In a recent article, the environmental science news platform Mongabay reported that, according to their review of official documents, the government of Suriname is preparing to clear large tracts of Amazon rainforest for agriculture. Mongabay reported that a massive amount of land (365,704 hectares, or 903,674 acres) was being targeted for new agriculture plots being established for […]
Here, we present a model river conservation strategy proposed by the Ecuadorian Rivers Institute, designed to protect strategic free-flowing river corridors with intact surrounding forests in the critical transition zone between the Andes mountains and the Amazon lowlands. The vision is to conserve freshwater resources and their surrounding riparian forests, encourage sustainable economic alternatives, and preserve […]
The first MAAP report, published in March 2015, took a detailed look at the escalating gold mining deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon. The following 198 reports, over the past 8.5 years, continued to examine the most urgent deforestation-related issues across the Amazon. For our 200th report, we provide our rapid assessment of the current state […]
As national policymakers begin the global COP28 climate summit in Dubai, we provide here a concise update on the current state of Amazon forest loss and remaining carbon reserves, both based on the latest cutting-edge data. For Amazon forest loss, we analyze the primary forest loss alerts known as GLAD-S2, which are based on 10-meter […]
In the context of overall Amazon gold mining, where illegal mining is rampant, southern Peru is an important case study given that the government has created the “Mining Corridor“, where mining is allowed in order to organize and promote this activity. In this large area, officially known as the “Zone of small-scale and artisanal mining […]
As we approach the COP28 climate summit, starting in Dubai in late November, we provide here a concise update on the current state of remaining Amazon carbon reserves. We present the newly updated version of NASA’s GEDI data1, which uses lasers aboard the International Space Station to provide cutting-edge estimates of aboveground biomass density on […]
Illegal Gold Mining continues to be one of the major issues facing nearly all Amazonian countries. In fact, following the recent high-level summit of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, the nations’ leaders signed the Belém Declaration, which contains a commitment to prevent and combat illegal mining, including strengthened regional and international cooperation (Objective 32). Illegal […]
In a series of reports, we have documented the recent massive deforestation by Mennonite colonies in the Peruvian Amazon (see MAAP #188). Here, we present additional evidence that Mennonites are currently clearing primary Amazon forests: very high-resolution satellite imagery (0.5 meters from Planet’s Skysat fleet). Specifically, we compare a series of very high-resolution satellite images tasked over the same area on different […]
Starting in 2017, new Mennonite colonies began appearing in the Peruvian Amazon, coming from other parts of Latin America in search of new lands. TheMennonites, a global religious group dating back to the 1600s, often require vast tracts of land to support their characteristic large-scale, industrialized agricultural activity. In a series of reports, we have demonstrated […]
The Amazon fire season is well under way: to date, we have detected over 260 major fires thus far in 2023 (see Base Map below). This year is of special concern because scientists indicate we have entered a new El Niño episode. The most intense Amazon fire seasons on record, 2016 and 2017, immediately followed […]
