With Europe’s move to delay tropical forest protections, everything burns (commentary)
Forests. We can't live without them. If they burn, we die. Many forests are at risk today. The Amazon has been so damaged that it may shift from being a…
Activism News
World Bank’s IFC must pay reparations to Honduran farmers, US court rules
AGUÁN VALLEY, Honduras — In the years after 2018, during periods when the threats subsided and the paramilitary gunmen didn’t show up, nights in the village of Panamá were peaceful.…
Javan fisherwomen lead fight against marine dredging amid fears of damage
JAKARTA — Fisherwomen on the north coast of Indonesia’s Java Island are leading the fight against the government’s decision to dredge sea sand for export, warning the activity may exacerbate…
‘Thugs’ disrupt Jakarta climate march as attacks on civil liberties increase
JAKARTA — A recent climate march in Jakarta was forcibly disbanded by an unidentified group of people, which highlights the growing challenges to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in…
As MotoGP heads to Indonesia, Indigenous Sasak brace for another weekend of repression
JAKARTA — As the Indonesian island of Lombok prepares to host the latest leg of the marquee MotoGP racing series this weekend, former residents of what’s now the Mandalika International…
Influential Vietnamese environmentalist released from prison two years early
In a surprise move, the well-known environmental advocate Hoàng Thị Minh Hồng was released from prison in Vietnam on Saturday. Hồng was sentenced on Sept. 28, 2023, to three years…
Global ‘Slow Food’ movement embraces agroecology (commentary)
I have spent more than 20 years visiting communities and working with farmers around Uganda and across East and southern Africa. I have come to realize that there are many…
Permits granted for Colombia’s Alacrán mine amid pollution, deforestation concerns
Permits granted for the construction of an industrial mining project in northern Colombia are raising concerns among residents and conservationists, who say they might lose their food and drinking water…
Philippine coal mine roars into production amid waves of complaints
SOUTH COTABATO, Philippines — On a sunny Wednesday in August, police officer Loreto Malon and a subordinate were riding their motorcycles in the mountain mining village of Ned on their…
Malaysian court shuts down hydroelectric dam project on Indigenous land
The Indigenous Semai tribe in Malaysia have achieved a significant legal victory in their long-running battle to protect their ancestral land from the impacts of a hydroelectric dam project. The…
Why I quit the film industry to work on ecological restoration (commentary)
I've spent a significant part of my career exploring and documenting how ecosystems function, and the profound impact humanity has on nature. Over time, I've come to recognize that not…
Report links killings to environmental crimes in Peru’s Amazon
Ten years ago, four Indigenous Asháninka environmental defenders were murdered in the forests near their community of Saweto in Peru’s Amazon Ucayali region. In 2023, a court in Pucallpa found…
Why is violence against environmental defenders getting worse? Five things to know
In January 2023, two men mysteriously disappear after speaking out against pollution from a controversial iron ore mine in Michoacán, Mexico. The following March, climate change protesters in Austria and…
‘Stop the stupidity’: Indonesia’s top court orders end to mine in quake zone
JAKARTA — A controversial zinc-and-lead mine being developed on the Indonesian island of Sumatra has hit a roadblock after the country’s Supreme Court ordered the revocation of its environmental permit.…
In Vietnam, environmental defense is increasingly a crime
Until recently, the Hanoi-based nonprofit where Hưng works as a legal advocate distributed its research online, freely circulating information it intended to support policies on climate change and other environment…
In Nicaragua, activists challenge the value of international ‘green’ financing
Nicaragua has spent the last several years shuttering over a thousand civil society organizations, universities, media outlets and other organizations, often for criticizing President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice…
The challenge of the next oil and gas investments further in the Pan Amazon
Ucayali Basin and the Camisea Megacampo Further south in Peru, the Ucayali Basin occupies a broad stretch of the Andean foothills and adjacent piedmont. It is a foreland basin located…
At-risk groups in Indonesia demand greater say in climate policymaking
JAKARTA — Civil society groups and communities most affected by the effects of climate change are calling on the Indonesian government to include them in the decision-making process of climate…
Rio’s grassroots agroforestry sustains birds, bees & communities
RIO DE JANEIRO – I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived at Cocotá. The large plaza, 11 hectares (27 acres) snatched from the sea by land reclamation more…
DRC communities turn up heat on EU lenders funding palm oil giant PHC
On May 24, 2024, clashes broke out between members of a local community and security guards at an oil palm plantation in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo…
Vietnam sentences yet another energy expert over renewables research
Vietnamese energy expert Ngô Thị Tố Nhiên was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison late last month, according to the International Federation for Human Rights. Vietnam’s government has not made…
Tía María copper mine set to open in Peru despite community backlash
After years of delays, officials in Peru said they’re moving forward with the construction of a controversial copper mine despite concerns from local communities that the project could pollute rivers…
Magnate’s visit to Indonesia’s untouched Aru Islands revives Indigenous concerns
ARU ISLANDS, Indonesia — When the ship with “J7Explorer” embossed across its hull approached the shoreline on May 13, some on the Aru Islands assumed the greenish hulk was an…
New Indigenous reserve in the Amazon among first steps to protect peoples in isolation
In May 2024, Indigenous organizations in Peru’s Amazon achieved a milestone in a campaign that lasted for almost two decades. Indigenous peoples living in isolation and initial contact (PIACI) will…
Conservationists look for new ways to fight oil pipelines in southern Mexico
Mexico has pledged to more than double its clean energy output by 2030, investing in solar and wind power while transitioning away from fossil fuels. Yet the country continues to…
Palm oil company fined for cheating; Sulawesi farmers to reap their due rupiah
JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has ordered a palm oil company to pay 1 billion rupiah ($61,000) in fines for shortchanging villagers by not sufficiently paying them according to a…
Troubled rubber plantation in Liberia shuts down after labor unrest
Two prominent union leaders remain in prison a month after the headquarters of the Salala Rubber Corporation in Liberia was set on fire by aggrieved rubber tappers. The pair are…
Short on funds and long on risk, Venezuelan conservation groups worry for future
Conservation has become a near-impossible task in many parts of Venezuela. Government funding has dried up, political pressure has scared away international donors, and criminal groups continue to overpower the…
Animal welfare advocacy must include wildlife & invertebrates (commentary)
Over recent decades, animal advocacy efforts have been mainly geared towards domesticated animals – including farmed, laboratory and companion animals – and with good reason. Every year across the globe,…
Beleaguered Indonesian civil society gets lift in push for just energy transition
JAKARTA — Civil society organizations in Indonesia are getting a boost to ensure their participation in the country’s clean energy transition and land stewardship, amid an increasingly hostile climate for…
Activists in Cameroon repeatedly questioned by authorities following Mongabay story
Following the publication of a Mongabay article, police and authorities have harassed and summoned civil society activists in Cameroon for questioning five times. The Mongabay investigation, which reported and verified…
In Peru, conservationists and archaeologists unite to save a threatened gecko
LIMA — For more than two decades, José Pérez Zúñiga, a researcher at Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, has set out at night to search by the light of a…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- In Brazil’s Amazon, land invasions — and fires — threaten a protected reserve
- A Guatemalan reserve turns from civil war refuge to deforestation hotspot
- Narco activity takes heavy toll on Colombia’s protected forests, satellite data show
- Photos confirm narcotraffickers operating in Peru’s Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve
Oceans
- Plan for close season rings alarm bells for Liberia’s artisanal fishers
- Lab-grown corals resisted bleaching during Caribbean’s worst marine heat wave
- Six months after first Houthi ship sinking, attacks slick Red Sea with oil
- $35m debt-for-nature deal aims to protect Indonesia’s coral reefs
Amazon Conservation
- ‘World’s largest’ carbon credit deal in the Amazon faces bumpy road ahead
- New conservation model calls for protecting Amazon for its archaeological riches
- Brazil dredges Amazon rivers to ease drought isolation, raising environmental concerns
- ‘We need white men on our side to save the Amazon from destruction,’ 92-year-old Indigenous Chief Raoni says
Land rights and extractives
- Peruvian logger loses FSC label after latest clash with isolated Mashco Piro
- In the DRC, a government commission is taking funds owed to people relocated by mines
- A national park and its rangers in Bolivia endure persisting road construction, illegal mining
- Can nations ever get artisanal gold mining right?
Endangered Environmentalists
- Vietnam sentences yet another energy expert over renewables research
- Mother Nature Cambodia activists sentenced to prison — again
- Mongabay video screening at Chile’s Supreme Court expected to help landmark verdict in Brazil
- Indonesian activist freed in hate speech case after flagging illegal shrimp farms
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- On a Borneo mountainside, Indigenous Dayak women hold fire and defend forest
- Fenced in by Sulawesi national park, Indigenous women make forestry breakout
- In Borneo, the ‘Power of Mama’ fight Indonesia’s wildfires with all-woman crew
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
Conservation Effectiveness
- How effective is the EU’s marquee policy to reduce the illegal timber trade?
- How sharing and learning from failures can transform conservation (commentary)
- Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?
- Failure in conservation projects: Everyone experiences it, few record it
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Study: Indonesia’s new capital city threatens stable proboscis monkey population
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
- To build its ‘green’ capital city, Indonesia runs a road through a biodiverse forest
