Final House vote on Brazil’s Forest Code likely delayed
Dec14

Final House vote on Brazil’s Forest Code likely delayed

Last week Brazil’s Senate voted in favor of the new Forest Code, which regulates how much forest a property owner is required to maintain. But before the new Forest Code becomes law, it must pass the lower house and then win approval by President Dilma Rousseff. With Congress going on recess this week, it now appears the vote will be delayed until after lawmakers return in February. Environmentalists are gearing up for a fight...

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Last chance for the Xingu River and its people?  (video)
Jun07

Last chance for the Xingu River and its people? (video)

Brazil recently announced it was going ahead with building the hugely controversial Belo Monte dam, although the construction is set to flood rainforest, change the character of the Xingu River, and displace at least 16,000 people, although transforming the lives of many tens-of-thousands more. Indigenous people along the Xingu have been fighting the dam for decades. Mongabay.com has been following the Belo Monte dam closely:...

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Activism: save the cerrado, starting at your supermarket

Note: mongabay.com does not endorse the action below, but believes its readers may be interested in taking action or discussing the issue in comments. Save the Cerrado from WWF-UK on Vimeo. South America’s great savanna the cerrado is under siege by agriculture and cattle ranching. Half of the ecosystem has vanished in the last 50 years. Now the first ‘green’ soy is being released by the International Round Table on...

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Pictures of baby animals with their mothers for Mother’s Day

Mother tarsier and baby on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Mother and baby orangutan in tree in Sumatra. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Mother Panamanian golden frog with green baby. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Southern Tree Hyrax with baby in Kenya. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Baby crowned lemur clinging to its mother in Madagascar. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Mother Agouti (Dasyprocta punctata) with babies...

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Brazil’s largest miner to fund destructive Amazon dam

Vale, a Brazilian mining company that frequently touts its environmental stewardship, will invest $1.4 billion in the controversial Belo Monte dam. The project will flood nearly 200 square miles (500 square kilometers) of rainforest and impact up to 50,000 indigenous people.

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Photo: caiman eye

A flashlight catches a camian’s eye in Brazil. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.

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‘My Pantanal’: short film about jaguars and a young cowboy in Brazil (video)

My Pantanal Written and Directed by Andrea Heydlauff Produced by Panthera tan‘My Panal’ is a film about a boy named Aerenilso, who lives on a fazenda (ranch) in the Pantanal, the world’s largest and wildest wetland, in Brazil. Aerenilso shows us what it is like to be a Pantaneiro (a cowboy), riding his horse, doing his chores, and exploring this incredible landscape that is teeming with wildlife, including the jaguar. We hear and see...

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Photo: what species am I?

A rarely seen bird in the nightjar family is photographed in Brazil’s Pantanal. But which nightjar species is this? If you know please contact us. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.

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Video: uncontacted tribe captured on film from the sky

Filmed by the BBC in collaboration with Brazil’s Indian Affairs Department (FUNAI), new footage shows an uncontacted indigenous tribe from the air. Living on the border of Brazil and Peru the tribe is threatened by illegal Peruvian loggers. To read more about the tribe: Incredible new photos of uncontacted tribe in the...

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Activism: CREDO joins the fight against the Belo Monte dam

Note: mongabay.com does not endorse the action below, but believes its readers may be interested in taking action or discussing the issue in comments. Credo, the progressive for-profit cell phone company, has thrown its hat in the ring in the environmental activists’ battle against the Belo Monte dam, joining International Rivers, Amazon Watch, and James Cameron. Credo now urges its activists to sign a petition, which states in...

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Rarely seen: a baby bat
Nov30

Rarely seen: a baby bat

A baby bat, referred to as a pup, in Brazil. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Click to see more photos of this bat pup.

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Photo: stunning yellow-headed fly

Yellow-headed Soldier Fly in Bosque Jequitibás, Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Photo by Brazilian photographer Guillermo Gimenez.

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Will forest conservation deal increase palm oil prices?

Bloomberg is reporting palm oil companies will be big winners should any forest conservation deal arise out of next week’s climate talks in Cancun, Mexico. The article quotes members of the palm oil industry, who argue that “any UN-led accord that restricts clearing rainforest for planting more palm trees would limit the supply of the edible oil crushed from their fruit and be a boon to prices for growers.” “It’s a...

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Iracambi – Protecting the Beauty of the Atlantic Rainforest

A few weeks ago on Mongabay we featured an interview with Robin and Binka LeBreton, Directors of a Research Centre situated in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. The following is an excerpt from the diary kept by Clare Emily Raybould, a volunteer in January 2010…

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Odd claim in Fast Company commentary on Brazil’s Amazon logging plan

A Fast Company commentary on Brazil’s plan to begin granting logging concessions in the Amazon concludes with some puzzling remarks. Author Ariel Schwartz writes: Legitimate corporations like Sinar Mas Group’s Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) are often accused of unsustainable logging practices in the Amazon. But it’s better than the alternative. First, Asia Pulp & Paper does not operate in the Amazon—its...

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Photo: jabiru stork takes off
Oct04

Photo: jabiru stork takes off

In the Brazilian pantanal, a jabiru stork take off. The pantanal, the world’s largest wetland, is threatened by commercial agriculture and livestock production. Photo by Rhett A. Butler, 2009. More photos of the...

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Research Internships in the Amazon

A limited number of opportunities are available for interns to work for stints of 6-12 months at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP) in central Amazonia (www.pdbff.inpa.gov.br). The BDFFP, a renowned research project, is the world’s largest and longest-running experimental study of habitat fragmentation.

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