|
Amazon deforestation alerts fall to lowest 12-month level since 2014, show Brazilian data 14 Jun 2026 00:11:11 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/amazon-deforestation-alerts-fall-to-lowest-12-month-level-since-2014-show-brazilian-data/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Satellite alerts suggest deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is continuing to fall, putting the country on pace for one of its lowest forest-clearing years in more than a decade. The decline comes as climate scientists warn that a likely strong El Niño could still bring a difficult fire season, even if clear-cutting remains low. New data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, or INPE, show that its DETER alert system detected 370 square kilometers (143 square miles) of deforestation in the Amazon in May. That was down from 960 square kilometers in May 2025, a decline of about 61%. Data from INPE’s DETER and Imazon’s SAD detection systems showing deforestation in the Legal Amazon (“Amazonia”) from Aug 1 to May 31 since 2008. Image by Mongabay Data from INPE’s DETER and Imazon’s SAD detection systems showing deforestation in the Legal Amazon (“Amazonia”). Image by Mongabay May is an important month in the Amazon deforestation calendar. It often marks the transition toward the drier season, when forest clearing and burning tend to increase across parts of the southern and eastern Amazon. Monthly satellite figures can vary because of cloud cover, timing and the way alerts are processed, but the latest data extend a longer downward trend. Over the past 12 months, DETER registered 3,182 square kilometers of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. That compares with 4,633 square kilometers during the same period a year earlier. The total is the lowest for any 12-month period in the DETER record dating…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - INPE’s DETER alert system detected 370 square kilometers of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon in May, down from 960 square kilometers in May 2025. - Over the past 12 months, DETER registered 3,182 square kilometers of deforestation, the lowest total for any 12-month period in the system’s record dating back to July 2014. - Independent monitoring by Imazon shows a similar downward trend, reinforcing evidence that forest clearing has continued to decline. - Scientists warn that a likely strong El Niño could still increase drought, fire and forest degradation risks, even if clear-cutting remains low. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Robert Ricklefs, ecologist who helped generations understand nature, has died at 83 13 Jun 2026 00:42:47 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/robert-ricklefs-ecologist-who-helped-generations-understand-nature-has-died-at-83/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: At the mouth of the Carmel River, a teacher set up a spotting scope and let a boy look through it. The birds were the first thing he saw. The habit of looking came next. He saw that the world could be understood, though not quickly, and that its order did not reveal itself to those in a hurry. Later he would say he never recovered from that experience. The remark was light, but also true. A childhood near Monterey, with woods behind the house and the Pacific within walking distance, gave him the subject of his life. Robert “Bob” Ricklefs, who died on June 7th, a day after his 83rd birthday, spent that life asking how living things came to be where they are, and why they lived as they did. He became one of the most influential ecologists of his generation: an ornithologist, biogeographer, theorist, teacher, author and member of the National Academy of Sciences. His textbooks, Ecology and The Economy of Nature, shaped how thousands of students first encountered the field. Their authority came from clarity. He could take a tangled subject and find a usable path through it. Birds were his beginning. As a boy he joined weekend outings with the local Audubon Society and gained the status, modest but real, of a child with a serious interest. At Stanford he briefly followed the spirit of the space age into engineering, then returned to biology. At the University of Pennsylvania he entered the circle of Robert…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Robert “Bob” Ricklefs, who died on June 7th, a day after his 83rd birthday, helped shape modern ecology through his work on birds, island biogeography, life histories, and biodiversity. - His textbooks, Ecology and The Economy of Nature, introduced generations of students to the field with uncommon clarity and breadth. - He believed that careful observation and field experience remained essential to science, even as ecology became more model-driven and publication-focused. - Colleagues and students remembered him as exacting, generous, independent-minded, and gentle in manner while firm in judgment. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Researchers find dramatic restoration on land and sea after island rat removal 13 Jun 2026 00:28:15 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/researchers-find-dramatic-restoration-on-land-and-sea-after-island-rat-removal/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Bobby Bascomb content:encoded: When invasive rats are removed from islands, the ecological benefits can ripple across both land and sea more quickly than scientists expected, according to recent research. Scientists have long assumed that meaningful recovery after the predators are eradicated would take decades. However, researchers with the U.S.-based NGO Island Conservation conducted a rat-removal experiment on Ulong Island in Palau, which provides the first experimental evidence that ecosystems can rebound far more quickly than previously expected. Until recently, rats, which are typically nocturnal, were so abundant on Ulong Island that they were regularly seen during the day. They were a nuisance to campers and deadly for wildlife. As opportunistic omnivores, rats readily prey upon seabird eggs and chicks, devastating nesting colonies on tropical islands. As a result, there were “very few nesting seabirds that we would find,” Coral Wolf, the conservation science program manager at Island Conservation, told Mongabay in a video call. To measure the effects of rat eradication, Wolf designed an experiment in which all the rats were removed from Ulong, while the rats on nearby Ngeruktabel Island remained, serving as a control site. Before the eradication, researchers collected baseline biodiversity data. On land, they recorded bird calls and took soil samples. In the surrounding water, they measured indicators like fish biomass and coral cover. One year after rats were removed, the team repeated the survey and found a dramatic improvement in the biodiversity. Freed from rat predation, seabird activity on the island surged. Detections of bridled tern (Onychoprion anaethetus) calls rose by…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: When invasive rats are removed from islands, the ecological benefits can ripple across both land and sea more quickly than scientists expected, according to recent research. Scientists have long assumed that meaningful recovery after the predators are eradicated would take decades. However, researchers with the U.S.-based NGO Island Conservation conducted a rat-removal experiment on Ulong Island […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Bornean ferret badger only lives in Borneo. Could it be a conservation symbol? 12 Jun 2026 20:57:28 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/bornean-ferret-badger-only-lives-in-borneo-could-it-be-a-conservation-symbol/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: David Brown content:encoded: The Bornean ferret badger is a small carnivore with the slinky body of a ferret and a face mask like a badger. A new study confirms that it lives only in the mountains of Sabah, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. Ferret badgers are nocturnal carnivores, widespread across Southeast Asia, but the Bornean ferret badger (Melogale everetti) lives only in a narrow mountain range on the island of Borneo. A group of researchers from the Bornean Carnivore Programme, part of the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), Sabah Forestry Department, and Sabah Parks set out to understand the Bornean ferret-badger’s distribution within Sabah. Between 2021 and 2024, the research team set up 188 camera-trap stations across Sabah’s western highlands and recorded the badgers more than 400 times, discovering a new population in the process. The new population in the Nuluhon-Trusmadi Forest Reserve of Malaysian Borneo, expanded the known range of the species, but photo-traps and habitat modeling showed that Bornean ferret badgers are only found within the greater Sabah’s Kinabalu-Crocker-Trusmadi mountain landscape. “I grew up in Tambunan and had never seen or even heard of the Bornean ferret badger,” said Mohammad Aliyuddin bin Jaini, field manager of the Bornean Carnivore Programme in a press release. “I decided to place some camera traps around my family’s farm simply to see what wildlife might be there, and I was amazed when a Bornean ferret badger appeared in the photographs. To discover that an Endangered species found only in…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The Bornean ferret badger is a small carnivore with the slinky body of a ferret and a face mask like a badger. A new study confirms that it lives only in the mountains of Sabah, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. Ferret badgers are nocturnal carnivores, widespread across Southeast Asia, but the Bornean […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Mozambique completes first white rhino breeding population in decades 12 Jun 2026 20:44:14 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/mozambique-completes-first-white-rhino-breeding-population-in-decades/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: On June 6, nine female white rhinos arrived in Mozambique’s Zinave National Park following a two-day translocation. Their arrival marks the culmination of nearly 10 years of rhino reintroduction efforts in the park, aimed at rebuilding a viable breeding population of the mammals in Zinave after decades of local extinction. The white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum) were transferred from the Manketti Game Reserve in South Africa and join another 30 white rhinos and 22 black rhinos (Diceros bicornis) introduced to Zinave since 2022. “[The translocation] went fantastically well,” Antony Alexander, a regional manager for the conservation nonprofit Peace Parks Foundation, which manages Zinave and organized the translocation, told Mongabay by phone. “I’m sure they’re happy to be in the wild again.” Zinave, which covers around 4,090 square kilometers (1,580 square miles) in the southern province of Inhambane, has previously been called a “silent park” after decades of civil war wiped out much of its wildlife. “You could almost sense the very low levels of life with insects and birds and smells and sounds,” said Alexander, describing Zinave before wildlife restoration efforts began. “That’s changed dramatically over the last 10 years.” Among the species reintroduced since 2016 are the critically endangered black rhino and Selous’ zebra (Equus quagga selousi), as well as the endangered African savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana), vulnerable leopard (Panthera pardus) and spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta). The rhinos help maintain Zinave’s ecosystem as they are bulk grazers, eating a high volume of grass. This helps prevent fire risk, as overgrown…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: On June 6, nine female white rhinos arrived in Mozambique’s Zinave National Park following a two-day translocation. Their arrival marks the culmination of nearly 10 years of rhino reintroduction efforts in the park, aimed at rebuilding a viable breeding population of the mammals in Zinave after decades of local extinction. The white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum) […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
‘Flamingo Revolution’ aims to stop Kushner-backed resort on protected Albanian delta 12 Jun 2026 19:54:54 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/flamingo-revolution-aims-to-stop-kushner-backed-resort-on-protected-albanian-delta/ author: Autumn Spanne dc:creator: Stefan Lovgren content:encoded: VJOSA-NARTA, Albania — In late April, heavy machinery began moving into the Pishë Poro-Narta protected landscape on Albania’s Adriatic coast without permits or public notice. Bulldozers and excavators felled coastal pine trees, flattened sand dunes, and cut new roads through previously untouched habitat. Then, barbed wire fences went up along the shoreline. The incursion was the realization of a luxury resort development backed by Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. The development plans of Kushner’s Affinity Partners, a private equity fund, stretch from the uninhabited Sazan Island into the Vjosa-Narta Protected Landscape, the delta region of Albania’s Vjosa River that includes Pishë Poro-Narta. Roughly twice the size of Paris, the Vjosa-Narta area shelters flamingos, Dalmatian pelicans (Pelecanus crispus), loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) and more than 70 endangered species, among them the Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus). Neither Affinity Partners nor the office of the prime minister of Albania responded to Mongabay’s requests for comment. Aerial drone video of demonstrators gathering at Dalan Beach on June 6 for a rally near the site of the original resort-construction site. Footage by Stefan Lovgren for Mongabay. When protesters arrived at the site, security guards confronted them. Video of a demonstrator being dragged across the dunes on May 30 near the village of Zvërnec went viral. Soon demonstrations erupted in Tirana, the Albanian capital, in what has since been dubbed the Flamingo Revolution. The protests have grown larger every day, with tens of thousands demanding accountability for corruption, an end to…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In April, Albanian authorities allowed bulldozers to tear through the protected Vjosa-Narta delta — home to flamingos, loggerhead sea turtles and the endangered Mediterranean monk seal — without permits or environmental review, sparking mass protests that have shaken the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama. - The construction is linked to a luxury resort backed by Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, targeting one of the last intact river-delta wildernesses in the Mediterranean, where only 4% of deltas remain undisturbed. - As Albania’s anti-corruption authority investigates and the EU warns the development could jeopardize the country’s 2030 membership bid, conservationists say the crisis exposes a pattern of broken promises around the celebrated Vjosa Wild River National Park. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Pilot whales can’t hear each other over ship noise in Strait of Gibraltar, study finds 12 Jun 2026 18:26:53 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/pilot-whales-cant-hear-each-other-over-ship-noise-in-strait-of-gibraltar-study-finds/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: The rumble of ship traffic is drowning out the calls of long-finned pilot whales and potentially other marine species in the Strait of Gibraltar, a narrow strip of water between Morocco and Spain that separates the Atlantic Ocean from the Mediterranean Sea. Researchers who investigated this looked at near and long-distance communication between long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas), which are actually a species of large dolphin. They found the mammals were able to increase the volume of their calls used for short distances, but long-distance calling was more challenging, according to their recently published study. The dolphins may not be able to overpower noise pollution in the Strait of Gibraltar when calling pod mates far away, raising concerns that they could become lost and isolated from the group, the researchers said. Roughly 60,000 ships pass through the Strait of Gibraltar each year. “If they cannot communicate with one another, they may need to stay much closer together, or all that communication may become ineffective,” study co-author Renaud de Stephanis, director at the Spain-based organization CIRCE (Conservación, Información y Estudio sobre Cetáceos), told Mongabay by phone. Researchers focused the study on a small resident population of roughly 250 pilot whales in the strait. The team attached suction-cup recorders to the backs of 23 individuals. Later, they categorized more than 1,400 calls into four different categories. They found that pilot whales were able to adjust to the noise pollution for two types of calls, the high-frequency and short-pulsed calls, by simply raising…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The rumble of ship traffic is drowning out the calls of long-finned pilot whales and potentially other marine species in the Strait of Gibraltar, a narrow strip of water between Morocco and Spain that separates the Atlantic Ocean from the Mediterranean Sea. Researchers who investigated this looked at near and long-distance communication between long-finned pilot […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Malawi officials seek to drop bribery case against illegal wildlife trafficking convict 12 Jun 2026 15:24:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/malawi-officials-seek-to-drop-bribery-case-against-illegal-wildlife-trafficking-convict/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Charles Mpaka content:encoded: Government officials in Malawi have applied to withdraw bribery charges against wildlife trafficking convict Lin Yunhua, which would pave the way for his release from prison. In July 2025, a presidential pardon set Lin, a Chinese national, free from a 14-year jail sentence he’d received in 2021 connected to illegally trading in wildlife parts such as ivory, rhino horn and pangolin scales. Malawian authorities had arrested Lin, his wife and 13 members of his transnational wildlife crime syndicate in 2019. While pardoned, Lin remained in prison on charges of bribing a prison official and a judge to influence his sentencing; offenses he allegedly committed while on trial for the wildlife crimes. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Fostino Maele, has now instructed the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), which brought the bribery charges against Lin, to drop those charges. Maele was previously Lin’s lawyer. Environmental and anti-corruption activists demanded that he recuse himself from the case due to a conflict of interest. But Maele did not. At the time of publishing, Maele had not responded to questions from Mongabay about reasons for dropping the bribery charges and concerns of conflict of interest. “We have a serious contradiction here,” environmentalist Charles Mkoka told Mongabay in a phone interview. “We sit in one room and plan what to do to send a strong message to wildlife traffickers that we will not tolerate their crimes. In another room, some offices are scrapping off cases of those that are engaging in wildlife trafficking. This is regrettable.”…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Government officials in Malawi have applied to withdraw bribery charges against wildlife trafficking convict Lin Yunhua, which would pave the way for his release from prison. In July 2025, a presidential pardon set Lin, a Chinese national, free from a 14-year jail sentence he’d received in 2021 connected to illegally trading in wildlife parts such […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Global ocean faces ‘deepening crisis,’ but governance is improving: UN report 12 Jun 2026 15:20:11 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/global-ocean-faces-deepening-crisis-but-governance-is-improving-un-report/ author: Rebecca Kessler dc:creator: Elizabeth Claire Alberts content:encoded: From pollution to overfishing to the escalating effects of climate change, human activities are placing mounting pressure on the world ocean, fueling what U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres describes as a “deepening crisis.” Those warnings are detailed in the third U.N. World Ocean Assessment, released June 8 and authored by approximately 600 experts from 86 countries. Covering the period between 2021 and 2025, the report echoes concerns raised in the U.N.’s earlier World Ocean Assessments, published in 2015 and 2021, which describe a global ocean under immense strain due to human-driven pressures. The authors point toward progress in ocean governance through a review of 57 global treaties related to ocean protection, including the recently ratified high seas treaty, known more formally as the marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) agreement. However, they caution that existing frameworks generally remain “fragmented” and cannot fully address the scale of the challenges facing the ocean. Even so, the authors argue that it is imperative to continue strengthening conservation efforts, regulations and international cooperation to mitigate the damaging impacts of human activities and preserve marine ecosystems. Some 52.1 million metric tons of plastic waste enters the ocean each year, impacting more than 4,000 marine species, including seabirds. Image by NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). “The imperative for a healthy and resilient ocean has never been more urgent,” Rafael González-Quirós, director of the Oceanographic Centre of Gijón, Spain, who played a key role in coordinating the report, said in…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - On June 8, the U.N. released its third World Ocean Assessment, a comprehensive report on the state of the global ocean between 2021 and 2025, compiled by around 600 experts from 86 countries. - The report highlights a deepening crisis for the global ocean, as human pressures, including pollution, overfishing and climate change, strain marine ecosystems already under extreme pressure. - It notes that ocean governance is improving, and that models that incorporate Indigenous, traditional owner and local community knowledge are likely to achieve better outcomes. - However, it also warns that ocean governance remains “fragmented” and insufficient to address the scale of the challenges facing the world’s oceans. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
To improve its floundering fisheries, Kenya boosts data collection on artisanal fleet 12 Jun 2026 14:46:41 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/to-improve-its-floundering-fisheries-kenya-boosts-data-collection-on-artisanal-fleet/ author: Rebecca Kessler dc:creator: Anthony Langat content:encoded: MTWAPA, Kenya — On a mid-morning in March, Mohamed Mwazigona, 58, had just landed a measly catch on the town beach in Mtwapa on Kenya’s north coast. His crew was preparing the boat for a second trip into the sea with hopes of better luck. As traders started trickling in to buy fish, Mwazigona sat on a broken upturned boat staring at the horizon beyond the sea. His morning trip had netted only 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of fish. He worried that his catches had decreased a lot in recent years. “The number of fishermen has gone up; we have become too many,” he said. That’s the reason he left his village of Shariani, 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the north, to base his fishing in Mtwapa, which he felt had fewer fishers and better access to markets. In Kenya, local beach management units (BMUs), like the Mtwapa BMU that Mwazigona belongs to, have a legal mandate to support collection of fisheries data for submission to the government: mainly the type of fish its members catch and the weight. These data are meant to inform government decision-making about small-scale fisheries so it can help reverse the competition for dwindling fish stocks that Mwazigona and his colleagues are experiencing. They are also meant to help fishers themselves make decisions on where and when to fish. However, the BMUs’ small-scale fisheries data have been inaccurate and inaccessible to stakeholders. To address this problem and improve the sustainability of Kenya’s small-scale fisheries, WorldFish,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In Kenya, fishers are experiencing increased competition for dwindling catches. A lack of data is stymying their decision-making about where and when to fish as well as the governments’ decision-making about how to manage fishing in the country, experts say. - A new project aims to improve the collection of fisheries data, harmonize them and make them accessible to fishers and the government alike. - It involves beefed-up data collection methods, the installation of trackers on fishing vessels and a centralized database and digital platform. - The initiative is modeled around a program in Timor-Leste that began in 2016 and now serves as the country’s national fisheries monitoring system. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
As human Ebola cases climb in DRC, critically endangered gorillas are at risk 12 Jun 2026 13:30:15 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/as-human-ebola-cases-climb-in-drc-critically-endangered-gorillas-are-at-risk/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Kayleigh Long content:encoded: As human cases continue to climb in the latest outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, concern is growing for the gorilla population, which have been devastated by the virus during previous outbreaks. On May 15, the Congolese Health Ministry announced a new outbreak of the lethal virus, which has struck the country at least 17 times over the past half-century; the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed 676 Ebola cases in the eastern DRC and 136 deaths as of June 10 — and continue to rise. In neighboring Uganda, 19 cases and two deaths have been reported, with no new cases in the last days. So far, the outbreak seems to be largely contained within the region. The Bundibugyo virus is the culprit, one of five Ebola viruses within the family Filoviridae that spark illness in people. It has no approved treatment or vaccine. As cases mount, virologists — as well as ecologists and primatologists — are warily monitoring its spread. First discovered in humans in 1976 along the Ebola River (where it got its name), Ebola is highly contagious, and this virus can also sicken and kill gorillas and other non-human primates. While some symptoms are flu-like — fever, vomiting and diarrhea — the disease can progress to a gruesome, often-fatal hemorrhagic fever, causing both internal and external bleeding. Previous outbreaks have exacted vast human death…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Gorillas are vulnerable to communicable diseases that infect humans and other non-human primates, including the Ebola virus. - A new Ebola outbreak was announced in the Democratic Republic of Congo in mid-May, but so far, there have been no reported cases of gorilla infection. Previous outbreaks have devastated western lowland gorillas. - Armed conflict hampers both conservation and efforts to monitor both Grauer’s and mountain gorilla populations in DRC. They also impair the public health response, which has also been seriously impacted by cuts in U.S. funding under the Trump administration. - Gorillas are highly social animals, which facilitates spread of infectious disease. Infants and females are disproportionately affected, which has serious consequences for recovery of devastated populations. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
East African Crude Oil Pipeline threatens wetlands, wildlife corridors: Report 12 Jun 2026 10:55:44 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/east-african-crude-oil-pipeline-threatens-wetlands-wildlife-corridors-report/ author: Karen Coates dc:creator: Victoria Schneider content:encoded: The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), which stretches from oil fields in Uganda’s Lake Albert region to Tanzania’s port town of Tanga, is once again under scrutiny after a new report mapped out the biodiversity areas and wildlife habitats it runs through or passes by. Drawing data from maps and economic value estimates, the report by U.S.-based NGO Earth Insight shows that the 1,443-kilometer (990-mile) pipeline is close to areas that are important for livelihoods and water security for millions of people and serve as migration corridors for animals. The report concludes that the construction of the pipeline has already disturbed communities and the environment and that oil transportation will bring further long-term risks. EACOP is a joint project involving TotalEnergies (62% stake), the governments of Uganda (15%) and Tanzania (15%), and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC, 8%). EACOP will carry oil extracted from two oilfields in the Lake Albert region: Kingfisher, owned by CNOOC, and Tilenga, owned by TotalEnergies. According to Earth Insight, the project is nearing completion. Oil transportation through the pipeline is expected to start as early as October 2026. Construction of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) in Uganda. Image courtesy of Thomas Lewton. “It crosses right through endangered species ranges, the most important and critical one being the black rhino habitat range,” Earth Insight’s Katie Boston, the study’s main researcher, told Mongabay on the phone. She added that the pipeline could cause habitat fragmentation in the Kibale/Bukoora River Crossing area, where…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - As the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline nears completion in Uganda and Tanzania, a new report highlights the environmental risks associated with the project. - The pipeline runs close to and through sensitive ecosystems and wildlife corridors and could have adverse effects on humans and the environment. - The pipeline’s risks are compounded by new oil and gas developments across the African Great Lakes region. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Amazon deforestation declines as Brazil reduces forest loss nationwide 12 Jun 2026 10:13:12 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/amazon-deforestation-declines-as-brazil-reduces-forest-loss-nationwide/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon biome fell by 23.5% in 2025 compared with 2024, according to a new report from MapBiomas, a Brazil-based land-use mapping project. Reductions in deforestation were recorded across the board in all of Brazil’s biomes, culminating in a 21% nationwide decrease in forest loss. In total, nearly 985,000 hectares (2.4 million acres) of forested land was cut down in 2025, the report found. Of this, 289,478 hectares (715,315 acres) was deforested in the Amazon. The decline in deforestation likely reflects a combination of stronger environmental enforcement, improved satellite monitoring and growing market demands for sustainable production, Nathalia Crusco, a researcher with MapBiomas, wrote to Mongabay. Only 5% of deforested land overlapped with enforcement actions or clearing authorizations in 2019, compared with 65% over the 2019-2025 period, she added, based on MapBiomas data. Deforestation also fell by nearly 17% in the Cerrado savanna, where agriculture expansion is most aggressive. More than half of the Cerrado’s native vegetation has already been cleared. And while the rate of deforestation in the Cerrado declined, the majority of forest clearing in Brazil, 55%, took place in the Cerrado savanna, the report said. Much of the reduction in deforestation was within Indigenous territories. Clear-cut deforestation on Indigenous lands in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 25% in 2025, according to a technical memo shared with Mongabay by Brazil’s Indigenous agency, Funai. Funai’s Remote Monitoring Center compiled the recent report. A total of 30,128 hectares (74,450 acres) of clear-cutting on Indigenous land was recorded last…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon biome fell by 23.5% in 2025 compared with 2024, according to a new report from MapBiomas, a Brazil-based land-use mapping project. Reductions in deforestation were recorded across the board in all of Brazil’s biomes, culminating in a 21% nationwide decrease in forest loss. In total, nearly 985,000 hectares (2.4 million acres) […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
‘Chemical cocktail’ of pharmaceuticals found in Djibouti coastal waters 12 Jun 2026 09:59:37 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/chemical-cocktail-of-pharmaceuticals-found-in-djibouti-coastal-waters/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: Common medications that billions of people take for ailments like pain, fever and infections were detected in several sites along Djibouti’s Gulf of Tadjourah in East Africa, according to a recent study. Researchers found that untreated urban wastewater contained dangerous concentrations of anti-inflammatory medicine like ibuprofen, caffeine, and the antiepileptic drug carbamazepine, which were contaminating Djibouti’s coastal ecosystem. They also detected the presence of levofloxacin, an anti-tuberculosis antibiotic, and 12 other pharmaceutical and personal care compounds. The Gulf of Tadjourah is an important marine biodiversity hotspot that is home to coral reefs, mangroves and fish nurseries. Djibouti City, home to more than 70% of the country’s population, borders the gulf. “One particularly surprising finding was the relatively high ecological risk associated with some common everyday pharmaceuticals, especially ibuprofen and caffeine,” lead author of the study Abdillahi Elmi Adaneh, an environmental chemist at the regional Observatory for Research on the Environment and Climate (ORREC) in Djibouti, told Mongabay by email. “These compounds are often perceived as ‘ordinary’ substances, yet they were among the main contributors to ecological risk in the coastal waters we studied,” he added. Ibuprofen was among the most concerning substances detected, Adaneh said. At one sampling site, where urban and hospital wastewater are dumped in the water, the team found ibuprofen concentrations hundreds of times higher than levels considered safe for aquatic organisms. “[Ibuprofen] can disrupt several biological functions in marine organisms, including reproduction, growth, enzymatic activity, and physiological responses,” Adaneh said. “Invertebrates, fish, and algae are particularly…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Common medications that billions of people take for ailments like pain, fever and infections were detected in several sites along Djibouti’s Gulf of Tadjourah in East Africa, according to a recent study. Researchers found that untreated urban wastewater contained dangerous concentrations of anti-inflammatory medicine like ibuprofen, caffeine, and the antiepileptic drug carbamazepine, which were contaminating […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
In Ecuador, an Indigenous community goes thirsty despite its two rivers 12 Jun 2026 07:00:07 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-ecuador-an-indigenous-community-goes-thirsty-despite-its-two-rivers/ author: Alexandre de Santi dc:creator: Gabriela Verdezoto Landívar content:encoded: The man’s cheekbones are painted with achiote, a red pigment extracted from the seeds of the Bixa orellana plant. He wears a thin headband over his gray hair, and a traditional green shirt with yellow and blue trim on the collar and sleeves. In his right hand, he holds a wooden spear, 2.5 meters long, or just over 8 feet, made from the chonta palm (Bactris gasipaes). He stares at the journalist. His dark eyes widen as he laments the occurrence of several cases of community residents, including children, suffering from fungal infections. “Even two people have already died from stomach pain, and at the hospital, they said: ‘Maybe it’s the water.’” The video was first broadcast on Sept. 28, 2024, on an Ecuadorian national news program. The man recorded is Galo Villamil, one of the leaders of the Capirona community, an Indigenous Kichwa resistance enclave in the Ecuadorian Amazon. One year before, in 2023, 22-year-old Joana Ashanga and her 2-year-old nephew, Ville Ashanga, were victims of what the community considers the fatal consequence of river pollution. “Despite the complaints, official reports from the [Ecuadorian] Ministry of Health made no mention of links between the pollution and the deaths, which generated distrust and outrage,” said Linda Tapuy, president of the Capirona community, before an audience at a university auditorium in Ecuador’s capital, Quito, two years after the deaths. The victims’ death certificates said the cause of death was “unknown.” For the Indigenous group, appearing in that television news story was…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - On the banks of the Puní River’s middle basin, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, illegal mining has increased by 2,700% over seven years, contaminating the main water source for the ancestral Kichwa community of Capirona. - Residents of Capirona say that, by 2021, the color of the Puní River started to change, turning brownish. Meanwhile, problems such as skin rashes, fungal infections, and itching became frequent. - In samples of mining ore collected by Ecuadorian authorities from an illegal mining camp on the banks of Puní, signs of mercury were found at levels far exceeding the permitted limit for this metal in agricultural soils. - Industrial farming activity has also polluted the waters of the Shalkana River, another watercourse located within the community. Despite being surrounded by two rivers, residents of Capirona rely on two water tankers sent weekly by municipal authorities, which is enough for barely half of the families for just a few days. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Nepal’s tourism growth sparks unchecked liquor concerns involving national flower 12 Jun 2026 06:59:52 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/nepals-tourism-growth-sparks-unchecked-liquor-concerns-involving-national-flower/ author: Naina Rao dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: Every April, eastern Nepal’s Tinjure-Milke-Jaljale region sees a rush of tourists, arriving for the vibrant spring bloom of rhododendrons, the country’s national flower. The flowers have now become more than a photo backdrop; they’re part of a new, unregulated market for a “souvenir:” Unlicensed rhododendron liquor. Sold openly in reused bottles with handwritten labels, the rhododendron alcohol market operates without health testing, official tracking or sustainability monitoring, Mongabay contributor Mukesh Pokhrel reports. The Tinjure-Milke-Jaljale (TMJ) region is home to at least 26 species of rhododendron (Rhododendron spp.). It has seen a massive post-pandemic tourism surge, with local officials estimating 500,000 visitors arrived from April 1-15 this year. For some families, the seasonal sale of flower-based alcohol provides supplemental income. “Tourists want something unique from here,” said Denga Lama, a resident who produces the liquor at their home. “People buy the alcohol because it reminds them of the flowers and mountains.” Forests within the TMJ region, where rhododendron plants occur, are largely managed as community forests. Nepal’s conservation laws prohibit commercial harvesting from community forests without approval. However, legal ambiguity regarding rhododendrons grown in private gardens has left officials uncertain about enforcement. When asked about bottled rhododendron liquor, Division Forest Officer Megh Raj Rai told Mongabay it was the first time he had heard about it. Rai said that if the liquor is being produced at large scales, the lack of oversight poses potential public health risks. Certain rhododendron species contain grayanotoxins, neurotoxins that can potentially be fatal; although, the risks…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Every April, eastern Nepal’s Tinjure-Milke-Jaljale region sees a rush of tourists, arriving for the vibrant spring bloom of rhododendrons, the country’s national flower. The flowers have now become more than a photo backdrop; they’re part of a new, unregulated market for a “souvenir:” Unlicensed rhododendron liquor. Sold openly in reused bottles with handwritten labels, the […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Indigenous organization buys wetland property in Australia to help conserve it 12 Jun 2026 04:37:37 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/indigenous-organization-buys-wetland-property-in-australia-to-help-conserve-it/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Megan Strauss content:encoded: A large property containing a unique wetland system in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin was transferred into long-term Indigenous ownership in 2026 for conservation. The 33,000-hectare (81,545-acre) property contains most of the Great Cumbung Swamp, located at the end of the Lachlan River in the state of New South Wales. The swamp has a mix of open water and reed beds, bordered by river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) woodlands, and is an important habitat for waterbirds, frogs, fish and reptiles. The Nari Nari Tribal Council (NNTC), an Indigenous conservation land management organization, purchased the property in January 2026 following joint fundraising efforts by the conservation NGO The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and NNTC. James Fitzsimons of TNC recently wrote about the sale of the property in Oryx. Fitzsimons told Mongabay by email that the Great Cumbung Swamp “acts a refuge when the rest of the landscape is dry,” He added that it supports threatened species such as the Australasian Bittern (Botaurus poiciloptilus), Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii) and the southern bell frog (Litoria raniformis). Each year, approximately 11,500 waterbirds visit the swamp. The wetland is not only of local, state and national significance, but has been evaluated to be listed as a Ramsar wetland of international significance, Fitzsimons said. The property had experienced decades of logging and cattle grazing. In 2019, TNC and the Tiverton Agricultural Impact Fund jointly purchased it to prevent future agricultural intensification and further degradation of the ecosystem. Fitzsimons said grazing pressures have reduced since the purchase. This, combined with…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: A large property containing a unique wetland system in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin was transferred into long-term Indigenous ownership in 2026 for conservation. The 33,000-hectare (81,545-acre) property contains most of the Great Cumbung Swamp, located at the end of the Lachlan River in the state of New South Wales. The swamp has a mix of open […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Southeast Asian nations chart important new course toward environmental justice (commentary) 11 Jun 2026 22:57:53 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/southeast-asian-nations-chart-important-new-course-toward-environmental-justice-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: John Knox content:encoded: The countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have made an important commitment to environmental justice for the 680 million people who call this region home. Now comes the hard part: putting it into practice. Last October, ASEAN member states — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam — adopted a Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment. They are currently in the process of drafting a regional plan of action to give it life. The right to a healthy environment as it’s usually called is now globally accepted as a fundamental human right. ASEAN first recognized this right in 2012 in the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration. In 2022, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the right in a virtually unanimous vote: 161 governments voted in favor, none against, and only eight abstained. At the national level, more than 100 countries now include it in their constitutions. Southeast Asia enjoys a rich natural heritage, like this coral reef in the Philippines, that supports the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. Image courtesy of Jett Britnell/Coral Reef Image Bank. At the same time, international tribunals and domestic courts have made strides in clarifying what the right requires. In July 2025, the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, issued an opinion on climate change in which it said the human right to a healthy environment is inherent and essential for other human rights, including…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Recently, the 11 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) adopted a Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment. - This is an important commitment to environmental justice for the 680 million people who call this region home, a new op-ed by the former U.N. special rapporteur on human rights and the environment states, but it needs to begin implementation, he argues. - “The next step — implementation — is even more crucial,” he writes. “The ASEAN region faces enormous environmental challenges, and too often governments have failed to protect the human rights of those who are on the frontlines of those challenges.” - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Removal of African elephants causes coextinction of dung beetles, study finds 11 Jun 2026 18:12:43 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/removal-of-african-elephants-causes-coextinction-of-dung-beetles-study-finds/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: David Brown content:encoded: A field experiment in Kenya shows that dung beetles disappear when the African elephants they depend on for their fecal food and shelter also vanish locally. This is the first time that coextinction, the disappearance of one species leading directly to the extinction of another species, has been demonstrated in a large-scale field experiment, according to a recent study. In 2008, the researchers built a set of 10,000-square-meter (2.4 acres) exclosures in Mpala, Kenya. The exclosures were a fenced area of natural savanna habitat that kept out certain animals. Some exclosures kept out elephants, simulating what would happen if elephants went extinct from the landscape. The research focused on the connection between elephants and dung beetles, which bury and consume the feces of larger animals. Dung beetles provide an essential ecosystem service of ensuring feces doesn’t pile up to contaminate the land and water, which reduces the density of biting flies. The beetles also help with nutrient cycling, which keeps the soil and ecosystems thriving. The researchers set out to see if removing elephant dung would affect the dung beetle community, and if it could lead to coextinction of some dung beetle species. The scientists, led by researcher Finote Gijsman, measured the dung preferences of 179 Kenyan dung beetle species and found that dung beetles love elephant dung. The team used modeling to predict that when elephants became locally extinct within the enclosures, 28% of dung beetle species would go extinct along with them. Their prediction was very close: 23%…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: A field experiment in Kenya shows that dung beetles disappear when the African elephants they depend on for their fecal food and shelter also vanish locally. This is the first time that coextinction, the disappearance of one species leading directly to the extinction of another species, has been demonstrated in a large-scale field experiment, according […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Brazil carves an Amazon national park to make room for grain railway 11 Jun 2026 18:06:16 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brazil-carves-national-park-to-make-room-for-grain-railway/ author: Alexandre de Santi dc:creator: André Schröder content:encoded: A ruling by Brazil’s Supreme Court has given new momentum to one of the most controversial infrastructure projects in the Brazilian Amazon: The Ferrogrão railway. The plan is to link Sinop, in the grain-producing state of Mato Grosso, to the port of Miritituba in Pará, a key commodity export hub on the Tapajós River. Conceived by the agribusiness sector to reduce grain transportation costs, Ferrogrão is a priority project for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration, despite warnings about its potential impacts on Indigenous territories and protected forests in an Amazon region already under significant socio-environmental pressure. In May, the justices upheld a 2017 law that removed 862 hectares (2,130 acres) from Jamanxim National Park, a conservation unit located in Pará state, to allow Ferrogrão to pass through the protected area. The initiative had been challenged on the grounds that Brazil’s Federal Constitution requires a formal law to reduce the size of protected areas, rather than the conversion into law of a provisional measure issued by the executive branch. “The STF decision does not give the green light to the Ferrogrão project, which still must undergo environmental studies and the licensing process,” said Alice Dandara de Assis Correia, an attorney at Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), a nonprofit that advocates for environmental and Indigenous rights. “But the courts have ruled that specially protected areas can be altered through an expedited process, an extremely dangerous shortcut that could pave the way for Congress to approve similar changes in other protected areas facing…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Brazil’s Supreme Court upheld a law removing 862 hectares (2,130 acres) from Jamanxim National Park, clearing a legal obstacle for the proposed Ferrogrão grain railway. - The lower house in Congress also approved a measure reducing another Jamanxim conservation unit; although, the bill still must be voted on in the Senate. - The project threatens Indigenous territories and key habitats for jaguars, giant otters and primates in an Amazonian region already facing extensive land grabbing and deforestation. - Experts warn the ruling could make it easier to reduce protected areas elsewhere in Brazil for future infrastructure and development projects. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
El Nino is here and scientists fear it’ll be big, bad and costly with heat, floods, droughts, fires 11 Jun 2026 17:10:22 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/el-nino-is-here-and-scientists-fear-itll-be-big-bad-and-costly-with-heat-floods-droughts-fires/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. meteorologists say an El Nino has formed. That’s the natural warming of parts of the Pacific that changes weather around the globe. It is likely to a major factor in extreme and deadly weather across the planet for the next year or so. The one announced Thursday is expected to rival the record and costly 1997-1998 El Nino. It is usually strongest in the wintertime, and it makes it incredibly likely that 2027 will set a record for the hottest year globally. The United Nations secretary-general says El Niño conditions will pour fuel on the fire of a warming world. By Seth Borenstein, Associated Press Banner image: Joe Chyuwei, right, Addison Black, front center, James Black, front left, and back row from left, Helen Chyuwei, Jameson Black, Grace Chyuwei and Grayson Black watch the sunset in the heat at Zabriskie Point, Aug. 3, 2025, in Death Valley National Park, Calif. Image courtesy of John Locher via Associated Press. This article was originally published on Mongabay description: WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. meteorologists say an El Nino has formed. That’s the natural warming of parts of the Pacific that changes weather around the globe. It is likely to a major factor in extreme and deadly weather across the planet for the next year or so. The one announced Thursday is expected to rival […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Jute waste may cut Bangladesh’s import bill as researchers make ink, graphene 11 Jun 2026 15:33:04 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/jute-waste-may-cut-bangladeshs-import-bill-as-researchers-make-ink-graphene/ author: Abu Siddique dc:creator: Md Jahidul Islam content:encoded: Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest producer and the top exporter of jute. The “golden fiber” is so abundant here that, in rural regions, piles of dried jute sticks are commonly burned as cooking fuel or used as low-cost fencing. Scientists have now found a way for this agricultural waste to become an unlikely solution to one of Bangladesh’s overlooked industrial dependencies — imported printing ink. A Bangladeshi-led research team has developed environmentally friendly ink using submicron carbon particles derived from discarded jute sticks. This is a potential low-cost alternative to imported commercial black ink. The innovation could help Bangladesh reduce import dependence in a market worth millions of dollars annually while creating new economic value from agricultural waste. The research, published in Chemistry: An Asian Journal in 2022, was led by Md Abdul Aziz, a Bangladeshi scientist at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Saudi Arabia. “We are trying to convert low-value biomass into advanced industrial materials,” Aziz told Mongabay. “But when we tried it with jute sticks, we were surprised. We have obtained better-quality ink from jute sticks, and it can reduce the cost by about 10 times compared with the import cost.” “Bangladesh produces huge amounts of jute sticks every year,” he said, and referred to the country’s raw jute production sometimes reaching 9 million bales (1.6 million tons) annually. “Instead of treating them as waste, they can become raw materials for sustainable technologies.” Jute plantation and harvest in Bangladesh. Image by Shahnoor Habib Munmun via…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A team of Bangladeshi researchers have found a way to transform agricultural waste into environment-friendly printing ink, which could reduce Bangladesh’s dependence on imported industrial materials. - The country currently imports nearly all its printing ink as its annual domestic market is worth around $245 million; a jute-based ink could reduce production costs by up to 10 times, the study suggests. - The innovation also uses a greener production process that recycles hazardous gases generated during biomass pyrolysis. - Beyond printing ink, researchers have also developed graphene from jute sticks, raising hopes that Bangladesh could enter the growing global market for nanomaterials. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Sri Lanka leopard deaths prevalent in region where humans and big cats overlap 11 Jun 2026 15:10:56 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/sri-lanka-leopard-deaths-prevalent-in-region-where-humans-and-big-cats-overlap/ author: Dilrukshi Handunnetti dc:creator: Malaka Rodrigo content:encoded: COLOMBO — The mist-covered tea estates, forest patches and mountain valleys of Sri Lanka’s hill country support some of the country’s most important leopard populations outside protected areas. Yet the same landscapes have emerged as the deadliest places for the threatened big cats of Sri Lanka. A new study analyzing 17 years of leopard mortality records has found that nearly 40% of recorded leopard deaths occurred within a single district of Sri Lanka’s Central Highlands, the tea-growing Nuwara Eliya, which accounts for only 4.4% of the species’ estimated range. The study, published in Wildlife Letters, documented 164 human-caused leopard deaths between 2008 and 2024. Most of the victims were adult males, with adults accounting for 87.3% of deaths, out of which 68.4% males made up 68.4% of that adult population. With fewer than 1,000 mature leopards believed to remain in Sri Lanka, deaths of adult leopards are raising concerns for the species’ long-term survival, as deaths of breeding-age individuals, even modest increases in adult mortality, can have significant impacts, said Sanjaya Weerakkody, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden. The majority of recorded deaths were of males, also problematic as the males maintain large territories overlapping with multiple females, which could lead to destabilize local populations, Weerakkody told Mongabay. A rare image of a mating leopard pair captured by a camera trap in the tea fields of Sri Lanka’s Central Highlands highlights that the human-dominated hill country tea landscape is habitat for Sri…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A recent analysis of 164 leopard deaths recorded between 2008 and 2024 shows that nearly 40% of deaths occurred in the central Nuwara Eliya district, which represents only 4.4% of the species’ estimated range in Sri Lanka. - Wire snares accounted for more than 60% of known leopard deaths, with most incidents occurring in plantation landscapes in the Central Highlands. - A separate study found that leopards living in Sri Lanka’s tea country rely primarily on wild prey rather than livestock, indicating these human-modified landscapes remain important habitat for the leopards. - As Sri Lanka joins the International Big Cat Alliance, scientists say conservation efforts must extend beyond national parks and address growing threats in plantation landscapes where many leopards now live and die. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
How an activist network built pressure without political power 11 Jun 2026 14:44:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-an-activist-network-built-pressure-without-political-power/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: When Rainforest Action Network began in 1985, it had little of what usually makes an organization powerful. It had no large budget, no legal department, no reliable access to politicians, and no formal way to force global corporations or development banks to change. It had Randy Hayes, a wide activist network, a way to connect distant forest destruction to everyday choices, and a willingness to use tactics that many mainstream environmental groups avoided. David Benac’s new book, Rainforest Radicals: A History of Rainforest Action Network and Transnational Organizing, tells the story of how that combination became effective. RAN’s early campaigns targeted Burger King over rainforest beef, True Geothermal in Hawai‘i, the World Bank over development projects, and Mitsubishi over tropical timber. These were different fights, involving different places, institutions, and coalitions. Together, they show how a small San Francisco-based group helped bring tropical deforestation, Indigenous rights, and corporate accountability into late twentieth-century environmental politics. Rainforest Radicals: A History of Rainforest Action Network and Transnational Organizing Benac, an environmental and public historian of the postwar United States, came to the subject indirectly. He was researching timber-industry history in the Pacific Northwest when he encountered the MacMillan Bloedel papers and a grassroots campaign against clear-cutting in British Columbia’s coastal rainforests. RAN appeared in the archival trail. That led him to Hayes, RAN’s co-founder, then to a larger oral-history project with activists, allies, and contemporaries. The result is a history built around interviews, archives, and a close look at how people organize when…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - David Benac’s Rainforest Radicals traces how Rainforest Action Network grew from a small San Francisco-based activist group into an influential force in rainforest protection, Indigenous rights, and corporate accountability. - The book follows RAN’s early campaigns against Burger King, True Geothermal, the World Bank, and Mitsubishi to show how the group linked distant forest destruction to everyday choices, public pressure, and corporate reputation. - Benac shows how RAN combined decentralized organizing, nonviolent direct action, media spectacle, boycotts, and long-term support for local and Indigenous-led campaigns. - The interview explores what RAN’s history can teach today’s environmental movements about leverage, persistence, outside solidarity, and the challenges that come when a radical network begins to win. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Environmental group intervenes in lawsuit to help orangutans, tigers in Indonesia 11 Jun 2026 13:08:49 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/environmental-group-intervenes-in-lawsuit-to-help-orangutans-tigers-in-indonesia/ author: Hans Nicholas Jong dc:creator: Hans Nicholas Jong content:encoded: JAKARTA — Indonesia’s oldest and largest environmental group, Walhi, has formally intervened in an environmental lawsuit filed by the government against a major logging company, arguing the government’s case fails to account for the full extent of ecological damage allegedly caused by the company’s operations. Walhi filed the intervention on May 20, 2026, in the Medan District Court, where the environment ministry is seeking 3.89 trillion rupiah ($214 million) in damages and environmental restoration measures against pulpwood plantation operator PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL). The environmental group is not arguing that the ministry’s damages claim is too small. Instead, it says the lawsuit overlooks key ecological impacts, such as critical orangutan and tiger habitats, that should also be addressed through court-ordered restoration. In January 2026, the environment ministry filed lawsuits against six companies over alleged damage to watersheds in North Sumatra province, which the government says contributed to the floods and landslides that struck the region in late November 2025 following cyclone-driven storms across Sumatra. The government also announced the revocation of the permits for TPL and 27 other companies in January 2026. TPL later disclosed to investors that it had received a forestry ministry decree dated Jan. 26 formally revoking its forest-use license, and that it had subsequently ceased forest-use activities within its concession. The floods and landslides struck three provinces on the island of Sumatra, including North Sumatra, and claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people. In its lawsuit against TPL, the environment ministry identified 1,261.5 hectares…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Indonesia’s largest environmental group, Walhi, has officially intervened in an environmental lawsuit filed by the government against major pulpwood producer PT Toba Pulp Lestari. - Walhi says the lawsuit overlooks key ecological impacts, such as critical orangutan and tiger habitats, that should also be addressed through court-ordered restoration. - TPL is one of dozens of companies whose forest-use licenses were revoked after their forest-clearing activities were blamed for exacerbating floods and landslides during torrential rains in late November 2025. - Walhi is asking that any funds recovered from the lawsuit be directed toward environmental restoration activities on the ground. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Four years to earn their trust: Habituating bonobos in DRC’s Salonga National Park 11 Jun 2026 10:56:06 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/four-years-to-earn-their-trust-habituating-bonobos-in-drcs-salonga-national-park/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: David Akana content:encoded: SALONGA NATIONAL PARK, Democratic Republic of Congo — Just before sunrise, while much of the rainforest remains cloaked in darkness, a team of researchers and trackers leaves the Inkomu research camp. Their destination is the previous night’s nesting site of a group of bonobos deep within the Salonga forest, located in the center of the DRC. Their mission is to persuade the bonobos (Pan paniscus) to accept human presence as a natural part of their environment. By earning the animals’ trust, researchers hope to create opportunities to better understand their behavior, ecology and health. This painstaking process, bonobo habituation, involves spending time near the apes day after day until they gradually become accustomed to people. It is a slow and demanding undertaking that can take years, requiring patience, consistency and thousands of hours in the forest. Long before dawn, often around 3 a.m., trackers — some of them former poachers whose knowledge of the forest has become an asset for conservation — begin making their way toward the previous night’s nesting site. They must arrive before the bonobos wake. Then begins an all-day pursuit through one of the most remote rainforests on Earth, following the apes from dawn until they build fresh nests for the night. “The whole idea of habituation is that you meet the group every day in a very friendly, non-interactive way so they accept you as part of the forest,” says Felix Bofeko, an assistant researcher working with a bonobo habituation program in Salonga National Park.…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In the heart of Salonga National Park, one of Africa’s largest protected areas, researchers are trying to earn the trust of wild bonobos, one of the continent’s most endangered great apes. - Conservationists say that habituation is a critical tool for protecting the species, allowing scientists to monitor their health, behavior and populations while strengthening long-term conservation efforts. - As the Democratic Republic of Congo confronts a renewed Ebola outbreak in its eastern region, park officials acknowledge the ever-present risk of zoonotic disease transmission. However, when conducted under strict biosecurity protocols, bonobo habituation offers significant conservation, scientific and ecotourism benefits that outweigh the risks. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Improved transport opens Mozambique’s forests to new pressures 11 Jun 2026 09:16:23 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/improved-transport-opens-mozambiques-forests-to-new-pressures/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Mkhululi Chimoio content:encoded: Up until 10 years ago, large sections of the road linking Malawi and Zambia to the Indian Ocean port of Nacala would become nearly impassable during the rainy season, with potholes, damaged bridges and traffic bottlenecks causing long delays along this regional transport artery across northern Mozambique. The Mozambique government has carried out major upgrades to transport infrastructure, but this may have come at the cost of accelerating deforestation across the region. Between 2017 and 2022, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the World Bank financed major transportation upgrades along the Nacala Corridor, centered on the 912-kilometer (565-mile) rail line linking coal mines in western Mozambique with ports on the Indian Ocean, as well as road upgrades, to lower costs and improve regional trade connections with Malawi and Zambia. “This project reduces the ‘penalty of remoteness’ that poorer households pay,” Romulo Cunha Correa, Mozambique country manager for the African Development Bank, told Mongabay in an interview. The AfDB has prioritized improvements to road and rail infrastructure across the continent, also backing projects linking Cameroon to the cities of Brazzaville and Kinshasa on the Congo River, and South Sudan to Indian Ocean ports in Kenya. But researchers studying this expansion of infrastructure have warned that the road upgrades can intensify deforestation and habitat loss. Women walk past a fish pond in Moatize, in Mozambique’s western province of Tete, in 2011. Image by Peter Fredenburg via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Manuel Mario Nazare, a conservationist with…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Between 2017 and 2022, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the World Bank financed road and railway upgrades along the Nacala Corridor in northern Mozambique. - Environmentalists warned that the expansion of transport infrastructure would likely drive forest loss across the corridor. - Figures for forest loss show accelerating deforestation in many parts of the corridor since completion of the transport upgrades in 2022. - The AfDB said it took steps to mitigate environmental harm, but observers said implementation of measures to balance protection of ecosystems with this type of development in Mozambique is weak. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
In Indonesia’s Lombok, fishers find food security tied to mangrove reforestation 11 Jun 2026 08:51:26 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-indonesias-lombok-fishers-find-food-security-tied-to-mangrove-reforestation/ author: Mongabay User dc:creator: Ahmad H. Ramdhani content:encoded: EAST LOMBOK, Indonesia — Jamil stood at the water’s edge holding a bucket of fish guts and chicken heads, waiting for signs of life as the late-afternoon sun cast a sheen over the pond. “At this time of day, they’ll start becoming active and feeding,” said Jamil, 63, as the onshore breeze settled and the light began to fade. “In the morning, they’re more likely to stay in their holes.” Until recently, the mud crabs (genus Scylla) were almost entirely a product of the wild here in Sugian village on the Indonesian island of Lombok. Fishers would set traps in the estuary and sell their catch to traders, with little incentive to spare juveniles or undersized animals. “If you sell them immediately when they’re small, they’re cheaper,” Jamil said. But when crab populations fell from overzealous fishing, so too did local earnings here in a region of Indonesia where many families struggle to remain together in the face of economic pressures. Mangrove roots provide shelter, stabilize temperatures, and support the microorganisms and nutrients on which mud crabs depend. Image by Nopri Ismi/Mongabay Indonesia. Few places in Indonesia endure more family separation than the district of East Lombok. Last year it topped the list of Indonesia’s more than 500 districts for the highest number of its residents who left for work overseas. The minimum wage set by the local government for this year is 2.7 million rupiah ($150), less than half that in the capital, Jakarta. Last year, around 14,000 people…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - On the east coast of Indonesia’s Lombok Island, local people who rely on the local crab fishery have initiated their own mangrove planting program in a bid to resuscitate failing crab habitats. - The system is known as a silvofishery, which integrates mangrove forests with aquaculture cultivation to raise productivity. - Instead of catching immature crabs from the coastline for quick sale, some local fishers have started to raise the crabs to adulthood alongside newly planted mangroves, garnering a higher price while overseeing a more sustainable population. - However, local officials say a lack of technical training means most silvofishery initiatives have been forged through trial and error, and that expanding the system could result in greater mangrove planting in addition to boosting purchasing power in subsistence communities. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
The search for climate-resilient coffee: Diversifying beyond Arabica and Robusta 11 Jun 2026 08:41:41 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/the-search-for-climate-resilient-coffee-diversifying-beyond-arabica-and-robusta/ author: Naina Rao dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: As rising temperatures, shifting rainfall, and increased pest pressure reduce yields and quality of Arabica and Robusta coffees, the two species that account for nearly all commercial production, researchers and growers are turning to overlooked coffee species for a more climate-resilient future, Mongabay-India contributor Meena Menon reports. Arabica (Coffea arabica) and Robusta (C. canephora) have long dominated the global coffee industry. Other coffee species such as Excelsa (C. dewevrei) were previously relegated to the margins of coffee plantations as boundary markers or shade trees in India. Akshay Dashrath, co-founder of the South India Coffee Company (SICC), is leading efforts to re-evaluate Excelsa for its potential resilience. According to the SICC, a British planter introduced Excelsa to India in the late 1800s as an alternative to Arabica. However, it grew tall and dense, making it an impractical crop to manage and commercialize. Dashrath’s farm in Kodagu district in Karnataka state has 60-year-old Excelsa trees that his family preserved, which are now a source for trials aimed at scaling production. His company is collaborating with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to do the research. Aaron Davis, a senior research leader at the Royal Botanic Gardens, said that the dominance of Arabica and Robusta in the global markets could see major disruptions in the next decade or so from other coffee crop species adapted to altered climates. Excelsa, native to parts of Tropical and West Africa as well as Southeast Asia, is already being scaled in Uganda and Vietnam. According to Kiwuka Catherine,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: As rising temperatures, shifting rainfall, and increased pest pressure reduce yields and quality of Arabica and Robusta coffees, the two species that account for nearly all commercial production, researchers and growers are turning to overlooked coffee species for a more climate-resilient future, Mongabay-India contributor Meena Menon reports. Arabica (Coffea arabica) and Robusta (C. canephora) have […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Cambodia wants its tigers back. So it plans to import Bengal tigers from India 11 Jun 2026 04:40:07 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/cambodia-wants-its-tigers-back-so-it-plans-to-import-bengal-tigers-from-india/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Cambodia is preparing to reintroduce tigers after nearly two decades without a confirmed wild population. The plan is ambitious, and many of its basic assumptions remain contested, report Mongabay India’s Arathi Menon and Mongabay contributor Andy Ball. The last confirmed tiger sighting in Cambodia came from a camera trap in 2007. By 2016, tigers had been declared extinct in the country. The animals were lost after years of poaching, snaring, habitat degradation, and trade in tiger parts. Those pressures remain. Cambodia’s Indochinese leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) was declared functionally extinct in 2023, and snares continue to threaten large mammals. The proposed reintroduction would use Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris) from India, released into Kravanh National Park in the Cardamom Mountains. Supporters of the program see a chance to restore an apex predator to one of Cambodia’s largest remaining forest landscapes. India has rebuilt its own tiger numbers over several decades, and Cambodia has approved a tiger action plan. A soft-release enclosure has already been built. The unresolved questions are ecological and political. Tigers need abundant prey. One 2020 study found only a low probability that the proposed landscape could support 25 adult tigers, though it might support a small founder population of five tigers. However, small populations face inbreeding risk and require sustained management. Wild pigs in the landscape may form much of the prey base, but experts disagree on whether current prey data…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Cambodia is preparing to reintroduce tigers after nearly two decades without a confirmed wild population. The plan is ambitious, and many of its basic assumptions remain contested, report Mongabay India’s Arathi Menon and Mongabay contributor Andy Ball. The […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
A ‘climate-ready’ corridor created for Kyrgyzstan’s snow leopards 11 Jun 2026 04:18:09 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/a-climate-ready-corridor-created-for-kyrgyzstans-snow-leopards/ author: Naina Rao dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: Kyrgyzstan has officially designated a massive stretch of its high-altitude landscape as a protected corridor for snow leopards and other mountain wildlife. The Ak Ilbirs ecological corridor, formalized in 2025, spans nearly 800,000 hectares (2 million acres) and was designed with the future climate in mind, Mongabay’s Liz Kimbrough reports. The corridor connects several existing protected areas in the country, as well as pastureland, forest and other ecosystems across 14 rural municipalities to ensure wildlife, including snow leopards (Panthera uncia), can move freely as climate change shifts their habitats. The project was spearheaded by the Central Asian Mammals and Climate Adaptation (CAMCA) initiative, led by the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) in collaboration with the Kyrgyz government, Humboldt University of Berlin, and local conservation groups including CAMP Alatoo and Ilbirs Foundation. Murat Zhumashev, director of CAMP Alatoo, said that while the Ak Ilbirs corridor carries official protected area status, it functions differently from most. “The ecological corridor in Kyrgyzstan is based on a regulatory rather than a restrictive approach,” Zhumashev and his colleague Salamat Zhumabaeva told Mongabay by email. “It builds on existing environmental legislation, but unlike strictly protected areas, it does not involve land withdrawal or the introduction of strict prohibitions.” To design the corridor, scientists at Humboldt University “applied a combination of expert local knowledge, climate predictions and technical expertise to build the narratives for the future scenarios,” Julieta Decarre from Humboldt told Mongabay by email. Under future climate emissions scenarios, more than 60% of suitable habitat for snow…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Kyrgyzstan has officially designated a massive stretch of its high-altitude landscape as a protected corridor for snow leopards and other mountain wildlife. The Ak Ilbirs ecological corridor, formalized in 2025, spans nearly 800,000 hectares (2 million acres) and was designed with the future climate in mind, Mongabay’s Liz Kimbrough reports. The corridor connects several existing […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Kenya is Africa’s first country to receive crucial climate disaster funding 11 Jun 2026 02:37:57 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/kenya-is-africas-first-country-to-receive-crucial-climate-disaster-funding/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Lynet Otieno content:encoded: Kenya became the first African nation to receive landmark climate disaster funding. It will be used to identify Kenyans who have suffered climate-related losses and damages during the last decade. The Sh90 million ($700,000) in funding comes from the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage, a Switzerland-based United Nations mechanism funded by voluntary contributions from developed countries and the international community. The Kenyan funding will be administered by the national government and used to identify Kenyan communities that have suffered losses as a result of climate-induced droughts, floods, crop failures and other extreme weather events. Festus Ng’eno, principle secretary for Kenya’s Environment, Climate Change and Forestry, announced the achievement at a recent U.N. climate meeting in Bonn, Germany. He said the assistance is a milestone as Kenya is only the second country globally to benefit from the fund. Vanuatu, a low-lying archipelago, was the first. In a Facebook post, the State Department for Environment and Climate Change in Kenya said, “Despite enduring some of East Africa’s most devastating climate shocks, Kenya has never fully measured the true scale of what has been lost. That is set to change.” “It is long overdue for countries on the frontline of the climate crisis to receive support to build resilience,” Fred Njehu, a Pan-African political strategist with Greenpeace, told the Daily Nation. “Kenya’s allocation points to shifting climate actions, from frameworks, roadmaps, and dialogues to actual implementation.” The funding comes as African countries continue to pursue climate justice and reparations from countries that…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Kenya became the first African nation to receive landmark climate disaster funding. It will be used to identify Kenyans who have suffered climate-related losses and damages during the last decade. The Sh90 million ($700,000) in funding comes from the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage, a Switzerland-based United Nations mechanism funded by voluntary contributions from […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Two pangolin traffickers in South Africa sentenced to eight years in prison 10 Jun 2026 19:51:05 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/two-pangolin-traffickers-in-south-africa-sentenced-to-eight-years-in-prison/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Spoorthy Raman content:encoded: The Molopo Regional Court in Mahikeng, South Africa, sentenced two wildlife traffickers, Edward Motlatsi Phiri, 46, and Tlhoriso France Ralph, 51, to eight years in prison. They were convicted of smuggling a Temminck’s pangolin, a vulnerable species native to Southern and Eastern Africa, according to a statement released by the North West province’s environment agency. The judgment, delivered on May 26, 2026, followed the arrest of four suspects on June 2, 2023, when law enforcement authorities, acting on a tip, intercepted a vehicle in which they were traveling and seized a live female pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) intended for sale. During the court hearing three years later, charges against two accused traffickers were withdrawn while Phiri and Ralph were found guilty. “This sentence sends a strong message that wildlife crime is a serious offense with devastating environmental consequences,” said Bitsa Lenkopane, with the Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism in the North West province, in a statement. “Every operation, every investigation, and every successful prosecution strengthen our collective fight against illegal wildlife trafficking.” Pangolins are trafficked for their scales, worth thousands of dollars on the black market. They are falsely believed to have medicinal qualities in East Asia. The demand has driven steep declines in pangolin numbers worldwide: Six of the eight species are classified as endangered or critically endangered today. Pangolins are also consumed as bushmeat in parts of Africa. These mammals are protected under South African law, which prohibits their possession, sale, display or transportation. Their international commercial trade…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The Molopo Regional Court in Mahikeng, South Africa, sentenced two wildlife traffickers, Edward Motlatsi Phiri, 46, and Tlhoriso France Ralph, 51, to eight years in prison. They were convicted of smuggling a Temminck’s pangolin, a vulnerable species native to Southern and Eastern Africa, according to a statement released by the North West province’s environment agency. […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
A blueprint for effective activism 10 years after defeating a dam in Borneo (analysis) 10 Jun 2026 18:59:56 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-blueprint-for-effective-activism-10-years-after-defeating-a-dam-in-borneo-analysis/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Jessica MerrimanJoe Lamb content:encoded: In October 2015, Indigenous activists from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Brazil, the United States, and Honduras, together with delegates from longhouse communities throughout the Malaysian state of Sarawak, gathered at Tanjung Tepalit, an Indigenous Kenyah village on the Baram River on the island of Borneo. They called the gathering WISER: the World Indigenous Summit on Environment and Rivers. Tanjung Tepalit hosted the gathering because the village, along with more than two dozen others along the river, was scheduled to be drowned. The Baram Dam, a 1,200-megawatt hydroelectric mega project backed by the Sarawak state government and aligned with a regional industrial development scheme called the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), would have flooded an area of more than 400 square kilometers (more than 150 square miles) and displaced an estimated 20,000 Kenyah, Kayan, and Penan people. Muslims, Catholics, Evangelicals, Buddhists, agnostics, and people who followed traditional Indigenous religions were among the attendees. As we gathered, Peter Kallang, the Kenyah founder and chair of the local advocacy group SAVE Rivers, addressed the assembly: “We are people of many faiths,” he said, “but we are united in one mission. To protect our forest homes and our ways of life.” In one sense the WISER gathering was a strategy meeting to coordinate an international coalition against a state-corporate project. In another, and perhaps deeper sense, WISER was rooted in something older. It was an assertion that the values that hold communities to their land across generations — the sanctity of the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Threatening to inundate hundreds of square kilometers of forest and displace thousands of people on the island of Borneo, the Baram Dam spurred a principled response from a coalition whose members endured threats and harassment while undertaking brave actions like maintaining a 26-month road blockade. - Ten years since Indigenous and local communities united with civil society organizations across the world to send that proposal down to a historic defeat, two leaders of one NGO that was key to the victory reflect on what helped the campaign succeed. - “While the Baram victory cannot be automatically replicated — since each river, each community, each political configuration is its own — the structure of the campaign’s Indigenous-led physical resistance, rigorous independent science, and international solidarity infrastructure that amplifies without supplanting local leadership has been reactivated in varying forms and sites of victory across the world,” they write. - This article is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Solar power hits new milestones in the US even as Trump boosts coal over clean energy 10 Jun 2026 18:57:28 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/solar-power-hits-new-milestones-in-the-us-even-as-trump-boosts-coal-over-clean-energy/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: Even as President Donald Trump boosts coal over clean energy, solar power is hitting new milestones in the U.S. and remains the leading source of new power. New reports released Wednesday by global energy think tank Ember and the Solar Energy Industries Association show the continued growth of solar and decline of coal in the United States despite federal policy. Ember says in May, for the first time, solar supplied more of the nation’s electricity than coal, or 12.8%. Coal supplied 12.2%, its fourth-lowest monthly share ever. The Republican president has been helping the struggling U.S. coal industry while curtailing solar and wind. A Democratic California congressman says the coal industry is dying. By Jennifer McDermott, Associated Press Banner image: Solar panels operate on a farm with cattle Tuesday, April 28, 2026, in Christiana, Tenn. Image by Joshua A. Bickel via Associated PressThis article was originally published on Mongabay description: Even as President Donald Trump boosts coal over clean energy, solar power is hitting new milestones in the U.S. and remains the leading source of new power. New reports released Wednesday by global energy think tank Ember and the Solar Energy Industries Association show the continued growth of solar and decline of coal in the […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
New study suggests Ethiopia’s protected areas may be impacting local wellbeing 10 Jun 2026 18:24:40 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/new-study-suggests-ethiopias-protected-areas-may-be-impacting-local-wellbeing/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Solomon Yimer content:encoded: A new study published in the journal Nature shows that Ethiopia’s protected areas successfully slowed deforestation, limited agricultural expansion and helped maintain grasslands. But the study also suggests the same conservation gains may also be linked to declines in food security and wellbeing for nearby communities — while underlining some caveats in their findings. The study, conducted through collaboration between researchers in Ethiopia and the UK, and the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority, assessed both environmental and social outcomes across 25 protected areas in Ethiopia during the period 2000–2020. They measured forest cover, agricultural expansion, grasslands, food security, dietary diversity and material wellbeing. While protected areas were broadly effective at reducing environmental degradation despite mounting pressures from population growth, agricultural expansion, and land demand, the researchers found “trade-offs” between environmental and social outcomes in their assessments. Twelve of these protected areas experienced positive environmental performance at the cost of social wellbeing. Meanwhile, five of the protected areas had “win-win” outcomes for biodiversity and social outcomes and three protected areas had “lose-lose” outcomes. “Ethiopia is exceptionally biodiverse, but also faces major challenges around poverty, food security and demand for land,” said Sophie Jago, lead author of the study and research assistant at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the UK. “The fact that protected areas are delivering measurable benefits for nature in this context is important … The difficult finding is that these environmental gains have come with costs for nearby communities, particularly around food security.” A ranger discusses with community members…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A Nature study finds Ethiopia’s protected areas significantly reduced deforestation and agricultural expansion between 2000-2020, showing stronger-than-expected conservation performance. - The study also identifies clear “trade-offs,” with households near many protected areas reporting lower food security and wellbeing, while a smaller share of sites achieved “win-win” outcomes for both people and nature. - “Win-win” outcomes that deliver better outcomes for both people and nature occurred in protected areas where conservation objectives were more closely aligned with local livelihood systems, said the authors, and is likely to require more than simply increasing protected area budgets. - Researchers say there are some important caveats to their estimates, such as difference in time periods for environmental and wellbeing data and a possible missing confounder but say they believe the results are overall robust. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
How silk caterpillars became a tool for conservation in Madagascar 10 Jun 2026 18:23:02 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-silk-caterpillars-became-a-tool-for-conservation-in-madagascar/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: When Catherine Craig first went to Gombe in 1972, she was not thinking about silk. She was an undergraduate in a four-seat plane with Jane Goodall, flying over the Tanzanian forest where Goodall’s work on chimpanzees was changing how scientists understood animals. Craig spent six months there, learning to recognize individual chimpanzees and helping track mothers and infants through the steep woodland above Lake Tanganyika. The forest stayed with her. So did the sight of people living nearby with few choices, and the later realization that even forests thought to be protected could disappear. Her path back to conservation was indirect. Craig became a biologist of spiders and silk, earning a Ph.D. in ecology and evolution from Cornell and later joining the biology faculty at Yale. For two decades, she studied webs, foraging behavior, insect flight, and the properties of silk. It was work at the level of fibers, mechanics, and evolution. Yet the question that had formed at Gombe remained: how could habitat be protected where people had few ways to earn money? The answer she pursued was both plain and difficult. If farmers could earn income from native silk-producing caterpillars and the plants that fed them, then habitat might become something worth tending. The idea drew on her scientific expertise, but it also required skills that science had not taught her: product design, marketing, patience, and the ability to listen across languages, cultures, and expectations shaped by past disappointments. Borocera cajani Vinson, 1863 family Lasiocampidae. Adult moth, caterpillar…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Catherine Craig’s conservation work began with field biology, from chimpanzees at Gombe to decades of research on spiders, silk, and insect behavior. - In Madagascar, she developed a conservation enterprise built around native silk-producing caterpillars, border forests, and new sources of income for farmers and artisans. The project’s endurance depended on Malagasy leadership, patient work with communities, and a willingness to adapt when markets, weather, and local needs changed. - After more than two decades, Craig stepped back from daily leadership, leaving the program financially secure and increasingly governed by the people who built it locally. - Craig spoke with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler in June 2026. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Sri Lanka’s recent drowning deaths linked to aftermath of extreme weather events 10 Jun 2026 18:09:58 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/sri-lankas-recent-drowning-deaths-linked-to-aftermath-of-extreme-weather-events/ author: Dilrukshi Handunnetti dc:creator: Kamanthi Wickramasinghe content:encoded: DEDURU OYA, Sri Lanka – On April 16, eight members of Priyantha Kumara’s family including his wife, son, brother, father-in-law, and four other relatives were swept away by strong currents in the Deduru Oya, a river in Sri Lanka’s North Western province. Sri Lanka Police reported more than 30 drowning deaths between April 12 and 21 this year, underscoring the risks posed by flooding rivers. Sri Lanka Police media spokesperson Udaya Kumara Wootler told Mongabay that 376 individuals have died due to drowning in rivers last year while 595 fatalities were reported in 2024. Buddhika Sampath, spokesperson for the Sri Lanka Navy told Mongabay that the Navy Diving Unit recovered 148 bodies of people between May 2022 and May 2023. While the police are yet to disclose official statistics of deaths due to drowning from January to May 2026, the number of reported incidents show over 50 fatalities. Kumara is a resident of Gopallawa in the northwestern district of Kurunegala. His son had requested that they all go for a bath in the river. The group had been bathing at a popular spot named Kuriyagas Mankada when they met the tragedy. “My son was only 13 years old, and he was a bright student,” Kumara told Mongabay. “My brother was about to hold a housewarming ceremony at his newly built house. But all these dreams were shattered within seconds. My father used to take us to this same spot to bathe when we were young. But the river has changed…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Sri Lanka recorded more than 50 drowning deaths in the first five months this year. - Faster currents on the outer banks of rivers can pull swimmers off balance, especially during the monsoon season when river discharge increases, researchers say. - Experts observe multiple factors including flash rains, more silt and eroding riverbanks that impact the river flow. - A 2020 study recorded how curvatures of critical meandering bends in Deduru Oya have increased between 1989 and 2021. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Four alleged wildlife traffickers arrested in Guinea, dried seahorses and shark fins seized 10 Jun 2026 14:49:53 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/four-alleged-wildlife-traffickers-arrested-in-guinea-dried-seahorses-and-shark-fins-seized/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Spoorthy Raman content:encoded: An undercover operation by Guinean authorities in the capital Conakry caught four men in possession of more than 2,000 dried seahorses and 26 kg (57 lbs) of shark and ray fins on May 22, 2026. According to a press release, the seizure was supported by the Guinea branch of the anti-wildlife trafficking NGO Eco Activists for Governance and Law Enforcement (EAGLE). EAGLE identified the arrested men as Daouda Camara, Thierno Sadou Bah, Sekou Soumah, and Abdoulaye Camara, all Guinean nationals aged between 20 and 55 years old. The NGO told Mongabay they are believed to be part of a transnational criminal network operating across West Africa. The network has been involved in smuggling wildlife for more than four decades, but none of those arrested were previously known to law enforcement authorities. Antonia Gustafsson, coordinator of EAGLE Guinée, said the alleged traffickers were trying to sell dried seahorses to Chinese nationals in the country, who would then illegally ship them to China. When authorities searched a storage facility linked to the traffickers, they found the stashed shark and ray fins. Shark and ray fins are key ingredients in shark fin soup, a delicacy in much of China and Southeast Asia. Dried seahorses are in high demand in China as they are used in traditional Chinese medicine preparations. Both products are high-value seafood and a highly lucrative trade: Prices for dried seahorses have peaked as high as $600/kg. Seized shark and ray fins, which were destined for export to China, where they…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Guinean authorities arrested four alleged wildlife traffickers and seized 41 kilograms of dried seahorses and 26 kilograms of shark and ray fins. - The suspects are thought to be part of a transnational criminal network operating in West Africa involved in smuggling protected marine wildlife for more than four decades, and now face 1-5 years in prison and fines. - The arrests were made when the accused were trying to sell seahorses to Chinese nationals in the country, who would then export them to China. - The seizure highlights the growing role of West Africa as a source of the illegal global trade in marine species protected under CITES, the international wildlife agreement. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
The long and winding road to safe highways: Inside the global movement to reconnect habitat 10 Jun 2026 12:03:34 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-long-and-winding-road-to-safe-highways-inside-the-global-movement-to-reconnect-habitat/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Ben Goldfarb content:encoded: One of the busiest highways in the western U.S. is I-25, a concrete artery that runs north to south across the state of Colorado, funneling roughly 100,000 cars per day through the fast-growing exurbs south of the capital, Denver. While I-25 facilitates human journeys, it disastrously truncates the movements of another set of commuters. For decades, mule deer, elk, black bears and other species have wandered onto the highway — with fatal consequences. Over a two-year period, from 2018 to 2020, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) tallied collisions with 76 deer, 15 bears and 10 pumas along a 14-mile (22.5-kilometer) stretch of asphalt. Moreover, the interstate’s walls of traffic deter many animals from even attempting to cross, preventing them from roaming between alpine forests and Colorado’s eastern prairies. Lately, however, this once-dangerous barrier has become far more accommodating to four-legged travelers. In 2021, Colorado completed the construction of five capacious, dirt-floored underpasses, flanked by more than 25 mi (40 km) of roadside fencing, to allow wildlife to meander safely and freely beneath I-25. A black bear approaches a vehicle on the Alcan (Alaska-Canada) Highway, possibly indicating how habituating animals to human food can lead to road conflicts. Image by Ben Goldfarb. And in December 2025, CDOT finished construction of an overpass, 200 feet wide by 209 long (61 by 64 meters), that arcs over six lanes of traffic near the town of Greenland. That makes it one of the largest human-made wildlife crossings on Earth. All told, CDOT says…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Across the globe, roads pose a deadly physical threat to wildlife and fragment the landscapes animals need to move through to survive. For some species, a road is a wall: They won’t even attempt to cross. - Decades of research have proved that wildlife crossings (underpasses and overpasses), combined with roadside fences, prevent deadly collisions, protecting both animals and people. - Crossings are part of larger efforts to reconnect shattered ecological corridors worldwide. Animals need to move to find food, water, a mate — and to escape more frequent, extreme wildfires and extreme weather events. - Some of the motivation in building and retrofitting wildlife bridges and underpasses involves public safety and economics. Crashes with large animals cost the U.S. economy more than $10 billion each year. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Evidence linking bats to Ebola inconclusive, scientist says. ‘Solution is not fear’ 10 Jun 2026 11:43:14 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/evidence-linking-bats-to-ebola-inconclusive-scientist-says-solution-is-not-fear/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: David Akana content:encoded: As the Democratic Republic of Congo grapples with another Ebola outbreak, bats have once again come under scrutiny as a possible reservoir for the virus. But according to bat ecologist Paul Webala, there is no conclusive scientific evidence linking bats to Ebola and the natural reservoir remains unknown. The current Ebola outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, a variant for which there are currently no approved vaccines or treatments, according to the World Health Organization. In this interview with Mongabay, Webala discusses why bats are often misunderstood, details the important ecological services they provide, and explains why habitat destruction may pose a greater risk for zoonotic diseases that spill over between animals and humans than bats themselves. Webala is a wildlife biologist at Maasai Mara University in Kenya who has studied bats for more than two decades. Rousettus aegyptiacus, commonly known as the Egyptian fruit bat, a widespread species found across much of Africa. Photo courtesy of Paul Webala. Mongabay: Many people immediately think of bats whenever there is an Ebola outbreak. Are bats unfairly stigmatized? Paul Webala: Bats are the second-largest group of mammals after rodents. Roughly 25% of all mammal species are bats. They play extremely important roles in ecosystems and are an integral part of biodiversity. Remove them, and entire ecological systems could begin to collapse. Unfortunately, bats are associated with many myths and misconceptions. Some communities associate them with death, evil spirits or bad omens. Because of these longstanding beliefs, bats have often been persecuted.…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has sparked efforts to develop a vaccine for this current strain, but has also brought renewed attention to the longstanding question of where the virus originates. - As scientists race to better understand and contain the Bundibugyo strain, they continue to search for the origins and transmission pathways of this virus, which has a 50-60% mortality rate in humans and has also wiped-out substantial numbers of gorillas and chimpanzees. - As with previous zoonotic disease outbreaks, bats are once again under scrutiny. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, bat colonies were destroyed in countries including India, Peru, and Cuba, while bats were culled in Indonesian markets and driven from urban areas in Rwanda amid fears about disease transmission. - While there have been no reported cases of bat culls linked to the current Ebola outbreak, Dr. Paul Webala, a wildlife biologist at Maasai Mara University in Kenya who has studied bats for more than two decades, cautions against such actions. He argues that bats play a critical ecological role and notes that the scientific evidence linking bats directly to Ebola outbreaks remains inconclusive. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Rhinos reintroduced to Indian park are breeding, but still need support 10 Jun 2026 10:26:36 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/rhinos-reintroduced-to-indian-park-are-breeding-but-still-need-support/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: Manas National Park in India’s Himalayan foothills was once home to some 100 Indian rhinos, almost all of which were wiped out by poaching by the late 1990s. After a campaign to reintroduce them, the population is growing and several calves have been born. But their recovery still needs active support, reports contributor Sneha Mahale for Mongabay India. Researchers followed the fate of 42 greater one-horned rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis) reintroduced to Manas in the state of Assam from 2006-2021. The rhinos arrived there in one of two ways: 22 wild rhinos were translocated from other protected areas in Assam, and 20 injured or orphaned rhinos were rescued and rehabilitated at a center, then released into Manas. The rhino reintroduction program is showing hopeful signs, the decade-long study found. Between 2012 and 2022, the researchers recorded 35 rhino births in Manas: 19 calves from translocated females, and nine from rehabilitated individuals. First-generation rhino females, born in Manas, also birthed five calves; the mothers of two more calves remained unidentified. “Breeding and calving are among the most important indicators that reintroduced rhinoceroses have adapted well to their new environment,” study lead author Deba Kumar Dutta, a wildlife biologist and member of the Asian Rhino Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, told Mongabay India. The study also found the two groups of rhinos settled in different parts of the national park. Translocated rhinos spread out over a larger area, often using remote or less-disturbed parts of the park, while…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Manas National Park in India’s Himalayan foothills was once home to some 100 Indian rhinos, almost all of which were wiped out by poaching by the late 1990s. After a campaign to reintroduce them, the population is growing and several calves have been born. But their recovery still needs active support, reports contributor Sneha Mahale […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Indonesia’s grassroots farmers face increased unpredictability, experts say 10 Jun 2026 02:13:06 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/indonesias-grassroots-farmers-face-increased-unpredictability-experts-say/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Naina Rao content:encoded: The intersection of environmental breakdown, climate change and economic instability has emerged as a primary threat to the resilience of smallholder farmers in Indonesia, according to researchers and local entrepreneurs who spoke at a recent convention. During the 2026 Asia Grassroots Forum, held in Jakarta on June 3 and 4, Alex Arnall, an associate professor for environment and development at the University of Reading, U.K., said climate change has become an “agent of exclusion,” creating a “double exposure” for farmers who must simultaneously navigate global market volatility and erratic weather. The Asia Grassroots Forum focused on building sustainable business ecosystems for smallholders. Previous research showed extreme weather events can affect farmers in southeast Asia by damaging crops, agricultural infrastructure like irrigation systems and farm equipment, and by increasing operational costs and reducing revenues. A 2024 report found that every 1% increase in average temperature raises the price of food production by 1% to 2% across Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. Researchers have also noted that smallholder farmers in the region face a massive financing gap, with less than one-third of the $100 billion needed annually for climate-smart adaptation, leaving them in urgent need of better access to credit, insurance and targeted financial support Drawing on his work with salt farmers in Thailand, Arnall described how even highly-skilled, traditional producers are seeing their knowledge “undermined” by sea-level rise and coastal change. “Farmers in many places … are losing trust in the weather patterns as they become more unpredictable,” Arnall…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The intersection of environmental breakdown, climate change and economic instability has emerged as a primary threat to the resilience of smallholder farmers in Indonesia, according to researchers and local entrepreneurs who spoke at a recent convention. During the 2026 Asia Grassroots Forum, held in Jakarta on June 3 and 4, Alex Arnall, an associate professor […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
U.S. defense spending on critical minerals surges in the last decade 10 Jun 2026 00:27:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/us-defense-spending-on-critical-minerals-surges-in-the-last-decade/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Aimee Gabay content:encoded: Over the past decade, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) spending for critical minerals transformed from virtually nonexistent into a major revenue stream, with the last five years delivering a dramatic surge in both contract volume and dollar value. The Pentagon and other defense-adjacent agencies’ growing appetite for these projects is already visible in affected communities. Several of these communities impacted by DoD-funded projects told Mongabay that state backing has fast-tracked approvals without essential environmental safeguards or meaningful consultation by companies. For this research, Mongabay aggregated information from the USAspending database — an official open data source of federal spending information — about U.S. Department of Defense grants spending on critical mineral projects for military purposes between 2015 and 2025. This figure excludes Pentagon contracts, which is a major way that the Department of Defense (DoD) spends its money. The actual amount is likely larger given that some projects may not be public due to national security reasons, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). We decided to focus only on grants, as other types of contracts are generally non-binding and do not guarantee federal spending. Mongabay found that the federal agency provided an estimated $621 million on grants for critical mineral projects for defense purposes over the period, according to the USAspending database. Between 2021 and 2025, the DoD secured 24 agreements worth nearly $550 million (549.7 million) — up from just $31.3 million for three contracts in the previous five-year period. It poured the most funding into lithium…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - U.S. Department of Defense grants for critical minerals between 2021 and 2025 was nearly $550 million, up from just $31.3 million in the previous five-year period, an investigation has found. - Lithium projects received the largest share of U.S. defense grants, followed by neodymium and boron combined projects, graphite and aluminum. - Members of communities affected by some of these projects told Mongabay that U.S. state backing has meant projects are being fast-tracked without the necessary social and environmental checks or meaningful consultation. - Experts say that increasing geopolitical pressure is transforming mineral supply chains, as well as trade patterns and relationships between countries, and could decrease the availability of minerals needed for the green energy transition. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Indonesia’s native hornbills are being hammered by online and offline trade 09 Jun 2026 23:35:20 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/indonesias-native-hornbills-are-being-hammered-by-online-and-offline-trade/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Spoorthy Raman content:encoded: Among the many inhabitants of Southeast Asia’s dense rainforests are hornbills — a group of birds that stand out with their raucous call, large, ostentatious beak and colorful feathers. Indonesia harbors 13 species, the most of any country in Asia, three of which are found nowhere else. Hornbills are rapidly losing their homes as large swaths of Indonesian forests are cut down to make way for plantations, mining, dams, cities and other development, or are scorched by wildfires. Trade in these birds also poses another serious threat. Hundreds of hornbills are entering the illegal trade in Indonesia, according to a new study published in the journal Wild, some of which are offered for sale online. They’re sold alive as pets or killed for their casques, the ivory-like appendages above their beaks, and their taxidermied heads, which are displayed as home décor. To understand the scope of this trade, researchers analyzed police and customs confiscation data and surveyed online ads from 2015 to 2025. They learned that this illegal commerce is widespread and involves every Indonesian hornbill species and some from Africa and the Philippines as well. Most birds were sold alive, suggesting they’re bought as pets. Facebook was the preferred online marketplace. “The scale of the hornbill trade in Indonesia is probably greater now than I’ve seen it in the past,” said study author and wildlife trade researcher Chris Shepherd from the U.S.-based Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s becoming, perhaps, trendier to keep hornbills.” Indonesia is infamous for its songbird…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Hundreds of live hornbills and their parts, including casques, heads and feathers, are illegally traded in Indonesia, some online, according to a new study. - Researchers reported that nearly 500 hornbills, most of them alive, were confiscated by Indonesian authorities from 2015 to 2024. The illegal commerce spanned seven countries. China was a prominent destination. - More than 500 of the birds, including chicks, were sold online for the pet trade. Facebook was the main marketplace. - As long-living, slow-reproducing birds, hornbills don’t bounce back easily from declines. Conservationists called on Indonesian authorities to enforce laws and prosecute those involved in the illegal trade. They also urged accountability for online platforms permitting this illicit activity. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
‘Climate Wayfinding’ can help you unpack the overwhelm of our ecological problems 09 Jun 2026 21:03:57 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/06/climate-wayfinding-can-help-you-unpack-the-overwhelm-of-our-ecological-problems/ author: Mikedigirolamo dc:creator: Mike DiGirolamo content:encoded: Katharine Wilkinson has a Ph.D. in geography and the environment, is well known for being a co-author of the book Drawdown and co-founder of The All We Can Save Project. She joins the Newscast this week to discuss her latest book Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home. As a journalist, it’s unhelpful for me to divorce myself from the topic of this interview, as I have experienced, time and again, the sense of “murky overwhelm” this book is specifically designed to address. But Wilkinson didn’t just write this book for journalists like myself who cover ecological crises for a living. She wrote it for readers and listeners like you. “I think we’re all in our own ways grappling with this increasingly mapless time, right? And that is quite literally true,” Wilkinson says. “‘Is there hope?’ and ‘What can I do?’ I think these are fundamentally navigational questions as much as they are questions of action.” What Climate Wayfinding does that I think is unique is it directly addresses the reader and takes them through a process of self-examination. Of sitting with the uncomfortable emotions one feels about our ecological crises, without judgment. And from that self-compassion, asking the reader to imagine the world they want to see instead and encouraging them to map out how they see themselves working to achieve it. It sounds relatively simple, but the work is real and, from my own experience, not unlike therapy. In my opinion, it’s a brave piece…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Katharine Wilkinson has a Ph.D. in geography and the environment, is well known for being a co-author of the book Drawdown and co-founder of The All We Can Save Project. She joins the Newscast this week to discuss her latest book Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home. As a journalist, it’s […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Experts say ‘bare bones’ US laws are unfit to regulate nascent deep-sea mining industry 09 Jun 2026 16:14:12 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/experts-say-bare-bones-us-laws-are-unfit-to-regulate-nascent-deep-sea-mining-industry/ author: Rebecca Kessler dc:creator: Elizabeth Claire Alberts content:encoded: This is part 2 of a two-part series examining the U.S.’s efforts to begin deep-sea mining in federal waters. Part 2 examines the regulations that would govern the industry. Part 1 explored the process behind proposed lease sales in U.S. federal waters and reactions to those plans. The deep-sea mining industry could launch in the near future in U.S. federal waters. Yet legal experts and former government officials warn that the regulations that would govern this industry are outdated and lack important oversight provisions. In April 2025, the Trump administration signaled its intention to enter the global race to mine the deep sea when it released an executive order calling for the development of the industry. Following the administration’s direction, in April 2026 the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) announced its plans to hold a series of seabed lease sales over the course of this year and into early next. The first one is slated for August in American Samoa, with subsequent lease sales planned for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Alaska. If these go forward, they could mark the first commercial lease processes for deep-sea mining anywhere in the world. Critics say deep-sea mining could cause large-scale and irreversible damage to the marine environment, and some governments in areas slated for leasing have even taken steps to ban deep-sea mining. In 2024, the governor of American Samoa enacted a moratorium on seabed mining from its territorial waters, which extend 3 nautical miles (5.6 kilometers)…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - As the U.S. government prepares to auction off slices of the seabed in federal waters, experts, including the former director of the federal agency overseeing deep-sea mining, say the regulations that would govern this activity are outdated and lack important oversight provisions. - The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management recently proposed revisions to its rules to streamline leasing and permitting, but critics argue these revisions would weaken oversight by reducing environmental review requirements and limiting opportunities for public input. - One expert also warned that the U.S. government’s classification of seabed resources as a source of critical minerals may increase the likelihood of exemptions from environmental protections. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Colombia passes landmark cattle traceability law to combat illegal deforestation 09 Jun 2026 15:57:59 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/colombia-passes-landmark-cattle-traceability-law-to-combat-illegal-deforestation/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Maxwell Radwin content:encoded: Colombia passed a landmark law June 4 aimed at improving traceability of its cattle supply chain to ensure beef isn’t sourced from deforested land. The law hopes to enhance existing traceability systems and make it easier to identify when cattle have grazed in protected areas and forests that were illegally cleared for pasture. “This is the most powerful tool for determining whether the meat people consume comes from deforested areas,” said representative Juan Carlos Losada, one of the law’s sponsors, in a post on X. About 54% of Colombia’s total land area is covered by forest, that’s roughly 60 million hectares (148 million acres). Deforestation has ebbed and flowed in recent years, declining in 2023, spiking in 2024 and then declining again in 2025. Cattle are always one of the main drivers. The country has over 29.7 million heads of cattle, according to last year’s estimates from the Colombian Federation of Cattle Ranchers. To better regulate the industry, lawmakers tried to pass traceability legislation in 2021 and 2022 but failed to move it through Congress. Another version took too long to reach a final debate in the senate, and expired in 2024. The effort began around the same time that the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) was passed. Once implemented, the law will require that companies trading with the EU demonstrate their cattle and other commodities weren’t sourced from deforested land. The law allows officials to establish “high surveillance zones” in deforestation hotspots. It includes the ability to implement special…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Colombia passed a landmark law June 4 aimed at improving traceability of its cattle supply chain to ensure beef isn’t sourced from deforested land. The law hopes to enhance existing traceability systems and make it easier to identify when cattle have grazed in protected areas and forests that were illegally cleared for pasture. “This is […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Kenya’s former Chief Justice David Maraga arrested at protest of national park construction 09 Jun 2026 15:47:56 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/kenyas-former-chief-justice-david-maraga-arrested-at-protest-of-national-park-construction/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s former Chief Justice David Maraga said he was arrested Monday alongside other activists protesting planned construction inside Nairobi National Park. Police fired tear gas canisters at the protesters who were marching outside the park while carrying banners with messages denouncing land grabs. Maraga was detained and later released while staging a sit-in on a major road outside the national park’s main gate. He was wearing a green T-shirt similar to those worn by other activists. The police have yet to comment on the reason for his arrest. Maraga wrote on X that he was arrested while heading to present a petition to the Kenya Wildlife Service. “Our national heritage and environment must be safeguarded from greed and unnecessary destruction without public participation,” he said. Hundreds of activists joined the protest against the planned construction inside the park and the relocation of an orphanage, calling it an attempt to grab public land. Kenya has experienced incidents of land grabbing in the past, and environmentalists have often spoken out when parks and other green spaces are encroached upon. Amnesty International in Kenya expressed solidarity with the protesters and called for members of the public to be included in decisions affecting the country’s environmental heritage. “We want to categorically state that Nairobi National Park is not for sale; our public spaces, our environment, and our rights cannot be traded away behind closed doors,” the rights group said. The Kenya Wildlife Service on Sunday defended the construction as part of a plan to…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s former Chief Justice David Maraga said he was arrested Monday alongside other activists protesting planned construction inside Nairobi National Park. Police fired tear gas canisters at the protesters who were marching outside the park while carrying banners with messages denouncing land grabs. Maraga was detained and later released while staging […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Urban wildlife is changing from the inside out (commentary) 09 Jun 2026 15:47:13 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/urban-wildlife-is-changing-from-the-inside-out-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: João Guerreiro content:encoded: Cities are expanding faster than at any point in human history, and wildlife is adapting in remarkable ways. We often talk about visible changes like animals becoming bolder, shifting their diets, or altering their daily rhythms to avoid people. But there is a deeper transformation happening inside their bodies, one that conservation science has barely begun to address: The reshaping of the gut microbiome. Urban ecosystems expose animals to a completely different set of pressures than their natural habitats. Artificial light, chronic noise, pollution, and human-derived food sources all interact to shape the physiology of wildlife rapidly. These pressures don’t just influence behavior from the outside, they alter the microbial communities that regulate digestion, immunity, stress responses, and even cognition, making key components of how animals evolve and adapt as “pressure cookers,” reducing diversity and decreasing overall health. When the microbiome becomes disrupted, a state known as dysbiosis, animals may become more anxious, more risk-taking, or more susceptible to disease. Urbanization is forcing this rapid adjustment of species not just through habitat loss, but by fundamentally changing their microbiota, and with that, things like foraging patterns and predator avoidance. In other words, urbanization may be shaping wildlife behavior from the inside out. Mule deer in Banff, Alberta. Image by Sharon Hahn Darlin via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Yet conservation strategies rarely consider this internal dimension. We focus on green spaces and habitat restoration, which are essential, but overlook how environmental stressors affect the microbial health of the animals we…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Cities are now home to wildlife like foxes, parrots, monkeys, raccoons, boars, and countless bird species, which are not temporary visitors, but permanent urban residents. - If we want to support their long-term survival, we need to understand how urban environments shape them at every level, from behavior to bacteria, and this includes their gut microbiome, which shapes behavior and other factors. - “The microbiome is not a niche scientific curiosity, it is a biological system that influences how animals eat, think, move, and cope with stress. And in a rapidly urbanizing world, it may be one of the most important and overlooked tools we have for understanding how wildlife adapts to human-dominated landscapes,” a new op-ed argues. - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Ancient Maya knowledge helps Guatemalan farmers cut agrochemical use 09 Jun 2026 11:05:08 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/ancient-maya-knowledge-helps-guatemalan-farmers-cut-agrochemical-use/ author: Alexandra Popescu dc:creator: Mark Hillsdon content:encoded: In the mountain villages of Guatemala’s Western Highlands, farmers are combining ancient Maya knowledge with modern sustainable farming techniques to protect their crops from pests and disease. Smallholders are creating homemade biopesticides using plants with strong smells and flavors to deter pests on their family plots. This is helping to cut back on the use of increasingly expensive agrochemicals, many of which have been labeled as dangerous to human health and linked to soil degradation. About 60 Guatemalan communities in the Western Highland departments of Sololá and Huehuetenango, as well as Chiquimula in the east, are working to revive these traditional techniques with support from the international development organization World Neighbors. Their focus is to restore and strengthen traditional knowledge, combining it with agroecological practices that help families produce surplus food they can sell to boost household incomes. “Traditional farming techniques are becoming popular because they are simple practices to apply, use local resources, and have proven to be effective,” Dayani Roche, a program associate at World Neighbors, told Mongabay via email. Rather than a single ancient recipe, farmers are using “a living combination of ancestral knowledge, local experimentation and more recent agroecological practices,” he said, which are “safer for families, soil, water and biodiversity than many chemical alternatives.” The Maya civilization, which once stretched across modern-day Central America, had a rich history of farming dating back to 2000 B.C.E. Its most celebrated agriculture system is the milpa, a form of intercropping that involves a mix of maize, beans and…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Guatemalan farmers are turning to organic pesticides, rooted in traditional practices and sustainable ideas, to replace expensive synthetic alternatives. - Using a mixture of locally available plants, and ideas about farming passed down by ancestors, they are creating natural pesticides to protect their plots. - Cheaper than agrochemicals, these biopesticides are safer to use and don’t cause the ecological damage associated with chemical use. - Although international interest in biopesticides is growing, agrochemicals still dominate the market. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Movement gives African rural women farmers a voice, but still battles landownership 09 Jun 2026 10:56:30 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/movement-gives-african-rural-women-farmers-a-voice-but-still-battles-landownership/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Charles Mpaka content:encoded: CHIRADZULU, Malawi — In Chiradzulu district in southern Malawi, 60 women who are members of the Rural Women’s Assembly grow fruits and vegetables alongside their staple crop, maize. In recent years, there’s been growing demand for their organically produced crops from buyers in the nearby city of Blantyre, Malawi’s commercial capital. The assembly’s chair in Chiradzulu, Diana Sitima, runs a 3.5-hectare (8.6-acre) organic farm here. She says when she started the farm in 1993, she used to take the produce to consumers in Blantyre. “Now they are coming to us. They say our produce has a good taste,” Sitima says. According to the women, the biggest obstacles they face as farmers is that they lack land titles and capital to invest in their farming. As members of the RWA, these are the issues they discuss at their meetings and bring to their local council and central government for solutions. Ester Samuel spreads maize to dry in Balaka, Malawi. Image by CIMMYT via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) In 1998, not long after she got married, RWA member Lonely Kholowa’s parents gave her a piece of land to cultivate. But after her father passed away in 2009 — her mother had died seven years earlier — her father’s older brother grabbed the land, arguing that according to their culture, she belonged to the family of her mother who came from Machinga district in the east of the country. Today, Kholowa farms land in her husband’s village elsewhere in Chiradzulu. “I don’t have…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Rural Women’s Assembly, which claims a membership of 170,000 women across Southern Africa, promotes agroecology as a strategy for its members’ autonomy and resilience. - One obstacle to the association’s members choosing this agricultural pathway is that relatively few women own the land they cultivate, limiting their decision-making power. - Rural development specialist Richard Mkandawire says enabling women who work the land to control it is key to resolving food security issues. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
In Sumatra, social forestry links conservation with livelihoods 09 Jun 2026 09:04:50 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-sumatra-social-forestry-links-conservation-with-livelihoods/ author: Isabel Esterman dc:creator: Basten Gokkon content:encoded: TANGGAMUS, Indonesia — When Sri Atmiatun arrived in the hills of the Batutegi region in southern Sumatra’s Lampung province in 2017, the coffee trees were already there, overgrown and neglected, slowly fading back into scrub. Her uncle had asked her to take over the plot. Sri agreed, trading years of labor on oil palm plantations in the central Sumatran province of Riau. Nearly a decade later, she still walks the same uphill path each morning. Now 45, Sri manages more than 3 hectares (7.4 acres) of land within the 1,400-hectare (3,460-acre) Sumber Makmur social forestry area. Sumber Makmur itself sits on the edge of the more than 80,000-hectare (198,000-acre) Batutegi forest landscape, where some areas are strictly protected while others are managed by communities through agroforestry systems. Under the social forestry program, the land remains state-owned, but local communities like Sri’s are granted the right to manage it for their livelihoods under rules designed to protect the forest and its ecological functions. “I stayed because this land feeds us,” Sri told Mongabay in early March. “If I leave, who will take care of it?” Sri’s story reflects a broader shift. Across the Batutegi landscape, land that was once cleared for coffee is now being restored and managed under Indonesia’s social forestry program. Legal recognition has given farmers access to support and training from the government and private organizations. In return, forest clearing and expansion into protected core areas have been reduced, allowing the forest to remain a safe habitat for…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Sri Atmiatun, a farmer in Indonesia’s Batutegi forest landscape, is among hundreds of community members participating in the country’s social forestry program, which grants legal access to state forest land while requiring sustainable management. - The program has expanded farmers’ access to training, support and diversified agroforestry systems, contributing to reduced forest clearing and greater conservation awareness, although challenges related to markets, institutions and farming practices remain. - Batutegi’s experience reflects both the opportunities and limitations of social forestry, as communities, government agencies and conservation groups work to improve livelihoods while preventing further forest loss. - The changes are also creating new roles for rural women, whose growing involvement in farming enterprises and community organizations is reshaping local economies and decision-making. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Illegal e-waste trade turns Bangladesh into net importer 09 Jun 2026 07:45:48 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/illegal-e-waste-trade-turns-bangladesh-into-net-importer/ author: Abu Siddique dc:creator: Sajibur Rahman content:encoded: In Bangladesh, poor oversight of unlawful cross-border trade in hazardous electronic waste continues, turning the country into a net importer of electronic waste. The country has rules to control e-waste. It is also a party to the Basel Convention and has introduced its own laws, like the Hazardous Waste (E-waste) Management Rules (2021). However, enforcement of these frameworks remains weak. Mongabay obtained and reviewed the document outlining Bangladesh’s import and export of e-waste, revealing key details on trade flows and regulatory gaps. The document, by the National Board of Revenue (NBR), shows that 40 companies imported e-waste under HS code 8549 — the international customs code for trading e-waste — at various times between 2022 and 2025, in apparent violation of the Basel Convention, an international treaty to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations. The textiles and apparel industry leads at 27%, or about one quarter, of all e-waste importers. No response from importers Mongabay reached out to Unilever Bangladesh Limited, one of the 40 e-waste importing companies and the only one that responded. Shamima Akhter, director of corporate affairs, partnerships & communications of Unilever Bangladesh Limited, said in an email on May 21, “We confirm that we have not imported any e‑waste or restricted items. The product concerned is a load cell, which is a precision measuring instrument, and the correct HS Code for this item is 90318, as declared in our import documentation. Any change to HS Code 8549 during the clearance process was made independently…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Bangladesh has become a net importer of e-waste despite being a signatory to the Basel Convention and having its own national e-waste rules in place. - Forty companies imported e-waste between 2022 and 2025, according to the National Board of Revenue, amid weak enforcement and poor oversight. - Limited recycling capacity and weak monitoring continue to fuel illegal imports and informal e-waste recycling in Bangladesh. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Why conservation urgently needs acoustic baselines 09 Jun 2026 00:32:45 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-sound-can-reveal-what-satellite-images-miss/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: From above, an intact forest can look reassuringly complete. A satellite image may show an unbroken canopy, a block of green still standing amid plantations, roads or logged land. For many conservation programs, that view has become the starting point for measurement. If the canopy remains, the forest is often treated as if much of its ecological value remains as well. The forest itself may tell a more complicated story. Birds, insects, frogs and primates divide the day among them. Some call at dawn, others at night. Some occupy narrow frequency bands; others fill the background with a steady rasp. A forest that looks intact can still lose part of this living structure. The canopy may close after logging. Carbon may remain on a balance sheet. The animal community may not return in the same form. Garnet Pitta. Photo by Hanyrol Hanyzan Ahmad Sah A new paper in Global Change Biology, by Zuzana Buřivalová and colleagues, examines that problem through sound. The study describes the Soundscape Baselines Project, an effort to record the acoustic signatures of some of the world’s remaining intact forests before those reference points become harder to find. The idea is straightforward. To know whether a forest has changed, one needs to know what it sounded like before the change. That baseline is not only a technical convenience. It is a guard against a familiar problem in conservation: each generation tends to accept the nature it first encountered as normal. Daniel Pauly called this shifting baseline syndrome…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A forest can appear intact from above while losing part of its animal community below the canopy. Satellite images and carbon accounting can miss these changes, making bioacoustics a useful way to detect whether a forest’s living rhythms remain intact. - The Soundscape Baselines Project, described by Zuzana Buřivalová and colleagues, is building acoustic reference points for intact forests before those baselines disappear. Its pilot sites span Brunei, Ecuador, Gabon, Germany, Peru, and the United States, using continuous recordings managed with local teams. - Acoustic monitoring can reveal changes that averages and visual measures obscure. In Gabon, logged forests could appear similar to baseline forests in coarse daily measures, but the timing and shape of dawn and dusk choruses showed important differences. - Bioacoustics has both promise and limits. Tools such as acoustic indices and BirdNET can expand conservation monitoring, but they require careful calibration, local knowledge, and transparent treatment of uncertainty if they are to support credible claims about biodiversity protection or recovery. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Taiwan’s tallest tree found with help of citizen science 08 Jun 2026 19:46:44 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/taiwans-tallest-tree-found-with-help-of-citizen-science/ author: Lizkimbrough dc:creator: Liz Kimbrough content:encoded: Deep in Taiwan’s misty mountains, researchers have confirmed the tallest tree in the country: a thousand-year-old fir tree higher than a 20-story building, which they’ve named “the heaven sword of the Da’an River.” Climbers scaled the tree and dropped a measuring tape from the top to the forest floor during the Lunar New Year holiday in January 2023. The tree measured 84.1-meters (276-feet). The findings have been published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. A team of ecologists, geologists, remote-sensing specialists, professional climbers and Indigenous people that calls itself the “Taiwan tree seekers” began the search in 2014. “The common characteristics [of the team] are probably that we are all tree lovers and like adventures,” Rebecca Chia-Chun Hsu, lead author from Division of Forest Ecology, Institute of Taiwan Forestry Research, told CNN. ‘The Heaven Sword’, Taiwan’s tallest tree, measures 84.1 meters. Photo courtesy of Steven Pearce. Taiwan is one of the few places on Earth where trees can grow this tall. The island sits where the tropics meet the subtropics, and its mountains host several giant conifer species. The species behind the new record, Taiwania cryptomerioides, is known to the Indigenous Rukai people as “the tree that hits the moon.” Although nearly 60% of Taiwan is covered in forest, loggers cleared much of the island’s old-growth forest between 1912 and 1991. However, its steep slopes were too dangerous to reach, and pockets of ancient forest survived. Still, finding the tallest tree amid the rugged terrain was a task. Taiwan…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Researchers have confirmed Taiwan’s tallest known tree: an 84.1-meter (276-foot) Taiwania fir they named “the Heaven Sword of the Da’an River.” - A team called the “Taiwan tree seekers” found it after a decade-long search using airborne laser scans of the island’s forests. - A group of 372 citizen scientists helped sort through the data, producing a map of 941 giant trees across Taiwan. - The giant trees store huge amounts of carbon but face growing threats from drought, lifting clouds, stronger typhoons, and illegal logging. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Sri Lanka bans single-use plastic bottles at government events, charges for plastic bags 08 Jun 2026 19:09:09 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/sri-lanka-bans-single-use-plastic-bottles-at-government-events-charges-for-plastic-bags/ author: Dilrukshi Handunnetti dc:creator: Malaka Rodrigo content:encoded: COLOMBO — Sri Lanka banned the purchase and use of single-use plastic water bottles in all government institutions effective May 31, under a new government circular that targets reduction of wasteful plastic consumption within the state sector. The move is the latest in a long line of attempts by the island nation to reduce plastic pollution — a crisis that clogs waterways, pollutes beaches, harms marine life, and overwhelms the country’s fragile waste management systems. But environmentalists say the real question is not whether Sri Lanka can announce another ban, but whether it can be enforced. The new directive applies to public institutions and is expected to reduce the routine use of disposable plastic water bottles during government meetings, events, offices and official functions. Authorities are encouraging reusable alternatives and better drinking water infrastructure within public institutions, says Kapila Rajapaksha, the director-general of the Central Environmental Authority (CEA), the state agency mandated to address plastic pollution. Sri Lanka’s plastic problem is growing exponentially. The National Plastic Waste Inventory (NPWI) published in 2024 has estimated the island’s municipal plastic waste generation to be approximately 250,000 metric tons per year. Sri Lanka recycles only about 27,000 metric tons of plastic waste annually, roughly 11% of total plastic waste generated. An estimated 68,000 metric tons, or 27% of plastic waste, remain uncollected and are often burned, buried or illegally dumped. Approximately 101,000 metric tons or 41% of the plastics go unaccounted from the waste management system during collection, transport, sorting and disposal. According…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In a bid to control the excessive use of plastic bottles, Sri Lanka banned single-use plastic water bottles at government institutions effective May 31 and recently introduced a mandatory fee for polyethylene shopping bags to discourage their use. - The Indian Ocean island generates an estimated 250,000 metric tons of plastic waste annually, but only a small fraction is recycled, with much of the waste ending up in landfills, waterways and the ocean. - Environmentalists say Sri Lanka has introduced several plastic bans over the years, but weak enforcement, poor recycling infrastructure, and consumer dependence on disposable products continue to undermine progress. - Experts warn that lasting solutions will require stronger implementation, better waste management systems, a shift toward reusable alternatives and a circular economy. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
A year on, Australia’s biggest harmful algal bloom continues to wreak havoc 08 Jun 2026 18:42:40 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-year-on-australias-biggest-harmful-algal-bloom-continues-to-wreak-havoc/ author: Autumn Spanne dc:creator: Nick Rodway content:encoded: PORT HUGHES, Australia — Situated midway along the Great Southern Reef that spans Australia’s southern coastline, the waters off Port Hughes typically teem with life. The coastal hamlet northwest of Adelaide plays host to a multitude of coral, bivalve and fish species. But in late March, the largest and longest harmful algal bloom (HAB) in Australian history arrived to Port Hughes, depleting its waters’ rich biodiversity. The bloom had first appeared elsewhere off the state of South Australia’s coast a year earlier, causing eye and skin irritation and respiratory symptoms among beachgoers. Then, along with waves of acrid-smelling sea foam, scores of dead marine animals began washing ashore. In Port Hughes, the HAB’s impacts were most visible below the surface. The town’s wooden jetty had previously been one of the most consistent locations in South Australia to observe temperate species, said Stefan Andrews, co-founder of the Great Southern Reef Foundation, a conservation advocacy group. But by mid-April, when Mongabay joined Andrews on a dive, the site was drab compared with vibrant photographs taken in February and March. Under the jetty, sponges and corals that had previously adorned its pylons in a brilliantly hued mosaic appeared colorless. Apart from a short-headed seahorse (Hippocampus breviceps) — a “sign of hope,” Andrews called it — little life was visible in the murky waters. The reef, he said, had become quieter, lacking the sounds of snapping shrimp and other creatures that once played in the underwater soundtrack. “There’s a sense of loss when you…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The largest and longest-lasting harmful algal bloom in Australia’s history, which started in early 2025, has potentially affected more than 20,000 square kilometers of ocean waters and about a third of the coasts in the state of South Australia. - The algal bloom has devastated marine ecosystems and caused significant economic losses in the local fishing, aquaculture and tourism industries. - As officials, researchers and communities grapple with its ecological, health and social impacts, the bloom has exposed a lack of preparedness at all levels of government for responding to future HABs. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
Huge ivory bust raises questions about follow-up investigations in Tanzania 08 Jun 2026 18:06:08 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/huge-ivory-bust-raises-questions-about-follow-up-investigations-in-tanzania/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Charles Mpaka content:encoded: A North Korean man is set to face trial in Tanzania this week following his arrest in April while in possession of 500 elephant tusks. Un Hyok Ra was arrested April 19 at a hotel in Dar es Salaam, and is scheduled on June 9 to answer to charges of unlawful possession of the ivory and intent to trade it. Tanzania is a signatory to CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, which requires parties to conduct forensic analysis of ivory seizures of 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) or more to determine where it came from. This is intended to support investigations that go beyond the typically low-level traffickers who are caught in possession. Tanzanian police did not respond to questions from Mongabay about the origins of the seized ivory or who Ra allegedly planned to sell it to. During an administrative hearing on May 28, prosecutor Florida Wancelaus told the court only that investigations are ongoing. Chris Morris, founder of wildlife crime monitoring group Saving Elephants through Education and Justice (SEEJ), based in neighboring Kenya, estimated that 504 tusks would weigh roughly 2,500 kg (about 5,500 lbs). In an email to Mongabay, he said law enforcement in the region does not always meet the CITES requirement to conduct DNA analysis on confiscated ivory. “It remains to be seen if Tanzania will comply with this directive,” Morris wrote. Morris, a former war crimes investigator, said Tanzanian authorities have often withheld information that would help sister agencies in the region and beyond trace…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A North Korean man arrested in a hotel in Dar es Salaam in possession of 500 elephant tusks will stand trial this week on charges of unlawful possession of the ivory and intent to trade it. - Observers note that arrests of traffickers in Tanzania are not consistently followed up with careful investigation and effective prosecution. - “Follow up investigations, including with international agencies and relevant stakeholders, are the key to unlocking data about the transnational actors, methods and routes involved in ivory trafficking and poaching dynamics,” said Rachel Mackenna, from the Environmental Investigation Agency. authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |
|
World Oceans Day: Marine protected areas surpass 10% mark in 2026 08 Jun 2026 16:16:35 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/world-oceans-day-marine-protected-areas-surpass-10-mark-in-2026/ author: Shanna Hanbury dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: World Oceans Day is celebrated every June 8 to raise awareness about the conservation of Earth’s oceans. In honor of World Oceans Day 2026, the United Nations is focused on marine protected areas (MPA), and the goal of protecting 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. The world collectively reached a third of the goal in April 2026, MPAs now cover 10% of oceans. Another 20% will need to be protected over the next four years to reach the 30% goal. New Marine Protected Areas The latest additions of MPAs included 284 marine or coastal protected areas in Indonesia and Thailand. This year, Ghana also declared its first MPA, the Greater Cape Three Points MPA, after more than 15 years of efforts. And in September 2025, Pakistan protected the key biodiversity hotspot of Miani Hor Lagoon, home to dalmatian pelicans (Pelecanus crispus) and great black-headed gulls (Ichthyaetus ichthyaetus). French Polynesia, a Pacific territory controlled by France, declared the world’s largest MPA in June 2025. It covers the archipelagos’ entire exclusive economic zone; 4.8 million square kilometers (roughly 1.9 million square miles) of ocean gained official protection with overwhelming local support. Some MPAs allow bottom trawling While there has been progress, experts have also highlighted that some MPAs do not have enough protection. Throughout Europe, many MPAs still allow bottom trawling, a damaging fishing practice that drags weighted nets across the seafloor. Though bottom trawling targets just a few commercially viable species, a recent study found such nets collect roughly 3,000 distinct…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: World Oceans Day is celebrated every June 8 to raise awareness about the conservation of Earth’s oceans. In honor of World Oceans Day 2026, the United Nations is focused on marine protected areas (MPA), and the goal of protecting 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. The world collectively reached a third of the goal […] authors: | ||
| Search Facebook | Check Twitter | |