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

The Tropical Forest Forever Facility needs more local and Indigenous focus (commentary)

Joe Eisen 3 Jun 2025
Image courtesy of Lucy Calderón/EcoLogic Development Fund.

Conservation tech without Indigenous knowledge and local context has limits (commentary)

Marco Acevedo 28 May 2025
Drone view of flooded forest in the Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.

On Amazon destruction, will Brazil President Lula’s ‘disinformation space’ be penetrated? (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 22 May 2025
An excavator and a gold washing station at the Alangong-Bamegod-Inès mine site in the Sangha. This equipment is typical of semi-industrial gold mining, while the water for the washing station is drawn from surrounding streams, raising concerns about contamination. Image by Elodie Toto for Mongabay.

Deforestation in REDD-protected Congo rainforests is ‘beyond words’

Mike DiGirolamo 20 May 2025
Chrystal Mantyka-Pringle leading cultural mapping exercises with Tr'ondek Hwech'in First Nation citizens Ryan Petersen and Zack Everitt at the community’s Land of Plenty cultural camp in 2019. Image courtesy of Elaine Cordon.

An alternative approach to bridge Indigenous knowledge and Western science for conservation (commentary)

Chrystal Mantyka-Pringle, Natasha Ayoub, Katie Fraser 20 May 2025
Banner image: A truck carries logs cut from the Amazon Rainforest in the state of Rondônia. Image courtesy of Vicente Sampaio/Imaflora.

The world needs a new UN protocol to fight environmental crime (commentary)

Robert Muggah 15 May 2025
2025 Goldman Prize winner Carlos Mallo Molina (Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize)

How a road engineer became an ocean activist & won the world’s top environmental prize

Mike DiGirolamo 13 May 2025
Blackwater oxbow lake in the Amazon. Image by Rhett Butler for Mongabay.

Why WHO’s pandemic prevention draft agreement takes a nature-centric, One Health approach (commentary)

Chris Walzer, Susan Lieberman, Christine Franklin 13 May 2025
NC State PhD student Bethany Wager catching and tagging a False Albacore for The Albie Project. Image courtesy of American Saltwater Guides Association.

Angling for answers, this saltwater fishing group boosts research for better conservation

Erik Hoffner 12 May 2025

There’s something fishy about ‘blue economy’ proposals for sustainable marine management (commentary)

Philippa Louey 9 May 2025
A pod of Sperm Whales move into a defense line to stop a pod of Orcas (Killer Whales) getting to their calf, off the coast of Sri Lanka. Image © Paul Hilton / Greenpeace.

Our responsibility for cetacean conservation grows with proof of their intelligence (commentary)

Avery Ancell 8 May 2025
A model of a woolly mammoth at the Royal Victoria Museum, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 2018. Photo by Thomas Quine, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

‘De-extinction’ isn’t just misleading — it’s dangerous, ecologist says

Mike DiGirolamo 6 May 2025
Humpback whales in French Polynesian waters. The intensity and duration of marine heat waves could have widespread effects on marine biodiversity, increasing the likelihood of species displacement and mortality. Image by Toby Matthews / Ocean Image Bank.

Listening to whales is key to their conservation

Mike DiGirolamo 29 Apr 2025
Flowering tree in the Amazon rainforest canopy. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler

Refocusing conservation funding on trust & community leadership after USAID freeze (commentary)

Leona M. Bhuyan 28 Apr 2025
Forest in Panama that Amigos del Bosque aims to conserve via biodiversity credits, carbon offsets, or other payments for ecosystem services. Image courtesy of Amigos del Bosque.

Paying to prevent deforestation is positive & not ‘nothing’ (commentary)

Jessica Ausinheiler 24 Apr 2025
2025 Goldman Prize winners Besjana Guri and Olsi Nika (Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize)

Meet the 2025 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners

Mongabay.com 21 Apr 2025
A siamang gibbon seized in Chennai, India in August 2024, along with turtles and pythons. It was being carried in the baggage of a passenger travelling from Bangkok.

Illegal trafficking of siamang gibbons is a concerning and underreported crisis (commentary)

Sinan Serhadli 18 Apr 2025
Red-throated bee-eaters (Merops bulocki), Pehonko, Benin. Image by Yves Bas via iNaturalist (CC BY 4.0).

Africa’s growing cities are endangering birdlife (commentary)

Bello Adamu Danmallam 16 Apr 2025
Saiga herd during a calving period. Image by Albert Salemgareyev and courtesy of the Association for the Conservation Biodiversity of Kazakhstan/Vera Voronova.

Saving saiga antelope with cooperation and community in Kazakhstan

Mike DiGirolamo 15 Apr 2025
Eurasian brown bear courtesy of Magnus Lundgren/Swedensbigfive.org.

Coexistence with Europe’s carnivores is possible (commentary)

John Linnell 10 Apr 2025
Corporations have devastated the livelihoods of fishing communities like Odimodi, by spilling crude oil, discharging toxic effluents, and gas flaring. Image via the Coalition for Human Rights in Development.

How communities in sacrifice zones suffer environmental injustices in Mexico, Chile, Nigeria and Indonesia (analysis)

Daniela Sepulveda, Angélica Arellano 9 Apr 2025
Reserva Narupa, Ecuador. Photo by Rhett Butler/Mongabay.

Why the nonprofit newsroom model is vital to Mongabay’s impact

Mike DiGirolamo 8 Apr 2025
Snow leopard at ease in its high-mountain habitat. Image courtesy of Madhu Chetri.

How cultural and religious beliefs combine for snow leopard conservation (commentary)

7 Apr 2025
Sumaco volcano in Ecuador at sunset. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Rethinking carbon: The climate movement needs to be a human one, says Paul Hawken

Mike DiGirolamo, Rachel Donald 1 Apr 2025
Sunset over Belize. Image courtesy of Chadwick Hagan.

Belize’s natural heritage deserves even stronger conservation strategies (commentary)

Chadwick Hagan 31 Mar 2025
Two pairs of N. Bald Ibis photographed at the wintering grounds on the Ethiopian highlands in November 2006 (© G. Serra).

The effort to save Syria’s northern bald ibis population failed, but much can be learned (analysis)

Gianluca Serra 28 Mar 2025
A wombat in Queensland, Australia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

As Australia’s ‘nature positive’ plans ring hollow, how will other nations respond?

Mike DiGirolamo 25 Mar 2025
Akit tribe residence, Titi Akar Village, North Rupat, Bengkalis, Riau, Indonesia. Image courtesy of Nukila Evanty.

Indonesia’s Indigenous Akit community faces exploitation & land loss (commentary)

Alberta Christina Cahya Pertiwi, Nukila Evanty 21 Mar 2025
Wooded landscape in Kõrvemaa Nature Park, Estonia. Image courtesy of Ireen Trummer via Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0.

With Europe’s forests, we can’t manage what we can’t measure (commentary)

Sten B. Nilsson 20 Mar 2025
Rainstorm over Pillcopata in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Rhett Butler/Mongabay.

What environmental history reveals about our current ‘planetary risk’

Mike DiGirolamo 18 Mar 2025
Before any dam is built, roads are needed, opening up the old-growth forest of the Cardamom Mountains. Image by Gerald Flynn / Mongabay.

With biological and cultural diversity at literal crossroads in the tropics, a new approach is needed (commentary)

Karen Masters 13 Mar 2025

How ‘ecological empathy’ can help humans reconnect with nature and shape a better world

Mike DiGirolamo, Rachel Donald 11 Mar 2025

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

Yo Yaj at Songkhla Lake, Thailand
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Tony Parkes. Photo courtesy of Big Scrub Landcare
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Climate Wayfinding with a design background. Image by Amerpsand. Courtesy of Katharine Wilkinson.
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