Sixteen people died in Mozambique and one in Madagascar after Cyclone Jude pivoted through the region last week, according to the latest European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) report.

More than 130 people were injured while four were recorded missing as of March 18.

ECHO estimates more than 10,500 people were displaced in Madagascar and almost 5,000 in Malawi. In all, at least 400,000 people were affected across the three hit African countries.

Cyclone Jude first made landfall in northern Madagascar on March 8, displacing thousands who had to stay in temporary shelters, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.

After gaining strength as it moved westward over the Mozambique Channel, the cyclone made landfall in Mozambique’s coastal district Mossuril in Nampula province on March 10, bringing maximum sustained winds of 140 kph (about 87 mph) and gusts of up to 195 kph (121 mph), weather reports show. It also brought exceptionally heavy downpours as it hovered over Nampula, with rainfall exceeding 250 millimeters (9.8 inches) in 24 hours, causing flooding in the coastal districts.

Flights were canceled and delayed while 900 houses were destroyed in Mozambique, according to The Guardian. The World Food Programme also recorded the flooding of 49,593 hectares (122,547 acres) of cropland in Monapo, Nampula. Also in Nampula, a cholera outbreak was observed in Larde, OCHA wrote.

A UNICEF spokesperson told Bloomberg that the river basins and dams in Nampula were already full, which made the flooding worse. The news report said more than 400,000 people experienced power outages in Nampula.

Before the storm hit northern Mozambique, the U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund had released $6 million to prepare early warning messages, shelter supplies, hygiene and water treatment products, according to OCHA.

Between March 10 and 12, Cyclone Jude passed through Malawi, bringing heavy rainfall before moving back to Mozambique.

In total, OCHA reported that 70,000 houses, 247 schools, 72 health facilities, 48 water systems and 18 bridges, in addition to 73 km (45 mi) of electricity lines in Mozambique were either destroyed or partially damaged as of March 18.

The third cyclone to hit Mozambique in less than three months following Chido in December and Dikeledi in January, Cyclone Jude moved eastward and made landfall again in Madagascar on March 15, this time by its southern tip.

Schools were among the most impacted, as 89 classrooms were destroyed and 182 were partially damaged, leaving 48,000 students unable to attend class as of March 18, OCHA wrote.

OCHA said it is “the first time a strong weather system crossed the entire southern region” of Madagascar, leaving more than a thousand houses flooded, around 1,600 houses damaged and 1,160 destroyed. It added that the districts of Ampanihy, Bekily, Beloha and Tsihombe remain inaccessible, with the U.N. not being able to deliver assistance by land or by air.

Banner image of Cyclone Jude by NASA (Public Domain).

A massive oil spill in Ecuadorian Amazon, in the northwestern Esmeraldas province, has covered multiple rivers and a key wildlife refuge in thick, black sludge, impacting more than half a million residents.

A rupture appeared in a 500-kilometer (310-mile) pipeline operated by the state-owned oil company Petroecuador on Mar. 13, according to a statement by the company. Following this, crude oil flowed downstream for more than 80 kilometers (50 miles) through the Esmeraldas River and its tributaries towards the mouth at the Pacific Ocean.

Witnesses described a “geyser” of oil erupting for up to seven hours, according to marine biologist Eduardo Rebolledo Monsalve of the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador’s Esmeraldas campus. Monsalve has been canvasing the region to assess the damage.

“The entire southern shore of the Esmeraldas River is completely saturated with oil,” Monsalve told Mongabay by email. He added that two of its tributaries, the Viche and Caple rivers, have turned anoxic, meaning they have lost all oxygen.

“The spill means a temporary loss of aquatic life, with long-term damage depending on environmental conditions such as rainfall and river flow,” Monsalve said. “I estimate that in smaller rivers, the impact could last around three years if the rainy seasons are mild.”

Local authorities declared an environmental emergency on Mar. 14, with the mayor of the city of Esmeraldas, Vicko Villacis, stating that the “disaster is causing unprecedented ecological damage.”

Petroecuador said it is still determining the volume spilled. The pipeline transports up to 360,000 barrels of crude oil per day from the Lago Agrio oil field in the eastern Sucumbios province, through the Andes mountain range, to a refinery in Esmeraldas on the western coast, where it is processed and sold largely for export.

At the Esmeraldas River Estuary Mangrove Wildlife Refuge, a protected area spanning 242 hectares (598 acres) at the intersection of the Esmeraldas River with the Pacific Ocean, the oil has coated mangrove channels, smothering vegetation, poisoning aquatic life and contaminating sediments.

On Mar. 18, Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition published a plea for non-profit organizations and volunteers to help with the cleanup and recovery of flora and fauna.

The refuge is home to three different species of mangrove trees and more than 100 species of fishes, birds and mammals, including the South American coati (Nasua nasua), an animal closely related to the raccoon, and the blue crab (Cardisoma crissum), a crustacean with high cultural and economic value in the region.

The ministry has ordered Petroecuador to carry out immediate containment, cleanup and remediation efforts and has activated emergency conservation funds to monitor and mitigate further damage to the protected area.

The spill in Esmeraldas province is not the first of its kind. According to Amazon Frontlines, an environmental non-profit based in Ecuador, more than 1,496 oil spills have been recorded in the nation between 2005 and 2022, 93% of which were in the Amazon.

Banner image: Oil spill in Ecuador’s northwestern Esmeraldas municipality. Image courtesy of Eduardo Rebolledo Monsalve.

March 20 marks World Rewilding Day.

Established just four years ago by the Global Rewilding Alliance, the day celebrates the herculean effort behind rebuilding ecosystems and reminds us that nature can bounce back.

Mongabay has reported on rewilding efforts from Southeast Asia to South America and beyond, with teams restoring habitats and releasing captive-bred species back into the wild, giving nonhuman animals space to thrive again.

A songbird returns to Brazil’s Cerrado

In Brazil, the great-billed seed finch (Sporophila maximiliani) has returned to the Cerrado savanna after being locally extinct for more than half a century, contributor James Hall reported.

At first sight, the critically endangered small brown bird appears rather plain, but its striking singing voice trapped it into the illegal pet trade, with some birds sold for as much as $8,000.

Since 2018, conservationists have released more than 300 captive finches into a nature reserve in southeastern Brazil. Post-release monitoring has shown they’re adapting well to the wild and have begun to breed and nest.

Zebra sharks set for comeback in West Papua

On the other side of the world, in the waters of Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago, the striking zebra shark (Stegostoma tigrinum) was considered functionally extinct, with a population of just 20 individuals remaining.

To recover their numbers there, scientists working at the Shark Reef Aquarium in Las Vegas, U.S., shipped hundreds of shark eggs back to the archipelago, with the hope of having at least 500 individuals swimming free in its waters over the coming years, Mongabay’s Hans Nicholas Jong reported.

Giant anteaters reclaim their historic range

In Argentina’s wetlands, since the reintroduction of the giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) to the 758,000-hectare (1.9 million-acre) Iberá National Park in 2007, multiple generations of the 2-meter-long (6-foot) mammal are now thriving in their original habitat.

The success of the rewilding effort has spilled over across the border, with giant anteaters spotted in southern Brazil for the first time in 130 years, contributor Sarah Brown reported in early 2024.

“If large mammals are coming from one region and settling in another, it’s because there is a support capacity for them. It’s an indication of the health of the environment,” ecologist Fábio Mazim told Brown.

Getting rewilding right

Rewilding isn’t as simple as just releasing animals into the wild. Experts such as Helen Senn, the head of conservation at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, who is part of a project to rewild the Scottish wildcat (Felis silvestris silvestris), warns that the process takes years of careful planning, monitoring and scientific research to run smoothly and support the ecosystem while ensuring individuals that were bred in captivity can survive in the wild.

“We’re in this for the long haul, and we know that it’s going to take probably years of concerted effort to truly be successful,” she told contributor Sean Mowbray.

Banner image: A giant anteater in the Argentinian wetlands. Image courtesy of Rewilding Argentina.

New Delhi, India’s capital, struggles with numerous environmental challenges, including extremely poor air quality during winter and heat waves in summer. But it also offers a hopeful example of urban ecological restoration: the city has created seven “biodiversity parks” on previously degraded land, reports contributor Nidhi Jamwal for Mongabay India.

The Aravalli Biodiversity Park (ABP), a 280-hectare (692-acre) park located near an upscale neighborhood, is now a thriving forest of native plants. It’s become a popular spot for walkers and an educational hub for school and university students. However, until the early 2000s, the area was heavily degraded by intensive sand mining. Invasive plants like Prosopis juliflora, a type of mesquite, took over the entire landscape, said M. Shah Hussain, the scientist who heads the ABP restoration team.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA), along with the University of Delhi, began restoring the mined area in 2004. Today, three previously abandoned deep mining pits serve as conservatories for butterflies, ferns and orchids.

“Looking at the green cover and forest sprawl now, it is hard to imagine that this portion of the Aravalli was a degraded wasteland pockmarked with abandoned mining pits two decades ago. There were piles of debris [mining waste] everywhere,” Hussain told Mongabay India.

A second site, the Neela Hauz Biodiversity Park, is home to a lake that was once a dumping ground for untreated sewage; today, it’s been restored as wetland ecosystem. The 3.88-hectare (9.6-acre) biodiversity park has a “constructed wetland” that treats wastewater before it flows into the lake, said Dinesh Albertson, a field biologist with the park.

“Natural processes of aeration and plants/grasses are used to treat polluted water, without any use of machinery or electricity,” Albertson told Mongabay India.

The five other biodiversity parks in New Delhi are Yamuna, Tilpath Valley, Tughlaqabad, Northern Ridge (Kamala Nehru Ridge) and South Delhi (Kalindi).

All seven parks were restored by the DDA and the University of Delhi and together span 820 hectares (2,026 acres).

Given the city’s environmental challenges, including air pollution, heat waves and floods, these greening efforts need to be expanded upon, experts told Jamwal.

“Green urban commons should not be seen merely as beautification projects,” Akshay Kaul, a New Delhi-based landscape architect, told Mongabay India. “We need a paradigm shift in how we view open spaces, urban forests, and biodiversity parks. They must be seen through the lens of climate resilience.”

Hussain agreed that biodiversity parks “are essential for building climate-resilient cities.”

“For instance, Neela Hauz acts like a sponge, holding excess water and releasing it slowly,” he said. “When planning cities, we focus on basic infrastructure like roads, drains, and water supply. Similarly, biodiversity parks and urban forests should be seen as fundamental green infrastructure.”

This is a summary of “Creating urban biodiversity parks from degraded lands” by Nidhi Jamwal for Mongabay India.

Banner image: Entrance to Aravalli Biodiversity Park in New Delhi. Image by ccarlstead via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

The Australian government has warned of impacts to the country’s economy in the wake of Cyclone Alfred that caused massive losses to infrastructure, agriculture and the dairy industries when it struck in late February.

The horticultural industry was among the worst hit, with strong winds toppling and damaging hundreds of orchard trees, and floodwaters inundating farmlands on the northern coast of the state of New South Wales. As of March 17, farmers had reported at least A$17 million ($11 million) worth of damage, according to ABC News.

Dairy farmers were also heavily affected, with many having to dump thousands of liters of milk when factories lost power and floodwaters prevented deliveries, ABC reported.

One crop that benefited from the cyclone was rice, with the rain relieving a dry start to the year. “A lot of the crops were looking for this rain so they’re actually going to thrive in all this water logging,” Natural Rice Company general manager Steve Rogers told the local news agency.

Based on the damage wrought on agriculture and infrastructure, Australia’s treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said the country is looking at a loss of up to A$1.2 billion ($760 million) to its gross domestic product. Chalmers said that with businesses temporarily shut because of the cyclone, there was an estimated loss of 12 million work hours.

The losses could lead to “an upward pressure on inflation from building costs to damaged crops raising prices for staples like fruit and vegetables,” Chalmers said.

At least 63,600 insurance claims have been filed due to severe wind and storm-driven water damage, as well as food spoilage. The Insurance Council of Australia reported that claims from New South Wales and Queensland, the areas most affected by the cyclone, are being prioritized.

Andrew Hall, the council’s CEO, said in a release that while the devastation caused by Cyclone Alfred “wasn’t as significant as predicted, we know that for many, the road to recovery will still be a long one.”

The Guardian reported that some affected people turned to using their electric vehicles to power their essential appliances. A company called MyCar has initiated a program where EV drivers can “share their power with Aussies in their darkest times.”

The NGO Climate Council said in a statement that climate change made Cyclone Alfred more damaging than it would have been otherwise. Australia’s Pacific coast has been “exceptionally hot,” with sea surface temperatures reaching “the warmest on record for each month between October 2024 and February 2025.” This was driving “more ferocious and destructive cyclones,” the Climate Council said.

It added that climate change-driven sea level rise has increased the risk of flooding damage. Cyclones are also tracking farther south, where Australia’s main population centers are clustered.

“Many homes and infrastructure in southeast Queensland are not built to withstand cyclones and the destructive winds they bring,” the statement said.

Banner image of damaged causeway after Cyclone Alfred, by Aliceinthealice via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).

To address deforestation in Cameroon, an environmental engineer has devised a cheaper, ecological alternative to charcoal, a Mongabay video narrates.

Thirty-year-old Steve Djeutchou has tapped local food markets to supply organic waste to his company, STEMA Group, which then turns the biomass into biochar or black carbon. He says his hope is that biochar will eventually replace charcoal, which is a major reason for the cutting and burning of trees in Cameroon.

According to Global Forest Watch, Cameroon has among the largest forest areas in Africa, but the country lost more than 700,000 hectares (1.7 million acres) between 2002 and 2020.

“If we manage to provide a palliative solution for charcoal or firewood, it means that we have solved a real problem related to deforestation,” Djeutchou tells Mongabay.

Cindy, a local resident of Cameroon’s capital city Yaoundé, tells Mongabay’s video team that she prefers the biochar because it is half the price of charcoal, is more durable and produces less smoke.

The video, produced by Mongabay contributors Erwan Schiex, Thomas Diego Badia and edited by Mongabay’s Juliette Chapalain, shows Djeutchou going to a snack factory and collecting banana peels with his staff in large sacks.

After collection, Djeutchou shows the rest of the process in his open-air workshop. The process involves drying the organic waste then adding it to carbonizers, which Djeutchou designed himself in 2021. The carbonized product is shredded, sieved and then mixed with a stabilizing liquid such as clay or starch. The mixture is then compacted into molds and dried.

Djeutchou’s company produces around three tons of biochar per month, but this is not enough, he says in the video. He needs more resources to scale up, have a significant impact and curb deforestation.

To further his mission, the environmental engineer has been training local residents about waste recovery and biomass. The students are also taught practical electronics skills as an entry point to the renewable energy sector. This sector has an estimated 320,000 jobs across Africa, the Mongabay video says.

Djeutchou’s STEMA Academy has trained around 400 people in the past four years.

“All renewable energies are solutions for mitigating the effects of climate change. So, what better way than to add training to strengthen human resources, to bring in people who believe in the vision, people who share the vision, which is to live in a healthy environment and to industrialize Africa in general, and Cameroon in particular,” Djeutchou says.

Watch the full video: “Biochar from banana peels breaks ground in Cameroon” by Mongabay.

Banner image of biochar by Thomas Diego Badia.