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.
Dubbed “Calixcoca,” the treatment, developed by researchers at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, triggers an immune response that blocks cocaine and crack from reaching the brain. Last week, the project won the top prize of €500,000 at the Euro Health Innovation Awards for Latin American medicine.
The seed collector networks are the base of the ecological restoration chain and will play an essential role in enabling Brazil to reach its goal of restoring 12.5 million hectares (30.9 million acres) of native vegetation by 2030 — vital in the fight to avoid climate breakdown.
The Brazilian government has launched a long-awaited operation to remove thousands of non-Indigenous invaders illegally occupying two ancestral territories in the Amazon Rainforest, in what human rights defenders hail as a victory for protecting Native communities.
Indigenous land rights just got a powerful boost in Brazil, where the Supreme Court struck down a doctrine that required native communities to prove they were physically living on their land the day the 1988 constitution was signed. Six of the court’s 11 justices voted to reject the rule, immediately restoring territory to the Xokleng people of Santa Catarina, whose ancestors were violently driven from their homes more than a century ago. Legal experts say the decision could reshape hundreds of pending land disputes nationwide. Outside the courthouse, Indigenous people from across Brazil wept and celebrated — a reminder that protecting ancestral lands isn’t just about justice for the past, but about who gets to safeguard the forests, ecosystems, and futures we all depend on.
Brazil’s Supreme Court has ruled with a vote of 9-1 that homophobic hate speech is on par with racial hate speech and punishable with a prison sentence of two to five years.
An analysis of satellite data showed that 500 square kilometers of tropical rainforest were cleared in Brazil’s portion of the Amazon during the month of July, a 66% decline relative to July a year ago.
“This is really dramatic,” conservationist Rodrigo Botero told The Guardian. “It’s the highest reduction in deforestation and forest fires that there has been in two decades.”
From January to June the rainforest had alerts for possible deforestation covering 2,650 square kilometres, down from 4,000 sq km during the same period last year under former leader Jair Bolsonaro.
The “Indigenous guard” (La Guardia Indígena) that will carry out patrols across 175 Indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon.
Ecuador just pulled off the largest debt-for-nature swap ever signed, unlocking an estimated $450 million for Galápagos marine conservation over the coming decades. The deal works by trading expensive international bonds for a cheaper loan, then channeling the savings into a new independent fund overseen by a board that mixes government ministers with civil society voices. Roughly $12 million a year will flow to park rangers, fisheries monitoring, and enforcement across one of the planet’s most extraordinary marine ecosystems — home to marine iguanas and the world’s northernmost penguins. Several Caribbean and Pacific island nations are already exploring similar structures, suggesting this could become a template for protecting threatened ecosystems wherever heavy debt and rich biodiversity overlap.
