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Christiana Figueres & Garik Israelian on Jane Goodall’s legacy and the search for truth
A new award has been created in honor of late conservation icon Jane Goodall by the board of the Starmus Festival, an international gathering of scientists and artists to be held from Oct. 17-22 in Tenerife, Spain. Christiana Figueres has been selected as the recipient of this inaugural Jane Goodall Earth Medal. Figueres is the […]
Cambodia defies UN call to free ‘arbitrarily jailed’ environmental activists
- Cambodia insists five environmental activists jailed in 2024 will remain behind bars, after a U.N. working group called their detention arbitrary and urged their immediate release.
- The five members of Mother Nature Cambodia were sentenced to six to eight years in prison for allegedly plotting against the government.
- The U.N. working group found no legal basis for their detention and said their prosecution and trial violated their rights, including through discriminatory treatment and a lack of a fair trial.
- Cambodian officials maintain the activists were detained through lawful judicial proceedings, while rights advocates say the case reflects a broader government crackdown on environmental defenders.
He survived a deadly attack, now he is calling for better working conditions for rangers in DRC
- The international community has set ambitious goals to protect nature, the latest aiming to conserve 30% of the planet by 2030. Rangers are at the center of this effort. According to the International Ranger Federation, they play a crucial role in protecting protected areas and achieving global conservation targets.
- But in many protected areas, rangers are increasingly exposed to violence, often confronting armed groups with limited support, particularly in unstable regions such as eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
- For Emmanuel Bahati Lukoo, this reality is not abstract — it is deeply personal. In 2018, he narrowly survived an attack by Mai-Mai fighters (an armed group operating in the DRC). Unlike many rangers who have lost their lives protecting nature in eastern DRC, he survived. More than 100 rangers are believed to have been killed in Virunga National Park over the past decade.
- Seeking to shed light on the realities and working conditions of rangers in the DRC, Bahati recently published a book titled Conservation at the Cost of My Youth: The Survival of a Ranger, in which he recounts the life of a ranger in eastern DRC.
‘Hope is rooted in action’: Interview with Jane Goodall’s grandson Merlin Van Lawick
- Mongabay met Merlin Van Lawick, grandson of conservation icon Jane Goodall, in Paris during the ChangeNOW 2026 environmental forum.
- Van Lawick is involved in the communication science and communications teams at the Jane Goodall Institute, from his hometown in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
- In this interview with Mongabay, he talks about his relationship with his grandmother, how he developed a strong interest in storytelling, and new ways of thinking to scale up impact in a quickly changing world.
- The forum was also an occasion for him to share the challenges and hopes of the Jane Goodall Institute.
George Schaller: The field biologist who helped redefine conservation
- Miriam Horn’s Homesick for a World Unknown traces the life of George B. Schaller, a field biologist whose work reshaped how animals are studied and understood.
- The book portrays a scientist defined by patience, close observation, and a disciplined effort to understand animals on their own terms, even as such an approach ran against prevailing scientific norms.
- Horn presents Schaller’s career across continents as both scientific and practical, showing how his research informed the creation of protected areas while gradually incorporating local knowledge and participation.
- Rather than probing for psychological insight, the biography mirrors its subject’s outward focus, offering a restrained account that raises broader questions about attention, conservation, and what it means to share a world with other species.
Today is Jane Goodall Day. Her movement continues.
- April 3, now recognized as Jane Goodall Day, is intended as a day of action—an invitation to carry forward the habits and responsibilities she encouraged, rather than simply commemorate her life.
- From Roots & Shoots to community-led conservation models like Tacare, her work continues through people who apply her approach locally, linking the well-being of people, animals, and the environment.
- Colleagues at the Jane Goodall Institute describe a consistent throughline in her thinking: start small, stay attentive, and build change through actions that accumulate over time.
- The day reflects a broader idea at the center of her life’s work—that progress depends less on scale or certainty than on individuals choosing to act, where they are, with what they have.
A decade after the death of Berta Cáceres, we can no longer tolerate threats to environmental activists (commentary)
- On the 10th anniversary of the murder of environmental activist Berta Cáceres, the director of the Goldman Environmental Prize argues in a new op-ed that the era of impunity for such crimes is over and that the capacity to defend such people is steadily increasing.
- A 2015 winner of the award for her work defending her Indigenous community against a hydroelectric development in Honduras, Cáceres was killed by gunmen hired by executives of the dam-building company.
- Her legacy has since made her a legend, with her likeness now adorning a banknote in her nation, and her story inspiring a wave of philanthropy aimed at protecting nature’s defenders.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Writer Megan Mayhew Bergman on science, emotion, and the lasting power of ‘Silent Spring’
It’s been more than half a century since the publication of Silent Spring by the scientist and creative writer Rachel Carson. The seminal volume caught the attention of U.S. presidents, artists and musicians, spurring the environmental movement and leading to the eventual ban of the toxic pesticide DDT. Joining the Mongabay Newscast is environmental writer […]
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.
At her memorial, a call to carry Jane Goodall’s hope forward
- Jane Goodall’s memorial at Washington National Cathedral brought together scientists, diplomats, activists, and children for a service rooted in gratitude rather than grief, reflecting a life that reshaped how the world understands the natural world.
- Speakers described her quiet authority and her belief that conservation depended on relationships, resilience, and collective purpose, with Anna Rathman urging the audience to continue the work Jane had begun.
- Francis Collins and Leonardo DiCaprio offered personal reflections on her blend of scientific rigor, moral clarity, humor, and hope, recalling how she moved through the world with curiosity and purpose, insisting that every individual could make a meaningful difference.
- Her grandson Merlin van Lawick spoke of the wonder she carried through her life and promised to continue her mission, underscoring a service that closed not with finality but with an invitation to carry her light forward and to show, through action, that hope endures.
Jane Goodall quotes: Words from a reluctant global icon
- Primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall died on October 1st, 2025 at the age of 91.
- Over the years, Mongabay staff and contributors have conducted numerous interviews with Goodall.
- The following is a recap of her ideas and reflections, organized by theme.
- A list of the interviews and other pieces appears at the end.
How to carry Jane Goodall’s light forward
- Mongabay’s founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler reflects on his 13-year friendship with Jane Goodall, recalling her warmth, humor, and ability to make every interaction—from late-night talks to moments with his children—feel personal and meaningful.
- He highlights her philosophy that hope is not just an emotion but a tool for creating agency, where small victories in conservation ripple outward to show people their actions matter, whether saving a chimpanzee, protecting a wetland, or inspiring a child.
- Jane wanted to be remembered for Roots & Shoots and for teaching that humans are not the only sentient beings; Butler closes by noting her indomitable spirit and urging that her legacy of compassion and hope now falls to others to carry forward.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
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.
Jane Goodall, primatologist who taught the world to hope, has died at 91
Jane Goodall, who revealed the intimate lives of chimpanzees and gave the modern world a language of hope, has died at the age of 91. When she stepped into the forests of Gombe, Tanzania, in 1960, she carried little more than a notebook, binoculars, and an unlikely determination. She was not a scientist by training, […]
In eastern Congo’s war-torn forests, Augustin Basabose gave hope to gorillas and people
- Dr. Augustin Kanyunyi Basabose, who died on August 18th, 2025, was a pioneering Congolese primatologist whose optimism and energy inspired colleagues and communities alike.
- He founded Primate Expertise (PEx), which combined science with community-led conservation, including the innovative “Ape Trees” project that restored forests while supporting livelihoods.
- Central to his work was the protection of Grauer’s gorillas, alongside training hundreds of students and urging international partners to prioritize local leadership.
- His influence is evident in eastern Congo’s forests, where gorilla populations are recovering and communities have become vital allies in conservation.
The forest guardians along Nepal-India border leading red panda conservation
- In eastern Nepal’s Taplejung district, Forest Guardians like Surya Bhattarai are on the frontlines of red panda conservation — monitoring habitat, deterring poaching and gathering scientific data to help protect the species.
- With fewer than 10,000 wild red pandas left globally and major threats from road construction, habitat fragmentation and stray dog attacks, conservation efforts have expanded beyond protected areas into community forests.
- To reduce pressure on forests and foster local stewardship, the nonprofit Red Panda Network combines habitat restoration, eco-tourism, education and alternative livelihoods such as nettle-based handicrafts and homestays.
Radheshyam Bishnoi, protector of India’s wildlife, died on May 24, 2025, aged 28
Radheshyam Bishnoi was born with a calling to save wildlife. From a young age, he was driven by a deep sense of responsibility to protect the fragile ecosystems around him, shaped by the strong environmental values of the Bishnoi community. Hailing from Dholiya village in Rajasthan’s arid Thar Desert, Bishnoi grew up immersed in a […]
Reshu Bashyal becomes fourth Nepali in as many years to win Whitley Award
- Reshu Bashyal, an orchid and yew conservationist and researcher from Nepal, is among the winners of this year’s Whitley Award, popularly known as the “Green Oscars.”
- She was recognized for her work on combating the unsustainable harvesting of these plants, largely for medicinal purposes, becoming the fourth Nepali in as many years to win the award.
- Her research highlights how weak law enforcement and lack of community involvement drive ongoing poaching, and she plans to use the 50,000 pound ($67,000) prize to restore 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of orchid and yew habitat in Makwanpur district.
- Previous Nepali winners of the Whitley Award winners include conservationists focused on birds, red pandas, and pangolins
Searching for peace, finding hope: A new film explores rural conflict in Kenya
- Searching for Amani is a documentary film about two Kenyan teenagers brought together in friendship by a murder.
- Simon Ali, whose father — a safari guide in central Kenya’s Laikipia County — was shot and killed while guiding tourists through a wilderness area there in 2019.
- In the film, producer Peter Goetz hands Ali the camera as he searches for information about the murder of his father, working through grief and adolescence to find some resolution for himself and his family.
- The film will be screened at the 2025 DC Environmental Film Festival, for which Mongabay is a media partner.
Lives worth living: Elephants, Iain Douglas-Hamilton and the fight for coexistence
- Iain Douglas-Hamilton spent a lifetime communing with African elephants, going on to champion their conservation during a brutal wave of poaching in the 1970s and 1980s.
- Along with Jane Goodall, he was a pioneer both of studying animals in the field and viewing them as more than objects of study — he recognised elephants as having individual personalities.
- A new film co-produced by the organization he founded, Save the Elephants, also explores how his work challenged the fortress model of conservation.
- The film will have its US premiere at the 2025 DC Environmental Film Festival, for which Mongabay is a media partner.
Randy Borman (1955-2025): An unlikely guardian of the Amazon rainforest
- Randy Borman, a leader of the Cofan people of the Ecuadorian Amazon, died on February 17th.
- Born to American missionaries in the Amazon, he was raised among the Cofán people and became a lifelong advocate for their land and rights.
- Borman led efforts to gain legal recognition for over a million acres of Cofán territory, ensuring long-term Indigenous control of a vast stretch of rainforest.
- Randy coordinated and helped lead four Rapid Biological Inventories with Chicago Field Museum biologists and local scientists to establish protected areas.
Jane Goodall awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
On Saturday, President Joe Biden honored Jane Goodall as one of nineteen recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor. This accolade recognizes individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public, or private endeavors. “Dr. […]
Mongabay celebrates 25 years with Jane Goodall at sold out event
The popular climate-focused radio show and podcast Climate One, a program of The Commonwealth Club of California, recently hosted Mongabay and Jane Goodall at the Sydney Goldstein Theater in downtown San Francisco to celebrate the news organization’s 25th anniversary and her 90th birthday, respectively, in front a live audience of 1,700. Mongabay’s podcast previously spoke […]
Jane Goodall is coming to San Francisco. Her event is sold out, but students can still get free tickets
- Jane Goodall is coming to San Francisco.
- On September 16th, Climate One will host primatologist Jane Goodall and Mongabay Founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler to mark two milestones: the conservation icon’s 90th year and Mongabay’s 25th anniversary.
- To increase the accessibility of this event, Mongabay has secured a block of tickets, available at no cost to middle and high school students, their parents, guardians, and educators.
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).
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.
Owl conservationist Raju Acharya wins Whitley Award in hat trick for Nepal
- Raju Acharya, a Nepali conservationist, won the Whitley Award for his owl conservation efforts, marking the third consecutive win for Nepal.
- Acharya’s work focuses on challenging stereotypes and advocating for owl conservation in Nepal, despite facing societal stigmas and challenges.
- He plans to use the prize money of 50,000 pounds ($62,600) to enhance conservation initiatives in central Nepal, targeting law enforcement training and community engagement.
Jane Goodall celebrates her 90th birthday with Mongabay
In this special episode of Mongabay Sessions, Mongabay founder Rhett Butler celebrates Jane Goodall’s 90th birthday with an inspiring conversation. They delve into a range of topics, including conservation, hope, empathy, and collaboration. Jane reflects on her field experiences, underscores the vital role of hope amidst environmental challenges, and advocates for a compassionate approach towards […]
Indigenous leader Danilo Villafañe dies at 49 in trying to save drowning women in Colombia
- Danilo Villafañe, an Arhuaco Indigenous leader renowned for his efforts to protect the “Heart of the World” in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada, died on Christmas Day while trying to rescue two women who were drowning. He was 49.
- According to reports, Villafañe drowned while attempting to aid two young women who were caught in rough seas near the mouth of the Palomino River.
- Villafañe, who served as the governor of the Arhuaco, originally gained prominence for his work to protect the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta from deforestation and colonization.
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.
Conservationists in Nepal say government must step up in coming years
- In 2023, scientists, conservationists and activists in Nepal shared with Mongabay the successes, setbacks and challenges they face working with species ranging from the red panda to the fishing cat.
- Though a diverse group, most highlighted a common theme: urging the government to institutionalize and sustain hard-won conservation gains and emphasizing the need for the benefits of biodiversity to reach local communities for long-lasting impact.
- They spoke of the importance of ramping up community-based conservation efforts, especially in community forests and areas outside protected zones, and raising awareness that conservation isn’t solely about tourism income but also about preserving the environment for future generations.
- Funding for less-prominent species remains an issue, they said, as does the need to balance conservation needs with community interests and the ongoing spate of large-scale infrastructure building and development.
Jane Goodall and Dax Dasilva partner with Amazon Indigenous youth for new Roots & Shoots program
- Jane Goodall is partnering with Dax Dasilva to bring her Roots & Shoots youth program to the Brazilian Amazon to help equip Indigenous youth to protect their ancestral lands.
- On Goodall’s first in-depth visit to the Amazon, she and Dasilva met with Juma Xipaya, who leads resistance against dams and illegal mining and logging in her indigenous territory of the Xipaya, located in Brazil’s Pará state.
- Deforestation and climate change are drying and degrading the Amazon rainforest, and this year saw historic droughts across the region.
- Indigenous territories remain important strongholds for safeguarding the remaining Amazon Rainforest.
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.
In Nepal, Chepang take up the challenge to revive their cultural keystone tree
- In Nepal, the Chepang people have long relied on the chiuri tree (Diploknema butyracea or Indian butter tree) for timber, fuelwood and butter.
- According to folklore, the Chepang tribe, the chiuri tree and bats are all part of a three-pronged system of survival, as each helps the other two; that system — and the chiuri tree — has fallen to the wayside.
- Now, young Chepangs are trying to revive the chiuri tree and market the valuable fruits.
Nepali pangolin conservationist Tulshi Suwal among winners of Whitley Awards
- Nepali pangolin conservationist Tulshi Laxmi Suwal has been named one of the winners of this year’s Whitley Awards, known as the “Green Oscars.”
- The 40,000 pound ($50,000) award recognizes her work studying and protecting pangolins in a field that has traditionally been male-dominated.
- Suwal says she will use the prize money to conduct Nepal’s first impact assessment of the effects of fires on the Chinese pangolin and create 10 community pangolin conservation groups.
- She also plans to plant 20,000 local mixed broad-leaved trees and reach 200,000 people through an awareness campaign, all aimed at protecting the world’s most trafficked mammal.
Nepal’s wild yaks ‘need more conservation than research’: Q&A with Naresh Kusi
- In July, researchers Naresh Kusi and Geraldine Werhahn spotted three wild yaks in Nepal, where sightings are rare and the animal was once thought to have gone extinct.
- Kusi spoke with Mongabay about the significance of the sightings of this iconic bovine’s distribution in the region and the need for conservation.
- Wild yaks (Bos mutus) are considered the ancestor of the domesticated yak (Bos grunniens) and hold an important place in the region’s culture and history.
The war on journalists and environmental defenders in the Amazon continues (commentary)
- Journalists in Brazil and around the world are devastated about the tragic end of a 10-day search for British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira in the Amazon rainforest near the Brazil-Peru border in northern Amazonas state. Bodies believed to be theirs were found on June 15 after a huge outcry against the federal government’s inaction following their disappearance. Indigenous patrols bravely conducted their own search while the government did little.
- The murders of Dom and Bruno are emblematic of the plight of journalists across Latin America as violence against both journalists and activists in the region escalates. It also raises an alarm for the need to protect reporters as we report on environmental crime from Nature’s frontline.
- But these crimes will not stop us: Exposing wrongdoing across Brazil’s critical biomes — from the Mata Atlantica to the Cerrado to the Amazon — is more necessary than ever now. At the same time, demanding justice for the murder of Bruno and Dom became a fight for all of us.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
‘Protecting snow leopards benefits other species’: Q&A with Rinzin Phunjok Lama
- Rinzin Phunjok Lama is an award-winning conservation biologist who studies one of the most elusive big cats in the world: the snow leopard.
- Based in Nepal’s Trans-Himalayan region, he puts his conservation learnings to practical use, working with local communities to minimize human-wildlife conflict, the main threat to the snow leopard.
- An evolving threat is climate change, which is pushing other top predators, including leopards and Himalayan black bears, into snow leopard territory, putting them in direct competition for prey.
Lama says that while the climate threat is largely out of conservationists’ control, there’s still room to work on the human threat, including helping communities build alternative livelihoods that don’t put them in conflict with snow leopards.
Josefina Tunki: ‘If we have to die in defense of the land, we have to die’
- Josefina Tunki, the first woman to preside over the Shuar Arutam People (PSHA), an Indigenous association in Ecuador, faces death threats due to her opposition to mining on Indigenous lands.
- The Ecuadoran government has granted 165 concessions to mining companies — for copper, gold and molybdenum — that covers 56% of PSHA territory in the Condor mountain range in southeastern Ecuador.
- Tunki’s election as president of the PSHA has revealed structural sexism, but it has also shown hope to a generation that sees women like her in positions of power.
- This report is part of a journalistic collaboration between Mongabay Latam and La Barra Espaciadora (The Space Bar).
In Colombia, threatened women of the Wayuú community continue to fight rampant mining
- The Wayuú Women’s Force, founded in 2006, is an Indigenous organization that denounces the coal mining that has dammed and contaminated rivers, leaving much of La Guajira without water.
- Members of the organization have received death threats but continue to train women to stand up for their human rights.
- In addition to their work in La Guajira, the Wayuú women are developing ways of holding companies all over the world accountable for their negative environmental impact.
Jane Goodall’s Hopecast podcast features Mongabay founder
- Primatologist and conservation icon Jane Goodall recently interviewed Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler for her Hopecast podcast. The episode was released October 26, 2021.
- Goodall and Butler talked about the importance of good storytelling in conveying information about the environment. Goodall lamented that much of the news around the environment is sad and depressing, and said there was a need to showcase more hopeful stories, including conservation successes.
- Butler said that while the media does tend to dwell on the negative, good environmental outcomes can result from “bad stories”: “Sometimes you can have a bad story that results in a good outcome,” he said. “Covering it can then lead to the activity stopping or people being empowered.”
Jane Goodall launches effort in support of planting 1 trillion trees by 2030
- Primatologist and conservation icon Jane Goodall has formally joined a global effort to counter climate change and the extinction crisis by planting a trillion trees over the next decade.
- On Tuesday, Goodall announced Trees for Jane, an initiative that will raise money for carefully-vetted reforestation and forest conservation projects around the world.
- Trees for Jane is partnering with the Trillion Tree Campaign, an initiative led by the German NGO Plant-for-the-Planet, and 1t.org, a World Economic Forum project, to reach the trillion trees goal by 2030.
- If these combined efforts realize this aim, it would increase Earth’s tree cover by about one-third relative to today. Currently we’re losing about 15 billion trees a year, mostly due to deforestation.
Jane Goodall wins Templeton Prize for work at intersection of science and spirituality
- Famed scientist and environmental advocate Jane Goodall, DBE, won the 2021 Templeton Prize, a $1.5 million award that recognizes achievements of people “harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest questions of the universe and humankind’s place and purpose within it.”
- Goodall, who joins a list of illustrious winners including Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama, was awarded for her “scientific and spiritual curiosity”. She represents an unusual choice for the prize because she isn’t a religious figure.
- Goodall’s honor comes as more religious leaders are speaking out about the need to protect nature as part of their faith.
Notable deaths in conservation in 2020
- It is impossible to capture all of 2020’s losses.
- Every death is of course notable, but this list acknowledges a few of the 2020 deaths that carry special significance to the conservation community.
- The list is grouped into three categories: murders and killings, reportedly COVID-19-related, and other deaths.
- Note: this list only includes deaths that occurred in 2020.
In the Colombian Amazon, a leader trains her people to save the forest
- María Clemencia Herrera Nemerayema is the founder of the School of Political Education in the Colombian Amazon, which trains Indigenous people to protect their territory; her dream is to establish an intercultural university in the heart of the jungle.
- This year, the Indigenous leader won the Bartolomé de las Casas Prize from the Spanish Foreign Ministry for her work in defending Indigenous territories, based on restoring local cultures and sustainably using Amazonian resources.
- She has been working for more than 30 years to empower Amazonian women through education.
- One of the organizations she founded is Mujer, Tejer y Saberes (Women, Weaving and Knowledge), in which displaced Indigenous women based in Bogotá put their knowledge into practice to generate an income.
Rangers on the run: Half-marathon aims to raise funding for front-liners
- Wildlife ranger groups across Africa are struggling to maintain operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic drying up funding sources, which has resulted in ranger redundancies and salary reductions.
- Tusk, a U.K. nonprofit, is spearheading the Wildlife Ranger Challenge, a race and fundraiser that aims to help keep wildlife rangers employed.
- $2 million has already been distributed as emergency funding to several wildlife ranger groups.
Why I stand for my tribe’s forest: It gives us food, culture, and life (commentary)
- For the occasion of International Indigenous Peoples Day August 9, 2020, Arkilaus Kladit, a member of the Knasaimos-Tehit people in South Sorong Regency in West Papua Province, Indonesia, writes about the importance of his tribe’s customary forests.
- Arkilaus, who is a member of the Knasaimos Indigenous Peoples Council, describes his tribe’s long struggle to secure recognition of his tribe’s customary lands by the Indonesian government.
- Arkilaus explains how the Knasaimos-Tehit people are dependent on forests for food, community resilience, and cultural significance.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Jane Goodall: COVID-19 is a product of our unhealthy relationship with animals and the environment (commentary)
- Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and a U.N. Messenger of Peace.
- In this commentary Goodall argues that our exploitation of animals and the environment has contributed to pandemics, including the current COVID-19 crisis.
- Goodall says that wildlife trafficking, the production of animal-based medicines, factory farming, and the destruction of critical habitats all can create enabling conditions for viruses to spill over from their animal hosts into humans.
- This post is a commentary and does not necessarily reflect the views of Mongabay.
Conservation biologist and wildtech journalist Sue Palminteri, 1965-2019
- Sue Palminteri — Mongabay’s wildtech editor, conservation biologist, professional tennis player, and long-time exercise enthusiast — lost her battle with cancer on November 30th. She was 54.
- Whether it was radio-collaring elephants across the savannas of South Africa, competing internationally alongside the Israeli national team in tennis, tracking saki monkeys through the rainforest in the sweltering mid-day heat of the Peruvian Amazon, or evaluating the practicalities of implementing technological solutions to conservation challenges, Sue fully embraced all she pursued with rare tenaciousness, passion, and grace.
- Her persistence and intelligence enabled her to excel as an athlete, a conservation biologist, and a journalist, while her authenticity, upbeat nature, and companionship made her a good colleague, friend, and partner.
Reforesting a village in Indonesia, one batch of gourmet beans at a time
- Deforestation in the village of Cibulao on the outskirts of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, left it prone to droughts in the dry season and landslides in the rainy season.
- That changed in the early 2000s when a local tea plantation worker named Kiryono began replanting the slopes with seeds foraged from the nearby forest.
- Among those seeds were coffee seeds taken from wild coffee trees, and with training and the help of his family, Kiryono today produces some of the most prized coffee in Indonesia.
- The village is also greener now, thanks to Kiryono’s replanting efforts, and the local farmers’ cooperative hopes to expand on that work by applying for the right to manage a larger area of land.
Cook Islands MPA leader fired after supporting seabed mining freeze
- Last month the Cook Islands government dismissed the director of the world’s biggest mixed-use marine protected area (MPA), which is called Marae Moana.
- Jacqueline Evans, a marine scientist, had played a key leadership role in the seven-year campaign to establish Marae Moana and served as its director since the MPA was enshrined into law in 2017.
- Her firing came after she expressed support for a 10-year moratorium on seabed mining across the Pacific Ocean. Seabed mining has been a sticking point throughout the history of Marae Moana, with some environmentalists hoping to prohibit it outright and other parties wanting to explore it as a potential source of revenue.
- Evans was a 2019 winner of the prestigious international Goldman Prize for grassroots environmentalists in recognition of her work to make Marae Moana a reality.
‘Pray & continue’: Death of Philippine ranger is latest in legacy of violence
- Forest ranger Bienvinido “Toto” Veguilla Jr. was hacked to death by suspected illegal loggers on the Philippine island of Palawan on Sept. 5.
- He’s the 18th environmental defender slain in the province since 2001, and at least the 31st killed this year in the Philippines, identified in a recent report as the deadliest country for those trying to protect their land and the environment.
- Logging accounts for the third-highest number of deaths related to environmental violations in the Philippines, after mining and agriculture.
- The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has called on Congress to pass legislation that would create an environmental law enforcement bureau to better protect rangers.
Building the world’s biggest MPA: Q&A with Goldman winner Jacqueline Evans
- In July 2017, the South Pacific nation of the Cook Islands made a bold bid to convert its entire territorial waters, the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), into a mixed-use marine protected area.
- Called Marae Moana, or “sacred ocean,” the MPA spans almost 2 million square kilometers (772,200 square miles), making it the biggest in the world, although only parts of it are strictly protected from fishing and other extractive activities.
- Jacqueline Evans, a marine conservationist, was the driving force behind the MPA.
- This week, Evans was awarded a prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for her work on Marae Moana.
Meet the winners of the 2019 Goldman Environmental Prize
- This year is the 30th anniversary of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize.
- Also called the Green Nobel Prize, the annual award honors grassroots environmental heroes from six continental regions: Europe, Asia, North America, Central and South America, Africa, and islands and island nations.
- This year’s winners are Alfred Brownell from Liberia, Bayarjargal Agvaantseren from Mongolia, Ana Colovic Lesoska from North Macedonia, Jacqueline Evans from the Cook Islands, Alberto Curamil from Chile, and Linda Garcia from the United States.
Jane Goodall on Leonardo DiCaprio, her 85th birthday, and the need for hope
- Primatologist Jane Goodall is arguably the world’s best known conservationist for her research on chimps and her efforts to raise awareness on environmental issues globally.
- On April 3rd, Jane turned 85 and was honored by the City of Los Angeles for her contributions to the planet. And actor Leonardo Dicaprio hosted a star-studded birthday dinner for her.
- For the occasion, Mongabay’s founder Rhett Butler interviewed Jane about some examples of why she remains optimistic for wildlife and wild places.
- Disclosure: Jane is a member of Mongabay’s advisory council.
Five wildlife conservationists held by Iran could face the death penalty
- Four conservationists arrested for suspected espionage in Iran in January face charges of “sowing corruption on Earth.”
- The charges stem from the team’s use of camera traps to track the Asiatic cheetah, but Iran’s Revolutionary Guard contends that the accused were collecting information on the country’s missile program.
- If convicted, the conservationists could be sentenced to death.
Scientists, conservationists: Give Nobel Peace Prize to Jane Goodall
- Scientists and conservationists argue that primatologist Jane Goodall should receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019.
- Goodall’s groundbreaking research uncovered startling revelations, including tool use by chimpanzees, that blurred the lines between humans and animals.
- Goodall, a U.N. Messenger of Peace, now travels around the world to encourage living in harmony with the natural world.
In a Colombian sanctuary, once-trafficked birds fly again
- Colombia is home to the most important aviary in South America, a sanctuary containing almost 2,000 birds.
- The privately run National Aviary of Colombia serves as a refuge in which birds representing 165 different species have a second chance at life after escaping the hands of illegal wildlife traffickers.
- So far in 2018, Colombian authorities have rescued nearly 4,000 birds — victims of a trafficking industry that has become the third-largest illicit economy in the country.
Photos: Meet the 2018 ‘Green Oscars’ winners
- The six winners of 2018 Whitley Award are Munir Virani of Kenya; Shahriar Caesar Rahman of Bangladesh; Kerstin Forsberg of Peru; Dominique Bikaba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Anjali Chandraraj Watson of Sri Lanka; and Olivier Nsengimana of Rwanda.
- Each recipient was awarded £40,000 ($56,000) in project funding over one year at an awards ceremony held at the Royal Geographic Society in London, U.K., on April 25.
- A seventh conservationist, Pablo “Popi” Garcia Borboroglu from Argentina, who won the Whitley Award in 2010, received the Whitley Gold Award for his commitment to safeguarding the world’s penguin species.
Meet the winners of the 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize
- Six of the seven winners of the 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize recipients are women.
- Dubbed the Green Nobel Prize, the annual award honors grassroots environmental heroes from Europe, Asia, North America, Central and South America, Africa, and islands and island nations.
- This year’s winners are Makoma Lekalakala and Liz McDaid from South Africa; Claire Nouvian from France; Francia Márquez from Colombia; Khanh Nguy Thi from Vietnam; LeeAnne Walters from the United States; and Manny Calonzo from the Philippines.
Two dozen Latin American countries sign agreement to protect environmental defenders
- The Principle 10 treaty deals mainly with the defense of environmentalists, promoting transparency in public access to environmental information, and shoring up environmental democracy and justice.
- The principles were approved on March 4 in the so-called Escazú Agreement in Costa Rica, by 24 countries from around Latin America and the Caribbean. It must now be ratified by the member countries.
- Environmental activists have hailed it as a massive step forward in the protection of environmental defenders, in a region where such advocates face the greatest threats to their lives.
In rural Indonesia, women spearhead the fight to protect nature
- This past July, some 50 environmental defenders, most of them women, from across Indonesia’s rural areas gathered for a discussion at an Islamic boarding school in West Java.
- The event highlighted women’s increasingly leading role in the grassroots movement to protect the country’s indigenous cultures, its natural resources and its long-held, but now threatened, traditional wisdoms and customs that champion sustainable development.
- Researchers say these women are at the leading edge of a new wave to defend and protect their homeland.
Margaret Atwood on her conservation-themed graphic novel, dystopian futures, and how not to despair
- Today’s episode features best-selling author and environmental activist Margaret Atwood as well as the founder of a beverage company rooted in the Amazon whose new book details the lessons he’s learned from indigenous rainforest peoples.
- Margaret Atwood, whose novels and poetry have won everything from an Arthur C. Clarke Award for best Science Fiction to the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Fiction, recently tackled a medium she is not as well-known for: comic books. Not only that, but she has written a comic book series, called Angel Catbird, that "was a conservation project from the get-go," she told Mongabay.
- Our second guest is Tyler Gage, co-founder of the beverage company Runa. "Runa" is the word the indigenous Kichwa people use to describe the effects of drinking guayusa; it translates to "fully alive" — which also happens to be the name of a new book that Gage has just published detailing the lessons he learned in the Amazon that led to the launch of Runa and its mission to partner with indigenous communities in business.
Jane Goodall interview: ‘The most important thing is sharing good news’
- Celebrated conservationist and Mongabay advisor Jane Goodall spoke with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler for the podcast just before departing for her latest speaking tour (she travels 300 days a year raising conservation awareness). Here we supply the full transcript.
- This wide-ranging conversation begins with reaction to the science community’s recent acceptance of her six decade contention that animals are individuals with personalities, and moves on to discuss trends in conservation, and she then provides an update on the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI)’s global projects.
- She also challenges trophy hunting as an effective tool for funding conservation (“It’s rubbish,” she says), shares her positive view of China’s quickly growing environmental movement, talks about the key role of technology in conservation, and discusses a range of good news, which she states is always so important to share.
- Amazingly, Dr. Goodall reports that JGI’s youth program Roots & Shoots now has perhaps as many as 150,000 chapters worldwide, making it probably the largest conservation movement in the world, with many millions having been part of the program. An effort is now underway to document them all.
Dr. Jane Goodall on being proven right about animals having personalities, plus updates direct from COP23
- On today’s episode, we speak with the legendary Jane Goodall, who truly needs no introduction, and will have a direct report from the United Nations’ climate talks happening now in Bonn, Germany.
- Just before Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Butler was scheduled to speak with Goodall recently, research came out that vindicated her contention, which she’s held for nearly 60 years, that animals have personalities just like people. So we decided to record her thoughts about that for the Mongabay Newscast.
- Our second guest today is Mongabay contributor and Wake Forest University journalism professor Justin Catanoso, who appears on the podcast direct from COP23 to tell us how the UN climate talks are going in Bonn, Germany, what the mood is like amongst delegates, and how the US delegation is factoring into the talks as the Trump Administration continues to pursue a pullout from the Paris Climate Agreement.
One man’s quest to save the world’s wildest places: Hansjörg Wyss
- A summer spent in Colorado in 1958 prompted Hansjörg Wyss’s life-long commitment to conservation.
- As his means increased, Wyss became one of the world’s most generous philanthropists, supporting causes ranging from the arts to social justice to science to conservation.
- Much of Wyss’s support of conservation has focused on creating permanent public access to the rugged landscapes of the American West
- In recent years Wyss has expanded his efforts to other regions, including the Amazon rainforest, African savannas and forests, and in Romania.
Katharine Hayhoe on how to talk about climate change: ‘Share from the heart and then the head’
- Our first guest on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast is atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe, a professor in the Department of Political Science and the director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University, who teamed up last year with her local PBS station, KTTZ, to write and produce a web series called "Global Weirding."
- We check in with Hayhoe as she’s in the midst of shooting the second season of Global Weirding in order to get a sense of what to expect from the new episodes of the show and how Hayhoe views the overall political landscape around climate action today.
- Our second guest is Branko Hilje Rodriguez, a PhD student in the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department at the University of Alberta, Canada who studies the soundscapes of different successional stages of the tropical dry forest in Costa Rica’s Santa Rosa National Park, the largest remaining remnant of tropical dry forest in Mesoamerica.
- In this Field Note segment, Hilje Rodriguez plays for us a number of the recordings he’s made in the park, allowing us to hear the sounds of the dry forest during different stages of regrowth and different seasons, as well as some of the iconic bird species that call the dry forest home.
Meet the 2017 ‘Green Oscars’ winners
- The winners include Purnima Barman from India, Sanjay Gubbi from India, Alexander Blanco from Venezuela, Indira Lacerna-Widmann from Philippines, Ian Little from South Africa and Ximena Velez-Liendo from Bolivia.
- At an awards ceremony held last evening at the Royal Geographic Society in London, each of the six winners received £35,000 (~$46,000) in project funding to help scale up their work.
- Zafer Kizilkaya, a 2013 Whitley Award winner from Turkey, received this year’s Gold Award (£50,000) for his conservation project “Guardians of the sea: securing and expanding marine reserves along the Turkish coastline”.
The rise and fall of Regina Lopez, the Philippines’ maverick environment minister
- Lopez was a well-known environmental activist prior to her 2016 appointment as director of the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
- During her 10-month tenure, Lopez shut down or suspended 26 mines that failed to pass environmental audits, cancelled approval of 75 proposed mines, and banned new open-pit metal mines.
- On May 3, Lopez was removed from her post by a House-Senate committee charged with rejecting or confirming political appointments. The committee included politicians with ties to the mining sector.
- President Rodrigo Duterte — a firm supporter of Lopez — appointed a former Armed Forces chief of staff to replace her.
Meet the winners of the 2017 Goldman Environmental Prize
- The Goldman Environmental Prize, dubbed the Green Nobel Prize, honors grassroots environmental heroes from Europe, Asia, North America, Central and South America, Africa, and Islands and Island nations.
- The winners will be awarded the Prize today at the San Francisco Opera House.
- The winners include Uros Macerl from Slovenia, Prafulla Samantara from India, mark! Lopez from the United States, Rodrigo Tot from Guatemala, Rodrigue Mugaruka Katembo from DRC and Wendy Bowman from Australia.
From CEO to Conservation Legend: An Interview with Kristine Tompkins
- In addition to protecting habitat, Tompkins and her team are reintroducing megafauna – from giant anteaters to jaguars – back into Iberá National Park.
- Tompkins calls climate change a ‘disaster’ and ‘horrifying,’ says the signs are obvious in South America.
- She continues to preserve land in Chile and Argentina after losing her husband and conservation partner, Doug Tompkins, in 2015.
Paul Simon on his new tour in support of E.O. Wilson’s Half-Earth initiative
- The 12-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter recently announced on Mongabay.com that he is embarking on a 17-date US concert tour, with all proceeds benefitting Half-Earth, an initiative of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.
- Mongabay contributor Justin Catanoso interviewed Paul Simon about his long-time friendship with E.O. Wilson and why Dr. Wilson’s Half-Earth idea inspired him to get involved in this environmental cause.
- We also feature another Field Notes segment, this time with Zuzana Burivalova, a conservation scientist at Princeton University who has recorded the soundscapes of over 100 sites in the Indonesian part of Borneo.
Rachel Carson: A sensitive soul who changed the way we see — and treat — the world
- Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz touted Rachel Carson as a heroine and role model for girls in his comic strips. That may well have been the case, but the more I learned about her as I matured and my interest in nature and the environment deepened, the more she became my hero, too.
- PBS recently aired a two-hour documentary on the life, times, personal struggles, and influence of Rachel Carson, the soft-spoken, retiring, self-effacing woman who became an unlikely champion for nature and helped launch the modern environmental movement.
- Carson’s seminal work, Silent Spring, represented a necessary rebuke to the ascendant hubris of the “Atomic Age,” one symbolized by radioactive fallout, “duck and cover,” and the arrogant slogan “better living through chemistry.”
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Environmental lawyer killed in the Philippines
- Mia Mascariñas-Green, a lawyer with the NGO Environmental Legal Assistance Center who also handled civil and criminal cases, was ambushed in broad daylight.
- Police believe her death was connected to her work on a property-dispute case in the resort island of Panglao.
- The Philippines is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for environment and land defenders; according to tallies by rights groups, more than 100 have been killed since 2002.
E.O. Wilson on Half-Earth, Donald Trump, and hope
- Celebrated biologist’s new book outlines an audacious plan to save the biodiversity of Earth
- He is also the author of numerous biological concepts, including island biogeography and biophilia
- In a wide-ranging interview, he also discusses the Trump phenomenon and decries de-extinction and so-called ‘Anthropocenists’
Recognizing environmentalists under threat
- Environmental defenders are under threat: each year hundreds are killed, according to Global Witness.
- Alex Soros, a young philanthropist who established the Alexander Soros Foundation in 2012, believes recognition of these advocates is long overdue.
- Accordingly, each year the foundation honors environmental defenders with the ASF Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Environmental and Human Rights Activism.
Hectare by hectare, an indigenous man reforested a jungle in Indonesia’s burned-out heartland
- In 1998, a Dayak Ngaju man named Januminro started buying up and reforesting degraded land not far from Palangkaraya, the capital of Indonesia’s Central Kalimantan province.
- Today the forest spans 18 hectares and is home to orangutans, sun bears and other endangered species.
- Januminro uses funds from an adopt-a-tree program to operate a volunteer firefighting team. He has big plans to expand the forest.
Park ranger murdered while trying to protect rare gorillas
- On October 4, a park ranger, Munganga Nzonga Jacques, was killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kahuzi Biega National Park while trying to protect the park’s rare Grauer’s gorillas.
- Jacques is the second ranger to be killed in Kahuzi Biega in the last six months.
- Kahuzi Biega National Park is believed to be the last stronghold of Grauer’s gorillas, so the murder of Jacques has conservationists worried about the future of the rangers, their families, as well as the gorillas.
Environmental official murdered in Brazilian Amazon
- Luiz Alberto Araújo, head of the Altamira municipal government environmental department in the state of Pará, was gunned down in an execution-style killing last Thursday. 448 environmentalists were killed in Brazil between 2002-2013 — half the total murdered worldwide.
- Araújo provided information this year that helped lead to the arrest of a major illegal logging operation led by Antonio José Junqueira Vilela Filho, known as Ajj.
- Ajj ran his operation near Altamira for ten years, often only cutting valuable understory trees, and leaving the tallest behind to fool satellites and avoid detection. His operation kept loggers in slave-like conditions. Ajj was fined US$37 million, the largest such fine ever in the Amazon.
- Last February, Araújo’s team collected tons of dead fish secretly buried near the newly completed Belo Monte mega-dam, near Altamira. Norte Energia, the company operating the dam, was fined US$11 million for the 16.2 tons of fish illegally killed during the flooding of the dam’s reservoir.
Jane Goodall on zoos and tech as conservation tools
Famed conservationist Jane Goodall, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), UN Messenger of Peace, and Mongabay.com advisory board member visited Hawai’i last month for the World Conservation Congress, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s latest global gathering. She and her team kept a busy schedule as usual, giving press conferences and speaking about […]
Anti-coal activist murdered in the Philippines
- On July 1, two gunmen on motorcycles shot and killed anti-coal activist, Gloria Capitan, inside her karaoke bar in Mariveles, Bataan in the Philippines.
- She sustained three gunshot wounds, two in the neck and one in the arm, local media reported.
- Capitan, 57, led her community in a series of protests against pollution from an open coal storage facility close to her neighborhood, and demanded its permanent closure.
Deadliest year on record for environmental activists
- Of the 185 documented cases of environmental activists murdered around the world in 2015, more than half of the killings took place in Brazil (50), the Philippines (33), and Colombia (26).
- Indigenous peoples account for roughly five percent of the world’s population, but they were the victims in almost 40 percent of the 2015 killings documented by Global Witness.
- The mining and extractive industries sector was linked to 42 killings in 10 countries.
PHOTOS: On a Chinese mountain, an aging anti-poaching hero ponders the future
- Yu Jiahua, a 65-year old villager living on Jiuding Mountain in Sichuan province, was a skilled hunter when he was in his 20s.
- After an influx of outside poachers severely curtailed local wildlife populations, he and his brother began patrolling the mountain, confronting poachers and confiscating their rifles and snares.
- Eventually Yu convinced other villagers to help, establishing an organization that won outside acclaim and financial support.
- Wildlife on the mountain has rebounded, but finances remain thin and patrollers few. As Yu Jiahua ages, it is unclear who will take on his mission.
Biologist Carl Jones wins top prize for saving many rare species from extinction
- On May 4, Welsh conservationist Carl Jones was awarded the prestigious Indianapolis Prize at the London Natural History Museum for his decades-long efforts to bring back several rare species from the brink of extinction.
- Jones, who is Chief Scientist of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and Scientific Director of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, was selected from among six other finalists.
- He received an unrestricted $250,000 as prize money, and the Lilly Medal.
Indian conservation geneticist wins Field Museum’s top conservation award
- The Field Museum in Chicago has awarded the 2016 Parker/Gentry award to Uma Ramakrishnan, an Indian conservation geneticist who has worked extensively on the population genetics, evolutionary history and conservation of tigers and other mammals in India.
- Ramakrishnan is the first Indian to receive the award.
- Ramakrishnan’s team has developed genetic tools to help count tigers, understand connectivity between tiger populations and trace origins of black market tiger parts.
Amazon journalist endures, despite decades of threats and harassment
- Since 1987 Lúcio Flávio Pinto has published his own one-man bimonthly newspaper in the Brazilian state of Pará, Jornal Pessoal.
- His independent coverage of the plunder of the Amazon, shady dealings by prominent families, and government corruption earned him national and international accolades over the years, as well as many prominent enemies.
- Pinto has continued his work in spite of numerous death threats, a beating, and dozens of lawsuits that have left him in precarious circumstances.
Honduran environmental and indigenous rights activist, Berta Cáceres, is gunned down
- Cáceres won the Goldman Environmental Prize, a prestigious award for her environmental activism on behalf of her fellow indigenous Lenca people.
- During her last few weeks of life, Cáceres and COPINH faced an escalation in threats and violence.
- In a country with one of the highest murder rates in the world, Cáceres’ murder joins hundreds of other indigenous activists who have been slaughtered in Honduras for the right to land and resources.
Munduruku building new alliances to fight Tapajós Basin dams in Amazon
- The Munduruku people are utilizing lessons learned in their failed fight against the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River to battle newly proposed Tapajós Basin hydroelectric projects. Most significantly, they’ve learned there is strength in unity.
- The indigenous group has made a major appeal to the Brazilian government in opposition to the Tapajós dams, and also presented its case to the international environmental community at the Paris Climate Summit in December, 2015.
- The Munduruku are building strong partnerships with other indigenous groups, the quilombola (Amazonian descendants of fugitive slaves), impacted riverine communities, sympathetic city-dwellers, and environmental organizations.
Environmentalist gunned down by illegal miners in Peru
- On Thursday night, Alfredo Ernesto Vracko Neuenschwander was gunned down at his home along the Interoceanic Highway.
- Vracko, 58, was a woodworker who led a movement to resist forest invasions by illegal gold miners in Peru’s biodiverse Tambopata region.
- Illegal gold miners are suspected to be responsible for the murder.
A Borneo village maps its land to protect against encroachers
- With assitance from NGOs, residents of Punan Adiu village in North Kalimantan have finished mapping their customary territory.
- At certain moments, the mapping campaign exposed latent conflicts between Punan Adiu and its neighbors, but residents were able to reach a compromise.
- Indigenous rights advocates hope the process can become a model for other communities.
Bali’s mountain dwellers govern with ancient palm leaf treatises
- Residents of Tenganan in the hills of eastern Bali produced forestry regulations that predate the 11th century. The village still adheres to them.
- The local Aga people are trying to negotiate a balance between maintaining the environment and accommodating foreign tourists.
- According to a local regulation on collective ownership, individuals within the village can neither draw up deeds for local land nor transfer parcels to people outside the community.
The indigenous community whose forest is their supermarket
- Local people have mapped their customary forest but still must deal with companies who are given permits to exploit their land.
- Residents derive a variety of benefits from the surrounding environment, including food, medicine and cultural inspiration.
- The central government has recognized local people with an “ecolabel” for their dedication to customary law and local wisdom.
An indigenous declaration in Kalimantan looks to make history
- Dayak Tombun people in Central Kalimantan want President Jokowi to officialize their rights to the land they spent years mapping with NGO assistance.
- Jokowi has already said he backs a stalled domestic law on indigenous rights and the creation of a specialized task force, but advocates want him to expedite these reforms.
- Villagers say mapping indigenous forests will result in greater protection of tree cover because it will leverage centuries of local knowledge.
Advances from oil palm interests leave Sulawesi village unmoved
- The village of Rumbia has repeatedly turned down advances from oil palm companies who want to develop their land.
- Even officials from the local government have tried to convince Rumbia to try oil palm, but residents have remained steadfast.
- Instead, they grow timber species and harvest palm sugar. Last year, the village received an environmental prize from the president.
Punk rocker likes what he sees in Sumatra’s resin forest
- Residents of Pahmungan village in Lampung won a prestigious environmental prize for protecting their dipterocarp forest.
- They have gotten a publicity boost from Jemi Delvian, lead singer of Indonesian punk rock band Hutan Tropis.
- Creating a ‘damar’ grove is no small effort – it takes 23 years.
In the shadow of a metropolis, a community revives Java’s lost forests
- The year following strongman General Suharto’s fall was a period of intense deforestation for Mendiro village in East Java.
- Years later, locals formed an organization to reverse the damage.
- Ten thousand seedlings were planted. The villagers have since been awarded a prestigious conservation prize from the central government.
A village in Borneo turns away from palm oil
- Tanjung residents were approached in 2010 by an oil palm company that wanted to do a deal.
- Around the same time, they were also approached by two groups interested in helping the village protect its forests.
- They have since endeavored to improve and diversify their agricultural practices.
Could canned fish soup stop government-community conflict in Sumatra?
- Lemaeh soup is a delicacy native to Rejang Lebong in Indonesia. It has been canned and exported to Japan and Europe.
- Locals were banned from harvesting coffee from customary plots when the government created a protected area. The bamboo industry is being developed to diversify income sources.
- Bamboo weaving is traditionally the lot of the ladies in the region, so women are being encouraged to participate.
A Dayak village campaigns for rights to its forests
- Residents of Sebadak Raya have rejected entreaties from oil palm companies for many years, although that might be starting to change.
- Some in the village have accepted the companies, but others view the forests spiritually as their source of life and don’t want do business with the firms.
- After villagers mapped their traditional-use forests, the government gave them rights to a portion of what they asked for. Villagers are campainging for more.
Lombok’s blooming community forest bears fruit and raises livelihoods – and haj trips
- In 1997 the land around Santong was practically a dead zone following years of untrammeled exploitation during the rule of General Suharto.
- To address this the community banded together with the local office of the Forestry Ministry and made Santong the pilot site for a community forest program.
- Today, delegations from each of the ASEAN bloc states have visited Santong to study the scheme’s successes.
Crocodile conservationist awarded Field Museum’s prestigious prize
- The Field Museum in Chicago has awarded this year’s prestigious Parker/Gentry Award to Merlijn van Weerd, a Dutch wildlife conservationist, for his extensive work to protect the rare and critically endangered Philippine crocodile in the Philippines.
- Weerd and his colleagues founded the Mabuwaya Foundation in 2003, a conservation organization aimed at protecting the Philippines crocodiles by engaging with local communities.
- Weerd has also helped establish the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park in northern Luzon, and has been part of the team that discovered the fruit-eating monitor lizard.
Nature guide freed in Madagascar 5 months after arrest for exposing rosewood trade
- Armand Marozafy, a nature guide in Madagascar, has been freed after spending 5 months in prison.
- Marozafy had been arrested for ‘defamation’ for exposing two businessmen allegedly linked to illegal rosewood logging.
- Critics said Marozafy’s arrest undermined Madagascar’s ecotourism sector, while empowering illegal loggers.
2015 Equator Prize winners span 19 countries
- The United Nations today announced 21 winners of the 2015 Equator Prize, a prestigious award that recognizes community-led environmental initiatives.
- The winners, selected from a pool of 1,461 nominations across 126 countries, include a wide range of groups from around the world.
- The winners were announced during a ceremony hosted by actor Alec Baldwin
From conflict to partnership, a Kalimantan community and logging company manage the forest together
- A year after the 1998 fall of Suharto, a logging company began felling trees in a concession where five villages already stood. One of Indonesia’s ubiquitous land conflicts began to set in.
- In 2000, a mediation agreement produced an agreed framework for compensation. Villagers later formed a collective action network, BP Segah, to oversee the deal.
- Today, BP Segah monitors the company’s activities to ensure transparency, serves as a public forum for complaints, manages compensation payments and more.
Powered by the land: The Sumatran village that conserves forest for electricity
- Residents of Kinangkung rely on water from the surrounding forest to power their homes.
- The microgrid is the consequence of years of a focused drive by a community to protect its ecological wealth.
- Kinangkung is just one sign that microgeneration is beginning to concentrate minds in the archipelago’s outlying areas.
Indonesian villagers transform ailing forests into oasis of fruit
- A village on the island of Lombok convinced local forestry officials to increase its management rights over its forests.
- The villagers have sometimes clashed with rangers from a nearby national park, but they have turned nutmeg and other crops into a major source of income.
- The villagers are trying to get similar regulations passed throughout Lombok.
Indonesian village opts to protect mangroves, preserve livelihoods
- In May, the village of Deaga in North Sulawesi agreed to conserve 150 hectares of mangroves, which store huge amounts of carbon.
- Under the terms of the agreement, villagers can still harvest dead mangrove wood and nipa palm leaves for home-building and can pick fruit.
- The villagers want to see the protected area incorporated into the district’s spatial plan to ensure that it is respected.
Palm oil a mixed blessing in Indonesia’s peat peninsula
The Indonesian village of Dosan sits on the edge of the Kampar Peninsula, an enormous swath of peat in Riau province on the island of Sumatra. The peninsula is one of the last strongholds for the critically endangered Sumatran tiger and constitutes one of the world’s largest carbon stores. It is also fast disappearing. Over […]
Mining activist released after being charged with terrorism, rebellion in Ecuador
Yesterday, mining and environmental activist, Javier Ramírez, walked out of an Ecuadorian courtroom with his freedom. Ramírez, who has long fought against a massive state-owned massive copper mine in the cloud forest village of Junin, was arrested in April last year and subsequently charged with rebellion, sabotage, and terrorism among other thing. The judge sentenced […]
Communities create timber company to protect Sumatran forest
Acacia seedlings are grown and planted in and around communities in Lampung, Sumatra, to help relieve logging pressures on natural forest. Photo by Ridzki R. Sigit. The village of Pekandangan sits on the border of Register 39, a 41,000-hectare protected forest containing the headwaters of the Way Seputih River. The Way Seputih is the longest […]
Sulawesi communities build big, unique houses by sustainably managing forests
Bonoran community members sustainably harvest bamboo from the surrounding forest to build traditional houses. Photo by Eko Rusdianto. “If we don’t have forests, community grounds, burial place, and rice fields… then what will be the fate of our families?” asks Layuk Sarungallo, a traditional leader of the Ke’te Kessu area of the Bonoran Village in […]
Rapid development threatening traditional farms, forests in West Papua
Tall, forested mountains surround the village of Demaisi in West Papua. Photo by Duma Tato Sanda. A half-kilometer south of the village of Demaisi, Yohan Ullo pulls weeds from his garden. The 50 square meters of land was only recently cleared for planting. However, it has been in the rotation of his family for many […]
After 10 years vying for protection, Kalimantan community granted legal rights to community forest
Forest along a stream near Setulang. Photo by Yustinus S. Hardjanto. During Indonesia’s 2014 national census, 848 people were recorded living in the village of Setulang, an hour’s drive from Malinau, North Kalimantan (formerly part of East Kalimantan) at the confluence of the Malinau and Setulang rivers. All of them consider themselves members of the […]
Sumatran community takes charge to protect its forest, attracts REDD+ attention
The forests of the Bukit Barisan mountains support high levels of biodiversity, prevent landslides, and protect local watersheds. Photo by Sapariah Saturi. Television inspired Syafrizal to act. As he watched report after report of land conflicts exploding in Sumatra and Kalimantan, he realized nobody was safe, and his village might be next. “We were managing […]
Sumatran community grows crops, aids conservation through ‘village forests’
Coffee-growing is an important part of the economy of Semende. Photo by R. Ridzki Sigit. The rolling green hills covered in rice paddies and coffee plantations give Semende in the Muara Enim regency of South Sumatra a welcome and hospitable feeling. However, behind the peaceful pastoral veil, is a history of rampant forest encroachment and […]
Sumatran village protects environment through agroforestry
A resident of Indudur at work in the fields. Photo by Diana Elviza. The forest behind Indudur village clings to the steep hillside. The topography itself is enough to protect it from most common threats of development. However, the area is under attack by a more pernicious force: a lack of interest by the younger […]
Sulawesi village seeks protection for sacred forest threatened by development
A Cerekang district resident in a traditional canoe, which is a major mode of local transportation. Photo by Eko Rusdianto. Home to some 400 fishermen, Manurung village appears unremarkable at first glance: quiet houses along a winding river lined with boats. However, behind the village lies something remarkable: a tract of old-growth forest nearly untouched […]
Farmers help restore degraded forests in Sulawesi
A farmer from the village of Pamulukkang with his cocoa tree. Photo by Revelation Chandra. Irda tends to his two-hectare timber plantation in Pamulukkang Forest at the base of Tanete Kindo Mountain in West Sulawesi. Unlike some other farmers in Indonesia, he does so without fear of harassment by forest rangers or police. Since 2008, […]
Forest management by Sulawesi community attracts international attention
The village of Ngata Toro abuts protected forest in Lore Lindu National Park. Photo by Chris Paino. Ngata Toro borders Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi about a three-hour drive from Palu—the provincial capital of Central Sulawesi. In the center of the village stands a “lobo,” the traditional home of the local people, where […]
Sulawesi community regains access to forest on which it depends
Namu village is surrounded by forested hills between Lore Lindu National Park and a conservation forest. They recently regained access to the forest, which they depend on for their way of life. Photo by Syarifah Latowa. Three hours by road from the city of Palu in Sulawesi lies Namo, a small village surrounded by forest. […]
Kalimantan community maps forest to thwart timber companies
Cleared forest near the village of Tumbang Bahanei in the province of Central Kalimantan. Residents are trying to stop timber companies from encroaching on their land. Photo by Indra Nugraha. The small village of Tumbang Bahanei is inhabited by 139 indigenous families that tend to 2,859 hectares of customary forest, 132 hectares of rice fields, […]
Sulawesi community vies to maintain rights to forest
Community-maintained forest in Delang District, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Photo by Revelation Chandra. “We are treated like criminals caught stealing our own land,” M. Basri told Mongabay-Indonesia. The acting village head of Tompo Bulu in Sinjai Regency of South Sulawesi was referring to a letter by the regency’s government that effectively banned anyone from entering or […]
Palm oil threatens community forest in Central Kalimantan
Community-maintained forest in Delang District, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Photo by Indra Nugraha. Delang district is different than many parts of Central Kalimantan. Namely, on the drive in from Nangabulik, you won’t see large-scale oil palm plantations, and the forest appears to be well maintained. This is because the locals are keenly aware of the importance […]
Peru’s first environment minister dies at 74
Antonio Brack Egg left a legacy of biodiversity conservation in one of Latin America’s most biodiverse countries
Traditional farming technique preserves soil, forest in Kalimantan
A kekalik fruit tree grows in a “dahas” agroforestry plot in West Kalimantan. Photo by Andi Fachrizal. The road winds five kilometers through a thick canopy of trees before ending abruptly at a stream and a small, stout wooden cabin in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Amid, the cabin’s owner, proudly explains that he constructed it from […]
Coffee farmers help protect Flores forest
Forest surrounding the Wata Ata region in Flores, Indonesia. Photo by Anton Muhajir. Located on the slopes of Inerie Mountain on the island of Flores in Indonesia, farmers in Bajawa district and neighboring Golewa have practiced sustainable agroforestry for generations, producing coffee for export to the U.S. and Europe known as Arabica Flores Bajawa (AFB). […]
Indigenous leader murdered before he could attend Climate Summit
Known for his opposition to Chinese mine project, indigenous leader found bound and buried in Ecuador Days before José Isidro Tendetza Antún was supposed to travel to the UN Climate Summit in Lima to publicly file a complaint against a massive mining operation, he went missing. Now, the Guardian reports that the body of the […]
Jane Goodall: 5 reasons to have hope for the planet
su Dr. Jane Goodall with Freud, a chimpanzee from Gombe. Photograph © Michael Neugebauer Jane Goodall is not only arguably the most famous conservationist who ever lived, but also the most well-known and respected female scientist on the planet today. Her path to reach that stature is as unlikely as it is inspiring. Told to […]
A tale of 2 Perus: Climate Summit host, 57 murdered environmentalists
New report finds that 83 percent of recent murders of environmental activists in Peru linked to police, military, or private security guards On September 1st, indigenous activist, Edwin Chota, and three other indigenous leaders were gunned down and their bodies thrown into rivers near the border of Peru and Brazil. Chota, an internationally-known leader of […]
Flying under the radar in Central Africa, Chinese companies may be wreaking environmental havoc
Tchimpounga, chimpanzees, and extractive industries in the Republic of Congo “Tchimpounga is not just a sanctuary,” shouted Rebeca Atencia above the din of the outboard motor, as she pointed to our progress up the Kouilou River on her tablet, donated by Google, which included access to high-resolution satellite maps. The GPS tracking showed us as […]
Google’s new Gombe Street View lets users ‘walk’ along chimp trails and into Jane Goodall’s house
New maps allow public exploration of the area Goodall has used for research for nearly fifty years Google Maps is now available for Tanzanian forest paths. Users can walk virtually along the same trails Jane Goodall has used for decades of chimpanzee study — and even into her house. Gombe Street View, a joint effort […]
Daring activists use high-tech to track illegal logging trucks in the Brazilian Amazon
Illegal Logging in Para State, Brazil as revealed by Greenpeace activists. Photo by: © Greenpeace. Every night empty trucks disappear into the Brazilian Amazon, they return laden with timber. This timber —illegally cut —makes its way to sawmills that sell it abroad to places like the U.S., Europe, China, and Japan using fraudulent paperwork to […]
Jane Goodall joins mongabay
Jane Goodall. Photo by: Morten Bjarnhof/GANT. Famed primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall—whose image is known the world over—has joined the advisory board of mongabay.org. This is the non-profit branch of mongabay.com, an environmental and science website with a special focus on tropical forests. “I began visiting [Mongabay] when I was researching information for my books, […]
The only solution for polar bears: ‘stop the rise in CO2 and other greenhouse gases’
Steven Amstrup will be speaking at the Wildlife Conservation Network Expo in San Francisco on October 11th, 2014. In 1773, an expedition headed by Constantine John Phipps, the Second Baron Mulgrave, embarked on a dangerous journey North—to see how far they could go before having to turn back. In his report at the end of […]
What makes the jaguar the ultimate survivor? New books highlights mega-predator’s remarkable past and precarious future
An interview with Alan Rabinowitz, author of the new book, An Indomitable Beast: the Journey of the Jaguar Female jaguar (staring into camera) with subadult male offspring moving through an old oil palm plantation in the jaguar corridor of Colombia. Photo by: Esteban Payan, Panthera. For thousands of years the jaguar was a God, then […]
Leonard DiCaprio to UN Climate Summit: ‘You can make history or you will be vilified by it’
DiCaprio: not enough for individuals to make changes, governments and industry must do so as well Actor, environmental activist, and recently named UN Messenger of Peace, Leonardo DiCaprio, spoke today to a UN Climate Summit. The summit, which is hosting the largest gathering of world leaders to address the crisis in five years, is meant […]
‘The green Amazon is red with indigenous blood’: authorities pull bodies from river that may have belonged to slain leaders
Indigenous groups call for land rights in wake of assassinations of Edwin Chota Valera and three other leaders Peruvian authorities have pulled more human remains from a remote river in the Amazon, which may belong to one of the four murdered Ashaninka natives killed on September 1st. These human remains—and those found last week—will undergo […]
Mongabay founder, Rhett Butler, wins Field Museum’s top conservation prize
The Field Museum has honored Rhett A. Butler, the founder of mongabay.com, with this year’s prestigious Parker/Gentry Award. The award is giving annually to an “individual, team or organization whose efforts have had a significant impact on preserving the world’s rich natural heritage and whose actions can serve as a model to others,” according to […]
Featured video: new Netflix documentary highlights the work of Sylvia Earle to save the oceans
Sylvia Earle is one of the ocean’s staunchest defenders. A National Geographic Society Explorer in Residence and former chief scientist with NOAA, Earle has spent a lifetime documenting the rapid decline of the world’s oceans and calling for more action to defend the body of water that cradles the world’s continents. Her most recent undertaking, […]
Why conservationists need a little hope: saving themselves from becoming the most depressing scientists on the planet
Have conservationists become too pessimistic for their own good—and the good of their cause? Tad Lo waterfalls in Laos. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Here’s a challenge: take a conservationist out for a drink and ask them about their work. Nine times out of ten—or possibly more—you’ll walk away feeling frustrated, despondent, and utterly hopeless. […]
World Ranger Day: honoring our wildlife protectors
Like Memorial Day, when we honor our nation’s military veterans, World Ranger Day is a day to recognize and celebrate the thousands of rangers who put their lives on the line as they protect wildlife and natural resources around the world. To commemorate this day, the International Ranger Federation released a Ranger Roll of Honor […]
Pope Francis: ‘if we destroy Creation, Creation will destroy us!’
Pope Francis I, who named himself after the nature-loving Saint from Assisi, spoke about the need to safeguard creation during an audience at the Vatican last week. “We are Custodians of Creation,” he said on Wednesday. “But when we exploit Creation we destroy the sign of God’s love for us, in destroying Creation we are […]
Lemur expert becomes first woman to win top conservation prize
Patricia Wright attends a cocktail reception at the Mission to the UN of Madagascar, May 15, 2014 in New York. INSIDER IMAGES/Gary He. Lemur expert Patricia C. Wright has become the first woman to win the prestigious Indianapolis Prize, an award granted every two years for achievement in wildlife conservation. Wright was selected among six […]
53 indigenous activists on trial for police-protester massacre in Peru
In the summer of 2009, on a highway in Peru known as Devil’s Curve: everything went wrong. For months, indigenous groups had protested new laws by then President Alan Garcia opening up the Amazon to deregulated logging, fossil fuels, and other extractive industries as a part of free trade agreements with the U.S. But the […]
Indonesian activist wins Goldman Prize for fighting palm oil, deforestation
Rudi Putra. Photo courtesy of the Goldman Prize. An Indonesian has won the world’s most prestigious award for environmental activism for his efforts to fight illegal logging, forest encroachment for palm oil production, and a policy that would open up vast swathes of an endangered ecosystem for mining and industrial plantations. Rudi Putra, a biologist […]
The remarkable story of how a bat scientist took on Russia’s most powerful…and won
Suren Gazaryan. Photo by: Goldman Environmental Prize. In a country increasingly known for its authoritarian-style crackdown on activists and dissidents, a bat scientist has won a number of impressive victories to protect the dwindling forests of the Western Caucasus. Beginning in the 1990s, Russian chiropterologist Suren Gazaryan led a number of campaigns to fight illegal […]
Conservation legend Jane Goodall turns 80 today
Dr. Jane Goodall, primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist, with a chimpanzee in her arms, c. 1995. Image Credit: Apic/Getty Images Primatologist and conservation legend Jane Goodall turns 80 today. In recognition of her achievements in protecting nature and wildlife, Wendee Nicole, the first recipient of the Mongabay Prize for Environmental Reporting, has done two Goodall-related posts […]
Mother of God: meet the 26 year old Indiana Jones of the Amazon, Paul Rosolie
Flying over the endless forest of the West Amazon, while searching for short-eared dogs. From so high up it was possible to see just how much forest there really is, and how much there is still to save. Photo courtesy of: Paul Rosolie. Not yet 30, Paul Rosolie has already lived a life that most […]
Assassination 25 years ago catalyzed movement to protect the Amazon
Chico Mendes in the window of his home in Xapuri, Brazil with Sandino, his son, in November 1988. Photo by Miranda Smith, Miranda Productions, Inc. Twenty-five years ago today, Chico Mendes, an Amazon rubber tapper, was shot and killed in front of his family at his home in Acre, Brazil at the age of 44. […]
UN talks tough to global coal industry
Yesterday, at the International Coal and Climate Summit—just a couple miles from the ongoing UN Climate Summit—Christiana Figueres delivered a speech unlike anything ever heard at a coal industry meeting before. Figueres, the Executive Director of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), took time off from wrangling world leaders and officials toward a […]
David Attenborough: someone who believes in infinite growth is ‘either a madman or an economist’
Sir David Attenborough has said that people living in poorer countries are just as concerned about the environment as those in the developed world, and “exporting environmentalism” isn’t necessarily an “uphill struggle”. The veteran broadcaster said ideas about protecting the natural world were not unwelcome in less developed nations—but added that wealthier countries should work […]
Unlikely success: how Zimbabwe has become a global leader in rhino conservation
Raoul du Toit will be speaking at the Wildlife Conservation Network Expo in San Francisco on October 12th, 2013. With its collapsed economy, entrenched poverty, and political tremors, one would not expect that a country like Zimbabwe would have the capacity to safeguard its rhinos against determined and well-funded poachers, especially as just across the […]
Celebrities aim to raise $1.6 million to keep orangutan forests from the the chopping block in Borneo
Sir David Attenborough, Bill Oddie and Chris Packham are supporting an effort to save the orangutan from extinction by raising £1m in just two weeks. Orangutans in their natural environment live in undisturbed ancient forests and for many years it was believed they shunned any other habitats. But researchers have discovered they can survive just […]
Clinton Global Initiative pledges $80 million to combat elephant poaching
Hillary and Chelsea Clinton on Thursday deployed their mother-daughter star power to help the effort to save African elephants, brokering an $80m effort to stop the ivory poaching which threatens the animals with extinction. The crackdown on 50 poaching hot spots in Africa involves several conservation groups and African governments. But conservation leaders, unveiling the […]
A year after devastating attack, security returns to the Okapi Wildlife Reserve (photos)
John Lukas will be speaking at the Wildlife Conservation Network Expo in San Francisco on October 12th, 2013. On June 24th of last year, MaiMai Simba rebels, led by an elephant poacher known as Morgan, launched a devastating attack on the headquarters of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in Epulu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The […]
Coming to terms with the evil Jane Goodall and the mystery of the dragonfly incident
The Ethical Ape is a regular column published by author and researcher Shawn Thompson. The views expressed in the column are his own. It is the easiest of premises to make that Jane Goodall is a good person who has lived a moral life. It is more troubling to explain why that is. Even Jane […]
Sea Shepherd to name new ship after slain sea turtle activist
Marine conservation group Sea Shepherd will name its newest vessel after Jairo Mora Sandoval, a sea turtle conservationist who was slain on a Costa Rican beach last month. “We do not want the name of this courageous and passionate young man to be forgotten and hopefully this will help to keep his memory alive,” said […]
Decades-long fight leads to old-growth forest protection in Tasmania
Almost 200,000 hectares of Tasmania’s old growth forest have been world heritage listed, bringing hope that a three-decade fight between environmentalists, politicians and loggers is over. The World Heritage Committee has extended the heritage listed boundary of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area by more than 170,000 hectares after accepting a proposal from the Australian […]
Why endangered species need conservation champions
The 2013 Zoos and Aquariums: Committing to Conservation (ZACC) conference runs from July 8th—July 12th in Des Moines, Iowa, hosted by the Blank Park Zoo. Ahead of the event, Mongabay.com is running a series of Q&As with presenters. For more interviews, please see our ZACC feed. Jaguar coming up for air in the Brazilian Pantanal. […]
Costa Rican environmentalist pays ultimate price for his dedication to sea turtles
Jairo Mora Sandoval walking on the beach where he died after releasing over a hundred turtle hatchlings in 2012. Photo by: Carlyn Samuel. On the evening of May 30th, 26-year-old Jairo Mora Sandoval was murdered on Moin beach near Limón, Costa Rica, the very stretch of sand where he courageously monitored sea turtle nests for […]
Loris champion: conserving the world’s most surprising primate family
The 2013 Zoos and Aquariums: Committing to Conservation (ZACC) conference runs from July 8th—July 12th in Des Moines, Iowa, hosted by the Blank Park Zoo. Ahead of the event, Mongabay.com is running a series of Q&As with presenters. For more interviews, please see our ZACC feed. Close-up of Javan slow loris (Nycticebus javanicus), listed as […]
Saving Gorongosa: E.O. Wilson on protecting a biodiversity hotspot in Mozambique
If you fly over the Great African Rift Valley from its northernmost point in Ethiopia, over the great national parks of Kenya and Tanzania, and follow it south to the very end, you will arrive at Gorongosa National Park in central Mozambique. Plateaus on the eastern and western sides of the park flank the lush […]
Conservation without supervision: Peruvian community group creates and patrols its own protected area
“Rural dwellers are not passive respondents to external conservation agents but are active proponents and executers of their own conservation initiatives.”—Noga Shanee, Projects Director for Neotropical Primate Conservation (NPC), in an interview with mongabay.com. When we think of conservation areas, many of us think of iconic National Parks overseen by uniformed government employees or wilderness […]
Iraqi who is bringing back the Garden of Eden wins top environment award
The vast Mesoptomian marshes in southern Iraq were said to be the site of the original Garden of Eden. On their fringes have risen and fallen 12,000 years of Sumerian, Assyrian, Chaldean, Persian and Arab civilizations. Organized farming is thought to have begun here, as did the first cities and writing. In legend, Gilgamesh fell […]
Anti-mining activist from Indonesia wins top green honor
Aleta Baun, an activist who led a movement to block a destructive mine in a remote part of Indonesia, was today awarded the prestigious Goldman Prize, the top honor for grassroots environmental campaigners. Aleta, who’s known locally as “Mama Aleta”, is an indigenous Mollo from Timor, an island in Eastern Indonesia (the eastern half of […]
Landowner who allegedly ordered Amazon murders acquitted
Jose Rodrigues Moreira, a Brazilian landowner who allegedly ordered the killings of Amazon activists Jose Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria, was acquitted this week due to lack of evidence. But, the two men who carried out the assassinations, Lindonjonson Silva Rocha and Alberto Lopes do Nascimento, were found guilty and sent to […]
Killings over land continues in the Amazon
On Wednesday, in the Brazilian state of Pará, the trial begins of three men accused of murdering José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria do Espirito Santo, who had campaigned against loggers and ranchers for years. Their assassinations in May 2011 generated international outrage, just like that of Chico Mendes, 25 years ago, […]
Wildfire forces anti-logging activist from tree after 449-day vigil
Miranda Gibson in the Observer Tree. Photo courtesy of Gibson. A bushfire has forced an environmental campaigner from the top of a tree following a 449-day vigil to block logging of a stand of old-growth forest in Australia. Miranda Gibson, 31, has been perched 60 meters of an ancient gum tree in southwestern Tasmania since […]
A lifetime with elephants: an interview with Iain Douglas-Hamilton
This interview is an excerpt from The WildLife with Laurel Neme, a program that explores the mysteries of the animal world through interviews with scientists and other wildlife investigators. “The WildLife” airs every Monday from 1-2 pm EST on WOMM-LP, 105.9 FM in Burlington, Vermont. You can livestream it at theradiator.org or download the podcast […]
Becky Tarbotton, head of the Rainforest Action Network, dies in accident in Mexico
Rebecca Tarbotton, the executive director of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) died Wednesday. She was 39. Tarbotton died in rough surf off a beach in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico where she was vacationing with her husband and friends. According to RAN, “the coroner ruled cause of death as asphyxiation from water she breathed in while swimming.” […]
Congo ranger ambushed and killed defending wildlife
Atamato Madrandele, 1969 – 2012 Atamato Madrandele, Chief Warden of Upemba National Park, was ambushed and killed December 16, 2012 by Mai-Mai militia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, reports the Upemba Conservation Project. Madrandele was killed as he was returning to the park’s headquaters, according to the conservation group. Madrandele was 43. “Atamato […]
‘The ivory trade is like drug trafficking’ (warning graphic images)
Confiscated elephant parts from poachers. Photo by: Nuria Ortega. For the past five years, Spanish biologist Luis Arranz has been the director of Garamba National Park, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Arranz and a team of nearly 240 people, 140 guards among them, work to protect a vast area of about 5,000 square […]
Cambodia drops case of murdered forest activist, Chut Wutty
Aerial view of illegal logging in Cambodia. Photo by: Paul Mason USAID/Cambodia/OGD. An investigation into the mysterious death of Cambodian forest activist, Chut Wutty, has been dismissed by the courts, which critics allege is apart of an ongoing cover up. The court decided that since the suspect in Wutty’s death, In Rattana, was also dead […]
Featured video: trailer for Living Downstream
After suffering from bladder cancer at 20, Sandra Steingraber began to study the links between toxic chemicals and deadly diseases. Her research led her to write the the much-acclaimed book Living Downstream, which combines her personal struggles with disease and the on-going contamination of our environment. Now, a new film based on the book, Steingraber’s […]
Environmental journalist investigating illegal logging murdered in Cambodia
Aerial view of illegal logging in Cambodia. Photo by: Paul Mason USAID/Cambodia/OGD. Less than five months after high-profile forest activist, Chut Wutty, was killed in Cambodia, an environmental journalist, Hang Serei Oudom, has been found slain in the trunk of his car, possibly murdered with an ax, reports the AFP. Oudum, who worked at the […]
Picture of the day: Yao Ming with baby elephant orphaned by ivory trade
Yao Ming walks with Kinango, an infant elephant whose mother was killed by poachers at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya. Photo by: Kristian Schmidt/WildAid. Former NBA Basketball player and Olympian, Yao Ming is taking his first trip through Africa in order to see the on-the-ground impacts of the black-market ivory and rhino trades […]
Cowards at Rio?: organizations decry ‘pathetic’ agreement
A Malagasy girl. While Madagascar faces widespread deforestation and erosion, it is estimated that 70 percent of its people suffer from malnutrition. The Rio+20 Summit is attempting to tackle both environmental degradation and poverty, but civil groups say the agreement falls far short of what is needed. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. As world leaders […]
Over 700 people killed defending forest and land rights in past ten years
José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva speaking at a TEDx Amazon in 2010, just a few months before he and his wife were assassinated for their activism. On May 24th, 2011, forest activist José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Maria do Espírito Santo da Silva, were gunned down in an ambush in the Brazilian […]
Featured video: why one scientist is getting arrested over climate change
In March 2012 the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and well-known climatologist, James Hansen, spoke at a TED conference to explain what would push a 70-year-old scientist to participate in civil disobedience against mountaintop coal mining and the Keystone Pipeline, even leading to several arrests. In his talk, Hansen outlines the basics […]
Cambodia suspends economic land concessions
A portion of Virachey National Park as viewed by Google Earth in Cambodia. Last year Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, approved a 9,000 hectare (22,200 acre) rubber plantation inside the park as apart of the government’s economic land concessions. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen announced today that Cambodia would be temporarily suspending new economic land […]
Assassinated forest activist Chut Wutty: ‘I want to see people live with freedom’
Chut Wutty with Prey Lang Network representatives, November 2011. Copyright Fran Lambrick 2011. All rights reserved. Chut Wutty, a dedicated Cambodian activist, was shot dead at an illegal logging site by military police, on Thursday. At the time Wutty was driving with two journalists, who wrote a shocking eyewitness account of his death, revealing that […]
Forest activist shot dead in Cambodia allegedly over photos of illegal logging
Aerial view of illegal logging in Koh Kong Province where forest activist, Chut Wutty, was shot dead today. Photo by: Paul Mason USAID/Cambodia/OGD. Chut Wutty, a prominent activist against illegal logging and deforestation, has been killed in the Koh Kong province of Cambodia. Wutty was shot dead at a military police checkpoint while traveling with […]
Doing good and staying sane amidst the global environmental crisis
An interview with Dr. Sarah Bexell. The vanishing giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is just one victim of the global environmental crisis. Photo by: Sarah Bexell. Several years ago while teaching a course in environmental science a student raised her hand during our discussion of the circumstances of modern ecological collapse and posed the question, “what […]
Featured video: How to save the Amazon
The past ten years have seen unprecedented progress in fighting deforestation in the Amazon. Indigenous rights, payments for ecosystem services, government enforcement, satellite imagery, and a spirit of cooperation amongst old foes has resulted in a decline of 80 percent in Brazil’s deforestation rates. A new video Hanging in the Balance by the Skoll Foundation […]
For Earth Day, 17 celebrated scientists on how to make a better world
Observations of planet Earth from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on July 11, 2005. Photo by: NASA. Seventeen top scientists and four acclaimed conservation organizations have called for radical action to create a better world for this and future generations. Compiled by 21 past winners of the prestigious Blue Planet Prize, a new paper […]
David vs. Goliath: Goldman Environmental Prize winners highlight development projects gone awry
Right of left: Evgenia Chirikova, Edwin Gariguez, Ma Jun, Ikal Angelei, Caroline Cannon, and Sofia Gatica. Photo courtesy of Goldman Environmental Prize. A controversial dam, a massive mine, poisonous pesticides, a devastating road, and criminal polluters: many of this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize winners point to the dangers of poorly-planned, and ultimately destructive, development initiatives. […]
“Don’t be so silly” about climate change: Mohamed Nasheed on The Daily Show
Former president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed speaking to reporters at the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009. Photo by: Adam Welz. Mohamed Nasheed, former president of the Maldives, told the world on The Daily Show Monday night: “Just don’t be so silly” about climate change. Nasheed, who in February was forced to resign his presidency, […]
Featured video: Honoring Wangari Maathai, who would have been 72 yesterday
The indomitable Wangari Maathai would have turned 72 yesterday, April 1st, 2012. Maathai, who was the first African woman and the first environmentalist to win a Nobel Peace Prize (in 2004), passed away last September. Founder of the Green Belt Movement, Maathai spent her life working to save Kenya’s forests, uplift the country’s women, and […]
Girl Scouts activists win forest heroes award for challenging organization on sustainability
UNFF Director Jan McAlpine with winners Paulo Adario, Rhiannon Tomtishen, Madison Vorva, Paul Nzegha Mzeka, Shigeatsu Hatakeyama, and Anatoly Lebedev. Courtesy of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) The United Nations on Thursday honored five “Forest Heroes” for their contributions toward protecting forests. Winners of the Forest Heroes Awards included individuals from five regions: […]
Interview with conservation legend George Schaller
Dr George Schaller is a veteran ecologist affiliated with two conservation organizations in New York, Panthera and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Spending much of his time during the past six decades in various countries of Asia, Africa and South America, he has studied and helped protect species as diverse as the Tiger, Mountain Gorilla, Giant […]
Unsung heroes: the life of a wildlife ranger in the Congo
Bunda Bokitsi. Photo by: Zoological Society of Milwaukee (ZSM). The effort to save wildlife from destruction worldwide has many heroes. Some receive accolades for their work, but others live in obscurity, doing good—sometimes even dangerous—work everyday with little recognition. These are not scientists or big-name conservationists, but wildlife rangers, NGO staff members, and low level […]
After protracted campaign, Girl Scouts pledges to cut out some palm oil
Palm oil plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Girl Scouts USA has announced that it will lessen palm oil in its ubiquitous cookies by using alternatives when possible and cutting overall usage. The organization also committed to purchasing GreenPalm certificates for all of its palm oil in order to financially support more […]
Group pushes entrepreneurship model for conservation
The Wildlife Conservation Network’s co-founder, Charles Knowles, looks back at a decade of hands on work in conservation. The Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN) is dedicated to protecting endangered species and preserving their natural habitats. This group supports innovative strategies for people and wildlife to co-exist and thrive. This year the group celebrates it’s ten year […]
Nobel laureate and Green Belt Movement founder Wangari Maathai dead at 71
Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai died Sunday after a battle with ovarian cancer. She was 71. Wangari Maathai. Courtesy of the Green Belt Movement Maathai is best known for founding the Green Belt Movement in Kenya in 1977. The initiative empowered rural women by getting them engaged in management and protection of forests. […]
Tribal leader to the UN: Indigenous peoples of the Amazon are in danger
Editor’s note: the following statement was presented by Almir Surui Narayamoga of the Surui tribe to the U.N. General Assembly in New York on September 21, 2011. Translation by Rhett Butler. Amazonian indigenous peoples and their traditional territories are living under constant threat. Illegal deforestation — carried out by loggers, ranchers, miners and intruders on […]
Two arrested in connection with murdering Amazon activists
Two suspects have been arrested for allegedly taking part in the killing of Amazon activist, José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva, and his wife, Maria do Espírito Santo da Silva. The men, who are brothers, were arrested after police stormed their remote jungle camp on Sunday in Brazilian state of Para. A third man remains at […]
Climate test for Obama: 1,252 people arrested over notorious oil pipeline
James Hansen (on the left) with religious leaders at Keystone XL civil disobedience. Photo by: Josh Lopez/Tar Sands Action. Two weeks of climate disobedience at the White House ended over the weekend with 1,252 people arrested in total. Activists were protesting the controversial Keystone XL pipeline in an effort to pressure US President Barack Obama […]
Over 100 protestors arrested as civil action begins against tar sands pipeline to US
In the first two days of a planned two week sit-in at the White House in Washington DC, over 100 activists against the Keystone XL pipeline have been arrested, reports Reuters. If approved by the Obama Administration, the 1,700 mile pipeline would bring around 700,000 barrels of oil daily from Canada’s notorious tar sands to […]
Climate activist sentenced to 2 years in jail for civil disobedience
Yesterday a federal court in Salt Lake City, Utah convicted climate activist Tim DeChristopher of defrauding the US government, sentencing him to two years in jail and a fine of $10,000, reports the Associated Press. In December 2008, Tim DeChristopher, won the mineral rights for 22,500 acres of US Interior Department land at a Bureau […]
Suspects named for assassination of husband and wife activists in Brazil
José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva speaking at TEDx Amazon in 2010 Brazilian authorities have fingered three men for the killing of environmental activist, José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva, and his wife, Maria do Espírito Santo da Silva, in May. The grisly murders received international attention, since José da Silva was a well known activist against […]
Richard Leakey: ‘selfish’ critics choose wrong fight in Serengeti road
To read more about Tanzania’s recent announcement related to the Serengeti road: Unpaved road through Serengeti to progress. The controversial Serengeti road is going ahead, but with conditions. According to the Tanzanian Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Ezekiel Maige, the road will not be paved and it will be run by the Tanzanian park […]
Arctic on the line: oil industry versus Greenpeace at the top of the world
Not long ago such an image would have been impossible, but here polar bears meet a US attack submarine. US Navy Photo by: Chief Yeoman Alphonso Braggs, US-Navy. At the top of the world sits a lone region of shifting sea ice, bare islands, and strange creatures. For most of human history the Arctic remained […]
Killing in the name of deforestation: Amazon activist and wife assassinated
José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva speaking at TEDx Amazon in 2010 José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Maria do Espírito Santo da Silva, were gunned down last night in an ambush in the city of Nova Ipixuna in the Brazilian state of Pará. Da Silva was known as a community leader and an […]
Cambodia’s wildlife pioneer: saving species and places in Southeast Asia’s last forest
- Suwanna Gauntlett has dedicated her life to protecting rainforests and wildlife in some of the world’s most hostile and rugged environments and has set the trend of a new generation of direct action conservationists.
- She has designed, implemented, and supported bold, front-line conservation programs to save endangered wildlife populations from the brink of extinction.
- When she first arrived in Cambodia in the late 1990s, its forests were silent.
Al Gore compares climate change deniers to ‘birthers’
Former US Vice President, Al Gore, stated in a Time Magazine interview and in a recent presentation that climate change deniers and the so-called birthers—those who refuse to accept that President Obama was born in the US despite clear evidence—are similar. The implication being that both groups are denying clear evidence and creating a “struggle […]
Archbishop Desmond Tutu: ‘quest for profit subverts our present and our future’
As the honorary speaker at an event celebrating fifty years of the conservation organization World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Archbishop Desmond Tutu stated that overconsumption and obsession with economic growth were imperiling the global environment and leaving the poor behind. “Our desire to consume everything of value, to extract every precious stone, every drop […]
Mexican environmental activist shot dead
La Morena Mexico in the Petatlán Mountains in the state of Guerroro as viewed by Google Earth. Javier Torres Cruz, 30, who fought illegal deforestation by drug traffickers in the Mexican state of Guerroro, was murdered a week ago. A member of the local NGO, Environmental Organization of the Coyuca and Petatlán Mountains, Torres Cruz […]
The value of the little guy, an interview with Tyler Prize-winning entomologist May Berenbaum
Honeybees in an apiary in Germany. Photo by: Björn Appel. May Berenbaum knows a thing or two about insects: in recognition of her lifelong work on the interactions between insects and plants, she has had a character on The X-Files named after her, received the Public Understanding of Science and Technology Award for her work […]
Bill Clinton takes on Brazil’s megadams, James Cameron backs tribal groups
Former US President, Bill Clinton, spoke out against Brazil’s megadams at the 2nd World Sustainability Forum, which was also attended by former California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and film director, James Cameron, who has been an outspoken critic of the most famous of the controversial dams, the Belo Monte on the Xingu River. As reported by […]
Women are key to global conservation
Anne Hallum is founder of the Alliance for International Reforestation and for her work was recently named a “CNN Hero.” Her daughter, Rachel Hallum-Montes has been planting trees with her mother since the age of 12 and she is now a sociologist. In 1991, my nine-year-old daughter Rachel traveled with me to Guatemala where we […]
A lion’s story, an interview with the filmmakers of The Last Lions
Male lion in the Okavango Delta. © National Geographic Entertainment. Photo by: Beverly Joubert . The new theatrical film, The Last Lions does not open, as one would expect, with a shot of lions or even an African panorama. Instead the first shot is a view of our planet from space at night. Billions of […]
Prince Charles: ‘direct relationship’ between ecosystems and the economy
At an EU meeting in Brussels, dubbed the Low Carbon Prosperity Summit, the UK’s Prince Charles made the case that without healthy ecosystems, the global economy will suffer. “We have to see that there is a direct relationship between the resilience of Nature’s ecosystems and the resilience of our national economies,” he told Members of […]
The ocean crisis: hope in troubled waters, an interview with Carl Safina
The view from Lazy Point. Photo courtesy of Carl Safina. Being compared—by more than one reviewer—to Henry Thoreau and Rachel Carson would make any nature writer’s day. But add in effusive reviews that compare one to a jazz musician, Ernest Hemingway, and Charles Darwin, and you have a sense of the praise heaped on Carl […]
Sarawak’s last nomad: indigenous leader and activist, Along Sega, dies
Along Sega never knew exactly how old he was, but when he passed away yesterday in a hospital far from the forest where he born, he was likely in his 70s. Leader among the once-nomadic hunter and gatherer Penan people of Borneo and mentor to Swiss activist, Bruno Manser, Along Sega will be remembered for […]
After another ranger killed, Virunga National Park requests UN peacekeepers
Less than a week after 3 wildlife rangers and 5 soldiers were killed in Virunga National Park by the rebel group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), another ranger has been killed and a driver put in the hospital in critical condition. The situation has pushed park authorities to request UN peacekeepers for […]
Eight rangers, soldiers killed in Virunga National Park
Yesterday morning, 3 wildlife rangers and 5 soldiers working in Virunga National Park were killed by the rebel group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). These 8 were killed and 3 more wounded when their vehicle was fired on by FDLR rebels with rocket launchers. Park director Emmanuel de Merode told the AFP […]
Jane Goodall and David Attenborough: overpopulation must be addressed
In a recent interview with The Telegraph world famous primatologist and conservationist, Jane Goodall, and wildlife documentarian Sir David Attenborough agreed that overpopulation must be addressed to protect the global environment. “There are three times as many people on earth as when I first started making television programs all of whom require food and a […]
Når en lillebitte ønation bringer et stort offer, vil resten af verden så følge trop?
Kiribati, et lille ø-rige bestående af 33 stillehavsatoler, forudsiges at være blandt de første lande, der bliver oversvømmet pga. stigende vandstande. Ikke desto mindre kom landet for nyligt med et forbløffende løfte: Landet lukkede over 150.000 kvadratmil af sit fisketerritorium, på trods af, at fiskeri er en beskæftigelse, som udgør næsten halvdelen af regeringens skatteindtægter. […]
Berantas Pemburu, Lakukan Penyamaran, Selamatkan Hewan Liar: Semua dalam Satu Hari Kerja Arief Rubianto
Arief Rubianto akan berbicara di Wildlife Conservation Network Expo di San Francisco, 3 Oktober 2010. Arief Rubianto, kepala satuan anti-perburuan di Pulau Sumatera, Indonesia, mendeskripsikan kehidupan sehari-harinya dengan ini: “seperti Mission Impossible”. Tidak percaya pada saya? Rubianto telah bertarung melawan penebang liar, baku tembak dengan pemburu, berhasil bertahan selama 4 hari di hutan tanpa makanan, […]
Fighting poachers, going undercover, saving wildlife: all in a day’s work for Arief Rubianto
Arief Rubianto will be speaking at the Wildlife Conservation Network Expo in San Francisco on October 3rd, 2010. Arief Rubianto, the head of an anti-poaching squad on the Indonesian island of Sumatra best describes his daily life in this way: “like mission impossible”. Don’t believe me? Rubianto has fought with illegal loggers, exchanged gunfire with […]
Ketika Sebuah Pulau Mungil Lakukan Pengorbanan Besar, Akankah Seluruh Dunia Melakukan yang Sama?
Kiribati, sebuah negara kecil yang terdiri atas 33 pulau karang Pasifik, diramalkan menjadi negara pertama yang terendam akibat kenaikan ketinggian laut. Bagaimanapun, negara ini baru-baru saja membuat sebuah komitmen yang luar biasa: mereka menutup seluas 150.000 mil persegi wilayahnya untuk mencari ikan, sebuah aktivitas yang terhitung hampir separuh dari pendapatan pajak pemerintah. Apa yang menggerakkan […]
Into the Congo: saving bonobos means aiding left-behind communities, an interview with Gay Reinartz
Gay Reinartz will be speaking at the Wildlife Conservation Network Expo in San Francisco on October 3rd, 2010. Unlike every other of the world’s great apes—the gorilla, chimpanzee, and orangutan—saving the bonobo means focusing conservation efforts on a single nation, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While such a fact would seem to simplify conservation, […]
As a tiny island nation makes a big sacrifice, will the rest of the world follow suit?
Kiribati, a small nation consisting of 33 Pacific island atolls, is forecast to be among the first countries swamped by rising sea levels. Nevertheless, the country recently made an astounding commitment: it closed over 150,000 square miles of its territory to fishing, an activity that accounts for nearly half the government’s tax revenue. What moved […]
On the Road with Dr. Laurie Marker: Reflections on Conservation in the Media Age
Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF)is supported in part by the Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN), an innovative group that uses a venture capital model to protect some of the world’s most endangered species. WCN will be hosting Laurie Marker at its upcoming Wildlife Conservation Expo in San Francisco, California on October 3rd. Expo attendees will be able […]
Activist against illegal mining shot dead in India
On July 20th two unidentified men rode up to Amit Jethwa on a motorcycyle as he was coming out of his office in Ahmedabad and shot him dead at point blank range. Jethwa had recently filed a petition against illegal logging in the Gir Forest, the last home of the Asiatic lion, a subspecies of […]
Kekerasan sebagai Bagian dari Perdagangan Kayu Ilegal, Ujar Aktivis yang Diculik
Wawancara dengan Faith Doherty. Parlemen Eropa melakukan tindakan historis hari ini dengan memilih dengan sangat untuk melarang kayu ilegal dari pasarnya. Untuk aktivis di dunia, pelarangan pada kayu ilegal di UE merupakan alasan untuk merayakannya, namun untuk satu aktivis, Faith Doherty dari Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), tindakan tersebut memunculkan gaung yang istimewa. Di awal 2000, […]
Violence a part of the illegal timber trade, says kidnapped activist
An interview with Faith Doherty. The European parliament made a historical move today when it voted overwhelmingly to ban illegal timber from its markets. For activists worldwide the ban on illegal timber in the EU is a reason to celebrate, but for one activist, Faith Doherty of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), the move has […]
Norwegia sediakan USD 1 milyar bagi Indonesia untuk lindungi hutan hujan
Norwegia akan menyediakan hingga USD 1 milyar bagi Indonesia untuk membantu mengurangi penggundulan hutan dan degradasi hutan, menurut laporan The Jakarta Post. Agus Purnomo, kepala Kesekretariatan Dewan Perubahan Iklim Nasional, mengatakan pada koran tersebut bahwa perjanjian itu akan ditandatangani pada 27 Mei dan dana akan mulai mengalir secepatnya tahun ini. Perjanjian ini muncul dua tahun […]
‘Prepare for war’: tensions rising over Brazil’s controversial Belo Monte dam
Tensions are flaring after Brazil’s approval of the Belo Monte dam project last month to divert the flow of the Xingu River. The dam, which will be the world’s third larges, will flood 500 square miles of rainforest, lead to the removal of at least 12,000 people in the region, and upturn the lives of […]
Kisah Nyata Avatar: Perlawanan masyarakat pribumi untuk menyelamatkan rumah hutan mereka dari eksploitasi korporasi
Spoiler Alert: artikel ini mengungkapkan akhir dari cerita di film Avatar. Dalam film terbaru James Cameron Avatar sebuah suku alien di planet yang jauh melawan untuk menyelamatkan rumah hutan mereka dari manusia penyerbu yang akan menambang planet tersebut. Perusahaan penambang telah membawa mantan tentara untuk ‘keamanan’ dan tidak akan berhenti untuk apapun, bahkan ketika harus […]
Norway to provide Indonesia with $1 billion to protect rainforests
Norway will provide up to $1 billion to Indonesia to help reduce deforestation and forest degradation, reports The Jakarta Post. Agus Purnomo, head of the secretariat of Indonesia’s National Climate Change Council, told the newspaper that the deal will be signed on May 27 and funds may start flowing as early as this year. The […]
Elephants march in London, trumpeting conservation
Although urban Britain is not the native habitat of the Asian elephant, the well-loved pachyderm has invaded London for the summer. Raising awareness and funds for the threatened Asian elephant, 250 fiberglass statues by different artists are being displayed all over London. At the end of the summer the elephants will be auctioned off. All […]
One man’s mission to save Cambodia’s elephants
Since winning the prestigious 2010 Goldman Environmental Prize in Asia, Tuy Sereivathana has visited the US and Britain, even shaking hands with US President Barack Obama, yet in his home country of Cambodia he remains simply ‘Uncle Elephant’. A lifelong advocate for elephants in the Southeast Asian country, Sereivathana’s work has allowed villagers and elephants […]
A nation of tragedies: the unseen elephant wars of Chad
Chad’s few remaining elephants are “survivors of a ‘holocaust'”. [warning: graphic images of killed elephants] Stephanie Vergniault, head of SOS Elephants in Chad, says she has seen more beheaded corpses of elephants in her life than living animals. In the central African nation, against the backdrop of a vast human tragedy—poverty, hunger, violence, and hundreds […]
Taking back the rainforest: Indians in Colombia govern 100,000 square miles of territory
An interview with Martin von Hildebrand, founder at head of Gaia Amazonas. Indigenous groups in the Colombian Amazon have long suffered deprivations at the hands of outsiders. First came the diseases brought by the European Conquest, then came abuses under colonial rule. In modern times, some Amazonian communities were virtually enslaved by the debt-bondage system […]
Video: Madagascar could become “Haiti-like”
Niall O’Connor from the World Wildlife Fund warns in a Carte Blanche production that if the ecological destruction of Madagascar continues, the poor island country could become “Haiti-like”, where he says, “most of the biodiversity, most of the forests are gone”. Carte Blanche, an African investigative journalism show, went to Madagascar to look into the […]
A day to celebrate (and save) the world’s amphibians: the 2nd Annual Save the Frogs Day
Friday, April 30th is for the frogs: educational programs, conservation walks with experts, frog leaping races, and the world’s first protest to save frogs are all planned for the world’s 2nd Annual Save the Frogs Day. Organized by the non-profit SAVE THE FROGS!, events are so far planned in 15 countries on every continent besides […]
150,000 turn out for climate rally in Washington DC
A rally in support of strong action on climate change drew some 150,000 people to the National Mall in Washington DC according to organizers. The rally—which also celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day—alternated its program with music and speakers. Heavyweight musicians, including Sting, John Legend, the Roots, Jimmy Cliff, Passion Pitt, and Joss Stone, […]
Off and on again: Belo Monte dam goes forward, protests planned
An auction to build the Belo Monte dam, a massive hydroelectric project in Brazil, is going ahead despite two court-ordered suspensions, both of which have been overturned. The dam, which would be the world’s third-largest, has been criticized by indigenous groups, environmental organizations, and most recently filmmaker James Cameron who created the wildly popular Avatar. […]
New report alleges Sarawak government, police, and loggers “act in collusion to harass and intimidate indigenous communities”
A new report by JOANGOHutan, the Malaysian Network of Indigenous Peoples and Non-Governmental Organizations, paints an atmosphere of abuse and ambivalence toward indigenous communities embroiled in land disputes in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. According to the report, there are currently 140 land dispute cases in limbo in the Sarawak […]
Jane Goodall renews her faith in nature and humanity during the “Gombe 50” anniversary, An interview with Dr. Jane Goodall
Celebrating 50 years of pioneering research and sharing an inspiring vision for our future, world-renowned primatologist and conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall renews her faith in nature and humanity during the “Gombe 50” anniversary. 2010 marks a monumental milestone for the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) and its founder, Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE. Fifty years ago, Goodall, […]
Photos: rescued sun bears in Borneo moved to new facility
Rescued sun bears in Sabah, Borneo are getting a new home this week. The Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center (BSBCC) has finished Phase 1 of its construction of a new home for the bears. Eventually the center will include visitor facilities and observation gallery where tourists will have the chance to watch the bears. For […]
James Cameron, in real life, fights to save indigenous groups from massive dam construction in Brazil
After creating a hugely successful science-fiction film about a mega-corporation destroying the indigenous culture of another planet, James Cameron has become a surprisingly noteworthy voice on environmental issues, especially those dealing with the very non-fantastical situation of indigenous cultures fighting exploitation. This week Cameron traveled to Brazil for a three-day visit to the Big Bend […]
When it comes to Yellow Fever, conserving howler monkeys saves lives
Abundant and diverse wildlife help people in many ways: for example bees pollinate plants, birds and mammals disperse seeds, bats control pest populations, and both plants and animals have produced life-saving medicines and technological advances. But how could howler monkeys save people from a Yellow Fever outbreak? A new study in the open-access journal Tropical […]
Secrets of the Amazon: giant anacondas and floating forests, an interview with Paul Rosolie
Paul Rosolie leads volunteer expeditions into the Peruvian rainforest with an aim towards education and grassroots conservation. Mongabay.com’s eighth in its series of interviews with ‘Young Scientists’. At twenty-two Paul Rosolie has seen more adventure than many of us will in our lifetime. First visiting the Amazon at eighteen, Rosolie has explored strange jungle ecosystems, […]
Savior of endangered crocodiles dies of malaria
Crocodile-expert and conservationist, Dr. John Thorbjarnarson, died of falciparum malaria in India on February 14th at the age of fifty-two. While many conservationists work with publicly popular animals like tigers and whales, Thorbjarnarson’s passion was for crocodiles. A Senior Conservation Scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Thorbjarnarson proved instrumental in saving both the Orinoco […]
The real Avatar story: indigenous people fight to save their forest homes from corporate exploitation
Spoiler Alert: article reveals end of the film Avatar. In James Cameron’s newest film Avatar an alien tribe on a distant planet fights to save their forest home from human invaders bent on mining the planet. The mining company has brought in ex-marines for ‘security’ and will stop at nothing, not even genocide, to secure […]
Uninhabited tropical island paradise seeks REDD funding to save it from loggers
Tetepare may be one of the last tropical island paradises left on earth. Headhunting and a mysterious illness drove its original inhabitants from the island two hundred years ago, making Tetepare today the largest uninhabited island in the tropical Pacific. The 120 square kilometer island (46 square miles), long untouched by industry or agriculture, is […]
Jane Goodall Institute hosts the ‘Academy Awards’ of conservation
“Jane has been my hero for so many years. She was out there teaching us how important chimpanzees are and about our shared history with them; how important the web of life is to us all. We thought of ourselves as separate and she showed us we are not. She showed us primates made tools […]
Pope Benedict: environmental crisis requires review of world’s economic model
Pope gives advice on how to move forward at Copenhagen. Pope Benedict XVI has released a message linking world peace with preserving the environment for the World Day of Peace, which will be held on January 1st 2010. In it Benedict calls for a “long-term review” of the world’s current economic model, including “[moving] beyond […]
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