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topic: Environmental Law
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Bangladesh struggles to enforce ‘polluter pays’ principle amid legal delays
- The “polluter pays” principle, though not new in Bangladesh, remains only on paper, as polluters continue to evade accountability.
- Regulatory authorities could only realize 47.52% of the total compensation imposed in the past 16 years.
- Loopholes in laws, weak assessment of pollution, insufficient legal staffing, and prolonged case disposal are to be blamed, experts say.
France to send its last captive orcas to marine park, not sanctuary
- In May, the French government announced plans to send its last captive cetaceans — two orcas and 12 dolphins — to zoos and entertainment parks in Spain, sparking an outcry from animal welfare advocates.
- France had previously considered sending the marine mammals to an under-construction sanctuary in Canada, but decided to act more quickly because of deteriorating conditions at the shuttered Marineland Antibes park, where the animals are currently housed, according to a French official.
- The dolphins will be shifted to two marine parks in Valencia and Málaga, while the orcas — a mother and son — will be transported to Loro Parque, a zoo and entertainment park in Tenerife, one of Spain’s Canary Islands.
- Animal welfare organizations have criticized the decision, saying they believe the orcas will be used in Loro Parque’s marine shows and bred, which would go against France’s law banning the keeping and breeding of cetaceans for entertainment.
Legal protections for Brazil’s isolated Indigenous peoples: Interview with prosecutor Daniel Luís Dalberto
- Across Brazil, orders known as land-use restrictions serve as temporary protective measures for the territories of recently contacted Indigenous peoples and those living in voluntary isolation.
- But while the measures are meant to allow time for the formal demarcation process to be carried out, they’ve now become an end to themselves, renewed repeatedly and failing to prevent the invasion and exploitation of these lands, says Brazilian federal public prosecutor Daniel Luís Dalberto.
- Dalberto told Mongabay in an interview that the measure is meant to be precautionary and accompanied by other protective measures by government agencies, such as monitoring work and operations to combat crime.
- He also raised concerns about the frequency with which issues affecting Indigenous territories are being raised to the country’s highest court, rather than being resolved at local courts and tribunals, which closes off an important front in the fight for fundamental rights.
Survivors sue Indonesian government over response to catastrophic Sumatra floods
- Survivors of the deadly late-2025 Sumatra floods and landslides have sued the Indonesian government, arguing the disaster was not solely a natural event but an “ecological disaster” worsened by decades of deforestation, watershed degradation, weak environmental enforcement, and inadequate disaster preparedness.
- The plaintiffs say authorities failed to act on repeated warnings from Indonesia’s meteorological agency before Cyclone Senyar struck, and criticize the government for not declaring a national emergency, which they argue hindered disaster response and recovery efforts.
- Environmental groups and researchers point to extensive forest loss and the expansion of plantations, mining and other concessions across Sumatra’s watersheds as factors that increased flooding and landslide risks during extreme rainfall events.
- Through the lawsuit, victims are seeking environmental audits, restoration of forests and watersheds, stronger disaster-mitigation measures, and a court ruling that could establish government accountability for environmental governance failures linked to large-scale disasters.
The global trafficking ring preying on a rare golden monkey from Brazil
- A growing interest among wildlife traffickers’ interest in golden lion tamarins threatens one of Brazil’s iconic endangered animals.
- Seizures in Togo, Suriname and in the Brazilian Amazon reveal sophisticated criminal networks that control international routes, sometimes using forged documents.
- Behind one of these criminal organizations is a man with multiple forged passports that subjected 20 tamarins to a 40-day voyage across the Atlantic.
- Some tamarins are smuggled; traffickers also use loopholes in wildlife trade rules to launder wild-caught animals within captive-bred shipments.
Report alleges élite ties behind logging permits in Cameroon’s Ebo Forest
- A report by a Swiss advocacy group says a timber company logging Cameroon’s Ebo Forest is tied to a wider network of political élites in Yaoundé.
- The company, Sextransbois, is part of a network of logging and agriculture interests owned by prominent businessman Aboubakar Al Fatih.
- Corporate registry documents analyzed by the group show that Sextransbois was incorporated by relatives of President Paul Biya’s eldest son before being transferred to Al Fatih’s half-brother in 2014.
- Environmental groups have accused a number of companies owned by or linked to Al Fatih of breaking Cameroonian law.
For Honduran coffee growers, EUDR compliance means changing old habits
- The EU Deforestation Regulation requires companies importing coffee from Honduras into the European market to track their supply chains all the way back to the small-scale farmers who grow the crop.
- For many farmers, the urgency of complying has led to the modernization of farming practices, providing a competitiveness boost to a supply chain historically based on informality.
- Digitalization could help to halt Honduras’s rural exodus and make coffee farming attractive to younger generations, but challenges remain around accessibility, managing digital tools, and data ownership.
The Amazon’s path from crisis to durability
- Amazon biodiversity protection depends on more than keeping forests standing; a forest can remain on the map while losing ecological function, governance protections, enforcement capacity, or public support.
- Six connected gaps shape Amazon conservation: finance and forest economy, governance, enforcement, forest function, Indigenous rights, and narrative.
- Progress is possible. Brazil has reduced deforestation before, satellite alerts can strengthen enforcement, Indigenous land rights can protect forests, and better finance and monitoring can make protection more durable.
- The central challenge is making the systems around the forest pull in the same direction: finance that favors protection, governance that reduces impunity, enforcement with consequences, rights that hold on the ground, monitoring that reveals what tree cover hides, and stories that show where action is possible.
Brazil Congress passes bill to bar use of Amazon deforestation satellite tool
Brazil’s Congress has passed a bill prohibiting environmental agencies from using satellite images to restrict the commercial use of illegally deforested lands. Instead, areas suspected of illegal deforestation will have to be confirmed by authorities on the ground. Supporters say satellite-only enforcement infringes upon farmers’ right to a fair defense. Its critics, which include the […]
Has Ecuador started fracking? New oil project causes confusion and concern
- State-owned oil company Petroecuador announced a new project involving “hydraulic fracturing” in an oil block in the Ecuadorian Amazon, creating confusion about the level of risk posed to the environment.
- The announcement concerned oil in Block 57, also known as the Shushufindi Libertador block, located in Sucumbíos province, which is largely covered by Amazonian rainforest.
- Conservation groups said they want more transparency from the government as it attempts to boost sagging oil production numbers.
Luxury yacht maker Sunseeker pleads guilty to violating a US environmental law
Luxury yacht manufacturer Sunseeker has pleaded guilty to violating a U.S. environmental law by using illegally sourced teak from Myanmar on two of its yachts imported into the U.S. The U.K.-based Sunseeker International Limited, which describes itself as “the world’s leading brand for luxury motor yachts,” along with its U.S. subsidiary pleaded guilty on May […]
Peru’s Quellaveco mine tied to water scarcity, contamination, investigation finds
- Pollution and water scarcity from the Quellaveco mine in Peru’s Moquegua department have killed wildlife, hurt the local economy, and created health problems in communities, according to a new investigation by several advocacy groups.
- The mine is operated by Anglo American Quellaveco S.A., a subsidiary of British mining company Anglo American, and is expected to produce around 300,000 tons of copper on average until the end of the decade.
- Studies have found high levels of metals, arsenic and mercury in human testing and water assessments. The company maintains the readings don’t exceed the standards for drinking and vegetable irrigation.
Indonesia seizes mercury shipment bound for illegal mines in the Philippines
- Inspectors at Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok Port found hundreds of individual containers of mercury hidden in carpets in a shipment bound for the Philippines in late April.
- Mercury is used in the so-called artisanal and small-scale mining sector to separate gold particles from ores recovered at illegal mines. However, the heavy metal is a severe neurotoxin that causes developmental disorders in children as well as devastating cognitive and physical impairments in adults.
- Pollution from mining has contaminated rivers, crops and fisheries, with studies linking exposure to serious health risks and reporting suggesting increased incidences of malaria transmission.
- Experts say the all-time high price of gold reached this year is driving more people to illegal mining sites, undermining international efforts to restrict the use and trade of mercury.
Nepal’s rhododendron tourism sparks unchecked liquor trade concerns
- Mongabay found unlicensed rhododendron liquor being sold openly in tourist shops across eastern Nepal’s Tinjure-Milke-Jaljale (TMJ) region, which is home to at least 26 rhododendron species, with no official labeling, no health testing and no tracking of sources.
- Nepal’s conservation laws prohibit commercial harvesting of rhododendrons from community forests without approval, but legal ambiguity over privately cultivated flowers has left officials uncertain about how to enforce existing rules.
- Some rhododendron species contain grayanotoxins that can be toxic, even fatal in rare cases. Yet none of the bottles being sold in the TMJ region have been tested for safety, according to local officials and vendors.
- Local residents say the practice emerged roughly three years ago alongside a post-pandemic tourism rebound; some producers say it gives them extra income.
Countries push new protections for the Amazon’s iconic migratory catfish
- Around the world, migratory freshwater fish are in peril from activities including overfishing and, more recently, dams blocking their migratory routes.
- The most threatened species include two large Amazonian catfish, and an inaugural conservation plan will be implemented by the five countries where they range.
- Connected river habitat is crucial for the gilded catfish and Laulao catfish: They undertake some of the longest known river migrations in the world, traveling up to 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) over their lifetimes.
- The main challenge in saving these migratory catfish and many other aquatic species is maintaining connectivity among rivers, which in the Amazon are increasingly being affected by dams and shipping.
Rhino-poaching suspect, repeatedly freed on bail, shot dead in South Africa
- Alleged rhino-poaching kingpin Joseph “Big Joe” Nyalungu was shot dead by unknown assailants on May 16 near South Africa’s Kruger National Park, following a failed attempt on his life eight days earlier.
- Nyalungu, a former police officer, faced more than 40 counts of rhino horn trafficking from 2016-2019 alone, and was allegedly responsible for killing thousands of rhinos in South Africa’s Greater Kruger Area.
- He had been arrested multiple times, dating back to at least 2011, and faced charges related to murder, kidnapping, money laundering and unlawful possession of firearms and explosives used in poaching — though he was never convicted and was released on bail each time.
- Conservationists say the country’s justice system failed to effectively prosecute him and call for reforms in the country’s laws to save the remaining rhinos from poaching.
Nine killed at illegal mine in latest Sumatra landslide tragedy as gold surge continues
- A mining accident in Indonesia’s West Sumatra province buried 12 miners on May 14, nine of whom were killed, following a period of heavy rain.
- The disaster is the latest fatal accident at an unpermitted mining site in the interior of Sumatra in recent years, with officials and civil society analysts saying the sustained high price of gold, which at the time of writing was threefold higher than six years ago, is drawing more people to illegal mines.
- Walhi, Indonesia’s largest environmental NGO, said at least 48 people were killed in West Sumatra, one of Indonesia’s 38 provinces, in the last 15 years.
- The green group said the true number could be much higher owing to the remote nature of the illegal industry.
Nepal proposes park for ‘problem’ tigers amid rising conflicts
The Nepal government has proposed the creation of a park to house “problem” tigers – individuals involved in human fatalities. The big cats would be moved from current overcrowded holding centers to a 50-hectare (124-acre) facility, planned for the Durganar–Tikauli forest near Chitwan National Park, according to authorities, reports Mongabay’s Abhaya Raj Joshi and contributor […]
Tiremakers ready to roll with EUDR, but repeated delays frustrate industry
- Tire manufacturers, major consumers of natural rubber, say they’re ready for the implementation of the EU’s antideforestation regulation, or EUDR, and lament its repeated delays.
- Natural rubber supply chains are notoriously complex, with 85% of natural rubber coming from 6 million smallholders, and the rubber passing through numerous intermediaries before being turned into tires.
- Ensuring EUDR compliance throughout natural rubber supply chains remains challenging; European tire industry representatives also point to ongoing problems with the information system and due diligence requirements in downstream supply chains.
- The Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber, made up of industry, civil society and producers, promotes sustainability within the natural rubber supply chain and supports smallholders.
Trump called trophy hunting a “horror show,” but permitted 300-plus elephant trophy imports in 2025
- More than 300 elephant trophy import permits were issued in 2025 under Donald Trump’s second presidency, the most ever issued under the Trump administration.
- In 2017, after Trump called trophy hunting a “horror show,” his administration convened a pro-hunting board to rework import rules; it dissolved after a lawsuit. Now, Safari Club International has petitioned to dilute protections for elephants in the U.S. to facilitate trophy imports.
- Nearly two-thirds of the imported trophies came from Botswana, which renewed elephant hunting in 2018 after a brief pause.
- Since trophy hunters selectively target “supertuskers” — older males with the largest tusks — conservationists say they are being killed at a rate that raises concerns for the future of endangered savanna elephants.
Fire at WCS Makira Natural Park office allegedly linked to patrol efforts
- An angry crowd allegedly set fire to a site office of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Ambinanitelo Maroantsetra, in northeastern Madagascar, on May 4.
- Photos circulating on social media show that the office was destroyed; the staff are believed to be safe.
- Six men were allegedly caught logging in the core of Makira Natural Park, managed by WCS. An environment ministry official suggested that their capture angered nearby residents.
- Local authorities are waiting for tensions to subside before resuming the probe, as they say it might place WCS staff and park personnel at risk.
In Thailand, burned sugarcane plantations become traps for leopard cat cubs
- Every crop burning season, dozens of leopard cat cubs are admitted to a wildlife rescue center in northeastern Thailand as fires tear through the sugarcane plantations where the cats shelter and hunt.
- Since 2023, admissions have risen sharply, from around 10 per year to between 40 and 65, likely driven by a combination of habitat fragmentation, high fire activity and a higher number of rescues due to a wildlife hotline introduced in 2019.
- This season’s survival rate was around 80% — markedly higher than in previous years. Fewer cubs arrived with severe burns, possibly linked to recent government regulations on agricultural burning.
- But researchers say fires reflect a deeper problem: Habitat fragmentation and climate change are pushing leopard cats into agricultural landscapes where they face compounding threats, including not just fires but also human-wildlife conflict, disease and the illegal wildlife trade.
Endangered Persian leopards persist across borders, despite hunters and landmines
- There are fewer than 1,100 Persian leopards left in the wild, with 80% — perhaps 732 individuals — concentrated in Iran. A handful remain in Russia, the Caucasus and countries across Central Asia.
- This leopard subspecies is endangered and declining, driven to the brink of extinction in habitats across its range across southwestern and Central Asia.
- More than half of all recorded leopard deaths are from retaliatory killings by local communities, who poison, trap or shoot leopards in response to livestock predation. They can also be maimed or killed by snares and traps intended for other, smaller prey.
- The Persian leopard now occupies around one-quarter of its historical range. Their habitat is fragmented and crisscrossed by dangerous roadways and broken by international borders that are fenced or laced with landmines.
Karajarri celebrate Australia’s first ‘Sea Country’ Indigenous Protected Area
- The Kimberley region of northwestern Australia is a biodiversity hotspot and ancestral home of the Karajarri people, who recently dedicated Karajarri Jurarr Ngurra, Australia’s first “Sea Country” Indigenous Protected Area (IPA), covering around 237,000 hectares (587,000 acres) of marine and coastal ecosystems.
- Proponents of IPAs say they can empower Indigenous Australians as decision-makers in land management, combining traditional ecological knowledge with conservation goals.
- IPAs now account for 54% of Australia’s progress toward protecting 30% of its territory by 2030.
- While research shows every $1 invested in IPAs yields up to $3.40 in social, economic and environmental returns, advocates stress that Indigenous communities still need meaningful, sustained support.
Honduran authorities seize jaguar kept as pet, put spotlight on local trafficking
- Honduran authorities seized a live jaguar being kept as a pet, along with other wildlife, from the home of a businessman in the country’s east.
- Investigators say the jaguar is a young female, about a year old, likely captured in the Mosquitia region and traded on the black market.
- It’s illegal to trap jaguars or keep them as pets under Honduran law. However, with fines only amounting to around $6,500, the practice is common among the powerful, wealthy and those involved in drug and arms trafficking.
- The rescued jaguar has been sent to a rehabilitation center for possible release back into the wild, although rewilding a jaguar isn’t always possible or successful.
In Nepal’s capital, invasive flora crowd out native species
Native plants are rapidly declining in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, replaced by invasive species historically introduced for ornamental and urban greening purposes, reports Mongabay contributor Bibek Bhandari. Botanist Bharat Babu Shrestha said he has observed traditional medicinal plants like the Indian pennywort (Centella asiatica) slowly vanish from Kathmandu over the past decades, displaced by dense, flowering […]
At world’s largest shark conference, scientists warn of a grim outlook across the board
- Hundreds of researchers and conservationists met in Colombo from May 4-8 for Sharks International, held once every four years.
- Major topics at the conference included the trade in shark and ray meat, reducing shark bycatch, and the use of new technologies in conservation.
- Participants also highlighted innovative programs that encourage community-based conservation, and grappled with the contentious topic of closing fisheries to aid recovery of threatened species.
Ecuador failing to end Yasuní oil drilling: Interview with Waorani leader Juan Bay
- Mongabay recently interviewed Juan Bay, the president of the Waorani Nation (NAWE) in Ecuador, on the stalled efforts to shut down oil drilling in Yasuní National Park that overlaps with Indigenous territories.
- A voter referendum in 2023 required the Ecuadorian government to shut down the 43-ITT oil block by August 2024, and the decision was backed up in a 2025 ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR).
- Since then, however, there’s been virtually no progress, Bay said, with the government having shuttered just 10 out of 247 oil wells in the block.
- Bay said communities continue to suffer from the environmental and cultural destruction caused by oil exploitation, as well as the internal divisions that formed between some Waorani communities.
New data platform aims to reduce conflicts between First Nations and businesses in Canada
- Mongabay spoke with Robert Jago, founder of a comprehensive Indigenous-led data platform compiling information on every First Nation in Canada.
- The platform organizes and verifies contact information, territory maps, governance background and more, to facilitate collaboration between Indigenous communities, business and government.
- A goal of the platform, Jago said, is to reduce conflicts between extractive industries and Indigenous peoples, given that lack of access to accurate information is at the root of many such conflicts.
- Canada has plans to expand extractive, energy and infrastructure projects across the country, including on Indigenous lands and in the Arctic region.
Long dubbed a ‘climate refuge,’ warming Tasmanian forests need our help
- Tasmania has long been considered a global “climate refuge,” where cool, ocean-influenced conditions allow species like the giant freshwater crayfish to persist as mainland Australia warms.
- But new research shows that the world’s climate refuges are not immune to threats: shifting rainfall, warming waters, sediment runoff, land-use change and other impacts are eroding the ecological conditions that sustain numerous species.
- In Tasmania, emerging pressures are impacting the island’s biodiversity, ranging from warming and sedimentation in forest streams affecting sensitive crayfish habitat, to declining oxygen levels putting the endemic Maugean skate at risk.
- Scientists say protecting climate refuges now requires active coordinated management between federal, state and local partners, with multimillion-dollar investments in watershed restoration and ongoing conservation efforts.
Can Bangladesh’s new law save its natural wetlands?
- For the first time, Bangladesh has enacted a dedicated law on the conservation of its unique natural wetlands, such as the haors, baors and beels.
- Experts have assessed that the new law overlaps with already existing conservation tools.
- However, better coordination with related government agencies has been suggested for the expected outcome.
Sharks and rays do not know boundaries and a new high seas treaty seeks to protect them
- A recent panel discussion at a global conference on sharks and rays explored how the newly adopted Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement, or the High Seas Treaty, could transform conservation of migratory sharks known to travel across national borders into international waters.
- Speakers highlighted sharks’ vulnerability once they leave protected national waters, emphasizing how effective conservation requires international cooperation to avoid threats from industrial fishing, bycatch, and habitat degradation across geographical boundaries.
- The treaty creates a legal framework for establishing marine protected areas in the high seas, with scientists noting that Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs) could help identify critical migratory routes and habitats for future protection.
- Panelists said the agreement on BBNJ marks a historic shift in ocean governance, but warned that enforcement, political cooperation and coordination with treaties such as CITES, the Convention on Migratory Species and the Convention on Biological Diversity will be essential for meaningful shark conservation.
A law to help Bolivian farmers may actually increase land grabbing, critics warn
- A new land reform law passed in April lets small farmers reclassify their land so that it can be used as collateral.
- But it also means they would lose protection from land seizure, which could allow big businesses to more easily buy up the land, some critics of the law say.
- The legislation could also help large landowners divide and sell their properties more easily, potentially leading to development and forest clearing in an area with one of the highest deforestation rates in the region.
- Last month, Indigenous groups started a march from the department of Pando to the capital, La Paz, to pressure the government to revoke the law.
Crime affects 32% of Amazon Indigenous areas, says study
- The report by the NGO Amazon Watch looks at how organized crime activities and illicit economies are transforming dynamics within different Indigenous Amazonian territories.
- It also highlights the impacts from state military operations deployed in response to these criminal activities. The research was conducted in seven Indigenous territories across Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Venezuela.
- Among the consequences highlighted by the report, experts cite the systematic violations of land rights, violence against young people and women, and various health impacts, among other problems.
Paraguay expanded a reserve in the Gran Chaco. Why is deforestation still rising there?
- Approximately 2.78 million hectares (6.87 million acres) were added to Paraguay’s Chaco Biosphere Reserve in 2011, yet the area continues to be one of the country’s worst hit by forest loss.
- Regulations are only selectively enforced by the government, if not entirely ignored, critics say.
- Property owners often exceed how much native vegetation they can legally clear on their land to make room for cattle pasture and agriculture.
- As the forest shrinks, Indigenous Ayoreo-Totobiegosode living in that part of the reserve have struggled to maintain voluntary isolation; they rely on the forest for food, shelter and medicine, and don’t have immunity to many outside diseases.
Deforestation and warming could push Amazon to tipping point by 2040s: Study
- Deforestation of 22-28% of the Amazon Rainforest, coupled with 1.5-1.9°C of global warming, could trigger a widespread shift of the Amazon Rainforest to degraded forest and savanna grassland ecosystems, a new study warns.
- This looming Amazon threshold modeled by researchers could be reached as early as the 2040s. Hitting this rainforest loss/global temperature threshold, or tipping point, could ultimately impact more than 70% of the Amazon Basin within decades, resulting in release of large amounts of carbon stored in forest and soils.
- Roughly 17-18% of the Amazon has already been deforested, and global temperatures are expected to rise to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels annually as early as 2030.
- Experts underline that the new findings reinforce the urgent need to halt Amazon deforestation, restore significant amounts of rainforest and drastically slash carbon emissions.
Brazil police seize devices from bird expert in trafficking probe linked to Vantara zoo
- The famous bird specialist Tony Silva had cell phones and a computer seized by Brazil’s Federal Police at Guarulhos Airport, in São Paulo, according to a source familiar with the investigations.
- Silva is suspected of coordinating the illegal purchase of endangered animals for Vantara, a private zoo in Gujarat, India.
- A Vantara spokesperson denied the allegations, stating that Tony Silva engaged with the organization as “an independent contractor for limited consultancy.”
- Run by India’s wealthiest family, the zoo has been the focus of investigations regarding the origin of its animals, which haven’t led to prosecutions.
US proposes endangered species protections for an imperiled Jamaican butterfly
- The U.S. has proposed listing a rare butterfly from Jamaica, the Jamaican kite swallowtail under the Endangered Species Act.
- The striking blue-green and black butterfly, endemic to this island country, hovers on the brink of extinction. Scientists have observed no more than 250 adults in the wild in recent years.
- Deforestation, devastating hurricanes and droughts on the island have destroyed much of this butterfly’s breeding sites; only four remain. Demand for framed butterflies used in home decor is another factor in their disappearance.
- ESA listing would bring attention to the species and stop its trade in the U.S. Conservationists hope it will also fund efforts to protect the butterfly’s habitat.
Rise in elephant killings reveals conservation gaps in Bangladesh
- Despite various conservation initiatives, elephants in Bangladesh continue to face a severe survival crisis due to escalating human-elephant conflict.
- A recent incident where residents of a remote village mutilated a dead elephant brings up the issue of failure of the forest department, as well as a lack of awareness among common people, to protect the species.
- Data suggests that at least 151 elephants in Bangladesh have been killed in conflicts with humans since 2017.
- According to a 2016 census, Bangladesh was then home to around 270 elephants in the wild. The IUCN declared the species as critically endangered in the country, mainly living in the southern hilly forests and the northeastern forests.
Australia’s new national park links habitat to protect koalas
- The government of New South Wales has created a vast new protected area, the Great Koala National Park, along Australia’s east coast to safeguard koalas and 66 other threatened native species.
- Conservationists say this could mark a turning point for a species that is declining rapidly as the eucalyptus forests they depend on disappear and climate change sparks more frequent, intense wildfires.
- However, loopholes in land-use regulations, ongoing logging, development pressures and weak enforcement still threaten this key koala habitat.
- Experts warn that without stronger safeguards and consistent policies, the protected area may not be able to foster lasting conservation gains for koalas and other species.
Despite restrictions, forest loss continued on Ituna land, home to isolated people
- The Ituna/Itatá Indigenous land in Brazil lost 2,211 hectares of tree cover from 2022-25, despite being protected by a temporary land use restriction order to protect people living in voluntary isolation, according to data from Global Forest Watch.
- The land has been under a series of land use restriction orders since 2011.
- Authorities told Mongabay that the illegal deforestation is caused by land-grabbers who clear the forest without permits to establish cattle ranches and other agricultural activities, later exploiting loopholes to legitimize land appropriation.
- In 2023, Brazil’s federal government carried out an operation to remove invaders. Though satellite data show forest loss continues, it significantly reduced in 2025.
The digital graveyard: Is Bangladesh becoming China’s e-waste back door?
- Bangladesh is becoming a major destination for global e-waste due to rising imports and weak regulation of imported electronic products.
- In addition, illegal imports and misdeclared shipments have made Bangladesh a net importer of e-waste.
- Most e-waste is handled by informal workers without protection or awareness of health risks.
- Without strong enforcement of law, the country risks becoming a long-term dumping ground for toxic electronic waste.
As wildlife trade expands, so do pathways for disease spillover to humans
- Another study has shown that the worldwide trade of wild animals increases the spread of disease between wildlife and humans. The new research focused on mammal species.
- Any sale of wild animals, their meat or products increases risk the that contagious pathogens may jump the species barrier and infect humans.
- Researchers found that mammals sold in the global wildlife trade are 50% more likely to share pathogens with humans than those that aren’t bought and sold. They also found that repeated and prolonged human contact may create more opportunities for spillover.
- Contrary to conventional wisdom, illegally traded species were no more likely to carry these zoonotic pathogens than those imported and sold legally, often as exotic pets. The study highlights the need for stronger biosurveillance, better information sharing and a “One Health” approach to wildlife trade that considers risks to both animals and humans.
Kenyan Court allows landmark BP toxic waste lawsuit to proceed
The Environment and Land court at Isiolo has ruled that a class action lawsuit against British oil giant BP can proceed to a full hearing, in a case that alleges toxic waste left behind from oil exploration in the 1980s contaminated groundwater in northern Kenya, killing more than 500 people and thousands of livestock. The […]
Saline intrusion in Mekong Delta leaves farmers and scientists at odds
- Vietnam’s Mekong Delta is increasingly facing saltwater intrusion, as sea levels rise, land subsides and the river’s natural cycles are disrupted by dams and irrigation infrastructure.
- A growing scientific consensus says Vietnam must learn to adapt to salt water rather than trying to engineer its way out of the problem; this perspective was officially integrated into Vietnam’s public policy with the 2017 Resolution 120.
- In practice, however, hard infrastructure like sluice gates are popular at the local level and continue to be built.
- Progress implementing Resolution 120 has also slowed due to 2025 administrative reforms that restructured ministries and re-drew provincial boundaries in the delta.
In Guatemala, new AI technology will be ‘listening’ for illegal deforestation
- A new project in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve will install bioacoustics devices that can “listen” for illegal activity, using AI models trained to identify chainsaws, gunshots and other sounds associated with environmental crime.
- The project is part of the $100 million AI for Climate and Nature Grand Challenge, run by the Bezos Earth Fund for innovative uses of artificial intelligence for tackling biodiversity loss, climate change and food insecurity.
- The devices will be installed in parts of the reserve threatened by cattle ranching and illegal human settlements, accounting for thousands of hectares of annual forest loss in recent years.
- If successful, bioacoustics technology could be combined with camera traps, drone monitoring, satellite data and human observation to create a more efficient and data-driven conservation strategy, members of the project said.
Experts caution Nepal’s plan to open doors to private zoos
- Nepal’s draft guidelines to allow private zoos, wildlife hospitals and rescue centers marks a shift toward private participation in conservation, aimed at improving infrastructure and awareness.
- Experts say vague definitions, weak oversight and limited technical capacity could enable wildlife capture under the guise of rescue and lead to poor animal welfare.
- Drawing on India’s model, they say time-bound licensing and periodic compliance reviews — with the power to shut non-compliant zoos — will be crucial.
In Indonesia, a schoolboy moves mountains on waste as government targets reform
- At just 12 years old, Syazwan Luftan Riady started a grassroots nonprofit of young people in East Java province focused on environmental protection.
- Now a second-year student at a prominent university in Indonesia, Luftan is also the protagonist of a children’s book and has received recognition from a U.S. organization for his campaigning work.
- The United Nations Environment Programme notes that Indonesia generates 3.2 million metric tons of plastic waste every year, the second most in the world after China.
- Indonesia’s president, Prabowo Subianto, announced in February a “war on waste” and is overseeing construction of 33 new electricity generation projects fueled by household waste. The president has also called for a volunteer army of schoolchildren to help clean up the country’s beaches and rivers.
Laos can do more to mitigate chemical pollution of rivers flowing into Vietnam (analysis)
- Rapid expansion of rare earth and gold mining in Laos is contaminating river systems that flow into Vietnam, putting millions of downstream users at risk.
- Toxic runoff, particularly arsenic, poses a “silent” threat as it bioaccumulates over time, with serious long-term impacts on human health, fisheries and food security.
- Weak enforcement and the lack of a dedicated Laos-Vietnam monitoring framework leave these shared rivers vulnerable, highlighting the urgent need for stronger cross-border cooperation and safeguards.
- This article is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Marine resource conflicts in Africa revolve mostly around access: Study
- A new study identified more than 1,000 conflicts in Africa over an 11-year period and found that nearly 75% were disputes over access to spaces and resources.
- The study calls for more participatory and transparent governance to reduce conflicts, warning that without such reforms, conflicts could derail African policymakers’ sustainability and equity goals.
- The analysis, based on media reports and academic articles, found that the underlying drivers of the conflicts, some more direct than others, included illegal fishing, changes in distribution of benefits, weak governance and resource degradation caused by human activity.
Black cockatoo species caught in the crosshairs of global race for minerals
- The Australian government has granted the U.S. bauxite mining company Alcoa a national interest exemption, allowing it to continue operations despite years of unauthorized clearing in the country’s Northern Jarrah Forest.
- The forest is a critical habitat for three threatened black cockatoo species, including the critically endangered Baudin’s black cockatoo.
- Environmental organizations, such as BirdLife Western Australia, say the government’s agreement with Alcoa, which includes a payment of A$55 million and the implementation of conservation programs to protect the black cockatoo species, is not enough to protect the species.
- They say the Baudin could become extinct within 50 years if the company’s project expansion plans are approved, as most of the birds’ habitat will be destroyed.
Indonesia escalates ‘war on waste’ with criminal probe into Jakarta landfill disaster
- On March 8, seven sanitation workers were killed at Southeast Asia’s largest landfill, the Bantargebang dump site east of Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital city.
- The country’s environment minister at the time, Hanif Faisol Nurofiq, told Mongabay that criminal charges against a former environment agency lead for the capital could be followed by charges against other civil servants.
- The criminal investigations into the former environment Jakarta and also in Bali were announced two months after President Prabowo Subianto announced a “war on waste” amid revived plans to build incinerators capable of turning millions of tons of household waste into electricity.
As global 30×30 goal lags, Colombia shows how progress can be made
- In 2022, nearly 200 nations pledged to protect and conserve 30% of terrestrial and marine areas by 2030 under Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
- Currently, 18% of land and inland waters, and 10% of marine and coastal areas are protected and conserved.
- Colombia, one of the world’s most biodiverse countries, has exceeded the global average, protecting and conserving 47% of marine and 26% of terrestrial areas.
- This has been achieved through new and expanded public and private protected areas, other area-based effective conservation measures (OECMs), and other means, including Heritage Colombia, an innovative “project for finance permanence” initiative.
As Walk for Peace begins in Sri Lanka, activists call for animal rights
- Aloka, previously a stray dog in India, has become a global symbol of compassion, accompanying Buddhist monks on their intercontinental Walk for Peace, which is now in Sri Lanka.
- Concerns were expressed over Aloka’s health and safety due to the prevalence of intense heat in Sri Lanka, with unusually high daytime temperatures and humid conditions prompting special care measures including a trailing ambulance and veterinary support throughout the journey.
- With an estimated 2.5 million stray dogs in Sri Lanka, activists critiqued an initial plan to remove street dogs from the walking path to avoid local dogs threatening Aloka’s safety.
- Animal rights advocates are using the moment to call for the long-delayed Animal Welfare Bill, urging stronger legal protections and humane treatment, replacing the country’s outdated laws to protect wild, domestic and stray animals.
NPFC adopts illegal fishing measures — but no Emperor Seamount protections
- The 10th annual meeting of the North Pacific Fisheries Commission (NFPC) took place April 14-17 in Osaka, Japan.
- While the NPFC members enacted new measures to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, leading NGOs criticized the commission for failing to act on bottom trawling in the Emperor Seamount Chain, a biodiversity-rich volcanic submarine mountain range in the Northwest Pacific.
- Some NPFC members and observers also expressed disappointment about backtracking on stock management and conservation for the Pacific saury, which is targeted by fishing fleets of several member countries.
Nepal plans park for ‘problem’ tigers as attacks raise concerns
- Nepal has proposed a 50-hectare tiger park near Chitwan National Park to house “problem” tigers in semi-natural enclosures and fund their upkeep through tourism.
- Rising tiger populations and increasing human-tiger encounters have led to fatalities, costly captivity, and overcrowded, often inadequate holding centers.
- Research shows only a small fraction of tigers cause conflicts, typically injured or old individuals, while most rely on wild prey.
- Critics warn the park may be ethically flawed, financially unstable, and ecologically ineffective, and have suggested alternatives like better conflict management, improved identification protocols, or even euthanasia of high-risk tigers.
Little-known company targets South African biodiversity hotspot for mining
- South Africa’s remote, semiarid Northern Cape province risks environmental damage by an inexperienced mining company that wants to prospect for the minerals critical for the renewable energy sector.
- Environmentalists have drawn attention to the “exceptionally poor” impact assessment studies, suggesting a lack of planning and consideration that heightens the risk of impacts on the environment and local communities.
- The potential impacts include groundwater contamination in a water-scarce region and the risk of radioactive dust polluting the soil and water sources.
- The company that’s applied to prospect seven tracts of land in the province only registered as a business in 2023 and has no public track record as a mining company.
After 110-kilo ivory bust, familiar questions over Kenya’s follow-through
In late January, Kenyan authorities arrested two men in possession of more than a hundred kilos of ivory in the town of Namanga, on the border with Tanzania. According to Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), police and wildlife officers were on a covert operation at a hotel when they caught three men — identified […]
Brazil FOIA confirms Lula & Macron talked before key CITES vote on endangered tree
- Earlier in 2026, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s office denied to Mongabay that he had had a phone call with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, before a decisive vote at the 2025 meeting of CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty to secure the highest trade protections for endangered Brazilwood.
- But after Mongabay’s Freedom of Information Act request, Lula’s office confirmed the two leaders had, in fact, been in direct communication during the CITES summit. The confirmation comes after allegations that last-minute political maneuvers by France diluted Brazil’s proposal and resulted in reduced protections. France has not responded to Mongabay’s similar freedom of information request, and has declined to comment about any communications between Lulu and Macron at the CITES summit.
- Brazilwood is highly sought-after by the music industry to craft violin bows costing up to $8,200 apiece. The species, endemic to Brazil, has declined by 84% over the last three generations and is now critically endangered.
Appeals court keeps ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ open, rejecting need for federal environmental review
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — An immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” will remain open, an appeals court decided Tuesday, upholding its earlier decision to block a judge’s order for the facility to wind down operations because it didn’t comply with federal environmental law. A majority on the three-judge panel from the Eleventh […]
Chinese court cases reveal most trafficked rhino horns come from Southern Africa
- A new report from the Environmental Investigation Agency analyzed more than 250 rhino horn trafficking cases prosecuted in China between 2013 and 2025 to understand smuggling routes and trends within the country.
- Chinese courts have convicted more than 500 traffickers, who received an average of 4.5 years in prison and fines of about 92,322 yuan ($13,540). Most rhino horns smuggled into China came from South Africa and Mozambique, entering by land across the border from Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos.
- Rhino horns are widely used in traditional Chinese medicine, but most court cases involved sculpted rhino horns and trinkets sold in antique and curio shops. About one-third of consumers were in big cities: Beijing, Jiangsu and Shanghai.
- Unrelenting demand for rhino horns, along with attempts by Southern African countries to open legal trade in stockpiled horns, could make it challenging to fight trafficking, as poaching decimates rhino populations across their African and Asian ranges.
Translucent microsnail discovered in Cambodia: Photo of the week
In 2024, scientists found a tiny new-to-science translucent microsnail in a cave of Banan Hill, a limestone hill that is part of the karst ecosystem of Battambang province in western Cambodia. The snail is less than 2 millimeters (0.1 inches) wide and long including its shell, about the size of a pinhead. The scientists behind […]
Luis Yanza, campaigner who battled big oil in the Amazon rainforest
- Oil development in Ecuador’s Amazon left widespread contamination, prompting a decades-long legal case testing whether affected communities could hold a multinational company to account.
- Luis Yanza organized plaintiffs across remote regions, sustaining a coalition of more than 80 villages while legal proceedings moved between Texaco (later Chevron) and courts in the United States and Ecuador.
- Working with Pablo Fajardo, he helped build claims around environmental damage and public health, contributing to a 2012 Ecuadorian judgment ordering billions in damages, though enforcement remains unresolved.
- Awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2008, Yanza spent his life sustaining a campaign that brought global attention to the case, even as the underlying dispute over responsibility and cleanup continued.
To tackle trafficking in gibbons, experts probe what drives demand
- As gibbon trafficking reaches record highs, conservationists say reducing demand is critical to tackling the illegal trade.
- But motivations for wanting to buy a gibbon vary widely between buyer communities, which means the solutions must be tailored accordingly, experts say.
- Surveys of people who voluntarily surrendered gibbons to a sanctuary in Malaysia found that most cited as motivation a love of animals or desire for their children to have an animal to play with.
- In India, by contrast, a sanctuary manager says gibbons are coveted as status symbols, and most arrive at the center via confiscation rather than voluntary submission.
Brazil taps legal loophole to issue bids for Amazon ‘tipping point’ road
- The government of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has launched renewal works for the BR-319 highway, using a new legal loophole to bypass environmental licensing requirements.
- The road cuts through the heart of the Brazilian Amazon; paving it, according to scientists, would push the rainforest closer to tipping point.
- Observers suggest the move by Lula, who came to office on a pro-environmental platform, is a bid to rally regional voters ahead of this year’s elections.
Energy crisis revives push to drill in Philippines’ largest intact wetland
- Liguasan Marsh is the largest intact wetland in the Philippines, a key area for both resident and migratory birds, and a source of livelihood for the thousands of families who live there.
- Since the 1990s, the marsh has been known to hold vast reserves of oil and gas, but decades of armed conflict in the region prevented exploration from progressing.
- A 2014 peace deal brought renewed interest to the marsh’s reserves, but little development on the ground.
- The global fuel crisis triggered by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has led to renewed calls to extract oil and gas from the marsh, prompting warnings from conservation groups.
Landmark US Magnuson-Stevens fisheries law turns 50 amid budget cut concerns
April 13 marked the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), a landmark conservation law credited with saving numerous U.S. fisheries from collapse and protecting vital ocean habitats. Despite decades of success, conservationists warn that recent federal funding cuts could undermine those gains. The MSA was passed in 1976, in the same decade the […]
In Tasmania, the mines have closed but the rivers remember
- Legacy copper mining in Tasmania, carried out for more than 100 years, has left parts of the King River ecosystem severely degraded, with scientists describing sections as “biologically dead” due to acid mine drainage and metal contamination.
- Globally, legacy mine waste has polluted hundreds of thousands of miles of rivers, exposing an estimated 23 million people to toxic metals, mostly through long-term sediment contamination rather than major disasters.
- Long-closed mines, which often operated with minimal or no environmental oversight, continue to leach waste from quarry and mine sites and tailings piles, causing long-term and ongoing contamination of rivers, streambeds and floodplains. Remediation across widely polluted landscapes is difficult and costly to carry out.
- Tasmania’s rivers are now a test case for the world: Despite decades of research and mitigation efforts, legacy pollution persists there, offering a warning as demand for critical minerals accelerates globally, with large amounts of copper and other metals required for electric vehicles, AI data center servers and other uses.
Venezuela’s new mining law could spell disaster for the Amazon, critics warn
- Venezuela passed a law to update the country’s mining regulations and attract international investment in gold, silver, coltan and other minerals.
- While some environmental protections are included in the bill, critics say they’re not rigorous enough to stop the deforestation or human rights abuses already happening in the Venezuelan Amazon.
- The law describes a commitment to “ecological mining development” that critics call a dangerous attempt at greenwashing.
Creating the North Atlantic’s largest MPA network: Interview with Azores President José Manuel Bolieiro
- In May, José Manuel Bolieiro, president of the Portuguese-administered Azores region, will be honored at the international Peter Benchley Ocean Awards, known as the “Oscars for the Ocean.”
- Bolieiro played a key role in the recent expansion of the archipelago’s existing ocean protections with the establishment of the Azores Marine Protected Areas Network, now the largest MPA network in the North Atlantic.
- He spoke to Mongabay about the importance of ensuring adequate funding and enforcement for the new MPA network, his hope that Portugal can be a global reference for ocean conservation, and how growing up in the Azores fostered his deep love of the sea.
From Virunga to Kinshasa, the DRC embarks on a bold conservation gamble
- More than a year ago, Democratic Republic of Congo President Félix Tshisekedi announced the Green Corridor, a conservation initiative that may stretch across the country, create 500,000 jobs, conserve over 540,000 km2 (208,500 mi2) of land, and improve infrastructure along the Congo River.
- According to people familiar with early discussions, the concept grew in part from Virunga National Park’s efforts to tackle an illegal war economy in North Kivu province and to try delivering alternative benefits to surrounding communities, including energy, agriculture and livelihoods.
- With uncertainty lingering over the conflict in eastern Congo, the government is now seeking to adapt elements of the Virunga conservation-and-development approach to a much larger landscape.
- While praised by some, observers, conservation groups and advocacy organizations caution that significant questions remain, particularly around the management of existing concessions — including agriculture, logging, oil and hydrocarbon blocks — as well as the protection of communities’ rights.
Invasives take over native plant spaces in Nepal’s cities
- Native plants are declining in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, largely due to habitat loss and the spread of invasive species.
- Several invasive plants are dominating ecosystems by blocking sunlight, altering soil and displacing native vegetation.
- Non-native species were introduced historically (since the 1850s) and through globalization. Today, a large proportion of Kathmandu’s plants are exotic, with some becoming invasive and harmful.
- Weak regulation, poor monitoring and preference for ornamental or fast-growing exotic plants in urban planning have worsened the problem, highlighting the need for stronger policies, early control and better institutional coordination.
Second progress report shows little action on World Bank redress plan at Liberian plantation
- An action plan for redress for communities whose land and human rights the World Bank’s ombudsman found were violated by the operators of the Salala rubber plantation in Liberia appears to have stalled.
- A progress report published in February said the bank’s private sector arm would continue to engage key stakeholders, but affected communities say they have not been contacted.
- In 2023, the International Finance Corporation’s ombudsman found communities’ complaints about inadequate compensation and widespread sexual harassment were valid.
- The IFC and the former operator of the plantation, Socfin, committed to carrying out the action plan, but a year later the plantation was sold, creating uncertainty over who will see the process through.
As EU-Mercosur agreement goes into effect, environmentalists raise red flags
- The EU-Mercosur trade agreement, between the European Union and many Latin American nations, is potentially worth trillions of dollars in transcontinental commerce, and it is about to be implemented on a provisional basis starting in May, 2026.
- But experts and environmental organizations are concerned about the risks that may arise across Latin America as the accord goes into effect.
- Indigenous organizations warn about the lack of consultation with potentially affected native peoples, and studies point to problems associated with increases in deforestation, mining, and the use of agrochemicals and pesticides.
- On the other hand, experts argue that some provisions, such as the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), could help reduce environmental damage in Latin America under existing trade dynamics.
Mennonites from Belize spark deforestation fears with new settlement plans in Suriname
- Mennonite families in Belize could pay millions to settle on around 24,000 hectares (59,300 acres) in Para, Suriname, a district with around 90% forest cover.
- Community leaders from Shipyard and Indian Creek, Belize, have taken multiple trips to Suriname to analyze soil quality and learn about the country’s farming regulations. Members from Spanish Lookout, another Mennonite community, have also started looking into a Suriname relocation.
- The move is being facilitated by Braganza Marketing Group, run by Ruud Souverein, a Dutch national living in Suriname who was involved in a previously failed government program to bring Mennonites from Bolivia in 2023.
- Environmental groups have expressed concern about Mennonites’ tendencies to expand into forested areas, circumvent environmental regulations, and settle on land without proper titles.
At high seas treaty summit, a dispute over fisheries managers’ role in conservation
- The high seas treaty was agreed to by the world’s nations in 2023 and took effect in January. The treaty created a means to establish marine protected areas (MPAs) in international waters, or the high seas.
- A summit to draft the treaty rules took place March 23-April 2 at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. Five multilateral organizations that manage high seas fishing, known as regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), jointly proposed changes in a bid to ensure their own work is not duplicated or displaced.
- The draft rules that emerged from the summit, to be voted on at a future meeting, accommodated the RFMOs’ wishes, according to critical observers, who argue the RFMOs are influenced by fishing industry priorities and may use authority conferred by the rules to inhibit MPA creation.
- In other news at the summit, parties also worked on developing rules governing the participation of non-state observers such as NGOs and a process for determining the location of the treaty’s secretariat.
Latin America’s largest hospital complex cancels plan to buy shark meat
- Last month saw a series of new policy developments for sharks in Brazil.
- Brazil’s biggest hospital complex said it would strike shark meat from a planned 2026 procurement, though the boneless fish could still be served at some of its institutes.
- The environment agency issued a host of new rules, including a ban on shark fins detached from the carcass, drawing ire from industry groups.
- A court ruled that federal procurements of shark meat for public institutions must meet new species labeling and traceability requirements.
10 years after Vietnam’s Formosa steel plant spill, justice for victims remains elusive
- This month marks the 10th anniversary of a marine disaster in Vietnam, caused by the release of toxic chemicals by the Formosa steel plant off the coast of Hà Tĩnh province.
- At least 100 metric tons of dead fish washed ashore beginning April 6, 2016, sickening thousands of people and shutting down the fishing and tourism industries.
- After widespread public mobilization, the company admitted responsibility and agreed to pay $500 million in compensation.
- Thousands of Formosa victims say they have not been properly compensated; lawsuits against the company are stalled; and victims and their supporters face repression, including imprisonment, inside Vietnam.
How an engineer brought degraded wetlands back to life in drought-hit Bangladesh
- In drought-hit regions of Bangladesh, excavation and restoration of wetlands are crucial for local ecosystem and agriculture.
- An engineer at a government agency, A.K.M. Fazlul Haque challenges anomalies in wetland regulations around the country’s northern region.
- His efforts serve the community and biodiversity, and Fazlul’s story shows that conservation is a continuous struggle.
Thai court rules gold mine liable, but villagers face uncertain justice
- A Thai court has ruled a gold mining company liable for environmental damage and health impacts, ordering compensation for nearly 400 villagers and mandating cleanup measures.
- The landmark verdict, Thailand’s first environmental class action, is being appealed, delaying payouts and prolonging an already decade-long legal battle.
- Villagers say the compensation falls far short of their losses, with many continuing to suffer from contamination, health issues and ruined livelihoods.
- The case highlights ongoing tensions over mining impacts and accountability, as operations continue and communities push for stronger legal action and remediation.
With high seas treaty in place, West African countries plan for protected area
- West African nations are working on a proposal to establish one of the first high seas marine protected areas located beyond their national waters.
- The focus of the proposed MPA is the convergence zone between the Canary and Guinea currents, covering a biologically productive and ecologically complex marine zone that stretches from the maritime borders of Senegal to Nigeria.
- The region is a global biodiversity hotspot facing threats, including industrial fishing and plastic pollution, and is at risk from future deep-sea mining.
- The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) members are aiming to finalize the proposal by the end of this year, but questions remain about how the management of the area will be financed and on monitoring and enforcement.
Singapore resort said to halt controversial dolphin sourcing, breeding
- Singapore’s Resorts World Sentosa is to end sourcing dolphins from the wild and has suspended a captive breeding program, according to sources.
- The company is assembling a team of experts to decide the future of more than 20 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, most of which were captured from the Solomon Islands in 2008 and 2009.
- The resort has maintained the dolphins are well cared for and the exhibit at Singapore’s Oceanarium serves educational and conservation purposes.
- Experts say that rehabilitation and release of the dolphins is possible, with transfer to a natural sea pen the first step for assessment.
Asia now hub of growing illegal wildlife trade across 100+ countries, study shows
- At least 110 countries are now involved in illegal trade in wildlife — more than doubling from 49 in 2000. Trade connections jumped by more than 400%, according to a recent analysis of global wildlife seizure data.
- Asia, rather than Europe, is now the center of illegal trade for most species, the study found, sparked by extensive trading, business and diplomatic connections with Africa — the source for many wildlife products.
- This trade, often run by transnational criminal syndicates, is complex and resilient to disruptions, such as the pandemic or border restrictions, and adapts quickly, making intervention and enforcement extremely challenging.
- Experts say constant monitoring and transnational law enforcement efforts are needed to crack down on this rapidly evolving illegal enterprise.
Who controls Mexico’s Yaqui River?
Water has shaped the identity, livelihoods and governance of the Yaqui Indigenous people in northern Mexico for centuries. Today, the Yaqui River faces mounting pressure as drought intensifies, pollution persists and water is increasingly diverted to agriculture and cities. In this award-winning series, staff writer Aimee Gabay explores how climate change is sharpening long-standing disputes […]
Traditional protection proves more successful for clams in American Samoa
- A study found that on the most populated island in American Samoa, traditional village-based protections and remote sites had the highest density of giant clams — outperforming federally designated no-take zones in one case.
- The authors suggest that traditional community stewardship could offer a viable alternative to federal restrictions, especially in areas communities rely on for giant clam harvesting, while respecting traditional management practices.
- The giant clams, which are slow-growing, face threats from habitat degradation, ocean warming, watershed pollution and overharvesting.
- The NOAA National Fisheries Service proposed protections for several giant clam species in 2024 which could lead to a top-down ban on harvesting. Some sources say a blanket ban without including communities in conservation strategies would impact people who rely on harvesting.
In Nepal, calls for reform grow louder in buffer zones
- Residents in Nepal’s buffer zones — defined spaces surrounding protected areas — face restrictions on resource collection, infrastructure development and daily activities, leading to frustration and political protests, including election abstentions.
- Communities suffer from wildlife attacks, crop destruction and livestock losses, with relief programs often failing marginalized residents, particularly those without land ownership certificates.
- Local buffer zone councils are perceived as ineffective or serving the park wardens’ interests, as the wardens hold extensive authority, sometimes overriding elected representatives.
- Locals and activists demand clearer guidelines, insurance systems, better infrastructure, equitable revenue sharing and legal amendments to balance conservation with community welfare.
Why the Amazon can’t be saved by courts alone (commentary)
- The Amazon cannot be saved by legal recognition alone. Declaring the forest a subject of rights is historic, but without real authority for Indigenous governments, these rights risk remaining largely symbolic.
- Protecting the forest requires shared governance: national ministries, regional agencies, and local governments must coordinate decisions with Indigenous authorities who already govern vast Amazonian territories — and protect the knowledge systems that have sustained it for generations.
- The limited implementation of the ruling recognizing the Amazon as a subject of rights reflects the gap between judicial decisions and realities on the ground, as well as the political and social complexity of the Amazon across territorial, national, regional, and international scales.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.
325 Long-neglected migratory freshwater fish species need protection now: Report
- As national representatives gather at the UN COP15 Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) meeting this week in Brazil, a new global report has been released profiling a dangerously neglected category of migratory animal: the world’s freshwater fish.
- Migratory freshwater fish populations have fallen by 81% since 1970, says the report, with 325 species worldwide urgently needing coordinated international conservation action. However, only 23 migratory freshwater fish species are currently listed under CMS.
- More than half of the 325 at-risk freshwater migratory fish species documented by the report are in Asia, with the Mekong River of major concern. While international conservation cooperation is urgently needed, China and other Mekong basin nations are non-parties to CMS, as are the U.S. and Russia.
- What is needed now, conservationists say, are transnational migratory freshwater fish species conservation action plans that cover entire river systems, with those plans managed cooperatively by multiple nations within each river basin.
Canada invests $1m into mining exploration on Indigenous land
A First Nation in Canada’s subarctic Northwest Territories has received C$1.5 million ($1.1 million) in federal funding to explore for elements on its traditional lands. The Tłı̨chǫ own a 39,000-square-kilometer (15,000-square-mile) stretch of boreal forest and tundra. On March 3, they announced a three-year prospecting project with the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency. Exploration will […]
Argentina updates national IUCN mammal list with new focus on non-native species
- The Argentine Society for the Study of Mammals reviews the national IUCN Red List of mammal species the goal of better understanding population trends and threats across the country’s many ecosystems.
- This time around, scientists evaluated 417 mammal species, 22 more than the 395 species evaluated in 2019.
- The increase reflects newly discovered mammals but also taxonomic revisions to mammals that were once grouped together and are now recognized as distinct species.
- For the first time, SAREM also used the environmental impact classification for alien taxa, known as EICAT, to determine how much damage non-native species were doing to biodiversity in the country.
Songbird trade threatens lesser-known ‘master birds’ with secondary extinctions: Study
- Master birds are used in songbird competitions in Southeast Asia and other parts of the world to “teach” competitors elements of their songs. This trade, largely unknown and under-researched, is pushing some species to the brink of extinction.
- A recent market study investigated the trade in crested jayshrikes, a popular master bird in Indonesia, and discovered rampant trade: This bird was sold openly across the country, despite its protected species status.
- The trade in master birds has driven serious declines of numerous species in the wild, including the Javan green magpie.
- To save these rapidly disappearing birds, the researchers say that stricter law enforcement is urgently needed to shut down illegal markets and stem the trade.
New mapping data show where oil blocks threaten Venezuela’s protected areas
- New mapping analysis by Mongabay reveals the potential threat from oil extraction to numerous ecosystems in Venezuela, including mangrove forests, seagrass meadows, coral reefs and Amazon rainforest, among others.
- Venezuela has 538,883 km2 (208,064 mi2) of protected areas and 177,843 km2 (68,666 mi2) of oil blocks, some of them already in production and others in the pre-exploration or exploration phases.
- An estimated 70,785 km2 (27,330 mi2)— or around 13% — of those oil blocks overlap with protected areas.
- If oil production ramps up to the 60-year historical average by 2036 — around 2.5 million barrels — the country would extract around 70 billion barrels and release an estimated 33.1 gigatons of CO2 by 2100, according to Climate Interactive’s calculator for fossil fuel extraction from biomass-rich areas.
Contested Amazon dam called to review water flow as river ecosystem fails
- A federal court and Brazil’s environmental agency ordered the Belo Monte hydropower plant to revise the Xingu River’s water-sharing plan, a decade after its debut, but a legal stay blocks enforcement of the ruling.
- The plant’s water flow has been subject to several complaints, as low water levels in the Volta Grande do Xingu have dried flooded forests and rock habitats, disrupting fish and turtle reproduction and threatening endemic species.
- “Increasing the amount of water is the only solution to restore this ecosystem,” says Josiel Juruna, coordinator of an Indigenous-led monitoring program documenting the impacts.
Eight arrested as Europe cracks down on lucrative eel smuggling syndicates
- Authorities in France and Spain have arrested eight suspects tied to a cross-border syndicate, accused of trafficking critically endangered European eels.
- Investigators say more than 7 million juvenile glass eels, worth nearly 600,000 euros (690,000 dollars), were smuggled over two years’ time.
- The arrests follow a year-long joint probe by investigators from the two countries into illegal fishing and laundering of eel catches.
- The case highlights the scale of an illicit trade that persists despite bans and trade protections for the species.
Indonesia court orders release of withheld impact studies on new capital
- Indonesia mining industry watchdog Jatam has won a case at the country’s Supreme Court requiring the government to disclose environmental impact assessments pertaining to two utility water projects at the country’s new capital city site.
- In 2019, then-president Joko Widodo announced he would move the capital of the world’s fourth-most-populous country from Jakarta to Nusantara, a new site surrounded by forests and Indigenous communities on the east coast of Borneo.
- At issue are the Sepaku Semoi Dam and Sepaku River intake, two infrastructure projects at Nusantara that have impacted local Indigenous populations, Jatam said.
- The NGO called the ruling a victory for transparency, but criticized efforts to withhold documents and pointed to a 2008 law as well as Indonesia’s Constitution requiring public access to information.
How foreign investor lawsuits stymie environmental protection
- New data reveal that lawsuits filed by corporations against Latin American and Caribbean countries are increasing, undermining government efforts to implement policies that could benefit the energy transition, human rights and the environment.
- Between 2014 and 2024, 212 lawsuits were registered, a 133% increase from previous decades.
- Across 419 known cases filed by mid-October 2025, countries in the region are facing a total of $36.6 billion in lawsuits from corporations, with 23% of claims coming from the mining, oil and gas sector, making it the second-most sued region globally by foreign investors.
Facebook shuts Indonesia groups after Mongabay and Bellingcat report illegal wildlife trade
- Facebook parent company Meta has closed nine groups on the social network after reporters from Mongabay and Bellingcat found evidence of illegal wildlife trade being conducted openly on the platform in Indonesia.
- In one Facebook group, reporters last year found an advertisement for a rhinoceros hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros), a protected species.
- “Bad actors constantly evolve their tactics to avoid enforcement, which is why we partner with groups like the World Wildlife Fund and invest in tools and technology to detect and remove violating content,” Meta said in a statement.
Planters stranded amid degraded forests as Bangladesh agarwood scheme falters
- Between 1999 and 2011, the Bangladesh Forest Department created 4,822 hectares (11,915 acres) of agarwood plantations across the country with local beneficiaries carrying out the clearing of forest land and planting and maintenance of the plantations.
- Agarwood trees take 6-8 years to mature. However, even the older trees from these plantations have not been auctioned since plantation.
- Agarwood and attar (agar perfume) exports from Bangladesh have seen unsteady profits over the last few years.
- Now, there are too many agar plantations in the country while the size of the local perfume industry remains small, and planters wait for buyers.
Cambodia’s Supreme Court denies release of five imprisoned environmental activists
- Five environmental activists from the group Mother Nature Cambodia remain in prison after a Supreme Court judge declined on March 2 to release them pending their appeal against a conviction for subversion.
- The activists, who were profiled in the Mongabay-produced film “The Clearing,” have been in prison since July 2, 2024 — more than 600 days — when they were sentenced to six to eight years in prison and ordered to pay fines for plotting against the government and insulting the king.
- Mother Nature activists have campaigned against logging, destructive dams and sand mining in Cambodia — activism they and others say is their right to carry out.
- Currently, sources say no date is set for the activists’ appeal; human rights groups contend its repeated postponement constitutes a violation of their fundamental right to a trial without undue delay.
Costa Rica’s head start may mask tougher EUDR road ahead
- The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), passed in 2023, will require that traders in several agricultural commodities, including coffee, prove that their products don’t contribute to deforestation.
- To prepare, Costa Rica developed a pilot program with the country’s largest coffee growers’ cooperative, and started shipping deforestation-free coffee to Europe in March 2024.
- Costa Rica has since provided the tools developed for this pilot to the entire coffee sector, with the aim of all coffee shipped from the country being certified deforestation-free.
- However, Costa Rica’s long-standing sustainability standards gave it a head start on meeting the new regulations, experts say, warning that other countries with lower standards and fewer resources may find it difficult to quickly emulate its success.
Forest advocates accuse EU energy firm of Dutch biomass certification fraud
- The sustainability certification of forest biomass produced to generate industrial-scale energy has long been controversial and called into question.
- Wood pellet companies argue their product is sustainable and doesn’t cause deforestation, while governments claim biomass burning results in climate-neutral emissions, which is why they offer subsides to energy companies burning sustainability certified forest biomass.
- However, forest advocates and scientists have provided significant evidence that forest biomass production contributes to deforestation, is not sustainable and that burning wood generates more carbon emissions per unit of energy than coal.
- In an unprecedented move, Dutch law enforcement is considering a criminal investigation into RWE, one of the Netherlands’ largest energy providers, after a Dutch forest advocate alleged that the firm dodges biomass certification rules, using wood pellets imported from Malaysia sourced not from sawmill waste, but allegedly from whole trees.
Oil patch appears after IRIS Dena sinking in Sri Lanka; origins still unverified
- Following the March 4 sinking of an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, fishers and coastal communities have spotted an oil patch along the Hikkaduwa coast in southern Sri Lanka, raising concerns about its origin.
- Authorities are conducting investigations to determine the origin of the oil patch and debris washed ashore.
- Studies show the sea around Sri Lanka as highly vulnerable to oil spills, as more than 25% of oil transported globally passes through Sri Lanka’s exclusive economic zone.
- Legal experts say in the event of confirmed environmental impact due to the ship sinking, the “polluter pays principle” should be applied.
Modest controls put on freewheeling squid fleet at South Pacific fisheries meeting
- The 14th meeting of the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) took place in Panama City from March 2-6.
- The intergovernmental organization regulates fishing activities in the high seas of the South Pacific, a vast area encompassing about 59 million square kilometers.
- Key decisions concerned tightening regulation of the jumbo flying squid fishery following increased fishing activity and signals of overfishing, and adopting measures to reduce illegal fishing practices and labor abuses in the squid fleet.
- Decision-makers also took steps toward finalizing a new management procedure for jack mackerel. Negotiations over regulating bottom trawling, a source of disagreement at recent SPRFMO meetings, remained stalled.
Indonesia’s orangutan trafficking cases reveal need for a change in approach (commentary)
- Indonesia needs a new approach to illegal wildlife trafficking that does more than intercept and repatriate animals to their home habitats, a new op-ed suggests.
- Seizures of trafficked orangutans have been in the news often lately, and the nation needs to make trafficking of animals such as these unprofitable, unviable and socially unacceptable.
- “Repatriation brings (trafficking) victims home, but it should never become a routine that normalizes the crime. If a country celebrates each return while shipments keep moving through the next gap, it is responding, never preventing,” he argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Bangladesh sees rise in ray, shark fishing as traditional seafood species dwindle
- Bangladesh has seen a sudden rise in illegal shark and ray fishing and consumption in recent years.
- A decrease in catch of traditionally consumed fish species and the lower prices of sharks and stingrays have led to this rise in popularity. Additionally, traders export ray skins and shark parts to East and Southeast Asian countries.
- Sharks and rays are protected species in Bangladesh and existing laws prohibit their catching, selling and consumption.
- Conservationists blame the weak law enforcement and lack of awareness among fishers and suggest that the government initiate stricter conservation measures besides providing subsidies to the poor fishers.
‘We do not have time’: Interview with MEP Delara Burkhardt on the EUDR’s second delay
- In 2023, the European Parliament passed a sweeping law meant to curb the import of goods and products linked to deforestation.
- After right-wing parties won the 2024 EU elections, the law, called the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), was weakened and postponed.
- Late last year, the European Parliament postponed the EUDR’s implementation for a second time.
- Mongabay spoke to German MEP Delara Burkhardt, the lead EUDR negotiator for the Socialists and Democrats Group, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
Brazil Supreme Court opens path to mining in Indigenous land for first time
- Last month, the Brazilian Supreme Court authorized the possibility of mining exploration and exploitation inside an Indigenous territory for the first time, at the request of an Indigenous Cinta Larga association in the southwestern Amazon.
- While the decision does not automatically authorize mining within Cinta Larga land, it has set a deadline for Congress to regulate mining in Indigenous lands and has established provisional rules in case mining authorization is approved by Congress, such as allowing mining on only 1% of the territory.
- A representative of the Cinta Larga Patjamaaj Association told Mongabay that the absence of such a law has prevented them from being able to benefit economically from mining on their land, leading to a lack of income for health, education and sustainability projects.
- Brazil’s Ministry of Indigenous Peoples (MPI), several public prosecutors and other Indigenous peoples and organizations have raised concerns about the precedent this could set, and say that by establishing these rules, it can be interpreted as opening the door to future exploration requests while on-site environmental compliance inspections in Brazil remain rare.
Plastic, from home and abroad, spills into Türkiye’s waters
- Türkiye has become a major destination for plastic waste recycling, notably from Europe and the U.K. Most of this scrap heads to the roughly 180 waste facilities handling plastic in Adana province.
- But large quantities are dumped along riverbanks or escape the facilities through their wastewater and eventually flow downstream into the Mediterranean Sea.
- The resulting pollution is taking a toll on riverine and marine ecosystems, including important sea turtle nesting sites.
- Some experts say Türkiye should stop importing plastic altogether to stem the tide of pollution, but the government has said the recycling industry plays an important economic role.
The promise and perils of the 1995 Mekong River Agreement (commentary)
- Thirty years after the 1995 Mekong Agreement, the treaty and the Mekong River Commission have failed to stop cumulative damage to the river from dams, sediment loss, sand mining and altered flows.
- Hydropower expansion and major projects such as Laos’s mainstream dams and Cambodia’s Funan Techo Canal are accelerating ecological decline, harming fisheries, sediment flows and the Tonle Sap–Mekong system despite consultation processes meant to prevent such impacts.
- “This is not cooperation,” the author writes of the agreement. “It is a rat race tearing the Mekong apart.”
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Ecuador’s new ecological corridor connects Andes and Amazon ecosystems
- This month, officials in Ecuador announced a 2,159-square-kilometer (833-square mile) biodiversity corridor, connecting Llanganates National Park with Yasuní Biosphere Reserve.
- The Llanganates–Yasuní Connectivity Corridor is unique because it allows “altitudinal connectivity” between the high-elevation Andes mountains and the low-elevation Amazon Rainforest.
- Experts say some species could start to move between the ecosystems in response to climate change and habitat loss.
U.S.’ hunger for Halloween trinkets is killing Vietnam’s painted woolly bats
- Taxidermied, framed bats are sold as souvenirs in shops across Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City that cater to international tourists, according to a new study documenting the trade.
- Painted woolly bats — one of the world’s most colorful bats, with wings streaked in orange and black — were the top-selling species both in these markets and online, and are in demand as decorations in the U.S.,as well as Europe and Canada.
- Vendors told researchers that most of the painted woolly bats they sold were pulled from the wild. Evidence suggests these mammals have almost disappeared from the country’s Mekong Delta region, partly because of this intensive trade.
- Experts urge Vietnam to outlaw harvest and trade of these bats, and ask that all 11 countries where these bats are found protect them under CITES, a global wildlife trade treaty, to regulate and monitor international sales.
Electrocution, conflict, poaching mark grim start to year for Sumatran elephants
- The office of Indonesia’s state conservation agency in the semiautonomous region of Aceh said an elephant found dead in Central Aceh district on Feb. 20 likely died due to electrocution following contact with an electric fence.
- Local residents in Karang Ampar village told Mongabay that human-elephant encounters have become increasingly frequent. Police in the province of Riau announced they had made multiple arrests over the fatal shooting of an elephant on an industrial palm oil concession.
- One day after the discovery of the deceased female Sumatran elephant in Central Aceh, a farmer in neighboring Bener Meriah district died after being trampled by an elephant near a corn field.
- Indonesia’s state conservation agency in Aceh said the recent Cyclone Senyar may also be driving human-elephant conflict, after floods from the November storm that killed more than 1,000 people across Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra disrupted wildlife movement corridors.
Ugandans affected by pipeline discontented over rehabilitation efforts: Report
- In a survey of people impacted by the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline in Uganda, a third of the participants said the livelihood restoration program implemented to rehabilitate them has not improved their lives.
- Project-affected persons say that agricultural inputs given to them were delivered late and that some of the seeds and seedlings were of poor quality with low germination rates.
- Some of those who received cash compensation to purchase alternative land said the compensation was inadequate and they were unable to buy land plots of similar sizes to those they had lost to the pipeline.
- People living along the pipeline route expressed concerns about safety, environmental risks and potential loss of property value.
Sri Lankan waters under ‘close watch’ following wreckage of Iranian warship
- At least 90 bodies were recovered from the wreckage of the IRIS Dena, an Iranian warship that was torpedoed by a U.S. submarine on March 4.
- The Sri Lanka Navy has spotted oil patches and life rafts during the rescue mission but no oil spill reported so far.
- Maritime experts say Sri Lanka will have an opportunity to raise a claim for environmental damage following the sinking of the frigate.
- If the Indian Ocean island intends to seek damages, the government may have to claim environmental damages through an international tribunal, considering the frigate was sunk under conditions of war.
Indonesian communities push to reclaim lands following company permit revocations
- In January, the Indonesian government ordered the revocation of PT TPL’s forest utilization permit, along with those of 27 other companies, for allegedly violating environmental and forestry regulations that contributed to deadly floods and landslides in November 2025.
- Twenty-nine communities whose customary lands overlap with the pulpwood company’s concession are demanding the return of 37,219 hectares after decades of conflict with the enterprise. Some people have reoccupied lands.
- According to officials, the state-owned investment agency Danantara will take over the companies’ concessions, but community leaders say the legal status of customary lands and forests is still unclear after meetings with government officials.
- Community leaders and NGOs have drafted next steps for the lands, including reforestation following decades of eucalyptus plantations and land titling.
Seafood fraud is rampant, imperiling fish populations, report finds
- Up to roughly 20% of aquatic products are intentionally mislabeled as the wrong species or otherwise fraudulent, posing environmental and health risks, according to a new report.
- Inaccurate representation of species is one of the most frequent forms of fraud, the report says.
- Other cons include misrepresenting place of origin or eco-certification status, and adulterating a product to affect its weight or appearance of freshness.
- The report calls for governments and industry stakeholders to establish better traceability systems, use advanced detection methods, and educate the public. An NGO expert says government action on traceability is key.
DNA fingerprinting convicts Zimbabwe lion poachers in landmark case
- Prosecutors in Zimbabwe used lion DNA forensics for the first time to successfully convict two people for poaching and trafficking a male lion near Hwange National Park.
- Investigators analyzed DNA from confiscated lion parts and were able to match it to a radio-collared lion in their database that was killed in 2024.
- Proving that the seized parts came from a poached wild lion provided the evidence that sent the two poachers to prison for two years.
- Experts say DNA forensics provide invaluable proof in hard-to-prosecute wildlife crimes, and this recent conviction sets a precedent for bringing poachers to justice in court using the forensic technology.
Concern among Indigenous leaders, relief for a few, as Amazon Soy Moratorium falters
- Mongabay spoke with various stakeholders across Brazil’s political spectrum on what the possible unraveling of the Amazon Soy Moratorium, a key zero-deforestation agreement, may mean for Indigenous peoples and their lands.
- Most Indigenous leaders say a weakening or end to the moratorium will increase deforestation, pollution and invasions of their lands — as satellite imagery points to advancing forest loss near one territory — while a few leaders see this as an economic opportunity that will allow them to sell soy farmed on their lands without any penalties.
- As cracks form in the 20-year-old moratorium, the environment ministry says existing deforestation policies still stand and that given potential impacts on Indigenous lands, environmental enforcement and control mechanisms remain active and strengthened.
- The government of the state of Mato Grosso says the moratorium created an unfair legal framework, while soy industry association Abiove said Brazil can still maintain high socioenvironmental standards without it. Both did not address whether there are potential impacts on Indigenous lands.
China’s Pacific squid fishery rife with labor, fishing abuses: Report
- A new report from U.K.-based NGO the Environmental Justice Foundation draws on interviews with 81 fishers, mainly Indonesian sailors who worked between 2021 and 2025 on 60 Chinese vessels targeting jumbo flying squid (Dosidicus gigas) in the Southeast Pacific Ocean.
- It documents frequent labor abuses affecting crew members, including several indicators of forced labor as described by the International Labour Organization.
- The report also documents regular shark finning, targeted hunting of marine mammals, and involvement in suspected illegal fishing incidents, often inside Ecuador, Peru or Chile’s exclusive economic zones.
- The report was launched days before the annual meeting of the commission of the South Pacific Regional Fishery Management Organisation, the intergovernmental body that manages the fishery. Officials with fishing organizations mentioned in the report and members of China’s delegation to the meeting did not respond to Mongabay’s request for comment on the report.
How cockfighting imperils Peru’s critically endangered sawfish
- Mongabay’s new film “Why cockfighting is threatening Peru’s last sawfish” investigates how the critically endangered largetooth sawfish has become a victim of Peru’s legal cockfighting industry.
- Although the species has nearly disappeared from Peru’s Pacific waters, its rostral “teeth” continue to circulate in informal markets, prized for use as cockfighting spurs.
- A single sawfish can yield dozens of spurs, each worth up to $250, creating powerful economic incentives for artisanal fishers facing financial hardship.
- Through interviews with fishers, scientists and cockfighting industry leaders, the film explores whether cultural change within the sport can outpace the illegal trade before the species disappears entirely.
Brazil wanted more protections for its endangered national tree. Then France called
- Alleged last-minute political maneuvers prevented Brazil from securing the highest protections from international commercial trade of Brazilwood (Paubrasilia echinata) at the 2025 meeting of CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty.
- The music industry, which covets the wood to produce violin bows — costing up to $8,200 a piece — saluted French President Emmanuel Macron’s “decisive involvement” to avoid new trade restrictions.
- The French press reported that Macron personally called Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to discuss the issue, but the Brazilian Presidency denied receiving such a call.
- Found only in Brazil, Paubrasilia echinata has experienced an 84% decline over the last three generations, and now the country deems the tree critically endangered.
Ocean Equity Index aims to measure justice at sea
- Researchers have developed an Ocean Equity Index that seeks to measure how equitable ocean initiatives are based on 12 criteria.
- The index, which was introduced alongside an academic study, can be used by governments, companies and community or Indigenous groups; the authors hope its use will be institutionalized globally.
- Assessing equity quantitatively is challenging because of the subject’s complexity and because perspectives of equity vary widely across actor groups, experts say.
Brazil revokes decree privatizing three Amazonian rivers after Indigenous protests
Brazil has revoked a presidential decree that placed sections of three Amazonian rivers — the Tapajós, Madeira and Tocantins — under a state-led privatization program. Indigenous groups had protested the plan for 33 days by blockading a Cargill grain port in Santarém in the western Brazilian Amazon. The decree was a part of a larger […]
In Nepal polls, political parties root for mega infrastructure
- Nepal’s major political parties focus their election manifestos on mega projects, viewing big construction as the primary engine for economic growth.
- Despite Nepal ranking as the sixth most climate-vulnerable nation globally, parties largely treat environmental issues as an afterthought or a development delay, often ignoring the fact that recent climate-driven disasters have already severely damaged expensive infrastructure like the Melamchi water project.
- While “green” terminology occasionally appears in the fine print to satisfy international frameworks, experts warn that low budget allocations and a lack of coordination mean these environmental commitments usually remain “on paper” while industrial expansion takes center stage.
Australia hands record prison sentence to reptile smuggler in trafficking crackdown
- A 61-year-old Sydney man was sentenced to eight years in prison for attempting to smuggle native Australian reptiles to Europe and Asia.
- Australia is home to 10% of the world’s reptile species, and 90% can be found nowhere else in the world.
- The Australian government is cracking down on wildlife trafficking, with arrests tripling from mid-2023 to early 2025. During that period, authorities seized more than 200 parcels at the border containing 780 native species.
Big biodiversity goals run up against small funding realities
- The global loss of biodiversity is a pressing problem that scientists and economists warn could have disastrous repercussions for society.
- The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, signed in 2022, laid out a set of targets, including substantial increases in funding and ending subsidies that harm nature, to find ways to address and stem the loss.
- Since the signing of the agreement, financing aimed at catalyzing work to protect species by less-industrialized countries, as well as Indigenous communities, has been channeled through the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund.
- The fund has begun supporting projects around the world, even as the amounts committed from a handful of governments are a fraction of what researchers say is required to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
In Brazil, a free platform uses government data to track EUDR compliance
- Developed by researchers at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, the Selo Verde platform provides a free, public tool to check a Brazilian producer’s compliance with environmental laws, including the upcoming EU deforestation regulation.
- The tool crosses data from state and federal governments on land use, deforestation, cattle transport and legal infractions, to monitor environmental compliance on rural properties.
- Selo Verde is run by state governments: First launched in the state of Pará in 2021, it has since been adopted in Minas Gerais, Acre and Espírito Santo, with other states interested in developing their own Selo Verde, and other countries encouraged to emulate their own.
- The adoption of the platform by businesses remains a challenge, however, with experts saying there’s no incentive to do so amid ongoing delays to the EUDR.
As Nepal votes, climate change is an elephant in the room for Sherpa community
- Seasonal migration and low resident voter presence in Nepal’s Sagarmatha (Everest) region mean election campaigns concentrate on infrastructure rather than climate adaptation, leaving long-term environmental resilience underprioritized.
- Sherpa communities are witnessing retreating glaciers, erratic snowfall, avalanches and flooding, consistent with IPCC reports on elevation-dependent warming, changing snow and monsoon patterns and downstream water risks.
- Everest mountaineering revenue and helicopter tourism generate income, but limited reinvestment in climate adaptation, environmental regulation and sustainable infrastructure threatens ecosystems and the local economy in the face of climate change.
Botswana shows how smarter cattle herding can save lions, reopen ancient wildlife pathways
- Restoring traditional herding practices in northern Botswana has led to a huge decrease in cattle predation and retaliatory lion poisonings in the Okavango Delta region.
- More lion cubs are now surviving, with the lion population in northern Botswana up 50% over the past four years.
- Experts say bringing back traditional herding practices is the key to restoring migration routes for wildebeest, zebra and many other species.
- If herding expands, government officials may consider removing some veterinary cordon fences that have blocked wildlife corridors for decades.
Panama NGOs face lawsuits, asset seizures in fight over port construction
- Two environmental groups fighting the Puerto Barú project in Panama have been named in lawsuits claiming they defamed the developers and created public confusion about the project.
- The Center for Environmental Advocacy of Panama and the Adopt a Panama Rainforest Association (Adopta Bosque) say the port could damage mangroves and harm vulnerable shark and ray species.
- Both organizations have had their assets seized, including bank accounts and properties that serve as private nature reserves.
Migrant fishers’ deaths at sea tied to unchecked captain power, study shows
- A new study finds migrant fishers’ deaths at sea stem from systemic labor and governance failures, not isolated safety lapses.
- Far from shore, captains control food, medical care and even how deaths are recorded, with little oversight or accountability.
- Researchers documented 55 cases of Indonesian fishers who died or went missing, showing deaths occur through both direct abuse and prolonged neglect.
- The authors call for stronger international cooperation, mandatory death reporting and supply chain transparency, arguing existing rules alone cannot prevent further fatalities
Sumatra province plan to permit ‘community’ mines alarms civil society
- The devolved government in West Sumatra province, which is home to 5.8 million people on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island, intends to present new zoning plans to the central government that could regulate currently illegal mines operated by small groups of people.
- The small-scale gold mining sector is responsible for lasting environmental damage to both environment and public health, owing in large part to the use of mercury, a banned heavy metal and neurotoxin, to separate gold particles from ores retrieved from valley sides and river basins.
- It remains unclear how the government would treat the use of mercury, which is the subject of international agreement under the Minamata Convention on Mercury.
- The international price of gold has surged by more than 70% since the beginning of last year as central banks and investors buy precious metals to mitigate political uncertainty and high inflation. This has led to a surge in illegal gold mining in forests from the Amazon to Indonesia.
Indonesia faces scrutiny over permit revocations following deadly floods and landslides
- The Indonesian government is facing new scrutiny of its revocation of 28 forestry, plantation and mining permits following Cyclone Senyar, which triggered landslides and flash floods that killed around 1,200 people.
- An analysis by the NGO Auriga Nusantara found that some of the permits cited in the announcement had already been revoked years earlier, while others had expired before the floods occurred.
- The discrepancies add to growing confusion over which companies are actually linked to the November 2025 floods and landslides and what will happen to former concession areas now slated for transfer to state-owned enterprises under the sovereign wealth fund Danantara.
Argentina considers weakening glacier safeguards in pursuit of critical minerals
- A bill to reform Argentina’s National Glacier Law would scale back protections that currently restrict mining and other development near glaciers in the Andes and beyond.
- Argentina has 8,484 square kilometers (3,276 square miles) of ice cover spanning 12 provinces and 39 river basins; together, they provide the country with freshwater for drinking, agriculture and other needs.
- If approved, the reform would weaken national environmental standards by allowing provinces to decide whether certain glaciers have a “strategic water function” worth protecting.
- The bill is expected to go to a vote in the Senate later this month and, if passed, would then move on to the lower house of Congress.
Malaria outbreak among Indigenous Pirahã linked to forest loss, satellite data find
- According to data from Global Forest Watch, the Pirahã Indigenous Territory in Brazil lost 7,000 hectares of tree cover from 2002-24.
- A large spike occurred in 2024, when the territory lost 3,200 hectares of tree cover.
- Government officials told Mongabay that the recently contacted Pirahã people are facing a malaria outbreak, and the deforestation is the result of an effort by Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency to improve food security.
- The situation is complex, conservationists say, and although the clearings to plant crops may exacerbate the risk of malaria, the Pirahã people need food to improve their ability to fight the disease.
Indonesia says intervention in notorious Sumatran national park part of new ‘model’
- Tesso Nilo National Park was established in 2004 and expanded in 2009 in Sumatra’s Riau province, but has since lost more than three-quarters of its old-growth forest, largely to smallholder oil palm farms, according to remote-sensing platform Global Forest Watch.
- Last year, officials working under a new nationwide forestry task force began work to relocate hundreds of farming families living inside the park, in a radical attempt to regain control of a protected area that’s been almost entirely destroyed.
- The government is framing the Tesso Nilo policy around efforts to save Domang, one of the critically endangered Sumatran elephant calves living within the national park.
- The intervention in Tesso Nilo sparked some low-intensity violence last year, including destruction of a shelter in the forest used by national park staff as a base for fieldwork, prompting a surge in military presence to bolster security as the operation proceeds.
Study refutes claim that Indonesia’s legal turtle trade supports livelihoods
- Tens of thousands of freshwater turtles and tortoises are legally harvested each year in Indonesia for their meat and exported primarily to China, while many species teeter on the brink of extinction.
- Although this turtle trade is thought to provide livelihoods for harvesters, a study finds that with current market prices, it only supports a few hundred people nationwide with a barely sustainable minimum wage income.
- A big proportion of the trade must be illegal to keep it profitable, researchers say. They question whether it should be permitted at all, given that many targeted species are threatened with extinction.
- To prevent illegal trade, conservationists urge Indonesian authorities to enforce harvest quotas, ban the trade of threatened species and provide alternative livelihoods for harvesters to save the country’s chelonians.
Brazil gov’t builds map to help exporters comply with EU anti-deforestation rule
- Brazil’s National Space Research Institute, INPE, created a new technology to generate deforestation data in polygons of a half-hectare threshold for the first time, following the European Union’s new regulation on deforestation-free products, or EUDR.
- When it comes into effect at the end of 2026 (delayed for the second year in a row), the EUDR will require suppliers to provide geolocalized data and other documentation to prove that their products exported to the EU aren’t sourced from areas illegally deforested after Dec. 31, 2020.
- December is the start of the Amazon rainy season, which poses challenges to track deforestation due to the high incidence of clouds; to tackle this, INPE created the Brazil Data Cube, which captures all remote sensing images of a period and radar to get cloud-free images for that month.
- The map was built per request of the agriculture ministry, which made it available for rural producers in late December 2025 through a platform aimed at integrating information from public and private databases to generate compliance reports to be used by exporters.
Another controversial land deal in Suriname threatens the Amazon Rainforest
- Critics in Suriname are speaking out against plans to develop 113,465 hectares (280,378 acres) of rainforest for industrial agriculture in the district of Nickerie.
- The plans come from a 2024 public-private partnership between the agriculture ministry and Suriname Green Energy Agriculture N.V., a private company working in agriculture and bioenergy.
- The partnership was inherited from the previous government and allegedly went forward without environmental permits, causing frustration and confusion across several regulatory agencies.
- If the entire 113,465-hectare block is cleared, Suriname could lose its negative carbon emission status and fail to qualify for certain carbon credit programs, experts said.
Bangladesh’s political parties share manifestos, leave environmentalists frustrated
- Ahead of Bangladesh’s first national elections post the uprising of the previous government in 2024, major political parties have proposed environmental protection plans, which experts term “inadequate” and “unrealistic.”
- Crucial issues like biodiversity conservation, climate change-driven internal migration and other environmental actions, like taking up appropriate projects and deliberate fund management, are not addressed, experts say.
- They also say the election manifestos completely ignore the reforms in environmental laws enacted by the interim government.
Mexico considers shrinking protected areas for endangered vaquita porpoise
- Officials in Mexico are considering shrinking a protected area in the Gulf of California, the stretch of water between Baja California and mainland Mexico where the vaquita (Phocoena sinus) is endemic.
- The vaquita is the world’s smallest porpoise and the most endangered marine mammal, with only an estimated 10 individuals remaining.
- The proposal, not yet public but reviewed by Mongabay, would reduce a gillnet prohibition zone and allow traffic through a zero-tolerance area where all vessel activity is currently banned.
- The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and other agencies are developing the new regulations, but it’s unclear when they will be implemented.
Community complaints in limbo as Socfin cuts ties with Earthworm Foundation
- After eight years, multinational plantation company Socfin and the environmental consultancy Earthworm Foundation have cut ties.
- Socfin first contracted Earthworm as part of its response to allegations of human rights and environmental violations at Socfin’s plantations in Africa and Southeast Asia.
- Community representatives and environmental advocates in Liberia say Earthworm’s recommendations weren’t adequately implemented.
Abandoned tuna-fishing devices pollute the Galápagos Marine Reserve
- The tuna industry commonly uses fish aggregating devices (FADs) to efficiently collect large volumes of fish; when these devices are lost or abandoned, they can harm marine wildlife and habitats.
- In Ecuador, lost FADs can drift into the Galápagos Marine Reserve, a protected area with hundreds of endemic and threatened species, where they pollute the environment with plastic, harm reefs and entangle wildlife.
- Local agencies and organizations are developing ways to prevent FADs from entering the marine reserve in the first place and trying to clean up the mess they make when they do get in.
Partnering up to run a DRC reserve: Interview with Forgotten Parks’ Christine Lain
- In 2017, Upemba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo was largely a “paper park,” badly underfunded and encroached on by poachers, farmers, artisanal miners and armed groups, with its wildlife in steep decline.
- That year, Forgotten Parks signed a 15-year deal with the DRC government to manage the park.
- The agreement was one of a growing number of public-private partnerships for conservation in Africa.
- Mongabay spoke to Forgotten Parks’ DRC director, Christine Lain, about how Forgotten Parks approaches its work at Upemba.
Critical shark and ray habitats in Western Indian Ocean largely unprotected: Study
- Almost half of the Western Indian Ocean’s shark and ray populations are considered threatened with extinction, as populations decline.
- The Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs) project has mapped out 125 areas across the Western Indian Ocean that are critical for the survival of many species.
- Yet only 7.1% of these ISRAs fall within existing marine protected areas, and just 1.2% are in fully protected areas where fishing is prohibited.
- Researchers identified challenges related to fishing pressure as the most significant threat to sharks and rays in the region.
A dam threatens Nepal’s Indigenous community; they want it on the ballot
- Residents of Mulkharka, largely from the Indigenous Tamang community, learned only in 2023 about plans for the Nagmati Dam near their settlement on the northern edge of Kathmandu and now strongly oppose it, saying officials highlighted benefits but hid social, environmental and safety risks.
- Locals fear displacement as well as loss of forests, rituals, grazing land and medicinal plants, with estimates of up to 80,000 trees cut, increased human-wildlife conflict and erosion of ancestral ties to the land.
- Critics and engineers warn the $190 million dam is unnecessary and systemically risky, citing weak environmental assessments, seismic vulnerability and catastrophic flood potential for downstream Kathmandu if the dam fails.
- As Nepal heads into parliamentary elections, Mulkharka residents want the dam debated at the ballot box calling for development models that prioritize community consent, ecological safety and accountability.
Whale sharks released from nets along India’s coast as fishers turn rescuers
- Once hunted and butchered for oil and meat, whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) are now being rescued by fishers along India’s western Arabian Sea coast.
- Since 2001, the nonprofit Wildlife Trust of India has been educating fishing communities about whale sharks, training fishers in safe disentanglement techniques and offering compensation for destroyed nets.
- During that time, more than a thousand whale sharks have been released from accidental entanglement in fishing nets along India’s west coast.
- However, experts say the compensation for rescues remains insufficient and that social security, insurance, training and livelihood-linked incentives should be offered to protect the fishers who engage in whale shark rescues.
Amazon deforestation may rise 30% as major traders exit historic soy pact
- Major soy traders like Cargill, ADM and Bunge announced their withdrawal from the Amazon soy moratorium, a move that could increase deforestation in the biome by 30% by 2045.
- Behind the exodus are farmers and ranchers’ associations and local politicians linked to agribusiness.
- Their abandonment of the agreement signals a “green light” for land speculators to clear rainforest for new soy crops, observers warn.
- Advancing deforestation may lead companies to lose market share and intensify agricultural failures due to the lack of rain.
Peru to invest $7.6 billion to continue critical minerals extraction
- Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines announced it will invest $7.6 billion to expand and improve mining operations that extract zinc, lead, tin, silver, copper and gold.
- Many of the minerals found in Peru are vital for developing batteries, turbines, solar panels and other technology that will ultimately help lower global carbon emissions.
- Most of the investment will go to upgrading infrastructure and operation safety and efficiency at eight mine sites already in operation, in some cases extending their lifespans.
Brazil declares açaí a national fruit amid biopiracy concerns
Brazil recently passed a law to recognize açaí, a berry endemic to the Amazon, as a national fruit, citing concerns about biopiracy — the commercial exploitation of native species and traditional knowledge without consent or fair compensation. Açaí is a staple food in northern Brazil, where it’s eaten as a savory paste typically served with […]
Worries grow for Sulawesi farmers as nickel mining company plans expansion
- PT Vale Indonesia, which runs the longest-operating nickel mining concession in Indonesia, is looking to expand its operations amid an explosion of global demand for nickel used in electric vehicle batteries.
- The company’s concession encompasses local farmlands and forestlands rich in plant and animal life found only in Sulawesi.
- Farmers worry the company’s expansion plans will mean the annexation and destruction of their forest and farms.
The long struggle of women farmers to halt a zinc mine in North Sumatra
- Women’s rights groups in Indonesia’s Dairi regency have been at the forefront of a legal challenge against a zinc mining company, which ultimately prevailed in court and set a legal precedent in the country in May 2025.
- The women farmers joined a group of 11 villagers who say their successive victories in Indonesia’s courts was due to their unrelenting consistency and not giving up throughout the last two decades.
- Developer PT Dairi Prima Mineral, backed by China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Co. Ltd., is now proposing for a new permit after the environment ministry revoked the old one and is hoping to gain the approval of all community elements, including villagers.
- However, according to the local activists who spoke to Mongabay, they will continue to resist the mine.
‘Political will is everything’: Interview with Kenyan Environment Minister Deborah Barasa
- William Ruto won Kenya’s 2022 presidential election on a campaign that included a pledge to plant 15 billion trees by 2032. As the country approaches another election cycle, observers and environmental experts are questioning how much progress has been made.
- Around 1.5 billion trees have been planted so far, Deborah Barasa, the environment minister, said in an interview with Mongabay. Despite concerns over planning, monitoring and funding, she said Kenya can still meet the 15 billion target.
- She added that community ownership, long-term care and tree survival matter more than the number of seedlings planted, noting that the tree plantation campaign is “about instilling a culture of protecting and caring for the environment.”
- Barasa spoke to Mongabay on the sidelines of an event celebrating the legacy of Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist and winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. Maathai built a landmark women-centric movement to plant trees and combat deforestation and desertification.
Indonesia revokes forest and mine permits over role in deadly Sumatra landslides
- Indonesia has revoked the permits of 28 companies after a post–Cyclone Senyar audit found environmental violations that authorities say worsened deadly floods and landslides in Sumatra in late 2025, which killed about 1,200 people.
- The revoked permits cover about 1 million hectares of forests and include major players such as pulpwood producer PT Toba Pulp Lestari, marking a shift toward framing permit enforcement as post-disaster accountability.
- Two high-profile projects in the Batang Toru ecosystem were hit: a nearly completed hydropower plant and the Martabe gold mine, both long criticized for operating in landslide-prone terrain that’s the only habitat of the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan.
- Environmental groups have welcomed the revocations, but warn the move is incomplete, calling for transparency, ecosystem restoration, protection against permit transfers to new operators, and broader action to halt deforestation in vulnerable watersheds.
How US intervention could deepen Venezuela’s environmental crisis
- Following the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the U.S. has expressed interest in the country’s oil and minerals. But the current landscape means that a rushed investment could be disastrous for the environment, critics warn.
- Venezuela has an estimated 300 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, the largest in the world. But decaying infrastructure and corruption make investment almost impossible, with a high risk of spills inside sensitive ecosystems.
- The country also has massive mineral deposits, many of them in the rainforest and on Indigenous territory. The mines are largely controlled by criminal groups, making U.S. involvement there extremely complicated, critics said.
From south to north, Sri Lanka’s cricket dreams undermine fragile ecosystems
- Sri Lanka plans to construct an international cricket stadium and a sports complex on the northern island of Mandaitivu spanning more than 56 hectares to popularize the sport in the country’s Northern province.
- Mandaitivu overlaps with mangroves and coastal wetlands in the ecologically sensitive Jaffna lagoon, and environmental groups warn that a construction on the low-lying island could reduce flood retention and increase climate vulnerability.
- Mandaitivu’s mangroves support fisheries and coastal livelihoods causing concern about potential decline in aquatic creatures, especially prawns and crabs, impacting the traditional fisherfolk.
- Conservationists say the project echoes past ill-informed infrastructure decisions, such as the Hambantota stadium built within an elephant habitat, reflecting weak environmental governance and repeated ecological trade-offs.
Indonesia sues 6 companies over alleged links to deadly floods & landslides
- Indonesia’s environment ministry is seeking 4.8 trillion rupiah ($284 million) in environmental damages from six companies it has linked to deadly floods and landslides triggered by Cyclone Senyar in November.
- Following the disasters, the ministry launched an investigation into dozens of companies in the region; the findings determined six companies were responsible for alleged damage to watersheds in North Sumatra.
- The areas affected include Batang Toru, an ecologically fragile ecosystem home to the Tapanuli orangutan, the world’s rarest great ape.
Colombia poised for another drop in deforestation in 2025, data show
- Deforestation in Colombia appears to have declined in 2025, with notable reductions in several departments like Meta, Caquetá and Guaviare.
- The main drivers of deforestation include the spread of cattle ranching and agriculture, as well as illicit crops like coca, the primary ingredient in cocaine.
- Officials attributed the declining trend to collaboration with Indigenous communities and environmental zoning in rural areas, as well as ecotourism and a program providing financial incentives for communities involved in forest conservation.
Flores’ geothermal ambitions collide with justice, culture & local resistance
- Indonesia’s decision to turn Flores into a “geothermal island” was meant to anchor its renewable energy ambitions on a single, high-profile stage.
- Now a decade on, the plan has collided with local realities on a rugged, underdeveloped island where energy access remains uneven and development pressures are intensifying.
- A new study traces how this tension has made Flores an unexpected flashpoint in the national debate over how the energy transition should be carried out.
Indonesia says 4 million hectares of plantation, mining lands reclaimed in crackdown
- The Indonesian government says it has reclaimed more than 4 million hectares of land used for plantations, mining and other activities inside officially designated forest areas.
- This is part of a sweeping crackdown on illegal activities in forest areas, carried out by a year-old task force formed by President Prabowo Subianto.
- Land seizures have exceeded the initial target by 400%, officials say, and the scale of the enforcement raises questions about how many oil palm plantations in the country are actually illegal.
- The task force has recovered about 2.3 trillion rupiah (about $136 million) in administrative fines, collected from 20 oil palm companies and one nickel mining company; it remains unclear what the money will be used for — and what will happen to the seized plantations and mines.
After years of progress, Indonesia risks ‘tragedy’ of a deforestation spike
- Deforestation is accelerating, underscoring Indonesia’s reputation as a big greenhouse gas emitter and potentially inviting more scrutiny of its commodity exports.
- Gross deforestation in Indonesia in 2025 was on track to at least match 2024’s tally, which reflected the most extensive losses since 2019, Indonesia’s forestry minister, Raja Juli Antoni, told a parliamentary committee in December.
- Indonesia’s Merauke Food Estate project involves clearing at least 2 million hectares of forest, and worries are mounting that commodity exports may suffer if big markets like the EU force importers to prove they are not buying palm oil and other products that have resulted from clearing rainforest.
- A reacceleration in the rate of Indonesia’s deforestation risks is also drawing attention to the country’s spotty climate record: At No. 6, Indonesia ranks among the top greenhouse gas emitters after China, the U.S., India, the EU and Russia.
Cowboy boots made from pirarucu leather fund Amazon’s sustainable fishery
- Sustainable pirarucu fisheries in Brazil’s Amazonas are restoring once-depleted populations of this freshwater giant, thanks to community-led management systems and sales to brands overseas.
- Selling pirarucu skin to the fashion industry, especially for Texas-bound cowboy boots, is key to financing the fishery, helping maintain fair prices for fishers and cover part of the high costs of transport, storage and community monitoring.
- The system depends on heavy collective labor and constant protection against illegal fishing, with communities traveling long distances, patrolling lakes and facing armed threats — all while receiving limited recognition or policy support from authorities.
Soy giants drop Amazon no-deforestation pledge as subsidies come under threat
The world’s largest buyers of Brazilian soy have announced a plan to exit from a landmark antideforestation agreement, the Amazon Soy Moratorium. The voluntary agreement between soy agribusinesses and industry associations prevented most soy linked to deforestation from entering global supply chains for nearly two decades. The decision was communicated on Dec. 25, just before […]
Environmental crime prevention is moving into the diplomatic mainstream (commentary)
- Environmental crime used to be treated as a niche concern for park rangers, customs officers and a handful of conservation lawyers to tackle, but not anymore if recent intergovernmental initiatives are any indication.
- From the UNFCCC to UNTOC and governments like Brazil and Norway, to agencies like Interpol, a new international consensus on tackling environmental crime like illegal deforestation, mining and wildlife trafficking is forming.
- “Governments can allow environmental crime to remain a para-diplomatic side issue, or they can lock it into the core of crime, climate and biodiversity agreements, with concrete timelines, enforcement tools and financing. If they choose the latter, the emerging coalitions around UNTOC and COP30 could become the backbone of a global effort to dismantle nature-crime economies,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Marine protected areas expanded in 2025, but still far from 30% goal
In December 2022, nearly 200 nations committed to protecting 30% of Earth’s lands and waters by 2030. As of 2025, about 9.6% of the world’s oceans are now covered by marine protected areas, according to the latest global tracking data by the World Database on Protected Areas. This marks a 1.2% increase in 2025, up […]
Chimpanzees and gorillas among most traded African primates, report finds
- A new report finds thousands of African primates, including chimpanzees and gorillas, are being traded both legally and illegally.
- Most of the legal trade in great apes is for scientific and zoo purposes, but the report raises some concerns on the legality of recent trade instances for zoos.
- Chimpanzees topped the list of the most illegally traded African primates, as the exotic pet trade drives the demand for juveniles and infants.
Indonesia’s illegal gold boom leaves a toxic legacy of mercury pollution
- A nearly 70% rise in global gold prices has accelerated illegal gold mining across Indonesia, including in Bukit Gajah Berani, a forest buffer next to Kerinci Seblat National Park, threatening critical tiger habitat and protected forests nationwide.
- Despite decades of evidence and Indonesia’s commitments under the Minamata Convention, illegal gold mining remains the country’s largest source of mercury emissions, contaminating rivers, fish, crops and communities, with documented health impacts ranging from toxic exposure to malaria spikes.
- While Indonesia has strong regulations on paper, including a pledge to eliminate mercury use in illegal mining by 2025, enforcement is weak, agencies operate in silos, illegal cinnabar mining continues, and attempts to formalize “community mining” have largely failed in practice.
- Illegal mining has destroyed forests, farmland and waterways, reducing rice production, worsening floods, and eroding traditional forest-based livelihoods, leaving communities with polluted landscapes and long-term ecological and economic costs as criminal networks adapt faster than regulators.
Indonesia launches sweeping environmental audits after Sumatra flood disaster
- After Cyclone Senyar killed more than 1,100 people across Sumatra, the Indonesian government has acknowledged that deforestation and land-use changes — not extreme weather alone — amplified the scale of floods and landslides.
- In a significant shift, authorities are now explicitly linking disaster impacts to development decisions and corporate activity, signaling that permits will not shield companies from accountability.
- The government has launched a three-track response: rapid disaster impact assessments, reviews of provincial zoning plans, and environmental audits of more than 100 companies across extractive and infrastructure sectors.
- Civil society groups have cautiously welcomed the move, but note that meaningful reform will depend on whether Jakarta is willing to revise permissive zoning plans that legally enable large-scale forest conversion.
Urban sprawl and illegal mining reshape a fragile Amazon frontier
- Ever since Mitú was first established as a settlement in 1935, it has rapidly transformed into an expanding urban town in one of Colombia’s most isolated departments.
- The Amazonian forests, rivers and Indigenous communities who surround Mitú are impacted by urbanization, the overexploitation of natural resources, cattle ranching, illegal mining and timber extraction which have caused deforestation, soil degradation and water pollution.
- Researchers say the construction of a highway from Mitú to Monfort has attracted settlers who cleared land around the road to expand the urban center and develop agricultural production and cattle ranching.
- Mongabay found 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres) of tree cover loss in Mitú since 2014.
EUDR antideforestation law officially delayed for second year in a row
The European Union’s antideforestation law, known as EUDR, has officially been delayed for a second year. The amendment was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on Dec. 23, 2025. The EUDR bans the import of commodities, including cocoa, coffee, soy, beef, timber, palm oil and rubber, that come from areas deforested after […]
After Cyclone Senyar, Indonesia probes whether development amplified scale of disaster
- Cyclone Senyar triggered catastrophic floods and landslides in northern Sumatra in late 2025, but scientists and activists say decades of deforestation and landscape alteration in upland watersheds largely determined the scale of the destruction.
- The heavily hit Batang Toru landscape, home to the world’s only Tapanuli orangutan population, has become a national test case after the government ordered eight mining, energy and plantation companies to halt operations pending rare watershed-wide environmental audits.
- Investigations have raised concerns that forest clearing by a pulpwood producer, a hydropower project and a gold mine on steep terrain may have destabilized slopes and worsened runoff during extreme rainfall.
- Experts warn that once forest cover is lost in fragile tropical watersheds, disaster risks can persist for decades, making effective law enforcement — rather than weather alone — decisive for Batang Toru’s future.
Massive Amazon conservation program pledges to put communities first
- The Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA) is a massive conservation program that has helped reduce deforestation across 120 conservation areas in the Brazilian Amazon and avoided 104 million metric tons of CO2 emissions between 2008 and 2020.
- A new phase of the program, called ARPA Comunidades, will now focus on supporting the communities who live in and protect the forest, by helping them increase their revenue through the bioeconomy or sale of sustainable forest products.
- Backed by a $120 million donor fund, ARPA Comunidades aims to increase protections across 60 sustainable-use reserves in the Brazilian Amazon spanning an area nearly the size of the U.K., directly impacting 130,000 people and helping raise 100,000 out of poverty.
Guatemala’s eco defenders reel from surge in killings and persecution
- In 2023, there were four recorded killings of environmental defenders in connection to their work; in 2024, this figure shot up to at least 20, according to advocacy group Global Witness.
- An ongoing political crisis, persistent criminalization, and the spread of organized crime have all fed the rise in violence against Indigenous and campesino communities and defenders.
- This is happening despite a change of government, led by President Bernardo Arévalo, whose movement was backed by Indigenous communities.
- Land grabbing, mass arrest warrants and judicial persecution are increasingly common, together with the use of force, say human rights defenders and activists.
Brickmaking keeps eating farmland as Bangladesh misses clean-build goal
- Despite a 2019 mandate to switch to concrete blocks and other alternatives by June 2025, most government projects continued using clay-fired bricks, with only the Ministry of Housing and Public Works fully complying.
- About 7,000 brickfields strip an estimated 9.5 million cubic meters (3.35 billion cubic feet) of topsoil each year, rendering farmland uncultivable for years, while the sector accounts for roughly 3% of Bangladesh’s greenhouse gas emissions due to coal- and wood-fired kilns.
- Concrete alternatives are available, along with government-developed lower-cost options such as compressed stabilized earth blocks made from dredged river sediment, which can cut costs and conserve topsoil, yet their adoption remains limited.
- A 15% VAT on alternative building materials has made them less competitive than traditional bricks, discouraging investment and demand, even as officials plan a new deadline and stricter enforcement to revive the stalled transition.
Mercury, dredges and crime: Illegal mining ravages Peru’s Nanay River
- Mongabay Latam flew over the basins of the Nanay and Napo rivers, in Peru’s Loreto region, and confirmed mining activity in this part of the Peruvian Amazon.
- Environmental prosecutors say that there may be even more boats and mining machinery hidden in the ravines of both rivers.
- During the flyover, authorities confirmed the use of not only dredges, but also of mining explosives, which they say destroy the riverbanks.
- Almost 15,140 liters (4,000 gallons) of fuel have been confiscated from illegal mining networks around the Nanay River in the last two years, but authorities’ efforts seem insufficient.
Indonesia closes 2025 with rising disasters and stalled environmental reform
- Deadly floods and landslides in Sumatra in late 2025 underscored how deforestation, weak spatial planning and extractive development have increased Indonesia’s vulnerability to extreme weather — problems scientists and activists say the government has largely failed to confront.
- Forest loss surged nationwide in 2025, with Sumatra overtaking Borneo as the main deforestation hotspot, while large areas of forest in Papua were redesignated for food estates, agriculture and biofuel projects, raising concerns over carbon emissions and biodiversity loss.
- Despite international pledges to phase out coal, national energy plans continued to lock in coal, gas and biomass co-firing for decades, while palm oil expansion and mining — including in sensitive areas like Raja Ampat — remained central to development strategy, often prompting action only after public pressure.
- Civil society groups increasingly turned to lawsuits amid shrinking space for dissent, rising criminalization of Indigenous communities and activists, and growing militarization of land-use projects — trends campaigners warn are weakening democratic safeguards and environmental protections alike.
Fishing ‘modernization’ leaves Tanzania’s small-scale crews struggling to stay afloat
- Tanzania’s boat modernization program aims to empower small-scale fishers with affordable, government-distributed vessels, but has instead left many struggling with unreliable vessels and unsustainable loans.
- In Kilwa district, fishers say the boats they received were poorly equipped, costly to operate and prone to mechanical failure, forcing them to rent missing gear and spend more on fuel.
- Mounting repayment pressure is driving some fishers toward illegal or risky fishing practices, undermining the project’s goal of promoting sustainability.
- Experts warn that poor consultation, mismatched designs and a lack of community input threaten to turn Tanzania’s fisheries modernization plan into a long-term burden rather than a solution.
Southeast Asia’s 2025 marked by fatal floods, fossil fuel expansion and renewed mining boom
- 2025 has been a year of global upheaval, and Southeast Asia was no exception, with massive disruption caused by changes in U.S. policy and the intensifying effects of climate change.
- The region is poised at a crossroads, with plans to transition away from fossil fuels progressing unevenly, while at the same time a mining boom feeding the global energy transition threatens ecosystems and human health.
- On the positive side, deforestation appears to be slowing in much of the region, new species continue to be described by science, and grassroots efforts yield conservation wins.
SE Asia’s smallholders struggling to meet EUDR: Interview with RECOFTC’s Martin Greijmans
- The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is set to take effect at the end of 2026, after EU lawmakers voted to postpone its implementation for a second year.
- The legislation aims to reduce commodity-driven deforestation and illegal trade in forest products by enabling companies importing into the EU to trace entire supply chains.
- Experts say the increased oversight is a vital step to reduce the footprint of EU consumption on forests, but caution that many smallholders across Southeast Asia need more support to prepare for compliance, especially on land documentation and geolocation data.
- Without appropriate technical, financial and governance support, observers warn, the new rules could sideline smallholders or push them into less regulated markets, deepening already existing inequities.
Fights against development projects marks 2025 for Nepal’s Indigenous people
- From protests to court rulings, for Nepal’s Indigenous peoples and local communities, 2025 was marked by activism and struggles to secure their forests, land and territories from infrastructure projects.
- As threats from hydropower, cable cars and mining projects increased, communities lost touch with their forest, lands and sacred connection with nature, which impacted biodiversity conservation.
- However, communities pushed legal action against these projects that operated without FPIC, community consultation, environmental regulation and safeguards.
Kristina Gjerde, defender of the deep ocean, has died
- Much of the global ocean lies beyond national borders, where governance long lagged behind industrial expansion and responsibility thinned with distance from shore.
- Kristina Maria Gjerde helped reframe that problem as one of law and institutions, combining science, legal craft, and persistence to make protection of the high seas politically workable.
- Over two decades, she built and sustained coalitions that turned scattered warnings about deep-sea damage into a binding international framework.
- That effort culminated in the 2023 High Seas Treaty, an agreement whose force lies less in sudden ambition than in the accumulation of careful, patient work.
The rise of CC35 and the business behind its climate deals
- The executive secretary of CC35, a climate network of capital cities in the Americas, used annual climate summits and other events to advance private interests in carbon credit businesses, a Mongabay investigation has found.
- His plan included persuading a provincial government in Argentina to sign a multimillion-dollar carbon contract with an associate facing fraud allegations in a parallel carbon business. According to a recent Mongabay investigation, the associate had pressured Indigenous communities in Brazil and Bolivia to sign abusive carbon deals, conceding rights for an area larger than Ireland.
- The head of CC35, Argentinian Sebastián Navarro, also failed to fulfill CC35’s commitment to cover all costs associated with Ecuador’s pavilion at COP28, after making false claims to the government and creating debts for the country.
The Amazon in 2026: A challenging year ahead, now off the center stage
- As Belém’s COP30 ended in compromise, political forces moved swiftly to accelerate destruction far from the global spotlight.
- New infrastructure projects, critical minerals, fires and novel threats to the Amazon remain looming for 2026 after a year in the spotlight preparing for COP30.
- In 2025, the rainforest saw illegal miners finding new smuggling routes and an increasing backlog of families waiting for settlement in Brazil.
- As carbon credit schemes and violence against environmental defenders continue to loom, products made from Amazon raw materials renew hope for the value of a standing forest.
In the Amazon, law enforcement against environmental crime remains controversial
- In general terms, the reputation of police forces throughout Latin America lacks legitimacy and public trust. In the case of environmental conflicts, the issue takes on overtones of violence and corruption in areas where the state’s presence is scarce.
- In Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, it is almost tacitly understood that the police are, for the most part, colluding with organized crime. Meanwhile, in Brazil, their role as a shock force is excessive and, in rural areas, they may associate with private security forces to carry out evictions.
- The Catholic Church began monitoring these types of conflicts in the early 1990s, and since then, disputes have caused the deaths of 773 people.
Researchers find concerning gaps in global maps used for EUDR compliance
- Most companies importing certain products into the EU must comply with the European Union’s Regulation on Deforestation-free products (EUDR), which will go into application on Dec. 30, 2026.
- Satellite and other remote-sensing maps can guide both companies trying to comply with the regulation and government agencies verifying levels of deforestation risk attached to imports.
- But a recent review paper suggests that most of the available maps struggle to meet all of the requirements of the EUDR and could over- or underestimate the risk of deforestation for certain products.
- A key issue is the maps’ ability to differentiate forest from systems that look similar, such as agroforestry, commonly practiced by smallholder farmers producing cocoa, coffee and rubber.
EU votes to delay EUDR antideforestation law for second year in a row
The European Parliament voted on Dec. 17 to delay a key antideforestation regulation that was adopted in 2023 and originally supposed to be implemented at the end of 2024. The implementation was delayed a year to December 2025, and now the EU has voted to delay it yet again by another year. The European Union […]
Congo’s communities are creating a 1-million-hectare biodiversity corridor
- The NGO Strong Roots Congo is securing lands for communities and wildlife to create a 1-million-hectare (2.5-million-acre) corridor that spans the space between Kahuzi-Biega National Park and Itombwe Nature Reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- The effort requires multiple communities to register their customary lands as community forestry concessions under an environmental management plan, which, piece by piece, form the sweeping corridor.
- To date, Strong Roots has secured 23 community forest concessions in the area, covering nearly 600,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) of land.
- The corridor aims to rectify a historical wrong in the creation of Kahuzi-Biega National Park, which displaced many families, by engaging communities in conservation. Advocates say the project has had a positive impact so far despite challenges, but persistent armed conflict in the eastern DRC is slowing progress.
‘Neither appropriate nor fair’: Ecuador ordered to pay oil giant Chevron $220m
Indigenous and rural communities in Ecuador’s Amazon have condemned an international arbitration ruling that ordered Ecuador to pay more than $220 million to U.S. oil giant Chevron. The sum is to compensate the company for alleged denial of justice in a trial that found Chevron, operating through its predecessor Texaco, guilty of widespread environmental damage […]
Pacific fisheries summit gives a boost to albacore & seabirds
- The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), a multilateral body that sets fishing rules for an area that covers nearly 20% of the planet, held its annual meeting Dec. 1-5 in Manila, the Philippines.
- The parties adopted a harvest strategy for South Pacific albacore (Thunnus alalunga) that will set near-automatic catch limits based on scientific advice, considered a best practice in fisheries management. Conservationists celebrated the move.
- The parties also adopted a measure that aims to keep seabirds from drowning on industrial fishing lines.
- They didn’t adopt any new rules on the ship-to-ship transfer of fish and other goods at sea, a practice known as transshipment that’s been linked to illegal fishing and other illicit activity.
New technologies offer hope in fight to save the world’s imperiled rosewoods
- Rosewood accounts for nearly a third of the value of illegal wildlife trade seizures worldwide, and illegal harvesting of the trees has continued in spite of efforts to regulate its trade and harvest.
- Researchers say that new and existing technologies such as AI-equipped drones could help detect the illegal logging of rosewood trees inside inaccessible and remote forests, allowing forest officials to intervene in real time.
- AI could also help predict the risk of future rosewood logging activities, helping forest officials focus their monitoring efforts.
- In addition, the nonprofit TRAFFIC is currently testing AI-based image recognition tools for species identification, while other scientists are working on techniques that identify rosewood species based on DNA samples.
Artisanal fishers in Liberia question benefits of new tracking devices from government
- The Liberian government earlier this year distributed 400 automatic identification system (AIS) transponders to small-scale fishers in the counties of Grand Cape Mount, Grand Bassa, Margibi and Montserrado.
- The devices transmit a vessel’s position and speed via radio signals, and Liberian authorities say they hope it will help in speeding up responses to vessels that are in distress.
- However, many small-scale fishers appear reluctant to adopt the new device, with some saying they would prefer GPS-equipped devices that let them track their own location.
- The Liberia Artisanal Fishermen Association (LAFA), an advocacy group, blames the low adoption rate on the inadequate involvement of fishers during the design and rollout of the project.
In the Amazon, lack of transparency and corruption undermine the environment
- Corruption among judicial authorities has been chronically undermining law enforcement across countries in the Amazon.
- Omission, also known as “wilful blindness,” is what has allowed the application of discretionary power that allows charges not to be brought despite existing evidence.
- As a result of these procedural flaws, environmental offenses often go unpunished. Thus, those who appropriate land, engage in illegal deforestation, or steal timber are rarely prosecuted.
Nepal Indigenous leaders refile writ petition against hydropower project
- In 2024, Indigenous Bhote-Lhomi Singsa people filed a writ petition against a hydropower project expressing concerns over what they say is a flawed EIA, forged signatures and community rights violations in Lungbasamba landscape, a biocultural heritage home to endangered flora and fauna.
- More than a year since the petition, leaders say the construction work has progressed in the absence of an interim order from the court to halt the construction, which has impacted their livelihoods, supported by farming, yak herding and trade in medicinal herbs.
- Demanding the project’s cancellation with an interim order to halt the ongoing construction activities, and to declare the EIA void, leaders filed another petition in November.
- Given the criticisms over the project and impacts outlined by the EIA report, the company says it still looks forward to the project, which is set to be completed in 2028.
African environment programs still try to fill funding gap since USAID freeze
- Close to a year after the suspension of USAID funding in Africa, the future of many environmental programs remains uncertain.
- Alternative funding is sought from the EU, World Bank and private sector initiatives, yet experts say a significant climate finance gap remains, especially as some of these sources curtail their funding as well.
- Africa receives just 3-4% of global climate finance, according to the African Development Bank Group; while the continent contributes just 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, it remains especially vulnerable to climate disasters.
Mexico is inflating its climate spending by billions of dollars. Here’s how.
- Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum took office last year touting her climate science background, yet continues to neglect renewable energy and conservation while subsidizing state-owned oil company Pemex.
- Funds her government earmarked for climate change and a renewable energy transition are actually going to infrastructure, oil and gas, and other projects unrelated to the environment, a review of the 2026 budget shows.
- In one case, more than $40 million for a train line is counted twice but only spent once, misrepresenting how much money the government is dedicating to the environment.
Choosing coexistence over conflict: How some California ranchers are adapting to wolves
- California’s expanding gray wolf numbers — a conservation success for an endangered species — have worried ranchers in recent years as wolf-related livestock kills mount.
- Some ranchers are adapting to the changing landscape, using short-term nonlethal deterrents, some of which are funded by a state compensation program.
- A few ranchers are exploring long-term approaches, such as changing their ranching practices and training their cattle to keep them safe from wolves.
- While change is hard, ranchers acknowledge that learning to live with the new predator is the only way forward, and it pays to find ways to do so.
Unregulated tourism risks disrupting Timor-Leste’s whale migration
- 2025 has been a big whale tourism season in Timor-Leste; operators were fully booked during the peak season of September to December.
- But increasingly aggressive practices fueled by competition between tour operators could mean “another Sri Lanka,” where whales already stressed by climate-induced food scarcity are disappearing from the area.
- East Timorese are mostly excluded from the sector, which is controlled by expats and foreign tour operators raking in thousands from “bucket listers” and social media “influencers.”
- Whale tourism in Timor-Leste needs regulation, enforcement and legal compliance to ensure sustainable, inclusive growth, experts say.
With a target on their bellies, can California’s sturgeon survive?
- California’s green sturgeon and white sturgeon face numerous threats from dams, harmful algal blooms and overfishing.
- White sturgeon are highly prized for their eggs, which are made into caviar.
- Their numbers have dropped so precipitously that they’re now being considered for protection under the California Endangered Species Act.
- The state banned commercial sturgeon fishing in 1954, but the amount of poaching and caviar trafficking is unknown, and there have been cases linked to criminal networks involved in other illegal activities.
Across Latin America populist regimes challenge nature conservation goals
- Although in some cases politicians build campaigns on promises around environmental conservation and land rights, once in office, leaders shift direction towards favoring extractive industries and watering down nature protection.
- In Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro dismantled the regulatory apparatus created to conserve biodiversity and recognize the rights of Indigenous peoples.
- In Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, administrations have promoted expanding the agricultural frontier and drilling in the Amazon, prioritizing economic growth over sustainability concerns and Indigenous rights.
South Africa withdraws abalone listing even as illegal trade threatens species
- Ahead of the recent CITES summit to hash out wildlife trade regulations, South Africa was expected to table a proposal that would have tightened the legal trade in South African abalone, a shellfish in high demand in East Asia.
- The proposal was aimed at protecting an endangered species that’s been severely depleted by a massive illegal trade driven largely by organized crime.
- However, the South African delegation withdrew the proposal at the last minute, amid ongoing tensions in the country between conservationists, abalone farmers and coastal communities dependent on income from the illegal trade.
- A recent report by wildlife trade NGO TRAFFIC calls for coordinated international action to curb the illegal trade, including a CITES listing.
East African court dismisses controversial oil pipeline case in setback to communities
On Nov. 26, the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) dismissed an appeal filed by four African NGOs, marking the end of a landmark case against the construction of a contentious oil pipeline. The case against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), expected to become the longest heated crude oil pipeline in the world, […]
Brazil fast-tracks paving controversial highway in Amazon with new licensing rule
Brazil’s Senate approved an environmental licensing bill that could expedite major infrastructure projects, including paving a highway that cuts through one of the most intact parts of the Amazon Rainforest in northwestern Brazil. The BR-319 highway runs through 885 kilometers (550 miles) of rainforest, connecting Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, with Rondônia state farther […]
Philippine mangroves survived a typhoon, but now confront a human-made challenge
- A new study shows mangroves in Tacloban, the Philippine city hit hardest hit by Typhoon Haiyan in December 2013, have expanded beyond pre-storm levels.
- This recovery was driven by community-led reforestation efforts from 2015-2018, when residents planted 30,000 Rhizophora mangrove seedlings across 4 hectares (10 acres) of Cancabato Bay.
- Satellite image analysis and modeling reveal how the forest was destroyed by Haiyan and how it later withstood 2019’s Typhoon Phanfone.
- However, experts warn that the recovering mangroves may be threatened by an ongoing project to build a causeway across the bay, which could generate pollution and physical disturbances.
What was — and the uncertainty of what will be: Youth voices from COP30
- COP30 in Brazil drew youths from around the world who are experiencing climate change effects in different ways and working to mitigate the crisis in their communities.
- Mongabay spoke with young representatives from Gabon, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Germany and Brazil during the November conference in Belém.
- The youths found mixed results at COP30, with some progress made on the technical side, especially in transparency, adaptation metrics and certain aspects of loss and damage; while issues like phasing out fossil fuels, securing predictable climate finance and ensuring a just transition faced significant pushback.
- German Felix Finkbeiner, who, at 9 years old, created the organization Plant-for-the-Planet, noted, “When young voices come together at conferences like COP30, they inspire hope, innovation, and accountability, reminding the world that change is not only necessary but possible.”
An Empire of Nature: African Parks and Rwanda’s Nyungwe Forest
- In 2020, South Africa-based NGO African Parks signed a 20-year deal to manage Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park, one of the largest montane rainforests in Africa.
- Nyungwe is one of 24 protected areas managed by African Parks in 13 countries.
- Founded by a Dutch industrialist, African Parks is a pioneer of the “public-private” conservation model in Africa.
- Mongabay visited Nyungwe to look at African Parks and its approach to conservation.
International Cheetah Day: Survival still at stake for the world’s fastest cat
Dec. 4 is International Cheetah Day. It was established in 2010 by the Cheetah Conservation Fund to raise awareness about the dwindling populations and shrinking habitats of the fastest land animal on Earth. The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is one of the most endangered big cats in the world, with a severely fragmented population of around […]
Brazil votes to allow most projects & farms to skip environmental licensing
Brazil’s lawmakers have voted, by an overwhelming majority, to weaken the nation’s environmental licensing system, overturning key protections that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had vetoed earlier this year. Congress first passed the law, commonly called the “devastation bill” across national media outlets, in July 2025 despite widespread protests. In September, President Lula […]
New ventures set out to tackle the plastic choking Bangladesh’s ECAs
- Bangladesh generates around 87,000 tons of single-use plastics annually, of which 96% are directly discarded as garbage.
- Due to lack of awareness, many people dump plastic waste at convenience, which congregate especially near rivers or lakes. Rainfall, wind and other factors lead the plastic waste to mix with water and sediment, causing harm to the ecosystems.
- In addition, managing the country’s 13 Ecologically Critical Areas (ECAs) is becoming more difficult due to the presence of the large amount of plastic waste.
- Considering the negative impacts, the NGO BRAC started a project to turn the single-use plastic waste into raw material for plastic products in one of the ECAs.
Critical minerals dropped from final text at COP30
Delegates at last month’s U.N. climate change summit, or COP30, adopted a new mechanism to coordinate action on a just energy transition worldwide toward a low-carbon economy, away from fossil fuels. However, a proposal at the conference in Brazil to include language on critical minerals within the mechanism’s scope was scrapped at the last minute […]
In Guyana and Suriname, offshore oil and environmental interests clash
- Both in Suriname and in Guyana, the president has a very strong constitutional mandate as head of state and government.
- Although Guyana has been praised for its forest conservation initiatives, its efforts have been clouded by corruption and an increased interest in offshore oil exploration.
- In Suriname, the government has embraced forest conservation as a development principle, while still pushing for offshore oil drilling.
First state-authorized killings mark escalation in California’s management of wolves
- California’s wildlife department killed four gray wolves in the Sierra Valley in late October, in a dramatic escalation of tactics to address growing predation of cattle by the canids and despite protection under state and federal endangered species laws.
- The department says the wolves killed at least 88 cattle in Sierra and Plumas counties and continued to target livestock despite months of nonlethal deterrents deployed to drive them away.
- The state employed lethal action despite its compensation program, which pays ranchers for cattle killed by wolves, and additional federal subsidies paid to the livestock industry at large.
- The state wildlife agency confirmed a new pack –– the Grizzly pack–– earlier this week with two adults and a pup. Though the state’s wolf population remains small and vulnerable, ranchers are increasingly concerned about livestock deaths.
New riverside lake in Nepal wins hearts, but faces government opposition
- The Bagmati Lake (Bharat Taal), constructed recently in Nepal’s southern Sarlahi district, attracts Nepali and Indian tourists with recreational activities, generating revenue, employment and cross-border tourism.
- The lake, which may have helped improve groundwater levels, soil moisture and crop yields in surrounding areas, has provided habitat for migratory birds.
- However, the fate of the lake hangs in the balance as the country’s anti-corruption court looks into alleged corruption and the lack of environmental compliance during its construction.
EU backs another one-year delay for EUDR antideforestation law
The European Union has voted to postpone implementing a key antideforestation law for the second year in a row, citing technical concerns. Critics of the move warn that a delay and other proposed changes will further weaken the law. On Nov. 26, the European Parliament voted 402 to 250 in favor of an amendment that […]
What’s at stake for the environment in Honduras’ presidential election?
- Honduras will hold elections Nov. 30 for president and all 128 seats in Congress.
- The winners will hold office for the next four years, shaping the country’s environmental policies at a time when its many forests and ocean ecosystems are rapidly disappearing.
- Leading candidates include Rixi Moncada of the progressive LIBRE party, Salvador Nasralla of the centrist Liberal party and Nasry ‘Tito’ Asfura of the conservative National party.
Fossil fuel failure eclipses Africa’s wins at COP30
- African negotiators secured significant gains on just transition, including recognition of clean cooking and energy poverty, marking the first time these priorities entered the formal United Nations climate negotiations.
- Adaptation finance advanced but remains insufficient, with wealthy nations pledging to triple support only by 2035, despite Africa’s urgent needs and widespread concern over loan-heavy climate finance.
- Forest conservation gained new momentum, with broad backing for a global deforestation roadmap and fresh funding initiatives like Brazil’s Tropical Forever Forest Fund (TFFF) and the Canopy Trust targeting Amazon and Congo Basin conservation.
- Failure to agree on a fossil fuel phaseout puts Africa at heightened risk, with scientists warning that if carbon emissions continue to rise unabated, they could fuel more extreme events like droughts and floods, destabilize food systems, and displace people.
Rights to millions of hectares of Indigenous & local communities’ lands restored by ‘barefoot lawyers’
Nonette Royo is a lawyer from the Philippines and executive director of The Tenure Facility, a group of “barefoot lawyers” working to secure land tenure for Indigenous, local and Afro-descendant communities across the world. To date, the organization has secured more than $150 million in funding and has made progress in securing land rights covering […]
Brazil aims for alternative route to fossil fuel road map after COP30 failure
- Brazil will collaborate with the Colombian and Dutch delegations to develop the road map outside the formal U.N. process, with the goal of bringing it back for discussion at COP31.
- Experts say the Belém summit showed disappointing deals after ambitious promises, failing to address the environmental and economic needs of climate change.
- The turbulent final plenary exposed deeper diplomatic rifts, with one delegate accusing Colombian counterparts of behaving “like children” amid high tensions.
It’s ‘whack-a-mole’: Alarming rise in pet trade fuels wildlife trafficking into California
- California has become a wildlife trafficking hotspot in the U.S., with a notable spike in live animals smuggled across the southern border to be sold as pets, from monkeys and exotic birds to venomous snakes.
- The state has three high-traffic border crossings with Mexico and millions of tons of cargo shipped through some of the nation’s busiest airports and seaports. With limited staff, resource-strapped agencies face serious challenges in policing the illegal import of protected plants and animals into California.
- Poachers also target California’s native plants and reptiles, threatening local species. Meanwhile, some imported animals get loose and become invasive species that destroy ecosystems or may carry diseases, creating public health risks.
- As traffickers exploit new technologies and follow market demand for different animals, enforcement officials struggle to control the influx of illegally traded species.
Already disappearing, Southeast Asia’s striped rabbits now caught in global pet trade
- Rare, elusive and little-known to science, two species of striped rabbits are endemic to Southeast Asia: Sumatran striped rabbits from Indonesia and endangered Annamite striped rabbits from the Vietnam-Laos border region.
- Both species are threatened by habitat loss and illegal snaring, despite having protected status in their range countries.
- In recent months, authorities have seized at least 10 live rabbits smuggled from Thailand on commercial flights to India, highlighting the first known instance of these rabbits being trafficked internationally for the pet trade.
- Conservationists say this trend is alarming, given that the two species are on the brink of extinction. They urge range countries to add the two species to CITES Appendix III, the international wildlife trade convention, and to work with Thai authorities to establish a conservation breeding program with the seized rabbits.
In the Andes, elections ride on political frustrations and social movements
- The weakness of political parties in Latin America has led to the development of “campaign offices,” particularly in the Andean countries, with the sole objective of winning the presidency. This is how low-profile figures from new parties, created by dissidents eager to compete, have emerged.
- Despite this, some very successful candidates emerged from social movements that channeled popular frustration with inequality, corruption, and institutional collapse. In the case of Venezuela and Bolivia, these leaders motivated a strong and consolidated opposition.
- In Peru and Ecuador, the winning president’s party is not the largest, undermining its ability to push through a legislative agenda and even to protect its leader from impeachment.
In Indonesia’s courts, truth can be a lonely witness
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. For more than two decades, professors Bambang Hero Saharjo and Basuki Wasis of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture have stood where science meets power, testifying against companies accused of torching forests and draining peatlands. Their measurements of ash […]
Brazil’s forest fund faces a slow takeoff at COP30 despite initial support
- The Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) secured $6.7 billion in sponsor capital at COP30, representing less than a quarter of the $25 billion initially required for a full-scale rollout.
- Policy analysts warn that a smaller fund could likely lose the capacity to outpace deforestation drivers in tropical forests — key in the race to avoid climate disaster.
- Rich nations blamed operational rifts and budget constraints to hold off funding TFFF, a struggle that reflects a worldwide crisis in climate finance; nearly one-third of the funds raised by global forest mechanisms remain undisbursed.
TotalEnergies faces criminal complaint in France over alleged massacre in Mozambique
As French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies prepares to resume work on its multibillion-dollar offshore gas project in northern Mozambique, it faces a criminal complaint back home over its role in funding an army unit accused of torturing and executing dozens of civilians in 2021. The complaint was filed with France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor by […]
Lesotho communities allege greenwashing by project transferring water to South Africa
- The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), a scheme to transfer water from Lesotho’s river systems to neighboring South Africa, also aims to provide hydropower to Lesotho’s people.
- However, complainants from communities impacted and displaced by the complex of dams, water channels, feeder roads, and bridges accuse the developers of promoting the LHWP as a climate mitigation project and ignoring its impacts on their livelihoods and the environment, and call it “greenwashing.”
- The project is degrading the environment, polluting water streams used by residents, destroying cultivable land used to grow food crops, eating into forests, and reducing access to pastures, according to the complaint filed with the African Development Bank (AfDB), which is partly financing the LHWP.
- “We are not just being denied benefits from the project, we are suffering harm from it,” the complaint says.
Brazil’s governance style leads to controversial impacts
- Brazil’s complex governance system creates impacts at all levels across the country, including consequences for environmental policies.
- Although the Brazilian Congress is designed to be the counterweight to the executive branch, presidential power in Brazil is exceptionally strong. This translates into direct influence over budgetary control, the veto of specific items, and the power to initiate legislation by issuing temporary laws.
- Added to this is the role of political parties, which, in their own way, create a balance of power. However vote-buying is perhaps the one that has most characterized the corrupt practices of those in power.
The land deal threatening a vital piece of Bolivia’s Chiquitano dry forest
- A 30,019-hectare (74,178-acre) forest in Santa Cruz, Bolivia is on the verge of being sold to Bom Futuro, a Brazilian agriculture company with plans to clear the land, documents reviewed by Mongabay suggest.
- The forest is being sold by a local affiliate of Dutch wood flooring producer INPA, which has helped sustainably manage the area since the mid-2000s.
- Conservationists say the plot is an important part of Bolivia’s Chiquitano dry forest, which acts as a transition between the Amazon Rainforest and the Gran Chaco and Cerrado savannas.
Amazon Indigenous groups fight soy waterway as Brazil fast-tracks dredging
- Brazil is pushing the Tapajós River waterway as one of the main Amazon shipping corridors and preparing it for privatization, which will enable regular dredging and maintenance to improve its capacity.
- Traditional communities and environmental groups warn that dredging and heavy vessel traffic threaten fish stocks, turtle nesting areas and other wildlife.
- The Tapajós waterway is a central component of the new Amazonian logistics plans to move commodities such as soy and beef, including the contested Ferrogrão railway.
Colombia slams international trade rules that punish states for climate action
Colombian Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres has called for reform of international arbitration tribunals, saying they’re “one of the greatest obstacles” to the energy transition and favor corporate interests over sovereignty. The investor–state dispute settlement system (ISDS), also called a “corporate court,” is an international trade mechanism that allows foreign investors, usually corporations, to sue […]
How Indonesian communities rescued the Bali starling from the brink of extinction
One of the world’s rarest birds has rebounded from near extinction after Indigenous communities on the Indonesian island of Bali committed to protect it under traditional laws, Mongabay contributor Heather Physioc reported. The Bali starling (Leucopsar rothschildi) is a songbird with striking white plumage and a cobalt-blue face. In 2001, just six birds were known […]
As Zambia eyes green minerals, Kabwe’s poisoned past looms large
- Zambia is seeking to capitalize on the green energy boom through copper and other critical minerals, but campaigners warn that without real accountability and community participation, the next mining wave could create new “sacrifice zones,” repeating a painful history.
- The town of Kabwe remains severely polluted after decades of lead and copper mining, with more than 95% of children showing dangerous blood lead levels.
- The “Zambia’s Sacrifice Zone” campaign, launched by young activists, journalists and NGOs, uses storytelling and radio to demand accountability, raise awareness and amplify community voices in the fight for environmental justice and cleanup.
- Authorities have rolled out remediation projects with World Bank support, testing tens of thousands of residents and improving water and infrastructure, but activists say compensation is lacking and enforcement of environmental laws remains weak.
Scientists slam Canada-US proposal to lower trade protections for peregrine falcons
- Peregrine falcons, the world’s fastest and most widespread raptors, recovered spectacularly after pesticides that nearly drove them to extinction were banned and captive-bred birds were rewilded, making the effort a remarkable conservation success story.
- Although the species is no longer endangered, international commercial trade in this bird, coveted by falconers, is banned for wild-caught specimens and highly regulated for captive-bred ones. Canada and the U.S. propose loosening those restrictions, a proposal that will be voted on at the upcoming meeting of CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty.
- Some raptor scientists have concerns. The Canada-U.S. downlisting proposal includes population estimates of just a few subspecies; many others are understudied. Some populations have declined in recent years and illegal trade continues.
- Until there are safeguards against unsustainable trade and accurate assessments for all subspecies, conservationists say lowering protections could undo the efforts that have brought this bird back from the brink.
Construction of TotalEnergies pipeline cuts through coral reefs in Mozambique
- A Dutch company dredged through a highly sensitive coral area for TotalEnergies’ liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique, satellite imagery and vessel traffic data confirm.
- The French oil and gas company declared force majeure after insurgents attacked the facility in 2021, but some work on the project continued.
- Environmental groups warn that the environmental impact assessments for TotalEnergies’ project and three others in the same waters are inadequate.
Pakistan declares its third marine protected area, but has a long way to go
- In September, Pakistan declared its third marine protected area, around Miani Hor Lagoon on the country’s central coast.
- The biodiversity-rich lagoon hosts a lush mangrove forest, numerous bird species and threatened marine mammals.
- Conservationists welcomed the new marine protected area as a baby step toward meeting the country’s so-called 30×30 commitment to protect 30% of its land and sea by 2030. However, the new addition puts Pakistan’s total protected marine area at just 0.23% of its marine and coastal jurisdiction.
- The scope of protections for the new protected area remains to be determined. Local people expressed concern that restrictions could upend the livelihoods of the local community, which depends on the lagoon and mangroves and already lacks basic necessities.
UK court finds mining giant liable for decade-old dam disaster in Brazil
A U.K. judge has found that the Australian multinational mining company BHP is liable for a 2015 dam collapse in southeastern Brazil. The incident killed 19 people and unleashed at least 40 million cubic meters (1.4 billion cubic feet) of toxic mine tailings onto downstream towns and waterways for 675 kilometers (419 miles). In […]
Massive turtle bust in Mexico reveals ‘Wild West’ of wildlife trafficking
- A sting by Mexican authorities in September uncovered more than 2,300 live, wild-caught freshwater turtles and other valuable wildlife products. Three men were arrested and charged with wildlife crimes.
- Vallarta mud turtles, the world’s smallest and the most imperiled in the Western Hemisphere, were among the eight species seized by authorities. All are in high demand as pets, and were headed for the U.S. and Asia.
- Smuggled under horrific conditions, nearly half of the turtles seized in this raid died; the rest are being cared for at Guadalajara Zoo.
- This operation highlights rampant turtle smuggling in Mexico, home to the second-most turtle species on the planet. Conservationists urge officials to tighten law enforcement and intelligence gathering to combat trafficking that threatens the survival of the country’s wildlife.
What’s at stake for the environment in Chile’s upcoming election?
- Chileans will go to the polls on Nov. 16 to vote for a new president, 23 Senate seats and all 155 seats in the lower Chamber of Deputies.
- The elections could be a deciding factor in how the country addresses a number of ongoing environmental issues.
- Candidates range from the left-wing Jeannette Jara to conservatives José Antonio Kast, Johannes Kaiser and Evelyn Matthei.
- Whoever wins will have to address the clean energy transition, ongoing land disputes with Indigenous groups, and a controversial mining sector that has clashed with local communities.
Protecting Vietnam’s vast caves may have sparked a wildlife comeback
- Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park in Vietnam is billed as a successful example of sustainable tourism, with efforts to conserve the area’s unique caves and wildlife.
- The park’s management has implemented measures to limit tourism’s impact, such as restricting visitor numbers and offering guided tours, which has helped curb illegal hunting and logging.
- Local communities have benefited from tourism, with many former hunters and loggers now working as guides and porters, and wildlife populations are showing signs of recovery.
- The success of conservation efforts in the park has led to plans to expand protection to the Laotian side of the border, creating a transboundary UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In the Amazon, political systems fail to prioritize the environment
- Few presidential candidates embrace the environment as a primary election issue, while parties with openly green agendas often fail to get seats in national legislative bodies.
- Increasingly fragmented electorates have made it difficult to elect a president from the first voting round; elected leaders might frequently not enjoy political majority in their respective parliaments.
- While coalitions provide a potential solution to this fragmentation, they can struggle with corruption and instability.
Gibbon trafficking pushes rehabilitation centers to the max in North Sumatra
- Famed for their free-flow swinging through the forest canopy, gibbons are being relentlessly shot, stolen and incarcerated to supply an escalating illegal pet trade that targets babies in particular.
- Experts point to misleading social media content and a surge in private zoo collections as fueling the trade. Hundreds of the small apes have been confiscated by authorities across South and Southeast Asia in the past decade, with India and the UAE emerging as primary destinations.
- Gibbon rehabilitation centers, mostly operated by NGOs struggling for funding, are buckling under the numbers of animals in need of rescue and care.
- The trade imposes overwhelming suffering on the trafficked animals and immense wastage among the complex social groups gibbons live in, driving already threatened species ever closer to extinction.
Coal-dependent South Africa struggles to make just energy transition real
- Communities in South Africa’s coal-mining towns say there’s little sign of a clean energy transition on the ground, where they complain of persistent pollution and violence toward activists.
- A metalworkers’ union leader who sits on South Africa’s climate commission says the transition is racing forward, outpacing new jobs promised to mine workers.
- A mine operator says coal is a critical element in producing renewable energy infrastructure.
Brazil hosts COP30 with high ambitions — and scaling environmental ambiguities
- Three environmental moves in Brazil are drawing criticism as the country hosts COP30: a green light for exploratory oil drilling on the Amazon coast, an end to the Soy Moratorium and a push for looser environmental licensing.
- Experts fear the plans could risk a lack of global accountability, watering down COP30’s outcome to vague promises and softer language.
- Following COPs held by petrostates, the summit in Belém comes with recent decisions from Norway, Australia and China to support new fossil fuel projects, illustrating a global trend that jeopardizes bolder deals at COP30.
COP30 tropical forest fund may drive debt and deforestation, groups warn
A new global fund meant to reward tropical countries for protecting forests could instead drive deforestation and deepen debt in the developing world, civil society groups warn. The Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), launched Nov. 6 in Belém, Brazil, ahead of the U.N. Climate Change Conference, aims to raise $125 billion and promises to pay […]
Kenya court upholds cancellation of 1,050 MW coal plant license
Kenya’s Environment and Land Court has upheld a 2019 ruling that revoked the environmental license for the proposed 1,050-megawatt Lamu coal-fired power plant, effectively halting the controversial project. Justice Francis Njoroge dismissed an appeal from the Amu Power Company, finding the project’s environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) was inadequate and public participation deficient. The […]
Ethanol plant spills harmful wastewater into Philippine marine reserve
A chemical spill from an ethanol distillery has put one of the Philippines’ largest marine protected areas at risk. A wall retaining the wastewater pond of an ethanol distillery plant collapsed on Oct. 24, causing about 255,000 cubic meters (67 million gallons) of wastewater to flow into Bais Bay in the central Philippines, according to […]
Suriname’s plan to capitalize on carbon: Q&A with President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons
- Suriname’s first female president, Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, sat down with Mongabay to discuss her goals for the U.N. Climate Change Conference taking place next week in neighboring Brazil.
- She’s been a vocal proponent of climate financing for countries meeting their emission targets and conserving the rainforest.
- At the same time, Geerlings-Simons is grappling with Suriname’s deep-seated mining industry, which often skirts regulations and destroys natural ecosystems with mercury and cyanide.
- Geerlings-Simons said she recognizes the importance of extractive industries for funding the country’s infrastructure, law enforcement and the agencies that provide environmental oversight.
Beyond deforestation: redesigning how we protect and value tropical forests (analysis)
- Following his earlier essay tracing possible futures for the world’s forests, Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler turns from diagnosis to design—asking what concrete interventions could still avert collapse. This piece explores how governance, finance, and stewardship might evolve in a second act for tropical forests.
- The essay argues that lasting protection depends structural reform: securing Indigenous land rights, treating governance as infrastructure, and creating steady finance that outlasts election cycles and aid projects.
- Butler also examines overlooked levers—from restoring degraded lands and valuing forests’ local cooling effects to rethinking “bioeconomies” and building regional cooperation across borders. Each points toward a shift from reactive conservation to deliberate, sustained design.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Amid systemic corruption, Amazon countries struggle to fight environmental crime
- Pan Amazon countries experience high levels of corruption across their judiciary, which prevents them from creating substantial legal reforms.
- In Andean countries, environmental crimes are committed through bribery and extortion, major sources of judicial corruption. In Brazil, judges are more likely to commit crimes of omission, using delaying tactics that keep cases suspended for years.
- Reforms of the judicial branches in these countries are often managed by alternative entities that have their own internal affairs units. It is rare for these actors to be punished, so the system remains opaque and flawed.
On first International Day of the Deep Seabed, we seek stewardship and consensus (commentary)
- “I could not be more delighted to celebrate this inaugural International Day of the Deep Seabed,” writes the secretary-general of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in a new op-ed at Mongabay.
- On Nov. 1, 2025, she notes that the world will for the first time mark a day that celebrates the great biodiversity of the planet’s mysterious deep seabed and its potential role in the future of humanity’s progress, while reiterating that consensus-building among member states and nongovernmental actors remains critical to ensure its stewardship.
- “Together, by delivering on our commitments under the Law of the Sea, we can ensure that this last great frontier remains a source of wonder, discovery, opportunity and shared benefit for all humankind,” she argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Landmark conviction exposes Sri Lanka’s deep-rooted illegal elephant trade
- A Sri Lankan court imposed one of the toughest penalties on a wildlife crime in September when the Colombo High Court sentenced a notorious elephant trafficker to 15 years in prison and slapped a fine of 20.6 million rupees (nearly $70,000) for the illegal possession of a wild-caught elephant.
- The case, which spanned more than a decade, uncovered how wild elephant calves were laundered into private ownership through forged documents with the aid of corrupt officials, exposing deep flaws in the country’s wildlife registry system.
- In 2015, a total of 39 elephants suspected of having been illegally captured were taken into custody by the Department of Wildlife Conservation, though 15 were later returned to their previous owners, sparking public outrage.
- Conservationists hail the ruling as a landmark victory against wildlife trafficking but warn against rampant corruption and the need to address the demand for captive elephants in cultural and religious processions that continue to threaten Sri Lanka’s wild herds.
Filipino survivors of deadly 2021 typhoon planning to sue Shell for damages
Nearly 70 Filipinos affected by a deadly 2021 typhoon are planning to sue oil giant Shell in its home country of the U.K. for the damages they suffered. Typhoon Rai, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Odette, was one of the most devastating storms in the Philippines’ recorded history. It killed more than 400 […]
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