To end turtle hunting, an African island state embraced the hunters
Five of the world’s seven species of marine turtles come to the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe, in Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, to breed or forage. The islanders patrol…
Interns News
Institutional conflict puts successful Spix’s macaw reintroduction at risk
This is the second in a two-part report about the reintroduction of the Spix's macaw, a bird declared extinct in the wild, and the uncertain future of its return. Read…
For ‘extinct’ Spix’s macaw, successful comeback is overshadowed by uncertainty
This is the first in a two-part report about the reintroduction of the Spix's macaw, a bird declared extinct in the wild, and the uncertain future of its return. Read…
Bird populations are mysteriously declining at an Amazon park in Ecuador & beyond
The number of individual birds found at the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve has dropped by half, according to a study published earlier this year.
Brazil takes pioneering action — and a vaccine — to rewild howler monkeys
It was Hope who first dared to approach Juvenal. They had been on the opposing sides of a quarrel ever since Hope’s family wrapped their tails around the branches of…
Rising temperatures threaten the tiny animals responsible for groundwater quality
Underground ecosystems are everywhere. From gargantuan lightless mazes to pore-sized bedrock gaps inhabited by microfauna — super tiny animals — these ecosystems are believed to be the most widespread nonmarine…
Not just polar bears — climate change could push African rhinos to extinction
New research is ringing alarm bells about how climate change may impact one of Africa’s most iconic and vulnerable animals: the rhinoceros. “Climate change has the potential of wiping out…
Conflict in the canopy as human and climate factors drive liana dominance over trees
When a tree falls in the forest, lianas hear an opportunity. Figuratively, at least. These long-stemmed woody vines hitch a ride to the canopy by climbing up trees, rather than…
For threatened Andean condors, garbage dump offers a buffet of risks & rewards
Fifty kilometers north of Santiago, Chile, sits Loma Los Colorados, a sprawling landfill that receives more than 60% of the capital city’s domestic waste. Day after day, heavy machinery buries…
Night light, habitat loss & pesticides threaten Brazil’s bioluminescent insects
“Be honest with me: Now you want to study fireflies too, right?” said Luiz Felipe Silveira, a professor at Western Carolina University and one of the world’s leading experts in…
Seabird poop is recipe for coral recovery amid climate-driven bleaching
On an island chain in the middle of the Indian Ocean lies an invaluable treasure: “white gold.” While it may not be a gem to proposition a prospective fiancée with,…
Virtual fences can benefit both ranchers and wildlife
The old Figlenski Ranch in Washington state’s Tunk Valley is a rugged land of canyons and scrubby sage-brush steppe. This valley with the ranch at its center connects the Cascade…
Antarctic warming alters atmosphere, ice shelves, ocean & animals
The south polar region long seemed resistant to climate change, but as warming intensifies, impacts are being identified across the region. While signs of an irreversible tipping point are lacking, Antarctic changes will likely affect the rest of the world.
In Senegal, rice intensification helps farmers grow more with less
In Saint Louis, northern Senegal, farmers have had to buy extra rice for as long as anyone can remember. “Normally, people can only live off the rice they grow for…
One left: British Columbia’s last chance on northern spotted owls
A thousand northern spotted owls (Strix occidentalis caurina) once lived among the sweeping cedars and towering Douglas firs of southwestern British Columbia’s old-growth forests. Today, only one female survives. She…
Spamming streams with hatchery salmon can disrupt ecosystems, study finds
Every year, 22 million sockeye salmon begin life some 420 kilometers, or about 260 miles, inland from the Alaskan coast, in plastic bins. They’re at the Gulkana hatchery, the largest…
Top French court orders closure of fisheries amid mass dolphin deaths
READER ADVISORY: This story contains images of dead wildlife that some viewers may find disturbing. Monday, March 20. That’s a date French marine conservation groups will remember. Fishers, too. France’s…
CO2 in, methane out? Study highlights complexity of coastal carbon sinks
Coastal ecosystems are very good at pulling carbon out of the atmosphere. But, as new research in the Baltic Sea shows, we also need to look at what they’re putting…
Three small steps for mankind, one giant leap for the climate
From rising sea levels to scorching heat waves, the planet has one foot in the climate grave. But a new report says three targeted policy interventions could lead to positive…
Swinging to safety: How canopy bridges may save Costa Rica’s howlers
One of the first times Inés Azofeifa Rojas saw a dead howler monkey, it was lying on a road with its body curled up in a ball. The monkey’s palms…
When nature gives them a chance to collab, jaguars aren’t so solitary after all
On the evening of March 15, 2016, two large jaguars walked along a narrow lakeshore trail in Venezuela’s Llanos ecosystem, a vast mosaic of seasonally flooded lowland savannas, forests, pastures…
The dark side of light: Coastal urban lighting threatens marine life, study shows
Night is falling on Tokyo. The moon, shining in a berry-blue sky, has come to govern the darkness. But it has not come alone: a new study reveals that artificial…
In world first, Chile to ban single-use food and beverage products over three years
New legislation passed by the Chilean government in May 2021 aims to rid the nation of all single-use products in the food and beverage industry, including plastics, within three years.…
Deforestation intensifies in northern Malaysia’s most important water catchment
Spanning more than 1,600 square kilometers (620 square miles), the Ulu Muda rainforest is one of the last large, continuous tracts of forest in the Malay Peninsula, and provides vital…
Wildlife ‘rehabbers’ wage herculean fight for a noble cause
Driving down a quiet street in Idaho Falls in the spring of 2021, I hadn’t yet noticed the wide gap between wildlife’s various needs and the slim ranks of wildlife…
Authorities and Yobin communities clash as deforestation spikes in Indian national park
In the sprawling Himalayas, amidst snow-peaked mountains, is a vast swathe of evergreen forest home to majestic tigers, elusive clouded leopards, charismatic hornbills, mystical giant squirrels, enchanting butterflies and bizarre…
Noise pollution spooks whales the way predators would, study finds
Generally, the word pollution conjures images of billowing smokestacks, oily water and trash-filled highway medians. But for whales, dolphins and porpoises, a subtler and perhaps more sinister source of pollution…
Canada mining push puts major carbon sink and Indigenous lands in the crosshairs
Since the last ice age, wide rivers have meandered toward the southern shores of Hudson Bay in Canada, to join its salty waters. On their way, they’ve created swaths of…
Indigenous oyster fisheries were ‘fundamentally different’: Q&A with researcher Marco Hatch
In the 18th century, when European ships sailed into the Strait of Juan de Fuca on the Northwest coast of the Pacific Ocean, they raved about the “wilderness” of the…
Yellowstone’s wolves defied extinction, but face new threats beyond park’s borders
In January 2022, I saw my first wild wolf. Even growing up in Idaho, a wolf sighting is rare, and I had never seen one. But from afar, I watched…
Human disturbance is pitting wolverines against an unlikely competitor: Coyotes
In March this year, headlines across the United States announced the rare sighting of an elusive creature in Yellowstone National Park: the wolverine. In the accompanying photographs, a lumbering, blackish-brown…
Lessons from panda conservation could help Asia’s other, overlooked, bears
Serving as the mascot of a world-renowned conservation organization, building diplomatic relationships between China and the world, playing protagonists in blockbuster movies — giant pandas have done it all. The…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- In Brazil’s Amazon, land invasions — and fires — threaten a protected reserve
- A Guatemalan reserve turns from civil war refuge to deforestation hotspot
- Narco activity takes heavy toll on Colombia’s protected forests, satellite data show
- Photos confirm narcotraffickers operating in Peru’s Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve
Oceans
- Plan for close season rings alarm bells for Liberia’s artisanal fishers
- Lab-grown corals resisted bleaching during Caribbean’s worst marine heat wave
- Six months after first Houthi ship sinking, attacks slick Red Sea with oil
- $35m debt-for-nature deal aims to protect Indonesia’s coral reefs
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
- Peruvian logger loses FSC label after latest clash with isolated Mashco Piro
- In the DRC, a government commission is taking funds owed to people relocated by mines
- A national park and its rangers in Bolivia endure persisting road construction, illegal mining
- Can nations ever get artisanal gold mining right?
Endangered Environmentalists
- Vietnam sentences yet another energy expert over renewables research
- Mother Nature Cambodia activists sentenced to prison — again
- Mongabay video screening at Chile’s Supreme Court expected to help landmark verdict in Brazil
- Indonesian activist freed in hate speech case after flagging illegal shrimp farms
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
- 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
- To build its ‘green’ capital city, Indonesia runs a road through a biodiverse forest
