"RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazil's government slapped Chevron with a $28 million fine on Monday for causing an oil spill off the country's coast, a penalty that could rise as the U.S. company faces a political backlash over the accident."

"An agricultural leader protesting illegal deforestation was shot to death in northern Brazil, the eighth environmentalist farmer to be killed since May in the Amazon, activists said Tuesday."

"Colombian environmental authorities have reported a huge shark massacre in the Malpelo wildlife sanctuary in Colombia's Pacific waters, where as many as 2,000 hammerhead, Galápagos and silky sharks may have been slaughtered for their fins."

Sibylla Brodzinsky reports for the Guardian October 19, 2011.

Researchers are discovering previously unknown species of the cacao bean in the rainforests of Peru.

"Police in the Brazilian Amazon say they have arrested two men in connection with the murders of two rainforest activists who were gunned down in May."

"Brazilian indigenous protection officers to make emergency visit to isolated community facing threat from heavily armed gangs."

"A volcano dormant for decades erupted in south-central Chile on Saturday, belching an ash cloud more than 6 miles high that blew over the Andes and carpeted a popular ski resort in neighboring Argentina."

"Brazil's environment agency gave its definitive approval on Wednesday for construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, a controversial $17 billion project in the Amazon that has drawn criticism from native Indians and conservationists."

In Brazil, the third activist leader in a week opposing destruction of the Amazon rain forest was murdered.

"José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva fought against illegal loggers and had received death threats but was refused police protection."

"Last year's record-breaking drought across the Amazon Basin has turned nearly a million square miles of green rainforest to brown, finds a new mapping study based on NASA satellite data."

Coffee yields from Columbia are declining and prices are rising, because of warmer, wetter weather. Many scientists think global warming is responsible.

"Scientists fear billions of tree deaths in the Amazon caused by drought could turn the forest from a carbon sink to a carbon source."

"Brazil's environment agency approved on Wednesday the start-up of the Belo Monte power dam, a controversial $17 billion project in the Amazon that has drawn criticism from native Indians and conservationists."

"Brazil is suffering its worst-ever natural disaster after mudslides near Rio de Janeiro killed more than 500 people, the latest toll showed Friday."