Bolivian authorities have known of Chinese demand for jaguar fangs at least since 2014, when they began receiving complaints that the animals were being poached so these and other prized body parts could be sold in the lucrative Chinese market. Never, however, was that demand revealed so starkly as on Feb. 23. That’s when a Bolivian couple of Chinese origin, Li Ming and Yin Lan, was arrested in possession of 185 jaguar fangs in a fast-food store they own in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia’s most populous city. Given that a jaguar (Panthera onca) typically has four fangs, obtaining the teeth would mean that at least 47 of the rare cats had been killed. The Santa Cruz Environment Secretariat has called for an...
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Chiribiquete National Park, a largely unexplored Amazonian treasure of soaring rock formations, uncontacted tribes and some of South America’s most impressive prehistoric murals, will be expanded by more than 50% amidst widespread threats of illegal deforestation, according to the Colombian government. The announcement made by President Juan Manuel Santos at a Feb. 21 press conference from within Chiribiquete, expands what was already the nation’s largest park by 15,000 square kilometers (5,792 sq. miles) to 43,000 square kilometers (16,602 sq. miles), or an area roughly the size of Denmark. “Chiribiquete Park, all the scientists say, is where many cultures and biodiversities that have evolved over the centuries come together,” Santos said at the press conference. “That is why Chiribiquete is so important.” The park, in the...
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A sharply divided Brazilian Supreme Court has upheld provisions in a 2012 law that grant amnesty to many who have cleared forest illegally, reflecting the ongoing split between green advocates who oppose such measures and agribusiness groups, who favor them. Environmentalists call the ruling a setback that will fuel deforestation. Agribusiness groups, aligned with the so-called “ruralist” lawmakers who drafted the law, claim the provisions will encourage reforestation. In two 6-to-5 votes, the Supreme Court ruled Feb. 28 that two amnesties contained in a 2012 rewrite of Brazil’s Forest Code were constitutional. One amnesty suspends fines and replanting requirements in the case of parcels of up to 400 hectares (988 acres) that were illegally cut before July 22, 2008 (when more rigorous...
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Brazil’s creation this month of two large marine protected areas has sparked criticism from environmentalists who claim that while the reserves dramatically expand the country’s protected waters, the protections they offer are limited and thus far exist only on paper. A pair of presidential decrees, issued on March 19 and put into effect the next day, created the reserves, one of which surrounds the São Pedro and São Paulo archipelago. That archipelago, which features a miniscule, two-hectare (five-acre) mantle of rock uplifted from colliding sea-bed plates—the only place where Earth’s mantle is exposed above sea level—is 940 kilometers (584 miles) off the coast of northeastern Brazil. The other reserve surrounds the far larger, 1,040-hectare (2,570-acre) volcanic Trindade and...
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