JAKARTA — Indonesia’s deforestation surged in 2025, rising 66% from the previous year, marking a sharp reversal after several years of decline, according to new data from the NGO Auriga…
In a region where independent environmental journalism is often unwelcome, one Mongabay journalist has made a career of tackling often inconvenient truths while accepting personal risks as a necessary part…
HUAI KHA KHAENG, Thailand — “Five years ago, we’d never have been able to see this,” says Boonlert Tianchang, raising a pair of binoculars to his beaming eyes. “To see…
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…
JAKARTA — As the U.S.-Israel war on Iran drives oil prices above $100 a barrel and disrupts global supply routes, Indonesia is once again confronting the costs of its dependence…
BANJAR, Indonesia – Indonesia’s government continues to review mines and plantations in the river basins of southern Borneo, months after more than 7% of the population there was impacted by…
SINGAPORE — The Resorts World Sentosa casino and entertainment complex in Singapore has halted sourcing dolphins from the wild for its aquarium, Mongabay has learned. The resort’s Oceanarium has also…
Community-led bird surveys have confirmed that one of the world’s most threatened bird species, the white-bellied heron, still survives in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state. As few as 50 mature white-bellied…
JAKARTA — Environmental activists are sounding the alarm over a new trade agreement between the U.S. and Indonesia that they warn could accelerate mining expansion, fossil fuel dependence and forest…
The Mekong Delta of Vietnam ranks among the world’s three most climate-vulnerable regions. Known as Southeast Asia’s “rice basket,” the region is home to 18 million people, produces half of…
In the early 1970s, orangutans occupied an ambiguous place in science. They were known to exist, of course, but remained poorly understood, rarely observed, and difficult to study in the…
JAKARTA — A palm oil company is ramping up its destruction of forests that are home to critically endangered orangutans in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve on the island of Borneo,…
When village conservation teams find a Siamese crocodile nest in the Xe Champhone wetlands of central Laos, they move fast, collecting eggs within 24 hours before poachers, predators or floods…
Increasing demand for songbirds is raising the risk of “secondary extinctions” of so-called “master birds” in Southeast Asia, conservationists warn. While these birds never enter the region’s songbird singing competitions,…
RATCHABURI, Thailand — On Jan. 6, residents of Samut Sakhon province, central Thailand, found an injured monkey near a railway track. Pot-bellied with reddish-brown fur and a prominent, upturned nose,…
JAKARTA — Customs inspectors at the Indonesian capital’s main port uncovered more than 3 metric tons of pangolin scales in a shipping container bound for Cambodia in late February, in…
EAST KALIMANTAN, Indonesia — Indonesia’s Supreme Court has ordered the government to release environmental impact assessments for two projects at the country’s new capital city, handing civil society groups a…
This story was produced in collaboration with Bellingcat. Read their version here, and Mongabay-Indonesia's version here. JAKARTA — A new report by Mongabay and independent journalism organization Bellingcat has uncovered…
JAKARTA — Environmental experts and activists have slammed plans for carbon and tourism projects in an Indonesian park that’s home to critically endangered tigers, rhinos and elephants. The government has…
Every year, Chinese New Year festivals in southern Thailand’s Hat Yai attract tourists, mostly from neighboring Malaysia, generating a significant proportion of annual income for a city dependent on tourism.…
Five environmental activists in Cambodia will remain in prison, where they have been for more than 622 days, after the country's Supreme Court decided not to allow them to go…
For months, four infant orangutans lived in limbo in Thailand — not as pets, but as evidence. Confiscated in two separate trafficking cases, they were cared for at the Khao…
This story was produced in collaboration with the Environmental Reporting Collective (ERC). Read the ERC’s story on the impacts of data centers globally here. CHONBURI, Thailand — The sun had…
Furniture giant IKEA is famous for its wood products, but it may soon need to tighten oversight of its supply chains due to the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation that comes…
PADANG, Indonesia — Environmental inspectors in Indonesia say they’re continuing to monitor compliance by mining and other companies on the island of Sumatra amid ongoing public outcry three months after…
The 1995 Mekong Agreement was meant to be a cornerstone of cooperation for Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam — promising equitable use, no significant harm, and joint management of the…
In the older quarters of Singapore, fragments of forest persist like memories that refuse to fade. Within them live creatures that few residents ever see, and some that no longer…
STUNG TRENG, Cambodia — Sunrise is still a long way off when the first fishing boats slip into the landing site at this provincial town along the Mekong River in…
With hues of orange and black on its wings and a furry, fluffy face, the painted woolly bat is a stunner. But its beauty has become a deadly liability. People…
CENTRAL ACEH, Indonesia — A Sumatran elephant found dead in Indonesia’s Central Aceh district in late February was the latest case of electrocution to kill one of Indonesia’s remaining critically…
MEDAN, Indonesia — Sahala Pasaribu, 35, walks on customary land his family has not been able to manage for more than three decades since PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL), a…
BANYUMAS, Indonesia — The first two months of the year would ordinarily see Ganjar Budi Setiaji hurrying around Plana village’s durian orchard, here in the hilly Javanese district of Banyumas.…
