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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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

Highway BR-163 stretches between the Tapajos National Forest, left, and a soy field in Belterra, Para state, Brazil. Highway BR-163, built during the military dictatorship in the 1970s, connects areas of strong support for former President Jair Bolsonaro, who lost October's election. Image by AP Photo/Leo Correa.

Banks must step in before the Amazon Soy Moratorium collapses (commentary)

Ginger Cassady 18 Feb 2026

Paicines Ranch

From chemistry to regeneration: Agriculture’s next transformation has begun (commentary)

Sallie Calhoun 17 Feb 2026

Texas sea turtles have lost a conservation hero (commentary)

Todd Steiner 16 Feb 2026

A howler monkey traverses unprotected electric lines in Costa Rica, a situation that leads to deaths of many monkeys, sloths, kinkajous and more. Image courtesy of International Animal Rescue.

Costa Rica’s top court orders action to shield wildlife from power line hazards

Bobby Bascomb 16 Feb 2026

Huoideua plantation.

From land acquisitions to local ownership: Alternatives for carbon offsetting (commentary)

Christoph Kubitza 13 Feb 2026

Crew members from Southeast Asia work to unload fish on purse seiners in the Western Pacific Ocean in 2023.

Sustainable fisheries can’t be built on exploited labor (commentary)

Alfred “Bubba” Cook 11 Feb 2026

A captive black and rufous elephant shrew (Rhynchocyon petersi), a resident of various kayas. Image by Joey Makalintal via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

Biodiversity bonds can work, but their design flaws must be fixed (commentary)

Anna Comacchio 10 Feb 2026

Destroyed trees inside the Apamprama reserve. Image by Awudu Salami Sulemana Yoda.

Successful campaign proves Ghana’s forests are worth more than gold (commentary)

Daryl Bosu 5 Feb 2026

Ramon ‘Chin-Chin’ Uy Jr. is Slow Food representative for the Asia and Pacific region. Image courtesy of Slow Food.

Why is a Philippine island now the Asia Pacific center for agroecology? Interview with Ramon ‘Chin-Chin’ Uy Jr.

Keith Anthony Fabro 3 Feb 2026

Puzzle of a natural history museum diorama. Image by Erik Hoffner for Mongabay.

Conservation programs must embrace causal evidence when evaluating impact (commentary)

Tanya O’Garra 3 Feb 2026

The Dayak Bahau community in Long Isun expresses its complaint. Image courtesy of Accountability Counsel.

World Bank carbon program risks further infringing upon rights of Indonesian Indigenous community (commentary)

Fuat Edi Kurniawan, Sadar Ginting, Anna Christi Suwardi 28 Jan 2026

Food security activist Richard Rojo in his Vanuatu taro garden. Image courtesy of Monica Kidd.

Vanuatu communities move to protect taro, an ancestral climate-resilient crop (analysis)

Participants of Terra Madre Asia Pacific celebrate day 5 of the regional 'good food' event. Image courtesy of Slow Food.

Philippines hosts new Asia-Pacific hub for sustainable agriculture, cuisine

Keith Anthony Fabro 21 Jan 2026

East African mahogany (Khaya anthotheca), Chirinda Forest, Zimbabwe. Image courtesy of Tony Robello via Wikimedia Commons.

Too many African plants fall into the IUCN’s ‘not evaluated’ trap (commentary)

Victor Nsereko Wantate 20 Jan 2026

The knowledge to save coffee already exists, now it’s in one e-library

Bobby Bascomb 20 Jan 2026

After burning off the mercury, a relatively pure piece of gold remains. Image by Thomas Graham for Mongabay.

Turning the Amazon’s toxic gold mine waste liability into economic opportunity (analysis)

Timothy J. Killeen 13 Jan 2026

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Collage of a cloned jaguar

Starting out as a terrestrial ecologist and environmental educator, Jessie Panazzolo is a proud carer of people who care for Mother Earth. In 2019, she founded the global community, Lonely Conservationists, a pioneering platform that provides resources, advocacy, and a voice to budding and burnt-out environmentalists. Advocating for the need to provide care to members of an often forgotten care-based industry, Jessie's websites, books, podcasts, and workshops are used to help budding and burnt-out conservationists around the world.

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