#goldmining — Public Fediverse posts

Mong Descendants at Unveiling of Sam Yek Mong Memorial, 24 October 2021

Mong descendants speak at the unveiling of the new Sam Yek Mong Memorial in the Lawrence Cemetery.

This photograph, taken by community heritage coordinator Tiffany Jenks, is part of a collection documenting day two of the Lawrence Chinese Descendants Reunion on Labour weekend 2021.
Clutha District Libraries via DigitalNZ

http://api.digitalnz.org/records/50952589/source

#LawrenceChineseDescendantsReunion2021 #Goldmining #CluthaDistrictLibraries

AI tool tracks spread of illegal gold mining in Amazon protected areas

Gold mining presumed to be illegal caused 6,000 hectares (more than 14,800 acres) of deforestation in Amazonian…
#NewsBeep #News #Environment #Artificialintelligence #AU #Australia #Biodiversity #Deforestation #ForestDestruction #ForestLoss #goldmining #IllegalMining #Indigenouscommunities #Indigenousterritories #landrights #Landtenure #mining #ProtectedAreas #Science
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/629783/

AI tool tracks spread of illegal gold mining in Amazon protected areas

Gold mining presumed to be illegal caused 6,000 hectares (more than 14,800 acres) of deforestation in Amazonian…
#NewsBeep #News #Environment #Artificialintelligence #AU #Australia #Biodiversity #Deforestation #ForestDestruction #ForestLoss #goldmining #IllegalMining #Indigenouscommunities #Indigenousterritories #landrights #Landtenure #mining #ProtectedAreas #Science
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/629783/

https://www.europesays.com/ie/452948/ AI tool tracks spread of illegal gold mining in Amazon protected areas #ArtificialIntelligence #Biodiversity #Deforestation #Éire #Environment #ForestDestruction #ForestLoss #GoldMining #IE #IllegalMining #IndigenousCommunities #IndigenousTerritories #Ireland #LandRights #LandTenure #mining #ProtectedAreas #Science

https://www.biv.com/news/economy-law-politics/ex-consultants-now-drafting-bc-mine-permit-they-once-promoted-12063721

#BCpoli #ConflictOfInterest #CDNpoli #DirtyBusiness #Corruption #BCNDP #BCMining #OpenPitMines #GoldMining #Environmental #PublicTransparency #PublicAccountability #BCGovernment #Insiders #CorporateGreed #GreedKills #PremierEby #StopEcocide #Gold #Greed #Capitalism #Climate

Venezuela’s fragile environment faces rising risks as US pushes for oil and critical minerals and illegal gold mining spreads. #Criticalminerals #Environment #FARC #Forests #Gold #Goldmining #Mining #NicolaMaduro #Oil #TrumpAdministration #Venezuela #Waterpollution #Wilderness
https://iwpost.com/venezuelas-fragile-environment-faces-rising-risks-as-us-pushes-for-oil-and-critical-minerals-and-illegal-gold-mining-spreads/?fsp_sid=6502

#Olinguitos are button-nosed #mammals 😻🦦 of the Cloud Forests in #Ecuador 🇪🇨 and #Colombia 🇨🇴 Their lives are threatened by #goldmining 🥇 #meat 🥩and #palmoil 🌴 #deforestation. Help them! Be #vegan #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🚫 #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-bBX

http://palmoildetectives.com/2026/04/19/olinguito-bassaricyon-neblina/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Olinguito Bassaricyon neblina

Olinguito Bassaricyon neblina

IUCN Red List: Near Threatened

Location: Colombia, Ecuador

Found in the Andean cloud forests of western Colombia and Ecuador, at elevations between 1,500 and 2,800 metres.

One of the cutest #mammals recently discovered is already at risk. With their bear-like faces, cat-like bodies, and lush tawny fur, the olinguito Bassaricyon neblina is an adorable button-nosed mammal of #Ecuador and #Colombia. They first made themselves known to the western world in 2006 in Ecuador and were officially described in 2013 and are considered ‘Near Threatened’ mainly from deforestation and forest clearing for #palmoil agriculture along with road building, infrastructure and gold mining throughout their range. Native to the misty cloud forests of the northern Andes, they are increasingly threatened by industrial agribusiness, palm oil plantations, and agriculture. Over 40% of their habitat has already been destroyed. Use your wallet as a weapon: always choose #palmoilfree products and be #vegan to help protect olinguitos and other species of the Andean Cloud Forest#BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife

https://youtu.be/6_ir48JWkRI

#Olinguitos are button-nosed #mammals 😻🦦 of the Cloud Forests in #Ecuador 🇪🇨 and #Colombia 🇨🇴 Their lives are threatened by #goldmining 🥇 #meat 🥩and #palmoil 🌴 #deforestation. Help them! Be #vegan #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🚫 #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-bBX

Discovered not long ago, #Olinguitos are #bear-like tenacious survivors. Despite hiding well, their forests are rapidly disappearing for #palmoil and #meat agriculture. Help them survive! Be #vegan #Boycottpalmoil 🌴⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-bBX

Appearance & Behaviour

The olinguito is reminiscent of teddy bear and a domestic cat, with thick, soft, russet and tawny coloured fur, a short snout with a button-like nose, small ears, and a long fluffy tail used for balance in the treetops. Typically weighing under one kilogram, they are the smallest member of the raccoon family (Procyonidae). Nocturnal and arboreal, they live high in the forest canopy and are rarely seen. Solitary by nature, they are also reclusive and actively avoid human interaction.

Threats

Despite being classified as Near Threatened, there are no known large-scale conservation programmes or protected areas specifically designed to safeguard the olinguito or their habitat. Many of the forests where they live are under private ownership or are unprotected, leaving them at the mercy of logging companies, agribusiness, and illegal land grabs. Without legal safeguards and ecological corridors between forest remnants, olinguito populations will continue to decline unnoticed. Over 42% of their potential range has already been cleared or degraded for mining and agriculture.

Widespread deforestation of Andean cloud forests for agriculture, livestock, and infrastructure

Much of the olinguito’s Andean cloud forest habitat has already been cleared for cattle pasture, coffee plantations, and crop fields. This is especially concerning given the species’ limited elevational range and dependence on specific microclimates. Habitat loss fragments populations and prevents them from moving between forest patches, leading to genetic isolation and increased vulnerability. According to Helgen et al. (2013), 42% of the olinguito’s historical range has already been lost to agriculture and urban development.

Palm oil and timber plantations rapidly consuming native forest habitat.

Large swathes of cloud forest are being destroyed to establish oil palm and timber plantations. These monocultures are ecological deserts that offer no food or shelter for frugivorous mammals like the olinguito. Although oil palm expansion is often focused in lowland regions, it is encroaching into higher elevations in parts of Colombia and Ecuador due to market demand and land speculation. This spells danger for highland endemics like the olinguito, whose misty habitat is already shrinking.

Urbanisation and road development, fragmenting their canopy habitat

As human populations expand into previously remote areas, forest is cleared for roads, settlements, and industrial development. Even if some patches of cloud forest remain, roads cut through ecosystems, isolating wildlife and increasing mortality from vehicle collisions. Urban sprawl also brings dogs and other invasive species that can harass, predate, or outcompete native animals. The olinguito’s canopy-dependent, arboreal lifestyle makes it especially susceptible to the effects of fragmentation and edge habitat.

Climate change, which threatens the stability of montane ecosystems.

Cloud forests are highly sensitive to temperature and moisture changes. As global temperatures rise, the delicate balance of mist, rainfall, and cool air that defines this biome is shifting. Suitable habitat may move upslope, but mountaintops provide a limited refuge. Once a species is pushed beyond its climatic limit, local extinction becomes inevitable. The olinguito already lives at the uppermost altitudes suitable for its survival, making it dangerously vulnerable to climate-induced habitat contraction.

Geographic Range

Olinguitos live in humid montane forests between 1,500 and 2,800 metres in elevation in western Colombia and Ecuador, including forests near Medellín in Colombia and the Otonga Forest Reserve in Cotopaxi, Ecuador. This species occupies the highest known range of any member of the genus Bassaricyon. Though only officially recognised in 2013, museum specimens had been mislabelled for decades prior to that.

Diet

Despite belonging to the carnivoran order, olinguitos are primarily frugivores. They feed on cloud forest fruits such as figs, as well as insects, nectar, and occasionally small vertebrates like birds and lizards. Their faeces are said to resemble small blueberries due to their fruit-heavy diet.

Mating and Reproduction

Very little is known about the reproductive behaviour of the olinguito, but it is believed they produce a single offspring at a time. Females have one pair of mammae. Their solitary lifestyle and canopy-based habits make studying them in the wild extremely difficult.

FAQs

How many olinguitos are left in the wild?

No population estimates exist for the olinguito, but scientists agree numbers are declining. Habitat modelling shows over 60% of their potential habitat is already deforested or degraded, suggesting a significant threat to survival (Helgen et al., 2013).

What is the lifespan of an olinguito?

Captive individuals like Ringerl—an olinguito unknowingly housed in US zoos for years—lived over a decade. Wild lifespan is presumed to be shorter, but specific data are lacking.

What are the main threats to the olinguito?

The biggest threats are deforestation and habitat loss driven by palm oil plantations, agriculture, and urbanisation. These activities have destroyed over 40% of their cloud forest habitat (Helgen et al., 2013). Climate change is also a growing concern due to their dependence on cool, moist mountain forests.

Do olinguitos make good pets?

No. Olinguitos are solitary, nocturnal, and specialised to live in misty canopy forests. Keeping them as pets is cruel and contributes to wildlife trafficking. Their capture disrupts family groups and decimates populations. If you care about olinguitos, do not fuel demand—speak out against the pet trade.

Take Action!

Olinguitos are an emblem of the hidden biodiversity in the world’s cloud forests—ecosystems that are vanishing fast.

• Boycott palm oil and demand truly forest-free alternatives.
• Support indigenous-led agroecology and forest protection efforts in the Andes.
• Refuse meat and dairy that drives deforestation in Colombia and Ecuador.
• Never support zoos or exotic pet collectors that remove wildlife from their habitats. #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife #Vegan #BoycottMeat

Support the Olinguito by going vegan and boycotting palm oil in the supermarket, it’s the #Boycott4Wildlife

Support the conservation of this species

This animal has no protections in place. Read about other forgotten species here. Create art to support this forgotten animal or raise awareness about them by sharing this post and using the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife hashtags on social media. Also you can boycott palm oil in the supermarket.

Further Information

Helgen, K. M., Pinto, C. M., Kays, R., Helgen, L. E., Tsuchiya, M. T. N., Quinn, A., Wilson, D. E., & Maldonado, J. E. (2013). Taxonomic revision of the olingos (Bassaricyon), with description of a new species, the olinguito. ZooKeys, 324, 1–83. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.324.5827

Helgen, K., Kays, R., Pinto, C., Schipper, J. & González-Maya, J.F. 2020. Bassaricyon neblina (amended version of 2016 assessment). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T48637280A166523067. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-1.RLTS.T48637280A166523067.en. Accessed on 02 May 2025.

Lee, T. E., Tinoco, N., Allred, F. G., Hennecke, A., Camacho, M. A., & Burneo, S. F. (2022). Small mammals of Otonga Forest Reserve, Cotopaxi Province, Ecuador. The Southwestern Naturalist, 66(1), 48–53. https://doi.org/10.1894/0038-4909-66.1.48

NBC News. (2013, August 16). ‘Cutest new animal’ discovered: It’s an olinguito! https://www.nbcnews.com/sciencemain/cutest-new-animal-discovered-its-olinguito-6C10925572

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Olinguito. Wikipedia. Retrieved 2 May 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olinguito

How can I help the #Boycott4Wildlife?

Take Action in Five Ways

1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

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Sign Up

2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

Learn about other animals endangered by palm oil and other agriculture

Santa Catarina’s Guinea Pig Cavia intermedia

Keel-billed Toucan Ramphastos sulfuratus

Asian Small-clawed Otter Aonyx cinereus

Marsupials thought extinct for 6,000 years found in West Papua

Gursky’s Spectral Tarsier Tarsius spectrumgurskyae

Sunda Flying Lemur Galeopterus variegatus

Learn about “sustainable” palm oil greenwashing

Read more about RSPO greenwashing

A 2019 World Health Organisation (WHO) report into the palm oil industry and RSPO finds extensive greenwashing of palm oil deforestation and the murder of endangered animals (i.e. biodiversity loss)

#Resistance to #Extractivism in the #Sperrins Mountains North of Ireland - communities have resisted #goldmining for over a decade.

https://dontmineus.com/

#Omagh

Playful and intelligent #Tucuxi are small #dolphins 🐬 of #Amazonian rivers in #Peru 🇵🇪 #Brazil 🇧🇷 #Ecuador 🇪🇨 and #Colombia 🇨🇴. #PalmOil and #GoldMining are major threats 😿 Fight for them! #BoycottGold #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetectives https://palmoildetectives.com/2025/11/23/tucuxi-sotalia-fluviatilis/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer

Visited these beautiful gardens today. A memorial to the Chinese Gold miners that were in Ross and about the area, during the 1860s.
On the banks of what's now a lake formed by the slucing process used to mine for gold.
This article tells of harassment by one local that caused some problems in the formation of the garden.
The garden is a tribute also to the locals that persevered with its making.
#chinesegarden
#GoldMining
#westcoast

Chinese memorial opening defies harassment campaign
Chinese memorial opening defies harassment campaign https://share.google/VOIQXuNVNFYvDF1Q1

Playful and intelligent #Tucuxi are small #dolphins 🐬 of #Amazonian rivers in #Peru 🇵🇪 #Brazil 🇧🇷 #Ecuador 🇪🇨 and #Colombia 🇨🇴. #PalmOil and #GoldMining are major threats 😿 Fight for them! #BoycottGold #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect.bsky.social https://palmoildetectives.com/2025/11/23/tucuxi-sotalia-fluviatilis/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer

Don’t let the verdant lungs of the 🇧🇷🌳 #Amazon 🫁 turn black 🖤 Global leaders must take action NOW against #deforestation for #agriculture and #goldmining 🥇👃 Learn more #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect.bsky.social
https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8Uj?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer

A Tanzanian Minerals Commission delegation visited Ghana’s GoldBod to study gold sector regulation and governance. #GoldMining #AfricaEconomy #GhanaGold #MiningReforms #NaturalResources

https://newz.africa/2026/01/27/ghana-goldbod-hosts-tanzanian-delegation/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Western Parotia Parotia sefilata

Western Parotia Parotia sefilata

Location: West Papua (Illegally occupied by Indonesia)

Found exclusively in the montane forests of the Vogelkop Peninsula and Wandammen Mountains in Indonesian-occupied West Papua, this species is confined to isolated pockets of ancient, cloud-draped rainforest.

The Western Parotia Parotia sefilata, also called the Arfak Parotia, is a stunning bird-of-paradise of #WestPapua known for their mesmerising, ballerina-like courtship dance. Male #birds fan their iridescent flank plumes into a skirt and dazzle females with precise steps and shimmering throat shields. Although listed as Least Concern in 2016, this designation is dangerously outdated. The forests these rare birds call home have suffered catastrophic #deforestation in recent years due to the explosion of #palmoil plantations. These once-pristine regions are now fragmented and rapidly vanishing. Immediate action is needed to protect the Western Parotia from becoming the next victim of extinction.#BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife

https://youtu.be/nNqV1BfSsZY

Unusual behaviours like mounting reveal complexity to the lives of Western #Parotia, thrilling #birds of paradise in #WestPapua. #Palmoil is a major threat. Fight for them and indigenous peoples #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2026/01/25/western-parotia-parotia-sefilata/

With jet black plumage 🖤 and bright green 💚 wattles, male Western Parotia #birds 🐦🦜🦚 of paradise gleam like scaly armour when they dance 🎶 Resist against their #extinction in #WestPapua when you #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🚫 #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2026/01/25/western-parotia-parotia-sefilata/

Appearance & Behaviour

Male Western Parotias are instantly recognisable by their jet-black plumage, metallic green wattles that gleam like scaled armour, and three distinctive wire-like head plumes that curl outward from each side of the crown—features that inspired the species name, derived from the Latin sex filum, meaning ‘six threads.’ A dazzling inverted silver triangle on their head flashes during display, perfectly offset by their elegant black flank plumes which form a flared skirt in courtship. Females are more subdued, clad in streaky brown feathers, allowing them to blend into the forest understorey.

This species of bird-of-paradise is polygynous. Males gather in exploded leks—loosely spaced display grounds—where they clear leaf-littered forest floors to create courts. On these makeshift stages, they perform intricate displays to attract females, combining pirouettes, head bobs, feather shimmers, and rapid shakes. A 2024 behavioural study also observed rare alternative mating tactics, including homosexual mounting and sneak copulation attempts by female-plumaged birds, suggesting untapped behavioural complexity (MacGillavry et al., 2024).

Threats

The Western Parotia is officially listed as Least Concern, but this 2016 classification dangerously underrepresents their current reality. Since that assessment, massive deforestation for timber and palm oil has devastated much of their limited range, particularly across the Vogelkop Peninsula and Wandammen Mountains. The threats are mounting and accelerating due to the following drivers:

Palm oil deforestation

Large-scale clearing of primary rainforest to make way for industrial palm oil plantations is now rampant across the Bird’s Head (Vogelkop) Peninsula. Even remote montane forests where Western Parotias lek and nest are not safe, as new roads are cut to expand plantation frontiers.

Timber deforestation

Commercial timber extraction is removing centuries-old forest giants that the Western Parotia depends on for fruit, foraging and nesting. Logging roads also fragment habitat, increase fire risk, and provide access to previously undisturbed ecosystems.

Deforestation for mining, rubber and infrastructure projects

Government-backed agribusiness schemes are encouraging monocultures such as oil palm and rubber, which completely erase the forest understory and tree canopy vital for the Parotia’s food and shelter.

Mining concessions in West Papua—often enforced with military support—are rapidly opening up forests in the Wandammen Mountains, overlapping with the Parotia’s habitat. Road construction to access mines and plantations is fragmenting the landscape irreparably.

Climate change-induced extreme weather

The species is restricted to highland forest. As temperatures rise and human pressures encroach from below, their montane habitat may shrink to mountaintop fragments, leaving no room for retreat.

Colonial exploitation, military conflict and suppression of Indigenous land rights:

Indigenous Melanesians have stewarded Papuan forests for millennia. Today, state and corporate projects continue to override Indigenous consent, leading to ecological destruction and social injustice hand-in-hand.

These combined threats pose a serious and immediate danger to the survival of the Western Parotia. Without urgent action to halt deforestation and recognise Indigenous land sovereignty, the species could slide rapidly toward extinction unnoticed.

Geographic Range

Western Parotias are found exclusively in the montane and submontane rainforests of the Vogelkop Peninsula and the Wandammen Mountains in West Papua. They are forest specialists, requiring old-growth rainforest to support their complex courtship behaviour and nesting needs. Since their last assessment in 2016, widespread forest loss has occurred across these regions, particularly from illegal logging and palm oil expansion, putting their long-term survival in serious jeopardy.

Diet

Western Parotias primarily feed on fruits—especially figs—and supplement their diet with arthropods. Their foraging occurs at various forest levels, but they prefer mid-canopy and understorey, where fruiting trees and insect-rich foliage are abundant.

Mating and Reproduction

Courtship and nesting behaviour are marked by sexual division of labour. Only the female builds the nest and raises the chick. Nests are often camouflaged in dense foliage. Although the precise breeding season remains unclear, it is believed to vary by elevation and fruiting cycles. Male courtship is heavily influenced by evolutionary modularity in display traits, which have diverged over time, giving rise to the extravagant variety seen across the Parotia genus (Scholes, 2008).

FAQs

How many Western Parotias are left in the wild?

There are no exact population estimates for the Western Parotia. The IUCN has classified them as Least Concern, but this was based on assessments from 2016. Since then, vast tracts of their habitat have been lost. Without a recent survey, the current population trend is unknown, but it is likely decreasing due to ongoing deforestation (BirdLife International, 2016).

How long do Western Parotias live?

In the wild, birds-of-paradise often live between 5 to 10 years, though lifespan data for this species is limited. In captivity, related species have reached over 15 years, but no long-term studies exist for Parotia sefilata specifically.

What challenges do conservationists face protecting this species?

Conservation of the Western Parotia is complicated by a lack of recent data and the remoteness of their habitat. The Vogelkop and Wandammen regions are undergoing rapid transformation due to illegal logging and palm oil expansion, often facilitated by state-backed infrastructure projects. These forests also fall within contested indigenous lands, and conservation solutions must be rooted in indigenous sovereignty to be effective.

Is the Western Parotia affected by the exotic pet trade?

Unlike parrots and smaller songbirds, Western Parotias are not commonly targeted for the exotic pet trade, likely due to their remote habitat and specialised diet. However, increased accessibility due to road construction could change this. It is essential to remain vigilant and oppose any wildlife trafficking.

Take Action!

Use your wallet as a weapon to stop extinction by boycotting palm oil. Always choose products that are 100% palm oil-free to avoid contributing to the deforestation that is pushing the Western Parotia closer to extinction. Support indigenous-led conservation efforts in West Papua and call for greater transparency around the spread of monoculture plantations. Protect the mesmerising courtship rituals of these remarkable birds by fighting to keep their forests standing. #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife #Vegan #BoycottMeat

Support the Western Parotia by going vegan and boycotting palm oil in the supermarket, it’s the #Boycott4Wildlife

Support the conservation of this species

This animal has no protections in place. Read about other forgotten species here. Create art to support this forgotten animal or raise awareness about them by sharing this post and using the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife hashtags on social media. Also you can boycott palm oil in the supermarket.

Further Information

BirdLife International. (2016). Parotia sefilata. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22706181A93913206. Retrieved 6 April 2025, from https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22706181/93913206

MacGillavry, T., Janiczek, C., & Fusani, L. (2024). Video evidence of mountings by female-plumaged birds of paradise (Aves: Paradisaeidae) in the wild: Is there evidence of alternative mating tactics? Ethology. https://doi.org/10.1111/eth.13451

Scholes, E. (2008). Evolution of the courtship phenotype in the bird of paradise genus Parotia (Aves: Paradisaeidae): homology, phylogeny, and modularity. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 94(3), 491–504. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.2008.01012.x

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Western parotia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 6 April 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_parotia

How can I help the #Boycott4Wildlife?

Take Action in Five Ways

1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• WordPress
• YouTube
• Mail
• Mastodon

Enter your email address

Sign Up

2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Read more

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Read more

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Read more

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

Read more

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

Read more

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

Read more

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

Learn about other animals endangered by palm oil and other agriculture

Capped Langur Trachypithecus pileatus

Keep reading

Mountain Tapir Tapirus pinchaque

Keep reading

Saola Pseudoryx nghetinhensis

Keep reading

Tucuxi Sotalia fluviatilis

Keep reading

Frill-Necked Lizard Chlamydosaurus kingii

Keep reading

Grey Crowned Crane Balearica regulorum

Keep reading

Learn about “sustainable” palm oil greenwashing

Read more about RSPO greenwashing

A 2019 World Health Organisation (WHO) report into the palm oil industry and RSPO finds extensive greenwashing of palm oil deforestation and the murder of endangered animals (i.e. biodiversity loss)

#animals #Bird #birds #Birdsong #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottMeat #BoycottPalmOil #deforestation #EndSongbirdTrade #extinction #ForgottenAnimals #FreeWestPapua #gold #goldMining #hunting #indigenous #military #PalmOil #palmOilDeforestation #palmoil #Parotia #poaching #songbird #songbirds #vegan #vulnerable #VulnerableSpecies #WestPapua #WesternParotiaParotiaSefilata #WestPapua

Don't let the verdant lungs of the 🇧🇷🌳 #Amazon 🫁 turn black 🖤 Global leaders must take action NOW against #deforestation for #agriculture and #goldmining 🥇👃 Learn more #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect @BarbaraNavarro https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8Uj?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer

Playful and intelligent #Tucuxi are small #dolphins 🐬 of #Amazonian rivers in #Peru 🇵🇪 #Brazil 🇧🇷 #Ecuador 🇪🇨 and #Colombia 🇨🇴. #PalmOil and #GoldMining are major threats 😿 Fight for them! #BoycottGold #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect.bsky.social https://palmoildetectives.com/2025/11/23/tucuxi-sotalia-fluviatilis/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer

Playful and intelligent #Tucuxi are small #dolphins 🐬 of #Amazonian rivers in #Peru 🇵🇪 #Brazil 🇧🇷 #Ecuador 🇪🇨 and #Colombia 🇨🇴. #PalmOil and #GoldMining are major threats 😿 Fight for them! #BoycottGold #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect.bsky.social https://palmoildetectives.com/2025/11/23/tucuxi-sotalia-fluviatilis/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer

Indigenous Peoples Fight Climate Change

In the wake of the worst wildfires in living memory in Mexico and Central America in 2024, news outlets were looking for someone to blame. Howler monkeys and many species of parrots perished in the blazes. Slash and burn farming practices by Belize‘s indigenous communities were singled out as a primary cause. Yet this knee-jerk reaction is not evidence based and doesn’t take into account forces like corporate landgrabbing for mining and agribusinesses like meat, soy and palm oil.

Belize’s indigenous Maya communities are rebuilding stronger based on the collective notion of se’ komonil: reciprocity, solidarity, traditional knowledge, gender equity, togetherness and community.

In the wake of horrific #wildfires in #Belize and #Mexico caused by #climatechange, #indigenous #Maya are rebuilding using the notion of se’ komonil: reciprocity #community and solidarity. #indigenousrights #landrights #BoycottPalmOil @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-924

Written by James Stinson, Senior Research Associate and Evaluation Specialist, Young Lives Research Lab, Faculty of Education, York University, Canada and Lee Mcloughlin, PhD student, Global Sociocultural Studies, Florida International University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Driven by extreme heat and drought, some of the worst wildfires in living memory raged across Mexico and Central America through April and May 2024.

News agencies reported howler monkeys dropping dead from trees, and parrots and other birds falling from the skies.

In Belize, a state of emergency was declared as wildfires burned tens of thousands of hectares of highly bio-diverse forest. Farmers suffered huge losses as fires destroyed crops and homes, and communities across the country suffered from hazardous air quality and hot, sleepless nights. Many risked their lives to fight off the approaching fires.

As the wildfire crisis subsided with rains in June, public attention shifted toward identifying the causes and allocating blame. Many singled out the “slash and burn” farming practices in Belize’s Indigenous communities as the primary cause. This simple knee-jerk reaction ignores the underlying causes of the climate crisis, are scientifically unfounded and stoke resentment of Indigenous Peoples.

Fanning the flames

On June 5, one of Belize’s major news networks ran a story with the headline “Are Primitive Farming Techniques Responsible for Wildfires?” The story placed blame for Belize’s wildfires on “slash-and-burn farming”, arguing that “there has to be a shift away from this destructive means of agriculture.”

The story was followed by an op-ed published online asserting that “because of the increased amounts of escaped agricultural fires, aided by climate change, global warming and drought, slash and burn has become more of a problem than the solution it once was.” This sentiment was further reinforced by Belize’s prime minister, who declared that “slash аnd burn has to be something of the past.”

While some of the recent fires in Belize were connected to agricultural burning — and poorly managed fire-clearing practices can have negative air-quality impacts — blaming “slash and burn” for the wildfire crisis ignores the larger context and conditions that made it possible, namely global warming.

May 2024 was the hottest and driest month in Belize’s history. This extreme heat is part of a broader global trend, with June 2024 marking the 13th consecutive “hottest month on record” globally.

More fundamentally, these statements confuse other forms of slash-and-burn agriculture with the distinct “milpa” systems employed by Indigenous people in Belize.

Indigenous knowledge undermined

Throughout Belize, Indigenous Maya farmers commonly practise a form of agriculture referred to as milpa in which fire is used to clear fields and fertilize the soil. Within this system, small areas of forest are chopped down, burned, and planted with maize, beans, squash and other crops. After being cultivated for a year or two, the field is then left fallow and allowed to regenerate back to forest cover while the farmers move on to a new area within a cyclical pattern where areas are reused after a regenerative period.

https://youtu.be/ok787HRp_gA

Commonly derided as slash-and-burn farming, milpa has long been perceived as environmentally destructive. This perspective has been perpetuated by long-standing myths and misconceptions that portray the farming practices of non-Europeans, and specifically the use of fire, as wasteful and irrational.

In Belize, this negative view of slash and burn has driven many colonial and post-colonial interventions to modernize Maya farming practices.

Recent research, however, has shown that the lands of Indigenous Peoples around the world have reduced deforestation and degradation rates relative to non-protected areas. The southern Toledo district of Belize, where the majority of Maya communities are located, boasts a forest cover rate of 71 per cent, significantly higher than the national average of 63 per cent.

Further research has found that the species composition of contemporary Mesoamerican forests has been shaped by the agricultural practices of ancient Maya farmers.

In Belize, fire has been found to play a role in promoting ecosystem health and resilience and intermediate levels of forest disturbance caused by milpa can increase species diversity. Well-managed milpa farming can support soil fertility, result in long-term carbon sequestration and enriched woodland vegetation.

Research has also shown that previous studies of deforestation in southern Belize significantly overestimated the rate of deforestation due to milpa agriculture by not accounting for its rotational process.

Many researchers now believe that milpa is a more benign alternative, in terms of environmental effects, than most other permanent farming systems in the humid tropics. Indeed, findings such as these have led to a growing appreciation for the role of Indigenous Peoples in advancing nature-based and life-enhancing climate solutions.

Unfortunately, research in the region has also found that climate change is undermining the ecological sustainability of milpa farming by forcing farmers to abandon traditional practices and adopt counterproductive measures in their struggle to adapt. In some cases, this has resulted in a decrease in the biodiversity and ecological resilience of the milpa system. This issue is compounded by the decreasing participation of young people, resulting in a further generational loss of traditional ecological knowledge.

Together, these issues are serving to alter and undermine a livelihood strategy that has proven sustainable for thousands of years. However, rather than call for Maya farmers to abandon slash and burn, we encourage support for the self-determined efforts of Maya communities to adapt to this changing climate. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ok787HRp_gA?wmode=transparent&start=0 A video documenting the Maya response to the 2024 wildfire crisis.

Planting seeds of collaboration

Since winning a groundbreaking land rights claim in 2015, Maya communities in southern Belize have been working to promote an Indigenous future based on principles of reciprocity, solidarity, traditional knowledge, gender equity and, most significantly, se’ komonil, the Maya notion of togetherness and community.

Led by a collaboration of Maya leaders and non-governmental organizations, work toward this has included efforts to revitalize traditional institutions and governance systems, as well as the development of an Indigenous Forest Caring Strategy and fire-permitting system. In an effort to encourage and support the participation of youth in this process, Maya leaders have collaborated with the Young Lives Research Lab at York University to develop the Partnership for Youth and Planetary Wellbeing.

Building on previous research with Maya youth, the project has produced innovative youth-led research and education on the impacts of climate change, the importance of food sovereignty, traditional ecological knowledge and the struggle to secure Indigenous land rights in Maya communities. This work has been shared with global policymakers at the United Nations and local audiences in Belize.

Rather than fanning the flames of climate blame, we must work together to revitalize Indigenous knowledge systems and plant seeds of climate collaboration and care.

Written by James Stinson, Senior Research Associate and Evaluation Specialist, Young Lives Research Lab, Faculty of Education, York University, Canada and Lee Mcloughlin, PhD student, Global Sociocultural Studies, Florida International University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

ENDS

Read more about human rights abuses and child slavery in the palm oil and gold mining industries

SOCFIN’s African Empire of Colonial Oppression: Billionaires Profit from Palm Oil and Rubber Exploitation

Investigation by Bloomberg exposes that despite being RSPO members, #SOCFIN plantations in #WestAfrica are the epicentre of #humanrights abuses, sexual coercion, environmental destruction, and #landgrabbing. Operating in #Liberia, #Ghana, #Nigeria, and beyond, SOCFIN’s…

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Palm Oil Threatens Ancient Noken Weaving in West Papua

Colonial palm oil and sugarcane causing the loss of West Papuans’ cultural identity. Land grabs force communities from forests, threatening Noken weaving

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Family Ties Expose Deforestation and Rights Violations in Indonesian Palm Oil

An explosive report by the Environment Investigation Agency (EIA) details how Indonesia’s Fangiono family, through a wide corporate web, is linked to ongoing #deforestation, #corruption, and #indigenousrights abuses for #palmoil. Calls mount for…

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West Papuan Indigenous Women Fight Land Seizures

Indigenous Melanesian women in West Papua fight land seizures for palm oil and sugar plantations, protecting their ancestral rights. Join #BoycottPalmOil

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Greasing the Wheels of Colonialism: Palm Oil Industry in West Papua 

A landmark study published in Global Studies Quarterly in April 2025 has revealed that the rapid expansion of the #palmoil industry in #WestPapua is not only fuelling #deforestation, #ecocide and environmental destruction but…

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Take Action in Five Ways

1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

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2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Read more

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Read more

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Read more

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

Read more

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

Read more

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

Read more

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

#belize #boycottPalmOil #boycottpalmoil #childLabour #childSlavery #climatechange #community #goldMining #humanRights #hunger #indigenous #indigenousActivism #indigenousKnowledge #indigenousRights #indigenousrights #landRights #landgrabbing #landrights #maya #mexico #palmOil #poverty #slavery #wildfires

Colourful tree-dwellers Channel-billed Toucans are #Amazon #icons in #Brazil 🇧🇷#Venezuela 🇻🇪 #Colombia 🇨🇴 Threats include #PalmOil 🌴🔥#Soy #Meat 🥩🔥and #GoldMining 🥇🔥 Help them survive when you #BoycottPalmOil 🌴☠️🧐⛔️ #BoycottGold #Boycott4Wildlife https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/08/02/channel-billed-toucan-ramphastos-vitellinus/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=Palm+Oil+Detectives&utm_campaign=publer

Today's Money Stuff column (https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/newsletters/2025-11-24/leave-the-gold-in-the-ground) includes a Canadian company attempting to tokenize unmined gold:

"If you have a certain type of mind, or if you own a marginal gold mine, you might get to thinking that it is a bit wasteful — and environmentally destructive — to dig gold ore out of the ground, refine the ore into gold, form it into shiny bars of pure gold, and then stick it back underground so that people can trade electronic database entries entitling them to the gold. Why not leave it underground, skip all the other steps and just trade the database entries? If you own a gold mine, you can with reasonable confidence certify how much gold you have underground. That gold is there, in, uh, almost the same sense that the gold at the New York Fed is there. You could just go ahead and sell entitlements to it, without digging it up."

And while there's something not quite right about this -- people who want tokens can just buy tokens without the assay? -- I fully support "leave the gold in the ground instead of wreaking environmental destruction to mine it and then re-bury it."

On the other hand, paying people _not_ to mine gold is not quite the thing either.

What would the proper set of social incentives look like to not mine gold that will end up buried in a vault anyway? Precious metals asset tax, anyone?

#MoneyStuff #GoldMining

Playful and intelligent #Tucuxi are small #dolphins 🐬 of #Amazonian rivers in #Peru 🇵🇪 #Brazil 🇧🇷 #Ecuador 🇪🇨 and #Colombia 🇨🇴. #PalmOil and #GoldMining are major threats 😿 Fight for them! #BoycottGold #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife

http://palmoildetectives.com/2025/11/23/tucuxi-sotalia-fluviatilis/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Tucuxi Sotalia fluviatilis

Tucuxi Sotalia fluviatilis

IUCN Red List Status: Endangered

Location: #Brazil, #Peru, #Colombia, #Ecuador

Found throughout the #Amazon and Solimões River systems, including major tributaries and large lakes. Their range spans lowland rainforest areas of Brazil, southeastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, and southern Peru.

The #Tucuxi, a small freshwater #dolphin of #Peru, #Ecuador, #Colombia and #Brazil now faces a dire future. Once common throughout the Amazon River system, they are now listed as #Endangered due to accelerating population declines. Threats include drowning in fishing nets, deforestation, mercury poisoning from gold mining, #palmoil run-off, oil drilling, and dam construction. A shocking 97% decline was recorded over 23 years in a single Amazon reserve. Without urgent action, this elegant and playful river dolphin could vanish from South America’s waterways. Use your wallet as a weapon against extinction. Choose palm oil-free, and #BoycottGold #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife

https://youtu.be/YYvh0S3ucUI

Playful and intelligent #Tucuxi are small #dolphins 🐬 of #Amazonian rivers in #Peru 🇵🇪 #Brazil 🇧🇷 #Ecuador 🇪🇨 and #Colombia 🇨🇴. #PalmOil and #GoldMining are major threats 😿 Fight for them! #BoycottGold #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2025/11/23/tucuxi-sotalia-fluviatilis/

Clever and joyful #Tucuxi are #dolphins 🐬💙 endangered by #hunting #gold #mining and contamination of the Amazon river 🇧🇷 for #PalmOil #agriculture ☠️ Use your wallet as a weapon and #BoycottGold 🥇🚫 #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🚫 #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2025/11/23/tucuxi-sotalia-fluviatilis/

Appearance & Behaviour

Tucuxis are often mistaken for their oceanic dolphin cousins due to their streamlined bodies, short beaks, and smooth, pale-to-dark grey skin. But these freshwater dolphins are wholly unique—adapted to life in winding river systems where water levels rise and fall dramatically with the seasons.

What sets them apart is their remarkable intelligence and tightly knit social groups. Tucuxis are playful and curious by nature. They leap from the water in graceful arcs, sometimes spinning mid-air.

The Tucuxi, sometimes called the ‘grey dolphin’ due to their uniform colouring, resembles a smaller oceanic dolphin, with a streamlined body and slender beak. Their colour varies from pale grey on the belly to darker grey or bluish-grey along the back.

They travel in small groups of two to six, displaying coordinated swimming patterns. In rare cases, they may form groups up to 26 individuals, particularly at river confluences. Known for their agility, they leap and spin in the water with a grace that belies their size. Tucuxis are particularly drawn to dynamic habitats like river junctions, where waters mix and fish gather.

Threats

• Widespread deforestation from palm oil plantations Palm oil plantations are rapidly expanding across the Amazon, clearing vast tracts of forest that stabilise riverbanks and filter water. This deforestation leads to increased sedimentation in rivers, altering flow patterns and reducing water clarity—conditions that directly disrupt the Tucuxi’s feeding and movement. Run-off from fertilisers and pesticides used in palm oil monocultures also poisons aquatic ecosystems, harming Tucuxis other Amazonian dolphin species and the fish they rely on.
• Toxic mercury pollution from gold mining Artisanal and illegal gold mining in the Amazon releases massive quantities of mercury into the water, contaminating fish and other aquatic organisms. Tucuxis, as top predators, ingest this mercury through their prey, which accumulates in their tissues and causes neurological damage, weakened immunity, and reproductive failure. Mercury exposure is one of the most insidious threats, as it persists in ecosystems long after mining has ceased.
• Incidental drowning in fishing nets Tucuxis are frequently caught and killed in gillnets and other fishing gear as bycatch. Tucuxis and other Amazonian dolphins often inhabit the same confluence zones and productive fishing grounds targeted by local communities, making entanglement almost inevitable. Many carcasses are never recovered, having either been discarded by fishers or lost to river currents, meaning actual mortality rates are likely far higher than reported.
• Deliberate hunting for use as fish bait Though illegal, Tucuxis continue to be targeted and killed in parts of Brazil, especially near the Mamirauá and Amana Reserves, where they are used as bait in the piracatinga (catfish) fishery. This brutal practice involves harpooning or netting dolphins and using their flesh to lure fish, often alongside the killing of Botos. Despite a national ban, weak enforcement and ongoing demand mean this threat persists in remote and lawless regions.
• Illegal fishing with explosives and toxins In certain areas, particularly in Brazil and Peru, fishers use home-made explosives and poisoned bait to stun or kill fish en masse. These destructive methods harm or kill Tucuxis who are attracted by the sudden appearance of dead or stunned prey. The concussive force of explosions and the ingestion of poisoned prey result in slow, agonising deaths for affected dolphins.
• Construction of hydroelectric dams Dams fragment Tucuxi populations by blocking their movement along river corridors, reducing access to feeding and breeding grounds. These projects alter seasonal water flow, raise water temperatures, and flood critical habitats—conditions that significantly disrupt dolphin ecology. Brazil alone has 74 operational dams in the Amazon basin, with over 400 more planned, posing a long-term existential threat to freshwater cetaceans.
• Run-off and contamination from palm oil, soy and meat agriculture In addition to habitat loss, palm oil and soy plantations along with cattle ranching generates enormous volumes of chemical-laden waste, which enters waterways and poisons aquatic life. This pollution affects Tucuxis both directly and indirectly—exposing them to harmful substances and killing off sensitive fish species. As plantations replace biodiverse forests, the ecosystem becomes less resilient, accelerating the decline of species like the Tucuxi.
• Bioaccumulation of heavy metals and industrial pollutants Tucuxis, like many river dolphins, suffer from exposure to persistent organic pollutants such as PCBs, DDT, and flame retardants, as well as heavy metals like lead and cadmium. These toxins accumulate in dolphin tissues over time, weakening their immune systems, interfering with reproduction, and making them more vulnerable to disease. Contaminants originate from industrial waste, agriculture, and mining, and are now widespread across the Amazon basin.
• Habitat fragmentation from infrastructure and oil development Roads, oil pipelines, and shipping corridors criss-cross many parts of the Tucuxi’s range, slicing through their habitat and increasing the risk of collisions with boats. These developments also bring noise pollution, which can interfere with echolocation and communication. Fragmentation leads to isolated subpopulations, reducing genetic diversity and making recovery more difficult.

Geographic Range

The Tucuxi inhabits the Amazon River basin, spanning: Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador These river dolphins occur as far west as southern Peru and eastern Ecuador, and as far north as southeastern Colombia. They are notably absent from Bolivia’s Beni/Mamoré system, the Orinoco basin, and upper reaches above major waterfalls or rapids.

Their range includes wide, deep rivers and lakes, avoiding turbulent rapids and shallow areas. Despite overlapping with the Amazon River Dolphin (Inia geoffrensis), Tucuxis do not enter flooded forest habitats and stay closer to main river channels.

Diet

Tucuxis feed on more than 28 species of small, schooling freshwater fish, including members of the characid, sciaenid, and siluriform families. During the dry season, fish are concentrated in shrinking waterways, making them easier to catch. In contrast, flooding season disperses prey into forested areas, beyond the Tucuxi’s reach. They prefer to feed at river junctions and along confluences, where nutrient-rich waters concentrate fish populations.

Mating and Reproduction

Little is known about their mating behaviours. However, individuals appear to remain within familiar ranges for many years, and females likely give birth to a single calf after a long gestation. Calves are dependent for an extended period, learning complex navigation and foraging skills in rapidly changing river systems. The estimated generation length is 15.6 years.

FAQs

How many Tucuxis are left in the wild?

There is no comprehensive global population estimate. However, surveys from 1994–2017 in Brazil’s Mamirauá Reserve show a 7.4% annual decline—amounting to a 97% drop over three generations (da Silva et al., 2020). If this trend reflects the wider Amazon basin, the species could be on the brink of collapse.

How long do Tucuxis live?

Exact lifespans are unknown, but based on reproductive data and life history modelling, their generation length is around 15.6 years (Taylor et al., 2007), suggesting natural lifespans of 30–40 years.

How are palm oil and gold mining affecting Tucuxis?

Out-of-control palm oil expansion results in massive deforestation and run-off, clogging rivers with sediment and toxic agrochemicals. Gold mining adds mercury into aquatic ecosystems, where it bioaccumulates in fish—Tucuxis’ main food source. These pollutants cause reproductive harm, neurological damage, and immune system failure in dolphins.

Do Tucuxis make good pets and should they be kept in zoos?

Absolutely not. Tucuxis are intelligent, wild animals. Keeping them in captivity is deeply cruel and has no conservation benefit. Wild capture destroys families and can devastate local populations. If you care about these dolphins, say no to the exotic pet trade and the cruel zoo trade.

What habitats do they prefer?

Research in Peru’s Pacaya-Samiria Reserve shows that Tucuxis prefer river confluences and wide channels, particularly during the dry season when fish density is higher (Belanger et al., 2022). Feeding activity is especially concentrated in areas where whitewater rivers meet blackwater tributaries, creating nutrient-rich hotspots.

Take Action!

The Tucuxi is vanishing before our eyes. To protect them:

• Boycott palm oil and gold products linked to Amazon destruction.

• Choose fish-free and vegan products to reduce pressure on river ecosystems.

• Support indigenous-led conservation across the Amazon.

• Campaign for a ban on destructive dams, and the end of illegal fishing.

#BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife #Vegan #BoycottMeat

Support the Tucuxi by going vegan and boycotting palm oil in the supermarket, it’s the #Boycott4Wildlife

Support the conservation of this species

This animal has no protections in place. Read about other forgotten species here. Create art to support this forgotten animal or raise awareness about them by sharing this post and using the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife hashtags on social media. Also you can boycott palm oil in the supermarket.

Further Information

Belanger, A., Wright, A., Gomez, C., Shutt, J.D., Chota, K., & Bodmer, R. (2022). River dolphins (Inia geoffrensis and Sotalia fluviatilis) in the Peruvian Amazon: habitat preferences and feeding behaviour. Latin American Journal of Aquatic Mammals, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.5597/lajam00268

da Silva, V., Martin, A., Fettuccia, D., Bivaqua, L. & Trujillo, F. 2020. Sotalia fluviatilis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T190871A50386457. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T190871A50386457.en. Accessed on 06 April 2025.

Monteiro-Neto, C., Itavo, R. V., & Moraes, L. E. S. (2003). Concentrations of heavy metals in Sotalia fluviatilis (Cetacea: Delphinidae) off the coast of Ceará, northeast Brazil. Environmental Pollution, 123(2), 319–324. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0269-7491(02)00371-8

How can I help the #Boycott4Wildlife?

Take Action in Five Ways

1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

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2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Read more

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Read more

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Read more

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

Read more

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

Read more

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

Read more

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

Learn about other animals endangered by palm oil and other agriculture

Frill-Necked Lizard Chlamydosaurus kingii

Keep reading

Grey Crowned Crane Balearica regulorum

Keep reading

Ecuadorean Viscacha Lagidium ahuacaense

Keep reading

Southern Pudu Pudu puda

Keep reading

Blue-streaked Lory Eos reticulata

Keep reading

Blonde Capuchin Sapajus flavius

Keep reading

Learn about “sustainable” palm oil greenwashing

Read more about RSPO greenwashing

A 2019 World Health Organisation (WHO) report into the palm oil industry and RSPO finds extensive greenwashing of palm oil deforestation and the murder of endangered animals (i.e. biodiversity loss)

#agriculture #amazon #amazonRainforest #amazonia #amazonian #animalCruelty #animals #boycott4wildlife #boycottgold #boycottmeat #boycottpalmoil #brazil #colombia #dams #deforestation #dolphin #dolphins #ecuador #endangered #endangeredSpecies #forgottenAnimals #gold #goldMining #goldmining #humanWildlifeConflict #hunting #hydroelectric #mammal #mining #palmOil #palmOilDeforestation #palmoil #peru #poaching #saynotogold #tucuxi #tucuxiSotaliaFluviatilis #vegan

Does Amazon gold mining cause disabilities in babies?

Researchers are gathering data on neurological disorders linked to mercury poisoning from illegal gold mining, ranging from severe brain malformations to memory loss.

https://www.reuters.com/investigations/scientists-try-prove-link-between-amazon-gold-mining-disabilities-babies-2025-11-01/

#Amazon
#GoldMining
#mercury
#BrainDamage
#children

Brazilian three-banded armadillo Tolypeutes tricinctus

Brazilian three-banded armadillo Tolypeutes tricinctus

Vulnerable

Extant (resident): Brazil: Minas Gerais, Bahia, Alagoas, Sergipe, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte, Goiás, Tocantins, Piauí, Paraíba, Ceará, Maranhão.

The Brazilian three-banded #armadillo Tolypeutes tricinctus, known as “tatu-bola” in Portuguese, is a rare and unique species native to #Brazil. With the ability to roll into a near-impenetrable ball, this endearing behaviour has made them an icon of conservation efforts. They are found in the dry forests and savannahs of Brazil, particularly in the #Cerrado and Caatinga biomes. These fascinating armoured creatures are Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List due to agricultural expansion for #palmoil, #soy and #meat. Fragmentation of their ecosystem is ongoing for infrastructure projects and #goldmining. With their population in sharp decline, efforts to protect their habitats are essential for their survival. Help them every time you shop and adopt a #vegan diet, and #BoycottPalmOil #BoycottGold #Boycott4Wildlife on social media!

https://youtu.be/pVG-7CyjLmo

Resilient Brazilian three-banded #armadillos are fascinating real-life #pokemon of #SouthAmerica. They’re vulnerable from #palmoil meat and soy #deforestation in #Brazil. Resist their #extinction! Be #vegan #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8R9

Brazilian three-banded #armadillos are the adorable armoured tanks of #Brazil’s #Cerrado who can curl into an armoured ball. They are #vulnerable from #deforestation. Help them survive by being #vegan and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8R9

Appearance & Behaviour

• The word “armadillo” means “little armoured one” in Spanish.
• They are known as ‘kwaráu’ in the now extinct Huamoé language and ˈkʌ̨́ñíkį̀ in the Kambiwá language of Brazil.
• Brazilian three-banded armadillos have a good nose and can smell termites and ants through up to 20 cm of soil.
• Their loose armour creates a layer of air, helping them to regulate their temperature in harsh climates.
• They are one of only two armadillo species that can roll into a tight ball.

Brazilian three-banded armadillos are easily recognised by their distinctive armour, which is composed of bony plates known as scutes. These scutes, covered in keratinised skin, form a protective shell around the animal’s body, allowing them to roll into a tight ball when threatened. This unique defence mechanism makes them virtually immune to most natural predators in the wild – except for humans. Their compact body length of 22 to 27 cm and a weight of about 1 to 1.6 kg makes it easy for them to navigate in the forest.

Their distinctive sharp claws and elongated snouts are perfectly adapted for foraging for ants and termites. Although primarily solitary, they sometimes travel in small family groups. They keep their noses to the ground sniffing out insects and move in a deliberate cautious way. Unlike other burrowing armadillos they prefer to hide in bushes for shelter and camouflage.

Threats

Deforestation for palm oil, soy and meat agriculture

Forest and grassland destruction for soy, palm oil, sugar cane and meat plantations is a serious threat. This has drastically reduced the Brazilian three-banded armadillo’s range in the Cerrado and Caatinga biomes.

Human encroachment for infrastructure projects

The Brazilian three-banded armadillo is impervious to many natural threats in their environment. However, infrastructure projects, roads, housing have become a significant threat to their survival.

Illegal hunting

Brazilian three-banded armadillos are hunted for their skins and meat.

Conservation

Conservation efforts for the Brazilian three-banded armadillo are indirect and focused on habitat protection rather than direct intervention. Protected areas within the Cerrado and Caatinga offer some refuge for the species. Yet large portions of their habitat remains at risk for deforestation.

Habitat

Resilient and tough, this armadillo has adapted over millions of years to thrive in harsh landscapes of poor rainfall and poor soil. Brazilian three-banded armadillos are found primarily in the northeastern regions of Brazil, inhabiting the open savannahs of the Cerrado and the dry woodlands of the Caatinga.

Diet

Brazilian three-banded armadillos are primarily insectivores, relying heavily on ants and termites as their main food source. Sharp claws allow them to dig into insect nests, and they use their long, sticky tongues to collect the prey. Occasionally they supplement their diet with molluscs, worms, fruit, and carrion.

Mating and breeding

The breeding season occurs between October and January. After a gestation period of approximately 120 days, females give birth to a single pup. Newborns are born blind, and their armour remains soft and pliable in the first weeks of life. A young armadillo’s shell hardens by week four. By this time they will be capable of protective rolling into a ball and walking. They are weaned by 10 weeks of age and reach reproductive maturity between 9 and 12 months.

Support Brazilian Three-Banded Armadillos by going vegan and boycotting palm oil in the supermarket, it’s the #Boycott4Wildlife

Support the conservation of this species

This animal has no protections in place. Read about other forgotten species here. Create art to support this forgotten animal or raise awareness about them by sharing this post and using the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife hashtags on social media. Also you can boycott palm oil in the supermarket.

Further Information

Miranda, F., Moraes-Barros, N., Superina, M., & Abba, A. M. (2014). Tolypeutes tricinctus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2014: e.T21975A47443455. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2014-1.RLTS.T21975A47443455.en

Wikipedia Contributors. (n.d.). Brazilian three-banded armadillo. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 16, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_three-banded_armadillo

Animalia. (n.d.). Brazilian Three-Banded Armadillo. Retrieved from https://animalia.bio/brazilian-three-banded-armadillo

How can I help the #Boycott4Wildlife?

Take Action in Five Ways

1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• WordPress
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• Mail
• Mastodon

Enter your email address

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2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Read more

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Read more

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Read more

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

Read more

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

Read more

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

Read more

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

Learn about other animals endangered by palm oil and other agriculture

Brazilian three-banded armadillo Tolypeutes tricinctus

Keep reading

Sumatran Tiger Panthera tigris sondaica

Keep reading

Bateleur Eagle Terathopius ecaudatus

Keep reading

Borneo Forest Dragon Gonocephalus bornensis

Keep reading

Orange-breasted Falcon Falco deiroleucus

Keep reading

Sunda Clouded Leopard Neofelis diardi 

Keep reading

Learn about “sustainable” palm oil greenwashing

Read more about RSPO greenwashing

A 2019 World Health Organisation (WHO) report into the palm oil industry and RSPO finds extensive greenwashing of palm oil deforestation and the murder of endangered animals (i.e. biodiversity loss)

#animals #armadillo #armadillos #Bantrophyhunting #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottGold #BoycottPalmOil #Brazil #BrazilianThreeBandedArmadilloTolypeutesTricinctus #Cerrado #deforestation #extinction #ForgottenAnimals #goldMining #goldmining #hunting #meat #meatAgriculture #meatAndSoyDeforestationInBrazil #meatDeforestation_ #PalmOil #palmOilDeforestation #palmoil #poachers #poaching #pokemon #SouthAmericaSpeciesEndangeredByPalmOilDeforestation #SouthAmerica #soy #soyDeforestation #vegan #vulnerable #VulnerableSpecies

Indigenous Empowerment to Reverse Amazonia’s Mineral Demand

Illegal #mining for minerals like #gold and cassiterite, the latter used for renewable energy, is driving #deforestation in Indigenous #Amazonia. Countries like #Brazil, #Suriname and #Guyana face the challenge of conserving forests, protecting #indigenous peoples, biodiversity whilst also meeting international resource demands. Empowering indigenous peoples to care for biodiversity rich areas of Amazonia is key to saving them for future generations. Act now to protect Indigenous lands and wildlife. #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife.

The drive for #mineral #mining in #Amazonia is driving #indigenous peoples and endangered #animals towards #extinction. Help and fight for them when you #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect @barbaranavarro https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8TF

Key to tempering #Amazonia’s mineral #mining demand for #gold and other metals is prioritising #Indigenous #empowerment #landrights and indigenous sovereignty #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife @barbaranavarro @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8TF

Written by Yolanda Ariadne Collins, Lecturer, International Relations, University of St Andrews. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Illegal mining for critical minerals needed for the global renewable energy transition is increasingly driving deforestation in Indigenous lands in the Amazon.

In recent years, these illegal miners, who are often self-employed, mobile and working covertly, have expanded their gold mining operations to include cassiterite or “black gold”, a critical mineral essential for the renewable energy transition. Cassiterite is used to make coatings for solar panels, wind turbines and other electronic devices. Brazil, one of the world’s largest exporters of this mineral, is now scrambling to manage this new threat to its Amazon forests.

The need for developing countries such as Brazil to conserve their forests for the collective global good conflicts with the increasing demand for their resources from international markets. To complicate matters further, both the renewable energy transition and the conservation of the Amazon are urgent priorities in the global effort to arrest climate change.

But escalating deforestation puts these forests at risk of moving from a carbon sink – with trees absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they release – to a carbon source, whereby trees release more carbon dioxide than they absorb as they degrade or are burnt.

Indigenous and other forest-dwelling communities are central to forest conservation. In 2014, I spent a year living in Guyana and Suriname, two of the nine countries that share the Amazon basin. I studied the effectiveness of international policies that aim to pay these countries to avoid deforestation.

I met with members of communities who were bearing the brunt of the negative effects of small-scale gold mining, such as mercury poisoning and loss of hunting grounds. For decades, mining for gold, which threatens communities’ food supply and traditional ways of life, has been the main driver of deforestation in both countries.

Small-scale mining operations can damage both communities and the natural world. Gold mining, which generates gold for export used for jewellery and electronics, usually begins with the removal of trees and vegetation from the topsoil, facilitated by mechanical equipment such as excavators. Next, the miners dig up sediment, which gets washed with water to extract any loose flecks of gold.

Miners usually then add mercury, a substance that’s known to be toxic and incredibly damaging to human health, to washing pans to bind the gold together and separate it from the sediment. They then burn the mercury away, using lighters and welding gear. During this process, mercury is inhaled by miners and washed into nearby waterways, where it can enter the food chain and poison fish and other species, including humans.

My new book, Forests of Refuge: Decolonizing Environmental Governance in the Amazonian Guiana Shield, highlights the colonial histories through which these countries were created. These histories continue to inform the land-use practices of people and forest users there. Having seen the dynamics firsthand, I argue that these unaddressed histories limit the effectiveness of international policies aimed at reducing deforestation.

Some of the policies’ limitations are rooted in their inattentiveness to the roughly five centuries of colonialism through which these countries were formed. These histories had seen forests act as places of refuge and resistance for Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. I believe that power structures created by these histories need to be tackled through processes of decolonisation, which includes removing markets from their central place in processes of valuing nature, and taking seriously the worldviews of Indigenous and other forest-dependent communities.

But since 2014, small-scale mining-led deforestation in the Amazon has persisted, and even increased. The increase in mining worldwide, driven partly by the renewable energy transition, indicates that these power structures might be harder to shift than ever before.

Added pressure

When crackdowns on illegal gold mining took place in Brazil in the 1970s and ’80s, miners moved en masse to nearby Guyana and Suriname, taking their environmentally destructive technologies with them. Illegal miners of cassiterite are now following a similar pattern, showing that the global effort to reduce deforestation cannot simply focus on a single commodity as a driver of deforestation on the ground.

My work shows that the challenge of mining-led deforestation in the Amazon is rooted in historically informed, global power structures that position the Amazon and its resources as available for extraction by industries and governments in wealthier countries. These groups of people are now seeking to reduce their disproportionately high emissions through technological solutions and not through behavioural change.

These tensions also have roots in the readiness of governments and forest users in postcolonial countries, like Brazil and Guyana, to respond positively and unquestioningly to international demand for these resources.

In the Amazon, outcomes are affected by whether different groups of people have access to livelihoods that do not drive deforestation, such as those based on non-timber forest products. The situation is further shaped by the extent to which governments can work together to ensure that crackdowns in one part of the Amazon, such as Brazil, do not just drive deforestation elsewhere to Suriname, for example.

Until the power structure that disadvantages Indigenous and other historically marginalised groups changes, the negative effects of developing technologies to “save” the planet will continue to disproportionately burden these groups, even as their current way of life remains critical to supporting sustainable development outcomes.

Written by Yolanda Ariadne Collins, Lecturer, International Relations, University of St Andrews. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

ENDS

https://youtu.be/RLsqyADpgn0?si=BniKvXzjQFeZXUoV

Read more about gold mining, indigenous rights and its cost to animals

Western Parotia Parotia sefilata

Western Parotias AKA Arfak Parotias are stunning bird-of-paradise of West Papua known for their mesmerising dances. Palm oil and mining ecocide are threats

Indigenous Peoples Fight Climate Change

After wildfires, Belize’s indigenous people rebuild stronger based on “se’ komonil”: reciprocity, solidarity, gender equity, togetherness and community.

Tucuxi Sotalia fluviatilis

Tucuxi, small freshwater dolphins of Peru Ecuador Colombia and Brazil are Endangered due to fishing nets, deforestation, mercury poisoning from gold mining.

An Action Plan for Amazon Droughts: The Time is Now!

The fertile lungs of our planet, the Amazon jungle faces severe drought due to El Niño, climate change, and deforestation for agriculture like palm oil, soy and meat. This along with gold mining,…

Brazilian three-banded armadillo Tolypeutes tricinctus

The Brazilian three-banded #armadillo Tolypeutes tricinctus, known as “tatu-bola” in Portuguese, is a rare and unique species native to #Brazil. With the ability to roll into a near-impenetrable ball, this endearing behaviour has…

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Take Action in Five Ways

1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• WordPress
• YouTube
• Mail
• Mastodon

Enter your email address

Sign Up

2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

Indigenous Empowerment to Reverse Amazonia’s Mineral Demand

Illegal #mining for minerals like #gold and cassiterite, the latter used for renewable energy, is driving #deforestation in Indigenous #Amazonia. Countries like #Brazil, #Suriname and #Guyana face the challenge of conserving forests, protecting #indigenous peoples, biodiversity whilst also meeting international resource demands. Empowering indigenous peoples to care for biodiversity rich areas of Amazonia is key to saving them for future generations. Act now to protect Indigenous lands and wildlife. #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife.

The drive for #mineral #mining in #Amazonia is driving #indigenous peoples and endangered #animals towards #extinction. Help and fight for them when you #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect @barbaranavarro https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8TF

Key to tempering #Amazonia’s mineral #mining demand for #gold and other metals is prioritising #Indigenous #empowerment #landrights and indigenous sovereignty #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife @barbaranavarro @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8TF

Written by Yolanda Ariadne Collins, Lecturer, International Relations, University of St Andrews. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Illegal mining for critical minerals needed for the global renewable energy transition is increasingly driving deforestation in Indigenous lands in the Amazon.

In recent years, these illegal miners, who are often self-employed, mobile and working covertly, have expanded their gold mining operations to include cassiterite or “black gold”, a critical mineral essential for the renewable energy transition. Cassiterite is used to make coatings for solar panels, wind turbines and other electronic devices. Brazil, one of the world’s largest exporters of this mineral, is now scrambling to manage this new threat to its Amazon forests.

The need for developing countries such as Brazil to conserve their forests for the collective global good conflicts with the increasing demand for their resources from international markets. To complicate matters further, both the renewable energy transition and the conservation of the Amazon are urgent priorities in the global effort to arrest climate change.

But escalating deforestation puts these forests at risk of moving from a carbon sink – with trees absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they release – to a carbon source, whereby trees release more carbon dioxide than they absorb as they degrade or are burnt.

Indigenous and other forest-dwelling communities are central to forest conservation. In 2014, I spent a year living in Guyana and Suriname, two of the nine countries that share the Amazon basin. I studied the effectiveness of international policies that aim to pay these countries to avoid deforestation.

I met with members of communities who were bearing the brunt of the negative effects of small-scale gold mining, such as mercury poisoning and loss of hunting grounds. For decades, mining for gold, which threatens communities’ food supply and traditional ways of life, has been the main driver of deforestation in both countries.

Small-scale mining operations can damage both communities and the natural world. Gold mining, which generates gold for export used for jewellery and electronics, usually begins with the removal of trees and vegetation from the topsoil, facilitated by mechanical equipment such as excavators. Next, the miners dig up sediment, which gets washed with water to extract any loose flecks of gold.

Miners usually then add mercury, a substance that’s known to be toxic and incredibly damaging to human health, to washing pans to bind the gold together and separate it from the sediment. They then burn the mercury away, using lighters and welding gear. During this process, mercury is inhaled by miners and washed into nearby waterways, where it can enter the food chain and poison fish and other species, including humans.

My new book, Forests of Refuge: Decolonizing Environmental Governance in the Amazonian Guiana Shield, highlights the colonial histories through which these countries were created. These histories continue to inform the land-use practices of people and forest users there. Having seen the dynamics firsthand, I argue that these unaddressed histories limit the effectiveness of international policies aimed at reducing deforestation.

Some of the policies’ limitations are rooted in their inattentiveness to the roughly five centuries of colonialism through which these countries were formed. These histories had seen forests act as places of refuge and resistance for Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. I believe that power structures created by these histories need to be tackled through processes of decolonisation, which includes removing markets from their central place in processes of valuing nature, and taking seriously the worldviews of Indigenous and other forest-dependent communities.

But since 2014, small-scale mining-led deforestation in the Amazon has persisted, and even increased. The increase in mining worldwide, driven partly by the renewable energy transition, indicates that these power structures might be harder to shift than ever before.

Added pressure

When crackdowns on illegal gold mining took place in Brazil in the 1970s and ’80s, miners moved en masse to nearby Guyana and Suriname, taking their environmentally destructive technologies with them. Illegal miners of cassiterite are now following a similar pattern, showing that the global effort to reduce deforestation cannot simply focus on a single commodity as a driver of deforestation on the ground.

My work shows that the challenge of mining-led deforestation in the Amazon is rooted in historically informed, global power structures that position the Amazon and its resources as available for extraction by industries and governments in wealthier countries. These groups of people are now seeking to reduce their disproportionately high emissions through technological solutions and not through behavioural change.

These tensions also have roots in the readiness of governments and forest users in postcolonial countries, like Brazil and Guyana, to respond positively and unquestioningly to international demand for these resources.

In the Amazon, outcomes are affected by whether different groups of people have access to livelihoods that do not drive deforestation, such as those based on non-timber forest products. The situation is further shaped by the extent to which governments can work together to ensure that crackdowns in one part of the Amazon, such as Brazil, do not just drive deforestation elsewhere to Suriname, for example.

Until the power structure that disadvantages Indigenous and other historically marginalised groups changes, the negative effects of developing technologies to “save” the planet will continue to disproportionately burden these groups, even as their current way of life remains critical to supporting sustainable development outcomes.

Written by Yolanda Ariadne Collins, Lecturer, International Relations, University of St Andrews. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

ENDS

https://youtu.be/RLsqyADpgn0?si=BniKvXzjQFeZXUoV

Read more about gold mining, indigenous rights and its cost to animals

Western Parotia Parotia sefilata

Western Parotias AKA Arfak Parotias are stunning bird-of-paradise of West Papua known for their mesmerising dances. Palm oil and mining ecocide are threats

Indigenous Peoples Fight Climate Change

After wildfires, Belize’s indigenous people rebuild stronger based on “se’ komonil”: reciprocity, solidarity, gender equity, togetherness and community.

Tucuxi Sotalia fluviatilis

Tucuxi, small freshwater dolphins of Peru Ecuador Colombia and Brazil are Endangered due to fishing nets, deforestation, mercury poisoning from gold mining.

An Action Plan for Amazon Droughts: The Time is Now!

The fertile lungs of our planet, the Amazon jungle faces severe drought due to El Niño, climate change, and deforestation for agriculture like palm oil, soy and meat. This along with gold mining,…

Brazilian three-banded armadillo Tolypeutes tricinctus

The Brazilian three-banded #armadillo Tolypeutes tricinctus, known as “tatu-bola” in Portuguese, is a rare and unique species native to #Brazil. With the ability to roll into a near-impenetrable ball, this endearing behaviour has…

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Take Action in Five Ways

1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• WordPress
• YouTube
• Mail
• Mastodon

Enter your email address

Sign Up

2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

Indigenous Empowerment to Reverse Amazonia’s Mineral Demand

Illegal #mining for minerals like #gold and cassiterite, the latter used for renewable energy, is driving #deforestation in Indigenous #Amazonia. Countries like #Brazil, #Suriname and #Guyana face the challenge of conserving forests, protecting #indigenous peoples, biodiversity whilst also meeting international resource demands. Empowering indigenous peoples to care for biodiversity rich areas of Amazonia is key to saving them for future generations. Act now to protect Indigenous lands and wildlife. #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife.

The drive for #mineral #mining in #Amazonia is driving #indigenous peoples and endangered #animals towards #extinction. Help and fight for them when you #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect @barbaranavarro https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8TF

Key to tempering #Amazonia’s mineral #mining demand for #gold and other metals is prioritising #Indigenous #empowerment #landrights and indigenous sovereignty #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife @barbaranavarro @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8TF

Written by Yolanda Ariadne Collins, Lecturer, International Relations, University of St Andrews. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Illegal mining for critical minerals needed for the global renewable energy transition is increasingly driving deforestation in Indigenous lands in the Amazon.

In recent years, these illegal miners, who are often self-employed, mobile and working covertly, have expanded their gold mining operations to include cassiterite or “black gold”, a critical mineral essential for the renewable energy transition. Cassiterite is used to make coatings for solar panels, wind turbines and other electronic devices. Brazil, one of the world’s largest exporters of this mineral, is now scrambling to manage this new threat to its Amazon forests.

The need for developing countries such as Brazil to conserve their forests for the collective global good conflicts with the increasing demand for their resources from international markets. To complicate matters further, both the renewable energy transition and the conservation of the Amazon are urgent priorities in the global effort to arrest climate change.

But escalating deforestation puts these forests at risk of moving from a carbon sink – with trees absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they release – to a carbon source, whereby trees release more carbon dioxide than they absorb as they degrade or are burnt.

Indigenous and other forest-dwelling communities are central to forest conservation. In 2014, I spent a year living in Guyana and Suriname, two of the nine countries that share the Amazon basin. I studied the effectiveness of international policies that aim to pay these countries to avoid deforestation.

I met with members of communities who were bearing the brunt of the negative effects of small-scale gold mining, such as mercury poisoning and loss of hunting grounds. For decades, mining for gold, which threatens communities’ food supply and traditional ways of life, has been the main driver of deforestation in both countries.

Small-scale mining operations can damage both communities and the natural world. Gold mining, which generates gold for export used for jewellery and electronics, usually begins with the removal of trees and vegetation from the topsoil, facilitated by mechanical equipment such as excavators. Next, the miners dig up sediment, which gets washed with water to extract any loose flecks of gold.

Miners usually then add mercury, a substance that’s known to be toxic and incredibly damaging to human health, to washing pans to bind the gold together and separate it from the sediment. They then burn the mercury away, using lighters and welding gear. During this process, mercury is inhaled by miners and washed into nearby waterways, where it can enter the food chain and poison fish and other species, including humans.

My new book, Forests of Refuge: Decolonizing Environmental Governance in the Amazonian Guiana Shield, highlights the colonial histories through which these countries were created. These histories continue to inform the land-use practices of people and forest users there. Having seen the dynamics firsthand, I argue that these unaddressed histories limit the effectiveness of international policies aimed at reducing deforestation.

Some of the policies’ limitations are rooted in their inattentiveness to the roughly five centuries of colonialism through which these countries were formed. These histories had seen forests act as places of refuge and resistance for Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. I believe that power structures created by these histories need to be tackled through processes of decolonisation, which includes removing markets from their central place in processes of valuing nature, and taking seriously the worldviews of Indigenous and other forest-dependent communities.

But since 2014, small-scale mining-led deforestation in the Amazon has persisted, and even increased. The increase in mining worldwide, driven partly by the renewable energy transition, indicates that these power structures might be harder to shift than ever before.

Added pressure

When crackdowns on illegal gold mining took place in Brazil in the 1970s and ’80s, miners moved en masse to nearby Guyana and Suriname, taking their environmentally destructive technologies with them. Illegal miners of cassiterite are now following a similar pattern, showing that the global effort to reduce deforestation cannot simply focus on a single commodity as a driver of deforestation on the ground.

My work shows that the challenge of mining-led deforestation in the Amazon is rooted in historically informed, global power structures that position the Amazon and its resources as available for extraction by industries and governments in wealthier countries. These groups of people are now seeking to reduce their disproportionately high emissions through technological solutions and not through behavioural change.

These tensions also have roots in the readiness of governments and forest users in postcolonial countries, like Brazil and Guyana, to respond positively and unquestioningly to international demand for these resources.

In the Amazon, outcomes are affected by whether different groups of people have access to livelihoods that do not drive deforestation, such as those based on non-timber forest products. The situation is further shaped by the extent to which governments can work together to ensure that crackdowns in one part of the Amazon, such as Brazil, do not just drive deforestation elsewhere to Suriname, for example.

Until the power structure that disadvantages Indigenous and other historically marginalised groups changes, the negative effects of developing technologies to “save” the planet will continue to disproportionately burden these groups, even as their current way of life remains critical to supporting sustainable development outcomes.

Written by Yolanda Ariadne Collins, Lecturer, International Relations, University of St Andrews. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

ENDS

https://youtu.be/RLsqyADpgn0?si=BniKvXzjQFeZXUoV

Read more about gold mining, indigenous rights and its cost to animals

Western Parotia Parotia sefilata

Western Parotias AKA Arfak Parotias are stunning bird-of-paradise of West Papua known for their mesmerising dances. Palm oil and mining ecocide are threats

Indigenous Peoples Fight Climate Change

After wildfires, Belize’s indigenous people rebuild stronger based on “se’ komonil”: reciprocity, solidarity, gender equity, togetherness and community.

Tucuxi Sotalia fluviatilis

Tucuxi, small freshwater dolphins of Peru Ecuador Colombia and Brazil are Endangered due to fishing nets, deforestation, mercury poisoning from gold mining.

An Action Plan for Amazon Droughts: The Time is Now!

The fertile lungs of our planet, the Amazon jungle faces severe drought due to El Niño, climate change, and deforestation for agriculture like palm oil, soy and meat. This along with gold mining,…

Brazilian three-banded armadillo Tolypeutes tricinctus

The Brazilian three-banded #armadillo Tolypeutes tricinctus, known as “tatu-bola” in Portuguese, is a rare and unique species native to #Brazil. With the ability to roll into a near-impenetrable ball, this endearing behaviour has…

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Take Action in Five Ways

1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

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• Facebook
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Enter your email address

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2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

Indigenous Empowerment to Reverse Amazonia’s Mineral Demand

Illegal #mining for minerals like #gold and cassiterite, the latter used for renewable energy, is driving #deforestation in Indigenous #Amazonia. Countries like #Brazil, #Suriname and #Guyana face the challenge of conserving forests, protecting #indigenous peoples, biodiversity whilst also meeting international resource demands. Empowering indigenous peoples to care for biodiversity rich areas of Amazonia is key to saving them for future generations. Act now to protect Indigenous lands and wildlife. #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife.

The drive for #mineral #mining in #Amazonia is driving #indigenous peoples and endangered #animals towards #extinction. Help and fight for them when you #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect @barbaranavarro https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8TF

Key to tempering #Amazonia’s mineral #mining demand for #gold and other metals is prioritising #Indigenous #empowerment #landrights and indigenous sovereignty #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife @barbaranavarro @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8TF

Written by Yolanda Ariadne Collins, Lecturer, International Relations, University of St Andrews. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Illegal mining for critical minerals needed for the global renewable energy transition is increasingly driving deforestation in Indigenous lands in the Amazon.

In recent years, these illegal miners, who are often self-employed, mobile and working covertly, have expanded their gold mining operations to include cassiterite or “black gold”, a critical mineral essential for the renewable energy transition. Cassiterite is used to make coatings for solar panels, wind turbines and other electronic devices. Brazil, one of the world’s largest exporters of this mineral, is now scrambling to manage this new threat to its Amazon forests.

The need for developing countries such as Brazil to conserve their forests for the collective global good conflicts with the increasing demand for their resources from international markets. To complicate matters further, both the renewable energy transition and the conservation of the Amazon are urgent priorities in the global effort to arrest climate change.

But escalating deforestation puts these forests at risk of moving from a carbon sink – with trees absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they release – to a carbon source, whereby trees release more carbon dioxide than they absorb as they degrade or are burnt.

Indigenous and other forest-dwelling communities are central to forest conservation. In 2014, I spent a year living in Guyana and Suriname, two of the nine countries that share the Amazon basin. I studied the effectiveness of international policies that aim to pay these countries to avoid deforestation.

I met with members of communities who were bearing the brunt of the negative effects of small-scale gold mining, such as mercury poisoning and loss of hunting grounds. For decades, mining for gold, which threatens communities’ food supply and traditional ways of life, has been the main driver of deforestation in both countries.

Small-scale mining operations can damage both communities and the natural world. Gold mining, which generates gold for export used for jewellery and electronics, usually begins with the removal of trees and vegetation from the topsoil, facilitated by mechanical equipment such as excavators. Next, the miners dig up sediment, which gets washed with water to extract any loose flecks of gold.

Miners usually then add mercury, a substance that’s known to be toxic and incredibly damaging to human health, to washing pans to bind the gold together and separate it from the sediment. They then burn the mercury away, using lighters and welding gear. During this process, mercury is inhaled by miners and washed into nearby waterways, where it can enter the food chain and poison fish and other species, including humans.

My new book, Forests of Refuge: Decolonizing Environmental Governance in the Amazonian Guiana Shield, highlights the colonial histories through which these countries were created. These histories continue to inform the land-use practices of people and forest users there. Having seen the dynamics firsthand, I argue that these unaddressed histories limit the effectiveness of international policies aimed at reducing deforestation.

Some of the policies’ limitations are rooted in their inattentiveness to the roughly five centuries of colonialism through which these countries were formed. These histories had seen forests act as places of refuge and resistance for Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. I believe that power structures created by these histories need to be tackled through processes of decolonisation, which includes removing markets from their central place in processes of valuing nature, and taking seriously the worldviews of Indigenous and other forest-dependent communities.

But since 2014, small-scale mining-led deforestation in the Amazon has persisted, and even increased. The increase in mining worldwide, driven partly by the renewable energy transition, indicates that these power structures might be harder to shift than ever before.

Added pressure

When crackdowns on illegal gold mining took place in Brazil in the 1970s and ’80s, miners moved en masse to nearby Guyana and Suriname, taking their environmentally destructive technologies with them. Illegal miners of cassiterite are now following a similar pattern, showing that the global effort to reduce deforestation cannot simply focus on a single commodity as a driver of deforestation on the ground.

My work shows that the challenge of mining-led deforestation in the Amazon is rooted in historically informed, global power structures that position the Amazon and its resources as available for extraction by industries and governments in wealthier countries. These groups of people are now seeking to reduce their disproportionately high emissions through technological solutions and not through behavioural change.

These tensions also have roots in the readiness of governments and forest users in postcolonial countries, like Brazil and Guyana, to respond positively and unquestioningly to international demand for these resources.

In the Amazon, outcomes are affected by whether different groups of people have access to livelihoods that do not drive deforestation, such as those based on non-timber forest products. The situation is further shaped by the extent to which governments can work together to ensure that crackdowns in one part of the Amazon, such as Brazil, do not just drive deforestation elsewhere to Suriname, for example.

Until the power structure that disadvantages Indigenous and other historically marginalised groups changes, the negative effects of developing technologies to “save” the planet will continue to disproportionately burden these groups, even as their current way of life remains critical to supporting sustainable development outcomes.

Written by Yolanda Ariadne Collins, Lecturer, International Relations, University of St Andrews. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

ENDS

https://youtu.be/RLsqyADpgn0?si=BniKvXzjQFeZXUoV

Read more about gold mining, indigenous rights and its cost to animals

Western Parotia Parotia sefilata

Western Parotias AKA Arfak Parotias are stunning bird-of-paradise of West Papua known for their mesmerising dances. Palm oil and mining ecocide are threats

Indigenous Peoples Fight Climate Change

After wildfires, Belize’s indigenous people rebuild stronger based on “se’ komonil”: reciprocity, solidarity, gender equity, togetherness and community.

Tucuxi Sotalia fluviatilis

Tucuxi, small freshwater dolphins of Peru Ecuador Colombia and Brazil are Endangered due to fishing nets, deforestation, mercury poisoning from gold mining.

An Action Plan for Amazon Droughts: The Time is Now!

The fertile lungs of our planet, the Amazon jungle faces severe drought due to El Niño, climate change, and deforestation for agriculture like palm oil, soy and meat. This along with gold mining,…

Brazilian three-banded armadillo Tolypeutes tricinctus

The Brazilian three-banded #armadillo Tolypeutes tricinctus, known as “tatu-bola” in Portuguese, is a rare and unique species native to #Brazil. With the ability to roll into a near-impenetrable ball, this endearing behaviour has…

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Take Action in Five Ways

1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• WordPress
• YouTube
• Mail
• Mastodon

Enter your email address

Sign Up

2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

Indigenous Empowerment to Reverse Amazonia’s Mineral Demand

Illegal #mining for minerals like #gold and cassiterite, the latter used for renewable energy, is driving #deforestation in Indigenous #Amazonia. Countries like #Brazil, #Suriname and #Guyana face the challenge of conserving forests, protecting #indigenous peoples, biodiversity whilst also meeting international resource demands. Empowering indigenous peoples to care for biodiversity rich areas of Amazonia is key to saving them for future generations. Act now to protect Indigenous lands and wildlife. #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife.

The drive for #mineral #mining in #Amazonia is driving #indigenous peoples and endangered #animals towards #extinction. Help and fight for them when you #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect @barbaranavarro https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8TF

Key to tempering #Amazonia’s mineral #mining demand for #gold and other metals is prioritising #Indigenous #empowerment #landrights and indigenous sovereignty #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife @barbaranavarro @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8TF

Written by Yolanda Ariadne Collins, Lecturer, International Relations, University of St Andrews. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Illegal mining for critical minerals needed for the global renewable energy transition is increasingly driving deforestation in Indigenous lands in the Amazon.

In recent years, these illegal miners, who are often self-employed, mobile and working covertly, have expanded their gold mining operations to include cassiterite or “black gold”, a critical mineral essential for the renewable energy transition. Cassiterite is used to make coatings for solar panels, wind turbines and other electronic devices. Brazil, one of the world’s largest exporters of this mineral, is now scrambling to manage this new threat to its Amazon forests.

The need for developing countries such as Brazil to conserve their forests for the collective global good conflicts with the increasing demand for their resources from international markets. To complicate matters further, both the renewable energy transition and the conservation of the Amazon are urgent priorities in the global effort to arrest climate change.

But escalating deforestation puts these forests at risk of moving from a carbon sink – with trees absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they release – to a carbon source, whereby trees release more carbon dioxide than they absorb as they degrade or are burnt.

Indigenous and other forest-dwelling communities are central to forest conservation. In 2014, I spent a year living in Guyana and Suriname, two of the nine countries that share the Amazon basin. I studied the effectiveness of international policies that aim to pay these countries to avoid deforestation.

I met with members of communities who were bearing the brunt of the negative effects of small-scale gold mining, such as mercury poisoning and loss of hunting grounds. For decades, mining for gold, which threatens communities’ food supply and traditional ways of life, has been the main driver of deforestation in both countries.

Small-scale mining operations can damage both communities and the natural world. Gold mining, which generates gold for export used for jewellery and electronics, usually begins with the removal of trees and vegetation from the topsoil, facilitated by mechanical equipment such as excavators. Next, the miners dig up sediment, which gets washed with water to extract any loose flecks of gold.

Miners usually then add mercury, a substance that’s known to be toxic and incredibly damaging to human health, to washing pans to bind the gold together and separate it from the sediment. They then burn the mercury away, using lighters and welding gear. During this process, mercury is inhaled by miners and washed into nearby waterways, where it can enter the food chain and poison fish and other species, including humans.

My new book, Forests of Refuge: Decolonizing Environmental Governance in the Amazonian Guiana Shield, highlights the colonial histories through which these countries were created. These histories continue to inform the land-use practices of people and forest users there. Having seen the dynamics firsthand, I argue that these unaddressed histories limit the effectiveness of international policies aimed at reducing deforestation.

Some of the policies’ limitations are rooted in their inattentiveness to the roughly five centuries of colonialism through which these countries were formed. These histories had seen forests act as places of refuge and resistance for Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. I believe that power structures created by these histories need to be tackled through processes of decolonisation, which includes removing markets from their central place in processes of valuing nature, and taking seriously the worldviews of Indigenous and other forest-dependent communities.

But since 2014, small-scale mining-led deforestation in the Amazon has persisted, and even increased. The increase in mining worldwide, driven partly by the renewable energy transition, indicates that these power structures might be harder to shift than ever before.

Added pressure

When crackdowns on illegal gold mining took place in Brazil in the 1970s and ’80s, miners moved en masse to nearby Guyana and Suriname, taking their environmentally destructive technologies with them. Illegal miners of cassiterite are now following a similar pattern, showing that the global effort to reduce deforestation cannot simply focus on a single commodity as a driver of deforestation on the ground.

My work shows that the challenge of mining-led deforestation in the Amazon is rooted in historically informed, global power structures that position the Amazon and its resources as available for extraction by industries and governments in wealthier countries. These groups of people are now seeking to reduce their disproportionately high emissions through technological solutions and not through behavioural change.

These tensions also have roots in the readiness of governments and forest users in postcolonial countries, like Brazil and Guyana, to respond positively and unquestioningly to international demand for these resources.

In the Amazon, outcomes are affected by whether different groups of people have access to livelihoods that do not drive deforestation, such as those based on non-timber forest products. The situation is further shaped by the extent to which governments can work together to ensure that crackdowns in one part of the Amazon, such as Brazil, do not just drive deforestation elsewhere to Suriname, for example.

Until the power structure that disadvantages Indigenous and other historically marginalised groups changes, the negative effects of developing technologies to “save” the planet will continue to disproportionately burden these groups, even as their current way of life remains critical to supporting sustainable development outcomes.

Written by Yolanda Ariadne Collins, Lecturer, International Relations, University of St Andrews. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

ENDS

https://youtu.be/RLsqyADpgn0?si=BniKvXzjQFeZXUoV

Read more about gold mining, indigenous rights and its cost to animals

Western Parotia Parotia sefilata

Western Parotias AKA Arfak Parotias are stunning bird-of-paradise of West Papua known for their mesmerising dances. Palm oil and mining ecocide are threats

Indigenous Peoples Fight Climate Change

After wildfires, Belize’s indigenous people rebuild stronger based on “se’ komonil”: reciprocity, solidarity, gender equity, togetherness and community.

Tucuxi Sotalia fluviatilis

Tucuxi, small freshwater dolphins of Peru Ecuador Colombia and Brazil are Endangered due to fishing nets, deforestation, mercury poisoning from gold mining.

An Action Plan for Amazon Droughts: The Time is Now!

The fertile lungs of our planet, the Amazon jungle faces severe drought due to El Niño, climate change, and deforestation for agriculture like palm oil, soy and meat. This along with gold mining,…

Brazilian three-banded armadillo Tolypeutes tricinctus

The Brazilian three-banded #armadillo Tolypeutes tricinctus, known as “tatu-bola” in Portuguese, is a rare and unique species native to #Brazil. With the ability to roll into a near-impenetrable ball, this endearing behaviour has…

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Take Action in Five Ways

1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• WordPress
• YouTube
• Mail
• Mastodon

Enter your email address

Sign Up

2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

Legacy Mercury Contamination From Historical Gold Mining - A Visualization Tool For Spatial Data On Sediment, Water, And Biota In The Sierra Nevada, California
--
https://ca.water.usgs.gov/sierra-mercury/ <-- shared technical article / storybook
--
https://doi.org/10.5066/P9EL0UN9 <-- shared USGS technical report
--
https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/earth-focus/mercury-in-our-waters-the-10-000-year-legacy-of-californias-gold-rush <-- shared media article
--
#GIS #spatial #mapping #water #hydrology #sediment #biota #ecosystems #spatialanalysis #sampling #mercury #gold #goldmining #history #SierraNevada #goldrush #California #USA #contamination #humanimpacts #waterquality #hydraulicmining #minewaste #environment #methylmercury #watersecurity #publichealth #transportation #uptake #bioaccumulation #landmanagement #hotspots #remediation #ecology #mining
@USGS

#Ghana hollows out #forests and green protections to advance #mining interests

Malavika Vyawahare
28 Aug 2024
via @mongabay

Key points:

- The Ghanaian government has significantly ramped up the approval of mining permits under legislation passed in late 2022, intensifying concerns about runaway environmental damage.

- The country is already the top #gold producer in #Africa, but much of the mining is done in #forest reserves and other #biodiverse #ecosystems.

- The government has long cracked down on artisanal illegal #GoldMiners, but activists say the real damage is being wrought by #industrial operations, both legal and illegal.

- A debt default in 2022 has seen #Ghana lean even more heavily on its gold to mitigate the crisis, prompting warnings that such a policy is neither #economically nor #environmentally #sustainable.

Read more: https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/ghana-hollows-out-forests-and-green-protections-to-advance-mining-interests/

#ApampramaReserve #HeritageImperial #WaterIsLife #SaveTheForests #NoMiningWithoutConsent #CorporateColonialism #C&GAleska #GoldMining #GSBA #LithiumMining #BodiForestReserve #IMFLoans #WorldBank #IMFLoanSharks

Activists ask for help combatting violence against #Nicaragua’s #Indigenous communities

Maxwell Radwin
29 Jul 2024

"Increasing violence in northern Nicaragua this year has displaced rural families and led to calls for more drastic action from the international community, which activists say hasn’t done enough to hold the #Ortega government accountable for human rights abuses.

"For years, Indigenous communities on Nicaragua’s northern #Caribbean coast have suffered threats, kidnappings, torture and unlawful arrests while defending communal territory from #IllegalSettlements and #mining. This year appears to be as bad as ever, and residents say they are desperate for help.

"'Urgent measures must be taken to protect these communities,' said Gloria Monique de Mees, the OAS rapporteur on the rights of Afro-descendants and against racial discrimination. 'Failure to address the crisis will only embolden the Nicaraguan government to continue its repressive campaign.'

"Much of the violence is concentrated within the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region (#RACCN), a jurisdiction communally governed and titled by Indigenous communities since the late 1980s. It’s home to #Miskitus, #Mayangnas, #Ulwa, #Ramas, #Creole and #Garífunas peoples, and contains mountain, #rainforest and coastal #ecosystems.

"The area has attracted non-Indigenous Nicaraguans, known locally as #colonos, looking to set up #farms, #logging operations and artisanal #mines. Massive #gold and #copper deposits have also created opportunities for multinational mining #corporations, with backing from the government.

"Indigenous communities say they’re worried about losing #AncestralLand as well as traditional farming, hunting and fishing practices as the forest is cleared and mines #pollute local streams and rivers."

Read more:
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/activists-ask-for-help-combatting-violence-against-nicaraguas-indigenous-communities/

#WaterIsLife #NoMiningWithoutConsent #GoldMining #CopperMining #IndigenousPeople #IndigenousPeoplesDay #LandBack

#Kayapó #ForestDefenders Urge #UnitedNations to Help Halt Illegal #GoldMining in #Brazil

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
July 23, 2024

GENEVA -- "#Indigenous from Brazil urged the United Nations to join them and demand Brazil halt illegal gold mining, and its #mercury #contamination, now destroying the ancestral homelands of #Kayapó, #Yanomami and #Munduruku Peoples, during the U.N. Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

"Doto Takak Ire, Mebêngôkre, said, 'The Kayapó are still warriors and we will always be defenders of the forests.'

"'We do not want any kind of #exploitation of #NaturalResources in our territories. We want the #Amazon protected, so that our children and all the children of the world can grow up healthy.'"

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07/kayapo-forest-defenders-urge-united.html

#NoGoldMining #NoMining #NoMiningWithoutConsent #ProtectTheForest #ProtectTheAmazon #IndigenousPeoples #IndigenousRights #CulturalGenocide #WaterIsLife #Pollution

Violence and Repression: #Indigenous from #Russia, #Algeria and #Nicaragua Appeal to the #UnitedNations

#CulturalSurvival: "#LatinAmerica is one of the most dangerous regions to be an #IndigenousRights and #environmental defender. Three out of four assassinations of environmental defenders take place in Latin America. Indigenous defenders face a double threat: defending rights and being Indigenous."

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
July 17, 2024

GENEVA -- "The #coal and #GoldMining in Russia has driven #IndigenousPeoples from their homes and poisoned their rivers. In Nicaragua, the assassinations and imprisonment of #LandDefenders has fractured families and communities, presenters told the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

"In Algeria, the people have barely survived 3,000 years of violent #colonization and #genocide.
'Other people should not undergo what we have experienced – which is the case now in #Palestine,' said the representative from the Algeria Association, Learned Society of scientific research, religious and mystical bodies. Describing the genocide in Algeria, he said France has thousands of bones and craniums of the people in French museums.

"An Indigenous woman from #Khakassia Republic in Siberia described the coal and gold mining: 'Coal is mined, despite mass protests, the government used land, private property for this, and citizens were driven out of their homes.' Now, she said, the conditions are no longer good for livestock breeding, which is their way of life.

"'The government is only interested in the presence of natural resources -- but we are a resource ourselves,' she told the #UnitedNations.

"'Our language is disappearing, and we only have one school in the republic where the language is taught. We are #Khakas but we do not govern #Khakassia.'

"'Nothing has been done to protect our land. The main priority is the mining for materials.'

"'I also note the #Shors are suffering from gold mining, they have territory for traditional nature management created by the Republic of Khakassia, traditionally they are fishers and hunters and so on.'

"'However, companies are #polluting rivers, and this water should be used for vital needs. This water flows through villages, however it is polluted, but companies do not put an end to their activities."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07/violence-and-repression-indigenous-from.html

#WaterIsLife #Indigenous #FirstPeoples #NativeRights
#HumanRights #Deforestation #GreedKills #StopEcocide
#StopIndigenousGenocide
#Environmental #ClimateCrisis
#StopKillingForests #IndigenousLand #NativeLand #EcoJustice #InformedConsent
#FirstNations #Colonialism
#CorporateColonialism
#Mining #CulturalGenocide
#IndigenousSovereignty
#LandBack #WaterIsLife
#Canada #LandDefenders
#sovereignty

Violence and Repression: #Indigenous from #Russia, #Algeria and #Nicaragua Appeal to the #UnitedNations

#CulturalSurvival: "#LatinAmerica is one of the most dangerous regions to be an #IndigenousRights and #environmental defender. Three out of four assassinations of environmental defenders take place in Latin America. Indigenous defenders face a double threat: defending rights and being Indigenous."

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
July 17, 2024

GENEVA -- "The #coal and #GoldMining in Russia has driven #IndigenousPeoples from their homes and poisoned their rivers. In Nicaragua, the assassinations and imprisonment of #LandDefenders has fractured families and communities, presenters told the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

"In Algeria, the people have barely survived 3,000 years of violent #colonization and #genocide.
'Other people should not undergo what we have experienced – which is the case now in #Palestine,' said the representative from the Algeria Association, Learned Society of scientific research, religious and mystical bodies. Describing the genocide in Algeria, he said France has thousands of bones and craniums of the people in French museums.

"An Indigenous woman from #Khakassia Republic in Siberia described the coal and gold mining: 'Coal is mined, despite mass protests, the government used land, private property for this, and citizens were driven out of their homes.' Now, she said, the conditions are no longer good for livestock breeding, which is their way of life.

"'The government is only interested in the presence of natural resources -- but we are a resource ourselves,' she told the #UnitedNations.

"'Our language is disappearing, and we only have one school in the republic where the language is taught. We are #Khakas but we do not govern #Khakassia.'

"'Nothing has been done to protect our land. The main priority is the mining for materials.'

"'I also note the #Shors are suffering from gold mining, they have territory for traditional nature management created by the Republic of Khakassia, traditionally they are fishers and hunters and so on.'

"'However, companies are #polluting rivers, and this water should be used for vital needs. This water flows through villages, however it is polluted, but companies do not put an end to their activities."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07/violence-and-repression-indigenous-from.html

#WaterIsLife #Indigenous #FirstPeoples #NativeRights
#HumanRights #Deforestation #GreedKills #StopEcocide
#StopIndigenousGenocide
#Environmental #ClimateCrisis
#StopKillingForests #IndigenousLand #NativeLand #EcoJustice #InformedConsent
#FirstNations #Colonialism
#CorporateColonialism
#Mining #CulturalGenocide
#IndigenousSovereignty
#LandBack #WaterIsLife
#Canada #LandDefenders
#sovereignty

Violence and Repression: #Indigenous from #Russia, #Algeria and #Nicaragua Appeal to the #UnitedNations

#CulturalSurvival: "#LatinAmerica is one of the most dangerous regions to be an #IndigenousRights and #environmental defender. Three out of four assassinations of environmental defenders take place in Latin America. Indigenous defenders face a double threat: defending rights and being Indigenous."

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
July 17, 2024

GENEVA -- "The #coal and #GoldMining in Russia has driven #IndigenousPeoples from their homes and poisoned their rivers. In Nicaragua, the assassinations and imprisonment of #LandDefenders has fractured families and communities, presenters told the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

"In Algeria, the people have barely survived 3,000 years of violent #colonization and #genocide.
'Other people should not undergo what we have experienced – which is the case now in #Palestine,' said the representative from the Algeria Association, Learned Society of scientific research, religious and mystical bodies. Describing the genocide in Algeria, he said France has thousands of bones and craniums of the people in French museums.

"An Indigenous woman from #Khakassia Republic in Siberia described the coal and gold mining: 'Coal is mined, despite mass protests, the government used land, private property for this, and citizens were driven out of their homes.' Now, she said, the conditions are no longer good for livestock breeding, which is their way of life.

"'The government is only interested in the presence of natural resources -- but we are a resource ourselves,' she told the #UnitedNations.

"'Our language is disappearing, and we only have one school in the republic where the language is taught. We are #Khakas but we do not govern #Khakassia.'

"'Nothing has been done to protect our land. The main priority is the mining for materials.'

"'I also note the #Shors are suffering from gold mining, they have territory for traditional nature management created by the Republic of Khakassia, traditionally they are fishers and hunters and so on.'

"'However, companies are #polluting rivers, and this water should be used for vital needs. This water flows through villages, however it is polluted, but companies do not put an end to their activities."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07/violence-and-repression-indigenous-from.html

#WaterIsLife #Indigenous #FirstPeoples #NativeRights
#HumanRights #Deforestation #GreedKills #StopEcocide
#StopIndigenousGenocide
#Environmental #ClimateCrisis
#StopKillingForests #IndigenousLand #NativeLand #EcoJustice #InformedConsent
#FirstNations #Colonialism
#CorporateColonialism
#Mining #CulturalGenocide
#IndigenousSovereignty
#LandBack #WaterIsLife
#Canada #LandDefenders
#sovereignty

Violence and Repression: #Indigenous from #Russia, #Algeria and #Nicaragua Appeal to the #UnitedNations

#CulturalSurvival: "#LatinAmerica is one of the most dangerous regions to be an #IndigenousRights and #environmental defender. Three out of four assassinations of environmental defenders take place in Latin America. Indigenous defenders face a double threat: defending rights and being Indigenous."

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
July 17, 2024

GENEVA -- "The #coal and #GoldMining in Russia has driven #IndigenousPeoples from their homes and poisoned their rivers. In Nicaragua, the assassinations and imprisonment of #LandDefenders has fractured families and communities, presenters told the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

"In Algeria, the people have barely survived 3,000 years of violent #colonization and #genocide.
'Other people should not undergo what we have experienced – which is the case now in #Palestine,' said the representative from the Algeria Association, Learned Society of scientific research, religious and mystical bodies. Describing the genocide in Algeria, he said France has thousands of bones and craniums of the people in French museums.

"An Indigenous woman from #Khakassia Republic in Siberia described the coal and gold mining: 'Coal is mined, despite mass protests, the government used land, private property for this, and citizens were driven out of their homes.' Now, she said, the conditions are no longer good for livestock breeding, which is their way of life.

"'The government is only interested in the presence of natural resources -- but we are a resource ourselves,' she told the #UnitedNations.

"'Our language is disappearing, and we only have one school in the republic where the language is taught. We are #Khakas but we do not govern #Khakassia.'

"'Nothing has been done to protect our land. The main priority is the mining for materials.'

"'I also note the #Shors are suffering from gold mining, they have territory for traditional nature management created by the Republic of Khakassia, traditionally they are fishers and hunters and so on.'

"'However, companies are #polluting rivers, and this water should be used for vital needs. This water flows through villages, however it is polluted, but companies do not put an end to their activities."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07/violence-and-repression-indigenous-from.html

#WaterIsLife #Indigenous #FirstPeoples #NativeRights
#HumanRights #Deforestation #GreedKills #StopEcocide
#StopIndigenousGenocide
#Environmental #ClimateCrisis
#StopKillingForests #IndigenousLand #NativeLand #EcoJustice #InformedConsent
#FirstNations #Colonialism
#CorporateColonialism
#Mining #CulturalGenocide
#IndigenousSovereignty
#LandBack #WaterIsLife
#Canada #LandDefenders
#sovereignty

Violence and Repression: #Indigenous from #Russia, #Algeria and #Nicaragua Appeal to the #UnitedNations

#CulturalSurvival: "#LatinAmerica is one of the most dangerous regions to be an #IndigenousRights and #environmental defender. Three out of four assassinations of environmental defenders take place in Latin America. Indigenous defenders face a double threat: defending rights and being Indigenous."

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
July 17, 2024

GENEVA -- "The #coal and #GoldMining in Russia has driven #IndigenousPeoples from their homes and poisoned their rivers. In Nicaragua, the assassinations and imprisonment of #LandDefenders has fractured families and communities, presenters told the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

"In Algeria, the people have barely survived 3,000 years of violent #colonization and #genocide.
'Other people should not undergo what we have experienced – which is the case now in #Palestine,' said the representative from the Algeria Association, Learned Society of scientific research, religious and mystical bodies. Describing the genocide in Algeria, he said France has thousands of bones and craniums of the people in French museums.

"An Indigenous woman from #Khakassia Republic in Siberia described the coal and gold mining: 'Coal is mined, despite mass protests, the government used land, private property for this, and citizens were driven out of their homes.' Now, she said, the conditions are no longer good for livestock breeding, which is their way of life.

"'The government is only interested in the presence of natural resources -- but we are a resource ourselves,' she told the #UnitedNations.

"'Our language is disappearing, and we only have one school in the republic where the language is taught. We are #Khakas but we do not govern #Khakassia.'

"'Nothing has been done to protect our land. The main priority is the mining for materials.'

"'I also note the #Shors are suffering from gold mining, they have territory for traditional nature management created by the Republic of Khakassia, traditionally they are fishers and hunters and so on.'

"'However, companies are #polluting rivers, and this water should be used for vital needs. This water flows through villages, however it is polluted, but companies do not put an end to their activities."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/07/violence-and-repression-indigenous-from.html

#WaterIsLife #Indigenous #FirstPeoples #NativeRights
#HumanRights #Deforestation #GreedKills #StopEcocide
#StopIndigenousGenocide
#Environmental #ClimateCrisis
#StopKillingForests #IndigenousLand #NativeLand #EcoJustice #InformedConsent
#FirstNations #Colonialism
#CorporateColonialism
#Mining #CulturalGenocide
#IndigenousSovereignty
#LandBack #WaterIsLife
#Canada #LandDefenders
#sovereignty

Did you know that gold kills indigenous people and rare animals?

Gold mining kills indigenous peoples throughout the world like the Yanomami people of Brazil and Papuans in West Papua. The bloody, violent and greedy landgrabbing that goes on for gold forces indigenous women and children into sex slavery! Mercury poisons the water, which kills people and puts 1000’s of species closer to extinction. To help indigenous peoples to fight for their ancestral lands and help endangered animals you should #BoycottGold #BoycottGold4Yanomami

https://youtu.be/RLsqyADpgn0

#Gold #mining kills #indigenous peoples 🩸 forcing women and children into sex #slavery! Help #Yanomami people forced violently from their #rainforest homes for the #greed of gold! 🪙⛔️ #BoycottGold #BoycottGold4Yanomami 🫶🌳@BarbaraNavarro @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8uY

DYK #Gold #mining 🥇🚫 is sending species like #Tapirs and #jaguars 🐅 towards #extinction? 😿It causes #ecocide and violently displaces #Yanomami of #Brazil and #Papuans of #WestPapa. Fight for them 🦥🌱 and #BoycottGold @BarbaraNavarro @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-8uY

Gold mining in the Amazon devastates the Yanomami people’s ancestral land. Meanwhile, Illegal mining drives deforestation, violence, and human rights abuses. Sadly, successive governments in many South American countries, including Brazil, have failed to safeguard the rights of Indigenous peoples, turning a blind eye to the issue. A little known fact is that mercury used in gold extraction poisons ecosystems, wildlife, and people. Another horrifying fact is that indigenous women and children are often forced into sex slavery near mining sites. Major companies and criminals profit from this illegal trade, while the Yanomami suffer.

Gold mining also leads to the loss of biodiversity, disrupts traditional livelihoods, contaminates water sources, and contributes to climate change. You can help when you boycott gold and support Indigenous sovereignty. Share social media posts with the hashtags #BoycottGold and #BoycottGold4Yanomami and follow Barbara Crane Navarro to raise awareness.

ENDS

Read more about why you should boycott gold

Around 25% of Africa’s Land is Damaged: This is How We Fix It!

Almost 25% of all land in Africa has been damaged driven by climate change and deforestation for mining palm oil and cocoa. Take action and protect forests!

Read more

An Action Plan for Amazon Droughts: The Time is Now!

The fertile lungs of our planet, the Amazon jungle faces severe drought due to El Niño, climate change, and deforestation for agriculture like palm oil, soy and meat. This along with gold mining,…

Read more

Indigenous Empowerment to Reverse Amazonia’s Mineral Demand

Illegal mining for minerals like gold is driving Amazonia deforestation. Empowering Indigenous peoples to care for biodiversity-rich areas is the key!

Read more

New Research: Indigenous Communities Reduce Amazon Deforestation by 83%”

Although #deforestation rates in the Brazilian #Amazon have halved, this globally critical biome is still losing more than 5,000km² every year. That’s an area three times larger than Greater London. By combining satellite…

Read more

Dung Beetles Are Rainforests’ Diligent Regrowth Soldiers

The dung beetle may eat and nest in poop, but their role in nature is anything but humble. These hardshelled scarabs live on every continent except Antarctica, recycling feces and suppressing parasites that…

Read more

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Take Action in Five Ways

1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• WordPress
• YouTube
• Mail
• Mastodon

Enter your email address

Sign Up

2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Read more

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Read more

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Read more

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

Read more

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

Read more

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

Read more

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

#barbaraCraneNavarro #boycottGold #boycottgold #boycottgold4yanomami #brazil #childLabour #childSlavery #ecocide #extinction #gold #goldMining #greed #humanRights #indigenous #indigenousRights #jaguars #landRights #landgrabbing #mining #papuans #rainforest #slavery #tapirs #westpapa #yanomami

@RickiTarr @saharafang
The moneyPrinter enables the worst fascism. Are you not aware of the #GFC? Bankers should have gone to prison.

Tillony is #theftOnTheGrandestOfScales, it steals labour, and #soundMoney is what was intended to prevent #tillony. Central bank proponents conspired to create #TheFed, and the world has persistently moved to #fascism ever since. Yes #goldMining is bad, but now we have #bitcoin.

Bitcoin finally enables #LimitsToGrowth. Limits to corporate greed.

Buffy-tufted-ear Marmoset Callithrix aurita

Buffy-tufted-ear Marmoset Callithrix aurita

Red List Status: Endangered

Locations: Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Minas Gerais)

Buffy-tufted-ear Marmosets have dramatically rimmed eyes giving them a delightful “Gothic appearance. These enchanting and charismatic #monkeys live deep in the forests of a tiny area of #Brazil. Buffy-tufted-ear #Marmosets are also known as buffy tufted-ear mamosets or the white-eared marmosets. They are New World monkeys living in a geographically isolated region in the Atlantic coast that has been decimated for #palmoil, #soy and #cattle ranching agriculture and #goldmining. Help them every time you shop and be #vegan, #Boycottpalmoil and #Boycott4Wildlife!

Striking “gothic” looking monkeys, Buffy-tufted-ear Marmosets are #endangered in #Brazil having lost 93% of their rainforest to #palmoil #soy and #cattle. Help them by going #vegan #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2022/11/06/buffy-tufted-ear-marmoset-callithrix-aurita/

Just 7% of the Buffy-tufted-ear #Marmosets’ home remains in #Brazil 🇧🇷 they are on the edge of #extinction from #palmoil and #meat #deforestation. Fight for them and be #vegan 🍌🍉 #Boycottpalmoil and #Boycott4Wildlife 🌴🪔☠️🩸🔥🧐🙈🚫 @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2022/11/06/buffy-tufted-ear-marmoset-callithrix-aurita/

Appearance & Behaviour

The Buffy-tufted-ear Marmoset slightly resemble Common Marmosets although they have shorter ear tufts than other marmosets and have a vivid and striking skull-like colouration on their faces, along with a brown crown and grey-black fur across their bodies. On average they weigh only 300 grams.

They have short snouts and flat noses with intense yellow eyes and a downturned mouth suggesting an attitude of eternal dissatisfaction.

‘The Battle to Save the Buffy Tufted Marmoset of Brazil’ Earth.org

“They generally live in small social groups numbering between 2-8 individuals and consist of a dominant breeding pair. Their juvenile offspring typically will remain in the family group until adulthood to assist their parents with the care of newborn infants.” ~ Earth.org.

They are arboreal and live almost all of their lives in the tree canopies – making them particularly vulnerable to deforestation for palm oil, soy, cattle ranching and mining in Brazil.

Threats

The widespread destruction of forests within this marmoset’s range, especially along the valley of the Rio Paraiba and in the lowland forests are a major threat to the Buffy-tufted-ear Marmoset.

They may remain in some areas of the lowland forest of Rio de Janeiro (Mambucaba, Angra dos Reis), but is considered extinct in lowland forests of São Paulo State (Brandão and Develey 1998).

IUCN RED List

Their traditional home the (once vast) Atlantic rainforest is now mostly destroyed with only 7% remaining standing in Brazil – what remains is severely fragmented. Other than deforestation for palm oil, soy and cattle ranching, they face a panoply of other threats including:

• Yellow fever
• Forest fires, floods and other climate change related extreme weather
• Poaching for food
• Collection for the pet trade
• Forest fragments cut by roads pose a threat for collision with cars
• Pollution run-off from agriculture
• Hybridisation and interbreeding with other marmoset species.

Habitat

They are endemic to the states of Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro of southeastern Brazil, within their montane rainforests of the inland plateau, at chilly dry-season altitudes of up to 1,300 metres. Buffy-tufted-ear marmoset populations inhabit these montane forests, with a few outlying populations in the foothills or lowland coastal forests.

Diet

They mostly feed on insects and occasionally flowering plants like fungi, cacti, soursops and legumes and invertebrates. If food is scarce they have been known to opportunistically hunt for small reptiles, amphibians, and small birds which they catch with their long claws before dispatching with a swift bite to the head.

As the forest disappears their food resources are stretched and they face competition from other species for food sources.

Mating and breeding

Buffy-tufted-ear Marmosets are greatly understudied and under-observed. Therefore little is known about their mating and reproduction. Their gestation period lasts around 170 days and there are typically fraternal offspring.

Buffy-tufted-ear marmosets have no formal protections in place and they need your help. Every time you shop, buy #vegan and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife

You can support this beautiful animal

Mountain Marmosets Conservation Programme

There are no known formal conservation activities in place for this animal. Make sure that you #Boycottpalmoil and #Boycott4Wildlife in the supermarket and raise awareness of the plight of beautiful animals in order to support their survival! Find out more here

Further Information

de Melo, F.R., Port-Carvalho, M., Pereira, D.G., Ruiz-Miranda, C.R., Ferraz, D.S., Bicca-Marques, J.C., Jerusalinsky, L., Oliveira, L.C., Valença-Montenegro, M.M., Valle, R.R., da Cunha, R.G.T. & Mittermeier, R.A. 2021. Callithrix aurita (amended version of 2020 assessment). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T3570A191700629. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-1.RLTS.T3570A191700629.en. Accessed on 12 September 2022.

Buffy Tufted Marmoset on Wikipedia.

How can I help the #Boycott4Wildlife?

Take Action in Five Ways

1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• WordPress
• YouTube
• Mail
• Mastodon

Enter your email address

Sign Up

2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Read more

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Read more

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Read more

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

Read more

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

Read more

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

Read more

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

#animals #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottPalmOil #Brazil #BuffyTuftedEarMarmosetCallithrixAurita #cattle #deforestation #endangered #EndangeredSpecies #extinction #ForgottenAnimals #goldmining #hunting #Mammal #Marmosets #meat #monkey #monkeys #PalmOil #palmOilDeforestation #palmoil #pesticide #poachers #poaching #Primate #primates #SouthAmericaSpeciesEndangeredByPalmOilDeforestation #soy #vegan

13 Reasons To Boycott Gold for Yanomami

Hunger for Gold in the Global North is fueling a living hell in the Global South. Here are 13 reasons to #BoycottGold4Yanomami. Take action every time you shop! Say no to gold and #BoycottGold!

Hunger for #gold in the Global North is fueling a living hell for #Indigenous people in the Global South. Here’s reasons why you should #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Yanomami #SayNoToGold @barbaranavarro 🥇🧐🔥☠️🚫@palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/12/07/here-are-13-reasons-why-you-should-boycottgold4yanomami/

Behind the insatiable appetite for #gold is a dark secret of money laundering, illegal #mining, environmental #ecocide and human misery. Make sure you #BoycottGold4Yanomami when you shop! 🥇☠️🔥🚜🧐❌#Boycott4Wildlife @BarbaraNavarro @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/12/07/here-are-13-reasons-why-you-should-boycottgold4yanomami/

1. Gold mining = greenwashing of crime and corruption

2. Even the world’s biggest gold-importing nations don’t properly monitor the origins of their gold

3. Laundering crimes using gold is easy

4. Gold is a legal version of cocaine

5. Gold mining causes massive deforestation

6. Indigenous people have no rights

7. Brazil’s racist President, Bolsonaro allows land-grabbing to continue

8. Indigenous women and children are forced into sex slavery

9. Violence and murder in gold mining is common

10. Mercury kills ecosystems, people and animals

11. Ecosystems rarely recover from the damage – they are dead

12. Jewellery and electronics companies and criminals are the only ones who benefit from gold

13. Over a million children are forced to work in gold mines

How can I help?

1. Gold mining = greenwashing of crime and corruption

Image: Shutterstock

Back to top ↑

Just like in every other extractive industry in the developing world, palm oil, fossil fuels, gold mining goes hand-in-hand with greenwashing

https://twitter.com/Dragofix/status/1442168669891670017?s=20

https://twitter.com/BarbaraNavarro/status/1465648549371289602?s=20

https://twitter.com/GOLDCOUNCIL/status/1465719200333373448?s=20

https://twitter.com/jobeckerhrw/status/976929269346656257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E976929269346656257%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpalmoildetectivez.wordpress.com%2F%3Fp%3D12558preview%3Dtrue

2. Even the world’s biggest gold-importing nations don’t properly monitor the origins of their gold

Image: ‘llegal gold that undermines forests and lives in the Amazon’ by Igarapé Institute

Back to top ↑

Switzerland, one of the world’s biggest gold-buying nations has weak and pathetic policies for monitoring the origin of gold

The message is loud and clear: the current system to prevent the importation and refining in Switzerland of illegal gold has been found lacking. The country’s financial watchdog reports that Customs data is not sufficiently transparent to differentiate between mined gold, bank gold and recycled gold, all of which are imported under the same code (HS 710812). This absence of identification means bars of dubious origin can easily slip through the net. The report also pinpoints inadequate legislation, compounded by underwhelming penalties: at worst, a CHF 2,000 fine.

‘Switzerland bottom of the class for gold due diligence’, Christophe Roulet, FHH Journal

3. Laundering crimes using gold is easy

Image: ‘llegal gold that undermines forests and lives in the Amazon’ by Igarapé Institute

Back to top ↑

Corruption and laundering gold is simple and easy

Since there is no way to measure whether any given land could feasibly produce the reported amount of gold, illegal miners can co-opt owners of illegal permits to ‘wash’ gold for a fee – estimated by the public prosecutor’s office at 10% of the value of the gold transaction

‘Procedural Limitations of Monitoring and Tracking the Illegal Mining Process in the Brazilian Amazon’ (2021)

In 2020, banks flagged $514.9bn suspicious transactions involving gold companies.

FinCEN Files investigations into the gold trade from around the world. Kyra Guerny, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 2020.

If there’s a crackdown in Peru, you just smuggle the gold across the border to Chile. Or if there’s a crackdown all across Latin America, then you can simply sell your gold through the Emirates, where there are very few controls. It’s a very difficult industry to completely eliminate the opportunities for money laundering, because it’s so global and you can just keep shifting your business.

‘‘Dirty Gold’ chases ‘three amigos’ from Miami to Peru and beyond’:
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

Image: ‘llegal gold that undermines forests and lives in the Amazon’ by Igarapé Institute

4. Gold is a legal version of cocaine

Image: ‘llegal gold that undermines forests and lives in the Amazon’ by Igarapé Institute

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For drug cartels in South America: Gold is just like a legitimate, legal version of cocaine

“Criminal groups make so much more money from gold than from cocaine, and it’s so much easier

Ivan Díaz Corzo, a former member of Colombia’s anti-criminal-mining task force. ‘How drug lords make billions smuggling gold to Miami for your jewelry and phones‘. Miami Herald, 2018.

Drug-cartel associates posing as precious-metals traders buy and mine gold in Latin America. Cocaine profits are their seed money. They sell the metal through front companies — hiding its criminal taint — to refineries in the United States and other major gold-buying nations like Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.

Once the deal is made, the cocaine kingpins have successfully turned their dirty gold into clean cash. To the outside world, they’re not drug dealers anymore; they’re gold traders. That’s money laundering.

‘How drug lords make billions smuggling gold to Miami for your jewelry and phones‘. Miami Herald, 2018.

5. Gold mining causes massive deforestation

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Mining in Indigenous territories of the Amazon is responsible for 23% of deforestation, up from 4% in 2017

“Over the past decade, illegal mining incursions — mostly small-scale gold extraction operations — have increased fivefold on Indigenous lands and threefold in other protected areas of Brazil”

‘Illegal mining in the Amazon hits record high amid Indigenous protests’, Jeff Tollerson, Nature 2021.

“The Amazon Rainforest does not burn by itself. Behind every fire that is lit is corporate greed, like agribusiness. And behind them are the largest banks and corporations in the world. They are the ones who profit from this destruction. They profit from every centimeter of land invaded, from every tree cut and burned. In the flames, they see money.”

Sônia Guajajara, executive director of the Association of Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples (APIB).

6. Indigenous Yanomami have no rights to their land

Image: ‘llegal gold that undermines forests and lives in the Amazon’ by Igarapé Institute

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Venezuela’s illegitimate Maduro regime has rolled back Indigenous rights to stop Yanomami from protesting against gold mining

Venezuela’s constitution recognises its indigenous populations, yet their rights are trampled by the illegitimate Maduro criminal regime. The land is also occupied by armed Colombian groups and others working for the Maduro regime, which seeks to profit from selling the illegally mined minerals.

‘Under Maduro regime, indigenous people suffer’, Noelani Kirschner, Share America, 2020.

7. Brazil’s racist President, Bolsonaro allows land-grabbing from indigenous people

Image: Transparency International

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Far Right president Jair Bolsonaro’s racist policies in Brazil call for an increase in gold mining, palm oil and cattle grazing and the ‘integration’ of Indigenous people

More than 15% of the national territory is demarcated as indigenous land and quilombolas. Less than a million people live in these truly isolated places in Brazil, exploited and manipulated by NGOs. Let’s together integrate these citizens and value all Brazilians.

Jair Bolsonaro

https://twitter.com/jairbolsonaro/status/1080468589298229253?s=20

“We are experiencing an emergency to defend indigenous lives and our territories. We need the world to know this, and to do its part. Indigenous land: not an inch less. Indigenous blood: not a single drop more.”

Sônia Guajajara, executive director of the Association of Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples (APIB).

8. Indigenous women and children are forced into sex slavery

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Sex trafficking is common by women and children, as indigenous people’s traditional means of survival on the land is taken from them

The scale of sex trafficking and paedophilia around illegal gold mines in parts of Latin America is staggering. Thousands of people working there fall prey to labor exploitation by organised crime groups, simply because they have to survive. Girls as young as 12 working in the brothels and bars around illegal gold mines.

‘Sex trafficking ‘staggering’ in illegal Latin American gold mines: researchers’ By Anastasia Moloney, Thomson Reuters Foundation, 2016.

Mining regions in the rainforest have become epicenters of human trafficking, disease and environmental destruction, according to government officials and human rights investigators. Miners are forced into slavery. Prostitutes set up camps near the miners, fueling the spread of sexually transmitted infections. One human rights group found that 2,000 sex workers, 60 percent of them children, were employed in a single mining area in Peru. Meanwhile, strip mining and the indiscriminate use of mercury to ferret out gold are turning swaths of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems into a nightmarish moonscape. In 2016, Peru declared a temporary state of emergency over widespread mercury poisoning in Madre de Dios, a jungle province rife with illegal mining. Nearly four in five adults in the area’s capital city tested positive for dangerous levels of mercury…”

Barbara Navarro

9. Violence and murder in gold mining is common

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Gold miners are controlled by fear of having their fingers cut off or of being executed

The illegitimate Maduro regime both controls the illegal gold mining and turns a blind eye to environmental and human rights abuses. Human Rights Watch report collected testimonials from Venezuelan gold miners. The report revealed that miners are kept under tight control by syndicates of armed criminals, such as the guerilla organisation FARC, also known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and the ELN, also known as the National Liberation Army. If miners or other members of the public are caught stealing they have their fingers publicly cut off or are killed.

‘Venezuela: Violent Abuses in Illegal Gold Mines’, Human Rights Watch, 2020.

10. Mercury used in gold mining kills ecosystems, people and animals

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Deadly mercury is used to extract gold out of the sludge. This poisons and kills everything in its path

Firstly, water cannons blast away river banks. After this, toxic mercury is used by miners to extract gold from the sediment. After the process, the dumping of mercury contaminates the soil and seeps into the air and water. This permanently destroys the water table, dispersing mercury 100’s of miles away, contaminating fishing stocks, animals and humans. Both people and animals in gold mining regions have high levels of mercury present in their bodies, leading to chronic illnesses and problems with brain function.

‘The New Gold Rush’, Wake Forest University, 2018.

Infographic: Illegal Gold Mining Chain Peru by Insight Crime

11. Ecosystems rarely recover from the damage – they are dead

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“Gold mining significantly limits the regrowth of Amazonian forests, and greatly reduces their ability to accumulate carbon. Recovery rates on abandoned mining pits and tailing ponds were among the lowest ever recorded for tropical forests, compared to recovery from agriculture and pasture.”

‘Gold mining leaves deforested Amazon land barren for years, find scientists’ The Conversation, July 1, 2020.

12. Jewellery and electronics companies and criminals are the only ones who benefit from gold

Image: ‘lllegal gold that undermines forests and lives in the Amazon’ by Igarapé Institute

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Venezuelan gold from Yanomami territories is laundered and ends up in global brands of jewellery and electronics

An investigation of mercury trafficking networks in the Amazon reveals how Venezuelan gold is laundered into legitimate supply chains and could end up in products made by the world’s biggest corporations.

Image: ‘lllegal gold that undermines forests and lives in the Amazon’ by Igarapé Institute

The tainted gold leaves the refineries in glittering bars stamped with their logos, and is sold to international corporations that incorporate the precious metal in our phones, computers, cars, and other technologies.

Mercury: Chasing the Quicksilver by InfoAmazonia

13. More than a million children work in gold mining around the world

Image: Survival

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There are more than 1 million children working in goldmines around the world. Some of this gold ends up in our mobile telephones. This is the conclusion of the study conducted by SOMO Centre for Research in recent months, which was commissioned by Stop Child Labour.

Every year, the electronics industry uses 279,000 kg of gold with a value of more than 10 billion euros. Making it the third largest buyer of gold after the jewellery industry and the financial sector. Even though nearly all electronics companies state that they do not accept child labour, they are almost doing nothing to actively eradicate child labour in goldmines.

Gold, Child Labour and Electronics

How can I help?

Image: ‘lllegal gold that undermines forests and lives in the Amazon’ by Igarapé Institute

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Here’s some actions you can take every day to stop the corruption, destruction and human rights abuses associated with gold mining.

1. Raise your voice online for the Yanomami using the hashtag #BoycottGold4Yanomami

Share this article along with many articles by Indigenous Activist Barbara Crane Navarro about this issue on social media using the hashtag #BoycottGold4Yanomami

Image: Barbara Crane Navarro

2. Stop buying gold jewellery and investing in gold

Put your money where your mouth is and don’t support this corrupt and evil industry.

3. Buy vintage second-hand gold jewellery – don’t buy new gold

This makes a unique and special gift for the one you love. It also does not require more mining to get the gold jewellery. This is the ONLY form of sustainable gold jewellery.

Image: ‘lllegal gold that undermines forests and lives in the Amazon’ by Igarapé Institute

4. Don’t fall for the luxury advertising of jewellery brands like Chopard, Tiffany&Co, Cartier, Bvlgari etc.

Don’t be a sucker for luxury. Remember the reality of what gold and diamond mining is doing to the natural world and to Indigenous people.

Image: ‘lllegal gold that undermines forests and lives in the Amazon’ by Igarapé Institute

5. Fix and repair old mobile phones and laptops rather than buying new ones containing gold

This can be hard with the planned obsolescence of a lot of technology (in other words the short lifespan). However all we can do is do our best. Also you can pressure tech brands to make their goods more long-lasting and repairable and cite this as a critical reason why their industry is corrupt, greedy and needs to change.

Image: ‘lllegal gold that undermines forests and lives in the Amazon’ by Igarapé Institute

6. Support Indigenous Rights NGOs that actually stop landgrabbing in the Amazon, Africa and elsewhere like Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB)

APIB recently successfully took the Brazilian government and Bolsonaro to court for ecocide and deforestation. Avoid supporting NGO’s that do very little other than virtue-signalling, like Survival.

6. Follow Barbara Crane Navarro on Twitter and WordPress

She has spent decades fighting for the Yanomami people.

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Images: Barbara Crane Navarro

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Harlequin Poison Frog Oophaga histrionica

Harlequin Poison Frog Oophaga histrionica

IUCN Status: Critically Endangered (IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group, 2019)

Location: Colombia.
Endemic to the Chocó rainforest of Colombia, the Harlequin Poison Frog (Oophaga histrionica) inhabits humid lowland and foothill forests. These frogs thrive in leaf litter and near small water sources, where they reproduce and communicate using distinct vocalisations.

A dazzling splash of colour against the deep greens of Colombia’s Chocó rainforests, the harlequin poison frog is as deadly as it is beautiful. Cloaked in hypnotic shades of orange, yellow, green and black, this tiny amphibian is a master of chemical warfare—their skin is infused with powerful alkaloid toxins that can paralyse or kill predators. But despite their formidable defences, they are completely helpless against human destruction.

Once thriving in the dense, misty forests of western #Colombia, this critically endangered frog is now on the brink of extinction. Illegal mining, rampant deforestation for #palmoil plantations, and the relentless #wildlifetrade have devastated their fragile rainforest home. The same vibrant colours that warn predators away have made them a prime target for #poachers supplying the exotic #pettrade.

This extraordinary species is a vital part of its ecosystem, controlling insect populations and contributing to the rainforest’s delicate balance. But unless urgent action is taken, the harlequin poison frog could vanish forever.

Protect their rainforest home. Say no to palm oil, reject the illegal pet trade, and demand stronger protections for Colombia’s amphibians. #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife

https://youtu.be/fh8TCdrCw-I

Harlequin Poisonous #Frogs 🐸🐸have vivid shades of 💛💚🧡. Unlike other frogs both males and females fiercely guard eggs. #PalmOil #Soy #Meat and #GoldMining are threats in #Colombia. Help them when you #BoycottGold 🥇☠️⛔️ be #vegan #BoycottPalmOil 🌴☠️⛔️https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/03/20/harlequin-poison-frog-oophaga-histrionica/

Dazzling Harlequin Poisonous #Frogs 🐸💚 of #Colombia 🇨🇴 are sensitive to noise 🎶📢 Their rainbow colours 🌈 make them #rainforest works of art! ✨🎨Critically Endangered by #mining and #palmoil #BoycottGold 🥇🩸⛔️ #BoycottPalmOil 🌴☠️⛔️ @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/03/20/harlequin-poison-frog-oophaga-histrionica/

Appearance and Behaviour

Few creatures rival the harlequin poison frog in sheer visual spectacle. No two individuals look alike—each frog sports a unique pattern of vivid colours, a living work of rainforest art. These colours serve as a bold warning to predators: “Eat me and regret it.” Unlike other frogs that rely on camouflage, this species flaunts their toxicity in the open.

Growing to just 32.9 mm in length, these frogs are tiny but fiercely territorial. Males perch on fallen logs or leaves, calling loudly to attract mates and defend their domain. Their vocalisations shift depending on their surroundings—frogs near noisy streams produce higher-pitched calls to cut through the background noise.

Unlike most #amphibians, they do not lay their eggs in water. Instead, the female carefully deposits them on the forest floor. Once the tadpoles hatch, she carries them one by one on her back, climbing high into the canopy to deposit them in the tiny water pools inside bromeliads. She returns regularly to feed them unfertilised eggs, ensuring they receive the nutrients needed to grow. Without this dedicated parental care, the tadpoles would not survive (Medina et al., 2013).

Geographic Range

The harlequin poison frog is found only in the Chocó region of western Colombia, a biodiversity hotspot teeming with rare and endemic species. But its habitat is shrinking fast. Once covering vast swathes of rainforest, this species is now confined to small, isolated patches between 300 and 730 metres above sea level. This extreme habitat fragmentation is pushing the species closer to extinction (IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group, 2019).

Diet

Harlequin poison frogs are insectivores, feasting primarily on ants, mites, and termites. Their diet is directly linked to their toxicity—these frogs do not produce their own poison but instead absorb toxic alkaloids from the insects they consume. In captivity, where their diet is different, they lose their toxicity entirely, proving just how essential their rainforest ecosystem is to their survival.

Reproduction and Mating

This species’ reproductive strategy is one of the most fascinating in the animal kingdom. Unlike most frogs that lay hundreds of eggs in water, the harlequin poison frog invests heavily in just a few offspring. The Harlequin Poison Frog demonstrates remarkable parental care.

Males attract females through distinct vocal calls, often influenced by environmental factors such as stream noise. After the female lays her eggs on the forest floor, the male guards them until they hatch. Then, the mother carries each tadpole on her back, one at a time, up into the trees. She carefully places them in separate bromeliads—tiny pools of water trapped in the plant’s leaves. To ensure their survival, she periodically returns to each tadpole and lays unfertilised eggs for them to eat. Without this specialised care, they would not survive (Medina et al., 2013).

This highly specialised reproductive strategy ensures tadpole survival in an ecosystem with limited standing water.

Threats

The major threats to the Harlequin Poison Frog are deforestation caused by small-scale agriculture, including livestock, mining activities, and logging, resulting in degraded and fragmented forest at the only known locality (M. Pareja pers. comm. February 2019). However, some patches are still in good condition (M. Pareja pers. comm. February 2019). Pollution associated with mining also represents a threat to the species.

IUCN RED LIST

The harlequin poison frog is critically endangered due to a perfect storm of human-driven threats:

Illegal pet trade

These frogs are highly sought after in the exotic pet trade, with many dying in transit or being removed from wild populations at unsustainable rates.

Noise pollution

Increased human activity and deforestation near water sources are affecting their ability to communicate and reproduce.

Deforestation and Palm Oil Expansion

• Colombia’s rainforests are being rapidly cleared for palm oil plantations and cattle ranching. Illegal logging and land conversion have fragmented the frog’s habitat, leaving it nowhere to go.

Illegal Wildlife Trade

This species is highly sought after by collectors in the exotic pet trade. Despite international protections, poachers continue to smuggle these frogs out of Colombia.

Gold Mining and Mercury Contamination

Illegal gold mining pollutes water sources with mercury, poisoning amphibians at all life stages. Deforestation caused by mining activities is wiping out breeding and foraging habitats.

Climate Change

Rising temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns threaten the species’ delicate reproductive cycle. Extreme weather events may impact the availability of bromeliads for tadpole development.

Take Action!

The harlequin poison frog is on the edge of extinction, but there’s still time to help:

• Boycott palm oil. The destruction of rainforests for palm oil plantations is wiping out amphibian habitats. Choose products that are 100% palm oil-free.
• Reject the illegal pet trade. Never buy wild-caught poison frogs. Support only reputable captive breeding programs.
• Support rainforest conservation. Donate to organisations protecting Colombia’s rainforests and wildlife.
• Demand stronger protections. Contact policymakers to advocate for stricter enforcement against wildlife trafficking and habitat destruction.

Every action counts. Resist and fight back before it’s too late. #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife

FAQs

How toxic is the harlequin poison frog?

The harlequin poison frog produces powerful alkaloid toxins known as histrionicotoxins, which block neural receptors and can cause paralysis or death in predators. The toxins are acquired from their diet—frogs raised in captivity without their natural diet are completely non-toxic (Medina et al., 2013).

What makes Harlequin Poison Frogs toxic?

Their toxicity comes from consuming alkaloid-rich ants and mites. When deprived of this diet, such as in captivity, they lose their poison.

Why do Harlequin Poison Frogs have different calls?

Research by Vargas-Salinas and Amézquita (2013) found that their calls adapt to environmental noise levels. Frogs living near noisy streams produce higher-frequency calls to ensure their signals are heard, while those in quieter areas use lower-frequency calls. This shows how environmental conditions shape evolution in real time.

Why is the harlequin poison frog critically endangered?

Deforestation for palm oil, soy and meat, illegal wildlife trade, gold mining, and habitat fragmentation have driven this species to the brink. With an extremely limited range, any further habitat loss could mean extinction (IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group, 2019).

What is unique about the harlequin poison frog’s reproduction?

This species exhibits exceptional parental care. Unlike most frogs, they do not lay eggs in water. Instead, females transport newly hatched tadpoles on their backs to water-filled bromeliads, where they are fed unfertilised eggs until they mature (Medina et al., 2013).

Do harlequin poison frogs make good pets?

No. While some poison dart frogs are legally bred in captivity, wild-caught harlequin poison frogs are often smuggled illegally, contributing to population decline. Captive frogs also lose their toxicity, making them less vibrant and potentially unhealthy (Zamora et al., 1999).

How many Harlequin Poison Frogs are left in the wild?

Exact numbers remain unknown, but population declines due to habitat loss and illegal trade are well-documented. Their Endangered status indicates a high risk of extinction if conservation efforts are not strengthened.

How long do Harlequin Poison Frogs live?

They typically live 5–8 years in the wild.

Are Harlequin Poison Frogs good pets?

No. Keeping these frogs as pets is a selfish act that contributes to their extinction. Many individuals in the pet trade are illegally captured, harming wild populations and destroying delicate ecosystems. If you care about these animals, advocate for their conservation instead of supporting the illegal pet trade.

How can I help protect Harlequin Poison Frogs?

Avoid and boycott palm oil, support conservation efforts, and speak out against the illegal pet trade. Protecting their rainforest home is the key to their survival.

Support the conservation of this species

Poison Dart Frogs

Manchester Museum captive breeding programme

Further Information

IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group. 2019. Oophaga histrionica. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019: e.T144231367A144443857. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-2.RLTS.T144231367A144443857.en. Downloaded on 16 February 2021.

Vargas-Salinas, F., & Amézquita, A. (2013). Stream noise, hybridization, and uncoupled evolution of call traits in two lineages of poison frogs: Oophaga histrionica and Oophaga lehmanni. PLoS ONE, 8(10), e77545. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0077545

Wikipedia contributors. (n.d). Harlequin poison frog. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlequin_poison_frog

Harlequin Poison Frog Oophaga histrionica

How can I help the #Boycott4Wildlife?

Take Action in Five Ways

1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

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2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

Blue-billed Curassow Crax alberti

Blue-billed Curassow Crax alberti

IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
Location: Colombia

The Blue-billed Curassow is endemic to Colombia, with remaining populations in the tropical forests of the Magdalena Valley, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and the Serranía de San Lucas. These birds inhabit lowland humid forests and fragmented secondary woodlands, clinging to survival in one of the world’s most deforested biodiversity hotspots.

The endearing Blue-billed Curassow Crax alberti is a unique bird of #Colombia currently classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List due to rapid habitat loss for multiple different cash crops and intense hunting pressures. Less than 2,500 mature individuals remain, with many subpopulations highly fragmented and isolated. A shy, ground-dwelling bird, Blue-billed Curassows plays an essential role in forest regeneration through #seeddispersal. But #timber, #meat, #goldmining, #coca plantations, and #palmoil agriculture have devoured more than 90% of their original range. Without urgent conservation action, this #bird faces imminent #extinction. Always choose products that are 100% #palmoilfree and go #vegan BoycottPalmOil, always #BoycottGold #Boycott4Wildlife

https://youtu.be/4yd5AvFqxRM?si=WoGaoOWpW_ot4o3e

Stunning turkey-like #birds, blue-billed #Currasows 🪿🦜 are critically #endangered in #Colombia 🇨🇴 due to #PalmOil, illegal #Coca, soy and meat #deforestation. Help them and be #vegan 🥩🩸⛔️ #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🩸🚜🔥🚫 #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/02/18/blue-billed-curassow-crax-alberti/

A beautiful and colourful #bird 🦜🕊️ the blue-billed #Currasow of #Colombia faces a plethora of serious threats incl. illegal #GoldMining 🩸🔥⛔️ and #PalmOil. Help them when and #BoycottGold #BoycottPalmOil 🌴🩸🚜🔥🚫 #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/02/18/blue-billed-curassow-crax-alberti/

Appearance and Behaviour

The Blue-billed Curassow is a striking, turkey-sized bird with glossy black plumage in males and a striking pale blue cere at the base of their bill, from which the species takes their name. Females are distinguished by their rufous-brown underparts and barred tails. Both sexes feature a curled crest of black feathers atop their heads, adding to their dramatic appearance (Shanahan, 2017).

They are shy and elusive birds, preferring to forage alone or in pairs along the forest floor. Observations in El Paujil Bird Reserve noted that they forage by scratching leaf litter for fallen fruit, seeds, invertebrates, shoots, and occasionally carrion or even terrestrial crabs (Urueña, 2008a; Melo et al., 2008). Roosting sites are usually located in tree foliage close to feeding areas and reused for several days (Hirschfeld, 2008).

Diet

The Blue-billed Curassow is an omnivore. Its diet is mainly composed of fruit and seeds, but it also consumes invertebrates such as insects, shoots, and occasionally carrion. A recent survey documented seed consumption from at least 15 plant species, as well as one record of terrestrial crab consumption (Urueña, 2008a; Quevedo et al., 2005).

Reproduction and Mating

Breeding occurs primarily in the dry season, with nests observed between December and March. However, studies in the El Paujil Bird Reserve noted a possible second breeding season from July to September (Urueña, 2008b). Clutches typically contain two to three eggs. As with other cracids, both parents may play a role in chick rearing. In the wild, families with chicks are typically observed during March through August (Cuervo & Salaman, 1999).

Geographic Range

Endemic to Colombia, the Blue-billed Curassow once roamed vast tracts of humid lowland forest throughout the northwestern Andes. Now, it persists only in fragmented patches across the Magdalena Valley, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and the Serranía de San Lucas (Valencia et al., 2023; IUCN, 2023).

Historically, over 90% of its potential range has been cleared or degraded due to deforestation for agriculture, coca plantations, and ranching (Melo et al., 2008). One GIS analysis estimated a 39% loss in potential distribution between 1986 and 2002 alone, with an annual deforestation rate of 2.4% (Melo et al., 2008).

Threats

• Deforestation for agriculture and livestock is the most significant threat to the survival of the Blue-billed Curassow. Almost 90% of their tropical forest habitat in northern Colombia has been cleared or severely degraded due to cattle ranching, rice cultivation, cotton production, palm oil, soy and coca plantations. These activities have fragmented the curassow’s range into isolated patches too small to support viable populations.

• The illegal pet trade and commercial hunting pose a grave threat. Curassows are hunted for meat and occasionally captured for the illegal pet trade. Surveys in Antioquia reported at least 57 individuals killed between 2002 and 2003, mostly during the breeding season, exacerbating their population decline (Melo et al., 2008). Hunting pressure remains high in rural communities surrounding the few remaining forest patches (Cabarcas et al., 2008).

• Political instability and post-conflict development have further imperilled the species. Ironically, decades of civil conflict prevented large-scale deforestation in some remote regions by limiting access to armed groups. However, peace agreements have led to rapid expansion of agriculture, mining, and logging into formerly inaccessible forests, especially in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and Serranía de San Lucas—key strongholds for the species (Shanahan, 2017; Negret et al., 2017).

• Illegal gold mining and drug production have escalated forest destruction and brought with them roads, settlements, and deforestation. The 1996 gold rush in the Serranía de San Lucas resulted in widespread logging and land clearance for coca production. Subsequent government herbicide spraying has further damaged ecosystems essential for the curassow’s survival (Cuervo & Salaman, 1999; Melo et al., 2008).

• Habitat fragmentation has reduced the availability of forest patches larger than 3 km², which are considered the minimum size needed to support a viable population of Crax alberti (Melo et al., 2008). This has severely disrupted dispersal, gene flow, and nesting success.

• Infrastructure projects, such as highways, act as barriers between populations. For example, the Santa Marta-Riohacha Highway isolates birds in Tayrona National Park from those in the nearby Sierra Nevada foothills, reducing connectivity and increasing local extinction risks (Strewe et al., 2010).

• Low reproductive success in captivity threatens the future of ex-situ conservation. As of 2021, there were only 27 Blue-billed Curassows in Colombian zoos, most of them ageing. Only one male was actively breeding, making captive-breeding efforts challenging and precarious (Dueñas Flórez, 2021).

Take Action!

Help protect the Blue-billed Curassow by refusing to support deforestation-linked products and industries. Boycott palm oil, logging, and industrial meat farming, all of which fuel forest loss. Support indigenous-led conservation efforts in Colombia and ecotourism models that empower local communities while preserving habitat. Take action and use your wallet as a weapon! #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife #Vegan #BoycottMeat

FAQs

How many Blue-billed Curassows are left in the wild?

According to the IUCN Red List, there are estimated to be between 150 and 700 individuals remaining in the wild (IUCN, 2023) they are tragically critically endangered. Other sources suggest the total may be as high as 2,500 mature individuals when including fragmented populations across different reserves and national parks.

What is the lifespan of a Blue-billed Curassow?

In the wild, the lifespan is not well documented due to their elusive nature, but it is thought to be around 15–20 years, similar to other large cracids. In captivity, individuals may live longer depending on conditions and veterinary care (Melo et al., 2008).

What are the predators of the Blue-billed Curassow?

Natural predators include large birds of prey and terrestrial mammals such as jaguars and ocelots. However, human hunting remains the dominant threat, particularly targeting adults during breeding season and young birds for food and captivity (Melo et al., 2008; Cabarcas et al., 2008).

Why is the Blue-billed Curassow critically endangered?

This species has suffered catastrophic declines due to habitat destruction, especially from logging, palm oil agriculture, coca plantations, and mining. Additionally, hunting for bushmeat and egg collection has further reduced population numbers. The fragmentation of remaining populations also increases their vulnerability to extinction (Valencia et al., 2023).

Support the conservation of this species

This animal has no protections in place. Read about other forgotten species here. Create art to support this forgotten animal or raise awareness about them by sharing this post and using the #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife hashtags on social media. Also you can boycott palm oil in the supermarket.

Further Information

BirdLife International. 2018. Crax alberti (amended version of 2016 assessment). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T22678525A127590617. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22678525A127590617.en. Downloaded on 18 February 2021.

Dueñas Flórez, M. (2021, August 27). Blue-billed Curassow (Crax alberti): Conservation efforts in Colombia. Association of Avian Veterinarians. https://www.aav.org/blogpost/1525799/375769/Blue-billed-Curassow-Crax-alberti–Conservation-efforts-in-Colombia

Melo, I., Ochoa-Quintero, J. M., López-Arévalo, H. F., & Velásquez-Sandino, P. (2008). Potential habitat loss and subsistence hunting of Blue-billed Curassow (Crax alberti), a Colombian critically endangered endemic bird. Caldasia, 30(1), 161–177.

Shanahan, M. (2017, November 2). Will the bird that dodged a bullet pay the price of peace? Mongabay. Retrieved from https://news.mongabay.com/2017/11/will-the-bird-that-dodged-a-bullet-pay-the-price-of-peace/

Valencia, I. F., Kattan, G. H., Valenzuela, L., Caro, L., Arbelaez, F., & Forero-Medina, G. (2023). Evaluation of alternative conservation strategies for the blue-billed curassow Crax alberti in the Middle Magdalena Valley, Colombia. Oryx, 57(2), 239–247. doi:10.1017/S0030605322000060

Blue-billed Curassow Crax alberti

How can I help the #Boycott4Wildlife?

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Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

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The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

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How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

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3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

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https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

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#Bird #birds #Birdsong #BlueBilledCurassowCraxAlberti #BoycottGold #Boycott4wildlife #BoycottGold #BoycottMeat #BoycottPalmOil #coca #Colombia #CriticallyEndangeredSpecies #Currasow #Currasows #deforestation #endangered #extinction #ForgottenAnimals #goldmining #hunting #illegalPetTrade #meat #palmoil #palmoilfree #SeedDispersers #seeddispersal #SouthAmericaSpeciesEndangeredByPalmOilDeforestation #timber #vegan

Tapanuli Orangutan Pongo tapanuliensis

Tapanuli Orangutan Pongo tapanuliensis

IUCN Red List: Critically Endangered

Locations: Found only in the Batang Toru Ecosystem in North Sumatra, Indonesia.

The Tapanuli #Orangutan Pongo tapanuliensis is the most endangered #greatape species on Earth, with fewer than 800 individuals surviving in the wild. Listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN, they are confined to a tiny mountainous area of primary rainforest in the Batang Toru Ecosystem #Indonesia. Their survival is threatened by relentless industrial expansion—#hydroelectric dams, gold mines, geothermal projects—and vast deforestation for palm oil and rubber plantations. As a keystone species, their survival is vital to the entire ecosystem. We must act urgently to protect them. #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife

https://youtu.be/7VxGIH5o6Wg

Just 800 Tapanuli Orangutans remain alive due to #palmoil and #mining #deforestation. If you find their imminent #extinction a disgrace 😡‼️ – there’s something you can do! #BoycottPalmOil 🌴☠️🚫 #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/01/19/tapanuli-orangutan-pongo-tapanuliensis/

The rarest species of #orangutan, the #Tapanuli is on the verge of being lost due to #palmoil and #mining #deforestation destroying 80% of their range. Say no to #ecocide ⛔️🙊🔥🌴🪔 when u shop #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect.bsky.social https://palmoildetectives.com/2021/01/19/tapanuli-orangutan-pongo-tapanuliensis/

Appearance and Behaviour

With expressive faces and a deep orange coat, the Tapanuli Orangutan shares similarities with their Sumatran Orangutan and Bornean Orangutan cousins, but they are genetically and physically distinct. They possess frizzier hair, smaller skulls, flatter faces, and a more prominent moustache. Adult males have uniquely shaped flanges and emit a long call that is subtly different from other orangutans, showing acoustic divergence linked to genetic isolation.

Tapanuli Orangutans live solitary lives or in small, loose social groups. They are primarily arboreal, building elaborate sleeping nests in the forest canopy each night. Recent drone studies by Rahman et al. (2025) confirmed their high canopy preference, and the use of thermal sensors detected individuals invisible to the human eye. These shy forest dwellers avoid human presence and vanish into the dense trees with startling ease.

Diet

Dietary studies from the Tapanuli Orangutan Research Station (Arief & Mijiarto, 2024) recorded 91 plant species consumed, including fruits, young leaves, flowers, bark, and insects. While fruit forms the core of their diet, they also consume termites and other invertebrates when fruit is scarce. Figs, durians, and forest fruits are critical seasonal food sources, and loss of these plants due to palm oil plantations may lead to starvation.

Reproduction and Mating

Tapanuli Orangutans have an extremely slow reproductive rate. Females give birth once every 6–8 years after a gestation of 8.5 months. Infant orangutans remain with their mothers for up to 9 years, learning complex forest survival skills. This slow life history makes them exceptionally vulnerable—losing even a few individuals per year could doom the entire species. Population viability studies predict an 83% decline over three generations without immediate intervention (Wich et al., 2016).

Geographic Range

Once found across a vast swathe of southern Sumatra, the Tapanuli Orangutan now survives in only three isolated forest blocks of the Batang Toru Ecosystem—just 1,500 km². Only 10% of this is formally protected. Historical records suggest they once roamed as far south as Jambi and Palembang, but massive deforestation and human persecution have erased them from most of their former range. Their current habitat is dissected by roads, mines, and farmland.

Threats

The Tapanuli Orangutan was until relatively recently more widespread, with sightings further south in the lowland peat swamp forests in the Lumut area (Wich et al. 2003) and several nests encountered during a rapid survey in 2010 (G. Fredriksson pers. obs.). The forests in the Lumut area have in recent years almost completely been converted to oil-palm plantations.

IUCN Red List

Agro-industrial Expansion for Palm Oil and Rubber

The most significant threat to the Tapanuli Orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) is the relentless conversion of their highland forest habitat into industrial monocultures—particularly palm oil plantations, but also rubber and coffee. A 2024 study highlighted how forest clearance for oil palm, coffee, and rubber cultivation in the Batang Toru Ecosystem has devastated vital orangutan habitat, triggering migration into village gardens and escalating human-orangutan conflict (Lesmana et al., 2024). Wich et al. (2016) further underscore that nearly 14% of the orangutan’s range lacks any form of protection and is especially vulnerable to conversion. Entire lowland forest systems, such as those in the Lumut area, have been obliterated and replaced with palm oil plantations. The habitat loss is not only large-scale but also permanent, given the legal backing often enjoyed by agribusiness in Sumatra.

Infrastructure Development: Hydroelectric dams, roads and gold mining

A controversial Chinese-funded hydropower project threatens to destroy 10% of the Tapanuli Orangutan’s population. Located in the highest-density area of their range, the project will fragment habitat and block genetic flow for Tapanuli Orangutans and make the population vulnerable to collapse (Wich et al., 2019; Lesmana et al., 2024).

Gold and silver mining operations have already cleared approximately 3 km² of orangutan habitat and continue to expand. Compounding these threats, newly constructed roads have opened up previously inaccessible areas, accelerating both forest encroachment and illegal wildlife trade. As highlighted in the Floresta Ambient study (2024), such development has profoundly altered orangutan behaviour, pushing them into conflict with nearby communities.

Illegal Logging and Land Speculation

Despite the 2014 reclassification of parts of the Batang Toru forest from production to protection status, logging continues under outdated or contested permits. One company retains a 300 km² logging permit that cuts through primary orangutan habitat (Wich et al., 2016).

This deforestation is often driven by speculative land grabbing, with companies clearing forest to increase the value of land holdings. Encroachment is further driven by economic migrants, particularly from Nias Island, who settle in these unallocated forests due to lack of land tenure regulation. These migrants frequently convert forested land to agriculture, directly encroaching upon orangutan territories and escalating poaching and human-wildlife conflict (Samsuri et al., 2023).

Human-Orangutan Conflict, Illegal Hunting and the Illegal Pet Trade

Hunting poses a severe and often overlooked threat to the Tapanuli Orangutan. Conflict killings occur when orangutans forage in fruit trees or crops near villages, with some individuals shot with firearms or air rifles during crop conflict. With such a small population, every death is devastating. Orangutan infants are often trafficked for the exotic pet trade after their mothers are killed. According to Wich et al. (2012), the species’ slow reproductive rate makes any loss of adult females—particularly those with offspring—catastrophic for population viability.

The Floresta Ambient (2024) study documents that fruit-bearing trees in village gardens are a primary attractant for orangutans, intensifying seasonal conflict. Despite laws prohibiting the capture and trade of orangutans under CITES Appendix I, enforcement remains weak, and the trade persists.

Take Action!

We are at a tipping point. Only decisive action will save the Tapanuli Orangutan:

• Boycott palm oil every time you shop – learn more here.
• Oppose and resist destructive hydroelectric projects like the Batang Toru dam.
• Support local conservation groups and indigenous-led protection of the Batang Toru forest.
• Demand a moratorium on mining and infrastructure projects in orangutan habitat.

#BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife

FAQs

How many Tapanuli orangutans are left in the wild?

The Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) is the rarest great ape on Earth, with fewer than 800 individuals remaining in the wild. This species is confined to a single, highly fragmented population in the Batang Toru Ecosystem of North Sumatra. According to Wich et al. (2016), the total area of suitable habitat is just over 1,000 km², making their population extremely vulnerable to stochastic events, inbreeding, and continued habitat degradation. A 75-year population viability analysis predicted a staggering decline from ~1,489 individuals in 1985 to just 257 by 2060 without urgent intervention (Wich et al., 2019).

Surveys using innovative thermal drone technology in 2023 confirmed that detection rates are consistent between aerial and ground methods, affirming the grim reality of their numbers (Rahman et al., 2025). With extremely low reproduction rates (a female produces one offspring every 7–9 years), any mortality has a profound impact on population dynamics. The population’s isolation and the lack of genetic exchange further endanger its viability, pushing the species closer to extinction unless dramatic changes are made to protect and connect its remaining habitat (Nater et al., 2017).

How long do Tapanuli orangutans live?

In the wild, Tapanuli orangutans are believed to live approximately 30 to 40 years, with some individuals possibly reaching 50. In captivity, individuals can live up to 60 years when protected from threats and given regular medical care. However, data specific to Pongo tapanuliensis are limited, as they have only recently been recognised as a separate species (Nater et al., 2017). Like other great apes, their slow reproductive cycle means that females generally give birth once every 7–9 years, and juveniles remain dependent on their mothers for up to 8 years. This slow life history leaves them especially vulnerable to population crashes when faced with increased mortality from hunting, habitat loss, or conflict (Wich et al., 2019).

The longevity of these apes in the wild is severely compromised by anthropogenic threats. Conflict with humans over fruiting crops, road construction, and the development of hydropower dams has placed increasing stress on their ecosystem, reducing not only the lifespan of individuals due to direct killings but also the carrying capacity of their habitat. Without the intact rainforest necessary to support their dietary and nesting needs, lifespans are likely to decline further, particularly for juvenile apes displaced or orphaned by habitat destruction (Samsuri et al., 2023).

Why are Tapanuli orangutans disappearing?

Tapanuli orangutans are being driven to extinction by a lethal cocktail of deforestation, infrastructure development, mining, poaching, and habitat fragmentation. Between 1985 and 2007, lowland forest habitat below 500 m was reduced by 60% due to palm oil plantations, road construction, and smallholder agriculture (Wich et al., 2016). These losses have accelerated in recent years, with one of the most devastating developments being the Batang Toru hydroelectric dam, which threatens to sever key corridors connecting their small subpopulations and destroy 10% of their core habitat (Rahman et al., 2025).

In addition, illegal killings are rising due to human-orangutan conflict, especially where crops like durians and jackfruit attract hungry apes into village fields. Surveys in the Dolok Sipirok region found that most conflicts occurred on the edge of forest areas where agriculture has expanded, resulting in economic losses for local people and retaliation killings of orangutans (Floresta Ambient, 2024). These apes are also at risk from trafficking—juveniles are captured for the pet trade, and their mothers are often killed in the process. As these apes only give birth once every 7–9 years, even the loss of a few individuals each year can rapidly collapse the population.

Are Tapanuli orangutans affected by palm oil plantations?

Yes, palm oil expansion is one of the most significant threats to the Tapanuli orangutan’s survival. Forest clearance for palm oil plantations has already wiped out entire swathes of their historic range, especially in the lowland areas of Lumut. These forests were once part of their known distribution, but have now been almost entirely replaced by monocultures of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) (Wich et al., 2016; Nater et al., 2017). Such plantations are ecologically barren for orangutans, offering no food, nesting sites, or safety, while exposing them to poaching and conflict with humans.

The construction of roads and industrial developments linked to palm oil has fragmented orangutan habitat, making it harder for individuals to move safely between feeding and nesting areas. This fragmentation reduces genetic diversity and increases the risk of inbreeding, which has already been detected in Tapanuli orangutan genomes (Nater et al., 2017). Beyond habitat loss, palm oil plantations bring human settlements, increased hunting, and indirect threats like noise pollution and chemical runoff. As seen across Sumatra and Borneo, the palm oil industry’s unchecked expansion continues to destroy the last refuges for Asia’s great apes, including the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan.

Is poaching and illegal trade still a problem for Tapanuli orangutans?

Absolutely. Despite national and international protection, Tapanuli orangutans are still poached, particularly in areas where they forage on cultivated fruit trees, triggering conflict with farmers. According to Samsuri et al. (2023), human-wildlife conflict is one of the strongest predictors of orangutan mortality in the region. Infants are especially at risk from the pet trade; mothers are frequently killed to take babies alive. These infants are then smuggled and sold illegally, often under the guise of ecotourism or exotic pet ownership.

Lack of enforcement is a major factor behind the persistence of illegal trade. While Indonesia has laws against orangutan capture and trade, penalties are rarely enforced and often misunderstood by local communities (Lesmana et al., 2024). Furthermore, conservation areas are often poorly monitored. Forest edge communities facing economic hardship may view orangutans as pests or potential profit. Unless conservation is led by local people and grounded in economic alternatives to poaching and deforestation, the illegal killing of orangutans will continue unchecked.

Can drones help monitor their numbers?

Yes. A 2023 drone study (Rahman et al., 2025) showed thermal drones are effective in detecting orangutans through dense canopy, offering a non-invasive tool for population monitoring.

Further Information

Arief, H., & Mijiarto, J. (2024). Food diversity of the Tapanuli Orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) in the Tapanuli Orangutan Research Station Plan, North Sumatra. Jurnal Pengelolaan Sumberdaya Alam dan Lingkungan, 14(2), 376–388.  https://doi.org/10.29244/jpsl.14.2.376

Arief, H., & Mijiarto, J. (2024). The human and Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) conflict in the tropical mountain rainforest ecosystem, Indonesia. Floresta e Ambiente, 31(1). https://doi.org/10.1590/2179-8087-FLORAM-2023-0019

Lesmana, Y., Basuni, S., & Soekmadi, R. (2024). Ecosophy as a form of protection for the Tapanuli Orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) in the Batang Toru Landscape, North Sumatra. Biodiversitas, 25(11), 4535–4542. https://doi.org/10.13057/biodiv/d251152

Nater, A., Mattle-Greminger, M. P., Nurcahyo, A., Nowak, M. G., De Manuel, M., Desai, T., & Lameira, A. R. (2017). Morphometric, behavioural, and genomic evidence for a new orangutan species. Current Biology, 27(22), 3487–3498. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.09.047

Nowak, M.G., Rianti, P., Wich , S.A., Meijaard, E. & Fredriksson, G. 2017. Pongo tapanuliensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017: e.T120588639A120588662. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T120588639A120588662.en. Downloaded on 24 January 2021.

Rahman, D. A., Putro, H. R., Mufawwaz, T. A., Rinaldi, D., Yudiarti, Y., Prabowo, E. D., Arief, H., Sihite, J., & Priantara, F. R. N. (2025). Developing a new method using thermal drones for population surveys of the world’s rarest great ape species, Pongo tapanuliensis. Global Ecology and Conservation, 58, e03463. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2025.e03463

Samsuri, A., Zaitunah, A., Ashari, R. H., & Kuswanda, W. (2023). Biophysical and anthropogenic factors affecting human and Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) conflict in Sumatran tropical rainforest, Indonesia. Environmental & Socio-economic Studies, 11(4), 77–91. http://bazekon.icm.edu.pl/bazekon/element/bwmeta1.element.ekon-element-000171681828

Wich, S. A., Fredriksson, G. M., Usher, G., & Kühl, H. S. (2019). The Tapanuli orangutan: Status, threats, and steps for improved conservation. Conservation Science and Practice, 1(4), e33. https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.33

Tapanuli Orangutan Pongo tapanuliensis

How can I help the #Boycott4Wildlife?

Take Action in Five Ways

1. Join the #Boycott4Wildlife on social media and subscribe to stay in the loop: Share posts from this website to your own network on Twitter, Mastadon, Instagram, Facebook and Youtube using the hashtags #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.

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2. Contribute stories: Academics, conservationists, scientists, indigenous rights advocates and animal rights advocates working to expose the corruption of the palm oil industry or to save animals can contribute stories to the website.

Wildlife Artist Juanchi Pérez

Read more

Mel Lumby: Dedicated Devotee to Borneo’s Living Beings

Read more

Anthropologist and Author Dr Sophie Chao

Read more

Health Physician Dr Evan Allen

Read more

The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

Read more

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

Read more

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

4. Take to the streets: Get in touch with Palm Oil Detectives to find out more.

5. Donate: Make a one-off or monthly donation to Palm Oil Detectives as a way of saying thank you and to help pay for ongoing running costs of the website and social media campaigns. Donate here

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