In a new series, we highlight the main illegal gold mining frontiers in the Amazon. Here, in part 1, we focus on Peru. In the upcoming part 2, we will look at Brazil. The Base Map indicates our focus areas in Peru*: Southern Peru (A. La Pampa, B. Alto Malinowski, C. Camanti, D. Pariamanu); Central Peru (E. El Sira). Notably, we found an […]
Yasuni National Park, located in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon, is one of the most biodiverse places in the world and forms part of the ancestral territory of the Waorani (see Base Map). Under the ground of this vast area, however, are large oil fields. In July 2019, the Waorani won an important legal victory to prevent oil […]
400 students at La Pampa College are able to monitor the schools forests themselves. A group of 22 adolescents at I.E. Virgen de la Candelaria continue to learn about and monitor their 7 hectare forest near their school, thanks to the donation of various technological kits. The kits were delivered on November 18th, and they […]
As part of our ongoing coverage, we present two key new findings about the Brazilian Amazon fires that captured the world’s attention in August (see our novel satellite-based methodology below). First, we found that many of the fires, covering over 450,000 hectares, burned areas recently deforested since 2017 (orange in Base Map). That is a massive area equivalent to over a million acres (or […]
The vastness of the Bolivian Amazon makes it a daunting task to understand the plant species that live in it, where they are located, and the status of their health. Knowing where key plant species are in a forest can help answer questions that improve forest and biodiversity conservation decisions. Improved understanding of the forest […]
The Mennonites, a religious (Christian) group often dedicated to organized agriculture, are increasingly inhabiting the western Amazon (Peru and Bolivia). Here, we reveal the recent deforestation of 18,500 acres (7,500 hectares) in three Mennonite colonies (see the Base Map below). The two colonies in Peru (Tierra Blanca and Masisea) are new, causing the deforestation of 6,200 acres since 2017 (including 3,500 […]
We begin a new series on how to harness the power of the cloud to improve real-time monitoring in the Amazon and beyond. As the amount of data from satellite images has skyrocketed, so have the challenges of research teams to fully utilize this abundant and heavy (in terms of terabytes) information. In response, tech companies such […]
In MAAP #109 we reported a major finding critical to understanding this year’s fires in the Brazilian Amazon: many of the 2019 fires followed 2019 deforestation events. Here, we present our more comprehensive estimate: 125,000 hectares (310,000 acres) deforested in 2019 and then later burned in 2019 (July-September). This is equivalent to 172,000 soccer fields.* Thus, the issue is both deforestation […]
The fires in the Brazilian Amazon have been the subject of intense global attention over the past month. As part of our ongoing coverage, we go a step further and analyze the relationship between fire and deforestation in 2019. First, we present the first known Base Map showing both 2019 deforestation and fire hotspots, and, importantly, the areas of overlap. The letters correspond to Zooms below. […]
As part of our current fire management efforts in Bolivia, we have been working with several organizations to generate reliable information to implement actions that are helping firefighters and inhabitants of affected areas. We have also been providing communities and governments with fire prevention training and supplies, so that local people can be better prepared […]
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