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By Naina Rao
A new-to-science species of egg-eating snake has been documented in the forested mountains of southern Ethiopia, according to a recent study. The snake, which has an ink-black body, bluish skin betwe…
By Mongabay.com
Construction of a power plant that will burn waste to generate electricity at a landfill near Bangladesh’s capital faces strong opposition from nearby communities, who say they fear severe health r…
By Basten Gokkon
- Wildfires in West Kalimantan are leaving wildlife struggling to find fresh water as forest pools dry up and ponds turn brackish, pushing animals toward villages and coastal areas.
- Residents and conservation groups have begun providing water and rescuing animals affected by the fires, as prolonged dry conditions put further pressure on wildlife and freshwater supplies.
- Conservationists warn the crisis is also affecting coastal communities, with rising salinity threatening access to fresh water and potentially putting food production at risk.
- Warning: This story contains disturbing images of animals.
By David Brown
Happy World Octopus Day! Every Oct 8, the world celebrates one of the more unusual creatures of the sea. Octopuses are well-known for their eight legs and ability to squirt ink when frightened. The…
By David Brown
In Africa, high-quality seeds can produce improved crops with enhanced nutrition, pest-resistance, and drought tolerance. However, such seeds for maize, vegetables, and cereal crops can be indistingu…
By Fernanda Wenzel
- In April 2026, the Brazilian government prohibited the import of meat from endangered shark species, making it illegal to sell any species of the genus Squatina, the angelsharks.
- Despite the new regulation, angelsharks continue to be sold freely in the South of Brazil and local governments have placed new orders for the product.
- Three public agencies said they would suspend the purchase plans after being contacted by Mongabay.
- In addition to a lack of enforcement, experts point out that compliance with the new rules is hampered by the sale of meat from various shark species under the generic name “cação.”
By Meg Perret
- The San Rafael Valley in the U.S. state of Arizona is an important wildlife corridor, but these migrations will soon be blocked by a wall being constructed by the U.S. government to prevent passage of human migrants.
- Activists had been staging tree sits in a group of old cottonwoods adjacent to the construction until they were cut down this week, including a very large one dubbed “Grandmother Tree,” whose felling has caused furor on social media.
- “The movement that formed around it demonstrates why protecting biodiversity in the borderlands requires recognizing both ecological and social connectivity across the region,” the author of a new commentary argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
By Spoorthy Raman
Authorities across nine Latin American and Caribbean countries have arrested hundreds of people and recovered more than 1,000 animals as part of a two-month coordinated operation against environmenta…
By Associated Press
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — The families of thousands of people who remain missing in Nepal weeks after catastrophic floods devastated the country have expressed mixed feelings after the government sai…
By Andrew Jeong
- South Korea has recently revamped national guidelines on human trafficking to make it easier for law enforcement officials to spot and stop forced labor and other abuses in the fishing industry.
- The South Korean government cited the U.S. State Department’s recommendation in last year’s Trafficking in Persons Report as a reason for amending the guidelines.
- The amendments have not drawn an enthusiastic response from rights activists who say the problem lies more with enforcement of labor laws and anti-human-trafficking laws.
- While authorities have arrested people accused of committing crimes against migrant fishers like abduction or physical assault, they remain the exception.
By Mongabay.com
Australian authorities have disrupted an alleged wildlife trafficking syndicate, uncovering a clandestine operation where smuggled native animals were hoarded alongside caches of cash and gold, repor…
By Esther J
- There has been a long-standing assumption that invasive alien species have greater biodiversity impacts in wealthier Global North countries than in the Global South.
- But a new study finds that the average severity of impacts of invasive alien species is greater in the Global South.
- In Myanmar, for example, where 70% of the population practices agriculture, farmers struggle to adopt self-devised methods of dealing with invasive alien species such as the golden apple snail.
By Sadiqur Rahman
- The case of missing lemurs from a Bangladeshi safari park exposes major gaps in wildlife conservation enforcement, locally and regionally.
- In the absence of protocols, tracing and repatriating trafficked wildlife becomes a big challenge for law enforcers.
- SAWEN, a high-level South Asian platform for wildlife enforcement, suggests continued dialogue among regional parties to close these gaps.
By Mongabay.com
Part of a forest in Malaysian Borneo that Indigenous communities had envisioned co-managing and self-governing has been turned into an active commercial logging concession, according to a recent civi…
By Izzy Sasada
In a remote community in Malaysian Borneo, fishermen are facing an existential threat: their water source is being polluted. The fish they depend on is dying. Long Jawe village sits on the banks of t…
By Victoria Schneider
The Zambian government is investigating a chemical spill in its Copperbelt Province allegedly linked to Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), owned by U.K.-based multinational Vedanta Resources. Residents in C…
By David Akana
Africa’s monitored wildlife populations have declined an average of 80% since 1970, according to a new global assessment. The report also points to pockets of recovery where conservation efforts ha…
By Marta Kasztelan
- Poland’s border with Belarus runs through the Białowieża Forest, Europe’s last ancient woodland, home to lynx, wolves and European bison.
- To strengthen national security and deter Russian and Belarusian attacks, Poland launched the East Shield in 2024 — a 700-km (435-mi) border fortification project running along its northeastern and eastern flanks.
- But Polish scientists and conservationists say the East Shield would result in widespread damage to Białowieża Forest; they convinced the military to instead implement “WarWilding” techniques that forgo concrete in favor of using nature to create a defensive barrier called the Green East Shield.
- However, WarWilding proponents say road construction projects threaten to undermine progress on the Green East Shield and are harming the forest and its wildlife.
By Naina Rao
Humpback whales found in the Arabian Sea are likely a distinct subspecies, having evolved in isolation for tens of thousands of years, according to a newly published genetic analysis. “Arabian Sea …
By Associated Press
MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Isaias formed Wednesday in the warm waters off eastern Mexico and forecasters said it was expected to strengthen into the first hurricane of the Atlantic season before h…
By Ana Norman Bermúdez
- A government-run wildlife rescue center in northeastern Thailand rehabilitates and releases dozens of leopard cat cubs every year.
- Rescue numbers have risen sharply since 2023, a trend staff at the center attribute to a combination of worsening habitat fragmentation, fire activity and increased use of a government hotline.
- Although the center can monitor camera traps for footage of released cats, they currently have no way to be certain how many of the cats survive after release.
By Aimee Gabay
- A report from funders of a pledge to support Indigenous peoples and local communities’ land rights found that donors delivered $2.35 billion between 2021 and 2025, exceeding the $1.7 billion target made at the 2021 U.N. Climate Change Conference by 38%.
- The findings also show that 7.2% of funding in 2025 went directly to Indigenous peoples and local communities, up from 2.9% in 2021.
- Authors of the report warn that underfunded regions remain particularly vulnerable to aid cuts, deforestation and extractive pressures.
- A new $1.8 billion five-year pledge announced at COP30 aims to expand its reach to support Afro-descendant communities and other ecosystems, promising more direct, flexible and long-term financing.
By Christine Heinrichs
- A deadly strain of avian flu, H5N1, has spread across the globe since it emerged in Europe in 2020, infecting hundreds of species and decimating domestic poultry, seabird and marine mammal populations.
- In June, bird flu breached the last uninfected continent, Australia, and has since infected numerous bird species — and spilled over into mammals, including critically endangered Australian sea lions.
- Wildlife disease tracking and data collection are guiding current mitigations, such as carcass removal. The New South Wales government launched an immunization trial for vulnerable captive birds in August and began vaccinating little penguins in the wild on Sept. 18. But little can be done to stop the spread.
- A comprehensive One Health perspective that incorporates human, wildlife and livestock health could aid efforts to prevent outbreaks of zoonotic disease that pass between them all.
By Elizabeth Claire Alberts
- At the recent biennial meeting of the International Whaling Commission, Antigua and Barbuda introduced a controversial resolution on the “sustainable use” of whales, which introduced a path toward the reintroduction of commercial whaling. The resolution was ultimately withdrawn.
- A separate bid to establish a South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary failed to pass, as it has at several previous meetings.
- Delegates did approve resolutions aimed at addressing cetacean strandings, the fish maw trade and vessel strikes, as well as the “Hobart Declaration” commemorating the 80th anniversary of the IWC.
- Observers criticized the IWC for failing to adequately address climate change, but also praised the body as a whole for remaining steadfast in supporting the ban on commercial whaling and for its contributions to science and conservation efforts.
By Mongabay.com
More than half of the world’s wild tulip species assessed so far are threatened with extinction, reports Mongabay’s Shreya Dasgupta. “For a flower this famous, it may surprise people how rare i…
By Catherine Ellis
- Colombia’s new president has pledged to reopen the door to fracking, reviving plans for two pilot projects in Puerto Wilches municipality that were halted under his predecessor, Gustavo Petro.
- Supporters say fracking could help shore up dwindling gas supplies, while critics warn it could expose communities and ecosystems to environmental risks and prolong the country’s reliance on fossil fuels.
- Puerto Wilches’s wetlands and waterways support communities and threatened wildlife, including West Indian manatees, Magdalena River turtles and Magdalena catfish, raising concerns over water use, wastewater, and other impacts from fracking.
- The debate reflects a broader tension in Colombia’s energy transition, with renewable energy expanding rapidly even as delays and declining gas reserves fuel calls for continued investments in fossil fuels.
By Naina Rao
The reported death of a 28-year-old laboratory technician in eastern Siberia has triggered regional quarantines and international attention over fears of the cause of death and a lack of transparency…
By Liz Kimbrough
- Researchers have identified a new species of extinct long-snouted crocodile from 45-million-year-old fossils found in the same limestone formation used to build Egypt’s Great Sphinx.
- The fossils were dug up in the 1920s and lumped in with the living false gharial, but CT scans revealed features that set the ancient crocodile apart as its own species.
- Its closest living relatives, the gharial and false gharial, are critically endangered and endangered respectively.
- Today, many species of crocodilians face conservation threats, though some have seen tremendous recovery due to conservation efforts
By Basten GokkonMike DiGirolamo
Indigenous activist and filmmaker Kynan Tegar joins the Mongabay Newscast this week to discuss the impacts of the fires devastating Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. Some 48…
By Rhett Ayers Butler
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Twenty months after the dismantling of USAID, a new analysis docu…
By Associated Press
SANTAREM, Brazil (AP) — Off-grid solar power is spreading across Brazil’s Amazon, helping remote communities prepare for severe drought while replacing costly, polluting diesel generators. In Nov…
By Liz Kimbrough
- A survey of 25 organizations working on rainforest restoration in Australia’s Wet Tropics found that nearly all monitor their sites, but about half keep no records and simply check sites visually.
- The groups ranked habitat connectivity, biodiversity, and threatened species habitat as their top goals, yet measured success mainly by canopy closure, tree survival, and the end of weeding.
- About 42% stop monitoring once the canopy closes, usually within three to five years, long before the slower recovery of rainforest plants and animals can be tracked.
- Most groups said monitoring would be a high priority if they had more funding, and the survey authors warn that short-term checks won’t provide the proof of recovery that carbon and biodiversity markets require.
By Jennifer Cole
- In Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia, a partnership between the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, Redd Fish Restoration Society and West Coast Kelp grows kelp at scale to support an ecosystem in decline.
- The fur trade eradicated sea otters; their return enables kelp to thrive.
- Underwater cameras are monitoring the newly formed kelp forest.
- The success of the project will be measured by science and the return of ecological abundance.
By Akane Nishimura
- The world is facing an El Niño event of unprecedented proportions.
- Millions of Indonesians have already been breathing toxic wildfire smoke and bravely fighting the blazes for months, although this event’s likely record-breaking fire season has barely kicked into gear.
- “These communities are inspiring, and they can teach us some lessons about resilience and fortitude in the face of a Super El Niño that’s coming for many of us,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
By Yenni Kwok
- Hong Kong-based biologist Astrid Andersson and arborist Harry Wong run a conservation project that seeks to protect the city’s feral yellow-crested cockatoos (Cacatua sulphurea).
- The critically endangered species enjoys a stable population in Hong Kong, numbering around 200 or about 10% of the global population.
- With few natural nesting spaces available, Andersson and Wong make artificial nest boxes and install them in public parks and on school campuses.
- Each box is equipped with an internal camera connected to a mobile signal, allowing researchers to remotely monitor breeding behavior.
By Naina Rao
Researchers surveying garden and wild flowers across northern Thailand have uncovered 16 previously unknown species of black, yeast-like fungi living inside the flowers, according to a recent study. …
By Shanna Hanbury
Right-wing candidates made big gains in both houses of Congress in Brazil’s Oct. 4 general election. Brazil’s main Indigenous organization, the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil APIB, …
By Jonathan Vit
Every year, thousands of salamanders and frogs try to cross from their wooded winter homes in the U.S. state of New Hampshire to the swamps they breed in. But the road is a dangerous place — unless…
By Dyna RochmyaningsihPhilip Jacobson
- Indonesia’s forestry ministry has posted a notice saying it will use a controversial internet law to prosecute anyone who downloads geospatial data without its written permission, threatening prison terms of up to nine years.
- A ministry official clarified it was restricting access only to data in the widely used shapefile format.
- Legal scholars say the data are protected under Indonesian law and should be freely accessible.
By Rhett Ayers Butler
On June 17, 2015, Philippine officials confiscated thousands of turtles in cement tanks from a warehouse in Palawan, an island province in the Philippines. More than 3,800 of them were endangered Pal…
By Shanna Hanbury
In Brazil’s general election on Oct. 4, incumbent leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva finished second to far-right Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator and son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, …
By Maxwell Radwin
- Suriname President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons announced a task force in August to investigate illegal settlements destroying the rainforest, many of them Mennonites moving from other countries.
- Attempts at eviction have proven much more complicated than it first appeared, observers say. Settlers are allegedly ignoring court orders, and officials are confused about which people are breaking what laws.
- Rabindre Parmessar, leader of the National Democratic Party in the National Assembly, said he plans to meet with the president’s task force to better understand the legal procedures of eviction and why the Mennonites haven’t been removed yet.
- He will also take steps to create a parliamentary group to investigate the situation independently of the president’s task force, he said.
By Associated Press
BANGKOK (AP) — Thai authorities on Monday warned of more rain and flash flooding as the death toll from floods across the country since mid-September rose to 31. Thunderstorms, strong winds and hea…
By Hans Nicholas Jong
- In Indonesia, fires are burning in rainforests that contain 13 of the 20 largest remaining populations of Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus).
- Without urgent action, thousands more orangutans could be killed, injured or displaced, warns the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group, a network of primatologists, field researchers and conservation experts.
- Actions must include long-term measures, including community-led efforts, beyond emergency firefighting to tackle the fires, say experts.
By Victoria Schneider
The brown clockfig, an extremely rare succulent growing in the hot, arid border region of Namibia and South Africa, was recently assessed as critically endangered by the IUCN, the global wildlife con…
By Mongabay.com
More Amazonian species, in larger numbers, are appearing for sale on the other side of the planet in Southeast Asia’s exotic pet trade, reports contributor Gloria Dickie for Mongabay. Over the past…
By Mongabay.com
Fewer than half of tiger poaching and trafficking arrests in Southeast Asia result in convictions or legal penalties, providing little deterrent to an illegal black market that is driving wild tigers…
By Spoorthy Raman
A multi-day thunderstorm over the Mediterranean Sea struck Malta, stranding hundreds of passing migratory birds on Sept. 14, 2026. Hunters in the country then shot hundreds of those birds, including …
By Juan Maza
Vast tracts of Thai farmland have been poisoned by chemicals linked to mining in Myanmar, With toxins carried into Thailand by at least six transboundary rivers. A Mongabay investigation has found mo…
By Shanna Hanbury
Oil slicks from ships and offshore oil platforms cover nearly 1.6 million square kilometers (618,000 square miles) of the ocean surface each year, an area slightly larger than the nation of Mongolia.…
By Associated Press
SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s upcoming presidential election could reshape the Amazon’s future. Control of the country, which contains about 60% of the rainforest, could pass to Sen. Flávio Bolson…
By Minh L Tran
- As Hanoi leans on fishers to hold the line in contested waters, a distant war and a demanding European compliance regime are squeezing the same boats from opposite directions.
- The fuel crisis caused by the Iran War adds to the pressure.
- Data shows a nearly-19% year-on-year drop in fishing activity during March and April 2026, the height of the fuel crisis.
By Allessandra DiCorato
- A new field study found that two treatments of beneficial bacteria each protected reef corals from bleaching during a heat wave in the Red Sea.
- A heat-killed version of one of the bacterial treatments also protected the corals and may provide a cheaper, more shelf-stable alternative to live probiotics.
- Future studies are needed to determine whether the treatments also help corals stay alive over longer periods of time.
- Though wider implementation of probiotics faces barriers, researchers say many approaches are needed to protect corals in the long term.
By Liz Kimbrough
- As Earth warms, greenhouse gases released by thawing permafrost, wetlands, wildfires, and freshwaters could cause 0.2°-0.4°C (0.4°-0.7°F) of additional warming by 2100, a new study estimates.
- That would amplify human-caused warming since 2020 by 20-30%, with methane accounting for roughly half of the added warming.
- Most climate models leave these natural feedbacks out, so projections of future warming are likely too low and remaining carbon budgets too generous, the authors say.
- Cutting human emissions remains essential, but because some natural sources have no off switch, researchers are exploring ways to remove methane from the atmosphere.
By David Akana
- Ali Thani and Lorna Slade shared frustration with top-down conservation and a belief that coastal communities could manage their own resources led them to come together to create the Mwambao Coastal Community Network.
- Their partnership grew from different experiences. Thani, a Tanzanian from the coast who had worked in government and with international conservation groups, brought intimate knowledge of coastal communities; Slade brought decades of experience and understanding of the international institutions financing conservation.
- Mwambao has since grown into a multimillion-dollar organization and helped communities experiment with fisheries closures, co-management and livelihood programs. But its experience has not been uniformly successful, with different degrees of acceptance from communities.
- Its growth also raises a harder question for its founders: can a community-led model remain truly community-led as the organization itself becomes larger?
By Ashoka Mukpo
The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have signed a 10-year agreement to co-manage a portion of Queen Elizabeth National Park, famous for its tree-climbing l…
By June Wong
- Hong Kong’s heat stress warning system has been widely criticized as ineffective, failing to raise alerts even when temperatures hit a record high.
- Although the system has since been revamped, critics say the government’s heat stress guidelines to protect workers are flawed.
- Unlike mainland China and other countries, Hong Kong doesn’t require employers to stop high-risk work or let workers rest when heat warnings are issued.
- Workers’ rights advocates also urge authorities to codify heatstroke as an occupational disease.
By Spoorthy Raman
- Sulawesi’s critically endangered maleo birds are increasingly targeted by wildlife traffickers, according to a new study that documented seizures of smuggled birds Some were carried by families with children, young couples or single mothers to try to avoid detection.
- Researchers found that 25 live juvenile maleos were seized by enforcement agents in 2024 in India or en route there. Conservationists say they may have been smuggled from hatcheries built to conserve the critically endangered species. None were repatriated alive to Indonesia.
- Maleos are a protected species in Indonesia, and all international commercial trade is banned under CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty.
- Researchers urge authorities in India, Indonesia and Thailand to increase surveillance and enforcement in airports and build a mechanism to return seized birds to Indonesia, where they could potentially be released back into the wild.
By Taufik Wijaya
- Data from remote sensing platforms indicates Indonesia is likely experiencing its worst wildfires crisis in years as a strong El Niño deepens the country’s main dry season over Sumatra and Borneo islands.
- In South Sumatra province, rubber tree growers in the Tempirai customary zone say they use fire only after the end of the dry season, after they have planted food crops, and that fires began to afflict this area of South Sumatra province after the oil palm industry began operating in the peatland.
- That may reflect the relative resilience of oil palm trees to wildfires compared with rubber trees, which are much more vulnerable to incineration.
- “If a fire breaks out here, we’re finished — so right now, fire is our enemy,” one latex tree grower told Mongabay Indonesia.
By Mongabay.com
In the Indian Western Himalayas, women are the primary first responders to escalating forest fires. They risk their physical safety to protect homes and livelihoods despite receiving little formal su…