Between the Forest and the Sea: The Yarsuisuit Collective – Part II
Part I of this series: Life & Climate Change in Guna Yala Part III of this series: Passing Down Traditions The indigenous Guna of Panama are at the forefront of…
Between the forest and the sea: life and climate change in Guna Yala – Part I
Part II of this series: The Yarsuisuit Collective Part III of this series: Passing Down Traditions The island-dwelling Guna people of Panama are one of the most sovereign indigenous communities…
Balu Wala, or the Kuna ‘good life’: how one indigenous tribe is passing on its traditions (photos)
Balancing the old world and the new, the Kuna people keep their heritage intact Jesús Smith is sitting at his old wooden desk facing the entrance to his house. He's…
REDD+ versus indigenous people? Why a tribe in Panama rejected pay for their carbon-rich forests
Panama's efforts to gain funding for standing forests roiled by indigenous opposition There isn’t a word or phrase in the Kuna language for "carbon trading,” and much less for something…
Attack of the killer vines: lianas taking over forests in Panama
Global warming may be spurring liana growth, hindering forest carbon storage in Central America A worrying trend has emerged in tropical forests: lianas, woody long-stemmed vines, are increasingly displacing trees,…
Connecting forests, saving species: conservation group plans extensive wildlife corridor in Panama
Soon, hard rains will hit the steep hillsides of the Azuero Peninsula in Panama, sluicing soil into the rivers and out to the sea. Centuries of slash and burn agriculture…
NASA detects surge in deforestation in Malaysia, Bolivia during first quarter of 2014
Close-up on GloF-DAS map data for Southeast Asia. Forest disturbance in Malaysia, Bolivia, Panama, and Ecuador surged during the first quarter of 2014, according to NASA data. NASA's Quarterly Indicator…
3 environmental reporting prize winners to explore drivers of deforestation, community forestry, and sustainable seafood in China
Mongabay.org, the non-profit arm of environmental science web site Mongabay.com, has selected winners of three environmental reporting prizes under its Special Reporting Initiatives (SRI) program. The three prizes, which were…
Featured video: indigenous tribe faces loggers, ranchers, and murder in bid to save their forests
Rainforest in Panama. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. A new short film, entitled La Trocha, highlights the plight of the Wounaan people in Panama, who are fighting for legal rights…
The fungus among us: scientists discover a big player in the global carbon cycle
Carbon counters trying to keep tabs on the rising concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere may have missed an important factor for their estimates: fungus. It turns out that…
The next best thing: how well do secondary forests preserve biodiversity?
Secondary forests, which are areas that were previously cleared of old-growth cover, now comprise the majority of the forested areas in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. A heavily debated…
For agoutis, the night is fraught with peril
Scientists discover clear temporal patterns between the ocelot and its agouti prey. The early bird might get the worm, but, as scientists have discovered, the bird is also quite likely…
Rainforest news review for 2013
The year in rainforest news 2013 was full of major developments in efforts to understand and protect the world's tropical rainforests. The following is a review of some of the…
Natural sponges: forests help moderate floods, droughts
Journalists win environmental news reporting prizes
Mongabay announces its first annual top contributor prizes for 2013. Mongabay's internship program has benefited from the hard work and great environmental reporting of more than 30 writing interns since…
Recovering forests ‘heal’ themselves by speeding up nitrogen fixation
Nitrogen is colorless, odorless and tasteless, but all life on earth depends on it. Without it, our bodies cannot synthesize the nucleic acids that make up our DNA, or the…
Attempt to export nearly-extinct pygmy sloths sets off international incident in Panama
After this story was published, Dallas World Aquarium (DWA) complained that its side of the story had not been fairly represented, that elements of our reporting contained inaccuracies and made…
Scientists outline how to save nearly 70 percent of the world’s plant species
In 2010 the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) pledged to set aside 17 percent of the world's land as protected areas in addition to protecting 60 percent of the world's…
UN REDD program failing to build capacity for indigenous people in Panama
The U.N.'s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (UN-REDD) program may be faltering in Panama due to its failure to build capacity for indigenous people who should play a central…
Researchers produce the most accurate carbon map for an entire country
Researchers working in Panama have produced the most accurate carbon map for an entire country. Using satellite imagery and extremely high-resolution Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data from airplane-based sensors,…
Rising temperatures are triggering rainforest trees to produce more flowers
Small climate shifts having unexpectedly large changes in tropical rainforests Slight rises in temperatures are triggering rainforest trees to produce more flowers, reports a new study published in the journal…
Why Panama’s indigenous pulled out of the UN’s REDD program
An Interview with Cacique Betanio Chiquidama, National Coordinator of Indigenous Peoples of Panama This week in Lombok, Indonesia, the Policy Board of the United Nations climate change program known as…
Frankenfish or scientific marvel?: giant GM salmon await U.S. approval
It is hard to think of a more unlikely setting for genetic experimentation or for raising salmon: a rundown shed at a secretive location in the Panamanian rainforest miles inland…
Indigenous protester killed by masked assailants in Panama over UN-condemned dam
Barro Blanco hydroelectric dam under construction. Photo courtesy of Robin Oisín Llewellyn. A Ngäbe indigenous Panamanian, Onesimo Rodriguez, opposing the Barro Blanco hydroelectric dam project was killed last Friday evening…
Panama’s indigenous people drop REDD+
Giant kapok ('Big Tree') in Panama's rainforest. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. The National Coordinator of Indigenous Peoples in Panama (COONAPIP) has announced it is withdrawing from the United Nation's…
2 small companies recognized for tropical forest-friendly approaches
Two Latin American companies have won the WWF Switzerland Tropical Forest Challenge, a competition that aims to highlight and support for-profit entities that have a positive impact on conserving tropical…
Rainforests teem with insects, most of which are unknown, finds study
The canopy raft in position for arthropod collection at San Lorenzo. Image courtesy of Roger Le Guen, Laboratory Copyright: Panacoco Researchers in Panama have published the results of the most…
Scientists name new snake species to criticize mine plans in Panama (photos)
New snail-eating snake from Panama: Sibon noalamina. Non-venomous snail-eating snakes sport bright colors to mimic poisonous snakes as a defense. Photo © Sebastian Lotzkat. While scientists increasingly name new species…
Indigenous groups in Panama wait for UN REDD to meet promises
Giant ceiba tree in Panamanian rainforest. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. A dispute over the implementation of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) in Panama has pitted the United…
Less than 100 pygmy sloths survive
The three-toed pygmy sloth. Photo © Craig Turner/ZSL. The pygmy three-toed sloth (Bradypus pygmaeus) is one of the world's most endangered mammals, according to a detailed survey of the population,…