Qualified success: What’s next for Peru’s Operation Mercury?
More than a decade of illegal gold mining around the upstart town of La Pampa in the Peruvian Amazon has tainted local water supplies, razed forests adjacent to a world-class…
Articles by John C. Cannon
John is a journalist currently based in South Asia. Before that, he lived in Armenia, Gaza, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic. He has written for New Scientist, Slate.com, Yale Environment 360 and Bicycle Times, as well as other publications. John first wrote for Mongabay as a graduate student at UC Santa Cruz in 2008, became a correspondent in 2014 and joined the site’s team full time in October 2016. Always eager to find local perspectives for global stories, he has reported from Cameroon, CAR, DRC, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Peru and Rwanda.
Map reveals Canadian mining company’s environmental, social conflicts
Pan American Silver, one of the world’s largest mining companies, operates eight mines in Central and South America that are beset with allegations of environmental disruption and human rights violations,…
Companies leave communities to grapple with mining’s persistent legacy
The scale of excavation for copper and gold in the 1970s and 1980s at the Panguna mine, then one of the world’s largest open-pit mines, was massive: It swallowed up…
Early deforestation numbers for 2019 reveal trends in the Amazon
A new analysis based on estimated deforestation in the Amazon in 2019 pinpoints hotspots of forest loss and identifies several country-specific trends in the region. The figures project that deforestation…
Managing fisheries helps stocks recover — most of the time
Fish stocks around the world are doing better, in general, where science guides their management, according to a recent study. Publishing their findings Jan. 13 online in the journal Proceedings…
Illegal industrial fishing hampers small-scale African fisheries
Fish are an indispensable source of food and protein for communities in many African countries. But the growth in industrial-scale fishing fleets around the continent has put that resource and…
Indigenous, protected lands in Amazon emit far less carbon than areas outside
Scientists know from a bevy of studies that the inclusion of indigenous peoples and local communities is critical to holding deforestation at bay across the tropics, even as a tide…
Subsistence farming topples forests near commercial operations in Congo
The effects of commercial logging, mining and farming can ripple beyond the boundaries of the operations, leading to the substantial loss and degradation of nearby forest for subsistence agriculture, a…
Indigenous lands hold 36% or more of remaining intact forest landscapes
More than one-third of the world’s remaining pristine forests, known as intact forest landscapes, exist within land that’s either managed or owned by indigenous peoples, a new study has found.…
Cost-effective conservation: Study identifies key ‘umbrella’ species
Governments could vastly improve the efficiency of money spent on conservation if they took a hard look at the species they prioritize, according to a recent study. The research probed…
10 noteworthy books on conservation and the environment from 2019
Grappling with the challenges of minimizing carbon footprints, memoirs of careers spent on the frontlines of conservation and stark warnings about the future inhabitability of our world, the roster of…
Deforestation for potential rubber plantation raises concerns in Papua New Guinea
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea — The upstart deforestation over the past year and a half that's sidling up to Pochon Lili’s land has him worried. "As a landowner, I'm…
Mountain gorilla census reveals further increase in numbers
The outlook for eastern Africa's mountain gorillas is growing brighter, as a recent census released on Dec. 16 shows that the subspecies’ numbers have risen since 2011. Scientists believe there…
Vanishing sea ice in the Arctic could shake up seabird migrations
For seabirds, an Arctic Ocean with less sea ice could provide some tantalizing alternatives to the long-haul flights that some undertake each year. In a recent study, ecologist Manon Clairbaux…
Deforestation preceded fires in ‘massive’ area of Amazon in 2019
The prevailing narrative about the Brazilian Amazon this past summer was that the world’s largest rainforest was burning. A more accurate assessment would be that vast areas that used to…
Healthy ecosystems, healthy humans: ‘One Health’ broadens its scope
The world’s most impoverished communities don’t need to be told that intact ecosystems are vital to their health, says Joseph Walston, vice president for field conservation programs with the Wildlife…
Research points to low forensic capacity to tackle timber fraud in U.S.
A recent study suggests that a lot of fraudulently or inaccurately identified wood turns up in products on the U.S. market and that inspectors’ capacity to root out these issues…
Finding hope in ‘extreme conservation’ (Insider)
VIRUNGA NATIONAL PARK, Democratic Republic of Congo — Seven meters. It’s one of the first instructions you get from the guides at Virunga National Park, nestled against the eastern border…
Malaria surges in deforested parts of the Amazon, study finds
Tropical deforestation may spur the transmission of malaria at levels much higher than once thought, according to a recent study. Disease ecologist Andrew MacDonald and his Stanford University colleague Erin…
Study finds massive reorganization of life across Earth’s ecosystems
Life is reshuffling itself at an unsettling clip across Earth’s surface and in its oceans, a new study has found. The research, published Oct. 18 in the journal Science, drills…
$65 million deal to protect Congo’s forests raises concerns
On Sept. 3, the Republic of Congo secured a stream of funding aimed at protecting forests and peatlands. The signatures of French President Emmanuel Macron and Congolese President Denis Sassou…
Study tracks first incursion of poachers into ‘pristine’ African forest
Elephant poachers are using logging roads to infiltrate some of the last remaining pristine forests in Central Africa, according to a study published in July. The study’s authors also revealed…
New app tracks down forest fires in Bolivia
A new app aimed at tracking forest fires in Bolivia could shake up the way authorities and firefighters battle fires, allowing them to pinpoint their locations more accurately and safely.…
In other news: Environmental stories from around the web, September 27, 2019
Tropical forests California has approved a scheme for companies to offset emissions by buying carbon credits aimed at stopping tropical deforestation (The San Francisco Chronicle). Leaders of many of the…
Wilderness cuts the risk of extinction for species in half
Plant and animal species living in wilderness areas are less likely to go extinct, a recent study has found. Defined as intact habitats that haven’t been affected by human use…
Notes from the road: 5 revelations from traveling the Pan Borneo Highway
KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia — In July, I traveled most of the length of the proposed Pan Borneo Highway route with the goal of trying to understand the aims, possibilities and…
Call for scientists to engage in environmental movements strikes chord
Cataloging the growing number of declining species or tracking the relentless rise of temperatures around the world today can make for some dark days for scientists in these areas of…
Pan Borneo Highway development endangers the Heart of Borneo
A planned highway network in the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo threatens the forests protected as part of the Heart of Borneo agreement made with Indonesia…
REDD+ more competitive than critics believe, study finds
A global strategy aimed at stemming climate change-inducing carbon emissions from tropical forest loss would better accomplish its goals if implemented in the manner intended, according to recent research. The…
The end of the road: The future of the Pan Borneo Highway
This is the sixth article in our six-part series “Traveling the Pan Borneo Highway.” Read Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four and Part Five. KOTA BELUD, Malaysia — Road building is…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Endangered chimps ‘on the brink’ as Nigerian reserve is razed for agriculture, timber
- Agricultural frontier advances in Nicaraguan biosphere reserve
- ‘Rampant forest destruction’ wracks reserve as cattle ranching advances in Brazilian Amazon
- ‘Unprecedented’ fires in Madagascar national park threaten livelihoods and lemurs
Oceans
- As climate change melts Antarctic ice, gentoo penguins venture further south
- In hot water: Ocean warming hits another record high on climate change
- Guinea-Bissau turtle hatchery addresses unusual problem of too many eggs
- The thick of it: Delving into the neglected global impacts of human waste
Amazon Conservation
- Josefina Tunki: ‘If we have to die in defense of the land, we have to die’
- Global ayahuasca trend drives deforestation in Brazil’s Acre state
- Oil highway bears down on uncontacted Indigenous groups in Ecuador’s Yasuní
- French deforestation database pressures Brazilian soy traders to clean up supply chain
Land rights and extractives
- Amazon to Alps: Swiss gold imports from Brazil tread a legal minefield
- Analysts point to logging and mining to explain Solomon Islands unrest
- Philippine groups slam ‘cruel Christmas gift’ as open-pit mining ban is lifted
- Josefina Tunki: ‘If we have to die in defense of the land, we have to die’
Endangered Environmentalists
- Death threats and friction with military force Guatemalan rangers to flee
- Amazon mining threatens dozens of uncontacted Indigenous groups, study shows
- The Kichwa woman fighting drug traffickers and loggers in the Peruvian Amazon
- Rights groups demand end to Cambodia’s persecution of green activists
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- From Flores to Papua: Meet 10 of Indonesia’s mangrove 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
Conservation Effectiveness
- Young forests can help heal tropical aquatic ecosystems: Study
- How sharing and learning from failures can transform conservation (commentary)
- Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?
- ‘Bad science’: Planting frenzy misses the grasslands for the trees
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- In Laos, a ‘very dangerous dam’ threatens an ancient world heritage site
- Bali’s new highway project sparks concerns about agriculture and conservation areas
- Deforestation notches up along logging roads on PNG’s New Britain Island
- Plantations and roads strip away Papua’s forests. They’re just getting started
