JAKARTA — Allegations of illegal activity and land-grabbing against Indonesia’s second-largest palm oil company continue to mount as a new report reveals the firm’s violations appear to be more extensive…
Suriname has some of the largest, most intact rainforests in the world. The Amazon covers around 93% of its surface area, making it one of the only countries with a…
PHNOM PENH — Ten members of the environmental activist group Mother Nature Cambodia have been sentenced to between six and eight years in prison after being convicted on charges of…
KATHMANDU — Until a few years ago, villagers in Siraha in Nepal’s Madhesh province accessed water by digging a few meters into the ground, as this method was easier than…
In 2023, Socfin hired a consultancy to investigate longstanding allegations of human rights violations and environmental damage raised by communities living around the Belgian transnational company’s oil palm and rubber…
JAKARTA — Protests are mounting in Indonesia against a China-backed zinc and lead mine being developed on the island of Sumatra in defiance of opposition from local communities. On June…
Events in February felt like a legal double whammy for the environment and its defenders. First, the United Nations Environment Assembly declined a Bolivian proposal to grant rights to nature…
JAKARTA — Indonesia’s Bali island is shrinking at a faster rate than most coastal areas in the world due to human activities and wave circulation, according to a recently published…
A year-long Mongabay investigation tracked several dozen illegal or suspicious activities in and around Araroibia in the last few years, including logging, deforestation and cattle ranching, and found a clear rise in environmental crimes in the region in mid-2023, the deadliest year for Indigenous people in Arariboia since 2016.
BAN NAI NANG, Thailand — Carefully prying open the lid of a wooden bee box, Ali Madwang gazes intently into the cavity as sunlight illuminates the scene within. A hubbub…
For centuries, Maasai peoples living in Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) mostly moved freely over vast savanna rangelands in search of water and available grassland, without any restrictions. But in…
LANGKAT, Indonesia — Ilham was sitting outside on his terrace in the village of Kwala Langkat on April 18 when a scrum of men in plainclothes arrived at his home…
TAKALAR/EAST LOMBOK/JAKARTA, Indonesia — Mustam Daeng Beta exhaled slowly before he began describing his time as a young fisherman many years ago. “Fish bombing was regular, also using poison,” Daeng…
JAKARTA — A dispute simmering for years has erupted into conflict between villagers and a palm oil company on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi over the latter’s failure to abide…
The Escazú Agreement was seen as a real breakthrough when it came into force in April 2021, and is the only binding treaty to have emerged from the Earth Summit…
SANTIAGO — The recent screening of a Mongabay video before Chile’s Supreme Court has intensified international scrutiny of the killing of 26-year-old Indigenous leader Paulo Paulino Guajajara in Brazil 2019 — a case for which no one has yet gone on trial in Brazil.
BANGKOK — For six years, Prasert Sriwaurai was trapped at sea aboard a Thai trawler. He and his crewmates rarely sighted land, let alone spent time ashore. Denied medical care…
JERICÓ, Colombia — Argirio Tobón Tamayo tugs down the top branch of a coffee tree covered in waxy green leaves, bending it back to reveal coffee cherries in shades of…
PHNOM PENH — The trial against Mother Nature Cambodia, one of the country’s last environmental activism groups, kicked off at the Phnom Penh Court of First Instance on the morning…
JAKARTA — An Indonesian court has overturned the sentence of environmental activist Daniel Frits Maurits Tangkilisan on widely criticized hate speech charges for highlighting the damaged caused by illegal shrimp…
JAKARTA — Critics have slammed Indonesia’s outgoing government over a plan to hand out mining permits revoked from companies to religious organizations — not on the basis of the latter’s…
Panama is still trying to understand the extent of the violence that took place during the massive, nationwide protests last year. Groups from all corners of the country, from teacher…
Civil society groups in Southeast Asia are calling for greater public participation and transparency in the drafting process of a regional declaration on environmental rights, as well as stronger levels…
SITIO DALICNO, Philippines — Domeng Laita, 64, stands on a mountain ledge outside his home, looking down with worry on his face. Below him stands the embankment of the San…
CHUBUT RIVER, Argentina — “The waters of this territory converge in the Río Chubut,” began the refrain of a caravan traveling across Argentina’s Patagonia region in the budding first weeks…
Environmental activists in Bolivia say they’ve become the targets of discrimination, death threats and even bombings after speaking out against harmful mining operations in the department of Oruro. The activists,…
Seven grassroots environmental activists were awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize on April 29. Known as the “Green Nobel Prize,” the Goldman Prize honors activists from the six continental regions. This year’s winners…
INTAG VALLEY, Ecuador — In Ecuador's lush tropical Andes, Silvia Vetancourt multitasks, her hands maneuvering crochet needles with swift precision as she navigates the rocky path to the old town…
All three legacy-oil pipelines in the Andean Amazon system are old. The Oleoducto Transandino Colombiano (OTC) has been operating for 53 years, followed by the Sistema de Oleoducto Transecuatoriano (SOTE)…
JAKARTA — Civil society advocates representing more than 2,000 customary communities in Indonesia have initiated last-ditch legal challenges over parliament’s failure to pass an Indigenous rights bill during the 10-year…
For months, residents in the Himalayan foothills of Uttarakhand have been fighting for the introduction of land laws that would prevent agricultural land from being sold to people from outside…
When around 70,000 Indigenous Maasai were expelled from their lands in northern Tanzania in 2022, it didn’t happen in a vacuum. For years, the Tanzanian government has systematically attacked Maasai…