Amid challenges, Nepal plans its latest tiger & rhino counts
KATHMANDU — After delays, Nepal is set to conduct its tiger survey and rhino count starting between December and March next year. The Department of National Parks and…
Elephants News
Indonesia aims to redraw UNESCO site boundaries to allow geothermal projects
JAKARTA — Indonesia is seeking to redraw the boundaries of a UNESCO World Heritage rainforest to pave the way for geothermal projects — part of its renewable energy push but…
Fear & uncertainty grip Nigerian community after fatal elephant attack
When the going gets tough, the tough get going — but for people in the Itasin-Imobi community, the going has been tough for far too long. Situated in the midst…
As forest elephants plummet, ebony trees decline in Central Africa’s rainforests
In 2017, when Vincent Deblauwe joined the Cameroon-based Congo Basin Institute (CBI) to study African ebony (Diospyros crassiflora) — economically valuable pitch-black, dense wood — the Indigenous Baka people accompanied…
Data debunks spike in Sri Lanka’s elephant killings, points at media hype
COLOMBO — In recent months, elephants have stolen the spotlight yet again in Sri Lanka’s mainstream and social media. The surge in attention to them began when a series of…
In western Nepal, farmers switch to growing turmeric; elephants stay away
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…
Sri Lanka tusker death sparks euthanasia debate & calls for conservation solutions
COLOMBO — Bhathiya is a tusker whose towering presence once symbolized the majestic beauty of Sri Lanka’s wild elephants (Elephas maximus). But his life took a tragic turn when he…
After USAID cut, Ethiopia’s largest community conservation area aims for self-sufficiency
ADDIS ABABA — Local leaders at Ethiopia’s largest community conservation area are working to become financially self-sufficient and continue protecting land and wildlife independently, following the abrupt cut of funding…
Bangladesh plans new ‘protected area’ for elephants in its conflict-prone northeast
In response to rising human-elephant conflicts, Bangladesh is planning to declare the elephant habitats in its northeastern parts a protected area for the species. The country is one of the…
First elephant sighting in 6 years sparks hope for species’ return to a Senegal park
For the first time in six years, an elephant was seen in Senegal’s Niokolo-Koba National Park. Grainy black-and-white footage shows Ousmane, a bull 35 to 40 years old named after…
Pandemic-era slump in ivory and pangolin scale trafficking persists, report finds
A recent report surveying seizures of pangolin scales and elephant ivory over the past decade has found a sharp decline following the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from media reports, public…
Uniting plantations to save Bornean elephants: Interview with Farina Othman
In 2006, Farina Othman heard a loud boom when she was observing a group of Bornean elephants in a forest in the Lower Kinabatangan area, one of the largest floodplains…
Wildlife crime crackdown in jeopardy worldwide after US funding cuts
In 2019, Malawi registered a massive win in the fight against the illegal wildlife trade. Intelligence-driven operations culminated in the arrest of more than a dozen members of the Chinese-led…
Borneo project hopes to prove that forests and oil palms can coexist
The Kinabatangan River is the last major area in Malaysian Borneo’s Sabah state with a semblance of forest corridor linking the interior rainforest with mangroves on the east coast, according…
Photos: The volunteers standing guard at one of Nepal’s human-wildlife frontiers
BARDIYA, Nepal — Ram Raj Dhakal, 22, jolts awake to an alert on his phone. A wild elephant has strayed into a village near Thakurdwara, on the fringes of Bardiya…
The vanishing trail of Sri Lanka’s iconic tuskers calls for urgent action
Minneriya, SRI LANKA — With a single tusk that made him stand out, the majestic bull elephant Unicorn was a true king among the wild herds of Minneriya, a biodiversity…
Lives worth living: Elephants, Iain Douglas-Hamilton and the fight for coexistence
At this point in history, the hubristic belief that people are above nature has allowed humans to bring immeasurable change to the natural systems that all of life depends upon…
Asian elephants fall victim to poor development policies in Bangladesh
Despite planning and accomplishing some wildlife conservation actions over the years, Bangladesh has yet to achieve success in protecting its elephants (Elephas maximus indicus). Instead, the country has lately witnessed…
Male African elephants develop distinct personality traits as they age, study finds
Not all elephants are the same. A new study has found that male African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) develop distinctive personality traits as they age. “We wanted to know whether…
As elephant conflict shifts, Nepal’s border village offers clues for coexistence
SUNDAR HARAICHA, Nepal — A bundle of firewood lay abandoned on the path, a silent witness to tragedy. Nearby, a red shawl, once wrapped around Chandra Kumari Limbu, remained. The…
In Nepal’s Chitwan, elephant’s shooting, death raises eyebrows
KATHMANDU — On the morning of Feb. 5, a soldier deployed at the Chitwan National Park shot a wild elephant (Elephas maximus) after it allegedly attacked an elephant patrol attempting…
How a Nepali border village learned to live with migratory wild elephants
BAHUNDANGI, Nepal – The heavy thud against the glass window sent Krishna Bahadur Rasaili’s heart racing. Stepping outside, he saw his granary lay in ruins, and an elephant was feasting…
Vietnam grapples with ‘alarming popularity’ of online illegal wildlife trade
A new investigation by wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC has uncovered an “alarming” slew of online adverts offering illegal wildlife products for sale in Vietnam, despite pledges from multiple platforms…
Elephants, gorillas and chimps hold out in Cameroon’s largest protected landscape
A survey has found populations of elephant, gorillas and chimpanzees in and around two national parks in southeastern Cameroon has remained relatively stable since 2016. Conservation officials have welcomed this…
‘Like you, I fear the demise of the elephants’
On June 13, 1959, the Waata hunter Galogalo Kafonde surrendered himself to colonial Kenya’s “Field Force,” Africa’s first militarized antipoaching unit. For centuries, the ethnic Waata had hunted elephants. Killing…
Satellite data show bursts of deforestation continue in Indonesian national park
When the Indonesian government established Tesso Nilo National Park in 2004 on a former logging concession, little could it have known that the legacy of logging and deforestation would continue…
Monitoring group cracks down on deforestation in Cameroon gorilla sanctuary
Spanning nearly a tenth of the vast Congo Basin’s rainforest, the transboundary Dja-Odzala-Minkébé (TRIDOM) landscape is a nearly unbroken green canopy, stretching across Cameroon, the Republic of Congo and Gabon.…
Western Kenya’s most important water-capturing forest is disappearing, satellites show
Encompassing some 2,700 square kilometers, Mau Forest is considered the most important water catchment in western Kenya, providing water to millions of people. But recent satellite data reveal that Mau…
Illegal gold mining drives deforestation in DRC reserve home to ‘African unicorn’
Illegal mining inside the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to spread, satellite data show, driving environmental devastation. Deforestation stayed at a near-record high…
Can cattle and wildlife co-exist in the Maasai Mara? A controversial study says yes
Cattle and conservation don’t typically mix. For centuries, East African pastoralists like the Maasai trudged across the region’s savannas with their herds, passing by elephants and lions in their search…
WWF report offers glimmer of conservation hope — yet warns of a planet in peril
With recent conservation efforts and the involvement of Indigenous peoples and local communities in managing protected areas, forest elephant populations are on the verge of stabilizing,in at least one national…
26 elephants from Namibia moved to Angola’s only private conservation area
Cuatir Conservation Area, ANGOLA — On Sept. 2, a team from Namibia’s Okonjati Game Reserve completed the last of four arduous translocations, taking a total of 26 elephants across the…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Satellite data show burst of deforestation in Myanmar rare earth mining hotspots
- 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
Oceans
- Post-Blob, California’s kelp crisis isn’t going away
- Global tracking study reveals marine megafauna hotspots lie largely unprotected
- First-ever assessment highlights threats to Atlantic cold-water corals
- Major coral loss in Vietnam’s first marine protected area: Study
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
- Amid Venezuela’s illegal gold heist are armed groups, gangs & elites, report says
- Indigenous women in Peru use technology to protect Amazon forests
- In Argentina, lithium exploration proceeds amid community disputes
- Indigenous Amazonians win landmark ruling against mercury pollution in Colombia
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
