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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A tiny sampling of tropical beetle diversity displayed at the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe, Germany. Image by H. Zell/CC 3.0.

If we don’t start counting insect populations, we won’t know what we’re losing (commentary)

Prayan Pokharel 29 Oct 2026
Mount Ararat. Image courtesy of Ani Adigyozalyan via Unsplash.

Nature has a new Noah’s Ark moment at the biodiversity summit (commentary)

Glenn Hurowitz 21 Oct 2026
Sheep in pasture at Flag Hill Farm in Vershire, VT. Image by Erik Hoffner for Mongabay.

Sustainable silvopasture is popular with US farmers despite waning financial supports

Erik Hoffner 21 Oct 2026
Monitors from the Ticuna community of San Francisco de Yahuma, in Loreto, Peru. They use drones to monitor and protect their forests. Image courtesy of Joseph Zegarra/Rainforest Foundation US.

Delegates at biodiversity COP17 should follow the lead of Global South women (commentary)

Valentina Figuera Martínez 21 Oct 2026
A wolf howls with the Sawtooth Mountains in the background. Image © Jim and Jamie Dutcher.

As US states reduce recently restored wolf populations, here’s what we risk losing (commentary)

Jim and Jamie Dutcher 16 Oct 2026
A young Diné girl assists her aunt in collecting water for their livestock. Courtesy of the Center for Indigenous Health

Indigenous women bring leadership, creativity & joy to clean water action (commentary)

Justine Apodaca 12 Oct 2026
Aerial view of Arizona border wall construction where tree sit protests have been occurring. Image courtesy of the author.

Activists cite ecological, social connections in blocking US border wall construction (commentary)

Meg Perret 8 Oct 2026
A Dayak Ngaju tribe man tries to extinguish fire on burning peatland in Mantangai, Central Kalimantan.

The Indonesians facing El Nino’s fires have lessons to teach us (commentary)

Akane Nishimura 6 Oct 2026
Environmental agents use satellite imagery analyses and on-site inspections to identify the flow of illegal wood, such as this seizure from the Cachoeira Seca Indigenous Territory, using timber credits. Image by IBAMA via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).

To tackle environmental crime, track profits through the whole supply chain (commentary)

Robert Muggah, Ilona Szabó de Carvalho 25 Sep 2026
The doll orchid is threatened due to extensive collection for the ornamental plant trade. Image courtesy of Bhathiya Gopallawa.

Biodiversity credits shouldn’t copy the carbon market playbook (commentary)

Jubanayan Saikia 24 Sep 2026
Confluence of the Chuwa River (at right) into the Karnali River (left). Image courtesy of Sherparinji via Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0.

For wild rivers like the Karnali, Nepal’s disaster is a warning and an answer (commentary)

Gary Wockner, Megh Ale 21 Sep 2026
Pirarucu fish on a boat on the Jurua River. Image courtesy of Joao Campos-Silva.

Community-based conservation is a good climate investment in Brazil & beyond (commentary)

Ana Cristina Barros, Carlos Eduardo Viveiros Grelle, Katia Ribeiro Torres 17 Sep 2026
Tiger

Kathmandu Resolution calls for Asia-wide leadership on conservation (commentary)

Sayan Banerjee 14 Sep 2026
Pallas’s cat kittens in Mongolia. These small cats are vulnerable to declines in other burrowing species, as they can’t dig out holes for themselves that they use for shelter and to raise their young. Image by Sebastian Kennerknecht/Cat Expeditions

Nepal’s high-altitude wildernesses & wildlife are increasingly under threat (commentary)

Geraldine Werhahn, Sabita Gurung 9 Sep 2026
An artisanal miner holds up a fragment of copper-bearing ore.

On renewable energy, it’s time to debunk the ‘transition minerals’ narrative (commentary)

Shaan Sood 3 Sep 2026
Selumo (Jackiopsis ornata) trees, left, in a village in East Tebing Tinggi, Riau province, Indonesia. Planted by communities to demarcate land boundaries, these trees are also desired for their appearance. Image courtesy of Maryani.

Rooting tree seed production in local knowledge boosts forest restoration outcomes (commentary)

Zu Dienle Tan, Ahmad Muhammad, Sigit Sutikno, Nur Estya Binte Rahman 1 Sep 2026
A remotely operated vehicle explores brine pool formations in the Orca Basin, Gulf of Mexico. Image courtesy of Ocean Exploration Trust/Nautilus Live.

Gulf of Mexico’s unique Orca Basin shouldn’t become a carbon dump (commentary)

Craig R. McClain 31 Aug 2026
Minerva Hills National Park. Image courtesy of Nathan White/Tourism and Events Queensland.

Australia’s 30×30 conservation promise matters a lot, but how it’s achieved is key (commentary)

Tim Nicol 27 Aug 2026
Round concrete sign painted with a stylised moon and sea in blues and white, towers over cars at a roundabout in Calabar, Cross River State. it reads "Destination Cross River State: the nation's paradise"

Nigeria can build the new coastal highway and also protect natural areas (commentary)

Mahmoud Ibrahim Mahmoud 26 Aug 2026

In Spain & South Africa, communities use restoration to ‘grow’ fire insurance (commentary)

Claire Patterson, Penelope Choussat 24 Aug 2026
A black-bellied pangolin rescued from poachers, released by the Sangha Pangolin Project in the Central African Republic. Image courtesy of Rod Cassidy via iNaturalist, CC BY-NC.

To secure protected areas from wildlife trafficking, criminal networks must be dismantled (commentary)

Ofir Drori 20 Aug 2026
Red Sea coastal landscape. Image courtesy of Marwan Mahmoud Kamal Hamdoun.

Egypt’s deserts show why ecological knowledge matters in conservation (commentary)

Marwan Mahmoud Kamal Hamdoun 19 Aug 2026
Lizulu Market in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe

Indigenous food sovereignty is one of the most overlooked conservation strategies (commentary)

Gemma Sethsmith, Brijlal Chaudhari 18 Aug 2026
African savannah elephants, the biggest land animals on the planet, are socially advanced and highly intelligent mammals. Image by O’Connell’s & Rodwell.

On ivory, follow the trafficking networks and not the headlines (commentary)

Mary Rice 11 Aug 2026
Herd of Finnish forest reindeer in Finland. Image by Sámediggi Saamelaiskäräjät (Sámi parliament) via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Sacred places & living lands: How Indigenous Sámi peoples steward biodiversity (analysis)

Emil Siekkinen 7 Aug 2026
Sunset over Maju Forest in Singapore. Image courtesy of Reddit user kcinc82.

Looming loss of Singapore’s Maju Forest to development raises many questions (commentary)

Rachel R. Y. Oh 5 Aug 2026
Vietnam is now the top producer of robusta beans used in cheap and instant coffee blends, but it carries a huge cost for Vietnamese communities and forests. Image courtesy of Quinn Mattingly/Panos Pictures/Unfold Stories.

Cheap coffee is killing Vietnam’s priceless tropical forests (commentary)

Etelle Higonnet 3 Aug 2026
Deforestation and the enteric fermentation from the cattle that supply its slaughterhouses comprise 97% of JBS' overall greenhouse emissions, according to the Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor 2022. Even so, these impacts were ignored by the company's climate targets. Image courtesy of Marcio Isensee e Sá/O Eco.

Before giant meat producer JBS expands to Nigeria, people deserve answers (commentary)

Felix Horne 31 Jul 2026
Sable antelope photographed at Shimba Hills National Reserve in Kenya. Image courtesy of Kenneth Coe.

Conservation shouldn’t gamble with nonnative species introductions (commentary)

Charles Foley, Kenneth Coe 29 Jul 2026
Oak trees in a temperate forest in the higher altitudes of the Sierra Gorda, where more than 30 species of oak trees can be found. Photo by Roberto Pedraza Ruiz.

How carbon markets can succeed & also serve Global South communities (commentary)

Pati Ruiz Corzo 27 Jul 2026

How saline drinking water raises preeclampsia risks in coastal Bangladesh (commentary)

Ashik Rubaiyat 23 Jul 2026

Scientific & traditional knowledge are key for effective & community-centered conservation (commentary)

Charudutt Mishra 20 Jul 2026

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A collage featuring a Polish soldier and Białowieża Forest.
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