Brazil
Climate finance helps ayahuasca culture protect remote Amazon forest
Six hours from the nearest road, German climate money funds a hallucinogenic festival that tips the scales in a culture war between indigenous villagers and cattle ranchers
Brazil’s carbon emissions rose 8.9% in 2016, despite recession
After a surge in illegal deforestation, Brazil’s carbon emissions have risen for the third year running, according to a new study
Brazilian Amazon lost 660,000 hectares of forest in last year
Temer government claimed a victory as deforestation rate declines slightly, but green groups said announcement was no cause for celebration
Amazon forest fires pushing climate change ‘beyond human control’
Leading Amazon scientist highlights ‘grave problems’ in Brazil’s management of the world’s most important forest as climate-driven fires eat it away
Forest diamonds
How family rivalry and the Catholic church helped miners devastate an indigenous Amazon territory
Brazil’s Temer extends amnesty to Amazon land-grabbers
Embattled president is regularising illegally occupied land at knock-down prices, in a move environmentalists fear will lead to more deforestation
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Brazil prepares to grant land rights to criminals who stripped Amazon
Brazil’s government is set to roll back protections on vast areas of the Amazon that would legitimise land claims often made under fake names to avoid prosecution
Brazil’s Temer urged to veto rollback of forest protections
Nearly 600,000 hectares of land could lose protected status under a law approved by Congress, an area twice the size of the US’ Yosemite national park
Brazil’s pro-beef president Temer, betrayed by the industry he courted
Even as he handed more and more power to an agricultural lobby that would strip the Amazon for pasture, Michel Temer was being double-crossed
Brazilian indigenous leader appeals for solidarity against land grabs
Guarani-Kaiowá leader Ladio Veron is touring Europe to raise awareness of violence and environmental destruction by agribusiness
Worst land-related killings in decades expose Amazon’s lawless frontier
Nine men were brutally killed last month in a remote Brazilian settlement where deforestation, land grabbing and violence go unpunished
Brazilian MPs bid to cut protections for one million hectares of forest
As deforestation spirals out of control, bills to be voted on by Congress would roll back protections on area of forest the size of Jamaica
Brazil halves environment budget amid rising Amazon deforestation
In a bid to contain a growing budget deficit, the government has slashed the funding to enforce forest protection laws
Troubled meatpacker JBS sanctioned over Amazon deforestation
World’s biggest meat producer slapped with sanctions by Brazil’s environment agency after cattle were traced to illegally cleared rainforest areas
Brazilian Amazon to ditch diesel for clean energy
Bids have been invited for a renewable power auction in May, to wean the Amazonas region off reliance on fuel imports
“Beef caucus” takes over indigenous policies in Brazil
Indigenous groups say they are at “war” with the Brazilian government after the appointment of a justice minister with close ties to agriculture
Brazil ex-environment minister slams ‘land grabbing’ plan
Izabella Teixeira has hit out at a “shameful” parliamentary proposal to cut conservation zones in Amazonas state
Brazil’s coffee growers face bleak future as world warms
Small-scale farmers who produce most of the world’s coffee beans face reductions in crop yield and quality as a result of rising temperatures and extreme weather
Brazil set for ‘environmental civil war’, warns minister
Jose Sarney Filho is at loggerheads with the rural lobby in Congress over a bill to tear up environmental protections