
Articles by David Klinges
David began writing for Mongabay in July 2018. Driven by a life-long passion for ecology and wildlife, he graduated from Dartmouth College with a BA in Biology and strives to enact positive change in conservation through research and science communication. After conducting fieldwork in Honduras, Costa Rica, Peru and other Neotropical locales, David has gained a special affinity for tropical rainforests, and strives to understand and work with the wildlife and communities of these amazing landscapes. David’s recent series of appointments at the Smithsonian has provided him fresh exposure to the potential of cutting-edge technology in conservation, from using drones to record land use change and track animal movement to constructing web-based tools that share data and facilitate collaboration between scientists. His zeal for the environment has also manifested in a variety of multimedia pursuits, including a publicly broadcasted documentary and generating social media content for academic and non-profit institutions. Understanding that the impact of research is limited without adequate publicity, David has embraced journalism as a powerful means to both herald the breakthroughs in conservation science as well as warn of the threats to our planet’s wildlife and wildlands. After years of reading Mongabay as his goto source for environmental news, it is a dream come true to contribute to this amazing publication.


Changing energy use in rural Africa with power from solar, clean stoves…and women

New space lasers offer best 3D look at global forests yet

Drone 3D models help assess risk of turtle nesting beaches to sea level rise

Photos highlight evolving roles of AI, citizen science in species research

Hackathon enlightens coders and conservationists alike

Identifying Zika-transmitting mosquito fast, cheaply, and on the go

A new dimension to marine restoration: 3D printing coral reefs

Fire, more than logging, drives Amazon forest degradation, study finds
Special series
Forest trackers
- ‘A disgrace’: Luxury housing plans threaten Cambodia’s Bokor National Park
- Smallholder agriculture cuts into key Sumatran tiger habitat
- Indigenous Cacataibo of Peru threatened by land grabbing and drug trade
- Colombian and Ecuadorian Indigenous communities live in fear as drug traffickers invade

Oceans
- Scientists discover three glow-in-the-dark sharks
- When Chinook salmon is off the menu, other prey will do for endangered orcas
- How technology can help us achieve at least 30% ocean protection (commentary)
- Corals are struggling, but they’re too abundant to go extinct, study says

Amazon conservation
- Facebook enabling Amazon land grabbing, deforestation, finds investigation
- Amazon ‘Tribes on the Edge’: Q&A with documentary filmmaker Céline Cousteau
- We’re killing those tropical trees we’re counting on to absorb carbon dioxide
- As Amazon forest-to-savanna tipping point looms, solutions remain elusive

Land rights and extractives
- Amid pollution and COVID-19, a quilombolas’ Amazon sanctuary turns hostile
- Organizations aim to block funds for East African oil pipeline
- Indigenous community wins recognition of its land rights in Panama
- Timber organization’s backing ‘one step’ toward ‘peace park’ in Borneo

Endangered environmentalists
- Brazilian woman threatened by Amazon loggers wins global human rights award
- Indonesian fishers opposed to dredging project hit by ‘criminalization’ bid
- Life as an Amazon activist: ‘I don’t want to be the next Dorothy Stang’
- In Philippines’ Palawan, top cop linked to assault on environmental officer

Indonesias forest guardians
- Why I stand for my tribe’s forest: It gives us food, culture, and life (commentary)
- Reforesting a village in Indonesia, one batch of gourmet beans at a time
- Restoring Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, one small farm at a time
- Indigenous Iban community defends rainforests, but awaits lands rights recognition

Conservation effectiveness
- A Malagasy community wins global recognition for saving its lake
- Scientists in Costa Rica are growing new corals to save reefs
- Technology innovations look to change the cacao landscape in Colombia
- In mangrove restoration, custom solutions beat one-size-fits-all approach

Southeast asian infrastructure
- Indonesian governor’s arrest in road project points to more tainted contracts
- Papua deforestation highlights eastward shift of Indonesia forest clearing
- Planned coal-trucking road threatens a forest haven for Sumatran frogs
- Deforestation spurred by road project creeps closer to Sumatra wildlife haven
