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location: Global

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Mongabay Fellows share their ‘Letters to the Future’
Uncertainty and hope — these sentiments prevail in a series of commentaries published by the latest cohort of Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellows as they conclude their program and forge new paths into environmental journalism. Uncertainty centers on the future of our planet, the journalists who cover it and the people who defend it. […]
AI data center revolution sucks up world’s energy, water, materials
- Data centers are springing up across tropical Latin America, Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Africa. But these facilities are often unlike those of the recent past. Today’s advanced data centers are built to provide artificial intelligence (AI) computing capacity by Big Tech companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon.
- As large AI data centers proliferate, they are competing for water, energy and materials with already stressed tropical communities. National governments frequently welcome Big Tech and AI, offering tax breaks and other incentives to build AI complexes, while often not taking community needs into consideration.
- Aware that fossil fuels and renewables by themselves likely can’t handle the astronomical energy demands posed by AI mega-data centers, Internet companies are reactivating the once moribund nuclear industry, despite intractable problems with radioactive waste disposal.
- Voices in the Global South say that AI computing (whose producers remain principally in the Global North) is evolving as a new form of extractive colonialism. Some Indigenous people say it is time to question limitless technological innovation with its heavy environmental and social costs.

As Indonesia turns COP30 into carbon market showcase, critics warn of ‘hot air’
- Indonesia is using the COP30 climate summit to aggressively market its carbon credits, launching daily “Sellers Meet Buyers” sessions and seeking international commitments 6 despite unresolved integrity issues in its carbon market.
- Experts warn Indonesia’s credits risk being “hot air,” since its climate targets are rated “critically insufficient,” meaning many claimed reductions may not be real, additional or permanent — especially in forest-based projects.
- Forest and land-use credits, Indonesia’s biggest selling point, are among the riskiest, with high risks of overcrediting, leakage and nonpermanence; ongoing fires and deforestation further undermine credibility.
- Environmental groups say the carbon push distracts Indonesia from securing real climate finance, enabling wealthy nations to offset rather than cut emissions, while leaving Indonesia vulnerable to climate impacts and dependent on a fragile market.

Small grants are key to a successful next generation of conservationists (commentary)
- Large numbers of early-career conservationists and fledgling organizations are poised to implement solutions to the biodiversity crisis, but the prevailing funding logic isn’t adapting fast enough to support them.
- Small grants can make a huge difference in this moment, as they are fast, flexible and comprehensible to people on the ground doing local conservation work, especially when unhinged from onerous restrictions and reporting requirements.
- “We must support the next generation of conservation leaders to ensure they have viable career paths that do not come at the expense of burnout,” a new op-ed argues. “Small grants must step forward, not as charity, but as infrastructure for resilience.”
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

The secret to building a global newsroom? Lead with impact, says Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler
- Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler launched Mongabay in 1999 with the idea to “to make knowledge accessible and free, and to show that credible reporting could be a form of conservation in itself.”
- In this interview with Butler, he shares how he sees receiving notable awards in 2025, including being named a Forbes Sustainability Leader and receiving the Henry Shaw Medal, as reflections of team rather than individual merit.
- For Butler, impact is Mongabay’s true metric of success, as it can make a difference in “how people think, decide, and act.”
- Butler says the next 25 years of Mongabay will focus on strengthening impact and empowering the next generations of leaders in environmental journalism.

‘Clean energy is just one driver of mining’: Cleodie Rickard on critical minerals
- A new Global Justice Now report has found that nearly one-fifth of minerals labeled “critical” by the U.K. aren’t actually essential for the green energy transition, but are instead needed for the aerospace and weapons industries.
- Mongabay interviewed Cleodie Rickard, the policy and campaigns manager at Global Justice Now, who says the group’s findings also show the U.K. can pursue its energy transition without increasing mineral mining — if it does so in a certain way.
- Rickard says states and multinational mining companies often use the green energy transition as a pretext to ramp up critical mineral projects even though many of the minerals listed as “critical” aren’t necessary for the energy transition.
- In this interview, she says the need to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is undeniable, but exactly what materials should be prioritized, how much of them and what specific industries they serve have not been given enough attention.

Donors renew $1.8 billion pledge for Indigenous land rights
The governments of four countries, along with several philanthropies and donors, have renewed a $1.8 billion pledge over the next five years to help recognize, manage and protect Indigenous and other traditional community land. The Forest and Land Tenure Pledge, first made in Glasgow at the 2021 U.N. Climate Change Conference, provided $1.86 billion in […]
Governments commit to recognizing 160 million hectares of Indigenous land
The governments of nine tropical countries recently made a joint pledge to recognize 160 million hectares, or 395 million acres, of Indigenous and other traditional lands by 2030, according to a Nov. 7 announcement at the World Leaders Summit, an event hosted ahead of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil. The Intergovernmental Land Tenure […]
New directory helps donors navigate the complex world of global reforestation
- The Global Reforestation Organization Directory provides standardized information on more than 125 major tree-planting organizations, making it easier for donors to compare groups and find the ones that match their priorities.
- Researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz evaluated groups across four categories: permanence, ecological, social and financial, each backed by scientific literature on best practices.
- Much of the evaluation relies on the organization’s self-reporting through surveys or website statements and, while researchers acknowledge this limitation, they say it still provides a valuable framework and a starting point for donors.
- The directory doesn’t rank organizations but rather shows what organizations publicly share about following scientific best practices, avoiding common mistakes and monitoring their results.

‘Our zeal is unwavering’: 3 environmental defenders share trials, tribulations, hopes
- Environmental defenders face various challenges depending on their context, whether in Colombia, Uganda or the Philippines.
- Since 2012, more than 2,100 defenders have fallen victim to violence, according to Global Witness. This includes activists in these three countries.
- Mongabay spoke with three defenders from these nations at the 2024 Climate Change conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. They were there to raise their voices on issues around just transition to energy, equity, inclusion and that the global climate policies work for them.
- Despite serious threats to their lives, these defenders remain steadfast in their commitment to their cause. They are determined to continue their work, believing their mission is worth the risks they face.

Mongabay launches dedicated Oceans Desk to expand global reporting on marine ecosystems
- Mongabay has launched a dedicated Oceans Desk composed of a global team of journalists specialized in reporting on oceans, fisheries and marine conservation.
- The desk, which includes editors, reporters and program directors from across Mongabay’s newsroom, marks a strategic shift to deepen our coverage of marine ecosystems.
- Mongabay’s ocean reporting has already led to real-world impacts, including exposing corruption in Chilean marine protected area management and informing international sanctions on a Chinese fishing company related to illegal shark finning and abusive labor practices.
- The Oceans Desk marks a milestone in Mongabay’s growth over more than two decades and strengthens the organization’s ability to inform, inspire and sustain effective action on marine conservation worldwide.

Embrace ‘blue’ foods as a climate strategy at COP30, fisheries ministers say (commentary)
- The “blue” or aquatic foods sector is often overlooked as a climate strategy, despite its potential to help meet demand for protein with a smaller environmental footprint, fisheries ministers from Brazil and Portugal argue in a new op-ed at Mongabay.
- Many blue foods generate minimal carbon emissions and use modest amounts of feed, land and freshwater, and their increased consumption could cut annual global CO₂ emissions by a gigaton or more.
- “Brazil and Portugal stand ready to champion global efforts to harness and safeguard blue foods for climate mitigation and adaptation strategies, generating multiple benefits across sustainable development goals. We call on more countries to implement measures across the blue food sector that strengthen food security and climate strategies at COP30 and beyond,” the authors write.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

‘Not good’: Ocean losing its greenness, threatening food webs
- The ocean is losing its greenness, a new study has found: Global chlorophyll concentration, a proxy for phytoplankton biomass, declined over the past two decades, especially in coastal areas.
- Phytoplankton are the base of the marine food web, supporting fisheries and broader ecosystems, so their decline could have far-reaching implications, experts say.
- The phytoplankton decline could hurt coastal communities that live off the sea, and affect the ocean’s ability to act as a carbon sink, the authors say.

Three tracks to rescue 1.5°C: fossil exit, forest protection, and nature’s carbon (commentary)
- Ilona Szabó de Carvalho, co-founder and president of the Igarapé Institute and of the Green Bridge Facility, argues that keeping global warming below 1.5 °C requires action on three simultaneous fronts: phasing out fossil fuels, ending deforestation, and scaling up natural carbon capture in forests and oceans.
- She contends that energy decarbonization alone is insufficient; protecting and restoring ecosystems such as forests, wetlands, and mangroves is essential for both emissions reduction and resilience, and must be backed by transparent finance and accountability.
- With COP30 approaching in Belém, her piece calls for an integrated, finance-backed plan that ties together clean-energy expansion, a time-bound zero-deforestation roadmap, and rigorous safeguards for community-led nature-based solutions.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Why Sweden’s forest policy matters to the world (commentary)
- Sweden is one of the world’s largest exporters of forest-based products: paper, timber, cardboard and biofuels travel across the globe, ending up in your packaging, your books, in your home.
- A recent government proposal encourages fertilization with nitrogen to speed up tree growth, which may work in the short term but eventually fails and is leached into waterways, altering ecosystems and being released back into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases.
- “If a country with some of the world’s largest intact boreal forests chooses to double down on short-term extraction, it will not only undermine the EU’s climate goals — it will send a dangerous signal to other forest nations, from Canada to Brazil, that soil and biodiversity can be sacrificed in the name of so-called green growth,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Cautious optimism greets new global forest fund at COP30
At the COP30 Leaders’ Summit in Belém, host country Brazil formally introduced the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF). It’s an endowment-style mechanism designed to pay countries and forest stewards to keep tropical forests standing. TFFF has drawn goodwill and cautious optimism from leaders and NGOs. TFFF has received more than $5.5 billion in initial pledges; architects of […]
COP30 tropical forest fund may drive debt and deforestation, groups warn
A new global fund meant to reward tropical countries for protecting forests could instead drive deforestation and deepen debt in the developing world, civil society groups warn. The Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), launched Nov. 6 in Belém, Brazil, ahead of the U.N. Climate Change Conference, aims to raise $125 billion and promises to pay […]
Brazil launches fund tying forest cash to steep deforestation penalties
Brazil officially launched a new financial market fund, called the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, or TFFF, at a Nov. 6 event ahead of the COP30 climate summit it will host in Belém. Countries with significant amounts of tropical forest cover can receive up to $4 per hectare ($1.62 per acre) of standing forest per year […]
Researchers define the importance of the ‘circular seabird economy’
In a review article published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity, researchers have introduced a new term to describe the importance of seabirds across land and marine ecosystems: the circular seabird economy. Although seabirds spend most of their lives at sea, they return to land to breed, often forming colonies of thousands of individuals. This influx of […]
No, Bill Gates, we don’t have to choose between people & planet (commentary)
- A new essay by billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, “Three Tough Truths About Climate,” marks a dangerous shift that could undermine his notable contributions to solving the climate crisis, the former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, argues in a new op-ed.
- His suggestion that the world must choose between financing development or climate action falsely presents a zero-sum situation, she says, adding that Gates must publicly set the record straight before this idea is further used as a justification for backsliding on climate action.
- “The great challenge of our time is to build a future where every person can thrive on a healthy planet. That means rejecting the idea that we must choose between human progress and environmental protection,” Robinson writes.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Interpol announces a new global fight against illegal deforestation
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Interpol and partners launched a global law enforcement effort Wednesday aimed at dismantling criminal networks behind illegal logging, timber trafficking and gold mining, which drive large-scale deforestation and generate billions in illicit profits each year. The effort announced ahead of the U.N. COP30 climate summit in Brazil will focus mainly on tropical forests […]
Climate finance must reach Indigenous communities at COP30 & beyond (commentary)
- Indigenous and local communities protect 36% of the world’s intact tropical forests, yet receive less than 1% of international climate finance — a contradiction that threatens global climate goals and leaves the most effective forest guardians without the resources they need.
- As the COP30 climate summit in the Amazon draws near, pressure is mounting to get funding directly into the hands of Indigenous and local community organizations who are the frontline defenders of the world’s rainforests.
- “As billions of dollars in climate finance will be discussed or even decided upon at COP30 in Brazil, the priority must be to get resources directly to Indigenous and local communities who have safeguarded forests for generations,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Investing in the next generation of environmental journalists (commentary)
- The accelerating loss of forests, reefs, and rivers is also a failure of information: those closest to the crises often lack the training, mentorship, or editorial support to tell their stories effectively. Structured programs like fellowships bridge that gap, turning local knowledge into credible reporting, argues Mongabay Founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler in this commentary.
- Targeted investment in emerging journalists builds both professional capacity and public accountability. Fellows have exposed corruption, documented ecological recovery, and influenced policy, showing how informed reporting can strengthen environmental governance and democratic institutions.
- Empowering local reporters shifts the narrative from victimhood to agency and from crisis to possibility. When journalists are equipped to investigate, explain, and inspire, they help societies make informed choices about the planet’s future—and ensure that stories of loss can also become stories of renewal.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Report identifies ten emerging tech solutions to enhance planetary health
- A recent report underlines ten emerging technologies offering potential to accelerate climate action, restore ecosystems, and drive sustainable innovation within safe planetary boundaries. These technologies include AI-supported Earth observation, automated food waste upcycling, green concrete, and more.
- Innovative AI improvements in Earth observations (EO) can better identify and track human-caused environmental impacts and offer improved early warning alerts for planetary boundary overshoot. Such systems use AI-powered analytics to synthesize satellite, drone and ground-based data for near real-time results.
- Artificial intelligence and automation can also work in tandem to manage citywide food waste programs, assuring that food scraps are diverted from landfills or incineration, decreasing carbon emissions and reducing waste.
- Another tech solution is green concrete which could not only reduce emissions from traditional cement production, but when incorporated into infrastructure construction, can offer a permanent storage place for captured CO2.

Rhett Butler reflects on recent accolades, and Jane Goodall’s legacy of hope
Hello listeners. This week on the Mongabay Newscast, we ask that you take a few minutes to fill out a brief survey to let us know what you think of our audio reporting, which you can do here. Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Butler was recently awarded the Henry Shaw Medal by the Missouri Botanical […]
Youth, hope & the role of environmental journalism in building a better future (commentary)
- In September, Y. Eva Tan Fellow Fernanda Biasoli was invited to speak during Journalism Week at São Paulo State University (UNESP); here, she shares some of the messages she conveyed about environmental journalism, youth and hope as the planet faces crisis.
- “Think, for example, of a river basin,” she writes. “Each spring, stream, creek and river comes together to form a large territory that allows life to flourish. For me, environmental journalism can be seen as one of these streams: a fundamental part of a large democratic ecosystem.”
- Now, more than ever, Biasoli says, the world must unite to inspire and create new ideas — and to keep alive the connection with nature and respect for all beings that inhabit this planet.
- This commentary is part of Our Letters to the Future, a series produced by the Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellows as their final fellowship project. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Beyond deforestation: redesigning how we protect and value tropical forests (analysis)
- Following his earlier essay tracing possible futures for the world’s forests, Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler turns from diagnosis to design—asking what concrete interventions could still avert collapse. This piece explores how governance, finance, and stewardship might evolve in a second act for tropical forests.
- The essay argues that lasting protection depends structural reform: securing Indigenous land rights, treating governance as infrastructure, and creating steady finance that outlasts election cycles and aid projects.
- Butler also examines overlooked levers—from restoring degraded lands and valuing forests’ local cooling effects to rethinking “bioeconomies” and building regional cooperation across borders. Each points toward a shift from reactive conservation to deliberate, sustained design.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

What might lie ahead for tropical forests (analysis)
- Heading into COP30, where tropical forests are set to be a central theme, Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler offers a thought experiment—tracing today’s trajectories a little further forward to imagine where they might lead. What follows are scenarios, some improbable, others already taking shape.
- The essay envisions a world where deforestation gives way to disorder: weakened governance, runaway fires, and ecological feedback loops eroding forests from within even without the swing of an axe. It explores how technology and biology—AI-driven agriculture, gene-edited trees, and microbial interventions—could either accelerate destruction or redefine restoration, depending on who controls them.
- Across these imagined futures, one pattern recurs: forests thinning, recovering, and thinning again, as human ambition, migration, and climate instability test whether nature will be given the time and space to heal.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Stronger arctic cyclones speed up polar melting, impacting global weather
Powerful winds are ripping through the Arctic, breaking up critical sea ice that once acted as a shield against disturbance from wind and waves. Scientists warn the loss of sea ice is speeding up the region’s ecological collapse and could disrupt weather patterns far beyond the Arctic, contributor Sean Mowbray reported for Mongabay. In the […]
On first International Day of the Deep Seabed, we seek stewardship and consensus (commentary)
- “I could not be more delighted to celebrate this inaugural International Day of the Deep Seabed,” writes the secretary-general of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in a new op-ed at Mongabay.
- On Nov. 1, 2025, she notes that the world will for the first time mark a day that celebrates the great biodiversity of the planet’s mysterious deep seabed and its potential role in the future of humanity’s progress, while reiterating that consensus-building among member states and nongovernmental actors remains critical to ensure its stewardship.
- “Together, by delivering on our commitments under the Law of the Sea, we can ensure that this last great frontier remains a source of wonder, discovery, opportunity and shared benefit for all humankind,” she argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Potential wind slowdown threatens renewable energy and fuels heat domes
Climate change may be causing long-term global wind speeds to slow down, a shift that will likely lead to a dangerous rise in local temperatures, worsening air pollution and disruption to renewable energy systems, Mongabay writer Sean Mowbray reported. A warming atmosphere is likely weakening the forces that govern wind speeds, leading to more frequent […]
Why facts alone won’t save the planet
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. When I think about what makes someone care about the natural world, it rarely begins with statistics or graphs. It begins with a moment. For me, it was an encounter I had at age 12 with frogs in […]
Supercharged dust storms are exposing millions to deadly air pollution
More people are getting sick due to sand and dust storms that are now more intense and frequent, contributor Sean Mowbray reported for Mongabay. The intensifying storms have exposed many millions more people to dangerous levels of particulate pollution across the world. In some regions, it has also triggered outbreaks of respiratory and infectious diseases. […]
Climate change is wreaking havoc on World Cultural Heritage sites, study finds
- A recent study shows that 80% of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites are facing climate stress, with wood and stone constructions susceptible to a range of threats from extreme heat, humidity, aridity and other climatic factors.
- Researchers also found there is no single pathway toward mitigating global greenhouse gas emissions that will uniformly protect these sites.
- In addition, the team found a Global North-South divide in heritage conservation, as Global South nations do not have the same resources to preserve their cultural sites; preservation will take collective efforts.
- This story is part of The 89 Percent Project, an initiative of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now.

Supporting journalism: The catalytic role of independently verified information (commentary)
- Mongabay Founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler argues that journalism supplies the conditions necessary for effective environmental action—credible, timely, public information that converts private harm into collective accountability and enables governments and communities to act.
- He contends that for philanthropists focused on climate and biodiversity, journalism is a high-leverage investment that strengthens all other interventions by bringing hidden risks to light, creating transparency, and ensuring that resources for conservation and climate solutions are used effectively.
- Evaluations from leading foundations show that journalism funding leads to tangible outcomes such as policy reforms, regulatory reviews, and stronger civic engagement; Butler concludes that supporting independent reporting is not sentimental but strategic—an essential form of infrastructure for democratic and environmental resilience.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

FSC to vote on new traceability rules amid fraud allegations
- Timber trade experts allege the Forest Stewardship Council lacks the ability to proactively detect fraud throughout its global supply chains.
- They hope the body will change, with a vote on whether to lay the groundwork for a new volume tracking system slated for this coming week.
- The FSC has dismissed some broad estimates of fraud within its network as unsubstantiated, but a senior FSC official who spoke to Mongabay on condition of anonymity said it remains widespread.
- A new report by Earthsight estimates the value of FSC fraud at billions of dollars per year and says the body’s reputation for ensuring sustainability is on the line.

How to clean solar panels in arid areas? Waterless systems could improve efficiency
- A recent report details a waterless solar cleaning system design developed to address the challenge of dust accumulation on solar panels in arid regions; it is one of multiple waterless cleaning systems that have come about in recent years.
- The study reported a significant 26.2% average increase in power output and reduced losses due to dust accumulation.
- The development of this waterless system design has the potential to unlock new opportunities for energy access and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa, although cost and availability questions remain.
- Waterless solar panel cleaning systems could be particularly beneficial in arid regions where water scarcity is a significant issue; this technology can help to support sustainable development and reduce the strain on local water supplies.

Reimagining meat: The Good Food Institute’s bid to redesign the global food system
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. After decades spent protecting forests, fighting for human rights and shaping climate policy, Nigel Sizer has turned his attention to what’s on our plates. As the new CEO of the Good Food Institute (GFI), he argues that how […]
Global conservation body takes first step to protect ocean’s twilight zone
- Delegates at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi voted to adopt a motion urging precautionary measures to protect the ocean’s mesopelagic zone.
- The nonbinding motion calls for prospective activities such as fishing in the mesopelagic zone, deep-sea mining and geoengineering to be guided by the best available science and approached with caution.
- Both conservationists and industry representatives expressed support for the motion, highlighting the mesopelagic zone’s ecological importance and potential as a sustainable resource.

Forest Declaration Assessment reveals a forest paradox
- Tropical forests are regenerating across millions of hectares, with Latin America and Asia showing dramatic gains—but this apparent recovery conceals a deeper contradiction: deforestation remains stubbornly high.
- The world continues to clear about 8 million hectares of forest each year, far off the path to meet the 2030 zero-deforestation pledge, as fires, drought, and agriculture erase progress almost as quickly as it appears.
- Primary forests, rich in carbon and biodiversity, are disappearing fastest, driven mainly by agriculture; current funding for forest protection is dwarfed by subsidies for industrial farming.
- Natural regrowth offers hope—young secondary forests sequester carbon efficiently—but without halting new clearings, these green shoots risk becoming temporary pauses in an ongoing cycle of loss.

Plastic’s triumph was no accident. It built an economy addicted to throwaway living
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. When Saabira Chaudhuri began covering consumer goods companies for The Wall Street Journal, she expected stories about marketing and product launches. Instead, she uncovered a deeper pattern: industrial ingenuity turned liability. Her new book, Consumed: How Big Brands […]
New book unearths environmental crime’s psychological roots
Psychologist and true crime presenter Julia Shaw joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss her latest read, examining some of the highest-profile environmental crimes and why they occur, in Green Crime: Inside the Minds of the People Destroying the Planet and How to Stop Them. She details the commonalities behind six major cases, and what can be […]
Primatology goes high tech — from bioacoustics to drones & AI
- From thermal cameras to deep learning AI, researchers are reinventing how they study primates in the wild.
- What began with Jane Goodall’s observational notes has evolved into artificial intelligence that identifies chimpanzees and decodes their social lives.
- A custom-built “dronequi” with a thermal and a high-definition camera is helping scientists spot Brazil’s elusive and endangered muriquis from above the trees.
- Hidden microphones across Borneo’s rainforests capture haunting gibbon duets, revealing clues about hybridization and habitat loss.

Rise in persecution of climate defenders in Europe slammed by UN expert
Climate activists worldwide are facing increased persecution and criminalization by governments, with some of the most severe measures coming from Europe, according to a United Nations human rights expert. Governments including those of the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain have introduced measures that criminalize protests and redefine terrorism and organized crime laws to persecute […]
Trust-based philanthropy: Lessons from MacKenzie Scott and Laurene Powell Jobs (commentary)
- Laurene Powell Jobs and MacKenzie Scott both call for a reimagining of philanthropy: one that shifts from control and performance to participation and trust, recognizing that true generosity empowers rather than directs.
- Philanthropy’s challenge lies not only in giving more, but in governing money differently—inviting community voices into decision-making and valuing learning, failure, and endurance as much as measurable results.
- The future of giving may depend less on innovation than humility: funders moving from command to accompaniment, treating funding as a relationship rooted in shared purpose, trust, and collective movement toward change.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Mining the deep-sea could further threaten endangered sharks and rays
- A new study indicates that deep-sea mining could threaten at least 30 species of sharks, rays and chimaeras, many of which are already at risk of extinction.
- The authors found that seabed sediment plumes and midwater discharges of wastewater from mining activities could cause a range of impacts on shark, ray and chimaera species, including, but not limited to, disruptions to breeding and foraging, alterations in vertical migration, and exposure to metal contamination.
- The authors recommend precautionary measures, including improved baseline monitoring, the development of protected zones, and discharging wastewater below below 2,000 m (about 6,600 ft).
- With companies planning to begin deep-sea mining in international waters as early as 2027, the authors say more research is urgently needed to understand the full ecological impact of this emerging industry on biodiversity.

Measuring success in trees, not clicks
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. “I knew I was disposable.” That realization, from earlier in his career, helps guide Willie Shubert today in building a kind and capable global newsroom. Shubert oversees Mongabay’s English-language newsroom — its largest — and shapes the organization’s […]
Nations delay vote on shipping decarbonization rules after fierce US resistance
- The shipping sector was widely expected to become the first industry to adopt a binding set of global greenhouse gas emissions rules during an Oct. 14-17 meeting in London.
- Instead, member countries of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) committee voted to delay the decision until October 2026.
- The rules would have established emissions intensity limits that become more stringent each year, with substantial fees paid for noncompliance.
- The United States and other oil-exporting countries dominated much of the discussion in London as they sought to prevent the rules from being adopted, arguing that they amounted to an illegitimate international tax and that they would have dire economic consequences.

Banking alliance aimed at limiting fossil fuel investments collapses
A coalition formed to align the international banking sector’s investments with global climate goals has disbanded nearly four years after it was launched. Set up in 2021, the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) was a U.N.-sponsored initiative to shift bank financing away from fossil fuels — the biggest source of climate changing greenhouse gases — and […]
US blocks a global fee on shipping emissions as international meeting ends without new regulations
The U.S. has blocked a global fee on shipping emissions as an international maritime meeting ended Friday without adopting new regulations. The world’s largest maritime nations had been discussing ways to move the shipping industry away from fossil fuels. On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump urged countries to vote against the regulations. The International Maritime […]
Green turtle rebounds, moving from ‘endangered’ to ‘least concern’
The green turtle, found across the world’s oceans, is recovering after decades of decline, according to the latest IUCN Red List assessment. The species has been reclassified from endangered to least concern. “I am delighted,” Brendan Godley, a turtle expert from the University of Exeter, U.K., told Mongabay. “It underlines that marine conservation can work, […]
20 animal species on the road to recovery: IUCN Red List update
From three species of Arctic seals to more than half of all birds globally, several animals have slipped closer to extinction, according to the latest update of the IUCN Red List. However, 20 species have seen a positive change in their status: they’ve moved farther away from the threat of extinction, thanks to effective conservation […]
Feel the heat: New app maps heat stress anywhere on Earth, 1940 to now
- The new Thermal Trace app allows users to explore thermal stress and related data from 1940 until five days before present, for anywhere in the world. The app, free for users, was developed by the European Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).
- Thermal Trace combines a range of metrics including ambient temperature, humidity, wind speed and more to come up with a “feels like” temperature that reflects the impact of heat and cold on the human body.
- Both heat and cold are physiologically stressful, and prolonged exposure can cause short- and long-term health impacts. Building up a greater awareness and understanding of heat stress and the harm it can do is especially important in our globally warmed world.
- Researchers warn that as climate change impacts accelerate, heat-related health impacts will become more serious and of especially grave concern to the parts of the world that reach the limits to human heat stress adaptation.

‘Alarming’ levels of toxins found in free-range eggs near dumpsites globally
- A recent review paper identifies toxic chemicals, including dioxin, in free-range eggs on five continents — likely the result of nearby open burning and incineration of plastic and e-waste containing legacy and banned chemicals, as well as unregulated toxins.
- Researchers tested eggs produced near e-waste sites, dumpsites, and waste incinerators and found high levels of globally banned flame retardant chemicals, including brominated dioxins which are toxic and pose a serious risk to human health and the environment.
- Experts note that while some brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are regulated and banned, others haven’t been. Critics also note that the chemical industry often replaces individual banned chemicals with other unregulated but still potentially toxic chemicals in the same family, a process known as “regrettable substitutions.”
- Experts are calling for stronger regulation to prevent release of known toxins, not by banning one chemical at a time, but by addressing entire classes of chemicals. But a just completed UN Stockholm Convention meeting deferred listing and monitoring brominated and mixed brominated-chlorinated dioxins.

Pioneering policies and rights-of-nature rules win World Future Policy Awards
Policies enacted by seven nations and one international agreement have been recognized by the World Future Council for “top policy solutions for [humans], nature and generations to come.” On this edition of Mongabay’s podcast, the council’s CEO, Neshan Gunasekera, shares key highlights of the eight World Future Policy Award laureates. Under the theme of “Living […]
Five crucial Earth systems near a tipping point: Report
Five of Earth’s vital systems are close to a point of irreversible change, warns a new report released by a global network of scientists ahead of the upcoming U.N. climate change conference in Brazil. The 2025 Global Tipping Points report updates a 2023 report to assess 25 Earth systems that human societies and economies depend […]
Report finds increased tropical forest regrowth over the last decade
Natural forest regrowth in the world’s tropical rainforests is expanding. According to the Forest Declaration Assessment 2025, more than 11 million hectares (27 million acres) of tropical moist forests are under some stage of forest regrowth between 2015 and 2021. The growth is most notable in the tropical areas of Latin America, where regrowth increased […]
Global goal of zero deforestation by 2030 is severely off track
Global deforestation hasn’t slowed in any significant way in the four years since 127 countries pledged to halt and reverse forest loss and degradation by 2030. The newly published 2025 Forest Declaration Assessment shows that nations are 63% off track from meeting their zero-deforestation target. To be on track for that goal, deforestation was supposed […]
Protecting Earth’s oldest data system: the case for biodiversity
- Razan Al Mubarak, president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, describes biodiversity as the planet’s original information network—an archive of genetic data refined over billions of years that encodes solutions to survival.
- Seeing extinction as data loss reframes the crisis: every vanished species deletes a chapter of evolutionary knowledge, erasing information that could inform medicine, technology, or climate resilience.
- The story of the Gila monster illustrates this vividly—its venom inspired the GLP-1 drugs now treating diabetes and obesity, showing how a single organism’s adaptation can unlock transformative human innovations.
- Al Mubarak argues that safeguarding biodiversity is not just an ethical imperative but an act of preserving intelligence itself; protecting this living knowledge system ensures the continuity of life’s most advanced and irreplaceable code.

The bias in saving nature: How conservation funding favors the familiar
With the World Conservation Congress meeting this week, I thought it was useful to revisit a study published earlier this year on conservation funding. For decades, conservationists have warned that the planet’s attention—and its purse—are skewed toward the charismatic few. A sweeping analysis of some 14,600 conservation projects over 25 years confirms that bias […]

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