While supporting conservation research in Mexico’s Sierra Madre Occidental with teams from the U.S.-based Columbia University and San Diego Zoo Global, I assisted in work involving the endangered thick-billed parrot.…
Lions have been dubbed the king of the jungle, but one could argue the real royalty are the trees, the massive woody beasts that hold down the land and root…
ASTURIAS, Spain, and YUCATÁN, Mexico — On a mild February morning, Isaac Blanco quickly places half a sardine into each cage as his brother, Julio, steers their boat along the…
The story of Astrid Puentes Riaño is rooted in the soil of Colombia. Born in Bogotá to a family with campesino roots, her early memories are of mountain air, clean…
MEXICO CITY — In 2024, six Latin American countries were in the top 10 nations with the highest loss of tropical primary forest, according to recent data from the University…
CONSTITUCIÓN, Mexico — At an empty outpost deep in a forest in Mexico, biologists were checking whether the windows had been broken or the furniture stolen, or if any animals…
Protected areas such as national parks, nature reserves and Indigenous lands are the foundation of biodiversity conservation. However, climate change is threatening their effectiveness in safeguarding wildlife, ecosystem services and…
This is the third part of a three-part series on underreported issues involving Canadian mining companies and Indigenous peoples or local communities. Read part one and part two. Ever since…
Footage captured in 2024 of a small rabbit hopping about in front of a camera trap had scientists baffled. The juvenile, with gray-brown fur and a black tail, didn’t resemble…
In December 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, more than a dozen mega cruise ships were stationed in Bahía de La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, due to the tourism shutdown.…
The ocean has long been treated as the world’s forgotten frontier—out of sight, out of mind, and dangerously overused. Yet efforts to reverse decades of neglect are gathering speed. Last…
One morning in early April 2024, Elías Naal Hernández set out with his fishing net to try his luck in the waters of Isla Aguada, off the coast of southeastern…
Lorayne Meltzer has lived along the Gulf of California for 30 years. As an ecologist and director of a binational field station, she’s supported many scientists in their research into…
The women of Chelem, a fishing community on the northern coast of the Mexican state of Yucatán, hadn’t planned to work in mangrove restoration. At first, it was simply an…
MEXICO CITY — Officials have acknowledged the environmental damage caused by Tren Maya, and say they’re exploring ways to restore cenotes and rainforests disrupted by the railway’s construction through the…
Over the past few decades, the harvesting of the Cortez oyster in western Mexico’s Marismas Nacionales — or the Marshes Biosphere Reserve — in Nayarit state has shifted from suffering…
On Jan. 29, the sky above Mexico City’s Zócalo plaza was filled with the floating figures of giant balloon whales. Hundreds of people from the “Whales or Gas?” coalition protested…
Across continents, “sacrifice zones” resemble wounds carved deep into the fabric of our planet. These are regions where ecosystems and livelihoods have been ravaged by fossil fuel and other industries…
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…
There's solid evidence that well-enforced marine protected areas (MPAs) that prohibit fishing benefit a wide variety of species within their borders. However, the impact outside their borders is a matter…
MEXICO CITY —No place attracts more foreign investment in tourism in Mexico than the state of Baja California Sur, where developers are trying to replicate the success of top resort…
Deadly drownings of animals in water canals for irrigation and other purposes have been observed in various countries. The dry and semiarid regions of the planet are even more vulnerable…
An independent analysis by Mongabay found that almost half of Mexico’s 232 federally protected areas (46.5%) do not have protected area management plans. Among the 108 without plans are protected…
MEXICO CITY — Fewer than 10 vaquitas, the world’s smallest porpoise, survive in the wild today, experts say. Illegal fishing has decimated their population in the Gulf of California, the…
As Los Angeles faced unprecedented fires razing entire neighborhoods in late January, Latin America was not spared either. In Argentinian Patagonia, fires have destroyed more than 10,100 hectares (24,958 acres)…
Ayuuk leader Arnoldo Nicolás Romero, a municipal commissioner of the Buena Vista ejido in San Juan Guichicovi, a town and municipality in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, was found dead…
This month, Mexico’s two legislative houses are expected to approve an amendment that will prohibit the cultivation of transgenic corn in the country’s Constitution, a historic decision that farmers’ organizations…
After sea level rise significantly ate away at their town, most residents of Mexico’s El Bosque community have been relocated by the government. However, the residents, who mostly depend on…
MEXICO CITY — A court in Mexico on Monday halted the construction of two controversial train lines that critics said could damage the environment. But the decision comes so late…
It’s been one year after Mexico’s government announced the creation of 20 new protected areas, covering roughly 2.3 million hectares (5.7 million acres). But the country’s environment ministry, Secretariat of…
Nestled in the thorny shrubs of the dry forests of Veracruz in the Gulf of Mexico, a small bird lights a spark for a promising future. After flying under scientists’…
When James Sheppard set out to deploy tiny backpacks fitted with satellite transmitters to track endangered thick-billed parrots in 2019, doubts abounded. His colleagues were concerned it wasn’t going to…
