The International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the lending and investment arm of the U.S. government and a key foreign policy tool, has abruptly terminated the director of its Independent Accountability Mechanism (IAM), which handles complaints about environmental and social harm. The unexpected move leaves no staff in the congressionally mandated IAM office.

Mehrdad Nazari was the IAM’s first director and had been in the position since 2024. He was informed by DFC lawyers in January that his term would not be extended past the end of February, though he was eligible for a five-year extension.

Under Nazari, the IAM assessed complaints against DFC funding that included ExxonMobil’s multibillion-dollar Rovuma natural gas project in Mozambique.

The DFC was created with bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress through 2018’s BUILD Act. Meant to counter the influence of Chinese state-issued debt, it invests in private sector projects that advance U.S. foreign policy goals, such as critical mineral extraction in the DRC. Its current portfolio is worth more than $40 billion, with an investment cap that was extended to $200 billion by Congress last year.

The IAM assesses environmental, labor and human rights complaints against DFC-funded projects.

In an interview with Mongabay, Nazari said senior lawyers at the DFC told him that his term would not be renewed because “every administration deserves to bring in their own guy.”

Stephanie Amoako, policy director at the Washington, D.C.-based Accountability Council, said she was concerned the decision is a sign the DFC is pulling back on oversight of the projects it funds.

“[Nazari] really ramped up the accountability mechanism’s work,” she told Mongabay. “It’s concerning that his term was not renewed, and it calls into question DFC’s commitment to having this independent governance tool.”

While most of the DFC’s staff are civil servants, its CEO is appointed by the U.S. president. Nazari told Mongabay that after Trump took office, his requests to meet with officials to discuss ongoing IAM investigations went unanswered.

“I have not received a single response to any of my emails from our political leadership over the past year,” he said.

Nazari said last year he was prevented from flying to Mozambique to assess the impact of a proposal to resettle 10,000 people as part of natural gas extraction in the conflict-ridden north. The IAM’s investigation into sexual assault allegations at Bridge schools in Kenya has been stalled for nearly a year.

Prior to the change in U.S. administrations, Nazari had two full-time staff members working with him, but as part of the 2025 purge of federal employees they elected to take voluntary buyouts.

A spokesperson for the DFC confirmed Nazari’s termination and said it was currently “working to recruit and support a successor.”

“I imagine my former position will be vacant for a considerable amount of time,” Nazari said.

Banner image: Current Development Finance Corporation CEO Ben Black is greeted by U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House. Image courtesy of DFC.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has requested that the Peruvian government take action to protect the isolated Kakataibo Indigenous people in the Amazonian departments of Ucayali, Huánuco and Loreto. The group lives in voluntary isolation in the Kakataibo North and South Indigenous Reserve, where it’s under threat from illegal loggers and other invaders who deforest, establish illegal settlements, construct clandestine airstrips for transporting drugs, and carry out other illegal activities, according to an IACHR press release.

Such unwanted encroachment from outsiders has profound impacts on the area’s isolated people, said Julio Cusurichi, an Indigenous Shipibo-Conibo leader and member of the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP). Uncontacted communities are more vulnerable to disease and violent conflict. Cusurichi told Mongabay that there have been reports of violent clashes between isolated people and illegal loggers, which have resulted in deaths.

“These communities are highly vulnerable,” he said. “Any contact could lead to the death of all these people. That’s why there’s concern that action be taken, that the government take action, and it isn’t doing so.”

According to the IACHR decision, the Peruvian state has failed to adopt effective and sufficient measures to mitigate the dangers that the isolated Kakataibo people face, thereby affecting their right to life, personal integrity and health. The commission requested that the state implement safeguarding actions that adhere to the principle of no contact, to prevent invaders from entering the territory, and to evaluate, monitor and guarantee water quality in the impacted zone, among other measures.

The 149,000-hectare (368,000-acre) Kakataibo North and South Indigenous Reserve was established in 2021. Cusurichi told Mongabay that the uncontacted Kakataibo people still occupy a larger area outside the reserve, including part of the Cordillera Azul mountain range.

While acknowledging that the IACHR decision is an important step, Cusurichi said he’s concerned the state will not follow through with the request. “If [measures] aren’t implemented, years will pass, and the loggers and outsiders will continue to invade, continuing to endanger the lives of these communities,” he said. “We have made a very strong appeal that the government now has to implement measures to comply with these recommendations made by the commission.”

Banner image: Illegal loggers tie tree trunks together to transport along the Putaya River near the hamlet of Saweto, Peru. Image by AP Photo/Martin Mejia.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A major sewer pipe collapse has dumped hundreds of millions of gallons of sewage into the Potomac River, highlighting a nationwide problem involving failing infrastructure. The Potomac spill was a huge, but rare event that led to an emergency declaration and federal help. But across the country, sewer overflows happen tens of thousands of times each year. Baltimore shows how bad persistent problems can be. People regularly experience sewage backups into their homes, ruining property and bringing in harmful bacteria. The EPA says there is more than $600 billion is needed for flooding and clean water needs over the next two decades. The Trump administration has cut some funding for the work.

By Michael Phillis and M.K. Wildeman, Associated Press  

Banner image: Workers build a cofferdam to stop the flow of raw sewage into the Potomac River after a massive sewage pipe rupture in Glen Echo, Md., Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

A deepening crisis in the Middle East could send economic shockwaves across sub-Saharan Africa, raising fuel costs, food prices and inflation across the region, according to a new analysis by energy consultancy Zero Carbon Analytics.

Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows through the Strait of Hormuz between Iran, Oman and the UAE. If the ongoing conflict continues, energy prices could spike, driving up costs across African economies, which heavily rely on imported oil and gas.

“As a net importer of oil products, sub-Saharan Africa will not be immune from the fallout,” the analysis notes, warning that higher energy prices could increase the cost of imports and put pressure on national currencies and foreign reserves.

The report analyzed import data and cash reserves across 29 African countries and found Senegal, Benin, Eritrea, Burkina Faso and Zambia are among the most vulnerable if oil prices remain elevated. These countries combine high dependence on imported fuel with limited foreign currency reserves, meaning they will quickly run out of money to pay for more expensive fuel.

“The countries that are most exposed rely entirely on oil imports and already have low levels of international reserves,” Nick Hedley, who authored the analysis, told Mongabay. “This means when oil prices rise, these countries risk further depleting their holdings of U.S. dollars, gold and other reserves. This further weakens their currencies, making imports of all goods more expensive, which pushes up inflation.”

The ripple effects could extend beyond fuel. Rising oil and gas prices often push up the cost of producing synthetic fertilizers, often made from fossil fuels. That, in turn, could raise food prices and worsen food insecurity across parts of the continent.

Hedley said that if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, it will lead to rising costs across economies. “This will substantially increase the cost of transporting people, food and other goods, meaning a hit to economic growth and a surge in inflation.”

“In turn, this means Africa’s debt challenges will get even worse,” he added. “Central banks across the continent will likely need to raise interest rates to tame imported inflation, which will further erode disposable incomes in Africa.”

The analysis also highlights ways African countries can create more resilience to global fossil-fuel shocks.

One option is to accelerate electrification and shift away from imported fuels. Ethiopia, for example, has begun promoting electric vehicles, which already account for about 6% of the country’s vehicles — above the global average, according to the analysis.

Electricity still has to be produced, though, and Hedley said renewables are one of the best options across the continent.

“Wind and solar are the least-cost options for Africa, even when including the cost of battery storage, which has fallen sharply in recent years,” Hedley said. However, he noted that financing remains a major barrier.

Banner image: Solar power in Sudan. Image © UNDP Sudan/Muhanad Sameer.

 
Field primatology expanded rapidly in the late 20th century as biologists began to study apes and monkeys where they lived rather than only in museums or laboratories. Southeast Asia’s rainforests became an important setting for that shift. Among the researchers who helped shape the discipline there was David Chivers, a British primatologist whose work on gibbons and other forest apes combined long stretches of field observation with a commitment to conservation. He died on March 5th, aged 81.

Chivers arrived at the University of Cambridge in 1963 and, in practice, remained there for the rest of his career. After studying medical sciences and physical anthropology, he turned away from clinical veterinary training to pursue research on primates. His doctoral work, completed in 1972, was based on field studies of siamangs in Peninsular Malaysia. At the time such projects demanded patience: weeks spent tracking animals through dense forest and learning their habits by steady observation.

That work produced The Siamang in Malaya, a monograph published in 1974 that became a reference point for later studies of primate ecology. Chivers was interested both in behavior and in how primates fit into forest systems. Feeding patterns, fruit availability, and the role of animals in dispersing seeds all became part of the picture.

His later research extended across Southeast Asia and beyond. In the mid-1980s he helped establish Project Barito Ulu in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, examining how fruit-eating wildlife contributed to forest regeneration. The project brought together international researchers and Indonesian institutions, and it anchored a large share of his later supervision of doctoral students. Over his career he guided around fifty PhD projects, many of them focused on gibbons or orangutans.

At Cambridge he held posts in veterinary anatomy and biological anthropology, eventually becoming Professor in Primate Biology and Conservation and Director of Studies in Veterinary Medicine at Selwyn College. Students there came to know him as a determined advocate for the veterinary course. He referred to them simply as “my vets,” and defended their interests with enthusiasm that could spill into college committees and meetings.

His attachment to gibbons was well known. They fascinated him for their territorial songs, which carry across forests at dawn. Chivers could reproduce the calls himself with surprising accuracy, a party piece that circulated widely among students and colleagues.

Late in his career his attention turned increasingly to conservation questions, particularly the fate of orangutans and other apes as Southeast Asian forests declined. He supported work on rehabilitation and reintroduction while continuing to argue that protecting habitat remained the central task.

Chivers spent much of his professional life explaining that gibbons were not monkeys but apes. The correction came quickly when needed, and usually with good humor. For someone who had devoted decades to listening to their songs in the forest canopy, the distinction mattered.

Banner image: David Chivers. Courtesy of Selwyn College

A total of 59 healthy kākāpō chicks have hatched over the last few weeks, according to the latest tally by Aotearoa New Zealand’s Department of Conservation. This marks one of the most successful recent breeding seasons for this critically endangered bird, whose last breeding season was four years ago.

The kākāpō (Strigops habroptilus), a flightless bird in the parrot family endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand, has a total population of 236 adults, up from a low of just 51 individuals in the 1990s. Around the same period, the surviving birds were relocated to three predator-free Aotearoa New Zealand islands — Whenua Hou, Pukenui and Te Kākahu-o-Tamatea — but they’ve still struggled with low reproduction rates.

“Every new chick brings the species further from the brink of extinction,” Deidre Vercoe, the Department of Conservation’s operations manager for kākāpō, told Mongabay by email. “There’s always a sense of hope and optimism for the future.”

Kākāpō only breed in years when the native rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum) tree produces a heavy crop of fruits, which happens every 2-4 years.

So far this year, 140 fertile eggs have been identified and 52 healthy chicks were born, with an extra seven chicks assumed via remote technology. The data are shared with the public every Friday, with an uploaded photo of the tally written in marker on the department’s refrigerator.

Though more chicks may hatch over the next days and months, they likely won’t all survive. The breeding season record was in 2019, with 73 fledglings.

“Success is not just about the number of new chicks. We want to create healthy, self-sustaining populations of kākāpō that are thriving, not just surviving,” Vercoe wrote.

“Kākāpō are among the most intensively monitored species on the planet, and while numbers are so low, intervention to ensure the best chance of success has been critical,” she added. “As the population grows, we will begin to step back on some of the more hands-on management so we can begin to understand what a more natural level of survival looks like.”

The long-term goal is to restore the species to parts of its former range across New Zealand. Rakiura, an island in southern New Zealand, was once home to kākāpō and is considered one of the most promising sites for reintroduction. However, invasive species would need to be removed before the birds can be safely returned.

“One of our future aspirations through Predator Free Rakiura is to return the kākāpō back to its original home,” Tāne Davis, a representative with the Kākāpō Recovery Group for Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, the governing Māori body in the region, said on social media.

Banner image: An adult kākāpō named Alice and her chick Rupi. Image courtesy of Jake Osborne/New Zealand Department of Conservation.