|
The Amazon’s most valuable export isn’t timber — it’s rain 19 Feb 2026 00:40:28 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/the-amazon-generates-20-billion-of-dollars-worth-of-rainfall-each-year-study-finds/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Rainfall is often treated as a gift of geography — a function of latitude, oceans, and atmospheric circulation. A growing body of research suggests that in the tropics, it is also a product of ecosystems. Forests do not merely receive rain. They help generate it, regulate its distribution, and sustain the conditions that allow it to persist. “Quantifying tropical forest rainfall generation”, a review paper recently published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, attempts to measure a process long recognized but rarely expressed in concrete terms: how much rain forests themselves produce. By combining satellite observations with climate models, the authors estimate that each square meter of tropical forest generates roughly 240 liters of rainfall per year across the broader landscape, rising to about 300 liters in the Amazon Basin. Rather than treating forests as passive recipients of climate, the study depicts them as active participants in shaping it. The mechanism begins with evapotranspiration. Trees draw water from soils and release it into the atmosphere through their leaves. This vapor contributes to cloud formation and precipitation downwind. While the physics is familiar, the novelty lies in quantifying the effect at scale. On average, each percentage point of tropical forest loss reduces regional rainfall by about 2.4 millimeters annually, with larger effects in the Amazon. Satellite observations suggest even stronger impacts than most models, implying that current projections may underestimate the hydrological consequences of deforestation. Sunrise over the Pinipini river in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo: Rhett A. Butler Forests export…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Tropical forests actively generate rainfall by releasing moisture into the atmosphere, with each square meter producing hundreds of liters of rain annually across surrounding regions. Clearing even small portions can measurably reduce precipitation, especially during dry seasons. - Much of the rain that falls far inland originates from forests through long-distance moisture transport known as “flying rivers,” meaning farms, cities, and reservoirs may depend on ecosystems located hundreds or thousands of kilometers away. - Reduced rainfall from deforestation can undermine agriculture, river flows, and hydropower, revealing forests as a form of natural water infrastructure that supports food production, energy systems, and economic stability. - By assigning a monetary value to forest-generated rainfall, researchers estimate the service in the Amazon alone is worth on the order of tens of billions of dollars annually, underscoring that forest loss threatens not only biodiversity and carbon storage but regional climate systems themselves. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Peru mining pollution linked to children’s cognitive impairment: Study 18 Feb 2026 22:31:01 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/peru-mining-pollution-linked-to-childrens-cognitive-impairment-study/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Aimee Gabay content:encoded: A recent study in Forensic Science International suggests a link between exposure to heavy metals from mining operations and reduced cognitive performance in children in Peru. Researchers say the findings highlight the long-term impact of mining pollution on children’s neurocognitive development and demonstrate that exposure is not a one-time event. The research focused on children living near a heavily contaminated mining district in Cerro de Pasco, in Peru’s Andes Mountains. Extensive mining for lead, zinc and silver has been ongoing there for almost 400 years, since Spanish colonial rule. Industrial mining has intensified over recent decades, exposing residents to contamination from modern mining and a host of serious health consequences, including cancer and other life-threatening diseases. The study looked at metal concentrations in 81 exposed children and 17 unexposed children and compared their neurocognitive abilities and IQs. Exposed children had lead concentrations in their hair of 4.30 mg/kg, 43 times the recommended safe limit of 0.10 mg/kg set by the Micro Trace Laboratory in Germany. They also had elevated levels of arsenic, cadmium and manganese — all toxic heavy metals. The researchers found cognitive performance was lower in the children who had been exposed to mining pollutants compared with those who hadn’t; the mean IQ was 12.3 points lower. Other variables, including verbal comprehension, perceptive analysis and memory, were also impaired in the children with a high body burden from mining. “Simply put, pollution from mining increases children’s exposure to metals that are toxic to the developing brain,” Lucía Ordóñez…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: A recent study in Forensic Science International suggests a link between exposure to heavy metals from mining operations and reduced cognitive performance in children in Peru. Researchers say the findings highlight the long-term impact of mining pollution on children’s neurocognitive development and demonstrate that exposure is not a one-time event. The research focused on children […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Why so many mangrove restoration projects fail 18 Feb 2026 21:12:22 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/why-so-many-mangrove-restoration-projects-fail/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Mangroves have become a favored solution in climate and conservation circles. They absorb carbon, blunt storm surge and support fisheries. Funding has followed. Yet outcomes often lag ambition. In parts of Southeast Asia and Latin America, research suggests that roughly 70% of restoration projects struggle to establish healthy forests. Seedlings die. Sites flood incorrectly. Community interest fades. The problem is not enthusiasm. It is execution. Much restoration is driven by small, community-based groups with deep local knowledge but limited access to capital, technical advice or long-term support. Catherine Lovelock, a mangrove ecologist at the University of Queensland, points out that success depends as much on social and economic conditions as on planting techniques. Mangroves, she notes, thrive only when tides inundate them for a few hours at a time. Too much water or too little can doom a site. Just as important are land tenure, livelihoods and incentives to protect restored areas once planting ends. A growing set of nonprofits is positioning itself as an intermediary between funders and communities. One example is Seatrees, which does not run projects directly but backs local partners with funding, scientific guidance, monitoring support and communications. Over the past five years, it has supported mangrove work in places as varied as Kenya, Mexico, Indonesia and Florida, Mongabay’s Marina Martinez reports. The approach is selective. Seatrees looks for groups that already have experience and local legitimacy but face capacity gaps. Projects must have permission to operate and clear buy-in from communities and Indigenous stakeholders. In…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Mangroves have become a favored solution in climate and conservation circles. They absorb carbon, blunt storm surge and support fisheries. Funding has followed. Yet outcomes often lag ambition. In parts of Southeast Asia and Latin America, research suggests that roughly 70% of restoration projects struggle to establish healthy forests. Seedlings die. Sites flood incorrectly. Community […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Amazon villages build autonomous energy systems after mega-dam failed pledges 18 Feb 2026 19:22:15 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-villages-build-autonomous-energy-systems-after-mega-dam-failed-pledges/ author: Alexandre de Santi dc:creator: Jorge C. Carrasco content:encoded: When Brazil approved the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric complex on the Xingu River, in Pará state, the megaproject promised to profoundly change the national and local energy landscapes, creating a large offer of clean energy to power industries, illuminate homes and bring development to isolated communities that historically had little to no access to power. However, nearly a decade after the operations of the fourth-largest hydropower facility in the world began in 2016, the reality is starkly different. Vulnerable communities that highly depended on fishing have been severely economically affected, and many riverside families remain disconnected from the grid or pay some of the highest electricity bills in the country. A study published in 2024 by researchers from the State University of Campinas in Brazil and Michigan State University in the U.S., funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), identified in a household survey covering 500 families in Altamira, Pará, that a vast majority of these families (86.8%) suffered a negative impact on electricity prices after the construction of Belo Monte. The research shows that not only did the “energy progress” promised in the past never materialize, but also that tariffs soared while communities living in the shadow of the Amazon’s largest dam still face blackouts and prohibitive costs. General view of the solar energy system after installation in the Porto Rico community. Image courtesy of Renato Chalu. Lower-income families in small communities in the Amazon region were hit the hardest, not only paying more for electricity,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A pilot project in the Tapajós-Arapiuns Reserve is providing 24-hour electricity through an integrated system of solar panels and river-based hydrokinetic turbines. - The project’s hydrokinetic turbines use specialized filter systems and slow-rotation grids designed to generate electricity without harming local river fauna. - Roughly 990,000 people in the Brazilian Amazon still lack access to electricity despite the region hosting some of the world’s largest hydropower facilities. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
In Ecuador’s Chocó, roads shape the fate of the rainforest 18 Feb 2026 19:05:01 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-ecuadors-choco-roads-shape-the-fate-of-the-rainforest/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Maxwell Radwin content:encoded: HOJA BLANCO, Ecuador — Some parts of the rainforest in northwestern Ecuador used to be so dense and impenetrable that only a few hundred people were believed to live there. Even when loggers moved into the area in the 1980s and 1990s, setting up the first roads, it would take hours to travel only a few miles. It’s one of the rainiest regions on the planet, and the terrain rises sharply into the western Andes before dropping off into rivers and valleys. Because it was so inaccessible, the area remained one of the most biodiverse on the planet, with thousands of endemic plant species and hundreds of birds and amphibians. But in recent decades, much of that biodiversity has been lost. The region, known as the Chocó, has experienced historic deforestation, with only around 3% of its lower-elevation forest — below 900 meters (3,000 feet) — still remaining. In one area of the Chocó, in Esmeraldas province, the rise in deforestation coincided with the arrival of timber companies like Endesa-Botrosa, which built some of the first roads while logging the forest. Even when the companies reduced their work in the area a few years ago, deforestation continued to pose a major threat — largely because the companies left behind roads that people want to extend, conservation groups in the area say. Today, many of the roads that used to take hours to navigate are relatively clean and patched up, allowing people from other parts of the country to move in.…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Chocó rainforest in northwestern Ecuador has experienced some of the worst deforestation in the world, with only around 3% tree cover remaining in the western lowlands. - A lot of the deforestation can be traced to an influx of loggers in the 1990s and the many roads and trails that they created in the process, which are now being used by new settlers. - In an effort to save a part of the Chocó, the Jocotoco Conservation Foundation has been building a reserve by buying up parcels of land, one at a time. Its Canandé Reserve has grown to roughly 19,000 hectares (47,000 acres) but still faces pressure from roads and trails built by expanding communities. - Residents respect the need to conserve the forest but also express a desire to improve connectivity, with the ability to travel within the area and to nearby cities. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
‘Ridiculous’ plan developed at Florida zoo saves wild rhino’s eyesight in Africa 18 Feb 2026 16:58:45 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/ridiculous-plan-developed-at-florida-zoo-saves-wild-rhinos-eyesight-in-africa/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Corralling a wild rhinoceros into a small chute to give it eyedrops might seem like a crazy plan. But if it’s crazy and it works, then it’s not crazy. Animal behaviorists partnering with the Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society in Florida traveled to Africa in August to help an endangered white rhino with a life-threatening, parasitic eye infection. Daniel Terblanche, a security manager with Imvelo Safari Lodges, said no one in Zimbabwe would have come up with the plan. “Believe me, we didn’t think of it; it was a completely ridiculous idea to us,” Terblanche said. “But without trying all of the things that we could to rectify that situation, we would have been in trouble, I think.” Outside of Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, the Community Rhino Conservation Initiative, with support from Imvelo Safari Lodges, engages local communities to reintroduce southern white rhinos to communal lands for the first time in the nation’s history. Palm Beach Zoo CEO and President Margo McKnight was visiting the area last year when Imvelo Safari Lodges managing director Mark Butcher told her a health scare with a male rhino named Thuza could jeopardize the future of the program. “This rhino had bleeding eyes. He was rubbing his eyes,” Butcher said. “And I was looking at a potential where this guy was gonna lose his eyesight. And this is in a pilot project that’s got fantastic vision for a future for conservation throughout Africa.” Thad and Angi Lacinak, founders of Precision Behavior, traveled…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Corralling a wild rhinoceros into a small chute to give it eyedrops might seem like a crazy plan. But if it’s crazy and it works, then it’s not crazy. Animal behaviorists partnering with the Palm Beach Zoo & Conservation Society in Florida traveled to Africa in August to help an endangered […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Banks must step in before the Amazon Soy Moratorium collapses (commentary) 18 Feb 2026 16:39:27 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/banks-must-step-in-before-the-amazon-soy-moratorium-collapses-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Ginger Cassady content:encoded: The Amazon Rainforest is approaching a dangerous threshold. Scientists warn that continued deforestation could push the world’s largest rainforest past a tipping point, transforming it into a degraded, fire-prone savanna that emits more carbon than it stores. One of the most effective barriers preventing that outcome is now being dismantled. For nearly 20 years, the Amazon Soy Moratorium has helped protect millions of hectares of forest. It stopped major traders from buying soy grown on land deforested after 2008, breaking the link between agricultural expansion and forest destruction. Earlier this month, following sustained lobbying and political pressure, Brazil’s leading soy industry association withdrew from the agreement, effectively collapsing a system that had become the backbone of responsible soy production in the Amazon. The moratorium helped drive a nearly 70% reduction in deforestation across monitored regions, even as soy production soared. It proved that strong rules and monitoring, backed by market pressure, can protect forests while supporting livelihoods and economic growth. A section of the Amazon rainforest stands next to soy fields in Belterra, Para state, Brazil, on Nov. 30, 2019. Image by AP Photo/Leo Correa. If it collapses fully, the consequences will be devastating. Researchers estimate that Amazon deforestation could rise by 30% in the coming decades, wiping out years of progress and pushing the rainforest closer to irreversible collapse. That would release billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere and accelerate the climate and biodiversity crises already devastating communities worldwide. The unraveling of the moratorium is not happening…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Finance is often portrayed as distant from environmental destruction, but in reality, it sits at the center: banks and investors decide which business models survive and which harms they will tolerate. - Right now, a successful agreement called the Amazon Soy Moratorium, which has helped protect millions of hectares of forest by stopping major traders from buying soy grown on Amazon land deforested after 2008, is on the brink of collapse due to industry pressure — but banks can play a role in ensuring these traders stay in the pact and don’t let it unravel. - “Financial institutions should make continued access to capital conditional on compliance with the moratorium’s core principles: no deforestation after 2008, full traceability, and zero tolerance for forest destruction in the Amazon biome,” a new op-ed argues. - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Researchers eye jaguar conservation wins under Brazil Indigenous stewardship project 18 Feb 2026 16:20:29 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/researchers-eye-jaguar-conservation-wins-under-brazil-indigenous-stewardship-project/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: James HallKarla Mendes content:encoded: PAU BRASIL, Brazil — Indigenous leader Fábio Titiah recalls the night he walked the trail to the village of Água Vermelha, in the Caramuru-Paraguassu Indigenous Territory. At around 10 p.m., a shadow burst from the undergrowth and sprang across the road. He says he saw, startled, its glistening, pitch-black pelt and recognized it as one of the rarest animals of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest: a black jaguar (Panthera onca). For Titiah, one of the 21 caciques (chiefs) of the Caramuru-Paraguassu territory in Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia, the fleeting sighting of the big cat was a spiritual encounter and a sign of changes afoot in Indigenous lands. “There was a time when we started the reclamation process, when we [re]occupied our territories, and found a large part of our land transformed into cattle pasture,” Titiah tells Mongabay at his house in the municipality of Pau Brasil, adjacent to the Caramuru-Paraguassu territory, where he’s a city councilor. “Then our people left a good part of these areas to regenerate. Some animals that hadn’t been seen here before started appearing. The jaguar started to return.” The transformation of the Caramuru-Paraguassu territory has been enabled in part by Ywy Ipuranguete (“beautiful lands” in the Tupi-Guarani language), a nationwide project to strengthen and support Indigenous stewardship across 15 Indigenous territories. Building on the recognition of Indigenous lands as vital for wildlife and ecosystems, Brazil’s Ministry of Indigenous Peoples launched the initiative to safeguard about 6 million hectares (15 million acres) of some of Brazil’s most…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The jaguar is listed as near threatened on the IUCN Red List due to threats such as habitat loss and overhunting, but finds a safe haven in Brazil within protected areas and Indigenous lands. - A pioneering new Brazilian initiative seeks to strengthen the protection of 15 Indigenous territories and their biodiversity through land sovereignty, environmental restoration and monitoring. - The initiative may benefit jaguar conservation in one of the big cat’s last remaining strongholds. - The initiative is still in its early stages, and so far there are little to no links between the project and jaguar conservation programs. But researchers say they hope conservation efforts, even if not explicitly aimed at jaguars, can have a ripple effect on protecting the species. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
The most desirable songbird in Indonesia is disappearing from the wild | Wild Targets 18 Feb 2026 16:12:39 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/video/2026/02/the-most-desirable-songbird-in-indonesia-is-disappearing-from-indonesias-forests-wild-targets/ author: Sam Lee dc:creator: Rizky Maulana YanuarSandy Watt content:encoded: SUMATRA, Indonesia — Armed with a machete, some sticky gum and a recording of birdsong on his phone, “Peni” makes his way into the forest. He’s searching for songbirds in the Sumatran jungle, specifically the white-rumped shama (Copsychus malabaricus), known locally as murai batu. The popularity of murai batu has boomed in the past decade due to its complex song and striking looks. In Java, keeping caged birds is more than a hobby — it’s deeply cultural, indicating status and maintaining a connection to nature. The booming competition circuit has transformed this traditional pastime into a lucrative industry, with prizes such as cars and large sums of cash up for grabs. A champion murai batu can sell for tens of thousands of dollars. Murai batu is a widespread species, its natural range reaching from India to Papua New Guinea. However, within Indonesia and other countries with a cage-bird tradition, the species faces serious decline. Conservationists say some subspecies within Indonesia have been driven to extinction, while many forests on Java, Indonesia’s most populated island, are believed to be largely devoid of murai batu, pushing the search for new birds to other parts of Indonesia. Until 2018, murai batu was listed as a protected species under Indonesian law. However, it was removed after lobbying from breeder associations, a decision that critics say has made enforcement difficult at a time when murai batu were already under pressure from poaching and habitat loss. For poachers like Peni, catching murai batu once offered a…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: SUMATRA, Indonesia — Armed with a machete, some sticky gum and a recording of birdsong on his phone, “Peni” makes his way into the forest. He’s searching for songbirds in the Sumatran jungle, specifically the white-rumped shama (Copsychus malabaricus), known locally as murai batu. The popularity of murai batu has boomed in the past decade […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Scientists discover a new whale highway after tagging a pygmy blue whale by drone 18 Feb 2026 15:38:12 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/scientists-discover-a-new-whale-highway-after-tagging-a-pygmy-blue-whale-by-drone/ author: Isabel Esterman dc:creator: Claire Turrell content:encoded: Indonesian scientists have attached a satellite tag onto an endangered pygmy blue whales for the first time by drone. The tag’s data not only revealed a new feeding site for the species (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda), but also a previously undocumented path it takes to the South Antarctic. Unlike Antarctic blue whales, pygmy blue whales prefer tropical waters and are found in the Indian Ocean. They’re known to migrate between the west coast of Australia and Indonesia. However, their journey south between Indonesia and Australia is rarely documented and their habits are more of a mystery. A pygmy blue whale is observed by a research drone during the Marine Migratory Species Expedition 2025 in the North Wetar Sea, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, Oct. 9, 2025. (HO/Konservasi Indonesia) From Oct. 5-16, 2025, a team of 20 scientists from Konservasi International, Thrive Conservation, the Elasmobranch Institute and universities from Indonesia and Timor-Leste focused their research on the Lesser Sunda landscape, which is part of the Coral Triangle. The study area also includes the Ombai Strait, known as one of the most important migratory corridors for pygmy blue whales. In December 2025, Indonesia created the new 325,238 hectare West Wetar Marine Protected Area, found within the Lesser Sunda seascape, the scattering of Indonesian islands closest to Australia. During the expedition, the team also gathered data to help the government create an offshore marine protected area in the Banda Sea. The pygmy blue whale’s biggest threats include ship strikes in busy shipping lanes, ocean noise…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Scientists in Indonesia have tagged a pygmy blue whale for the first time using a drone. - Data from the tag revealed a previously unknown path used by the species on its southern migration from Indonesia to the west coast of Australia. - The biggest threats to the pygmy blue whale include ship strikes in busy shipping lanes, ocean noise pollution, and climate change. - A team from Timor-Leste will now repeat the drone tagging protocol in their waters. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Coral bleaching: How warming seas are transforming the world’s reefs 18 Feb 2026 08:53:22 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/coral-bleaching-how-warming-seas-are-transforming-the-worlds-reefs/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: In ordinary circumstances coral reefs are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth, built slowly by animals that appear to be plants. Each coral polyp houses microscopic algae that convert sunlight into sugars, supplying most of the coral’s energy. When conditions deteriorate, especially when water becomes too warm, this partnership breaks down. The coral expels its symbionts, loses its color, and turns white. This is coral bleaching. The coral is still alive, but weakened. If stressful conditions persist, many die. Bleaching is not new, but its scale is. Before the late 20th century, mass events were rare. Over the past four decades they have become increasingly frequent and severe, driven primarily by ocean warming. A rise of only 1–2 °C above typical summer temperatures can trigger widespread bleaching across entire regions. A newly published global analysis in Nature Communications provides a stark benchmark. During the Third Global Coral Bleaching Event from 2014 to 2017, marine heatwaves affected reefs worldwide for an unusually prolonged period. Based on more than 15,000 reef surveys, researchers estimate that over half of the world’s reefs experienced moderate or worse bleaching, and roughly 15% suffered moderate or greater mortality. The scale of damage exceeded that of any previously recorded global bleaching event, underscoring the accelerating impact of ocean warming on reef systems. Global distribution of heat stress from the first three Global Coral Bleaching Events That episode is now often treated as a reference point because it was both global and sustained. Unlike earlier events, it…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Mass coral bleaching occurs when unusually warm ocean temperatures disrupt the partnership between corals and the microscopic algae that supply most of their energy, leaving corals weakened and often leading to widespread mortality if heat stress persists. - The 2014–2017 Global Coral Bleaching Event was the most severe on record, affecting more than half of the world’s reefs, and a new global bleaching event that began in 2023 suggests that large-scale damage is continuing as oceans warm. - Bleaching interacts with other pressures — including ocean acidification, overfishing, pollution, coastal development, and destructive fishing — reducing reefs’ ability to recover and increasing the risk of long-term degradation. - While conservation, restoration, and experimental interventions may help protect resilient reefs or buy time locally, scientists emphasize that limiting global warming is critical to preserving coral reefs as diverse, functioning ecosystems. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Southern elephant seals recover in Southern Africa, but global picture is mixed 18 Feb 2026 07:07:59 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/southern-elephant-seals-recover-in-southern-africa-but-global-picture-is-mixed/ author: Malavikavyawahare dc:creator: Charles Mpaka content:encoded: The southern elephant seal population in South Africa has seen its conservation status improve from near threatened to least concern, with a recent assessment citing the absence of serious threats to the species’ breeding colonies. Elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) are native to sub-Antarctic islands, including Prince Edward Island and Marion Island, which are part of South Africa. They breed on these two islands, and while the colonies are separate, some seals move between the two populations, which allows interbreeding and increases genetic diversity of the species. According to the recently published 2025 Mammal Red List for Southern Africa, “no serious threats have been affecting the land breeding colonies” of the two islands in the last 40 years, resulting in an increase in elephant seal numbers. The latest assessment was part of a collaboration between the nonprofit Endangered Wildlife Trust and the South African National Biodiversity Institute that brought together 163 researchers from 40 institutions to update the conservation statuses of 336 mammal species native to South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland). The review was guided by the standards set down by the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority that puts out the global edition of the Red List. The assessment found that 20% of the 336 species are threatened with extinction while 11% are categorized as near threatened. Of the 67 endemic species, those found nowhere else on Earth, 29 are threatened with extinction. Apart from the southern elephant seal, the researchers noted that the status of…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The southern elephant seal’s conservation status in South Africa has improved from near threatened to least concern, with experts citing four decades without major threats to its breeding colonies on Marion and Prince Edward islands. - About 5,500 seals are estimated across the two islands, with nearly 1,400 pups recorded in 2023; strong legal protections and marine protected area status have supported recovery. - Scientists caution that the causes of a sharp population decline in the late 20th century remain poorly understood, with possible links to food availability, climate change and oceanographic shifts. - While South Africa’s population is recovering, other southern elephant seal populations face threats, including a devastating bird flu outbreak in Argentina, prompting debate about the species’ global conservation status. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
From chemistry to regeneration: Agriculture’s next transformation has begun (commentary) 17 Feb 2026 21:53:22 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/from-chemistry-to-regeneration-agricultures-next-transformation-has-begun-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Sallie Calhoun content:encoded: Agriculture is on the cusp of its most profound transformation in a century. Just as the Green Revolution shifted farming from sun and soil to synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, we are just beginning another revolution: returning to an agriculture based on biology rather than chemistry. This isn’t new knowledge; rather, it’s wisdom refined over millennia that we temporarily abandoned. If we embrace it, this transition could restore ecosystems, strengthen rural economies, and secure a healthier food future for all. For most of human history, farming relied on natural systems: the symbiosis between plants, soil and sun. That changed in the 20th century when synthetic fertilizers and pesticides made soil little more than a prop to hold up a plant that was externally fed everything it needed, and was stripped of its biodiversity. The approach boosted yields, but at enormous costs that we’re just now beginning to grasp fully: degraded soils, contaminated water, rising chemical input dependence (and correlated rising costs to farmers, even as food gets cheaper), which all result in collapsing farm economics and ecosystems. The system is locked in a treadmill of toxicity and debt. Sheep graze in the vineyard at Paicines Ranch. Image courtesy of Paicines Ranch. Nature’s intelligence Regenerative agriculture offers a path forward, and away from agrichemicals and bare ground. It builds on thousands of years of Indigenous knowledge, farmer-led innovation, organic farming and agroecological science that challenge chemical dependency and center biology in agriculture, while avoiding rigid prescriptions that risk turning principles into ceilings.…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Just as the Green Revolution shifted farming from sun and soil to synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, we are now seeing a new revolution, one of returning to an agriculture based on biology rather than chemistry. - The current, chemically dependent model has produced a lot of food but at great cost to soil health, biodiversity and livelihoods. - “Society must recognize the truth: we cannot continue to poison our environment in the name of food production, and regeneration is the only viable future,” a new op-ed argues. - This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Kiliii Yüyan puts Indigenous ‘Guardians of Life’ and their planetary stewardship in focus 17 Feb 2026 21:28:59 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/02/kiliii-yuyan-puts-indigenous-guardians-of-life-and-their-planetary-stewardship-in-focus/ author: Mikedigirolamo dc:creator: Mike DiGirolamo content:encoded: National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yüyan returns to the Mongabay Newscast to share his experience creating his new book, Guardians of Life: Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous Science, and Restoring the Planet from specialty publisher Braided River. This book documents the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of nine Indigenous communities worldwide, featuring contributions and essays from many members of these communities, along with Yüyan’s own photography. TEK, Yüyan says, isn’t exactly traditional so much as it is ecological knowledge that is place-based. While it draws on thousands of years of knowledge, it also innovates in society as we know it, and can offer social, cultural and ecological benefits that neoliberal economics does not. For example, visitors to the Pacific island nation of Palau receive a stamp in their passport that declares they will protect the reef (one of the largest marine protected areas in the world) for all the people and the grandchildren of Palau. The country’s governance structure quite literally integrates family in policing the marine protected area. Yüyan describes what happens if you go hunting in the MPA: You’ll probably get stern shaming from your Aunty, and the whole community will know about it. “The real magic that I discovered [in Palau] as I started talking to people was that the traditional governance structure that they’re all used to over there is what makes it work. What makes it work is family ties.” Many of the Indigenous communities featured in the book are sovereign nations or part thereof, for whom “laws and…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yüyan returns to the Mongabay Newscast to share his experience creating his new book, Guardians of Life: Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous Science, and Restoring the Planet from specialty publisher Braided River. This book documents the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of nine Indigenous communities worldwide, featuring contributions and essays from many members of […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Some forest restoration linked to short-term rise in zoonotic diseases 17 Feb 2026 20:22:27 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/some-forest-restoration-linked-to-short-term-rise-in-zoonotic-diseases/ author: Glenn Scherer dc:creator: Bobby Bascomb content:encoded: Deforestation and land use change can accelerate the spread of zoonotic diseases — infectious illnesses that can spread from animals to humans — including malaria and COVID-19. While habitat restoration is crucial for addressing biodiversity loss and climate change, new research suggests counterintuitively that it can also temporarily increase the risk of certain zoonotic diseases in some areas. Human encroachment into wild spaces for development and agriculture increases contact with disease-spreading wildlife. In Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, for example, researchers found mosquitoes were more likely to feast on humans when their natural hosts became scarce as a result of deforestation. Despite a global push to restore degraded ecosystems, scientists have known little about how restoration affects zoonotic disease risk. To fill that gap, Adam Fell with the University of Stirling in Scotland, and lead author of a new study, conducted a large meta-analysis of scientific literature, case studies and policy reports. “We only found something like 39 [relevant] studies, out of thousands that we looked through,” Fell told Mongabay in a video call. The results were very context-dependent, he said. In some cases, reforestation actually increased the spread of zoonotic diseases in the short term. One explanation offered by researchers is that rodents — a common vector for infectious disease — are among the first colonizers in a disturbed landscape, and with them can come an uptick in zoonotic diseases like hantavirus. In the long term, Fell added, ecosystems tend to find balance as larger animals, like ungulates and bobcats, return…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Deforestation and land use change can accelerate the spread of zoonotic diseases — infectious illnesses that can spread from animals to humans — including malaria and COVID-19. While habitat restoration is crucial for addressing biodiversity loss and climate change, new research suggests counterintuitively that it can also temporarily increase the risk of certain zoonotic diseases […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Amazon deforestation on pace to be the lowest on record, says Brazil 17 Feb 2026 20:03:06 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-deforestation-on-pace-to-be-the-lowest-on-record-says-brazil/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Brazil’s latest satellite alerts indicate that deforestation in the Amazon has continued to fall into early 2026, extending a downward trend that began after a sharp rise earlier in the decade. Data released by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) show that 1,325 square kilometers of forest clearing were detected between Aug. 1, 2025 — the start of Brazil’s deforestation year — and Jan. 31, 2026. That is down from 2,050 square kilometers during the same period a year earlier and represents the lowest figure for this interval since 2014. Over a longer horizon, the picture is similarly positive from a conservation perspective. Alerts for the trailing 12 months totaled 3,770 square kilometers, compared with 4,245 square kilometers at this time last year, also the lowest since 2014. These figures come from INPE’s DETER system, which uses near-real-time satellite imagery primarily to guide enforcement. While less precise than annual surveys, DETER is widely regarded as a reliable indicator of short-term trends. Accumulated deforestation for Aug 1-Jan 31 in recent years according to INPE’s DETER alert system. Image by Mongabay Data from INPE’s DETER and Imazon’s SAD detection systems showing deforestation in the Legal Amazon (“Amazonia”). Image by Mongabay Speaking at a press conference announcing the data last week, Environment Minister Marina Silva said the decline reflects coordinated government action. She noted that most high-deforestation municipalities have now joined federal initiatives aimed at curbing illegal clearing. “Of the 81 municipalities with the highest deforestation rates, 70 have already made this…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Near-real-time satellite alerts show Amazon deforestation in Brazil continuing to decline into early 2026, with clearing from August through January falling to its lowest level for that period since 2014. - Over the previous 12 months, detected forest loss also dropped to a 2014 low, reinforcing a broader downward trend that is corroborated by official annual data and independent monitoring. Clearing in the neighboring Cerrado savanna has also fallen - Environment Minister Marina Silva attributed the decline to strengthened enforcement and municipal cooperation, saying Brazil could record the lowest Amazon deforestation rate since record-keeping began in 1988 if current efforts continue. - While the data is positive for conservation advocates, short-term satellite data can fluctuate seasonally, and long-term outcomes will depend on economic pressures, infrastructure expansion, and climate-driven risks such as drought and fire. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Malaria outbreak among Indigenous Pirahã linked to forest loss, satellite data find 17 Feb 2026 18:16:12 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malaria-outbreak-among-indigenous-piraha-linked-to-forest-loss-satellite-data-find/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Aimee Gabay content:encoded: Tucked into Brazil’s Amazon forest, along the Maici River where recently contacted Pirahã people live, journalists observed a dramatic uptick in forest loss. According to data from Global Forest Watch, the Pirahã Indigenous Territory lost 3,200 hectares (7,900 acres) of tree cover in 2024, roughly the size of more than 6,000 soccer fields, representing the largest spike of deforestation between 2001 and 2024. But the cause was beyond the usual culprits of deforestation in the Amazon. In fact, national authorities say, it was part of an effort to address issues vulnerable Indigenous communities face following land invasions: food insecurity and the spread of diseases. The recent spike is mostly due to land clearings to improve food security and a health crisis in the affected population, said Daniel Cangussu, coordinator of the Madeira Ethno-Environmental Protection Front (FPE Madeira-Purus), a branch of Funai, Brazil’s Indigenous agency, which specializes in monitoring and protecting isolated and recently contacted people in the southern Amazonas region. Cangussu said via WhatsApp that Funai and the Pirahã people cleared land to plant crops such as cassava for the roughly 800 people who live there. For several decades, the Pirahã Indigenous people have faced a multitude of issues, from illegal loggers and hunters to invasions by outsiders seeking to extract natural resources from their territory in Brazil’s Amazonas state. Wildlife that people would hunt have been scared away, and fish stocks also declined due to the destruction. In recent years, government officials discovered the population was suffering from a…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - According to data from Global Forest Watch, the Pirahã Indigenous Territory in Brazil lost 7,000 hectares of tree cover from 2002-24. - A large spike occurred in 2024, when the territory lost 3,200 hectares of tree cover. - Government officials told Mongabay that the recently contacted Pirahã people are facing a malaria outbreak, and the deforestation is the result of an effort by Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency to improve food security. - The situation is complex, conservationists say, and although the clearings to plant crops may exacerbate the risk of malaria, the Pirahã people need food to improve their ability to fight the disease. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Scientists can’t agree on where the world’s forests are 17 Feb 2026 17:42:43 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/scientists-cant-agree-on-where-the-worlds-forests-are/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: A deceptively simple question underlies many global environmental policies: where, exactly, are the world’s forests? A new study suggests the answer depends heavily on which map one consults—and that the differences are large enough to reshape climate targets, conservation priorities, and development spending. Researchers Sarah Castle, Peter Newton, Johan Oldekop, Kathy Baylis, and Daniel Miller compared ten widely used global forest datasets derived from satellite imagery. These products underpin everything from carbon accounting to biodiversity assessments. Yet they rarely agree. Across the area identified as forest by at least one dataset, only about 26% was classified as forest by all of them. Even after adjusting maps to a common spatial scale, agreement improved only modestly. This divergence stems partly from differing definitions. Some datasets count areas with sparse tree cover as forest; others require dense canopy. A threshold of 10% canopy cover, for example, will include savannas and woodland mosaics, while a 70% threshold captures only closed forests. Resolution also matters. High-resolution imagery can detect narrow forest strips or small patches that coarser data miss. Methodological choices—such as sensor type, machine-learning algorithm, and training data—introduce further variation. A) Spatial agreement of forest cover classifications between eight land cover datasets. Spatial agreement is defined as the number of datasets that define a pixel as forest, between 1 and 8. Full agreement between all eight datasets corresponds to a value of eight (dark green), and no agreement between the datasets corresponds to a value of 1 (dark purple). No color (gray) indicates…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A global comparison of ten satellite-based forest datasets found striking disagreement about where forests are located, with only about a quarter of mapped forest area recognized by all sources. Differences in definitions, resolution, and methodology mean that estimates of forest extent vary widely depending on the map used. - The inconsistencies are greatest in dry forests and fragmented landscapes, where sparse tree cover makes classification difficult. Even small technical choices—such as canopy thresholds or sensor type—can determine whether an area counts as forest at all. - These discrepancies translate into large differences in real-world indicators. Estimates of forest carbon in Kenya, forest-proximate poverty in India, and habitat loss in Brazil varied dramatically across datasets, with potential implications for funding, policy, and conservation priorities. - Because forest maps underpin climate targets, biodiversity planning, and development decisions, the authors urge treating estimates as ranges rather than precise figures and testing results across multiple datasets. Greater standardization and transparency, they argue, will be essential for credible monitoring of global environmental goals. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Kenya launches a carbon registry to boost climate finance and credibility 17 Feb 2026 16:31:55 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/kenya-launches-a-carbon-registry-to-boost-climate-finance-and-credibility/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya has launched its first national carbon registry, a centralized system to track carbon credit projects, prevent double counting and strengthen transparency in climate markets. The platform positions Kenya to attract global climate financing as demand grows for credible carbon offsets under the Paris Climate agreement. Officials say the registry will ensure emissions reductions are verified and that communities benefit from carbon trading. Backed by international partners including Germany, the system is meant to boost investor confidence and align carbon projects with national climate targets. Africa holds vast carbon sinks but gets only a small share of global carbon market investment. By Allan Olingo, Associated Press Banner image: Fisherman Guni Mazeras, 62, casts a net backdropped by mangrove trees in Vanga, Kwale County, Kenya on Monday, June 13, 2022. Locals living in once-heavily forested regions across Africa are starting to find their land in high demand as governments and companies seek to improve their climate credentials through carbon credit schemes, where tree-planting offsets carbon dioxide emissions. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)This article was originally published on Mongabay description: NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya has launched its first national carbon registry, a centralized system to track carbon credit projects, prevent double counting and strengthen transparency in climate markets. The platform positions Kenya to attract global climate financing as demand grows for credible carbon offsets under the Paris Climate agreement. Officials say the registry will […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
That “butterfly” you saw? It was probably a moth 17 Feb 2026 15:26:37 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/that-butterfly-you-saw-it-was-probably-a-moth/ author: Sam Lee dc:creator: Romi Castagnino content:encoded: Most people think moths are dull, nocturnal, and nothing like butterflies. That couldn’t be more wrong. In the Amazon rainforest, moths come in every color, shape, and size — and many are active during the day. In fact, while there are only about 18,000 species of butterflies worldwide, there are over 160,000 species of moths. From fuzzy antennae to nighttime science traps, this is a closer look at one of the most overlooked — and misunderstood — creatures in the rainforest. I’m Romi Castagnino and this is Stranger Creatures — decoding the Amazon’s strangest survivors, one episode at a time. Episodes each week!This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Most people think moths are dull, nocturnal, and nothing like butterflies. That couldn’t be more wrong. In the Amazon rainforest, moths come in every color, shape, and size — and many are active during the day. In fact, while there are only about 18,000 species of butterflies worldwide, there are over 160,000 species of moths. […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Helicopter translocation brings isolated banteng to safer grounds in Cambodia 17 Feb 2026 13:34:10 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/helicopter-translocation-brings-isolated-banteng-to-safer-grounds-in-cambodia/ author: Philip Jacobson dc:creator: Carolyn Cowan content:encoded: Earlier this month, a team of conservationists translocated 16 critically endangered banteng into Siem Pang Wildlife Sanctuary in northeast Cambodia in a bid to boost numbers that had dwindled to critical levels. The group of wild cattle was captured and transported from a nearby unprotected forest facing imminent conversion to farmland. The operation was the second phase of largescale efforts to save the herd, led by Cambodia-based social enterprise Rising Phoenix in partnership with local wildlife authorities. “With proper law enforcement, no poaching and suitable habitat in Siem Pang, I think there is a very positive future for them,” said Romain Legrand, biodiversity research and monitoring manager with Rising Phoenix. “The population is going to grow quickly, I’m sure.” Together with the first translocation carried out in May 2025, the recent operation brings the total rehomed banteng (Bos javanicus) population in the reserve to 32 individuals, including breeding-age adults and calves, according to Legrand. Banteng are strikingly patterned bovids, their bright white legs and snowy rumps contrasting sharply against their russet coats. The species used to range across Southeast Asia, with Cambodia’s once-extensive dry dipterocarp forests home to a significant portion of the global population. However, decades of deforestation and hunting for their meat, horns and hides have decimated their numbers — the latest IUCN Red List assessment puts their global population at no more than 8,000 individuals. In Cambodia, the species hangs on as sporadic groups eking out an existence in a handful of isolated forest patches. While tigers…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Earlier this month in northeastern Cambodia, conservationists deployed helicopters, trucks and more than 50 personnel to translocate a group of critically endangered banteng into a protected reserve. - Banteng, a type of wild cattle that once roamed widely across Southeast Asia, have suffered crippling population declines due to hunting and deforestation. - The effort is part of wider plans to secure a future for the species in Cambodia while rewilding Siem Pang Wildlife Sanctuary, a site that experts say is one of Cambodia’s best protected sites. - Against the backdrop of intense forest loss, even within protected areas, experts say translocation of isolated animals away from frontiers of development could offer a viable future for conservation in Cambodia. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
UN recognition is latest boost to restoring spekboom across South Africa’s semidesert Karoo 17 Feb 2026 12:40:57 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/un-recognition-is-latest-boost-to-restoring-spekboom-across-south-africas-semidesert-karoo/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Joe Walsh content:encoded: “Spekboom is everywhere, it’s all anyone talks about … what used to be an Angora goat farming town is now a spekboom town,” says field ecologist Rae Attridge. In the past two years, Nat Carbon, the carbon project developer Attridge works for, has planted 10,000 hectares (nearly 25,000 acres) of spekboom in the Klein Karoo, a semidesert region of South Africa. Their work is the first phase of an effort to restore 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of degraded land on five farms near Jansenville in Eastern Cape province. The company is one of more than 60 entities carrying out spekboom thicket restoration projects across 800,000 hectares (2 million acres), all loosely tied up under what the United Nations calls the Thicket Restoration Movement. The Subtropical Thicket Restoration Programme was started in 2004 by the South African government with $8 million of funding intended to catalyze large-scale investment into thicket restoration efforts in the region. These were the first green shoots of a growing collection of projects now recognized by the U.N. In 2009, researchers had planted spekboom (Porticularia afra) on 331 quarter-hectare plots scattered across over roughly 7.5 million hectares (18.5 million acres) of the biome to evaluate the potential for restoration. These earlier experiments found that thicker stems would increase survival rates, but watering at planting time had a negligible impact. It also found that animals, both wild and domestic, easily found their way to these small poorly protected plots. An Angora goat in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province.…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Since 2004, the South African government has been working to restore spekboom thickets in a semiarid region of the country. - This biome, anchored by the hardy, carbon-sequestering spekboom plant, has been massively degraded by two centuries of expanding farming and livestock herding. - That long arc of conversion of thicket landscapes to farm and rangeland is now dying, as overgrazing, climate change and shifting markets for agricultural products take their toll. - Dozens of private operators have joined the government in trying to restore this biome’s original thicket cover, attracted by the potential for income from carbon credits. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Indonesia says intervention in notorious Sumatran national park part of new ‘model’ 17 Feb 2026 09:44:39 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/indonesia-says-intervention-in-notorious-sumatran-national-park-part-of-new-model/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Suryadi content:encoded: PELALAWAN, Indonesia — A radical new policy to relocate people living in a notoriously deforested national park on Sumatra has moved hundreds of families to date, with Indonesian officials presenting the controversial program as a blueprint for other protected areas across Asia’s largest remaining tropical forests. “This activity will serve as a model for other locations in restoring national parks,” Indonesian Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni said in a statement. Tesso Nilo is one of the few remaining habitats of the critically endangered Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatrensis) and Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae). The forest is also home to thousands of plant species. The lowland national park in Sumatra’s Riau province has suffered extensive deforestation, however, despite being granted the highest level of state protection two decades ago. Tesso Nilo was designated a national park in 2004 on a former logging timber concession. Following a subsequent expansion in 2009, Tesso Nilo National Park now spans 81,793 hectares (202,115 acres) — an area larger than New York City. Data from Global Forest Watch, a satellite platform managed by the World Resources Institute, showed Tesso Nilo National Park lost 78% of its old-growth forest between the expansion in 2009 and end-2023. Fieldworkers in Riau say the extraordinary level of destruction in Tesso Nilo reflects complex challenges to the rule of law on the ground, from community encroachment and migration to corruption and organized criminality, which successive local and national governments have failed to control. In an attempt to halt the crisis,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Tesso Nilo National Park was established in 2004 and expanded in 2009 in Sumatra’s Riau province, but has since lost more than three-quarters of its old-growth forest, largely to smallholder oil palm farms, according to remote-sensing platform Global Forest Watch. - Last year, officials working under a new nationwide forestry task force began work to relocate hundreds of farming families living inside the park, in a radical attempt to regain control of a protected area that’s been almost entirely destroyed. - The government is framing the Tesso Nilo policy around efforts to save Domang, one of the critically endangered Sumatran elephant calves living within the national park. - The intervention in Tesso Nilo sparked some low-intensity violence last year, including destruction of a shelter in the forest used by national park staff as a base for fieldwork, prompting a surge in military presence to bolster security as the operation proceeds. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Floods linked to climate change hit nearly 1 million in Southern Africa 17 Feb 2026 06:56:29 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/floods-linked-to-climate-change-hit-nearly-1-million-in-southern-africa/ author: Malavikavyawahare dc:creator: Victoria Schneider content:encoded: Devastating floods that swept across Southern Africa since December 2025, killing at least 280 people and affecting almost a million, were likely intensified by the impacts of climate change, scientists say. The region’s rainy season hit hard in Mozambique, Eswatini, Madagascar, South Africa and Zimbabwe, displacing 150,000 people and destroying 105,000 hectares (nearly 260,000 acres) of farmland. Most recently, Cyclone Gezani hit Madagascar on Feb. 10, leaving dozens dead. The storm also caused deaths and damages in flood-battered Mozambique. A rapid study by World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international consortium of scientists and institutions that investigates the role of human-caused climate change in extreme weather events, found that a warming climate, combined with La Niña weather patterns, aggravated the extreme rains. “The most striking finding was that the rainfall accumulated over just 10 days exceeded the region’s average annual rainfall. This was unprecedented,” one of the study’s lead authors, Izidine Pinto, climatologist and researcher for weather and climate models at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, told Mongabay. He added that some weather stations recorded more than 200 millimeters (8 inches) of rain in just 24 hours. The authors noted that structural vulnerabilities in the affected areas made the climatic shocks even deadlier and more destructive. Mozambique, in particular, Pinto said, was not prepared for such heavy rainfall. The WWA scientists analyzed 10-day maximum rainfall accumulations during the rainy season in Mozambique, South Africa, Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland) and Zimbabwe from December to the beginning of February. By combining this…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A rapid analysis of heavy floods that occurred between December 2025 and January 2026 in Southern Africa finds that climate change has exacerbated extreme rainfall events. - Scientists found that rainfall events in the region seem to be becoming more intense, and the likelihood of extreme precipitation occurring is higher in a warmer world. - Despite limitations of climate models in the African context, scientists say they’re confident that weather patterns are shifting due to climate change. - The study also revealed that the impacts were heightened due to structural and social vulnerabilities in the affected countries, with Mozambique being the hardest hit. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Texas sea turtles have lost a conservation hero (commentary) 16 Feb 2026 22:36:20 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/texas-sea-turtles-have-lost-a-conservation-hero-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Todd Steiner content:encoded: Carole Allen — founder of HEART (Help Endangered Animals Ridley Turtles) and the first director of the Turtle Island Restoration Network’s Gulf of Mexico office — passed away at the age of 90. For decades, she was the voice of the critically endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii), and one of the central figures responsible for bringing this species back from the brink of extinction. HEART began as an all-volunteer, grassroots organization dedicated to educating Texas schoolchildren about the mysterious and imperiled Kemp’s ridley. But Carole always insisted that education alone was not enough. People had to be inspired to care and then motivated to act. That is exactly what she did. Carole inspired not only children, but teachers, scientists, policymakers, and even fishermen who initially viewed endangered species protections as a threat to their livelihoods. She had an uncanny ability to bring people together and turn concern into action, whether through community projects like hand-sewn, heart-shaped stuffed turtles, or sea turtle cookie cutters that helped spread the message while raising funds for conservation. But Carole’s warmth was matched by her resolve. She was fearless. She did not back down in the face of intimidation from powerful politicians or threats from angry fishermen. When Kemp’s ridley turtles were being killed, Carole stood her ground. I first met Carole in 1990 in Mexico City, when we were both invited by the President of Mexico to witness the historic announcement closing the country’s notorious sea turtle slaughterhouse and permanently banning sea…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A dedicated sea turtle conservationist on the Texas Gulf Coast has passed away. - Carole Allen — the founder of HEART (Help Endangered Animals Ridley Turtles)— passed away this month at the age of 90. - “Some of Carole’s accomplishments are documented in Edward Humes’ 2009 book “Eco Barons” and the 2011 PBS documentary “The Heartbreak Turtle.” But her true legacy lives on in the countless children and adults she inspired over generations,” a new op-ed says. - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Costa Rica’s top court orders action to shield wildlife from power line hazards 16 Feb 2026 18:15:05 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/costa-ricas-top-court-orders-action-to-shield-wildlife-from-power-line-hazards/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Bobby Bascomb content:encoded: Costa Rica’s highest court has ruled that government agencies and the national electricity utility failed to adequately protect wildlife from electrocution caused by power lines. The case centers on the Nosara region in northwestern Costa Rica, but conservationists say the landmark ruling could strengthen wildlife protections across the country. The lawsuit was filed with the Constitutional Court by the law firm Alta Legal on behalf of a coalition of NGOs that argued that local electricity infrastructure was not adequately secured, as required by law. “Bare electrical wiring is a widespread problem in Costa Rica especially affecting rural areas,” Francisco Sánchez Murillo, a Costa Rican veterinarian who provided information for the case, told Mongabay in an email. He cited exposed wires, poor infrastructure maintenance and inadequate insulation for cables and transformers as key hazards. “In Nosara, the issue has been especially visible due to the constant wildlife electrocutions in the area,” Murillo said. Such electrocutions primarily harm tree-dwelling species like sloths and monkeys, and the recent court case largely focused on howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata). According to Elena Kukovica with the International Animal Rescue Center, one of the NGOs involved in the lawsuit, howler monkey mothers are frequently electrocuted on power lines. “That means you get a child that’s with her that becomes orphaned or dies as well,” Kukovica told Mongabay in a video call. She added that male troop leaders are also frequently killed. “And what happens is in the hierarchy of howler monkeys, the next leading male, then, to…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Costa Rica’s highest court has ruled that government agencies and the national electricity utility failed to adequately protect wildlife from electrocution caused by power lines. The case centers on the Nosara region in northwestern Costa Rica, but conservationists say the landmark ruling could strengthen wildlife protections across the country. The lawsuit was filed with the […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Study refutes claim that Indonesia’s legal turtle trade supports livelihoods 16 Feb 2026 18:03:38 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/study-refutes-claim-that-indonesias-legal-turtle-trade-supports-livelihoods/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Spoorthy Raman content:encoded: With an evolutionary history of more than 200 million years, turtles and tortoises have outlived dinosaurs and persisted on the planet despite mass extinction events. But around the turn of the 21st century, chelonian numbers in Southeast Asia dropped so dramatically that it sparked what biologists called the “Asian turtle crisis.” With a growing middle class in China, turtle meat was no longer a delicacy savored on special occasions; it became a staple meal, and turtle numbers plummeted. Coupled with disappearing and polluted habitats, the demand for these aquatic reptiles threatens to wipe out more than half of the world’s tortoise and turtle species. Yet, harvest and trade continue in Southeast Asia. Indonesia is a prominent exporter, with four of its 39 species targeted for meat. The vulnerable Asiatic softshell turtle (Amyda cartilaginea), the endangered Southeast Asian box turtle (Cuora amboinensis), the Asian leaf turtle (Cyclemys dentata) and the Malayan softshell turtle (Dogania subplana) fill the country’s yearly harvest quota of nearly 50,000 turtles. This legal trade purportedly provides sustainable, reliable income for those who capture and sell them. However, wildlife trade researcher Vincent Nijman and his colleagues refute this claim in a study published in the journal Discover Animals. They compared turtle collectors’ estimated income from the legal meat trade with minimum wage work across different Indonesian provinces to see if it really provided adequate income — and to determine whether traders needed to illegally trade turtles to make it a profitable business. “We were looking for some support…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Tens of thousands of freshwater turtles and tortoises are legally harvested each year in Indonesia for their meat and exported primarily to China, while many species teeter on the brink of extinction. - Although this turtle trade is thought to provide livelihoods for harvesters, a study finds that with current market prices, it only supports a few hundred people nationwide with a barely sustainable minimum wage income. - A big proportion of the trade must be illegal to keep it profitable, researchers say. They question whether it should be permitted at all, given that many targeted species are threatened with extinction. - To prevent illegal trade, conservationists urge Indonesian authorities to enforce harvest quotas, ban the trade of threatened species and provide alternative livelihoods for harvesters to save the country’s chelonians. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ are falling in North Atlantic whales after phaseout 16 Feb 2026 16:35:11 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/pfas-forever-chemicals-are-falling-in-north-atlantic-whales-after-phaseout/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Levels of some of the most persistent industrial chemicals in the North Atlantic appear to be falling, at least in one unlikely place. Long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) now carry markedly lower concentrations of several legacy PFAS compounds than they did a decade ago, according to a new multidecade analysis of tissue samples from the Faroe Islands. For a class of substances often described as indestructible, the finding is notable, reports Liz Kimbrough. PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — have been used since the mid-20th century in everything from nonstick cookware to firefighting foam. Their chemical stability allows them to persist in water, soil and living tissue. In marine food webs, that persistence is magnified. Apex predators such as whales tend to accumulate the highest burdens, making them useful sentinels of ocean contamination. The new study examined pilot whale samples collected between 1986 and 2023. Concentrations of bulk organofluorine, a proxy for total PFAS exposure, rose steadily until around 2011, then declined by more than 60% by 2023. The timing matters. Major manufacturers began phasing out several long-chain PFAS in the early 2000s. The decade-long delay before whale levels began to fall reflects the slow movement of chemicals through ocean currents into the open North Atlantic. That lag also helps explain why the result is unusual. In human blood samples, total organofluorine levels have not fallen in the same way. Newer replacement PFAS appear to be accumulating closer to where they’re produced and used, rather than dispersing widely into…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Levels of some of the most persistent industrial chemicals in the North Atlantic appear to be falling, at least in one unlikely place. Long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) now carry markedly lower concentrations of several legacy PFAS compounds than they did a decade ago, according to a new multidecade analysis of tissue samples from the […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
US ocean regulator faces criticism over changes to right whale protection rule 16 Feb 2026 15:51:49 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/us-ocean-regulator-faces-criticism-over-changes-to-right-whale-protection-rule/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The U.S.’s ocean regulator plans to make industry-friendly changes to a longstanding rule designed to protect vanishing whales, prompting criticism from environmental groups who cite the recent death of an endangered whale. The rules protect the North Atlantic right whale, which numbers less than 400 and lives off the East Coast. The giant animals are protected by a vessel speed rule that requires large ships to slow down at certain times to avoid collisions, which is a leading cause of death for the whales. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a Thursday statement to The Associated Press that it plans to soon announce proposed new rules designed to “modernize” the whale protections. The proposal will be a “deregulatory-focused action” that will seek to “reduce unnecessary regulatory and economic burdens while ensuring responsible conservation practices for endangered North Atlantic right whales,” the statement said. A notice of rulemaking about the right whale rules is listed on the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs website, but it does not include any details about the proposal. NOAA said in its statement that more information about the rules was forthcoming and that the agency was focused on “implementing new technologies, engineering approaches, and other advanced tools” to protect the whales. Several environmental groups criticized the move away from vessel speed rules. Some cited the Feb. 10 confirmation of the death of a 3-year-old female whale off Virginia. The cause of the animal’s death was not yet determined, but…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The U.S.’s ocean regulator plans to make industry-friendly changes to a longstanding rule designed to protect vanishing whales, prompting criticism from environmental groups who cite the recent death of an endangered whale. The rules protect the North Atlantic right whale, which numbers less than 400 and lives off the East Coast. The […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
A hundred-year vision: Gary Tabor on the rise of large landscape conservation 16 Feb 2026 14:04:57 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/a-hundred-year-vision-gary-tabor-on-the-rise-of-large-landscape-conservation/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Many view conservation as a ledger of discrete gains—acres saved or species rebounded—but for Gary Tabor, the more vital metric is architecture. He focuses on systems that hold when pressure builds. Few careers illustrate that preoccupation better than that of Tabor, an ecologist and wildlife veterinarian whose work prioritizes the relationship between places as much as the protection of the places themselves. Tabor’s conservation instincts were shaped early. As a child, he spent nine summers at a rustic camp in the Adirondack Park, climbing all 46 peaks above 4,000 feet and learning to navigate the portages and open lakes of the New York wilderness. The landscape endured by design, protected by New York’s “Forever Wild” clause and by a civic idea that wilderness and people might coexist. He has returned to those same mountains for decades, seeing the same relatively unchanged woods that inspired the founders of the Wilderness Society. The lesson stuck. (left) Tabor doing a tropical forest wildlife survey. (right) Tabor doing Cock of the Rock research in Suriname. Courtesy of Tabor That early exposure provided Tabor with a sense of scale that would eventually outsize the mountains themselves. Tabor trained as a scientist, but his education accelerated in East Africa, where he lived and worked for nearly a decade. In places like Lake Nakuru, he saw the limits of the “island” model; the park was iconic, but it was also entirely fenced in and cut off from the broader landscape. While wildlife crossed boundaries by instinct, governance…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Gary Tabor’s career marks a shift in conservation from protecting isolated “island” parks to designing vast, interconnected ecological networks. - Informed by his early years in the Adirondacks and a decade in East Africa, Tabor’s work emphasizes that wildlife survival depends on the “connective tissue” between protected areas. - Through founding the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, he has moved connectivity into the global mainstream, focusing on practical engineering like wildlife crossings and the human work of community organizing. - Tabor spoke with Mongabay’s Founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler in February 2026. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Seven years after Brazil’s worst dam disaster, mining operations bounce back 16 Feb 2026 08:11:15 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/seven-years-after-brazils-worst-dam-disaster-mining-operations-bounce-back/ author: Xavier Bartaburu dc:creator: Felipe S. DuranMylena Melo content:encoded: BRUMADINHO, Brazil — In the rural community of Jangada, in the municipality of Brumadinho in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, the water that supplies local families comes from springs that emerge onsite. In a Youtube video uploaded last December, local resident Lorraine Nascimento talks proudly about how “the water belongs to us.” More than 30 years ago, without any support from the state waterd board, Copasa, the residents built a system by themselves to collect and distribute water from the springs. Today, the system is managed autonomously by a community association created for this purpose, and supplies water to hundreds of families in Casa Branca, the rural district where the Jangada community is located. Cátia Patrocinia Cruz Maia is a schoolteacher who, like everyone in her family, was born and raised in the community. She’s a member of the association that manages the water collection and distribution system. She recalls that, before the system was created, residents used to get their water from a creek that ran through the area. As the community grew, the demand for piped water increased as well. That was when her father, João de Sousa Cruz, joined friends and neighbors to solve the problem. “They got together and started building a system to pipe water for all the families,” Maia says. “Those who could afford it pitched in to help buy the pipes. Not a single cent came from the local government; it was all a community effort.” Today, however, Jangada’s water is threatened by the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Seven years after a dam holding mining sludge collapsed in Brumadinho, southeastern Brazil, killing 272 people, mining giant Vale and its partner Itaminas are resuming operations at the very same mining complex. - The reopening of the Jangada mining site threatens the local community’s water security by potentially lowering the water table and compromising springs that supply hundreds of families in Brumadinho’s rural area, residents say. - Residents, victims’ relatives and civil society organizations have flagged the lack of information about the environmental risks that persist in a territory scarred by one of the worst mining-related disasters in Brazil. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Snooping on stingrays 15 Feb 2026 08:18:23 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/snooping-on-stingrays/ author: Sam Lee dc:creator: Abhishyant Kidangoor content:encoded: Biologging trackers have long been used to track and monitor marine animals like whales, sharks and dolphins. But it has been a challenge to use them on stingrays because of their smooth skin and the lack of a prominent fin. Scientists have now developed a multisensor tag which can be securely attached to sting rays. The tags gather a wide array of data including how the animals move, how they interact with other species and move through their habitats. Watch the latest episode of Then vs Now to learn more.This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Biologging trackers have long been used to track and monitor marine animals like whales, sharks and dolphins. But it has been a challenge to use them on stingrays because of their smooth skin and the lack of a prominent fin. Scientists have now developed a multisensor tag which can be securely attached to sting rays. […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
When environmental reporting has to outlast the news cycle 13 Feb 2026 23:37:19 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/when-environmental-reporting-has-to-outlast-the-news-cycle/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: In parts of Africa most affected by biodiversity loss and climate stress, the problem is not an absence of events worth reporting. It is the difficulty of translating slow-moving ecological change, fragmented governance and contested evidence into journalism that travels beyond borders. The signals are often local, technical and politically inconvenient. Yet they shape global outcomes all the same. Over the past decade, international interest in the Congo Basin, the Sahel and Central Africa has waxed and waned. Attention spikes around summits or crises, then recedes. What remains is the steady work of reporters who stay with these regions long after headlines move on, tracing how land use, energy choices, wildlife trade and misinformation interact on the ground. The entry point may be human, but the subject is systemic. Forest governance that looks sound on paper but frays in practice. Conservation policies that succeed in one district and fail in the next. Communities adapting to climate stress with tools that are promising but incomplete. The task is not to simplify these dynamics, but to make them clear and relatable to audiences. Aimable Twahirwa, a senior science journalist based in Kigali, has spent much of his career doing precisely that. After two and a half decades reporting across Central, East and West Africa, he joined Mongabay in 2024 to focus on regions that are often described in the abstract, but shaped by local realities. His work has examined wildlife trafficking routes, Indigenous roles in forest governance and the uptake of renewable…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: In parts of Africa most affected by biodiversity loss and climate stress, the problem is not an absence of events worth reporting. It is the difficulty of translating slow-moving ecological change, fragmented governance and contested evidence into journalism that travels beyond borders. The signals are often local, technical and politically inconvenient. Yet they shape global […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Storm aftermath leaves 2 dead in France; flood alerts to remain Saturday 13 Feb 2026 20:29:57 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/storm-aftermath-leaves-2-dead-in-france-flood-alerts-to-remain-saturday/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: PARIS (AP) — The aftermath of a deadly storm continued to disrupt parts of France on Friday, with flooding concerns persisting in the southwest even as wind alerts were lifted, according to weather service Météo-France. Government spokesperson Maud Bregeon said on TF1 that France had recorded two deaths linked to Storm Nils: one on Thursday in the Landes department and a second “in the last hours” in Tarn-et-Garonne. She said the second victim was a man who was found in his garden. Network operator Enedis said the storm left up to 900,000 customers without power at its peak; by Friday morning it had restored service to about half of those affected and mobilized 3,000 personnel, including 2,100 technicians. Flood vigilance remained high. Météo-France maintained red flood alerts for Gironde and Lot-et-Garonne — to remain in place Saturday — due to a significant Garonne river flood episode. Météo-France said the storm had “uncommon strength” and swept in from France’s western seaboard overnight Wednesday into Thursday and has now moved on tracking east into Europe. By Associated Press Banner image: People walk in a flooded street of Confolens as severe flooding hits western France amid storm Nils, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Yohan Bonnet)This article was originally published on Mongabay description: PARIS (AP) — The aftermath of a deadly storm continued to disrupt parts of France on Friday, with flooding concerns persisting in the southwest even as wind alerts were lifted, according to weather service Météo-France. Government spokesperson Maud Bregeon said on TF1 that France had recorded two deaths linked to Storm Nils: one on Thursday […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Forests don’t just store carbon. They keep people alive, scientists say 13 Feb 2026 17:57:40 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/forests-dont-just-store-carbon-they-keep-people-alive-scientists-say/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: For decades, a dominant argument for protecting forests has focused on carbon. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, store it in wood and soils, and slow the accumulation of greenhouse gases. A new scientific review suggests this emphasis overlooks other ways forests shape climate and human well-being. Forests, it argues, are not only a mitigation tool for the future climate. They also help people adapt to climate change today, shaping temperature, water and human well-being in ways that are felt locally. The paper, “More than mitigation: The role of forests in climate adaptation,” synthesizes research on how forests regulate climate through physical processes as much as chemical ones. At local scales, trees act as thermal buffers. Canopies shade the ground and drive evapotranspiration, a process that converts heat into water vapor. Across nearly one hundred field sites, daytime temperatures inside forests were on average about 4°C lower than in nearby open areas, while nighttime temperatures were slightly higher. The result is a narrowing of extremes: cooler afternoons, milder nights. These effects intensify in hotter climates. Tropical forests show the strongest cooling, often exceeding 6°C relative to cleared land. Even urban trees produce measurable relief, lowering air temperatures by roughly 1.5–1.7°C on sunny days. For people exposed to heat stress, the difference between forest shade and bare ground is not marginal. Apparent temperatures during heat events have been recorded as 6–14.5°C lower inside forests than outside. Mist over the rainforest in Borneo. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler Deforestation therefore alters not just landscapes…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Forests influence climate not only by storing carbon but by cooling the air, moderating extreme temperatures, and regulating water flows in ways that directly affect human well-being, concludes an academic review published this week in the journal Science. - These effects are strongest at the local level: intact forests can make surrounding areas markedly cooler, stabilize rainfall, and create microclimates that support agriculture, health, and daily life. - When forests are cleared, those protections can disappear quickly, often producing hotter, drier conditions and exposing large populations to increased heat stress and associated health risks. - The greatest climate benefits occur where forests are native, underscoring that protecting and restoring natural ecosystems can be as important for adaptation to climate change as for reducing emissions, argues the paper. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Insects are moving pharmaceutical pollutants from rivers to land; risks unknown 13 Feb 2026 15:59:39 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/insects-are-moving-pharmaceutical-pollutants-from-rivers-to-land-risks-unknown/ author: Glenn Scherer dc:creator: Sean Mowbray content:encoded: Pharmaceuticals that people globally rely on for daily health — including antibiotics, antidepressants and painkillers — are entering ecosystems via wastewater, posing poorly understood risks. Once there, aquatic insects can accumulate these chemical contaminants, with their predators transporting them back onto land, raising concern among scientists. A recent paper found that a host of pharmaceuticals can accumulate in winged species such as caddisflies and mayflies at different life stages, with the quantity varying among species. The paper’s first author, Marek Let, from the University of South Bohemia, says pharmaceutical pollution might not be as concerning as pesticide contaminants because medical drugs are generally found in low concentrations. But he adds that some pharmaceutical compounds can be incredibly toxic. These include sertraline (the active ingredient of the commonly prescribed antidepressant Zoloft), which his study found can bioamplify in caddisflies, increasing in concentration as the insect passes through its life cycle. Other antidepressants, including norsertraline and venlafaxine (the active ingredient in the popular prescription drug Effexor), as well as theophylline (prescribed to treat asthma symptoms) also bioamplify in caddisflies. A wastewater discharge pipe. Even when wastewater is treated it can still contain pollutants, including pharmaceuticals. So building more wastewater treatment plants is not the optimal solution, Previšić says. “Our input needs to be reduced.” Image by U.S. Department of Agriculture via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). “This study also proves that the pharmaceuticals do not stay in the water, and they can be emitted into the terrestrial environment and contaminate some terrestrial predators,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Pharmaceuticals have a wide range of detrimental side effects on people. Scientists also know that pharmaceutical pollution is widespread in aquatic ecosystems, largely due to wastewater outflows and runoff. - Studies now show pharmaceutical waterway contaminants can accumulate in aquatic insects at various life-cycle stages. These pollutants can then be transferred to terrestrial ecosystems as the insects are consumed by other species, including birds and bats. - Research also shows that pharmaceuticals can cause changes in the physiology and behavior of insects, with potential knock-on effects for populations and wider ecosystems. - But the full consequences of the transfer of a wide range of pharmaceutical contaminants to aquatic insects, and then via their predators to terrestrial environments and food webs, is largely unknown. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Baby gorilla seized from traffickers languishes in Turkish zoo 13 Feb 2026 15:58:58 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/baby-gorilla-seized-from-traffickers-languishes-in-turkish-zoo/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Spoorthy Raman content:encoded: In December 2024, Turkish customs officers were flummoxed when they discovered a malnourished baby gorilla in the cargo hold of an airplane flying from Nigeria to Bangkok, transiting via Istanbul. Wearing a soiled T-shirt, the 5-month-old infant was shoved inside a wooden crate falsely declared to contain 50 rabbits. After a social media campaign, he was named Zeytin, which means “olive” in Turkish. This critically endangered western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) was being smuggled to an animal farm in Bangkok without any export permits or paperwork. All great apes, including gorillas, are afforded the highest protection under CITES, an international treaty regulating wildlife trade, making commercial transnational trade illegal. They can be transferred between zoos or exported for scientific research but require official paperwork. After the seizure made global headlines, Turkish authorities sent Zeytin to Polonezköy Zoo in Istanbul. Meanwhile, they said they were working to imminently dispatch him to a sanctuary in Africa, where he could possibly be released into the wild. But one year on, those plans seem to have bitten the dust. As of September 2025, Zeytin was seen languishing in the same zoo, living a lonely life in a cage — the very life many thought he had escaped. “At present, Türkiye does not have adequate facilities to meet the long-term physical, social and psychological needs of a gorilla,” said primate expert Aslıhan Niksarlı at the Jane Goodall Institute who directs Roots & Shoots Türkiye. “There are also no other gorillas in the country, which…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Türkiye has refused to return a western lowland gorilla named Zeytin, who was smuggled out of Africa a year ago; Turkish authorities seized him as an infant from the cargo hold of an airplane headed to Bangkok. - The decision marks an about-turn in Türkiye’s plans to return him to Africa, where he’d be in a Nigerian sanctuary with other gorillas, after a DNA test ruled out Nigeria as his country of origin. Turkish authorities announced he will remain in the country permanently. - Gorillas are social animals that live in family groups, and with no other gorillas in the country, conservationists worry Zeytin will be doomed to a life of isolation in a zoo. - Conservationists urge Turkish officials to reconsider their decision and send the baby gorilla to a sanctuary in Africa as soon as possible so he has a better chance of possible release into the wild. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
From land acquisitions to local ownership: Alternatives for carbon offsetting (commentary) 13 Feb 2026 15:32:42 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/from-land-acquisitions-to-local-ownership-alternatives-for-carbon-offsetting-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Christoph Kubitza content:encoded: The voluntary carbon market and the business of carbon offsetting have faced increasing criticism in recent years, not only for the systematic overestimation of emission reductions, but also because projects have frequently had adverse effects on local livelihoods, particularly in the Global South, where many land-intensive projects are located. From the perspective of the Land Matrix Initiative (LMI), a recent commentary usefully highlights the growing scale and complexity of a certain type of land-based carbon offset projects and underscores the urgent need for critical scrutiny. We welcome this debate. Our analytical report documents approximately 9 million hectares (more than 22 million acres) of land globally affected by carbon offset-related land deals, with a deliberate focus on large-scale transactions that entail direct changes in land control. This focus reflects the Land Matrix’s long-standing mandate to monitor land acquisitions that contribute to land concentration, shifts in control, and power asymmetries at scale. We argue that this massive scale of land acquisitions occurring under the auspices of voluntary carbon markets, and often within countries with weak land governance systems, has profound implications for land access for affected communities as well as for broader debates on climate justice. Blackwater oxbow lake in the Peruvian Amazon. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Further, we highlight that community- or farmer-based carbon projects that do not entail land acquisitions can have serious risks, including long-term restrictions on land use, inequitable contracts, lack of informed consent, and uncertain benefits for participating communities. The claim in the commentary that we…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Land-based carbon offsetting poses serious risks, including inflated climate benefits and harmful livelihood impacts. A recent Land Matrix Initiative report argues that large-scale land acquisitions in the Global South under the auspices of carbon markets are adding substantial risks to global climate policies. - Given these developments, the Land Matrix provides critical, evidence-based scrutiny by documenting the scale and diversity of carbon-related land deals and advancing harm-reduction measures such as transparency, land governance, and accountability. - Among the recommendations, prioritizing community-based projects — while not risk-free — may offer a conditional alternative, provided there is genuine ownership, free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), and strong safeguards, with communities ultimately deciding whether and how to engage. - This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
The bug that makes bubbles with its butt: Froghopper 13 Feb 2026 09:29:53 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/the-bug-that-makes-bubbles-with-its-butt-froghopper/ author: Sam Lee dc:creator: Romi Castagnino content:encoded: Meet the froghopper: a tiny insect that builds a bubble fortress out of sap, pee and air to protect itself from predators. Fully grown, it’s one of the best jumpers on Earth, leaping to heights nearly 100 times its body length. This is Episode 6 of Stranger Creatures, a series where biologist Romi Castagnino ventures into the Amazon Rainforest to uncover nature’s strangest survivors. From frogs with see-through skin to mind-controlling fungi, she explores the bizarre adaptations and mind-bending survival tricks that make the Amazon’s wildlife — weird or familiar — truly extraordinary. Episodes each week!This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Meet the froghopper: a tiny insect that builds a bubble fortress out of sap, pee and air to protect itself from predators. Fully grown, it’s one of the best jumpers on Earth, leaping to heights nearly 100 times its body length. This is Episode 6 of Stranger Creatures, a series where biologist Romi Castagnino ventures […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Thousands of peat fires flare across Indonesia despite rainy season 13 Feb 2026 06:40:47 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/thousands-of-peat-fires-flare-across-indonesia-despite-rainy-season/ author: Hans Nicholas Jong dc:creator: Hans Nicholas Jong content:encoded: JAKARTA — Satellite imagery recorded more than 5,000 fire hotspots on peatlands across Indonesia in January, despite the fact that much of the country remains firmly in the grip of the rainy season. Independent watchdog Pantau Gambut identified 5,490 hotspots within peatlands, perennially waterlogged ecosystems that store massive amounts of carbon dioxide. Official monitoring also recorded an increase in fire hotspots, though using a different reporting method. Based on NASA Terra/Aqua satellite data, the Ministry of Forestry reported 110 hotspots nationwide in January 2026, up from 29 in January 2025 and 18 in December 2025. The two figures aren’t directly comparable, as they rely on different spatial filters and detection criteria. Pantau Gambut said the rise it recorded is concerning because it’s occurring during the wet season, which has been so intense this time around that it led to massive flooding in Sumatra in late 2025. The spike suggests fire risk in peat landscapes is no longer confined to the traditional dry season, but increasingly driven by degraded hydrology and land-use pressures, said Pantau Gambut campaigner Putra Saptian. Peat soil, which can be several meters deep, is made up of dead vegetation that, thanks to the waterlogged conditions, is only partially decomposed. In peat-rich areas across Sumatra and Borneo, logging and plantation companies have typically dug canals to drain the peat soil in preparation for cultivation, leaving behind vast swaths of highly flammable organic matter. Pantau Gambut recorded 1,824 hotspots inside the concessions of such companies in January, or a…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - More than 5,000 fire hotspots were detected across Indonesia’s peatlands in January, according to an independent watchdog — an alarming spike despite peak rainy season conditions and recent severe flooding in parts of Sumatra and Borneo. - About a third of the hotspots were inside company concessions, mostly oil palm, reinforcing long-standing evidence that drained and degraded peatlands are highly flammable even after short dry spells, with fire risk now shaped more by hydrology than by calendar seasons. - Provinces such as West Kalimantan and Aceh were hardest hit, with fires producing thick haze in cities like Pontianak and contributing to respiratory illness, underscoring how degraded peat amplifies both flood and fire risks. - After a presidentially appointed peat restoration agency was allowed to lapse in 2024, watchdogs say fragmented oversight, weak monitoring and uncertainty over responsibility have created setbacks in peat protection, raising concerns ahead of potential future El Niño conditions. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
US cuts legal foundation for federal climate regulation 13 Feb 2026 01:35:43 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/us-cuts-legal-foundation-for-federal-climate-regulation/ author: Karen Coates dc:creator: Bobby Bascomb content:encoded: On Feb. 12, the United States repealed the so-called endangerment finding, a 2009 cornerstone rule that enabled the federal government to regulate greenhouse gas emissions as a pollutant. Established under former President Barack Obama, the rule codified the long-held scientific consensus that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.” In repealing the endangerment finding, the EPA removed the legal and scientific foundation for regulating greenhouse gases, effectively clearing the path to do away with climate-related emissions limits for vehicles, industry and fossil fuel extraction. “This decision betrays the American people,” California Governor Gavin Newsom wrote in a social media post. He said the decision will “lead to more deadly wildfires, more extreme heat deaths, more climate-driven floods and droughts … all while the EPA dismisses the overwhelming science that has protected public health for decades.” The move comes as climate scientists warn that the last three years have been the warmest three years on record, and global emissions are set to push the Earth past 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) of warming since the industrial revolution, passing the threshold set by the Paris climate agreement. Although that limit has not yet been formally crossed, the world is already feeling widespread climate impacts. In 2025, more than 87 million people were affected by climate-related disasters. Meanwhile, conservationists warn that climate change is pushing vulnerable species toward extinction and threatening human health. Philip Landrigan is director of the Global Observatory on Planetary Health with Boston…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: On Feb. 12, the United States repealed the so-called endangerment finding, a 2009 cornerstone rule that enabled the federal government to regulate greenhouse gas emissions as a pollutant. Established under former President Barack Obama, the rule codified the long-held scientific consensus that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions “threaten the public health and welfare of current and […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
The business case for biodiversity 12 Feb 2026 22:42:55 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/the-business-case-for-biodiversity/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: In Manchester this week, governments endorsed a report that tries to do something business has long resisted: treat biodiversity as economically material. The new assessment from the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) argues that the loss of nature is no longer an environmental side issue. It is a systemic risk to firms, financial stability and long-term growth. The claim rests on a simple observation. All businesses depend, directly or indirectly, on living systems. Crops require pollination and soil fertility. Hydropower depends on stable watersheds. Insurers price flood risk. Even companies that appear distant from forests or reefs rely on supply chains shaped by water availability, climate regulation and the steady functioning of ecosystems. Since 1992, human-produced capital per person has roughly doubled, while stocks of natural capital have fallen by nearly 40%. The economy has grown, but part of the asset base on which it rests has been drawn down. The report places these trends in financial terms. In 2023, an estimated $7.3 trillion in public and private finance flowed into activities with direct negative impacts on nature. Around two-thirds came from private finance. By contrast, roughly $220 billion was directed toward conservation and restoration. Harmful subsidies alone amounted to about $2.4 trillion. The imbalance is stark. It suggests that markets and policy still reward degradation more reliably than stewardship. Deforestation in Borneo. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler / mongabay For companies, the implications are practical, the assessment argues. Biodiversity loss creates physical risks, such as crop…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Biodiversity loss is emerging as a systemic economic risk, affecting supply chains, financial stability and long-term growth across sectors, argues a new assessment from the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). - Despite widespread dependence on nature, an estimated $7.3 trillion in annual finance still flows to activities that harm biodiversity, far outweighing conservation spending, says the report. - Few companies currently disclose biodiversity impacts, and measurement remains uneven, though existing tools can already inform operational and portfolio decisions. - Without changes in incentives, policy and financial systems, what is profitable will often remain misaligned with what sustains the natural systems on which the economy depends, says IPBES. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Fishers denounce plummeting fish stocks following Amazon hydroelectric dam 12 Feb 2026 19:11:35 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/fishers-denounce-plummeting-fish-stocks-following-amazon-hydroelectric-dam/ author: Shanna Hanbury dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: A hydroelectric dam impacting Brazil’s Amazonas and Rondônia states have slashed fished populations by as much as 90% in some locations, according to a new a study based on on-the-ground research in partnership with riverine communities. The 2008 construction of the Santo Antônio hydroelectric dam dramatically reduced the natural flow of the Madeira River, which runs through the states in the northwestern Brazilian Amazon. As a result, species including pirarucu (Arapaima gigas), tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) and pirapitinga (Piaractus brachypomus) have largely disappeared from traditional fishing communities. “Fish need currents to navigate. They don’t need still water, they need moving water. And the Madeira River stopped flowing,” fisher Raimundo Nonato dos Santos, from the Lago Puruzinho community in Amazonas state, told Mongabay reporter Karla Mendes. “The impact was huge for us: the decline in fish stocks, the [milky] water remaining for many months within [the lake in] the community. It affected us a lot.” Dos Santos was one of more than a hundred fishers who collaborated with researchers from the Federal University of Amazonas on the 2023 study. They analyzed daily catch data between 2009 and 2010, before the dam was completed, and again between 2018 and 2019, after it was finished. They found a dramatic drop in the number of fish caught in the region following the dam. “The results show that the installation of the hydropower plants negatively affected the capture dynamics of several fish species by changing the capture periods and spots previously recorded,” the study’s authors wrote.…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: A hydroelectric dam impacting Brazil’s Amazonas and Rondônia states have slashed fished populations by as much as 90% in some locations, according to a new a study based on on-the-ground research in partnership with riverine communities. The 2008 construction of the Santo Antônio hydroelectric dam dramatically reduced the natural flow of the Madeira River, which […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
A 410-pound manatee rescued from a Florida storm drain is recovering at SeaWorld Orlando 12 Feb 2026 17:55:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/a-410-pound-manatee-rescued-from-a-florida-storm-drain-is-recovering-at-seaworld-orlando/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A manatee that got stuck in a Florida storm drain while seeking warmer waters is on the mend at SeaWorld Orlando after a coordinated rescue effort. Multiple fire rescue units and officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the University of Florida and even Jack’s Wrecker Service were brought in Tuesday to get the 410-pound (186-kilogram) sea cow out of the storm drain in Melbourne Beach. The crews convened on the scene after a worker with Melbourne Beach spotted the manatee, the city’s Vice Mayor Terry Cronin told WESH-TV in Orlando. “We’re in the process of improving the storm drain across Melbourne Beach. Our people were doing a survey. And one of the surveyors noticed a manatee in what is called a baffle box.” Cronin said. The male manatee was taken to SeaWorld Orlando, where it is being cared for in one of the park’s medical pools, spokesperson Stephanie Bechara said. “He’s breathing on his own, moving independently and showing interest in food. Our teams are adjusting water levels to support buoyancy and comfort as part of his care,” Bechara said. She said they work to stabilize and rehabilitate rescued manatees so they can ultimately be returned to the wild. The protected species is still recovering from a mass starvation event. In 2021, officials recorded more than 1,100 manatee deaths, mostly caused by starvation. The state’s fish and wildlife agency said deaths have gone down significantly, with 565 deaths recorded in 2024, and 555 deaths in…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A manatee that got stuck in a Florida storm drain while seeking warmer waters is on the mend at SeaWorld Orlando after a coordinated rescue effort. Multiple fire rescue units and officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the University of Florida and even Jack’s Wrecker Service were brought in […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Guanacos’ return to Gran Chaco restirs debate around wildlife translocations 12 Feb 2026 17:28:28 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/guanacos-return-to-gran-chaco-restirs-debate-around-wildlife-translocations/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Mark Hillsdon content:encoded: After a 3,200-kilometer (2,000-mile) journey from Patagonia National Park to El Impenetrable National Park and a year spent adapting to their new environment, five guanacos, South America’s largest camelids, have been released into the wild. The guanacos (Lama guanicoe) are being reintroduced to boost the regional population across the Dry Chaco ecosystem in El Impenetrable and are meant to play an important role in helping the park’s grasslands recover after decades of overgrazing by cattle. But although Rewilding Argentina, the wildlife conservation NGO that led the effort, labels this initiative a success, some Argentinian academics argue that translocations like these risk mixing guanaco populations with different genetic makeup and could be more harmful than good. The guanaco’s population is estimated at around 1.5-2.2 million across the continent’s southern and western grasslands. Between 81 to 86% of guanacos are found in Argentina, 14- 18% in Chile, while a small relict population inhabits northern Peru. However, the last recorded sighting of a guanaco in Argentina’s Chaco province was in 1913; hunting and the loss of grasslands to livestock farming have led to the species’ local extinction, with only fragmented populations surviving on the border between Paraguay and Bolivia. The translocation of three females, a male and a juvenile guanaco was completed by Rewilding Argentina in coordination with Argentina’s National Parks Administration and the provinces of Chaco and Santa Cruz. The animals came from Patagonia, which, according to research, is home to around 90% of the guanacos in Argentina. The guanaco (Lama guanicoe)…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Five guanacos have been translocated from Patagonia to Argentina’s Dry Chaco as part of a reintroduction program. - Rewilding supporters say the animals will help bring the local population back from the brink of extinction as well as help recover a threatened ecosystem. - However, some scientists in Argentina argue that moving animals like this is unethical, can spread disease and lead to genome extinction. - But as conservation budgets are slashed in Argentina, others argue that preserving biodiversity requires more collaboration between the public and private sectors. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Brazil gov’t builds map to help exporters comply with EU anti-deforestation rule 12 Feb 2026 16:39:14 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/brazil-govt-builds-map-to-help-exporters-comply-with-eu-anti-deforestation-rule/ author: Karla Mendes dc:creator: Karla Mendes content:encoded: The Brazilian government has built a map to help commodity exporters comply with the European Union’s new regulation on deforestation-free products, or EUDR. The country’s National Space Research Institute, INPE, created new technology to generate deforestation data in polygons of a half-hectare (1.2-acre) threshold — one of the EUDR requirements. Brazil’s official deforestation data for the Amazon comes from INPE’s satellite-based monitoring system, PRODES, which uses a one-hectare threshold. “It was the first time we did [this in] less than 1 hectare [2.5 acres],” Claudio Almeida, coordinator of INPE’s BiomasBR monitoring program, told Mongabay by phone. The EUDR, when it comes into effect at the end of 2026 (delayed for the second year in a row), will require suppliers to provide geolocalized data and other documentation to prove that their products exported to the EU aren’t sourced from areas illegally deforested after Dec. 31, 2020. The legislation aims to address increasing claims of products imported into the EU being linked to illegal deforestation, including in the Amazon Rainforest, and will target seven commodities: soy, cattle, rubber, palm oil, coffee, cocoa and timber. Graphic by Andrés Alegría/Mongabay. PRODES’ annual deforestation rate refers to data from Aug. 1 from the previous year to July 31 in the following year, but INPE also used high resolution satellite imagery and developed new technology to produce deforestation data with the cutoff date required by EUDR, Almeida said. December is the start of the Amazon rainy season, which poses challenges to track deforestation due to the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Brazil’s National Space Research Institute, INPE, created a new technology to generate deforestation data in polygons of a half-hectare threshold for the first time, following the European Union’s new regulation on deforestation-free products, or EUDR. - When it comes into effect at the end of 2026 (delayed for the second year in a row), the EUDR will require suppliers to provide geolocalized data and other documentation to prove that their products exported to the EU aren’t sourced from areas illegally deforested after Dec. 31, 2020. - December is the start of the Amazon rainy season, which poses challenges to track deforestation due to the high incidence of clouds; to tackle this, INPE created the Brazil Data Cube, which captures all remote sensing images of a period and radar to get cloud-free images for that month. - The map was built per request of the agriculture ministry, which made it available for rural producers in late December 2025 through a platform aimed at integrating information from public and private databases to generate compliance reports to be used by exporters. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Pilot projects aim to break Indonesia’s habit of burning household waste 12 Feb 2026 12:51:31 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/pilot-projects-aim-to-break-indonesias-habit-of-burning-household-waste/ author: Isabel Esterman dc:creator: Hans Nicholas Jong content:encoded: JAKARTA — When old mattresses and broken chairs are dumped by the roadside in his neighborhood, Erwinsyah faces a choice: leave them there and risk accidents, or set them on fire. The head of a neighborhood unit, or RT, in the city of Bogor, south of Jakarta, Erwinsyah says residents often discard bulky waste such as used spring beds and furniture along the street. Left unattended, they become an eyesore — and a hazard. “The mattresses are already dirty, smelly, full of rat droppings. So they just get placed by the roadside. But that’s an area where people pass by, children go to school,” Erwinsyah told Mongabay. “If a child walks past and it falls on them, then I’m the one who’ll get blamed as the head of the neighborhood unit.” To prevent that from happening, he sometimes burns the items in an empty field away from houses, staying to monitor the flames. What Erwinsyah describes isn’t unusual. Across Indonesia, open waste burning remains widespread despite being prohibited under the country’s 2008 Waste Management Law. A 2023 national survey by the Ministry of Health found that 57% of Indonesian households still burn their waste , making it the most common method of waste handling. By comparison, 27.6% hand waste over to collectors or informal waste pickers, 8.7% dump it directly at disposal sites, and just 0.1% reported recycling. Open waste burning in Indonesia in 2023. Image courtesy of Ecoton. Health impacts Open waste burning releases a mix of pollutants, including…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - More than half of Indonesian households still burn their trash, often because bulky or inorganic waste isn’t collected and dumping it creates safety risks in dense neighborhoods. - Burning waste releases fine particles and black carbon that penetrate deep into the body, contributing to respiratory and cardiovascular disease, organ damage and conditions such as anemia. - Black carbon is also a potent climate pollutant, meaning cutting household waste burning could deliver fast benefits for both air quality and global warming if addressed at the source, experts say. - Cultural norms, lack of infrastructure, limited enforcement and financial constraints drive waste burning, prompting pilot projects that combine community engagement, better waste systems and real-time pollution monitoring. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Farmers fear displacement, drought, flooding tied to Cambodia’s Funan Techo Canal 12 Feb 2026 06:33:31 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/farmers-fear-displacement-drought-flooding-tied-to-cambodias-funan-techo-canal/ author: Isabel Esterman dc:creator: Gerald FlynnPhoung Vantha content:encoded: This is the second of two stories about the potential impact of Cambodia’s planned Funan Techo Canal. Read part one, about consequences for coastal communities and wildlife, here. TAKEO, Cambodia — Thet Chanton finally finished construction on his new home along the banks of the Prek Bassac (Bassac creek) in Prey Sambor village, a small farming community in Cambodia’s southern province of Takeo. That was in June 2024. Just five months later, when Mongabay first interviewed Chanton in November 2024, he said local authorities had already told him his house would need to be demolished. “We had a meeting with the village chief, but there were commune, district and provincial authorities there too,” Chanton said. “They told us that Prek Bassac will be studied to become part of the Funan Techo Canal.” The canal is a controversial new waterway the Cambodian government is planning to link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand. It will cut a 180-kilometer (112-mile) trench through farms, wetlands and homes in Kandal, Takeo, Kampot and Kep provinces as it goes. Chanton’s household is one of 400 the government estimates will lose their houses to the mega-project’s construction. The same estimates suggest that, in total, 2,305 households consisting of 11,525 people will be directly impacted in some way by the Funan Techo Canal. “We spent about $20,000 to build this house, but we did that with a $10,000 microfinance loan,” said Chanton, who owned a small rice farm around his newly built home when Mongabay met…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Cambodian government is set to begin construction of the Funan Techo Canal, a nearly $1.2 billion, 180-kilometer (112-mile) waterway navigation project that will cut across four provinces to connect the Mekong River to the sea. - The primary rationale for building the canal is to reduce Cambodia’s shipping costs, as well as to generate jobs and economic development. - Mongabay has followed this mega-project’s development for more than a year, speaking with more than 50 people living along the canal’s proposed route. Virtually everyone we spoke with noted that the government has provided very little information about the project, and amid the uncertainty, fear has taken root. - In inland communities in the rich floodplains of the Mekong River, farmers we spoke with said they worried they’d lose their homes or land, and that construction would disrupt the annual months-long inundation of the wetlands they rely on for planting rice as well as for fishing, crabbing and raising livestock. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Scrutiny grows over DRC-US minerals deal, even as other African nations sign up 12 Feb 2026 06:01:12 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/scrutiny-grows-over-drc-us-minerals-deal-even-as-other-african-nations-sign-up/ author: Malavikavyawahare dc:creator: Elodie Toto content:encoded: On Feb 4, the U.S. hosted the Critical Minerals Ministerial, a summit bringing together delegations from more than 50 countries, including seven African countries, with the aim of securing access to the critical minerals used in everything from electric vehicles to semiconductors. Among the countries attending the summit was Guinea, a West African nation rich in bauxite and iron deposits. Its delegation, represented by the minister of mines, Bouna Sylla, signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. on Feb. 5. Morocco also signed an MoU with the U.S. at the summit, joining a handful of other African countries that have done so in recent months. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda signed partnership agreements with the U.S. in December. The deals marked an acceleration in U.S. efforts to gain access to and exploit critical minerals, an industry dominated by China. According to the International Energy Agency, in 2024, most of the global processing of copper, lithium, cobalt, graphite and rare earth minerals was done by China. Without naming China, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a press meeting on Feb 4, that the critical minerals supply is “heavily concentrated in the hands of one country. And that lends itself to, at worst-case scenario, being used as a tool of leverage in geopolitics.” He added: “I think there’s a growing global recognition that we need to have supply chains for critical minerals that are reliable and diverse across the world.” Photographers capture the group of ministers…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A minerals summit hosted by the U.S. this month marks an acceleration of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce its dependence on China for critical minerals, including by sealing deals with mineral-rich African countries. - Guinea and Morocco signed separate agreements with the U.S. during the summit in Washington, even as an earlier deal with the Democratic Republic of Congo, signed in December, came under greater scrutiny at home. - The DRC, which holds more than 70% of global cobalt reserves, has emerged as a key strategic partner for the U.S., but civil society group warns that the new mineral deal prioritizes geopolitics over human rights, environmental protection and transparency. - Ongoing insecurity in the eastern DRC raises questions about whether Trump’s approach linking U.S. peace-building efforts to economic gains will bring stability to the region. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Brazil mining boss sentenced for illegal gold operation on Indigenous land 12 Feb 2026 02:39:52 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/brazil-mining-boss-sentenced-for-illegal-gold-operation-on-indigenous-land/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: A Brazilian federal court has sentenced a key financier to more than 22 years in prison. He was found guilty of leading an illegal mining operation in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, a huge protected area in the Amazon Rainforest that has been devastated by pollution, disease and deforestation. Rodrigo Martins de Mello, known as Rodrigo Cataratas, was convicted on charges of leading a criminal organization, money laundering, illegal mining on protected Indigenous land and other crimes. The mining severely degraded the Indigenous territory, causing disease and death for locals. The judge ordered Mello to pay more than 31.7 million reais ($6.1 million) in damages to the Yanomami people. “Justice must hold people accountable for the impacts and for the deaths of the Yanomami people, because we did nothing wrong,” Waihiri Hekurari Yanomami, the president of the Urihi Yanomami Association, told Mongabay in an audio message. “They are the ones who came and poisoned the children and the rivers. And until today, we are still paying a very, very high price. ” Illegal gold mining in the Yanomami territory surged more than 300% between 2018 and 2022, following the election of Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro, who publicly supported mining on Indigenous land. Thousands of miners invaded Yanomami land, and with them came a 330% increase in deaths from malnutrition, mostly among young Indigenous children. A 2023 health survey found that almost 70% of the Yanomami people had mercury in their bodies. Mercury is commonly used to amalgamate gold. Miners also…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: A Brazilian federal court has sentenced a key financier to more than 22 years in prison. He was found guilty of leading an illegal mining operation in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, a huge protected area in the Amazon Rainforest that has been devastated by pollution, disease and deforestation. Rodrigo Martins de Mello, known as Rodrigo […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Banks decline to finance LNG project in Papua New Guinea 11 Feb 2026 22:09:20 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/banks-decline-to-finance-lng-project-in-papua-new-guinea/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Victoria Schneider content:encoded: A total of Twenty-nine international banks and export credit agencies have ruled out financing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Papua New Guinea, citing climate, environmental and human rights concerns. The project is led by French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies, which says the project will go on as planned, nonetheless. Twelve financial institutions recently declined the project, including ING, KfW IPEX-Bank and Standard Bank have publicly ruled out financing the project along with major banks such as Crédit Agricole and BNP Paribas. In December 2025, six international NGOs filed a formal complaint about the project with the Equator Principles Association (EPA), a voluntary risk management framework used by financial institutions to assess environmental and social risks of potential infrastructure projects. The complaint raised concerns that the project failed to meet EPA standards. The proposed project is located in Papua New Guinea’s Gulf and Central provinces and has a potential export capacity of 5.6 million metric tons of liquified natural gas per year. The plan includes up to 11 wells, a processing plant and 320 kilometers (200 miles) of onshore and offshore pipeline. The project is expected to emit 220 million metric tons of CO2 annually — nearly the emissions of Spain. Conservationists are concerned that the infrastructure and potential pollution could devastate rare, local wildlife. The would-be project is located in a mountainous region, home to roughly 100 species that haven’t yet been studied by science, Antoine Bouhey from the France-based research and campaigning organization Reclaim Finance told…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: A total of Twenty-nine international banks and export credit agencies have ruled out financing a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Papua New Guinea, citing climate, environmental and human rights concerns. The project is led by French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies, which says the project will go on as planned, nonetheless. Twelve financial institutions […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Sustainable fisheries can’t be built on exploited labor (commentary) 11 Feb 2026 21:56:12 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/sustainable-fisheries-cant-be-built-on-exploited-labor-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Alfred “Bubba” Cook content:encoded: For decades, the global fisheries conservation community has rightly focused on the health of fish stocks, the integrity of management systems, and the long-term sustainability of ocean resources. But there is a fundamental truth we can no longer afford to sidestep: fisheries management that fails to protect the people working at sea is neither credible nor sustainable. Crew welfare starts with international law. In theory, the framework already exists. International maritime law, anchored in instruments such as the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), establishes the responsibilities of states over vessels flying their flag. Complementing this are labor-specific agreements like the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Work in Fishing Convention (C188), the Maritime Labour Convention, and safety instruments such as the Cape Town Agreement on fishing vessel safety. In practice, however, these protections remain uneven, weakly enforced, or entirely absent for too many fishing crews, particularly migrant workers deployed on distant-water fleets. Ratification gaps persist. Oversight mechanisms are diffuse and fragmented, and accountability too often disappears once a vessel leaves port. Under international law, flag states, those countries where a ship is registered and to whose jurisdiction it is subject, remain the primary authority responsible for ensuring the safety, welfare and labor conditions of crews on their vessels. This is not optional. It is a legal obligation that is explicit under UNCLOS Article 94, on duties of the flag state. Yet many flag states lack either the capacity or the political will to exercise effective control over labor…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The connection between human welfare and ocean conservation is direct and unavoidable, a new op-ed argues, because lawlessness toward people often goes hand in hand with lawlessness toward the ocean. - Although there is an international legal framework governing crew welfare on fishing vessels at sea, these protections remain uneven, weakly enforced, or entirely absent for too many fishing crews, particularly migrant workers deployed on distant-water fleets. - “We cannot reasonably expect crews to comply with complex fisheries regulations including logbooks, bycatch mitigation, finning bans, spatial closures and other requirements when they are overworked, underpaid, isolated and afraid,” the author writes. - This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Snakes on a train: King cobras are hitching rides in India 11 Feb 2026 18:55:02 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/snakes-on-a-train-king-cobras-are-hitching-rides-in-india/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: On India’s railways, stowaways are not limited to ticketless passengers. Some arrive without limbs, luggage or much interest in timetables. A paper recently published in Biotropica suggests that king cobras (Ophiophagus kaalinga) may occasionally hitch a ride on trains in western India, turning railways into unexpected dispersal routes. The study, by Dikansh S. Parmar and colleagues, focuses on Goa, a small coastal state better known for beaches than for the world’s longest venomous snake. The authors assembled two decades of snake-rescue records, verified sightings and local reports. Most king cobras turned up where one would expect: forested, wetter, inland parts of the Western Ghats. A species-distribution model broadly supported this pattern. Five cases stood out. Each involved a king cobra found in places the model deemed unsuitable. Each lay close to railway infrastructure. One animal was rescued at Chandor railway station, sheltering among stored rails and concrete pillars. Others appeared near stations or tracks in Vasco da Gama, Loliem, Patnem and Palolem; all of them were poor locations for a forest-dwelling snake. Statistically, they were outliers. The simplest explanation is not that cobras prefer platforms to leaf litter, but that they arrived by accident. Cargo trains pass through high-quality cobra habitat before descending into Goa’s drier lowlands. Rail yards offer cover, rodents and other snakes. A large reptile entering a freight wagon at night could travel dozens of kilometers with little effort, emerging somewhere ecologically unfamiliar. Such journeys are not merely hypothetical. Indian media have documented snakes on moving trains,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: On India’s railways, stowaways are not limited to ticketless passengers. Some arrive without limbs, luggage or much interest in timetables. A paper recently published in Biotropica suggests that king cobras (Ophiophagus kaalinga) may occasionally hitch a ride on trains in western India, turning railways into unexpected dispersal routes. The study, by Dikansh S. Parmar and […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Study finds climate change set the stage for devastating wildfires in Argentina and Chile 11 Feb 2026 18:33:08 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/study-finds-climate-change-set-the-stage-for-devastating-wildfires-in-argentina-and-chile/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A team of researchers say that human-caused climate change had an important impact on the recent ferocious wildfires that engulfed parts of Chile and Argentina’s Patagonia region, making the extremely high-risk conditions that led to widespread burning up to three times more likely than in a world without global warming. The hot, dry and gusty weather that fed last month’s deadly wildfires in central and southern Chile was made around 200% more likely by human-made greenhouse gas emissions while the high-fire-risk conditions that fueled the blazes still racing through southern Argentina were made 150% more likely. That’s according to a report released Wednesday by World Weather Attribution, a scientific initiative that investigates extreme weather events. By Isabel Debre, Associated Press This article was originally published on Mongabay description: BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A team of researchers say that human-caused climate change had an important impact on the recent ferocious wildfires that engulfed parts of Chile and Argentina’s Patagonia region, making the extremely high-risk conditions that led to widespread burning up to three times more likely than in a world without global warming. […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
In Kenya’s Jomvu Creek, women help restore a vanishing coast through crab farming 11 Feb 2026 18:13:17 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-kenyas-jomvu-creek-women-help-restore-a-vanishing-coast-through-crab-farming/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Asha Bekidusa content:encoded: MOMBASA COUNTY, Kenya — Five minutes’ walk up the hilly road from the mangroves lining the tidal flats of Jomvu Creek, the sharp scent of sea water fills the air. A dozen women fill a small hall with laughter and conversation. In the coastal villages of Mombasa county, these gatherings of women to manage informal savings and loans schemes are known as chamas. But this is no ordinary chama. Here, discussions revolve around tides, crab feed, cage repairs and mangrove seedlings. The women, aged 35-60 years, are members of Jomvu Women in Fisheries and Culture, a community-based organization determined to transform their livelihoods and their environment through an unlikely venture: mud crab farming. Four years ago, these same women were scattered across the village. Most worked as what is known locally as mama karanga, the Swahili term for the women who fry fish over charcoal fires for sale near the beaches where fishers land their catch. Some would have been selling fresh fish, and a few were at home, tending to children and grandchildren. But dwindling fish stocks, health problems from cooking smoke and the daily uncertainty of small-scale trade had begun to take their toll. When a Kenya Marine Fisheries and Socio-Economic Development (KEMFSED) project offered grants for blue-economy enterprises in 2021, a few of these women decided to take the opportunity. The women have converted crates used for transporting bread into cages for their crabs. Image by Asha Bekidusa for Mongabay. New concepts Crab farming was a completely…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - On the outskirts of the coastal Kenyan city of Mombasa, a women’s organization in Jomvu Creek aims to transform livelihoods and the environment through mud crab farming. - A blue economy grant is allowing the women to establish a crab-fattening enterprise and build a boardwalk through the creek, with hopes of boosting ecotourism. - In a good month, the women’s crab sales amount to $310, meaningful income in an area where many had said they were living hand to mouth. - Beyond income, the Jomvu women see themselves as caretakers of the creek, linking crab farming to mangrove restoration and planting nearly 1 million seedlings; the trees stabilize the shoreline, reduce erosion and create nursery habitats for fish and crabs. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Another controversial land deal in Suriname threatens the Amazon Rainforest 11 Feb 2026 18:05:21 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/another-controversial-land-deal-in-suriname-threatens-the-amazon-rainforest/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Maxwell Radwin content:encoded: Officials in Suriname are trying to cancel a controversial agribusiness contract that could result in the clearance of over a hundred thousand hectares of Amazon rainforest, risking the country’s carbon-negative status. In 2024, the agriculture ministry partnered with a private company to develop 113,465 hectares (280,378 acres) of rainforest for industrial agriculture in the northwestern district of Nickerie. Although development wasn’t immediately carried out, the legal framework remains in place and has allowed clearing to begin in recent months. “This is not just a local issue. This is a regional issue because of the role rainforests play on the continent,” John Goedschalk, a climate advisor to Suriname’s president, told Mongabay. “The continued deforestation in the Guiana Shield endangers access to water for people all the way to Argentina.” The land is being developed through a public-private partnership between the Ministry of Agriculture and Suriname Green Energy Agriculture N.V., a private company working in agriculture and bioenergy. The company began clearing the forest despite not receiving permits from the National Environmental Authority (NMA), government officials said in internal emails reviewed by Mongabay. The area almost completely overlaps with logging concessions regulated by multiple-use and sustainability regulations designed to protect primary forest. The company has also hired Mennonites, members of a conservative Protestant denomination, to work on the land, reigniting fears that the religious group will establish large farming communities that rapidly expand into forested areas, as has happened in other parts of the region. Suriname Green Energy Agriculture and the agriculture…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Critics in Suriname are speaking out against plans to develop 113,465 hectares (280,378 acres) of rainforest for industrial agriculture in the district of Nickerie. - The plans come from a 2024 public-private partnership between the agriculture ministry and Suriname Green Energy Agriculture N.V., a private company working in agriculture and bioenergy. - The partnership was inherited from the previous government and allegedly went forward without environmental permits, causing frustration and confusion across several regulatory agencies. - If the entire 113,465-hectare block is cleared, Suriname could lose its negative carbon emission status and fail to qualify for certain carbon credit programs, experts said. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
In Peru’s Andes, Quechua women turn human-wildcat conflict into coexistence 11 Feb 2026 17:52:23 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-perus-andes-quechua-women-turn-human-wildcat-conflict-into-coexistence/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: AYACUCHO, Peru — High in the Peruvian Andes, a group of Indigenous Quechua women is transforming long-standing conflict with wildcats into a model of coexistence, conservation and cultural revival. A puma (Puma concolor) captured by a camera trap in the mountains of Ayacucho, Peru. Image courtesy of Mujeres Quechua por la Conservación. A new film, Women Secure a Future with Pumas in the Andes, examines how the fear of predators like the puma (Puma concolor), pampas cat (Leopardus garleppi) and Andean cat (Leopardus jacobita) once shaped daily life in the high-altitude community of Ccarhuacc Licapa. For generations, community members hunted these wildcats in retaliation for livestock losses, particularly alpacas, the community’s primary source of income. Antonio Torres, a former vicuña guard, holds the skin of a puma killed in retaliation for livestock losses. He is now a member of the local conservation group. Image courtesy of Cristina Hara. An alpaca herd grazes near the highland community of Licapa, where livestock is central to local livelihoods. Image courtesy of Cristina Hara. The documentary follows shepherd Ida Auris Arango, whose life was marked by a traumatic encounter with a puma, and biologist Merinia Mendoza Almeida, founder of the local women-led conservation association Mujeres Quechua por la Conservación. Together with dozens of Quechua women, they began using camera traps to document the area’s wildlife, helping families — especially mothers and children — see the wildcats not as enemies, but as part of a shared ecosystem. Shepherd Ida Auris Arango, a member of Mujeres…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In Peru’s Andean highlands, Quechua women who once killed pumas in retaliation for livestock losses are now leading efforts to protect them. - Through a women-led conservation group, communities used camera traps and monitoring to reframe pumas and other wildcats as part of a shared ecosystem. - Practical measures such as improved corrals, nonlethal deterrents and forest protection have sharply reduced conflict and ended retaliatory wildcat killings. - An alpaca wool textile cooperative links conservation with women’s economic empowerment, strengthening both livelihoods and wildlife protection. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Brazil’s Atlantic Forest Indigenous lands show strong restoration gains 11 Feb 2026 17:34:47 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/brazils-atlantic-forest-indigenous-lands-show-strong-restoration-gains/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Sonam Lama Hyolmo content:encoded: “The land is the greatest asset we have,” said Luzineth Pataxó, a Pataxó leader from the Caramuru-Paraguaçu Indigenous Territory, in the Atlantic forests of Brazil’s Bahia state. “Our people have always taken care of our territory and forests because it is from them that we derive our livelihoods … and connect with the sacred beings that inhabit them.” These efforts have paid off, some research suggests. A recent study comparing different land tenure regimes in the Brazil’s Atlantic Forest found that Indigenous lands and agrarian-reform settlements have greater restoration gains than private properties. “As part of the study, we isolated and compared many different land tenure regimes to private properties through our analysis design, and the staggering result was for Indigenous lands,” said Rayna Benzeev, one of the study authors. The research comparison included Indigenous lands, territories of descendants of Afro-Brazilian runaway enslaved people (Quilombola), agrarian-reform settlements, protected areas and private properties. “There are [on average] 189 hectares [467 acres] more long-term restoration gains on Indigenous lands compared to private properties.” While the study found positive outcomes on Indigenous lands, Benzeev noted that the study did not directly measure the factors driving these results. After analyzing restoration gains and reversals across 1.9 million territories in the Atlantic Forest from 1985 to 2022, the authors also found that Indigenous lands and agrarian-reform settlements had higher rates of restoration reversals (restored forests later deforested). Each had 21 hectares (52 acres) and roughly 4.5 hectares (11 acres) more restoration reversals than private properties,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A recent study comparing different land tenure regimes in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest found that Indigenous lands and agrarian-reform settlements have greater restoration gains than private properties — by 189 hectares on average. - Concurrently, the study also found Indigenous lands and agrarian-reform settlements had 21 hectares and roughly 4.5 hectares more restoration reversals than private properties, respectively. - Farming and agroecological land use practices may be among the reasons for higher restoration reversals, the authors suggested, while strong restoration gains are influenced by different governance structures and Indigenous cosmologies centered around relational connection to forest species. - Indigenous advocates say communities need strong policies, sustained funding and land demarcation to establish environmental preservation areas and continue forest restoration. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Indigenous concerns surface as U.S. agency considers seabed mining in Alaskan waters 11 Feb 2026 16:27:46 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/indigenous-concerns-surface-as-u-s-agency-considers-seabed-mining-in-alaskan-waters/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Anita Hofschneider content:encoded: A U.S. federal agency is considering allowing companies to lease more than 45.7 million hectares (113 million acres) of waters off Alaska for seabed mining. Alaska is the latest of several places President Donald Trump has sought to open to the fledging industry over the past year, including waters around American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Like those Pacific islands, Alaska is home to Indigenous peoples with ancestral ties to the ocean, and the proposal is raising cultural and environmental concerns. Deep-sea mining, the practice of scraping minerals off the ocean floor for commercial products like electric vehicle batteries and military technology, is not yet a commercial industry. It’s been slowed by the lack of regulations governing permits in international waters and by concerns about the environmental impact of extracting minerals that formed over millions of years. Scientists have warned the practice could damage fisheries and fragile ecosystems that could take millennia to recover. Indigenous peoples have also pushed back, citing violations of their rights to consent to projects in their territories. Trump, however, has voiced strong support for the industry as part of his effort to make the United States a leader in critical mineral production. He has also pushed for U.S. companies to mine in international waters, bypassing ongoing global negotiations over international mining regulations. Kate Finn, a citizen of the Osage Nation and executive director of the Tallgrass Institute Center for Indigenous Economic Stewardship in Colorado, said she worries the seabed mining industry will repeat the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is initiating the first steps that could lead to a lease of more than 45.7 million hectares (113 million acres) of waters off Alaska to companies for seabed mining. - The waters are off the coast of a state that is home to more than 200 Alaska Native nations and the proposal is raising cultural and environmental concerns. - It’s not yet clear which companies, if any, are interested in mining off Alaska, however some have expressed interest if there are good nodules — mineral-rich rocks. - Deep-sea mining has been slowed by the lack of regulations governing permits in international waters and by concerns about the environmental impact of extracting critical minerals that formed over millions of years to supply renewable technologies and military industries. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
‘Free for all’ — Dominican Republic withdraws trade protections, the latest blow to American eels’ future 11 Feb 2026 14:50:57 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/free-for-all-dominican-republic-withdraws-trade-protections-the-latest-blow-to-american-eels-future/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Spoorthy Raman content:encoded: Slimy, snake-shaped and yellow-brown, freshwater eels swim the rivers, estuaries and the coastal waters of Asia, Oceania, Europe, Africa and North America. Despite what their name says, these fish have strong ties to the oceans: They spawn at sea and the babies drift to their freshwater habitats, piggybacking on ocean currents. Though there are 19 known species, more than 99% of eels eaten worldwide belong to three species: the European eel (Anguilla anguilla), American eel (Anguilla rostrata) and Japanese eel (Anguilla japonica). They are coveted as delicacies in East Asia, primarily in Japanese, Korean and Chinese cuisines, where they are consumed once they grow to at least 30 centimeters (1 foot) long. In Japan, where it’s known as unagi, the fish is eaten grilled or smoked, as sushi or with rice. Most of the global harvest, however, is for finger-sized, transparent baby eels, also called glass eels or elvers. They’re caught the world over and shipped to aquaculture facilities, primarily in China, where they are reared for a year or two before being sold as food. With unrelenting demand, all three eel species have perilous conservation status, teetering on the brink of extinction. The European eel is critically endangered; the other two are endangered. In the last three months, two back-to-back efforts to protect these disappearing species failed. At the November CITES meeting of 184 countries and the European Union, delegates rejected a proposal to regulate international commercial trade in all freshwater eels. Another proposal by the Dominican Republic to monitor…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Dominican Republic withdrew a proposal to regulate commercial trade of its American eels under CITES, an international wildlife trade treaty. Its decision came on the heels of a failed effort to end unsustainable trade in all freshwater eels at the November meeting of delegates from 184 nations and the European Union in Uzbekistan. - Freshwater eels are in high demand as a culinary delicacy in East Asian cuisine, and juveniles are bought and sold both legally and on the black market for aquaculture. But illegal trade has soared in recent years. - With unrelenting demand, European eels are now critically endangered. Their cousins, the American and Japanese eels, are endangered, with their numbers plummeting. - Conservationists say the Dominican Republic’s failure to enact protections that would monitor trade is disappointing and further threatens the future of an imperiled species. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |