topic: Funding

topic: Funding

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South Africa’s new gold rush: Big money, high stakes in emerging spekboom restoration sector
- After decades of livestock pressure, 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) of farmland in South Africa’s Albany thicket biome need rehabilitation — the way a burn victim needs lifesaving skin grafts.
- Carbon finance seems the most likely source of funding, kickstarting the process with the mass planting of an endemic drought-tolerant succulent called spekboom (Portulacaria afra).
- Until now, restoration projects have been artisanal, but that’s changed with a $91 million loan to a new entrant and tech giant Amazon throwing its hat into the ring.
- A flush of new funding shows growing faith in a business model for ecosystem restoration, but there’s concern that if projects grow too fast and promise more carbon dioxide drawdown than the emerging science can account for, it could leave projects on shaky ground.

Why carbon markets alone won’t save Southeast Asia’s concessions forests
New research suggests a “massive and untapped” opportunity for conservation within commercial concessions in Southeast Asia, reports Mongabay’s Carolyn Cowan. Using satellite data, researchers identified roughly 42 million hectares (104 million acres) of intact forest still standing inside logging, timber, rubber and oil palm concessions across Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar. The study suggests that […]
100 species on the brink get a $200m conservation lifeline
Recovery projects for 100 critically endangered and extinct-in-the-wild species across the world are set to receive new funding under a conservation initiative announced Aug. 4. Re:wild and the Bezos Earth Fund, both U.S.-based environmental organizations, created the Phoenix Species Project and committed $100 million each, for a total of $200 million, to the project. The […]
What conservation looks like from the outside: A conversation with Adam Falk after his first year as CEO of WCS
- In July 2026, WCS president and CEO Adam Falk spoke with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler about his first year leading the organization.
- Falk said conservation depends as much on relationships with Indigenous peoples, local communities, governments, and funders as it does on protecting wildlife.
- He supports “30 by 30,” but argues that where areas are protected, how they are managed, and their ecological integrity matter as much as acreage.
- Falk also discussed the collapse in U.S. government funding for WCS, the need for long-term philanthropy, and closer cooperation among conservation organizations.

Carbon markets alone won’t keep Southeast Asia’s forests standing, study says
- A new study has identified “massive and untapped” conservation potential within forestry and plantation concessions in Southeast Asia.
- Roughly 42 million hectares of forests remain standing inside logging, oil palm, timber and rubber plantation concessions across the region, the study says.
- The researchers examined what it would take to financially incentivize forest conservation inside these concessions, finding that using carbon markets alone would require carbon prices many times higher than current values.
- They point to the need for diversified sources of conservation funding to complement carbon markets, such as blended finance, green bonds and payment for ecosystems services, as well as more supportive governance frameworks that elevate the viability of conservation over development.

War heightens isolation of Iran’s scientists
The ongoing war in Iran, which began following a joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Feb. 28, has intensified the long-standing isolation of the country’s wildlife conservation community, Mongabay’s John Cannon reports. While the current war has directly hindered research and damaged educational facilities, conservationists and researchers said that decades of international sanctions and political disconnect had […]
A fraction of promised climate money reaches Amazon communities: Interview with Latimpacto’s leaders
- Despite major funding pledges for the Amazon, much of the promised capital never reaches Indigenous peoples and local communities, often because funding structures are poorly aligned with on-the-ground realities.
- Latimpacto, a Colombia-based philanthropic network, is working to close this gap through initiatives that train funders, support locally led innovation and integrate Indigenous knowledge into conservation and development projects.
- Mongabay spoke with Latimpacto’s leaders, Carolina Suárez Visbal and Juan David Ferreira, who say the organization is also advocating for stronger domestic philanthropy across Latin America, arguing that better tax incentives, trust-based grantmaking, and patient, flexible capital are needed to complement international funding.
- Suárez Visbal and Ferreira say they see greater collaboration between Latin America and Southeast Asia as a key opportunity, calling for shared funding mechanisms and knowledge exchange to strengthen conservation of tropical forests and broader socioecological resilience.

War reveals the isolation of Iran’s scientists
- The war in Iran has hindered scientific research, making the long-running isolation of Iranian scientists more apparent.
- For decades, international sanctions and the war have limited their access to funding, professional development, and global scientific collaboration.
- Beyond potential damage to wildlife populations and ecosystems, conservation efforts are often ignored during wartime.
- Even amid the war, the Iran-based AvayeBoom Bird Conservation Society has continued its work “reconnecting people with wetlands through birds” and protecting critical bird habitats like the Arjan wetland in the country’s southwest.

Can a new methodology save the carbon market?
- A new variation of carbon credits, which puts more focus on biodiversity protection and income generation, is attempting to get the carbon market back on track.
- The methodology for the new initiative called Balance focuses on climate mitigation by making sure that the biodiversity and social aspects of carbon projects succeed first.
- The voluntary carbon market has faced widespread criticism in recent years for a lack of transparency as well as allegations of greenwashing and human rights abuses.

Kenya is Africa’s first country to receive crucial climate disaster funding
Kenya became the first African nation to receive landmark climate disaster funding. It will be used to identify Kenyans who have suffered climate-related losses and damages during the last decade. The Sh90 million ($700,000) in funding comes from the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage, a Switzerland-based United Nations mechanism funded by voluntary contributions from […]
Brazil has protected much of the Amazon. It now has to pay for it.
- Brazil has built one of the world’s most important protected-area systems, but a new study finds that most federal protected areas remain underfunded, with the largest shortfalls in the Amazon.
- The funding gap reflects more than the size of Brazil’s conservation estate: remote Amazon reserves are costly to manage, politically less visible, and often receive far less support than protected areas near cities and institutions.
- Underfunding has practical consequences, limiting staff, patrols, fire response, monitoring, community engagement, and the ability of protected areas to prevent deforestation and other threats.
- Tourism, ARPA, the Amazon Fund, and rising federal environmental budgets can help, but Brazil needs stable, transparent, long-term financing that matches the recurring cost of turning legal protection into management.

FPC at a crossroads: clarity, credibility, and the cost of ambiguity (commentary)
- Three years after its launch, the Forests, People, Climate initiative (FPC) still struggles to define what it is, how it differs from the earlier Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA), and what practical value it adds beyond donor coordination, argues Chip Fay, Independent Analyst and former Indonesia Country Director, Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA).
- Fay contends that the problem is structural rather than communicative: FPC overlays a new coordination framework onto an existing one while retaining donor-centric governance, diffuse accountability, and limited mechanisms for truly integrated grant-making or meaningful Indigenous and local community participation in decision-making.
- Fay says FPC risks becoming “CLUA with broader framing” unless it develops a clearer operational identity, shifts more resources and authority closer to local actors, and adopts a public Common Statement of Purpose that defines its commitments, governance principles, and accountability to Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

The European wildcat hovers between recovery and local extinction
- European wildcats are making a comeback in the Czech Republic, where they’re critically endangered. Conservationists found evidence of this species breeding in the Lusatian Mountains.
- Though these wildcats, similar in size to large domestic cats, aren’t at risk range-wide, some populations face local extinction.
- Experts note that positive recovery in Central European countries is countered by declines and a lack of basic population data elsewhere.

Ocean philanthropy: small sums for a vast domain
- Ocean philanthropy remains small relative to the scale of the ocean itself, accounting for well under 1% of global charitable giving despite steady growth over the past decade.
- Funding is concentrated among a small group of foundations and continues to focus heavily on marine science, habitat protection, and fisheries, though climate-related ocean funding has risen sharply in recent years.
- Most ocean conservation funding needs lie not in creating protected areas, but in the long-term costs of management and enforcement, with current spending far below estimated requirements.
- Philanthropic funding often plays a catalytic role by supporting early-stage research, policy work, and financing mechanisms such as blue bonds and debt-for-nature swaps that can unlock larger pools of public and private capital.

Indonesia should avoid controversial programs to fund conservation (commentary)
- Protecting nature is often a struggle due to funding gaps, which governments across developing countries are struggling to close.
- While officials may pursue plans to fund conservation with programs like carbon credits, as in the case of Way Kambas National Park in Indonesia, these may ironically impact critical habitats for threatened species.
- “Indonesia should not be overconfident that it can close the gap by using controversial programs,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

How underinvesting in information threatens our collective well-being
- This essay is adapted from the article, “Information as Civic Infrastructure—and How Philanthropy Can Support the Ecosystem,” which was originally published in Nonprofit Quarterly on March 3, 2026.
- While philanthropy traditionally funds direct solutions like land conservation or technology, it often overlooks the fragile information environment that these interventions require to succeed.
- The lack of credible, verified data creates an “information gap” that allows environmental harms to go unnoticed and undermines the public oversight necessary for regulatory and market accountability.
- Investing in the core capacities of a healthy information ecosystem—such as data verification and digital security—provides the essential clarity needed to address our most urgent global challenges.

Paul Brainerd turned computers into printing presses and fortune into conservation
- Paul Brainerd helped invent desktop publishing as a co-founder of Aldus and the force behind PageMaker, then redirected his wealth toward environmental and civic work in the Pacific Northwest.
- In 1995 he launched the Brainerd Foundation to fund conservation policy, place-based protection, and the organizational capacity needed to sustain long campaigns.
- He backed models of engaged, hands-on giving, helping start Social Venture Partners, and supported environmental education through IslandWood on Bainbridge Island, with later work extending to a regenerative lodge project in New Zealand.
- He chose to spend down his foundation rather than endow it in perpetuity, arguing for urgency and near-term effectiveness, and he died on February 15, 2026, at 78.

Local communities are conservation’s most undervalued asset (commentary)
- Conservationists will gather this week for the 5th Business of Conservation Congress in Nairobi, and one talking point there will be focusing finance toward local communities, since that is not only important for achieving equity but also a practical strategy for achieving sustainable and successful outcomes.
- Although community-led conservation programs are genuinely shown to be more efficient, that advantage should also extend to conservation finance.
- But if conservation finance does not shift, and if communities and the organizations that serve them are not brought in as partners even as biodiversity losses continue, the authors of a new op-ed argue that “the trajectory we are on will not change.”
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

‘An epidemic of suffering’: Why are conservationists breaking down?
- Research finds that more than 27% of conservationists are struggling with moderate to severe distress, as conservationists tell Mongabay the industry is in a mental health “crisis.”
- Conservationists are struggling with their mental health for many reasons, but one of the largest is watching ecological destruction in real time.
- The industry was also not built with “well-being” in mind, given its low wages, exploitative practices like endless volunteering or unpaid internships, job insecurity, few benefits and high (sometimes wholly unrealistic) expectations for output and work.
- Experts say the sector can improve with more funding toward staff as well as leaders who are trained in how to handle mental well-being; meanwhile, individuals need to value their own mental health.

The power of cities over the seas
- Much of what determines the ocean’s condition is decided on land, where ports control entry, cities regulate ship operations, and municipal buyers shape seafood demand. These urban levers can influence marine outcomes at scale even though they receive far less attention than treaties or national policy.
- Port rules on fuel use, emissions, and safety can compel global shipping companies to change behavior, as access to major trade hubs is too valuable to lose. When several large ports adopt similar standards, their combined weight can shift industry norms across entire maritime corridors.
- Public procurement provides another pathway, with city-run institutions able to influence fisheries through what they choose to purchase. Sustainability standards — or public scrutiny, as seen in Brazil’s school meal controversy — can ripple back through supply chains and alter incentives at sea.
- Philanthropy focused on oceans may find high leverage in supporting city-level actions such as port electrification, data-sharing systems, and procurement reform. By targeting where rules meet markets and infrastructure, urban governance can complement national efforts and deliver practical gains even when international cooperation falters.

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.

‘We have to bring trust’ into funding talks: Valéria Paye on Indigenous-led funds
- Indigenous-led funds provide direct funding and support for Indigenous movements, including on the frontlines of environmental change.
- Mongabay speaks with Valéria Paye, executive director of the Podáali Fund (the Indigenous fund for the Brazilian Amazon), about how their approach differs from mainstream philanthropy by prioritizing trust, reciprocity and Indigenous leadership, governance and management.
- She explains how supporting Indigenous peoples and their territories is a form of “climate policy” and highlights the strong presence of and global support for Indigenous peoples at U.N. climate conference COP30 in Brazil as the reason for tangible outcomes such as the legal recognition of several Indigenous territories.
- Paye shares key lessons from her experience to date with the Podáali Fund, why she thinks the Tropical Forests Forever Fund is “no different” from other state-established funds and her advice for non-Indigenous organizations that want to support Indigenous environmental stewardship.

Conservation programs must embrace causal evidence when evaluating impact (commentary)
- A couple of seminal studies published almost 20 years ago found that conservationists needed to start examining whether their actions were actually causing the desired effects.
- Assessing conservation projects through a causal lens takes more effort but can ultimately be a big piece of the puzzle that helps practitioners identify cause-and-effect relationships between various factors.
- “What’s needed now is making causal evaluation standard practice rather than the exception. With biodiversity in crisis, we can’t afford to keep guessing whether our actions work,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Africa mulls gap in climate adaptation finance for agriculture
- Agricultural adaptation in Africa is underfunded and smallholder farmers remain highly vulnerable to climate shocks despite in international funding pledges, say African stakeholders.
- They call for increased adaptation funding for the agricultural sector, but are skeptical that other countries will fill the shortfall.
- Climate finance is concentrated in a few countries and largely excludes the most vulnerable nations, leaving farmers with limited access to funds for climate-smart practices.
- Stakeholders call for public financing, better early-warning systems, loss-and-damage support, and the implementation of climate-smart agriculture.

When abandoned conservation projects are counted as progress, what are we protecting? (commentary)
- An issue that receives little attention from conservationists and funders is the quiet abandonment of conservation projects after their high-profile launches.
- New evidence suggests that over one-third of conservation initiatives are abandoned within a few years of launch; if these eventual failures are not reported, they tend to be assumed to remain active.
- “Conservation must be reframed as a long-term commitment. Until the community confronts the uncomfortable truth that starting new projects holds no value unless existing ones are sustained, billions of dollars will continue to be spent on initiatives that provide the illusion of progress while nature continues its decline,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

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.

New financial tools boost traditional bioeconomy projects in the Amazon
- The Brazil Restoration and Bioeconomy Finance Coalition (BRB FC), an alliance of NGOs, funders and financial institutions, aims to mobilize $10 billion by 2030 to support Indigenous and traditional communities-led enterprises.
- By supporting these initiatives, BRB FC and other projects seek to help communities restore millions of hectares of degraded land in the Amazon rainforest, the Cerrado savanna, the semiarid Caatinga, and the Atlantic Forest.
- Existing conventional financial systems often exclude grassroots initiatives due to rigid, centralized requirements that clash with local governance and realities.
- With the shift championed by BRB FC, proponents say low-bureaucracy funding models can effectively reach and empower forest-based communities while supporting the bioeconomy.

Small grants can empower the next generation of conservationists
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Paul Barnes, who leads the Zoological Society of London’s EDGE of Existence program, has spent the past few years listening to the frustrations of early-career conservationists. The stories are rarely about fieldwork itself. They’re about making rent, juggling […]
Experts say wealthy nations owe Africa double its climate adaptation needs
- The U.N.’s recent “Adaptation Gap Report” reveals a massive shortfall between the funds needed for climate adaptation and the financing available as of 2023.
- Africa, among the most climate-vulnerable regions, faces worsening impacts amid limited support and a mounting debt burden, with a $51 billion annual shortfall in adaptation finance.
- Some experts argue that given the role that Africa and, in particular, its forests play in stashing away carbon, it is owed double the amount that it needs in additional adaptation funds.

With COP30, Indigenous Brazilians strive for new resources to protect nature
- Less than 1% of global climate funding reaches Indigenous peoples and traditional groups, despite their leading roles in environmental conservation, particularly in the Amazon, according to reports.
- In addition to a lack of access to conventional financing options, many traditional initiatives remain isolated by bureaucratic hurdles and struggle to adapt typical funding requirements to their communal dynamics.
- In response to these challenges, several Indigenous and traditional-led funds are seeking solutions. Across Brazil, organizations are working to align financial procedures with the reality of local communities, aiming to ensure the autonomy of their representatives.
- As Brazil hosts the COP30 climate summit, leaders of these Indigenous funds see the event as a window of opportunity to draw the world’s attention and seek new routes for proper investment.

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

Donors renew $1.8 billion pledge for Indigenous land rights
The governments of four countries, along with several philanthropies and donors, have renewed a $1.8 billion pledge over the next five years to help recognize, manage and protect Indigenous and other traditional community land. The Forest and Land Tenure Pledge, first made in Glasgow at the 2021 U.N. Climate Change Conference, provided $1.86 billion in […]
To fix the climate, simply empower Indigenous people (commentary)
- While nations search for complex climate solutions at this year’s COP30 climate meeting in Belém, a simple yet powerful answer is just waiting in the wings: empowering the world’s most powerful protectors of forests and nature – Indigenous people – and we must let them point the way, a new op-ed argues.
- Ending fossil fuel use and transforming global food systems are essential but expensive and take time, but nations like Indonesia can score an immediate climate win by enacting its long debated Indigenous Peoples Bill, for example.
- “Humanity seeks an answer, but the answer has always been here,” the Sira Declaration states. “The answer is us.”
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Brazil launches fund tying forest cash to steep deforestation penalties
Brazil officially launched a new financial market fund, called the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, or TFFF, at a Nov. 6 event ahead of the COP30 climate summit it will host in Belém. Countries with significant amounts of tropical forest cover can receive up to $4 per hectare ($1.62 per acre) of standing forest per year […]
No, Bill Gates, we don’t have to choose between people & planet (commentary)
- A new essay by billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, “Three Tough Truths About Climate,” marks a dangerous shift that could undermine his notable contributions to solving the climate crisis, the former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, argues in a new op-ed.
- His suggestion that the world must choose between financing development or climate action falsely presents a zero-sum situation, she says, adding that Gates must publicly set the record straight before this idea is further used as a justification for backsliding on climate action.
- “The great challenge of our time is to build a future where every person can thrive on a healthy planet. That means rejecting the idea that we must choose between human progress and environmental protection,” Robinson writes.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Climate finance must reach Indigenous communities at COP30 & beyond (commentary)
- Indigenous and local communities protect 36% of the world’s intact tropical forests, yet receive less than 1% of international climate finance — a contradiction that threatens global climate goals and leaves the most effective forest guardians without the resources they need.
- As the COP30 climate summit in the Amazon draws near, pressure is mounting to get funding directly into the hands of Indigenous and local community organizations who are the frontline defenders of the world’s rainforests.
- “As billions of dollars in climate finance will be discussed or even decided upon at COP30 in Brazil, the priority must be to get resources directly to Indigenous and local communities who have safeguarded forests for generations,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Wildlife charities a third of the way to buying key UK nature refuge
A conservation alliance in the U.K. has raised nearly one-third of the 30 million pounds ($39 million) it needs to buy land in northeastern England to turn into a refuge for wildlife and local communities. The land, known as the Rothbury Estate, is roughly the size of the Greek capital of Athens, at 3,839 hectares […]
Investing in the next generation of environmental journalists (commentary)
- The accelerating loss of forests, reefs, and rivers is also a failure of information: those closest to the crises often lack the training, mentorship, or editorial support to tell their stories effectively. Structured programs like fellowships bridge that gap, turning local knowledge into credible reporting, argues Mongabay Founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler in this commentary.
- Targeted investment in emerging journalists builds both professional capacity and public accountability. Fellows have exposed corruption, documented ecological recovery, and influenced policy, showing how informed reporting can strengthen environmental governance and democratic institutions.
- Empowering local reporters shifts the narrative from victimhood to agency and from crisis to possibility. When journalists are equipped to investigate, explain, and inspire, they help societies make informed choices about the planet’s future—and ensure that stories of loss can also become stories of renewal.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Rhett Butler reflects on recent accolades, and Jane Goodall’s legacy of hope
Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Butler was recently awarded the Henry Shaw Medal by the Missouri Botanical Garden and named to the 2025 Forbes Sustainability Leaders list alongside conservation greats such as David Attenborough. The credit for this success belongs to Mongabay, Butler says on this week’s podcast. “ While my name is on the award, […]
Why independent journalism is a strategic investment for philanthropy (commentary)
- Mongabay Founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler argues that journalism supplies the conditions necessary for effective environmental action—credible, timely, public information that converts private harm into collective accountability and enables governments and communities to act.
- He contends that for philanthropists focused on climate and biodiversity, journalism is a high-leverage investment that strengthens all other interventions by bringing hidden risks to light, creating transparency, and ensuring that resources for conservation and climate solutions are used effectively.
- Evaluations from leading foundations show that journalism funding leads to tangible outcomes such as policy reforms, regulatory reviews, and stronger civic engagement; Butler concludes that supporting independent reporting is not sentimental but strategic—an essential form of infrastructure for democratic and environmental resilience.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Trust-based philanthropy: Lessons from MacKenzie Scott and Laurene Powell Jobs (commentary)
- Laurene Powell Jobs and MacKenzie Scott both call for a reimagining of philanthropy: one that shifts from control and performance to participation and trust, recognizing that true generosity empowers rather than directs.
- Philanthropy’s challenge lies not only in giving more, but in governing money differently—inviting community voices into decision-making and valuing learning, failure, and endurance as much as measurable results.
- The future of giving may depend less on innovation than humility: funders moving from command to accompaniment, treating funding as a relationship rooted in shared purpose, trust, and collective movement toward change.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Supporting frontline leadership in a time of crisis (commentary)
- During Climate Week in New York, Mongabay Founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler joined discussions with grassroots leaders from the Global South that offered a sharper view of how philanthropy meets—and sometimes misses—the realities of frontline work.
- A common theme: philanthropy’s structures often clash with the realities of frontline conservation and climate work, prioritizing short-term, quantifiable outcomes over long-term, relational support that nurtures resilience and agency.
- Leaders noted that true impact often occurs outside traditional metrics—in community empowerment, social cohesion, and local leadership—yet rigid grant cycles and top-down governance continue to stifle this potential. A more durable model of giving would put more emphasis on trust, shared decision-making, mental-health support, and “disciplined optimism,” enabling frontline groups to sustain progress and adapt over decades rather than grant cycles.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

COP26 pledge to support Indigenous & local forest tenure was just met. What was learned?
- The $1.7 billion pledge to support Indigenous peoples and local communities’ land rights made at the 2021 U.N. climate conference has been met one year ahead of schedule.
- Sources told Mongabay that the pledge led to an increase in funding for Indigenous peoples and local communities’ tenure and guardianship, but direct funding to these groups still remained low.
- The pledge succeeded in meeting its goals thanks to the continuous coordination between donors, said stakeholders, and funding patterns shifted over the years to increase direct funding to Indigenous peoples and local communities, as well as to groups in Asia.
- Stakeholders said future pledges must involve early and consistent dialogue with communities, support for the rights of forest defenders, simplified processes and reduced administrative barriers for more direct funding, as well as greater inclusion of women and youth.

Tony Pritzker’s patient strategy for the planet
- Tony Pritzker, an engineer by training and philanthropist by practice, frames his environmental giving around patience, pragmatism, and clearly defined goals, from cleaning up Santa Monica Bay to fostering early-career innovators.
- He emphasizes local action as the foundation of global change, citing successes such as stormwater treatment infrastructure in Los Angeles and the educational initiatives of Heal the Bay.
- Pritzker blends optimism with realism, believing that consumer demand, science, and efficiency can align business, policy, and philanthropy to address environmental challenges without partisanship.
- He spoke with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler in September 2025 about his journey in environmental philanthropy, his belief in “patient strategy,” and the need to combine innovation with stewardship.

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

Funding is needed to save Samoa’s ‘little dodo’ from extinction (commentary)
- Since 2014, Samoa’s “little dodo” has been listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List: related to the extinct dodo, an adult manumea, as it’s called locally, has not been photographed well in the wild, and its song has rarely been recorded.
- But an underfunded conservation effort led by the Samoa Conservation Society and the nation’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) could still snatch this fascinating species from the extinction list, a new commentary argues.
- “In my view, a large-scale, multiyear forest conservation project funded by the Global Environment Facility and led by the MNRE is essential,” the author writes.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

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

New report recommends ways to increase women’s access to funding
- In a new report, the global coalitions Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) and the Women in the Global South Alliance (WiGSA) analyzed the structural challenges that Indigenous, Afro-descendant and local community women’s organizations face in accessing funding.
- The report found that most women’s organizations part of the WiGSA network face significant barriers to securing direct funding and experience alarming deficits in long-term, flexible and core funding to operate, among other challenges.
- Its authors share several recommendations to address the structural challenges women face and increase their access to funding, including the redesign of funding mechanisms and a transformation of the donor-partner relationship.

‘Let’s understand the value of the forest’ says Liberia’s Silas Siakor
- Twenty-eight communities in southeastern Liberia are set to begin receiving “area-based payments” in exchange for preventing unsustainable logging and mining, curbing shifting agriculture and limiting the establishment of new settlements in forests they manage.
- A pilot project, designed by a Liberian NGO and backed by funding from the Irish government, will pay villagers to protect the forest over the next two years.
- Mongabay’s Ashoka Mukpo spoke to Goldman Prize-winner Silas Siakor about how the initiative responds to the immediate needs of this rural population.

Liberia has a new plan to protect its rainforests. Can it work?
- Half of West Africa’s remaining rainforests are in Liberia, but in 2024, it lost more than 38,000 hectares (94,000 acres) of humid primary forest, according to Global Forest Watch.
- That was the highest rate of deforestation recorded for Liberia, driven by trees being cleared for agriculture, mining and logging.
- A new pilot project being launched in Liberia’s remote southwest will make “area-based payments” to 28 communities in exchange for commitments to protect some of their customary forests.
- Designed by former Goldman Environmental Prize winner Silas Siakor, the project is an example of “non-market approaches” to carbon sequestration.

Norway pledges more direct funding to support Indigenous peoples in Brazil
- A program managed by the Norwegian Embassy in Brazil has recently changed its funding strategy to provide more direct finance to Indigenous-led funds, rather than through NGOs and multilateral agencies.
- By 2026, the program plans to invest 90% of its resources directly with Indigenous-led funds and associations through its Indigenous support program, NIPP.
- This is more than double the percentage of direct funding in 2025, 42%, and more than four times higher than in 2024.
- Internationally and in Brazil, Indigenous organizations are increasingly vocal about receiving direct funding to conserve their territories, protected areas, natural resources and traditional knowledge.

England’s rewilding movement is gaining steam, Ben Goldsmith says
Rewilding advocate, financier and host of the popular podcast Rewilding the World, Ben Goldsmith, joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss nature restoration in his home country of England, where a significant cultural change is taking hold toward reviving biodiversity, such as beavers. Once seen as a nuisance there, many farmers and planners now embrace the rebound […]
Unrestricted funding is key for frontline conservation groups: Mongabay podcast
The U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN) works to link funders with community-based conservation groups, ensuring that much-needed resources are reaching the frontlines. In a Mongabay Newscast episode in July, Jean-Gaël “JG” Collomb, CEO of WCN, advocates for giving more unrestricted funding to local groups who know the environment best, allowing them to decide how to […]
How a quiet climate finance model is funneling money directly to communities
- For more than 10 years, the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) has supported Indigenous peoples and local communities to protect their forests through its direct funding mechanism, known as the Dedicated Grant Mechanism (DGM).
- The DGM’s unique governance model is designed and managed by the Indigenous peoples and local communities themselves.
- So far, CIF has provided $70 million to the DGM through its Forest Investment Program (FIP) and an additional $40 million has been approved for its Nature, People and Climate (NPC) program.
- While the DGM has led to positive impacts, expansion to other countries has, in some cases, been difficult and sources said the mechanism takes time to set up and communities can still struggle with the technical language.

Billions spent, biodiversity declines — GEF insists it remains fit for purpose
- Launched in 1990, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) was established to fund climate change, biodiversity, ozone layer protection and international waters projects in developing countries, based on the idea that local actions would deliver global environmental benefits. Now more than 35 years on, the GEF has evolved into a complex multilateral fund, with a sprawling secretariat and a broadened mandate.
- As of 2024, the GEF has mobilized and invested more than $24.3 billion in grants and concessional finance for environmental programs globally, according to its 2024 financials.
- Africa has received roughly $7.7 billion of that total over three decades. Yet, biodiversity loss across the continent continues at an alarming rate, raising pressing questions about the real-world impact and relevance of GEF funding and the effectiveness of multilateral environmental finance overall.
- Fred Boltz, head of programming at the GEF, insists the fund remains fit for purpose, pointing to country ownership, integrated programming and efforts to fix global environmental market failures as foundations for long-term success.

Small island nations provide big environmental solutions but need finance partners (commentary)
- Small island nations offer the world powerful environmental solutions — from “blue” climate finance innovations to marine conservation — but they need the international community to match their ambition with fairness and support.
- Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne argues that for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like his, navigating uncertainty is nothing new, but these days that must be increasingly tempered with fairness, as sea levels rise and marine ecosystems struggle due to a climate crisis that they did little to abet.
- “We face growing inequities, particularly around access to ocean resources and climate finance. Between 2000 and 2023, SIDS suffered more than $30 billion in losses from climate-related disasters, yet we are locked out of concessional financing due to narrow economic metrics. This is not just unsustainable — it is unjust,” he writes.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

How private funding helped one NGO survive the USAID cuts
- After the U.S. government announced large cuts to USAID funding earlier this year, NGOs that relied on it were left in a state of uncertainty, with some needing to suspend activities or lay off staff.
- NGOs like World Neighbors that relied largely on private funding say this focus comes with several advantages and has helped it continue its work with little interruption after the USAID cuts.
- While government funding is often vulnerable to fluctuations in national politics, private funding also comes with its own challenges, such as smaller grants and more competition.
- Experts say a blend of government and private funding could be the best option for international NGOs seeking to support Indigenous peoples and other local communities to conserve or restore their lands.

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

USAID cut curbs hopes at Ethiopia’s largest community conservation area
- A sudden USAID funding cut has stalled conservation efforts in Ethiopia’s Tama Community Conservation Area (TCCA), a 197,000-hectare (486,000-acre) corridor home to elephants, giraffes and other threatened species.
- The project, launched in 2022 with $8.5 million in USAID support, had helped reduce illegal hunting, create local jobs and improve community-led biodiversity management.
- The suspension, announced in January this year, has triggered community members to lose hope and return to illegal hunting and deforestation, while fueling land-grab rumors that undermine Indigenous land rights.
- Conservationists and Indigenous leaders say the crisis reveals the risks of overreliance on foreign aid and that, without urgent support, hard-won ecological and social gains could be lost.

US funding shortfall halts Nepal’s rhino census, sparks debate over methods
- Nepal canceled its 2025 rhino census citing a funding shortfall following the Trump Administration’s pullout of USAID funding.
- The traditional census method, which uses elephant-mounted teams to sweep dense forests, is labor-intensive, costly, dangerous and outdated, wildlife experts say.
- Field researchers recount encounters with wild elephants and tigers during past censuses, calling for safer, non-invasive methods like genetic analysis and camera traps.
- While some officials defend the value of the elaborate census, others argue Nepal must modernize its approach to better protect its rhinos and the personnel involved in the census.

Wildlife crime crackdown in jeopardy worldwide after US funding cuts
- In 2019, Malawi dismantled the Chinese-led Lin-Zhang wildlife trafficking syndicate, a major win in its fight against the illegal wildlife trade, thanks in part to funding from the U.S. government.
- The Trump administration’s recent slashing of international development funds, however, threatens these gains, leaving frontline enforcers and conservation programs without critical support.
- NGOs across Africa and Southeast Asia, running initiatives from sniffer rat programs to antipoaching patrols, tell Mongabay they’re struggling to fill the funding gap.
- Experts warn that without urgent alternative, and sustainable, sources of funding, heavily trafficked species like elephants, rhinos and tigers could face accelerated declines.

Crisis hits community-led conservation group in northern Kenya
- Since its founding in 2004, the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) has attracted both admiration and criticism for its model of encouraging communities to register wildlife conservancies across northern Kenya.
- Earlier this year, a court ruled that two of its member conservancies had been set up illegally, and that same month it lost a major donor with the end of USAID funding.
- Now, a carbon credit project it manages has been suspended, and the organization’s founder, who was pushed out by its board last year, says he thinks it’s “dead.”

Refocusing conservation funding on trust & community leadership after USAID freeze (commentary)
- The USAID funding freeze revealed a systemic vulnerability in global conservation finance: over-dependence on external donors and top-down funding models; yet community-led initiatives show that local stewardship, when resourced and trusted, leads to more resilient and inclusive conservation outcomes.
- A new op-ed calls for a shift toward trust-based philanthropy, participatory grant-making, and diversified funding models centered on local leadership and long-term ecological impact.
- “Conservation must not exist on the periphery of philanthropy or politics. It must be integrated into the core of how we structure societies, economies, and futures. Only then can it thrive, and not just because it is funded, but because it is fundamental,” the author argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Vital Mekong fish corridors tracked for first time, but funding cuts threaten future research
- By implanting fish with small electronic transmitters, researchers were able to track key migration corridors in the Mekong River.
- The findings underscore the threat that dozens of planned dams along the Mekong will cut off these vital migratory paths.
- The study, which the lead author describes as a “pilot effort,” was funded by USAID; the funding gap caused by the U.S. foreign aid freeze leaves the future of such research in question.

Why the nonprofit newsroom model is vital to Mongabay’s impact
At a time when media outlets are downsizing newsrooms and the audience for traditional news is in decline, Mongabay continues to grow thanks to its impact-driven, nonprofit model. Mongabay’s director of philanthropy, Dave Martin, joins the podcast this week to explain the philosophy behind Mongabay’s fundraising efforts, why the nonprofit model is essential for impact-driven […]
Funding freeze threatens global reforestation and restoration efforts
- The sudden halt in U.S. foreign aid has left reforestation and forest restoration projects around the world scrambling for alternative resources, jeopardizing years of progress.
- Without consistent funding, ongoing projects face the threat of scaling back or shutting down entirely, potentially impacting, in the long-term, both the environment and the communities that rely on these initiatives for their livelihoods.
- According to Mongabay’s research, the funding freeze has affected the operations of many nature-based projects worldwide, particularly in biodiversity hotspots and some of the world’s poorest regions.
- Despite the challenges, affected organizations are working tirelessly to diversify their funding sources and fill the gaps left by the U.S. government, including launching online campaigns to request donations and calling the international community to step up.

Political appointments in Indonesian climate program spark outcry over accountability
- Indonesian Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni has appointed seemingly unqualified members of his political party to a key program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, raising concerns over political favoritism and lack of climate expertise.
- The program is largely funded by Norway and the U.K., with critics warning that donor money is being misused for political appointments rather than forest conservation.
- Norway has called for accountability but remains passive, stating that fund allocation is Indonesia’s responsibility; activists have urged both Norway and the U.K. to audit spending and ensure funds aren’t misallocated.
- Experts warn that time is running out to meet Indonesia’s 2030 climate targets, and that failure could harm Indonesia’s global reputation and worsen climate-related disasters.

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

Indonesia seeks alternative funding as USAID freeze delays marine conservation efforts
- The Trump administration’s freeze on foreign aid, including USAID funding, has delayed several marine conservation programs in Indonesia, impacting projects like the Coral Triangle Initiative.
- Officials from Indonesia’s fisheries ministry acknowledge the impact, noting that long-term plans must now be adjusted while alternative funding sources are sought to sustain conservation efforts.
- While the suspension has left many projects in limbo, experts stress that it should not lead to program failure; instead, it presents an opportunity to explore more creative and sustainable financing mechanisms, such as impact investments and non-cash financing models.

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

Indigenous leaders optimistic after resumed U.N. biodiversity conference in Rome
- With nature finance always difficult to raise and sustain, Indigenous peoples and local communities may be the recipients of the most tangible progress to emerge from the resumed U.N. biodiversity conference, or COP16, in Rome in late February.
- In perhaps the most significant development from COP16, the creation of the Cali Fund and its launch last month could provide a steady flow of funds to communities worth hundreds of millions annually for programs and projects of their choosing.
- The Cali Fund aims to collect a small percentage of profits or revenue from corporations around the world that use digital sequence information (DSI) from nature’s genetics to develop commercial products.
- Indigenous peoples have been on a “path to unprecedented progress” after the first talks in Cali adopted a new program of work on traditional knowledge and their direct participation in negotiations, say sources.

Pause to USAID already having impacts on community conservation in the Amazon
- U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on foreign aid funding during his first day in office, affecting hundreds of sustainability, health and environmental programs worldwide.
- The funding pause will impact environmental projects in the Amazon Rainforest, including community-led conservation projects that halt deforestation, and may put the safety of environmental defenders who depend on security assistance from USAID in jeopardy, say sources.
- Indigenous leaders told Mongabay that programs in their territories were frozen immediately and they are yet to receive any information about what happened and if the projects will ever resume.
- Some conservationists and Indigenous leaders said USAID funding has also led to issues within communities and countries, like political interference, and that the funding pause highlights the dangers of dependency on foreign aid.

USAID funding freeze throws international conservation into disarray
U.S President Donald Trump and his senior adviser, tech billionaire Elon Musk, recently imposed a 90-day freeze on nearly all USAID projects. USAID is known for funding health and humanitarian projects globally. And as Mongabay’s Ashoka Mukpo reports, the agency also provides significant support for conservation projects, which are now reeling with uncertainty after some […]
Across the world, conservation projects reel after abrupt US funding cuts
- Along with humanitarian and other forms of aid, the U.S. government is one of the world’s biggest funders of nature conservation projects.
- In 2023 alone, USAID provided $375.4 million to such projects across the world.
- U.S. funding has been spent on a wide range of conservation activities, such as support for wildlife rangers, community conservancies, and forest mapping.
- Sources told Mongabay that the shuttering of USAID and abrupt aid pause has left conservation groups worldwide in a state of uncertainty, with some scaling back their activities and planning to lay off staff.

Justice for people, animals and the environment are inextricable, Arcus Foundation says
Bryan Simmons, communications vice president at the Arcus Foundation, joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss the 25-year-old foundation’s philosophy, human rights focus, and how the latter is linked with conservation. “ We think about humans, nonhuman animals, and the environment as one inextricable whole that has many, maybe even an unlimited number of component elements that are […]
What does an NGO do when its funds are tied to human rights abuses? Interview with John Knox
- Conservation organizations supporting critical habitats and sustainable community initiatives can sometimes find themselves financially tied to serious human rights abuses.
- However, the path forward in terms of their funding, and that of the government agencies or private funders that financially support them, can be unclear.
- Mongabay speaks to John Knox, human rights expert and former U.N. special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, about how organizations and donors should navigate funding issues when they learn about human rights abuses, as well as the specific approaches they can take in different situations.
- Completely pulling out all funding from a protected area is a last resort, said Knox, but if proactive steps to address human rights abuses or using leverage with government partners fail, NGOs and funders directly causing violations should consider disengaging completely.

Nepal created a forest fund to do everything; five years on it’s done nothing
- Nepal’s Forest Development Fund, established in 2019, was designed to support forest conservation, research and other environmental initiatives, but it has not spent any of the allocated funds in five years.
- The fund is meant to be financed through various sources, including lease fees from developers, compensatory afforestation payments, a percentage of profits from forest land use and revenue from carbon trading.
- Forest user communities, which have successfully increased forest cover in Nepal, continue to face financial difficulties, with illegal logging and wildfires exacerbating the situation, while the FDF remains frozen.

Can the Cali Fund provide a rights-based remedy for biopiracy? (commentary)
- One ongoing element of wealth extraction from the Global South that remains largely unaddressed – biopiracy – requires a human rights-based response, a new op-ed argues.
- Defined as the unauthorized use of genetic resources and traditional knowledge of Indigenous communities and developing nations for profit without their consent, a remedy to biopiracy was recently agreed to at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in Colombia.
- Can the Cali Fund – which obliges corporations that profit from biodiversity to contribute to its conservation – be a step in the right direction, the authors ask?
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Young people in Africa call for a fair increase in funding for climate adaptation
- Young activists in Africa are calling for doubling adaptation financing for climate change.
- The youths presented their demands during COP29, dubbing it the ‘six30 campaign’.
- Experts say the adaptation funds for the continent is seriously underfunded.

Climate finance must empower grassroots conservation in Africa & beyond (commentary)
- “In the wake of COP29, which ended with developed economies begrudgingly committing to increase climate funding for developing countries to $300 billion, we must ask: will any of this funding get to those on the ground who are critical to the climate solution?”
- Small, African-led conservation organizations offer a powerful, cost-effective approach to climate action like in Madagascar, where grassroots organizations fill critical gaps by addressing the local dimensions of climate change, which are often overlooked in high-level strategies.
- By channeling climate finance to grassroots organizations like these, we can ensure that this path is not just paved with promises, but with sustainable and locally driven solutions, a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

We need an Indigenous conservation state of mind (commentary)
- “In a culture that perceives nature as separate from people, the dominant conservation mindset is biased in theory and practice by science-based methodologies to conserve and protect nature,” a new op-ed argues.
- Rebecca Adamson is an Indigenous economist and shares her perspective on how traditional ecological knowledge, diverse perspectives, and innovative finance can truly conserve nature.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Why is a landscape approach needed for funding the global environmental agenda? (commentary)
- This commentary by Robert Nasi, Chief Operating Officer of CIFOR-ICRAF and a leading forest ecologist, and Aida Greenbury, a sustainability expert and environmental advocate, explores the inefficiencies of fragmented environmental governance under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
- The authors argue that separating these conventions perpetuates administrative inefficiencies, competition for resources, and project fragmentation, hindering the ability to address interconnected crises such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation holistically.
- They call for a unified funding mechanism and governance structure to streamline efforts, reduce redundancies, and facilitate multi-benefit projects, emphasizing the urgent need for systemic change to effectively tackle the environmental challenges threatening Earth’s future.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

‘Scratching the surface’ of Nepal butterfly research: Interview with Sanej Suwal
- With 692 identified species, including more than two dozen endemic, Nepal is an important habitat for butterflies. However, research is in its infancy due to insufficient funding, limited public interest and a lack of cultural emphasis on butterfly conservation.
- Sanej Suwal is one of a handful of researchers dedicated to butterfly research in Nepal, balancing species studies with public awareness initiatives. He organized Nepal’s first Big Butterfly Count, a citizen science initiative.
- Butterflies in Nepal likely face threats from climate change, habitat loss and urbanization. Despite their importance, butterfly research struggles with minimal funding and institutional recognition, requiring more researchers and global support to expand knowledge and conservation efforts.

New ‘Cali Fund’ plans to make companies pay for benefiting from nature
A new global fund for conservation seeks to make corporations share part of their profits of benefiting from using genetic data from animals, plants or microorganisms in nature. Named the Cali Fund, the new finance mechanism was born out of the recently concluded United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity summit, or COP16, held in Cali, […]
Africa needs COP29 funding & international finance reform to manage climate change (commentary)
- From 11 to 22 November, the world will be looking to leaders to ramp up action and financial support for nations on the frontlines of climate change.
- COP29 is billed as the ‘finance COP’ because it is time for countries to set a new global climate finance goal. Will Africa get the support it requires, this time?
- “It is important to acknowledge the significant role that the COPs play in addressing climate change [but] it is equally crucial to prioritize efforts aimed at comprehensively reforming the international financial infrastructure to ensure fair and just treatment of Africa,” writes Mongabay Africa’s program director.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

With rare mammal tourism, observing means conserving (commentary)
- Mammal-watching tourism has traditionally focused on large, charismatic species, such as the African ‘big five’ (lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and African buffalo) or humpback whales in California and New England.
- But this is changing in recent years as some big cat species once considered impossible to see in the wild — like jaguars — have become major tourist draws, contributing to their conservation. “It comes as little surprise that people will pay to see big cats, but will they pay to see smaller, less well-known mammal species? Yes, it turns out.”
- As interest in mammal-watching grows, can any of the 6,500 other less iconic global mammal species also benefit? The authors of a new op-ed think so, especially when the tourism benefits are captured by local communities and private land-owners, providing direct incentives for them to conserve mammals, big and small, on their lands.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

COP16: ‘A fund unlike any other’ will pay tropical nations to save forests
- For years now, the world’s wealthiest nations have pledged billions to tropical nations to help them afford to conserve their native forests — an effort that benefits the entire world, especially for the carbon storage those tropical forests provide, as the climate crisis deepens.
- But those investment promises by donors have again and again failed to fully materialize. Today, the total funding shortfall for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals is in the trillions of dollars.
- This week, a new funding mechanism which is about to launch was greeted with great fanfare at the COP16 biodiversity summit in Colombia. TFFF, the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, is designed to be “a fund unlike any other.”
- The fund’s innovative design is structured to deliver $4 billion year-after-year to tropical nations to incentivize those countries to keep their native forests standing. The fund’s manager will be independent of governments and investors, and may involve Indigenous groups and local communities to help manage intact tropical forests

Women-led groups remain ‘severely underfunded’ for climate action: Report
Women-led Indigenous, Afro-descendant and local community grassroots organizations struggle to access global funding to fight climate change impacts due to structural barriers and stereotypes, a recent report shows. Total government aid, or official development assistance (ODA), for NGOs and women’s rights organizations declined from $891 million between 2019-2020 to $631 million between 2021-2022, according to […]
Indigenous perspectives and a fossil fuel phaseout treaty featured at Climate Week
The Mongabay Newscast traveled to Climate Week in New York City in September to document the perspectives of conservation NGOs, activists and policymakers hailing from Asia to African and the Amazon. On this episode, we share an array of views on the myriad topics discussed there, like improving conservation finance, an effort to popularize a […]
At Climate Week and beyond, investing in community conservation pays big dividends (commentary)
- As representatives of NGOs, governments and funding organizations gather in New York City this week for the UN General Assembly and Climate Week to seek climate solutions, they should be looking at community conservation projects, too, a new op-ed says.
- Such projects offer big benefits for people and wildlife, in addition to the climate, yet it typically receives a mere fraction of the funds directed at other solutions.
- “In a world where natural climate solutions can provide 30% of needed global carbon reductions, we ask that they don’t just look for shiny, new and innovative ideas, but instead take a good hard look at the solutions that are already working and that just need more support and funding to help them grow and thrive.”
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Action at Scale: Elizabeth Yee on The Rockefeller Foundation’s Climate Strategy
- Elizabeth Yee, Executive Vice President of Programs at The Rockefeller Foundation, leads the Foundation’s global efforts to address the climate crisis, focusing on building resilient communities and systems. The Rockefeller Foundation has committed $1 billion over five years to tackle climate change, emphasizing solutions in renewable energy, food systems, health, and finance that benefit vulnerable populations.
- Yee emphasizes the importance of cross-sector partnerships—governments, private companies, and civil society—to drive systemic change and scale innovative solutions like clean energy access and AI-driven resilience.
- The Asia-Pacific region plays a central role in the Foundation’s climate strategy, as its success will be pivotal in global climate action, with Yee highlighting the region’s leadership in climate innovation and research.
- Yee recently spoke with Mongabay’s Matthew Boyer.

In Nicaragua, activists challenge the value of international ‘green’ financing
- The Ortega-Murillo regime relies on “green financing” from international institutions like the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and Global Environment Facility. But critics say that money hasn’t made a real impact on Nicaragua’s environmental issues.
- Since 2018, the Ortega-Murillo regime has approved 27 green financing projects related to climate change and conservation, totaling $384.8 million, according to a Fundación Del Río investigation. Nevertheless, deforestation and carbon emission rates have increased.
- Fundación Del Río’s report said sources of green financing and their intermediaries need to monitor more closely whether investments in Nicaragua are leading to tangible improvements to the environment.

Biodiversity’s Tower of Babel: The confusion & disorientation of Convention on Biological Diversity Decision 15/9 (commentary)
- Decision 15/9 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was envisioned as a multilateral mechanism to fund conservation via the sharing of benefits arising from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources (DSI).
- Hailed as a landmark, what royalties would be paid for this “natural information” and via what means are still unclear as the CBD enters a new round of negotiations soon in Cali, Colombia.
- To make the Decision operational there, delegates met in Montreal this month, and it’s still not certain if biodiversity-rich nations will be fairly compensated, but a new op-ed contends that “The appropriate interpretation of genetic resources as ‘natural information’ would imply economic rents in the benefits to be shared.”
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Short on funds and long on risk, Venezuelan conservation groups worry for future
- Venezuela’s economic and political crises have driven away many international donors, leaving conservation groups without enough funding to sustain their operations.
- Widespread corruption and organized crime, as well as government hostility to foreign civil society organizations, has made it too dangerous for many conservation groups to carry out fieldwork in the country.
- Should President Nicolás Maduro win reelection later this month, conservation groups say the already dire situation could deteriorate even further.

Leading the charge in philanthropy across Asia: Interview with Lim Seok Hui
- Lim Seok Hui, the chief executive of the Philanthropy Asia Alliance, is standing at the helm of a mission to scale collaborative philanthropy across Asia, and impact the world globally through PAA.
- PAA’s three primary focus areas, which it treats as interrelated and building upon one another, are climate and nature, holistic and inclusive education, and global and public health.
- Lim, whose background and education has helped guide her to the post of CEO at PAA, says she’s grateful for what PAA has achieved together with their members and partners.
- Lim recently talked with Mongabay about her experiences and PAA’s acievements, initiatives, goals, collaborations and challenges with its mission to promote philanthropy in Asia.

‘Fungibility’ could sink Convention on Biodiversity’s funding mechanism Decision 15/9 (commentary)
- Billions of dollars are needed for biodiversity conservation, which could be funded through the multilateral benefit-sharing mechanism established in Decision 15/9 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
- ‘Fungibility’ means that the mechanism to be developed should not fund projects that would have been funded anyway: instead, incentives should be aligned through rent-rich royalties on biodiversity-derived biotechnologies.
- Billionaires should not be financing discussions that are silent on the question of rents, as such philanthropy does harm, a new op-ed argues: “Fungibility becomes the F-word, as much for the billionaire philanthropist as for the stakeholders plying the ‘policy experiment,’ ‘flagship projects’ or whatever is the euphemism to sell Decision 15/9.”
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

How philanthropy in Asia is evolving
- The Philanthropy Asia Summit, held in April, underscored the transformation of philanthropy in Asia and how the evolution is leading to new funding mechanisms and collaborative approaches in the philanthropic landscape.
- Private wealth investors, family offices, are on the rise. Next Gen funders are prioritizing environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria and seek evidence based solutions.
- Asia’s philanthropic sector is stepping forward and wants to play a key role in addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges faced by our environment.

Using immersive media to strengthen support for the environment: An interview with Wendy Schmidt
- Wendy Schmidt, co-founder of a constellation of philanthropic initiatives, uses “systems thinking” to address ecological, social, and economic issues. She leverages her background as an interior designer and journalist to focus on sustainability and communications. Through the Schmidt Family Foundation and initiatives like the 11th Hour Project, Schmidt promotes “venture philanthropy,” emphasizing scalable, high-impact solutions to environmental problems using cutting-edge technology and interdisciplinary research.
- A new area of interest for Schmidt is immersive media and XR technologies, which she views as a means to foster public engagement with environmental issues. This is demonstrated by initiatives like Agog: The Immersive Media Institute and real-time deep-sea expedition broadcasts.
- Her philanthropic approach prioritizes inclusivity and equity, integrating traditional knowledge and contemporary science to create innovative, respectful solutions for historically marginalized communities and addressing global challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss.
- Schmidt spoke with Mongabay Founder Rhett Ayers Butler in May 2024.

Banks backing Mekong hydropower failing on due diligence, report reveals
- A new report shows that major banks operating in Southeast Asia are failing to address the environmental and human rights consequences of their investments in large-scale hydropower dams along the Mekong River.
- The report from sustainable finance watchdogs reveals regulatory shortcomings at regional and national levels that it says fail to hold banks accountable for their investments.
- Riverside communities and rights groups have long questioned why banks operating in Mekong countries continue to fund environmentally damaging hydropower projects in neighboring countries, despite the high costs and consequences for communities in their own country.
- The report calls on financial institutions to adopt more sustainable banking policies and practices when deciding which projects to support.

Will a billionaire bankroll biodiversity? CBD Decision 15/9 as potential ‘goldmine’ (commentary)
- Decision 15/9 established a “multilateral mechanism for benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources” during COP15 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) last year.
- Hundreds of billions of dollars are needed to finance biodiversity conservation, especially in mega-diverse nations, and Decision 15/9 could be a goldmine, but for whom?
- “Decision 15/9 can be either a goldmine for the mega-diverse Parties to the CBD or for select stakeholders, but not for both. Fairness and efficiency require that economic rents be vetted,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary, the first in a series of three on this topic by this writer. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Liberia puts a wartime logger in charge of its forests
- In February, Liberia’s newly inaugurated president, Joseph Boakai, appointed timber lobbyist Rudolph Merab to head the country’s Forestry Development Authority.
- Merab has been a fixture in Liberia’s logging industry for decades, and was the co-owner of a company that operated on the Sierra Leonean border during the region’s civil wars.
- Environmental advocates describe Merab as an opponent of community forestry and donor-driven conservation projects.
- Merab’s predecessor as head of the Forestry Development Authority, Mike Doryen, was controversial, with the FDA marred by allegations of corruption and mismanagement under his watch.

New online tool is first to track funding to Indigenous, local and Afro-descendant communities
- The Path to Scale dashboard is the first online tool developed to track all funding for Indigenous peoples, local communities and Afro-descendant peoples’ forest stewardship and land tenure.
- It’s already highlighted several trends, including that disbursements globally have averaged $517 million per year between 2020 and 2023, up 36% from the preceding four years, but with no evidence of increased direct funding to community-led organizations.
- Although information gaps exist based on what’s publicly available, Indigenous leaders say the tool will be useful to track progress and setbacks on funding pledges, as well as hold donors and organizations accountable.
- According to developers, there’s an increased diversity of funding, but it’s still insufficient to meet the needs of communities.

Brazil’s Cerrado is main beneficiary of 2021 pledge to end deforestation
- The Financial Innovation for Amazonia, the Cerrado and Chaco, or IFACC, has allocated $234.5 million for projects aimed at expanding agriculture to already deforested land in Brazil’s Cerrado grasslands.
- First announced at the COP26 climate summit in 2021, the initiative aims to place small farms on the sustainability agenda by showing that it’s possible to increase profit without clearing native vegetation.
- Funded projects include soybean farming on degraded pastureland and financial incentives for farmers who maintain more preserved native vegetation on their land than the minimum required by law.

How to reward tropical forest conservation: Interview with Tasso Azevedo
- A new initiative led by Brazil’s Ministry of the Environment plans to financially reward conservationists of the planet’s tropical forests.
- In an interview with Mongabay, one of the system’s creators, Tasso Azevedo, details the financial instrument, called Tropical Forests Forever.
- Countries that join the system will receive a fixed amount for each hectare of forest preserved or recovered, but the amount will be deducted if they allow deforestation.
- The Brazilian government estimates that $250 billion is needed to kickstart the operation.

How effective are giant funding pledges by major conservation donors?
- Big-name conservation philanthropy is having a moment, but does the news cycle adequately capture the nuances required when huge new pledges of funding by billionaires or foundations are announced?
- On this episode of Mongabay’s podcast, two experts weigh in on what conservationists and environmental journalists should consider when evaluating climate change or biodiversity conservation pledges.
- Holly Jonas, global coordinator at the ICCA Consortium, and Michael Kavate, staff writer at the news outlet Inside Philanthropy, offer expert advice for conservationists, curious readers and journalists who want to know more about the topic.
- "I think what the public really needs is more critical and more in-depth coverage of the ideologies and the approaches behind their kinds of philanthropy, the billionaire pledges and so on, how they're being rolled out in practice, where the funding's actually going," Jonas says.

Brazil’s Amazonian states push for court reforms in bid for justice
- Brazil’s Supreme Court has sworn in Flávio Dino, the first justice of the country’s highest court with an Amazonian background in almost 20 years.
- Amazonian states have gone largely unrepresented at the top of the Brazilian judicial system for decades, a political distortion that has spurred calls for reform.
- Federal courts are of special interest in the Amazon because illegal activity in the region tends to be intertwined with environmental, Indigenous, mining and land reform issues — all of which fall under federal jurisdiction.
- The lack of federal courts of appeal in the Amazon and the large distances that people have to travel to access justice have long been a common complaint among Amazonian lawyers, public defenders, judges and politicians.

Biological field stations deliver high return on investment for conservation, study finds
- Field stations provide many overlooked benefits and a significant return on investment for conservation, according to a new study authored by 173 conservation researchers.
- Areas near field stations lost about 18% less forest than similar spots without stations, especially in Africa; stations also provide habitat for more than 1,200 species at risk of extinction.
- Conservation benefits from field stations come at a median cost of around $637/km2 ($1,640/mi2), according to the study, far below the average budgets for protected areas globally.
- Field stations are described as underfunded and underappreciated, and although much of the information and research used to inform global environmental policy and goals come from field stations, few explicitly mention them.

Cornell receives $35m gift for research at nexus of wildlife and health
- Our newfound global awareness that human health, animal health and the health of the planet are inextricably linked has underscored the importance of research at the interface of wildlife and health.
- Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine has announced a donation of $35 million to support its work in this burgeoning field of research.
- The Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center for Wildlife Health aims to use the funds to further its research on how disease interactions affect wildlife, domestic animal and human health, and translate its findings into policy and action to protect wildlife and wild places.

The conservation sector must communicate better (commentary)
- The conservation sector needs to be more strategic, inclusive, and more creative in sharing lessons and solutions.
- “If sharing lessons and formulating solutions can only be done by flying somewhere and paying for the privilege, in an atmosphere which too often presents wins and not fails, there are too many people missing out,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Western hoolock gibbon conservation in Bangladesh urgently needs funding (commentary)
- Western hoolock gibbons play an important role in seed dispersal for forest regeneration in northeastern India, western Myanmar, and eastern Bangladesh.
- But the species is among the world’s most threatened primates, and faces a host of threats in Bangladesh ranging from deforestation for agriculture to the illegal wildlife trade.
- These animals “urgently require a comprehensive program that not only focuses on habitat conservation but also on scientifically sound translocations of isolated groups and individuals….Without significant financial support, the survival of Bangladesh’s gibbons remains in jeopardy,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Guyana Amerindian communities fear Venezuela’s move to annex oil-rich region
- In Decemer, Venezuela’s president announced a series of measures and legislation to formalize the country’s possession of the oil-rich Essequibo region in Guyana, which he argues was stolen from Venezuela when the border was drawn more than a century ago.
- Venezuela has instructed the state’s oil and gas agencies to immediately grant operating licenses to explore and exploit oil, gas and mines in the Essequibo region, giving companies already operating in the area three months to leave.
- Amerindian communities in Guyana have raised concerns that Venezuela’s takeover may threaten decades-long battles for recognition of their customary lands and, in the process, endanger the region’s rich biodiversity.

2023’s top 10 Indigenous news stories (commentary)
- Indigenous experts from leading Indigenous organizations and the U.N. share their list of the top 10 Indigenous news stories from 2023.
- This year saw many emerging trends, including the creation of funding mechanisms led by Indigenous organizations, criticism of carbon markets, record-breaking heat, and Indigenous women’s growing role as leaders.
- While the presence and recognition of the role of Indigenous people in conservation continues to expand, experts say the recognition of their rights and inclusion continues to be a challenge.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

For forests, COP28 was better than expected, but worse than needed
- The COP28 climate summit in Dubai was a mixed bag for forest conservation as climate mitigation.
- The final text included the goals from the 2021 Glasgow Declaration, which calls for halting deforestation by the end of the decade.
- However, the summit failed to make progress on paying countries to keep forests standing to offset emissions elsewhere, which has run into trouble following carbon offset scandals.
- Observers say the COP30 summit in Brazil in 2025 will see a larger push for forest protection.

COP28 cements goal to halt forest loss in 7 years, but where’s the money?
- While COP28 in Dubai included a goal to halt and reverse forest loss by the end of the decade, tropical forest nations say they are still not seeing the funding required to keep forests standing.
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo says it has not seen any of the $500 million pledged to it two years ago to protect the Congo Basin rainforest, the second-largest in the world.
- As forest nations wait for funding, some are controversially turning to untapped fossil fuel reservoirs underneath the forests.
- While carbon credits have come under fire this year, many at COP28 still say they see carbon credits as one way to bring in much needed funding to keep carbon and wildlife-rich forests standing.

Can blue bonds boost investment in ocean conservation? (commentary)
- Although they’re new vs. green bonds, the blue bond market is poised to take off as governments, companies, and investors begin to realize the importance of the blue economy and the relationship between climate change and the oceans.
- The Republic of Seychelles issued the first blue bond in 2018, with funds dedicated to expanding marine protected areas and improving fisheries governance. To date, only 25 other blue bonds have been issued.
- “The future of the blue bond market hinges on aligning financial incentives with environmental objectives, fostering innovation, and building a robust infrastructure that inspires trust and commitment from a diverse set of stakeholders,” a new op-ed states.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Gorilla permit fraud dents community-led conservation efforts in Uganda
- Foreign tourists pay $600-$700 per person for gorilla-tracking permits issued by the Uganda Wildlife Authority, which allow them to track and spend an hour with human-habituated mountain gorilla families.
- A recent audit at the UWA showed that some corrupt officials were issuing fake permits, diverting revenue away from the agency and impacting its conservation work, including project funding for communities at the frontline of gorilla conservation.
- In response, the agency suspended 14 staff members suspected of fraud, initiated a thorough probe, and rolled out a new system for issuing permits and collecting revenue.
- Communities living near the gorilla parks, many of whom have faced restrictions on traditional rights to the forests as a result of their protected status, say they’re aware of the scandal and that it’s only the latest in their litany of grievances against the UWA.

More capacity building funds needed for small nonprofit conservation groups (commentary)
- Research suggests that environmental nonprofits — which include land conservation, land trusts, and wildlife protection organizations — receive just 2% of all the types of charitable donations.
- Though small conservation groups are typically efficient about converting funds into effective, on-the-ground projects, most conservation funding goes to the largest, multi-national organizations.
- “The simplest and most immediate way concerned parties with some resources, whether an individual or institution, can help is to donate more to small wildlife conservation organizations and volunteer when and where it is logistically possible,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

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

For the oceans, global community must fund Sustainable Development Goal 14 (commentary)
- Oceans sustain life by providing myriad ecosystem services and foods which over three billion people depend on for survival, so its conservation is covered in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14.
- Though #14 is underfunded, leaders of the global community can take action during the 2023 SDG Summit taking place today and tomorrow, 18-19 September, in New York City.
- “We call on the President of the General Assembly and donor governments to increase investments in the ocean [as it is] vital to the success of each of the other sustainable development goals. We must ensure a vital ocean for the billions that depend upon its health,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

What’s next for the new Global Biodiversity Fund? (commentary)
- The 15th Convention on Biological Diversity meeting (COP15) established a new Global Biodiversity Framework for action through the year 2030.
- The Global Environment Facility then launched the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund to finance the execution of the new agreement.
- “The fund’s success will be measured by its impact on biodiversity conservation, making a strong focus on achieving measurable impacts crucial,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Peru signs $20-million debt-for-nature swap with focus on Amazon rainforest
- Peru struck a $20 million debt-for-nature swap agreement with the U.S. that transfers debt payments to conservation initiatives like improving protected areas and natural resource management.
- The deal also included four NGOs: Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, Wildlife Conservation Society and World Wildlife Fund. The groups donated a combined $3 million in addition to the $15 million contributed by the U.S.
- This is the third debt-for-nature swap deal struck with Peru. The U.S. has now made 13 debt-for-nature and debt-for-climate swaps in Latin America and 22 worldwide.

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

Big promises to Indigenous groups from new global nature fund — but will it deliver?
- On August 24, 2023, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) ratified and established the new Global Biodiversity Framework Fund to help developing countries meet their targets set up as part of the Global Biodiversity Framework.
- The new fund promises to invest 20% of its resources to directly support initiatives led by Indigenous peoples and local communities to protect and conserve biodiversity.
- While Indigenous communities welcome the move and are hopeful the new allocation will help them achieve their targets, they are skeptical about the barriers to accessing the funds, including delays and lack of knowledge.
- Some Indigenous representatives urge the GEF to rethink documentation requirements, the need for capacity building in the communities, and respect the individual community’s differences while designing the modalities for the GBFF.

Skepticism as Cambodia expands protected areas by more than a million hectares
- Cambodia expanded the coverage of its protected areas by 1.06 million hectares (2.62 million acres) in July and August, a flurry of subdecrees shows.
- However, civil society groups have expressed skepticism about the lack of consultation involved in the process and the ability of authorities to police this much larger area, given the ineffective enforcement of existing protected areas.
- Much of the newly protected land appears to be corridors neighboring existing protected areas, where homes and farms are already established.
- This has raised concerns about a surge in conflicts over land and access to natural resources, particularly affecting Indigenous communities.

Nepal’s BP Highway threatens endemic, critically endangered lizard
- The dark sitana, a lizard endemic to a town in Nepal, is critically endangered by the loss and degradation of its habitat due to the BP Highway and unplanned urban development.
- Researchers are studying the ecology and threats of the dark sitana and conducting conservation outreach to raise awareness and support for its protection among local communities and stakeholders.
- The dark sitana is understudied and neglected by the government and needs more research and conservation efforts to prevent its extinction, researchers say.

Making space for Indigenous leadership is crucial for conservation (commentary)
- About 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity is found on lands cared for by Indigenous communities.
- First Nations in Canada, for instance, are leading the most ambitious plans for protecting lands in the country currently, in the establishment of Indigenous Protected Areas.
- “Conservation groups and funders can make collaborations with Indigenous peoples more fruitful by taking direction from Indigenous leadership when working on their territories,” the authors of a new op-ed say.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

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

Asian Development Bank’s climate commitments require greater accountability (commentary)
- The Asian Development Bank committed to achieving full alignment with the 2016 Paris Agreement by this month, though it still considers fossil fuel projects to ’not be unaligned’ with this goal.
- It also has announced an Innovative Finance Facility for Climate, which aims to invest billions of dollars to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build resilience for communities already suffering the impacts of the climate crisis in Asia.
- However, these ambitions have no chance of success without an increased commitment to safeguards and accountability, a new op-ed argues, because projects aimed at mitigating climate change can–and do–go wrong.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Biological field stations: Indispensable but ‘invisible’
- Biological field stations are critical to conservation research and rewilding efforts, yet they’re often overlooked in discussions of global environmental policy.
- Beside their visibility problem, reduced funding is a major challenge for most research stations, yet their impact has been measurable in places such as southwestern Peru and in Costa Rica.
- Joining the Mongabay Newscast to discuss the importance of field research stations — and the conservation successes they’ve fostered in nations like Costa Rica — is wildlife ecologist and director of Osa Conservation, Andrew Whitworth.
- “With the climate and biodiversity crises, we need field stations more than ever, yet they’re often under threat of being closed,” Whitworth says in calling for greater philanthropic support for this global network of research hubs.

Effort to save rare Colombian monkey looks to crowdfund its conservation
- The nonprofit Fundación Proyecto Tití has conserved some 5,100 hectares (12,600 acres) of forest in Colombia, helping to reconnect forest fragments and secure more habitat for the critically endangered cotton-top tamarin.
- To combat deforestation and fragmentation, the project aims to buy an additional 386 hectares (954 acres) with the help of ReWorld, a fully volunteer-run organization that has committed to raising $1.2 million for Proyecto Tití.
- Researchers say restoration initiatives can help with the conservation and management of ecosystems by controlling fragmentation and the expansion of deforestation.

Indonesia’s Mandalika megaproject still trampling on Indigenous community’s rights: Report
- U.N. human rights experts have raised concerns about the Mandalika tourism development megaproject in Indonesia for a third year running, a record number for a project of this scale funded by a multilateral development bank.
- The concerns revolve around alleged violations by the security forces against local and Indigenous communities in the Mandalika region of the island of Lombok, which the government plans to turn into a “New Bali” with resorts, hotels and a racetrack.
- The U.N. experts say reports of intimidation, impoverishment and disenfranchisement of the Indigenous communities in Mandalika continue to flood in, despite the U.N. having flagged the project since 2021.
- NGOs have called on the $3 billion Mandalika project’s main funder, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), to suspend its financing and launch an independent investigation into the alleged human rights violations.

Boosted with fresh donations, Amazon Fund reboots stalled projects
- Created in 2008, the Amazon Fund supports rainforest conservation projects with donations from Germany and Norway but was paralyzed during former President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration.
- With Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva taking office early this year, the fund was resumed and should get new donations from the U.K. and the United States.
- In the first meeting in four years, the steering committee decided to prioritize 14 approved projects when Bolsonaro froze the fund.
- According to the Brazilian Development Bank, the Amazon Fund has already accumulated $1.1 billion and has about $620 million to spend on new projects to be submitted and approved.

Indonesian project shows how climate funding can — and should — go directly to IPLCs
- Three of Indonesia’s largest Indigenous and civil society organizations have launched a new initiative that will be first to channel climate funds directly to Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) on the frontlines of protecting forests, restoring land and ensuring food security.
- The initiative, called the Nusantara Fund, is part of a pledge by five countries and 17 private donors to distribute $1.7 billion, announced at the COP26 climate summit in 2021.
- The current climate investment model often excludes local communities, with only 7% of the roughly $322 million disbursed in the first year of the pledge going directly to IPLC organizations.
- The Nusantara Fund seeks to correct this faulty model by distributing funds directly to IPLCs and letting them manage and monitor the funding by themselves, based on the fact that they’re the ones who know best what their needs are.

Does the Global Biodiversity Framework give due consideration to market mechanisms? (commentary)
- The recently approved “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” is meant to guide countries’ efforts to conserve biodiversity.
- It provides specific guidance on how its targets may be achieved, and in that sense, takes a regulatory approach.
- The authors of a new op-ed argue that market mechanisms must also be highly considered, given the ability of things like sustainably certified products to fetch higher prices while generating benefits for biodiversity, “payments for ecosystem services” programs that generate billions of dollars in annual transactions, and more.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

It’s time to embrace community-led conservation vs. the colonial kind (commentary)
- Conservation NGOs often enter countries like Fiji and advise local and Indigenous communities on how to protect their land and sea territories, or worse, acquire land and preclude the traditional residents from it.
- More NGOs are embracing community-led conservation, though, and we must embrace this, a new op-ed by a former Peace Corps volunteer in Fiji argues.
- “Fiji does not need new ideas on how to protect their ‘iqoliqoli’ (marine areas). Instead, Fiji has a lot to teach the rest of the world,” the author writes.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Funders commit $102.5 million to support tribal-led conservation efforts in the U.S.
- The Native Americans in Philanthropy and the Biodiversity Funders Group launched a funding pledge to support tribal-led restoration and conservation efforts in the United States.
- Fifteen funders have already committed $102.5 million to support the Tribal Nations Conservation Pledge goals since its launch in March.
- Projects to benefit will be selected by funders and could include natural resource and conservation projects, regrants and tribal-led conservation NGOs working in direct partnership with tribes, among several others.
- Erik Stegman, the Native Americans in Philanthropy’s chief executive officer, said the pledge ensures that Indigenous groups continue to lead the way in conservation efforts in the U.S. as well as meet the vision of conserving 30% of U.S. land and waters by 2030.

We need to show that planetary wins are possible, says Dax Dasilva
- In 2021 Canadian entrepreneur Dax Dasilva donated $40 million to launch “Age of Union,” which supports conservation projects working to address climate change and the extinction crisis.
- Dasilva aims to bring a startup mentality to conservation, supporting grassroots, locally-led, and Indigenous-led projects with resources and guidance on scaling impact.
- Age of Union places a strong emphasis on storytelling to demonstrate that conservation efforts can have an impact, and has supported short documentaries and social media videos: “One of the main things we want to do is to show people that things can be done,” said Dasilva. “The worst outcome would be for people to stop believing that we’re out of time and that there’s nothing left to do.”
- Dasilva spoke about his passions, his philosophy on conservation, and more during a March 2023 conversation with Mongabay Founder Rhett A. Butler.

Bankrolling biodiversity: How are private philanthropists investing in nature?
- A Mongabay analysis of the largest-ever private philanthropic campaign for biodiversity conservation has found about a quarter of the pledged $5 billion has already been allocated.
- The Protecting Our Planet (POP) campaign was launched in late 2021 ahead of the COP15 conference in Montreal. The POP group includes foundations representing some of the richest people on Earth.
- Critics of the scheme have called for greater transparency in the use of private funds for protected areas conservation, such as the creation of a charter of principles and commitments, or compliance framework, to mitigate negative impacts.

Gordon Moore, tech legend and conservation philanthropist, has died at 94
- Technology entrepreneur and conservation philanthropist Gordon Moore died on Friday, March 24, at the age of 94.
- While most widely known for his career in technology, including predicting the pace of semiconductor chip development — which became known as Moore’s Law — and co-founding chipmaker Intel, Moore and his wife Betty have been major backers of conservation efforts from the Arctic to the Amazon.
- In the Amazon, the Moore Foundation has committed more than $800 million since 2000 to a range of initiatives, making it the single largest private funder of conservation in Earth’s largest rainforest.

Indonesia aims to use gas in foreign-funded energy transition; critics cry foul
- Indonesia plans to convert its diesel fuel-fired power plants to gas-fired power plants starting this year as a part of its energy transition program.
- The Indonesian government hopes the gas conversion project could be funded by a US$20 billion energy transition deal with developed countries called the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP).
- The plan has been lambasted by activists, who see the gas conversion project as a false solution to climate change due to methane emissions that come from leakage during the transportation of gas.
- Activists also point out that gas is more costly than renewable energy and the development of gas could take away funding and resources from renewable development.

Blended finance can supercharge conservation (commentary)
- Bringing together donors, nations, UN agencies, foundations, NGOs, and private investors, ‘blended finance’ can align private investment with public monies to fund conservation.
- A new commentary by the founding chairman of the world’s largest such mechanism focused on ocean conservation — the Global Fund for Coral Reefs — argues that it can serve as a model for others working to reverse biodiversity loss.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Panama ocean conference draws $20 billion, marine biodiversity commitments
- The eighth annual Our Ocean Conference took place in Panama March 2-3.
- Participants made 341 commitments worth nearly $20 billion, including funding for expanding and improving marine protected areas and biodiversity corridors.
- One key announcement came from Panama, which said it would protect more than 54% of its marine region.

Top 10 notable Indigenous stories of 2022
- This year was a historic one for many Indigenous communities around the world that marked many ‘firsts’ with successful land rights rulings, both on the global and national level.
- As Indigenous rights, roles and contributions in biodiversity conservation gain more attention, underreported and critical issues impacting Indigenous peoples were thrust into the spotlight this year.
- To end this impactful year, Mongabay rounds up its 10 most notable Indigenous news stories of 2022.

In Sierra Leone’s fishing villages, a reality check for climate aid
- In April, Mongabay’s Ashoka Mukpo visited the Sherbro estuary, a sprawling riverine ecosystem of mangroves and coastal fishing villages on the Sierra Leonean coastline.
- Like other coastal areas in West Africa, the Sherbro estuary is already suffering the impacts of climate change, including flooding and higher temperatures.
- Between 2016 and 2021, USAID financed mangrove replanting and the construction of makeshift seawalls in villages here as part of a coastal climate resilience aid project.
- The project’s struggles here are an example of the difficulties that climate aid efforts can face when they meet the economic and social needs of people in vulnerable areas.

Indonesia to build coal plants despite $20b deal on clean energy transition
- The Indonesian government will still permit the construction of new coal-fired power plants, despite recently signing a $20 billion energy transition financing deal with industrialized countries.
- The plants are accommodated in the government’s 10-year energy plan and covered by a presidential regulation.
- The newly announced Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), by contrast, doesn’t make clear what restrictions, if any, it puts in place on Indonesia building new coal plants.
- Activists have called for a complete ban on new coal power so that a just energy transition can happen as envisioned in the new climate finance partnership.

Indonesia seals $20 billion deal with G7 to speed up clean energy transition
- Indonesia and the G7 have agreed on a $20 billion financing deal that will help the Southeast Asian nation speed up its transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
- The Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) was announced at the G20 summit being hosted in Indonesia this week, with the funding to come in the form of grants, concessional loans, market-rate loans, guarantees, and private investments.
- The funding will come from both public and private financing, with details of the investment plan to be ironed out in the next six months.
- Under the partnership, Indonesia will aim to cap its emissions from the power sector by 2030, faster than the initial target of 2037, and to generate 34% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

Top wildlife photography requires ethics, patience, and kindness
- More than 100 wildlife photographers have come together for the latest “Prints for Wildlife” campaign, a conservation funding effort that sells unique animal photos at a reduced rate.
- Their upcoming, third campaign builds on the $1.75 million that they already raised for the conservation NGO African Parks.
- Freelance photographer Marcus Westberg is part of the effort and joins the podcast to talk about the project, conservation philanthropy, photography, and the ethics behind the shots he captures.

Endangered species listing of long-tailed macaques: ‘shocking, painful, predictable’ (commentary)
- “Conservationists such as myself are in shock as it reflects the utter failure of the state of things if even the most opportunistic and adaptable generalist primates such as long-tailed macaques are now being classified as endangered,” writes the author of a new op-ed.
- During its latest assessment in March 2022, the IUCN declared the species as endangered due to the rapid population decline and the prognosis of decline if current trends of exploitation and habitat destruction continue.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

An elusive lizard thought to live only in India makes an appearance in Nepal
- Researchers have confirmed the presence of the Sikkim grass lizard in eastern Nepal, nearly 100 kilometers from its known range in India’s Sikkim state.
- The species was last year classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List because of its limited distribution and threats to its habitat from farming and a hydropower dam.
- Herpetologists say the discovery should prompt more research into Nepal’s little-studied reptile and amphibian life, with the potential for more species coming to light.

Beyond bored apes: Blockchain polarizes wildlife conservation community
- Blockchain technology’s various applications, such as NFTs and smart contracts, are being explored for use in wildlife conservation.
- The technology’s potential might be immense, but downsides such as a massive carbon footprint and the imposition of Western technology to dictate resource management in the Global South raise logistical and ethical questions.
- Most proponents and critics agree on one thing: The technology is still in the early stages for its applications to be fully understood and implemented on the ground.

Planned coal plants fizzle as Japan ends financing in Indonesia, Bangladesh
- Two planned coal-fired power plants, one in Indonesia and the other in Bangladesh, have had their funding withdrawn by the Japanese government, as part of Tokyo’s decision to no longer bankroll coal projects in either country.
- Officials in both countries have already confirmed that neither project — a new installation in Bangladesh and an expansion of an existing plant in Indonesia — will be going ahead.
- For Indonesia in particular, the move also means the loss of the top three foreign funders of coal plants in the country, after similar decisions by China and South Korea; the three East Asian countries account for 95% of foreign funding of coal plants in Indonesia since 2013.
- Activists have welcomed Japan’s announcement, including communities living near the existing plant in Indonesia, who have reported health problems and loss of livelihoods as a result of pollution from the plant.

In the DRC’s forests, a tug-of-war between oil and aid
- At the COP26 climate summit, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and President Féelix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo announced a $500 million aid package to protect forests in the Central African country.
- Part of the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use, the announcement was one of the top headlines at the summit.
- Now, with the DRC set to auction off oil blocs in carbon-rich peatlands, questions are being raised about whether the package addresses the threat posed by industrial logging and oil drilling.

Government inaction sees 98% of deforestation alerts go unpunished in Brazil
- A new study has found that Brazil’s environmental enforcement agencies under President Jair Bolsonaro failed to take action in response to nearly all of the deforestation alerts issued for the Amazon region since 2019.
- Nearly 98% of Amazon deforestation alerts weren’t investigated during this period, while fines paid by violators also dropped, raising fears among activists that environmental crimes are being encouraged under the current administration.
- Environmental agencies at the state level did better, but in the case of Mato Grosso state, Brazil’s breadbasket, still failed to take action in response to more than half of the deforestation that occurred.
- In an unexpected move, Bolsonaro on May 24 issued a decree raising the value of fines for falsifying documents to cover up illegal logging and infractions affecting conservation units or their buffer zones, among other measures.

Indonesia cancels fisheries infrastructure projects in Maluku region amid lack of funds
- Indonesia doesn’t have the money to build the National Fish Bank or a new Ambon port, two infrastructure projects the national government had promised in the province of Maluku, a minister announced last month.
- The obstacle for the National Fish Bank project relates to its chosen location, near an underwater volcano and abandoned mines from World War Two.

Lessons from panda conservation could help Asia’s other, overlooked, bears
- Asia is home to five bear species: giant pandas, Asian black bears, sun bears, sloth bears and brown bears.
- Giant pandas garner far more attention than the four other species, and this has paid off for the former: Millions of dollars are spent on its conservation every year, leading to an improvement in its conservation status in 2016.
- By contrast, the other species receive little funding, and conservation and monitoring efforts are limited even as populations dwindle.
- Experts say successful panda conservation efforts indicate that the other Asian bear species could also rebound — but that being charismatic helps.

With record $5.3B in pledges, GEF aims for more flexible environmental funding
- Earlier this month, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) announced a record replenishment of $5.25 billion covering the next four years, a 30% rise over the previous fund.
- Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, GEF’s CEO and Chairperson, calls the development a “fabulous breakthrough” and says more money could be committed to the fund later this year.
- Rodriguez is pushing for more flexibility in the fund’s grant-making, including more opportunities for non-state actors to receive money without government approval. Such a shift could result in more Indigenous peoples and local communities receiving funds.
- “GEF resources are for countries, not just the governments of those countries,” Rodriguez told Mongabay. “Countries are more than governments: among the various stakeholders are the private sector, NGOs, and communities.”

Funding, titling project for Indigenous-led organizations launched
- One of the latest conservation funding mechanisms, the Community Land Rights and Conservation Finance Initiative (CLARIFI), plans to channel funds directly to Indigenous and locally-led organizations and title at least 400 million hectares (988 million acres) of land to reduce deforestation.
- According to organizers, this will avoid 1.1 to 7.4 GtCo2e (gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent) of emissions as 33% of the Earth’s tropical forest carbon is at risk without recognizing community rights to land.
- At least $10 billion is needed to boost legally recognized territories, but much is required to attain the other goals of the initiative, says Dr. Solange Bandiaky-Badji, coordinator of Rights and Resources Initiative.
- Organizers will be holding planning meetings in the Congo Basin and Latin America in May and June to deliver a total of $25 million to Indigenous-led initiatives and test its funding project.

Funding for women-led conservation remains tiny, but that’s changing fast
- Of all the philanthropic funding to tackle climate change, 90% goes to organizations led by white people, and 80% to organizations led by men; only 0.2% of all foundation funding focuses explicitly on women and the environment.
- Initiatives such as the Wild Elements Foundation, Women’s Earth Alliance, Daughters for Earth and WE Africa are supporting women-led efforts around the world to protect and restore the environment through providing funding and publicity, as well as technical, entrepreneurial, and leadership skills.
- The Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA), which in 2021 received approximately $41 million for five years from the Dutch government, also provides flexible financial support to 24 funds, 30 NGOs and 400 grassroots groups and social movements from around the world.

Are conservation trust funds part of the answer for ongoing land protection? (commentary)
- Conservation trust funds are said by some to take money away from urgent needs now, especially for land acquisitions, where it is often a case of ‘now or never.’ While donors do prefer to support the creation of new protected areas, the under-funding of protection and management results in “paper parks” and under-protected reserves.
- More funds could be allocated for protection on an annual basis, and trust funds are also a valid option.
- Endowments reduce the heavy burden on local conservation organizations who must spend a lot of time fundraising and administering multiple grants each year, a founding director of the International Conservation Fund of Canada writes.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Donors must rethink Africa’s flagging Green Revolution, new evaluation shows (commentary)
- A scathing new analysis of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) finds that the program is failing at its objective to increase food security on the continent, despite massive funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the US, UK, and German governments.
- On March 30, critics of AGRA will brief U.S. congressional aides about why they think it is doing more harm than good.
- As fertilizer and food prices spike with rising energy prices from the Russia-Ukraine war, African farmers and governments need the kind of resilient, low-cost alternatives that techniques like agroecology offer, a new opinion piece argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Moore Foundation pledges extra $300m to boost conservation of Amazon
- The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has allocated an additional $300 million toward the Andes-Amazon Initiative to continue biodiversity and forest conservation efforts in the region until 2031.
- To date, the initiative has been successful in conserving 400 million hectares (988 million acres) of land, about half the size of Brazil, since its establishment in 2003.
- New targets include ensuring 100 million hectares (247 million acres) of freshwater and forest ecosystems, as well as Indigenous and local communities’ lands, are effectively managed.
- To safeguard the resilience and health of the Andes-Amazon region’s ecosystems, at least 70% of its historic forest cover must remain intact, a threshold the initiative will exceed if it hits its new targets, says Avecita Chicchón, program director of the Andes-Amazon Initiative.

Indigenous-led report warns against ‘simplistic take on conservation’
- To deal with climate change and biodiversity loss effectively and equitably, conservation needs to adopt a human rights-based approach, according to a new report co-authored by Indigenous and community organizations across Asia.
- Unlike spatial conservation targets such as “30 by 30,” a rights-based approach would recognize the ways in which Indigenous people lead local conservation efforts, and prioritize their tenure rights in measuring conservation success.
- Without tenure rights, strict spatial conservation targets could lead to human rights abuses, widespread evictions of Indigenous communities across Asia, and high resettlement costs, the report warned.
- Also without tenure rights, the inflow of money into nature-based solutions such as carbon offsets and REDD+ projects could also result in massive land grabs instead of benefiting local communities.

Revealed: Timber giant quietly converts Congo logging sites to carbon schemes
- An investigation by El País/Planeta Futuro has found evidence of irregularities in the allocation of “conservation concessions” and carbon-trading schemes in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- The investigation uncovered allegations that concessions covering millions of hectares were illegally reassigned in 2020 and converted to carbon credit projects without public oversight. The Portuguese-owned titles overlap with a protected area and Indigenous lands.
- The boom in opaque “conservation” titles controlled by foreign investors raises concerns over the potential for future carbon offset abuses.
- Mongabay has partnered with El País/Planeta Futuro to publish this investigation in English. This story was produced with the support of the Rainforest Journalism Investigations Network (RIN) of the Pulitzer Center.

Journeying in biocultural diversity and conservation philanthropy: Q&A with Ken Wilson
- Ken Wilson has been working at the confluence of community rights, biocultural diversity, and philanthropy for the better part of 40 years as an academic, within foundations, and as an advisor and NGO leader.
- In those capacities, he has been a keen observer of a broad shift in conservation and conservation philanthropy toward more inclusive and community-oriented approaches beyond establishing strict protected areas.
- Wilson says the concept of biocultural diversity is being more widely embraced by these sectors because “it is a term that somehow invites attention to the connections – tangible and intangible – between local cultures, territorial governance systems, sustainable livelihood traditions and the experience of sacredness.”
- Wilson spoke about his origins and inspirations, trends in philanthropy, his love of dragonflies, and a number of other topics in a wide-ranging interview with Mongabay Founder Rhett A. Butler.

‘Great Blue Wall’ aims to ward off looming threats to western Indian Ocean
- Ten nations in the western Indian Ocean committed this November to create a network of marine conservation areas to hasten progress toward the goal of protecting 30% of the oceans by 2030.
- Less than 10% of the marine expanse in this region currently enjoys protection, and a recent assessment highlighted the price of failure: all the coral reefs are at high risk of collapse in the next 50 years.
- The focus of these efforts won’t just be coral reefs, but also mangroves and seagrass meadows, a lesser-known underwater ecosystem critical for carbon sequestration and oceanic biodiversity.
- Even as overfishing and warming take a toll on marine health, threats from oil and gas extraction are intensifying in this corner of the Indian Ocean.

The Top Positive Environmental News Stories from 2021
- 2021 saw what many would consider the most important Conference of the Parties on climate change (known as COP 26). While still not yet enough to bring us to net-zero emissions by 2030, there were significant commitments made that undoubtedly bring us closer if they are adhered to.
- An amazing amount of species recovered–including some iconic ones–making hopeful population rebounds after years of conservation efforts and policies.
- New technologies show promise of slashing ⅓ of global greenhouse gas emissions in just a couple of decades in the agriculture sector, playing a pivotal role in combatting climate change.
- Indigenous groups and organizations achieved some major victories and achievements inspiring some of the boldest commitments to protect tropical forest cover.

Guyanese project to bolster Indigenous land rights draws funding — and flak
- The Amerindian People’s Association (APA) in Guyana has received 252,500 euros ($285,300) in funding from the French government for a project to strengthen Indigenous councils and leaders in upholding the rights of Guyana’s Amerindian people.
- Land rights, and how titles should be awarded, remain a highly contested issue in the South American country, with one court case dragging on for 23 years without an end in sight.
- The funding hasn’t been universally welcomed, however, with some saying that NGOs like the APA “own no land and have no say in what happens in Amerindian communities.”
- The APA says its ultimate goal is pushing for a revision of Guyana’s 2006 Amerindian Peoples Act and calling for recognition of Indigenous traditional customary land rights.

Conservation projects in Mesoamerica make the case for Indigenous climate funding
- Research shows that national governments, investors and development organizations consider direct funding to Indigenous-led organizations as too risky, though a new report shows that Indigenous communities with good project management skills exist.
- The report from El Salvador-based nonprofit PRISMA showcases examples of how Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) in Mesoamerica have successfully managed limited financial resources to conserve forests, revive traditional nature-based solutions and respond to rising sea levels.
- In light of growing recognition of the role of IPLCs in mitigating and adapting to climate change, a Mesoamerican Territorial Fund is providing a mechanism for climate funding to be directly received by Indigenous organizations and rapidly allocated to organizations on the ground.

Uganda’s ‘Dr. Gladys’ honored by U.N. for work linking conservation and health
- The United Nations on Dec. 7 recognized Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka as one of its “champions of the Earth” for promoting the One Health approach to conservation in Africa.
- The Ugandan conservationist, a trained wildlife veterinarian, established the NGO Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) in 2003 to ensure better health care access for communities living around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and to lower the risk of human pathogens jumping to mountain gorillas.
- UNEP selected Kalema-Zikusoka for its science and innovation category; the other awardees were Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Kyrgyz youth activist Maria Kolesnikova, and the nonprofit Sea Women of Melanesia.
- “If you make the community feel that you care about them, then there’s less need to fight them,” Kalema-Zikusoka said.

‘Collaboration is key’ to address big environmental challenges, says Daniel Katz
- In 1986 Daniel Katz set out to save tropical rainforests by co-founding the Rainforest Alliance to develop a global certification standard for forest products and crops. Katz hoped this approach would create economic incentives for companies to adopt more sustainable practices and provide sustainable livelihoods for local people.
- Over the next 35 years, the Rainforest Alliance grew into one of the world’s best known environmental brands and brought the idea of eco-certification into the mainstream.
- Since founding the Rainforest Alliance, Katz has served in a range of roles, from board member to management advisor to Senior Program Director at the Overbrook Foundation. In those capacities, he’s been a keen observer of how the conservation sector has evolved.
- In a wide-ranging interview with Mongabay, Katz spoke about trends in conservation, obstacles the sector still needs to overcome, and the importance of collaboration. He also offered advice for conservation entrepreneurs.

Conflict and climate change are big barriers for Africa’s Great Green Wall
- Fourteen years since the launch of Africa’s Great Green Wall project, only 4% of the 100 million hectares (247 million acres) of land targeted for restoration in the Sahel region has actually been restored.
- Billions of dollars in new funding announced this year have raised hopes that the initiative to combat desertification will gain momentum, but experts and the reality on the ground point to money being far from the only hurdle.
- Funding restoration activities will cost $44 billion, with every dollar invested generating $1.20 in returns, a recent study in Nature Sustainability calculates.
- But experts have echoed concerns captured in the research that conflict and climate change are complicating efforts on the ground, with nearly half of the area identified as viable for restoration falling within the orbit of conflict zones.

Questions over who gets the billions pledged to Indigenous causes at COP26
- Private, public and philanthropic donors pledged billions of dollars to strengthen Indigenous land tenure and forest management at COP26, notably donating $1.7 billion as part of efforts to reverse forest loss.
- Some Indigenous leaders are skeptical about how this will play out given that most previous financial support was not addressed to Indigenous organizations and communities, but to intermediate NGOs, government agencies and regional banks.
- Indigenous organizations say increasing direct funding to Indigenous-led initiatives and transparency in the flow of funds can increase effectiveness of the pledges and build trust.
- Funding for forest monitoring technology is increasingly having a role in how some Indigenous communities safeguard biodiversity and map out their territories.

Indigenous people get less than 1% of climate funding? It’s actually worse (commentary)
- The lead author of a Rainforest Foundation Norway report showing how little funding goes to Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) for tenure and forest management writes that the reality is even worse than the “less than 1%” soundbite often shared.
- Over 10 years, $2.7 billion was given to support IPLCs’ tenure rights and forest management, which equals 0.74% of total development aid allocated to address climate change.
- Researchers further discovered that 17% of the funding to IPLC tenure and management went to projects that specifically included an IPLC organization, thus representing 0.13% of aid designated to climate change.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

New global partnership aims to remove barriers to Indigenous climate finance
- At COP26, a new international coalition of organizations and investors, the Peoples Forest Partnership, announced plans to mobilize US $20 billion per year by 2030 directly to Indigenous forest conservation projects.
- The partnership believes this initiative can reduce carbon emissions from deforestation by at least 2 billion tons per year while protecting 500 million hectares of threatened tropical forests and biodiversity.
- While the partnership aims to set a high standard for equitable, accessible and culturally appropriate mechanisms for IPLCs to engage with climate finance, a consultation period is open for interested stakeholders to offer input on criteria and principles.

$1.7 billion pledged in support of Indigenous and local communities’ land tenure
- Several governments and private funders have pledged US $1.7 billion in support of Indigenous and local communities’ tenure rights in recognition of their global contributions to climate change mitigation.
- Funds will be used to support activities that will aid Indigenous and local communities to improve capacity building and secure, strengthen, and protect their land and resource rights.
- COICA, a leading Amazonian Indigenous rights organization, remains skeptical of the fund’s promise to reach Indigenous territories and support communities but says it will monitor the actualization of these new commitments.

Indonesia’s ‘green’ electricity plan undermines its climate vows, activists say
- Indonesia has published its new 10-year electricity generation plan that it claims is “green” but that still calls for a large portion of the country’s energy mix to come from coal
- Clean energy activists say the plan threatens to undermine Indonesia’s emissions reduction efforts, including a goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.
- The new plan calls for adding 40.8 gigawatts of new electricity by 2030, including half from renewable energy and a third from coal.
- Even then, the government’s definition of “renewable” includes questionable sources such as biomass (burning wood pellets), gasified coal, and nuclear.

Indigenous leaders to push for land tenure rights as climate solution at COP26
- Indigenous leaders from around the world will join government officials, scientists, activists, and NGO representatives at the U.N. climate summit in Scotland to highlight the role of Indigenous peoples in providing climate mitigation and adaptation solutions.
- New reports released ahead of the conference by the World Resources Institute and PRISMA Foundation emphasize the integral role of Indigenous land rights and access to climate funding in combating the climate crisis.
- Indigenous communities on the ground receive only a small fraction of climate funding directed toward Indigenous land tenure and forest management, with international NGOs, development agencies and consulting firms receiving the lion’s share, the PRISMA report says.

Supporting more holistic approaches to conservation: an interview with Kai Carter
- For at least the past 20 years, there has been regular talk about the need to break down silos in conservation. But in practice, the conservation sector as a whole has been slow to bring the necessary voices and expertise into the conversation. That hesitancy, or inertia, can mean missed opportunities to connect conservation with other positive outcomes, from health to livelihoods.
- Kai Carter understands this well: As a program officer at the Packard Foundation’s Agriculture, Livelihoods, and Conservation (ALC) strategy, her work focuses on supporting organizations that work at the intersection of local communities, rights, health, and the environment.
- “Local agriculture, economic development, and conservation are interwoven in people’s lives; they don’t view them as separate,” Carter told Mongabay. “We’ve been exploring how our grantmaking can be more effective by approaching environmental sustainability, livelihoods, community resilience, and health holistically and with the intention of centering the needs and aspirations of smallholder farming communities.”
- Carter spoke about the Packard Foundation’s ALC strategy, equity and inclusion in conservation, and a range of other issues during a recent conversation with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

Conservation will only scale when non-conservationists see its value, says James Deutsch
- Last month, Rainforest Trust committed $500 million to a $5 billion pledge to conserve biodiversity.
- The scale of Rainforest Trust’s commitment was surprising to some in the conservation world: just a decade ago, the Virginia-based group had an annual budget in the low single-digits millions. Now the organization is aiming to raise $50 million a year over the next ten years — an incredible rate of expansion.
- Rainforest Trust is undertaking that ambitious target just 18 months after undergoing a major leadership transition: In April 2020, it appointed James Deutsch as CEO. Deutsch says the pledge will push Rainforest Trust to double down on its mission of creating and expanding protected and conserved areas through partnerships with other organizations. Rainforest Trust rallies the resources; partners lead the work on the ground.
- Deutsch spoke about the pledge and a range of other topics during a recent interview with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

How can philanthropy be more effective in environmental grant making? (commentary)
- Byron Swift serves as Senior Advisor for wildlands at Re:wild; over his career he has headed Nature and Culture International, Rainforest Trust and IUCN-US, and worked as a private foundation officer.
- In this commentary, Swift shares his thoughts on how environmental grantmakers can more effectively support conservation organizations.
- “Many of the ideas expressed in this article are in line with the principles of ‘trust-based philanthropy,’ which advocates less emphasis on process and more on developing a relationship through evaluating the character, expertise and achievements of the donee organization,” he writes.
- The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Bezos, Bloomberg among donors committing $5b to protect biodiversity
- Nine philanthropic organizations will provide $5 billion over the next decade for conservation efforts all over the globe.
- Donors include the Bezos Earth Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Nia Tero, Rainforest Trust, Re:wild, the Arcadia Fund, and the Rob and Melani Walton Foundation.
- The fund is intended to reach the 30×30 initiative goal of protecting 30 % of the planet’s biodiversity by 2030.
- Studies show this could protect 80% of plant and animal species and preserve 60% of carbon stocks and 66 % of clean water.

Small cats should be a conservation priority, says Panthera’s new board chair Jonathan Ayers
- Most people are familiar with the world’s “big cats”: Lions, tigers, leopards, jaguar, puma, and cheetah. But far fewer people know about the much larger number of small cat species, which range from the ancestors of domesticated house cats to the flat-headed cat to the ocelot.
- Small cats’ lack of visibility has meant that haven’t received big cats’ level of conservation funding. But small cat conservation efforts may have just gotten a significant boost with Panthera — the world’s largest organization devoted exclusively to wild cat conservation — announcing Jonathan Ayers as its new Chair of its Board of Directors.
- Ayers — the former Chairman, President and CEO of IDEXX Laboratories, a publicly-traded company that develops veterinary products and technologies — in March pledged $20 million to Panthera. A significant portion of that commitment is for small cat conservation.
- Ayers pledged the funds after a cycling accident in June 2019 left him a quadriplegic. Ayers says the experience, which prompted him to step down as CEO of IDEXX, gave him a purpose: saving wild cats through conservation efforts. Ayers spoke about his background, his love of cats, and conservation broadly during a recent conservation with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

Fomenting a “Perfect Storm” to push companies to change: Q&A with Glenn Hurowitz
- Over the past few years, Mighty Earth has emerged as one of the most influential advocacy groups when it comes pushing companies to clean up their supply chains. The group, has targeted companies that produce, trade, and source deforestation-risk commodities like beef, palm oil, cocoa, rubber, and soy.
- Mighty Earth is led by Glenn Hurowitz, an activist who has spent the better part of the past 20 years advocating for forests and forest-dependent communities. In that capacity, Hurowitz has played a central role in pressing some of the world’s largest companies to adopt zero deforestation, peatlands, and exploitation (ZDPE) commitments.
- Mighty Earth’s strategy is built on what Hurowitz calls the “Perfect Storm” approach: “We work to bring pressure on a target from multiple different angles in a relatively compressed time period to the point that it becomes irresistible: their customers, financiers, media, grassroots, digital, direct engagement with the company,” he explained. “It’s an application of the basic principles of classical military strategy, combined with social change theory and a lot of hard-won experience to the field of environmental campaigning.
- Hurowitz spoke about how to drive change, the evolution of environmental activism, and a range of other topics during an August 2021 conversation with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

Climate philanthropy’s opportunity for impact: Q&A with Bridgespan’s Sonali Patel
- Environmental causes have traditionally attracted only a small share of philanthropic support in the United States. But that may be changing as the impacts of climate change worsen and awareness of the links between a healthy planet and healthy society rises.
- Sonali Patel, a partner with The Bridgespan Group, which advises nonprofits and philanthropists on strategy, told Mongabay that philanthropy can be particularly impactful in the climate space by supporting innovative ideas that may be too risky for investors or governments and putting resources into areas that may not otherwise attract attention.
- “Currently only 1% of spend on climate change comes from philanthropy,” she told Mongabay during a recent interview. “Philanthropy can play a unique role in funding where either the risk is too great or there is a whitespace.”
- Patel said that her background in management consulting, helped prepare her for a role that involves working with organizational leaders to design, develop, and implement strategy. Having sound strategy in place can help position NGOs for what Patel could be the start of a trend that emerged during the pandemic: A rise in donors providing unrestricted funding to organizations they trust.

Indonesia still clinging to coal despite phaseout pledge, new plan shows
- The Indonesian government has walked back an earlier pledge to phase out all coal-fired power plants, saying now that it will keep them running but fit them with carbon capture technology.
- Experts have questioned the technical and financial feasibility of the plan, and called for a swift transition away from the fossil fuel and toward renewable energy.
- Even so, senior officials and lawmakers have criticized any attempt to give up coal, saying Indonesia shouldn’t blindly follow the growing global trend toward renewables.
- As part of its plan for “cleaner” coal plants, the government wants to burn more biomass — wood chips — alongside coal, which raises a host of new questions about economic and environmental costs.

Building the Campaign for Nature: Q&A with Brian O’Donnell
- In 2018, philanthropist Hansjörg Wyss put $1 billion toward initiatives to help a range of stakeholders conserve 30% of the planet in its natural state by 2030. One of the products of that commitment is the Campaign for Nature, an advocacy, communications, and alliance-building effort to turn that 30×30 target into a reality.
- The campaign’s strategy has three major components: building political support for 30×30, ensuring Indigenous and local community rights are advanced in the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, and boosting funding for nature conservation, especially for developing countries where biodiversity is concentrated.
- The Director of Campaign for Nature is Brian O’Donnell, who told Mongabay that more than 70 countries have endorsed the “30×30” goal over the past three years, but that many leaders still do not recognize or understand the importance of protecting biodiversity.
- “Global leaders have not given biodiversity the attention it warrants. Most global leaders do not fully understand or value the importance of biodiversity, and are not aware of the scale of the current crisis facing biodiversity,” he said. “Protecting at least 30% of the world’s lands, freshwater and oceans will help prevent extinctions, provide clean water to communities, reduce the impacts of storms, and improve the health of the world’s oceans.”

Conservation needs more women, says Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak
- Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak is in the running to become the first woman from the Arab world to head the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Ms. Al Mubarak is up against two other candidates in the election, which will take place during IUCN’s World Conservation Congress, which starts this week.
- Having served as the managing director of three prominent institutions — the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD), a government agency; the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, the philanthropy funded by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi; and Emirates Nature, an NGO affiliated with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) — Ms. Al Mubarak would bring distinct experience to the helm 73-year-old conservation organization.
- In these roles Ms. Al Mubarak has been an advocate for improving inclusivity in conservation, providing resources to communities that have often been marginalized in the sector, including Indigenous peoples and women.
- “It is critical that women have an equal voice in decision-making when it comes to the sustainable use of land, water, and other natural resources,” she told Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler during a recent interview. “Women are not just lacking an equal seat at the table at a grassroots level. Like many fields dominated by men such as science, engineering, and government, women are also underrepresented in the conservation world.”

Convergence, community and justice: Key emerging conservation trends of the pandemic era (commentary)
- As a product of the profound impacts of climate-induced disasters, the pandemic, and rising awareness of social injustice, the conservation sector is in the midst of a period of rapid change.
- Fred Nelson, the CEO of Maliasili, which works to scale the impact of local conservation and natural resource organizations in Africa, identifies four key trends that are “significantly reshaping the conservation field” and what these mean for the sector.
- “Conservation organizations should anticipate greater support for locally-led or community-based organizations and initiatives, continued and increasing interest in the intersection of the environment and social justice, and more funding and policy support for the central role of healthy ecosystems in addressing climate change,” Nelson writes. “Ultimately these trends are all creating important opportunities for strengthening the conservation field in crucial ways—with more resources, deeper partnerships, greater diversity, and stronger local and grassroots leadership—during this critical period.”
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Betting big on bioacoustics: Q&A with philanthropist Lisa Yang
- Lisa Yang is an investor and philanthropist who donated $24 million last month to establish the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
- Yang told Mongabay that she focused on bioacoustics due to the great potential for scaling the effectiveness of conservation efforts: “The technology can provide an effective way of assessing conservation practices.”
- Yang’s philanthropic interests extend to translational neuroscience and fostering opportunities and respect for people who’ve been historically marginalized by society, including the “neurodiverse and individuals with disabilities.”
- Yang spoke about opportunities to scale impact in conservation during a conversation with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

The conservation gains we’ve made are still fragile, says Aileen Lee of the Moore Foundation
- When Aileen Lee took on the mantle of chief program officer at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, she brought substantial experience as a management consultant to a nonprofit that’s the largest private donor of Amazon conservation efforts.
- Like management consultants, she says, grant makers “will never be as close to the realities of the problems” as the groups they help, but can still help them “access resources, knowledge, and networks that might not otherwise be available to them.”
- Lee hails groundbreaking efforts in conservation and philanthropy, including the adoption of technology and greater engagement with a wider range of stakeholders, including Indigenous-led conservation groups.
- In an interview with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler, Lee discusses the Moore Foundation’s achievements in the Amazon, the impacts of recent setbacks to that work, and the role of young people in forging the future they want.

Private investors look to high-end tourism to fund conservation in Mozambique
- Karingani Game Reserve is a 150,000-hectare (371,000-acre) private nature reserve being developed in southwestern Mozambique that intends to rehabilitate the landscape and boost wildlife populations inside its borders.
- Operators of Karingani say the reserve will finance itself by attracting high-end tourism and measures its progress through a novel set of conservation indicators.
- Attracting private capital into conservation projects has long been proposed as a way to cover shortfalls from public and philanthropic funding sources, with Karingani being a recent example of this approach.
- But local communities have complained in recent years that the land Karingani is being developed on was signed over to government officials under false pretenses, raising questions about power imbalances in the model.

‘Inspiring behavior change so people and nature thrive’: Q&A with Rare’s Brett Jenks
- Rare, a conservation group that has run programs in more than 60 countries since starting in the 1970s, puts behavior change at the center of its work, combining design thinking and social marketing to drive conservation outcomes.
- Brett Jenks has helmed Rare since 2000, helping greatly expand the organization and launching initiatives like the Center for Behavior & the Environment.
- Jenks says Rare’s approach sets it apart from other conservation groups: “Rare is decidedly different from other conservation organizations: We are highly focused on one thing — inspiring behavior change so people and nature thrive,” Rare president and CEO Brett Jenks told Mongabay during a recent interview.
- “We work directly with local leaders and communities, advocating for giving them rights to their resources, equipping them with data for decision-making, connecting them to the formal economy, and empowering them with knowledge and skills to sustain change,” Jenks said. “We are steadfast believers in the cumulative power of individual and collective action as a vital pathway to safeguarding and restoring our shared waters, lands and climate.”

Behind the buzz of ESG investing, a focus on tech giants and no regulation
- Despite its exponential growth in the last few years, environment, social and governance (ESG) investment is still very unclear and controversial, which makes it hard to define what it means.
- According to a study by financial markets data provider Refinitiv, the largest and best-known ESG funds invest most of their clients’ money in big tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and Facebook — companies with a small carbon footprint and high returns for shareholders.
- Some experts say this focus on carbon means the financial market often ignores other ESG issues like data security and labor rights, where big-tech companies have tended to fall short.
- There are some initiatives, mainly in Europe, to create rules and standards for ESG financial products, but for now, almost any company can be bundled into an ESG index and sold as sustainable.

We need more rewilding and connections to nature, says Enrique Ortiz
- Enrique Ortiz is a Peruvian biologist who has been working in conservation in Latin America since the 1970s. Today he works at the Andes Amazon Fund, a philanthropic initiative that has helped establish 79 protected areas and get 18 Indigenous territories titled.
- Ortiz says the pandemic has been “terrible and tragic” for both people and the environment, with a rise in poverty, violence against environmental defenders, and environmental crime and degradation.
- But he also notes surprising resilience where communities and local governments have continued protecting wilderness despite COVID-19.
- Ortiz spoke about these issues and more during an April 2021 conversation with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

Nature is no longer “a nice to have,” it’s “a must-have”: Q&A with André Hoffmann
- André Hoffmann, from the family behind Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, has been pushing for environmental sustainability in business for a quarter of a century now.
- Throughout a career that has also seen him serve as vice president of WWF, Hoffmann says he’s been bothered by the business-as-usual principle of making money first and thinking about nature afterward.
- “If you destroy nature to make a profit then you are creating the problem that you then try to solve with philanthropy,” he says. “So, you need to be much better at sensibly making money rather than making money at all costs.”
- In an interview with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler, Hoffmann talks about the growing realization of nature’s importance, the responsibility of companies to society beyond shareholders, and the need to transform the current, fragile economic system.

Indigenous peoples are being shortchanged as forest guardians: Report
- A new report shows that Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) in tropical forest countries are not getting enough funding to preserve ecosystems despite their key role as environmental guardians.
- Not only are local communities underfunded, but some of the donations from the OECD club of rich countries do not go directly to them, flowing instead via intermediaries, according to the report published by Rainforest Foundation Norway.
- The researchers behind the report, covering the period 2011-2020, warn that this lack of funding could result in the loss of territories and ecosystems that IPLCs have maintained for generations.
- Brazil received 45% of the donor financing for Latin America, while Indonesia took in 26% in Asia; the two countries host more than half of the remaining tropical rainforests in their respective regions.

Recognizing the true guardians of the forest: Q&A with David Kaimowitz
- David Kaimowitz describes his career as a “a 30-year quest to understand what causes deforestation,” one that has brought him full circle to where he started: at the issue of land rights.
- Kaimowitz, who heads the Forest and Farm Facility, based at FAO, says the evidence shows that secure communal tenure rights is one of the most cost-effective ways to curb deforestation.
- In that time, he’s also seen the discourse around the drivers of deforestation change from blaming smallholders, to realizing that a handful of large commodities companies are responsible for the majority of tropical forest loss.
- In an interview with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler, Kaimowitz talks about why it took so long for Indigenous people to be recognized as guardians of the forest, the need for conservation NGOs to address social justice, and society’s capacity to effect meaningful change.

‘We’re at a tipping point with coal’: Q&A with Bloomberg’s Antha Williams
- Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg was key in marshaling city and state governments across the U.S. to ramp up their climate action after the Trump administration pulled the country out of the Paris Agreement.
- With the climate-focused Biden administration now in office, Bloomberg Philanthropies is going “all-in toward climate solutions,” says Antha N. Williams, head of the foundation’s environment program.
- Among its main initiatives is the Beyond Coal campaign, which seeks to get OECD countries to transition away from coal by 2030 and the rest of the world by 2040.
- In this post-Trump follow-up interview with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler, Williams discusses a just energy transition, the role of finance in driving change, and the importance of ocean protection.

“Activism gives you hope”: Q&A with Wallace Global Fund’s Ellen Dorsey
- Ellen Dorsey, a veteran of the anti-apartheid movement, has used her activist experience and her leadership position at the Wallace Global Fund to push for divestment from the fossil fuel industry.
- The Wallace Global Fund has supported the fossil fuel divestment movement from its inception. By 2021, the movement had propelled divestment of over $14 trillion in assets from universities, pensions cities, faith groups and more.
- Dorsey launched Divest Invest Philanthropy, a coalition of over 200 foundations to divest their endowments from fossil fuels and invest in climate solutions. She says foundations can still do more to invest their endowments in climate solutions, and shouldn’t be “hoarding acorns” in this “moment of urgent need.”
- In an interview with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler, Dorsey talks about how the divestment movement makes financial sense, the futility of engaging with the fossil fuel industry to drive change from within, and how “everyone has to be an environmental activist if we’re going to save the planet.”

Conservation would be more effective with more Indigenous leadership, says Patrick Gonzales-Rogers
- In the past year there’s been a lot more talk about stakeholder inclusivity in the conservation sector. But how would conservation actually transform its practices?
- Patrick Gonzales-Rogers, the Executive Director of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, says increasing the representation of Indigenous peoples in the leadership of conservation institutions would be a good place to start addressing structural issues in the conservation sector as well as improve conservation outcomes.
- Gonzales-Rogers’s views are borne out of a long career working at the intersection of Indigenous rights and natural resources. He ended up as the Executive Director of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, a consortium of Indigenous nations — the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, and Ute Indian Tribe — that formed in 2015 to conserve 770,000-hectare (1.9 million-acre) Bears Ears cultural landscape in southeastern Utah.
- Gonzales-Rogers talked about Bears Ears, Indigenous rights, the conservation movement, and more during a February 2021 interview with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

‘There are no silver bullets’ in conservation: Synchronicity Earth’s Jessica Sweidan
- Conservation is complex. If it were easy, problems like the extinction crisis, human-wildlife conflict, overexploitation of forests and oceans, and habitat degradation and loss would be resolved already.
- Conservation’s complexity arises from the need to address multiple, often conflicting, objectives that span disciplines from ecology to economics to human welfare. Synchronicity Earth, a U.K.-based charity, recognizes this and incorporates the idea of complexity into its strategy, looking to opportunities to build connections between disparate areas and seeking “overlooked and underfunded species, regions, and ecosystems.”
- Jessica Sweidan, who founded Synchronicity Earth with her husband, Adam, in 2009, says this approach emerged out of the understanding that “there were no silver bullets” in conservation.
- Sweidan talked about Synchronicity Earth and more during a February 2021 interview with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler.

Backing the stewards of biocultural diversity: Q&A with Indigenous rights leader Carla Fredericks
- For at least the past 20 years, conservation has been wrestling with some of the darker aspects of its historical relationship with local communities. These issues gained increased notoriety in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing last year when the Black Lives Matter movement forced a public conversation around state violence and social injustice in the United States and beyond.
- There are signs that the conservation sector is now doing more than just paying lip service to these concerns: Indigenous peoples and local communities are being more actively engaged in decision-making; leadership and boards of conservation institutions are prioritizing diversity and inclusion; and discriminatory practices are increasingly being called out as unacceptable.
- Recognizing Indigenous rights as a gap in the philanthropic space in general, the San Francisco-based Christensen Fund recently reoriented its grantmaking approach and adopted a new mission: supporting the global Indigenous peoples’ movement “in its efforts to advance the rights and opportunities of stewards of biocultural diversity.”
- To deliver on this mission, last year Christensen hired Indigenous legal expert and advocate Carla Fredericks as its executive director. Fredericks, an enrolled citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation of North Dakota, spoke with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler during a February 2021 interview.

With shared knowledge, ‘we could build a new world’: Q&A with Lisbet Rausing
- Historian and philanthropist Lisbet Rausing founded the Arcadia Fund with her husband, Peter Baldwin, 20 years ago with the aim of preserving endangered culture, protecting endangered nature, and promoting open access to knowledge.
- In that time, she has “watched winters warm unrecognizably” and “seen wildernesses shrink dramatically”; but she has also witnessed how the young become leaders and exemplars — through school strikes, or in protests against injustice and oppression in countries across the world.
- Rausing also makes the case for a sea change in how society functions, culturally and environmentally, and the need for the political courage to effect that change.
- As bleak as things look, Rausing tells Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler, there’s reason for optimism: “Thanks to young people’s common sense and good hearts, I feel hope.”

The climate crisis needs feminism (commentary)
- Democrats now control both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives as well as the White House, creating real momentum to advance campaign-promised actions on climate change.
- Women-led groups are affecting real change globally on issues like the climate. Unfortunately, many are under-funded by philanthropy and underrepresented in decision-making on such topics.
- If the Biden/Harris Administration is truly committed to taking bold actions, they must prioritize women’s leadership and adopt a feminist climate justice agenda that offers transformative, expansive, and holistic solutions.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

France contributes to protection of Amazon stronghold, Yasuní National Park
- France and Ecuador have announced a plan to curb deforestation in famed Amazonian national park, Yasuní, while promoting its improved administration.
- Peru, Colombia and Brazil are expected to see similar agreements with France as part of President Emmanuel Macron’s growing environmental initiatives in the region.
- The contentious EU-Mercosur trade agreement is still up for ratification, but EU members appear to be split over weak environmental regulation.

Investment in Indigenous peoples’ knowledge can drive their economic growth (commentary)
- Three shifts in investment practices could yield more sustainable, organic outcomes while honoring and empowering Indigenous communities.
- From valuing traditional knowledge to creating learning networks and structural mechanisms, Indigenous communities can be empowered and improve their livelihoods.
- Initiatives that are not built upon existing Indigenous knowledge and connections in their regions are unlikely to succeed, as was the case with the Biotechnological Center in the Amazon.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Transforming conservation in times of crisis and opportunity (Commentary)
- 2020 was envisioned as a potential turning point for global conservation efforts, but over the past nine months COVID-19 has created an unprecedented social, economic, and public health crisis on a global scale.
- Fred Nelson of Maliasili, Alasdair Harris of Blue Ventures, Leela Hazzah of Lion Guardians, and Lúcia G. Lohmann of the University of São Paulo (Brazil) and the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) write that the extraordinary circumstances brought by the pandemic create new, unique opportunities for systemic change.
- “As societies respond and adapt, opportunities emerge for changing how conservation is conceptualized, practiced, and funded,” they write. “The conservation field now has a unique opportunity to accelerate efforts to build a stronger, more dynamic, more resilient field – one that can truly face up to the challenges of the present global ecological crisis.”
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Liberia gave villagers control over their forests. Then a mining company showed up
- After Liberia’s civil war ended, the country overhauled its forestry laws, including passing legislation that gave impoverished rural communities the right to manage large tracts of rainforest.
- The reforms were part of the international community’s postwar reconstruction agenda, and donors have spent millions of dollars helping to implement them.
- Some of the new “community forests” were set up in the remote northern Nimba county, one of the densest biodiversity hotspots in West Africa.
- In 2019, a Swiss-Russian mining company arrived in one of them with a dubious exploration permit, exposing cracks in the reforms and raising questions about their future.

Despite COVID, political divides, conservation can advance: Hansjörg Wyss
- 2020 was supposed to be the year that the world assessed progress on a decade’s worth of effort to stave off the sixth mass extinction and set ambitious new targets for conservation. But the COVID-19 pandemic intervened, leading to postponement of key high-level meetings.
- Nonetheless, conservationists have continued to press forward with initiatives aiming to preserve habitat for wildlife, including the “30×30” target, which aims to conserve 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030.
- One of the biggest champions for the 30×30 goal is the Wyss Campaign for Nature, which launched two years ago thanks to a billion dollar commitment from Hansjörg Wyss, a medical device entrepreneur and philanthropist. Since its inception, the Wyss Campaign for Nature has put more that $350 million into projects that have protected nearly 18 million acres of land and over 160,000 square kilometers of the ocean.
- Wyss talked about the campaign, the impact of COVID on biodiversity conservation goals, and broad public support for wild places and wildlife during an October 2020 interview with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

Data drives Bloomberg’s support for climate solutions, says Antha N. Williams
- Bloomberg Philanthropies, the foundation launched by businessman and former New York City mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, is one of the world’s largest charitable organizations.
- One of Bloomberg’s priority focal areas is the environment: specifically combating climate change by accelerating the transition to clean energy, greening the world’s cities, and protecting the health and productivity of oceans.
- Heading up the foundation’s environment program is Antha N. Williams, who got her start as a campaigner and organizer before taking up leadership roles in the world of philanthropy. Williams says Bloomberg’s strategy is to develop programs that offer the highest leverage in terms of impact.
- Williams spoke about her background, Bloomberg’s programs, and opportunities to drive progress in addressing critical environmental challenges during an October 2020 conversation with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

The post-COVID opportunity for the environment: An interview with the GEF’s Carlos Manuel Rodriguez
- The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is one of the largest and most influential environmental funders in the world. Since its inception in 1992, the GEF has provided more than $20 billion in grants for over 4,800 projects and 170 countries, engaging some 24,000 civil society and community groups.
- Over the summer, the GEF elected former Costa Rican Environment and Energy Minister Carlos Manuel Rodriguez as its CEO and Chairperson. Rodriguez served in key leadership roles when Costa Rica pioneered key conservation innovations, transformed itself into an ecotourism mecca, and assumed an international leadership role on environmental issues.
- Rodriguez joins the GEF at a pivotal moment for international efforts to combat a range of dire environmental issues. 2020 was originally intended to be a critical year for meetings that would chart the future of international collaboration around environmental issues, but the postponements and cancellations of summits has instead has come to reflect the past decade’s lack of progress on key high level environmental goals.
- Rodriguez sees the setbacks of 2020 as an opportunity to reset society’s relationship with the environment and shift business-as-usual approaches toward more sustainable models.

How do we save charisma-challenged species? Start with a story
- The bulk of wildlife conservation funding goes to charismatic species, but there are ways to push charisma-challenged species as well.
- Researchers say that telling a species’ story including photos can help inspire people to save the small and forgotten species.
- Zoos have also proven critical in protecting less charismatic species, but will this change in our COVID-19 world?

Why are some endangered species ignored?
- Many critically endangered species receive no conservation action because they are deemed ‘uncharismatic’ and fail to attract funding.
- Charisma challenged species are often small, less colorful, and little known to the public.
- Scientists have long argued that umbrella species protect uncharismatic species, but is that true?

Wildlife conservation needs a post-COVID recovery plan (commentary)
- Despite news stories about nature benefiting from the COVID-19 crisis, one funder of conservation projects worldwide is skeptical that there really are significant improvements in the status of wildlife.
- Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund recently surveyed its grantees and 67% said the pandemic negatively affected their organization, and 40% said it negatively affected their job or career.
- Conservationists are nature’s first responders, security detail, and scientists searching for a cure to the extinction crisis, but most are not afield now due to the pandemic. Support for their work needs heavy stimulus as soon as possible to recover ground lost so far this year.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

In the Ecuadoran Andes, protectors of the páramos guard their water source
- Climate change and human intervention, including mining, are a big threat to water security in the region.
- Through its water fund, Fonag, Ecuador is facing these challenges in an innovative way.
- The secret to the fund’s success is that it is inclusive, engaging a wide spectrum of stakeholders to ensure the continued protection of the páramos.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund drops major Brazil miner, utility from its portfolio
- Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, has put Brazilian mining titan Vale and the utility giant Eletrobras on its exclusion list.
- The decision is a major blow to the two companies and a signal that European investors are taking a hard line against Brazil’s backsliding on environmental protections.
- Vale was excluded for “serious environmental damage” and Eletrobras for contributing to “serious or systematic human rights violations.”

Market-based solutions cannot solely fund community-level conservation (commentary)
- In the last two decades, conservation and the market economy merged into what is called “neoliberal conservation,” where economic growth and the protection of nature are thought to be essentially compatible.
- However, conservation in places like North Sumatra will be last on the agenda when markets tumble and the economic system that people are now addicted to – in even the most remote places – collapses.
- Schemes like ecotourism and payment for ecosystem services should be paired with programs like sustainable local agriculture to prevent the re-emergence of poaching and illegal logging, and to ensure that conservation-oriented behaviors persist when markets fail.
- This article is a commentary and does not necessarily reflect the views of Mongabay.

COVID-19 will hurt Madagascar’s conservation funding: Q&A with Minister Vahinala Raharinirina
- There is growing concern that the COVID-19 crisis will enfeeble conservation efforts across the globe, particularly in developing countries.
- The concern is acute for Madagascar, one of the poorest nations in the world, which relies heavily on foreign funds to implement conservation programs.
- The disappearance of tourism revenue in the short term and the possible drying up of international funding and deepening impoverishment in the coming months and years could grievously endanger Madagascar’s unique biodiversity, Madagascar’s environment minister told Mongabay.

Leaders on the cutting edge of conservation recognized on International Women’s Day
- The Global Landscapes Forum has named 16 leaders in global climate change work ahead of International Women’s Day.
- The conservation leaders come from various backgrounds – from finance and technology to public figures and industry founders and CEOs.
- All of those recognized have long been working to protect and restore the planet, and are actively involved in efforts all over the world.

Jeff Bezos establishes $10 billion ‘Earth Fund’ to combat climate change
- Today Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced he will commit $10 billion of his personal wealth to combat climate change.
- The Bezos Earth Fund will support “any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world”, according to his post at Instagram.
- Bezos is worth an estimated $130 billion, making him the world’s richest person.
- Bezos says the fund will start to issue grants this summer.

Despite foreign aid, Colombia struggles to rein in Amazon deforestation
- Colombia is grappling with rampant deforestation in the Amazon, which was up 97% in 2018 from 2016, when the country’s former largest illegal armed group, the FARC, demobilized.
- After providing $85 million since 2015, Norway, Germany and the United Kingdom renewed a pledge for $366 million to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+) and promote sustainable development in Colombia.
- The government has not provided a domestic policy agenda to support the goals outlined by the international agreement. Authorities, who have undertaken military operations against forest clearing in national parks, have yet to dismantle the organized crime groups that are allegedly behind the large-scale deforestation.
- High rates of forest loss are particularly concerning for a critical biological corridor and watershed between the country’s Andes, Amazon and eastern savanna biospheres, where deforestation has been particularly severe.

Goldman Prize winner launches new environmental foundation in the Cook Islands
- A Goldman Prize winner from the Cook Islands who was fired for speaking out against mining the floor of the Pacific Ocean has launched a new foundation to support environmental stewardship and social action.
- Jacqueline Evans won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2019 for her central role in establishing Marae Moana in her country: it is the largest multiple-use marine park in the world.
- “This will give our local organizations the independence they need to speak openly when they believe an injustice has been done,” Evans said in a statement.
- Evans used about $66,000 of the funds awarded to her by the Goldman Prize to launch the new foundation.

Philippines freezes climate studies loan over scrutiny of Duterte drug war
- The Philippine government has suspended a $36 million loan from Germany to fund climate change studies in the Southeast Asian nation.
- The loan is one of several from foreign governments and agencies put on hold by the Philippines in retaliation over those countries’ support for a U.N. investigation into alleged human rights abuses in President Duterte’s war on drugs.
- The suspension of the climate studies loan comes at a critical time for the Philippines, which lacks such studies and is also one of the nations most at risk from climate change impacts.
- German grants from last year have not been affected; they fund, among other things, the creation of a National Climate Change Action Plan and assistance for local government units in developing climate-adaptive strategies and accessing climate financing facilities.

15 years after tsunami, Aceh reckons with an inconsistent fisheries recovery
- When a tsunami killed tens of thousands of people in Indonesia’s Aceh province, international donors contributed billions of dollars to disaster recovery efforts
- Today, gaps in post-disaster recovery are still visible. A breakdown of community dynamics post-disaster limited the effectiveness of some initiatives.
- The example of Aceh provides lessons to be learned for future disaster recoveries under the “build back better” approach, including the importance of long-term thinking when it comes to such initiatives.

The tropics in trouble and some hope
- Insect species are most diverse in the tropics, but are largely unresearched, with many species not described by science. But entomologists believe abundance is being impacted by climate change, habitat destruction and the introduction of industrial agribusiness with its heavy pesticide use.
- A 2018 repeat of a 1976 study in Puerto Rico, which measured the total biomass of a rainforest’s arthropods, found that in the intervening decades populations collapsed. Sticky traps caught up to 60-fold fewer insects than 37 years prior, while ground netting caught 8 times fewer insects than in 1976.
- The same researchers also looked at insect abundance in a tropical forest in Western Mexico. There, biomass abundance fell eightfold in sticky traps from 1981 to 2014. Researchers from Southeast Asia, Australia, Oceania and Africa all expressed concern to Mongabay over possible insect abundance declines.
- In response to feared tropical declines, new insect surveys are being launched, including the Arthropod Initiative and Global Malaise Trap Program. But all of these new initiatives suffer the same dire problem: a dearth of funding and lack of interest from foundations, conservation groups and governments.

Congo’s hidden crisis: Snakebites and envenomation
- Sub-Saharan and Central Africa are key case study areas for a health crisis now receiving international attention from health authorities.
- Lack of funding for an issue that isn’t immediately perceivable means relevant and potentially life-saving anti-venom programs aren’t present in vulnerable communities.
- Existing medical infrastructure and local health care teams could potentially be deployed to dispense anti-venoms. However, rural isolation and lack of funding for expensive and specialized anti-venoms are the two main factors that have created a crisis.
- The travel for this story was funded by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting.

US senators warn fund managers over palm oil
- Investment firms managing trillions of dollars of assets are falling short in eliminating environmental harm, such as deforestation from the operations of the palm oil companies in which they hold a stake, say U.S. senators.
- The legislators are pointing to the world’s largest fund manager, BlackRock, among others as choosing words over action in their environmental oversight.
- The companies identified will find it hard to ignore the politicians’ demand for greater transparency, a campaigner says.

For conservationists, crowdfunding sites raise both funds and awareness
- A new study analyzes the use of online crowdfunding platforms for conservation efforts across the globe.
- Low-income countries are benefiting from supplementary funds for the conservation of biodiversity as a result of crowdfunding efforts thousands of miles away.
- As with traditional sources of conservation funding, however, much of the capital raised through crowdfunding goes toward a handful of “charismatic” species, including elephants and wolves.

Forests and indigenous rights land $459M commitment
- A group of 17 philanthropic foundations has committed nearly half a billion dollars in support of land-based solutions to climate change and the recognition of indigenous peoples’ and traditional communities’ collective land rights and resource management.
- The announcement is notable because it brings together a range of philanthropies that have often taken a siloed approach to tackling the world’s social and environmental problems.
- The pledge, which includes both previous commitments and new money, raises the profile of two often overlooked opportunities in climate change mitigation: forests, which could help meet up to a third of global emissions targets by 2030, and indigenous and local communities, whose lands comprise nearly a sixth of global forest cover.
- The foundations signed an agreement stating five shared priorities, ranging from the rights of indigenous communities to transitioning toward more sustainable food systems.

Norwegian government report sharply critical of funding for tropical forest conservation
- A recent report by Norway’s Office of the Auditor General had some tough criticisms for the country’s International Forests and Climate Initiative (NICFI), one of the chief funders of REDD+ initiatives around the world.
- The Office of the Auditor General said that its investigation found “that progress and results are delayed, that current measures have uncertain feasibility and effect, and that the risk of fraud is not well-managed.”
- Responding to the report, Norway’s Minister of Climate and Environment, Ola Elvestuen, said that it provided some useful insights and that its recommendations would be followed up on. However, Elvestuen said he disagreed with many of the report’s key conclusions.

Indonesian oil palm smallholders sue state over subsidy to biofuel producers
- A union of palm oil smallholders is challenging the allocation of a billion-dollar fund that they say fails to help them rejuvenate their low-yielding oil palms and instead unfairly subsidizes large biofuel producers.
- Only 1 percent of the fund went to the smallholder replanting program last year, while 89 percent went to the biodiesel subsidy. The government has promised to amend the split to 22:70 this year.
- But the government has also defended the subsidy, saying it needs to artificially boost the price of crude palm oil, to make biodiesel competitive with the regular diesel sold in the country — which is also subsidized by the state.

Trump to allow elephant and lion trophies on case-by-case basis
- President Obama banned U.S. citizens from bringing home elephant and lion trophies from Zambia and Zimbabwe. In November, 2017, Trump’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reversed that ban until Trump himself overruled the USFWS, pausing the new rule until the president could make a final decision.
- This week, the USFWS said in a memorandum that it will permit U.S. citizens to bring lion and elephant hunting trophies home from Africa – potentially including Zimbabwe and Zambia – on a case-by-case basis.
- Conservationists largely responded negatively to the decision, critiquing it for offering little or no transparency, inviting corruption, and identifying no stated system or criteria for determining how permit selections will be made.
- A variety of lawsuits are ongoing which could still influence the shape of the new rule.

Vanishing species deserve our few cents (commentary)
- By simply paying their taxes, Americans are helping protect some of Earth’s most threatened and charismatic animals. But these vital funds are in jeopardy due to President Donald Trump’s proposed budget, which includes deep cuts to species conservation programs.
- Elephants, tigers, rhinos, great apes, and marine turtles are all protected by Acts of Congress, from which came grant programs administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).
- Trump’s proposed budget would slash the funding for these programs by nearly half, from $12 million to $7 million. For African elephants, this would mean $1.5 million in 2019, down from this year’s $2.5 million, which was already spread thin.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Trumping Colombia’s peace: U.S. drug war threatens fragile accord, forests
- President Donald Trump has brought new tension to U.S.-Colombian relations, threatening to cut crucial funding at a pivotal moment in Colombia’s peace process and to decertify that agreement for a perceived failure to tackle the drug trade.
- According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, Colombian coca production has risen to an all-time high, with around 90 percent of cocaine entering the U.S. coming from that Latin American country.
- U.S. officials blame the cocaine resurgence on Colombia’s decision to halt aerial spraying of Monsanto’s glyphosate herbicide – a controversial tactic considered to have serious health and environmental impacts by some, but rejected by others.
- Now, with Colombia’s fragile internal truce taking hold, the Trump administration’s stance – reminiscent of the War on Drugs strategy of the 80s and 90s – could be a great hindrance to peace, with knock-on negative effects for Colombia’s rural population and world-renowned biodiversity.

$23.5 million funding pledge aims to protect critical West African national park
- The National Geographic Society, Wyss Foundation, African Parks and the government of Benin have announced a combined commitment of more than $23 million to secure and restore the Pendjari National Park in Benin, West Africa.
- The park is one of the last remaining strongholds for elephants in West Africa, and is also home to the critically endangered West African lion and Saharan cheetah.
- In 2017, African Parks assumed management of the national park.

A tale of two policies: climate change, Trump, and the U.S. military
- The U.S. military is preparing for a changing climate, but not in order to protect the Earth’s environment. The Pentagon’s first and foremost concern is to respond to global warming only in so far as that response enhances the military’s “operational effectiveness” – its ability to fight.
- Jim Mattis, President Trump’s own Secretary of Defense, has spoken out about the dangers of climate change, running contrary to the commander-in-chief whose recently announced National Security Strategy omitted it as a threat. Analysts expect the military to continue with its climate change adaptation and preparedness programs, despite the President’s denialism.
- However, even as the U.S. military takes steps to make itself more fuel and energy efficient, the Department of Defense remains the world’s largest institutional fossil fuel guzzler.
- Critics say the greening of the military is positive, but not if its growth comes at the expense of U.S. climate programs at EPA and the State Department. Big increases in the military’s size, pushed by Trump and Congress, are only going to make the Pentagon’s and the world’s carbon emissions worse – which could ultimately impact national security and “operational effectiveness.”

IUCN, UN, global NGOs, likely to see major budget cuts under Trump
- President Donald Trump has proposed cutting foreign aid funding to nations and inter-governmental organizations by 32 percent, about $19 billion – cuts the U.S. Congress has yet to vote on. Voting has been delayed since September, and is next scheduled for 19 January, though another delay may occur.
- One inter-governmental organization on Trump’s cutting block is the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) best known for its global Red List, the go-to resource for the status of endangered species planet-wide. Over the past four years the U.S. contributed between 5 and 9 percent of the IUCN’s total framework funding, and 4 to 7 percent of its programmatic funding.
- Currently it remains unclear just how much, or even if, the IUCN budget will be slashed by Congress, leaving the organization in limbo. Another organization potentially looking at major cuts under Trump is TRAFFIC, the international wildlife trade monitoring network.
- Also under Trump’s axe are the UN Population Fund ($79 million), the Green Climate Fund ($2 billion, which no nation has stepped up to replace), and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ($1.96 million annually, funding already replaced by other nations for 2018).

So long, UNESCO! What does U.S. withdrawal mean for the environment?
- Since 2011, the U.S. has refused to pay its agreed to share to UNESCO as a Member Nation who has participated in and benefited from the organization’s scientific, environmental and sustainability programs. Now, President Trump has announced U.S. withdrawal from UNESCO, effective at the end of 2018.
- Experts say the pullout won’t in fact do any major damage to the organization, with most of the harm done to UNESCO when the U.S. went into arrears starting in 2011, with unpaid dues now totaling roughly $550 million. However, America’s failure to participate could hurt millions of Americans.
- UNESCO science initiatives are international and deal multilaterally with a variety of environmental issues ranging from basic earth science, climate change, freshwater, oceans, mining, and international interrelationships between indigenous, rural and urban communities.
- Among the most famous of UNESCO science programs are the Man and the Biosphere Programme and the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, now including 669 sites in 120 countries, including the United States.

Trump family planning policy may increase population, hurt women and environment
- In January, U.S. President Donald Trump reinstated the global gag rule, first introduced under Ronald Reagan. It requires foreign NGOs receiving U.S. global family planning assistance to certify that they will not “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning” with non-U.S. funds.
- According to Marie Stopes International (MSI), the gag rule could result in a minimum of 2.2 million abortions from 2017-2020, with 21,700 women dying as a result. And that only accounts for services lost from MSI.
- Research shows that the gag rule is also likely to increase population growth in the developing world by reducing the ability of organizations to provide family planning services. This could endanger the environment in a variety of ways. For example, population growth puts more pressure on forests and wildlife.
- A lack of family planning can lead to large families, with women spending more of their time on childrearing, largely leaving them out of any active role in community sustainability and conservation projects, as well as education programs that train them in sustainable livelihoods.

Trump budget undercuts U.S. commitment to global wildlife conservation
- President Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 budget would make extensive cuts to already underfunded programs to combat wildlife trafficking and to aid African and Asian nations in protecting elephants, rhinos, tigers, pangolins and other endangered wildlife.
- Trump’s budget proposes a 32 percent across-the-board cut in U.S. foreign assistance, affecting hundreds of sustainability, health and environmental programs.
- Major cuts would come to the Department of State, USAID, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service programs.
- Congress needs to approve a 2018 budget by December, and no one knows if it will approve the president’s desired deep cuts. However, hostility from the administration and many in the GOP to wildlife programs is unlikely to go away any time soon, with more and larger reductions in years to come.

Even as Trump and Modi clash on energy, India and U.S. are partnering
- In the past, and under Pres. Trump and Prime Minister Modi, the U.S. and India have often been at odds environmentally, especially regarding climate change, with the U.S. saying that developing nations need to do more to cut emissions, while India says that the U.S, as biggest historical carbon emitter, must take a primary role.
- However, the two countries, under Obama and now under Trump, have quietly done trade agreements to enhance the transfer of liquid natural gas and nuclear power plant technology via sales from U.S. high tech companies to India.
- India’s Modi, a proponent of solar energy, was also convinced in talks with Pres. Obama to be a big supporter of the Paris Climate Agreement. Though, with the ascendance of Pres. Trump, and his rejection of the landmark accord, the two countries have again parted ways.
- Trump’s plan to renege on a US $2 billion Green Climate Fund (GCF) commitment made by Pres. Obama could somewhat slow India’s drive to quickly embrace green technologies.

Kenyans fear proposed Trump cuts could threaten elephants, ranger jobs
- In March, President Trump proposed cuts to the 2018 USAID global budget totaling 40 percent, a recommendation Congress isn’t required to follow, but which the legislature won’t likely vote on before October 1st.
- As a result, nations in the developing world are in limbo over cuts, and worried they’ll lose vital USAID funds. Trump’s budget is only slated to reduce USAID to Kenya by 10 percent, but officials and NGOs there still fear environmental programs will be slashed.
- They worry USAID funds to protect elephants and curb trafficking, to pay community ranger salaries, and to keep East Africa’s only wildlife forensics lab open will be lost. There are no known plans to cut these programs at present, but rumors abound, with many rangers disheartened and “losing motivation to work” according to one observer.
- An unnamed U.S. embassy official in Nairobi told Mongabay that the Trump administration has, however, taken one action that could harm environmental research, with 34 visas denied to Kenyan scientists wishing to travel to the United States.

Rethinking conservation funding models in Africa (commentary)
- Conservation in sub-Saharan Africa faces monumental challenges.
- Ultimately, effective and durable conservation efforts require major investments in protecting large landscapes through government, community, and private institutions, and in improving governance at multiple levels.
- A key to meeting the challenges to effective conservation at scale is providing resources that enable creative and effective conservation organizations to deliver lasting results.
- This post is a commentary – the views expressed are those of the authors.

Trump budget threatens Zimbabwe climate change resilience programs
- President Trump has threatened to cut U.S. aid to developing nations by a third. This could impact Zimbabwe which receives $150 million annually to decrease food insecurity for 2.1 million people.
- Aid to Zimbabwe is important to rural farmers, victims of escalating drought due to climate change. USAID finances dams and irrigation projects, making agriculture sustainable.
- The 2018 budget isn’t due to be finalized by Congress until October 1, 2017, leaving Zimbabwe’s people in uncertainty as to the direly needed aid.
- What seems certain is that the climate resilience program will not be expanded to meet the needs of yet to be served Zimbabwean communities.

Is Nicaragua one of the world’s ‘deadliest countries’ to be an environmental defender? (commentary)
- In a recent report by Global Witness, Latin America was again identified as one of the most dangerous regions for those protecting forests, halting mining projects, opposing big dams, and taking other action in defence of the environment.
- Surprisingly, however, one country singled out for attention is Nicaragua, described by Global Witness (GW) as one of the ‘deadliest countries for activists’ because it had ‘the most killings per capita’ in the world in 2016. How accurate is this assertion?
- All of us share concerns about the planned interoceanic canal, which features strongly in GW’s new report, and would cross the southern part of the country. There have been at least 87 protest marches against the canal, and a degree of harassment of protestors. But – importantly – there have been no deaths.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Animated animals: can games engage an audience with a conservation message?
- Video games that incorporate new data visualization technologies offer an alternative channel to communicate the ecology and the plight of wildlife to an otherwise untapped audience.
- An online game called Safari Central will combine real tracking data from animals in the wild with augmented reality, creating virtual avatars of these namesakes.
- Though still unproven, games also offer an unconventional business model to support wildlife conservation programs through small in-game purchases by a potentially huge audience.

Trump’s policies could put Cambodia’s environment on chopping block
- Under President Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 budget, Cambodia could experience a 70 percent cut in aid from the United States.
- For Cambodia, this would mean a combined cut of $11.7 million from the budgets of the U.S. State Department and USAID, with the latter involved in a host of projects meant to help sustain and protect the Cambodian environment and help curb and adapt to climate change.
- Trump’s isolationism and “America First” policies could create a political vacuum in Southeast Asia, with China stepping in to replace the U.S., with major repercussions. China has historically been less transparent and less concerned about environmental impacts in nations where its government and corporations are at work.
- Trump’s authoritarian and anti-environmental policies are possibly being interpreted as a green light by autocratic leaders in the developing world. Cambodia, for example, has lately stepped up dissident arrests and sought transnational corporate partnerships to build large infrastructure projects — such projects often see high levels of corruption and do major environmental harm.

Iconic musician Paul Simon announces tour supporting biodiversity
- Twelve-time Grammy winner Paul Simon spoke to Mongabay during a recent conference in Durham, North Carolina.
- Proceeds from the tour will support the Half-Earth Project, an initiative of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.
- He spoke to Mongabay about optimism, life on Earth, and more during an hour-long conversation.
- It was widely reported in 2016 that the performer was considering retirement from touring, but has now heeded Wilson’s call for saving biodiversity.

African Parks gets $65M for conservation in Rwanda and Malawi
- African Parks will receive $65 million from the Wyss Foundation to bolster conservation efforts in Rwanda, Malawi, and beyond.
- The funds will go toward African Parks’ management of Liwonde National Park, Majete Wildlife Reserve and Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve in Malawi; Akagera National Park in Rwanda; and five still-to-be-identified protected areas in other countries.
- African Parks privately manages protected areas, effectively taking over operations traditionally managed by governments.

Leonardo DiCaprio puts millions toward nature conservation
- Leonardo DiCaprio’s philanthropic foundation has put another $15 million toward environmental causes.
- Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award Ceremony in Davos, Switzerland, the actor announced new commitments to advance clean energy, the rights of indigenous people, and efforts to conserve oceans and forests.
- The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation has given out more than $40 million since its inception in 1998.

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