Etelvina Ramos: From coca farmer to opponent of the illegal crop
This story is part of a Mongabay series on female environmental defenders in the Amazon. Read about the lives and work of Soraida Chindoy, Maydany Salcedo, and Alis Ramírez. It…
Agriculture News
Nepal’s tigers & prey need better grassland management: Interview with Shyam Thapa
As winter bids adieu to the Northern Hemisphere and the mercury peaks and humidity plummets, most of Nepal’s plains and hills become tinderboxes awaiting a spark. As officials face a…
Uttarakhand limits agricultural land sales amid protests & tourism development
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…
A web of front people conceals environmental offenders in the Amazon
A paper trail left by a notorious land grabber reveals how he used relatives and an employee as fronts to evade environmental fines and lawsuits, shedding light on this widespread practice in the Brazilian Amazon.
Mexico’s avocado industry harms monarch butterflies, will U.S. officials act? (commentary)
Monarch butterflies are returning to gardens across the United States, but a few months ago, I stood in a mountain forest in Mexico where the monarchs spend the winter. They…
Sierra Leone cacao project boosts livelihoods and buffers biodiversity
In eastern Sierra Leone, straddling the border of Liberia, lies Gola Rainforest National Park, one of the last remaining intact tracts of the tropical Upper Guinean forests in West Africa.…
Snack giant PepsiCo sourced palm oil from razed Indigenous land – investigation
The US food and drink giant PepsiCo has been linked through its supply chain to Amazon deforestation and the invasion of Indigenous lands in Peru, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism…
In largest ever study, Indigenous and local communities report the impacts of climate change
Indigenous peoples and local communities are already feeling the impacts of climate change, according to firsthand accounts documented in a new study. The authors of the paper, published in the…
Report links H&M and Zara to major environmental damage in biodiverse Cerrado
Clothing giants H&M and Zara have been linked to large-scale illegal deforestation, land-grabbing, violence and corruption in the Brazilian Cerrado, according to an investigation by Earthsight. Using satellite images, court…
Caribbean startups are turning excess seaweed into an agroecology solution
In 2015, smelly mats of a brown macroalgae called sargassum piled as high as 1.2 meter (4 feet) on the beaches of Barbados, recalls Joshua Forte. It was the fourth…
Between Brazil’s Caatinga & Cerrado, communities profit from native fruits
PORTEIRINHA, Minas Gerais — Beneath the shade of the umbu tree, Maria Neves tells Maria José that ripe umbu fruit is like a woman on the brink of giving birth:…
Forests in Vietnam’s Central Highlands at risk as development projects take priority
LÂM ĐỒNG, Vietnam — In 1991, Trần Văn Ry migrated from his home in northern Vietnam to Lâm Đồng in the country’s Central Highlands. Along with hundreds of other migrants,…
Brazil’s cattle industry could suffer major losses without climate policies, report says
The cattle ranching industry in Brazil is one of the largest in the world, but it could see huge financial losses if it doesn’t adapt to climate change and increasingly…
Tapirs in Brazil’s Cerrado inspire research on human health & pesticides
It was in 2015 when researchers were attempting to capture tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) in the Brazilian Cerrado to install monitoring collars so they could study the species. While trying to…
In highly urbanized Japan, city farmers are key to achieving organic goal
TOKYO — The train to the farm rose from Tokyo’s labyrinthine subway network, revealing a hodgepodge of gray and tan buildings stretched on either side. The world’s largest metropolitan area,…
As fires ravaged Indonesia in 2023, some positive trends emerged, data show
JAKARTA — 2023 saw the worst fire season in Indonesia since 2019, with an area the size of Qatar going up in flames, according to official government data. A total…
World Bank’s IFC under fire over alleged abuses at Liberian plantation it funded
The World Bank’s independent watchdog, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), has finalized its investigation into a complaint filed five years ago, alleging grave human rights violations by communities living near…
Tropical forest loss puts 2030 zero-deforestation target further out of reach
JAKARTA — The tropics continue to lose primary forest at an alarming rate, with an area of tree cover half the size of Panama disappearing in 2023, new data from…
Florida growers eye agroecology solution to devastating citrus disease
FORT PIERCE, Florida — Just off of North Kings Highway, a dirt road once led to lush rows of sweet-smelling citrus crops: grapefruits, lemons and oranges. Now, all that’s left…
Brazil’s Cerrado is main beneficiary of 2021 pledge to end deforestation
An alliance announced at the 2021 U.N. climate summit in Scotland has already allocated $240 million for projects that align increased agricultural productivity with environmental preservation in Brazil. The IFACC,…
Beneath the surface, a toxic tide threatens Bangladesh’s water lifeline
Imagine a mother in a rural village drawing water from a well with her pitcher. This seemingly ordinary water holds her family's future — for drinking, cooking and bathing. But…
Agroforestry project sows seeds of hope in drought-hit Honduras
Ivis Rene Cabrera no longer gazes up at the sky in hopes of rain to irrigate his field. He’s come to expect the long dry spells as northwestern Honduras grapples…
Biomass-burning coal plants leave the air even dirtier, Java communities say
INDRAMAYU, Indonesia — A veil of smog lurks over Surono and Umroh’s home as relatives and neighbors file inside to greet the couple. Umroh welcomes the new arrivals over lunch…
New U.S. agroforestry project will pay farmers to expand ‘climate-smart’ acres
American agroforestry initiatives got a big boost of funding in 2022 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which allocated $60 million to help farmers transition toward this style of…
‘Planting water, eating Caatinga & irrigating with the sun’: Interview with agroecologist Tião Alves
While wind turbines and solar panels multiply across the Brazilian dry forests, Tião Alves insists on tin windmills and PET bottle-based heaters. "Backcountry technology," as he defines it, arguing that…
PalmWatch platform pushes for farm-to-fork traceability of palm oil
JAKARTA — Farm-to-fork traceability has become an increasingly urgent, and often required, component of global supply chains, with a growing number of commodities now trackable all the way back to…
Deforestation from soy shows no sign of stopping in Cerrado, report says
Deforestation from soy continues to spread through Brazil’s Cerrado and Amazon Rainforest, with satellite readings showing new areas of forest loss from as recently as last December, a new study…
Suriname cancels controversial Mennonite pilot program, but bigger problems loom
The government in Suriname said it cancelled a controversial pilot program that would have brought hundreds of Mennonites to the country to carry out agricultural activity, likely in forested areas.…
Oman’s mountain oases offer ancient farming lessons for a warming future
In some ways, village life on Oman’s Jabal Akhdar Mountain is the same as it has always been. Water still runs through the ancient aflaj channels. People still cultivate pomegranates,…
Fertilizer management could reduce ammonia pollution from 3 staple crops: Study
A machine learning model of ammonia emissions from the world’s rice, wheat and corn crops shows that optimal fertilizer management could slash ammonia air pollution from these crops by 38%.
Toilet paper: Environmentally impactful, but alternatives are rolling out
Most used in China, North America, Europe and Australia, TP causes deforestation, needs lots of energy and water to make, and is hard to dispose of. Solutions abound, from the bidet, to recycled paper, bamboo and other alternatives.
Mini radio tags help track ‘murder hornets’ and other invasive insects
The yellow-legged hornet is a predator: after it sets up a nest in a new neighborhood, its workers head out in search of smaller wasps, flies and bees to feed…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Satellite data show bursts of deforestation continue in Indonesian national park
- Fires rip through Indigenous territories in Brazilian Amazon
- Monitoring group cracks down on deforestation in Cameroon gorilla sanctuary
- Western Kenya’s most important water-capturing forest is disappearing, satellites show
Oceans
- Conservationists see progress for swordfish, problems for sharks at Atlantic fisheries summit
- As tidal power rides a wave of clean energy optimism, pitfalls persist
- Plan for close season rings alarm bells for Liberia’s artisanal fishers
- Lab-grown corals resisted bleaching during Caribbean’s worst marine heat wave
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
- Brazil sets a date to remove illegal miners from Munduruku land, more details await
- Peruvian logger loses FSC label after latest clash with isolated Mashco Piro
- 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
- 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
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
