In fight against wildlife trafficking, Brazil police turn to nuclear science
In Brazil, as in many other biodiverse countries around the world, the commercial trade of some species of wildlife is allowed — as long as the animal was bred in…
Articles by Maria Salazar
Maria Angeles lives in Spain. She started translating for Mongabay in 2013 after finishing her postgraduate studies. She is now helping the team as the Translation Coordinator. Apart from her work for Mongabay, she works part-time as a translator and interpreter. Before joining the team, she worked as an English teacher and volunteered her time translating for different non-profits. She wants to contribute to make the world a better place to live in with her work
From common to captive, Javan pied starlings succumb to songbird trade
The Javan pied starling (Gracupica jalla) is a captive in its own home. Thousands of these endemic songbirds once congregated in the safety of tall trees to roost after spending…
The secret bears of Bolivia’s lost dry forests
EL PALMAR, Bolivia — It was worth the journey. After sweating across the scrubby Bolivian mountainsides, stepping into the forest was like entering a different world. Twisted pino de monte…
A novel tree nursery gives the Caatinga a fighting chance against desertification
The Caatinga is the most densely populated semiarid region in the world and the only exclusively Brazilian biome. The region needs assistance to prevent it from becoming an immense desert.…
In Peru, officials play a losing game of whack-a-mole with illegal miners
Deforestation driven by illegal mining around Peru’s Pariamanu River has accelerated in the past six months, with forests one and a half times the size of London’s Hyde Park lost…
Specter of tailings disaster looms after spill at Canadian firm’s Brazil mine
On March 25, water from a pond owned by Canadian miner Equinox Gold spilled over its embankments in the Brazilian state of Maranhão amid heavy rain. The water flowed into…
In Colombia, a successful jaguar conservation program has a whiff of coffee
Fires had a devastating effect in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in Colombia’s Caribbean region, between 2012 and 2013. In 2013 alone, the region lost an estimated that 22,000…
Chile’s marine protected areas aren’t safe from its salmon farms
In 2003, biologist Vreni Häussermann and a group of researchers started surveying underwater life at a site in the Comau Fjord, in Chilean Patagonia. The team found that sea cucumbers,…
Study: Brazil govt undercounts Indigenous deaths from COVID-19 by half
Indigenous people in the Brazilian Amazon are dying at twice the officially recorded rate from COVID-19, according to an independent study that also found a higher rate of infections than…
Study shows more than half of Cerrado’s cattle pasture can be restored
Much of the land that’s been cleared for pasture in the Brazilian Cerrado could potentially be restored to its previous savanna state while still leaving enough space for the country’s…
Hantavirus study shows restoring forests can reduce zoonotic disease risk
The COVID-19 pandemic brought zoonotic diseases into the global spotlight in a way nothing has done for a century, even though zoonoses — diseases passed between humans and animals —…
Deforestation-free beef stymied by Brazil’s unequal supply chain
In Brazil’s beef industry, meatpackers or slaughterhouses that are monitored and audited to comply with zero-deforestation purchasing criteria compete against facilities that flout the rules. Ranches with the space and…
A Colombian national park reveals its natural secrets through camera traps
In the forests of El Tuparro National Natural Park, a protected area in the far east of Colombia’s Orinoco region, a jaguar roams freely, the king of a territory it…
In Project Amazônia 2.0, communities and technology team up for nature
That Indigenous peoples and traditional populations are the most important forest guardians in Latin America and the Caribbean is an established fact. A report released in March by the United…
Time is running out for embattled Pacific leatherback sea turtles
Clear-skied, low-wind summer days are rare off the coast of California. But they’re a blessing if you’re a researcher tracking down critically endangered leatherback sea turtles. Marine ecologists Scott Benson…
Researchers take up the cause of the mysterious and maligned Chaco eagle
Fénix, a female Chaco eagle, lived at San Rafael Zoo in Mendoza province, Argentina, until the zoo shut down in 2016. She was later transferred to the Buenos Aires Ecopark,…
Large-scale deforesters emboldened under Brazil’s Bolsonaro, data indicate
From 2009 to 2018, Brazil recorded an annual deforestation rate of 6,493 square kilometers (2,507 square miles), on the back of policies aimed at slowing the destruction of the Amazon.…
COVID-19 compounds a poaching problem targeting the Amazon’s pirarucu
In early March, the fish markets in the Brazilian Amazonian city of Manaus were full of fresh and dazzling specimens of local species such as matrinxã (Brycon amazonicus) and tambaqui…
Researchers rush to understand kelp forests as harvesting increases
The kelp forests of the oceans are a habitat for a wide range of marine species, rivaling even the great tropical forests for sheer richness of biodiversity, according to scientists…
Dams drove an Asian dolphin extinct. They could do the same in the Amazon
For decades it was the only freshwater dolphin species in the world not considered threatened by human activity. The tucuxi of the Amazon held out even as similar species in…
The U.S. reptile most at risk from rising seas is one you likely haven’t heard of
At just 5 centimers, or 2 inches, from nose to tail, the Florida reef gecko is so frail that handling it with bare hands is enough to tear its skin.…
Shark catastrophe points to failure to enact global biodiversity agreements
A near-sharkless open ocean could soon be a reality, according to Nathan Pacoureau, a postdoctoral researcher in the Earth to Ocean Research Group at Simon Fraser University in Canada. Pacoureau…
As Brazil’s military pulls out of the Amazon, its legacy is in question
A military operation against environmental violations in the Brazilian Amazon is coming to a close this month after nearly two years, But the show of force, backed by $71 million…
Cerrado’s maned wolves, squeezed by humans, may be picking up mange from dogs
It was 11:30 in the morning on Feb. 4 this year. A gray sky threatened heavy rains. Everything was calm as usual at the front gate of the Brejão Farm,…
Bolsonaro govt wanted to ‘run the cattle’ through environmental protections. It was a stampede
The science journal Biological Conservation published a special issue this month with a series of reports on the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on biodiversity. Among the articles selected is one by…
Patagonia’s blue whales besieged by hundreds of boats, study finds
Researchers have for the first time been able to show visually the impacts that marine traffic is having on the world’s biggest animal off the north of Chile’s Patagonia region.…
Threats loom large over Amazon’s Arrau turtles, despite record number of hatchlings
Countless of them were massacred over centuries, and their eggs pilfered by the hundreds of millions. Today, the Arrau turtle is a rare species conservation success story in the Brazilian…
Freight train project that railroads Indigenous rights still on track
A controversial freight railway line that would cut through Indigenous lands in the Brazilian Amazon looks set to be approved for construction by the federal government as soon as April,…
Dying of curiosity: Why people shoot harpy eagles
The rancher peers at an enormous bird high in the treetops. Reining in his horse, he squints upward. It’s not moving; maybe it will still be there when he gets…
Rare black jaguars caught on camera in Panama
A jaguar roars in front of a camera trap in Panama’s Mamoní Valley. The video lasts only 11 seconds, but it provides a valuable glimpse at this iconic animal of…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Deforestation spikes in Virunga National Park, DRC
- Slash-and-burn clearing nears Indigenous park as Brazil’s fire season ignites
- New areas of primary forest cleared in Brazil’s ‘lawless’ Lábrea
- Deforestation intensifies in northern DRC protected areas
Oceans
- ‘Watered-down’ plan to save India Ocean yellowfin tuna disappoints conservationists
- Tin mines close in on an Indonesian hamlet still clinging to nature
- NGOs back Maldives’ ambitious plan to save Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna
- Satellites keep watch over global reef health in a world first
Amazon Conservation
- In Brazil’s most Indigenous city, prejudice and diversity go hand in hand
- With Indigenous rights at stake in Brasília, a territory is attacked in Paraty
- Illegal miners block Indigenous leaders headed to protests in Brazil’s capital
- What’s the cost of illegal mining in Brazil’s Amazon? A new tool calculates it
Land rights and extractives
- With Indigenous rights at stake in Brasília, a territory is attacked in Paraty
- Myanmar junta’s growing reliance on extractives for cash raises concerns
- Illegal logging in Philippines’ Palawan stokes fears of a mining resurgence
- Calls for independent probe after anti-mine Indonesian official dies
Endangered Environmentalists
- With Indigenous rights at stake in Brasília, a territory is attacked in Paraty
- Brazil’s Bolsonaro vowed to work with Indigenous people. Now he’s investigating them
- Intimidation of Brazil’s enviro scientists, academics, officials on upswing
- Thailand’s Indigenous Peoples fight for ‘land of our heart’ (commentary)
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- From Flores to Papua: Meet 10 of Indonesia’s mangrove guardians
- Why I stand for my tribe’s forest: It gives us food, culture, and life (commentary)
- Reforesting a village in Indonesia, one batch of gourmet beans at a time
- Restoring Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, one small farm at a time
Conservation Effectiveness
- Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?
- ‘Bad science’: Planting frenzy misses the grasslands for the trees
- A Malagasy community wins global recognition for saving its lake
- Scientists in Costa Rica are growing new corals to save reefs
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Irrigation dams threaten Thailand’s tiger forests, say conservationists
- Relocating mangroves for Indonesian highway ‘not that easy,’ expert warns
- Indonesian governor’s arrest in road project points to more tainted contracts
- Papua deforestation highlights eastward shift of Indonesia forest clearing
