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By Mike DiGirolamo
For a time during the 19th and 20th centuries, gray wolves were practically extinct across Western and Central Europe. Now, thanks to strict protection measures in countries across the region, their …
By Francesco De Augustinis
- The 45th meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) took place Oct. 19-30 in Hobart, Australia.
- The multilateral body charged with regulating fishing and protecting ecosystems in the Southern Ocean concluded with no agreements on the longstanding issues of establishing new marine protected areas and adopting new krill-fishing management measures.
- Of particular interest was the potential establishment of a marine protected area in a large swathe of sea between the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Orkney Islands. Krill fishing is concentrated in the area, which also serves as an important feeding ground for krill-reliant wildlife.
- China, a top krill fishing nation that, with Russia, has blocked the establishment of new protected areas for nearly a decade, proposed redefining existing and future MPAs within the CCAMLR convention area such that fishing could take place there.
By Aimee Gabay
A federal judge issued an emergency order on Oct. 23 to deploy federal security forces to the Apyterewa Indigenous Land in Brazil’s Pará state. The order came after new evidence emerged that hundr…
By Mark Hillsdon
- Pledges to protect the world’s oceans are featured prominently in countries’ action plans to meet the targets set out in the Global Biodiversity Framework — the international agreement to reverse nature loss — according to a new report released by two organizations during the U.N. biodiversity conference (COP17) held Oct. 19-30 in Yerevan, Armenia.
- Yet the report says most pledges related to ocean biodiversity are only “weakly anchored” in policy and accountability measures, raising concerns about how they will be fulfilled.
- Speaking during the conference, a group of small-scale fishers underscored the report’s finding that few country commitments addressing the economics of fishing focus on small-scale fishers, and said their role as coastal custodians is often overlooked.
- Instead, the fishers said, governments are focused on creating Blue Economy initiatives, prioritizing sectors such as tourism and shipping and excluding local, small-scale fisheries.
By Associated Press
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban officials have been invited and will attend the upcoming U.N. climate summit as observers. The summit starts next week in Antalya, Turkey. This marks their …
By Elodie Toto
- The United Nations Environment Programme named Ethiopia’s Desa’a forest restoration initiative a World Restoration Flagship, recognizing efforts to restore a degraded Afromontane ecosystem in the Tigray region.
- The project has restored more than 23,000 hectares (57,000 acres) of degraded land, prevented an estimated 500,000 metric tons of soil erosion and increased soil water infiltration in restored areas.
- Despite progress, years of armed conflict have disrupted restoration work and devastated local communities. Renewed fighting reported in September 2026 could further threaten the project’s long-term goals.
By Anna Weekes
A new payments scheme rewards two rural communities on the edge of Botswana’s Okavango Delta for living alongside wildlife. Residents have installed cameras around their villages and earn money fro…
By Shanna Hanbury
African countries left the United Nations biodiversity conference in Yerevan, Armenia, with an unresolved funding gap for conservation. International funding for protected and conserved areas in Afri…
By Tom Johnson
- A new report and unearthed court records raise questions over the palm oil industry body RSPO’s ability to police its members, writes The Gecko Project’s Tom Johnson.
- The report, by Rainforest Action Network, builds on work by The Gecko Project, published in 2023, investigating Singapore-listed, Indonesian-owned First Resources, a palm oil producer alleged to be clearing rainforest through a network of secret companies in Indonesia.
- In December 2025, the RSPO Complaints Panel issued its final ruling on a long-running case against First Resources.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
By Naina Rao
A federal court in the U.S. has sentenced two residents of the state of California for their roles as financial facilitators in a scheme trafficking wildlife body parts between the U.S. and Vietnam. …
By Victoria Schneider
- Work that began earlier this year on a luxury resort inside Zanzibar’s Ngezi-Vumawimbi Forest Reserve appears to have come to a halt.
- Details of the project remain opaque, but construction of a wall near the reserve’s boundary and land used by nearby communities sparked public outcry earlier in 2026.
- Last year, scientists published an open letter calling on the authorities to reconsider the development as it could pose a major threat to endemic plant and animal species.
By Elisângela MendonçaSpoorthy Raman
- Internal U.K. government communications obtained by Mongabay and The Guardian show environment officials explicitly advised government ministers this summer not to “engage formally” with the controversial Indian zoo Vantara after its lobbyists tried to secure a meeting.
- The main reasons for the advice included “reputational sensitivities” and “ongoing compliance proceedings” involving the zoo. Vantara declined to respond to Mongabay’s questions about U.K. concerns.
- The documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, also revealed that Vantara received 152 permits over three years to transfer animals to Vantara. Government officials raised concerns over applications by Vantara to import falcons and falcon hybrids after a 50,000 pounds “donation” from an unnamed source to a U.K. falcon exporter.
- In Geneva, the U.K. is set to chair the Standing Committee of CITES from Nov. 2-6, which will oversee the implementation of the treaty and review compliance cases, including those linked to India’s wildlife imports.
By Karla Mendes
Brazil’s Indigenous voters helped reelect incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Oct. 25. Following his win, two officials in the municipality of Tacuru, Mato Grosso do Sul, allegedly se…
By Latoya Abulu
At the 2026 U.N. Biodiversity Conference in Armenia (COP17), Indigenous peoples and local communities strengthened their role in the decision-making of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), w…
By Claudia Geib
- A new study used data from U.S. forests to analyze whether diversity in tree species helped forests weather compound climate extremes, such as drought and high temperatures occurring at the same time.
- The study found that diversity did have a protective effect: More diverse forests were more resilient during compound climate events, and recovered more effectively afterwards.
- However, the study also found that the protective effect of diversity wasn’t equally strong across all types of climate events, and that other factors — like rainfall, soil health and day-to-day temperatures — also played a role in how well these forests handled climate stress.
- Researchers say that the study’s findings give forest managers a good place to start when planning adaptation strategies for the climate extremes that lie ahead.
By Nick Ruggia
- A study of climate data from 1980 to the present showed a broad global expansion of extreme heat days outside of summer months, extending into spring and fall.
- Extreme heat occurrences varied by region: Western Europe, southern Africa and northwest India are seeing hotter springs, while eastern China, northern Africa, eastern Europe and the western U.S. are largely experiencing hotter autumns.
- Extreme heat (and humidity) occurring outside the traditional summer window threatens both public health and agriculture. It also increases the risk of wildfires and accompanying health-threatening smoke, and even hurricanes.
- Researchers warn that vulnerable populations can be caught off guard by unseasonable extreme heat days. Likewise, governments need to extend summer heat precautions into the spring and fall to protect citizens.
By Aimee Gabay
- A Brazilian federal court has ordered the removal of non-Indigenous occupants from the Piripkura Indigenous Territory in Mato Grosso, home to Indigenous people living in voluntary isolation.
- The order gives those affected 120 days to leave and remove cattle, machinery and other belongings.
- The ruling follows recent and new evidence of illegal deforestation and cattle ranching in the territory, including a recent inspection that identified 36.83 hectares (91 acres) of unauthorized clearing attributed to a rancher.
- Federal prosecutors have raised concerns about a new threat to the Piripkura in court files seen by Mongabay, including reports of clandestine airstrips allegedly being used for drug trafficking inside the territory, raising fears about violence and unwanted contact.
By Edward Carver
- Conflict between small-scale fishers and industrial vessels can threaten food security and livelihoods in coastal communities, including via direct competition for species, disputes over fishing grounds or damage to gear.
- A new study introduces an index that scores 126 countries on their vulnerability to such conflicts.
- The scores are based on factors such as how much industrial activity occurs near shore, how reliant countries are on small-scale fishing for food and income and the strength of their governance systems.
- West Africa and East Asia are the most vulnerable subregions, according to the index, with Guinea, Sierra Leone and Mozambique the most vulnerable countries.
By Jenny KrusoeLisa KurbielMariam Mwinyi
- On the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, thousands of women work among the tides to cultivate an important natural resource: Seaweeds.
- But this ‘seaweed economy’ is not immune to pressures brought by climate change, disease, and changing environmental conditions affecting many other marine economies across the world, so a partnership between the national government, the U.N., and NGOs is working to ensure its future.
- “The future of this industry will not be secured by hope alone. It will be secured by bringing science into traditional knowledge and practices through partnerships and investment,” the authors write.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.
By Associated Press
Heavy rains and flash flooding have prompted mandatory evacuation orders in parts of the U.S. Southwest. In Colorado, officials in Pagosa Springs warned Sunday of potentially catastrophic flooding as…
By Carolyn Cowan
- A camera-trapping study in a protected area in northern Laos found community-led ecotourism plays a paradoxical role by reducing localized hunting pressure, but also scaring wildlife away from habitats around tourism hotspots.
- There were roughly twice the number of medium to large mammals on average in more remote parts of the forested landscape than at sites closer to trekking and kayaking routes, the camera-trap data showed.
- Experts caution against viewing tourism as a bigger threat to wildlife than more direct exploitation, such as hunting, logging and mining.
- They highlight the revenue that ecotourism generates and the support that it builds among local communities for conservation and sustainable livelihoods.
By Elizabeth Oliveira
- Federal prosecutors are demanding an action plan after authorities found cyanide-contaminated ponds in the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Territory in the Brazilian Amazon.
- A cheaper and more profitable alternative to mercury for miners, cyanide can kill by asphyxiation within minutes and severely contaminate soil and water.
- As crackdowns on mercury drive miners toward cyanide, a regulated chemical, officials say they hope Brazil’s legal cyanide supply chain will allow them to trace the sources and cut off the flows.
By Romi Castagnino
Amazonian tiny bats are turning leaves into homes. Some species build shelters by biting and folding giant leaves into hidden “tents” suspended in the forest understory. But scientists discovered…
By Sean Mowbray
One of West Africa’s largest markets selling wildlife for belief-based uses has expanded rapidly over the past decade, according to a recent study. Researchers surveyed the Akodessewa Fetish Market…
By Hans Nicholas Jong
- Months-long wildfires and the resulting thick smog are taking a growing toll on public health in Indonesia, with residents reporting respiratory illnesses and even deaths.
- Indonesia’s Health Ministry recorded 333,470 acute respiratory infection cases in the seven worst-affected provinces by Oct. 21, while nonprofit Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) has estimated that short-term exposure to wildfire-related air pollution contributed to 5,200 deaths in August and September.
- The haze crisis is affecting millions across Indonesia and neighboring countries, with residents in Singapore and Malaysia reporting health problems and authorities recording increases in respiratory illnesses.
- Health experts warn that repeated exposure to fine-particle pollution can cause long-term medical problems and call for stronger public-health protections and a shift from reactive to preventive policy in handling wildfires.
By Naina Rao
A small, venomous primate that scientists thought had gone extinct still survives on Indonesia’s Bangka Island, and to the communities there was never really “lost,” according to a recent study…
By Annie Burns-Pieper
- In Panama, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights heard testimony Oct. 27 from representatives of six countries alleging harm linked to Canadian mining companies in Latin America.
- Among the complaints, Marco Manobanda, an Indigenous fish-farmer from Las Naves, Ecuador, testified that a copper and gold mine, owned by two Vancouver-based companies, Silvercorp Metals Inc. and Salazar Resources Ltd., is causing deforestation and water contamination where he lives.
- The hearing comes about four months after the government eliminated the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, created to investigate complaints about overseas human rights abuses and environmental harm linked to Canadian companies.
- Civil society witnesses asked the commission to recommend that the Canadian government adopt mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation.
By John Cannon
- The U.N. biodiversity conference (COP17) in Yerevan, Armenia, produced roughly $1.8 billion in new nature-finance announcements, including $500 million from the Netherlands to the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, but overall spending on biodiversity remains far short of the $200 billion per year target in the Kunming-Montreal framework.
- Spending that is harmful to nature is far greater than beneficial financing and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’s call to reform $500 billion in damaging subsidies remains largely unmet.
- The framework is off-track, with 22 of its 23 targets behind schedule, less than 20% of land protected against the 30×30 goal and the Cali Fund for genetic-resource revenues holding only about $10,000 against a $1 billion annual goal.
- Hambardzum Matevosyan, Armenia’s environment minister and the COP17 president, was praised for focusing conference parties on reforming and eliminating harmful subsidies through a series of initiatives.
By David Brown
More than 100 known species of lemurs live in Madagascar. These primates with large eyes, a pointed snout, and long bushy tails are found only in the island country, where they usually live in large …
By Kannikar Petchkaew
- During a recent “people’s tribunal” in Bangkok, women from across Asia spoke about their experiences as leaders of movements seeking justice for communities affected by World Bank-funded development projects.
- The women are from communities affected by a variety of projects across the continent, including dams and land redistribution programs.
- Several themes emerged from the discussions, including the importance of maintaining resistance for decades, the obstacles and dangers faced by protest leaders, and the way that documenting struggles can serve as both a tool of resistance and a means of survival.
By Emma White
- In Naya Padampur, Nepali women are building livelihoods through microenterprises that earn them income and reduce their dependence on forest products.
- Previously, many women ventured into the forest outside of Naya Padampur to fetch firewood, a dangerous task due to the proximity of wild animals such as rhinos and tigers.
- Successful women-led microenterprises in Nepal and beyond have provided a symbiosis between land and community, allowing conservation efforts to flourish while acting as a catalyst for women’s empowerment.
- Still, many women in Nepal face societal and financial hurdles to building businesses and owning property.
By Associated Press
A group of U.S. lawmakers is urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio not to support Colombia’s plans to restart aerial spraying of coca crops in the Amazon, warning of risks to human health and the e…
By Laura Allen
- A nonprofit is reintroducing crocodiles as part of a mangrove restoration project in Veracruz, Mexico.
- The project also involves using an Aztec technique for reforestation by planting mangrove seedlings on raised mounds called chinampas.
- Practitioners in Veracruz, as well as in Colombia, say crocodiles help mangroves function by moving sediment as they swim and keeping channels open so water flows.
- However, others point to a lack of research supporting claims that crocodiles perform a structural role in their habitat.
By Stephin Thomas
- Citizen scientists in Pune are mapping trees along the Mula-Mutha riverbanks using smartphones, measuring tapes and the iNaturalist app to document urban biodiversity.
- The data are strengthening conservation efforts by providing evidence against tree felling and advocating for sustainable alternatives to engage citizens.
- From protecting the ecologically rich Ram-Mula Devrai to drawing on global citizen science initiatives, Pune’s volunteers are part of a larger trend in community-led documentation that can help safeguard urban green spaces and influence conservation decisions.
By Biena MagbitangGabriele Di DonfrancescoHelena Rodríguez GómezLouis Boyd-Madsen
- The Philippines has stopped accepting electronic waste imports from the United States, following months of campaigning from activists who said the country risked becoming a dumping ground for hazardous foreign waste.
- The restriction on U.S. e-waste may not resolve a broader enforcement problem caused by a 2025 court ruling, which pointed out that the Subic Bay freeport lies outside Philippine customs jurisdiction, and that environmental authorities can’t require importers to secure pre-shipment clearances.
- The Subic Bay freeport is a key hub in the U.S.-led Pax Silica initiative, which aims to secure supply chains for semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and critical minerals.
By Deepak Adhikari
- Researchers from Cornell University, WWF Nepal and local forest authorities in Nepal are testing lab-made versions of big-cat scent chemicals, which they call “BioBoundaries,” an attempt to create a chemical fence to keep big cats away from livestock.
- Some experiment sites report that tigers and leopards approach the scent stations, investigate them and often turn back without crossing. Of 10 compounds tested, three were linked to fewer leopard detections and two to fewer tiger detections. Some scents, however, attracted the cats; responses varied by species and location
- A tiger turning away is not evidence the method prevents livestock attacks, the researchers say. Trials in Botswana suggest that one compound cut down leopard attacks, but studies in Nepal haven’t replicated this.
- If the scents work, dispensers could be installed around corrals or on grazing livestock, alongside stronger sheds and safer herding practices, not instead of them. Cost, refilling, manufacturing and distribution are still unresolved
By David Tjyakala
- The Angolan government has declared Serra do Pingano a protected area after the northern region lost 43% of its central forest over two decades.
- Ecosystem degradation threatens endemic plants, amphibians not yet described by science, and a potentially vulnerable population of African forest elephants.
- Forest destruction compromises carbon storage and water regulation in a region of southern Africa already affected by rising global temperatures.
By David Akana
- Nearly 20 years after a landmark court ruling in their favor, Indigenous San communities in Botswana may finally secure broader rights to their ancestral lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, following decades of evictions and legal disputes.
- President Duma Boko’s government has approved a roadmap for land restitution that could allow San communities to return to the reserve, obtain legally recognized land rights and participate in its conservation and management.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Botswana’s Justice Minister Nelson Ramaotwana said the government intends to establish legal protections before the 2029 elections, but questions remain over land ownership, community participation and the sharing of tourism revenues.
By Mongabay.com
Rising disposable incomes, social media algorithms, and pop culture influences have led to a surge in demand for exotic pets in India, reports Mongabay India’s Arathi Menon. A recent report by the …
By David Brown
Bat Week, from Oct. 24-31, 2026, is a worldwide celebration of bats — a group that makes up 20% of all mammals. Bats live on all continents except for Antarctica, and provide major ecosystem servic…
By Oliver Samson
- Residents of Pamarawan, a low-lying fishing village at North Manila Bay, no longer experience flooding after the construction of a nature-based coastal defense and flood control project.
- Instead of concrete, the project opted to use locally available materials, such as bamboo poles, oyster shells and coconut husks, to protect Pamarawan from tidal waves and storm surges.
- Bamboo cribs also help accumulate sediment, which is expected to gradually raise the seabed to a height sufficient to plant mangroves, while discarded oyster shells in cocomesh bags aid in restoring oyster reefs, further strengthening the shoreline against future flooding.
- The pilot initiative, the first nature-based coastal protection project in the Philippines, is touted as a potential model to address similar flooding problems elsewhere in the country.
By Charles Mpaka
Scientists studying indigenous crops recently completed a study to advise farmers on the best time to plant bambara groundnuts, a neglected African crop. Such underutilized native plants have the pot…
By Maxwell Radwin
- The government in Suriname has pledged to combat illegal mining and the industry’s use of mercury, maintain 90% national forest cover and preserve its status as one of the few countries in the world that absorbs more CO₂ than it emits.
- But on the border with French Guiana, where the government is largely absent, Indigenous Wayana communities have had to adapt to illegal gold miners, who for decades have cut down the forest and polluted rivers with mercury.
- One Wayana chief controls the only airstrip in the area, giving him some leverage with miners who have no other practical way into the forest. But in some instances, those relationships have led to violence.
- The Mulokot Foundation, an advocacy group, is working to help the Wayana improve education and map its ancestral territory. In the future, these initiatives may help residents move beyond mining to more sustainable activities.
By David Brown
In a rural area of Zambia, where eating insects has long been a part of local food culture, reviving the practice could help households improve food security — though its potential would depend on …
By Sarah Brown
- Indigenous Baniwa fishers share their fishing grounds in the Upper Rio Negro in the Amazon with otters and maintain a largely harmonious coexistence with these top aquatic predators by avoiding each other’s spaces at times, fishing different species and adjusting behavior.
- For many Baniwa, otters are the pajés das águas or spiritual guardians believed to protect fish and the aquatic world.
- The relationship between Baniwa people and otters has been one of evolution: Commercial fur trade involving the communities in the mid 1900s decimated both giant and neotropical otter populations, disrupting a human-wildlife relationship shaped by generations of Baniwa knowledge and culture.
- The Baniwa-otter relationship shows that human-wildlife coexistence depends on more than resource use, conflict avoidance or cultural beliefs alone, according to the researchers: It is also shaped by historical experience, behavioral adaptation, governance and relationships between humans and the natural world.
By Prayan Pokharel
- Insects are in steep decline from habitat loss, pesticides, invasive species, and a destabilizing climate, but it’s also hard to quantify what happens after disturbances like the floods we’ve seen lately — unless we begin counting them, a new op-ed argues.
- The scant research done on this has shown steep declines of up to 93% after flooding events, and this has a huge effect on everything that depends on insects, from plants to grazing animals.
- “To measure what a flood takes from an insect community, you need to know what was there first,” the author writes. “This is a solvable problem.”
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
By Associated Press
BANGKOK (AP) — China is exporting a record amount of clean energy technology and that is making a dent in global emissions. Interest in renewables has surged due to the energy crisis from the Iran …
By Felipe Medeiros
- Driven by a “super El Niño,” reduced rainfall in Roraima has lowered water levels in the state’s main rivers, cutting off the flow of seasonal waterfalls that form in the mountains, including the cascade known as Véu de Noiva.
- By drying up the waterfall earlier than usual, climate change is directly hurting regional tourism, which local residents and surrounding communities rely on for their livelihoods.
- Guides and tourism specialists say the drop in tour bookings has forced the sector to reinvent itself, while the state government operates under a state of emergency to prepare for environmental fallout from El Niño.
By Robin Hicks
- Investigations find links between Singapore-listed Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) member First Resources and some of Borneo’s biggest deforesters.
- Shipping records at a shared terminal raise concerns that deforestation-linked oil is entering global supply chains marketed as sustainable.
- Rainforest Action Network claims First Resources misled Singapore’s stock exchange with an earlier denial of common ownership. First Resources has repeated its denial and points to the dismissal of a complaint lodged against through the RSPO.
- Scrutiny comes as the firm faces investigation by Singapore’s environment agency for links to transboundary haze.
By Awudu Salami Sulemana Yoda
Ghana has set itself an ambitious target to end the export of unprocessed mineral ores by 2030 as it moves to strengthen in-country processing and manufacturing, transforming its mineral wealth into …
By Teguh Suprayitno
- Indonesia is experiencing its worse wildfires in years as a strong El Niño delays the onset of the archipelago’s main rainy seasons after months of drought across much of Borneo and Sumatra.
- In the Sumatran district of Muaro Jambi, a fire in a community-managed forest spotlights an in-tervention backed by Canada’s overseas office and the University of Waterloo.
- The early-warning system detects increases in temperature and declining water levels, among other readings.
- Designed to be simple to both install and maintain, it can publish data collected in the public domain, and could give communities and civil servants working on fire prevention more infor-mation in real time.
By Sasha Nunneley
- The Global Biodiversity Framework commits African governments to protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030.
- This target is in jeopardy in Africa and elsewhere: as of October 2026, about 20% of terrestrial and 17% of the continent’s marine environments enjoyed protection.
- As parties to the Convention on Biodiversity meet in Yerevan, Armenia, the challenges of translating 30 by 30 into reality Africa are to the fore.
- But marine protected areas around Pemba, Tanzania, illustrate some of the guidelines that can help Africa reach 30 by 30 in a meaningful way, experts say.
By Far Vubil
- In central Mozambique’s Tónduè Forest, uncontrolled fires destroyed 70% of replanted trees, leaving surviving saplings stunted and fire-damaged.
- Post-planting monitoring remains one of the greatest obstacles to forest maintenance in Zambézia province, where sites receive an average of just one visit a year — a frequency officials consider negligible and ineffective for plant growth.
- Local communities are calling for tangible benefits to encourage forest conservation, at a time when a portion of the carbon credit funds allocated to them remains unpaid because beneficiaries lack official documentation.
By Sasha Nunneley
- The east coast of Pemba Island was facing severe overfishing and illegal activity leading to declining fish populations and degrading ecosystems.
- In an extensive collaboration between more than 20 local communities, the Tanzanian government, and environmental NGOs, two new marine protected areas have been introduced in order to protect the ecosystem and those who rely on it.
- Pemba’s MPAs are providing a lesson on how we can use co-management, true collaboration and locally led solutions to achieve the 30×30 goal in a meaningful way.
By Mongabay.com
The world is eating a smaller variety of vegetables as diets become increasingly uniform, reports contributor Sharmila Vaidyanathan for Mongabay India. In India, Indigenous crops such as the clove be…
By Naina Rao
A fishing cat found badly injured and malnourished in northern Bangladesh has been returned to the wild following months of intensive rehabilitation. The feline was recently released into a tea estat…
By Basten Gokkon
- Fishers in Indonesia’s Maluku Islands say increasingly rough seas are keeping them ashore and reducing their catches as the current El Niño intensifies, threatening livelihoods in communities dependent on fishing.
- Early monitoring shows declining catches at some sites around the Maluku islands of Ambon and Seram.
- Meanwhile, a recently published global study found that extreme ocean heat and low marine productivity are associated with a greater risk of exceptionally poor catches, particularly in tropical regions.
- With Indonesia bracing for prolonged dry conditions under the El Niño, researchers are investigating whether changing ocean temperatures and coastal habitats are adding to the challenges facing local fishing communities.
By Carolyn Cowan
- A new study that examines the status and recovery prospects of large mammals in Laos concludes many losses could have been mitigated with earlier recognition of population declines, better protection of habitats and tighter control of hunting and the illegal wildlife trade.
- Sumatran rhinos and Javan rhinos disappeared from Laos by the 1990s, and the last verified record of tigers was in 2013. Wild water buffalo and the kouprey, both species of wild cattle, have also disappeared.
- The study notes Laos still supports 24 separate populations of Asian elephant and recommends conservation authorities and researchers focus recovery efforts on reconnecting movement corridors, transboundary landscapes and implementing coexistence measures to minimize conflicts and killings.
- Experts say the future of large mammals in Laos depends on the political will to implement existing conservation plans and enforce protections. It also hinges on long-term financial support in a region often overlooked by conservation funders.
By Paul Harvey
- The parliament of Australia’s New South Wales state has passed legislation to create the Great Koala National Park.
- The park, slated to open before the end of 2026, will incorporate 178,000 hectares (440,000 acres) of state forests and other government land into the existing national park estate, creating a protected area spanning 475,000 hectares (1.2 million acres).
- A carbon credit scheme will be used to fund the park in the long term, an approach that has been widely criticized.
- Multiple attempts to amend the carbon credit scheme were voted down in parliament.
By David Brown
The Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), which was created to fund long-term conservation of tropical forests, recently received a $500-million pledge, over 10 years, from the Netherlands, a sign…