Erik Hoffner

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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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Banner image: Wheelchair on a beach. Image courtesy of Lucas Andrade via Pexels.

Marine conservation suffers when the ocean is not accessible to all, especially on remote islands (commentary)

Elsie Gabriel 15 May 2026

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

The Southern Ocean is key to our planet’s future & we have a chance to protect it this year (commentary)

Zac Goldsmith 13 May 2026

Pair of flamingos in Marawah Marine Biosphere Reserve, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Image courtesy of Maitha Bughanoom.

Arabian Gulf’s fragile marine ecosystem threatened by current crisis (commentary)

Razan Al Mubarak 11 May 2026

Sumatran elephants play in water.

Indonesia should avoid controversial programs to fund conservation (commentary)

Mohammad Yunus 8 May 2026

Filmmaker and workshop facilitator Natália Tupi guiding student Maicon Santos in audiovisual techniques during the workshop in the Tukum village, Tupinambá de Olivença Territory (Bahia, Brazil). Image courtesy of Emma Latham Phillips.

What Indigenous youth filmmaking reveals about environmental communication (commentary)

Jamille Pinheiro Dias 7 May 2026

A controlled burn in north east Victoria over the autumn period to reduce fuel load for summer fires. Photo: Michael Reid

Australia’s declining tree health is a slow-burning crisis (commentary)

Michael Reid, Ted Alter 5 May 2026

Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) feeding on seagrass. Image courtesy of Liam McGuire via Ocean Image Bank.

With its first marine reserve, Ghana protects its ocean to secure its future (commentary)

Emelia Arthur 4 May 2026

A gemsbok (Oryx gazella), also known as the South African oryx, in a mixed herd of herbivores at Tswalu. Image by John Cannon/Mongabay.

The value of South Africa’s wildlife shouldn’t be in the hands of wealthy foreign hunters (commentary)

Stephanie Klarmann 30 Apr 2026

Austin Lewis

Chesapeake Bay conservation bolstered by the power of business & viral videos

Erik Hoffner 29 Apr 2026

Some of the Conservation Optimism team at their summit last year. Image courtesy of Conservation Optimism.

Young conservationists are building hope & optimism despite challenging times (commentary)

Qazi Hammad Mueen, Taras Bains, Maria Hashmi, Erfan Firouzi 28 Apr 2026

Solar panels installed in Bali

New treaty to end the fossil fuel era is needed more than ever (commentary)

Tzeporah Berman 21 Apr 2026

Just as the resilient redwoods have evolved to survive repeated fires, the conservation workforce is equipping ourselves to withstand repeated hardships. Photo courtesy of Jen Miller.

We can navigate conservation’s ‘epidemic of suffering’ by building a culture of care (commentary)

Jen Miller, Kelly Guilbeau 21 Apr 2026

Lizulu Market in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe

Strait of Hormuz crisis should catalyze African biofertilizer production (commentary)

Susan Chomba 16 Apr 2026

A squat lobster in the deep sea.

Deep-sea wildernesses are more important than the promise of seafloor mining (analysis)

Andrew D. Thaler 14 Apr 2026

Kenyan Christians gather to worship under the trees. Image by AGWM Africa.

Christianity can be an ally for Kenyan conservation (commentary)

Peter Rowe 10 Apr 2026

Little Rock Creek Lake, with El Capitan in the distance, in the Bitterroot Range, Montana. Image courtesy of Magicpiano via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Invasive plant drives ecological change in America’s gigantic Selway–Bitterroot Wilderness (commentary)

Lyle Lewis 9 Apr 2026

Emergent rainforest tree in the Amazon. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler for Mongabay.

Indigenous & community leaders say, ‘secure forest financing with us, not for us’ (commentary)

Inés Morales Lastra, José Ivanildo, Levi Sucre 7 Apr 2026

An American oystercatcher on the beach in Stone Harbor, New Jersey. Image via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

How saving birds protects the planet: Interview with author Scott Weidensaul

Erik Hoffner 7 Apr 2026

A forest elephant near Ngounié, Gabon. Image by marcusgmeiner via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0)

A Congo Basin-led bioeconomy could boost Central Africa’s green transition (analysis)

Metolo Foyet 6 Apr 2026

American Samoa said ‘no’ to deep sea mining, Washington heard ‘faster’ (commentary)

Jackie Dragon 1 Apr 2026

Fishers in the Philippines. Image courtesy of Rare Conservation.

What ‘paper parks’ reveal about the limits of conservation policy (commentary)

Kevin Green 31 Mar 2026

An antipodean albatross (Diomedea antipodensis) flies near the sub-Antarctic islands of Aotearoa New Zealand in 2023.

Marine flyways are the missing map we can use to boost seabird conservation (commentary)

Tammy Davies, Aline Kühl-Stenzel 30 Mar 2026

Manatees image courtesy of Jorge Zamora.

On Manatee Appreciation Day, remember these gentle giants who protect aquatic ecosystems (commentary)

Omar Vidal 24 Mar 2026

Lilac-breasted roller in Etosha National Park, Namibia. Image courtesy of Giles Laurent via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

How Namibia’s bird conservation projects build community resilience (commentary)

Martha Karas 23 Mar 2026

A Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) ship.

Shipping’s biofuel gamble could deepen Africa’s land squeeze and food insecurity (commentary)

Susan Chomba, Million Belay 20 Mar 2026

Indigenous protesters and self-proclaimed river defenders demonstrate against Brazilian dams. Image courtesy of Amazon Watch.

A decade after the death of Berta Cáceres, we can no longer tolerate threats to environmental activists (commentary)

Michael Sutton 17 Mar 2026

Juvenile Sumatran orangutans like this are highly sought by traffickers. Image courtesy of Onrizal Onrizal.

Indonesia’s orangutan trafficking cases reveal need for a change in approach (commentary)

Onrizal Onrizal 12 Mar 2026

The Cerrado in Correntina, Bahia. Image courtesy of Thomas Bauer / Earthsight.

The Cerrado is threatened but crucial for Brazil’s biodiversity & water security (commentary)

Cássio Cardoso Pereira, Walisson Kenedy-Siqueira, Domingos de Jesus Rodrigues, Rodolfo Salm, Philip M. Fearnside 9 Mar 2026

Biologists from the Idaho Fish and Wildlife Office hike at sunrise to survey for greater sage-grouse in Owyhee County, Idaho.

Emotional and psychological stresses beleaguer conservation professionals (commentary)

Vik Mohan, Nerissa Chao 4 Mar 2026

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.

Local communities are conservation’s most undervalued asset (commentary)

José Monteiro, Moreangels Mbizah, Damian Bell, Monicah Mbiba 3 Mar 2026

Pranisha Pun harvests a cordyceps mushroom in western Nepal. Image by Sushil Mainali / ANSAB.

Sustainable trade in wild plants benefits people and planet (commentary)

Richard Scobey 2 Mar 2026

Agroforestry offers market-based way to boost Amazon rains & farmer incomes (analysis)

Timothy J. Killeen 25 Feb 2026

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News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

Collage, Jahëna Louisin, Mongabay reporter, and a Vodun ritual

Photographer Jonathan Bachman was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for capturing a photograph of Ieshia Evans being arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was Ieshia Evans first protest, and Bachman’s first time covering one. The photo was included in The New York Times’ “The Year in Pictures 2016,” among other honors. jonathan bachman / reuters. Shepard Fairey—a prolific artist and activist who often addresses social and political issues in his work—was invited by the authors of ‘Protest’ to interpret Bachman’s photograph for the book. Image credit to Shepard Fairey. Image Courtesy of Patagonia Books.

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