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Saalumarada Thimmakka, mother of trees, has died, aged 114 15 Nov 2025 06:27:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/saalumarada-thimmakka-mother-of-trees-has-died-aged-114/ author: Rhett Butler 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. Along a dusty road between Hulikal and Kudur in southern India, banyan trees rise like sentinels. Their thick roots grasp the earth, their canopies stretch wide, casting deep shade over the red soil. Travelers who pass beneath them find little reason to wonder how they came to be, or who first pressed a sapling into the ground more than seventy years ago. Yet that green corridor—nearly four hundred trees strong—was the life’s work of a woman who owned almost nothing and asked for even less. She was born around 1911, in a village so small it barely warranted a name on a map. There was no school; she worked as a laborer in a quarry. She married young, to a man who stammered and shared her steady resilience. They were childless, a fact that in rural Karnataka brought more than sorrow—it brought shame. One day, she later recalled, the couple decided to plant trees instead, “and tend to them like we would our children.” So they did. In the dry season, they carried pails of water for miles to nurture their banyans. They fenced them from grazing cattle, shaded them from heat. In time, their “children” took root. Her name was Saalumarada Thimmakka—the epithet “Saalumarada,” meaning “row of trees,” bestowed by neighbors once her work transformed the landscape. Long after her husband died, she continued to walk the roadside she had greened, touching…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. Along a dusty road between Hulikal and Kudur in southern India, banyan trees rise like sentinels. Their thick roots grasp the earth, their canopies stretch wide, casting deep shade over the red soil. Travelers who pass beneath them […] authors: | ||
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UK court finds mining giant liable for decade-old dam disaster in Brazil 15 Nov 2025 03:27:34 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/uk-court-finds-mining-giant-liable-for-decade-old-dam-disaster-in-brazil/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: A U.K. judge has found that the Australian multinational mining company BHP is liable for a 2015 dam collapse in southeastern Brazil. The incident killed 19 people and unleashed at least 40 million cubic meters (1.4 billion cubic feet) of toxic mine tailings onto downstream towns and waterways for 675 kilometers (419 miles). In a Nov. 14 ruling, U.K. High Court judge Finola O’Farrell found that negligence, carelessness or lack of skill led to the collapse of the Fundão tailings dam. Located in the city of Mariana in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, the dam failure is considered one of the largest environmental disasters in Brazilian history. “The risk of collapse of the dam was foreseeable,” O’Farrell wrote in her 222-page ruling. “It is inconceivable that a decision would have been taken to continue raising the height of the dam in those circumstances and the collapse could have been averted.” More than 610,000 people, along with 32 Brazilian municipalities and around 1,400 businesses were represented in the court case against BHP, making it the largest environmental class action lawsuit in U.K. history. BHP owns 50% of Samarco, the company that operated the tailings dam; the other half is owned by state-owned Brazilian mining company Vale. “The judge’s decision shows what we have been saying for the last 10 years: It was not an accident, and BHP must take responsibility for its actions,” said Gelvana Rodrigues, a local resident whose 7-year-old son, Thiago, was killed in the mudslide. Her statement was shared…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: A U.K. judge has found that the Australian multinational mining company BHP is liable for a 2015 dam collapse in southeastern Brazil. The incident killed 19 people and unleashed at least 40 million cubic meters (1.4 billion cubic feet) of toxic mine tailings onto downstream towns and waterways for 675 kilometers (419 miles). In […] authors: | ||
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Mongabay Fellows share their ‘Letters to the Future’ 14 Nov 2025 22:43:01 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/mongabay-fellows-share-their-letters-to-the-future/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Karen Coates content:encoded: This is a short commentary by Mongabay fellowship editor Karen Coates. Uncertainty and hope — these sentiments prevail in a series of commentaries published by the latest cohort of Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellows as they conclude their program and forge new paths into environmental journalism. Uncertainty centers on the future of our planet, the journalists who cover it and the people who defend it. Hope resides in youth and the power of truth in storytelling. It’s the hope part that I especially want to highlight. For the past six months, enterprising early-career journalists from Brazil, Colombia, India, Malaysia, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo convened in a virtual program. Despite never meeting in person, this group gelled. They formed new bonds, united in their passion for Planet Earth. They shared thoughts and fears that resonated across continents. And they emerged with a deep sense of responsibility to work for a better future. That is my hope; the inspiration that feeds my soul. Between May and October, each fellow worked through intensive trainings, field and desk reporting and the rigors of Mongabay’s editing processes. Each produced a range of reports on conservation, climate and biodiversity in their regions. You can read them all on our website. Click on their bylines for their archives. To capture their parting thoughts, the fellows have published commentaries, which are collected in a series titled Our Letters to the Future: Fernanda Biasoli (Brazil) writes about finding hope in the young generations that will…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Uncertainty and hope — these sentiments prevail in a series of commentaries published by the latest cohort of Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellows as they conclude their program and forge new paths into environmental journalism. Uncertainty centers on the future of our planet, the journalists who cover it and the people who defend it. […] authors: | ||
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AI data center revolution sucks up world’s energy, water, materials 14 Nov 2025 18:49:47 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/ai-data-center-revolution-sucks-up-worlds-energy-water-materials/ author: Glenn Scherer dc:creator: Gerry McGovernSue Branford content:encoded: In 2024, the state of Querétaro in north-central Mexico suffered its worst drought in a century, impacting crops and communities. Seventeen of the state’s 18 municipalities were affected, putting drinking water access at risk for thousands of families, according to CONAGUA, Mexico’s National Water Commission. With freshwater already diminished due to worsening climate change, Querétaro residents now fear a more calamitous future, with the announcement that 32 new data centers — the physical facilities needed to satisfy humanity’s insatiable desire for Internet-sourced data — planned for the state. Most recently, on Sept. 25, U.S. tech firm CloudHQ announced plans to spend $4.8 billion building Mexico’s biggest ever “hyperscale” data center campus in Querétaro, most likely for cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) computing. It appears likely the state will emerge as Mexico’s data center capital, with a strong emphasis on AI capabilities. The Querétaro growth spurt has angered some local activists, who argue authorities have their priorities wrong, elevating the needs of transnational corporate tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon, above those of local communities. “Water is what’s needed for the people, not for these industries,” campaigner Teresa Roldán says. Environmentalist Teresa Roldán Soria (left), is aiding local residents in an area known as Los Sabinos in the municipality of Pedro Escobedo in Querétaro state, Mexico. Here she joins with local people to defend a spring and age-old ahuehuete (Taxodium mucronatum) trees against development. The ahuehute, also known as the Montezuma cypress, is Mexico’s national tree. Image courtesy of Teresa Roldán…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Data centers are springing up across tropical Latin America, Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Africa. But these facilities are often unlike those of the recent past. Today’s advanced data centers are built to provide artificial intelligence (AI) computing capacity by Big Tech companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon. - As large AI data centers proliferate, they are competing for water, energy and materials with already stressed tropical communities. National governments frequently welcome Big Tech and AI, offering tax breaks and other incentives to build AI complexes, while often not taking community needs into consideration. - Aware that fossil fuels and renewables by themselves likely can’t handle the astronomical energy demands posed by AI mega-data centers, Internet companies are reactivating the once moribund nuclear industry, despite intractable problems with radioactive waste disposal. - Voices in the Global South say that AI computing (whose producers remain principally in the Global North) is evolving as a new form of extractive colonialism. Some Indigenous people say it is time to question limitless technological innovation with its heavy environmental and social costs. authors: | ||
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Researchers find evidence of elephant poaching in remote Bangladesh forest 14 Nov 2025 17:46:02 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/researchers-find-evidence-of-elephant-poaching-in-remote-bangladesh-forest/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Bobby Bascomb content:encoded: Communities living around a remote, mountainous forest in southeastern Bangladesh, close to Myanmar, have reported cross-border incidents of elephant poaching for years but there was no confirmed evidence. A new study has now documented the first known physical signs of elephant poaching in the forest. The Sangu-Matamuhuri Reserve Forest in southeastern Bangladesh, bordering Myanmar’s Rakhine state, is rich in biodiversity and a critical habitat for a variety of wildlife, including Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus), golden jackal (Canis aureus) and the endangered Asian elephant (Elephas maximus). “The Sangu–Matamuhuri landscape is a uniquely important region. Elephants were once common here, but over time their population declined,” Sourav Chakma, lead author of the study, told Mongabay in an email. The surviving elephants retreated to the sparsely populated border with Myanmar where hunting pressure was lower, Chakma said. “Contradictorily, however, the remoteness of the region and its scattered settlements also facilitate access to hunting from both sides of the border, much of which goes unreported and poses a significant threat,” he added. Bangladesh’s Sangu-Matamuhuri forest has been the apparent site of recent elephant poaching. Map by Andrés Alegría/Mongabay. A team of four visited the reserve forest from April 23-25 and found signs of elephant activity including elephant footprints, dung and evidence of foraging. They estimate elephants had been in the area 2-4 months earlier, which tracks with local reports that elephants use the region during the local dry season, from November to March, the authors write. The team also found evidence of poaching:…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Communities living around a remote, mountainous forest in southeastern Bangladesh, close to Myanmar, have reported cross-border incidents of elephant poaching for years but there was no confirmed evidence. A new study has now documented the first known physical signs of elephant poaching in the forest. The Sangu-Matamuhuri Reserve Forest in southeastern Bangladesh, bordering Myanmar’s Rakhine […] authors: | ||
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Climate leaders warn of ‘overshoot’ into warming danger zone 14 Nov 2025 17:28:47 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/climate-leaders-warn-of-overshoot-into-warming-danger-zone/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: BELEM, Brazil (AP) — After years of pushing the world to limit Earth’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, climate leaders are starting to acknowledge that the target set by the 2015 Paris Agreement will almost surely be breached. But they’re not conceding defeat. They are hopeful that temperatures can eventually be brought back below that limit in a concept called “overshoot.” United Nations officials and scientists emphasize the importance of this goal. They warn of irreversible changes if the limit is breached permanently, including threats to coral reefs and ice sheets. The world is on track for significant warming, but efforts to reduce emissions and develop carbon removal technologies offer hope for the future. By Seth Borenstein, Associated Press Banner image: Indigenous peoples Samuel Pinedo, from left, Cline Jorge Chauca Lopez and Teresita Irene Antazu Lopez speak on fires and droughts in the Amazon at the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 10, 2025, in Belem, Brazil. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)This article was originally published on Mongabay description: BELEM, Brazil (AP) — After years of pushing the world to limit Earth’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, climate leaders are starting to acknowledge that the target set by the 2015 Paris Agreement will almost surely be breached. But they’re not conceding defeat. They are hopeful that temperatures can eventually be brought back below that […] authors: | ||
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Massive turtle bust in Mexico reveals ‘Wild West’ of wildlife trafficking 14 Nov 2025 17:25:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/massive-turtle-bust-in-mexico-reveals-wild-west-of-wildlife-trafficking/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Spoorthy Raman content:encoded: In undercover raids carried out in late September, Mexican authorities discovered 2,339 wild-caught turtles crammed into bins in five locations in Jalisco and Baja California states. Along with the live reptiles, they found a massive stash of other illegal wildlife products that are coveted as delicacies in East Asia: 1,569 kilograms (3,459 pounds) of sea cucumbers, 1,188 kg (2,619 lbs) of shark fins, and 39 kg (86 lbs) of totoaba swim bladders. The seized goods were valued at 134 million pesos ($7.3 million). They were destined for the U.S. and East Asia, according to Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office. Authorities arrested three people and charged them with running an organized wildlife trafficking network through an unnamed Guadalajara-based company. The seizure — the largest since 2020, when authorities nabbed 15,000 turtles in Mexico City, also destined for China — highlights the scale of this illicit activity. It was the result of a 10-month-long operation, launched after 55 critically endangered Vallarta mud turtles (Kinosternon vogti) were stolen from a university lab in the city of Puerto Vallarta in January 2025. But this operation had a notable difference, said Taggert Butterfield, the scientific director at the turtle conservation nonprofit Estudiantes Conservando la Naturaleza (Students Conserving Nature) in Mexico. “This is the first major bust where the government used intelligence [gathering] and collaboration with other agencies to make a significant confiscation.” One of the more than 900 Tabasco mud turtle (Kinosternon acutum) seized by authorities. These turtles are a local delicacy in Mexico, despite being…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A sting by Mexican authorities in September uncovered more than 2,300 live, wild-caught freshwater turtles and other valuable wildlife products. Three men were arrested and charged with wildlife crimes. - Vallarta mud turtles, the world’s smallest and the most imperiled in the Western Hemisphere, were among the eight species seized by authorities. All are in high demand as pets, and were headed for the U.S. and Asia. - Smuggled under horrific conditions, nearly half of the turtles seized in this raid died; the rest are being cared for at Guadalajara Zoo. - This operation highlights rampant turtle smuggling in Mexico, home to the second-most turtle species on the planet. Conservationists urge officials to tighten law enforcement and intelligence gathering to combat trafficking that threatens the survival of the country’s wildlife. authors: | ||
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Reindeer numbers may fall by more than half by 2100 as Arctic warms: Study 14 Nov 2025 14:22:41 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/reindeer-numbers-may-fall-by-more-than-half-by-2100-as-arctic-warms-study/ author: Shanna Hanbury dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: Global reindeer populations could fall by more than half by 2100 due to the impacts of climate change, including the shrinking of their habitats, according to a recent study, Mongabay’s Sonam Lama Hyolmo reports. Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), known in North America as caribou, live only in frozen tundra and boreal forests near the Arctic, and are estimated at 2.4 million individuals today. Following a 40% decline in their numbers over three generations, the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, listed the species as vulnerable in 2016. The new study says the global reindeer population could drop by a further 58% by 2100 in a business-as-usual, high-emissions climate scenario, with the species’ range shrinking by an estimated 46%. In July 2025, several reindeer deaths were reported during a heat wave in Norway, Sweden and Finland that broke several temperature records. Locals also spotted reindeer in local towns, searching for water and refuge from the heat and insects. Researchers found that human-induced climate change made the heat wave at least 10 times more likely and 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) hotter. In Finland, the Indigenous Sámi people, the only recognized Indigenous people in the European Union, told Hyolmo that the heat wave was made worse by logging of old-growth forests and NATO military expansion in the northern part of the nation. The grazing lands for their semidomesticated reindeer herds are shrinking. “When forests are logged, the tree-hanging lichen, the primary winter food of reindeer, is lost,” Osmo Seurujärvi, a Sámi herder in Inari,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Global reindeer populations could fall by more than half by 2100 due to the impacts of climate change, including the shrinking of their habitats, according to a recent study, Mongabay’s Sonam Lama Hyolmo reports. Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), known in North America as caribou, live only in frozen tundra and boreal forests near the Arctic, and […] authors: | ||
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As Indonesia turns COP30 into carbon market showcase, critics warn of ‘hot air’ 14 Nov 2025 13:34:56 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/as-indonesia-turns-cop30-into-carbon-market-showcase-critics-warn-of-hot-air/ author: Hans Nicholas Jong dc:creator: Hans Nicholas Jong content:encoded: BELÉM, Brazil — As governments debate how to mobilize trillions of dollars in climate finance, Indonesia is using the COP30 climate summit in Brazil to aggressively promote its carbon market — a system that experts say remains dogged by weak rules, questionable integrity, and uncertain climate benefits. Inside the packed Indonesian pavilion in Belém, carbon trading dominates the agenda. On Nov. 10, Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq opened the pavilion by instructing his delegation to push hard for Article 6, the Paris Agreement mechanism that enables countries to trade carbon credits. “Whenever you enter negotiation rooms, don’t forget to convey our mission. We are serious in pushing for the implementation of Article 6,” he told officials. Indonesia, he added, should return home “with commitment [from other parties to buy] carbon credit that’s quite high [from that of other countries].” Beginning Nov. 11, the government launched a daily “Sellers Meet Buyers” session, where Indonesian state-owned companies and private project developers pitch credits to international investors. Hanif invited foreign companies to join Indonesia’s bid to “lead the global carbon market.” The commercial momentum continued on Nov. 13, when Indonesia and Norway signed a nonbinding expression of intent that could allow Norway to buy credits generated from Indonesia’s grid-connected renewable energy projects under Article 6.2. The revenue, Indonesia says, will fund floating solar installations. The government’s ambitions are enormous. It claims 13.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in potential carbon credits. If accurate, this would make Indonesia one of the biggest…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Indonesia is using the COP30 climate summit to aggressively market its carbon credits, launching daily “Sellers Meet Buyers” sessions and seeking international commitments 6 despite unresolved integrity issues in its carbon market. - Experts warn Indonesia’s credits risk being “hot air,” since its climate targets are rated “critically insufficient,” meaning many claimed reductions may not be real, additional or permanent — especially in forest-based projects. - Forest and land-use credits, Indonesia’s biggest selling point, are among the riskiest, with high risks of overcrediting, leakage and nonpermanence; ongoing fires and deforestation further undermine credibility. - Environmental groups say the carbon push distracts Indonesia from securing real climate finance, enabling wealthy nations to offset rather than cut emissions, while leaving Indonesia vulnerable to climate impacts and dependent on a fragile market. authors: | ||
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Sloth selfies are feeding a booming wildlife trafficking trade 14 Nov 2025 13:15:58 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/sloth-selfies-are-feeding-a-booming-wildlife-trafficking-trade/ author: Xavier Bartaburu dc:creator: Fernanda Wenzel content:encoded: It’s not easy to find a sloth in the middle of the forest. They spend most of their time in the tree canopy and are masters of camouflage, thanks to their slow movements and the algae attached to their fur, which makes them blend in with the color of the leaves. Once identified high up, however, these animals become easy prey. Hunters cut down the tree, and within seconds, the animal is on the ground. In their eagerness to defend their young, mothers often are killed by the hunters. The young animals have their claws and sometimes even their fingertips cut off before becoming tourist attractions or exotic “pets.” The exploitation of sloths by the tourism industry has intensified in recent decades, perhaps due to their peaceful appearance and the impression that they are always smiling, which has earned them the nickname Miss Congeniality of the Amazon. Many travelers crossing South American countries want to take photos next to them, and some even decide to take a baby sloth home, fueling a wildlife trade that’s as lucrative as it’s cruel. “That ‘smile’ hides immense suffering,” says biologist Neil D’Cruze, strategic research leader at Canopy, an international environmental advocacy organization. “These animals undergo extreme stress when they are handled, confined or exposed to noisy crowds. They are not physiologically suited for this type of treatment,” says the researcher, who conducted studies in South America on the exploitation of these animals. Few babies resist such stress. In the case of smaller young…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The apparent docility and friendliness of “smiling” sloths have made them tourist darlings, but have also put a target on their backs. - The rise in trafficking of these animals led the governments of Brazil, Costa Rica and Panama to propose stricter rules for the international trade of two sloth species; the goal is to prevent them from becoming threatened with extinction. - Cruel practices used by traders condemn most animals to death, with sloth babies separated from their mothers and subjected to unbearable levels of stress. - In the Brazilian Amazon, tourism companies encourage customers to take photos with sloths, and the government fears the smuggling of animals to neighboring countries. authors: | ||
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Newly described ‘lucifer’ bee found visiting critically endangered plant in Australia 14 Nov 2025 11:17:39 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/newly-described-lucifer-bee-found-visiting-critically-endangered-plant-in-australia/ author: Hayat Indriyatno dc:creator: Shreya Dasgupta content:encoded: In 2019, researcher Kit Prendergast was surveying the insects visiting an incredibly rare plant in the Bremer Ranges of Western Australia when a bee grabbed her attention. Prendergast and her colleague dug deeper and found that the native bee, now named Megachile lucifer, is a new-to-science species, according to a recent study. The species name refers to the female’s large, devil-like horns. “The female had these incredible little horns on her face,” Prendergast, the study’s lead author from Curtin University, Australia, said in a statement. “When writing up the new species description I was watching the Netflix show Lucifer at the time, and the name just fit perfectly. I am also a huge fan of the Netflix character Lucifer so it was a no-brainer.” Prendergast collected specimens from among bees that were visiting flowers of both the critically endangered plant Marianthus aquilonaris and the more common wandoo mallee (Eucalyptus livida). Both plants are found only in Western Australia state. She compared the specimens with similar bees in museum collections and didn’t find a match. A DNA barcoding test also didn’t turn up a match with any known species in existing bee genetic databases, confirming the species was new to science. One of the collected specimens turned out to be a male M. lucifer. Unlike the female, it didn’t have any horns. “This is the opposite of the situation in much of the animal kingdom, where the males are more likely to be armoured,” Prendergast writes in The Conversation. The description…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: In 2019, researcher Kit Prendergast was surveying the insects visiting an incredibly rare plant in the Bremer Ranges of Western Australia when a bee grabbed her attention. Prendergast and her colleague dug deeper and found that the native bee, now named Megachile lucifer, is a new-to-science species, according to a recent study. The species name […] authors: | ||
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From rock music to rainforests: Akhyari Hananto’s unlikely path to impact 14 Nov 2025 05:24:14 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/from-rock-music-to-rainforests-akhyari-hanantos-unlikely-path-to-impact/ 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. Before dawn breaks over Surabaya, Indonesia’s “City of Heroes,” Akhyari Hananto is already at work. After morning prayers, he opens Google Analytics to watch the night’s reading patterns unfold — what stories drew attention, which headlines resonated, and where curiosity faded. “That information often determines how I’ll prioritize my work for the rest of the day,” he says in an interview. By sunrise, he has already drafted ideas to reenergize audiences across the archipelago. As multimedia manager for Mongabay Indonesia, Hananto operates at the crossroads of creativity, data and strategy. His role blends production, design and analytics. On any given day, he might be editing videos, managing social media channels or translating data insights into editorial tactics. “Everything I do connects to one central mission,” he says, “ensuring that Mongabay’s environmental journalism reaches, engages and resonates with audiences across Indonesia.” That mission carries urgency in a nation of 280 million people whose forests, peatlands and coral reefs are among the most biodiverse, and most threatened, on Earth. For Hananto, who joined Mongabay in 2014, the work is deeply personal. “As an Indonesian, it’s impossible not to care,” he says. “These issues are unfolding right here, on our own islands.” His path to journalism was unconventional. A university student in Yogyakarta during the grunge era, he fronted a Pearl Jam-inspired rock band before entering banking, then humanitarian work after a devastating 2006 earthquake. Later,…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. Before dawn breaks over Surabaya, Indonesia’s “City of Heroes,” Akhyari Hananto is already at work. After morning prayers, he opens Google Analytics to watch the night’s reading patterns unfold — what stories drew attention, which headlines resonated, and […] authors: | ||
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Small grants are key to a successful next generation of conservationists (commentary) 14 Nov 2025 02:00:47 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/small-grants-are-key-to-a-successful-next-generation-of-conservationists-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Paul Barnes content:encoded: In a meeting room in a head office in London, a handful of early-career conservationists from around the world sat in a circle on the floor to share their challenges of working in conservation. The conversation was sobering. From affording everyday bills, juggling multiple unsecured jobs and dealing with burnout to harassment in the field, threats by extractive industries and abduction by narcotic gangs, the breadth of burdens on these young emerging leaders was astonishing. After three more similar workshops hosted by the project I lead — the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) EDGE of Existence program — and fast-forward a year, my inbox holds 1,700 applications for our annual fellowship call, a bewildering demand for perhaps 10 places and all for roles that encounter the burdens described in the workshops. This kind of demand is not unusual; I’ve heard similar ratios for other fellowships and small grant schemes. In the same month, numerous blows to funding pipelines for organizations, both large and small, worldwide, have surfaced. Now, like many others, we find ourselves facing a sharp juxtaposition: an overwhelming demand from talented, dedicated teams working on urgent conservation projects that are ready for implementation, contrasted with decreasing, fragile and unpredictable upstream funding. Many young conservationists like Lucero Vaca, shown here conducting a jaguar study, have struggled to make a career in the sector, yet as she told Mongabay in 2017, “If we stop underestimating people based on their age and [help] young conservationists [carry] out their innovative ideas, we…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Large numbers of early-career conservationists and fledgling organizations are poised to implement solutions to the biodiversity crisis, but the prevailing funding logic isn’t adapting fast enough to support them. - Small grants can make a huge difference in this moment, as they are fast, flexible and comprehensible to people on the ground doing local conservation work, especially when unhinged from onerous restrictions and reporting requirements. - “We must support the next generation of conservation leaders to ensure they have viable career paths that do not come at the expense of burnout,” a new op-ed argues. “Small grants must step forward, not as charity, but as infrastructure for resilience.” - This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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‘Green’ energy transition leaves a dirty trail in the Philippines’ nickel belt 14 Nov 2025 00:04:41 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/green-energy-transition-leaves-a-dirty-trail-in-the-philippines-nickel-belt/ author: Isabel Esterman dc:creator: Bong S. Sarmiento content:encoded: MINDANAO, Philippines — Communities living near mining operations in the southern Philippines’ Caraga region are feeling the toll of the global energy transition, with nickel mining driving deforestation and pollution, according to a recent report. Climate Rights International (CRI), the U.S.-based NGO behind the report, highlighted harms to the environment, local livelihoods and public health linked to nickel mines. People have also been killed or harassed for speaking out against nickel mining projects in the area, the report said. The Philippines has consistently been ranked as one of the deadliest countries for land defenders. Caraga, on the island of Mindanao, is touted as the “mining capital of the Philippines,” with 26 operating metallic mines, 23 of them nickel — a key element in batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage technologies. “Harms to local communities and the environment are being driven by the individual and cumulative activities of nickel mining projects,” CRI said. The region’s nickel production is concentrated in the provinces of Dinagat Islands, which has 10 active mines, and Surigao del Sur, with six active mines. These mines cover 24,221 hectares (59,851 acres) in the Dinagat Islands and 17,614 hectares (43,525 acres) in Surigao del Sur. Because these mines operate in close proximity to each other, CRI says it’s difficult to attribute the negative impacts experienced by frontline communities to specific companies. But according to the group’s interviews with 57 residents and workers, San Roque Metals Inc. (SRMI), Oriental Vision Mining Philippines Corporation (OVMPC) and Libjo Mining Corporation…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Nickel mining in the southern Philippines is damaging the environment and health and livelihoods of local communities, according to a recent report from U.S.-based NGO Climate Rights International. - The report looked at the Caraga region on the island of Mindanao, where 23 active nickel mines currently operate. - Residents interviewed for the report cited siltation of rivers, farms and coastal areas as damage caused by nickel mines, as well as dust pollution during the dry season. They also listed human rights violations against people opposed to the mines. - The vast majority of nickel mined in the region is exported to China. authors: | ||
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Cacao rush fuels conflict and deforestation in southeastern Liberia 13 Nov 2025 23:56:57 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/cacao-rush-fuels-conflict-and-deforestation-in-southeastern-liberia/ author: Shanna Hanbury dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: Soaring cacao prices over the last three years are fueling deforestation and conflict in Grand Gedeh county of Liberia, in West Africa, Mongabay staff writer Ashoka Mukpo reported. Satellite imagery by Global Forest Watch indicates that forest loss in and around Grand Gedeh, which borders the neighboring nation of Côte d’Ivoire in southeastern Liberia, has spiked dramatically since the beginning of 2025. The price of cacao rose from $2.30 per kilogram ($1.04 per pound) in 2022 to $7 ($3.18 per pound) in October 2025. That’s a drop in price from the early 2025 peak price of $10.73 per kilo ($4.88 per pound). The dramatic spike in value has fueled a migration of cacao workers from Côte d’Ivoire into Liberia. Nearly 50,000 rural workers have moved to Grand Gedeh, many with experience in the cacao industry. These migrants now make up more than 20% of the county’s population, which was around 217,000 in 2022. “Some of our friends who came to Liberia earlier called us and we saw messages on our phones,” one migrant worker from Cote d’Ivoire told Mukpo. “They told us that the forest is open in Grand Gedeh, so that’s how we started coming to Liberia.” Community leaders and local elites are reportedly offering these migrant workers 20-300 hectares (50-740 acres) of land to set up cacao plantations. Landowners keep 60% of the proceeds from cacao, while the workers take 40%. “The situation is alarming. They are really destroying the forest on a massive scale,” Yei Neagor, an…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Soaring cacao prices over the last three years are fueling deforestation and conflict in Grand Gedeh county of Liberia, in West Africa, Mongabay staff writer Ashoka Mukpo reported. Satellite imagery by Global Forest Watch indicates that forest loss in and around Grand Gedeh, which borders the neighboring nation of Côte d’Ivoire in southeastern Liberia, has […] authors: | ||
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Rare parrots return to Atlantic Forest fragment after decades of silence 13 Nov 2025 22:07:50 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/rare-parrots-return-to-atlantic-forest-fragment-after-decades-of-silence/ author: Lizkimbrough dc:creator: Liz Kimbrough content:encoded: Twenty brilliantly colored red-browed amazons took flight over a reserve holding one of the few remaining intact swaths of Atlantic Forest in Brazil. The green-and-red parrots had been missing from Alagoas state for generations. In January 2025, the birds returned home. Researchers say releasing the red-browed amazons (Amazona rhodocorytha) will help the species rebound and restore a dying ecosystem. Only 3% of the Atlantic Forest remains in Alagoas, according to Luiz Fábio Silveira, deputy director of the University of São Paulo’s Museum of Zoology, making it one of the most threatened ecosystems on Earth. The Atlantic Forest fragments in Alagoas are failing because the animals that spread seeds have disappeared. According to Silveira, without these creatures, trees that depend on animals to spread their seeds are dying and being replaced by trees whose seeds travel on the wind. The release into a thousand-hectare forest reserve in Coruripe, outside of the state capital, Maceió, is part of the Project for the Evaluation, Recovery and Conservation of Endangered Birds (ARCA), which Silveira leads. Red-browed amazons (Amazona rhodocorytha) before their release in to the Atlantic Forest fragment in Alagoas. Photo courtesy of Luiz Fábio Silveira. “It’s not just the animals, but their sounds that are returning to the forest,” Silveira told Mongabay, describing videos sent by community monitors showing flocks of red-browed amazons flying through the reserve. Resembling large lovebirds, red-browed amazons were once common enough to be among the first birds recorded when the first Europeans made landfall in what is today…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Twenty red-browed amazons were released in January 2025 in a forest reserve in Alagoas, Brazil, where only four wild individuals remained after the species was driven to near-extinction by illegal trade and deforestation. - The ARCA project aims to restore ecological processes in the Atlantic Rainforest, which today covers just 3% of its historical range in Alagoas — the result, in part, of the loss of seed-dispersing animals. - The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Alagoas shifted from reactive to preventive environmental protection in 2017, facilitating partnerships between scientists and private land owners to create a network of private reserves covering more than 5,000 hectares (12,400 acres). - Between 2010 and 2020, Brazil’s Atlantic Forest lost an area the size of Washington, D.C., in mature trees each year, despite federal protection laws. authors: | ||
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Strategic ignorance, climate change and Amazonia (commentary) 13 Nov 2025 20:51:35 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/strategic-ignorance-climate-change-and-amazonia-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Philip M. Fearnside content:encoded: We all know that “ignorance of the law is no excuse,” but in daily life, ignorance of the consequences of one’s actions is, indeed, an excuse that shields us from our own discomfort or from condemnation by others, even for the most serious of offenses. One is reminded of Jesus Christ on the cross asking the Lord to forgive the Roman soldiers who were in the act of killing him, “for they know not what they do.” When it comes to climate change and Amazonia, denial and claimed ignorance are commonplace. If global warming escapes from human control with the crossing of a tipping point within the global climate system, Amazonia (and Brazil as a whole) would be devastated. Not only would the Amazon Rainforest and its vital environmental services be lost, but much of the region’s human population would perish during unprecedented heat waves (see here, here, here, here and here). Tipping points in the global climate and for maintaining the Amazon Rainforest are interconnected. If the Amazon collapses, the resulting release of greenhouse gases would push the global climate past its tipping point, and if global warming escapes from control due to continued burning of fossil fuels, the Amazon would soon succumb. One would therefore expect Brazil’s leaders to be laser-focused on preventing these tipping points from being passed. But instead, with the exception of the efforts of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA) to control illegal deforestation (note: only that which is illegal), essentially all…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - With the support of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, essentially all of Brazil’s government outside of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change is promoting actions that push us toward tipping points, both for the Amazon Rainforest and the global climate. - Crossing any of these tipping points would result in global warming escaping from human control, with devastating consequences for Brazil that include mass mortalities. - The question of whether Brazil’s leaders understand the consequences of their actions is relevant to how they will be judged by history, but the climatic consequences follow automatically, regardless of how these actions may be judged, a new op-ed argues. - This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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Ecuador freezes bank accounts of Indigenous leaders, land defenders 13 Nov 2025 18:29:27 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/ecuador-freezes-bank-accounts-of-indigenous-leaders-land-defenders/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Kimberley Brown content:encoded: Since September 2025, dozens of Indigenous leaders and organizations, land rights activists and nonprofits in Ecuador have reportedly been unable to access their funds, after a state institution blocked their bank accounts. Judges have recently ordered the government to lift the freeze on a few accounts, but most remain in place. The bank account freezes come at a time of protests, rising social tensions, and President Daniel Noboa’s repeated warnings against organizations he says seek to topple the government. Just weeks before, the National Assembly passed a new law, advertised as a tool against organized crime, that monitors and regulates the finances of NGOs, nonprofits, foundations and social movements operating in the country. Sources say their accounts were frozen without warning or explanation. While some account freezes have been lifted, many have remained in place for over six weeks. Indigenous leaders say this has created a hazard for their assemblies, environmental efforts and other social organizing. The Ministry of Interior denied Mongabay’s various requests for comment, stating via WhatsApp that “this topic is with the UAFE [Financial and Economic Analysis Unit, the body in charge of investigating suspected money laundering cases].” Neither the UAFE, Ecuador’s superintendency of banks, nor the attorney general’s office responded to requests for an interview. Protest in Ecuador, September 24, 2025. Image by to La Raiz / Lanceros Digitales. The national Indigenous federation CONAIE was the first to denounce bank account freezes on Sept. 19, the day after they announced a national strike to protest President…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Dozens of bank accounts that belong to Indigenous leaders and organizations, land rights activists and nonprofits in Ecuador have been reportedly frozen for weeks, by order of the state. - Sources told Mongabay their accounts froze suddenly without warning or explanation. Some have gone over six weeks, unable to access their funds, saying it has drastically affected their mobility. - The freezes come at a time of social protests and rising tensions in the country, and ahead of a controversial referendum in November that will ask citizens if they want to re-write the country’s constitution. - The freeze on some bank accounts have been lifted with help from lawyers. However, dozens remain in place. authors: | ||
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What’s at stake for the environment in Chile’s upcoming election? 13 Nov 2025 18:12:05 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-chiles-upcoming-election/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Maxwell Radwin content:encoded: Chileans will go to the polls on Nov. 16 to vote for a new president, 23 Senate seats, and all 155 seats in the lower Chamber of Deputies. The elections could be a deciding factor in how the country addresses a number of ongoing environmental issues, including the renewable energy transition, constitutional rights for Indigenous groups, and the development of its mining sector, most notably energy transition minerals like copper and lithium. Chile has protected more than 20% of its land mass and more than 40% of its waters, and last year passed legislation with a special focus on peatlands, a major carbon sink. But it’s still short of meeting its 30×30 targets, part of the Global Biodiversity Framework to protect 30% of land and water by 2030. The country is also dealing with land disputes in southern regions like Araucanía and Biobío, where Indigenous Mapuche groups often reject logging, agribusiness and an ineffective land titling process for ancestral territory. Earlier this year, the Presidential Commission for Peace and Understanding delivered a final report with recommended solutions to the land disputes, but implementation will be up to the next president. The world’s top copper producer and second largest of lithium, Chile is also a major player in the global energy transition. In recent years, numerous mining operations have been accused of abusing freshwater sources and endangering vulnerable species, raising questions about whether the country needs tighter oversight. The current president, Gabriel Boric, the millennial progressive who promised systemic change when elected in 2021,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Chileans will go to the polls on Nov. 16 to vote for a new president, 23 Senate seats and all 155 seats in the lower Chamber of Deputies. - The elections could be a deciding factor in how the country addresses a number of ongoing environmental issues. - Candidates range from the left-wing Jeannette Jara to conservatives José Antonio Kast, Johannes Kaiser and Evelyn Matthei. - Whoever wins will have to address the clean energy transition, ongoing land disputes with Indigenous groups, and a controversial mining sector that has clashed with local communities. authors: | ||
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Sea anemones and hermit crabs form a mutualistic relationship in Japan 13 Nov 2025 17:05:51 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/sea-anemones-and-hermit-crabs-form-a-mutualistic-relationship-in-japan/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Bobby Bascomb content:encoded: Japanese researchers have described a new species of sea anemone that appears to share a mutually beneficial relationship with hermit crabs. The pale pink sea anemones, now named Paracalliactis tsukisome, were found attached to the shells of hermit crabs (Oncopagurus monstrosus). The researchers described the anemone based on 36 specimens that fishing trawlers collected between 2017 and 2024 from various locations off the coast of Japan at depths between 192 and 470 meters (630 and 1,542 feet). The anemones, the team observed, were all attached to the tops of hermit crab shells and spatially oriented in the same direction. “3D CT imaging revealed a consistent, unidirectional attachment pattern near the shell’s opening, suggesting a basic sense of orientation,” Akihiro Yoshikawa, the study’s lead author from Japan’s National Museum of Nature and Science, told Mongabay by email. The anemone’s asymmetry and sense of orientation were unusual because sea anemones, like starfish, usually display radial symmetry, meaning a line drawn through their middle can divide the animals into halves many different ways, like slicing a pie. Radial symmetry allows anemones to interact with their environment from all directions equally. P. tsukisome “can form asymmetric, snail-shaped structures—a phenomenon extremely rare in evolutionary terms,” Yoshikawa said. “This finding offers valuable insight into how simple animals perceive spatial orientation and could provide a model for studying early forms of body asymmetry.” The team’s analysis found that anemones feed partly on the waste of their host, hermit crabs, and on surrounding organic particles. So, the hermit crabs…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Japanese researchers have described a new species of sea anemone that appears to share a mutually beneficial relationship with hermit crabs. The pale pink sea anemones, now named Paracalliactis tsukisome, were found attached to the shells of hermit crabs (Oncopagurus monstrosus). The researchers described the anemone based on 36 specimens that fishing trawlers collected between […] authors: | ||
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Global Energy Outlook sees promise in Africa’s power transition — funds permitting 13 Nov 2025 16:31:08 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/global-energy-outlook-sees-promise-in-africas-power-transition-funds-permitting/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: David Akana content:encoded: The World Energy Outlook 2025, released Nov. 12 by the International Energy Agency (IEA), portrays an African continent where energy demand is surging, but access and investment continue to lag. According to the IEA, Africa’s population is expanding at twice the rate of the global average — and with it, energy demand is expected to increase by more than 50% by 2040 under current policies. Yet 600 million Africans still live without electricity, and millions more face chronic outages. Africa’s energy growth is accelerating, but access remains highly unequal, the report notes. Average electricity use per person on the continent is roughly one-sixth of the global average, despite rising urban and industrial needs. The IEA warns that this imbalance risks locking communities and businesses into cycles of energy poverty unless policy reforms close the gap between energy generation and affordability. The IEA credits Africa with expanding solar and wind capacity at its fastest rate ever; the continent’s renewable sector is one of the most dynamic globally. Solar power is expected to supply nearly 40% of new electricity capacity over the next decade, the report finds. North Africa, Kenya and Namibia are cited as emerging clean energy hubs. Still, fossil fuels remain the backbone of the region’s energy mix. The challenge, the IEA says, is ensuring that renewable energy advances are not undermined by continued fossil expansion. The IEA devotes a section of the report to Africa’s potential in critical mineral supply chains. Countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo hold…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The World Energy Outlook 2025, released Nov. 12 by the International Energy Agency (IEA), portrays an African continent where energy demand is surging, but access and investment continue to lag. According to the IEA, Africa’s population is expanding at twice the rate of the global average — and with it, energy demand is expected to […] authors: | ||
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Zanzibar’s ‘solar mamas’ are trained as technicians to help light up communities 13 Nov 2025 16:16:03 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/zanzibars-solar-mamas-are-trained-as-technicians-to-help-light-up-communities/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (AP) — Around half of Zanzibar’s population of 2 million people live unconnected from the electricity grid. But one program is training local women as solar power technicians to help light up Tanzania’s semi-autonomous archipelago. The Barefoot College International program is helping communities move on from smoky kerosene lamps. The lamps can cause health issues including eye irritation, lung damage and serious burns. The program is expanding to other parts of Africa but it faces challenges from cuts to foreign aid. And there has been some resistance in communities where a woman’s place has long been in the home. By Jack Denton, Associated Press Banner image: “Solar Mama” technicians walk on the campus of Barefoot College International in Kinyasini, Unguja, Zanzibar, July 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jack Denton)This article was originally published on Mongabay description: ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (AP) — Around half of Zanzibar’s population of 2 million people live unconnected from the electricity grid. But one program is training local women as solar power technicians to help light up Tanzania’s semi-autonomous archipelago. The Barefoot College International program is helping communities move on from smoky kerosene lamps. The lamps can cause […] authors: | ||
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On the frontline of the Amazon land war 13 Nov 2025 15:14:41 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/video/2025/11/on-the-frontline-of-the-amazon-land-conflict/ author: Lucia Torres dc:creator: Fernanda WenzelFernando MartinhoJulia Lima content:encoded: TERRA NOSSA, Brazil — In 2024, Mongabay investigative reporter Fernanda Wenzel traveled to one of the most dangerous spots in the Brazilian Amazon — a region where a silent land war is destroying the forest and costing lives. Her goal: to understand why three groups are locked in conflict here — land grabbers, settlers, and landless families — and how this battle pushes deforestation ever deeper into the rainforest. Fernanda met a group of landless people camping in an area already designated as a land reform settlement — land that, on paper, belongs to settlers who were legally allocated those plots. So why weren’t the settlers living there? Because a third group, land grabbers, had taken it over. They illegally fenced off huge portions of the settlement, blocked the rightful settlers from entering, and even hired armed security to patrol the area and intimidate the landless families now occupying the plot. “It’s a region where land is controlled by violence,” says land conflict expert Maurício Torres, who was also in the region accompanying Fernanda. “Whoever gets a piece of land is not the one who has it registered at the land registry office; it’s whoever is strongest and manages to expel the weakest.” This is the root of Brazil’s land dispute crisis: a tiny elite controls large territories, while the majority of small farmers have little or no land. To escape the conflict, those small farmers push deeper into the forest, clearing new areas and driving deforestation. In 2024, Brazil…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: TERRA NOSSA, Brazil — In 2024, Mongabay investigative reporter Fernanda Wenzel traveled to one of the most dangerous spots in the Brazilian Amazon — a region where a silent land war is destroying the forest and costing lives. Her goal: to understand why three groups are locked in conflict here — land grabbers, settlers, and […] authors: | ||
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Letters to the Future 13 Nov 2025 15:11:39 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2025/11/letters-to-the-future/ author: Lemaemortimer dc:creator: content:encoded: In this series, Letters to the Future, the 2025 cohort of Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellows share their views on environmental journalism, conservation and the future for their generation, amid multiple planetary crises. Each commentary is a personal reflection, based on individual fellows’ experiences in their home communities and the insights gained through the past six months of the fellowship. The series spans the Global South — Malaysia, India, Colombia, Brazil, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo — showcasing a broad diversity of ideas and the common ground these young environmental journalists share as they embark on their careers.This article was originally published on Mongabay description: In this series, Letters to the Future, the 2025 cohort of Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellows share their views on environmental journalism, conservation and the future for their generation, amid multiple planetary crises. Each commentary is a personal reflection, based on individual fellows’ experiences in their home communities and the insights gained through […] authors: | ||
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The secret to building a global newsroom? Lead with impact, says Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler 13 Nov 2025 15:01:58 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/the-secret-to-building-a-global-newsroom-lead-with-impact-says-mongabay-founder-rhett-ayers-butler/ author: Alejandroprescottcornejo dc:creator: Alejandro Prescott-Cornejo content:encoded: “We only get so much time on this planet, and I want to make the most of it.” That sense of urgency has driven Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler since his teens, when he visited a rainforest in Borneo. Later on, he learned that what had once been a teeming ecosystem full of the sounds of orangutans and hornbills had been completely destroyed. This experience marked a turning point that led him to establish Mongabay in 1999. “I wanted to help people see the connection between their own lives and what was happening in faraway forests, and to do it through credible information rather than advocacy,” he says. Butler envisioned Mongabay as more than a news outlet, but as a tool for protecting nature. “The idea was to make knowledge accessible and free, and to show that credible reporting could be a form of conservation in itself,” he says. In 2025, Butler received two honors for his work at Mongabay. First, a place on the Forbes Sustainability Leaders list – which honors 50 global leaders working to combat the climate crisis, alongside figures such as naturalist David Attenborough, Brazilian environment minister Marina Silva and Kenyan climate leader Wanjira Mathai. And second, the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Henry Shaw Medal, one of the oldest and most prestigious awards to recognize significant contributions to botanical research, horticulture and conservation. Missouri Botanical Garden Board of Trustees chair Michael Stern, left, and president and director Dr. Lúcia G. Lohmann, right, presenting Butler with…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler launched Mongabay in 1999 with the idea to “to make knowledge accessible and free, and to show that credible reporting could be a form of conservation in itself.” - In this interview with Butler, he shares how he sees receiving notable awards in 2025, including being named a Forbes Sustainability Leader and receiving the Henry Shaw Medal, as reflections of team rather than individual merit. - For Butler, impact is Mongabay’s true metric of success, as it can make a difference in “how people think, decide, and act.” - Butler says the next 25 years of Mongabay will focus on strengthening impact and empowering the next generations of leaders in environmental journalism. authors: | ||
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TotalEnergies moves to restart Mozambique LNG project despite security, eco concerns 13 Nov 2025 14:23:11 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/totalenergies-moves-to-restart-mozambique-lng-project-despite-security-eco-concerns/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Victoria Schneider content:encoded: Four years after suspending operations at a liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique’s Afungi Peninsula following insurgent attacks in the nearby village of Palma, French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies and its partners have decided to lift their force majeure, local media reported. The company communicated the decision to the Mozambican government on Oct. 24. It also requested some amendments to the project plan, including a 10-year extension on its production license. TotalEnergies’ resumption of work on the LNG plant still awaits government approval of its proposed timeline and budget. Still, activity around the planned LNG site has been ramping up over the past year, said Daniel Ribeiro of the Mozambican environmental organization Justiça Ambiental, in a phone interview with Mongabay. He estimated that around 1,000 people — including subcontractors, private firms and TotalEnergies staff — are already working in the area. Observers and civil society organizations say the security situation remains precarious at the site. They also warn that major issues persist, including environmental impacts, unresolved land compensation for resettled communities, and the exposure of nearby villages to heightened security risks. “Total has gone to a closed enclave setup where they want to increase the security of their project area, the Afungi site, in which they have a lot of security. But that model will expose the communities to the insurgents more,” Ribeiro said. He added that TotalEnergies receives security support from the Mozambican army as well as forces from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Rwanda. Ribeiro…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Four years after suspending operations at a liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique’s Afungi Peninsula following insurgent attacks in the nearby village of Palma, French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies and its partners have decided to lift their force majeure, local media reported. The company communicated the decision to the Mozambican government on Oct. 24. […] authors: | ||
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Photos: Drones help First Nations track down cold-water havens for salmon amid warming 13 Nov 2025 12:31:10 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/photos-with-drones-first-nations-track-down-cold-water-havens-for-salmon-amid-warming/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Boris R. Thebia content:encoded: GASPÉSIE, Canada — In Quebec’s Gaspésie region, Indigenous river guardians say they are in a race against climate change to protect the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). The Mi’gmaq Wolastoqey Indigenous Fisheries Management Association (MWIFMA), serving the Gesgapegiag, Gespeg and Wolastoqiyik Wahsipekuk First Nations, has launched a drone-mapping program to locate cool-water refuges in river systems before they disappear as temperatures rise. Using thermal-infrared cameras, the team surveys entire river lengths, generating color-coded temperature maps that reveal cold pockets critical to salmon survival. Stephen Jerome, elder of the Mi’kmaq of the eastern Canada region posing by the very river spot he was raised on as a child. Image by Boris R. Thebia. Stephen Jerome, an elder of the Mi’kmaq community living in Gesgapegiag, says he has witnessed firsthand the cumulative toll on salmon populations that have sustained his people for thousands of years. Overfishing has depleted once-abundant stocks in the region, while climate change delivers a double threat: Warming temperatures push Atlantic salmon beyond their ideal thermal tolerance. “Recent droughts have left cold, deep refuge pools shrinking or disappearing entirely,” he says. Salmon typically prefer temperatures of 12-17° Celsius (53.6-62.6° Fahrenheit) with heat stress beginning around 20°C (68°F) and lethal exposure at 25-28°C (77-82°F). According to a study, many Quebec rivers are climbing 0.7-0.9°C (about 1.3-1.6°F) per decade, and current models estimate river water temperatures in eastern Canada will climb by 3.2°C (5.8°F) by the end of the 21st century under high greenhouse gas scenarios. Samuel and Miguel assembling and…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Indigenous fisheries association and river guardians, representing several Mi’kmaq nations in eastern Canada, have launched a drone-based thermal-mapping campaign to locate and protect cold-water refuges vital for threatened Atlantic salmon. - Warming temperatures are pushing the Atlantic salmon beyond their ideal thermal tolerance, compounding existing pressures on the species, such as overfishing. - Warming waters and declining river flows during droughts are impacting both the fisheries and the cultural lifeblood of Mi’kmaq society. - Indigenous river guardians hope the project will pre-emptively shield cool-water habitats before key spawning and migration corridors become unviable. authors: | ||
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‘Clean energy is just one driver of mining’: Cleodie Rickard on critical minerals 13 Nov 2025 08:13:42 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/when-critical-minerals-arent-interview-with-cleodie-rickard/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Aimee Gabay content:encoded: For Cleodie Rickard, the policy and campaigns manager at Global Justice Now, the term “critical” minerals, commonly used to describe the metals vital for the green energy transition, can be misleading. A new Global Justice Now report, authored by Rickard, reveals that nearly one in five minerals labeled “critical” by the U.K. aren’t essential for the green energy transition. In fact, more than half of the 33 minerals have little to no role in the transition, with five prioritized for aerospace and weapons instead. What makes a mineral “critical,” Rickard says, depends largely on each country’s strategic and geopolitical objectives, not just its role in clean energy. She says multinational mining companies and governments can often use the green energy transition as a pretext to ramp up mining projects, even though a lot of the minerals are intended for other purposes, such as the military sector and AI infrastructure. Countries also have differing definitions of which minerals are considered “critical” or “strategic.” “The term ‘critical minerals’ is often used to secure political and economic support for resource exploration,” Filipe Gabriel Mura, a Mura Indigenous leader from Brazil, tells Mongabay via WhatsApp. “But the problem is that [the term] groups together different minerals with very different purposes. Not all of them are essential to the energy transition, and many serve the defense or agribusiness industries.” Gabriel says this is the case in the Mura Lago dos Soares community in the Amazonas state, where a potassium project, a mineral classified as essential…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A new Global Justice Now report has found that nearly one-fifth of minerals labeled “critical” by the U.K. aren’t actually essential for the green energy transition, but are instead needed for the aerospace and weapons industries. - Mongabay interviewed Cleodie Rickard, the policy and campaigns manager at Global Justice Now, who says the group’s findings also show the U.K. can pursue its energy transition without increasing mineral mining — if it does so in a certain way. - Rickard says states and multinational mining companies often use the green energy transition as a pretext to ramp up critical mineral projects even though many of the minerals listed as “critical” aren’t necessary for the energy transition. - In this interview, she says the need to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is undeniable, but exactly what materials should be prioritized, how much of them and what specific industries they serve have not been given enough attention. authors: | ||
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Protecting Vietnam’s vast caves may have sparked a wildlife comeback 13 Nov 2025 03:23:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/protecting-vietnams-vast-caves-may-have-sparked-a-wildlife-comeback/ author: Philip Jacobson dc:creator: Joshua Zukas content:encoded: Thirty-five years ago, a Vietnamese hunter stumbled across the biggest cave on the planet — then promptly lost it. Hồ Khanh was deep in the 400-million-year-old karst limestone landscape that straddles central Vietnam and Laos. Beneath Hồ’s feet lay wet cave systems that spanned hundreds of kilometers, but his focus was on the tangled jungle above. Here he hunted slow lorises, which he hawked as pets, and pangolins, whose scales are used in traditional medicine (and which perhaps helped spread COVID-19 from bats to humans). What he prized most, however, was agarwood, a rare, valuable and fragrant heartwood that could be carved into ornaments or burned as incense. When a sudden storm broke, Hồ slipped into a cave for cover. The hammering rain blurred the world into noise, yet it couldn’t drown out the blustering chambers from the cave’s dark depths. When the skies cleared, Hồ resumed his hunt. With time, the memory of this small crack in the mountain dimmed, and Hồ returned to his primary income source: looting the jungle. “Back then, we barely saw any wildlife,” recalls Howard Limbert, who began exploring the wilderness’s caves with his wife, Deb, in the 1990s. After several expeditions with the British Caving Association (BCA) in what became Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park in 2001, the Limberts were convinced that the region concealed vast, unknown caves. In 2007, when they heard Hồ’s story of a narrow opening that led to howling chambers, their curiosity was piqued. The three struck up a…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park in Vietnam is billed as a successful example of sustainable tourism, with efforts to conserve the area’s unique caves and wildlife. - The park’s management has implemented measures to limit tourism’s impact, such as restricting visitor numbers and offering guided tours, which has helped curb illegal hunting and logging. - Local communities have benefited from tourism, with many former hunters and loggers now working as guides and porters, and wildlife populations are showing signs of recovery. - The success of conservation efforts in the park has led to plans to expand protection to the Laotian side of the border, creating a transboundary UNESCO World Heritage Site. authors: | ||
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At her memorial, a call to carry Jane Goodall’s hope forward 12 Nov 2025 23:59:45 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/at-her-memorial-a-call-to-carry-jane-goodalls-hope-forward/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Today the nave of Washington National Cathedral was filled for Jane Goodall’s celebration of life, drawing scientists, activists, diplomats, and children alike. The service opened not in mourning but in gratitude. “This cathedral is a house of prayer for all people,” said Dean Randy Hollerith. “Jane was one of the world’s most remarkable human beings.” Few could disagree. Procession at the conclusion of Jane Goodall’s service in Washington D.C. on November 12, 2025. Photo by the Washington National Cathedral. Goodall’s life spanned ninety-one years and an era of transformation in how humans see the natural world. The girl who once hid in a henhouse to watch eggs being laid became the scientist who revealed that chimpanzees use tools and express emotions long thought uniquely human. Yet the tributes this morning were less about what she discovered than how she lived: her patience, her wit, and her unrelenting belief that hope was not a sentiment but a discipline. Anna Rathman speaking at Jane Goodall’s celebration of life in Washington D.C. on November 12, 2025. Photo by the Washington National Cathedral. The quiet force Anna Rathman, executive director of the Jane Goodall Institute USA, described a woman who led with restraint rather than volume, whose strength lay in conviction rather than command. “Jane was never the loudest in the room,” Rathman said. “But her powerful message spoke volumes.” Jane Goodall. Photo by Vincent Calmel Goodall, she reminded the audience, saw her institute as an ecosystem: a network of people working toward balance…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Jane Goodall’s memorial at Washington National Cathedral brought together scientists, diplomats, activists, and children for a service rooted in gratitude rather than grief, reflecting a life that reshaped how the world understands the natural world. - Speakers described her quiet authority and her belief that conservation depended on relationships, resilience, and collective purpose, with Anna Rathman urging the audience to continue the work Jane had begun. - Francis Collins and Leonardo DiCaprio offered personal reflections on her blend of scientific rigor, moral clarity, humor, and hope, recalling how she moved through the world with curiosity and purpose, insisting that every individual could make a meaningful difference. - Her grandson Merlin van Lawick spoke of the wonder she carried through her life and promised to continue her mission, underscoring a service that closed not with finality but with an invitation to carry her light forward and to show, through action, that hope endures. authors: | ||
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West Africa’s oceans get $68 million lifeline amid fisheries decline 12 Nov 2025 21:36:57 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/west-africas-oceans-get-68-million-lifeline-amid-fisheries-decline/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Elodie Toto content:encoded: A coalition of international organizations has launched the West Africa Sustainable Ocean Programme to tackle the region’s deepening fisheries decline. Led by the IUCN (the global wildlife conservation authority), Expertise France and the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC), the WASOP initiative aims to curb illegal fishing, restore marine ecosystems, and promote a sustainable blue economy. More than half of the fish stocks in West Africa are being unsustainably exploited according to the FAO. The problem lies in both domestic and international overfishing. The depletion of fish stocks is threatening livelihoods across the region; roughly 15% of the GDP of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) depends on fishing and aquaculture. “There is … a lack of planning and regulation throughout the region, and this project aims to address those needs,” Komlan Messie, regional executive director of the Forum of Civil Society Organizations of West Africa (FOSCAO), which helped create WASOP, told Mongabay by phone. The European Union is funding the program with 59 million euros ($68 million) over five years. The plan will cover 13 coastal countries in West Africa: Benin, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. For Bassirou Diarra, ocean campaigner with the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), the program’s launch is a promising start. “It’s an interesting project, but now we have to see how it will be implemented. Regarding illegal fishing, our resources are transboundary, so the approach has to…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: A coalition of international organizations has launched the West Africa Sustainable Ocean Programme to tackle the region’s deepening fisheries decline. Led by the IUCN (the global wildlife conservation authority), Expertise France and the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC), the WASOP initiative aims to curb illegal fishing, restore marine ecosystems, and […] authors: | ||
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‘Africa can become a green leader’: Interview with Mohamed Adow of Power Shift Africa 12 Nov 2025 18:18:53 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/africa-can-become-a-green-leader-interview-with-mohamed-adow-of-power-shift-africa/ author: Malavikavyawahare dc:creator: Elodie Toto content:encoded: For many parts of Africa, 2025 has been marked by extreme climate events. Between the deadly floods that struck the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia, and the severe drought that gripped Chad, countries across the continent are being hit hard by the effects of climate change. Many have also suffered the consequences of a major political shift: the return to power of Donald Trump in the United States, followed by a significant decrease in funding for health programs and efforts to adapt to climate change. Oil has once again found favor with the world’s leading economic power, which Trump has, for the second time in as many terms, pulled out from the Paris Agreement — under which countries committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change, in part by embracing renewable energy sources. Then on Nov. 10, the COP30 U.N. climate summit opened in Belém, Brazil. Among the many delegates from Africa attending the gathering in the Amazon is Mohamed Adow, the founder and director of Power Shift Africa. This Kenya-based think tank was established in 2018 to mobilize climate action across Africa and promote climate and energy policies that aim for zero-carbon economies. Adow is also a member of the consortium Allied for Climate Transformation by 2025 (ACT2025), which brings together experts and leaders from climate-vulnerable countries, working to drive greater climate ambition on the international stage. Adow spoke with Mongabay about his expectations from the summit from the perspective of the energy transition, and in…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Although Africa contributes less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, it suffers the worst consequences of climate change and still receives only around 2% of global renewable energy investments. - Mohamed Adow from the think tank Power Shift Africa tells Mongabay that delegates at the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, must deliver a “just transition framework” that prioritizes African needs, expands access to clean energy, and strengthens green industrialization across the continent. - Adow says he envisions an Africa that harnesses its transition minerals and renewable potential for its own prosperity — leading the global energy transition instead of powering other countries’ economies. - In 2025, African countries experienced escalating climate disasters, including deadly floods and severe droughts, while facing cuts in U.S. aid funding. authors: | ||
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Donors renew $1.8 billion pledge for Indigenous land rights 12 Nov 2025 18:07:53 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/donors-renew-1-8-billion-pledge-for-indigenous-land-rights/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: The governments of four countries, along with several philanthropies and donors, have renewed a $1.8 billion pledge over the next five years to help recognize, manage and protect Indigenous and other traditional community land. The Forest and Land Tenure Pledge, first made in Glasgow at the 2021 U.N. Climate Change Conference, provided $1.86 billion in funding from 2021-2024, with one year of the pledge remaining. About 7.6% of the funding in 2024 went directly to Indigenous peoples and local community organizations, rather than through intermediaries. In the renewed pledge, which will run from 2026-2030, donors committed to increase the share of direct funding toward these communities. “Despite threats to their lives and rights to their territories, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant communities lead much of the global effort to mitigate and adapt to climate change and to halt and reverse biodiversity loss,” the signatories wrote in the new pledge, announced in Belém, Brazil, ahead of the U.N. Climate Change Conference, also known as COP30, on Nov. 6. “We will continue efforts to increase the share of direct, long-term, and flexible financing, ensuring communities have genuine decision-making power and influence over how funds are used,” they added. Each donor reports its spending independently to the Forest and Land Tenure Funders Group, which oversees the pledge. The group then publishes aggregate data of the details; a breakdown of donation amounts by funders or recipients isn’t made publicly available. Dozens of donors are listed among the signatories, but the group’s latest report…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The governments of four countries, along with several philanthropies and donors, have renewed a $1.8 billion pledge over the next five years to help recognize, manage and protect Indigenous and other traditional community land. The Forest and Land Tenure Pledge, first made in Glasgow at the 2021 U.N. Climate Change Conference, provided $1.86 billion in […] authors: | ||
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Governments commit to recognizing 160 million hectares of Indigenous land 12 Nov 2025 17:58:28 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/governments-commit-to-recognizing-160-million-hectares-of-indigenous-land/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: The governments of nine tropical countries recently made a joint pledge to recognize 160 million hectares, or 395 million acres, of Indigenous and other traditional lands by 2030, according to a Nov. 7 announcement at the World Leaders Summit, an event hosted ahead of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil. The Intergovernmental Land Tenure Commitment (ILTC) marks the first time countries have come together to expand recognition for land tenure for Indigenous and other traditional land stewards. So far, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Fiji, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo have signed the commitment. A breakdown of specific commitments by country has not yet been made publicly available but is expected to be announced on Nov. 17, according to the ILTC press office. Sonia Guajajara, Brazil’s minister of Indigenous peoples, said in a press release that at least 59 million hectares (146 million acres), more than one-third of the pledge’s total commitment, would come from Brazil, the conference’s host country. According to a 2023 report by the global advocacy group Rights and Resources Initiative, more than 1.3 billion hectares (3.2 billion acres) of land is protected by Indigenous, Afro-descendant and other traditional communities, but only 11% is formally recognized as theirs in the 73 countries analyzed. The announcement of the ILTC was made on the same day that Norway, Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands and 35 philanthropies and donors renewed a pledge to donate $1.8 billion over five years toward land tenure. Over the last four years, the Forest…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The governments of nine tropical countries recently made a joint pledge to recognize 160 million hectares, or 395 million acres, of Indigenous and other traditional lands by 2030, according to a Nov. 7 announcement at the World Leaders Summit, an event hosted ahead of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil. The Intergovernmental Land Tenure […] authors: | ||
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Taiwan evacuates 8,300 and shuts schools before tropical storm brushes island 12 Nov 2025 16:09:28 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/taiwan-evacuates-8300-and-shuts-schools-before-tropical-storm-brushes-island/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan evacuated more than 8,300 people from coastal and mountainous areas and closed schools before a tropical storm brushes the southern part of the island later Wednesday. Fung-wong had super typhoon strength when it battered the Philippines on Sunday, causing flooding, landslides, power outages and at least 27 deaths. Still holding tropical storm strength Wednesday morning, it was expected to continue losing wind speed and size as it approached Taiwan. Heavy rains and flooding injured at least 51 people as of Wednesday morning, according to the National Fire Agency. Authorities evacuated 8,326 people, the majority from the eastern Hualien County, where a typhoon in September left 18 dead. An overflowing creek flooded a village in Hualien on Tuesday. Images carried by local media showed a car being swept away by floodwater. Schools and offices were closed in central and southern parts of Taiwan including the coastal cities of Kaohsiung, Taichung and Tainan as well as Pingtung, Chiayi and Miaoli counties. The capital, Taipei, in the island’s north, operated as usual. As of Wednesday morning, Fung-wong was about 140 kilometers (87 miles) southwest of Taiwan in the South China Sea, moving northeast at 16 kph (10 mph). It was expected to make landfall during the afternoon or evening and graze the southern part of the island before exiting from its southeastern side. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 65 kph (40 mph) and higher gusts. Authorities warned residents around the island to avoid going to the beach, where waves were…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan evacuated more than 8,300 people from coastal and mountainous areas and closed schools before a tropical storm brushes the southern part of the island later Wednesday. Fung-wong had super typhoon strength when it battered the Philippines on Sunday, causing flooding, landslides, power outages and at least 27 deaths. Still holding tropical storm […] authors: | ||
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Peru Indigenous patrols see success & struggles in combating illegal miners 12 Nov 2025 15:20:23 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/peru-indigenous-patrols-see-success-struggles-in-combating-illegal-miners/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Aimee Gabay content:encoded: For several years, illegal gold mining, loggers and other invaders have impacted the territory of the Indigenous Wampís people (or Huambisa) of the northern Peruvian Amazon. To combat these threats amid a lack of state support, the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampís Nation (GTANW) formed the territorial monitoring group Charip. The group’s formation in February 2024 led to quick results. Within two months, Charip arrested three Peruvian police officers for their involvement in illegal gold mining near the Wampís community of Villa Gonzalo, on the banks of the Santiago River. A high-level commission from the Peruvian government visited the Wampís Nation a few days later and promised to eradicate illegal mining in the area. However, sources told Mongabay the state has still not fulfilled its commitments. Peru’s Ministry of Culture and the country’s Amazonas and Loreto regional governments did not respond to Mongabay’s requests for comment by the time of publication. Neither did the Sixth Jungle Brigade, the unit of the Peruvian Army responsible for conducting land, river and air patrols, especially in border areas and the Amazon, to prevent the entry of foreign personnel and support environmental conservation. In 2024, the Charip group also confiscated and destroyed at least seven mega-dredges along the Santiago River, according to a report by the Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), a U.K.-based advocacy group that has supported Charip with fuel and food. When the group was formed, it had about 60 personnel to fight against illegal miners, the Charip president René Santiago Ti,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In 2024, the Wampís Indigenous nation formed the territorial monitoring group Charip to combat the expansion of illegal gold mining, loggers and other invaders in their territory in the Peruvian Amazon. - Charip combines traditional knowledge with monitoring technology but lacks the financial resources to expand its control posts and cover more ground. - Members of the group are unpaid, which has led to a decline in the number of available guards. authors: | ||
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Soy giants quietly prepare for EU deforestation law; impacts still uncertain 12 Nov 2025 13:19:31 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/soy-giants-quietly-prepare-for-eu-deforestation-law-impacts-still-uncertain/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Marina Martinez content:encoded: As the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) approaches its implementation, companies involved in supply chains for soy and other commodities reaching the EU market will soon have to prove that their products do not come from areas deforested after 2020 and that their operations comply with local environmental and human rights laws. This will be particularly challenging for the soy sector, as soybean production has long been a major driver of deforestation, especially in South America. Initially scheduled to take effect in December 2024, the EUDR was postponed for a year, with the European Commission recently proposing an additional grace period to give companies more time to prepare. To find out how ready the soy sector is, Mongabay reached out to five of the world’s largest traders: ADM, AMAGGI, Bunge, Cargill and COFCO International. Responses ranged from “no comment” to no reply. Despite the silence, experts from trade associations and NGOs say big soy traders are already operationally prepared to meet EUDR requirements. “The information we have, which they [traders and soy sector associations] usually share with us, is that they are 100% prepared,” Tiago Reis, conservation specialist at WWF-Brazil, told Mongabay in a voice message. “Some even questioned the proposal to extend the [EUDR] deadline, because they had already invested … so they would be ready to comply.” Patchwork of legal forest reserves, pasture and soy farms in the Brazilian Amazon. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Data from Global Canopy’s Forest 500 report show that in 2024, nearly half…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - With the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) nearing implementation, Mongabay reached out to five of the world’s largest traders to find out how ready the soy sector is. Responses ranged from “no comment” to no reply. - Despite the silence, experts from trade associations and NGOs say that big soy traders are already operationally prepared to meet EUDR requirements. - Certification bodies and verification networks, such as ProTerra and VISEC, appear to be playing a key role in helping the soy sector get ready for the EUDR. - Although experts express optimism about the regulation’s potential positive impacts, they underscore its limitations, particularly the exclusion of non-forest ecosystems, and call for continued vigilance in its implementation and corporate commitments. authors: | ||
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Iguanas on Mexico’s Clarion Island likely native, not introduced by people: Study 12 Nov 2025 12:48:52 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/iguanas-on-mexicos-clarion-island-likely-native-not-introduced-by-people-study/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: Researchers have long speculated that humans introduced spiny-tailed iguanas to Mexico’s remote Clarion Island about 50 years ago. However, a recent study suggests the Clarion iguanas are likely native to the island, arriving long before human colonization of the Americas. Clarion Island is the westernmost and oldest of a small group of islands in Mexico’s Revillagigedo Archipelago. Despite its remoteness, the island is home to endemic wildlife, including two snake species and a lizard species, and at least three species or subspecies of birds. In the 1970s, the Mexican military brought some nonnative animals to Clarion, including pigs, sheep and rabbits, which transformed the island’s native flora. Along with the domestic animals, biologists speculated the military also introduced a population of spiny-tailed iguanas (Ctenosaura pectinata) sometime between the 1970s and 1990s. Wildlife records from earlier expeditions to Clarion hadn’t mentioned the lizards. When Daniel Mulcahy from the Museum of Natural History in Berlin and first author of the new study visited the island in 2013 and 2023 to study snakes, he began to suspect the Clarion iguanas were different from those on the mainland. Genetic analysis confirmed his suspicion. The team found the island iguanas diverged from their mainland relatives roughly 425,000 years ago. According to some recent estimates, humans arrived in North America much later, roughly 23,000 years ago. The researchers hypothesize that spiny-tailed iguanas likely arrived on Clarion from the Mexican mainland, a distance of about 1,100 kilometers (700 miles), by floating on vegetation mats across the Pacific. Once…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Researchers have long speculated that humans introduced spiny-tailed iguanas to Mexico’s remote Clarion Island about 50 years ago. However, a recent study suggests the Clarion iguanas are likely native to the island, arriving long before human colonization of the Americas. Clarion Island is the westernmost and oldest of a small group of islands in Mexico’s […] authors: | ||
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In the Amazon, political systems fail to prioritize the environment 12 Nov 2025 12:00:48 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/in-the-amazon-political-systems-fail-to-prioritize-the-environment/ author: Mayra dc:creator: Timothy J. Killeen content:encoded: Realizing the goals of sustainable development and environmental conservation in the Pan Amazon will require profound changes in the region’s legal and economic framework. This type of change can only be obtained via the political process. Fortunately, there is broad support within Amazonian nations for a change in the policies that drive deforestation and unsustainable production systems. Unfortunately, environmental issues are well down the list of priorities that influence people’s voting preferences. Typically, politicians voice support for protecting the Amazon but avoid making the hard decisions that might change the future. All the nations of the Pan Amazon have a presidential style of constitutional democracy that delegates significant power to the executive branch, but with checks and balances that allocate varying degrees of power to the legislature to make laws, manage the budget and oversee executive branch actions. The judicial system interprets those laws and, very occasionally, adjudicates disputes between the other two branches. Amazon forest and deforestation. Image by Marizilda Cruppe/ Rede Amazônia Sustentável. Occasionally, a country will elect a charismatic president who circumvents the checks and balances to create a regime with authoritarian tendencies. These demagogues often espouse environmental principles, but experience has shown they are false prophets who use climate, biodiversity and Indigenous issues to advance a political agenda based on personal power. Considering the overweening power of the presidency, it is not unreasonable for environmental activists to hope that a presidential election can lead to fundamental change – but it is unrealistic. Few presidential candidates embrace the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Few presidential candidates embrace the environment as a primary election issue, while parties with openly green agendas often fail to get seats in national legislative bodies. - Increasingly fragmented electorates have made it difficult to elect a president from the first voting round; elected leaders might frequently not enjoy political majority in their respective parliaments. - While coalitions provide a potential solution to this fragmentation, they can struggle with corruption and instability. authors: | ||
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New directory helps donors navigate the complex world of global reforestation 12 Nov 2025 11:50:55 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/new-directory-helps-donors-navigate-the-complex-world-of-global-reforestation/ author: Lizkimbrough dc:creator: Liz Kimbrough content:encoded: Planting trees is something most people can get behind, and tens of thousands of reforestation projects now operate worldwide. However, for donors and funders who want to support these efforts, it can be hard to identify which organizations to trust with their money and even more difficult to determine which are effective. “I would give talks, and people would ask, ‘Who should I donate my money to?'” Karen Holl, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) and reforestation expert, told Mongabay. “There was really no standardized way to answer that question.” So how can a tree investor decide what organizations to support? What questions should ensure money goes toward the best outcomes for biodiversity, climate and people? A forest corridor planted by local community as part of Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (IPÊ) “Corridors for Life” project in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. Photo courtesy of IPÊ. To help answer those questions, Holl and UCSC postdoctoral researcher Spencer Schubert spent more than a year evaluating “intermediary organizations,” the major groups that channel funding and resources to local tree-planting projects around the world. Between October 2024 and June 2025, the team contacted more than 125 organizations. Seventy completed detailed surveys, while researchers performed systematic reviews of websites and public reports for the rest. Mongabay has now launched this research as the Global Reforestation Organization Directory. The directory was developed in collaboration with Mongabay and the research was funded by the Center for Coastal Climate Resilience and the MacArthur Foundation Chair at the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Global Reforestation Organization Directory provides standardized information on more than 125 major tree-planting organizations, making it easier for donors to compare groups and find the ones that match their priorities. - Researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz evaluated groups across four categories: permanence, ecological, social and financial, each backed by scientific literature on best practices. - Much of the evaluation relies on the organization’s self-reporting through surveys or website statements and, while researchers acknowledge this limitation, they say it still provides a valuable framework and a starting point for donors. - The directory doesn’t rank organizations but rather shows what organizations publicly share about following scientific best practices, avoiding common mistakes and monitoring their results. authors: | ||
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‘Our zeal is unwavering’: 3 environmental defenders share trials, tribulations, hopes 12 Nov 2025 11:47:04 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/our-zeal-is-unwavering-3-environmental-defenders-share-trials-tribulations-hopes/ author: Karen Coates dc:creator: David Akana content:encoded: In 2023, a staggering 196 land and environmental defenders lost their lives worldwide, according to a report by Global Witness. Since 2012, more than 2,100 defenders have been victims of violence, highlighting the increasing dangers faced by those who bravely advocate for the conservation of their lands and the environment. During the 2024 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, Mongabay met with three environmental defenders from Colombia, Uganda and the Philippines. Though the host country limited protest within the city, these three activists joined several others from developing countries to make their voices heard. These three guardians of nature shared their personal experiences and the enormous challenges they face in their fight for environmental justice. They spoke about the motivations that drive them to continue their work, even in the face of daunting human rights records in their countries. Most importantly, they offered insights into what fuels their hope and resilience amidst such adversity. Gina Marcela Cortés Valderrama is from Colombia. Her advocacy focuses on climate and gender justice, with current emphasis on the intersections between feminism, decoloniality and degrowth. While a major peace accord between rebels and the military was signed in 2016, increasing numbers of human right defenders and social leaders have been killed in the Latin American country. In 2023 alone, 79 environmental human rights defenders were killed, most of them members of ethnic communities and campesinos fighting to defend their land, according to the Stokeholm International Peace Research Institute. Climate activists rally at the COP29…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Environmental defenders face various challenges depending on their context, whether in Colombia, Uganda or the Philippines. - Since 2012, more than 2,100 defenders have fallen victim to violence, according to Global Witness. This includes activists in these three countries. - Mongabay spoke with three defenders from these nations at the 2024 Climate Change conference in Baku, Azerbaijan. They were there to raise their voices on issues around just transition to energy, equity, inclusion and that the global climate policies work for them. - Despite serious threats to their lives, these defenders remain steadfast in their commitment to their cause. They are determined to continue their work, believing their mission is worth the risks they face. authors: | ||
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What Central Park’s Squirrel Census says about conservation tech: Interview with Okala’s Robin Whytock 12 Nov 2025 05:28:37 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/what-central-parks-squirrel-census-says-about-conservation-tech-interview-with-okalas-robin-whytock/ author: Abhishyantkidangoor dc:creator: Abhishyant Kidangoor content:encoded: By the time New York Climate Week wrapped up in September this year, Robin Whytock had a point to make. Over the course of the summit, the ecologist was part of many conversations where scientists and researchers spoke to him about the difficulty in conducting biodiversity surveys. So when Whytock headed to Central Park on a Saturday morning, he had a mission: demonstrate how technology could help count squirrels in the sprawling park, and compare his results with that of a manual survey done by 300 people in 2018. Over the course of a few hours, walking around with a cup of coffee, Whytock determined that there were 2,979 squirrels living in the park. The result of the 2018 survey, published eight months after it was carried out: 2,373. “If I can come up with an estimate of the squirrel population in a morning that’s in the ballpark of what was done by a hugely intensive survey with 300 people, let’s think of what’s possible in terms of the scalability of technology,” Whytock, CEO and founder of AI-powered nature monitoring platform Okala, told Mongabay in a video interview. With his organization, Whytock is now attempting to scale up tech solutions to make biodiversity monitoring easier and more efficient. While sensors are getting cheaper and are more widely available now, Whytock said, the real challenge lies beyond the tech hardware. “People put all of their budget into data collection and buying sensors, but don’t know how they’re going to analyze the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - At the end of New York Climate Week this year, ecologist Robin Whytock spent a few hours in Central Park counting squirrels. - His mission was to prove how scalable tech solutions could help make biodiversity monitoring easier and more efficient. - Whytock, who runs AI-powered nature monitoring platform Okala, said that while data-gathering tools have become easily accessible, analyzing massive amounts of biodiversity data still remains a challenge. authors: | ||
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Gibbon trafficking pushes rehabilitation centers to the max in North Sumatra 12 Nov 2025 00:30:49 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/gibbon-trafficking-pushes-rehabilitation-centers-to-the-max-in-north-sumatra/ author: Philip Jacobson dc:creator: Carolyn Cowan content:encoded: MEDAN, Indonesia — Two infant siamang gibbons cling to each other. Barely 6 months old, their lanky limbs entwine their tiny bodies as they stare out of the triage cage, their wide eyes shining. Each is an orphaned victim of the illegal pet trade. Like most trafficked gibbons, their mothers were likely shot and killed by poachers before they were wrested from her body and shipped into the trade. Deprived of maternal body heat and milk, the youngsters now instinctively grip each other as if for comfort. At the back of the rescue enclosure, a smaller body hunkers in a corner, shrouded in solitude and silence. A tiny Javan gibbon, it glances up from time to time, but is wary. “The Javan gibbon is still shy,” says Sinan Serhadli, support officer at the gibbon rehabilitation and release program run by the Orangutan Information Centre (OIC) as part of the Sumatran Rescue Alliance (SRA) in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province. “He will eat, but he doesn’t want any contact with humans.” Sinan Serhadli inspects the health of two siamang gibbons that were confiscated from traffickers in March 2025. Image by Carolyn Cowan / Mongabay. The infant siamangs (Symphalangus syndactylus) and Javan gibbon (Hylobates moloch) were brought to the SRA rehabilitation center on the outskirts of Gunung Leuser National Park in March 2025 after an Indonesian naval patrol confiscated them from a boat intercepted in the Strait of Malacca. The vessel, believed to be destined for Peninsular Malaysia or southern Thailand, was smuggling…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Famed for their free-flow swinging through the forest canopy, gibbons are being relentlessly shot, stolen and incarcerated to supply an escalating illegal pet trade that targets babies in particular. - Experts point to misleading social media content and a surge in private zoo collections as fueling the trade. Hundreds of the small apes have been confiscated by authorities across South and Southeast Asia in the past decade, with India and the UAE emerging as primary destinations. - Gibbon rehabilitation centers, mostly operated by NGOs struggling for funding, are buckling under the numbers of animals in need of rescue and care. - The trade imposes overwhelming suffering on the trafficked animals and immense wastage among the complex social groups gibbons live in, driving already threatened species ever closer to extinction. authors: | ||
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Cautious win for Indigenous groups in Malaysia as palm oil firm pauses forest clearing 11 Nov 2025 22:48:58 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/cautious-win-for-indigenous-groups-in-malaysia-as-palm-oil-firm-pauses-forest-clearing/ author: Isabel Esterman dc:creator: Danielle Keeton-Olsen content:encoded: Indigenous activists in central Sarawak state in Malaysian Borneo have declared victory, at least temporarily, after palm oil firm Urun Plantations agreed to a moratorium on clearing land in a disputed area. Penan and Kenyah residents of the Long Urun region alleged that the plantation, which is certified as sustainable, was clearing natural forest that should remain standing — even as the plantation company maintains any land clearing was within legal guidelines. This Sept. 24, 2025 image shows land clearing in the Long Urun area. Image courtesy of The Borneo Project. According to a press release from Indigenous rights and environmental protection NGO SAVE Rivers, community leaders reported that the Glenealy/Samling Belaga Mill, the last remaining mill within 50 kilometers (30 miles) still buying palm fruit from Urun Plantations, has suspended sourcing from the plantation. The moratorium agreement also follows a recent media campaign by SAVE Rivers and environmental advocacy group The Borneo Project, which called on international palm oil producer SD Guthrie (formerly known as Sime Darby Plantation and one of the world’s largest producers of certified sustainable palm oil), to suspend purchases from the Glenealy/Samling Belaga Mill. Satellite imagery shows deforestation within Urun Plantations’ concession. Image by Emilie Languedoc / Mongabay. Eileen Clare Ipa, a resident of Long Urun’s Uma Pawa village, told Mongabay she was glad the company had stopped cutting trees, but she saw them still planting oil palm and doing maintenance on the cleared area. Ipa said she wants the company to leave that area…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Indigenous Penan and Kenyah residents in Malaysian Borneo have filed a lawsuit and a complaint with Malaysia’s sustainable palm oil certifier, accusing palm oil company Urun Plantations of clearing natural forest within its concession along the Belaga River in violation of its lease and sustainability certification. - Urun Plantations agreed in late October to pause development activities after a palm oil mill suspended buying palm fruit from the plantation. - Satellite imagery and NGO field evidence indicate ongoing deforestation since 2023, while the company says it is only replanting previously developed land and denies breaching certification rules. - The company maintains the project has local support, with the dispute underscoring growing tensions in Malaysia’s Sarawak state over palm oil expansion into remaining forests and Indigenous territories. authors: | ||
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Turning outdoor exploration into environmental discovery: Gregg Treinish and the rise of Adventure Scientists 11 Nov 2025 22:25:03 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/turning-outdoor-exploration-into-environmental-discovery-gregg-treinish-and-the-rise-of-adventure-scientists/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Some revolutions begin not with technology, but with a feeling. For Gregg Treinish, that feeling was guilt. He was spending years on long wilderness expeditions—crossing ranges, sleeping rough, watching the world’s edges—and began to wonder what any of it added up to. “I was spending years in the wilderness, doing long expeditions, and I began to feel selfish for being out there without making a difference,” he says. “I wanted to stay in the outdoors, but I also wanted my time to matter and to contribute to something bigger than myself.” Gregg Treinish in the Oakavango. National Geographic Society’s Okavango Wilderness Project carried out extensive exploration and data-collection across the Okavango River Basin — from the Angolan highlands through Namibia to the Okavango Delta in Botswana, producing one of the most detailed scientific baselines ever gathered for the ecosystem. Photo courtesy of Adventure Scientists. That reckoning became Adventure Scientists, an organization that mobilizes outdoor enthusiasts to collect data for research and conservation. Founded more than a decade ago, it has since grown from an idea scribbled between treks into an operation that partners with agencies, universities, and businesses to fill data gaps in biodiversity, climate, forests, and freshwater. Its volunteers—hikers, climbers, divers, paddlers—now deliver samples and observations that influence policy, corporate practices, and scientific understanding. Treinish insists the success of the project has little to do with personal brilliance. “I have no special skills as a scientist or as an adventurer,” he says. “That’s exactly why I believed this idea…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Gregg Treinish, founder of Adventure Scientists, has built a global network of trained volunteers who collect high-quality environmental data for researchers, agencies, and conservationists. His organization bridges the worlds of outdoor adventure and scientific rigor. - From microplastics and illegal timber to biodiversity mapping, Adventure Scientists’ projects have filled crucial data gaps and influenced policy, research, and corporate practices around the world. - In California, Treinish’s team is partnering with the California All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (CalATBI) to help catalog the state’s immense diversity through thousands of insect and soil eDNA samples collected by volunteers. - Treinish spoke with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler in October 2025 about scaling trust-based citizen science, the value of human observation in nature, and why adventure remains a powerful gateway to environmental action. authors: | ||
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Mongabay launches dedicated Oceans Desk to expand global reporting on marine ecosystems 11 Nov 2025 21:39:30 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/mongabay-launches-dedicated-oceans-desk-to-expand-global-reporting-on-marine-ecosystems/ author: Alejandroprescottcornejo dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: With increasing pressures from overfishing, habitat destruction, pollution and climate change, the health of the world’s oceans is imperiled. In response, Mongabay has launched a dedicated Oceans Desk composed of a global team of journalists specialized in reporting on oceans, fisheries and marine conservation. The desk, which includes editors, reporters and program directors from across Mongabay’s newsroom, marks a strategic shift to deepen coverage of marine ecosystems as part of the organization’s expanding environmental reporting. “One of our goals at Mongabay is to provide a planetary view of the environment, and understanding the ocean is crucial for grasping the state of life on Earth,” said Willie Shubert, Mongabay’s VP of programs and executive editor. “Our Oceans Desk delivers original and insightful journalism on often underreported topics that highlight humanity’s cultural, economic and political connections to the sea while also emphasizing the intrinsic value of a living and biodiverse ocean.” Driven by high reader interest, Mongabay’s oceans coverage has steadily expanded to become a top priority for the organization, with thousands of articles, videos and podcasts already published. “The ocean is vast and powerful, but threats from overfishing, climate change, pollution, and crime are pushing it to the brink,” Shubert said. “The voices of communities dependent on a healthy ocean, from fishers and marine biologists to policymakers and consumers, must be part of the story to address these problems. By building a dedicated desk that reports daily from across the world, we aim to inspire people to care for marine biodiversity…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Mongabay has launched a dedicated Oceans Desk composed of a global team of journalists specialized in reporting on oceans, fisheries and marine conservation. - The desk, which includes editors, reporters and program directors from across Mongabay’s newsroom, marks a strategic shift to deepen our coverage of marine ecosystems. - Mongabay’s ocean reporting has already led to real-world impacts, including exposing corruption in Chilean marine protected area management and informing international sanctions on a Chinese fishing company related to illegal shark finning and abusive labor practices. - The Oceans Desk marks a milestone in Mongabay’s growth over more than two decades and strengthens the organization’s ability to inform, inspire and sustain effective action on marine conservation worldwide. authors: | ||
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How a ‘green gold rush’ in the Amazon led to dubious carbon deals on Indigenous lands 11 Nov 2025 19:06:47 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/how-a-green-gold-rush-in-the-amazon-led-to-dubious-carbon-deals-on-indigenous-lands/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Gloria Pallares content:encoded: BARCELONA — In December 2022, one of Brazil’s largest Indigenous territories and one of the smallest would each sign a 118-page, 10-year contract they would soon come to regret —as would faraway investors looking to capitalize on the billion-dollar carbon and biodiversity markets. In Brazil’s lush westernmost states of Amazonas and Acre, which border Peru, entities promising to turn rainforests into green gold have persuaded Indigenous communities to grant them exclusive rights to trade the ecosystem services provided by their lands, a Mongabay investigation has found. The contracts covered the trade in nature-based solutions, an umbrella term covering a wide range of ecosystem services, from carbon sequestration to produce and biodiversity. The projects, covering more than 8.5 million hectares (21 million acres), failed to materialize in Brazil, with communities pleading to end the contracts, and one carbon certification program issuing a cease-and-desist letter. But the initiator of the scheme continued marketing the deals online and signed at least two more contracts without adequate consent from communities in the lowlands of Bolivia. The three entities that approached Indigenous representatives in Brazil are Biota, a family-run cooperative from Argentina peddling herbal products and nature-based solutions; Biotapass, a related “climatech” startup registered in Spain and the subject of a criminal case; and their Brazilian fixer, Comtxae, which used to provide satellite internet and solar panels to Indigenous villages and nonprofits. As inquiries from Brazil’s Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Police are ongoing and Indigenous leaders worry about the validity of the contracts,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A Mongabay investigation has found that companies without the financial or technical expertise signed deals with Indigenous communities in Brazil and Bolivia, covering millions of hectares of forest, for carbon and biodiversity credits. - Many of the communities involved say they were rushed into signing, never had the chance to give consent, and didn’t understand what they were signing up to or even who with. - Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency has warned of legal insecurity and lack of standards in carbon credit initiatives, and an inquiry is underway — even as the businessmen involved target more than 1.7 million hectares in the tri-border area between Brazil, Bolivia and Peru. - Two and a half years since the deals were made, Brazil’s Public Ministry has called for them to be annulled, following Mongabay’s repeated requests to the ministry for updates. authors: | ||
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Embrace ‘blue’ foods as a climate strategy at COP30, fisheries ministers say (commentary) 11 Nov 2025 18:26:12 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/embrace-blue-foods-as-a-climate-strategy-at-cop30-fisheries-ministers-say-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: André de Paula / Salvador Malheiro content:encoded: As two coastal countries connected by the Atlantic Ocean and five centuries of shared history, Brazil and Portugal have long appreciated the value of “blue” or aquatic foods, including our shared love of bacalhau, or salted cod. Portugal ranks third in the world and first in the EU for per capita fish and seafood consumption, while in Brazil, aquatic foods support more than 3 million livelihoods, with consumption of whole, raw fish reaching as much as 800 grams (28 ounces) per day in the Amazon, which is hosting the U.N. climate talks for the first time in its gateway city of Belém. But as our global food system comes under increasing pressure, from climate change to shifting diets, we also share the recognition that blue foods play a crucial role in building more resilient, adaptive, and nutritionally balanced food systems. Fishing vessels like this provide much of the world’s “blue” foods but are only a portion of the overall picture. Image courtesy of Nicolas Job/Ocean Image Bank. The blue food sector, which encompasses the wild harvest and farming of fish, shellfish, seaweed and other aquatic plants and animals, is well-known for providing rich sources of protein and essential micronutrients, such as vitamin B12, iron, zinc and omega-3 fatty acids that are crucial for combating malnutrition, which affects more than 2 billion people worldwide. However, this sector is often overlooked as a climate strategy despite its potential to help meet demand for animal-sourced food with a smaller environmental footprint. Many blue…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The “blue” or aquatic foods sector is often overlooked as a climate strategy, despite its potential to help meet demand for protein with a smaller environmental footprint, fisheries ministers from Brazil and Portugal argue in a new op-ed at Mongabay. - Many blue foods generate minimal carbon emissions and use modest amounts of feed, land and freshwater, and their increased consumption could cut annual global CO₂ emissions by a gigaton or more. - “Brazil and Portugal stand ready to champion global efforts to harness and safeguard blue foods for climate mitigation and adaptation strategies, generating multiple benefits across sustainable development goals. We call on more countries to implement measures across the blue food sector that strengthen food security and climate strategies at COP30 and beyond,” the authors write. - This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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Radioactive rhinos (cartoon) 11 Nov 2025 17:34:07 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/custom-story/2025/11/radioactive-rhinos-cartoon/ author: Nandithachandraprakash dc:creator: Rohan Chakravarty content:encoded: South Africa’s rhinos now have an unlikely superpower: radioactivity! Scientists working on the Rhisotope Project inject the horns of live rhinos with a radioactive isotope. This is harmless to the rhinos, but makes smuggled horns easy to detect during customs inspections with the hope of deterring rhinoceros poaching.This article was originally published on Mongabay description: South Africa’s rhinos now have an unlikely superpower: radioactivity! Scientists working on the Rhisotope Project inject the horns of live rhinos with a radioactive isotope. This is harmless to the rhinos, but makes smuggled horns easy to detect during customs inspections with the hope of deterring rhinoceros poaching. authors: | ||
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Sierra Leone communities sign carbon agreement based on carbon justice principles 11 Nov 2025 14:28:19 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/sierra-leone-communities-sign-carbon-agreement-based-on-carbon-justice-principles/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Shreya Dasgupta content:encoded: More than 220 communities in Sierra Leone have signed a benefit-sharing carbon agreement with a developer that will help protect a key mangrove ecosystem. Namati Sierra Leone, a legal advocacy group counseling all involved communities, said the agreement between the communities in the chiefdom of Sittia in Bonthe district and the Africa Conservation Initiative (ACI) is based on “carbon justice principles” aimed at making carbon projects fairer for communities. The agreement targets the protection of roughly 79,000 hectares (about 195,213 acres) of mangroves in the Sherbro River Estuary, which hosts roughly half of the country’s mangrove forests. The estuary’s mangroves are threatened by growing demand for wood for cooking, smoking fish, farming and construction, according to James Harding, Sierra Leone director of West Africa Blue, ACI’s parent company. The benefit-sharing agreement to protect these mangrove forests has been designed with reference to six carbon justice principles, said Daniel Sesay from Namati Sierra Leone. These principles were established by a global network of grassroots organizations based on their experience with past carbon projects. The principles include “Fair participation,” where communities lead the stewardship of the natural resource; “No pay to pollute,” preventing polluters failing to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions from buying carbon credits; and “Free, prior and informed consent (FPIC)” of the communities — where “informed” also means disclosing all financial information throughout the project’s life cycle. To reduce dependency on mangrove wood, ACI’s carbon project is offering communities alternatives, including efficient cookstoves and fish-smoking ovens, planting timber woodlots,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Hundreds of communities in Sierra Leone’s Bonthe district have signed a benefit-sharing carbon agreement with the Africa Conservation Initiative targeting the protection of mangroves in the Sherbro River Estuary. - The agreement is based on “carbon justice principles” aimed at making carbon projects fairer for communities, such as a 40-50% gross revenue share; free, prior and informed consent, including transparency of financial information and buyers; and community-led stewardship of the mangroves. - If implemented correctly, the agreement could address “deep-rooted issues of fairness,” experts say. authors: | ||
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Coal-dependent South Africa struggles to make just energy transition real 11 Nov 2025 12:36:08 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/coal-dependent-south-africa-struggles-to-make-just-energy-transition-real/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Anna Weekes content:encoded: In the coal towns of northern KwaZulu-Natal, the promise of South Africa’s “just transition” feels like a distant dream. While government plans speak of a fair shift to clean energy and justice for those harmed by coal, in places like Dannhauser and Mtubatuba, families are still choking on coal dust, activists say they’re being threatened for speaking out, and new mining applications keep arriving. Communities say the country’s transition is happening everywhere except where coal is dug from the earth. In a country where 74% of the electricity is made from burning coal, the transition to renewable energy has created a fraught environment where workers who rely on coal jobs are pitted against community members whose health and livelihoods have been damaged by coal dust, blasting and water contamination from mines and power stations. People living near the Tendele mine in KwaZulu-Natal say dust from the mine coats everything in their homes. Image by Victoria Schneider for Mongabay. In 2022, the South African government defined a just transition as one that would simultaneously address health impacts and local environmental harm caused by coal mining and generation, and the job losses and economic disruption that shutting down a vital industry would cause, with particular attention to how poor communities, women, youth and people with disabilities might be affected. The framework explained how communities affected by mining were to benefit from compensation for health and land damage, and how both workers and residents would be involved in planning and decision-making. In 2024,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Communities in South Africa’s coal-mining towns say there’s little sign of a clean energy transition on the ground, where they complain of persistent pollution and violence toward activists. - A metalworkers’ union leader who sits on South Africa’s climate commission says the transition is racing forward, outpacing new jobs promised to mine workers. - A mine operator says coal is a critical element in producing renewable energy infrastructure. authors: | ||
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The price of gold: In Venezuela, mining threatens Indigenous Pemón 11 Nov 2025 11:55:35 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/the-price-of-gold-in-venezuela-mining-threatens-indigenous-pemon/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Catherine Ellis content:encoded: CÚCUTA, Colombia — When Daniel Romero worked at a river mine in Canaima National Park, in southeastern Venezuela, he would wait until the sun had slipped behind the ancient sandstone tepuis before heading to the raft. Sometimes he thought of his grandparents tending to their conucos — small garden plots — and gliding across mirror-black and amber rivers in dugout canoes. They had always opposed mines encroaching on their ancestral lands. Romero, a tour guide from the Pemón Indigenous group, who spoke to Mongabay by phone, never imagined he’d end up working in one. Though grueling, he became used to mud-caked skin, roaring machines and his torchlight revealing silt-clouded rivers as he hunted for gold. Mining for gold, as well as other resources such as coltan and rare earths, has expanded in southern Venezuela since the early 2000s, accelerating over the past decade. It is now rife in areas controlled by state, armed and criminal actors and has drawn in many Indigenous communities seeking to earn a living. It is now spilling into protected areas like Canaima National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to Angel Falls, the world’s tallest uninterrupted waterfall at 979 meters (3,212 feet). A May 2025 World Heritage Watch report based on data from SOS Orinoco found five mining sites and two expansions appeared in the park. Between 2000 and 2023, mined areas grew by more than 1,300%, from 122 hectares (301 acres) to 1,582 hectares (3,909 acres), while another 73 hectares (180 acres)…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Across southern Venezuela, Indigenous communities have been drawn into mining for gold as their traditional way of life has been disturbed and they lack other economic opportunities. - Armed groups and a push for extractives have turned the Imataca Forest Reserve in the state of Bolivar into a mining hotspot, sources tell Mongabay, boosting deforestation and river pollution and destroying the livelihoods of Indigenous Pemón families. - In Canaima National Park, the collapse of tourism and the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed communities into mining. Many operations in the park are run by Pemón, who own rafts, employ local workers and partner with external financiers providing machinery and fuel in exchange for a share of the gold. - In theory, Venezuela legally guarantees land rights for Indigenous people and requires consultation on extractive projects, but communities denounce a lack of consultation, with both legal and illegal mining encroaching on their territories. authors: | ||
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Chilean pulp giant Arauco’s history of pollution trails it to Brazil biodiversity site 11 Nov 2025 09:58:12 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/chilean-pulp-giant-araucos-history-of-pollution-trails-it-to-brazil-biodiversity-site/ author: Xavier Bartaburu dc:creator: Tainah Ramos content:encoded: A Chilean company with a history of pollution has begun building a new pulp and paper mill in Brazil, threatening to turn a highly biodiverse region into a “green desert” of eucalyptus monoculture, experts warn. Arauco announced in April this year that it would begin work on the Projeto Sucuriú site in Inocência municipality, in Mato Grosso do Sul state. The project is expected to cover 3,500 hectares (about 8,650 acres) near where the MS-377 highway crosses the Sucuriú River. The company is investing $4.6 billion in the project, or nearly a fifth of Mato Grosso do Sul’s 2021 GDP, according to Brazilian government data. In August, the company signed a contract for financing amounting to $250 million from the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) and another $600 million from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC). The Mato Grosso do Sul state environment agency, IMASUL, issued the company its installation license in May 2024, at an event attended by the state’s governor, Eduardo Riedel; Inocência Mayor Antônio Ângelo; and Arauco’s Brazilian CEO, Carlos Altimiras. Riedel said at the event that Arauco is one of the world’s cleanest pulp and paper companies, and touted its commitment to sustainability and carbon neutrality. In Brazil, however, the pulp and paper industry is classified as being potentially highly polluting under the as stated in 2000 National Environmental Policy Law. The project also poses a threat to the biodiversity and water resources of this region of Brazil, which lies in the Cerrado biome, the world’s…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Chile-based Arauco has begun building a pulp and paper mill in a Brazilian region that’s been prioritized for conservation. - The project overlaps with the Três Lagoas biodiversity conservation area, where it could potentially contaminate rivers, dry up groundwater, increase wildlife roadkill, and transform this region of Cerrado savanna into a “green desert” of eucalyptus monocultures. - While Arauco has promised to implement monitoring and mitigation measures for the environmental impacts of its new project, its track record in Chile is rife with cases of pollution and environmental violations. authors: | ||
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Air pollution levels surge in India’s capital, sparking rare protests 10 Nov 2025 20:38:11 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/air-pollution-levels-surge-in-indias-capital-sparking-rare-protests/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: NEW DELHI (AP) — A thick layer of smog enveloped India’s capital Monday, filling the air with an acrid smell as pollution levels surged and worsening a public health crisis that has prompted its residents to take the streets to protest and demand government action. By Monday morning, New Delhi’s air quality index stood at 344, a level considered “severe” and dangerous to breathe, according to the World Health Organization’s recommended exposure limits. Late Sunday, hundreds of people, including parents and environmental activists, gathered at New Delhi’s India Gate in a rare protest, urging authorities to act. Many wore masks and carried placards, with one reading: “I miss breathing.” “I am here just as a citizen who cares and who is worried about the state of situation that we are in with respect to the lack of clean air to breathe,” said protester Meghna, who only gave her first name. Police later confiscated placards and banners and asked protesters to disperse, saying they did not have permission to demonstrate. Worsening air quality in the capital has sparked outrage from residents suffering from headaches and persistent coughs. Frustration is mounting toward politicians accused of trading blame instead of enforcing policies to combat what has become an annual health emergency. Home to more than 30 million people, New Delhi and its surrounding region routinely rank among the world’s most polluted cities. India has six of the 10 most polluted cities globally, and New Delhi remains the most polluted capital, according to a report from Switzerland-based air…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: NEW DELHI (AP) — A thick layer of smog enveloped India’s capital Monday, filling the air with an acrid smell as pollution levels surged and worsening a public health crisis that has prompted its residents to take the streets to protest and demand government action. By Monday morning, New Delhi’s air quality index stood at 344, a […] authors: | ||
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Brazil hosts COP30 with high ambitions — and scaling environmental ambiguities 10 Nov 2025 19:23:28 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/brazil-hosts-cop30-with-high-ambitions-and-scaling-environmental-ambiguities/ author: Alexandre de Santi dc:creator: Carla Ruas content:encoded: BELÉM, Brazil — The U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP30) launched in the Amazonian city of Belém this Monday, Nov. 10, with high expectations that Brazil would help drive bold climate commitments from participating nations. “We need roadmaps so that humanity, in a just and planned way, can overcome its dependence on fossil fuels, halt and reverse deforestation, and mobilize resources for these purposes,” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said in the summit’s opening ceremony. “Moving forward requires more robust global governance, capable of ensuring that words translate into actions.” Yet, the host country is facing myriad environmental controversies — from new oil projects to fast-tracking environmental licensing — that threaten its credibility as host. Experts interviewed by Mongabay noted that many delegations find themselves in similar situations at home, making it harder for countries to hold one another accountable. Less than a month before the summit opened, Brazil’s environmental agency, IBAMA, granted the country’s first oil exploration license close to the Amazon coast. The drilling site, 500 kilometers (310 miles) from the mouth of the Amazon River, holds one of the most biodiverse marine regions in the world. The project had been in discussion for more than a decade and faced strong opposition from local communities and environmentalists over the risks of oil spills. In August, Brazil had already raised eyebrows when the national antitrust regulator ordered the end of the Soy Moratorium. The pact committed agribusiness traders to avoid buying soy grown on Amazon land that had been…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Three environmental moves in Brazil are drawing criticism as the country hosts COP30: a green light for exploratory oil drilling on the Amazon coast, an end to the Soy Moratorium and a push for looser environmental licensing. - Experts fear the plans could risk a lack of global accountability, watering down COP30’s outcome to vague promises and softer language. - Following COPs held by petrostates, the summit in Belém comes with recent decisions from Norway, Australia and China to support new fossil fuel projects, illustrating a global trend that jeopardizes bolder deals at COP30. authors: | ||
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To fix the climate, simply empower Indigenous people (commentary) 10 Nov 2025 18:58:35 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/to-fix-the-climate-simply-empower-indigenous-people-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Kiki Taufik content:encoded: Climate change is the defining issue of our age. While nations search for complex technological solutions at this year’s high-stakes climate meeting in the Amazon city of Belém, a simpler yet powerful answer has been waiting in the wings. I saw it firsthand in the forests of West Papua’s Bird’s Head Peninsula in the company of Indigenous youth from the Amazon, the Congo Basin, and Borneo. They showed me a truth that the world has been overlooking: one of the most effective climate solutions lies in empowering Indigenous people. In this way, we can prevent an immense amount of carbon emissions from deforestation and preserve priceless biodiversity and all the benefits we reap from it. It’s a strategy that more than pays for itself. A recent Forest Defender Camp at Sira village in Southwest Papua featured 89 delegates ranging from Papuan Indigenous youths from 7 customary areas to Indigenous representatives from communities in the Congo Basin, the Amazon, and Borneo. Image courtesy of Greenpeace. The first piece of good news is that it is simple. The rest of the good news is that we can put it into practice right now, and that it needn’t cost too much. Ending fossil fuels, transforming global food systems – these are essential but they’re expensive and they take time. They often require re-skilling whole workforces. While that hard and slow work is underway, Indonesia can score an immediate goal by finally enacting the Indigenous Peoples Bill, and by providing Indigenous communities access to…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - While nations search for complex climate solutions at this year’s COP30 climate meeting in Belém, a simple yet powerful answer is just waiting in the wings: empowering the world’s most powerful protectors of forests and nature – Indigenous people – and we must let them point the way, a new op-ed argues. - Ending fossil fuel use and transforming global food systems are essential but expensive and take time, but nations like Indonesia can score an immediate climate win by enacting its long debated Indigenous Peoples Bill, for example. - “Humanity seeks an answer, but the answer has always been here,” the Sira Declaration states. “The answer is us.” - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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‘Not good’: Ocean losing its greenness, threatening food webs 10 Nov 2025 17:46:28 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/not-good-ocean-losing-its-greenness-threatening-food-webs/ author: Morgan Erickson-Davis dc:creator: Edward Carver content:encoded: The consequences of global warming, caused mainly by burning fossil fuels, are varied and many. Now scientists have documented yet another one: The ocean is losing its “greenness.” The ocean’s chlorophyll concentration, a proxy for phytoplankton biomass, declined over the past two decades, especially in coastal areas, a new study has found. Phytoplankton are plant-like organisms that are the base of the marine food web, supporting fisheries and broader ecosystems. The findings in the study, published Oct. 17 in the journal Science Advances, have far-reaching implications, according to the authors, most of them based at Tsinghua University in Beijing. “These changes will profoundly affect the magnitude and distribution of marine ecosystem functioning,” they wrote in the study’s conclusion. Curtis Deutsch, a professor of geosciences at Princeton University in the U.S., who wasn’t involved in the study, echoed their concern. “It’s not good,” Deutsch told Mongabay, speaking of the finding of reduced ocean greenness. “[It] almost certainly means that there’s less production of new organic matter, of algae in the ocean,” he added, with the qualifier that the trend of phytoplankton loss was relatively slow and he didn’t expect a “sudden collapse.” Study first author Zhongkun Hong, at the lectern, leads a discussion on chlorophyll A concentration and phytoplankton dynamics. Image courtesy of Di Long. Deutsch said the findings weren’t shocking, as scientists have theorized that a loss of greenness could be occurring. That’s because rising sea surface temperatures increase stratification — that is, they increase the difference in the density…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The ocean is losing its greenness, a new study has found: Global chlorophyll concentration, a proxy for phytoplankton biomass, declined over the past two decades, especially in coastal areas. - Phytoplankton are the base of the marine food web, supporting fisheries and broader ecosystems, so their decline could have far-reaching implications, experts say. - The phytoplankton decline could hurt coastal communities that live off the sea, and affect the ocean’s ability to act as a carbon sink, the authors say. authors: | ||
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What does the just energy transition mean for Africa? 10 Nov 2025 14:07:33 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/what-does-the-just-energy-transition-mean-for-africa/ author: Malavikavyawahare dc:creator: John Cannon content:encoded: When two Mongabay reporters visited the village of Lukwangulo in the Democratic Republic of Congo, they encountered a reality that’s common in many parts of rural Africa: Families spend valuable time harvesting wood from forests for cooking, often their primary — and sometimes their only — source of energy. Some manage to pull together enough money for a solar panel that might charge a cellphone, power a radio and provide a little light for children to study by. But it’s typically not enough for the basic task of cooking. The stark contrast between this situation and the broader world that runs on that energy is readily apparent to those who currently have little to no access to it. “You come from the city — you have electricity, you have lighting. Why you and not us?” Mukalay Ngoyi, a leader from Lukwangulo, told Mongabay. “We’re human beings like you, and we need electricity too.” On Nov. 10, delegates to the U.N.’s annual climate conference, COP30, will meet in Belém, Brazil, to assess global progress toward addressing climate change by limiting carbon emissions. Key to drawing down those emissions and achieving the goal of keeping the global temperature rise well below 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels is how we meet growing energy demand, both around the globe and in places like Lukwangulo. But most community leaders won’t be in Belém, instead relying on others to make the case for a “just” energy transition. The “just” concept “means leaving no one…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Around 600 million Africans lack even basic access to electricity. - The challenges this deficit poses have led to a call for a “just” energy transition that brings access to energy from renewable sources without imposing undue costs on individuals, communities and countries. - The rising concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere are largely the result of fossil fuel burning in industrialized countries, and yet countries in Africa and elsewhere in the Global South are often on the frontlines of the impacts of climate change, including unbearable heat, droughts and flooding. - The debate about how to facilitate a “just” transition includes questions around the continued use of fossil fuels, nations’ sovereignty, and mobilizing funding to finance the necessary changes. authors: | ||
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African summit seeks clean energy future to combat climate change impacts 10 Nov 2025 12:50:27 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/african-summit-seeks-clean-energy-future-to-combat-climate-change-impacts/ author: Christophe Assogba dc:creator: Christophe AssogbaModeste Dossou content:encoded: COTONOU — Days before the COP30 climate summit kicked off this week in Belém, Brazil, a gathering of “nonstate actors” at the 6th Climate Chance Africa 2025 Summit in Benin adopted a declaration emphasizing the essential role of renewable energy in sustainable development and climate adaptation. Participants at the summit, held in Cotonou on Oct. 27 and 28, called on the international community to leverage renewable energy as a tool for building climate resilience, preserving biodiversity, and achieving equitable development. The Cotonou Declaration, which follows from the Addis Ababa Declaration by heads of state in September, states that renewables are a key tool for climate adaptation, capable of securing energy access for vulnerable communities, strengthening food security, and improving public health. The declaration denounces the decline in official development assistance and calls on wealthy countries to maintain public investment in the Global South, particularly for climate projects. It proposes reinvesting a portion of carbon market revenues in climate-positive projects in Africa that respect the rights of local communities. The statement says public funds should be used as guarantees to attract private financing, particularly from within Africa, and to reduce borrowing costs that hinder renewable energy projects. Initiatives such as the Africa Climate Innovation Compact and the Accelerated Partnership for Renewables in Africa (APRA) are welcomed, but their success depends on greater inclusion of nonstate actors and accessible financial mechanisms for community-based microprojects. Participants at the Climate Chance Africa 2025 Summit in Cotonou, Benin, are calling on the international community to…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Nonstate actors have adopted the “Cotonou Declaration” at the Climate Chance Africa 2025 summit. - The summit featured renewable energy commitments as well as a road map for integrating adaptation as a crucial step in addressing climate change. - Benin is leading the way on climate resilience by anticipating and addressing the challenges posed by climate change. authors: | ||
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Rise in Chinese off-grid coal plants in Indonesia belies pledge to end fossil fuel support 10 Nov 2025 10:58:39 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/rise-in-chinese-off-grid-coal-plants-in-indonesia-belies-pledge-to-end-fossil-fuel-support/ author: Philip Jacobson dc:creator: Jeff Hutton content:encoded: A surge in the supply of Chinese-backed coal-fired power plants built to supply electricity to Indonesia’s fast-growing nickel mining and processing sector is undermining Beijing’s efforts to dial back support for fossil fuels, a study released Nov. 3 has found. In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly four years ago, China’s president, Xi Jinping, pledged to end his country’s official financing of overseas coal projects — usually for power plants to supply electricity to tariff-paying customers. In response, new projects backed by Chinese government entities and state-owned companies have shrunk by more than a third worldwide, according to a report released Monday that was co-authored by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and People of Asia for Climate Solutions. Indonesia’s capacity of newly installed coal-fired power plants nearly tripled to more than 7 gigawatts the year following Xi’s announcement, as work wrapped up on projects already in the pipeline before tapering off. Still, Chinese-backed coal-fired generating capacity is going online. As of July, two coal plants to power nickel processing started operation in Indonesia’s North Maluku province, according to data from Global Energy Monitor. Chinese investment has been flowing into Indonesia’s metal mining and smelting sector in a bid to supply raw materials to electric vehicle battery makers amid a transition to the zero-emission vehicles. That inflow of investment is buttressed by a ban on nickel ore exports that was reestablished in 2020 to develop a local processing industry. Generating capacity among so-called captive coal plants…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Chinese president Xi Jinping has pledged to end the country’s financing of overseas coal projects — but a surge in Chinese-backed coal-fired power plants to supply electricity to nickel mining and processing undermines that pledge. - Chinese investment has been flowing into Indonesia’s metal mining and smelting sector in a bid to supply raw materials to electric vehicle battery makers amid a transition to the zero-emission vehicles. - By the end of the decade, about 44% of processed nickel for use in batteries and also for stainless steel will come from Indonesia. authors: | ||
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