Conservation’s unfinished business
Conservation often presents itself as a technical enterprise: how much land to protect, which species to prioritize, what policies deliver results. A recent paper in Nature argues that this framing…
Indigenous Peoples News
AI-centered conservation efforts can only be ethical if Indigenous people help lead them (commentary)
In November, we joined more than 50,000 Indigenous and world leaders, diplomats, scholars and activists at the 30th United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP30) in Brazil. Some of the…
Urban sprawl and illegal mining reshape a fragile Amazon frontier
MITÚ, Colombia — Beneath the rising sun, people from nearby Indigenous communities navigate across the Vaupés River in traditional wooden canoes toward Mitú, a rapidly expanding town in the Colombian…
Cultural changes shift an Indigenous community’s relationship with the Amazon forest
VAUPÉS, COLOMBIA – As a baby, Elisa Fernández Sánchez’ mother would place her into the bow of the canoe and glide across the murky waters of the Vaupés River in…
Massive Amazon conservation program pledges to put communities first
In the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve in the Brazilian Amazon, locals tap rubber and extract Brazil nuts from the rainforest for a living. It’s a way of life dependent on…
‘I’m proud to be the first published Asháninka researcher’: Richar Antonio Demetrio on bees
In Indigenous Asháninka belief, bees were once spirits in human form. Stories tell of a woman who enjoyed making masato, a traditional Amazonian fermented beverage. Every day, she would boil…
Guatemala’s eco defenders reel from surge in killings and persecution
Environmental and territorial defenders in Guatemala face a critical moment as violence targeting them increases across the country. In 2024, at least 20 such defenders were killed for their work,…
Deforestation climbs in Central America’s largest biosphere reserve
Encompassing some 7,400 square kilometers, or 2,860 square miles, along the Honduran border, Nicaragua’s Bosawás Biosphere Reserve is the largest biosphere reserve in Central America. It’s home to the Miskito…
Latin America in 2025: Conservation promises collide with crime and extraction
MEXICO CITY — Throughout 2025, Latin America remained a battleground between efforts to conserve some of the world’s most valuable ecosystems and mounting pressure from organized crime and legal extractive…
Southeast Asia’s 2025 marked by fatal floods, fossil fuel expansion and renewed mining boom
BANGKOK — 2025 saw global conservation plunged into chaos, with an estimated $500 million in funding from the United States government abruptly slashed after Donald Trump returned to office. The…
Top 10 Indigenous news stories that marked 2025
2025 saw a mix of news sweep through Indigenous communities around the world, touching on issues both new and old. Efforts to increase direct funding to support Indigenous peoples’ land…
Fights against development projects marks 2025 for Nepal’s Indigenous people
As Indigenous peoples and local communities globally struggle to safeguard their rights over their land and forests, Nepal hasn’t been an exception. In the face of socioeconomic and environmental threats,…
A ‘national pride’ highway meets Indigenous resistance in ancient Nepali settlements
KHOKANA — For generations, Manhera Shrestha’s family has cultivated the same ancestral land in Khokana, an ancient settlement perched on the southern edge of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu. Life here has…
The year in rainforests 2025: Deforestation fell; the risks did not
The story of the world’s tropical forests in 2025 was not one of dramatic reversal, but one shaped by accumulated pressure. In several regions, deforestation slowed. In others, loss continued…
The rise of CC35 and the business behind its climate deals
This investigation was produced with support from the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). Isabel Alarcón contributed reporting from Ecuador. BARCELONA — Covering more than 65 million hectares (160 million acres)…
Sámi reindeer herders protest EU-backed graphite mine, fearing lost grazing ground
Sweden has granted the Australia-based battery anode and graphite company, Talga Group, the necessary permits to move forward with its Nunasvaara South graphite mine near Vittangi in northern Sweden. The…
The Amazon in 2026: A challenging year ahead, now off the center stage
As Belém's COP30 ended in compromise, political forces moved swiftly to accelerate destruction far from the global spotlight.
Environmental defenders & conservationists who died in 2025
I write short obituaries for people who spent their lives protecting parts of the natural world. I work on them in the margins of other responsibilities, yet they have become…
All new roads lead to increased deforestation in Ecuador’s Indigenous territory
Between March and May 2025, at least eight children from the Achuar Indigenous community died of leptospirosis in the southern Ecuadorian Amazon. The disease is preventable with access to safe…
Congo’s communities are creating a 1-million-hectare biodiversity corridor
Dominique Bikaba’s family was once displaced from vibrant rainforests in the Congo Basin to make way for a sweeping national park. Today, a conservationist who also champions the protection of…
The vanishing pharmacy: How climate change is reshaping traditional medicine
Gyatso Bista remembers the sacks of kutki. As a child learning to become a healer in Nepal's kingdom of Lo Manthang, Bista would watch as heaps of the bitter-tasting herb,…
Mexico is inflating its climate spending by billions of dollars. Here’s how.
MEXICO CITY — In its fiscal budget for 2026, passed in November, the Mexican government promised funds for renewable energy, protected areas and other environmental concerns. But much of what’s…
Hope, solidarity & disappointment: A familiar mix for Indigenous delegates at COP30
BELÉM, Brazil — Brazil promoted COP30 as both the “Indigenous COP” and the “Amazonian COP,” a summit that would finally center the peoples who have protected the rainforest for millennia.…
New financial tools boost traditional bioeconomy projects in the Amazon
When rigid loans fail to reach forest communities, they work in favor of invaders.
Across Latin America populist regimes challenge nature conservation goals
The election of populist politicians seldom bodes well for the people of the Amazon or the conservation of its biodiversity and ecosystem services. Most are just stylistic versions of the…
From COP30 to Sri Lanka, indigenous voices shape climate & food sovereignty
COLOMBO — When Indigenous groups converged at the entrance of the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP30) summit in Belém, Brazil, halting the flow of delegates, it became clear that this…
The Indigenous women changing the course of their communities
Indigenous women leaders don’t only sustain life in their territories; they are also active defenders of water, seeds, ancestral knowledge and biodiversity. Together, they lead environmental restoration processes and care…
Loma Santa marks first Indigenous protected area in the Bolivian Amazon
Loma Santa, a newly established Indigenous protected area spanning an area the size of the Hawaiian island of Maui, sits at the heart of the T’simane Forest, an expanse of…
In Ecuador’s Yasuní, cameras reveal the wild neighbors visitors rarely see
Ecuador’s northern Amazon is home to some of the most biodiverse areas on the planet, including Yasuní National Park. But visitors are rarely able to see iconic large mammals like…
Indigenous Dayak sound alarm as palm oil firm razes orangutan habitat in Borneo
KAPUAS HULU, Indonesia — A palm oil company is rapidly clearing rainforest inside a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that’s home to orangutans and sun bears, adding to concerns over Indonesia’s efforts…
SE Asia forest carbon projects sidelining social, biodiversity benefits, study finds
Home to Asian elephants, gibbons and critically endangered black-shanked douc langurs, the forests of Cambodia’s Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary were brought under a REDD+ project in 2010. However, several years…
Indigenous knowledge and science join forces to save the choro mussel in Chile
Huellelhue means “place for swimming” in Mapudungun. It’s also the name of one of the rivers that flow through the Lafken Mapu Lahual Multiple-Use Conservation Area, established in 2005 in…
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
- Methane chasers: Hunting a climate-changing gas seeping from Earth’s seafloor
- Scientists call for stronger action to save Indonesia’s vanishing seagrass meadows
- Antarctic conservation summit closes with stalemate on MPAs & krill fishing rules
- Norway’s proposal to double krill harvests raises tension at Antarctic conservation summit
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
- Lithium mining may threaten a precious resource — water: Voices from the land (commentary)
- Indigenous guardians successfully keep extractives out of Ecuador’s Amazon forests
- Amid Venezuela’s illegal gold heist are armed groups, gangs & elites, report says
- Indigenous women in Peru use technology to protect Amazon forests
Endangered Environmentalists
- 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
- Vietnam sentences yet another energy expert over renewables research
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
