As national policymakers begin the global COP28 climate summit in Dubai, we provide here a concise update on the current state of Amazon forest loss and remaining carbon reserves, both based on the latest cutting-edge data. Here, in MAAP #201, we find that there has been a dramatic reduction (over one-half, 55.8%) in primary forest loss from 2022-2023, […]

MAAP #199 provides an update on the current state of remaining Amazon carbon reserves. Presenting the newly updated version of NASA’s GEDI data, which uses lasers aboard the International Space Station to provide cutting-edge estimates of aboveground biomass density on a global scale, we take a first look at striking maps of the current aboveground […]

Our newly published MAAP #197 report presents our most comprehensive analysis of mining across the Amazon to date. As illegal gold mining continues to be one of the major issues facing nearly all Amazonian countries, the information in these reports incorporates major gold mining operations in rivers with its deforestation effects, estimating that there are at least 58 […]

Based on previous reports (e.g.  MAAP #188), the Peruvian Amazon is facing massive deforestation by Mennonite colonies.  Our latest publication from MAAP #192 demonstrates through very high-resolution satellite imagery (0.5 meters from Planet’s Skysat fleet) that these Mennonite colonies (Chipiar, Providencia, and Vanderland), located in the regions of Loreto and Ucayali, caused the large scale […]

In 2017, Mennonite colonies began appearing in various regions of the Peruvian Amazon. Mennonites are a global religious group starting around the 1600s and often rely on agriculture as an industrialized activity. Based on a number of reports, Mennonites have now become one of the major drivers of deforestation across the Peruvian and Bolivian Amazon. […]

Our newly published MAAP #189 report shows detection of over 260 major fires that have occurred thus far in 2023. Scientists have indicated that this year’s El Niño has the potential to mimic the last 2016-2017 El Niño episode, which produced the most intense Amazonian fires on record. According to this report, a majority of these […]

Amazon Conservation and our Peruvian sister organization Conservación Amazónica – ACCA made a special appearance at this year’s Land & Carbon Lab 2023 Summit, hosted by World Resources Institute (WRI). Our Executive Director John Beavers, along with Conservación Amazónica-ACCA’s Director of Technology for Conservation Sidney Novoa, made the trip to Brussels to present on our […]

MAAP #187 gives a detailed look at some of the major 2022 Amazon forest loss hotspots. These hot spots appear present across all 9 countries of the Amazon, and for the first time, we are able to distinguish data between deforestation from fires and deforestation from natural loss. A majority of this loss is present […]

MAAP #185  provides an in-depth analysis of the most recent (2021-2022) gold mining deforestation activities in the Madre de Dios region of Southern Peru. Mining activity in this corridor, officially known as the “Small-scale and Artisanal Mining Zone in the department of Madre de Dios,” can be formal, informal, or illegal. Gold mining continues to […]

A series of reports have shown that deforestation caused by gold mining is escalating in the Ecuadorian Amazon (MAAP #186). Protected areas and indigenous territories such as Podocarpus National Park, Cuenca Alta del Río Nangaritza Protected Forest, and Shuar Arutam Indigenous territory have been highly susceptible to these activities, which are now beginning to affect […]