Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries.

In the forests around Pemaluan in East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, researchers led by Wendy Erb at the Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics in the U.S. have placed audio recorders on mountains, beside caves, and among mangroves. Over 18 months, they sampled 20 sites, collecting the calls of gibbons, frogs, hornbills, insects, and other wildlife. They want to establish a baseline before Nusantara, Indonesia’s new capital city, alters the surrounding landscape, according to a video produced by Mongabay, Scientific American, and Project Multatuli.

Nusantara is being built in East Kalimantan province to relieve some of Jakarta’s congestion and pressure from land subsidence. Its planners describe a “smart forest city” where development and biodiversity can coexist. Roads, apartment buildings, a hotel, and a presidential palace have already appeared. Construction and chainsaws are becoming part of the local soundscape.

The recordings will allow scientists to compare conditions over time. They may show where species remain, where they decline, and whether development is pushing wildlife into other areas. The findings could also help identify places where conservation measures are most needed.

The project also records knowledge held by the Indigenous Balik people. Animal calls have long helped them interpret the forest. Gibbons marked the approach of dawn and, in unusual circumstances, were thought to warn of a death in the village. The great argus (Argusianus argus), a large pheasant native to the island’s forests, held particular importance. Some younger Balik children no longer recognize its call.

Local residents have helped select recording sites, explain the history of the landscape, and describe the connections between certain species, places, and customs. Abidin, who was born in Pemaluan and has never left, said he hopes the recordings will help him teach his children about the forest. He said he worries they may have to adjust to urban life without the education or skills needed to find work there.

The researchers said they do not expect the project to stop Nusantara’s construction. Nor can the recordings preserve the forest or document every part of Balik culture. They will provide evidence of which species were present and how the soundscape changed as building advanced. For the Balik, they will also preserve voices and knowledge that may become harder to encounter in the forest itself.

This video is a collaboration between Mongabay, Scientific American, and Project Multatuli. It was supported by the Pulitzer Center.

Banner image: A view of the presidential palace in Indonesia’s new capital, Nusantara. Image courtesy of Leah Varjacques.

Researchers have   a population of an extremely rare plant species, last recorded in Sri Lanka in 1855, growing in a lowland forest fragment along the Sitawaka Ganga River.

Documenting the finding in a recent study, researchers write that the plant, Indianthus virgatus, while officially listed as critically endangered in Sri Lanka, was presumed possibly extinct in the wild in the country.

I. virgatus, which has small white flowers, grows in the understory of wet tropical forests. It’s known from some 150 locations in India, but the only verified record of the plant in Sri Lanka is from a specimen collected in 1855, the study says.

Using a combination of historical records across India and Sri Lanka, and predictive habitat modeling to identify potential habitats, researchers looked for the plant in southwestern Sri Lanka, in Sabaragamuwa Province.

In January 2025, the research team successfully located a small population of I. virgatus of 70 to 100 individuals. This population was found in an area that researchers had predicted to be highly suitable for the species.

I. virgatus, which is the only species within the Indianthus genus, has unique evolutionary and biogeographical context, said Vivek Pandi, coauthor of the study and assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India.

The species has a disjunct occurrence across the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka, Pandi told Mongabay by email, meaning populations of the species are separated by a large geographical gap. This raises an intriguing question, he added, about whether an ancient geological event split the once-continuous population of the plant into two separate  groups; or whether the species reached Sri Lanka later through long-distance dispersal.

Though I. virgatus went unrecorded in the wild in Sri Lanka for 170 years, Pandi said the researchers think the species survived undetected in sheltered pockets of forest over the decades.

According to Pandi, these areas include small remnants of moist, shaded forest — typically around streams and sheltered slopes — that can retain stable microclimatic conditions despite severe disturbance in the surrounding landscape.

“The rediscovery of I. virgatus highlights why these seemingly small and isolated forest remnants can be important for conserving poorly known species,” Pandi said.

Protecting these micro-refugia is urgent, as most of the plant’s suitable habitats in Sri Lanka have been destroyed by tea and rubber plantations, the study notes. Populations of the plant in the Western Ghats also face habitat-related threats, Pandi said.

Effectively safeguarding the newly found population in Sri Lanka will require a combination of immediate local habitat protection and efforts to establish collections of the plant at national botanical gardens, the study’s authors write.

They add that the conservation status of I. virgatus also needs to be assessed for the IUCN Red List, so its protection can be integrated into national and regional biodiversity action plans.

Banner image of Indianthus virgatus growing along the shaded bank of a stream in lowland forest. Image courtesy of Vishnu et al., 2026 (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Seven Indigenous Guarani, including two children and a prominent community leader, were killed Aug. 14 in a crash with a grain cargo trailer that reportedly broke loose from the truck pulling it in central Brazil.

All seven were from Kalipety village in the Tenondé Porã Indigenous Territory in São Paulo state.

A fisher who witnessed the crash told police that the corn-filled cargo trailer detached from the truck and “violently” struck the passenger car, according to a police report seen by Mongabay. The force of the collision caused both vehicles to catch fire, killing everyone in the car and incinerating the bodies. The truck driver fled the scene of the accident, the witness said.

The bodies have not yet been officially identified but community members confirmed that the victims were Karaí Tiago Honório dos Santos, 34; his wife, Kerexu Laudiceia Benites, also a community leader, 31; their children, Jaxuka Luna Benites Santos, 7, and Tadeu Hiago Werá Mirim Benites dos Santos, 14; his sister, Kerexu Cleonice Honório dos Santos, 42; Ileo Benites, 32; and Genilson Euzébio Karay Mirim, 30.

Karaí Tiago Honório dos Santos was the executive coordinator of the Guarani Yvyrupa Commission and Guarani Inter-Village Committee, where he worked to further the rights of the Guarani and other Indigenous peoples in Brazil. He also spearheaded environmental recovery and agrobiodiversity efforts.

“[Tiago’s] journey was interrupted in such a brutal way, and what a sad coincidence that [it was] by a truck loaded with corn.” Tatiane Klein, an anthropologist and friend of Karaí Tiago who worked with him for more than a decade, told Mongabay by phone. “They were going to Mato Grosso do Sul to visit relatives and exchange traditional seeds that they cultivate in the Kalipety [Guarani village].”

According to Klein, he was a serious and generous leader with a collective approach to his leadership, often pushing others to speak and training younger leaders. She described him as both strategic and very hands-on.

In 2019, he led a campaign in which Guarani communities bought six shares valued at 17 reais each ($3 today) of Brazil’s largest railway operator, Rumo. The move granted them access to the annual shareholder meeting, where they challenged other shareholders on Rumo’s failure to deliver environmental and Indigenous protection commitments. The company’s railway expansion project affected 13 villages across five Indigenous territories.

Within a year, the Guarani committee signed an agreement with the company for environmental mitigation programs and compensation worth 68 million reais ($13 million today).

According to Klein, Tiago’s older sister Cleonice served on the Indigenous territory’s collective leadership council and was a key figure in the Guarani women’s movement. Laudiceia, Tiago’s wife, was a teacher in the community and worked to reinvigorate traditional knowledge on medicine and plants.

Mongabay reached out to Guarani leadership. They said they were grieving and not ready to speak publicly about the deaths.

Banner image: Karaí Tiago speaks at an event about community-based tourism based in 2019. Image courtesy of Rafael Hupsel via ISA

Global sea surface temperatures have reached a record high, raising serious concerns for global Earth systems, according to new data released by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

On Aug. 22, the daily global average sea surface temperature, outside polar regions, reached 21.1° Celsius (69.98° Fahrenheit), exceeding the previous record set in March 2024 of 21.09° C (69.96° F). Even small temperature increases represent a huge gain in heat energy in the ocean because of its vast volume, noted the 2025 European state of the climate report. In 2025, too, the global ocean heat content — that is, the total amount of heat stored in the ocean — reached a new record high, passing the previous record set in 2024.

The increase in ocean warming is having far-reaching consequences.

“Our [latest] report highlights how sea surface temperatures contribute to sea-level rise, increase the likelihood and intensity of marine heatwaves, put critical ecosystems such as coral reefs and seagrass under greater stress, and threaten fisheries and food security,” Samantha Burgess told Mongabay in an email.

Burgess is the strategic lead for climate with the C3S at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which produced the report. She added that increased sea surface temperatures “can also increase the potential for some extreme weather events, putting coastal communities at risk, all the while reducing the ocean’s ability to act as a carbon sink for the planet.”

The world’s oceans have absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat produced by human activities since the 1980s, and the rate of warming has nearly doubled in the past two decades. The last four years have been the hottest on record for global ocean sea surface temperatures.

“The number of marine heatwave days globally has more than tripled since the early 1990s,” Burgess said.

Adding fuel to the fire of human-induced warming is a super El-Niño currently strengthening in the tropical Pacific Ocean.

“El Niño is adding heat to the system, but it is doing so on top of decades of human-driven warming,” Burgess said.

Globally, scientists are concerned about massive marine deaths from extreme ocean heat. Coral reefs are particularly sensitive to heat and a coral die-off could have cascading effects for the roughly 25% of all marine life that depends on them as a habitat.

Coastal communities are also at greater risk as warmer oceans damage fish stocks, create conditions for stronger tropical storms and increase sea level rise as a result of melting glaciers and thermal expansion.

Oceans are an enormous buffer for the climate system, Burgess told Mongabay. However, warmer oceans can mean significant changes to ocean circulation patterns and marine life and make the ocean less effective at absorbing excess carbon from human activity.

“In other words, the buffering service continues, but at increasing cost to ecosystems and society,” Burgess said.

Banner image: The ocean is a crucial player in the global carbon cycle. Image courtesy of NOAA.

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Even as rescuers worked through mud and debris Friday in areas devastated by a catastrophic flash flood along the Himalayan border between Nepal and China, authorities warned that a newly formed, overflowing lake could trigger further flooding.

Nepalese authorities said all security personnel, rescue workers and members of the public deployed in rescue and relief efforts have been told to remain on high alert and immediately move to a safe location if necessary.

Nepal police spokesperson Abi Narayan Kafle told The Associated Press that the rescue operation is continuing but with authorities remaining on high alert.

“It hasn’t stopped,” he said.

Where is the lake?

Satellite imagery shown by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV seems to indicate that the newly formed lake was in the same area as where the glacial detachment event happened on Wednesday that resulted in the chain of events leading to catastrophic damage downstream.

Nepal’s disaster management authority said that satellite imagery and preliminary assessments indicate that the river has been blocked upstream, creating a growing lake that could burst and trigger a sudden downstream flood.

CCTV reported Friday morning that the lake’s barrier was more than 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Gyirong Port, the border crossing with Nepal that was engulfed by mud and floodwater.

The broadcaster said that the lake was at an elevation of 2,950 meters (9,680 feet), about 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) above Gyirong Port.

How did it form?

Climate scientists tracking developments in the Himalayan region said that Wednesday’s glacial collapse has resulted in several small water bodies forming as debris is still strewn across the region.

“Another dammed lake was formed by the August 26th ice-rock avalanche and this has begun to outflow,” said Qianggong Zhang of the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development.

The lake holds a few million cubic meters of water and is located in a valley section with a limited elevation drop to downstream areas, said Zhang, who is head of climate and environmental risks at the Kathmandu-based climate research group.

The amount of water is the equivalent of around 1,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

What are the concerns?

With hundreds killed and more than 1,500 people missing and as the region tries to recover from the catastrophe, the possibility of another disaster has sent alarm bells ringing.

“There is still a lot of glacial melts going on because of high temperatures and the water is accumulating at various points, as there is bound to be a lot of debris and rock on the river’s path,” said Jakob Steiner, a geoscientist at the University of Graz in Austria who is based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Both Zhang and Steiner said that the alerts should be taken seriously, as many rescuers are putting themselves at great risk to find the missing, but it’s unlikely that a flash flood as devastating as the one on Wednesday will happen again.

By Sibi Arasu, Associated Press. Huizhong Wu contributed to this report from Bangkok.

Banner image: The Trishuli River after flash floods in Nepal. Image by Niranjan Shrestha, Associated Press

On March 15th 1991 Hà Đình Đức happened to be passing Hồ Gươm, the small lake at the center of Hanoi, when he saw its giant softshell turtle surface.

Đức went home and marked the date on his calendar. He was a zoologist, but the encounter created an “invisible bond” between himself and the turtle, almost “hypnotizing” him. He said it changed the course of his life.

A research project later gave him an official reason to study the animal. When the project ended, he carried on. For the next quarter-century he photographed it, recorded its appearances and worried about its health. Hanoians came to know him as “Professor Turtle” or simply “Đức Rùa”.

Very few of these enormous freshwater turtles survived and little was known about the individual in Hồ Gươm. But Đức also saw the turtle as inseparable from the lake and the legend associated with it.

According to the 15th-century story, Lê Lợi led a rebellion that drove Ming forces from Vietnam with the help of a magical sword. After his victory he was boating on the lake when a golden turtle surfaced and reclaimed the weapon for its divine owner. The lake became Hồ Hoàn Kiếm, the Lake of the Returned Sword.

For Đức, the survival of a giant turtle in the lake made the old story tangible. The animal was the lake’s “soul”, by his telling.

Đức traveled Vietnam looking for other turtles that might be related to the one in Hồ Gươm. He hoped descendants might keep the association between the turtle and the legend alive for another generation.

His work also brought him into conflict with officials in Hanoi. Proposals to dredge the lake or build around it could draw objections from Đức if he thought the turtle had not been considered. He argued that scientists had a responsibility to ask what might happen to the animal before work began. Pollution, too, was a worry.

In 2011, when the elderly turtle developed lesions and had to be captured for treatment, Đức was at the lake almost every day. The turtle died in 2016.

Đức continued to concern himself with Hồ Gươm after the loss. He spoke out about development around the lake and continued searching for other giant softshell turtles elsewhere in Vietnam.

Hà Đình Đức died in Hanoi on August 7th 2026. He was 86.

Banner image: Hà Đình Đức with the great softshell of Hồ Gươm. Photo by ZNews Vietnam