Promising breakthrough creates plastics that self-deconstruct on cue: Study
Plastics have a gigantic built-in problem: They’re tenacious, which is very good for a milk jug or a car bumper. But they don’t easily break down, which is bad for…
Health News
Nations not on track to meet UN 2030 pesticide risk reduction targets: Study
The world’s nations committed to halving overall threats to biodiversity from pesticides and other highly hazardous chemicals by 2030 at the 15th United Nations Biodiversity Conference in 2022. But new…
Emotional and psychological stresses beleaguer conservation professionals (commentary)
Nested within the current biodiversity crisis sits an equally complex and concerning human crisis, but one that receives even less attention: the poor mental health and well-being of the conservation…
Deadly landfill collapse exposes risks faced by Philippines’ waste pickers
RODRIGUEZ, Philippines — Lenny* recalled freezing when he saw the first heap of garbage collapse underneath the feet of his fellow scavengers on the afternoon of Feb. 20, at a…
‘An epidemic of suffering’: Why are conservationists breaking down?
In December 2024, Rachel Graham, executive director of the Belize-based marine nonprofit MarAlliance, posted on LinkedIn that she knew “5 wildlife & conservation scientists who have taken their lives this…
Malaria outbreak among Indigenous Pirahã linked to forest loss, satellite data find
Tucked into Brazil’s Amazon forest, along the Maici River where recently contacted Pirahã people live, journalists observed a dramatic uptick in forest loss. According to data from Global Forest Watch,…
Insects are moving pharmaceutical pollutants from rivers to land; risks unknown
Pharmaceuticals that people globally rely on for daily health — including antibiotics, antidepressants and painkillers — are entering ecosystems via wastewater, posing poorly understood risks. Once there, aquatic insects can…
Thousands of peat fires flare across Indonesia despite rainy season
JAKARTA — Satellite imagery recorded more than 5,000 fire hotspots on peatlands across Indonesia in January, despite the fact that much of the country remains firmly in the grip of…
Pilot projects aim to break Indonesia’s habit of burning household waste
JAKARTA — When old mattresses and broken chairs are dumped by the roadside in his neighborhood, Erwinsyah faces a choice: leave them there and risk accidents, or set them on…
Indonesia’s steel expansion risks a surge in greenhouse gas emissions
JAKARTA — Indonesia’s steel industry is becoming one of the country’s fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, even as it receives far less public attention than other carbon-intensive sectors. The…
Plastic household waste burned as fuel on rise in Global South, risking health
Burning plastic waste for household fuel, or to manage household waste, may be far more prevalent in poor urban areas in developing countries than previously thought, raising serious environmental pollution…
Rio de Janeiro state bans shark meat for school meals
RIO DE JANEIRO — The government of the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro has banned shark meat for meals in most of the schools it manages, citing health and…
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…
Hidden heroes: Australian tree bark microbes consume greenhouse & toxic gases
Microbes living in tree bark consume vast amounts of climate-related and toxic gases, according to new research published Jan. 8 in Science. In the past, tree bark was considered little…
Turning the Amazon’s toxic gold mine waste liability into economic opportunity (analysis)
The wildcat gold mining boom that swept across the Amazon beginning in the 1970s left behind an environmental catastrophe of staggering proportions. At least 350,000 hectares (almost 865,000 acres) of…
On Indonesia’s longest river, a Borneo community passes crucial public health milestone
SEKADAU, Indonesia — Children’s laughter skimmed over water the color of mud as mothers wrung laundry over banks where the Sekadau joins the Kapuas, the longest river in Indonesia. Local…
Marine heat waves and raw sewage combine to put human health at risk
Earlier this year, a spate of deaths in Florida caused by Vibrio vulnificus, known as the flesh-eating bacteria, made headlines. Infections of this kind are troublingly on the rise as…
Earth’s freshwater fish face harsh new climate challenges, researchers warn
Southeast Asia’s Mekong River is one of the world’s most diverse and productive freshwater ecosystems, home to more than 1,000 fish species, including both the critically endangered Mekong giant catfish…
Rio Doce communities still live with toxic water, 10 years after Mariana disaster
LINHARES, Espírito Santo, Brazil — A yellow mark stains the blue water tank sitting in the front yard of Lucimar Dias dos Santos Silva’s home. The same color, at times…
Banned for years, dangerous pesticides persist in Nigerian farming
The sun rises over lush farm fields of on the outskirts of Lagos. For more than 20 years, a farmer named Joe has tilled the land, coaxing life from the…
Boom in burning waste for fuel could put human health and environment at risk
As the world desperately searches for a way out of its global climate change and plastic pollution crises, nations are increasingly turning to burning municipal waste to make fuel as…
Can two Amazons survive? Invisible e-waste is poisoning the world
“I live in Accra, Ghana,” says Isaac Dinwe, who works for Closing the Loop, a Dutch company that works with the electronics industry to increase global recycling. “The e-waste problem…
‘Silent epidemic of chemical pollution’ demands radical regulatory redo, say scientists
An international team of scientists has issued a stark warning that current toxicology and chemical regulatory regimes are failing to protect public health and the environment from a host of…
Conservation can emphasize human well-being to navigate its current funding crisis (commentary)
Conservation is facing a crisis, fueled by myriad factors including cuts in funding, weakening support from governments, and disinformation. A significant driver of this crisis is a lack of understanding…
IDB financed meat & poultry company that polluted Indigenous Ecuador lands: Report
In Peripa, an Indigenous Tsáchila village in Ecuador, there are still traditional healers, but medicinal plants are disappearing. Rivers no longer heal — instead, they make people sick. In the…
Healthy rivers, healthy people: A Brazil project links human & ecosystem well-being
Some 30 years ago, Apolo Heringer, a Brazilian public health doctor, was participating in a night fishing trip with residents of the community Raiz, in southeastern Brazil. That night, the…
Report finds dangerous mercury levels, highlights mislabeling in shark meat sold in EU
Shark meat sold across Europe may be serving up more than seafood. Dangerously high levels of methylmercury, toxic to humans, were present in nearly a third of shark meat samples…
Drax pellet mill wins appeal to raise pollution limits in small Mississippi town
In April 2025, the town of Gloster, Mississippi, population 858, won a significant battle against the giant global wood pellet maker Drax, when the permitting board of the Mississippi Department…
Radioactive leak in Banten exposes workers to danger & reveals regulatory failures
SERANG, Indonesia — The rain had just passed over Nambo Udik, a village in Cikande, Serang, Banten. The air hung heavy and damp, and puddles lingered in the muddy yard…
In the heart of Bolivia, the mountain that financed an empire risks collapsing
At about 4,800 meters, or nearly 15,800 feet, above sea level, Cerro Rico towers over the city of Potosí, in Bolivia’s southern highlands. Famous for its vast silver reserves, Cerro…
Nepal seeks World Bank loan to fight air pollution despite hefty taxes to do so
KATHMANDU — Nepal’s government is negotiating terms for millions of dollars in loans and grants from the World Bank to fund a project to fight air pollution, even though it…
‘Alarming’ levels of toxins found in free-range eggs near dumpsites globally
A recent study has found “alarming” levels of toxic chemicals in free-range eggs around the globe. The finding is based on more than a decade of analyses of eggs on…
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
