Environment

Listening to Nature

“Our father, listen attentively to the voice of our rivers, listen to the fearsome trees of the great forest.” So wrote José María Arguedas in 1966. The poet, writer and anthropologist (1911-1969) is one of the most celebrated…

Features

Latin America Criminalises Mining Protest

All over Latin America mining protest is being criminalised by government legislation. Protestors in Andalgalá, Argentina are arrested and beaten, while in Brazil the Munduruku are fighting Anglo American, financed by US…

Features

The Amazon: Biden and Bolsonaro's no- deal

The United States and Brazil have been conducting closed door negotiations to broker an Amazon rainforest protection agreement — with the U.S. and other nations tentatively to provide significant funding, and Brazil possibly…

Features

Brazil: Facebook Enables Landgrabbing

In a new TV documentary, BBC Brasil penetrated deep within criminal networks illegally selling and deforesting conserved lands — even within an Indigenous reserve - to find some land grabbers are posting the plots they’re selling…

Opinion

The Most Dangerous Man on Earth

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is a double danger to the world, says Jan Rocha. The president's policies on Coronavirus and the Amazon endanger the whole world

Features

Transforming Urban Spaces: Guatemala City’s barrancos

“We dream of a green city, an inclusive city, full of squares, full of children. We dream of a fair, walkable, accessible, liveable city. We believe in a greener, happier, more human city.” Urban planners and community gardeners…

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Human Rights Defenders in Honduras

Each day, human rights defenders speak out for the rights of others. And each day they risk their livelihoods, their liberty and in many cases their lives. As attacks, abductions, and assassinations increase in Latin America, we…

Features

Covid-19 in Latin America – Update

Latin America passed the dire milestone of a million cases of coronavirus at the beginning of June. Since then, Peru has surpassed Italy in its number of confirmed cases and infection and death rates continue to rise. Nonetheless…

Opinion

Indigenous Peoples: Why it Matters if they Catch Coronavirus

500 years after Europeans decimated the American indigenous populations with the common flu, indigenous communities again face imminent catastrophe. As the defenders of nature, land and biodiversity, it is essential we don't…

Features

Brumadinho – One Year On

With the company stalling and no lessons learned, the risk of another tailings dam collapse are high. Tom Gatehouse talks to those affected by recent tailings dams disasters in Brazil

In-depth Interviews

The Condor and The Eagle

The Condor and the Eagle (2019) is a prize-winning documentary film directed by Sophie and Clément Guerra, about the collective struggle of the Indigenous peoples of North and South America to defend their land and water against…

Features

Bolsonaro’s Brazil 2020: the march of the miners

Mining companies await new laws to unlock protected lands and indigenous reserves

Features

Colombia’s struggle for sustainable development

The relationship between the natural environment and the armed conflict in Colombia is deeply interwoven and complex. Even following the Peace Accords, the issue of governance is at the root of the environmental challenges…

Features

Mexico’s ‘Tren Maya’ railway: fat jaguars vs starving babies?

The AMLO government falls for the mega-development temptation

Features

Argentina: Toxic Waste from Fracking in Patagonia

A BP subsidiary is being sued by indigenous groups for criminal dumping of toxic waste

Features

Brazil: indigenous reserves to be opened up to mining

Armed with government permits, mining companies stand poised for the rush to exploit land in previously protected reserves

Features

The Two Faces of Norway’s Rainforest Policies

Norway's government gives millions to Brazil for rainforest conservation, while Norsk Hydro's mines and smelters clear, pillage and pollute.

Features

Chevron, Ecuador and the extractor’s curse – part 3: When in doubt, sue the lawyer

“We’re going to fight this until hell freezes over … And then we’ll fight it out on the ice”, said a Chevron spokesman in 2009. The company has done just that. Meanwhile, the Lago Agrio region of Ecuador remains severely polluted…

Features

Chevron, Ecuador and the extractor’s curse – part 2

In Part 2 in her story of how the oil company targets the victims' lawyers to avoid paying compensation, Linda Etchart looks at the actions and omissions of successive Ecuadorian governments

Features

Chevron, Ecuador and the extractor’s curse – part 1

To avoid paying compensation, the oil company targets the victims' lawyers

Features

Belo Horizonte gets a Land Reform Farmers Market

Brazil's Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) opens a rural market in Belo Horizonte city

Features

Oriximiná: Quilombolas vs The Mines

In Oriximiná, a municipality in the northern state of Pará, traditional people see their lands being invaded by mining, under the conniving gaze of the authorities

Features

Haiti: Hope as it Braces itself for another Hurricane

As Hurricane Irma head for the Island, Prospéry Raymond, Christian Aid’s country manager for Haiti and the Dominican Republic, reflects on how Haiti has been moving on from one disaster and preparing for another

In-depth Interviews

The New Voice of Reason

Women are increasingly at the forefront of South America’s fight to defend its indigenous lands and the environment and Patricia Gualinga, an indigenous Kichwa of Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon region, is one of them. As…

Features

Brazil: Munduruku People Fear Annihilation

The Tapajós River Basin lies at the heart of the Amazon, and at the heart of an exploding controversy: whether to build 40+ large dams, a railway, and highways, turning the Basin into a vast industrialized commodities export…

Features

Belize: Punta Gorda, a forgotten district

Maya and Garifuna communities are resisting over-zealous national park regulation and encroaching oil exploration. Rachel Simon explores indigenous land rights and social issues in southern Belize over three blog posts. Rachel…

Features

How Green Has Brazil's Olympics Been?

Brazil proclaimed that it would be hosting a Green Olympics. Despite some bright spots, the result was disappointing, our Brazil correspondent says.

Features

BRAZIL: Tapajós industrial waterway -- a potential environmental disaster

In early August, the Brazilian government unexpectedly cancelled the São Luiz do Tapajós hydroelectric power station, the largest of a series of major dams planned along the Tapajós River and its tributaries. Indigenous groups…