Christianity can be an ally for Kenyan conservation (commentary)
The influence of Christianity in public life in Kenya is undisputed. Indeed, for more than a century, everyday life in the country — from education to health care and politics…
Africa News
On the shores of Lake Victoria, a youth-led campaign to revive a wetland
KISUMU, Kenya — On a December morning, the early sunshine casts a golden sheen on the waters of Lake Victoria in Kenya’s Kisumu county. The breeze from the lake carries…
Second progress report shows little action on World Bank redress plan at Liberian plantation
A year after the World Bank approved a plan to redress community grievances over inadequate compensation and sexual harassment at Liberia’s Salala Rubber Corporation, a progress report provides little evidence…
The little-known story of emerging ecotourism in the Central African Republic
BAYANGA, Central African Republic — For many outside the country, the Central African Republic remains defined by a set of familiar images: conflict, instability, weak infrastructure and a state that…
‘I like impossible missions’: A conservationist’s mission to turn around Salonga’s fate
SALONGA, Democratic Republic of Congo — At nearly 70 years old, Spanish conservationist Luis Arranz is taking on what he calls a new “impossible mission”: changing the fate of Salonga…
Why conservation needs stories of progress
I’m writing this from deep in the Congo rainforest after a day spent observing elephants and gorillas. The presence of such magnificent creatures is both invigorating and a reminder of…
Wildlife concerns remain after Kenya court ruling over luxury safari camp
This is the end of a saga that has stirred nature and tourism enthusiasts in Kenya for the past six months. The Environment and Land Court at Narok dismissed a…
A human rights center opens a path to justice for Indigenous Peoples in the Central African Republic
BAYANGA, Central African Republic — Across the Congo Basin, conservation has long been fraught with a difficult contradiction. Protected areas, meant to preserve wildlife, have at times also been the…
A unique clearing in Central Africa draws elephants from the dense forests
BAYANGA, Central African Republic — Throughout most of Central Africa, it’s difficult to spot herds of forest elephants all at once. They move through dense rainforest, remaining elusive, their lives…
Far from home, a Rwandan doctor fulfills her calling among CAR forest communities
BAYANGA, Central African Republic — Before the consultations, screenings and discreet discussions about disease, a makeshift enclosure is set up in the middle of the village, where residents gradually gather…
Today is Jane Goodall Day. Her movement continues.
April 3 now carries a different kind of weight. It was always Jane Goodall’s birthday. Now it is also a marker—a point in the year when people are asked not…
Talks to reduce funding for overfishing remain stalled at WTO meeting
Governments across the world have pledged to re-ignite stalled “Fish Two” negotiations and finalize the second part of a long-sought agreement to curb harmful fishing subsidies by mid-2028. The commitment…
Green and gray: Mangroves and dikes show potential in protecting shorelines together
With their dense mats of submerged roots, mangrove forests hold down shorelines worldwide like a coastal Swiss Army knife. They’re a nursery for juvenile fish and a home for important…
Ethiopian women plant trees, restoring lands & livelihoods
In the southern Ethiopian region of Sidama, unsustainable farming practices and tree cutting for fuel are causing land degradation. In response, members of the Integrated Women’s Development Organization are planting…
A ‘big book’ documenting Cameroon’s sharks & rays fills critical conservation gap
BUEA, Cameroon — To his fishing peers, Ojah Alfred, 45, is a fisher like they are. But to Cameroon’s scientific community, he is also a scientist — a citizen scientist.…
‘Sharing is off the table’ as drought reshapes the culture of Ethiopia’s pastoralists
JIJIGA, Ethiopia — The land here used to speak. At dawn in Kebribeyah district, Somali Regional State, eastern Ethiopia, the plains stretch wide beneath a pale sky, with dusty shades…
An invasive guava is muscling out Madagascar’s forests — and lemurs are helping
Madagascar is renowned for its lemurs, which are threatened due to hunting and deforestation. Restoring native forests to ensure their survival is critical, but once damaged, forests in Madagascar are…
‘Ancient’ carbon venting from lakes in the Congo Basin peatlands: Study
Across the central Congo Basin lies a bastion of carbon that scientists are just beginning to understand. First mapped only about a decade ago, the Cuvette Centrale peatlands are the…
With high seas treaty in place, West African countries plan for protected area
With the High Seas Treaty coming into force in January, efforts to establish protected areas in the marine spaces that lie beyond countries’ jurisdiction are gaining momentum — including one…
Conservation depends on rangers. Their wellbeing is often an afterthought
The gunfire began just before six in the morning. At first, Christine Lain thought it might be a drill. Upemba National Park had run exercises like this before. Rangers…
Decades after poaching drove them extinct, rhinos are back in the wild in Uganda
Forty-three years after the last free-ranging rhinos were seen in the country, the Uganda Wildlife Authority has welcomed four southern white rhinos to Kidepo Valley National Park, in the country’s…
A South African reserve shows how carbon can catalyze rewilding conservation
TSWALU KALAHARI RESERVE, South Africa — From high on a promontory in the Korannaberg Mountains, a mountain zebra (Equus zebra hartmannae) peers down to the west across the green-dappled plain…
Investigation of permit violations in South Africa’s shark fishery pending
Following an October 2025 Mongabay report of the shark fishing vessel Zanette violating the conditions of its permit to catch endangered sharks, the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and…
New strategy to reverse Kenya’s shark decline tries to bring fishers on board
NAIROBI — On Kenya’s eastern coast, a small-scale fisher lugs the day’s catch onto a table for processing and selling. Chances are, mostly threatened species like the scalloped hammerhead shark…
4 months after DRC mine spill, residents remain impacted
More than four months after a wastewater spill from a mine in Lubumbashi, a city located in the DRC’s copper and cobalt belt, residents say they are still facing impacts…
‘Staggering’ trade for belief-based use drives hooded vultures to near-extinction in Benin
The hooded vulture, a small, scruffy-looking raptor native to sub-Saharan Africa, gets its name from a patch of beige feathers on its head: It appears to be wearing a hood.…
Five more community-led African groups join global landscape restoration network
Amid rapid deforestation in Uganda’s Kalangala district, the School Food Forest Initiative launched a tree-planting project in school premises in 2019, aiming to instill knowledge and value for conservation in…
How Namibia’s bird conservation projects build community resilience (commentary)
In Namibia’s Karas Region, birds are more than symbols of freedom or beauty — they are teachers of resilience. Their survival in arid landscapes mirrors the endurance of the communities…
Shipping’s biofuel gamble could deepen Africa’s land squeeze and food insecurity (commentary)
Africa's future prosperity depends on how fast we can reduce emissions, especially from large polluting sectors like shipping. But using crops as fuel to cut emissions risks causing more harm…
Juliette Chapalain on building networks and nurturing talent to tell Africa’s environmental stories
In 2023, Mongabay expanded its coverage of environmental news in Africa by launching a new bureau, Mongabay Africa, to address news for the continent multilingually, beginning with French and English.…
War exacerbates long-standing irrigation crisis for Sudan farmers
In happier times, Mohamed Ahmed grows sorghum, lentils and beans on three feddans of land in Gezira state. But for more than a year, no irrigation water has reached the…
At dusk in Kenya’s caves, scientists study the hidden lives of bats
As the afternoon fades at the Three Sisters Caves in Kenya’s Kwale county, David Wechuli’s team begins setting up nearly invisible nets along the hillsides in the coastal forest. “When…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Satellite data show burst of deforestation in Myanmar rare earth mining hotspots
- Narco airstrips beset Indigenous communities in Peruvian Amazon
- 15 illegal narco-trafficking airstrips found near Peru Indigenous communities
- Satellite data show bursts of deforestation continue in Indonesian national park
Oceans
- Tropics take the brunt as hotter oceans drive large-scale humid heat waves: Study
- Talks to reduce funding for overfishing remain stalled at WTO meeting
- New strategy to reverse Kenya’s shark decline tries to bring fishers on board
- Mongabay shark meat exposé wins national journalism education award in Brazil
Amazon Conservation
- Researchers eye jaguar conservation wins under Brazil Indigenous stewardship project
- ‘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
Land rights and extractives
- As traditional forest governance erodes in Peru, ‘ghost permits’ fill the vacuum
- What’s happening with the global treaty to trace critical minerals?
- In the race for DRC’s critical minerals, community forests are on the frontline
- Lithium mining may threaten a precious resource — water: Voices from the land (commentary)
Endangered Environmentalists
- José Albino Cañas Ramírez, a defender of Indigenous territories, aged 44
- A killing with precedent: Kaiowá man’s murder fits a pattern in Brazil
- Environmental & rights activists flee and hide as M23 captures DRC’s cities
- Environmental journalist in Cambodia shot and killed by suspected logger
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
- Flores’ geothermal ambitions collide with justice, culture & local resistance
- An ‘ocean grab’ for a property megaproject leaves Jakarta fishers grounded
- 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
