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Scientists describe new-to-science mouse opossum from Peruvian Andes 17 Oct 2025 20:30:13 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/scientists-describe-new-to-science-mouse-opossum-from-peruvian-andes/ author: Shanna Hanbury dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: Scientists have described a new species of mouse opossum discovered in 2018 in the cloud forests of the Peruvian Andes, 2,664 meters (8,740 feet) above sea level. The find was reported by Mongabay Latam staff writer Yvette Sierra Praeli. The new marsupial is named Marmosa chachapoya after the ancient Chachapoya people who once lived in the region. Its body is just 10 centimeters (4 inches) long with a tail longer than its body at 15 cm (6 in). It also has a Zorro mask-like dark mark around its eyes. “I realized immediately that this was something unusual,” biologist Silvia Pavan, the lead author of the new species description, said in a statement. The the first and only known specimen of the species was found in the Abiseo River National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its rare biodiversity and pre-Columbian archaeological sites. The newly described Marmosa chachapoya. Photo courtesy of Silvia Pavan. Compared with other animals in the same genus, M. Chachapoya looks physically different and it was found at a much higher altitude than is common for other mouse opossum species in its genus. “That was our first sign that what we had captured was probably another species,” co-author Pamela Sanchez-Vendizú, a mammologist at Peru’s National University of San Marcos, told Praeli. Genetic sequencing later showed the animal was nearly 8% genetically different from its closest relative in the Marmosa genus. Researchers noted that Abiseo River National Park, along with other remote regions of the Andes, are…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Scientists have described a new species of mouse opossum discovered in 2018 in the cloud forests of the Peruvian Andes, 2,664 meters (8,740 feet) above sea level. The find was reported by Mongabay Latam staff writer Yvette Sierra Praeli. The new marsupial is named Marmosa chachapoya after the ancient Chachapoya people who once lived in […] authors: | ||
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Nations delay vote on shipping decarbonization rules after fierce US resistance 17 Oct 2025 20:07:22 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/nations-delay-vote-on-shipping-decarbonization-rules-after-fierce-us-resistance/ author: Morgan Erickson-Davis dc:creator: Edward Carver content:encoded: This is Part 4 of a short series on efforts to decarbonize the global shipping industry, covering a key meeting from London. Part 1 addressed international policy and politics leading up to this meeting. Part 2 looked at efficiency measures; Part 3, alternative fuels. The shipping sector was widely expected to become the first industry to adopt a binding set of global greenhouse gas emissions rules during an Oct. 14-17 meeting in London. However, the contentious talks concluded not with a vote on the rules, but rather a vote on whether to delay the decision for another year — a proposal that narrowly passed. Member countries of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) committee voted 57-49 in favor of delaying the decision until October 2026. The IMO is a United Nations body that regulates shipping. The “net-zero framework,” as the rules are known, would have established emissions intensity limits that become more stringent each year, with substantial fees paid for noncompliance. “Getting the net-zero framework adopted in this [meeting], however imperfect, was fundamental for shipping to stay within reach of its own decarbonation targets,” Anaïs Rios, senior shipping policy officer at Seas At Risk, a Brussels-based NGO, said in a statement. “Emotions have run high this week at the IMO, with once high-ambitious alliances wavering and strategies eclipsing reason.” The United States and other oil-exporting countries dominated much of the discussion in London as they sought to prevent the deal from being adopted. The U.S. derided the framework as an illegitimate international tax and argued…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The shipping sector was widely expected to become the first industry to adopt a binding set of global greenhouse gas emissions rules during an Oct. 14-17 meeting in London. - Instead, member countries of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) committee voted to delay the decision until October 2026. - The rules would have established emissions intensity limits that become more stringent each year, with substantial fees paid for noncompliance. - The United States and other oil-exporting countries dominated much of the discussion in London as they sought to prevent the rules from being adopted, arguing that they amounted to an illegitimate international tax and that they would have dire economic consequences. authors: | ||
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Banking alliance aimed at limiting fossil fuel investments collapses 17 Oct 2025 19:13:28 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/banking-alliance-aimed-at-limiting-fossil-fuel-investments-collapses/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Bobby Bascomb content:encoded: A coalition formed to align the international banking sector’s investments with global climate goals has disbanded nearly four years after it was launched. Set up in 2021, the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) was a U.N.-sponsored initiative to shift bank financing away from fossil fuels — the biggest source of climate changing greenhouse gases — and toward net-zero emissions by 2050. Members were required to set five-year targets and provide detailed reports on how they planned to meet their goals. “The NZBA had laid out a timeline for members to develop detailed transition plans meaning the rubber was starting to meet the road and banks globally, not just in the US, were getting cold feet,” Allison Fajans-Turner, who works in climate and energy finance with the Rainforest Action Network, told Mongabay by email. However, the alliance began hemorrhaging participants following the U.S. election of Donald Trump and his anti-environment rhetoric. All the major U.S. and Canadian banks withdrew from the group, soon followed by many European and Japanese financial institutions. According to a 2025 report, bank financing for fossil fuels fell in 2022 and 2023 but grew more than 20% in 2024. As of 2024, the world’s 65 largest banks, many which were once part of the NZBA, had invested roughly $7.9 trillion in fossil fuels since 2016, when the Paris Agreement to limit climate change went into effect. “Trump’s election was absolutely a catalyst, but the wheels had been set in motion before his election,” Truzaar Dordi, a climate finance researcher at the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: A coalition formed to align the international banking sector’s investments with global climate goals has disbanded nearly four years after it was launched. Set up in 2021, the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) was a U.N.-sponsored initiative to shift bank financing away from fossil fuels — the biggest source of climate changing greenhouse gases — and […] authors: | ||
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US blocks a global fee on shipping emissions as international meeting ends without new regulations 17 Oct 2025 17:16:04 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/us-blocks-a-global-fee-on-shipping-emissions-as-international-meeting-ends-without-new-regulations/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: The U.S. has blocked a global fee on shipping emissions as an international maritime meeting ended Friday without adopting new regulations. The world’s largest maritime nations had been discussing ways to move the shipping industry away from fossil fuels. On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump urged countries to vote against the regulations. The International Maritime Organization adjourned its meeting Friday. The proposed regulations would have set a marine fuel standard and imposed fees for emissions above allowable limits. Shipping emissions have grown to about 3% of the global total, prompting calls for action. By: Sibi Arasu and Jennifer McDermott, Associated Press Banner image: Tokyo Tower is visible amid tall buildings as a container ship leaves a cargo terminal in Tokyo, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The U.S. has blocked a global fee on shipping emissions as an international maritime meeting ended Friday without adopting new regulations. The world’s largest maritime nations had been discussing ways to move the shipping industry away from fossil fuels. On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump urged countries to vote against the regulations. The International Maritime […] authors: | ||
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A closer look at Peru’s Amazon reveals new mining trends, deforestation 17 Oct 2025 16:00:28 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/a-closer-look-at-perus-amazon-reveals-new-mining-trends-deforestation/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Max Radwin content:encoded: For years, gold mining has been one of Peru’s most pressing environmental challenges, with illegal operations clearing the Amazon Rainforest and polluting rivers with chemicals. The industry continues to grow, as miners spread into new parts of the country and adopt different ways of working. One recent project that maps mining operations and their expansion shows how mining has spread into the country’s northern provinces and implemented river-based extraction methods that aren’t common in other mining hotspots. Developed by Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andes Amazon Program (MAAP), the project is one of the first visualizations of Peru’s mining problem on a national scale. “Having this baseline comprehensive look at what’s happening in Peru can serve as the basis for better understanding the magnitude of illegal mining,” Matt Finer, MAAP director and senior research specialist, told Mongabay. “Then we’re getting into, ‘Where is it? Where is it increasing? Where is it decreasing?’” Gold mining caused 139,169 hectares (343,894 acres) of deforestation between 1984 and the first half of 2025, predominantly in the southern department of Madre de Dios, according to the MAAP analysis. In that department alone, MAAP found more than 2,000 pieces of mining infrastructure, including drills, chutes, dredges and mining rafts. Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon, August 2025. Source: MAAP. Madre de Dios was the focus of Peru’s Operation Mercury in 2019, in which law enforcement aggressively dismantled mine sites. It was a short-term success that saw deforestation rates slow for a couple of years before rebounding…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A new analysis from the Monitoring of the Andes Amazon Program shows differences in mining patterns in the central and northern departments of the country, compared with southern departments like Madre de Dios. - The mapping analysis is one of the first visualizations of Peru’s mining problem on a nationwide scale. - The organization called for a better gold traceability system and for small-scale and artisanal mining activities to be subject to stricter environmental oversight. authors: | ||
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Deforestation for soy continues in Brazilian Cerrado despite EUDR looming 17 Oct 2025 09:41:07 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/deforestation-for-soy-continues-in-brazilian-cerrado-despite-eudr-looming/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Constance Malleret content:encoded: Agricultural producers in Brazil’s Cerrado savanna continue to clear land for soy, which puts them in breach of the European Union’s upcoming antideforestation law, or EUDR, a new investigation shows. In September 2024, investigative nonprofit Earthsight published its “Secret Ingredient” report, which established links between chicken sold by McDonald’s and at supermarkets in Europe, and soy produced on deforested land in the Cerrado. In a recent update to the report, Earthsight found that two of the three producers identified in “Secret Ingredient” continued to clear land for soy in the year since. This makes their product noncompliant with the EUDR, which, at the time of Earthsight’s research, was due to come into force on Dec. 30 this year. The European Commission has since proposed delaying the application of the law for another year. “The threat that soy production and agricultural expansion pose to the Cerrado … is still ongoing,” said Lara Shirra White, Latin America researcher at Earthsight and lead author of “Secret Ingredient: A year of inaction,” the update to the 2024 investigation. “And so the chance of soy and other commodities that are linked to the conversion and deforestation of the Cerrado entering international supply chains … is still a very real threat,” she told Mongabay. Spanning about 200 million hectares (500 million acres) across central Brazil, or more than double the size of California, the Cerrado is the world’s most biodiverse tropical savanna. It’s a vital carbon sink and a home to traditional Indigenous and Afro-descendent quilombola…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Some agricultural producers in the Brazilian Cerrado who indirectly supply soy to the European market still haven’t complied with the forthcoming European Union’s antideforestation regulation, or EUDR, an investigation has found. - Two companies, Mizote Group and Franciosi Agro, have cleared 986 hectares (2,436 acres) since May 2024, advocacy group Earthsight found, including forested areas — meaning any of the soy grown isn’t EUDR-compliant. - The Cerrado, a biodiverse savanna, is the Brazilian biome most vulnerable to deforestation driven by agricultural expansion, losing more than 652,000 ha (1.6 million acres) of native vegetation in 2024. - The EUDR and voluntary certification schemes like the Roundtable on Responsible Soy (RTRS) aim to root out deforestation from supply chains — but the latter has limitations, while implementation of the former risks being delayed by another year. authors: | ||
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West Africa’s leopards now officially endangered after 50% population crash 17 Oct 2025 09:01:12 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/west-africas-leopards-now-officially-endangered-after-50-population-crash/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Elodie Toto content:encoded: There are only about 350 mature leopards left in West Africa, according to the latest regional assessment by the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. Leopards (Panthera pardus) in West Africa are thought to be genetically isolated from those in Central Africa, with little or no interbreeding between populations. They’re found in 11 countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Once widespread across West Africa, the leopard population there has declined by 50% over the past two decades, leading to their moving to a higher threat category of endangered on the IUCN Red List. “In Africa, the leopard is not doing too badly, but in West Africa it’s a different story,” said Robin Horion, a field technician with U.S.-based NGO Panthera who was part of the team assessing the West African leopard’s conservation status for the IUCN Red List. “West Africa has far less funding, fewer researchers, and much less of a conservation culture compared to East and Southern Africa. There is also much less tourism. All of this means that species are disappearing in almost complete silence.” Horion and other researchers from Panthera spent five years surveying leopards in West Africa’s national parks. Following their report, the IUCN reclassified the feline from vulnerable to endangered on the Red List on Oct. 9. The IUCN assessment notes that most leopards in West Africa live in protected areas within increasingly fragmented landscapes that are under pressure from expanding agriculture, infrastructure development and…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: There are only about 350 mature leopards left in West Africa, according to the latest regional assessment by the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. Leopards (Panthera pardus) in West Africa are thought to be genetically isolated from those in Central Africa, with little or no interbreeding between populations. They’re found in 11 countries: Benin, […] authors: | ||
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In Nepal’s hills, a fight brews over the country’s biggest iron deposit 17 Oct 2025 08:36:28 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-nepals-hills-a-fight-brews-over-the-countrys-biggest-iron-deposit/ author: Abhaya Raj Joshi dc:creator: Sonam Lama Hyolmo content:encoded: KATHMANDU — When the monsoon arrives in Jhumlabang village in Nepal’s far west, 35-year-old Til Kumari B.K. spends hours in the community forest harvesting mushrooms. The rest of the year, she goes there to collect bark from the allo plant (Girardinia diversifolia), or Himalayan nettle, which is processed into a fiber for weaving fabric. During the dry season, Til Kumari also tends her farm. “The farm feeds my family, while money from the mushrooms and fibers help pay for books and pens for my four children,” she says. But all that could soon change, with her once sleepy village now in the headlines as home to Nepal’s “biggest iron deposit.” The area, which once provided copper ores for community use, now sits on a potential iron deposit. There’s no full-scale mining operation here, for now. But officials have recently granted a concession, and community members are crying foul over what they say is the lack of meaningful community consultation, threats of displacement, and potential environmental harm even — as the government and mining companies emphasize economic development and resource self-sufficiency. Government and company sources told Mongabay that Jhumlabang mine which contain a hematite deposit of around 200 million tonnes is twice as big as Dhaubadi iron mine that has an estimated 96.3 million metric tons of iron ores and that the new mine has the capacity to create job opportunities and reduce dependency on iron imports from neighboring countries. But first it would have to overcome stern opposition from locals,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Nepal’s government has granted a mining concession for what it calls the country’s biggest iron deposit in Jhumlabang, a remote farming community that could supply Nepal’s steel demand for years. - Local residents say they were never properly consulted and fear displacement, water pollution, and destruction of forests and farmlands that sustain their livelihoods and cultural traditions. - Community groups and Indigenous rights advocates argue the project violates Nepal’s obligations under international law guaranteeing the right to free, prior and informed consent for Indigenous peoples. - Officials and the mining company insist due process will be followed, but villagers vow to resist the project, saying development should not come at the cost of their land, health and environment. authors: | ||
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Indonesia court clears wildfire scientists in case brought by palm oil company 17 Oct 2025 07:53:32 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indonesia-court-clears-wildfire-scientists-in-case-brought-by-palm-oil-company/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Rendy Tisna content:encoded: A lower court in the Jakarta suburb of Bogor ruled in October in favor of environmental scientists Bambang Hero Saharjo and Basuki Wasis, dismissing a lawsuit brought by Borneo plantation firm PT Kalimantan Lestari Mandiri over a wildfire more than seven years ago. “Hopefully this will set a good precedent to protect environmental defenders and activists and enable the effort to rescue the deteriorating environment without the threat of pressure and lawsuits,” Bambang told Mongabay Indonesia in response to the ruling. Bambang and Basuki are professors at Bogor Institute of Agriculture, Indonesia’s premier forestry university. The government has frequently called on both academics to provide testimony as expert witnesses in wildfires cases brought by the forestry ministry against plantation companies. In 2018, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry brought a case against PT Kalimantan Lestari Mandiri, which was heard in the Kapuas district court in Central Kalimantan province. The government alleged the company was culpable for a fire covering 833 hectares (2,058 acres) using the principle of “strict liability,” which holds companies ultimately responsible for any damage. In court, the government relied on peatland samples measured by Bambang, who is head of the wildfires laboratory at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, from several sites on the PT Kalimantan Lestari Mandiri concession taken during November 2018. The court judgment noted testimony that the area burned was approximately 833 hectares (2,058 acres), which was both Bambang’s conclusion and “in accordance with the results of measurements by the Central Kalimantan Provincial Plantation Service.”…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A district court in a Jakarta suburb has dismissed a lawsuit brought by palm oil company PT Kalimantan Lestari Mandiri against two scientists who provided expert testimony in a 2018 court case that found the palm oil firm liable for wildfires on hundreds of hectares of land in Central Kalimantan province. - Bambang Hero Saharjo and Basuki Wasis, two professors at Bogor Institute of Agriculture, said defending the suit required time that could have been spent in the field or laboratory working to establish the facts in other cases. - Civil society representatives responded to the ruling with relief. The heads of several nonprofits expressed hope that the verdict would provide reassurance to others that corporate actors had limited ability to use the courts against scientists. authors: | ||
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Green turtle rebounds, moving from ‘endangered’ to ‘least concern’ 17 Oct 2025 06:04:03 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/green-turtle-rebounds-moving-from-endangered-to-least-concern/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Shreya Dasgupta content:encoded: The green turtle, found across the world’s oceans, is recovering after decades of decline, according to the latest IUCN Red List assessment. The species has been reclassified from endangered to least concern. “I am delighted,” Brendan Godley, a turtle expert from the University of Exeter, U.K., told Mongabay. “It underlines that marine conservation can work, there is hope, and we should rightly celebrate it, sharing some ocean optimism.” Historically, humans hunted green turtles (Chelonia mydas) for their meat and eggs, decimating their populations. Even after hunting declined, the species continued to suffer: from entanglement in fishing nets, degradation of nesting beaches and ocean habitats, pollution, diseases, and climate change. However, the global population has increased by roughly 28% since the 1970s, following decades of conservation efforts. This is largely thanks to legal protections against international trade and direct hunting, and conservation measures including those that protect nesting beaches and the use of turtle excluder devices to keep them from getting entangled in fishing gear. The latest assessment, however, cautions that while populations have increased as a whole worldwide, regional assessments show that several subpopulations are still threatened or declining. For example, subpopulations in the North Indian Ocean are classified as vulnerable, while those in Central South Pacific are listed as endangered. Subpopulations in the North Atlantic are listed as least concern, but are showing signs of decline. “In the North Atlantic, although nesting numbers are still higher than when scientific monitoring and active conservation began, the overall decline is principally…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The green turtle, found across the world’s oceans, is recovering after decades of decline, according to the latest IUCN Red List assessment. The species has been reclassified from endangered to least concern. “I am delighted,” Brendan Godley, a turtle expert from the University of Exeter, U.K., told Mongabay. “It underlines that marine conservation can work, […] authors: | ||
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Nepal seeks World Bank loan to fight air pollution despite hefty taxes to do so 17 Oct 2025 04:50:31 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/nepal-seeks-world-bank-loan-to-fight-air-pollution-despite-hefty-taxes-to-do-so/ author: Abhaya Raj Joshi dc:creator: Abhaya Raj Joshi content:encoded: KATHMANDU — Nepal’s government is negotiating terms for millions of dollars in loans and grants from the World Bank to fund a project to fight air pollution, even though it has already raised billions of rupees (millions of dollars) by taxing fossil fuel over the past 16 years. The proposed 20.8 billion rupee ($147.9 million) Nepal Clean Air and Prosperity Projectaims to help industries reduce emissions, strengthen air pollution control mechanisms, build government capacity and improve emergency response, according to project documents published on the World Bank’s website. “With regard to the loan size, the amount is being finalized with the government based on the cost of the detailed project activities,” said Akash Babu Shrestha, a spokesperson for the World Bank in Nepal. He added that the project will be financed partially through a loan from the International Development Association, the bank’s arm that assists low-income countries, and partially through grant assistance. These fresh loan negotiations come despite repeated reminders from Nepal’s Office of the Auditor General and several court directives that funds collected under the pollution tax should be used specifically for pollution control rather than being absorbed into the central treasury. Buses pass through an under-construction highway in Nepal. Image by Abhaya Raj Joshi. According to the Ministry of Forests and Environment, the government has collected a total of 22.4 billion rupees (around $160 million) in pollution control fees between fiscal year 2008 and 2009 and 2023 and 2024. The government began levying a 0.5 rupee per liter…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Nepal is negotiating $155 million in loans and grants from the World Bank for the Nepal Clean Air and Prosperity Project to reduce industrial emissions, strengthen pollution control and build government capacity. - The government collected roughly 22.4 billion rupees ($160 million) in pollution control taxes since 2008-09, including 2.8 billion rupees ($20 million) in the most recent fiscal year. - Auditors, lawmakers and courts have questioned transparency and directed that pollution tax funds be used specifically for pollution control. - Air pollution remains a major public health risk, especially in Kathmandu Valley and the Terai, with little improvement over the last decade. Officials emphasize the urgency of action and say World Bank funding provides an opportunity to strengthen Nepal’s pollution control efforts despite existing tax revenues. authors: | ||
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Chief Kokoi, defender of the Rupununi, died on October 12th 17 Oct 2025 03:57:57 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/chief-kokoi-defender-of-the-rupununi-died-on-october-12th/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: He was born where the forest gives way to the savanna, in the South Rupununi of Guyana, among horses, rivers, and the songs of the Wapichan people. From that landscape, Tony Rodney James—known to many as Chief Kokoi—drew the convictions that would guide his life: that land is not a commodity, that language carries memory, and that leadership means service. When he died at his home in Aishalton Village on October 12th, his community lost a defender of Indigenous rights and a voice that, for half a century, spoke with clarity and defiance for Guyana’s first peoples. James’s childhood was steeped in both tradition and transition. His father was Wapichan, his mother Lokono (Arawak), and he moved between their worlds—one foot in the savannah, the other in the colonial classroom. He left school early, more interested in riding horses than reciting lessons, and tried the priesthood before realizing his true calling was closer to the ground. He joined politics briefly in the 1970s, working as a district coordinator under President Forbes Burnham, but soon quit, disillusioned. “Politicians are polished liars,” he said in a 2021 Stabroek News profile. “I could not lie to the people all the time.” Instead, he turned to the slower, more demanding work of community leadership. In 1982 he was elected toshāo—village chief—of Aishalton, a position he would hold for six terms. He was, by all accounts, a listener first and a speaker second, a man who carried the authority of patience. Under his leadership, Aishalton became a model…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Tony Rodney James, known as Chief Kokoi, was a Wapichan leader from Guyana’s South Rupununi who devoted his life to defending Indigenous rights, culture, and ancestral lands. - After leaving politics in the 1970s, he became toshāo (village chief) of Aishalton for six terms and helped establish the Region Nine Toshaos Council, which united Indigenous communities across the Rupununi. - As president and vice president of the Amerindian Peoples Association, he fought for legal recognition of Indigenous territories and opposed gold mining at Marudi Mountain, despite facing death threats for his stance. - Decorated with the Golden Arrow of Achievement, he remained a mentor to younger toshaos until his death on October 12th 2025; in Aishalton, he is remembered as a guardian of the land whose spirit still walks the savannas. authors: | ||
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Indonesia retiree rewilds world’s largest volcano lake as church demands plantation closures 17 Oct 2025 03:54:06 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indonesia-retiree-rewilds-worlds-largest-volcano-lake-as-church-demands-plantation-closures/ author: Nandithachandraprakash dc:creator: Sri Wahyuni content:encoded: SAMOSIR, Indonesia — On retirement from public life, Wilmar Eliaser Simandjorang found a quiet place on a hillside overlooking Lake Toba, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, to write about this landscape sacred to the region’s Batak people. “If we don’t pay attention to this, Lake Toba will be just a memory,” Wilmar told Mongabay Indonesia at his home near the lake, the site of a volcanic eruption 74,000 years ago that plunged the world into global winter and famine. More recently, North Sumatra province’s environment department has warned of a burgeoning pollution problem from the waste dumped into Toba, the largest volcanic lake in the world. Many here in this subdued lakeside region today, which is home to Sumatra’s ethnic Batak people (and the center of seven districts in North Sumatra province), say a complex array of changes taking place around the Toba landscape are reaching a tipping point. “The forest is being cut down, both legally and illegally — biodiversity is being burned,” Wilmar said. “Rainwater is just running off; it carries ash, trash and pesticides into the lake.” A study of 60 water samples published in the journal Advances in Oceanography and Limnology in 2024 confirms worrying local testimony. The research, conducted in 2020-2021 by scientists from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, Indonesia’s premier forestry university, indicated intensive ecological distress. Researchers revealed nitrogen levels greater than the safe threshold set by Indonesia’s environment ministry, threatening both fish and water quality. Civil society organizations, church groups and community…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In 2005, career civil servant Wilmar Eliaser Simandjorang became the first district leader of Samosir, home to Lake Toba, the largest lake in Indonesia and largest volcanic lake in the world. - After retiring, Wilmar devoted his time to building grassroots networks to rewild parts of Lake Toba, while advocating for greater environmental protection in the Sumatran upland. - In 2013, Wilmar declined to accept the Wana Lestari prize awarded by Indonesia’s government, citing what he saw as shortcomings in government initiatives to manage the land. - This year, the largest Batak church, the Batak Protestant Christian Church (HKBP), made a public call for the region’s largest plantation company, PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL), to be shut down. authors: | ||
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New cluster of Tapanuli orangutans discovered in Sumatra peat swamp 17 Oct 2025 02:05:35 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/tapanuli-orangutan-sumatra-endangered-ape-conservation-forest-indonesia/ author: Basten Gokkon dc:creator: Junaidi Hanafiah content:encoded: CENTRAL TAPANULI, Indonesia — Since it was first described by scientists in 2017, the Tapanuli orangutan, one of the world’s rarest great apes, was believed to live only in the Batang Toru forest of Indonesia’s North Sumatra province. But new findings reveal that the species (Pongo tapanuliensis) also inhabits a peat swamp forest some 32 kilometers (20 miles) away, adding a new layer to the understanding of its range. On Sept. 26, 2025, a field team from the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Foundation–Orangutan Information Centre (YOSL-OIC), accompanied by Mongabay Indonesia journalist Junaidi Hanafiah, documented a mother and infant orangutan in the secondary forest of Lumut Maju village in Central Tapanuli district. The observation followed hours of trekking through thick vegetation, and the sighting became the first confirmed record of Tapanuli orangutans in this area, which borders the Indian Ocean. The location first drew attention in 2022, when local residents reported orangutan sightings to YOSL-OIC’s Human-Orangutan Conflict Response Unit (HOCRU). Initial verification found no apes, but did reveal five nests. Later that year, HOCRU and the YOSL-OIC research team returned for further monitoring across the 1,234-hectare (3,049-acre) peat swamp. They found 17 nests, several newly constructed, indicating active use of the forest by orangutans. “We found new nests that we categorized as class one nests, which we can confirm to have orangutans,” Rio Ardi, the research manager at YOSL-OIC, told Mongabay. A previously unknown home of Tapanuli orangutans has been discovered in a peat swamp forest in North Sumatra. Image by Junaidi…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Researchers have confirmed that the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan, previously thought to live only in Sumatra’s Batang Toru forest, also inhabits a peat swamp forest 32 kilometers (20 miles) away in the Lumut Maju village forest. - DNA analysis of fecal samples verified the Lumut Maju apes as Tapanuli orangutans, marking the first confirmed record of the species outside Batang Toru. - The discovery highlights the conservation value of nonprotected peat swamps, which are rapidly being cleared for oil palm plantations, threatening the orangutans’ survival. - Conservationists warn that the isolated Lumut Maju population, likely fewer than 100 individuals, may not be viable long term unless habitat protection or relocation strategies are implemented. authors: | ||
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Vast freshwater reserves found beneath Atlantic seafloor 16 Oct 2025 20:30:59 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/vast-freshwater-reserves-found-beneath-atlantic-seafloor/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Bobby Bascomb content:encoded: Scientists recently discovered vast freshwater reservoirs beneath the Atlantic seafloor, stretching off the U.S. East Coast from the states of New Jersey to Maine. The find was “a beautiful scientific accident,” Brandon Dugan, a professor of geophysics at the Colorado School of Mines, U.S., and co-chief scientist on the expedition, told Mongabay in a video call. Dugan said his curiosity about freshwater beneath the ocean floor was piqued in the 1990s while doing a literature review for his Ph.D. research. “I found these interesting papers that said, ‘Hey, when we’re out looking for oil and gas, we didn’t find oil and gas, but we found water where water shouldn’t be.’” Around the same time, other researchers found freshwater at unexpected depths on the East Coast island of Nantucket. So, Dugan and colleagues used computer models to simulate how far freshwater might extend beneath the ocean floor. Earlier this year, Dugan joined more than 40 researchers from a dozen countries for a two-and-a-half-month expedition off the U.S. East Coast. Drilling at three distances from the shore, they found freshwater at each site. Seawater has a salinity close to 35 parts per thousand (ppt), or 35 grams per liter of water, but freshwater at the site nearest the shore at 30 kilometers (20 miles) had salinity of less than 1 ppt. Salinity increased with distance from the shore but remained much lower than that of seawater. The team is analyzing the chemistry of the water samples to determine their origin and age, but preliminary…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Scientists recently discovered vast freshwater reservoirs beneath the Atlantic seafloor, stretching off the U.S. East Coast from the states of New Jersey to Maine. The find was “a beautiful scientific accident,” Brandon Dugan, a professor of geophysics at the Colorado School of Mines, U.S., and co-chief scientist on the expedition, told Mongabay in a video […] authors: | ||
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As wolves roam California, livestock losses remain low, yet ranchers’ fears grow 16 Oct 2025 20:17:17 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/as-wolves-roam-california-livestock-losses-remain-low-yet-ranchers-fears-grow/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Spoorthy Raman content:encoded: This is the second part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read the first part here. In May 2025, five counties in northern California — mostly rural farm and ranch land — declared an unprecedented state of emergency. It wasn’t a natural disaster or civil unrest that led to panic, but rather a bunch of thriving canids — wolves, to be precise. They’d killed livestock, and according to some residents, were exhibiting “bold, abnormal behavior” and “coming too close to homes.” Between October and December 2024, wolves killed 19 cattle in an area home to more than 300,000 cows, but the wolves are, in reality, returning to what was once their own homes. Gray wolves (Canis lupus) roamed the Californian landscape for thousands of years until the last one was shot in the 1920s. But over the last decade, they have started recolonizing their former territories, migrating south from Oregon, and their numbers have begun to rebound with howling success. Today, between 50 and 70 wolves live in 10 packs across the state, with most concentrated in the northeast — around counties that declared a state of emergency. Wolves, like all big carnivores, can go after livestock, but they prefer wild prey, particularly elk and deer, said Amaroq Weiss, senior wolf advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, who has spent more than three decades studying wolves across the United States. “That’s what they evolved to eat for millions of years.” Studies show wolves prefer prey…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In California, as wolf numbers grow — a remarkable return after a century — livestock producers are increasingly worried as these predators occasionally take down cattle. - Gray wolves are an endangered species, protected under both federal and state laws, complicating the balance between conservation and economic losses, though livestock kills remain low. - California introduced a compensation program that pays ranchers for direct and indirect losses from wolves as a way to mitigate conflicts, but ranchers say this program isn’t scalable with expanding wolf numbers. The livestock industry also receives substantial taxpayer-funded subsidies. - Wolves were extirpated from California a century ago, so ranchers haven’t lived alongside them for generations and are pushing to remove all protections for the species. Conservationists argue coexistence is the only way forward. authors: | ||
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A week after floods, swathes of central Mexico reel from devastation 16 Oct 2025 18:46:37 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/a-week-after-floods-swathes-of-central-mexico-reel-from-devastation/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: POZA RICA, Mexico (AP) — The stench of decay spread for several miles around Poza Rica on Wednesday, one of the areas hardest hit by last week’s torrential rains that flooded central and eastern Mexico. In the center of this oil-producing city near the Gulf of Mexico, a lingering cloud of dust hovered over the main avenue where soldiers worked nonstop. Farther east, near the Cazones River — which overflowed on Friday — several streets still lay under 3 feet (1 meter) of water and mud, topped by another 6 feet (2 meters) of piled-up trash, furniture, and debris. “A week later, this looks horrible — worse. You can’t even cross the street,” lamented Ana Luz Saucedo, who fled with her children when the water came rushing in “like the sea.” Now she fears infection because, in addition to the garbage and mud, there’s a corpse near her house that still hasn’t been collected, she said. “The dead body has already started to rot, and no one has come for him.” The toll of last week’s devastating rains, floods and landslides continues to become more clear as Mexico’s government chugs along on rescue and recovery efforts. As of Wednesday, the government recorded 66 deaths, while the number of missing people climbed to 75. Nearly 200 communities remain cut off — most of them in the central mountainous region of Hidalgo, where helicopters have struggled to reach them because of constant cloud cover. Authorities have attributed the disaster to the convergence of several weather systems…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: POZA RICA, Mexico (AP) — The stench of decay spread for several miles around Poza Rica on Wednesday, one of the areas hardest hit by last week’s torrential rains that flooded central and eastern Mexico. In the center of this oil-producing city near the Gulf of Mexico, a lingering cloud of dust hovered over the main avenue […] authors: | ||
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Indonesia falls short in bid to increase its share of southern bluefin tuna catch 16 Oct 2025 16:13:58 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indonesia-falls-short-in-bid-to-increase-its-share-of-southern-bluefin-tuna-catch/ author: Morgan Erickson-Davis dc:creator: Edward Carver content:encoded: Australia and Japan dominate fishing of southern bluefin tuna, but Indonesia is pushing for a larger share of the global catch. However, its request was not officially acted on at a meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), the multilateral body that manages the stock, which Indonesia hosted from Oct. 6-9 on the island of Bali. CCSBT members instead kept each nation’s share unchanged. Indonesia expressed disappointment in the result, having argued that the allotment system is inequitable and unfair to developing countries. “Indonesia views that the current allocation system has not paid due regard to the principles of equity and fairness in international law, which the preamble of the CCSBT Convention emphasizes,” Sakti Wahyu Trenggono, Indonesia’s fisheries minister, said in a statement at the meeting, according to the meeting’s official report viewed by Mongabay. Indonesia’s fleet has been cited for compliance-related issues — not following the fishery’s rules — which other parties raised as an issue in the discussion over the country’s share. While much attention at the meeting was on Indonesia’s request, the parties also dealt with other matters. They kept the total allowable catch (TAC) for all parties the same for 2026 as 2025, and they agreed to once again fully fund a key stock monitoring program. They also set up a future meeting for discussion of seabird protection in the fishery. There are more than a dozen regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) in the world, with some overlapping geographically but managing…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), a multilateral body that manages the stock of southern bluefin tuna, held its annual meeting Oct. 6-9 in Bali, Indonesia. - Indonesia pushed for a larger share of the global catch, which is currently dominated by Australia and Japan, but CCSBT members instead kept each nation’s share unchanged. - Members also agreed to once again fully fund a key stock monitoring program, and to set up a future meeting for discussion of seabird protection in the fishery, amid criticism from conservationists that the commission hasn’t done enough to protect seabirds. authors: | ||
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Indigenous monitoring project helps protect isolated peoples in Colombia’s Amazon 16 Oct 2025 15:23:43 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-monitoring-project-helps-protect-isolated-peoples-in-colombias-amazon/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Pilar Puentes content:encoded: In Colombia’s Amazon, two communities have worked for more than a decade to guard their territory and to protect the right of other Indigenous peoples to remain isolated. The community of Manacaro and the Curare-Los Ingleses Indigenous Reserve, located in the lower Caquetá River region, were fundamental in the federal government’s decision to formally recognize the existence of two voluntarily isolated peoples in Colombia: the Yuri and the Passé. Since the late 1800s, there have been reports of at least 18 Indigenous communities that have chosen not to have contact with the outside world, or who — after colonization, the rubber boom and the trafficking of Amazonian animal skins — decided to flee and remain isolated. However, it wasn’t until October 2024, 15 years after the first hints of isolated peoples (some footsteps and scattered seeds on the ground), that the Ministry of the Interior issued a resolution confirming the presence of two of those 18 communities. That resolution would never have been possible without the monitoring work of these communities’ Indigenous neighbors. The territory inhabited by the Indigenous communities living in voluntary isolation is surrounded by threats that put their way of life at risk: missionaries who try to contact them, armed actors, drug trafficking and the advance of illegal mining. The Ombudsman has issued several alerts about these risks. The most recent ones, in February 2025, are the new territorial disputes between former commanders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC in Spanish) who did not agree…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Indigenous communities neighboring the peoples living in isolation in Colombian Amazon have spent more than a decade helping the latter remain separate from the outside world. - Members of the Curare-Los Ingleses Indigenous Reserve and of the community of Manacaro use traditional knowledge and technology alike to monitor threats to their territory and to protect nearby communities living in isolation. - In Manacaro, women take on traditionally masculine roles by patrolling the rivers, collecting data, and safeguarding their neighbors’ lives amid the advance of armed actors and illegal mining. - Surveillance work has provided evidence of uncontacted peoples, such as the Yuri and Passé ethnic groups, which was fundamental in the federal government’s decision to formally recognize them. authors: | ||
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State-NGO collaboration expands protection for Patagonia’s biodiversity hotspot 16 Oct 2025 15:15:53 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/state-ngo-collaboration-expands-protection-for-patagonias-biodiversity-hotspot/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Mark Hillsdon content:encoded: In the southern Argentinian province of Chubut, in the pristine region of Patagonia Azul, arid grasslands give way to steep cliffs, rocky beaches and dense kelp forests, creating a rich and biodiverse habitat, with humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) and sei (Balaenoptera borealis) whales as well as South American sea lions (Otaria flavescens) among the megafauna that visit the area for food and breeding. The region is also home to around 40% of the world’s population of Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus), along with more than 50 species of seabirds, including southern giant petrels (Macronectes giganteus) and imperial cormorants (Leucocarbo atriceps). The area is now receiving important extra legal protection following the creation of the Patagonia Azul Provincial Park by the Chubut provincial government, using land donated by Rewilding Argentina, a conservation-focused NGO. The park covers almost 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres); about 87% of the area is marine habitat, all of which has been designated a no-take zone, helping to address local impacts of industrial fishing and bottom trawling. The park also includes more than 60 islands, important macroalgae forests and rocky intertidal zones that provide a haven for fish and marine invertebrates to develop, while its formation also bolsters existing efforts to protect the area. Patagonia Azul Provincial Park. Credit: Rewilding Argentina. In 2013, the national government established the Southern Patagonia Interjurisdictional Coastal Marine Park, to protect the region’s marine ecosystems and wildlife, and in 2015, UNESCO designated the Patagonia Azul UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Covering more than 3.1 million hectares (7.6 million acres),…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A new provincial park in the province of Chubut aims to conserve one of Argentina’s most biodiverse stretches of coastline. - The park is based on a conservation model that involves an NGO buying up private land and then donating it back to the provincial government in return for new legal protections. - The park will complement existing legislation and the area’s existing status as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. - Sustainable, low-impact tourism and a no-take fishing zone, which will support the local shrimp industry, are both set to give the region an economic boost. authors: | ||
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Legal actions to protect the Amazon produce mixed results across the region 16 Oct 2025 12:00:37 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/legal-actions-to-protect-the-amazon-produce-mixed-results-across-the-region/ author: Mayra dc:creator: Timothy J. Killeen content:encoded: Some legal systems have a civil procedure that empowers a group of people to join forces to create a temporary entity (class), which they use to seek judicial redress from another entity, typically a corporation, for harm caused by an incident, product or service. Known as a ‘class action suit’, this type of litigation was pioneered in the United States during the twentieth century to address various forms of corporate misconduct and gross negligence. For example, they played a key role in forcing the energy companies to improve their operating procedures and to compensate individuals for damage caused by oil spills and toxic waste dumps. Considering the legacy of the extractive industries in the Pan Amazon, class action suits represent a potential strategy for financing the remediation of the environmental calamities that have accumulated over the past five decades. All Pan Amazonian countries have incorporated aspects of this judicial concept into their civil codes; however, it has been deployed with mixed results, partly because of the region’s weak judicial governance. A sign hung on the offices of the Union of People Affected by Texaco in Ecuador, reminding of the damage caused by the oil company. Photo: Union of People Affected by Chevron Oil Company (Udapt). In one of the highest-profile cases, inhabitants of Ecuador’s Sucumbíos Province sued Texaco, later acquired by Chevron, for compensation for harm caused by practices that polluted the region’s soil and water between 1965 and 1992. In a complicated series of judicial rulings across several jurisdictions,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Amazon countries employ various civil procedures that empower people to seek legal redress for damage to the environment and its associated consequences. - Several cases from Ecuador, Peru and Brazil, have set international legal precedents for punishing negligence by both extractive companies and the state. - Civil lawsuits are not an effective approach when in the case of informal economies, which require more drastic mitigation measures. authors: | ||
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Drone surveys offer early warnings on whale health and survival 16 Oct 2025 11:09:59 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/drone-surveys-offer-early-warnings-on-whale-health-and-survival/ author: Abhishyantkidangoor dc:creator: Abhishyant Kidangoor content:encoded: How are whale populations faring? Traditionally, getting an answer to that question involved counting whales by taking their photos and identifying them from their natural markings. However, a caveat persisted. Whales live a long time and reproduce very slowly. That means it often takes “a long time to learn about changes in the population as well as their health,” John Durban, senior scientist at the Andrew Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium, told Mongabay in a video interview. Now, Durban and his team are deploying drones and photogrammetry to complement their existing work and determine how whale health is being impacted by climate change. They measure the size and shape of whales from high-resolution aerial photos captured by drones. Using this data, they’ve been able to make a link between environmental factors and the animals’ health, giving them a clearer picture of how whale populations are faring and fluctuating. “We have been looking at the individual health of whales as a kind of early-warning system before they die or start having reproductive issues,” Durban said. “That gives us a lot more power to assess the impact of things like climate change.” For their research, the team focused on two species of whales in two different ocean basins: North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) that live off the coast of New England in the northeastern U.S., and orcas (Orcinus orca) in Alaska. For the former, the team ventures out into Cape Cod Bay in March and April…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Scientists have deployed drones and are using photogrammetry to determine how climate change is impacting the health of whale populations. - By collecting the measurements of whales, scientists are able to track how environmental factors impact the growth and reproduction of right whales off the coast of New England and orcas in Alaska. - Using the data, they found that a marine heat wave in 2013 reversed the revival of the population in Alaska that had plummeted after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989; they also noticed that the whales didn’t grow as much as they should have. - The method also enabled scientists to detect pregnant whales well in advance, allowing them to monitor if the pregnancy was successful or not. authors: | ||
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Benin puts solar power at the heart of its energy policy 16 Oct 2025 11:03:25 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/benin-puts-solar-power-at-the-heart-of-its-energy-policy/ author: Christophe Assogba dc:creator: Didier Hubert Madafimè content:encoded: The government of Benin is focusing on building solar power plants as part of a policy to make renewable energy the main source of the country’s energy supply by 2030. When it met in July, the Council of Ministers approved an updated National Renewable Energy Development Policy (PONADER) for 2020-2030. The policy renews the government’s commitment to solar energy to reduce the country’s economic dependence on fossil fuels, while also broadening access to electricity and helping Benin meet its sustainable development goals and climate commitments it made at the 2015 Paris climate conference. At present, Benin’s domestic power generation capacity comes principally from thermal sources (69%) — which includes natural gas, coal and oil — with hydroelectricity (16%) and solar energy (15%) making up the rest. However, the country is overwhelmingly reliant on imported power. In 2022, Benin imported nearly 95% of the electricity it used. A solar power plant under construction in Bohicon, Benin, financed by the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). Image by Hyacinthe Goueti via Didier Hubert Madafimè. Photovoltaic energy in Benin Expanding access to electricity is a priority for Benin’s government. As of 2024, electricity access in urban areas of Benin stood at 42.6%, with rural areas trailing far behind at just 13%, according to Krystel Dossou, an independent consultant specializing in climate change vulnerability and adaptation. In 2018-2019, through the Benin Rural Electrification Project (PERU), the government built solar mini-grids with capacities of 30-40 kilowatt-hours and installed solar kits in several localities in Couffo and Plateau…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Benin’s government has reaffirmed its intention to make renewable energy the main source of the country’s power supply by 2030. - Access to electricity in Benin remains both low and highly uneven: Around 42% of urban households are connected, with less than 13% in rural areas. - With financial and technical support from a variety of sources, Benin previously built several solar power plants and installed dozens of mini-grids; solar power currently contributes around 15% of domestic production. - Benin is dependent on imported power for 95% of its electricity needs, but is placing resilient renewable energy at the center of its strategy to increase and expand its domestic generating capacity. authors: | ||
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20 animal species on the road to recovery: IUCN Red List update 16 Oct 2025 10:31:44 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/20-animal-species-on-the-road-to-recovery-iucn-red-list-update/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Shreya Dasgupta content:encoded: From three species of Arctic seals to more than half of all birds globally, several animals have slipped closer to extinction, according to the latest update of the IUCN Red List. However, 20 species have seen a positive change in their status: they’ve moved farther away from the threat of extinction, thanks to effective conservation measures or reduced threats. The 20 downlisted species include 12 birds: the Rodrigues warbler (Acrocephalus rodericanus), Rodrigues fody (Foudia flavicans), olive-sided flycatcher (Contopus cooperi), rustic bunting (Emberiza rustica), Lidth’s jay (Garrulus lidthi), Guadalupe junco (Junco insularis), Okinawa robin (Larvivora namiyei), Alexandrine parakeet (Palaeornis eupatria), black-faced spoonbill (Platalea minor), blue-winged macaw (Primolius maracana), Amami woodcock (Scolopax mira) and redwing (Turdus iliacus). The Rodrigues warbler and fody, for example, are the last two remaining endemic bird species left on Rodrigues, a volcanic island that’s part of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. The island was once home to 12 endemic birds found nowhere else on Earth. Most of those birds have since gone extinct, and both the Rodrigues warbler and fody were headed the same way. In 1968, scientists estimated just five to six pairs of fodies remained, and only eight to nine pairs of warblers in 1979, according to BirdLife International. Conservation efforts by BirdLife’s local partner, the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF), helped restore the birds’ native forest habitat on the island. There are now roughly 20,000 Rodrigues fodies and around 25,000 warblers on the island. Both species are listed as least concern in the latest IUCN…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: From three species of Arctic seals to more than half of all birds globally, several animals have slipped closer to extinction, according to the latest update of the IUCN Red List. However, 20 species have seen a positive change in their status: they’ve moved farther away from the threat of extinction, thanks to effective conservation […] authors: | ||
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Bangladesh plans to rehabilitate captive elephants in the wild 16 Oct 2025 09:18:10 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/bangladesh-plans-to-rehabilitate-captive-elephants-in-the-wild/ author: Abusiddique dc:creator: Abu Siddique content:encoded: As part of the conservation process for Asian elephants, Bangladesh has taken a new step to retrieve captive elephants from their current owners and rehabilitate them in the wild. According to the Status of Asian Elephants in Bangladesh report, the country has a mean of only 268 resident elephants, with the status of critically endangered, all residing in the southeastern forest areas of Chittagong, Chittagong Hill Tracts and Cox’s Bazar district. Here, “resident” means those living in the country’s forests, and “nonresident” refers to those frequently visiting from neighboring countries, India and Myanmar. Apart from these, 96 elephants remain in the country in captivity with different owners. Of them, 14 are owned by various government entities, including zoos and safari parks, while the remaining 82 elephants are kept by several private owners. Historically, elephants in Bangladesh have been used for a variety of purposes, including amusement and carrying timbers and goods. Since the use of captive elephants in circuses and as a means of carrying goods is now obsolete due to the availability of machine-driven vehicles, most private owners are using elephants to collect illegal tolls in various localities, including busy market areas. In recent times, the country has seen some incidents of such activities in which at least one elephant has died from heatstroke while working in extreme heat. In 2024, the High Court issued a directive to stop illegal activities involving the use of wild species and cruelty toward them. An elephant walks through a street amid traffic…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Bangladesh is one of the Asian elephant’s habitats, with a presence of 268 giant mammals in its wild; the IUCN declared the species critically endangered in Bangladesh, with the animals living in the southeastern hilly forests and the northeastern part of the country. - Data show that apart from populations in the wild, the country is home to 96 elephants living in captivity for different purposes, including for hauling logs and circuses. - The government planned to withdraw captive elephants from their current owners and rehabilitate them in the wild and therefore took a project in this regard. authors: | ||
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Nickel mining threatens Raja Ampat ecosystems, communities & conservation: Report 16 Oct 2025 01:43:07 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/nickel-mining-threatens-raja-ampat-ecosystems-communities-conservation-report/ author: Basten Gokkon dc:creator: Basten Gokkon content:encoded: JAKARTA — In a new report, marine activists are demanding restoration efforts from nickel miners and the Indonesian government for affected areas of Raja Ampat while also urging authorities to enforce the ban on mineral extraction in coastal and small island regions. The recently published paper combines geospatial analysis with field evidence to reveal mounting ecological risks from expanding nickel mining in Raja Ampat, known as the “Crown Jewel of Marine Biodiversity.” The research maps how concessions overlap with vital coral reefs, forests and community territories within the UNESCO Global Geopark. The findings point to growing pressure on both ecosystems and the livelihoods of Indigenous and local people across the archipelago. “Our research shows that nickel mining in Raja Ampat creates a domino effect of destruction, from direct forest clearing to sediment runoff that suffocates coral reefs to the displacement of marine species that local communities depend upon,” Timer Manurung, chair of the environmental organization Auriga Nusantara, which collaborated with mining watchdog Earth Insight in the research, said in a press statement published Sept. 25. Nickel mining on Manuran Island. Image courtesy of Auriga Nusantara. The research, supported by recent field photos, has revealed how more than 22,000 hectares (54,000 acres) of nickel mining concessions continue to threaten the UNESCO Global Geopark in Raja Ampat. Using the latest geospatial analysis, the researchers mapped overlaps between mining concessions and critical ecosystems, showing risks to 2,470 hectares (6,100 acres) of coral reefs and 7,200 hectares (17,800 acres) of forest, as well as…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A new environmental report warns that expanding nickel mining is placing Raja Ampat’s coral reefs, forests and Indigenous communities under intensifying threat. - Using geospatial mapping and field evidence, researchers document how mining concessions overlap with critical ecosystems and biodiversity hotspots within the UNESCO-designated geopark. - They also describe the industry’s deep colonial-era roots, its modern expansion under state and private control and its connections to global electric vehicle supply chains through companies like Tesla, Ford and Volkswagen. - Activists are urging the Indonesian government to revoke all remaining mining permits, enforce no-go zones and shift toward sustainable economic alternatives that protect the archipelago’s ecological and cultural heritage. authors: | ||
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Mamai Lucille Williams, a quiet symbol of dignity amid destruction, has died, aged about 93 16 Oct 2025 00:26:25 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/mamai-lucille-williams-defended-her-land-and-lost-it/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: When the miners came, Mamai Lucille Williams was well into her eighties. Her house in Karisparu, a Patamona village high in Guyana’s North Pakaraimas, stood on the same patch of ground where she had lived since childhood. Around it grew cassava, bananas, and fruit trees she had planted herself, each one a small act of rootedness in a landscape that had changed little over her lifetime. Then, one day in 2018, men with axes arrived—miners, backed by policemen and an officer from the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission. Acting on instructions from distant claim holders, they chopped down her house posts, scattered her belongings, and leveled her farm. Her neighbors watched in disbelief as she was told to leave the land she had lived on for more than seventy years. Such episodes have become grimly familiar across the Amazon, where gold glitters more brightly than the rights of those who have long lived above it. Yet this one struck a deeper chord. “Her fruit trees were cut down, her cassava destroyed,” wrote village leaders in a protest letter. The North Pakaraimas District Council called her eviction “a grave violation of human rights” and demanded that the miner’s permit be revoked. The government promised compensation and a new home. None of that could restore what had been uprooted. In time, “Mamai”—a term of affection and respect—came to personify the ordeal of many Indigenous elders. She became a quiet rallying point in the struggle for land and dignity. Local councils invoked her…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Mamai Lucille Williams, a Patamona elder from Karisparu in Guyana’s North Pakaraimas, was forcibly evicted in 2018 when miners—accompanied by police and a mining officer—destroyed her home and farm to clear land for gold extraction. - Her case, raised by local Indigenous councils, became emblematic of the wider struggle against illegal and unsafe mining that continues to displace Amerindian communities across Guyana and the Amazon. - Despite government promises of compensation, Mamai spent her final years away from her ancestral land, which she had occupied since childhood, symbolizing the precariousness of Indigenous tenure amid extractive expansion. - She died in September 2025, remembered by her community as a “living symbol of courage, resilience, and dignity” and honored for preserving the Patamona language through her contribution to the first Patamona Learning Handbook. authors: | ||
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Warmer climate could slash threatened whitebark pine territory within decades: Study 15 Oct 2025 21:27:34 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/warmer-climate-could-slash-threatened-whitebark-pine-territory-within-decades-study/ author: John Cannon dc:creator: John Cannon content:encoded: Hotter and drier conditions could whittle away 80% of land where whitebark pine grows by the middle of this century, according to a recent study. Scattered across the highest parts of the Rocky Mountains, the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada in the western U.S. and southwestern Canada, the species is a linchpin of alpine ecosystems. But now, “It’s basically just being pushed off the mountain,” said Sean Parks, a research scientist and the paper’s lead author. “There’s nowhere for it to go.” The work was published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. The research also projects that protected areas — places like Yellowstone, Mount Rainier and Yosemite national parks and the designated wilderness around them — will cover three-quarters of the territory best suited for whitebark pine. While such locations could help safeguard existing stands, rules and policies around human interventions in these spots could also snarl restoration efforts. Whitebark pines (Pinus albicaulis) can tower to 18 meters (60 feet) or more, while others carve out a stunted existence known as krummholz — German for “crooked wood” — growing only about hip-high on the harshest, most windswept slopes. Whitebark pine, pictured here in the Mammoth Lakes region of the eastern Sierra Nevada. Image courtesy of D.F. Tomback. Across its range, this pine shades and anchors snowpack, slowing its melt and stabilizing the precious provision of water throughout the summer for plants, animals and people. And the thick-scaled, purple-hued cones the tree produces offer valuable sustenance to wildlife as diverse as…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A study published Sept. 2 in the journal Environmental Research Letters forecasts an 80% reduction in the area with suitable climates for whitebark pine by the mid-21st century. - This long-lived, high-elevation tree plays a critical role in mountain ecosystems in western North America, providing food for wildlife and regulating water supplies. - But a disease-causing fungus has ravaged whitebark and other pine species, compounded by other threats, such as wildfire, mountain pine beetles and climate change. - The research, which identifies areas that will likely be climatically suitable for whitebark pine in the future, could help guide restoration efforts to save the species. authors: | ||
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Feel the heat: New app maps heat stress anywhere on Earth, 1940 to now 15 Oct 2025 21:22:47 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/feel-the-heat-new-app-maps-heat-stress-anywhere-on-earth-1940-to-now/ author: Glenn Scherer dc:creator: Ruth Kamnitzer content:encoded: Wondering how this summer’s blistering heat or last winter’s bone-chilling cold snap compared with previous years? Or want to know how much heat stress climate change is bringing to your area — or in an area you’re planning to move to? There’s an app for that. The new Thermal Trace app allows users to explore how both heat and cold stress are changing around the world. The app combines observed and modeled measurements of ambient temperature, wind speed, humidity and radiation along with a physiological model to come up with a “feels-like” temperature — a measure of thermal stress (which can feel far different than the temperature reading on your thermometer). The data set stretches from 1940 until five days before present and can be visualized as maps, charts and graphs, or downloaded for free. Thermal Trace was developed by the European Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Heat stress around the world on Sept. 17, 2025. The Thermal Trace app allows users to look at temperature, “feels-like” temperature, and thermal stress categories anywhere in the world, from 1940 to five days before present. Image courtesy of Thermal Trace. How hot does ‘hot’ feel? Both heat and cold can be physiologically stressful, creating a sense of discomfort as our bodies strive to maintain a constant body temperature. They can also have profound short- and long-term health impacts, including death. As climate change impacts ramp up, heat waves are increasingly more intense and…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The new Thermal Trace app allows users to explore thermal stress and related data from 1940 until five days before present, for anywhere in the world. The app, free for users, was developed by the European Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). - Thermal Trace combines a range of metrics including ambient temperature, humidity, wind speed and more to come up with a “feels like” temperature that reflects the impact of heat and cold on the human body. - Both heat and cold are physiologically stressful, and prolonged exposure can cause short- and long-term health impacts. Building up a greater awareness and understanding of heat stress and the harm it can do is especially important in our globally warmed world. - Researchers warn that as climate change impacts accelerate, heat-related health impacts will become more serious and of especially grave concern to the parts of the world that reach the limits to human heat stress adaptation. authors: | ||
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Putumayo’s women guardians defend land and culture amid Colombia’s deforestation 15 Oct 2025 20:24:25 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/putumayos-women-guardians-defend-land-and-culture-amid-colombias-deforestation/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Natalia Arbelaez content:encoded: The Sibundoy Valley in Putumayo, southwestern Colombia, is an ancestral territory inhabited by two sister ethnic groups: the Kamëntšá and the Inga, descendants of the Peruvian Incas. It is also the place where at least four rivers originate, including the Putumayo, which later joins the Caquetá before flowing into the Amazon. The valley is situated in a region of the Andes known as Nudo de los Pastos, before it branches into three separate mountain ranges, with peaks measuring up to 3,500 meters (11,400 feet) above the sea level and several páramos (high-altitude Andean ecosystems) surrounding it. Although far from the Amazonian lowlands, it is an essential part of the territory, providing water to the rest of Putumayo. Due to its climate, the Sibundoy Valley does not face the same challenges — such as illicit coca cultivation and armed groups — as the lower Putumayo, but it is threatened by cattle ranching and extensive plantations of beans, corn and lulo, which were established in the territory decades ago. Large-scale infrastructure projects such as the new road between San Francisco and Mocoa municipalities also pose a risk to conservation in the area. The Sibundoy Valley as seen from the mountains. Image by Laura Niño/La Silla Vacía. As part of a special on Indigenous guardians coordinated by Mongabay Latam, Colombia’s independent online news platform La Silla traveled to the Sibundoy Valley to learn about the work of three Indigenous women in the defense of this territory, who embody the efforts of many others.…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In Colombia southwest, Kamëntšá and Inga Indigenous women are at the forefront of the struggle to defend their territory, which provides water to the rest of the Putumayo. Through transmitting their language, cultivating traditional farms, sharing ayahuasca, and traveling the Sibundoy Valley, they keep their knowledge system alive: this is the basis of their defense of the territory. - Although less than 30% of land in the region is suitable for cattle ranching, approximately 8,000 hectares (84%, 19,700 acres) are dedicated to this activity, impacting key ecosystems and water sources. - At least 45 women have organized to resist the advance of monocultures and deforestation. They achieve this through their chagras, traditional growing spaces that contain hundreds of edible and medicinal plant species. - Their knowledge and deep connection with the territory have enabled them to participate in the creation of Indigenous reserves and to oppose large-scale road-building projects on their land. authors: | ||
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Scientists hope underwater fiber-optic cables can help save endangered orcas 15 Oct 2025 19:59:01 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/scientists-hope-underwater-fiber-optic-cables-can-help-save-endangered-orcas/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: SAN JUAN ISLAND, Wash. (AP) — Scientists from the University of Washington recently deployed a little over 1 mile of fiber-optic cable in the Salish Sea to test whether internet cables can monitor endangered orcas. The technology is called Distributed Acoustic Sensing. It transforms cables into continuous underwater microphones that can pinpoint whale locations and track their movements. If successful, the world’s 870,000 miles of existing undersea cables could become a vast ocean monitoring network. It could provide real-time data on how marine mammals respond to vessel noise, food scarcity and climate change. The breakthrough would be particularly valuable as new marine protected areas are established under the High Seas Treaty in January. By Annika Hammerschlag, Associated Press Banner image: An orca swims past a whale watching boat in the San Juan Islands, Wash., Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag) This article was originally published on Mongabay description: SAN JUAN ISLAND, Wash. (AP) — Scientists from the University of Washington recently deployed a little over 1 mile of fiber-optic cable in the Salish Sea to test whether internet cables can monitor endangered orcas. The technology is called Distributed Acoustic Sensing. It transforms cables into continuous underwater microphones that can pinpoint whale locations and […] authors: | ||
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Aloyce Mwakisoma, keeper of forest knowledge in Tanzania’s Udzungwa Mountains, has died at 45 15 Oct 2025 18:51:52 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/aloyce-mwakisoma-keeper-of-forest-knowledge-in-tanzanias-udzungwa-mountains-has-died-at-45/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: He was born in the forests that would later define his life. In Tanzania’s Kilombero Valley, where mist drifts down from the Udzungwa Mountains, young Aloyce Mwakisoma learned the names of plants before he could read their Latin equivalents. His father, once a hunter, became a research assistant after hunting was outlawed in the 1990s, guiding scientists through the forests’ green labyrinth. Aloyce followed, absorbing both the language of science and the older wisdom of his Hehe elders, for whom every plant had a name, a use, and a story. As a boy, he would accompany his father and visiting scientists into the forest, listening as they discussed species and measurements, while memorizing the local names and the ailments each leaf or root could cure. He later became a research assistant himself. Once, while tracking Udzungwa red colobus monkeys for a study, a leopard leapt from the undergrowth and snatched a female colobus only a few meters from where he was resting—a reminder of the wild, unpredictable intimacy of the forest he knew so well. Aloyce Mwakisoma. Photo by Andrea Bianchi Over the years, he became one of the most respected field botanists in the Eastern Arc Mountains, an archipelago of biodiversity stretching across Tanzania. His deep, almost instinctive understanding of forest life made him indispensable to researchers and conservationists. He could distinguish hundreds of species by touch or scent, recalling the medicinal uses and local names that kept their memory alive. Scientists who worked beside him, like Andrea Bianchi,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: He was born in the forests that would later define his life. In Tanzania’s Kilombero Valley, where mist drifts down from the Udzungwa Mountains, young Aloyce Mwakisoma learned the names of plants before he could read their Latin equivalents. His father, once a hunter, became a research assistant after hunting was outlawed in the 1990s, […] authors: | ||
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Microplastics found in the stomachs of Amazon tree-dwelling monkeys 15 Oct 2025 18:49:45 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/microplastics-found-in-the-stomachs-of-amazon-tree-dwelling-monkeys/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: Scientists have detected microplastics in the digestive systems of red howler monkeys living in protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon, marking the first evidence of plastic ingestion by a tree-dwelling primate, according to a recent study. The researchers evaluated 47 Juruá red howler monkeys (Alouatta juara) and found green-colored microplastic filaments, smaller than 5 millimeters (0.2 inches), in the stomachs of two individuals. The monkeys, called guaribas or bugios locally, lived in the Mamirauá and Amanã sustainable development reserves in Amazonas state in northwestern Brazil. “The frequency was low. We found [plastic] in only two monkeys. Still, that’s already a lot. I would have preferred to find none,” lead author Anamélia de Souza Jesus, a researcher at the government-funded Mamirauá Institute, in Tefé in Amazonas state, told Mongabay by phone. “Finding microplastics in preserved environments sounds an alarm. It shows that plastic pollution is reaching places we assumed were protected.” No animals were killed or harmed for the study. Rather, the researchers relied on remains of monkeys donated by subsistence hunters through a two-decade partnership between local communities. This allowed the scientists to study organs that would otherwise have been discarded. The team collected intact, sealed stomachs from the monkeys and analyzed them in a controlled laboratory environment. The two monkeys that ingested the plastic filaments, visible only when examined under a microscope, were hunted in 2015. Plastic fiber filaments were found in the stomachs of two Juruá red howler monkeys. Image courtesy of Jesus et al. (2025). Red howler…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Scientists have detected microplastics in the digestive systems of red howler monkeys living in protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon, marking the first evidence of plastic ingestion by a tree-dwelling primate, according to a recent study. The researchers evaluated 47 Juruá red howler monkeys (Alouatta juara) and found green-colored microplastic filaments, smaller than 5 millimeters […] authors: | ||
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‘Alarming’ levels of toxins found in free-range eggs near dumpsites globally 15 Oct 2025 14:20:04 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/alarming-levels-of-toxins-found-in-free-range-eggs-near-dumpsites-globally/ author: Glenn Scherer dc:creator: Sean Mowbray content:encoded: A recent study has found “alarming” levels of toxic chemicals in free-range eggs around the globe. The finding is based on more than a decade of analyses of eggs on five continents, which detected free-range eggs contaminated with globally banned flame retardants, and particularly brominated dioxins, which are toxic to human health and the environment. E-waste sites, dumpsites and waste incinerators are key sources of these pollutants, with eggs tested in their vicinity found to be severely contaminated by chemicals released when plastic waste is burned. Eggs sampled near an e-waste site in Ghana in 2019, for example, had levels of brominated and chlorinated dioxins 200 times higher than the safety standard for food. Intentional production and use of dioxins has been eliminated or severely restricted worldwide under the U.N. Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). The study, published in the journal Emerging Contaminants, was led by the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), along with the Czech nonprofit Arnika and an international team of scientists. The research was far-reaching, with free-range egg toxicology data gathered in many developing countries, and countries with economies in transition, in Africa, Asia, North and South America and Europe. The findings are extremely concerning, the study authors say, as eggs are an important source of protein in low- and middle-income countries, with the study indicating these toxic chemicals are entering the food chain. “We know from decades of studies that dioxins are some of the most toxic chemicals that we are aware of,” says…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A recent review paper identifies toxic chemicals, including dioxin, in free-range eggs on five continents — likely the result of nearby open burning and incineration of plastic and e-waste containing legacy and banned chemicals, as well as unregulated toxins. - Researchers tested eggs produced near e-waste sites, dumpsites, and waste incinerators and found high levels of globally banned flame retardant chemicals, including brominated dioxins which are toxic and pose a serious risk to human health and the environment. - Experts note that while some brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are regulated and banned, others haven’t been. Critics also note that the chemical industry often replaces individual banned chemicals with other unregulated but still potentially toxic chemicals in the same family, a process known as “regrettable substitutions.” - Experts are calling for stronger regulation to prevent release of known toxins, not by banning one chemical at a time, but by addressing entire classes of chemicals. But a just completed UN Stockholm Convention meeting deferred listing and monitoring brominated and mixed brominated-chlorinated dioxins. authors: | ||
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‘We can have abundant rivers and wildlife’: Director of ‘The American Southwest’ on new film 15 Oct 2025 13:51:06 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/we-can-have-abundant-rivers-and-wildlife-director-of-the-american-southwest-on-new-film/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: John Cannon content:encoded: At its roots, The American Southwest, from Fin and Fur Films, is a natural history documentary. “I’m a wildlife guy,” says director Ben Masters, who founded Fin and Fur in 2012. His infatuation with nature comes through in the film’s exploration of the southwestern United States, traced along the path of the Colorado River from its headwaters in the Never Summer range of the Rocky Mountains to its delta in the Gulf of California. Along the way, we find a watershed teeming with life. In three years of filming, his team captured visually astounding sequences of bull elk (Cervus canadensis) clashing in battle, of beavers (Castor canadensis) toppling trees to tailor their habitat to their needs, and of a nail-biting struggle of a young California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) on a cliff at Navajo Bridge. The filmmakers manage to engage the audience in the stories of each species they spend time with, whether the deadly Mojave rattlesnake (Crotalus scutulatus) in California’s largest desert, Arizona’s life-supporting saguaro cacti (Carnegiea gigantea), or the humble salmonfly (Pteronarcys spp.) linking the aquatic environment with the terrestrial. Beavers build dams on snowmelt streams in the Colorado River Basin. Image courtesy of Fin and Fur Films. This biological vibrancy is a stark contrast to the images the filmmakers have also included of a river that’s worn down by the time it reaches its terminus. As the Colorado flows through Arizona, California and Nevada — three of the seven states it touches, in addition to Mexico — cities,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - “The American Southwest” is a new film that explores the importance of the Colorado River in western North America to people and to wildlife. - Part natural history film, part social documentary, it explores the challenges the Colorado faces as its resources are stretched thin by the demands for cities, energy and agriculture. - Negotiations over the river’s water after a current agreement expires at the end of 2026 offer an opportunity for more equitable sharing that includes the river itself and long-marginalized representation from the Native tribes who live along the river’s length. - The film appeared in theaters beginning Sept. 5 and on streaming platforms Oct. 10. authors: | ||
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Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil must halt Liberian palm oil company’s abuses (commentary) 15 Oct 2025 13:33:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/roundtable-on-sustainable-palm-oil-must-halt-liberian-palm-oil-companys-abuses-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Gaurav Madan content:encoded: In the forests of southeastern Liberia, fear is resounding over what the future may hold. For more than a decade, communities in Sinoe county have struggled against palm oil company Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL), which has razed more than 1,000 hectares (almost 2,500 acres) of rainforest, destroyed sacred sites, and violated local land rights. GVL’s abuses were affirmed by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the industry certification body, and by the High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA), a multistakeholder initiative aimed at protecting forests. Following years of community resistance and a formal complaint, the RSPO issued a stop-work order for GVL to halt plantation expansion. But this past June, the RSPO announced it was lifting the moratorium, raising concerns over the fate of globally significant forests and the communities that live there. Today, Liberian civil society and international allies are urgently demanding that the RSPO reverse its decision and maintain its stop-work order on GVL’s expansion to prevent further deforestation, protect communities’ rights, and ensure accountability for the company’s environmental and human rights violations. Notably, GVL is controlled by Indonesian palm oil giant Golden Agri Resources (GAR), a member of the RSPO, with its own history of alleged illegal forest clearance, corruption and human rights abuses. A Golden Veroleum Liberia oil plantation abuts a forested buffer. Image by Jonathan H. Timperley. For years, the RSPO has faced criticism for providing cover to member companies engaged in abuse. By reversing its decision on GVL — despite research showing the company…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - For more than a decade, communities in Liberia have struggled against palm oil company Golden Veroleum Liberia (GVL), which has razed more than 1,000 hectares (almost 2,500 acres) of rainforest, destroyed sacred sites, and violated their land rights, leading the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) to issue a stop-work order. - Then, in June, the RSPO reversed its ruling, raising concerns over the fate of Liberia’s dense forests and communities, despite the long list of allegations. - “There is of course another path. The RSPO can stand on its stated principles and maintain the stop-work order,” a new op-ed argues. - This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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An invite to the tapir toilet buffet (cartoon) 15 Oct 2025 11:32:15 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/custom-story/2025/10/an-invite-to-the-tapir-toilet-buffet-cartoon/ author: Nandithachandraprakash dc:creator: Rohan Chakravarty content:encoded: The tapir’s role as a keystone species includes seed dispersal, ecosystem engineering, and … feeding the forest with its poop! Tapirs have been found to defecate regularly in shared toilet spaces called “communal latrines”, which become important feeding sites for a myriad species like squirrel, tinamou, thrushes and wood quails. This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The tapir’s role as a keystone species includes seed dispersal, ecosystem engineering, and … feeding the forest with its poop! Tapirs have been found to defecate regularly in shared toilet spaces called “communal latrines”, which become important feeding sites for a myriad species like squirrel, tinamou, thrushes and wood quails. authors: | ||
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Voices from the Land 15 Oct 2025 04:57:09 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2025/10/voices-from-the-land/ author: Rohini Alamgir dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: Indigenous peoples are experiencing firsthand the impacts of the environmental and climate crises on their lands and communities. This commentary series, produced by the collective Passu Creativa with the support of Earth Alliance, is written by Indigenous leaders from around the world, including Goldman Prize winners, political officials, and representatives of grassroots movements. These leaders write from the heart of their communities, seeking to tell their own stories to a global audience. Through these stories, the leaders share their lived realities and reflections on the issues shaping their lives — environmental destruction, humanity’s relationship with nature, and the search for solutions.This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Indigenous peoples are experiencing firsthand the impacts of the environmental and climate crises on their lands and communities. This commentary series, produced by the collective Passu Creativa with the support of Earth Alliance, is written by Indigenous leaders from around the world, including Goldman Prize winners, political officials, and representatives of grassroots movements. These leaders […] authors: | ||
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IUCN upholds long-tailed macaques’ endangered status after complaint 15 Oct 2025 04:50:07 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/iucn-upholds-long-tailed-macaques-endangered-status-after-complaint/ author: Philip Jacobson dc:creator: Gerald Flynn content:encoded: BANGKOK — The long-tailed macaque will remain on the Red List of the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, despite objections from the biomedical industry arguing the designation hampers research that relies on the primate to test vaccines and drugs. The IUCN escalated the conservation status of the species, Macaca fascicularis, from vulnerable to endangered in 2022 after macaques poached from the wild were found to have been laundered into breeding farms in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam supplying laboratories abroad. The National Association for Biomedical Research (NABR), a U.S. lobby group, challenged the listing, but the latest assessment, published Oct. 10, found that wild populations of the macaque had declined by 50-70% over the past three decades. That led the IUCN to reaffirm the species’ endangered listing. “I’m happy to see science prevail, but I’m not happy to see the long-tailed macaques endangered,” Malene Friis Hansen, co-author of the assessment and a leading researcher on the species at Aarhus University in Denmark, told Mongabay by phone. “This is a species of primate that shouldn’t be in this situation — that we’ve pushed such an adaptive synanthrope to this stage should be an eye-opener.” The NABR filed its complaint in 2023, alleging conflicts of interest and scientific errors had influenced the original endangered listing. But last week, the IUCN announced an internal investigation had found no breach of its conflict-of-interest policy. While the IUCN acknowledged that the original assessment contained some “emotive, value-laden language,” it deemed this had no impact on the listing.…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Conservation authority the IUCN has upheld the endangered status of the long-tailed macaque after rejecting the U.S. biomedical lobby’s challenge to downgrade it. - Demand from research labs has fueled illegal “monkey laundering,” with wild-caught macaques funneled through breeding farms in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam and exported as captive-bred animals. - U.S. industry lobbyists have opposed stronger protections to maintain access to macaques for biomedical testing, despite evidence of the widespread illegal trade. - Conservationists warn that poaching, the pet trade and online abuse continue to endanger the species, and call for tougher laws and greater accountability. authors: | ||
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Losing Nemo: In the Red Sea, clownfish vanish as anemones bleach 14 Oct 2025 20:16:33 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/losing-nemo-in-the-red-sea-clownfish-vanish-as-anemones-bleach/ author: Lizkimbrough dc:creator: Liz Kimbrough content:encoded: When Morgan Bennett-Smith descended to a familiar reef in the central Red Sea in September 2023, he expected to find the same tagged anemones and resident clownfish he had been monitoring for months. Instead, he found a ghostly landscape: every anemone had turned white, and most of the bright-orange fish that had been sheltering in protective tentacles just weeks earlier were gone. By the following spring, the reef looked even worse. Of the 168 clownfish Bennett-Smith and his colleagues had counted in December 2022, only seven remained. A juvenile Red Sea Clownfish looks out from a bleaching anemone.When sea temperatures remain high, anemone expel their symbiotic algal partners, which can result in death. Photo courtesy of Morgan Bennett-Smith. A new study, published in npj Biodiversity, documents the effects of a marine heat wave across three reefs in the Red Sea. First, all the anemones bleached. Then, 94-100% of the clownfish disappeared. Finally, 66-94% of the anemones died. The events represent the near-total local collapse of a mutualism that had endured for millions of years. Between 2022 and 2024, researchers tracked 168 Red Sea clownfish (Amphiprion bicinctus) and 143 host magnificent sea anemones (Radianthus magnifica) through a 2023 marine heat wave that peaked at approximately 22 degree heating weeks, a measure of accumulated heat stress. The findings challenge a long-held belief that the Red Sea might be a thermal refuge, or safe haven, from the impacts of climate change. Scientists thought that because Red Sea organisms already live in naturally hot…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A 2023 marine heat wave in the central Red Sea caused 100% of monitored sea anemones to bleach, followed by the death of 94-100% of clownfish and 66-94% of the anemones across three surveyed reefs. - The findings challenge the belief that Red Sea marine life, already adapted to naturally hot water, would be protected from climate change, showing instead that rising temperatures are pushing even these heat-adapted organisms past their survival limits - While six other Indo-Pacific regions experienced similar bleaching events with anemone deaths below 3%, the Red Sea’s 78% mortality rate reveals that 22 degree heating weeks marks a critical breaking point where these ancient partnerships fall apart. - Researchers are calling for more monitoring of anemones worldwide while Saudi Arabia responds with expanded conservation efforts, including the world’s largest coral nursery and experimental probiotics to help reef organisms survive heat stress. authors: | ||
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Voices from the land: As the Andes’ glaciers melt, our values can help (commentary) 14 Oct 2025 20:05:58 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/voices-from-the-land-as-the-andes-glaciers-melt-our-values-can-help-commentary/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Yesid Achicue content:encoded: This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and systemic injustice. We write from the heart of our communities, where the impacts of these urgent crises are deeply felt, but also where solutions are rooted. Through this series, we speak from our territories, and ensure our truths are part of the global conversation. In the Colombian Andes, on the highest points above sea level, I have seen white masses that dazzle and spread life. Up here, I have been able to truly feel the water, smell the pristine air and experience the pulse of the Earth while contemplating the glories of a life cycle where the destiny of the planet seems to rest. It is no wonder that many years ago, when my older brother took me to see the sunrise that broke over braided mountain peaks in changing light, I was able to understand how one of the most amazing creations on Earth began to rise: the Andes mountain range, a serene place that has been part of a perfect balance, where symbiotic bonds are created with all that exists. The Andes, the longest continental mountain range in the world, stretches like a giant snake embracing all of South America. Throughout its immense presence, it winds through various territories and countries, including my own…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The snow-capped mountains in Colombia’s Andes range are rapidly melting due to climate change, says Yesid Achicue, an Indigenous mountain guide for local and international trekkers. - He says this is extremely alarming, considering the role that snow-capped mountains play in various ecosystems and water sources, as well as the cultural and spiritual value nearby Indigenous communities have given them since time immemorial. - “It is, in my opinion, our values, and how these belief systems manifest themselves in our societies and cultures, that help determine whether we can slow or cushion the impacts of these melting glaciers,” Achicue writes in this opinion piece. “Currently, treating the world and life as resources to be plundered is creating the climate crisis, and different values can change it.” - This commentary is part of the Voices from the Land series, a compilation of Indigenous-led opinion pieces focusing on their lived experiences, land stewardship and visions for environmental justice. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay. authors: | ||
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Pioneering policies and rights-of-nature rules win World Future Policy Awards 14 Oct 2025 19:18:11 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2025/10/pioneering-policies-and-rights-of-nature-rules-win-world-future-policy-awards/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Mike DiGirolamo content:encoded: Policies enacted by seven nations and one international agreement have been recognized by the World Future Council for “top policy solutions for [humans], nature and generations to come.” On this edition of Mongabay’s podcast, the council’s CEO, Neshan Gunasekera, shares key highlights of the eight World Future Policy Award laureates. Under the theme of “Living in Harmony with Nature and Future Generations,” the winners for 2025 “bring to light the future orientation of the way we take decisions at [a] time that there are multiple crises facing ourselves as a species, but also the planet,” he says. The winning legal and legislative initiatives span seven nations, from South Africa to Uganda, Panama, Spain, Aotearoa New Zealand, Bhutan and Austria. The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement (BBNJ), which establishes a binding U.N. treaty on the use of ocean resources beyond national borders, was among the initiatives awarded. The movement that granted legal personhood to the Whanganui River in Aotearoa New Zealand was also recognized. Both of these cases were previously the focus of Mongabay Newscast episodes hosted by Rachel Donald. “Nature doesn’t need us, we need nature,” Gunasekera says. “And I think that’s the realization we are coming to quite slowly, because any act that we have has a positive impact on the planet. But also, if you’re not careful, every act could have a negative impact. Impact on nature has no national boundaries or borders. It has a global impact.” Gunasekera stresses that the rights-of-nature movement and subsequent legislation are…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Policies enacted by seven nations and one international agreement have been recognized by the World Future Council for “top policy solutions for [humans], nature and generations to come.” On this edition of Mongabay’s podcast, the council’s CEO, Neshan Gunasekera, shares key highlights of the eight World Future Policy Award laureates. Under the theme of “Living […] authors: | ||
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First assessment of UNESCO sites finds widespread climate impacts 14 Oct 2025 16:36:36 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/first-assessment-of-unesco-sites-finds-widespread-climate-impacts/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Keith Anthony Fabro content:encoded: Nearly all of UNESCO’s more than 2,200 World Heritage Sites, Biosphere Reserves and Geoparks have already endured climate extremes over the past two decades. That’s according to initial data from the first ever global biodiversity and climate assessment unveiled at the UNESCO World Congress of Biosphere Reserves, held in Hangzhou, China, from Sept. 22-26. The initial data were launched at a side event of the congress, ahead of the report’s full release, and underscore the escalating pressures on places that Indigenous peoples and local communities depend on for food, culture and livelihoods. “[UNESCO sites are] among the most important places on the planet. But these sites are under pressure,” said Tales Carvalho Resende, an associate program specialist at UNESCO, who presented the findings and a new monitoring platform, UNESCO Sites Navigator. Indigenous peoples on the frontlines The assessment found that 98% of UNESCO sites have faced at least one climate-related extreme since 2000. If global temperatures rise by just 1° Celsius (1.8° Fahrenheit) by 2050, their exposure to climate extremes could triple. This impacts Indigenous peoples, said sources, as about 20% of UNESCO sites overlap with their lands and territories. Globally, UNESCO sites support around 1.2 billion people — nearly 15% of the world’s population — many of them Indigenous or local communities who rely directly on these lands and waters for sustenance and cultural practices. A Waorani indigenous youth prepares to use his blowpipe in Yasuni National Park in the Upper Napo Valley of the Western Amazon region in…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - UNESCO’s first global biodiversity and climate assessment finds 98% of its 2,200+ sites have faced climate extremes since 2000, with a 1°C (1.8°F) rise by 2050 expected to triple exposure. - Around 20% of sites overlap Indigenous lands, putting communities at the frontline of risks like wildfires, droughts, glacial retreat and biodiversity loss. - Examples of impacts already unfolding include wildfires at UNESCO sites in Brazil and Australia, and shrinking glaciers in sites in Denmark, Tanzania, Argentina and China. - UNESCO launched a live monitoring platform, Sites Navigator, integrating more than 40 datasets with near-real-time alerts to help policymakers, Indigenous communities and investors respond and plan for resilience. authors: | ||
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Local divers pick away at Lake Malawi’s underwater garbage problem 14 Oct 2025 16:07:32 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/local-divers-pick-away-at-lake-malawis-underwater-garbage-problem/ author: Rebecca Kessler dc:creator: Charles Mpaka content:encoded: CAPE MACLEAR, Malawi — On a clear August morning, three scuba divers disappeared under the waters of Lake Malawi. Above them, serenity: The clear water rippled gently, spick-and-span Cape Maclear Beach was empty of tourists and the shoreline trees stood calm. Half an hour later, having covered an area just 30 meters (100 feet) from the beach, the divers emerged, each hauling a bag half-full with garbage. “This is only a fraction of what’s down there, yet we also cleaned the area last week. That’s our challenge,” one of the divers, Felix Sinosi, told Mongabay. He has been a scuba diver on this shoreline for the past eight years and now trains others. “You won’t believe the waste volumes down there. … And I am talking about the Cape Maclear area only,” said Sinosi, age 31. Sinosi and 14 other divers are part of an underwater garbage collection project in Lake Malawi National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the southern end of the lake. The park is known for its radiant cichlids (family Cichlidae), the lake’s prized ornamental fish that have drawn global research interest for their explosive diversity. Local environmentalists say the garbage problem likely extends throughout Lake Malawi, the world’s fourth-largest freshwater lake by volume. Kenneth McKaye, an American marine biologist whose research led to the national park’s establishment in 1980, introduced the underwater garbage collection initiative in 2023 after noticing the problem during dives with tourists. “Visibility was poor,” Violet Zacharia, manager and volunteer coordinator…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Accumulations of trash lie below the tranquil waters of Lake Malawi National Park, a problem local environmentalists say likely extends throughout Lake Malawi, the world’s fourth-largest freshwater lake by volume. - They blame dumping by lake users as well as poor waste handling upland within Malawi and in Mozambique and Tanzania, which share the lake’s shoreline. Malawi does not have public waste recycling facilities and all municipalities dump waste in open landfills where it risks draining into river systems. - Divers with a local nonprofit volunteer collecting lake garbage in return for training and the use of diving equipment to make a living guiding tourists. - Meanwhile, the Malawian government is working with universities to map and eventually clean up garbage hotspots in the lake as it works to strengthen waste management in the country. authors: | ||
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In Indonesia’s Mentawai Islands, youths blend ancestral and world faiths to protect forests 14 Oct 2025 15:53:47 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-indonesias-mentawai-islands-youths-blend-ancestral-and-world-faiths-to-protect-forests/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Keith Anthony Fabro content:encoded: Off the western coast of Sumatra, the Mentawai Islands rise from the Indian Ocean in a patchwork of emerald forests and winding rivers. The canopy shelters endemic macaques and gibbons, hornbills and orchids, while coastal villages still echo with rituals that tie people to the land and sea. Among the younger generation of Indigenous Mentawai, an ancestral belief system known as Arat Sabulungan continues to influence how forests are understood and used. The cosmology teaches that every tree, river and animal is alive with spirits whose balance must be honored. Although the influence of world religions is eroding these beliefs, researchers have found that Indigenous youths are balancing the two. Young islanders who grow up attending church services or mosque prayers still join their elders in ritual clearings, offering chants and tokens before cutting trees or casting fishing nets. “Mentawai youth today reinterpret their ancestral heritage in diverse ways,” researcher Dwi Wahyuni from Imam Bonjol State Islamic University in Padang, on the Sumatran mainland, told Mongabay. This practice remains central to their identity — but it is also under strain. Logging, modernization and shifting values test how faithfully this balance and the traditional beliefs are carried forward. In a recently published study, Dwi and colleagues from Imam Bonjol set out to understand this tension. Conducted in five villages on the Mentawai islands of Siberut and Sipora, the ethnographic work examined how Mentawai youth are blending Arat Sabulungan with Christianity and Islam, and what this means for both culture and conservation.…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In the Mentawai Islands of Indonesia, Indigenous youths continue to practice Arat Sabulungan, a cosmology that sees nature as filled with spirits, while blending it with Islam and Christianity. - Researchers documented 11 rituals linking spirituality to forest management, such as offerings before tree felling and periods of abstinence, showing how traditions are adapted across generations. - Scholars note that rituals can both restrain overuse and legitimize extraction, highlighting the complex role of Indigenous cosmology in shaping human-nature relations under modern pressures. - Ongoing logging, land-use change and weak government support have stripped large tracts of forest from the Mentawais, undermining the islands’ ecosystems and the cultural practices tied to them. authors: | ||
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Five crucial Earth systems near a tipping point: Report 14 Oct 2025 15:38:27 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/five-crucial-earth-systems-near-a-tipping-point-report/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Bobby Bascomb content:encoded: Five of Earth’s vital systems are close to a point of irreversible change, warns a new report released by a global network of scientists ahead of the upcoming U.N. climate change conference in Brazil. The 2025 Global Tipping Points report updates a 2023 report to assess 25 Earth systems that human societies and economies depend on, including the stability of coral reefs, forests and ice sheets. It found at least one system has likely passed a tipping point, while four others are perilously close. The Paris Agreement set a goal of limiting global warming to 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels by 2100. The report notes that Earth has already reached an average increase of 1.4°C (2.5°F) over the past couple decades. Warm water coral reefs reached their tipping point at roughly 1.2°C (nearly 2.2°F). Mike Barrett, chief scientific adviser at WWF-UK and report co-author, told Mongabay by email that the impacts are already visible with repeated coral bleaching events. “The most recent one started in 2023 and has impacted 80% of warm water coral cover.” The report states that four other Earth systems — permafrost, the subpolar gyre and the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets — likely have a tipping point around 1.5°C. “There is 60m [197 feet] sea level rise locked in Antarctic ice sheets alone,” Barrett said. At current temperatures several meters of sea level rise are already inevitable, and additional warming will mean even more. Melting ice sheets reduce salinity for nearby oceans, slowing…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Five of Earth’s vital systems are close to a point of irreversible change, warns a new report released by a global network of scientists ahead of the upcoming U.N. climate change conference in Brazil. The 2025 Global Tipping Points report updates a 2023 report to assess 25 Earth systems that human societies and economies depend […] authors: | ||
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China’s exports of electric vehicles doubled in September as competition at home intensifies 14 Oct 2025 15:35:45 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/chinas-exports-of-electric-vehicles-doubled-in-september-as-competition-at-home-intensifies/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: HONG KONG (AP) — China has reported that its electric vehicle exports doubled in September from a year earlier as its automakers expanded further into overseas markets. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Tuesday that exports of “new energy vehicles,” which include battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, jumped 100% last month to 222,000 units. That was slightly lower than the 224,000 units exported in August. Inside China, overall passenger car sales rose 11.2% year-on-year in September, following a 15.1% rise in August. China’s EV makers have been increasingly looking abroad to markets such as Europe and Southeast Asia as overcapacity and price wars back home have pressured their profit margins. By Chan Ho-Him, Associated Press Banner image: An electric vehicle is plugged into a charger Aug. 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)This article was originally published on Mongabay description: HONG KONG (AP) — China has reported that its electric vehicle exports doubled in September from a year earlier as its automakers expanded further into overseas markets. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Tuesday that exports of “new energy vehicles,” which include battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, jumped 100% last month to 222,000 […] authors: | ||
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Copper rush pushes Vale to ramp up mining near Amazonian protected areas 14 Oct 2025 15:10:08 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/copper-rush-pushes-vale-to-ramp-up-mining-near-amazonian-protected-areas/ author: Alexandre de Santi dc:creator: André Schröder content:encoded: The Carajás mining district in the Brazilian Amazon is home to the world’s largest known reserves of high-grade iron ore, and also holds other major deposits of commercially valuable minerals. Since its discovery in the late 1960s, it has made Brazil a top player in the global mining scene. Today, Carajás hosts large, active mining projects, supported by extensive industrial and logistical infrastructure, operated primarily by mining giant Vale (VALE3). Yet these sites are dotted among a mosaic of conservation areas; some mines are just a few hundred meters away from Campos Ferruginosos National Park, for example. And as is the case with large forest enterprises in Brazil, mining development in Carajás has been accompanied by significant, ongoing socioenvironmental impacts. The opening of mines, construction of dams and expansion of mining infrastructure have contributed to deforestation, ecosystem fragmentation, biodiversity loss, water stress, land conflicts, territorial pressure and disorderly urban growth. Now, amid the global race for critical minerals, Vale has redefined Carajás’s strategic role for the coming years. In February, in the presence of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the company announced a 70 billion reais ($13.1 billion) investment in the Novo Carajás program, with a particular focus on copper production. While the initiative has been praised for its economic benefits, it has also sparked concerns about the severe impacts of new mining operations on local communities and protected areas of the Amazon. The first step was taken in June, when Vale announced it had obtained a preliminary…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Mining giant Vale has obtained a preliminary license for its Bacaba project, the first step toward doubling its copper production in the Brazilian Amazon over the next decade. - Experts warn the expansion, near several conservation areas, will worsen deforestation, increase water stress and raise the risk of pollution. - The global demand for copper is expected to rise by more than 40% by 2040, and almost all of Brazil’s known reserves are in the Amazon. authors: | ||
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Migrating elephants get room to roam via community conservation efforts 14 Oct 2025 14:44:59 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/migrating-elephants-get-room-to-roam-via-community-conservation-efforts/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Hillary Rosner content:encoded: The regularly used airstrip outside the town of Archers Post, in northern Kenya, was closed after being damaged in heavy rains, so my flight landed at an even tinier dirt airstrip on the other side of Samburu National Reserve. From there, the road headed south across community-owned grazing lands to the western gate of the reserve, along the Ewaso Ng’iro River. It was just a week into 2024, and January is normally the start of the dry season, but the rains still hadn’t fully subsided. The reserve, a protected area about the size of Washington, DC—part of a much larger swath of adjacent conservation lands—was a study in green, its plains and hillsides covered in a tangled tumult of vegetation. Almost as soon as we crossed the reserve boundary, we were among elephants, ranging in size from months-old babies to small and spunky adolescents to towering matriarchs and giant bulls. They lumbered about on their baggy-skinned legs and round feet, they snoozed, they roughhoused, they nursed, they waded in the river, they doused themselves with dirt. In the midday heat, they stood in the shade of acacia trees and lazily plucked up wads of greenery with their trunks, then swung it up into their mouths. They were unbothered by the presence of the Land Cruiser I rode in; they wandered right up to the vehicle, some barely more than a trunk’s length away. These were salad days for the Samburu elephants. It had been a long, hard, deadly two years…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Years of elephant movement data reveal distinct routes the animals take to access food and water, but road building and new rail lines, towns, cities and fences are increasingly cutting off their ability to move across the landscape. - In response, conservationists are working with communities across hundreds of miles of northern Kenya to delineate these corridors, so that any future development will protect their pathways, which are also dwindling due to severe erosion of some areas from heavy grazing followed by rain events. - In an excerpt from her new book “ROAM: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World,” author Hillary Rosner discusses these issues and how local communities are partnering with NGOs to ensure the future free movement of these iconic animals. authors: | ||
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Biodiversity loss due to land use change could be highly underestimated: Study 14 Oct 2025 10:00:30 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/biodiversity-loss-due-to-land-use-change-could-be-highly-underestimated-study/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Mark Hillsdon content:encoded: A survey of Colombian birdlife, which evolved over more than a decade into the world’s largest-ever ornithological study, has found that clearing forests to create new pastures is causing as much as 60% more damage to biodiversity than previously thought. Until now, research into the impact on biodiversity of land use change has generally involved small-scale, local surveys. But this approach does not accurately represent the larger-scale damage caused to nature, says study co-author David Edwards, a professor of plant ecology at the University of Cambridge. When forests are converted to pasture, some species win and others lose, he explains, and measuring the biodiversity loss at a local scale does not capture the larger-scale effect of these land clearances, which are occurring across the ranges of many different species. “When people want to understand the wider impact of deforestation on biodiversity, they tend to do a local survey and extrapolate the results,” Edwards tells Mongabay in a phone interview. “But the problem is that tree clearance is occurring at massive spatial scales, across all sorts of different habitats and elevations.” By focusing on isolated sites, researchers were missing how these effects accumulate across regions, he says. Large areas of Tinigua National Natural Park have been razed for illegal livestock ranching. Image by María Jimena Neira Niño. In 2024, Colombia lost 113,608 hectares (about 280,700 acres) of forest, a 43% increase compared with 2023, when deforestation had dropped to its lowest level in more than two decades. But while organized crime,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - New research carried out in Colombia by the University of Cambridge suggests that local surveys assessing the effect of land clearances on biodiversity may be underestimating the impact by as much as 60%. - To fully understand the effects of clearing forests for pastureland, much surveys of a much larger scale are required to reflect the different levels of biodiversity in regions and habitats and their resilience to change. - More accurate species surveys, the authors say, could also support future programs such as biodiversity offsetting schemes as well as influencing farming policies. authors: | ||
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Report finds increased tropical forest regrowth over the last decade 14 Oct 2025 08:29:19 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/report-finds-increased-tropical-forest-regrowth-over-the-last-decade/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: Natural forest regrowth in the world’s tropical rainforests is expanding. According to the Forest Declaration Assessment 2025, more than 11 million hectares (27 million acres) of tropical moist forests are under some stage of forest regrowth between 2015 and 2021. The growth is most notable in the tropical areas of Latin America, where regrowth increased by nearly 750%. In the tropical region of Asia, it was 450%. However, data were missing for most regions. “We’d rather see that regrowth than not, of course. But increased regrowth is not a straightforward piece of good news,” Erin Matson, the assessment’s lead author, told Mongabay by email. “Tropical forests wouldn’t be regrowing if they weren’t cleared in the first place. An increase in regrowth is often correlated to an increase in loss.” The increase of regrowth may simply mirror a spike in deforestation and degradation. Fires have wiped out large areas of tropical forests, which have become more prone to wildfires and drought due to human-caused climate change. The recent report showed that despite a 2021 pledge by 127 countries to reach zero deforestation by 2030, deforestation has not yet slowed, remaining at an average of more than 8 million hectares (20 million acres) a year. Since 1990, an estimated 51 million hectares (126 million acres) of tropical moist forest are regenerating, the assessment notes. More than half, however, are in areas that are under high deforestation pressure. Between 2015 and 2023, roughly 260,000 hectares (642,500 acres) of secondary growth in tropical moist…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Natural forest regrowth in the world’s tropical rainforests is expanding. According to the Forest Declaration Assessment 2025, more than 11 million hectares (27 million acres) of tropical moist forests are under some stage of forest regrowth between 2015 and 2021. The growth is most notable in the tropical areas of Latin America, where regrowth increased […] authors: | ||
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Global goal of zero deforestation by 2030 is severely off track 14 Oct 2025 08:19:19 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/global-goal-of-zero-deforestation-by-2030-is-severely-off-track/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: Global deforestation hasn’t slowed in any significant way in the four years since 127 countries pledged to halt and reverse forest loss and degradation by 2030. The newly published 2025 Forest Declaration Assessment shows that nations are 63% off track from meeting their zero-deforestation target. To be on track for that goal, deforestation was supposed to drop by 10% every year, capping out at 5 million hectares (12.4 million acres) worldwide in 2024. However, roughly 8.1 million hectares (20 million acres) were cleared globally that year, a negligible change from the 2018–2020 baseline of 8.3 million hectares (20.5 million acres), the report found. “Every year, the gap between commitments and reality grows wider,” Erin Matson, the assessment’s lead author and a consultant for Netherlands-based research think tank Climate Focus, said in a statement. “Forests are non-negotiable infrastructure for a livable planet.” Global deforestation has plateaued rather than slowed in the four years since the zero-deforestation pledge. Image courtesy of Forest Declaration Assessment 2025. Global primary forest loss increased in 2024, missing the deforestation target for that year by 190%. Image courtesy of Forest Declaration Assessment 2025. By the end of 2025, the target is for no more than 4.1 million hectares (10.1 million acres), meaning that to get back on track, the global deforestation rate would need to fall by half in a year. Mid-year estimates show that’s unlikely. Data from Brazil’s space institute, INPE, show there were deforestation alerts issued for 209,000 hectares (about 516,500 acres) in the Amazon…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Global deforestation hasn’t slowed in any significant way in the four years since 127 countries pledged to halt and reverse forest loss and degradation by 2030. The newly published 2025 Forest Declaration Assessment shows that nations are 63% off track from meeting their zero-deforestation target. To be on track for that goal, deforestation was supposed […] authors: | ||
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World’s 1,500th known bat species confirmed from Equatorial Guinea 14 Oct 2025 07:24:21 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/worlds-1500th-known-bat-species-confirmed-from-equatorial-guinea/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Shreya Dasgupta content:encoded: From Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea, researchers have described what is officially recognized as the 1,500th bat species known to science, according to a recent study. The newly described bat is a species of pipistrelle, a group of tiny insect-eating bats, and scientists have named it Pipistrellus etula, with etula meaning “island” or “nation” in the language of the Bubi people of Bioko Island. “The recognition of P. etula as the 1,500th bat species is not only a symbolic scientific milestone but also carries deep conservation significance,” lead author Laura Torrent, a Ph.D. candidate at the Natural Sciences Museum of Granollers, Spain, told Mongabay by email. “It reminds us how much biodiversity remains undocumented, particularly in under-surveyed regions like Central Africa.” The story of P. etula goes back to 1989, when bat researcher Javier Juste first captured a few individuals of the bat from the montane forest on the slopes of Biao Peak, a volcano on Bioko. At the time, Juste suspected it was an undescribed species, but confirmation would take decades. During a 2024 expedition, Torrent and her colleagues captured more individuals of what looked like the same bat at Basilé Peak, another volcano on Bioko. The scientists compared the newly caught bats with the older museum specimens and found they had similar physical features. A genetic analysis of both the old and newly caught bats further confirmed they all belong to the same new-to-science species. P. etula belongs to a widespread group of bats called vesper, or evening,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: From Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea, researchers have described what is officially recognized as the 1,500th bat species known to science, according to a recent study. The newly described bat is a species of pipistrelle, a group of tiny insect-eating bats, and scientists have named it Pipistrellus etula, with etula meaning “island” or “nation” in […] authors: | ||
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Protecting Earth’s oldest data system: the case for biodiversity 14 Oct 2025 03:33:12 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/protecting-earths-oldest-data-system-the-case-for-biodiversity/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Long before humans built computers, nature built a better one. Razan Al Mubarak sees biodiversity as the planet’s original information network. In a commentary published on Mongabay, Al Mubarak, president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, offers a framing that has stayed with me. She argues that biodiversity is not simply a collection of species but a vast, self-sustaining archive of information written in DNA—the planet’s most sophisticated data system, one that has been storing solutions to survival for millions of years. Every organism, she notes, encodes evolutionary knowledge refined through trial and error across deep time. Seen through that lens, extinction is not just the disappearance of beauty or ecological function; it is the deletion of irreplaceable data from Earth’s biological memory. Every lost species erases knowledge that evolution spent eons compiling—a loss more profound than we yet grasp. To understand extinction as a form of data loss is to recognize that humanity’s security depends on maintaining the integrity of this planetary information network. In nature’s vast ledger, each species records a chapter of life’s experiment. In her commentary, Al Mubarak cites examples from her native United Arab Emirates: the Arabian oryx, once extinct in the wild, carries genetic instructions for surviving extreme desert heat; the ghaf tree has mastered the art of locating water in parched soil; and coral polyps store architectural blueprints for building reefs that can withstand turbulence and acidification. Each of these organisms holds a line of code in the operating system of…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Razan Al Mubarak, president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, describes biodiversity as the planet’s original information network—an archive of genetic data refined over billions of years that encodes solutions to survival. - Seeing extinction as data loss reframes the crisis: every vanished species deletes a chapter of evolutionary knowledge, erasing information that could inform medicine, technology, or climate resilience. - The story of the Gila monster illustrates this vividly—its venom inspired the GLP-1 drugs now treating diabetes and obesity, showing how a single organism’s adaptation can unlock transformative human innovations. - Al Mubarak argues that safeguarding biodiversity is not just an ethical imperative but an act of preserving intelligence itself; protecting this living knowledge system ensures the continuity of life’s most advanced and irreplaceable code. authors: | ||
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Peru considers stripping protections for Indigenous people and their territories 13 Oct 2025 22:00:56 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/peru-considers-stripping-protections-for-indigenous-people-and-their-territories/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Maxwell Radwin content:encoded: Peru is on the verge of rolling back several longstanding protections for Indigenous people and their territories, critics warn. Several bills working their way through Congress would loosen restrictions for oil and gas drilling, and make it harder for Indigenous people to obtain protected status for their land. At the same time, government agencies have voted down the creation of a reserve for uncontacted tribes, with some officials denying their existence. Together, the multiple policies amount to an “extermination” campaign, some advocacy groups said. “We express our outright rejection of the constant violation of human rights, as well as of the policies and regulations promoted by an oppressive, discriminatory and genocidal government, which favors criminal organizations and illegal economies,” said a September statement from the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP), which represents thousands of communities across the country. In July, lawmakers proposed modifying the country’s protected natural areas law to make it easier to extract “renewable and non-renewable resources” near and inside of protected areas. If passed, national parks and reserves would be open to oil drilling, mining, fishing and agroforestry when deemed to be in the national interest. Under the new version of the law, the creation of new protected areas would need the approval of not just the Ministry of Environment, but also the Ministry of Energy and Mines. Indigenous leaders meet with officials to discuss a proposed reserve in Loreto. Image courtesy of the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Peruvian…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Several bills working their way through Peru’s Congress would loosen restrictions for oil and gas drilling, and make it harder for Indigenous people to obtain protected status for their land. - One of the laws gives Congress the power to reevaluate the legal categorization and reserve status of Indigenous peoples living in isolation and initial contact, or PIACI. - Some advocacy groups called for the suspension of international climate financing to several parts of the Peruvian government until they implement concrete PIACI protections. authors: | ||
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Death toll from torrential rains in Mexico rises to 64 as search operations expand 13 Oct 2025 20:58:04 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/death-toll-from-torrential-rains-in-mexico-rises-to-64-as-search-operations-expand/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: POZA RICA, Mexico (AP) — The death toll from last week’s torrential rains in Mexico jumped to 64 on Monday, as searches expanded to communities previously cut off by landslides. Another 65 people were missing following the heavy rainfall in central and southeastern Mexico that caused rivers to top their banks, Civil Defense Coordinator Laura Velázquez Alzúa said during President Claudia Sheinbaum’s daily press briefing. “There are sufficient resources, this won’t be skimped on … because we’re still in the emergency period,” Sheinbaum said. Thousands of military personnel have been deployed across the region. In northern Veracruz, 80 communities remained inaccessible by road. Sheinbaum acknowledged it could still be days before access is established to some places. “A lot of flights are required to take sufficient food and water” to those places, she said. Early official estimates note 100,000 affected homes, and in some cases, houses near rivers “practically disappeared,” Sheinbaum said. The scale of the destruction across five states was coming into clearer focus a day after Sheinbaum visited affected communities in Puebla and Veracruz, promising a rapidly scaled-up government response. Mexico’s Civil Protection agency said the heavy rains had killed 29 people in Veracruz state on the Gulf Coast as of Monday morning, and 21 people in Hidalgo state, north of Mexico City. At least 13 were killed in Puebla, east of Mexico City. Earlier, in the central state of Querétaro, a child died in a landslide. By Associated Press Banner image: A Marine helps a woman cross a flooded street in Poza…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: POZA RICA, Mexico (AP) — The death toll from last week’s torrential rains in Mexico jumped to 64 on Monday, as searches expanded to communities previously cut off by landslides. Another 65 people were missing following the heavy rainfall in central and southeastern Mexico that caused rivers to top their banks, Civil Defense Coordinator Laura Velázquez Alzúa said […] authors: | ||
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Connecting Indonesia’s environmental stories to millions 13 Oct 2025 16:06:03 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/connecting-indonesias-environmental-stories-to-millions/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Before dawn breaks over Surabaya, Indonesia’s “City of Heroes,” Akhyari Hananto has already begun his day. After morning prayers, he opens Google Analytics to scan real-time graphs showing how Mongabay Indonesia’s readers moved through the night—what stories caught their attention, which posts resonated, and where curiosity waned. “That information often determines how I’ll prioritize my work for the rest of the day,” he says. By the time most people are pouring their first cup of coffee, he has already drafted ideas to re-energize audiences across the country. As Multimedia Manager for Mongabay Indonesia, Hananto sits at the intersection of creativity, data, and strategy. His job blends newsroom production, design, and analytics. On any given day, he may be editing multimedia, managing the outlet’s social media presence, or translating insights from Google Analytics into tactical decisions for Mongabay’s headquarters. “Everything I do connects to one central mission,” he explains, “ensuring that Mongabay’s environmental journalism reaches, engages, and resonates with audiences across Indonesia.” That mission has become increasingly important in a nation whose 280 million people live amid some of the planet’s richest biodiversity—and where forests, peatlands, and coral reefs are rapidly disappearing. For Hananto, who joined Mongabay in 2014, making environmental issues accessible is not just professional work; it is personal. “As an Indonesian, it’s impossible not to care,” he says. “These issues are not distant or abstract—they’re unfolding right here, on our own islands.” Akhyari Hananto. Courtesy of Hananto Hananto’s path to journalism was far from conventional. As a university…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Akhyari Hananto, Multimedia Manager for Mongabay Indonesia, combines creativity, data, and strategy to ensure environmental journalism reaches and engages audiences across the archipelago. - His unconventional path—from musician to banker, humanitarian worker, and economic specialist—eventually led him to journalism after witnessing an orangutan shooting that deeply moved him. - Since joining Mongabay in 2014, Hananto has helped transform its Indonesian platform into a digital force, using visuals, analytics, and storytelling to connect millions with urgent environmental issues. - Hananto spoke with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler in October 2025 about his journey, motivations, and the role of purpose in shaping impactful journalism. authors: | ||
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Abandoning Antarctic krill management measure threatens conservation progress (commentary) 13 Oct 2025 14:25:09 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/abandoning-antarctic-krill-management-measure-threatens-conservation-progress-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Andrea Capurro / Mary-Anne Lea content:encoded: All along the western Antarctic Peninsula, whales, penguins and seals in their millions depend on krill (Euphausia superba) throughout the year. In the most rapidly warming region on the continent, they are now facing an additional and unprecedented threat. For the first time in 15 years, industrial vessels may undertake increased and more concentrated fishing for krill in this region. The record catch limit was reached this past August, triggering an unparalleled early closure of the fishery. This change comes after the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), the multilateral body responsible for conserving marine species in the Southern Ocean, allowed a critical conservation measure (CM 51-07) to lapse in 2024, removing precautionary regulations that previously distributed catches across the region to reduce direct competition between the fishery and krill-dependent predators. While this new scenario doesn’t technically break any rules, this may be precisely the problem. Fishing within catch limits may still risk adversely affecting krill-dependent predator populations. The cascading ecological consequences can be widespread, while the precautionary principles that guide CCAMLR are put to the test. Antarctic krill are the cornerstone species of the Southern Ocean; they are the primary food source for a suite of species and provide important contributions to the global carbon cycle. They are so important that they inspired a pioneering conservation mandate, the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (also CCAMLR). Unlike traditional fisheries that maximize harvest, the CCAMLR embedded the ecosystem-based approach in its foundational text…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Until 2024, spatial limits across four sub-areas of the Antarctic Peninsula region had reduced the risk of concentrated fishing in areas preferred by whales, seals and penguins. - The Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) had taken an ecosystem-based approach, recognizing that effects of fishing can ripple through ecosystems; but with the recent lapse of its Conservation Measure 51-07, ships can now concentrate their fishing efforts in key wildlife foraging hotspots. - This October, as delegates gather to discuss CCAMLR priorities, the authors of a new commentary argue that, “At stake is more than a fishing rule, but also the commitment to manage fisheries proactively, rather than reactively.” - This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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Tanzanian conservationists mourn death of plant expert Aloyce Mwakisoma 13 Oct 2025 13:56:13 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/tanzanian-conservationists-mourn-death-of-plant-expert-aloyce-mwakisoma/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Ryan Truscott content:encoded: Tanzanian conservationists are mourning the tragic death of renowned plant expert Aloyce Mwakisoma, who played a critical role in forest restoration and recently helped identify and describe a giant new species of rainforest tree. Mwakisoma, 45, was struck and killed by a bus on Oct. 6 near the village of Sanje, in Tanzania’s Udzungwa Mountains. It was on the same day he had visited family members to share news about his imminent church wedding to longtime partner Salma Jabili. Mwakisoma was born and raised in the Kilombero Valley, near the Udzungwa Mountains, an isolated massif in eastern Tanzania that’s part of a chain known as the Eastern Arc. As the son of a hunter, Mwakisoma acquired a profound knowledge of the region’s plants and animals. When hunting was formally outlawed, following the establishment of Udzungwa Mountains National Park in 1992, Mwakisoma’s father, Langsom, became a research assistant, working with scientists studying the massif’s treasure trove of biodiversity. As a young boy, Mwakisoma would accompany his father and the researchers. Aloyce Mwakisoma, left, and Pastory Njekela, former nurseries manager at Udzungwa Corridor, working on plans for future seed collections for the reforestation project. Image courtesy of Andrea Bianchi. Mngeta Valley, Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania. Image by Andrea Bianchi. He later became a research assistant himself. During one notable early assignment 15 years ago, Mwakisoma was tasked with following a troop of Udzungwa red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus gordonorum) on a daily basis. One afternoon, during the hottest time of the day, both he…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Aloyce Mwakisoma, a renowned plant expert from Tanzania’s Udzungwa Mountains, was struck and killed by a bus on Oct. 6 near the village of Sanje. - Mwakisoma, who was born and raised in the Udzungwas, had an encyclopedic knowledge of the plants and animals found in his home in the Eastern Arc. - His colleagues recognized him as one of the many local experts whose indigenous knowledge powerfully informs the description and protection of the continent’s biodiversity. authors: | ||
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First oarfish sighting in Sri Lanka highlights citizen science in marine protection 13 Oct 2025 13:41:19 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/first-oarfish-sighting-in-sri-lanka-highlights-citizen-science-in-marine-protection/ author: Dilrukshi Handunnetti dc:creator: Malaka Rodrigo content:encoded: COLOMBO — In the shadowy depths of the ocean lives a ribbon-like giant crowned with a fiery red crest — long mistaken for a sea monster. Rarely glimpsed alive, the oarfish holds the record as the world’s longest bony fish, capable of growing up to 8 meters (26 feet). It usually surfaces only by chance, and one such encounter off Sri Lanka marked the first confirmed record of an oarfish in the Indian Ocean, igniting maritime legend and modern science. The individual, measuring 2.6 m (8.5 ft), was accidentally caught in a surface tuna gillnet set by a multiday fishing vessel off Sri Lanka’s west coast. Curious fishers, unfamiliar with the strange catch, brought it ashore at Beruwala Fishery Harbour, where it was handed over to the authorities. Globally, three species of oarfish are recognized, namely giant oarfish Regalecus glesne), Russell’s oarfish (R. russelii) and streamerfish (Agrostichthys parkeri). Detailed examination by Ishara Rathnasuriya of the Ocean University of Sri Lanka confirmed the Sri Lankan specimen as R. russelii. Though collected in 2021, its significance was only recently formalized in a paper published in Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria, documenting it as the first oarfish record for the Indian Ocean. Only a few records of oarfish are scattered over the Indian Ocean and only two specimens have been identified to species level as R. russellii, Rathnasuriya says. The limited observations of R. glesne from the Indian Ocean highlight the importance of the current report, he adds. Meanwhile, reports of oarfish have surfaced…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Scientists have documented the first-ever record of an oarfish (Regalecus russellii) in Sri Lanka, a 2.6-meter (8.5-foot) specimen caught off the country’s western coast. - The find expands the known distribution of oarfish into the Indian Ocean, offering a new baseline for studying this rarely seen deep-sea species. - Meanwhile, another oarfish was recorded in India’s Tamil Nadu this year, while within 20 days, three oarfish have been recorded from Australia and New Zealand, puzzling naturalists. - The importance of promoting citizen science and raising awareness among fishers is needed. authors: | ||
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