Brazil’s environmental protection agency IBAMA has launched its biggest-ever operation to tackle illegal logging that is accelerating Amazon deforestation amid a surge in tree-felling since President Jair Bolsonaro took office.
An attempt by Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and lawmakers backed by big agriculture to weaken environmental laws protecting the Amazon forest and other biomes has failed, as Congress will not vote into law a decree that weakened existing legislation.
The presidents of Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia criticized a recent decision by the organization that manages internet protocol to grant global retailer Amazon the rights to the .amazon domain.
Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra told news agency Reuters on Friday that China could partner with Bolivia and Peru on a massive intercontinental railway project that Peru once dismissed as too costly when pitched by China nearly three years ago.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Friday the country could open a vast reserve in the Amazon rainforest to mining, a move attempted by his predecessor that was quickly rescinded following an international environmental outcry.
Wildlife experts are searching for clues following the discovery of a dead humpback whale in the Amazon jungle — about 15 meters from the ocean. The mammal, which biologists believe to be a 12-month-old calf, was found in undergrowth on the Brazilian island of Marajo, at the mouth of the Amazon River.
Colombia’s highest court has told the government it must take urgent action to protect its Amazon rainforest and stem rising deforestation, in what campaigners said was an historic moment that should help conserve forests and counter climate change.
Agricultural expansion is the chief contributing factor to the deforestation of Brazilian ecosystems and has accelerated in recent years, according to an official study released last week.
Construction has begun on a giant observation tower in the heart of the Amazon basin to monitor climate change. The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory is expected to rise 325m from the ground.
Deforestation in the Amazon increased by nearly a third over the past year, according to Brazilian government figures released this week, confirming a feared reversal in what had been steady progress over the past decade against destruction of the world's largest rainforest.