The Amazon

The Amazon Summit in Belém, Brazil, brought together 8 out of the 9 countries of the Amazon Basin. There were agreements, calls for western countries to share the burden of conserving the forest. But no explicit target on halting deforestation and no willingness to halt oil extraction.

Ecuadorians go to the polls on 20 August 2023, to elect both a new president and 137 legislators for the country's National Assembly. They will also be given the choice to vote ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ in a referendum, where a ‘Yes’ vote will shut down all oil extraction in Yasuní National Park.

Chinese owned TerraEarth started mining for gold in Ecuador's Napo province. After numerous instances of pollution of water sources, encroachments and other violations, court and regulatory action eventually forced the company to withdraw -- for now.

The killing of Ecuadorean indigenous leader Eduardo Mendua provides a text-book example of how extractive projects such as oil drilling divide communities, with often fatal results. The first of a series of articles in which Linda Etchart will 'follow the money' flowing from big oil and mining.

LAB's 1990 book Fight for the Forest - Chico Mendes in His Own Words is being translated into Bengali by a group in Kolkata, India, campaigning to save a historic avenue of trees. The translator outlines their experience and describes some of the historic envirionmental campaigns in India.

The deliberate killing and starvation of indigenous Yanomami people in Roraima state is the direct result of the policies of the Bolsonaro government. As the new Lula administration rushes emergency aid to the area, calls are being made for Bolsonaro to be tried for genocide.

Chinese companies are behind rapid expansion of gold mining in the Mayaya region of Bolivia, and are invading the Madidi National Park. Bolivian journalist and LAB correspondent Sergio Mendoza travelled by canoe down the Beni and Quendeque rivers, witnessing how the illegal mining activity is hidden by Bolivian mining cooperatives and supported or permitted by the government.

Legislation being proposed in the Peruvian Congress would remove central government and environmental controls over indigenous lands and reserves. Indigenous organizations are vigorously opposing the change

With Bolsonaro AWOL and his supporters claiming electoral fraud, fomenting violence and trying to provoke a military coup, Lula and the PT face massive difficulties and levels of polarisation remain extremely high

Director Marcos Colón has made a remarkable film about the Amazon, charting how in three countries, Brazil, Peru and Colombia, 'modernity' means exploitation and destruction. He interviews indigenous leaders with a very different vision.