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

Final Version of Global Critical Minerals Treaty Stripped of Traceability Measures (Mongabay)

At the seventh U.N. Environment Assembly in December 2025, Colombia and Oman jointly proposed a legally binding international treaty to create traceability and due diligence mechanisms across global mineral supply chains. Their proposal faced resistance from multiple countries including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, Chile, and Uganda, and ultimately resulted in a watered-down nonbinding resolution on mineral governance that excluded traceability provisions entirely.

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

High Seas Treaty Takes Effect as Global Ocean Protection Framework (Associated Press) 

The High Seas Treaty is the world’s first legally binding agreement to protect marine life in international waters, and its broad impacts began when it entered into force on January 17, 2026. The treaty governs the nearly half the planet’s surface comprised of vast ocean areas beyond any individual country’s exclusive economic zone—an area which faces threats from destructive fishing, shipping, plastic pollution, overfishing, and potential deep sea mining. The agreement also establishes the first framework for creating Marine Protected Areas on the high seas, which constitute about two-thirds of the world’s ocean.  

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

Community Forests Are the Frontline of a Minerals Race in the DRC (Mongabay) 

In the Democratic Republic of Congo’s copper-cobalt belt, local communities are establishing community forest concessions to secure land titles and prevent eviction by mining companies. Sparked by previous displacement incidents, these concessions allow communities to hold up to 50,000 hectares in perpetuity. This region holds approximately 70% of the world’s cobalt reserves, which has attracted intense competition from Chinese companies, the United States, and the DRC state-owned Gécamines to obtain minerals essential to high-tech, weapons, and clean energy industries. Between 2001 and 2024, 1.38 million hectares of tree cover in Lualaba and Haut-Katanga provinces were lost due to mining activities. 

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

Illegal and Unregulated Mining Runs Rampant in Venezuela (Inside Climate News) 

Located across the Venezuelan states of Amazonas, Bolívar and Delta Amacuro, the Orinoco Mining Arc is a center of mining illegal and unregulated mining activity. Mining has exploded in this area during the Maduro regime, as operations use high-pressure pumps and toxic mercury to strip vast stretches of Amazon rainforest, and choke rivers with sediment and pollutants. Recent activities even carved open-pit mines into the summit of Yapacana National Park’s sacred tepuy mountain. The environmental impacts on populations are also devastating: up to 90 percent of women in mining areas show toxic mercury levels that are linked to neurological damage. 

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

Marine Life Plundered in Unregulated Fishing Zone Near Argentina (The Guardian)

One of the world’s largest unregulated squid fisheries is located in Mile 201—a largely ungoverned strip of the high seas just beyond Argentina’s exclusive economic zones. Fishing hours there have increased between 2019 and 2024 in the area, as hundreds of foreign vessels arrive annually to plunder marine life. Yet this free-for-all poses serious concerns for other marine species as well. Crews on more than 50% of Chinese vessels and a fifth of Taiwanese vessels also have revealed the unreported capture and killing of seals, with culls sometimes numbering in the hundreds.

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

Climate Breakdown Threatens Global Food Security (The Guardian)

Global agricultural systems now face mounting pressure as climate impacts intensify and crop yields plateau. Production of the world’s most abundant crop, maize, is projected to decline by 6% under low-warming scenarios, and as much as 24% in extreme warming scenarios. Extreme weather wiped out over 1 million hectares of Zambia’s maize in 2024 alone, accounting for half of the country’s total production. An Amazon drought devastated more than 18,000 hectares of crops in Peru, leaving 500,000 children facing both food and water shortages.

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

Race for Copper Damages Protected Region in Colombia (Mongabay)

As Colombia looks to meet the growing demand for strategic minerals, activists working in the department of Choco allege that the country’s only industrial copper mine is harming both the environment and a local community. The El Roble copper mine has operated since 1990 at the base of a valley crossed by the Atrato River, but its acquisition by Canadian multinational Atico Mining in 2013 has meant that daily production has doubled from 400 to 1,000 metric tons over the past 12 years. El Roble also lacks the environmental license required by Colombia’s Mining Code, and continues to operate under a less stringent 1987 environmental management plan, which activists say omits required environmental impact studies.

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

Deforestation and Flooding Turns Fallen Timber into Projectiles in Indonesia (The New York Times) 

When Cyclone Senyar struck in late November, its death toll numbered 800 people across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. The Indonesian island of Sumatra saw a particular sort of damage as the storm unleashed sixteen inches of rain in parts of the island, wiped out four villages, and triggered flash floods and landslides. Decades of razing and converting natural forests into palm oil plantations, pulpwood farms, and gold mines drastically increased the region’s vulnerability to floods and landslides to the point that timber was transformed into projectiles that destroyed residences and infrastructure.