topic: Tourism

topic: Tourism

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In Myanmar’s limestone hills, people and bats are often too close for comfort
- A recent census of cave-dwelling bats in northeastern Myanmar found many karst caverns are increasingly inhospitable for the winged mammals due to human disturbance, posing risks to both bats and people.
- Bats are natural reservoirs for many viruses, researchers say, which means managing the ways humans interact with them is vital to managing potential disease spillover, researchers say.
- The main sources of disturbance are limestone quarrying, tourism and religious activities, hunting of bats for food, and guano harvesting.
- To manage the ecological threats and disease risk, the researchers recommend better conservation protections, improved land-use planning, and dedicated cave management plans that include public education programs on cave hygiene and zoonotic disease risk.

Malaysia lost 20% of its coral reefs in three years
Malaysia’s coral reefs are shrinking at a pace that is hard to ignore. According to the latest national survey by Reef Check Malaysia, about one-fifth of the country’s coral cover has been lost since 2022, a decline compressed into just three years. What had been gradual erosion now looks more like a slide. The 2025 […]
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 […]
Mike Heusner, steward of Belize’s waters, has died, aged 86
For a small country, Belize has long carried an outsized reputation among people who care about water. Its flats and mangroves, its reef and river systems, have drawn anglers and naturalists who come for beauty but stay, if they are paying attention, for the fragile bargain that keeps such places alive. Tourism can finance protection. […]
Cyclone Ditwah exposes climate risks to nature-based tourism in Sri Lanka
- In late November, Cyclone Ditwah triggered landslides and flooding across Sri Lanka’s biodiversity-rich hill country, disrupting nature-based tourism during the peak travel season.
- UNESCO World Heritage sites, including the Knuckles Conservation Forest, Horton Plains and Peak Wilderness, faced trail closures, access restrictions and infrastructure damage.
- Popular destinations faced cancellations and closures, hitting local families who depend on tourism for their livelihoods, though they remain hopeful of a swift recovery.
- Experts warn that reopening of these sites should not be unnecessarily rushed, emphasizing safety, environmental protection and long-term sustainability to preserve both livelihoods and biodiversity.

Photos: Tourism ambitions clash with local livelihoods on Indonesia’s Lombok Island
- Residents of Tanjung Aan Beach on the Indonesian island of Lombok say they were evicted with little notice or compensation as the Mandalika tourism project advances, leaving many without livelihoods or alternatives.
- The government-controlled developer has defended its process, citing compensation paid in a different land zone, but locals say support didn’t reach the coastal community now being cleared.
- Perspectives diverge sharply: locals describe loss, fear and declining income, while some foreigners and investors argue the development is legal, overdue and ultimately beneficial.
- Younger Lombok residents highlight deeper systemic issues — weak regulation, rising costs and limited opportunities — saying tourism growth increasingly serves visitors, not locals.

Small cat conservationists hail Uganda’s new Echuya Forest National Park
- Uganda’s Echuya Forest Reserve will become a national park, alongside five other forest areas. That news is being heralded by small cat conservationists as a win for the threatened African golden cat (Caracal aurata) and other wildlife that dwell in the forest.
- African golden cats are forest dependent and considered vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN. They’re especially threatened by snaring across their range. It’s unknown exactly how Echuya’s population is faring, but camera-trapping efforts in 2015 required 90 days to record just one of these elusive cats.
- Data coming out of Uganda suggest that national parks can act as strongholds for the felid, raising hopes that Echuya’s population can recover and possibly thrive.
- Wildcat conservationists have also developed programs to build engagement and benefit communities near the new park, initiating goat and sheep “seed banks” as alternatives to bushmeat, setting up savings and loan associations to improve quality of life, and arranging community soccer matches to build goodwill.

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.

An Empire of Nature: African Parks and Rwanda’s Nyungwe Forest
- In 2020, South Africa-based NGO African Parks signed a 20-year deal to manage Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park, one of the largest montane rainforests in Africa.
- Nyungwe is one of 24 protected areas managed by African Parks in 13 countries.
- Founded by a Dutch industrialist, African Parks is a pioneer of the “public-private” conservation model in Africa.
- Mongabay visited Nyungwe to look at African Parks and its approach to conservation.

Sloth selfies are feeding a booming wildlife trafficking trade
- The apparent docility and friendliness of “smiling” sloths have made them tourist darlings, but have also put a target on their backs.
- The rise in trafficking of these animals led the governments of Brazil, Costa Rica and Panama to propose stricter rules for the international trade of two sloth species; the goal is to prevent them from becoming threatened with extinction.
- Cruel practices used by traders condemn most animals to death, with sloth babies separated from their mothers and subjected to unbearable levels of stress.
- In the Brazilian Amazon, tourism companies encourage customers to take photos with sloths, and the government fears the smuggling of animals to neighboring countries.

Protecting Vietnam’s vast caves may have sparked a wildlife comeback
- Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park in Vietnam is billed as a successful example of sustainable tourism, with efforts to conserve the area’s unique caves and wildlife.
- The park’s management has implemented measures to limit tourism’s impact, such as restricting visitor numbers and offering guided tours, which has helped curb illegal hunting and logging.
- Local communities have benefited from tourism, with many former hunters and loggers now working as guides and porters, and wildlife populations are showing signs of recovery.
- The success of conservation efforts in the park has led to plans to expand protection to the Laotian side of the border, creating a transboundary UNESCO World Heritage Site.

‘A very successful story’: An Egypt tribe welcomes tourists & protects its coast
- Al-Qula’an is an “eco-village” in the Wadi El Gemal protected area in Egypt that environmentalists say is an example of how eco-tourism, along with traditional knowledge and practices, can help protect sensitive ecosystems.
- The mangroves of Al-Qula’an provide nursery grounds for marine species, and the coastal habitats serve as nesting sites for endangered sea turtles.
- The village has transformed from a subsistence fishing community to a low-impact eco-tourism destination while upholding principles of the Ababda tribe, like the importance of preserving mangroves.

Zanzibar must act to conserve its natural & cultural heritage for the future (commentary)
- The popular Tanzanian archipelago of Zanzibar is further expanding its already extensive tourism footprint to outlying islands like Pemba without considering the environment, a new op-ed argues.
- Major conservation problems include demolition of small islands for resort construction, destruction of nearly a quarter of Pemba Island’s flagship protected area to build an “eco-resort,” and plans to develop the ecologically important islet of Misali.
- “Now is the time for Zanzibar’s government to reexamine past and future investment decisions to ensure they respect Zanzibar’s natural heritage and conserve it for future generations,” the author writes.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Egyptian activists rally to halt hotel project at pristine protected beach
- The Egyptian government opened up Ras Hankorab, a near-pristine beach inside a protected area along Egypt’s Red Sea coastline, to an investor to develop tourism facilities.
- Environmentalists launched a campaign to “save Ras Hankorab,” which succeeded in temporarily halting development activities at the site, and which critics say is aimed at foreign tourists.
- The beach is a nesting ground for endangered turtles, and the waters are home to a variety of coral and fish species and seagrass meadows.
- Ras Hankorab is one of several sites in Egypt where the government’s push to develop tourism in protected areas is facing opposition.

Uruguay’s green hydrogen plans raise ecological concerns in Argentina & at home
- Communities in the Argentinian town of Colón worry that an upcoming major green hydrogen project on the Uruguay River will affect local ecosystems, as well as local tourism.
- The Paysandú e-fuels facility is one of Uruguay’s major hydrogen projects, as the country is pushing to further decarbonize its economy and boost hydrogen exports. The plant will produce green hydrogen using renewable energy to then produce e-methanol for exporting.
- Argentinian activists fear potential pollution from the plant and criticize the project for lack of transparency over its environmental impacts. Opposition is also growing on the Uruguayan side of the river.
- Another green hydrogen project in the town of Tambores is also being denounced for its impact on water resources, as the plant will withdraw large amounts of water from some of the country’s largest aquifers.

Tourism surge and climate change threaten Nepal’s Mustang
Since the completion of an all-weather road eight years ago, Nepal’s remote Mustang region has become a mass tourism destination, reports Mongabay’s Abhaya Raj Joshi. The surge in tourists, combined with the impacts of climate change, could put the fragile Himalayan region at greater risk of future disasters. Previously, Mustang was a destination for foreign […]
In Brazil’s Pantanal, too many tourists may be the jaguar’s new predator
- Once rare, jaguar sightings in the Pantanal now number more than 1,000 a year, drawing tourists from around the world.
- Ecotourism has transformed jaguars from hunted predators into valuable attractions, boosting local livelihoods.
- But overcrowding, with up to 30 boats surrounding a single animal, risks stressing wildlife and eroding visitor experiences.
- As safaris become increasingly popular, jaguars are getting more habituated to humans, drawing them closer to ranches, where conflicts arise.

Cruise industry expansion collides with Cozumel’s coral reef
- Mexico’s Cozumel Island is one of the most popular cruise ship destinations in the world, hosting more than 4.5 million tourists every year.
- A plan to build a new pier for cruise ships has attracted concern from Cozumel residents and conservationists, who say it will damage the surrounding reef and block public access to the sea.
- The company behind the project, Muelles del Caribe, maintains the pier will bring financial benefits to the community.
- Conservationists assert that the project’s environmental impact assessment was insufficient; in July, a court ordered a temporary suspension of the project to allow for a more thorough environmental assessment.

Rewilding project aims to restore resilience to fire-prone Spain via wildlife
- A project in Spain is bringing Przewalski’s horse to a sparsely populated region to help stem out-of-control fires and boost the local economy.
- Rewilding Spain is attempting to rebuild ecological roles in the region to boost biodiversity and mitigate fire outbreaks.
- The project is helping the local economy by employing locals and working with tourist operators.

The safari industry’s ‘conservation-washing’ is a growing problem (commentary)
- Though many tour operators focus on protecting the wildlife, environment, and local community their clients are immersed in during safaris, greenwashing — or more accurately, “conservation-washing” — is a growing problem.
- In this commentary, a safari operator with more than 35 years of experience shares his reflections and offers red flags to watch out for before hiring a company.
- “We each hold the power to influence the safari industry by choosing operators that build their tours around true conservation while uplifting local communities. Being vigilant for conservation-washing is ultimately our responsibility, and it’s one we should all take very seriously,” he argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Escalation in tourism, climate change leaves Nepal’s Mustang in fragile state
- The completion of an all-weather road has transformed ‘lower’ Mustang, shifting from a remote trekking hub to a mass tourism destination. Visitor numbers has surged nearly 50% in one year, fueled largely by domestic and Indian Hindu pilgrims.
- Hotels and lodges have mushroomed along fragile riverbanks with weak zoning enforcement. Tourism water demands and usage have led to untreated sewage entering the Kali Gandaki River.
- Once arid, Mustang is now facing monsoon rains as Arabian Sea warming has started to push rain clouds farther north. The August 2023 flood devastated Kagbeni village, highlighting rising risks of flash floods and landslides.
- While tourism provides livelihoods and the energy is largely renewable, locals remain in the flux of economic opportunity and growing climate risks. Researchers call for urgent data, early warning systems and relocation from high-risk zones.

Rapid development, legal changes put pressure on Vietnam’s forestland
- A planned tourism and residential development on Vietnam’s Phú Quốc Island, has led to the forced relocation of 508 households and the clearing of 57.7 hectares (142.5 acres) of forest within Phú Quốc National Park.
- The project is just one of 286 development projects planned for the island. Since July 2024, authorities there have authorized the conversion of more than 180 hectares (445 acres) of forest, the majority of which is “special use” forest, meaning it is deemed to be of particular ecological or scientific importance.
- The island has seen a spike in forest conversion approvals following legal changes in 2024 that reduced central-government oversight of forest-conversion approvals, and that expanded the list of project types for which natural forest can be converted.

Ecuador’s new protected areas law sparks debate over security, development
- A new law on protected areas in Ecuador is designed to improve security, funding and economic development in the country’s 78 protected areas.
- It creates a new service to oversee management decisions and a trust to generate funding for protected areas, while mandating increased technical training for park rangers.
- It also strengthens partnerships with law enforcement and the military.
- Critics of the law say it militarizes the country’s protected areas and erodes the autonomy of local and Indigenous communities.

Large-scale illegal wildlife shops in Laos found scamming Chinese tourists
- Secretive shops posing as cafés, museums and cultural experiences are selling illegal wildlife products such as ivory, rhino horn, bear bile, pangolin scales and tiger bones in Laos, often at inflated prices, specifically targeting elderly Chinese tourists.
- Since 2024, these shops have proliferated across the cities of Luang Prabang and Vientiane, many are guarded by armed men in military uniform, but access is reserved for Chinese tourists on pre-arranged package tours.
- This new business model for the illegal wildlife trade in Laos is estimated to be making tens of millions of dollars from the sale of products made from endangered species, but following Mongabay and NGO GI-TOC’s investigation, Laotian authorities have agreed to inspect.

In Nepal’s Pokhara, a lone rooftop vigil helps keep vultures and planes safe from harm
- Hemanta Dhakal, an ornithologist based in the Nepali town of Pokhara, monitors vultures daily from his rooftop near Nepal’s new international airport, documenting bird movements and aircraft interactions.
- Pokhara, known as both Nepal’s tourism capital and vulture capital, hosts nine vulture species whose flight paths intersect with the airport’s runway and nearby rivers, cliffs, and former landfill sites.
- A past bird strike and frequent flights heighten safety concerns, while waste management issues and thermal currents continue to draw birds dangerously close to aircraft.
- Despite limited support from authorities, Dhakal trains airport staff, advocates for better management such as drones to shoo away the birds, and warns that unplanned infrastructure could undo decades of vulture conservation gains.

Sharks didn’t rebound—so Mark Erdmann is putting them back
- For over 30 years, Mark Erdmann has combined scientific discovery with grassroots conservation in Indonesia, helping communities protect their reefs from destructive practices and documenting more than 220 new species.
- As a leader behind Raja Ampat’s pioneering community-governed marine protected areas, Erdmann has shown how local stewardship can revive ecosystems—bringing back sharks, rays, and sustainable tourism.
- Despite new threats like over-tourism and revived mining, Erdmann remains hopeful, pointing to rising public resistance, tech-enabled rewilding programs like ReShark, and a new generation of Indonesian conservationists.
- Erdmann spoke with Mongabay Founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler during a voyage in the Pacific in June 2025.

Antarctic coalition wins €1m prize for safeguarding a fragile frontier
The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), an advocacy group focused on the world’s coldest and most remote region, has received the 2025 Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity. The 1 million euro ($1.17 million) award, presented by the Portugal-based Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, recognizes the coalition’s decades-long efforts to preserve Antarctica’s ecological integrity and protect the Southern […]
Listings of Indonesian islands renew fears of privatization for coastal communities
- Listings of Indonesian islands on a foreign real estate site have sparked concerns about privatization, prompting the government to block the site domestically and clarify that islands cannot be sold to foreign entities under national law.
- Officials said the listings were likely aimed at attracting investment, not outright sales, but critics warn such practices enable control over island and offshore areas, often displacing fishers and triggering land conflicts.
- A 2021 regulation allows foreign investors to lease small islands for up to $1,900 per km² per year, and a government portal launched in 2024 streamlines permits for islands smaller than 2,000 km², accelerating commercialization.
- Watchdogs say 254 small islands have already been privatized, often without adequate oversight, and warn that unchecked investment could jeopardize fisher livelihoods and national sovereignty over maritime territories.

Communities and ecosystems in Venezuela learn to adapt to life after glaciers
- In 2023, La Corona, Venezuela’s last standing glacier in the Sierra Nevada de Mérida National Park, was reclassified as an ice field, having shrunk to the size of barely two football fields.
- The country is now the first tropical nation to lose all of its glaciers, which melted rapidly due to a combination of warming temperatures, reduced rainfall and ineffective policies since early signs of melting appeared in the late 19th century.
- As Venezuela’s symbolic glaciers began melting one after another, a team of researchers started studying not only their disappearance, but the emerging ecosystems that were taking over the formerly icy areas.
- With the ice gone, the city of Mérida, advertised for decades as the “city of eternal snow,” is now having to reinvent its identity and its tourism industry.

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

In Colombia, bird-watching brings tourism and a love for conservation
- Every year, on the Global Big Day, thousands of bird-watchers across the world compete to record as many species of birds as possible.
- In Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, bird-watching is central to the conservation movement that has emerged in recent decades.
- Though the region has some of the richest bird life of any place on Earth, bird-watchers note that some species have become harder to come by.
- Birds in the Sierra Nevada are threatened by habitat loss as a result of encroaching agriculture, livestock ranching and deforestation, as well as wildlife trafficking and introduction of predators like feral cats.

Major coral loss in Vietnam’s first marine protected area: Study
- Vietnam’s first marine protected area (MPA), Nha Trang Bay, has lost nearly 200 hectares (494 acres) of coral reef since it was established in 2002, according to a new study.
- Major drivers of the coral decline include coastal development, warming sea temperatures and devastating crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) outbreaks worsened by overfishing and nutrient pollution.
- The study calls for stronger conservation measures inside Nha Trang Bay and other MPAs, including pollution control, active reef restoration and inclusive community governance.
- Experts say Nha Trang Bay offers lessons for other MPAs in Southeast Asia facing similar threats.

Indonesian women sustain seaweed traditions in a changing climate
- The women of Indonesia’s Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan islands have harvested seaweed for generations.
- Climate change and tourism development now threaten seaweed cultivators’ centuries-old practices.
- In the face of these changes, seaweed cultivators are working with tourism operators and coral-conservation groups to preserve, and adapt, their traditional practices.

Green groups oppose Qatari luxury resort near pristine world heritage site
- Construction has begun on a Qatari-backed project to build 37 luxury villas on Assomption Island, the gateway to Aldabra Atoll, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Seychelles that is home to one of the last remaining populations of giant tortoises.
- The resort threatens the entire cluster of islands and atolls (Aldabra, Assomption, Cosmoledo and Astove — known collectively as the Aldabra Group), according to activists, who cite the risk of invasive species.
- Activists say the project’s environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) was rushed, does not meet global standards, and is marred by conflicts of interest.
- An official at the Seychellois government-owned enterprise responsible for developments on islands like Assomption and Aldabra, which aims to turn the island into a “vibrant revenue-generating asset,” said the resort will increase activities on the islands and possibly attract more Seychellois to these remote islands.

Manage people more and bears less, say Indigenous elders in world’s ‘polar bear capital’
- Indigenous residents of Churchill in Canada’s Manitoba province have coexisted with polar bears for thousands of years, emphasizing respect for the animals and staying out of their way.
- The province-run Polar Bear Alert Program also aims to keep the community safe from overly curious or dangerous bears, but some of its practices have been called into question by locals.
- Churchill’s tourism industry drives the local economy and is also the source of most problematic human-bear interactions.
- As climate change causes bears to spend more time on land, Churchill leaders are working with local and regional stakeholders to improve human-polar bear coexistence.

In Nepal, confrontation looms over controversial cable car project as court lifts stay order
- Nepal’s Supreme Court recently discontinued its interim order that had earlier halted the construction of a cable car project opposed by Indigenous Limbu communities over its potential cultural and environmental impacts.
- Community members against the private project say in addition to undermining their rights, the project is based on a flawed environmental impact review.
- While lawyers say the final judgment in the case will determine the fate of the project, the developer says it plans to resume construction work.

Cruise ships and intensified tourism in Mexico threaten whale shark habitat
- In Baja California Sur, Mexico, a private tourism company, Aquamayan Adventures, and the port administration have reached an agreement that allows mega cruise ships to enter Bahía de La Paz. Environmental organizations are urging the government to cancel the agreement.
- The agreement allows at least 150,000 annual visitors, a figure four times that of cruise passengers received in 2023 and equivalent to 60% of the resident population of the city of La Paz, the state’s capital.
- In addition, the company intends to build a large tourism and commercial complex that could have serious environmental, social and economic impacts on the city and surrounding area, according to organizations concerned about the project.
- Bahía de La Paz is a critical location for marine species like the whale shark, which was affected by the presence of a high number of mega cruise ships in 2020, and which could now be the victim of collisions with vessels arriving to port.

Viral standoff at Philippines’ Mt. Pinatubo exposes decades of Indigenous exclusion
- On April 18, Indigenous Aeta protesters blockaded the trail to the Philippines’ Mount Pinatubo, a popular tourist attraction in an area recognized as Aeta ancestral land.
- Aeta leaders say their communities have been deprived of their rightful share of tourism revenues.
- While businesses and tours catering to travelers have flourished and the local government collects fees, Indigenous locals are engaged as freelance guides for less than minimum wage.

Cable car project in Nepal under fire for flawed environmental review
- Nepal’s Pathibhara cable car project faces increased backlash after its environmental assessment was found to omit key species and understate its forest impact, bypassing the need for a full environmental impact assessment.
- The project, in a sacred site for Indigenous Yakthung (Limbu) communities, threatens biodiversity and spiritual heritage, with critics alleging more than 40,000 trees may have been cut, far exceeding the figures stated in the assessment report.
- Protests over the development have turned violent, and Nepal’s Supreme Court has ordered a halt to construction pending a review of alleged regulatory violations and community exclusion.
- While developers and some local officials argue the project boosts tourism and access, conservationists and many Indigenous residents continue to call for its cancellation and a full ecological audit.

Bangladesh witnesses coastal erosion, salinization as tourism crushes a flowering creeper
- Bangladesh’s sandy beaches have been witnessing the disappearance of a once-common flowering vine, the beach morning glory, especially on Cox’s Bazar beach.
- Seashore erosion is now increasing in the region as this plant is supposed to retain soil and protect the beach from erosion.
- Experts and studies indicate the excessive and unchecked tourism in the coastal district as one of the major reasons for this loss.

How a Philippine town is dealing with the fallout of its own popularity
El Nido in the Philippines was once a small fishing town, but promotion on social media over the last decade led to a dramatic influx of tourists. Tourism has helped the local economy, but also resulted in coastal water contamination, Mongabay’s Keith Anthony Fabro reports. Home to 50,000 residents, El Nido welcomed 10 times that […]
Sun, sand and skulls: Bali tourism trade peddles threatened primate skulls
- Indonesia’s Bali, with its beautiful beaches and ancient temples, is a tourist hotspot where many businesses cater to foreign travelers, including those that sell art and curios.
- A new study finds that primate skulls, including those from threatened species such as orangutans, gibbons and proboscis monkeys, are openly sold in these shops, despite the trade being illegal.
- Between 2013 and 2024, researchers recorded more than 750 carved and uncarved primate skulls sold to mainly foreign tourists, with sales increasing over time.
- Conservationists say this illegal, barely monitored international trade poses an additional threat to already threatened primates in Indonesia, and call for stricter law enforcement and monitoring to shut down the trade.

Tourists are back at this Instaworthy Philippine town, but can its sewage system keep up?
- The town of El Nido on the Philippine island of Palawan, known for its stunning limestone cliffs and azure waters, has become a popular tourist destination due to heavy social media promotion.
- But tourism has caused severe coastal contamination, with consistently high fecal coliform levels in the sea off El Nido, despite efforts like a new sewage treatment plant.
- Policies like tourist caps and subsidies for sewage connections have been introduced, but the system’s pipeline network remains insufficient, with only 3.3% of households in the town center connected to the system.
- Experts blame poor planning, overpromotion on social media, and prioritization of economic gains over environmental health, and urge stronger waste management, regulatory enforcement, and social media campaigns promoting responsible tourism.

Indian villages seek to protect ecosystem by opting out of state’s development push
Residents of two villages in the Indian state of Goa have petitioned the environment ministry for their villages to be recognized as “eco-sensitive areas.” The residents want their villages’ natural resources to be protected from large-scale infrastructure projects and tourism development, reports Mongabay India’s Simrin Sirur. The villages of Loliem and Poingunin are located in […]
As Gálapagos ecotourism booms, top naturalist guide urges sustainability
- Galápagos National Park and the marine reserve protecting the islands’ surrounding waters welcome 300,000 visitors a year and support sustainable fisheries and tourism jobs for about 30,000 residents.
- The Ecuadorian government restricts the number of visitors accessing each island or dive site daily, and requires each tourist or group to hire a guide to accompany them, ensuring that maximum ecological information is shared and that park rules aimed at protecting the unique flora and fauna are followed.
- Many hundreds of Galápagos residents work year-round in this capacity, like veteran guide Marco Andres Vizcaino Garcia, who Mongabay interviewed about the challenges and opportunities he sees for ecotourism, conservation and research across these iconic islands he calls home.

Helicopters slash the trek to Earth’s highest peak, but leave Sherpas grounded
- “Helicopter tourism” that brings trekkers to Base Camp of Sagarmatha (Everest) in Nepal and bypasses the long trek there is taking a toll on local Sherpa communities.
- By cutting short visitors’ time in the region, it reduces the earnings of porters, lodge owners and other small local businesses, as well as diminishes bonds with the community, according to residents living in the lap of Earth’s tallest mountain.
- Increasingly frequent helicopter flights have also brought noise pollution that impacts both wildlife and domestic livestock, while potentially exacerbating environmental risks like avalanches, landslides and glacial floods in the fragile Himalayan ecosystem.
- Local leaders and youth groups are advocating for stricter regulations to limit helicopter flights, reroute them from sensitive areas, and promote ecotourism practices that balance development with conservation.

The paradox of balancing conservation efforts for Himalayan wolves and snow leopards (commentary)
- Although snow leopards cause greater livestock losses than Himalayan wolves, human communities generally show greater tolerance and acceptance toward snow leopards.
- This ‘predator paradox,’ where the more damaging predator is more tolerated, leads to less conservation support for wolves and more for snow leopards.
- “Both snow leopards and wolves are crucial to the Himalayan ecosystem, but conservation has overwhelmingly favored snow leopards. This disparity in attention and resources amplifies the challenges faced by wolves, highlighting the need for a balanced approach to conserve both species effectively,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Sani Isla: A Kichwa community that found alternatives to oil in conservation and tourism
- The oil industry has attempted several times to enter the Kichwa commune of Sani Isla in northern Ecuador’s Amazon, but the community has found alternatives for development through conservation and tourism.
- The community receives incentives for conserving nearly 10,000 hectares through the state-run Socio Bosque program. Additionally, they independently protect 16,577 hectares to sustain their way of life, safeguard the environment, and showcase the area’s biodiversity to tourists.
- The main challenges facing Sani Isla are environmental disasters caused by the regressive erosion of the Coca River—which also affects the Napo River—and the lack of basic services. Its residents demand that authorities provide essential services without harming the region’s biodiversity.

Nepal’s rhino translocations to continue amid concerns over effectiveness
- Nepal’s government will continue the translocation of greater one-horned rhinos within Chitwan National Park to address overpopulation in the western sector, despite opposition from local tourism entrepreneurs citing potential economic impacts.
- The translocation aims to ensure a sustainable and evenly distributed rhino population, mitigate non-poaching-related deaths, and reduce risks from flooding and poaching in the western region, officials say.
- Tourism entrepreneurs in the western sector, however, argue that the relocation lacks adequate research, will harm local tourism-dependent economies, and say the western region remains the most suitable habitat for rhinos.

Controversial study finds cattle and wildlife can co-exist in Kenya’s Maasai Mara
A new study conducted in Kenya is challenging the conventional wisdom that cattle are inherently bad for wildlife, reports Mongabay’s Ashoka Mukpo. In contrast to previous research, the recent study found that a limited number of cattle — grazing illegally in one portion of Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve (MMNR) — had a negligible effect […]
Can cattle and wildlife co-exist in the Maasai Mara? A controversial study says yes
- Conventional conservation wisdom has held that cattle herds managed by Indigenous Maasai in East Africa compete with wildlife for grazing land and degrade protected areas like Kenya’s Maasai Mara and Tanzania’s Ngorongoro.
- But a new research study shows that, in a small study patch of the Maasai Mara, cattle herds didn’t cause a decline in forage quantity or quality, nor did wildlife steer away from areas where cattle had grazed.
- The finding has drawn criticism from other researchers, who question its methodology and say the overwhelming evidence points to the need for restrictions on cattle grazing inside these protected areas.
- The study authors say they hope their findings spark new thinking about how pastoralists like the Maasai can be seen as potential conservation partners rather than excluded as they’ve been for decades.

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

The disappearing red ghost crabs of Cox’s Bazar, a conservation crisis in Bangladesh
- Cox’s Bazar Beach in southeast Bangladesh is known for its vibrant red crab population, which creates a stunning spectacle in the early mornings and late afternoons. However, this natural wonder is now threatened by human activities and environmental degradation.
- Red ghost crabs benefit coastal ecosystems by aerating sand and improving water infiltration, and also as prey species. Their decline threatens the ecosystem health.
- Researchers say a beach management plan is crucial for their protection and restoration. Protected areas like in Kuakata have shown effectiveness in conserving ghost crabs. Raising awareness among local communities is also crucial for successful conservation efforts in Bangladesh.

New tourism restrictions to protect Bangladesh’s unique wetlands and coral-rich island
- Since 1999, Bangladesh has declared 13 biodiversity-rich areas as Ecologically Critical Areas (ECA) under the country’s environment protection act.
- However, the government has failed to conserve the ECAs over the years other than a few project-based protection measures undertaken in some of the areas like Saint Martin’s Island, Tanguar Haor, Hakaluki Haor, Cox’s Bazar Beach and Sonadia Island.
- Now, the current civil society-led government plans to limit tourism in biodiversity hotspots to ensure the health of the ecosystem.
- The coral-rich Saint Martin’s Island and one of the country’s largest wetlands, Tanguar Haor, will see the first through tourism restrictions.

Amid haze of war, Lebanese activists helped turtle hatchlings journey to sea
- The sandy beaches of South Lebanon are a crucial nesting ground for sea turtles.
- This year, 2,500 sea turtle hatchlings safely reached the Mediterranean from Al-Mansouri Beach, a key nesting site near the city of Tyre, according to a volunteer group that has been tending the beach and its turtles for two decades.
- Despite the escalating conflict with Israel and the prevailing climate of fear, the volunteers continued their efforts to protect both the animals and the beach.
- On Sept. 23, the leader of the volunteer group told Mongabay she had to flee her home in Tyre after surviving several Israeli air strikes.

Uttarakhand villagers thirst for water as tourism, temps & development rise
- An influx of tourists and new residents to Uttarakhand, driven by heat waves and work-from-home options, is straining local resources, particularly water.
- Nearly 12,000 natural springs reportedly have dried up in recent years, with 90% of Uttarakhand’s population depending on these vital water sources.
- Widespread construction for tourism disrupts aquifers and natural water percolation, exacerbating water scarcity and affecting water quality; water sources are further threatened by changing rainfall patterns and rising temperatures.
- Local residents, especially women and marginalized communities, face increased hardships in accessing water amid growing allegations of water diversion by hotels.

In Nepal, a cable car in a sacred forest sparks swift, and controversial, direct action
- In Nepal, a recent push to build cable cars to boost tourism in natural beauty spots carries significant environmental costs.
- A controversial cable car project has been proposed in Mukkumlung, far-eastern Nepal, a site revered by the Indigenous Yakthung (Limbu) community.
- After thousands of trees were felled by contractors to begin the construction in mid-May, Indigenous protesters organized a total shutdown of services in the town of Phungling and closed the major transport corridors in the region.
- Their efforts resulted in a temporary stalling of the construction process, but the project is unlikely to be postponed indefinitely.

Thai plan to redraw boundaries of tiger reserve sparks concern and criticism
- Government-led proposals to issue land title deeds within Thailand’s Thap Lan National Park have met with heavy criticism from conservation groups and national park management.
- The plans could set a dangerous precedent for similar action in other protected areas in Thailand and might undermine the status of a flagship UNESCO World Heritage Site, critics say.
- The government says the process is necessary to settle historical boundary disputes with local communities who were living in the area long before it was established as a national park in 1981.
- While there is broad agreement that longtime residents have legitimate claims to land within the park boundaries, sections of land included in the government scheme have been encroached on by commercial developers in recent years, with critics saying the initiative risks legitimizing such illegal developments.

Forced evictions suppress Maasai spirituality & sacred spaces in Tanzania
- In March, the Tanzanian government issued a new round of eviction notices impacting Maasai communities: The first one was issued in Simanjiro district for the expansion of Tarangire National Park while the second was issued to eight villages for the expansion of the Kilimanjaro International Airport.
- Maasai elders and spiritual leaders say they fear and disapprove of the Tanzanian government’s decision of eviction that has disrupted their spiritual connection with their ancestral lands with about 70 sacred sites impacted since 2009.
- Sacred spaces are the pieces of land, rivers, water sources, oreteti trees, mountains and places designated by their ancestors as areas to carry out specific rituals and ceremonies.
- So far, more than 20,000 Maasai have been evicted from their lands, with some resisting and claiming compensation is dissatisfactory.

UNESCO accused of supporting human rights abuses in African parks
- For years, human rights organizations have accused UNESCO of being either inattentive or complicit in the illegal evictions of communities and allegations of torture, rape and murder in several World Heritage Sites.
- These sites include biodiversity hotspots in Africa, including the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania and the Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo.
- Although UNESCO is not participating in these human rights abuses itself, organizations say, a few aspects of the agency’s policies and structure allow abuses to happen: lack of solid mechanisms to enforce human rights obligations, its requests for countries to control population growth in heritage sites and the agency’s internal politics.
- UNESCO strongly contests the statements made against the World Heritage Convention and Committee, which has made stronger human rights commitments, and says such multilateral institutions are in fact the best allies to defend human rights.

Fishers left with no land, no fish, in fire sale of Cambodian coast
- Coastal communities in Cambodia are facing a double threat, from land and sea, as developers evict them from their homes and farms, and trawlers encroach on their nearshore fishing grounds.
- Illegal fishing, chiefly embodied by rampant, unchecked trawling in protected and prohibited waters, has devastated fish stocks, trashed marine ecosystems and left coastal communities in dire poverty.
- At the same time, the land is being sold out from under them: Nearly half of Cambodia’s coast has been privatized since 2000, with a slew of new projects tied to politically connected wealthy investors announced in the last five years, displacing families and closing off access to the sea.
- This is the second part of a Mongabay series about challenges faced by Cambodia’s small-scale fishers along the coast.

Messengers of the gods: Nara’s ‘sacred’ deer at a conservation crossroads
- Japan’s Nara city is famous for its sacred deer, protected for a millennium as “messengers of the gods” according to Shinto religious tradition, and today also a valuable tourism resource.
- In recent years, genetic analysis by Japanese researchers has found that Nara’s protected deer population has become genetically isolated over its history. But a nationwide deer population boom now threatens to end the Nara deer’s long isolation, potentially bringing diseases transmissible to humans, the scientists warn.
- In addition, deer overpopulation can harm farmers’ livelihoods and upset the balance of ecosystems. The Nara prefectural government is leading efforts to minimize community conflicts and ecological damage from both protected and “ordinary” deer.
- However, the researchers warn that even stronger deer management measures, including installing more deer-proof fences and expanded culling, may be necessary to address conservation and community conflict issues.

Nepal govt bypasses parliament to allow commercial projects in protected areas
- Nepal’s government has issued a controversial ordinance bypassing parliament to enable foreign investment in various sectors, including protected areas.
- The ordinance coincides with Nepal’s Investment Summit, facilitating projects like cable car routes and hotels within national parks.
- Details of the ordinance remain undisclosed, but it reportedly amends laws governing protected areas, allowing construction in previously restricted zones.
- Critics have expressed concern over the potential long-term consequences, questioning the impact on conservation efforts and local communities.

Uttarakhand limits agricultural land sales amid protests & tourism development
- Following widespread protests, Uttarakhand’s Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has issued orders to district magistrates to deny permission to sell agricultural lands to those outside the state.
- With just 14% of its land designated for agriculture and more than 65% of the population relying on agriculture, calls for legislation to safeguard residents’ land rights have intensified.
- With a lack of comprehensive, updated land records, monitoring the usage of farmlands for nonagricultural purposes has become challenging.
- Lack of employment opportunities and resources as well as shifting weather patterns and climate change have pushed numerous farmers to sell their land holdings.

Costa Rican community struggles to stop an airport ‘destroying our country’
- Some 350 families in Palmar Sur, in southeastern Costa Rica, face eviction over the construction of a new international airport designed to serve the country’s growing tourism industry.
- The project, endorsed by the country’s president, also threatens a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the Terraba Sierpe National Wetlands, a large mangrove ecosystem that provides habitat for scores of bird species.
- Since its approval in 2010, the airport project has faced opposition from local communities, who fear the loss of their land, for which they lack property titles.
- Now, locals are considering taking legal action against the state, and are pinning their hopes on pre-Columbian archaeological finds on their land putting an end to the airport project.

Resort in Philippines’ protected Chocolate Hills sparks uproar, probes
- A video of a resort cut into the Philippines’ Chocolate Hills, a protected area, has caused public outrage in the island nation.
- The public outcry has prompted government investigations into the resort, which received approval at the local level but failed to obtain environmental permits required by national law.
- The controversy comes as tourism makes a post-pandemic comeback in the Philippines, prompting questions about how the industry can be managed more sustainably.

Adventure tours with tigers? Nepal’s proposed policy changes raise alarm
- Nepal’s government is proposing zoning changes to allow adventure tourism activities such as canyoning, mountain biking and motorboating inside protected areas.
- The proposed changes are part of a wider push, which includes allowing the operation of hotels and cable cars inside protected areas, to commercialize the country’s globally acclaimed conservation sector.
- Critics argue that the proposed changes could potentially jeopardize hard-won achievements in biodiversity preservation and land restoration.

Cable car proposal is Nepal’s latest plan to commercialize national parks
- Nepal’s Ministry of Forest and Environment is considering allowing the construction of ropeways to carry cable cars within protected areas, according to a draft regulation seen by Mongabay.
- The proposed regulation aims to permit ropeway construction if it facilitates transportation to religious or tourist sites, provided no alternative transport options exist or if cable cars are deemed more environmentally friendly.
- The draft regulation suggests criteria for ropeway construction, including locating base or final stations outside protected areas and minimal infrastructure within, along with proposed fees based on the length of the ropeway.
- The plan comes on the heels of similar moves to open up Nepal’s protected areas to hydropower development and to hotels.

Nepal mulls policy shift to allow hotels back into tiger strongholds
- Nepal’s Ministry of Forest and Environment is working new regulations to permit hotels to operate within national parks like Chitwan, a draft of the document seen by Mongabay suggests.
- The decision follows the closure of seven hotels in Chitwan National Park in 2009 due to ecological concerns and alleged involvement in poaching, with the last of them shutting down in 2012.
- Despite opposition from conservationists and local communities, the government has shown interest in allowing commercial activities, including large-scale hydropower plants, within national parks, raising concerns about environmental degradation.

Oman’s mountain oases offer ancient farming lessons for a warming future
- Traditional oasis agriculture in Oman’s northern mountains is an outstanding example of sustainable land-use in dryland ecosystems.
- But major socioeconomic development throughout Oman over the past 50 years means that traditional agricultural practices, more than a millennium old, are changing too.
- Climate change is also affecting the types of crops that can be grown, particularly at higher altitudes.
- The high value of traditional agricultural products, agritourism, and new cash crops offer ideas on how to sustain the economic viability of these mountain oases.

Can ecotourism protect Raja Ampat, the ‘Crown Jewel’ of New Guinea?
- The world’s most biodiverse marine environment, Raja Ampat in Indonesia, is often seen as a conservation success story.
- With more than 20,000 square kilometers (7,700 square miles) of marine protected areas, the archipelago is famous for its government-supported conservation efforts, ecotourism, sapphire-blue waters, and stunning geography.
- On this episode of Mongabay’s podcast, host Mike DiGirolamo travels to several islands in the area to speak with local communities about the benefits and challenges of ecotourism and to catch a glimpse of some amazing endemic species.

African Parks vows to investigate allegations of abuse at Congolese park
- In late January, the Daily Mail published allegations that rangers working with African Parks at Odzala-Kokoua park in the Republic of Congo had beaten and raped Baka community members.
- In a statement, African Parks said it had hired the U.K.-based law firm Omnia Strategy to investigate the allegations, which were raised in a letter sent to a board member by the advocacy group Survival International last year.
- African Parks said it became aware of the allegations through that letter, but in 2022, a local civil society group in the Republic of Congo released a statement accusing rangers of committing “acts of torture.”

Cambodia sea turtle nests spark hope amid coastal development & species decline
- Conservationists in Cambodia have found nine sea turtle nests on a remote island off the country’s southwest coast, sparking hopes for the critically endangered hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) and endangered green turtle (Chelonia mydas).
- It’s the first time sea turtle nests have been spotted in the country in a decade of species decline.
- Two nests have been excavated to assess hatching success; conservationists estimate the nests could hold as many as 1,000 eggs.
- Globally, sea turtle populations are declining, largely due to hunting for food and the animals’ shells, used in jewelry; other threats to sea turtles include tourism development, pollution and climate change.

In Nepal’s Chitwan, tourist pools spell possible trouble for environment & wildlife
- Hoteliers say they believe there’s a growing demand for swimming pools in Nepal’s Sauraha tourist town due to a domestic tourism surge.
- However, unregulated proliferation of pools raises ecological concerns for Chitwan National Park and its diverse wildlife.
- Potential environmental threats include chlorine impact, disinfectant by-products and heavy metal contamination, prompting calls for sustainable tourism practices.

Bird-watching offers potential for conservation & economy in Colombia’s Guaviare
- Bird-watching has become one of the world’s fastest-growing tourist activities in recent years, and efforts are being made in Colombia, home to the highest number of species of any country in the world as of 2023, to set up new bird-watching trails in the hopes of attracting visitors from across the country and abroad.
- One study estimates that tourism activities related to bird-watching could generate 7,500 jobs and contribute $9 million to the economy.
- Catering to bird-watchers offers rural communities in Colombian departments such as Guaviare — which have long suffered from the effects of conflict and state neglect — a way to develop and grow while maintaining the forest intact.

In Venezuela, a mysterious fire sparks concerns for rare mountain wildlife
- A fire on the top of Mount Roraima in Venezuela has baffled scientists, park guards and local community leaders, who have never seen a fire in the area and worry that the rare mountain ecosystem could face increasing threats.
- A photography expedition encountered a mysterious fire that may have been manmade, a lightning strike — or something much more spectacular.
- More resources are needed to educate tourists and locals about the tepuy ecosystem, as well as to monitor human behavior there, experts said.

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

Indonesia’s Mandalika project a litany of violations for Indigenous Sasak
- A new investigation has revealed myriad problems plaguing the resettlement and compensation process for Indigenous Sasak families affected by a tourism development project on the Indonesian island of Lombok.
- According to the report by local and international NGOs, the project has impoverished the communities, who have been forced to resettle far from their coastal homes without being properly consulted from the beginning.
- Despite the numerous human rights violations, the project’s main funder, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and the project’s developer, the state-owned Indonesian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), insist to conclude the resettlement process in September.
- Activists have called on the AIIB and ITDC to not rush the process without properly consulting with affected communities and remedying the rights violations they’ve suffered and continue to suffer.

Tien Hai Nature Reserve latest battleground in Vietnam’s push for development
- In April, the government of Vietnam’s Thai Binh province quietly issued a decision to remove protection from 90% of Tien Hai Nature Reserve, which forms an integral part of the UNESCO-recognized Red River Delta Biosphere Reserve.
- After environment activists publicized the decision last month, public backlash prompted officials to pause plans to develop a resort in the degazetted area — at least for now.
- The project is just one of several recent cases in which the country’s protected wetlands and forests have been threatened by development projects.

Airport proposal for Malaysian island doesn’t fly with conservationists
- A proposal to build an international airport on Tioman Island in Malaysia would destroy coral reefs in the heart of one of the country’s most biodiverse marine parks and have wide-ranging impacts on local communities and biodiversity.
- Plans for the airport were rejected by authorities in 2018 due to the scale of the environmental impacts it would cause, but government officials are again considering an environmental impact assessment for the development.
- Many of the island’s 3,000 residents have been left in the dark about the plans, which could wipe out livelihoods in two of the island’s seven villages.
- Critics of the project recommend authorities focus on upgrading an existing airstrip on the island to accept larger aircraft and in the meantime invest in sustainable, meaningful, nature-based tourism.

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

As tourism booms in India’s Western Ghats, habitat loss pushes endangered frogs to the edge
- India’s Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot, is home to many endemic and endangered species of amphibians, some of which are new to science and others suspected of lying in wait of discovery.
- Deforestation due to infrastructure and plantation expansion in the southern Western Ghats threaten the region’s amphibian species, many of which have highly restricted habitats.
- Adding to their woes is an increased risk of landslides in parts of Kerala due to erratic, heavy monsoon rains and erosion due to loss of forest.
- To save them, experts are calling for a systematic taxonomic survey of amphibians in the region and for legal protection of endangered species.

Indigenous Maasai ask the United Nations to intervene on reported human rights abuses
- Maasai delegates at the United Nations conference on Indigenous people are calling on the forum to increase pressure on the Tanzanian government to address evictions, forced displacement and thousands of seized cattle in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Loliondo.
- Land disputes at both sites have been grinding on for years after the government revealed plans to lease the land to a UAE-based company to create a wildlife corridor for trophy hunting and elite tourism.
- Last year, the dispute reached a boiling point when Tanzanian police officers and authorities shot and beat dozens of Maasai villagers who protested the demarcation of their ancestral land. One Maasai man and one police officer have been killed.
- At the United Nations forum, a Tanzanian government representative rejected accusations brought against it, pointing to a recent court ruling in its favor and a visit by an African human rights commission.

New zipline on Rio’s Sugarloaf raises outcry from conservationists
- Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Sugarloaf stands shrouded in controversy as construction of a 755-meter (2,477-foot) zipline begins from the monolith monument.
- The zipline is the tip of the iceberg, say critics who warn its construction could prompt the approval of other disputed development plans in the region.
- Environmentalists warn the increase in tourism and noise from zipline riders as they descend will disturb nesting birds and other wildlife in the surrounding vegetation.
- Authorities assure the construction will have minimal effects on surrounding nature, but critics say detailed environmental impact reports were not carried out.

Mexico’s Tren Maya hotel construction clears forest reserve without permits
- The construction of a hotel in Mexico’s Calakmul Biosphere Reserve took many residents by surprise when bulldozers started clearing the forest in January.
- The hotel is part of the Tren Maya project, a controversial railway line that will move tourists and cargo throughout the Yucatán Peninsula and southern Mexico.
- Residents said they weren’t consulted and that the location of the project is dangerously close to Maya ruins and important sources of freshwater.

As livelihoods clash with development, Vietnam’s Cần Giờ mangroves are at risk
- Cần Giờ, a coastal district of Ho Chi Minh City, is home to a 75,740-hectare (187,158-acre) mangrove forest, planted and maintained as part of post-war reforestation efforts.
- The district’s residents largely depend on aquaculture, shellfish gathering and small-scale ecotourism for their livelihoods.
- The government and developers hope to market the area as an ecotourism city based on its natural beauty and post-war success story, but major projects could disrupt Cần Giờ’s precarious balance between ecosystems and livelihoods.
- All names of sources in Cần Giờ have been changed so people could speak freely without fearing repercussions from authorities.

Ecotourism and education: Win-win solution for Pantanal jaguars and ranchers
- Conflicts between cattle ranchers and jaguars are among the biggest threats to the big cat population in the Brazilian Pantanal, experts warn.
- Studies reveal that nearly a third of jaguars’ diets are cattle, causing economic losses to ranchers and consequent retaliatory killings.
- Conservationists are using new solutions, such as ecotourism, tourism fees and education, to protect both jaguars and the livelihoods of cattle ranchers.
- Empirical evidence suggests that jaguar populations in the Pantanal are now recovering, thanks to shifting perceptions of the wetland’s famous big cat.

Indonesian ‘island auction’ to go ahead despite concerns over permits
- Shares of a private company with the rights to develop tourism facilities within a marine reserve in Indonesia have reappeared for auction later this month despite the government’s plan to annul an agreement with the firm.
- The government plans to revoke developer PT LII’s 2015 memorandum of understanding with local authorities, including the rights to develop the Widi Islands for 35 years with a possible extension of another 20 years.
- The company’s plan has met mounting concerns in Indonesia, with experts saying it would be essentially selling the islands off to foreigners and cutting off local fishing communities from a key source of livelihood.
- The Widi Islands are also part of a marine reserve in the Pacific Coral Triangle, a region that’s home to the highest diversity of corals and reef fishes in the world.

In Vietnam, a forest grown from the ashes of war falls to a resort project
- Planted in the 1970s as part of Vietnam’s post-war reforestation program, the Dak Doa forest has become both a burgeoning tourist attraction and a lifeline for ethnic minority farmers living in the district.
- The forest is under threat due to a planned tourism, housing and golf complex slated to cover 517 of the forest’s 601 hectares (1,278 of 1,485 acres).
- Work on the project is currently suspended due to the death of more than 4,500 trees in a botched relocation operation, as well as sanctions imposed on local leaders by central party leadership, which found local officials to have committed a series of violations related to land management.
- While currently suspended, the project could still be revitalized if a new investor takes over.

Island shopping: Cambodian officials buy up the Cardamoms’ coast
- A buying spree by Cambodia’s wealthy and politically connected elites has put the fate of a string of small islands in the balance, affecting the livelihoods of local fishers.
- Resort developments threaten the Koh S’dach archipelago’s seagrass and coral ecosystems, which harbor rare and threatened marine life.
- Local fishers have also found themselves locked out of their traditional fishing grounds by the developers, leading to a loss of earnings.
- This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network where Gerald Flynn is a fellow.

Indonesian authorities nip island auction in marine reserve in the bud
- Indonesian officials have sought to neuter an apparent bid to auction off private tourism enclaves to foreign investors in a marine reserve in the country’s east.
- Shares of Bali-based developer PT Leadership Islands Indonesia (LII) had been up for bidding via Sotheby’s Concierge Auctions in New York from Dec. 8-14, but the deputy environment minister said this had now been annulled.
- LII holds the rights to develop tourism facilities in the Widi Islands, but not to sell off individual islands to foreign investors, which is against Indonesian law.
- The Widi Islands are part of a marine reserve in the Pacific Coral Triangle, and while most of the islands are uninhabited, they hold high social, cultural and livelihood importance for local fishing communities.

Work on cable car line to Indonesian volcano to begin despite concerns
- Construction will begin this month on a cable car line to Mount Rinjani on the Indonesian island of Lombok, a UNESCO-listed geopark.
- Environmental activists have expressed concern about the project, noting that local authorities have still not published the environmental impact analysis and feasibility study for public review.
- Authorities insist the cable car line won’t cross into Mount Rinjani National Park, and have touted a series of measures to minimize the environmental impact.

To save threatened Amazon primates in Brazil, turn them into the main attraction
- Primates along the southern portion of Brazil’s Amazon frontier, a region known as the Arc of Deforestation, are being pushed to the brink of extinction as vast swaths of their habitats are cleared.
- A recent assessment places the Vieira’s titi monkey, whose conservation status was previously unknown, now as critically endangered; researchers say other primates face a similarly perilous situation.
- Conservationists say investing in primate-based ecotourism, based on the established model of the bird-watching industry and making use of the existing agroindustry infrastructure, could provide an effective conservation solution.
- Some point to the city of Sinop, in the state of Mato Grosso, as a potential “hotspot” for primate-watching ecotourism.

Thai zoos come under scrutiny again as tourism rebounds from COVID-19
- The welfare of rare and often threatened species in Thailand’s tourism and pet trades has long been a concern for animal rights activists.
- The conditions in which many of the animals are kept became even direr during the COVID-19 pandemic, when border shutdowns meant no visitor revenue to care for the animals.
- NGOs are working to rescue and rehabilitate some of the animals from zoos and private owners, but acknowledge that few, if any, of the animals can ever be released back into the wild.
- They add that rescue and rehabilitation is only part of the solution, and that more focus should go on protecting the natural environment and habitats of these animals over the long term.

Maasai villages lose important court case as wildlife game reserve trudges on
- The East African Court of Justice (EACJ) has ruled in favor of the Tanzanian government after a five-year legal battle between Maasai communities and the state over evictions that took place in 2017.
- The East African Court of Justice (EACJ) says Maasai communities did not provide sufficient evidence that evictions were done violently and that they occurred on legally registered land.
- The court case is part of a larger battle between Maasai communities and the state over the creation of a wildlife reserve on disputed lands near Serengeti National Park.
- According to Maasai villagers and their attorneys, the court omitted important evidence and they plan to appeal the EACJ’s decision.

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.

In Indonesia’s West Sumbawa, tide turns on taste for turtle eggs
- Consumption of turtle eggs is widespread in Indonesia’s West Sumbawa district, where they’re served to guests of honor such as local government officials.
- All seven species of sea turtle are listed as threatened worldwide, with egg poaching a key cause of endangerment.
- West Sumbawa officials have pledged to stamp out poaching and consumption of sea turtle eggs.

Engineers bet on a miracle to bring Nepal’s holy river back to life
- Officials in Nepal hope to start reviving the sacred Bagmati River that runs through Kathmandu with the help of a rainwater reservoir.
- The Dhap Dam is expected to go into operation in October, when it will start providing water for the Bagmati during the dry season — a period when the river can shrink to just 3% of its monsoon peak.
- Unlike most other rivers in Nepal, the Bagmati doesn’t flow from the Himalayan icepack, and instead is fed by springs that, in recent decades, have dried up as a result of urbanization.
- But with the river so polluted that a study declared it “not suitable for aquatic life,” even those behind the project acknowledge that the best they can hope for is to improve its condition, not bring it back to life.

No time to keep vultures out of danger as new Nepal airport set to open
- With Nepal’s newest international airport set to open at the start of 2023, there’s still no concrete plan to relocate a nearby waste landfill site.
- The site attracts a host of birds, including several threatened vulture species, and conservationists warn there’s a high risk of bird strikes once flights begin.
- They also say it’s too late to relocate the landfill now, with the vultures expected to continue returning to the site for months or even years to come.
- The civil aviation authority says it will take measures to keep the birds away from the airport and out of danger, including with the use of lasers, reflectors and loud noises.

Mexico’s Maya Train chugs forward, but at what cost to habitats and communities?
- On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast we discuss a massive new railway project, the Maya Train, in Mexico.
- Stretching 1,525 kilometers (958 miles) across five states in the Yucatán peninsula, the project has faced dozens of legal roadblocks for its alleged impact on the environment and lack of thorough, free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) from local and Indigenous communities.
- Mongabay's Mexico City-based staff writer Max Radwin joins the podcast to discuss the current status of this project, its environmental and social impacts, and the president’s overall approach to infrastructure planning for Mexico.

Traditional communities rally behind ecotourism to conserve their forests
- In the Amanalco-Valle de Bravo region of central Mexico, Indigenous and local communities responsible for more than 8,000 hectares (19,700 acres) of forests have banded together to develop and promote ecotourism projects.
- They offer a wide range of activities and workshops to both generate revenue for the community and to educate visitors on their way of life and the importance of nature.
- On top of creating jobs, the communities want to encourage a type of tourism that combines conservation of their forests, lakes and waterfalls.

Parrots of the Caribbean: Birding tourism offers hope for threatened species
- Four species of parrots endemic to Caribbean islands in the Lesser Antilles — St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Dominica — are clinging to existence amid a volley of hurricanes and volcanic eruptions that have decimated their populations and habitats.
- Efforts by state agencies, NGOs, volunteers and entrepreneurs are trying to ensure that none of them slips into extinction.
- Ecotourism is seen by most people directly involved as being the best route forward for the parrots’ protection and for sustainable community development.

Maasai protesters shot, beaten as Tanzania moves forward with wildlife game reserve
- Tanzanian police officers and authorities have shot and beaten about 31 Maasai villagers, including children, during early June protests over the demarcation of ancestral land for a trophy hunting and safari game reserve. One Maasai man and one police officer have been killed.
- At least 700 Maasai villagers from Tanzania’s Loliondo division of Ngorongoro have fled across the border to Kenya, seeking humanitarian and medical aid.
- According to government spokesperson, Gerson Msigwa, authorities were sent to demarcate the land, not pursue evictions. The government will take legal action against people who interfere with the demarcation process or incite hostility between pastoralists and security forces, he says.
- Human rights groups say the Tanzanian government and authorities are violating a 2018 East African Court of Justice (EACJ) injunction on the land dispute by intimidating, harassing and attacking villagers.

Riders of the lost waves: Surfing, and saving, Brazil’s pororocas
- Surfers and volunteers are mapping out tidal bores — spectacular waves that travel dozens of kilometers upriver from Brazil’s Atlantic coast — in an effort to preserve the phenomenon and build a tourism industry around it.
- The best-known pororocas in Brazil are in the states of Amapá, Maranhão and Pará, and once included the Araguari River, site of the 2006 world record for the longest distance surfed (nearly 12 kilometers, or 7.5 miles).
- But the Araguari pororoca disappeared in 2014 when the river’s mouth silted over, the result of development upriver that included livestock ranching and dam building.
- Enthusiasts of the phenomenon now want to develop a Pororoca Park that they say will boost tourism on the Amazon coast, providing income for the Indigenous and traditional communities where many of the remaining pororoca sites are found.

U.N., rights groups flag potential violations in $3b Indonesian tourism project
- The U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights has again raised concerns about alleged violations against local and Indigenous communities who are being moved for a tourism development project in Indonesia.
- The Indonesian government envisions building a “New Bali” in the Mandalika region of the island of Lombok, including resorts, hotels and a racetrack, for which it is relocating 121 households.
- Special rapporteur Olivier De Schutter says there are concerns around four issues: the conditions under which the community members are being moved; whether they’ve even consented to doing so; the amount of compensation the government is offering; and the conditions of their resettlement.
- NGOs have called for the $3 billion Mandalika project’s main funder, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), to stop financing the project in light of these allegations of rights violations.

Ecotours aimed at saving monkeys are likely stressing them out, study finds
- A recent study reveals that tourist boats approaching troops of proboscis monkeys in Malaysian Borneo cause the animals stress, even when the boats travel at slow speeds.
- The research reveals something of a universal response, closely tracking similar findings from ecotourism operations focused on other animals such as birds and whales.
- Wildlife tourism is increasingly seen as a way to raise awareness around conservation issues and provide local communities with a source of income that’s contingent on the protection of ecosystems.
- Scientists say this type of research can form the basis for guidelines aimed at minimizing the effects of ecotourism on animals, especially as its role in conservation grows.

Reframing trophy hunting’s socio-economic benefits in Namibia (commentary)
- Namibia is often cited as a case study to make arguments for trophy hunting, a morally contentious practice that has been adapted into a conservation strategy there by various stakeholders including community-based conservancies.
- But a 2016 study of the total revenue generated by trophy hunting revealed that 92% went to ‘freehold’ landowners, over 70% of whom are white, while less than 8% went to communal conservancies.
- If we are sincere about aligning environmental and social justice, then centering trophy hunting related debates in Namibia around racial inequalities would be an essential and meaningful step, a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Iwan Dento, ‘hero’ of South Sulawesi’s karst mountains
- For more than a decade, environmental activist Iwan Dento has opposed the mining of the limestone karst formations in his homeland of Maros, Indonesia.
- Until 2013, the karst mountain area of Rammang-rammang was mined for marble and limestone, but local resistance led to protective regulations and the establishment of an ecotourism area.
- For his dedication to defending the karst and establishing ecotourism, Iwan Dento has been nominated for several top honors for environmental preservation by both the government and the private sector, and is seen as the “hero” of Rammang-rammang.

‘No’ to corporate-driven tourism development in Komodo National Park (commentary)
- Plans to build tourism resorts inside Indonesia’s Komodo National Park, home to the world’s biggest lizard, have for years faced pushback from local communities.
- Opponents of the projects point to the potential for ecological and social disruptions.
- Instead of tourism based on corporate investment, the government should develop a model of community-based tourism, argues Venansius Haryanto, a researcher at Sunspirit for Justice and Peace, an advocacy group based in Labuan Bajo.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

‘Sharing the air’ proves a challenge for new Nepal airport in bird paradise
- Conservationists and aviation officials have raised concerns about the potential for bird strikes at a new international airport set to open in Pokhara, Nepal, later this year.
- The flight path to the Chinese-funded airport crosses the habitat of vultures and eagles.
- A landfill site close to the airport also draw these birds of prey, increasing the risk of bird strikes.
- Municipality authorities tasked with relocating the landfill site have still not done so, even as construction of airport nears completion by July.

On a Honduran island, a community effort grows to protect its precious reefs
- On the tourism-reliant island of Roatán in Honduras, a homegrown environmental organization has allied with local communities to ensure the natural beauty that draws visitors remains safe.
- Roatán sits along the Mesoamerican Reef, and is home to rich corals and lush mangroves, which face threats from the tourism boom.
- The Bay Islands Conservation Association (BICA) takes a three-pronged approach to its work, focusing on science, institutional support for the authorities, and community work.
- The group’s success over the years is unusual in Honduras, which routinely ranks among the most dangerous countries for environmental activists.

Thai tourism elephants are ‘far better off’ in forests: Q&A with photographer Adam Oswell
- Following the collapse of tourism due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of Thailand’s 2,700 captive elephants used for tourism trekked back to rural villages alongside their keepers, where it was hoped they could forage naturally.
- Two years later, international visitors are beginning to return to the country and a new tourism model is emerging in locations where community-managed forests are available to the elephants.
- Under the new model, elephants are granted access to community forests, where they can forage and explore their natural behaviors. Meanwhile, tourists keen to learn about elephants in a natural setting are beginning to visit, enabling people in the villages to generate income.
- Adam Oswell, a photographer who has been documenting wildlife trade and protection in Asia for more than 20 years, spoke with Mongabay recently about his work documenting these projects and the fate of Thailand’s tourism elephants.

Tiger and bear rescue spotlights captive wildlife tourism woes in Thailand
- After two years of closed borders and little tourism revenue, many captive wildlife facilities around the world are struggling.
- Phuket Zoo in Thailand recently closed down permanently, but rehoming its 11 tigers and two bears has proved a challenge.
- A local nonprofit, Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, has stepped in to undertake the largest single rescue of tigers in the country’s history, and has so far transferred one female tiger to its rescue center.
- Animal welfare experts say the situation highlights the perils of overreliance on tourism and are calling on the government to place better controls on breeding animals in captivity.

Thai authorities demolish resorts in parks, but struggle to prosecute encroachers
- More than a twenty luxury resorts and mansions illegally built in national parks in Thailand’s Western Forest Complex have been demolished or ordered to be demolished since October 2020.
- Officials say prosecutions for encroachment rarely succeed, due to legal ambiguities created by legislation that allows people to remain on land they owned prior the declaration as a national park.
- Under the law, residents allowed to remain on park land cannot transfer land outside of their families, but one park official estimates that close to 20% of this land has, in fact, been sold.
- The owners of the newly demolished buildings include retired military generals and prominent businesspeople.

Call for COVID rules that reduced infections in gorilla parks to remain
- Respiratory infections recorded among mountain gorillas in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park dropped from a pre-pandemic average of 5.4 outbreaks among family groups to just 1.6 per year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
- Conservation group Gorilla Doctors, whose Rwanda team recorded the decrease in infections, says the decline correlates with lower visitor numbers to the park as well as masking requirements and an increase in the distance tourists must stay from habituated apes.
- In a recent letter in the journal Nature, Gorilla Doctors and the park’s chief warden called for these stricter measures to be kept in place permanently.

Tanzania, siding with UAE firm, plans to evict Maasai from ancestral lands
- In northern Tanzania, more than 70,000 Indigenous Maasai residents are once again facing eviction from ancestral lands as the government reveals plans to lease the land to a UAE-based company to create a wildlife corridor for trophy hunting and elite tourism.
- Maasai leaders have filed an appeal at a regional court, seeking a halt to all plans for the area and calling the renewed attempt to seize the land a blatant violation of an injunction that barred the government from evicting Maasai communities in a case that involved violent evictions.
- According to sources, the regional commissioner of the region told Maasai leaders that the leasing of the land is in the national interest to increase the country’s tourism revenue and was a tough decision for the government to make.
- The timeline for the displacement of Maasai is still developing, while plans for the relocation of another group of Maasai in a UNESCO World Heritage Site will begin at the end of February.

Grounded by conflict and COVID, Colombia’s bird tourism struggles to soar
- In Colombia, the landmark 2016 peace accords with the FARC heralded hopes of ushering in bird-watching tourism in previously inaccessible, biodiverse regions.
- Birding tourism has unique advantages, including dedicated bird-watchers who will pay good money to go to remote locations.
- But the pandemic, protests, and the persistent perception of insecurity has stymied the country’s bird tourism industry from reaching its full potential.

Mongabay’s Top 10 Indigenous News Stories of 2021
- To date, 2021 has proved to be one of the most consequential years for Indigenous rights and participation in global climate and conservation efforts.
- In some parts of the world, Indigenous communities saw support for their rights increase, while in others, threats to their land rights by extractive industries continued unabated.
- To end the year, Mongabay rounds up the top 10 Indigenous news stories of 2021.

As its glaciers melt, Nepal is forced into an adaptation not of its choosing
- Climate change is causing the glaciers in Nepal’s Himalayan region to melt at an alarming rate, threatening fragile ecosystems, vulnerable communities, and billions of people downstream who rely on the rivers fed by the ice pack.
- If global greenhouse gas emissions continue on a business-as-usual trajectory and average global temperatures rise by more than 4°C (7.2°F) by 2100, the Himalayan region could lose up to two-thirds of its glaciers, a study shows.
- For farming communities, this means water shortages, less feed for their livestock, and increased risks of natural disasters such as landslides and glacial lake flash floods.
- The Himalayas are, at present, heating up at rates up to 0.7°C (1.3°F) higher than the global average, and poor communities are already feeling the impacts.

Lockdown underscores Uganda’s overreliance on tourism to fund conservation
- When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in March 2020, Uganda quickly shut down parks like Bwindi Impenetrable National Park to protect the gorillas and chimpanzees from getting infected.
- Tourism provides up to 60% of the Uganda Wildlife Authority’s operating revenue and is also an important source of income for communities living around Bwindi.
- Poaching in Bwindi rose sharply during lockdown in 2020 as some villagers entered the park to hunt for food or an income.
- One NGO reinforced its programs supporting public health and livelihoods in an attempt to reduce this pressure.

Insects and other invertebrates on tropical islands face challenges as development and tourism expand
- Oceanic islands host 50 percent of the world’s endangered species, but human activities can greatly disturb these isolated ecosystems.
- The number and diversity of insects and other invertebrate species decrease on islands dedicated to urban development or tourism, according to a new study in the Maldives.
- Fragmented habitats take a toll on these species on urban islands, while pesticides are the suspected culprits on tourist islands.

In Indonesia, a coastal town rejects ‘metropolitan’ model for mangroves
- Sofifi, the tiny capital of one of Indonesia’s remotest provinces, has made mangrove conservation and ecotourism a central part of its development.
- The town recently inaugurated the Guraping Mangrove Tourism Forest, which officials hope will draw tourists to the town and help it develop into something greater than an administrative hub.
- Indonesia is home to nearly a quarter of the world’s mangrove forests, an important ecosystem that sequesters carbon, blunt the impact of storm surges, and harbour a rich array of marine life.

Local communities saved Cabo Pulmo with a national park. Then came the tourists.
- A well-known conservation success story in Cabo Pulmo, Mexico, involves a local community that lobbied the government to establish a marine park and no-take zone that would save its coral reefs.
- Decades later, the area is now an extremely popular vacation destination, with more tourists entering the area than the local community can handle.
- Residents feel overwhelmed by the growth and popularity of the area. They are calling for new regulations to be put in place.

Indigenous group faces eviction for ‘New Bali’ tourism project in Sumatra
- The volcanic crater lake of Toba in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province is the site of what the government is touting as a new tourism hub.
- The area has for generations been home to the Indigenous Pomparan Ompu Ondol Butarbutar, who now face eviction and have seen their farms razed to make way for the tourism resort.
- The group is filing lawsuits to prevent its eviction from what it considers its ancestral land, but faces obstacles because its customary land rights aren’t recognized by the government.
- The tourism project is one of several large ventures underway in this region; there are also power plant projects and a planned zinc mine near Lake Toba, some of them funded by Chinese investment.

Light exhibits at Indonesian botanic garden spark commercialization concerns
- Established by the Dutch colonial government in the late 19th century, Indonesia’s Bogor Botanical Gardens is one of the oldest and largest in the world.
- As one of the nation’s most important scientific institutions, its formal functions are plant conservation, research, education, scientific tourism, and environmental services.
- To attract a wider range of visitors, decorative lighting installations and projections on trees have been installed as part of a new after-dark attraction.
- Several groups have criticized the lighting exhibits, including four former heads of the garden, who say they commercialize the site and detract from its scientific and educational mission in favor of profit and recreation.

Saving sea turtles in the ‘Anthropause’: Successes and challenges on the beach
- The COVID-19 pandemic has posed tough challenges for sea turtle conservation projects across the planet.
- Conservationists describe how economic issues have put turtles and themselves at risk from poachers, while travel restrictions have crippled operations in Costa Rica and Malaysia.
- The lull in human seashore activities also revealed that tourism pressure affects nesting turtle behavior in the Mediterranean, a study shows.
- In Lebanon, raising awareness has been key to turtle conservation successes despite the country’s economic collapse, conservationists said.

Fires rage in Bolivia’s Chiquitania region
- Authorities are battling an outbreak of wildfires in eastern Bolivia’s Chiquitania region.
- Satellite data show fires have intensified over the past two weeks and are invading protected areas.
- The fires are destroying habitat spared by Bolivia’s extreme fire season of 2019.
- Wildfires in Bolivia are often associated with burning for agriculture, and satellite data and imagery show recent fires on agricultural land that directly preceded nearby blazes that have spread into protected forest.

They safeguarded nature, but now Malaysia’s Mah Meri face eviction for an eco-resort
- Members of the Mah Meri Indigenous community in Malaysia are fighting an attempt to evict them to make way for the expansion of a beach resort.
- The notice, served by the Selangor state government, says the land in question belongs to the government, and has threatened legal action if the Mah Meri settlement is not cleared.
- In a countersuit, the Mah Meri say the land should have been legally recognized as Indigenous territory long before this dispute developed.

Loss of mangroves dims the light on firefly populations in Malaysia
- Firefly populations along the banks of the Rembau River in Malaysia have declined drastically in the past decade due to habitat loss, a new study has found.
- Researchers, who used satellite imagery to monitor changes in land use, found that conversion of Rembau’s mangroves to oil palm plantations and dryland forests were the top two factors behind the loss.
- Remote-sensing technology could help locals better understand the impact of various land use types on mangrove ecosystems and more efficiently prioritize areas for conservation.

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

Conservation solutions in paradise: Jamaica’s Oracabessa Bay Fishing Sanctuary
- A group of local fishermen and tourism industry stakeholders established a fishing sanctuary several years ago in Oracabessa Bay in response to a decline in vital Jamaican coastal life like coral and herbivorous fish.
- Surveys indicate an increase in reef health due to the efforts despite challenges, and the conservation model is set to be replicated at multiple other sites in Jamaica.

For Africa’s great apes, a post-pandemic future looks beyond tourism
- From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, primatologists assumed great apes would be susceptible to the virus and took measures to avoid transmission to captive and wild populations.
- Precautionary measures like closing parks and sanctuaries to visitors have so far prevented an outbreak in wild apes, but have had a massive impact on the ability of conservation groups and government agencies to fund themselves via tourism.
- A year into the pandemic, the revenue shortfall is prompting a serious rethink of funding models for ape conservation that don’t rely on tourism.

An engaged society is key for the future of African conservation, says WWF Africa’s Alice Ruhweza
- Protecting Africa’s charismatic megafauna often come first to mind when Westerners think about conservation in Africa, but this is a narrow view that doesn’t capture the range of issues involved in conservation efforts across the continent.
- Alice Ruhweza, the regional director for Africa for WWF, says conservation in Africa is about about ecosystems and people: “As the home of humankind, Africa and its ecosystems have evolved together with people. When we talk about conservation in Africa we are really talking about people and nature.”
- Ruhweza says that growing recognition of this connection is driving “a shift to a more people-centered and rights-based conservation,” including within WWF.
- Ruhweza spoke about these issues and more during a recent interview with Mongabay founder Rhett A. Butler.

Popular opposition halts a bridge project in a Philippine coral haven
- The Philippine government has suspended work on a bridge that would connect the islands of Coron and Culion in the coral rich region of Palawan.
- Activists, Indigenous groups and marine experts say the project would threaten the rich coral biodiversity in the area as well as the historical shipwrecks that have made the area a prime dive site.
- The Indigenous Tagbanua community, who successfully fought against an earlier project to build a theme park, say they were not consulted about the bridge project.
- Preliminary construction began in November 2020 despite a lack of government-required consultations and permits, and was ordered suspended in April this year following the public outcry.

Sea turtles under threat as Indian government weighs development in Andaman Islands
- Little Andaman Island is part of a rainforested archipelago far off India’s eastern coast in the Bay of Bengal.
- An Indian government think tank has proposed developing the island along with another in the archipelago. If implemented, experts say the plan would pose a threat to nesting sites of leatherback sea turtles, whose population globally is declining.
- The leatherback is the largest of all living turtles, and India and Sri Lanka are the only places in South Asia with large nesting populations.
- The island is also home to the Onge Indigenous tribe.

Philippine province builds on lessons learned to grow ecotourism industry
- Antique province in the central Philippines is looking to boost local revenues through ecotourism, after the COVID-19 pandemic put the brakes on a thriving tourism industry.
- The province is home to a rich biodiversity, including the critically endangered writhed-billed hornbill, giant rafflesia “corpse flower,” and rare bowl corals.
- Taking a leaf from the experience of nearby Boracay, the resort island where a tourism boom led to severe environmental damage, local officials face the challenge of balancing tourism-driven development and environmental protection.
- A prominent lawmaker is pushing for seascapes and coastal zones in the province to be given national protection.

Mixed fates for captive elephants sent back to villages amid Thai tourism collapse
- With tourism collapsing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2,700 captive elephants used for tourism purposes in Thailand faced a crisis.
- Many elephants and their keepers trekked back to their owners’ native villages, where it was hoped they could forage naturally. Others remained in camps, often in chains and with fewer staff to care for them.
- The welfare of elephants in villages depends greatly on the amount of intact forest available to them. But experts say welfare monitoring is difficult.
- Campaigners are calling on the Thai government and tourism industry to make systemic changes to improve conditions and reduce the number of elephants used for tourism.

Turtle conservation hits the SPOT in North Cyprus
- Green and loggerhead turtle nest counts have increased by 162% and 46% respectively in less than two decades on North Cyprus in the Mediterranean.
- The increase has been achieved through preventing nests being raided by dogs and foxes, and protecting the beaches from tourism development.
- Conservation begun by enthusiasts in 1983 is now organized by a local NGO, the Society for the Protection of Turtles (SPOT), in collaboration with scientists from the University of Exeter in the U.K. and the local Department of Environmental Protection.
- Many issues still impact the recovery of turtle populations: loggerheads are killed in fishing nets, while both species are affected by plastic pollution in a variety of ways.

Philippine resort owner hit with environmental charges as Boracay cleans up
- The owner of two resorts on the Philippine holiday island of Boracay has been arrested for alleged violations of the country’s environmental laws.
- The owner was previously given leeway to self-demolish establishments encroaching on the easement zone along the shore, but failed to do so, leading to the arrest, the National Bureau of Investigation said.
- Boracay has been under a massive rehabilitation effort since 2018, when President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the island shut. It has since been reopened for limited numbers of tourists, while rehabilitation is ongoing.
- Twenty-one other resorts charged with similar violations will be subjected to the same action should they refuse to follow environmental laws, the investigations bureau said.

On a Philippine mountain, researchers describe a ‘fire flower’ orchid species
- A new wild orchid species, Dendrochilum ignisiflorum, has been described in the Philippine province of Benguet in the northern Cordilleras mountain range.
- This fiery orange orchid belongs to a genus found in high-elevation forests in Southeast Asia, particularly in the Philippines, Borneo and Sumatra.
- The scientists who described it say the species is threatened by climate change, which could make its niche range uninhabitable.
- The mountain where it’s found is also an increasingly popular tourist spot, while the forests in the area around it are being cleared for agriculture.

Madagascar reopens national parks shuttered by COVID-19
- On Sept. 5, Madagascar began reopening all its national parks. They’d been closed since March because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The pandemic has been devastating for local economies, which depend heavily on tourism.
- Madagascar authorities also announced further easing of restrictions throughout much of the island nation and the resumption of limited international flights.

Beyond tourism: A call for business ideas that protect African wildlife, ecosystems
- The African Leadership University has launched an innovation challenge to develop new commercial ideas for rural livelihoods that protect biodiversity.
- Wildlife tourism is the best-known “conservation business,” but it’s unclear how much it directly contributes to funding conservation, even if it recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Applicants to the innovation challenge will develop non-tourism business ideas that will protect ecosystems, empower communities, and convince investors they are both scalable and financially sustainable.

Around the world, a fire crisis flares up, fueled by human actions
- An increase in fire alerts this year compared to last year could have dire consequences for health, biodiversity and the economy, according to a newly released report by WWF and Boston Consulting Group.
- Though some wildfires are triggered naturally, humans are responsible for an estimated 75% of all wildfires.
- In the Northern Hemisphere, this is attributed to negligence, while in the tropics, fires are often set intentionally to clear land for agriculture.
- The report suggests several urgent actions to address fires, including investing in fire prevention, halting deforestation, raising national goals for emission reductions, bringing fire back to fire-dependent landscapes, clarifying governance and coordinating policies, bringing the private sector on board, and relying on science.

Illegal plant trade, tourism threaten new Philippine flowering herbs
- Scientists have described a new ornamental plant species in the biodiverse region of Palawan, a province in the western Philippines.
- The new species, Begonia cabanillasii, is the 25th begonia species found on the island and the 133rd recorded in the Philippines.
- Begonias are flowering perennial herbs popular in the ornamental plant trade. The new species grows in a shady and rocky undergrowth habitat in Palawan and is assessed to be critically endangered.
- The illegal plant trade and tourism, a driver of deforestation in the province, pose the biggest threat to this new plant species and other Palawan-endemic flora, researchers say.

Vietnam approves $9 billion development within mangrove reserve
- Vietnam’s $9.3 billion Can Gio Tourist City was recently approved for construction within the buffer zone of a UNESCO Mangrove Biosphere Reserve in Ho Chi Minh City.
- Developed by Vingroup, Vietnam’s largest private company, the project will require the reclamation of a huge amount of land along Can Gio’s coast.
- Environmentalists and activists have petitioned the government to reconsider the project, but Vingroup is a key part of the country’s drive toward industrialization and home-grown world-class companies.

We need a green life support plan (commentary)
- Tourism — much of it nature-based – comprises 2% of sub-Saharan African nations’ GDP, which can rise to up to 38% for some countries. It is also critical to sovereign credit analysis, giving countries access to capital markets, external financing and funds to support government programs, including nature-based tourism. But with the collapse of international tourism in response to COVID-19, sub-Saharan African countries are facing credit rating downgrade risks, putting conservation funding at risk.
- Without income from nature-based tourism, many small- and medium-size enterprises in the nature-based tourism sector risk closure, and wildlife conservation will be seriously compromised as landowners and locals could be incentivized to convert conserved land into agriculture production and partake in illegal activities such as overfishing, with significant negative results for countries’ nature-based assets.
- With the long-term sustainability of these nature-dependent economies threatened, the authors argue for standardized, methodical and systemic funding for the conservation, protection and restoration of the natural capital.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Myanmar ponders what to do with its out-of-work elephants
- As the Myanmar government moves to rein in deforestation, thousands of captive elephants trained to haul logs in Myanmar may lose the care and protection they received when working.
- A government body that owns more than 2,900 captive elephants has turned to ecotourism to raise funds to care for the elephants, but it’s not enough.
- Releasing the elephants into the wild presents its own difficulties, including increased risks of human-wildlife conflict and poaching.
- Private owners, strapped for cash, may be forced to kill their elephant and sell its parts, or sell it alive to another country.

Indonesia reopens national parks to tourists as COVID-19 cases rise
- Indonesia is reopening 29 national and nature parks to local and foreign tourists despite a growing number of COVID-19 cases in the country.
- The parks were closed earlier this year to prevent the possible spread of the novel coronavirus to wildlife populations.
- Authorities say the parks will be allowed to open with strict health protocols, including limiting visitors to half capacity.
- Some of the parks allowed for reopening are home to rare and threatened species such as orangutans, proboscis monkeys, Javan hawk-eagles, and silvery gibbons.

From crisis to solutions for communities and African conservation (commentary)
- The COVID-19 pandemic has created a profound crisis for conservation efforts in eastern and southern Africa as a result of the sudden cessation of all international travel in a region where nature-based tourism and conservation are closely interdependent.
- Conservation leaders Dickson Kaelo, Daniel Sopia, Damian Bell, Richard Diggle, and Fred Nelson argue that the way that conservationists respond to both the near-term crisis and the longer term implications of the unfolding pandemic will be pivotal for the future of Africa’s wildlife.
- The crisis, they write, is also an opportunity to question inherited assumptions, refine existing models, and improve conservation practices.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

As visitors vanish, Madagascar’s protected areas suffer a ‘devastating’ blow
- The country has lost half a billion dollars in much-needed tourism revenue since the start of 2020 because of the COVID-19 crisis, according to official estimates.
- Tourism contributes toward funding conservation efforts in Madagascar’s network of protected areas; those protected areas that rely heavily on foreign visitors have been hit worst by the crisis.
- There are also fears that international funding, the primary support for conservation efforts in Madagascar, could be jeopardized as big donors face economic crises in their home countries.
- Greater impoverishment could hurt communities living near the protected areas and lead to even more unsustainable exploitation of forests and natural resources.

No tourism income, but this Philippine community still guards its environment
- Communities in the biodiversity haven of Palawan in the Philippines earn millions in tourism-related services annually, but the industry has been paralyzed due to a lockdown aimed at suppressing the spread of COVID-19.
- The lockdown, in effect since March 17, has forced close tourist sites in the province, which has affected thousands of families dependent on tourism.
- Despite this, these communities continue to look after their protected areas, making sure that illegal logging and fishing activities do not proliferate during the lockdown period.
- Owing to proper handling of finances, these community organizations can sustain themselves and the areas they look after for a year, but interventions and support are necessary to keep these areas protected in the long run.

In the Philippines’ Boracay, flying foxes are going, going, gone
- A recent survey counted just 30 resident bats on the Philippine resort island of Boracay, down from 15,000 in 1988.
- Boracay has been subject to a massive rehabilitation effort after pollution and runaway development prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to close the island to tourism for six months in 2018.
- The closure does not seem to have benefited the bats, including the endemic golden-crowned flying fox (Acerodon jubatus), one of the world’s largest fruit bat species, which is classified as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List.
- Bat conservationists have persistently recommended declaring the island’s remaining forest cover as critical habitats for threatened bats, but formal recognition hangs in the balance as rehabilitation efforts end this May.

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

As wildlife tourism grounds to a halt, who will pay for the conservation of nature?
- Johan Robinson, Chief of the Global Environment Facility Biodiversity and Land Degradation Unit at UN Environment, argues for the need for a system that provides adequate financial support to poorer countries for conserving the biodiversity that benefits us all.
- “Such a system is long overdue, for although the benefits of biodiversity and natural areas are universal, the costs of protection are high and disproportionally borne by the poor communities living with wildlife,” he writes.
- This post is a commentary and does not necessarily reflect the views of Mongabay.

Coronavirus is a crisis for South Africa’s captive lions, campaigners warn
- Captive lions in South Africa could face starvation or euthanization as tourist revenues disappear amid the COVD-19 pandemic, according to animal welfare groups.
- Conservationists argue that the pandemic illustrates why exploitation of wildlife is risky: in the case of lions, the big cats can carry both tuberculosis and the feline equivalent of HIV.
- Industry representatives say animal rights groups have destabilized the lion-breeding business by misrepresenting it.

For great apes at risk of infection, COVID-19 is also an economic threat
- With flights grounded, parks closed and countries on lockdown, COVID-19 has dealt a major blow to great ape-focused ecotourism operations in Africa and Asia.
- Many conservation activities rely directly on revenue from tourism, and the money tourism brings in also provides a financial incentive for governments and local communities to protect wildlife.
- If lockdowns persist for months, the consequences could be devastating for fragile ape populations and the communities that surround them.
- The situation has re-emphasized the need for conservation groups to diversify their fundraising strategies, experts say.

Seychelles extends protection to marine area twice the size of Great Britain
- The archipelago in the Indian Ocean has committed to protecting 400,000 sq km (154,000 sq miles) of marine area, about 30% of its waters.
- Conservationists say it is a step in the right direction, but the bigger challenge will be for the government to effectively manage the vast network of marine protected areas (MPAs).
- A ‘debt-for-nature’ deal allowed the country to restructure its sovereign debt and leverage $21.6 million to fund the creation of the MPAs and adaptation to climate change.
- Seychelles hosts giant tortoises, nesting sites for turtles, and fragile coral reef ecosystems that the new MPAs aim to protect.

COVID-19 prompts closure of Indonesian parks, and a chance to evaluate
- Dozens of Indonesian national parks and conservation sites have been closed temporarily to visitors in an effort to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country.
- Some of the affected sites include popular national parks such as Mount Leuser, Komodo, Rinjani and Way Kambas.
- Conservationists have welcomed the temporary closure, calling it an opportunity for authorities and park operators to evaluate the impacts of tourism on the ecosystems in these areas.
- Indonesia has reported 369 positive cases of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, and 32 deaths as of March 20.

Critics push back as cable car project for Indonesia’s Rinjani is revived
- Authorities on the Indonesian island of Lombok say they want to build a cable car to Mount Rinjani to allow more non-hikers to visit the national park.
- The proposed cable car line would be built outside the park boundaries, but critics say the impact to the environment will ripple into the park itself.
- The government says it plans to complete the project before Lombok hosts the Indonesian leg of next year’s MotoGP racing championship, but a host of studies and permits will be required.
- Rinjani is also part of a global network of UNESCO geoparks, and the cable car project could affect that status when it comes up for evaluation next year.

Turning the tide for an endangered crab species in the Philippines
- The tourism boom that swept through the province of Batanes, a group of islands at the northernmost tip of the Philippines, from 2014 has driven a decline in coconut crabs there.
- Coconut crabs are hunted by locals to serve for tourists, the majority of whom come to the province to sample the rare delicacy.
- Overharvesting of coconut crabs has become the norm in the province, even after the species was placed on the IUCN Red List and despite measures to preserve the remaining population in the wild.
- Slow to mature, coconut crabs can live up to 60 years and propagate in very specific environments.

Activists win reprieve, for now, for Dominican coastline eyed by developers
- A Spanish hotel developer plans to build a new resort on protected coastal land in the Dominican Republic.
- Opposition by environmentalists prompted the government to order a temporary halt to the project in February pending the outcome of an assessment due later in March.
- Environmentalists say they fear that allowing the resort development to go ahead in what was once part of Cotubanamá National Park could open the door to more developments along the pristine beachfront.
- With elections due in May, one of the presidential candidates has backed the opposition and called for the dismissal of the environment minister for permitting the project in the first place.

Indonesia’s push to become a tourism paradise sidelines land rights
- Indonesia’s bid to develop new tourism hotspots beyond Bali has given rise to several conflicts with local communities over land rights.
- Communities in places such as Sumatra’s Lake Toba and the island getaways of Bali and Lombok have been forcibly displaced for tourism development projects in which they’ve had little or no say.
- The number of land conflicts in general and related criminal prosecutions of farmers, indigenous people and activists has risen sharply under President Joko Widodo compared to his predecessor.
- Activists warn the situation is likely to get worse as the government prioritizes investments and developments over the land rights of locals.

In Indonesia, a tourism village holds off a nickel mine — for now
- Residents of the island of Kabaena in Indonesia registered their home as a “tourism village” seven years ago in a bid to ward off a planned nickel mine.
- They say they fear that mining activity will disrupt their water sources and despoil the forests that they hold sacred.
- Mining activities have proliferated in other districts in the province, driven by a boom for the nickel used in rechargeable batteries and stainless steel.
- While the notion of being a tourism village has meant mining can’t proceed here, the villagers say they’re not getting the full support they expected to boost their economy this way.

Ayahuasca tourism an overlooked driver of trade in jaguar body parts, researchers say
- According to research published in the journal Conservation Science and Practice earlier this month, the booming ayahuasca tourism industry may be an overlooked threat facing jaguars, a most iconic species that is listed as Nearly Threatened on the IUCN Red List.
- Through discussions with street vendors, shamans, and individuals working in the tourism industry, researchers found that jaguar canine pendants, jaguar skin bracelets, and other jaguar products are being sold to tourists under the pretense that they somehow enhance the ayahuasca experience.
- The researchers suggest that one way to effectively halt this growing illicit trade is to more formally regulate ayahuasca tourism and educate both tourists and tour operators.

What makes community ecotourism succeed? In Madagascar, location, location, location
- For the past two decades, donors and international NGOs have worked with the Malagasy government to create thousands of local associations to manage and conserve parcels of forest.
- Ecotourism ventures, along with farming support, are often presented as an important way to overcome the loss of income that usually accompanies new restrictions on how local people can use their land.
- Successful ecotourism ventures are few and far between, but a common factor is also something that’s hard to replicate: proximity to highways and other tourist destinations.

Reforesting a village in Indonesia, one batch of gourmet beans at a time
- Deforestation in the village of Cibulao on the outskirts of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, left it prone to droughts in the dry season and landslides in the rainy season.
- That changed in the early 2000s when a local tea plantation worker named Kiryono began replanting the slopes with seeds foraged from the nearby forest.
- Among those seeds were coffee seeds taken from wild coffee trees, and with training and the help of his family, Kiryono today produces some of the most prized coffee in Indonesia.
- The village is also greener now, thanks to Kiryono’s replanting efforts, and the local farmers’ cooperative hopes to expand on that work by applying for the right to manage a larger area of land.

Food is biggest stumbling block on zero-waste nature tour
- A week-long zero-waste trip led by Natural Habitat Adventures through Yellowstone National Park diverted 50.9 pounds of waste — 99% of all the on-trip waste.
- More than 100 million pounds of garbage is generated in the U.S. national parks every year; in 2018, Yellowstone sent 48% of its waste to a landfill.
- Food waste accounted for more than half of the trip’s collected waste, a particular problem in the travel industry.
- The tour company is now creating a best practices document to share with other tour operators so they can cut unnecessary waste from their operations as well.

As wildfires roil Sumatra, some villages have abandoned the burning
- Devastating fires and haze in 2015, as well as the threat of arrest, have prompted some villages in Sumatra to end the tradition of burning the land for planting.
- The villages of Upang Ceria and Gelebak Dalam also been fire-free since then, even as large swaths of forest elsewhere in Sumatra continue to burn.
- Village officials have plans to develop ecotourism as another source of revenue, as well as restore mangroves and invest in agricultural equipment that makes the farmers’ work easier.

Give it back to the gods: Reviving Māori tradition to protect marine life
- Ra’ui is an ancient Polynesian form of resource management in which traditional leaders close designated areas to the harvest of key species.
- While the power of ra’ui remains strong in the outer Cook Islands, where local tradition often trumps national decree, the system fell into disuse on the largest and most populous island of Rarotonga half a century ago.
- There, traditional leaders briefly and successfully revived the ra’ui system two decades ago, only for it to falter again in recent years.
- Today, traditional leaders in the Cook Islands are cautiously optimistic that the country’s 2017 decision to designate its entire marine territory as a mixed-use protected area will help reinvigorate ra’ui across Rarotonga.

Notes from the road: 5 revelations from traveling the Pan Borneo Highway
- Construction of the Pan Borneo Highway will add or expand more than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) of roadway in Malaysian Borneo.
- Mongabay staff writer John Cannon spent several weeks traveling the proposed route in July 2019 to understand the effects, both positive and negative, the road could have on communities, wildlife and ecosystems.
- The project is designed to energize the economies of the region, and though officials have responded to entreaties from NGOs to minimize the harmful impacts of the road, they remain singularly focused on the economic benefits that proponents say the highway will bring.

Report highlights business, political players behind Philippine environment defender deaths
- Global Witness, an eco-watchdog, has linked businesses and investors, including development banks to the increasing violence against land and environmental defenders in the Philippines, a practice rooted in the country’s “business at all costs” approach, it says in a new report.
- In a previous Global Witness report, released in July, the Philippines was named the deadliest country in the world for environmental defenders after recording 30 deaths in 2018 alone.
- The report calls on international banks and providers of foreign loans and aid to refrain from investing in big-ticket projects that endanger environmental defenders in the Philippines.

Paradise, polluted: Cook Islands tries to clean up its tourism sector
- Tourism accounts for almost 70 percent of the Cook Islands’ economy, but the industry is proving extremely damaging to its delicately balanced island ecosystem, and is contributing to islanders’ detachment from traditional ways of life.
- Now, though, some tourism players, activists and government officials are pushing the industry to change tack in hopes it can start to sustain the island’s people and culture while protecting its ecology, too.
- Tourism operators are being asked to live up to the sustainability street cred that the country’s 2017 decision to designate its entire exclusive economic zone as a multiple-use marine protected area has granted it on the international stage.

Aimed at linking communities, Malaysian highway may damage forests
- Leaders hope that the construction of a road linking the Pan Borneo Highway between the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak will connect remote communities to markets and to each other.
- But conservationists warn that the highway will cut through some of the last remaining dense forest in Sarawak.
- In addition to the challenges of building in a rainy tropical environment, the mountainous terrain will make construction and maintenance difficult, skeptics of the road say.

Connecting an island: Traveling the Pan Borneo Highway
- The Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah are in the midst of building more than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) of the Pan Borneo Highway.
- The goal is to boost the states’ economies and connect them with the Indonesian provinces on the island of Borneo as part of the Trans Borneo Highway.
- Advocates of the highway, including many politicians, say the upgraded, widened and in some places entirely new stretches of highway will link markets and provide a jolt to the promising tourism sector in Malaysian Borneo.
- But skeptics, including scientists and conservationists, argue that parts of the highway cut through ecologically sensitive areas and that planning prior to construction didn’t adequately account for the damage that construction could cause.

Travel: A charmed encounter with birds-of-paradise in Papua’s Arfak Mountains
- The provinces of West Papua and Papua in Indonesia have pinned their hopes for economic growth on ecotourism and sustainable development.
- The Arfak Mountains in West Papua have become a hotspot for bird-watching, thanks to forests teeming with spectacular birds-of-paradise.
- Mongabay Indonesia recently traveled to the village of Minggrei for a bird-watching trip to see what makes the experience so special that tours are booked out until 2021.

In Indonesia, a land ‘left behind’ weighs its development alternatives
- After defeating a plan to turn much of the Aru Islands into a series of giant sugar plantations, indigenous people in the eastern Indonesian archipelago are mulling how to raise their standard of living without sacrificing their rich environment.
- Time may be short: Indonesia’s minister of agriculture appears to be pushing another corporate-backed agribusiness plan in Aru involving Andi Syamsuddin Arsyad, an up-and-coming tycoon better known as Haji Isam. The two visited Aru together last year.
- Some Aruese believe development focused on tourism or fisheries would be a better fit for the delicate, small-island ecosystem, home to some of Indonesia’s last best rainforest and famous for its birds-of-paradise.

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.

Why sustainability should be on your plate when you travel (commentary)
- In Vanuatu, as in other popular destinations across Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, farming and tourism can support one another while making our holidays more sustainable.
- According to one survey, 60 percent of food consumed by tourists in Vanuatu was imported, all of which could have been produced in-country. Food makes up to 35 percent of tourists’ spending.
- So how can we encourage the tourism industry to work with local agriculture to increase demand for regional ingredients and boost farm livelihoods, making both sectors more resilient and sustainable?
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Leopards get a $20m boost from Panthera pact with Saudi prince
- Big-cat conservation group Panthera has signed an agreement with Saudi prince and culture minister Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammad bin Farhan Al Saud in which the latter’s royal commission has pledged $20 million to the protection of leopards around the world, including the Arabian leopard, over the next decade.
- The funds will support a survey of the animals in Saudi Arabia and a captive-breeding program.
- The coalition also hopes to reintroduce the Arabian leopard into the governorate of Al-Ula, which Bader heads and which the kingdom’s leaders believe could jump-start the local tourism sector.

Homestay programs in Nepal’s rhino hub hold promise and pitfalls for locals
- When faced with criticism that local people don’t benefit from wildlife tourism to Nepal’s Chitwan National Park, officials and conservationists point to homestay programs set up in communities on the park’s borders.
- These homestay programs aim to provide the communities with alternative livelihoods and to create an incentive to protect forests and wildlife.
- In the villages of Amaltari and Barauli, two very different homestay programs have been established, catering to different groups of visitors. Both models have their strengths, but also their shortcomings.

On the island of Java, a social forestry scheme creates jobs at home
- Indonesian President Joko Widodo has pledged to transfer 127,000 square kilometers of state land to communities, but progress has been slow.
- In Kalibiru, outside the central Javan city of Yogyakarta, one community forest management program has generated impressive revenues for local governments and incomes for community members.
- Some locals say they’re now less likely to migrate away from Kalibiru for higher pay.

On one island, a microcosm of Vietnam’s environmental challenges
- It is also a popular tourist destination, and like many parts of the country faces the challenge of balancing development with environmental protection.
- Tenuous conservation success stories can be found here, but current and future developments in surrounding areas pose acute threats.

In East Africa, spread of sickle bush drives conflict with wildlife
- The rapid spread of sickle bush is causing habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict in East Africa.
- Experts don’t yet know why this native plant is spreading, but animals from elephants to gazelles dislike it and seek food in farms like those neighboring Randilen Wildlife Management Area in Tanzania.
- Methods ranging from burning to chemicals have been suggested to deal with the issue.
- Until the bush’s spread is slowed, crude methods ranging from flashlights to fireworks will continue to be employed to keep wildlife clear of crops.

Can jaguar tourism save Bolivia’s fast dwindling forests?
- Few countries in the tropics have seen trees chopped down as quickly as Bolivia did between 2001 and 2017.
- Within Bolivia, nearly two-thirds of that loss occurred in just a single state—Santa Cruz—as agribusiness activity, namely cattle ranching and soy farming, ramped up.
- This loss has greatly reduced the extent of habitat for some of Bolivia’s best known species, including the largest land predator in the Americas, the jaguar. On top of habitat loss, jaguars in Santa Cruz are both persecuted by landowners who see them as a danger to livestock, and targeted in a lucrative new trade in their parts, including teeth and bones.
- Duston Larsen, the owner of San Miguelito Ranch, is working to reverse that trend by upending the perception that jaguars necessarily need be the enemy of ranchers.

Giant pines a tourist draw, cash cow for Yogyakarta farmers
- The Mangunan Pine Forest, near the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta, has become a major draw for visitors to the region. Local farmers, switching to ecotourism, are cashing in.
- More than 2 million people visited the site in 2017, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue, according to a local cooperative that stewards the area.
- “For those who pioneered this, who struggled the most, their income has quadrupled,” says the head of the cooperative.

Guyana: The school where indigenous youth learn about their land
- The Bina Hill Institute’s Youth Learning Centre is the only tertiary educational institution in Guyana’s hinterland.
- Started in 2002, the center was set up to be an incubator for future indigenous leaders who can return to and help develop their communities.
- Studies at the center focus on areas relevant to life in Guyana’s interior: agriculture, natural resource management, forestry, tourism, traditional crafts, and one of the local indigenous languages, Makushi.
- Despite challenges such as sparse funding and its remote location, the center has made a name for itself in Guyana’s conservation field and surrounding communities.

DRC’s Virunga to welcome visitors again after 8-month closure
- Escalating violence in mid-2018, resulting in the deaths of seven park rangers, forced the closure of Virunga National Park to visitors.
- The park is known for its diverse wildlife, especially its mountain gorillas, as well as its active volcano, but its location in eastern DRC is one of the most volatile regions on earth.
- After assessing the security of the park, officials will reopen stable areas for visitors on Feb. 15 interested in trekking to see the gorillas and to visit the rim of the volcano.

Bans on the bird trade in South America yield mixed results
- After decades of rampant exports, several South American countries banned the international trade of wild-caught birds.
- In some cases, in concert with conservation, the bans have helped bird populations recover, leading several countries to invest in birdwatching tourism.
- However, the bans have also led to a significant illegal trade on the continent and a shift of the economic benefits from the wild bird trade to other countries.

‘Conservation never ends’: 40 years in the kingdom of gorillas
- While studying Rwanda’s critically endangered mountain gorillas in the 1970s, newlywed graduate students Amy Vedder and Bill Weber learned that the government was considering converting gorilla habitat into a cattle ranch.
- At the time, conventional wisdom held that the mountain gorillas would inevitably go extinct. But Vedder and Weber believed the species could be saved, and proposed a then-revolutionary ecotourism scheme to the Rwandan government.
- Forty years later, that scheme has proved its worth. Mountain gorilla populations have rebounded, and tourism generates hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Vedder and Weber now work to inspire the next generation of conservationists both in Rwanda and abroad.
- In a series of interviews with Mongabay, Vedder and Weber reflect on a life in conservation.

Bird business: The man who taught his tribe to profit from conservation
- Indi Glow, a revered member of the Bugun indigenous group in Arunachal Pradesh, India, has been instrumental in making conservation community-friendly.
- When astronomer-turned-ecologist Ramana Athreya approached the Buguns in 2003 with an idea for a community bird ecotourism venture, Indi agreed to give it a go, taking on the management of the business over the next few years.
- Today, the bird tourism venture is profitable and has sparked other conservation initiatives on the Bugun community lands.

Komodo protesters say no to development in the dragons’ den
- Two private developers are set to build a restaurant and accommodation on islands that are home to the rare and threatened Komodo dragon in Indonesia.
- Residents have protested the plans, however, saying the giant lizards’ island habitat should be kept in pristine condition.
- They have also questioned the government’s commitment to the conservation of the dragons and their own livelihoods.
- For its part, the government says the developments will have a minimal footprint and will boost tourism revenue.

‘Biological passports’ show whale sharks travel less than we thought
- A study looking at chemical signatures in whale shark tissue and using photographic identification has revealed that young sharks in three countries along the western rim of the Indian Ocean don’t typically stray more than a few hundred kilometers from their feeding sites.
- Of the more than 1,200 sharks photographed, only two traveled between different feeding sites — in this case, about 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) between Mozambique and Tanzania.
- The authors of the study say their findings demonstrate that local conservation of these populations is important because if whale sharks are wiped out in an area, they’re unlikely to repopulate it later on.

An indigenous village navigates its ecotourism success
- The village of Wae Rebo on Indonesia’s Flores Island is inhabited by 1,200 residents from the Manggarai indigenous group.
- Wae Rebo began its dalliance with ecotourism in 2007 with the help of Indonesian ecotourism NGO Indecon. By 2016, it was already recording 6,000 annual visitors — as many as 50 or more per day — despite the seven-hour drive and three-hour hike required to reach it from the nearest town.
- As its popularity as a destination grows, there are concerns that the community’s traditions and way of life could be sacrificed in the process.
- Locals interviewed for this story expressed a general satisfaction with the economic stability that tourism revenue has brought. The one recurring complaint was about the quality of the interactions between visitors and residents.

In Vietnam, cable car plans continue to threaten important cave system
- Once construction is finished, the cable car could carry thousands of tourists to Son Doong cave every day.
- Currently, fewer than 800 people visit the caves every year through sustainable eco-tourism company Oxalis.
- There is also growing concern that a cable car could irreparably damage the area’s primary forests.
- An online petition that’s part of the campaign against the development has garnered about 170,000 signatures.

‘We are going to self-destruct’: Development plans threaten Malaysian island
- The Langkawi archipelago off Malaysia’s northwest coast is made up of more than 100 islands, including the main island – the country’s third largest. For years a well-kept secret of pristine beaches, unspoilt rainforest and unique limestone outcrops, tourism began to take off in the 1990s after the island was declared duty free and luxury resorts began to open.
- Some 3.5 million people visited Langkawi last year. Now the authorities want even more – 5.5 million by 2020 – and have ambitious plans to transform the island with high-rise hotels and apartments, coastal roads on reclaimed land, and other trappings of a 21st century tourist destination.
- But critics say little has been done to upgrade the island’s basic infrastructure – sewage systems, water supply, and waste management – adding to the strain on an already fragile environment.

Local conservancies create new hope for wildlife in Kenya’s Maasai Mara (commentary)
- Naboisho and roughly a dozen neighboring conservancies in Kenya’s Maasai Mara are made up of hundreds of individual plots owned by local Maasai residents of the Mara, who converted their traditional communal lands in this part of Kenya to individual holdings.
- Tour operators with existing camps around the Mara have worked to pool together individual Maasai landowners who had subdivided their lands into larger groups that could then lease a large area of land to the tour operators.
- Each landowner is paid a monthly lease fee of around $235, amounting to over $900,000 of landowner income annually.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Over $720 million in profit from tourism in Peru’s protected natural areas
- According to a study published recently by the Conservation Strategy Fund, tourism in Peru’s natural protected areas created 36,000 jobs in 2017.
- One of the findings indicates that revenue from ecotourism activity is 40 times greater than the amount invested by the state in the management and handling of the country’s protected areas.

African Parks backs marine reserve brimming with wildlife in Mozambique
- The conservation NGO African Parks signed an agreement to manage Bazaruto Archipelago National Park in Mozambique.
- Leaders established the park in 1971, but recent illegal fishing and unregulated tourism has threatened the ecosystem and its economic value, African Parks said.
- The park is home to 2,000 species of fish and hundreds of species of birds, reptiles and mammals, including some of the last dugongs in the western Indian Ocean.

Birdwatching poised to take flight in Colombia, study reveals
- A new study identifies 67 communities with high potential for developing birdwatching ecotourism in Colombia.
- The country is home to more than 1,900 bird species, including 443 rare birds ‘highly valued by bird watchers.’
- The authors present ecotourism as an alternative to mining and logging as rural communities look for ways to develop economically after a decades-long conflict.

Curiosity saves the cat: Tourism helps reinvent the jaguar
- Retaliatory killings of jaguar by cattle ranchers currently threaten the recovery of the species and the long-term viability of tour operators dependent on their presence.
- A recent study found that the value of jaguars to tourism (US$6,827,392) was far in excess of the cost to ranchers from depredation of their cattle (US$121,500).
- Tourists were overwhelmingly receptive to the idea of donating to a compensation fund for ranchers that live harmoniously with jaguars.

Business owners in top Belize destination want increased mangrove protections
- Towns like San Pedro depend on attractions like Hol Chan Marine Reserve to bring tourists but loss of mangroves on land is a threat to clean water and healthy reefs
- A number of business owners would like to see better mangrove protections and planning documents developed
- Up to one third of Belize citizens work in the tourism sector, more than agriculture

On poaching in South Africa, education “has saved more wildlife than any guard with a gun”
- Kruger National Park in South Africa is one of the largest and best-known parks for seeing large animals in the world.
- However, as many as three rhinos a day are poached for their horns in and around Kruger despite massive anti-poaching efforts.
- Anti-poaching advocates near Kruger say hope lies in basic education and jobs in tourism, which they aim to provide.

Goddesses of the wind: How researchers saved Venezuela’s harpy eagles
- Venezuelan scientist Eduardo Álvarez Cordero is not only a man who knows harpy eagles: having started one of the biggest and oldest studies about the species, and taken part in the training of many of the world’s harpy specialists, he is a man to whom we owe a lot of what humankind knows about this fascinating animal.
- Currently a professor at the City College of Gainesville, Florida, Eduardo has monitored harpy eagles in Venezuela and Panama since the late 80s with a sense of urgency.
- Eduardo’s PhD work, begun in 1988, eventually led to the creation of the Harpy Eagle Conservation Program. It was also the beginning of another story of unthinkable bravery, in which an ecotourism program built a more prosperous scenario for harpies, locals, and the forests upon which they both rely.

Over the bridge: The battle for the future of the Kinabatangan
- Proponents of the project contend that a bridge and associated paved road to Sukau would have helped the town grow and improve the standard of living for its residents.
- Environmental groups argue that the region’s unrealized potential for high-end nature tourism could bring similar economic benefits without disturbing local populations of elephants, orangutans and other struggling wildlife.
- The mid-April cancellation of the bridge was heralded as a success for rainforest conservation, but bigger questions loom about the future of local communities, the sanctuary and its wildlife.

Rwanda welcomes 20 black rhinos to Akagera National Park
- The 20 black rhinos are of the eastern subspecies (Diceros bicornis michaeli).
- African Parks, the NGO that manages Akagera National Park in cooperation with the government of Rwanda, says that it has rhino trackers, canine patrols and a helicopter to protect the rhinos from poaching.
- Fewer than 5,000 black rhinos exist in Africa. Their numbers have been decimated by poaching for their horns, which fetch high prices for use in traditional Chinese medicine.
- Officials hope that the new rhino population will boost Akagera National Park’s visibility as a ecotourism destination.

Stepping on their paws: study explores recreation’s unfun impacts on wildlife
- In a meta study of 274 papers, researchers found that 59% of the time impacts on wildlife were negative.
- Reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates appear especially vulnerable to tourist impacts.
- More research is needed, especially in the developing world.

SpongeBob SquarePants and the ‘last frontier’ of the Philippines
- The 100-hectare resort, announced last month, is to be part of the Coral World Park, which bills itself as the ‘largest Marine Reserve and Coral Reef Conservation program in Asia.’
- Local environment activists say they have never heard of Coral World Park, or of conservation programs funded by its parent organization, the Dr. AB Moñozca Foundation.
- Palawan, a globally significant biodiversity hotspot, is already grappling with the social and environmental impacts of a rapidly growing tourism industry.

The changing face of Amazon development: from land grab to eco-lodge
- Ariosto da Riva was often described as “the last of the bandeirantes”, the violent adventurers who first penetrated the Brazilian Amazon in the 16th century in search of gold. Working with Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-1985), he owned a million hectares of forest, pushed indigenous people from their lands, and brought in settlers.
- His daughter, Vitória da Riva Carvalho, though wealthy, did not buy into his legacy. She is noted instead for her strong defense of the rainforest and for her world-renowned ecotourism destination, the Cristalino Jungle Lodge, located outside the town of Alta Floresta — which her father settled — in northernmost Mato Grosso state.
- The evolution of the relationship between father and daughter helps trace the unfolding land conflicts that have smouldered and exploded in the Amazon between indigenous and traditional peoples on one side; and land speculators, land grabbers, loggers, settlers and soy growers on the other.
- Today, most of the indigenous people who lived in the region where the Cristalino Jungle Lodge entertains its wealthy guests are gone — dead, pushed into indigenous reserves, or retreated elsewhere. But for now, the rainforest and much extraordinary biodiversity remains, with people like Vitória da Riva Carvalho as its stewards.

Loving apes celebrated this Valentine’s Day
- The IUCN estimates that as few as 15,000 bonobos remain in the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- Bonobos, unlike chimpanzees and humans, live in matriarchal societies and have never been observed killing a member of their own species.
- The California Senate passed a resolution stating that Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14) would also be known as World Bonobo Day beginning in 2017.
- Bushmeat hunting, habitat destruction and the wildlife trade are the greatest threats to the survival of bonobos.

Trophy hunters overstate contribution of big game hunting to African economies: Report
- Humane Society International (HSI) timed the release of the report to coincide with the start of Safari Club International’s (SCI) annual convention in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 1.
- US-based SCI, one of the world’s largest trophy hunting advocacy organizations, released a report in 2015 that claimed trophy hunting-related tourism contributes $426 million annually to the economies of eight African countries and creates more than 53,400 full- and part-time jobs.
- But the HSI report, prepared by Melbourne, Australia-based consultancy Economists At Large, found that SCI had “grossly overstated the contribution of big game hunting to eight African economies and that overall tourism in Africa dwarfs trophy hunting as a source of revenue,” according to a statement.

Shrugging off the risks, Laos plans to proceed with the Pak Beng dam
- The Pak Beng dam is the third of nine mainstream dams planned for the Mekong in Laos, and the second in a cascade of six on the country’s upper stretch of the river.
- If built, the 912-megawatt capacity dam will flood 4,178 hectares of land and create a 7,659-hectare reservoir along the river valley.
- A suite of project documents was published last month, including impact assessments that conclude the project will lead to loss of agricultural land, forest and fisheries as well as possible contamination. However, the developers claim mitigation measures will be able to overcome the negative social and environmental impacts.
- During a visit in January, Mongabay learned that people living in villages around the dam site had not been fully briefed on the project and its potential effects on their lives and livelihoods.

Bridge through Borneo wildlife sanctuary moving forward
- For more than a year, scientists and conservationists have argued that the 350-meter (1,148-foot) Sukau bridge crossing the Kinabatangan River in the Malaysian state of Sabah would hurt wildlife populations and a blossoming ecotourism market more than it would boost local economies.
- The paved road that would accompany the bridge would cut through the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, home to Borneo elephants and 11 species of primates including orangutans.
- A government official responded to recent reports about the bridge’s construction, saying that it would not begin until the environmental impact assessment has been completed.

Elephant poaching costs African nations $25 million a year in lost tourism revenue
- The elephant poaching crisis does not harm elephants alone, it is bad for the economy too, according to a new study.
- The loss of elephants to wildlife trafficking is costing African countries about $25 million a year in lost tourism revenue, the study found.
- The tourism revenue lost due to declining elephants exceeds the anti-poaching costs necessary to stop the decline of elephants in east, west and southern Africa, the researchers found.

Environmentalists squirm as Jokowi eyes Lake Toba tourism bonanza
- Indonesian President Joko Widodo has established a special authority to revive tourism in Lake Toba, North Sumatra.
- Environmentalists worry the plan could lead to forest clearance and exacerbate a worsening pollution problem.
- Government officials argue tourism could actually be a boon for the lake’s environment — trees included — as well as the local economy.

Struggle against mining on Bangka Island continues despite wins in court
- Pulau Bangka lies off the coast of Sulawesi, Indonesia, in one of the world’s most biodiverse marine areas.
- In 2008, a local official granted mining company PT Migroko Metal Perdana a permit to explore the area for iron ore.
- Indonesia’s Supreme Court ruled that the permit should be revoked, but the local government has not executed the order.
- Indonesia’s Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries has pledged to raise the issue with the president.

China considers a huge national park for Amur tigers and leopards
- Endangered Amur tigers and Amur leopards are staging a modest recovery in China’s remote northeastern provinces. Over thirty tigers and some 42 leopards now roam the region’s forests.
- The big cats’ habitat remains threatened by human encroachment and experts say the amount of forest currently protected is insufficient to support their growing populations.
- The government of Jilin Province, where most of the big cats live, has proposed a massive new national park focused on the two species that would connect three existing protected areas.
- The park remains under consideration by the central government.

Fish farms need not be outlawed in Indonesia’s Lake Toba: minister
- The archipelagic country’s chief security minister, Luhut Pandjaitan, said the floating cages could stay as long as they followed environmental regulations.
- The military and police had been deployed as part of an effort by the state to turn Lake Toba into a prominent tourism destination.
- Vice president Jusuf Kalla is scheduled to visit the lake at the end of this week.

Military sent to clear fish farms in Indonesia’s Lake Toba
- The giant lake has struggled with pollution as fish farming and other activities have spread in the region.
- President Joko Widodo has announced plans to clean up Lake Toba and turn it into a prominent tourist destination.
- Now, farmers in Simalungun, a district in the lake region, are told they have until Monday to get rid of their floating cages.
- The anxious farmers want the government to either extend the deadline or compensate them for their losses.

Controversial park plans in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve
- Mirador-Rio Azul National Park is one of the best-conserved protected areas in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve, where illegal logging and agriculture, forest fires, looting, and drug trafficking have contributed to deforestation.
- A plan to increase tourism to the area and redraw the boundaries of the park and adjacent community forest concessions aims to prevent these threats from compromising the area’s rainforest and important archaeological sites.
- Yet the plan has drawn widespread opposition from local communities, environmental NGOs, and the government agency charged with managing the reserve. Opponents say the plan would threaten the region’s ecology, local livelihoods, and community forest concessions that have successfully protected the rainforest.

Making a living inside a reserve: an interview with village head Zou Huagang
- Longxi-Hongkou National Nature Reserve in China’s Sichuan province is part of an important habitat corridor for endangered giant pandas and home to numerous wildlife species, including leopards, golden snub-nosed monkeys, and takin.
- Villages in the area have benefitted from a recent boom in tourism, with the exception of the most remote village inside the reserve, Lianhe, where villagers continue to struggle to make a living.
- Lianhe village, with NGO help, set up forest patrols to protect wildlife and is developing an eco-tourism initiative in hopes of generating new income while maintaining its natural surroundings.

Can China’s first private nature reserve become truly sustainable?
- In 2012, when China’s first privately owned nature reserve was established, local villagers lost their forest-dependent livelihoods.
- Laohegou Nature Reserve has taken steps to help them find new ways to earn a living, hiring some and establishing a program to buy organic food from others.
- However, it hasn’t been enough to support them and today the reserve must take bold steps to help them earn a sustainable living and to secure its own long-term financial footing.
- Other private reserves set up since Laohegou may face similar challenges.

Chinese villagers turn from logging to forest patrols, bees, and fish
- Deprived of their main source of income after a logging ban went into effect, timber-dependent residents of Guanba valley turned to illegal hunting, logging, and harvesting, often at the expense of giant panda habitat.
- Since 2009, residents have worked to develop less destructive livelihoods, including beekeeping and fish rearing. They also formed a patrol team to combat illegal poaching and logging.
- Now they are adding new projects in hopes of making a living that is financially — and environmentally — sustainable.

China’s Wanglang panda reserve, once an ecotourism model, faces new threats
- Established in 1965, Wanglang National Nature Reserve is home to about 30 endangered giant pandas, as well as other rare wild animals.
- Timber-dependent communities near Wanglang, hard-pressed since logging restrictions were enacted in 1998, have turned to illegal poaching, logging, and collecting of wild mushrooms and herbs, often disturbing panda habitat and threatening the effective management of Wanglang reserve.
- After scrapping a successful ecotourism program in Wanglang, the local government is working quickly to expand mass tourism in a way that reserve officials say will threaten panda habitat.

Another tiger perishes at Indonesia’s ‘Death Zoo’
- Allegations of mistreatment and corruption have plagued the Surabaya Zoo. A cascade of animals have perished at the facility.
- Some are calling for the zoo to be closed. An online petition to that effect has more than 800,000 signatures.
- Others believe it should stay open, with improved management.

The week in environmental news – April 01, 2016
- A study recently published by Nature Climate Change, suggests that sea-level rise could disrupt the lives of more than 13 million people in the United States.
- Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration for failing to consider all of the environmental risks involved with the approval of GMO salmon.
- Scientists and environmental groups have asked the Obama administration to designate the first national marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean.

Komodo dragon: one of Indonesia’s rare conservation success stories
- Fear for the Komodo dragon’s long-term survival led to the establishment of Komodo National Park in 1980.
- Decades of successful management in Komodo National Park secured a good portion of the species’ small but stable population, along with the bulk of its current habitat. Today, 2,500 dragons – most of its wild population – live inside the park, with smaller numbers inhabiting a handful of surrounding islands.
- One lesson from the Komodo dragon may be that to save a top predator–and megafauna in general–one must do just a few things: protect a good portion of its habitat, safeguard its prey, and have buy-in from local people that live near it.

Zimbabweans near protected areas feel good about wildlife. Tourists? Not so much.
Chilojo Cliffs in Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe, one of the four protected areas studied in the new paper. Photo credit: Gonarezhou Conservation Project/Patience Gandiwa. In Zimbabwe, people living near protected areas are quite happy about wildlife but not so much about tourists who visit these sites, according to a new paper published in Tropical Conservation […]
In Sumatra, an oasis in a sea of oil palm
An oil palm plantation near Tangkahan village in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province. Photo: Quino Alonso The landscape during the five-hour ride from Medan, the capital of Indonesia’s North Sumatra province, to Tangkahan village is dominated by manicured rows of oil palm that stretch for hundreds of kilometers in all directions. The sky is darkened by […]
The triumph of the bison: Europe’s biggest animal bounces back a century after vanishing
We’d been hiking through deep snow all day with the mercury well below zero, not an uncommon occurrence during winter in eastern Poland. Still I was sweating, covered in several layers and walking with greater strides than I was used to. We stopped once for lunch, taking our repast on a snow-covered log, eating our […]
Zimbabwe selling baby elephant calves to China, says environmental group
Frightened and malnourished female elephant calf in an enclosure in Zimbabwe prior to exportation to China. Photo courtesy of ELEPHANTS DC. A hundred thousand African elephants were killed by poachers for their ivory between 2010 and 2012. Now a new threat looms: a growing wildlife trade in baby animals to satisfy international tourism. Zimbabwe has […]
Chocolate company, NGO work together to save lemurs
Chocolate company collaborates with NGO to conserve Madagascar’s iconic wildlife while helping bolster the prospects of a long-overlooked reserve Madécasse produces chocolate bars from cocoa grown and processed in Madagascar. Photo courtesy of Christi Turner. Madécasse (pronounced “mah-DAY-kas”), which brands itself as an eco-conscious and socially responsible company known for its bean-to-bar-in-Madagascar chocolate,, has teamed […]
Protected areas receive 8 billion visits a year, but still underfunded
Cobalt-winged parakeets at a clay lick in Yasuni National Park, which the Ecuadorian government is increasingly opening up to oil drilling. Photo by: Jeremy Hance. The world loves its protected areas, according to a new study in the open access PLOS Biology. U.S. and UK researchers estimated that the world’s protected areas received eight billion […]
Partnering for conservation benefits Tacana people, Bolivian park
Other Special Reporting Initiative reporting by Barbara Fraser How do parks affect the poor? Jury’s still out, some experts say Innovating Brazil nuts: a business with roots in the rainforest Video: innovative tourism helps protect forests in Amazonian Peru Community tourism fills niche around Tambopata National Reserve Indigenous territories play dual role as homelands and […]
How do parks affect the poor? Jury’s still out, some experts say
Other Special Reporting Initiative reporting by Barbara Fraser Innovating Brazil nuts: a business with roots in the rainforest Video: innovative tourism helps protect forests in Amazonian Peru Community tourism fills niche around Tambopata National Reserve Indigenous territories play dual role as homelands and protected areas Environmental wisdom: keeping indigenous stories alive A model forest? Regional […]
Innovating Brazil nuts: a business with roots in the rainforest
Other Special Reporting Initiative reporting by Barbara Fraser Video: innovative tourism helps protect forests in Amazonian Peru Community tourism fills niche around Tambopata National Reserve Indigenous territories play dual role as homelands and protected areas Environmental wisdom: keeping indigenous stories alive A model forest? Regional park balances local needs and conservation Scientist and entrepreneur turn […]
Video: innovative tourism helps protect forests in Amazonian Peru
A new short documentary highlights the innovative, locally-grown tourist ventures sprouting up in the buffer zone around Peru’s Tambopata National Reserve. Not only do these tourist adventures–some specializing in rehabilitating wildlife, others in finding out how locals live, and some even in jungle yoga–help provide jobs and income in a region dominated by extractive industries, […]
Community tourism fills niche around Tambopata National Reserve
When Víctor Zambrano retired from the military and returned to his family’s old homestead outside the fast-growing jungle town of Puerto Maldonado in Peru, he got an unpleasant surprise. Strangers had moved in and cleared the trees to raise cattle. As Zambrano tells it, he ran up the Peruvian flag, chased the invaders off, and […]
How black rhinos and local communities help each other in Namibia
- Africa’s rhinos are in a state of crisis.
- Poaching for their horn has resulted in the deaths of thousands of animals and pushed the continent’s two species—the white and black rhino—against the wall.
- Yet, despite the crisis, there are pockets of rhino territory where poaching remains rare and rhinos live comparatively unmolested.
- Indeed, one of the brightest spots for rhinos is in Namibia.

Stuff of fairy tales: stepping into Europe’s last old-growth forest
On bison, wolves, and woodpeckers: the wonder of Europe’s only lowland virgin forest. Bialowieza Forest at dawn. Old-growth forest is characterized by ancient trees, tall canopies, little undergrowth, and a huge amount of dead wood. Photo by: Lukasz Mazurek/Wild Poland There is almost nothing left of Europe’s famed forests, those that provided for human communities […]
Bears, cats, and mystery mammals: camera traps in ‘paper park’ prove it’s worth protecting
Camera traps catch endangered species in remote park in Cambodia A rare Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) dashes past a camera trap in Virachey National Park. This species is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Photo by: Habitat ID. Can a single photograph change the fate of a park? A new conservation group, […]
Ecotourism pays: study finds lower poverty where nature-based tourism is prevalent
Economists find that protected areas reduce poverty in Costa Rica A new study has quantified a point long advocated by advocates of setting aside protected areas: ecotourism pays. The research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), finds that communities neighboring conservation areas in Costa Rica had lower rates of poverty relative […]
Sri Lankan elephant amnesty will lead to poaching, warn conservationists
Environmentalists have responded with alarm to a proposed amnesty permitting the registration of illegally captured elephants in Sri Lanka. Recent reports in Sri Lankan media have outlined the proposal, stating that during the amnesty period it would be possible to register elephant calves for a fee of about $7,600. Elephants are closely linked with Sri […]
Lao ecotourism project wins responsible travel award for innovation
An ecotourism project in a remote part of Laos has won the World Responsible Tourism Award for Best for Responsible Wildlife Experience. The Nam Nern Night Safari, an ecotour in Lao PDR’s Nam Et-Phou Louey National Protected Area in Houaphan Province, was recognized by the World Travel Mart for its innovative approach to generating benefits […]
Nature tours in Costa Rica: an economic alternative to palm oil?
Oil palm plantations have been rapidly expanding across the tropics for the better part of the past twenty years due to high returns from palm oil production. But palm oil isn’t necessarily the most profitable form of land use in wildlife-rich areas, as one conservation entrepreneur is demonstrating in Costa Rica. David Lando Ramirez, a […]
Mammal-watching: one man’s obsession to see the world’s mammals
There are more than 5,000 different mammal species across the globe, but with this number being dwarfed by the 10,000 bird species, it is little wonder that bird-watching has become the most common wildlife watching hobby in the world. While there are thousands of websites dedicated to ornithology enthusiasts, with information detailing the best places […]
The iguana man: saving the reptilian kings of the Bahamas
Before the arrival of humans—with their dogs, cats, and wild pigs—the northern Bahamian rock iguana ruled its home range, being pound-for-pound among the biggest land animals on the islands. In these ecosystems, the iguana’s were the mega-grazers, the bison and elk of the Caribbean one might say. But hunting by humans, invasive species, and habitat […]
The hidden Caribbean: sustainable tourism arrives in the Dominican Republic
The crystal-clear waters of Cayo Arena in the Dominican Republic. Photo by: Tiffany Roufs. Finding true ecotourism companies isn’t easy. While the tourism industry worldwide has latched onto the term ‘ecotourism,’ in many cases it’s more propaganda than reality. Especially in heavily-touristed areas—like the Caribbean Islands—it’s difficult to find efforts that are actually low impact, […]
Saving Gorongosa: E.O. Wilson on protecting a biodiversity hotspot in Mozambique
If you fly over the Great African Rift Valley from its northernmost point in Ethiopia, over the great national parks of Kenya and Tanzania, and follow it south to the very end, you will arrive at Gorongosa National Park in central Mozambique. Plateaus on the eastern and western sides of the park flank the lush […]
Luxury nature travel with a philanthropic twist
A hundred years ago, nature-oriented travel to places like tropical Africa and Asia was often associated with big game hunting. Today cameras have mostly replaced guns as nature-lovers travel to the far-reaches of the globe to see wildlife, experience rugged mountains, and explore remote beaches. But nature-based travel isn’t necessarily ecotourism — there can be […]
Why responsible tourism is the key to saving the mountain gorilla
The sunlight poured through the canopy, casting dappled shade over Makara, a large silverback mountain gorilla, as he cast his eyes around the forest clearing, checking on the members of his harem. A female gorilla reclined on a bank of dense vegetation of the most brilliant green, clutching her three day old infant close to […]

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