Scientists’ secret weapon to monitor the Southern Ocean? Elephant seals
At the start of each year, southern elephant seals living on Kerguelen Island above Antarctica shed the thick mat of their winter fur, while growing in a fresh layer of…
As its end looms, Cerrado tracker records 6-year deforestation high
Under threat since 2020, the 20-year satellite monitoring program for deforestation in Brazil’s Cerrado savanna, a global biodiversity hotspot, may end in April due to lack of funding. "Part of…
Cattle boom in Brazil’s Acre spells doom for Amazon rainforest, activists warn
With about 80% of its forests still untouched, Acre is one of Brazil’s least-deforested Amazonian states. Bordered by Peru on the west, it represents just 1.7% of Brazil’s huge land…
From the ocean floor, a startup livestreams the rise of coral cities
Nestled on the ocean floor in Southeast Asia are five sensor-filled boxes that will reveal the future of coral reefs. For the past year, from their secret location, the Bluboxx…
‘Kew Declaration’ unites experts on reforestation, aims at policymakers ahead of COP26
We are in a moment of heightened attention and momentum around reforestation and forest restoration. In particular, tree planting is in vogue, bolstered by pop celebrity billionaires and large initiatives…
Tracking white-bellied pangolins in Nigeria, the new global trafficking hub
CROSS RIVER NATIONAL PARK, Nigeria — It wasn’t supposed to be this straightforward. For days, we’d crisscrossed rainforest-blanketed mountains, hacked through thorny thickets and corkscrewing lianas, narrowly escaped rockfalls, and…
Saving sea turtles in the ‘Anthropause’: Successes and challenges on the beach
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Beaches across the planet emptied as COVID-19 spread in 2020, with the first full lockdowns in many places coinciding with sea turtle nesting season. With less noise,…
New research hopes to shine a light on wedgefish, the ‘pangolin of the ocean’
An assessment in 2019 by shark experts identified the little-known family of wedgefishes as among the most threatened marine fish families worldwide. This prompted researchers to roll out a first-of-its-kind…
Find my elephant: The conservation apps revolutionizing how rangers work
In recent years, new and emerging technologies have revolutionized conservation work. At the forefront of this transformation is EarthRanger, a protected-area management software that was developed by Vulcan Inc. in…
End of deforestation tracker for Brazil’s Cerrado an ‘incalculable loss’
The Brazilian Cerrado savanna, a global biodiversity hotspot that has already lost half of its area to crops and cattle, is at risk of no longer being monitored for deforestation…
Global restoration now has an online meeting point
With all of the environmental problems in the world, it can be easy to forget that there are also many solutions. Across the globe, people are working to restore nature,…
Climate change isn’t fueling algal blooms the way we think, study shows
It started in October 2017. A swarm of microscopic algae called Karenia brevis amassed in the waters off Florida’s southwest coast, turning the ocean a rust-red hue. The algae, which…
Final court ruling orders Indonesian government to publish plantation data
JAKARTA — An Indonesian court has upheld a landmark 2017 ruling that all plantation data and maps in the country must be made publicly available — a ruling that the…
How to pick a tree-planting project? Mongabay launches transparency tool to help supporters decide
Planting trees is all the rage right now — billionaires from Elon Musk to Marc Benioff are touting the benefits of massive reforestation — but it's hard to identify legitimate…
Exposing organized crime in the Amazon: Q&A with Robert Muggah of the Igarapé Institute
Mongabay caught up with Igarapé Institute co-founder Robert Muggah this week to discuss Ecocrime, a new data visualization platform that combines visual storytelling with access to raw data on environmental crime…
A hi-tech eye in the sky lays bare Hawaiʻi’s living coral reefs
In a newly released map, the coastal waters of the eight main Hawaiian islands are alight with color. Blue, turquoise, green, yellow, orange and red tinge the islands’ perimeters, each…
New evidence suggests China’s ‘dark’ vessels poached in Galápagos waters
In late June, a fleet of about 300 Chinese fishing vessels swarmed around the rich, biodiverse waters of the Galápagos Islands, armed with overhead lights and industrial jigging machines to…
Ex-Wall Street ‘quant’ wields data to replant charred Madagascar rainforests
In his previous life, Matt Hill worked on Wall Street as a quantitative analyst (a.k.a. a “quant”) for stock portfolios worth billions of dollars. Now, at the helm of a…
As Amazon tree loss worsens, political pressure grows, and Brazil hedges: Critics
New satellite data shows major tree loss, while Brazil’s VP cherry picks the findings, according to experts. Meanwhile, the environment minister appears to welcome illegal miners’ demands for less enforcement.
Photos show scale of massive fires tearing through Siberian forests
This week, Greenpeace International released a series of dramatic photos revealing megafires burning in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, Russia. The images, captured on July 16 by drone, show red…
New study quantifies impact of hunting on migratory shorebird populations
Habitat loss and climate change are often blamed for the decreasing numbers of migratory shorebirds in a major flyway in the Asia-Pacific region in recent years. But it might be…
Success of Microsoft’s ‘moonshot’ climate pledge hinges on forest conservation
Tech giant Microsoft says it will go “carbon negative” by 2030; to get there, it will rely on Pachama, a startup using LIDAR and artificial intelligence to truthfully track forest carbon storage projects.
Malaysia to let RSPO publish oil palm concession maps
JAKARTA — The Malaysian government has decided to allow the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil to publish maps of corporate land concessions for Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak, in a bid…
LIDAR technology leads Brazilian team to 30 story tall Amazon tree
The 88.5 meter (290 foot) tree was found by a study team creating a detailed forest biomass map of the Amazon to track carbon emissions caused by land use change.
Venezuelan crisis: Government censors environmental and scientific data
The Chávez and Maduro administrations have concealed vast amounts of vital scientific data on climate change, deforestation, pollution, mining, water quality and much more, as far back as 2011.
New report reveals northern Ecuadorian region has lost 61 percent of forests
Spanning nearly 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) along the coast, Ecuador’s Chocó region is known as a biodiversity hotspot with high levels of endemism, among the richest region for…
July 2019 was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth
In a press conference yesterday, UN secretary general António Guterres announced that July 2019 was the hottest month on record. Data for the month is still being collected, but July…
Venezuelan crisis: Caring for priceless botanical treasures in a failed state
After two years of severe drought, lacking electricity and water, with a $500 annual budget, the Botanical Garden of Caracas struggles valiantly to protect its precious collection.
Film that fish: Stereo-video speeds surveys of marine fish communities
Marine biologists survey fish assemblages and their associated habitat to understand the ecosystem of a place, compare fish communities over time or in response to changes in management, and examine…
Sponges supply DNA for new method of monitoring aquatic biodiversity
Feeding aquatic sponges could provide biologists with unexpected underwater data collection assistance. Sponges (phylum Porifera) are immobile aquatic animals that eat by filtering out food particles from the water around…
