topic: Economics

topic: Economics

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Namibia greenlights controversial project to dredge phosphate from seabed
- Company Namibian Marine Phosphate has received an environmental clearance for dredging within a concession that spans 2,234 square kilometers (863 square miles) of the Atlantic seabed off Namibia’s coast.
- The company wants to mine phosphate rock, a major ingredient in fertilizers, which has previously only been commercially mined on land.
- The nonprofit Ocean Conservation Namibia (OCN) has strongly criticized the decision to issue the ECC, warning “that the large-scale development could have significant impacts on the Benguela marine ecosystem, Namibia’s fishing industry, and marine conservation.”
- NMP, registered in Namibia, is 85% owned by Oman-based Mawarid Mining LLC and 15% owned by a Namibian company, Havana Investments (Pty) Ltd.

UN fund for sharing biodiversity benefits struggles for attention — and money
- The Cali Fund, established to channel companies’ contributions from the use of digital genetic data back to the countries and communities of origin, has received just $6,000 from two companies since its launch in February 2025 — far short of the $1 billion a year it was expected to raise.
- “Nobody knows about the fund,” said Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, citing low awareness, a limited operational framework, and the reluctance of large companies to make the first move.
- Experts also flagged limited recognition of the fund’s compliance certificates by countries, and concerns over a memorandum of understanding that uses “donor” language.
- Governments are expected to address these issues at the next U.N. biodiversity summit, in Yerevan, Armenia, in October.

A sea cucumber venture in Zanzibar seeks to balance business and conservation
- For decades, conservationists have argued that protecting nature cannot rely indefinitely on donor funding. To endure, conservation efforts must generate enough economic value to sustain themselves.
- That search for sustainable financing has prompted governments, investors and conservation organizations to experiment with models that seek to align commercial returns with environmental protection.
- On Tanzania’s Pemba Island, a company called Asili is betting that sea cucumber ranching can do both. The venture is building the infrastructure needed to cultivate and process sea cucumbers for sale while supporting the restoration and protection of marine ecosystems.
- Yet, significant questions remain. Can enough sea cucumbers be produced to make the business commercially viable? Can profits be shared equitably with local communities? And can a model built around conservation and commerce truly deliver on both promises?

‘They will do it legally or illegally’: Interview with James Giahyue on Liberia’s cocoa boom
- In July, Mongabay published a feature investigation and video report about deforestation in southeastern Liberia dude to cacao cultivation.
- The remote region contains some of West Africa’s last intact rainforests, many of which are under threat due to the emergence of the cacao industry there.
- Liberian journalist James Giahyue told Mongabay that poverty and the involvement of local politicians are helping to drive deforestation there.

Polluted waterways and water shortages complicate the fight against Ebola in the DRC
- Safe access to water is scarce across parts of Ituri province, which is the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- The Ebola virus is transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids like blood, saliva and urine of an infected person. It is, therefore, crucial, in order to prevent the spread of the disease, to be able to wash regularly. Response teams also need access to water to clean equipment and areas used by patients.
- People sometimes use taps and showers installed at Ebola treatment centers to collect water, potentially increasing contact between healthy and infected people.
- Artisanal and small-scale mining in the region also put pressure on local water resources, by turning some waterbodies muddy.

In Spain & South Africa, communities use restoration to ‘grow’ fire insurance (commentary)
- Managing fire as a part of restoring ecosystems is vital to protecting both communities and economies from disaster: While fire is a natural part of many ecosystems, when forests are poorly managed they become fuel reservoirs just waiting for a spark.
- Spain’s Muga Valley and South Africa’s Langkloof share such a management history but are now pivoting to ecosystem restoration to protect communities, economies and biodiversity.
- “It is the health of the landscape that will determine whether fire acts as a force of connection or destruction. The choice, in effect, is whether we leave that risk unmanaged, or begin to build insurance into the land itself,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Angola’s peatlands highly underestimated, new study suggests
- New research mapping out the Angolan Highlands Water Tower (AWHT), a stretch of elevated plateau spanning 380,382 km², finds that a significantly larger portion of the region hosts peatland than previously thought.
- The findings show that the AWHT, named thus because it receives and regulates vast amounts of rainwater, and because it feeds important freshwater systems across southern Africa, is also a critical carbon sink.
- The research can inform national carbon policies and conservation strategies for these peatlands which store thousands of years-old carbon, experts said.
- The biggest threats to the AHWT’s peatlands are human-made including slash and burn agriculture and the unsustainable use of peat — partially decomposed plant material that builds up in waterlogged soils — which result in the release of CO2.

Sloth bears help shape India’s dry forests as unlikely seed dispersers
Sloth bears play a critical role in structuring India’s dry deciduous forests by dispersing viable seeds and influencing plant regeneration, reports contributor Sneha Mahale for Mongabay India. “Dry deciduous forests’ plant compositions are a function of sloth bear presence, movement, and dietary habits,” study co-author K.S. Gopi Sundar, an independent scientist, told Mongabay India. For […]
Land crisis and ‘green revolution’ practices trap millions of Malawi’s farmers
- Malawi’s maize harvest has barely grown in two decades even as its population has surged, leaving millions vulnerable to food shortages each year.
- Small farmers struggle to produce enough food on tiny plots because of high fertilizer costs, degraded soils, erratic rains, and unreliable access to government subsidies.
- Many farmers sell much of their maize to pay for basic necessities, then depend on risky vegetable crops or scarce seasonal jobs to buy food during the lean months.
- After two decades of maize-focused agricultural policy, experts and farmers say Malawi needs stronger support for diverse, resilient farming and rural livelihoods rather than simply producing more maize.

‘To speak of agroecology is to speak of farmers’ autonomy’: Interview with Olga Muthambe
- In an interview with Mongabay, Mozambican social activist Olga Muthambe advocates agroecology as a response to the challenges confronting rural women affected by extractive industries and armed conflict.
- Muthambe is a co-founder of NGO Hikone Moçambique, a civil society organization that has been active in the African nation for over a decade. Since its inception, the organization has connected more than 5,000 women to socioeconomic training initiatives.
- According to Muthambe — who currently serves as the NGO’s executive director — agroecology enables women to produce pesticide-free food for both family consumption and trade, thereby improving food security and generating income.

Urban heat islands have solutions; many tropical cities can’t afford them
- In tropical cities, urban heat islands (UHIs) exacerbate an already challenging hot-humid heat burden for residents. UHIs are formed by urban artificial surfaces like concrete and asphalt that retain heat by day and slowly release it at night, never giving cities a chance to cool.
- Natural and infrastructure solutions can be implemented to combat the UHI effect and cool cities. These include creating shade by planting trees or extending roofs; inducing wind to blow down urban streets; constructing green roofs and walls; painting roofs light colors; and changing social practices to avoid midday heat.
- But sufficient funding is needed to implement many of these changes. Wealthy cities, like Singapore, have an advantage over cities with less funding. Many tropical mega-cities, including Lagos, Mumbai, Manila, Jakarta and São Paulo, are working to reduce UHI effects, but struggle to afford full implementation.
- The 2026-2027 El Niño is now growing in strength and expected to bring record temperatures to the tropics. These extreme temperatures, combined with UHI effects and urban poverty, could prove deadly for vulnerable residents, which include the poor, young, old, those with disabilities, and those working outdoors.

As DRC confronts largest Ebola outbreak, health agencies revise strategy
- The Central African country is facing its largest and also the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak on record.
- Health agencies are seeking to revise their strategy to tackle the public health crisis but focusing on response at the village level in the affected provinces of the DRC.
- Dr. Jean Kaseya, director-general of Africa CDC underscored the need to bring the outbreak response to the village level, saying that a community-centered approach helps build trust between local populations and health teams while strengthening participatory surveillance.
- One of the reasons this outbreak has turned out to be more difficult to contain is because a rare strain of the Ebola virus, Bundibugyo ebolavirus, is driving the cases.

Mariano Cenamo, advocate for a sustainable Amazon bioeconomy, has died, aged 46
- Mariano Cenamo spent more than two decades trying to make standing forests economically competitive with cattle ranching and other activities driving Amazon deforestation, helping establish Idesam and later backing a new generation of sustainable businesses.
- His work evolved from early efforts on forest carbon and REDD+ to agroforestry, bioeconomy ventures, investment, and entrepreneurship, always centered on creating practical sources of income for people living in the Amazon.
- Drawing on Cenamo’s own writings and interviews, as well as Vanessa Adachi’s posthumous portrait in Reset, this obituary explores the ideas, motivations, and personal style behind one of the Amazon’s most influential environmental entrepreneurs.
- Cenamo died on July 10 after several years with cancer. He was 46.

Environmental activists in Kenya concerned over billionaire’s planned oil refinery
- Environmental activists opposed to the oil refinery project cite risks to the local ecosystem and the community’s livelihoods.
- The Kenyan government insists that the project will boost the East Africa region’s economy, and create 60,000 jobs during its construction and then operation.
- Opponents demand absolute transparency with the local community and seek adequate inclusion of all stakeholders during the Environment Impact Assessment process.

Global hunger levels fall but Africa still lags behind, UN report finds
- The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization says the number of people facing hunger globally fell by around 43 million people between 2022 and 2025 — 20% of Africans were food insecure in 2025, compared to just 6% in Asia.
- FAO’s director of agrifood economics, David Laborde, said severe cuts to development aid, armed conflict, and climate shocks have held back food production in Africa over the past decade.
- Analysts told Mongabay that African governments need to stop promoting agriculture approaches that rely on imported synthetic fertilizer and pesticides, and instead support more effective practices that strengthen soil fertility, diversify crops and diets for farmers, and are more resilient to external shocks.

Ebola responders persevere in the DRC as Uganda nears end of outbreak
- Community leaders and local radio stations are fighting widespread misinformation, while resistance to safe burials has fueled attacks on Ebola treatment facilities.
- The current Ebola outbreak has become the fastest-growing outbreak recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with more than 3,360 reported cases and nearly 1,487 deaths in about two and a half months.
- Aid workers say funding cuts have weakened disease surveillance, community outreach and logistics at a time when the response is already constrained by armed conflict.
- According to WHO, in Uganda, the last confirmed patient was discharged from care on July 16, and the 42-day with no new Ebola cases countdown necessary to declare the end of that country’s outbreak has started.

Climate shocks hit hydropower in Southern Africa, reviving interest in coal
- Prolonged droughts, especially those linked to the 2023–24 El Niño, exposed the vulnerability of Zambia and Zimbabwe’s hydropower-dependent electricity systems, triggering severe power shortages and renewing interest in coal.
- While coal is viewed as a short-term solution to stabilize electricity supplies and support industrialization, it could undermine Paris Agreement commitments, lock in carbon emissions and reduce export competitiveness as trade rules that put a cost on carbon emissions come into play.
- Households and businesses in Zimbabwe are increasingly investing in rooftop solar, demonstrating that decentralized renewable energy is becoming a practical response to unreliable grid electricity.
- Although solar power is becoming more cost-effective, limited access to finance and policies that continue to favor fossil fuels are slowing the transition to cleaner, climate-resilient energy systems across Southern Africa.

Kenyan teen leads charge on tree planting and climate awareness
- Kenyan teenager Baraka Moruri has planted more than 7,600 trees over the last four years with the help of his family, friends and private organizations.
- He says he wants children to be better engaged in climate action and policy, arguing that they have ideas and energy to contribute.
- Climate finance experts say less than 1% of international climate finance gets to youth- and children-led projects, despite climate change affecting their health, education and food security.

One scientist’s mission to save Ghana’s disappearing guitarfish
- Fishers from Ghana travel the length of the West African coastline to find the richest fishing grounds, but the availability of this vital source of protein is under threat from a number of sources.
- Declining catches of bony fish like tuna and mackerel have put elasmobranch populations — sharks and rays — under increasing pressure by fishers, who seek them not just to supply local markets for their meat, but to meet lucrative demand for their fins from Asia.
- Sawfish and wedgefish species have now been fished to local extinction in Ghana, and marine biologist Issah Seidu warns guitarfish will be next.
- Earlier this year, Seidu was the recipient of a Whitley Award, which will support the work of his NGO alongside Ghanaian fishing communities to research and protect guitarfish.

In southern India, beekeeping helps Indigenous women earn more
A beekeeping initiative is enabling women in India’s Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot that runs parallel to India’s west coast, to strengthen their livelihoods with more reliable honey harvests. The 50 women are part of the Women for Bees project, launched in India in April 2025 by UNESCO in partnership with local nonprofit the Keystone […]
Indigenous advocates push for rights protections around AI data centers
- At a meeting of the U.N. Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP), Indigenous advocates called for attention to the need for AI to be developed in ways that align with Indigenous rights and priorities.
- Data centers, the infrastructure that powers AI technology, require large amounts of energy and water to operate, yet many are constructed in water-stressed regions, leading to widespread opposition among local residents.
- Many sources who spoke to Mongabay raised concerns about their land, water and food sovereignty.
- Some said they believe the infrastructure could create opportunities for Indigenous people, so long as it complies with the principles of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) and meaningful participation, among other steps.

How Brazil’s federal fiscal policy hinders Amazon Rainforest conservation (commentary)
- The three Brazilian states whose territory is mostly Amazon Rainforest — and carry the heaviest share of its conservation burden — are among the poorest and most fiscally dependent in the country.
- Amapá, Acre, and Amazonas operate on budgets so dependent on federal funding that they have almost no ability to act on their own, yet they are also precluded from developing their economies within their vast and federally protected swaths of forest.
- “It is a design flaw in Brazil’s fiscal constitution, and it is getting worse,” a new op-ed argues. “Brazil cannot credibly lead global climate diplomacy while its Amazonian states remain fiscally trapped.”
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Fossil fuel-based mega projects displace locals in Bangladesh, pushing youth out
- The Bangladesh government has adopted a master plan to develop Maheshkhali sub-district through three industrial zones: An energy hub with 13 gigawatts of LNG and coal power plants, a deep-sea port with container and multipurpose terminals, and a special economic zone.
- The development requires about 37,000 hectares of land across Maheshkhali and Matarbari coastal areas, potentially displacing more than 770,000 residents.
- A coal power plant and deep-sea terminal have already displaced 20,000 people by acquiring 2,820 acres of land used for salt production, fish farming and shrimp cultivation.
- The coal power plant and deep-sea terminal have affected more than 90,000 people, leaving many without livelihoods and pushing some to risk illegal migration to East Asia for work.

Leaked study warns of irreversible damage from iron ore mine in Guinea UNESCO site
- Ivanhoe Atlantic, a U.S. mining company, plans to mine iron ore in Guinea’s UNESCO-protected Nimba Mountains.
- Mongabay has obtained a copy of the confidential environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) currently being reviewed by Guinean authorities, which details extensive and irreversible damage to Nimba’s endemic and endangered species and critical habitats.
- The ESIA concludes that the planned mine risks causing “lasting and significant damage” to the adjacent World Heritage Site.
- The document’s findings also indicate the project might be breaching globally recognized environmental and social safeguards that Ivanhoe has publicly committed to.

South America’s farms depend, in part, on a healthy Amazon
- The Amazon is not only a carbon store; it is also a major source of atmospheric moisture that helps sustain rainfall across much of South America.
- A new Nature study finds that deforestation lowers the warming threshold at which large parts of the Amazon could lose stability.
- Recent droughts, El Niño conditions, and fire risk show why degraded forests are less able to withstand climate stress and recover afterward.
- Protecting intact forests, restoring degraded areas, and reducing fire are increasingly important for climate resilience, biodiversity, and South America’s food system.

Africa’s community-led marine organizations on which 30×30 depends
- More than 5,000 delegates are gathering in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa for a major global conference on the future of the oceans.
- At the heart of the discussions is ocean governance and the global push to meet the 30×30 target — protecting 30% of the world’s land, freshwater and oceans by 2030.
- But meeting that goal will depend not only on governments and international pledges, but also on community-led organizations doing the difficult work of conserving fragile marine ecosystems.
- Across Africa and around the world, thousands of grassroots groups are carrying out this work, often far from the spotlight, helping shape ocean conservation and blue economies that support local livelihoods. Mongabay spoke with representatives of four such organizations working across the continent from the Western Indian Ocean to Africa’s Atlantic coast.

Destructive ‘wrong stories’ drive environmental exploitation, Indigenous scholar says
A new book from Indigenous scholar Tyson Yunkaporta of Australia explores how human narratives dictate how modern society governs itself and, crucially, how it exploits or protects the natural world. “It’s a terrible thing to … misrepresent things, make false claims, bear false witness in a way that is bending story, the story that everybody […]
East African Crude Oil Pipeline threatens wetlands, wildlife corridors: Report
- As the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline nears completion in Uganda and Tanzania, a new report highlights the environmental risks associated with the project.
- The pipeline runs close to and through sensitive ecosystems and wildlife corridors and could have adverse effects on humans and the environment.
- The pipeline’s risks are compounded by new oil and gas developments across the African Great Lakes region.

Indonesia’s grassroots farmers face increased unpredictability, experts say
The intersection of environmental breakdown, climate change and economic instability has emerged as a primary threat to the resilience of smallholder farmers in Indonesia, according to researchers and local entrepreneurs who spoke at a recent convention. During the 2026 Asia Grassroots Forum, held in Jakarta on June 3 and 4, Alex Arnall, an associate professor […]
Malawi’s Elephant Marsh: The challenge of protecting a wetland that sustains thousands
- Elephant Marsh is one of Malawi’s most important fishing grounds, directly employing more than 4,000 people, with thousands more involved in processing and selling fish.
- But the marsh is under multiple pressures, including expanding settlements and farming, and deforestation, which is causing the wetland to shrink.
- The government of Malawi has established and empowered community groups to take on responsibility for conserving the wetland to sustain their livelihoods.

South Africa’s move away from coal marred by legacy of abandoned mines: Report
- A new report has found that none of the 412 coal mines that closed down between 2006 and 2023 in South Africa had set aside rehabilitation funds to restore damaged land and waterways.
- Environmental groups warn that abandoned coal mines are leaving behind contaminated water, radioactive waste, and polluted landscapes that could harm communities for decades.
- The report says weak enforcement allows mining companies to walk away from environmental damage, leaving taxpayers and mining communities to carry the cost.

Confinement and disinfected bedding: An ape sanctuary in DRC responds to Ebola
- The Lwiro Primates Rehabilitation Center, located in South Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, has gone into lockdown to protect its primates.
- Primatologists say Ebola transmission from infected wild primates to humans has been documented repeatedly but there are no recorded cases of transmission from humans to great apes.
- Emergency plans have also been activated to limit the spread of the virus in the protected areas of the Greater Virunga Landscape, a transboundary area shared among the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda.
- As of May 27, the World Health Organization has already recorded 223 suspected deaths linked to the current outbreak.

‘People kept dying’: Interview with Dr. Macky Mbavugha on DRC’s latest Ebola outbreak
- The Democratic Republic of Congo is facing a new Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is currently no approved vaccine or treatment.
- More than 1,000 suspected cases and more than 238 suspected deaths have already been recorded in the DRC, while the disease has also spread into neighboring Uganda.
- Armed groups, population displacement and intense mobility around gold mining areas are accelerating transmission risks, says Dr. Macky Mbavugha of the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
- Mongabay spoke to Dr. Mbavugha about why it took so long for authorities to identify the rarer Ebola strain, and how USAID funding cuts have severely weakened disease surveillance, community outreach and emergency response capacity.

‘Corporate capture’ of critical minerals risks repeating DRC’s extractive past, warns indigenous leader
- From May 13-15, the Cobalt Institute, a London-based organization, hosted a conference in Madrid to discuss the challenges and opportunities shaping the future of the cobalt industry.
- Cobalt has emerged as a critical mineral in the global transition to green energy: widely used in electric vehicles, smartphones and battery technologies, about 70% of the world’s cobalt is produced in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- Robert Agenong’a, an Indigenous politician and civil society leader from Ituri Province in northeastern DRC, near the border with Uganda, attended the Madrid conference to better understand how multinational corporations are positioning themselves within the country’s rapidly expanding critical minerals sector. He criticized the conference as an example of “corporate capture,” where the business interests of the mining sector dominate.
- “The concern is that everyone is interested in getting Congolese cobalt to the world market because it is of very high quality,” he said. “But nobody pays attention to the environmental harms, the social impacts, and the communities’ grievances.”

World burned less coal in 2025, but built more plants over energy uncertainty
- Global Energy Monitor released its annual review of global coal use, saying power generation dropped slightly in 2025.
- While its overall use decreased, the amount of coal-fired power capacity rose by 3.5%, primarily due to new projects in China and India.
- In the EU, nearly 70% of planned retirements of coal plants for 2025 failed to materialize, partly due to concerns over energy disruptions.
- The U.S. was a major outlier, with policy interventions leading to a 13% increase in coal electricity generation.

Egyptian teens use robots for ‘smarter and more responsive’ way to protect Earth
- A team of Egyptian students was among five from Africa shortlisted for this year’s Earth Prize, which recognizes the efforts of 13- to 19-year-olds offering innovative solutions to pressing environmental challenges.
- The “TerraSkipper” robot they designed is inspired by the real mudskipper fish, with a body and feet that “skip” through wet, salty and degraded farmland, collecting data on soil conditions like salinity and pH levels.
- The goal is not only to build the prototype, “but to contribute to a smarter and more responsive way of protecting our planet,” 16-year-old Mustafa Mohammed, one of the team members, told Mongabay.

Kenya’s Ruto rejects “raw mineral export” future for Africa
- As the world transitions from fossil fuels to green energy, increasing numbers of investors are seeking opportunities in Africa in a bid to secure access to the critical minerals needed for that transition.
- Kenyan President William Ruto has called for a new economic model that builds industrial value chains within Africa and avoids repeating the exploitative patterns that defined mineral extraction in the past.
- As several African countries tighten mining laws and negotiate new deals with foreign investors, civil society groups and researchers warn that the global rush for Africa’s critical minerals risks reproducing extractive models that have historically fueled environmental destruction, displacement and inequality and provided little by way of economic benefits for Africans.
- Countries with contested histories of natural resource extraction in Africa, including France, are increasingly acknowledging that critical minerals and rare earth elements should be processed locally on the continent. French President Emmanuel Macron has argued that Europeans are not the “predators of this century.”

Teen innovators in Kenya turn farm waste into award-winning vehicle exhaust filter
- The Switzerland-based Earth Foundation awards the annual Earth Prize, now in its fifth year, to 13-to-19-year-olds working on solutions to environmental challenges.
- “The problem of air pollution was very personal to us, and that is why we started thinking about coming up with a solution,” Fredrick Njoroge Kariuki, one-half of the winning team for the Africa region, told Mongabay. “It was a passion before it became a project.”
- The HewaSafi exhaust filtration system uses filters made from locally sourced materials like coconut shells, maize cobs, steel mesh, copper and recycled materials from old batteries.
- The HewaSafi team is now a contender for the global prize, for which public voting opens on May 18 and closes on May 27.

Crime affects 32% of Amazon Indigenous areas, says study
- The report by the NGO Amazon Watch looks at how organized crime activities and illicit economies are transforming dynamics within different Indigenous Amazonian territories.
- It also highlights the impacts from state military operations deployed in response to these criminal activities. The research was conducted in seven Indigenous territories across Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Venezuela.
- Among the consequences highlighted by the report, experts cite the systematic violations of land rights, violence against young people and women, and various health impacts, among other problems.

New report questions Africa’s oil and gas promise
Fossil fuels have enriched a wealthy few, undermined economic development and left African economies exposed to external shocks, a new report published May 8 in Nairobi, Kenya, argues. Examining 13 oil- and gas-producing African nations, the report concludes that decades of extraction have yielded little benefit for ordinary Africans. “Oil and gas have not and […]
Tanzania cracks down on mining sector, aims for inclusivity and sustainability
- Tanzania cracked down on mine developers in April citing economic losses and the potential for environmental degradation at concessions that lie undeveloped, abandoned or improperly managed by license holders.
- The government plans to reallocate some of the recovered mining blocks to women, youth and people with disabilities to expand domestic participation in the sector.
- A license holder who fails to develop an area must restore it to a safe condition, experts said.
- Stakeholders interviewed by Mongabay expressed concerns about how neglected exploration sites become a hub for unregulated mining activity, leading to severe land degradation and other long-term ecological damages.

‘True success’ is a DRC that no longer needs outside help: Interview with EU envoy Fabrice Basile
- The European Union’s top envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo says he hopes to see less foreign presence in the DRC as a sign the country can drive its own development and ensure its people benefit from its resources.
- The DRC holds vast reserves of critical minerals such as cobalt, coltan, copper and lithium, and is also home to the Congo Basin, the world’s second-largest rainforest and a key carbon sink.
- Fabrice Basile says the EU is working with the DRC government to improve natural resource management, emphasizing transparency, traceability and local value creation through approaches tailored to local realities.
- In an interview with Mongabay, he says the EU will support a U.S.-brokered DRC-Rwanda agreement on critical minerals, while stressing that lasting stability depends on governance reforms and pointing to conservation efforts like Virunga National Park as reasons for cautious optimism.

A village biogas project tests Zambia’s push to improve rural energy access
- A biogas project in Zambia’s Nkhundye village is turning cattle dung into energy for cooking, irrigation, and meeting limited electricity needs.
- The system was serving about 100 households as of March this year, with plans to expand cooking gas access to 600 community households using underground pipes and portable gas bags.
- Nonprofits and development agencies bore the initial costs of installing the system and providing equipment, but the running of the plant will depend on the Nkhundye Community Cooperative in the future.
- While this project is small, Zambian authorities say the country is pursuing a large-scale rural electrification strategy that includes biogas, mini-grids, solar arrays and other decentralized energy technologies.

As Ghana eyes lithium future, affected communities face uncertainty
- After more than two years of delays, Ghana’s parliament has ratified a deal with a subsidiary of Australian miner Atlantic Lithium to develop the country’s first lithium mine.
- The company received permission to develop a mining concession in Ewoyaa in 2023, and under Ghanaian laws restrictions were put in place on agricultural and other economic activities in that area.
- But delays in parliamentary ratification as a result of renegotiating the deal have meant that around 1,500 farmers are still awaiting compensation for loss of access to their land and livelihoods.
- Advocates warn the project could now be fast-tracked at the expense of community rights, citing Ghana’s past experience with industrial mining and the environmental, social and governance challenges associated with lithium mining in other parts of the world.

Canada offers mines and more in $730b investment bid slammed as unsustainable
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has touted his country’s natural resources as the main attraction for securing more than $700 billion in new investments over the next five years — a plan that a mining watchdog has blasted as “robber baron capitalism.” Carney announced in a press release a summit scheduled for Sept. 14-15 in […]
Little-known company targets South African biodiversity hotspot for mining
- South Africa’s remote, semiarid Northern Cape province risks environmental damage by an inexperienced mining company that wants to prospect for the minerals critical for the renewable energy sector.
- Environmentalists have drawn attention to the “exceptionally poor” impact assessment studies, suggesting a lack of planning and consideration that heightens the risk of impacts on the environment and local communities.
- The potential impacts include groundwater contamination in a water-scarce region and the risk of radioactive dust polluting the soil and water sources.
- The company that’s applied to prospect seven tracts of land in the province only registered as a business in 2023 and has no public track record as a mining company.

Emmanuel de Merode, director of Virunga National Park: “If conservation creates hardships, it won’t work”
- Emmanuel de Merode, Director of Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, believes that conservation can succeed only—and exclusively—if it improves the living conditions of local communities. Protecting nature without addressing poverty and basic needs often leads to resistance and conflict.
- Drawing on the experience of Virunga, he explains how investments in hydroelectricity, access to electricity, and local economic opportunities have helped reduce reliance on charcoal, alleviate pressure on forests, and build trust with neighboring communities.
- Despite the progress made, de Merode acknowledges that challenges persist—notably insecurity, poverty, and continued reliance on charcoal—emphasizing that conservation and development must go hand in hand.

DRC: Can the Kivu–Kinshasa Green Corridor turn a war economy into one of hope?
- Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi aims to leverage the ambitious Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor to transform a war economy into an economy of hope.
- The Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor—an idea first publicly announced during the 2025 World Economic Forum in Davos—aims to create one of the largest protected areas in the world, connecting Goma in the country’s east to Kinshasa in the west.
- Proponents of the project, environmentalists, and other observers have hailed the concept, while acknowledging that many questions remain unanswered—particularly regarding the management of mining, oil, gas, agricultural, and conservation concessions.
- On paper, the project could create over 500,000 jobs—particularly for young Congolese people—preserve more than one million hectares of land, and help transport vital food supplies from the east to the massive consumer market of Kinshasa, home to over 20 million inhabitants.

Listening to forests reveals signs of recovery beyond tree cover
- Scientists have deployed acoustic monitoring techniques to measure the success of a forest protection mechanism in Costa Rica.
- Using more than 16,000 hours of audio data, scientists found that the payments for ecosystem services (PES) initiative in Costa Rica has helped recover biodiversity in naturally regenerated forests.
- On comparing the soundscapes, scientists found that naturally regenerated forests sound more similar to protected forests than to pastures.

The Amazon’s silent crime crisis (commentary)
- The Amazon is approaching a critical tipping point, where deforestation, degradation, fire, and climate change together risk pushing large areas toward irreversible ecological collapse.
- A growing nexus between organized crime and environmental crime is accelerating forest loss, distorting economies, and undermining governance across the basin.
- Addressing the crisis requires more than conservation alone: stronger enforcement, institutional reform, and investment in a sustainable socio-bioeconomy are essential, argue Carlos Nobre, Robert Muggah and Ilona Szabo.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

As EU-Mercosur agreement goes into effect, environmentalists raise red flags
- The EU-Mercosur trade agreement, between the European Union and many Latin American nations, is potentially worth trillions of dollars in transcontinental commerce, and it is about to be implemented on a provisional basis starting in May, 2026.
- But experts and environmental organizations are concerned about the risks that may arise across Latin America as the accord goes into effect.
- Indigenous organizations warn about the lack of consultation with potentially affected native peoples, and studies point to problems associated with increases in deforestation, mining, and the use of agrochemicals and pesticides.
- On the other hand, experts argue that some provisions, such as the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), could help reduce environmental damage in Latin America under existing trade dynamics.

The little-known story of emerging ecotourism in the Central African Republic
- Though conflict and instability have shaped much of the Central African Republic’s recent history, Dzanga-Sangha in the country’s southwest is experiencing a modest rise in ecotourism centered on forest elephants, western lowland gorillas and the dense Congo Basin rainforest.
- Officials say about 800 tourists visited Dzanga-Sangha in 2025, generating roughly $1 million in revenue, with local guides and lodge workers reporting gradual growth linked to improved stability.
- Tourism is bringing some benefits, including income sharing, cultural tourism and small economic opportunities, though some involved in the country’s ecotourism ecosystem say job creation remains limited and uneven.
- While optimism is growing, challenges such as poor infrastructure, limited access and questions about equitable benefits mean Dzanga-Sangha’s ecotourism remains a work in progress.

Australia’s flying foxes offer valuable services & deserve better reputation: Study
A new study in Scientific Reports provides the first economic valuation of the ecosystem services provided by flying foxes in Australia, focusing on their significant contribution to the timber industry.
A ‘big book’ documenting Cameroon’s sharks & rays fills critical conservation gap
- Between 2015 and 2023, researchers working with fishers recorded more than 7,000 sharks and rays caught at sea and landed along Cameroon’s coast.
- The recorded animals represent 45 species, of which 13 are critically endangered.
- Their research found that most sharks and rays landed in Cameroon’s fisheries are juveniles, raising serious concerns about population recovery.
- The data help scientists better understand species composition, catch trends and conservation priorities along Cameroon’s coast.

With high seas treaty in place, West African countries plan for protected area
- West African nations are working on a proposal to establish one of the first high seas marine protected areas located beyond their national waters.
- The focus of the proposed MPA is the convergence zone between the Canary and Guinea currents, covering a biologically productive and ecologically complex marine zone that stretches from the maritime borders of Senegal to Nigeria.
- The region is a global biodiversity hotspot facing threats, including industrial fishing and plastic pollution, and is at risk from future deep-sea mining.
- The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) members are aiming to finalize the proposal by the end of this year, but questions remain about how the management of the area will be financed and on monitoring and enforcement.

The hidden cost of fisheries subsidies
- Governments provide roughly $35 billion a year in fisheries subsidies, much of it supporting fleets that can operate beyond what fish stocks alone would sustain.
- Research suggests many high-seas fisheries would be unprofitable without public support, raising questions about whether some “productive” fishing activity exists largely because of subsidies.
- Recent efforts such as the WTO fisheries subsidies agreement aim to curb support tied to illegal fishing and depleted stocks while improving transparency around how governments finance their fleets.
- Treating oceans as assets on the public balance sheet—from reforming subsidies to investing in monitoring and coastal ecosystems—could help governments reduce long-term fiscal risks while supporting healthier fisheries.

Brazil is both the world’s environmental treasure and its most exposed victim (commentary)
- Brazil is one of the countries most exposed to climate breakdown and the one with the most power to slow it. Its failure to act on either front is becoming an economic and political emergency, argue Robert Muggah and Igor Oliveira of the Igarapé Institute.
- Brazil’s major biomes—the Amazon, Cerrado, and Pantanal—function as an interconnected system that regulates rainfall, water supplies, and agricultural productivity across the country. Degrading one part of that system destabilizes the others, creating cascading economic and environmental risks.
- Despite mounting evidence of climate vulnerability—from floods and droughts to energy and food price shocks—Brazil’s political and economic institutions have yet to integrate climate risk into national planning at the scale required, leaving the country increasingly exposed to systemic disruption.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Are government subsidies undermining conservation efforts in Australia?
- A new analysis finds Australia spends tens of billions of dollars each year on subsidies that likely harm biodiversity — far more than it allocates to conservation.
- Most of the identified support flows to fossil fuels, transport infrastructure, and resource-intensive sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, and forestry, shaping land and sea use in ways that degrade ecosystems.
- These incentives can lower the cost of activities that drive habitat loss, overexploitation, and climate pressures, potentially undermining environmental policies intended to protect species and landscapes.
- Reforming harmful subsidies is now a global commitment under the Kunming-Montreal framework, but doing so will require balancing ecological goals with economic realities for affected industries and communities.

If Florida reefs aren’t protected, storms will increase flooding & costs: Study
- Coral reefs absorb incoming waves, protecting shorelines from tropical storms.
- A recent Earth’s Future study examines flood risks from tropical storms to communities in Florida, if coral reefs keep degrading at current rates.
- The study finds that future coral reef degradation will increase the annual risk of flooding to people by 42% and to buildings by 47%.
- This increased degradation would predictably cause $412.5 million in damages to structures and economic disruption of $438.1 million annually.

Growing number of Indigenous Twa forced out of DRC’s forests and into towns
- In the last decade, there has been a steady increase in the number of Indigenous Twa families leaving forests their ancestors relied on in the Congo Basin for urban centers in northern North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo.
- According to reports seen by Mongabay, the number of Indigenous peoples climbed by 5,000 in some small towns.
- For some Twa people, moving to the city is not only a consequence of expulsion from protected areas, but also a choice motivated by insecurity, trying to escape land conflicts with Bantu communities and finding alternative livelihoods as extractive activities take up forests.
- These displacements have profound social, cultural, and environmental consequences, say environmental activists, as Twa people severe ties with the forest, and traditional ecological knowledge built over millennia declines.

Plastic, from home and abroad, spills into Türkiye’s waters
- Türkiye has become a major destination for plastic waste recycling, notably from Europe and the U.K. Most of this scrap heads to the roughly 180 waste facilities handling plastic in Adana province.
- But large quantities are dumped along riverbanks or escape the facilities through their wastewater and eventually flow downstream into the Mediterranean Sea.
- The resulting pollution is taking a toll on riverine and marine ecosystems, including important sea turtle nesting sites.
- Some experts say Türkiye should stop importing plastic altogether to stem the tide of pollution, but the government has said the recycling industry plays an important economic role.

Thai data center boom sparks fears of water shortage, air pollution
- Thailand is experiencing a rapid data center boom, with more than 70 projects planned or underway, many clustered in the industrial Eastern Economic Corridor.
- Residents and farmers in Chonburi and Rayong provinces say they fear the facilities will intensify water shortages and pollution in a region already struggling with industrial impacts.
- Data centers require large volumes of water for cooling and major electricity supply, raising concerns about wastewater contamination and increased burning of fossil fuels.
- Critics say the sector is expanding with little transparency or community consultation, leaving locals uncertain about environmental safeguards and benefits.

U.S.’ hunger for Halloween trinkets is killing Vietnam’s painted woolly bats
- Taxidermied, framed bats are sold as souvenirs in shops across Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City that cater to international tourists, according to a new study documenting the trade.
- Painted woolly bats — one of the world’s most colorful bats, with wings streaked in orange and black — were the top-selling species both in these markets and online, and are in demand as decorations in the U.S.,as well as Europe and Canada.
- Vendors told researchers that most of the painted woolly bats they sold were pulled from the wild. Evidence suggests these mammals have almost disappeared from the country’s Mekong Delta region, partly because of this intensive trade.
- Experts urge Vietnam to outlaw harvest and trade of these bats, and ask that all 11 countries where these bats are found protect them under CITES, a global wildlife trade treaty, to regulate and monitor international sales.

How the ‘wrong story’ ends up harming nature, and how we can change it
Indigenous scholar Tyson Yunkaporta (Apalech clan (Wik) Lostmob Nungar) joins the Mongabay Newscast to detail the Aboriginal perspectives behind his latest book, Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking. The book explains how stories shape society, how they can harm us and the environment, and how they may save our species and the natural […]
Sustainable trade in wild plants benefits people and planet (commentary)
- Medicinal and aromatic plants take center stage for World Wildlife Day this year, celebrating a group of species essential to both human well-being and ecological balance, which are too often overlooked in global conservation conversations.
- Many familiar species are part of our daily lives, but global conservation assessments have only been carried out for a fraction of the many species in use.
- “We need more ‘biodiversity-smart’ policies and interventions related to conservation and sustainable use of wild plants, in recognition of their value for healthy ecosystems, lives and livelihoods,” a new op-ed states.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Guinea-Bissau’s transitional government bans fish meal production
- On Jan. 29, the government of Guinea-Bissau issued a flat ban on fish meal production, citing threats to marine ecosystems and food security.
- In recent years, as West African coastal nations — most notably Mauritania — increasingly clamped down on the industry, Guinea-Bissau emerged as a new regional fish meal hub.
- The first Chinese-owned fish meal factory vessel arrived in its waters in October 2019, followed by a second one in May 2024; both were supplied by Turkish-flagged industrial purse seiners that had previously fished for fish meal factories in Mauritania.
- The production also expanded on shore: In April 2025, Guinea-Bissau’s then-president inaugurated a fish meal plant, and as of February 2026, at least one other facility was under construction.

US firm Virtus Minerals closes in on deal for crucial DRC copper and cobalt mines
- U.S.-based firm Virtus Minerals has reached an agreement to take control of large copper and cobalt mines run by Dubai-based Chemaf in the southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to its CEO.
- Founded by former military and intelligence officials, Virtus has received strong backing from the Trump administration as part of its push to secure access to critical minerals and for greater control over supply chains.
- The deal still has to be approved by the DRC’s state-owned mining company Gécamines, which owns the mining permits sought by Virtus.
- In 2024, Chinese state-owned defense company Norinco attempted to buy Chemaf’s assets but was blocked by Gécamines after an intervention by the U.S. Biden administration.

Malawi’s solar boom is leaving a toxic legacy of lead waste
- The rapid adoption of solar home systems in Malawi is producing a matching increase in the use of lead-acid batteries.
- These batteries have a relatively short lifespan, especially when used with photovoltaic systems, and informal recycling processes release toxic lead and acid into the environment.
- There are more durable, less toxic batteries available, but they cost more.
- Malawi and other countries need better regulation and recycling infrastructure to ensure the benefits of small solar systems are not accompanied by environmental harms.

The Amazon’s most valuable export isn’t timber — it’s rain
- Tropical forests actively generate rainfall by releasing moisture into the atmosphere, with each square meter producing hundreds of liters of rain annually across surrounding regions. Clearing even small portions can measurably reduce precipitation, especially during dry seasons.
- Much of the rain that falls far inland originates from forests through long-distance moisture transport known as “flying rivers,” meaning farms, cities, and reservoirs may depend on ecosystems located hundreds or thousands of kilometers away.
- Reduced rainfall from deforestation can undermine agriculture, river flows, and hydropower, revealing forests as a form of natural water infrastructure that supports food production, energy systems, and economic stability.
- By assigning a monetary value to forest-generated rainfall, researchers estimate the service in the Amazon alone is worth on the order of tens of billions of dollars annually, underscoring that forest loss threatens not only biodiversity and carbon storage but regional climate systems themselves.

Forests don’t just store carbon. They keep people alive, scientists say
- Forests influence climate not only by storing carbon but by cooling the air, moderating extreme temperatures, and regulating water flows in ways that directly affect human well-being, concludes an academic review published this week in the journal Science.
- These effects are strongest at the local level: intact forests can make surrounding areas markedly cooler, stabilize rainfall, and create microclimates that support agriculture, health, and daily life.
- When forests are cleared, those protections can disappear quickly, often producing hotter, drier conditions and exposing large populations to increased heat stress and associated health risks.
- The greatest climate benefits occur where forests are native, underscoring that protecting and restoring natural ecosystems can be as important for adaptation to climate change as for reducing emissions, argues the paper.

The business case for biodiversity
- Biodiversity loss is emerging as a systemic economic risk, affecting supply chains, financial stability and long-term growth across sectors, argues a new assessment from the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
- Despite widespread dependence on nature, an estimated $7.3 trillion in annual finance still flows to activities that harm biodiversity, far outweighing conservation spending, says the report.
- Few companies currently disclose biodiversity impacts, and measurement remains uneven, though existing tools can already inform operational and portfolio decisions.
- Without changes in incentives, policy and financial systems, what is profitable will often remain misaligned with what sustains the natural systems on which the economy depends, says IPBES.

Scrutiny grows over DRC-US minerals deal, even as other African nations sign up
- A minerals summit hosted by the U.S. this month marks an acceleration of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce its dependence on China for critical minerals, including by sealing deals with mineral-rich African countries.
- Guinea and Morocco signed separate agreements with the U.S. during the summit in Washington, even as an earlier deal with the Democratic Republic of Congo, signed in December, came under greater scrutiny at home.
- The DRC, which holds more than 70% of global cobalt reserves, has emerged as a key strategic partner for the U.S., but civil society group warns that the new mineral deal prioritizes geopolitics over human rights, environmental protection and transparency.
- Ongoing insecurity in the eastern DRC raises questions about whether Trump’s approach linking U.S. peace-building efforts to economic gains will bring stability to the region.

In the Brazilian Amazon, community conservation success comes with a cost: Study
- In Brazil’s western Amazon, community-led efforts to protect the pirarucu, one of the world’s largest freshwater fish, bring conservation benefits that extend into upland ecosystems.
- A study in Nature Sustainability found that by patrolling oxbow lakes along the Juruá River, communities effectively protect a mean area 86 times larger than the lakes they directly monitor, making this the largest community-based conservation initiative in the Brazilian Amazon.
- Local families bear the full economic burden of conservation efforts; surveillance represents 32% of total costs and reduces community income by 21%. Researchers say that using payments for environmental services would help ease pressure on communities.

Hopes and fears as Guinea exports iron ore from Simandou mines
- After decades of planning, the first shipment of iron ore from Guinea’s Simandou mines is on its way to China.
- The shipment marks the beginning of an era in which Guinea is expected to become one of the world’s leading producers of iron ore.
- Environmental advocates say that damage from the mines so far has gone largely unaddressed.

Rare bats at risk as iron ore mine advances in Guinea’s Nimba Mountains
- Guinea’s government is assessing the potential impacts of a mining project in the Nimba Mountains, in a biodiversity hotspot that has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site while being threatened by mining.
- U.S. mining company Ivanhoe Atlantic recently submitted an environmental impact assessment for an iron ore mine at a site that is the only known home of two unique bat species, as well as critically endangered chimpanzees and threatened toads and frogs.
- Conservationists say open-pit mining in this ecologically sensitive region could spell extinction for Lamotte’s roundleaf bat and the orange-furred Nimba Mountain bat if their forest habitat is disturbed for mine infrastructure.

Photos: Top new species from 2025
- Scientists described several new species this past year, including a tiny marsupial, a Himalayan bat, an ancient tree, a giant manta ray, a bright blue butterfly and a fairy lantern, to name a few.
- Experts estimate that fewer than 20% of Earth’s species have been documented by Western science, with potentially millions more unknown and unnamed.
- Although such species may be new to science, many are already known to — and used by — local and Indigenous peoples, who often have given them traditional names.
- Many new species are assessed as threatened with extinction as soon as they are found, highlighting the urgent need for conservation efforts.

Researchers find concerning gaps in global maps used for EUDR compliance
- Most companies importing certain products into the EU must comply with the European Union’s Regulation on Deforestation-free products (EUDR), which will go into application on Dec. 30, 2026.
- Satellite and other remote-sensing maps can guide both companies trying to comply with the regulation and government agencies verifying levels of deforestation risk attached to imports.
- But a recent review paper suggests that most of the available maps struggle to meet all of the requirements of the EUDR and could over- or underestimate the risk of deforestation for certain products.
- A key issue is the maps’ ability to differentiate forest from systems that look similar, such as agroforestry, commonly practiced by smallholder farmers producing cocoa, coffee and rubber.

Mining controversies: The hidden toll of green energy
- Recent research shows that mining for minerals needed in the green energy transition takes an extensive toll on forests, soils, water, wildlife habitat and communities.
- Projections indicate that demand for energy transition minerals is expected to increase sixfold between 2020 and 2040; the rush to approve mining licenses in response to the growing demand only heightens the potential risks of conflict and social injustice.
- An analysis finds that the production of construction materials, such as concrete, has a significantly higher impact than the direct extraction of transition minerals themselves.

West and Central Africa tackle coastal erosion
- Coastal erosion along the coastline of West and Central Africa has been attributed to both natural causes and to human causes, including infrastructure development.
- With support from international finance agencies, governments cross the region have favored intensive engineering solutions to attempt to protect eroding shorelines.
- Environmentalists say nature-based interventions such as restoring mangrove forests that can stabilize soil and protect marine biodiversity.

Wildlife and communities bear the cost as Simandou rail corridor advances across Guinea
- A 650-km (400-mi) railway corridor is being built that will link the iron ore mine in eastern Guinea to the country’s Atlantic port of Moribaya.
- Its route crosses forests that are home to some of the last populations of forest elephants and western chimpanzees in the country, with NGOs warning of disruptions and fragmentation of vital habitat, putting several species at risk of local extinction.
- Villagers along the route also complain that dust and pollution have impacted their livelihoods, and that compensation has been delayed or incomplete.
- Experts and civil society actors are calling for a strategic environmental study and better implementation of environmental and social management plans.

Congo Basin nations roll out community payments for forest care
Congo Basin countries have announced the launch of a payments for environmental services, or PES, initiative at the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, intended to encourage practices favorable to forest protection and restoration. The financial mechanism, announced Nov. 18 and supported by the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), transfers direct payments via a mobile […]
With military backing and oligarch allies, Indonesia pushes controversial food estate
- The Indonesian government is fast-tracking a massive food estate and biofuel push in South Papua, anchored by new plantations, an $8 billion bioethanol supply chain, and major infrastructure projects including a new highway and expanded airport plans.
- The initiative revives decades of state-driven “food estate” ambitions that have repeatedly failed — from Suharto’s peat-wrecking Mega Rice Project to Joko Widodo’s abandoned cassava fields — yet now comes with stronger political will, military backing, and efforts to attract private and international partners, including Brazil.
- Funding and execution remain shaky, with the appointed operator, PT Agrinas Pangan Nusantara, still unfunded amid competing fiscal pressures as the government pursues costly programs like nationwide free school meals.
- Large-scale land clearing is already underway amid reports of militarized suppression of local resistance, while oligarch allies such as the Jhonlin Group are playing prominent roles, underscoring both the urgency and controversy surrounding Prabowo’s self-sufficiency drive.

Strategic ignorance, climate change and Amazonia (commentary)
- With the support of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, essentially all of Brazil’s government outside of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change is promoting actions that push us toward tipping points, both for the Amazon Rainforest and the global climate.
- Crossing any of these tipping points would result in global warming escaping from human control, with devastating consequences for Brazil that include mass mortalities.
- The question of whether Brazil’s leaders understand the consequences of their actions is relevant to how they will be judged by history, but the climatic consequences follow automatically, regardless of how these actions may be judged, a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of 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.

In Malawi, a rural community shines bright with 100% solar power milestone
- A UK-based charity has installed solar photovoltaic systems in all 9,000 households of a rural village in Malawi, Kasakula.
- The nonprofit has trained local technicians to maintain the systems — and says it retrieves damaged or retired batteries or other components for now, as no system for safely recycling these exists in Malawi.
- Raising foreign exchange to import PV systems tailored for the low-income customers that SolarAid’s model is aimed at is among the future challenges.

Benin puts solar power at the heart of its energy policy
- Benin’s government has reaffirmed its intention to make renewable energy the main source of the country’s power supply by 2030.
- Access to electricity in Benin remains both low and highly uneven: Around 42% of urban households are connected, with less than 13% in rural areas.
- With financial and technical support from a variety of sources, Benin previously built several solar power plants and installed dozens of mini-grids; solar power currently contributes around 15% of domestic production.
- Benin is dependent on imported power for 95% of its electricity needs, but is placing resilient renewable energy at the center of its strategy to increase and expand its domestic generating capacity.

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.

New species of gecko described from Madagascar’s sacred forests
- An international team of biologists has discovered a new species of gecko in small forest fragments in southeastern Madagascar.
- Due to its extremely limited range, researchers say it should be classified as critically endangered.
- The management of these forests by local communities offers a significant advantage for the species’ conservation, according to the research team.

Navigating conservation’s crisis (commentary)
- Conservation is facing a convergence of crises: accelerating ecological decline, weakened institutions, disinformation-fueled information breakdowns, and mounting threats to frontline defenders. These pressures interact, compounding the difficulty of protecting nature and people.
- To endure, the sector must adapt its financing and design models to what governments can sustain, treat information as infrastructure, and build unconventional coalitions that align conservation with livelihoods, public health, and local leadership.
- Resilience also depends on protecting the people doing the work and adopting “optimism as a method” — disciplined, evidence-based approaches that link effort to tangible outcomes, tell small stories of progress, and resist fatalism.
- The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Wild horses return to Spain’s Iberian highlands after 10,000 years
For the first time in more than 10,000 years, wild horses once again roam Spain’s northwestern highlands. The 35 horses introduced by Rewilding Spain are bringing renewed resilience to the land, Mongabay senior editor Jeremy Hance reported. In 2023, an initial 16 Przewalski’s horses (Equus ferus przewalskii), the world’s last fully wild horse, were introduced […]
Ani Dasgupta watched wetlands tame floods in Kigali. He believes nature is infrastructure we can fund.
- Ani Dasgupta’s path runs from Delhi’s slums to the World Bank and now WRI, where he argues climate, nature, and development must move together. His leadership emphasizes moral purpose, trust, and “orchestration” that links funders, governments, NGOs, and communities to turn knowledge into action.
- He points to pragmatic models: post-tsunami Aceh’s collaborative rebuild, a Kenyan macadamia venture restoring land while raising incomes with Terrafund’s early support, and Kigali’s wetland revival culminating in Nyandungu Park. These show nature-based solutions can cut risk and create jobs, yet financing remains the bottleneck despite WRI’s estimate that $1 in adaptation yields $10 in benefits over a decade.
- Technology is a means, not a cure-all: radar-powered RADD alerts, Global Forest Watch, and WRI’s Land & Carbon Lab aim to democratize environmental intelligence, with AI lowering entry barriers. Evidence like Indigenous monitoring in Peru halving deforestation underpins his measured optimism that systems can bend if collaboration is real and benefits are visible.
- Dasgupta was interviewed by Mongabay Founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler in September 2025.

Brazil’s market-based forest fund gets new endorsers ahead of COP30 debut
- The Tropical Forest Finance Facility (TFFF) initiative is expected to be launched at Brazil’s COP30, in November, and has received attention due to potential financial support from China.
- In July and August this year, BRICS leaders and Amazonian cooperating countries endorsed a Brazil-led initiative that seeks to reward states and investors in exchange for tropical forest preservation.
- Despite bringing a new formula for a much-awaited solution to climate financing, the TFFF was criticized in a recent report as being a market-based approach that could monetize ecosystem services, ignoring the intrinsic value of forests and biodiversity.

Maluku coconut growers cry crisis as Indonesia land-grabs feed energy transition
- Numerous villages in Indonesia’s Halmahera Island face extensive compulsory purchase actions for farming land by mining companies with extraction permits issued by the government.
- One farmer said he faced sustained pressure from local authorities to accept offers of $1.22 per square meter of land, which did not account for the recurring revenues earned from multiple coconut harvests per year.
- The South Wasile’s police chief sent an emphatic denial to Mongabay Indonesia when asked whether local police were involved in company efforts to persuade farmers to sign contracts of sale.
- Mongabay has reported this year from Halmahera on a rise in respiratory disease and high levels of mercury present in blood samples in communities living alongside Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP), the giant nickel smelting center on Halmahera.

Tourism surge and climate change threaten Nepal’s Mustang
Since the completion of an all-weather road eight years ago, Nepal’s remote Mustang region has become a mass tourism destination, reports Mongabay’s Abhaya Raj Joshi. The surge in tourists, combined with the impacts of climate change, could put the fragile Himalayan region at greater risk of future disasters. Previously, Mustang was a destination for foreign […]
Cambodian irrigation dam construction threatens riverine communities in the Cardamoms
- Cambodia has begun clearing more than 7,300 hectares (18,000 acres) of protected rainforest in Kravanh National Park to build an irrigation dam, with nearly 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) to be submerged by its reservoir.
- The Cardamom Mountains, where the park is located, are among Cambodia’s last biodiversity hotspots, home to elephants, pangolins and gibbons, but dam projects and illegal logging are accelerating habitat loss.
- Villagers upstream of the dam say they’ll lose forest access, water and livelihoods, while downstream rice farmers stand to benefit; residents report they were not properly consulted.
- The project overlaps with a REDD+ carbon-offset area and appears to have broken ground without a completed environmental impact assessment, raising legal and transparency questions.

Where life has found its richest expression – Amazon Rainforest Day
Amazon Rainforest Day, first celebrated in 2008, aims to raise awareness about the importance of Earth’s largest rainforest. There is a place where the Amazon meets the Andes, where forests climb the lower slopes of mountains before giving way to the mists of the cloud forests. To stand there is to feel the weight of […]
New study pinpoints tree-planting hotspots for climate and biodiversity gains
- Reforestation is gaining global momentum as a climate solution, but its success depends on how and where it’s done.
- A new study mapped locations where tree planting and forest regrowth are most likely to deliver climate, biodiversity and community benefits, while avoiding negative trade-offs. It identified 195 million hectares (482 million acres) of reforestation hotspots, a figure significantly smaller than previous estimates.
- Previous studies have been criticized for including grasslands and drylands, where planting trees may harm biodiversity and compromise ecosystem services. Some experts, however, argue that restrictive approaches risk excluding important ecosystems from restoration agendas.
- Scientists caution that tree planting alone won’t solve climate change, and that protecting existing forests while cutting emissions would provide greater climate benefits.

Soil carbon: Crucial ally or potential threat to net-zero commitments?
- Earth’s top 2 meters (6 feet) of soil hold 2.5 trillion metric tons of carbon — more than is held in living vegetation and the atmosphere combined. But soil carbon sinks are under threat — global warming could trigger a positive feedback loop that seriously accelerates soil emissions, just as we take steps to decarbonize society.
- The effects of elevated temperature and atmospheric CO₂ on soil carbon have been factored into climate models. But those models don’t currently capture the true complexity of the soil carbon sink, in part because scientists don’t fully understand the mechanisms that influence soil carbon gains and losses.
- Major knowledge gaps urgently need to be addressed: How are long-term soil carbon stores protected from microbial consumption (and CO₂ release)? And how will global warming alter microbial communities, deep soil carbon, and the climate sensitivity of tropical soils (which store a third of global soil carbon)?
- Improved understanding of soil carbon dynamics could offer an opportunity to better manage agricultural and forest soils for carbon sequestration. With proper management, degraded soils could sequester a billion tons of additional carbon annually, making them a key ally in the fight against climate change.

To save humanity and nature we must tackle wealth inequality, says Cambridge researcher
Wealth inequality is a primary culprit behind the ecological and environmental collapse of societies over the past 12,000 years, which have come to be dominated by a small circle of elites hoarding resources like land, research shows. Today, instead of an isolated collapse, we face a global one, says Luke Kemp, a researcher at the […]
Why is rainfall declining in the Amazon? New research says deforestation is the leading driver
- Deforestation in the Amazon has been identified as the main driver of declining rainfall, responsible for nearly three-quarters of the drop in dry-season precipitation since the mid-1980s.
- Between 1985 and 2020, dry-season rainfall fell by about 21mm annually, with 15.8mm linked to forest loss, while maximum daily temperatures rose by 2°C, about one-sixth of which was caused by deforestation.
- Amazonian trees generate more than 40% of the region’s rainfall through transpiration, and their removal disrupts local and regional weather, influencing monsoons and increasing drought risk far beyond the basin.
- If current deforestation trends persist, by 2035 the region could lose another 7mm of rainfall in the dry season and heat up by 0.6°C, pushing the Amazon toward a drier climate like the Cerrado or Caatinga.

Rewilding project aims to restore resilience to fire-prone Spain via wildlife
- A project in Spain is bringing Przewalski’s horse to a sparsely populated region to help stem out-of-control fires and boost the local economy.
- Rewilding Spain is attempting to rebuild ecological roles in the region to boost biodiversity and mitigate fire outbreaks.
- The project is helping the local economy by employing locals and working with tourist operators.

Ecosystems as infrastructure: Tim Christophersen on how to rebuild humanity’s ties to nature
- Tim Christophersen argues that humanity’s crises of climate, biodiversity, and pollution stem from a fractured relationship with nature—one that cannot be abandoned, only repaired.
- He sees restoration as both urgent and possible: ecosystems, once given diversity and space, can recover quickly, offering resilience, carbon storage, and abundance.
- From UN diplomacy to corporate initiatives, he presses for treating ecosystems as essential infrastructure, requiring imagination, investment, and a “century of ecology” to secure civilization’s future.
- Christophersen was interviewed by Mongabay Founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler in August 2025.

Escalation in tourism, climate change leaves Nepal’s Mustang in fragile state
- The completion of an all-weather road has transformed ‘lower’ Mustang, shifting from a remote trekking hub to a mass tourism destination. Visitor numbers has surged nearly 50% in one year, fueled largely by domestic and Indian Hindu pilgrims.
- Hotels and lodges have mushroomed along fragile riverbanks with weak zoning enforcement. Tourism water demands and usage have led to untreated sewage entering the Kali Gandaki River.
- Once arid, Mustang is now facing monsoon rains as Arabian Sea warming has started to push rain clouds farther north. The August 2023 flood devastated Kagbeni village, highlighting rising risks of flash floods and landslides.
- While tourism provides livelihoods and the energy is largely renewable, locals remain in the flux of economic opportunity and growing climate risks. Researchers call for urgent data, early warning systems and relocation from high-risk zones.

Bangladesh turns to nature for biodegradable plates to replace plastic ones
In Bangladesh, disposable tableware, including plates made of areca palm leaves, is gaining popularity as a good alternative to single-use plastic during social gatherings and festival celebrations, Mongabay’s Abu Siddique reported in May. A survey from 2018 estimates that Bangladesh used around 250 metric tons of single-use plastic tableware and straws every month. However, since […]
Wetlands at risk, but new report offers road map for recovery
A new report finds that up to 20% of the world’s wetlands could be lost in the next 25 years. The “Global Wetland Outlook 2025,” produced under the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty for wetland conservation, uses satellite imagery, peer-reviewed studies, and economic data to create a complete picture of an ecosystem in peril. It […]
Iconic Brazil nut crop plunges after extreme drought, skyrocketing prices
- Communities in the Amazon reported severe cuts of up to 80% of Brazil nut crops, with some territories collecting “not even a single nut.”
- The nut tree, which can live up to 800 years, is crucial for forest economies and ecosystems, but is increasingly vulnerable to extreme climate events, such as the historic droughts of 2023 and 2024.
- Sold worldwide, the Brazil nut’s price soared fourfold, prompting experts to warn of market instability if buyers abandon it, urging recognition of their ecological value and continued inclusion in product lines.

Indigenous rubber bounces back for Amazon conservation and higher income
- Rubber tapping in the forest was once the main Amazonian economic activity, and now an Indigenous group is bringing it back.
- Partnering with Brazilian organizations, Indigenous Gavião communities find they can simultaneously protect the forest and its cultural heritage while boosting their own livelihoods through the wild rubber trade.
- The initiative is part of a broader Indigenous-led bioeconomy movement in the Amazon that attracts younger generations by combining traditional practices with technical training and earning opportunities.
- Despite promising results, challenges such as drought and limited private sector engagement highlight the need for increased investment to scale up forest-based alternatives.

Forest connectivity key to preserving PNG’s spectacular rainforest birds: Study
- Papua New Guinea is a global hotspot of avian biodiversity, home to spectacular and behaviorally complex bird species that occur nowhere else on the planet.
- A new study shows that forest fragmentation reduces unique forest-specialist birds, but boosts generalist species like pigeons, sunbirds and bulbuls.
- Birds suffered greater declines in habitats cut off from the surrounding landscape, compared to degraded habitats that remained connected to nearby intact forests.
- The shift in the bird community in degraded and isolated habitats undermines ecosystem stability and resilience, as birds that once performed vital pollination, seed dispersal and insect control services are lost.

Peru’s Indigenous aguaje harvesters turn to sustainability, but challenges remain
Indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon are working to revive populations of the aguaje palm tree, commercially valued for its fruits, by shifting to more sustainable harvesting practices, Mongabay’s Aimee Gabay reported in April. The reptilian-looking fruits of the aguaje palm tree (Mauritia flexuosa) are consumed raw or used as an ingredient in beverages, soap, […]
Assisted colonization could be our ally in adapting to climate change, study suggests
- As climate change rapidly transforms ecosystems, it threatens to wipe out vital species, potentially leading to ecosystem collapse.
- Islands, to which many species from elsewhere can’t disperse naturally, are particularly vulnerable to these threats.
- In a recent study, scientists argue that assisted colonization, where species from neighboring regions are introduced to better cope with the changing climate, could help the forests of Great Britain adapt to the rapidly changing climate.
- Some conservationists say that assisted colonization is a proactive way of thinking about conservation in a changing world, rather than more reactive approaches such as species reintroductions.

Banks bet big on fossil fuels, boosting financing in 2024, report finds
- Bank financing for the fossil fuel sector rose by $162.5 billion in 2024, more than 20% compared to 2023, according to a Rainforest Action Network report.
- Fossil fuel-related financing declined in 2022 and 2023, but in 2024 almost 70% of the 65 banks analyzed increased their funding for companies involved in fossil fuels.
- Experts say the findings demonstrate the limits of voluntary climate-related commitments by the banking industry, with many institutions backsliding on their promises to decarbonize their portfolios.
- They also highlight the importance of government regulation and civic action to address ongoing financial support for fossil fuel infrastructure and expansion.

After USAID cut, Ethiopia’s largest community conservation area aims for self-sufficiency
- The abrupt end of USAID funding has disrupted conservation progress in Ethiopia’s Tama Community Conservation Area (TCCA), where community-led efforts had curbed illegal hunting and led to an increase in elephant and giraffe populations.
- In response, local leaders and communities are working to become financially self-sufficient by establishing income-generating initiatives.
- But progress is hindered by the lack of a functioning office, expert staff, and basic operational resources.
- While experts recognize the area’s strong potential for ecotourism and community benefit, they warn that poverty, conflict and climate challenges, combined with weak infrastructure, make external technical and financial support critical for a successful transition to self-reliance.

DNA sequencing to meet global biodiversity goals: Interview with Tyler Kartzinel
- A new study has highlighted gaps in reference databases that are required by scientists for DNA sequencing, especially in tropical biodiversity hotspots around the world.
- DNA technology has advanced rapidly in recent years, but the lack of extensive reference databases makes species identification a challenge, especially in remote areas.
- The lead author of the study emphasizes the need to ramp up work to create these databases, especially as the world works toward critical goals to protect ecosystems and the biodiversity that lives in them.

Vatican-backed report calls for global debt relief amid climate crisis
A commission appointed by the late Pope Francis has released a new report highlighting the urgent need to address global debt, which has hindered sustainable development and climate action. The report was authored by the Jubilee Commission, which includes a group of 30 experts including Nobel laureate and U.S. economist Joseph Stiglitz, and Martín Guzmán, […]
To survive climate change, scientists say protected areas need ‘climate-smart’ planning
- Climate change is threatening the effectiveness of protected areas (PAs) in safeguarding wildlife, ecosystem services and livelihoods, with scientists now calling for the incorporation of “climate-smart” approaches into the planning of new and existing PAs.
- Key approaches to developing a network of climate-smart PAs include protecting climate refugia, building connectivity, identifying species’ future habitats and areas that promote natural adaptation. These approaches rely on science-based spatial models and prioritization assessments.
- For example, the Climate Adaptation and Protected Areas (CAPA) initiative supports conservationists, local communities and authorities in implementing adaptation measures in and around PAs across Africa, Fiji and Belize.
- Experts emphasize that climate-smart conservation plans must address immediate local needs, engage diverse stakeholders through transboundary collaboration, and rapidly expand across freshwater and marine ecosystems, especially in the Global South.

Real-world return on climate adaption investments wildly underestimated, report finds
- Since 2015’s Paris climate agreement, poor, climate-vulnerable nations have made a case for wealthy, industrialized nations (responsible for most climate change) to pay hundreds of billions for climate adaption and resilience. But while making big promises, actual funding by wealthy nations has repeatedly fallen far short of what’s needed.
- One possible reason: The real-world value of adaption and resilience projects has long been grossly underestimated due to incomplete data. A new study uses a novel methodology to put a comprehensive dollar value on such projects. It found that every $1 invested yields $10.50 in environmental and social benefits over a decade.
- Known as the “triple dividend of resilience,” this new methodology counts not only avoided climate change damages, but also economic gains (such as improved infrastructure and job creation) as well as broader environmental enhancements (improved public health and biodiversity protections, for example).
- It’s hoped this new analysis will offer policymakers and NGOs leverage at November’s COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, as they try to convince wealthy nations and financial institutions to unlock the many billions needed by vulnerable nations in adaption and resilience funding to weather escalating climate change impacts.

Riding toward a greener future: E-bikes transform food delivery in South Africa
- Home deliveries in South Africa have surged in recent years, with delivery of food and groceries overwhelmingly done using motorcycles.
- One company, Green Riders, has seized a slice of this market for electric bicycles, highlighting some of the obstacles facing cyclists on Cape Town’s streets.
- The South African city’s planning includes efforts to shift commuters from using cars or buses — primarily to reduce traffic congestion — with limited success.
- The presence of several hundred couriers on e-bikes is highlighting issues including inadequate road infrastructure as well as safety for cyclists who must often travel 20 kilometers or more from their homes to reach economic opportunities.

Why Brazil should abandon its plans for oil and gas in Amazonia (commentary)
- The Brazilian government has major plans for oil and gas extraction both in the Amazon Rainforest and offshore — including at the mouth of the Amazon River — with a drilling rights auction scheduled for June 17 for fields both in the forest and offshore.
- Under intense pressure, the head of the federal environmental agency has now overridden his technical staff to allow the proposed mouth-of-the-Amazon project to move forward for approval.
- In addition to the risk of an uncontrollable oil spill, the economics of opening this and other new oilfields implies continued extraction long past the time when burning fossil fuels must cease if a global climate catastrophe is to be avoided.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Kim Stanley Robinson on how his novel ‘Ministry for the Future’ holds lessons for the present
Roughly five years since Kim Stanley Robinson’s groundbreaking climate fiction novel, The Ministry for the Future, hit shelves and The New York Times bestseller list, there’s little he says he’d change about the book, were it to be published again, he tells Mongabay’s podcast. The utopian novel set in a not-so-distant future depicts how humans […]
Police in Indonesia’s Halmahera Island charge 11 farmers in latest nickel flashpoint
- Officers with North Maluku province police arrested 27 people from the coastal village of Maba Sangaji in late May, and later charged 11 of the detained men with weapons and public order offenses.
- A lawyer for the 11 facing prosecution said the bladed instruments seized from them were farming tools, and did not reflect any criminal intent in demonstrating against a mining company.
- The villagers accuse nickel-mining company PT Position of quarrying their customary forest, causing damage to local crops and pollution of a river flowing through the area.
- Maba Sangaji is around 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Weda Bay Industrial Estate, a vast minerals processing site established in 2018 by China mining conglomerates Huayou, Tsingshan and Zhenshi.

Study identifies US regions that benefit birds, people & climate the most
A new study identifies key regions across the U.S. where investments can deliver triple benefits for people, the climate and birds. These conservation sweet spots support significant numbers of more than half of U.S. bird species, including 75% of forest birds. “We wanted to think about how places that we might focus our conservation attention […]
In Panama, an Indigenous-led project rewrites the rules of reforestation
- Scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute are collaborating with local communities in the Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca, a protected Indigenous territory, to foster a ground-up reforestation strategy using native trees and carbon payments.
- The project involves about 30 plots totaling 100 hectares (247 acres) of land, giving participants full ownership of their trees.
- The approach is based on carbon-sequestration data and other scientific metrics collected from Smithsonian’s Agua Salud research site in Colón.
- The work also leans on economic analyses to ensure that reforestation projects can become reliable and sustainable livelihood strategies for Panama’s rural communities.

How manatees won over an entire village
BARRA DO MAMANGUAPE — Brazil. It’s hard to imagine today, but manatees were once hunted and eaten. These gentle sea mammals were considered a delicacy in Brazil, with their meat consumed by local fishermen and their skin and oil exported to Europe during colonial times. This exploitation pushed the species to the brink of extinction. […]
What does bioeconomy truly mean? Indigenous groups seek answer to dodge capitalist traps
- For the first time, the G20 group of the world’s biggest economies has reached a multilateral agreement on principles to develop the bioeconomy, but conflicting concepts pose obstacles for traditional communities and can lead to investments in predatory practices.
- Across the Pan-Amazon region, communities who developed the bioeconomy concept centuries ago and practice it today still have a hard time accessing its benefits.
- Experts argue that the success of the bioeconomy will depend on national and local policy decisions.

Dredging and pollution threaten fishing in the Niger River
- Some fishers in Bamako, Mali’s capital, are raising concerns about dredging of the Niger River in search of gold.
- They say the combination of dredging and increasing plastic pollution is causing fish stocks to decline.
- Damage to the river’s ecosystems is taking a toll on their livelihoods, with some forced to give up fishing for the more lucrative, but environmentally destructive, activity of river sand mining.

Protecting coastal waters may be the best investment you’ve never heard of, says Kristin Rechberger
- In this interview, Kristin Rechberger—founder of Dynamic Planet and a Mongabay board member—discusses Revive Our Ocean, a new initiative empowering coastal communities to establish marine protected areas (MPAs) that benefit both nature and livelihoods.
- With only 3% of the ocean fully protected and the 2030 “30×30” target looming, Rechberger argues that waiting on governments isn’t enough; community-led efforts are crucial to scaling marine conservation rapidly and equitably.
- Drawing on a decade of experience creating large offshore marine reserves, Rechberger is now focusing on coastal regions where local communities have a direct stake in healthy seas—but often lack the legal authority, tools, or support to act.
- She emphasizes that marine protection is not only ecologically effective but economically smart, citing examples like Spain’s Medes Islands Reserve and Mexico’s booming dive tourism as models for prosperity through conservation.

How did Finland lead the pursuit of a circular economy? Mongabay podcast explores
As the first nation to develop a circular economy road map in 2016, Finland has had a head start in trying to develop an economy that’s based on reusing and regenerating materials and products. A lot can be learned from Finland’s experience so far, including challenges and gaps, Mongabay’s Mike DiGirolamo found in an episode of […]
Paying to prevent deforestation is positive & not ‘nothing’ (commentary)
- Should the world pay people to refrain from their destroying forests, a new commentary asks?
- There is something inherently uncomfortable about paying someone to do ‘nothing’ like not cut down their rainforest, but in reality, the value of these places’ ecosystem services and climate regulation is not much different from dividends shareholders earn by owning stocks.
- “By compensating landholders for the services their forests provide, we recognize their true value and offer a pragmatic response to deforestation, biodiversity loss, and climate change,” the author argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Funding freeze threatens global reforestation and restoration efforts
- The sudden halt in U.S. foreign aid has left reforestation and forest restoration projects around the world scrambling for alternative resources, jeopardizing years of progress.
- Without consistent funding, ongoing projects face the threat of scaling back or shutting down entirely, potentially impacting, in the long-term, both the environment and the communities that rely on these initiatives for their livelihoods.
- According to Mongabay’s research, the funding freeze has affected the operations of many nature-based projects worldwide, particularly in biodiversity hotspots and some of the world’s poorest regions.
- Despite the challenges, affected organizations are working tirelessly to diversify their funding sources and fill the gaps left by the U.S. government, including launching online campaigns to request donations and calling the international community to step up.

Conserving vultures in Southern Africa may provide substantial economic gain: Report
- A new report has found that conserving vulture populations in Southern Africa could have potentially huge economic value. Many vulture populations in Africa are in sharp decline, the authors highlight.
- The report, published by the NGO BirdLife, attached a value to a range of ecosystem services — including an important sanitation role and their existence for future generations — at $1.8 billion for the region.
- This illustrates the importance of conserving vultures and addressing the multitude of threats facing them, the NGO says.
- But other vulture experts say caution is needed in interpreting some of their findings, as assigning an economic value to traditional medicine and belief-based use could lead to the demise of entire populations.

Palm oil company uses armed forces, tear gas against protesting villagers in Cameroon
- Cameroonian villagers protesting on March 25 against plantation company Socapalm’s replanting of oil palm trees on disputed land were dispersed with tear gas by local law enforcement.
- Socapalm rejects the villagers’ claim that the company was supposed to return this land following an amendment to its lease, explaining that this part of the plantation is not leased.
- Gendarmes escorted Socapalm workers despite a local official’s previous statement that replanting required an agreement with villagers.
- Socfin, Socapalm’s parent company, has been accused of land grabbing and human rights abuses, with investigators confirming many community grievances at its Cameroon plantations.

Colombian farmers switch from coffee to cacao as temperature and prices soar
- Due to rising temperatures and climate change, small-scale coffee farmers in Colombia are increasingly planting cacao.
- Cacao faces fewer immediate challenges compared to coffee, which is prone to pests and diseases, and can integrate well into agroforestry systems. However, agronomists warn that the switch to cacao can lead to clearing forests and increasing chemical inputs in order to expand existing plantations.
- Higher profits, the high prices of cacao in the market, and the increasing expenses needed to manage coffee crops are also factors pushing small-scale farmers towards the switch.
- Although coffee remains Colombia’s most important agricultural product, cacao is emerging not just as an alternative, but as a defining crop in Colombia’s evolving agricultural future, say agronomists.

Colombia’s women clam collectors protect Pacific mangroves and mollusks
- Along Colombia’s Pacific coast, women belonging to the Afro-Colombian community who harvest piangüa mollusks have united in efforts to conserve these small, black-shelled clams.
- For generations, piangüa collecting has been their livelihood, a nutrient-rich food source and important symbol of cultural heritage.
- But piangüa populations have diminished in recent years, due to commercialization and overharvesting as well as exports to Ecuador.
- The women piangüeras monitor the local mangroves, crucial to piangüa conservation, and when they observe signs of human disturbance or logging, they encourage people to leave the area alone during “rest periods” so the mangroves can recover.

How a young beekeeper’s initiative brought hope and profit to Sierra Leone communities
- Near Sierra Leone’s Tiwai Island, Aruna Bangura, a young beekeeper, started a beekeeping initiative using modern hives after observing a decline in bees and increased deforestation in the region.
- The initiative began with less than 20 frame hives and has now expanded to 400 beekeepers from eight communities who have built more than 300 modern hives.
- The modern hives attract more bees compared to the traditional ones and generate money for locals so they can reduce their dependence on logging to sell charcoal, which, in turn, can help reduce pressure on the forests that the bees depend on.
- Bangura faced challenges in the initial phases of the project but has since won money from the Iris Project’s Stem Prize to kick off the project with plans to expand it.

New allegations of abuse against oil palm giant Socfin in Cameroon
- For several years, coastal communities in Edéa, Cameroon, have been campaigning for the return of land they say Socapalm, a subsidiary of Luxembourg-based Socfin, illegally seized from them.
- Now a series of reports published by environmental consultancy the Earthworm Foundation in February have substantiated new allegations land grabbing and of sexual harassment on Socapalm’s oil palm plantations.
- The Socfin group requested Earthworm’s investigations of its subsidiaries’ operations in Cameroon and elsewhere; following the release of the latest findings, the group has announced the launch of quarterly action plans aimed at addressing the rights violations.
- Financial institutions that have backed Socfin declined to say how they will in their turn respond to findings that show that guidelines for ethical investment have not been effective across Socfin’s operations in West and Central Africa, as well as Asia.

Plastic pollution cuts into fishers’ livelihoods in Ecuador and Peru
- A new study in Peru and Ecuador has found that artisanal fishers are losing revenue due to prolific plastic pollution in the ocean.
- Researchers surveyed 1,349 artisanal fishers in Ecuador and Peru and found that the more waste generated locally, the greater the financial losses.
- This is reflected in the national economy, with losses in Ecuador and Peru’s domestic product from fisheries.
- The study is part of the Pacific Plastic: Science to Solutions initiative, which is represented on an intergovernmental committee currently negotiating a treaty on plastic pollution.

What environmental history reveals about our current ‘planetary risk’
Recent and major shifts in international environmental policies and programs have precedent in history, but the scale and urgency of their potential impacts present a planetary risk that’s new, podcast guest Sunil Amrith says. A professor of history at Yale University, he joins the show to discuss the current political moment and draw comparisons across […]
Australia faces inflation, agriculture losses after Cyclone Alfred
The Australian government has warned of impacts to the country’s economy in the wake of Cyclone Alfred that caused massive losses to infrastructure, agriculture and the dairy industries when it struck in late February. The horticultural industry was among the worst hit, with strong winds toppling and damaging hundreds of orchard trees, and floodwaters inundating […]
EUDR compliance costs to be minimal, report finds — but industry disagrees
- A recent report from the Dutch NGO Profundo suggests that complying with the EUDR, the regulation designed to root out deforestation in the supply chains of products entering the European Union, will add little cost to companies’ bottom lines.
- Researchers from Profundo used available customs data for 12 small, medium and large companies that import one or more of the seven commodities regulated by the EUDR.
- On average, it will cost companies about 0.1% of their annual revenues, though the cost will likely be higher for smaller companies, according to the report. The impact on the prices consumers pay will be even smaller.
- Industry sources told Mongabay that the report’s methodology was “flawed,” however, and said the authors did not take into account the full suite of accommodations companies must make.

USAID funding cuts jeopardize creation of Ghana’s first Marine Protected Area
- The U.S. foreign aid freeze blocks the establishment of Ghana’s first Marine Protected Area (MPA).
- The MPA was being created under the Ghana Fisheries Recovery Activity (GFRA), a USAID-funded program that aimed to restore pelagic fish stocks crucial for the country’s food security.
- Ghana’s small pelagics, consisting mostly of sardines, anchovy and mackerels, make up about 60% of local fish landings and serve as a primary source of protein for almost two-thirds of the country’s population.
- The West African nation depended heavily on U.S. foreign aid to preserve its small pelagic fisheries sector, and without other funding, there could be cascading impacts on its economy.

Indonesia’s coal gasification reboot faces backlash over economic, environmental risks
- Indonesia is reviving plans to develop coal gasification plants to produce hydrogen and dimethyl ether (DME), aiming to reduce reliance on imported liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), with funding from the newly launched Danantara sovereign wealth fund.
- Experts warn that coal gasification is economically unviable, with previous plans falling through due to high costs, and that the government may need to provide large subsidies to make the initiative financially feasible.
- Environmental concerns include high carbon emissions from DME production, increased air pollution, deforestation, and biodiversity threats, contradicting Indonesia’s energy transition commitments.
- Critics argue that using state funds for coal gasification poses financial risks, urging the government to prioritize renewable energy investments instead for a more sustainable and cost-effective energy transition. coal combustion and threatens air quality, water sources, and biodiversity.

Nickel miners dig up Indonesia’s Gebe Island despite Indigenous and legal opposition
- Gebe Island in eastern Indonesia is the site of seven nickel mining concessions.
- Local Indigenous communities say the mining sites have put their food security at risk, with pollution affecting fruit trees and root vegetables as well as depletion of local fisheries.
- Forestry campaigners say the mining clashes with a 2007 law on small islands designed to prevent large-scale environmental destruction in these fragile ecosystems.
- Gene’s nickel ore is shipped to the Weda Bay Industrial Park on the mainland of North Maluku province, Halmahera, where Mongabay has reported on rising incidences of disease among communities living alongside the vast smelting estate.

Women in Ghana plant ‘diversion’ trees to protect shea trees and their livelihoods
- For International Women’s Day, Mongabay puts a spotlight on a community forest restoration effort to protect Ghana’s shea trees, which are economically and ecologically important species for the country.
- The majority of participants are women, as they traditionally play a central role in every part of the value chain, from harvesting shea nuts to producing shea butter.
- The people from Yazori and Mognoni have so far planted over 53,000 seedlings over about 158 hectares of land to divert attention away from indigenous shea trees, which locals increasingly cut down for charcoal and firewood.
- The other trees have many benefits over shea species, like growing faster and being more resistant to fires, but shea trees still produce more efficient charcoal and women depend on the project to pay for new seedlings.

‘Without us, no scrutiny’: Indonesia’s independent media count cost of US funding cuts
- U.S. funding cuts abruptly ended reporting initiatives on environmental issues in Indonesia, affecting independent journalism outlets like Remotivi, New Naratif and Project Multatuli.
- The loss of nearly $270 million in global journalism support leaves independent media scrambling to cover environmental and human rights issues.
- Shrinking newsroom budgets and government restrictions have already weakened investigative journalism in Indonesia, now worsened by the U.S. aid cuts.
- Facing uncertainty, media groups are pushing to diversify revenue streams and reduce reliance on foreign grants to sustain independent reporting.

‘Degrowth’ gains a foothold in Barcelona and support internationally
With the purchasing power of middle and working-class citizens shrinking as billionaires hoard ever more wealth, many people are searching for a new economic reality in line with their ecological values and planetary boundaries. “People are really hungry for solutions [and] really hungry to find alternatives,” says Alvaro Alvarez, a journalist and filmmaker of the […]
Vicuña poop creates biodiversity hotspots as glaciers retreat rapidly
- The vicuña, a wild relative of the llama, could help reestablish plants in barren areas where glaciers have melted, according to a recent study in the high Andes of Peru.
- As vicuñas tend to poop in the same places, they establish communal latrines where soils have much higher moisture, organic matter, nutrients and microorganisms than surrounding areas formerly covered by ice.
- Researchers say they believe these more nutrient-rich soil patches can speed up plant colonization by as much as a century and provide refuge for plant species moving uphill as temperatures increase.
- Peru is losing its glaciers at a worrying speed, with research pointing out that in the Central Andes, between 84% and 98% of their glaciers might disappear by 2050.

Indigenous people cut down trees as solar energy remains inaccessible and costly in DRC
- Solar energy, which researchers say offers much potential to meet the Democratic Republic of Congo’s energy needs, remains largely unaffordable and out of reach for Indigenous Batwa people and rural residents.
- Mongabay visited villages off the power grid in the DRC’s Tanganyika province, where Indigenous people and local communities aspire to have access to electricity and embrace a new way of life.
- As electricity remains out of reach, despite a handful of solar panels, most rely on cutting wood from forests and savannah for firewood and charcoal — spiking deforestation in the region.
- Researchers and environmentalists suggest government subsidies, favorable taxes, and investing in cheaper Chinese solar panels to make solar energy more accessible and affordable for Indigenous and rural communities. Hydropower dams, say some, also offer cheaper long-term solutions but can come with environmental costs.

Declining biodiversity and emerging diseases are entwined, more study needed
- A new review study traces the complex links between biodiversity loss and emerging infectious diseases — though one doesn’t necessarily lead to the other.
- Instead, complex interactions between factors (including climate change, habitat loss, agricultural practices, and closer contact between wildlife, livestock and people) can contribute to emergent infectious diseases and new pandemics.
- It’s now well understood that human actions are causing a major increase in pandemics. To stave off future global outbreaks, researchers say we need to better understand the shared upstream drivers of both biodiversity loss and emerging disease.
- The study highlights significant gaps in the monitoring and surveillance of wildlife pathogens worldwide. It suggests that prevention and early interventions targeting locales and situations where emergent disease spillover is likely are important to avoiding future human pandemics.

Ecuador’s next debt-for-nature deal falls short of Indigenous involvement
- Following the success of its first debt-for-nature swap for the Galapagos, Ecuador received $460 million dollars that will be allocated to the conservation of the Amazon.
- The financial organizations involved in the ‘the Amazon Biocorridor Fund’ have publicized the involvement of Indigenous peoples in the process. However, Indigenous leaders have denied these claims and say they have not been involved in full participation.
- On a positive side, the conservation objectives were set based on scientific work by Ecuador’s National Institute of Biodiversity (INABIO), which identified the areas that need to be prioritized based on the richness of their biodiversity.
- The Amazon Biocorridor Fund is set to begin operating this year, and will do so under the supervision of civil society organizations, seeking transparency in the management of resources.

The world’s kelp needs help — less than 2% is highly protected
- Kelp forests support a kaleidoscope of biodiversity and perform crucial ecosystem functions, yet they are in trouble globally.
- A recent journal commentary shows that just 15.9% of kelp forests are in protected areas, and only 1.6% of them are in areas with the highest levels of protection.
- The authors said they hope their findings will motivate policymakers to include kelp forests in international conservation targets, such as the “30×30” mandate to protect 30% of Earth’s land and sea by 2030.

Disease surges in Indonesia community on frontline of world energy transition
- Residential areas next to a major nickel processing site on Indonesia’s Halmahera Island recorded exponential increases in diagnoses of respiratory infections between 2020 and 2023.
- During that same period, the value of nickel exports from Indonesia, the world’s largest producer of the metal, increased from around $800 million to $6.8 billion.
- Interviews by Mongabay with residents of one village in the area indicate health conditions there have deteriorated rapidly.

Expected ban on Mexican GM corn fetches praise — and worry over imports
- A constitutional ban on transgenic corn production in Mexico is expected to be approved this month and has been lauded by the government as a measure to protect the country’s native corn varieties.
- In recent years, Mexico issued controversial presidential decrees to ban human consumption of transgenic corn and its use in dough and tortillas, claiming genetically modified varieties have adverse health impacts.
- Mexico is the largest importer of U.S. transgenic corn, and in December, an independent USMCA panel ruled the claims that consumption causes negative health impacts weren’t scientifically supported.
- Mexico’s large-scale import of U.S. genetically modified corn is considered by local experts to be a risk to small and Indigenous farmers, as they say it exposes native species of the crop to potential cross-pollination with transgenic seeds.

In Ecuador, a mountain shrub could hold the key to restoring a precious ecosystem
- The spread of agriculture, including the use of fires to clear native vegetation, have devastated Ecuador’s páramo, a high-altitude ecosystem that represents a critical source of drinking water for local communities.
- Reforestation of frailejones, a rare shrub species that helps trap humidity from the air and filter water to the ground, may prove key to restoring the ecosystem.
- A privately financed initiative in Ecuador is researching how to grow the shrub at scale in a nursery for mass replanting, but faces teething challenges in this first-of-its-kind initiative for the country.

Researchers make the case for shift from economic growth to human well-being within planetary limits
- New research concludes that humanity would benefit more if it aims for ecological sustainability and stays within the limits of what Earth can provide, rather than pursuing relentless growth.
- The success of capitalism depends on the push for growth, which requires the use of resources and energy, and comes at the cost of ecological damage.
- Economists have proposed alternatives that focus on staying within a set of planetary boundaries that define the safe operating space for humanity.
- The review, published in the journal Lancet Planetary Health, draws on more than 200 resources from the scientific literature.

Scientists are tracking global wildlife’s contributions to humanity
- New research assesses in detail the contributions of wildlife to people.
- Humanity relies on an array of ecosystem services for well-being and survival, but the provision of these services rely not just on vegetation but also the wild animals that inhabit the same ecosystems.
- They found that vertebrate wildlife on land and in freshwater and marine environments support 12 of the 18 categories of nature’s contributions to people set forth by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.
- The authors say that accounting for wildlife along with measures of ecosystems such as vegetation cover will provide a more complete picture of their health and help guide decision-making aiming to ensure that those ecosystems continue to provide critical services to people.

Coal gasification, an old technology, is quietly expanding across Asia
- Several of Asia’s biggest economies are promoting coal gasification as a viable part of their clean energy transition, arguing that turning coal into synthetic gas yields a cleaner fuel and reduces dependence on imports of natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas.
- But activists and experts point out that gasified coal is still a highly polluting fossil fuel, and that relying on it prolongs coal mining, which has long been linked to environmental and human rights violations.
- In China, coal gasification to replace industrial petrochemicals usually produced from oil and natural gas grew by 18% in 2023, consuming more than 340 million metric tons of coal a year.
- However, cost concerns may slow the push elsewhere: investors have jumped ship from Indonesia’s inaugural gasification project, while the tab for a gas refit of a coal-fired power plant in Japan has grown so big that experts question its feasibility.

Cameroon aims to double cacao, coffee production, yet also save forests
- The Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) and the Cameroon government have signed a $60 million agreement they say will fund the development of cacao and coffee production, as well as protect the country’s forests.
- The fund will support projects aimed at sustainably raising production from existing agricultural land, rather than expanding into forested areas.
- Cameroonian forestry expert Ghislain Fomou says it’s unclear if cacao and coffee production can be increased without causing more deforestation.

Bangladesh must move from ‘fast fashion’ to ‘defashion’ to improve human & ecological wellbeing (commentary)
- The rise of ready-made garment (aka ‘fast fashion’) factories in the Bangladeshi cities of Savar and Gazipur near Dhaka completely transformed the natural ecosystem and waterways to produce wealth and jobs, but also misery and poverty at their peripheries, a new op-ed argues.
- A pivot away from ‘fast fashion’ toward previously cherished and traditional dress systems that have been erased by global tastes — which is called ‘defashion’ — should begin with the reclamation of garment workers’ environment and traditional skills.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Rainforest Outlook 2025: Storylines to watch as the year unfolds
- As 2025 begins, the future of the world’s tropical forests hangs in the balance, shaped by a confluence of political, economic, and environmental forces.
- From the Amazon to Southeast Asia and the Congo Basin, these ecosystems play a critical role in stabilizing the planet’s climate, preserving biodiversity, and supporting millions of livelihoods. Yet, they face unrelenting threats from deforestation, climate change, and resource exploitation.
- This year promises pivotal developments that could redefine their trajectory, testing the resilience of conservation mechanisms and the resolve of global actors to prioritize sustainability.
- The stakes have never been higher for the survival of these irreplaceable landscapes.

Farmers cleave to sago as mining industry digs deeper in Indonesia’s Maluku
- Many farmers on the coast of East Halmahera district in Indonesia’s Maluku region continue to rely on processing flour from sago trees as a food staple, rather than the ubiquitous white rice consumed by most families in the world’s fourth-most populous country.
- However, expansion of nickel and other mining concessions in the Maluku region threatens much of this traditional foodstuff, a trend Mongabay has documented extensively previously in the eastern Papua region.
- Lily Ishak, the dean of the agriculture faculty at North Maluku’s Khairun University, believes the history of traditional sago consumption could be erased within a century if the government does not expand protection efforts.

River dredging in Bangladesh: Investigation shows government claims don’t add up
- A large part of Bangladesh, the country with the highest number of rivers, is a delta formed by sediments carried down by rivers from the Himalayan region. The population’s most significant livelihoods — agriculture, navigation and inland fisheries — depend on these waters.
- These rivers carry about 2.4 billion tons of sediment annually, including sand, clay and silt, a large portion of which needs to be cleared by dredging for navigability.
- As per a 2017 notice by Bangladesh’s water transport authority, the country restored around 547 kilometers (340 miles) of waterways between 2009 and 2017 to the county’s river system. The authority’s 2022-23 annual report says that between 2010 and 2023, the volume of 3,700 km (2,300 mi) of waterways increased.
- However, Mongabay found the authority’s claims of restoring waterways on this large scale is only on papers, as many of the rivers that are recorded as dredged are still not navigable.

What’s the TFFF? A forest finance tool ‘like no other’ shows potential
In 2023, at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, the Brazilian government proposed a new funding mechanism to help tropical nations keep their forests standing. They called it the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), and its incentive is relatively simple: using satellite monitoring in participating nations to determine which ones have preserved their forests, and […]
Researchers propose a ‘circular economy’ solution to housing affordability against climate change
A global housing affordability crisis is underway, so when the Center for Demographics and Policy at Chapman University in the U.S. released a report this year highlighting the “disastrous” state of housing affordability for 94 markets — where median home prices far exceed median wages by many times, making housing much more expensive for the […]
Photos: The lives and forests bound to Indonesia’s nickel dreams
- Many lives are intertwined with nickel mining on Indonesia’s Halmahera Island: Indigenous peoples, mining employees, smelter workers, fishers, farmers, and health care workers.
- Indonesia, the world’s largest supplier of nickel, is on a quest for an industrial economic boom linked to the mineral, which is in high demand to make electric vehicle batteries.
- Indigenous people on Halmahera say they worry for their forests and survival of isolated tribal members, while workers at a sprawling industrial park withstand tough working conditions in a bid to materially improve their lives.
- Nickel mining in the region has led to the deforestation of 5,331 hectares (13,173 acres) of tropical forest that held 2.04 million metric tons of greenhouse gases.

As climate change upends Ethiopia’s pastoral wisdom, adaptations can help
- In the face of climate change, pastoral and agropastoral communities in eastern Ethiopia remain at the receiving end of worsening droughts and climate shocks that have taken a toll on animal rearing and traditional livelihoods.
- For generations, pastoralists and agropastoralists across the country have used traditional knowledge and weather forecasting for preparedness and drought conditions.
- But these techniques are no longer as effective in the face of frequent unpredictable dry spells and population pressures on pasture.
- Researchers suggest combining this traditional knowledge with innovative strategies to help pastoralists gather real-time data on water conditions that can be key to drought adaptation in the region.

Cities are climate solution leaders: Interview with Vancouver’s Gregor Robertson
- 2024 will likely be the hottest year on record, surpassing the heat record set in 2023. The resulting extreme heat waves, floods, droughts and wildfires took a terrible toll in death, global suffering and economic loss.
- The biggest climate change impacts have by far been in the world’s cities. And the world’s cities have responded proactively, becoming climate solution leaders, even as national governments have dragged their feet for nearly three decades.
- If nations and investment banks offered billions in financing to boost climate work now underway in cities, that effort could then be vastly scaled up, said Gregor Robertson, former mayor of Vancouver, Canada, and a special envoy to the Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships. This is an exclusive Mongabay interview.

As nations develop circular economy plans, Finland’s top expert shares how they lead the way
In 2016, Finland became the first nation to design a circular economy roadmap, and has set specific goals to reach “maximum circularity” by 2035. While the nation has made great progress, significant challenges remain. For this second episode of a new series of the Mongabay Explores podcast all about the circular economy — the effort […]
Fixing EVs’ ecological and social problems needs circularity and transport redesign
Decarbonizing transportation systems generally involves replacing traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) cars with electric vehicles (EVs). But any conversation about decarbonizing transport that only talks about cars is way too narrow, says Jessika Richter, associate senior lecturer at Lund University in Sweden, who researches policy related to circular economies and the technologies associated with them. […]
COP16: ‘A fund unlike any other’ will pay tropical nations to save forests
- For years now, the world’s wealthiest nations have pledged billions to tropical nations to help them afford to conserve their native forests — an effort that benefits the entire world, especially for the carbon storage those tropical forests provide, as the climate crisis deepens.
- But those investment promises by donors have again and again failed to fully materialize. Today, the total funding shortfall for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals is in the trillions of dollars.
- This week, a new funding mechanism which is about to launch was greeted with great fanfare at the COP16 biodiversity summit in Colombia. TFFF, the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, is designed to be “a fund unlike any other.”
- The fund’s innovative design is structured to deliver $4 billion year-after-year to tropical nations to incentivize those countries to keep their native forests standing. The fund’s manager will be independent of governments and investors, and may involve Indigenous groups and local communities to help manage intact tropical forests

In Costa Rica, sustainable tourism is no longer enough for conservation
- Following bold policies that promoted reforestation and private conservation in the early 1980s and 1990s, Costa Rica succeeded in significantly increasing its forest cover, which also boosted its nature-based tourism industry.
- But the rise of mass tourism, including cruise ships, are starting to bring in environmental damage, warn the early promoters of sustainable tourism, as the industry’s value is estimated to more than triple by 2032.
- The experts recommend shifting from pursuing sustainability to a regenerative approach, integrating local communities in tourism supply chains, and redirecting profits from mass tourism to private conservation.

Combined effects of human activities increase risk to ecosystem services
- A global analysis finds that exposure to multiple human-caused stressors is reducing the ability of ecosystems to provide ecosystem services. However, precisely how these myriad human-induced environmental changes interact to disrupt ecosystems and alter these vital services is poorly understood.
- Researchers analyzed more than 1,000 experiments that measured the response of ecosystems to one, two or three human-caused environmental stressors. The scientists found that the ability of ecosystems to maintain their current function declines as the number of stressors they are exposed to increases.
- The scientists also analyzed data from a long-term experiment on the effect of four simultaneous environmental stressors on plant productivity. This single study showed that ecosystem services’ resistance to change gradually declines with long-term exposure to multiple environmental stressors.
- The new study sheds light on a crucial unanswered environmental science question: How do interactions between multiple planetary boundary transgressions accelerate the collapse of key Earth system processes that keep the planet habitable?

Drought & climate change force Ethiopia pastoralists to go job hunting
- A severe drought, worsened by climate change, is driving pastoralists in Ethiopia’s Somali region to abandon traditional herding lifestyles in favor of urban labor, leading to significant shifts in their livelihoods.
- Many pastoralists are forced to seek alternative livelihoods in farming, construction and trade, which require new skills and adaptation to urban life.
- Former pastoralists express emotional ties to their traditional way of life and struggle with the demands of new jobs, reflecting the broader impacts of climate change on their identities and futures.
- A land and agriculture expert says nature-based solutions provide an opportunity to help pastoralists adapt to droughts, while government programs are focused on technical support and helping pastoralists achieve alternative livelihoods.

Indigenous perspectives and a fossil fuel phaseout treaty featured at Climate Week
The Mongabay Newscast traveled to Climate Week in New York City in September to document the perspectives of conservation NGOs, activists and policymakers hailing from Asia to African and the Amazon. On this episode, we share an array of views on the myriad topics discussed there, like improving conservation finance, an effort to popularize a […]
The Amazon is ablaze again. What it means for us (commentary)
- The Amazon rainforest, devastated by over 70,000 wildfires in 2019, is once again ablaze, threatening even greater destruction of wildlife, human health, and ecosystems.
- Climate change is now a tangible global threat, with rising sea levels and extreme heat affecting entire regions, while indigenous communities, like the Kogi in Colombia, have long warned of these environmental dangers, argues Mark J. Plotkin, an ethnobotanist who co-founded the Amazon Conservation Team.
- The Amazon, which stores one-fifth of the world’s terrestrial carbon, plays a crucial role in regulating global climate, but continued deforestation risks releasing this carbon and disrupting weather patterns far beyond the region.
- This text is a commentary and does not necessarily represent the views of Mongabay.

Ugandan oil project linked with massive human rights abuses: Report
The Kingfisher oil project in Uganda operated by a Chinese company has resulted in numerous human rights violations, including forced evictions, inadequate compensation, threats, violence and loss of livelihoods, a new report says. Climate Rights International (CRI), a U.S.-based nonprofit, published the report on Sept. 2. “Our findings substantiate that this project is not for […]
Ecotourism offers new hopes for Bhutanese youth — and local environments
- In Bhutan, local communities are increasingly turning to ecotourism as a way to both revive their economies — and help protect the surrounding environment and endangered species.
- Roughly half of Bhutan’s population is under 25; ecotourism is offering a potentially viable future for the younger generations as well as women.
- However, the increase in visitors brings added challenges of waste management, particularly with plastics, which often are burned in fires that release toxic chemicals; an increase in flooding is also an issue for ecotourism businesses.

‘Senseless’ U.S. trinket trade threatens distinctive Asian bat, study shows
- A new study reveals that small bats from Asia are increasingly being taken from the wild and killed to supply a burgeoning trade in bat-themed ornaments, a significant portion of which is driven by sellers and buyers in the U.S.
- At particular risk is a striking orange-and-black species called the painted woolly bat, which accounted for more than one-quarter of the online trade listings.
- Small bats have been shown to provide crucial pest-control, pollination and nutrient-cycling services in the forest ecosystems in which they live.
- The researchers urge government agencies in painted woolly bat range countries as well as major consumer markets, such as the U.S., to better control the trade by stepping up legal protections.

Colombia’s coca substitution program failing to help farmers or slow deforestation
- Colombia’s PNIS program, launched after the 2016 peace deal to offer coca growers alternative livelihoods in exchange for eradicating their crops, is failing to achieve its goals due to design, implementation and security issues.
- Many coca leaf growers and pickers who voluntarily committed to the program said that despite eradicating their crops, they haven’t received the agreed technical or financial support from the government.
- As a result, some have found themselves in a worse socioeconomic situation than before, and many have had to turn to illegal mining to survive.
- Coca production has actually increased in Colombia since the start of the program, as has deforestation in and around areas with PNIS agreements, leading some experts to conclude the program has done more harm than good.

‘Polycrisis’ threatens planetary health; UN calls for innovative solutions
- Rapidly converging environmental, technological and social changes at the global level indicate the world has entered a “polycrisis,” according to a new U.N. Environmental Programme (UNEP) report. The polycrisis has major implications for Earth’s climate, biodiversity, pollution and health, according to the authors.
- Eight major shifts — including competition for natural resources, the rapid advance of new technologies such as AI, mass forced displacement and growing inequalities — are overlapping and synchronizing, intensifying the polycrisis.
- The U.N. report also identifies 18 “signals of change” on the near horizon that need to be monitored closely, many of which could cause major disruptions that would impact planetary health.
- These looming issues include new infectious diseases linked to climate change, deployment of climate-altering geoengineering technologies and an increase in “uninhabitable places.” The report underlines the need for monitoring, rapid response and inclusive decision-making to deploy a range of innovative solutions.

Raw materials become high-value bioeconomy goods at an Amazon science park
- Ahead of hosting 2025’s COP30 climate summit, Belém is betting on the development of products such as honey-based spirits, digital glasses from local wood and jambu-infused medicine at a local tech park.
- The Guamá Science and Technology Park (PCT), operating since 2010 and the first of its kind in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest, uses technology to transform forest-based resources into high-value products.
- It’s a step toward building a sustainable and thriving billion-dollar bioeconomy that provides local populations with alternatives to deforestation and increases the appeal of sustainably harvesting the region’s resources.
- Future plans include expanding the park for further innovation and to build more science and technology parks in the Amazon as well as fostering networks with other Pan Amazonian countries with similar hubs such as Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.

In Nepal, a cable car in a sacred forest sparks swift, and controversial, direct action
- In Nepal, a recent push to build cable cars to boost tourism in natural beauty spots carries significant environmental costs.
- A controversial cable car project has been proposed in Mukkumlung, far-eastern Nepal, a site revered by the Indigenous Yakthung (Limbu) community.
- After thousands of trees were felled by contractors to begin the construction in mid-May, Indigenous protesters organized a total shutdown of services in the town of Phungling and closed the major transport corridors in the region.
- Their efforts resulted in a temporary stalling of the construction process, but the project is unlikely to be postponed indefinitely.

Time for a copal comeback? The natural resin could boost Amazon’s economy
- Copal resin, also known as rosin or jutaicica, historically was a relevant source of income for river and traditional communities in the surroundings of Santarém, in the Brazilian Pará state.
- In the 1980s, however, its use as a varnish was substituted by a petroleum-based solution.
- Researchers say the natural resin could be part of the communities’ sustainable economy again, especially by adding value to Amazon timber products.

Conservation pays and everyone’s benefitting from it (commentary)
- In this commentary, Diego Vincenzi, current chief of staff for the Minister of Environment and Energy in Costa Rica, highlights how Costa Rica halted deforestation, achieved 57% forest cover after reaching a low of 21% in the 1980s, and protected 25% of its land while becoming the top per capita agricultural exporter in Latin America..
- Costa Rica’s success stems from a shift in the 1990s towards greener environmental legislation, introducing the Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) scheme funded by a fossil fuel tax, which compensates landowners for forest conservation and now includes untitled lands, benefiting native populations.
- FONAFIFO, the institution managing PES, is expanding the program to cover 182,000 hectares annually and introducing biodiversity certificates for estates, aiming to broaden conservation efforts to include mangrove ecosystems, linking land and water for a more sustainable environment.
- This is a commentary and does not necessarily reflect the views of Mongabay.

Java farmers vow to live under own steam as geothermal project falters
- A major renewable energy project in Indonesia’s Banten province has yet to be developed more than 15 years since the area was zoned for geothermal energy.
- At issue is opposition from local farming communities, who see threats to their livelihood and worry about contamination of water sources.
- Indonesia has the world’s largest geothermal energy potential, but a complexity of factors has weighed on development of the sector, including community objections to land conversion.

Elon Musk could avert global species extinction with only a portion of his wealth
- A new study has pinpointed the most crucial areas around the world for protecting Earth’s rarest and most endangered species, the vast majority of which are found in tropical and subtropical moist forests.
- Just five countries — the Philippines, Brazil, Indonesia, Madagascar and Colombia — contain 59% of all identified sites globally.
- Only 7% of land protected over the past five years overlapped with these critical areas for rare species, suggesting conservation efforts could be better targeted to protect biodiversity.
- Protecting the majority of species would cost approximately $34 billion per year — 0.03% of global GDP and less than 2% of environmentally harmful subsidies provided by governments annually (such as those to fossil fuel industries), or around 16% of Elon Musk’s current net worth.

To conserve large landscapes like the Florida Wildlife Corridor, payments for ecosystem services could be key (commentary)
- Florida has among the fastest-growing state populations of any U.S. state, averaging 1,000 new residents daily which drives the development of natural ecosystems, timberlands, farms, and ranches, reducing habitats for wildlife and open spaces for people to enjoy.
- The Florida Wildlife Corridor aims to protect a continuous, 18-million-acre tract of land spanning the length of the state–from Alabama to the Everglades–to keep 50% of the state undeveloped and provide a much needed corridor for wildlife to move north, south, east or west.
- Because there may not be enough public money to acquire or put easements on all remaining unprotected land within the corridor, payments for ecosystem services agreements–which allow public or private interests to pay landowners for clearly defined ecosystem services like wildlife habitat or water catchment–may become an important component of financing the project, a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Activists decry latest arrests of East African oil pipeline opponents
- On June 2, police arrested four villagers in a northwestern district of Tanzania, along the route of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline.
- The men had all spoken out against the pipeline at a May 25 event organized by civil society groups from Uganda and Tanzania, who say the arrests are part of a pattern of harassment of the project’s opponents.
- Activists and other people affected by the pipeline have been arrested in the past, then released without charge, but sometimes compelled to report regularly to the police.
- The villagers arrested were detained overnight without explanation, and then released without being charged with any crime.

As Wall Street assigns a dollar value to nature, Indigenous economics charts different path
- Last year, the New York Stock Exchange proposed a new nature-based asset class which put a price tag on global nature of 5,000 trillion U.S. dollars.
- Though the proposal was withdrawn in January to the relief of many, Indigenous economist Rebecca Adamson argues that an attempt to financialize nature like this — which doesn’t account for the full intrinsic value of ecosystems, and further incentivizes destruction of nature for profit — will likely be revived in the future.
- On this episode of Mongabay's podcast, Adamson speaks with co-host Rachel Donald about Indigenous economic principles based on sustainable usage and respect for nature, rather than unmitigated exploitation of it for profit.
- "The most simple thing would be to fit your economy into a living, breathing, natural physics law framework. And if you look at Indigenous economies, they really talk about balance and harmony, and those aren't quaint customs. Those are design principles," she says.

NZ funding helps Indigenous farmers in Indonesia protect forests, boost incomes
- Two Indigenous villages in Indonesian Borneo have received initial funding of nearly $15,000 from the New Zealand government to improve their livelihoods while protecting their ancestral forests.
- Residents of the Dayak villages of Setawar and Gunam mostly grow oil palms, but also still rely on their ancestral forests for making medicinal herbs, producing handicrafts and carrying out traditional rituals.
- The funding, channeled through the Farmers For Forest Protection Foundation (4F), will go toward programs such as training and deployment of forest guards, forest management support, and implementation of good agricultural practices.

UK’s Drax targets California forests for two major wood pellet plants
- Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR), a California state-funded nonprofit focused on rural economic development, along with the U.K.’s Drax, a global maker of biomass for energy, have signed an agreement to move ahead on a California project to build two of the biggest wood pellet mills in the United States.
- The mills, if approved by the state, would produce 1 million tons of pellets for export annually to Japan and South Korea, where they would be burned in converted coal power plants. The pellet mills would represent a major expansion of U.S. biomass production outside the U.S. Southeast, where most pellet making has been centered.
- GSNR promotes the pellet mills as providing jobs, preventing wildfires and reducing carbon emissions. California forest advocates say that cutting trees to make pellets —partly within eight national forests — will achieve none of those goals.
- Opponents note that the U.S. pellet industry is highly automated and offers few jobs, while the mills pollute rural communities. Clear-cutting trees, which is largely the model U.S. biomass firms use, does little to prevent fires and reduces carbon storage. Pellet burning also produces more emissions than coal per unit of energy produced.

Fishing by dodgy fleets hurts economies, jobs in developing countries: Report
- A recent report gauged the economic damage done by fishing fleets with shady track records in five vulnerable countries: Ecuador, Ghana, Peru, the Philippines, and Senegal.
- It found that these fleets’ activities could be costing the five countries 0.26% of their combined GDP, leaving some 30,000 people jobless and pushing around 142,000 deeper into poverty.
- “The report emphasizes that the uncontrolled growth in global fishing has led to overfishing, stressing fish stocks and impacting communities and the oceans’ well-being,” one of the authors told Mongabay.

Cross-border Indigenous efforts in Peru & Brazil aim to protect isolated groups
- Indigenous organizations in Peru and Brazil are joining forces to push their respective governments to safeguard the Yavarí-Tapiche Territorial Corridor, which covers 16 million hectares (39.5 million acres) across both countries.
- The cross-border initiative aims to protect the ancestral territories of Indigenous peoples in isolation and initial contact who travel freely across both borders and are threatened by those who engage in illegal activity in or near their territories.
- The Indigenous organizations plan to create a commission, made up of groups from both sides of the border, to exchange knowledge and define cross-border Indigenous policies for the protection of isolated peoples, such as measures to prevent territorial invasions and collaborate on health matters.

Research links deforestation in Cambodia to stunting in kids, anemia in women
- An analysis of public health data in Cambodia has found increased rates of malnutrition among children born in areas where deforestation had recently occurred.
- It also found that pregnant women in these areas were more likely to suffer from anemia, a condition that often correlates with incidences of malaria.
- Cambodia has lost nearly 30% of its forest cover this century, while more than 30% of its children under 5 have stunted growth due to malnutrition.
- The study illustrates how deforestation and the ecological disruptions it causes can compound previously existing rural health issues.

Adventure tours with tigers? Nepal’s proposed policy changes raise alarm
- Nepal’s government is proposing zoning changes to allow adventure tourism activities such as canyoning, mountain biking and motorboating inside protected areas.
- The proposed changes are part of a wider push, which includes allowing the operation of hotels and cable cars inside protected areas, to commercialize the country’s globally acclaimed conservation sector.
- Critics argue that the proposed changes could potentially jeopardize hard-won achievements in biodiversity preservation and land restoration.

Cable car proposal is Nepal’s latest plan to commercialize national parks
- Nepal’s Ministry of Forest and Environment is considering allowing the construction of ropeways to carry cable cars within protected areas, according to a draft regulation seen by Mongabay.
- The proposed regulation aims to permit ropeway construction if it facilitates transportation to religious or tourist sites, provided no alternative transport options exist or if cable cars are deemed more environmentally friendly.
- The draft regulation suggests criteria for ropeway construction, including locating base or final stations outside protected areas and minimal infrastructure within, along with proposed fees based on the length of the ropeway.
- The plan comes on the heels of similar moves to open up Nepal’s protected areas to hydropower development and to hotels.

Expediting environmental policy: Interview with Bangladesh minister Saber Hossain Chowdhury
- Dhaka is considered to have some of the poorest air quality of any city in the world, the result of industrial-scale coal- and wood-burning brick kilns, diesel-powered vehicles, and ongoing construction work.
- At the same time, sea-level rise, shrimp cultivation and reduced water flow in its major rivers leave the southwestern part of the country barren for nearly half of the year due to saltwater intrusion.
- Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Bangladesh’s newly appointed minister of environment, forest and climate change, has declared a 100-day baseline program to identify the various environmental issues in the country and possible solutions to overcome them.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Chowdhury emphasizes the need for strong coordination across government, political will and leadership, and increased awareness from the public to protect the environment and meet the country’s clean energy goals.

Nepal mulls policy shift to allow hotels back into tiger strongholds
- Nepal’s Ministry of Forest and Environment is working new regulations to permit hotels to operate within national parks like Chitwan, a draft of the document seen by Mongabay suggests.
- The decision follows the closure of seven hotels in Chitwan National Park in 2009 due to ecological concerns and alleged involvement in poaching, with the last of them shutting down in 2012.
- Despite opposition from conservationists and local communities, the government has shown interest in allowing commercial activities, including large-scale hydropower plants, within national parks, raising concerns about environmental degradation.

Fertilizer management could reduce ammonia pollution from 3 staple crops: Study
- Nitrogen fertilizers are applied to crops to increase yield, but some of that nitrogen is lost to the atmosphere in the form of ammonia. Ammonia is a major air pollutant linked to numerous health issues, including asthma, lung cancer and cardiovascular disease.
- Using published agricultural and environmental data, researchers employed machine learning to quantify global ammonia emissions from rice, wheat and corn cultivation at 10-kilometer resolution. This added up to a global estimate of 4.3 billion kilograms (9.5 billion pounds) of ammonia emitted from the three staple crops in 2018.
- The model also revealed that optimizing fertilizer management to suit local conditions could achieve a 38% reduction in global ammonia emissions from the three crops. Optimal fertilizer management and the associated emissions reductions depended on local climate and soil characteristics.
- The model, which utilized machine learning, found that under current fertilizer management practices, climate change will increase ammonia emissions from rice, wheat and corn by up to 15.8% by 2100. But this increase could be entirely offset by optimizing fertilizer management and adapting it to local conditions.

Where sea otters play, salt marshes stay, new study shows
- A new study has found that sea otters are helping to slow down salt marsh erosion in Elkhorn Slough in California by eating burrowing crabs.
- Drawing on a range of data sources, which included surveys and field experiments, the authors found that in places where sea otters were abundant, the erosion of the salt marsh slowed by as much as 80-90% over the course of the study.
- Salt marshes worldwide are disappearing due to climate change-driven factors such as rising sea levels and other human pressures.

From exporting coral to restoring reefs, a Madagascar startup rethinks business
- After her father died, Jeimila Donty took over her family’s coral export business and shifted its focus to conservation, creating Koraï.
- Donty is part of a young “pro-climate” generation that’s keen to incorporate the environment into business models.
- Koraï plants corals in Madagascan waters on behalf of other companies as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitments.
- The business is ambitious and faces challenges, such as recruiting workers and a lack of political support.

‘Healthy humans without a healthy planet is a logical fallacy’: Interview with Dr. Sakib Burza
- Brought up watching nature’s grandeur in Indian Kashmir, Dr. Sakib Burza’s early inspiration in medicine began at home before he went on to work with Indigenous and local communities in tropical forest regions.
- Having worked in communities responding to the impacts of droughts and climate shocks, he says improved planetary health is crucial for better human health, and that health problems are often the symptoms of climate change or environmental problems.
- At Health In Harmony, he leads medical projects with rainforest communities through the concept of radical listening and supporting their medical needs and livelihoods.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Dr. Burza lays out his argument for how and why the health of people and the planet are connected, and actions that can improve the state of both.

Labor abuse and work accidents on plantations of Cameroon’s largest sugar producer
- Industrial agriculture companies, considered drivers of economic growth in Cameroon, are also a source of conflict for workers and farmers following an increase in workplace accidents and the growing impact this industry has on the environment.
- With increasing accidents over the years, the industrial agriculture sector alone accounted for 26.4% of work-related accidents recorded in Cameroon in 2020, according to an estimate by the Cameroonian institution overseeing social protection, the CNPS.
- According to estimates from the seasonal workers’ union, the Cameroon Sugar Corporation (SOSUCAM), which holds a monopoly on sugar production in the country, is responsible for about a hundred accidents per year, some leading to death, on its plantations and in its factories.
- Local NGOs also accuse the company of polluting rivers and soil as well as destroying village plantations. Above all, the company is notorious for its glaring violations in applying Cameroonian labor, social security, and environmental protection legislation.

Cambodia’s Indigenous communities renounce communal land titles for microloans
- Indigenous rural communities in northeastern Cambodia are struggling under debts that have ballooned from modest microloans with high interest rates.
- Microlending as a means of increasing communities’ access to finance is strongly supported by the World Bank, but runs counter to efforts to grant communal land ownership of homes, farmlands and sacred forests — another World Bank initiative.
- Entire villages have opted out of the communal land titling program because it would prevent them from using this land as collateral for microloans and selling land to outsiders, often to repay debt.
- This project was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Journalism Fund.

Mangrove crab sustainability is vital for fishers in Indonesia’s Aru Islands
- Mud crab fishing in Lorang village, Aru Islands, has been a vital livelihood since 2014, but a recent survey suggests signs of depletion, raising concerns among local fishers.
- The boom in crab fisheries began after a government moratorium on various commodities.
- Despite high economic value, a rapid assessment by Indonesian researchers reveals a decline in mud crab abundance, possibly due to overfishing exceeding natural regeneration.
- To address this, there’s a call for conservation efforts, including a wildlife protection reserve and agreements with neighboring villages to establish a “crab bank” for sustainable crab populations.

Can ‘degrowth’ solve our ecological, social & economic problems?
- Economist Tim Parrique speaks with co-host Rachel Donald on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast about the economic model known as “degrowth.”
- According to the Lund University researcher, degrowth originated in France in 2002 to address the current “limitless growth” economic model that stretches the ecological limits of the planet — the so-called Planetary Boundaries — unsustainably.
- The degrowth concept seeks to provide sustainable development pathways for low- and middle-income countries while stabilizing quality of life in wealthy nations, via producing and consuming less in the latter.
- Recent research indicates that the United States wastes 65% of its economic output on things that do not provide essential or quality-of-life needs, bolstering the argument that the economy could be strongly scaled back to decrease its impact on the environment.

Lessons from Finland’s attempt to transition to a circular economy
- Eight years ago, Finland became the first country to adopt a national circular economy road map to reduce the material footprint of its national economy.
- But implementing the actions called for ahead of the 2035 deadline remains a huge challenge, experts say, as the country has one of the largest material consumption footprints per capita in Europe.
- Since its inception, the road map has driven innovation at multiple levels, including in governments, research institutions and companies, to implement circular solutions; yet these efforts have not led to a decline in material usage.
- Finland’s circular economy venture provides valuable lessons, experts say, notably the importance of widespread inclusion of stakeholders and collaboration, innovation, education, and science-based target setting.

Sanctioned timber baron wins new mining concessions in Cambodia’s Prey Lang
- A freeze announced late last year on new mining operations in Cambodia’s Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary comes with a massive loophole that benefits one of the country’s highest-profile deforesters.
- Try Pheap, a powerful tycoon and adviser to the previous prime minister, controls a company that was last year granted 28,000 hectares (69,000 acres) inside the sanctuary to mine iron ore.
- The name Try Pheap is synonymous with illegal logging in Cambodia, including the trafficking of high-value Siamese rosewood trees that drove the species almost to extinction in the country.
- While Try Pheap was hit by U.S. sanctions in 2019, his company that holds the mining concessions in Prey Lang, Global Green, isn’t on the sanctions list and appears to be ramping up its operations.

Agricultural nitrogen pollution is global threat, but circular solutions await
- Nitrogen is an essential element for living organisms, needed to build DNA, proteins and chlorophyll. Although nitrogen makes up nearly 80% of the air we breathe, it’s availability to plants and animals is extremely limited. As a result, nitrogen has been a limiting factor in crop growth since the dawn of agriculture,
- Humanity shattered those limits with the Haber-Bosch process to make ammonia and synthetic fertilizers, driven by fossil fuels, and now used in vast amounts on crops. But that nitrogen influx has disrupted Earth’s natural nitrogen cycle. Today, nitrogen pollution is causing overshoot of several planetary boundaries.
- Nitrates pollute waterways, causing eutrophication. Nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas and an ozone-depleting substance. Ammonia is a cause of air pollution, with severe health impacts. Nitrogen is also used to produce potentially long-lived synthetic substances that themselves can become pollutants.
- Better agricultural management and technology could cut a third or more of nitrogen pollution. Circular economy solutions include better fertilizer efficiency, enhanced natural nitrogen fixation, and recovery and reuse of wasted nitrogen. Societal changes are also needed, including a shift in human diet away from meat.

Rolling towards circularity? Tracking the trace of tires
- Ever since they were invented, tires have changed the way we live; today, we produce almost 2.5 billion tires annually.
- However, the way we make, use and discard tires has left a trail of destruction that has polluted our water, land and air.
- Consumed is a video series by Mongabay that explores the environmental impacts of products we use in our daily lives.
- In the latest episode of the series, we take a look at how tires impact our planet

How independent journalism uncovered a massive crime against people and planet
- By the time it uncovered the massive 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, the independent media outlet Sarawak Report had built a solid reputation upon years of reporting about how corruption abets deforestation in Borneo.
- No longer able to enter Malaysia due to the political shakeup caused by the 1MDB exposé and her related reporting, the outlet’s founder, Clare Rewcastle Brown, speaks with Mongabay’s podcast about what inspires her reporting, including having been born in Malaysian Borneo.
- Podcast co-host Rachel Donald discusses with Rewcastle Brown — who was recently awarded the Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani Anti-Corruption Excellence Award — how the global financial system became the repository for the billions in stolen funds, some of which ended up as luxury homes in the United States and even gifts to Hollywood celebrities, and the critical role of the press in holding people in power to account.

Bird-watching offers potential for conservation & economy in Colombia’s Guaviare
- Bird-watching has become one of the world’s fastest-growing tourist activities in recent years, and efforts are being made in Colombia, home to the highest number of species of any country in the world as of 2023, to set up new bird-watching trails in the hopes of attracting visitors from across the country and abroad.
- One study estimates that tourism activities related to bird-watching could generate 7,500 jobs and contribute $9 million to the economy.
- Catering to bird-watchers offers rural communities in Colombian departments such as Guaviare — which have long suffered from the effects of conflict and state neglect — a way to develop and grow while maintaining the forest intact.

Thailand tries nature-based water management to adapt to climate change
- With an economy largely underpinned by irrigated crops like rice, water is a crucial resource in Thailand. But as climate change exacerbates floods and droughts in the country, sustainable water management is an increasing challenge.
- Nature-based solutions that incorporate the natural processes of the country’s abundant rivers, floodplains and watershed forests are beginning to be trialed via various projects at large and small scales.
- A new report assesses the efficacy of two nature-based approaches to water management in Thailand, which represent a step away from the country’s typically top-down, hard-engineering approach and present several benefits to the environment and communities.
- However, environmental and societal tradeoffs, complex policy frameworks, and the need for greater understanding and expertise around the concept, design and implementation of nature-based approaches are barriers to their widespread implementation.

How creative & emotive communication conserved 55,000 acres of Peru’s Amazon
- Protecting the Peruvian Amazon is dangerous work, but conservationist Paul Rosolie and his nonprofit Junglekeepers team have attracted millions of dollars in funding to protect 55,000 acres of rainforest in the country’s Madre de Dios region.
- Rosolie first received international recognition via his 2014 memoir, “Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey in the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon.”
- Today, he runs both a nonprofit and an ecotourism service that employs and is co-led by local and Indigenous people.
- In this podcast episode, Rosolie reflects on his decade-plus journey to today and shares his recipe for conservation success.

Certificate of origin for Acre’s açaí is a boost for the Amazonian superfood
- The municipality of Feijó in Acre state is the first in Brazil to receive a certification of origin for its açaí berries, raising hopes that the economy centered around the fruit will grow in value.
- A success the world over, açaí is a multimillion-dollar product that has shown how developing an Amazonian bioeconomy can keep the rainforest standing.
- Local communities and experts say they hope that training, research and support for production will help to consolidate the production chain to benefit producers and grow the local economy.

Carbon credit certifier Verra updates accounting method amid growing criticism
- The world’s largest carbon credit certifier, Verra, has overhauled its methods for calculating the climate impacts of REDD projects that aim to reduce deforestation.
- REDD stands for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
- The emissions reductions from these projects can be sold on the voluntary carbon market to individuals and companies, which proponents say provides a vital stream of funding for forest conservation.
- The update changes the process for calculating deforestation baselines, which help determine how effective a project has been at reducing forest loss and keeping the carbon those trees contain out of the atmosphere.

Disturbing graves is latest violation attributed to East African oil pipeline
- Faith-based climate justice organization GreenFaith says the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), will disturb at least 2,000 graves along its 1,441-kilometer (895-mile) route from Uganda’s Lake Albert to the Tanzanian port of Tanga.
- Surveys in affected communities found numerous cases where residents said TotalEnergies, the French oil giant leading the project, had disturbed and disrespected the graves of their families and ancestors, despite their best efforts to alert the company to their presence.
- TotalEnergies says the process of identifying and relocating burial sites, and paying compensation to affected people, has been carried out in line with international standards.
- Since its inception in 2017, the EACOP project has been dogged by criticism over its environmental, social and climate change impacts.

Forest elephants are the ‘glue’ holding Congo rainforests together
- African forest elephants play a vital role in shaping the environment and composition of the Congo Basin rainforest, including the giant carbon-sequestering trees it is noted for.
- Without them, the Congo rainforest would lose carbon stocks and biodiversity, and the composition of the forest itself would change.
- Yet the full ecological value of this charismatic species — and the ecosystem impacts if it is lost — are not fully understood, so increased funding for study and conservation is needed, experts say.
- On this final episode of the Mongabay Explores the Congo Basin podcast season, Andrew Davies, assistant professor of organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University, and Fiona “Boo” Maisels, a conservation scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society, detail the unique value of forest elephants, what still remains unknown, and why urgent protection is needed.

Indonesian activist Gita Syahrani wins $3m award for work on sustainable growth
- Global philanthropy Climate Breakthrough has awarded Indonesian environmental activist Gita Syahrani $3 million in grants along with capacity-building resources to support her projects in developing alternative economic models for local governments across Indonesia.
- Gita has for many years focused on supporting district governments protect peatlands and forests while developing policies for sustainable economic growth.
- Gita said she is keen to explore and include approaches that are more mindful and spiritual in encouraging more people to be active in protecting, rehabilitating and recovering the balance between people and the environment.
- Gita is the second Indonesian awardee of Climate Breakthrough grants, following environmentalist Arief Rabik in 2019; her fellow awardee this year is Jane Fleming Kleeb of the U.S., a prominent activist against the Keystone XL pipeline.

What’s old is new again: Bioarchitects plot route to circular economy
- The modern construction industry is built on cement, with factories and public buildings, commercial space and apartment buildings, and homes fashioned out of it. But cement production is helping destabilize the climate, and has poor durability. Bioarchitects in Mexico think they have a solution.
- They’re reviving traditional clay adobe building techniques used since the 16th and 17th centuries in Mexico and the U.S. Southwest, to give birth to a new cutting-edge school of bioconstruction aimed at reducing the ecological footprint of the cement-hungry construction sector.
- Bio-buildings are built from natural materials, are long-lasting, energy-efficient, healthier, and often with better earthquake resistance. Built with local materials by locally trained workers, with their walls easily recycled at the end of a building’s life, bio-buildings can be part of a circular economy, benefiting humanity and nature.
- Bioconstruction could radically cut construction sector carbon emissions by curbing cement production. But bioconstruction faces an uphill battle against outdated building codes, and a huge, well-entrenched cement and construction industry, whose companies are often large contributors to political campaigns in Mexico and other countries.

Forest conservation ‘off-track’ to halt deforestation by 2030: New report
- The world lost 6.6 million hectares (16.3 million acres) of forest, an area larger than Sri Lanka, and deforestation rates increased by 4% in 2022, according to a report published Oct. 24 that tracks commitments to forest conservation.
- The Forest Declaration Assessment is an annual evaluation of deforestation rates against a 2018-2020 deforestation and forest degradation baseline compiled by civil society and research organizations.
- Much of the forest loss occurred in the tropics, and nearly two-thirds of it was in relatively undisturbed primary forests, while forest degradation, more than deforestation, remains a serious problem in temperate and boreal forests.
- Despite being far off the pace to achieve an end to deforestation by 2030, a goal that 145 countries pledged to pursue in 2021, more than 50 countries have cut their deforestation rates and are on track to end deforestation within their borders by the end of the century.

African NGOs seek more funds, trust, and autonomy in global partnerships
- A recent report from conservation nonprofit Maliasili scrutinizes partnerships between big international NGOs and their smaller conservation-focused partners in Africa.
- The biggest pain points in these often lopsided relationships Africa appear to be money, trust, and autonomy, the report says.
- More than half of the local organizations surveyed in Maliasili’s “Rooting for Change” report cited a lack of trust as a challenge in partnerships.
- “We want a supporting relationship rather than a dictatorial partner,” John Kamanga, co-founder and director of the Southern Rift Association of Landowners (SORALO) in Kenya, told the report authors, and “a willingness to co-design and build from our ideas.”

Beyond ‘no,’ more positive visions for conservation need communication (commentary)
- “I have become increasingly concerned that [environmentalists’] ongoing failures stem at least partially from really bad messaging,” a new op-ed states.
- “We are so focused on being against things that we keep missing an opportunity to be for something…We desperately need new climate-friendly visions for our economies and governance systems that we can all get behind, not just a laundry list of what not to do,” the Cambridge scholar continues.
- Some environmentalists are starting to push more positive communications and the development of transformative visions for conservation, such as developing “socio-bioeconomies” to replace existing economic models.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Cacao and cupuaçu emerge as Amazon’s bioeconomy showcases
- A handful of pioneering Amazonian chocolatiers are promoting keeping the rainforest standing by taking advantage of two forest products: cacao and cupuaçu.
- Selling high-end chocolate made from both of these closely related pods increases the value of the products and also allows local communities to earn higher incomes, thereby giving them an incentive not to deforest.
- Portable biofactories are also set to teach traditional communities how to make bean-to-bar premium chocolate products, helping to increase the value of the raw cacao by up to 2,000%.
- These projects are part of an emerging bioeconomy in the Amazonian region, which experts say will keep the rainforest standing while also lifting the region’s population out of poverty.

On Jakarta’s vanishing shoreline, climate change seen abetting child marriages
- Marriage before the age of 18 is classified as a form of gender-based violence by the United Nations, but is commonly practiced in low-income communities to mitigate household economic pressures.
- On Jakarta’s northern coastline, child marriage is common in fishing communities responding to inflationary pressures and declining stocks of fish in near-shore waters.
- Janah, now 23, fears she lacks the agency to break a cycle that saw her married at the age of 16.

Bangladesh apparel industry makes progress in ‘eco-friendly’ manufacturing
- According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the fashion industry is responsible for 10% of carbon emissions annually. If the current pace of greenhouse gas emissions continues, it will surge by more than 50% by 2030.
- Bangladesh, the second-largest exporter in the $45 billion ready-made garment (RMG) industry with a 7.9% of the global market share and 4.4 million employees, mostly rural women, are very cautious in limiting the environmental impacts and carbon emission through its green initiatives.
- In the last 15 years, Bangladesh has set an example of green and sustainable manufacturing by establishing numerous certified green factories.
- Since 2009, Bangladeshi apparel and textile manufacturers have established 202 “eco-friendly” factories certified by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the highest in the world.

U.N. ‘stocktake’ calls for fossil fuel phaseout to minimize temperature rise
- The U.N. climate change agency published a new report Sept. 8 confirming that while there has been progress on climate change mitigation since the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015, more needs to be done to limit the global rise in temperatures at 1.5°C (2.7°F) above pre-industrial levels.
- The report is an element of the global stocktake, a Paris Agreement-prescribed inventory of progress toward climate-related goals.
- The authors of the report called for phasing out fossil fuels and ramping up renewable energy.
- The global stocktake process will conclude at the U.N. climate conference (COP28) beginning Nov. 30 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

NASA satellites reveal restoration power of beavers
- A new partnership between NASA and researchers is measuring the impact of beavers reintroduced to landscapes in Idaho.
- Beavers are one of the world’s most powerful ecosystem engineers, building new habitats by slowing water flow and reducing flooding, while also boosting biodiversity.
- Beavers are all the more important in an age of rapid climate change, as they produce wetter and more resilient habitats, even in the face of wildfires.
- “NASA is interested in how satellite Earth observations can be used for natural resource management,” a member of the space agency’s Ecological Conservation Program tells Mongabay.

Indonesian voters want a clean energy plan, but candidates haven’t delivered
- Candidates running in Indonesia’s presidential election next year must make clear their plans for transition the country away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy, policy experts say.
- A survey shows young Indonesians, who make up the majority of potential voters, view environmental issues in general, and a just energy transition in particular, as crucial issues for a new president to tackle.
- However, none of the three hopefuls who have declared their candidacies to date have addressed these issues, with the survey reflecting a sense of pessimism among respondents.
- Indonesia, a top greenhouse gas emitter, has said it aims to hit net-zero emissions by 2060 and retire its existing fleet of coal-fired power plants, but continues to build more coal plants to serve its growing metal-processing sector.

‘In business to save the planet,’ Patagonia says people & planet should be the priority of corporations
- In the words of its founder, outdoor gear company Patagonia exists to “force government and corporations to take action in solving our environmental problems.”
- In 2022, the company made headlines when founder Yvon Chouinard announced the transfer of company ownership ($3 billion in assets and $100 million in annual profits) to a nonprofit and a trust, the dividends of which would go to environmental advocacy organizations, making “Earth the only shareholder.”
- Joining our podcast to discuss Patagonia’s 50-year legacy is environmental action and initiatives director Beth Thoren, who shares the company’s theory of change, discusses how traditional capitalism is no longer working for people or the planet, and its poignant “Not Mars” campaign.
- “If we continue to live in the world where shareholder value is the only thing that is valued, we will burn up and die,” she says.

Wild mushroom harvest helps keep trees standing in Mozambique
- For the first time, native mushroom species in Mozambique are being harvested for sale in the capital, Maputo.
- The project provides extra income for hundreds of women living next to Gilé National Park in the center of the country.
- The mushrooms grow in the miombo woodlands bordering the park that are being cleared to make way for crops like cassava.
- The commercial sale of mushrooms is helping to reduce deforestation in the densely populated buffer zone, while also benefiting local communities.

Ecuador referendum halts oil extraction in Yasuní National Park
- Millions of people participated in a nationwide referendum to determine whether crude oil should remain in the ground indefinitely at a site inside Yasuní National Park in Ecuador’s eastern Amazon.
- More than 5.2 million people voted in favor compared with 3.6 million against, solidifying protections for Indigenous communities living in voluntary isolation.
- The referendum took place alongside presidential and legislative elections as well as a referendum on halting mining in the Chocó Andino de Pichincha. That referendum received nearly 70% support from voters.

Rolling car tires into the global circular economy
- More than 1 billion car tires reach the end of their life each year, and dealing with the resulting waste is an escalating management headache the world over.
- But long before tires are thrown away, they leave behind a trail of environmental harm stretching from tropical forests, along supply chains, and to consumers. Limited rubber traceability risks deforestation, experts warn, while other research shows that tire wear releases potentially toxic microplastic pollution.
- It needn’t be this way: Circular economy solutions — reducing, reusing and recycling materials in closed loops — could offer tire pollution solutions. However, these solutions come with limitations and trade-offs.
- A tire redesign is greatly needed to increase longevity, as is the cultivation of new sources of deforestation-free rubber, and alternative end-of-life strategies that emphasis recycling of the dozens of components found in tires. But given the complex makeup of today’s tires, there won’t be one simple solution.

Protecting the Amazon requires fresh thinking, veteran ecologist argues
- An ecologist and conservation biologist with 30 years of experience living in the Amazon region, Tim Killeen wants conservationists to think outside the box when it comes to incentivizing Amazon protection.
- He likens changing the deforestation pathway of the Pan Amazon to “turning an ocean liner” in that “pressure must be applied to the rudder of state” over a long period of time to drive change.
- That change, he says, must come from taking into consideration a variety of economic factors and pressures that each state in the Amazon faces, to provide viable ideas and solutions that incentivize forest protection.
- On this episode of Mongabay’s podcast, Killeen shares some key points from the second edition of his book, A Perfect Storm in the Amazon Wilderness; what inspired him to work in conservation; his advice for up-and-coming conservationists; and what gives him hope.

Funding circularity: Investing in Asia’s circular economy business models
- As global raw material consumption soars and pollution skyrockets, the need to transition from a consumptive linear economy to a circular one — centering on reduced resource extraction and reuse and recycling to achieve zero waste — has grown more urgent. But paying for that transition poses many challenges.
- Circulate Capital is a Singapore-based investment management firm that finds and funds companies in emerging economies that are developing innovative circular economy business models.
- The company currently invests in companies in South and Southeast Asia that have come up with effective solutions to prevent plastic waste from reaching the ocean. It’s also looking to expand to Latin America.
- “It’s a whole way of creating value that decouples the extraction of resources from the environment and finding ways of making those resources more productive,” Ellen Martin, chief impact officer at Circulate Capital, told Mongabay.

Bangladesh ramps up use of recycled fabrics in ready-made garments
- Aligning with the European Union’s target to reduce the use of fresh cotton in the garment sector to reduce the environmental degradation, Bangladesh is increasing the use of recycled materials in its ready-made garment sector.
- The sector accounts for the country’s major share of export earnings, with a value of more than $27.9 billion in exports in the 2019-20 financial year.
- The country currently relies heavily on imported textile fiber; in 2019, almost half of RMG waste was pure cotton.
- Interestingly, many local companies are running recycling plants to meet the gradually increasing demand for recycled cotton fiber.

The circular economy: Sustainable solutions to solve planetary overshoot?
- The current linear production and consumption economic model — labeled by critics as “take-make-waste” — is taking a heavy global environmental toll. The intensive use of primary resources and overconsumption are closely linked to climate change, biodiversity loss, large-scale pollution and land-use change.
- Experts and advocates argue that a circular economy model — revolving around reduced material use, reuse and recycling at its simplest — offers a potential route to achieving zero waste, reversing environmental harm and increasing sustainability of products and supply chains.
- In the absence of a firm definition, many interpretations of the circular economy exist. To be sustainable, circular economy solutions should be underpinned by renewable energy sources, reduction of material extraction, reduced consumption, and the regeneration of nature, according to researchers.
- Caution is needed, warn some, as not every circular solution is sustainable. Other experts state that to achieve its goals, the circular economy must include societal level change and go far beyond simply recycling or improving supply chains. How this economic model works will also look differently for nations across the globe.

‘Mud, muck and death’: Cambodia’s plan to obstruct trawlers and revive local fishing
- On Cambodia’s coast, a local NGO is building concrete underwater structures in an effort to deter destructive illegal trawlers that kill most everything in the habitat.
- The structures also serve as artificial reefs that provide small nurseries for fish, sponges, grasses and other species.
- An ambitious government plan will erect the structures near 25 fishing communities along the country’s coastline in a bid to revive Cambodia’s nearshore marine fisheries, besieged by years of destructive illegal fishing and increasing development.
- If successful, the plan could bring an influx of funding to fishing communities hit hard by the destruction of marine habitats and loss of income that have forced many to leave in search of other work.

Why should funding Amazon forest sustainability be the world’s top priority? (commentary)
- In this opinion piece, Jonah Wittkamper, Mariana Senna, and Ricardo Politi argue that donors should urgently scale up support for the development of an Amazon bioeconomy based around protecting the world’s largest rainforest.
- Without such intervention, there is a risk of the Amazon rainforest ecosystem collapsing, a development that would destabilize regional rainfall, unleash massive carbon emissions, and drive large-scale species extinction.
- “Jumpstarting the region’s bioeconomy could create a permanent solution by shifting local financial incentives away from deforestation,” they write. “Philanthropy for Amazon bioeconomy development could only be necessary for several years. Catalytic funding could enable the economies of forest protection and regeneration to outcompete the economies of deforestation,” the op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

What can solve growing conflicts between agricultural giants and communities in Cameroon?
- Tensions between local communities and large-scale agriculture companies are running high in Cameroon and disputes over land and environmental impacts have increased over the years.
- The Cameroonian government views industrial agriculture companies as drivers of future economic development and is encouraging the sector’s development, but their establishment is marred in land issues arising from colonization.
- The government’s adopted solutions to conflicts have proved ineffective, and it is struggling to implement adequate measures to curb disputes.
- Civil society groups and organizations are calling for the reform of Cameroon’s land policy as communities turn to popular protests as a way to meet their demands.

Forests in the furnace: Cambodia’s garment sector is fueled by illegal logging
- An investigation has found factories in Cambodia’s garment sector are fueling their boilers with wood logged illegally from protected areas.
- A Mongabay team traced the network all the way from the impoverished villagers risking their lives to find increasingly scarce trees, to the traders and middlemen contending with slim margins, up to the factories with massive lots for timber supplies.
- The garment industry association denies that any of its members uses forest wood, but the informal and opaque nature of the supply chain means it’s virtually impossible to guarantee this.
- This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network where Gerald Flynn was a fellow. *Names have been changed to protect sources who said they feared reprisals from the authorities.

Agroecology schools help communities restore degraded land in Guatemala
- The transformation of ancestral lands into intensive monoculture plantations has led to the destruction of Guatemala’s native forests and traditional practices, as well as loss of livelihoods and damage to local health and the environment.
- A network of more than 40 Indigenous and local communities and farmer associations are developing agroecology schools across the country to promote the recovery of ancestral practices, educate communities on agroecology and teach them how to build their own local economies.
- Based on the traditional “campesino a campesino” (from farmer to farmer) method, the organizations says it has improved the livelihoods of 33,000 families who use only organic farming techniques and collectively protect 74,000 hectares (182,858 acres) of forest across Guatemala.

One seed at a time: Lebanese project promotes agroecology for farmer autonomy
- Lebanese organic seed farm Buzuruna Juzuruna is on a mission, part of a growing network of agroecological efforts in the country, to change conventional farming through seed sharing and communal education.
- Despite its location in the Fertile Crescent, Lebanon today relies heavily on imports to feed its population due to economic collapse, conflicts and political upheaval.
- Buzuruna Juzuruna is using multiple efforts, including free classes, festivals and even circus performances to expose local farmers to older, more ecological methods of farming.
- In its work, Buzuruna Juzuruna emulates the ecosystems it treasures, by being open-source and horizontal in design.

Big potential and immense challenges for great ape conservation in the Congo Basin, experts say
- Great apes are on track to lose 94% of their range to climate change by 2050 if humans do nothing to address the problem, according to research.
- In the great apes stronghold of the Congo Basin, national interests in natural resource exploitation, a lack of security in areas like the Albertine Rift, hunting, and the illegal wildlife trade all greatly impact populations of bonobos and mountain gorillas.
- In this episode of Mongabay Explores, Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Kirsty Graham, Terese Hart, and Sally Coxe speak with Mongabay about the threats to bonobos and mountain gorillas, the lessons learned from decades of conservation efforts, the importance of great apes for the protection of Congo Basin rainforest, and ways forward for conservation as well as livelihoods for Indigenous and local communities.

For Central America, climate bill could top hundreds of billions annually
- Climate change impacts on Central America’s forests could cost the region between $51 billion and $314 billion per year by 2100, according to a new study.
- For some of the countries in region, the loss of ecosystem services provided by forests could lead to losses equivalent to more than three times their GDP.
- This is the first time ecological and economic measurements have been assessed together for climate change impacts in Central America and could help to inform conservation activities like defining protected areas, establishing biological corridors and restoring degraded landscapes.
- While the impacts of climate change are being felt by communities in the region, breakthroughs in computing power as well as collaborations between European universities and Central American research institutions and companies is promoting increased innovation in ecosystem restoration.

Over a third of conflicts over development projects affect Indigenous people: Study
- Roughly one-third of all environmental conflicts documented in an online crowd-sourced atlas affect Indigenous peoples, researchers have found.
- The mining of transition minerals has been linked to hundreds of allegations of abuse with multi-faceted impacts on the environment and communities, according to a new report.
- Some Indigenous organizations are calling for Indigenous rights and free, prior and informed consent to be central to the transition to a green economy in light of the global rush to secure clean energy minerals.

Strengthening crops with insect exoskeletons? Study says yes, by way of the soil
- Supplementing soil with insects’ cast-off outer skin after a molt can help increase plant biomass, the number of flowers, pollinator attraction, seed production, and even resilience to insect herbivore attacks, according to researchers.
- Farmers are already using insects, in particular the black soldier fly, for livestock feed and waste reduction, and this new use could help the transition to a more sustainable and circular agricultural system, scientists say.
- Along with further investments in research and development, a higher uptake in insect farming practices, by both small and industrial farmers, will improve for boosting crop productivity within circular agriculture.

For urban poor in Global South, nature-based solutions have always been a way to get by
- Nature-based solutions are increasingly being seen as a way of providing societal benefits and conserving biodiversity.
- Informal settlements, which lack necessary infrastructure and are often at the forefront of climate change and other natural disasters, can benefit from nature-based solutions and improve residents’ quality of life.
- A recent study explored the different forms of nature-based solutions in practice in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, their benefits and disadvantages, and identifies factors that make them successful.
- While the term “nature-based solutions” has recently been popularized in the Global North, researchers note that communities in many parts of the world have engaged in these practices for centuries.

The state of the Amazon: Chapter 1 of “A Perfect Storm”
- Mongabay has begun publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Author Timothy J. Killeen is an academic and expert who, since the 1980s, has studied the rainforests of Brazil and Bolivia, where he lived for more than 35 years.
- Chronicling the efforts of nine Amazonian countries to curb deforestation, this edition provides an overview of the topics most relevant to the conservation of the region’s biodiversity, ecosystem services and Indigenous cultures, as well as a description of the conventional and sustainable development models that are vying for space within the regional economy.
- Click the “Perfect Storm in the Amazon” link atop this page to see chapters 1-13 as they are published during 2023.

Ecuador to boost protection of Galápagos in biggest debt-for-nature deal ever
- Ecuador has launched a debt-for-nature deal that will wipe out some $1 billion in interest payments in exchange for boosting its protection of the waters around the Galápagos Islands.
- Much of the funding will focus on managing the newly established Hermandad Marine Reserve, the existing Galápagos Marine Reserve, and sustainable fishing and climate resilience efforts.
- The deal would also finance an endowment to generate ongoing funding for marine conservation in the Galápagos Islands.
- This is the world’s largest debt-for-nature deal to date.

Apache tribe decry loss of sacred site to massive copper mine at both court and the U.N.
- The San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona, United States, has taken its legal battle against the U.S. government to the United Nations to save its traditional territory from what could be North America’s largest copper mine.
- The Indigenous tribe say that the mine will permanently alter desert ecosystems and destroy their most sacred site, akin to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount or Mecca’s Kaaba.
- The mine could produce up to 40 billion pounds of copper over 40 years, providing about 1,500 jobs, millions in tax revenue and compensation and minerals for renewable energy development.
- Both sides are awaiting a ruling from the 9th Circuit Court on whether destruction of the site violates the religious rights of the Apache people.

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