topic: Migration

topic: Migration

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Reconnecting the skies: Linking flyways for migratory seabirds across continents
- Seabirds are the most threatened group of birds, with more than 30% at risk of extinction. Migratory seabirds are especially vulnerable.
- Researchers have described six marine flyways used by migratory pelagic seabirds, aerial corridors that cross the national waters of 56 countries; the high seas are used by at least 151 species.
- In March, the U.N. Convention on Migratory Species adopted a resolution on marine flyways, creating a structure for international cooperation on protections.
- Researchers are using seabird tracking data to identify key sites along marine flyways that need protection or mitigation measures against threats.

From radar blobs to bird species, AI helps transform migration tracking
- A new tool is helping scientists identify specific bird species from among flocks of migrating birds.
- BirdFlow combines citizen science observations with weather radar data to help scientists detect specific species and predict their migration routes.
- Conventional tracking of migrating birds uses weather radar, but this technology can’t distinguish between different species in a flock.
- The BirdFlow developers say the tool can be helpful for tracking threatened species and improving conservation measures along the birds’ migratory routes.

Australia confirms first mass bird flu mortality in wildlife
Australia has confirmed the country’s first mass mortality of native seabirds from the deadly strain of avian influenza, H5N1. On Aug. 1, authorities confirmed the positive cases among 49 dead and 35 sick greater crested terns (Thalasseus bergii) at Baudin Rocks, an island roughly 5 kilometers (3 miles) off South Australia’s southeast coast near Cape […]
Smithsonian ornithologist John Rappole reconsidered why birds migrate
- John Hilton Rappole helped reshape the study of bird migration by showing that migratory songbirds were established members of tropical ecosystems during winter.
- His dispersal theory argued that migration may have developed as tropical birds expanded into seasonal northern habitats, challenging a long-standing scientific explanation.
- Across five decades of fieldwork, he studied birds in the United States, Mexico, Central America, and Myanmar, and spent 20 years at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.
- Colleagues knew him as a rigorous, generous, and modest scientist who trusted sustained observation, questioned established assumptions, and revised his conclusions when the evidence required it.

How to stitch a massive wildlife corridor through the Rocky Mountains
- Across the world, roads, railways, towns and farms sever habitat, preventing wildlife from moving across the landscape. Cutting off animals’ ability to connect can limit genetic exchange and cause entire populations to decline — and ultimately, collapse.
- The Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, or Y2Y, is trying to create a giant connected area stretching across the Rocky Mountains from the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem in the U.S. to Canada’s Yukon Territory. It will allow animals to move, meet and mate.
- Across Canada, the U.S. and the world, countries are building wildlife crossings that reconnect habitat and keep motorists safe from costly, potentially deadly collisions with animals.

Rising seas, garbage and heat threaten Brazil’s migratory shorebirds
- Among the many effects linked to climate change and damages to estuarine ecosystems, research indicates that migratory birds that depend on coastal wetlands could lose half of their habitats by 2050
- The impact is significant for Brazilian shorebirds: besides depending on a continuous chain of healthy wetlands to complete their long journeys between hemispheres, they suffer from the degradation of feeding areas such as mangroves.
- One the most threatened species is the red knot (Calidris canutus): low food availability could impair the bird’s preparation for the 8,000-kilometer (5,000-mile) journey it makes from Brazil’s northeast coast to the U.S. coast.
- Researchers are conducting censuses and conservation projects in areas of high shorebird biodiversity, including the Potiguar Basin in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Norte state, considered a “regionally important site” for these migratory birds.

Sightings of humpback whales surge in Rio de Janeiro, fueling demand for whale-watching trips
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Sightings of humpback whales off Rio de Janeiro’s coast are surging as they recover from decimation due to commercial whaling, prompting an acceleration in the demand for whale-watching excursions to spot the huge marine creatures during their annual migration. The species’ population has jumped from around 2,000 to around 35,000 […]
As Canada eyes Arctic road expansion, Indigenous guardians race to understand caribou
- Indigenous guardians in the Northwest Territories, Canada, are going out into the field to monitor how roads affect Arctic caribou, which undertake the longest terrestrial migration on the planet, through events on the Tibbitt to Contwoyto winter road.
- In the last six years, they have documented a pattern of how caribou avoid roads that bisect the land: When they will avoid crossing, only walk parallel, get trapped on the other side and wait 24 hours of zero disturbance to cross.
- Canada and some Indigenous governments plan to expand roads across the north, like the Arctic Economic and Security Corridor, as part of an Arctic development plan to boost economic opportunities and mining in northern communities.
- As plans for the Arctic Economic and Security Corridor advance, Indigenous guardians and stakeholders underline the need for caribou protections and local jobs in conservation to offer alternatives to industrial opportunities.

Power lines threaten Sri Lanka’s iconic migrant flamingos
The lagoons of Mannar in northern Sri Lanka attract large flocks of pink and white greater flamingos every year, which drive a vital tourism industry in the region. However, recent fatalities of the migratory birds from collisions with power cables there have sparked urgent concerns regarding the impact of power infrastructure in the wetlands, reports […]
Sri Lanka flamingo deaths raise concerns over power infrastructure in wetlands
- Three flamingos were recently killed following a collision with overhead power lines in Mannar, in northern Sri Lanka, highlighting the threat posed by wind power structures to migratory birds.
- Flamingos also disappeared from Bundala, a popular Ramsar wetland in the island’s south, after irrigation-driven freshwater changes reduced salinity and eliminated their food base.
- Globally, flamingos face threats from habitat loss, collisions due to infrastructure, and wetland degradation, despite their ecological and ecotourism importance.
- Meanwhile, International Flamingo Day is observed on April 26 to honor U.S. ornithologist John James Audubon, whose iconic “American Flamingo” painting helped popularize the bird and has highlighted its global cultural and conservation significance.

Tracking Lucero: Scientists follow a rare Eastern Pacific leatherback sea turtle
Fewer than 1,000 leatherback sea turtles remain in the Eastern Pacific, nesting along the coastline that runs from Mexico to Ecuador. Scientists have previously fitted tracking devices to leatherbacks on other beaches across Latin America and from bycatch near Ecuador. However, they recently tagged the first nesting leatherback in Ecuador, the southern limit of the […]
Countries push new protections for the Amazon’s iconic migratory catfish
- Around the world, migratory freshwater fish are in peril from activities including overfishing and, more recently, dams blocking their migratory routes.
- The most threatened species include two large Amazonian catfish, and an inaugural conservation plan will be implemented by the five countries where they range.
- Connected river habitat is crucial for the gilded catfish and Laulao catfish: They undertake some of the longest known river migrations in the world, traveling up to 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) over their lifetimes.
- The main challenge in saving these migratory catfish and many other aquatic species is maintaining connectivity among rivers, which in the Amazon are increasingly being affected by dams and shipping.

Elephants return to Mount Elgon side of Uganda after four decades
- Monitoring of elephants on Mount Elgon, on the Uganda-Kenya border, shows a herd of elephants have crossed over to the Ugandan side, into areas they had largely abandoned since the 1970s.
- The Uganda Wildlife Authority says their return is a positive sign that efforts to restore degraded forest in Mount Elgon National Park is succeeding.
- Residents of Bukwo district, which overlaps with the national park, say elephants destroyed crops in 2025 but UWA rangers have so far prevented this in 2026.

Radio and satellite alerts help Zambian farmers live with dangerous wildlife
- In Zambia’s Eastern Province, a community radio station beams out programs and messages on coping with human-wildlife conflict.
- Tuning in are villagers living in a transfrontier conservation area straddling this part of Zambia, and neighboring Malawi.
- When Mongabay visited, residents were mostly worried about attacks by hyenas, which officials say have recently claimed the lives of four children.
- But cutting-edge satellite technology also provides farmers with an early warning on the approach of potentially destructive elephant herds.

As elephants return in eastern Zambia, communities adapt to coexistence
- Four years ago, more than 200 elephants were relocated to Malawi’s Kasungu National Park, which shares an open border with three farming districts in eastern Zambia.
- The elephants regularly move into farms, sometimes raiding granaries and destroying crops and posing a risk to people.
- Amid deep skepticism, conservationists and wildlife officials are working with locals to change attitudes, turning conflict into coexistence.

From Africa to Central Asia, the European roller’s migration builds relationships
- The European roller breeds in open woodlands across Europe and Central Asia and migrates as far as 10,000 kilometers to Africa each year.
- Since 2024, a nascent project of BirdLife South has been investigating the birds’ migration routes and stopover sites.
- The European Roller Monitoring Project aims to identify valuable or vulnerable habitat and build the international relationships that can support the protection of this and other species.

Up to half the bird species using the African-Eurasian flyway are declining
- Every year, billions of birds migrate long distances with the changing of seasons — according to BirdLife Africa, 40 to 50 percent of avian species migrating to and from Africa are in decline.
- BirdLife Africa’s Kariuki Ndang’ang’a says climate change and infrastructure collision stand as three of the main reasons for the decline in migratory bird species.
- Because many birds rely on the same sites each year to make their transit, loss or degradation of even small areas can push an entire population towards collapse.

Migratory freshwater fish are in trouble: Will we act in time to save them?
- Migratory freshwater fish have declined by an estimated 81% since 1970 yet remain largely overlooked in global conservation policy. At the latest meeting of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), a new assessment identified 325 species worldwide in urgent need of coordinated protection.
- These long-distance swimmers underpin inland fisheries that feed hundreds of millions of people across the Amazon, Mekong, Congo and other river basins. By moving through river systems, they connect habitats, sustain food webs and support local economies.
- Dams, water extraction and habitat loss are rapidly severing migration routes, often cutting off access to spawning and feeding grounds. Scientists warn that without stronger protections, many migratory fish species — and the river systems they sustain — face an uncertain future.

Migration and climate pressures deepen flood risks in Bangladesh’s haors
- In Bangladesh, people are pushed to live in flood-prone areas due to population pressures and poverty.
- The impacts of climate change are magnified due to the destruction of natural barriers such as forests and natural wetland vegetation.
- Building better houses and agricultural practices with conservation of native vegetation can protect many of these communities.

Americas flyways atlas maps the routes of 89 at-risk migratory bird species
- A newly released “Atlas for the Americas Flyways” tracks the high concentrations of 89 migratory bird species that are at risk of major population decline throughout the western hemisphere. It identifies their breeding grounds, wintering areas and stopover locations.
- This marks the first time these hemispheric migratory routes have been mapped in such extreme detail. Hyper-specific location data aim to provide policymakers, conservationists and others with the necessary tools to make informed decisions about protecting migratory bird species all along their flyways.
- The atlas highlights migratory connectivity — identifying key locations in North, Central and South America. Maintaining the environmental integrity of these places is critical to supporting migratory species and includes many tropical hotspots such as Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula and the Pantanal wetland in Brazil and Paraguay.
- The atlas will also be of use to researchers trying to understand why a species’ population is declining. It can also help planners mitigate perilous threats by providing geographical data as to where, and where not, to build infrastructure.

Half of seabirds are declining. Protecting marine flyways could help save them
- Nearly half of migratory seabird species are in decline, in part because conservation systems stop at borders while the birds do not.
- A new study maps six “marine flyways” spanning the world’s oceans, showing how 151 species depend on connected routes across dozens of countries.
- These pathways link breeding sites, feeding areas, and migration corridors, but face persistent threats from bycatch, invasive species, and climate change.
- Coordinating protection along these routes—rather than focusing only on isolated sites—could improve conservation outcomes for seabirds at a global scale.

Migratory species summit adopts new marine protections amid extinction warnings
- Delegates to the latest meeting of the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals adopted new protections for 40 migratory species, including 33 marine animals like sharks, seabirds and shorebirds.
- The convention’s 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15), held in Brazil March 23-29, recognized the importance of “marine flyways” for migratory birds and highlighted key marine biodiversity areas.
- It also urged protection of seamounts from destructive fishing practices and a precautionary approach on deep-sea mining to address potential impacts on migratory species.
- Conservation advocates lauded the steps taken at COP15, but the summit also issued stark warnings that extinction and species decline are accelerating.

Marine flyways are the missing map we can use to boost seabird conservation (commentary)
- At the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species last week in Brazil, delegates formally established something scientists have long understood but never before mapped at a global scale: marine flyways used by seabirds.
- Seabirds are more than charismatic travelers along these routes, rather, they are indicators of ocean health and can guide conservationists to the most important areas for marine biodiversity.
- “Seabirds have been tracing these routes for millennia. They have shown us the map. Now it is our turn to follow it with urgency, ambition and a shared commitment to safeguarding the ocean that sustains us all,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

325 Long-neglected migratory freshwater fish species need protection now: Report
- As national representatives gather at the UN COP15 Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) meeting this week in Brazil, a new global report has been released profiling a dangerously neglected category of migratory animal: the world’s freshwater fish.
- Migratory freshwater fish populations have fallen by 81% since 1970, says the report, with 325 species worldwide urgently needing coordinated international conservation action. However, only 23 migratory freshwater fish species are currently listed under CMS.
- More than half of the 325 at-risk freshwater migratory fish species documented by the report are in Asia, with the Mekong River of major concern. While international conservation cooperation is urgently needed, China and other Mekong basin nations are non-parties to CMS, as are the U.S. and Russia.
- What is needed now, conservationists say, are transnational migratory freshwater fish species conservation action plans that cover entire river systems, with those plans managed cooperatively by multiple nations within each river basin.

Eastern monarch butterfly populations increase in 2025, but challenges remain
Monarch butterfly populations in North America have been in dramatic decline for several decades. But in a glimmer of hope for the iconic orange-and-black species, the 2025 population estimate was roughly 64% higher compared to the previous year. Scientists split migratory monarchs (Danaus plexippus) into two populations — western and eastern — depending on which […]
Outlook for migratory species worsens amid habitat loss & avian flu, report finds
- A U.N.-backed report finds that nearly half of the world’s migratory species protected under a global treaty are now decreasing — and about one in four now faces extinction.
- Habitat loss and degradation as well as hunting and fishing are driving these declines, but a deadly virus, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, is also taking a heavy toll on bird populations.
- Wildlife corridors and protected ocean networks can play a pivotal role in conserving imperiled species: Animals need to move to find food, a mate and migrate.

Flying along with monarch butterflies
Every year, monarch butterflies make their iconic migration across North America. The journey spans thousands of miles and three countries. However, very little is known about this migration, resulting in the lack of concrete data about a very important life stage of these butterflies. Scientists are now using lightweight radio tags to get insights into […]
Gerard C. Boere, conservationist and designer of flyways, died Jan 6, aged 83
At the edges of continents, where water thins into mud and birds gather before long journeys, conservation has often been a matter of persistence. It has required people willing to think across borders, seasons, and political cycles. Long before such thinking was fashionable, a small group of scientists and civil servants argued that migratory birds […]
Agave or bust! Mexican long-nosed bats head farther north in search of sweet nectar
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Mexican long-nosed bats have a taste for agave, their tongues designed to lap up the famous desert plant’s nectar during nightly flights. It’s not just a means of satisfying taste buds. It’s a matter of fueling up for an arduous journey. The endangered species migrates each summer from Mexico into the […]
When nature becomes a security risk
Britain’s national security thinking has traditionally been shaped by familiar concerns: hostile states, terrorism, energy supply, and, more recently, cyber threats. A new assessment from the U.K. government adds a different category to that list. Global biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, it argues, now pose a direct and growing risk to national security, with implications […]
Is South Asia becoming inhospitable for migratory birds?
- Migratory birds are losing critical stopover habitats across South Asia along major global flyways due to human-driven causes.
- Draining wetlands and overfishing eliminate aquatic vegetation, invertebrates and fish that form the dietary base for migratory birds.
- Researchers emphasize that protecting migratory birds requires coordinated action beyond national borders.

Predators of the Great Wildebeest Migration: Then and now (cartoon)
While ecotourism has contributed both to wildlife conservation and community welfare in Kenya, over-tourism and the corporatization of ecotourism are now proving to be literal impediments in the ecological webs of the Kenyan wilderness. A Maasai leader recently took legal action against luxury chain Ritz-Carlton, claiming that its new lodge in Kenya’s Maasai Mara Reserve […]
Snowy owl, striped hyena, sharks among migratory species proposed for greater protections
Countries under the international treaty to protect migratory animals have proposed increasing protections for 42 species. These include numerous seabirds, the snowy owl, several sharks, the striped hyena, and some cheetah populations. The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) aims to protect species ranging from butterflies and fish to birds […]
How Southern African farmers & elephants can both adapt to coexist
- In Southern Africa, people live alongside elephants, but not always peacefully.
- The growing reports of human-elephant conflict have triggered calls for elephant culls in some countries, like Zimbabwe.
- But conservation groups are working hard to promote coexistence, using technology that can warn farmers about approaching elephants or link farmers to more lucrative markets to offset the cost of living with one of Africa’s most charismatic mammals.
- In all of this, adaptation is the key: Farmers are adapting the way they farm, while elephants are learning to move at night and stick to specific routes through populated areas to avoid conflict.

Corridors, not culls, offer solution to Southern Africa’s growing elephant population
- Elephant populations in Southern Africa are stable or growing, but the space available for them is not.
- Often, elephant populations are constrained, increasing their impact on the environment or surrounding communities, and triggering calls for controversial solutions, like culls or contraception.
- But studies in a region that hosts 50% of Africa’s remaining savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) show how the animals make use of wildlife corridors to move between protected areas and neighboring countries.
- Encouraging elephants to migrate can help relieve overpopulation in some areas, but any corridor invariably intersects with human communities, making it both vital ecological infrastructure and a social challenge.

Unregulated tourism risks disrupting Timor-Leste’s whale migration
- 2025 has been a big whale tourism season in Timor-Leste; operators were fully booked during the peak season of September to December.
- But increasingly aggressive practices fueled by competition between tour operators could mean “another Sri Lanka,” where whales already stressed by climate-induced food scarcity are disappearing from the area.
- East Timorese are mostly excluded from the sector, which is controlled by expats and foreign tour operators raking in thousands from “bucket listers” and social media “influencers.”
- Whale tourism in Timor-Leste needs regulation, enforcement and legal compliance to ensure sustainable, inclusive growth, experts say.

Central America’s forests are crucial for migrating birds: Study
As winter closes in across much of North America, migratory birds are heading south to warmer climes and more abundant food. But until recently, scientists didn’t have a good understanding of exactly where they went. Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology U.S. analyzed observations from eBird, a global […]
Indonesia’s most vulnerable push for nation’s first Climate Justice Bill
- Climate change is forcing migration and deepening inequality across Indonesia, displacing rural residents, Indigenous peoples and those with disabilities — groups least responsible for the crisis.
- Fishers and farmers say they’ve been driven abroad by collapsing livelihoods caused by erratic weather, only to face exploitation and unsafe working conditions overseas.
- Indigenous and disabled communities are also seeing their food security, mobility and safety undermined, yet they remain largely excluded from government responses and public discourse.
- Civil society and affected groups are pushing for Indonesia to pass a Climate Justice Bill, which would enshrine climate justice as a constitutional right and protect vulnerable communities through coordinate national policy.

Radar study shows when offshore turbines pose greatest risks to migrating birds
- A new study looks at bird migration patterns over open ocean in an attempt to assess how much risk offshore wind turbines and other marine infrastructure might pose to them.
- The authors used radar data from U.S. coastal weather stations to find that hundreds of millions of birds migrate over tight windows of time in the spring and fall while flying at slightly lower elevations on average than over land.
- This puts a proportion of them at risk of being killed by wind turbines, but that risk could be mitigated with dynamic management that accounts for their patterns, according to the study.
- The Trump administration, in office since January, says it doesn’t support offshore wind development, but the research has long-term implications and could be used more immediately for mitigating the impact of offshore oil and gas projects.

The slender-billed curlew, a migratory waterbird, is officially extinct: IUCN
The last known photo of the slender-billed curlew, a grayish-brown migratory waterbird, was taken in February 1995 at Merja Zerga, on Morocco’s Atlantic coast. There will likely never be another one. The species, Numenius tenuirostris, has officially been declared extinct by the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. “The extinction of the Slender-billed Curlew is […]
Migrating elephants get room to roam via community conservation efforts
- Years of elephant movement data reveal distinct routes the animals take to access food and water, but road building and new rail lines, towns, cities and fences are increasingly cutting off their ability to move across the landscape.
- In response, conservationists are working with communities across hundreds of miles of northern Kenya to delineate these corridors, so that any future development will protect their pathways, which are also dwindling due to severe erosion of some areas from heavy grazing followed by rain events.
- In an excerpt from her new book “ROAM: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World,” author Hillary Rosner discusses these issues and how local communities are partnering with NGOs to ensure the future free movement of these iconic animals.

Scientists rethink Serengeti migration numbers with satellite, AI tools
- An AI-powered satellite survey has found that the number of wildebeests migrating across Kenya and Tanzania annually might be less than half of the million-plus figure that’s widely touted.
- The authors of the study said their findings underscore the need to calibrate the findings from different surveying methods in order to accurately estimate wildebeest numbers.
- The wildebeest migration is one of the largest mammal migrations in the world, with the animals migrating 800 kilometers (500 miles) in search of better grass.
- Estimating accurate numbers of migrating wildebeests is essential to keep track of the population in the face of habitat loss and increased human presence.

Long-lost white shark tag traces remarkable journey from South Africa to SE Asia
- The discovery of a satellite tag from a subadult female white shark in Indonesia marks the first recorded connectivity of white shark movement between South Africa and Southeast Asia.
- The white sharks found in South Africa and Australia belong to different genetic pools, which makes the two populations distinct from one another, even though they share the same migratory route.
- The biggest threats facing white sharks in South Africa and Indonesia are unsustainable fishing, where the sharks become both the bycatch and main catch.
- While there are attempts to support local fishers to pioneer shark conservation instead of hunting them, such efforts are thwarted by lack of funding.

Scientists capture rare video of bumblebee catfish climbing waterfalls in Brazil
In November 2024, members of Brazil’s environmental military police and scientists observed a “massive aggregation” of small catfish making their way up waterfalls in Brazil. These first-of-their-kind observations of the rare bumblebee catfish likely migrating upstream to spawn were published in a recent paper. The researchers’ video footage shows thousands of bumblebee catfish (Rhyacoglanis paranensis), […]
Respite, for now, for bird migration hotspot at heart of Sri Lanka’s wind power dispute
- Amid mounting protests from locals and environmentalists, Sri Lanka’s president has suspended a proposed wind farm in Mannar, in the island’s north for a month, pending a review of ecological concerns.
- Scientists warn additional wind farms in the area could further fragment habitats of the fragile Mannar Island ecosystem, an important stopover point for migratory birds on the Central Asian Flyway.
- The country’s energy minister has referred to Mannar as “stale land,” dismissing its biodiversity value, but environmentalists have countered this with research that shows more than 500 plant and animal species recorded there, including dozens found nowhere else on Earth.
- Activists urge the government to pursue sustainable development that protects Mannar’s globally important ecosystems while expanding clean energy following a balanced development pathway.

A critical stopover for shorebirds awaits protection in Malaysia
- Malaysia’s Teluk Air Tawar-Kuala Muda (TAT-KM) mudflats host tens of thousands of migratory birds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, including at one point the critically endangered spoon-billed sandpiper, yet remain outside formal protection despite global population declines from habitat loss.
- A recent study found only 15% of the sandpiper’s suitable non-breeding habitat is protected, with threats from coastal reclamation, invasive plants and sea-level rise; scientists call for prioritizing high-threat wintering areas, especially in Thailand and Myanmar.
- Malaysian authorities plan to nominate TAT-KM as an East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) site, which would be a first for Peninsular Malaysia, but the process requires local stakeholder support and faces lingering concerns over past proposals for aquaculture development in the area.
- Local fishers, NGOs and conservation groups are raising awareness, restoring habitats and promoting bird-watching to safeguard TAT-KM, amid fears that without formal recognition, development pressures could threaten the ecosystem’s integrity.

Bhutan’s new farm fencing program could be costly for wildlife (commentary)
- The tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan is known for embracing nature as part of its philosophy of Gross National Happiness, but this is increasingly at odds with a new drive to boost food self-sufficiency, due to conflict with wildlife like elephants intent upon eating farmers’ produce.
- The government recently announced an initiative to erect 3,400 kilometers (2,100 miles) of fencing to keep wildlife away from the country’s key crops, but a new commentary argues that this will lessen wildlife’s freedom of movement, reducing the effectiveness of migration corridors while shifting conflict with wildlife to unfenced farms.
- “Addressing human-wildlife conflict requires more than structural barriers [while] integrated strategies that combine wildlife population management, habitat enrichment, diversified deterrents, insurance mechanisms, and community stewardship offer a sustainable path forward,” the author writes.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Global tracking study reveals marine megafauna hotspots lie largely unprotected
- A global study tracking nearly 13,000 marine animals representing 111 species reveals they spend 80% of their time in just 63% of their range, yet only about 5% of these high-use ocean areas are currently protected.
- The research identifies Important Marine Megafauna Areas (IMMegAs) as ecological hotspots that span national waters and the high seas, where governance and protection are often lacking.
- Findings show that the global target of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030 is insufficient to safeguard migratory species unless paired with additional mitigation measures outside protected areas, like bycatch reduction and ship speed regulations.
- Researchers call for stronger international coordination and more dynamic, movement-informed conservation strategies to effectively protect wide-ranging ocean wildlife.

Out-of-range albatross makes a highlight in the revival of seabird watching in Sri Lanka
- Sri Lanka has recorded over 50 species of seabirds — birds that spend much of their lives at sea — within its territorial waters, including several long-distance migratory birds that travel thousands of kilometers across oceans.
- As observation of seabirds is challenging, only a small group of Sri Lankan birders have focused on this unique group. In the past decade, seabird studies in the island have seen a notable revival, led by enthusiastic young birders.
- Among last year’s remarkable observations is the sighting of a grey-headed albatross off Sri Lanka’s northern coast, marking the first-ever record of the species north of the equator, well beyond its usual Southern Ocean range near Antarctica.
- World Seabird Day, observed every year on July 3, commemorates the tragic extinction of the great auk, marking the last known pair of which was killed on that day in 1844 and highlighting the vulnerability of seabirds and the urgent need for their conservation.

Illegal fishing and its consequences: the human toll of migration in Senegal
- In 2024, more than 2,000 people are believed to have died at sea while attempting to reach Spain’s Canary Islands from Senegal and the Gambia.
- According to the NGO Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), people from Senegalese fishing communities are tempted to migrate to Europe due to declining fish stocks, owing in part to illegal fishing by European and Asian fleets.
- Illegal fishing, along with trawler fishing, are among the main drivers of this depletion of marine resources, depriving small-scale fishers in Senegal of a livelihood.
- Advocacy groups Oceana and ClientEarth have taken the Spanish government to court for failing to investigate — and, where appropriate, sanction — Spanish vessels that go dark by failing to transmit their location, and for not effectively monitoring the fishing operations of Spanish companies in West Africa.

Protecting the Darién Gap: Interview with Panama national parks director Luis Carles Rudy
- Mongabay spoke with Panama’s national director of protected areas, Luis Carles Rudy, about the ongoing environmental challenges in Darién National Park.
- The park covers around 575,000 hectares (1.42 million acres) of rainforest at the southern border, but has been a popular spot for criminal groups for the last several decades, and more recently illegal mining operations and migrants coming from South America.
- Carles Rudy told Mongabay about new rangers and technology that will help protect the park, but said there still aren’t efficient solutions to encroaching agribusiness and migrant waste.

Broadway Mall rewilding brings native plants and wildlife to New York City
New York City is the most densely populated city in the U.S., but along Broadway, a thoroughfare on the northern half of Manhattan’s west side, a series of small parks, known as malls, are providing a green corridor of trees, shrubs and flowers for birds and insects. The Broadway Malls are a series of small […]
Samoa’s new marine spatial plan protects 30% of the country’s ocean
- The Samoan government announced June 3 that it has enacted a law establishing a marine spatial plan to sustainably manage 100% of its ocean by 2030.
- The country has also created nine new marine protected areas that cover 30% of its ocean.
- Fishing is prohibited in the new protected areas, which include a migration route for humpback whales.
- The plan became law on May 1.

New maps reveal Earth’s largest land mammal migration
Researchers have released new maps documenting the “Great Nile Migration,” the Earth’s largest-known land mammal migration across South Sudan and Ethiopia. The maps chart the seasonal movements of two antelope species, the white-eared kob (Kobus kob leucotis) and the tiang (Damaliscus lunatus tiang). Every year, around 5 million white-eared kob and 400,000 tiang migrate across […]
New map highlights complex web of marine migrations
- Scientists have launched a new database on marine migratory patterns to address gaps in the knowledge of policymakers and conservationists.
- The Migratory Connectivity in the Ocean (MiCO) database pulled data from 1,300 existing studies in the scientific literature to describe the migratory patterns of 109 mammal, bird and fish species.
- The database highlights the interconnected nature of marine migrations, and underscores the need for cross-border collaboration in conservation efforts.

A migrating flycatcher returning to the same Sri Lankan garden sparks interest in birders
- An Asian paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi) with distinctive markings on its head that has returned to the same home garden in Colombo for four consecutive migratory seasons has sparked interest among bird enthusiasts in Sri Lanka.
- Many birds, especially migratory species, possess a remarkable ability to return to the same location year after year, sometimes to the exact tree or nest, which is a behavior known as site tenacity or site fidelity.
- World Migratory Bird Day is traditionally observed on the first Saturdays of May and October, aligning with bird migrations in the northern and southern hemispheres respectively.
- A online bird observation platform, eBird, is gaining popularity in Sri Lanka with over 4,000 birders listed with the platform, strengthening the role of citizen science in tracking bird movements.

The effort to save Syria’s northern bald ibis population failed, but much can be learned (analysis)
- The bald ibis once lived across the Middle East, North Africa and Southern and Central Europe, but has disappeared from most of these areas and is currently considered endangered.
- A strenuous effort to save one of the last breeding populations in Syria succeeded briefly, but eventually failed due to multiple reasons, including the recent civil war.
- However, much good resulted from the program and insights were revealed, a new analysis explains.
- This article is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Farmers in Nepal and India see red as blue bulls raid their crops
- The uncontrolled proliferation of nilgai antelopes (also known as blue bulls) in Nepal’s southern plains has forced many farmers to abandon agriculture due to severe crop damage.
- Nilgai numbers have risen rapidly due to reduced hunting and lack of predators, yet no scientific consensus exists on the exact cause for the population boom.
- Farmers are demanding classification of nilgais as an agricultural pest to allow control measures, but authorities are slow to act, citing the need for further studies.
- Potential solutions being touted include relocating nilgais to tiger habitats, clearing away invasive weeds so the animals don’t venture into farms to feed, and allowing controlled hunting — though experts say killing nilgais isn’t a sustainable solution.

Land distribution in the Pan Amazon is tainted by corruption
- Small family farmers waiting for years to obtain documents validating their land claims often need to pay a small bribe to speed up bureaucracy. More flagrant abuses of the land tenure system are perpetuated by land grabbers who manufacture property deeds using several well-known fraudulent schemes.
- Land fraud is very common in jurisdictions where local elected officials collude with their constituents to expedite land grabbing.
- According to an investigation into the Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária,1,000 politicians and 140,000 civil servants had improperly received public lands, while more than 37,000 parcels were awarded to individuals who were dead at the time of their application.

How birds deepen our awareness of nature: Interview with Ayuwat Jearwattanakanok
- Thailand is home to more than 1,100 species of birds and is a crucial stopover location on global bird migration routes.
- However, the country’s protected area system focuses on mountainous forests, which risks overlooking the conservation of many other habitats, such as wetlands, mudflats and open farmlands that are nonetheless important for birds.
- While bird conservation efforts are well underway in many of these habitats, threats from hunting, wildlife trade and rapid development abound.
- Mongabay recently spoke with Ayuwat Jearwattanakanok, a bird conservationist, photographer and author, about what he perceives as the most pressing bird conservation issues in Thailand.

As elephant conflict shifts, Nepal’s border village offers clues for coexistence
- Human-elephant conflicts were once concentrated in the border village of Bahundangi in eastern Nepal, but the problem has since spread to other villages further west as a result of rapid urbanization, deforestation and infrastructure expansion that have forced elephants into human settlements.
- Several villagers have been killed in elephant attacks in these villages in Koshi province, leaving local families living in constant fear as they struggle to protect their homes, crops and lives from wild elephants.
- Local authorities have attempted solutions like digging trenches, installing sirens and conducting awareness campaigns, but many measures have proved ineffective or created new problems; limited funding and lack of long-term planning hinder sustainable solutions.
- Conservationists say the template from Bahundangi, the border village that learnt to live with the elephants, could help new conflict areas avoid losses much more swiftly and without wasting resources.

The culture of corruption across the Amazon Basin
- Across countries in the Amazon Basin corruption remains a deeply entrenched phenomenon as society has a higher tolerance of fraudulent behavior.
- Corruption encompasses many types of behavior, which can subvert multiple publicly funded activities, while spanning multiple sectors and jurisdictions (national, regional, local).
- Non-elite corruption is more acute in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador and less in Colombia, Brazil, Guyana and Suriname, while elite corruption is widespread and flagrant, with wrongdoers enjoying high levels of impunity.

The Pan Amazon as a hotspot of cultural diversity
- The Amazon is known not only for its biodiversity, but also for its cultural richness, built by Indigenous nations and other groups that have migrated to the region over the past 500 years.
- Indigenous communities in the region include those that have experienced various amounts of cultural loss and/or modification of their cultural traditions, as well as urban dwellers who retain their ethnic identity while partially joining a different stakeholder group.
- Non-governmental organizations provide a moral counterweight to many of the forces that make frontier societies unfair, representing both conservative and progressive viewpoints that reflect the diversity of Pan Amazonian society.

Better government policies could help as migratory birds lose habitat in Bangladesh
- Recent studies indicate a steady decline in the number of migratory water birds in Bangladesh over the last few years.
- Researchers said the key threats to migratory birds include habitat loss, cattle grazing in bird habitats, domestic duck farming and conservation mismanagement.
- They underscore the need for a coordinated effort among livestock, agriculture and environment ministries.

How a Nepali border village learned to live with migratory wild elephants
- Once the epicenter for deadly human-elephant conflict, an eastern Nepal village along the Indian border has transformed into a model of coexistence.
- Villagers, once fearful, have adopted elephant-resistant crops and beekeeping, and through a rapid response team, they safely guide elephants away.
- Government policies, conservation efforts and shifting community attitudes have significantly reduced fatalities, with no deaths reported in the area since 2015.
- While Bahundangi offers a model for coexistence, villages along the migratory routes for elephants have become hotspots for human-elephant encounters, requiring the need for conservation corridors and education to mitigate conflicts.

World’s tiniest transmitter finds nesting area of rarest migratory shorebird
Using the world’s smallest known satellite transmitter, conservationists were able to track a spoon-billed sandpiper, thought to be the world’s rarest migratory shorebird. The transmitter revealed new stopovers and nesting areas for an individual known as K9. “K9 led us to a newly discovered breeding location and habitat, which could be a game-changer for Spoon-billed […]
In the Pan Amazon, inequality and informality fuel informal economies
- In the mid-twentieth century, the combination of poverty and inequality generated political instability that gave rise to socialist and nationalist movements in different Amazonian countries.
- In societies as stratified as those of the Pan Amazon, shaped by class, ethnicity and geography, inequality is sustained by very real and concrete structural barriers.
- This has resulted in the exponential growth of the informal economy, in which people do not pay taxes to their governments. Irregularities extend to the rural economy, in which smallholder farmers and miners operate without regulation, often damaging ecosystems.

Satellite ‘backpacks’ help keep track of parrot migration in Mexico
- Scientists and conservationists have deployed lightweight satellite backpacks, containing transmitters, to study and understand the migration patterns of thick-billed parrots.
- Teams from San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance in the U.S. and conservation NGO Organización Vida Silvestre in Mexico have gathered more than 70,000 data points over four years.
- The data helped them identify corridors that are critical for the birds’ movements; they also served to justify the designation of protected areas that are important for the birds.
- Thick-billed parrots, known for their raucous calls, are an endangered species endemic to Mexico; illegal logging in recent years has led to the degradation of their habitats.

Near-extinct Siberian crane is recovering thanks to habitat protection
Over the past decade, the population of the critically endangered Siberian crane has increased by nearly 50%, according to the International Crane Foundation. The foundation said the boost in the snowy-white Siberian crane’s (Leucogeranus leucogeranus) numbers is the result of efforts to secure the migratory bird’s stopover sites along its eastern flyway, or migratory route, […]
Conservation and the rise of corporations in the Pan Amazon
- Despite agreement on the importance of protecting the Amazon’s biodiversity, most people in the Pan Amazon depend directly or indirectly on conventional development and extractive production models.
- Investments by the extractive sector in the mid-nineteenth century were more successful because they were organized by multinational corporations with experience in managing operations in remote geographies (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname) or by state-owned corporations with practical knowledge of their own country (Brazil, Venezuela).
- In Brazil, some family enterprises evolved into complex holding companies that now finance expansion via joint ventures and international credit markets. A select few have chosen to raise capital by selling equity shares on domestic or international stock markets, although they typically retain majority control to maintain the family legacy.

The particularities of the migratory movement in Venezuela, the Guianas and Suriname
- Migration in the Colombian Amazon was not a state project but a consequence of the army’s armed conflict with the FARC and the emergence of drug trafficking that grew in its shadow.
- Although the peace process began in 2017, changes that have occurred since then have given rise to new criminal groups after the guerrillas were eradicated.
- Although the Guiana Shield has escaped large-scale deforestation, the region is home to tens of thousands of wildcat gold miners exploiting mineral resources in the thinly populated hinterlands of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.

How the Sahel junta is responding to climate change amid political isolation
- Torrential rains during the Sahel’s rainy season (July to September) caused widespread flooding, displacing millions and submerging tens of thousands of hectares of cropland across Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan.
- Meanwhile, military coups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have disrupted governance and climate adaptation projects. Political isolation from Western nations has further hindered access to international climate finance, leaving communities struggling to cope with extreme weather events.
- Organizations like the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) emphasize empowering local communities through initiatives like Water User Associations and agroecology. These efforts focus on sustainable land and water management, leveraging local knowledge for resilience.
- Despite the Sahel’s potential for renewable energy and sustainable agriculture, political instability, weak governance and funding gaps have slowed progress.

The fuel that moves people: the Ecuadorian case
- In Ecuador, the main areas of colonization were a north-south corridor along the base of the Andes and the Sucumbíos-Orellana quadrant, the country’s major oil-producing region.
- Since the 1970s, populations in both areas have grown significantly. The Andean zone went from 160,000 inhabitants to more than 520,000 in 2017; in parallel, the population in the provinces of Sucumbíos and Orellana increased from less than 12,000 to more than 350,000.
- Colonization also led to the invasion of lands of the indigenous Shuar, which prompted an unusual effort on their part to protect their territory. Today, the area specializes in cattle production and seeks to establish a niche market for high-quality beef for the domestic market.

Balochistan’s Gwadar city sits at the crossroads of climate and conflict
- A new study examines the links between conflict and climate in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, where extreme weather can be a threat multiplier.
- The port city of Gwadar serves as an example, as local residents have long had grievances against the state, which were exacerbated by recent flooding that killed several people and displaced hundreds.
- Experts highlight the absence of data-driven policies, citing a gap in research that has hindered solutions; they call for investment in data and the inclusion of local people in decision-making and infrastructure planning.

Peru’s modern history of migration and settlement
- Four roads with an enormous impact on rural Peru were built starting in the 1970s, incentivizing migration in the second half of the 20th century to the Amazonian lowlands from the Andean foothills.
- The largest single migratory destination in the Peruvian Amazon is landlocked Iquitos; immigrants arrived there in search of jobs in the oil industry. Currently counting more than 500,000 inhabitants, Iquitos is now the largest city in the Western Amazon.
- The cultivation of coca has had major impacts on the development of Peru’s Amazonian regions. Violent clashes between armed groups searching to dominate the activity have pushed as many as 450,000 people out of their homes.

Bolivia’s internal colonization and its March to the East
- Bolivia’s current configuration and its final area were consolidated after the Chaco War and after the country ceded Acre to Brazil and its coastal provinces to Chile.
- Since then, the need to occupy vast territories allowed for wide-scale deforestation, especially in the Chapare and the alluvial plain of Santa Cruz.
- In the department of Santa Cruz, population grew from about 300,000 in 1960 to more than three million in 2022. Although 70 % of this growth has been concentrated in the metropolitan area of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the urban economy continues to rely heavily on agriculture.

Migration opens up new territories in the Brazilian Amazon in the 20th century
- Internal migration in Panamazonia was driven by the gold rush, improved infrastructure, land grabbing and job opportunities in large-scale infrastructure projects such as industrial mines and hydroelectric plants.
- Rondônia’s population grew from 100,000 in 1972 to more than 400,000 in 1982, when it became one of Brazil’s states. By 1990, it had surpassed one million inhabitants.
- Migration within the Brazilian Amazon is now largely internal, as Amazonian residents move to cities. Internal migration is motivated by lack of opportunity in rural communities and the creation of temporary jobs linked to construction sites

PNG climate migrants sail away with native trees to their new home
Residents of the Carteret Islands in Papua New Guinea are on a “green migration,” contributor Thibault Le Pivain reports for Mongabay. The islanders are leaving their homes due to food shortages resulting from environmental degradation and rising sea levels, and sailing to a larger island in the country, taking with them plants that play important […]
The effects of mass migration in Brazil in the second half of the twentieth century
- The latest wave of migration to the Amazon countries was sustained by a new process of colonization. In Brazil, Operação Amazônia used land grants, tax exemptions and a progressive land tax that encouraged forest to cropland or pasture conversion in order to occupy areas bordering neighboring countries.
- In 1972, the federal government launched POLAMAZÔNIA, which designated fifteen landscapes as priority areas for expanding mineral, livestock and agro-industrial production.
- In 1981 the POLONOROESTE programme – which included infrastructure development, agricultural extension, land title administration and healthcare – has been criticized for unleashing deforestation and harming Indigenous communities.

In a Noah’s Ark move, PNG migrants bring thousands of trees to safer ground
- Facing sea level rise and food insecurity, 17 families from the Carteret Islands have relocated to nearby Bougainville, bringing hundreds of specimens of trees and plants, representing dozens of species, across a small stretch of ocean.
- They’ve planted more than 175,000 plants, breathing life into a forest on new lands donated by the Catholic Church.
- This “green migration” is helping them preserve their lifestyle and identity, sources say, echoing the journey of early Polynesian settlers who carried “canoe plants” as they sailed and settled across the Pacific.
- Scientists say green migrations could become part of climate relocation planning, but there also needs to be careful consideration of whether species can be moved and become unsustainably invasive.

The calm before the storm: The first half of the 20th century in the Pan Amazon
- The progressive decline of the rubber boom gave way to new extractivist interests. In the case of Brazil, a new boom was led by the Brazilian nut commerce. However, rubber became again essential for tire manufacturing during World War II.
- While in 1941, the Vargas administration maintained neutrality, selling Amazon rubber to Nazi Germany, once it became a US ally in 1942, Brazil guaranteed Americans the provision of rubber, in part by subsidizing the recruitment of rubber tappers and financing infrastructure, including both airfields and road networks.
- After Peru’s rubber boom had passed, successive governments promoted European migration. In Pasco, European settlers from Germany and Austria established the first coffee production landscapes in the country.

The rubber boom and its legacy in Brazil, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia
- In the Amazon, the rubber boom was facilitated by new technological developments, industrialization and political change.
- While in Brazil the rubber barons used a form of debt slavery with their workers, in Bolivia the rubber boom was dominated by pioneers from Santa Cruz who had established cattle ranches in the Beni during the nineteenth century.
- In Peru, the boom was based on the exploitation of Castilla species rather than Hevea, resulting into a much more destructive process, which developed a particularly cruel and exploitive slave-labor system.

Exposure to slow-moving landslides increases with migration: Study
A growing number of displaced people are settling in mountain regions prone to slow-moving landslides, those that move between 1 millimeter (.04 inches) and 3 meters (9.8 feet) per year. A new study offers a global assessment of how the pressures of human settlement increase exposure to such landslides. As people migrate from rural to […]
Karachi expected to receive 2.3 million climate migrants by 2050: Report
A new study finds that Karachi — Pakistan’s most populous city, home to more than 20 million people — could get an influx of 2.3 million climate migrants by 2050. According to a recent report, only Dhaka, Bangladesh, is expected to receive more migrants. If the world fails to meet the Paris Agreement target to […]
Evolution of the Pan Amazon in the post-Jesuit era
- Once the economy fostered by the Jesuits withered away, the population, now much diminished, reverted to the subsistence livelihoods that had always been a mainstay of the region.
- The pace of colonization in the Portuguese Amazon accelerated following the Jesuits’ expulsion. The Companhia de Comércio do Grão-Pará e Maranhão’s primary business model was to accelerate the African slave trade in the coastal provinces of Maranhão, but it also radically changed the economics and demographics of the Amazon floodplain.
- In the case of Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana, after the abolition of slavery, the countries imported labor from India (under the rule of the British Empire) and from the Dutch East Indies. Their shared history is more similar to that of the Caribbean than that of the Amazon.

Impacts and legacies of migration across the Pan Amazon
- Although represented by only a few thousand people across 150 years, the Jesuits left a major social and cultural impact on native communities across the Pan Amazon. Their aim was to create autonomous communities based on early Renaissance concepts of equality and a spiritual vision based on the Christian Gospels. But in practice, they worked closely for the political and military interests of the colonies.
- Jesuits settled in remote places and border areas after being invited by colonial authorities interested in taking advantage of the native population’s labor force. But their arrival triggered the collapse of the Indigenous populations of the Western Amazon. Only in the late 17th century, more than 140,000 people died because of diseases brought by the outsiders.
- The success of the Jesuits and the religious colonialism that characterized the Catholic Church in the 17th century motivated other religious orders to follow similar missionary programs.

New study upends common belief that birds escape winter to save energy
- Scientists have found Eurasian blackbirds migrating to warmer regions in winter didn’t save more energy compared to members of the same species that stayed behind.
- A recently published study used surgically implanted biologgers to measure the birds’ heart rate and body temperature over the course of the winter.
- The study also found that migrating birds started saving energy for migration by lowering their heart rate and body temperature almost a month before their departure.
- The research raises important questions on why birds migrate if there’s no energy benefit, and where the unaccounted energy is being used instead.

Rural-urban migration across the Amazon Basin
- After 2000, migration from rural to urban areas across the Pan Amazon intensified, as people started moving to either main urban centers or cities in the highlands or on coastlines.
- In Brazil, already by 2000, about 70% of the population was in urban centers. Most of the small and medium-size cities developed alongside extractive or agricultural activities doubled their population between 2000-2010.
- From the early 1990s to early 2000s, in the Colombian Amazon, civil violence boosted the movement of millions of people into cities, while the country’s peace agreement slowed down migration. But land grabbing and incoming rural investors could kickstart another urban population boom.

Indigenous communities in the Amazon fight for full recognition
- Before the arrival of European colonizers, rural societies in the Amazon Basin domesticated plants and developed agricultural practices and infrastructure which provided supplies of food and fiber and improved crop yields.
- As missionaries and the expansion of trade brought pathogens into communities which lacked immunity, the number of Indigenous people across the Amazon dropped drastically in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, from an estimated 4 to 15 million people to about 400,000.
- In Brazil, a population census in the early 1990s showed an increase of Indigenous population, indicating higher birth rates and increased Indigenous self-identification. Boosting the latter across the Amazon Basin requires policies that prioritize the formalization of land rights of communities with specific ethnic heritage.

Birds caught in the eye of Hurricane Milton
Hurricane Milton, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record, is expected to hit the Gulf Coast of central Florida in the U.S. on Oct. 9. Hurricane Milton follows on the heels of Hurricane Helene, which devastated parts of the Southeast just two weeks earlier. Both storms coincide with the fall migration of birds in […]
The people who make up the Pan-Amazonian melting pot: regional demographics
- Based on current trends, the Pan Amazon should have a total population of about sixty million by 2050 and stabilize at about 65 million by 2100.
- Currently, the Pan Amazon is home to approximately 43 million people. Of these, 80% are represented by immigrants or their descendants.
- Although there was a major population growth in the 1970s and 19880s, birth rates have been gradually decreasing and stabilzing.

CHAPTER 6. Culture and demographics defines the Pan Amazon’s present
- The dynamics unfolding across the Pan Amazon have been centuries in the making, with drivers of deforestation and ecosystem degradation evolving as a result of social and economic change.
- A colonial focus on resource exploitation, development policies and migration as well as the resistance of Indigenous peoples have transformed the Amazon.
- Latin America’s repeated failure to capitalize on the inherent advantages of its natural and human capital has been blamed on economic mismanagement, endemic corruption, entrenched inequality, legal insecurity and market cycles that undermine periodic attempts at reform.

First-ever global atlas shines light on large mammal migrations
Every year, massive herds of large mammals take on arduous long-distance migrations to find food, favorable weather and a suitable place to raise their young. An international team of scientists has now launched the first-ever online atlas showcasing the migration paths of several hooved mammals, also known as ungulates, from around the world. The new […]
Animal apocalypse: Deadly bird flu infects hundreds of species pole-to-pole
- The world is currently seeing the fastest-spreading, largest-ever outbreak of H5N1, a highly contagious, deadly strain of avian influenza. Scientists say this virus now presents an existential threat to the world’s biodiversity, with the risk to humans rising as it continues to leap the species barrier, reaching new host species.
- H5N1 has already impacted at least 485 bird species and 48 mammal species, killing seals, sea otters, dolphins, foxes, California condors, albatrosses, bald eagles, cougars, polar bears and a zoo tiger. Since it broke out in Europe in 2020, this virus has spread globally. Carried by birds along migratory pathways, it has invaded six continents, including Antarctica.
- This current H5N1 animal pandemic (or panzootic) was caused by humans: A mild form of avian flu carried by wild birds turned deadly when it infected domestic poultry. Many industrial-scale poultry farms adjoin wetlands where migrating birds congregate, facilitating rapid spread.
- The toll on some bird and mammal populations has been devastating. With continued outbreaks, some imperiled species could be pushed to the brink, with wildlife already fighting to survive against a changing climate, disappearing habitat and other stressors.

‘Lost’ snow leopard to remain at Kathmandu zoo, officials say
- A snow leopard found in Nepal’s lowland at the start of the year will remain at Kathmandu’s Central Zoo, officials have announced.
- The juvenile male has recovered from injuries it had when it was found, and currently occupies a temperature-controlled quarantine shelter at the zoo.
- A committee formed by the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation recommended that the snow leopard should not be released back into the wild due to its prolonged captivity.
- Six months since its capture, there’s still no consensus as to how the mountain-dwelling snow leopard ended up in the plains, with theories ranging from natural dispersal to escape from traffickers.

‘Explorer elephants’ in transfrontier conservation area offer solution to tree damage
- In parts of Southern Africa, elephants engage in “hedging” by breaking off the branches of hardwood mopane trees, snapping their trunks in two or pushing them over.
- Consequently, large areas of mopane forest are transformed into shrublands, which a new study in Zimbabwe’s Gonarezhou National Park says can threaten the habitat of other forest-dependent animals.
- Gonarezhou is part of a massive transfrontier conservation area, and some “explorer elephants” have been searching for routes to alternative foraging grounds in neighboring South Africa and Mozambique.
- But hunting and human settlements are creating a “barrier of fear” that stands in their way.

Analysis of largest elephant surveys ever shows stable population, but disturbing trends
- New research comparing data from the two largest-ever elephant surveys reveals the overall population in the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area is stable, but also uncovers some concerning local trends.
- Elephant numbers in Botswana, home to more elephants than any other country, are stable overall, but declining numbers in areas where hunting is permitted, and increasing numbers in protected areas, suggest underlying issues for Botswana’s elephants.
- Survey comparisons reveal that elephants have all but disappeared from the western Angolan section of the KAZA area, but a lack of local research, an issue across the region, means conservationists are unsure why.
- More research is needed across the transfrontier conservation area to ensure a safe future for the world’s largest elephant population.

Alis Ramírez: A defender of the Colombian Amazon now living as a refugee in New Zealand
- Because of her opposition to mining, indiscriminate logging in forests and the social and environmental consequences of oil exploration, María Alis Ramírez was forced to abandon her farm in Caquetá, in southern Colombia, and move across the world.
- The various threats she received because of her work as an environmental defender forced her and her family to first move to New Zealand, where she arrived as a refugee in 2019.
- According to reports by human rights organization Global Witness, Colombia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for environmental and land defenders.
- In New Zealand, she says she can live with a sense of tranquility that would be impossible in Colombia. Although Alis Ramírez is now safe, she has not stopped thinking about her country, the jungle and the river that was alongside her throughout her childhood.

Nepal’s release of endangered crocs into historical habitat raises concerns
- Nepal recently released 25 critically endangered gharials into a tributary of the Mahakali River to reintroduce them to historical habitats, but concerns have arisen over transparency and timing of the process.
- Gharials are released into the Chaudhar river, part of the Terai Arc Landscape, to augment dwindling populations, although previous translocations have yielded mixed results.
- Researchers highlight challenges faced by gharials, including migration obstacles due to dams and barrages, and they advocate for better timing of releases to optimize adaptation and survival.
- Issues such as lack of publicized government studies, potential influence of reciprocal gifts in translocation decisions and denial of budget-related motives are raised amid efforts to conserve gharials.

Why language is central to the survival of cultures and communities
- More than half the world’s languages could go extinct by 2100, The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues says.
- Roughly 4,000 of the world’s 6,700 languages are spoken by Indigenous communities and contain knowledge key for conservation and human health, but multiple factors threaten their existence along with their speakers’ cultures.
- Joining the podcast is Jay Griffiths, author of ‘Wild’ and other seminal books about how language and relationship are central to cultural survival, and why connection to the land is a universal human right.
- The guest also draws parallels between humans, nature and culture: “There’s great research that suggests that we learned ethics from wolves [of taking] an attitude to the world of both me the individual, and of me the pack member,” she says.

Landmark report on migratory species underlines threats to Asia’s wildlife
- A U.N.-backed report has found that nominally protected migratory species face the rising risk of extinction amid habitat loss and overexploitation worldwide.
- Of the 1,200 species listed in the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, half were found to have declining populations and one in five were threatened with extinction.
- The report found that “species occurring in Asia are the most threatened overall” and that “early indications suggest that the scale of unsustainable and illegal take may be even higher in Southeast Asia.”

Amazon catfish must be protected by the Convention on Migratory Species COP-14 (commentary)
- The latest Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals (also known as the Bonn Convention) meeting (COP-14) is taking place in Uzbekistan this month, and the government of Brazil has proposed protections for two catfish species with extraordinary migrations, the dorado and piramutaba (manitoa).
- The dorado’s migratory journey for instance spans a distance of 11,000+ kilometers round trip, from the Andes to the mouth of the Amazon River, and along the way it connects multiple ecosystems and feeds local and Indigenous fishing communities, but is under increasing threat.
- “During COP-14, the dorado and piramutaba will take a prominent place thanks to the Brazilian Government’s proposal to include them in CMS Appendix II…It is essential that the governments at the meeting adopt Brazil’s proposal,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Newly identified shorebird species takes its name from Hanuman, a mythical Hindu ape god
- The Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrines) is a widespread shorebird and a constant winter visitor to Sri Lanka and neighboring India, yet a population chooses to remain year-round in Sri Lanka and southern India.
- This population has physical characteristics different from the migratory Kentish plovers, hence it has been identified as a subspecies, known as C. a. seebohmi. As far back in 1887, British ornithologist Henry Seebohm suggested they could possibly be a distinct species.
- A recent study of genetic analysis has established this breeding population of plovers found in Sri Lanka to be different from the migratory Kentish plovers; the new species’ evolution started about 1.19 million years ago after the population separated from its ancestors.
- The new species is named Hanuman plover (Charadrius seebohmi) named after the Hindu mythical ape god Hanuman revered in the Sanskrit epic Ramayana who supposedly built a bridge linking Sri Lanka and India, incidentally where the first specimen of this bird was collected.

Rare snow leopard sighting in Nepal’s ‘home of tiger’ puzzles conservationists
- Residents of Urlabari town in Nepal’s plains were surprised to spot a snow leopard (Panthera uncia), a species known to live in the mountains.
- Local authorities, including veterinarians, captured the snow leopard, which had sustained injuries, and treated it at the Central Zoo in Kathmandu.
- Conservationists and researchers speculate on the reasons for the snow leopard’s presence in the plains, considering possibilities such as climate change, escape from illegal captivity or disorientation during dispersal.

Count, connect, conserve: Southern Africa elephant survey points the way (commentary)
- The Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) is the largest transboundary terrestrial conservation area in the world – spanning five countries in southern Africa, it is home to Africa’s largest savanna elephant population.
- A 2022 survey of KAZA’s elephants revealed an estimated 227,900 individuals, but their movement is increasingly blocked by fences and human settlements, pointing to the need for better habitat connections and corridors.
- “Now that KAZA’s elephants have been counted, the landscape’s key wildlife areas must be connected, so that elephants and other species can be better conserved,” a new op-ed states.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Texas ocelot breeding and reintroduction may offer new route to recovery
- A public-private partnership aims to establish a new ocelot population in Texas to ensure survival and recovery of the species in the U.S. Current ocelot populations at the East Foundation’s El Sauz Ranch and Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge are small, isolated and inbred. The nearest Mexican ocelots are 100 miles to the south.
- The new Texas population can offer insurance against accidental extirpation due to a hurricane or disease and give access to now inaccessible habitat and dispersal corridors. Captive-bred ocelots, with a mix of genes from Texas and elsewhere, will be released on East Foundation’s San Antonio Viejo Ranch, west of the current range.
- The effort represents the world’s second-ever attempt to release small wildcats via a captive breeding program. Without a suitable federal or state wildlife refuge for release, the Texas program will rely on a Safe Harbor Agreement to ensure buy-in from nearby landowners. Ranches in the region have a deep culture of wildlife management.
- Distance, development and the border wall all make connectivity between U.S. and Mexican ocelots difficult — especially in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The new release site represents the best possibility for connectivity, but continued border wall development could threaten movement of ocelots and other recolonizing species.

Plan to bring Mennonite farmers to Suriname sparks deforestation fears
- Investors from Argentina and the Netherlands have spent the past several years trying to bring Mennonite farming communities to Suriname from Belize, Mexico and Bolivia.
- Mennonite farmers have faced criticism for clearing thousands of hectares of forest across Latin America, often in protected areas and Indigenous territories.
- The company behind the project is called Terra Invest Suriname & Guyana, and plans to purchase as much as 30,000 hectares (about 74,000 acres) for approximately 1,000 Mennonite families.

Super flock of pigeons leaves Nepali researchers asking what happened
- Researchers in Nepal say they still don’t know what was behind a massive flock of some 7,500 woodpigeons observed in the country’s plains last December.
- A recently published study suggests a range of factors, from food availability to predator avoidance, combined to bring together the flock, which was 25 times larger than the biggest flock previously observed here.
- Climate factors may also have played a part, particularly the impact of heavy rains on the birds’ overwintering grounds in Pakistan.
- Researchers say more studies are needed to get to the bottom of the mystery, and plan to watch out for another super flock this coming winter.

Can land titles save Madagascar’s embattled biodiversity and people?
- Through its Titre Vert or Green Title initiative, the Malagasy government is opening up a path to land ownership for its most vulnerable citizens in the hopes it will help tackle hunger, internal migration, and forest loss.
- The state is using the initiative to lean on potential migrants to remain in the country’s deep south, where five years of failed rains have left 2 million people hungry, instead of migrating north, where they are often blamed for social tensions and for destroying forests.
- This March, the Malagasy government started work on a Titre Vert enclave in the Menabe region, a popular destination for migrants from the drought-hit south, to dissuade them from clearing unique dry forests to grow crops.
- Critics say the government is holding people back in a rain-starved region without providing enough support; in Menabe, backers of the project hope to provide ample assistance to get migrants out of the forests and onto their feet.

‘What we need to protect and why’: 20-year Amazon research hints at fate of tropics
- In its bold outlines, many informed people understand that climate change is reducing tropical biodiversity and thereby degrading the functionality and ecoservices of tropical forests. But what are the specific mechanisms by which these forests are being diminished over long time frames?
- One project on the slopes of the Peruvian Amazon has tried to make exactly that type of assessment, via a 20-year ongoing research project that meticulously observes a narrow transect of rainforest stretching from the Amazon lowlands near sea level to the Andean highlands above 3,352 meters (11,000 feet).
- The international team conducting this work, the Andes Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group (ABERG), is painstakingly observing changes in more than 1,000 tree species, birds, frogs, snakes and more to determine not only how much climate change is affecting them, but untangling how the change process works.
- This type of in-depth research is vital to conserving tropical rainforest diversity, the carbon storage capacity it offers, and its assistance in maintaining long-persisting regional and global precipitation patterns vital to agriculture and other water needs. Mongabay contributor Justin Catanoso traveled to Peru to observe ABERG at work.

Virtual fences can benefit both ranchers and wildlife
- Virtual fencing manages livestock using GPS-linked collars to train animals to stay within a set boundary, similar to an invisible dog fence.
- Coupled with the removal of existing barbed-wire fencing, it could open up whole landscapes for wildlife by removing injurious barriers for migratory herds, reducing mortality from fence strikes for numerous bird species, and protecting sensitive habitats from trampling by cattle.
- Virtual fences are easily moved with a tap on an app, and can be used to improve pasture management through rotational grazing, reduce wildfire risk, and other benefits.
- These systems are cheaper than building and maintaining physical fences, and are already in use in the U.S., U.K., Australia and Norway.

Divided by mining: Vale’s new rail track fractures an Amazon Indigenous group
- In 1985, mining giant Vale opened a railroad that cuts through the Mãe Maria Indigenous Territory in the Brazilian Amazon.
- Since being built, the railroad has driven away game, cut off access to important water bodies and disrupted the Indigenous peoples’ way of life by introducing compensation money paid by Vale into the daily life of the villages.
- Now, the mining giant has secured permission to build a second railroad track.
- Indigenous leaders say that not only will the railroad extension cause greater environmental damage, but also that the company reached the agreement by using “divide and conquer” tactics over the years and by applying other maneuvers they consider unethical.

Tag team effort brings tech to aid leatherback turtle conservation
- In Puerto Rico, scientists and conservationists are deploying drones and satellite tags to gather data about leatherback sea turtles.
- Leatherback sea turtles, the largest species of turtles in the world, have seen their populations decline due to poaching, habitat loss and bycatch in fishing nets.
- Two teams are now collaborating to use drones to identify nesting sites in Maunabo in Puerto Rico.
- They’re also tagging the animals to understand more about their migration patterns once they leave the nesting beach.

Congo Basin communities left out by ‘fortress conservation’ fight for a way back in
- Since the colonization of the Congo Basin by Europeans, many Indigenous communities have been cordoned off from land they once relied on in the name of conservation.
- The contentious “fortress conservation” model remains popular with some governments in Central Africa, but conservation leaders are shifting their opinion, signaling a desire to move toward inclusive and rights-based approaches to protected areas and ecosystems, including in declarations such as the Kigali Call to Action.
- However, Indigenous leaders and conservation experts say action, not just talk, is urgently needed to achieve the goals outlined by the 30x30 initiative, and to make good on promises to address injustices faced by Indigenous communities across the basin.
- On this episode of Mongabay Explores the Congo Basin, Cameroonian lawyer and Goldman Prize winner Samuel Nguiffo, Congolese academic Vedaste Cituli, and Mongabay features writer Ashoka Mukpo detail the troubling history of fortress conservation in Central Africa, the role of paramilitary forces in it, the impacts on local communities, and ways to address the conflicts it has created.

Fewer migratory birds stopping at key Bangladesh wetland amid human disturbances
- Numbers of most species of migratory waterbirds in Bangladesh’s Tanguar Haor wetland, a key stopping point, have fallen over the past 15 years, a new study shows.
- The cause of the decline isn’t fully known yet, researchers say, but it’s clear that human activity has impacted the wetland, with 40% of the basin’s original area converted to farmland and settlements in just 30 years.
- The study recommends prioritizing conservation at two of the permanent waterbodies, or beels, in the Tanguar Haor complex, citing the high abundance and diversity of the birds that stop there.
- Tanguar Haor is the second Ramsar site in Bangladesh, after the Sundarbans mangrove forest, and accounted for nearly half of the more than 1.2 million waterbirds recorded in the country between 2008 and 2015.

After Sri Lanka, Nepal debates exporting its ‘problematic’ monkeys
- Some officials in Nepal are calling for mimicking a plan by Sri Lanka — now suspended — to export large numbers of rhesus macaques.
- The monkeys are seen as pests by farmers whose crops they eat, and exporting them would address this problem while also generating foreign revenue, proponents say.
- However, a previous attempt to export a small number of macaques was scrapped on the grounds that it violated Nepali laws and international wildlife trade regulations.
- Conservationists also say that exporting the monkeys won’t address the root causes of human-macaque conflicts, including a government forestry program that’s seen the animals’ preferred fruit trees replaced with non-native species.

Feathered forecast: Tech tools comb weather data for bird migrations
- Since its launch in 1999, the BirdCast project has used weather radar data to track and forecast bird migrations across the U.S.
- In recent years, technology such as cloud computing and machine learning have helped make the work of researchers in the project easier and more automated.
- Studying bird migrations is essential not only to help protect them, but to also analyze and understand environmental health.
- The BirdCast project is now working on integrating radar data with human observations and bioacoustics to help identify the bird species traversing the skies.

Monarch butterflies become a powerful symbol for justice at the U.S./Mexico border (commentary)
- Monarch butterflies have become a strong symbol for advocates of biological diversity and human rights at the U.S./Mexico border.
- Though its population appears to be at the brink of a U.S. endangered species listing, their conservation along the southern border has been controversial since the former presidential administration’s wall building effort bulldozed habitat at the National Butterfly Center without properly notifying the center about the construction.
- Drawing parallels between the plight of the species and that of human migrants trapped at the U.S./Mexico border, immigration rights protests have begun featuring images of monarchs and people making butterfly shapes with their hands.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Human migration to Nepal’s tiger capital adds to conservation challenges
- Chitwan district in central Nepal is home to the eponymous national park that’s come to symbolize the country’s success in growing its tiger population.
- But the district’s human population is also growing, at a rate far higher than the national average, driven by migrants seeking better health services and other urban amenities.
- Conservationists have raised concerns that the growing human presence in the area will pose additional challenges to conservation efforts and put a strain on natural resources such as forests, rivers and land.
- Some warn of an increase in human-tiger conflict, especially involving migrants who don’t share the same traditional knowledge that Indigenous residents have of coexisting alongside the big cats.

Russian invasion hinders global biodiversity conservation, study shows
- A new policy paper outlines the impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on biodiversity and conservation efforts.
- The authors found that the escalation of the war has isolated Russia, a key party to many international conservation agreements and a vital country for protecting biodiversity because of its diverse habitats, as well as the threatened and migratory species it hosts.
- That isolation has impeded international cooperation on species conservation, they write.
- The invasion has also shifted the priorities of many countries faced with the knock-on effects of the war, such as potential food shortages.

Debunking the colonial myth of the ‘African Eden’: Q&A with author Guillaume Blanc
- In debunking persistent myths like that of an “African Eden,” Guillaume Blanc, author of “The Invention of Green Colonialism,” lays bare contradictions in the European project to secure and simultaneously exploit Africa’s land during direct colonial rule and after.
- “The more the destruction was happening in Northern [Hemisphere] countries, the more we wanted to save it in Africa,” he told Mongabay in an interview, describing how the campaign to preserve pristine wilderness in Africa has led to the casting of its inhabitants as destructive invaders.
- Blanc argues that the organizations that evolved out of colonial arrangements for colonial aims must acknowledge and apologize for the harm inflicted, dig deeper when seeking change, and cast a wider net for more meaningful solutions that treat citizens of African countries as collaborators not encroachers on their own lands.
- Organizations with a global presence must work with residents of places where they operate and focus on localized research and solutions to remain relevant, Blanc said.

Healthy mangroves build a resilient community in the Philippines’ Palawan
- According to historical accounts, the fisheries of Malampaya Sound in the Philippines’ Palawan province were once so rich it was difficult to wade to shore without stepping on crabs.
- This bounty fueled migration to the area from across the Philippines, and by the turn of the 20th century, much of the areas’ mangroves had been cleared or degraded, leading to a decline in fish catches.
- From 2011-2013, mangrove restoration efforts were initiated as part of the Philippines’ National Greening Program, but, as elsewhere in the country, the initiative performed far below target.
- Today, however, thanks to ongoing outreach initiatives, community partnerships and Indigenous belief systems, the importance of preserving mangroves is widely recognized and the area’s coastal forests and fisheries are seeing a recovery.

‘Unprecedented crisis’ for Nepal’s elephants: Q&A with conservationist Ashok Ram
- Conflict with humans is considered the biggest threat to Asian elephants in Nepal, says veteran conservationist Ashok Ram.
- Encounters between villagers and elephants typically occur when they stray into each other’s areas in search of food.
- Ram says there needs to be a landscape-level management approach to elephant conservation, given that the animals move freely between Nepal and India.
- In an interview with Mongabay, he explains the history of habitat fragmentation, why electric fences aren’t a solution to human-elephant conflict, and why mid-afternoon is the most dangerous time for encounters.

In world convulsed by climate-driven conflict, are peace parks an answer?
- Conflicts over disputed borders, increasingly exacerbated by climate change, are putting some of the world’s key biodiversity hotspots at risk.
- Even in countries that have avoided border wars, a global campaign of fence building — aimed at keeping out human migrants whose numbers are rising in an era of climate change and sociopolitical unrest — is causing widespread damage to vulnerable natural landscapes and migratory animal species.
- In potential conflict zones like the Himalayas, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and the South China Sea, this surging human march across national frontiers has already led to violence, and in some cases to open warfare.
- Border-straddling conservation zones known as peace parks offer a more sustainable way of managing border disputes than militarization and fence building. Peace parks on the U.S.-Canada border and in the Himalayas offer successful examples.

Spotted hyenas adapt to climate change in famed Tanzanian park
- Spotted hyenas seem to be adapting to changing rainfall patterns affecting their preferred prey in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park.
- In the past decade, migratory herds have been arriving later than previously at hyena clan territories in the middle of the Serengeti, forcing lactating females to “commute” further from their dens to find a meal.
- But researchers have observed no change in how much time they spend with their cubs at these dens, suggesting they’re having no trouble locating prey further from home.
- Hyenas are known for their robust and flexible foraging behavior, but researchers caution that in places other than the Serengeti, they may face additional challenges, such as fragmented habitat and intensifying human activity.

Wage-related abuses in fishing industry exacerbated by pandemic response
- The COVID-19 pandemic left migrant fishers in Asia, already a highly vulnerable section of the workforce, with less income and at higher risk of labor abuses, a new report says.
- The brief, commissioned by the International Labour Organization and authored by Cornell University researchers, looked at workers’ experiences in the fishing and seafood-processing industries of Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan from March 2020 to March 2021.
- Common issues they uncovered included employers paying wages below the legal minimum, making illegal wage deductions, deferring wage payments, and not paying wages upon termination of employment.
- Labor shortages caused by border closures due to the pandemic should have given workers more leverage in wage negotiations, but this wasn’t the case, the researchers found.

Boom and bust on Lake Victoria: Q&A with author Mark Weston
- In a new book, British author Mark Weston examines an environmental crisis on East Africa’s Lake Victoria that’s been a century in the making and stems from the introduction of the non-native Nile perch to the lake in the 1950s.
- Weston lived on Ukerewe, the lake’s largest island, for two years, and relates the knock-on legacy of the fish’s introduction through the experiences of the people he met there.
- The boom and bust of the fishery brought about a surging population, deforestation, declining land fertility, and increased pollution in the lake.
- With Nile perch catches down precipitously and little else to sustain the economy of Ukerewe, residents struggle through poverty, lack of opportunity and a trickling exodus from the once-prosperous community, in search of a better life for themselves and their families.

The world’s dams: Doing major harm but a manageable problem?
- Dam construction is one of the oldest, most preferred tools to manage freshwater for various uses. The practice reached a peak internationally in the 1960s and ’70s, but in recent years dam construction has faced increasing global criticism as the hefty environmental price paid for their benefits piles up.
- The flows of most major waterways have been impacted by dams globally. Only 37% of rivers longer than 1,000 km (620 mi) remain free-flowing, and just 23% flow uninterrupted to the sea. Natural flows will be altered for 93% of river volume worldwide by 2030, if all planned and ongoing hydropower construction goes ahead.
- This global fragmentation of rivers has led to severe impacts. Dams have contributed to an 84% average decline in freshwater wildlife population sizes since 1970. More than a quarter of Earth’s land-to-ocean sediment flux is trapped behind dams. Dams also impact Earth’s climate in complex ways via modification of the carbon cycle.
- But dams are needed for energy, agriculture and drinking water, and are an inevitable part of our future. Lessons on how to balance their benefits against the environmental harm they do are already available to us: removing some existing dams, for example, and not building others.

As the Horn of Africa heats up, the risks of insecurity are rising (commentary)
- World leaders are increasingly concerned about the complex connections between climate and insecurity, including the risk that climate disruption is a “conflict multiplier.”
- The threat is particularly acute in the Greater Horn of Africa, where populations already grappling with food insecurity and armed conflict are experiencing some of the fastest-warming conditions in the world.
- Noting that “the fortunes and stability of this region of 365 million people now look to be at the mercy of weather-driven mayhem”, Robert Muggah, Peter Schmidt, and Giovanna Kuele of the Igarapé Institute draw attention to various efforts already underway in the region to build resilience and call for stepped-up support from global powers.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Researchers puzzle over sea-crossing migration of crimson rose butterflies
- A recently observed migration of a large swarm of crimson rose butterflies from India to Sri Lanka has highlighted how little we still know about this natural phenomenon.
- Unlike the better-known migration of the monarch butterfly in North America, the movements of the crimson rose are meandering and dispersed, often triggered by the start of rains following a long dry spell.
- Researchers have called for more studies to be done to better understand the phenomenon, including through contributions from citizen scientists in both Sri Lanka and India.

Drone photography raises concerns for Sri Lanka’s flamingo flock
- The annual migration of a flock of thousands of greater flamingos to northern Sri Lanka’s Mannar wetland draws crowds of photographers, a growing number of whom now use drones to snap the birds from above.
- Environmental activists and authorities have warned against this trend, saying the presence of drones disturbs the birds and could drive them away from Mannar altogether.
- Experts point to a worrying precedent: In the 1990s, the Bundala wetland in the country’s south was pumped full of fresh water as part of an irrigation program, killing off the shrimp and plankton that flamingos there fed on. The flamingos soon abandoned the wetland.
- In Mannar, a region impoverished by decades of civil war, the flamingos are a key tourism attraction that should be preserved to help boost the livelihoods of locals, experts say.

New study reveals globe-trotting pedigree of South Asian songbirds
- South Asia is home to 24 different species of bulbuls, a family of songbirds for which a new genetic analysis shows an evolutionary history stretching back to the Southeast Asian archipelago and forward into Africa and the Indian Ocean islands.
- In each region where the birds occur, climatic and environmental factors have shaped their evolution, leaving some species in India with more similarities to their Southeast Asian cousins than to their South Asian counterparts.
- This diversification in the bulbul family tree didn’t stop after they moved from Southeast Asia to South Asia, and in fact continued as they dispersed across the Middle East and into Africa, as well as “island-hopped” to Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands.

What makes a ‘refugee’? It could be a life-or-death question in the climate crisis
- A new analysis by the Environmental Justice Foundation says that international laws covering refugee protection are too narrow for the climate crisis.
- The group is calling for a new global agreement to protect those who are forced to flee the effects of climate change.
- A U.S. National Intelligence Estimate released on Oct. 21 said the world is currently on a trajectory for 2°C (3.6°F) of warming by 2050, underscoring the urgency of planning for climate-related migration.

Green groups call for scrapping of $300m loan offer for Borneo road project
- The Asian Development Bank is considering a $300 million loan proposal from the Indonesian government to fund a road project in Borneo.
- The 280-kilometer (170-mile) project across North and East Kalimantan provinces are designed to boost economic growth and further the integration of the Malaysian and Indonesian palm oil industries.
- Environmental groups around the world have urged the ADB to impose stricter environmental and social requirements for the project to reduce its expected impacts on the environment and the Indigenous communities living in the region.
- Indigenous peoples like the Dayak rely on the forests staying intact, as do critically endangered species such as Bornean orangutans.

Fate of Malaysian forests stripped of protection points to conservation stakes
- In the seven years since Jemaluang and Tenggaroh were struck from Malaysia’s list of permanent forest reserves, the two forests in Johor state have experienced large-scale deforestation.
- The clearance is reportedly happening on land privately owned by the sultan of Johor, the head of the state, calling into question the effectiveness of the Central Forest Spine (CFS) Master Plan, a nationwide conservation initiative the two reserves had originally been part of.
- The CFS Master Plan is currently being revised, with experts seeing the review as a chance to change what has been a largely toothless program, beset by conflicts of interest between federal and state authorities.
- As the revision nears completion, Jemaluang and Tenggaroh highlight how much has been lost, but also what’s at stake for Malaysia’s forests, wildlife and residents.

Children born in 2020 will see spike in climate disasters, study says
- The study used climate modeling to determine specialized impacts by region, finding that at the current level of carbon reduction pledges, people born in 2020 will experience many more extreme climate events in comparison to those born in 1960.
- On the world’s current course, those children will experience twice as many wildfires overall, three times as many crop failures, and seven times as many heat waves.
- At a geographical scale, children born in low-income countries that are least responsible for the climate crisis will confront significantly higher spikes in extreme events than in wealthier countries.
- If the world takes a more aggressive approach to limiting warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F) by 2100, the number of climate disasters experienced by younger generations would drop substantially, with the model predicting 45% fewer heat waves, 39% fewer droughts, and 28% fewer crop failures.

When North America locked down, birds filled the gap left by people
- Of the 82 bird species considered in an analysis, the distribution of 66 changed during pandemic-related shutdowns, and most of them grew in abundance in and around human settlements.
- The researchers gathered more than 4 million records from eBird, a community science program that relies on contributions from volunteers, both amateur and specialist birders.
- The study in Science Advances captured how sensitive birds are to human activities and highlighted how small adjustments could make areas used by humans welcoming to other species.

Borneo’s bearded pigs and traditional hunters adapted to oil palms. Then came swine fever
- Oil palm expansion and urbanization have altered the traditional hunting of bearded pigs by the Indigenous Kadazandusun-Murut (KDM) community in Sabah, Malaysia, a new study has found.
- Researchers interviewed 38 hunters on changes in pig behavior and hunting practices before the African swine fever (ASF) epidemic hit Sabah in 2021.
- They found that even though pig hunting patterns have changed dramatically, the activity remains a cornerstone of KDM communal culture for food, sport, gift-giving, festivals and celebrations.
- As ASF devastates wild pig populations, the researchers’ findings highlight a need for long-term hunting management that conserves both the bearded pig and Indigenous cultural traditions.

Not just sea life: Migratory fish, birds and mammals also fall foul of plastic
- A new report from the U.N. Environment Programme and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals confirms that plastic pollution poses a major threat to land and freshwater migratory species.
- Mammals, birds and fish are affected through various means, including entanglement, ingestion of plastics, accumulation of microplastics in the food chain, and using plastics in nesting material.
- The report highlights that global capacity to manage plastic pollution is not keeping pace with projected growth in the plastics market.
- The authors call for measures that will ultimately drive change upstream to reduce the volume of plastics entering the marketplace.

Vale told Brazil communities they were in danger. They say Vale wants their land
- Residents moved from their homes in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state over fears of impending collapses of dams operated by miner Vale are accusing the company of trying to take over their land.
- The first such evacuation was ordered in February 2019 in the municipality of Barão de Cocais, two weeks after the Brumadinho dam disaster killed 458 people.
- In the two and a half years since then, more communities have been moved, with affected residents saying Vale is stonewalling them on compensation.
- A document drawn up by state prosecutors in March confirms that there’s been interest in prospecting for minerals on the vacated land, although Vale has not responded to the accusation.

It’s time to scrutinize who’s in the room when conservation decisions are made, says Laly Lichtenfeld
- Worldwide concern about injustice and inequity, the impacts of the pandemic, and the worsening effects of global environmental degradation has accelerated change in the conservation sector, a field that has historically been relatively slow to evolve.
- But for the shifts underway to be more than just a passing fad, many would argue that conservation requires fundamental structural changes that put more decision-making power in the hands of people who’ve been traditionally sidelined or ignored and recognize the importance of contributions from a wide range of stakeholders in achieving conservation outcomes.
- African People & Wildlife, a Tanzania-based NGO, has been working on these issues since its founding in 2005 by Laly Lichtenfeld and Charles Trout. Lichtenfeld says that conservation now must take “concrete action” to move forward.
- “Currently, there are big questions out there as to whether organizations and the global conservation culture will truly change or whether things will revert to the status quo,” she told Mongabay during a recent interview. “If the much-needed challenge is really taken on, well then again, we have a lot of work ahead on this—particularly in terms of scrutinizing who is in the room when conservation decisions are made, understanding and overcoming the power dynamics at play, and considering how we can better communicate with and listen to one another.”

Highway cutting through Heart of Borneo poised to be ‘very, very bad’
- With Indonesia planning to shift its capital from Jakarta to the Bornean province of East Kalimantan, infrastructure development pressures on the island have intensified.
- Neighboring Malaysia is adding new stretches to the Pan Borneo Highway to capitalize on spillover economic benefits; within Indonesia, East Kalimantan’s developmental gains are also expected to trickle to other provinces through the transboundary highway.
- While the new roads could spur economic development in remote villages, they also carve into protected areas in the Heart of Borneo, opening them up for resource extraction.
- In particular, the roads could fast-track development of a new “oil palm belt,” with disastrous consequences for the wildlife and Indigenous peoples of Borneo, and for global climate, experts say.

Overcoming community-conservation conflict: Q&A with Dominique Bikaba
- Kahuzi-Biega National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is renowned for its biodiversity. The area is also home to the Batwa people, who are highly dependent on its forests for their livelihoods and cultural traditions.
- Efforts to protect these forests are challenged by conservation’s mixed record: Kahuzi-Biega’s expansion in the 1970s forced the displacement of thousands of local people, turning them into conservation refugees and sowing distrust in conservation initiatives.
- One of the local organizations leading efforts to overcome these challenges is Strong Roots Congo, which was co-founded by Dominique Bikaba in 2009. Strong Roots Congo puts the needs of local people at the center of its strategy to protect endangered forests and wildlife in eastern DRC.
- “Strong Roots’ approach to conservation is bottom-up, collaborative, and inclusive,” Bikaba said during a recent conversation with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

Humanity’s ‘ecological Ponzi scheme’ sets up bleak future, scientists warn
- In a recently published perspective piece, 17 leading scientists say the world is facing a “ghastly future” due to ongoing environmental degradation, including biodiversity loss, climate change, and human overpopulation and overconsumption.
- The authors say their message is meant to give a “cold shower” to leaders who can help make positive changes for the planet.
- While other scientists agree with some of the report’s messages, they point out several issues with the argument’s framework, including its possible misidentification of migration and population growth in places like sub-Saharan Africa as driving environmental problems.

Philippine ‘raptor boy’ shows it takes a village to protect a migration route
- In Glan, a town at the southern tip of the Philippines, a community has been actively protecting a migratory raptor flyway for the past five years.
- More than 160,000 raptors passed through Glan last year, an increase from previous years thanks in part to the various conservation and tree-planting efforts instigated by the community.
- The birds of prey are apex predators that keep a balanced and healthy ecosystem, feeding on farm agricultural pests on their way from Russia and East Asia to Indonesia.
- The town’s raptor conservation was triggered by a boy’s fascination with the avian visitors five years ago. Now, the town’s children are actively involved in raptor and environmental conservation.

Brazil’s Bem Querer dam: An impending Amazon disaster (commentary)
- Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has announced his administration’s priorities for Amazon dams, including the planned Bem Querer dam on the Rio Branco in the far-northern state of Roraima.
- Bem Querer is primarily intended to increase the energy supply to industries in locations outside of Amazonia, rather than for residents of Roraima.
- Probable environmental impacts include blocking fish migrations and flooding a riparian forest that possesses extraordinary bird diversity. Downstream flow alteration would impact protected areas, including two Ramsar wetland biodiversity sites. Riverside dwellers would also be impacted.
- Sediment flow blockage would impact fisheries and the unique Anavilhanas Archipelago, a spectacular Brazilian national park. These adverse impacts need to be fully evaluated before a decision to build is made. This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

A warming Arctic is changing animal migrations, decades of tracking shows
- The newly launched Arctic Animal Movement Archive (AAMA) includes 28 years of terrestrial and marine animal tracking studies on more than 96 species across the Arctic, Arctic marine, and subarctic (including boreal forests and taiga).
- “The Arctic is undergoing some of the most rapid climate change on the planet,” one author said. The resulting warmer winters, earlier spring snowmelt, and the loss of ice are affecting animal movement.
- Researchers conducted their first case studies using the AAMA and found large-scale patterns in the way caribou, moose, wolves, golden eagles, and bears are responding to climate change. The findings were published in the journal Science.
- In their analyses, researchers found that the northernmost herds of caribou have begun giving birth earlier in the spring. After mild winters, immature golden eagles arrived earlier in the spring to breeding grounds than adult birds.

Brazil’s Amazon dam plans: Ominous warnings of future destruction (commentary)
- Brazil’s current 10-year Energy Expansion Plan calls for three more large dams in Amazonia by 2029, and Brazil’s 2050 National Energy Plan lists many more.
- Both plans contain ominous passages explaining that the list of dams could expand if “uncertainty” is resolved regarding current regulations protecting Indigenous peoples and protected areas for biodiversity.
- Brazil’s National Congress is considering bills to eliminate environmental licensing; a bill submitted by President Jair Bolsonaro would allow dams on Indigenous lands. Brazil’s dam-building plans to satisfy 2050 energy demand extend to neighboring Amazonian nations, including Peru and Bolivia.
- The 2050 plan essentially admits that dams on Indigenous lands and within other protected areas are not necessary because the electricity could be generated by offshore wind power. This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

In Guatemala, refugees find new calling as park rangers
- In recent years, the number of migrants and refugees entering Guatemala after fleeing violence at home has grown.
- FUNDAECO, a local conservation NGO, has partnered with UNHCR and other groups to find jobs for some refugees working as park guards in Guatemalan biodiversity hotspots.
- Fifty-five refugees have been employed in the “Green Jobs” program so far, with FUNDAECO hoping that number will reach at least 100.

Climate change could put tropical plant germination at risk: Study
- Under a worst-case climate change scenario, more than 20% of plant species in the tropics may experience temperatures too high for their seeds to germinate by 2070, according to an analysis of seed germination data compiled by the UK’s Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.
- Under that same worst-case scenario, over half of tropical species may see reduced rates of germination by 2070 as well, the study reports, while many temperate species at high latitudes will move closer to their optimum temperature and may experience increased germination success as a result.
- The analysis shows that 26% of tropical species and 10% of temperate species are already experiencing temperatures above their optimum. Some plants are found living at sites where temperatures are already above their maximum, suggesting that their lineage in that location may be effectively extinct.
- Plants that find themselves outside of optimum or tolerable temperature ranges may be able to migrate to higher latitudes or altitudes, and existing diversity can offer a reservoir of genetic variation for species to adapt, but physiological limits and long generation times may mean even diverse species struggle.

Amazonia’s people domesticated crops on ‘forest islands’ 10,000 years ago: Study
- Early Amazon human inhabitants domesticated and grew crops more than 10,000 years ago, making the region one of the world’s earliest centers of plant domestication for food, a study has found.
- These early people left behind thousands of artificial raised forest islands in what is now the Llanos de Moxos savanna in northern Bolivia.
- Researchers tracked glass-like microfossils to reveal evidence that these early farmers grew squash, corn and cassava.
- The new research helps dispel a persistent myth that the Amazon long existed as a sort of wilderness paradise, largely untouched by human influences. Instead, it is now thought that humans have been profoundly altering the landscape of Amazonia for thousands of years, with lasting consequences for species conservation and habitats.

Migratory freshwater fish in peril as report shows population plunge
- A new report finds that migratory freshwater fish species have declined on a global scale by 76% since 1970, with the highest drops experienced in Europe.
- The biggest threat to migratory freshwater fish is habitat degradation or alteration, such as dams, culverts and road crossings, while other threats include habitat loss, overfishing, pollution, and climate change.
- The authors of the report recommend taking actions to help restore migratory freshwater fish populations, including the restoration of free-flowing rivers by removing dams and other obstructions.

A jaguar nicknamed “Short-Tail” the first known to cross between Belize and Guatemala
- A jaguar nicknamed “Short-Tail” was caught on camera in both Belize and Guatemala, making him the first individual confirmed to cross the international boundary between the two countries.
- This finding highlights the importance of international, transboundary collaboration to study and protect jaguars.
- Jaguars are threatened by habitat loss, deforestation, loss of prey, and illegal hunting.

New study quantifies impact of hunting on migratory shorebird populations
- Hunting might be a major threat for thousands of migratory shorebirds in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF), one of the major corridors for migratory birds in the world.
- A new study shows that hunting has contributed to the demise of at least a third of migratory shorebirds in the flyway since the 1970s.
- The flyway, which spans 22 countries from the Arctic to Australia, is the most threatened flyway among the nine migratory bird corridors in the world, with habitat loss and climate change the main drivers of the plummeting population.
- Around 50 million waterbirds pass through the flyway on an annual basis, but recent data shows a 61% decline in migrating waterbird species.

Animal crossing: A wild ass makes history
- An Asiatic wild ass, or khulan, made history when it became the first of its species to cross into the eastern steppe in Mongolia in nearly seven decades.
- A photo released by WCS Mongolia shows the khulan crossing the Trans-Mongolian Railroad after modifications were made to the existing fence to allow for wildlife crossings.
- Habitat degradation, human development, and barriers to movement such as fences all threaten the khulan, which is globally assessed as near threatened on the IUCN Red List.

Baby humpback whales bulk up in Hawaii ahead of migration [VIDEO]
- New video reveals baby humpback whales nursing in Hawaii, a sight rarely seen by humans.
- A team of researchers used non-invasive suction cups to outfit seven baby humpback whales with special tags for recording data on nursing as well as other whale behaviors.
- During their time in Hawaii, the whale calves must drink enough milk to fatten up for a one to two-month migration back to Alaska.
- The researchers hope to understand the needs of mother whales and their calves during their time in the tropical breeding grounds and for their long migration.

In Colombia’s La Guajira, the native Wayuu are forgotten in the dust
- Synonymous in Colombia with extreme poverty and abandonment, the peninsula of La Guajira faces drought and coal dust pollution from one the world’s biggest coal mines.
- One of the main gateways for Venezuelan migrants, La Guajira’s desert is a chaotic border where smugglers operate in the open, international aid is weak, and there is little to offer to either the indigenous population or those arriving from Venezuela.
- The workers at the Cerrejón coal mine have demanded better working conditions, but measures to prevent COVID-19 have put a planned strike on hold and threaten La Guajira’s inhabitants and the Wayuu, the biggest indigenous nation in Colombia.

‘Hummingbird’ spy creature films millions of monarchs taking flight
- An animatronic “hummingbird” equipped with a camera has been used to film a sea of monarch butterflies taking flight in their wintering grounds in Mexico.
- The “spy creature” technology is the latest by John Downer Productions, a pioneer in wildlife filming, and is featured in the PBS NATURE series “Spy in the Wild.”
- The series also makes use of other spy creatures to infiltrate groups of orangutans, meerkats, egrets, tortoises, sloths, cobras and hippos.

For Philippines’ displaced indigenous students, COVID-19 is one of many threats
- Students from indigenous communities in Mindanao who moved to Manila to evade armed conflict that forced their schools shut now face a new threat from the lockdown imposed in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
- Access to adequate health services has always been a challenge for indigenous communities in their homelands but displacement puts them at higher risk of contracting diseases like COVID-19.
- Despite the pandemic, displaced indigent students remain focused on their education, seeing it as a way to protect their ancestral lands no matter how far they are from home.
- Land disputes have abounded amid an escalation in armed conflict between government security forces and rebel groups in Mindanao, placing local communities and indigenous schools in the crossfire and forcing them to flee from their ancestral lands.

Past and future tropical dams devastating to fish the world over: Study
- Most research on the ecological impacts of tropical dams does so one dam project at a time. But a new landmark study attempts to connect the dots globally by analyzing tropical dam impacts on freshwater river fish around the world.
- The research assembled data on the geographic range of 10,000 fish species, and checked those tropical species against the location of 40,000 existing dams and 3,700 dams that are either being built or planned for the near future.
- Scientists found that biodiversity hotspots including the Amazon, Congo, Salween and Mekong watersheds are likely to be hard hit, with river fragmentation potentially averaging between 25% and 40% due to hydropower expansion underway in the tropics.
- Dams harm fish ecology via river fragmentation, species migration prevention, reservoir and downstream deoxygenation, seasonal flow disruption, and blockage of nurturing sediments. Drastic sudden fish losses due to dams can also destroy the commercial and subsistence livelihoods of indigenous and traditional peoples.

Massacre in Nicaragua: Four indigenous community members killed for their land
- On Jan. 29, dozens of armed men stormed the indigenous Alal community. Four people are reported dead, two were injured, and 16 houses were burned. The UN Human Rights Office and indigenous advocacy organizations say the armed group was connected to land grabbers engaged in illegal logging and cattle ranching on protected indigenous land.
- Police have reportedly captured the leader of the group.
- Alal is located in Bosawás Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO site in northern Nicaragua that hosts the largest remaining tract of rainforest in Central America. The deforestation rate in Bosawás is climbing as people migrate from southern Nicaragua and illegally clear forest for cropland, cattle pasture, and mining. Satellite imagery shows deforestation around Alal increased significantly between December and January.
- The Center for Justice and Human Rights of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua reports 40 people have been killed over land conflict in the region in the past five years. The UN condemned the Nicaraguan government for allowing impunity for crimes committed against Nicaragua’s indigenous communities.

Extinction of a megafish: Can this spark action to save other migratory freshwater species? (commentary)
- The Chinese paddlefish, recently declared extinct by researchers, was likely the world’s longest freshwater fish – as well as one of the oldest, swimming the earth’s rivers since the time of the dinosaurs.
- It’s too late for this species, but there’s still time to save many of the world’s remaining migratory fish.
- Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species – who will meet in Gandhinagar, India, from February 15 to 22 – must address the growing threats to migratory freshwater fish, argues William Darwall, Head of the Freshwater Biodiversity Unit, IUCN Global Species Programme.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Young farmers apply ancient agroforestry practices in the heart of Sardinia
- The forested mountains of interior Sardinia have seen high rates of migration to cities in recent years, particularly among young people.
- But some young people are finding a new way to stay here and succeed while fighting climate change, by using an ancient agricultural method to create better-quality products like goat cheese, by grazing their flocks under trees.
- Called silvopasture, it’s a form of agroforestry that has a long history here, and the variety of forage and abundant shade create cheeses with unique flavors. Another side benefit in this arid landscape is reduced forest fire danger due to the goats’ grazing activities.
- Like its close cousin agroforestry, silvopasture is a climate solution because it effectively sequesters large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere while keeping forested landscapes intact and providing habitat for a variety of creatures.

NGOs reject new oil palm plantation in southern Cameroon
- Cameroon’s Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife proposes to reclassify 60,000 ha of a logging concession for oil palm plantations.
- Until 2016, Forest Management Unit 09-025 had been selectively logged and remains a resource for local people, as well as an important buffer zone for an adjacent national park.
- Though no impact assessment, public consultation, or decree formalising the reclassification have taken place, Camvert SARL has begun setting up a nursery for oil palm saplings.
- Civil society and local communities fear the classification process is rigged; they are calling for government to instead make FMU 09-025 a community forest or add it to Campo Ma’an National Park.

Vanishing sea ice in the Arctic could shake up seabird migrations
- Researchers have developed a framework to aid in understanding the changes to seabird migration that could result from the loss of Arctic sea ice due to climate change.
- The team found that one species, the little auk, would expend about half as much energy by shifting its migration from the North Atlantic to the North Pacific, rather than their traditional migration or if they just stayed put in the high Arctic.
- The team also mined the scientific literature and found 29 bird species with the potential for a similar shift in their migratory routes.

Breaking down barriers: Cattle and wildlife compete in Southern Africa
- Thousands of kilometers of fencing designed to keep cattle away from disease-carrying wildlife such as buffalo now cover many parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
- These disease-control fences have a devastating impact on wildlife by blocking migration routes and isolating populations.
- Global food safety rules that require that beef be produced in areas free of disease such as foot-and-mouth disease have historically made it difficult for regions with wildlife populations to trade in beef.
- Southern African nations are exploring a new approach to trade that may reduce the reliance on fences, in the process also allowing key migration routes to be restored.

Grassroots campaign saves major wetland in Montenegro
- Campaigners have saved the Ulcinj Salina in Montenegro from development after an 18-year campaign.
- They lobbied European Union ministers, mindful of fact that Montenegro’s leadership was looking to join the EU, but its poor environmental record was holding it back.
- They also used the influence of European diplomats to augment pressure on local officials and of the internet to broadcast their cause worldwide. They won local support with their plans for sustainable tourism.

Industrial palm oil investors struggle to gain foothold in Africa
- Twenty-seven concessions intended for industrial oil palm plantations in West and Central Africa have either failed or been abandoned in the last decade.
- Of the 49 that remain, less than 20 percent of the allocated land has been developed.
- Malaysian palm oil giant Sime Darby recently announced its intention to withdraw from Liberia after years of conflict with communities and environmental groups.

Indigenous communities, wildlife under threat as farms invade Nicaraguan reserve
- Nicaragua’s Bosawás Biosphere Reserve straddles the country’s border with Honduras and was declared a UNESCO site in 1997. It comprises one of the largest contiguous rainforest regions in Latin America north of the Amazon Basin and includes 21 ecosystems and six types of forest that are home to a multitude of species, several of which are threatened with extinction.
- According to a report by the Nicaraguan environmental agency MARENA, a little more than 15 percent of the Bosawás reserve had been cleared and converted for agricultural use in 2000. But today, that number stands at nearly 31 percent. Satellite data show deforestation reached the heart of the reserve’s core zone earlier this year.
- Deforestation in Bosawás stems mainly from migration, as people in other parts of the country move to the region looking for fertile land and space to raise cattle and grow crops.
- Indigenous communities are allowed to own land within Bosawás. But sources say land traffickers are selling plots of land to non-indigenous farmers and ranchers, creating conflicts that have caused death on both sides.

Popular pesticide linked to weight loss and delayed migration in songbird
- In a new study, wild white-crowned sparrows that were exposed to seeds treated with imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid insecticide, suffered considerable weight loss and delayed the timing of their migration.
- The delayed migration could in turn be affecting the birds’ survival and reproduction, the researchers say.
- The findings suggest that neonicotinoids could have partly contributed to the decline of several farmland-dependent bird species in North America as seen in the past few decades, the researchers add.

Indonesian flooding disaster bears the hallmarks of agriculture and mining impacts
- Last June, North Konawe, a land of hills and valleys on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, was struck by devastating floods, displacing thousands of people.
- In the wake of the disaster, a public debate has ensued over the cause. Some government agencies have concluded that deforestation by plantation and mining companies exacerbated the floods.
- Some villages, including the riverside community of Tapuwatu, were almost completely washed away.

Africa’s largest reserve may lose half its area to oil development
- The Termit and Tin Touma National Nature Reserve in Niger was Africa’s largest when it was established in 2012.
- Just seven years on, however, the government is considering redrawing its boundaries and slashing its size by nearly half.
- The move comes in response to a push by the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), which has exploration rights in a small section of the reserve, to expand its operations significantly.
- Conservation groups, including the NGO that manages the reserve, say the move would impact areas of high biodiversity, threatening species such as the critically endangered addax and dama gazelle.

Let there be lights, to help migratory cranes avoid power lines
- A test of a new system deploying ultraviolet (UV) lights on power lines greatly reduced potentially deadly collisions with the lines by migrating sandhill cranes.
- Developers of the Avian Collision Avoidance System, or ACAS, randomly assigned the system to be on or off each night of a four-month testing period.
- Turning on the lighting system reduced crane collisions by 98 percent and enabled crane flocks to more quickly and calmly avoid the power lines while in flight.
- Many birds can detect UV light, though humans cannot, so the system has potential to reduce a major threat to a range of migratory species without affecting the visibility of structures to humans.

In Nigeria, a highway threatens community and conservation interests
- Activists and affected communities in Nigeria’s Cross River state continue to protest plans to build a major highway cutting through farmland and forest that’s home to threatened species such as the Cross River gorilla.
- The federal government ordered a slew of measures to minimize the impact of the project, but two years later it remains unclear whether the developers have complied, even as they resume work.
- Environmentalists warn of a “Pandora’s box” of problems ushered in by the construction of the highway, including illegal deforestation, poaching, land grabs, micro-climate change, erosion, biodiversity loss and encroachment into protected areas.
- They’ve called on the state government to pursue alternatives to the new highway, including investing in upgrading existing road networks.

In India’s Sundarbans, communities shrink as their island sinks
- In India and Bangladesh, millions of people live in the Sundarbans islands and face losing their homes to rising seas caused by climate change.
- The region was the first in the world to record an unfolding climate refugee crisis as people fled an island lost to the sea. More islands remain at risk of succumbing to the rising waters.
- The government has long relied on building embankments to keep the seawater out, but in a report it co-wrote in 2014 it acknowledges that this measure is no longer sufficient.
- One expert calls for restoring the Sundarbans’ original mangrove habitats to both mitigate the impacts of rising seas and storm surges, and to serve as a carbon sink in the fight against greenhouse gas emissions.

What happens to an ecotourism town when the wildlife doesn’t show?
- Since the mid-1990s, the town of Donsol in the Philippines has based its economy around tourists viewing whale sharks.
- Whale sharks are migratory fish. And while they showed up in reliable numbers during the first decade of Donsol’s venture into shark tourism, their numbers have become highly unpredictable in the past decade for reasons still unknown.
- Tourism has declined as well, with 2018 registering the fewest visitor arrivals since whale shark tourism started. The local economy, which it had buoyed, is now flagging, although 2019 seems off to a strong start for both whale sharks and tourists.
- Wildlife tourism, by nature, is susceptible to biodiversity loss and changes in animal behavior; it places host communities on a thin line between profit and loss.

Angola pledges $60m to fund landmine clearance in national parks
- The Angolan government has announced a $60 million commitment to clear landmines in Luengue-Luiana and Mavinga national parks in the country’s southeast.
- The region is part of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area — home to incredible natural biodiversity, but also one of the most heavily mined regions of Angola.
- International funding for landmine clearance has fallen by 80 percent over the last 10 years, and without new funding Angola will miss its target of clearing all landmines by 2025.
- The HALO Trust, a demining NGO, and the Angolan government hope that clearance of landmines will stimulate conservation in southeastern Angola and provide alternative livelihoods such as ecotourism to alleviate poverty and diversify the country’s economy away from oil.

Dam in Ethiopia has wiped out indigenous livelihoods, report finds
- A dam in southern Ethiopia built to supply electricity to cities and control the flow of water for irrigating industrial agriculture has led to the displacement and loss of livelihoods of indigenous groups, the Oakland Institute has found.
- On June 10, the policy think tank published a report of its research, demonstrating that the effects of the Gibe III dam on the Lower Omo River continue to ripple through communities, forcing them onto sedentary farms and leading to hunger, conflict and human rights abuses.
- The Oakland Institute applauds the stated desire of the new government, which came to power in April 2018, to look out for indigenous rights.
- But the report’s authors caution that continued development aimed at increasing economic productivity and attracting international investors could further marginalize indigenous communities in Ethiopia.

Researchers and customs officials unite to fight wildlife trafficking using eDNA
- A novel, fast-acting eDNA test can help airport customs officials identify illegally trafficked European eels, which as juveniles cannot be visually distinguished from legally-traded species.
- Although international treaties have historically provided a framework for imposing restrictions when nations violate agreements, enforcement remains a challenge in part because many trafficked specimens go unnoticed.
- Where enforcement proves difficult, technology such as this fast-acting eDNA test can improve monitoring of illegally traded flora and fauna.

Altered forests threaten sustainability of subsistence hunting
- In a commentary, two conservation scientists say that changes to the forests of Central and South America may mean that subsistence hunting there is no longer sustainable.
- Habitat loss and commercial hunting have put increasing pressure on species, leading to the loss of both biodiversity and a critical source of protein for these communities.
- The authors suggest that allowing the hunting of only certain species, strengthening parks and reserves, and helping communities find alternative livelihoods and sources of food could help address the problem, though they acknowledge the difficult nature of these solutions.

Most communities not seeing promised oil palm payoff in Borneo, study finds
- A new study analyzing standards of living over a 14-year period across more than 5,000 villages in Indonesian Borneo finds that oil palm development can have both positive and negative impacts on various aspects of a village’s well-being. The key difference: how intact their forest was to begin with.
- For market-based communities, which have already experienced a higher rate of previous forest degradation, oil palm expansion brought a mixed bag of impacts. These villages saw an increase in “basic” and “financial” well-being over all time scales when compared with similar communities without new plantations, but also suffered more rapid detriment to “environmental” and “social” factors.
- The impacts were much starker for subsistence-based communities, which depend upon the forest for their livelihoods. These villages suffered overall decreases in all well-being categories in the wake of new oil palm development when compared to similar communities without. The proportion of houses without access to electricity and toilets increased with the influx of migrant workers.

Mobile app encourages Indian fishers to free entangled whale sharks
- When whale sharks in waters off the Indian state of Gujarat get trapped in fishing nets, a new mobile app lets fishers easily document their release.
- Conservationists and fishers alike hope the app will speed up the compensation fishers receive for damaged nets.
- However, fishers say the compensation, a maximum of 25,000 rupees ($360), should be increased to reflect the true loss of their revenue during their downtime without nets.

New species of ancient human found in a Philippine cave
- From a cave on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, researchers have unearthed fossils dating back more than 50,000 years ago, which they say belong to a new species of early human, now dubbed Homo luzonensis.
- H. luzonensis has a mix of ancient and modern traits: Most of its teeth are small and simple in shape, resembling those of modern humans, while its finger and toe bones have features similar to Australopithecus, ancestors of humans who are known to have last walked in Africa around 2 million years ago.
- The researchers involved in the current study are confident that H. luzonensis will hold up as a new species because its skeletal and dental elements “have no equivalents anywhere amongst the known Homo lineage.”

Human population boom led to Madagascar’s megafauna extinction: Study
- Large animals, called megafauna, went extinct in Madagascar about 1,000 years ago.
- Humans are believed to have played a major role in their disappearance.
- A human population boom, supported by the shift from a hunter-gatherer to a pastoralist-herder lifestyle, was a key driver, a new study says.
- Large populations meant more hunting pressure and habitat degradation, ultimately leading to extinction.

Dust and blood: Climate-induced conflict fuels migration, study finds
- The Arab Spring, was largely political in nature, and fueled an exodus of migrants from across the swath of affected countries into Europe. Now, a study published in Global Environmental Change finds evidence that a changing climate was also a factor.
- The researchers hypothesized that abnormal and extreme climate events worsen conflicts, which in turn lead to migration.
- They say their results add evidence to the intensely debated narrative that links drought, at least in part, to the political unrest of the Arab Spring and subsequent Syrian civil war.

Combining artificial intelligence and citizen science to improve wildlife surveys
- Migratory species play a key role in the health of the Serengeti ecosystem in East Africa, but monitoring their populations is a time- and labor-intensive task.
- Scientists studying these wildebeest populations compared expert observer counts of aerial imagery to corresponding counts by both volunteer citizen scientists and deep learning algorithms.
- Both novel methods were able to produce accurate wildebeest counts from the images with minor modifications, the algorithms doing so faster than humans.
- Use of automated object detection algorithms requires prior “training” with specific data sets, which in this case came from the volunteer counts, suggesting that the two methods are both useful and complementary.

A plea to Botswana: Please rethink a “Not Enough Fences” approach (commentary)
- The Government of Botswana is considering significant changes to the country’s approach to wildlife management.
- The proposed policy reflects a worrying lack of recognition of the habitat and migration route requirements that the future of southern Africa’s wildlife fundamentally depends upon.
- Now is not the time to cut-off migratory corridors or build new fences. Instead, it is time to make land-use decisions that will be socially, ecologically and economically sustainable for generations to come.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Proximity to towns stretches giraffe home ranges
- A recent study found that female giraffes that live close to towns have larger home ranges than those living further afield.
- The study’s authors believe that large human settlements reduce giraffes’ access to food and water.
- The team cites the importance of understanding the size of the area that giraffe populations need to survive to address the precipitous decline in the animal’s numbers across Africa in the past 30 years.

Indigenous hunters vital to robust food webs in Australia
- A new study has found that the removal of indigenous hunters from a food web in the Australian desert contributed to the local extinction of mammal species.
- The Martu people had subsisted in the deserts of western Australia for millennia before the government resettled them to make space for a missile test range in the 1950s.
- A team of researchers modeled the effects of this loss, revealing that the hunting fires used by the Martu helped maintain a diverse landscape that supported a variety of mammals and kept invasive species in check.

Kenya: Maasai herders work to keep themselves and wildlife roaming free
- Government-run parks cover too little of Kenya’s territory to sustain the country’s wide-ranging wildlife populations, nearly two-thirds of which depend on open rangeland that indigenous herders also use.
- Today, herders and wildlife must navigate pastures that are increasingly crowded, fragmented, and fragile. Livestock numbers have increased dramatically, while wildlife populations have declined precipitously.
- The South Rift Association of Landowners (SORALO), a collective of Maasai-owned group ranches spanning 10,000 square kilometers (3,800 square miles), formed to protect the free movement of both people and wildlife on its terrain.
- While SORALO’s monitoring suggests its efforts are yielding results, South Rift communities face an extraordinarily complex future, and the goal of coexistence between herders and wildlife does not come easily.

Why are fewer monarch butterflies overwintering in Mexico?
- Fewer and fewer monarch butterflies are reaching their overwintering grounds in Mexico every year, and new research might shed light on why.
- A 2016 study found that the monarch population in Mexican overwintering colonies has declined by approximately 80 percent over the past two decades. Pinpointing the causes of this decline has proven difficult, however.
- A study published in the journal Animal Migration last month suggests a possible cause: The monarchs are simply finding places other than Mexico to spend the winter months, and possibly even giving up their migratory ways altogether, in order to survive.

Two Indian tribes help reconstruct a forest’s history, in war and in peace
- A researcher-illustrator team has traced the emotional and personal links of two of India’s indigenous tribes to what is now a protected area via their memories.
- By interviewing more than 200 community members, most of them from the Bugun and Shertukpen tribes living near Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh state, the duo have created an 86-page book and a web repository called “The Eaglenest Memory Project” containing illustrations and notes based on the tribes’ recollections.
- The team pieced together the tribes’ memories into five main themes, including how they remember Eaglenest during and after the 1962 India-China war, the annual migration of the Shertukpen tribes through Eaglenest to Assam state, and how the Dalai Lama’s visit changed hunting practices among the Buguns.

Photos highlight evolving roles of AI, citizen science in species research
- A recent observation by an amateur naturalist of a fiddler crab species hundreds of kilometers north of its known range challenged the complementary strengths of computer vision and human expertise in mapping species distributions.
- The naturalist uploaded this record to the iNaturalist species database used by amateurs and experts to document sightings; expert input correctly identified the specimen after the platform’s computer vision algorithms did not acknowledge the species outside its documented range.
- Citizen naturalist observations can be used to document rapid changes in species distributions. They also can improve modeling and mapping work conducted by researchers and play an increasing prominent role in building environmental databases.

Super-spreaders: How the curious life of a newt could ignite a pandemic
- The eastern U.S. is the world’s salamander hotspot, with more species per area than anywhere else on the planet. Often superabundant, salamanders hold important ecological roles in their habitats.
- Eastern newts (Notophthalmus viridescens) are the second most widely distributed salamander species in the U.S. They’re also incredibly mobile and are able to transition to a toxic, terrestrial form to move between ponds.
- Like many other U.S. salamander species, eastern newts are highly susceptible to a fungal pathogen called Bactrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal). While Bsal has yet to make an appearance in North America, it has wreaked havoc on salamander populations in Europe, and biologists worry its impact in the U.S. will be even worse.
- Their susceptibility to Bsal coupled with their mobility mean eastern newts could act as “super-spreaders” of Bsal if the fungus gets to North America. Researchers worry that not only would the newts themselves face massive die-offs, but also they could quickly spread the disease to other salamander species.

For the birds: Innovations enable tracking of even small flying animals
- Advances in satellite communications have revolutionized wildlife telemetry, yet tracking the movements of small animals, especially ones that fly, and marine species, which rarely break the ocean’s surface, has remained a challenge.
- In a November 20th virtual meetup on next-generation wildlife tracking, three speakers introduced developments that have broadened telemetry’s reach to new species and new types of data being collected.
- Recent innovations — including the ICARUS tracking system, hybridization of communications platforms, and miniaturization of sensors — are producing tiny solar-powered tracking tags and tags carrying various environmental sensors that function within private networks flexible enough to use the most efficient of several communications technologies available at a given site.

In pursuit of the rare bird that vanishes for half the year
- Until recently, the habits and habitats of the Bengal florican remained a mystery: males were easily seen in their seasonally flooded grassland habitat during the breeding season but effectively disappeared for half the year.
- Researchers in India and Nepal combined field surveys, satellite telemetry and remote sensing to model the distribution and assess the critically endangered bird’s movements, survival and home ranges.
- After years of not knowing the birds’ non-breeding whereabouts, the study found that Bengal floricans leave their protected, seasonally flooded breeding areas in favor of unprotected low-intensity agricultural fields and other upland grasslands during their non-breeding season.

Filling in the gaps: Managing endangered species on the high seas
- Information about how marine animals move through the oceans has become vitally important as efforts progress to create a global plan for securing sustainable fish stocks in the high seas. Researchers are integrating new technologies and applying new approaches to data sets to find answers.
- A recent examination of the long-term Tagging of Pelagic Predators (TOPP) data set has mapped the travel patterns of marine predators — certain whale, turtle, tuna, shark, and seabird species — through their life cycles.
- The study showed that many of these predators spend over half their time on the high seas, supporting the need for global strategies to protect and monitor the high seas. Vessel identification systems paired with several emerging satellite technologies can help.

Wildlife’s greatest spectacle is critically endangered (insider)
- Jeremy Hance writes about wildlife migrations becoming increasingly endangered.
- He argues that the conservation of migrations would preserve important ecosystem services.
- This is an insider story. To read, please become a member.

Stay or go? Understanding a partial seasonal elephant migration
- Elephants in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park wearing GPS tracking tags shared a general dry-season home range but followed three different wet-season migration strategies: residency, short-distance migration, and long-distance migration.
- Despite similar dry-season conditions that kept all the tagged elephants near provisioned waterholes, the migrating elephants began their seasonal movements at the onset of the first rains.
- Scientists urge collaboration among stakeholders and countries to maintain the long-distance, cross-border migrations some animals need to survive.

Tiny tags and a broad research network help track small animal movements
- Despite great advances in radio-telemetry technology, tracking small animals still presents challenges due to the weight of tracking equipment.
- The Motus Wildlife Tracking System uses nano-tags as light as 0.2 grams to track even small birds and insects.
- Based on a collaborative deployment of automated telemetry receivers, Motus can track animals over a broad geographical region to help answer fundamental questions about animal movements, leading to insights that can help protect migratory species as they traverse the landscape.

Satellites and citizen science pinpoint migratory bird refueling stops
- Researchers used satellite images to assess the effectiveness of financial incentive programs for farmers in creating habitat for waterbirds, including ducks, geese, and shorebirds, in California’s Central Valley, where nearly all natural wetlands have been converted to agriculture.
- Observations of 25 waterbird species by hundreds of citizen scientists helped to identify the target zones for water management and to verify the birds’ use of managed areas.
- The satellite data indicated that a severe drought substantially reduced the birds’ open-water habitat and that the incentive programs created more than 60 percent of available habitat on specific days during the migrations.
- The researchers state that remotely sensed data can be used effectively to track water availability and regularly update water and wetland managers on how much habitat is available and where, so they can coordinate water management activities.

Humans reached Madagascar 6,000 years earlier than previously thought
- New research suggests humans reached Madagascar far earlier than previously thought.
- The study, published today in the journal Science Advances, is based on analysis of giant elephant bird bones discovered in 2009.
- Those bones showed “chop marks, cut marks, and depression fractures consistent with immobilization and dismemberment” by prehistoric humans.
- Until now, the earliest documented evidence of humans in Madagascar dated to 2,400-4,000 years ago.

Tracking elephant movements reveals transboundary wildlife corridors
- Data from satellite tracking tags on 120 elephants in southern Africa have identified a suite of wildlife movement corridors across five southern African countries, suggesting the importance of cross-border coordination.
- Wide-ranging movements of elephants include dispersal from northern Botswana north into Angola and south toward the Kalahari Desert.
- Research findings have suggested that open and unimpeded movement corridors can help reduce conflict with human residents while blocked corridors can push elephants and other wildlife into new developments or villages, resulting in increased conflict.

‘Not doing anything is no longer acceptable’: Q&A with Alice Thomas, climate refugee expert
- Mongabay spoke with Alice Thomas, an expert on climate refugees, about the growing impact of climate change on the refugee crisis worldwide.
- To date, no one has been able to claim asylum due to climate change because the official definition of a refugee does not allow for climate-induced migration.
- One of the least-understood aspects of climate migration, however, is that most migrants won’t be leaving their country, but will be moving within their national borders.
- Smarter, better policies could not only mitigate such migrations, but allow communities to adapt to ongoing changes due to climate change, Thomas says.

Forest elephant DNA diverse, consistent, and distinct, study says
- The loss of more than 60 percent of the world’s forest elephants to poaching has led to calls for its official recognition as a separate species worthy of international conservation support.
- Scientists examined the nuclear DNA of forest elephants across their range to assess the species’ genetic diversity. They found that the elephants’ nuclear DNA, as opposed to mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), is diverse but consistent among populations across Central Africa.
- Adult male elephants that wander great distances in search of females promote gene flow among populations and maintain the species’ genetic diversity. The authors suggest conservation measures that retain three major forest elephant populations representing existing genetic variation.
- The importance of forest elephants for dispersing the seeds of most large trees in the Congo Basin makes their conservation critical to maintaining the health of Central African rainforests.

‘Better and better’: Thermal cameras turn up the heat on poachers
- The annual Serengeti-Maasai Mara wildebeest migration attracts not just tourists, but also bushmeat poachers, who kill between 40,000 and 100,000 animals along the way.
- In 2016, the Mara Conservancy began using FLIR thermal cameras, which detect heat instead of light, to find and capture poachers at night, when they are most active.
- Thermal imaging, together with a motivated team using high-quality digital radios, has led to the capture of over 100 people and left poachers at a loss as to how they’re being detected.

On India’s Kerala coast, a man-made solution exacerbates a natural problem
- Coastal erosion in the southern Indian state of Kerala has destroyed hundreds of homes, forcing families into temporary shelters, many of whom have been stuck there for several years now.
- Experts say a major factor for the erosion is, ironically, the series of seawalls built by authorities along the coastline to prevent the problem.
- The cyclical nature of the erosion has traditionally meant that sediment swept out to sea is later deposited back on land. But the seawalls prevent the latter from happening.
- Other factors have also been cited, including a cyclone that struck the region last year, as well as intensive sand mining along the coast.

Cool birds don’t sing: Study automates acoustic monitoring of songbird migration
- Researchers have developed machine learning techniques to identify bird song from thousands of hours of field recordings, using the information to uncover variations in migratory songbirds’ arrival to their Arctic breeding grounds.
- They deployed automated listening devices during spring over five years, analyzed vocal activity to estimate when birds arrived at their breeding sites, and assessed relationships between vocal activity and environmental conditions.
- They found that the acoustically derived estimates of the birds’ arrival dates were similar to those determined using standard field surveys.
- Temperature and presence of snow affected the birds’ calling patterns, suggesting that collecting corresponding weather data could help avoid bias in using acoustic monitoring to assess population dynamics.

Mexico’s ejidos are finding greater sustainability by involving youth and women
- Ejidos now control more than two-thirds of Mexico’s 64 million hectares (158 million acres) of forest. They have generally proven to be an effective means of preserving those forests while creating economic opportunities for local communities through sustainable farming, ranching, and forestry operations.
- But ejidos themselves face challenges that must be overcome in order to ensure their sustainability. Chief among them has been the lack of inclusion of youth and women, an issue many ejidos have begun to seriously address over the course of the past decade.
- The traditional hierarchies built into ejido communities once posed what many observers saw as a serious threat to the future viability of the ejido system. But young people now represent a hopeful future not just for the ejidos they come from and plan to return to in order to ply their newly acquired skills, but also, perhaps, for the future of conservation in Mexico.

Kenyan reserve’s tourism monitoring app builds revenue and transparency
- Wardens at Kenya’s Mara Conservancy solved a revenue loss problem by teaming up with their revenue management company to create a smartphone app that lets them check tourists’ ticket and payment status by entering the vehicle license plate numbers.
- Obtaining up-to-date information about the tourists and the validity of their ticket from their patrol car saves the rangers time and avoids their having to interrupt a group’s safari.
- The rangers address any discrepancies first with the tour guide and involve tourists only as a last resort, which has nearly eliminated cheating and enabled the Reserve to boost the revenue it retains.

Longest recorded whale shark migration eclipses 20,000 kilometers
- Scientists followed the movements of a whale shark for nearly two and a half years as she swam more than 20,000 kilometers (over 12,000 miles) from the coast of Central America to the Marianas Trench near Asia.
- Whale sharks, whose numbers have dropped by more than half in the past 75 years according to the IUCN, are taken by fishing boats for their fins, cartilage, meat and teeth, and studies have shown that boats bringing tourists to swim with the largest fish in the ocean change the species’ behavior.
- Given these threats, scientists hope studies such as this one will help guide conservation policy aimed at protecting these animals throughout their migrations.

Wildlife decimated by the surge in conflicts in the Sahara and the Sahel
- An escalation in the number of conflicts across the Sahara and the Sahel in Africa is driving down numbers of the region’s wildlife, a new study finds.
- The authors found that the number of conflicts in the region has risen by 565 percent since 2011.
- At the same time, 12 species of vertebrate have either gone extinct or are much closer to extinction as a result of conflicts in the region.

Noisy reefs help young fish find their home
- Young reef fish use the chorus of sounds made by other fish to find and settle in suitable habitat, but damage to reefs from storms and coral bleaching affects these sounds and thus the ability of juvenile fish to find a home.
- Researchers compared the effects of sounds of intact and degraded reefs on juvenile fish behavior; they found that soundscapes of degraded reefs lacked the volume and complexity of those of intact reefs and attracted far fewer juveniles.
- Limiting future bleaching by reducing carbon emissions that lead to warmer seas is considered key to the survival of coral reefs.

Fish tales: Six amazing journeys to celebrate World Fish Migration Day
- April 21 marks World Fish Migration Day, a biennial event that strives to foster appreciation for the importance of migratory fish and their aquatic swimways.
- Healthy fish stocks with unimpeded migrations are essential to feeding humankind and maintaining the ecological equilibrium of the world’s waters.
- But fish migrations are being increasingly stressed by a worldwide boom in the building of dams that block their essential riverine passage, pollution, overfishing, lowering of water levels for agriculture and drinking water, and climate change.
- Here are six notable fish migrations to consider on this day.

PHOTOS: The great Sandhill crane migration makes its annual stopover on the Platte River
- The annual migration undertaken by sandhill cranes in North America is considered one of the world’s great natural spectacles, on par with Africa’s wildebeest migration and the “march of the penguins” in Antarctica.
- Nowhere is the sandhill crane migration more visible in all its majesty than on the Platte River in the U.S. state of Nebraska — you truly have to see it to believe it.
- You can hear many of the sounds of the sandhill crane migration on a recent episode of the Mongabay Newscast. It’s one thing to hear the migration, however, and quite another to see it.

Exploring humanity’s deep connection to water, plus the sounds of the Sandhill crane migration
- On today’s episode, we discuss humanity’s deep connection to water and hear sounds of one of the most ancient animal migrations on Earth, that of the Sandhill crane.
- Our first guest today is marine biologist and conservationist Wallace J. Nichols, the author of Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, & Better at What You Do.
- Our second guests are Ben Gottesman and Emma Brinley Buckley, researchers who are using bioacoustics to document Sandhill cranes on the Platte River in the U.S. state of Nebraska as the birds make a stopover during their annual migration. We’ll hear recordings of the cranes and other important species in this Field Notes segment.

In eastern Indonesia, a forest tribe pushes back against miners and loggers
- The Forest Tobelo, an indigenous tribe in Indonesia’s North Maluku province, faces constant threat from illegal loggers and the expansion of mining leases.
- More than one third of the province’s total area has been allocated for mining leases.
- The community has chosen to fight back by drawing up its own maps of the land to which it has long laid claim, and by reporting illegal incursions into its forests.

Judge OKs waiving environmental laws to build U.S.-Mexico border wall
- On Tuesday, a federal judge in California ruled that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not abuse its authority in waiving dozens of environmental laws to build sections of wall along the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
- The ruling frees the department to waive laws for future border wall construction projects.
- President Trump has pushed to erect walls along the entire 2,000-mile border, saying it is necessary to prevent the flow of drugs and undocumented immigrants over the border.
- The proposal is intensely controversial, with opponents raising practical, humanitarian, and environmental concerns. Conservationists say that existing border infrastructure has disrupted connectivity for wildlife and that coast-to-coast fencing would be devastating.

New study: Radar reveals bats are a bellwether of climate change
- New research indicates that bats could signal seasonal shifts due to climate change.
- The study, published in the journal Global Change Biology, is the first to use radar to track an animal migration.
- The scientists found that bats that migrate between Mexico and a cave in Texas are now arriving about two weeks earlier than they did in 1995.

Rewriting biological history: Trump border wall puts wildlife at risk
- Mexican conservationists are alarmed over Trump’s wall, with the loss of connectivity threatening already stressed bison, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, bears and other animals.
- About one-third of the border, roughly 700 miles, already has fencing; President Trump has been pushing a controversial plan to fence the remainder.
- A wall running the entire nearly 2,000-mile frontier from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, conservationists warn, would be catastrophic for borderland ecosystems and many wildlife species, undoing years of environmental cooperation between the two countries to protect animals that must move freely or die.
- The wall is currently a key bargaining chip, and a sticking point, in ongoing immigration legislation negotiations taking place this week in Congress. Also expected this week: a federal court ruling on whether the administration can legally waive environmental laws to expedite border wall construction.

Bangladeshi forests stripped bare as Rohingya refugees battle to survive
- Their panicked dash from burning villages involved stumbling through forests or battling monsoon-charged waters in search of safety.
- Along the way and in makeshift shelters and now camps, refugees have needed a massive supply of firewood and shelter for survival.
- The rapid decimation of the forest is also possibly contaminating groundwater supplies.

‘Record’ number of migratory species protected at October wildlife summit
- The Convention on Migratory Species adopted 34 proposals to protect species threatened with extinction.
- Attendees adopted proposals to bolster protections for chimpanzees, giraffes, leopards, lions and whale sharks.
- India will host the next such meeting in 2020.

Scientists combine crowd-sourced field observations with land-use and climate models to identify steps for migratory bird protection
- Scientists used crowd-sourced data from the eBird platform to model how the distributions of 21 migratory bird species change throughout the year and to determine how these distributions overlap with protected areas and projected changes in climate and land-use.
- They found that the conversion of natural forest to agricultural and/or urban land uses will eliminate habitat in the near term, particularly in the birds’ tropical overwintering areas, while rising temperatures and diverse changes in rainfall would affect all points of the species’ ranges over the longer term.
- The researchers suggest that enhanced management of less strictly protected reserves in the birds’ wintering grounds could mitigate the near-term forest habitat losses where the birds spend nearly 60% of their time and perhaps give species time to respond to longer-term climate-related changes in food and habitat availability.

Protecting a forest in the land of the Indonesian deer-pig
- In a village in the northern part of Indonesia’s giant Sulawesi island, hunters pursue rare animals that are protected by the law.
- A local affiliate of NGO BirdLife International is working with locals to preserve the Popayato-Paguat forest block — and the dozens of endemic species within.
- The NGO is facilitating an ecosystem restoration project in the forest block.

Brazil’s indigenous Munduruku occupy dam site, halt construction
- The Munduruku say their sacred sites were destroyed to make way for other hydroelectric projects. Experts say the dams are also blocking fish migration routes.
- The Munduruku are making a series of concrete demands they want fulfilled before they end the occupation.
- The director of São Manoel Energia, the construction consortium building the dam, said that construction work would be halted for the duration of the occupation.
- A prosecutor and acting head of Brazil’s FUNAI Indian agency will be visiting the site of the occupation this week.

Kiribati confronts climate upheaval by preparing for ‘migration with dignity’
- Climate change impacts and overpopulation are pushing Kiribati citizens to plan for a potential future migration en-masse.
- Still, many I-Kiribati fear losing cultural identity in the projected exodus of their people to higher land.
- To make the transition easier, some Kiribati citizens are receiving vocational training to qualify them for employment abroad.

Mangrove loss threatens migratory shorebird route in North Sumatra
- A new study examines the impact of agricultural expansion on an important shorebird habitat in North Sumatra.
- Mangrove cover in the Indonesian province has dropped 85 percent in the last 14 years.
- The study’s authors want the government to issue a regulation to protect shorebirds specifically.

Papuan clan leader laments influx of migrants to sacred Cyclops Mountains
- Highlanders from remote parts of Papua are migrating to urban centers in the province.
- The Cyclops Mountains near the provincial capital Jayapura has seen a major influx of migrants.
- Local indigenous groups see the mountains as sacred and call on the government to do a better job of protecting them.

Cross River superhighway changes course in Nigeria
- The 260-kilometer (162-mile) highway is slated to have six lanes and would have run through the center of Cross River National Park as originally designed.
- The region is a biodiversity hotspot and home to forest elephants, drills, Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees and Cross River gorillas.
- The proposal shifts the route to the west, out of the center of the national park, which garnered praise from the Wildlife Conservation Society.
- The route still appears to cut through forested areas and protected lands.

Bordering extinction: Can technology offer ecologically-sound alternatives to the proposed U.S.-Mexico wall?
- An impermeable border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, as proposed by the Trump Administration, is expected to harm the border region’s wildlife and natural communities.
- Technologies exist that can help planners and decision-makers design a border control system that controls human movement without harming the natural movement of wildlife, water, and essential nutrients across the landscape.
- Without accommodations for wildlife, even the most innovative technology cannot prevent the negative impacts of a cement wall on the ecosystems of the American southwest.

Cattle ranching devours Nicaragua’s Bosawás Biosphere Reserve
- The Bosawás Biosphere Reserve is the third largest forest reserve in the world and is home to indigenous people and 21 ecosystem types, which host high levels of biodiversity.
- Nicaragua’s booming livestock industry is causing a migration of ranchers to the reserve where they often pay land traffickers to illegally secure title to land.
- From 1987 to 2010, more than 564,000 hectares of the reserve were cleared and replaced with ranch lands and farms. 92,000 hectares have been cleared in the last 5 years.

Many tree species in eastern US may be unable to adapt to changing climate, study finds
- A Woods Hole Research Center study of 40 tree species finds balsam fir, quaking aspen, black cherry, yellow birch, red maple, sugar maple, and red spruce among the most vulnerable species to warming temperatures.
- The study’s outcomes are designed to assist managers of the United States’ national parks prioritize how best to use limited resources to battle climate change in their forests, or actively engage in assisting tree species migration.
- West Virginia forests, because of complex terrain and large, intact tracts of land, were found to be more resilient to climate change than other parts of the eastern US.

Environmental costs, benefits and possibilities: Q&A with anthropologist Eben Kirksey
- The environmental humanities pull together the tools of the anthropologist and the biologist.
- Anthropologist Eben Kirksey has studied the impact of mining, logging and infrastructure development on the Mee people of West Papua, Indonesia, revealing the inequalities that often underpins who benefits and who suffers as a result of natural resource extraction.
- Kirksey reports that West Papuans are nurturing a new form of nationalism that might help bring some equality to environmental change.

Nations come together to save Kenya’s disappearing coastal forests
- Kenya’s coastal forests are part of the Eastern Africa Coastal Forests ecoregion, with high levels of biodiversity and several species of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world.
- An influx of migrants into the region has meant more human pressure on forests, with the region losing upwards of 10 percent of its tree cover in 15 years.
- Major infrastructure and industry developments are also planned for the area, leaving conservationists worried about their environmental impacts.
- A program by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development is aiming to help communities and governments better manage their forests – and keep the wildlife that lives within them from going extinct.

Deep-rooted migration cycles challenge green growth in Vietnam
- Vietnam’s large population is one of the reasons it is consistently highlighted as one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change.
- Roughly two-thirds of Vietnam’s population still resides in rural areas and the trend of urban-migration persists, adding pressure to often dated infrastructure.
- In 2016 Vietnam furthered its green growth agenda by launching a series of campaigns aimed at increasing environmental awareness and promoting green products.

Turkey’s wild bears migrate for food; but some bears prefer garbage dumps
- Scientists tracked 16 adult brown bears using GPS receivers around the city of Sarıkamış in Turkey, and observed that six of them migrated seasonally.
- Between the months of September and November each year, the bears moved from Sarıkamış Forest, a Scots pine forest with few nuts or fruits in the understory, to rich, oak forests located far away.
- But many wild bears are turning to city garbage dumps, instead of trekking long distances for food, the study found, increasing incidences of human-bear conflict.

Amazonian catfish’s 5,000-mile migration endangered by dams
- Brachyplatystoma rousseauxii, a commercially valuable catfish species and an apex predator, grows to 3 meters long. Scientists have long suspected that it makes an extraordinary migration from the Amazon headwaters to the Amazon Basin and back.
- Now researchers — using an innovative technique that examines the chemical composition of adult catfish ear bones — have found proof of the 8,000-kilometer journey. The fish can drift as far downstream as the Amazon estuary, then swim back to the headwaters stream where they began, or to other Amazon tributaries.
- Unfortunately for the catfish, more than 400 dams have been built, are under construction, or are planned for the Amazon Basin and Andes feeder streams. Global research has shown that long homing migrations by fish are incompatible with dams.
- The researchers are urging governments in six Amazon Basin countries to reconsider and redesign their Amazon dam plans, or risk losing this natural wonder — along with seeing negative impacts to the entire freshwater food chain.

Dams flood 36,000 hectares of Brazilian rainforest
- The flooding is linked to two hydropower projects on the Madeira River in the western state of Rondônia.
- Much of the flooding occurred in primary rainforest that was once part of a national park.
- The deforestation has released millions of tons carbon dioxide.
- Biologists say that the dams could be harming species of catfish that migrate long distances to breeding grounds, as well as changing nutrient flows in the river.

What’s being done to secure justice for SE Asia’s seafood slaves?
- Hundreds of Southeast Asian mainlanders who were trafficked onto Thai-run fishing boats in Indonesia have been rescued and repatriated in recent months.
- Al Jazeera tracked down four ex-slaves to their homes in Myanmar. None had received the compensation they were promised when they agreed to return to the country.
- “If we don’t get our money, I will have to accept it,” one of the men said. “I can’t do anything.”

Indonesia’s war on maritime slavery continues
- More than 1,300 trafficking victims have been repatriated from slave ships in eastern Indonesia since March 2015.
- Only 24 are still waiting in Ambon Port, a focal point of the effort, to go home, though other slaves are probably still out there.
- Going forward, the fisheries ministry is planning new measures to combat illegal fishing, including a new human rights certification scheme.

A small European island teaches conservation through its herbs and spices
- A series of workshops called Stejjer Imfewħa (“Scented Stories” in Maltese) lets participants exchange knowledge about Malta’s native plants and their significance in the local culture and cuisine.
- The workshops come at a time when immigrants are altering Malta’s social structure. The idea is to approach conservation through the lens of ethnobotany as a way to bring people together and foster an awareness of conservation.
- Ultimately, the workshops aim to change attitudes and behavior related to conservation as well as the integration of different communities in Malta, something the organizers acknowledge will take time.

Photos: Can helping local people save an embattled Nigerian park?
- Gashaka-Gumti national park is home to diverse habitats and wildlife, but illegal poaching, logging, and herding, all driven by grinding poverty, are straining the park’s ecosystems.
- The Gashaka Biodiversity Project is a nascent effort to improve the wellbeing of people living in and near the park, in hopes of reducing pressure on its wildlife and natural resources.
- Some experts believe that tending to human problems will make conservation more viable, and they are now calling for a greater debate about how parks across Africa can better coexist with their human residents.

Not all escaped fishing slaves want to go home
- The Indonesian government is repatriating hundreds of Burmese fishing slaves now being housed at a care center in the eastern Indonesian port city of Ambon.
- Many of the trafficked men are eager to go home, and government-sanctioned negotiations over back pay with the companies are ongoing.
- Dozens of others, though, have already put down roots in Indonesia, and they aren’t so eager to leave.

A surprising threat to Monarch butterfly survival — tropical milkweed
- Scientists believe that increased plantings of Asclepias curassavica, commonly known as ‘tropical milkweed’, in the U.S. South has prompted a population of formerly migrating Monarchs to overwinter.
- These overwintering populations of Monarchs unexpectedly suffer from higher rates of disease and parasitic infection, as well as altering infectious disease dynamics among still-migrating Monarchs.
- For now, Southeasterners wishing to support Monarchs should be sure to only plant native milkweeds, avoiding the tropical varieties.

Sunrise to sunset: documenting warbler migrations with cheap, light geolocator tags
- Geolocator tags have become small enough to be used on tiny birds, such as the prothonotary warbler.
- Researchers now know far more about warbler migration routes, which will facilitate conservation plans for this species.
- An initial warbler study showed that the small birds winter in northern Colombia, where their preferred habitat is currently under threat from human activity.

Noise: an invisible threat that harms wildlife, degrades habitats
- Researchers tested the independent impact of road noise on migratory birds, by setting up a “phantom road” in a forested region in southwest Idaho.
- The phantom road consisted of an array of speakers that played road noises at moderate volumes, simulating traffic on an actual road.
- In response to the noise, birds either left the phantom road areas, or they stayed, but at the cost of their health, the study found.

Photos: watch Africa’s annual wildebeest migration live online
- The annual wildebeest migration is considered to be one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa.
- Now you can sit back, and watch the ongoing migration unfold, live online.
- Crew on ground has captured spectacular photos of the migration, including that of a stampede that killed hundreds of wildebeest.

From slave to student: Myanmar migrants find abuse, opportunity in Thailand
- Thailand’s growing economy and low unemployment rates have caused most Thais to turn away from low-paid, labor-intensive work, leaving a gap to be filled by migrants — especially in the country’s $7 billion seafood industry, which has been rocked by revelations of widespread slavery.
- Aside from living under constant threat of deportation, those lacking papers have no access to formal legal protection and are easily exploited by employers, landlords, authorities and traffickers.
- One migrant from Myanmar tells of being tricked aboard a slave boat and forced to work for years before finally escaping and trying to rebuild his life in Bangkok.

Harsh treatment for indigenous Botswanans ousted from Kalahari wildlife reserve
- San and Bakgalagadi people have been evicted from Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve out of concern that the groups’ hunter-gatherer way of life was harming wildlife.
- The groups have been fighting to return for nearly two decades, and are preparing their next legal offensive under the threat of government reprisals.
- They argue that the indigenous groups, making their living on the land with traditional hunting and gathering lifestyles, are far better able to preserve biodiversity than contemporary conservation approaches, such as wildlife-only parks.

Palm oil a mixed blessing in Indonesia’s peat peninsula
The Indonesian village of Dosan sits on the edge of the Kampar Peninsula, an enormous swath of peat in Riau province on the island of Sumatra. The peninsula is one of the last strongholds for the critically endangered Sumatran tiger and constitutes one of the world’s largest carbon stores. It is also fast disappearing. Over […]

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