A series of our previous MAAP reports have demonstrated the emergence and expansion of illegal gold mining deforestation in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon, particularly in the area surrounding the Punino River, located between the provinces of Napo and Orellana. In our most recent report on this area (MAAP #206), this mining impact had expended into 1,000 hectares (2,471 […]

Our MAAP program specializes in reporting on the most urgent deforestation threats facing the Amazon and producing big-picture analyses of key Amazon-wide issues. However, In our latest report, MAAP #218, we present a unique view into the complicated but critical issue of the deaths of environmental defenders in various parts of Peru’s Amazon, orchestrated by invaders […]

The Amazon biome plays a vital role in stabilizing global climate, having long been one of the largest carbon sinks in the world. Despite this, accurate estimations of this carbon have been a challenge. Still, thanks to new satellite-based technologies providing major advances (most notably NASA’s GEDI mission [see MAAP #213] and, most recently, Planet […]

  Agriculture has become one of the leading causes of deforestation across the Amazon. As MAAP has continued to closely monitor its impacts, a burst of new data and online visualization tools are revealing key land use patterns across the Amazon, particularly regarding the critical topic of agriculture. MAAP #214, merges and analyzes these new […]

In previous MAAP reports, such as MAAP #199, NASA’s GEDI data has helped measure an estimate of above-ground biomass density per hectare (Mg/ha) which can then be converted to aboveground carbon estimates. Despite this advance, these lasers used by NASA, have not yet achieved full coverage in the Amazon, leaving considerable gaps in the data […]

Gold Mining is one of the major deforestation drivers across the Amazon, often targeting remote areas such as protected areas and indigenous territories. Given the vastness of the Amazon, accurately monitoring mining deforestation in the most real-time, up-to-date format has been a challenge. To help better analyze deforestation patterns, our latest MAAP report, MAAP #212, […]

Our newest MAAP report, MAAP #196, shows the results of the socio-environmental impacts caused by illegal mining using a unique tool, the “Illegal Gold Mining Impact Calculator” developed by Conservation Strategy Fund – CSF. Illegal gold mining has generated massive deforestation in the southern Peruvian Amazon (MAAP #208), and has contaminated the area’s major rivers, tributaries, and secondary […]

Thanks to support from USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and NORAD (Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation), we’ve been able to publish a series of reports on the dynamic situation of gold mining in the southern Peruvian Amazon over the past several years. Illegal gold mining continues to raise concern in this area, eliminating […]

Primary forests in the Colombian Amazon are at risk from a variety of drivers such as illegal roads, which expose them to further threats of deforestation due to cattle pastures, land grabbing, and coca production. These illegal roads threaten protected areas, national parks, and Indigenous territories (referred to as  Resguardos in Colombia). Our newest report, […]

Last year,  in collaboration with the organization SOS Orinoco, we published an urgent report about illegal mining on top of a sacred tepui in the heart of Yapacana National Park in the Venezuelan Amazon (MAAP #169). These Tepuis are stunning table-top mountains found in northern South America and are considered sacred by indigenous groups of the region. MAAP #169 documented 425 illegal […]