On the shores of Lake Victoria, a youth-led campaign to revive a wetland
KISUMU, Kenya — On a December morning, the early sunshine casts a golden sheen on the waters of Lake Victoria in Kenya’s Kisumu county. The breeze from the lake carries…
Pollution News
A French city cut its marine pollution — and its seagrass bounced back
Neptune grass is generally regarded as the most ecologically important seagrass and shallow-water habitat in the Mediterranean Sea. It suffered a severe decline during the 20th century, and there have…
10 years after Vietnam’s Formosa steel plant spill, justice for victims remains elusive
In early 2016, a power failure shut down the waste treatment facility at Hưng Nghiệp Formosa Steel Hà Tĩnh (FSH), located off the coast of Vietnam’s Hà Tĩnh province. The…
Thai court rules gold mine liable, but villagers face uncertain justice
BAN KHAO MO, Thailand — On March 24, 2026, residents of this small community achieved a landmark legal victory. Ten years into a class action suit against the Chatree gold…
With high seas treaty in place, West African countries plan for protected area
With the High Seas Treaty coming into force in January, efforts to establish protected areas in the marine spaces that lie beyond countries’ jurisdiction are gaining momentum — including one…
4 months after DRC mine spill, residents remain impacted
More than four months after a wastewater spill from a mine in Lubumbashi, a city located in the DRC’s copper and cobalt belt, residents say they are still facing impacts…
PNG’s New Ireland coastal waters causing fish deaths, human sickness
For several months, the waters around New Ireland province in Papua New Guinea have been causing illness, skin irritation and the death of sea life, according to communities living along…
Amazon waterway noise threatens unique social life of giant river turtles
Hatchlings talk inside their shells to time their birth, but the roar of massive barges may soon drown out their sound.
Oil patch appears after IRIS Dena sinking in Sri Lanka; origins still unverified
HIKKADUWA, Sri Lanka — On Saturday, March 7, three days after the Iranian warship IRIS Dena was torpedoed by a U.S Navy submarine close to the southern coast off Galle…
If Florida reefs aren’t protected, storms will increase flooding & costs: Study
Healthy reefs aren’t just about colorful fish — they also shield shorelines from intense tropical storms. If Florida’s reefs keep degrading, flooding during tropical storms could get much worse, increasing…
Rush to put AI data centers in space poses poorly understood dangers
Plans are afoot to launch large mega-constellations of AI data centers into Earth orbit. That ambition, pursued by multiple space industry leaders, coincides with a warning from scientists of potentially…
Plastic, from home and abroad, spills into Türkiye’s waters
ADANA, Türkiye — Along the final stretch of the Seyhan River, in southern Türkiye, plastic bits in various colors dot the water and sediment. When the river bends, shredded plastic,…
Promising breakthrough creates plastics that self-deconstruct on cue: Study
Plastics have a gigantic built-in problem: They’re tenacious, which is very good for a milk jug or a car bumper. But they don’t easily break down, which is bad for…
Mining rush for critical minerals threatens Amazon land reform settlements
Families awaiting land reform in the Amazon now face a surge in mining that can destroy their chance at a decent life.
Sri Lankan waters under ‘close watch’ following wreckage of Iranian warship
GALLE, Sri Lanka — On March 4, an Iranian Navy frigate IRIS Dena sank some 40-50 nautical miles off the southern coast of Galle, an important maritime route in Sri…
Nations not on track to meet UN 2030 pesticide risk reduction targets: Study
The world’s nations committed to halving overall threats to biodiversity from pesticides and other highly hazardous chemicals by 2030 at the 15th United Nations Biodiversity Conference in 2022. But new…
Petrostates stymie effort to rein in Arctic shipping carbon emissions
International shipping is on the rise in the Arctic region now that climate change regularly opens up transpolar sea routes in summer. That surge in traffic is leading to higher…
Recycling startups test limits of private solutions to deluge of waste in Lagos
OJUELEGBA, Nigeria — On the bustling streets of this central Lagos neighborhood, it’s easy to buy a drink. Hawkers weave between buses and motorcycles with wheelbarrows of bottled water and…
Insects are moving pharmaceutical pollutants from rivers to land; risks unknown
Pharmaceuticals that people globally rely on for daily health — including antibiotics, antidepressants and painkillers — are entering ecosystems via wastewater, posing poorly understood risks. Once there, aquatic insects can…
Thousands of peat fires flare across Indonesia despite rainy season
JAKARTA — Satellite imagery recorded more than 5,000 fire hotspots on peatlands across Indonesia in January, despite the fact that much of the country remains firmly in the grip of…
Pilot projects aim to break Indonesia’s habit of burning household waste
JAKARTA — When old mattresses and broken chairs are dumped by the roadside in his neighborhood, Erwinsyah faces a choice: leave them there and risk accidents, or set them on…
Indonesia’s steel expansion risks a surge in greenhouse gas emissions
JAKARTA — Indonesia’s steel industry is becoming one of the country’s fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, even as it receives far less public attention than other carbon-intensive sectors. The…
Abandoned tuna-fishing devices pollute the Galápagos Marine Reserve
SANTA CRUZ, GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS, Ecuador — “Good morning,” Walter Borbor, a social media-famous fisher, says to his followers in a 2022 Instagram video. “What we have here is a plantado.”…
Plastic household waste burned as fuel on rise in Global South, risking health
Burning plastic waste for household fuel, or to manage household waste, may be far more prevalent in poor urban areas in developing countries than previously thought, raising serious environmental pollution…
The long struggle of women farmers to halt a zinc mine in North Sumatra
SILIMA PUNGGA-PUNGGA DISTRICT, Indonesia — Rainim Purba first heard the rumor in 1996. Back then, in her mid-30s, villagers were saying a zinc mining company was going to operate near…
IUCN launches group to conserve at-risk microbes vital to life on Earth
Invisible in their trillions, microbes dwell in our bodies, grow in soils, live on trees and are integral to planetary health. Yet the huge oversized roles these teeming biodiverse microbial…
‘Holy river’ carries industrial waste & sewage from Nepal to India
BIRGUNJ, Nepal — When 38-year-old Pradeep Kumar Bishwokarma was growing up in Ramgadhawa, a neighborhood in southern Nepal’s industrial town of Birgunj, he would jump into the Sirsiya River to…
Hidden heroes: Australian tree bark microbes consume greenhouse & toxic gases
Microbes living in tree bark consume vast amounts of climate-related and toxic gases, according to new research published Jan. 8 in Science. In the past, tree bark was considered little…
Hopes and fears as Guinea exports iron ore from Simandou mines
On Dec. 2, 2025, Guinea celebrated a milestone when a ship loaded with iron ore departed from the newly constructed port of Morebaya on the Atlantic coast. The shipment of…
Involuntary parks: Human conflict is creating unintended refuges for wildlife
Few locations on Earth are as haunting or deeply ironic as so-called involuntary parks — places too toxic, dangerous, or otherwise made off-limits for human habitation, but which have paradoxically…
Turning the Amazon’s toxic gold mine waste liability into economic opportunity (analysis)
The wildcat gold mining boom that swept across the Amazon beginning in the 1970s left behind an environmental catastrophe of staggering proportions. At least 350,000 hectares (almost 865,000 acres) of…
Ghana repeals legislation that opened forest reserves to mining
After facing sustained pushback from environmental groups, Ghana revoked a 2022 law that had empowered the president to allow mining in the country’s forest reserves. In December, the Minister for…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Satellite data show burst of deforestation in Myanmar rare earth mining hotspots
- 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
Oceans
- Tropics take the brunt as hotter oceans drive large-scale humid heat waves: Study
- Talks to reduce funding for overfishing remain stalled at WTO meeting
- New strategy to reverse Kenya’s shark decline tries to bring fishers on board
- Mongabay shark meat exposé wins national journalism education award in Brazil
Amazon Conservation
- Researchers eye jaguar conservation wins under Brazil Indigenous stewardship project
- ‘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
Land rights and extractives
- As traditional forest governance erodes in Peru, ‘ghost permits’ fill the vacuum
- What’s happening with the global treaty to trace critical minerals?
- In the race for DRC’s critical minerals, community forests are on the frontline
- Lithium mining may threaten a precious resource — water: Voices from the land (commentary)
Endangered Environmentalists
- José Albino Cañas Ramírez, a defender of Indigenous territories, aged 44
- A killing with precedent: Kaiowá man’s murder fits a pattern in Brazil
- Environmental & rights activists flee and hide as M23 captures DRC’s cities
- Environmental journalist in Cambodia shot and killed by suspected logger
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
- Flores’ geothermal ambitions collide with justice, culture & local resistance
- 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
