Global warming hits hardest for those who can’t escape it
In July 2024, a heat wave swept through the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. The surrounding metropolitan area, home to more than 7.5 million people, is known for…
Climate Change News
Pope Francis’ uncompromising defense of nature may be his greatest legacy
Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, was as much a tireless advocate for nature as he was the poor and marginalized the world over. While his death leaves a…
Indonesia defies global coal retreat with captive plant boom
JAKARTA — As much of the world shutters coal power plants and shelves new proposals, Indonesia is bucking the trend — adding the third-highest volume of coal capacity globally in…
Church pressure spurs scrutiny of Indonesian geothermal projects
ENDE, Indonesia — The governor of one Indonesia’s poorest provinces said it would pause development of new geothermal energy projects on the island of Flores, following an intervention by the…
Amazon illegal miners bypass enforcement by smuggling gold into Venezuela
Mongabay followed the steps of Adriano Aguiar de Castro, who, according to authorities, jumped from one gold laundering scheme to another and now is also involved with gold smuggling into Venezuela.
15 years after the BP oil spill disaster, how is the Gulf of Mexico faring?
PLAQUEMINES PARISH, U.S. — Down past New Orleans lies Plaquemines parish, a narrow sliver of land at the tip of Louisiana that reaches southward like a finger pointing into the…
Mangroves mount a fragile green revival in Iraq’s toxic south
BASRA, Iraq — The air in Basra carries a strange weight: part saline mist from the nearby Persian Gulf and part acrid smoke from the towering oil refineries that loom…
How Mexican fishers are protecting an endemic oyster — and its ecosystem
Over the past few decades, the harvesting of the Cortez oyster in western Mexico’s Marismas Nacionales — or the Marshes Biosphere Reserve — in Nayarit state has shifted from suffering…
In an ancient Javanese sultanate, coastal women battle climate fallout
DEMAK, Indonesia — The Java Sea has pursued Sunarti for years, first submerging her birthplace in Timbulsloko village, before forcing the mother of two to flee inland on the northern…
Diverse forests and forest rewilding offer resilience against climate change
When it comes to reforestation, planting a diversity of tree species could have a plethora of positive effects on forest health and resilience, climate mitigation and biodiversity. That’s based on…
As big money wavers, Southeast Asia’s green startups fight to stay powered
In early March, Kevin Junker’s renewable energy startup, SmartSolar, which installs and manages rooftop panels for its clients, announced it had secured $1.85 million in its first round of venture…
Illegal gold mining creeps within a kilometer of Amazon’s second-tallest tree
Illegal gold miners have been moving into Amapá in the wake of federal raids on mining hotspots in other parts of the Brazilian Amazon, including the Yanomami and Munduruku Indigenous territories.
Even the Gulf of Aqaba’s ‘supercorals’ bleached during 2024 heat wave
EILAT, Israel — Rugged red mountains tower over the aquamarine waters off Eilat in southern Israel. A group of divers plunges beneath the waves on a warm winter morning, bound…
In Panama, Indigenous Guna prepare for climate exodus from a second island home
UGGUBSENI and ISBERYALA, Guna Yala, Panama — “Our ancestors fought for this land,” says Jair Goporas, 21. He leans forwards into the dim glow of a bare bulb, his eyes…
How is conservation preparing for a much hotter world? Experts share
About 90 kilometers (56 miles) southeast of Cape Town lies the tranquilly-named town of Betty’s Bay in South Africa, home to less than 2,000 people. But it’s not the people…
Honduras pays the climate cost as its forests disappear and storms rise
TOCOA, Honduras - On a rainy November day in 2024, Storm Sara, a slow-moving tropical cyclone, struck Honduras, claiming at least six lives and displacing more than 6,000 people. Along the…
For scandal-ridden carbon credit industry, Amazon restoration offers redemption
As REDD projects around the world face setbacks, restoration projects in the Amazon are flourishing as a means of reviving market confidence in forest-based carbon credits.
As Acapulco’s mangroves disappear, Mexico takes strides to protect its coastal forests
In the Mexican port city of Acapulco, in southwestern Guerrero state, human activities have put so much pressure on the most important lagoons that the mangrove areas in this city…
Colombia’s green transition should be inclusive: Interview with Susana Muhamad, former environment minister
BOGOTÁ — In June 2022, Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla member, was elected as Colombia’s first avowedly leftist president, promising to fight inequality, bring “total peace” to the country, and…
Colombian farmers switch from coffee to cacao as temperature and prices soar
RISARALDA, Colombia — “Before, anyone who wanted to grow cacao at 1,200 or 1,500 meters [3,900 to 4,900 feet] altitude was considered crazy,” says Orlando Quintero Gonzales, an agronomist in…
Farmers turn to living ‘yam sticks’ to grow their crop and spare the forest
Yams are considered one of the world’s most important crops. A starchy, nutrient-rich root vegetable of the genus Dioscorea, the yam thrives in a tropical belt across West Africa, with…
After outcry, Brazil Supreme Court nixes proposal for mining on Indigenous lands
Brazil's Supreme Court backed down and withdrew its proposal to open up Indigenous territories to mining and economic activities from a controversial bill that critics say violates the Constitution.
Uttarakhand’s extreme weather wreaks havoc on crops, livelihoods & futures
Rita grew up in a small village in Uttarakhand with mountains forming the backbone of her childhood. In a recent call with her sister, she laughed, repeating a little rhyme…
Ground-level ozone pollution poses growing threat to planetary health
Kilometers above the Earth’s surface, the ozone layer protects humanity and all life from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. But in the troposphere, at ground level, this gas can wreak…
Longer periods of drought threaten Brazilian amphibians
Brazil is home to the world’s greatest diversity of amphibians: Of the more than 8,000 species known worldwide, some 1,200 are found in the country, mainly in the Amazon and…
Colombia’s coffee farmers try to balance innovation and tradition to adapt to climate change
CHINCHINA, Colombia — “Before, the seasons seemed etched into the calendar, with well-defined periods of drought and rain. Today, the climate has gone completely mad!” says coffee grower Oscar Gomez from…
As US agroforestry grows, federal funding freeze leaves farmers in the lurch
Agroforestry, the ancient agricultural system of integrating trees and shrubs with crops and livestock, has seen a revival in recent decades in the U.S. Around the country, agroforestry projects have…
UK delays to environment law have led to massive deforestation, report says
In 2021, the U.K. appeared to be making serious strides against illegal deforestation when lawmakers introduced “forest risk” regulations on imported commodities like beef, soy, palm oil, cocoa, coffee and…
Brazil plans new Amazon routes linking the Pacific & China’s New Silk Road
Brazil’s plans to build ports and roads to help move grains, beef and iron ore from the rainforest echo a development vision that dates back to the military dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s.
In Pakistan, sea level rise & displacement follow fisherfolk wherever they go
On a chilly night in February, Umar Dablo, a resident of Pakistan’s southern coastal city Karachi, spent three nights in his flooded house after seawater gushed out from the ground.…
Polar sea ice continues steep decline; but will a troubled world notice?
Sea ice extent is at record, and near record, lows for this time of year in both polar regions, leaving the planet increasingly vulnerable to the cascading effects of global…
Netherlands’ largest forest biomass plant canceled, forest advocates elated
Dutch forest campaigners are claiming a significant victory over one of the Netherlands’ top energy providers, Vattenfall, after the company decided in late February to cancel plans to build the…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- 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
- Fires rip through Indigenous territories in Brazilian Amazon
Oceans
- Peruvian fishers sue for additional compensation after big December oil spill
- Smuggling networks exploit migrant debt to fuel tiger poaching in Malaysia, study shows
- Community-based conservation cuts thresher shark fishing by 91% in Indonesia: Study
- With climate change, cryosphere melt scales up as a threat to planetary health
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
- Should mining companies consider no-go zones where isolated Indigenous peoples live? (Commentary)
- 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
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
