As logging booms in Suriname, forest communities race to win land rights
Suriname has some of the largest, most intact rainforests in the world. The Amazon covers around 93% of its surface area, making it one of the only countries with a…
Protected Areas News
Across Mexico, World Cup infrastructure threatens biodiversity and communities
GUADALAJARA, Mexico — “It was such an incredible emotion to spot pumas in the Primavera biosphere reserve in Guadalajara City, close to Akron Stadium,” says Pedro Alcocer, coordinator at the…
Protected areas benefit nature & people, study says — with caveats
A global campaign to expand protected areas is underway, triggered by the adoption of the Kunming- Montreal Global Biodiversity pact in 2022. Described by backers as a “landmark deal for…
Study says 40% of Amazon region is potentially conserved — more than officially recorded
A larger portion of the Amazonian region might be under protection or potentially conserved than official records indicate, according to a new study published in the journal One Earth. A…
Organized crime brings renewed threats to Yanomami in Brazil
As criminal groups combine forces with miners in Brazil’s Yanomami Indigenous Territory, officials have found it more difficult to control the spread of crime and violence that have killed hundreds…
Study: A third of Africa’s great apes at risk from mining of transition metals
Scientists have warned that mining of the metals needed for the global clean energy transition could threaten Africa’s already beleaguered great apes unless strong conservation measures are implemented. Nearly 180,000…
Camera-trap study brings the lesula, Congo’s cryptic monkey, into focus
In 2012, the description of a new monkey species from the Congo Basin with an unforgettable, humanlike countenance made global news. Now, a camera trap study reveals how the lesula…
Guardians of the sacred: Ethiopian Orthodox monks on spiritual forest conservation
BAHIR DAR, Ethiopia — The Zege Peninsula, a hidden gem on the southern shore of Lake Tana, is a serene escape in Ethiopia’s north. As the boat glides across the…
History repeats as logging linked to Cambodian hydropower dam in Cardamoms
This is the first of a two-part Mongabay series about hydropower dams in the Cardamom Mountains. Read Part Two. PURSAT/KOH KONG, Cambodia — Rumbling south down a rutted dirt track…
Venezuela: Water crisis looms as deforestation spreads in Yacambú National Park
Millions of people in northwestern Venezuela could be at risk of losing access to clean drinking water if more effort isn’t given to conserving natural watersheds and protected forests, environmentalists…
Zambian forest reserve rebounds with a little assistance
In 2019, there were around 100 families living in the Katanino Forest Reserve, cutting down trees to produce charcoal in mud-covered kilns, and selling the fuel by the bag on…
Peru puts endemic fog oasis under protection
Peru has granted formal conservation status to Lomas y Tillandsiales de Amara y Ullujaya, a unique fog oasis ecosystem on the arid Peruvian coastline. The state-owned land, which spans 6,449 hectares…
Caught in the net: Unchecked shrimp farming transforms India’s Sundarbans
KOLKATA — In the small village of Nagendrapur, located in the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve (SBR) in the Indian state of West Bengal, a mere 6-foot-wide lane separates a vast wetland…
Conservationists upbeat as zebra shark reintroduction in Raja Ampat gathers pace
JAKARTA — A project to revive zebra shark numbers in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago has welcomed the successful hatching of 24 pups so far this year, including five most recently…
Experts aim to protect one of Brazil’s giant emblematic tree species
"What makes these trees so special is still a great mystery, and it takes time and studies to unravel," Eric Gorgens said. The professor of spatial and environmental analysis at…
UNESCO accused of supporting human rights abuses in African parks
For centuries, Maasai peoples living in Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) mostly moved freely over vast savanna rangelands in search of water and available grassland, without any restrictions. But in…
Nepal’s top engineering, forestry colleges to align on development and conservation
KATHMANDU — Nepal’s leading civil engineering and forestry institutions are collaborating to bridge the divide between the two disciplines in an effort to mitigate the impact of roads, railways and…
The harsh, dangerous gig of seizing thousands of illegal cattle in the Amazon
Raids to remove these cattle herds are logistically challenging, involving long distances, many personnel, life threats and even traps left in the middle of dirt roads.
Ancient farming system and campesino livelihoods at risk in Mexico City
XOCHIMILCO, Mexico — In the 70 years Miguel del Valle has worked on his family’s chinampa in Xochimilco, a neighborhood in the south of Mexico City, he has witnessed a…
Efforts to save Cambodia’s coast tread water as fish stocks plummet
This is the third part of a Mongabay series about challenges faced by Cambodia’s small-scale fishers along the coast. Read Part One and Part Two. KOH RONG ISLAND, Cambodia —…
Landmark ruling in Suriname grants protections to local and Indigenous communities — for now
A court in Suriname has halted development on hundreds of thousands of hectares of Amazon Rainforest, much of it occupied by local and Indigenous people. The landmark ruling could give…
Weak banking regulations leave two-thirds of Amazon vulnerable to oil and gas
There are hundreds of oil and gas operations across the Amazon Rainforest. And while critics have gone after them for reckless environmental damage, those companies also don’t work alone. They…
Javan rhino poacher gets 12 years in record sentence for wildlife crime in Indonesia
A court in Indonesia has sentenced a man to 12 years in prison for poaching six critically endangered Javan rhinos, in what’s been hailed as the harshest punishment handed down…
On a remote island, Honduras plans mega-prison in an unstudied reserve
Honduras is preparing the construction of a maximum-security prison to address the country’s ongoing security crisis, which continues to suffer from widespread gang violence. But the prison happens to be…
Fishers left with no land, no fish, in fire sale of Cambodian coast
This is the second part of a Mongabay series about challenges faced by Cambodia’s small-scale fishers along the coast. Read Part One and Part Three. KOH KONG & PREAH SIHANOUK,…
Narco activity takes heavy toll on Colombia’s protected forests, satellite data show
In the middle of Colombia, where the country’s Eastern Plains and Andean ecoregions meet the Amazon Basin, a vast complex of parks, reserves and other protected areas safeguards ancient habitat…
Poachers claim to have killed one-third of all Javan rhinos, Indonesian police say
A staggering 26 Javan rhinos may have been killed in Indonesia’s Ujung Kulon National Park since 2019, according to local law enforcement. Once roaming much of Southeast Asia, Javan rhinos…
Peru approves the creation of long-awaited marine protected area
In April, after 10 years of negotiations, Peru’s Council of Ministers approved the creation of the Grau Tropical Sea National Reserve. To Peruvians, it is a much-awaited marine protected…
‘Non-market’ solutions to deforestation need more support, advocates say
If funders want to protect the planet’s forests, they should stop focusing on market-based solutions like carbon trading, according to a report released May 29 by the Rainforest Foundation UK,…
Rewilding efforts throw a lifeline to Brazil’s most trafficked endangered bird
As the door of the wire enclosure is unlatched, a small coal-black bird hops forward. For a moment, it perches at the threshold and cocks its head quizzically at its…
Nepal court rules protected areas and forests off-limits for land distribution
KATHMANDU — Nepal’s Supreme Court has ruled the government can’t give away land within national parks and forest areas to landless people, in a move environmental activists have hailed but…
Small-scale fishers lose out to trawlers in race to catch Cambodia’s last fish
This is the first part of a Mongabay series about challenges faced by Cambodia’s small-scale fishers along the coast. Read Part Two and Part Three. KOH KONG, Cambodia — At…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- In Brazil’s Amazon, land invasions — and fires — threaten a protected reserve
- A Guatemalan reserve turns from civil war refuge to deforestation hotspot
- Narco activity takes heavy toll on Colombia’s protected forests, satellite data show
- Photos confirm narcotraffickers operating in Peru’s Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve
Oceans
- Plan for close season rings alarm bells for Liberia’s artisanal fishers
- Lab-grown corals resisted bleaching during Caribbean’s worst marine heat wave
- Six months after first Houthi ship sinking, attacks slick Red Sea with oil
- $35m debt-for-nature deal aims to protect Indonesia’s coral reefs
Amazon Conservation
- 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
- Extreme drought pushes Amazon’s main rivers to lowest-ever levels
Land rights and extractives
- Peruvian logger loses FSC label after latest clash with isolated Mashco Piro
- In the DRC, a government commission is taking funds owed to people relocated by mines
- A national park and its rangers in Bolivia endure persisting road construction, illegal mining
- Can nations ever get artisanal gold mining right?
Endangered Environmentalists
- Vietnam sentences yet another energy expert over renewables research
- Mother Nature Cambodia activists sentenced to prison — again
- Mongabay video screening at Chile’s Supreme Court expected to help landmark verdict in Brazil
- Indonesian activist freed in hate speech case after flagging illegal shrimp farms
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
- 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
- To build its ‘green’ capital city, Indonesia runs a road through a biodiverse forest
