A feed from Mongabay, which seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of nature and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development.
12 September 2025. Forests on Indigenous lands help protect health in the Amazon – Healthy forests are more than climate shields; in the Amazon, they also serve as public-health infrastructure. A Communications Earth & Environment study spanning two decades across the biome links the extent and legal status of Indigenous Territories to 27 respiratory, cardiovascular, and zoonotic or vector-borne diseases. The findings are complex, but one pattern is clear: […]
12 September 2025. Floodwaters begin receding in a major Pakistani city but nearby towns face evacuations – MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) — Officials say floodwaters that threatened a major town in eastern Punjab province have started receding, sparing its 700,000 residents. However, rising waters on Friday swamped villages near two nearby cities, forcing panicked evacuations. The Disaster Management Authority said waters around Jalalpur Pirwala, which had touched the official danger mark, are now […]
12 September 2025. Countries shorten tuna fishing closure at Pacific summit with few conservation ‘wins’ – 2024 was a record year for tropical tuna catch in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, thanks to a big increase in skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) catch, and stocks are considered healthy. So when the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), a multilateral body that manages tuna and other fish stocks in this region, held its annual meeting Sept. […]
12 September 2025. Indonesia reopens Raja Ampat nickel mine despite reef damage concerns – JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has allowed a controversial nickel mine to resume operating in the marine haven of Raja Ampat, despite a company-commissioned study finding the project has harmed the environment and community health in one of the world’s most biodiverse marine ecosystems. State-owned miner PT Gag Nikel resumed working on Sept. 3 on […]
12 September 2025. Conservationists split over greener ranching versus ditching beef – Beef production is a major driver of climate change. It fuels deforestation in crucial biomes, a significant source of carbon emissions, and cows themselves produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Regenerative ranching practices aim to reduce the environmental and climate impacts of rearing cattle, but some conservation groups say a pivot away from beef is […]
12 September 2025. On World Dolphin Day, spotlight falls on threats to dolphins worldwide – September 12 is World Dolphin Day. Marine conservation and advocacy nonprofit Sea Shephard created the day in 2022 to remember that dolphins, among the most intelligent animals on Earth, are under threat and need protection. That date, Sept. 12, was chosen to memorialize the massacre of 1,428 Atlantic white-sided dolphins (Leucopleurus acutus) on the Faroe […]
12 September 2025. Indonesia flooding traced to corporate canals that drain peatlands: Report – JAKARTA — Flooding disasters in Indonesia are increasingly traced not to natural causes, but to corporate destruction of peatlands, NGO Pantau Gambut warns in its newest report. The report reveals how the construction of industrial-scale canals, not just haze, poses a growing threat. Pantau Gambut says its new report builds on earlier findings that peat […]
11 September 2025. Ebony’s uncertain future without elephants – In 2017, when Vincent Deblauwe joined the Congo Basin Institute in Cameroon to study African ebony, he soon realized the fate of the tree lay with another species. Around campfires and during treks, the Indigenous Baka people told him that the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) was key to the survival of African ebony (Diospyros crassiflora). […]
11 September 2025. Photos: Indigenous elders push for comeback of the revered Philippine crocodile – DUNOY, Philippines — In the dense, tropical rainforests of the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park, an ancient predator drifts silently beneath the surface of still rivers. For Indigenous Agta elders, this reptile is not a menace, but a guardian. “We have always coexisted peacefully with crocodiles, and today I am passing on to my grandchildren […]
11 September 2025. Park guardians or destroyers? Study dissects 2 narratives of DRC’s Indigenous Batwa – Long celebrated by some NGOs and Indigenous rights activists as the guardians of the forest, the Batwa of South Kivu had lived inside what is now Kahuzi-Biega National Park (KBNP) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) until the 20th century, when they were expelled by the Congolese government, at that time MPR (Popular Movement […]
11 September 2025. More than half the world’s forests fragmented in 20 years — but protection works: Study – “If you can imagine walking into a huge, 1,000-kilometer square [386-square-mile] tropical forest … it’s moist and damp [with] rich soil and an overstory. You imagine walking into a 10-meter [33-foot] patch of forest and it’s just a totally different thing. It’s drier, it’s more open, it’s more harsh, and there’ll be far fewer species,” […]
11 September 2025. Largest turtle nest in the world revealed in drone study – Scientists studying the world’s largest river turtles, a South American species that grows to a length of nearly a meter, or 3 feet, have found the largest nesting aggregation ever recorded. Using drones to conduct a population survey in the western Brazilian Amazon, researchers recorded a nesting area of the endangered giant South American river […]
11 September 2025. Experimental ocean climate fixes move ahead without regulation – Experimental climate interventions in the world’s oceans are moving ahead in a regulatory vacuum, raising concerns among scientists about potential risks, Mongabay staff writer Edward Carver reported. The projects, known as marine-climate interventions, aim to tackle global warming or help people and ocean life adapt to climate change. But a group of 24 researchers warned […]
11 September 2025. An indestructible invasive anemone threatens Chilean Patagonia’s seas – Diver and artisanal fisherman Daniel Caniullán recalls with frustration the day he went to collect shellfish from a natural bank in northern Chile, only to find hundreds of the plumose anemones covering the seabed. “I found an anemone plague where there used to be locos [edible sea snails]. It is upsetting, because these are places […]
11 September 2025. The need for success stories in conservation (commentary) – The gorilla should have vanished. In the late 1980s, the mountain gorilla clung to survival in the misted borderlands of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Poaching, snares, and civil conflict made extinction feel like a timetable. What changed was not a miracle but a grind: rangers risking their lives to keep snares […]
11 September 2025. An elusive deer species clings to survival in Sri Lanka’s south – GALLE, Sri Lanka — The hog deer is Sri Lanka’s rarest and most elusive deer, and was thought to be extinct a few decades ago. Classified as critically endangered within the nation, it now survives only in fragmented patches along the island’s southwestern coastal belt, making it a species of urgent conservation concern. Unlike the […]
11 September 2025. Researchers describe three new-to-science snailfish species off California coast – In 2019, researchers surveying the seafloor off the coast of California came upon three unusual species of small fishes with large heads: one with bumpy pink skin, and the other two both black in color. The team collected the fish using underwater research vehicles and later analyzed their DNA and bodies. Their analysis showed that […]
11 September 2025. Indonesia’s giant Java seawall plan sparks criticism & calls for alternatives – Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has set up a new authority to build a massive seawall along the north coast of Java, a project aimed at shielding millions of residents from flooding and sinking land, but observers reject it as a true solution while highlighting risks, elite bias and lack of consultation. The president on Aug. […]
11 September 2025. Scientists are breeding rare and endangered animals in China’s longest river – WUHAN, China (AP) — A dozen sleek grey Yangtze finless porpoises glide inside a vast pool at the Institute of Hydrobiology in Wuhan as scientists find ways to protect and breed the rare mammals in China’s longest river. The Yangtze River is one of the busiest inland waterways in the world with 16 major ports. […]
10 September 2025. Vian Ruma, Indonesian activist, found dead. Aged 30. – He taught mathematics in a small state school on Flores and organized the parish youth group on weekends. Numbers ordered his days; community gave them purpose. In recent years, he also helped mobilize opposition to plans to tap the island’s restless geology for power. On Sept. 5, 2025, Vian Ruma was found dead, hanging from […]
10 September 2025. Controlling wildlife crime saves more than species (commentary) – Despite concerted efforts to control illegal wildlife trafficking globally, more than 13 million items of wildlife parts were seized and reported in 162 countries in just the last seven years, according to the World Wildlife Crime Report 2024 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). These wildlife parts came from more than […]
10 September 2025. In southeast Nigeria, pangolins hunted for meat, not scales, study finds – When headline after headline highlights tons of pangolin scale seizures in Nigeria, it’s easy to presume that most pangolin poaching in the country is driven by the international demand for the scales. A recently published research, however, finds that in Nigeria’s Cross River state, pangolins are hunted for their meat — much-prized locally — rather […]
10 September 2025. In Argentina, lithium exploration proceeds amid community disputes – For more than 15 years, members of Atacama and Kolla Indigenous communities near Argentina’s abundant lithium reserves say, their rights to a healthy environment and self-determination have been ignored. Located in the Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc saltwater basin in northwestern Argentina, arguments over proper consultation started cropping up as mining companies expressed an […]
10 September 2025. Brazil’s market-based forest fund gets new endorsers ahead of COP30 debut – Brazil is betting big on future rewards to save tropical forest, but critics fear nature will receive a “price tag.”
10 September 2025. Lithium mining leaves severe impacts in Chile, but new methods exist: Report – A new report on the impact of lithium mining in South America’s lithium triangle has found that methods used by companies in the rush to extract the mineral in Chile’s Salar de Atacama has led to an “irreversible” and “unrecoverable” loss of water. Nearby Indigenous Colla peoples, whose land has not yet been exploited, told […]
10 September 2025. Death of activist critical of geothermal project raises alarm in Indonesia – JAKARTA — The mysterious death of Vian Ruma, a 30-year-old activist opposing a geothermal project on Flores Island, has intensified calls for stronger protection of environmental defenders in Indonesia, where attacks against them have more than doubled this year. Vian was found dead in Nagekeo district on Sept. 5, hanging from a rafter inside a […]
10 September 2025. Maluku coconut growers cry crisis as Indonesia land-grabs feed energy transition – SOUTH WASILE, Indonesia — Rudy said South Wasile district police officers visited his home with PT Arumba Jaya Perkasa staff three times in June to recommend he take the company’s 20,000 rupiah offer, around $1.22, per square meter of his coconut grove. “But I didn’t want to do that,” Rudy, whose name has been changed, […]
10 September 2025. Tourism surge and climate change threaten Nepal’s Mustang – Since the completion of an all-weather road eight years ago, Nepal’s remote Mustang region has become a mass tourism destination, reports Mongabay’s Abhaya Raj Joshi. The surge in tourists, combined with the impacts of climate change, could put the fragile Himalayan region at greater risk of future disasters. Previously, Mustang was a destination for foreign […]
10 September 2025. Cambodian irrigation dam construction threatens riverine communities in the Cardamoms – BANGKOK — Forest clearance has begun to make way for a new irrigation dam deep in the heart of the Cardamom Mountains, in Cambodia’s western province of Pursat, Mongabay has learned. The dam, which officials say will safeguard against floods and secure water for agriculture, looks set to clear more than 7,300 hectares (18,000 acres) of […]
9 September 2025. Top court delivers a ‘huge’ climate win for island nations – The recent advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on states’ obligations regarding climate change was celebrated globally for providing clarity on countries’ legal obligation to prevent climate harm, but was also appreciated by island nations for its additional certainty on their maritime boundaries remaining intact regardless of sea level rise. This week […]