Amazonas | Spark of Genius

Brazil fines meat ranchers and packers $64 million for raising and purchasing cattle from deforested Amazon

By Peter Schulte / October 29, 2024

IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental protection agency, has fined meat packers and cattle ranchers — including the largest on the planet, JBS — $64 million for buying or raising cattle on illegally deforested land in the Amazon rainforest. The agency said 69 properties had been identified that had sold a total of 18,000 cattle who had been raised on deforested land. They also found 23 meat packing companies that had bought the cattle in Amazonas and Para states. Cattle ranching is the biggest driver of deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon fell by nearly 50% in 2023 compared to 2022

By Peter Schulte / January 12, 2024

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pledged to end deforestation by 2030 when he took office a year ago.
Preliminary data from national space agency Inpe showed 5,153 sq km of the Amazon were cleared in 2023, down from 10,278 sq km in 2022. Rainforest destruction had surged to a 12-year high under his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.

Brazil launches $204 million drive to restore Amazon rainforest

By Peter Schulte / December 2, 2023

Brazil’s national development bank BNDES has launched the Arc of Restoration program to restore degraded or destroyed woodland amounting to 23,160 square miles – an area nearly the size of Latvia – in the Amazon rainforest by 2030. It also seeks to capture 1.65 billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere by 2030.

New online map tracks threats to uncontacted Indigenous peoples in Brazil’s Amazon

By Peter Schulte / September 27, 2023

Mobi draws information from public databases, government statistics, and field observations to paint a comprehensive picture of the threats facing uncontacted Indigenous peoples in the Brazilian Amazon. Activists hope the platform will help create a vulnerability index that can promote stronger public policies.

Brazil’s Amazon deforestation continues to fall dramatically

By Peter Schulte / August 5, 2023

An analysis of satellite data showed that 500 square kilometers of tropical rainforest were cleared in Brazil’s portion of the Amazon during the month of July, a 66% decline relative to July a year ago.

Brazil’s Amazon deforestation drops 34% under Lula

By Peter Schulte / July 7, 2023

From January to June the rainforest had alerts for possible deforestation covering 2,650 square kilometres, down from 4,000 sq km during the same period last year under former leader Jair Bolsonaro.

Brazil’s President Lula issues six decrees revoking or altering predecessor’s anti-environment-and-Indigenous measures

By Peter Schulte / January 5, 2023

One of the decrees annuls mining in Indigenous lands and protected areas, another resumes plans to combat deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado biomes, and a third reinstates the Amazon Fund.

Moore Foundation pledges extra $300m to boost conservation of Amazon

By Peter Schulte / March 15, 2022

New targets include ensuring 247 million acres of freshwater and forest ecosystems, as well as Indigenous and local communities’ lands, are effectively managed.

Amazon tribes to use drones to detect illegal deforestation in Brazilian rainforest

By Peter Schulte / October 23, 2020

Indigenous rights’ groups and WWF International are beginning to train Andean tribes people deep within the Amazon rainforest in the use of drones so that they, as forest-dwelling specialists, can help protect wildlife, and identify, compile evidence for, and report on, illegal logging activities.

Brazilian government launches $1.2 billion Amazon Fund to protect country’s rainforests

By Peter Schulte / March 1, 2009

The Amazon Fund, made by possible from financial support from Norway and Germany, supports projects aimed at promoting the conservation and sustainable use of the Brazilian Amazon.