Fifteen countries from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe adopted the Mombasa Declaration on June 17, 2026. Together, they committed to advance global fisheries transparency and strengthen efforts to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

The declaration was adopted during the 11th meeting of the international Our Ocean Conference, held in Mombasa, Kenya. Africa had the most countries signing on: Cameroon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, the Republic of the Congo and Somalia.

“In my country, our very existence depends on fish,” said Emelia Arthur, Ghana’s Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, in a statement shared with Mongabay. “Sixty percent of our animal protein comes from fish, and ten percent of our population depends on the fisheries value chain for livelihood. Fisheries are a matter of culture and national security for us. I’m happy that Ghana is among the first countries to sign the Mombasa Declaration,” she added.

Countries hope that by working together to harmonize regulations and share information on vessels operating in their territorial waters, they will become more effective in their fight against IUU fishing.

“Illegal fishing perpetrators are getting more and more sophisticated in the way they are evading from one country’s laws and regulations by moving to another one,” Cephas Asare told Mongabay in a phone call. Asare is the West Africa regional manager for the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), a British NGO working to combat illegal fishing. “This needs to end. That is why we need to address the issue together, to be more transparent to track them and hopefully end illegal fishing,” Asare said. 

Among the measures promoted by the declaration, signatory countries have committed to adopting the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency. The charter calls for publishing fishing licenses, authorizations, access agreements and fishing quota allocations. It also encourages countries to ensure that all industrial fishing vessels have unique vessel identifiers (UVIs) and to progressively implement UVIs for small-scale vessels.

During a press conference in Mombasa, the signatory countries called on representatives from other coastal states to adopt the declaration as well.

Asare told Mongabay that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing costs West African countries millions of dollars every year, threatens fish stocks and undermines food security for millions of people.

Banner image: A cross-section of canoes after fishing in Marshall, Liberia. Image by Edward Blamo for Mongabay.

Researchers have described a new-to-science species of walking shark, which lives in the remote, shallow waters off southeastern Papua New Guinea.

The newly named Dudgeon’s walking shark (Hemiscyllium dudgeonae) is a type of epaulette shark, a group of small sharks famous for their ability to use their fins to “walk” when stranded in tidal shallows. Walking sharks are nocturnal, feed on invertebrates and aren’t dangerous to humans.

Christine Dudgeon of the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia and her colleagues were surveying the waters in and around Papua New Guinea’s Milne bay after midnight when she captured a meter-long fish by hand. Dudgeon told Mongabay by email that she initially thought she’d caught a Michael’s or Milne Bay walking shark (Hemiscyllium michaeli), also known as a leopard epaulette shark, “which was the one that we were looking for.”

Back on the boat and under light, Jess Blakeway, a PhD student at the university and the study’s lead author, noticed the shark’s color pattern was different from any of the walking sharks she had worked with before, according to a press release.

Although all walking sharks in the genus Hemiscyllium are similar in size and shape, species can be uniquely identified by their markings, Dudgeon told Mongabay.

Dudgeon added the Milne Bay walking shark has very distinctive leopard spots while the species she collected had white stripes and small brown spots all over it “and didn’t look like any of the other species at all.”

Over the next two days, Dudgeon said the team found 11 more individuals with this new pattern across three sites, including males and females, and immature and mature animals. It was then they were “quite convinced it was a new species,” she said.

They found the new sharks in shallow seagrass and on the top of coral sea mounts — habitats similar to those of the Milne Bay walking shark, Dudgeon said.

Genetic analysis confirmed the team’s hunch. “It’s exciting because this is the first new species described for the genus since 2013,” said Blakeway in the release.

Dudgeon’s walking shark, named in honor of Christine Dudgeon, becomes the tenth known species in the genus Hemiscyllium, a group native to shallow waters off Australia and New Guinea.

“It’s incredible that we are still finding new species in shallow waters like this, and highlights that there is more to find as long as we open our eyes and minds,” Dudgeon told Mongabay.

While the conservation status of Dudgeon’s walking shark is unknown, its restricted distribution may place it at risk.

“We are fortunate in working with local people in PNG and Milne Bay who are excited and proud of their endemic biodiversity, and we hope this work will raise the profile of the species and result in protections that support habitats and broader biodiversity,” Dudgeon said.

Banner image: Christine Dudgeon with the newly named walking shark. Image by Nesha Ichida.

The government of French Polynesia announced it is expanding the extent of ocean where extractive industries like seabed mining and industrial fishing will not be allowed. With this move, 30% of French Polynesia’s waters will now be fully protected.

Last year on June 8, French Polynesia, a French overseas territory, established the Tainui Atea marine protected area. It spans nearly 5 million square kilometers (2 million square miles) of its exclusive economic zone, the area of ocean that French Polynesia has exclusive rights to conserve and manage. Some 900,000 km2 of this (about 350,000 mi2), located near the Society Islands and the Gambier Islands, are fully protected waters where no extractive fishing or mining is allowed.

On June 7, 2026, French Polynesia President Moetai Brotherson announced that French Polynesia would expand its fully protected waters by another 520,000 km2 (200,000 mi2) near the Austral, Marquesas and Western Society islands. This brings about 1.4 million km2 (540,500 mi2) or 30% of French Polynesia’s waters under full protection from extractive industries.

“French Polynesia has maintained a moratorium on seabed mining in its waters since 2022, reaffirmed by the Presidency in 2025, and banning it was part of the 2025 protection commitments,” Donatien Tanret, principal officer of the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy, which helped develop the conservation plan, told Mongabay by email.

The protected area has artisanal fishing zones where local people are allowed to continue fishing and sustain their local communities, but industrial fishing in prohibited, Tanret said.

In 2025, artisanal fishing zones collectively covering 190,000 km2 (73,000 mi2) were created. Meanwhile, more than 8,000 km2 (3,088 mi2) of artisanal fishing zones will be added in 2026, Tanret said. Fishing is limited to single pole-and-line catch from boats less than 12 meters (39 feet) in length.

The protected area was established by consensus of the communities within French Polynesia, and more than a decade of advocacy from local mayors, Tanret said.

He added that France helps enforce the protections by conducting surveillance, including satellite vessel-tracking and operational support on the ground.

The new protected zone will help conserve 20 species of sharks including the critically endangered scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) and oceanic whitetip (Carcharhinus longimanus). The protected zone is also one of the few known breeding sites for 22 bird species, including the endangered Polynesian storm-petrel (Nesofregetta fuliginosa), the vulnerable Phoenix petrel (Pterodroma alba), as well as Murphy’s petrel (Pterodroma ultima), which flies thousands of kilometers across the Pacific between feeding trips.

The protections will also support swordfish, bigeye tuna and opah that live in the Austral and Marquesas, as well as 455 mollusk species, 60 pelagic (or open-ocean) fish species, three sea turtle species and 10 marine mammal species.

“This is our mission as Oceanians,” President Brotherson told AFP. “We also hope that it can inspire other countries, especially the larger ones, in the way they manage their relationship with the ocean.”

Banner image: Sharks in French Polynesia. Image courtesy of Hannes Klostermann, Ocean Image Bank.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration recently repealed the 2024 Public Lands Rule, which established that conservation should have equal priority with industry when it comes to accessing leases for U.S. public land.

That shift in priorities will apply to 245 million acres (99 million hectares) of public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). That’s roughly 10% of U.S. land that the agency leases for a multitude of private uses including grazing, mining, energy development and, until recently, conservation.

In the federal register the Department of the Interior (DOI) said, “[b]y rescinding the 2024 Rule, the BLM eliminates mechanisms — such as restoration and mitigation leasing — that threatened to restrict productive use of the public lands.”

An example of the decision’s impact can be found in the state of Montana. Roughly 950 American bison (Bison bison) have grazed on 63,000 acres (25,495 hectares) of federal land there since 2022. However, the DOI, which oversees BLM, revoked that grazing permit on May 8, just days before repealing the Public Lands Rule.

Interior secretary Doug Burgman said that according to federal grazing laws, public land leases can only be given to animals, “intended for use primarily for their meat, milk, or other animal products.” He added that “considerable evidence” suggests the bison are intended for “for some other purpose, such as conservation.”

Before western settlement, upwards of 100 million bison roamed the plains, serving as “ecosystem engineers shape[ing] healthy and diverse ecological communities,” the DOI acknowledged in its 2020 Bison Conservation Initiative. Today, just 530,000 remain, mostly as livestock.

Historically, bison were crucial to the survival of Native Americans across the western U.S. “Bison are our relatives. We have ancestral and spiritual obligations to care for them, as they do us,” J. Garret Renville, chairman of the Native American Coalition of Large Tribes, wrote in a formal protest of the DOI decision. “Our success as a people is dependent on their success. Our history, our futures, and our fates are intertwined.”

Alison Fox, CEO of American Prairie, the Montana-based NGO that owns the bison herd in question, said in a statement that “this decision abandons decades of consistent federal policy.”

The Western Watersheds Project, an Idaho-based NGO, said BLM is “inventing a wholly new standard for livestock grazing permits in order to justify their pro-cattle bias.”

Renville said as the decision is written, “it is unlikely that any tribal government or tribal citizen buffalo herd would ever be eligible for BLM grazing leases.”

The BLM has said American Prairie bison must be removed by Sept. 30. In an email to Mongabay, American Prairie said, “we are still waiting for a decision on our request for a preliminary injunction.”

BLM declined to comment since the case is pending litigation.

Banner image: Bison and calves in Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park. Image courtesy of U.S. National Park Service. 

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — High winds drove a wildfire into an eastern Washington neighborhood, forcing the evacuation of about 1,500 people and destroying some homes, fire officials said Wednesday.

It’s unclear how many homes were lost in Spokane. Fire officials were working Wednesday to determine the number and the full extent of the damage, said Matthew Vinci, fire chief for Spokane County Fire District 9. He confirmed Tuesday that some homes were engulfed in flames.

The evacuation order for the 1,500 residents remained in effect Wednesday, said Chandra Fox, deputy director for Spokane County Emergency Management.

“Our concern is for increased winds Wednesday afternoon,” Fox said.

The blaze started just after noon on Tuesday and quickly moved up a hill, said fire district spokesman Robert Gray. Winds then shifted, sending flames into a neighborhood, Gray said.

Fire crews from Washington state and Idaho attacked the fire from the ground and air, but it quickly grew to 225 acres (.35 square miles). It was 10% contained Wednesday morning, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

More than 32,000 fires have burned more than 3,900 square miles (10,100 square kilometers) so far this year in the United States, according to the fire center, which coordinates the mobilization of large-scale firefighting efforts.

That’s significantly higher than the 10-year average of just under 24,000 fires burning about 2,200 square miles (5,700 square kilometers) by early June, according to the fire center, even though fire activity has been relatively light in recent weeks.

Weather and fuel models that predict conditions like wind, lightning and how likely plants and other materials are to burn also show an increased danger of fires in multiple areas across the U.S. in coming weeks, according to NIFC. Some regions with critical conditions for fire include portions of California, and the Southwest, Great Basin and Rocky Mountain areas.

By Associated Press

Banner image: This photo provided by Spokane Fire District 9 shows the Upriver Fire burning northeast of Spokane, Wash., on Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (Robert Gray/Spokane Fire District 9 via Associated Press. 

Two municipalities in the Peruvian Amazon have granted native stingless bees the legal right to exist, thrive and be represented in court. This is the first time any insect has been recognized as a rights-bearing entity anywhere in the world, according to a correspondence published in Nature.

The ordinances passed in the municipalities of Satipo and Nauta-Loreto guarantee the bees’ right to exist, reproduce and flourish. This establishes a legal framework allowing Indigenous groups and conservationists to sue on behalf of the bees.

The campaign was led by Rosa Vásquez Espinoza, founder of Amazon Research Internacional. She spent years traveling into the Amazon to document the bees in collaboration with Indigenous communities. Indigenous peoples have cultivated stingless bees since pre-Columbian times, and they have cultural and spiritual meaning for Indigenous groups such as Asháninka and Kukama-Kukamiria peoples.

“Within the stingless bee lives Indigenous traditional knowledge, passed down since the time of our grandparents,” Apu Cesar Ramos, president of EcoAshaninka of the Ashaninka Communal Reserve told The Guardian. “The stingless bee has existed since time immemorial and reflects our coexistence with the rainforest.”

The Nature authors noted that stingless bees pollinate roughly 80% of tropical flora. However, they face climate change, deforestation, pesticides and competition from invasive European honeybees.

Peru’s national Law No. 32235, passed in 2025, formally recognized stingless bees as a species of national interest. This milestone helped pave the way for the municipal ordinances.

“This ordinance marks a turning point in our relationship with nature: it makes stingless bees visible, recognises them as rights-bearing subjects, and affirms their essential role in preserving ecosystems,” Constanza Prieto, Latin American director at the Earth Law Center, who helped campaign for the ordinances, told The Guardian.

The Peru ordinances are part of a broader global “Rights of Nature” movement that seeks to give ecosystems and species legal standing similar to that of people or corporations. Rivers, forests and even glaciers have been granted legal rights in countries including Ecuador, New Zealand and Colombia. But insects had never crossed that threshold before.

Shi-Jie Wang and A.J.Wubie, who co-authored The Nature piece, said legal rights matter, because they give communities a way to fight back by suing those who destroy habitat or use harmful pesticides. So far, they said, insects have had almost no meaningful legal protection.

The IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, identifies more than 1,100 insect species as threatened, including more than 20 bee species. Their loss poses systemic risks to food security, forest regeneration and climate resilience.

The researchers are calling on policymakers, particularly those governing biodiversity hotspots in Asia and Africa, to adopt similar legal models for insects.  

Banner image: A bee emerging from a hive in Moyobamba, Peru. Image courtesy of Bill Salazar via Pixels/ Creative Commons.