
Articles by John Cannon
John is a staff features writer with Mongabay. Follow him on Twitter: @johnccannon.
John became a correspondent for Mongabay in 2014 and joined the site's team full time in October 2016. John's journalistic work has also appeared in New Scientist, Slate.com, Yale Environment 360, Pacific Standard, Science (online), Business Insider and Bicycle Times. John has been a guest on the BBC as well as NPR's All Things Considered and Living on Earth, and he has also had several short stories published in literary magazines. He studied biology as an undergraduate at the Ohio State University and has a graduate degree in science writing from UC Santa Cruz. Always eager to find local perspectives on globally relevant stories, John has reported from Brunei, Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Peru and Rwanda. He currently lives in Afghanistan with his wife.


The ‘idea’: Uncovering the peatlands of the Congo Basin

Allegations of displacement, violence beleaguer Kenyan conservancy NGO

Details emerge around closed-door carbon deal in Malaysian Borneo

Bornean communities locked into 2-million-hectare carbon deal they don’t know about

Deforestation notches up along logging roads on PNG’s New Britain Island

Deforestation threatens tree kangaroo habitat in Papua New Guinea

Inland mangroves reveal a tumultuous climatic past — and hint at our future

Will ‘ropeless’ fishing gear be seaworthy in time to save endangered whales?

Humans’ role in climate warming ‘unequivocal,’ IPCC report shows

Road construction imperils tree kangaroo recovery in PNG

Scientists call for solving climate and biodiversity crises together

Science refutes United Cacao’s claim it didn’t deforest Peruvian Amazon

Protected areas now cover nearly 17% of Earth’s surface: U.N. report

Saving our ‘Beloved Beasts’: Q&A with environmental journalist Michelle Nijhuis

‘Opening the lid’ on toilet innovation: Q&A with author Chelsea Wald

Nearly half the Amazon’s intact forest on Indigenous-held lands: Report

Pension and endowment funds linked to conflict-plagued oil palm in DRC

Pig nest-building promotes tree diversity in tropical forest: Study

Forest patches amid agriculture are key to orangutan survival: Study

U.N. report lays out blueprint to end ‘suicidal war on nature’

Indigenous community wins recognition of its land rights in Panama

Southeast Asian wild pigs confront deadly African swine fever epidemic

Seven financial firms key to rooting out deforestation, report finds

Timber organization’s backing ‘one step’ toward ‘peace park’ in Borneo

Protesters hold back military takeover of Balkans’ largest mountain pasture

11 notable books on conservation and the environment published in 2020

Soy moratorium averted New Jersey-size loss of Amazon rainforest: Study

Hope and peace: Bison return to the Rosebud reservation

The promise of ‘bird-friendly’ cities: Q&A with author Timothy Beatley
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Mennonite colonies linked to deforestation of Indigenous territories and protected areas in Paraguay
- Deforestation on the rise in Quintana Roo, Mexico, as Mennonite communities move in
- Logged and loaded: Cambodian prison official suspected in massive legalized logging operation
- Bolivian national park hit hard by forest fires in 2022, satellite data show

Oceans
- As oceans warm, temperate reef species edge closer to extinction, study shows
- Can we control marine invaders by eating them?
- Sea level rise looms, even for the best-prepared country on Earth
- Fishy business of squid vessels needs stronger regulation, study says

Amazon Conservation
- Tropical forest regeneration offsets 26% of carbon emissions from deforestation
- Plan to mine ‘clean energy’ metals in Colombian Amazon splits communities
- Peru congress debates stripping isolated Indigenous people of land and protections
- Make it local: Deforestation link to less Amazon rainfall tips activism shift

Land rights and extractives
- Plan to mine ‘clean energy’ metals in Colombian Amazon splits communities
- Peru congress debates stripping isolated Indigenous people of land and protections
- Brazil tackles illegal miners, but finds their mercury legacy harder to erase
- Lula government scrambles to overcome Yanomami crisis, but hurdles remain

Endangered Environmentalists
- ‘You don’t kill people to protect forests’: New Thai parks chief raises alarm
- Vietnam’s environmental NGOs face uncertain status, shrinking civic space
- ‘We lost the biggest ally’: Nelly Marubo on her friend Bruno Pereira’s legacy
- Murders of 2 Pataxó leaders prompt Ministry of Indigenous Peoples to launch crisis office

Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
- After 20 years and thousands of trees planted, Kalimantan’s veteran forester persists
- Aziil Anwar, Indonesian coral-based mangrove grower, dies at 64
- A utopia of clean air and wet peat amid Sumatra’s forest fire ‘hell’

Conservation Effectiveness
- For key Bangladesh wetland, bid for Ramsar status is no guarantee of protection
- Biodiversity, human rights safeguards crucial to nature-based solutions: Critics
- Protecting canids from planet-wide threats offers ecological opportunities
- Mangrove forest loss is slowing toward a halt, new report shows

Southeast Asian infrastructure
- As Indonesia’s new capital takes shape, risks to wider Borneo come into focus
- Tunnel collapse at dam project in orangutan habitat claims yet another life
- Sulawesi nickel plant coats nearby homes in toxic dust
- Indonesia’s grand EV plans hinge on a ‘green’ industrial park that likely isn’t
