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A killing with precedent: Kaiowá man’s murder fits a pattern in Brazil 21 Nov 2025 23:44:54 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-killing-with-precedent-kaiowa-mans-murder-fits-a-pattern-in-brazil/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Early on November 16th, gunfire broke the quiet around Pyelito Kue in southern Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. By dawn, the Kaiowá were counting their wounded and laying out the body of Vicente Kaiowá e Guarani, a father and spokesman for a people who have spent decades trying to return to the places they call tekoha. He was killed with a shot to the head. His community says the men who pulled the trigger arrived in the dark, well armed and organized. Police later suggested the crime stemmed from an internal dispute. The Kaiowá insist otherwise. Vicente’s name now joins a list that has grown long. Attacks against the Kaiowá of Pyelito Kue and Mbarakay have become a grim fixture of life in the state’s southern cone. The communities have endured raids, fires, beatings, and expulsions for years at the hands of militias linked to ranchers, with the state’s own forces often appearing more eager to protect private property than to enforce constitutional rights. The frustration and anger is evident. “We no longer accept being treated as invaders on our own land,” read a statement issued by Aty Guasu, a Guarani Kaiowá organization. “We lost a warrior,” said a relative after the assault. It was not the first such loss, and no one pretends it will be the last. The village of Ypoi by Mídia Ninja. The tekoha of Pyelito Kue and Mbarakay…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Gunmen killed Vicente Kaiowá e Guarani on November 16th during a land-reclamation effort, in an attack his community says was carried out by organized militias rather than internal rivals. - The Kaiowá of Pyelito Kue and Mbarakay face a long pattern of violence as they try to return to their tekoha, despite their territory being officially recognized but still undemarcated. - Recent assaults—including multiple attacks in early November and clashes linked to pesticide drift—reflect a recurring cycle in which reoccupations are met with armed reprisals. - Rights advocates say Vicente’s death underscores a broader failure of the state to enforce constitutional land rights, leaving the Kaiowá exposed to continued killings on territory that legally belongs to them. authors: | ||
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Bearing witness to Indonesia’s environmental challenges: Sapariah Saturi 21 Nov 2025 20:48:35 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/bearing-witness-to-indonesias-environmental-challenges-sapariah-saturi/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Indonesia’s environmental issues often feel too vast to take in at once. A nation said to have more than 17,000 islands, it contains the world’s third-largest tropical rainforest and one of its busiest commodity frontiers. For many Indonesians, the story of modern development is told not in charts but in the air they breathe. Some remember childhoods spent under yellowed skies, the sting of peat-fire smoke seeping through school windows, the sweet-acrid smell that clings to clothes long after the fires fade. Others know the slow rise of the sea by the way the ground squelches underfoot in places where it didn’t use to. Or the way Jakarta’s air tastes metallic on mornings when the pollution monitors glow red. For Sapariah “Arie” Saturi, these scenes are not abstractions. They are a biography. She grew up along the Kapuas River in West Kalimantan, a region shaped by the uneasy coexistence of forest, peatland, and the ambitions of logging firms, palm-oil giants, and mining companies. Fires arrived each dry season in the 1990s, and with them the haze: darkened skies, eyes that burned after a few minutes outdoors, a kind of muffled stillness that settles over the landscape when the smoke grows dense enough to dull sound and color alike. Masks were rare then. Children simply endured. Sapariah Saturi. Photo courtesy of Saturi. Today Arie lives in Jakarta, where the problems are different but no less tangible. The capital sinks a little each year, traffic is a consistent source of frustration, and…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Sapariah “Arie” Saturi grew up in West Kalimantan amid recurring forest and peatland fires, experiences that shaped her understanding of Indonesia’s environmental crises. - After beginning her journalism career in Pontianak in the late 1990s, she joined Mongabay Indonesia at its inception and helped build it into a national environmental newsroom. - As managing editor, she oversees a dispersed team of more than 50 reporters, beginning her days before dawn to edit stories, coordinate coverage, and guide investigations across the archipelago. - Her commitment is grounded in independence, empathy, and the belief that environmental journalism can help communities, influence policy, and deepen public understanding of Indonesia’s overlapping crises. authors: | ||
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‘Forever chemical’ contamination could undermine sea otters’ fragile recovery in Canada 21 Nov 2025 18:05:03 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/forever-chemical-contamination-could-undermine-sea-otters-fragile-recovery-in-canada/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Edward Carver content:encoded: Sea otters living along the coastline of Canada’s British Columbia province carry residues of “forever chemicals” in their bodies, according to a new study, and those living near dense human populations or shipping lanes are the most heavily impacted. The research was published in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, authored principally by scientists at the University of British Columbia (UBC). While most health research on exposure to long-lived, human-made chemicals — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, better known as PFAS — have been human studies, scientists are growing increasingly aware that wildlife are also at risk. It’s now well-established that in humans, PFAS can cause cancer or liver damage, lower immunity, impair fertility and trigger other health problems. This study on sea otters (Enhydra lutris) analyzed tissue samples from 11 animals that had recently died. All carried PFAS in their livers. Forever chemicals were developed and first manufactured in the mid-20th century by 3M and Dupont. They make products stain, water and heat resistant — and can take hundreds or thousands of years to break down. They’re now ubiquitous worldwide, found in everything from human blood and drinking water to soils used to grow food and the marine environment. Sea otters, which live in coastal waters across the North Pacific Ocean, are endangered and their populations are decreasing, according to the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. Numerous threats, from habitat loss to a warming ocean and pollution, could erase progress that has brought the species back from local extinction. Oil…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Sea otters living along the coastline of Canada’s British Columbia province are exposed — and absorb — forever chemicals, a new study shows. - Each of the 11 sea otters tested carried residues PFAS chemicals, with concentrations higher for those living near dense human populations or shipping lanes. - The Canadian government released an assessment earlier this year recommending that PFAS be classed as toxic and is moving toward adopting tighter rules for these chemicals. Environmentalists support the initiative. authors: | ||
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Lesotho communities allege greenwashing by project transferring water to South Africa 21 Nov 2025 17:31:19 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/lesotho-communities-allege-greenwashing-by-project-transferring-water-to-south-africa/ author: Malavikavyawahare dc:creator: Malavika Vyawahare content:encoded: Communities in Lesotho have filed a complaint with the African Development Bank over a controversial initiative that transfers water from the country to neighboring South Africa, one of the biggest such schemes on the African continent. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), currently in its second phase, is funded in part by the African Development Bank (AfDB). In the complaint submitted to the bank’s Independent Recourse Mechanism, seen by Mongabay, the complainants accuse the developers of promoting the LHWP as a climate mitigation project and ignoring its impacts on their communities and the environment, and call it “greenwashing.” “Some in the community say they were better off without the project, because instead of bringing a development that is expected from such projects, it has, in fact, brought them poverty,” said Mosa Letsie, a lawyer at the Seinoli Legal Centre (SLC) in Lesotho. The center provides legal assistance and advice to marginalized communities and worked with the affected communities to submit the complaint. Letsie said women were disproportionately impacted. Falls short in every respect, from inadequate consultation to compensation to the lack of benefits. The LHWP diverts water from the Senqu-Orange river system in the Lesotho highlands, through a series of dams, to the water-poor Gauteng province of South Africa, home to the country’s economic nerve center: the greater Johannesburg area. The centerpiece of phase 2 is the Polihali dam and reservoir. While the project documents explicitly state how much water will be transferred to South Africa, they make only promises…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), a scheme to transfer water from Lesotho’s river systems to neighboring South Africa, also aims to provide hydropower to Lesotho’s people. - However, complainants from communities impacted and displaced by the complex of dams, water channels, feeder roads, and bridges accuse the developers of promoting the LHWP as a climate mitigation project and ignoring its impacts on their livelihoods and the environment, and call it “greenwashing.” - The project is degrading the environment, polluting water streams used by residents, destroying cultivable land used to grow food crops, eating into forests, and reducing access to pastures, according to the complaint filed with the African Development Bank (AfDB), which is partly financing the LHWP. - “We are not just being denied benefits from the project, we are suffering harm from it,” the complaint says. authors: | ||
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In Thailand, a cheap bottle crate hack gives tree saplings a fighting chance 21 Nov 2025 16:05:55 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/in-thailand-a-cheap-bottle-crate-hack-gives-tree-saplings-a-fighting-chance/ author: Jeremy Hance dc:creator: Ruth Kamnitzer content:encoded: A surprisingly simple and creative innovation could help restoration projects in the tropics, according to a recent study. Researchers from the Forest Restoration Research Unit at Thailand’s Chiang Mai University (FORRU-CMU) found that cultivating saplings inside repurposed bottle crates substantially improves the survival and growth rate of nursery-grown native saplings for reforestation. Climate change, the biodiversity crisis and initiatives like the U.N. Decade on Restoration have spurred forest restoration efforts across the globe, including in the tropics. Many restoration projects start with native tree seedlings cultivated in community-run nurseries. In Thailand, these seedlings are typically grown in black polyurethane bags placed directly on the earth. But the system is far from ideal. As the sapling grows, the roots tend to spiral in the bottom of the bag, leading to poor root formation. The developing roots may also break right through the bag into the ground, which also causes problems, says Stephen Elliott, associate professor and research director at FORRU-CMU. “When you lift the plant ready for planting, half the root system is left in the soil, so you’re immediately reducing the capacity of the plant to absorb water on the day that it’s being planted into a harsh, dry, deforested environment, where it’s going to compete against the weeds,” Elliott says. “You’re putting it at a disadvantage.” In the conventional method, seedlings in polybags are laid on the ground The right side shows the COG system, where polybagged seedlings are placed in crates to allow air pruning. Image courtesy of…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A recent study in Thailand finds that raising native tree seedlings inside repurposed bottle crates improves performance compared to standard methods in community-run nurseries. - Saplings grown in bottle crates had better root formation and superior growth when planted out in a deforested site, thanks to better air circulation for the roots. - Crating the saplings also saved on labor costs, which more than offset the cost of purchasing the crates. - Adoption of the new method could improve the quality of saplings grown in community nurseries, a benefit for reforestation projects where sapling survival is key to success. authors: | ||
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Experts say wealthy nations owe Africa double its climate adaptation needs 21 Nov 2025 15:56:28 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/experts-say-wealthy-nations-owe-africa-double-its-climate-adaptation-needs/ author: Malavikavyawahare dc:creator: Victoria Schneider content:encoded: As negotiations at this year’s United Nations climate summit, or COP30, near the finish line in Belém, Brazil, the gap in financing for climate adaptation continues to be a sticking point. New pledges amounting to $135 million for the Adaptation Fund, a U.N.-backed financial mechanism to help vulnerable countries cope with the impacts of climate change, were announced during the talks. However, a U.N. report released in October shows that the “adaptation gap,” the difference between what it costs to adapt to climate change and the actual amount of money available, runs in the billions of dollars. This is also the case for countries in Africa, which have contributed little to the problem of climate change. Some experts argue that given the role that Africa and, in particular, its forests play in stowing away planet-warming carbon, it is owed double the amount that it needs in additional adaptation funds. “Africa has already made a substantial preliminary contribution to global climate action,” Richard Munang, deputy regional director for Africa at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), told Mongabay. The estimated funding gap for Africa is $51 billion, according to the latest UNEP report. Home to nearly a fifth of the world’s population, Africa emits only 4% of annual global emissions. Its forests, with the Congo Basin at the core, remove 1.1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year. If converted to carbon credits and traded at the fair price determined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The U.N.’s recent “Adaptation Gap Report” reveals a massive shortfall between the funds needed for climate adaptation and the financing available as of 2023. - Africa, among the most climate-vulnerable regions, faces worsening impacts amid limited support and a mounting debt burden, with a $51 billion annual shortfall in adaptation finance. - Some experts argue that given the role that Africa and, in particular, its forests play in stashing away carbon, it is owed double the amount that it needs in additional adaptation funds. authors: | ||
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It’s time to end the carbon offset era, COP30 scientists & communities say (commentary) 21 Nov 2025 12:43:30 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/its-time-to-end-the-carbon-offset-era-cop30-scientists-communities-say-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Tom Picken content:encoded: At COP30 in Belém, the first climate summit held in the Amazon, something rare has happened. For years, the risks and failures of carbon offsetting have been dismissed as activist exaggeration or technical teething problems. But this week, Brazil’s leading scientists publicly said what many Indigenous and frontline communities have long argued: forests cannot be used as offsets. This warning, issued by the COP30 Science Council, should land with force. These are not fringe voices. Carlos Nobre, Paulo Artaxo, Piers Forster, Thelma Krug, Johan Rockström and others are among the world’s foremost experts on tipping points and terrestrial systems. Their statement is unusually blunt: the world is “already facing danger”; fossil fuel emissions must start falling next year; and forests — especially the Amazon — can no longer be treated as a stable carbon sink capable of compensating for continued burning of coal, oil and gas. This matters because the Amazon, once one of Earth’s greatest climate stabilizers, is approaching profound fragility. Drought, heat waves, fires and land conversion are eroding the forest’s ability to store carbon. Parts of the region are already flipping from sink to source. The science is clear: you cannot offset permanent fossil fuel emissions with nonpermanent, vulnerable biological carbon. The accounting doesn’t hold — and the ecological reality no longer allows the fiction to stand. A forest fire in the the Brazilian Amazon, which is already flipping from carbon sink to carbon source, research finds. Image courtesy of Victor Moriyama/Clean Air Fund. Yet in Belém, negotiators are still trying…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The COP30 Science Council and Indigenous delegates, activists and local communities in Belém this week argued that forests are not offsets and that the world cannot simply trade its way out of the climate crisis. - Carbon offsetting programs have been under intense scrutiny for years, and a broad coalition of COP30 attendees and advisors say that this is the moment to move forward on climate finance with greater effectiveness and equity. - “This is the Amazon COP. If it ends with a decision that ignores Indigenous rights and props up offset markets that science says cannot work, it will squander the moral clarity of this moment,” a new op-ed argues. - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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IDB financed meat & poultry company that polluted Indigenous Ecuador lands: Report 21 Nov 2025 11:31:50 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/idb-financed-meat-poultry-company-that-polluted-indigenous-ecuador-lands-report/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Ana Cristina Alvarado content:encoded: In Peripa, an Indigenous Tsáchila village in Ecuador, there are still traditional healers, but medicinal plants are disappearing. Rivers no longer heal — instead, they make people sick. In the late 1990s, the company Pronaca set up pig farms nearby, in the province of Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, southwest of Quito. Soon after, residents noticed that surface and groundwater sources were no longer safe. After almost 30 years in which locals’ complaints to Ecuador’s state institutions remained unanswered, a new report on Pronaca confirms decades of pollution and violations in the Tsáchila Indigenous Territory. The report, released in September, was prepared by the Independent Consultation and Investigation Mechanism (MICI) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group. “Water was one of the main sources of power for the poné [healers], and purification baths were performed in the rivers. Now, if someone visits us and goes into the river, they will come out with a skin disease,” Ricardo Calazacón, a Tsáchila resident of Peripa, told Mongabay Latam. “If there are no reparations, what will happen to us, since most of us are healers and farmers?” he asked. Calazacón and his family have been leading the defense of their ancestral territory for 25 years. For them, the MICI report represents a victory, but they recognize that the claims will not be resolved until they obtain reparations. Ricardo Calazacón is among the Tsáchila Indigenous people seeking reparations after decades of pollution. Image courtesy of Ricardo Calazacón. The IDB entered the picture when it…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A report from the Independent Consultation and Investigation Mechanism of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group says that agribusiness Pronaca contaminated for decades the Tsáchila Indigenous Territory in Ecuador. - IDB Invest financed Pronaca, a major player in meat and poultry products, without adequately evaluating the company’s environmental and social impacts, according to its own conclusions. - According to the report, for years, the company discharged residual waters from pig farms into the rivers that the Tsáchila depend on, affecting their health, culture, farming and tourism. - Inés Manzano, Ecuador’s Minister for Environment and Energy, is married to Christian Bakker, who is part of the family who founded Pronaca. authors: | ||
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Why don’t forest protectors get paid? asks Suriname’s president 21 Nov 2025 10:34:43 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/why-dont-forest-protectors-get-paid-asks-surinames-president/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. At the U.N. Climate Change Conference, COP30, in Brazil, Suriname is taking a large step into the spotlight, reports Mongabay’s Max Radwin. With about 93% forest cover and a status as one of only three nations to boast net-negative carbon emissions, the country is punching above its weight. Less usual is its insistence that countries that keep their forests intact should be paid. President Jennifer Geerlings‑Simons, in office since July, is driving that message. She argues that the frameworks set by the Paris Agreement and the Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes exist in principle, but not in practice. “People who actually took care of the forest and it’s still there … don’t get anything. They get a pat on the back and that’s it,” she told Radwin in Suriname. Her point has two threads. The first is the tension between conservation and development. Suriname has committed to preserving some 150,000 square kilometers (58,000 square miles) of rainforest by creating protected areas and recognizing Indigenous and Maroon territories. And yet the country also intends to press ahead with offshore oil projects. She frames the revenue from those projects as the means to pay for stronger oversight of gold and bauxite mining, and to fund tourism and infrastructure. She said the forest isn’t idle land — it stands on “many riches like gold, diamonds, bauxite and more. If we want to keep it standing, we’ll have…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. At the U.N. Climate Change Conference, COP30, in Brazil, Suriname is taking a large step into the spotlight, reports Mongabay’s Max Radwin. With about 93% forest cover and a status as one of only three nations to boast […] authors: | ||
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A forest worth more standing: Virgilio Viana on what it will take to protect the Amazon 21 Nov 2025 06:11:19 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-forest-worth-more-standing-virgilio-viana-on-what-it-will-take-to-protect-the-amazon/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: The first time Virgilio Viana saw the Amazon up close, he was a 16-year-old with a backpack, two school friends and very little sense of what he was walking into. They arrived by land, drifting along dirt roads that had more potholes than surface, then continued by riverboat as the forest thickened around them. Something in that journey stayed with him. It pulled at him long after he returned home, and kept pulling as he studied forestry, completed a doctorate on the region, and eventually left a professorship in São Paulo for the more complicated work of governing the forest itself. That decision—to move not just intellectually but physically into the Amazon—shaped the rest of his life. Viana later became State Secretary for Environment and Sustainable Development in Amazonas, a role that plunged him into the usual tangle of politics, land disputes, and the delicate work of persuading people who live close to the forest that conservation is not an abstract ideal drafted in a faraway capital. It was during that period that he says he coined a phrase now widely repeated across Brazil: the forest must be worth more standing than cut. A dissertation-ready idea distilled into a line that relates well across the region. Today Viana leads the Foundation for Amazon Sustainability (FAS), an organization built on an idea that sounds simple but was, for decades, resisted by many mainstream conservationists: people first. For a long time, environmental policy treated the forest as a wilderness best protected by…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: The first time Virgilio Viana saw the Amazon up close, he was a 16-year-old with a backpack, two school friends and very little sense of what he was walking into. They arrived by land, drifting along dirt roads that had more potholes than surface, then continued by riverboat as the forest thickened around them. Something […] authors: | ||
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Congo Basin nations roll out community payments for forest care 20 Nov 2025 21:10:17 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/congo-basin-nations-roll-out-community-payments-for-forest-care/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Anne Nzouankeu content:encoded: Congo Basin countries have announced the launch of a payments for environmental services, or PES, initiative at the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, intended to encourage practices favorable to forest protection and restoration. The financial mechanism, announced Nov. 18 and supported by the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), transfers direct payments via a mobile app to communities and individuals, particularly farmers. The payments compensate participants for engaging in sustainable practices that protect and restore the environment. Eligibility to participate is based on verified completion of six types of activities: agroforestry, reforestation, deforestation-free agriculture, forest regeneration, sustainable forest management, and conservation. “Hundreds of farmers are already under contract and the first direct mobile payments based on performance were successfully made this month, confirming the efficiency and fairness of the system,” Kirsten Schuijt, director-general of WWF International, which is helping implement the system, said in a press release. This program builds on a decade of experience and on the success of pilot projects in the region. In the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of the Congo, agroforestry, deforestation-free agriculture and natural regeneration contracts “cover nearly 3,000 hectares [7,400 acres], representing nearly 10,000 direct and indirect beneficiaries,” the press release notes. In Gabon, “15 villages have been identified to sign community conservation contracts the beginning of next year, covering a total area of nearly 50,000 hectares,” or about 123,600 acres. To build on that success, CAFI announced $100 million of additional funding, on top of the $25 million already committed…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Congo Basin countries have announced the launch of a payments for environmental services, or PES, initiative at the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, intended to encourage practices favorable to forest protection and restoration. The financial mechanism, announced Nov. 18 and supported by the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), transfers direct payments via a mobile […] authors: | ||
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Inside California’s race to document its insects: A conversation with Chris Grinter 20 Nov 2025 21:08:55 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/inside-californias-race-to-document-its-insects-a-conversation-with-chris-grinter/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Christopher C. Grinter has spent much of his life surrounded by insects, though not in the way most people imagine. As Senior Collection Manager of Entomology at the California Academy of Sciences, he oversees one of the world’s major scientific archives of insects, a record of life that stretches from the smallest moth to the largest butterfly. His work helps support the California All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (CalATBI), an effort to document every species in the state before they vanish. Grinter’s fascination began far from California. Growing up in suburban Chicago, he watched butterflies drift through his backyard and wanted to know their names. “It all started with butterflies,” he says. His parents took him to a members’ night at the Field Museum, where he saw an insect collection for the first time. “I had my mind blown.” He began volunteering there, labeling and databasing specimens, and eventually joined scientists in the field. Butterflies led him to moths—far more numerous and largely unseen. “An urban backyard probably has at least a few species of microlepidoptera that still need a scientific name,” he says. Chris Grinter. Photo © California Academy of Sciences That early curiosity became a career in taxonomy and curation. When CalATBI launched, Grinter’s team received funding for large-scale fieldwork across California, collecting hundreds of thousands of insects and covering tens of thousands of miles. The scale of the effort was unlike anything seen in a generation. It produced both scientific treasure and the occasional misadventure—like the time their van…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Christopher C. Grinter, Senior Collection Manager of Entomology at the California Academy of Sciences, discussed his work documenting California’s insect diversity through the California All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (CalATBI). - He described how DNA barcoding and voucher specimens together form a lasting record of life, helping scientists track species and environmental change across the state. - Grinter reflected on both the urgency of discovery amid biodiversity loss and the promise of new technologies and collaborations that make large-scale insect research possible. - He spoke with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler in October 2025. authors: | ||
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For sharks on the brink of extinction, CITES Appendix II isn’t protective enough (commentary) 20 Nov 2025 17:40:51 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/for-sharks-on-the-brink-of-extinction-cites-appendix-ii-isnt-protective-enough-commentary/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: David Shiffman content:encoded: Sharks are some of the most threatened animals on Earth, with approximately one-third of all species assessed as threatened with extinction on the IUCN Red List. These animals are not only older than dinosaurs, but older than trees, and yet they face a very real risk of extinction within our lifetimes. Their number one threat is unsustainable overfishing, driven by demand fed through complex international trade networks. That’s why ocean conservationists have focused so much attention on a powerful global wildlife trade treaty called CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. During the last few CITES Conferences of the Parties (COPs), many of the shark species that most commonly show up in the global shark fin trade have been added to Appendix II, which allows international trade as long as it is limited, monitored carefully, and demonstrated to be sustainable. That approach has led to some huge successes, according to a paper published earlier this year. Nearly half of all CITES signatory nations made substantive reforms to their fisheries management regulations, and about a quarter improved their monitoring and enforcement of existing rules. A mako shark in the Pacific Ocean. Image by Ron Watkins / Ocean Image Bank. Perhaps most exciting, countries that previously had no shark fisheries management regulations at all introduced strong conservation measures for the first time. “These results show that CITES has driven countries who catch and trade sharks internationally, and who previously had no national fisheries management or trade regulations, to implement legislation…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Listing shark species under CITES Appendix II, which allows for well-monitored sustainable trade, has helped to save some sharks from extinction. But some species are so threatened that they need to be listed on Appendix I, which bans all trade. - New research has revealed that many fins belonging to sharks protected by Appendix II are still being sold in large numbers in Hong Kong, one of the biggest markets, supporting the need for action on Appendix I listings for some species at the CITES COP20 meeting that commences next week in the Uzbek city of Samarkand. - “Governments meeting at COP20 in Uzbekistan should follow the science, support these proposals, and help save these sharks and rays from the brink of extinction. It’s the only way to give these species a fighting chance at survival,” a new op-ed argues. - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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Study finds important Nassau grouper spawning site in Belize near collapse 20 Nov 2025 17:18:11 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/study-finds-important-nassau-grouper-spawning-site-in-belize-near-collapse/ author: Rebecca Kessler dc:creator: Marco Lopez content:encoded: HOPKINS, Belize — The Nassau grouper is drawn by the winter moon, between December and March, to special places where hundreds of the cryptic fish engage in a reproductive dance that sometimes lasts days. Northeast Point at Glover’s Reef Atoll, off the coast of southern Belize, is one of those places. The Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus) is a large-bodied, top-level predatory reef fish. Its pale tan to reddish-brown body with five dark vertical bars makes it easily recognizable. While these fish hide well, spending their days lounging in reef crevices and only emerging to feed at night, their highly predictable spawning aggregations make for an easy catch for opportunistic fishers. The species was once the most abundant and commercially important fish in the Caribbean. In Belize, fisheries records indicate that Nassau grouper was the most-caught fish during the 1960s, with estimated catches of more than 30,000 fish per year from a single aggregation site, Caye Glory. Northeast Point is one of Belize’s 13 officially recognized fish spawning aggregation (FSA) sites for Nassau grouper. The aggregation there was also once an impressive sight, drawing an estimated 15,000 fish in 1975. Today, that moonlit annual gathering has all but vanished. The number of fish attending has declined by 85% over the past two decades and is now “on a trajectory towards local extirpation,” according to a recent study. It attributes the decline to the government’s limited capacity to enforce regulations aimed at protecting the groupers from fishing at this remote site. “Since…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus), a large-bodied top predator, was once the most abundant and commercially important fish in the Caribbean. - Each winter, the groupers gather en masse at special places to breed, but many of these so-called fish spawning aggregation sites have been dwindling or succumbing entirely to overfishing. - A new study looked at an important spawning site at Northeast Point on Glover’s Reef Atoll in Belize and found that the number of Nassau groupers attending the annual gathering declined by 85% over the past two decades and is now “on a trajectory towards local extirpation.” - It attributes the decline to the government’s limited capacity to enforce regulations aimed at protecting the groupers from fishing at the remote site. authors: | ||
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Fighting for food sovereignty at COP30: Interview with GRAIN’s Ange-David Baïmey 20 Nov 2025 17:09:58 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/fighting-for-food-sovereignty-at-cop30-interview-with-grains-ange-david-baimey/ author: Christophe Assogba dc:creator: Yannick Kenné content:encoded: At the COP30 climate summit currently underway in Belém, Brazil, adapting to climate change impacts is a major focus of discussions. This is particularly the case for delegates from Africa, where agriculture, on which the majority of the continent’s people rely for their livelihoods, is directly affected by erratic and extreme weather and rising average temperatures. The NGO GRAIN works with farming communities in Africa and elsewhere to protect their food sovereignty, especially in the face of industrial agricultural models that shift production toward commercial seeds, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and commodity crops. GRAIN’s program coordinator for Africa, Ange-David Baïmey, sat down with Mongabay’s Yannick Kenné to explain the group’s participation at COP30, where it’s less interested in the formal negotiations than in the space created to exchange information about climate change adaptation strategies with like-minded civil society groups and push for climate justice. The following interview has been translated from French. Ange-David Baïmey, Africa program coordinator for the NGO GRAIN. Image courtesy of Ange-David Baïmey. Mongabay: What does climate justice mean for GRAIN? What does it mean for the communities you work with in Africa? Ange-David Baïmey: For us at GRAIN, climate justice means taking into account the realities of grassroots communities. Various actors are trying to advance a climate justice agenda in a particular way, but for us, this has its limits. When we talk about climate justice, it means ensuring that the communities most affected by its impacts can find solutions to their problems. When we talk…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The NGO GRAIN defines climate justice as ensuring frontline African communities can control their land, seeds and food systems rather than being pushed toward export-oriented, corporate agriculture. - Ange-David Baïmey, the group’s program coordinator for Africa, tells Mongabay that climate change is worsening farmers’ access to land, water and resilient seeds, while multinational seed and input companies deepen dependency and erode traditional seed systems. - He says formal U.N. climate negotiations are ineffective, with GRAIN instead using the COP30 conference to engage with civil society at the People’s COP to advance food sovereignty and agroecology. - For Baïmey, a COP30 “victory” would mean rejecting carbon markets, which he argues facilitate land grabbing and undermine food security across Africa. authors: | ||
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Wolf hauls up crab trap to eat bait, hinting at possible tool use 20 Nov 2025 17:08:06 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/wolf-hauls-up-crab-trap-to-eat-bait-hinting-at-possible-tool-use/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Bobby Bascomb content:encoded: Researchers in Canada have documented a wild gray wolf hauling a crab trap out of the water to eat the bait inside, according to a recent study. Researchers suggest it may be the first recorded example of possible tool use by a wolf (Canis lupus). The finding emerged from a program maintained by Indigenous Haíɫzaqv guardians to trap and remove invasive European green crabs (Carcinus maenas) from coastal British Columbia province. When several traps were found damaged, the guardians and collaborating scientists first suspected bears or wolves could be the culprit. However, some of the traps remained fully submerged, even at low tide, so they suspected otters or seals instead. To put an end to the mystery, they set up a camera trap aimed at a crab trap where there had been previous damage. “We figured maybe we’ll see a seal nearby,” Kyle Artelle, study first author from the State University of New York in the U.S., told Mongabay in a video call. “And so that might give us the first hint that it’s a seal and then maybe we could follow up with GoPros in the trap itself.” However, the video instead captured a wolf swimming to shore with the trap’s rope in her mouth. She then put the rope down and pulled in more of it until the entire trap was on shore. Then she opened the trap and took out the herring bait inside. These actions suggest the wolf understood there was food inside a hidden, submerged…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Researchers in Canada have documented a wild gray wolf hauling a crab trap out of the water to eat the bait inside, according to a recent study. Researchers suggest it may be the first recorded example of possible tool use by a wolf (Canis lupus). The finding emerged from a program maintained by Indigenous Haíɫzaqv […] authors: | ||
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Gold mining exposes Indigenous women in Nicaragua to high mercury levels 20 Nov 2025 16:14:51 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/gold-mining-exposes-indigenous-women-in-nicaragua-to-high-mercury-levels/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Aimee Gabay content:encoded: Indigenous women of childbearing age from Nicaragua’s Waspam municipality have been exposed to toxic levels of mercury, according to a new report by the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN). The researchers took hair samples from 50 women between 18 and 44 years old. The women live in the Indigenous communities of Li Auhbra and Li Lamn, located along the Wangki River, on the northern Caribbean coast. The area is home to many Indigenous communities and small-scale gold mining operations, which commonly use mercury to amalgamate gold. While no amount of mercury exposure is considered safe, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set a threshold of 1 part per million (ppm). Beyond that limit, negative impacts can be detected in the fetuses of pregnant women. Of the 50 participants, 80% had mercury levels above 1 ppm, and 98% had levels above the more health-protective proposed level of 0.58 ppm. Mercury exposure can impact a developing fetus months after the mother’s exposure and cause lifelong health problems, including neurological impairment, IQ loss, and kidney and cardiovascular damage, the report said. The report links mercury pollution in these women to small-scale gold mining. While most of the women of Li Auhbra and Li Lamni depend on agriculture, fishing and hunting for self-subsistence, some participants said they work as gold washers, a process that involves using mercury to extract gold from the surrounding ore. Researchers said participants who don’t engage directly in mining may be exposed through family members who do work with mercury…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Indigenous women of childbearing age from Nicaragua’s Waspam municipality have been exposed to toxic levels of mercury, according to a new report by the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN). The researchers took hair samples from 50 women between 18 and 44 years old. The women live in the Indigenous communities of Li Auhbra and Li […] authors: | ||
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The land deal threatening a vital piece of Bolivia’s Chiquitano dry forest 20 Nov 2025 15:08:03 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/the-land-deal-threatening-a-vital-piece-of-bolivias-chiquitano-dry-forest/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Maxwell Radwin content:encoded: A large forest in eastern Bolivia is on the verge of being sold to an international agriculture company, raising concerns that it might be razed to make room for new cropland. The 30,019-hectare (74,179-acre) plot in Bolivia’s northeastern Chiquitano dry forest has been sustainably managed for years. But now the land is on the verge of being sold to a Brazilian agribusiness firm, undercutting attempts by an environmental group that wanted to buy the land first, according to documents obtained by Mongabay. “[The Chiquitano is] a critical link between very important biomes, and it’s one of the last solid blocks of forest in the whole area,” said James Johnson, a forestry consultant in Santa Cruz, the department where the property is located. Covering about 24 million hectares (59 million acres), the Chiquitano dry forest connects the Amazon Rainforest with the Gran Chaco and Cerrado savannas. It acts as a corridor for wildlife in the different biomes. Over the last decade, the area has suffered some of the worst deforestation on the continent, with agribusiness destroying millions of hectares. Clearing the 30,019-hectare plot, which is about three times the size of the city of Paris, would represent a significant ecological loss and accelerate the degradation and desertification of nearby Indigenous lands, several people told Mongabay. “What they want to do is change the land use [on the property],” said Juan Carlos Laura, of the Indigenous Peoples Support Foundation–Jenecheru, which works on legal matters with communities in the area. “By changing the…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A 30,019-hectare (74,178-acre) forest in Santa Cruz, Bolivia is on the verge of being sold to Bom Futuro, a Brazilian agriculture company with plans to clear the land, documents reviewed by Mongabay suggest. - The forest is being sold by a local affiliate of Dutch wood flooring producer INPA, which has helped sustainably manage the area since the mid-2000s. - Conservationists say the plot is an important part of Bolivia’s Chiquitano dry forest, which acts as a transition between the Amazon Rainforest and the Gran Chaco and Cerrado savannas. authors: | ||
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EU touts climate leadership while undermining antideforestation rules, critics say 20 Nov 2025 13:48:29 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/eu-touts-climate-leadership-while-undermining-antideforestation-rules-critics-say/ author: Hans Nicholas Jong dc:creator: Hans Nicholas Jong content:encoded: BELÉM, Brazil — At a Nov. 19 press conference at the U.N. climate summit currently underway in Brazil, European Union officials spoke for half an hour without a single mention of forests or efforts to halt deforestation — even though COP30 is taking place in a city dubbed the “gateway to the Amazon.” For Boris Patentreger, senior director for France at advocacy group Mighty Earth, the silence captured a wider problem: back in Europe, governments are moving to weaken the EU’s flagship antideforestation law, the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). “That [press conference] was the last moment to say that we want to keep the EUDR. And they didn’t say that,” he told Mongabay. “And actually, I was really surprised because there was no question about deforestation. It was only a question about climate.” Adopted in June 2023, the EUDR was meant to cement the EU’s environmental leadership. Once in force, it will require importers of cocoa, coffee, palm oil, cattle, timber and rubber products to prove their products aren’t linked to deforestation. The EUDR was designed to protect tropical forests in places like the Amazon and Indonesia, which continue to shrink at alarming rates, driven in large part to meet consumption demand in wealthy markets. The EU is the world’s second-largest driver of imported deforestation, after China. But political momentum has shifted sharply inside the bloc. The EUDR was meant to go into force at the end of 2024. This was then delayed by a year, pushing the enforcement date…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - European governments are pushing to delay and weaken the EU Deforestation Regulation, backing a one-year postponement to 2026 and major reductions in due-diligence requirements. - The political shift is driven largely by Germany and supported by France, despite earlier European Commission rollbacks and opposition from only a few member states. - Civil society groups warn that further delays would gut the law, punish early-compliant companies, and undermine the EU’s regulatory credibility. - At COP30, the EU’s silence on deforestation has fueled accusations of hypocrisy as advocates say weakening the EUDR would have severe consequences for tropical forests. authors: | ||
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Makassar women press for water as taps and wells run dry in sweltering Indonesian city 20 Nov 2025 12:14:09 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/makassar-women-press-for-water-as-taps-and-wells-run-dry-in-sweltering-indonesian-city/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Sri Wahyuni content:encoded: MAKASSAR, Indonesia — For years, Rahma paid a monthly rate for water that never flowed to her home in eastern Indonesia’s largest urban area, here where the Tallo River meets the Pacific Ocean. “If I’m late by one day, I’ll be fined,” Rahma told Mongabay Indonesia near the coast of Makassar, the largest city on the island of Sulawesi. “They didn’t take away the meter, so we thought maybe the water would come back on, but it never did.” In the 15th century, the kingdom of Tallo transformed Makassar into a maritime power that dominated southern Sulawesi’s trading routes until eventual defeat by Dutch occupiers in the 1660s. Today, thousands who live on the modern seafront in the sweltering port of 1.5 million battle daily water scarcity, where access to this most basic of needs is already squeezed by crisis. In 2000, the regional government established a local water company to help supply water to parched households here in Tallo. But the local utility, known in Indonesia as a PDAM, is unreliable and the water often runs only at night, if at all, local customers in Makassar told Mongabay. Around three-quarters of those surveyed in Makassar for a report published last year by Indonesia’s largest environmental organization said they experienced difficulties in obtaining water. That means residents like Rahma and Sinar, 45, who is the ward of Tallo’s seventh neighborhood, have to resort to wearying daily treks across one of the hottest parts of Indonesia to queue at dawn for…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Located on the coast of Sulawesi Island’s largest city, Makassar, Tallo ward endures high water stress and contamination of local sources with heavy metals and other pollutants. - Water stress is a well-documented driver of gender-based violence around the world, with extensive correlation established by numerous research studies, and causation in many circumstances. - In Makassar, women are commonly responsible for ensuring local households are supplied with water, which typically involves hauling more than two dozen plastic containers of water across town. - In response to these challenges, a grassroots women-led organization has entered direct talks with local political leaders and the municipal water company in a bid to improve access to water for consumption and sanitation. authors: | ||
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Soot: The super-pollutant choking a burning Earth, in photos 20 Nov 2025 10:50:40 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/soot-burning-earth-photos/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: Burning fossil fuels and forests releases the well-known greenhouse gases that drive anthropogenic climate change. That burning also produces soot, a fine black particle that harms health and accelerates warming. A new photo series highlights the often overlooked consequence of burning. Award-winning photojournalist Victor Moriyama, in partnership with the Clean Air Fund and Climate Visuals, traveled across Brazil, from the Amazon Rainforest in the north to rural communities in the southeast, to photograph soot and its human impacts during 2025, following some of the nation’s driest years on record. Soot, also called black carbon, can stay suspended in the air for weeks or months before settling. When it lands, the particles darken the ground, or ice, increasing the absorption of heat from the sun, intensifying warming. For people living near burning landscapes, soot becomes unavoidable. It’s inhaled into lungs, causing illness and death. The effects are devastating: globally, soot contributes to at least 8.1 million premature deaths every year, roughly 700,000 of them children under 5. Despite its demonstrated damage to human health and contributions to climate change, soot has been largely overlooked. Just 1% of international development funding between 2019 and 2023 went toward clean air projects, including work targeting soot, according to the Clean Air Fund’s latest report. Mongabay spoke to Moriyama about his months-long experience photographing fire, soot and smoke. Below are some of his photos and thoughts. “I’ve spent a lot of time in Amazon fires, right in the middle of the flames,” Moriyama told…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Burning fossil fuels and forests releases the well-known greenhouse gases that drive anthropogenic climate change. That burning also produces soot, a fine black particle that harms health and accelerates warming. A new photo series highlights the often overlooked consequence of burning. Award-winning photojournalist Victor Moriyama, in partnership with the Clean Air Fund and Climate Visuals, […] authors: | ||
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With COP30, Indigenous Brazilians strive for new resources to protect nature 20 Nov 2025 09:52:34 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/with-cop30-indigenous-brazilians-strive-for-new-resources-to-protect-nature/ author: Xavier Bartaburu dc:creator: Sara Baptista content:encoded: For many Brazilians, the country’s Indigenous peoples are considered the main protectors of nature. This is one of the key findings of a new Greenpeace survey published in October: according to the study, when it comes to caring for the forests, 80% of respondents trust Indigenous groups over any other national institution. Yet the global flow of money on which environmental protection depends for survival still follows a different dynamic. Globally, Indigenous peoples and traditional groups — such as quilombolas, Afro-Brazilian inhabitants of communities originally established by runaway enslaved people — receive less than 1% of the funds given to environmental preservation and climate change mitigation projects. The number, which points to a major socioenvironmental paradox, is included in a 2021 report by the Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN). According to the NGO, the inability to manage these financial transfers is one of the main reasons why the money doesn’t reach these groups. Without a proper management structure to handle the capital, it says, many Brazilian communities will remain tied to other organizations higher up the financing chain, such as international NGOs and state-led initiatives. RFN’s analysis shows that this dispersed model has loose ends. One of the biggest issues is related to traditional projects’ dependence on intermediaries: due to high operational costs, the total amount actually reaching local groups ends up being reduced. At the same time, the conventional financing structure includes steps that don’t correspond to the realities of traditional life, such as stringent deadlines and bureaucratic procedures, which…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Less than 1% of global climate funding reaches Indigenous peoples and traditional groups, despite their leading roles in environmental conservation, particularly in the Amazon, according to reports. - In addition to a lack of access to conventional financing options, many traditional initiatives remain isolated by bureaucratic hurdles and struggle to adapt typical funding requirements to their communal dynamics. - In response to these challenges, several Indigenous and traditional-led funds are seeking solutions. Across Brazil, organizations are working to align financial procedures with the reality of local communities, aiming to ensure the autonomy of their representatives. - As Brazil hosts the COP30 climate summit, leaders of these Indigenous funds see the event as a window of opportunity to draw the world’s attention and seek new routes for proper investment. authors: | ||
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Next year’s UN climate talks set for Turkey, as Australia backs out of bid in compromise 20 Nov 2025 04:59:59 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/next-years-un-climate-talks-set-for-turkey-as-australia-backs-out-of-bid-in-compromise/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Turkey will host next year’s annual United Nations climate talks, as Australia late Wednesday bowed out of the race to host the conference after a protracted standoff. As Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke at the U.N. conference, this year being hosted by Brazil, Australia’s Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced on the sidelines that his country had officially pulled out. While Turkey won the bid to host the climate conference in the resort city of Antalya, Bowen is expected to act as president of next year’s negotiations, part of a compromise he said had been worked out with Turkey. “Obviously, it would be great if Australia could have it all,” Bowen said. “But we can’t have it all.” As president of the negotiations, Bowen said he would have all the powers to “handle the negotiations, to appoint co-facilitators, to prepare draft text, and to issue the cover decision.” Environmental group Greenpeace called the arrangement “highly unusual.” “Whatever the forum, whoever the president, the urgency and focus cannot change, and phasing out fossil fuels and ending deforestation must be at the core of the COP31 agenda,” said David Ritter, who leads Greenpeace Australia Pacific. Ethiopia was announced as host for COP32 earlier this week. Other nations, including India, have already bid to host the talks the year after that. By Anton L. Delgado, Seth Borenstein and Melina Walling, Associated Press Banner image: The next U.N. climate conference, COP 31, is set to be held…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Turkey will host next year’s annual United Nations climate talks, as Australia late Wednesday bowed out of the race to host the conference after a protracted standoff. As Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke at the U.N. conference, this year being hosted by Brazil, Australia’s Climate and Energy Minister […] authors: | ||
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Game of tiny thrones: Parasitic ants grab power by turning workers against their queen 20 Nov 2025 03:59:35 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/game-of-tiny-thrones-parasitic-ants-grab-power-by-turning-workers-against-their-queen/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: Queens of some ant species have evolved an unusually hostile mode for colony takeover: they infiltrate colonies of other ant species and manipulate the worker ants into killing their own queen — their mother — then accepting the intruding queen as their new leader, according to a recent study. In the world of ants, where battles over territory and resources are common, this is a rare example of matricide, or “the killing of a mother by her own genetic offspring,” researchers say. The researchers observed such matricide-inducing behavior in two parasitic ant species: Lasius orientalis and Lasius umbratus. Ants rely mainly on chemical signals to communicate and tell friends and foes apart. The parasitic queens of L. orientalis and L. umbratus use that to their advantage. “Ants live in the world of odors,” Keizo Takasuka, study co-author from Kyushu University, Japan, said in a statement. “Before infiltrating the nest, the parasitic queen stealthily acquires the colony’s odor on her body from workers walking outside so that she is not recognized as the enemy.” Once inside the colony, the parasitic queen covertly approaches the resident queen and sprays her with abdominal fluid that the researchers suspect is formic acid. “When they get attacked, ants often spray the intruder with formic acid as a way of alerting other ants in the colony,” Daniel Kronauer, a researcher of insect societies at Rockefeller University, U.S., who wasn’t involved in the study, told Live Science. “So, it makes a lot of sense that this would…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Queens of some ant species have evolved an unusually hostile mode for colony takeover: they infiltrate colonies of other ant species and manipulate the worker ants into killing their own queen — their mother — then accepting the intruding queen as their new leader, according to a recent study. In the world of ants, where […] authors: | ||
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Amazon Indigenous groups fight soy waterway as Brazil fast-tracks dredging 19 Nov 2025 19:33:27 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/amazon-indigenous-groups-fight-soy-waterway-as-brazil-fast-tracks-dredging/ author: Alexandre de Santi dc:creator: André Schröder content:encoded: On Nov. 7 in Brazil, Indigenous people from the Tupinambá and other ethnic groups occupied the Tapajós River with small boats for several hours, halting barges carrying soybeans and other commodities near the city of Santarém, in the state of Pará. They did so peacefully, displaying banners with messages such as “agriculture passes, destruction remains,” denouncing the socioenvironmental impacts of the Tapajós waterway and other infrastructure projects aimed at transforming the Lower Tapajós region into one of the leading logistics export corridors in the Brazilian Amazon. A week later, at the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Indigenous Munduruku blocked the main entrance of the conference, demanding a hearing with Brazilian authorities to protest against the privatization of the waterway, among other issues. The Tapajós River waterway is an ongoing infrastructure project in the Brazilian Amazon that stretches about 250 kilometers (155 miles), connecting the Miritituba port in Itaituba, Pará, a key intermodal logistics hub for agricultural and mineral commodities, to the city of Santarém, where it meets the Amazon River and which provides access to the Atlantic Ocean. Over the past 10 years, cargo traffic along this route has grown significantly, spurred by the paving of the BR-163 highway, the primary link between the granary states in Brazil’s central-west region and the beginning of the Tapajós waterway. On Nov. 14, a group of Munduruku Indigenous people living in the Tapajós River region blocked the entrance to COP30 to protest the waterway and other issues. Image courtesy of Gabriel Corrêa/Rádio Nacional.…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Brazil is pushing the Tapajós River waterway as one of the main Amazon shipping corridors and preparing it for privatization, which will enable regular dredging and maintenance to improve its capacity. - Traditional communities and environmental groups warn that dredging and heavy vessel traffic threaten fish stocks, turtle nesting areas and other wildlife. - The Tapajós waterway is a central component of the new Amazonian logistics plans to move commodities such as soy and beef, including the contested Ferrogrão railway. authors: | ||
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Mongabay founder Rhett Butler wins Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Prize 19 Nov 2025 18:33:55 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/mongabay-founder-rhett-butler-wins-tallberg-snf-eliasson-prize/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Bobby Bascomb content:encoded: Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler has been announced a winner of this year’s Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize. The annual prize is awarded to “outstanding leaders whose work is courageous, innovative, impactful, rooted in universal values, and global in perspective,” the organizers said in a press release. The prize was established by the Sweden-based Tällberg Foundation in 2015, and has since been awarded to 35 recipients. Butler is one of three winners this year, chosen from a pool of more than 1,500 nominees across 146 countries. “I’m deeply honored, but this recognition really belongs to the extraordinary Mongabay team and our global network of journalists who do the hard work every day,” Butler told Mongabay in an email. “I see the prize as a testament to the power of independent, fact-based environmental journalism.” In a press release, the foundation said Butler was chosen for his role in “redefining global environmental journalism through Mongabay, a network model of independent reporting that empowers local voices, informs global policy, and renews confidence in journalism as a force for accountability and change.” The two other recipients of this year’s prize are Bryan Doerries with Theater of War Productions, honored for his work using ancient stories to heal modern trauma, and David Gruber with Project CETI, recognized for his work toward deciphering the language of whales. “These extraordinary leaders remind us that courage and imagination can reshape the human story,” Alan Stoga, chair of the Tällberg Foundation, said in the press release. The 2025…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler has been announced a winner of this year’s Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize. The annual prize is awarded to “outstanding leaders whose work is courageous, innovative, impactful, rooted in universal values, and global in perspective,” the organizers said in a press release. The prize was established by the Sweden-based […] authors: | ||
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‘The perfect ingredients’: WRI Africa deputy director shares vision for the continent’s energy transition 19 Nov 2025 16:32:14 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/the-perfect-ingredients-wri-africa-deputy-director-shares-vision-for-the-continents-energy-transition/ author: Malavikavyawahare dc:creator: John Cannon content:encoded: The quest to bring energy to Africans who need it often centers on the relatable electrical needs that arise in the home: lighting, phone charging, and a connection to what’s going on in the broader world through a radio or a television. Indeed, 40% of the continent’s population — around 600 million people — don’t even have that basic level of access. Where power access does exist, it’s often not enough to support the more intensive needs of essential services such as schools, hospitals and water treatment facilities. At the 2025 U.N. climate conference, COP30, in Belém, Brazil, running Nov. 10-21, ensuring a “just energy transition” in Africa and elsewhere that lack access has been a central topic of discussion. The overall rise in atmospheric carbon stems largely from the burning of fossil fuels, which has propelled the growth of wealthy countries’ economies. By contrast, people from less-industrialized parts of the world have contributed little to climate change, yet are often the first to face its impacts, whether from droughts, rising sea levels or more intense storms. And without ready access to electricity, they’re often — quite literally — left in the dark. Key to facilitating a just transition for Africa will be greater investments in renewables to capitalize on the continent’s abundant wind, geothermal, hydro and solar resources, according to Rebekah Shirley, deputy director for Africa at the World Resources Institute (WRI). (Already, more than half of Africa’s energy consumption is met by renewable sources, such as solar and…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Rebekah Shirley, the deputy director for Africa at the World Resources Institute (WRI), says that increasing energy access for Africans, 600 million of whom lack basic access to electricity, requires thinking about entire economies. - In a conversation with Mongabay, Shirley notes that technological advances, especially for renewable energy, are no longer the hurdle they once were. - Instead, bringing energy access to households, community services and industry will result from investment in manufacturing, commerce and industry that will support the expansion of universal household energy access, Shirley says. - Mongabay spoke with Shirley in the lead-up to the 2025 U.N. climate conference, COP30, in Belém, Brazil. authors: | ||
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Lethal dose of plastic for seabirds and marine animals ‘much smaller than expected’ 19 Nov 2025 13:53:01 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/lethal-dose-of-plastic-for-seabirds-and-marine-animals-much-smaller-than-expected/ author: Glenn Scherer dc:creator: Elizabeth Claire Alberts content:encoded: New research has found that even small amounts of plastic can be deadly to seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals. While previous research has established that plastic can lead to mortality in many species, this new study identifies the types and amounts of plastic that pose the greatest danger, and estimates how likely an animal is to die after ingesting it. The study authors found the lethal dose to be much smaller than expected. The team of international researchers, including several from U.S.-based environmental advocacy group Ocean Conservancy, conducted a literature review of more than 50 studies, drawing together the necropsy results for more than 10,000 animals that included data on the cause of death and on plastic ingestion. The mortality data included 1,537 seabirds from 57 species; 1,306 sea turtles from all seven marine turtle species; and 7,569 marine mammals representing 31 species, including whales, dolphins and seals. The team used the data to generate modeling that analyzed the relationship between the plastic in the animal’s gut and the likelihood of death for each animal group, looking at both the total number of pieces of plastic and their volume. Where possible, they also considered the type of plastic the wildlife ingested to understand which types were most lethal to the animals. Plastic found inside a dead black-footed albatross. Image by Dan Clark /USFWS. “That lethal dose is much smaller than we expected,” lead author Erin Murphy, manager of ocean plastic research at the Ocean Conservancy, told Mongabay. She and…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A new study looking at the impacts of plastic ingestion by seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals found that relatively small amounts of consumed plastic can be deadly. - The research analyzed the necropsy results for more than 10,000 animals and quantified the amount of plastic that could prove deadly as well as the types of plastic with the biggest impact, which included synthetic rubber, soft plastics (such as plastic bags and wrappers) and discarded plastic fishing gear. - Overall, one in five of the deceased animals had consumed plastic (affecting 50% of all studied sea turtles, 35% of seabirds and 12% of marine mammals); nearly half of the species studied were considered threatened or near threatened on the IUCN Red List. - The researchers didn’t consider other health impacts of plastic, such as chemical exposure and entanglement, which led the lead author to conclude the study likely underestimates the “existential threat that plastic pollution poses to ocean wildlife.” authors: | ||
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With military backing and oligarch allies, Indonesia pushes controversial food estate 19 Nov 2025 12:54:42 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/with-military-backing-and-oligarch-allies-indonesia-pushes-controversial-food-estate/ author: Philip Jacobson dc:creator: Jeff Hutton content:encoded: The Indonesian administration of President Prabowo Subianto is pushing ahead with a multibillion-dollar plan to build a vast string of plantations in South Papua province that it hopes will secure domestic supplies of rice as well as sugarcane, as the government seeks to ramp up production of biofuel as a means of weaning itself off foreign sources of oil. In mid-October, state-owned construction company PT Hutama Karya won a contract worth 4.8 trillion rupiah ($286 million), the biggest public tender so far this year, to build an 80-kilometer (50-mile) stretch of highway linking the coast of South Papua to the interior. In early August, the deputy energy minister, Yuliot Tanjung, said building the food estate as well as the initial infrastructure of the bioethanol supply chain would cost $8 billion. The plans include a bioethanol factory in South Papua, which will start operating in 2027, as well as sugar factories and a 120-megawatt power station. In May, the government appointed state-owned company PT Agrinas Pangan Nusantara to run the food estate, with funding for the project coming from the holding company for state-owned enterprises, Danantara. Dating back to the 1990s under former president Suharto, food estates have appealed to multiple administrations since then as they flex the country’s resources and scarcely populated regions such as Kalimantan and Papua to secure supplies of food like rice in order to limit imports. Dictated from far-off Jakarta, the food estate initiatives have invariably faltered as lofty ambition collided with on-the-ground realities like soil…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Indonesian government is fast-tracking a massive food estate and biofuel push in South Papua, anchored by new plantations, an $8 billion bioethanol supply chain, and major infrastructure projects including a new highway and expanded airport plans. - The initiative revives decades of state-driven “food estate” ambitions that have repeatedly failed — from Suharto’s peat-wrecking Mega Rice Project to Joko Widodo’s abandoned cassava fields — yet now comes with stronger political will, military backing, and efforts to attract private and international partners, including Brazil. - Funding and execution remain shaky, with the appointed operator, PT Agrinas Pangan Nusantara, still unfunded amid competing fiscal pressures as the government pursues costly programs like nationwide free school meals. - Large-scale land clearing is already underway amid reports of militarized suppression of local resistance, while oligarch allies such as the Jhonlin Group are playing prominent roles, underscoring both the urgency and controversy surrounding Prabowo’s self-sufficiency drive. authors: | ||
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Mongabay journalist Malavika Vyawahare honored with SEAL Award 19 Nov 2025 10:38:08 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/mongabay-journalist-malavika-vyawahare-honored-with-seal-award/ author: Hayat Indriyatno dc:creator: Shreya Dasgupta content:encoded: Mongabay contributing editor Malavika Vyawahare has been awarded a 2025 SEAL environmental journalism award, which recognizes reporters covering the complexities of the environment and climate. “This award is a huge encouragement for me, as a journalist and as an exhausted toddler mom,” Vyawahare said. “It is also a recognition of the kind of work Mongabay makes possible, the space it creates for its staff and contributors to write meaningful stories.” The annual award is presented by SEAL (Sustainability, Environmental Achievement & Leadership), a U.S.-based environmental advocacy organization. Vyawahare is the latest Mongabay journalist or contributor to win the award; previous winners include Spoorthy Raman in 2024, Karla Mendes and Basten Gokkon in 2022, and Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler in 2020. “Mongabay is an outstanding publication whose writers have made our finalist list for multiple years running,” Safa Bee Wesley, impact lead at SEAL Awards, told Mongabay by email. “Malavika’s writing in particular is noteworthy for her ability to flip between a diverse set of topics (fossil fuels and renewables one moment, toxic chemicals in breastmilk the next, the impact of trade on deforestation in a third moment), and she is able to translate complex concepts from scientific language into comprehensible explanations that any reader can digest, while retaining an elevated and authoritative voice.” Vyawahare, who divides her time between La Réunion and India, currently writes and edits for Mongabay’s Africa team. “Right now, we are knee-deep in figuring out what ‘just energy’ means for the continent’s residents,”…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Mongabay contributing editor Malavika Vyawahare has been awarded a 2025 SEAL environmental journalism award, which recognizes reporters covering the complexities of the environment and climate. “This award is a huge encouragement for me, as a journalist and as an exhausted toddler mom,” Vyawahare said. “It is also a recognition of the kind of work Mongabay […] authors: | ||
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Colombia slams international trade rules that punish states for climate action 19 Nov 2025 10:17:17 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/colombia-slams-international-trade-rules-that-punish-states-for-climate-action/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: Colombian Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres has called for reform of international arbitration tribunals, saying they’re “one of the greatest obstacles” to the energy transition and favor corporate interests over sovereignty. The investor–state dispute settlement system (ISDS), also called a “corporate court,” is an international trade mechanism that allows foreign investors, usually corporations, to sue a government for losses caused by its policies. Under this system, a nation can’t outlaw, or in some cases punish, existing extractive industries for environmental reasons without facing significant penalties. “No government should have to choose between protecting nature and its people, and protecting itself from arbitrators,” Vélez said at the U.N. climate summit, COP30, in Belém, Brazil, in a session hosted by U.K.-based advocacy group Global Justice Now. “This mechanism, that has been inherited from an era in which the priority was investment over sovereignty, allows corporations to sue the state for adopting legitimate environmental and climate policies,” Vélez added. According to Global Justice Now, corporations have sued over environmental demands made by nations several times under the ISDS framework. These include U.K. mining giant Anglo American suing Colombia after a court there stopped the expansion of an open-cast coal mine, and Chevron, a U.S. oil company, suing Ecuador after the nation ordered compensation following a devastating oil spill in the Amazon. Vélez said Colombia has historically been dependent on fossil fuels and their exports, and that these mechanisms force nations to continue supporting extractive industries that damage the environment and emit greenhouse gases.…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Colombian Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres has called for reform of international arbitration tribunals, saying they’re “one of the greatest obstacles” to the energy transition and favor corporate interests over sovereignty. The investor–state dispute settlement system (ISDS), also called a “corporate court,” is an international trade mechanism that allows foreign investors, usually corporations, to sue […] authors: | ||
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Indigenous Dayak resist new southern Borneo national park amid global protection deficit 19 Nov 2025 10:10:46 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indigenous-dayak-resist-new-southern-borneo-national-park-amid-global-protection-deficit/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Rendy TisnaRiyad Dafhi Rizki content:encoded: BANJARMASIN, Indonesia — A growing coalition of Indigenous communities, students and civil society organizations from Borneo is rallying against fast-moving plans to establish a new national park in the remote Meratus mountain range. “The Meratus forest is our mother,” said Anang Suriani, a spokesperson for the Dayak Indigenous community from Kambiayin, a village in South Kalimantan province that falls within the borders of the proposed Meratus Mountains National Park. “It’s a place where we live, farm, forage, practice tradition and obtain medicine,” he added. “Making it a national park is tantamount to destroying us.” The government plans to zone Meratus Mountains National Park over 119,779 hectares (295,980 acres), an area twice the size of the city of Chicago, or more than 50% larger than the country of Singapore. Since Indonesia’s independence in 1945, successive governments have established 57 national parks across the country, the largest of which is Lorentz National Park in Papua, at around 2.5 million hectares (6.2 million acres), an area 30 times larger than Singapore. The smallest, Kelimutu National Park on Flores island, is slightly smaller than the city state. South Kalimantan is one of only four of the 38 provinces across Indonesia that doesn’t have a national park. However, in April this year, UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural office, designated the Meratus Mountains as a Global Geopark for its “fascinating geological record of complex tectonic evolution beginning in the Jurassic period, 201 to 145 million years ago.” Officials in Indonesia unveiled the national park draft in…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Indigenous peoples and student protesters staged several demonstrations in Indonesian Borneo in August in a bid to pressure local authorities to cancel plans for a 119,779-hectare (295,980-acre) national park in the Meratus mountain range. - Meratus Mountains National Park would be the first national park in South Kalimantan province, and the 58th in Indonesia. - The draft plans will absorb almost two dozen villages impacting several thousand families, many of whom fear displacement given the lack of formal state recognition of Indigenous communities. - Local civil society organizations say the public protests reflect a lack of consultation with affected communities, a pattern established by many governments as countries rush to protect 30% of the world’s land and marine areas by 2030. authors: | ||
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How Indonesian communities rescued the Bali starling from the brink of extinction 19 Nov 2025 10:10:25 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/how-indonesian-communities-rescued-the-bali-starling-from-the-brink-of-extinction/ author: Shanna Hanbury dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: One of the world’s rarest birds has rebounded from near extinction after Indigenous communities on the Indonesian island of Bali committed to protect it under traditional laws, Mongabay contributor Heather Physioc reported. The Bali starling (Leucopsar rothschildi) is a songbird with striking white plumage and a cobalt-blue face. In 2001, just six birds were known to live in the wild. By 2021, there were roughly 520. “All the people in our village are working together to secure this species,” said Made Sukadana, chair of an organization working to increase tourism in Bali’s Tengkudak village. “We plant fruit trees for the Bali starling and support a dedicated, passionate bird person who monitors daily.” But that wasn’t always the case. Decades of aggressive poaching driven by the pet trade devastated the wild population, overwhelming conservation efforts by both NGOs and the Indonesian government. For example, the Tegal Bunder Breeding Center released 218 birds into Bali Barat National Park over the course of 18 years, yet the wild population continued to plummet. Many of the released birds lingered near release sites and became easy targets for poachers. Others remained dependent on humans or didn’t survive in the wild. In the 1990s, traffickers were paying up to 40 million rupiah (about $4,500 at the time) for a pair of Bali starlings, more than a park ranger’s annual salary, making it easy to pay off officials. Even increased patrols by rangers couldn’t stem the losses; 78 birds were ultimately stolen from the breeding center. The turning…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: One of the world’s rarest birds has rebounded from near extinction after Indigenous communities on the Indonesian island of Bali committed to protect it under traditional laws, Mongabay contributor Heather Physioc reported. The Bali starling (Leucopsar rothschildi) is a songbird with striking white plumage and a cobalt-blue face. In 2001, just six birds were known […] authors: | ||
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As Zambia eyes green minerals, Kabwe’s poisoned past looms large 19 Nov 2025 07:16:17 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/as-zambia-eyes-green-minerals-kabwes-poisoned-past-looms-large/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Chisapi Kumbutso content:encoded: LUSAKA — As Zambia looks to profit from the growing global demand for copper and other transition minerals — essential for the world’s green energy future — the story of Kabwe, a mining city poisoned by the resource, stands as a warning. If the government and the companies that mine its wealth don’t break with the patterns of the past, activists warn, any new mining booms will likely repeat the destruction of mining host communities’ health, livelihoods and environment. In June 2024, a coalition of young activists, journalists and environmental groups launched a campaign called “Zambia’s Sacrifice Zone,” aiming to explore the legacy of mining lead and copper in Kabwe and reinforce the push for accountability from government and mining companies. A partnership between a Zambian NGO, the Agents of Change Foundation, and Radio Workshop, a South Africa-based nonprofit that trains young community journalists across the continent, the campaign relied on a podcast, radio programs and listening parties. From left to right: Youth activist Oliver Nyirenda (in yellow), with his family in Kabwe. Image courtesy of Radio Workshop. Putting a face to a crisis At the center of the campaign is the story of Oliver Nyirenda. As Nyirenda was growing up in Kabwe, his mother noticed that his growth was stunted, his reactions slow. Tests confirmed severe lead poisoning. Decades of unregulated mining and smelting by the former Broken Hill mine company had contaminated the soil, air and water of this central Zambian city with dangerous levels of lead. When…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Zambia is seeking to capitalize on the green energy boom through copper and other critical minerals, but campaigners warn that without real accountability and community participation, the next mining wave could create new “sacrifice zones,” repeating a painful history. - The town of Kabwe remains severely polluted after decades of lead and copper mining, with more than 95% of children showing dangerous blood lead levels. - The “Zambia’s Sacrifice Zone” campaign, launched by young activists, journalists and NGOs, uses storytelling and radio to demand accountability, raise awareness and amplify community voices in the fight for environmental justice and cleanup. - Authorities have rolled out remediation projects with World Bank support, testing tens of thousands of residents and improving water and infrastructure, but activists say compensation is lacking and enforcement of environmental laws remains weak. authors: | ||
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Offshore fossil fuel exploration jeopardizes Brazil’s climate leadership, study says 18 Nov 2025 22:39:16 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/offshore-fossil-fuel-exploration-jeopardizes-brazils-climate-leadership-study-says/ author: Xavier Bartaburu dc:creator: Lucas Berti content:encoded: This November, as Brazil opened the curtains to host the UN Climate Conference (COP30), in its Pará state capital, Belém, the troubles orbiting the country’s environmental agenda were featured in a new report by U.S.-based conservation technology nonprofit SkyTruth, which is dedicated to satellite-based environmental monitoring. In the run-up to the climate summit, the study revealed the growing impact offshore oil and gas structures pose to Brazil’s vulnerable areas, especially in biodiverse marine regions such as the mouth of the Amazon River. At a time when global eyes turned to the Amazonian city, leading to increasing interest in the environmental solutions Brazil seeks to offer, the investigation questioned the host nation’s role as a climate leader. As one of its main arguments, the report jumped into the dilemmas of an economic model that remains highly dependent on something that Brazilian President Lula’s administration has been promising to replace: Fossil fuels. The investigation maps oil spill-driven pollution and highlights a rapid growth in both the traffic of oil industry vessels and the level of methane emissions — released through leaks during extraction. The numbers come in the wake of the expansion of the energy sector itself, which is growing in the opposite direction of the search for less polluting energy sources. According to SkyTruth, “between 2014 and 2024, Brazil’s oil production increased by more than 49% and natural gas production increased by over 78%.” The study points to contradictions in the Brazilian government’s climate rhetoric: In October, as Lula himself declared,…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Ahead of the UN Climate Summit (COP30) in Brazil, a report by environment-monitoring organization SkyTruth mapped the environmental impact of the advance of offshore exploration for fossil fuels in Brazil, criticizing the country’s unfulfilled energy transition promises. - The study detected 179 probable oil slicks on the Brazilian coast since 2017, as the oil and gas sectors boomed. Analyses showed that traffic from fossil-industry vessels grew 81% between 2012 and 2023, while methane burning skyrocketed — releasing into the atmosphere the equivalent of carbon dioxide emitted by 6.9 million vehicles annually. - According to the investigation, Brazil still embraces environmentally controversial initiatives, such as oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon River. This agenda brings risks to rich marine ecosystems and Indigenous and traditional communities, moving the country further away from its climate and conservation goals. authors: | ||
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Brazil releases draft text and letter to accelerate COP30 climate negotiations 18 Nov 2025 22:29:40 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/brazil-releases-draft-text-and-letter-to-accelerate-cop30-climate-negotiations/ author: Mongabay Editor dc:creator: Associated Press content:encoded: BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Brazil is ramping up efforts at the U.N. climate conference with a direct letter to nations and a draft text released Tuesday. The letter, sent late Monday, comes during the final week of the first climate summit in the Amazon rainforest. COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago released a proposal with 21 options for negotiators on four key issues. These include improving climate plans, distributing $300 billion in climate aid, addressing trade barriers, and enhancing transparency. The documents urge leaders to finalize many aspects by Wednesday, ahead of the conference’s scheduled end on Friday. By Melina Walling, Seth Borenstein and Anton L. Delgado Associated Press Banner image: A sign at the site of the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, on November 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)”This article was originally published on Mongabay description: BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Brazil is ramping up efforts at the U.N. climate conference with a direct letter to nations and a draft text released Tuesday. The letter, sent late Monday, comes during the final week of the first climate summit in the Amazon rainforest. COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago released a proposal with […] authors: | ||
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Pioneering primatologist in Madagascar shares decades of conservation wisdom 18 Nov 2025 21:10:16 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2025/11/pioneering-primatologist-in-madagascar-shares-decades-of-conservation-wisdom/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Mike DiGirolamo content:encoded: Patricia Wright, a pioneering primatologist who established the Centre ValBio research station in Madagascar, began her work there in 1986. As the person who first described the golden bamboo lemur (Hapalemur aureus) to Western science, her contributions led to the creation of Ranomafana National Park, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. She joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss her conservation breakthroughs and the challenges the island faces during political instability and widespread poverty. “Poverty is the enemy of conservation here in Madagascar,” Wright says. Solutions are challenging in an island nation where roughly 80% of its people are impacted by poverty, as well as deforestation, fires and political violence. To address these issues, Wright says investing in reforestation, education and health care is a way forward, but these steps must go hand in hand with conservation efforts. “I think both health and education are very important, and I started out at the very beginning, incorporating those into our conservation programs, but it has to be connected to the fact that [people] have forests,” she says. Wright has participated in the making of numerous documentaries over the years, including Island of Lemurs: Madagascar, narrated by Morgan Freeman, and recently Ivohiboro: The Lost Forest and Surviving Alone: The Tale of Simone. In this conversation, she describes key findings from the latter two films, including how Ivohiboro, a montane tropical forest surrounded by desert, was unknown to Western science until Wright set foot there in 2016. Films like these are a crucial part…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Patricia Wright, a pioneering primatologist who established the Centre ValBio research station in Madagascar, began her work there in 1986. As the person who first described the golden bamboo lemur (Hapalemur aureus) to Western science, her contributions led to the creation of Ranomafana National Park, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. She joins the Mongabay […] authors: | ||
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Scientists slam Canada-US proposal to lower trade protections for peregrine falcons 18 Nov 2025 18:59:58 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/scientists-slam-canada-us-proposal-to-lower-trade-protections-for-peregrine-falcons/ author: Sharon Guynup dc:creator: Spoorthy Raman content:encoded: The crow-sized, slate-blue-backed peregrine falcon, with its bright yellow feet, soars across the skies from Greenland’s Arctic tundra to the steppe plains of Patagonia in South America. Falco peregrinus is one of the most widespread birds on the planet, with 19 subspecies that call coasts, mountains, deserts and river valleys home. These eye-catching raptors are best known for their hunting skills. They can dive at lightning speeds of 320 kilometers per hour (200 miles per hour) — more than three times as fast as a cheetah, the swiftest land animal — to scoop their prey. Falconers prize peregrine falcons and have traded them for centuries, sometimes stealing eggs and young chicks from clifftop nests to breed them in captivity and train them. But it wasn’t falconry, an ancient sport where raptors are trained to hunt specific prey, that caused their near-extinction. It was pesticides: After World War II, chemicals like DDT, aldrin and others became ubiquitous, used in neighborhoods, backyards and on crop fields to kill mosquitoes and agricultural pests. That proved deadly to peregrine falcons. The pesticides poisoned their prey and bioaccumulated in their bodies, impairing their ability to reproduce. The eggs that females were thinner and more fragile, leached of calcium by DDT, and would break in the nests before the chicks could hatch. Peregrine falcon populations crashed across North America and Europe. They completely disappeared from the eastern U.S. and were on the brink of extinction in the West. Then, in 1962, U.S. biologist Rachel Carson published…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Peregrine falcons, the world’s fastest and most widespread raptors, recovered spectacularly after pesticides that nearly drove them to extinction were banned and captive-bred birds were rewilded, making the effort a remarkable conservation success story. - Although the species is no longer endangered, international commercial trade in this bird, coveted by falconers, is banned for wild-caught specimens and highly regulated for captive-bred ones. Canada and the U.S. propose loosening those restrictions, a proposal that will be voted on at the upcoming meeting of CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty. - Some raptor scientists have concerns. The Canada-U.S. downlisting proposal includes population estimates of just a few subspecies; many others are understudied. Some populations have declined in recent years and illegal trade continues. - Until there are safeguards against unsustainable trade and accurate assessments for all subspecies, conservationists say lowering protections could undo the efforts that have brought this bird back from the brink. authors: | ||
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Trade in marine fish for aquariums includes threatened species, lacks oversight: Study 18 Nov 2025 17:10:23 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/trade-in-marine-fish-for-aquariums-includes-threatened-species-lacks-oversight-study/ author: Rebecca Kessler dc:creator: Edward Carver content:encoded: The United States is the main market for “ornamental” marine fish, those that end up as pets in aquariums. Now, a new study of U.S.-based online retailers has found that nearly 90% of traded species are sourced exclusively from the wild, including a number of threatened species, and that the trade is poorly tracked. The study, published in October in the journal Conservation Biology, raises concerns about the ecological impact of the trade on marine ecosystems, including around coral reefs, in countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines, where the fish are caught. “We urgently need stronger traceability and regulatory oversight to ensure that aquarium fish are sourced responsibly,” Bing Lin, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Sydney, Australia, and lead author of the study, said in a press release. Lin undertook the study as a Ph.D. student at Princeton University, U.S. “Consumers have no reliable way of knowing whether the fish they buy were sustainably harvested.” A clownfish, possibly Amphiprion ocellaris, around the island of Bali in Indonesia. Image courtesy of Bing Lin. Bing Lin, who led a study on the marine aquarium trade as a Ph.D. student at Princeton University. Image courtesy of Bing Lin & Helen Yan. The study doesn’t deal with the trade in freshwater aquarium species, which have different supply chains and market dynamics, and are mainly bred in captivity. Nor does it look at the trade in sharks, invertebrates or corals — the focus is marine finfish. More than 1,700 marine finfish…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A new study of major U.S.-based online retailers of marine fish bound for aquariums found that nearly 90% of traded species are sourced exclusively from the wild, including a number of threatened species, and that the trade is poorly tracked. - The study raises concerns about the ecological impact of the trade on marine ecosystems, including around coral reefs, in countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines, where the fish are caught. - Experts called for more work to develop sustainable fisheries and aquaculture in coastal communities in the Global South, and for building consumer awareness and establishing eco-certification schemes. authors: | ||
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From waffle gardens to terraces, Indigenous groups revive farming heritage in America’s deserts 18 Nov 2025 16:15:31 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/from-waffle-gardens-to-terraces-indigenous-groups-revive-farming-heritage-in-americas-deserts/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Justin Catanoso content:encoded: In 1985, with two young daughters and little money, Roxanne Swentzell, a Native American sculptor and ceramic artist, returned from her studies in Portland, in the U.S. state of Oregon, to her Santa Clara Pueblo community in New Mexico state. Her art was years away from producing real income, so she took to the land to sustain herself and her girls. “I had this dry patch in the high desert, nothing but a driveway really,” recalls Swentzell, who was just 23 at the time. “I started making it into a homesite, a farm I could cultivate to feed my family. And in time, a little forest.” To grow corn and squash, onions and garlic, beans, berries and amaranth grains, Swentzell tapped into the ancient, dry-farming traditions of her people in the southwestern U.S., where sunshine is as abundant as rain is scarce. These proven, age-old farming techniques — applicable to many other parched, arid regions affected by climate change — have deep and expanding roots among Hopi and Navajo tribes in Arizona while experiencing a resurgence among the Pueblos (Indigenous tribes) of New Mexico through groups such as the Traditional Native American Farmers Association (TNAFA) and the Hopi Tutskwa Permaculture initiative. During Native American Heritage Month in November, Mongabay spoke with the leaders of these groups about their traditional farming techniques and how they can be replicated in increasingly dry regions around the world. In Santa Fe, saving traditional seeds native to the Southwestern US high desert, such as these…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Native American farmers in the southwestern United States have long deployed weather-adaptive techniques to grow crops such as corn and beans in high-desert environments only occasionally visited by rain. - In recent years, a variety of tribal groups have arisen to train the next generation of Native American farmers as a means of promoting cultural identity and improving self-sufficiency, health and well-being while using farming strategies that have worked for centuries on arid lands. - The techniques range from hillside terracing and “waffle” gardening, to water conservation and leveraging microclimates on a piece of land. - During Native American Heritage Month in November, Mongabay spoke with the leaders of these groups about their traditional farming techniques and how they can be replicated in increasingly dry regions around the world. authors: | ||
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Construction of TotalEnergies pipeline cuts through coral reefs in Mozambique 18 Nov 2025 15:20:32 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/construction-of-totalenergies-pipeline-cuts-through-coral-reefs-in-mozambique/ author: Terna Gyuse dc:creator: Victoria Schneider content:encoded: Over the past year, a dredger operated by Dutch company Van Oord cut through a coral reef off the coast of northern Mozambique, part of the construction of French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies’ troubled liquefied natural gas project in Cabo Delgado. Data scientists analyzing satellite imagery and vessel data have found that a massive chunk of coral has been dredged out of the ecologically sensitive reef. The 32 islands of the Quirimbas Archipelago extend from the mouth of the Rovuma River, on the Mozambique-Tanzania border, to Pemba Bay in the south. The archipelago is home to a high number of endemic and threatened species, including coelacanths (Latimeria chalumnae), dugongs (Dugong dugon) and hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas). Its coastal and littoral zone have estuaries and mangrove forests. “Of all the tropical oceans, the Indian Ocean by the Mozambique Channel is the ocean with the highest surface temperature increase, so corals are under stress,” said Daniel Ribeiro from the environmental justice organization Justiça Ambiental (JA!). “The ability to recover after damage is much lower because of these factors.” There are four major gas projects in the Rovuma Basin, including ENI’s Coral North floating liquefied natural gas project, which is the only one currently operational. TotalEnergies’ Mozambique LNG project was suspended in 2021, following an attack on facilities by insurgents. TotalEnergies and Exxon stopped work on their gas projects while regional troops joined the Mozambican army in battling the insurgents. In October 2025, the French company announced…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A Dutch company dredged through a highly sensitive coral area for TotalEnergies’ liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique, satellite imagery and vessel traffic data confirm. - The French oil and gas company declared force majeure after insurgents attacked the facility in 2021, but some work on the project continued. - Environmental groups warn that the environmental impact assessments for TotalEnergies’ project and three others in the same waters are inadequate. authors: | ||
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Study maps whale shark stranding hotspots in Indonesia, highlights conservation needs 18 Nov 2025 14:55:55 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/whale-shark-stranding-indonesia-marine-endangered-species/ author: Basten Gokkon dc:creator: Basten Gokkon content:encoded: A new study has mapped whale shark stranding hotspots in Indonesian waters over the past decade and linked their occurrence to oceanographic dynamics, providing a scientific basis for targeted, preventative conservation strategies. In the study published in October, marine researchers from Indonesia and New Zealand identified locations with significant reports of stranded whale sharks (Rhicodon typus) across Indonesia between 2011 and 2023. They said long-term stranding records can fill key data gaps for migratory species, such whale sharks, and their analysis also revealed population demographics, trends and oceanographically driven stranding hotspots. “Findings from this study show that stranding incidents exhibit clear spatial and temporal patterns, with specific hotspots and seasons when cases increase,” lead author Mochamad Iqbal Herwata, a species conservation senior manager at Konservasi Indonesia (KI), the local affiliate of Conservation International, told Mongabay in an email interview. A juvenile whale shark migrating out of Saleh Bay, off Indonesia’s Sumbawa Island, toward wider waters. Image courtesy of Abdi Hasan/Konservasi Indonesia. The researchers documented whale shark strandings across Indonesia’s diverse marine habitats, where monsoon-driven oceanographic processes create productive feeding grounds. They compiled 115 verified events from news-based sources using strict inclusion criteria. They analyzed spatial and temporal patterns with statistical tests and hotspot mapping, finding that strandings were often associated with high chlorophyll-A (indicating phytoplankton abundance), high waves, and low sea surface temperatures during the southeast monsoon and transitional seasons. The scientists found that the studied whale shark stranding events across Indonesia revealed clear regional concentrations, with West Java and…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - A new study has identified whale shark stranding hotspots in Indonesia and linked them to seasonal ocean conditions, offering scientists a clearer picture of when and where risks are highest. - The researchers found that most strandings involved juveniles and often occurred during upwelling seasons; they highlighted that human pressures such as fishing gear, ship traffic and pollution may further increase the danger. - The study calls for stronger rescue networks, better community training, and international cooperation to improve survival rates and protect these migratory animals across the region. authors: | ||
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Indonesia labeled ‘Fossil of the Day’ for echoing industry talking points at COP30 18 Nov 2025 12:54:31 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indonesia-labeled-fossil-of-the-day-for-echoing-industry-talking-points-at-cop30/ author: Hans Nicholas Jong dc:creator: Hans Nicholas Jong content:encoded: BELÉM, Brazil — For the Indonesian delegation at COP30, the summit was meant to be a showcase for its climate diplomacy and growing carbon market ambitions. Instead, it was publicly called out for the first time in the history of the U.N. climate talks, receiving the “Fossil of the Day” award on Nov. 15 for allegedly allowing fossil fuel lobbyists to shape its official negotiating stance. The award, handed out daily by the Climate Action Network (CAN) International, a coalition of more than 1,900 civil society groups, accused Indonesia of echoing talking points from industry groups during negotiations on Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement, the U.N.’s new carbon market mechanism. Observers said this raises questions about Indonesia’s credibility, its role among developing countries, and the integrity of the carbon credits it hopes to sell internationally. Indonesia’s delegates to COP30 include at least 46 individuals from fossil fuel companies, according to a database compiled by the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition. This makes Indonesia among the developing countries with the largest number of fossil industry delegates. These include officials from the state-owned oil and gas company, coal and mining conglomerates, fertilizer producers dependent on gas, and heavy-industry firms — a cross-section of industry that critics say resembles a coordinated national fossil fuel bloc rather than a handful of incidental observers. Greenpeace Indonesia country director Leonard Simanjuntak said this reflects long-standing political realities. “The presence of 46 fossil fuel industry lobbyists as part of Indonesia’s delegation lays bare the government’s alignment…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Indonesia has been publicly rebuked at COP30 with a “Fossil of the Day” award after civil society groups accused its delegation of echoing fossil fuel and carbon industry lobbyists during negotiations on Article 6.4, the U.N.’s new carbon market mechanism. - Observers say Indonesia’s position closely mirrors the talking points in an industry-backed letter calling for weaker safeguards under Article 6.4 — a move critics warn could undermine the integrity of global carbon markets and benefit groups with financial stakes in nature-based carbon projects. - Indonesia denies being influenced by lobbyists, even though at least 46 representatives from fossil fuel and heavy-industry companies are accredited under its delegation — raising broader concerns about corporate access to negotiations amid a COP already flooded with a record proportion of fossil fuel lobbyists. - Experts warn Indonesia’s push to loosen Article 6.4 rules risks weakening international oversight, aligning the mechanism with the far less transparent Article 6.2, and potentially undermining both Indonesia’s climate credibility and the robustness of the Paris Agreement’s carbon market safeguards. authors: | ||
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Scientists & nuns unite to save Mexico’s rare achoque salamanders 18 Nov 2025 12:14:40 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/scientists-nuns-unite-to-save-mexicos-rare-achoque-salamanders/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Mongabay.com content:encoded: For the last 20 years, Dominican nuns in a Mexican monastery have cared for the largest known captive population of the critically endangered achoque salamander. Now scientists from Chester Zoo in the U.K. are collaborating with the sisters and Mexican conservationists to test a microchipping method that they hope will help them monitor the species’ dwindling wild population, reports Mongabay’s Liz Kimbrough. Fewer than 150 adult achoque salamanders (Ambystoma dumerilii) are thought to remain in the wild, all of them in Lake Pátzcuaro in Mexico’s central Michoacán state. Adding urgency to the situation, the lake is shrinking in size and growing increasingly polluted with sewage, fertilizer runoff and sediment from deforestation, Kimbrough reports. In the 1980s, when Lake Pátzcuaro’s wild salamander population declined drastically, the Dominican sisters at the Monastery of Our Lady of Health began raising achoques in captivity at their monastery. They traditionally used achoques to produce a cough syrup, which became the convent’s main source of income. Over the years, the nuns worked out how to get the salamanders to breed successfully in captivity, and how to raise their babies. Today, the breeding facility includes two rooms filled with tanks housing hundreds of salamanders at a time. The Chester Zoo scientists wanted to use captive achoques to test a new tagging method — small, rice grain-sized microchips — before deploying them on wild individuals. If the microchipping was successful, the team planned to use the technique to tag wild achoques to ID and monitor them via a…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: For the last 20 years, Dominican nuns in a Mexican monastery have cared for the largest known captive population of the critically endangered achoque salamander. Now scientists from Chester Zoo in the U.K. are collaborating with the sisters and Mexican conservationists to test a microchipping method that they hope will help them monitor the species’ […] authors: | ||
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In Mexico, world’s smallest turtle faces big threats from trafficking, habitat loss 18 Nov 2025 11:00:37 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/in-mexico-worlds-smallest-turtle-faces-big-threats-from-trafficking-habitat-loss/ author: Alexandrapopescu dc:creator: Sandra Weiss content:encoded: It sounds like a scene out of the Ocean’s series of heist movies. Only this one didn’t happen in Las Vegas, but at a Mexican university campus surrounded by lush tropical vegetation. And it wasn’t about taking on a casino, but stealing valuable turtles. Armando Escobedo Galván, a biologist at Centro Universitario de la Costa (CUC) in Puerto Vallarta, on Mexico’s Pacific Coast, says he’s still startled about how the thieves tricked him last December. “Two people arrived at my office,” he recounts, “wearing uniforms of the environmental prosecutor’s office,” a federal agency known as PROFEPA. They said they were there for an inspection of his turtle program, asked for his permits, and cited corresponding laws. Everything during the two-hour procedure seemed completely normal. Then they asked to see the laboratory where the turtles were kept for scientific research: a climate-controlled container, secured with a padlock. That’s when the problems began. The officials criticized the way the turtles were being kept and complained about missing permits. Escobedo Galván says he started feeling stressed. They threatened to punish him, he says, so he was relieved when they offered instead to take 40 of the 100 turtles into their “protection” while he sorted out the necessary paperwork. “We’ll bring them back when everything is in order,” Escobedo Galván recalls them telling him. “That was a psychological masterpiece,” he says. “They put me under pressure and then offered a solution.” Measuring only 10 centimeters (4 inches) in length, the Vallarta mud turtle is…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The Vallarta mud turtle, the world’s smallest turtle, lives only in temporary lagoons in the Mexican city of Puerto Vallarta, which poses a huge challenge for its conservation. - By the time scientists had determined they were a distinct species, just 1,000 turtles remained; since then, their number has dropped to 300. - A key driver of this decline is the illegal pet trade, with an estimated 200 turtles smuggled to China this year alone, according to experts. - Even though the turtle is listed as critically endangered, Mexican authorities have been slow to implement measures to protect it or its habitat, which is being lost to tourism developments. authors: | ||
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Colombia bans all new oil and mining projects in its Amazon 18 Nov 2025 08:38:13 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/colombia-bans-all-new-oil-and-mining-projects-in-its-amazon/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: Colombia will no longer approve new oil or large-scale mining projects in its Amazon biome, which covers 42% of the nation’s territory, according to a Nov. 13 statement by its environment ministry. Acting Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres said the entire Colombian Amazon will be made a reserve for renewable natural resources. She made the announcement at a meeting of ministers with the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, during COP30, the U.N. climate summit taking place in Belém, Brazil. “This declaration is an ethical and scientific commitment. It seeks to prevent forest degradation, river contamination and biodiversity loss that threatens the continent’s climate balance,” Vélez said. She also called on other Amazonian nations to adopt similar protections, highlighting that Colombia controls just 7% of the Amazon biome. Across the Amazon, 871 oil and gas blocks cover an area roughly twice the size of France; 68% of the blocks are still in the study or bidding phases. “We do this not only as an act of environmental sovereignty, but as a fraternal call to the other countries that share the Amazon biome, because the Amazon does not know borders and its care requires us to move forward together,” Vélez added. Brazil, which controls nearly 60% of the Amazon, has moved in the opposite direction over the past year, despite successfully cracking down on deforestation. The nation auctioned off several oil blocks near Indigenous lands and approved drilling for an offshore site at the mouth of the Amazon River. Peru is courting foreign…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Colombia will no longer approve new oil or large-scale mining projects in its Amazon biome, which covers 42% of the nation’s territory, according to a Nov. 13 statement by its environment ministry. Acting Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres said the entire Colombian Amazon will be made a reserve for renewable natural resources. She made the […] authors: | ||
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Plans to dispose of mining waste in Norway’s Arctic Ocean worries Sámi fishers, herders 18 Nov 2025 02:29:24 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/plans-to-dispose-of-mining-waste-in-norways-arctic-ocean-worries-sami-fishers-herders/ author: Latoya Abulu dc:creator: Aimee Gabay content:encoded: The Norwegian government has granted permission for the construction and operation of the Nussir copper mine in Hammerfest, a municipality on the northwestern coast of the island of Kvaløya, in Norway. The company plans to pipe between 1 million and 2 million metric tons of mining waste, or tailings, annually to the bottom of Repparfjord, a nationally protected salmon fjord in the Norwegian Arctic that Indigenous Sámi fishers depend on for their livelihoods. The Nussir mining project is owned by Canadian company Blue Moon Metals. The Norwegian Environmental Agency issued Nussir ASA, the project’s previous owner, its environmental license after it confirmed the company’s plan to securely place the tailings at the bottom of the sea. However, this has faced strong opposition from some Sámi Indigenous people and environmental activists, who say they fear the mine and marine waste deposit will destroy vital marine habitats for species such as Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and disrupt traditional breeding and migration areas for reindeer (Rangifer tarandus). Blue Moon Metals plans to dispose of its Nussir copper mine tailings at the bottom of the Repparfjord, a national salmon fjord in Finnmark in Norway. Photo by: Lone Bjørkmann “The biggest social impact is the feeling that no place is safe, that local culture and the environment can only survive until someone finds a commercially viable project,” Frode Elias Lindal, a Green Party local representative for the Alta municipality council and Finnmark county council, who is part Sámi and part Norwegian, told Mongabay via email.…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Mining company Blue Moon Metals plans to dispose of its mining waste in Repparfjord, a nationally protected salmon fjord in the Norwegian Arctic that Indigenous Sámi fishers rely on. - When operational, the Nussir ASA copper mine will deposit between 1 million and 2 million metric tons of tailings at the bottom of the fjord annually, according to the company’s permit. - The Norwegian Environment Agency told Mongabay that the company plans to place its mining waste into the fjord in a controlled manner to limit the dispersal of harmful residues. - Some Sámi residents, whose livelihoods depend on fishing and reindeer herding, told Mongabay they fear the tailings and mine will destroy vital marine habitats for salmon and disrupt traditional reindeer breeding and migration areas. authors: | ||
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Top ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin’s COP30 reflections on Amazon conservation (analysis) 17 Nov 2025 21:45:26 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/top-ethnobotanist-mark-plotkins-cop30-reflections-on-amazon-conservation-analysis/ author: Erik Hoffner dc:creator: Mark J. Plotkin content:encoded: Having studied the healing plants and peoples of tropical South America for well over four decades, I am often asked, “What is the conservation status of the Amazon Rainforest? Is the glass half-full or half-empty?” My reply never changes. “By definition, any glass that is half-full is half-empty!” When I first traveled to the Amazon in the 1970s, the world was a different place. Most people thought of the rainforest, if they thought of it at all, as a green hell to be avoided at all costs. Soon thereafter, public perception of tropical rainforests shifted dramatically, driven by the emerging modern environmental movement. Tropical forest and river in Suriname. Image courtesy of Mark J. Plotkin. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962 and Earth Day in 1970 were milestones in generating global awareness and concern over deforestation, pesticides, pollution and species extinction, particularly in the industrialized world. However, Western scientists like Tom Lovejoy, Richard Schultes and E.O. Wilson — as well as Brazilian scientists like Marcio Ayres, Paulo Nogueiro-Neto and Paulo Vanzolini — presented a compelling case that the biological richness and fragility of tropical forests merited at least as much attention as ecosystems in the temperate regions. These scientists reframed the global image of Amazonia from “green hell” to “treasure trove of biodiversity.” The media also played a positive role. The vast scale of burning and clearing — turning a green wonderland into a red desert through major development projects like ill-planned dams or road building — shocked and horrified…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The global battle to mitigate climate change cannot be won in the Amazon, but it can certainly be lost there, writes top ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin in a new analysis for Mongabay. Though he’s well-known for investigating traditional uses of plants in the region, he’s also a keen observer of and advocate for Indigenous communities and conservation there. - Compared to the 1970s, he writes, the Amazon enjoys far greater formal protection, understanding and attention, while advances in technology and ethnobotany have revealed new insights into tropical biodiversity, and Indigenous communities — long the guardians and stewards of this ecosystem — are increasingly recognized as central partners in conservation, and their shamans employ hallucinogens like biological scalpels to diagnose, treat and sometimes cure ailments, a technology that is increasingly and ever more widely appreciated. - “The challenge now is to ensure that the forces of protection outpace the forces of destruction, which, of course, is one of the ultimate goals of the COP30 meeting in Belém,” he writes. - This article is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. authors: | ||
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A slowdown, not salvation: what new extinction data reveal about the state of life on Earth 17 Nov 2025 21:21:08 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-slowdown-not-salvation-what-new-extinction-data-reveal-about-the-state-of-life-on-earth/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: For decades, biologists have warned that humanity is precipitating a sixth mass extinction. By some estimates, species are vanishing at up to a thousand times the natural background rate. Yet a new study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests the picture is more complicated. Extinctions, it finds, may have peaked a century ago—and declined since. Kristen Saban and John Wiens of the University of Arizona examined 912 documented extinctions among plants and animals over the past 500 years. Their analysis, covering nearly two million assessed species, shows that losses rose steeply through the 1800s and early 1900s before slowing. Extinction rates for vertebrates, arthropods, and plants have generally decreased over the past century. The trend runs counter to the popular narrative of an accelerating biodiversity collapse. The number of extinctions are shown for each century since 1500. From Saban and Wiens (2025) Extinctions over time. The number of extinctions are shown for each decade since 1800 (b). For each time period, Saban and Wiens give the number of species that were inferred to have gone extinct in that time period, based primarily on the dates when each species was last seen. From Saban and Wiens (2025) That finding, however, offers little comfort. The apparent lull in recorded extinctions may reflect where and how humans look, not a reprieve for nature. Most known extinctions occurred on islands, where invasive rats, pigs, and goats devastated native fauna and flora. Today’s drivers—deforestation, pollution, and climate change—are concentrated on continents, where declines…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Extinction rates appear to have slowed since their peak in the early 1900s, suggesting not a reprieve for nature but a shift in how and where losses occur. Much of the damage was concentrated on islands, where invasive species drove many native plants and animals to extinction. - The study challenges the assumption that past extinction patterns predict future ones, highlighting major data gaps—especially for invertebrates—and warning that today’s threats stem mainly from habitat loss and climate change on continents. - Conservation efforts have shown that targeted actions, such as invasive species removal and habitat restoration, can be highly effective, though success remains uneven and far smaller than the scale of global biodiversity loss. - Even as outright extinctions slow, ecosystems continue to unravel through declining abundance, lost ecological knowledge, and homogenization of species—signs that life’s diversity is eroding in subtler but equally serious ways. authors: | ||
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Ethiopia set to be named host of 2027 UN climate talks 17 Nov 2025 20:07:06 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/ethiopia-set-to-be-named-host-of-2027-un-climate-talks/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Elodie Toto content:encoded: Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, is expected to be officially announced on Nov. 18 as the host city of the 2027 U.N. climate conference, or COP32. Backed by the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change, the expected decision would mark the international climate summit’s return to the African continent after COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in 2022. “As host of the next COP, Ethiopia now has a vital platform to amplify African voices and priorities, particularly around adaptation finance, renewable energy access, and climate justice,” Mohamed Adow, director of the think tank Power Shift Africa, said in an official statement from the group. “It could also spotlight Africa’s capacity for innovation and its determination to move from vulnerability to strength in the face of global climate disruption.” The annual COPs bring together the member states to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to negotiate global climate goals and commitments. Each year, the host country rotates among the U.N.’s five regional groups: Western Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Each regional group proposes a host country, the COP considers the proposals and accepts one of the offers, then the UNFCCC Secretariat must undertake a fact-finding mission to ensure the proposed host is suitable. Despite the stated rotation, Africa has hosted less than its share of global climate conferences. Since the first COP in 1995, the event has been held on the continent just five times, including twice in Marrakech, Morocco (COP7 and COP22).…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, is expected to be officially announced on Nov. 18 as the host city of the 2027 U.N. climate conference, or COP32. Backed by the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change, the expected decision would mark the international climate summit’s return to the African continent after COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, […] authors: | ||
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Pakistan declares its third marine protected area, but has a long way to go 17 Nov 2025 18:24:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/pakistan-declares-its-third-marine-protected-area-but-has-a-long-way-to-go/ author: Nandithachandraprakash dc:creator: Ayaz Khan content:encoded: KARACHI — On Sept. 2, the government of Balochistan province in Pakistan declared the country’s third marine protected area, around Miani Hor Lagoon on the country’s central coast. The biodiversity-rich lagoon hosts a lush mangrove forest, numerous bird species and threatened marine mammals. With the declaration of the Miani Hor Marine Protected Area (MPA), Pakistan takes another step toward achieving Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Diversity Framework, to protect 30% of its land and sea by 2030, also known as the 30×30 initiative. It’s a very small step, however: With the addition of the not-quite 43-square-kilometer (16.5-square-mile) Miani Hor MPA, Pakistan’s total protected marine area measures 542 km2 (209 mi2), or just 0.23% of the 240,000 km2 (92,660 mi2) of marine and coastal area under the country’s jurisdiction. Pakistan trails its neighbors, Bangladesh at 8% and even India at 0.3%, although none of these countries’ MPAs are considered well protected. And it appears on track to miss the 30×30 target, just like it missed the old Aichi Target 11, which aimed to protect 10% of land and sea by 2020. In line with the country’s track record, enacting management plans for its MPAs also lags. For instance, it took Pakistan eight years to come up with the management plan for its first MPA, declared in 2017 around Astola Island; the second, the Churna Island MPA declared in September 2024, still has no management plan in sight. Nevertheless, conservationists welcomed the new MPA. “The declaration of Miani Hor as Pakistan’s…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - In September, Pakistan declared its third marine protected area, around Miani Hor Lagoon on the country’s central coast. - The biodiversity-rich lagoon hosts a lush mangrove forest, numerous bird species and threatened marine mammals. - Conservationists welcomed the new marine protected area as a baby step toward meeting the country’s so-called 30×30 commitment to protect 30% of its land and sea by 2030. However, the new addition puts Pakistan’s total protected marine area at just 0.23% of its marine and coastal jurisdiction. - The scope of protections for the new protected area remains to be determined. Local people expressed concern that restrictions could upend the livelihoods of the local community, which depends on the lagoon and mangroves and already lacks basic necessities. authors: | ||
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France’s largest rewilding project takes root in the Dauphiné Alps 17 Nov 2025 15:52:52 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/frances-largest-rewilding-project-takes-root-in-the-dauphine-alps/ author: Jeremy Hance dc:creator: Marlowe Starling content:encoded: In the foothills of the western Alps in southeastern France, horned alpine ibex roam the limestone cliffs of a smaller mountain range known as the Dauphiné Alps, a region once home to thriving populations of wild horses, bison, roe deer, gray wolves, Eurasian lynx, and four species of vultures. In June of this year, the nonprofit Rewilding Europe announced the landscape as its 11th restoration site, making it France’s largest rewilding project. The term “rewilding” emerged in the 1990s, but it’s only in the past decade that the approach has grown in popularity worldwide. Generally, rewilding is a restoration method that prioritizes conserving or reintroducing historically present species, including those wiped out locally, to boost overall biodiversity. For Rewilding Europe, this approach allows nature to flourish in a way that will make ecosystems more resilient to climate change. It also means creating economic opportunities for the people who live in these ecosystems. “A fixed approach to nature doesn’t really work anymore,” Fabien Quétier, head of landscapes for Rewilding Europe, told Mongabay. He said rewilding is about restoring core ecosystem functions by encouraging the establishment of herbivores to maintain the forests, scavengers to mitigate disease from carcasses, and aquatic mammals like otters and beavers to maintain rivers. The project is currently focusing on ungulates such as wild horses and cattle, historical predators such as wolves and lynx, and vultures. One of the reasons Rewilding Europe selected the French Alps for rewilding is that the region already had a head start. In…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - The nonprofit Rewilding Europe announced its 11th project this summer in the Dauphiné Alps, a forested mountain range in southeastern France where wild horses, bison and lynx thrived more than 200 years ago. - Rewilding is a restoration concept that works toward wildlife comeback to a landscape with minimal other human intervention. - The project is focused on fostering an environment where wild horses, alpine ibex, roe deer, vultures, Eurasian lynx and wolves can build healthy populations. - The biggest challenges include working with private landowners and convincing locals that predators, such as wolves, can be beneficial. authors: | ||
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Are Belize’s fisheries policies delivering? 17 Nov 2025 11:21:04 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/belizes-blue-bond-a-reef-reality-check/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Belize has built an enviable brand as a small country taking on a big problem: how to keep the sea alive while sustaining the people who depend on it. The story sells well. A 2021 debt-for-nature “blue bond” reduced public debt and guaranteed conservation funding for two decades. Targets for 30% ocean protection are law. Donors and the press have applauded. Yet, on the water, the question lingers: are the reefs and fish showing it? The achievements are real. The blue bond converted Belize’s “Superbond” into a conservation-backed loan that cut debt by 12% of GDP and directed roughly $180 million toward marine protection. Monitoring pilots are underway, linking results-based finance to measurable ecological and social outcomes. Lighthouse Reef, one of the country’s crown jewels, gained new legal protection. These are serious gains. But they coexist with troubling signals. The regional “report card” for the Mesoamerican Reef, released in 2024, inched upward thanks to herbivorous fish rebounds, yet the overall grade remained “Poor.” Independent assessments show that conch and lobster, Belize’s export mainstays, are under stress. The Sea Around Us project estimates most stocks are fished beyond sustainable levels. Groupers and snappers have declined by about 60% in regional monitoring, echoing fishers’ accounts that large individuals have become scarce. A 2025 peer-reviewed study found Nassau grouper at Glover’s Reef nearly gone despite two decades of closures and bans, and warned of “impending extirpation.”…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Belize has built an enviable brand as a small country taking on a big problem: how to keep the sea alive while sustaining the people who depend on it. The story sells well. A 2021 debt-for-nature “blue bond” […] authors: | ||
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South Africa to lift fracking moratorium in Karoo Basin, despite concerns 17 Nov 2025 11:11:08 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/south-africa-to-lift-fracking-moratorium-in-karoo-basin-despite-concerns/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Victoria Schneider content:encoded: South Africa plans to lift a 13-year moratorium on shale gas exploration in the ecologically sensitive Karoo Basin, despite serious environmental and climate concerns raised by advocacy groups. In 2011, the government imposed a ban on hydraulic fracturing in the Karoo, a semidesert region spanning more than 400,000 square kilometers (154,000 square miles) across northern South Africa and home to about 1 million people. The ban was put in place to develop a regulatory framework for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a controversial extraction method that involves drilling deep into the earth and injecting a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals to fracture shale rock and release trapped natural gas. Research suggests that fracking operations negatively impact human health, consume large volumes of water, contaminate groundwater, and degrade soil and air quality. In July this year, Gwede Mantashe, the petroleum minister, announced the government is making “concerted efforts” to lift the moratorium in the Karoo Basin. He added that environmental baseline studies are underway. On Nov. 7, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) released its draft environmental regulations for onshore oil and gas extraction and fracking, which covers shale gas extraction. The draft is currently open for a 30-day public consultation period. “Once those regulations are gazetted, I lift the moratorium,” Mantashe told Reuters in October. The move could pave the way for several companies, including Shell, to resume previously submitted applications for exploration. “Lifting the moratorium prioritizes short-term economic gains over long-term environmental and socioeconomic well-being,”…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: South Africa plans to lift a 13-year moratorium on shale gas exploration in the ecologically sensitive Karoo Basin, despite serious environmental and climate concerns raised by advocacy groups. In 2011, the government imposed a ban on hydraulic fracturing in the Karoo, a semidesert region spanning more than 400,000 square kilometers (154,000 square miles) across northern […] authors: | ||
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As fires flare in Brazil’s Cerrado, heat-resistant seeds offer restoration lifeline 17 Nov 2025 10:21:48 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/as-fires-flare-in-brazils-cerrado-heat-resistant-seeds-offer-restoration-lifeline/ author: Xavier Bartaburu dc:creator: Simone Machado content:encoded: Fire-resistant seeds offer promise, at a low cost, for restoring areas devastated by burning in Brazil’s Cerrado savanna, a project by biologist Giovana Cavenaghi Guimarães shows. Guimarães, a doctoral candidate at São Paulo State University (UNESP), focused on five species of Cerrado-native seeds, including jatobá (Hymenaea courbaril), amendoim-bravo (Pterogyne nitens), mulungu (Erythrina mulungu) and canafístula (Peltophorum dubium). All are naturally adapted to extreme heat. According to Guimarães, these plants can survive in adverse conditions such as the high temperatures caused by wildfires, which makes their seeds ideal for environmental recovery after such events. The species also have a greater germination capacity: on average, 99% of seeds develop into trees. “The idea of the study is to understand these species’ physical dormancy, which allows them to survive in conditions of high temperature and fire,” Guimarães told Mongabay. “When these seeds are in the soil, even if the fire destroys those that have already germinated, they resist the high temperatures and germinate, even after the fire.” Physical dormancy is a natural process in some species, which prevents seed germination until conditions are right. It’s considered a survival mechanism. In the case of the plants studied by Guimarães, exposure to high temperatures can break this physical dormancy by causing cracks in the husk, or integument, thus allowing water to enter and germination to occur. Fire in a Cerrado area in Brazil’s Federal District. Image courtesy of Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil. A solution to a growing problem According to Guimarães, planting seeds of these native…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Research from Brazil shows that tree species adapted to extreme heat may be key to reforesting areas affected by fires. - The ongoing research focuses on plants native to the Cerrado savanna, a biome where fire is a natural mechanism for vegetation regeneration and seeds can germinate after the land is burned. - The findings have practical implications for the Cerrado, which is the most burning-prone biome in Brazil, with the risk of fire exacerbated by agriculture. - Proponents say restoration strategies that include heat-resistant species can minimize the impacts and prepare the restoration site for other species to take root. authors: | ||
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Gayatri Reksodihardjo-Lilley, who helped Indonesian communities restore their reefs, has died 16 Nov 2025 12:51:40 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/gayatri-reksodihardjo-lilley-who-helped-indonesian-communities-restore-their-reefs-has-died/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In the shallows off northern Bali, where the reefs flicker with life and the sea carries the rhythm of work and prayer, a quiet revolution took root. Women who once had few choices began tending tanks of clownfish and Banggai cardinalfish, learning the art of aquaculture. Fishers in nearby villages abandoned cyanide and explosives, watching their catches recover. Coral fragments, anchored to man-made structures, began to grow again. The transformation seemed to come from the sea itself, but it began with a woman who believed that to save reefs one must first listen to the people who depend on them. She had started, as many conservationists do, beneath the waves. Trained in marine biology, she dived across the archipelago, recording the decline of once-vivid ecosystems. But over time, she realized that the reefs would not heal through data alone. “Managing those resources means managing people,” she once said. So she turned from counting fish to understanding fishers, from studying ecosystems to shaping livelihoods. Gayatri Reksodihardjo-Lilley was a reformer who worked without fanfare. In 2008 she co-founded the LINI Foundation, a small nonprofit that would become a lifeline for Indonesia’s coastal communities. Her projects reached from Bali to Sulawesi and the Banda Islands, linking conservation with dignity. She trained teachers to teach the sea, coaxed policymakers toward collaborative management, and built a center where women could “learn and earn.” When local fishers asked for…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In the shallows off northern Bali, where the reefs flicker with life and the sea carries the rhythm of work and prayer, a quiet revolution took root. Women who once had few choices began tending tanks of clownfish […] authors: | ||
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Saalumarada Thimmakka, mother of trees, has died, aged 114 15 Nov 2025 06:27:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/saalumarada-thimmakka-mother-of-trees-has-died-aged-114/ author: Rhett Butler dc:creator: Rhett Ayers Butler content:encoded: Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Along a dusty road between Hulikal and Kudur in southern India, banyan trees rise like sentinels. Their thick roots grasp the earth, their canopies stretch wide, casting deep shade over the red soil. Travelers who pass beneath them find little reason to wonder how they came to be, or who first pressed a sapling into the ground more than seventy years ago. Yet that green corridor—nearly four hundred trees strong—was the life’s work of a woman who owned almost nothing and asked for even less. She was born around 1911, in a village so small it barely warranted a name on a map. There was no school; she worked as a laborer in a quarry. She married young, to a man who stammered and shared her steady resilience. They were childless, a fact that in rural Karnataka brought more than sorrow—it brought shame. One day, she later recalled, the couple decided to plant trees instead, “and tend to them like we would our children.” So they did. In the dry season, they carried pails of water for miles to nurture their banyans. They fenced them from grazing cattle, shaded them from heat. In time, their “children” took root. Her name was Saalumarada Thimmakka—the epithet “Saalumarada,” meaning “row of trees,” bestowed by neighbors once her work transformed the landscape. Long after her husband died, she continued to walk the roadside she had greened, touching…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Along a dusty road between Hulikal and Kudur in southern India, banyan trees rise like sentinels. Their thick roots grasp the earth, their canopies stretch wide, casting deep shade over the red soil. Travelers who pass beneath them […] authors: | ||
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UK court finds mining giant liable for decade-old dam disaster in Brazil 15 Nov 2025 03:27:34 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/uk-court-finds-mining-giant-liable-for-decade-old-dam-disaster-in-brazil/ author: Bobbybascomb dc:creator: Shanna Hanbury content:encoded: A U.K. judge has found that the Australian multinational mining company BHP is liable for a 2015 dam collapse in southeastern Brazil. The incident killed 19 people and unleashed at least 40 million cubic meters (1.4 billion cubic feet) of toxic mine tailings onto downstream towns and waterways for 675 kilometers (419 miles). In a Nov. 14 ruling, U.K. High Court judge Finola O’Farrell found that negligence, carelessness or lack of skill led to the collapse of the Fundão tailings dam. Located in the city of Mariana in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, the dam failure is considered one of the largest environmental disasters in Brazilian history. “The risk of collapse of the dam was foreseeable,” O’Farrell wrote in her 222-page ruling. “It is inconceivable that a decision would have been taken to continue raising the height of the dam in those circumstances and the collapse could have been averted.” More than 610,000 people, along with 32 Brazilian municipalities and around 1,400 businesses were represented in the court case against BHP, making it the largest environmental class action lawsuit in U.K. history. BHP owns 50% of Samarco, the company that operated the tailings dam; the other half is owned by state-owned Brazilian mining company Vale. “The judge’s decision shows what we have been saying for the last 10 years: It was not an accident, and BHP must take responsibility for its actions,” said Gelvana Rodrigues, a local resident whose 7-year-old son, Thiago, was killed in the mudslide. Her statement was shared…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: A U.K. judge has found that the Australian multinational mining company BHP is liable for a 2015 dam collapse in southeastern Brazil. The incident killed 19 people and unleashed at least 40 million cubic meters (1.4 billion cubic feet) of toxic mine tailings onto downstream towns and waterways for 675 kilometers (419 miles). In […] authors: | ||
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Mongabay Fellows share their ‘Letters to the Future’ 14 Nov 2025 22:43:01 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/mongabay-fellows-share-their-letters-to-the-future/ author: Shreya Dasgupta dc:creator: Karen Coates content:encoded: This is a short commentary by Mongabay fellowship editor Karen Coates. Uncertainty and hope — these sentiments prevail in a series of commentaries published by the latest cohort of Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellows as they conclude their program and forge new paths into environmental journalism. Uncertainty centers on the future of our planet, the journalists who cover it and the people who defend it. Hope resides in youth and the power of truth in storytelling. It’s the hope part that I especially want to highlight. For the past six months, enterprising early-career journalists from Brazil, Colombia, India, Malaysia, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo convened in a virtual program. Despite never meeting in person, this group gelled. They formed new bonds, united in their passion for Planet Earth. They shared thoughts and fears that resonated across continents. And they emerged with a deep sense of responsibility to work for a better future. That is my hope; the inspiration that feeds my soul. Between May and October, each fellow worked through intensive trainings, field and desk reporting and the rigors of Mongabay’s editing processes. Each produced a range of reports on conservation, climate and biodiversity in their regions. You can read them all on our website. Click on their bylines for their archives. To capture their parting thoughts, the fellows have published commentaries, which are collected in a series titled Our Letters to the Future: Fernanda Biasoli (Brazil) writes about finding hope in the young generations that will…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: Uncertainty and hope — these sentiments prevail in a series of commentaries published by the latest cohort of Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellows as they conclude their program and forge new paths into environmental journalism. Uncertainty centers on the future of our planet, the journalists who cover it and the people who defend it. […] authors: | ||
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AI data center revolution sucks up world’s energy, water, materials 14 Nov 2025 18:49:47 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/ai-data-center-revolution-sucks-up-worlds-energy-water-materials/ author: Glenn Scherer dc:creator: Gerry McGovernSue Branford content:encoded: In 2024, the state of Querétaro in north-central Mexico suffered its worst drought in a century, impacting crops and communities. Seventeen of the state’s 18 municipalities were affected, putting drinking water access at risk for thousands of families, according to CONAGUA, Mexico’s National Water Commission. With freshwater already diminished due to worsening climate change, Querétaro residents now fear a more calamitous future, with the announcement that 32 new data centers — the physical facilities needed to satisfy humanity’s insatiable desire for Internet-sourced data — planned for the state. Most recently, on Sept. 25, U.S. tech firm CloudHQ announced plans to spend $4.8 billion building Mexico’s biggest ever “hyperscale” data center campus in Querétaro, most likely for cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) computing. It appears likely the state will emerge as Mexico’s data center capital, with a strong emphasis on AI capabilities. The Querétaro growth spurt has angered some local activists, who argue authorities have their priorities wrong, elevating the needs of transnational corporate tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon, above those of local communities. “Water is what’s needed for the people, not for these industries,” campaigner Teresa Roldán says. Environmentalist Teresa Roldán Soria (left), is aiding local residents in an area known as Los Sabinos in the municipality of Pedro Escobedo in Querétaro state, Mexico. Here she joins with local people to defend a spring and age-old ahuehuete (Taxodium mucronatum) trees against development. The ahuehute, also known as the Montezuma cypress, is Mexico’s national tree. Image courtesy of Teresa Roldán…This article was originally published on Mongabay description: - Data centers are springing up across tropical Latin America, Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Africa. But these facilities are often unlike those of the recent past. Today’s advanced data centers are built to provide artificial intelligence (AI) computing capacity by Big Tech companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon. - As large AI data centers proliferate, they are competing for water, energy and materials with already stressed tropical communities. National governments frequently welcome Big Tech and AI, offering tax breaks and other incentives to build AI complexes, while often not taking community needs into consideration. - Aware that fossil fuels and renewables by themselves likely can’t handle the astronomical energy demands posed by AI mega-data centers, Internet companies are reactivating the once moribund nuclear industry, despite intractable problems with radioactive waste disposal. - Voices in the Global South say that AI computing (whose producers remain principally in the Global North) is evolving as a new form of extractive colonialism. Some Indigenous people say it is time to question limitless technological innovation with its heavy environmental and social costs. authors: | ||
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