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Bringing Mongabay’s Amazon narco airstrip exposé to the stage
Mongabay Latam’s multiyear, *award-winning **investigation that uncovered 67 clandestine airstrips in the Peruvian Amazon used for drug trafficking sent waves across the local media landscape. It drew attention to the Indigenous communities impacted by these illegal airstrips and the 15 Indigenous leaders who were killed defending their territory. To communicate this story to a wider […]
Panama NGOs face lawsuits, asset seizures in fight over port construction
- Two environmental groups fighting the Puerto Barú project in Panama have been named in lawsuits claiming they defamed the developers and created public confusion about the project.
- The Center for Environmental Advocacy of Panama and the Adopt a Panama Rainforest Association (Adopta Bosque) say the port could damage mangroves and harm vulnerable shark and ray species.
- Both organizations have had their assets seized, including bank accounts and properties that serve as private nature reserves.
Successful campaign proves Ghana’s forests are worth more than gold (commentary)
- An unprecedented campaign recently pushed Ghana’s government to repeal legislation allowing mining in forest reserves.
- Originally passed in 2022, the regulations had opened up nearly 90% of Ghana’s forest reserves to mining, but the campaign spurred nationwide protests, petitions, a strike and a prayer walk on the streets of Accra.
- “Together, we rallied behind the idea that our forests are more important to us than gold. But as momentous as repealing the legislation is, it’s only a staging post in a longer journey to end the devastation that mining is inflicting in Ghana,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Kenyan woman hugs a tree for 3 days and inspires a movement
Young Kenyan environmentalist Truphena Muthoni has set a Guinness World Record (GWR), for the second time, after embracing a tree for 72 hours. She hugged the tree for three days, Dec. 8-11, 2025, to raise awareness about climate change and protest the destruction of Indigenous forests. In doing so, she caught the attention of the […]
Rio de Janeiro state bans shark meat for school meals
- The government of Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state has banned shark meat for meals in most of the schools it manages, after pressure from conservationists and school meal advisers raising health and environmental concerns.
- The shark meat ban applies to all 1,200 schools run by the state education department, but not to the thousands of other schools in the state that are managed by municipalities and private entities.
- A Mongabay investigation in July 2025 revealed 1,012 public tenders issued since 2004 to procure more than 5,400 metric tons of shark meat in 10 of Brazil’s 26 states, including Rio de Janeiro.
- Industry groups have criticized the Rio de Janeiro government’s decision, dismissing health risks linked to shark meat consumption, and complained of a lack of transparency in the decision-making process, noting that the ban has yet to be published in the state’s official gazette.
The long struggle of women farmers to halt a zinc mine in North Sumatra
- Women’s rights groups in Indonesia’s Dairi regency have been at the forefront of a legal challenge against a zinc mining company, which ultimately prevailed in court and set a legal precedent in the country in May 2025.
- The women farmers joined a group of 11 villagers who say their successive victories in Indonesia’s courts was due to their unrelenting consistency and not giving up throughout the last two decades.
- Developer PT Dairi Prima Mineral, backed by China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Co. Ltd., is now proposing for a new permit after the environment ministry revoked the old one and is hoping to gain the approval of all community elements, including villagers.
- However, according to the local activists who spoke to Mongabay, they will continue to resist the mine.
World Bank watchdog looks into Nepal cable car project amid Indigenous outcry
- The World Bank Group’s Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (CAO) is assessing a complaint by Nepal’s Indigenous Yakthung (Limbu) people over the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) advisory involvement in the controversial Pathibhara cable car project, formally registered in December 2025.
- The cable car, planned on land sacred to the Yakthung people and near the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, has sparked protests over alleged violations of Indigenous rights, forest clearance, threats to wildlife and inadequate environmental assessment.
- Complainants argue the IFC failed to transparently disclose its advisory support to IME Group until late in the project, raising questions about accountability and compliance with IFC safeguards, despite the IFC saying it exited the advisory agreement early and did not directly support the Pathibhara project.
- The case will undergo a 90-day CAO assessment to determine whether it proceeds to dispute resolution or a compliance review, amid ongoing legal challenges and community protests.
Drag artist Pattie Gonia on why nature advocacy needs joy to succeed
Professional drag artist and environmental activist Pattie Gonia has more than 1.5 million followers on Instagram and has raised $1.2 million for environmental nonprofits by hiking 100 miles, or 160 kilometers, in full drag into San Francisco. She has gained international recognition for using drag artistry to advocate for the environment, in acknowledgment and celebration […]
From south to north, Sri Lanka’s cricket dreams undermine fragile ecosystems
- Sri Lanka plans to construct an international cricket stadium and a sports complex on the northern island of Mandaitivu spanning more than 56 hectares to popularize the sport in the country’s Northern province.
- Mandaitivu overlaps with mangroves and coastal wetlands in the ecologically sensitive Jaffna lagoon, and environmental groups warn that a construction on the low-lying island could reduce flood retention and increase climate vulnerability.
- Mandaitivu’s mangroves support fisheries and coastal livelihoods causing concern about potential decline in aquatic creatures, especially prawns and crabs, impacting the traditional fisherfolk.
- Conservationists say the project echoes past ill-informed infrastructure decisions, such as the Hambantota stadium built within an elephant habitat, reflecting weak environmental governance and repeated ecological trade-offs.
From Chipko to Nyeri: The enduring logic of the tree hug
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. When Truphena Muthoni stepped up to a royal palm in Nyeri and wrapped her arms around its trunk, few expected her to stay there for three days. Even fewer thought the gesture would spark a national conversation. Muthoni […]
Guatemala’s eco defenders reel from surge in killings and persecution
- In 2023, there were four recorded killings of environmental defenders in connection to their work; in 2024, this figure shot up to at least 20, according to advocacy group Global Witness.
- An ongoing political crisis, persistent criminalization, and the spread of organized crime have all fed the rise in violence against Indigenous and campesino communities and defenders.
- This is happening despite a change of government, led by President Bernardo Arévalo, whose movement was backed by Indigenous communities.
- Land grabbing, mass arrest warrants and judicial persecution are increasingly common, together with the use of force, say human rights defenders and activists.
Environmental defenders & conservationists who died in 2025
- Mongabay’s founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler writes short obituaries—over 70 in 2025—for people who devoted their lives to protecting the natural world, returning to this work consistently alongside my his responsibilities.
- The individuals he writes about are less defined by titles than by posture—standing between living systems and the forces eroding them, often for decades, largely unseen, and at real personal cost.
- These pieces aim neither to lionize nor to despair, but to clarify—showing how protection happens through sustained, imperfect choices made by ordinary people who kept showing up.
Kenyan woman hugs tree for 72 hours in protest against loss of beloved trees
- A Kenyan woman, Truphena Muthoni, beat her own world record, hugging a tree continuously for 72 hours at the foot of Mount Kenya.
- Her “silent protest” was meant to hold authorities and a complacent public to account for irresponsible tree cutting, forest land use change and inadequate protection of water catchment areas.
- Muthoni represents an emerging younger generation of environmentalists coming up with more engaging ways to shift conservation from an abstract to a real-time issue.
As Zambia eyes green minerals, Kabwe’s poisoned past looms large
- Zambia is seeking to capitalize on the green energy boom through copper and other critical minerals, but campaigners warn that without real accountability and community participation, the next mining wave could create new “sacrifice zones,” repeating a painful history.
- The town of Kabwe remains severely polluted after decades of lead and copper mining, with more than 95% of children showing dangerous blood lead levels.
- The “Zambia’s Sacrifice Zone” campaign, launched by young activists, journalists and NGOs, uses storytelling and radio to demand accountability, raise awareness and amplify community voices in the fight for environmental justice and cleanup.
- Authorities have rolled out remediation projects with World Bank support, testing tens of thousands of residents and improving water and infrastructure, but activists say compensation is lacking and enforcement of environmental laws remains weak.
‘Our zeal is unwavering’: 3 environmental defenders share trials, tribulations, hopes
- Environmental defenders face various challenges depending on their context, whether in Colombia, Uganda or the Philippines.
- Since 2012, more than 2,100 defenders have fallen victim to violence, according to Global Witness. This includes activists in these three countries.
- Mongabay spoke with three defenders from these nations at the 2024 Climate Change conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. They were there to raise their voices on issues around just transition to energy, equity, inclusion and that the global climate policies work for them.
- Despite serious threats to their lives, these defenders remain steadfast in their commitment to their cause. They are determined to continue their work, believing their mission is worth the risks they face.
After 6 years, trial in Indigenous forest guardian killing pushed to 2026
- The trial of the two suspects charged in the killing of Indigenous forest guardian Paulo Paulino Guajajara and attempted killing of fellow guardian Laércio Guajajara in the Brazilian Amazon in 2019 was pushed to 2026, triggering outrage among the Guajajara people and Indigenous rights advocates.
- The trial over the crimes will be a legal landmark as the first Indigenous cases to go before a federal jury in Maranhão; usually, killings are considered crimes against individuals and are tried by a state jury, but these crimes were escalated to the federal level because prosecutors made the case that they represented an aggression against the entire Guajajara community and Indigenous culture.
- A long-awaited anthropological report on the collective damages to the Indigenous community as a result of the crimes was concluded and attached to the court case in August, but the trial is very likely to only happen in early 2026, “given that there is not enough time for it to be held by the end of this year,” the judge’s advisory staff in the case said.
- Paulo’s father, José Maria Paulino Guajajara, said he is “really angry” at white people for killing his son for no reason — and inside the Arariboia territory, where their entrance is forbidden. “We Indians are dying, and the white man won’t stop killing us.”
Thai agri giant CPF sues activist over claims linking it to invasive fish outbreak
- The head of a Thai NGO focused on agricultural monitoring and food sovereignty is being sued by agribusiness giant Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF) for alleging the firm is linked to the outbreak of an invasive fish species in Thailand’s waterways.
- The lawsuit has been slammed as a SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) and a tactic to divert attention away from containing the outbreak and identifying the source and parties responsible.
- The blackchin tilapia has spread to at least 19 provinces, where it outcompetes wild and commercially viable aquatic species, disturbing ecosystems and devastating farmers’ livelihoods.
- The case comes as Thailand awaits public hearing of new anti-SLAPP regulations aimed at curbing judicial harassment.
Indigenous guardians successfully keep extractives out of Ecuador’s Amazon forests
- For generations, the Pakayaku community in Ecuador’s Amazon has successfully kept unsustainable mining, logging and oil extraction activities out of forests while preserving their cultural traditions and ecological knowledge.
- Mongabay visited the community to see their guardian program, made up of 45 women warriors who constantly patrol 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres) of rainforest to detect incursions — which few have been allowed to witness firsthand.
- The community created a “plan of life” map that details their vision, identity and economic alternatives to extraction.
- Leaders worry Ecuador’s concentration on courting international investment in sectors like mining and natural gas could threaten the forests.
Rise in persecution of climate defenders in Europe slammed by UN expert
Climate activists worldwide are facing increased persecution and criminalization by governments, with some of the most severe measures coming from Europe, according to a United Nations human rights expert. Governments including those of the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain have introduced measures that criminalize protests and redefine terrorism and organized crime laws to persecute […]
Rare dugong calf sighting in Alor spotlights seagrass & marine mammal conservation
- A rare sighting of a dugong calf in Alor, Indonesia, has renewed focus on the health of the region’s seagrass ecosystem and the species’ fragile future.
- Conservationists say the presence of multiple dugongs indicates a thriving habitat, but threats from tourism, habitat loss and limited population data remain pressing concerns.
- Authorities and experts are pushing for stronger monitoring and coordinated conservation strategies under a forthcoming national action plan.
IUCN upholds long-tailed macaques’ endangered status after complaint
- Conservation authority the IUCN has upheld the endangered status of the long-tailed macaque after rejecting the U.S. biomedical lobby’s challenge to downgrade it.
- Demand from research labs has fueled illegal “monkey laundering,” with wild-caught macaques funneled through breeding farms in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam and exported as captive-bred animals.
- U.S. industry lobbyists have opposed stronger protections to maintain access to macaques for biomedical testing, despite evidence of the widespread illegal trade.
- Conservationists warn that poaching, the pet trade and online abuse continue to endanger the species, and call for tougher laws and greater accountability.
Cameroon inaugurates controversial dam despite local dissent
- The inauguration of Cameroon’s Nachtigal dam has boosted the country’s electricity supply.
- The dam’s construction has also led to loss of livelihoods for fishers and sand miners on the Sanaga River around the dam site.
- In 2022, these workers received compensation from the dam, but as the full dimensions of their losses emerge, they say this was inadequate.
Indigenous consent isn’t a ‘box-ticking’ exercise: Voices from the land (commentary)
- Government officials and companies in South Africa seem to be increasingly using free, prior and informed consent as a box-ticking exercise, says Sinegugu Zukulu, an Indigenous activist and Goldman Prize Winner.
- He underlines that the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples requires States to consult and cooperate in good faith with communities, allowing them the right to say “No” to a project.
- “The distant planning that goes on in ivory towers without our representation ends up going against our wishes,” Zukulu writes in this opinion piece. “The aspirations of Indigenous communities should always be respected.”
- This commentary is part of the Voices from the Land series, a compilation of Indigenous-led opinion pieces. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.
Turning a stream into a river: Inside India’s Yettinaholé diversion project
- In Karnataka’s Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot, a river diversion project is bringing long-term changes to local villages — and the environment.
- The Yettinaholé Integrated Drinking Water Supply Project aims to divert 24 TMC of stormwater from the Yettinahalla and other nearby streams to several dry districts hundreds of kilometers away.
- Village life is also undergoing a series of development changes — as well as an uptick in conflicts with elephants coming from the nearby forests; meanwhile, local fishers wonder how many of the streams they rely on will become part of the diversion project, fearing for the future of their livelihoods.
Jane Goodall (1934–2025): primatologist, conservationist, and messenger of hope
- Jane Goodall, who began her career in 1960 with little formal training, transformed science’s understanding of chimpanzees and in the process reshaped the boundary between humans and animals. Her discoveries at Gombe forced the recognition of animal minds, emotions, and cultures once thought unique to humanity.
- She built on that science with activism: founding the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977, launching community-centered conservation programs across Africa, and creating sanctuaries for orphaned chimps. In 1991 she established Roots & Shoots, which grew into a vast youth movement spanning more than 100 countries.
- Beyond research and institutions, she became a global messenger, traveling up to 300 days a year to speak with audiences ranging from heads of state to schoolchildren planting trees. She insisted that empathy and objectivity could coexist and called on each person to remember that “every day you live, you make some kind of impact.”
- She described humanity as standing at the mouth of a dark tunnel with a star shining at the end—hope. To reach it, she said, required collective effort. That conviction defined her legacy: a life that reminded the world that hope is not wishful thinking but a discipline, and that every individual makes a difference.
Antimining activists cleared of ‘farce’ murder charges in El Salvador
An El Salvador court has acquitted five community leaders and antimining activists from Santa Marta, a municipality in the southeastern department of Usulután, of charges tied to a 1989 kidnapping and murder during the country’s civil war. Human rights groups have called the prosecution politically motivated, suggesting it was brought against the activists in retaliation […]
Philippine tribes revive reforestation to defy coal mining expansion
- Indigenous residents, farmers, and church groups in the southern Philippines continue to resist a coal mine they say threatens health, livelihoods and ancestral lands.
- Since 2022, strip mining has destroyed forested slopes, polluted roads with coal dust, and caused frequent accidents from heavy truck traffic.
- Critics say accountability is elusive after San Miguel Corp., one of the country’s biggest conglomerates, sold the companies operating the mines to an undisclosed buyer, obscuring ownership.
- Tribal leaders are reviving reforestation as a form of protest, vowing to block any mining expansion into their ancestral domain.
Can courts combat plastic pollution? Lessons from Indonesia (commentary)
- There have been many successful legal actions in the Global North and Global South in recent years on plastics, from citizen lawsuits to class actions, usually targeting governments or producers.
- More such lawsuits are expected in the coming years, as the negative consequences of plastic pollution on the environment and human health continue to emerge, as a new op-ed with a particular view from Indonesia states.
- “Courts, both in Indonesia and elsewhere in the Global South and Global North, also have [an] obligation to safeguard our planet’s ecosystems for current and future generations, and as such, should be involved in any efforts to end plastic pollution,” the author argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Report finds 226 Indigenous land defenders in Peru at risk of violence
- A report by Indigenous rights advocacy groups ProPurús and AIDESEP shows a panorama of violence faced by environmental defenders in Peru’s Amazonian region.
- The report found 226 cases of Indigenous defenders at risk between 2010 and 2024 in Ucayali department and neighboring parts of the departments of Huánuco and Loreto.
- Illegal activities such as drug trafficking, gold mining and logging are the main drivers of violence, according to the report.
- The expansion of monoculture plantations, many of them with legal protection, is another source of persistent pressure on Indigenous territories.
How we probed a maze of websites to tally Brazilian government shark meat orders
- A recent Mongabay investigation found widespread government purchases of shark meat in Brazil to serve in thousands of public institutions.
- The series has generated public debate, with a lawmaker calling for a parliamentary hearing to discuss the findings.
- Here, Mongabay’s Philip Jacobson and the Pulitzer Center’s Kuang Keng Kuek Ser explain how we built a database of shark meat procurements.
146 environmental defenders were killed or disappeared last year
The latest tally from Global Witness is a grim ledger. In 2024, at least 146 people were killed or disappeared while defending land, water and forests. That brings the total to at least 2,253 deaths and disappearances since 2012, a steady toll that turns local acts of stewardship into mortal hazards. The organization’s report reads less […]
Death of activist critical of geothermal project raises alarm in Indonesia
- Vian Ruma, a 30-year-old opponent of a geothermal project on Flores Island, was found dead under circumstances his family and allies say point to foul play.
- His death highlights Indonesia’s long and worsening record of attacks on environmental defenders, with activists saying most violence and killings of activists in the past decade have targeted this group.
- Under President Prabowo Subianto, cases of threats and attacks on environmental human rights defenders have more than doubled in early 2025 compared to the same period last year.
- Police and companies increasingly use criminal charges to silence critics, deepening fears among civil society of shrinking space to call out environmental violations.
Mongabay shark meat exposé sparks call for hearing and industry debate
- A Brazilian lawmaker said he would call for a parliamentary hearing after Mongabay’s shark meat investigation.
- Experts reacted to the investigation, saying the uncovered public tenders show greater extinction risk for sharks and urging stronger global protection.
- Industry groups called Mongabay’s investigation “alarmist,” defending shark meat’s safety and sustainability, despite warnings from scientists.
Respite, for now, for bird migration hotspot at heart of Sri Lanka’s wind power dispute
- Amid mounting protests from locals and environmentalists, Sri Lanka’s president has suspended a proposed wind farm in Mannar, in the island’s north for a month, pending a review of ecological concerns.
- Scientists warn additional wind farms in the area could further fragment habitats of the fragile Mannar Island ecosystem, an important stopover point for migratory birds on the Central Asian Flyway.
- The country’s energy minister has referred to Mannar as “stale land,” dismissing its biodiversity value, but environmentalists have countered this with research that shows more than 500 plant and animal species recorded there, including dozens found nowhere else on Earth.
- Activists urge the government to pursue sustainable development that protects Mannar’s globally important ecosystems while expanding clean energy following a balanced development pathway.
Goldman Prize winner’s shift from engineer to activist in Tenerife, Canary Islands
Carlos Mallo Molina grew up inspired by his engineer father who led port construction projects across Spain. But while working on a highway project in Tenerife, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, Molina realized that a related plan to build a port in a marine protected area threatened the marine ecosystem that he had come to […]
Brazil’s shark meat problem
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. The country best known for samba and soybeans has quietly become the world’s largest importer of shark meat. A recent investigation by Mongabay’s Philip Jacobson, Karla Mendes and Kuang Keng Kuek Ser reveals the extent to which this […]
People on nature’s frontlines aren’t waiting for miracles, says author Alan Weisman
When journalist Alan Weisman set out to write Hope Dies Last, he did so from a place of despair. Decades of reporting on ecological collapse, species loss and the unraveling of Earth’s systems had left him wondering whether the planet could recover from the harm wrought by its dominant species. But as he traveled across […]
Borneo killing linked to coal industry stays unsolved as Indonesia VP visits Dayak village
- On Nov. 15, 2024, two Indigenous men were attacked before dawn at a checkpoint in Muara Kate, a roadside hamlet in East Kalimantan province, established by the local population to enforce a ban on mining vehicles using local roads. This community decision followed the death of a young pastor a month earlier in an accident with a coal truck.
- Police have questioned staff from coal miner PT Mantimin Coal Mining in connection with the case, but at the time of writing, authorities had yet to name any suspects in connection with the November murder.
- In June, Indonesia Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka visited the community where the killing took place; an aide to the vice president said a report would be made to President Prabowo Subianto.
- Killing of environmental defenders in Indonesia is rare compared with countries like Brazil and the Philippines, but political scientists say democratic conditions in Indonesia have been eroded in the past decade.
Sri Lanka plans restoring revoked protection for an important mangrove patch in the island’s North
- In 2024, the Sri Lankan government revoked the protected status of an ecologically important mangrove forest in Vidattaltivu, in the island’s north, to facilitate the development of an aquaculture park.
- Environmental groups challenged the decision in court, calling for reinstatement of its former conservation status, following which the government informed the court of its willingness to restore protection.
- On July 26 this year, to mark World Mangrove Day, Sri Lanka declared several new mangrove areas protected, reinforcing its global recognition as the Commonwealth mangrove “champion.”
- The Indian Ocean island has approximately 15,670 hectares (38,720 acres) of mangroves, with around 60% under formal protection. However, enforcement and effective management remain weak in many areas.
Asia’s longest free-flowing river faces threats of dams and diversions
The Salween River, at around 3,300 kilometers, or 2,000 miles, is Asia’s longest free-flowing river, running from Tibet through Myanmar to the Andaman Sea. But Indigenous groups and communities living along its banks in China, Myanmar and Thailand say they fear hydropower development might cause the river to suffer the same fate as the Mekong […]
Jailed Vietnamese civil society leader wins award, boosting calls for his release
- Imprisoned Vietnamese environmentalist Dang Dinh Bach recently received a distinguished international award, the Baldwin Medal of Liberty, honoring his human rights work.
- Bach, the co-founder and director of Vietnam’s first public interest legal organization, is serving a five-year sentence; he is one of five high-profile environmentalists arrested and imprisoned for tax evasion in Vietnam since mid-2021.
- On July 18, the U.N. Human Rights Committee published its findings on the fourth periodic review of Vietnam, expressing serious concerns over the treatment of political prisoners and increased restrictions on freedoms of association and expression and on independent civil society organizations.
That ‘fish’ on the menu? In Brazil’s schools and prisons, it’s often shark
Brazil, the world’s top importer of shark meat, is feeding much of it to preschoolers, hospital patients, military staff, public workers and more via government procurements, Mongabay has found. This influx of shark meat into public buildings is exposing infants and other vulnerable groups to high levels of heavy metals like mercury and arsenic, which […]
Sri Lanka Supreme Court orders $1 bn payment in X Press Pearl marine disaster
- Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court has ordered $1 billion in compensation from the owners and local agents of the MV X-Press Pearl, which sank off Colombo in 2021, causing the worst maritime disaster in the island’s history and a massive marine plastic spill.
- The court held both the vessel’s operators and two former Sri Lankan officials accountable, citing negligence and violations of citizens’ constitutional rights.
- The July 24 ruling calls for the establishment of an independent compensation commission and requires the first installment of damages to be paid by September 2025, with a review hearing scheduled for the same month.
- Environmentalists describe the judgment as a milestone in line with the “polluter pays” principle, offering a potential model for environmental justice across the Global South.
Across Southeast Asia, Indigenous women challenge extraction and erasure
- Across Southeast Asia, Indigenous women activists face discrimination, repression and violence, while often being excluded or unsupported even within their own communities.
- Among them is Maria Suryanti Jun, who is leading opposition to a geothermal project in Poco Leok, Indonesia, citing a lack of transparency and free, prior and informed consent from the community.
- Women like Maria face unique challenges in environmental defense due to patriarchal norms, limited education and cultural roles — but are often deeply connected to the land and emerge as key defenders.
- Despite obstacles, these activists are building solidarity and pushing for change through international advocacy, capacity-building programs, and expanding women’s access to education and leadership.
An aging leopard’s suffering sparks ethical debate in Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka, the fate of an aging, injured leopard, well-loved by tourists, has triggered a debate. Wildlife enthusiasts are urging authorities to help the leopard, named Neluma, in Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka’s largest protected area. However, wildlife officials and conservationists are against intervening and providing veterinary support, Mongabay contributor Malaka Rodrigo reported in […]
The price of protecting what’s left in Cambodia
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In a nation where speaking up can lead to prison, a group of young Cambodians has refused to be silent. One year ago, five members of Mother Nature Cambodia, a conservation NGO, were jailed on charges of plotting […]
Indonesia moves to revise sea sand export policy after court ruling
- Indonesia’s Supreme Court earlier this year struck down key parts of a 2023 regulation allowing sea sand exports, citing legal contradictions and environmental risks.
- The annulled policy had reversed a two-decade ban and faced backlash for potentially harming marine ecosystems and coastal communities.
- The government now says it’s revising the regulation, arguing that dredging can benefit ocean health and support domestic infrastructure projects.
- Critics warn the practice threatens fisheries, marine carbon stores and long-term sustainability, and call for a shift toward restoration over exploitation.
To change the environment, change the narrative
Narratives help shape our society, culture and environment, entrenching beliefs that can help — or harm — our planet and human rights. Tsering Yangzom Lama, story manager at Greenpeace International, joins Mongabay’s podcast to explain how dominant narratives — stories shaped by existing power structures and institutions — often undergird destructive industries and favor the […]
Listings of Indonesian islands renew fears of privatization for coastal communities
- Listings of Indonesian islands on a foreign real estate site have sparked concerns about privatization, prompting the government to block the site domestically and clarify that islands cannot be sold to foreign entities under national law.
- Officials said the listings were likely aimed at attracting investment, not outright sales, but critics warn such practices enable control over island and offshore areas, often displacing fishers and triggering land conflicts.
- A 2021 regulation allows foreign investors to lease small islands for up to $1,900 per km² per year, and a government portal launched in 2024 streamlines permits for islands smaller than 2,000 km², accelerating commercialization.
- Watchdogs say 254 small islands have already been privatized, often without adequate oversight, and warn that unchecked investment could jeopardize fisher livelihoods and national sovereignty over maritime territories.
As iconic wild leopard ages in Sri Lanka, debate about human intervention ensues
- For more than a decade, a male leopard named Neluma has maintained dominance over Sri Lanka’s Wilpattu National Park, his majestic demeaner and tolerance for human presence making him a firm favorite among wildlife enthusiasts.
- With a hernia and recent injuries caused during hunting, the ageing cat makes calls for help, but naturalists say that nature should take its course while veterinarians record difficulties in treating him.
- In a recent incident, a tiger killed a wildlife ranger at the Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan. This tiger’s famous mother, Arrowhead, was fed by forest officials during her final days, which naturalists caution against as such interventions could teach young cubs to associate people with food.
- Sri Lanka’s Yala National Park has adopted a practice of providing water to animals during intense periods of drought, but conservationists say that such interventions, too, may have long-term repercussions despite the act being well-intended.
An overlooked biocultural landscape in Sri Lanka receives overdue protection
- Sri Lanka has declared the Nilgala wilderness, a unique landscape harboring the island’s largest savanna ecosystem interwoven with a mosaic of unique habitats, as a national forest reserve.
- Despite being home to numerous endemic and range-restricted species found nowhere else on the island, Nilgala had long been an overlooked conservation priority, facing continuous environmental threats.
- The area is also the ancestral homeland of Sri Lanka’s Indigenous Vedda community and is revered as an ancient herbal sanctuary, deeply rooted in cultural and historical traditions.
- As a defiant act of opposition to various past attempts to open Nilgala for large-scale agricultural development, environmentalists once staged a unique ritual of ordaining 1,000 trees within the Nilgala area at a religious ceremony to protect the forest from destruction.
As a fishing port rises in Kenya, locals see threats to sea life, livelihoods
- In Shimoni, Kenya, a new fishing port is slated to open in June.
- While the government promises local people opportunities for jobs and businesses once operations start, some residents foresee more harm than good from the port.
- Some conservation activities — including seagrass, coral and mangrove restoration projects as well as fishing, seaweed farming and tourism operations — have already suffered during the port’s construction phase, which began in 2022, local people say. They fear it may get worse once the port opens, especially if planned dredging proceeds.
- A county government official said Kwale county is monitoring the situation and pledged to mitigate any impacts and safeguard fishing activities and conservation efforts.
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, […]
Specter of dams and diversion looms over Southeast Asia’s Salween River
- The Salween River, one of Asia’s last free-flowing rivers, supports Indigenous communities and biodiversity across China, Myanmar and Thailand, but faces threats from at least 20 proposed hydropower dams, mainly in Myanmar.
- Myanmar’s postcoup instability has stalled dam construction, though powerful armed groups and foreign investors, particularly from China and Thailand, remain key players in determining the river’s fate.
- The Thai-backed Hatgyi Dam and the Yuam River Diversion Project risk submerging villages, displacing Indigenous Karen communities, and diverting massive amounts of water for agriculture in central Thailand.
- Local resistance, legal challenges and transboundary activism are mounting, with critics calling for permanent protection of the Salween and condemning the exclusion of affected communities from decision-making.
At COP30 & beyond, the fight for climate justice must end corporate impunity (commentary)
- As climate treaty delegates gather in Bonn this week ahead of COP30 in Belém, Brazil, later this year, the world needs to confront a truth usually omitted from such negotiations: the climate crisis is not just a political failure, but the result of unchecked corporate power.
- In this commentary, Ecuadorian lawyer, activist and Goldman Environmental Prize winner Pablo Fajardo — who led one of the world’s largest legal battles against Chevron for its toxic legacy in the Amazon — argues that the climate crisis cannot be solved without confronting the corporate power structures driving it.
- Despite a $9.5 billion ruling against Chevron, the company has used international arbitration as a weapon to evade responsibility, highlighting how international commercial courts and legal loopholes protect companies like them: “At COP30 and beyond, if we are serious about climate justice, we must confront the machinery of impunity and fight united for system change and a future where justice is not the privilege of the powerful, but the right of all.”
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
After controversy, Plant-for-the-Planet focuses on the trees
- Plant-for-the-Planet, a global forest restoration and youth empowerment initiative, oversees reforestation projects in Mexico, Spain and Ghana.
- The organization was founded by Felix Finkbeiner at just 9 years old, when his school tree-planting project happened to make the local news in Germany. Now 27, he continues to help run Plant-for-the-Planet as it juggles rapid growth with the slow, painstaking work of planting trees.
- In recent years, the organization has been plagued by controversy, with news investigations exposing exaggerated planting numbers, poor record-keeping, and plans to invest in controversial real estate development.
- Now Plant-for-the-Planet is focusing on data collection and longer-term restoration strategies, hoping to leave its mistakes in the past.
‘Mining companies will lie to your face’: Carlos Zorrilla on 30 years of fighting for Intag Valley
Carlos Zorrilla has been living in an Ecuadorian cloud forest since the 1970s, and his last 30 years there have been spent fighting mining companies seeking to extract its large copper deposits. He and his community have successfully fought proposals by multiple firms in one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet, but sometimes […]
Mining company returns to haunt Thailand’s Karen communities as resistance mounts
- A long-dormant fluorite mine is being reopened in northern Thailand, but the ethnically Karen communities that live in Mae Hong Son province’s Mae La Noi district are staunchly resisting the return of the mining company.
- Universal Mining, a Thai company, aimed to reopen its fluorite mine in 2021 following an injection of Chinese investments, but so far has failed to secure the environmental impact assessment needed to recommence mining operations in Mae La Noi.
- Experts warn that Universal Mining may be able to find a way around the environmental regulations as the Thai government has earmarked parts of Mae La Noi for extraction in its national mining strategy.
- According to rights advocates, the conflict brewing between the mining company and the Karen communities is a reflection of limited rights Thailand gives its Indigenous People.
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 […]
After 15 years, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court blocks road upgrade in national park
- In a landmark judgment, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court recently ended a 15-year legal battle over plans to upgrade a road through Wilpattu National Park, making conservationists heave a sigh of relief.
- The court ruling follows an election pledge by Anura Kumara Dissanayake during the presidential race to reopen the road, which drew sharp criticism from environmentalists.
- The proposed road would have reduced travel time but fragmented critical habitats besides increasing the threat of roadkill due to speeding vehicles.
- The ruling highlights the judiciary’s crucial role in upholding environmental protections, especially when political leaders push development agendas that threaten ecologically sensitive areas.
In Nepal, confrontation looms over controversial cable car project as court lifts stay order
- Nepal’s Supreme Court recently discontinued its interim order that had earlier halted the construction of a cable car project opposed by Indigenous Limbu communities over its potential cultural and environmental impacts.
- Community members against the private project say in addition to undermining their rights, the project is based on a flawed environmental impact review.
- While lawyers say the final judgment in the case will determine the fate of the project, the developer says it plans to resume construction work.
West Sulawesi erupts in protest over sand mining for Indonesia’s new capital
- Hundreds of protesters, including Indigenous and coastal youth from Karossa, Pasangkayu and Kalukku, rallied on May 5 at the West Sulawesi governor’s office to demand the closure of PT Alam Sumber Rezeki’s sand mining operations, citing environmental harm, permit irregularities and lack of community consent.
- Tensions flared after Governor Suhardi Duka dismissed anti-mining resistance as “thuggery,” triggering public outrage and a clash with security forces during the protest, where demonstrators were met with water cannons and no official response.
- The mining, tied to supplying materials for Indonesia’s new capital, Nusantara, has fueled a wider grassroots resistance across West Sulawesi, with activists condemning the criminalization of local opposition and calling for meaningful community involvement in environmental decision-making.
How a road engineer became an ocean activist & won the world’s top environmental prize
Carlos Mallo Molina has been awarded the 2025 Goldman Environmental Prize for protecting the marine biodiversity of Tenerife, the most populated of the Canary Islands. On this episode of Mongabay’s podcast, Molina explains what led him to quit his job as a civil engineer on a road project impacting the Teno-Rasca marine protected area (MPA) […]
At the U.N., mining groups tout protections for Indigenous peoples
- At the U.N., international mining organizations committed to consulting with Indigenous people.
- The reality on the ground looks different in the U.S., say Indigenous activists. Projects like Oak Flat in Arizona are continuing to move ahead over Indigenous objections.
- Mining industry groups have released voluntary rules for getting consent from Indigenous people — with stronger requirements than the U.S. has. Legal experts say it could goad governments into action.
Meet the Nepali lawyers defending nature one case at a time
- Lawyers in Nepal are increasingly turning to public interest litigation to demand accountability and stronger enforcement of environmental laws.
- They have filed public interest cases targeting issues like air pollution, deforestation, illegal quarrying and the misuse of protected areas.
- Their efforts have led to landmark rulings by the Supreme Court, including directives for better regulation and enforcement of existing laws. However, many of these rulings remain unimplemented due to government inaction and bureaucratic delay.
- Critics caution that while litigation is a powerful tool, it must be used judiciously, and that civil society must also mobilize to ensure environmental justice beyond the courtroom.
Cable car project in Nepal under fire for flawed environmental review
- Nepal’s Pathibhara cable car project faces increased backlash after its environmental assessment was found to omit key species and understate its forest impact, bypassing the need for a full environmental impact assessment.
- The project, in a sacred site for Indigenous Yakthung (Limbu) communities, threatens biodiversity and spiritual heritage, with critics alleging more than 40,000 trees may have been cut, far exceeding the figures stated in the assessment report.
- Protests over the development have turned violent, and Nepal’s Supreme Court has ordered a halt to construction pending a review of alleged regulatory violations and community exclusion.
- While developers and some local officials argue the project boosts tourism and access, conservationists and many Indigenous residents continue to call for its cancellation and a full ecological audit.
Mother Nature Cambodia activists denied bail by Supreme Court
- Cambodia’s Supreme Court has denied bail to five environmental activists from the NGO Mother Nature Cambodia, all of whom are appealing their convictions after spending more than nine months behind bars.
- The activists had already served prison sentences but were released on bail in November 2021 on the condition that they stopped their environmental work; the charges against them were never dropped and the Cambodian government arrested them again in 2024.
- The activists have won praise globally, with the group receiving the Right Livelihood award in 2023; the five are being held in separate prisons across Cambodia, hundreds of kilometers from their homes and families, which rights advocates say is needlessly cruel.
Report alleges criminality in Cambodian, Vietnamese monkey trade
- A new report is the latest to bolster long-standing allegations that many long-tailed macaques imported into the U.S. for biomedical research were illegally caught from the wild and falsely labeled as captive-bred, with suspiciously high birth rates at breeding facilities in Southeast Asia.
- Cambodia became a major supplier of monkeys for research after China stopped exports in 2020, but investigations found indications of large-scale monkey-laundering operations, leading to legal cases, failed prosecutions, and a 64% drop in exports by 2023. Despite concerns, global wildlife trade regulator CITES did not ban the trade.
- Vietnam’s reported monkey exports also show discrepancies, with new “satellite breeding facilities” appearing without proper documentation, raising concerns that wild monkeys are also being trafficked into breeding farms.
- A tuberculosis outbreak linked to Vietnamese monkey exports highlights the public health risks, while U.S. company Charles River Laboratories faces scrutiny over its alleged role in the illegal monkey trade, seeming to benefit from political ties to evade accountability.
Mongabay investigation spurs Brazil crackdown on illegal cattle in Amazon’s Arariboia territory
- An ongoing Brazilian government operation launched in February has removed between 1,000 and 2,000 illegal head of cattle from the Arariboia Indigenous Territory in the Amazon Rainforest.
- In June 2024, Mongabay published the results of a yearlong investigation, revealing that large portions of the Arariboia territory have been taken over for commercial cattle ranching, in violation of the Constitution; the project received funding and editorial support from the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network.
- “Your report is very similar to what we’re actually finding in the field. It showed an accurate reality and this helped us a lot in practical terms,” Marcos Kaingang, national secretary for Indigenous territorial rights at the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, told Mongabay in a video interview.
- The investigation also revealed details that authorities said they hadn’t been aware of, including the illegal shifting of the territory’s border markers, Kaingang said: “We brought it up as an important point in our discussions and we verified that the [markers] had in fact been changed.”
Despite improvements, governance in the Pan Amazon falls short
- Despite major progress in the last 50 years, nations in the Pan Amazon are still struggling to forge positive social and economic change and tackle corruption, which has negative impacts on the environment.
- While countries in the Pan Amazon are working to slash deforestation and protect biodiversity, the fragmentation and degradation of the region’s terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems continues.
- Many NGOs in the region support Amazon conservation and research, but their fragmented efforts cannot replace the work of government agencies.
Peruvian fishers sue for additional compensation after big December oil spill
- On Dec. 22, 2024, a pipeline leak at the New Talara Refinery in northern Peru spilled oil into the Pacific Ocean, coating 10 kilometers (6 miles) of coastline in black.
- Three days later, the Peruvian environment ministry declared a 90-day environmental emergency, paralyzing tourism and work for more than 4,000 artisanal fishers.
- Now, more than three months later, the fishers have returned to work on a sea dominated by the oil industry. They say the compensation they received from the refinery owner, state-owned oil company Petroperú, is insufficient and they are seeking more.
- For its part, the company says it has met its commitments.
Illegal sea fence displaces fishers and sparks land scandal near Jakarta
- A property developer installed 30 kilometers (19 miles) of bamboo fencing in the sea near Jakarta, blocking fishers’ access; an investigation revealed it encompassed 280 ocean plots for which title deeds had been illegally issued.
- The fence has forced many fishers to stop working, while coastal farmers have lost their land to the same luxury development; residents also face eviction with no clear alternatives.
- Authorities have sanctioned a handful of individuals from the public and private sectors and started revoking the illegal deeds, but activists are demanding criminal prosecutions against the companies responsible.
- The case highlights weak oversight of Indonesia’s national strategic projects, raising concerns over environmental destruction, loss of livelihoods, and government favoritism toward big developers.
Illegal seabed dredging surges as Indonesia resumes sand exports
- Reports of unauthorized seabed dredging have surged following Indonesia’s decision to resume sea sand exports in 2023, raising environmental concerns and exposing weak marine law enforcement.
- Officials argue that removing sediment helps ocean health and prevents land buildup, but experts and activists warn the policy contradicts marine conservation efforts and lacks transparency.
- Dredging threatens mangroves, coral reefs, and fish populations, with projected losses to fishing communities far outweighing state revenue and corporate profits.
- Experts urge the government to reinstate the export ban, conduct thorough environmental impact assessments, and allocate funds for ecological restoration and affected communities.
Environmental & rights activists flee and hide as M23 captures DRC’s cities
- In January and February 2025, Goma, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province, and Bukavu, the second-largest city in the country, fell to the rebel armed group M23 (the March 23 Movement). The group also captured the town of Minova.
- Human rights and environmental activists who were among the few to denounce illegal extractive activities and protect natural resources in the mineral-rich region are now hiding out of fear for their lives due to the nature of their work. Some conservationists have also lost their salaries as the U.S. government freezes USAID foreign aid.
- The spread of the armed conflict is accentuating the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the entire region by multiple actors, environmentalists say, contributing to deforestation and erosion of biodiversity.
- It’s also documented that the M23 is earning a substantial amount of money by illegally smuggling and laundering minerals, like tantalum, from the DRC.
CITES rejects proposed suspension of Cambodian monkey exports
- Cambodian exports of long-tailed macaques will remain legal until November 2025, despite recommendations for suspension due to concerns over poaching and the misrepresentation of wild-caught monkeys as captive-bred.
- Cambodian officials strongly objected to the call for a trade suspension, disputing claims about unrealistic birth rates at breeding facilities and accusing the U.S. wildlife officials of misusing data obtained without their consent during investigations into alleged monkey laundering.
- Japan, China, Canada, the U.S. and other countries that import macaques for use in medical research rejected the suspension, arguing for further review; some expressed confidence in Cambodian compliance, while Canada acknowledged the importance of the trade to its research industry.
- Conservation groups expressed disappointment, highlighting the ongoing threats to wild macaque populations, including poaching, habitat loss and zoonotic risks, and warning that the decision enables unsustainable trade practices in the face of mounting evidence of misconduct.
Oaxaca Indigenous leader’s killing leaves land defenders’ safety in doubt
- Arnoldo Nicolás Romero, a commissioner in Oaxaca’s San Juan Guichicovi municipality, was found shot dead on Jan. 21, hidden behind bushes in a private ranch not far from his community.
- Since the country began to develop the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a large railroad project that runs across several Indigenous territories, including Romero’s, communities have reported dispossession, increased criminalization and violence.
- After Romero’s death, the Union of Indigenous Communities of the Northern Zone of the Isthmus (UCIZONI) released a statement that condemned his killing and demanded that authorities “promptly” initiate an investigation into his death.
- No arrests have been made or suspects identified.
Seeking the ‘humanity–wetland’ balance: Interview with Zimbabwean activist Jimmy Mahachi
- For the past decade, Jimmy Mahachi has advocated for his community’s right to water and the preservation of the Cleveland Dam wetland, a peri-urban wetland in the Zimbabwean capital Harare.
- The wetland is threatened by sand mining, development and the overexploitation of water resources.
- Some residents of the New Mabvuku suburb where Mahachi lives haven’t had running water for more than 30 years, forcing them to collect water from unprotected and even contaminated sources.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Mahachi sheds light on the pressures on environmental activism in Zimbabwe and the connection between humanity and wetlands.
On a São Paulo eco-farm, Brazil’s landless movement makes its case for occupation
- Founded by peasants and progressive members of the Catholic Church, the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) advocates for a fair distribution of land ownership, agrarian reform and agroecological practices in Brazil.
- To achieve its goals, MST occupies rural lands lying idle to force the Brazilian state to implement its constitutional duty to expropriate and redistribute such lands if they aren’t serving the public good.
- On May 21, 2024, Brazil’s lower House of Congress passed a bill that would penalize people occupying public or private land by excluding them from receiving any public benefits, including those related to agrarian reform programs.
Birdwatchers rally behind endemic hummingbird, spurring conservation movement in Mexico
- In Veracruz, the charismatic Mexican sheartail, one of the 58 hummingbird species in the country, is threatened by habitat loss due to deforestation for agriculture and urbanization.
- Chavarillo, an important spot for migratory birds, located in central Veracruz, has leveraged income gained from birdwatching to create a natural reserve for the Mexican sheartail.
- One local in Chavarillo donated land to establish the Doricha Natural Reserve, which provides the sheartail with much needed habitat and helps promote biodiversity conservation more widely.
- Birdwatchers, local landowners and conservationists have come together here to protect a habitat and ecosystem important for many endemic species.
Thai farmers demand action to restore ecosystems, compensate for invasive fish
- Citizens rallied in Bangkok this week demanding accountability and action from the government and private corporations following an outbreak of invasive fish that has ravaged Thailand’s freshwater ecosystems and aquaculture industry.
- Blackchin tilapia, an omnivorous species native to West Africa, is highly adaptable, breeds rapidly and is capable of outcompeting native wildlife and commercially farmed species, including shrimp.
- Thailand’s largest agricultural conglomerate has come under scrutiny because it obtained a permit to import the species in 2010, shortly before the first detections in the wild in the same province as its research facility.
- The activists urged the government to eradicate the species, compensate affected farmers and identity the parties responsible for the outbreak.
Indigenous runners complete seven-month journey for Mother Earth and solidarity
- In May 2024, Indigenous representatives left from opposite ends of the Western hemisphere — Alaska and Patagonia — to embark on a ceremonial relay run to fulfill ancient prophecies.
- Indigenous peoples have undertaken this intercontinental run every four years since 1992, involving sacrifice and physical exertion, to strengthen Indigenous collaborations, share ancestral wisdom, and unite their voices in a powerful display of solidarity.
- History was made this year when the two routes met in Colombia for the first time — the heart of the Americas. The routes arrived with hundreds of sacred staffs from native communities, calling for unity, spiritual regeneration, land rights, water protection and community empowerment.
- The journey concluded with a four-day meeting at the headquarters of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC), bringing together global Indigenous leaders and representatives.
Southeast Asia in review: 2024
- 2024 was a grim year for conservation and its champions across Southeast Asia, as deforestation surged due to infrastructure, agriculture, logging and mining, threatening critical ecosystems and protected areas.
- Environmental activists and journalists also faced increasing risks, including detentions, harassment and violence, highlighting a growing climate of repression by governments across the region.
- Despite this, there were some conservation successes of note, including wildlife population recoveries, biodiversity discoveries, and Indigenous community victories against harmful development projects.
- Grassroots and nature-based initiatives, like mangrove restoration and sustainable agriculture, showcased effective approaches to enhancing biodiversity and resilience while also improving community livelihood.
Internet crackdown shrinks already constrained room for activism in Vietnam
- Vietnam’s shrinking civil space has gotten even smaller with the issuance of a new decree on online activity, impacting environmental activists among others.
- The decree requires, among other things, that platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and TikTok maintain a server in-country that stores user data that the government can inspect whenever it wants.
- Social network users must also verify their accounts with local phone numbers or IDs, making it “impossible to remain anonymous on social media to comment on sensitive political issues,” an activist says.
- The new online restrictions follow a similar real-world tightening of civic space, with nonprofits required to legally register, and public gatherings also constrained.
In Brazil’s ‘water tank’, communities resist mining to preserve their water and livelihoods
- For more than fifteen years, traditional communities in Serro, Minas Gerais, have resisted the entry of iron ore mining on their territories.
- Serro is located in a region where several major rivers meet; the integrity of ecosystems is vital for people’s water resources and food security.
- Activists fear that, if approved, iron ore projects will not only cause irreversible socioenvironmental impacts but set a precedent for a dangerous iron ore race in Serro. Besides iron ore, the area concentrates deposits of bauxite, manganese, quartzite, and other minerals – many located next to traditional communities.
- The two companies pursuing mining in the area have had their licensing processes suspended in October 2023 after a community appeal to the Federal Court of Minas Gerais. The entities are required to carry out consultations with communities, respecting the principle of free, prior and informed consent.
‘Five years and no justice’ as trial over Indigenous forest guardian’s killing faces delays
- Nov. 1 marked the five-year anniversary of the killing of Indigenous forest guardian Paulo Paulino Guajajara and the attempted killing of fellow guardian Laércio Guajajara in an alleged ambush by loggers in the Arariboia Indigenous Territory in the Brazilian Amazon; the suspects haven’t been tried yet.
- Between 1991 and 2023, 38 Indigenous Guajajara were killed in Arariboia; none of the perpetrators have been brought to trial.
- Paulo’s case will be a legal landmark as the first killing of an Indigenous leader to go before a federal jury; as Mongabay reported a year ago, the start of the trial was contingent on an anthropological report of the collective damages to the Indigenous community as a result of the crimes.
- However, the report has yet to be made, given several issues that delayed the trial, including the change of judge, the long time to choose the expert to prepare the report and get the expert’s quote, and the reluctance from the Federal Attorney General’s Office (AGU) to pay for the report.
Grounded: A pilot who quit flying to help tackle climate change works to change aviation, for good
Todd Smith didn’t intend to quit his career as a commercial pilot, but a visit to the Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru, which has been receding by about 60 meters, or 200 feet, per year, prompted a frank personal examination of the airline industry’s impacts on the planet. During a subsequent medical leave, he decided […]
The underreported killing of Colombia’s Indigenous land guardian, ‘The Wolf’ (Photos)
- Carlos Andrés Ascué Tumbo, a 30-year-old Indigenous land guardian and educator, was the 115th social leader killed in Colombia this year.
- He served as a member of the Kiwe Thegnas (or Indigenous Guard of Cauca) and protected the communities’ forests, land and youth from illegal armed groups and coca cultivation.
- The Indigenous territory and land surrounding it has become a hub for drug trafficking causing deforestation and land degradation.
- Mongabay spoke with members of Carlos’ family and community to gather more information on the underreported details of his life and killing.
Indonesian mother imprisoned for protesting palm oil factory next to school
- Gustina Salim Rambe, a mother from North Sumatra province, was sentenced in October to more than five months in prison following a demonstration against a palm oil factory built adjacent to two schools in Pulo Padang village.
- Representatives in Indonesia’s national Parliament had urged police to apply principles of “restorative justice” rather than criminalize Gustina.
- Civil society advocates pointed to separate regulations and laws that should protect from prosecution people who speak out against alleged environmental abuses.
- From 2019-24, Amnesty International recorded similar cases affecting 454 civil society advocate in Indonesia.
Salmon is ‘everything’ for Lummi Nation highlighted in new PBS documentary
- A new documentary, Scha’nexw Elhtal’nexw Salmon People: Preserving a Way of Life, premieres on PBS Nov. 4, following two Lummi families as they maintain fishing traditions amid declining salmon populations.
- In an interview, co-director Beth Pielert and Lummi fisher Tah Mahs Ellie Kinley discuss the film’s origins, salmon’s importance to Lummi culture, and current threats to wild salmon populations.
- For the Lummi people, salmon fishing is described as “everything” — it’s not just an activity but the foundation of their identity, with families tracing their lineage through traditional reef net sites and finding spiritual fulfillment in continuing ancestral practices.
- The filmmakers hope viewers will walk away with both understanding and hope, recognizing that while salmon face serious threats from fish farms and industrial development, there’s still time to protect these resilient fish that are essential to Lummi cultural survival.
Indonesia civil society rallies behind student investigated over nickel protest
- On Aug. 27 and Sept. 9, student advocates Christina Rumalatu and Thomas Madilis were called in for questioning by the Indonesian police following a demonstration linking floods to nickel mining in North Maluku province.
- The August demonstration in Jakarta blamed the deadly flash floods on land-use changes caused by the nickel mining boom underway in eastern Indonesia.
- The nickel mining complex in Halmahera “should not overreact to protests and try to criminalize people who are angry about the damage the nickel industry is doing to their land and water,” said Brad Adams, executive director of Climate Rights International.
- In a significant display of combined action, civil society organizations, legal advocates, youth groups in eastern Indonesia and the country’s human rights commission are rallying behind the Halmahera demonstrators, who may face prosecution under Indonesia’s widely criticized defamation law.
Angkor Plywood, the ‘timber cartel’ shipping Cambodian forests internationally
- A year-long Mongabay investigation shows that one of Cambodia’s most notorious logging companies likely illegally exported rare tree species to Vietnam and China for years.
- We found evidence Angkor Plywood has been illegally logging timber from protected areas and violating various laws by exporting sawn logs — and doing all this with impunity, in part thanks to its well-connected founders.
- Shipping records from 2021-2023 show Angkor Plywood exported a type of timber coveted in the furniture trade from a species it should never have been allowed to log or trade, according to a government source.
- A veteran activist calls Angkor Plywood a cartel and “driving force” behind the extensive logging and forest destruction taking place Cambodia.
Javan fisherwomen lead fight against marine dredging amid fears of damage
- Fisherwomen on the north coast of Java Island are pushing back against plans to dredge sea sand for export, saying they fear it will worsen coastal erosion and harm marine ecosystems.
- Under a 2023 regulation, the government ended a 20-year ban on sea sand exports, sparking backlash despite claims that dredging will occur only in open waters.
- Communities in the north Java districts of Demak and Jepara, where fishing is the primary livelihood, say they are particularly concerned that dredging will severely disrupt their fishing grounds and harm their livelihoods.
- Experts also warn of long-term damage both to marine ecosystems and to the economy, including losses to fishers and the undermining of Indonesia’s marine carbon storage.
‘Thugs’ disrupt Jakarta climate march as attacks on civil liberties increase
- In Jakarta, an unidentified group disrupted, intimidated and behaved aggressively toward protesters in a Sept. 27 climate march, highlighting the increased challenges to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in Indonesia.
- The following day, on Sept. 28, a mob ransacked a forum of experts in a South Jakarta hotel, tearing down the backdrop of the event, breaking a microphone stand and yelling at participants to “disperse”; in both cases, nearby police did not intervene.
- Activists note a growing trend of public discussions and peaceful assemblies being disrupted by unidentified groups or state forces in Indonesia, particularly when they address sensitive or controversial topics; data from the NGO Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS) shows there have been 75 violations of civic freedom in past year alone.
Reporter who revealed deforestation in Cambodia now charged with deforestation
- A journalist who covered the land grab and deforestation of a community forest by a mining company has himself been charged with deforestation.
- Ouk Mao was instrumental in bringing to light the takeover of the Phnom Chum Rok Sat community forest in Stung Treng province by the politically connected company Lin Vatey.
- In mid-September he was charged with deforestation and incitement, for which he faces up to 10 years in jail; while not detained, he’s subject to court-ordered monitoring and cannot leave his village without permission.
- Activists say Cambodia’s courts have been weaponized against critics, with a pattern emerging where “protectors of Cambodia’s remaining forests are accused of perpetrating the very crime they are standing against.”
Influential Vietnamese environmentalist released from prison two years early
- Vietnamese environmental advocate Hoàng Thị Minh Hồng was quietely released from prison Sept. 28, two years ahead of the end of her sentence.
- Hồng was sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion, a charge frequently levied against environmental and human rights advocates in Vietnam.
- Her release, which was not publicized in official Vietnamese media, coincides with a trip to the United States by Vietnamese General Secretary and President Tô Lâm.
Philippine coal mine roars into production amid waves of complaints
- San Miguel Corporation, one of the Philippines’ largest conglomerates, has started mining coal from a concession in the mountain village of Ned in the country’s south.
- The local Catholic diocese, along with environmental and tribal groups, oppose the mine, citing potential risks to the environment and to the region’s water and food supply.
- Since mining began, complaints have centered on noise and traffic accidents caused by trucks hauling coal along the mountain roads, and on conditions at the relocation site where some families have already moved after selling their land and homes to the company.
- Opponents of the mine also accuse the miner of violating a provincial ban on open-pit mining, though the company claims it’s employing strip mining to extract the coal.
Why I quit the film industry to work on ecological restoration (commentary)
- John Liu set up a CBS News bureau in China during the 1980s, where he was witness to rising pollution levels caused by rapid industrialization across the country.
- The rapid diminishment of China’s landscape at the time struck him deeply and he decided that restoration was key to reclaiming lands and livelihoods for people, both there and globally, and so he left journalism to promote it worldwide.
- “We should recognize what true wealth is. This isn’t just an environmental imperative; it’s a moral one. We must ensure our planet remains vibrant and life-supporting for generations to come,” he argues in this op-ed for Mongabay.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Report links killings to environmental crimes in Peru’s Amazon
- A new report from the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) says the Peruvian Amazon is experiencing a rise in murders against environmental defenders, most of which are related to illegal activities such as mining, logging and coca cultivation.
- Between 2010 and 2022, an estimated 29 environmental defenders were killed in the region.
- The frequency of killings has increased in recent years, with almost half taking place after 2020.
- Indigenous leaders and researchers said many of these killings remain unsolved while the state remains largely absent in protecting communities in these remote regions.
In Nepal, conservation battles head to Supreme Court amid civil society silence
- Nepal’s Supreme Court is becoming a battleground for conservationists due to the absence of civil society voices.
- Civil society’s silence contrasts with past protests over cultural and environmental issues, which led to policy reversals without court intervention.
- The court has historically supported sustainable development but it lacks a dedicated green tribunal, making it vulnerable to accusations of being “anti-development.”
Successful Thai community-based hornbill conservation faces uncertain future
- As long-distance tree seed dispersers, hornbills help balance the ecology of the complex tropical forests they inhabit.
- Three decades of hornbill conservation in southern Thailand have been underpinned by efforts to transform former poachers into conservationists who are paid wages as nest guardians.
- A new study indicates that education programs in schools and villages surrounding the region’s hornbill strongholds are key to the success and long-term sustainability of the nest guardian program, which has boosted hornbill breeding success and drawn widespread support from local residents.
- Yet political unrest in the region precludes traditional avenues of conservation funding, such as ecotourism, leaving the community-based initiative threatened by a lack of long-term funding and resources.
In Vietnam, environmental defense is increasingly a crime
- In the past two years, six prominent environmental defenders have been imprisoned in Vietnam, sending a chill across civil society in the one-party state.
- In the past, activists in Vietnam were often charged with spreading anti-state propaganda. More recently, ambiguous tax laws have been used against environmental experts and advocates, and 2023 saw the use of a novel charge: misappropriation of state documents.
- Analysts say the moves against environment defenders are part of an effort to clamp down on civil society in general, and environmental activism in particular, due to fears that such movements could serve as an engine for broad-based organizing outside of party control.
In Nicaragua, activists challenge the value of international ‘green’ financing
- The Ortega-Murillo regime relies on “green financing” from international institutions like the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and Global Environment Facility. But critics say that money hasn’t made a real impact on Nicaragua’s environmental issues.
- Since 2018, the Ortega-Murillo regime has approved 27 green financing projects related to climate change and conservation, totaling $384.8 million, according to a Fundación Del Río investigation. Nevertheless, deforestation and carbon emission rates have increased.
- Fundación Del Río’s report said sources of green financing and their intermediaries need to monitor more closely whether investments in Nicaragua are leading to tangible improvements to the environment.
Indonesian Islamic behemoth’s entry into coal mining sparks youth wing revolt
- In early August, several youth organizations affiliated with Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s second-largest Islamic organization, released a public petition calling on its leadership to cancel its plans to operate coal mines.
- The decision by the Muhammadiyah leadership board was made in July after Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, amended mining rules to enable religious organizations to enter the mining industry.
- Grassroots activists and some senior member of the organization told Mongabay the move threatens to undermine Muhammadiyah’s extensive charity and advocacy work, in addition to environmental commitments the group made in recent years.
Petroperú’s financial troubles could mean no oil spill remediation, communities fear
- State-owned Peruvian oil company Petroperú, has plunged into massive debt to complete the rehabilitation of its Talara refinery, estimated to have cost $6.5 billion.
- Crisis hit in 2022, when the company lost its investment-grade rating from credit agencies; in 2023, its financial report revealed losses of more than $822 million that year.
- Petroperú has received three capital injections from the government, the last one amounting to $1.3 billion, raising concerns among NGOs and Indigenous communities about what might happen to all its sites pending remediation if it were to collapse.
- Since 2020, the company has been hit with 154 fines from Peru’s energy regulator and 61 administrative measures by the environmental regulator, a new report shows.
50 years of data show that Madagascar’s mangroves are making a comeback
- A new analysis of satellite imagery dating as far back as 1972 reveals that mangroves in Madagascar are rebounding after decades of deforestation.
- The island’s total mangrove cover is down 8% compared with 1972, but a closer look at the data shows that the rate of loss has been declining and even reversed in the last decade.
- Between 2009 and 2019, Madagascar’s mangrove cover increased by 5%, with mangrove forests expanding even more in protected areas — showing that conservation efforts are working.
- Researchers say that mangroves still face many threats from climate change, deforestation and mining, and that continued engagement with coastal communities is critical to empower those communities to protect the local mangroves that they depend on.
Mexican fishing industry rep killed after denouncing illegal fishing
- Minerva Pérez Castro, the Baja California representative for the Mexican fishing industry’s main trade group, was killed in July after speaking out against the presence of organized crime in the fishing industry.
- Sophisticated organized crime groups have long participated in illegal fishing in northern Mexico, one of the most important producing areas for the country’s prominent fishing industry.
- The residences of several suspects have been searched, according to the Attorney General of the State of Baja California.
Muhammadiyah latest faith group to join Indonesia religious coal rush
- Indonesia President Joko Widodo has amended mining rules to enable religious organizations to operate coal mines, a decision that has been widely criticized by civil society in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country.
- On July 28, the country’s second-largest Islamic group, Muhammadiyah, announced it would accept government offers to manage a coal concession. The move followed a similar decision by Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization.
- In recent years, Islamic clerics and organizations have won praise for their increased focus on biodiversity and climate issues.
- Grassroots activists within Muhammadiyah told Mongabay that the decision to mine coal introduced reputational risks and threatened to unwind recent progress.
Magnate’s visit to Indonesia’s untouched Aru Islands revives Indigenous concerns
- The arrival of the J7Explorer ship, owned by coal magnate Haji Isam, has sparked renewed concerns in the Aru Islands about plans to convert forests into a 60,000-hectare (150,000-acre) cattle ranch.
- Haji Isam, a well-known tycoon with extensive family ties to the Indonesian government, is understood to have arrived to conduct a survey.
- Previously, the Aru Islands faced a similar threat when former district leader Theddy Tengko signed over land for a sugar plantation. Tengko, later convicted of embezzling nearly $5 million, had removed the conservation status of the rainforests without consulting the Indigenous population.
- Activists, including those behind the internationally known #SaveAru campaign, successfully protested the sugar plantation, leveraging social media and international support to highlight illegalities and public outcry. However, renewed efforts are now focused on preventing the subsequent deforestation plans, with local communities and activists rallying against any moves to clear forests.
Animal welfare advocacy must include wildlife & invertebrates (commentary)
- Broadening the scope of animal advocacy to include wild and intelligent animals, as well as invertebrates, is more than an ethical imperative, it is a practical necessity.
- “The interconnectedness of all life forms means that these animals’ well-being directly impacts the health of all beings, including humans, as well as ecosystems,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Jokowi’s religious mining rule divides Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization
- In May 2024, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, signed a new regulation to enable the country’s religious organizations to become mining operators.
- The policy has been criticized extensively by civil society groups, some of which view the move as the result of a political bargain for Nahdlatul Ulama, the country’s largest Islamic organization, to deliver votes to Jokowi’s chosen successor in the February 2024 presidential election.
- Young people within Nahdlatul Ulama told Mongabay Indonesia that Indonesia’s largest Islamic group would be reneging on its environmental commitments if it were to follow through on plans to operate coal mining concessions.
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.
Environmental protests under attack: Interview with UN special rapporteur Michel Forst
- The repression that environmental activists using peaceful civil disobedience are facing in Europe is a major threat to democracy and human rights, according to U.N. special rapporteur Michel Forst.
- The 2016 Dakota Pipeline protests, led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, not only triggered a major crackdown but also a flood of anti-protest legislation in the U.S.
- Environmental defenders are increasingly stigmatized as criminals or terrorists in the public arena, which may lead to a spike in verbal and even physical violence.
- In Germany, laws of the past that were meant to deal with terrorist outfits such as the Rote Armee Fraktion were used to deal with the environmental group Letzte Generation (Last Generation).
Bali’s rapid coastal erosion threatens island’s ecosystems & communities: Study
- A recent study revealed that Bali’s coastline shrank from 668.64 kilometers (415.47 miles) to 662.59 km (411.71 mi) between 2016 and 2021 due to human activities and wave circulation, at an average rate of -1.21 meters (3.97 feet) annually.
- The erosion, combined with rising sea levels, threatens the island’s ecosystems, infrastructure and communities, which are economically and culturally significant.
- Despite the erosion, there was a net land increase of 1.25 km2 (0.48 mi2) due to land reclamation and infrastructure development, though these efforts also posed environmental risks.
- The study highlights the need for integrated coastal management to balance environmental protection with the needs of coastal communities.
Revealed: Illegal cattle ranching booms in Arariboia territory during deadly year for Indigenous Guajajara
- Commercial cattle ranching is banned on Indigenous territories in Brazil, but a year-long investigation reveals that large portions of the Arariboia Indigenous Territory have been used for ranching amid a record-high number of killings of the region’s Indigenous Guajajara people.
- A clear rise in environmental crimes became evident in the region during the middle of 2023, including an unlicensed airstrip and illegal deforestation on the banks of the Buriticupu River, which is key for Guajajara people’s livelihoods.
- With four Guajajara people killed and three others surviving attempts on their lives, 2023 marked the deadliest 12 months for Indigenous people in Arariboia in seven years, rivaling the number of killings in 2016, 2008 and 2007.
- The findings show a pattern of targeted killings of the Guajajara amid the expansion of illegal cattle ranching and logging in and around Arariboia: areas with the most violent incidents coincide with the tracked activities and with police operations aimed at curbing illegal logging.
Unrest and arrests in Sumatra as community fights to protect mangroves
- Police in Indonesia’s Langkat district, North Sumatra province, arrested three people in April and May over alleged criminal damage linked to a conflict over a local mangrove forest.
- Civil society organizations in North Sumatra allege that local elites have established oil palm plantations on scores of hectares zoned as protected forest.
- They also allege that these individuals have hired thugs to intimidate local residents who oppose the clearing of mangrove forests to plantations.
Cambodian companies tied to abuses promoted by UN program, rights group alleges
- The United Nations Development Programme’s internal watchdog is reviewing a complaint that a project led by the agency is platforming companies linked to human and environmental rights abuses.
- Local rights group Licadho had as early as December 2022 flagged the UNDP’s SDG Impact – Private Sector Capital project, which aims to assist in facilitating investment in Cambodian companies.
- Several of the companies promoted as “investment opportunities” by the project are linked to government and business bigwigs with track records of deforestation, illegal logging and forced evictions.
- Licadho said there was “no meaningful due diligence” by the UNDP in selecting the companies to promote, and that the project “lend[s] reputational support to companies with documented involvement” in issues as serious as child labor and trafficking in persons, among others.
Indonesian fishers mount a community-led fight against destructive fishing
- In coastal communities across Indonesia, local fishers are pushing back against destructive and illegal fishing methods by organizing into volunteer patrol groups known as Pokmaswas.
- These groups have become crucial in protecting Indonesia’s vast marine resources amid limited government resources and infrastructure.
- In recognition of their importance, the government has increased financial support for Pokmaswas and aims to strengthen these community-run surveillance networks further.
- Mongabay Indonesia met with members of two groups, one on the island of Sulawesi and the other on Lombok, to find out the shared challenges they face, the role they play as educators, and their use of social media to promote their mission.
How real action on environmental justice comes from Latin America’s community alliances (commentary)
- Despite the regional Escazú Agreement coming into force in 2021 to ensure the protection of the environment and its defenders in Latin America, it is not being enacted and has still not been ratified by countries such as Peru, Brazil and Guatemala.
- Real action for environmental justice is rather coming from self-governed media and activism alliances forged between communities in different regions of Latin America, like the Black and Indigenous Liberation Movement (BILM), an Americas-wide network of grassroots groups working together to fight extractivism.
- “While we wait for states to act on environmental protection and to implement existing mechanisms like the Escazú Agreement and UNPFII goals, regional autonomous alliances like BILM are crucial for pushing this agenda forward and ensuring that strategies come from the grassroots,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary, the views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.
Mongabay video screening at Chile’s Supreme Court expected to help landmark verdict in Brazil
- The recent screening of a Mongabay video before Chile’s Supreme Court has intensified international scrutiny of the killing of 26-year-old Indigenous leader Paulo Paulino Guajajara in Brazil 2019 — a case for which no one has yet gone on trial in Brazil.
- Alfredo Falcão, the Brazilian federal prosecutor leading the case, said he hopes the international exposure, part of a workshop for UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day Conference in Santiago, will put pressure on the Brazilian judiciary to schedule a long-awaited federal jury trial.
- The trial of Paulo’s case is expected to set a legal landmark as the first killing of an Indigenous land defender to go before a federal jury; it was escalated to that level because it was considered an aggression against the entire Guajajara community and Indigenous culture.
- Prosecutors plan to use excerpts from the Mongabay video and accompanying articles in the trial, whose schedule remains undetermined pending an anthropological report on the impacts to the Guajajara people as a result of Paulo’s killing.
In a village divided, farmers stall massive copper mine in Colombian Andes
- A group of farmers and villagers are resisting the construction of a large copper mine in Colombia’s tropical Andes, where agriculture is a key industry; they recently blocked the company from completing environmental impact studies required by the Colombian government.
- International gold mining giant AngloGold Ashanti has been working for more than a decade to obtain a license to extract nearly 1.4 million metric tons of copper from within the mountains surrounding the town of Jericó.
- The company has also integrated into the town, supporting social programs, youth activities and local businesses; residents are divided over the mine, and many view it as a welcome social and economic boost for Jericó.
Trial begins for Mother Nature Cambodia activists on conspiracy charge
- Ten environmental activists face up to a decade in prison as their trial gets underway in Cambodia on charges of plotting against the government.
- The members of Mother Nature Cambodia have long sought to highlight environmental harms being done around the country, including by powerful business and political elites.
- Six of them have already served time behind bars and have denounced what they say is a lack of justice from the state.
‘Right to roam’ movement fights to give the commons back to the public
- The “right to roam” movement in England seeks to reclaim common rights to access, use and enjoy both private and public land, since citizens only have access to 8% of their nation’s land currently.
- Campaigner and activist Jon Moses joins the Mongabay podcast to discuss the history of land ownership change in England with co-host Rachel Donald, and why reestablishing a common “freedom to roam” — a right observed in places like the Czech Republic and Norway — is necessary to reestablishing human connection with nature and repairing damaged landscapes.
- At least 2,500 landscapes are cut off from public access in England, requiring one to trespass to reach them.
- “There needs to be a kind of rethinking really of [what] people's place is in the landscape and how that intersects with a kind of [new] relationship between people and nature as well,” Moses says on this episode.
Environmental defenders paid the price during Panama’s historic mining protests – report
- Last year’s protests against a copper mine in Panama resulted in injuries, lost eyesight and several deaths, according to a new report from the Foundation for Integral Community Development and the Conservation of Ecosystems in Panama (FUNDICCEP) and Panamanian National Network in Defense of Water.
- The protests were in response to a new contract for the Cobre Panamá copper mine operated by Minera Panamá, a subsidiary of the Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals (FQM).
- Environmental defenders are concerned that another crackdown could take place should there be protests against renewed mining negotiations with the government of President-elect José Raúl Mulino, who takes office July 1.
Rights groups call for greater public input in ASEAN environmental rights framework
- Civil society and Indigenous rights groups are calling for greater public participation and transparency in the drafting process of what they say could be a pivotal agreement to protect environmental rights and defenders in Southeast Asia.
- The Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) declaration on environmental rights was initially envisioned as a legally binding framework, but the scaling back of the level of commitment to a nonbinding declaration has raised concerns among observers.
- Groups are calling for an extension of the public consultation period, which lasted for only one month, and greater commitments to address key issues in the region, such as strengthening Indigenous rights, access to environmental information and justice, and clarifying mechanisms for resolving transboundary development impacts.
- If the treaty remains non-legally binding, its ultimate success will depend largely on the political will of each separate ASEAN state and on the continued efforts of civil society to hold their governments accountable.
Indigenous communities along Argentina’s Río Chubut mobilize to conserve waterway
- A caravan of Indigenous Mapuche activists recently concluded an 847-km (526-mi) trek down Argentina’s Chubut River, meeting with communities along the way to raise awareness of the issues they face along the shared waterway.
- From each trawün, or gathering, they determined that Indigenous access to land and water is diminishing, that large-scale projects on their lands are going ahead without their prior informed consent, and that Mapuche communities need a unified stance toward state decisions.
- Huge swaths of land along the river have been bought up by private interests, including foreign millionaires, cutting off access for the Mapuche to the Chubut that they consider not just a physical resource but a spiritual entity.
- The Mapuche are also concerned about policy changes under Argentina’s new libertarian administration, which has already kicked off a massive deregulation spree and could lift a ban on open-pit mining in the region.
Indigenous Bolivians flee homes as backlash to mining protest turns explosive
- Indigenous communities have been threatened and attacked for protesting mining pollution, water scarcity and land use change in the community collective of Acre Antequera.
- The collective, or ayllu, is an Indigenous territorial structure made up of eight Quechua communities traditionally devoted to pastoralism and agriculture.
- But open-pit mining for silver, copper, lead, zinc, tin and other minerals has used up a lot of their freshwater.
- While protesting earlier this month against the harmful impacts of mining, several women in the community said dynamite was thrown into their homes and their children weren’t allowed to attend school.
Goldman Prize Winner Murrawah Johnson says First Nations must be at the forefront of creating change
- Murrawah Maroochy Johnson, an Indigenous Wirdi woman and Traditional Owner from the Birri Gubba Nation, has been awarded the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize in the category of climate and energy.
- Johnson is the co-founder of Youth Verdict, an advocacy group that successfully won a court case against Waratah Coal in Queensland, Australia. She joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss the significance of this case for First Nations rights in Australia, as well as the legal implications for similar cases in the future.
- The case Waratah Coal Pty. Ltd. vs. Youth Verdict Ltd. & Ors (2022) resulted in the Land Court of Queensland recommending a rejection of a mining lease in the Galilee Basin that would have added 1.58 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere over its lifespan.
- The case also set multiple precedents in Australia, including being the first successful case to link the impacts of climate change with human rights, and the first to include “on-Country” evidence from First Nations witnesses.
Indigenous efforts to save Peru’s Marañon River could spell trouble for big oil
- In March, the Federation of Kukama Indigenous Women in the Parinari district of Loreto won a lawsuit against the oil company Petroperú and the Peruvian government, protecting the Marañon River from oil pollution.
- Since the 1970s, the exploration of oil reserves in the Peruvian Amazon has resulted in hundreds of oil leaks and spills, compromising the health of Indigenous communities.
- While the defendants have already appealed the decision, a favorable ruling in higher courts could force oil and gas companies to answer for decades of pollution in the Peruvian Amazon.
Effective climate activism requires honest conversations about its challenges
- Climate activist Clover Hogan says environmental activists face growing challenges not just from outside their movements, but also from within.
- She shares how the prevalence of unpaid labor can make young activists’ lives even more difficult in the present while they advocate for a more livable future.
- Add to that criticism for perceived imperfections over lifestyle choices and infighting between colleagues that can lead some to choose not to identify as activists at all, or leave movements altogether, she says.
- On this episode of the podcast, Hogan discusses these challenges in addition to direct and existential threats that environmental defenders face worldwide, and how she thinks more inclusive and effective activism can be fostered.
Alis Ramírez: A defender of the Colombian Amazon now living as a refugee in New Zealand
- Because of her opposition to mining, indiscriminate logging in forests and the social and environmental consequences of oil exploration, María Alis Ramírez was forced to abandon her farm in Caquetá, in southern Colombia, and move across the world.
- The various threats she received because of her work as an environmental defender forced her and her family to first move to New Zealand, where she arrived as a refugee in 2019.
- According to reports by human rights organization Global Witness, Colombia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for environmental and land defenders.
- In New Zealand, she says she can live with a sense of tranquility that would be impossible in Colombia. Although Alis Ramírez is now safe, she has not stopped thinking about her country, the jungle and the river that was alongside her throughout her childhood.
Cambodian official acquitted in trial that exposed monkey-laundering scheme
- A U.S. court has acquitted a senior Cambodian official accused of involvement in smuggling wild-caught and endangered monkeys into the U.S. for biomedical research.
- Kry Masphal was arrested in November 2022 and has been detained in the U.S. since then, but is now free to return to his job as director of the Cambodian Forestry Administration’s Department of Wildlife and Biodiversity.
- Evidence presented at his trial in Miami included a video of him appearing to acknowledge that long-tailed macaques collected by Cambodian exporter Vanny Bio Research were in fact being smuggled.
- The Cambodian government has welcomed news of the acquittal, while animal rights group PETA says that despite the ruling, “the evidence showed that countless monkeys were abducted from their forest homes and laundered with dirty paperwork.”
Indigenous Filipinos fight to protect biodiverse mountains from mining
- The global transition to renewable energy is driving a boom in applications to mine nickel and other critical minerals in the Victoria-Anepahan Mountains in the Philippines’ Palawan province.
- The Indigenous Tagbanua are organizing to halt these mining plans before they begin, along with downstream farmers, church and civil society groups.
- Concerns raised by the Tagbanua and other mining opponents include loss of land and livelihood, reduced supply of water for irrigation, and damage to a unique and biodiverse ecosystem.
Indigenous Filipinos fight to protect biodiverse mountains from mining
NARRA, Philippines — In the heart of Palawan province in the Philippines, the Victoria-Anepahan Mountains are a treasure trove of biodiversity and a crucial watershed. This unique ecosystem is now facing an urgent threat from the global shift towards renewable energy, which has sparked a surge in mining applications for nickel and other essential minerals […]
‘Planting water, eating Caatinga & irrigating with the sun’: Interview with agroecologist Tião Alves
- In an interview with Mongabay, Brazilian agroecologist Tião Alves tells how he has been teaching thousands of rural workers to survive in the Caatinga biome, severely afflicted by drought, climate change and desertification.
- At the head of Serta, one of the most important agroecology schools in the Brazilian Northeast, he teaches low-cost technologies that ensure food security with a minimum of resources, both natural and financial.
- Currently, 13% of the Caatinga is already in the process of desertification, the result of a combination of deforestation, inadequate irrigation, extreme droughts and changes in the global climate.
In Nepal, environmental advocates fend off ‘anti-development’ smear
- Nepal’s political focus on large-scale infrastructure development has long raised environmental concerns, with projects like dams and highways lacking adequate safeguards.
- Despite international commitments and constitutional rights to a healthy environment, Nepal’s government faces challenges in implementing effective environmental policies.
- Conservationists advocating for nature and sustainable development say protecting ecosystems is important for both the planet and its people.
- They also rebuff accusations from politicians that they’re “anti-development,” saying supporting nature doesn’t mean being opposed to development.
In Raja Ampat, pearl farming balances business and ecological sustainability
- In the Raja Ampat islands of eastern Indonesia, pearl farming thrives within a healthy marine ecosystem, with companies like PT Arta Samudra focusing on sustainable practices.
- Pearl farms are very secretive about their methods, which include the delicate process of implanting beads into oysters to cultivate pearls, a technique developed to accelerate pearl production.
- Challenges such as climate change impacts and maintaining a pristine environment highlight the importance of balancing industry growth with ecosystem preservation.
- With concerted efforts to protect marine habitats, Raja Ampat’s pearl industry aims for global recognition while emphasizing sustainability.
Landslide in Philippines mining town kills nearly 100, prompts calls for action
- A Feb. 6 landslide in a gold mining village in the Philippines’ southern island of Mindanao claimed nearly 100 lives and buried about 55 houses and a government office.
- The mining company was not held liable for the landslide, which occurred inside its concession but away from its mine mining operations; however, activists have called for more accountability by both the mining firm and the government.
- The area has previously been the site of deadly landslides, but neither the local government nor the company issued an evacuation order following landslide and flash flood warnings issued Feb. 4.
- The village that hosts the mine has been declared a “no build zone” since at least 2008, due to the high risk of landslides, but neither the village nor the mining operations have ever been relocated.
Kapinawá: the 50 year fight for sacred territory in the Catimbau Valley
CATIMBAU VALLEY, Brazil — Catimbau Valley of the Caatinga region is renowned for its incredible biodiversity and rich archaeological heritage. Home to the second largest collection of rock inscriptions in Brazil, this area is not only a natural treasure but also holds deep cultural significance. It is the sacred ancestral land of the Kapinawá people, […]
Study: Indonesia’s new capital city threatens stable proboscis monkey population
- A recent study warns that the ongoing construction of Indonesia’s new capital city on the island of Borneo could destabilize the population of endangered proboscis monkeys currently thriving in the area.
- President Joko Widodo has characterized the development as green and with a minimal environmental impact, but concerns have arisen over the potential threat to the nearby Balikpapan Bay mangrove ecosystem that’s home to proboscis monkeys and other threatened wildlife.
- Scientists have advocated for sustainable development practices and emphasized the importance of respecting local biodiversity while constructing the new city, Nusantara.
- Their recommendations include legal protection for affected areas, habitat restoration, and collaboration with local stakeholders to mitigate the environmental impact.
In the Brazilian outback, the half-century Kapinawá struggle for sacred ground
- The Catimbau Valley, in the backlands of Pernambuco state, is one of the most biodiverse areas in the Caatinga dry forest and also an archaeological treasure, with the second-largest collection of rock inscriptions in Brazil.
- It’s also the sacred and ancestral territory of the Kapinawá, a people who discovered their Indigenous identity in the mid-1970s amid a war against land-grabbers.
- Part of the Kapinawá lands became an Indigenous territory, while the remaining area was later transformed into a national park in 2002; those who live there complain about the numerous restrictions they now face.
- While fighting to reclaim their lands, the Kapinawá turn the Caatinga into a laboratory for experiments in agroecology, combining biodiversity preservation and food production.
Sarawak government’s hydropower plans worry Indigenous communities
- Indigenous residents begin submitting petitions as Sarawak officials announce three new cascading hydropower dams throughout the state.
- While Sarawak’s chief minister appears all-in for the dam in comments, other officials say plans hang on the results of upcoming feasibility studies.
- After some villages were devastated by older dams, Indigenous residents ask officials to consult them fully or simply drop the plans.
Grassroots efforts and an Emmy-winning film help Indigenous fight in Brazil
- The 2022 documentary “The Territory” won an Emmy award this January, shining a light on the Uru-eu-wau-wau Indigenous people and the invasions, conflicts and threats from land grabbers in their territory in the Brazilian Amazon from 2018 to 2021.
- After years of increasing invasions and deforestation in the protected area, experts say the situation has slowly improved in the past three years, and both Indigenous and government officials in the region “feel a little safer.”
- Grassroots surveillance efforts, increased visibility of the problems, and a more effective federal crackdown against invaders have helped tackle illegal land occupiers and allowed the Indigenous populations to take their land back.
- Despite the security improvements, however, the territory still struggles against invasions and deforestation within the region, experts say.
What’s at stake for the environment in El Salvador’s upcoming election?
- Salvadorans will go to the polls on February 4 to choose a president and 60 members of the Legislative Assembly.
- Polls show that President Nayib Bukele, who took office in 2019, will likely win by a wide margin despite constitutional restrictions on running for a second term.
- Environmental concerns include the destruction of coastal habitats by mega-infrastructure projects, the return of the mining industry and the safety of environmental defenders.
‘Hope is the last to die’: Q&A with Indigenous leader Jose Parava on land rights
- Jose Antônio Parava Ramos is a young leader of the Chiquitano people from the Portal do Encantado Indigenous land, in Mato Grosso state, west-central Brazil, bordering Bolívia.
- The Chiquitano people are an Indigenous group divided by borders, and their largest population currently lives in the neighboring Andean country.
- In Brazil, Parava’s land is the Chiquitano territory closest to completing its demarcation process; the people have waited more than a decade for this, and Portal do Encantado is just one of the many territories in the country in this situation.
- In a Mongabay interview, the Indigenous leader, who is also a health worker, sheds light on the pressures of deforestation and land conflicts on his territory and highlights the importance of demarcation to preserve his people’s identity.
Courage & calm despite attacks: Q&A with Colombian activist Yuly Velásquez
- For years, Colombia’s largest oil refinery, owned by the national oil company Ecopetrol, has discharged oil and toxic waste into water bodies, impacting fish and the livelihoods of fishers.
- Yuly Velásquez, a local fisher and president of an environmental organization, has spent years documenting water contamination and corruption linked to the refinery, and she faces consistent threats and attacks.
- According to a 2022 report by the NGO Global Witness, Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world for environmental and land defenders, with 60 murders that year.
- In this interview with Mongabay, she discusses the threats environmental defenders face in Colombia and what helps her stay resilient in the face of attacks.
Civil-backed proposal seeks to address root causes of Thailand’s choking haze
- Policymakers in Thailand have begun proceedings on a new Clean Air Act to address seasonal air pollution that blankets parts of the country every dry season, presenting what experts describe as severe health risks for citizens.
- Agricultural burning and industrial emissions, both locally and in neighboring countries, are the main sources of air pollution levels that annually exceed WHO safe limits, often making Thailand among the most polluted places in the world.
- Several draft versions of clean air legislation have been presented for parliamentary approval, including a citizen-backed proposal that focuses on empowering local action and addressing the root causes of the choking haze.
Shrinking civil space and persistent logging: 2023 in review in Southeast Asia
- Home to the third-largest expanse of tropical rainforest and some of the world’s fastest-growing economies, Southeast Asia has seen conservation wins and losses over the course of 2023.
- The year was characterized by a rising trend of repression against environmental and Indigenous defenders that cast a shadow of fear over the work of activists in many parts of the region.
- Logging pressure in remaining tracts of forest remained intense, and an El Niño climate pattern brought regional haze crises generated by forest fires and agricultural burning returned.
- But some progress was made on several fronts: Most notably, increasing understanding of the benefits and methods of ecosystem restoration underpinned local, national and regional efforts to bring back forests, mangroves and other crucial sanctuaries of biodiversity.
Indonesia remembers Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, rare policymaker who stood for nature
- Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, a respected Indonesian policymaker and environmentalist, passed away earlier this month, leaving behind a legacy of dedicated and direct leadership.
- Kuntoro’s lifelong dedication to environmental causes, including his support for Indigenous rights, was rooted in his early years as a nature lover.
- His former colleagues and collaborators recall Kuntoro’s integrity and commitment to balancing developmental and environmental interests.
- His ability to find common ground among diverse stakeholders, address challenges with innovative solutions, and emphasize the well-being of Indigenous communities showcased a practical leadership style with a lasting impact.
When will families of slain Amazon land defenders get justice? (commentary)
- As the world marked International Human Rights Day on December 10, the murders of 32 Indigenous leaders and Amazon land defenders stood as a stark reminder of the persistent and systematic human rights violations faced by Indigenous communities, and the urgent need for systemic change to ensure their individual and collective rights.
- The recent murder of Quinto Inuma Alvarado, Indigenous Kichwa leader and chief of the Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu community, is just the latest crime in a list of dozens in the Peruvian Amazon along the border with Brazil.
- “We urgently demand that the state, through its institutions, effectively commits to protecting those who defend their ancestral territories, implementing intersectoral mechanisms that go beyond declarations on paper and translate into concrete and effective actions,” a new op-ed states.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
NGOs at COP28 demand Vietnam free climate advocates before it gets energy funding
- Vietnam has unveiled the resource mobilization plan for its just energy transition partnership (JETP) at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai.
- The $15.5 billion plan, a partnership between Vietnam and G7 countries, outlines the policies and financing Vietnam will need to achieve 47% renewable energy and peak emissions in 2030.
- Environmentalists are calling for Vietnam to release imprisoned climate activists and guarantee protections for civil society before the JETP can move forward.
- In the past two years, Vietnam has imprisoned six leading environmental advocates, including individuals working on alternatives to fossil fuel expansion.
Safety of Peru’s land defenders in question after killing of Indigenous leader in the Amazon
- Quinto Inuma was killed on November 29 while traveling to the Santa Rosillo de Yanayacu community in Peru’s Amazon following a meeting of environmental defenders.
- For years, the Indigenous Kichwa leader had been receiving threats for his work trying to stop invasions, land trafficking, drug trafficking and illegal logging in his community, forcing him to rely on protection measures from the Ministry of Justice.
- After Inuma’s death, a group of 128 Indigenous communities released a statement appealing for justice and holding the Peruvian state reponsible for its inaction and ineffectivtieness in protecting the lives of human rights defenders in Indigenous territories. Several other Indigenous leaders who receive threats have requested protection measures from the state but have not gotten a response.
- According to an official in the Ministry of Justice, providing the Kichwa leader with protection measures was very complex because he lived in a high-risk area. The only thing that could be done, they said, is to provide permanent police protection, which wasn’t possible for the local police.
Nickel mine threatens Philippines biodiversity hotspot on Sibuyan Island (analysis)
- The pursuit of cleaner sources of energy could lead to the destruction of a biodiversity hotspot of global significance — the ‘Galapagos of Asia’ — a new analysis argues.
- Communities on Sibuyan Island have opposed mining for over 50 years but need decisive action from the government to safeguard their forests and rivers via a permanent mining ban.
- Demand for nickel and other ‘energy transition metals’ is set to increase, requiring long-term planning and rigorous, independent and participatory assessment of environmental & social impacts.
- This post is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
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.
African leaders & activists will bring new demands, hopes to COP28
- As world leaders prepare to meet in Dubai for COP28, African activists bring new hopes and expectations following the first-ever Africa Climate Summit (ACS) that took place in Nairobi in September.
- The ACS resulted in a historic Nairobi Declaration, calling on the global community to fulfill promises for climate financing, adaptation, mitigation and emissions reduction.
- Activists say they hope COP28 will result in decisive action to implement the Loss and Damage Fund that aims to support countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, but skeptics say they worry this summit will result in the same old story, especially as the COP28 presidency is held by an oil baron.
Panama copper mine to close after Supreme Court rules concession unconstitutional
- Minera Panamá, a subsidiary of the Canadian company First Quantum Minerals (FQM), will have to shut down the Cobre Panamá mine after the country’s highest court ruled the concession contract unconstitutional.
- One of the challenges to the constitutionality of the contract focused on tendering, a process in which companies are invited to bid on a project, ensuring a fair market and competition.
- Last year, the mine produced over 86,000 tons of copper, around 1% of the world’s total production and 5% of Panama’s GDP. But the operation is also exacerbating a current drought and threatening migratory birds, protestors said.
End of impunity for Indigenous killings in sight for Brazil’s Guajajara
- Indigenous forest guardian Paulo Paulino Guajajara was killed in November 2019 in an alleged ambush by illegal loggers in the Arariboia Indigenous Territory in Brazil’s Maranhão state.
- Mongabay’s Karla Mendes, who interviewed Paulo for a documentary film nine months before his death, returned to Arariboia in August 2023 to talk with his family and the other guardian who survived the attack, Laércio Guajajara, and shine a light on a case that still hasn’t gone to trial after four years.
- “If those invaders had managed to kill us both, me and Paulo, they were going to hide us in the forest. Who would find us? Nobody was ever going to find me or Paulo again in a forest of that size,” Laércio says of his will to warn the guardians about Paulo’s murder, even as he suffered four gunshot wounds.
- Justice may soon be on the horizon for the Guajajara people: Paulo’s case will be the first killing of an Indigenous defender that will go before a federal jury, likely in the first half of 2024, after a court in late October denied a motion by those accused to try the case in state court.
The trial that could change the fate of the Guajajara
ARARIBOIA INDIGENOUS TERRITORY, Brazil — In November 2019, Paulo Paulino Guajajara, a dedicated “Guardian of the Forest,” was tragically murdered in an ambush allegedly orchestrated by loggers in Brazil’s Maranhão state. As a member of the Indigenous Guajajara community in the Arariboia Territory, Paulo played a crucial role in protecting not only his people but also […]
‘We won’t give up’: DRC’s Front Line Defenders award winner Olivier Ndoole Bahemuke
- Olivier Ndoole Bahemuke, Africa winner of the 2023 Front Line Defenders Award, is an environmental lawyer and community activist.
- He has spent 15 years working in defense of communities in and around Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- Because of his activism in a region dominated by armed conflict and the illicit exploitation of natural resources, including gold and coltan, his life has been threatened on numerous occasions and he currently lives in exile.
- Defending the environment is becoming increasingly dangerous: Nearly half of the 194 human rights defenders killed in 2022 were environmental defenders.
Fisheries managers should act to protect swordfish this month (commentary)
- Between 1960 and 1996 swordfish declined more than 65%, the average size of fish caught shrank, and the species became severely overfished in the North Atlantic.
- A campaign led by consumer groups and chefs helped convince regulators like ICCAT to take action, to the point that the fishery is now considered ‘recovered.’
- Top chef and restaurateur Rick Moonen’s new op-ed argues that it’s time for a next step: “Now ICCAT has another opportunity to improve the long-term health of the swordfish population. This November, ICCAT members can adopt a new management approach for the stock and lock in sustainable fishing,” he says.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Muslim community must have a seat for global climate change discourse (commentary)
- Muslims account for nearly a quarter of the world’s total population, much of which is impacted by climate change.
- At the same time, Islamic worldviews can bring solution-based perspectives to events like the upcoming COP28 climate conference later this month.
- “It should be recognized that Islamic frameworks of climate solution thinking are important, and the climate issues facing Muslims need to be at the forefront of climate discourse as well,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
The Indo-West Pacific harbors two distinct mangrove hotspots, study says
- New research on slugs has found two types of mangrove forests in the Indo-West Pacific region, highlighting their much-needed protection against deforestation and rising sea levels.
- The Indo-West Pacific is known to have the highest diversity of mangrove plants in the world, but it wasn’t previously clear which parts of the region had peak diversity.
- The latest research found the mangrove forests of the archipelagic region that spans from Papua New Guinea to Malaysia differ in numerous characteristics, including sediment size, freshwater input and plant species.
Malaysian logger Samling’s track record leaves Indigenous Sarawak questioning its plans
- Malaysian timber giant Samling has held logging concessions in the Bornean state of Sarawak since the 1970s, many of them overlapping with Indigenous customary lands.
- In a recently settled lawsuit, Samling described complaints against its operations in Sarawak as defamatory.
- Mongabay recently traveled to Sarawak to meet with Indigenous and local leaders, who said that while the company has recently made more efforts to meet with villages affected by logging, it’s not doing much to address their complaints and suggestions.
How the United Nations, kids and corporations saved the Red Sea from an oil disaster
- In August, an international effort led by the U.N. averted a massive oil spill in the Red Sea.
- The FSO Safer, a deteriorating oil tanker anchored in Yemen’s Marib Basin, posed a 1.14-million-barrel environmental and humanitarian threat, with a potential $20 billion cleanup cost.
- Even schoolchildren from Westbrook Elementary School in Maryland recognized the urgency and initiated their own fundraising efforts, but most oil companies with historical involvement in the Marib Basin have failed to contribute so far.
- While some nations and organizations stepped up to help, ongoing challenges in securing funding highlight the need for collective responsibility in preventing environmental disasters.
Communities track a path of destruction through a Cambodian wildlife sanctuary
- Illegal logging persists deep in the heart of Cambodia’s Chhaeb-Preah Roka Wildlife Sanctuary amid government inaction and even complicity with the loggers.
- Routine patrols by local activists and community members have painstakingly documented the site of each logged tree in the supposedly protected area, even as these community patrols have been banned by the authorities.
- Mongabay reporters joined one of these patrols in April, where a run-in with rangers underscored complaints that the authorities crack down harder on those seeking to protect the forest than on those destroying it.
- A government official denied that the logging was driven by commercial interests, despite evidence to the contrary, instead blaming local communities for cutting down trees to build homes.
Cambodia bars green activists from traveling to accept international award
- Three Cambodian environmental activists have been barred from leaving the country to accept an award in Sweden, prompting criticism of the government.
- Long Kunthea, Phun Keo Reaksmey and Thun Ratha are with the group Mother Nature Cambodia, which last month was named a winner of the Right Livelihood award for its “relentless” activism against environmental destruction in the country.
- The three are currently under court supervision following early release from jail in a case related to their activism, which means they can’t travel abroad.
- Mother Nature Cambodia’s founder says the government has put itself in a “lose-lose situation” by barring them, as the incident has both garnered international scrutiny and revealed the shrinking space for civil society in Cambodia.
Brazil’s Indigenous women march again for the rights of their people and lives
- Trying to consolidate their leading role in the fight for territory and political prominence, around 8,000 Indigenous women occupied Brasília during the III March of Indigenous Women.
- Aware of the role of Indigenous peoples in preserving biodiversity, the meeting was scheduled to discuss climate emergencies and the importance of Indigenous women’s participation in the U.N. Climate Conference, to be held in Belém, in northern Brazil, in 2025.
- Amid debates in Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court, the demarcation of Indigenous territories was brought to the top of the list of urgent issues at this year’s march.
Logging route cut into Cambodia’s Prey Lang from Think Biotech’s concession
- A road carved from a reforestation concession into the heart of Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary in Cambodia appears to be facilitating the illegal logging and trafficking of valuable timber, a Mongabay investigation has revealed.
- The road originates in the concession of Think Biotech, a company previously implicated in forestry crimes, but its director denies being involved in the new road.
- The road had advanced 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) into the ostensibly protected Prey Lang before authorities ordered a crackdown — one that activists say was just for show and targeted only small-time loggers.
- Community groups and activists say Prey Lang’s forests are being decimated at alarming rates, with satellite data showing nearly the same amount of forest cover loss in the past five years as in the previous 18.
Small wins for Indigenous Malaysian activists in dispute with timber giant
- For decades, Indigenous activists in the Malaysian state of Sarawak have found themselves in conflict with timber giant Samling.
- In September, Samling agreed to withdraw a lawsuit it filed against SAVE Rivers, a local NGO that publicized concerns about the company’s treatment of people living in and around two areas under the company’s management.
- Samling also lost certification for its Ravenscourt Forest Management Unit, one of the areas of concern in its lawsuit against SAVE Rivers.
- Activists in Sarawak say they will continue in their fight to empower Indigenous communities questioning Samling and other industrial giants’ plans for their land and resources.
As climate change hits the Turkish coast, more marine reserves are needed (commentary)
- The Mediterranean Sea’s marine life is facing many threats, not least of which is the rapidly rising water temperatures.
- The sea is warming faster than the global average, and with that warmth comes unwelcome tropical visitors like lionfish, which prey on native marine biodiversity, spurring conservationists to focus fishing pressure on these voracious predators, but that’s not all they’re doing.
- “We believe the expansion of the marine protected area network is now an essential next step, and we are working with the Turkish government to make this happen,” one such conservationist writes in a new op-ed.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Vietnamese environmentalist sentenced to 3 years in prison for tax evasion
- Hoang Thi Minh Hong, founder of Vietnamese environmental advocacy group CHANGE, was sentenced Sept. 28 to three years in prison for tax evasion.
- Hong is now the fifth prominent Vietnamese environmentalist to be charged with tax evasion. Activists say the country’s vaguely worded tax laws are weaponized by the government to punish people deemed as threats to authority.
- In related news, activists say Ngo Thi To Nhien, executive director of the Hanoi-based Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition Social Enterprise, was detained by police Sept. 15, though the arrest has not yet been officially announced and it is not yet clear what charges she faces.
Mother Nature Cambodia’s ‘relentless’ activism earns Right Livelihood Award
- Environmental activist group Mother Nature Cambodia has been named one of Right Livelihood’s 2023 laureates.
- The award, established in 1980, recognizes groups and individuals striving to preserve the environment and those who protect it.
- Mother Nature Cambodia has played a key role in campaigns against environmentally destructive dams, logging and sand mining, resulting in the imprisonment of multiple group members and banishment of its founder.
10 years after land grab, local Nigerian farmers continue fight against palm oil producer
- A decade after transnational palm oil company Wilmar took control of a derelict oil palm plantation, local residents continue to fight for the farmlands, forests and rivers they use.
- The government leased land from several local communities in 1962, but abandoned it in the 1970s.
- In 2012, against the backdrop of a drive to expand Nigeria’s palm oil production, the land was transferred to Wilmar in a move bitterly resisted by local residents.
- Critics say expanding oil palm plantations are accelerating deforestation and local residents complain that Wilmar has encroached on their farms and wastewater from the plantation has contaminated watercourses.
‘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.
Brazilian Indigenous artists take the forest to the world
- In recent years, several exhibitions held abroad have featured Indigenous people from Brazil and Latin America, giving unprecedented visibility to artists historically erased by gallery owners and museums.
- Some examples include Siamo Foresta in Milan; The Yanomami Struggle in New York, and BEĨ: Benches of Brazilian Indigenous Peoples in Japan.
- According to curators, the works transcend a mere aesthetic vision, being deeply connected to each people’s cosmologies, in addition to taking political and socioenvironmental issues into museums and galleries.
Skepticism as Cambodia expands protected areas by more than a million hectares
- Cambodia expanded the coverage of its protected areas by 1.06 million hectares (2.62 million acres) in July and August, a flurry of subdecrees shows.
- However, civil society groups have expressed skepticism about the lack of consultation involved in the process and the ability of authorities to police this much larger area, given the ineffective enforcement of existing protected areas.
- Much of the newly protected land appears to be corridors neighboring existing protected areas, where homes and farms are already established.
- This has raised concerns about a surge in conflicts over land and access to natural resources, particularly affecting Indigenous communities.
Video: Five Tembé Indigenous activists shot in Amazonian ‘palm oil war’
- In just 72 hours, five Indigenous people were wounded by gunfire in violent attacks in the past few days in a part of the Brazilian Amazon dubbed the “palm oil war” region, sparking outrage and claims for justice.
- This was the latest episode in a wave of escalating violence tied to land disputes between Indigenous communities and palm oil companies in the region, which Mongabay has consistently reported on over the past year.
- In this video, Mongabay showcases the Tembé Indigenous peoples’ outrage against increasing violence in the area as they protest for justice.
In Sabah, natural capital agreement surfaces again, despite critics
- In October 2021, an agreement signed without public knowledge by members of the Sabah state government, a Singaporean firm and an Australian consultancy committed 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) of land in the Bornean state to a 100-year carbon deal.
- Since Mongabay surfaced news of the agreement in November 2021, the project has stalled in the face of a wave of criticism about its origins and planned implementation.
- In recent weeks, the proponents of the deal, including Sabah’s Deputy Chief Minister Jeffrey Kitingan, have publicly resumed efforts to bring the agreement into force.
- Civil society groups opposed to the project say that concerns remain over Indigenous rights and lack of transparency or details about the planned project.
International community calls for release of El Salvador antimining activists
- Calls from the international community are growing for the release of five environmental activists fighting water pollution and mining in El Salvador who were arrested in January.
- A lack of evidence behind the allegation that they were involved in a civil war-era kidnapping and murder has raised questions from U.S. officials and the U.N. about the legitimacy of the charges.
- A group of 17 U.S. members of Congress is the latest to call for their release and a closer look at the steps the government is taking to renew a defunct mining sector.
- The five “water defenders” say there’s insufficient evidence in the case and that they’re protected from prosecution by a post-war reconciliation law.
Airport proposal for Malaysian island doesn’t fly with conservationists
- A proposal to build an international airport on Tioman Island in Malaysia would destroy coral reefs in the heart of one of the country’s most biodiverse marine parks and have wide-ranging impacts on local communities and biodiversity.
- Plans for the airport were rejected by authorities in 2018 due to the scale of the environmental impacts it would cause, but government officials are again considering an environmental impact assessment for the development.
- Many of the island’s 3,000 residents have been left in the dark about the plans, which could wipe out livelihoods in two of the island’s seven villages.
- Critics of the project recommend authorities focus on upgrading an existing airstrip on the island to accept larger aircraft and in the meantime invest in sustainable, meaningful, nature-based tourism.
Opposition grows to Indonesia’s resumption of sea sand exports
- Marine conservation and fisheries activists in Indonesia are pushing for exports of sea sand to be scrapped, saying the activity harms the environment and community livelihoods.
- Indonesia imposed a ban on exports of dredged sea sand in 2003, but reversed the policy through a regulation issued in May this year.
- Activists say the policy directly threatens the future of Indonesian fishing and coastal communities in the world’s largest archipelagic nation, where millions of people are dependent on fishing for their livelihoods.
- Others say the resumption of exports will benefit foreign interests, including Singapore, which has expanded its land area by 20% thanks largely to Indonesian sand, and China, which is building artificial islands to shore up its claims to parts of the South China Sea.
Munduruku Collective interviews Maria Leusa on leading the Indigenous struggle
- At the end of April, about 60 Munduruku Indigenous people from several villages in Pará traveled more than 2,800 kilometers (1,740 miles) to participate in the 19th Acampamento Terra Livre (the “Free Land Camp,” known as ATL), the largest gathering of Brazil ‘s original peoples, held in Brasília.
- Among the group were the young people of the Wakoborũn Audiovisual Collective, who, in addition to documenting the event, conducted a long interview with one of their main leaders, Maria Leusa Munduruku.
- In this interview, Maria Leusa talks about the challenges of being a female Indigenous leader, the violence that her people have suffered from prospectors and the dream of seeing Munduruku territory finally demarcated.
Climate of fear persists among Nepal’s eco defenders as threats rise
- Environmental human rights defenders in Nepal continue to fear for their safety and lives amid a lack of protection from the government, a new report shows.
- It found that despite rising threats to the environment, Nepal doesn’t have specific legislation to define who defenders are, their work, or the measures of protection they need.
- It also found that women defenders, in particular, were more likely to experience domestic violence and sexual assault because of their work, as well as excluded from decision-making processes and participation in public life.
- Some of the respondents in the study cited the January 2020 killing of Dilip Mahato, a critic of illegal sand mining in Dhanusha district: “People pay attention … only when they get killed.”
In Indonesia’s Aru Islands, a popular eco-defender climbs the political ladder
- A decade ago, Mika Ganobal campaigned to prevent Indonesia’s eastern Aru Islands from becoming a sugar plantation.
- Mika has since risen from a village chief to the head of one of the Aru Islands’ 10 subdistricts.
- Mika and his wife, Dina Somalay, are raising their children to understand and value a rich landscape that was almost lost a decade ago.
Award-winning community group in Sumatra cleans up lake
- A group of locals have since 2013 tried to clean up the trash pooling in Lake Sipin in the Sumatran province of Jambi.
- Their efforts have received national attention, with their leader, Leni Haini, awarded the country’s highest environmental award in 2022 by the government.
- Indonesia has announced a plan to restore 15 lakes (Sipin isn’t included) across the country by 2024, citing their high degree of degradation, chiefly sedimentation, which has resulted in their rapid shrinking and a decline in the biodiversity they host.
- These lakes are crucial in supporting the livelihoods of millions of Indonesians, serving as a source of freshwater, a form of flood control, and a site for fish-farming and tourism.
Experts, activists unite to blast Indonesia’s U-turn on sea sand exports
- Indonesia will resume exporting sand dredged from the sea, commonly used in reclamation projects, ending a 20-year ban.
- Environmental activists and marine experts have criticized the policy, saying the resumption caters only to business interests and fails to consider the damage to marine ecosystems and fishing communities.
- The government says it will only allow dredging on seabed areas where sediment from land runoff has accumulated, adding that this will also help ease ship traffic.
- But critics say these arguments are meaningless and a form of greenwashing, and have called for widespread public opposition to the policy.
License to Log: Cambodian military facilitates logging on Koh Kong Krao and across the Cardamoms
- Cambodia’s largest island, Koh Kong Krao, off its southwest coast, is covered in largely untouched old-growth forest, but recent satellite imagery shows deforestation is spreading.
- Much of the forest cover loss is in areas tightly controlled by Marine Brigade 2, a navy unit stationed on the island that has historically been accused of facilitating the illicit timber trade.
- Residents of the island said the navy controls almost every aspect of life there, with provincial officials afraid to intervene or investigate the military’s actions on Koh Kong Krao.
- Cambodia’s military has long been a key factor in illegal logging across the country, and reporters found evidence of its continued involvement in logging across the Cardamoms.
Citizens demand sustainable solution to haze crisis in northern Thailand
- Citizens in northern Thailand have mounted a legal challenge against the prime minister and several government departments for inaction to tackle air pollution that experts say reduces people’s life expectancy and violates basic human rights.
- Air pollution levels in the northern city of Chiang Mai exceeded WHO guideline standards more than twentyfold earlier this year, ranking it among the most polluted places in the world.
- The sources of pollution are mainly from agricultural burning, both locally and in neighboring countries, a practice that coincides each year with the dry season. Air quality is also affected by forest fires that have taken a toll on the region’s landscapes and wildlife in recent years.
- Observers say the legal challenge is an example of civil society’s growing awareness of the right to use litigation avenues to hold companies and government departments accountable to their environmental commitments.
Latest environmentalist arrest shocks Vietnam’s battered civil society
- Prominent Vietnamese environmentalist Hoang Thi Minh Hong has been arrested, becoming the latest civil society activist to face charges of tax evasion.
- Hong’s NGO, the Center of Hands-on Action and Networking for Growth and Environment (CHANGE), shut down last year amid intense pressure on civil society groups in the country.
- Another leading environmentalist, Goldman Environmental Prize winner Nguy Thi Khanh, was also jailed on tax evasion charges, but released from prison five months early on May 13.
- Fellow activist Dang Dinh Bach, jailed for five years for tax evasion, plans to begin a hunger strike “to the death” on June 24.
Early release for imprisoned climate activist as Vietnam aims for net zero goals
- Vietnamese climate activist Nguy Thi Khanh was quietly released from prison this month, five months earlier than scheduled.
- No reasoning has been given for Khanh’s release, which has not been formally announced or discussed in local media, but activists note that Vietnam will require international financing to pursue its decarbonization goals, including a recently signed power development plan.
- Three prominent environmental activists remain imprisoned in Vietnam. One, Dang Dinh Bach, has announced plans to begin a hunger strike “to the death” on June 24.
Sarawak Indigenous NGO squeezed by defamation case, silenced from reporting alleged logging
- For the fourth time, the hearing of a defamation suit filed by Malaysia-based timber company Samling against Indigenous rights group SAVE Rivers has been delayed.
- According to the statement of claim filed by Samling plaintiffs, the case hinges on eight articles published on SAVE Rivers’ website between June 2020 and March 2021 involving allegations of illegal logging and a rush to gain sustainable forestry certification, which Samling says is untrue.
- Last month, 160 organizations signed a letter describing this suit as a strategic litigation against public participation, or SLAPP case, noting that the fine — plaintiffs are asking for 5 million ringgit ($1.1 million) — would bankrupt SAVE Rivers.
- The deferment of the trial comes days after the Forest Stewardship Council, an international organization that operates a certification scheme for sustainable forestry, said the company will be investigated for alleged violations of the council’s policies.
Award-winning, Indigenous peace park dragged into fierce conflict in Myanmar
- Two years since the Feb 1, 2021 military coup in Myanmar, Indigenous activists continue their struggle to protect the Salween Peace Park, an Indigenous Karen-led protected area, from conflict.
- The park was subject to military-led deadly airstrikes in March 2021 and renewed violence in the vicinity of the park continues to force people to flee their homes into the forest.
- The Salween Peace Park was launched in 2018 and encompasses 5,485 square kilometers (nearly 1.4 million acres) of the Salween River Basin in one of Southeast Asia’s most biologically rich ecoregions.
- With many examples around the world, peace parks seek to preserve zones of biodiversity and cultural heritage using conservation to promote peacebuilding. The SPP includes more than 350 villages, 27 community forests, four forest reserves, and three wildlife sanctuaries.
Proposal to export 100,000 crop-raiding macaques sparks outcry in Sri Lanka
- Following the Sri Lanka Agriculture Ministry’s confirmation of a request from a Chinese company to import 100,000 toque macaques for their zoos, environmentalists have mounted protests over fears that monkeys may be used for medical experiments or as a food delicacy.
- The toque macaque (Macaca sinica) is a primate endemic to Sri Lanka but is also an agricultural pest that often causes considerable damage to crops such as coconuts, vegetables and fruits; the ministry is considering possible solutions, including population control.
- Meanwhile, a recent study indicates the presence of toque macaques on 80% of the tropical island, but experts say the government’s claim of a monkey population of 3 million is an exaggeration.
- On the contrary, some farmers and villagers in monkey-infested areas have responded positively, saying the removal of 100,000 toque macaques from the environment can be the beginning of a solution.
Report warns of rising violence against environmental defenders in Mexico
- A new report from the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA) says the country is experiencing a rise in violence against environmental defenders, who suffer everything from intimidation to kidnapping to murder.
- The violence spans the country and numerous economic sectors, including mining, urban expansion, infrastructure, logging, agriculture and energy.
- In total, CEMDA counted 197 instances of aggression in 2022 — nearly double from the previous year — of which 24 resulted in death.
- CEMDA called on the government to improve protections for sensitive ecosystems and cultural patrimony while deprioritizing harmful industries like mining and hydrocarbons.
Power of traditional beliefs lies at the heart of an anti-mine campaign in PNG
- A newly published study published explores the important role that traditional Papua New Guinean beliefs play in an ongoing campaign against a copper and gold mine on a tributary of the Sepik River.
- Critics say the controversial mine project could potentially pollute one of the most biologically and culturally diverse places on Earth, while supporters point to potential development benefits.
- The Save the Sepik campaign against the mine harnesses traditional governance structures and beliefs, acknowledging the spirits of ancestors, the land and river, in a declaration that has become a rallying cry for the campaign.
- The campaign’s success so far — licenses haven’t been awarded for the mine project — is part of a growing global movement that acknowledges the close relationship some communities have with a sentient environment.
Ecuador banned gas flaring over a year ago. Why is it still happening?
- In September 2021, a provincial court gave oil companies 18 months to eliminate gas flaring in the Amazon because of its role in spiking cancer rates among local residents.
- That deadline expired in March, but today oil companies continue to use gas flares more than ever. Before the court ruling, there were an estimated 447 gas flares in the country. Today, there are 475.
- Activists say they still have some legal avenues for pressuring the government to enforce the ban, including impeaching ministers that fail to comply with the court’s order.
A Ramadan reflection on Islam and climate action (commentary)
- Muslims everywhere are currently observing Ramadan, a month of fasting and striving to grow their faith through prayer and acts of goodness.
- This month also marked the release of the new IPCC report on climate change, which provided the world with an urgent call to action.
- “The connection of the inner state of the heart with the outer state of physical action is the very point of intersection at which Ramadan and the new IPCC report meet. As Muslims focus on their worship…it is imperative that they make a very conscious commitment to connect their acts of worship towards the wellbeing of the Earth,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Jashodhon Pramanik: The farmer guardian of birds in Bangladesh
- Jashodhon Pramanik, a farmer from Natore, Bangladesh, has initiated a bird conservation movement.
- His 23 years of activism led to the banning of air guns, the creation of bird sanctuaries in every district and the creation of watering holes for birds.
- His one-man initiative Pokkhikuler Asroy O Khaddo Nischitkaron Prokolpo (Project for Ensuring Food and Shelter for Birds) influenced the government to make more than 30 decisions in favor of protecting birds.
‘Hope is action.’ David Suzuki retires into a life of determined activism
- One of Canada’s best known scientists and ecologists, David Suzuki recently announced his retirement from
hosting “The Nature of Things,” the acclaimed Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television series seen in over 40 countries.
- Also a prolific author with 52 books to his name, he has now turned his attention to becoming an ‘active elder’ in the fight to save the planet.
- “The thing about elders [is] they’re beyond worrying about money or power or celebrity, so that they can speak a kind of truth,” he told Mongabay in a new interview.
When a red snapper is more than just a fish: Q&A fisheries scientist Elle Wibisono
- Fisheries scientist and artist Elle Wibisono recently published a children’s book, “A Snapper Tale,” that features red-colored snappers native to Indonesia’s waters.
- Equipped with her extensive knowledge and experience in marine conservation and sustainable fisheries, Wibisono uses her book to highlight the importance of fish identification, a key component of sustainable fisheries.
- Indonesia is home to one of the world’s richest marine ecosystems, with its fisheries sector supplying seafood demand from home and around the world.
- Mongabay’s Basten Gokkon spoke with Elle Wibisono recently about her book and the highlighted fisheries issues, and her hopes for the impacts it will have on readers young and old and on Indonesia’s marine conservation policies.
In Sri Lanka and beyond, seagrass key to livelihoods, marine habitats
- Following a proposal from Sri Lanka, the United Nations declared March 1 as World Seagrass Day, recognizing their importance and creating awareness of this much-overlooked marine habitat.
- A recent four-country study including Sri Lanka examines household dependencies on seagrass and highlights how coastal fishers rely on seagrass habitats for higher fish catch.
- Similar to several other countries, seagrass habitats in Sri Lanka are threatened by an array of issues and activists are calling for government intervention to prevent new aquaculture and mineral mining projects in close proximity to key seagrass habitats.
- Meanwhile, experts are calling for a strategic environmental assessment of Sri Lanka’s coastline, especially focusing on the blue carbon ecosystems, including seagrasses.
Make it local: Deforestation link to less Amazon rainfall tips activism shift
- A new study supports mounting evidence that deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest correlates with a reduction in regional rainfall.
- Experts say this research reinforces the findings of other studies that claim the Amazon is leaning toward its “tipping point” and the southern regions are gradually becoming drier.
- Environmentalists see this research as an opportunity to reshape conservation activism and policy towards local communities.
Vietnam’s environmental NGOs face uncertain status, shrinking civic space
- A wave of recent closures of environment organizations in Vietnam, as well as the arrests of NGO leaders, reflects the difficult position that activists face in the one-party state.
- Nonprofit organizations have an unclear legal status in the country, and are vulnerable to pressure from the state as well as from powerful private interests.
- Though the communist-led government has at times recognized the value of NGOs as partners in implementing social and environmental programs, it has also attacked the concept of civil society as a threat to official ideology and morality.
Is El Salvador preparing to reverse its landmark mining ban?
- El Salvador banned all mining of metals in 2017, but environmentalists are concerned that the government is preparing to reverse the decision and bring in international investment.
- The government has created a new agency to oversee extractive industries and begun looking into international agreements that facilitate investment in precious metals.
- Five “water defenders,” who have spent decades speaking out contamination of water sources by mining projects, were arrested in January after mining officials visited their town of Santa Marta.
Dammed, now mined: Indigenous Brazilians fight for the Xingu River’s future
- Canadian mining company Belo Sun wants to build a huge gold mine in the Big Bend of the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon, but faces opposition from Indigenous communities.
- In addition to the environmental impacts, experts warn of the risk of the proposed tailings dam rupturing, which could flood the area with 9 million cubic meters (2.4 billion gallons) of toxic waste.
- The same region is already suffering the impacts of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, which diverts up to 85% of the flow of the Xingu River, leading to a mass decline in fish that traditional riverside dwellers and Indigenous people rely on.
- The Belo Sun project was legally challenged last year, prompting supporters to harass and intimidate those who oppose the mine’s construction; tensions in the region remain high.
Weakening of agrarian reform program increases violence against settlers in Brazilian Amazon
- Residents of a landless workers’ settlement in Anapu, Pará state, in Brazil’s Amazon region, accuse the federal government of favoring large landowners, land-grabbers and corporations at the expense of poor and landless peasants.
- This year, the settlers have already suffered three attacks by landowners, with houses set on fire and a school destroyed.
- In 2021, Incra, the Brazilian federal agency responsible for addressing the country’s deep inequalities in rural land use and ownership, made an agreement with the mining company Belo Sun, which ceded 2,400 hectares (5,930 acres) of an area reserved for agrarian reform for gold exploration in exchange for equipment and a percentage of mining profits.
- In protest, landless peasants occupied one of the areas included in the agreement; since then, they have been threatened and intimidated by Belo Sun supporters and armed security guards hired by the mining company.
Indonesia’s ‘essential’ mangroves, seagrass and corals remain unprotected
- Much of Indonesia’s mangrove forests, seagrass beds and coral reefs fall outside protected areas, according to a recently published report.
- Indonesia currently has 284,000 square kilometers (110,000 square miles) of marine area under protection, and plans to expand the size of its MPAs to 325,000 km2 (125,000 mi2) by the end of this decade, or 10% of its total territorial waters.
- Less than half of seagrass and coral reefs, and less than a fifth of mangroves, lie within currently protected areas, which experts say could thwart efforts at effective marine conservation.
- The country is home to some of the most diverse marine life on the planet, especially in its eastern region that falls within the Pacific Coral Triangle, an area renowned for its richness of corals and reef fish.
‘We are digital guerrilla fighters’: Q&A with young Indigenous activist Samela Sateré Mawé
- Samela Sateré Mawé, a leading voice among Brazil’s Indigenous youth, spoke to Mongabay about the importance of social media to Indigenous peoples as a means to carry out their activism.
- Samela also spoke about the videos she produces for an Indigenous audience, which seek to tackle and explain topics that are difficult to understand through conventional media: “Making didactic videos on the internet is about trying to simplify and democratize the news, so everyone can understand what is really happening.”
- Having recently attended COP27, the UN climate change conference, Samela shared her feelings on the event as well as her perspectives for 2023.
Myanmar communities decry disempowerment as forest guardians since 2021 coup
- Within the shrinking civic space and violent aftermath of Myanmar’s February 2021 military coup, community-level efforts to safeguard Myanmar’s vast tracts of forest from development are buckling under the pressure of rampant resource extraction.
- Representatives of Indigenous peoples and local communities recently highlighted the challenges facing IPLCs in the country, many of whom have been displaced by conflict and estranged from their ancestral lands and forests.
- Environmental defenders and Indigenous rights activists are among those targeted for arrest and detention by military-backed groups.
- Activists are questioning how the world can seriously address global climate change when environmental defenders are actively being prevented from taking action.
‘They paid for it with misery’: Q&A with Chile dam critic Jose Marihuan Ancanao
- Jose Marihuan Ancanao, president of the Ayin Mapu La Peña community, spoke to Mongabay’s Maxwell Radwin about the impact of hydropower plants in parts of the Chilean Andes that are home to Indigenous people with a spiritual connection to rivers and the surrounding mountains.
- Marihuan was relocated in the early 2000s by a different hydropower plant and, although relocation isn’t a threat this time around, is witnessing the construction of another mega dam near his community.
- The 90-megawatt Rucalhue power plant has resulted in the felling of nationally protected trees sacred to the Pehuenche and, once finished, would flood some ancestral land.
Dam construction ignites Indigenous youth movement in southern Chile
- Dam construction on the Bío Bío watershed has plagued Indigenous Mapuche-Pehuenche communities in south-central Chile for decades, with many families having to relocate due to flooding of ancestral lands.
- The 90-megawatt Rucalhue hydropower plant, located near the town of Santa Bárbara, is the latest project causing controversy among local communities, who say they’re sick of battling infrastructure projects that disrespect their culture and traditions.
- Young people have been particularly outspoken against the project, staging sit-ins at the work site, sending petitions to government agencies, and helping organize a local plebiscite.
- Hydropower plants, while less polluting than many other forms of energy generation, still require the clearing of trees and the disrupting of river flows, which can have a significant impact on surrounding ecosystems.
Attorney keeps alive legacy of murdered Pará activists, despite death threats
- Ten years after the murder of community leaders Zé Claudio da Silva and Maria do Espírito Santo, attorney Claudelice dos Santos formally created an institute named after her brother and sister-in-law to support families at risk because of their social-environmental activism in Amazonia.
- Santos earned a law degree in order to fight for the issues that have become life-and-death matters for activists in southeastern Pará. In this historically violent region, Zé Claudio and Maria were fighting against the illegal activities of farm owners, loggers and land-grabbers inside the rainforest.
- Known for defending standing forests, land reform and extractive community rights, the couple had received innumerous threats before they were murdered for their activism.
- Eleven years later, the attorney still receives threats for defending this legacy and seeking justice: The two perpetrators of the crime are in prison but the man convicted of hiring them remains free.
How an Indigenous family under siege became a symbol of resistance in the Amazon
- Neidinha, Almir and Txai Suruí are leading the fight against invaders destroying two of the most threatened Indigenous territories in the Brazilian state of Rondônia: the Sete de Setembro and Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau reserves.
- Indigenous territories in Rôndonia have been the target of a recent wave of illegal activities such as land invasions, illegal mining and illegal logging, while their defenders have been threatened and even killed.
- The violence faced by defenders of the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau Indigenous Territory has been captured in the documentary “The Territory” (“O Território”), released in Europe and the U.S. in August and in Brazil in September, in which part of the production team was made up of local Indigenous leaders.
Mangroves and wildlife in Bornean bay at risk from Indonesia’s new capital
- Experts and activists say the construction of Indonesia’s new capital city upstream of Balikpapan Bay on the island of Borneo fails to mitigate against damage to the marine ecosystem.
- The stretch of coast between the bay and the mouth of the Mahakam River is packed with mangroves, which host a rich diversity of marine and terrestrial life, including proboscis monkeys and Irrawaddy dolphins.
- The government has said the construction of the new capital, Nusantara, will include retaining a large swath of mangrove forest, but zoning details show most of it won’t be protected against development.
- The $33 billion planned city will in 2024 take over as the Indonesian capital from Jakarta, and its full construction will be completed by 2045, according to the government’s plans.
‘Destructive & flawed’: Claire Nouvian on bottom trawling’s many impacts
- Goldman Environmental Prize winner Claire Nouvian joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss the many impacts of bottom trawling and a historic policy shift by the European Commission to rein in the practice.
- This kind of fishing is known for damaging deep-water coral reef ecosystems and marine biodiversity, and for having a heavy carbon footprint.
- Nouvian discusses the successful activism of her organization that won an EU-wide ban on bottom trawling below 800 meters (875 yards) after seven years of grassroots organizing. She also discusses what individuals can do if they want to support more sustainable fishing practices.
Vietnam’s Human Rights Council bid under fire after environmentalists jailed
- Fifty-two winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize have signed on to a letter calling on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to vote against Vietnam’s bid for membership.
- The letter cites the imprisonment of Nguy Thi Khanh, founder of Hanoi-based GreenID and Vietnam’s first Goldman Prize winner, on tax evasion charges, as well as the case of Dang Dinh Bach, an environmental lawyer and former director of the Law and Policy of Sustainable Development Research Center, also imprisoned on tax-related charges.
- Noting that the UN General Assembly has declared a clean, healthy and sustainable environment to be a universal human right, the letter asks how Vietnam will uphold this right with these experts behind bars and many in civil society concerned about the possibility of more arrests.
Wildlife lover and artist records 5 decades of change on iconic U.K. river
- As a youngster in the 1960s, Janet Marsh spent hours beside England’s Itchen River while her father fished, closely observing the teeming life of the small English stream. Her love of wildlife there, and desire to draw what she saw, helped inspire her to become an accomplished artist.
- In 1979, she published her “nature diary,” profiling the life of her beloved river with exquisite watercolor illustrations along with astute observations. She also added her voice and images to a campaign protesting the extension of a motorway over the river. A selection of her Itchen illustrations are featured in this story.
- Decades later, Marsh revisits the river with Mongabay, noting that the motorway itself, though noisy, hasn’t caused widespread damage, with wildlife proving resilient. Far more harmful has been steady human development, with pollution from fish farms, septic tanks and cropland runoff all gradually killing the river.
- The Itchen and other rivers like it have been called England’s coral reefs due to their biodiversity. They are like small watersheds the world over that get little attention, but where the web of life is unraveling due to human-induced change. In such unsung places, local activists often step up to document and preserve nature.
‘Brazilians aren’t familiar with the Amazon’: Q&A with Ângela Mendes
- Environmental activist Ângela Mendes coordinates the Chico Mendes Committee as part of her efforts to keep alive the memory and legacy of her father, a leader of the rubber tapper community and environmental resistance.
- In an interview with Mongabay Brasil, Ângela Mendes talks about the role of social networks as a fundamental instrument for resistance in the 21st century.
- She also reflects on the culture of impunity that allowed the masterminds of her father’s murder to evade justice, and which she says persists in Brazil today.
- But she also holds out hope for change, noting that Brazilians are largely concerned about the environment, but that they need to channel this concern into concrete actions, including in the national elections coming up in October.
Crimes against the Amazon reverberate across Brazil, analysis shows
- Crimes associated with illegal logging, mining and other illicit activities in the Brazilian Amazon are being felt in 24 of Brazil’s 27 states, a new report shows.
- Records of more than 300 Federal Police operations between 2016 and 2021 show that crimes such as tax evasion, money laundering, corruption and wildlife trafficking are reverberating far beyond the rainforest.
- Deforestation is at the center of the criminal economy in the Amazon, driving four main illegal activities: logging, mining, occupation of public lands, and environmental violations associated with agriculture.
- Nearly half of the police operations investigated crimes that occurred in protected areas in the Amazon, including 37 Indigenous territories.
Crime and no punishment: Impunity shrouds killings of Indigenous Amazonian defenders
- According to information collected by 11 environmental and human rights organizations, 58 Indigenous people were killed in the Brazilian, Colombian, Ecuadoran and Peruvian Amazon between 2016 and 2021.
- Most of the investigations are ongoing and lawyers report delays and irregularities in the processes.
- The likely perpetrators in most of the killings are linked to illegal activities such as drug trafficking, mining, land grabbing and illegal logging.
- In the case of Brazil, experts also point to the state as being potentially involved in these murders.
Overlooked and at risk, seagrass is habitat of choice for many small-scale fishers
- Seagrass meadows, rather than coral reefs, are the fishing grounds of choice for many fishing households in four countries in the Indo-Pacific region, a new study shows.
- Fishers in Cambodia, Tanzania, Indonesia and Sri Lanka identified seagrass meadows as being more easily accessible than coral reefs, often without the need for a boat, and less likely to damage equipment such as nets.
- However, seagrasses around the world are disappearing at rates that rival those of coral reefs and tropical rainforests, losing as much as 7% of their area each year.
- The study makes the case for better-informed management of these marine habitats, to ensure their sustainability for the marine life and people who depend on them.
Indigenous activists in Borneo claim win as logging firm removes equipment from disputed area
- After NGOs captured satellite and drone imagery they said showed timber firm Samling operating in deep forest and culturally sensitive sites in the Malaysian Bornean state of Sarawak, Indigenous activists filed a police report and planned to mount a blockade July 16.
- According to Penan Indigenous organization Keruan, the firm removed its equipment by July 15, a move the organization counts as a win for forest conservation.
- The area is slated for inclusion in the Upper Baram Forest Area (UBFA), a new conservation project led by the government and approved by the International Tropical Timber Organization.
- Samling denies encroaching on recognized Indigenous land, and said the UBFA has not been approved by the government or discussed with the company, which holds the timber concession for the most of the forest included in the project area.
‘The sea means everything’: Q&A with deep-sea mining opponent Debbie Ngarewa-Packer
- New Zealand parliamentarian and Māori activist Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has spent more than two decades serving in leadership roles, using her positions to advance social justice issues and to campaign for the protection of the marine environment.
- A key issue that Ngarewa-Packer is currently working on is a push to ban deep-sea mining in the global ocean, a proposed activity that would extract large amounts of minerals from the seabed.
- Ngarewa-Packer previously worked with other Māori activists, NGOs and community members to block consent for a deep-sea mining operation in her home district of South Taranaki on New Zealand’s North Island.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Ngarewa-Packer talks about why it’s critical to protect the deep sea from mining, what ancestral teachings say about protecting the ocean, and why she feels hopeful about the future.
Worries and whispers in Vietnam’s NGO community after activist’s sentencing
- On June 17, a Hanoi court sentenced Nguy Thi Khanh, arguably Vietnam’s best-known environmental advocate, to two years in jail for tax evasion.
- Vietnam’s foreign ministry has refuted claims that Khanh’s arrest and sentencing were linked to her anti-coal advocacy, but the move against her has sent a chill through NGOs in the country.
- Activists say Khanh’s imprisonment is a step back for climate change action in Vietnam, and casts doubts on the government’s commitment to reduce emissions and move toward a green development strategy.
Sri Lankan environmental policy failures helped fuel people power revolution
- Mismanagement of environmental concerns contributed to the unpopularity and eventual resignation, in the face of popular protests, of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s president.
- While Rajapaksa’s main legacy is the worst economic crisis in the country’s history, he also leaves behind a multitude of failed environmental policies, critics say.
- Uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources, creating opportunities for land grabbing through amendments to the law, and dismissing environmental concerns have all impacted the country, with some of these policies expected to have lasting effects.
- With Sri Lanka’s economic hardship deepening and driving the population of 22 million into “survival mode,” environmental activists are warning of even more intensive exploitation of natural resources.
In Thailand’s deep south, a fight to stop quarrying in a global geopark
- Activists in the southern Thai province of Satun have for years protested against plans to open a quarry in the limestone mountain Khao Toh Krang.
- The limestone mountain sits just outside a UNESCO global geopark, notable for its Paleozoic fossils and karst landscape, and is also flanked by villages and a large school.
- Officials say the quarry will promote jobs and ensure a local source of construction material, but opponents say a group of planned quarries threaten the geopark’s UNESCO status as well as cultural and archaeological sites and the health of nearby residents.
Disappointment and a few wins, Indigenous leaders react to Nairobi biodiversity talks
- Negotiation talks in Nairobi, Kenya, for the new global agreement to preserve and protect nature ended last week, but parties have not yet come to an agreement over the final draft – including proposals laid out by the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB).
- Disappointed by the progress made at the latest biodiversity meeting after two years of talks, Indigenous leaders and civil society organizations are urging parties to secure land rights, include monitoring components and strengthen the text’s language around their role in meeting biodiversity goals.
- The inclusion of gender equality and environmental defenders in the text, and their access to justice, is seen as a win for Indigenous people, women and environmental defenders. Some proposals by the IIFB are still held within the draft, though several areas are in square brackets.
- The final agreement is set to be adopted in Montreal in December, but at least one more round of negotiations is expected to take place before then. Dates are yet to be determined.
Indigenous advocates sense a legal landmark as a guardian’s killing heads to trial
- For the first time in Brazil, the killing of an Indigenous land defender is expected to be tried before a federal jury — escalated to that level because of what prosecutors say was an aggression against the entire Guajajara Indigenous community and Indigenous culture.
- Paulo Paulino Guajajara, 26, was killed in an alleged ambush by illegal loggers in the Arariboia Indigenous Territory in November 2019; two people have been indicted to stand trial in the case.
- The impending trial stands out amid a general culture of impunity that has allowed violence against Indigenous individuals and the theft of their land — including the killings of more than 50 Guajajara individuals in the past 20 years — to go unpunished.
- It could also set an important legal precedent for trying those responsible for the recent killings of British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous rights defender Bruno Pereira.
Amazon rainforest activist under threat in Brazil plans to flee his home
- Erasmo Theofilo, an agroecologist, founded a farmers’ cooperative in one of the most hostile corners of the Amazon to defend landless and poor rural workers and promote sustainable farming practices.
- He has been the target of death threats, ambushes and attempts on his life for his work in the municipality of Anapu, in Pará state, where U.S.-born nun Dorothy Stang was killed for her activism in 2005.
- Since President Jair Bolsonaro took office at the start of 2019, land conflicts and deforestation in the Amazon have surged, with a recent report showing that Pará is the most dangerous for land rights defenders.
- Theofilo told Mongabay he believes he will never be safe in Anapu again, even if the land conflicts are resolved, and is planning to leave for good with his family.
In Brazil, an Indigenous land defender’s unsolved killing is the deadly norm
- Two years after the death of Indigenous land defender Ari Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau in Brazil’s Amazonian state of Rondônia, questions about who killed him and why remain unanswered.
- Perpetrators of crimes against environmental activists are rarely brought to justice in the country, with a government report showing zero convictions for the 35 people killed in incidents of rural violence in 2021 — about a third of them in Rondônia.
- Indigenous groups and environmental activists in Rondônia say they fear for their lives as the criminal gangs that covet the Amazon’s rich resources act with impunity in threatening defenders and invading protected lands.
- Activists and experts point to a combination of the government’s anti-Indigenous rhetoric and the undermining of environmental agencies as helping incite the current surge of invasions and violence against land defenders in Rondônia and the wider Brazilian Amazon.
Study: Marine governance in Indonesia pursues exploitation over sustainability
- Marine spatial planning in Indonesia over the past 300 years has historically and systematically supported profit-oriented activities at the cost of the ocean ecosystem and coastal communities, a recent paper says.
- Researchers found that little had changed despite decades of attempts to reform marine governance to support more sustainable uses of sea resources in Indonesia.
- They also found that coastal communities, traditional and small-scale fishers had lost much of their control and influence over marine areas, while ruling elites at the national level gradually gained more of it.
- The fisheries sector has long been important to the food security of Indonesia, with most of the country’s more than 270 million inhabitants living in coastal areas.
Mining company destroys Indigenous cemetery during expansion in Honduras
- Indigenous residents living near the San Andres mine in western Honduras were devastated to learn that a centuries-old cemetery was dug up in the middle of the night, making it nearly impossible for some families to find their loved ones.
- The mass exhumations come after nearly a decade of community-level and legal battles between the Maya Chortí and Minerales de Occidente (Minosa), a subsidiary of Toronto-listed mining company Aura Minerals.
- The controversy highlights the fact that the national government hasn’t yet upheld its promise to close open-pit mining concessions.
Indonesia’s Sangihe islanders score legal victory over mining company
- Residents of Sangihe Island in Indonesia have won a lawsuit against a Canadian-backed company planning to mine gold on their island.
- In its ruling, the court in the city of Manado declared the environmental permit issued to miner PT Tambang Mas Sangihe (TMS) and ordered the local government to revoke it.
- The judges found that the permit was issued without following the proper procedures, and that the environmental impact analysis was inadequate.
- The victory comes a month after another court, in Jakarta, rejected a separate lawsuit by the villagers seeking to have TMS’s mining contract revoked; the court said the case was outside its jurisdiction.
At 30, Brazil’s Yanomami reserve is beset by mining, malaria and mercury
- When the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, the world’s biggest, was designated 30 years ago, the Brazilian army cleared out the illegal gold miners operating there.
- Today, miners are back in force, encouraged by the anti-Indigenous and anti-environment rhetoric of President Jair Bolsonaro, who has vowed to open up the reserves to mining.
- The illegal activity has destroyed forests and contaminated rivers with mercury and has also brought with it violence, disease and death for the 27,000 Yanomami living in the heart of the Amazon.
- As it marks the 30th anniversary of its establishment, the Yanomami reserve faces of the prospect of losing up to a third of its area to mining — a very real prospect if a key Bolsonaro bill clears Congress.
A look at violence and conflict over Indigenous lands in nine Latin American countries
- Indigenous people make up a third of the total number of environmental defenders killed across the globe, despite being a total of 4% of the world’s population, according to a report by Global Witness. The most critical situation is in Colombia, where 117 Indigenous people have been murdered between 2012 and 2020.
- Conflicts over extractive industries and territorial invasions are a major cause of violence against Indigenous communities. Between 2017 and 2021, there were 2,109 cases of communities affected by extractive industries and their associated activities in Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.
- Mongabay Latam interviewed 12 Indigenous leaders from nine countries across Latin America and spoke to them about the threats they face and the murders occurring in the region.
Indigenous community mounts legal challenge to Thai coal mine development
- Villagers in northern Thailand have filed a lawsuit against authorities who approved an allegedly faulty environmental impact assessment for a coal mine project that they say would destroy farmland, divert watercourses, and affect long-term human health.
- The project has been in the planning pipeline for two decades, but only became public in 2019; the Indigenous Karen community in Kabeudin village has opposed the coal mining project ever since.
- The lawsuit alleges the 10-year-old EIA was conducted and approved with virtually no participation from potentially impacted communities and omitted crucial information about the environment and the natural resources on which the community depends.
- Observers say the case is an example of the rural population’s growing awareness of their rights and of legal processes that hold companies and government departments accountable to the law and to climate commitments.
Indigenous group and locals sign agreement to protect sustainable livelihoods and culture
- Most of Colombia’s remaining 600 Indigenous Nukak people live in camps around Guaviare’s capital and see returning to their territory, a one million-hectare Amazonian reserve, as the only way to survive and live dignified lives.
- A coexistence agreement signed between the Nukak and local campesinos is bringing the Indigenous community closer to returning to their territory and is meant to act as a stop-gap to their cultural eradication.
- Nukak people living in camps suffer from high levels of malnutrition, skin infections, diarrhea, and deeply rooted social malaises, including high levels of drug use, sexual violence, and depression.
- Promoting peace through the coexistence agreement and preventing deforestation are interconnected, says Patricia Tobón Yagarí of Colombia’s Truth Commission.
Environment award stokes urge to save Indonesia’s karst landscape
- A youth group that started out as a rock-climbing club has reached new heights in its efforts to stop the illegal mining of the Citatah karst landscape in Indonesia’s West Java province.
- The karst’s limestone is coveted for cement production, but its destruction has led to groundwater depletion, air and noise pollution, land erosion, animal extinction, and farmland loss.
- The Citatah Karst Care Youth Forum was last year recognized by Indonesia’s environment ministry for its work in conserving what remains of the landscape.
- Since its founding in 2009, the forum has staged public awareness campaigns, helped build a nascent “geotourism” industry, and engaged mining companies to conserve and restore local ecosystems.
Ousted anti-mining mayor heads back to Philippine city hall after landslide win
- In July 2021, Mary Jean Feliciano, mayor of Brooke’s Point in the Philippine province of Palawan, was suspended from her post without pay after the country’s Ombudsman’s office ruled she had overstepped her authority in her actions against a nickel mining firm operating in the municipality.
- While still under suspension as mayor, Feliciano launched a successful vice-mayoral campaign, winning a landslide victory in the May 9 elections.
- Feliciano’s running mate also won over the pro-mining interim mayor.
- Feliciano says the vice-mayoral post will allow her to resume her fight against attempts to change local land use policies, which currently have not zoned any of the municipality to allow for mining.
Small-island fishers petition Indonesian president to end coastal dredging
- Fishers on a small island off Indonesia’s Sumatra have called for an end to coastal dredging that they say has decimated their daily catch.
- Sand dredging along the north coast of Rupat Island ran from September to December last year, stopping due to protests by fishers.
- The fishers have petitioned Indonesia’s president and the energy minister to revoke the dredging company’s permit, and are backed by an environmental group’s findings of high rates of shoal erosion in the area.
- The government has issued 1,400 dredging permits throughout Indonesia as of November 2021, covering an area of almost 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) and affecting some 35,000 fishers, according to activists.
Fisher groups are the marine militia in Indonesia’s war on illegal fishing
- Indonesia has a vast maritime area, but not enough personnel to patrol and monitor for illegal and destructive fishing.
- To address this gap, in recent years the government has incentivized fishers and other coastal communities to form monitoring groups that are responsible for patrolling their local waters.
- In the Raja Ampat archipelago in the country’s east, Mongabay meets some of the people who have volunteered for the task of protecting their waters from blast fishing and cyanide fishing, among other violations.
A seagrass restoration project to preserve the past may also protect the future
- Linani Arifin, 40, is a resident of West Yensawai village in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago, where the coastal ecosystem has been declining due to climate change impacts and development.
- Almira Nadia Kusuma is a young marine scientist who has studied seagrass for years.
- Together, they lead a group of teenagers in West Yensawai in a project to replant seagrass, aiming to protect the village from coastal erosion.
- Globally, seagrasses are disappearing at rates that rival those of coral reefs and tropical rainforests, and Indonesia is considered an important country for seagrass conservation.
Scaling Palauan tradition to regional fisheries: Q&A with Noah Idechong
- After training as a traditional hunter and fisherman in his village in Palau as a boy, Noah Idechong has since become a “bit of a legend” in Pacific marine conservation.
- He has been a government official, an activist, a politician, a legislator, and the founder of a domestic conservation NGO. Currently, he’s the executive director for Micronesia and Polynesia at the international conservation NGO The Nature Conservancy.
- In all of these roles, Idechong has focused on one main thing: championing the traditional systems the communities of Palau employ to protect and conserve the archipelago’s rich marine biodiversity and domestic fisheries.
- Today, he’s applying that ethos at a regional scale as he helps build more sustainable regional tuna fisheries that benefit the Pacific island nations in whose waters the tuna swim, rather than foreign fishing enterprises.
Iwan Dento, ‘hero’ of South Sulawesi’s karst mountains
- For more than a decade, environmental activist Iwan Dento has opposed the mining of the limestone karst formations in his homeland of Maros, Indonesia.
- Until 2013, the karst mountain area of Rammang-rammang was mined for marble and limestone, but local resistance led to protective regulations and the establishment of an ecotourism area.
- For his dedication to defending the karst and establishing ecotourism, Iwan Dento has been nominated for several top honors for environmental preservation by both the government and the private sector, and is seen as the “hero” of Rammang-rammang.
History on the walls: Graffiti brings Manaus’s Indigenous roots to light
- Graffiti artists are painting murals recounting the history of Indigenous people and honoring their culture in the capital of Amazonas, the Brazilian state with the largest Indigenous population.
- Indigenous community leaders say they hope the movement will increase the visibility of Indigenous people living in cities, who often face poverty, housing insecurity and stigma that discourages many from maintaining their culture and identity.
- Fearing cultural erasure, Indigenous activists are urging Indigenous people to embrace their ancestry and identify themselves as Indigenous in Brazil’s next census, expected to begin in August 2022.
- As Indigenous people in cities reclaim their identities, occupying public spaces through street art is playing a key role in the fight to make Indigenous people in urban areas more visible.
Oceans conference comes up with $16b in pledges to safeguard marine health
- The seventh Our Ocean Conference took place in the Pacific island nation of Palau on April 13 and 14.
- Representatives of governments, the private sector, civil society groups and philanthropic organizations made 410 commitments worth more than $16 billion toward improving the health, productivity and protection of the world’s oceans.
- Discussions focused around the importance of ocean-based climate solutions and the linkage between healthy oceans and healthy communities.
- The setting in a small island developing state lent the event a unique perspective, underscoring the crucial role and leadership of Indigenous peoples and local communities in tacking the climate change and ocean crises.
More than half of activists killed in 2021 were land, environment defenders
- An analysis by Front Line Defenders and the Human Rights Defenders Memorial recorded at least 358 murders of human rights activists globally in 2021.
- Of that total, nearly 60% were land, environment or Indigenous rights defenders.
- The countries with the highest death tolls were Colombia, Mexico and Brazil.
- Advocates say the figure is likely far higher, as attacks on land and environment defenders in Africa often go unreported.
Honduras bans open-pit mining, citing environmental and public health concerns
- The government of Honduras is no longer granting environmental permits for open-pit mining projects due to the deforestation and pollution they cause.
- Honduras has a poor human rights track record when it comes to mining, with numerous environmental defenders having been arrested or killed in the past decade in connection with their opposition to mines.
- It is unclear when the ban will go into effect or how existing open-pit mining projects will be affected.
More coffee, less gold: Sumatra farmers alarmed over revival of mine project
- A recent stock exchange filing indicates that a gold mining project in Sumatra’s Gayo Highlands may soon be revived after being stalled due to popular opposition.
- The Linge Abong concession also overlaps onto the Leuser Ecosystem, the largest remaining swath of intact rainforest in Sumatra, and home to critically endangered tigers, orangutans, rhinos and elephants.
- Farming communities here who grow the world-renowned Aceh Gayo coffee, and who would be directly affected by the mine, have called on the authorities to shut down the project for good.
- “A lot of people live and prosper from Gayo coffee. Don’t let the lives they’ve built off of coffee farming be destroyed just for the sake of gold mining,” said a village head.
Attack on environmental lawyer’s home alarms DRC rights defenders
- Armed men, including two dressed in police uniform, attacked the home of Congolese lawyer Timothée Mbuya earlier this month and told family members they were sent to kill him.
- Mbuya is also facing a defamation lawsuit after publishing a report alleging encroachment of a protected area by a farm owned by former DRC president Joseph Kabila.
- Campaigners say both the lawsuit and the violent assault on the lawyer’s home fit a pattern of harassment of environment and human rights activists in the country.
Guinea-Bissau turtle hatchery addresses unusual problem of too many eggs
- Five percent of all green sea turtles nest on the beaches of tiny Poilão Island, in the Bijagós Archipelago off Guinea-Bissau, leading to some nests being laid on top of each other.
- Sea turtle monitors are rescuing these “doomed clutches” of eggs and relocating them to less crowded beaches.
- In the future, they hope the sea turtle hatchery will provide educational opportunities that strengthen protection of sea turtles.
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