In the coal towns of northern KwaZulu-Natal, the promise of South Africa’s “just transition” feels like a distant dream. While government plans speak of a fair shift to clean energy…
As the Brazilian city of Belém prepares for this year’s U.N. climate conference, COP30, Indigenous leaders worldwide say they’re getting ready to have their demands addressed. Dubbed the “nature COP”…
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.…
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…
A few weeks ago, I wrote about navigating conservation’s crisis. During Climate Week in New York, I joined discussions with grassroots leaders from the Global South that offered a sharper…
NUSA PENIDA, Indonesia — Two young conservation workers rattle up on a motorbike and dismount at the edge of a coconut grove. Picking through husks, fallen fronds and stray plastic…
MAE MOH, Thailand — Thailand has announced it will delay the decommissioning of several coal-fired units at the 2,400-megawatt Mae Moh power plant in Lampang province, prompting fears among communities who…
Real-time monitoring has captured images of lionesses with cubs in Cameroon’s Bouba Ndjida National Park, but conservationists warn human pressure makes it unlikely all the cubs will reach adulthood. There…
As the monsoon clouds recede in Nepal in late September, herders Karma Gurung and Dhana Raj Ghale, who have spent three summer months at an elevation of 4,044 meters (13,270…
COLOMBO —Galle Face Beach in Sri Lanka’s commercial capital, Colombo, is a popular spot among city dwellers, watched over by lifeguards assigned by the coast guard unit of the Sri…
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…
ANTANANARIVO — An international team of biologists has identified a new species of gecko in small forest remnants of southeastern Madagascar. Named Paragehyra tsaranoro, the lizard is microendemic to isolated…
Call it a crossroads. Ecological decline is accelerating in too many places at once; institutions that once limited the damage are wobbling; the information channels we rely on to coordinate action are…
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…
BAN PONG, Thailand — “Look at these ones over here!” calls Chamran Tahpan, as she crouches next to a mound of damp leaves on the forest floor. A cluster of…
Brazil ranks among the countries with the largest reserves of rare earth elements. But scaling up the extraction of these metals, used in various high-tech applications and essential to the…
Francis’s gorgeous sapphire — a new-to-science species of butterfly — has just been described in the high-altitude evergreen forests of western Angola. The identification of Iolaus francisi, with its shimmering…
CHIANG MAI, Thailand — During the second half of the 20th century, Thailand’s forest cover plummeted from around 50% to 25% due to urbanization and rapid economic development. Although legislation…
COLOMBO — In 2012, Sri Lanka’s National Red List delivered a grim verdict on endemic Pini- Beraliya, the towering dipterocarp Doona ovalifolia (syn. Shorea ovalifolia) tree by categorizing it as…
CRUCE A LA COLORADA, Guatemala — It’s mid-May and Luis Antonio Juarez, also known as Tonito, has just received a phone alert about a wildfire in the Maya Biosphere Reserve.…
CONHUAS, Mexico — Esteban Dominguez has lived for more than 20 years close to one of the biggest conservation areas in southeastern Mexico — Calakmul Biosphere Reserve on the Yucatán…
KAMPALA — Ten years ago, Uganda’s capital Kampala was facing a strange problem: trees were falling over on the city’s streets, injuring people and damaging cars and property. The municipality…
KATHMANDU — Nayaram Sunar vividly remembers the day at the end of monsoon season in 2019, when rain was pouring in relentlessly on his sister’s corn field in the village…
DARIÉN, Panama — In a small town called Metetí, deep in Panama’s Darién province, Luis Gutiérrez manages La Reina, or “The Queen,” a cattle ranch named for his wife. His…
COLOMBO — As darkness settled over Colombo on Aug. 3, a small group of young men, led by a zoology professor, slipped quietly into Sri Lanka’s largest cemetery, Borella Kanatte,…
Indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon who have only recently come into contact with the outside world say they want conservation projects to stay out of their territory, along with…
Cambodia’s Indigenous peoples have a deep relationship to forests, land and natural resources, which they traditionally manage in their cultural practices and everyday lives. There are 22 distinct Indigenous communities…
In a world of quick wins and impatient headlines, Martin Goebel is playing the long game. Now Director for Mexico at LegacyWorks Group, a U.S.-based nonprofit, Goebel has spent five…
“When I first saw this vegetation, I thought I was on another planet. It was all so different. … Not just the architecture of the plants, but the entire place.…
Despite being the world’s most heavily trafficked mammal — more than elephants, rhinos and tigers combined — pangolins remain virtually unknown to the public. These shy, scaly creatures are primarily…
When Abebayehu Aticho first visited the flat terrains and floodplains in the Gambella region for his Ph.D. research in 2014, he was captivated by the rich biodiversity and bird varieties…
In the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, local communities are leading the charge against environmental crime — and they’re succeeding. Our new peer-reviewed study published in Conservation Biology has found…
