Beetle known for ravaging mango trees now killing baobabs, study finds
A couple of years ago, Sarah Venter wrote an article gently picking apart alarm over the specter of Africa's iconic baobabs dying off due to climate change. Her review found…
Extinction News
Brazil wanted more protections for its endangered national tree. Then France called
Just three months ago, Brazil seemed close to winning the highest level of international trade protections for the country’s symbol and namesake, the Brazilwood tree (Paubrasilia echinata). On Nov. 26,…
Study refutes claim that Indonesia’s legal turtle trade supports livelihoods
With an evolutionary history of more than 200 million years, turtles and tortoises have outlived dinosaurs and persisted on the planet despite mass extinction events. But around the turn of…
IUCN launches group to conserve at-risk microbes vital to life on Earth
Invisible in their trillions, microbes dwell in our bodies, grow in soils, live on trees and are integral to planetary health. Yet the huge oversized roles these teeming biodiverse microbial…
For two of the world’s most at-risk primates, threats abound and the future looks grim
Between Nigeria’s Cross River and Cameroon’s Sanaga River lies one of West Africa’s largest remaining blocks of intact rainforest. Noisy groups of Preuss’s red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus preussi) move through…
The conservation ledger: What we lost and what we gained in 2025
Extinction is rarely a moment. It is a process that unfolds offstage, marked by missed sightings, thinning records, and the slow reassignment of hope to footnotes. Discovery, too, is rarely…
Photos: Top new species from 2025
The world still holds its secrets. Hidden under wet rocks, in the ocean's twilight crevices, and in the minutiae of the genetic code are creatures unknown and unnamed by the…
Jay M. Savage, witness to disappearing frogs and builder of tropical science
In the late 1980s, something began to go wrong in places that were supposed to be safe. Protected cloud forests, buffered from chainsaws and bulldozers, started losing animals that had…
Choosing coexistence over conflict: How some California ranchers are adapting to wolves
This is the fourth part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. A lone gray wolf (Canis lupus) named…
South Africa withdraws abalone listing even as illegal trade threatens species
Amid negotiations last week on wildlife trade regulations by delegates from around the world, one item was left out of the discussions. South Africa had been expected to bring to…
To save jaguars from extinction, scientists in Brazil are trying IVF and cloning
MIRANDA, Brazil — We made three attempts to capture a jaguar after arriving at Fazenda Bodoquena in Miranda, Mato Grosso do Sul state, on a Thursday afternoon in early September.…
First state-authorized killings mark escalation in California’s management of wolves
This is the third part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read the first and the second parts. In late October, wildlife authorities in the U.S.…
Botanists decode secret life of rare plants to ensure reintroduction success
It was 2006 and Ismail Ebrahim, a botanist with the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), was worried. While surveying one of the last remaining patches of renosterveld shrubland in…
Already disappearing, Southeast Asia’s striped rabbits now caught in global pet trade
In the remote rainforest of Sumatra, Indonesia, and the Annamite Mountains straddling Vietnam and Laos, two species of nocturnal rabbits live elusive lives. These species, both of which have distinctive…
For sharks on the brink of extinction, CITES Appendix II isn’t protective enough (commentary)
Sharks are some of the most threatened animals on Earth, with approximately one-third of all species assessed as threatened with extinction on the IUCN Red List. These animals are not…
A slowdown, not salvation: what new extinction data reveal about the state of life on Earth
For decades, biologists have warned that humanity is precipitating a sixth mass extinction. By some estimates, species are vanishing at up to a thousand times the natural background rate. Yet…
In memory of the Christmas Island shrew
It never weighed more than a spoonful of sugar. Five or six grams of life, soft-furred and sharp-nosed, moving through the roots and leaf litter of a tiny island in…
Arctic seals edge closer to extinction as sea ice vanishes
Three Arctic seal species have moved closer to extinction, as rapid sea ice loss continues to erode their breeding and feeding grounds, according to the latest update of the IUCN…
Mining the deep-sea could further threaten endangered sharks and rays
New research has found that deep-sea mining in international waters could threaten at least 30 species of sharks, rays and chimaeras — many of which are already at risk of…
Study warns up to a quarter of Philippine vertebrates risk extinction
The Philippines, long recognized as one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots, could lose nearly a quarter of its unique land-dwelling vertebrate species unless urgent conservation action is taken,…
Indigenous-led protections spark Bali starling’s recovery in the wild
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…
Biodiversity is our most sophisticated information network and must be protected (commentary)
As a conservationist, I often find myself reflecting on the deeper meaning of biodiversity. Beyond its beauty and its value to human well-being, biodiversity represents the most ancient and sophisticated…
Funding is needed to save Samoa’s ‘little dodo’ from extinction (commentary)
It’s early August 2025. Deep in the rainforests of Upolu, on the island of Samoa, Moeumu “Moe” Uili and I have paused our hike, counting the seconds between coo calls…
Mozambican reserve harbors largest documented breeding population of rare falcon
A new study reports that the Niassa Special Reserve, a 4-million-hectare (10-million-acre) wilderness in northern Mozambique, harbors the largest documented breeding population of Taita falcons. A survey that focused on…
Madagascar’s dry forests need attention, and Verreaux’s sifakas could help
ANTANANARIVO — Which tropical habitats are worthy of conservation? Humid forests, with their dazzling species counts, easily gain notice. Dry forests may not boast the same numbers, but their unique…
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…
Collaboration key to lemur survival: Interview with primatologist Jonah Ratsimbazafy
ANTANANARIVO — “Tomorrow offers two paths. On the left, extinction. On the right, survival,” eminent primatologist Jonah Ratsimbazafy told the recently concluded 30th Congress of the International Primatological Society (IPS)…
Latest rhino assessment finds two species recovering, but three continue to decline
Over the last two decades, conservationists have fought a formidable battle: Trying to protect the world’s remaining rhinos in Africa and Asia from poachers. The slaughter is driven by relentless…
Nepal looks to Cambodia’s breeding model as Bengal florican numbers plunge
KATHMANDU — Debate is growing in Nepal over moves to start breeding the Bengal florican, a critically endangered bird, in captivity. A 2024 government plan that proposes captive breeding in…
Small islands offer big hope for conservation of endemic species, study shows
Animals living on small islands are often thought to be more susceptible to extinction compared to those distributed across mainland land masses. Small population sizes, limited habitat availability, and genetic…
Social media post sparks rediscovery of endemic Sri Lanka rainforest plant
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…
Fate of iconic, and endangered, Brazilwood pits musical tradition against conservation
The tree with deep red wood and yellow flowers that gave Brazil its name is disappearing. Native to the Atlantic Rainforest and exclusive to Brazilian soil, the number of Paubrasilia…
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
- Mongabay shark meat exposé wins national journalism education award in Brazil
- Indigenous concerns surface as U.S. agency considers seabed mining in Alaskan waters
- Methane chasers: Hunting a climate-changing gas seeping from Earth’s seafloor
- Scientists call for stronger action to save Indonesia’s vanishing seagrass meadows
Amazon Conservation
- Researchers eye jaguar conservation wins under Brazil Indigenous stewardship project
- ‘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
Land rights and extractives
- What’s happening with the global treaty to trace critical minerals?
- In the race for DRC’s critical minerals, community forests are on the frontline
- Lithium mining may threaten a precious resource — water: Voices from the land (commentary)
- Indigenous guardians successfully keep extractives out of Ecuador’s Amazon forests
Endangered Environmentalists
- José Albino Cañas Ramírez, a defender of Indigenous territories, aged 44
- A killing with precedent: Kaiowá man’s murder fits a pattern in Brazil
- Environmental & rights activists flee and hide as M23 captures DRC’s cities
- Environmental journalist in Cambodia shot and killed by suspected logger
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
- Flores’ geothermal ambitions collide with justice, culture & local resistance
- 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
