Activists say that a controversial law recently passed by Brazil's Congress could lead to increased deforestation in the Amazon. If the law puts less pressure on farmers to preserve forest land, animal traffickers could possibly take advantage of the situation.

Timber traffickers in Peru have built a huge logistical network for bribing officials and moving illegally harvested wood out of the country, and now drug traffickers are taking advantage of this to move their own product.

Recent seizures of illegally trafficked timber in Guatemala suggests there is an organized smuggling ring sophisticated enough to transport the wood in large quantities, Prensa Libre reports.

Colombia created a prosecutor's office which will deal exclusively with environmental crime. One significant question is how much energy the new office will put into investigating unlicensed mining, a source of money for the FARC and BACRIMs.

A long-running land conflict in southern Mexico is causing new problems, and the situation is made more dangerous by the prospect of intervention from drug trafficking groups and illegal logging interests.

Mexican authorities have rescued nearly 29,000 animals since 2000, many during operations against organized criminal groups.

Environmental police in Brazil have enlisted the help of unmanned drone planes to help tackle the illegal exploitation of the country's resources, reported Latin Trade magazine.

Honduran authorities stopped two men accused of trying to smuggle 118 exotic parakeets from Nicaragua to El Salvador, concealed in fruit boxes.

A man was detained at the airport in Cayenne, French Guiana, while allegedly attempting to smuggle more than a dozen live hummingbirds out of the country, concealed in his pants.

Officials in Mexico are scrambling to house exotic animals confiscated from the collections of drug kingpins, according to a report from the Associated Press.