Three conservation trusts have together purchased an area of a severely threatened vegetation type found in the Overberg region of South Africa’s Western Cape province. Known as the renosterveld, this unique habitat characterized by shrubs and grasses is also a breeding ground for endangered black harriers, the three groups announced in a joint press release.

The Overberg Renosterveld Trust (ORT) partnered with the U.K.-based World Land Trust (WLT) and the Mapula Trust to buy the 270-hectare (667-acre) property called Goereesoe. The site is part of the Eastern Rûens Shale Renosterveld, an ecosystem considered to be critically endangered. The renosterveld used to cover a large part of the Overberg region, but now only 5% remains, due to land conversion for agriculture, ORT said.

“This is a significant win for renosterveld and the Black Harrier,” Odette Curtis-Scott, CEO of the Overberg Renosterveld Trust, said in the release. “By securing this land, we are protecting critical habitat and species whose futures are teetering on a knife edge.”

The black harrier (Circus maurus), found mostly in South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini, has fewer than 500 breeding pairs left in the wild. Goereesoe, along with the neighboring Haarwegskloof Renosterveld Reserve and another property called Plaatjieskraal — all managed by the ORT and known collectively as the Haarwegskloof Cluster — together support around 30 pairs of breeding black harriers, or 6% of the global population, ORT said.

ORT added that securing Goereesoe will help researchers track movements of black harriers, which have been impacted by wind turbines, as previously reported by Mongabay.

Curtis-Scott said the Haarwegskloof Cluster, the largest connected stretch of renosterveld left on Earth, has now grown to more than 1,300 hectares (3,200 acres), after adding Plaatjieskraal and Goereesoe. ORT said it hopes both properties will receive nature reserve status soon, and is working with neighboring farms to grow a conservation corridor.

“It means that wildlife, especially our precious pollinators and invertebrates, can move freely and safely across this natural remnant patches in this highly transformed landscape,” Curtis-Scott said.

The renosterveld ecosystem features unique vegetation, including shrubs like the renosterbos (Elytropappus rhinocerotis) and very rare flowering bulbs like Hesperantha kiaratayloriae and Lachenalia barberae, that grow over fertile, clay- and shale-based soils and outcrops of white quartz. Renosterveld, Afrikaans for “rhinoceros field,” was possibly named for the gray renosterbos bushes resembling rhino hide, or refers to black rhinos that historically roamed the area before being killed off by European settlers.

“Protecting this site means safeguarding one of the most threatened ecosystems on Earth, and the species that depend on it,” said Catherine Barnard, CEO of World Land Trust.

The acquisition of Goereesoe was made possible through WLT’s Buy An Acre program, which allows people to directly help purchase and protect threatened habitats.

Banner image of a black harrier over the Eastern Rûens Shale Renosterveld by Odette Curtis-Scott/ORT.

After a series of alleged leopard poaching incidents in Sri Lanka, conservationists warn that the big cats are likely being deliberately targeted for their skin, teeth, claws and meat at a higher rate than previously believed, reports contributor Malaka Rodrigo for Mongabay.

“Sri Lanka may not be part of an international trafficking chain for leopard bone or skin like some parts of India or Africa, but the possibility of small-scale trade or even ritual use of leopard parts cannot be ruled out,” Sethil Muhandiram, a conservation activist from the leopard conservation nonprofit LEOPOCON, told Mongabay.

The Sri Lankan leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) is considered endangered as per its IUCN assessment in 2008, with fewer than 1,000 mature wild individuals remaining. Muhandiram said it’s commonly believed that leopards in Sri Lanka aren’t typically targeted by hunters, but get caught in traps meant for other wildlife or are killed in retaliation for preying on livestock. Deliberate targeting hasn’t been a big concern, he said.

However, the recent arrest of suspected poachers with a skinned leopard carcass inside Maduru Oya National Park in early August suggests more targeted hunting, he added. “There is no reason for poachers to skin and carry an entire carcass unless they see value in it. This incident points to some other intent, either to extract meat, sell the pelt, or harvest body parts.”

Leopard expert Rukshan Jayewardene told Mongabay that some leopard carcasses found caught in snares were missing specific body parts like front legs and shoulder muscles, indicating the leopards were specifically targeted for their body parts rather than being opportunistically caught.

However, Andrew Kittle, lead scientist with the Wilderness & Wildlife Conservation Trust (WWCT), a local research and conservation organization, said “there is currently no available evidence of targeted poaching at scale.” But he echoed the likelihood that hunters who find dead leopards in their snares set for other animals are opportunistically harvesting the cats’ meat, skin, teeth and claws.

Seizures of leopard skins at airports or from private homes do indicate signs of targeted killing, Kittle said, adding “this is definitely something that we need to be alert to.”

An analysis of leopard deaths reported to the Department of Wildlife Conservation from 2001-2023 found that snares were the leading cause of mortality, followed by poisoning. Nearly three out of four deaths took place outside protected areas. While leopards are more at risk outside conservation zones, zoologist Hasitha Karavita said “it is also worrying that 24% of leopard deaths occurred in protected regions where some of these deaths are not due to natural causes.”

Rajika Gamage, an independent researcher, added that “racketeers may be using research data to target areas where leopards are known to roam frequently.”

Read the full story by Malaka Rodrigo here.

Banner image: A leopard in a forest in Sri Lanka. Image by Udayan Dasgupta/Mongabay.

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries.

Mountains of smoking waste sprawl across the Dandora dump in Nairobi, Kenya. The acrid stench clings to the air; marabou storks pick over scraps alongside people searching for plastic bottles or bones. Interspersed among the refuse are scraps of fabric — remnants of the global fast-fashion boom. Mongabay’s Elodie Toto describes the scene.

Kenya imported more than 900 million items of used clothing in 2021, according to the Changing Markets Foundation. More than half were unsellable; more than a third contained synthetic fibers such as polyester and nylon, which do not biodegrade. Instead, they fragment into microplastics, laced with toxins from PFAS to phthalates, which seep into soil, water and air. These fibers can lodge in the stomachs of animals, carrying chemicals linked to cancer.

The waste arrives thanks to a model perfected in the rich world. Fast fashion, and its newer, more frenetic cousin, ultra-fast fashion, churns out thousands of cheap garments daily, designed to be worn briefly and discarded. Between 2016 and 2020, the value of secondhand clothing imports into Kenya rose by 80%, from $100 million to $180 million. The same trend is visible across Africa, from Ghana to Madagascar.

France has decided to intervene. In March 2024, Anne-Cécile Violland, a member of the French parliament, proposed a bill to curb overconsumption and raise awareness of fashion’s environmental costs. Adopted unanimously by the Senate in June 2025, it bans online advertising for ultra-fast fashion, mandates environmental-impact ratings for garments, and imposes penalties on low-scoring items.

“A T-shirt made by Shein … will not get the same score as a Zara T-shirt made in Morocco — and therefore won’t get the same penalty,” Violland explains.

Campaigners welcome the law but say it is narrow. “The real issue is overproduction,” says Mathilde Pousseo of Collectif Ethique sur l’Etiquette, a coalition promoting ethical clothing production, noting that charity shops are overwhelmed not just by Shein but by mainstream brands. Others point out that even French retailers have been linked to forced labor and deforestation.

The bill now heads to a joint parliamentary committee, with activists seeking broader coverage. Once implemented in France, Violland says she hopes to take it to the European Commission.

In theory, less consumption means less waste. In practice, mountains of synthetic rags continue to rise — many of them half a world away from the consumers who first bought them.

Read the full story by Elodie Toto here.

Banner image: In the dump, men, women and children look for plastic and clothes that they can then sell. The people who work in the dump often wear no protection. It’s estimated that 3,000 households make a living from this recycling. Image by Elodie Toto/Mongabay.

For many members of the nomadic Bajau sea tribe on Indonesia’s Kabaena Island, growing up meant swimming and fishing in clear waters, just outside their homes built on stilts. However, in 2010, the water turned red, which the villagers blame on runoff from nearby nickel mining, Mongabay’s Hans Nicholas Jong reported in July.

“Now, I never see children swim in the sea. They’re afraid of contamination,” Kasman Amir, a Bajau fisher, told Jong. Amir lives in Kabeana, off the southeastern tip of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

A recent report by several local environmental NGOs focused on the southern part of the island following a 2024 report on the northern portion.

Their report found that three nickel mining companies — PT Arga Morini Indah (AMI), PT Arga Morini Indotama (AMINDO) and PT Anugrah Harisma Barakah (AHB) — had caused major environmental damage. AMI and AMINDO’s concessions showed deforestation of 506 and 194 hectares (1,250 and 480 acres) respectively. Many hilly areas were cleared of trees, raising concerns about erosion and landslides, the report noted.

The mining activity itself has caused severe coastal sedimentation and pollution, the report found.

Of surveyed residents, 40% complained of skin diseases and respiratory problems that they attributed to the nickel mining dust and water pollution.

Some residents reported experiencing itchiness while harvesting seaweed. A photo shared with Mongabay showed a resident with irritated skin marked with scaly patches.

“I have to go farther out to sea to find octopus because the waters nearby have turned red,” Yayan, a fisherman from Kokoe village, told Jong. “I used to only go 1-2 kilometers [0.6-1.2 miles] from shore, now the closest is around 4-5 kilometers [2.5-3 mi]. I feel itchy on my back, neck and legs. I’ve treated it, but only with ointment.”

Dhany Alfalah, a campaigner with Jakarta-based NGO Satya Bumi, said the sedimentation also affects the region’s biodiversity, including Sulawesi’s only native population of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) and leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea), which migrate past the southern side of Kabaena Island.

Furthermore, the report noted that nearly 70% of the surveyed residents said the mining companies had failed to obtain the communities’ free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), a legal requirement for such extractive activities. And all farmers interviewed said the companies had taken over their lands without any dialogue or compensation.

The company AMI did pay some of the affected communities, but locals said the company still owes them 4.6 billion rupiah (about $282,000).

The report called on the Indonesian government to audit all the mining permits for Kabaena Island, among other reforms.

Read the report by Hans Nicholas Jong here.

Banner image: Waters off Baliara village, Kabaena Island, Southeast Sulawesi province, polluted by nickel mining. Image courtesy of Satya Bumi.

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Mexico, Guatemala and Belize have announced plans to create a huge reserve of tropical forest spanning across the three countries. Protecting it from ranchers, miners and loggers, and pushing out criminal gangs, won’t be easy. Environment ministers from Mexico and Guatemala have emphasized the need for security to combat organized crime and illegal activities. They plan to increase security forces and involve local communities as allies. Economic alternatives, like Mexico’s “Planting Life” program, are proposed to support residents. The three governments have agreed to avoid destructive projects and formed a committee to manage the reserve’s future.

By Sonia Pérez and María Verza 

Banner image: Tourists climb a Mayan temple at the archeological site of Coba, in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Aug. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)

Several government agencies in southern Brazil have said they will stop ordering angelshark meat for public meal programs, in response to a Mongabay investigation that highlighted the widespread consumption of the threatened species.

Shark meat is often served in public schools, hospitals and other institutions due to its low cost and lack of bones. The Mongabay investigation revealed that the generic class of shark included angelsharks, a group with one endangered and two critically endangered species that inhabit the coast off Brazil.

At least 52 procurements to purchase peixe anjo, a local common name for angelshark, were issued in the state of Rio Grande do Sul between 2015 and 2025. The total volume purchased is difficult to ascertain, as the investigation didn’t check procurements for every city and state in the country and not every procurement goes on to be fulfilled.

Mongabay journalists Fernanda Wenzel and Philip Jacobson reached out to several municipalities for comment and found that many authorities reacted with shock. Some said they didn’t know that the local trade name referred to some of the world’s most threatened sharks. Others pledged to end the practice.

“I was shocked by this,” Cristina Luft, the nutritionist responsible for school meals in Alto Feliz, told Mongabay. The municipality had purchased 943 kilograms (2,078 pounds) over three years, Luft said, but would not order more. “In our next round of purchasing, there definitely won’t be any peixe anjo.”

The Rio Grande do Sul state government also pledged to remove angelshark from its contracts following contact by Mongabay. “In alignment with biodiversity protection strategies, the state government will instruct all its agencies to remove the species from procurement tenders, replacing it with a non-threatened fish species,” it said in an emailed response.

The state capital, Porto Alegre, was the municipality that ordered the largest volume of angelshark meat since 2015, accounting for more than a third of total orders. But authorities there said angelshark had been removed from procurement bids in 2021. In neighboring Palmares do Sul municipality, authorities said they would no longer include angelshark in meals.

For many, the disconnect between the orders and the threatened status of the three species was tied to food labeling. Angelshark is often listed under commercial names such as cação-anjo or anjo, without any clear indication that it’s a threatened species, or even a shark. (Peixe anjo just means “angelfish” in Portuguese.)

Several officials said they believed it was a generic white fish, and noted that the same contracts often also included other commercial fish species such as tilapia and hake.

Read the full story, “Revealed: Brazilian state buys endangered angelsharks for school lunches,” by Fernanda Wenzel and Philip Jacobson here.

Banner image: Brazil’s National School Feeding Program is one of the largest in the world, and a significant consumer of shark meat. Image courtesy of Angelo Miguel/MEC.