Deforestation in Brazil’s cerrado falls
Deforestation in Brazil’s cerrado, a wooded savanna that covers nearly a quarter of the country, fell 11 precent relative to a year ago, reported the Ministry of Environment last week.…
Environmental headlines
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Challenging the illegal logging regime in Madagascar (insider)
It is easy to forget that change starts with one person. In a world that is increasingly connected through mobile phones and the internet, especially social media, it is easier…
Latam Eco Review: Jaguar protection plan signed by 14 Latin countries
A 14-country jaguar conservation plan, efforts to protect the last 7 female southern right whales in Peru and Chile, and unexpected biodiversity discovered along Chile’s north coast were among the…
COP24: Sitting down to take a stand for real climate action
KATOWICE, Poland — It’s noon on a Friday in the city of Katowice, Poland, and a teenage girl with her hair braided in pigtails is sitting alone on the floor…
Dutch banks’ customers ‘unknowingly’ profit from palm oil companies
Dutch banks ABN AMRO, ING and Rabobank are failing to inform their customers that investment funds they offer include shares in palm oil companies damaging the environment in Indonesia, according…
Hobby-grade drones can monitor marine animals beneath the surface
Using drones for wildlife surveys isn’t new to marine wildlife research, but it’s been focused mainly on detecting the large mammals and sea turtles that break the ocean’s surface to…
‘Amazon Besieged’: Q&A with Mongabay contributor Sue Branford about new book
From 2016 to 2017, Mongabay contributors Sue Branford and Maurício Torres traveled to the Tapajós River Basin, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, to report on the controversial plan…
Madagascar auctioning a large swath of virgin waters for oil exploration
At an oil industry event in Houston in September, representatives of Madagascar’s government went into auctioneer mode. Their message: “Let the bidding commence!” They had traveled to Texas to announce…
COP24: Will they stay or will they go? Brazil’s threat to leave Paris
Jair Bolsonaro pledged to leave the Paris accord during his presidential run. But his Amazon agribusiness and mining expansion plans may pose a far bigger threat to forests and global climate.
In other news: Environmental stories from around the web, December 14, 2018
Tropical forests By keeping pests in check, bats could help farmers in Madagascar, reducing the need to expand their farms into nearby rainforests (Science Daily, Scitech Europa). Corruption allows the…
Argentina creates two new marine parks to protect penguins, sea lions
Argentina has officially created two large marine protected areas: the Yaganes Marine National Park, lying off of the country’s southern tip, and the Namuncurá-Burdwood Bank II Marine National Park in…
Palm oil giant Wilmar promises to take harder line with errant suppliers
The world’s biggest palm oil trader has updated its sustainability policy, as its self-imposed deadline to stop buying palm oil linked to a variety of environmental and social ills draws…
COP24: Fossil Fuel Inc.’s outsize presence at talks reflects its influence
KATOWICE, Poland — “How did you get here?” asked the angry fossil fuel company executive. “Have you ever been to Nigeria?” responded the agitated environmental activist. This was part of…
Indonesian court throws out lawsuit against green expert’s testimony
JAKARTA — An Indonesian court has thrown out a lawsuit against an environmental expert whose testimony led to the conviction of a governor in a mining scandal. Basuki Wasis, an…
One map to rule them all: Indonesia launches unified land-use chart
JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has published a long-awaited map that, for the first time, unifies all land-use data from a host of disparate sources. The fractured nature of the…
Satellite trackers help fight vultures’ extinction in southern Africa
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Every other hour, Sonja Krüger logs onto her website and checks the birds’ status. Pharoah is taking a mud bath in the mountains, Jeremia is on…
Dam drove ‘collapse’ of rainforest bird populations in Thailand
The construction of a hydroelectric dam in Thailand in the 1980s devastated the area’s wild birds, leaving behind just a few of the many species that once inhabited the region,…
Super-spreaders: How the curious life of a newt could ignite a pandemic
If you take a stroll in the woods, it’s worth pausing for a moment to take in the sights and sounds, peer into the undergrowth, or even turn over a…
COP24: Nations complicit in ignoring bioenergy climate bomb, experts say
Burning wood pellets, once deemed as carbon neutral, produces big CO2 emissions instead. But developed nations are cooking the books on bioenergy, toying with climate disaster.
Global agreement on ‘conserved areas’ marks new era of conservation (commentary)
On November 29, 2018, the 196 Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted a decision that represents a high-water mark for the governance of protected areas and…
Special series
Endangered environmentalists
- 7 convicted of killing Honduran indigenous activist Berta Cáceres
- Five wildlife conservationists held by Iran could face the death penalty
- Peru cracks down after environmental defenders’ murders
Indonesias forest guardians
- Smartphone app helps indigenous communities fight deforestation
- 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
Amazon infrastructure
- ‘Amazon Besieged’: Q&A with Mongabay contributor Sue Branford about new book
- COP24: Will they stay or will they go? Brazil’s threat to leave Paris
- Belo Monte dam Xingu River Management Plan violates human rights: finding
Asian rhinos
- For elusive Javan rhinos, camera traps are a benevolent Big Brother
- First wild Sumatran rhino in Borneo captured for breeding campaign
- Jaw-dropping footage: conservationists catch Javan rhino in mud wallow
