KASESE DISTRICT, Uganda — In western Uganda’s Kasese district, where the Rwenzori Mountains meet the sprawling plains of Queen Elizabeth National Park, Janet Nyakairu Abwoli is on a mission to…
A women-led reforestation effort has planted millions of mangrove trees with a high survival rate across swamps in Nigeria’s oil-rich and severely degraded Niger Delta. For decades, the Ogoni people…
Indigenous and local knowledge systems’ ability to nurture human-nature interconnection can play an important role in creating the type of transformative change needed to address the underlying causes of biodiversity…
When David Borbón first arrived in the village of El Delgadito in 1980, it was a paradise with seemingly unlimited natural resources. He continued to return seasonally to fish for…
KATHMANDU — In October 2019, Nepal’s government introduced a new Forest Act. The law laid the basis for the establishment of the Forest Development Fund (FDF) with an extensive mandate…
Amid Myanmar’s ongoing civil war, Karen and other ethnic minority communities have officially launched the Thawthi Taw-Oo Indigenous Park, a new community-led conservation area in the northern Kayin state. The…
In the two years since biodiversity credits garnered a prominent mention in the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) aimed at halting the loss of wildlife, a flurry of projects and…
A new atlas by human rights groups assessed tree cover and biodiversity hotspots on lands belonging to Afro-descendant peoples in 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Rights…
BANGKOK, Thailand — Standing on a coastal boardwalk overlooking the upper Gulf of Thailand, Wisut Leksomboon points to two mature mangrove trees whose branches intertwine like lovers’ limbs. “We found…
STUNG TRENG, Cambodia — It was late in the afternoon of Sept. 16 when Ouk Mao finally answered his phone. The environmental journalist had spent much of that Monday making…
A new commentary piece in the journal Nature has caused an uproar in the conservation world and has prompted scientists to call for rigorous study. According to the authors, the…
MAXAKALI INDIGENOUS LAND, Brazil — Instead of cattle, the Indigenous. And nothing else changes in the landscape as soon as one crosses the sign announcing the entrance to the Maxakali…
After years of delays, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) will soon meet for the first time to discuss Kenya’s failure to implement rulings recognizing the Ogiek…
ZOMBA PLATEAU, Malawi — The Zomba Forest Reserve is a tale of two faces. A large part of the northern section of the plateau is stripped to its last undergrowth…
KATHMANDU — A hilly town close to Nepal’s eastern border with India has declared an area under its jurisdiction as the country’s first community-based red panda (Ailurus fulgens) conservation area,…
JAKARTA — President Joko Widodo recently issued Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) in Indonesia more than 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) of land titles, under his flagship social…
Hundreds of women from traditional communities in the Brazilian Amazon use education and local knowledge to protect the world’s largest continuous belt of preserved mangroves.
Dwelling near the erosion-prone riverbank of the mighty Pasur River, 43-year-old Shumi Mondol understands the importance of a mangrove barrier. Next to her cottage in Loudob in Khulna’s Dacope subdistrict,…
LOITA FOREST, Kenya — Wrapped in fingers of moss, where the spindly upper branches of giant trees tickle the clouds, a highland tropical forest conceals secret groves. These are where…
Along the journey of every pilgrimage, the road to Wirikuta brims with offerings: lit candles, arrows, and jícaras (bowls made from the hardened skin of the jícara, or calabash gourd).…
BAHIR DAR, Ethiopia — The Zege Peninsula, a hidden gem on the southern shore of Lake Tana, is a serene escape in Ethiopia’s north. As the boat glides across the…
PULANG PISAU, Indonesia — Bandi paddled through the black swamp, passing alongside banks of high brush outside Kalawa village here in the south of Borneo Island. The narrow canoe, known…
BAN NAI NANG, Thailand — Carefully prying open the lid of a wooden bee box, Ali Madwang gazes intently into the cavity as sunlight illuminates the scene within. A hubbub…
Tech giants are joining forces and having a go at the beleaguered voluntary carbon market. In an attempt to offset their greenhouse gas emissions, or at least a part of…
PHNOM PENH — A rights group in Cambodia has accused a United Nations project of promoting private sector actors tied to human rights and environmental abuses. The U.N. Development Programme’s…
Indigenous ranger Jason Petersen remembers how he used to watch the world’s oldest rainforest in wonder as a child. When the rains arrived, they would wash the dust from the…
There’s a quiet divide among Indigenous and traditional community advocates on the topic of carbon markets. On one hand, some believe carbon credit projects operating on their lands should be…
Each morning, as Luis Arrieta heads out to begin work on his shade-grown coffee farm, vindication comes in the form of birdsong gushing from the trees, a cacophony of trills…
SEPINTUN, Indonesia — Past generations of Dahwas’s family lived off the food and fuel growing all around them, traversing Sumatra's forest unobstructed whenever cultural norms required the seminomadic Suku Anak…
Civil society groups in Southeast Asia are calling for greater public participation and transparency in the drafting process of a regional declaration on environmental rights, as well as stronger levels…
MONROVIA — Chainsaw-milled timber is emerging as a damaging new form of illegal logging in Liberia. Chainsaw milling is legally permitted only for small-scale production of boards for the country’s…
Developers have rolled out the first ever interactive online tool to track all funding for Indigenous peoples, local communities and Afro-descendant peoples’ forest stewardship and land tenure. The Path to…
