Animals that spread seeds are critical for climate solutions
When a toucan plucks fruit from a tree in the Amazon Rainforest, it’s doing more than just finding lunch. Moving to a new location and depositing seeds via its droppings…
Climate Change News
With global rules pending, can the shipping industry get more carbon efficient?
This is Part 2 of a short series on efforts to decarbonize the global shipping industry. Part 1 discussed international policy and politics. This part looks at efficiency measures. Those…
Grassroots community seeds sorghum in eastern Indonesia to adapt to climate change
LEMBATA ISLAND, Indonesia — A horde of children from Tapobali village rush out of Wulandoni 4 Junior High School to the sorghum field clasping blades and gathering starchy panicles into…
No new record low for Arctic sea ice loss in 2025
Sea ice floating atop the Arctic Ocean reached its minimum extent for 2025 on Sept. 10, covering 4.602 million square kilometers (1.78 million square miles) concluding this year’s summer melt-out.…
Warming triggers unprecedented carbon loss from tropical soils, study finds
Climate warming could cause much greater soil carbon losses in the tropics than previously predicted, with potentially dire consequences for the global climate, according to a new study published in…
An ancient Indigenous civilization endures beneath an Amazon urban soy hub
Santarém’s ceramics grace museums around the globe, yet the city’s heritage remains largely unknown in Brazil.
Ani Dasgupta watched wetlands tame floods in Kigali. He believes nature is infrastructure we can fund.
Ani Dasgupta has spent a career trying to make cities fairer and the planet more livable, first as an architect in training, then as a World Bank hand in the…
Beavers restored to tribal lands in California benefit ecosystems
This is the first installment of Mongabay's coverage of beaver restoration in California. CHESTER, Calif. — The pictograph, an ochre-red outline with four paws and an unmistakable paddle of a…
Madagascar’s dry forests need attention, and Verreaux’s sifakas could help
ANTANANARIVO — Which tropical habitats are worthy of conservation? Humid forests, with their dazzling species counts, easily gain notice. Dry forests may not boast the same numbers, but their unique…
Indonesia flooding traced to corporate canals that drain peatlands: Report
JAKARTA — Flooding disasters in Indonesia are increasingly traced not to natural causes, but to corporate destruction of peatlands, NGO Pantau Gambut warns in its newest report. The report reveals…
Indonesia’s giant Java seawall plan sparks criticism & calls for alternatives
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has set up a new authority to build a massive seawall along the north coast of Java, a project aimed at shielding millions of residents from…
Brazil’s market-based forest fund gets new endorsers ahead of COP30 debut
Brazil is betting big on future rewards to save tropical forest, but critics fear nature will receive a “price tag.”
Indonesia prioritizes gas over renewables to meet power demand surge
In May, Indonesia’s state-owned electricity monopoly, PLN, vowed to increase its complement of natural gas power plants as part of a gambit, it said, to make its power supply cleaner…
Leaders pitch homegrown solutions at Africa Climate Summit — and $100b to back them
ADDIS ABABA — African leaders attending the Africa Climate Summit in Addis Ababa this week have called for a new global partnership that treats the continent as an engine of…
Post-Blob, California’s kelp crisis isn’t going away
FORT BRAGG, U.S. — In 2024, I was scuba diving in Northern California’s Casper Cove where the Watermen’s Alliance, a group of ex-abalone sports divers, has been culling purple urchins…
‘Independent’ auditors overvalue credits of carbon projects, study finds
A hidden incentive structure may be driving the approval of questionable carbon credits.
How climate change could affect production of the world’s favorite fruit, the banana
Sweet, savory, raw, fried or baked. A main course, side dish, dessert or smoothie. Raise a hand: Who doesn't have at least one fond memory of the world's most widely…
Report sees $20B in revenue for Amazon REDD+ projects despite unmet promises
Amazon states are eager to reap vast revenues, but carbon projects often fail to fix root causes of deforestation.
Latest rhino assessment finds two species recovering, but three continue to decline
Over the last two decades, conservationists have fought a formidable battle: Trying to protect the world’s remaining rhinos in Africa and Asia from poachers. The slaughter is driven by relentless…
New study pinpoints tree-planting hotspots for climate and biodiversity gains
Reforestation is gaining global momentum as a climate solution, but scientists warn that planting trees indiscriminately isn’t effective. Its success depends on how and, crucially, where it’s done. A new…
Soil carbon: Crucial ally or potential threat to net-zero commitments?
The daily destruction of nature’s carbon stores is happening right before our eyes, as forests are ravaged by catastrophic wildfires and vast tracts of wildlands are cleared for agriculture. But…
Why is rainfall declining in the Amazon? New research says deforestation is the leading driver
For decades the world’s largest rainforest has been getting drier. A new study published in Nature Communications disentangles how much of this shift can be blamed on humanity’s warming of…
Carbon offset markets are unfair to communities in Borneo & beyond (commentary)
I write this while waiting for my tablet to die. Tomorrow, I’ll return to air-conditioning, stable WiFi and refrigeration, but here in Long Moh, deep in the remote Upper Baram…
Despite pledge, Colombia still has ways to expand Amazon oil exploration
Over the last several years, the Colombian government has taken steps to end oil and gas drilling in the Amazon. It pledged to stop issuing new exploration licenses and signed…
Climate change is driving fish stocks from countries’ waters to the high seas: Study
Fish and other marine organisms, though deeply affected by human activities, don’t respect human borders. The ranges of many commercially important species in fact straddle the borders of countries’ exclusive…
Rewilding project aims to restore resilience to fire-prone Spain via wildlife
Some 30,000 years ago, Stone Age people decorated a cave, today known as Cueva de los Casares, in central Spain with pictures of mating humans (most famously), geometric shapes, and…
In Nepal, artificial ponds offer drought relief despite lingering doubts
KATHMANDU — Until the summer of 2024, residents of Rajabahs village in Nepal’s southeastern Madhesh province reeled under a water shortage for more than eight years as wells and springs…
Climate negotiations must begin to prioritize conservation of wetlands like Brazil’s Pantanal (commentary)
A year ago, deep in the heart of the Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetland, the lifeless body of Gaia, a jaguar known and loved by conservationists, was found charred…
Scientists warn ocean-based climate fixes lack rules and oversight
A growing number of oceans-based solutions to the climate crisis have been tried or devised in recent years, thanks largely to an influx of funding. These range from replanting lost…
How science links extreme weather disasters to climate change: Interview with WWA’s Clair Barnes
Human activities have been the major driver of climate change since the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1800s. As greenhouse gas levels, primarily carbon dioxide due to the…
Escalation in tourism, climate change leaves Nepal’s Mustang in fragile state
MUSTANG, Nepal — On a crisp morning after a night of rain, the breeze diffuses the smell of wet earth in the village of Kagbeni in Mustang, Nepal’s trans-Himalayan frontier.…
Sustainable biomass certification scheme is flawed, degrades forests, report finds
The Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) is a leading global biomass certification scheme offering assurances to end users (especially nations in the EU and Asia) that biomass (especially wood pellets for…
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
- Post-Blob, California’s kelp crisis isn’t going away
- Global tracking study reveals marine megafauna hotspots lie largely unprotected
- First-ever assessment highlights threats to Atlantic cold-water corals
- Major coral loss in Vietnam’s first marine protected area: Study
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
- In Argentina, lithium exploration proceeds amid community disputes
- Indigenous Amazonians win landmark ruling against mercury pollution in Colombia
- Indigenous Bajo suffer child deaths & toxic sludge amid green energy push
- ‘Colombia’s Amazon peoples provide solutions’: Interview with José Homero Mutumbajoy
Endangered Environmentalists
- Environmental & rights activists flee and hide as M23 captures DRC’s cities
- Environmental journalist in Cambodia shot and killed by suspected logger
- Vietnam sentences yet another energy expert over renewables research
- Mother Nature Cambodia activists sentenced to prison — again
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
