Tiffany M. Higgins
@tiffanymhiggins.bsky.social
Independent journalist covering the Brazilian Amazon, including the Tocantins River. Poet, translator. California Sage Fan muckrack.com/tiffany-higgins/portfolio
Appreciated the chance to work with Steve Gibbs on this piece. We talked with Indigenous & traditional river communities about how they're feeling about COP30 while oil drilling & new shipping channels are being approved, set to harm Amazonian communities, they say. www.thetimes.com/world/latin-...
‘We thought Lula would protect the Amazon. Now he’s approved oil drilling’
As Brazil hosts Cop30, indigenous territory untouched even by the environmental ‘criminal’ Jair Bolsonaro has been opened up to oil by his left-wing successor
www.thetimes.com
October 31, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Appreciated the chance to work with Steve Gibbs on this piece. We talked with Indigenous & traditional river communities about how they're feeling about COP30 while oil drilling & new shipping channels are being approved, set to harm Amazonian communities, they say. www.thetimes.com/world/latin-...
I’m a bilingual US journalist based in Belém with years of experience reporting from the Amazon region. I hope to connect w/ editors for COP30 coverage. I speak Portuguese fluently, have widespread Amazon contacts w// experts & traditional communities' voices. Feel free to fwd
@revkin.bsky.social
@revkin.bsky.social
October 27, 2025 at 7:10 PM
I’m a bilingual US journalist based in Belém with years of experience reporting from the Amazon region. I hope to connect w/ editors for COP30 coverage. I speak Portuguese fluently, have widespread Amazon contacts w// experts & traditional communities' voices. Feel free to fwd
@revkin.bsky.social
@revkin.bsky.social
My article for Climate Home News, edited by the excellent Megan Rowling
It's still very unclear whether large-scale carbon offsetting schemes led by governments can work - either for forests and the climate, or for the people whose land they involve #brazil #COP30 www.climatechangenews.com/2025/06/08/p...
Pará's Amazon forest carbon deal in doubt as prosecutors move to block it
The Brazilian state’s contract with foreign governments and companies has run into trouble over concerns it was premature and agreed without consulting Indigenous communities The Brazilian state’s con...
www.climatechangenews.com
September 19, 2025 at 1:07 PM
My article for Climate Home News, edited by the excellent Megan Rowling
My interview with Federal Prosecutor Felício Pontes on the Tocantins River in the Brazilian Amazon. Brazil’s federal government has a license to blow up an ecologically sensitive stretch, the Lourenção Rocks, to turn the river into a shipping channel. www.instagram.com/reel/DOLWVWv...
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September 4, 2025 at 10:41 PM
My interview with Federal Prosecutor Felício Pontes on the Tocantins River in the Brazilian Amazon. Brazil’s federal government has a license to blow up an ecologically sensitive stretch, the Lourenção Rocks, to turn the river into a shipping channel. www.instagram.com/reel/DOLWVWv...
Reposted by Tiffany M. Higgins
Emerging evidence suggests that deforestation in the Amazon is already altering South American monsoon patterns, resulting in drier conditions that may compromise the long term resilience of the rainforest.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
How climate change and deforestation interact in the transformation of the Amazon rainforest - Nature Communications
In this study, the distinct impacts of deforestation and global climate change on the Brazilian Amazon are quantified for the period 1985-2020. Deforestation amplifies the temperature increase and dom...
www.nature.com
September 3, 2025 at 1:35 AM
Emerging evidence suggests that deforestation in the Amazon is already altering South American monsoon patterns, resulting in drier conditions that may compromise the long term resilience of the rainforest.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
My reporting for Climate Home News
Brazil’s Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) and other innovative finance tools will be showcased at COP30, but surging wildfires in the Amazon pose a threat to their success, climate experts warn
www.climatechangenews.com/2025/08/07/a...
www.climatechangenews.com/2025/08/07/a...
Amazon fires threaten rainforest protection initiatives funding
Brazil’s innovative Amazon protection tools will be showcased at COP30, but surging wildfires pose a threat to their success
www.climatechangenews.com
August 7, 2025 at 9:29 PM
My reporting for Climate Home News
Reposted by Tiffany M. Higgins
Justiça suspende licença para obras em pedral no Rio Tocantins, no Pará ⬇️
Pedido havia sido feito pelo MPF, alegando que a permissão federal foi concedida sem cumprir condições legais e judiciais
Pedido havia sido feito pelo MPF, alegando que a permissão federal foi concedida sem cumprir condições legais e judiciais
Justiça suspende licença para obras em pedral no Rio Tocantins, no Pará - ((o))eco
Agências públicas estariam tentando evitar obrigações legais e reduzir o alcance das compensações socioambientais
oeco.org.br
June 26, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Justiça suspende licença para obras em pedral no Rio Tocantins, no Pará ⬇️
Pedido havia sido feito pelo MPF, alegando que a permissão federal foi concedida sem cumprir condições legais e judiciais
Pedido havia sido feito pelo MPF, alegando que a permissão federal foi concedida sem cumprir condições legais e judiciais
Reposted by Tiffany M. Higgins
Brazil plans to blow up a key Amazon biodiversity spot, the #LourençãoRocks. A judge just suspended the license until a complete ruling is made on federal prosecutors' suit to overturn the license. An August judge's visit to the rocks' impacted traditional communities was set. #hidrovia
Justiça suspende licença para obras em pedral no Rio Tocantins, no Pará - ((o))eco
Agências públicas estariam tentando evitar obrigações legais e reduzir o alcance das compensações socioambientais
oeco.org.br
June 27, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Brazil plans to blow up a key Amazon biodiversity spot, the #LourençãoRocks. A judge just suspended the license until a complete ruling is made on federal prosecutors' suit to overturn the license. An August judge's visit to the rocks' impacted traditional communities was set. #hidrovia
Brazil plans to blow up a key Amazon biodiversity spot, the #LourençãoRocks. A judge just suspended the license until a complete ruling is made on federal prosecutors' suit to overturn the license. An August judge's visit to the rocks' impacted traditional communities was set. #hidrovia
Justiça suspende licença para obras em pedral no Rio Tocantins, no Pará - ((o))eco
Agências públicas estariam tentando evitar obrigações legais e reduzir o alcance das compensações socioambientais
oeco.org.br
June 27, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Brazil plans to blow up a key Amazon biodiversity spot, the #LourençãoRocks. A judge just suspended the license until a complete ruling is made on federal prosecutors' suit to overturn the license. An August judge's visit to the rocks' impacted traditional communities was set. #hidrovia
Reposted by Tiffany M. Higgins
Journalist and current Sacatar Fellow Tiffany Higgins has published an article discussing the shortcomings of carbon credit policies in Pará and highlighting how traditional quilombola and indigenous communities are being sidelined in negotiations.
www.climatechangenews.com/2025/06/08/p...
www.climatechangenews.com/2025/06/08/p...
Pará's Amazon forest carbon deal in doubt as prosecutors move to block it
The Brazilian state’s contract with foreign governments and companies has run into trouble over concerns it was premature and agreed without consulting Indigenous communities The Brazilian state’s con...
www.climatechangenews.com
June 16, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Journalist and current Sacatar Fellow Tiffany Higgins has published an article discussing the shortcomings of carbon credit policies in Pará and highlighting how traditional quilombola and indigenous communities are being sidelined in negotiations.
www.climatechangenews.com/2025/06/08/p...
www.climatechangenews.com/2025/06/08/p...
Reposted by Tiffany M. Higgins
Brazilian meat giant JBS has claimed that the company's net-zero emissions pledge was "never a promise." These comments are a clumsy attempt to evade accountability and to wash its hands for its outsized impact on the planet. mightyearth.org/article/migh...
Mighty Earth responds to JBS’ claim that it never promised to be Net Zero by 2040 - Mighty Earth
Brazilian meat giant JBS has claimed that the company’s net-zero emissions pledge was “never a promise” and that it only has an “aspiration” to be Net Zero by 2040.
mightyearth.org
January 15, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Brazilian meat giant JBS has claimed that the company's net-zero emissions pledge was "never a promise." These comments are a clumsy attempt to evade accountability and to wash its hands for its outsized impact on the planet. mightyearth.org/article/migh...
Reposted by Tiffany M. Higgins
Licenciamento da Hidrovia Tocantins-Araguaia está “repetindo os erros da Belo Monte”, diz MPF ⬇️
Em audiência pública, MPF afirma que licença prévia do empreendimento foi ilegal, pede desculpas às comunidades impactadas e cobra do DNIT e do Ibama a correção do processo
oeco.org.br/reportagens/...
Em audiência pública, MPF afirma que licença prévia do empreendimento foi ilegal, pede desculpas às comunidades impactadas e cobra do DNIT e do Ibama a correção do processo
oeco.org.br/reportagens/...
Licenciamento da Hidrovia Tocantins-Araguaia está "repetindo os erros da Belo Monte", diz MPF - ((o...
Em audiência pública, MPF afirma que licença prévia do empreendimento foi ilegal, pede desculpas às comunidades impactadas e cobra do DNIT e do Ibama a correção do processo
oeco.org.br
December 21, 2023 at 2:57 PM
Licenciamento da Hidrovia Tocantins-Araguaia está “repetindo os erros da Belo Monte”, diz MPF ⬇️
Em audiência pública, MPF afirma que licença prévia do empreendimento foi ilegal, pede desculpas às comunidades impactadas e cobra do DNIT e do Ibama a correção do processo
oeco.org.br/reportagens/...
Em audiência pública, MPF afirma que licença prévia do empreendimento foi ilegal, pede desculpas às comunidades impactadas e cobra do DNIT e do Ibama a correção do processo
oeco.org.br/reportagens/...
Reposted by Tiffany M. Higgins
PA: Mais de 50 organizações denunciam o projeto de criação da Hidrovia Araguaia-Tocantins (HAT)
Leia na íntegra: anovademocracia.com.br/pa-mais-de-5...
Leia na íntegra: anovademocracia.com.br/pa-mais-de-5...
PA: Mais de 50 organizações denunciam o projeto de criação da Hidrovia Araguaia-Tocantins (HAT) - A Nova Democracia
Em nota, as entidades descrevem esse grande empreendimento imperialista no berço da Amazônia: “O projeto, organizado pelo Departamento Nacional de Infraestrutura de Transportes (DNIT), busca facilitar...
anovademocracia.com.br
September 12, 2024 at 10:21 PM
PA: Mais de 50 organizações denunciam o projeto de criação da Hidrovia Araguaia-Tocantins (HAT)
Leia na íntegra: anovademocracia.com.br/pa-mais-de-5...
Leia na íntegra: anovademocracia.com.br/pa-mais-de-5...
Reposted by Tiffany M. Higgins
MPF pede anulação de licença de obra que viabiliza hidrovia Tocantins-Araguaia ⬇️
Órgão quer barrar explosão do Pedral do Lourenço, berço de espécies ameaçadas e afirma que não houve consulta pública prévia, livre e informada como determina a legislação
oeco.org.br/salada-verde...
Órgão quer barrar explosão do Pedral do Lourenço, berço de espécies ameaçadas e afirma que não houve consulta pública prévia, livre e informada como determina a legislação
oeco.org.br/salada-verde...
MPF pede anulação de licença de obra que viabiliza hidrovia Tocantins-Araguaia - ((o))eco
Órgão quer barrar explosão do Pedral do Lourenço, berço de espécies ameaçadas e afirma que não houve consulta pública prévia, livre e informada como determina a legislação
oeco.org.br
August 20, 2024 at 2:33 PM
MPF pede anulação de licença de obra que viabiliza hidrovia Tocantins-Araguaia ⬇️
Órgão quer barrar explosão do Pedral do Lourenço, berço de espécies ameaçadas e afirma que não houve consulta pública prévia, livre e informada como determina a legislação
oeco.org.br/salada-verde...
Órgão quer barrar explosão do Pedral do Lourenço, berço de espécies ameaçadas e afirma que não houve consulta pública prévia, livre e informada como determina a legislação
oeco.org.br/salada-verde...
Reposted by Tiffany M. Higgins
Absolutely insane environmental destruction about to commence in Brazil's northeast Amazon: dredging and dynamiting 500kms of the Araguaia-Tocantins rivers.
Why?
Shipping channels.
But there hasn't even been a feasibility study!!!
@naomiaklein.bsky.social
www.braziloffice.org/en/articles/...
Why?
Shipping channels.
But there hasn't even been a feasibility study!!!
@naomiaklein.bsky.social
www.braziloffice.org/en/articles/...
Blasting the Amazon: The Araguaia-Tocantins Shipping Channel’s Data Holes and Erasure of Traditional Peoples — Washington Brazil Office
In the coming months, Brazil may begin blasting a river in the Amazon to create an industrial shipping channel. The Hidrovia Araguaia-Tocantins, largely unknown outside Brazil, could span over 3,000 k...
www.braziloffice.org
March 17, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Absolutely insane environmental destruction about to commence in Brazil's northeast Amazon: dredging and dynamiting 500kms of the Araguaia-Tocantins rivers.
Why?
Shipping channels.
But there hasn't even been a feasibility study!!!
@naomiaklein.bsky.social
www.braziloffice.org/en/articles/...
Why?
Shipping channels.
But there hasn't even been a feasibility study!!!
@naomiaklein.bsky.social
www.braziloffice.org/en/articles/...
Reposted by Tiffany M. Higgins
Article by @tiffanymhiggins.bsky.social; more here
atmos.earth/afro-brazili...
news.mongabay.com/short-articl...
atmos.earth/afro-brazili...
news.mongabay.com/short-articl...
Peoples of the Water: Saving a River and the Amazon From Industry | Atmos
A project to industrialize a river in Brazil threatens to uproot the culture of quilombola communities—and destroy the Amazon.
atmos.earth
March 17, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Article by @tiffanymhiggins.bsky.social; more here
atmos.earth/afro-brazili...
news.mongabay.com/short-articl...
atmos.earth/afro-brazili...
news.mongabay.com/short-articl...
Reposted by Tiffany M. Higgins
Absolutely insane environmental destruction about to commence in Brazil's northeast Amazon: dredging and dynamiting 500kms of the Araguaia-Tocantins rivers.
Why?
Shipping channels.
But there hasn't even been a feasibility study!!!
@georgemonbiot.bsky.social
www.braziloffice.org/en/articles/...
Why?
Shipping channels.
But there hasn't even been a feasibility study!!!
@georgemonbiot.bsky.social
www.braziloffice.org/en/articles/...
Blasting the Amazon: The Araguaia-Tocantins Shipping Channel’s Data Holes and Erasure of Traditional Peoples — Washington Brazil Office
In the coming months, Brazil may begin blasting a river in the Amazon to create an industrial shipping channel. The Hidrovia Araguaia-Tocantins, largely unknown outside Brazil, could span over 3,000 k...
www.braziloffice.org
March 17, 2025 at 3:11 AM
Absolutely insane environmental destruction about to commence in Brazil's northeast Amazon: dredging and dynamiting 500kms of the Araguaia-Tocantins rivers.
Why?
Shipping channels.
But there hasn't even been a feasibility study!!!
@georgemonbiot.bsky.social
www.braziloffice.org/en/articles/...
Why?
Shipping channels.
But there hasn't even been a feasibility study!!!
@georgemonbiot.bsky.social
www.braziloffice.org/en/articles/...
In the Brazilian Amazon, a Feb 5 judicial decision stated incorrectly that no traditional river peoples live on the Pedral do Lourenço
From my reportage & visits to communities on this unique rock formation in the Tocantins River, I can verify that traditional river peoples do indeed live here.
From my reportage & visits to communities on this unique rock formation in the Tocantins River, I can verify that traditional river peoples do indeed live here.
March 13, 2025 at 6:21 AM
In the Brazilian Amazon, a Feb 5 judicial decision stated incorrectly that no traditional river peoples live on the Pedral do Lourenço
From my reportage & visits to communities on this unique rock formation in the Tocantins River, I can verify that traditional river peoples do indeed live here.
From my reportage & visits to communities on this unique rock formation in the Tocantins River, I can verify that traditional river peoples do indeed live here.
Reposted by Tiffany M. Higgins
Canadian mining co. Belo Sun hasn't conducted consultation with Indigenous & traditional peoples, and the mining project on the Xingu River can't go forward without that, according to the ruling of Brazil's TRF1 last week. (Like US Court of Appeals, for 13 Brazilian states).
January 30, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Canadian mining co. Belo Sun hasn't conducted consultation with Indigenous & traditional peoples, and the mining project on the Xingu River can't go forward without that, according to the ruling of Brazil's TRF1 last week. (Like US Court of Appeals, for 13 Brazilian states).
ChatGPT seduces by offering you fawning compliments at every opportunity :)
January 28, 2025 at 11:43 PM
ChatGPT seduces by offering you fawning compliments at every opportunity :)
Climate flooding in Brazil's South causes big agribusiness to try to make up their losses with new plantations in the Amazon
Por isso os gaúchos são conhecidos na Amazônia como "gafanhotos".
Vítimas da catástrofe climática que eles mesmos ajudaram a produzir, sojicultores do Rio Grande do Sul desembarcam em Altamira para arrendar terras e aumentar o desmatamento que desregula as chuvas
sumauma.com/com-terras-d...
Vítimas da catástrofe climática que eles mesmos ajudaram a produzir, sojicultores do Rio Grande do Sul desembarcam em Altamira para arrendar terras e aumentar o desmatamento que desregula as chuvas
sumauma.com/com-terras-d...
Com terras devastadas pelas enchentes, agricultores gaúchos vão à Amazônia plantar Soja - SUMAÚMA
Vítimas da catástrofe climática que eles mesmos ajudaram a produzir, sojicultores do Rio Grande do Sul desembarcam em Altamira, no Pará, para arrendar terras e aumentar o desmatamento que desregula as...
sumauma.com
January 28, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Climate flooding in Brazil's South causes big agribusiness to try to make up their losses with new plantations in the Amazon
Reposted by Tiffany M. Higgins
"We are the sacrificed."
In the copper-mining region of Antofagasta in Chile, the world's top copper producer, doctors are blaming mining pollution for soaring numbers of children being diagnosed with autism.
cleanenergyfrontier.climatechangenews.com/doctors-rais...
In the copper-mining region of Antofagasta in Chile, the world's top copper producer, doctors are blaming mining pollution for soaring numbers of children being diagnosed with autism.
cleanenergyfrontier.climatechangenews.com/doctors-rais...
‘The state doesn’t want to know’: Doctors raise alarm on children’s health crisis in Chile’s copper heartland
Autism and cancer cases are soaring in Chile linked to pollution from copper mining critical for the energy transition, doctors say
cleanenergyfrontier.climatechangenews.com
December 17, 2024 at 2:32 PM
"We are the sacrificed."
In the copper-mining region of Antofagasta in Chile, the world's top copper producer, doctors are blaming mining pollution for soaring numbers of children being diagnosed with autism.
cleanenergyfrontier.climatechangenews.com/doctors-rais...
In the copper-mining region of Antofagasta in Chile, the world's top copper producer, doctors are blaming mining pollution for soaring numbers of children being diagnosed with autism.
cleanenergyfrontier.climatechangenews.com/doctors-rais...
Reposted by Tiffany M. Higgins
I'm going to post this again because I have a bunch of new followers and it's well worth reading. news.mongabay.com/2024/12/braz...
Brazil’s shipping channel plans in Amazonian rivers will worsen climate change, experts warn
Brazil is poised to invest tens of billions reais to build more than 2,000 km (1,240 miles) of new shipping channels in shrinking rivers – a dramatic, costly, damaging channelization of Amazon waterwa...
news.mongabay.com
January 17, 2025 at 9:18 PM
I'm going to post this again because I have a bunch of new followers and it's well worth reading. news.mongabay.com/2024/12/braz...
Reposted by Tiffany M. Higgins
Brazil’s Amazon shipping plan faces criticism for environmental and social impact news.mongabay.com/short-articl...
Brazil’s Amazon shipping plan faces criticism for environmental and social impact
Brazil is set to approve a controversial expansion of 2,000 kilometers, or more than 1,200 miles, of new shipping channels in the Amazon. With a price tag in the billions of reais, the expansion is ne...
news.mongabay.com
January 15, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Brazil’s Amazon shipping plan faces criticism for environmental and social impact news.mongabay.com/short-articl...