Brazil risks losing control of Amazon to drug traffickers, judge warns
Brasilia, BrazilReuters Brazil runs the risk of losing control over its vast Amazon rainforest region to organised crime and traffickers who use the lawless region to smuggle drugs, a Supreme Court judge warned on Wednesday. Justice Luis Roberto Barroso urged the international community to contribute funding and ideas to foster sustainable development that would preserve […]
Bezos to give away most of $US124 billion wealth during lifetime – CNN
Reuters Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos will give away a majority of his $US124 billion wealth during his lifetime, the billionaire told CNN in an interview on Monday. Without providing further details, Bezos said he and partner journalist-turned-philanthropist Lauren Sánchez were “building the capacity to be able to give away this money”. Amazon CEO Jeff […]
Biggest rainforest nations form triple alliance to save jungle
Nusa Dua, Indonesia Reuters The world’s three largest rainforest nations Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia on Monday formally launched a partnership to cooperate on forest preservation after a decade of on-off talks on a trilateral alliance. Reuters reported in August that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, elected as Brazil’s President at the end […]
Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon hits October record ahead of government change
São PauloReuters Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest reached a record for October, data showed on Friday, with land-clearing in the region speeding up as the country undergoes a transition to a more conservation-friendly government. Preliminary government satellite data collected by space research agency Inpe showed that 903.86 square kilometers were cleared in the region last […]
Impacted lives: Brazil’s “people of the river” pay price for Amazon hydropower
DAN COLLYNS, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on how the Belo Monte hydroelectric complex in Brazil’s Amazon has impacted the lives of Indigenous people…
Ecuador Indigenous demand rulings against extractive industries be enforced
Quito, Ecuador Reuters Two Indigenous communities from Ecuador’s Amazon region on Tuesday demanded the Constitutional Court enforce rulings from 2018 and 2019 to protect thousands of hectares of tropical jungle from oil and mining projects. Local courts in Ecuador ruled separately in favour of the A’i Cofan community of Sinangoe, in the country’s Sucumbios province, […]
To preserve Amazon, Indigenous groups call for debt forgiveness
Lima, Peru Reuters Indigenous groups from across the Amazon basin called on Monday for financial institutions to forgive the sovereign debts of the South American nations that comprise the Amazon rainforest, in exchange for commitments to preserve the environment. The Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest and its health is considered key to avoiding the […]
Brazil’s Amazon sees worst August fires in over a decade
Sao Paulo, BrazilReuters Fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest surged in August to the highest for the month since 2010, government data showed on Wednesday, surpassing the blazes in August 2019 that drew global attention soon after President Jair Bolsonaro took office. National space research agency INPE registered 31,513 fire alerts in the Amazon via satellite […]
Death and deforestation: Cocaine trade adds to Amazon’s woes
ANDRE CABETTE FABIO, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on how the murders of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips have stoked concern in Brazil about links between drugs smugglers and environmental crime…
Pope concerned for Amazon and Indigenous peoples, says its first cardinal
Manaus, Brazil Reuters Pope Francis will install the first cardinal of Brazil’s Amazon region this month in a sign of his concern for the rainforest and its Indigenous inhabitants, the man whom he picked for the role said. Dom Leonardo Steiner, Archbishop of the Brazilian city of Manaus, said in an interview that Francis, the […]