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Palm oil firms kept zero-deforestation pledges, but forests saw little extra benefit 25 Aug 2026 09:46:11 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/palm-oil-firms-kept-zero-deforestation-pledges-but-forests-saw-little-extra-benefit/ author: Hans Nicholas Jong dc:creator: Hans Nicholas Jong content:encoded: JAKARTA — A new study of palm oil concessions linked to Indonesian supply chains finds no evidence that corporate zero-deforestation commitments have led to additional reductions in deforestation. Tropical countries such as Indonesia continue to lose their forests at an alarming pace. In 2025, the world lost 4.3 million hectares of tropical primary forest, equivalent to more than 11 football fields of forest a minute . To curb this trend, palm oil-producing countries have introduced national policies in the past decade, while companies have increasingly adopted zero-deforestation commitments (ZDCs). When viewed through a before-and-after lens, Indonesian palm oil ZDCs appear highly successful at reducing deforestation. To determine how effective these commitments actually are, an international team of researchers compared deforestation trends in Indonesia’s palm oil sector — the world’s largest producer and exporter of the commodity — between concessions linked to supply chains with ZDCs and those without them. Using public databases to identify companies that have adopted ZDCs, the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), found that companies had largely complied with their commitments. However, it found no evidence that those commitments produced an additional reduction in deforestation in Indonesian palm-oil concessions beyond broader changes affecting the sector. In both ZDC-linked and non-ZDC concessions, the study says, . During the full implementation period for ZDCs from 2018 to 2020, annualized deforestation fell to around 0.5% in both groups. In the researchers’ preferred, the decline was 6.5 percentage points in ZDC-linked concessions and 6.63…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In the past decade, palm oil-producing countries, such as Indonesia, have introduced policies and company-level commitments to curb deforestation. - In both concessions linked to companies with zero-deforestation commitments (ZDCs) and those not linked to ZDCs, data suggests annualized deforestation has dropped dramatically from the 2000s. - Despite this drop, a new study suggests ZDCs have not, in fact, led to additional reductions in deforestation. - A decline in palm oil prices and historic deforestation in concessions may have contributed to this contrasting picture, say researchers. authors: | ||
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Plans of Peru’s new administration spur concern among environmentalists 25 Aug 2026 09:38:23 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/plans-of-perus-new-administration-spur-concern-among-environmentalists/ author: Alexandra Popescu dc:creator: Aimee Gabay content:encoded: Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi from the Popular Force Party was sworn in as the new president of Peru on July 28. Fujimori, who has pledged to tackle insecurity using greater force and militarization, narrowly defeated her left-wing opponent Roberto Sánchez by fewer than 50,000 votes on June 7. The new president has promised to expand fossil fuel production and mining across the country, raising concerns among environmentalists and Indigenous leaders about the future of the Peruvian Amazon, as well as its international commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) — a national climate action plan under the Paris Agreement. The country submitted its first NDC in 2016, which was then updated in 2020 and 2025. In its plan, it has committed to diversify renewable energy sources, strengthen sustainable transportation, reduce deforestation, protect natural areas and support Indigenous and local communities, among other mitigation priorities. Experts, environmentalists and Indigenous leaders expressed concerns about the government’s plans, particularly Fujimori’s promise to expand the exploration and exploitation of energy resources, such as the promotion of new lots in the Amazon and the northern coast. Peru’s President Keiko Fujimori, center, poses for a group photo with members of her cabinet at the government palace in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo) “The current government is a bit pragmatic in its decisions because they are really driven by wanting development without considering the consequences for the Amazonian peoples,” Matsés Indigenous leader Leo Chuma Teca Beso told Mongabay…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - On July 28, Peru inaugurated its new leader, Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi, from the Popular Force Party. - Fujimori says she will expand fossil fuel production and mining across the country, as well as road, rail and port networks to facilitate extractive and productive projects. - Mongabay spoke with legal experts, environmentalists and Indigenous leaders about the government’s plans and what it might mean for the country’s energy transition commitments and the environment. authors: | ||
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Bogong moths support Australia’s alpine ecosystems, but face uncertain future 25 Aug 2026 08:45:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/bogong-moths-support-australias-alpine-ecosystems-but-face-uncertain-future/ author: Yenni Kwok dc:creator: Hannah Thomasy content:encoded: At first glance, Australia’s bogong moth is a decidedly unspectacular-looking creature. The moths are typically a dark, mottled brown and each weighs less than a Tic Tac mint or half a gram. But looks can be deceiving. Every spring in the Southern Hemisphere, from September to November, billions of bogong moths (Agrotis infusa) undertake an epic journey. Using the stars and the Earth’s magnetic field, these tiny insects navigate hundreds of kilometers across Australia. Their destination is the Australian Alps, located in the far southeast corner of the country, where they will shelter in cool caves for the duration of the summer. The moths are a critical resource for the many rare and wonderful species that live in these mountains. “The whole [alpine] zone relies on the bogong moths,” said Marissa Parrott, a senior conservation biologist at Zoos Victoria. “They’re the second largest influx of nutrients into the Alps every year, beaten only by the sun.” But the moth’s future is far from certain. Their numbers have been slowly declining since the 1980s, and in 2017, populations crashed, likely due to extreme drought across much of southeastern Australia. A bogong moth in Sydney. Image by John Tann via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). At several locations, cave walls that had once been densely blanketed with moths — several thousand occupying each square meter (equivalent to 11 square feet) — were all but empty. “They went from four billion to nearly undetectable,” Parrott said. The population collapse threatens the alpine ecosystem,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Bogong moths are a critical resource for the many rare and wonderful species that live in the Australian Alps, but their future is far from certain. - The IUCN classifies the bogong moth as an endangered species, but Australia, the only country where the moth is habitually found, has refused to recognize it as such, categorizing it instead as “data deficient”. - Currently, a network of entomologists, ecologists, data scientists, First Nations peoples, and volunteers is working to address the data gaps, hoping to reapply for a national endangered species listing and identify the best strategies to protect the bogong moth. - However, tracking a tiny creature that migrates hundreds of kilometers in the dark of night is no easy task. authors: | ||
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In Raja Ampat, children learn that their knowledge can help protect their islands 24 Aug 2026 23:31:29 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-raja-ampat-children-learn-that-their-knowledge-can-help-protect-their-islands/ author: Hans Nicholas Jong dc:creator: Hans Nicholas Jong content:encoded: ARBOREK, West Papua, Indonesia — “Rockhead fish, salamander fish, starfish and coral.” That’s what dozens of children from Arborek, a small island in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago, said when asked what they see in nature that is yellow and orange. The children rattled off the fish and other marine life they encounter when they play in the sea, during a reading of a children’s book about Raja Ampat and the threat of nickel mining. A coral reef and marine life in the waters off Raja Ampat in Southwest Papua province, Indonesia. Image courtesy of Econusa. Research suggests that children who grow up closely connected to their surroundings can develop sophisticated understandings of their local environment. A 2014 study of children in 22 villages in Indonesian Borneo, for example, found that they recognized relationships among forests, rivers, wildlife and other environmental changes. So Sekar Bestari, the book’s illustrator, wasn’t surprised by the children’s answers. “Most of the time when we read the books to children, they understand them, so don’t underestimate children’s knowledge,” she said after the reading in Arborek. “We’re not surprised anymore today.” The reading was part of a three-day gathering of Indigenous communities in Arborek that brought together representatives from 20 Indigenous subtribes in Raja Ampat, as well as Indigenous people from other parts of Indonesia and abroad. The gathering, organized by Greenpeace Indonesia and local NGO Institut USBA, was intended to strengthen solidarity among Indigenous communities in protecting their lands, waters and biodiversity. The children’s knowledge of…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Research suggests that children who grow up closely connected to their surroundings can develop sophisticated understandings of their local environment. - A recent children’s book reading was part of a gathering of Indigenous communities in Arborek that brought together representatives from 20 Indigenous subtribes in Raja Ampat, as well as Indigenous people from other parts of Indonesia and abroad. - The book turns the biodiversity of Indonesia into a visual story about what could be lost if mining damages the environment. - The author and illustrator hope that seeing their home, animals and stories represented in a book will encourage the children to tell more stories of their own. authors: | ||
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How a rare bird sparked a wildlife movement across 16 villages in Guyana 24 Aug 2026 23:26:51 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/how-a-rare-bird-sparked-a-wildlife-movement-across-16-villages-in-guyana/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Gentry Hale content:encoded: WICHABAI, Guyana — At sunrise in Guyana’s South Rupununi, Leroy Ignacio stops beside a tree scored with large claw marks. The animal responsible was a giant anteater. “They even rub their backs on the trunk to leave a scent behind,” says Ignacio, president of the South Rupununi Conservation Society (SRCS), as he demonstrates the motion. Indigenous researchers had long observed anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) climbing and marking trees, behaviors previously documented by scientists only in isolated cases. Working with four Indigenous communities, SRCS placed cameras at trees identified by locals. The resulting 883 recorded visits suggested the solitary animals use the trees to communicate. For nearly a quarter-century, SRCS has built a multi-community approach to conservation grounded in traditional knowledge. Its members are villagers, farmers and teachers who work with participating communities to research wildlife, develop conservation guidelines and teach local ecology. Before SRCS, Indigenous-led conservation in the Rupununi was mostly in the form of scattered projects and traditional stewardship by Makushi and Wapichan communities. But the discovery of an endangered bird, the red siskin (Spinus cucullatus), gave several South Rupununi communities a reason to organize across village boundaries. A flock of red siskins in Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo, Guyana. Image by Nick Athanas via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). A multi-community movement It all began with a scientific trip, recounts Ignacio. In 2000, researchers from the Smithsonian and the University of Kansas, both in the U.S., came to the South Rupununi to survey birds. Duane De Freitas and other young Indigenous residents…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The documentation of the endangered red siskin, a rare bird, in Guyana inspired the creation of the South Rupununi Conservation Society. - The organization has built a multi-community grassroots conservation approach that is grounded in traditional knowledge, organizes across 16 village boundaries and includes Indigenous villagers, farmers and teachers who research wildlife, develop conservation guidelines and teach local ecology. - Projects include community conservation zones to protect wildlife such as giant anteaters, the genetic documentation of species and monitoring. - Short-term funding, development pressure and cultural change threaten the model, even as communities invest their own money into projects. authors: | ||
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Xokleng Indigenous people plant thousands of critically endangered pine in Brazil 24 Aug 2026 22:16:03 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/xokleng-indigenous-people-plant-thousands-of-critically-endangered-pine-in-brazil/ author: Shanna Hanbury dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: The Xokleng Indigenous people of Santa Catarina state of southern Brazil have planted nearly a 100,000 seedlings of a critically endangered native tree, Mongabay contributor Letícia Klein reported. The Brazilian pine (Araucaria angustifolia), or araucária, can grow more than 50 meters (164 feet) tall and has a straight trunk with a broad crown of branches near its top. Araucária pine forests historically covered large swathes of southern Brazil, but their range declined by roughly 97% in the last century. “Just as our pine is endangered, my people are also endangered, and consequently our language and culture are endangered,” Carl Gakran, executive director of the Zág (pronounced zā) Institute, told Klein. The institute was founded in conjunction with Isabel Gakran, his wife, to organize and expand the replanting effort. Carl Gakran began the restoration effort in 2016 after he learned that the Brazilian pine was listed as critically endangered by the IUCN Red List, the global conservation authority. He initially planned to grow just 10 trees on his own property. But the idea gained traction with the community, and they began the project the following year. Araucária pine trees produce edible nuts called pinhão, a staple food in the culinary tradition of southern Brazil. They are also eaten by at least another 22 animal species. Project organizers and volunteers harvest the seeds but leave at least 40% behind for wildlife. “Following our elders’ knowledge, we speak to the seeds, explain what’s happening, and perform harvest rituals. We harvest 60%, no more…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The Xokleng Indigenous people of Santa Catarina state of southern Brazil have planted nearly a 100,000 seedlings of a critically endangered native tree, Mongabay contributor Letícia Klein reported. The Brazilian pine (Araucaria angustifolia), or araucária, can grow more than 50 meters (164 feet) tall and has a straight trunk with a broad crown of branches […] authors: | ||
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Did you know forests can save themselves? 24 Aug 2026 21:58:15 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/did-you-know-forests-can-save-themselves/ author: Sam Lee dc:creator: Jonathan Mbu content:encoded: Did you know forests can save themselves? (With a little help from us, of course). Turns out, trees can be super valuable apart from being used for timber. Their seeds, nuts, leaves, bark, and more are natural commodities… and have the potential to prevent logging, support local communities, and protect the health of our precious ecosystems. These are called non-timber forest products (aka NTFPs). In this 4-part series with @therainforester and Mongabay, we explore the ways that harvesting sustainably from our forests can keep them alive! Follow along for more episodes.This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Did you know forests can save themselves? (With a little help from us, of course). Turns out, trees can be super valuable apart from being used for timber. Their seeds, nuts, leaves, bark, and more are natural commodities… and have the potential to prevent logging, support local communities, and protect the health of our precious […] authors: | ||
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Rescue networks built by fire: Saving animals from Australia’s bushfires 24 Aug 2026 21:25:49 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/rescue-networks-built-by-fire-saving-animals-from-australias-bushfires/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Starre Vartan content:encoded: NEW SOUTH WALES, Australia — A wallaby with a joey tucked into her pouch grazes beneath towering eucalyptus trees. Black cockatoos wheel overhead, their wailing calls echoing across the green hills of Vanessa Hartley’s property on the South Coast of New South Wales in Australia. A kangaroo bounces away, seeking better forage. The russet and golden horses that wander nearby are used to the wildlife: They ignore the bounding animals and the bird cries. Standing there on a blue-sky autumn afternoon, it was difficult to imagine that just a few years earlier this same landscape was engulfed in flames. “It was full-on,” Hartley said, scratching her brindled sheepdog’s ears. “The horse poo was spontaneously combusting.” During Australia’s catastrophic Black Summer bushfires of 2019-2020, roughly 95% of Jerrawangala National Park burned as repeated fire fronts swept through. The park borders Hartley’s property, where she rehabilitates abused and surrendered horses before partnering them with people experiencing mental health challenges and disabilities as support animals. When smoke rolled over the ridgeline behind her pastures, Hartley posted a message on Facebook asking for help. Within an hour, neighbors and strangers arrived with trucks and horse trailers and evacuated all 19 of Hartley’s horses. “It made me cry knowing how supported we were,” she said. After the fires passed, Hartley returned to find another crisis unfolding. The surviving wildlife had little food or water, and the land was quiet. When she finally spotted a bedraggled wallaby (Phascolarctos cinereus), then another, she was relieved. “But they…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - While emergency responders prioritized human life and property during Australia’s 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires, there were few systems in place to protect wildlife or evacuate and care for domestic animals during and after the fires, exposing a gap in disaster planning. - Neighbors, wildlife carers, veterinarians, landholders and volunteers rapidly organized evacuations, rescue efforts, feeding stations and supply networks, demonstrating the power of local knowledge and grassroots coordination. - Fire ecology research suggests animals may be more vulnerable to fire than previously understood, and more research is needed to understand wildlife mortality and survival during and post-bushfire. - Experts say that community-led efforts could dramatically improve outcomes for both people and animals during disasters with better funding, coordination and institutional support. Community networks offer a blueprint for the future as bushfires become more frequent in a climate-changed world. authors: | ||
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In Spain & South Africa, communities use restoration to ‘grow’ fire insurance (commentary) 24 Aug 2026 19:24:29 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-spain-south-africa-communities-use-restoration-to-grow-fire-insurance-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Claire PattersonPenelope Choussat content:encoded: Huddled shoulder to shoulder, a flicker of glowing orange illuminates the faces gathered around. The world quiets. The dark presses in from every side, and the cold with it. At the center of it all, a fire is roaring. Fire warmed us, fed us, and kept the dark at bay long after the sun went down, allowing us to gather together when solitude was the alternative. But the same flames that draw people together can just as easily tear through a landscape, destroying livelihoods and communities. Whether they do depends on the condition of the land itself. In some cases, fires are a natural part of the ecosystem. But when forests are poorly managed they become fuel waiting for a spark. Invasive vegetation, in particular, can burn hotter and more explosively than the indigenous ecosystems it displaces, turning a landscape adapted to survive fire into one that is destroyed by it. Restore the landscape, and you don’t eliminate fire, but you can change how fire behaves. In that sense, healthy landscapes act as vital risk infrastructure, reducing the likelihood that a spark becomes a catastrophe. The landscapes of Spain’s Muga Valley and South Africa’s Langkloof share a history of poor management that has left them degraded and exposed to wildfire. Today, both areas are discovering that managing fire as a part of restoring ecosystems is vital to protecting both communities and economies from disaster. Two hours north of Barcelona, the Muga Valley is verdant but increasingly vulnerable to fire after…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Managing fire as a part of restoring ecosystems is vital to protecting both communities and economies from disaster: While fire is a natural part of many ecosystems, when forests are poorly managed they become fuel reservoirs just waiting for a spark. - Spain’s Muga Valley and South Africa’s Langkloof share such a management history but are now pivoting to ecosystem restoration to protect communities, economies and biodiversity. - “It is the health of the landscape that will determine whether fire acts as a force of connection or destruction. The choice, in effect, is whether we leave that risk unmanaged, or begin to build insurance into the land itself,” a new op-ed argues. - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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Local knowledge guides rediscovery of spinach pipefish, not seen in four decades 24 Aug 2026 17:19:23 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/local-knowledge-guides-rediscovery-of-spinach-pipefish-not-seen-in-four-decades/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Spoorthy Raman content:encoded: By mid-June, Jerrica Agebigo was staring at disappointment. Her nearly two-week-long, exhausting search for a mysterious fish that hasn’t been seen by scientists for nearly four decades was drawing to a close. Her team of researchers had braved Papua New Guinea’s hot, humid summer days, meandering along the Sepik River’s course by boat and canoe — but the spinach pipefish still eluded them. “We had spent days travelling through the Lower Sepik, talking with communities and looking for information about the pipefish,” Agebigo, a researcher at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology and the New Guinea Binatang Research Centre, wrote in an email. “We had almost given up hope.” The spinach pipefish (Microphis spinachioides) is a small, slender pipefish with an elongated snout it uses to capture small prey, reaching maybe 15 centimeters (6 inches) in length. This greenish-brown freshwater creature, a close relative of seahorses and seadragons, is well camouflaged in its only known home here in the Sepik River — the country’s longest waterway — hiding among water lilies and other plants near riverbanks. Just like seahorses, pipefish males carry their embryos in a brood pouch for weeks until the young are born. Much about the spinach pipefish has remained an enigma, because scientists haven’t seen it since 1985. It was last assessed for the IUCN Red List in 2016, and at the time, was classified as data deficient by IUCN, the global conservation authority. The only known museum specimen, on which the taxonomy of the species…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Scientists have rediscovered spinach pipefish, a freshwater species endemic to Papua New Guinea’s Sepik River, not seen in nearly 40 years. - The discovery came during a two-week survey led by local scientists and community members. Local fisherwoman Helen Asu netted two spinach pipefish, which scientists sent to experts for confirmation of the taxonomy. - Scientists say the rediscovery offers hope that populations of the little-known, elusive fish still survive and provides an opportunity to understand more about its life cycle, habitat and ecology. - The discovery highlights the importance of combining local knowledge with scientific research. authors: | ||
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Daniel Janzen and the long work of bringing back a forest 24 Aug 2026 14:48:44 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/daniel-janzen-and-the-long-work-of-bringing-back-a-forest/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: In northwestern Costa Rica, the forest did not return all at once. First the cattle were removed. Then the fires had to be stopped. Introduced grasses made the old ranchlands burn too easily. Fence lines had to be watched. Seeds had to arrive by wind, birds, bats, and the stomachs of passing animals. People had to believe the land could become something other than pasture, and then stay long enough to see it happen. A park on paper can still burn. It can still be poached, logged, ignored, or resented. The work requires science, salaries, political agreements, national investment, school programs, local trust, and daily maintenance. It requires people who remain after the first burst of money and attention has passed. Popular accounts sometimes reduced the story to a solitary figure: an American ecologist with a beard, a camera, a theory, and a park. It was never that simple. For more than half a century, Daniel Hunt Janzen has worked in tandem with Winnie Hallwachs, his wife, scientific partner, and frequent interpreter to the human world. Around them grew a larger Costa Rican undertaking, carried by park leaders, field staff, parataxonomists, teachers, donors, government ministers, neighbors, and families who turned a conservation idea into a working landscape. Janzen is now 87. His field work has slowed, and he has stepped back from university teaching to focus on his role as Chief Scientist of the Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund (GDFCF), the nonprofit conservation organization he and Hallwachs founded with his…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Daniel Janzen’s scientific work helped reshape ecologists’ understanding of tropical forests, especially the relationships among plants, insects, pathogens, predators, and seeds. - With Winnie Hallwachs and Costa Rican partners, he helped turn degraded ranchlands in Guanacaste into a protected, working landscape that now connects ecosystems from the Pacific coast to cloud forest and Caribbean rain forest. - ACG’s parataxonomists, educators, field staff, directors, and neighboring communities have made the project durable through their day-to-day work, linking conservation to local employment, education, and scientific expertise. - Janzen and Hallwachs’s more recent work on DNA barcoding and bioliteracy aims to help Costa Rica identify, study, and value the extraordinary diversity of life within its borders. authors: | ||
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Antarctic krill fishery closes months early amid increasing fishing pressure 24 Aug 2026 14:37:35 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/antarctic-krill-fishery-closes-months-early-amid-increasing-fishing-pressure/ author: Autumn Spanne dc:creator: Francesco De Augustinis content:encoded: On Aug. 12, for the second year in a row, the krill fishery in the Southern Ocean closed early after reaching its annual catch limit of 620,000 metric tons. This precautionary quota is intended to prevent overfishing from affecting populations of this shrimp-like crustacean, which forms the base of the region’s food chain. The fishery’s early closure was confirmed by scientists attending the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Open Science Conference, held in Oslo, Norway, from Aug. 10 to 14, 2026. “The fishery has closed early (before the end of November) because it has already caught 620,000t of krill,” Simeon Hill, marine and fisheries ecologist at the British Antarctic Survey, told Mongabay in an email. Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) can grow up to 6 centimeters (2.4 inches) long and live predominantly in schools. The species forms the basis of the diets of a large proportion of wildlife populations in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, including seals, whales, penguins, seabirds, fish and squid. In the last two decades, krill has attracted growing commercial interest owing to its use in aquaculture feed, pet food and omega-3 supplements for human consumption. The early closure of the fishery is linked to the growth of the fishing fleets targeting krill, as well as to the concentration of fishing activities in areas where krill is most abundant. These areas also coincide with the main feeding grounds of wildlife populations, raising concerns about the potential negative impact of this industry on the ecosystem. Antarctic krill (Euphausia…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The krill fishery in the Southern Ocean has closed more than three months early after reaching its annual catch limit of 620,000 metric tons — a precautionary quota established to prevent overfishing. - Krill forms the foundation of the Antarctic food web, with penguins, whales, seals, fish, squid and other animals depending on the tiny shrimp-like crustacean. - The early closure of the fishery is linked to the growth of the krill-targeting fleet, as well as to what some scientists call an “unprecedented” concentration of fishing activities in areas where krill is most abundant. - Scientists are raising concerns about the combined impacts of overfishing and climate change on both krill and the Antarctic and Southern Ocean wildlife it nourishes. authors: | ||
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A deadly cross over: In South Africa, rabies moves from land animals to seals 24 Aug 2026 14:21:58 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/a-deadly-cross-over-in-south-africa-rabies-moves-from-land-animals-to-seals/ author: Andy Lehren dc:creator: Nic Bothma content:encoded: CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Debbie Hendrikz was walking along her usual route on the shoreline when she crouched to photograph a seal. She is familiar with seals and has captured similar images along the beach. But this was different. “It just went for me,” the 49-year-old said. “I knew instinctively by the sound it made that I was its prey. It grabbed my arm and bit hard into a metal bracelet I was wearing, which saved me. I knew I had to get away and not let it get my feet in the soft sand. I managed to shake it off my arm and just got away.” “I never imagined anything like this could happen. It took me a long while to get over it.” Seals do not normally see humans as prey, but Hendrikz’s encounter is one of a growing list of recent attacks by the marine mammals in Cape Town. According to Gregg Oelofse, the City of Cape Town’s coastal manager, the city has recorded 135 incidents of aggressive seal behavior toward humans since September 2021. More than half, 73 incidents, resulted in bite injuries ranging from broken skin to those requiring hospitalization in an intensive care unit. Researchers in South Africa suspect the incidents stem from a disease normally associated with land animals that appears to be leaping to Cape fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus) — rabies. According to South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), reports of rabies in seals around the world prior to…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Cape Town, South Africa, has recorded 135 incidents of aggressive seal behavior toward humans since September 2021, including injuries that led to hospitalizations. - Researchers suspect the cause is rabies, a disease normally associated with land animals but has leapt to Cape fur seals. - Since May 2024, rabies cases have been confirmed in Cape fur seals along the Western Cape and Northern Cape coastlines of South Africa — the first time the virus has established itself in a marine mammal population anywhere in the world. - Beyond attacks on humans, researchers worry whether the disease will spread to other marine mammals, as seals interact with different species. authors: | ||
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Dragonflies help protect water and ancestral Indigenous languages in Colombia 24 Aug 2026 12:22:40 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/dragonflies-help-protect-water-and-ancestral-indigenous-languages-in-colombia/ author: Alexandra Popescu dc:creator: Manuel Fonseca content:encoded: Every dragonfly story starts in the water, and Guainía, known as the land of many waters, should be the Olympus of these insects. The mix of waters from the Orinoquia and the Amazon with the vast pristine rainforest should make this region a dragonfly biodiversity hotspot. But little to nothing is known about the diversity of these flying predators in this remote part of eastern Colombia. “When we started, very little was known; there were about 10 reported species,” Yiselle Cano, a doctoral candidate at the National University of La Plata, Argentina, and biodiversity leader of the project Dragones Guainía, told Mongabay in a video call. With rubber boots, long-sleeved shirts, hats and sweeping nets, Cano and her colleague Jenilee Montes go out every day and explore the waters of the Guainía in search of these insects. From small puddles to the deep-red waters of the Inirida River, these Colombian researchers have spent the last three years collecting and identifying dragonflies and damselflies in order to understand what is still left to protect, according to Cano. “I think we must be close to 120 species by now,” Cano said. “It’s a hugely diverse group, because it includes dragonflies native to the Orinoco, Amazonas and dragonflies that are endemic to the Guiana Shield.” Guainía, also known as the land of many waters, is a remote biodiversity hotspot at the meeting point of the Amazon Rainforest, the Orinoco River basin and the Guyana Shield. Image courtesy of Jenilee Montes. This discovery is…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Researchers investigating Colombia’s remote region of Guainía have identified nearly 120 dragonfly and damselfly species, uncovering a biodiversity hotspot for these insects. - Dragonflies rely on pristine freshwater ecosystems, but their aquatic habitats face growing pressure from regional deforestation, unmanaged waste and exponential tourism. - By naming in their ancestral languages and monitoring local dragonflies, communities are deepening their understanding of ecosystem health and connecting biodiversity and ancestral wisdom with water protection. authors: | ||
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Bangladesh’s green building drive grows beyond factories amid climate pressures 24 Aug 2026 11:38:12 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/bangladeshs-green-building-drive-grows-beyond-factories-amid-climate-pressures/ author: Abu Siddique dc:creator: Ibrahim Hossain Ovi content:encoded: The concept of green building in Bangladesh started solely for its vast apparel industry. Now, the country’s corporates and realtors, too, are constructing green certified buildings, also known as eco-friendly buildings. The vision behind green building is to reduce environmental impacts and to also ensure a healthy workplace for employees. It has become a part of corporate branding and responsibility towards sustainability to demonstrate care and function as carers of the environment, preserving for the next generation a healthy living. In Bangladesh According to the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), there are 35 certified buildings and corporate offices in Bangladesh representing various sectors like financial institutions, corporate offices and hospitals. Besides these, the country also has many green factories, mostly in the ready-made garments (RMG) sector. According to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Bangladesh houses 290 LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified RMG factories — including 125 platinum-rated, 145 gold-rated and 16 silver-rated. The country also holds 53 of the world’s top 100 highest-scoring LEED-certified factories. “Green-certified buildings in Bangladesh are typically associated with manufacturing and garments. Breaking this convention, Unilever Bangladesh [UBL] built its corporate building to demonstrate sustainability in corporate office environments as well, earning LEED-gold certification from USGBC in 2023,” said Syeda Durdana Kabir, human resources director of UBL. She said UBL’s initiative was driven by a clear vision: to integrate sustainability into daily operations rather than treat it as a one-time achievement. The corporate office was designed to minimize resource consumption while…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Currently, Bangladesh has 35 certified green buildings and sustainable offices in various non-manufacturing sectors, and the concept is gaining more ground. - The country is encouraging LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certification for industries, and holds 53 of the world’s top 100 highest-scoring green factories. - Key drivers behind green construction include lowering carbon emissions and ensuring sustainable development, besides the wellbeing of industry employees and connected workers. - Mongabay spoke with a few major corporate companies, builders and experts about the adoption of green building initiatives in Bangladesh to understand where industries in the country stand in support of this approach. authors: | ||
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Indonesia integrates Indigenous data in bid to put customary lands on map 24 Aug 2026 11:27:46 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indonesia-integrates-indigenous-data-in-bid-to-put-customary-lands-on-map/ author: Hans Nicholas Jong dc:creator: Hans Nicholas Jong content:encoded: JAKARTA — Indigenous peoples in Indonesia have long faced a basic problem: Data on their communities, cultures and customary territories are scattered across government agencies and civil society organizations, making them less visible in spatial planning and permitting. The Indonesian government is trying to address that gap by integrating data from the Ministry of Culture, the Ancestral Domain Registration Agency (BRWA) and the country’s largest Indigenous peoples’ alliance, AMAN, in a dataset covering 3,857 Indigenous communities. The government says the integrated data will strengthen policymaking and protection of Indigenous peoples. BRWA says the bigger significance could be spatial: Customary territory maps, which can show the ancestral lands, traditional territories, languages and more of Indigenous peoples, could eventually become part of the government’s geospatial data and potentially be visible in spatial planning and permitting. BRWA was established in 2010 by Indigenous and civil society organizations, including AMAN, to document and register customary territories amid the government’s slow progress in recognizing Indigenous peoples and their lands. The new integrated dataset was launched on Aug. 19 in Jakarta. Before the launch, data on Indigenous peoples had been scattered across various ministries, institutions and civil society organizations, according to Restu Gunawan, the Ministry of Culture’s director general of cultural and traditional protection. The differences matter, he said during the launch: Even a difference of one community in the datasets could translate into thousands of hectares of difference when it comes to customary territories. Didik Darmanto, director of religion, culture, youth and sports at the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Indonesian government has integrated data from its Ministry of Culture, the Ancestral Domain Registration Agency and AMAN, the country’s largest Indigenous peoples’ alliance, to build a new dataset covering 3,857 Indigenous communities. - The database will document and register customary territories and capture cultural aspects as well, including Indigenous languages, local foods and traditional knowledge. - It is hoped that the database will provide greater visibility of Indigenous territories and enable them to be incorporated into permitting, development planning and spatial planning, but it does not grant legal recognition to Indigenous communities or customary territories. authors: | ||
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Brazil’s unique data center boom rides on clean power despite social burden 24 Aug 2026 09:00:26 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/brazils-unique-data-center-boom-rides-on-clean-power-despite-social-burden/ author: Alexandre de Santi dc:creator: Francisco AmorimLaís MartinsNaira Hofmeister content:encoded: The global appetite for artificial intelligence is pushing Brazil to lead an unprecedented move in the world regarding data centers. While around the globe, big tech struggles to find energy to power the infrastructures that store and process data, in Brazil the story is just the opposite: Data center proposers come from the power industry itself — more precisely, renewable energy. An exclusive analysis conducted by The Intercept Brasil and Mongabay (read it in Portuguese) revealed that 65% of the requests to connect data centers to the main power grid originated from renewable energy companies — considering only plans presented to the Ministry of Mines and Energy through December 2025. By that date, 68 connection requests had been reported across 37 Brazilian municipalities. A combination of factors explains this phenomenon, starting with the extraordinary amount of electricity required to power data centers. The International Energy Agency projects that global data center energy consumption will double in the coming years, potentially reaching 945 TWh by 2030 — equivalent to Japan’s total consumption — with artificial intelligence accounting for 40% of that figure. With a predominantly renewable energy mix, Brazil has become an attractive destination for data centers. “We are a vast source of opportunities for those looking to invest in the decarbonization of energy mixes,” proclaimed Brazil’s Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, in January 2025 during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland — a trip undertaken with the mission of promoting Brazil to global investors, particularly those in…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - An exclusive analysis found at least 36 renewable energy companies have pivoted toward building massive server hubs to cash in on excess generation. - Nearly 80% of slated districts overlap with traditional lands where communities are unaware of industrial risks to hydrological cycles and biodiversity. - Government officials marketed the country’s green matrix to global investors while leveraging the power surplus in high-stakes trade talks with the United States. authors: | ||
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Wind energy surplus fuels unregulated data centers in Brazil’s dry land 24 Aug 2026 09:00:13 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/wind-energy-surplus-fuels-unregulated-data-centers-in-brazils-dry-land/ author: Alexandre de Santi dc:creator: Laís Martins content:encoded: GENTIO DO OURO, Brazil — From the main square in Gentio do Ouro, in northern Bahia state, you’ll see what appears in almost every small Brazilian town: The city hall, a bank branch, a bandstand and a sign with the town’s name. What distinguishes this landscape is on the horizon: Regardless of which direction you look, you’ll see giant windmills used to generate energy. The town was put on the wind turbine map more than 15 years ago, and now has 28 active wind farms, according to data from the Energy Transition Observatory. The turbines, however, don’t make Gentio do Ouro, on the outskirts of the beautiful landscapes of the Chapada Diamantina mountains, a sustainable hub. In the main square, a sculpture of a gold nugget is a nod to mining, an activity that runs strong in the region. And yet another outside influence is gaining traction: A plan to make this peaceful town a data center backyard. Similar to factories, these facilities process everything that is done on the internet — using lots of energy, benefiting few people, hiring even less and bringing about a new wave of environmental impacts. Although it has only 11,000 citizens, Gentio do Ouro is targeted by 12 requests to connect data centers to the energy grid. At the front of this race are the same companies that filled the region with wind turbines, impacting threatened biomes and even disturbing the sleep of the wind farms’ neighbors. One of the main streets in Gentio…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The energy firm Serena filed 12 requests to build data centers in a remote town of only 11,000 people already affected by wind farms in Brazil. - The project sits in a protected area, stressing the waters of the Itaparica Lagoon, local fishers and Quilombola communities. - Tech firms in Brazil are exploiting a lack of specific regulations and renewable power surplus to plan data centers without undergoing environmental licensing. authors: | ||
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World must look to the past to prepare for likely unprecedented El Niño 23 Aug 2026 21:47:45 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/world-must-look-to-the-past-to-prepare-for-likely-unprecedented-el-nino/ author: Glenn Scherer dc:creator: Sean Mowbray content:encoded: Countries across the world are bracing for what is increasingly certain to be a historic El Niño, with latest modeling suggesting the 2026-2027 event will be the strongest ever measured, possibly breaking records by a considerable and dangerous margin. International bodies including the World Health Organization (WHO), World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and World Food Programme (WFP) are urging nations to prepare for extreme weather and ensuing impacts to health, food and energy systems. Some nations are already acting: Brazil has hired record numbers of firefighters to tackle expected Amazon blazes. Peru, hit by disastrous rains, floods and landslides in past El Niños, has declared a state of emergency across 40% of the country. Sri Lanka has arranged water deliveries to nearly 72,000 people across seven districts threatened by drought, and India is focusing on 300 drought-vulnerable districts, setting up agricultural contingency plans and boosting irrigation provisions. The African Union is calling on member states to implement early-warning systems to protect “lives, livelihoods and economies in the months ahead.” A severe drought in Ethiopia during the 2015 El Niño triggered a humanitarian crisis affecting over 10 million people. Here, the EU and Oxfam, an NGO, deliver a tanker truckload of urgently needed water. Image by ©EU/ECHO/Anouk Delafortrie via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). But many countries aren’t ready: The WFP has made an urgent $202 million El Niño Joint Anticipatory Action Appeal to aid 22 high-risk nations with safety measures. Experts warn that as climate change fuels increasingly frequent and severe El…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A potentially historic El Niño is gathering strength and likely to peak between Nov. 2026-Jan. 2027. Latest projections suggest the event could become the strongest ever measured. Countries around the world are bracing for impacts. - Past very strong El Niño events, with record heat, drought, precipitation, floods, and wildfires, have taken a toll in human lives, human health, national and community economies, and ecosystems. Some effects can linger as much as a decade, after these events. - While some nations, such as Peru and Sri Lanka, are preparing for a record El Niño, many are unable to, with the United Nations now making a $202 million El Niño Joint Anticipatory Action Appeal to aid 22 high-risk countries in Asia, Oceania, Africa and Latin America. - In this story, experts outline some lessons that can be learned from history’s most powerful past El Niño events and the preparations that will be required to protect vulnerable populations during the potentially unprecedented 2026-27 event. authors: | ||
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Patricio Segura, journalist who defended Patagonia’s rivers, died of hantavirus, aged 54 23 Aug 2026 15:58:36 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/patricio-segura-journalist-who-defended-patagonias-rivers-has-died-of-hantavirus-at-54/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: The fight to stop five dams on the Baker and Pascua rivers began in one of Chile’s least populous regions, far from Santiago, where national energy policy was set. HidroAysén said Chile needed the project to meet rising demand for electricity. Patricio Segura, working from Aysén in Chilean Patagonia, spent years picking apart that case. He read the filings, explained what the reservoirs and transmission lines would mean on the ground, and helped residents prepare their own arguments. The dams were never built. There was an obvious complication: Segura was also one of the organizers. Through the Corporación Privada para el Desarrollo de Aysén, or CODESA, he helped organize local opposition and worked on communications for Patagonia Sin Represas. International groups eventually joined, helping make the Baker and Pascua global symbols of river defense. Segura welcomed the wider audience but repeatedly insisted that decisions stay with the people who lived in Aysén. Born in Iquique, he studied journalism at the Universidad Católica del Norte and arrived in Coyhaique in 1995. He wrote about science, tourism, corruption, and politics. His reporting appeared in local outlets and national publications, and for 15 years he contributed investigations and columns to Patagon Journal. HidroAysén’s defeat left plenty else for him to cover. Salmon companies were spreading through the Patagonian fjords, leaving pollution and damaged seabeds while gaining political clout. Mines closed or changed hands without adequately addressing contaminated sites. Rural estates were divided into hundreds of speculative plots, or megaloteos, creating settlements outside normal…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The fight to stop five dams on the Baker and Pascua rivers began in one of Chile’s least populous regions, far from Santiago, where national energy policy was set. HidroAysén said Chile needed the project to meet rising demand for electricity. Patricio Segura, working from Aysén in Chilean Patagonia, spent years picking apart that case. […] authors: | ||
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Pete Brosius brought Penan forest stewardship in Sarawak into court 22 Aug 2026 14:03:04 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/pete-brosius-brought-penan-forest-stewardship-into-court/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: In the early 1990s, the logging roads running through Sarawak’s Upper Baram became the site of a bitter confrontation. Penan families built wooden barricades and faced off bulldozers, timber trucks, and state security forces. As the protests drew international attention, the government of Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud restricted media access and portrayed the Penan as backward people manipulated by foreign activists. International NGOs presented them as forest dwellers engaged in a timeless struggle to protect an untouched Eden. Pete Brosius, an anthropologist who conducted research with the Penan for four decades, spent much of his career complicating both versions. Brosius died on July 29th at 72. He had already spent years in Sarawak by the time the logging conflict attracted international attention. His research showed that Penan responses to logging varied substantially between communities. Some resisted through blockades. Others negotiated or sought compensation and employment. For Brosius, those differences reflected distinct histories and relationships. Penan people were making their own decisions under difficult circumstances, rather than simply following the direction of foreign activists. That argument put him at odds not only with the Sarawak government and timber interests, but also at times with environmental campaigners. In a series of papers, Brosius examined how international campaigns changed the way Penan culture and environmental knowledge were described. Complex local disputes over land and political power could become simpler stories designed for audiences in Europe and North America. Brosius argued that this could come at a cost. If Indigenous people were presented…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: In the early 1990s, the logging roads running through Sarawak’s Upper Baram became the site of a bitter confrontation. Penan families built wooden barricades and faced off bulldozers, timber trucks, and state security forces. As the protests drew international attention, the government of Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud restricted media access and portrayed the Penan […] authors: | ||
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Hands On series: stories that build change 22 Aug 2026 08:59:45 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/hands-on-series-stories-that-build-change/ author: Lucia Torres dc:creator: Lucia Torres content:encoded: How does a community adapt to challenging times? A tiny home built to withstand floods. Ancient floating gardens bringing a canal back to life. Giant fishing nets and the people working to protect a threatened tradition. Across Bangladesh, Mexico and Thailand, communities are finding practical ways to protect their homes, food systems, waterways and livelihoods. In Bangladesh, families are building simple, flood-resistant homes designed to keep people and food supplies safe during intense monsoon seasons. In Mexico City, farmers in Xochimilco are restoring ancient floating gardens to support cleaner waterways, local food production and habitat for the endangered axolotl. In Thailand, fishers and researchers are mapping their lake and creating fish shelters as they work to protect a distinctive giant lift-net fishing tradition affected by pollution.These are the stories in Hands On: Stories That Build Change, a Mongabay video series exploring community-led environmental action in a changing world.This article was originally published on Mongabay description: How does a community adapt to challenging times? A tiny home built to withstand floods. Ancient floating gardens bringing a canal back to life. Giant fishing nets and the people working to protect a threatened tradition. Across Bangladesh, Mexico and Thailand, communities are finding practical ways to protect their homes, food systems, waterways and livelihoods. […] authors: | ||
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Art and science must come together for coral reef conservation, biologists argue 21 Aug 2026 20:00:16 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/art-and-science-must-come-together-for-coral-reef-conservation-biologists-argue/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: David Brown content:encoded: Art and science can work together to raise public awareness and propel conservation efforts needed to safeguard coral reef ecosystems, a group of coral scientists argues in a new research article published in Science Advances. Coral reefs are among Earth’s most threatened ecosystems amid climate change, coral bleaching and threats from mining. However, most people rarely see or think about corals. The study argues that artists can help shine a light on coral fragility and the resilience of nature. “Artistic interventions can render the largely unseen underwater world into something visible and accessible,” the authors note. “When paired with scientific data, interactive design, and clear calls to action, coral-inspired art installations in cities worldwide can amplify public understanding and galvanize support.” They argue music, dance, film and visual art can help corals get noticed. However, many initiatives to address the coral reef crisis are often local or disconnected from one another. “While these projects successfully blend ecological restoration with public engagement, their impact is usually limited to specific regions,” the article notes. However, article co-author Monica Medina, a biology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the U.S. told Mongabay in an email that local art can also take the global stage. She offered the example of Jalimer, a young Champeta musician in Colombia. Champeta is a local genre of music from the Colombian Caribbean, similar to reggaeton. “I spoke with him [Jalimer] near one of my field sites, about how Champeta could play a role in changing…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Art and science can work together to raise public awareness and propel conservation efforts needed to safeguard coral reef ecosystems, a group of coral scientists argues in a new research article published in Science Advances. Coral reefs are among Earth’s most threatened ecosystems amid climate change, coral bleaching and threats from mining. However, most people […] authors: | ||
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Move over bears. Fat Marmot Week puts a spotlight on the alpine rodents 21 Aug 2026 17:33:16 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/move-over-bears-fat-marmot-week-puts-a-spotlight-on-the-alpine-rodents/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: GOTHIC, Colo. (AP) — Fat Marmot Week is coming soon. Last winter was tough for the groundhog-like rodents living in the Colorado mountains. Researchers say there wasn’t enough snow to keep marmots’ burrows warm while they hibernated, causing many of the animals to freeze to death. The marmots that survived are doing well. They’ve fattened up, gaining the critical weight they need to make it through next winter. To drum up interest in their work, marmot researchers are launching an online contest for the public to vote for their favorite critter — Fat Marmot Week. It begins Monday. Researchers swab the cheek of a marmot Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. Image courtesy of Brittany Peterson via Associated Press. Columbia University undergraduate student Isabel Norman, left, learns how to weigh a marmot under the supervision of Katie Adler, a doctoral student at the University of California, Los Angeles, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. Image courtesy of Brittany Peterson via Associated Press. By Brittany Peterson and Mead Gruver, Associated Press Banner image: A marmot named 9 sits outside of her den Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. Image courtesy of Brittany Peterson via Associated Press. This article was originally published on Mongabay description: GOTHIC, Colo. (AP) — Fat Marmot Week is coming soon. Last winter was tough for the groundhog-like rodents living in the Colorado mountains. Researchers say there wasn’t enough snow to keep marmots’ burrows warm while they hibernated, causing many of the animals to freeze to death. The marmots that survived are doing well. They’ve fattened […] authors: | ||
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Angola’s peatlands highly underestimated, new study suggests 21 Aug 2026 17:28:45 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/angolas-peatlands-highly-underestimated-new-study-suggests/ author: Malavikavyawahare dc:creator: Victoria Schneider content:encoded: The Southwestern African nation of Angola has much more peatland than previously thought, new research suggests. In a study published on August 20 in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, researchers mapped out peatlands in the Angolan Highlands Water Tower (AHWT). This vast landscape stores and regulates freshwater in central Angola and feeds freshwater systems across southern Africa including the Okavango Basin. The researchers estimate that overall peatlands cover between 2.28–2.94 % of the of the AHWT. They found 8,662 km² (3,344 square miles) of peatland cover with high certainty (81–100% probability) and 11,167 km² (4,311 square miles) with low certainty (51–100% probability). Peatlands are areas of land where the surface layer consists of plant material that has partially decomposed. According to the study, they cover around three per cent of the world’s land surface but are estimated to store up to a third of the world’s soil carbon. In October 2025, Angola designated an area of 53,000 km² (20,463 square miles) in the AHWT as the country’s first Ramsar Site or Wetland of International Importance. The site was selected due to its sponge effect which absorbs, retains, filters, and ultimately supplies freshwater into the rivers that carry water to wetlands far and wide. A water tower is a highland area that produces a large amount of water, relative to its spatial scope. Study author Mauro Lourenço collecting the peat material during the research for this study. Image courtesy of Jennifer Guyton. One of them is the Okavango Delta in…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - New research mapping out the Angolan Highlands Water Tower (AWHT), a stretch of elevated plateau spanning 380,382 km², finds that a significantly larger portion of the region hosts peatland than previously thought. - The findings show that the AWHT, named thus because it receives and regulates vast amounts of rainwater, and because it feeds important freshwater systems across southern Africa, is also a critical carbon sink. - The research can inform national carbon policies and conservation strategies for these peatlands which store thousands of years-old carbon, experts said. - The biggest threats to the AHWT’s peatlands are human-made including slash and burn agriculture and the unsustainable use of peat — partially decomposed plant material that builds up in waterlogged soils — which result in the release of CO2. authors: | ||
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How ‘gentle power’ can preserve traditional biodiversity in Tokyo 21 Aug 2026 15:58:20 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/how-gentle-power-can-preserve-traditional-biodiversity-in-tokyo/ author: Morgan Erickson-Davis dc:creator: Annelise Giseburt content:encoded: The Zushi-Onoji Historical and Environmental Conservation Area nestles among Tokyo’s sprawling western suburbs. The area provides habitat for endangered species and a space to pass on traditional ecological knowledge of satoyama, Japanese rural landscapes that have been shaped by centuries of human activity. A recent study of a conservation initiative in Tokyo, Japan, explores how citizens and local government can adapt existing frameworks to maintain traditional landscapes rich in biodiversity. Coining the term “gentle power” to denote “influence based on mutual trust and collaboration,” the paper was published in March in the journal Frontiers in Water. It chronicles the contentious beginnings and eventual collaborative transformation of the Zushi-Onoji Historical and Environmental Conservation Area, nestled among Tokyo’s sprawling suburbs. The area provides habitat for endangered species and a space to pass on traditional ecological knowledge of satoyama, Japanese rural landscapes that have been shaped by centuries of human activity. Today, satoyama landscapes are widely valued for their biodiversity, as many of Japan’s plants and animals have adapted to satoyama over the centuries. However, both urban development and shifts away from traditional land uses have led to a decline in satoyama — and the organisms that call them home — since the mid-1900s. To stem this decline, Japan’s national and local governments have invested in satoyama conservation. However, the “gentle power” study cautions that top-down conservation initiatives may see limited success if they lack community input and don’t adapt accordingly — a pattern seen in Japan and around the world. Volunteers carry…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In Japan, satoyama are rural landscapes with natural attributes that have also been shaped by centuries of human activity. - Tokyo’s satoyama provide habitat for many kinds of animals, including ecologically sensitive amphibians. - A recent study examined a satoyama conservation initiative in Tokyo, finding that it succeeded by prioritizing mutual trust and collaboration — an approach the study defines as “gentle power”. - Yet, some say this approach, which is based on volunteer participation, can stagnate as the volunteers are typically older, leading to the challenge of “how to pass this on to the younger generation.” authors: | ||
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Southeast Asia is a hotspot for oak trees, many under ‘dire threat’ 21 Aug 2026 15:40:59 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/southeast-asia-is-a-hotspot-for-oak-trees-many-under-dire-threat/ author: Isabel Esterman dc:creator: Sean Mowbray content:encoded: Southeast and East Asia may be famous for towering dipterocarps or massive conifers, but a new report highlights that the region is also home to more threatened oak species than anywhere else in the world. “While it may not be the region that first comes to mind when we think of oaks, it’s a really important region for oak biodiversity and as a result, oak conservation,” study author Kate Good, a research manager at The Morton Arboretum, told Mongabay in an interview. There are 430 oak species globally and 172 of those occur within Southeast Asia and East Asia. Researchers examined 54 threatened or data deficient oak species found in Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Timor-Leste, Korea, Japan and Taiwan. “Many of these species are under dire threat,” Good said. The report found that 46 of 54 oak species surveyed faced “very high” or “high” human pressure in over 50% of their range in 2024. “One of the goals of this report was to really raise the alarm about the urgent need for oak conservation in Asia,” she said. Expansion of agriculture, notably wood and pulp plantations, is a major threat to two-thirds of the species analyzed in the report. Oil palm and rubber plantations also pose a threat, Good said. Other threats identified include small population sizes, ongoing infrastructure and urban development, and climate change. Acorns of the Quercus austrocochinchinensis oak tree, a critically endangered species. Conservation efforts should include collection and propagation of acorns…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A recent report sheds light on Southeast Asia’s important oak tree diversity and underlines that many of these species are highly threatened. - Many threatened oak species in the region have limited distribution data, lack protected area coverage and aren’t found in ex situ collections. - The report authors are calling for surveys targeted at oaks, expansion of protected areas, and propagation of seedlings for restoration. authors: | ||
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Spain proposes 23 new marine protected areas in the Canary Islands and Mediterranean 21 Aug 2026 14:28:46 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/spain-proposes-23-new-marine-protected-areas-in-the-canary-islands-and-mediterranean/ author: Autumn Spanne dc:creator: Francesco De Augustinis content:encoded: The Spanish government has launched a consultation process to establish 23 new marine protected areas (MPAs) in Canary Islands waters and the Mediterranean Sea as part of efforts to meet a national commitment to protect 30% of its waters by 2030. The proposal, put forward by Spain’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) in July, aims to protect 22,405 square kilometers (8,651 square miles) of marine waters primarily in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean around the Canary Islands, part of a region known as Macaronesia. It also covers areas of the Mediterranean off the coasts of Valencia, Almería, Granada and the Balearic island of Mallorca. The proposal includes 21 new sites of community importance (SCIs) under the Natura 2000 network. Seventeen of these are in Canary Islands waters covering 2,209 km2 (853 mi2), while four more in the Mediterranean Sea will cover 5,341 km2 (2,062 mi2). In addition, two new special protection areas (SPAs) will cover 14,855 km2 (5,736 mi2) of offshore waters around the Canary Islands. The plan, the ministry writes in the proposal, “will increase the area of marine waters under Spanish sovereignty or jurisdiction that are protected by 2.08 percentage points, bringing the total to 24.53%.” The proposal is now open for public consultation until Sept. 15. The black coral Antipathella wollastoni provides structure for biodiversity-rich marine animal forests in rocky seabeds near the Canary Islands. The species and the ecosystems it supports are vulnerable to overfishing, climate change, marine pollution and coastal…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The proposal represents Spain’s latest effort to advance protection of 30% of its waters by 2030. - It looks to protect 22,405 square kilometers (8,651 square miles) of marine waters, primarily in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean around the Canary Islands, as well as four sites in the Mediterranean Sea. - Conservation groups have raised concerns in recent years about the state of Spain’s marine protected areas, highlighting a significant discrepancy between areas designated “on paper” and those that are subject to effective protection. authors: | ||
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Hands On: Stories that build change 21 Aug 2026 13:59:47 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2026/08/hands-on-solutions/ author: Alejandroprescottcornejo dc:creator: content:encoded: Communities across the globe are responding to environmental pressures like climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution with local knowledge and practical action. This Mongabay multimedia Special Issue documents what communities are doing to adapt through hands-on activities—showcasing applied wisdom, craftsmanship, and worldviews that are crucial to navigating environmental crises at the local levelThis article was originally published on Mongabay description: Communities across the globe are responding to environmental pressures like climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution with local knowledge and practical action. This Mongabay multimedia Special Issue documents what communities are doing to adapt through hands-on activities—showcasing applied wisdom, craftsmanship, and worldviews that are crucial to navigating environmental crises at the local level authors: | ||
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Reconnecting the skies: Linking flyways for migratory seabirds across continents 21 Aug 2026 13:22:21 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/reconnecting-the-skies-linking-flyways-for-migratory-seabirds-across-continents/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Ruth Kamnitzer content:encoded: Arctic terns make the longest migration of any creature on Earth, with some Sterna paradisaea clocking more than 80,000 kilometers (49,709 miles) a year, flying from the Southern Ocean to their breeding grounds in the Arctic — and back. For a tiny bird, weighing less than an iPhone, it’s an astounding feat. South polar skuas (Stercorarius maccormicki) trace a similar figure eight around the Atlantic Ocean as they move between breeding colonies on Antarctic islands and the Arctic. In the Southern Ocean, grey-headed albatross (Thalassarche chrysostoma) breed on South Georgia Island. During the rest of the year, they fly a circle around Antarctica, covering roughly 22,000 km (13,670 mi) in as little as 46 days. The journeys of these and other migratory pelagic seabirds are almost beyond comprehension, and largely unseen. But with advances in tracking, researchers have realized seabirds fly broadly predictable paths over the open ocean. Last year, researchers used tracking data to identify six marine flyways that cross the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Southern oceans and touch the waters of 56 countries. A team of nearly a hundred were involved, led by researchers from the nonprofit BirdLife International, and their findings were published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography. Seabirds are the most at-risk birds, with more than 30% globally threatened. For migrants, life on the wing is especially perilous. They face myriad threats across multiple jurisdictions in national waters and on the high seas, at their breeding colonies, at stopovers during migration and on the open…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Seabirds are the most threatened group of birds, with more than 30% at risk of extinction. Migratory seabirds are especially vulnerable. - Researchers have described six marine flyways used by migratory pelagic seabirds, aerial corridors that cross the national waters of 56 countries; the high seas are used by at least 151 species. - In March, the U.N. Convention on Migratory Species adopted a resolution on marine flyways, creating a structure for international cooperation on protections. - Researchers are using seabird tracking data to identify key sites along marine flyways that need protection or mitigation measures against threats. authors: | ||
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Six things to know about Asia’s heatwave and the health impacts 21 Aug 2026 10:09:11 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/six-things-to-know-about-asias-heatwave-and-the-health-impacts/ author: Yenni Kwok dc:creator: Andrew Jeong content:encoded: SEOUL — A record-breaking heatwave swept through a broad swath of Asia earlier this month, causing deaths and heat-related illnesses. This year’s extreme weather has been linked to El Niño, which, according to weather experts, could be one of the strongest ever recorded. The “super” El Niño, which officially arrived in June, is expected to intensify over the rest of the year, bringing prolonged warmer weather, droughts and adverse health risks to people in the region. Here’s what you need to know about the extreme weather: How hot has it been in Asia? Very hot. On Aug. 2, the mercury in Yangsan, a city in South Korea, hit 42.5° Celsius (108.5° Fahrenheit), the highest mark since official records began in 1904. Parts of South Korea got so hot that potatoes were literally “boiled,” while still in the ground. In late July, temperatures exceeded 40°C (104°F) in several prefectures in Japan, as well as in central and western regions of China. On Aug. 9, the Hong Kong Observatory logged 39.8°C (103°F), the city’s highest reading since it introduced automatic weather stations in the 1980s. Southeast Asia also reported weather anomalies. Vietnamese officials said thermal readings from July 11 to Aug. 10 showed the mercury at 39-40°C (102-104°F), “exceeding records” in many parts of the country. Meanwhile, “areas of rainfall deficit” were observed in the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. An officer from the Korea Meteorological Administration shows a weather forecast map of temperatures during a heatwave in South…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - This year’s extreme weather has been linked to El Niño, which, according to weather experts, could be one of the strongest ever recorded. - Record-breaking temperatures were recorded in South Korea and Hong Kong, and mercury exceeded 40°C in Japan and China. - Apart from heatstroke risks, higher temperatures during El Niño can accelerate the life cycle of Aedes mosquitoes, which transmit dengue, and shorten the time for the virus to replicate, experts warn. authors: | ||
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This tiny Thai lizard shares its name with a ‘House of the Dragon’ beast 21 Aug 2026 08:54:27 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/this-tiny-thai-lizard-shares-its-name-with-a-house-of-the-dragon-beast/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Naina Rao content:encoded: Researchers have described a new-to-science species of horned lizard from the high-elevation, evergreen forests of western Thailand. The lizard, named the Syrax mountain horned dragon, or Acanthosaura syrax, in a recent study, was discovered in Mae Wong National Park. The species name syrax refers to the yellow dragon ridden by Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen in the fantasy series House of the Dragon. The researchers write they chose the name due to the lizard’s distinctive yellow-hued coloration and its diminutive size. They add they found the lizard only in the upper mountain range of the park, at elevations above 1,300 meters (about 4,300 feet). Study co-author Krittiya Trivalairat, a lecturer at the Department of Microbiology at Mahidol University in Bangkok, told Mongabay by email that the discovery highlights the remarkable biodiversity and ecological richness of Thailand’s forests. “To me, this discovery is not simply about adding another species to the scientific record; it also demonstrates how much biodiversity may still be hidden within these ecosystems,” Trivalairat said. Mountain horned dragons are a group of lizards that live in trees and have a spiny crest running down their necks and backs. To describe the Syrax mountain horned dragon, the researchers surveyed the park’s rugged highlands. They were able to capture specimens by hand since the lizards move slowly. They then took photographs of the live lizards to document their coloration patterns, before euthanizing them. The specimens were subsequently stored for taxonomic review at Thailand’s Natural History Museum. The researchers write that the lizard…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Researchers have described a new-to-science species of horned lizard from the high-elevation, evergreen forests of western Thailand. The lizard, named the Syrax mountain horned dragon, or Acanthosaura syrax, in a recent study, was discovered in Mae Wong National Park. The species name syrax refers to the yellow dragon ridden by Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen in the […] authors: | ||
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Hermit crabs and cockroaches emerge as unlikely seed dispersers on a Japanese island 21 Aug 2026 04:35:09 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/hermit-crabs-and-cockroaches-emerge-as-unlikely-seed-dispersers-on-a-japanese-island/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Naina Rao content:encoded: In the humid, coastal forests of Japan’s Ishigaki Island, near Okinawa, a parasitic plant relies on some unusual allies to spread its seeds: land hermit crabs and cockroaches, according to a recent study. The plant, fungus root (Balanophora fungosa), is non-photosynthetic, meaning it lacks chlorophyll and can’t make its own food. Instead, it grows as a parasite on the roots of trees in island forests across Asia, Australia and the Pacific. The mushroom-like plant has fleshy, dull-colored fruits with millions of seeds inside. Previously, scientists have suggested that gravity might be helping disperse those seeds. But in the latest study, researchers found that on Ishigaki, the seeds are primarily dispersed by the land hermit crab (Coenobita brevimanus) and the Australian cockroach (Periplaneta australasiae). Initially, study author Kenji Suetsugu, a professor of biodiversity and ecology at Kobe University, Japan, told Mongabay by email that he expected ants to be the primary dispersers, due to the plant’s detachable fruit layer. To test this, he conducted “exclusion experiments” by covering some plants with mesh nets that allowed tiny ants inside but kept larger animals out. However, the fruits inside these ant-only nets went completely untouched. So Suetsugu set up a waterproof digital camera about 20 centimeters (8 inches) from the plants. Programmed to snap photos every 50 seconds, the camera compiled 6,427 images over nearly 89 hours of monitoring. This time-lapse photography captured land hermit crabs and cockroaches aggregating under the cover of night to devour the fruits. “The biggest surprise was the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: In the humid, coastal forests of Japan’s Ishigaki Island, near Okinawa, a parasitic plant relies on some unusual allies to spread its seeds: land hermit crabs and cockroaches, according to a recent study. The plant, fungus root (Balanophora fungosa), is non-photosynthetic, meaning it lacks chlorophyll and can’t make its own food. Instead, it grows as […] authors: | ||
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To secure protected areas from wildlife trafficking, criminal networks must be dismantled (commentary) 20 Aug 2026 23:10:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/secure-protected-areas-from-wildlife-trafficking-criminal-networks-must-be-dismantled-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Ofir Drori content:encoded: Conservation has historically emphasized protected area management including protecting land, fencing, local enforcement and rangers’ patrols within parks. And indeed, decades of protected area management have demonstrated that strong local protection matters enormously. But there is a weakness in this logic that we rarely confront directly. Protected areas can suppress poaching within their boundaries and in neighboring patrolled zones, but they cannot dismantle the criminal networks that finance, organize and replenish wildlife crime from the outside, which impact inside the protected areas as well as landscapes more broadly. As long as those networks remain intact, they will keep recruiting poachers, corrupting officials and — when conditions change (i.e. increased ivory prices, corruption in ranger units, etc.) — resuming operations. Focusing conservation investment exclusively on protected area protection, while ignoring the organized crime infrastructure surrounding it, is a little like trying to stop drug use in a neighborhood without ever addressing the criminal organizations supplying it. The pressure does not disappear. It persists and finds new ways. Golden lion tamarins rescued from the illegal wildlife trade in Togo. Image courtesy of EAGLE Network. The threat that lives outside the fence Wildlife trafficking is not a disorganized or opportunistic activity. It is a structured criminal enterprise, operating with hierarchy, logistics and, critically, access to high-level corruption within the institutions meant to stop it. When analyzing across more than 3,000 prosecuted cases in Africa undertaken by our team at EAGLE Network, a clear pattern emerges: Trafficking networks do not merely exploit weak enforcement…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Well managed protected areas can reduce the illegal wildlife trade, but the reality is that this crime will persist as long as trafficking networks remain, a new op-ed says. - Corruption often provides traffickers a way to circumvent and undermine even well-managed protected areas, suppressing enforcement and concealing wildlife losses. - “The question is not whether we can afford to invest in dismantling trafficking networks. Given what we now know about their reach and capacity, the question is whether we can afford not to,” a new op-ed argues. - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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Drugs are becoming institutionalized: Interview with Ticuna leader in Peru’s Amazon 20 Aug 2026 17:11:45 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/drugs-are-becoming-institutionalized-interview-with-ticuna-leader-in-perus-amazon/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Aimee Gabay content:encoded: Francisco Hernández Cayetano, president of the Federation of Ticuna and Yagua Communities of the Lower Amazon (FECOTYBA), is raising the alarm about the latest threats related to drug trafficking in the Amazon’s tri-border area. Living along riverbanks and lowland forests in the remote area where Peru, Colombia and Brazil meet, the Ticuna and Yagua people find themselves in a hotspot for crime — and it is embedding in their communities. Tri-border areas in the Amazon often have a weak state presence that allows drug traffickers and other criminal groups to move drugs, gold and timber freely. As a 2024 report by Crisis Group, an independent organization, revealed, criminal activities in these areas can bring insecurity, violence and environmental damage to Indigenous peoples and their territories. “Our concern is very strong because most of the communities — almost 60 to 70% of the forests — are deforested due to drug trafficking,” Hernández tells Mongabay. “This causes certain problems, for example, children working in the [coca] fields, as well as women. It’s hitting us hard, especially the Ticuna youth.” Hernández, who comes from a Ticuna community known as Cushillo Cocha in the lowland rainforest region, says that the arrival of drug traffickers and illegal miners has brought social instability, deforestation and the contamination of waterways by chemicals used for mining and cocaine production. It has also created the conditions for a serious substance abuse problem among Indigenous youth. Drawn to coca fields for work, Ticuna children start smoking, taking drugs and drinking…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Mongabay interviewed Francisco Hernández Cayetano, president of the Federation of Ticuna and Yagua Communities of the Lower Amazon, about substance abuse problems affecting Ticuna youth. - He says many youth are addicted to drugs and alcohol, which they picked up while working as coca harvesters for drug traffickers due to a lack of alternative employment options. - The arrival of narcotraffickers, as well as illegal miners, has also led to deforestation and water pollution in Peru. - In this interview with Mongabay, Hernández describes efforts to bring Ticuna leaders from the Amazon’s tri-border area together to discuss solutions to their shared problems. authors: | ||
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Criminal probe clears Sloth World of criminal neglect in deaths of 57 animals 20 Aug 2026 14:24:01 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/criminal-probe-clears-sloth-world-of-criminal-neglect-in-deaths-of-57-animals/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Bobby Bascomb content:encoded: Authorities in the U.S. state of Florida have cleared a controversial startup of criminal neglect after dozens of wild-caught sloths that it imported from South America for tourism purposes died. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) opened an investigation following the closure of the Sloth World facility in April this year. On Aug. 19, it released its findings, with OCSO detective Aaron Bennet concluding the 57 deaths “appear to be consistent with a multifactorial animal health incident rather than the result of criminal activity or improper care.” As part of the investigation, Bennet interviewed 20 witnesses, including Sloth World administrators, former workers, and veterinarians with the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Garden, where the surviving sloths now live. In April, Ben Agresta, the owner of Sloth World, told local media, “we lost sloths that had a virus of which showed barely any symptoms and was undetectable even after necropsy.” However, according to the OCSO report, multiple veterinarians stated the sloths were in extremely poor condition: dehydrated, malnourished, and emaciated. Adam Stern, a veterinarian forensic pathologist, said that “the pathology findings reveal a consistent pattern of disease affecting multiple organ systems.” Pathology reports found multiple viruses present, which wasn’t surprising; 70-80% of sloths in the wild carry several viruses. But autopsies revealed lesions across respiratory, gastrointestinal, immune and neurological systems. Common findings also included pneumonia, bone marrow depletion, and degeneration of the brain and spinal cords, among other health concerns. Stern said chronic stress likely contributed to the animals’ rapid health…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Authorities in the U.S. state of Florida have cleared a controversial startup of criminal neglect after dozens of wild-caught sloths that it imported from South America for tourism purposes died. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) opened an investigation following the closure of the Sloth World facility in April this year. On Aug. 19, it […] authors: | ||
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Climate change drove extreme July heat in European seas, study finds 20 Aug 2026 08:31:30 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/climate-change-drove-extreme-july-heat-in-european-seas-study-finds/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Naina Rao content:encoded: European coastal waters recorded unprecedented sea surface temperatures in July 2026. A new study has found that human-induced climate change primarily drove the temperature surge, pushing marine ecosystems past their limits. The rapid analysis was conducted by World Weather Attribution (WWA), a global network of researchers who analyze the influence of climate change in extreme weather events. WWA scientists focused their analysis on the warmest 14-day periods within July. They chose this specific time frame because sea surface temperatures normally peak in late summer (August-September). The authors analyzed July to isolate how early-season ocean heat is changing as the planet warms. Across all four regions studied — the Celtic Sea, the Bay of Biscay and Iberian Peninsula (BIP), and the western and eastern Mediterranean — these sea surface temperatures averaged 2.4° Celsius (4.3° Fahrenheit) warmer than historical July baselines. In individual basins, the Celtic Sea was 1.9°C (3.4°F) above normal, while the Eastern Mediterranean was 2°C (3.6°F) hotter than typical July conditions. The WWA report notes these extreme July temperatures would have been “virtually impossible” in a preindustrial climate, which was 1.4°C (2.5°F) cooler, but are “relatively common” in today’s climate. The study’s rapid attribution analysis reveals that burning fossil fuels directly drove this extreme warmth. In both Mediterranean regions, climate change added about 2°C of direct heat. In the Eastern Mediterranean, climate change accounted for the entirety of the 2°C anomaly. In the Celtic Sea and BIP, climate change directly added 1.1-1.4°C (2-2.5°F). “We find that without human-caused global warming, we would expect…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: European coastal waters recorded unprecedented sea surface temperatures in July 2026. A new study has found that human-induced climate change primarily drove the temperature surge, pushing marine ecosystems past their limits. The rapid analysis was conducted by World Weather Attribution (WWA), a global network of researchers who analyze the influence of climate change in extreme […] authors: | ||
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Indigenous fishers rethink shark hunting & protect species on Colombia’s coast 20 Aug 2026 06:00:42 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indigenous-fishers-rethink-shark-hunting-protect-species-on-colombias-coast/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Euan Wallace content:encoded: LA GUAJIRA, Colombia — Feet from the ocean, four sharks and a ray lie dead on the wind-battered sand. Above them stands Wilfrido Arends, 46. The blade of a short knife glints in his hand. Carefully, he bends down to cut a small fin from the underside of one shark — an endangered species known as a blacknose (Carcharhinus acronotus). He hands the sample to a woman next to him, who places it delicately in a vial. A tape measure is passed over the still glistening back of the dead shark. Each measurement is read out and noted down. Arends, a fisher from Colombia’s Wayuu Indigenous community, is spearheading shark research and conservation in Punta Gallinas, a Wayuu community where shark meat is part of the traditional diet. Home to around 50 families, the community sits at the northernmost tip of South America. “If we wipe out our sharks, I think that further down the line we will miss them,” says Arends, who is known locally as “Caracas.” Together with researchers from Colombian shark conservation initiative Proyecto Puyuii, Arends and other Wayuu fishers are documenting shark diversity in the largely unstudied waters of La Guajira. “There’s almost no data on anything,” says Diego Cardeñosa, a marine biologist at Florida International University in the U.S. A member of Proyecto Puyuii, he has been training Wayuu fishers to record the shark species they catch. Wayuu fishers and Puyuii researchers measure the carcass of a caught blacknose shark, an endangered species. Image by…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In the Colombian department of La Guajira, at South America’s northernmost tip, Indigenous Wayuu fishers from the community of Punta Gallinas are working with marine biologists to conserve and document shark populations. - Despite a 2021 law banning targeted shark and ray fishing in Colombia, the meat remains a vital protein source in one of the country’s most remote and food-insecure regions. - Colombian shark conservation initiative Proyecto Puyuii is working with Wayuu fishers to record shark species in the understudied waters of La Guajira, implementing sustainability measures such as larger-mesh nets, safe release techniques and avoiding longlines. - With sustainable tourism touted as a potential economic alternative to shark fishing, some fishers argue that compensation will need to be offered before they can afford to stop. authors: | ||
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Nepal pushes for hydropower in protected areas through legal grey area 20 Aug 2026 05:16:08 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/nepal-pushes-for-hydropower-in-protected-areas-through-legal-grey-area/ author: Abhaya Raj Joshi dc:creator: Rudra Pangeni content:encoded: KATHMANDU – Nepal’s government has allowed several private hydropower producers to develop projects inside protected areas and the buffer zones surrounding them, contravening a Supreme Court order, a Mongabay investigation reveals. In January 2025, the Supreme Court declared that a 2024 amendment to a key conservation law opening up protected areas to commercial projects was “invalid” as it was against the constitutionally defined state policy of environment-friendly development and the principle of intergenerational equity. As the court is yet to publish the full text of the verdict, the government has interpreted the law and issued permits for development, the investigation aided by a right to information request finds. “To issue permits [for hydropower projects] inside protected areas is a misinterpretation of the court verdict,” said senior lawyer Prakash Mani Sharma Bhusal, one of the petitioners who took the government to court on July 28, 2024, over its decision to open protected areas to infrastructure such as hydropower plants and hotels. Kaligandaki hydropower dam in Nepal. Image by Krish Dulal via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). The court’s 2025 verdict came in response to a petition filed by lawyers led by Dil Raj Khanal, who argued that the 2024 amendment to the parks and conservation act, which came into effect on July 8, 2024, violated Article 30 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to a clean and healthy environment, and contradicted Nepal’s obligations under international treaties such as the Convention on Biological Diversity. Yet the Supreme Court has still not…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Nepal’s government is allowing hydropower development inside protected areas, despite a January 2025 Supreme Court ruling that invalidates the legal provision for this activity. - With the court’s full verdict still unpublished, the government has interpreted the ruling and continued to issue land-use and environmental permits. - Mongabay’s investigation finds that 10 private hydropower projects, totaling more than 360 MW, have received permits since January 2026, affecting about 85 hectares across the Annapurna, Gaurishankar and Kanchanjunga protected areas, and the buffer zones of Makalu Barun and Langtang national parks. - Officials say they are relying on 2023 guidelines and cabinet decisions covering projects licensed before July 2024, while the country’s wildlife department has continued approving feasibility studies, environmental assessments and transmission lines in protected-area buffer zones. authors: | ||
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Sloth bears help shape India’s dry forests as unlikely seed dispersers 20 Aug 2026 03:11:10 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/sloth-bears-help-shape-indias-dry-forests-as-unlikely-seed-dispersers/ author: Naina Rao dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: Sloth bears play a critical role in structuring India’s dry deciduous forests by dispersing viable seeds and influencing plant regeneration, reports contributor Sneha Mahale for Mongabay India. “Dry deciduous forests’ plant compositions are a function of sloth bear presence, movement, and dietary habits,” study co-author K.S. Gopi Sundar, an independent scientist, told Mongabay India. For the study, the researchers surveyed the mountainous south-central Aravalli range in the western state of Rajasthan between November 2021 and July 2022. They analyzed 180 droppings or scats of sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) and discovered that the bears’ diet shifted from plant-dominated in the winter to animal-dominated in the summer. In winter, ants appeared in more than 80% of the scats, whereas termites dominated summer samples. Among fruits, donkey berry (Grewia flavescens) was the most critical food source in both seasons, while Ziziphus nummularia was favored in winter and the golden shower tree (Cassia fistula) in summer. “The strong shift in diet was of great surprise,” said study co-author Utkarsh Prajapati, a senior project associate at the Wildlife Institute of India. “Previous studies on sloth bears in semi-arid regions have shown that they consume a lot of fruits during the summer.” Study co-author Vijay Kumar Koli with the Department of Zoology at Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, said this seasonal change “showed that bears were highly adaptable, switching to foods that were more available.” To test whether bears help in seed dispersal, the researchers monitored the germination of eight plant species most important in the bears’…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Sloth bears play a critical role in structuring India’s dry deciduous forests by dispersing viable seeds and influencing plant regeneration, reports contributor Sneha Mahale for Mongabay India. “Dry deciduous forests’ plant compositions are a function of sloth bear presence, movement, and dietary habits,” study co-author K.S. Gopi Sundar, an independent scientist, told Mongabay India. For […] authors: | ||
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Why every endangered species needs a champion: a conversation with conservationist Bill Konstant 20 Aug 2026 00:09:29 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/why-every-endangered-species-needs-a-champion-a-conversation-with-conservationist-bill-konstant/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Russell Mittermeier has a running joke about Bill Konstant. The two have worked together, off and on, for more than four decades, and Mittermeier writes in the foreword to Wrestles With Wolves that Konstant seems to have a tolerance of roughly five years working directly for him before departing for another organization. Konstant has an explanation for that pattern. He has never been much interested in becoming a “company man.” Instead, he has compared his role to that of a catalyst in a chemical reaction — something that helps raise the energy of the system but need not remain once the reaction is underway. There have been plenty of reactions. Bill Konstant in the UAE with a hunting falcon. Photo by Jean-Christophe Vie Konstant has worked for the World Wildlife Fund and Conservation International, built conservation programs at zoos, and helped direct grants to field biologists working on threatened species. Much of his career has centered on primates, although the animals in his 2023 memoir range from golden frogs and rhinos to wolves, elephants and a squirrel his family raised when he was young. The route into professional conservation was less orderly than the résumé makes it look. At Cornell University, Konstant became an undergraduate teaching assistant for ornithologist Tom Cade, founder of the Peregrine Fund, whose work helped restore peregrine falcons after DDT contributed to steep population declines. Later, at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Konstant took a job caring for and training chimpanzees. Jane…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Wildlife conservationist Bill Konstant has spent more than four decades helping build species-conservation programs, connect field biologists with funding, and support threatened wildlife around the world. - Konstant argues that successful conservation often depends on strong local leadership, committed species champions, diverse teams and relatively small, strategically targeted grants that can launch or sustain field projects. - He sees the growth of career biologists and conservation organizations in primate range countries as one of the field’s most encouraging changes, even as habitat loss and wildlife population declines remain persistent problems. - Konstant spoke with Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler in August 2026 about his career, his memoir Wrestles With Wolves, and what decades of species conservation have taught him about how conservation succeeds. authors: | ||
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Dolphin mother and calf observed using shells to catch fish in Australia 19 Aug 2026 23:16:32 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/dolphin-mother-and-calf-observed-using-shells-to-catch-fish-in-australia/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Bobby Bascomb content:encoded: A small population of dolphins in Shark Bay in Western Australia have a documented history of using an unusual tool to help them catch fish: Large, empty snail shells. For the first time, scientists have now observed the same behavior in a different dolphin population on Australia’s east coast. Researchers even filmed a baby dolphin and its mother using a shell to capture fish, suggesting the baby may have learned the skill from its mother — this hadn’t been observed before now, they write in a recent study. “The second I saw it [on the east coast], I was like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, this is huge,” study lead author Alexis Levengood, a lecturer of animal ecology at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia, told Mongabay in a video call. In a behavior called “shelling,” bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) can chase fish into large empty sea snail shells, stick their beak inside to trap the fish, and then raise the shell to the water’s surface where the fish slides out into the dolphin’s mouth. “It essentially gives them a competitive edge over other dolphins that aren’t using this type of tool use because it makes it easier for them to catch harder-to-catch fish,” Levengood said. The behavior was first described in 2011 when researchers found roughly 2% of dolphins in Shark Bay demonstrated the skill. It was believed to be a localized behavior until Levengood confirmed three dolphins in Great Sandy Marine Park, Queensland, using the same…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: A small population of dolphins in Shark Bay in Western Australia have a documented history of using an unusual tool to help them catch fish: Large, empty snail shells. For the first time, scientists have now observed the same behavior in a different dolphin population on Australia’s east coast. Researchers even filmed a baby dolphin […] authors: | ||
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Orangutan Day: Here’s where the three critically endangered species stand 19 Aug 2026 20:30:56 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/orangutan-day-heres-where-the-three-critically-endangered-species-stand/ author: Shanna Hanbury dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: Aug. 19 is World Orangutan Day, a day to honor the three species of Southeast Asian great apes, all of which are classified as critically endangered by the IUCN, the global conservation authority. Orangutans were classified into two species: The Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) found in northern Sumatra, Indonesia, and the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), endemic to its namesake island. But in 2017, scientists described the Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) as a third, distinct species, also found in northern Sumatra. Here are the major orangutan developments over the past year: Whirlwind year for Tapanuli orangutans In September 2025, researchers confirmed a previously unknown Tapanuli population in a peat swamp forest in the Lumut Maju village forest in North Sumatra. Scientists previously believed the species, estimated at 716 wild individuals, lived only in Batang Toru, about 32 kilometers (20 miles) east of the new population. A Tapanuli orangutan. Image © Bert Harris via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0). Two months later, Cyclone Senyar triggered tens of thousands of landslides in Batang Toru and killed an estimated 58 Tapanuli orangutans. Habitat destruction for small-scale agriculture and logging accounts for around 70% of direct forest loss. Large-scale industrial projects, including the Batang Toru hydropower plant and the Martabe gold mine, are also encroaching into the orangutans’ range. Newborn Sumatran orangutan’s mother saved from trafficking In July 2026, a formerly trafficked Sumatran orangutan named Bulan gave birth in the wild seven years after being reintroduced. Her infant was the 10th confirmed birth from reintroduced orangutans…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Aug. 19 is World Orangutan Day, a day to honor the three species of Southeast Asian great apes, all of which are classified as critically endangered by the IUCN, the global conservation authority. Orangutans were classified into two species: The Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) found in northern Sumatra, Indonesia, and the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), […] authors: | ||
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Egypt’s deserts show why ecological knowledge matters in conservation (commentary) 19 Aug 2026 15:13:56 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/egypts-deserts-show-why-ecological-knowledge-matters-in-conservation-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Marwan Mahmoud Kamal Hamdoun content:encoded: Egypt’s deserts are often introduced to the world as empty: Wide horizons, silence, heat, sand and stone. In tourism brochures they become dramatic scenery. In archaeological writing they can appear as corridors around monuments. In some conservation documents they are fragile spaces that need technical management from outside. But these descriptions miss something essential. Deserts are not empty. They are living landscapes, ecological archives and knowledge systems. For local desert communities, the landscape is not a blank background. It is read through water, plants, tracks, grazing routes, winds, seasonal movement, stories, risks and memories. A valley, a spring, a coastal plain or a mountain pass can hold information about how people and non-human life have adapted to scarcity. This kind of local ecological knowledge is not a decorative addition to conservation. It can help researchers and managers understand how landscapes are used, remembered and explained. In Egypt, this point matters urgently. The country is known globally for its ancient monuments, but its protected areas and biosphere reserves also contain another kind of heritage: Fossil valleys, desert plants, coral-linked coastal systems, migration routes, geological formations and human knowledge shaped by arid environments. If these landscapes are treated only as scenery, or as scientific sites separated from people, conservation loses part of its evidence base and much of its public meaning. At Wadi Al-Hitan in Fayoum, Egypt, visitors often arrive to see fossil whales, but the wider landscape tells a larger story: Ancient seas, changing climates, desert erosion and the long history…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Egypt is famous for ancient ruins but its protected areas and biosphere reserves contain another kind of heritage: Fossil valleys, desert plants, coral-linked coastal systems, migration routes, geological formations and human knowledge shaped by arid environments. - Desert expanses are not empty — or merely open spaces between archaeological monuments — but rather are places full of life, and this point matters urgently, a new op-ed argues. - “If conservation is to work in these landscapes, it must listen more carefully. It must see local ecological knowledge not as anecdote, and interpretation not as decoration, but as tools for making protection more grounded, more understandable and more just,” the author writes. - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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New Zealand opens marine reserves with groundbreaking Māori co-management model 19 Aug 2026 14:48:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/new-zealand-opens-marine-reserves-with-groundbreaking-maori-co-management-model/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Edward Carver content:encoded: DUNEDIN, Aotearoa New Zealand — At a U.N. meeting in 2015, Aotearoa New Zealand’s then Prime Minister John Key made a major announcement that drew praise from international conservation groups: His administration would turn a swath of waters far larger than the country’s land mass into a marine protected area (MPA). The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary, planned for New Zealand’s northern waters, would have been one of the largest fully no-take MPAs in the world, but the sanctuary violated Māori fishing rights enshrined decades earlier. Key’s government had done relatively little to consult with Māori groups about the proposal, many of whom resisted the plan, calling for more recognition of their authority and their role in ocean governance. The sanctuary plan fell through. Yet, even as Key’s top-down exercise drew criticism, a more bottom-up approach to marine governance was underway in the country’s far southeast. There, Māori leaders helped develop a network of small MPAs, five of which became official on July 1, 2026, after more than a decade of grassroots and governmental work. A key aim is to protect seabed habitats, offshore canyons, rocky reefs, tidal lagoons and kelp forests. The network, called Te Au Roa o Te Rakihouia, is co-managed by the regional Māori tribe Kāi Tahu (Ngāi Tahu in standard Māori), and the Department of Conservation. The reserves are the first in the country to be co-managed by Indigenous people and the government using shared decision-making and a joint marine ranger team. The network name refers to the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Five new marine protected areas (MPAs) came into effect in Aotearoa New Zealand in July after more than a decade of grassroots and governmental work — and a sixth is expected to open in the near future. - The MPAs are no-take marine reserves, areas where all extractive activities are banned, co-managed by the regional Māori tribe Kāi Tahu and the Department of Conservation. - The reserves are the first in the country to be co-managed by Indigenous people and the government through shared decision-making and a joint ranger team. - The reserves are the first part of a planned network, called Te Au Roa o Te Rakihouia, which is expected to have not only the reserves but also other types of protected areas that have less strict protections. authors: | ||
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Philippine Supreme Court rules monitoring commercial fishing vessels is unconstitutional 19 Aug 2026 14:33:28 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/philippine-supreme-court-rules-monitoring-commercial-fishing-vessels-is-unconstitutional/ author: Autumn Spanne dc:creator: Keith Anthony Fabro content:encoded: The Philippine Supreme Court has struck down a regulation requiring commercial fishing vessels to continuously transmit their locations and submit electronic catch reports, a decision small-scale fishers say could make it harder to protect coastal grounds already strained by overfishing and competition from larger operators. The high court upheld a lower-court decision that invalidated Fisheries Administrative Order No. 266 (FAO 266), which required all Philippine-flagged commercial fishing vessels to install tracking systems and electronically report catches and other operational information. The court issued its decision on Jan. 21, 2026, and announced it publicly on Aug. 3, 2026. The Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) filed a motion for reconsideration of the court’s decision on Aug. 14. Without continuous tracking, fishers say authorities may struggle to detect commercial vessels entering municipal waters — the coastal zone generally extending 15 kilometers (9 miles) from shore and reserved primarily for small-scale local fishers. “If some vessels could still enter municipal waters even when monitoring devices were installed, it could become even worse now that the Supreme Court has declared the requirement unconstitutional,” Pablo Rosales, president of Pangisda Pilipinas, a national fisherfolk alliance, told Mongabay by phone. Some fishers and scientists also raised concerns that greater commercial fishing pressure could further reduce the number of fish available to coastal communities. A skipjack purse seine fishery operation underway on the deck of a Philippine fish carrier/supply boat. Image © Alex Hofford / Greenpeace. Tracking commercial fishing FAO 266 formed part of…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Philippine Supreme Court struck down a regulation requiring commercial fishing vessels to continuously transmit their locations and submit electronic catch reports. - The requirement was partially implemented before being suspended in 2022 during a court challenge, with devices installed on about 52% of targeted vessels. - Small-scale fishers and scientists warn reduced oversight could increase commercial incursions into coastal waters where many fish stocks are already overexploited. - Following the high court’s decision, the country’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources filed a motion for reconsideration, a procedural remedy that allows a party to ask the Supreme Court to review its ruling before it becomes final. authors: | ||
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Cougars cut deadly vehicle-deer collisions in the US by up to 76%, study shows 19 Aug 2026 13:06:54 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cougars-cut-deadly-vehicle-deer-collisions-in-the-u-s-by-up-to-76-study-shows/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Starre Vartan content:encoded: If you’re a black-tailed deer on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington, you’re always surrounded by friends and family. You are free-range, with abundant food to forage in familiar woods and meadows. But you’re also vigilant because you’re a prey species and your ideal habitat is also home to your top predators: Cascade mountain wolves (Canis lupus fuscus), cougars (Puma concolor) and black bears (Ursus americanus). Avoiding the animals that will hunt you and your fawns is an integral part of how you move across the landscape. Cougars, padding on giant, soundless paws, are to be especially feared, as you are their favorite meal. As such, cougars directly impact where you go to find food, water and rest, and when you do it, according to a new study in the journal Current Biology. The study reinforces the idea that the presence of cougars, also known as pumas, mountain lions and some 40 other names in English, alters how their prey uses the landscape. In doing so, they keep humans safer by pushing the region’s black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) away from roads and potential collisions with vehicles. Nationwide, there are 1.6-2.1 million accidents involving deer every year in the U.S., killing 200-440 people and costing about $10 billion a year, according to data cited in a 2025 study. The cats aren’t patrolling the highways and chasing deer away from traffic, of course. “The deer know where they’re most likely to be at risk of an encounter with a…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - When cougars are present in a landscape, roads are safer, according to a new study. - In area where the cats were highly active, the expected number of deer-vehicle collisions fell by 76% over five years, with the probability of a collision falling by 67%. - Researchers found that fear changes deer behavior: Rather than simply reducing deer numbers by eating them, pumas appear to create a “landscape of fear” that pushes deer away from developed areas and shifts their active hours from nighttime into daylight. - Large carnivores, including cougars, keep fast-reproducing prey species in check, while also reducing dangerous and costly wildlife collisions — another reason why coexistence with them is important, experts say. authors: | ||
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Brazil marks borders for isolated Indigenous group in the Amazon after decades 19 Aug 2026 11:44:35 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/brazil-marks-borders-for-isolated-indigenous-group-in-the-amazon-after-decades/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: Agents of Brazil’s Indigenous agency, FUNAI, spent 60 days in June and July 2026 physically marking the borders of the Rio Pardo Kawahiva Indigenous Territory. The 411,000-hectare (1 million-acre) area in the Amazon biome of Mato Grosso state is home to the Kawahiva, an isolated Indigenous group. The government agency confirmed the presence of the Indigenous group in 1999 and began demarcating its territory in 2001. “The uncontacted Kawahiva have been under threat in their own forest home for decades, while simply trying to exercise their right to live as they choose without contact,” Caroline Pearce, director of the UK-based NGO Survival International, said in a statement. Still image of a Kawahiva individual taken by federal agents in August 2013. Image courtesy of FUNAI. The territory has been invaded by land-grabbers and loggers, causing deforestation. Historically, the Kawahiva territory was intermittently protected via temporary land protection orders, which faced opposition from logging companies. To officially demarcate the territory, FUNAI agents opened a path around the land and installed roughly 140 signs at strategic locations, FUNAI agents told Mongabay. “Here in our region, all owners of plots of land do this,” Jair Candor, coordinator of the FUNAI unit that safeguards the Kawahiva, told Mongabay in an audio message. “The limits of land are marked by opening a path around that territory, whether it belongs to the white man or to an Indigenous person.” The last of more than 100 signs was placed on July 3, 2026. Image courtesy of Kenedy…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Agents of Brazil’s Indigenous agency, FUNAI, spent 60 days in June and July 2026 physically marking the borders of the Rio Pardo Kawahiva Indigenous Territory. The 411,000-hectare (1 million-acre) area in the Amazon biome of Mato Grosso state is home to the Kawahiva, an isolated Indigenous group. The government agency confirmed the presence of the […] authors: | ||
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New leadership initiative carries on legacy of late Indonesian environmental activist 19 Aug 2026 10:26:16 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/new-leadership-initiative-carries-on-legacy-of-late-indonesian-environmental-activist/ author: Hans Nicholas Jong dc:creator: Hans Nicholas Jong content:encoded: JAKARTA — It had been 648 days since Nur Hidayati, an Indonesian environmental activist fondly known as Yaya or Mbak Yaya, died of cancer. Rukka Sombolinggi, secretary-general of Indonesia’s largest Indigenous organization, AMAN, had counted every one of those days. “ It makes me sad,” she said at the launch of the Yaya Leadership Initiative in Jakarta on Aug. 14, which would have been Yaya’s 53th birthday. But seeing the initiative launched in Yaya’s name gave Rukka another way to think about the loss. “Although she has gone, there are legacies, ideas and actions she left behind that we can still benefit from,” she said. The initiative, known as the YLI, brings together environmental, Indigenous, agrarian, fisher, human rights, and other movements to develop a new generation of community leaders — particularly from the ranks of women, young people, Indigenous peoples, and grassroots changemakers. Facilitated by the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the country’s biggest green NGO, alongside organizations including the Indigenous alliance AMAN, the Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA), and the Indonesian Union of Traditional Fisherfolk (KNTI), the YLI aims to build the capacity, networks, and support systems of people working for social and environmental justice. The initiative is built around four principles that Yaya championed throughout her career: solidarity, equality, environmentalism, and diversity. But its proponents say the YLI is more than just an effort to preserve the memory of one of Indonesia’s most prominent environmental leaders. They say it’s an attempt to carry forward a particular…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Yaya Leadership Initiative, launched in memory of late Indonesian environmental leader Nur Hidayati, aims to develop a new generation of community leaders, particularly women, young people, Indigenous peoples, and grassroots activists. - The initiative builds on Yaya’s leadership approach, which emphasized sharing power, supporting women and young activists, and connecting environmental, Indigenous, agrarian, and human rights movements. - Organizers say the initiative is especially important as Indonesian environmental defenders face rising threats, while social movements struggle with fragmentation, polarization, and a lack of leadership succession. - The YLI has begun supporting emerging leaders through fellowships and aims to build networks that help activists remain in their movements, work across causes, and nurture the next generation of leaders. authors: | ||
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Spotted by AI: seahorses and shark fins 19 Aug 2026 10:13:36 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/spotted-by-ai-seahorses-and-shark-fins/ author: Sam Lee dc:creator: Abhishyant Kidangoor content:encoded: While elephant ivory, rhino horns and pangolin scales get a lot of attention when it comes to illegal wildlife trade, marine wildlife are widely targeted as well. A new AI-driven tool detects marine wildlife in luggages and bags at airports. The tool can detect sea cucumbers, sea horses and shark fins, with more species to be added to the tool. While human inspection is still needed to verify the findings, the researchers hope the tool will serve as a second set of eyes to keep track of the trade. Watch this video to learn more.This article was originally published on Mongabay description: While elephant ivory, rhino horns and pangolin scales get a lot of attention when it comes to illegal wildlife trade, marine wildlife are widely targeted as well. A new AI-driven tool detects marine wildlife in luggages and bags at airports. The tool can detect sea cucumbers, sea horses and shark fins, with more species to […] authors: | ||
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Why carbon markets alone won’t save Southeast Asia’s concessions forests 19 Aug 2026 05:25:05 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/why-carbon-markets-alone-wont-save-southeast-asias-concessions-forests/ author: Naina Rao dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: New research suggests a “massive and untapped” opportunity for conservation within commercial concessions in Southeast Asia, reports Mongabay’s Carolyn Cowan. Using satellite data, researchers identified roughly 42 million hectares (104 million acres) of intact forest still standing inside logging, timber, rubber and oil palm concessions across Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar. The study suggests that clearing these forests — an area larger than the whole of Malaysia — could release 1.2 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions over the next 30 years. Incentivizing concession holders to protect these forests instead of converting them for commodity production presents a big opportunity for conservation, the study says. “A substantial portion of Southeast Asia’s remaining forest lies within concession landscapes,” study lead author Annabel Lim, a Ph.D. student at the National University of Singapore, said in an interview with Mongabay. “Meeting climate and biodiversity goals will, therefore, require engaging the concession owners as potential conservation partners”. However, the study notes that relying strictly on carbon markets to incentivize concession holders to choose conservation is economically unviable at current carbon prices. Currently, carbon credits issued for avoided deforestation in Southeast Asia, trade at just $5 to $12 per metric ton, according to the World Bank’s 2026 State and Trends of Carbon Pricing report. To make conservation financially competitive with agricultural or logging, the researchers calculated that carbon prices would need to reach between $33 and $1,677 per metric ton of carbon dioxide. Yiwen Zeng, a conservation scientist at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and senior…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: New research suggests a “massive and untapped” opportunity for conservation within commercial concessions in Southeast Asia, reports Mongabay’s Carolyn Cowan. Using satellite data, researchers identified roughly 42 million hectares (104 million acres) of intact forest still standing inside logging, timber, rubber and oil palm concessions across Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar. The study suggests that […] authors: | ||
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Tapirs, bats and nests: How plastic infiltrates Amazonian wildlife 18 Aug 2026 21:12:13 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/tapirs-bats-and-nests-how-plastic-infiltrates-amazonian-wildlife/ author: Xavier Bartaburu dc:creator: Tiago da Mota e Silva content:encoded: This is the third and final article in a special series on microplastics in the Amazon. Read the first story here and the second story here. MANAUS, Brazil — Traveling by boat up the Negro River from Amazonas state capital Manaus, it takes eight to nine hours to cover the 100 kilometers (62 miles) to Anavilhanas National Park. This protected area preserves one of the world’s largest freshwater archipelagos, comprising more than 400 islands and 60 lakes. They include Prato Lake, which is about 3.5 kilometers (about 2 miles) long and 1.5 kilometers (nearly 1 mile) wide. Yet, even here, in a protected area far from urban pressures, microplastics were found in the digestive tracts of fish. A recent study found an average concentration of 0.25 particles per liter of microplastics in the waters of Prato Lake. The particles were also present in the fish analyzed, regardless of their feeding habits, averaging 3.3 particles per individual. In total, about eight out of every 10 fish contained microplastics, despite living in a preserved area far from urban centers. “As a result of the entire connectivity dynamic that exists between aquatic environments in the Amazon, plastic is found even in the most remote places,” said co-author of the study Adalberto Val, a biologist from the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA). Plastic’s likely journey begins long before it reaches the lake. Most of the particles found in the fish consisted of filaments of polyamide, also known as nylon, alongside fragments of materials…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Studies have found microplastics in various species of Amazonian wildlife, including fish, tapirs, crabs and bats, even within protected areas far from major urban centers. - Contamination spreads through multiple routes, traveling from small forest streams known as igarapés to the mouth of the Amazon River, where birds are building “blue nests” out of plastic debris. - Although the toxic effects on animals remain poorly understood, data show that microplastics cross between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, potentially impacting the entire food chain. authors: | ||
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‘Remembering Wildlife’ shines a spotlight on the species we risk losing forever 18 Aug 2026 20:05:24 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/08/remembering-wildlife-shines-a-spotlight-on-the-species-we-risk-losing-forever/ author: Mikedigirolamo dc:creator: Mike DiGirolamo content:encoded: British wildlife photographer Margot Raggett says she created the book Remembering Elephants after she heard David Attenborough say, “The question is, are we happy to suppose that our grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant except in a picture book?” Her effort was to provoke this question in others and to give the proceeds from its sale to conservation organizations. In a sense, the book went viral and generated a following, prompting Raggett to continue the book series and her nonprofit, Remembering Wildlife. “Sometimes people get upset with me and say ‘They’re still around,’ but I want people to stop and think,” Raggett says. In this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, she discusses her journey into photography, the intention behind memorializing still-living species, and details of her 11th book, Remembering Giraffes, which will be published Oct. 12. Raggett has gathered work from some of the world’s most renowned wildlife photographers. To date, Remembering Wildlife has raised more than $1.6 million for 85 conservation organizations in 35 countries. Publishing the first book was not without its challenges. Not knowing as many photographers at the time, Raggett had to actively solicit photographers for their work. Just as she closed out the Kickstarter campaign to fund the book, Raggett was diagnosed with breast cancer, a moment that she says anchored her to the work. “During the next three months of my treatment … during my radiotherapy, I would work on the elephant book in the morning and then go and have…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: British wildlife photographer Margot Raggett says she created the book Remembering Elephants after she heard David Attenborough say, “The question is, are we happy to suppose that our grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant except in a picture book?” Her effort was to provoke this question in others and to give the […] authors: | ||
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Elders, conservationists race to record fading sacred ties to Philippines’ endemic birds 18 Aug 2026 19:55:13 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/elders-conservationists-race-to-record-fading-sacred-ties-to-philippines-endemic-birds/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Keith Anthony Fabro content:encoded: PUERTO GALERA, Philippines — The forest settles into a gentle rhythm as the trail climbs into the Iraya Mangyan ancestral domain in Puerto Galera town, on the Philippines’ Mindoro Island. Only birdsong breaks the silence as towering trees sway overhead. A clear stream tumbles across the trail over smooth rocks. Ahead walks 43-year-old Lenito Pampilo. Every few steps, he stops — not because the climb is difficult, but because the forest is speaking, he says. He points to an unseen bird in the canopy. Another answers from farther uphill. For him, each call carries meaning. “Our elders taught us these birds,” he tells Mongabay. Pampilo, an Iraya community leader and ecotrail guide, has spent much of his life in these mountains. His knowledge goes beyond recognizing species. “Some birds signal changing weather, warn of danger or carry messages between the living and spirit worlds,” he says. “Trees, streams and ridges also hold stories passed from one generation to the next.” For the Iraya, the forest is a largely unwritten living archive. Lenito Pampilo, an Iraya community leader and ecotrail guide, has spent much of his life in the mountains located in the Iraya Mangyan ancestral lands. Image by Keith Anthony Fabro. For the Iraya, the forest is a largely unwritten living archive. Image courtesy of Center for Conservation Innovations PH Inc. As elders age and fewer young people learn beside them, the Center for Conservation Innovations Philippines (CCIPH) is helping Iraya knowledge holders document wildlife, medicinal plants and culturally important places…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Iraya Mangyan ancestral forestland supports hundreds of plant and animal species, including many that are rare, threatened or found only on the Philippines’ Mindoro Island. - Culturally important birds include the Mindoro racket-tail (Prioniturus mindorensis), Mindoro boobook (Ninox mindorensis) and Mindoro scops owl (Otus mindorensis), whose calls and behaviors guide weather preparation, farming decisions and spiritual practices. - Iraya knowledge also links medicinal plants, wildlife and healing, showing how customary beliefs can regulate harvesting, discourage disturbance and protect forest habitats. - Community-led documentation will help carry this knowledge into ancestral-domain planning, ecotrail interpretation and broader conservation of Mindoro’s endemic wildlife. authors: | ||
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On the Great Barrier Reef, management by Traditional Owners is growing 18 Aug 2026 18:35:11 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-the-great-barrier-reef-management-by-traditional-owners-is-growing/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Cat Williams content:encoded: PERTH, Australia — “There’s this beautiful underwater garden out there,” says Mercy Singleton, referring to the vast network of colorful corals that make up the Great Barrier Reef off eastern Australia’s Queensland coast. “We’d like to see it safe and recovering.” Singleton is Yirrganydji and director of Research and Engagement Services at Dawul Wuru Aboriginal Corporation. Her people are one of 18 Traditional Owner groups helping steward the Great Barrier Reef, for them their Sea Country — with Traditional Use of Marine Resources Agreements (TUMRAs) in hand. These community-based plans for joint management of the Reef are part of a suite of conservation efforts at the iconic World Heritage Site that include Traditional Owners in management. While there are still gaps in the full inclusion of Indigenous communities in the stewardship of their traditional waters, big strides are being made, say Indigenous governance organizations and scientists. A recent decision by the World Heritage Committee has taken notice. “The last 30 years have seen massive changes in how the Great Barrier Reef is managed, particularly for Traditional Owners,” says Allan Dale, professor of tropical regional development at James Cook University. “There’s been this great increase in the governing capability and the ability of those Traditional Owner groups to achieve their aspirations,” he tells Mongabay. “There’s been a real huge growth in the sort of capability of land and sea reservations and there’s an increasing number of rangers and leaders and planners and workers in that space.” Dr. Mercy Singleton, director of Research…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Joint management of the Great Barrier Reef is changing, with Traditional Owners playing an increasing role in the conservation of one of the seven natural wonders of the world. - Despite climate change continuing to threaten the health of the Reef, the World Heritage Committee has again decided not to put the Great Barrier Reef on its “in danger” list, and has cited increased levels of Traditional Owner management in its decision. - Traditional use and management agreements currently cover 43% of the Great Barrier Reef’s coastline and the government has announced new funding and measures to further include Indigenous management. - There are still gaps in the full inclusion of Indigenous communities in the stewardship of their traditional waters, say Indigenous governance organizations, though strides are being made. authors: | ||
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A looming rock collapse threatens a Swiss village as thawing permafrost destabilizes the Alps 18 Aug 2026 17:12:07 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/a-looming-rock-collapse-threatens-a-swiss-village-as-thawing-permafrost-destabilizes-the-alps/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: KANDERSTEG, Switzerland (AP) — An unstable mountain rock formation looming above the Swiss village of Kandersteg threatens a landslide that could rival the disaster that destroyed nearby Blatten last year, a collapse scientists linked to thawing permafrost and glacier dynamics. The 1,300 residents of Kandersteg, in Switzerland’s Bern canton, live amid a quintessential Alpine landscape of sharp peaks, white glaciers, steep green valleys and the distant sound of cowbells. But a catastrophe looms over the quiet village: a mountainside rock formation called Spitze Stei, part of a mountain landscape increasingly affected by thawing permafrost, threatens to collapse into the valley in a massive landslide. “You are aware that it’s happening, but not afraid,” said Brigitte Jüni, an inhabitant of Kandersteg. She said authorities took all the precautions they could. “But then it’s nature. It’s nature and you never know,” Jüni added. As glaciers and permafrost — the frozen soil sediment and rock that acts like a glue holding mountains together — melt due to higher temperatures caused by climate change, the threat of landslides is rising in the Swiss Alps. In May 2025, a huge mass of rock and ice from a glacier thundered down the mountainside in the nearby Loetschental valley, sending plumes of dust skyward and coating with mud nearly all of Blatten, which had been evacuated earlier as a precaution. Markus Stoffel, professor for climate change and natural risks at the University of Geneva, said climate change leads to the melting of both glaciers and permafrost. “In the mountains…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: KANDERSTEG, Switzerland (AP) — An unstable mountain rock formation looming above the Swiss village of Kandersteg threatens a landslide that could rival the disaster that destroyed nearby Blatten last year, a collapse scientists linked to thawing permafrost and glacier dynamics. The 1,300 residents of Kandersteg, in Switzerland’s Bern canton, live amid a quintessential Alpine landscape of sharp […] authors: | ||
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Indigenous food sovereignty is one of the most overlooked conservation strategies (commentary) 18 Aug 2026 16:21:29 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indigenous-food-sovereignty-is-one-of-the-most-overlooked-conservation-strategies-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Brijlal ChaudhariGemma Sethsmith content:encoded: As governments and conservation organizations search for solutions to the interconnected crises of biodiversity loss, climate change and food insecurity, they are overlooking one of the most effective approaches already working on the ground: Indigenous food sovereignty. Around the world, Indigenous communities manage or hold tenure rights to roughly a quarter of Earth’s land surface, which contains 37% of remaining natural lands worldwide and a third of the planet’s intact forest landscapes. They conserve seeds, maintain diverse farming landscapes, protect forests and rivers and fisheries, and pass ecological knowledge from one generation to the next. Yet these systems are rarely recognized as central to conservation policy, despite their proven contributions to both biodiversity and community resilience. This needs to change. Food sovereignty leader Richard Rojo in his Vanuatu taro garden. Image courtesy of Monica Kidd. The global food system is becoming increasingly uniform. Just three crops — wheat, rice, and maize — provide more than half of the world’s plant-derived calories. Driven by profit, industrial agriculture has transformed vast landscapes into monocultures, contributing to habitat loss, declining soil health, water pollution and the erosion of crop diversity. At the same time, communities everywhere are becoming more vulnerable to climate shocks, market instability and diet-related disease. In contrast, Indigenous food systems are often built on diversity, reciprocity with the land and the way many Indigenous communities perceive wealth. For one of our communities, for example, the Tharu of Nepal, wealth is found in mutual aid, collective reciprocity, and the sacred relations…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Conservation cannot succeed if it separates biodiversity from the Indigenous people who have helped sustain it for generations, a new op-ed argues. - Indigenous food systems are an important facet of this biological stewardship, and these demonstrate that ecological stewardship, cultural continuity and human well-being are deeply interconnected. - “Indigenous food sovereignty is not simply about preserving the past but, rather, it is a living practice and a proven practical pathway toward a more diverse, resilient and sustainable future the world needs,” the authors write. - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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On an Indonesian island, an ancient ritual evolves to protect an endangered cockatoo 18 Aug 2026 14:10:23 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-an-indonesian-island-an-ancient-ritual-evolves-to-protect-an-endangered-cockatoo/ author: Hayat Indriyatno dc:creator: Basten Gokkon content:encoded: An Indigenous community on Indonesia’s Seram Island is preserving a centuries-old coming-of-age ritual while helping protect the endangered salmon-crested cockatoo, a new study has found. The study, published in July in the Journal of Ethnobiology, documents how the Huaulu people adapted the sacred Cidaku initiation ceremony in collaboration with conservationists and government authorities. The ritual marks young men’s transition to adulthood and traditionally involved wearing the distinctive crest feathers of the salmon-crested cockatoo (Cacatua moluccensis), a bird found nowhere else on Earth. The Huaulu, one of Seram’s oldest Indigenous communities, regard Seram’s forests as a living realm inhabited by powerful spirits, shaping their approach to conservation. “The use of cockatoo feathers is specifically embedded within this cultural system and is very different from hunting birds for commercial purposes,” study lead author Dwi Agustina, a researcher at Indonesia’s Gadjah Mada University and program coordinator at the Indonesia’s Cockatoo Conservation Association (KKI), told Mongabay in an email. An endangered salmon-crested cockatoo on Seram Island, Indonesia. Image courtesy of Balázs Tisza/Wildlife Messengers. The Cidaku ritual once had ties to head-taking, but after colonial authorities and Christian missionaries suppressed the practice in the early 20th century, the Huaulu adapted the ceremony around hunting wild animals. The salmon-crested cockatoo became one traditional target, with its crest feathers used in the ceremonial puheliam headdress: the white feathers as a symbol of sacred life, peace and community, and the peach-tinged feathers signifying great strength and courage. Over the decades, however, the species has become endangered, largely due…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A new study has found that the Huaulu Indigenous community on Indonesia’s Seram Island is adapting a centuries-old coming-of-age ritual to help protect the endangered salmon-crested cockatoo. - Researchers say that rather than hunting the birds for their feathers, used in the Cidaku ceremony, the Huaulu have agreed to use naturally shed feathers, collected from rehabilitation centers, rescue facilities and zoos. - The findings suggest that conservation efforts may be more effective when they work with Indigenous cultural traditions and local knowledge rather than relying solely on imposing restrictions from outside. - However, an independent expert warns that this still leaves the much larger threats to the species — wildlife trafficking and habitat loss — unaddressed, and that the approach is a bespoke solution that won’t work with other threatened species. authors: | ||
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As an industry and a cooking ingredient, seaweed is gaining ground in Brazil 18 Aug 2026 12:26:44 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/as-an-industry-and-a-cooking-ingredient-seaweed-is-gaining-ground-in-brazil/ author: Xavier Bartaburu dc:creator: Letícia Klein content:encoded: Aparecida Rosa Ayres often says she has known seaweed since she was in her mother’s womb, thanks to the stories she used to tell her. As a child, her mother used seaweed as doll hair while playing on the beach. Today, the 47-year-old Caiçara woman has given it a new meaning: It is the star ingredient at Rancho Ayres, her restaurant on Paraty’s São Gonçalo Beach. While the seaweed of her mother’s childhood was native to Ilha Grande Bay, the variety Aparecida uses for cooking is Kappaphycus alvarezii, a macroalgae of Philippine origin that she first found in 2013. Eight years later, she took a course offered by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and the Paraty municipal government on the potential of seaweed farming for the regional bioeconomy. That course inspired Algas na Mesa Paraty, an initiative that combines what Aparecida calls “seaweed gastronomy” with historical revival at the São Gonçalo and São Gonçalinho beaches. “We are the daughters of the waters; we were born in the maritório [marine territory], so the use of seaweed comes as a form of resistance and permanence to preserve the territory,” Aparecida says. She descends from one of the traditional Caiçara families (traditional population from south/southeast Brazil) displaced from their homes by the beach during the construction of the Rio-Santos federal road (BR-101) between 1969 and 1975. However, the Caiçara continued to use the beaches for work and leisure. There, families built ranchos — facilities that support mariculture, community-based tourism and…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In Paraty, Brazil, a Caiçara family has transformed seaweed cultivation into gastronomy, educational tourism and a source of income. The venture is driven by strong female participation and a deep connection to their territory. - Originally introduced in Brazil to supply the carrageenan industry, the macroalgae Kappaphycus alvarezii is also being used as a biofertilizer and increasingly as a food item.. - Its farming also supports ecological balance. It produces oxygen, absorbs carbon and helps improve water quality by filtering out excess nutrients. - Experts say the expansion of seaweed farming in Brazil faces bottlenecks in credit, marketing, technology and regulation. New research networks and public policies are attempting to organize the sector as part of the country’s growing bioeconomy. authors: | ||
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Indonesia leads global tally of abuses linked to Chinese transition-mineral investments 18 Aug 2026 10:59:25 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indonesia-leads-global-tally-of-abuses-linked-to-chinese-transition-mineral-investments/ author: Hans Nicholas Jong dc:creator: Hans Nicholas Jong content:encoded: JAKARTA — Indonesia recorded more allegations of human rights and environmental abuses linked to Chinese investments in transition minerals than any other country between 2023 and 2025, a new report says. It identifies the vast majority of problems with the country’s rapidly expanding nickel industry. The report by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRC) documented 323 publicly reported allegations across 24 countries during the three-year period, plus three confidential cases involving attacks on human rights defenders. That brings the total to 326 allegations for 2023-2025. The number of recorded allegations has also risen each year, from 51 in 2021 to 148 in 2025, bringing the five-year total to 434. That increase doesn’t necessarily mean the number of abuses themselves have tripled, as changes in reporting, monitoring, and the database can affect the figures. Still, the rising trend comes as investment in the minerals used in electric vehicles, batteries, and renewable energy technologies expands rapidly, raising risks for workers, Indigenous peoples, local communities, and the environment. The report also documented 18 attacks against human rights defenders across all 24 countries between 2023 and 2025, including cases involving judicial harassment, violence, and intimidation. Indonesia Of the 323 allegations analyzed in detail, 96 were in Indonesia, the highest of any country. The Democratic Republic of Congo was second with 52, followed by Myanmar with 36, Serbia with 32, and Zimbabwe with 20. Ninety of the 96 Indonesian allegations involved nickel. Of those, 71 concerned nickel processing, 17 nickel extraction, and two…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Indonesia recorded 96 allegations of human rights and environmental abuses linked to Chinese investments in transition minerals from 2023 to 2025, the most of any country, with 90 involving nickel, according to a new report. - Water, soil, and air pollution were among the main environmental concerns, while Indonesian nickel processors accounted for 57% of work-related deaths and 68% of injury allegations documented globally. - The report also documented allegations involving Indigenous rights violations, intimidation of environmental defenders, and failures to obtain free, prior, and informed consent around nickel projects in Indonesia. - The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, which compiled the report, says Chinese companies need stronger human rights and environmental due diligence, as gaps between corporate commitments and practices could create growing risks for workers, communities, and supply chains. authors: | ||
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