South America

This archive covers progress stories and milestones from across South America, spanning countries from Brazil and Colombia to Argentina and Peru. Expect reporting on conservation wins, public health advances, economic shifts, and community-led efforts shaping life across the continent.

Mother and baby, for article on Chile maternity leave reform

Chile’s maternity leave reform lifted mothers’ employment without wage penalties

By / / Good News For Humankind

Chile’s maternity leave reform delivered something policymakers rarely get to claim: a sustained employment boost for mothers, with no wage penalty in sight.
After the country doubled postnatal leave from 12 to 24 weeks in 2011, eligible mothers were 6.8 percentage points more likely to hold formal jobs in the three years after returning to work, according to a study in the Journal of Development Economics. The biggest gains went to women with shorter work histories — exactly the mothers the reform was meant to reach.
It’s a hopeful signal for countries everywhere weighing family policy: designed with real conditions in mind, parental leave can lift women up rather than hold them back.

Brazil forests and mountains, for article on Atlantic Forest deforestation

Atlantic Forest deforestation in Brazil drops to lowest level since 1985

By / / Good News For Humankind

Deforestation in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest dropped to just 8,658 hectares in 2025 — the lowest level since satellite monitoring began four decades ago, and the first time annual losses have fallen below 10,000 hectares. That’s a 40% drop from the year before, and a world away from the Bolsonaro years, when more than 20,000 hectares were cleared annually. Conservationists credit a steady mix of enforcement, civil society pressure, and renewed federal commitment under Lula, and they believe zero deforestation could be within reach in just three years. In a biome where 80% of Brazilians live and every fragment matters for biodiversity, this milestone is a quiet but powerful reminder: forest loss isn’t inevitable, and a different path is genuinely possible.

Supplement capsule, for article on vitamin D breast cancer study

Brazilian scientists find that vitamin D boosts breast cancer treatment success by 79%

By / / Good News For Humankind

Vitamin D may give breast cancer chemotherapy a meaningful boost, according to a new randomized trial in Brazil. Among 80 women undergoing chemo before surgery, those taking 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily saw their tumors completely disappear 43% of the time, compared with 24% in the placebo group. Researchers think the nutrient may act as a chemosensitizer, helping cancer cells respond more fully to treatment. The authors are careful to note that a trial this small isn’t the final word, and larger studies are needed before guidelines change. Still, the idea that something as simple, safe, and affordable as vitamin D could improve outcomes for the world’s most commonly diagnosed cancer is genuinely hopeful news worth watching.

Paraguay flag, for article on Paraguay poverty reduction

Paraguay cut its poverty rate from 50% to under 18% in two decades

By / / Good News For Humankind

Paraguay’s poverty rate fell from nearly 50% in 2003 to 17.6% in 2023 — one of Latin America’s steepest sustained declines, lifting millions of families into security their parents never knew. The landlocked country of 6.8 million pulled this off without oil wealth or coastline, leaning instead on two decades of political stability, a diversifying economy, and clean hydroelectric power from the Itaipú Dam. Services and manufacturing have grown alongside agriculture, and 46% of Paraguayans are under 25, entering an economy that has been steadily expanding their whole lives. The road ahead runs through climate risk, but a country that halved poverty in a generation has shown it can do hard things — a quiet lesson for development everywhere.

Parrot in Colombia, for article on Colombia marine protection

Colombia has now protected 47% of marine areas and 26% of land and inland waters

By / / Good News For Humankind

Colombia has already protected 47.4% of its marine and coastal areas, blowing past the global 30×30 goal that 196 nations pledged in 2022. On land, it has reached 26.3% and is aiming for 34% by 2030, with much of that progress shared with Indigenous communities, Afro-descendant territories, and private landowners. The country’s approach blends a Switzerland-sized ocean sanctuary off the Pacific coast with more than 1,400 small civil society reserves, including a recovering cloud forest where mountain springs have returned and neighbors are planting native corridors. As the world falls behind on biodiversity targets, Colombia offers something rare: a working, inclusive model that other countries can actually learn from.

Sunset by smokestacks, for article on fossil fuel phaseout

More than 50 nations attend world-first conference on phasing out fossil fuels

By / / Good News For Humankind

Fossil fuel phaseout talks just crossed a real threshold: for the first time, more than 50 nations sat down together specifically to plan a way off coal, oil, and gas. The two-day gathering in Santa Marta, Colombia, brought together an unusually wide mix — major producers like Australia, Norway, and Canada alongside Pacific island nations like Tuvalu and Vanuatu, with Europe and emerging economies in between. No binding deals were expected, but the recommendations will feed into a voluntary roadmap being shaped under Brazil’s COP30 leadership. It’s a small, hopeful shift: producers and consumers finally talking openly about a transition that, until recently, was almost taboo to name out loud.

People holding breast cancer pin, for article on vitamin D breast cancer

Brazilian researchers find vitamin D boosts breast cancer chemo by 79%

By / / Good News For Humankind

Vitamin D may give breast cancer chemotherapy a meaningful boost, according to a new Brazilian trial in which 43% of women taking a daily supplement saw their tumors disappear completely, compared to 24% on a placebo. Researchers at São Paulo State University gave 80 patients a modest 2,000 IU dose alongside their standard pre-surgery chemo — a level safe enough for everyday use and cheap enough for almost anyone. Most women in the study were vitamin D-deficient to begin with, a pattern common in cancer patients worldwide. If larger trials confirm the finding, it points to something rare and hopeful in oncology: a low-cost, low-risk addition that could improve outcomes most for the communities currently facing the steepest deficiency rates and the hardest cancer journeys.

A snowy owl in flight over a winter landscape for an article about migratory species protection

132 nations extend UN protection to 40 migratory species at historic Brazil summit

By / / Good News For Humankind

Migratory species protection expanded significantly at CMS COP15, where 132 nations meeting in Campo Grande, Brazil voted to extend international legal safeguards to 40 new species, including the snowy owl, giant otter, striped hyena, and great hammerhead shark. The decision pushes the U.N. Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species total past 1,200 protected species for the first time. The achievement carries urgent weight: a new U.N. report found 49% of species already covered by the treaty are still declining. Conservation priorities set at the summit will shape international wildlife policy through at least the next CMS conference in 2029.

Aerial view of remote Pacific ocean islands and turquoise waters for an article about Chile marine protection

Chile expands ocean protection to cover more than one million square kilometres of sea

By / / Good News For Humankind

Chile marine protection surpasses one million square kilometres as the country designates vast stretches of its Pacific waters as fully protected ocean, barring industrial fishing, deep-sea mining, and oil exploration. The move shields critical habitat for blue whales, whale sharks, sea turtles, and hundreds of species found nowhere else on Earth. Indigenous communities, including the Rapa Nui and Kawésqar peoples, were central advocates for the protections. The designation meaningfully advances the global 30×30 goal of protecting 30 percent of the ocean by 2030, a threshold scientists consider essential to halting catastrophic biodiversity loss.

A gray dolphin surfacing in calm estuarine waters for an article about Atlantic coast protection

Brazil shields 271,000 acres of Atlantic coast to protect a rare river dolphin

By / / Good News For Humankind

Brazil’s Atlantic coast protection of more than 271,000 acres marks one of the country’s largest coastal conservation actions in years, placing ocean, estuary, and mangrove habitat under formal federal protection. The zone was created primarily to defend the boto-cinza, a gray river dolphin found nowhere else on Earth and threatened by gillnet bycatch, boat strikes, and habitat degradation. The protected area sits within one of the planet’s most significant biodiversity hotspots, where less than 12 percent of the original Atlantic Forest remains. The designation also safeguards the livelihoods of traditional fishing communities who depend on healthy coastal ecosystems.