In mid-July, operations officially began at the sprawling Mirador mine in southern Ecuador, a month after the government announced an ambitious new plan to jumpstart its mining industry and diversify its oil-dependent economy. But local environmentalists and indigenous communities fear the costs.

Since 2016, protesters from New Zealand’s indigenous Māori population have occupied a plot of land near Auckland to prevent construction of a housing development. Grant Duncan discusses the historical issues behind the protest and the limited options that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has to intervene.

Once used almost exclusively by traditional healers, ayahuasca is now at the center of a tourism boom, as foreigners flock to jungle lodges in countries like Peru, in search of greater self-awareness and healing. But the changes wrought by ayahuasca tourism are transforming local life, and now healers are seeking to regain control.