YEREVAN, Armenia — A Mozambican safari operator credited with helping restore wildlife populations in Mozambique’s Zambezi Delta, has won the 2026 Markhor Award, which recognizes contributions to conservation through sustainable wildlife management.

Zambeze Delta Safaris, led by professional hunter Mark Haldane, received the award on Oct. 22, 2026, at the ongoing U.N. Biodiversity Conference, COP17, in Yerevan, Armenia. The company combines regulated trophy hunting with wildlife restoration, anti-poaching efforts and community development in an area of Mozambique that was devastated by the country’s civil war.

“There is no other way to describe it than it’s a truly humbling feeling,” Haldane told Mongabay in a WhatsApp interview. “In my wildest dreams I never imagined this or anything close to this.”

The award comes as governments at COP17 review progress toward global biodiversity targets adopted in 2022. One of them, Target 9, calls for sustainable wildlife management that also benefits communities. A new U.N. assessment warns that the world remains off track to meet its biodiversity commitments by the 2030 deadline.

Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), welcomed the recognition. “Here is something we can celebrate,” she said during a press conference announcing the winner.

Haldane began working in Coutada 11, a hunting concession in central Mozambique, in 1994, after years of conflict had severely depleted wildlife populations. He later established Zambeze Delta Safaris with Mozambican businessperson Carlos Pacheco Faria.

According to the company’s award nomination, since the safari outfit began working in the region, the African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) population has risen from about 1,100 to 35,000, while sable antelopes (Hippotragus niger) have increased 100-fold from just 40 to 4,000. Twenty-four lions (Panthera leo) were reintroduced in 2018, roughly 120 live there now. Mongabay has not independently verified all the figures, although Mozambique’s Foundation for the Conservation of Biodiversity has documented substantial wildlife recovery.

Trophy hunting remains controversial though amid questions about who benefits. A 2013 study conducted in Mozambique’s Niassa National Reserve, for example, found that a single leopard could generate approximately $24,000 in hunting revenue, however little of that money went back to local communities.

More recently, however, a 2026 review of 89 studies across 13 sub-Saharan African countries found that nearly two-thirds of documented trophy-hunting “outcomes were positive,” for either wildlife or local people.

Haldane told Mongabay that Mozambique’s law directs that 20% of government revenue collected from concessionaires, like him, to be paid to local communities. He said the money goes to community-nominated committees and is used to fund projects benefiting residents.

Established in 2008, the Markhor Award is presented every two years. Previous winners include conservation initiatives in Tanzania, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Iran.

Looking ahead, Haldane hopes to expand conservation efforts beyond Coutada 11. “We are not islands in conservation,” he said. Reflecting on three decades of work, he added: “Look after nature and she will bounce back.”

Banner image: A Livingstone’s eland (Taurotragus oryx livingstonii) bull in Coutada 11, Mozambique. Image courtesy of Zambeze Delta Safaris.

Nearly every shallow-water coral reef ecosystem on Earth is at high risk of ecological collapse by 2075, according to the first coral reef assessment of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems (RLE).  The RLE is a scientific framework for assessing the risk of ecosystem collapse.

More than 250 experts assessed shallow water coral reef ecosystems across 127 tropical and subtropical ecoregions worldwide including the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Coral Triangle of Southeast Asia.

The Oct. 22 report concluded that 24% of coral reefs are already critically endangered. When scientist include projected heat stress from climate change, they found 96% will be critically endangered in the next 50 years.

One coral reef ecosystem, the Western Galapagos Islands, has collapsed already, the assessment found.

The assessment identified heat stress from climate change as the single most consistent threat driving coral reef decline worldwide. Heat stress causes coral bleaching, a process in which corals expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissue. Algae provide most of the coral’s food via photosynthesis and prolonged bleaching events leave coral weakened, vulnerable to disease and lead to death.

Coral reefs are crucial for marine biodiversity; they “cover less than 1% of the ocean floor,” but support approximately 25% of marine life.

In an email to Mongabay Marcos Valderrábano, programme manager for the RLE at IUCN, said that if climate projections are accurate, most corals will suffer repeated severe bleaching, resulting in a less biodiverse ecosystem as corals are replaced by algae and turf.

Despite the bleak predictions, the assessment says that there is still time to head off complete ecological collapse of corals.

“The biggest lever is cutting emissions and demanding urgent climate action,” Valderrábano said.

He added that it’s important to improve coral health overall, so they are better able to recover after heat waves. “This includes reducing pollution in coral reefs, demanding the protection of remaining corals, and choosing sustainably caught seafood, because parrotfish and grouper overfishing makes coral reef recovery harder.”

“None of this replaces emissions cuts, and we shouldn’t pretend that it does,” Valderrábano said.

The stakes are high, according to Sarah Bedolfe, a senior marine scientist with the NGO Oceana. “If coral reefs collapse, we won’t just lose one of the most extraordinary ecosystems on Earth; we risk losing food, livelihoods, and a lifeline for coastal communities around the world,” Bedolfe, who was not part of the assessment, told Mongabay in an email.

“We are already watching reefs decline before our eyes, but their fate isn’t sealed. Governments can relieve pressure on reefs now by tackling overfishing and pollution, while urgently reducing the greenhouse gas emissions driving ocean warming,” Bedolfe said.

Banner image: Sea fans surrounded by reef fish on a coral reef off the southwest coast of Pagan. Image courtesy of Andrew Gray/NOAA Fisheries via Wikimedia Commons (free to use).

YEREVAN, Armenia — More than 80 conservation, Indigenous and civil society organizations have called on governments meeting at the COP17 U.N. biodiversity summit in Armenia to keep mining, oil and gas operations out of protected areas.

“Meeting a numerical target will mean little”, if areas designated for conservation remain exposed to industrial activities, the organizations warn in a joint letter released in advance of  COP17 on Oct. 2.

An Oct. 8 report by Earth Insight and partners says that nearly 62 million hectares (153 million acres) of protected and conserved areas across the tropics overlap with oil and gas blocks, while mining concessions overlap with 43 million hectares (106 million acres).

World leaders agreed in 2022 to protect 30% of the planet’s land and waters by 2030, a commitment known as “30×30” or Target 3 of the Global Biodiversity Framework. The signatories argue that this commitment must be achieved “not just on paper, but in reality.”

Conservation officials argue that mining has no place in protected and conserved areas.

“Protected areas are protected areas,” Nadège Nzoyem, WWF’s Congo Basin regional director, said in a recent interview with Mongabay. Madhu Rao, chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, has echoed that concern, arguing that “some places are so critical that they have to be secured against extractive industries.”

The head of Nigeria’s National Park Service also acknowledged in a recent interview with Mongabay the challenges posed by illegal mining and insecurity in the country’s national parks.

Signatories to the joint letter include major international conservation groups such as The Nature Conservancy, BirdLife International, Natural Resources Defense Council and Rainforest Action Network, alongside smaller Indigenous, community and grassroots organizations globally.

Joe Eisen, executive director of Rainforest Foundation UK, told Mongabay that “if the world is serious about delivering 30×30, it must both improve the management and integrity of existing protected areas.”

Juan Carlos Jintiach, executive secretary of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities (GATC), which represents some 36 million local and Indigenous people across 24 countries told Mongabay, “we signed this letter because 30×30 must protect biodiversity while respecting our right to decide what happens in our territories.” Governments, he said, must prevent extractive and other large-scale industrial activities, including mining, from undermining these areas.

The letter underscores the signatories’ argument that conservation targets must be both ambitious and equitable. It urges governments to review existing industrial concessions, strengthen spatial planning, protect Indigenous peoples’ rights and provide adequate financing for the management of protected areas.

The appeal comes as the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity’s 2026 global report warns that, unless implementation accelerates rapidly, the world’s 2030 biodiversity targets “will not be achieved.”

But U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has previously noted that tension remains for governments, particularly in developing countries between economic development and the environment, saying the extractives sector, “has an essential role to play in advancing sustainability and equitability.”

Banner image: Elephants at Dzanga Baï in the Central African Republic. Photo by Rhett Butler.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan shut down schools and offices and grounded hundreds of flights as Typhoon Champi brushed by the island Friday, packing strong winds and torrential rains.

Champi peaked at 298 kph (185 mph) maximum sustained winds earlier this week but has weakened to 155 kph (96 mph) winds as it approached Taiwan from the southwest. Its center is forecast to remain offshore as it sweeps by the island’s northeastern tip before turning north toward Japan’s southwestern islands.

Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration urged residents in coastal areas to avoid outdoor activities and driving and be cautious of falling objects.

One person was killed Thursday after being swept away by waves in Liuqiu, a small island off the southeastern coast of Taiwan’s main island, according to the fire department. More than 170 other people were injured in the storm.

More than 2,600 people have been evacuated from vulnerable, mountainous areas, the government said.

All of Taiwan’s 262 domestic flights were canceled, along with 669 international flights, according to the transport ministry. High-speed rail services on the western coast were operating normally.

The capital Taipei, in northern Taiwan, saw light showers and gusts of winds. Transportation services including the subway remained open.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te visited the island’s Central Emergency Operation Center in New Taipei City, which spans from near the capital to Taiwan’s northern coast.

Champi has a massive radius of around 320 kilometers (200 miles), large enough to engulf most of Taiwan. Experts expect its biggest effect on Taiwan to last through Saturday and that it will reach Japan’s southern mainland on Monday.

In southwestern Japan, the typhoon has injured one person, grounded flights and knocked out power.

On Ishigaki island, nearly 2,000 homes were without electricity.

Dozens of flights in and out of the southwestern islands, including Miyako, Ishigaki and Okinawa, have been canceled.

In the Philippines, the coast guard prohibited ships and ferries from venturing into the increasingly choppy waters off several northern towns and cities Friday.

The main domestic airport in Batanes, provincial capital of Basco, was shut down Friday and two local flights were canceled, Philippine aviation officials said. The airport’s windows were boarded up as a safety precaution.

In Cagayan province, nearly 200 people were evacuated to safer grounds as a precaution. Classes were suspended in all levels in the island town of Calayan off Cagayan due to the typhoon, provincial officials said.

Champi earlier this month blew past several Pacific islands, including Guam, where a federal disaster area was declared.

By Associated Press

Banner image: People ride scooters as Typhoon Champi approaches in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. Image courtesy of Chiang Ying-ying, via Assocaited Press. 

Two Indigenous women who do not speak Portuguese were denied assistance from their interpreter while voting in Brazil’s Oct. 4 election. The translator who accompanied them to the polls, community leader Mitore Tiriyó Kaxuyana, is a relative of the women and spoke to Mongabay about what happened.

Racela Tiriyó, 23, and Mirami Tiriyó, 33, are from the Tumucumaque Park Indigenous Territory in the northeastern Brazilian Amazon. They were both voting for the first time in Macapá, the capital of Amapá state.

“They wanted to vote, since they had gotten their voting card, and they asked me for help,” Kaxuyana said. “If we cannot vote in our own language, we need translation … just because we are Indigenous and speak another language we can’t be impeded from voting and exercising our rights.”

According to Kaxuyana, poll workers informed her that only voters with disabilities were authorized to receive help from a translator. A supervisor confirmed this to her, she said.

The women then voted alone with poll workers unable to provide assistance in Tiriyó, the pair’s native language. Kaxuyana was not allowed to explain the process to them and they left unsure whether their votes had gone through as intended, Kaxuyana said.

“They don’t speak Portuguese, only our language,” Kaxuyana said. “For me, it was like prejudice.”

The Tumucumaque Park Indigenous Territory is home to about 2,800 people. Kaxuyana said her territory, which she represents as the coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Women of the Tiriyó, Kaxuyana and Txikiyana Peoples (AMITIKATXI), is not served with voting booths, and only people who are able to independently travel to Macapá by plane are able to vote.

Under a resolution issued by Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Indigenous voters have the right to electoral services that respect their languages, customs and traditions.

Mongabay reached out to the Amapá regional electoral court for comment. It confirmed receipt of the inquiry but did not reply by publication.

The case comes amid several other reports of irregularities involving Indigenous voting rights in Brazil. In northwestern Amazonas state, a regional electoral judge denied a request to provide river transport for more than 40 Indigenous villages in Vale do Javari, Brazil’s second-largest Indigenous territory, home to roughly 6,300 people.

Kaxuyana brought her case to Sônia Guajajara, the former minister of Indigenous peoples and current member of Brazil’s Congress. Guajajara compiled complaints from Indigenous voters across the country in a letter sent to TSE on Oct. 8 and another letter to the regional electoral court of Amapá on Oct. 13.

Guajajara’s press office told Mongabay that she has not received a response to either complaint.

“When someone is unable to vote because there is no boat, fuel, ground transportation or assistance in their language, we are facing the denial of a fundamental right,” Guajajara wrote in a statement.

Banner image: Women from the Missão Tiriyó village in the Tumucumaque Park Indigenous Territory. Image courtesy of the Iepé Institute archive.

Twenty years after a helicopter crash killed some of Nepal’s most prominent environmental figures, the nation is celebrating ecological gains while grappling with a void in visionary leadership, reports Mongabay’s Abhaya Raj Joshi.

On Sept. 23, 2006, a Russian-built Mi-8 helicopter crashed near the high-altitude mountain village of Ghunsa, killing all 20 passengers and four crew members. The victims included Gopal Rai, the minister of forests and soil conservation; other senior government officials; a Finnish diplomat; a USAID official; and key WWF staff. They had traveled to Ghunsa to hand over management of the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, in the northeastern corner of Nepal, to local communities.  The crash occurred the next day as the group was taking off from Ghunsa.

“For the community, this was the beginning,” said Ghana Shyam Gurung, now country representative for WWF Nepal. Seven WWF staff died in the crash, the single greatest loss of life in the history of the organization.

Among them were Harka Gurung, Chandra Gurung, and Mingma Norbu Sherpa, and their loss left an institutional vacuum.

“We didn’t just lose people that day. We lost the pace we were moving at,”said Sarita Jnawali, a former conservationist with the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC).

Shiv Raj Bhatta, an ecologist at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, who lost key supervisors in the crash, recalled the immediate aftershock. “I wondered how we would ever produce people of that height again,” Bhatta said.

The community-based conservation framework championed by that generation laid the groundwork for major ecological gains over the next two decades.

Nepal’s forest cover expanded from roughly 40% in the 1990s to more than 46% today, driven by more than 23,000 community forest groups managing 2.5 million hectares (6.2 million acres) of land. And the country’s tiger population more than tripled from 121 in 2010 to 429 this year. The rhino population grew from 645 in 2015 to 752 in 2021.

But these population recoveries also brought challenges.

A 2026 study of Nepal’s Terai Arc Landscape documented 245 tiger attacks on humans between 2010 and 2024, with 141 fatalities. In Taplejung district, site of the 2006 helicopter crash, data from Phungling municipality point to up to 330 families abandoning their hill settlements amid crop losses by monkeys.

Former forest ministry secretary Krishna Chandra Paudel described the loss as “a wound that left a deep scar,” adding that official government commemorations have largely lapsed over the past decade.

WWF’s Gurung said conservation in Nepal needs a breakthrough on the scale of the 1990s shift to community-based management, one built around climate and water. “The world ahead is about water,” he said.

Read the full story by Abhaya Raj Joshi here.

Banner image: A forest in western Nepal photographed from an airplane. Image by Abhaya Raj Joshi/Mongabay.