Investors say agroforestry isn’t just climate friendly — it’s also profitable
In the latter part of 2016, Ethan Steinberg and two of his friends planned a driving tour across the U.S. to interview farmers. Their goal was to solve a riddle…
Articles by Erik Hoffner
As an editor for Mongabay, I work to keep readers informed about the latest developments in conservation news and science. I'm also a freelancer for publications like The Washington Post, and my work has also appeared in The Guardian, National Geographic News Watch, OnEarth, Yale Environment 360, The Sun, Grist, World Ark, and Earth Island Journal (see a list of recent articles at http://www.erikhoffner.com/writing).
Podcast: International task force unites North America to protect salamander diversity
North America and the U.S. in particular is the world’s hotspot of salamander diversity, hosting about a third of all species, so researchers are concerned about the potential landfall of…
Audio: Will U.S. scientists find a silent salamander killer in time?
Reporter Benji Jones and wildlife disease ecologist with United States Geological Survey, Daniel Grear, join this special edition of Mongabay's podcast to discuss the hunt for Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) in…
Audio: Why are salamanders so diverse in North America?
Mongabay senior editor Morgan Erickson-Davis joins this special edition of our podcast to provide the interesting context for the 2018/2019 special series she produced on the potential 'Bsal' salamander pandemic…
Better wines among the pines: Agroforestry can climate-proof grapes, French researchers show
MONTPELLIER, France — As the world warms due to climate change, winemakers are struggling to maintain the quality of their product. But in the home of wine, agroforestry researchers are…
Wildlife conservation needs a post-COVID recovery plan (commentary)
Ironically, the tragedies of the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in some unprecedented improvements to air quality. Levels of nitrogen dioxide have decreased in many parts of the world, including by…
Faced with a health crisis, a plea for trees and agroforestry (commentary)
Epidemiologists know that wildlife disappearance facilitates epidemics that affect humanity. This is, for example, what French scientist Serge Morand, states, "The number of epidemics is increasing due to the loss…
Consider what’s below the canopy, too, when counting up forest areas (commentary)
The screech of scarlet macaws high overhead. The dawn rumble of howler monkeys. The hammering of a greater spotted woodpecker. These are some of the sounds I have had the…
Audio: North America’s looming salamander pandemic: Is the U.S. ready?
Around 2008, a mysterious disease started killing off the fire salamanders in the Netherlands, and three years later, 96% were dead. That disease, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal), is a relative of…
It’s time to implement solutions that make the bushmeat trade unnecessary (commentary)
The coronavirus has rocked the foundations of societies across the globe. Since the virus originated in wildlife, there has been public outcry demanding the closure wildlife meat markets. Neglected thus…
Market-based solutions cannot solely fund community-level conservation (commentary)
I am writing this from Bukit Lawang (North Sumatra, Indonesia) a prominent ecotourism town on the fringes of the Gunung Leuser National Park. The town is devoid of tourists amid…
Massive erosion likely due to hydropower dam causes oil spill on Ecuador’s Coca River
Ecuador is in a deep economic and health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has spread seriously in the city of Guayaquil, in the province of Guayas. Amid that…
Plans to prevent future pandemics must consider gender issues, too (commentary)
As COVID-19 continues to wrack our lives, the topic of the illegal wildlife trade and its connection to the coronavirus has garnered recent headlines. Many organizations, such as the Wildlife…
As a campaigner against deforestation, almost dying of COVID-19 was ironic (commentary)
I have been sick with COVID-19. When I started writing this, holed up in my New York apartment, I could feel the shakiness, sharp headache, muscle and joint pain that…
In Panama, agroforestry technique of silvopasture improves ranching traditions
LOS ASIENTOS, Panama — It was auction day in the town of Santiago, and ranchers from the region gathered to buy and sell cattle. A metallic clatter rang out from…
Transforming conservation at virtual Earth Optimism Summit, April 22-24
Mongabay and its Transforming Conservation initiative have partnered with the Smithsonian Conservation Commons to host two panel sessions at the Earth Optimism Summit, which is scheduled for April 22-24 this…
Earth Day in the coronavirus era: Can resilience thinking provide a way forward? (commentary)
With half a century of Earth Days behind us, we face a new level of urgency in our environmental crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us that we live in…
Tribute to Garth Owen-Smith, African conservationist (commentary)
Garth Owen-Smith, a great African conservation visionary and globally recognized pioneer in community conservation, died on 11th April after a long battle with cancer. His life and work partner of…
Positive ways forward for chocolate industry tainted by deforestation and child labor (commentary)
Eating chocolate shouldn’t mean fueling environmental and social destruction. But, as a stream of news stories and reports make abundantly clear, too often it does. Cocoa production in Ghana and Ivory Coast – the world’s biggest cocoa producers…
80 percent of conservation careers negatively affected by COVID pandemic (commentary)
With health and economic impacts at the forefront of global concerns, what’s happening to the people whose job it is to protect the future of our health, wealth and wellbeing…
Hanging with Romi: Get to know our camera trap expert and host of Candid Animal Cam
Romina Castagnino is Mongabay's resident conservation scientist, and in addition to her regular reporting duties, she's taken on a new role: hosting our Candid Animal Cam video series, which shares…
Kenya, conservation and music: Q&A with singer Barbara Guantai
Musician Barbara Guantai fuses Afro-jazz, pop, and soul, a combination that blends well when she unleashes her artistic expression as a Kenyan singer, songwriter and performer. Based in Nairobi, a…
In Kenya, the indigenous music of Afro Simba promotes environmental stewardship and peace
Kombo Chokwe Burns is a musician, producer, and writer of music who has walked the artistic path from the village of Rabai on the country's coast to Kenya's capital, Nairobi. His band Afro…
‘Just incredible’ reptiles and amphibians of South Africa: Q&A with Tyrone Ping
Tyrone Ping had ample opportunity to admire reptiles and amphibians as a child, and this initial herpetological hobby has led to a life-long fascination. At some point when he was…
Conservation nation: How Palau protects its reefs and waters (commentary)
In 2012 I spent 3 weeks in Palau as part of the ‘Micronesia Challenge,’ a conservation approach sponsored by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in conjunction with Palau International Coral Reef…
Young farmers apply ancient agroforestry practices in the heart of Sardinia
DESULO, Italy — In a late 1990s photo, a little girl with a ponytail and white apron poses at the corner of a cheese-making machine. Two decades later, with the…
Goldman Prize winner launches new environmental foundation in the Cook Islands
Goldman Environmental Prize winner Jacqueline Evans has launched the Moana Foundation to advance environmental and social activism in her home country of the Cook Islands. Evans won the Goldman Environmental…
From scorpion skewers to cricket flour, bug protein is becoming big business
LOC NINH DISTRICT, Vietnam — A spade strikes the bone-dry Cambodian dirt with a crunch, and the hunt is on. Chem Wai, a lanky, deeply tanned 53-year-old former soldier, has…
2020 ballot initiative would restore wolves to Colorado
Earlier this month, more than 200,000 signatures were delivered to the Colorado secretary of state calling for the restoration of gray wolves (Canis lupus) to be put on the 2020…
Microplastics may be a macro problem for the U.S. Great Plains, too, study finds
Over the past decade, the world has begun to realize that microscopic plastic particles infest our lakes, our seas, and even our bodies. A new study reveals that even the…
Special series
Forest trackers
- ‘On the edge’: Endangered forest cleared for marijuana in Paraguay
- ‘Betting on impunity’: Brazilian Amazon under attack despite logging crackdown
- Indonesia struggles to restore peatlands as fires strangle national parks
- Marijuana cultivation whittling away Madagascar’s largest connected forest
Oceans
- Game changer? Antarctic ice melt related to tropical weather shifts: Study
- Dorsal de Nasca: Peru pledges to create a huge new marine reserve
- Science-backed policy boosts critically endangered Nassau grouper
- Vanishing sea ice in the Arctic could shake up seabird migrations
Amazon conservation
- Brazil bows to pressure from business, decrees 120-day Amazon fire ban
- Brazilian court orders 20,000 gold miners removed from Yanomami Park
- World’s biggest trade deal in trouble over EU anger at Brazil deforestation
- Discovery of fish never recorded in the Amazon shows richness of Brazil’s Calha Norte
Land rights and extractives
- Cook Islands to grant seabed mining exploration licenses within a year
- Deep-sea mining: An environmental solution or impending catastrophe?
- Locals stage latest fight against PNG mine dumping waste into sea
- Mining company pressing to enter Ecuador’s Los Cedros Protected Forest
Endangered environmentalists
- In Philippines’ Palawan, top cop linked to assault on environmental officer
- Deaths, arrests and protests as Philippines re-emerges from lockdown
- In Brazil, COVID-19 outbreak paves way for invasion of indigenous lands
- On anniversary of nun’s murder Amazon land rights activists at high risk
Indonesias forest guardians
- Reforesting a village in Indonesia, one batch of gourmet beans at a time
- Restoring Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, one small farm at a time
- Indigenous Iban community defends rainforests, but awaits lands rights recognition
- On the island of Java, a social forestry scheme creates jobs at home
Conservation effectiveness
- Failure in conservation projects: Everyone experiences it, few record it
- On a wing and a prayer? Evidence for ways to conserve bats (commentary)
- Audio: The sounds of a rare New Zealand bird reintroduced to its native habitat
- Eavesdrop on forest sounds to effectively monitor biodiversity, researchers say
Southeast asian infrastructure
- Experts see environmental, social fallout in Indonesia’s infrastructure push
- Bornean farmers and fishers brace as a new port opens in their midst
- Indonesian levee project serves industry over community, study says
- Forest clearing proceeds for dam in Sumatra despite locals’ land claims
