From cattle to crayfish, human pressures mount on Zambia’s Kafue River
KAFUE, Zambia — “Three cattle on the left, 20 elephants on the right,” shouts the expedition leader from the bow seat of the first of five canoes snaking along a…
Monitoring News
Endangered Andean cat is imperiled by climate change and its solutions
Many conservationists dedicated to protecting the endangered Andean cat have never seen one in the wild, with the species known to science by just a few photos until the late…
Mining spill highlights need to protect Zambia’s vital Kafue River & its fish
KAFUE NATIONAL PARK, Zambia – Biologist Mike Ross, balanced in a canoe beneath a star-filled sky in central Zambia, slaps the water with a net attached to a wooden pole…
Agencies race to prevent new food crisis as locusts return to northern Africa
NAIROBI — Swarms of desert locusts are moving across parts of North Africa. With unusually heavy rains in late 2024 supporting growth of vegetation, and rising temperatures since February 2025…
DNA sequencing to meet global biodiversity goals: Interview with Tyler Kartzinel
Tyler Kartzinel likens protecting biodiversity to enhancing cellphone networks. His analogy is pretty straightforward: look for gaps in coverage, and then do what’s needed to fill them. “Engineers have figured…
Another way to check the health of a coral reef: Study the microbes in the seawater
Prochlorococcus, a genus of bacteria that’s key to oxygen production in the ocean, tends to disappear when faced with marine pollution. It lives throughout the sunlit layer of tropical oceans…
Attacks on Cambodian environmental journalist continue to pile up
BANGKOK — Ouk Mao, a Cambodian environmental journalist, was reporting on the continued logging of Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary when he was attacked on March 24 by a group of men…
Indonesia’s deforestation claims under scrutiny over ‘cherry-picked’ data
JAKARTA — Researchers have called out the Indonesian government’s claim of having reduced deforestation by 90% over the past decade, pointing to cherry-picked data and a skewed baseline that paint…
‘Puma detectives’ highlight wildlife where Brazil’s Cerrado meets the Atlantic Forest
Named after a river in the state of Goiás, Corumbá the puma was named after a river in the central Brazilian state of Goiás. Between 2022 and 2023, as much…
Fishing cats misunderstood, misidentified in Nepal’s Kapilvastu
KAPILVASTU, Nepal — At his fish pond near his home in Krishnanagar Municipality in western Nepal’s Kapilvastu, Imtehaj Khan closely watches a large TV screen mounted on a wall. For…
Indonesia strengthens forest monitoring with new tool to meet EU deforestation law
JAKARTA — Indonesia’s efforts to ensure its commodity exports are free of deforestation are ramping up as the European Union Deforestation Regulation, or EUDR, nears enforcement. One of the biggest…
Both legal and illegal wildlife trade ‘need better monitoring’: Interview with Alice Hughes
Since the dawn of civilization, humans have traded wildlife and wildlife products, such as ivory, shells, fur and feathers. Over the centuries, the trade has evolved, involving sophisticated networks, tens…
Sea change for soy champion Brazil as it wrestles with EUDR compliance
Earlier this year, commodity-trading giant Cargill exported a shipment of soy from Brazil to Europe, aiming to test whether it would comply with the European Union’s new regulation on deforestation-free…
Coffee agroforestry promises a path to EUDR compliance, but challenges remain
Over the last two decades, about 130,000 hectares, or 3,210,000 acres, of forest have been lost annually for coffee cultivation. Pressure on areas suitable for coffee growing, usually forest-rich habitats,…
Brazil paper and pulp industry invests in blockchain to comply with EUDR
The European Union's deforestation-free products regulation (EUDR) won't affect the operations of Brazil's paper and pulp industry, which has already traced its supply chains "from farm to factory" for more…
Satellites and lidar get AI boost to count forest carbon stock worldwide
Satellite data have long told us where forests are and how they’re faring. Lidar, laser-based radar mounted on planes or satellites like the International Space Station, has helped us map…
Using science to fight deforestation: Interview with World Forest ID’s Jade Saunders & Andrew Lowe
Imagine you purchased a swanky new chair. The paperwork claims the piece of furniture was made from legally sourced wood. But how can you be sure? After all, global supply…
Tracking footprints to monitor wildlife: Interview with WildTrack’s Zoe Jewell
Zoe Jewell was working in Zimbabwe in the 1990s when a harsh reality dawned on her. The female black rhinos (Diceros bicornis) she was helping monitor were suffering from a…
Satellite firm Planet’s ‘biodiversity subscription’ aims to make tech accessible
Marcos Terán has worked in and around the Matos River in Bolivia for years, collecting data and collaborating with local communities as part of his organization’s conservation initiatives. Designated a…
Scientists find unexpected biodiversity in an African river, thanks to eDNA
When Manuel Lopes-Lima set out to survey aquatic biodiversity on the Corubal River in 2022, he’d set his expectations very low. The river that straddles the West African nations of…
$35m debt-for-nature deal aims to protect Indonesia’s coral reefs
JAKARTA — A milestone debt-for-nature agreement to conserve coral reefs in Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelagic country, has drawn a mix of optimism and skepticism from environmentalists. While welcoming the…
Regions with highest risks to wildlife have fewest camera traps, study finds
Over the past three decades, camera traps have given us a rare, never-before-seen peek into animal lives. Used by conservation organizations, academic researchers and citizen science projects around the world,…
Crowdsourcing eDNA for biodiversity monitoring: Interview with Kristy Deiner
What do lakes tell us about life on the land surrounding it? When environmental DNA scientist Kristy Deiner and her team started thinking about this question, the answer seemed evident:…
New satellite data documents deforestation across ecosystems worldwide
When it comes to monitoring deforestation, tropical rainforests rightfully get the lion’s share of attention. However, as climate change-induced natural disasters and conversion of natural lands for agriculture increase in…
Tropical forest loss puts 2030 zero-deforestation target further out of reach
JAKARTA — The tropics continue to lose primary forest at an alarming rate, with an area of tree cover half the size of Panama disappearing in 2023, new data from…
Ancient giant river dolphin species found in the Peruvian Amazon
A team of paleontologists found a giant fossilized skull along the shore of the Napo River in the Peruvian Amazon. To their surprise, the relic belonged to a newly described…
‘We’re doing so much with so little’: Interview with WildLabs’ Talia Speaker
As an undergraduate biology student, Talia Speaker faced several hurdles in using technology in her work. Biology and ecology professors weren’t well-versed with the technical side of things, while those…
Conservation X Labs announces merger with AI nonprofit Wild Me
Conservation technology company Conservation X Labs and nonprofit Wild Me have announced they are merging in a bid to ramp up the role of artificial intelligence in biodiversity protection. With…
‘No end in sight’ for potential of conservation tech: Q&A with Megan Owen
Early in her career, Megan Owen recalls, she often found herself wishing for more data to understand certain behavioral patterns in the animals she was studying. However, more often than…
Betting on biodiversity: Q&A with Superorganism’s Kevin Webb & Tom Quigley
How do you bridge the gap between ecology and the economy? It’s this question that guided both Kevin Webb and Tom Quigley, albeit from different perspectives. Webb, a venture capitalist,…
Taking the global pulse of biodiversity monitoring: Q&A with Andrew Gonzalez
Conservation technology has witnessed an unprecedented boom in recent years. Drones are soaring higher than ever before. DNA sampled from soil, air and water are revolutionizing biodiversity surveys. Artificial intelligence…
AI unlocks secrets of Amazon river dolphins’ behavior, no tagging required
Freshwater dolphins navigate the waterways of the Amazon Basin. In the wet season, water spills from the rivers, flooding parts of the forests. The dolphins go, too, using their exceptionally…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- 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
- Fires rip through Indigenous territories in Brazilian Amazon
Oceans
- First-ever assessment highlights threats to Atlantic cold-water corals
- Major coral loss in Vietnam’s first marine protected area: Study
- When heat waves hit, clownfish shrink to survive, study finds
- Samoa’s new marine spatial plan protects 30% of the country’s ocean
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
- Indigenous Amazonians win landmark ruling against mercury pollution in Colombia
- Indigenous Bajo suffer child deaths & toxic sludge amid green energy push
- ‘Colombia’s Amazon peoples provide solutions’: Interview with José Homero Mutumbajoy
- Should mining companies consider no-go zones where isolated Indigenous peoples live? (Commentary)
Endangered Environmentalists
- 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
- Mother Nature Cambodia activists sentenced to prison — again
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
