‘No one is helping us’: Venezuelan conservation crippled by crisis
“To leave my dream was difficult, but I had to do it for my son,” says Ileana Herrera, a former ecologist from Venezuela, now living in Ecuador. Herrera, like many…
Environmental headlines
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Speed trap: Cameras help defuse human-cheetah conflict in Botswana
Botswana’s policy of zero tolerance for poaching and illegal hunting has given it the reputation of valuing wildlife conservation. But an increase in human-wildlife conflict in recent years appears to…
Agroforestry saves soil and boosts livelihoods in Tajikistan
FAIZOBOD, Tajikistan — Mirzoli Azizov, a 54-year-old farmer, is sorting apples from the second harvest this year from his agroforestry gardens in this district 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of…
Audio: A Half-Earth progress report from E.O. Wilson
On this episode, a progress report on the Half-Earth Project direct from legendary conservation biologist E.O. Wilson. Listen here: The Half-Earth Project recently held an event at the American…
PNG to create 7,500 square kilometers of new marine protected areas in Bismarck Sea
Papua New Guinea has announced its commitment to creating 7,500 square kilometers of marine protected areas in the Bismarck Sea by 2021. The government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) made…
Chile: Mining waste continues to be expelled into the sea
Little by little, the ocean floor of Chapaco Bay is being blanketed in sludge. Héctor Zuleta is no longer able to harvest shellfish from among the caves, ridges and woodlands…
Vietnam-EU legal timber agreement signed, but much work remains
HO CHI MINH CITY — The European Union has signed an agreement to support Vietnam’s forest governance improvement goals, aimed at ensuring that the timber it imports from the Southeast…
China restores ban on rhino and tiger parts, for now
China has backtracked on a recent decision to legalize the “controlled” use of rhino and tiger parts for cultural and medicinal use. In an announcement on Oct. 29, the Chinese…
Honduras aims to save vital wildlife corridor from deforestation
Honduras has committed to protecting part of the tropical rainforests found in the Moskitia region, a move that conservation groups say will protect the region’s rich wildlife, carbon stocks and…
Bolsonaro merger of Brazil agriculture and environment ministries in limbo
The president elect’s plan to fuse the ministries has met with staunch resistance from environmentalists, scientists, and even some in the bancada ruralista agribusiness lobby.
The last trees of the Amazon
Alarmed by the entry of poachers who illegally cut down and stole the oldest trees from their territory, members of the Shawi indigenous community organized an assembly this past August…
Indonesia leans on businesses to do more about plastic waste
NUSA DUA, Indonesia — The Indonesian government is set to make consumer goods manufacturers more responsible for managing the waste from their product packaging, in a bid to tackle one…
Satellite technology unites Kenyans against bush fires
NYERI, Kenya - It took nine hours for Margaret Wanjugu and neighbors to put out a fire that razed Gathorongai forest near her home in central Kenya, in 2016. She…
Haiti may lose all primary forest by 2035, mass extinction underway
New findings indicate that at current deforestation rates, all of Haiti’s primary forest will be gone within the next two decades, leading to the loss of most of the country’s…
In other news: Environmental stories from around the web, November 9, 2018
Tropical forests Large consumer corporations say certification isn’t the solution to stopping deforestation (Ethical Corporation). The shorter stature of some rainforest peoples helps improve their efficiency moving through dense vegetation…
Novel research method reveals small-scale gold mining’s impact on Peruvian Amazon
According to research released yesterday, small-scale gold mining has led to the destruction of more than 170,000 acres of primary rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon over the past five years.…
End of funding dims hopes for a Sumatran forest targeted by palm oil growers
JAKARTA — Its name in Indonesian means “hope,” but there seems to be little of that remaining for the Harapan rainforest, a tropical woodland oasis in an ever-expanding desert of…
Peru cracks down after environmental defenders’ murders
Lambayaque, PERU - Authorities in Peru late last month arrested a dozen alleged members of the notorious El Gran Chaparral criminal syndicate. The members were arrested on the charges of…
Latam Eco Review: Hungry manatees and grand theft tortoise
The recent top stories from our Spanish-language service, Mongabay Latam, concerned hungry manatees in Venezuelan zoos; giant tortoises stolen from the Galápagos Islands; and a ban on free, prior and…
In West Papua’s Arfak Mountains, local leaders plot ecotourism boom
MANOKWARI, Indonesia — High in the northwestern mountains of Indonesia’s West Papua province, the newly established Pegunungan Arfak district has a bold idea: Its leaders hope to achieve economic prosperity…
Special series
Endangered environmentalists
- Murder of activist in India highlights growing risk to environmental defenders
- Number of murdered environmental activists rose once again in 2017
- Indonesia to investigate death of journalist being held for defaming palm oil company
Indonesias forest guardians
- Papuan chef Charles Toto serves up sustainability and environmental protection in a platter
- In eastern Indonesia, a forest tribe pushes back against miners and loggers
- Faith in the forest helps Indonesia’s Dayaks keep plantations, loggers at bay
Amazon infrastructure
- China increasingly involved in Brazil’s ambitious Amazon rail network
- Amazon and climate science threatened if Bolsonaro elected Brazil’s president (commentary)
- Grainrail: ‘2nd revolution in Brazilian agribusiness’ and Amazon threat
Asian rhinos
- For Javan rhinos, the last holdout may also be a deadly disease hotspot
- ‘At capacity’? A Nepali park reckons with its rhinos
- What’s killing Nepal’s rhinos?
