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Asia’s shark and ray hotspots remain poorly protected, study finds 26 Jun 2026 03:52:37 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/asias-shark-and-ray-hotspots-remain-poorly-protected-study-finds/ author: Dilrukshi Handunnetti dc:creator: Malaka Rodrigo content:encoded: COLOMBO — The majority of 122 marine areas identified across Asia as critical for the survival of sharks, rays and chimaeras remain largely unprotected despite supporting some of the world’s most threatened marine species, according to a new study. Published in Biodiversity and Conservation, the study assessed the network of important shark and ray areas (ISRAs) across 19 Asian countries and territories and found that only 5.4% of their total area overlaps with recognized marine protected areas (MPAs). Just 2.8% falls within fully protected no-take zones where extractive activities are strictly prohibited. Critically endangered sharpnose guitarfish landed from the Palk Bay ISRA are recorded in a fish market in the village of Mathagal, Sri Lanka’s Jaffna district. Fish markets and landing sites are valuable points for fisheries data collection and monitoring. Image courtesy of Blue Resources Trust. Together, these ISRAs cover more than 1 million square kilometers (approximately 386,102 square miles) of ocean and support sharks, rays and chimaeras, also known by the umbrella term elasmobranchs. Nearly three-quarters of these species are listed as threatened with extinction on the IUCN red list, highlighting the urgency of conserving these habitats, said study lead author Adriana Gonzalez-Pestana, a Ph.D. candidate at Charles Darwin University (CDU) in Australia and member of the IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group ISRA project. IUCN is the global wildlife conservation authority. Critically endangered stripenose guitarfish caught within the Pasikuda & Kalkuda ISRA in Sri Lanka’s east and being sold at a local fishery. Image courtesy of Blue Resources…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A new regional assessment has identified 122 important shark and ray areas (ISRAs) across Asia, spanning more than 1 million square kilometers (386,102 square miles) and supporting 121 species, many of them threatened with extinction. - Despite their ecological importance, only 5.4% of these habitats overlap with existing marine protected areas with only 2.8% falling within fully protected no-take zones, highlighting major conservation gaps. - Sri Lanka has five identified ISRAs, home to nine species with eight of them threatened with extinction, but only Pigeon Island in the island’s east is formally protected, with most areas still functioning as active fishing grounds. - The new study underscores an urgent need to move from mapping to management, using ISRAs to guide marine spatial planning, fisheries regulation and habitat protection ahead of global 30×30 ocean targets. authors: | ||
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Chewing sounds can help decode an animal’s diet using AI, new study finds 26 Jun 2026 02:29:05 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/chewing-sounds-can-help-decode-an-animals-diet-using-ai-new-study-finds/ author: Abhishyantkidangoor dc:creator: Abhishyant Kidangoor content:encoded: What does an eagle ray’s menu look like? An artificial intelligence model can now answer that question by listening to sounds of the animal chewing on food. Scientists developed the machine learning algorithm to detect the sound of shells being crushed by predators when they feed on mollusks. According to a study published in the journal Ecological Informatics, the model can also identify the prey based on the sounds. “A lot of animals out there, particularly marine animals, have the unique ability to crush shells open,” Matt Ajemian, assistant research professor at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University in the U.S. who was part of the research, told Mongabay in a video interview. “But we don’t know how much they eat and what they feed on. So we wanted to see if we could remotely detect an animal feeding on a clam versus a gastropod.” Keeping track of predator-prey interactions is crucial, especially in the face of rapidly changing marine habitats. Monitoring what and how much larger predators are eating is important to understand the resources they depend on and subsequently plan effective conservation action. Conversely, it’s also critical to have data on how much pressure there is on shellfish populations that serve as prey. “For example, in a clam bed or seagrass bed, we want to know how much prey is removed by a predator over the course of a year,” Ajemian said. However, gathering this data is not an easy task. Tracking predators underwater is…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Scientists have developed an AI model that can listen to the chewing sounds of predators and identify what they are eating. - The tool was trained with audio of whitespotted eagle rays crushing open shells of the mollusks they are preying on. - It’s crucial to understand predator-prey interactions to figure out the resources the predator depends on and the pressure it puts on prey. authors: | ||
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Seizures reveal macabre grey parrot blood trade in Cameroon 25 Jun 2026 18:50:46 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/seizures-reveal-macabre-grey-parrot-blood-trade-in-cameroon/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Spoorthy Raman content:encoded: The blood of African grey parrots is emerging as a new, macabre illegal wildlife product traded in Cameroon, analysts from TRAFFIC, a nonprofit that monitors wildlife trafficking, reported. This grim trade in grey parrots, an endangered species long coveted by exotic bird collectors, first came to light in 2025, when forest officials patrolling Cameroon’s Lobéké National Park caught trappers with live birds and interrogated them. “Poachers entering the park trap live birds, then kill them, extract their blood and transport them,” said Biloa Donatien Joseph Guy, the park’s conservator, adding that they haul the blood in bottles and jerry cans — normally used to carry fuel. While park authorities haven’t seized blood from apprehended suspects, poachers have been caught with live birds. Further investigations into these cases are ongoing. When last assessed by the IUCN in 2020, grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus), native to the rainforests of West and Central Africa, were declining, largely because of the pet trade. These beautiful, long-lived birds are among the most intelligent animals on the planet, thought to be as smart as a 5-year-old child. These parrots ‘talk,’ mimicking human speech with uncanny accuracy, making them a popular pet. They appear in videos across TikTok and YouTube, further fueling the demand. As a result, these birds have been poached to near-extinction, commanding exorbitant prices from collectors worldwide. Between 1982 and 2001, more than 1.3 million wild-caught grey parrots entered the international trade, according to IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, making them one of the most…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A grim, illicit trade in the blood of endangered African grey parrots is emerging near Cameroon’s Lobéké National Park, a stronghold for the species, according to TRAFFIC, a wildlife trafficking monitoring NGO. - This trade first came to light in 2025 when forest authorities apprehended individuals caught illegally trapping grey parrots in the park. During interrogation, the poachers said that blood was extracted from trapped birds and likely used for medicine and religious practices. - These intelligent birds are in demand as pets worldwide; their skulls and colorful feathers are used in belief-based practices, as a cure for speech problems and as decor. Decades of trade has pushed African grey parrots to the brink of extinction. - Not a lot is known about this blood trade, but conservationists say it points to a general trend where wildlife traffickers are shifting to hard-to-detect products, making it challenging to combat illegal commerce. authors: | ||
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Amazon floodplains cocoa offers a climate-resilient and sustainable chocolate 25 Jun 2026 18:10:19 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/amazon-floodplains-cocoa-offers-a-climate-resilient-and-sustainable-chocolate/ author: Alexandre de Santi dc:creator: Cícero PedrosoSam Cowie content:encoded: BACARENA, Brazil — Sunlight peeps through dense Amazonian foliage as Elene Elda Mota and her husband Giovanne guide their small motorboat down a narrow stream. Equipped with machetes and baskets, they disembark and make their way through the thick forest until they reach a tree bearing dozens of bright yellow cocoa pods. Here, in the Amazon floodplains of Barcarena, in northern Pará state, near where some Amazon rivers meet the Atlantic Ocean, cocoa grows in a natural agroforestry system. “Our cocoa is native cocoa,” Elene said. “We don’t plant our cocoa, we just manage it.” Protected and irrigated by the forest canopy of the floodplains, Elene’s cocoa is more resistant to pests like vassoura de bruxa, a fungus that devastated Brazilian crops in the 1980s, as well as climate change impacts like droughts and heavy rains. It also offers a diverse range of earthy, fruity and acidic flavors, which Elene has utilized to produce an expanding range of artisanal cocoa and chocolate products. Caramelized cocoa nibs are her best seller, she said, and she also produces artisanal chocolate bars, creams and other sweet spreads, cocoa powders and oils. Cocoa and chocolate producer Elene Elda Mota navigates an Amazon river and a new artisanal scene. Image by Cícero Pedroso. In recent years, the Amazon state of Pará, Brazil’s largest cocoa producer, has emerged as a new frontier, or terroir, for fine and artisanal chocolate. Like Burgundy wine from France or Ethiopian coffee, the concept of its terroir flavor is rooted in…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Traditional communities in Pará, Brazil’s top cocoa-producing state, are managing native species that naturally resist pests and extreme weather. - The dense forest canopy of the floodplains provides natural irrigation and protection for cocoa trees against extreme droughts, heavy rain and pests. - Global demand for organic and ethically sourced chocolate is expected to rise, positioning Amazonian states to fill international supply gaps, despite hurdles. - Experts compare Pará’s emerging artisanal chocolate sector to Burgundy wine or Ethiopian coffee due to the unique “terroir” flavors of its native beans. authors: | ||
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Trump admin persists in quixotic quest against wind power despite legal defeat 25 Jun 2026 16:59:09 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/trump-admin-persists-in-quixotic-quest-against-wind-power-despite-legal-defeat/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Bobby Bascomb content:encoded: U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is continuing its campaign to end wind energy development through a series of executive orders, lawsuits, and lease buybacks. This is despite a recent court defeat and its own Department of Energy estimating the country could be powered by wind alone. Trump has made no secret of his disdain for renewable energy. “We don’t want wind, and we don’t want solar because they’re a blight on our country,” he said in 2025. On the first day of his second term, Jan. 20, 2025, Trump issued a presidential action to remove leasing opportunities for all new and renewed offshore wind projects. He also directed the government to “conduct a comprehensive review of the ecological, economic, and environmental necessity of terminating or amending any existing wind energy leases.” In response, attorneys general from 17 states successfully sued the administration. A district court ruled the government’s action was “arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law.” The administration appealed, but on June 10, the Department of Justice filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss the case. The U.S. Court of Appeals did so on June 15. Andrea Campbell, the attorney general for the state of Massachusetts, one of the litigators behind the lawsuit, said in a statement: “Massachusetts has directed hundreds of millions of dollars into offshore wind development, and the court correctly protected those critical investments from the Trump Administration’s unlawful order.” While the administration abandoned the appeal, it has been buying back leases for wind farms. On June 17, the administration announced plans to pay…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is continuing its campaign to end wind energy development through a series of executive orders, lawsuits, and lease buybacks. This is despite a recent court defeat and its own Department of Energy estimating the country could be powered by wind alone. Trump has made no secret of his disdain for […] authors: | ||
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Nepal’s Central Zoo faces questions over its bird flu response 25 Jun 2026 16:55:44 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/nepals-central-zoo-faces-questions-over-its-bird-flu-response/ author: Abhaya Raj Joshi dc:creator: Deepak Adhikari content:encoded: KATHMANDU — A dead crow was found inside Nepal’s Central Zoo around “mid-June,” the exact date remains unknown. Then birds including a barn owl (Tyto alba) tested positive for avian influenza (bird flu) in a rapid test. Zoo authorities then sent samples to the Central Veterinary Laboratory on June 15. The zoo and officials from the semi-government body running it have given conflicting accounts of when the first deaths were detected and when bird flu was suspected. The facility remained open for several days, raising questions over its disease response during a major outbreak in Kathmandu Valley, where infected crows and fowl had already been reported in nearby Kirtipur. Ganesh Koirala, spokesperson for the Central Zoo, said officials found a dead crow inside the zoo on June 13. “Although the rapid test had already indicated infection, laboratory confirmation was necessary,” Koirala said. “It took 72 hours for the lab to send the results.” That account differs from Rachana Shah, spokesperson for the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), the semi-government body that manages the zoo. She said a crow and a pigeon were found dead on June 12, a date also confirmed by a veterinary official. House crows make a nest on a tree in Kathmandu. Image courtesy of Dinesh Bhusal. “During summer, pigeons and crows can also die because of heat stress, so at that point we could not immediately conclude that it was bird flu,” she said. But Koirala’s timeline indicated the zoo had an early warning by…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - At least 40 animals have died at Nepal’s Central Zoo since a bird flu outbreak began in mid-June, most of them raptors and carnivores including a common leopard, though the zoo has refused to officially confirm the toll. - Officials gave conflicting dates for when the first dead birds were found, and the zoo stayed open until June 19 despite a positive rapid test on June 14, a five-day gap that allowed the virus to spread through the facility. - Investigators suspect feral crows were the likely vector, with a nest found near the barn owl enclosure and droppings possibly contaminating the owl’s water supply; contaminated raw chicken fed to carnivores is also being examined. - The inquiry into the response is being led by the same spokesperson who has publicly defended the zoo’s handling of the outbreak. authors: | ||
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Not all coral reefs are doomed as a result of climate change, study suggests 25 Jun 2026 15:03:25 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/not-all-coral-reefs-are-doomed-as-a-result-of-climate-change-study-suggests/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Elodie Toto content:encoded: One third of the world’s coral reefs may be able to withstand the impacts of climate change by 2050, according to a study conducted by the conservation NGO Wildlife Conservation Society and researchers from Macquarie University in Australia. The findings of the study, yet to be peer-reviewed, were presented on June 16 during the Our Ocean Conference held in Mombasa, Kenya. “This study proves that there is hope,” Joseph Maina, an associate professor at Macquarie University who contributed to the study, told Mongabay during a phone interview. For the study, Maina and colleagues combined more than 45,000 field observations of coral reefs from 1960-2025, with 42 different environmental and human-pressure factors, such as temperature, heat stress, cyclones, fishing pressure and connectivity. They used this data to train an artificial intelligence model to predict the future of coral reefs by 2050, in a scenario where greenhouse gas emissions stay high. The results were striking. The program mapped 552,969 square kilometers (213,503 square miles) of coral reef extent. Of this, one-third, or approximately 165,922 km2 (64,063 mi2) of the reefs could be climate-resilient; that is, they could maintain healthy coral communities in the face of climate change impacts. These coral reefs are spread across 71 countries, but more than a half occur in five countries: The Bahamas, Cuba, Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. According to Maina, some African countries such as Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania also host a significant proportion of reefs that appear resilient to climate change. However, Maina said that…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: One third of the world’s coral reefs may be able to withstand the impacts of climate change by 2050, according to a study conducted by the conservation NGO Wildlife Conservation Society and researchers from Macquarie University in Australia. The findings of the study, yet to be peer-reviewed, were presented on June 16 during the Our […] authors: | ||
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How leopards and wolves share the same Himalayan valley, study 25 Jun 2026 14:34:13 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/how-leopards-and-wolves-share-the-same-himalayan-valley-study/ author: Liz Kimbrough dc:creator: Liz Kimbrough content:encoded: Three of Asia’s most formidable predators share territory in a remote Nepal valley by eating different prey, according to a new study. Researchers found that diet, not time or space, is what keeps snow leopards (Panthera uncia), common leopards (Panthera pardus), and Himalayan wolves (Canis lupus chanco) from coming into direct conflict. The study, published in PLOS One, drew on more than six years of camera-trapping and scat analysis in the Lapchi Valley of the Gaurishankar Conservation Area in Nepal’ s central Himalayas. Researchers identified each predator’s diet by analyzing fecal DNA and examining prey hair under a microscope. Snow leopards fed mainly on wild ungulates, including blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur), musk deer (Moschus leucogaster), Himalayan tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus), and Himalayan serow (Capricornis sumatraensis). Blue sheep alone made up nearly half their diet. Leopards relied heavily on livestock and animals associated with human settlements, including dogs, though barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak) and goral (Naemorhedus goral) also appeared in their scats. Himalayan wolves ate a mix of wild prey like blue sheep and musk deer as well as livestock such as goats, horses, and yaks (Bos grunniens). Dietary overlap between snow leopards and wolves was substantial, while leopards showed far less overlap with either species. All three predators were active mostly at night and used overlapping terrain. “The biggest surprise is that space and time are not what keep peace among the top three predators,” lead author Narayan Prasad Koju of Nepal Engineering College told Mongabay in an email. “The fact…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Three of Asia’s most formidable predators share territory in a remote Nepal valley by eating different prey, according to a new study. Researchers found that diet, not time or space, is what keeps snow leopards (Panthera uncia), common leopards (Panthera pardus), and Himalayan wolves (Canis lupus chanco) from coming into direct conflict. The study, published […] authors: | ||
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As temperatures soar, Paris court set to rule on landmark climate change case 25 Jun 2026 13:57:25 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/as-temperatures-soar-paris-court-set-to-rule-on-landmark-climate-change-case/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A day after France hit record high temperatures, a court in Paris is set to rule Thursday on a landmark climate change case that could see energy giant TotalEnergies forced to reduce its oil and gas production. The lawsuit, brought by a group of NGOs and the city of Paris, argues the French corporation is violating a 2017 law that requires companies to prevent human rights abuses and environmental risks. It is the first time that the so-called corporate duty of vigilance law is being applied to climate change. Environmental groups Notre Affaire à Tous, Sherpa, ZEA, France Nature Environnement launched the proceedings in 2020. They claim that TotalEnergies is one of the largest historical emitters of greenhouse gas and have asked the court to require the company to reduce oil production by 37 percent and gas production by 25 percent by 2030. The lawsuit also asks for a halt to all new fossil fuel projects. The decision comes as Europe is in the midst of a brutal heatwave. Punishing temperatures extended to the United Kingdom and Spain, where weather agencies issued red alerts — like France — about the risks of extreme heat for tens of millions of people. The iconic Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum have been forced to restrict visiting hours and school and transportation schedules have been interrupted across the continent. Human-caused climate change is tied to increasingly extreme weather, and U.N. climate agency projections say the next five years are likely to shatter more…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A day after France hit record high temperatures, a court in Paris is set to rule Thursday on a landmark climate change case that could see energy giant TotalEnergies forced to reduce its oil and gas production. The lawsuit, brought by a group of NGOs and the city of Paris, argues […] authors: | ||
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Crackdown on snares in Sumatra as elephant, sun bear and tiger rescued 25 Jun 2026 13:00:11 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/crackdown-on-snares-in-sumatra-as-elephant-sun-bear-and-tiger-rescued/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Jaka Hendra BaittriVinolia content:encoded: PADANG, Indonesia — Authorities in a stronghold for Sumatran tigers have warned the public against using snares to trap wild boar following the dramatic rescue of an 11-month old female tiger cub last month. While it is not illegal to set a snare for the purpose of trapping wild boar or animals that are not protected by law, the West Sumatra government said any protected species caught in a snare will now lead to criminal liability. The new clarification was set out in a letter issued in late May by the West Sumatra province office of Indonesia’s conservation agency, the BKSDA. It cites a 2024 amendment to Indonesia’s 1990 conservation law governing the protection of wildlife. “The situation has become dangerous because people are setting these snares,” explained Rizaldi, a conservation scientist at Andalas University in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province. The evacuation of a Sumatran tiger trapped in a wild boar snare in Pasaman. Image courtesy of BKSDA West Sumatra. Renewed attention on snares The recent crackdown on snares was sparked after a Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) was discovered in a wild boar snare in Padang Mantiggi Utara village located in West Sumatra’s Pasaman district. Officials from the West Sumatra BKSDA, the conservation agency, arrived at the scene at around 13:30 on May 21, where they found a young female tiger in distress and pain. A snare was wrapped around the animal’s neck, trunk and right foreleg, in about five loops. “She struggled for a while…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In May and June this year, animal rescuers with Indonesia’s state conservation agency, the BKSDA, rescued a Sumatran tiger, a Sumatran elephant and a sun bear in separate incidents after the animals were caught in snares. - Farmers set snares to catch wild boar, which are regarded as a pest to crops, but tiger poachers are also believed to use them to trap critically endangered Sumatran tigers for the illegal wildlife trade. - After recent rescues, the conservation agency published a letter stating that authorities consider the snare to be potentially unlawful and telling farmers to remove any existing snares. authors: | ||
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In Kenya’s Mida Creek, fishers confront a changing ocean with hope 25 Jun 2026 09:24:56 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-kenyas-mida-creek-fishers-confront-a-changing-ocean-with-hope/ author: Malavikavyawahare dc:creator: David Akana content:encoded: WATAMU, Kenya — By midday, the fish still hadn’t arrived. Since 8 a.m., Alice Kazungu had been sitting at the Mida Creek landing site on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast, waiting for fishers to return from the water. Hours later, she was still waiting. Around her, another woman scanned the creek for signs of approaching canoes. Some fishers had already returned empty-handed. Others had not returned at all. For Kazungu, a fishmonger and vice chair of the newly formed Mida Beach Management Unit (BMU), the long wait has become part of daily life. BMUs are the building blocks of fisheries co-management in Kenya, bringing together stakeholders in the sector including fishers, fish sellers and traders. Alice Kazungu, a fishmonger and vice chair of the newly formed Mida Beach Management Unit (BMU), in Watamu, Kenya. Image by David Akana/Mongabay. “There was a time when there was so much fish around here,” she says, pointing to the creek around her. “Now they [the fishers] bring back only two or three kilograms.” For Kazungu, the dwindling catch has become a question of survival. Married and raising children, she depends almost entirely on selling fish for income. When there is no fish, she occasionally sells palm wine tapped from coconut trees. But that is not enough to replace a livelihood built around the ocean. “When I go home, the children ask for food,” she says. “That is what worries me.” Her story echoes across Mida Creek, a sprawling network of mangroves, mudflats and tidal channels…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Scientists say that the oceans are warming and absorbing more than 90% of the excess heat trapped by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These rising temperatures are placing growing stress on marine ecosystems, fueling coral bleaching, disrupting breeding cycles of marine organisms, and reshaping fish habitats. - In the Western Indian Ocean – including along Kenya’s coast – warming is occurring faster than the global average in some places, raising fresh concerns for communities whose food security and livelihoods depend on the sea. - Along the shores of Mida Creek in Watamu, one of Kenya’s best-known coastal destinations on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast, fishers say they are already feeling the effects. Many report traveling farther offshore in search of fish and returning with smaller catches than they did a generation ago. - During a recent reporting trip, Mongabay met fishers and women involved in the fish value chain who spoke about declining catches and fears for the future. At the same time, they pointed to local efforts to restore mangroves, protect fish breeding grounds, and clean beaches as reasons to hold on to hope for Mida Creek’s future. authors: | ||
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On the brink of extinction, the Javan green magpie gets a conservation lifeline 25 Jun 2026 07:48:30 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/on-the-brink-of-extinction-the-javan-green-magpie-gets-a-conservation-lifeline/ author: Philip Jacobson dc:creator: Sean Mowbray content:encoded: Teetering on the brink of extinction, Indonesia’s Javan green magpie may have a conservation lifeline after national and international conservation NGOs launched an action plan to preserve it in the wild. Javan green magpies (Cissa thalassina) are endemic to the upland forests of West Java province, but have been assessed as critically endangered, with as few as 50 of the birds remaining in the wild. Habitat loss and poaching for the songbird trade have greatly reduced their numbers and led to local extinctions in some areas. “Very few have ever been recorded in the wild,” says Andrew Owen, head of birds at Chester Zoo in the U.K. “The fact that the Javan green magpie is now so rare is also a reason why some people want to catch them and keep them.” In recent years, the Javan green magpie has barely appeared in markets, experts say, though that’s likely due to its increasing rarity in the wild. Surveys carried out between 2018 and 2021 across 12 previously inhabited sites recorded no birds, raising the alarm. “We must assume that excessive trade has pushed this once reasonably widespread but perhaps never common species to the very brink of extinction,” the authors wrote in a 2023 study. These birds, known locally as ekek geling for their unique call, are sought after as so-called master birds in the songbird trade. Master birds rarely compete and instead are used to “train” competition birds. Javan green magpies received official protected status in 2019. With the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The critically endangered Javan green magpie, an Indonesian songbird with perhaps as few as 50 individuals left in the wild, has become the focus of a new 10-year conservation action plan developed by nearly 50 experts and conservation organizations. - Once widespread in West Java’s upland forests, the species has been driven to the brink by habitat loss and trapping for the songbird trade, with surveys between 2018 and 2021 failing to find any birds at many former strongholds. - The plan aims to protect remaining habitat, work with local communities to reduce trapping, strengthen enforcement against illegal trade, and support future conservation translocations using birds bred in captivity. - Conservationists say the effort could also benefit other threatened species and mountain forest ecosystems, but warn that increased attention on the bird could inadvertently stimulate demand from wildlife traffickers and collectors. authors: | ||
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Rewilding Rio: Conservationists restock an ‘empty forest,’ one species at a time 24 Jun 2026 22:48:01 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rewilding-rio-conservationists-restock-an-empty-forest-one-species-at-a-time/ author: Xavier Bartaburu dc:creator: Suzana Camargo content:encoded: In 2008, biologist Alexandra Pires had just completed her doctoral thesis, which described how agoutis, a large guinea pig-like rodent, were important for the regeneration of plant species in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. When she told this to Ivandy Castro‑Astor, a researcher at Tijuca National Park, in the hills outside Rio de Janeiro, she learned that the rodents no longer existed there. Proof of this were the abundance of seeds from a tree known in Brazil as cutieira or “agouti tree” (Joannesia princeps), which were rotting on the forest floor. “How can there be no agoutis in Tijuca National Park?” Pires recalls thinking at the time, to which Castro‑Astor replied: ‘I think you should release some agoutis there!’” Eighteen years later, visitors to Tijuca can now observe red-rumped agoutis (Dasyprocta leporina), along with brown howler monkeys (Alouatta guariba) and yellow‑footed tortoises (Chelonoidis denticulata). Their presence in the forest is the result of the reintroduction program carried out by Refauna, an initiative of which Pires is the scientific director, with support from the Brazilian government’s Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio). In early January, it was the turn of blue‑and‑yellow macaws (Ara ararauna) to make a comeback. Extinct in Rio de Janeiro for 200 years, today they’re once again flying in the skies over the city. Refauna’s goal is to put an end to what’s known as empty forest syndrome, a concept identified by U.S. conservationist Kent Redford in 1992. In such forests, while the trees and other vegetation appear intact, the animals essential…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Rewilding efforts in Tijuca National Park on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro have been reintroducing species previously extinct in the area, such as agoutis, howler monkeys, toucans, and now, blue‑and‑yellow macaws. - The return of the animals is aimed at reviving the “empty forest,” since they’re essential for seed dispersal and regeneration of the Atlantic Forest. - Studies show that toucans introduced in Tijuca 50 years ago have already reprised their ecological role, interacting with plant species from their original diet. - Despite the progress, challenges persist, such as adaptation of the species to their new home; the latest to be released, the macaws, have had to be recaptured and are now undergoing new training. authors: | ||
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New analysis breaks down 2025 Amazon deforestation, with good news and bad news 24 Jun 2026 15:40:25 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/new-analysis-breaks-down-2025-amazon-deforestation-with-good-news-and-bad-news/ author: Alexandra Popescu dc:creator: Maxwell Radwin content:encoded: Each year, researchers at the University of Maryland’s GLAD Lab in the U.S. develop one of the most important data sets on global forest loss. The data is derived from NASA and European Space Agency satellite imagery and, in the Amazon Rainforest, often helps environmental groups and government officials make decisions about conservation. The figures for 2025 were published at the end of April, following months of processing and quality checks. But a comprehensive analysis, highlighting year-on-year trends and hotspots, was only recently released by Mapping of the Andes Amazon Project (MAAP), an Amazon Conservation initiative to track forest loss in the Amazon basin. While the data suggests that several metrics for measuring forest loss are down from previous years, they’re still concerningly high overall, researchers said. Agriculture, cattle ranching and mining continue to destroy hundreds of thousands of hectares of primary forest, often in protected areas and Indigenous territory. “I have a hard time saying it’s good news if deforestation is lower than previous years, but was still a million [hectares],” Matt Finer, MAAP director and senior research specialist, told Mongabay. He said it’s far from the zero-deforestation rate needed in the region. A: Soy frontiers of southeast Brazil; B: Soy frontiers of southern Bolivia; C: Trans-Amazonian Highway; D: BR-364; E: Agricultural areas in central Peru; F: Arc of deforestation in northwest Colombia; G: Gold mining areas in southern and central Peru: H: Gold mining areas in northern Ecuador; I: Gold mining areas in Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname; J: Indigenous…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Amazon Conservation’s Mapping of the Andes Amazon Project (MAAP) published its annual analysis of 2025 forest loss in the Amazon Rainforest, using the data developed by the University of Maryland’s GLAD Lab. - Last year, there were 736,484 hectares (1,819,891 acres) of deforestation, largely from agriculture, mining, and roads and infrastructure. Nearly 132,000 hectares (326,179 acres) of it was illegal, occurring inside protected areas and Indigenous territories, the analysis found. - Researchers said this year could be far worse than 2025 as the current El Niño continues to warm up the Pacific Ocean, creating heat waves and dry conditions that lead to more forest fires. authors: | ||
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Six marine sanctuaries recognized as Blue Parks, four of them in Africa 24 Jun 2026 15:39:01 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/six-marine-sanctuaries-recognized-as-blue-parks-four-of-them-in-africa/ author: Autumn Spanne dc:creator: Malavika Vyawahare content:encoded: MOMBASA — At the Our Ocean conference in Mombasa, Kenya, a message echoed across sessions: Effective marine protected areas (MPAs) are critical to safeguarding oceans. The Blue Park Awards, instituted by the U.S.-based Marine Conservation Institute, shine a light on MPAs that are delivering on their promise. This year, six of them made the cut: the Banc-des-Américains Marine Protected Area in Canada; Rapa Nui Marine Protected Area in Chile; Kawawana Indigenous Community Heritage Area in Senegal; and Nosy Hara National Park, Sahamalaza- îles Radama National Park, and Nosy Tanihely (also spelled Tanikely) National Park in Madagascar. The conference held in Mombasa from June 16-18 saw more than 6,000 delegates from governments, nonprofits, the private sector, and other institutions gather to talk ocean conservation. Kawawana ICCA members in Senegal. Image courtesy of the Fishermen Association of the Rural Community of Mangagoulack. Under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework adopted by parties to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity in 2022, countries agreed to protect 30% of the world’s land, freshwater and marine areas by 2030, in what’s known as the 30×30 target. “This cohort of Blue Parks is a powerful reminder of what the 30×30 goal actually requires,” Lance Morgan, president of the Marine Conservation Institute, said at the awards announcement in Mombasa on June 16. “These six MPAs, protecting different places in the ocean under different governance models, show that effective marine protection is achievable across cultures, geographies and political systems.” The six sites represent an array of governance models and…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - On June 16, the Marine Conservation Institute recognized six marine protected areas, three in Madagascar and one each in Senegal, Chile and Canada, as Blue Parks. - The awards, announced at the Our Ocean conference in Mombasa, Kenya, recognize MPAs whose management is “durable, equitable and effective” at protecting marine life. - Under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, countries agreed to protect 30% of the world’s land, freshwater and marine areas by 2030, but experts say that protection must be meaningful, not just symbolic. - One of the common features of the awardees is the existence of some form of co-management with Indigenous peoples and local communities. authors: | ||
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Wildlife helps regulate the climate & this belongs in policy discussions (commentary) 24 Jun 2026 15:26:01 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/wildlife-helps-regulate-the-climate-this-belongs-in-policy-discussions-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Jérôme Pinti content:encoded: When we talk about climate change and wildlife, most people think about the impact of climate change on animals. We see individual organisms struggling to find food and being pushed into new places and environments, with global consequences for species distribution and animal abundances. What many overlook is the other side of that relationship: Wildlife can help heal our climate. Wild animals help shape how ecosystems store carbon, move nutrients, recover from disturbance, and remain resilient as conditions change. That is the message behind the new Scientific Consensus on Wildlife and Climate, currently endorsed by more than 300 scientists from around the world, and counting. The consensus makes a simple but important point for climate policy: We should account for wild animals and their ecological roles when designing climate plans, because natural systems are incomplete without the species that help them function. Climate mitigation conversations typically focus on technology and infrastructure. More recently, we have become better at talking about forests, wetlands, seagrass, and other natural habitats that store carbon. All of those ecosystems matter, but we are sometimes missing an important piece: The animals living in and moving through those systems. Animals ranging from plankton to sperm whales (pictured) and everything in between move carbon from the ocean’s surface into the deep sea through a variety of processes. Image courtesy of The Dominica Sperm Whale Project. A 2023 paper in Nature Climate Change estimated that protecting and restoring wild animal populations and their ecological roles could increase carbon dioxide…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Wildlife shapes how ecosystems store carbon, move nutrients, recover from disturbance, and remain resilient as conditions change, yet this is seldom considered during negotiations over climate change policy. - A new initiative seeks to bring animals into the climate conversation. - “If governments are designing climate strategies, conservation plans, ecosystem models, or nature-based solutions, they should account for wildlife and the ecological roles animals play,” argues a biologist who helped draft the new Scientific Consensus on Wildlife and Climate. - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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Fire surge in 2025 threatened isolated peoples in Brazil 24 Jun 2026 13:12:59 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/fire-surge-threatens-indigenous-livelihoods-and-isolated-peoples-in-brazil/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Aimee Gabay content:encoded: In 2025, fires were responsible for a significant spike in forest loss in three territories in Brazil that are home to Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation, according to Global Forest Watch data analyzed by Mongabay. Indigenous leaders from the Alto Turiaçu, Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, and Apiaká do Pontal e Isolados Indigenous territories, told Mongabay that fire is a growing threat to their way of life and the isolated Indigenous people who share the same lands. It affects their productive practices and destroys the biodiversity and vegetation they depend on for hunting and gathering, thereby leading to food insecurity. Damage to health, such as respiratory problems caused by the smoke, is another impact frequently mentioned by sources Mongabay spoke to. “The communities suffer from health problems caused by the smoke, difficulties in mobility, and food insecurity because several planting areas are affected,” Almir Narayamoga Suruí, a Paiter Suruí Indigenous community member from the Sete de Setembro Indigenous Territory that straddles the Amazonian states of Rondônia and Mato Grosso, told Mongabay via WhatsApp. “Culturally, the impact is also very strong because the forest for us is not just a natural resource; it is part of our spirituality, our history, and our identity. When an area of the forest is destroyed, we also lose part of our memory and the traditional knowledge transmitted by our ancestors.” Mongabay looked at forest loss and its dominant drivers across territories in Brazil with recognized isolated Indigenous peoples, using Global Forest Watch (GFW) drivers data that rely on…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In 2025, fires caused a significant spike in forest loss in Indigenous territories in Brazil that are home to peoples living in voluntary isolation: Alto Turiaçu, Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, and Apiaká do Pontal e Isolados. - According to data from Global Forest Watch, fires were responsible for nearly all of the forest loss in each of the territories, destroying mostly primary forest. - Indigenous leaders told Mongabay that fires are a threat to their way of life, including those living in voluntary isolation, negatively impacting health, vegetation, biodiversity, and food security. - A climate expert warns the upcoming El Niño, predicted to be stronger than the 2023-2024 event, will likely lead to warmer temperatures and drier conditions across the Amazon Basin, making it more prone to fires. authors: | ||
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Indonesia driver sentenced over organized crime group trafficking live orangutan 24 Jun 2026 11:01:10 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/indonesia-driver-sentenced-over-organized-crime-group-trafficking-live-orangutan/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Junaidi Hanafiah content:encoded: EAST ACEH, Indonesia — A court in Indonesia has sentenced a man in Aceh to three years in prison after investigators stopped him while driving a truck transporting dozens of live animals, among them a live Sumatran orangutan and two critically endangered birds. A panel of three judges ruled on June 17 that 41-year-old Agussalim bin Abdul Hamib, a farmer from Sumatra’s Kuta Makmur subdistrict in the semiautonomous region of Aceh, accepted a job to deliver a consignment in a white Isuzu Traga, a common light commercial vehicle, on Jan. 30, 2026, in North Aceh district. “We very much appreciate this legal ruling — this is an important lesson for the perpetrators and the wider community to refrain from engaging in illegal activities,” said Dwi Harmawanto, head of the customs and excise office in Langsa city. The original indictment published by the district court listed 82 live animals recovered by customs officers. Civil society organizations said it was the largest wildlife crime case tried in Aceh in years. The seized consignment also contained four dead Moluccan parrots (Eclectus roratus), which are currently listed as least concern on the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species owing to its wide distribution in eastern Indonesia. In addition, investigators found a large number of frozen horseshoe crabs, and some skulls of dead animals. Prosecutors successfully proved Agussalim helped load the truck at a meeting point in the village of Alue Bili in the subdistrict of Baktiya. They said he was aware the cargo of…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A court in Sumatra’s East Aceh district court sentenced a 41-year-old farmer to three years in prison after he was found guilty in a wildlife trafficking case linked to international organized crime. - Court documents show the farmer from East Aceh district accepted a delivery job driving a consignment in a small truck, and that he helped another individual transfer the protected wildlife at a meeting point in North Aceh district. - Customs officials said they initiated an investigation following a tip from a member of the public. The customs office later said they believed the perpetrators intended to smuggle the animals to Thailand by boat from a small coastal village in Aceh. - The presence of hornbills and numerous other species showed the animals were sourced from as far as eastern Indonesia, investigators said. authors: | ||
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Leaked study warns of irreversible damage from iron ore mine in Guinea UNESCO site 24 Jun 2026 10:36:22 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/leaked-study-warns-of-irreversible-damage-from-iron-ore-mine-in-guinea-unesco-site/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Josef SkrdlikOIiver Dunn content:encoded: CONAKRY — Over the next few months, Guinea’s environment ministry will review an environmental and social impact assessment for an iron ore mine in the country’s Nimba Mountains. The project, named Kon Kweni, is to be carved out of Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Comprising a unique combination of tropical forest and high-elevation savanna, the Nimba highlands are a biodiversity hotspot, home to dozens of endemic species. According to the environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA), these highlands would face “direct and major risks,” “irreversible damage,” and “threat to species survival” if the mining operations go ahead. The impact assessment is an essential step toward securing a mining permit and commencing operations on a project that has been in discussion since 2003, when Guinean mining company SMFG was founded. (The company acquired by U.S. miner Ivanhoe Atlantic in 2019.) Mongabay obtained a copy of the ESIA, a confidential document. The assessment was commissioned by Ivanhoe and carried out by Biotope, a French environmental consultancy, and reveals how Ivanhoe is planning to go about developing the Nimba concession and how the plan is projected to impact Nimba’s ecosystems. In the Mount Nimba Strict Forest Reserve, 2006. Image by Manfred Schweda via Wikicommons (CC BY-SA 4.0) Guinea’s environmental regulator, the AGEE, a branch of the environment ministry, will assess the project’s anticipated environmental impact and the company’s proposed plans to mitigate damage, alongside the precision and comprehensiveness of its assessments. Seydou Cissé, the AGEE director, said the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Ivanhoe Atlantic, a U.S. mining company, plans to mine iron ore in Guinea’s UNESCO-protected Nimba Mountains. - Mongabay has obtained a copy of the confidential environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) currently being reviewed by Guinean authorities, which details extensive and irreversible damage to Nimba’s endemic and endangered species and critical habitats. - The ESIA concludes that the planned mine risks causing “lasting and significant damage” to the adjacent World Heritage Site. - The document’s findings also indicate the project might be breaching globally recognized environmental and social safeguards that Ivanhoe has publicly committed to. authors: | ||
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Failed promises to clean air in South Africa’s coal belt take toll on public health 24 Jun 2026 06:53:15 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/failed-promises-to-clean-air-in-south-africas-coal-belt-take-toll-on-public-health/ author: Malavikavyawahare dc:creator: Joe Walsh content:encoded: eMALAHLENI, South Africa — Elisabeth Moutloang, 49, lives in the shadows of Duvha Power Station, a 3,600-MW coal-fired power station owned and operated by Eskom, South Africa’s national energy provider. Between it and her community of Masakhane, in the south of eMalahleni, is a coal mine where she used to work twenty years ago as a weighbridge clerk, monitoring the weight of coal-laden vehicles entering and exiting the mine, before it was abandoned. She left the job after seven months but in that time had developed a serious lung problem, which was detected because the mine conducts a health screening before starting employment and when an employee leaves. “When I went to have my exit medical done, I was told that I have a hole on my left lung. That’s when I started having sinus problems, that’s when I started having chest problems. At one stage I had bronchitis,” Moutloang says. “I thought I was going to die.” At the time, she had health insurance from her employer and was able to get the right medicine for the condition. Hers is not a unique story for a resident of eMalahleni (which translates to “place of coal”) located in South Africa’s eastern province of Mpumalanga, 130 kilometers (81 miles) east of Johannesburg. The town lies in the heart of the Highveld Priority Area (HPA), spanning 31,100 km encompassing 12 municipalities, which was designated in 2007 as a priority area for tackling air pollution, because the air quality was very poor. A…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - South Africa’s coal belt produces more than half of the country’s electricity, but people who live in the shadow of the power stations and mines suffer from a range of health issues linked to pollution from these facilities. - Despite being declared a priority area for tackling air pollution nearly 20 years ago, residents and campaigners here say little has improved. - Research by the South African Medical Research Council linked pollutants like PM 10 and sulfur dioxide (SO₂) to increased mortality risk, sinus problems, tuberculosis, asthma and other lung and respiratory issues among residents of the Highveld Priority Area, named for its high altitude. - Activists are taking legal action to compel the government and industrial players to improve emission standards, enforce them fully and to do away with exemptions. authors: | ||
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Hope for vultures in Nigeria as some belief-based users adopt plant alternatives 24 Jun 2026 05:44:37 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/hope-for-vultures-in-nigeria-as-some-belief-based-users-adopt-plant-alternatives/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Sean Mowbray content:encoded: Using plants instead of vulture parts for belief-based practices is helping to tackle poaching of the birds in some regions of Nigeria, say conservationists. Vulture populations have collapsed in Nigeria. The country was once home to seven vulture species; recent surveys recorded only two, the critically endangered hooded vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus) and the palm-nut vulture (Gypohierax angolensis). Habitat loss, poisoning and poaching for belief-based uses, such as the use of vulture parts in traditional medicines or to bring luck or success, are the primary drivers of their rapid decline. In recent years conservation groups, including the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), have engaged with traditional medicine practitioners to reduce demand for vulture parts. Stella Egbe, species conservation manager at NCF, told Mongabay that many practitioners are switching to plant alternatives, likely because of awareness-raising, increased law enforcement and higher prices of vulture parts in some regions. Chief Samson Ola Soyoye, vice president of the National Association of Nigerian Traditional Medicine Practitioners, told Mongabay the use of vulture parts has a long history in medicinal practices in Nigeria. “That’s when the vultures were many but now [they are] rapidly going into extinction,” he said. “My view is to look for alternative plants instead of vultures.” More than 20 plants are now used in place of vulture parts in some places, Egbe said, adding that the conservation status of the plant alternatives also needs to be assessed. To date, the African mahogany tree (Khaya ivorensis), also known as oganwo, is the only species…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Using plants instead of vulture parts for belief-based practices is helping to tackle poaching of the birds in some regions of Nigeria, say conservationists. Vulture populations have collapsed in Nigeria. The country was once home to seven vulture species; recent surveys recorded only two, the critically endangered hooded vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus) and the palm-nut vulture […] authors: | ||
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An island community in Thailand works to protect and revive its dugongs 24 Jun 2026 05:19:05 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/an-island-community-in-thailand-works-to-protect-and-revive-its-dugongs/ author: Naina Rao dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: Once a lush field of green, the seagrass meadows surrounding Thailand’s Koh Libong are now largely barren stretches of sand, devastating the island’s iconic dugong population, reports Mongabay’s Carolyn Cowan. Koh Libong’s seagrass meadows were once Thailand’s largest, and a critical coastal habitat that is protected nationally. Yet, between 2020 and 2024, seagrass cover in these protected waters shrank by up to 50%. Thailand’s Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) attributes this decline to a range of factors, from marine heat waves to river-mouth dredging. The dugong (Dugong dugon) feeds on fish, crabs and mollusks in seagrass meadows. Until recently, Koh Libong’s waters had one of Southeast Asia’s largest dugong populations. As the meadows have died off, dugong numbers have dramatically declined. Autopsies of emaciated dugongs that washed ashore suggest many deaths were due to starvation. The ecological decline in Koh Libong has also jeopardized the livelihoods of the island’s 3,000 residents, who depend on healthy nearshore ecosystems for fishing and dugong tourism. Local fisher Torfar Jongarap once harvested food by walking the shoreline. Now, to chase unpredictable catches farther out at sea, his fuel costs have tripled. “The food chain is degraded,” Torfar told Mongabay. “Before, everyone could go looking for food near to the shore. But now we all need boats.” Tipusa Sangsawang, coordinator of the Dugong Guardians, a volunteer network spanning the island’s eight villages, leads community efforts to monitor the local dugong population and manage its marine habitats. The group also collaborates with researchers from…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Once a lush field of green, the seagrass meadows surrounding Thailand’s Koh Libong are now largely barren stretches of sand, devastating the island’s iconic dugong population, reports Mongabay’s Carolyn Cowan. Koh Libong’s seagrass meadows were once Thailand’s largest, and a critical coastal habitat that is protected nationally. Yet, between 2020 and 2024, seagrass cover in […] authors: | ||
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Deadly bird flu strain confirmed in Australia for first time 24 Jun 2026 05:01:09 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/deadly-bird-flu-strain-confirmed-in-australia-for-first-time/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Shreya Dasgupta content:encoded: A deadly strain of avian influenza, H5N1, that has killed millions of wild and domestic birds and mammals across the globe, has for the first time reached Australia’s shores. Australian authorities confirmed that two migratory seabirds, a brown skua (Stercorarius antarcticus) and a northern giant petrel (Macronectes halli), have both tested positive for H5N1, a strain of what’s officially known as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). The sick birds were discovered along the southern coast of Western Australia. They have since died. Both the brown skua and giant petrel breed in the subantarctic regions and migrate to northern, warmer waters, including those around Australia, during the harsh polar winter. Bird flu is caused by a highly contagious virus that has now infected animals on every continent. Sporadic human cases have also been recorded. Federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said in a press briefing that there is no evidence of mass mortality in Australian wildlife and that bird flu hasn’t as yet affected Australia’s poultry or livestock. As of March 2026, the highly contagious H5N1 bird flu virus strain has infected more than 560 wild bird species and more than 100 species of mammals, according to the U.N. “We can’t overstate how significant this moment is for Australian wildlife,” BirdLife Australia CEO Kate Millar said in a statement. “This virus has devastated wildlife populations overseas. This could be the beginning of a long fight to protect birds and wildlife in Australia.” Avian influenza viruses are common in their natural hosts —…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: A deadly strain of avian influenza, H5N1, that has killed millions of wild and domestic birds and mammals across the globe, has for the first time reached Australia’s shores. Australian authorities confirmed that two migratory seabirds, a brown skua (Stercorarius antarcticus) and a northern giant petrel (Macronectes halli), have both tested positive for H5N1, a […] authors: | ||
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Global pressure on ayahuasca threatens Amazonian plants and knowledge systems 23 Jun 2026 20:38:06 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/global-pressure-on-ayahuasca-threatens-amazonian-plants-and-knowledge-systems/ author: Xavier Bartaburu dc:creator: Carlos Minuano content:encoded: “One of the world’s largest pharmacies is being destroyed,” says Benki Piyãko, a leader of the Ashaninka Indigenous people in the Brazilian state of Acre. The warning points to multiple threats advancing on the Amazon but also to growing debate surrounding one of the so-called forest medicines: ayahuasca. This Indigenous beverage with psychedelic properties is usually prepared from two native plants: the caapi vine or mariri (Banisteriopsis caapi) and the leaves of the chacrona plant (Psychotria viridis). According to Indigenous leaders and experts, these species are facing increasing pressure and signs of scarcity in some areas. Called kamarãpe by the Ashaninka people, ayahuasca has been used by Indigenous peoples across the Amazon for centuries. It has crossed borders for decades, ceasing to circulate exclusively in its original contexts. Today, it can be found in urban religious centers, therapeutic retreats, and international psychedelic tourism circuits. Scientists and pharmaceutical companies are also turning their attention to this ancestral beverage, which already shows evidence of therapeutic potential for different mental health disorders such as depression and substance addiction. But increasing global interest is also creating concerns. As demand grows, so has the ayahuasca supply chain, without a corresponding growth in management or oversight. In different parts of the Amazon, there are signs of pressure on the species used to prepare the beverage, often collected without planning. At the same time, increasing consumption in nontraditional contexts raises concerns about ancestral knowledge being commodified for the market. The main problem seems to lie in how…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The rising global popularity of ayahuasca, driven by religious, therapeutic, and tourism purposes, has increased pressure on the Amazonian plant species used in its preparation, with reports of growing scarcity in some parts of the rainforest. - The beverage’s distribution chain connects the forest to international markets through opaque flows that often border on illegality, in a scenario of regulatory gaps and lack of effective oversight. - Researchers warn about the lack of basic data on the distribution, abundance, and exploitation of these plants, which makes it difficult to create management strategies and increases the risk of environmental degradation. - Indigenous leaders also denounce the appropriation of traditional knowledge systems and call for global responses, such as the World Ayahuasca Forum, to expand their participation in decisions about the use of the beverage. authors: | ||
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As Canada eyes Arctic road expansion, Indigenous guardians race to understand caribou 23 Jun 2026 19:23:29 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/as-canada-eyes-arctic-road-expansion-indigenous-guardians-race-to-understand-caribou/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Moira Donovan content:encoded: For years, Wayne Mercredi spent hours driving the Tibbitt to Contwoyto winter road. Leaving early in the morning to take advantage of limited daylight, he’d travel the road’s 400-kilometer length (250-mile length) — built atop frozen lakes, to connect the territorial capital of Yellowknife to diamond mines farther north — before turning around at the end and driving back home. On those 19-hour days, Mercredi, a North Slave Métis Alliance guardian, kept his eyes peeled. “I would see caribou off in the distance, avoiding the ice road.” As caribou appeared on the snowy expanse, he’d record their information. Occasionally, he’d come across an increasingly rare sight: A large herd of caribou, navigating the landscape. “It’s such a beautiful thing, it would just fill my heart.” The Canadian Arctic is home to once-monumental herds of caribou. These caribou undertake the longest terrestrial migrations on the planet, congregating in large groups at their calving grounds along the way. Historically, caribou existed in the millions, but in the last several decades, their numbers have declined dramatically; the Bathurst herd, for example (whose name derives from their traditional calving grounds in Bathurst Inlet, Nunavut) numbered nearly half a million caribou in the 1980s but has shrunk to just 3,600 in 2025. The reasons for this decline are multifaceted, including climate change, industrial development and, in some cases, overharvesting. But many of these forces intersect around roads, which block migrations and expose caribou to more hunting. Concern over the impacts of roads have promoted Indigenous…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Indigenous guardians in the Northwest Territories, Canada, are going out into the field to monitor how roads affect Arctic caribou, which undertake the longest terrestrial migration on the planet, through events on the Tibbitt to Contwoyto winter road. - In the last six years, they have documented a pattern of how caribou avoid roads that bisect the land: When they will avoid crossing, only walk parallel, get trapped on the other side and wait 24 hours of zero disturbance to cross. - Canada and some Indigenous governments plan to expand roads across the north, like the Arctic Economic and Security Corridor, as part of an Arctic development plan to boost economic opportunities and mining in northern communities. - As plans for the Arctic Economic and Security Corridor advance, Indigenous guardians and stakeholders underline the need for caribou protections and local jobs in conservation to offer alternatives to industrial opportunities. authors: | ||
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Deforestation is just a symptom. The disease is de-governance (commentary) 23 Jun 2026 15:38:13 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/deforestation-is-just-a-symptom-the-disease-is-de-governance-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Ambrosius Ruwindrijarto content:encoded: For decades, deforestation has been treated as the central problem. It’s measured in hectares lost, monitored through satellites, and addressed through conservation programs, carbon mechanisms, and development interventions. Yet despite billions of dollars invested, forests continue to decline. What if we have been diagnosing it wrong? Deforestation is not the disease. It is a symptom. The deeper problem is the erosion of governance over territory, over resources, and ultimately, over the future itself. To see this more clearly, it helps to begin not with global statistics, but with a people and place, like Namblong, in Indonesian Papua, an Indigenous territory spanning more than 52,000 hectares (128,500 acres) that’s governed by a tribe of 44 clans. Around 42,000 hectares (almost 104,000 acres) remain forested as a living landscape shaped by generations of customary governance. When oil palm concessions entered this territory with legal permits, a fundamental question emerged: Who decides the future of this forest? Is it the company holding the concession, the government that issued it, or the Indigenous community whose identity and survival are inseparable from the land? Deforestation outside of Manokwari, West Papua, Indonesia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. This question points to a broader reality. Across Indonesia, and much of the world, Indigenous territories have been systematically stripped of effective governance. They are treated as empty land available for extraction or intervention. Concessions are issued, projects are introduced, and external solutions are layered onto landscapes that already have their own systems of authority Even well-intentioned efforts often…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Forests in places like Indonesian Papua do not disappear because trees fall, but because governance fails, a new op-ed argues. - What’s needed is a rethink of how Indigenous territories have been systematically stripped of effective governance, and what a shift back to local jurisdiction over forests would allow. - “It’s a shift from protecting forests as external objects to governing territories as living systems, from delivering projects to building institutions, and from treating communities as beneficiaries to recognizing them as decision-makers,” the author writes. - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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Can globally essential mangroves bounce back from deforestation? New study gives hope 23 Jun 2026 15:17:00 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/can-globally-essential-mangroves-bounce-back-from-deforestation-new-study-gives-hope/ author: Andy Lehren dc:creator: Elizabeth Schell content:encoded: The world’s mangrove forests, critical coastal ecosystems feared to be on the brink of collapse, are making an unexpected recovery overall, according to research published in June 2026 by scientists at Tulane University in New Orleans in the U.S. The study found that as deforestation and degradation have slowed down over the past decade around the globe, the woody plants have managed to bounce back in many areas. The study analyzed satellite data from the past four decades. It found that unexpected expansion and regrowth across the world began counterbalancing mangrove forest loss around 2010. The rate of gain has nearly outpaced losses, resulting in about a cumulative 1% global decline since the 1980s. The recovery is predominantly driven by expansion of mangroves into new areas rather than recovery of existing forests. Most previous studies on the issue have used radar, which struggles to distinguish mangroves from other ecosystems. This research created a 30-meter resolution annual data set from Landsat satellite images to more accurately identify mangroves around the world from 1984 to 2023. The study also found that mangroves are becoming less degraded. Within mangroves, a greater proportion are closed-canopy forests, which means they are denser, retain more carbon and help secure shorelines. These closed-canopy sections increased from about 50% of mangroves worldwide in the 1980s, to about 58% by 2023. “Our study shows some new ideas about [mangrove] recovery. We find that deforestation and degradation rates are slowing down,” said lead author of the study Zhen Zhang, a…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Human and natural disturbances have driven global declines of mangrove forests, which serve as critical protection for coastlines and fisheries. - Scientists used satellite imagery of mangroves from 1984 to 2023, and found that after decades of decline, mangroves worldwide began to recover around 2010, mostly by expanding into new habitats, according to a new study. - Recovery is not evenly distributed, the study found. Southeast Asia slowed mangrove loss while West and Central Africa have seen accelerated deforestation in recent years. authors: | ||
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Rodent-killing baits threaten small wild cats and other wildlife 23 Jun 2026 14:29:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rodent-killing-baits-threaten-small-wild-cats-and-other-wildlife/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Sean Mowbray content:encoded: Cat kills rodent. Cat eats rodent. Cat is exposed to potentially lethal rodenticides. That scenario is increasingly likely for many small wild cat species across the globe, and yet, only a handful of researchers are investigating this underrecognized conservation issue. Thus far, researchers confirmed that one wild cat population has declined from exposure to these poisons. That’s a small bobcat (Lynx rufus) living on Kiawah Island off the South Carolina coast in the U.S., which faces imminent local extinction due to rodenticides. Up until 2019, there was a stable population of these beloved cats, which are considered celebrities there, but that year, three cats died. Among them was a female that bled to death while giving birth. Postmortems revealed concoctions of rodenticides in each of the bobcats’ blood and livers. Over the next four years, there were 12 more victims and the bobcats’ overall survival rate fell to 39%. All tested positive for concentrations of anticoagulant rodenticides; some had been acutely poisoned, said Meghan Keating, a doctoral candidate at South Carolina’s Clemson University. That was a troubling sign for a population that now numbers less than 20 individuals. They are regularly exposed to rodenticides, as rodents (including rats) are a major part of their diet, Keating said. Also troubling is that her team found exposure to not just one, but a cocktail of rodenticides. “We haven’t had a bobcat test positive for less than two rodenticides,” she told Mongabay. Kiawah Island’s rodenticide-driven bobcat decline may be an outlier, given its…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Anticoagulant rodenticides — used to control rodent populations — pose a little-recognized threat to a host of wildlife species, including wild cats. - Many small cat species hunt rodents and live in areas where rat poison is commonly used, including agricultural lands. These anticoagulant poisons accumulate in the liver and can prove lethal: It takes days for animals to die from internal bleeding. - Widespread exposure in bobcats and caracals is well-documented, however research on other small cat species is limited — but concerning. - Wildlife biologists say that greater controls limiting the use and availability of rodenticides are needed to protect wildlife. authors: | ||
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Before tourists can see bonobos, trackers must earn their trust 23 Jun 2026 13:29:26 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/before-tourists-can-see-bonobos-trackers-must-earn-their-trust/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, researchers and trackers are working to habituate a group of about 60 bonobos. The aim is to help the great apes accept a limited human presence, first for research, and later for carefully managed tourism. The process is slow. Trackers may leave camp around 3 a.m. to reach the previous night’s nesting site before the bonobos (Pan paniscus) wake. They then follow the group through the forest until the endangered apes build new nests in the evening. “The whole idea of habituation is that you meet the group every day in a very friendly, non-interactive way so they accept you as part of the forest,” Felix Bofeko, an assistant researcher in the program, told Mongabay’s David Akana. Habituation requires the same people, same restraint, and same routine, repeated long enough for the animals to stop treating human presence as a threat. When the work began, the bonobos fled at the sight of people. Now, Bofeko says, researchers can sometimes remain with them for two or three hours. Two visitors may be tolerated. Three or four may still be too many. The work has value even before tourism begins. Habituated animals can be observed more closely. Researchers can collect fecal and urine samples for genetic, pathogen, and diet analysis. Salonga is part of the Bonobo Diversity Project gathering standardized data across the DRC. Camera…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, researchers and trackers are working to habituate a group of about 60 bonobos. The aim is to help the great apes accept a limited human presence, first for […] authors: | ||
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‘Rare animals, photography and Instagram’ could help an Ivorian rainforest 23 Jun 2026 10:31:06 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rare-animals-photography-and-instagram-could-help-an-ivorian-rainforest/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Ryan Truscott content:encoded: DJOUROUTOU, Côte d’Ivoire — After a night of heavy rain, the chimpanzees of Taï Forest, in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire, like to sleep in. Early on a late May morning, chimpanzee guide Evariste Tere led a group of scientists and conservationists to a chimp group’s nesting site that he had marked with his GPS the previous evening. The humans set off at 4:30 a.m., then spent an hour and a half waiting for the chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes ssp. verus) to wake up. Eventually, one of them did. Moisture gathered in her nest from the night’s rain gushed down, and then the other trees began to bend and creak as their occupants — one male, four females and a baby — stirred. One of the females, with the baby clinging to her belly, moved through the treetops to a bigger tree, then used the handholds and footholds of a strangler fig snaking its way up the trunk to reach the canopy. This didn’t seem to impress the male, who was already on the ground and, noticing the humans, wanted to get his group moving. He screamed angrily and beat his hands on the buttress root of a large tree so that the sound echoed through the forest like a drum. “He’s angry that they didn’t follow,” Tere said, adding that while Taï’s chimpanzees are used to seeing tourists, a group of five was bigger than normal, and the male did not want to linger. Instead, he would keep his charges moving until…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In late May, Mongabay accompanied a group of conservationists and scientists to Taï National Park — a large rainforest in Côte d’Ivoire famous for its habituated western chimpanzees. - Despite the presence of these charismatic apes, the park gets relatively few visitors, whose presence could help to support conservation efforts and deter poachers. - Conservationists are now planning to promote niche tourism in the park and support work by the Ivorian Office of Parks and Reserves (OIPR) to protect Taï’s stunning biodiversity. - Chimpanzee sightings are a major attraction for any visitor to the park, but other animals, including one of the world’s largest scorpions and Africa’s largest and rarest owl, could also prove to be a draw for those looking for an adventure-filled experience. authors: | ||
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First global summit held in Indonesia to tackle animal cruelty content 23 Jun 2026 10:02:16 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/first-global-summit-held-in-indonesia-to-tackle-animal-cruelty-content/ author: Mongabay User dc:creator: Asad Asnawi content:encoded: BALI, Indonesia — The booming market for animal abuse content brought dozens of international animal protection organizations to Indonesia in June for the first in-person summit to confront a growing online entertainment industry founded on suffering. The Asia for Animals Coalition (AfA), a network of more than 400 animal welfare and conservation organizations around the world, established the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACC) in 2020 in response to the spread of animal cruelty online. Afa is the world’s largest network of animal welfare nonprofits. SMACC then organized its first international summit in Bali on June 11 and 12 to gather advocates and experts to plan tangible steps to address online abuse of animals. “Online animal cruelty is spreading at a scale no single organisation, platform or government can solve alone,” Nicola O’Brien, lead coordinator of the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition, said in a statement. Evidence of animal cruelty on digital platforms collected by SMACC. Image courtesy of SMACC. The rise of animal cruelty influencers Animal cruelty influencers, who storyboard, produce, film and edit scenes of anguish and pain for casual viewers and paying subscribers via social media and other content platforms, are on the rise A 2021 SMACC report identified 5,480 videos depicting animal cruelty that had amassed more than 5.3 billion views across platforms. Of the channels that distributed these videos, 17 had more than 1 million subscribers with two of these counting more than 30 million subscribers each. Online cruelty often involves wildlife listed as endangered…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - An increase in animal cruelty content prompted Asia’s largest coalition of animal protection experts and nonprofits to organize the first dedicated international meeting on the issue in Indonesia in June this year. - Research published by the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACC), which organized the Bali summit, showed Indonesia was by far the largest source country of distressing content, which includes abuse of threatened species such as macaques. - A conservation official said online animal cruelty formed part of the illegal wildlife trade, which the U.N. estimates is worth $23 billion annually. authors: | ||
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Indigenous people in Cambodia claim they’re blocked from sacred sites 23 Jun 2026 09:04:45 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/indigenous-people-in-cambodia-claim-theyre-blocked-from-sacred-sites/ author: Andy Lehren dc:creator: Andy BallPhoung VanthaRoun Ry content:encoded: PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia — Ruos Lim knows what is at stake as he sets off with 10 men to patrol the Chom Penh forest. Lim is part of the Kuy people who have relied on the forests in northern Cambodia for generations. Despite being in his 70s, Lim leads the men along windy trails as they look for signs of illegal logging and land clearing. “If we lose this sacred place, it’s like losing our Indigenous identity,” he said. The Kuy fear they are at risk of seeing hard-won safeguards stripped away in Chom Penh, and they allege that Santana Agro Products Co. Ltd., one of Cambodia’s leading cashew companies, is encroaching onto their land to expand its farming operations. The company refutes the allegations. The accusations have run so high that, in January 2025, about 200 Kuy people reportedly protested by blocking Santana Agro tractors being driven to clear forests on disputed land in another part of Cambodia. This was not the first time they massed to protest Santana’s activities, and Mongabay detailed Santana Agro’s expansion and deforestation in the region in a 2024 investigation. For Lim and his team of volunteers, the effort to save the forest and take matters in their own hands began a quarter of a century ago. They began patrols and other efforts to protect the forest, in the hope the government would officially recognize their people’s rights to the land. “At that time, patrolling was very difficult and chaotic. The loggers had machetes…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In the Chom Penh community protected area, Indigenous Forest rangers told Mongabay they cannot access places where people have prayed, made offerings, fished and camped for generations. - The community protected area designation lets the Kuy people engage in sustainable farming and manage the forest, which is tucked inside the Beng Per Wildlife Sanctuary about 70 miles south of the Thai border. - A representative from Santana Agro, a cashew processing company that operates in the area, denied allegations the firm is encroaching into the protected area. authors: | ||
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The case for field stations 23 Jun 2026 07:41:17 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-case-for-field-stations/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: A field station is usually a working place. It may have bunkrooms, trails, a generator, stored specimens, weathered notebooks, drying boots, a small lab, and staff who know when the road floods, where to find a mobile network signal, or which hillside burned five years ago. Its value is easy to miss because it is often measured through other things: papers, students, monitoring plots, visiting researchers, restored forest, fewer snares, or a longer record of what changed. A new BioScience paper argues that these stations deserve a larger role in conservation policy, especially in the tropics. The authors describe tropical field stations as institutions that can help turn global environmental commitments into local work. Governments have promised to protect more land and sea, restore degraded ecosystems, slow extinctions, and make conservation more equitable. These goals require information, trust, capacity, and persistence. Field stations can supply much of that infrastructure. Cabang Panti research station in Gunung Palung, Indonesia. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler The argument is strongest in places where conservation decisions affect both biodiversity and livelihoods. A station in a forest, savanna, wetland, or coastal ecosystem is more than a base for visiting scientists. It can support long-term monitoring, train local researchers, employ people from nearby communities, and keep conservation connected to park staff, farmers, fishers, Indigenous groups, and officials. More data, harder answers That gap is important because conservation has become data-rich and answer-poor. Satellites can detect tree-cover loss within days. Acoustic sensors can record birds, frogs, insects,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A new BioScience paper argues that tropical field stations can help turn global conservation commitments into local action. - Field stations provide long-term monitoring, training, local employment, and continuity in places where conservation outcomes are often difficult to measure. - Remote sensing, acoustic monitoring, camera traps, and other technologies are becoming more powerful, but they still need field-based institutions to validate and interpret their findings. - Many field stations remain financially fragile, even as conservation increasingly depends on the long-term evidence and local relationships they help sustain. authors: | ||
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Bangladesh’s lightning death toll persists as years of gov’t safeguards fail 23 Jun 2026 07:37:35 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/bangladeshs-lightning-death-toll-persists-as-years-of-govt-safeguards-fail/ author: Abu Siddique dc:creator: Sadiqur Rahman content:encoded: The distance between farmer Sudhin Chandra Das’s home and his 150-decimal (0.6-hectare, or 1.5-acre) paddy field in Bangladesh’s northeastern region of Sylhet is more than half a kilometer (0.3 miles). During the boro rice harvesting season, usually mid-April, when thunderstorms are common, he cannot afford to stay at home, he said: He has to go to the vast open field to harvest the ripe crop, even though there is no shelter when lightnings strike. “It’s scary. I don’t know how to protect myself, and I fear I could be killed by a strike at any moment,” Sudhin told Mongabay. Sudhin lives in the Shalla subdistrict, Sunamganj district, in the Sylhet region, one of South Asia’s most lightning-prone zones. According to lightning data for the decade of 2016-25, Bangladesh’s northeastern zone witnesses 64 to 96 fatal lightning events per square kilometer (about 0.4 square miles) annually. Sudhin said he considers himself fortunate to be alive. But he recalled news reports on people in Sunamganj being killed by lightning strikes this year and in previous years. On April 18 this year, at least 13 people, including five in Sunamganj, died by lightning strikes across Bangladesh. An average of 300 people die from lightning strikes every year in the country, with the highest number of fatalities reported in the northeastern districts. According to Meherunnesa, a coordinator at the Disaster Forum, a Dhaka-based national disaster preparedness network, Bangladesh witnessed the deaths of at least 218 people by lightning strikes between January and mid-June this…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Lightning strikes continue to claim lives, mostly farmers’, in Bangladesh, especially across its northeastern region. - Despite several measures by the Bangladeshi government, including palm tree plantation and installation of lightning arresters, all efforts so far have largely failed to protect lives. - Experts suggest building public awareness about thunderstorms and thunder clouds to reduce deaths from lightning strikes. authors: | ||
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Old fire hoses become lifelines for Malaysia’s endangered langurs 23 Jun 2026 07:09:48 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/old-fire-hoses-become-lifelines-for-malaysias-endangered-langurs/ author: Naina Rao dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: On Malaysia’s Penang Island, conservationist Yap Jo Leen is turning old fire hoses into lifesaving bridges that help endangered monkeys cross busy roads in residential areas. The idea took root after she witnessed a female dusky langur and her infant get struck by a vehicle in 2016, Yap told Mongabay’s Phil Jacobson and AFP’s Isabelle Leong in a joint interview. Dusky langurs (Trachypithecus obscurus) are small primates with dark gray to blackish fur, distinct large white patches around their eyes, and white fur around their mouth. The species is considered endangered on the IUCN Red List, according to the latest assessment, done in 2015. Yap said that in 2016, as a postgraduate student, she started following a family of dusky langurs that included an individual she called Ah Lai. Over the next year, she recorded several instances of the langurs trying to cross a busy road. People living in the residential areas also reported that dusky langurs and macaques frequently made road crossings. Since 2019, Yap’s organization, the Langur Project Penang (LPP), has installed three artificial canopy bridges to help the langurs cross roads safely. The bridges are all made from repurposed fire hoses donated by local fire departments. The initiative has seen remarkable success, said Yap. The first bridge they installed, known as “Ah Lai’s Crossing,” has been credited with zero langur roadkill deaths on that stretch of road. Beyond langurs, the bridge is also used by nine other wildlife species, including macaques, squirrels, and slow lorises. Yap said…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: On Malaysia’s Penang Island, conservationist Yap Jo Leen is turning old fire hoses into lifesaving bridges that help endangered monkeys cross busy roads in residential areas. The idea took root after she witnessed a female dusky langur and her infant get struck by a vehicle in 2016, Yap told Mongabay’s Phil Jacobson and AFP’s Isabelle […] authors: | ||
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Pulp and paper giant APRIL’s supplier choices put FSC remedy process to the test 23 Jun 2026 04:12:34 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-aprils-supplier-choices-put-fsc-remedy-process-to-the-test/ author: Hans Nicholas Jong dc:creator: Hans Nicholas Jong content:encoded: JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL’s recent decision to lower its deforestation commitments and source wood from two companies associated with extensive recent forest loss has created a new challenge for its relationship with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), with environmental groups urging the world’s leading forestry certifier to terminate the already suspended reassociation process. In late May, APRIL announced it was reviewing its decade-old Sustainable Forest Management Policy (SFMP) 2.0 and lowering its deforestation cutoff date from 2015 to Dec. 31, 2020. The move allows Indonesia’s second-largest pulp and paper producer to source wood from PT Industrial Forest Plantation (IFP) and PT Mayawana Persada (Mayawana), two companies that have experienced some of the country’s largest recent forest losses. APRIL said the decision was necessary to address fibre shortages after the Indonesian government revoked the operating permits of four of its long-term suppliers earlier this year, affecting around 15% of its wood supply in Riau Province. According to data from the forest-monitoring platform Nusantara Atlas, together, IFP and Mayawana lost nearly 80,000 hectares (197,684 acres) of forest — an area almost half the size of London — between 2015 and 2024, including more than 54,000 hectares (133,436 acres) after 2020. This is more than any other forestry companies in Indonesia. Deforestation in the concession of PT Mayawana Persada, September 2020–April 2024 © Earthsight. Image source: Sentinel-2 via Copernicus Browser Environmental groups have criticized the move, arguing that it weakens a longstanding no-deforestation safeguard and sends a message that companies…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - APRIL’s decision to lower its deforestation cutoff date and source wood from two companies associated with extensive recent forest loss in Indonesia is drawing fresh scrutiny of its efforts to re-enter the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). - FSC told Mongabay it is reviewing APRIL’s updated sourcing policies and said it was “concerned” that such an analysis had become necessary. - Environmental groups say accepting suppliers linked to extensive recent deforestation undermines the spirit of FSC’s remedy process, which is intended to encourage companies to repair past harms before regaining acceptance. - APRIL says the changes align with evolving global standards and could help improve sustainability practices across Indonesia’s forestry sector, but critics warn the move risks eroding trust in both APRIL and FSC. authors: | ||
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EU votes to end illegal logging agreement with Liberia 22 Jun 2026 19:47:01 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/eu-votes-to-end-illegal-logging-agreement-with-liberia/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Ashoka Mukpo content:encoded: The European Union’s parliament voted decisively to end its logging oversight partnership with Liberia on June 17, marking the end of a long-running attempt to reform the country’s timber sector through foreign aid. The vote, which passed with 92% in favor, is expected to lead to a formal decision by the EU to terminate the agreement. The EU’s “Voluntary Partnership Agreement” (VPA) with Liberia was part of its signature effort to tackle illegal logging and deforestation in timber-exporting countries. It was designed to help overhaul Liberia’s logging industry, long associated with corruption and environmental mismanagement, and facilitate legal trade with the EU. Under the terms of the agreement, the EU provided funding for Liberia to set up tracking and transparency systems for timber shipments. Liberia committed to verifying that all logs shipped out of its ports were felled legally and to carve out space for local environmental groups to monitor its compliance with the agreement. Similar agreements were signed with eight other countries, including four in Africa. But more than a decade after the December 2013 agreement was implemented many of the EU’s expectations were unmet, including the development of a licensing system for Liberian logs to access EU markets, a centerpiece of the agreement. After repeatedly missing deadlines, the licensing system was never implemented. Last year, the EU Commission recommended the VPA be canceled. Environmental groups opposed the commission’s recommendation, saying that despite the agreement’s weaknesses it had been invaluable in promoting local oversight of the notoriously opaque timber…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The European Union’s parliament voted decisively to end its logging oversight partnership with Liberia on June 17, marking the end of a long-running attempt to reform the country’s timber sector through foreign aid. The vote, which passed with 92% in favor, is expected to lead to a formal decision by the EU to terminate the […] authors: | ||
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Tiwi rangers eradicate invasive tropical fire ants in Australia’s Melville Island 22 Jun 2026 19:31:44 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rangers-eradicate-invasive-tropical-fire-ants-in-australias-tiwi-islands/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Nick Rodway content:encoded: DERBY, Australia — While Spanish sailors packed in dirt to stabilize the bottom of ships sailing from the Americas in the 16th century, they were unaware that they were also helping tiny stowaways aboard. Research suggests that tropical fire ants sailed across the Pacific Ocean, joining Europeans over the centuries as they landed and colonized landmasses across the world. Then, in the early 2000s, tropical fire ants (Solenopsis geminata) were detected on Melville Island in the Tiwi Islands, a picturesque archipelago off the coast of Darwin, the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory. Here, they were able to flourish, according to researchers, and have since become naturalized in parts of the Australian tropics while dominating the environment, eating small mammals, and potentially deterring nesting birds. “The ants have a huge impact on native birds and animals on the Tiwi Islands,” said Stanley Tipungwuti, a ranger on the islands where most identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. But after two decades of effort, and the work of the Tiwi Ranger team, tropical fire ants are deemed no more on Merville Island: In 2025, the species was completely eradicated, according to Ben Hoffmann, who was part of the eradication program from its inception. That same year, the Tiwi Island Rangers received the Territory Indigenous Natural Resource Management Award in Darwin for their efforts. The Tiwi Rangers were the 2025 winners of the Territory NRM Indigenous Natural Resource Management Award. Image by the Territory Natural Resource Management Award, supplied by Tiwi Resources. Hoffmann, principal research…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Over the last two decades, Indigenous rangers in Australia’s Tiwi Islands came together with scientists, government actors, NGOs and private enterprise to eradicate the invasive tropical fire ant species from Melville Island. - The species threatens small animals, vulnerable sea turtle hatchlings and nesting birds, according to some studies. - The eradication program included locating the ant nests, poisoning them at small-scale with Amdro, an insecticide bait, and then monitoring sites to ensure the eradication was complete. - A member of the eradication effort hopes lessons of the Tiwi eradication program could be replicated in other regions of the country, like Ashmore Reef. authors: | ||
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World Rainforest Day: Deforestation must be nearly halved to meet 2030 target 22 Jun 2026 16:59:28 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/world-rainforest-day-deforestation-must-be-nearly-halved-to-meet-2030-target/ author: Shanna Hanbury dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: Every year, June 22 marks World Rainforest Day, an awareness day launched by Rainforest Partnership in 2017 to advocate for the immediate protection and restoration of the world’s tropical forests. These ecosystems support at least half of all known plant and animal species. They also regulate rainfall and stabilize the global climate. In 2025, less tropical primary forest was cut down compared to 2024, which was a record high year. In total, records showed a 35% drop in forest cover in 2025, largely led by reduced deforestation in Brazil, which hosts the world’s largest area of rainforest in the Amazon. “A drop of this scale in a single year is encouraging — it shows what decisive government action can achieve,” Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of Global Forest Watch, told Mongabay reporter Hans Nicholas Jong following the publication of its yearly report in April 2026. But the overall trend is still cause for concern: According to the Global Forest Review, the total area of tropical primary forest destroyed globally each year remains “46% higher than a decade ago.” And over the past three years, between 2023-25, “fires burned more than twice as much tree cover as they did two decades ago,” worldwide, the review said. In 2026, temperatures are expected to soar as precipitation falls in key rainforest areas such as the northern Amazon and throughout Indonesia’s Sundaland rainforest due to the upcoming El Niño, predicted to be one of the strongest of this century. In 2021, more than 140 countries pledged…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Every year, June 22 marks World Rainforest Day, an awareness day launched by Rainforest Partnership in 2017 to advocate for the immediate protection and restoration of the world’s tropical forests. These ecosystems support at least half of all known plant and animal species. They also regulate rainfall and stabilize the global climate. In 2025, less […] authors: | ||
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Studying giant devil rays through war in Gaza: Interview with Mohammed Abu Daya 22 Jun 2026 16:12:27 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/studying-giant-devil-rays-through-war-in-gaza-interview-with-mohammed-abu-daya/ author: Rebecca Kessler dc:creator: Lyse Mauvais content:encoded: On the messaging platform WhatsApp, Mohammed Abu Daya’s profile picture features an aerial view of Gaza City before the current war. A clutter of high-rise buildings rises against the sky; at their feet, a strip of sandy beach, bathed by the sun, and the dark blue sea, dotted with small fishing boats. The photograph bears witness to a landscape that no longer exists — aside from the sea. “Gaza is now a big prison, with two million people living among rubble and destroyed infrastructure,” the Palestinian marine ecologist told Mongabay in May 2026 over the phone. “Life in the Gaza Strip is miserable.” For many months now, he has been unable to go out to sea to carry out research in his field. Before the war, Abu Daya was a lecturer at several Palestinian universities including the University of Palestine in Gaza and a researcher at the now-shuttered National Research Center in Gaza. His research focuses on spinetail devil rays (Mobula mobular), sometimes called giant devil rays, a critically endangered species that can reach up to 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) in width. The Gaza-based conservationist is one among a handful of scientists worldwide who study this species. Historically, it was thought to be endemic to the Mediterranean Sea, until taxonomic revisions in the late 2010s led scientists to consider the Mediterranean populations as genetically connected to others in the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Indo-Pacific region. The majestic rays are thought to roam the entire Mediterranean, from the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Mohammed Abu Daya is a marine ecologist in Gaza. His research focuses on spinetail devil rays, a large-bodied species of ray that roams the Mediterranean Sea and beyond. - Since 2013, Abu Daya has monitored the impact that local fisheries have on spinetail devil rays, which are listed as “critically endangered” on the IUCN Red List. Palestinian fishers occasionally target the rays when they stray into Gaza’s coastal water, as other fishing resources in the area have been depleted due to longstanding Israeli restrictions. - Displaced by Israeli bombings during the war in Gaza that began in 2023, Abu Daya now lives in a tent, with limited access to basic necessities like food and drinking water, or to the internet. His university office has been destroyed, and he can no longer conduct research at sea. Yet he continues to carry out his scientific work, in the hope that it will help improve the conservation of devil rays globally. - In 2025, at the height of the war, Abu Daya co-authored an international research paper documenting the behavior of spinetail devil rays and showing the importance of the Levantine region for the conservation of this species. authors: | ||
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Brazil curbs Amazon deforestation in Piripkura, but ranchers’ cattle linger 22 Jun 2026 16:00:10 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brazil-curbs-amazon-deforestation-in-piripkura-but-ranchers-cattle-linger/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Aimee Gabay content:encoded: A crackdown by the Brazilian government on land-grabbers who cleared primary Amazon forest for ranching and other agricultural activities in the Piripkura Indigenous Territory is yielding some results, with satellite analysis by Mongabay indicating a decline in deforestation. But one tricky problem remains, according to government agents and Indigenous rights organizations: removing their cattle. The 242,405-hectare (598,995-acre) Piripkura Indigenous Territory in west-central Brazil’s Mato Grosso state is home to the last two — known — Indigenous Piripkura people in voluntary isolation. According to Jair Candor, the coordinator of the Funai unit that protects isolated Indigenous groups, a third Piripkura person left the land and married into another tribe, the Karipuna, several decades ago. Funai, the country’s Indigenous affairs agency, has not yet ruled out the possibility that more isolated people live there. Ranchers coming in with their cattle to graze land have contributed to a large share of forest loss here. According to data from Global Forest Watch, the area lost a total tree cover of 1,769 hectares (4,371 acres) in 2021 — equivalent to 2,500 soccer fields — representing the largest increase since 2004, when the area lost was almost double (3,276 hectares, or 8,095 acres). Since the spike in 2021, due to successful operations by government agencies, deforestation has declined substantially, and despite a slight increase in 2023, losses remained far below 2021 levels and continued to decrease in 2024 and 2025. By 2025, tree cover loss had fallen to 106 hectares (262 acres). While deforestation has slowed…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A crackdown by the Brazilian government on land-grabbers who establish cattle ranches and other agricultural activities in the Piripkura Indigenous Territory, home to the last two known isolated Piripkura people, have seen some success with tree cover loss in 2025 down. - While there was very little deforestation from 2024-2025, authorities told Mongabay that 1,000 cattle left by the invaders still remain in the territory, and they have still not received authorization from the federal government to remove them. - The presence of cattle encourages ranchers to enter the land to care for them, said sources, though some remain there legitimately. - Authorities have implemented a succession of land use restriction orders since 2008 to prevent the entry of land grabbers, though a recent court decision has provisionally allowed some ranchers to remain in the Indigenous land until the conclusion of the demarcation process. authors: | ||
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Study offers first map of Amazon’s climate-resilient upslope corridors 22 Jun 2026 14:26:43 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/study-offers-first-map-of-amazons-climate-resilient-upslope-corridors/ author: Glenn Scherer dc:creator: Justin Catanoso content:encoded: Amazon-based scientists have long known that rapidly rising temperatures mean that places where species live today won’t be where they live tomorrow. For a vast number of species — ranging from insects, birds and primates to all manner of plants — upslope migration could present a potential, though perilous, pathway to resilience and survival during the climate crisis. This knowledge has raised a vital question: What are the most likely and best protected routes by which species across the Amazon’s broad expanse can relocate upward, helping preserve biodiversity, and hopefully keeping intact the ecosystem services tropical forests now deliver? In what is deemed the first region-wide assessment of Amazonia’s climate resilience and connectivity, a new study points to the western part of the biome, particularly the Andean spine of Peru, as the most viable upslope corridors. According to researchers, this region has the highest concentration of key components needed to support species survival — including major elevation gradients, large established protected areas, and connected forested corridors to facilitate upslope species migration. The scientists pinpointed additional potential corridors in southwestern Colombia, northern Brazil, northern Bolivia, north-central Guyana, and western Suriname. But these areas are disadvantaged due to fewer protected areas, with connectivity in many locales broken by forest fragmentation due to deforestation and oil and gas drilling. Published in May in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation, the new study, titled “A regional-scale assessment of climate-resilient corridors and connectivity in the Amazon,” was undertaken with the goal of providing findings that…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Worsening climate change creates enormous challenges for ecosystems and individual species. As the world warms, plants and animals must quickly migrate to cooler places to stay resilient and survive. But today such migrations are often blocked by deforestation, human infrastructure and lack of conserved lands. - In the tropics, vast lowlands can require species to move large distances north or south to escape warming. The most rapid path to climate-resilience is upslope migration, with plants and animals relocating shorter distances uphill to cooler places. - A new study has mapped major elevational gradients in the Amazon that offer the best possibility for connectivity and upslope relocation in the biome — overlaying elevational gradients, amount of forest cover, fragmentation and protected areas. - This broad-brush research could aid policymakers in identifying the most viable upslope corridors, helping nations and NGOs target best opportunities for land protection to enhance connectivity and aid species survival. authors: | ||
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Apes can imagine too 22 Jun 2026 14:01:12 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/apes-can-imagine-too/ author: Lucia Torres dc:creator: Abhishyant Kidangoor content:encoded: Turns out imagination is not unique to humans. A series of experiments has shown that a language-trained bonobo was able to distinguish real from fake objects and engage in pretend play. Scientists sat down for a “tea party” with Kanzi to understand how the ape would respond to make-believe scenarios. The results have shown that apes might share the human ability to imagine. The scientists are now planning to expand the research by conducting similar experiments on other apes, including those that have not been language-trained. Watch this video to see how Kanzi engages in pretend play.This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Turns out imagination is not unique to humans. A series of experiments has shown that a language-trained bonobo was able to distinguish real from fake objects and engage in pretend play. Scientists sat down for a “tea party” with Kanzi to understand how the ape would respond to make-believe scenarios. The results have shown that […] authors: | ||
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US moves to allow commercial fishing in Pacific marine protected areas 22 Jun 2026 11:49:13 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/us-moves-to-allow-commercial-fishing-in-pacific-marine-protected-areas/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Bobby Bascomb content:encoded: On June 11, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive proclamation to open additional commercial fishing grounds in remote areas of the Pacific. The proclamation says restoring access to these areas “will promote economic opportunity.” However, local groups warn it will open the door to overfishing in a crucial marine habitat and sacred cultural site. The proclamation, “Restoring American Commercial Fishing in the Pacific,” comes a year after a similar proclamation in April 2025 that opened up commercial fishing in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument (PIH). Formerly the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, the PIH covers nearly 1.3 million square kilometers (500,000 square miles) of Pacific Ocean. The June 2026 proclamation includes portions of three additional marine national monuments — Rose Atoll, Mariana Trench, and Papahānaumokuākea — which together include nearly 1.8 million km2 (690,000 mi2) of coral atolls, deep-sea trenches and remote islands. Image courtesy of NOAA Fisheries The new proclamation would roll back protections for roughly 1.3 million km2 (500,000 mi2) of the area to allow industrial fishing. Such commercial fishing could include kilometers of baited hooks, known as long lines, and purse seine nets more than 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) long. Both types of fishing gear are highly effective at catching tuna, the target species, as well as other marine life as bycatch. Conservationists say opening the Pacific monuments to industrial fishing is a significant concern for many species in the area, including threatened sea turtles, whales, dolphins, seabirds, sharks and fish; many are endemic, found…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: On June 11, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive proclamation to open additional commercial fishing grounds in remote areas of the Pacific. The proclamation says restoring access to these areas “will promote economic opportunity.” However, local groups warn it will open the door to overfishing in a crucial marine habitat and sacred cultural site. […] authors: | ||
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France sizzles in a week of punishing heat as red alerts spread 22 Jun 2026 11:33:09 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/france-sizzles-in-a-week-of-punishing-heat-as-red-alerts-spread/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: PARIS (AP) — France gritted its teeth Monday for a week of record-busting temperatures, sweltering under a grueling heat wave that combines daytime highs above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) and sleep-robbing sweaty nights. The national weather service, Méteo France, said that most of the country — the largest in the European Union and second most populated — is entering what is described as a “plateau” of unrelenting heat-wave conditions that isn’t forecast to start easing before Friday at the earliest. Multiple towns in western and central France, including the major port of Saint-Nazaire on the Atlantic seaboard, with an overnight low of 23.2 C (73.8 F), experienced their hottest night ever Sunday to Monday, Méteo France said. Paris baked through its hottest night for a month of June, not getting below 24.2 C (75.5 F) — a half-degree hotter than the previous record from 2017. The weather service warned of even hotter nights. “This will continue through the end of the week, with heat levels never before recorded across more than three-quarters of the country on Wednesday and Thursday.” In a country without widespread air-conditioning, people, businesses and services tried to adapt as best they could. Hundreds of schools were closed on Monday and many hundreds more were canceling some classes, the education minister said. Broadcasts on the Paris transport network urged commuters to hydrate. Medical specialists took to the airwaves to warn of the potentially deadly cocktail of drinking alcohol in extreme heat. Authorities cracked down on alcohol consumption in public. Multiple…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: PARIS (AP) — France gritted its teeth Monday for a week of record-busting temperatures, sweltering under a grueling heat wave that combines daytime highs above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) and sleep-robbing sweaty nights. The national weather service, Méteo France, said that most of the country — the largest in the European Union and second most populated — […] authors: | ||
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South America’s farms depend, in part, on a healthy Amazon 22 Jun 2026 08:30:41 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/south-americas-farms-depend-in-part-on-a-healthy-amazon/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: The Amazon is often described in terms of how much carbon it stores. It also moves vast amounts of water. Its trees draw moisture from the soil and return it to the air through transpiration. Some rain caught by the canopy also evaporates back into the atmosphere. That moisture falls again, some of it inside the basin and some of it far downwind. For much of South America, the forest helps sustain rainfall, farming, hydropower, and urban water supplies. A recent paper in Nature, by Nico Wunderling and colleagues, gives this hydrological role greater weight in the climate case for the Amazon. The authors used a dynamical systems model and atmospheric moisture tracking to estimate how deforestation and warming interact across the basin. Without deforestation, their model finds a critical global warming threshold of about 3.7 to 4.0 degrees Celsius, beyond which up to a third of the Amazon forest risks losing stability. When deforestation is included, the risk becomes much larger at a lower level of warming. Under deforestation of 22% to 28% of the biome and warming of 1.5 to 1.9 degrees Celsius, the model finds a near system-wide transition affecting 62% to 77% of the forest. Rain over the Amazon. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler Those numbers should be treated carefully. The Amazon is not a single ecological unit. Western forests, southern forests, flooded forests, upland forests, secondary forests, and fire-damaged edges differ in species composition, rainfall, soils, and drought tolerance. A model cannot capture every…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Amazon is not only a carbon store; it is also a major source of atmospheric moisture that helps sustain rainfall across much of South America. - A new Nature study finds that deforestation lowers the warming threshold at which large parts of the Amazon could lose stability. - Recent droughts, El Niño conditions, and fire risk show why degraded forests are less able to withstand climate stress and recover afterward. - Protecting intact forests, restoring degraded areas, and reducing fire are increasingly important for climate resilience, biodiversity, and South America’s food system. authors: | ||
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Power lines threaten Sri Lanka’s iconic migrant flamingos 22 Jun 2026 08:21:56 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/power-lines-threaten-sri-lankas-iconic-migrant-flamingos/ author: Naina Rao dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: The lagoons of Mannar in northern Sri Lanka attract large flocks of pink and white greater flamingos every year, which drive a vital tourism industry in the region. However, recent fatalities of the migratory birds from collisions with power cables there have sparked urgent concerns regarding the impact of power infrastructure in the wetlands, reports contributor Malaka Rodrigo for Mongabay. Three greater flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus) recently died in Mannar after colliding with overhead power lines. Although initial reports suspected electrocution, necropsies performed by the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) veterinary surgeon Balachandran Giritharan revealed the birds’ long necks were slashed mid-flight by the cables. Conservationists warn that energy infrastructure, including proposed wind power projects, increasingly encroaches on sensitive habitats like Vankalai Sanctuary in Mannar. Flamingos are particularly susceptible to collisions with power lines due to their long necks, large wingspans and limited maneuverability, said Sampath S. Seneviratne, an ornithologist and a professor of zoology with the University of Colombo. The birds also fly in large flocks during the low-light hours of dawn and dusk, he added. The threat from power infrastructure is not limited to Sri Lanka. Flamingo fatalities due to power line collisions have been recorded in several African countries, with a report by the IUCN listing 464 flamingo deaths in South Africa alone from 1997-2019. Meanwhile, in the state of Gujarat in western India, a 2011 study reported 76 flamingos that were killed due to collisions with electric wires from 2002-2005. Other protected areas in Sri Lanka offer a cautionary…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The lagoons of Mannar in northern Sri Lanka attract large flocks of pink and white greater flamingos every year, which drive a vital tourism industry in the region. However, recent fatalities of the migratory birds from collisions with power cables there have sparked urgent concerns regarding the impact of power infrastructure in the wetlands, reports […] authors: | ||
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Community more crucial than snow leopard counting: Interview with Rodney Jackson 22 Jun 2026 07:54:23 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/community-more-crucial-than-snow-leopard-counting-interview-with-rodney-jackson/ author: Abhaya Raj Joshi dc:creator: Abhaya Raj Joshi content:encoded: KATHMANDU — Rodney Jackson pioneered the radio-tracking study of snow leopards in Nepal’s Langu Valley in the early 1980s and has, since then, worked across the species’ range from Ladakh to Mongolia to the Pakistani Karakoram ranges. In 1981, he founded the nonprofit Snow Leopard Conservancy (SLC), which focuses on community-based conservation approaches in high mountain landscapes of Asia. Jackson, who holds a doctorate from the University of London, was featured on the cover of National Geographic in 1986 and remains one of the most cited researchers in snow leopard (Panthera uncia) science. After retiring in 2022, Jackson serves as the president of the conservancy’s board of directors, where he works in refining strategic approach and impact, mentoring the next generation of conservationists, and special projects. Jackson spoke with Mongabay — the third time, following interviews in 2008 and 2015 — on the sidelines of Society of Conservation Biologists Congress in Kathmandu, Nepal. Talking to Mongabay’s Abhaya Raj Joshi, Jackson discusses the state of population monitoring technology, the persistent challenge of human-wildlife conflict in mountain communities, and what he describes as a long-standing failure to center the needs of herding families who bear the direct costs of living alongside the species. He also reflects on the lack of collaboration between the two main international snow leopard organizations, and on what he sees as the field’s continued overinvestment in science at the expense of practical community support. Jackson holds up awareness material. Image courtesy of Anil Adhikari. This interview has been…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Rodney Jackson, a pioneering snow leopard researcher, has worked across the species’ range — the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia. - In 1981, he founded the nonprofit Snow Leopard Conservancy, focused on community-based conservation in Asia’s high mountain landscapes, and is one of the field’s most cited researchers. Since retiring in 2022, he serves as the president of the Conservancy’s board, focusing on strategy, mentorship and special projects. - Jackson recently spoke to Mongabay about the big cat’s population monitoring technology, human-wildlife conflict in mountain communities, failure to center herding communities’ needs, and limited collaboration between major snow leopard organizations. authors: | ||
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Antarctica’s first plant risk assessment raises concerns for a rare moss 22 Jun 2026 07:01:36 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/antarcticas-first-plant-risk-assessment-raises-concerns-for-a-rare-moss/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Shreya Dasgupta content:encoded: In Antarctica’s extreme cold, plants blanket small ice-free areas in bursts of green. These include two native species of flowering plants, 116 moss species, and several liverworts and lichens. Until now, however, none had been assessed for their extinction risk in Antarctica. For the first time, researchers have evaluated the conservation status of an Antarctic moss, Roaldia revoluta, and found it to be regionally endangered. For Peter Convey, study co-author and a veteran scientist with the British Antarctic Survey, this finding isn’t surprising. “As a field ecologist who has visited many parts of the Antarctic Peninsula over the last 38 years, and made many general moss collections (even though I am not a specialist bryologist) it is very clear that some of the species in the region are only encountered infrequently, or have geographically very restricted or sporadic distributions,” Convey said. “There are about 116 or so known moss species in Antarctica, and I think if this exercise was to be done more widely across these, I think we would get quite a few similar assessments.” Roaldia revoluta. Image © Sequoia Janirella Wrens via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0) Roaldia revoluta is a rusty-brown or yellowish moss found both in the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as in the colder, mountainous parts of Europe, Patagonia and New Zealand. Globally, the species is evaluated as least concern on the IUCN Red List. In parts of its range, however, it’s in decline: near threatened in Romania; critically endangered in the U.K.; and possibly…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: In Antarctica’s extreme cold, plants blanket small ice-free areas in bursts of green. These include two native species of flowering plants, 116 moss species, and several liverworts and lichens. Until now, however, none had been assessed for their extinction risk in Antarctica. For the first time, researchers have evaluated the conservation status of an Antarctic […] authors: | ||
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A few seconds with one of West Africa’s rarest birds 22 Jun 2026 06:37:57 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/a-few-seconds-with-one-of-west-africas-rarest-birds/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. The white-necked picathartes is easy to miss. In Taï National Park, in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire, it nests beneath rocky overhangs, shaping mud cups against stone walls deep inside the forest. It may appear for only a few seconds, long enough to show its bare yellow head, black cheek patches, and long-legged frame, before it vanishes again into the trees. The bird’s elusiveness reflects the kind of habitat it needs, reports contributor Ryan Truscott for Mongabay. Taï is the largest intact remnant of the Upper Guinean rainforest, a forest type that once stretched across much of West Africa. Its boulders, old animal trails, giant mahoganies, duikers, hornbills, monkeys, and river hogs are part of a system that still retains much of its original complexity. The white-necked picathartes (Picathartes gymnocephalus) depends on rocky nesting sites and surrounding forest cover. Other species help maintain the forest itself. Hornbills, primates, and mammals move seeds through the canopy and across the forest floor, helping trees and lianas regenerate far from their parent plants. That makes Taï important beyond the survival of any single rare species. Protected areas are often judged by their boundaries, patrol numbers, and better-known animals. A fuller measure is whether ecological relationships continue: animals using long-established routes, seed dispersers moving between fruiting trees, birds returning to nesting walls, and rangers knowing enough of the forest to find those places again. Keeping those relationships intact depends…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. The white-necked picathartes is easy to miss. In Taï National Park, in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire, it nests beneath rocky overhangs, shaping mud cups against stone walls deep inside the forest. It may appear for only a few seconds, […] authors: | ||
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Mona Khalil, who left safety in Europe to protect sea turtles in Lebanon, was killed by an Israeli airstrike 21 Jun 2026 07:59:53 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/mona-khalil-left-safety-in-europe-to-protect-sea-turtles-in-southern-lebanon/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: At night on Mansouri beach, the first evidence was often a track in the sand. The beach lies south of Tyre, near the border with Israel, where checkpoints, shelling, and evacuation orders have long shaped daily life. It is also one of Lebanon’s important nesting grounds for loggerhead and green sea turtles. The turtles come ashore after dark. They dig, lay, cover, and return to the water. For the hatchlings, the distance from nest to sea is only a few yards. It is still dangerous. Dogs and foxes dig up eggs. Crabs and birds take the young. Lights from roads and resorts pull them away from the water. Plastic drifts offshore. Fishing nets catch adults that have survived for decades. Even a footprint can trap a turtle no bigger than a child’s palm. Mona Khalil gave much of her life to that narrow strip of beach. She was 76 when she died on June 19 from wounds sustained after an Israeli airstrike struck her home at Mansouri beach earlier that month. Her assistant was also injured, suffering severe burns. The house, known to visitors and volunteers as the Orange House, had been the base of her conservation work for more than 25 years. Mona Khalil in 2004 in Lebanon. Photo by Joseph Barrak/AFP/Getty Images She had not set out to become a conservationist. Born in Lagos to Lebanese parents, she later left Lebanon during the civil war. In the Netherlands she worked as a porcelain restorer, a trade that required…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Mona Khalil died on June 19 after being wounded when an Israeli strike hit her home at Mansouri beach in southern Lebanon. - For more than 25 years, she protected endangered loggerhead and green sea turtles that nested on a narrow stretch of coast near Tyre. - She left a settled life in the Netherlands to return to Lebanon, where she turned her family home into the Orange House, a conservation project and guesthouse. - Her work combined daily field labor, public education, local advocacy, and resistance to pollution, dynamite fishing, coastal development, and war. authors: | ||
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Accountability advocates ‘shocked’ as Canadian government eliminates watchdog agency 20 Jun 2026 09:10:24 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/accountability-advocates-shocked-as-canadian-government-eliminates-watchdog-agency/ author: Andy Lehren dc:creator: Annie Burns-Pieper content:encoded: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced last week that the government eliminated an office created to probe overseas human rights complaints about Canadian corporations, including mining conglomerates. This comes only months after the foreign affairs minister said the office was “important.” The announcement shocked environmental and human rights nonprofit organizations and those who said they have faced personal risk to alert Canadian authorities about actions by corporations based in the country. The Canadian government created the office of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) in 2019 to evaluate complaints about alleged human rights abuses by Canadian companies operating abroad in the garment, mining, and oil and gas sectors. At a June 11 press conference, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government had eliminated the CORE office months before because it considered the agency ineffective, only conducting one investigation in seven years. But his government made no public announcement about the decision, and three weeks earlier had addressed questions from Mongabay about the status of its investigations. While the office failed to complete any investigations for its first four years of operations, it reported on the outcome of five complaints in 2024, its last year with a permanent Ombudsperson. Since then, the office has been without a permanent leader. In April 2024, an interim Ombudsperson took over the post until May 20, 2025; the role has since sat vacant. “The Carney government’s reasons for disbanding the ombudsman are at best misinformed but much more likely a deliberate favor to…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Canada created a watchdog agency in 2019 to investigate human rights abuses overseas involving Canadian corporations, including leading mining concerns. It was called the office of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE). But for more than a year, its top position remained vacant. - Mongabay reported earlier this month that the office had at least 24 active complaints and that additional communities around the world were ready to make complaints once the office was properly staffed. - Now, in a move that stunned observers and drawn sharp criticism from activists, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced he has closed the agency. authors: | ||
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Death and exile: A war plagues Indigenous Jiw and Nukak in the Colombian Amazon 19 Jun 2026 19:15:03 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/death-and-exile-a-war-plagues-indigenous-jiw-and-nukak-in-the-colombian-amazon/ author: Alexandre de Santi dc:creator: Pilar Puentes content:encoded: Since the end of May, rural areas of San José del Guaviare, the capital city of the Guaviare department in the Colombian Amazon, have once again been turned into a war zone. A series of clashes between dissident cells of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), demobilized in 2016, and commanded by Alexander Díaz Mendoza, alias “Calarcá,” and Néstor Gregorio Vera Fernández, alias “‘Iván Mordisco,” has resulted in the deaths of at least 48 people. The warfare between the two armed groups concentrates on a strategic area for illicit economies on the Guaviare River, a tributary of the Orinoco River. The rural community of Cumare, as well as the Nukak and Jiw Indigenous people of the Barranco Colorado Reserve (an ancestral territory in San José del Guaviare), started hearing gunshots and rushed to hide. Since that frightening day, May 26, they have avoided leaving their homes. “People are on maximum alert; no one moves because they fear being caught in the middle of the confrontation,” said a resident of Charras, another rural area of San José del Guaviare, who requested anonymity for safety reasons. “We knew something like this could happen. A bomb fell in the middle of a sports field here in the Siberia rural district,” said a woman who has witnessed the clashes since their very beginning; she also requested anonymity. Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez stated, “The criminal structures of alias ‘Mordisco’ and ‘Calarcá’ fought in the Barranco Colorado sector, jurisdiction of San José del Guaviare,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - By late May, at least 48 people were killed in rural areas of Colombia following clashes between the FARC guerrilla dissident groups controlled by the aliases “Calarcá” and “Iván Mordisco.” - Conflicts have displaced 10 Indigenous Jiw families from the municipality of Mapiripán, Meta department. They had to reach the urban area of San José del Guaviare for protection. - The clashes occurred near the Tomachipán-Cumare road, an illegal trail used by dissident armed cells as a strategic corridor to mobilize and transport drug trafficking supplies in the Guaviare department. - Experts warn that controlling this disputed area is important for armed groups, as it means dominating strategic zones in the department and also being closer to the Venezuelan border. authors: | ||
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What’s at stake for the environment in Colombia’s upcoming election? 19 Jun 2026 15:55:00 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-colombias-upcoming-election/ author: Alexandra Popescu dc:creator: Aimee Gabay content:encoded: Colombia’s first round of presidential elections on May 31 saw right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella take the top spot with 43.7% of the vote, followed by left-wing candidate Iván Cepeda, with 40.9%. The future of the Colombian Amazon, the fossil fuel phaseout commitments made by current President Gustavo Petro and the rights of Indigenous peoples and other traditional communities are all at stake during the runoff on June 21. Colombia has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by 2030 and has a legally binding net-zero target for 2050. Analysts at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) say Petro’s government made some progress, but deep reductions in emissions are critical, in particular from deforestation and agriculture, as well as reforms to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. As a result, who Colombia elects next will have major implications for the country’s climate ambitions. When Petro took office in 2022, he made the fossil fuel phaseout and environmental protection central features of his government’s agenda. He promised to become a leader in the defense of life, which involved transforming the country’s relationship with nature and “Total Peace” (Paz Total) — his administration’s flagship peace policy aimed to end Colombia’s decades-long armed conflict. Petro opposed new oil and gas exploration contracts and has been vocal about environmental justice and the energy transition at the international level, including at the United Nations General Assembly, the World Economic Forum in Davos and the United Nations Climate Change Conferences (COPs). In April,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Colombia will hold its runoff presidential elections on June 21, with left-wing Iván Cepeda from the current governing Historical Pact party facing Abelardo de la Espriella from the far-right Defenders of the Homeland party. - The future of the Colombian Amazon, fossil fuel phaseout and the rights of traditional communities are all at stake, with both candidates proposing dramatically different approaches to tackle environmental issues. - Cepeda’s program, analyzed by Mongabay, promises to halt oil and gas and protect territories and communities; de la Espriella has promised to expand fossil fuel production and mining. - Both have very different approaches to ending violence, which is linked to deforestation and environmental degradation, with Cepeda focusing on total peace and large-scale land redistribution and de la Espriella on greater force and militarization. authors: | ||
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South African authorities thwart smuggling of 150 venomous scorpions, arrest man 19 Jun 2026 13:42:14 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/south-african-authorities-thwart-smuggling-of-150-venomous-scorpions-arrest-man/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Spoorthy Raman content:encoded: South African police arrested a 28-year-old man at Cape Town International Airport on June 12, 2026. Inside his luggage, tucked between his clothing, authorities discovered 150 live venomous scorpions. Each one was individually wrapped in a clear plastic bag, like candies at a supermarket It’s not known where the alleged smuggler intended to take the scorpions or for what purpose. An intelligence-led operation targeted the suspect: Authorities acted on a tip about a man in possession of wildlife. The bust was conducted by the Kuilsriver Stock Theft and Endangered Species Unit, a special police force, in collaboration with CapeNature, a government agency tasked with environmental protection in the Western Cape. Police spokesperson Sergeant Wesley Twigg told local media that he was arrested on suspicion of being in “possession of a wild animal under the Nature and Environmental Ordinance Act.” An investigation into the case is ongoing. The commercial value of the seized scorpions is yet to be determined, authorities said. The rescued scorpions are being cared for by the Cape of Good Hope SPCA. In a social media statement, the animal rescue organization said they are ensuring the arachnids receive proper care, and they will try to return them “to their place of origin where possible.” The seized scorpions are being cared for at the Cape of Good Hope SPCA. Image courtesy of Cape of Good Hope SPCA/Facebook. Scorpion trade, like other wildlife, is booming The planet is home to more than 2,900 scorpion species; only 25-30 have venom, a…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - South African authorities arrested a 28-year-old man with 150 venomous scorpions in his bag at Cape Town airport. - The intelligence-led operation followed a tip-off on his movements. He allegedly smuggled the scorpions from the wild and faces wildlife trafficking charges. The investigation is ongoing. - Scorpion venom is highly prized for use in biomedical research and the beauty industry. They are also kept as pets by collectors of rare and venomous arachnids. - The arrest and seizure highlight the growing trade in scorpions and spiders, as conservationists call for increased protections for these arachnids under an international wildlife trade treaty, CITES. authors: | ||
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Demand for vultures in West Africa threatens Central African populations 19 Jun 2026 10:21:29 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/demand-for-vultures-in-west-africa-threatens-central-african-populations/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Sean Mowbray content:encoded: Conservationists warn that vulture populations in central African countries like Chad are increasingly at risk due to belief-based use in Nigeria and Benin. Abiola Sylvestre Chaffra, a research fellow at the International Bird Conservation Partnership, told Mongabay he was out in Chad, photographing vultures, when a man offered to help him capture the birds. Vultures love donkey meat, the man said. All Chaffra had to do was buy a donkey and leave its poisoned carcass in the open. The man told Chaffra he had helped many people catch vultures this way. In West African countries like Nigeria and Benin, vultures are poached both alive and dead for beliefs that they bring luck, success or protection against witchcraft. Vulture parts, including head and feet, eggs and nests, are also used. This demand is now reaching vulture populations in Central Africa. A juvenile hooded vulture for sale at a market in Benin. Image courtesy of Abiola Sylvestre Chaffra. In a recent paper, researchers detailed how critically endangered hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) were absent around most slaughterhouses and landfill sites they visited near N’Djamena, Chad’s capital. “That doesn’t really make sense, because there’s a ton of food,” said study co-author Nico Arcilla, president of the International Bird Conservation Partnership. Nearly half the local residents interviewed by the researchers said they knew of recent poisoning incidents in the area, and more than one-third stated they were aware of poachers from countries such as Nigeria, Niger, Benin and Cameroon trapping or killing vultures. “The driver…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Conservationists warn that vulture populations in central African countries like Chad are increasingly at risk due to belief-based use in Nigeria and Benin. Abiola Sylvestre Chaffra, a research fellow at the International Bird Conservation Partnership, told Mongabay he was out in Chad, photographing vultures, when a man offered to help him capture the birds. Vultures […] authors: | ||
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Côte d’Ivoire’s tree-climbing crocodile needs to be protected, scientist says 19 Jun 2026 08:00:12 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/cote-divoires-tree-climbing-crocodile-needs-to-be-protected-scientist-says/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Ryan Truscott content:encoded: TAI NATIONAL PARK, Côte d’Ivoire — Environmental scientist Christine Kouman says she has always had a passion to take care of things that are overlooked or neglected. The West African slender-snouted crocodile and its habitat in what remains of the Upper Guinean Forest qualify on both fronts. Kouman, co-founder of a conservation NGO called EBURCO that is collaborating with authorities to protect and raise the profile of Taï National Park — a key stronghold of the slender-snouted crocodile (Mecistops cataphractus), — has studied this species in her native Côte d’Ivoire for more than a decade. Her work, which is supported by Project Mecistops, – has produced insights into this little-known species. The project is part of the Tropical Conservation Institute at Florida International University in the U.S. Mongabay recently accompanied Kouman on a night-time boat trip in Taï National Park, up the Hana River, a place where she has undertaken many hours of grueling fieldwork. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. The slender-snouted crocodile has adapted to its rainforest environment by basking on trees and rocks that protrude from the river. Image courtesy of Christine Kouman. Mongabay: Tell us something about the slender-snouted crocodile. Christine Kouman: I can say it’s a gentle crocodile, because it feeds mainly on fish, and I’ve never heard of the species attacking people. I’ve been working on them for more than 10 years now, and during those 10 years, I touched them, handled them, but I still have all my fingers and my…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - On a recent visit to Taï National Park, in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire, Mongabay accompanied Ivorian environmental scientist Christine Kouman on a night-time boat trip up the Hana River. - The river is home to Africa’s rarest crocodile, the critically-endangered West African slender-snouted crocodile. - For more than a decade Kouman, whose work has been supported by Project Mecistops. - Now the scientist, who cofounded the conservation NGO EBURCO, is working with others to ensure its rainforest habitat stays well protected. authors: | ||
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Conservation efforts by families displaced for national park sees success in DRC 19 Jun 2026 05:44:43 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/conservation-efforts-by-families-displaced-for-national-park-sees-success-in-drc/ author: Naina Rao dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: Descendants of families forcibly displaced during the creation of Maiko National Park in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo back in the 1970s are now leading a new wave of community-led conservation. Gangala Yafali Mangusa Jr., from one such displaced family, is the head of the Bamasobha Local Community Forest Concession (CFCL), covering roughly 29,000 hectares (71,700 acres), where he oversees patrols that monitor illegal hunting, logging and mining. His team also works to strengthen coexistence between communities and the forest, and to promote sustainable management of natural resources. Mongabay-Africa contributor Jérémie Kyaswekera reports that Mangusa Jr.’s commitment stems from a history of conflict between his community and the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN) following the creation of Maiko National Park, home to the eastern lowland gorilla, forest elephants and chimpanzees. “At one point, park rangers from the ICCN came and set up camp, and they began patrolling, forbidding people from entering the forest and eating meat, even though these Indigenous communities had been living off meat [and fruit] for generations,” Mangusa Jr. said. That led to long-standing disagreements, forcing communities to move elsewhere, he added. The Bamasobha CFCL represents a shift toward inclusive forest management. Supported by the Peasants’ Association for the Rehabilitation and Protection of Pygmies (PREPPYG), the communities of Bamasobha developed a management plan in 2023 that balances biodiversity protection with human needs through distinct production and conservation zones. The impact has been significant: Satellite data from Global Forest Watch shows forest loss…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Descendants of families forcibly displaced during the creation of Maiko National Park in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo back in the 1970s are now leading a new wave of community-led conservation. Gangala Yafali Mangusa Jr., from one such displaced family, is the head of the Bamasobha Local Community Forest Concession (CFCL), […] authors: | ||
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Museum DNA unmasks new Himalayan pit vipers, study says 19 Jun 2026 05:18:44 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/museum-dna-unmasks-new-himalayan-pit-vipers-study-says/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Naina Rao content:encoded: For more than 160 years, the Himalayan pit viper was believed to be a single species, found across the Himalayas in Pakistan, India and Nepal. Now, a new study revealed this snake is actually not one, but five distinct species, including three entirely new to science. For their analysis, the researchers conducted fieldwork to different parts of the Himalayas and collected samples of what was considered to be the Himalayan pit viper from different populations. They also examined historical specimens assigned to the Himalayan pit viper and extracted DNA from them. Their analysis of the snakes’ bodies, skeleton and DNA revealed five separate species: The Himalayan pit viper (Gloydius himalayanus) was first described in 1864. This species is now restricted to northwestern India and typically inhabits elevations between 1,000 and 3,500 meters (3,281-11,483 feet). The Chamba pit viper (G. chambensis) was originally described in 2022 from India’s Chamba District. This study extended its known range westward into the Kashmir Valley. It lives at elevations from 400-2,500 meters (1,312-8,202 feet). The Hazara pit viper (G. hazarensis) is a new-to-science species. It’s found in the Hazara region of northeastern Pakistan at elevations ranging from 1,630-2,900 meters (5,348-9,514 feet). The Hindu Kush pit viper (G. hindukushensis) is also a newly described species. It inhabits the eastern foothills of the Hindu Kush Mountains in northwestern Pakistan between 1,660 and 2,888 meters (5,446-9,475 feet). The Nepali pit viper (G. nepalensis) is new-to-science as well. This viper is distributed across western and west-central Nepal and is…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: For more than 160 years, the Himalayan pit viper was believed to be a single species, found across the Himalayas in Pakistan, India and Nepal. Now, a new study revealed this snake is actually not one, but five distinct species, including three entirely new to science. For their analysis, the researchers conducted fieldwork to different […] authors: | ||
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Suriname will not be saved by soybeans (commentary) 19 Jun 2026 00:03:24 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/suriname-will-not-be-saved-by-soybeans-commentary/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Mark J. Plotkin content:encoded: Suriname is being presented with a familiar proposition: foreign agribusiness, whether Brazilian, Mennonite, or otherwise, will modernize agriculture, create jobs, and bring prosperity. It is an appealing narrative. It is also one that has played out throughout tropical America, from Mexico to Mato Grosso. The result has rarely been shared prosperity. Instead, it has often meant felled forest, poisoned water, long-term loss of control over land and resources, and local populations watching the wealth pass through on its way to somewhere else. Suriname should pause before replicating this model. The employment benefits are often wildly overstated. Industrial soy and cattle production are highly mechanized systems designed to minimize labor, often conducted by a skeleton crew running combines and GPS-guided sprayers. A few operators can manage thousands of hectares. The jobs that are created tend to be temporary, low-paid, and sometimes filled by external labor rather than local hires because this business model is predicated on keeping labor costs as close to zero as the machinery allows. In contrast, existing sectors—smallholder agriculture, fisheries, and forest-based livelihoods—support far more people and are deeply embedded in local economies. The environmental risks are even more significant. Large-scale monoculture depends on heavy use of agrochemicals like glyphosate and phosphorus fertilizer, applied in huge quantities. These inevitably enter river systems, including those that provide drinking water and food for a large part of Suriname’s population. Fish — the primary protein source for many communities — are directly affected. A brutal imbalance is created: beef and soy…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Suriname should be wary of promises that foreign agribusiness will modernize agriculture, create jobs, and bring broad prosperity, argues Mark Plotkin, ethnobotanist and President of The Amazon Conservation Team. - Across tropical America, this model has too often proved a costly folly: forests are cleared, rivers are polluted, and local communities are left with fewer resources while wealth flows elsewhere. - Rather than expanding export-oriented soy and cattle production, Suriname should strengthen food security, support local producers, protect rivers and forests, and seek the input of the communities most affected. - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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