A window into what we’re reading in the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program 

The Bolivian Cacao Farmers Taking on the Gold-Mining Industry (The Guardian) 

Cacao farmers in Bolivia’s Alto Beni and Palos Blancos municipalities successfully pushed for local mining bans in 2021, protecting their organic agroforestry land from the destructive gold rush sweeping the region. Gold prices are up over 64% since 2020—intensifying illegal and legal mining across Bolivia, driving deforestation, mercury poisoning, flooding, and encroachment into protected national parks. Communities near active mining zones report polluted rivers, declining fish populations, and mercury-related illnesses. 

The El Ceibo cooperative, with 1,300 members, feared that mining could cause mercury contamination, costing them their organic certifications and devastating the price of their cacao. At least 10 other municipalities and Indigenous territories are now pursuing similar mining bans, inspired by the two towns’ example. However, challenges remain: some areas are too economically dependent on mining to ban it outright, national policy reform is seen as unlikely due to political conflicts of interest, and Bolivia’s central government has even considered fast-tracking the regularization of non-compliant mining operations. 

READ | Fair Trade Seeks a Foothold in Artisanal Gold Mining 

Overfishing in Southeast Asia Is an Ecological and Human Crisis (NPR) 

The seas of Southeast Asia — among the most biodiverse in the world — have long been in decline. Since the 1950s, the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that 70-95% of fish stocks have been depleted and are at risk of collapse, driven by the rise of industrial-scale fishing, weak regulations, insufficient monitoring, and insatiable demand. A lack of rules on the most destructive fishing methods, such as demersal trawling and cyanide fishing, has made it impossible to replenish stocks in Thai waters, while corporations owning commercial vessels have pushed for further deregulation. 

The crisis carries a significant human dimension as well. In the Philippines, Chinese boats have repeatedly harassed local fishermen. One fisherman from the Palawan coast reports catching roughly half of what he previously would due to avoiding areas with a potential Chinese presence. In Indonesia, Chinese operators recruit locals onto fishing vessels and trap them in cycles of debt bondage, with working conditions stretching up to 16-22 hours a day. These working contracts are bound not by physical coercion but through loan arrangements that bind workers before they can even begin. 

READ | El Niño and Militarized Fisheries Disputes in the East and South China Seas 

The Double Tragedy for Women in Kenya’s Informal Settlements (The New Humanitarian) 

Urban communities in Nairobi have been flooded regularly over the last year, caused by a combination of torrential rain and poor infrastructural maintenance — with increasing reports of sexual and gender-based violence among survivors in affected communities. Those unable to find stable housing frequently find themselves in precarious living situations, grappling with rent and unexpected costs at the same time their livelihoods have been disrupted. Such upticks in GBV have been documented in previous floods: when the Mathare River flooded in April 2024, killing more than 40 people and displacing approximately 200,000, researchers at the Mathare Social Justice Centre noticed a sharp rise in women reporting cases of sexual and gender violence. 

Funding for safe houses has fallen short of demand as USAID and other humanitarian funding has dwindled or been cut entirely. One local safe house has just 2-4 beds and can only support individuals for up to 48 hours. Government responses have meanwhile centered on the mass removal of informal settlements near riverbanks — often with little or no compensation. 

READ | Pakistan’s Floods Expose Deep Gender Divides