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Pascale Moehrle pressed Europe to take its seas seriously 07 Mar 2026 04:14:33 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/pascale-moehrle-pressed-europe-to-take-its-seas-seriously/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: In recent decades Europe’s seas have become a test of whether environmental policy can keep pace with ecological decline. Scientific advice on fisheries has grown more precise, satellite monitoring has expanded, and governments have pledged to restore marine ecosystems. Yet many fish stocks remain under strain, and destructive fishing practices continue in areas meant to protect biodiversity. The gap between commitments and outcomes has become a familiar feature of marine policy. Environmental groups have tried to narrow that gap by translating scientific findings into political pressure. Their work often takes place in committee rooms, regulatory consultations and court filings rather than at sea. Success depends on persistence: years spent arguing for tighter catch limits, enforcement of existing rules, or the protection of habitats that are easily damaged but slow to recover. Among the figures who devoted much of their professional life to that effort was Pascale Moehrle, executive director and vice-president of Oceana in Europe from 2019 to 2025. Her death was announced by Oceana on March 4th, 2026. Over a career in conservation that began in the early 1980s, Moehrle became a prominent voice urging European governments to manage fisheries more cautiously and to treat marine ecosystems as core environmental policy instead of peripheral to it. When Moehrle assumed leadership of Oceana’s European office, debates over fisheries and marine protection were intensifying across the European Union. Scientific assessments had long warned that many fish stocks were under pressure, and that destructive fishing practices were damaging seabed habitats. The political…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Pascale Moehrle, who led Oceana’s European office from 2019 to 2025, spent more than four decades working on wildlife conservation and ocean policy. - Her death was announced by Oceana on March 4, 2026. - Moehrle pushed European governments to follow scientific advice on fisheries, curb destructive fishing practices and enforce protections in marine protected areas. - Her work focused on turning Europe’s commitments on ocean protection into practical policy that could restore marine ecosystems and sustain fisheries. authors: | ||
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200 dead, more missing in another DRC mine collapse 06 Mar 2026 21:09:17 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/200-dead-more-missing-in-another-drc-mine-collapse/ author: Malavikavyawahare dc:creator: Mongabay Africa content:encoded: More than 200 people have died and dozens are missing after a landslide on March 3 at the Kasasa site in the Rubaya mining area in Masisi territory, North Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. “I saw the ground collapse and [bury] many people who were there. I can’t say exactly how many, but there were several people involved in the incident. The mine was busy as usual,” a witness who requested anonymity told Mongabay by phone. Amateur videos that have gone viral (but could not be independently verified by Mongabay) show bodies lying on the ground, with witnesses reporting that people had lost their lives and been pulled from the rubble. Since February 2025, parts of the eastern DRC, including Rubaya, have been under the control of M23, an armed group allegedly backed by Rwanda. This represented a major escalation of a long-simmering conflict in the politically volatile region. The local M23 Congo River Alliance authorities in Rubaya, including the mayor of Rubaya and his deputy, confirmed that the landslide took place but did not provide any figures about the casualties. Congolese Minister of Mines Louis Watum Kabamba, a member of President Felix Tshisekedi’s government, announced that more than 200 people, including children, had died in the disaster, which occurred on March 3 at around 3 p.m. A miner speaking on condition of anonymity, contacted by Mongabay by telephone, confirmed having seen a dozen bodies by Wednesday morning, noting that the number of victims could rise as…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: More than 200 people have died and dozens are missing after a landslide on March 3 at the Kasasa site in the Rubaya mining area in Masisi territory, North Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. “I saw the ground collapse and [bury] many people who were there. I can’t say exactly how many, […] authors: | ||
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Restoration of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest may hinge on market for native plants 06 Mar 2026 18:18:13 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/restoration-of-brazils-atlantic-forest-may-hinge-on-market-for-native-plants/ author: Jeremy Hance dc:creator: Sarah Derouin content:encoded: The forests of the world are teeming with life, from the towering trees down to the microscopic organisms that quietly recycle and refuel the soil. That’s why clearing forests leads to biodiversity loss, problems with water and soil quality, and less carbon storage. In Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, restoration projects have been underway for decades to combat clearing. While some successes have been noted, there are still barriers to starting — and sustaining — restoration efforts in the region. This is especially the case for privately owned land. Now, new research in the journal Ambio digs in to how to better balance reforestation efforts with economic benefits for landowners in the Atlantic Forest. “We wanted to go beyond the classic, cliché narrative that says biodiversity has an invaluable market value and many active principles … we wanted to answer which ones,” says study lead author Pedro Medrado Krainovic, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of São Paulo. The researchers were curious if they could find the reforestation sweet spot of increasing biodiversity, creating economic incentives and providing social support — a combination known as bioeconomics. In particular, they wanted to know if native plant species in restored patches of the Atlantic Forest could help bridge the gap between forest restoration goals and economic opportunities, by measuring how many of these species could be economically exploited. The team surveyed vegetation in areas undergoing forest restoration, noting the variety and abundance of native plants. Using patent records for plants in medical, cosmetic and…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Brazil’s Atlantic Forest is one of the richest biomes on the planet, hosting around 5% of Earth’s vertebrate species, but deforestation has decimated the region, with less than a quarter of original forests still standing. - Reforestation efforts provide varying environmental, economic and societal values, also known as bioeconomics. - New research weighs the economic potential of native plants to bolster the bioeconomics of reforestation projects, supporting conservation efforts and supporting small landowners and Indigenous communities. authors: | ||
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Sri Lankan waters under ‘close watch’ following wreckage of Iranian warship 06 Mar 2026 17:15:23 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/sri-lankan-waters-under-close-watch-following-wreckage-of-iranian-warship/ author: Dilrukshi Handunnetti dc:creator: Kamanthi Wickramasinghe content:encoded: GALLE, Sri Lanka — On March 4, an Iranian Navy frigate IRIS Dena sank some 40-50 nautical miles off the southern coast of Galle, an important maritime route in Sri Lanka. According to the Sri Lanka Navy, at least 180 personnel were initially on board the ship and it was returning from the International Fleet Review 2026, a maritime exercise held in Visakhapatnam, India, when it sent out a distress signal. Following the incident, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that a U.S. submarine sank the Iranian warship in international waters, describing it as the first such sinking of an enemy ship by a U.S. submarine since World War II. For Sri Lanka, a strategic location at the confluence of important maritime routes, it is both a politically and environmentally distressing moment. Speaking to media in Colombo, Buddhika Sampath, spokesman for the Sri Lanka Navy, said search and rescue troops were deployed as soon as the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre received the distress call. “We didn’t see a ship except for some oil patches and life rafts,” Sampath told local journalists at a media briefing. “The Navy rescued 32 individuals aboard the ship, but by the time we reached the frigate, several bodies were floating near the vessel,” he said. Map shows Sri Lanka’s exclusive economic zone. Image courtesy of the Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase, Flanders Marine Institute. No oil spill yet Speaking to Mongabay, Sampath confirmed that an oil spill has not been detected yet. A total of 90 bodies…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - At least 90 bodies were recovered from the wreckage of the IRIS Dena, an Iranian warship that was torpedoed by a U.S. submarine on March 4. - The Sri Lanka Navy has spotted oil patches and life rafts during the rescue mission but no oil spill reported so far. - Maritime experts say Sri Lanka will have an opportunity to raise a claim for environmental damage following the sinking of the frigate. - If the Indian Ocean island intends to seek damages, the government may have to claim environmental damages through an international tribunal, considering the frigate was sunk under conditions of war. authors: | ||
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Nations not on track to meet UN 2030 pesticide risk reduction targets: Study 06 Mar 2026 16:46:39 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/nations-not-on-track-to-meet-un-2030-pesticide-risk-reduction-targets-study/ author: Glenn Scherer dc:creator: Mike Gaworecki content:encoded: The world’s nations committed to halving overall threats to biodiversity from pesticides and other highly hazardous chemicals by 2030 at the 15th United Nations Biodiversity Conference in 2022. But new research finds most countries are trending in the wrong direction when it comes to ecological risks from pesticides, with the U.N.’s global risk reduction target unlikely to be met without substantial changes to agricultural systems. In fact, only one country, Chile, is currently on track to meet the U.N. target of reducing pesticide risk by 50% by 2030, according to recent findings by a team of environmental scientists from German university RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, and published in the journal Science. Pesticide risk in this context is defined as the probability of chemical compounds — including insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides — used to control agricultural pests having adverse effects on species not directly targeted by the pesticides and, thus, on ecosystems more broadly — and ultimately on humans. The new study found that the applied toxicity of insecticides has increased for pollinating insects such as honey bees. Image by Louise Docker via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). To determine global pesticide risk, the study researchers looked at data on pesticide use from 2013 to 2019 in 65 nations that collectively represent nearly 80% of global crop acreage. They then combined these statistics with data on the toxicity of 625 pesticides for eight different species groups, including aquatic invertebrates and plants, fish, pollinating insects, soil organisms, and terrestrial arthropods, plants and vertebrates. This…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - New research finds that most countries are trending in the wrong direction when it comes to meeting the U.N.’s 2030 global pesticide risk reduction target, with the goal unlikely to be met without substantial changes to agricultural systems worldwide. - To determine global pesticide risk, researchers used data on pesticide use from 2013 to 2019 in 65 countries, along with data on the toxicity of 625 pesticides as related to eight different species groups. - Researchers found that just one country, Chile, is on track to meet the U.N. target of reducing pesticide risk by 50% by 2030. The team noted that while overall ecological toxicity of pesticides is rising worldwide, just four nations — the U.S. Brazil, China and India — accounted for more than half of global total applied toxicity (TAT). - The researchers also discovered that global pesticide risk is dominated by just a few highly toxic chemicals, and they suggest that if this finding is acted upon, targeted reductions in use of these particular chemicals could be one of the best opportunities for nations to get back on track to meet the 2030 pesticide risk reduction goal. authors: | ||
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The rate of global warming is accelerating, study finds 06 Mar 2026 15:37:52 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/the-rate-of-global-warming-is-accelerating-study-finds/ author: Hayat Indriyatno dc:creator: Bobby Bascomb content:encoded: Earth has been steadily warming since the start of the Industrial Revolution, when humans began emitting greenhouse gases at scale. And while the rate of warming has been largely constant for the past half-century, a recent study finds it has accelerated over the last decade — an alarming trend for Earth systems, biodiversity and human health. Since the 1970s, the average global temperature has increased by roughly 0.2° Celsius (0.36° Fahrenheit) per decade. “That was pretty constant, but in recent years there have been some really record-breaking hot years globally,” study co-author Stefan Rahmstorf, a professor of physics of the ocean at Potsdam University in Germany, told Mongabay in a video call. The last three years are the three warmest on record – as are all ten of the years since 2015. That sudden spike prompted a debate among climate scientists, Rahmstorf said. They questioned if the sudden warming was indeed an acceleration, or natural variation that could be explained by three other factors — El Niño, volcanic eruptions, or solar flares — which can all affect global temperatures. To find out, Rahmstorf and study co-author Grant Foster, a statistician, applied statistical analysis to global temperature data to weed out the influence of those three factors. “We filter out known natural influences in the observational data, so that the ‘noise’ is reduced, making the underlying long-term warming signal more clearly visible,” Foster said in a press release. What remained was predominantly the human-caused warming signal. The results were dramatic: since 2015,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Earth has been steadily warming since the start of the Industrial Revolution, when humans began emitting greenhouse gases at scale. And while the rate of warming has been largely constant for the past half-century, a recent study finds it has accelerated over the last decade — an alarming trend for Earth systems, biodiversity and human […] authors: | ||
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Indonesian communities try to reclaim lands following company permit revocations 06 Mar 2026 14:44:59 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/indonesian-communities-try-to-reclaim-lands-following-company-permit-revocations/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Tonggo Simangunsong content:encoded: MEDAN, Indonesia — Sahala Pasaribu, 35, walks on customary land his family has not been able to manage for more than three decades since PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL), a pulpwood company, took control of it. Now, after the government decided to revoke the company’s permit in January, he hopes it’s possible. “We feel free to manage our own land without the intimidation we often faced,” said Sahala, head of Natinggir village in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province. He succeeded his father, Tomu Pasaribu, who died in 2024. He has already begun replanting the land with secondary crops, such as corn and vegetables. His family also plans to restore a customary forest, which they say is sacred. But whether he, and others from dozens of Indigenous communities whose lands were held by the company, can legally reclaim their customary lands remains unclear. At the start of 2026, the government decided to revoke PT TPL’s forest utilization permit, along with those of 27 other companies, over violating environmental and forestry regulations it said contributed to deadly floods and landslides in November 2025. But according to officials, lands under these permits will be managed by state-owned companies under the sovereign investment agency Danantara. Some companies have also indicated they will appeal the revocations of their permits. Pressure from communities on the government for clarity about whether they can take back lands has so far gone unanswered. Mongabay reached out to Danantara and the ministries of environment and forestry but did not receive a…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In January, the Indonesian government ordered the revocation of PT TPL’s forest utilization permit, along with those of 27 other companies, for allegedly violating environmental and forestry regulations that contributed to deadly floods and landslides in November 2025. - Twenty-nine communities whose customary lands overlap with the pulpwood company’s concession are demanding the return of 37,219 hectares after decades of conflict with the enterprise. Some people have reoccupied lands. - According to officials, the state-owned investment agency Danantara will take over the companies’ concessions, but community leaders say the legal status of customary lands and forests is still unclear after meetings with government officials. - Community leaders and NGOs have drafted next steps for the lands, including reforestation following decades of eucalyptus plantations and land titling. authors: | ||
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This bird is disappearing from Indonesia’s forests for its song 06 Mar 2026 06:05:21 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/this-bird-is-disappearing-from-indonesias-forests-for-its-song/ author: Naina Rao dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: The rising popularity of songbird singing competitions in Indonesia has led to the dramatic decline of the white-rumped shama, a bird known locally as murai batu. Mongabay Indonesia video contributor Rizky Maulana Yanuar recently reported that keeping such birds is deeply rooted in local culture. In Javanese society, a man is considered to be successful when he has a job, a house, a vehicle, a wife and a bird, Yanuar reported. Murai batu (Copsychus malabaricus) are highly coveted for their melodic voice and beauty. In contests, the birds are judged on the duration of their song, volume, rhythm, showmanship and physical presentation. Winning these prestigious contests significantly increases a bird’s market value. Champion birds can sell for tens of thousands of dollars, and prizes for the owners can even include cars. While there are plenty of facilities breeding the birds in captivity, buyers say wild-caught birds are superior. This high demand has created a financial lifeline for rural residents facing economic uncertainty. “As a farmer, harvests are very uncertain. Sometimes I have work, sometimes I don’t,” says Peni Mak Lajang, a Sumatran native who turned to poaching murai batu because of the high prices. Peni sold his first murai batu for 800,000 rupiah ($48), back when he could capture five birds in a week. Now, he considers it a “blessing” if he can catch even one in a month. Constant pressure to collect wild murai batu for singing contests has caused them to vanish from most forests across Java and…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The rising popularity of songbird singing competitions in Indonesia has led to the dramatic decline of the white-rumped shama, a bird known locally as murai batu. Mongabay Indonesia video contributor Rizky Maulana Yanuar recently reported that keeping such birds is deeply rooted in local culture. In Javanese society, a man is considered to be successful […] authors: | ||
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Climate or biodiversity? Global study maps out forestation’s dilemma 06 Mar 2026 02:45:37 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-or-biodiversity-global-study-maps-out-forestations-dilemma/ author: Jeremy Hance dc:creator: John Cannon content:encoded: Planting trees is a vital strategy to combat both climate change and the biodiversity crisis. As forests grow, they sponge carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and provide renewed habitat for threatened animals, plants, fungi and countless unseen lifeforms. That ability of forests to help slow climate change has driven a push to reforest degraded lands or even plant new forests where none existed before. It’s also spurred other strategies, like the cultivation of bioenergy crops coupled with carbon capture. But these approaches require a lot of land, and they could potentially put pressure on the species that live in these spots — if a forestation project or hectares of bioenergy row crops subsume native grasslands, for example. A recent analysis shows that around 13% of globally important, biodiversity-rich land overlaps with areas earmarked for these types of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) projects. “It’s unfortunate that we face multiple global problems all at once, including both climate change and biodiversity loss,” said Mark Urban, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut in the U.S., who wasn’t involved in the research. “When we try to fix one, we can make things worse for the other.” Agroforestry in Ethiopia. Image by Trees ForTheFuture via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, used five existing models that guide climate action in line with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting warming to 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels to map out locations tabbed…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A new study maps areas designated for potential carbon dioxide removal projects, such as planting forests or bioenergy crops, that might conflict with biodiversity hotspots. - Such climate strategies could harm species if they change existing ecosystems or use too much land. - The study points to the importance of more careful site selection for these projects. - The authors of the study also note the importance of reducing humanity’s CO2 emissions, rather than relying solely on removing CO2 from the atmosphere later on. authors: | ||
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Antarctic krill sustainability label questioned 05 Mar 2026 22:46:11 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/antarctic-krill-sustainability-label-questioned/ author: Rebecca Kessler dc:creator: Bobby Bascomb content:encoded: The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) recently released a draft report for its fourth recertification of krill fishing in Antarctica by Aker QRILL Company. The certification would allow Aker to put an MSC label on its products that tells consumers the krill came from a sustainable well-managed fishery. However, the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), a U.S.-based advocacy group, issued a formal objection to that determination, citing concerns about overfishing of a critical resource in a sensitive ecosystem. “Everything that lives in Antarctica either eats krill or eats something that eats krill,” Holly Parker Curry, ASOC’s marine protected areas campaign director, told Mongabay in a video call. It’s the base of the food chain but krill biomass has declined by 70-80% in parts of the Southern Ocean since the 1970s. That’s roughly when people started harvesting the tiny crustaceans for aquaculture fish food and dietary supplements for people. Climate change and shrunken sea ice are also contributing the dramatic drop in krill populations; krill depend on sea ice for part of their life cycle. In its said, “Antarctic krill is one of the best managed species in the world … [and] the total catch is limited to below 1% of the total biomass.” Curry said that assessment is strictly accurate, but the devil is in the details. “It’s not just about how much is caught, that’s important too, but it’s really where it’s caught,” Curry said. “A lot of the fishing for krill in the Southern Ocean, it all happens essentially in the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) recently released a draft report for its fourth recertification of krill fishing in Antarctica by Aker QRILL Company. The certification would allow Aker to put an MSC label on its products that tells consumers the krill came from a sustainable well-managed fishery. However, the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), […] authors: | ||
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Satellite images identify vulture breeding colonies by their droppings 05 Mar 2026 19:21:56 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/satellite-images-identify-vulture-breeding-colonies-by-their-droppings/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Ryan Truscott content:encoded: Populations of Rüppell’s vultures have fallen by more than 90% over the past four decades. Knowing exactly where these critically endangered birds breed can allow conservationists to put protective measures in place. But Rüppell’s historically occupied a vast swathe of West, Central and East Africa; finding their remaining colonies is a daunting task. A team of researchers says it has successfully tested a way to find vulture colonies remotely, pinpointing dozens of potential sites across seven countries using open-access satellite imagery. The vultures helped. Like other cliff-nesting birds, their droppings lavishly daub cliff faces below their nests with whitewash. Bulgarian ornithologist Ivaylo Angelov, zoomed in on satellite images of mountainous areas across more than 6 million square kilometers (2.3 million square miles), seeking out cliffs over 20 meters (65 feet) high as well as sites documented in old bird atlases of the region. Ivaylo Angelov studies a Rüppell’s vulture nesting colony in Ethiopia in 2009. Image courtesy of Nikolay Terziev. Angelov and his colleagues pinpointed 232 previously undocumented nesting sites. Most of these were in Sudan, South Sudan and Chad, but they found others in the Central African Republic, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. The work took weeks but was “immensely satisfying.” “I love geography, I love travel, and it was an absolute joy for me to zoom in and check all these incredible mountains,” Angelov says. “I had the feeling that I’m there.” In the region surrounding Sudan’s Jebel Marra mountains, in the southwest of the country, the team located…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A new study reveals that colonies of critically endangered Rüppell’s vultures are visible via satellite images. - A group of researchers scanned more than 6 million square kilometers (2.3 million square miles) in seven countries in East and Central Africa to look for the tell-tale whitewash formed by droppings deposited by the birds beneath their nests. - In all, the team pinpointed 232 potential nesting sites, mostly in Sudan, South Sudan and Chad. - Following declines of more than 90% for the species over the past 40 years, knowing where Rüppell’s vultures nest can help conservationists ensure their protection. authors: | ||
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25 years after ‘disaster’ declaration, major U.S. fishery makes a comeback 05 Mar 2026 19:01:44 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/25-years-after-disaster-declaration-major-u-s-fishery-makes-a-comeback/ author: Rebecca Kessler dc:creator: Jules Struck content:encoded: PORT ORFORD, Oregon, U.S. — Aaron Longton reached down into the rinsing sink in his garage-turned-fish-processing facility on the Oregon coast and hoisted a redbanded rockfish by its fat bottom lip. The homely fish was next in line for the dressing table, where Brian Morrissey, Longton’s “cutter-in-chief,” would deftly slice it into neat fillets, setting aside its guts and bones for crabbing chum. Morrisey had about 250 kilograms (550 pounds) of the rockfish (Sebastes babcocki) to get through that day, and 90 kg (200 lbs) of lingcod (Ophiodon elongatus), he said, his knife unzipping yet another fish. An unthinkable abundance only 20 years ago. “These fish were really severely limited to us,” said Longton, founder of Port Orford Sustainable Seafood, a company that sells fish via a subscription program. “Now, we have huge quotas.” Redbanded rockfish (Sebastes babcocki), one of the groundfish species whose stock has been rebuilt on the U.S. West Coast, being processed at Port Orford Sustainable Seafood. Image by Jules Struck for Mongabay. The groundfish Longton hauls to his processing room from the pier down the street are the spoils of a painstakingly rebuilt industry. Twenty-six years ago, the West Coast groundfish industry, which encompasses more than 90 species of bottom-dwelling fish off Washington, Oregon and California, had overfished itself to near devastation. In response, fisheries authorities closed vast tracts of the ocean to trawling and slashed fishing quotas, throwing many fishers into painful retirement. But in the aftermath, an unlikely corps materialized of fishers, scientists, conservationists…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In 2000, the U.S. commerce secretary declared the groundfish fishery on the U.S. West Coast a “disaster,” with 10 key species overfished to below a quarter of their healthy levels. - Fisheries authorities empowered by federal conservation laws took drastic action: They cut off vast tracts of the ocean to trawling, slashed fishing quotas and bought fishing vessels to remove them from operation. Many fishers were thrown into painful retirement. - Careful management and innovation in the intervening years has led to a remarkable turnaround: In October 2025, fishery officials declared the last of the 10 overfished species to be rebuilt, years earlier than expected, and fishers have catches they thought would never be possible again. - Even so, fishers’ profits have been low, and experts worry that key conservation programs could lose their teeth to cost-cutting measures and deregulation. authors: | ||
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Bringing storytelling to science: John Cannon’s approach to reporting on nature 05 Mar 2026 17:40:21 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/bringing-storytelling-to-science-john-cannons-approach-to-reporting-on-nature/ author: Hayat Indriyatno dc:creator: Alejandro Prescott-Cornejo content:encoded: For John Cannon, reporting on nature begins with a story grounded in the truth. “Evidence-based reporting [is] at the heart of what we do at Mongabay,” he says. “I believe it’s perhaps the most profound way we can contribute to making things better.” With a biology degree from Ohio State University and a graduate degree in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz, Cannon has dedicated himself to this belief, reporting from around the world, including several countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. He also was a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger. That background fuels Cannon’s curiosity as a journalist. “I find science’s disentangling of life’s mysteries on Earth incredibly inspiring, especially as we try to find our way out of the crises of climate change and biodiversity loss,” he says. Ultimately, his time is spent “connecting conservation science with the daily lives of people affected by the problems that face us today” as well as “finding ways to illustrate how interconnected we all are.” Cannon hiking through Dogon country in Mali, 2011. Image courtesy of Anne-Claire Benoit. Today, based in California with his wife and two cats adopted while living in Gaza, Cannon balances his work at Mongabay with a love of mountain biking, skiing and hiking, including taking on Spain’s Camino de Santiago and the Pacific Crest Trail across the U.S. and Canada. Cannon began writing for Mongabay as a correspondent in 2014, joined full-time in 2016, and is now a staff features writer. His…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - John Cannon is a staff features writer at Mongabay, where he has reported since 2014. - Cannon says that what inspires him is the chance to tell stories that connect conservation science with the daily lives of people affected by climate change, deforestation and land dispossession. - He values curiosity, collaboration and the power of storytelling, and is especially proud of his reporting on carbon credit projects in Borneo and entanglement threats to endangered northern right whales. - This interview is part of Inside Mongabay, a series that spotlights the people who bring environmental and conservation stories to life across our global newsroom. authors: | ||
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Climate change is messing with tropical plants’ flowering times, study shows 05 Mar 2026 17:39:31 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/climate-change-is-messing-with-tropical-plants-flowering-times-study-shows/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: David Brown content:encoded: The flowering times for many plant species have shifted due to climate change, with most of the change occurring in temperate zones. Researchers assumed the tropics, which are largely the same temperature year-round, would be insulated from such climate change-driven changes to flowering times. However, a new study challenges that assumption. Researchers examined more than 200 years of flowering plant data from herbarium collections of tropical plants across Africa, Asia and South America. They identified 33 plant species with distinct annual flowering times, and recorded data from 8,000 individual plant specimens collected between 1794 and 2024. They found that the flowering times shifted by an average of two days per decade; approximately one-third of the species flowered earlier and two-thirds shifted later. However, there were some anomalies. Brazilian amaranth trees (Peltogyne recifensis), for example, now flower 80 days later than they did in the 1950s. By 1995, the Ghanaian rattlepod shrub (Crotalaria mortonii) flowered 17 days earlier than it did in the 1950s. Study lead author Skylar Graves, from the University of Colorado Boulder in the U.S., said the findings show that herbarium specimens can be used to examine the climate impacts on plants over time. “Herbarium specimens are functionally a global and multigenerational dataset of plants,” she told Mongabay by email. “These specimens can be used for countless purposes, and with enough collections taken … you can use them to compare anything you want at any scale.” The shifts observed in tropical plant flowering times is comparable to those…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The flowering times for many plant species have shifted due to climate change, with most of the change occurring in temperate zones. Researchers assumed the tropics, which are largely the same temperature year-round, would be insulated from such climate change-driven changes to flowering times. However, a new study challenges that assumption. Researchers examined more than […] authors: | ||
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Seafood fraud is rampant, imperiling fish populations, report finds 05 Mar 2026 17:36:33 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/seafood-fraud-is-rampant-imperiling-fish-populations-report-finds/ author: Rebecca Kessler dc:creator: Edward Carver content:encoded: The global fisheries and aquaculture sector produces more than 150 million metric tons of food per year, valued at nearly $200 billion. Yet it’s plagued with fraud, according to a new report. The report, published Feb. 10 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency, both United Nations bodies, says that up to roughly 20% of aquatic products are intentionally mislabeled as the wrong species or otherwise fraudulent, posing environmental and health risks. “A global 20% seafood fraud rate isn’t just a statistic; it’s a dire warning,” Max Valentine, a campaign director at U.S.-based marine conservation NGO Oceana, said in a statement. (An Oceana policy adviser to the NGO’s Europe branch contributed to the FAO report, but Valentine wasn’t involved with it.) “Consumers are falling victim to a bait and switch, and the fishers who play by the rules are paying the price. This is a global problem that every nation must work together to combat at its source.” The report, presented at the World Seafood Congress held Feb. 9-11 in Chennai, India, calls for governments and industry stakeholders to establish better traceability systems, use advanced detection methods, and educate the public. “Tools of great relevance are national legislation and national and international standards, which are vital in defining acceptable products and practices,” the report says. A tuna on board a fishing vessel in Indian waters in 2012. The vessel was operating outside of Indian regulations on registration and ownership, according to the international NGO…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Up to roughly 20% of aquatic products are intentionally mislabeled as the wrong species or otherwise fraudulent, posing environmental and health risks, according to a new report. - Inaccurate representation of species is one of the most frequent forms of fraud, the report says. - Other cons include misrepresenting place of origin or eco-certification status, and adulterating a product to affect its weight or appearance of freshness. - The report calls for governments and industry stakeholders to establish better traceability systems, use advanced detection methods, and educate the public. An NGO expert says government action on traceability is key. authors: | ||
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A sanctuary… for glacier ice? 05 Mar 2026 16:37:46 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/a-sanctuary-for-glacier-ice/ author: Sam Lee dc:creator: Sam Lee content:encoded: Scientists in Antarctica have just inaugurated the first global repository of mountain ice cores. As the climate crisis melts glaciers all around the world, this frozen vault aims to preserve the history of the Earth’s atmosphere for future generations to study.This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Scientists in Antarctica have just inaugurated the first global repository of mountain ice cores. As the climate crisis melts glaciers all around the world, this frozen vault aims to preserve the history of the Earth’s atmosphere for future generations to study. authors: | ||
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Beetle known for ravaging mango trees now killing baobabs, study finds 05 Mar 2026 14:18:49 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/beetle-known-for-ravaging-mango-trees-now-killing-baobabs-study-finds/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Charles Mpaka content:encoded: A couple of years ago, Sarah Venter wrote an article gently picking apart alarm over the specter of Africa’s iconic baobabs dying off due to climate change. Her review found that while a number of famously large and ancient trees had indeed collapsed in worsening conditions, Adansonia digitata were generally proving resilient. When she heard about fears that a new pest was killing worrying numbers of baobabs in Oman, she set off to investigate, at the invitation of Oman’s Environmental Authority. There are eight species of baobab, members of the genus Adansonia. A. digitata is widely distributed across East, West and Southern Africa; one species is restricted to northwestern Australia; and the other six are found only in Madagascar, believed to be the center of origin for this striking family of trees that stand majestically on barrel-like trunks and can live for well over a thousand years. Three of Madagascar’s baobab species are threatened — A. grandidieri and A. suarezensis are listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List, and A. perrieri is critically endangered — by logging, charcoal production, wildfires, and mining of the forests they’re found in. Historical records and genetic research suggest baobabs reached Oman, on the Arabian Peninsula, centuries ago as part of the circulation of valuable plants between northeastern Africa, the Persian Gulf and South Asia by nomadic and fishing communities on the Indian Ocean. Batocera rufomaculata adult (a) and larvae (b). Images courtesy of Sarah Venter. It was the health of about 100 baobabs…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Researchers say baobabs face a potential new threat from the mango stem borer, a beetle long known to devastate other trees. - The warning comes from research in Oman, where scientists found the pest had killed six baobabs and severely infested a dozen more in a small valley population. - Authorities there are fighting the infestation with pesticides, light traps and manual removal of larvae from the trees. - Scientists note that similar infestations have not yet been recorded in other countries where baobabs grow. authors: | ||
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DNA fingerprinting convicts Zimbabwe lion poachers in landmark case 05 Mar 2026 13:55:27 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/dna-fingerprinting-convicts-zimbabwe-lion-poachers-in-landmark-case/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Spoorthy Raman content:encoded: A CSI-style investigation in Zimbabwe helped to successfully prosecute two people for killing a lion and trafficking its teeth, flesh and other body parts in February. Forensic specialists analyzed DNA collected from parts seized by authorities and matched it with a radio-collared lion that was killed two years ago. This conviction was historic: It’s the world’s first case to use a lion’s genetic material and trace it back to an individual to pin down wildlife criminals. The two defendants were sentenced to two years in prison for their crimes. The conviction is tied to a 2024 case in which poachers snared and killed a male lion near Hwange National Park, close to the world-famous Victoria Falls. Researchers knew this particular lion, as they’d tracked its movements as part of a study. When they captured and anesthetized the cat to fit it with a radio collar some years ago, biologists took blood samples and logged its genetic and health information into their database. Investigators used that DNA data to trace the origins of seized lion parts, which included three bags of meat, 16 claws and four teeth that were to be sold on the black market. Parts from captive-bred lions can be traded internationally and in Zimbabwe with the appropriate paperwork, but the sellers didn’t have permits, and proving these seized parts came from a wild lion and not a captive-bred one was key to this case. That would mean poaching, which is illegal. African lions are the most-traded wildcats in…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Prosecutors in Zimbabwe used lion DNA forensics for the first time to successfully convict two people for poaching and trafficking a male lion near Hwange National Park. - Investigators analyzed DNA from confiscated lion parts and were able to match it to a radio-collared lion in their database that was killed in 2024. - Proving that the seized parts came from a poached wild lion provided the evidence that sent the two poachers to prison for two years. - Experts say DNA forensics provide invaluable proof in hard-to-prosecute wildlife crimes, and this recent conviction sets a precedent for bringing poachers to justice in court using the forensic technology. authors: | ||
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Archived camera-trap images bring Thailand’s tapirs into focus 05 Mar 2026 04:47:39 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/archived-camera-trap-images-bring-thailands-tapirs-into-focus/ author: Naira Rao dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: Archived camera-trapping images have revealed a new stronghold for Asian tapirs in Khlong Seang–Khao Sok Forest Complex, in southern Thailand. Mongabay’s Carolyn Cowan reports that a recent study found camera-trap “bycatch” data — images of species that researchers hadn’t intended to photograph — can be used to monitor Asian tapirs (Tapirus indicus). The camera traps were originally set up in Khlong Seang–Khao Sok between 2016 and 2017 to monitor Asian black bears (Ursus thibetanus), and sun bears (Helarctos malayanus). Tapirs weren’t a target because, historically, they’ve mostly been surveyed visually, with researchers walking a path through the forest and recording any tapirs they spot along the way. Modeling based on images from the Thai forest complex suggests it could hold up to 436 tapirs, significantly more than the previous estimate of fewer than 250 individuals for all of Thailand and Myanmar combined. But researchers urge caution in interpreting this number, as tapirs may be unevenly distributed across the forest complex, suggesting a smaller actual number. Globally, the species is endangered, with fewer than 2,500 mature individuals remaining, according to a 2014 assessment. Adult Asian tapirs can weigh up to 350 kilograms (772 pounds), making them the largest of the four tapir species and the only one found outside of Latin America. In addition to being nocturnal and shy, said ecologist Naparat Suttidate from Walailak University in Thailand, Asian tapirs “are [a] large, slow-reproducing species requiring large areas of specific habitat [and] play a vital role as seed dispersers, helping to…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Archived camera-trapping images have revealed a new stronghold for Asian tapirs in Khlong Seang–Khao Sok Forest Complex, in southern Thailand. Mongabay’s Carolyn Cowan reports that a recent study found camera-trap “bycatch” data — images of species that researchers hadn’t intended to photograph — can be used to monitor Asian tapirs (Tapirus indicus). The camera traps […] authors: | ||
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Emotional and psychological stresses beleaguer conservation professionals (commentary) 04 Mar 2026 19:22:56 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/emotional-and-psychological-stresses-beleaguer-conservation-professionals-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Nerissa ChaoVik Mohan content:encoded: Nested within the current biodiversity crisis sits an equally complex and concerning human crisis, but one that receives even less attention: the poor mental health and well-being of the conservation workforce. The scale of this problem is clearly set out in a recent Mongabay article. In a sector that has always relied on the passion and commitment of individuals, where one’s value is measured by selfless dedication to the cause — which can manifest as an expectation to prioritize work above all else, take on unpaid or poorly paid work, accept poor working conditions, or compromise on personal safety — staff well-being has never been a priority. This unhealthy culture of self-sacrifice provides the context within which sector-wide stressors are impacting the well-being of the workforce. The growing ecological crisis in itself is having a significant impact on well-being, and this is set out powerfully in the Mongabay article. In addition to this, the changing funding and geopolitical landscape, which is deprioritizing conservation and climate action, further increases instability and uncertainty, putting further pressure on the conservation sector. Working in conservation isn’t all rainbows. Photo illustration of a rainforest rainbow in Malaysian Borneo by Rhett Butler/Mongabay. The impact of all of these chronic stressors are emotional and psychological distress, poor mental health and burnout, increasing the risk that conservation professionals will give up on their aspirations and leave the profession. Recent research found 27% of conservationists are suffering from moderate or severe distress, and women face particular challenges as conservationists,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The well-being of conservationists has never been a priority in the sector, but new cultural norms and expectations of this workforce are urgently needed. - The unhealthy culture of self-sacrifice coupled with growing pressure within the sector — driven by the worsening ecological crisis and changes in the funding and geopolitical landscape — are driving a crisis of poor mental health and well-being among conservationists. - Yet change is possible with investment in the well-being of the conservation workforce, through the implementation of evidence-based interventions that promote individual and team well-being, which can lead to improvements in well-being, performance and retention. - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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Across South America, canopy bridges evolve as a lifeline for tree-dwelling wildlife 04 Mar 2026 18:23:28 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/across-south-america-canopy-bridges-evolve-as-a-lifeline-for-tree-dwelling-wildlife/ author: Xavier Bartaburu dc:creator: Luís Patriani content:encoded: Throughout the Amazon Rainforest, forest fragmentation represents an escalating and existential threat to the preservation of fauna. Driven by intensive economic development, the expansion of agribusiness and large-scale infrastructure projects — such as highways, railways, power transmission lines and gas pipelines — continues carrying profound environmental risks. Foremost among these ecological pressures are the geographic isolation of animal populations and high mortality rates resulting from roadkill and other related accidents. Arboreal mammal species, including primates, sloths and porcupines, are among the most affected by this confinement, as their survival is strictly dependent on canopy connectivity. Paradoxically, these specialized tree-dwelling animals often benefit the least from standard environmental mitigation measures, such as the implementation of artificial crossings. To address critical gaps in understanding animal behavior and habitat use, biologists Justin Santiago and Lindsey Swierk from the State University of New York at Binghamton, U.S., conducted pioneering research in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon. The study site was located at the Amazon Conservatory for Tropical Studies (ACTS) Field Station within Napo-Sucusari Biological Reserve, a 1,674-hectare (4,137-acre) protected area near the city of Iquitos, in the northern region of Loreto. The researchers deployed a sophisticated system of canopy bridges that used a combination of nets, thick ropes and platforms situated at varying heights. These elements were integrated to form extensive suspended corridors designed to facilitate safe movement for wildlife from one treetop to another. A specialist installs a camera on a tree connected to the canopy bridge system in the Peruvian Amazon.…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In the Amazon and Atlantic forests, field research is seeking new ways to understand the behavior of mammals like monkeys and sloths that depend on the treetops to move around and survive in different types of vegetation. - Using photographic equipment on artificial bridges — whose ropes, nets and platforms are intertwined with trees to protect wildlife — researchers are mapping fauna in both continuous forests and fragmented areas, providing new scientific insights. - Experts working to reduce the risks of roadkill and species’ isolation in fragmented forest areas say studies are crucial to improving the installation of artificial crossings over highways. authors: | ||
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Attention is scarce. Storytelling strategy matters more than ever 04 Mar 2026 16:46:44 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/attention-is-scarce-storytelling-strategy-matters-more-than-ever/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Environmental journalism has long struggled with a practical problem: how to make distant ecological change feel relevant to people whose daily lives are shaped by more immediate concerns. Scientific reports document trends in temperature, biodiversity and land use with increasing precision, yet such findings often fail to travel far beyond specialist audiences. Video, once expensive and difficult to distribute, is now ubiquitous. Today the constraint is attention. Content that reaches large audiences usually foregrounds human experience rather than abstract risk. One response has been to anchor environmental reporting in lived realities. Instead of beginning with emissions curves or species counts, journalists start with households, workers or communities navigating change. This approach repositions the science so climate change becomes visible as relocation, lost income, altered routines and disrupted schooling. The method carries risks, including the temptation to substitute anecdote for evidence. Used carefully, however, it can broaden understanding without sacrificing accuracy. Lucía Torres, who leads video production at Mongabay, has built much of her work around this premise. In reporting on a Mexican coastal town forced to move inland after years of storms and encroaching seas, she focused on residents’ relationships with place and each other. The aim was to document gradual disruption rather than stage dramatic suffering. Time spent off camera proved as important as filming itself. Conversations, shared meals and repeated visits helped establish trust, yielding testimony that felt less performative and more reflective of ordinary life under strain. Her broader advice to younger journalists is pragmatic. Technical skill…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Environmental journalism has long struggled with a practical problem: how to make distant ecological change feel relevant to people whose daily lives are shaped by more immediate concerns. Scientific reports document trends in temperature, biodiversity and land use with increasing precision, yet such findings often fail to travel far beyond specialist audiences. Video, once expensive […] authors: | ||
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Colombia’s coffee industry well placed but wary as EU deforestation rule looms 04 Mar 2026 16:23:15 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/colombias-coffee-industry-well-placed-but-wary-as-eu-deforestation-rule-looms/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Mie Hoejris Dahl content:encoded: CIÉNAGA, Colombia — A handful of men swarm around a coffee collection center in the city of Ciénaga, shouldering burlap sacks of coffee as they move in and out of the mill. Ciénaga is a port town in the foothills of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the world’s highest coastal mountain range, and is known locally as the coffee capital of the Sierra Nevada region. “We hope EUDR will be to our benefit,” says Silver Polo Palomino, a coffee grower and representative of the Asociación de Agricultores Orgánicos de La Secreta (AGROSEC), a local organic coffee growers’ association in Ciénaga, speaking over the roar of the mill. Polo is one of many producers in Colombia who say they’re uncertain — and increasingly nervous — about what the implementation of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) will mean for their livelihoods. The regulation, set to go into force at the end of this year, will ban the import into the EU market of seven key commodities linked to deforestation. Coffee is among them. But Colombia, the world’s No. 3 coffee producer, is well prepared for the EUDR and better positioned than coffee exporters in many parts of Africa and Asia, several experts told Mongabay. Despite a fragmented sector dominated by small-scale farmers, Colombia’s coffee industry is highly organized, largely through the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (FNC), which represents more than 500,000 coffee-growing families. The FNC has developed a centralized georeferenced database, the Coffee Information System (SICA), designed to…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - About a quarter of coffee exports from Colombia, the world’s No. 3 producer, go to Europe, which means coffee companies need to prepare to comply with the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which should enter into force at the end of this year. - Colombia’s Coffee Information System (SICA), a georeferenced database managed by the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia (FNC), contains detailed records on around 1.8 million coffee lots and socioeconomic data on nearly 500,000 coffee-growing families, most of them smallholders. - This long-established system could help Colombian coffee growers demonstrate compliance with EUDR, placing them ahead of competitors in Africa and parts of Asia. - Nevertheless, while many large companies say they’re prepared for the EUDR, small-scale farmers, including Indigenous coffee growers, often have limited knowledge about the requirements and are less prepared to comply. authors: | ||
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Proposed shark net near Club Med resort in South Africa sparks conservation clash 04 Mar 2026 15:18:53 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/proposed-shark-net-near-club-med-resort-in-south-africa-sparks-conservation-clash/ author: Malavikavyawahare dc:creator: Victoria Schneider content:encoded: On Feb. 13, a juvenile humpback dolphin was caught and killed in one of the many nets strung up off the coast of South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province to protect beachgoers from sharks. The incident, near the city of Richards Bay on the country’s eastern coast, was a blow for South Africa’s population of Indian ocean humpback dolphins, which has dropped to fewer than 500 in recent decades. Shark nets, installed together with baited hooks called drum lines, aim to reduce the number of sharks that could come into contact with, and possibly harm, humans. Once entangled in these nets, which can run hundreds of meters wide, sharks have little chance of survival — nor do other species like humpback dolphins (Sousa plumbea). In the wake of the February incident, scientists working to conserve humpback dolphins issued a letter of opposition to a proposal to install another such net at a popular beach farther down the coast. Tinley Manor is a one-and-a-half-hour drive from Richards Bay, and has emerged as a flashpoint in the debate about shark nets. Municipal authorities there are proposing installing a shark net at the public beach, in view of the new Club Med luxury resort being built right next to it. The KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board (KZNSB), as the authority responsible for bather safety in the province, says it’s acting to safeguard beachgoers, whose numbers are expected to rise significantly with the opening of the resort later this year. Indian Ocean humpback dolphins. Image courtesy of Bridget…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A proposal by municipal authorities in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province to install shark nets at a public beach has triggered a public debate about the need to install gear that’s highly lethal to sharks and other marine life, and raised questions about its legality. - The proposal, which authorities say will protect beachgoers from shark attacks, was made in anticipation of increased visitor numbers to Tinley Manor Beach once a new Club Med resort opens in the area later this year. - Some scientists and environmentalists argue that shark nets and drum lines are outdated as they cull and kill nontarget species indiscriminately, including those protected under South African law. - South Africa’s Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment said it’s considering whether installing the net should trigger an environmental impact assessment. Some experts also question the legality of existing nets. authors: | ||
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Falling Amazon river flows trigger reality check at Belo Monte power plant 04 Mar 2026 12:16:21 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/falling-amazon-river-flows-trigger-reality-check-at-belo-monte-power-plant/ author: Alexandre de Santi dc:creator: Rafael Spuldar content:encoded: Brazil’s largest Amazon hydropower plants are becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change, and Belo Monte may be the clearest warning sign yet. Built on the Xingu River after years of debate over its environmental impacts and the reliability of its energy output, the mega-dam is facing a problem its planners could not solve with engineering: less water. This reality is reflected in two major studies published in late 2025 — one led by Brazil’s water and sanitation agency, ANA, and the other by the federal energy research office, EPE. From different angles, both reports conclude that climate change is fundamentally reshaping the country’s water and energy systems, requiring urgent adaptation — 43.7% of Brazil’s energy comes from hydropower plants. ANA’s report warns that hydropower plants across the Amazon region could lose up to 40% of their generation capacity over the next 20-30 years if planning continues to rely on historical water flow data rather than climate-adjusted projections. The Xingu River Basin in particular will face significantly longer and more intense dry seasons over the coming decades. Maximum river flows could decline by up to 50%, according to the study published in November 2025, while consecutive dry periods — historically around 20 days — may extend to as many as 40 days by the end of the century, with some dry spells lasting up to 150 days. Those numbers look into the future, but the severity of droughts and their impact on Amazon dams are today’s reality. In 2024, during the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Studies warn that climate change could slash hydropower generation across the Amazon by up to 40%, with controversial Belo Monte among the most exposed plants in Brazil. - Researchers and regulators say relying on historical river flows is no longer viable as droughts intensify and rainfall patterns drop. - Belo Monte’s operator argues the plant remains strategic for Brazil’s energy security, despite growing climate risks. authors: | ||
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Counting bats in the dark 04 Mar 2026 08:29:02 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/counting-bats-in-the-dark/ author: Sam Lee dc:creator: Sam Lee content:encoded: How do you count and keep track of bats? Advances in videography, including thermal cameras, have made it easier to spot bats. But these animals move fast, travel in big groups and are often found in the dark — making analysis of the data a tough task. Scientists have developed a new software called Thrutracker Analytics that uses traditional computer vision and artificial intelligence to count bats. Watch the latest episode of Then vs Now to learnThis article was originally published on Mongabay description: How do you count and keep track of bats? Advances in videography, including thermal cameras, have made it easier to spot bats. But these animals move fast, travel in big groups and are often found in the dark — making analysis of the data a tough task. Scientists have developed a new software called Thrutracker […] authors: | ||
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Indonesia farmers count the costs as rains wash out Java durian harvest 04 Mar 2026 04:23:07 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/indonesia-farmers-count-the-costs-as-rains-wash-out-java-durian-harvest/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: L. Darmawan content:encoded: BANYUMAS, Indonesia — The first two months of the year would ordinarily see Ganjar Budi Setiaji hurrying around Plana village’s durian orchard, here in the hilly Javanese district of Banyumas. But on the last Tuesday of January, the 53-year-old father instead appeared restless. “In 2024, I harvested 3,500 durians from 300 trees,” Ganjar told Mongabay Indonesia, a little ruefully. “I’ve had only 500 this year.” The durian fruit farmed by Ganjar is a mainstay in much of Southeast Asia, where its unusual texture and intense flavor profile splits opinion. Last year, Indonesia’s food minister rushed out trade data showing the archipelago’s superior production volume after Malaysia announced the durian as the kingdom’s national fruit, the latest bout of cultural fencing between the neighbors. Here in the Banyumas hills, farmers have propagated their own durian heritage since a hajj pilgrim known locally as Mbah Kromo planted an unusual durian tree in 1985 at his home in Karangsalam village. Ganjar shows drums used in the fermentation process to produce natural fertilizer. Image by L Darmawan/Mongabay Indonesia. A few years later, Mbah Kromo began offering seeds from the parent tree to his neighbors. Appreciation for the Kromo durian grew as the trees flourished across the district. Ganjar slices through a thorny Kromo durian, revealing a sweet fruit with the texture of thick cheesecake, an acquired taste to many. The Kromo durian is also unusual for producing a heavyweight fruit than can, people here say, grow up to 10 kilograms (22 pounds), with a…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In a quiet village in central Java, farmers report that their durian fruit trees have failed to bear fruit amid local anxieties over climate change and other environmental shifts. - Every year farmers around Plana village plant a type of durian known as the Kromo, named after a returning Islamic pilgrim whose durian trees produced unusually large fruit, which people here prize for its heightened flavor profile. - Peer-reviewed research and official comment by Indonesia’s state meteorology agency, the BMKG, shows fruit growers in Java may face declining yields in the future amid increasingly erratic weather. authors: | ||
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Paul Brainerd turned computers into printing presses and fortune into conservation 04 Mar 2026 01:34:41 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/paul-brainerd-turned-computers-into-printing-presses-and-fortune-into-conservation/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Paul Brainerd did two things that rarely sit comfortably together. He helped make publishing cheaper and easier, then spent much of what he earned trying to protect the landscapes that were being consumed by growth. He died on February 15th 2026, aged 78, at his home on Bainbridge Island, Washington. In the 1980s, when most people still thought of computers as glorified typewriters, he helped turn them into printing presses. In the 1990s and after, as the Pacific Northwest’s wealth compounded, he tried to steer some of it into civic capacity: organizations that could win fights, not merely stage them. His money came from software. His method was closer to editing. Brainerd was born in Medford, Oregon, in 1947. He studied at the University of Oregon and later earned a master’s degree in journalism at the University of Minnesota. He worked in newspapers, but not in the romantic way. He was drawn to production, workflow, the awkward interface between an idea and a printed page. That interest took him to Atex, a company that built newsroom systems. When Kodak bought Atex and closed a research center in the early 1980s, Brainerd and several engineers found themselves unemployed and restless. In 1984 they founded Aldus in Seattle. Within a year they shipped PageMaker, software that, paired with Apple’s Macintosh and Adobe’s PostScript, let ordinary users design pages that printed as they appeared on screen. Brainerd coined the phrase “desktop publishing,” a neat bit of compression that made a technical shift feel…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Paul Brainerd helped invent desktop publishing as a co-founder of Aldus and the force behind PageMaker, then redirected his wealth toward environmental and civic work in the Pacific Northwest. - In 1995 he launched the Brainerd Foundation to fund conservation policy, place-based protection, and the organizational capacity needed to sustain long campaigns. - He backed models of engaged, hands-on giving, helping start Social Venture Partners, and supported environmental education through IslandWood on Bainbridge Island, with later work extending to a regenerative lodge project in New Zealand. - He chose to spend down his foundation rather than endow it in perpetuity, arguing for urgency and near-term effectiveness, and he died on February 15, 2026, at 78. authors: | ||
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How the ‘wrong story’ ends up harming nature, and how we can change it 03 Mar 2026 22:17:04 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/03/how-the-wrong-story-ends-up-harming-nature-and-how-we-can-change-it/ author: Mikedigirolamo dc:creator: Mike DiGirolamo content:encoded: Indigenous scholar Tyson Yunkaporta (Apalech clan (Wik) Lostmob Nungar) joins the Mongabay Newscast to detail the Aboriginal perspectives behind his latest book, Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking. The book explains how stories shape society, how they can harm us and the environment, and how they may save our species and the natural world. Yunkaporta explains how Indigenous laws, systems and lore can help us improve modern society, specifically in how humans relate first to the land, then to each other, and why this shapes how we exploit nature and care for it. Identifying the “wrong story” is critical, Yunkaporta explains, to correcting harmful behaviors or ways of governing. Ultimately, it’s a lie, he says. Personified by what he characterizes as narcissistic or selfish behavior, it’s generally seen by those who exploit the natural world at the expense of community well-being. “It’s a terrible thing to … misrepresent things, make false claims, bear false witness in a way that is bending story, the story that everybody follows. The narratives that people tell that weave together to make a community and to hold a community on the right path that’s sustainable for thousands of years.” This concept can be seen in the folk tale of Tidalik, the giant frog, who drank up all the water and hoarded it for himself. The animal kingdom came together and made Tidalik laugh. By entertaining him, it forced Tidalik to spit the water back out. Yunkaporta compares this story with the current global…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Indigenous scholar Tyson Yunkaporta (Apalech clan (Wik) Lostmob Nungar) joins the Mongabay Newscast to detail the Aboriginal perspectives behind his latest book, Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking. The book explains how stories shape society, how they can harm us and the environment, and how they may save our species and the natural […] authors: | ||
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Cameroon’s decade of conflict leaves apes and conservationists in peril 03 Mar 2026 21:19:11 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/cameroons-decade-of-conflict-leaves-apes-and-conservationists-in-peril/ author: Isabel Esterman dc:creator: Orji Sunday content:encoded: In August 2025, Louis Nkembi, founder of conservation NGO ERuDeF, was abducted by militia fighters in Cameroon’s Lebialem Highlands. He was held for two weeks, hidden in a secret location inside a forest. “It was a traumatic experience,” he recalls. “I can’t go back to that area until everything is resolved.” Though Nkembi was eventually freed, his ordeal sheds light on the risks facing scientists, researchers, eco-guards and conservation workers protecting apes in Cameroon’s conflict hotspots, including the Lebialem Highlands. Lebialem is a global biodiversity hotspot in Cameroon’s southwest, host to dozens of endemic and threatened species, including critically endangered Cross River gorillas (Gorilla gorilla diehli), Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes ellioti), African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis), leopards (Panthera pardus), dwarf galagos (Galagoides demidovii) and white-bellied pangolins (Phataginus tricuspis). Camera trap photo of a Cross River gorillas(Gorilla gorilla deihli). Fewer than 300 are believed to survive, making them the rarest great ape subspecies. Image by ©WCS Nigeria. This irresistible richness is the root of Nkembi’s love for Lebialem. He’s spent nearly three decades documenting, surveying and conserving the area through ERuDeF (the Environmental and Rural Development Foundation), which he founded in 1999. In late 2016, Lebialem, like dozens of other parks, reserves and sanctuaries in the region, was swept up in armed conflict that continues to wrack Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions. “It was something that took all of us by surprise,” Ndimuh Bertrand, executive director of Voice of Nature (VoNat), a conservation organization based in the Southwest capital Buea, tells…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Dozens of protected areas in Cameroon’s anglophone regions, including parks that are home to great apes and other threatened species, have been swept up in a decade-long armed conflict between government forces and separatist militias. - The ongoing conflict has blocked conservationists’ access to forests, and exposed conservationists, local civilians and the region’s wildlife to violence. - Displaced people have turned to farming and hunting in forests in order to survive, while militias also hunt and camp in the forest. - Conservationists have explored new strategies to keep their work alive, including working with local citizen scientists, but say the task of rebuilding organizations in the midst of a humanitarian crisis is huge. authors: | ||
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No grid, no problem: How Amazon communities built their own power systems 03 Mar 2026 20:38:33 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/no-grid-no-problem-how-amazon-communities-built-their-own-power-systems/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Near Brazil’s Belo Monte dam, one of the world’s largest hydropower projects, the promise of abundant electricity has proved uneven. A household survey of 500 families in Altamira found that 86.8% experienced higher electricity costs after the plant began operating in 2016. Many riverside residents still endure outages, pay steep tariffs or rely on diesel generators. As Emilio Moran, a social anthropologist at Michigan State University, observed, “People are right under the transmission line, but the energy doesn’t come from that hydroelectric plant.” For some communities deeper in the Amazon, waiting for grid expansion has yielded little. In the Tapajós-Arapiuns Reserve near Santarém, researchers and residents have instead built small, independent energy networks, reports Mongabay contributor Jorge C. Carrasco. Launched in 2023, the pilot combines solar panels with hydrokinetic turbines placed in river currents. The aim, said project coordinator Lázaro Santos, is straightforward: “that we bring energy to contribute to improving the quality of life of these communities.” For villages long dependent on diesel, the shift has been tangible. One resident recalled that fuel deliveries required multiday boat trips, and electricity was rationed to a few evening hours. Today, a communal freezer runs around the clock, enabling food storage and modest commerce. Internet access and emergency communications have also improved. Crucially, the project trained local technicians to operate and repair the equipment. Three residents in one village can now maintain the system themselves, which builds technical confidence while lowering long-term costs. Instead of relying on distant technicians, communities can resolve…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Near Brazil’s Belo Monte dam, one of the world’s largest hydropower projects, the promise of abundant electricity has proved uneven. A household survey of 500 families in Altamira found that 86.8% experienced higher electricity costs after the plant began operating in 2016. Many riverside residents still endure outages, pay steep tariffs or rely on diesel […] authors: | ||
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Malaysia renews Lynas Rare Earths’ license for 10 years, orders end to radioactive waste by 2031 03 Mar 2026 19:52:48 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/malaysia-renews-lynas-rare-earths-license-for-10-years-orders-end-to-radioactive-waste-by-2031/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s government renewed Australian miner Lynas Rare Earths’ operating license for 10 years but will require it to stop producing radioactive waste by 2031. The Lynas refinery in Malaysia, its first outside China producing minerals that are crucial for high-tech manufacturing, has been operating in central Pahang state since 2012. The company has been e mbroiled in a dispute over radiation from waste that has accumulated at the plant. Science Minister Chang Lih Kang said Monday that any radioactive waste generated within the next five years must be treated and neutralized by extracting thorium or other methods. No new permanent disposal facility will be allowed, he said. The license runs until March 3, 2036, and will be reviewed after five years. It can be revoked if Lynas violates its conditions, Chang said. Environmental groups have long campaigned against the Lynas refinery, demanding that the company export its radioactive waste. They contend that the radioactive elements, which include thorium and uranium among others, were more hazardous after going through mechanical and chemical processes. Lynas was allowed five years to retrofit its facilities and ramp up operations under Chang described as a firm but accelerated timeline. He said lab tests have shown promising results in neutralizing radiation in waste through thorium extraction but scaling the technology to industrial levels typically takes seven to 10 years. “We have not gone against our promise to prevent the accumulation of radioactive waste in Malaysia. We remain committed to that position, and through…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s government renewed Australian miner Lynas Rare Earths’ operating license for 10 years but will require it to stop producing radioactive waste by 2031. The Lynas refinery in Malaysia, its first outside China producing minerals that are crucial for high-tech manufacturing, has been operating in central Pahang state since 2012. […] authors: | ||
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Concern among Indigenous leaders, relief for a few, as Amazon Soy Moratorium falters 03 Mar 2026 18:33:45 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/concern-among-indigenous-leaders-relief-for-a-few-as-amazon-soy-moratorium-falters/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Rubens Valente content:encoded: BRASÍLIA — Indigenous leaders and researchers in Brazil say an end to a key zero-deforestation agreement, the Amazon Soy Moratorium, will increase deforestation around Indigenous lands and encourage the invasion of their territories for soy farming. Already, some are pointing to forest loss advancing near one Indigenous land following efforts to curtail the agreement. Meanwhile, a few Indigenous leaders are seeing an economic opportunity as companies pull out of the agreement. Members in communities that sell soy farmed on their lands say they already do so sustainably and that the agreement unfairly penalizes their product. Mongabay spoke with stakeholders across various sectors, from Indigenous leaders and corporate entities, to conservationists and government officials — people across Brazil’s political spectrum — to get their take on what the possible dissolution of the moratorium may mean for Indigenous peoples and their lands in the Amazon. A section of the Amazon rainforest stands next to soy fields in Belterra, Para state, Brazil, on Nov. 30, 2019. Image by AP Photo/Leo Correa. The moratorium is a voluntary pact between companies, public agencies and NGOs to reduce deforestation in the Amazon. Participants agree to ban from their supply chains any soy produced in areas of the Amazon deforested after July 2008. While the expansion of soy farms grew by 361% from 2006 to 2023 as farmers prioritized converting already cleared lands, fresh deforestation in the Amazon for soy farms dramatically dropped to 1% in the first 10 years after the agreement came into force in…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Mongabay spoke with various stakeholders across Brazil’s political spectrum on what the possible unraveling of the Amazon Soy Moratorium, a key zero-deforestation agreement, may mean for Indigenous peoples and their lands. - Most Indigenous leaders say a weakening or end to the moratorium will increase deforestation, pollution and invasions of their lands — as satellite imagery points to advancing forest loss near one territory — while a few leaders see this as an economic opportunity that will allow them to sell soy farmed on their lands without any penalties. - As cracks form in the 20-year-old moratorium, the environment ministry says existing deforestation policies still stand and that given potential impacts on Indigenous lands, environmental enforcement and control mechanisms remain active and strengthened. - The government of the state of Mato Grosso says the moratorium created an unfair legal framework, while soy industry association Abiove said Brazil can still maintain high socioenvironmental standards without it. Both did not address whether there are potential impacts on Indigenous lands. authors: | ||
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New mapping approach predicts habitat availability for species conservation 03 Mar 2026 16:40:21 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/new-mapping-approach-predicts-habitat-availability-for-species-conservation/ author: Abhishyantkidangoor dc:creator: Abhishyant Kidangoor content:encoded: Where are habitats available for threatened species? Are they improving or deteriorating? What landscapes could potentially be used for rewilding animals? A new modeling framework has combined years of remote sensing, field data and inputs from experts to map habitat availability for four species and find answers to these questions. The Act Green project, led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and funded by NASA, has used these distinct data sources to visualize not only where species exist at present, but also to predict potential habitats to be considered for restoration and rewilding efforts. The updateable maps can help conservationists and ecologists identify areas that require urgent conservation attention while also pointing them in the direction of intact landscapes where species could be introduced. “We are trying to integrate the richness of expert opinion with remote sensing and modern computational technology to get dynamic maps at very large spatial scales,” Gautam Surya, conservation planning scientist at WCS and co-principal investigator of the project, told Mongabay in a video interview. Mapping a species’ range of habitats is crucial to understand its distribution and assessing where to direct funding for targeted conservation and species reintroduction efforts. It’s even more crucial against the backdrop of the Global Biodiversity Framework, which aims to protect 30% of the world’s ecosystems by 2030, a mission that requires nuanced data on available habitats around the world. “Decision-makers need to figure out how to spend their very scarce resources most effectively and in real time,” Rachel Neugarten, executive…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A new habitat mapping framework combines various data sets to visualize where species live, and predict potential habitats for the future. - The Act Green project combines remote sensing with field data and inputs from experts to map habitat availability for four species. - The data set can help conservationists identify areas that need immediate protection, as well as potential habitats that could be used for restoration and rewilding efforts. authors: | ||
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China’s Pacific squid fishery rife with labor, fishing abuses: Report 03 Mar 2026 15:47:41 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/chinas-pacific-squid-fishery-rife-with-labor-fishing-abuses-report/ author: Rebecca Kessler dc:creator: Francesco De Augustinis content:encoded: Labor abuses including violence, debt bondage and withheld wages and medical care, overfishing, shark finning, marine mammal killings: A new report exposes bad practices and a weak regulatory framework governing the jumbo flying squid fishery in the Southeast Pacific Ocean. The report was launched on Feb. 19, just days before the annual meeting of the commission of the South Pacific Regional Fishery Management Organisation (SPRFMO), the intergovernmental body that manages the fishery. The report drew on interviews with 81 fishers, mainly Indonesian sailors who worked between 2021 and 2025 on 60 Chinese vessels targeting jumbo flying squid (Dosidicus gigas) in the region. “Our interviews revealed that these vessels are engaged in widespread fisheries abuses and labor abuses,” Dominic Thomson, head of the investigation for U.K.-based NGO the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), told Mongabay. Jumbo flying squid, also known as Humboldt squid, are large-bodied animals averaging 50 to 80 centimeters (20 to 31 inches) in length. They concentrate in the South Pacific Ocean, off the coast of South America, where they play a key mid-trophic role in the marine ecosystem, serving both as a predator of smaller species and as prey for sharks, swordfish, sperm whales, dolphins and other marine life. The species is among the most commercially important squid species, accounting for about 30% of global squid landings. The fishery involves South American countries fishing mainly within their exclusive economic zones (EEZs): Ecuador, Chile and Peru. The latter has for decades been the world’s leading producer. In the last decade,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A new report from U.K.-based NGO the Environmental Justice Foundation draws on interviews with 81 fishers, mainly Indonesian sailors who worked between 2021 and 2025 on 60 Chinese vessels targeting jumbo flying squid (Dosidicus gigas) in the Southeast Pacific Ocean. - It documents frequent labor abuses affecting crew members, including several indicators of forced labor as described by the International Labour Organization. - The report also documents regular shark finning, targeted hunting of marine mammals, and involvement in suspected illegal fishing incidents, often inside Ecuador, Peru or Chile’s exclusive economic zones. - The report was launched days before the annual meeting of the commission of the South Pacific Regional Fishery Management Organisation, the intergovernmental body that manages the fishery. Officials with fishing organizations mentioned in the report and members of China’s delegation to the meeting did not respond to Mongabay’s request for comment on the report. authors: | ||
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Birds are changing — and Indigenous memory is the longest record we have 03 Mar 2026 15:37:04 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/birds-are-changing-and-indigenous-memory-is-the-longest-record-we-have/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Conservation has long depended on measurement. Populations are counted, habitats mapped, trends plotted against baselines that often extend back only a few decades. Yet many ecosystems began changing long before systematic monitoring began. In much of the world, the longest continuous records of environmental change reside not in databases but in memory, language, and daily practice. A growing body of research suggests that these forms of knowledge are not merely anecdotal supplements to science; they can reveal patterns otherwise invisible, including shifts in species composition, behavior, and condition. A recent global study illustrates the point with clearly. Researchers worked with ten Indigenous and local communities across three continents, asking adults to recall the most common birds around their territories today and during their childhoods. The survey produced nearly 7,000 reports covering 283 species over roughly eighty years. When matched with scientific data on body size, the responses indicated a consistent shift toward smaller-bodied birds, amounting to an estimated 72% reduction in average body mass across sites. Locations of the 10 study sites. Figure from Fernández-Llamazares, Á. et al. (2025) This finding echoes scientific literature documenting widespread avian decline. Long-term studies in tropical forests, for example, have recorded large drops in abundance even in areas with little direct disturbance, with capture rates in some Amazonian sites falling by about half over two decades. What is striking in the new work is not only the pattern itself but the method. The signal emerges from lived experience accumulated across generations, a type of…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A global study drawing on Indigenous and local knowledge across three continents finds that bird communities have shifted toward smaller-bodied species over the past 80 years, suggesting a substantial loss of larger birds even in places with little formal monitoring. - Traditional ecological knowledge, built through daily interaction with landscapes over generations, can reveal long-term environmental changes that scientific datasets — often only decades deep — fail to capture. - Because larger species tend to be more vulnerable to habitat fragmentation and environmental stress, a shift toward smaller birds may signal deeper ecological restructuring rather than a simple decline in numbers. - Integrating lived experience with scientific methods offers a fuller picture of environmental change, highlighting that some of the earliest warnings come from people who depend most directly on the natural world. authors: | ||
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Brazilian police seize more than 1.5 metric tons of shark fins 03 Mar 2026 07:14:13 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/brazilian-police-seize-more-than-1-5-metric-tons-of-shark-fins/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Karla MendesShanna Hanbury content:encoded: Brazilian authorities seized more than 1.5 metric tons of shark fins in Rodelas, Bahia state, on Feb. 12, uncovering what they allege is a Chinese run syndicate. They arrested seven people, including three Chinese nationals, in the raid at a rural processing site. Shark species such as the vulnerable Atlantic nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) and the near-threatened blue shark (Prionace glauca) are likely among the target species, IBAMA, the federal environment agency, told Mongabay. Genetic tests to confirm that are underway. “[Shark finning] is extremely cruel, because the fins are torn off, the animals are mutilated alive and thrown back into the sea so they don’t take up space on the vessel, since these criminals are interested only in the fins,” federal police agent Micael Andrade, told national TV station Globo. “The animal is discarded and agonizes and dies. Because it cannot move, it sinks. It cannot feed itself. It really is an extremely cruel practice.” Authorities said the suspects, including a teenager, will face charges including crimes against wildlife, receiving stolen goods and corruption of a minor. Shark fins and suspects during the raid at a rural processing site. Image courtesy of Brazilian Federal Police. Andrade said the three Chinese suspects were likely coordinating the scheme. “It became clear that only the Chinese men were in fact part of the international shark fin trading network,” he said. “They [the four Brazilian suspects] were poor workers earning daily wages to make some money. They did not even know how the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Brazilian authorities seized more than 1.5 metric tons of shark fins in Rodelas, Bahia state, on Feb. 12, uncovering what they allege is a Chinese run syndicate. They arrested seven people, including three Chinese nationals, in the raid at a rural processing site. Shark species such as the vulnerable Atlantic nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) and […] authors: | ||
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Local communities are conservation’s most undervalued asset (commentary) 03 Mar 2026 00:08:15 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/local-communities-are-conservations-most-undervalued-asset-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Damian BellJosé MonteiroMonicah MbibaMoreangels Mbizah content:encoded: African conservation stakeholders will soon gather for the 5th Business of Conservation Congress in Nairobi, led by African Leadership University. As they build the case for investing in nature-based business, the focus is on markets, enterprise models and blended finance. However, a crucial question remains: what actually makes conservation investable, resilient and scalable? Conservation has attracted significant funding, and yet biodiversity loss and climate change continue to accelerate. As new financial tools are discussed and refined, it is also worth reflecting — as a network of conservation funders and doers — on whether the money poured in through the last 30 years has worked; whether we have solved the problems; and whether the current operating model will carry us through the next 30. The problem is not a lack of commitment or capital; it is a misreading of how conservation works in practice. In our experience, community-led conservation is more efficient and resilient than traditional top-down models because it places authority closer to those who depend directly on the land. By embedding rules within locally legitimate institutions, it reduces enforcement and transaction costs and strengthens compliance through social trust. A recent analysis of wildlife management areas (WMAs) is a good example. Pastoral communities in Tanzania’s Tarangire ecosystem use WMAs to defend their land and livelihoods, even without full devolution of management rights, showing how conservation can serve local interests while protecting wildlife habitat. If community-led models are genuinely more efficient, that advantage should be visible in how conservation is delivered…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Conservationists will gather this week for the 5th Business of Conservation Congress in Nairobi, and one talking point there will be focusing finance toward local communities, since that is not only important for achieving equity but also a practical strategy for achieving sustainable and successful outcomes. - Although community-led conservation programs are genuinely shown to be more efficient, that advantage should also extend to conservation finance. - But if conservation finance does not shift, and if communities and the organizations that serve them are not brought in as partners even as biodiversity losses continue, the authors of a new op-ed argue that “the trajectory we are on will not change.” - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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World’s smallest possum may live beyond its known range in Australia 02 Mar 2026 21:43:27 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/worlds-smallest-possum-may-live-beyond-its-known-range-in-australia/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Megan Strauss content:encoded: New evidence of the world’s smallest possum has emerged hundreds of kilometers from where it’s known to occur in southern Australia — a finding that potentially extends the range of this locally threatened species. Pygmy possums are a group of tiny, mouse-sized marsupials that live in open woodlands, heathlands and scrub. They feed on nectar, pollen and insects, and play a crucial ecological role as pollinators. Yorke Peninsula in the state of South Australia is the traditional land of the Narungga people and was a known habitat for the western pygmy possum (Cercartetus concinnus). Now, a new study published in the journal Australian Zoologist suggests the rare and cryptic little pygmy possum (Cercartetus lepidus) may live there too. Researchers revisited photographic data from wildlife surveys conducted between 2004 and 2011 in Dhilba Guuranda–Innes National Park, an important remnant patch of native vegetation at the tip of the peninsula. Among observations of more than 250 pygmy possums, two photographed in 2006 stood out: these possums were smaller, with distinctive gray belly fur. They were initially labeled as juvenile western pygmy possums because there were no existing records of other pygmy possum species in the area; the closest known population of little pygmy possums is on Kangaroo Island, which has been isolated from the Yorke Peninsula for 10,000 years. However, the researchers hypothesized that the two observations were misidentified, so they compared the photos with specimens kept at the South Australian Museum. They concluded that these were indeed little pygmy possums. “About…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: New evidence of the world’s smallest possum has emerged hundreds of kilometers from where it’s known to occur in southern Australia — a finding that potentially extends the range of this locally threatened species. Pygmy possums are a group of tiny, mouse-sized marsupials that live in open woodlands, heathlands and scrub. They feed on nectar, […] authors: | ||
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Deadly landfill collapse exposes risks faced by Philippines’ waste pickers 02 Mar 2026 18:22:34 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/deadly-landfill-collapse-exposes-risks-faced-by-philippines-waste-pickers/ author: Isabel Esterman dc:creator: Michael Beltran content:encoded: RODRIGUEZ, Philippines — Lenny* recalled freezing when he saw the first heap of garbage collapse underneath the feet of his fellow scavengers on the afternoon of Feb. 20, at a landfill in the town of Rodriguez, in the Philippines’ Rizal province. Moments later, a larger perimeter caved. In an instant, a crater of trash had swallowed up hundreds of people. Scavengers aren’t technically employed by the landfill and are charged 50 pesos (about $1) as a weekly entrance fee. Armed with nothing more than T-shirts wrapped around their faces, they sift through the trash collected from nearby Metro Manila, looking for plastic and metal items they can sell to local junk shops by the kilo for recycling. According to Lenny (who asked not to use his real name for fear of reprisal) and other eyewitnesses, after the collapse, the landfill management ordered the dumping of more garbage and the bulldozing the surrounding debris to create a path downward. That ended up trapping dozens of scavengers under the trash. Mark Delos Reyes, spokesman for International Solid Waste Integrated Management Specialist (ISWIMS), the private company operating the landfill, denied that additional waste was dumped immediately after the trash slide. “All dumping was immediately halted. Any truck or equipment movement they saw in the area was strictly for our emergency search and retrieval operations, not waste disposal.” When Lenny spoke to Mongabay, more than 48 hours after the incident, his cousin was still missing. He said he was unaware there was any search…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A catastrophic dumpsite collapse buried scavengers collecting recyclables at a landfill in the Philippines’ Rizal province on Feb. 20, following a similar incident in Cebu in January that killed 36 people. - So far, one person has been officially confirmed dead and two missing, but eyewitnesses say as many as 50 people were trapped under mounds of waste. - Across the Philippines, scavengers pay a fee to dumpsite operators to be allowed to search for plastic and metal waste they can sell for recycling. - Environmental authorities found “operational lapses” at the site following an initial investigation, and have issued a cease and desist order to the operator. authors: | ||
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America’s national parks face an uncertain future as climate risks mount 02 Mar 2026 17:21:17 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/americas-national-parks-face-an-uncertain-future-as-climate-risks-mount/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: America’s national parks were conceived as sanctuaries from the forces remaking the rest of the continent. Climate change is now breaching that boundary. A recent assessment of park vulnerability suggests that many of these landscapes are not simply warming or drying in familiar ways. They are being pushed toward ecological states that may be fundamentally different from those they were created to preserve. The study, published in Conservation Letters, evaluates 259 park units across the contiguous United States using a framework common in climate science: exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. Exposure measures the scale of climatic change; sensitivity captures how strongly ecosystems respond; adaptive capacity reflects the ability of landscapes and species to adjust. Taken together, these dimensions describe not just how much parks will change, but how likely they are to experience transformation. By that measure, vulnerability is widespread. Two-thirds of parks were identified as highly exposed to at least one potentially transformative threat, including wildfire, drought, forest pests, or sea-level rise. In total, 77% ranked as highly vulnerable either overall or to a specific high-impact hazard. The implication is not that all parks face catastrophe, but that few can expect stability. Priority parks at the national scale, which were identified as those ranking at or above the 75th percentile in total cumulative vulnerability scores. Caption and image from Michalak et al (2026). Geography matters. Parks in the Midwest and eastern United States tend to have the highest cumulative vulnerability. These landscapes are often embedded within heavily modified…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A nationwide analysis finds most U.S. national parks are highly vulnerable to climate change, with many facing risks of irreversible ecological transformation rather than gradual decline. Wildfire, drought, pests, and sea-level rise are converging to reshape landscapes the parks were created to preserve. - Vulnerability is uneven: parks in the Midwest and eastern United States tend to face the greatest cumulative risk due to fragmented habitats, pollution, invasive species, and limited capacity for ecosystems to adapt. Many western parks appear more resilient but are exposed to multiple severe disturbances at once. - Coastal parks are threatened by rising seas and storm surge, while inland forests face compound stresses that can trigger long-term shifts from forest to shrubland or grassland. Once such transitions occur, returning to previous ecological conditions may be impossible. - As climate pressures intensify and policy responses weaken, park managers are shifting from preserving historical conditions to managing ongoing transformation. America’s parks may increasingly serve less as static sanctuaries and more as living records of how nature reorganizes under accelerating change. authors: | ||
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‘An epidemic of suffering’: Why are conservationists breaking down? 02 Mar 2026 16:57:44 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/an-epidemic-of-suffering-why-are-conservationists-breaking-down/ author: Morgan Erickson-Davis dc:creator: Jeremy Hance content:encoded: In December 2024, Rachel Graham, executive director of the Belize-based marine nonprofit MarAlliance, posted on LinkedIn that she knew “5 wildlife & conservation scientists who have taken their lives this year so far.” She called it a “crisis” that needed tackling. The post went viral, garnering about 18,000 impressions and 45 comments. “I’m seeing a true crisis in the conservation community,” Graham tells Mongabay. People become conservationists because they care, Graham says, but that can also lead to huge mental health problems in an age of biodiversity decline, climate change and environmental distress. Add to that the perils of the sector — often low wages, poor job security, overworking, dependence on fickle grants and burnout — and you have a ripe recipe for mental health issues. “If your identity is inextricably linked [to a mission], then when this is imperiled, the threat becomes very personal,” Graham says. “That, to me, I think, is really one of the biggest cruxes of the problem that we’re seeing right now in conservation.” Dr. Rachel Graham is a marine conservation scientist and founder of the international nonprofit MarAlliance. Based in Central America for three decades, she works across sectors to advance conservation of threatened marine wildlife while supporting sustainable fisheries and coastal livelihoods. Partnering with fishers, she has helped pioneer co-created shark research and management approaches that strengthen policy, local stewardship, and income opportunities. Her demand- and management-driven research on sharks, rays, and finfish has informed protected area designations, species protections, and fisheries policy…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Research finds that more than 27% of conservationists are struggling with moderate to severe distress, as conservationists tell Mongabay the industry is in a mental health “crisis.” - Conservationists are struggling with their mental health for many reasons, but one of the largest is watching ecological destruction in real time. - The industry was also not built with “well-being” in mind, given its low wages, exploitative practices like endless volunteering or unpaid internships, job insecurity, few benefits and high (sometimes wholly unrealistic) expectations for output and work. - Experts say the sector can improve with more funding toward staff as well as leaders who are trained in how to handle mental well-being; meanwhile, individuals need to value their own mental health. authors: | ||
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Mongabay launches new desk reporting on, with and for Indigenous communities 02 Mar 2026 16:47:56 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/mongabay-launches-new-desk-reporting-on-with-and-for-indigenous-communities/ author: Hayat Indriyatno dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: Indigenous peoples play a critical role in protecting nature and stemming biodiversity loss worldwide, yet their perspectives and knowledge remain underrepresented in national and international media coverage of environmental issues. While this gap is evident in environmental reporting, it reflects a broader structural issue across mainstream media and society at large. In response, Mongabay established an Indigenous Desk to expand journalism that centers diverse Indigenous perspectives. The desk addresses long-standing shortcomings in environmental reporting by engaging Indigenous peoples as both sources and journalists, producing original coverage on, with and for Indigenous communities worldwide. Representatives of the Awyu and Moi Indigenous Peoples from West Papua visit the Supreme Court building in traditional dress, where they will hold prayers, rituals, as well as perform traditional dances. They also bring a piece of their customary land as a symbol to be handed over to the Supreme Court. Their demonstration will call on the Supreme Court to revoke the permits of two palm oil companies in Boven Digoel and Sorong which threaten customary forests, which in total cover more than half of Jakarta province. Papuan students and other civil society groups will also be present to support the struggle of the Awyu and Moi peoples. Image courtesy of © Jurnasyanto Sukarno / Greenpeace. “Our goal is to ensure Indigenous people are included as primary sources of information in Mongabay’s reporting and to open space to work with Indigenous journalists and outlets,” says Willie Shubert, Mongabay’s executive editor and VP of programs. “This is our…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Mongabay launched an Indigenous Desk to expand independent environmental journalism that centers diverse Indigenous perspectives and sources worldwide. - The desk engages Indigenous peoples as both journalists and primary sources, addressing long-standing gaps in the news industry. - The Indigenous Desk’s reporting has already contributed to real-world outcomes, including exposing exploitation, supporting community action, and informing official investigations relating to Indigenous communities. - The Indigenous Desk strengthens Mongabay’s long-term capacity to report with depth, continuity and impact on issues affecting Indigenous peoples and their lands. authors: | ||
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Lawsuit targets TotalEnergies over fossil fuel expansion and Paris Agreement goals 02 Mar 2026 15:48:57 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/lawsuit-targets-totalenergies-over-fossil-fuel-expansion-and-paris-agreement-goals/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Elodie Toto content:encoded: A French court has begun hearing a lawsuit against oil and gas giant TotalEnergies over its growing portfolio of fossil fuel projects worldwide. The case being heard before the Paris Court of Justice was brought by a coalition of 14 French cities, including Paris, and five civil society organizations. They assert that TotalEnergies must take action to align its activities with the 1.5°C (2.7°F) target of the Paris Agreement, a legally binding international treaty adopted at the COP21 U.N. climate summit in Paris in 2015, to avoid the worst outcomes of climate change. The suit targets TotalEnergies because the company is linked to the largest number of new fossil fuel projects worldwide, including 30 so-called carbon bombs — projects whose emissions threaten global efforts to keep warming within the 1.5°C target. A proposed liquefied natural gas project in Papua New Guinea, for instance, would contribute more than 220 million metric tons of CO2 emissions over its lifetime, experts say. “Total continues to develop new oil and gas projects all over the world. This is clearly incompatible with the Paris Agreement and with the findings of the IPCC reports, as well as those of the International Energy Agency, which call for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions,” Justine Ripoll, campaign manager at Notre Affaire à Tous, one of the organizations that brought the lawsuit, told Mongabay by phone. Other TotalEnergies projects in Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique aren’t targeted in the lawsuit as they’re considered already too advanced. “What we are specifically…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: A French court has begun hearing a lawsuit against oil and gas giant TotalEnergies over its growing portfolio of fossil fuel projects worldwide. The case being heard before the Paris Court of Justice was brought by a coalition of 14 French cities, including Paris, and five civil society organizations. They assert that TotalEnergies must take […] authors: | ||
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Sustainable trade in wild plants benefits people and planet (commentary) 02 Mar 2026 15:13:34 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/sustainable-trade-in-wild-plants-benefits-people-and-planet-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Richard Scobey content:encoded: Every day, millions of people harvest wild plants for their health, nutrition and livelihoods, yet many of the species that sustain them are quietly slipping toward extinction. As World Wildlife Day approaches this March 3, medicinal and aromatic plants take center stage: a group of wild species essential to both human well-being and ecological balance, they are too often overlooked in global conservation conversations. These plants grow in the wild and are harvested for their healing and well-being properties. They are widely used in modern and traditional medicines, cosmetic and food products, and the World Health Organization notes their particular importance in developing countries, where up to 95% of people rely on traditional medicine for primary health care. Furthermore, according to the Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), “Wild plants, algae and fungi provide food, nutritional diversity and income for an estimated one in five people around the world, in particular women, children, landless farmers and others in vulnerable situations.” Many familiar species — such as American ginseng, licorice, argan, candelilla and frankincense — are part of our daily lives, found in kitchen cupboards, medicine cabinets and bathrooms, although mostly hidden from view. But global conservation assessments have only been carried out for a fraction of the many thousands of medicinal and aromatic plants in use. Of those that have been assessed, many are threatened with extinction due to overharvesting, and it is likely this is only the tip of the iceberg. View a report about sustainable harvesting of star anise in…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Medicinal and aromatic plants take center stage for World Wildlife Day this year, celebrating a group of species essential to both human well-being and ecological balance, which are too often overlooked in global conservation conversations. - Many familiar species are part of our daily lives, but global conservation assessments have only been carried out for a fraction of the many species in use. - “We need more ‘biodiversity-smart’ policies and interventions related to conservation and sustainable use of wild plants, in recognition of their value for healthy ecosystems, lives and livelihoods,” a new op-ed states. - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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Search for Brazil flood survivors continues as death toll rises to 64 02 Mar 2026 15:01:49 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/search-for-brazil-flood-survivors-continues-as-death-toll-rises-to-64/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Landslides and flooding in Brazil’s Minas Gerais that have been state triggered by days of heavy rains have claimed the lives of 64 people, authorities say. Downpours that started late Monday have wreaked havoc across parts of the cities of Juiz de Fora and Uba, about 310 kilometers (192 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro. Throughout the week, rescuers have been assisting victims and recovering bodies. Minas Gerais’s fire department said five people are missing, while more than 5,500 people have been forced to leave their homes. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will visit the devastated region on Saturday to meet with local leaders, according to a statement from the presidential palace. The federal government has authorized the release of around 3.4 million reais ($660,000) for reconstruction efforts and humanitarian assistance. Nearly a quarter of Juiz de Fora’s population — around 540,000 people — live in places that have been identified as being at risk of natural hazards related to land and water, according to a 2023 report by Cemaden, a Brazilian government agency that monitors natural disasters. Brazil’s meteorology institute, Inmet, has warned of a “great danger” of more bad weather in parts of Minas Gerais as well as other Brazilian states, including Rio and Sao Paulo. Those areas are all at risk of landslides, river overflows and major flooding, forecasters said. Footage from Thursday evening showed torrents of brown water flowing through tourist hot spot and old colonial town Paraty, also in southeastern Brazil. Authorities told residents to…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Landslides and flooding in Brazil’s Minas Gerais that have been state triggered by days of heavy rains have claimed the lives of 64 people, authorities say. Downpours that started late Monday have wreaked havoc across parts of the cities of Juiz de Fora and Uba, about 310 kilometers (192 miles) north of Rio de […] authors: | ||
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Can Kenya finally deliver on Turkana’s oil promise? 02 Mar 2026 13:13:19 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/can-kenya-finally-deliver-on-turkanas-oil-promise/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Christopher Clark content:encoded: LOKICHAR, Kenya — On a recent Sunday afternoon in Lokichar, a small town in Kenya’s northern Turkana region, the expansive grounds of the Black Gold Hotel are deserted, aside from a couple of housekeepers seeking shade in the leafy courtyard beside the conference center. Just beyond the hotel gates, a four-lane highway linking Lokichar to the nearby regional capital of Lodwar is similarly empty. A long-promised oil boom remains stubbornly on the horizon. In 2010, the Anglo-Irish firm Tullow Oil PLC discovered oil deposits estimated at more than 500 million barrels in the arid landscapes surrounding Lokichar. Hailed as a major breakthrough by then-president Mwai Kibaki, this was meant to usher in a new era of prosperity for Turkana and its people, whose history of systemic neglect dates back to the colonial era. A wave of internal migration and a frantic construction boom followed in the remote pastoralist trading town. But after more than a decade of setbacks and spiraling debt, Tullow effectively halted its operations in 2020, leaving behind a trail of stalled infrastructure and lingering uncertainty. A Nairobi-based petroleum trader, Gulf Energy Ltd., acquired Tullow’s entire Turkana stake in a $120 million transaction finalized in September 2025, with the Kenyan government retaining a 25% stake. The company has since pledged to invest approximately $6 billion in developing Turkana’s oil fields. At a parliamentary committee hearing in early February, the company’s chairperson, Francis Njogu, said the firm aims to begin commercial production by Dec. 1 this year, signaling a…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The purchase of the Turkana oil field by a new operator has revived talk of a boom for this semiarid county in northwestern Kenya. - Little development has occurred since the oil field was discovered in 2010, but Gulf Energy promises to invest up to $6 billion — the company’s chair told Kenyan lawmakers the field would produce up to 50,000 barrels a day by 2032. - But observers are worried by the new operator’s lack of experience producing oil, by revised terms in favor of the company, and by still-incomplete environmental and social impact assessments. - Turkana communities, in many cases strengthened by newly formalized rights to their land, are resolved to play a defining role in the development. authors: | ||
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Guinea-Bissau’s transitional government bans fish meal production 02 Mar 2026 11:18:43 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/guinea-bissaus-transitional-government-bans-fish-meal-production/ author: Malavikavyawahare dc:creator: Josef Skrdlik content:encoded: BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau — This small West African nation, whose mangrove-fringed coastal waters and expansive estuaries are important spawning grounds for fish species that migrate along the West African coast, long appeared to have little do with fish meal production, an activity that was booming in other parts of the region. Yet, even though satellite imagery showed no recognizable fish meal plants, fish meal of Guinea-Bissau origin was being advertised for sale online. Then, on Jan. 29, the country’s transitional government, installed in the aftermath of the November 2025 coup, issued an all-out ban on fish meal production with immediate effect, saying that “the production of fish meal and fish oil has been proliferating in the country.” Interviews with officials, operators involved in the sector and drone imagery, combined with the analysis of marine traffic data, show that fish meal was being produced in Guinea Bissau. Most of it was not on land but at sea. The extent of the operations’ legality remains unclear, but records seen by Mongabay show that vessels operating the offshore factories were licensed by the ministry of fisheries and as of 2025, at least one of them was authorized to produce fish meal. According to data from Global Fishing Watch, a U.S.-based NGO that publicly tracks fishing activity, the 147 meters (482 feet) long vessel Tian Yi He 6 entered Guinea-Bissau’s waters in October 2019 and was followed by Hua Xin 17, a 125 m (410 ft) long vessel, in May 2024. Tian Yi He 6…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - On Jan. 29, the government of Guinea-Bissau issued a flat ban on fish meal production, citing threats to marine ecosystems and food security. - In recent years, as West African coastal nations — most notably Mauritania — increasingly clamped down on the industry, Guinea-Bissau emerged as a new regional fish meal hub. - The first Chinese-owned fish meal factory vessel arrived in its waters in October 2019, followed by a second one in May 2024; both were supplied by Turkish-flagged industrial purse seiners that had previously fished for fish meal factories in Mauritania. - The production also expanded on shore: In April 2025, Guinea-Bissau’s then-president inaugurated a fish meal plant, and as of February 2026, at least one other facility was under construction. authors: | ||
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Displaced for conservation, South Africa’s Thonga try to keep a fishing tradition alive 02 Mar 2026 07:00:29 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/displaced-for-conservation-south-africas-thonga-try-to-keep-unique-fishing-traditions-alive/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Leonie Joubert content:encoded: KOSI BAY, South Africa — “There’s a way to hold the spear,” Fano Tembe says, aiming a traditional fishing spear at the sand to show the tourists how they’ll be stabbing a fish in a trap they’re about to visit. “This is your aiming hand.” He cradles the middle of the pole in his left, palm-up, fingers open. “The other is your throwing hand.” His right clutches the top of the spear at shoulder height. “You don’t push the spear, you throw it.” The tool becomes a javelin, skewering the sand. The 28-year-old has been spearing fish since he was a boy. Now he’s employed by a local tour operator introducing the visitors to his peoples’ Thonga-style fishing method in Kosi Bay, a remote estuary and four-lake system on South Africa’s east coast, about four kilometers (2.5 miles) south of the Mozambican border. For this demonstration, Tembe is a giant, standing over a tiny, meticulously built model of a fish trap, explaining how the Thonga people have used this unique method to harvest fish for over four centuries, according to written records, although locals will say it goes back more than 700 years. Be wary of the mullets (Mugil cephalus), Tembe warns. “When they get tired, they hide between your feet. Don’t try to spear that fish [then].” Mthokozisi Nsele comes from a long line of Thonga fisher people with knowledge of the spear and kraal system shown by Fano Tembe (right). He now runs his own two-boat tourism operation…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A Thonga community on South Africa’s northeast coast is the custodian of a centuries-old fishing custom and its ecological knowledge with a light touch on migrating juvenile fishes. - These fishers have limited access to their ancestral lands and lakes now, since they were evicted when the region was declared a protected area four decades ago, which later became the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. - Three generations of fishermen talk about how they’re trying to keep the culture alive in a fast-changing world. - The park’s management authority says they are inclusive of communities in public participation processes while officials promise that tourism would be the most viable development boost for the area. authors: | ||
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Justin Claude Rakotoarisoa, a guardian of Madagascar’s amphibians, has died, aged 45 02 Mar 2026 00:04:40 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/justin-claude-rakotoarisoa-a-guardian-of-madagascars-amphibians-has-died-aged-45/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: In Madagascar, frogs are not background noise. They are a measure of how much forest still functions. The island holds an outsized share of the world’s amphibian diversity, and almost all of its frog species occur nowhere else. That concentration is both a wonder and a warning. When habitat thins, wetlands silt up, or disease arrives, there is often no second refuge on another continent. Conservationists worry about many pressures at once: deforestation, fragmented marshes, wildlife trafficking, and the global spread of chytrid fungus, which has driven amphibian declines on several continents and has been detected in Madagascar. In such a setting, saving a frog can look like a technical exercise. It is also an organizational one. Keeping a species alive may require breeding rooms, quarantine protocols, and a steady supply of insects, plus patient negotiations with local communities and, at times, with the companies reshaping landscapes. Green Bright-eyed Frog (Boophis viridis) near in Andasibe, Madagascar. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler Justin Claude Rakotoarisoa was born in a village near Andasibe, an area inhabited by the indri lemur, whose haunting, whale-like song carries through the forest. As a young man he trained as a guide, part of a generation that saw ecotourism as a way to earn a living without dismantling the forest that drew visitors. Mitsinjo, the community organization he joined in the late 1990s, began as a local effort to manage a forest station and channel tourist income into conservation and development. It became more than that. As…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Madagascar contains an exceptional share of the world’s frog diversity, most of it found nowhere else, making local conservation efforts decisive for species survival. Justin Claude Rakotoarisoa, a guide from the Andasibe region, became one of the people working to keep those species from disappearing. - Through the community organization Mitsinjo, he helped establish and run a captive-breeding facility that maintained threatened amphibians as insurance against habitat loss and disease, while also contributing new scientific knowledge about their life cycles. - Largely self-taught, he served as a bridge between international researchers and local communities, translating technical knowledge into Malagasy and sharing what he knew with students, journalists, and younger conservation workers. - His life illustrated how effective conservation in Madagascar often depends less on distant institutions than on persistent local effort — people willing to perform careful, unglamorous work year after year to keep fragile species alive. authors: | ||
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The power of cities over the seas 01 Mar 2026 14:10:00 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-power-of-cities-over-the-seas/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Debates about ocean protection tend to orbit national governments and multilateral treaties. Fisheries quotas, shipping rules, and marine reserves are usually negotiated by states. Yet much of the activity that determines the ocean’s health passes through cities. Ports regulate entry. Municipal buyers decide what seafood is served in schools and hospitals. Urban air-quality rules shape how ships fuel and operate at berth. Taken together, these levers suggest that coastal cities may exert more practical influence over the seas than is commonly acknowledged. Consider the modern port, which is less a waterfront than a complex regulatory zone. Ships cannot simply arrive and unload. They must comply with local safety, environmental, and operational requirements. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, for instance, introduced a Clean Air Action Plan that has pushed shipping lines toward cleaner fuels, shore power, and newer vessels. The primary motivation was urban smog, not marine conservation. Still, the result has been a measurable reduction in greenhouse gases and particulate pollution across one of the world’s busiest maritime corridors. When ports tighten standards, global shipping companies adjust, because the trade is too valuable to forgo. Procurement offers another underappreciated channel. Large metropolitan governments purchase enormous volumes of food for public institutions. If those buyers adopt sustainability criteria for seafood, they can influence supply chains in ways that national policy often struggles to achieve. Several U.S. cities now use guidelines informed by organizations such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program. In Brazil, reporting revealed that shark…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Much of what determines the ocean’s condition is decided on land, where ports control entry, cities regulate ship operations, and municipal buyers shape seafood demand. These urban levers can influence marine outcomes at scale even though they receive far less attention than treaties or national policy. - Port rules on fuel use, emissions, and safety can compel global shipping companies to change behavior, as access to major trade hubs is too valuable to lose. When several large ports adopt similar standards, their combined weight can shift industry norms across entire maritime corridors. - Public procurement provides another pathway, with city-run institutions able to influence fisheries through what they choose to purchase. Sustainability standards — or public scrutiny, as seen in Brazil’s school meal controversy — can ripple back through supply chains and alter incentives at sea. - Philanthropy focused on oceans may find high leverage in supporting city-level actions such as port electrification, data-sharing systems, and procurement reform. By targeting where rules meet markets and infrastructure, urban governance can complement national efforts and deliver practical gains even when international cooperation falters. authors: | ||
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Online ads reveal scale — and gaps — in amphibian pet trade into US 27 Feb 2026 22:03:47 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/online-ads-reveal-scale-and-gaps-in-amphibian-pet-trade-into-us/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: David Brown content:encoded: Much of the pet trade in amphibians is conducted online, but it’s not well understood. Herpetologist Devin Edmonds with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign recently mapped out the trade in nonnative amphibians sold in the United States in a study published in the journal Biological Conservation. Edmonds and his colleagues scanned through online classified ads for nonnative amphibians from 2004 to 2024 and compiled a database of 8,500 listings for 301 amphibian species — including frogs and salamanders — for sale in the U.S. and originating from around the world. The researchers then compared the classified ads database with amphibian import records from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They found there were no import records for 44 of the species in their database, and concluded these species were likely imported illegally. The authors say some of the animals may have been smuggled into the U.S. by fudging their identity. For example, they suggest that Caatinga horned frogs (Ceratophrys joazeirensis) could have been smuggled from Brazil into neighboring Suriname, which has its own species of horned frog, Ceratophrys cornuta. The Caatinga frogs were likely then imported into the U.S. simply labeled as Ceratophrys, leaving authorities ignorant about exactly which species they were. Once in the U.S., they could be bred in captivity for sale. The researchers’ database shows that 30 amphibian species were offered for sale more often than computer modeling would suggest. They interpreted this to mean that these species are being successfully bred in captivity and the offspring…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Much of the pet trade in amphibians is conducted online, but it’s not well understood. Herpetologist Devin Edmonds with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign recently mapped out the trade in nonnative amphibians sold in the United States in a study published in the journal Biological Conservation. Edmonds and his colleagues scanned through online classified ads […] authors: | ||
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Five Yanomami infants in Brazil die amid whooping cough outbreak 27 Feb 2026 19:56:09 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/five-yanomami-infants-in-brazil-die-amid-whooping-cough-outbreak/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: Five Indigenous Yanomami infants have reportedly died from a preventable respiratory illness called pertussis, or whooping cough. The outbreak began Jan. 7 in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory in Roraima state in northern Brazil. A representative of the Urihi Yanomami Association (UYA) told Mongabay that health authorities have been slow to respond. Three of the deaths have been confirmed by the state health agency in Boa Vista, Roraima’s capital city. The UYA told Mongabay that another two infants died in the Parima and Roko villages with similar symptoms but the cause of death has not yet been confirmed by health professionals. At least 59 additional Indigenous infants have been flown out of the Yanomami territory for medical treatment, UYA representatives told Mongabay. Mongabay reviewed several death certificates and found the infants ranged from 1 month and 17 days to 4 months and 30 days old. “Some of the children hadn’t even opened their eyes yet and have died,” Waihiri Hekurari Yanomami, the president of the UYA, told Mongabay by phone. At least three babies did not have a name yet; Yanomami mothers typically wait several months to name their children in case they don’t survive. “Yanomami health has been neglected time and time again. All these children should have already been vaccinated, and their mothers too. If they were vaccinated, this situation would not be happening,” Hekurari said. According to the Yanomami Special Indigenous Health District authority, full vaccination coverage of children under 1 rose from 29.8% in 2022 to…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Five Indigenous Yanomami infants have reportedly died from a preventable respiratory illness called pertussis, or whooping cough. The outbreak began Jan. 7 in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory in Roraima state in northern Brazil. A representative of the Urihi Yanomami Association (UYA) told Mongabay that health authorities have been slow to respond. Three of the […] authors: | ||
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Senegal GTA gas project draws international scrutiny 27 Feb 2026 17:13:38 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/02/senegal-gas-project-draws-international-scrutiny/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Elodie Toto content:encoded: The UK’s OECD national contact point (NCP), which oversees complaints related to corporate conduct with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has ruled admissible a complaint from Senegalese fishers alleging wrongdoing by energy companies in Senegal. A local NGO and an artisanal fishers’ association assert that the natural gas platform Grand Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) offshore Senegal is polluting their local environment. In a win for civil society, the OECD plans to bring all parties to the negotiating table to find a solution. “This decision is a major one,” Mamadou Sarr, spokesperson for Gaadlou Guèrri, the association of artisanal fishers that brought the complaint, told Mongabay in a phone call. “It can later help us seek compensation for the losses we have suffered, for the environmental consequences, and for gas leaks,” he added. The OECD is an organization of 38 member states, including the U.K., that have committed to respecting guidelines that cover several areas of corporate responsibility, including human rights, the environment and corruption. GTA is being co-developed by multinational oil company BP, U.S.-based Kosmos Energy and the national oil companies of Senegal and Mauritania. It is located offshore from Saint-Louis, Senegal, near one of the country’s largest fishing communities. The complaint accused the energy companies of denying local artisanal fishers access to the area surrounding GTA, compromising their livelihoods and reducing food availability for local communities. Fish accounts for almost 70% of the animal protein consumed in Senegal. It’s a vital resource for a region facing rising…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The UK’s OECD national contact point (NCP), which oversees complaints related to corporate conduct with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has ruled admissible a complaint from Senegalese fishers alleging wrongdoing by energy companies in Senegal. A local NGO and an artisanal fishers’ association assert that the natural gas platform Grand Tortue Ahmeyim […] authors: | ||
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Climate change is slowing southern right whale birth rate, 33-year study finds 27 Feb 2026 15:46:54 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/climate-change-is-slowing-southern-right-whale-birth-rate-33-year-study-finds/ author: Morgan Erickson-Davis dc:creator: Liz Kimbrough content:encoded: Southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) off Australia’s southern coast are having calves less often than they used to. A new study links this slowdown to warming water and shrinking sea ice in the Southern Ocean. The study, conducted by researchers at Australian, South African and U.S. institutions and published this month in Scientific Reports, tracked more than 1,100 calving events from 696 individual female whales at a major breeding ground in an area called the Great Australian Bight within the Yalata Indigenous Protected Area. Since around 2015, the average time between births rose from 3.4 years to 4.1 years. For a species that reproduces slowly, that shift adds up. “These extended calving intervals mean fewer calves are being born overall, and this reduces population growth over time,” lead author and marine biologist Claire Charlton from Flinders University writes in The Conversation. “Southern right whales have been celebrated as one of conservation’s success stories … But our new research shows this success story is changing.” Between 1991 and 2024, scientists used photo-identification data to tell the whales apart. Each whale has a unique pattern of callosities, or patches of thickened skin, on its head that distinguishes one from another. Southern right whale individuals are identified by their callosity patterns, patches of roughened skin covered with white cyamids or “whale lice”, that give every right whale’s head a unique and stable pattern. Photo by Macarena Agrelo. Using this long-term whale dataset, along with environmental records, researchers found that half of the variation…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A new 33-year study finds that southern right whales off Australia are having calves less often, with the average time between births rising from 3.4 to 4.1 years since 2015, a trend researchers link to climate-driven changes in the Southern Ocean. - Shrinking Antarctic sea ice and warming waters are reducing the availability of krill and copepods, the whales’ main food sources, leaving females struggling to rebuild their energy after nursing and delaying their next pregnancy. - The reproductive slowdown is not unique to Australia, with similar declines documented in southern right whale populations off South Africa and Argentina, raising concerns for a species still recovering from near-extinction due to commercial whaling. - Researchers are calling for expanded marine protected areas, stricter management of Antarctic krill fisheries, and urgent action on climate change to protect the species. authors: | ||
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How cockfighting imperils Peru’s critically endangered sawfish 27 Feb 2026 12:27:24 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/how-cockfighting-imperils-perus-critically-endangered-sawfish/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: MANCORA, Peru — The largetooth sawfish is a critically endangered fish distinguished by its long, blade-like snout edged with tooth-like projections. In the waters off Peru, it’s become an unlikely casualty of one of the country’s most entrenched traditions: cockfighting. The elongated “teeth” that give sawfish (Pristis pristis) their name aren’t actual teeth, but hardened, modified scales embedded along the rostrum. For decades, some cockfighters have carved these structures into sharp spurs that they attach to a rooster’s legs before a fight. (Left) A crowd gathered on the beach in the town of Caleta La Cruz in Tumbes province, northern Peru, in 2014, after fishers landed a largetooth sawfish they captured accidentally. (Right) A sawfish rostral “tooth.” Images courtesy of (left) Emilio Borjas Garcia/Planeta Oceano and (right) Patricia Charvet. A new film by Mongabay, Why cockfighting is threatening Peru’s last sawfish, examines how — even as sawfish have nearly disappeared from Peruvian waters — their rostral teeth continue to circulate through informal markets, repurposed into weapons for the ring. Cockfighting in Peru is legal and is formally recognized as cultural heritage. An estimated 1,700 arenas operate nationwide, with between 300,000 and 500,000 breeders involved. Blade fights and spur fights are common. Historically, prized spurs were crafted from natural materials, including hawksbill turtle shells and sawfish rostral teeth. By the 1970s, sawfish spurs were especially sought after for their durability and capacity to inflict severe injury. They commanded premium prices among competitors. Spurs for cockfighting fashioned from sawfish teeth. Images courtesy…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Mongabay’s new film “Why cockfighting is threatening Peru’s last sawfish” investigates how the critically endangered largetooth sawfish has become a victim of Peru’s legal cockfighting industry. - Although the species has nearly disappeared from Peru’s Pacific waters, its rostral “teeth” continue to circulate in informal markets, prized for use as cockfighting spurs. - A single sawfish can yield dozens of spurs, each worth up to $250, creating powerful economic incentives for artisanal fishers facing financial hardship. - Through interviews with fishers, scientists and cockfighting industry leaders, the film explores whether cultural change within the sport can outpace the illegal trade before the species disappears entirely. authors: | ||
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Climate change drives uneven shifts in tree diversity across Amazon and Andes 27 Feb 2026 09:57:31 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/climate-change-drives-uneven-shifts-in-tree-diversity-across-amazon-and-andes/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Constance Malleret content:encoded: The tropical forests of the Amazon and Andes are some of the most biodiverse places on the planet, but across both regions, changes in climate and landscape conditions are driving a shift in the number of tree species, recent research has found. Although the overall number of tree species across the Andes and Amazon hasn’t changed in recent decades, some subregions are gaining species while others are losing them, according to the study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Trees provide vital ecosystem services, and changes in their diversity — what experts call tree richness — could have an impact, including on the forests’ role in temperature regulation or carbon storage. Using more than 40 years of tree diversity data, the study found that species richness declined in the central Andes, the Guyana Shield, and the central-eastern Amazon subregions. Meanwhile, it increased in the northern Andes and western Amazon, and didn’t change significantly in the southern Amazon. Researchers used data from 406 different forest plots across 10 countries, paired with records of climate indicators. “Forests are changing and now we have evidence that it’s linked to climate change,” said Belén Fadrique, a research fellow at the University of Liverpool in the U.K. and lead author of the study, which involved more than 160 co-authors. “We do find that a majority of sites are decreasing in richness,” Fadrique told Mongabay in a video interview. In total, 203 plots declined in tree richness and 146 increased, the research found. Overall, the richness…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A team of researchers looked at changes in tree richness across the lowland and montane forests of the Andes and Amazon over the last four decades. - While their results didn’t show an overall shift in any one direction, they found that tree richness changed significantly across the six subregions: forests in the central Andes, Guyana Shield and central-eastern Amazon have been losing species, while the northern Andes and western Amazon showed increased tree richness. - Changes in the seasonality of precipitation, total rainfall, temperature, as well as the degree of forest fragmentation are key drivers for tree richness: forests that warmed more since 1971 lost species faster than those moderately warming; but regionally, precipitation plays a bigger role than temperature in richness changes. - Forests with a higher number of trees and landscape integrity gain species, so limiting deforestation across the Andes–Amazon ecosystems can protect tree richness, in particular the northern Andes, which could serve as a key refuge for species that can no longer survive the warming Amazon. authors: | ||
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Brazil wanted more protections for its endangered national tree. Then France called 27 Feb 2026 08:30:05 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/brazil-wanted-more-protections-for-its-endangered-national-tree-then-france-called/ author: Andy Lehren dc:creator: Emmanuelle PicaudFernanda WenzelSpoorthy Raman content:encoded: Just three months ago, Brazil seemed close to winning the highest level of international trade protections for the country’s symbol and namesake, the Brazilwood tree (Paubrasilia echinata). On Nov. 26, Brazil’s delegation was in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for the summit of CITES, the global trade convention under which 184 countries plus the European Union have agreed on rules to protect wildlife from unsustainable commerce. The Brazilians were confident that they would gain approval for their formal proposal to protect the endangered tree from all international commercial trade. “There was massive support,” said a Brazilian delegate attending the meeting, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. “There was a feeling that it would pass.” Found only in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, P. echinata’s population declined by 84% over the last three generations, and is currently down to around 10,000 adult trees, according to Brazilian environmental officials. The species was exploited during colonial times to meet European demand for the red dye that comes from its wood and was used to color fabrics. Since the mid-18th century, the world’s music industry has prized the wood, also known as pernambuco, for its resonance, durability and flexibility for bows to play violins, cellos and other stringed instruments. Each bow can be worth up to 7,000 euros (more than $8,200), making the wood treasured not just by those in the music business, but also by smugglers. As the tree’s numbers dwindled, Brazil’s National Center for Flora Conservation (CNCFlora) escalated the species’ conservation status in 2024 from endangered…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Alleged last-minute political maneuvers prevented Brazil from securing the highest protections from international commercial trade of Brazilwood (Paubrasilia echinata) at the 2025 meeting of CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty. - The music industry, which covets the wood to produce violin bows — costing up to $8,200 a piece — saluted French President Emmanuel Macron’s “decisive involvement” to avoid new trade restrictions. - The French press reported that Macron personally called Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to discuss the issue, but the Brazilian Presidency denied receiving such a call. - Found only in Brazil, Paubrasilia echinata has experienced an 84% decline over the last three generations, and now the country deems the tree critically endangered. authors: | ||
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Avian flu strikes California’s northern elephant seals; area quarantined 27 Feb 2026 05:04:24 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/avian-flu-strikes-californias-northern-elephant-seals-area-quarantined/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Christine Heinrichs content:encoded: Ever since a deadly strain of avian influenza, H5N1, killed some 17,000 southern elephant seal pups on South American coastlines in 2023 and 2024, researchers and public officials have kept an extra-close eye on California’s northern elephant seals. Fears of infection have now become reality: Lab tests just proved the virus has breached this colony. In mid-February, six young, newly weaned seals on Año Nuevo State Park beaches fell ill. They had obvious respiratory problems and also suffered from neurological symptoms, including weakness, tremors and seizures — all of which pointed to H5N1. The research team collected samples from sick and dead elephant seals, which were analyzed at the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System. Initial screening revealed that the samples were positive for avian influenza; it was then confirmed to be the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain. A mother northern elephant seal and her pup rest on a beach at the Piedras Blancas viewing area in California, south of Año Nuevo, where seven young seals have been infected with a deadly strain of avian influenza. Image by Christine Heinrichs. As of Feb. 24, seven pups had tested positive for the virus, according to the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory. At time of publication, 30 seals had died, 29 of them weaned pups, but the cause has not yet been confirmed for all the victims. The outbreak marks the first cases of H5N1 in marine mammals in California and the first time it’s been found in northern elephant seals…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Experts confirmed that seven young northern elephant seals on the beach at California’s Año Nuevo State Park carried a deadly form of avian influenza, H5N1, the first recorded infection in these seals. - This highly contagious virus has circulated the globe since 2020. The U.N. estimates that as of December 2025, H5N1 had infected some 598 bird species and 102 mammal species. In 2022-23, the virus devastated seal colonies off South American coastlines, sparking increased surveillance of North American marine mammals. - This northern elephant seal population has been carefully studied for about 60 years. With close monitoring, researchers quickly discovered that sick pups were infected with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1. - Since this avian flu strain emerged, there have been 131 human infections globally, including 71 in the U.S. As a precaution, California officials have banned visitors from the elephant seal beaches and canceled guided tours. authors: | ||
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Who actually uses environmental journalism — and why it matters 27 Feb 2026 00:02:02 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/who-actually-uses-environmental-journalism-and-why-it-matters/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: In 2025, Mongabay recorded 111 million unique visitors to its websites, a 46% increase on the year before. Pageviews rose by 72%. Those figures capture direct readership only. They exclude circulation through newsletters, messaging apps and social platforms, as well as republication by more than 100 partner outlets. Yet volume is not the metric we care about most. For our purposes, scale is most meaningful when considered alongside use and influence. Mongabay is not built primarily to maximize general-audience traffic. Pageviews indicate that a page was opened, but on their own they reveal little about whether it informed a decision or changed a course of action. The question I return to is simple: who used the reporting, and for what purpose? Mongabay’s theory of change rests on a different premise: journalism matters when it shapes decisions. What matters most is who reads a story and whether they are in a position to act. Much of our journalism is designed for practitioners, policymakers, researchers, advocates, journalists, and others whose choices shape environmental outcomes. This focus reflects how environmental governance typically operates—through interconnected networks of public agencies, companies, investors, media, non-profit and civil-society groups, researchers, conservation practitioners, courts, and community organizations. The most consequential reader is rarely the most casual one. The geographic distribution of our audience hints at how this works in practice. Asia and the Americas each accounted for more than 46 million unique visitors. In absolute terms, those regions dominate. In per capita terms, the story differs, and that…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In 2025, Mongabay’s websites attracted 111 million unique visitors, with pageviews rising even faster, though these figures capture only direct readership and exclude widespread redistribution through partners, messaging platforms, and secondary circulation. - The organization prioritizes influence over raw traffic, aiming to inform practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and others whose decisions shape environmental outcomes rather than a broad general audience. - Audience patterns reflect where environmental stakes are highest, with particularly strong readership across Asia and the Americas and disproportionate reach in countries where land use, biodiversity, pollution, and resource governance are central public concerns. - Impact is assessed not only through analytics but through documented real-world outcomes—from policy changes to legal actions—while emerging referral channels such as AI tools suggest shifts in how people seek and verify authoritative environmental information. authors: | ||
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