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Indigenous tribes see the Catholic church as a key ally in the ecological fight – and an unprecedented synod is focused on how to stop the destruction

A hundred years ago the Harakmbut people were nearly wiped out.

Inhabitants of a vast jungle region where Peru intersects with Brazil and Bolivia, the tribespeople were enslaved by rubber barons and murdered en masse, only surviving thanks to the help of Dominican missionaries.

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In effort to restore marsupial’s population, 30 released into Mallee Cliffs national park inside predator-free enclosure

Bilbies have been reintroduced to the Mallee Cliffs national park in the far south-west of New South Wales in an effort to restore populations of the marsupial, which is regionally extinct in the state.

Greater bilbies haven’t been seen in the national park for more than a century.

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Miner given permission due to ‘loopholes’ in safeguard mechanism, Australian Conservation Foundation says

An Australian mining company was able to massively increase greenhouse gas emissions from two of its coalmines without penalty under a government policy that is meant to limit carbon pollution from large facilities.

Centennial Coal was given permission on three occasions since 2016/17 to increase the greenhouse gas emissions from its Myuna colliery and Mandalong mines in New South Wales, according to data kept by the clean energy regulator.

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David Littleproud signals more taxpayer support for rural communities as big dry ‘escalates’

The drought and water resources minister, David Littleproud, has acknowledged he “totally” accepts that worsening droughts are linked to climate change, as he signalled more taxpayer support for regional communities was coming as Australia’s big dry “escalates”.

Littleproud, who stumbled last month by first telling Guardian Australia he did not know if climate change was manmade, then later clarifying he had always accepted the science on the role humans play in the climate changing, told the ABC on Sunday he understood the link between global warming and drought because “I live it”.

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There’s a new emphasis on land reclamation and building floating structures for everything from accommodation to marine farming to energy generation. Re-defining the use of the ocean is part of the emerging “blue economy” – one that can be both economically beneficial and environmentally responsible. How well can these often contradictory goals be reconciled?

The number of rare goshawks in the New Forest has doubled in the last eight years.

The Nobel Prizes are amongst the most prestigious awards in a variety of fields, so how do you win one?

Meet the "transhumanists" who are pushing the boundaries of technology to implant chips and more into their bodies.

Toowoomba’s toxic 2006 poll put recycled water off the drinking table – but there is a push to bring it back

Right now, country towns in New South Wales and Queensland are heading for that fateful “day zero” where the supplies of drinking water end and the desperate contingency plans begin.

Pipelines are one solution and daily truck arrivals are another.

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Officers raid building used by climate crisis activists to store items for Westminster rally

Police have taken pre-emptive action against environmental protesters who are planning to cause disruption in Westminster.

Dozens of officers from the Metropolitan police’s territorial support group raided a building in Kennington, south London, where Extinction Rebellion activists were storing equipment to use in a demonstration next week.

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Exclusive: UK supermarkets admit there may be soya-led deforestation in their supply chains due to problems with traceability

• Rise of the ‘wonder bean’: from deforestation to your plate
  
• Home to the screaming hairy armadillo: the forest the world forgot
  

Tesco, M&S and several other UK supermarkets admit that they cannot guarantee that soya from deforested areas is not in their supply chain despite commitments to phase out its use, the Guardian has found.

An investigation has revealed that Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and M&S all buy products from UK farmers using animal feed that includes soya from Argentina. About 14% of Argentina’s planted soya is in the north of the country, where deforestation has laid waste to huge areas of the Gran Chaco forest.

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The meat and dairy industry’s demand for soya is driving environmental crisis in one of the world’s most threatened forests. We trace the seven steps from the Chaco to the food we eat

• Tesco and M&S likely to have soya linked to deforestation in supply chains
  
• Home to the screaming hairy armadillo: the forest the world forgot
  

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The deforestation of the Gran Chaco is dangerously overshadowed by its neighbour, the Amazon

• Tesco and M&S likely to have soya linked to deforestation in supply chains
  
• Home to the screaming hairy armadillo: the forest the world forgot
  

Somehow the Gran Chaco has remained off the world’s radar, its endless expanse of dry woodland overshadowed by the nearby superstar of forests – the Amazon.

Covering a vast area one and a half times the size of California – half in Argentina, a third in Paraguay and the remainder in Bolivia– the gargantuan scale of the Chaco tells only part of the story.

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Comments from ADM, Bunge, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus Company, Asda, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Tesco, the British Retail Consortium, Cadbury and the Food and Drink Federation

We spoke to a number of companies in the course of writing our piece on on the joint problem of soya-led deforestation in Argentina, and the lack of traceability in that country. We asked them if they were aware of the issue, and if so what action they were taking. Their full comments are below.

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Unlike plastics produced from petrochemicals, bioplastics would be biodegradable and not bring with them the environmental problems associated with current plastics.

Organisers of the Cardiff Half Marathon have taken measures to reduce the event's carbon footprint.

They want to highlight the fact they are one of the industries worst affected by climate change.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

More than 3,000 people gathered in the shadow of the University of Iowa on Friday afternoon to hear Thunberg speak

Three days prior to Greta Thunberg’s surprise visit to Iowa City on Friday, the organizer and local climate activist, Massimo Biggers, a 14-year-old Iowa City high school student, was preparing to strike – as he has done every Friday, sometimes on his own, since the Global Climate Strike day Thunberg inspired on 15 March.

Out of the blue, a message arrived from the Swedish teen activist, with whom he had been in touch, asking him if he was planning to strike again this Friday. “Of course!” he replied, and for the last 48 hours, according to his father, Jeff, neither had slept. “This was truly a miracle to have the town pull this together,” he said.

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ICAO’s Assembly on Friday backed the progression of work on setting a long-term emissions target for aviation and to advance the UN body’s CORSIA global offsetting mechanism towards operationalisation, though a fifth of the countries in attendance voted against the two resolutions in a surprise secret ballot.