Belo Monte dam installation license suspended, housing inadequacy cited
Brazilian court finds Norte Energia consortium guilty of failure to keep housing commitments for those displaced by mega-dam in Amazon. Installation license suspended.
Environmental headlines
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First orangutan birth in Aceh reserve ‘gives hope’ for survival of species
The first baby orangutan was born at the Pinus Jantho Nature Reserve in Sumatra, a sign that the species might survive the global extinction crisis now underway. Jantho serves as…
Indonesia abuzz over possible finding of extinct tiger
JAKARTA — Based on photographic evidence, park officials in Indonesia reported the possible sighting of the Javan tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) some 14 years after the animal was officially declared…
Pursuing a decent life for all on a sustainable planet (commentary)
Mounting evidence reminds us how human actions have begun changing the climate and forced an awareness of global warming’s impact on the quality of human life. That awareness will be…
CETA: environmentally friendly trade treaty or corporate Trojan horse?
The CETA trade agreement was supposed to undo past treaty abuses and be a model for future global trade agreements. But critics say CETA still threatens the environment and national sovereignty.
Indigenous victory: Brazil’s Temer decrees 1.2 million Amazon reserve
Brazil last week established the Indigenous Territory of Turubaxi-Téa, covering 1.2 million hectares along the Middle Negro River in Amazonas state.
Oil palm firms advance into Leuser rainforest, defying Aceh governor’s orders
Oil palm plantation companies are still eating away at the Leuser Ecosystem, one of Indonesia’s last best rainforests, despite a provincial ban on forest clearance to make way for the…
Does social forestry always decrease deforestation and poverty? (commentary)
Despite decades of hard environmental battle against deforestation, tropical forest losses continue unabated. Forests are cut down to make way for cattle-grazing land, oil palm plantations or other non-forests uses.…
‘Snow white’ giraffes caught on video for the first time
Two rare white giraffes have been captured on video in the wild for the first time, reports a wildlife conservancy in Kenya. The giraffes, which are leucistic, meaning they have…
Local approaches to conservation may be the most effective, study finds
Research has shown community-managed protected areas are often more effectively conserved than protected areas run by outsiders. A new study, published this week in Scientific Reports, a journal by Nature,…
Spot the pattern: Whisker-prints and citizen science
Recent advancements in technology and social media have spurred the growth of citizen science, a phenomenon through which non-scientists contribute to the collection of scientific data. According to Nature, results…
What works in conservation? In-depth series starts next week
How do you solve a conservation problem? Do you protect a wild leopard that has entered a village by removing it and releasing it into a forest far, far away?…
Amazon mining unleashed (commentary)
On August 23, 2017, Brazil’s president Michel Temer issued a decree revoking the RENCA (National Reserve of Copper and Associated Minerals), an area the size of Switzerland on the northern…
Pygmy death shows need for land reform, group says
An organization that advocates on behalf of forests and forest peoples, Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), says that a key land reform issue is to blame for the August 26 death…
Nicaraguan beef raised illegally in biological reserve mostly exported
(This article is a collaboration between Mongabay-Latam and Onda Local, read the first article here) Indio Maíz Biological Reserve, Nicaragua - "When I see my Chontaleños and Boaqueños (people from…
Rehabilitating wildlife in the aftermath of Harvey
When the team at Bat World Sanctuary in Weatherford, Texas, a town about 30 miles west of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, heard about what was happening to bats as Hurricane…
Protest against hydropower plant in Sumatra ends with injuries
Dozens of indigenous people gathered in a village in western Indonesia last month to protest against the development of a planned 510-megawatt hydroelectric dam that threatens to evict them from land they hold sacred.
North America’s ash trees, Africa’s antelopes face heightened threat of extinction
The latest update to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, released today, finds that even species once considered so abundant as to…
Ecologist wins Heinz environment prize for airborne mapping that informs policy
It’s not uncommon to find ecologist Greg Asner flying transects over the rainforests of the Amazon or Borneo. His specially outfitted plane has helped map out the three-dimensional structure of…
Samsung won’t partner with Korindo following outrage over forest destruction in Indonesia
Samsung will stay away from any joint venture with a Korean-Indonesian conglomerate, Korindo, amid an NGO campaign highlighting Korindo’s rainforest destruction for palm oil in Indonesia’s Tanah Papua region. Samsung's…
Special series
Endangered environmentalists
- Jackson Hole Film Festival finalist Q&A: “Yasuni Man”
- Leading ivory trade investigator slain in Tanzania
- 2016 was even deadlier for environmental and indigenous activists than 2015
Global forest reporting network
- Communities struggle to save Sabah’s shrinking mangroves
- Saving the Serranía de San Lucas, a vital link in the ‘jaguar corridor’
- Monkey rediscovered in Brazil after 80 years
Amazon infrastructure
- Belo Monte dam installation license suspended, housing inadequacy cited
- Indigenous victory: Brazil’s Temer decrees 1.2 million Amazon reserve
- Amazon mining unleashed (commentary)
Asian rhinos
- Javan rhinos face human incursions into their last remaining habitat
- India and Nepal team up to rescue flooded rhinos
- Rhino horn confiscated, three alleged traffickers arrested in Sumatra
