nutrients and organisms it carries — between the vast system’s headwaters and the Atlantic Ocean, between the rivers and the forest, and the earth...
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Brazilian court suspends operating license Belo Monte dam
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on January 16th, 2016
Mongabay: The gigantic Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, located on the Xingu River in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, stood just weeks away from beginning operation this week — but the controversial mega-dam, the third largest on earth, has now been blocked from generating electricity by the Brazilian court system until its builders and the government meet previous commitments made to the region’s indigenous people. Federal court judge Maria Carolina Valente do Carmo in the city of Altamira, in the state...
Forest loss increased annually for 25 yrs at oldest Amazon mega-dam
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on January 14th, 2016
Mongabay: Researchers examining changes in forest cover encircling the Amazon’s oldest mega-dam have found that hundreds of square kilometers of forest have been lost each year of the dam’s 25-year history. The study, published in Applied Geography late in 2015, was undertaken by an international team from the US, Brazil, and the Netherlands. They describe the Tucuruí dam, constructed in the 1980s, as “an ideal case for understanding the long-term impact of mega-dams on rainforest loss.” Great rivers across...
BNDES: Corruption guided award huge Amazon dam contracts in Brazil
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on January 12th, 2016
Mongabay: Brazil’s BNDES (Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social) is the largest development bank in the world. Its annual disbursements of US$50 billion in 2014 were greater than those of the World Bank and Ex-Im Bank (Export-Import Bank of the United States) taken together. Although the bank has played a key role in Brazil’s development over the decades, its hasty expansion in recent years has created widespread concern that the bank is out of control and causing damage to Brazil’s people and...
Talking to kids about extinction — with hope
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on January 9th, 2016
Mongabay: wo months ago, on November 2, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park made the sad announcement that Nola, a 41-year old northern white rhino — one of only four left in the world — had passed away. “Nola, who lived here since 1989, was under veterinary care for a bacterial infection, as well as age-related health issues,” the announcement said. “In the last 24 hours, Nola’s condition worsened and we made the difficult decision to euthanize her. We’re absolutely devastated by this loss, but resolved to fight...
Illegal gold mining spreads to protected Peruvian reserve
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on January 8th, 2016
Mongabay: Recently released satellite images show that illegal gold mining activities have now encroached upon an important protected area in the southern Peruvian Amazon: Tambopata National Reserve. A report released by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) shows that the area between the Tambopata National Reserve and its buffer zone, the La Pampa area, has already lost over 2,500 hectares of forest between 2013 and 2015 largely due to illegal gold mining. The report follows a June 2015 statement...
Brazil’s government charged with ethnocide in building of Amazon dam
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on December 24th, 2015
Mongabay: Brazil’s Public Federal Ministry (Ministério Público Federal, MPF), an independent state body, has started legal proceedings to have it recognised that the crime of “ethnocide” was committed on seven indigenous groups due to the severe detrimental impacts on their lives made by the building of the giant Belo Monte hydroelectric power station that will soon begin operating on the Xingu River in eastern Amazonia. The charges have been made against Brazil’s federal government and Norte Energia, the...
El Niño vs. the Amazon: researchers worry Brazil is not prepared
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on December 16th, 2015
Mongabay: A total of 18,716 fires were reported in the Brazilian Amazon in November alone, primarily caused by farming activity. Researchers on the ground say local fire control efforts are not enough to combat the blazes. They stress the need for global leaders to address the growing problem of tropical forest fires, to both protect wildlife habitat and improve public health. The severe fires that have been ripping through Indonesia’s forests have rightfully been a focal point for international media this...
Jokowi leaves COP21 talks as questions remain over Indonesia haze reforms
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on December 3rd, 2015
Mongabay: Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings said it would invest $100 million over 10 years to expand protection and restoration of carbon-rich peat lands in central Sumatra.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo returned to Jakarta on Wednesday from crucial climate talks in Paris with Indonesia’s commitment to combatting forest fires and reducing greenhouse gas emissions still in the balance.
“We will later announce real actions to which we will commit. This will include peat restoration, a review...
Grassroots leader’s murder in Peru signal to opponents of mining, son says
Posted by Mongabay: None Given on November 28th, 2015
Mongabay: The son of the president of a reforestation association who was murdered on November 19 vowed to continue his father’s work in Peru’s southern Amazonian forest.
Alfredo Vracko had settled on the land in the Amazonian lowlands, not far from the Madre de Dios River, in 1975.
Vracko’s property is across the Interoceanic Highway from the buffer zone of the Tambopata National Reserve, in an area known as La Pampa, which has been a hot spot for illegal mining for nearly a decade.
The son of the...