Latest Amazon River News
New research shows a quarter of freshwater animals are threatened with extinction
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly a quarter of animals living in rivers, lakes and other freshwater sources are threatened with extinction, according to new research published Wednesday. “Huge rivers like the Amazon can appear mighty, but at the same time freshwater environments are very...
Drought, fires and deforestation battered Amazon rainforest in 2024
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — 2024 was a brutal year for the Amazon rainforest, with rampant wildfires and extreme drought ravaging large parts of a biome that’s a critical counterweight to climate change. A warming climate fed drought that in turn fed the worst year for fires since...
Santa braves the sticky heat of the Amazon jungle to bring gifts to children in Brazilian village
CATALAO, Brazil (AP) — Santa Claus braved the sticky heat of the Amazon rainforest this weekend, taking two boats to bring gifts to children in a village near the Brazilian city of Manaus. The visit was arranged by Amigos do Papai Noel, a Brazilian charity that has been taking...
Amazon Indigenous community wins latest stage of court battle for lost territory
An Indigenous community in the Peruvian Amazon is celebrating a legal victory in the latest stage of its attempt to take back claimed ancestral rainforests. The Puerto Franco community of the Kichwa tribe say their territory was stolen to form the Cordillera Azul National Park in...
Environmental groups condemn new laws threatening soybean restrictions in Brazil's Amazon
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Dozens of environmental nonprofits issued a manifesto Thursday condemning new laws in Brazilian states that threaten to dismantle the Amazon soy moratorium — a landmark voluntary agreement banning trade in soybeans from recently deforested areas. The...
Organized crime gangs expanded into a third of cities in Brazil’s Amazon, report finds
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Criminal gangs are operating in over a third of municipalities in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest driving a boom in violence, according to a report published Wednesday by a prominent nonprofit organization. Gangs were present this year in 260 of 772...
Brazilian beef and leather companies fall short in tackling deforestation, a study finds
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — The next United Nations climate conference, COP30, will be held in Belem, the capital of an Amazon region where widespread deforestation mainly driven by cattle farming has turned the surrounding rainforest from a vital carbon sink into a significant carbon source. ...
Amazon workers in India join Black Friday strike action for better wages and working conditions
NEW DELHI (AP) — Amazon staff in India have joined strike action calling for better wages and working conditions as the company prepares for one of the busiest shopping periods of the year. About 200 warehouse workers and delivery drivers rallied in the capital, New Delhi, under a...
Agribusiness-friendly states in Brazil try to undo forest protections
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Several states in Brazil are trying to rid themselves of rainforest protections, bowing to pressure from cattle ranchers and soybean growers to cut down trees and expand agriculture. Their efforts run counter to those of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,...
Belem, host of next year's climate talks, is Amazonian city plagued with pollution and violence
BELEM, Brazil (AP) — For the last few years, climate scientists, environmentalists and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have been talking up the first U.N. climate conference to be held in the Amazon. The largest tropical forest in the world stores huge amounts of planet-warming...
