Corruption: The Common Source of Environmental Crime in the Amazon

Across the countries that share the Amazon basin, corruption that facilitates environmental crime is an open secret.

Beneath The Surface of Illegal Gold Mining in the Amazon

As gold prices have skyrocketed, a boom in mining across the Amazon Basin has flourished, leaving a deep environmental footprint.

Fueling Forest Loss: Motors of Deforestation in the Amazon

The Amazon is being plundered at an accelerating rate. Deforesters across Bolivia and Ecuador are emboldened to clear trees for agribusiness.

Amazon Rainforest Under Attack From All Sides

Environmental crime is driving deforestation across the Amazon, where some parts are now emitting more carbon dioxide than they absorb.

How Illegal Logging Became a National Security Crisis in Chile

Political conflict, institutional weakness, and ineffective legislation have helped wood theft and illegal logging proliferate in Chile.

Ipê Trees - The Most Expensive Timber in Brazil's Amazon

Resilient, rare and incredibly lucrative, ipê trees are the unlucky bellwethers of illegal logging trends in the Brazilian Amazon.

State Resilience: Little Political Will for Protecting Peru's Amazon

While there are some efforts to build resilience, including the passing of new legislative frameworks and some other signs of political willingness to tackle the problem, there is still a…

Corruption at Every Level: Who Profits from Destruction of Peru's Amazon

From unchecked agricultural development to wildlife trafficking, corruption greases the wheels of every environmental crime in the Peruvian Amazon.

Felled and Burned: Deforestation in Peru's Amazon

Rich in resources, Peru's Amazon is being plundered at an accelerated rate, losing more than 26,000 square kilometers of forest since 2001.

Money Grows on Trees: Environmental Crime in Peru's Amazon

Peru’s Amazon, which covers nearly half of the Andean country, is rich in biodiversity and critical to the capture of carbon, which mitigates global warming. Political instability and corruption, however,…

Panama Struggles to Fight Timber Trafficking in Forests and Ports

A string of seizures highlights Panama's important role in international timber trafficking. The country’s strategic position and the presence of valuable exotic species make the country a hotspot for environmental…

GameChangers 2021: How Organized Crime Devoured the Amazon Rainforest

There was record destruction of the Amazon in 2020, as the rainforest lost an area around the size of Belize, and the situation looks to be even bleaker in 2021.