Negotiations are set to begin on the world’s first international protocol to fight environmental crime, including wildlife trafficking, illegal deforestation, and illicit waste smuggling. The protocol, to be drafted over the next two years, aims to make it easier to investigate, prosecute, and adjudicate these crimes.

The negotiations will take place under the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), a global treaty established in 2003 to combat international criminal networks, money laundering, and corruption. The resolution to begin drafting the protocol was approved Oct. 23 at the treaty’s 13th biennial gathering.

“This is a landmark moment in the global fight against environmental crime,” Alice Pasqualato, global policy specialist for environmental crime at U.S.-based NGO Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a press release.

The proposal was put forward by 12 countries — eight from Latin America and four from Africa — led by Brazil. It secured more than the required two-thirds majority: Of the 112 parties physically or electronically present and cast a vote, 83 voted in favor and 12 against. The latter included the U.S. and Japan. Another 27 countries abstained.

The decision “sends a powerful message that governments recognize the scale, seriousness and interconnected nature of environmental crime,” Mark Jones, head of policy at U.K-based NGO Born Free, said in a press release. “We commend the States that developed, tabled and supported this resolution and look forward to engaging constructively in the negotiations ahead.”

The draft protocol will be discussed at the next UNTOC gathering in two years.

UNTOC already has protocols addressing human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and illegal weapons production and trade. The new resolution describes these protocols as “the principal worldwide legal instruments to prevent and combat the scourge of transnational organized crime.” It adds that they provide a framework for international cooperation, including the extradition and prosecution of suspects.

Many countries lack the needed tools to fight environmental crime, valued at up to $281 billion per year and often run by international syndicates. The UNTOC resolution detailed the consequences: “crimes that affect the environment may also have a negative impact on the rule of law, economies, sustainable development, public health, human safety, food security, livelihoods and habitats.”

Meanwhile, there are gaps in the legal definitions of environmental offenses and differences in penalties worldwide.

“Different jurisdictions end up speaking different legal languages, with some environmental offences being criminalized in one country but not the other,” Pasqualato said. “A dedicated international agreement offers a historic opportunity to close that gap, strengthen international cooperation and give governments better tools to disrupt the criminal networks profiting from the exploitation of wildlife and natural resources.”

Banner image: Tigers in Cambodia were declared functionally extinct in 2007. Image ©Vinod Udhwani via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0).

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The discovery of five baby orangutans abandoned on a plantation in eastern India is highlighting the country’s growing role as a destination for trafficked apes. Experts say wealthy collectors, expanding air links with Southeast Asia and loopholes in wildlife laws are to blame. India also legally imported 41 orangutans between 2021 and 2024 and experts have raised questions about their origins. At the same time, efforts to return rescued orangutans to Indonesia have stalled. Scrutiny over ownership of apes intensified after one orangutan was transferred to a private wildlife facility run by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s family.

By Aniruddha Ghosal and Victoria Milko, Associated Press

Banner image: Six baby orangutans playing on the ground at Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation in Nyaru Menteng, Central Kalimantan. Image courtesy of Bjorn Vaugn / BOSF / Greenpeace

Roy Sesana, a 97-year-old Indigenous rights campaigner who opposed the Botswana government over the removal of San communities from their traditional lands in Central Kalahari, has received an honorary doctorate from the University of Botswana.

The university awarded Sesana an honorary Doctor of Letters on Oct. 23, recognizing his decades of advocacy for Indigenous rights, cultural identity and dignity. In an official statement, the university said the honor recognized “a lifetime of service that goes beyond individual achievement.”

The recognition comes nearly 20 years after Botswana’s High Court ruled in favor of Sesana and other San people who challenged their removal from traditional lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. Communities were moved in the 1990s and early 2000s. The government justified the action saying it was necessary for conservation and because providing public services was difficult.

Nearly two decades later, one of the lawyers who represented San communities is now Botswana’s president. Since taking office in November 2024, Duma Boko has prioritized Indigenous land rights, established an interministerial committee to address longstanding grievances and advanced plans to restore community rights across the 52,000-square-kilometer (20,000-square-mile) reserve. He attended the recent ceremony and paid tribute to Sesana’s struggle.

Sesana helped establish First People of the Kalahari in 1991 and received the Right Livelihood Award in 2005 for his work defending his people’s right to live on their traditional land.

According to Botswana’s government news agency, Sesana dedicated his honorary doctorate to the Basarwa and the people of Botswana. After the ceremony, he said he was happy to receive the recognition and encouraged younger generations to keep their cultural identity alive.

Members of civil society have praised the selection of Sesana for the honorary degree. Collen Matema with the African Wildlife Foundation wrote on LinkedIn that, “This is historical, congratulations to Dr. Sesana and his community. This is the Africa we want!” Maria Elena Castro said that “the recognition [went] to somebody who deserves it.”

Michael Taylor, executive director of Anthropos Africa, has been working closely with an interministerial committee established by Boko’s government to examine Indigenous rights and develop a roadmap for land restitution.

During the court battle, Sesana “was often seen by many people as public enemy number one,” Taylor told Mongabay in an interview. “He was the one who was taking his own government to court.”

Taylor said the government approved a plan in September 2026 to return legally protected land rights to Indigenous communities. Under the plan, the reserve would stay protected, while  communities would gain land rights and play a key role in its care.

For Sesana, however, the recognition does not end his fight. In an interview with The Botswana Gazette before the ceremony, he welcomed the honor but said that “the struggle for ancestral land, self-determination and livelihoods remains far from over.”

Banner image: Roy Sesana, second from right, and Botswana President Duma Boko, third from right. Image courtesy of the Government of Botswana.

Criminal organizations linked to illegal logging, illegal gold mining, land grabbing and cattle ranching now dominate large sections of land around the BR-319 highway in one of the Brazilian Amazon’s largest stretches of forest, according to a new study. The finding comes as Brazil is moving forward with further improvements to the controversial highway.

​The recent study measured the sharp increase in deforestation after 2015, when then-president Dilma Rousseff authorized the first maintenance work on the highway, abandoned since 1998. Her successor, Jair Bolsonaro, promised to pave the road, which intensified land speculation and the conversion of large forest areas into cattle pasture.

According to the research article’s lead author, São Paulo University (USP) researcher Lucas Ferrante, the lack of government surveillance made the area fertile ground for organized crime. He said that drug trafficking and environmental crimes often share the same routes and financial flows, while cattle ranching is frequently used to launder money from criminal activities.

​“This region is becoming a hub of large farms controlled by organized crime,” Ferrante, associated with the Center for Research on Biodiversity and Climate Change^[1] (CBioClima), told Mongabay in a video call.

​The BR-319 highway, which connects the cities of Manaus and Porto Velho in Brazil’s northern Amazon, was built during Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s and later fell into disrepair. The highway’s 339-kilometer (211-mile) middle section is largely impassable in the rainy season, though many still try to traverse it.

​In April, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva moved to advance work on the BR-319 highway, using a new legal loophole to bypass environmental licensing requirements. Conservationists are raising concerns that paving the road could lead to more deforestation and be a tipping point for the Amazon.

In September, Lula’s administration created four new sustainable development reserves covering 668,000 hectares (1.65 million acres) near the BR-319 in an attempt to mitigate the environmental damage. ​The federal government also plans to create three checkpoints and 170 crossings to ensure animals can pass safely.

According to Ferrante’s estimates, however, it would take at least 28 checkpoints where federal agents check vehicles for illegal activity on all secondary roads already open alongside BR-319.​ “The number of illegal access roads is already six times the length of the highway,” he said.​

The recent study relied on deforestation data, satellite imagery, cattle trading documents and five field expeditions. During one of these expeditions, Ferrante found a farm worker’s dead body along an illegal side road, reflecting the increase in violence linked to land conflicts in the region.

The study urges the government to reassess or revoke the licenses and regulatory measures that enable further road improvements. “Under current governance conditions, paving BR-319 would consolidate a high-risk corridor for environmental crime, territorial appropriation, public insecurity, and potentially irreversible socio-environmental degradation,” it stated.

Banner image: Organized crime is involved with land grabbing and cattle ranching in the BR-319 area, new study shows. Image courtesy of Lucas Ferrante.

Incumbent Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was reelected on Oct. 25 in a surprise defeat of his far-right rival who had promised to remove “environmental obstacles” in the Amazon rainforest.

Lula won 51.8% of valid votes. Flávio Bolsonaro, eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is imprisoned after being convicted of attempting a coup d’état when he lost the previous election, won 48.2% of the vote. Flávio was favored to win after he got 2% more of the first-round votes on Oct. 4. However, neither candidate got more than 50% of the vote, triggering a runoff election. Lula was able to secure an additional 10 million votes in 20 days.

“This election was a defeat for denialism, a defeat for lies,” Lula said in his first speech after the election results.

“We are going to teach the world how climate policy is done, here in this country. This year is the first time we have managed to reduce deforestation for four consecutive years.”

Deforestation soared to its highest level in 15 years under Jair Bolsonaro’s government. Lula took office in 2023 pledging to end both legal and illegal deforestation by 2030. Since then, deforestation has gradually slowed to its lowest rate since records began in 1988, though the Amazon rainforest is still shrinking.

Between August 2025 and July 2026, around 333,500 hectares (824,000 acres) of forest were cut, an area equivalent to roughly 7,300 Olympic-size swimming pools cleared every day.

“The reduction in deforestation in recent years was fundamental, but we still need to go much further,” Carlos Nobre, a climate scientist at the University of São Paulo, said in a statement.

Lula won a majority in four Amazonian states, while Flávio had more than half of the votes in five.

In Manaus, the Brazilian Amazon’s largest city, the skies were covered in forest fire smoke for much of October. Lula gained more than 80,000 votes in Manaus between the first and second rounds, an 18.5% increase, while Flávio Bolsonaro saw a 2.5% increase.

At an Oct. 19 rally in Marabá, a city in southeastern Pará state, Flávio Bolsonaro promised “the largest land regularization Pará has ever seen” and an end to environmental regulations, without specifying which rules he would remove.

In 2019, as a senator, Flávio Bolsonaro also co-authored a bill to abolish the requirement for landowners to keep native vegetation on 80% of their property in forested areas of the Legal Amazon, 35% in the Cerrado savanna and 20% in the rest of Brazil. The bill was shelved the same year.

Lula is set to begin his fourth term on Jan. 5, 2027. Voters elected Flávio Bolsonaro’s far right Liberal Party to the most seats in both chambers of Congress.

Banner image: Incumbent Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in São Paulo, Brazil, after his election win. Image courtesy of Ricardo Stuckert.

YEREVAN, Armenia — Like the dark spaces they often prefer, mushrooms, yeasts, and some 160,000 known species of fungi rest in the background of conservation efforts. But their crucial role as ecosystem engineers makes protecting them vital, said Greg Mueller, chief scientist emeritus at the Chicago Botanic Garden in the U.S.

“They really are responsible for life on Earth,” he said, “and life as we know it would not exist without fungi.”

Mueller called fungi “nature’s recyclers” at the launch of the first global conservation strategy for fungal conservation on Oct. 21 at the United Nations biodiversity conference (COP17) in Armenia. Many fungi also form symbiotic relationships with plants, helping shuttle nutrients and water between them; they can sock away carbon in soil and help provide food for animals and people.

Historically, international negotiations to stem the global loss of species haven’t fully considered fungi. Now, a team of fungi conservationists from 30 countries led by Mueller has set out to integrate fungal conservation into the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a central part of negotiations at COP17.

To date, mycologists — scientists who study fungi — have little data on the conservation status for most species known to science.

“When we talk about … halting extinction risk, how can we talk about it [while] ignoring a whole kingdom of life?” Cátia Canteiro, a conservationist with U.K.-based NGO Plantlife International who co-led the strategy, said during the launch.

The guidelines aim to spur new research and the protection of rare species, make fungi part of restoration and rewilding efforts, and balance the sustainable use of species that provide humans with food and medicine. Its authors also collected real-world examples of how fungi boost ecosystems, wildlife and communities.

In Uganda and Rwanda, mushroom cultivation provides households with income while easing the pressure on wetland areas that support threatened cranes. And women in Benin, home to 70 species of edible mushrooms, have benefited from learning to grow and sell them.

The country’s fungal diversity is “incredible,” said Bernice Bancole, a plant pathologist from Benin.

Bancole, now with the University of KwaZulu-Natal and GreenHill Laboratories in South Africa, contributed to the strategy specifically around the array of fungal species that impact forestry and food production, she told Mongabay in an interview. Her own work has looked at how fungi can be used as “biocontrols” for insect pests like cereal borers that can decimate critical food crops like sorghum, rice, and maize.

The strategy draws on the global work of scientists who, like Bancole, bring their unique expertise to bear on the case for protecting fungi around the world.

“There is so much Africa can bring to the table when we are talking about fungi conservation and fungi being incorporated into biodiversity strategy,” she said.

Banner image: Studying fungi in Indonesia’s Bantimurung-Bulusaraung National Park. Image © Garry Lotulung/SPUN-Indonesia.