The ocean’s enforcement gap
On paper, the sea is increasingly protected. Governments have designated vast marine protected areas (MPAs) and pledged to conserve 30% of the ocean by 2030. Maps shaded in reassuring blues…
Analysis News
Hat Yai’s floods are a warning for cities built against nature (analysis)
Every year, Chinese New Year festivals in southern Thailand’s Hat Yai attract tourists, mostly from neighboring Malaysia, generating a significant proportion of annual income for a city dependent on tourism.…
The hidden cost of fisheries subsidies
In public finance, some costs are politely kept off the books. The ocean has long been one of them. Governments often speak of “blue growth” and “sustainable use,” yet many…
Are government subsidies undermining conservation efforts in Australia?
Australia has long struggled to reconcile its environmental ambitions with the structure of its economy. The country is both a global biodiversity stronghold and a major exporter of resources, agricultural…
Precision conservation: the rise of place-specific strategies where protection works best
Conservation has long wrestled with a deceptively simple question: not whether to act, but where action will matter most. Forest restoration, protected areas, wildlife corridors, and enforcement patrols all compete…
The power of cities over the seas
Debates about ocean protection tend to orbit national governments and multilateral treaties. Fisheries quotas, shipping rules, and marine reserves are usually negotiated by states. Yet much of the activity that…
Who actually uses environmental journalism — and why it matters
In 2025, Mongabay recorded 111 million unique visitors to its websites, a 46% increase on the year before. Pageviews rose by 72%. Those figures capture direct readership only. They exclude…
Agroforestry offers market-based way to boost Amazon rains & farmer incomes (analysis)
The Amazon Rainforest generates its own weather. Each day, the forest's 390 billion trees release approximately 20 billion metric tons of water vapor into the atmosphere through evapotranspiration, creating what…
Measuring what works in conservation
Conservation has never lacked ideas. Protected areas, payments for ecosystem services, community management, certification schemes, and public campaigns have all been promoted as solutions to biodiversity loss. What has…
Thailand’s Hat Yai picks up the pieces in wake of devastating floods (analysis)
HAT YAI, Thailand — Largely forgotten by the public, politicians and the media, the flood crisis that Hat Yai, the largest city in the south of Thailand, experienced in November…
Vanuatu communities move to protect taro, an ancestral climate-resilient crop (analysis)
The packed-earth trail winds through the dense and tangled forest of Vanuatu, the ocean crashing just meters to our right. Richard Rojo’s feet don’t mind the stones and stumps, and…
Turning the Amazon’s toxic gold mine waste liability into economic opportunity (analysis)
The wildcat gold mining boom that swept across the Amazon beginning in the 1970s left behind an environmental catastrophe of staggering proportions. At least 350,000 hectares (almost 865,000 acres) of…
Agroforestry grows in popularity among central Colombia’s coffee farmers (analysis)
Colombia is the world's third-largest coffee producer and the main producer of Arabica coffee, which is known worldwide for its quality. The nation began developing commercial production in 1870, which…
BRICS+ offers Indigenous & local communities ways to advance environmental and social goals (analysis)
As the world grapples with climate change, biodiversity loss and resource scarcity, Indigenous and local communities (IPLCs) remain at the forefront of conservation, yet are often sidelined in global environmental…
Rethinking how we talk about conservation—and why it matters
Founder's Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. For a movement so often framed by loss—and confronting a particularly difficult moment—conservation…
Sumatra’s ‘natural’ disaster wasn’t natural: How deforestation turned a rare cyclone catastrophic
Indonesia’s government has been at pains to stress that the recent catastrophe in Sumatra was triggered by a rare meteorological event. Cyclone Senyar formed in the Malacca Strait, an area…
Top ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin’s COP30 reflections on Amazon conservation (analysis)
Having studied the healing plants and peoples of tropical South America for well over four decades, I am often asked, “What is the conservation status of the Amazon Rainforest? Is…
A slowdown, not salvation: what new extinction data reveal about the state of life on Earth
For decades, biologists have warned that humanity is precipitating a sixth mass extinction. By some estimates, species are vanishing at up to a thousand times the natural background rate. Yet…
Beyond deforestation: redesigning how we protect and value tropical forests (analysis)
Heading into COP30, where tropical forests are set to be a central theme, it seemed worth looking today’s trajectories a little further forward and imagine where they might lead. Part…
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…
How communities in sacrifice zones suffer environmental injustices in Mexico, Chile, Nigeria and Indonesia (analysis)
Across continents, “sacrifice zones” resemble wounds carved deep into the fabric of our planet. These are regions where ecosystems and livelihoods have been ravaged by fossil fuel and other industries…
The effort to save Syria’s northern bald ibis population failed, but much can be learned (analysis)
The northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita) is an extravagant waterbird adapted to forage in dry, open habitats, and is included in the list of the most genetically and evolutionarily unique creatures…
The environmental toll of the M23 conflict in eastern DRC (Analysis)
The resurgence of the M23 (March 23 movement) rebel group has once again drawn global attention to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The humanitarian crisis—millions displaced, thousands…
What have we learned from 15 years of REDD+ policy research? (analysis)
For decades, efforts to halt deforestation in the Global South have gained much attention within the policy arena, most recently as a powerful and effective measure to mitigate climate change…
UN biodiversity decision 16/2 is ‘unencumbered by economic thinking’ (analysis)
This analysis was conceived by its author as a trilogy of commentaries in the wake of Decision 16/2 from the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Convention…
Has the Moo Deng craze helped wild pygmy hippos at all? (analysis)
2024 was a chaotic year. The year was, once again, the warmest on record globally, according to the World Meteorological Organization, with multiple climate disasters around the globe. The year…
Lessons from successful mangrove forest restoration in El Salvador (analysis)
The intrinsic value of mangroves and their related coastal ecosystems is getting more recognition than ever before, while actions to conserve and restore our planet’s coastal wetlands are gaining in…
If all life mattered, what would decision-making look like? (Analysis)
In April 2013, the Supreme Court of India delivered a historic judgement recognizing the cultural, religious and spiritual rights of the Dongria Kondh Adivasis, an Indigenous community residing in the…
Cambodia’s Funan Techo Canal project: A catalog of worries (analysis)
Cambodia is pushing ahead with plans to link the nation’s capital, Phnom Penh, to its coast with a canal running 180 kilometers, or 110 miles. According to Cambodian leaders, 51%…
Nature-based recovery needed for Ukraine’s damaged protected areas (analysis)
As winter closes in, Ukraine is facing demoralizing news. Western support for the war is faltering, Ukrainian troops in the east are being pushed onto the back foot amid a…
Marine conservation technology hub rises from old L.A. wharf (analysis)
Ports are considered lifelines of our economy, accounting for 75% of world trade (over 90% by tonnage), but generally not thought of as incubators to solve the climate crisis or…
Nickel mine threatens Philippines biodiversity hotspot on Sibuyan Island (analysis)
A nickel mining concession that overlaps a protected area threatens the unique biodiversity of Sibuyan, a remote island at the center of the Philippine archipelago renowned for its natural beauty…
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
- 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
- Indigenous concerns surface as U.S. agency considers seabed mining in Alaskan waters
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
