Tag archives for Brazil
Posted by His name means “Hawk” in his language. Yet even with the acuity of vision the moniker suggests, Karapiru could not have foreseen thetragedy that befell his people, the Awá tribe of northeastern Brazil. He could never have imagined the day that he would flee for his life far into the rainforest, a shotgun pellet burning…
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A Brazilian family recently found their long-lost pet tortoise in a box after 30 years. Find out how the reptile made it through the ordeal.
Geography in the News: Aquamarine and Diamonds
Posted by Neal Lineback of Maps101.com and Maps.com on January 29, 2013 
By Neal Lineback and Mandy Lineback Gritzner, Geography in the NewsTM & Maps.com AQUAMARINE AND DIAMONDS A new gem at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is upstaging what is likely the world’s most popular gem exhibit—the Hope Diamond. The Dom Pedro Aquamarine, at 10,363 carats (2.1 kg), is the largest cut and polished…
Brazil, Australia, India and Beyond: Grasslands News from November 2012
Posted by American Prairie Reserve on December 17, 2012 
In an effort to increase awareness of grasslands issues and encourage you to fall in love with our world’s prairies, American Prairie Reserve compiles a news roundup each month. These stories will introduce you to the organizations working to restore this endangered ecosystem, demonstrate the diversity of the plains and showcase the many different approaches…
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This holiday season, learn about a nutcracker of another sort—the bearded capuchin of Brazil.
ON the forested western edge of Maranhao state in north-east Brazil lives the Awá tribe. One of only two nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes left in Brazil, the Awa have long lived in this area, which lies between the equatorial forests of Amazonia and the drier savannas to the east. They are the most threatened tribe in…
Massacre of Yanomami Feared in Venezuela
Posted by Scott Wallace on August 29, 2012 Brazilian Prospectors Said To Raze Native Village As many as 80 Yanomami Indians are feared dead in a village deep in the jungles of Venezuela, victims of an alleged massacre carried out last month by Brazilian gold prospectors. According to a criminal complaint filed this week with prosecutors and military authorities in Puerto Ayacucho, capital…
Posted by Deforestation, especially of tropical forests, makes up 18 percent of annual global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions — more emissions than the entire global transportation sector. The 2007 Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasized that reducing deforestation would be the most significant and immediate way to begin reducing global levels of…
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Some of the paths through Vila Canoas are so narrow that only one person can pass at a time. When our tour group ran into a resident of the favela coming the opposite direction, we leaned into a corner, letting them pass with a smile and a bom dia (good morning). Brick and concrete blockhouses…
“We need to vote with our dollars and choose products that are helping each other,” said Ana Paula Tavares, executive vice president of the conservation group Rainforest Alliance. It’s a statement that sums up her organization’s goal, but it could also serve as a call to action for all consumers from Rio+20 (The UN…
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Perched on the water’s edge a few kilometers down a wide channel running south west from the vast and beautiful Lake Ayapuá, Uixi is part of Piagaçu Purus Sustainable Development Reserve. In addition to Uixi, Pinheiros and Evaristo, the reserve has 52 other small communities, pinpricked across 834,245 ha of várzea (seasonally flooded forest), higher, never-flooded terra firme rainforest, and lakes including Ayapuá. One-third the size of Vermont, Piagaçu Purus has been a sustainable development reserve since 2003. Within it it communities and conservationists work together to balance biodiversity conservation with achieving sustainable livelihoods for traditional communities, with only a closely controlled amount of commercial activity.
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Editor’s Note: Rane Cortez works for The Nature Conservancy and is based in Belem, Brazil. She moved for two months to the highly-deforested frontier town of São Felix do Xingu in northern Brazil to work with local farmers, ranchers, landowners, indigenous groups and city officials to together promote forest-friendly sustainable growth for the area. This…
Editor’s Note: Rane Cortez works for The Nature Conservancy and is based in Belem, Brazil. She has just moved for two months to the highly-deforested frontier town of São Felix do Xingu in northern Brazil to work with local farmers, ranchers, landowners, indigenous groups and city officials to together promote forest-friendly sustainable growth for the…
Editor’s Note: Rane Cortez works for The Nature Conservancy and is based in Belem, Brazil. She has just moved for two months to the highly-deforested frontier town of São Felix do Xingu in northern Brazil to work with local farmers, ranchers, landowners, indigenous groups and city officials to together promote forest-friendly sustainable growth for the…
Editor’s Note: Rane Cortez works for The Nature Conservancy and is based in Belem, Brazil. She has just moved for two months to the highly deforested frontier town of São Felix do Xingu (roughly pronounced sow felix do shingoo) in northern Brazil to work with local farmers, ranchers, landowners, indigenous groups, and city officials…
Team Edward or Team Jacob?
Posted by Anne Marie Houppert on November 22, 2011 The latest movie in the Twilight saga, Breaking Dawn–Part 1, was just released with the 5th-best opening weekend ever, according to an Entertainment Weekly report. The saga follows the love triangle of a human girl, Bella, and the vampire (Edward) and werewolf (Jacob) who are in love with her. The characters live in the small…
LOGGERS AND NATIVES FACE OFF IN THE BORDERLANDS
Posted by Scott Wallace on September 12, 2011 Lumberjack invasion spurs cross-border contact between native villages In a sign of growing indigenous activism and impatience with ineffectual bureaucrats, communities in Peru and Brazil have joined forces in recent days to patrol a volatile border region rife with illegal loggers and heavily armed gangs of drug-runners. Earlier this month, a joint patrol of Ashéninka…
Dark Edge of the Frontier
Posted by Scott Wallace on August 25, 2011 Natives face retaliation when they stand up to those who loot the forest While on assignment for National Geographic in Peru this summer, I had the privilege of visiting the Ashéninka indigenous community of Saweto, at the headwaters of the Alto Tamaya River near the border of Brazil. It can take up to eight grueling…
Concern for Uncontacted Tribes as Armed Gang Invades Brazilian Forest
Posted by Scott Wallace on August 8, 2011 Five Brazilian Indian rights officials are holding out in a remote jungle outpost in a desperate attempt to protect uncontacted indigenous groups from heavily-armed drug traffickers who have moved into the area from Peru in the past two weeks, according to dispatches from the scene. Officials fear the traffickers may have unleashed a manhunt to track down and exterminate the highly vulnerable tribal populations in order to clear the forests for their coca-growing operations.
Farewell to a wild river
Posted by International League of Conservation Photographers on June 22, 2011 
It is a bitter loss. The wild river that along its lengthy journey gives life to so much and so many will be tamed forever. Where I stand on the shores of the Xingu River, just a few miles from the city of Altamira I can see the markers where the main wall of the…
Uncontacted Tribe Discovered in Brazilian Amazon
Posted by Scott Wallace on June 22, 2011 Officials from Brazil’s Indian affairs agency, FUNAI, say they have confirmed the existence of a previously unknown indigenous group in the rugged folds of the western Amazon, believed to number as many as 200 people.
A Death Foretold
Posted by Scott Wallace on June 8, 2011 In Brazil’s violent backwoods, environmental destruction and murder go hand in hand.
Fisticuffs Erupts in Peru Over Uncontacted Tribes
Posted by Scott Wallace on June 6, 2011 Officials deny plans to open rain forest reserves, promise new protections
The search for the grey-winged cotinga
Posted by Stuart Pimm on May 30, 2011 Not all National Geographic expeditions go smoothly. All adventures end at precisely the same point. Thirty seconds into the hot shower, a stream of dirty water runs down the drain. It takes with it the mud and dried blood, changing skin color from blotchy grey to pink, uncovers the until-now forgotten scrapes and cuts, and…
