- news.mongabay.com Mining dredges return to Amazon River’s main tributary, months after crackdown
The return of the floating structures shows the resilience of illegal gold mining in the Amazon, which destroys the riverbeds and contaminates the water with mercury.
- news.mongabay.com ‘Helicopter tourism’ in the Himalayas affecting Sherpas, wildlife
A surge in “helicopter tourism” at Sagarmatha, the Nepali name for Mount Everest, is adversely affecting the local community and wildlife, reports Mongabay contributor Shashwat Pant. Helicopters have previously only been used for medical emergencies or high-profile visitors at Sagarmatha. But with c...
- news.mongabay.com Study finds population crash for critically endangered European eel in Spain’s Ebro Delta
The critically endangered European eel population is facing collapse in Spain’s Ebro Delta, where populations have plummeted by more than 80% in recent years, according to a new study. The study’s authors warn this decline may be as severe, or worse, than the crash of the late 1970s and early 1980s ...
- news.mongabay.com Nearly 20,000 animals seized in global wildlife trafficking crackdown
Big cats, birds, primates and pangolins were among the nearly 20,000 threatened or protected animals rescued in a recent global operation against wildlife and forestry traffickers. Led by Interpol and the World Customs Organization (WCO), the campaign, called Operation Thunder 2024, involved police,...
- news.mongabay.com Rhino poachers imprisoned in back-to-back South Africa sentencing
A South African court in January sentenced four poachers to several years in prison for two separate crimes committed in Kruger National Park (KNP). The Skukuza Regional Court, which in the past has boasted a near-100% conviction rate and under whose jurisdiction KNP falls, held two South African ci...
- news.mongabay.com Ecuador’s next debt-for-nature deal falls short of Indigenous involvement
In December 2024, Ecuador completed a debt-for-nature swap to support Amazon conservation through the creation of the Amazon Biocorridor. While this provides economic relief, Amazonian leaders contend they were not included as key participants in the corridor’s design or funding decisions. What is a...
- news.mongabay.com Surge in legal land clearing pushes up Indonesia deforestation rate in 2024
JAKARTA — Indonesia’s deforestation is once again rising after several years of decline, with 2024 marking the highest rate since 2021. The data also show that the vast majority of forest loss is legal, a stark difference from previous periods dominated by illegal deforestation. The country lost 261...
- news.mongabay.com Shea’s silent guardians restore Uganda’s traditional parklands
PADER DISTRICT, Uganda — In northern Uganda’s Pader district, farmers are working to preserve agricultural landscapes that have fed their communities for generations. These shea parklands, where carefully maintained trees grow among food crops, represent centuries of agricultural knowledge at risk o...
- news.mongabay.com Tourists are back at this Instaworthy Philippine town, but can its sewage system keep up?
The Philippines’ western island province of Palawan tops tourists’ bucket lists for its picturesque main destination, El Nido. This small fishing town of 50,000 residents is located within the larger El Nido-Taytay Managed Resource Protected Area. Known for crystal-clear azure waters, dramatic limes...
- news.mongabay.com A dramatic rise in microplastics found in human brains, study finds
A new study has found a dramatic increase in levels of microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) in human brains in recent years. MNPs have previously been detected in human lungs, intestine, bone marrow and placenta. In the new study, researchers took one tissue sample from the brain, kidney and liver ...
- news.mongabay.com The world’s kelp needs help — less than 2% is highly protected
Using only fins, divers wild-harvest abalone off eastern Australia’s coast. The marine snail, known for its beautiful iridescent shell but sought for its meat, is a fishery worth more than 150 million Australian dollars ($93 million) annually. But the divers’ craft is changing as the coast’s kelp fo...
- news.mongabay.com Report reveals staggering levels of wildlife trafficking in Hispanic America
From the glacial fjords of Chilean Patagonia to the beaches and mountains of Baja California, Hispanic America, representing Spanish-speaking countries in South and Central America and the Caribbean, is a biodiversity treasure trove. These include colorful macaws, showy iguanas, gaudy poison frogs a...
- news.mongabay.com The Pan Amazon as a hotspot of cultural diversity
The Amazon is renowned for its cultural diversity, particularly the ethnic diversity of its Indigenous nations, but also the cultural traditions of numerous other distinctive groups that have migrated into the Amazon over five centuries. The region’s demographic history reflects that of its constitu...
- news.mongabay.com Study says land restoration worldwide can be funded with tiny fraction of global GDP
Restoring degraded land around the world would cost a fraction of a percent of global GDP to fund, a new study shows, but the inequitable distribution of restoration needs means poorer countries bear a disproportionately higher share of that cost. With an estimated 40% of land degraded globally, 115...
- news.mongabay.com In São Paulo, free-flight lessons help teach macaws to survive in the wild
“I remember my grandfather telling me about the macaws in this region. So, it’s impossible not to smile seeing them back. We know where they sleep and feed, so every time we want to find them, we know where they are,” says biologist Humberto Mendes, a professor at the Federal University of Alfenas i...
- news.mongabay.com Mongabay series on illegal timber and cattle wins honorable mention in Brazil journalism prize
Blood Timber, a Mongabay series on illegal logging and cattle ranching in the eastern Brazilian Amazon, has received an honorable mention at the recent Banrisul ARI Journalism Award, a prize recognizing excellence in journalism in Brazil. The three-part series by journalist Karla Mendes revealed a c...
- news.mongabay.com Indigenous protests in Brazil topple law seen as threat to rural schools
After 23 days of protests, Indigenous groups and teachers in the Brazilian state of Pará have successfully pressured Governor Helder Barbalho to revoke a controversial education law that favored online learning in remote communities and slashed benefits for teachers. The protests erupted in the stat...
- news.mongabay.com Surge in rat numbers linked to climate warming, urbanization: Study
What’s new: Cities experiencing warmer temperatures, fewer green spaces and denser human populations are seeing a rise in rat numbers, a recent study shows. What the study says: Jonathan Richardson, a biology professor at the University of Richmond, U.S., and his colleagues wanted to check if anecdo...
- news.mongabay.com Striking image of badger and graffiti twin wins top photography prize
A badger glancing at a gun-wielding graffiti version of itself has won the 2025 Wildlife Photographer of the Year, developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London. British photographer Ian Wood took the image, titled “No Access,” at the seaside town of St. Leonards-on-Sea in England aft...
- news.mongabay.com Researchers make the case for shift from economic growth to human well-being within planetary limits
For more than a century, nations have measured societal gains in terms of economic growth. But a new review published in the journal Lancet Planetary Health in January 2025 questions that convention. It concludes that humanity would benefit more if it aims for ecological sustainability and stays wit...
- news.mongabay.com Birds guide honey-hunters to most of their harvest in Mozambican reserve
Honey-hunters in northern Mozambique rely on honeyguide birds to locate three-quarters of their harvest each year, a new study says, underscoring the economic value these wild birds play in the lives of one of the country’s remotest communities. Honey-hunters in all 47 villages in the 4.2-million-he...
- news.mongabay.com Kenya revives poisoning campaign to curb invasive Indian house crows
NAIROBI ― Introduced to East Africa in 1891, in Zanzibar, to deal with domestic food waste, Indian house crows are now wreaking havoc in Kenya: killing native small birds, likely spreading disease, damaging food crops, and generally being a nuisance at tourist spots, open-space parties and businesse...
- news.mongabay.com In Nepal’s Chitwan, elephant’s shooting, death raises eyebrows
KATHMANDU — On the morning of Jan. 5, a soldier deployed at the Chitwan National Park shot a wild elephant (Elephas maximus) after it allegedly attacked an elephant patrol attempting to guide it back into the jungle. According to the national park, the makuna (a name given to bulls without tusks) ch...
- news.mongabay.com Indonesia targets 2.3m hectares of protected forests for food & biofuel crop production
JAKARTA — The Indonesian government is targeting protected forest areas as part of its plan to convert 20 million hectares (50 million acres) of forest into “food and energy estates,” a move that could result in the largest deforestation project in the country’s history. The inclusion of protected f...
- news.mongabay.com Oaxaca Indigenous leader’s killing leaves land defenders’ safety in doubt
Ayuuk leader Arnoldo Nicolás Romero, a municipal commissioner of the Buena Vista ejido in San Juan Guichicovi, a town and municipality in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, was found dead Jan. 21. His body was discovered with several bullet wounds on a private ranch near his community. No arrests have bee...
- news.mongabay.com How illicit mining fuels violence in eastern DRC: Interview with Jean-Pierre Okenda
On Jan. 28, the Rwanda-backed rebel group M23 captured Goma, capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s mineral-rich North Kivu province. The fall of Goma marks a shocking chapter in a long-running conflict in the eastern DRC that has claimed millions of lives since it began in 1996. Deeply ...
- news.mongabay.com January 2025 was warmest on record as climate change ‘overwhelms’ La Niña’s cooling
January 2025 was the warmest January on record, surpassing the previous record set by January 2024, according to satellite data from the EU’s Copernicus program. The findings were unexpected as ongoing La Niña conditions in the Pacific typically cool down global temperatures. The global average surf...
- news.mongabay.com Vietnam and China partner on wildlife-friendly traditional medicine practices
Vietnam and China, the two largest markets for traditional medicine (TM) that uses wild plants and animals, announced a new partnership in January to adopt practices that protect wildlife while preserving the countries’ cultural heritage. The first-of-its-kind agreement involved leading TM associati...
- news.mongabay.com EU legislators urge IMF to protect Madagascar forests against road projects
Thirty-five members of the European Parliament are calling on the International Monetary Fund to renegotiate its funding to Madagascar that could support two highway projects expected to cut across the nation’s vital forests. The IMF in June 2024 announced $321 million to Madagascar through its Resi...
- news.mongabay.com Vietnam faces scrutiny for not sharing enough data on rhino horn trade
Vietnam, a major hub for rhino horn trafficking, is in the spotlight at an international meeting this week for not adequately combating the illegal trade of the iconic animal. The annual meeting of the Standing Committee of CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, is being held in Geneva from Fe...
- news.mongabay.com A cattle ranch is the unlikely scene for saving a fox found only in Brazil
CORUMBAÍBA, Brazil — They appeared at dusk. The day was ending in a pink-and-yellow sky when a cub moved in the grass. Its mother appeared next, red as the earth, small, slender. Krahô-Kanela is an experienced mom, having had at least four litters in her estimated six years of life. Having had numer...
- news.mongabay.com Disease surges in Indonesia community on frontline of world energy transition
LELILEF SAWAI, Indonesia — Hernemus Takuling’s life in this coastal village has changed ever since construction began on the Weda Bay Industrial Park, which borders Lelilef Sawai, home to around 5,000 people, on Indonesia’s Halmahera Island. “Everything’s filthy,” Hernemus told Mongabay Indonesia. “...
- news.mongabay.com Amazonian manatees are gardeners of the forests, research shows (cartoon)
Confirming a previously hypothesised role of the Amazonian manatee as a gardener of the forests, biologist Michelle Guterres’ study adds another cap to the already impressive portfolio of this gentle giant. Amazonian manatees are listed ‘Vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red list because of hunting, climate c...
- news.mongabay.com Handcrafted woodwork helps save an Amazonian reserve, one tree at a time
A community in the Brazilian Amazon is transforming fallen trunks and dead trees into everyday items and art pieces.
- news.mongabay.com Indonesia mulls Paris Agreement exit, citing fairness and energy transition costs
JAKARTA — Indonesia, one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, has signaled it might follow in the footsteps of the U.S. and withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. “If the United State [the second-biggest emitter after China] does not want to comply with the international agreement, wh...
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Why is this endangered dolphin being killed to make “love perfumes”?
news.mongabay.com Why is this endangered dolphin being killed to make “love perfumes”? | Wild TargetsIQUITOS, Peru – The Plight of the Pink River Dolphin is a short documentary investigating the illegal exploitation of endangered pink river dolphins in the Amazon, driven by a myth about their magical properties. The film reveals how pusangas—perfumes made from dolphin oil and body parts—are sold in...
- news.mongabay.com Expected ban on Mexican GM corn fetches praise — and worry over imports
This month, Mexico’s two legislative houses are expected to approve an amendment that will prohibit the cultivation of transgenic corn in the country’s Constitution, a historic decision that farmers’ organizations and leaders of the national agricultural industry are applauding — though not fully ce...
- news.mongabay.com What’s at stake for the environment in Ecuador’s upcoming election?
The last time Ecuador held elections, in 2023, the country’s national assembly had been dissolved and then-President Guillermo Lasso had faced potential impeachment for a corruption scandal involving embezzlement of public oil transport funds. It led to a political crisis that saw snap presidential ...
- news.mongabay.com As Africa eyes protected areas expansion of 1 million square miles, concerns over ‘brutal’ enforcement persist
The global effort to protect 30% of Earth’s land and water by 2030, known as the 30×30 goals, means nations across the world are expanding their protected areas. In Africa, that would mean an additional 2.59 million square kilometers, or 1 million square miles roughly — about the size of the Democra...
- news.mongabay.com Cyclone Elvis kills 5 in Madagascar as another storm approaches
Madagascar is bracing for Tropical Cyclone Faida to make landfall on its northern coast on Feb. 4, even as it deals with the aftermath of another recently dissipated storm, Elvis, that reportedly killed at least five people. Those killed during Elvis’s passage were involved in “lightning events” in ...