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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/author/nainarao/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Mon, 01 Jun 2026 20:33:43 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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<image>
	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>Naina Rao, Author at Conservation news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com</link>
	<width>32</width>
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				<item>
					<title>How we tracked China’s deep-sea mining fleet</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-we-tracked-chinas-deep-sea-mining-fleet/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-we-tracked-chinas-deep-sea-mining-fleet/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2026 20:33:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire AlbertsKara Fox]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/01160549/Model_of_Jiaolong_submersible_at_the_Five-Year_Achievements_Exhibition_-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320430</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Cook Islands, Pacific Ocean, Taiwan, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Critical Minerals, Deep Sea Mining, Energy, Environment, Marine, Marine Conservation, Military, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Oceans, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A version of this story was originally published by the Pulitzer Center, which supported Elizabeth Claire Alberts as an Ocean Reporting Network fellow. We didn’t set out to investigate China’s deep-sea mining fleet, but as our research into the burgeoning industry developed over our yearlong partnership, it became clear that an investigation into the fleet’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A version of this story was originally published by the Pulitzer Center, which supported Elizabeth Claire Alberts as an Ocean Reporting Network fellow. We didn’t set out to investigate China’s deep-sea mining fleet, but as our research into the burgeoning industry developed over our yearlong partnership, it became clear that an investigation into the fleet’s alleged military dual use was emerging as an important, untold story. Shortly after we embarked on our joint project, geopolitics around the deep-sea mining landscape began to shift dramatically. In February 2025, China signed an agreement with the Cook Islands government to collaborate on deep-sea mining research and exploration. At the same time, it was pursuing a similar deal with the archipelago nation of Kiribati, marking a notable expansion of Chinese influence in the Pacific. China holds the largest number of exploration contracts issued by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the U.N.-affiliated deep-sea mining regulator, and is also its biggest financial contributor. It also operates the world’s largest oceanographic research fleet. Against this backdrop, we kept returning to a central question: was China’s pursuit of deep-sea mining driven solely for accessing mineral resources, or was it also shaped by broader geopolitical strategy? Through extensive reporting, we learned that China’s interest in seabed mining was motivated by both of these things, and that some of its vessels were engaged in both deep-sea mining work and militarily strategic surveillance. Meanwhile, deep-sea mining efforts have been gathering pace in the United States. In March 2025, The Metals Company,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-we-tracked-chinas-deep-sea-mining-fleet/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Shark Meat Nation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2026/06/shark-meat-nation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2026/06/shark-meat-nation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2026 18:27:33 +0000</pubDate>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alejandroprescottcornejo]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/27124306/tubarao-azul_Prionace-glauca_banco-de-imagens_2025-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=specials&#038;p=320444</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Health, Marine Animals, Meat, Mercury, Overfishing, and Sharks]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Brazil is the world’s largest consumer and importer of shark meat. But it’s not just restaurants and grocery stores — a Mongabay investigation found that the country’s government agencies have purchased thousands of tons of shark meat to serve in schools, hospitals, prisons, military bases, homeless shelters and other public institutions. The findings raise serious [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Brazil is the world’s largest consumer and importer of shark meat. But it’s not just restaurants and grocery stores — a Mongabay investigation found that the country’s government agencies have purchased thousands of tons of shark meat to serve in schools, hospitals, prisons, military bases, homeless shelters and other public institutions. The findings raise serious environmental and public health concerns because sharks are widely overfished and their meat tends to be high in heavy metals like mercury and arsenic.This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2026/06/shark-meat-nation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2026/06/shark-meat-nation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Brooklyn Rivera, defender of Nicaragua’s Indigenous lands, dies in detention</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2026 16:19:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/01190642/Brooklyn-Rivera-La-Prensa-1600x900-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320434</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, Mesoamerica, and Nicaragua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Endangered Environmentalists, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, and Obituary]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[La Moskitia, on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, is often treated in Managua as a frontier: timber, gold, cattle, rivers, votes, and military concern. To the Miskitu, Sumu-Mayangna, Rama, Garífuna, and Creole peoples who live there, it is older than the Nicaraguan state. Its forests, savannas, rivers, and marine life are part of a political claim as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[La Moskitia, on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, is often treated in Managua as a frontier: timber, gold, cattle, rivers, votes, and military concern. To the Miskitu, Sumu-Mayangna, Rama, Garífuna, and Creole peoples who live there, it is older than the Nicaraguan state. Its forests, savannas, rivers, and marine life are part of a political claim as well as a homeland. The demand has long been plain enough: land, autonomy, and a say over what happens there. Brooklyn Rivera Bryan spent most of his life carrying that demand into war, negotiation, electoral politics, exile, and prison. Known in Miskitu communities as Taupla Brooklyn, he died on May 30th, aged 73, in the custody of Daniel Ortega’s government. He had been detained since September 2023. For months the government denied holding him. It later acknowledged his imprisonment. No public trial was held. His family was denied visits. His public life began after the Sandinista revolution of 1979, when the new government sought to draw the Atlantic Coast into a national project directed from the Pacific. The Miskitu experience of that project was marked by surveillance, arrests, violence, and forced displacement. In 1981 Rivera was arrested while leading Misurasata, an Indigenous organization whose name linked the Miskitu, Sumu, Rama, and Sandinistas. By 1982, thousands of Miskitu had been moved from villages along the Río Coco. Many fled to Honduras. Rivera’s cause was narrower and more durable than the Cold War frame around him: an autonomous Indigenous territory in Yapti Tasba, the aboriginal homeland. That&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>Europe removes record number of dams in 2025 to restore rivers, help species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/europe-removes-record-number-of-dams-in-2025-to-restore-rivers-help-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/europe-removes-record-number-of-dams-in-2025-to-restore-rivers-help-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2026 16:01:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Bobbybascomb]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/01155756/1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=320438</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Dams, Freshwater, Freshwater Animals, Freshwater Ecosystems, Freshwater Fish, Rivers, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A massive slab of wartime concrete blocked the Pčinja River in Kumanovo, North Macedonia for more than 70 years. A 53-meter-long and 30-meter-wide (174 by 98 feet) structure of reinforced concrete packed with salvaged railway steel impeded the free flow of water and fish for at least 70 kilometers (44 miles) upstream. It was considered [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A massive slab of wartime concrete blocked the Pčinja River in Kumanovo, North Macedonia for more than 70 years. A 53-meter-long and 30-meter-wide (174 by 98 feet) structure of reinforced concrete packed with salvaged railway steel impeded the free flow of water and fish for at least 70 kilometers (44 miles) upstream. It was considered a safety hazard by the local Shuplji Kamen community. In late 2025, the barrier was demolished after efforts by the nation’s Eko-svest environmental organization. It was the first large-scale removal of its type in North Macedonia. It was also one of 603 obsolete river barriers, including dams, weirs and culverts, removed from European rivers in 2025, according to the 2025 Dam Removal Europe report. Researchers estimated removing those objects reconnected more than 3,740 km (2,324 miles) of rivers across the continent, a new single year record for dam removal in Europe. “Barrier removal [is] one of the biggest ecological ‘easy wins’ available today,” Chris Baker, director of Wetlands International Europe (WIE) wrote in a statement. “These obsolete barriers no longer provide any benefits, yet they continue to degrade rivers.&#8221; According to WIE, there are roughly 1.2 million barriers in place today that fragment Europe’s rivers, of them more than 150,000 are “considered obsolete.” Since 2020, nearly 2,300 dams have been removed across Europe, mostly in Sweden, Finland and Spain. Iceland, along with North Macedonia, carried out its first removal in 2025. Iceland removed an old hydroelectric dam that was no longer in use. The barrier&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/europe-removes-record-number-of-dams-in-2025-to-restore-rivers-help-species/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>In Brazil, a project paying farmers for forests is looking to scale up</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-brazil-a-project-paying-farmers-for-forests-is-looking-to-scale-up/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-brazil-a-project-paying-farmers-for-forests-is-looking-to-scale-up/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2026 11:01:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Agriculture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carbon Emissions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation Solutions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Farming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Happy-upbeat Environmental]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nature-based climate solutions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Payments For Ecosystem Services]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/01104033/10895990-3d53-4c9b-99ef-0ed67f41bc96-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320294</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Amazon Conservation, Avoided Deforestation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Ecosystem Services Payments, Farming, Nature-based climate solutions, Payments For Ecosystem Services, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Landowner Carlos Roberto Simonetti gets three harvests per year from the corn, soy and cotton plantations on his 17,000-hectare (about 42,000 acres) farm called Fazenda Natureza Feliz, or Happy Nature, in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. Over the course of four years, he would also get what he calls a fourth harvest, this time [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Landowner Carlos Roberto Simonetti gets three harvests per year from the corn, soy and cotton plantations on his 17,000-hectare (about 42,000 acres) farm called Fazenda Natureza Feliz, or Happy Nature, in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. Over the course of four years, he would also get what he calls a fourth harvest, this time from the forested areas of his property, located where the Cerrado savanna meets the Amazon Rainforest. That’s because Simonetti would receive regular payments for protecting native vegetation beyond what the law requires, as part of a pilot project for payment for ecosystem services (PES) run by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), an NGO, in the states of Mato Grosso and Pará. The program, called CONSERV, gives landowners financial incentives to keep the forest standing even in areas which they are legally allowed to clear. The pilot project, which initially ran between 2020 and 2024 on 23 different properties, protected 20,707 hectares (about 51,170 acres) of land in the Cerrado and Amazon biomes with funding from the governments of Norway and The Netherlands. Ongoing contracts funded by Soft Commodities Forum members – agribusiness companies committed to preserving the Cerrado – are protecting a further 7,000 hectares (about 17,300 acres) in the states of Mato Grosso and Maranhão. IPAM is now seeking to scale up the program without relying on donations. The risk of legal deforestation The idea for CONSERV goes back to 2016, when an internal IPAM report calculated that around 1.5 million hectares (3.7&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-brazil-a-project-paying-farmers-for-forests-is-looking-to-scale-up/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>The global trafficking ring preying on a rare golden monkey from Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-global-trafficking-ring-preying-on-a-rare-golden-monkey-from-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-global-trafficking-ring-preying-on-a-rare-golden-monkey-from-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2026 10:15:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda WenzelMarco Mantovani]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/01150425/1.-photo_togo_traffic_CREDIT_EAGLE-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320300</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Brazil, India, Latin America, South America, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Birds, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Illegal Trade, India-wildlife, Law, Mammals, Monkeys, Primates, Wildlife Conservation, Wildlife Crime, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Smuggled in cars, aboard airplanes, or on sailboats crossing the Atlantic Ocean, tiny golden-furred monkeys are being wrenched from their Brazilian forest homes and trafficked overseas by sophisticated criminal networks. These golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia) are moved through Latin America and Africa, with strong indications that they are bound for the Asian black market. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Smuggled in cars, aboard airplanes, or on sailboats crossing the Atlantic Ocean, tiny golden-furred monkeys are being wrenched from their Brazilian forest homes and trafficked overseas by sophisticated criminal networks. These golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia) are moved through Latin America and Africa, with strong indications that they are bound for the Asian black market. Collectors are willing to pay as much as $100,000 for this friendly animal, which is one of Brazil’s conservation symbols. Some of the tamarins die before reaching their destination. Those that survive may end their journey emaciated, sick and sometimes, mutilated. “It is frightening in the sense that [tamarin trafficking] is a threat we believed was relatively under control,” said Luis Paulo Ferraz, executive secretary of the Golden Lion Tamarin Association (AMLD), which has led an international effort to preserve the species since the 1990s. In recent years, his team has increasingly encountered people venturing deep into the forests of Rio de Janeiro state to capture these animals. “Our field team started coming face to face with these guys, to the point that I became deeply concerned about having my staff working in areas where criminals were operating.” The golden lion tamarin, featured on Brazil’s 20-real banknote, drew the attention of the Brazilian Federal Police in 2023 after seven of these monkeys and 29 Lear’s macaws (Anodorhynchus leari), another species native to Brazil, were seized at a captive facility in neighboring Suriname. In February 2024, authorities in Togo were startled to find the same two&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-global-trafficking-ring-preying-on-a-rare-golden-monkey-from-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>Global sand demand is outpacing nature&#8217;s ability to replenish it, UN says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/global-sand-demand-is-outpacing-natures-ability-to-replenish-it-un-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/global-sand-demand-is-outpacing-natures-ability-to-replenish-it-un-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2026 04:46:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Naina Rao]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/01044535/Gezerasph-Sao-Miguel_Sao-Paulo-Brazil-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=320384</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Coastal Ecosystems, Dredging, Environment, Erosion, Fish, Fishing, Freshwater Ecosystems, Governance, Infrastructure, Mining, Rivers, Supply Chain, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The global sand mining industry removes around 50 billion metric tons of material each year, outpacing the rate at which sand replenishes through the slow geological processes of weathering, reports Mongabay’s Carolyn Cowan. According to a report by the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), the demand for sand is expected to grow by 45% by 2060 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[The global sand mining industry removes around 50 billion metric tons of material each year, outpacing the rate at which sand replenishes through the slow geological processes of weathering, reports Mongabay’s Carolyn Cowan. According to a report by the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), the demand for sand is expected to grow by 45% by 2060 for the building sector alone. Pascal Peduzzi, director of UNEP&#8217;s GRID-Geneva program, described sand as the “unrecognized hero of development” in a press release. But he added that its role in sustaining biodiversity and vulnerable coastal communities is frequently overlooked. “Sand is our first line of defence against sea level rise, storm surges, and salination of coastal aquifers — all hazards exacerbated by climate change,” he said. The impacts of this unsustainable sand extraction are particularly visible in Southeast Asia, which serves as a global epicenter for supply and demand. The report highlights how large-scale land reclamations and urban development projects have led to irreversible river erosion, coastal degradation, and the loss of local livelihoods. In the Philippines, for example, dredging for a new airport displaced 700 families and damaged critical fishing grounds. Similarly, sand mining in the Mekong River has caused riverbank collapses and reduced wet-season flows into Cambodia&#8217;s Tonle Sap Lake. Despite these consequences, the UNEP report notes that governance of sand resources remains fragmented and driven by short-term economic gains while long-term environmental and social costs accumulate. The report calls for an overhaul of industry processes, urging governments to adopt “national and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/global-sand-demand-is-outpacing-natures-ability-to-replenish-it-un-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>Intense heat during Mecca&#8217;s spring threatens millions of Hajj pilgrims</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/intense-heat-during-meccas-spring-threatens-millions-of-hajj-pilgrims/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/intense-heat-during-meccas-spring-threatens-millions-of-hajj-pilgrims/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2026 03:02:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Naina Rao]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/01030126/The_Kaaba_during_Hajj11-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=320381</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Middle East, and Saudi Arabia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Climate Change And Extreme Weather, Extreme Weather, greenhouse gases, Heatwave, Religions, Temperatures, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As millions of Muslims gather for the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, a new scientific analysis warned the &#8220;safe window&#8221; for the event is shrinking, with increased risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke due to human-induced climate change. The report was released by the World Weather Attribution (WWA), an initiative that analyses the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As millions of Muslims gather for the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, a new scientific analysis warned the &#8220;safe window&#8221; for the event is shrinking, with increased risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke due to human-induced climate change. The report was released by the World Weather Attribution (WWA), an initiative that analyses the role of climate change in extreme weather events. The Hajj follows the Islamic lunar calendar, which is 10-15 days shorter than the more commonly used solar Gregorian calendar. This means dates of the Hajj shift earlier each year. Historically, the month of May in Saudi Arabia had milder temperatures compared to the summer months of June to September. Researchers from the WWA found May temperatures in Mecca now mirror the intense summer heat typical of the 1980s. Climate change has led to average May temperatures in Mecca surging by roughly 3.5°Celsius (6.3°Fahrenheit) compared to a pre-industrial climate, before the accelerated release of human-triggered greenhouse gases. Peak temperatures for May are now about 2°C (3.6°F ) hotter. “Climate change has once again shown us that expectations based on a climate that no longer exists can be thrown out of the window,” report co-author Clair Barnes , a research associate at Imperial College London, said in a statement. “Our analysis shows very clearly that less of the year is now safe for the millions of Muslims who wish to undertake the Hajj.” The risks are acute for pilgrims who spend 20 to 30 hours outdoors, often walking long&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/intense-heat-during-meccas-spring-threatens-millions-of-hajj-pilgrims/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>27 Moon Bears rescued from illegal Laos bile farm</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/27-moon-bears-rescued-from-illegal-laos-bile-farm/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/27-moon-bears-rescued-from-illegal-laos-bile-farm/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2026 02:39:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Naina Rao]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/01023847/27-bears-saved-from-illegal-bile-farm_Free-the-bears3-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=320379</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Laos, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bears, Conservation, Illegal Trade, Mammals, Wildlife, Wildlife Conservation, Wildlife Crime, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In what was described as the largest bear farm rescue in Southeast Asia, authorities in Laos in conjunction with the international NGO Free the Bears freed 27 Asiatic black bears from a foreign-owned illegal bear bile farm in Laos. All 27 rescued bears were transferred to the Luang Prabang Wildlife Sanctuary, operated by Free the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In what was described as the largest bear farm rescue in Southeast Asia, authorities in Laos in conjunction with the international NGO Free the Bears freed 27 Asiatic black bears from a foreign-owned illegal bear bile farm in Laos. All 27 rescued bears were transferred to the Luang Prabang Wildlife Sanctuary, operated by Free the Bears, the organization said in a press release. “No animal should endure such cruelty,” Matt Hunt, Free the Bears CEO, said in a statement. “And we’re so glad we can now bring these 27 bears to the safety of our sanctuary where they can join more than 150 other bears rescued over the past 23 years.” The NGO said the bear bile facility was owned and operated by a Chinese national and was registered as a zoo to evade regulatory oversight, while operating as a commercial bile extraction site. During the raid, rescuers discovered infrastructure designed to hold up to 200 bears, suggesting a planned industrial-scale expansion that was thwarted. The rescued bears, aged between 1 and 3, are believed to have been poached from the wild as cubs, the NGO said. Bear bile farms across Southeast Asia often keep Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus), sometimes referred to as moon bears, in tiny cages, where their bile is extracted from their gallbladders for use in traditional medicine. “However, much of the use of bear products appears to be based more on traditions and beliefs than on actual medicinal values,” Chris Shepherd, senior conservation advocate for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/27-moon-bears-rescued-from-illegal-laos-bile-farm/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Nature’s feedback loops can drive collapse. Thomas Crowther thinks they can also drive recovery</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/natures-feedback-loops-can-drive-collapse-thomas-crowther-thinks-they-can-also-drive-recovery/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/natures-feedback-loops-can-drive-collapse-thomas-crowther-thinks-they-can-also-drive-recovery/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2026 00:55:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/12020804/thomas-crowther-13-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319071</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioacoustics, Bioacoustics and conservation, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Environment, Forests, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Technology, Technology And Conservation, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Thomas Crowther’s career has been shaped by large claims about small things. A seed, a patch of soil, a soundscape, a moment of fear, a local restoration project: each, in his telling, can become part of a larger system of cause and effect. His new book, Nature’s Echo, is built around that idea. Feedback loops, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Thomas Crowther’s career has been shaped by large claims about small things. A seed, a patch of soil, a soundscape, a moment of fear, a local restoration project: each, in his telling, can become part of a larger system of cause and effect. His new book, Nature’s Echo, is built around that idea. Feedback loops, he argues, are not just a feature of ecology. They are among the forces that formed stars, spread life across Earth, drive climate change, and may yet help repair damaged ecosystems. Crowther, a British ecologist, became one of the best-known figures in global ecology while at ETH Zurich, where he founded the Crowther Lab and built a large interdisciplinary research group. His work helped popularize the idea that ecosystem restoration could play a major role in addressing climate change, especially after a 2019 Science paper on the potential for additional tree cover drew worldwide attention, as well as criticism from scientists who warned against simplistic tree-planting narratives. His work also helped give rise to the World Economic Forum’s Trillion Trees initiative, and he has served as co-chair of the advisory board to the U.N. Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. He is also the founder of Restor, an open-data platform that connects conservation and restoration initiatives around the world. Screenshot of the Restor interface. That public profile has made Crowther both influential and contested. In 2024 he was also at the center of a dispute over his departure from ETH Zurich. The university said its decision followed&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/natures-feedback-loops-can-drive-collapse-thomas-crowther-thinks-they-can-also-drive-recovery/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Davis “Yellowash” Washines, Yakama elder who spoke for the river and salmon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/davis-yellowash-washines-yakama-elder-who-spoke-for-the-river-and-salmon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/davis-yellowash-washines-yakama-elder-who-spoke-for-the-river-and-salmon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 May 2026 14:35:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/30143156/Davis-Yellowash-Washines-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320347</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America, United States, and Washington]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Fish, Fishing, Indigenous Culture, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Obituary, Rivers, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At Bradford Island, near Bonneville Dam, the river carried more than water. Beneath the surface of the Columbia were toxic sediments, dumped near a place where Yakama people had fished since time immemorial. To officials, it was a cleanup site. To the Yakama Nation, it was a usual and accustomed fishing place, protected by treaty. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At Bradford Island, near Bonneville Dam, the river carried more than water. Beneath the surface of the Columbia were toxic sediments, dumped near a place where Yakama people had fished since time immemorial. To officials, it was a cleanup site. To the Yakama Nation, it was a usual and accustomed fishing place, protected by treaty. To Davis Washines, known to many as Yellowash, it was also a crime scene. The victims, he said, were first the water, then the salmon and other life that depended on it, and then the people who depended on them. He did not speak that way for emphasis. He spoke from a life spent moving between law enforcement, ceremony, public service, and the river. Evidence mattered to him. So did harm, responsibility, and the obligations carried through Yakama law, culture, and memory. Yellowash died on May 1st, at his home in White Swan, Washington. He was 74. By then he had held many titles: Yakama Tribal Police chief, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission police chief, member of the Yakama Tribal Council, chairman of the Yakama Nation General Council, government relations liaison in the Yakama Nation Department of Natural Resources, trustee, board chair, counselor, teacher, and ceremonial leader. The titles marked a long public life. They did not fully describe it. He began that life in public service in 1973 with the Yakama Tribal Police Department and rose to chief in 1986. He later returned to that role, and then became chief of police for the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/davis-yellowash-washines-yakama-elder-who-spoke-for-the-river-and-salmon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Hidden ‘bubble cave’ may help world’s rarest seal steer clear of humans: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/hidden-bubble-cave-may-help-worlds-rarest-seal-steer-clear-of-humans-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/hidden-bubble-cave-may-help-worlds-rarest-seal-steer-clear-of-humans-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 May 2026 06:45:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Megan Strauss]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/30034826/20260512_on_seals_bubble_caves_lede-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=320342</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, Greece, and Mediterranean Sea]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Green, Habitat, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Biodiversity, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On the Greek islet of Formicula, researchers have found rare Mediterranean monk seals will take refuge in an air-filled “bubble cave,” according to a recent study. This type of hidden chamber, accessible via underwater passages, allows the seals to breathe, and possibly hide from tourists, the researchers said. Mediterranean monk seals (Monachus monachus), the world’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On the Greek islet of Formicula, researchers have found rare Mediterranean monk seals will take refuge in an air-filled “bubble cave,” according to a recent study. This type of hidden chamber, accessible via underwater passages, allows the seals to breathe, and possibly hide from tourists, the researchers said. Mediterranean monk seals (Monachus monachus), the world’s rarest pinniped, are the only seals found in the Mediterranean Sea. Fewer than 1,000 of them remain, according to the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority.     Historically, these seals hauled out on open coastal beaches to rest, molt and give birth to pups. But with increasing human disturbance from tourism, fishing and land development, they retreated to marine caves along the Mediterranean coastline to rest and breed. Study lead author Joan Gonzalvo of the Ionian Dolphin Project at the Tethys Research Institute in Italy described the “ideal cave” to Mongabay as one with a pool, a dry beach for hauling out, an entrance corridor and protection from adverse weather and choppy seas. Typically, these caves are accessible by entrances above or below water level. During a habitat assessment in the Inner Ionian Sea Archipelago, the team was setting up a camera to monitor one of these “comfortable” marine caves on Formicula when they discovered that an underwater corridor connected to it led to a second smaller chamber. This “bubble cave” had water and a pocket of air on top, but no dry beach or platform to haul out. The team placed an underwater camera in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/hidden-bubble-cave-may-help-worlds-rarest-seal-steer-clear-of-humans-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>What is happening to Thailand’s famous giant nets</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/video/2026/05/what-is-happening-to-thailands-famous-giant-nets/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/video/2026/05/what-is-happening-to-thailands-famous-giant-nets/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 May 2026 06:13:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lucia Torres]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sam Lee]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/29121038/Mongabay_Featured_YoYak-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=videos&#038;p=320279</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Culture, Fishing, Indigenous Culture, Pollution, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SONGKHLA LAKE, Thailand — Jampen tends her Yo Yak lift nets and grandkids amid vanishing Luk Bre fish. As pollution threatens this ancestral tradition, villagers join researchers to build fish shelters, map routes with GIS, and innovate processing. Can local wisdom and science revive a fading way of life? Mongabay’s Video Team wants to cover [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SONGKHLA LAKE, Thailand — Jampen tends her Yo Yak lift nets and grandkids amid vanishing Luk Bre fish. As pollution threatens this ancestral tradition, villagers join researchers to build fish shelters, map routes with GIS, and innovate processing. Can local wisdom and science revive a fading way of life? Mongabay’s Video Team wants to cover questions and topics that matter to you. Are there any inspiring people, urgent issues, or local stories that you’d like us to cover? We want to hear from you. Be a part of our reporting process—get in touch with us here! Banner image: Yo Yak at Songkhla Lake, Thailand. ©Thomas Cristofoletti. These tiny houses are designed to stand in extreme floodsThis article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/video/2026/05/what-is-happening-to-thailands-famous-giant-nets/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>‘People kept dying’: Interview with Dr. Macky Mbavugha on DRC’s latest Ebola outbreak</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/people-kept-dying-interview-with-dr-macky-mbavugha-on-drcs-latest-ebola-outbreak/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/people-kept-dying-interview-with-dr-macky-mbavugha-on-drcs-latest-ebola-outbreak/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2026 19:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/29142534/AP26135299264877-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320317</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and East Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Diseases, Ebola, Economics, Environment, Gold Mining, Governance, Government, Health, Planetary Health, Public Health, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On May 28, 2026, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, sent an open letter to the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo before traveling to the country for a field visit: “I am writing because I want to be with you in these moments. And I want you to know [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On May 28, 2026, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, sent an open letter to the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo before traveling to the country for a field visit: “I am writing because I want to be with you in these moments. And I want you to know that you are not alone,” he wrote, before recalling his involvement during the deadly Ebola outbreak that struck the northeastern DRC between 2018 and 2020. Since May 15, the country has been facing a new outbreak, this time caused by the Bundibugyo variant, a strain of the disease for which there is currently neither treatment nor vaccine. Since the outbreak was declared, the death toll has continued to rise. According to the latest figures, DRC authorities recorded 121 confirmed cases with 17 confirmed deaths, as well as more than 1,077 suspected cases and 238 suspected deaths. The hemorrhagic fever first emerged in Ituri province, on the border with Uganda, before spreading to North Kivu province and to Uganda. That prompted Uganda to close its border with the DRC. While Ituri remains the worst-hit province, the risk of regional spread is high. On May 23, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) identified 10 other African countries at risk from this Ebola outbreak: Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Zambia. As a result, the international response is intensifying. Dr. Macky Mbavugha is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/people-kept-dying-interview-with-dr-macky-mbavugha-on-drcs-latest-ebola-outbreak/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Sri Lanka flamingo deaths raise concerns over power infrastructure in wetlands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/sri-lanka-flamingo-deaths-raise-concerns-over-power-infrastructure-in-wetlands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/sri-lanka-flamingo-deaths-raise-concerns-over-power-infrastructure-in-wetlands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2026 16:25:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/29131953/655002404_1516429923470661_2300597700715772004_n-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320298</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, India, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Development, Energy, Environment, Governance, Habitat Destruction, Habitat Loss, Migration, Poaching, Pollution, Tourism, Wetlands, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MANNAR, Sri Lanka — Each year, the arrival of greater flamingos transforms the lagoons of northern Sri Lanka into a mesmerizing spectacle of pale pink and white. Their synchronized movements across the shallow waters of Mannar attract birdwatchers, photographers, tourists and nature lovers from around the country and abroad. But behind this beauty lies a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MANNAR, Sri Lanka — Each year, the arrival of greater flamingos transforms the lagoons of northern Sri Lanka into a mesmerizing spectacle of pale pink and white. Their synchronized movements across the shallow waters of Mannar attract birdwatchers, photographers, tourists and nature lovers from around the country and abroad. But behind this beauty lies a growing crisis. Recently, three flamingos were killed in Mannar after a collision with overhead power lines that crossed their flight path. Initial reports suggested electrocution, but according to Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) veterinary surgeon Balachandran Giritharan, who conducted the necropsies, the birds were not electrocuted. Instead, their long necks were slashed mid-flight when they struck the cables. The incident has renewed concerns among conservationists who have previously warned against energy infrastructure cutting across sensitive wetland habitats such as Vankalai Sanctuary, another Ramsar wetland in Mannar. Environmentalists had identified large waterbirds such as flamingos as being vulnerable to collisions. The latest flamingo deaths also add to the mounting environmental concerns surrounding development projects, particularly in Mannar, including proposed wind power projects. The issue drew international attention after the withdrawal of developer Adani Green Energy Limited (AGEL) from a disputed wind power project in Sri Lanka earlier this year. The Mannar region, with its strategic wind resources, has increasingly become a battleground between renewable energy expansion and biodiversity conservation. Flamingos are more vulnerable to collisions with power cables during dusk and early morning hours. Image courtesy of Indika Jayathissa. A global threat to flamingos Across the world,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/sri-lanka-flamingo-deaths-raise-concerns-over-power-infrastructure-in-wetlands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>IMF lending programs linked with deforestation should be rethought (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/imf-lending-programs-causing-deforestation-should-be-rethought-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/imf-lending-programs-causing-deforestation-should-be-rethought-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2026 15:34:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kevin P. GallagherRishikesh Ram BhandaryTimon Forster]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/23151222/kalbar_drone_190742-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320324</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Community Development, Deforestation, Development, Environmental Policy, Finance, Forests, Governance, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Research, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The price of financial stability should not be environmental destruction. Yet when countries turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help, their forests may quietly suffer. The IMF is currently reviewing the design of its lending programs, and it is time for change. Its recipe for getting economies back on track often features required [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The price of financial stability should not be environmental destruction. Yet when countries turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help, their forests may quietly suffer. The IMF is currently reviewing the design of its lending programs, and it is time for change. Its recipe for getting economies back on track often features required reforms such as cutting government expenditure, increasing revenue collection through taxes or utility tariff increases, winding down public ownership of state-owned enterprises and encouraging the private sector to step up: austerity in other words. These policies are meant to restore stability in times of crisis, but growing evidence shows that IMF programs often fall short in helping countries break out of the cycle of economic and financial distress. Instead, they can trigger collateral damage in the form of negative health outcomes, worsened poverty and inequality and eroded social protection. Image by Forster et al., 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Our new research provides evidence that these programs also have an important and often overlooked environmental dimension, revealing that countries experience 9.2% higher annual tree cover loss during years in which they are under an IMF program. In a typical three-year IMF program, this amounts to forest loss the size of Barbados. This finding comes as no surprise as IMF programs are known to generally cut government spending, and environmental protections are often the first to go. These conditions that come in exchange for financial assistance are a major shortcoming when it comes to effects on forests,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/imf-lending-programs-causing-deforestation-should-be-rethought-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>As African cities heat up, a new book argues trees are part of the solution</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/as-african-cities-heat-up-a-new-book-argues-trees-are-part-of-the-solution/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/as-african-cities-heat-up-a-new-book-argues-trees-are-part-of-the-solution/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2026 15:25:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/29135532/My_city_kigali-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320302</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Kenya, and Rwanda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Cities, Climate, Climate Science, Earth Science, Environment, Governance, Government, Protected Areas, Sea Levels, Trees, and Urbanization]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A newly released book documenting urban forestry efforts across Africa argues that trees and green spaces are no longer a luxury for African cities, but a critical response to climate change, biodiversity loss, and urban inequality. Published by Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo (JCPZ), Urban Forests and Green Spaces in Africa: Case Studies and Lessons [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A newly released book documenting urban forestry efforts across Africa argues that trees and green spaces are no longer a luxury for African cities, but a critical response to climate change, biodiversity loss, and urban inequality. Published by Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo (JCPZ), Urban Forests and Green Spaces in Africa: Case Studies and Lessons from Across the Continent brings together 34 case studies from 14 African countries, covering everything from restoring biodiversity around wetlands in Rwanda’s capital Kigali, creating Miyawaki forests (forests with native trees planted closely together) in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, greening heat-stressed neighborhoods in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, transplanting baobabs in Senegal to rehabilitating degraded urban land in South Africa. Hot days, hot nights, and heatwaves have become more frequent across Africa, concludes the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s most authoritative scientific assessment on climate change. The report also finds that coastal cities are vulnerable to floods related to rainfall events and sea level rise. Palm-lined trees provide near-continuous canopy cover along a boulevard in Bahir Dar, the capital of Ethiopia’s Amhara region. The book notes that canopy closure along some of the city’s main streets approaches 100%, making Bahir Dar one of the most heavily treed urban centers in Africa. Image courtesy of Cathy Watson/CIFOR-ICRAF. As African cities experience rising temperatures, worsening floods, biodiversity loss, and rapid urbanization, the book argues that urban forests and green infrastructure are essential tools for climate resilience. Beyond storing carbon, trees and green spaces&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/as-african-cities-heat-up-a-new-book-argues-trees-are-part-of-the-solution/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Report alleges élite ties behind logging permits in Cameroon’s Ebo Forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/report-alleges-elite-ties-behind-logging-permits-in-cameroons-ebo-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/report-alleges-elite-ties-behind-logging-permits-in-cameroons-ebo-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2026 14:46:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/10143029/Footage-of-a-male-and-a-baby-gorilla-in-the-ebo-forest-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320290</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Apes, Biodiversity, Community Forests, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Development, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Logging, Primary Forests, Rainforest Conservation, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A newly released report alleges that well-placed elites in Cameroon’s government are enabling a cluster of timber and agribusiness companies to log primary forest in the country. These companies include Sextransbois, which was awarded a controversial 68,000-hectare (168,000-acre) logging concession in the Ebo Forest in 2023. The report by Swiss-based advocacy group Global Initiative Against [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A newly released report alleges that well-placed elites in Cameroon’s government are enabling a cluster of timber and agribusiness companies to log primary forest in the country. These companies include Sextransbois, which was awarded a controversial 68,000-hectare (168,000-acre) logging concession in the Ebo Forest in 2023. The report by Swiss-based advocacy group Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) also named SCIEB, which controls another concession in the Ebo Forest covering 65,000 hectares (161,000 acres). The report used corporate registry documents, trade records, and sources in Cameroon’s forestry sector to link both companies, along with Boiscam and Camvert, to prominent businessman Aboubakar Al Fatih. According to an “informal broker” who has worked to connect logging companies with forestry officials and was interviewed by GI-TOC, Al Fatih’s companies have benefitted from his ties to the minister of economy, Alamine Ousmane Mey. Mey is considered an ally of Cameroonian President Paul Biya’s eldest son Franck, who reportedly recommended him for a cabinet post in 2011. Sextransbois was incorporated by relatives of Franck Biya’s in 2014, before being transferred to then-20-year-old Mahmoud Mourtada, Al Fatih’s half-brother. The report implies that Al Fatih&#8217;s connections to figures in Franck Biya’s circle helped Sextransbois and SCIEB obtain their concessions in the Ebo Forest. Those concessions were awarded despite a global campaign to protect the forest, which is a biodiversity-rich habitat for threatened gorillas and chimpanzees. After initially walking back its decision to reclassify the forest as government land in 2020, the government quietly reissued the two&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/report-alleges-elite-ties-behind-logging-permits-in-cameroons-ebo-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>The new burden of proving wildlife is real</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/the-new-burden-of-proving-wildlife-is-real/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/the-new-burden-of-proving-wildlife-is-real/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2026 13:34:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/29125247/AI-GENERATED-IMAGE-16X9-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=320291</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Journalism, Ethics, Green, Journalism, Podcast, Technology, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Conservation journalists are facing a new issue: AI-generated wildlife imagery. The issue is not just that fake images exist. That has long been true. What has changed is how convincing synthetic wildlife photos and videos have become, how [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Conservation journalists are facing a new issue: AI-generated wildlife imagery. The issue is not just that fake images exist. That has long been true. What has changed is how convincing synthetic wildlife photos and videos have become, how cheaply they can be made, and how quickly they can spread. A clip can move through Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok, or even LinkedIn before anyone has checked whether it shows a real animal, a real place, or a real event. That matters because wildlife images carry an implicit claim. A photograph of a rare animal, a camera-trap still, or a video of unusual behavior usually tells the viewer: this happened. As generative AI improves, that assumption needs more scrutiny. The risks are not theoretical. False videos of animal attacks can deepen fear in places where human-wildlife conflict is already difficult to manage. Fabricated images of wild animals behaving like pets can feed demand for the exotic pet trade. Misleading footage of rare species can absorb the time of researchers, journalists, NGOs, and public agencies that have to determine whether an event actually occurred. It also changes the work of newsrooms. At Mongabay, we now spend more time looking at sourcing, provenance, metadata, reverse-image searches, forensic tools, and whether a photographer, researcher, or institution is known and trusted. AI detectors can occasionally help in some cases, but they cannot settle the question. False positives and false negatives&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/the-new-burden-of-proving-wildlife-is-real/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>For Honduran coffee growers, EUDR compliance means changing old habits</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/for-honduran-coffee-growers-eudr-compliance-means-changing-old-habits/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/for-honduran-coffee-growers-eudr-compliance-means-changing-old-habits/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2026 12:22:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Weiss]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Agriculture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Commodity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[EUDR]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[European Union]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Farming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Global Trade]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Supply Chain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Deforestation]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/29120927/9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320278</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Coffee, Commodity agriculture, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environmental Law, Farming, Global Trade, Monitoring, Supply Chain, Technology, Transparency, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CONCEPCIÓN DE SOLUTECA, Honduras — In the 1970s, the Honduran government granted a piece of land in the mountains of Concepción de Soluteca to Roberto González’s parents. They duly grabbed a chainsaw and a machete to clear the forest. On the 12 hectares (30 acres) they received as part of a land reform, they planted [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CONCEPCIÓN DE SOLUTECA, Honduras — In the 1970s, the Honduran government granted a piece of land in the mountains of Concepción de Soluteca to Roberto González’s parents. They duly grabbed a chainsaw and a machete to clear the forest. On the 12 hectares (30 acres) they received as part of a land reform, they planted corn, beans and bananas, the basic staple foods. It was a hard life up in the mountains, allowing the farmers and their families to just survive. There wasn’t much public infrastructure, and most children had to help with farmwork early on. This included González, who only attended elementary school for three years. When González inherited the land 20 years later, coffee cultivation was just taking off. Middlemen promised the farmers good money for the export crop, and the banks provided loans for cultivation. At first, this worked well, González, now 39, remembers. Coffee helped the farmers to generate income and improve living conditions. But it didn’t last long. They grew coffee much the same way they did other crops, without adequate soil or shade management. When harvests dwindled, they expanded their area, cutting the last standing forests and damaging water sources. Around 2012, they faced an outbreak of coffee rust, a fungal disease. It was a complete disaster: many farmers were thrown into poverty and forced to migrate. “We destroyed the foundations of our livelihoods, but it was out of ignorance; we just didn&#8217;t know better,” González tells Mongabay. Under the EUDR, coffee farmers step&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/for-honduran-coffee-growers-eudr-compliance-means-changing-old-habits/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>The Amazon’s path from crisis to durability</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-amazons-path-from-crisis-to-durability/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-amazons-path-from-crisis-to-durability/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 23:05:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/28225126/amazon_201628_26-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320267</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Bioeconomy, Conservation Finance, Ecosystem Finance, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Rights, Land Use Change, Law Enforcement, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Saving Rainforests, Saving The Amazon, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the Amazon, a forest can remain on the map while losing much of what makes it function. The Amazon rainforest is often discussed through a few familiar measures: deforestation, carbon, protected areas, and tipping points. Each is useful. But they do not fully explain why biodiversity continues to decline even where maps still show [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the Amazon, a forest can remain on the map while losing much of what makes it function. The Amazon rainforest is often discussed through a few familiar measures: deforestation, carbon, protected areas, and tipping points. Each is useful. But they do not fully explain why biodiversity continues to decline even where maps still show forest, laws exist, and international pledges sound ambitious. A territory can be recognized and still be invaded. A satellite can detect illegal clearing and still fail to trigger a penalty. A story can describe crisis and still leave readers unsure what can be done. Six gaps help explain the problem: finance and forest economy, governance, enforcement, forest function, Indigenous rights, and narrative. They overlap in ways that make each harder to close. The finance and forest-economy gap Protecting forests costs money every year. It requires staff, transport, monitoring, community work, legal support, fire control, restoration, and the ability to respond when illegal actors arrive. Yet the money available for those tasks remains far below the scale of the problem. Globally, UNEP estimates that forest investments need to reach about $300 billion a year by 2030 to meet climate, biodiversity, and land-degradation targets. The report also notes that this figure excludes some enabling conditions, including governance and law enforcement, which means the true need is probably higher. The Brazilian Amazon shows the imbalance more clearly. WWF and Conservation Strategy Fund estimate that Brazil needs about $12.8 billion a year to meet forest policy goals. Current positive&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-amazons-path-from-crisis-to-durability/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>‘World’s deepest banner protest’ launched at the bottom of the sea</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/worlds-deepest-banner-protest-launched-at-the-bottom-of-the-sea/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/worlds-deepest-banner-protest-launched-at-the-bottom-of-the-sea/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 22:27:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Lizkimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deep ocean]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deep Sea Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ocean]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/28221859/GP0SU90ZU_PressMedia-2500px-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=320271</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Deep below the ocean surface, at roughly the depth of 130 five-story buildings stacked end to end, a robot has unfurled a protest sign that reads: &#8220;LISTEN TO THE SCIENCE!&#8221; A Greenpeace remotely operated vehicle (ROV) holds the banner more than 2,300 meters (7,500 feet) below the surface of the Norwegian Sea, in front of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Deep below the ocean surface, at roughly the depth of 130 five-story buildings stacked end to end, a robot has unfurled a protest sign that reads: &#8220;LISTEN TO THE SCIENCE!&#8221; A Greenpeace remotely operated vehicle (ROV) holds the banner more than 2,300 meters (7,500 feet) below the surface of the Norwegian Sea, in front of a hydrothermal vent field known as Loki&#8217;s Castle. &#8220;This marks the deepest banner protest in history, to speak for ecosystems that have no voice of their own,&#8221; Sandra Schöttner, chief scientist for the Deep Arctic Expedition, Greenpeace International, said in a press release. The protest, carried out on May 27 during Greenpeace&#8217;s Deep Arctic Expedition, targeted an area of the Arctic seabed that the Norwegian government opened to deep-sea mining in early 2024 before reversing course under political pressure. Loki&#8217;s Castle was discovered in 2008 in the Arctic Ocean between Greenland and Norway. Here in the depths, hot fluid, between 300 and 320 degrees Celsius (572 and 608 degrees Fahrenheit), pours from mineral chimneys on the seafloor. These vents support a rich and unusual community of life, including microbes that resemble the distant ancestors of complex life on Earth. A 2024 study in Scientific Reports documented the animals living around the vents, including five new-to-science species. The authors suggested areas like this along the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge should be treated as “vulnerable ecosystems” and protected. In January 2024, the government of Norway opened roughly 281,000 square kilometers (108,000 square miles) of Arctic waters (an area&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/worlds-deepest-banner-protest-launched-at-the-bottom-of-the-sea/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>As economic case for deep-sea mining weakens, industry should halt urgency to begin operation (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/as-economic-case-for-deep-sea-mining-weakens-industry-should-halt-urgency-to-begin-operation-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/as-economic-case-for-deep-sea-mining-weakens-industry-should-halt-urgency-to-begin-operation-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 21:18:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Andy Whitmore]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/03110924/deep-sea-octopus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320223</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Conservation, Critical Minerals, Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Energy, Finance, Marine Biodiversity, Marine Conservation, Marine Ecosystems, Mining, Oceans, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Why do we need deep-sea mining? Given the potential consequences for the health and biodiversity of the ocean, that seems a vital question to answer before any commercial mining starts. The question is even more important as the economic case for deep-sea mining is being increasingly undermined by financial evidence, and is nowhere near strong [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Why do we need deep-sea mining? Given the potential consequences for the health and biodiversity of the ocean, that seems a vital question to answer before any commercial mining starts. The question is even more important as the economic case for deep-sea mining is being increasingly undermined by financial evidence, and is nowhere near strong enough to justify the risks to ecosystems we barely understand. Deep-sea mining in international waters is a unique proposition given that the international seabed is not owned by any state. Instead, it is considered the ‘global commons,’ belonging to all of us, so that any extraction should be justified for the benefit of all humankind. Given deep-sea mining companies also have financially-mandated deadlines, the arguments for it also have to address why there is a supposed urgency. This is especially true given that scientists stress the many unknowns, both about the deep-sea environment itself and the likely cumulative impact of the industry. Over the years, those proposing deep-sea mining have come up with a number of reasons why such mining is necessary and urgent, beyond potential profit. The arguments have evolved to claim that minerals will primarily feed into the energy transition away from fossil fuels. A squat lobster in the deep sea. Image by Schmidt Ocean Institute (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). As covered by Mongabay, effective counter-arguments have questioned how necessary the specific minerals from deep-sea mining are for the energy transition, including whether ongoing changes in battery technology and demand will negate any estimated&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/as-economic-case-for-deep-sea-mining-weakens-industry-should-halt-urgency-to-begin-operation-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Brazil Congress passes bill to bar use of Amazon deforestation satellite tool</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/brazil-congress-passes-bill-to-bar-use-of-amazon-deforestation-satellite-tool/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/brazil-congress-passes-bill-to-bar-use-of-amazon-deforestation-satellite-tool/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 18:13:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Bobbybascomb]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/28181251/48430955086_b4a4a0cc5d_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=320260</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Governance, Satellite Imagery, Technology, and Technology And Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Brazil’s Congress has passed a bill prohibiting environmental agencies from using satellite images to restrict the commercial use of illegally deforested lands. Instead, areas suspected of illegal deforestation will have to be confirmed by authorities on the ground. Supporters say satellite-only enforcement infringes upon farmers’ right to a fair defense. Its critics, which include the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Brazil’s Congress has passed a bill prohibiting environmental agencies from using satellite images to restrict the commercial use of illegally deforested lands. Instead, areas suspected of illegal deforestation will have to be confirmed by authorities on the ground. Supporters say satellite-only enforcement infringes upon farmers’ right to a fair defense. Its critics, which include the environment ministry, warn the measure will weaken environmental protection and create unsafe conditions for IBAMA, Brazil’s federal environmental police. The bill, passed May 20, could jeopardize around 70% of IBAMA’s actions in the Brazilian Amazon, Jair Schmitt, director of environmental protection with IBAMA, told Agência Pública.  IBAMA currently uses satellite imagery to detect illegal deforestation and issue land-use restrictions, which prohibit farmers from selling products from illegally deforested land. DETER, the satellite monitoring system run by Brazil&#8217;s National Institute for Space Research, processes georeferenced forest cover imagery every 15 days to identify deforestation hotspots and send alerts to IBAMA, which can immediately block the area from commercial activity. If the bill is signed into law, officials would need to send inspectors to the site in person to take immediate action. On the ground enforcement is already a significant challenge. Brazil has about 1,250 agents to patrol a forest roughly the size of Western Europe. IBAMA officials warn banning satellite technology makes enforcement in such remote areas significantly slower and more expensive. “It’s like wanting to put down our cellphones and go back to sending messages by fax,” Schmitt told Mongabay journalist Fernanda Wenzel.  Between January&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/brazil-congress-passes-bill-to-bar-use-of-amazon-deforestation-satellite-tool/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Risk of saltwater intrusion into coastal groundwater spans the globe: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/risk-of-saltwater-intrusion-into-coastal-groundwater-spans-the-globe-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/risk-of-saltwater-intrusion-into-coastal-groundwater-spans-the-globe-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 17:26:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/27165515/5-cornfield-flooded-with-salts-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320199</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Drinking Water, Environment, Freshwater, Impact Of Climate Change, Oceans, Research, Sea Levels, Water, Water Crisis, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Globally, about half of drinking water and a quarter of irrigation water comes from under the ground. Yet many coastal sites throughout the world are seeing notable declines in their groundwater levels, putting them at risk of saltwater intrusion, a new study says. The study, published April 14 in the journal Nature Water, found that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Globally, about half of drinking water and a quarter of irrigation water comes from under the ground. Yet many coastal sites throughout the world are seeing notable declines in their groundwater levels, putting them at risk of saltwater intrusion, a new study says. The study, published April 14 in the journal Nature Water, found that more than 10% of monitored locations showed a significant years-long decline in groundwater levels, indicating a susceptibility to saltwater intrusion, which can render water unusable. Annika Nolte, a data scientist at the University of Bremen in Germany and lead author of the study, said the results amounted to a “warning” and the work offered a “broad global look at the existing risks” while also identifying “specific regions where we should prioritize management and monitoring.” Sections of a cornfield in the eastern United States. The areas with elevated salt (left) yielded far fewer crops than areas with normal salt. Image courtesy of Jarrod Miller/Delmarva Saltwater Intrusion. A field in Delaware, in the eastern United States. Salt along the edges affected crop growth. Image courtesy of Jarrod Miller/Delmarva Saltwater Intrusion. Groundwater’s role as a key source of freshwater makes it essential for human existence, according to co-author Robert Reinecke, a professor of earth sciences at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany. &#8220;Generally speaking, the availability of drinking water is a prerequisite for people to be able to live anywhere, grow food, and for us to have healthy ecosystems,” Reinecke told German news program Tagesschau. The insidious creep&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/risk-of-saltwater-intrusion-into-coastal-groundwater-spans-the-globe-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Household mosquito repellents may stop bumblebees from finding their way home</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/household-mosquito-repellents-may-stop-bumblebees-from-finding-their-way-home/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/household-mosquito-repellents-may-stop-bumblebees-from-finding-their-way-home/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 16:55:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/28165207/69e6467d58a0d.image_-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=320257</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Finland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Animals, Biodiversity, Environment, Insects, Pesticides, Pollinators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A chemical used in mosquito repellents may disorient bumblebees, stopping them from finding their way back to their nests, a recent study found. Researchers in Finland exposed 123 buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris), one of the most abundant bumblebee species in Europe, to a standard consumer mosquito repellent containing prallethrin, a type of pyrethroid insecticide. One [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A chemical used in mosquito repellents may disorient bumblebees, stopping them from finding their way back to their nests, a recent study found. Researchers in Finland exposed 123 buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris), one of the most abundant bumblebee species in Europe, to a standard consumer mosquito repellent containing prallethrin, a type of pyrethroid insecticide. One group of 44 bees was exposed to the repellant for 1 minute; 35 were exposed for 10 minutes; while 44 were exposed for 20 minutes. A control group of 43 bees was exposed to an identical device that did not release the insecticide. After exposure, the researchers released the bees 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) away from their colonies. They found 16 bees from the control group made it home. However, only six bees exposed to the repellant for 10 minutes and just two bees exposed for 20 minutes returned. “Bumblebee colonies depend on workers collecting food,” lead author Kimmo Kaakinen, a biologist at the University of Turku in Finland, wrote in a statement. “So if they cannot find their way back to the nest, the colony&#8217;s ability to obtain nutrition deteriorates.” Usually, the buff-tailed bumblebee forages around 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from its colony and has been found to return home from distances reaching 9.8 km (6 miles), the study noted. Researchers suggested the reduction in homing success, or even increased travel time, could be due to a disruption to the bees’ spatial navigation and memory, compromised flight capacity or a combination. The study’s results&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/household-mosquito-repellents-may-stop-bumblebees-from-finding-their-way-home/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>Has Ecuador started fracking? New oil project causes confusion and concern</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/has-ecuador-started-fracking-new-oil-project-causes-confusion-and-concern/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/has-ecuador-started-fracking-new-oil-project-causes-confusion-and-concern/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 16:44:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amazon Rainforest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oil Drilling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/28163704/AP20204647205374-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320253</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Rainforest, Conservation, Deforestation, Energy Politics, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Forests, Oil, and Oil Drilling]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this month, state-owned oil company Petroecuador announced a new project involving “hydraulic fracturing” in an oil block in the Ecuadorian Amazon. As a result, some observers spoke out against the environmental risks of high-volume shale “fracking,” in which water and chemicals are injected at high pressures into the tight bedrock to release trapped oil [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this month, state-owned oil company Petroecuador announced a new project involving “hydraulic fracturing” in an oil block in the Ecuadorian Amazon. As a result, some observers spoke out against the environmental risks of high-volume shale “fracking,” in which water and chemicals are injected at high pressures into the tight bedrock to release trapped oil and gas. Shale fracking tends to cause air pollution, uses high quantities of water, and can result in contamination that creates public health risks for surrounding communities. But while “hydraulic fracturing” and shale “fracking” involve similar processes, they’re carried out at entirely different intensities, with different designs, the observers later said. The two terms are often used interchangeably, and the government didn’t explain the distinction or follow up when the groups asked for clarification, they said. “It’s striking because, for us, one of the concerns is the lack of information associated with this announcement,” Sebastián Valdivieso, Ecuador country director for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), told Mongabay. The announcement concerned oil in Block 57, also known as the Shushufindi Libertador block, located in Sucumbíos province, which is largely covered by Amazonian rainforest. New drilling there would yield 930 barrels a day, extracted with the help of service provider Chuanqing Drilling Engineering Corporation (CCDC), a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation. In its announcement, Petroecuador said it was the first time in the country’s history that hydraulic fracturing would be used on subsurface limestone, where those kinds of operations aren’t usually carried out. A group of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/has-ecuador-started-fracking-new-oil-project-causes-confusion-and-concern/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>How much suffering do invasive species cause? Researchers are measuring that</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/how-much-suffering-do-invasive-species-cause-researchers-are-measuring-that/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/how-much-suffering-do-invasive-species-cause-researchers-are-measuring-that/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 13:03:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Daniel Shailer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[animal behavior]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[biodiversity monitoring]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[field research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Invasive species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IUCN species assessments]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Threatened species]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/28112829/Anoplolepis_gracilipes_458690499-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320237</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Galapagos, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Welfare, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecology, Endangered Species, Invasive Species, Iucn, Monitoring, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Avian vampire flies (Philornis downsi) were not discovered in the Galápagos Islands for almost three decades after they were thought to have arrived from mainland Ecuador in the 1960s. Even then, the first were found by accident. Birgit Fessl, a landbird ecologist, was surveying for native species on the island of Santa Cruz in 1997 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Avian vampire flies (Philornis downsi) were not discovered in the Galápagos Islands for almost three decades after they were thought to have arrived from mainland Ecuador in the 1960s. Even then, the first were found by accident. Birgit Fessl, a landbird ecologist, was surveying for native species on the island of Santa Cruz in 1997 when she reached into the branches of a tree to take down the huge, domed nest of a woodpecker finch. Inside was a surprise. “We found one dying chick, another dead one which just looked sucked dry and 20 large maggots full of blood,” said Fessl, who now leads the Charles Darwin Foundation’s Landbird Conservation program. “I was stunned — the first dead baby in my hands. Then I realized it wasn’t an accident: It was everywhere,” she told Mongabay over a WhatsApp call. Across each of the Galapagos’ human-inhabited islands, vampire flies had already wrought havoc, killing some chicks in nests they infiltrated and leaving others maimed for life. “But it went unseen because people didn’t really know what to look for.” Around the world, more than 37,000 invasive species have been introduced to new environments. Many of these cause suffering, from vampire flies maiming finches to yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes) spraying acid at the eyes of shrikes (Laniidae) on Minami-Daitō Island, Japan, and Australian quolls (Dasyurus) bleeding from the nose after eating toxic cane toads (Rhinella marina). But none of these are measured by the current global standard for assessing the impact&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/how-much-suffering-do-invasive-species-cause-researchers-are-measuring-that/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>A Nigerian teen is turning agricultural waste into biodegradable sanitary pads</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/a-nigerian-teen-is-turning-agricultural-waste-into-biodegradable-sanitary-pads/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/a-nigerian-teen-is-turning-agricultural-waste-into-biodegradable-sanitary-pads/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 07:36:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimable Twahirwa]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/28073436/665830-PantiPads-8f54a6-original-1775732022-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320234</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Circular Economy, Innovation, Prizes, Waste, and Women in conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For many Nigerian women, access to sanitary pads remains a challenge. Even those who can obtain them, the prevalence of single-use menstrual products creates problems of its own. They contain plastics and chemicals and are not eco-friendly generating large amounts of waste. After learning that many traditional sanitary pads used contain up to 90% plastic [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For many Nigerian women, access to sanitary pads remains a challenge. Even those who can obtain them, the prevalence of single-use menstrual products creates problems of its own. They contain plastics and chemicals and are not eco-friendly generating large amounts of waste. After learning that many traditional sanitary pads used contain up to 90% plastic and can take hundreds of years to decompose, Nigerian teenager Raheema Auwal-Panti saw an opportunity to support women while helping the environment. The 15-year-old decided to use low-grade agricultural waste to make sanitary pads. She was motivated by a desire “to sweep up plastic pollution” in Nigeria. “[Even] if no one does something about it, I could do something about it,” said Auwal-Panti, who hails from Minna, the capital of Niger state in Nigeria. She founded ‘PantiPads’ in 2025. Auwal-Panti’s project was selected in a shortlist of 35 global teams for the 2026 Earth Prize, organized by the Earth Foundation, a Switzerland-based nonprofit that empowers, educates and inspires young people to tackle environmental challenges. In northern Nigeria, cassava processing generates significant agricultural waste, which poses environmental risks, particularly to soil quality. The waste includes solid and liquid components, such as cassava peelings, dried with non-dried banana leaves and corn husks. The biomass-rich waste, if poorly managed, can lead to environmental degradation, including organic pollution of water bodies and soil contamination. “Using these wastes to develop eco-friendly pads is currently helping to address menstrual stigma which remains a significant public health challenge that affects girls&#8217; education and overall well-being&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/a-nigerian-teen-is-turning-agricultural-waste-into-biodegradable-sanitary-pads/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/a-nigerian-teen-is-turning-agricultural-waste-into-biodegradable-sanitary-pads/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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					<title>Most wildlife AI focuses on the ground. This model looks up in the trees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/most-wildlife-ai-focuses-on-the-ground-this-model-looks-up-in-the-trees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/most-wildlife-ai-focuses-on-the-ground-this-model-looks-up-in-the-trees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 06:46:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/28053452/Saimiri_sciureus-1_Luc_Viatour-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320225</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Central America, Costa Rica, French Guiana, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Artificial Intelligence, Birds, Camera Trapping, Conservation, data, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Mammals, Primates, Research, Seed Dispersal, Species, Technology, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When it comes to decoding camera-trap images, artificial intelligence has become all the rage, especially for terrestrial animals, or those that dwell on the ground. But for more evasive species living high up in trees, the technology is still lacking. A newly developed AI model aims to fill that gap. TropiCam-AI was developed to detect [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When it comes to decoding camera-trap images, artificial intelligence has become all the rage, especially for terrestrial animals, or those that dwell on the ground. But for more evasive species living high up in trees, the technology is still lacking. A newly developed AI model aims to fill that gap. TropiCam-AI was developed to detect and identify arboreal, or tree-dwelling, species in a part of the world where they abound: the tropical forests of the Americas. Scientists built the model to address the voids that exist in identifying arboreal mammals and birds. “We set up TropiCam-AI with the objective of developing a tool that is specifically meant for neotropical camera-trapping surveys targeting the canopy,” Andrea Zampetti, lead author of the study and Ph.D. candidate in animal biology at the Sapienza University of Rome, told Mongabay in a video interview. Zampetti’s work was done in collaboration with the TROPECOLNET project at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, led by Ana Benítez-López. Arboreal species play a key role in ecosystems. They serve as important seed dispersers, with studies finding that primates, small mammals and birds consume up to 90% of plant species in tropical rainforests. However, these are tree-dependent species that, by their very nature, are especially threatened by deforestation, underscoring the need to study, track and monitor them for conservation purposes. A study published earlier this year by Zampetti and colleagues notes that “arboreal camera trapping remains severely underrepresented compared to AI trained on terrestrial images.” AI models for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/most-wildlife-ai-focuses-on-the-ground-this-model-looks-up-in-the-trees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>New species of ghost pipefish named after Sesame Street character found in Australia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/new-species-of-ghost-pipefish-named-after-sesame-street-character-found-in-australia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/new-species-of-ghost-pipefish-named-after-sesame-street-character-found-in-australia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 03:00:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Naina Rao]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/28025902/pipefish-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=320226</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Oceania, Pacific, and Papua New Guinea]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coral Reefs, Fish, Great Barrier Reef, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Biodiversity, Marine Ecosystems, New Species, Ocean, Oceans, and Tropics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s “hairy,” bright orange or red and “exceptional” at camouflaging. Meet the hairy ghost pipefish, whose recent formal description demonstrates that even well-studied marine environments like the Great Barrier Reef still hold remarkable secrets for science. In a recent study, researchers shared the name of the ghost pipefish, Solenostomus snuffleupagus, for its &#8220;conspicuously shaggy appearance,&#8221; [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It’s “hairy,” bright orange or red and “exceptional” at camouflaging. Meet the hairy ghost pipefish, whose recent formal description demonstrates that even well-studied marine environments like the Great Barrier Reef still hold remarkable secrets for science. In a recent study, researchers shared the name of the ghost pipefish, Solenostomus snuffleupagus, for its &#8220;conspicuously shaggy appearance,&#8221; and long, trunk-like snout that makes it resemble the beloved Sesame Street character, Mr. Snuffleupagus. Ghost pipefish, with their long pipe-like snouts, are distantly related to pipefishes and seahorses. But they differ in how they reproduce: while males in pipefish and seahorses brood eggs in specialized abdominal pouches; in ghost pipefish, it’s females who do the same. Found across the tropical Indo-Pacific, ghost pipefish are also very well-camouflaged in their environments of coral reefs, seagrass meadows, and algal beds. Until recently, there were just six known species. The discovery of a seventh species, the hairy ghost pipefish, led by marine biologists Graham Short and David Harasti, is the culmination of a two-decade search. Harasti, a senior research scientist at the Port Stephens Fisheries Institute in Australia, told Popular Science he first spotted the animal in 2001 while diving near Papua New Guinea. “I was perplexed,” Harasti said, adding that after checking his reference books, he realized they “might be looking at something entirely new to science.” Since 2005, local divers had also regularly reported seeing the orange-red animal on the Great Barrier Reef on Facebook groups and citizen science platforms like iNaturalist, the authors wrote.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/new-species-of-ghost-pipefish-named-after-sesame-street-character-found-in-australia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>European Commission linked leather to deforestation, then ignored it</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/european-commission-linked-leather-to-deforestation-then-ignored-it/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/european-commission-linked-leather-to-deforestation-then-ignored-it/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 01:00:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elisângela MendonçaEmmanuelle Picaud]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/28213101/EuropeanCommission2-1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320201</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Chaco, European Union, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Groups, International Trade, Mongabay investigation, Supply Chain, Trade, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The clock is ticking in Brussels. By June 1, the European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, is set to receive feedback on its proposal to remove leather, hides and skins from the EU’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Officials, however, are trying to push this amendment even after the commission’s own research confirmed that cattle hides also [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The clock is ticking in Brussels. By June 1, the European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, is set to receive feedback on its proposal to remove leather, hides and skins from the EU’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Officials, however, are trying to push this amendment even after the commission’s own research confirmed that cattle hides also drive forest loss, a Mongabay analysis shows. According to the commission’s Staff Working Document, research designed to support proposed regulations, leather can be associated with up to 390 square kilometers (149 square miles) of deforestation per year. That area is roughly twice the size of the city of Pisa, in the heart of Italy’s leather production and trade. This means that bovine hides could account for up to 17% of the total 2,280 km2 (880 mi2) deforestation risk linked to all commodities covered by the new regulation. Although the evidence is part of the documentation, the commission decided to ignore it and balance out “quantitative and qualitative considerations,” it said in the document. The commission&#8217;s Staff Working Document was published May 4, alongside a delegated act, as part of a proposed simplification package Brussels is putting forward ahead of the EUDR being enacted at the end of the year. After the public consultation, the commission could formally adopt the draft delegated act. Then the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union generally have two months to object. If they don’t, the changes will automatically be enacted. In its working documentation, the commission argues&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/european-commission-linked-leather-to-deforestation-then-ignored-it/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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