To save life on Earth, consult this new map
Reversing biodiversity loss, halting climate change and even preventing the emergence of new pandemics may seem like isolated objectives, but they are not. A group of scientists set out to…
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
Unprecedented sightings of maned wolves in Amazon herald a changing landscape
A mammal native to South America’s savannas, the maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) now lives in the Amazon Rainforest. That’s the finding of a recent study by researchers in the Brazilian…
Ecuador’s palm oil law a boon for producers, but not people and planet, groups say
*This article is a collaboration between Mongabay Latam and GK, Ecuador. At the beginning of June 2020, Ecuador’s National Assembly overwhelmingly passed the Oil Palm Law, officially called the…
A Chilean archipelago rivaling the Galápagos fends off invasive species
Rich in both marine and terrestrial biodiversity, Juan Fernández Archipelago National Park (PNAJF) in Chile boasts species that live nowhere else in the world. Legends abound in this remote land,…
Amazon initiative pays farmers and ranchers to keep the forest standing
Establishing economic value for the service of preserving native vegetation and creating a new source of income for rural producers. These are the objectives of Conserv, a private initiative launched…
Bottlenose dolphins could disappear from Ecuador’s Gulf of Guayaquil
* This report is a journalistic collaboration between Mongabay Latam and GK from Ecuador. Amid the swirling mix of fresh and salt water in the Gulf of Guayaquil live groups…
A million hectares ablaze as forest fires sweep through Bolivia
Forest fires in Bolivia have burned 1.4 million hectares (3.4 million acres) across the country this year, according to the government. And as in 2019, the Chiquitania and Chaco ecosystems…
Brazil art exhibition showcases an Indigenous worldview and poses questions
Four clay panthers look at visitors through glass shields. The first two, black, are the guardians of memory. The ones at the back, on pedestals, are jaguars — but they…
Surrounded by intruders, the last of Brazil’s Piripkura hold out in the Amazon
Tamandua and Baita are two of the last three remaining members of the Piripkura Indigenous people in northwest Mato Grosso state, Brazil. They’re also survivors of a massacre, increasingly being…
In Brazil’s Sooretama, a piece of the Amazon thrives in the Atlantic Forest
The forests of the Mata do Tabuleiro region in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo were once listed among Earth’s most biodiverse regions. But much of this richness has been…
Where to patrol next: ‘Netflix’ of ranger AI serves up poaching predictions
On a humid morning in 2019, Lily Xu watched as a patrolling ranger driving a motorbike down a remote forest road in Cambodia signaled his group to stop and pull…
Court allows referendum on mining in the Ecuadoran Andes to go forward
This article is a collaboration between Mongabay Latam and the digital news site GK of Ecuador. On Sept. 18 this year, the Constitutional Court of Ecuador approved a request…
Marmosets trafficked as pets now threaten native species in Atlantic forest
One of the most devastating effects of the illegal trafficking of wild animals in Brazil is the proliferation of marmosets in large urban centers. There are two species in particular…
Atlantic trends can predict Amazon drought 18 months away, study finds
For the first time, researchers have developed a model capable of anticipating drought periods in the Amazon up to 18 months in advance. The study was conducted by scientists from…
The turtle egg that pinged back: Tracing a poaching pathway in Costa Rica
Early on the morning of Sept. 16, 2018, an olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) hauled herself out of the ocean along a beach on Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula. Moving…
From the ashes of a volcano: Mexico’s Purépecha Forest
It was in Michoacán state in central-western Mexico where the so-called war against drugs began in December 2006. The state fell apart, and in the meantime, the forests were simultaneously…
Madagascar experiments with drones for its massive reforestation effort
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar — To achieve its ambitious large-scale reforestation goals, Madagascar is turning to the sky. The country will use drones to plant trees in isolated areas. The plan is…
Harvard fund evades justice in land-grabbing case over Cerrado farm
On Sept. 8, a court ruling shook up an old land conflict in Cotegipe, in the Brazilian Cerrado grasslands. That was when the 3rd Civil Chamber of the Bahia state…
Mexico: Four decades of community lessons from the forests of Durango
As July begins, the rains become an integral part of the landscape of Santiago Papasquiaro, in the northern Mexican state of Durango. For the residents of the region, this indicates…
As Brazil burns, Indigenous fire brigades face an uncertain future
Age-old Indigenous knowledge has guided the sustainable management of wilderness areas around the world: how to preserve the land, anticipating what will happen throughout the year, and adapting to how…
The social network of coral reef fish: Q&A with ecologist Mike Gil
Unless you’re thinking of the colorful characters in the movie Finding Nemo, the first word you think of for coral reef fish is probably not “social.” But after spending a…
Research links industrial pig farming and virus outbreaks
In recent months, meatpacking companies in different parts of the world have been associated with large clusters of COVID-19 infections. The Tönnies meat-processing plant in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, was temporarily…
With the help of an app, Nunavut hunters document the changing Arctic
It’s fall in Nunavut, Canada, and Richard Kakk is hunting caribou. Snow that started in September has placed him in a landscape of white, broken only by the ice-crusted slate…
Fires raze nearly half of Indigenous territories in Brazil’s Pantanal
Indigenous people say the fires “came from outside” and “destroyed everything,” including the food and medicinal plants that form an important part of their culture.
More than 470 oil spills in the Peruvian Amazon since 2000: Report
Wadson Trujillo is an environmental monitor in Cuninico, an Indigenous community in northern Peru. In 2014, he was a witness to an oil spill in which thousands of barrels of…
On a Philippine island, a tricky balancing act between development and water
When rain falls on Bantayan Island, the supply of fresh water rises. If the rains fail, it becomes scarcer. The more than 120,000 residents of Bantayan and 22 nearby islets…
Bailique: Why these islands in the Amazon Delta are falling into pieces
The Bailique Archipelago is located at the mouth of the Amazon, where the mighty river meets the Atlantic Ocean in the Brazilian state of Amapá. It comprises eight estuarine islands…
Past illegal activity dogs Chinese fleet that fished squid near Galapagos
SANTIAGO — In early June, a fleet of around 260 boats from China reached the limits of Ecuador’s exclusive economic zone around the Galápagos Islands to fish for Humboldt squid…
In Peru, self-reporting of oil spills by companies leaves an unknown toll
The first oil well in South America was built more than a century and a half ago, in the district of Zorritos, in northern Peru. Fishermen still tell the story…
New artificial intelligence could save both elephant and human lives
When the elephant arrived in the night, on the hunt for sugarcane, Uthorn Kanthong was waiting for him. Like many of his neighbors, the 69-year-old Thai farmer had taken to…
Special series
Forest trackers
- Alleged gov’t-linked land grabs threaten Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains
- Fueled by impunity, invasions surge in Brazil’s Indigenous lands
- Chinese demand and domestic instability are wiping out Senegal’s last forests
- Solomon Islands environmental defender faces life sentence for arson charge
Oceans
- ‘Tamper with nature, and everyone suffers’: Q&A with ecologist Enric Sala
- New paper highlights spread of organized crime from global fisheries
- Study: Chinese ‘dark fleets’ illegally defying sanctions by fishing in North Korean waters
- Game changer? Antarctic ice melt related to tropical weather shifts: Study
Amazon conservation
- Planned road to bisect pristine, biodiverse Brazilian Amazon national park
- French Guiana soy biofuel power plants risk massive Amazon deforestation
- Crimefighting NGO tracks Brazil wildlife trade on WhatsApp and Facebook
- The Amazon’s Yanomami utterly abandoned by Brazilian authorities: Report
Land rights and extractives
- Podcast: Indigenous land rights and the global push for land privatization
- Peruvian Indigenous groups thwart oil drilling in their territory — for now
- Years after defeating a giant gold mine, activists in Colombia still fear for their lives
- Court allows referendum on mining in the Ecuadoran Andes to go forward
Endangered environmentalists
- Indonesian fishers opposed to dredging project hit by ‘criminalization’ bid
- Life as an Amazon activist: ‘I don’t want to be the next Dorothy Stang’
- In Philippines’ Palawan, top cop linked to assault on environmental officer
- Deaths, arrests and protests as Philippines re-emerges from lockdown
Indonesias forest 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
- Indigenous Iban community defends rainforests, but awaits lands rights recognition
Conservation effectiveness
- A Malagasy community wins global recognition for saving its lake
- In mangrove restoration, custom solutions beat one-size-fits-all approach
- World’s protected areas lack connections, recent study finds
- Failure in conservation projects: Everyone experiences it, few record it
Southeast asian infrastructure
- Activists in Malaysia call on road planners to learn the lessons of history
- Road-paving project threatens a wildlife-rich reserve in Indonesia’s Papua
- Planned road projects threaten Sumatran rhino habitat, experts say
- Deforestation threatens to wipe out a primate melting pot in Indonesia
