Xavier Bartaburu

ITINGA (MG) — É madrugada, e o movimento não para nas minas de lítio do Vale do Jequitinhonha, em Minas Gerais. O barulho de centenas de máquinas remexendo o solo ecoa pelas montanhas e acaba com o sossego das comunidades tradicionais da região.

For five years, genetically modified cotton was planted in an illegal area in Mato Grosso state, openly disregarding a biosafety measures created by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (MAPA). Mongabay found plantations of GM cotton in the municipality of Marcelândia, 641 kilometers (400 miles) from the state capital Cuiabá, where agribusiness is […]

With annual output of 270,000 tons per year, Sigma Lithium has been increasing its lithium mining in the Jequitinhonha Valley; its pile of waste

MANAUS, Amazonas, Brazil — Located near the confluence of the Solimões and Japurá rivers, Lake Amanã, which means “the path of the rain,” is known as the home of the Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis). During the dry season, when river levels drop, this mammal finds refuge and food there. It was on the beaches of the Amanã that biologist Michelle Guterres made a surprising discovery: manatee feces with strands of germinating grass. This observation was an important step toward confirming a hypothesis that so far had been only speculated about: the manatee is capable of dispersing seeds, thus helping plants migrate between different habitats. “I remember that, at the beginning of the research, my adviser insisted that the manatee was not a seed disperser,” Guterres says, recalling previous studies that had not found viable seeds in fecal samples. “And I told her: not that we know.” Guterres collected 96 fecal samples, 19 of which had plants germinating in them. One of the major challenges in the research was finding a significant amount of feces. As soon as a manatee defecates, its feces either dissolve in the water or are eaten by fish. That is why these animals were already known for fertilizing the waters, but their role as seed dispersers was a groundbreaking discovery. The extreme drought of 2023 made it easier to collect the samples, which were found on the beaches formed by low water levels. In October, Lake Amanã was only 20 centimeters (8 inches) deep. After that,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

BOA VISTA, Brazil – This year alone, Yanomami shaman Davi Kopenawa was received by Pope Francis at the Vatican, was featured at a special place by Salgueiro Samba School during Rio de Janeiro’s carnival parade, and was given enthusiastic applause during the Cannes Film Festival in France. However, in his home state of Roraima, he has to travel in a patrol car escorted by armed police officers. In addition to being a shaman, 68-year-old Kopenawa is a political leader active in denouncing the gold miners who illegally invaded the Yanomami Indigenous Land, in the Brazilian Amazon. Because he defends the rights of his people, he cannot walk freely. In addition to the gold miners, he makes a point of naming politicians who he sees as enemies of the Yanomami and the Amazon rainforest, such as the recently elected US President Donald Trump and Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro. In an exclusive interview with Repórter Brasil, Kopenawa compared Trump to a “disease,” saying that the Republican politician represents a threat to Indigenous peoples and the environment. The Indigenous leader fears that the influence of Trump and other far-right leaders could pave the way for unbridled exploitation of Indigenous lands. In addition, Kopenawa harshly criticizes Bolsonaro, whom he considers the “son of the military dictatorship” who never cared about Indigenous people or the environment. He says that the Bolsonaro government “ruined everything,” allowing illegal mining to advance in the Yanomami territory and the health of his people to deteriorate. The Yanomami, who inhabit Brazil’s largest Indigenous territory, still face a humanitarian and health…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Women farmers living in Brazil’s Paraná state run a 60% chance of developing breast cancer and a 220% increase in the risk of metastasis, according to a new study. Breast cancer risk in the region, which is dominated by family farms with intensive use of pesticides, is 41% higher than the average for Brazil; the […]

This year, the drought in Amazon rivers is already worse than in 2023, when 209 pink and grey river dolphins were found dead in Lake Tefé, in Amazonas state, largely due to overheating of the waters.

Islanders and experts have warned of widespread environmental and social impacts from the construction of a bridge linking the Brazilian city of Salvador with the island of Itaparica in Todos os Santos Bay.

DNA testing of two new-to-science frog species has shown they share a common ancestor — a species that lived 55 million years ago in the mountains of what is today Brazil's Amazonas state.

The frog’s loud croaking turned out to be a call to its own demise. The researchers walking along the steep muddy bank on a rainy November day in 2022 in the Imeri Range on the Brazil-Venezuela border were alerted by the unfamiliar sound. They found the frog sitting outside the opening to a tarantula’s burrow and captured it. They later named the frog Neblinaphryne imeri. “That was the most difficult expedition I’ve ever been on in my entire life,” says Miguel Trefaut Rodrigues, a herpetologist at the University of São Paulo (USP). Rodrigues has been doing fieldwork for more than 40 years, and this time he was leading a team of 14 researchers on a 12-day camping expedition at the top of a nearly 1,900-meter (6,200-foot) peak. Even the region’s Indigenous Yanomami don’t climb to the Imeri peak because of the treacherous route and the fact that there are no large mammals to be hunted at that altitude. Rodrigues’s team only managed to reach the spot with a Brazilian military helicopter. This was the second time Rodrigues had led an expedition of researchers, with the help of the military, in this part of Brazil’s Amazonas state. The first was to the Neblina peak in 2017, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Imeri. Both mountains are located inside protected areas: Pico da Neblina National Park and the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, respectively. The Neblina expedition also resulted in the discovery of a previously undescribed frog species, which they named Neblinaphryne mayeri after…This article was originally published on Mongabay