Subscribe now

Bolivia's surging deforestation alarms environmentalists

17 July 2023

Bolivia accounts for 9 per cent of all primary forest lost across the globe, and conservationists fear deforestation will only increase due to the government’s desire to expand agricultural production


Amazon deforestation has begun to slow since Lula took over in Brazil

20 June 2023

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has made progress towards halting the illegal destruction of Amazon rainforest, but political opposition and the incoming El Niño will bring further challenges


My Amazon family’s gut microbes may help us fight inflammatory disease

My Amazon family’s gut microbes may help us fight inflammatory disease

4 April 2023

The Yanomami people of the Amazon have the world’s most diverse gut microbiome – and David Good, who is half Yanomami, thinks it might hold the clues to better health


Wildcat review: Come for cute animals, stay for nuanced psychology

Wildcat review: Come for cute animals, stay for nuanced psychology

30 December 2022

An unusual nature documentary features a battle-scarred soldier who finds salvation in the Amazon rainforest, caring for an injured ocelot cub and developing a complex relationship with the founder of a wildlife rescue centre


Aerial view of the Potaro River running across the Kaieteur National Park which sits in a section of the Amazon rainforest in the Potaro-Siparuni region of Guyana, taken on September 24, 2022. - Despite the dispute with Guyana, the Esequibo region is a destination of migration from Venezuela. Guyana defends a limit established in 1899 by an arbitration court in Paris, while Venezuela claims the Geneva Agreement, signed in 1966 with the United Kingdom before Guyanese independence, which established the basis for a negotiated solution and ignored the previous treaty. But the Guyanese government is promoting a process in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to ratify the current borders and put an end to the dispute. (Photo by Patrick FORT / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK FORT/AFP via Getty Images)

2023 could mark a turning point for the Amazon rainforest

28 December 2022

New political leaders in Brazil and Colombia have promised to protect the rainforest, raising hopes of saving the ecosystem from becoming savannah


A gold mine in Bolivar state in the south of Venezuela

Deforestation in Venezuela surges as gold miners ransack the Amazon

9 December 2022

The loss of pristine forest is estimated to be increasing by around 170 per cent annually in Venezuela - an even faster rate than Brazil - as a result of a state-sanctioned boom in gold mining


A group of peccaries

Herds of pig-like peccaries seem to disappear and reappear years later

9 November 2022

Massive herds of a hairy, pig-like creature known as a peccary sometimes disappear suddenly across much of the Americas, and now we know why – its populations go through 30-year cycles of boom and bust


Yanomami man standing in river holding fish

Half of fish tested in an Amazon river have unsafe levels of mercury

31 August 2022

At four locations close to the Yanomami Indigenous reserve in Brazil, many species of fish were found to have mercury levels considered unsafe for consumption


NEAR ALTAMIRA, BRAZIL - JUNE 15: Construction continues at the Belo Monte dam complex in the Amazon basin on June 15, 2012 near Altamira, Brazil. Belo Monte will be the world???s third-largest hydroelectric project and will displace up to 20,000 people while diverting the Xingu River and flooding as much as 230 square miles of rainforest. The controversial project is one of around 60 hydroelectric projects Brazil has planned in the Amazon to generate electricity for its rapidly expanding economy. While environmentalists and indigenous groups oppose the dam, many Brazilians support the project. The Brazilian Amazon, home to 60 percent of the world???s largest forest and 20 percent of the Earth???s oxygen, remains threatened by the rapid development of the country. The area is currently populated by over 20 million people and is challenged by deforestation, agriculture, mining, a governmental dam building spree, illegal land speculation including the occupation of forest reserves and indigenous land and other issues. Over 100 heads of state and tens of thousands of participants and protesters will descend on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, later this month for the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development or ???Earth Summit???. Host Brazil is caught up in its own dilemma between accelerated growth and environmental preservation. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Early warning system for Amazon forest losses seen in climate models

12 April 2022

As plants in the Amazon rainforest die off, huge amounts of carbon are released – a key signal that these losses may happen is temperature swings between seasons


Aerial drone view of the Xingu Indigenous Park territory border and large soybean farms in Mato Grosso, the Amazon rainforest, Brazil. Concept of deforestation, agriculture, global warming and environment.; Shutterstock ID 1574596702; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

The Amazon has descended into lawlessness in Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil

31 March 2022

A corruption scandal is the latest fallout from the Brazilian president's efforts to stifle institutions meant to protect the rainforest, fuelling a sharp increase in deforestation


Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox. We'll also keep you up to date with New Scientist events and special offers.

Sign up
Piano Exit Overlay Banner Mobile Piano Exit Overlay Banner Desktop