Brazil is preparing to host COP30 in Belém do Pará at a decisive moment for the climate and nature agenda. For the Igarapé Institute, holding the conference in Amazonian territory represents a unique opportunity to transform symbolism into action: to place the forest at…

Ilona Szabó de Carvalho at TED Countdown Summit 2025. June 16 – 18, 2025, Nairobi, Kenya. Photo: Humphrey Gateri / TED   What if the future of global power didn’t depend on extracting and depleting the planet,  but instead on restoring and regenerating it? That…

Environmental and natural resource-related crimes represent the third-largest illicit economy in the world in terms of the volume of money involved, ranking behind only drug trafficking and human trafficking. These are offenses that affect nature and threaten the planet’s sustainability, such as illegal logging, illicit…

This publication presents an analysis of six community-led initiatives in the Amazon, organized around practical lessons that address the region’s challenges. Among the most pressing challenges are the advance of deforestation, the intensification of illicit activities, pressure on protected territories, biodiversity loss, barriers to accessing…

In Brazil’s Yanomami Indigenous Territory and across other parts of the Amazon Basin, illegal gold mining has metastasized into a transnational criminal enterprise. What starts with illegal deforestation and mercury poisoning ends with laundered gold flowing into global supply chains. The trade finances organized crime, corrupt officials,…

President Donald Trump has suggested that minerals beneath Ukraine could be worth trillions of dollars and that they could help shore up vital U.S. supply chains. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country’s mineral wealth is “priceless.”  

Environmental and human rights defenders play a critical role in combating ecosystem degradation and mitigating climate change. They serve as central members of their communities, organizing others to fight injustices and abuses. Environmental defenders are the first line of defense in places where the biome…

An analysis of the impacts and results of social reintegration initiatives for formerly incarcerated individuals in Brazil and worldwide, focusing on recidivism and the guarantee of rights. This is the primary objective of this study, which mapped 32 evaluative publications related to 21 national and…

The Amazon faces a variety of security challenges, ranging from historical issues such as high homicide rates, theft, drug trafficking, and violence against women to new threats to the region’s rich biodiversity, including deforestation, illegal logging, illegal mining, and land grabbing. Considering the complexity of…

País registra un aumento en todas las formas de violencia no letal contra las mujeres Las cifras de 2023 muestran un aumento del 11% en las tasas de violencia sexual y del 22% en las tasas de violencia psicológica contra mujeres en solo un año…