Shipments of hammerhead shark fins were approved by the Costa Rican government in violation of an international treaty, conservation groups allege. A school of hammerhead sharks swim near the Galapagos…
Hoffman's two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni) at La Selva Biological Station, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica. Photo by: Geoff Gallice/Creative Commons 2.0. Tropical forests support the greatest diversity of species in the world,…
Click charts to enlarge Loss of tropical forests accelerated roughly 60 percent during the 2000s, argues a paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The findings contradict previous research…
Environmentalist Jairo Mora Sandoval on the beach with fellow WIDECAST volunteers. Photo by: Christine Figgener/Creative Commons 3.0. Yesterday, the seven men accused of brutally murdering Jairo Mora Sandoval on a…
In the past 20 years, amphibian species around the world have experienced rapid decline due to climate change, disease, invasive species, habitat loss and degradation. Populations have decreased by approximately…
Rainforest in Costa Rica. A coalition of governments and organizations today pledged to restore 20 million hectares (50 million acres) of degraded forests and ecosystems across Latin America by 2020…
Note: this is the first draft of a commentary I submitted to Yale Environment 360 last month. A final first-person version is available at A Conservationist Sees Signs of Hope…
An interview with Brian Machovina, a part of our on-going Interviews with Young Scientists series. Brian Machovina and one of his drones, which he flew over banana plantations to study…
The Cape Melville leaf-tailed gecko (Saltuarius eximius) is one of the top ten new species from 2013. Photo by: Conrad Hoskin. Out of around 18,000 new species described and named…
The Theory of Island Biogeography, coined by Robert MacArthur and E.O. Wilson, helps describe why species are distributed as they are. The larger and closer an island is to another…
Fruit-eating bats play an important role in forest regeneration, collecting and spreading seeds far and wide. However, human development may be stymying bat-mediated dispersal. In a new study published in…
Sloths are famous for their exceptionally slow motor skills and petite faces that seem to beam with an almost natural smile. However, less commonly known is the unusual bathroom habit…
Trees left standing after deforestation have a discernible impact on the composition of local biodiversity in secondary growth forests, according to a new study published in PLOS ONE. Researchers working…
Economists find that protected areas reduce poverty in Costa Rica A new study has quantified a point long advocated by advocates of setting aside protected areas: ecotourism pays. The research,…
Epiphytes widely misperceived as parasites may actually protect host trees. The ctenid-spider - a bromeliad-specialist. Photo by Edd Hammill. Imagine a plant. Now remove the soil, for it’s not essential.…
Innovation in Tropical Forest Conservation: Q&A with Robin Chazdon Rainforest near La Selva, Costa Rica. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Dr. Robin Chazdon has dedicated over 30 years to studying…
Worldwide, large swaths of land lay barren in the wake of agricultural expansion, and as global forest cover continues to decline, carbon and water cycles, biodiversity, and human health are…
Also see our Top 10 Environmental Stories of 2013. The discovery of a new tapir species is number seven in our first ever Top 10 List of Happy Environmental Stories.…
A new study using camera traps in mongabay.com's open-access journal Tropical Conservation Science has surveyed the diversity of medium and large-sized predators in the San Juan-La Selva biological corridor in…
Harnessing big data for conservation. The world's largest remote camera trap initiative—monitoring 275 species in 17 protected areas—is getting some big data assistance from Hewlett-Packard (HP). To date, the monitoring…
Also see our Top 10 HAPPY environmental stories of 2013. Elephant in South Africa. The poaching crisis in Africa is number six on our annual top ten list. Photo by:…
In a dramatic response to global warming, tropical forests in the high elevation areas of five continents have been "browning" since the 1990s. They have been steadily losing foliage, and…
Hundreds of kilometers of commercial fishing lines slither along coastal waters in Costa Rica, hooking thousands of mahi-mahi and many other marketable fish. But when scientists scrutinized fishermen’s catch, they…
Authorities in Costa Rica have identified a new method used by fishermen to circumvent a ban on killing sharks for their fins. According to an INTERPOL alert, fishermen are now…
A breeding population of a critically endangered harlequin toad thought to be extinct in Costa Rica has been discovered in a tract of highland forest in the Central American country,…
Oil palm plantations have been rapidly expanding across the tropics for the better part of the past twenty years due to high returns from palm oil production. But palm oil…
Tropical tree communities are moving up mountainsides to cooler habitats as temperatures rise, a new study in Global Change Biology has found. By examining the tree species present in ten…
Birds are providing a valuable ecosystem service on coffee plantations in Costa Rica, finds a new study that quantifies the pest control benefits of preserving tree cover in agricultural areas.…
In 2010 the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) pledged to set aside 17 percent of the world's land as protected areas in addition to protecting 60 percent of the world's…
My apologies for the lack of blog updates. Between long-term projects and building up Mongabay.org--the non-profit arm of Mongabay--I haven't had the opportunity to post lately. However I'm happy to…
