Brazil’s forest fund faces a slow takeoff at COP30 despite initial support
Operational rifts and budget constraints choked ambitious funding from rich nations for TFFF at Belém’s summit.
Agriculture News
Fighting for food sovereignty at COP30: Interview with GRAIN’s Ange-David Baïmey
At the COP30 climate summit currently underway in Belém, Brazil, adapting to climate change impacts is a major focus of discussions. This is particularly the case for delegates from Africa,…
The land deal threatening a vital piece of Bolivia’s Chiquitano dry forest
A large forest in eastern Bolivia is on the verge of being sold to an international agriculture company, raising concerns that it might be razed to make room for new…
EU touts climate leadership while undermining antideforestation rules, critics say
BELÉM, Brazil — At a Nov. 19 press conference at the U.N. climate summit currently underway in Brazil, European Union officials spoke for half an hour without a single mention…
Amazon Indigenous groups fight soy waterway as Brazil fast-tracks dredging
The Tapajós supported Indigenous people for millennia, but now vessels, pollution and waves may disrupt their lives.
From waffle gardens to terraces, Indigenous groups revive farming heritage in America’s deserts
In 1985, with two young daughters and little money, Roxanne Swentzell, a Native American sculptor and ceramic artist, returned from her studies in Portland, in the U.S. state of Oregon,…
Soy giants quietly prepare for EU deforestation law; impacts still uncertain
As the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) approaches its implementation, companies involved in supply chains for soy and other commodities reaching the EU market will soon have to prove that…
Brazil hosts COP30 with high ambitions — and scaling environmental ambiguities
Lula wants to push actions forward in Belém, but his words clash with the latest environmental gestures in Brazil.
In Honduras, local communities miss out on benefits of large-scale renewables
CHOLUTECA, Honduras — Under the slogan “Without human rights, there is no energy sovereignty,” more than 100 community members and activists gathered in mid-July at the Casa Real Hotel in…
Karen community fighting corn and coal for clean air in northern Thailand
MAE CHAM/OMKOI, Thailand — Rain lashed down in the northern Thai village of Nong Krating as Sawattiphon Wongkasettakon described the worsening air pollution that sweeps in through the mountains here each…
Witch Hunt: Virulent fungal disease attacks South America’s cassava crop
As smallholder farmers in French Guiana walked their fields in 2023, they noted a disturbing pattern. Their healthy cassava plants, once green and thriving, had begun to turn yellow. Leaves…
Suriname’s plan to capitalize on carbon: Q&A with President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons
PARAMARIBO, Suriname — With the U.N. Climate Change Conference coming up next week, Suriname finds itself at the center of a global debate about how to reduce carbon emissions and…
What might lie ahead for tropical forests (analysis)
Heading into COP30, where tropical forests are set to be a central theme, it seemed worth attempting a thought experiment: to trace today’s trajectories a little further forward and imagine…
Forest sanctuaries and spiritual balance in the Karen highlands of Thailand
HUAY EE KHANG, Thailand — “Do you hear the birds calling?” asks Noraeri Thungmueangthong, as the vibrant trill of a blue-throated barbet rings through the pine trees looming up ahead.…
Forest Declaration Assessment reveals a forest paradox
The world’s forests tell two stories at once. Even as chainsaws advance, new trees are rising in their wake. More than 11 million hectares of tropical moist forest—an area roughly…
Guava yields in South Asia shrink due to unpredictable heat & rainfall
Guava farmer Haralal Halder, in his 45 years of farming profession in coastal Bangladesh, had never experienced a drought-like spell with soaring temperatures during April-May period, the flowering season, until…
Deforestation for soy continues in Brazilian Cerrado despite EUDR looming
Agricultural producers in Brazil’s Cerrado savanna continue to clear land for soy, which puts them in breach of the European Union’s upcoming antideforestation law, or EUDR, a new investigation shows.…
Putumayo’s women guardians defend land and culture amid Colombia’s deforestation
The Sibundoy Valley in Putumayo, southwestern Colombia, is an ancestral territory inhabited by two sister ethnic groups: the Kamëntšá and the Inga, descendants of the Peruvian Incas. It is also…
Local divers pick away at Lake Malawi’s underwater garbage problem
CAPE MACLEAR, Malawi — On a clear August morning, three scuba divers disappeared under the waters of Lake Malawi. Above them, serenity: The clear water rippled gently, spick-and-span Cape Maclear…
Malaysian farmers demand transparency over proposed seed quality bill
This is Part 2 of a two-part series on proposed changes to Malaysia’s seed laws. Part 1 published Sept. 29 here. In a farmland surrounded by oil palm and rubber…
A cacao rush drives ‘alarming’ deforestation in Liberia
A rush to plant cacao in southeastern Liberia is destroying large tracts of rainforest. According to satellite data as well as interviews with local environmental advocates and government officials, the…
In DRC’s Kivu region, the moringa tree offers valuable health benefits
Moringa, most often associated with its native region of India, is also a valuable plant found thousands of miles away in the Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.…
Regenerative fashion initiative in Indonesia wins 2025 Pritzker Environmental Genius Award
In a world defined by extraction, Denica Riadini-Flesch is proving that creation can heal instead. The Indonesian economist-turned-entrepreneur has won UCLA’s 2025 Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award for building a…
Women in Mexico step up to protect the island farms traditionally inherited by men
This story is a collaboration between The Associated Press and Mongabay. MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Jasmín Ordóñez looks out at the water as the wooden boat she is in crosses…
Fears of major locust swarms wane in the Sahel but agencies step up monitoring
NAIROBI — In May and June, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s commission for controlling desert locust outbreaks in West and Northwest Africa warned that heavy rainfall and vegetation in North…
RSPO sparks NGO outrage for dismissing complaint over alleged ‘shadow companies’
JAKARTA — A major palm oil producer linked through supplier-reported mill lists to global brands like General Mills and PepsiCo has escaped sanction for allegedly concealing a web of “shadow…
There’s far less land available for reforestation than we think, study finds
Josep “Pep” Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project, says he believes countries large and small need to think twice before pledging to collectively plant billions of trees as…
Malaysian small-scale farmers worry about rights under proposed seed law changes
This is Part 1 of a two-part series on proposed changes to Malaysia’s seed laws. Part 2 reports more on Malaysia’s seed quality bill. On an August Sunday morning, a…
Brazil’s first private Amazon road paves new trade route to China
A road that once opened the Amazon to destruction is being expanded, and critics fear history will repeat itself.
Burkina Faso’s women farmers reviving the land with fertilizer trees
CASSOU, Burkina Faso — With her daba in hand, her back bent from decades in the fields, Maan — meaning “grandmother” in the local Nuni language of Burkina Faso’s Centre-Ouest…
Ocean acidification threatens planetary health: Interview with Johan Rockström
Initiated in 2024, the Planetary Health Check is a comprehensive, science-based global initiative dedicated to measuring and maintaining Earth systems critical to life as we know it. These annual reports…
Permaculture promises peace, food, increased equality in Kenyan county
BARINGO, Kenya — Salina Chepsat and a neighbor are loading tomatoes into a vehicle in the scorching midday heat. Chepsat picked the produce earlier that morning from her farm in…
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
- 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
- Indigenous concerns surface as U.S. agency considers seabed mining in Alaskan waters
- Methane chasers: Hunting a climate-changing gas seeping from Earth’s seafloor
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
