|
Ants need urgent protections from global trade, conservationists say 13 Jan 2026 21:25:00 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/ants-need-urgent-protections-from-global-trade-conservationists-say/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Spoorthy Raman content:encoded: As the recent seizure of more than 5,000 endemic ants in Kenya reveals, ants have become part of a thriving global wildlife trade. Transnational traffickers are mopping up ants from the wild to sell them to hobbyists and collectors worldwide. In a recently published letter, conservationists are now calling for greater trade protections for all ant species under CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty. Ants play an important ecological role as seed dispersers and soil engineers and are essential components of soil biodiversity, said Sérgio Henriques, a letter co-author from CCMAR, the Algarve Centre of Marine Sciences at the University of Algarve, Portugal. But they are being harvested “at an alarming rate for a global market that is operating almost entirely in the shadows and moved across the world,” he told Mongabay by email. While the Kenyan seizure garnered international attention, Henriques said data show similar cases in Central Africa, South America and Southeast Asia, where traders target “visually striking” or “ecologically interesting” ant species. “Many of these are range-restricted endemics that are particularly vulnerable to disturbance by poaching,” he added. Ants can also become invasive pests when introduced in areas outside their range. On Australia’s Christmas Island, for instance, yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes) from Asia have wiped out native red crabs (Gecarcoidea natalis). Meanwhile, little fire ants (Wasmannia auropunctata) from Central and South America cost a whopping $170 million in damages in Hawai`i annually. “Any of these places that have invasive ant problems are spending bazillions,” Chris Shepherd,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: As the recent seizure of more than 5,000 endemic ants in Kenya reveals, ants have become part of a thriving global wildlife trade. Transnational traffickers are mopping up ants from the wild to sell them to hobbyists and collectors worldwide. In a recently published letter, conservationists are now calling for greater trade protections for all […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Study tracks fishing boats to see how heat waves affect fish distribution 13 Jan 2026 21:09:56 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/study-tracks-fishing-boats-to-see-how-heat-waves-affect-fish-distribution/ author: Morgan Erickson-Davis dc:creator: Edward Carver content:encoded: Marine heat waves have become longer and more frequent along the U.S. West Coast, as elsewhere in the world. But heating doesn’t always lead fish to change their location. A new study suggests a better way to tell if such ecological shifts are happening: Use fishing vessel tracking data. The study, published Dec. 22, 2025, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that tracking data could provide early detection of extreme northward and inshore shifts in albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga) and Pacific bluefin tuna (T. orientalis) distribution in response to heat waves. The data also showed when such shifts weren’t happening, despite high sea surface temperatures. Related data also showed when there was low albacore availability for fishing. The study indicates that tracking data can in some cases be used as an early-warning signal for ecological change in the ocean, the authors suggest. “We have so much data on fishing vessel activity,” study lead author Heather Welch, a marine spatial ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said in a statement. “These data are traditionally used for surveillance, and it is exciting that they may also be useful for understanding ecosystem health.” Map shows total fishing effort, in hours, for albacore at different locations off the U.S. West Coast from 2010-2024. Annual average locations are overlaid as white points, with two years labeled (2015 and 2017). The 2015 average location indicates a distribution shift by albacore in response to a devastating marine heat wave known…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A new study suggests an early way to detect ecological shifts during marine heat waves: Use fishing vessel tracking data. - The study found that tracking data could provide early detection of extreme northward and inshore shifts in albacore tuna and Pacific bluefin tuna distribution in response to heat waves and showed when such shifts weren’t happening despite high sea surface temperatures. - The authors position fishers as “apex predators” and build on research that finds that predators are good ecosystem sentinels. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
South Africa’s great white shark population worries researchers 13 Jan 2026 20:43:40 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/south-africas-great-white-shark-population-worries-researchers/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Victoria Schneider content:encoded: Great white shark populations in South Africa are disappearing, driven largely by human activities that are likely responsible for the collapse of a locally critical apex predator. That’s the conclusion of a review paper published by a group of scientists and conservationists who analyzed data on the abundance of great whites in South African waters. Once considered the global hotspot for great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias), in South Africa, populations have largely vanished from their main aggregation sites on the Western Cape since 2018. “This synthesis of various pieces of historical and newly acquired data tells a worrying story about the state of the white shark population in South Africa,” Neil Hammerschlag, one of the authors, told Mongabay via email. Researchers have been trying for years to explain the almost complete disappearance of white sharks from the area. Some researchers argue that the population has simply shifted eastward. As a top ocean predator, the only documented natural threats to great white sharks is predation by orca pods. Recent studies have found pressure from orcas (Orcinus orca) is likely contributing to changes in the sharks’ distribution. However, humans are responsible for a significant portion of the decline, the researchers found. For instance, South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board (KZNSB) maintains a program of lethal control of great whites to ensure beach safety. Between 1978 and 2018, KZNSB’s nets and drumlines were responsible for an average of 28 great white shark deaths annually. The sharks are also caught as bycatch in the country’s…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Great white shark populations in South Africa are disappearing, driven largely by human activities that are likely responsible for the collapse of a locally critical apex predator. That’s the conclusion of a review paper published by a group of scientists and conservationists who analyzed data on the abundance of great whites in South African waters. […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Formalizing Amazon gold mining can transform a toxic liability into an economic opportunity (analysis) 13 Jan 2026 19:13:58 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/formalizing-amazon-gold-mining-can-transform-a-toxic-liability-into-an-economic-opportunity-analysis/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Timothy J. Killeen content:encoded: The wildcat gold mining boom that swept across the Amazon beginning in the 1970s left behind an environmental catastrophe of staggering proportions. At least 350,000 hectares (almost 865,000 acres) of forest and wetland habitat have been destroyed by placer mining operations across the Pan Amazon, with the actual figure likely far higher given the limitations of satellite monitoring for small-scale operations and river dredges. In the Tapajós River Basin in Brazil’s Pará state, particularly the municipality of Itaituba, five decades of alluvial mining have devastated tens of thousands of hectares of riparian forest while releasing an estimated 200-500 metric tons of mercury annually into watersheds. Mercury contamination has become endemic: 75% of the population of the municipality of Santarém shows elevated mercury levels, with some residents carrying four times the WHO limit. The legacy extends far beyond the mining sites themselves, as methylmercury bioaccumulates through aquatic food webs, threatening riverside communities across millions of hectares of downstream habitat. Yet hidden within this toxic legacy lies an economic opportunity that could finance comprehensive remediation while generating more than 200,000 formal-sector jobs. The garimpeiro (wildcat miner) reliance on mercury amalgamation technology is remarkably inefficient, because mercury captures only free gold particles through physical absorption, achieving recovery rates of 40-60% from alluvial placers. The remaining 40-60% of gold remains trapped in “tailings” as fine particles, bound in mineral matrices, or simply lost to processing inefficiency. Those tailings, an existing environmental catastrophe, contain an estimated 1,400-2,100 metric tons of recoverable gold worth $90 billion…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The toxic legacy of gold mining in the Amazon Rainforest could finance its own remediation while creating more than 200,000 jobs that transform illegal extraction into a regulated industry, a new analysis explains. - Across the Amazon Basin, informal and illegal gold mines degrade forests and rivers while using mercury to extract the ore in an outdated, toxic and inefficient process. - If the leftover “tailings” of these outdated operations were treated with modern methods via formalized processing facilities, thousands of jobs could be created and watersheds could be saved from ongoing destruction. - This post is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Canceled tourism project still threatens local communities in Tanzania 13 Jan 2026 16:44:30 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/canceled-tourism-project-still-threatens-local-communities-in-tanzania/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Victoria Schneider content:encoded: Roughly one year ago, the Tanzanian government canceled a multimillion-dollar tourism project funded by the World Bank, citing concerns over human rights violations. However, community members near the project in Ruaha National Park report that they continue to face violence by park guards. Civil society groups say the government threatens people with eviction. Local residents and representatives with the Oakland Institute, a U.S.-based policy think tank, told Mongabay that rangers with the Tanzania National Parks Authority are still using excessive force against villagers and pastoralists. They also report that farmers are unable to access land they had used before the park boundaries were changed for the now-canceled tourism project. The World Bank Board approved a management action plan (MAP) in April 2025 to address such concerns; two people have since been killed. “The situation is very dire on the ground,” Oakland Institute’s Anuradha Mittal told Mongabay via phone, adding that promises to train rangers and the establishment of a grievance mechanism are not being kept. The MAP was supposed to address harms suffered by communities that filed complaints with the World Bank’s Inspection Panel, an independent watchdog. In September 2024, the panel concluded that the bank failed to follow key policies around resettlement and risk identification, finding that the project had not properly assessed or mitigated local impacts from the tourism project. A spokesperson from the World Bank told Mongabay by email that implementation of the MAP is “well advanced” and that a grievance mechanism was established. The spokesperson said…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Roughly one year ago, the Tanzanian government canceled a multimillion-dollar tourism project funded by the World Bank, citing concerns over human rights violations. However, community members near the project in Ruaha National Park report that they continue to face violence by park guards. Civil society groups say the government threatens people with eviction. Local residents […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
North Atlantic right whale births increase 13 Jan 2026 12:50:20 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/north-atlantic-right-whale-births-increase/ 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. Scientists monitoring North Atlantic right whales have recorded an increase in births this winter. Fifteen calves have been identified so far, an encouraging figure for a population that has struggled to sustain itself. There were an estimated 384 North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) by the end of 2024, according to the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium. That figure is up from its low point earlier in the decade. Since 2020, the whale’s population has grown by just over 7% from 358 individuals. Scientists identified some first-time mothers entering the breeding pool during the 2025-2026 calving season. They also noted that some females are calving at shorter intervals. These are the kinds of details biologists track when assessing whether recovery is possible. In a small population, every birth matters. But the arithmetic is unforgiving. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries estimates that something like 50 calves a year, sustained over many years, would be needed to put the species on a clear path to recovery. That is well beyond what is plausible, given how few reproductive females remain. Right whales can live for more than a century. In the modern North Atlantic, many do not. Their median lifespan is measured in decades, not because of biology, but because of ropes and steel. The threats to the whale are familiar and well-documented: entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with large vessels, and…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. Scientists monitoring North Atlantic right whales have recorded an increase in births this winter. Fifteen calves have been identified so far, an encouraging figure for a population that has struggled to sustain itself. There were an estimated 384 […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Myanmar’s botanical data gaps risk its unique flora, collaborations could help, study says 13 Jan 2026 01:00:58 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/myanmars-botanical-data-gaps-risk-its-unique-flora-collaborations-could-help-study-says/ author: Isabel Esterman dc:creator: Carolyn Cowan content:encoded: Myanmar is a country of extremes. From tropical forests, mangroves and wetlands to frost-bitten alpine mountain slopes and jagged limestone karst outcrops, it’s home to tremendous botanical diversity. Orchids alone account for more than 1,200 species, and researchers have described scores of new-to-science plant species in recent years, including a color-shifting Begonia and a rare type of ginger that flourishes in lofty cloud forests. Yet there remain glaring gaps in what’s known about Myanmar’s floristic diversity. “Myanmar hosts exceptionally high plant diversity and endemism,” Ke-Ping Ma, a biologist at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Mongabay. “However, there has been a long-standing lack [of] plant distribution data, due in part to limited field surveys and incomplete digitization of herbarium records.” Political instability inflamed by the 2021 military coup also severely hampers biological research. Some of the most unstable parts of Myanmar are also the most biologically rich. Once protected by their remoteness, these areas are increasingly threatened by rampant natural resource extraction as vying political groups seek to fund their operations. “Biodiversity is often one of the neglected victims of war because you can’t go and collect data, and you also can’t protect areas,” said Alice Hughes, a biologist at the University of Melbourne in Australia. “We have very little data even on basic things like [patterns of] habitat destruction. Whilst we can get some of that information from satellites, obviously, anything requiring on-the-ground information is very, very challenging.” There are 14,020 vascular plant species recorded in Myanmar,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Home to snowcapped mountains, drought-prone savannas and tropical rainforests, Myanmar hosts tremendous botanical diversity among its richly varied habitats. - There are 864 known plant species that are found only in the conflict-torn country, yet critical knowledge gaps remain. - Researchers recently compiled what is known about Myanmar’s flora, identifying key research gaps and priority areas where conservation efforts for plants are most urgently needed. - They urge collaborative and systematic action to fill in data gaps and protect floristically diverse areas and avoid irreversible species losses. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Mauritania’s fishmeal fever ends as government tightens regulation 13 Jan 2026 00:09:00 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/mauritanias-fishmeal-fever-ends-as-government-tightens-regulation/ author: Malavikavyawahare dc:creator: Josef SkrdlikOIiver Dunn content:encoded: NOUADHIBOU, Mauritania — On a busy weekday, the coastal strip of Bountiya in Nouadhibou, Mauritania’s second-biggest city, is eerily quiet. This was once the beating heart of the West African nation’s fishmeal industry. “In 2018, it was so busy with trucks and people that you couldn’t even park your car,” said the director of one of 28 processing plants located in the strip, who spoke to Mongabay on condition of anonymity. Managers and owners of the plants were reluctant to speak on record criticizing government policies. Most of the plants in Bountiya are now closed. Those still operating are struggling to survive. A government crackdown in recent years has made it difficult to access raw fish. Fishmeal, sold for animal feed, is made by pressing, drying and grinding fish into powdered form. (A byproduct of this process is fish oil.) It takes 5 kilograms of raw fish to produce 1 kilo of fish powder. “Until 2017, if you were selling your factory, they would call you a fool,” said a manager at another plant, who also asked not to be named. “But now you cannot sell. It’s a fool who buys.” In 2017, Mauritania produced 111,866 metric tons of fish meal, followed by 124,961 metric tons in 2018 and 128,789 metric tons in 2020. A significant chunk of fish landed in Mauritania were consumed by the sector; in 2021 alone, for instance, more than 50% of the total pelagic fish catch went to fishmeal plants. According to official data for…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Until recently, Mauritania was a major fishmeal producer, home to the world’s second-highest number of processing plants, with the boom driven largely by lax regulations and the rapid issuance of permits between 2007 and 2021. - By 2021, more than half of Mauritania’s total pelagic fish catches were being used for fishmeal. - That same year, however, the government began introducing stricter regulations and strengthening enforcement of rules governing the sector. - Only eight fishmeal plants in Mauritania remain active as of September 2025, according to Mongabay’s estimates, and fishmeal production has fallen by more than half since its peak in 2020. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Photos: Kew Gardens’ top 10 newly named plants and fungi for 2025 12 Jan 2026 23:24:04 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/photos-kew-gardens-top-10-newly-named-plants-and-fungi-for-2025/ author: Lizkimbrough dc:creator: Liz Kimbrough content:encoded: Over the past year, scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the U.K., officially named 125 plants and 65 fungi. The new-to-science species include a parasitic fungus that turns Brazilian spiders into “zombies,” a critically endangered orchid with blood-red markings from Ecuador’s cloud forests, and a shrub named after the fire demon from the 2004 Hayao Miyazaki film Howl’s Moving Castle. Each year, Kew releases a list of its “top 10” new plant and fungal species to showcase nature’s vast diversity, as well as its fragility, as many newly described species are already in danger. According to Kew’s “State of the World’s Plants and Fungi 2023” report, three out of four undescribed plants are threatened with extinction. One species described in 2025, Cryptacanthus ebo, a bromeliad from the Ebo Forest in Cameroon, may have already gone extinct. Each year, researchers worldwide officially name about 2,500 new plants and even more fungi. An estimated 100,000 plant species and between 2 million and 3 million fungal species remain to be described and named by science. Many of these unnamed fungi are endophytes that live entirely within plant tissues, making up the plants’ microbiomes. “Describing new plant and fungal species is essential at a time when the impacts of biodiversity loss and climate change accelerate before our eyes,” Martin Cheek, a senior research leader in Kew’s Africa team, said in a press release. “It is difficult to protect what we do not know, understand and have a scientific name for.” Although a species may be…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, formally named 125 plants and 65 fungi in 2025, including a zombie fungus that parasitizes Brazilian spiders, a bloodstained orchid from Ecuador, and a fire-colored shrub named after a Studio Ghibli character. - Up to three out of four undescribed plant species are already threatened with extinction, with at least one species described this year possibly already extinct in its native Cameroon habitat. - An estimated 100,000 plant species and between 2 million and 3 million fungal species remain to be described and formally named by science. - Many newly described species face immediate threats from habitat loss, illegal collection and climate change, highlighting the urgent need to protect areas before species disappear. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Cowboy boots made from pirarucu leather fund Amazon’s sustainable fishery 12 Jan 2026 18:26:25 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cowboy-boots-made-from-pirarucu-leather-fund-amazons-sustainable-fishery/ author: Alexandre de Santi dc:creator: Jenny Gonzales content:encoded: An inhabitant of the Amazon Basin and one of the world’s largest freshwater fishes, the pirarucu (Arapaima gigas) has a hard skin that’s resistant to attacks from aquatic predators such as piranhas, yet is also flexible. Such features, combined with the diamond-shaped design of its scales, have attracted the interest of the global fashion industry. The largest market for sustainably harvested pirarucu skin is the U.S. state of Texas. Country-style boots made from it are manufactured in the U.S. and in Mexico and sold in both countries, a niche business that helps finance sustainable fishing by traditional communities in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Meat is the main product of the managed pirarucu fishery, but the skin, which weighs at least 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and used for footwear and other fashion accessories, sells for a higher price, 170-200 reais ($32-$38). “Selling the skin is crucial to maintaining the 10 reais per kilo of pirarucu [about $1.90/kg, or 86 cents/lb] paid to fishers,” said Ana Alice Britto, commercial coordinator at the Carauari Rural Producers Association, ASPROC. “The skins also help pay a small portion of the logistics, processing and storage costs.” Founded in 1994, ASPROC is the largest organization in the Middle Juruá River region, representing 800 families from 61 riverside communities. Last year, it sold 180 metric tons of pirarucu. Commercial exploitation of the colossal fish — which can weigh up to 200 kg (440 lbs) and measure 3 meters (10 feet) long — began in earnest in the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Sustainable pirarucu fisheries in Brazil’s Amazonas are restoring once-depleted populations of this freshwater giant, thanks to community-led management systems and sales to brands overseas. - Selling pirarucu skin to the fashion industry, especially for Texas-bound cowboy boots, is key to financing the fishery, helping maintain fair prices for fishers and cover part of the high costs of transport, storage and community monitoring. - The system depends on heavy collective labor and constant protection against illegal fishing, with communities traveling long distances, patrolling lakes and facing armed threats — all while receiving limited recognition or policy support from authorities. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
One year on, TGBS benchmark shows how to restore forests for biodiversity 12 Jan 2026 16:54:04 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/one-year-on-tgbs-benchmark-shows-how-to-restore-forests-for-biodiversity/ author: Jeremy Hance dc:creator: Ruth Kamnitzer content:encoded: There are around 60,000 known tree species in the world, and they can do amazing things: store carbon, provide people with food and firewood, shelter creatures big and small, and so much more. In the past two decades, numerous high-profile initiatives have announced ambitious restoration targets for forests. Restoring forests can bring all kinds of benefits and is widely seen as an effective nature-based solution to climate change and biodiversity loss. But planting the wrong trees, or planting them in the wrong places, is, at best, a missed opportunity — and at worst, can even harm biodiversity. In fact, a 2019 Nature commentary found that almost half the area pledged under the Bonn Challenge, a high-profile initiative to restore 350 million hectares (865 million acres) of degraded forest by 2030, was for plantation-style monocultures, and thus a poor strategy for both carbon sequestration and biodiversity. Meanwhile, half of the land pledged for reforestation under the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative was actually on savanna, a landscape not suitable for tree planting, according to a 2024 Science study. “It started to occur to us that there was potentially a problem here, particularly given the size of the pledges that were being made,” says Paul Smith, secretary-general at U.K.-based charity Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). What was needed, Smith and colleagues thought, was some way to promote best practices and recognize projects that got things right. When they looked at existing certification standards, they found that none focused primarily on biodiversity. What’s…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Global Biodiversity Standard (TGBS) is a certification scheme for forest restoration projects that show positive outcomes for biodiversity. - Each assessment includes a field visit by experts from regional hubs, who have been trained in TGBS methodology. - The regional hubs also offer ongoing mentoring to projects, to promote internationally recognized best practices in restoration. - One year on, TGBS has certified six sites, and 15 regional hubs offer mentoring. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Silvopasture gains momentum in the Amazon, but can it shrink beef’s footprint? 12 Jan 2026 12:26:56 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/silvopasture-gains-momentum-in-the-amazon-but-can-it-shrink-beefs-footprint/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Charlie Espinosa content:encoded: In the rolling hills of Iñapari, a remote town in the Peruvian Amazon on the tri-border with Bolivia and Brazil, cattle ranchers are ditching grass monocultures, which have been shown to harm biodiversity, in favor of forested pastures. For Antonio Cardozo, a local rancher who has planted hundreds of native trees, the switch has improved his cattle’s diet and health, while also providing him with additional sources of food and income. “Learning has a cost, but in a few years you start to see a difference,” says Cardozo, who has been combining trees with rotational grazing, a practice that keeps the soil intact and allows grass to regrow. In less than a year, this practice allowed him to more than double the number of cows he grazes per hectare Livestock farming is responsible for roughly 80% of the deforestation in the Amazon Basin and 14.5% of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Yet agricultural solutions receive just 7% of global climate funding and were absent from the recent COP30 climate summit agreement. According to some researchers, planting trees in pastures, an agroforestry technique known as silvopasture, represents one of the most effective yet neglected opportunities to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Under ideal conditions, silvopasture sequesters carbon in trees and soils while providing better forage and shade to heat-stressed cows, leading to healthier animals that emit less methane and occupy less land. It can also help small farmers adapt to climate-related disasters — responsible for $2.9 trillion in losses over the last…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Silvopastoral systems, which combine trees and pasture, are still not widely used across Latin America, mainly because of prohibitive costs and lack of technical knowledge, experts say. - In the Peruvian Amazon, ranchers are being trained to practice rotational grazing, setting up silvopasture pilots, in particular over degraded areas. Research has shown that when done correctly, silvopasture can provide extensive carbon sequestration and forage for cattle; however, the system is not fit for all ecosystems. - Ranchers need extensive financial support with silvopasture; experts say that payments for ecosystem services or tax breaks could prevent people from switching back to more lucrative monocultures that harm the environment. - Some experts are worried that promoting more efficient animal husbandry could further promote carbon-intensive meat consumption and overshadow efforts to promote plant-based diets. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
When Indigenous knowledge enters the scientific record 12 Jan 2026 10:41:03 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/when-indigenous-knowledge-enters-the-scientific-record/ 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. For most of Peru’s scientific history, Indigenous knowledge has existed outside the formal record. It shaped how forests were used, how species were managed, and how risk was understood, but rarely appeared in journals or policy. The boundary is shifting. One of the researchers bringing community knowledge into the scientific literature is Richar Antonio Demetrio, an Asháninka from the central Peruvian Amazon, reports contributor Xilena Pinedo for Mongabay. In March 2025, Demetrio became the lead author of a peer-reviewed paper documenting Asháninka knowledge of stingless bees, published in the journal Ethnobiology and Conservation. It was the first time a member of the Asháninka people had led a study in a high-impact scientific journal. The paper catalogs how communities identify nesting trees, harvest honey without cutting forests, and manage pests using ash. Its findings are careful and empirical. Its significance lies elsewhere. Much of the information had circulated for generations without being treated as science. Demetrio’s path to authorship was indirect. Born in the community of Caperucía in Junín province, he trained as a teacher, served as a community leader in his early 20s, and later worked as a park ranger in the Asháninka Communal Reserve. His exposure to formal research came through short courses offered by Peru’s protected areas agency and, later, through collaboration with established scientists. He did not arrive with institutional authority. He arrived with familiarity: with language, with forest species,…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. For most of Peru’s scientific history, Indigenous knowledge has existed outside the formal record. It shaped how forests were used, how species were managed, and how risk was understood, but rarely appeared in journals or policy. The boundary […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
New species of burrowing snake described from coffee farm in India 12 Jan 2026 09:10:54 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/new-species-of-burrowing-snake-described-from-coffee-farm-in-india/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: A decade after tour guide Basil P. Das stumbled upon a small black-and-beige snake while working on his coffee farm in southern India, researchers have described it as a new-to-science species. They’ve named it Rhinophis siruvaniensis, the species name referring to the Siruvani Hills, the only place the snake is currently known from, according to a recent study, Mongabay India contributor Vandana K. reports. The hills lie in the Western Ghats, at the border of Kerala and Tamil Nadu states. “When I learnt it’s a new species, I was very happy because now I am a part of its history,” Das said. While R. siruvaniensis is new to the scientific literature, it isn’t new to local cardamom and coffee farmers who have long known of its behavior and seasonal patterns. “When I told my neighbors that I had found this new snake, they told me they had seen it many times before,” Das told Vandana. Rhinophis siruvaniensis was recently described in a paper based on specimens first collected by a tour guide 10 years ago on a coffee farm in India. Image courtesy of Umesh P.K. The newly described snake belongs to a group of nonvenomous snakes called shieldtail snakes, which burrow and live underground. About 20 species of Rhinophis shieldtails are found in Sri Lanka, while six species are known from India so far. Vivek Philip Cyriac, study co-author and a herpetologist who has been researching shieldtails for more than a decade, told Mongabay India that shieldtail snakes aren’t…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: A decade after tour guide Basil P. Das stumbled upon a small black-and-beige snake while working on his coffee farm in southern India, researchers have described it as a new-to-science species. They’ve named it Rhinophis siruvaniensis, the species name referring to the Siruvani Hills, the only place the snake is currently known from, according to […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Conservation’s unfinished business 12 Jan 2026 00:31:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/conservations-unfinished-business/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Conservation often presents itself as a technical enterprise: how much land to protect, which species to prioritize, what policies deliver results. A recent paper in Nature argues that this framing misses something fundamental. Many of the field’s most persistent failures, the authors contend, cannot be understood without confronting how race, power, and historical exclusion continue to shape conservation practice today. The paper, A Framework for Addressing Racial and Related Inequities in Conservation, does not claim that conservation is uniquely flawed, nor that injustice is universal across all projects. Its argument is narrower and more pointed. Modern conservation, it says, emerged from a colonial context that treated land as empty and people as obstacles. Those assumptions were never fully dismantled. They survive in subtler forms, influencing whose knowledge counts, who bears the costs of protection, and who decides what success looks like. A Purko elder collecting medicinal plants in the Loita Hills Forest, Kenya. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler. The authors, led by Moreangels Mbizah of Wildlife Conservation Action in Zimbabwe, trace conservation’s institutional roots to the late nineteenth century, when protected areas were established across colonized landscapes through forced removals and restrictions on customary land use. Indigenous peoples and rural communities were often excluded in the name of preserving “pristine” nature. Although conservation has evolved since then, the paper argues that these early patterns still shape present-day practice through what it calls “path dependencies”: inherited norms that continue to privilege outside expertise and centralized control. One consequence, according to the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A recent Nature paper argues that many persistent failures in conservation cannot be understood without examining how race, power, and historical exclusion continue to shape the field’s institutions and practices. - The authors contend that conservation’s colonial origins still influence who holds decision-making authority, whose knowledge is valued, and who bears the social costs of environmental protection today. - As governments pursue ambitious global targets to expand protected areas, the paper warns that conservation efforts risk repeating past injustices if Indigenous and local land rights are not recognized and upheld. - To address these challenges, the authors propose a framework centered on rights, agency, accountability, and education, emphasizing that more equitable conservation is also more durable. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
A catastrophe that might offer a glimpse of hope for Indonesia (commentary) 11 Jan 2026 13:06:47 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/a-catastrophe-that-might-offer-a-glimpse-of-hope-for-indonesia/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Aida Greenbury content:encoded: It was 27 December 2004. I was sitting at my computer in my office in Jakarta, Indonesia, my mind busy with plans for the New Year party I had organized with friends in the city, when my phone started ringing nonstop. First came a call from colleagues, frustrated that our North Sumatra office wasn’t picking up. Then others told me to check the news online. What I had expected would be an exciting end-of-year celebration slowly revealed its darker reality. A megathrust earthquake had triggered a massive tsunami that devastated Aceh in Sumatra. Officials estimated that more than 200,000 people died. In November 2025, the nightmare returned. The 2025 wet season began earlier than usual in Indonesia. In September, the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency warned that hydrometeorological hazards, including floods and landslides, could strike parts of the country, with November to December identified as the peak rainy season for Sumatra and Kalimantan. Most people did not take the warning seriously. Videos of urban flooding circulated on social media. But one eerie video caught my attention on 26 November 2025. The blurry footage showed dozens of people squatting on a forested hill in heavy rain, wrapped in makeshift raincoats. “Please help us. We are in the middle of the forest, surrounded by landslides,” the person recording shouted, just before the phone network died. A day earlier, on 25 November, more than 50 people had been trapped in a forested area of Tapanuli, North Sumatra, for two nights after floods and…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A sequence of disasters in late 2025, including floods, landslides, and a rare cyclone in Sumatra, killed more than 1,100 people and devastated communities and wildlife in landscapes already weakened by forest loss. - Public anger and political attention have converged, with deforestation emerging as a central topic of national debate and senior Indonesian leaders acknowledging failures in forest protection and governance. - Amid tragedy, there are signs of possibility, as investigations, policy commitments, and evidence of resilient wildlife suggest Indonesia still has a narrow window to change course and protect its remaining forests, argues Aida Greenbury, a sustainability leader and forestry expert with decades of experience in Indonesia’s forest sector. - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Bob Weir, a musician who took the environment seriously 11 Jan 2026 04:03:36 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/bob-weir-a-musician-who-took-the-environment-seriously/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Bob Weir, who died on January 10th, was best known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. For decades he was also an unusually persistent environmental advocate, one who treated land, forests, and climate not as metaphors but as material systems under pressure. His activism ran alongside his music for most of his adult life and often demanded more from him than the comfortable alignment of celebrity and cause. Weir’s environmental engagement sharpened in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the destruction of tropical rainforests and old-growth forests entered public debate with new urgency. In 1988, the Grateful Dead helped convene a press conference at the United Nations to draw attention to rainforest loss, working with Greenpeace, the Rainforest Action Network (he would later become an honorary member of the board of directors), and Cultural Survival. Weir spoke plainly about the issue. It was, he said, “not really an aesthetic issue,” but one of survival. Forest loss, he argued, was already reshaping climate and weather systems, whether people lived near rainforests or not. In 1992, his concern became more pointed. While on tour, Weir wrote an op-ed for The New York Times opposing a bill that would have opened millions of acres of Montana national forest to logging, mining, and road-building. He called it a public land giveaway and challenged claims that industrial logging protected jobs. “Two or three guys can clear-cut a forest in a day,” he said later, describing a system that stripped land quickly while…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Bob Weir, who died on January 10th, was best known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. For decades he was also an unusually persistent environmental advocate, one who treated land, forests, and climate not as metaphors but as material systems under pressure. His activism ran alongside his music for most of his adult […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Twin infant mountain gorillas born in DRC 09 Jan 2026 21:47:52 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/twin-infant-mountain-gorillas-born-in-drc/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Elodie Toto content:encoded: The birth of twin mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is raising hopes for the survival of one of the world’s most threatened great apes. “For me, it is a huge sign of hope and a great way to start the new year,” Katie Fawcett, science director with the DRC-based Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center (GRACE) told Mongabay in a phone call. The twins were delivered by a mother gorilla named Mafuko and were discovered Jan. 3 in Virunga National Park, in the DRC. The two newborns are male. Both appeared to be in healthy condition, the park team shared in a press release. “It is very rare. Since I was born, I think it has happened fewer than 10 times. It is a very great and unusual event,” Fawcett said. In 2025 GRACE successfully rewilded three gorillas in Virunga National Park. Mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) are found only in the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda where they live almost entirely in the national parks of East Africa’s Virunga Mountains. Mountain gorillas are one of two subspecies of eastern gorillas (G. beringei). They are considered endangered, while eastern gorillas as a whole are critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Virunga park authorities are celebrating the twin birth as a success from “ongoing conservation efforts to support the continued growth of the endangered mountain gorilla population,” the park said in a statement to Mongabay. However, caring for the twins remains a…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The birth of twin mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is raising hopes for the survival of one of the world’s most threatened great apes. “For me, it is a huge sign of hope and a great way to start the new year,” Katie Fawcett, science director with the DRC-based Gorilla Rehabilitation […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Minerals treaty proposed by Colombia & Oman gets pushback at UN meeting 09 Jan 2026 19:59:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/minerals-treaty-proposed-by-colombia-oman-gets-pushback-at-un-meeting/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Aimee Gabay content:encoded: An international minerals treaty proposed by Colombia and Oman at the seventh United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-7) encountered resistance from several member states, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, Chile and Uganda. The initiative ultimately emerged as a nonbinding resolution after days of negotiations. The proposal was debated at UNEA-7 in Nairobi, Kenya, Dec. 8-12. Colombia and Oman pushed for binding and nonbinding measures to address the social and environmental impacts of mining and the recovery of resources from mining waste. Their proposal was rejected by a broad group of states in favor of a nonbinding resolution to enhance international dialogue and cooperation on mineral governance as well as resource recovery from mining waste and tailings. “As mineral demand surges due to the energy transition and digitalization, the resolution represents a step toward better protections for ecosystems and communities,” Charlotte Boyer, a consultant at the Natural Resource Governance Institute, told Mongabay over email. “However, many countries and observers called for stronger language to move beyond dialogue toward policymaking.” “In particular, the resolution stops short of committing to explore international binding standards leaving a gap between the scale of impacts on the ground and the ambition of the global response,” she added. Tommi Kauppila is a research professor for the Geological Survey of Finland, which provided Finland’s Ministry of Environment with expert support on the minerals resolution at UNEA-7. He told Mongabay that Colombia and Oman originally submitted separate proposals in which Colombia pushed for a legally binding international instrument to address…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: An international minerals treaty proposed by Colombia and Oman at the seventh United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-7) encountered resistance from several member states, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, Chile and Uganda. The initiative ultimately emerged as a nonbinding resolution after days of negotiations. The proposal was debated at UNEA-7 in Nairobi, Kenya, Dec. 8-12. Colombia […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
AI-centered conservation efforts can only be ethical if Indigenous people help lead them (commentary) 09 Jan 2026 17:31:31 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/ai-centered-conservation-efforts-can-only-be-ethical-if-indigenous-people-help-lead-them-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Magali de BruynMcKalee Steen content:encoded: In November, we joined more than 50,000 Indigenous and world leaders, diplomats, scholars and activists at the 30th United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP30) in Brazil. Some of the most central discussions at “The People’s COP” revolved around the critical role Indigenous leaders and communities are playing in the future of global climate and conservation movements, what we can learn from Indigenous groups as we build increasingly complex technologies to solve environmental problems, and where Indigenous voices can be better amplified and listened to. At COP30, attendees claimed that AI has enormous potential to effectively advance environmental data science to address some of our biggest challenges, including rising pollution, drastic biodiversity loss, worsening natural disasters, and more. At the same time, experts and Indigenous communities continue to raise alarms around AI ethics, privacy concerns and environmental impacts. This raises a critical question: How can we ensure that emerging technologies, including AI, will truly benefit the planet and the people who protect it? Understanding and upholding Indigenous digital sovereignty might be key. Many Indigenous communities embrace the use of drones and other technologies to monitor their territories, as shown by these Yanomami youths, and some are also now investigating the use of ethical artificial intelligence tools to support their cultural and environmental priorities. Image courtesy of Evilene Paixão/HAY. Indigenous digital sovereignty is the right of an Indigenous nation to govern the collection, ownership and application of its own data. Upholding Indigenous digital sovereignty in the environmental and climate fields means…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - How can the world ensure that emerging technologies, including AI, will truly benefit the planet and the people who protect it, a new op-ed asks. - At COP30, attendees claimed that AI has enormous potential to effectively advance environmental data science to address some of our biggest challenges, but experts urge caution and inclusion. - “Western science should look to Indigenous experts to guide the development of ethical AI tools for conservation in ways that assert their own goals, priorities and cautions,” the authors argue. - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Soy giants drop Amazon no-deforestation pledge as subsidies come under threat 09 Jan 2026 10:19:29 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/soy-giants-drop-amazon-no-deforestation-pledge-as-subsidies-come-under-threat/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: The world’s largest buyers of Brazilian soy have announced a plan to exit from a landmark antideforestation agreement, the Amazon Soy Moratorium. The voluntary agreement between soy agribusinesses and industry associations prevented most soy linked to deforestation from entering global supply chains for nearly two decades. The decision was communicated on Dec. 25, just before a new state tax law in Mato Grosso, Brazil’s biggest soy-producing state, went into effect on January 1st. The law eliminates tax breaks and access to public land for any companies that were signatories to the moratorium. The Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries, known as ABIOVE, notified civil society groups that it would withdrawing from the voluntary pact, which is expected to take 30 days to go into effect. “It is a setback that practically pushes us back 15 to 20 years,” Mauricio Voivodic, executive director at WWF-Brasil, told Mongabay by phone. ABIOVE’s logo, along with those of multinational grain traders it represents, has already been removed from the moratorium’s official website. The companies including Cargill, ADM, Bunge, Louis Dreyfus Company and COFCO International are among the biggest soy purchasers and traders in the world. It remains unclear if all companies will permanently leave the agreement. “ABIOVE’s announcement is the beginning of a withdrawal process, but company participation is voluntary. Some companies may decide to stay and others may decide to leave. We still do not know,” Voivodic added. The Soy Moratorium blocks the purchase of soy grown on land deforested in the Amazon…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The world’s largest buyers of Brazilian soy have announced a plan to exit from a landmark antideforestation agreement, the Amazon Soy Moratorium. The voluntary agreement between soy agribusinesses and industry associations prevented most soy linked to deforestation from entering global supply chains for nearly two decades. The decision was communicated on Dec. 25, just before […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
From sea slugs to sunflowers, California Academy of Sciences described 72 new species in 2025 09 Jan 2026 04:47:08 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/from-sea-slugs-to-sunflowers-california-academy-of-sciences-described-72-new-species-in-2025/ author: Lizkimbrough dc:creator: Liz Kimbrough content:encoded: Researchers at the California Academy of Sciences kept busy throughout 2025. Along with collaborators from across the globe, they described 72 new-to-science species from six continents — creatures living in unexplored ocean depths, in plain sight on the Galápagos Islands, and in a U.S. national park. The species include a bird, two worms, two lizards, one cicada, seven plants, six geckos, 15 beetles, five mollusks, 12 bush crickets, seven fishes, two wasps, 11 sea slugs, and a skink. The Galápagos lava heron (Butorides sundevalli) is a new to science species. Photo courtesy of Ezra Mendales One species, the cardinalfish Epigonus zonatus, was found on an ocean expedition joined by Fidel Castro in 1997. The specimen sat in the CAS’s collection for nearly 30 years before scientists formally described it this year. The California Academy of Sciences is a San Francisco-based research institution with more than 100 scientists and 46 million specimens. As technology improves and scientists learn more about life on Earth, these preserved specimens are leading to new findings. Some researchers estimate that less than 20% of all the species on the planet have been described, and many will face extinction before they’re named by science. Image of juvenile (B) and adult (C) Angola banded thick-toed gecko (Pachydactylus caraculicus) from Namibe Province, Angola, a new to science lizard species. Photo from Parrinha et al 2025 “Discoveries like these remind us that much of life on Earth remains undocumented and therefore unprotected,” CAS virologist and chief of science Shannon Bennett…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - California Academy of Sciences researchers and collaborators described 72 new-to-science species in 2025, including a bird, fish, plants, sea slugs, and insects found across six continents, from ocean depths to national parks. - The discoveries include the first new plant genus found in a U.S. national park in nearly 50 years — a fuzzy wildflower called the woolly devil spotted by a volunteer in Texas — and the Galápagos lava heron, a commonly seen bird that DNA analysis revealed is actually a distinct species. - Marine expeditions uncovered colorful new species like a shy perchlet with red spots in the Maldives and 11 new sea slugs, while also revealing significant plastic pollution threatening these poorly understood twilight zone ecosystems. - One newly described cardinalfish came from a 1997 Cuban expedition that Fidel Castro joined, with the specimen sitting in the academy’s collection for 30 years before being formally studied — demonstrating how preserved specimens can lead to new discoveries as technology advances. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Helping Cape Town’s toads cross the road: Interview with Andrew Turner 08 Jan 2026 19:48:03 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/helping-cape-towns-toads-cross-the-road-interview-with-andrew-turner/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Barry Christianson content:encoded: CAPE TOWN — Western leopard toads have been listed as endangered since 2016. Andrew Turner, scientific manager for CapeNature, the government body that manages protected areas and conservation in South Africa’s Western Cape province, says the species was once more widely found across the Cape Peninsula as well as Kleinmond, Betty’s Bay and the Agulhas Plain. But over the last 20 years, much of its habitat has been lost to urban development, though no quantitative data exist. Leopard toads spend most of their time away from water, but during the breeding season, from late July until September, the amphibians need to reach ponds where they mate and lay their eggs. In an urban environment, this now requires them to cross busy roads. “Roads and toads are not a great combination,” Turner told Mongabay. “A lot of people don’t see them, or are traveling too fast to avoid them, and then you end up with squished toads.” Turner spoke to Mongabay in Cape Town. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. Western leopard toad. Image by Barry Christianson. Mongabay: Western leopard toads are threatened because of extensive habitat loss in the past two decades. Has that stabilized now? Andrew Turner: So, I wouldn’t say it’s stabilized. Habitat loss has continued, but it has obviously decelerated a lot, because over time, the opportunities for further development have declined. There’s not that much natural habitat left that can be developed, so applications for development that do happen within the western leopard toad’s…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Endangered western leopard toads have lost habitat to urban development in Cape Town, and crossing roads during breeding season adds another danger: getting “squished.” - Mongabay interviewed Andrew Turner, scientific manager for CapeNature, who discussed underpasses to help the toads safely reach their destinations: ponds for mating and laying eggs. - Citizen science offers a useful data source, as volunteers record and photograph the toads they help cross the road; “It’s hard for scientists and researchers to be everywhere, but citizenry is everywhere,” Turner says. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Madhav Gadgil, advocate of democratic conservation, has died at 83 08 Jan 2026 19:39:11 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/madhav-gadgil-advocate-of-democratic-conservation-has-died-at-83/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: In India, arguments about nature are often treated as friction in the path of progress. Madhav Gadgil insisted they were arguments about power: who gets to decide what happens to a forest, a river, a hillside, and on what evidence. He made that case as a scientist, and then made it again as a citizen who did not care much whether officials found it convenient. Gadgil, an ecologist associated most closely with the Western Ghats and with a democratic approach to conservation, died on January 7, 2025. He was 83. He was born in Pune and grew up with two unusual advantages: access to books and access to the living world. His father, Dhananjaya Ramchandra Gadgil, bought him binoculars and helped him learn birds “in the pre-pesticide days.” A neighbor, the anthropologist Irawati Karve, shaped his outlook in a different way, encouraging him to grow up without religious, caste, or class prejudices. When Gadgil was nine, he accompanied Karve on fieldwork to Kodagu, where he saw wild elephants and a sacred grove at Talakaveri, near the origin of the Kaveri River. It was an early lesson in how landscapes hold meaning beyond their market price. As a young man he was physically tough and competitive—running, swimming, and playing racket sports—traits that suited a field naturalist who preferred to learn by looking closely. Another early lesson arrived through development. In Jawaharlal Nehru’s India, dams were “temples of modern India.” Gadgil learned at 14 about forest destruction and displacement linked to the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Madhav Gadgil argued that conservation was not a technical problem but a political one, centered on who decides how land and resources are used, and on what evidence. - Trained as a scientist but shaped by fieldwork, he rejected elite, top-down conservation models in favor of approaches that treated local communities as part of ecosystems rather than obstacles to be managed. - He became nationally prominent after chairing the 2011 Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, which proposed strict safeguards and a democratic, bottom-up decision-making process that governments largely resisted. - Until the end of his life, he remained a sharp critic of development that ignored law, ecology, and consent, insisting that democracy, not convenience, should guide environmental decisions. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Environmental crime prevention is moving into the diplomatic mainstream (commentary) 08 Jan 2026 19:25:04 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/environmental-crime-prevention-is-moving-into-the-diplomatic-mainstream-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Robert Muggah content:encoded: Environmental crime used to be treated as a niche concern, a worry for park rangers, customs officers and a handful of conservation lawyers. Not anymore. From Vienna to Belém, a once technical debate about “crimes that affect the environment” is edging closer to the mainstream of multilateral diplomacy, and, more importantly, beginning to reshape enforcement and action on the ground. Environmental crime is a catch-all term for illegal activities that harm nature and the people who depend on it. It covers illegal land grabbing and logging, illicit mining, illegal fishing, wildlife trafficking, and the dumping of toxic waste. Increasingly, it also encompasses newer frontiers such as illegal sand extraction, fraudulent “green” or carbon projects, infiltration of biofuel supply chains, and exploitation of critical minerals and rare earths. From the Amazon to the Congo Basin and Southeast Asia, environmental crimes are anything but minor or opportunistic. They operate at industrial scale, generating hundreds of billions, perhaps trillions, of dollars annually, embedded in complex global supply chains and financial systems. These crimes are often tightly intertwined with other serious offenses including drug trafficking, extortion, corruption and money laundering, and are often enforced through violence and intimidation against Indigenous and local communities, environmental defenders and journalists. A large illegal gold mine in Aceh, Indonesia. Image by Junaidi Hanafiah/Mongabay Indonesia. Environmental crime is also getting worse. Even as governments and international organizations have strengthened laws and enforcement over the past decade, these illicit markets are expanding, not shrinking. The reasons are depressingly familiar. On the one hand, profits are high: gold is trading…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Environmental crime used to be treated as a niche concern for park rangers, customs officers and a handful of conservation lawyers to tackle, but not anymore if recent intergovernmental initiatives are any indication. - From the UNFCCC to UNTOC and governments like Brazil and Norway, to agencies like Interpol, a new international consensus on tackling environmental crime like illegal deforestation, mining and wildlife trafficking is forming. - “Governments can allow environmental crime to remain a para-diplomatic side issue, or they can lock it into the core of crime, climate and biodiversity agreements, with concrete timelines, enforcement tools and financing. If they choose the latter, the emerging coalitions around UNTOC and COP30 could become the backbone of a global effort to dismantle nature-crime economies,” a new op-ed argues. - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Beekeepers in Brazil worry lithium mining puts their bees in jeopardy 08 Jan 2026 18:40:16 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/beekeepers-in-brazil-worry-lithium-mining-puts-their-bees-in-jeopardy/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Amanda MagnaniRebeca Binda content:encoded: ARAÇUAÍ & BELÉM, Brazil — When Aécio Luiz was younger, finding wild beehives was routine in his rural Afro-Brazilian community of Córrego Narciso. A farmer turned beekeeper, he recalls their buzzing was easy to spot when he worked around his property in Brazil’s Jequitinhonha Valley. “Now, that has become a rarity,” he tells Mongabay. Although Luiz and other locals are uncertain of the cause, they started to notice changes in various bee species’ behavior around 2021, when Sigma Lithium, a Canadian company producing lithium used in electric vehicles, began building a plant in the region. It was the latest in a wave of economic activity, including the arrival of other lithium projects and eucalyptus plantations, altering the valley’s landscape. “In the past four years or so, we basically stopped coming across wild [native] bees and their nests,” says resident Osmar Aranã, of the Aranã Indigenous people. “Before then, you’d see them flying around all over the place.” Researchers say the issue raises questions about the impacts of critical mineral mining on bee species and how this interacts with global climate goals. Lithium, for example, powers renewable technologies to mitigate climate change, which bees can be vulnerable to. “Any small alterations to the microclimate of such a vulnerable region could spark a domino effect on vegetation, biodiversity — and on bees,” says André Rech, a professor at the Federal University of the Jequitinhonha and Mucuri Valleys and an expert in pollination ecology. But lack of sufficient studies and regulation on the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In Brazil’s Jequitinhonha valley, honey production using both native and nonnative bee species is being impacted by climate change and possibly nearby mining activity. - Residents have reported a decline in bee populations in recent years, coinciding with the start of lithium mining and processing by companies like Sigma Lithium, while eucalyptus plantations have also altered the valley’s landscape. - While bees are impacted by climate change and deforestation, researchers say there’s a gap in studies about how bees are also impacted by mining activities in the lithium belt, which feeds renewable energy technologies meant to mitigate climate change. - Mineral governance and biodiversity safeguards remained sidelined at the latest international climate talks and ministries in Brazil say efforts are underway to strengthen this topic in national frameworks — including the research and protection of bees in mining areas. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Ghana repeals legislation that opened forest reserves to mining 08 Jan 2026 17:45:27 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/ghana-repeals-legislation-that-opened-forest-reserves-to-mining/ author: Malavikavyawahare dc:creator: Awudu Salami Sulemana Yoda content:encoded: After facing sustained pushback from environmental groups, Ghana revoked a 2022 law that had empowered the president to allow mining in the country’s forest reserves. In December, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, introduced in Parliament the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Revocation Instrument, which nullified the powers vested in the president by Legislative Instrument 2462, also known as L.I. 2462. L.I. 2462 amended earlier mining regulations, allowing mining activities in forest reserves. Environmental groups argued that the regulation undermined decades of forest protection policies and contradicted Ghana’s Forest Development Master Plan (2016-2036), which seeks to phase out mining in forest reserves by 2036. Speaking to the press, Minister Buah said the public outcry led the government to amend L.I. 2462. During his electoral campaign for Ghana’s 2024 general elections, then-opposition leader John Dramani Mahama promised to repeal L.I. 2462 if elected. He won and assumed office Jan. 7, 2025. “This clearly must send a message that this government is committed to basically ensuring that we continue to protect our pristine forest reserves and our environment,” Buah said. Destroyed trees inside the Apamprama reserve. Image by Awudu Salami Sulemana Yoda. A coalition of civil society organizations (CSOs) and public interest groups commended the government and Parliament for the rollback of L.I. 2462, describing the move as a major victory for forest protection and environmental governance. In a statement, the coalition noted that L.I. 2462 exposed Ghana’s forest reserves, including globally significant biodiversity areas, to serious…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Ghanaian government repealed Legislative Instrument 2462, which had empowered the president to allow mining in forest reserves previously closed to the extractive activity, including globally significant biodiversity areas. - An act of Parliament enacted in December effected the change, with green groups describing it as a major victory for forest protection and environmental governance. - Some experts cautioned that Ghana’s forests continue to face serious threats, stressing that concrete reforms in forestry governance must accompany the revocation. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Methane chasers: Hunting a climate-changing gas seeping from Earth’s seafloor 08 Jan 2026 15:46:05 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/methane-chasers-hunting-a-climate-changing-gas-seeping-from-earths-seafloor/ author: Glenn Scherer dc:creator: Elizabeth Devitt content:encoded: They’ve been called “bubble chasers,” and “seep seekers,” though they sometimes call themselves “flare hunters.” They’re a small group of scientific specialists searching the world’s oceans for tiny streams of methane gas-filled globules rising from seafloor sediments. On expeditions ranging from the Arctic to Antarctica, carried out in shallow waters to thousands of meters below the sea’s surface, their studies reveal how these tiny globules can potentially add to global warming while also creating unique ecosystems. But even when deploying advanced modern technology, finding these cold-ocean methane seeps isn’t easy. And it may be even harder to determine exactly how seafloor methane releases could factor into the future of humanity and the planet. Map showing the known global occurrences of methane-derived carbonates used to compile a study of seafloor methane seepage across the last 150 million years. Image courtesy of Oppo et al. (2020). Bubbles flowing from a methane seep at El Quisco, off the coast of Chile. Researchers found the seeps using sonar-based bubble mapping, bathymetric mapping, tracking in situ methane concentration measurements, and visual surveys with the ROV SuBastian. Image by ROV SuBastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute (CC BY-NC-SA). Hunting telltale bubbles “These seeps are fascinating and extreme environments,” said Claudio Argentino, a sediment biogeochemist at UiT, The Arctic University of Norway, whose fieldwork started at ancient methane seep sites in Italy’s Apennine Mountains in 2015, during his doctoral studies, and now takes him to the Arctic Ocean. “We want to know how much gas is escaping the seafloor sediment…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that can pack more than 25 times the global warming punch of carbon dioxide, and atmospheric methane emissions have been growing significantly since 2007. So it’s vital that humanity knows how and where methane emissions are coming from, including the world’s oceans. - Scientists first raised the alarm over methane releases from shallow waters in the Arctic Ocean between 2008 and 2010. But recently, they were surprised to discover new releases in shallow waters off Antarctica. Researchers continue spotting additional seafloor seeps there and elsewhere, as methane bubbles escape seafloor sediments. - In shallow waters, methane bubbles that break the ocean’s surface add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, but to learn how much climate risk these bubbles pose, scientists first have to find them. The hunt for methane bubbles requires everything from underwater microphones and sonar maps to scuba divers and submersibles. - Methane seeps are more than a potential climate change threat. They also form the basis of unique chemosynthetic ecosystems that influence the deep sea and may hold clues about the origin of life. Finding and studying those seeps present fascinating challenges, requiring ingenuity and creative thinking by researchers. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Marine protected areas expanded in 2025, but still far from 30% goal 08 Jan 2026 09:05:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/marine-protected-areas-expanded-in-2025-but-still-far-from-30-goal/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: In December 2022, nearly 200 nations committed to protecting 30% of Earth’s lands and waters by 2030. As of 2025, about 9.6% of the world’s oceans are now covered by marine protected areas, according to the latest global tracking data by the World Database on Protected Areas. This marks a 1.2% increase in 2025, up from 8.4% coverage in 2024. There are now 16,608 marine protected areas (MPAs) globally, covering nearly 35 million square kilometers (13.5 million square miles) of the ocean — an area more than twice the size of Russia. However, only 3.2% of these areas are considered highly or fully protected, according to the Marine Conservation Institute’s MPAtlas. This raises concerns about areas that are protected on paper only, including ones that allow bottom trawling and other highly destructive activities. Mongabay chronicled some of the progress made toward protecting the oceans in 2025: French Polynesia announces world’s largest marine protected area In June, French Polynesia (Mā’ohi Nui), an autonomous territory in the Pacific that’s a part of the French Republic, announced it would protect the territory’s entire exclusive economic zone, amounting to 4.8 million km2 (1.9 million mi2) of its waters. Of this, more than 1 million km2 (nearly 420,000 mi2) is set to be highly and fully protected, where no extractive fishing or mining is allowed. The announcement has not yet been written into law. Coral hotspot off Philippines’ Panaon Island In August, the Philippines created the Panaon Island Protected Seascape, protecting 612 km2 (236 mi2) within the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: In December 2022, nearly 200 nations committed to protecting 30% of Earth’s lands and waters by 2030. As of 2025, about 9.6% of the world’s oceans are now covered by marine protected areas, according to the latest global tracking data by the World Database on Protected Areas. This marks a 1.2% increase in 2025, up […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Indigenous women lead a firefighting brigade in Brazil’s Cerrado 07 Jan 2026 23:36:26 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/indigenous-women-lead-a-firefighting-brigade-in-brazils-cerrado/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: When a 2018 fire burned across 73,000 hectares (180,000 acres) of the Santana Indigenous Territory, located in Brazil’s Cerrado savanna, the local Bakairi people waited helplessly for authorities who came far too late. That devastating experience was a turning point. The community mobilized to create a volunteer fire brigade, largely composed of Indigenous women, Mariana Rosetti and Paola Churchill reported for Mongabay in October. “It’s not just young girls,” Edna Rodrigues Bakairi, a local educator and member of the brigade, told Mongabay. “There are women aged 40, 45, 50 who can fight the fires. They come from all age groups, and they all act with courage.” Of the 45 trained volunteers, 25 are women ranging from teenagers to grandmothers. They were trained by Paulo Selva, a retired colonel from the Mato Grosso state fire department who recognized the urgent need to empower Indigenous communities to defend their territories from the growing threat of wildfire. “The fire department only addresses issues related to fires that occur within its areas of operation, but more than 45% of forest fires occur outside of that legal condition,” Selva said. To help fill that gap, Selva created the nonprofit Environmental Operations Group Institute. With the organization, he travels to Indigenous communities across the region to offer trainings on firefighting and prevention, first aid and survival skills. During a visit to the Santana Indigenous village in 2021, Selva found that women were an obvious choice for the role. They tend to spend more time in the community,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: When a 2018 fire burned across 73,000 hectares (180,000 acres) of the Santana Indigenous Territory, located in Brazil’s Cerrado savanna, the local Bakairi people waited helplessly for authorities who came far too late. That devastating experience was a turning point. The community mobilized to create a volunteer fire brigade, largely composed of Indigenous women, Mariana […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Chimpanzees and gorillas among most traded African primates, report finds 07 Jan 2026 19:39:42 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/chimpanzees-and-gorillas-among-most-traded-african-primates-report-finds/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Spoorthy Raman content:encoded: Between 2000 and 2023, more than 6,000 African primates were traded internationally in 50 countries, according to a newly published report. Endangered chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and critically endangered western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) were among the 10 most-traded species, according to data from CITES, the global wildlife trade agreement. African primates are traded as trophies, for scientific research, and to be kept in zoos. Hunting monkeys and apes for food and body parts used in charms and rituals is widespread in many parts of Africa. Infants and juveniles are also captured live for the exotic pet trade. The report by U.S.-based nonprofit Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) is the first to try to capture the scale of the trade, the geographic hotspots, and the species targeted. It draws on data from the CITES trade database, seizure records from the wildlife trade monitoring NGO TRAFFIC, media reports, and other published research to present a picture of the global legal and illegal trade in African primates. “The intention is for this report to serve as both a diagnostic tool and a call to action,” lead author and wildlife crime specialist Monique Sosnowski told Mongabay by email. A chacma baboon in South Africa. The report found that these monkeys are the most traded species legally, mostly as hunting trophies. Image by Martie Swart via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Although the report captures international trade in primates from Africa, it doesn’t account for domestic trade, which is driven by food and other traditional uses.…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A new report finds thousands of African primates, including chimpanzees and gorillas, are being traded both legally and illegally. - Most of the legal trade in great apes is for scientific and zoo purposes, but the report raises some concerns on the legality of recent trade instances for zoos. - Chimpanzees topped the list of the most illegally traded African primates, as the exotic pet trade drives the demand for juveniles and infants. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
North Atlantic right whale birth rate is up but extinction still looms 07 Jan 2026 18:24:07 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/north-atlantic-right-whale-birth-rate-is-up-but-extinction-still-looms/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — One of the world’s rarest whale species is having more babies this year than in some recent seasons, but experts say many more young are needed to help stave off the possibility of extinction. The North Atlantic right whale’s population numbers an estimated 384 animals and is slowly rising after several years of decline. The whales have gained more than 7% of their 2020 population, according to scientists who study them. The whales give birth off the southeastern United States every winter before migrating north to feed. Researchers have identified 15 calves this winter, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday. That number is higher than two of the last three winters, but the species needs “approximately 50 or more calves per year for many years” to stop its decline and allow for recovery, NOAA said in a statement. The whales are vulnerable to collisions with large ships and entanglement in commercial fishing gear. This year’s number is encouraging, but the species remains in peril without stronger laws to protect against those threats, said Gib Brogan, senior campaign director with environmental group Oceana. The federal government is in the midst of a moratorium on federal rules designed to protect right whales until 2028, and commercial fishing groups have pushed for a proposal to extend that pause for even longer. There is still time left for more baby whales to be born this winter, but 50 is not a reasonable expectation because of a lack of reproductive females in the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — One of the world’s rarest whale species is having more babies this year than in some recent seasons, but experts say many more young are needed to help stave off the possibility of extinction. The North Atlantic right whale’s population numbers an estimated 384 animals and is slowly rising after several years of […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Indonesia’s illegal gold boom leaves a toxic legacy of mercury pollution 07 Jan 2026 11:10:56 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesias-illegal-gold-boom-leaves-a-toxic-legacy-of-mercury-pollution/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Junaidi HanafiahSarjan LahayTeguh Suprayitno content:encoded: MERANGIN, Indonesia — There wasn’t much Aris Adrianto felt he could do when the gold miners’ heavy vehicles broke into Bukit Gajah Berani, here in this remote pocket of Sumatra’s Merangin district. “They just kept going, like they were afraid of nothing,” said Aris, who is the head of the forestry office in Birun village in the Sumatran province of Jambi. Aris reported the deforestation of Bukit Gajah Berani, a forest whose name means “the hill of the brave elephant,” but nothing changed, he told Mongabay Indonesia. Heightened political risks and giddy company valuations propelled the international price of gold, traditionally viewed as a safe haven asset during nervy economic times, up by almost 70% last year to more than $4,500 per ounce. Around the world, that shine has likely induced a dangerous response as people on the ground, like Aris, report an expansion of illegal gold mining, undermining international commitments to curb deforestation and improve public health. In Bukit Gajah Berani, Aris watched on as the miners turned the forest upside down, altering the landscape from a deep green to a sallow muddy brown. The location of a former gold mine in the forest area of Bukit Gajah Berani village. Image courtesy of LPHD Birun. The Bukit Gajah Berani forest is a buffer contiguous to Kerinci Seblat National Park, the largest old-growth rainforest in Sumatra — a high-conservation-value protected area and the largest intact habitat of the critically endangered Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae). The forest here is a…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A nearly 70% rise in global gold prices has accelerated illegal gold mining across Indonesia, including in Bukit Gajah Berani, a forest buffer next to Kerinci Seblat National Park, threatening critical tiger habitat and protected forests nationwide. - Despite decades of evidence and Indonesia’s commitments under the Minamata Convention, illegal gold mining remains the country’s largest source of mercury emissions, contaminating rivers, fish, crops and communities, with documented health impacts ranging from toxic exposure to malaria spikes. - While Indonesia has strong regulations on paper, including a pledge to eliminate mercury use in illegal mining by 2025, enforcement is weak, agencies operate in silos, illegal cinnabar mining continues, and attempts to formalize “community mining” have largely failed in practice. - Illegal mining has destroyed forests, farmland and waterways, reducing rice production, worsening floods, and eroding traditional forest-based livelihoods, leaving communities with polluted landscapes and long-term ecological and economic costs as criminal networks adapt faster than regulators. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Indonesia launches sweeping environmental audits after Sumatra flood disaster 07 Jan 2026 10:50:10 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-launches-sweeping-environmental-audits-after-sumatra-flood-disaster/ author: Hans Nicholas Jong dc:creator: Hans Nicholas Jong content:encoded: JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has announced what it describes as a sweeping, science-based effort to reassess environmental governance, zoning and corporate accountability in the wake of floods and landslides that killed more than 1,100 people across the island of Sumatra. The disasters were triggered by extreme rainfall linked to Tropical Cyclone Senyar, but government officials, scientists and environmental researchers say the scale of the destruction can’t be attributed to the weather alone. They point instead to long-term land-use changes — including deforestation and large-scale forest conversion — that have weakened natural buffers in Sumatra’s upland watersheds, leaving landscapes unable to absorb intense rainfall. The government has acknowledged that human-driven changes to land cover have fundamentally altered Sumatra’s landscapes, reducing their capacity to prevent severe flooding and landslides when extreme weather hits. “These changes are caused both by anthropogenic factors — such as the conversion of forest cover into non-forest areas — and by heavy rainfall, combined with the geomorphological characteristics of our soils, which are unable to adapt to these pressures,” Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq said. The acknowledgment marks a significant shift in tone. Rather than treating the disasters solely as natural events, the government is now explicitly linking loss of life and environmental damage to development decisions, land-use planning and corporate activity — and signaling that permits and licenses may no longer shield companies from accountability. On Dec. 23, 2025, Hanif announced a three-pronged intervention covering Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra, the provinces most severely affected…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - After Cyclone Senyar killed more than 1,100 people across Sumatra, the Indonesian government has acknowledged that deforestation and land-use changes — not extreme weather alone — amplified the scale of floods and landslides. - In a significant shift, authorities are now explicitly linking disaster impacts to development decisions and corporate activity, signaling that permits will not shield companies from accountability. - The government has launched a three-track response: rapid disaster impact assessments, reviews of provincial zoning plans, and environmental audits of more than 100 companies across extractive and infrastructure sectors. - Civil society groups have cautiously welcomed the move, but note that meaningful reform will depend on whether Jakarta is willing to revise permissive zoning plans that legally enable large-scale forest conversion. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
An inventory of life in California 06 Jan 2026 23:50:58 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/an-inventory-of-life-in-california/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Why Mongabay is reporting on California’s biodiversity Mongabay’s coverage of biodiversity has long been associated with tropical forests and far-flung frontiers. Yet California—wealthy, populous, and intensively studied—presents a different kind of challenge. It is one of the planet’s biodiversity hotspots, and yet much of its life remains undocumented, unnamed, and unaccounted for. That contradiction sits at the heart of the California All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (CalATBI), a statewide effort to catalogue life before it disappears. Over the past several months, Mongabay has reported on CalATBI and its partners as they attempt something unusually comprehensive: to build a verifiable, statewide baseline robust enough to support decades of future decisions. What follows draws on Mongabay’s reporting on insects, fungi, museum collections, and field science in California. It is not a catalogue of threats, nor a tour of charismatic species. It is a portrait of an infrastructure project—scientific, institutional, and human—designed to answer a basic question that turns out to be surprisingly hard to settle: what lives here? Discovering what still lives here California has never lacked for ambition. Its 20th-century infrastructure projects—like dams, aqueducts, and freeways—are known for their scale and confidence. CalATBI belongs to that lineage, though its raw material is not concrete or steel, but beetles, spores, DNA fragments, and pinned moths. The premise is straightforward. California cannot protect what it has not documented. Despite centuries of natural history, thousands of species remain undescribed, particularly among insects, fungi, and soil organisms. Many exist only as fleeting presences, active for…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - California is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, yet much of its life—especially insects and fungi—remains undocumented, even in a state rich in scientific institutions. - The California All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (CalATBI) is working to build a verifiable, statewide record of life, combining fieldwork, DNA analysis, and museum collections. - By focusing on evidence that can be revisited and tested over time, the effort provides a baseline for understanding ecological change rather than prescribing solutions. - Mongabay’s reporting follows how this foundational work underpins later decisions about protection, restoration, and management—showing why counting still matters. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Plastic pollution requires urgent action, says author Judith Enck 06 Jan 2026 21:09:24 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/01/plastic-pollution-requires-urgent-action-says-author-judith-enck/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Mike DiGirolamo content:encoded: Judith Enck is a former regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, appointed by President Barack Obama, and the founder of Beyond Plastics, an organization dedicated to eradicating plastic pollution worldwide. She joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss how governments can implement policies to turn off the tap on plastic pollution, which harms human health and devastates our ecological systems — solutions she outlines in her new book with co-author Adam Mahoney, The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It’s Too Late. “We now have all of this evidence. We have no choice but to act. Because who’s going to stand by and let us turn the ocean into a watery landfill? Who’s going to stand by and read health study after health study about microplastics in our brains and breast milk and testicles? Not taking action is not an option,” she says. Microplastics — the tiny particles of plastic that break down from larger pieces in the environment — are now so ubiquitous that they have penetrated deep into the human body, crossing the blood-brain barrier and leaching potentially thousands of toxic chemicals into humans’ vital organs. They have been found in the deepest part of the ocean and near the summit of Mount Everest. These plastic bits are also harming wildlife, with potentially unforeseen, devastating consequences. Micro- and nanoplastics (even smaller particles than microplastics) are now impacting phytoplankton, which are vital to marine food chains, storing carbon and making oxygen. “This is…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Judith Enck is a former regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, appointed by President Barack Obama, and the founder of Beyond Plastics, an organization dedicated to eradicating plastic pollution worldwide. She joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss how governments can implement policies to turn off the tap on plastic pollution, which harms human health […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
An endangered menu (cartoon) 06 Jan 2026 18:03:15 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/custom-story/2026/01/an-endangered-menu-cartoon/ author: Nandithachandraprakash dc:creator: Rohan Chakravarty content:encoded: Amidst the ongoing battle for survival against logging and hunting, Madagascar’s lemurs face a new and unprecedented threat — the demand for lemur meat among the country’s urban elite, falsely believed to have health benefits.This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Amidst the ongoing battle for survival against logging and hunting, Madagascar’s lemurs face a new and unprecedented threat — the demand for lemur meat among the country’s urban elite, falsely believed to have health benefits. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Urban sprawl and illegal mining reshape a fragile Amazon frontier 06 Jan 2026 17:15:50 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/illegal-mining-and-urban-sprawl-reshape-a-fragile-amazon-frontier/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Aimee Gabay content:encoded: MITÚ, Colombia — Beneath the rising sun, people from nearby Indigenous communities navigate across the Vaupés River in traditional wooden canoes toward Mitú, a rapidly expanding town in the Colombian Amazon. The canoes are packed with fish, plucked from the river’s tea-colored waters hours before, and produce, harvested from their traditional gardens. To reach the town’s market, where merchants wait above a concrete slipway, the canoes stream past huge concrete sewage pipes and a statue of the Virgin Mary. As they navigate farther in, they’re no longer in the Great Vaupés Indigenous Reserve, an Indigenous territory whose borders surround Mitú and its connecting highway. They’re now in an urban frontier experiencing staggering changes in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest. Today, Mitú’s population has swelled to almost 30,000, from just over 4,000 five decades ago. This is due to an influx of Indigenous people who move between their traditional communities and the urban center, and non-Indigenous settlers who have established businesses or work for research centers or NGOs. The population boom is also due to illegal gold mining by organized crime groups and the illegal extraction of critical minerals in the wider region, including coltan, which is used in electronics and in electric vehicle batteries. Residents, NGOs and authorities have also reported an expansion in cattle farming and the illegal extraction and trafficking of timber, fish and animals. Members of the Indigenous Macaquiño community take Mongabay to visit their traditional forest garden, or chagra, in September 2025. Image by Aimee…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Ever since Mitú was first established as a settlement in 1935, it has rapidly transformed into an expanding urban town in one of Colombia’s most isolated departments. - The Amazonian forests, rivers and Indigenous communities who surround Mitú are impacted by urbanization, the overexploitation of natural resources, cattle ranching, illegal mining and timber extraction which have caused deforestation, soil degradation and water pollution. - Researchers say the construction of a highway from Mitú to Monfort has attracted settlers who cleared land around the road to expand the urban center and develop agricultural production and cattle ranching. - Mongabay found 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres) of tree cover loss in Mitú since 2014. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
EUDR antideforestation law officially delayed for second year in a row 06 Jan 2026 11:12:05 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/eudr-antideforestation-law-officially-delayed-for-second-year-in-a-row/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: The European Union’s antideforestation law, known as EUDR, has officially been delayed for a second year. The amendment was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on Dec. 23, 2025. The EUDR bans the import of commodities, including cocoa, coffee, soy, beef, timber, palm oil and rubber, that come from areas deforested after December 2020. Producers need to provide geolocalized data to prove that their commodities aren’t from land with recent deforestation. The law was first approved in 2023 and originally set to apply from the beginning of 2024. But following pressure from producers, lobbyists and governments, the law was delayed for a year. Now, it has been pushed back another year. The latest amendment approved by the EU notes that large operators will need to comply with the law from Dec. 31, 2026, and smaller operators from mid-2027. But European politicians also included a revision period in April 2026, opening space for further delays and rollbacks. The following timeline details how the latest delay came about: September 2025 The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, says its IT system is not yet ready to handle the demands of the EUDR and proposes postponing it for another year. October 2025 The European Council, comprised of EU leaders who set general political direction, proposes a soft delay of the law, rather than a postponement, proposing a six-month grace period. The proposal includes amendments that water down the law, such as an exemption for micro and small operators from low-risk…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The European Union’s antideforestation law, known as EUDR, has officially been delayed for a second year. The amendment was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on Dec. 23, 2025. The EUDR bans the import of commodities, including cocoa, coffee, soy, beef, timber, palm oil and rubber, that come from areas deforested after […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
After Cyclone Senyar, Indonesia probes whether development amplified scale of disaster 06 Jan 2026 10:53:00 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/after-cyclone-senyar-indonesia-probes-whether-development-amplified-scale-of-disaster/ author: Hans Nicholas Jong dc:creator: Hans Nicholas Jong content:encoded: JAKARTA — Best known as the home of the world’s rarest great ape, the mountainous Batang Toru forest landscape on the island of Sumatra has become a test case for whether Indonesia can enforce environmental law in a region where mining, energy and plantation projects overlap with fragile ecosystems. In late November 2025, a rare tropical cyclone, Senyar, swept across this part of northern Sumatra, bringing extreme rainfall that triggered flash floods and landslides in the provinces of Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra. The disaster killed at least 1,178 people and displaced around 1 million others, according to government figures, making it one of Indonesia’s deadliest natural disasters in recent history. While the storm provided the immediate trigger, climatologists and environmental researchers say the scale of the destruction can’t be attributed to extreme weather alone. They point also to decades of deforestation, land clearing and landscape alteration that have weakened natural buffers across Sumatra’s upland watersheds. “Extreme weather was only the initial trigger,” Erma Yulihastin, a climate researcher at Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), said at a recent public discussion in Jakarta on disaster risk. “The destructive impact was shaped by weakened environmental buffers upstream.” The government appears to have acknowledged this, with Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq announcing on Dec. 23, 2025, an investigation into eight companies operating in the Batang Toru watershed, to assess whether their activities may have contributed to the floods and landslides. The ministry also ordered all eight companies to cease operations…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Cyclone Senyar triggered catastrophic floods and landslides in northern Sumatra in late 2025, but scientists and activists say decades of deforestation and landscape alteration in upland watersheds largely determined the scale of the destruction. - The heavily hit Batang Toru landscape, home to the world’s only Tapanuli orangutan population, has become a national test case after the government ordered eight mining, energy and plantation companies to halt operations pending rare watershed-wide environmental audits. - Investigations have raised concerns that forest clearing by a pulpwood producer, a hydropower project and a gold mine on steep terrain may have destabilized slopes and worsened runoff during extreme rainfall. - Experts warn that once forest cover is lost in fragile tropical watersheds, disaster risks can persist for decades, making effective law enforcement — rather than weather alone — decisive for Batang Toru’s future. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
7 hopeful wildlife sightings that researchers celebrated in 2025 06 Jan 2026 09:51:08 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/7-hopeful-wildlife-sightings-that-researchers-celebrated-in-2025/ author: Hayat Indriyatno dc:creator: Shreya Dasgupta content:encoded: Once in a while, an animal shows up where it’s least expected, including places from where it was thought to have gone extinct. These rare sightings bring hope — but also fresh concerns. These are some of the wildlife sightings Mongabay reported on in 2025. Colossal squid recorded for the first time in its deep-sea home Researchers made the first confirmed recordings of a colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni), the world’s heaviest invertebrate, while exploring the deep sea near Antarctica. Until then, everything scientists knew about the species came from the bits of them that turned up in the bellies of other animals. (Read story) Eurasian otter reappears in Malaysia after a decade In Malaysia, camera traps in Tangkulap Forest Reserve photographed a Eurasian otter near a waterbody. This is the first confirmed sighting of the species in Malaysia in more than a decade and makes Tangkulap Forest Reserve the only place in the country where all four East Asian otter species coexist. (Read story) First elephant sighting in a Senegal park since 2019 Camera traps in Senegal’s Niokolo-Koba National Park captured video of a large bull elephant named Ousmane, thought to be a hybrid of the critically endangered African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) and savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana). Researchers say this is the first elephant to be seen in the park in six years. (Read story) Screenshot of an elephant captured by a camera trap in Senegal, courtesy of Panthera & Senegal’s National Parks Directorate. Rare Javan leopard sighting Camera…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Once in a while, an animal shows up where it’s least expected, including places from where it was thought to have gone extinct. These rare sightings bring hope — but also fresh concerns. These are some of the wildlife sightings Mongabay reported on in 2025. Colossal squid recorded for the first time in its deep-sea […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Amazon entrepreneur spreads seeds of growth with recycled paper 06 Jan 2026 07:00:38 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/amazon-entrepreneur-spreads-seeds-of-growth-with-recycled-paper/ author: Alexandre de Santi dc:creator: Rafael Spuldar content:encoded: Alessandra Moreira worked as an administrative assistant in Altamira, an oversized municipality in the Brazilian Amazon — larger than Portugal or Greece. Burned out and facing anxiety and depression, she left her job, but was unsure of what would come next. “I was having panic attacks and couldn’t identify what was happening to me,” she told Mongabay. Then, a suggestion from her brother changed everything: Why not try making seed paper? Altamira, in the state of Pará, is the most deforested municipality in the Brazilian Amazon. There, “development” is often a synonym for deforestation, environmental degradation, and sometimes violence, erupting from clashes between conservationists, loggers and land grabbers. Despite the local culture, Moreira founded Ecoplante, a company that makes plantable seed paper — recycled sheets embedded with seeds that can typically grow into vegetables, herbs, flowers and, in Ecoplante’s specific case, native Amazonian vegetation, too. What began as a personal healing project has grown into an example of how creativity, entrepreneurship and sustainability can coexist in one of the world’s most fragile ecosystems. Plantable seed paper is made by transforming discarded paper into new sheets infused with plant seeds. The process starts with recycled pulp mixed with water, then spread over a fine-mesh screen and layered with seeds, from herbs like basil and arugula, to flowers like daisies. Once dried, the paper can be written on, used, and later planted. When it decomposes, the seeds germinate, turning what would have been waste into greenery. In 2023, Moreira and her brother…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In the Brazilian city of Altamira, a small business transforms recycled paper into seed-embedded sheets that grow into flowers, herbs and even local plants, merging creativity and sustainability. - Founder Alessandra Moreira turned personal adversity into purpose, building a backyard business that inspires sustainable entrepreneurship. - Experts say initiatives like Ecoplante embody the future of the Amazon’s bioeconomy, where innovation, inclusion and forest conservation can grow hand in hand. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Cultural changes shift an Indigenous community’s relationship with the Amazon forest 05 Jan 2026 18:14:07 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cultural-changes-shift-an-indigenous-communitys-relationship-with-the-amazon-forest/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Aimee Gabay content:encoded: VAUPÉS, COLOMBIA – As a baby, Elisa Fernández Sánchez’ mother would place her into the bow of the canoe and glide across the murky waters of the Vaupés River in the thick Amazon rainforest. Their journey towards the traditional forest gardens was not easy, but they did it almost every day. Her mom would plunge the canoe into a series of small river channels, ducking to protect herself from the violent blizzard of branches, vines and leaves that threatened to gouge her eyes if she was not careful. Like most members of the mostly Cubeo Macaquiño community at the time, her mother respected nature and the spiritual beings that guard its sacred sites. It was dangerous to enter the forest unprotected. To enter sacred sites, the payé (an Indigenous authority responsible for maintaining the community’s cultural and spiritual well-being) had to pray to the spirits for permission. Failure to respect this rule could result in severe illness, they believed. Through rituals, prayers and their careful relationship with nature, the Macaquiño community has maintained a healthy territory. It is one of four Indigenous communities that form part of the Association of Traditional Indigenous Authorities Surrounding Mitú (AATIAM), a public entity with a state-recognized right to govern autonomously. Manuel Claudio Fernández, the captain of Macaquiño, said that the community does not care for the land; they co-exist with it. “How do we co-exist? By respecting the forest, the articulation of spirits, the water, the forest and us humans. We, the people, depend…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In the southeastern Colombian department of Vaupés, members of the Indigenous Macaquiño community have maintained a healthy territory through rituals and prayers that govern the use of natural resources and their deep respect for the spirits that guard sacred sites. - A series of cultural transformations that began with the arrival of rubber tappers, missionaries and other non-Indigenous outsiders since the 19th century has led to a decline in many spiritual and cultural traditions, undermining the area’s sacred sites and the communities’ relationship with their territory. - More recent changes, such as government education policies and laws that hand more power to Indigenous peoples to manage their territories, have also impacted the generational transfer of spiritual and cultural knowledge. - Members Mongabay spoke to said they welcome some of the changes that have come with these cultural transformations, such as the opportunity to obtain a formal education and return with knowledge that can complement their Indigenous knowledge. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Massive Amazon conservation program pledges to put communities first 05 Jan 2026 17:05:54 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/massive-amazon-conservation-program-pledges-to-put-communities-first/ author: Jeremy Hance dc:creator: Constance Malleret content:encoded: In the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve in the Brazilian Amazon, locals tap rubber and extract Brazil nuts from the rainforest for a living. It’s a way of life dependent on the forest that goes back generations — and which rubber tapper Chico Mendes, who gave the area its name, was murdered trying to defend in 1988. The reserve has been strengthened in recent years thanks to a massive conservation program known as ARPA, the Amazon Region Protected Areas. First established in 2002 by the Brazilian government, and later expanded with the support of WWF and private donors, ARPA helps protect 120 conservation areas spanning more than 60 million hectares (nearly 154 million acres) — about the size of Ukraine — of the Brazilian Amazon. The program initially worked on creating new protected areas and then on designing a durable financial mechanism to support their protection. A new phase, called ARPA Comunidades (Communities), is now shifting the focus to the traditional communities who live within the forest and help protect it. Half of the conservation areas covered by ARPA are sustainable-use conservation units like the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, inhabited by local communities who live sustainably off the forest’s resources. “We were missing closer attention to the communities living in these sustainable-use conservation units, who were contributing to conservation,” said Fernanda Marques, project development officer at FUNBIO, the Brazilian organization responsible for managing the $120 million fund that underpins ARPA Comunidades. Brazil nuts in the hand of Raimundão. Image © Tessel in ‘t…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA) is a massive conservation program that has helped reduce deforestation across 120 conservation areas in the Brazilian Amazon and avoided 104 million metric tons of CO2 emissions between 2008 and 2020. - A new phase of the program, called ARPA Comunidades, will now focus on supporting the communities who live in and protect the forest, by helping them increase their revenue through the bioeconomy or sale of sustainable forest products. - Backed by a $120 million donor fund, ARPA Comunidades aims to increase protections across 60 sustainable-use reserves in the Brazilian Amazon spanning an area nearly the size of the U.K., directly impacting 130,000 people and helping raise 100,000 out of poverty. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Azores must respect its exceptional network of marine protected areas (commentary) 05 Jan 2026 17:01:19 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/azores-must-respect-its-exceptional-network-of-marine-protected-areas-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Enric Sala content:encoded: At the end of 2024, the Azores stood as a beacon of hope and a global leader in ocean conservation, having created the largest network of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the North Atlantic. The Azores safeguarded 30% of its waters — an expanse more than three times larger than Portugal’s landmass — years ahead of the global commitment to protect at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030 (30×30). This decisive action was praised both at home and internationally, with other countries and regions seeking advice from the Azores on how to follow suit. But in a world where major powers are retreating from crucial environmental commitments, the Azores now faces a pivotal test of its own. Early in 2025, a proposal to allow pole-and-line tuna fishing within areas designated as no-take was submitted to the Regional Assembly and is currently under discussion. This maneuver, if successful, risks undoing a monumental achievement. Crucially, half of this network is fully protected, banning all extractive and damaging activities, meaning it far exceeds the European Union’s mandate to fully protect at least 10% of its waters. Allowing industrial tuna fishing within the Azores’ fully protected areas would turn these areas into “paper parks” and defy their very purpose. Rays in the Azores. Image courtesy of Emanuel Goncalves / Oceano Azul Foundation. In other words, these areas would fail to meet the definition of “fully protected” set out in the strict standards established by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Just over a year ago, the Azores created the largest network of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the North Atlantic, becoming a beacon of hope and a global leader in ocean conservation. - Then, in early 2025, a proposal to allow tuna fishing in “no-take” areas there was submitted to the Regional Assembly; this is currently under discussion and could come to a vote this week or next week. - “Such a retreat from ocean protection would not only be a local tragedy but also a disheartening contribution to the global backpedaling on environmental political will,” a new op-ed argues. - This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Poaching down but threats remain for forest elephants, recent population assessment finds 05 Jan 2026 15:06:14 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/poaching-down-but-threats-remain-for-forest-elephants-recent-population-assessment-finds/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Spoorthy Raman content:encoded: More than 145,000 African forest elephants roam the rainforests of Africa, according to a recent population assessment. Published in December by the African Elephant Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, the survey relies on improved DNA-based techniques to provide the first estimate for these critically endangered pachyderms since they were recognized as a distinct species in 2021. African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) are found primarily in the dense rainforests of Central Africa, with significant but dwindling numbers remaining in West Africa, and small populations in East and Southern Africa. Hybrids with their close cousins, savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana), also occur infrequently where both forest and savanna elephants are found. Counting these shy and elusive giants is a challenge for researchers as they blend into their surroundings or vanish into the dense understory of their forest habitat. A forest elephant with calf in Gabon. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Some 153 population surveys, carried out between 2016 and 2024 across roughly three-quarters of L. cyclotis’s known range, counted 135,690 forest elephants. The IUCN’s assessment included 22 elephant populations, mostly in Central Africa, that had not previously been surveyed. The researchers estimate there are as many as 11,000 more elephants in the remaining parts of the species’ range, pushing the total to just over 145,000 individuals. “This report is the first one that shows forest elephant numbers,” report author Fiona Maisels, a conservation scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), told Mongabay by email. “In previous iterations, the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The first authoritative population assessment for African forest elephants estimates there are more than 145,000 individuals. - Researchers say new survey techniques relying on sampling DNA from elephant dung provide the most accurate estimate of a species that’s difficult to count in its rainforest habitat. - Central Africa remains the species’ stronghold, home to nearly 96% of forest elephants, with densely forested Gabon hosting 95,000 individuals. - Conservationists say the findings can help inform the design of targeted conservation actions and national plans for forest elephants. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Carving up the Cardamoms 05 Jan 2026 13:02:32 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2026/01/carving-up-the-cardamoms/ author: Alejandroprescottcornejo dc:creator: content:encoded: The Cardamom Mountains sprawl across southwestern Cambodia and are among the best-preserved rainforests in the country. Protected by rugged terrain, heavy rains and a low population density, the Cardamoms remain a biodiversity hotspot, providing habitat for threatened elephants, pangolins and the region’s last viable fishing cat population. This Special Issues documents the myriad threats facing one of Cambodia’s last, best rainforests. Since 2021, Mongabay has uncovered illegal loggers operating out of prisons, revealed how dam building gives cover to timber traffickers, and investigated where conservationists clash with Indigenous communities while land grabbers rush in, carving up the Cardamoms.This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The Cardamom Mountains sprawl across southwestern Cambodia and are among the best-preserved rainforests in the country. Protected by rugged terrain, heavy rains and a low population density, the Cardamoms remain a biodiversity hotspot, providing habitat for threatened elephants, pangolins and the region’s last viable fishing cat population. This Special Issues documents the myriad threats facing […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
The climate fight may not be won in the Amazon, but it can be lost there 05 Jan 2026 10:48:19 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/the-climate-fight-may-not-be-won-in-the-amazon-but-it-can-be-lost-there/ 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. After five decades studying the plants and peoples of the Amazon, Mark Plotkin, an ethnobotanist and co-founder of the Amazon Conservation Team, is still asked whether the rainforest’s glass is half-full or half-empty. His answer is unchanged. “By definition, any glass that is half-full is half-empty.” The point, he argues in a commentary for Mongabay, is not optimism or pessimism, but accuracy about a region where progress and peril now coexist. When Plotkin first arrived in the 1970s, the Amazon barely registered in the global imagination. Scientists such as Richard Schultes, Tom Lovejoy and E.O. Wilson helped shift that view, reframing the forest from “green hell” to a storehouse of biodiversity. Indigenous leaders and activists like Payakan and Chico Mendes added political force. The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro marked the high-water line of global attention. Since then, trends have swung sharply. Brazil’s deforestation soared in the late 20th century, plummeted in the early 2000s, rose again after 2019 and fell once more in 2023. Similar cycles now shape Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. Yet millions of hectares are today under some form of protection, and Indigenous territories generally show lower rates of loss. Plotkin is quick to note the other side of the ledger. Criminal networks have expanded into mining, logging and land grabbing. Mercury contamination, violence and corruption undermine local governance. Climate disruption has pushed rainfall patterns off balance, drying…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. After five decades studying the plants and peoples of the Amazon, Mark Plotkin, an ethnobotanist and co-founder of the Amazon Conservation Team, is still asked whether the rainforest’s glass is half-full or half-empty. His answer is unchanged. “By […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Snowy owl, striped hyena, sharks among migratory species proposed for greater protections 05 Jan 2026 09:16:16 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/snowy-owl-striped-hyena-sharks-among-migratory-species-proposed-for-greater-protections/ author: Hayat Indriyatno dc:creator: Shreya Dasgupta content:encoded: Countries under the international treaty to protect migratory animals have proposed increasing protections for 42 species. These include numerous seabirds, the snowy owl, several sharks, the striped hyena, and some cheetah populations. The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) aims to protect species ranging from butterflies and fish to birds and mammals that cross national borders for food and reproduction. Species listed in the convention’s Appendix I are considered to be in need of strict protection across their range countries, while those in Appendix II are thought to benefit from international cooperation. The CMS published its first ever report on the state of the world’s migratory species in 2024, noting that 399 species are globally threatened or near threatened but not yet listed under the CMS. Parties to the CMS recently proposed listing 42 such species and one subspecies in Appendix I or II. Zimbabwe proposed including populations of cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) in Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia — considered part of the Southern African transboundary cheetah population — in Appendices I and II. Other cheetah populations are already included in Appendix I. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan proposed including the striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena), which undertakes wide-ranging movements across arid and semiarid environments, in Appendices I and II. Thirty-one species and one subspecies of birds have also been proposed for listing. These include Norway’s proposal to include the snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) in Appendix II, noting that the owl has lost a third of its population in…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Countries under the international treaty to protect migratory animals have proposed increasing protections for 42 species. These include numerous seabirds, the snowy owl, several sharks, the striped hyena, and some cheetah populations. The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) aims to protect species ranging from butterflies and fish to birds […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Biologist kidnapped in Mexico 04 Jan 2026 15:57:57 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/biologist-kidnapped-in-mexico/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: In the mountains of central Veracruz, scientific work is rarely abstract. It means walking narrow paths through cloud forest, speaking patiently with communities, and learning to read landscapes that yield information slowly. It also means accepting risk as a condition of knowledge. Field research unfolds in places where the state is often distant and authority is uneven. That context matters for understanding the disappearance of Miguel Ángel de la Torre Loranca, a Mexican biologist who was kidnapped on November 21, 2025, after leaving his home in the Sierra de Zongolica. He had gone out in response to what was described as a request for dialogue. Hours later, his family received a ransom demand. After an initial payment, communication stopped. Since then, there has been no verified information about his whereabouts. De la Torre Loranca was not a public figure in the conventional sense. He was known locally for his work rather than his profile: a herpetologist who documented reptiles most people avoided, an educator who helped build institutions in regions rarely centered in national debates, and a guide who believed that conservation depended on familiarity rather than fear. Over decades of fieldwork, he contributed to the description of multiple species and trained students who learned to treat data collection as work with real consequences. One snake from Oaxaca, Geophis lorancai, bears his name, an honor usually conferred after a career has run its course. Photo by Loranca. There was also administrative work, less visible but equally durable. As the first…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: In the mountains of central Veracruz, scientific work is rarely abstract. It means walking narrow paths through cloud forest, speaking patiently with communities, and learning to read landscapes that yield information slowly. It also means accepting risk as a condition of knowledge. Field research unfolds in places where the state is often distant and authority […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
What Craig’s long life reveals about elephant conservation 03 Jan 2026 23:51:05 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/what-craigs-long-life-reveals-about-elephant-conservation/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: The death of a well-known wild animal is an odd kind of news. It is intimate, because so many people feel they have met the creature through photographs and video. It is also impersonal, because the animal has no public life beyond what humans project onto it. For elephants, that tension is sharpened by history. Their bodies have been turned into luxury goods, their habitats into development sites, and their survival into a test of whether conservation can work at scale. That is why today’s news from Kenya traveled quickly. Craig, the Amboseli bull famous for tusks that nearly brushed the ground, died at the age of 54. Conservation groups and wildlife authorities said he died of natural causes after showing signs of distress overnight, with rangers staying close by. His final hours seemed to reflect age, not violence: intermittent collapsing, short attempts to stand and move, and evidence that he was no longer chewing properly as his last molars wore down. For an elephant, teeth often write the closing chapter. Craig was not obscure. He was, by most accounts, one of the most photographed elephants in Africa, and perhaps the best-known “super tusker” alive—one of the rare bulls whose tusks weigh more than 45 kilograms each. He was also known for temperament: calm around vehicles, patient in the presence of cameras, and unusually tolerant of the attention that followed him. That quality, as much as the ivory he carried, helped make him a symbol of what protection can look…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The death of Craig, a widely known super tusker from Amboseli, drew attention not just because of his fame, but because he lived long enough to die of natural causes in a period when elephants with tusks like his are rarely spared. - Craig’s life reflected decades of sustained protection in Kenya, where anti-poaching efforts and community stewardship have allowed some elephant populations to stabilize or grow after catastrophic losses in the late 20th century. - His passing is also a reminder of what has been lost: Africa’s elephant population fell from about 1.3 million in 1979 to roughly 400,000 today, with forest elephants in particular still in steep decline. - There are signs of cautious progress, including slowing demand for ivory and stronger legal protections, but continued habitat loss means that survival, even for the most protected elephants, remains uncertain. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
‘I’m proud to be the first published Asháninka researcher’: Richar Antonio Demetrio on bees 02 Jan 2026 20:42:39 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/im-proud-to-be-the-first-published-ashaninka-researcher-richar-antonio-demetrio-on-bees/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Xilena Pinedo content:encoded: In Indigenous Asháninka belief, bees were once spirits in human form. Stories tell of a woman who enjoyed making masato, a traditional Amazonian fermented beverage. Every day, she would boil and mash the yuca, patiently fermenting it and offering the drink to whoever stopped by. Whole families would go and sit to drink it. The woman made more and the masato never ran out. Word spread throughout the forest until it reached Avireri, the god of creation, who went to the community to see the woman with his own eyes. He tried the masato and waited for it to run out, but it never did. Intrigued, the god looked at her and asked, “Why does your masato never run out? I’d better turn you into a bee.” Thus, the legend goes, stingless bees were born, destined from that moment on to make the sweetest honey in the Peruvian Amazon. Richar Antonio Demetrio had to leave his community in search of better formal educational opportunities, but he returned to study their knowledge using scientific methods. Image courtesy of Richar Antonio Demetrio. This story, which has been passed down from generation to generation among the more than 50,000 Asháninka who currently live in Peru, is now enshrined in a scientific paper. Published in the journal Ethnobiology and Conservation in March 2025, the study documents, for the first time, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) about stingless bees in two communities of the central Peruvian rainforest, Marontoari and Pichiquia. The study reveals that Asháninka communities…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Richar Antonio Demetrio is the first Indigenous Asháninka scientist to publish in a high-impact journal, combining traditional ecological knowledge with scientific methodology to study meliponiculture, the farming of stingless bees. - His first paper, published in March 2025, reveals that Asháninka communities can identify more than 14 plant species used by stingless bees to build their nests, and apply sustainable practices in honey production. - His second warns that more than 50% of the habitat of stingless bees in the Avireri-Vraem Biosphere Reserve overlaps with areas at high risk of deforestation. - In an interview with Mongabay, Demetrio talks about the challenges he faced from both the scientific and Indigenous communities during his studies, and about the importance of balancing Western scientific methods with age-old traditional knowledge. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Camera traps in China capture first-ever footage of Amur tigress with five cubs 02 Jan 2026 14:46:54 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/camera-traps-in-china-capture-first-ever-footage-of-amur-tigress-with-five-cubs/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Spoorthy Raman content:encoded: Camera traps installed in the world’s largest tiger reserve, in China, have captured footage of an Amur tigress and her five cubs for the first time. Recorded in November 2025, the footage from Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park shows an adult tigress ambling along a dirt road, and four young cubs tootling behind her. After a few seconds, as two of the cubs pause to sniff what looks like a stone, a fifth tries to catch up with the rest of the family. Scientists say they believe the tigress is about 9 years old (tigers typically live for about 10-15 years in the wild), and the cubs are about 6-8 months old. The 14,100-square-kilometer (5,400-square-mile) national park has China’s largest populations of Amur, or Siberian, tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) and leopards (Panthera pardus orientalis). It’s seen an increase in tiger numbers in recent years: in 2024, 35 cubs were born there. Amur tigers, which roam the dense forests and snowy mountains of northeast China, Russia’s far east and parts of the Korean peninsula, are endangered due to poaching, forest logging, habitat fragmentation and prey scarcity. By the 1930s, scientists estimated there were fewer than 30 Amur tigers left in the wild. Latest estimates from the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, suggest there might be 265-486 tigers in Russia and roughly 70 in China, mostly in Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park. “Amur tigers were all but written off in China only twenty-five years ago when,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Camera traps installed in the world’s largest tiger reserve, in China, have captured footage of an Amur tigress and her five cubs for the first time. Recorded in November 2025, the footage from Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park shows an adult tigress ambling along a dirt road, and four young cubs tootling behind […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
5 unexpected animal behaviors we learned about in 2025 02 Jan 2026 12:30:33 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/5-unexpected-animal-behaviors-we-learned-about-in-2025/ author: Hayat Indriyatno dc:creator: Shreya Dasgupta content:encoded: Every year, researchers and people out in nature capture some aspect of animal behavior that’s unusual or unexpected in some way, changing how we understand the natural world. Here are five such examples that Mongabay reported on in 2025: Massive fish aggregation seen climbing waterfalls in Brazil For the first time, scientists observed a “massive aggregation” of small bumblebee catfish (Rhyacoglanis paranensis) climbing up waterfalls in Brazil in November 2024. Rhyacoglanis species are considered rare and scientists don’t know much about their biology and behavior, making these observation especially valuable. Researchers say the fish were likely heading upstream to spawn. Wolf hauls up crab trap to eat bait In Canada, Indigenous Haíɫzaqv guardians and collaborating scientists set up a camera trap to see who was damaging traps they’d submerged to capture invasive European green crabs. The video showed a female wolf (Canis lupus) swimming with a trap’s rope in her mouth, pulling it to ground once ashore, then opening the trap and eating the herring bait inside. These actions suggest the wolf understood there was food inside a hidden, submerged container, researchers say. This offers a new understanding of wolf cognition, they add. Parasitic ants grab power by turning workers against their queen For the first time, researchers observed queens of two ant species — L. orientalis and L. umbratus — take over other ant colonies by tricking the worker ants into killing their own queen, then accepting the intruding queen as their new leader. The parasitic queen takes advantage…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Every year, researchers and people out in nature capture some aspect of animal behavior that’s unusual or unexpected in some way, changing how we understand the natural world. Here are five such examples that Mongabay reported on in 2025: Massive fish aggregation seen climbing waterfalls in Brazil For the first time, scientists observed a “massive […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
From Chipko to Nyeri: The enduring logic of the tree hug 02 Jan 2026 09:25:29 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/from-chipko-to-nyeri-the-enduring-logic-of-the-tree-hug/ 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. When Truphena Muthoni stepped up to a royal palm in Nyeri and wrapped her arms around its trunk, few expected her to stay there for three days. Even fewer thought the gesture would spark a national conversation. Muthoni is 22, softly spoken, and no stranger to environmental advocacy. Her 72-hour embrace, now awaiting verification by Guinness World Records, said something that cut through official statements and tired public debates: Kenya’s forests are in trouble, and people know it. Her vigil began as a “silent protest.” Muthoni wanted authorities to face the consequences of unplanned development, shrinking tree cover, and neglected water catchment areas. She also linked her action to mental health. “The reason for hugging trees is that it is therapeutic,” she said before starting. The claim sounded odd to some. By the end, the crowd around her included police officers, county officials, and residents who stood in the rain cheering her on. Tree hugging, usually dismissed as a caricature of environmentalism, has a long history of serious resistance. The Bishnoi of Rajasthan paid with their lives in 1730 when more than 300 villagers died protecting khejri trees at Khejarli, at the ahnds of soldiers sent by the maharaja of Marwar. Their stand helped inspire the Chipko women of Uttarakhand, who in the 1970s placed their bodies between loggers and oaks, insisting on their right to intact forests. Later came the Appiko Movement…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. When Truphena Muthoni stepped up to a royal palm in Nyeri and wrapped her arms around its trunk, few expected her to stay there for three days. Even fewer thought the gesture would spark a national conversation. Muthoni […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Guatemala’s eco defenders reel from surge in killings and persecution 02 Jan 2026 07:57:13 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/guatemalas-eco-defenders-reel-from-surge-in-killings-and-persecution/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Gonzalo Ortuño López content:encoded: Environmental and territorial defenders in Guatemala face a critical moment as violence targeting them increases across the country. In 2024, at least 20 such defenders were killed for their work, up from four in 2023, according to a report by advocacy NGO Global Witness. The country was second only to Colombia in the number of defenders killed or disappeared, accounting for 13% of the total cases identified worldwide by Global Witness. As a proportion of the country’s population, the number also leaves Guatemala with the highest rate of killings of environmental defenders in the world. The report says that at least 10 of those killed were Indigenous or campesino individuals. Since 2012, Global Witness has documented 106 killings and disappearances of environmental defenders in Guatemala, half of them Indigenous people and a fifth campesinos, who were engaged in defending their rights to land or opposing the extraction of natural resources. Mongabay Latam interviewed the report authors, along with activists and defenders, who agreed that the main factors behind the increase in violence are a land distribution system that has historically benefited the elite, the continued violation of Indigenous peoples’ rights, and the spread of organized crime. The Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) has reported killings and criminalization of its members. Image courtesy of CCDA. The new political landscape When Bernardo Arévalo took office as president in January 2024, he and his party, Movimiento Semilla, had the broad backing of Guatemala’s Indigenous peoples. But this hasn’t translated into a reduction…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In 2023, there were four recorded killings of environmental defenders in connection to their work; in 2024, this figure shot up to at least 20, according to advocacy group Global Witness. - An ongoing political crisis, persistent criminalization, and the spread of organized crime have all fed the rise in violence against Indigenous and campesino communities and defenders. - This is happening despite a change of government, led by President Bernardo Arévalo, whose movement was backed by Indigenous communities. - Land grabbing, mass arrest warrants and judicial persecution are increasingly common, together with the use of force, say human rights defenders and activists. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Brickmaking keeps eating farmland as Bangladesh misses clean-build goal 02 Jan 2026 05:54:51 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/brickmaking-keeps-eating-farmland-as-bangladesh-misses-clean-build-goal/ author: Abusiddique dc:creator: Abu Siddique content:encoded: In 2019, Bangladesh set a target to end the use of traditional bricks and switch to concrete blocks in all government construction works by June 2025. Aimed at preventing the loss of farmland and the high greenhouse gas emissions associated with brickmaking, the result has largely been “a failure,” according to a top official. “Initially, our target was to use concrete blocks and hollow bricks in all kinds of government works including building public infrastructures, roads, etc.,” Syeda Rizwana Hasan, an adviser to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), told Mongabay. “Unfortunately, most of the government works have continued to be carried out with the traditional bricks, which mostly made the target a failure.” Various government departments run a wide range of construction projects, including the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, the Education Engineering Department and the Roads and Highways Department. “Of them, only the public works ministry reached its use of 100% clean materials while the others are far behind the target,” Hasan said. Md. Ziuaul Haque, additional director-general of the Department of Environment, said a new deadline for the transition is being planned. “As per our estimation, around 30-40% of the total government works have come under the use of alternative building materials so far,” he said. “We are planning to set a new timeline and impose strict directions to the related government agencies to meet the goal of 100% use of clean bricks.” Damaging to land and climate A boom in infrastructure and…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Despite a 2019 mandate to switch to concrete blocks and other alternatives by June 2025, most government projects continued using clay-fired bricks, with only the Ministry of Housing and Public Works fully complying. - About 7,000 brickfields strip an estimated 9.5 million cubic meters (3.35 billion cubic feet) of topsoil each year, rendering farmland uncultivable for years, while the sector accounts for roughly 3% of Bangladesh’s greenhouse gas emissions due to coal- and wood-fired kilns. - Concrete alternatives are available, along with government-developed lower-cost options such as compressed stabilized earth blocks made from dredged river sediment, which can cut costs and conserve topsoil, yet their adoption remains limited. - A 15% VAT on alternative building materials has made them less competitive than traditional bricks, discouraging investment and demand, even as officials plan a new deadline and stricter enforcement to revive the stalled transition. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
The conservation ledger: What we lost and what we gained in 2025 01 Jan 2026 13:18:25 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/the-ledger-what-we-lost-and-what-we-gained-in-2025/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Extinction is rarely a moment. It is a process that unfolds offstage, marked by missed sightings, thinning records, and the slow reassignment of hope to footnotes. Discovery, too, is rarely a moment. It is a process of comparison, argument, and waiting—years spent persuading other experts that what you are seeing is, in fact, new. A year-end review of nature tends to move between those two tempos. One is the closing of accounts. The other is the opening of drawers. In 2025, a small group of species crossed a final bureaucratic threshold and were formally listed as extinct on the IUCN Red List. For science, the change was technical. For everyone else, it read like a set of obituaries that had been delayed for decades. At the same time, hundreds of organisms were described for the first time in the scientific literature—some collected in recent fieldwork, others hiding in plain sight in museum collections, misfiled by earlier assumptions. Between those bookends sits the human work: the people who tried to slow the losses, and the institutional decisions that made progress possible in some places and failure likely in others. In my own corner of this story, 2025 was a year of memorials. I wrote more than 80 short obituaries for people who spent their lives protecting parts of the Earth. The volume was not a badge of productivity. It was a measure of how many lives are spent holding the line—and how often the line keeps moving anyway. The losses that became official…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - 2025 was a year shaped by both loss and persistence, marked by species formally declared extinct, hundreds of organisms newly described, and uneven conservation outcomes across forests, reefs, and the open ocean. - The year showed that extinction and discovery are rarely moments, but slow processes driven by delay, uncertainty, and institutional choices—often recognizing loss long after it occurs and naming life only as threats close in. - 2025 also revealed the human cost of environmental protection, through the lives of scientists, rangers, Indigenous leaders, and advocates whose endurance, rather than visibility, sustained ecosystems under pressure. - Rhett Ayers Butler, founder and CEO of Mongabay, concludes that what was lost was not only species but time—and that what remains is proof the future is still shaped by policy, financing, enforcement, and whether protection is built to last. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Emma Johnston, a marine ecologist with institutional reach, has died at 52 31 Dec 2025 23:56:44 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/emma-johnston-a-marine-ecologist-with-institutional-reach-has-died-at-52/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Universities like to present themselves as durable institutions. They outlast governments, ride out recessions, and take pride in the slow accumulation of knowledge. In Australia, that confidence has been tested by familiar pressures: tight public funding, culture-war skirmishes over expertise, and the awkward fact that a continent built on extractive wealth is also among the places most exposed to climate disruption. In that setting, science leadership is rarely confined to laboratories or lecture theaters. It spills into budgets, regulation, and public argument. It also demands translation: taking complex, often alarming evidence and turning it into something citizens and policymakers can use, without reducing it to slogans. Emma Johnston, who died in Melbourne on December 26, 2025, from complications associated with cancer, at 52, made that translation her trade. She was a marine ecologist by training and instinct, and a university leader by temperament. She became vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne in February 2025, returning to the institution where she had trained as a scientist. Johnston was born in 1973 and grew up near the water in Melbourne. School came with early signs of restlessness and initiative: she ran a student newspaper, started an environment group, and pushed a recycling program. Those were modest acts, but they pointed to a habit that stayed with her, a refusal to accept that problems should wait for permission to be solved. After completing a PhD in marine ecology at the University of Melbourne, she joined the University of New South Wales in 2001.…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Emma Johnston, who died at 52 in December 2025, moved between marine science and university leadership, arguing that evidence matters only if it can be understood and acted upon beyond the laboratory. - Trained as a marine ecologist, she built influential research programs on human impacts in coastal ecosystems and became a prominent public advocate for science in an era of misinformation and political noise. - Her career expanded into national leadership roles, including president of Science & Technology Australia and senior research posts at UNSW and the University of Sydney, before she became vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne in 2025. - Though her tenure as vice-chancellor was brief, she pressed a strategy centered on resilience and education, leaving Australian science without a leader who could connect data, institutions, and public life with unusual clarity. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Deforestation climbs in Central America’s largest biosphere reserve 31 Dec 2025 20:09:53 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/deforestation-climbs-in-central-americas-largest-biosphere-reserve/ author: Morgan Erickson-Davis dc:creator: Morgan Erickson-Davis content:encoded: Encompassing some 7,400 square kilometers, or 2,860 square miles, along the Honduran border, Nicaragua’s Bosawás Biosphere Reserve is the largest biosphere reserve in Central America. It’s home to the Miskito and Mayanga Indigenous groups as well as countless species; endangered Geoffrey’s spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) and Baird’s tapirs (Tapirus bairdii) inhabit Bosawas, as do critically endangered Saslaya moss salamanders (Nototriton saslaya), that are found nowhere else in the world. But, increasingly over the past several decades, Bosawás has also become host to cattle ranches and gold mines, at the cost of its rainforest. Despite its designation as a UNESCO site, Bosawás Biosphere Reserve has lost more than 30% of its primary forest cover since the turn of the century, according to satellite data from the University of Maryland’s Global Land Analysis and Discovery lab and visualized on the monitoring platform Global Forest Watch. Deforestation surged to a record high in 2024, with 740 km2 (286 mi2) — 10% of the reserve’s land area — cleared in a single year. A satellite image captured April 2025 by Sentinel 2b shows recently deforested areas in Bosawás Biosphere Reserve. The data show fire activity in Bosawás also rose in 2024, with 35% of annual tree cover loss caused by fire, representing a 700% jump from 2023. Preliminary data for 2025 indicate forest loss has continued this year, with satellite imagery showing telltale patches of brown spreading ever deeper into Bosawás’s remaining old-growth rainforest. Cattle ranching is one of the main drivers of forest…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Nicaragua’s Bosawás Biosphere Reserve has lost more than a third of its primary forest cover since the turn of the century. - 2024 marked the biggest year of deforestation, with 10% of Bosawás cleared in just one year. - Cattle ranching is among the top causes of forest loss, with outsiders encroaching into Bosawás to clear forest for pasture. - Indigenous advocates and residents say the loss of forest is threatening their way of life, and that they have faced violence due to encroachment. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |