Erik Hoffner

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About

Erik is a photojournalist, editor, and award-winning podcast producer for Mongabay. Find his latest thoughts posted on Bluesky and see more of his writing and fine art photography via Instagram via @erikhoffner on both platforms.

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Brazil is the largest eucalyptus producer in the world. Eucalyptus production has been linked to several social and environmental violations such as land grabbing, human right abuses, and environmental harm from use of pesticides to biodiversity loss. Image © Markus Mauthe/Greenpeace.

Assessments argue carbon offsets are a false & unjust climate solution (commentary)

GRAIN 5 Dec 2025
Malocas (traditional longhouses) of Indigenous communities in isolation on the Peru-Brazil border. Image by ORPIO.

Respecting uncontacted peoples can protect biodiversity and our humanity (commentary)

Kerry Bowman 3 Dec 2025
Where cars go to die: an auto graveyard.

A ‘Life After Cars’ can provide huge human health and environmental benefits

Mike DiGirolamo 2 Dec 2025
Small-scale fishers unloading buckets of fish from their boats in South Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Healthy oceans are a human right (commentary)

Nathan Bennett 1 Dec 2025
Women of Masaka embark on cassava cultivation. The plantation areas are located in the heart of the community of Mabaka in the Kwango region. Image by Ley Uwera. Courtesy of The Tenure Facility.

Rights to millions of hectares of Indigenous & local communities’ lands restored by ‘barefoot lawyers’

Mike DiGirolamo 25 Nov 2025
A farmer cuts cacao pods from the tree in Colombia.

Conservation can emphasize human well-being to navigate its current funding crisis (commentary)

Anila Jacob / Jessica Deichmann / Sara Carlson 24 Nov 2025
Delegates listen to Brazilian President Lula deliver the opening speech of the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belém, Thursday, Nov. 6. Image by AP Photo/Eraldo Peres.

It’s time to end the carbon offset era, COP30 scientists & communities say (commentary)

Tom Picken 21 Nov 2025
Oceanic white tip shark. Image courtesy of Mark Royer, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology.

For sharks on the brink of extinction, CITES Appendix II isn’t protective enough (commentary)

David Shiffman 20 Nov 2025
Baobab Alley in Madagascar. Photo by Rhett Butler.

Pioneering primatologist in Madagascar shares decades of conservation wisdom

Mike DiGirolamo 18 Nov 2025
Tropical forest and river in Suriname. Image courtesy of Mark J. Plotkin.

Top ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin’s COP30 reflections on Amazon conservation (analysis)

Mark J. Plotkin 17 Nov 2025
Early-career conservationists take part in the 2025 EDGE Conservation Tools Course, part of a global fellowship program that supports emerging leaders to drive locally led conservation. Image by Paul Barnes /EDGE of Existence, Zoological Society of London.

Small grants are key to a successful next generation of conservationists (commentary)

Paul Barnes 14 Nov 2025
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is in an arm wrestling match with environmental agents to unlock oil extraction on the Amazon North shore. Image by Ricardo Stuckert/PR.

Strategic ignorance, climate change and Amazonia (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 13 Nov 2025
Fishing boats with nets, Grenada, Caribbean Credit: Hugh Whyte / Ocean Image Bank.

Embrace ‘blue’ foods as a climate strategy at COP30, fisheries ministers say (commentary)

André de Paula / Salvador Malheiro 11 Nov 2025
Indigenous guide at Sani Isla in the Amazon. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler

To fix the climate, simply empower Indigenous people (commentary)

Kiki Taufik 10 Nov 2025
Logging operation in Sweden. Image courtesy of Marcus Westberg.

Why Sweden’s forest policy matters to the world (commentary)

Emil Siekkinen 7 Nov 2025
A full-circle rainbow arcing over a vast oil palm plantation in Jambi, Indonesia, carved out of what was once native rainforest. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

No, Bill Gates, we don’t have to choose between people & planet (commentary)

Mary Robinson 6 Nov 2025
Indigenous leader Alessandra Korap Munduruku confronted Anglo American over its attempts to mine on protected Indigenous land, leading the mining giant to withdraw its prospecting applications. Image courtesy of the Goldman Environmental Prize.

Climate finance must reach Indigenous communities at COP30 & beyond (commentary)

Suzanne Pelletier and Victor Gil 5 Nov 2025
Logging truck leaves the forest in Ghana. Image courtesy of Fern.

As Ghana ships first ‘gold standard’ timber to EU, questions about FLEGT’s future remain (commentary)

Fred Pearce 3 Nov 2025

On first International Day of the Deep Seabed, we seek stewardship and consensus (commentary)

Leticia Carvalho 30 Oct 2025
A humpback whale

Australia celebrates ‘humpback comeback,’ but a main food source is under threat

Mike DiGirolamo 28 Oct 2025
Shoebills are one of the endangered species that rely on Lake Victoria in Uganda. Image by Emilie Chen via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0).

Has Uganda done enough to prevent pollution of Lake Albert by oil drilling? (commentary)

Robert Agenonga 24 Oct 2025
One of the last nesting beaches of green sea turtles and extremely rare leatherback turtles on Misali, the most likely site for a new hotel complex. Image by Tim Caro.

Zanzibar must act to conserve its natural & cultural heritage for the future (commentary)

Tim Caro 22 Oct 2025
Two members of the Prey Preah Roka Community Network – a grassroots activism group made up of communities around the wildlife sanctuary - document an illegally logged tree in the wildlife sanctuary. The grassroots group regularly patrol the wildlife sanctuary, documenting any illegal logging they come across by marking GPS coordinates, as well as taking a note of the species and diameter of the trees. Image by: Andy Ball / Mongabay.

New book unearths environmental crime’s psychological roots

Mike DiGirolamo 21 Oct 2025
Fresh oil palm fruit bunches. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil must halt Liberian palm oil company’s abuses (commentary)

Gaurav Madan 15 Oct 2025
Whānganui River

Pioneering policies and rights-of-nature rules win World Future Policy Awards

Mike DiGirolamo 14 Oct 2025
Elephants move along a migration corridor in Kenya. Image courtesy of Hillary Rosner.

Migrating elephants get room to roam via community conservation efforts

Hillary Rosner 14 Oct 2025
A waddle of chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica) on Deception Island, Antarctica. Image courtesy of Jay Williams / WWF.

Abandoning Antarctic krill management measure threatens conservation progress (commentary)

Andrea Capurro / Mary-Anne Lea 13 Oct 2025
In the cloud forests of Brava, Cabo Verde, community youth bend over thorny shrubs, pulling out these invasive plants that choke the native orchids and grasslands. Not far away, herders guide their cattle through cleared pastures, benefiting directly from the restoration work. These community members are inspired by an initiative that commenced thousands of kilometers away in India, where villagers and conservationists are wrestling with Lantana camara, an ornamental plant from Central America that has spread like wildfire, threatening forests, wildlife, and livelihoods alike. Yet in both places, these struggles are not just about removing a plant—they are about securing a future where people and ecosystems can coexist. Image courtesy of the author.

Linking biodiversity protection with community development in an era of crisis (commentary)

Dheeraj Jayant 10 Oct 2025
A common octopus (Octopus vulgaris). Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Octopus farming is a dangerous detour for marine conservation (commentary)

Giulia Malerbi 8 Oct 2025
American Avocet. Image by Michael Barry via Pixabay (Pixabay Content License).

Bird-watching for nature connection & social justice

Mike DiGirolamo 7 Oct 2025
Palm civet in a wildlife farm in Dong Nai Province, Viet Nam. Image courtesy of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).

New global guidelines needed to rein in the wildlife pet trade (commentary)

Elizabeth Bennett 7 Oct 2025
The Eurasian hoopoe (Upupa epops) is native to Europe, Asia and Africa. Image courtesy of Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

Biodiversity is our most sophisticated information network and must be protected (commentary)

Razan Al Mubarak 2 Oct 2025

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

Collage: Elise Paietta, postdoctoral research scholar during fieldwork, with tropical forest
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Brazil is the largest eucalyptus producer in the world. Eucalyptus production has been linked to several social and environmental violations such as land grabbing, human right abuses, and environmental harm from use of pesticides to biodiversity loss. Image © Markus Mauthe/Greenpeace.
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Where cars go to die: an auto graveyard.
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