Did climate change really kill billions of snow crabs in Alaska?
The disappearance of billions snow crabs from the Bering Sea has captivated the world’s attention since Alaska shut down the fishery for the first time in October 2022. But where…
Report unveils ties between Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas and Canada’s Paper Excellence
JAKARTA —Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas, which has a long history of deforestation and conflicts with local Indigenous communities, secretly controls Canadian paper and packaging company Paper Excellence, which could soon…
Podcast: How the Indigenous Shuar regained their ancestral forest
We have two fascinating conversations about forests in the Americas for you on this podcast episode: the first is the story of how the Shuar Indigenous community in Ecuador recently…
American agroforestry accelerates with new funding announcements
Recent months have delivered a harvest of agroforestry funding news in the U.S., just as the season’s remaining crops ripened. The announcement of over $60 million in support from the…
To boost fish catches, try banning fishing, new study shows
In 2016, Barack Obama, the U.S. president at the time, made a proclamation: he would expand the protection of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, a stretch of ocean fringing the…
Panama restricts information on sanctioned boats, evading transparency
This is the second in a two-part series originally published in Spanish on Mongabay Latam. You can read the first part here. An investigation recently published by Mongabay Latam and…
Panama: A ‘flag of convenience’ for illegal fishing and lack of control at sea
This is the first in a two-part series originally published in Spanish on Mongabay Latam. You can read the second part here. The crystal-clear waters of the oceans surrounding Panama hold…
On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, five inspirational conservation stories in the U.S.
The second Monday of October marks Indigenous Peoples’ Day in multiple cities and states across the U.S. Originally juxtaposed against Columbus Day, celebrated at the same time, the day is…
New study identifies mature forests on U.S. federal lands ripe for protection
A new map finds that roughly a third of U.S. mature forests are on federal lands, which President Biden appears eager to protect to store carbon. But much mature forest is also privately held, especially in the Southeast, and is at risk.
Will the Uinta Basin Railway derail U.S. climate change efforts? (commentary)
The Uinta Basin, named after the Ute Tribe, is located in Northeast Utah and Western Colorado, about 200 miles from Salt Lake City. Streams from the Uinta mountains roll through…
Mangrove restorers in Haiti bet on resilience amid rising violence
Jean Wiener should be elated. The organization he leads, FoProBim, has just won a series of grants to help protect mangroves in Haiti. In the coming months, he and his…
Experts decry ‘funny math’ of plastics industry’s ‘advanced recycling’ claims
In April 2022, a Texas company unveiled a plan to transform a tiny Pennsylvania town into an industrial hub: it would invest $1.1 billion into building a manufacturing plant that…
Haiti: An island nation whose environmental troubles only begin with water
The Caribbean island is currently being convulsed by a wave of civil unrest and gang violence, immediately triggered by soaring gas prices. But a dire environmental crisis underlays and feeds Haiti’s socioeconomic and political disorder.
Greenland’s Indigenous population favors extracting sand from melting ice sheet
Discussions about the Greenland ice sheet often focus on what it’s losing. But from around the edges of the rapidly melting Greenland ice sheet, a global commodity is being created.…
U.S. charts course for adopting ropeless fishing to reduce whale deaths
A spate of North Atlantic right whale deaths that began in 2017 shook the scientists who study the critically endangered species. That year, 17 whales died, and the losses prompted…
British Columbia delays promised protections as old growth keeps falling
Critics say that “the white rhinos of old-growth forests” in British Columbia are rapidly being felled by timber companies, even as the provincial government largely postpones its 2020 pledge to protect the remaining ancient forests.
On the frontlines of drought, communities in Mexico strive to save every drop of water
OCOTLÁN DE MORELOS – “Look up to the El Peral mountains. That is where we do our ritual ceremony to call for rain,” says Josefina Santiago, 43, a Zapotec Indigenous…
Small conservation areas provide large benefits for biodiversity (commentary)
On Monday mornings, a group of birdwatchers gathers at 7 a.m. to walk through Huntley Meadows together. Some bring cameras with lenses as long as their forearms. With monopods, tripods,…
Climate change hits northern Mexico, as officials look to solve water crisis
In northern Mexico, it’s become common to see tankers delivering thousands of gallons of water to local middle and high schools. People wait in long lines outside of convenience stores…
Video: Biodiversity underpins all, as California is finding out the hard way
Taiwanese filmmaker Chris Chang moved to Berkeley, California, in August 2021, when the state was already experiencing a deep environmental crisis. In 2020, thousands of wildfires in California burnt through…
Seeing through the swarm: How hawks hunt bat prey
Raptors are famous for their ability to home in on prey and attack with precision. But how does this work when they hunt animals that flock, school or swarm, forming…
The Socorro isopod: Endangered but important (commentary)
Near the city of Socorro in the state of New Mexico lies a small spring. It is only here where one of the most endangered isopods, the Socorro isopod (Thermosphaeroma…
Mexico court drops injunctions, paving way for controversial Tren Maya railway
A major section of Mexico’s Tren Maya railway line could be moving forward with construction, following a high court decision to reject several legal challenges that had created months of…
Podcast: Mexico’s Maya Train chugs forward, but at what cost to habitats and communities?
The Maya Train (known in Spanish as ‘Tren Maya’) is in the process of being built, spanning approximately 1,525 km (958 miles) across the Yucatán peninsula, threatening forests, biodiversity, ecosystems,…
‘Monument trees’ underpin Alaska Native cultural resilience: they must be protected (commentary)
Despite heavy-duty rain gear and Xtratuf Boots, I am soaked to the bone. But you can’t put money on a sunny day in the world’s largest temperate rainforest – the…
‘Only a tribe can speak for a tribe’: Q&A with Native conservationists on Biden’s 30 by 30 project
In the 1830s, the U.S. government removed the Muscogee Creek Tribe from their ancestral lands in modern-day Alabama and Georgia and gave the tribe’s farmland to settlers. Soldiers forced more than 14,000…
Monarch butterflies are officially endangered
The iconic monarch butterfly has been listed as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a global authority on the conservation status of species. An endangered listing…
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…
Is invasive species management doing more harm than good? (commentary)
Where I live in the Rocky Mountains, summer is marked by the arrival of the Rocky mountain iris, a favorite for bumble bees and other pollinators, which also make their…
BP exploited Mexican communities hoping to benefit from carbon credits: report
Oil and gas giant BP has been caught up in a controversy involving low payouts to Mexican villagers participating in its carbon credit program, designed to improve forest conservation while…
