- There are many important conservation and environmental stories Mongabay isn’t able to cover.
- Here’s a digest of some of the significant developments from the week.
- If you think we’ve missed something, feel free to add it in the comments.
- Mongabay does not vet the news sources below, nor does the inclusion of a story on this list imply an endorsement of its content.
Tropical forests
The aye-aye, one of Madagascar’s lemurs, has a “secret spare thumb” (The New York Times).
Officials from African airports are working to stem wildlife trafficking (EnviroNews Nigeria).
Bats are essential pollinators for durian production in Southeast Asia (CIFOR Forests News).
Concerns about potential harm to indigenous communities arise around California’s plan for carbon offsets in the Amazon (Undark).
Accusations that some “certified” cocoa producers employ children have surfaced (The Washington Post).
The Congo rainforest lost about 6 percent of its area between 2001 and 2018 (The Economist).
Proponents of a beekeeping project for Masai women in Tanzania say it’s giving them financial freedom and protecting their land (Africa News).
Scientists have found the first evidence of the deadly chytrid fungus in 80 species of frogs living in Peru’s rainforests (ScienceDaily).
The leader of a Malaysian state has called for stiffer fines for elephant poachers (The Sun Daily).
There’s a new fund in Indonesia aimed at safeguarding the country’s forests (Reuters).
Research shows that new species are slow to appear in the Amazon (ScienceDaily).
Community-based ecotourism is on the rise in Guyana (CIFOR Forests News).
Changing our lifestyles could help save the Amazon (National Catholic Reporter).
Climate change is helping to keep the threat of Ebola alive in Nigeria (The Guardian).
Other news
Is burning our trash for energy a sustainable solution? (Ensia)
A handful of frequent fliers account for about two-thirds of carbon emissions from the aviation sector (The New York Times).
The council of advisers on science policy to President Donald Trump has only one academic scientist in its ranks (The Washington Post).
A quarter to more than a third of Japan’s seafood imports are from illegal or unreported sources, according to a recent study (Hakai).
Two rangers have been killed protecting Romania’s forests in the past month (BBC News).
The U.S. has started a yearlong process of pulling out of the Paris climate accords (The New York Times).
A fisheries agency says that sharks caught in U.S. waters are a “sustainable food choice” (NOAA Fisheries).
Banner image of a black flying fox (Pteropus alecto) by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
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