Economic instability has increased the price of gold as Brazilian President Lula da Silva attempts to crack down on illegal mining threating the Amazon.
Police, prosecutors, money-laundering experts, and others convened in Brazil to tackle drug and environmental crimes that are growing in scale across the Amazon.
"No Brazilian leader has been so effusively pro-miner—or anti-Indigenous—as the former army captain and gold-prospecting hobbyist Bolsonaro,” writes Rob Muggah.
COP15 set new targets for protecting ecosystems, but funding, implementation, and a lack of global attention to biodiversity give pause for Chris Morris.