ECUADOR: Environmental Inspection in Yasuni Park

Representatives of Ecuador's ombudsman's office and environmental groups are visiting the Yasuni National Park on Saturday, home to some of the world's last indigenous people still living in voluntary isolation, in order to verify reports of illegal activity by oil companies.

PERU: Miners Call Off Protests for Talks; Six Killed in Clashes

In response to a government promise to negotiate, small-scale gold miners in southern Peru temporarily called off protests Wednesday in which six people were killed and as many as 30 injured when the police attempted to clear a roadblock.

PERU: The Tangled Paths of New Forest Law

Indigenous protests prompted the introduction of a new legislative bill on forests and wildlife in Peru, the second most forested country in South America. Experts consulted by Tierramérica pointed to what the initiative gets right, but also to what's wrong with it.

CLIMATE CHANGE-BRAZIL: The Threat Posed by Livestock

The livestock industry has less economic clout than the oil industry, but ranchers say it has better arguments to defend itself from accusations regarding its share of responsibility for global warming.

ECUADOR: Native Leaders Call for Anti-Government Protests

"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." The words of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill after the 1942 defeat of Germany's forces in Africa are an apt description of the situation between the government of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa and the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE).

PERU: Suspension of Mining Operation Merely a Placebo

Although the Peruvian government reported that it had suspended the exploration activities of the Afrodita mining company in the country's northern Amazon jungle region to avoid further protests by local indigenous people, officials took no actual steps to bring the firm's work to a halt.

RIGHTS-PERU: No Justice for Indians in Amazon Massacre

Although the technical investigations cleared two of the indigenous demonstrators accused in the murders of 12 policemen during a bloody June 2009 clash between native protesters and the security forces near the northern Amazon jungle town of Bagua, they are still behind bars.

BIODIVERSITY: The Amazon Is Not Eternal

The Amazon jungle "is very close to a tipping point," and if destruction continues, it could shrink to one third of its original size in just 65 years, warns Thomas Lovejoy, world-renowned tropical biologist.

BRAZIL: Development Bank Funds Destructive Projects, Say Activists

Public money in Brazil is being used by the state development bank to finance deforestation projects and others that trample rights, concentrate wealth, and encourage "imperialist" expansion of large national companies, according to activists at a three-day meeting in this southeastern city.

ENVIRONMENT: Listen to the Earth, Say Indigenous Peoples

The idea of wilderness is "an interesting concept; it is a Western concept. Our people have always lived and interacted in the environment," said Illion Merculieff, an environmental activist from the Aleut community in the north-western U.S. state of Alaska.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Brazil to Recover Leadership Role with CO2 Limits

Brazil's decision to adopt voluntary reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions is an indication that the planet's climate change emergency has joined strategic, economic and ideological issues as a new factor on the global political agenda.

BRAZIL: Deforestation Down 45 Percent

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon jungle was reduced more than expected between August 2008 and July 2009 - 45 percent compared to the previous 12 months, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) reported.

BOLIVIA: Amazon Nuts at Exploitative Prices

Bolivia is the world's leading exporter of the shelled Brazil nut, a nutritious food source that grows abundantly in the country's Amazon rainforest region. But in this tropical paradise, many of the nut-gatherers live in hellish conditions.

PERU: Former Minister Should Answer for Massacre in the Amazon

"Did I have a feather on my head and kill the policemen myself?" Mercedes Cabanillas responded when journalists asked her if, as interior minister of Peru, she assumed responsibility for the operation that led to the deaths of 24 members of the police and at least nine indigenous protesters near the Amazon jungle town of Bagua.

RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Controversy Surrounds Army Search for Guerrilla Remains

The armed forces of Brazil will begin to search for the remains of guerrilla fighters who were forcibly disappeared in Araguaia, a remote area in the northern jungle state of Pará during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship, reviving an old debate on the role played by the army in that area.

PERU: Three Days of Anti-Government Protests

Wednesday was the second day of a three-day strike declared by trade unions and social movements in Peru to protest the economic policies of President Alan García.

PERU: Petroleum Sullies the Amazon

"Now the fish are going to disappear," said Luis Umpunchi, an Awajún Indian, one of about 20 people gathered around a broken oil pipeline in the Jayais community, in the northern Peruvian province of Amazonas.

PERU: Minister Tried to Promote Police Investigated for Massacre

Peru’s Interior Minister Mercedes Cabanillas attempted to promote 11 police officials for their performance in the brutal Jun. 5 crackdown on native protests against government decrees that opened up indigenous land in the Amazon jungle to oil, mining, logging and agribusiness companies.

PERU: Govt Partly Backs Down in Standoff with Native Groups

The Peruvian Congress repealed Thursday two of the most controversial decrees that sparked protests by indigenous groups which ended in bloodshed early this month.

PERU: Congress Probes Massacre; Prime Minister to Quit

At the initiative of the opposition parties, the Peruvian parliament approved the creation of a committee to investigate the clash early this month between indigenous protesters and the police near the town of Bagua in the northern province of Amazonas, which according to official reports left a death toll of 34.

PERU: Families of Dead Native Protesters Tell Their Stories

Sobbing, an indigenous woman dressed in black cries out as she sees us arrive: "My son, my son, they have killed my son!" She is Andrea Rocca, the mother of Felipe Sabio, a young man who died in a clash between police and indigenous protesters in the northern Peruvian region of Amazonas.