Amazon Monitoring

- A new study published in the journal Nature analyzed satellite images from three major regions of tropical forest on Earth — Amazon, Central Africa and Borneo — and showed recovering forests offset just 26% of carbon emissions from new tropical deforestation and forest degradation in the past three decades.- Secondary forests have a good potential to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and could be an ally in addressing the climate crisis, but emissions generated from deforestation and forests lost or damaged due to human activity currently far outpace regrowth.- The study provides information to guide debates and decisions around the recovery of secondary forests and degraded areas of the Brazilian Amazon — around 17% of the ecosystem is in various stages of degradation and another 17% is already deforested.- Since Brazil’s new President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office, projects to curb deforestation are in place, but plans to protect recovering areas remain unclear.

- Libero Copper, a Canadian company, plans to mine copper, molybdenum and other metals in the richly biodiverse Andean-Amazon Piedmont, which has led to strong divisions within Indigenous and local communities.- The copper and molybdenum project is framed as a green project that could contribute much-needed minerals for the country’s energy transition, a proposal that aligns with the goals of the new left-wing government of Gustavo Petro.- However, some communities and environmental activists oppose the mining project over concerns of deforestation, landslides and loss of forest-based livelihoods in the region.- Others support the clean energy transition and the company’s promise of jobs in the historically neglected region.

- As the details of the humanitarian crisis in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory unfold amid action to remove illegal miners, mercury left by the rampant gold mining in the area will remain a lingering toxic legacy.- A range of solutions is needed to support communities at risk, monitor the situation, assist in the remediation of forests, and prevent continued pollution, experts say.- New technologies that can filter mercury are under development and testing, but are still far from being viable solutions at the scale that the problem inside the Amazon calls for.

- In an interview with Mongabay, artist, educator and political activist Daiara Tukano talks about the pathways by which art inspires critical thinking for the general public and helps in the fight for Indigenous rights.- Daiara Tukano says people need to understand about the immense diversity among Indigenous peoples to dispel with the long-held archetype of the Brazilian “Indian” and recognize that they’re not only native to the Amazon.- Given the gradual changes in attitude happening at some museums with regard to Indigenous artistic and linguistic expression, Daiara Tukano says the space must be occupied “through the front door,” while being conscious of potential traps laid by power games.- “What is driving our fight isn’t a cry of rage, but rather a song of love,” she says. “Happiness seems like a far-off dream when you’re born into this genocidal system. But it’s because of these [happy] moments that our people are still standing.”

- A new study supports mounting evidence that deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest correlates with a reduction in regional rainfall.- Experts say this research reinforces the findings of other studies that claim the Amazon is leaning toward its “tipping point” and the southern regions are gradually becoming drier.- Environmentalists see this research as an opportunity to reshape conservation activism and policy towards local communities.