How Drug Cartels Moved into Illegal Logging in Mexico

Chihuahua is Mexico’s biggest state, and more than a fifth of its 25,000 hectares is forested, mostly with pine trees of the type that are harvested in vast quantities in…

The Logging Barons of Catacamas, Honduras

Catacamas is the largest municipality in Central America, home to thousands of square kilometers of pristine forest. Political elites in this remote part of Honduras have maintained a profitable relationship…

How Colombia Regulators Became Purveyors of Illegal Wood

In Colombia, timber traders corrupted regulators to traffic untold amounts of timber.

Indigenous Leaders Slain in Peru Amid Pandemic

Four Indigenous leaders in Peru's Amazon have been murdered since the government declared a state of emergency over COVID-19, revealing how their opposition to illegal logging, mining and drug trafficking…

Environmental Fines Become Flashpoint for Brazil's Deforestation Crisis

The abandonment of environmental fines for illegal deforestation in Brazil is leading to a political scandal, with a cabinet minister potentially being removed from office and state governments breaking with…

Mexico's Environmental Activists Killed for Resisting Infrastructure Projects

A new report has found that 86 environmental activists have been killed in Mexico since 2012, with a third of the killings linked to energy projects -- an alarming fact…

How Drug Traffickers Became Masters of Honduras’ Forests

Illegal timber and drug trafficking are closely linked in northeastern Honduras, a major cocaine corridor in this region. There, criminal groups have savvily combined these two businesses to maximize their…

Bolivia Forestry Officials Profit from Harvest of Illegal Wood

Officials within the agency entrusted with protecting Bolivia's forests falsified data and provided documents legitimizing the illegal harvesting of timber, a scheme that occurs throughout South America.

Report Finds Peru Timber Trade Taken Over by Criminal Networks

A new report offering a detailed statistical breakdown of Peru’s timber trade exposes the staggering levels of illegality that have contaminated the country’s wood supply chain and the constant evolution…

Illegal Mining Crackdown May Push Peru’s Former Miners to Coca, Timber

Authorities in Peru say they have successfully driven illegal gold mining out of the Amazon, but will other illegal economies take its place?…

The Increasing Dangers Facing Latin America's Park Rangers

A park ranger’s shooting in Costa Rica and the slaying of another in a Colombian reserve show the dangers rangers face in protected areas -- as diverse in flora and…

Timber Laundering in Peru: The Mafia Within

The mafia that makes trafficking of illegally-sourced wood possible in Peru is not made up of timber trade outlaws. It is a network of corrupt officials.