Sex-workers in Ecuador badly affected by the economic aftermath of COVID-19

Characterized by old, white colonial style buildings, the historical center of Quito is recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and normally well visited by tourists – foreign as well as national. It has also become infamous for insecurity reasons, issues with drug and alcohol use in the streets and theft. And then it is one of the areas where you find sex workers offering their services on the streets.

“Our water depends on these places – and we still don’t understand well, exactly how”

Maria Elena Gutierrez-Lagoueyte, a young ecologist, from the Colombian city Medellin, studies in detail the plants of the páramos (the moorlands). She studies the plants in order to understand how the unique Andean ecosystem plays a central role in the water cycle, providing the drinking water for around 40 million people in South America. But we do not know how exactly those moorland plants function.

When the Amazon is on fire, one of the many species affected is the Pink River Dolphin

Meet a Colombian scientist, passionately researching about the pink river dolphin, a crucial species to protect aquatic ecosystems in the Amazon. The enormous habitat of those border-crossing dolphins makes them a key-species to protect big areas. If they are well, so is the Amazon. And when the Amazon is on fire, it affects species like the dolphin, as well.