Podcast: What are the tropical forest storylines to watch in 2021?
For our first episode of 2021, we’re taking the opportunity to look at some of the most important trends and issues that will be affecting rainforest conservation over the next…
Restaura Cerrado: Saving Brazil’s savanna by reseeding and restoring it
An innovative collaborative group is working to restore Brazil’s savanna by sowing native plant seeds on degraded agricultural lands; it’s an effort that’s working, say participants.
Philippine wildlife reporting app promises to upgrade fight against trafficking
MANILA — In the Philippines, it’s normal for neighbors to share their food, and — since most areas are still under a form of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic…
Facial recognition tech for chimps looks to bust online ape trafficking
The global spread of social media has created unparalleled opportunities for wildlife traffickers to advertise their illicit wares to potential buyers around the world. Traffickers can use platforms like Facebook…
Pandemic or not, the mission to save the rare Philippine eagle grinds on
MANILA — “How can we rehabilitate a Philippine eagle during a lockdown?” That was the first thought Jayson Ibañez says crossed his mind after he answered a phone call bearing…
Conservation insights from an enormous aspen clone: Q&A with ecologist Paul Rogers
With its groves of pockmarked white bark and trembling green medallion leaves, Pando looks like any other aspen forest. But the approximately 47,000 stems that form its giant body share…
Podcast: Listening to elephants to protect Central Africa’s tropical forests
On today’s episode of the Mongabay Newscast we take a look at a project that aims to preserve the rainforests of the Congo Basin in Central Africa and the biodiversity…
In South Korea, centuries of farming point to the future for sustainable agriculture
South Korea has been held up as a model by other nations around the world for its current handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the country also leads the way…
Through biomimicry, Brazil seeks tech innovations inspired by nature
From spiderweb-inspired shampoo to a hotel whose architecture is based on the thermal properties of toucan beaks, scientists and companies in Brazil are betting on nature’s intelligence to create innovative solutions that reduce impacts on the planet.
Overworked, underpaid and lonely: Conservationists find a new community online
Last year, Jessie Panazzolo, like many young conservationists (and some middle-aged ones too), didn’t so much feel her career had stalled as that it had been cut out by the…
In Ethiopia, a community leans on customs to save an antelope from extinction
SENKELE, Ethiopia — In the tall-grass woodland of the Great Rift Valley in southern Ethiopia lies the Senkele Swayne’s Hartebeest Sanctuary. The area has long been a home to the…
Something smells fishy: Scientists uncover illegal fishing using shark tracking devices
In April 2015, researchers headed out to the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean to service acoustic receivers they had dotted around the archipelago, and to download tag data from…
A community in Guyana relies on indigenous knowledge in conservation
YUPUKARI VILLAGE, Guyana — If Russian Dorrick is sure of anything, it’s that his community is capable of protecting their natural environment here in southern Guyana’s epic Kanuku mountain range.…
Global agreement on ‘conserved areas’ marks new era of conservation (commentary)
On November 29, 2018, the 196 Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted a decision that represents a high-water mark for the governance of protected areas and…
Group helps illegal bird traders transition into different lines of business
MOUNT NIUT, Indonesia — Catching tropical birds in the wild is relatively easy: you put glue on the branches of trees they inhabit. Some species can be lured closer with…
Can social media save great apes?
Conservation organizations rely on building personal connections between great apes and the people who love them, but are trying to balance their missions with “cutesy” appeal.
Rhino poop gives villagers in India a conservation incentive
The illicit demand for their horns and other body parts has pushed rhino populations in both Africa and Asia to the brink of extinction. In northeastern India, though, one father-daughter…
‘Not all doom and gloom’: Q&A with conservation job market researchers
You grew up watching David Attenborough documentaries and reading Gerald Durrell memoirs. You volunteered banding marmosets in Brazil. You have a bachelor’s in biology and a master’s in conservation biology.…
Good quality monitoring surveys key to wildlife conservation: new study
A biodiversity crisis is looming upon us. We are now in the middle of a “sixth great extinction” of animal species, scientists warn, with loss of species about 1,000 times…
Identifying the world’s top biodiversity investment returns
We’ve all been there: you’re driving along a road lined with trees, when all of a sudden a squirrel or some such animal runs out in front of your vehicle.…
A rich person’s profession? Young conservationists struggle to make it
Nika Levikov swore she would never work as a waitress again. But, today — with a master’s degree in conservation science from Imperial College London — she’s taking orders, delivering…
Footprints in the forest: The future of the Sumatran rhino
LAHAD DATU, Malaysia – The rhino breeding center near the entrance to Danum Valley Conservation Area sits like an oasis of calm against the cacophony of beeps, woots and zaps…
Financing sustainable agriculture possible, if terms fit farmers’ needs
Much of the deforestation in the world’s tropical rainforests comes so that we humans have enough to eat. But sustainable agricultural practices exist that help farmers coax more corn and…
Why gender matters in conservation
Over recent decades, conservation organizations have started to tap into the wealth of knowledge and experience held by communities living near conservation targets. Listening to the voices of local people…
Namibia’s low cost, sustainable solution to seabird bycatch
Many years ago I joined my cousin, the mate on a sporting vessel, on a fishing trip off the North Carolina coast. We were trolling baited lines in hopes of…
Women could be a key to great ape conservation in the Congo
Ongoing violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has taken a heavy toll on the country’s women, with sexual violence there gaining the DRC a label as the…
Graffiti campaign brings rhino conservation message to urban Vietnam
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam – Throughout the month of March, a unique graffiti campaign popped up on the walls of several streets in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, the…
Fighting rhino poaching in India, CSI-style
It takes less than 20 milligrams of rhino horn to prosecute poachers. This is all scientists need to discover a rhinoceros' unique DNA pattern, a sort of genetic fingerprint investigators…
‘Revolutionary’ new biodiversity maps reveal big gaps in conservation
Sometimes for a scientist, the disconnected pieces of years of research come together in a single, “really awesome” point in time. For ecologist Greg Asner, where it happened was about…
Sudden sale may doom carbon-rich rainforest in Borneo
The fate of a forest tract in Malaysia may have shifted dramatically in just the last few months. For three years, a group of conservation NGOs in Sabah, a Malaysian…
