As Brazil moves to explode the deep, rocky river territory of the Lourenção Rocks, locals on the Tocantins River say the government’s refusal to recognize them as “impacted” excludes thousands of fishers from protections.
Tiffany Higgins for @mongabay.com
news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amaz...
A downward spiral - climate change lowers agricultural productivity, leading to cropland expansion and deforestation, and thus more climate change.
www.nber.org/papers/w3502...
My @noosphere.app video reporting: In Belém, social movements protested the installation of a Belo Sun open-pit gold mine on the Xingu River. On Feb 19, a judge reaffirmed the license’s validity, triggering Indigenous protests lasting more than a month. www.noosphere.app/lives-are-wo...
My reporting for @mongabay.com
Indigenous protesters boarded a ship near Cargill’s grain port, hanging banners saying “The Tapajós River isn’t merchandise” & demanding repeal of a decree privatizing three Amazon rivers. Police ordered them away from an “area of international security" My report www.noosphere.app/untitled-113...
My video interview of Auricélia Arapiuns in Santarem for @noosphere.app - Part 2 of our interview
www.noosphere.app/auricelia-ar...
My video reporting from the Amazon on a new bill that would reduce the prison term of former president Jair Bolsonaro. I went to a demonstration in #Belém and talked with a history professor about what's at stake for democracy. www.instagram.com/p/DSYRLHCCdAA/
My video reporting from the Amazon for @noosphere.app
An honor to have been in #Belem for the COP30 climate conference. My article for @noosphere.app describes how fire literally broke out in the COP halls. Then, fires in the COP agreements broke out, too. Video by young communicator Caed Alves #COP30 www.noosphere.app/untitled-89/
Appreciated the chance to work with Steve Gibbs on this piece. We talked with Indigenous & traditional river communities about how they're feeling about COP30 while oil drilling & new shipping channels are being approved, set to harm Amazonian communities, they say. www.thetimes.com/world/latin-...
Thank you so much for putting the word out to editors that I'm available, Jake!
Andy, thanks so much for posting my message!
I’m a bilingual US journalist based in Belém with years of experience reporting from the Amazon region. I hope to connect w/ editors for COP30 coverage. I speak Portuguese fluently, have widespread Amazon contacts w// experts & traditional communities' voices. Feel free to fwd
@revkin.bsky.social
My article for Climate Home News, edited by the excellent Megan Rowling
In Para state, more than 61,000 quilombolas live in municipalities where the hidrovia would pass apenas no trecho do Baixo Tocantins River. The majority of these were classified as “not in the direct impact area” in government studies -- which thus did not evaluate how they might be impacted.
That is part of the judge’s evaluation of a current public interest lawsuit of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office that seeks to overturn the license as illegal.
In September, a judge will conduct a judicial inspection to visit the communities of the Pedral do Lourenção. The license to explode the Pedral is temporarily suspended until that judicial visit.
Federal prosecutors affirm that the whole waterway project has to undergo the licensing process. They say that blowing up a first section before evaluating all the impacts on communities and ecosystems is illegal.
That was part of a judicial decision that opened a pathway for a May 2025 license to blow up the ecologically sensitive Pedral do Lourenção, a first step in building an industrial shipping channel on the Tocantins River.
I asked Pontes about a judge’s February 2025 statement that there are no traditional communities who live on the Lourenção Rocks. #hidroviaaraguaiatocantins #hidrovias #riotocantins
My interview with Federal Prosecutor Felício Pontes on the Tocantins River in the Brazilian Amazon. Brazil’s federal government has a license to blow up an ecologically sensitive stretch, the Lourenção Rocks, to turn the river into a shipping channel. www.instagram.com/reel/DOLWVWv...
Emerging evidence suggests that deforestation in the Amazon is already altering South American monsoon patterns, resulting in drier conditions that may compromise the long term resilience of the rainforest.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
My reporting for Climate Home News
Justiça suspende licença para obras em pedral no Rio Tocantins, no Pará ⬇️
Pedido havia sido feito pelo MPF, alegando que a permissão federal foi concedida sem cumprir condições legais e judiciais
Brazil plans to blow up a key Amazon biodiversity spot, the #LourençãoRocks. A judge just suspended the license until a complete ruling is made on federal prosecutors' suit to overturn the license. An August judge's visit to the rocks' impacted traditional communities was set. #hidrovia
Brazil plans to blow up a key Amazon biodiversity spot, the #LourençãoRocks. A judge just suspended the license until a complete ruling is made on federal prosecutors' suit to overturn the license. An August judge's visit to the rocks' impacted traditional communities was set. #hidrovia
Journalist and current Sacatar Fellow Tiffany Higgins has published an article discussing the shortcomings of carbon credit policies in Pará and highlighting how traditional quilombola and indigenous communities are being sidelined in negotiations.
www.climatechangenews.com/2025/06/08/p...
Brazilian meat giant JBS has claimed that the company's net-zero emissions pledge was "never a promise." These comments are a clumsy attempt to evade accountability and to wash its hands for its outsized impact on the planet. mightyearth.org/article/migh...
Licenciamento da Hidrovia Tocantins-Araguaia está “repetindo os erros da Belo Monte”, diz MPF ⬇️
Em audiência pública, MPF afirma que licença prévia do empreendimento foi ilegal, pede desculpas às comunidades impactadas e cobra do DNIT e do Ibama a correção do processo
oeco.org.br/reportagens/...