Morgan Erickson-Davis

About

Morgan has been writing for Mongabay since 2008 and came on full-time in 2014. Trained in biology, Morgan has taken any available opportunity to learn more about the world, from working as a fisheries biologist aboard longliners and freighters in the South Pacific to evaluating river health in western Montana. Morgan spent eight years editing technical papers before jumping into journalism, with more than 50 manuscripts under her belt. Currently, she manages Mongabay's forests and global palm oil reporting programs.

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1066 stories
A yellowfin tuna. Image © Jeff Rotman/naturepl.com, courtesy of WWF.

Countries shorten tuna fishing closure at Pacific summit with few conservation ‘wins’

Edward Carver 12 Sep 2025
In this Sep. 26, 2017 photo released by Ibama, the Brazilian Environmental and Renewable Natural Resources Institute, members a firefighter fighta a forest fire affecting Porquinhos Indigenous lands in Maranhao state in Brazil's Amazon basin. Image by Felipe Werneck/Ibama via AP.

More than half the world’s forests fragmented in 20 years — but protection works: Study

Ruth Kamnitzer 11 Sep 2025
Black grouper at Palancar Reef, Cozumel, Mexico.

Cruise industry expansion collides with Cozumel’s coral reef

Fritz Pinnow 30 Aug 2025
A school of barracuda in the Solomon Islands, a small island developing state in the Pacific Ocean.

Climate change is driving fish stocks from countries’ waters to the high seas: Study

Edward Carver 29 Aug 2025
A green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) swims along the Great Barrier Reef off Australia.

Scientists warn ocean-based climate fixes lack rules and oversight

Edward Carver 27 Aug 2025
Sea fans in a coral reef in San Pedro, Belize. Image by Fabrice Dudenhofer / Ocean Image Bank.

Belize project seeks out heat-resilient corals to protect its reefs

Marco Lopez 19 Aug 2025
A whale shark near Ningaloo Reef off western Australia.

Whale shark hotspot discovered along the Great Barrier Reef

Edward Carver 19 Aug 2025
View of central Kampala.

From counting trees to enhancing climate resiliency, Kampala focuses on its forests

Victoria Schneider 15 Aug 2025
A barberfish (Johnrandallia nigrirostris) swimming through Pocillopora corals in Panama's Coiba National Park.

Microbiomes may be corals’ secret weapon against climate change: Study

Marlowe Starling 14 Aug 2025
A fisher casts a small fishing net to catch fish for his family outside Phnom Penh, 2024.

Displaced and dispossessed, Cambodia’s ethnic Cham fishers struggle to survive

Daniel Zak, Vutha Srey 7 Aug 2025
An Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua).

Evolution in overdrive as Baltic cod shrink due to fishing pressure, study shows

Edward Carver 18 Jul 2025
The truncate-toed chorus frog is a tree-dwelling species endemic to the Philippines with four recognized subspecies. They have expanded toe discs, called pads, on their toes.

Deforestation in the Philippines may have caused infertile hybrids of endemic frogs, study finds

Spoorthy Raman 16 Jul 2025
Paddle boarders over a coral reef in Indonesia.

Will temperate seas act as refuge for coral reefs? Not in time, study says

Edward Carver 8 Jul 2025
Squat lobsters and soft coral in the deep sea.

U.S. federal agency clears ways for deep-sea mining — and companies are lining up

Elizabeth Claire Alberts 8 Jul 2025
A brittle star (Gorgonocephalus sp.), recognizable by its numerous abundantly branched arms, attached to a white coral (Desmophyllum pertusum).

First-ever assessment highlights threats to Atlantic cold-water corals

Keith Anthony Fabro 30 Jun 2025
Fishermen releasing a sea turtle.

Peru’s new bycatch training aims to help save hooked sea turtles: Q&A with fisher Gustavo Rosales

Ana Cristina Alvarado 18 Jun 2025

In Peru, Yine women show how defending the Amazon supports local livelihoods

Geraldine Santos 18 Jun 2025

Microplastics and melting ice reveal deepening crisis in Antarctica

Soledad Domínguez 16 Jun 2025
A shortfin mako

Endangered shark trophies dominate the online wildlife trade, study finds

Spoorthy Raman 11 Jun 2025
A diver applies an amoxicillin paste to stony coral tissue loss disease-affected corals in Roatan, Honduras. The antibiotic paste can slow or halt lesion progression. Image by Antonio Busiello.

Researchers race to understand disease killing Caribbean corals at unprecedented rates

Ruth Kamnitzer 6 Jun 2025

Researchers identify 22 key areas for protecting struggling giant otters

Geraldine Santos 4 Jun 2025
Two lithodid crabs exhibiting mating behavior while perched on top of a basaltic rocky outcrop with an anemone (Liponema sp.) and a white sponge in the background.

Only a tiny % of the deep seafloor has ever been visually observed: Study

Edward Carver 30 May 2025
Residents of the village of Baraca gather at a mangrove restoration site.

Guinea-Bissau’s grassroots efforts offer a blueprint for global mangrove restoration (commentary)

Abdoulaye Ndiaye 29 May 2025

Scientists rediscover a Mexican rabbit they hadn’t seen in 120 years

Astrid Arellano 23 May 2025
A forest fire burns in Valparaíso, Chile, in February 2024. Image courtesy of the Gobierno de Chile via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0 CL)

Tropical forest loss hit new heights in 2024; fire a major driver in Latin America

Ruth Kamnitzer 21 May 2025

Study finds fast traffic noise is infuriating Galápagos warblers

Spoorthy Raman 20 May 2025
A crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis), incredulous that its habitat may be able to coexist with oil palm crops without affecting commercial productivity. Image by Alain Rival/TRAILS.

Borneo project hopes to prove that forests and oil palms can coexist

Louise Hunt 15 May 2025

Scientists warn coral restoration can’t keep pace with global reef collapse

Elizabeth Fitt 29 Apr 2025

Whales and dolphins at risk as report reveals ecological decline in Gulf of California

Astrid Arellano 25 Apr 2025
The 14 women who make up Las Chelemeras.

‘It has been worth it’: The local women saving Yucatán’s mangroves

Astrid Arellano 25 Apr 2025
A part of Putumayo rainforest showing areas of deforestation.

Armed groups, cattle ranchers drove 35% rise in Colombia’s deforestation in 2024

Antonio José Paz Cardona 18 Apr 2025
Red deer in the Rhodope Mountains, Bulgaria.

How is conservation preparing for a much hotter world? Experts share

Jeremy Hance 10 Apr 2025

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

Collage, Jahëna Louisin, Mongabay reporter, and a Vodun ritual
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Monica Montefalcone. From her social media.
Articles
Photographer Jonathan Bachman was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for capturing a photograph of Ieshia Evans being arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was Ieshia Evans first protest, and Bachman’s first time covering one. The photo was included in The New York Times’ “The Year in Pictures 2016,” among other honors. jonathan bachman / reuters. Shepard Fairey—a prolific artist and activist who often addresses social and political issues in his work—was invited by the authors of ‘Protest’ to interpret Bachman’s photograph for the book. Image credit to Shepard Fairey. Image Courtesy of Patagonia Books.
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