location: India

location: India

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New database unveils the role of Asian hornbills as forest seed dispersers
- Equipped with bulky beaks and impressive wingspans, hornbills are vital long-distance seed dispersers in tropical forests. But while a lot is known about the eating habits of hornbills, many mysteries still remain.
- A new study has compiled an open-source, publicly available database of Asian and New Guinean hornbill frugivory and seed dispersal research.
- The new resource aims to help researchers, students and conservation organizations pinpoint knowledge gaps so that they can target their efforts and limited resources.
- The new frugivory database could also prove useful for reforestation projects, many of which increasingly recognize the importance of planting food plants to attract natural seed dispersers, which in turn helps to further regenerate the forest.

Ridiculously rare photo catches Asian caracal swimming a river in India
- A tourist took a surprising photo of a caracal, a medium-sized cat, fording a river in India.
- What makes the photo doubly unusual is that India’s caracals aren’t known for swimming — and the cat was supposed to be extinct in the region.
- Once an important species culturally in India, caracals are now endangered, according to the IUCN Red List.
- The cat is also imperiled because it often occurs outside protected areas, inhabiting less-valued grasslands.

Saving Asia’s fishing cat means protecting threatened wetland habitat
- Fishing cats are uniquely adapted to life in wetlands, possessing a double-layered coat that serves as a water barrier and insulation, partially webbed feet, ears that plug when submerged, and a curious call reminiscent of a duck.
- Spread across Asia, this small wild cat species faces myriad threats, including habitat loss, hunting and retaliatory killings, road kill, and more. Considered vulnerable across its range, the felid is also elusive and underresearched, with many knowledge gaps about its distribution and ecology.
- Conservationists are working across its range to raise the profile of this wildcat, reduce threats and understand the species. Linking its protection to equally threatened wetlands is vital, they say. Initiatives such as the Fishing Cat Project in India have achieved success in making this cat the face of these habitats.
- Multiple conservation and research projects operate in Asia under the banner of the Fishing Cat Conservation Alliance, a cooperative model that provides funding lifelines and enables international collaboration to protect this small cat.

From polling stations to weather stations, the heat is on in India (commentary)
- Parts of India are facing a heatwave, for which the heat in the state of Kerala is a curtain raiser. Kerala experienced its first recorded heatwave amid the ongoing election campaign.
- Heatwaves, droughts and floods do not distinguish along political lines. If the destruction is across board, the mitigating action also has to be across political lines, writes Mongabay-India’s Managing Editor, S. Gopikrishna Warrier, in this commentary.
- Climate change poses economic, social and political challenges, influencing election discourse and policy agendas.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Meet the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners
- This year marks the 35th anniversary of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, which honors one grassroots activist from each of the six inhabited continents.
- The 2023 prize winners are Alok Shukla from India, Andrea Vidaurre from the U.S., Marcel Gomes from Brazil, Murrawah Maroochy Johnson from Australia, Teresa Vicente from Spain, and Nonhle Mbuthuma and Sinegugu Zukulu from South Africa.

Warming seas push India’s fishers into distant, and more dangerous, waters
- Many of India’s more than 4 million fishers are sailing beyond the country’s exclusive economic zone into the high seas in search of a better catch.
- Rising sea surface temperatures, overfishing near the shore, and the destruction of reefs have decimated nearshore fisheries, forcing India’s fishers farther out to sea where they face greater risk.
- A common danger they run is straying into the waters of another country, which can lead to their boats being seized and the crew being jailed or even killed.
- The Indian government has issued policies to protect and recover nearshore fish stocks, even as it encourages fishing in the high seas.

Uttarakhand limits agricultural land sales amid protests & tourism development
- Following widespread protests, Uttarakhand’s Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has issued orders to district magistrates to deny permission to sell agricultural lands to those outside the state.
- With just 14% of its land designated for agriculture and more than 65% of the population relying on agriculture, calls for legislation to safeguard residents’ land rights have intensified.
- With a lack of comprehensive, updated land records, monitoring the usage of farmlands for nonagricultural purposes has become challenging.
- Lack of employment opportunities and resources as well as shifting weather patterns and climate change have pushed numerous farmers to sell their land holdings.

Delhi gets the attention — but Kolkata’s air pollution is just as dangerous
- Delhi’s air pollution problems often receive global attention, but Kolkata’s air quality often ranks among the world’s worst.
- Data show that levels of PM2.5 — small particulate matter that can enter the lungs and harm human health — can be dangerously high in Kolkata.
- PM2.5 pollution is associated with a long list of heart and respiratory diseases including cancer; data show lung cancer rates in Kolkata to be higher than in other cities.
- Transportation and diesel pollution are major contributors to Kolkata’s air pollution.

Nepal’s release of endangered crocs into historical habitat raises concerns
- Nepal recently released 25 critically endangered gharials into a tributary of the Mahakali River to reintroduce them to historical habitats, but concerns have arisen over transparency and timing of the process.
- Gharials are released into the Chaudhar river, part of the Terai Arc Landscape, to augment dwindling populations, although previous translocations have yielded mixed results.
- Researchers highlight challenges faced by gharials, including migration obstacles due to dams and barrages, and they advocate for better timing of releases to optimize adaptation and survival.
- Issues such as lack of publicized government studies, potential influence of reciprocal gifts in translocation decisions and denial of budget-related motives are raised amid efforts to conserve gharials.

Postponement of century-old Indian Science Congress sparks controversy
- Almost every year since 1914, the Indian Science Congress has brought together a wide range of scientists, academics, students and even Nobel laureates in an event that has been central to the development of science throughout India.
- This year, the Indian Science Congress was postponed amid reports of controversy between the organizing body and the Indian government.
- Meanwhile, the Indian Science Congress Association has been accused of politicizing the event in recent years and providing a platform for pseudoscience, sparking protests among many in the scientific community.

Risky development in Uttarakhand: Interview with environmentalist Ravi Chopra
- Ravi Chopra, an esteemed environmentalist based in Uttarakhand, is renowned for his dedicated efforts to preserve natural resources within the Himalayan region.
- In 2019, the Supreme Court appointed Chopra as chair of a committee to review the controversial Char Dham highway construction project; he later resigned after construction proceeded despite the committtee’s findings that the project could pose significant risks to the ecologically fragile region.
- The Char Dham project drew international attention in November 2023, when a segment of a tunnel collapsed, trapping dozens of workers for 17 days.
- In a recent interview with Mongabay, Chopra discussed the environmental risks and hazards of development in Uttarakhand.

Newly identified shorebird species takes its name from Hanuman, a mythical Hindu ape god
- The Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrines) is a widespread shorebird and a constant winter visitor to Sri Lanka and neighboring India, yet a population chooses to remain year-round in Sri Lanka and southern India.
- This population has physical characteristics different from the migratory Kentish plovers, hence it has been identified as a subspecies, known as C. a. seebohmi. As far back in 1887, British ornithologist Henry Seebohm suggested they could possibly be a distinct species.
- A recent study of genetic analysis has established this breeding population of plovers found in Sri Lanka to be different from the migratory Kentish plovers; the new species’ evolution started about 1.19 million years ago after the population separated from its ancestors.
- The new species is named Hanuman plover (Charadrius seebohmi) named after the Hindu mythical ape god Hanuman revered in the Sanskrit epic Ramayana who supposedly built a bridge linking Sri Lanka and India, incidentally where the first specimen of this bird was collected.

India’s new forest rules spark dismay — and hope: Q&A with activist Soumitra Ghosh
- India has recently adopted amendments to its forest laws that have sparked an outcry from activists and NGOs that say the changes severely weaken protections for biodiversity, forests and the people who depend on them.
- However, journalist-turned-activist Soumitra Ghosh says the new rule changes merely codify what had been happening for years: a gradual dilution of the regulatory powers for protecting India’s forest and environment laws, beginning with a system called “compensatory afforestation,” which he says commodified India’s forests.
- Ghosh talked with Mongabay about the history of India’s forest laws, as well as his hopes that despite the “draconian” new amendments, forests will still be protected since their primary authority still lies with the communities that live within and depend upon them.

[Photos] New book is a stunning glimpse of Asia’s wildlife and landscapes
- A new photo book by authors and photographers Bjorn Olesen and Fanny Lai aims to raise awareness of Asia’s impressive biodiversity and protected areas, and inspire mindful ecotourism that supports effective conservation efforts.
- Many of the species intimately featured in the book encapsulate the major challenges facing the region from such threats as climate change, deforestation, development pressure, and the illegal wildlife trade, to name but a few.
- But most of all, the book is a celebration of the region’s biodiversity and conservation successes, featuring the stories of rare and imperiled species brought back from the edge of extinction through protected area management and combined efforts from governments, NGOs and communities.
- Mongabay interviewed Olesen to find out what he’s learned during his photography-inspired travels around the region and share some compelling images printed in the book.

In 2023, Mongabay’s reporting fellows covered Earth amid crisis — and hope
- 2023 marked the first full year of Mongabay’s Conservation Reporting Fellowships, which are offered in both Spanish and English; journalists in the English-language program represented six countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas.
- The fellowships aim to fill gaps in global conservation reporting, as our planet faces the unprecedented crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and the prospects of surpassing the planetary boundaries within which human life on Earth may thrive.
- Look ahead to 2024 for much more to come, as Mongabay expands and our fellowships grow and evolve with us.

The tricky business of commercializing invasive plants to death
- To control the spread of invasive plants, some have offered a different solution: harvest and sell the invaders into extinction.
- But as some initiatives show, making and selling artisanal products from invasive species can come with social, economic and ecological challenges.
- Instead, some conservationists and researchers say that invasive plants may need to be removed at large scales for industries like biofuel, and not just to make artisanal products.
- While some researchers worry this could incentivize keeping invasive plants around, advocates of commercialization contend that for some species, large-scale economic use might be the only way to control their spread.

Ancient ocean water found in Himalayas could offer insights about evolution
- A team of researchers from India and Japan have found water droplets trapped in mineral deposits in the Kumaon mountains in the Indian state of Uttarakhand that were likely left from an ancient ocean dating back some 600 million years.
- The scientists say these droplets could aid our understanding of the Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event and the Earth processes that fostered the evolution of complex life.
- The researchers say these droplets could offer insights about the makeup of ancient oceans and the environment at the time, and they could be helpful for future climate modeling.

Can India’s Forest Rights Act deliver? Odisha state is trying to find out
- In 2021, the village of Kodalpalli in Odisha’s Nayagarh district became one of the few places in India where the country’s landmark Forest Rights Act of 2006 (FRA) was translated into formal rights for traditionally forest-dependent communities.
- This July, the east Indian state of Odisha launched a scheme to expand FRA coverage to 30,000 villages that are home to tribal groups and other traditionally forest-dwelling communities.
- It took Kodalpalli villagers more than 10 years to get their claim validated; by then, a women-led forest stewardship scheme called thengapalli had been in place for about four decades.
- Experts say the legal right has helped strengthen existing community-based institutions and practices like thengapalli while opening up new livelihood opportunities for residents.

Video: Rice as a peace offering in India’s human-elephant conflict capital
- Assam state in northeastern India, where farmers and elephants jostle for space and food, has one of the highest incidences of human-elephant conflict in the country.
- Conservationists from Hati Bondhu, a nonprofit organization, are working with farmers in Assam’s Golaghat district to pursue a more peaceful human-elephant coexistence.
- Their first experimental project, which was to grow rice in some fields dedicated to elephants so farmers could harvest separately elsewhere, was a success.
- They’re now planning solutions to overcome the limitations of this short-term project, involving more villages and planting more species outside of farmlands in large-scale projects.

‘Sustainability is a continuous journey’: Q&A with RSPO’s Joseph D’Cruz
- The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the industry’s leading certifier of ethical compliance, has long faced scrutiny over its sustainability guidelines and how it responds to member companies’ frequent violations.
- Today, the organization is headed by veteran development professional Joseph D’Cruz, a self-professed newcomer to the industry who says he wants the RSPO to be less reactive and more proactive.
- In a wide-ranging interview with Mongabay, D’Cruz discusses why sustainability should be seen as an unending journey rather than an end goal, how the gap between sustainable and “conventional” palm oil is closing, and what role governments must play in driving greater sustainability.
- “When you watch the progress of platforms like the RSPO, sometimes on the outside it might seem frustratingly slow,” he says. “But that’s because you got to bring everybody along and that’s a very tricky challenge sometimes.”

When wildlife surveillance tech ‘watches’ people
- Conservation technologies such as camera traps, drones and acoustic sensors, are playing a greater role in protecting endangered species, preventing poaching, finding rare plants, tackling forest fires, and monitoring changes in forests and oceans.
- However, researchers and communities say these technologies are also increasingly playing a role in human surveillance, infringing on privacy, exasperating human conflicts with conservation, and posing serious social and ethical implications through their use.
- As conservation technologies increasingly monitor people much the same way CCTV cameras do, their use must be subjected to similar ethical guidelines of other public surveillance tech — which they lack, say researchers.
- Some researchers have drawn up checklists of best practices, such as getting consent from nearby communities, being transparent about how the technology will be used, not using human images opportunistically, and using tech only when there’s no alternative, less-intrusive way of collecting data.

As tourism booms in India’s Western Ghats, habitat loss pushes endangered frogs to the edge
- India’s Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot, is home to many endemic and endangered species of amphibians, some of which are new to science and others suspected of lying in wait of discovery.
- Deforestation due to infrastructure and plantation expansion in the southern Western Ghats threaten the region’s amphibian species, many of which have highly restricted habitats.
- Adding to their woes is an increased risk of landslides in parts of Kerala due to erratic, heavy monsoon rains and erosion due to loss of forest.
- To save them, experts are calling for a systematic taxonomic survey of amphibians in the region and for legal protection of endangered species.

Nepalis’ love of momos threatens endangered wild water buffaloes
- The most sought-after dumplings (momos) in Nepal are filled with buffalo meat, which commands a higher price if it comes from a crossbreed of wild and domestic buffalo.
- Crossbreeding dometic and endangered wild buffaloes is illegal and can threaten the wild population, but people do it because of the high demand for the meat as well as a belief that crossbred females produce more milk.
- Authorities in the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve are challenged with controlling the mixing of wild and domestic animals inside the reserve.

Blue jeans: An iconic fashion item that’s costing the planet dearly
- The production of blue jeans, one of the most popular apparel items ever, has for decades left behind a trail of heavy consumption, diminishing Earth’s water and energy resources, causing pollution, and contributing to climate change. The harm done by the fashion industry has intensified, not diminished, in recent years.
- The making of jeans is water intensive, yet much of the world’s cotton crop is grown in semiarid regions requiring irrigation and pesticide use. As climate change intensifies, irrigation-dependent cotton cultivation and ecological catastrophe are on a collision course, with the Aral Sea’s ecological death a prime example and warning.
- While some major fashion companies have made sustainability pledges, and taken some steps to produce greener blue jeans, the industry has yet to make significant strides toward sustainability, with organic cotton, for example, still only 1% of the business.
- A few fashion companies are changing their operations to be more sustainable and investing in technology to reduce the socioenvironmental impacts of jeans production. But much more remains to be done.

Wild cats threatened by ‘underrecognized’ risk of spillover disease
- Researchers warn that disease spillover from livestock and domestic animals represents a serious conservation threat to wildlife, including felids in tropical areas around the world. Spillover is most likely to occur on rapidly advancing forest-agricultural frontiers or within fragmented habitats.
- Tracking the spillover and spread of diseases from humans and domestic animals to wildlife is extremely challenging, particularly among wild felid species, which tend to be secretive and solitary, making ongoing observation difficult.
- Possible cases of disease spillover have been documented in wild cats in India, Malaysian Borneo, Thailand, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Russia and Nepal. These are likely the tip of the iceberg, say scientists, who believe much disease among wild species is going undetected, with case numbers and outbreaks unknown.
- Scientists stress the need for greater health monitoring of wildlife to reduce this “invisible threat.” But funding for health testing is often scant, and treatment difficult. One researcher sees disease transmission from domestic animals to wildlife as perhaps the most “underrecognized conservation threat today.”

Better management of shared waterways could benefit economy in Bangladesh, India
- Bangladesh and India signed a protocol in 1972 for using waterways through 11 different routes to carry goods. Only three of the designated 11 routes are in regular use at present, as most of the routes lack depth for the navigability of large vessels.
- A 2016 World Bank study showed that the cost to carry goods via the waterways is cheaper compared to good transportation via railways and roads. However, only about a quarter of Bangladesh’s waterways are navigable by mechanized vessels during the monsoon season and during the dry season, the navigable distance shrinks even further.
- The Bangladeshi government recently awarded a $71 million contract to a Chinese company to dredge rivers as part of a World Bank-financed project to boost transport routes between mainland India and its northeastern states via Bangladesh.
- Experts suggest that, besides taking on extensive dredging work, the rivers need proper management like maintenance of channels and embankment protection, otherwise silt will close the channels in a short time.

Humans are dosing Earth’s waterways with medicines. It isn’t healthy.
- Medicines, chemical formulations that alleviate much human suffering, can also be significant pollutants, with active ingredients often excreted from the human body and entering waterways. However, the intensity of this contamination and of its impacts has not been well researched.
- A study published in June analyzed samples from 1,000 sites along waterways in more than 100 nations, looking for 61 active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Their results suggest that concentrations of at least one API breached safe levels for aquatic life at nearly 40% of sites tested globally.
- Some pharmaceuticals are endocrine disruptors (EDCs), which mimic hormones and interfere harmfully with the endocrine system in various organisms, while other drugs are linked to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), considered one of the biggest threats to human health and well-being today.
- Despite growing awareness among scientists, there is no systematic reporting of waterway pollution by medicines, or impacts on ecological health. Currently, many human-excreted pharmaceuticals enter directly into waterways, or pass through existing wastewater treatment facilities. Fixing the problem will be very expensive.

Latest water-sharing deal between Bangladesh, India is ‘drop in the ocean’
- Bangladesh and India share 54 rivers that flow down from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal, chief among them the Ganges and the Brahmaputra.
- Managing the flow of water both upstream and down is crucial for agriculture, navigation, inland fisheries, and keeping saltwater intrusion at bay in Bangladesh, but is undermined by a lack of water-sharing agreements.
- The Bangladeshi and Indian prime ministers recently signed an agreement on sharing water from the Kushiara River for irrigation, but experts say this is nothing special in the grand scheme of things.
- They’ve called on the governments of both countries to push for securing long-term treaties on water sharing from major rivers like the Ganges and the Teesta, which in the latter case has been hobbled by local politics in India.

Farmer-to-farmer agroecology: Q&A with Chukki Nanjundaswamy of Amrita Bhoomi Learning Centre
- The Amrita Bhoomi Learning Centre in southern India is one of dozens of education hubs around the world providing a space for farmer-to-farmer training in agroecology.
- In a wide-ranging interview with Mongabay, the center’s Chukki Nanjundaswamy discusses their model of agriculture, its Gandhian roots, and how it grew out of the rejection of Green Revolution farming techniques that rely on chemical inputs and expensive hybrid seeds.
- Nanjundaswamy shares some of their innovative approaches to growing food without inputs, plus clever techniques to thwart notorious pests like fall armyworm, which is also prevalent in Africa.

Authorities and Yobin communities clash as deforestation spikes in Indian national park
- Namdapha National Park is India’s third-largest national park and is home to thousands of species, including tigers, clouded leopards and an endemic species of flying squirrel that has only been observed once by scientists.
- Satellite data show deforestation has increased in the park over the last two decades.
- Members of an Indigenous group called the Yobin have been living in portions of the park for generations, but park authorities consider Yobin settlements to be “encroachments” and the main driver of deforestation and poaching in Namdapha National Park
- In the last few months, authorities have destroyed at least eight Yobin settlements inside the park.

Asia’s troubled trees need better conservation to reach restoration goals: Study
- South and Southeast Asia’s 19,000 tree species form the foundations of some of the world’s most biodiverse rainforests, as well as provide irreplaceable ecosystem services and underpin the livelihoods and diets of hundreds of millions of people.
- However, roughly three-quarters of the land deemed most important to protect regional tree diversity lies outside of protected areas, according to a new study that evaluates the distribution and threats facing 63 native tree species.
- The findings question whether countries will be able to fulfill their ambitious forest restoration targets; in particular, the researchers are concerned that crucial seed resources that could support reforestation efforts are being lost.
- The researchers recommend a more coordinated approach to conservation planning within the region, including improved cross-border collaboration and a holistic, landscape approach that integrates trees into production systems outside of protected areas.

Shining a light on Sri Lanka’s little-studied pangolins: Q&A with Priyan Perera
- Sri Lanka’s small population of Indian pangolins has long been threatened by hunting for domestic bushmeat consumption, but conservationists have identified an emerging trend of the animals being captured for trafficking abroad.
- Efforts to protect the species here have failed to take off as a result of poor general awareness about the animal, persistent myths about eating its flesh, and a dearth of scientific studies into Sri Lanka’s pangolins.
- Priyan Perera, a globally recognized expert on the species, says he hopes to change that, starting by first filling in the knowledge gaps about the pangolins and their behavior, while also raising awareness in communities and schools to discourage hunting.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Perera talks about the importance of better understanding Sri Lanka’s Indian pangolins, incidents pointing to the nascent trafficking trend, and how to care for seized or injured pangolins.

Study: Farmland birds in Nepal, India in dire need of conservation action
- A new study shows that Nepal’s farmlands are an important habitat for a quarter of the bird species found in the country.
- The researchers also found that different agriculture practices influenced the abundance of birds: sugarcane fields attracted the greatest diversity of species, while rice fields had the highest number of individual birds.
- The study provides a baseline for tracking farmland birds and informing policies for their conservation, given that they’re found outside of formally protected areas.
- The findings also highlight the differences between the characteristics and threats faced by farmland bird populations in Nepal (and neighboring India), and those in countries where agriculture is more industrialized and mechanized.

Sloth, giant armadillo, and fishing cat conservationists win Future for Nature Award 2022
- Three people known for their work with sloths, fishing cats and giant armadillos were announced this week as winners of the 2022 Future for Nature Award.
- Tiasa Adhya of India, Gabriel Massocato from Brazil, and Rebecca Cliffe in Costa Rica each earn a cash prize they will use to advance their work with these endangered animals and ecosystems.
- One will use the funding to acquire a dog specially trained to detect the presence of sloths, a cryptic species whose populations are challenging to estimate.

Record seizures mark Sri Lanka’s rise as a smuggling hub for star tortoises
- The Indian star tortoise is the most smuggled tortoise species in the world, with thousands trafficked annually smuggled out from India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan despite a 2019 total ban on the international trade in the species.
- While India continues to be the main country of origin for wild-caught star tortoises, Sri Lanka has in recent years become both a prominent source country and transit hub for trafficking networks that move the animals to East and Southeast Asia.
- Experts have called for better collaboration between law enforcement authorities in the source countries, particularly India and Sri Lanka, to curb the smuggling, which studies say has thrived due to weak enforcement and corruption.
- Herpetologists also say releasing seized star tortoises from both India and Sri Lanka inside Sri Lankan national parks threatens to wipe out the unique characteristics of the latter population, making them genetically indistinct from their subcontinental cousins.

Researchers puzzle over sea-crossing migration of crimson rose butterflies
- A recently observed migration of a large swarm of crimson rose butterflies from India to Sri Lanka has highlighted how little we still know about this natural phenomenon.
- Unlike the better-known migration of the monarch butterfly in North America, the movements of the crimson rose are meandering and dispersed, often triggered by the start of rains following a long dry spell.
- Researchers have called for more studies to be done to better understand the phenomenon, including through contributions from citizen scientists in both Sri Lanka and India.

Bringing back large mammals boosts restoration of entire ecosystems: Study
- Large mammals play crucial ecological roles by influencing the behavior of other animals in the food chain and shaping the structure and composition of their environments.
- A new study that looks at global opportunities for the restoration, reintroduction and rewilding of large mammals across the world’s terrestrial ecoregions found that just 15% of the world’s land area supports intact large mammal assemblages.
- The study suggests that returning just 20 large mammal species to their historic habitats could restore intact large mammal communities across almost one-quarter of the Earth’s land area.
- The scientists behind the study recommend large mammal rewilding be incorporated into area-based conservation targets being considered under the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework and into restoration efforts under the U.N.’s Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030.

Top 15 species discoveries from 2021 (Photos)
- Science has only just begun to find and describe all of the species on Earth; by some estimates, only 20% have been described.
- This year, Mongabay reported on newly described species from nearly every continent, including an Ecuadoran ant whose name broke the gender binary, an acrobatic North American skunk, an Australian “killer tobacco,” a fuzzy orange bat from West Africa, tiny screech owls from Brazil, and more.
- Though a species may be new to science, that doesn’t mean it has not yet been found and given a name by local and Indigenous communities.

An Indigenous community in India’s Meghalaya state offers lessons in climate resilience
- The Indigenous food system of the Khasi community in Nongtraw village in Meghalaya offers lessons in climate resilience and sustainable food systems, says a United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation report.
- The traditional food production system is supported by jhum (shifting cultivation), home gardens, forest and water bodies and shies away from the use of synthetic chemicals. It is based on community-led landscape management practices, regulated by local governance.
- Factors such as the emergence of cash crop production (broom grass), the impact of India’s public distribution system on the local subsistence system and over-reliance on market-based products are weakening the food system’s resilience.
- Research priorities on Indigenous food systems should include systematic documentation of a wide variety of Indigenous foods known to the Indigenous communities, their contribution to food security and dietary diversity.

Tree-planting goals miss the forest for the lack of diverse, good-quality seeds
- Ambitious plans by India, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines to restore tens of millions of hectares of degraded land by 2030 could be derailed by a lack of good-quality and genetically diverse native seeds, according to a new study.
- Researchers, who surveyed tree restoration practitioners in the four countries, found a third of practitioners regularly planting seedlings of unknown origins, which can lead to their growing in unsuitable conditions and low survival rates.
- With countries pledging at the COP26 climate summit to end net forest loss, the worry is that such unsustainable restoration projects will only be another smokescreen for continued deforestation.
- Countries need to invest in their seed supply systems so they can deliver large amounts of quality seeds of diverse species and provenances, which will be key to attaining desired outcomes such as climate mitigation, food security and biodiversity benefits, the researchers said.

New Himalayan snake found via Instagram
- Locked down at home during the pandemic last year, a postgraduate student in India’s Himalayan region photographed a snake in his backyard that experts had never before seen.
- Uploaded to Instagram, the picture caught the attention of a herpetologist in another part of the country, who set out to find out more about the snake.
- In a newly published paper, they describe it as a new-to-science species of kukri snake (Oligodon spp.).
- The authors say the discovery points to the hidden wealth of biodiversity in the western Himalayas, and call for more studies in this region.

From Shanghai Knights to gecko life: The Jackie Chan gecko among 12 new Indian species
- Researchers have described 12 gecko species from the Western Ghats mountain range in India, ten of which are found nowhere else.
- The geckos were given some creative names, including a quick and nimble species named after martial arts superstar Jackie Chan, a couple named after fictional dragons, and one named after the cosmos.
- The quest to find geckos was part of a larger survey to document the diversity of the frogs, lizards and snakes of the Western Ghats and to search for critically endangered species in the diverse region.
- The Western Ghats have been identified as a biodiversity hotspot and there are many protected areas in the region, but a growing human population is putting pressure on the unprotected habitats through expanding urban areas, logging, dams, and the spread of agriculture.

A bridge of trees reunites gibbons separated by a railway line in India
- For the hoolock gibbons of India’s Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary, a rail line bisecting the forest has for decades proved an impassable barrier, dividing the animals into two separate areas.
- In 2006, conservationists, the local forest department and communities began planting thousands of trees along the tracks in an effort to create a natural canopy bridge.
- The tree-planting effort finally bore fruit in 2019, when the first gibbons were observed crossing over the tracks.
- This year, an entire family has been observed making use of the bridge.

Bridge the North-South divide for a UN Biodiversity Framework that is more just (commentary)
- The upcoming UN Biodiversity Conference (COP-15) features proposals like the 30×30 biodiversity conservation plan that we’ve all been hearing so much about lately.
- This proposal may work well for the North, including the U.S. with its “America the Beautiful” plan, but not well for the poorer nations of the global South: any effort to build a Global Biodiversity Framework must begin with sincere listening to all parties, and learning from that listening.
- “Scientists and the conservation leaders of the global North do not know how to talk to the grassroots conservationists of the global South when it comes to biodiversity conservation,” Subhankar Banerjee argues, and urges environmental justice campaigners and Indigenous rights advocates to look very closely at the current COP-15 30×30 proposal.
- The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Novel chemical entities: Are we sleepwalking through a planetary boundary?
- The “novel entities” planetary boundary encapsulates all toxic and long-lived substances that humans release into the environment — from heavy metals and radioactive waste, to industrial chemicals and pesticides, even novel living organisms — which can threaten the stability of the Earth system.
- Humans have invented more than 140,000 synthetic chemicals and we produce them in vast quantities: around 2.3 billion tons annually. Yet, only a few thousand have been tested for their toxicity to humans or other organisms. That leaves humanity essentially flying blind to potential chemical interactions and impacts.
- Global treaties such as the Stockholm Convention, Minamata Convention, and Basel Convention, limit production and/or trade of some environmentally persistent toxic and hazardous chemicals. But progress is slow: Decades after DDT’s impacts were reported, it is still regularly used in developing nations.
- NGOs call for an international tax on basic chemicals production, with the funds supporting countries devising and implementing regulations to protect human health and the environment. A 0.5% international fee could raise $11.5 billion yearly, vastly surpassing current global funding for chemicals management.

Low genetic diversity is part of rhinos’ long-term history, study says
- A new study that reconstructs the rhino family tree by analyzing the genomes of all five living rhino species and three extinct species has found that low genetic diversity is part of rhinos’ long-term history.
- The study also found evidence to support the geographic hypothesis of rhino evolution, which places the two African species in a separate group from the three Asian species.
- However, genetic diversity is lowest and inbreeding highest in present-day rhinos, suggesting that recent human-driven population declines have impacted rhino genetics.
- Nonetheless, the study says rhinos appear to have adapted well to low genetic diversity and small populations sizes and recommends conservation efforts focus on increasing rhino numbers.

Next to India’s capital, a village looks to the past for its forest’s future
- For generations, a community outside India’s capital has worked to protect their sacred grove from outside interests like mining and real estate.
- Despite being a biodiversity hotspot, the protection status of this grove under India’s Forest Conservation Act remains in limbo.
- But conservationists and experts say they hope new archaeological findings will help the community get more secure legal protection for their grove.

There’s still room to save Asia’s hoolock gibbons, study says, but only just
- Hoolock gibbon habitat has declined in the past few decades, but enough suitable patches exist today to guarantee the long-term survival of the genus if properly conserved.
- Particular populations are at greater risk of local extinction and should be translocated, including scattered western hoolock populations in Bangladesh.
- Researchers have also identified strongholds where a relatively high number of hoolock gibbons have been estimated, and which are currently highly threatened, to be prioritized for conservation.
- Hoolock gibbons are particularly vulnerable to forest fragmentation and degradation due to certain behavioral traits, which makes protecting large patches of habitat much more effective than conserving many small and fragmented areas.

Mongabay’s What-To-Watch list for June 2021
- Does reforestation help mitigate climate change? And how effective is reforestation? In May, Mongabay delved into these questions through video explainers and on-the-ground reporting.
- In May, we also published a few behind-the-scenes videos for anyone who wants to take a peek behind the curtain and learn more about how Mongabay does its reporting.
- May was also another big month for stories on animals and new discoveries about animal behavior.
- Add these videos to your watchlist along with your favorites from Netflix, Disney+ or Prime.

‘Bad science’: Planting frenzy misses the grasslands for the trees
- Planting trees by the millions has come to be considered one of the main ways of reining in runaway carbon emissions and tackling climate change.
- But experts say many tree-planting campaigns are based on flawed science: planting in grasslands and other non-forest areas, and prioritizing invasive trees over native ones.
- Experts point out that not all land is meant to be forested, and that planting trees in savannas and grasslands runs the risk of actually reducing carbon sequestration and increasing air temperature.
- The rush to reforest has also led to fast-growing eucalyptus and acacia becoming the choice of tree for planting, despite the fact they’re not native in most planting areas, and are both water-intensive and fire-prone.

Sea turtles under threat as Indian government weighs development in Andaman Islands
- Little Andaman Island is part of a rainforested archipelago far off India’s eastern coast in the Bay of Bengal.
- An Indian government think tank has proposed developing the island along with another in the archipelago. If implemented, experts say the plan would pose a threat to nesting sites of leatherback sea turtles, whose population globally is declining.
- The leatherback is the largest of all living turtles, and India and Sri Lanka are the only places in South Asia with large nesting populations.
- The island is also home to the Onge Indigenous tribe.

Report: WWF knew about rights abuses by park rangers, but didn’t respond effectively
- In 2019, Buzzfeed News published a series of articles alleging that WWF was providing support to park rangers in Central Africa and South Asia who were committing severe human rights abuses against people living near protected areas.
- The reports were largely based on investigations by human rights activists, who presented WWF with evidence of torture, rape and murder carried out by rangers beginning in 2014.
- An independent panel commissioned by WWF to investigate its response found that staff members heard stories of abuse beginning in 2008 and did little to address them until recently.
- In response to the panel’s 160-page report, WWF promised to set up systems for victims to make complaints and push host governments to impose codes of conduct on rangers.

Mongabay launches in Hindi to expand environmental journalism in India
- More than 21 years ago I established Mongabay out of my love for nature and wildlife. Today the endeavor has grown far beyond what I could have ever imagined.
- I’m now pleased to announce that Mongabay is launching in Hindi, India’s most widely spoken language.
- If we’re looking to maximize the impact of environmental journalism globally, Hindi is critical. Spoken by over 600 million people, the language plays an important role in setting the national discourse in India, which is home to 17 percent of the planet’s population.
- I welcome all Hindi readers to Mongabay’s reporting. I hope you find real inspiration and solid information here that informs your work and helps you navigate some of the biggest questions facing our world.

Blooms driven by climate change threaten to smother marine life in Arabian Sea
- A strange single-celled organism that acts both as a plant and an animal has come to dominate wintertime algal blooms in the northern Arabian Sea.
- Winter blooms of Noctiluca scintillans, also known as the sea sparkle, have displaced microscopic algae called diatoms that form the basis of the marine food chain, a paper in Nature says.
- Scientists at Columbia University fear the outbreaks could herald massive declines in fisheries in the region, potentially impacting millions of fishers in India, Pakistan, Iran, Oman and Yemen.
- They have linked the emergence of N. scintillans blooms with the loss of ice cover in the Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau driven by climate change.

New study shows where we should grow more forest to fight climate change
- In a new study published this week in Nature, researchers found that, globally, rates of potential forest carbon sequestration presumed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were underestimated by 32%. When considering just tropical regions, that number went up to 53%.
- Conversely, the study found that the maximum climate mitigation potential from reforestation – 2.43 billion metric tons – is 11% lower than previously reported. This is because the study took a more nuanced look at potential reforestation areas whereas the IPCC applied estimates more evenly across the planet.
- The study reveals that China, Brazil, and Indonesia have the greatest potential for aboveground carbon sequestration in potential restoration areas, with Russia, the U.S., India, and the Democratic Republic of Congo falling closely behind.

On World Tiger Day, let’s recommit to the goal of doubling wild tiger populations by 2022 (commentary)
- A goal to double the number of wild tigers by 2022 remains one of the most ambitious conservation targets for a single species ever adopted, and deserves renewed attention for International Tiger Day on July 29.
- However, a recent survey of people charged with managing 40 protected areas in tiger range countries reveals that funding for half of them has been cut since the global pandemic began.
- Investing in ‘tiger protected areas’ is an investment in ecosystems that millions of people also depend on, and should not be cut if the world wants to achieve the goal of doubling the animals’ populations.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Shifting cultivation: more than a means of livelihood
- Despite state discouragement, indigenous communities in northeast India persist in practicing shifting cultivation, an agricultural system used over centuries.
- A new study published in the journal Forest Policy and Economics examined this attachment, revealing various factors behind their motivation to continue.
- They found that shifting cultivation (SC) is not only a means of living for these communities but is also deeply rooted in their culture and way of life.

Illegal logging ‘mafia’ stripping hornbill habitat in Northeast India
- Illegal logging is driving the loss of forest that poses the biggest threat to rare hornbill species in the Eastern Himalayan forests of India’s Arunachal Pradesh state.
- Hunting of the hornbills for their casques and meat was previously a major threat, but has been largely defused through a conservation program that engages the indigenous Nyishi community.
- The Papum Reserve Forest in which the birds are found doesn’t have the same protections as India’s national parks, and suffers from logging activity that goes largely unchecked by authorities.
- Indigenous activists working to protect the forest and its wildlife have come under attack from illegal loggers.

Tigers threatened by a vast network of planned roads across Asia
- Tiger habitats are under threat from nearly 24,000 kilometers (15,000 miles) of new roads to be built by 2050.
- The explosion of new roads is driven in part by global development strategies such as China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
- Road construction contributes to three major threats to tigers: degradation of habitat, prey depletion, and poaching.
- Tigers are endangered, with fewer than 4,000 individuals still remaining in the wild.

Will fish boom amid pandemic-driven fishing bust?
- The COVID-19 pandemic has created an exceptional crisis for fishing communities and the fishing industry as a whole.
- Since March 11, when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, global fishing activity has been down by nearly 10% compared to the 2018-2019 average, according to a new estimate, and in some places the decline has been much greater.
- But it’s difficult to tell whether the global fishing slowdown will give marine life a chance to recover, experts say.
- Factors include the duration and timing of the slowdown, as well as whether illegal fishing may rebound in the absence of enforcement.

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