EcoAméricas

09/04/2026

The start-up of the country’s first commercial-scale green-hydrogen plant is fueling optimism about Brazil’s potential to produce low-carbon hydrogen for domestic industries and international markets.

With abundant renewable energy, major planned production hubs and growing export ambitions, Brazil could have significant economic and environmental opportunities ahead—but experts caution that costs, infrastructure, government incentives and demand remain important hurdles.

Read the full EcoAméricas report on Brazil’s green-hydrogen ambitions here: https://bit.ly/4gULS7H

The recent start-up of a small, commercial-scale green-hydrogen plant has raised hopes that Brazil in the not-distant future will dramatically ramp up low-carbon production of hydrogen for use as a green fuel and industrial feedstock. White Martins, the largest industrial-gas producer in South Ameri...

09/03/2026

Just seven days after taking office, Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori stood in the bed of a pickup truck in the northern city of Piura to address a smattering of government workers, police and journalists accompanying her. In the background, yellow bulldozers churned through a dry riverbed, removing rubbish and sediment.

The tractors were clearing the way for outsized stormwater flows expected from El Niño, the periodic, world-weather-altering phenomenon driven by higher-than-normal sea temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific.

“Our top priority is saving lives,” Fujimori said from the pickup during her Aug. 3 Piura visit. “The second is [protecting] agriculture.”

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasts a 69% chance that this year’s El Niño will be the strongest ever documented. That’s saying something, given how previous El Niño events have taken lives, destroyed crops and thwarted economic growth.

In our latest EcoAméricas report, we look at the government’s response, the challenges facing northern Peru and the concerns environmental and climate experts have about the country’s preparedness.

Read the full story in the August issue of EcoAméricas:

Just seven days after taking office, Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori stood in the bed of a pickup truck in the northern city of Piura to address a smattering of government workers, police and journalists accompanying her. In the background, yellow bulldozers churned through a dry riverbed, removin...

09/01/2026

It’s off to the printers!

The latest issue of EcoAméricas is on its way, featuring in-depth coverage of major environmental developments across Latin America, including:

- Natural and manmade pressures threaten river dolphins in the Ecuadorian Amazon 🐬

- Brazil’s first commercial green hydrogen plant goes online, larger-capacity plants on the way 🏭

- Peru braces for El Niño under new Fujimori administration, environment minister 🌧️

- Argentina’s Vaca Mu**ta oil drilling sparks noise pollution and southern right whale habitat fears 🐳

Stay informed with in-depth reporting and analysis trusted by researchers, NGOs, policymakers, and environmental professionals.

Print copies are available for purchase through the link in our bio.

08/28/2026

A tiny frog that is endemic to—and emblematic of—Panama, yet has not been seen in the wild for over 15 years, has been successfully bred in captivity, with several dozen individuals released into the species’ natural habitat earlier this year.

The bright-yellow, black-spotted Panamanian golden frog (Atelopus zeteki) has a large cultural presence, though it is only 3 to 6 centimeters long. The amphibian, whose skin is highly toxic, appears on Panama’s state lottery tickets, and every August 14th is celebrated as Golden Frog Day.

The breeding and reintroduction project is being carried out by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), a unit of the Smithsonian Institution based in Panama.

Like many other amphibian species in Panama, the golden frog succumbed to the chytrid fungus, an aquatic fungal pathogen that causes a deadly skin disease scientists began linking to amphibian die-offs in the late 1990s.

Those die-offs prompted STRI to join with other international scientific institutions to create the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project.

Intended to safeguard amphibian species highly vulnerable to the chytrid fungus, the project now houses approximately 2,000 adult members of nine critically endangered amphibian species.

This brief was published in this month’s issue of EcoAméricas, out now in print and online.

Receive in-depth reporting and analysis on Latin America's environmental trends with a print or digital subscription to EcoAméricas. Subscribe here: https://bit.ly/4oy2plt

08/27/2026

On May 20, 2025, the government of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele enacted legislation ostensibly intended to spotlight how nongovernmental organizations use funding they receive from foreign sources. A year later, advocacy groups charge that the true objective has been to shutter environmental- and rights-advocacy groups critical of Bukele, whose blend of populism and repression under a youthful veneer is described by some political scientists as “millennial authoritarianism.”

Critics contend the legislation, called the Foreign Agents Law (LAEX), has enabled the Bukele administration to stifle civil-society groups through financial strangulation, self-censorship, and judicial persecution. The harsh climate was the focus of a June 8 report by the Central American Regional Human Rights Monitoring Team, a civil-society network that identifies rights threats in the region.

The document points out that the Salvadoran law, which took effect a year earlier, included a 30% tax on foreign donations. The government says the charge is intended to offset the costs of supervising foreign funds being used in the country, but groups receiving those funds say the tax’s real aim is to suffocate them.

Salvadoran nongovernmental groups are suffering “progressive deterioration, massive administrative burdens, additional costs associated with the Foreign Agents Law and the consequent suspension of community projects,” the report states. Government officials did not respond when asked for comment. Meanwhile, advocacy organizations have been forced not only to scale back, but in some cases to dissolve.

The full article was published in this month’s issue of EcoAméricas, out now in print and online:

On May 20, 2025, the government of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele enacted legislation ostensibly intended to spotlight how nongovernmental organizations use funding they receive from foreign sources. A year later, advocacy groups charge that the true objective has been to shutter environmental- a...

08/21/2026

New legislation enacted in Colombia will help environmentally conscious consumers know whether the beef they buy in supermarkets is deforestation-free.

On May 5, Congress passed a law that tracks individual cattle from birth to slaughter, part of an effort to ensure that the supply chain of commercial beef does not contribute to rampant deforestation in the Colombian Amazon.

In recent years, deforestation has skyrocketed in Colombia’s southern Amazon region, where 60% of tree loss is concentrated. Most of the deforestation is linked to extensive cattle ranching, which has converted primary forests into grazing lands for cattle. Research has shown that beef originating in deforested areas ends up in supermarkets across the country.

The legislation modifies a 2013 Colombian cattle-traceability law by integrating cattle vaccination records, property titles, and satellite images of deforestation hotspots. Authorities say that by cross-referencing those databases, they can better identify whether commercially sold beef originated from deforested land.

The full article was published in this month’s issue of EcoAméricas, out now in print and online: https://bit.ly/4g9ZTPP

(Photo by Christina Noriega)

08/18/2026

The northeastern Argentine province of Corrientes plans to build a slaughterhouse to process wild boars and axis deer—exotic animals whose growing populations pose an increasingly serious threat to biodiversity, agriculture, and public health, experts say.

Officials in Corrientes hope to create a new industry while addressing an invasive animal-species problem posed most widely in the country by wild boar, which experts say now affect nearly half of Argentina’s land area.

Axis deer and wild boar, both of which have been designated as invasive exotic species in Corrientes, were brought to Argentina, respectively, from Europe and India in the late 1800s and early 1900s to serve as game animals. Hunting of both species is currently permitted in the province year-round with no bag limits, a policy shared by other provinces.

“We want to provide a solution and legally transform wild boar and deer meat into a source of protein, given that currently the meat is used only by hunters for personal consumption without any sanitary oversight,” Eduardo Ortiz, Corrientes’ Director of Animal Production, told EcoAméricas.

The full article was published in this month’s issue of EcoAméricas, out now in print and online:

The northeastern Argentine province of Corrientes plans to build a slaughterhouse to process wild boars (Sus scrofa) and axis deer (Axis axis)—exotic animals whose growing populations pose an increasingly serious threat to biodiversity, agriculture, and public health, experts say. Officials in Cor...

08/14/2026

A landmark court ruling in Mexico could reshape the future of Wirikuta, a sacred desert territory of the Indigenous Wixárika people.

A federal judge has ordered the cancellation of 43 mining concessions within the San Luis Potosí state protected area, a major legal victory after 15 years of litigation. But the Wixárika say the ruling does not go far enough: They are seeking the cancellation of all 77 concessions, including those outside the protected area that they say threaten the region’s interconnected water resources.

For the Wixárika, Wirikuta is far more than protected land. It is a sacred place central to their culture, spirituality and identity—and it is also home to remarkable biodiversity.

Read the full EcoAméricas article to learn about the legal battle, the environmental stakes and what the ruling could mean for Indigenous rights and conservation in Mexico:

A Mexican court has ordered the cancellation of 43 mining concessions in the San Luís Potosí state Protected Area of Wirikuta, a sacred territory of the Indigenous Wixárika people. The precedent-setting, March 11 ruling by the presiding judge of the Fourth Federal District Court of San Luis Potos...

08/13/2026

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has moved to replace the country’s foundational environmental statute, attempting what is described as the most significant reshaping of the country’s green-regulation framework in nearly four decades.

The Sheinbaum administration’s proposed General Law on Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection (LGEEPA), unveiled on May 14 and submitted to the Senate six days later, would replace the country’s existing LGEEPA, which was enacted in 1988 and subsequently amended over 50 times. While the new legislation would retain elements of the existing framework, it would reorganize the country’s environmental-law framework, apply new tools for planning and assessment, and strengthen inspection and sanctions, experts say.

The bill has generally been well received among environmental advocates, among them Gustavo Alanís, director of Mexico’s nonprofit Center for Environmental Law (Cemda), a leading green-advocacy group in Mexico. Says Alanís: “The proposal makes headway in the modernization of Mexico’s environmental legal framework by incorporating global advances such as those made in the Convention on Biological Diversity; the Escazú Agreement [a landmark environmental treaty covering Latin America and the Caribbean]; the 30x30 [United Nations] goal to protect 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030; and international advances in the protection of marine areas.”

The full article was published in this month’s issue of EcoAméricas, out now in print and online:

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has moved to replace the country’s foundational environmental statute, attempting what is described as the most significant reshaping of the country’s green-regulation framework in nearly four decades. The Sheinbaum administration’s proposed General Law on E...

08/05/2026

The July issue of EcoAméricas is now available.

This month's edition examines major environmental developments across Latin America, including:

- A $150 million settlement in Peru's landmark La Oroya pollution case 🌎

- Argentina's plan to turn invasive deer and wild boar into an economic opportunity 🦌

- Mexico's overhaul of its environmental legal framework ⚖️

- Colombia's push for greater transparency in environmental policy 🐄

- An exclusive Q&A with former Brazilian Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira 🔊

Stay informed with in-depth reporting and analysis trusted by researchers, NGOs, policymakers, and environmental professionals.

Subscribe today through the link in our bio.