Bitcoin boom comes with huge intensifying environmental footprint
While much has been written about bitcoin, many people still find it a hard topic to comprehend, even as promoters like U.S. President Donald Trump rave about it being a…
Green News
What sharks are worth—and why that matters
Shark conservation is not a field for the faint of heart. It pits biology against commerce, sentiment against symbolism, and, frequently, science against entrenched bureaucracies. Sharks themselves, apex predators honed…
On World Rainforest Day, the world confronts an unprecedented wave of tropical forest loss
If tropical rainforests are the lungs of the Earth, then 2024 was a year of respiratory failure. Fires, fueled by climate extremes and human recklessness, tore through vast stretches of…
As tree planting gathers pace in Bangkok, urban green spaces still under threat
BANGKOK — Urban tree-planting efforts are gathering pace in Bangkok, underpinned by aspirations to boost climate resilience, mitigate dust pollution, and conserve biodiversity. However, a recent study warns that the…
Riding toward a greener future: E-bikes transform food delivery in South Africa
CAPE TOWN — Siphe Mlawuli stands next to her e-bike outside a popular fast-food outlet in Table Bay, a Cape Town suburb. The sun has just set, giving the sky…
New population of rare douc langurs found in Vietnam’s highland forests
Researchers surveying forested mountains in south-central Vietnam have located a new subpopulation of gray-shanked douc langurs, a critically endangered monkey species. The discovery is a sign that more groups of…
Researchers race to understand disease killing Caribbean corals at unprecedented rates
This May, divers found stony coral tissue loss disease on corals in Laughing Bird Caye National Park, Belize, for the first time. The team from Fragments of Hope, a nonprofit,…
Villagers in Sumatra bring ancient forest flavors back to the table
Nurul Nazipah’s favorite dish to cook is one that involves going into the Muaro Jambi forest to pick from among 120 different types of herbs and edible greens that grow…
Rigorous, not righteous: How Gopi Warrier helped build Mongabay India’s newsroom
In the often fractious landscape of environmental discourse, S. Gopikrishna Warrier is a steadying presence. As the editorial director of Mongabay-India, Warrier has spent the past seven years cultivating a…
Indonesia convicts trafficking accomplice in a Javan rhino poaching scandal
Indonesia’s highest court has overturned the acquittal of an accused translator who facilitated transactions in the international trade of poached rhino horns. The Supreme Court in Indonesia recently sentenced 72-year-old…
Photographer Sebastião Salgado (1944-2025) planted a forest and grew a global movement
Sebastião Salgado, the celebrated Brazilian photographer whose powerful black-and-white images captured the dignity of human labor and the fragility of the natural world, died on May 23rd, aged 81. A…
Without vultures, carcasses are slow to rot and disease-carrying flies abound
"Absolutely disgusting, so grim, the worst fieldwork of my life, but also extremely rewarding in a very odd way," said Julia Grootaers, describing her three months collecting data among rotting…
Tropical forest loss hit new heights in 2024; fire a major driver in Latin America
Tropical forest loss skyrocketed in 2024, with vast swaths of primary forest consumed by fire, according to new satellite data from the University of Maryland’s Global Land Analysis and Discovery…
In New Guinea, megadiverse lowland forests are most at risk of deforestation
The island of New Guinea is famed for its eye-popping diversity of plants, animals and human cultures. Estimated to host one-tenth of Earth’s species, it’s the world’s second-largest island and…
How Mongabay India took root: Interview with Sandhya Sekar
Sandhya Sekar never intended to lead a newsroom. Trained as an ecologist, with a Ph.D. in the sciences and a later pivot into journalism, she simply followed her curiosity—first as…
Profit imbalance in palm oil industry risks environmental compliance, report says
Multinational palm oil-buying companies could be doing more to address financial inequities in their global supply chains that perpetuate challenges for smallholder farmers, according to a new report from sustainable…
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…
Warming climate is already too hot to handle for 2% of amphibians, study shows
For about 2% of the world's amphibian species, it’s already getting too hot to survive in their natural habitats, according to a new study in Nature. If the planet keeps…
How Mongabay Indonesia grew into a trusted environmental voice: Interview with Ridzki Sigit
When Ridzki Sigit first encountered the idea of joining Mongabay, we had yet to establish a presence in the language of his native Indonesia. The prospect was novel, even daunting:…
Scientists warn coral restoration can’t keep pace with global reef collapse
Coral restoration won’t save reefs from global warming, according to a recent study – at least, not the way we’re doing it now. The study, conducted by researchers at the…
Agroforestry can reduce deforestation, but supportive policies matter, study finds
Intensifying heat waves, extreme floods and forest fires have devastated parts of Southeast Asia in recent years, spurring experts and authorities to look for holistic solutions. Agroforestry, the practice of…
Mongabay mourns the loss of Ochieng’ Ogodo, our East Africa Editor
It is with deep sorrow that we announce the sudden passing of Ochieng’ Ogodo, Mongabay’s East Africa editor, who died early Thursday morning in Nairobi, Kenya, at the age of…
Action plan aims to save Asia’s leaf-eating monkeys amid ‘alarming’ declines
Primatologists and conservation organizations have launched a 10-year action plan to improve the outlook for langur monkeys in the Sundaland biodiversity hotspot, a region of Southeast Asia that spans Brunei,…
Dugong numbers plummet amid seagrass decline in Thailand’s Andaman Sea
Unprecedented numbers of emaciated dugongs have washed up dead along Thailand’s Andaman Sea coast over the past three years, prompting marine scientists to urgently investigate what’s driving their decline. Thailand’s…
As Acapulco’s mangroves disappear, Mexico takes strides to protect its coastal forests
In the Mexican port city of Acapulco, in southwestern Guerrero state, human activities have put so much pressure on the most important lagoons that the mangrove areas in this city…
Brazil is speeding-up forest fire prevention to avoid dangerous tipping points in the Amazon (commentary)
Brazil is facing an alarming surge in forest fires. Last year, the country registered 237,000 fires and over 30.8 million hectares of vegetation were consumed by flames—an area the size of Italy. This represented a 79% increase in…
Farmers turn to living ‘yam sticks’ to grow their crop and spare the forest
Yams are considered one of the world’s most important crops. A starchy, nutrient-rich root vegetable of the genus Dioscorea, the yam thrives in a tropical belt across West Africa, with…
Madagascar highway pushes on through controversy
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar — The Malagasy government is pushing ahead with a controversial highway linking Antananarivo and the port city of Toamasina, 260 kilometers (162 miles) away. Construction has already begun…
Exploring India, finding new species: Interview with biologist Zeeshan Mirza
A green pit viper named after Salazar Slytherin from Harry Potter, an unfamiliar snake found in an Instagram post, and twelve new species of day geckos from a single mountain…
Iranian scientist names new praying mantis species for freedom
A new-to-science species of praying mantis found in Iran has been named as a symbol of universal freedom. Sinaiella azadi was found in the mountainous region of central Iran in…
Agroforestry stores less carbon than reforestation, but has many other benefits, study finds
A recent study in Ecological Solutions and Evidence shows just how complicated and challenging it is to achieve carbon sequestration goals through forest management — but not impossible. The research…
World Wildlife Day 2025: What I learned speaking spider monkey
I’ve learned to speak some spider monkey over the years. As a conservationist working out of the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, I’ve spent years of my life in the jungle. I…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- 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
- Fires rip through Indigenous territories in Brazilian Amazon
Oceans
- Major coral loss in Vietnam’s first marine protected area: Study
- When heat waves hit, clownfish shrink to survive, study finds
- Samoa’s new marine spatial plan protects 30% of the country’s ocean
- Tuna fishing devices drift through a third of oceans, harming corals, coasts: 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
- Indigenous Bajo suffer child deaths & toxic sludge amid green energy push
- ‘Colombia’s Amazon peoples provide solutions’: Interview with José Homero Mutumbajoy
- Should mining companies consider no-go zones where isolated Indigenous peoples live? (Commentary)
- Brazil sets a date to remove illegal miners from Munduruku land, more details await
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
