Ashoka Mukpo

Ashoka Mukpo

About

Ashoka Mukpo is a staff writer for Mongabay and freelance journalist with expertise in international development policy, human rights, and environmental issues. His work has been featured in Al-Jazeera, Vice News, and The Guardian, among others. Follow him on Twitter via @unkyoka.

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A village near a community forest in River Cess County, Liberia, 2016. Photo by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay.

Liberia gave villagers control over their forests. Then a mining company showed up

Ashoka Mukpo, James Giahyue 22 Dec 2020
Park rangers on patrol in Garamba National Park in DRC earlier this month. Photo by Thomas Nicolon for Mongabay.

Report: WWF knew about rights abuses by park rangers, but didn’t respond effectively

Ashoka Mukpo 8 Dec 2020
New York, NY - January 7, 2020: Former Vice President & Democratic hopeful Joe Biden made foreign policy statement at Current on Pier 59, Lev Radin for Shutterstock

Biden’s election is good news for the climate. But what comes next?

Ashoka Mukpo 13 Nov 2020

Report: Soy, cattle industries trail palm oil, timber on deforestation risk

Ashoka Mukpo 3 Nov 2020
La Danta, as photographed from a helicopter. Photo by Dennis Jarvis/Flickr.

In Guatemala, refugees find new calling as park rangers

Antonio José Paz Cardona, Ashoka Mukpo 16 Oct 2020
Shark fins and Totoaba fish bladders seized by U.S. federal authorities in raids during Operation Apex. Image by U.S. Department of Justice.

Shark fin trafficking ring busted as trade ban comes into effect in Florida

Ashoka Mukpo 28 Sep 2020
Still image from footage of a Wild Chimpanzee Foundation camera trap set up in Grebo-Krahn National Park in Liberia, showing a Diana Monkey (Cercopithecus diana).

Watch: Rare wildlife caught on camera in a remote Liberian rainforest

Ashoka Mukpo 25 Sep 2020
Forest cleared for palm oil production in Indonesia. Rhett C. Butler for Mongabay.

BlackRock, other asset managers enabling deforestation, says Friends of the Earth

Ashoka Mukpo 16 Sep 2020
Heat spots in areas with Prodes warnings (2017-2019). Area next to the borders of the Kaxarari Idigenous Land, in Labrea, Amazonas state. Taken 17 Aug, 2020. CREDIT: Christian Braga / Greenpeace

$154b in capital has gone to 300 forest-risk companies since the Paris Agreement

Ashoka Mukpo 3 Sep 2020

Is that ivory from an elephant or a nut? A new guide shows how to tell

Ashoka Mukpo 13 Aug 2020

As wild areas become farmland, species that carry diseases flourish

Ashoka Mukpo 11 Aug 2020

2019 was the deadliest year ever for environmental activists, watchdog group says

Ashoka Mukpo 29 Jul 2020
A flying squid flushes as the NOAA research ship Reuben Lasker approaches. NOAA photo by Bernardo Alps.

Study: Chinese ‘dark fleets’ illegally defying sanctions by fishing in North Korean waters

Ashoka Mukpo 22 Jul 2020

World Bank’s IFC pumped $1.8b into factory farming operations since 2010

Ashoka Mukpo 7 Jul 2020

Ikea using illegally sourced wood from Ukraine, campaigners say

Ashoka Mukpo 29 Jun 2020
A young Embera woman from Bajo Lepe. Image courtesy of the Rainforest Foundation.

Harrowing video shows indigenous Colombians fleeing gunfire

Ashoka Mukpo 28 May 2020

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund drops major Brazil miner, utility from its portfolio

Ashoka Mukpo 19 May 2020

Dangerous levels of heat and humidity rising in frequency, study says

Ashoka Mukpo 13 May 2020

Nicaragua failing to protect indigenous groups from land grabs: Report

Ashoka Mukpo 4 May 2020

As calls to shutter wildlife markets grow, China struggles with an industry worth billions

Ashoka Mukpo 27 Apr 2020

As COVID-19 spreads, commodity markets rumble

Ashoka Mukpo 6 Apr 2020
Wood that was cut for charcoal production near Katha, northern Myanmar. Villages in this area used to cut teak and other valuable trees for export, but have since started producing charcoal. The charcoal being exported to China can be made from any tree, regardless of size or kind. This amount of trees could produce about 150 bags of charcoal. Photo by Nathan Siegel for Mongabay.

China’s revised forest law could boost efforts to fight illegal logging

Ashoka Mukpo 19 Mar 2020
In 2015, the largest seizure of Peruvian timber was made in the Yacu Kallpa vessel. Photo courtesy of the Environmental Research Agency (EIA).

California lawmakers introduce legislation to fight tropical deforestation

Ashoka Mukpo 24 Feb 2020

Carbon emissions from Peruvian gold mining ‘alarming,’ experts say

Ashoka Mukpo 4 Feb 2020
A forest elephant in Gabon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Liberia expands a key elephant park again, this time with help of locals

Ashoka Mukpo 22 Jan 2020

At the UN, losing the race against time to fight climate change

Ashoka Mukpo 24 Sep 2019
Silhouette of man standing by oil palm tree on a plantation still belonging to local residents in Malen Chiefdom in Pujehun district of Sierra Leone, West Africa.

Industrial palm oil investors struggle to gain foothold in Africa

Ashoka Mukpo 20 Sep 2019
Beira residents carrying belongings wade through flooded street in Beira.

When rich economies cut emissions, poor ones stand to benefit, study says

Ashoka Mukpo 3 Aug 2019
An elephant in South Africa. Photo by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Did efforts to protect DRC’s elephants and bonobos leave a trail of abuses?

Ashoka Mukpo 12 Jun 2019

‘We come from the earth’: Q&A with Goldman Prize winner Alfred Brownell

Ashoka Mukpo 3 Jun 2019

Fighting corruption in Liberia through on-the-ground reporting (insider)

Ashoka Mukpo 7 May 2019
Western Chimpanzees at Tacugama Chimp Sanctuary in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Photo by BigMikeSndTech, licensed under CC by 2.0

Western chimp numbers revised up to 53,000, but development threats loom

Ashoka Mukpo 1 May 2019

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