Search Climate Insights Directory

The document examines how wildfires—both climate-driven and intentional—degrade air quality and cause acute and chronic health issues. It highlights specific crises in the Amazon, Australia, and Canada, noting increased hospitalizations and respiratory distress, and calls for forest management moratoria and alignment with the Paris Agreement to protect public health.

The author, representing the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, asserts that Indigenous Peoples are the world's best stewards of nature, protecting 80 percent of remaining biodiversity. The text highlights the urgent threat posed by illegal mining, logging, and land grabbing in the Amazon Basin, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and calls for global conservation efforts to prioritize Indigenous rights and ancestral knowledge to maintain global ecological balance.

The report finds that non-agricultural sectors continue to pose a significant risk to global forests, acting as 'drivers of drivers' where infrastructure like roads enables further clearing. Despite the adoption of the 'mitigation hierarchy' and new sustainability certifications, political inertia and the demand for minerals—driven by both industrialization and the transition to low-carbon technologies—threaten intact forests in the Amazon, Congo Basin, and Indonesia. The document highlights a trend of 'protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement' (PADDD) to facilitate construction and notes that while biodiversity offsets are increasing, they often fail to reduce overall forest impacts.

The document outlines projected climate impacts for Latin America and the Caribbean, including temperature increases of up to 4.5 °C, rising sea levels, and glacier loss. These changes are expected to disrupt water runoff, reduce agricultural and livestock yields, and threaten biodiversity, specifically coral reefs and the Amazon rainforest. The paper concludes that the region faces severe risks to human health, infrastructure, and livelihoods due to the potential for simultaneous and compounding impacts.

The paper examines the governance of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus, arguing that while integrated approaches are essential for climate compatible development, they are often hindered by siloed government structures, political contestation over mandates, and limited local capacity. Using evidence from Indonesia, Kenya, and the Amazon basin, it highlights that horizontal and vertical coordination are critical but can be undermined by power imbalances between central and local governments. The author suggests a pragmatic approach to nexus governance, focusing on strengthening the technical and administrative capacities of local government institutions rather than striving for an impractical ideal of total comprehensiveness.

Mighty Earth's May 2017 update reveals that major soy traders Cargill and Bunge continue to be linked to deforestation in Brazil and Bolivia despite public commitments. Using satellite monitoring, the organization identified 60 square kilometers of new deforestation and 120 square kilometers of planned deforestation across previously visited sites. The report highlights a disconnect between corporate environmental advertising and operational reality, while noting that several global consumer brands, such as Unilever and Tesco, support expanding collective action to protect other Latin American regions beyond the Brazilian Amazon.

Mighty Earth's May 2017 update uses satellite monitoring to demonstrate that deforestation continues at soy farms supplying major traders Cargill and Bunge in Brazil and Bolivia. Despite public commitments and pressure from consumer companies, the report identifies 60 square kilometers of new clearing and 120 square kilometers of planned clearing across visited sites. The document highlights a disconnect between the corporate image of traders and the reality on the ground, while detailing the varying levels of support and action from global consumer brands regarding the expansion of deforestation-free soy commitments across South America.

The document evaluates five indicators of financial support for reducing forest emissions: international public climate finance, domestic public spending, private sector investment, indigenous peoples' investments, and civil society investments. It finds that while international public finance from OECD countries has increased, there is a critical lack of harmonized global data for domestic and private sector spending. The report highlights the role of payment for ecosystem services (PES) in developing countries and the emerging potential of South-South cooperation, notably China's commitment of US$3.1 billion in climate finance.

The 2013 Climate Knowledge Brokers (CKB) workshop brought together 35 participants from 17 organisations to enhance the sharing of climate and development information. The event focused on evaluating seven collaborative projects, sharing lessons on user engagement and internet marketing, and discussing the future governance and funding of the CKB Group. Key technical outputs highlighted include the reegle Tagging API and the Knowledge Navigator widget, both designed to reduce information duplication and improve content discoverability. Participants identified a critical need to move beyond 'one way communication' and better integrate local and indigenous knowledge to reach diverse stakeholders in developing countries.

Anglo American used the Corporate Ecosystem Services Review (ESR) for its greenfield Jacaré nickel project in São Félix do Xingú, Pará. The process identified critical dependencies on the São Sebastião River for water and the potential for replacing coal with wood biomass for energy. Key risks include water scarcity driven by climate change and regional economic growth, as well as legal uncertainties regarding land tenure for reforestation. Opportunities include reducing operational costs and carbon footprints through biomass, and improving community relations by investing in local sanitation and reforestation.

The author posits that improved forest management is a "no regrets" strategy that simultaneously addresses immediate vulnerabilities—such as floods and droughts—and long-term climate risks through carbon sequestration. While ecosystem-based adaptation can be a cost-effective alternative to hard infrastructure, the author warns that protecting forests may create trade-offs for local communities. The document suggests using REDD+ mechanisms to finance protection in high-carbon forests while reserving other adaptation funds for low-carbon areas, such as sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, it emphasizes that overcoming poor governance and establishing democratic public participation are essential to implementing these strategies.

The document examines the critical role of ecosystem services in buffering human populations against environmental disturbances and the risks posed by their decline. It highlights how the combination of climate change, biodiversity loss, and land-use change creates 'vulnerability complexes' that disproportionately affect poor and marginalised groups. The brief warns of 'tipping points' that could lead to catastrophic ecological shifts and massive population displacement, estimating that between 24 million and 700 million people could be environmentally displaced in coming decades. It calls for international climate policy to move beyond mitigation to include the monitoring of ecosystem health and the building of resilience to prevent humanitarian crises.

The document argues that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) erred in reinstating Loren Miller's patent for 'Da Vine,' a variety of ayahuasca. It contends the PTO ignored evidence that the plant's flower color was not distinct from existing varieties, misapplied the legal standard for patentability by using an infringement test from the Imazio case, and violated procedural rules by allowing Miller to submit new evidence after a final rejection while denying similar opportunities to indigenous organizations. The author concludes that the decision reflects a systemic failure to protect the traditional knowledge and biological resources of indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin.

The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), on behalf of COICA and the Amazon Coalition, is challenging Plant Patent No. 5,751 issued to Loren Miller for a variety of Banisteriopsis caapi called “Da Vine.” The challenge argues the patent is invalid because the plant's medicinal qualities were already known as “prior art” through indigenous use, its physical features are typical of the species, and it is found in an uncultivated state in the Amazon basin. Beyond this specific case, the authors argue that the U.S. patent system fails to recognize traditional knowledge systems and risks the appropriation of biological diversity without consent or compensation, urging the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to develop new principles to balance private rights with the public domain.

The document reviews the IAI's progress since 1995, noting an increase in member countries and the implementation of collaborative research programs. It identifies a critical dependency on US government funding via NSF grants and outlines a strategy to diversify financial sources, increase participation from new member countries, and enhance regional capacity building through targeted scientific projects and training.

The document highlights the critical role of sediment transport in maintaining the Andean-Amazonian ecosystem and proposes a differentiated monitoring methodology to mitigate the impacts of anthropogenic activities and climate change. It details how infrastructure like hydroelectric dams and dredging can disrupt sediment balance, citing specific cases in Peru and Ecuador, and advocates for integrating sediment monitoring into national public policy and climate adaptation strategies.

Global Witness is pivoting its strategy from seeking accountability within existing systems to demanding a systemic revolution to address the climate crisis. The organization focuses on debunking the role of fossil gas as a climate solution, cutting off financial flows to companies driving deforestation in tropical forests, and advocating for a new global corporate accountability law. It emphasizes the need to protect land and environmental defenders from violence linked to the global agribusiness industry.

This document is an annex to a science report from the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, dated April 30, 1998. It consists of a series of tables detailing the status of project reports, scientific meeting presentations, student support, and the evaluation of pre-proposals related to climate change and global change research in the Americas.

The statement criticizes the Three Basins Summit for marginalizing civil society and ignoring the expansion of oil and gas blocks in the Amazon, Congo, and Southeast Asian basins. The signatories call for a just energy transition, a global moratorium on industrial activities in primary forests, and the legal recognition of Indigenous territories to ensure effective forest protection.

The report provides an economic analysis of securing indigenous land rights in the Amazon basin of Bolivia, Brazil, and Colombia. Using matching analysis, it finds that tenure-secure indigenous forestlands have significantly lower deforestation rates than similar non-secure lands. A benefit-cost analysis indicates that the investment is low-cost and high-benefit, with total ecosystem service benefits estimated between $679 and $1,530 billion over 20 years, while costs represent less than 1 percent of these benefits. The report argues that securing indigenous tenure is a more cost-effective carbon mitigation measure than fossil carbon capture and storage. It recommends that governments reform laws to strengthen community land rights and integrate tenure security into their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).