Articles by John Cannon
John Cannon became a correspondent for Mongabay in 2014 and joined the site's team full time as a features writer in 2016. John's reporting has also appeared in New Scientist, Slate.com, Yale Environment 360, Pacific Standard, Science, 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 African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Peru and Rwanda. He lives in California with his wife and their two cats, adopted when they lived in Gaza. Follow him on Bluesky.
‘Rarest’ ape’s path to survival blocked by roads, dams and agriculture
More than 800 totoaba swim bladders confiscated by Mexican authorities in smuggling busts
More gorillas and chimpanzees living in Central Africa’s forests than thought
Half a ton of pangolin scales seized on the way to Asia from Benin
Suspected poisoning takes down 11 lions in Uganda park
Vine-like lianas alter the edges of fragmented forests: New study
Greenpeace International ends its Forest Stewardship Council membership
‘Ropeless’ consortium aims to end entanglements of declining North Atlantic right whales
Borneo’s elephants prefer degraded forests, a new study finds
Sarawak’s Penan now have detailed maps of their ancestral homeland
FSC-certified timber importer failed to check legality of shipment from Cameroon
Report finds projects in DRC ‘REDD+ laboratory’ fall short of development, conservation goals
Oil palm, rubber could trigger ‘storm’ of deforestation in the Congo Basin
NGOs seek suspension of forest-related funding to DRC in response to proposed end to logging moratorium
Scientists aim to give engineers the tools for ecologically sensitive development
Orangutan culture in focus in ‘Person of the Forest’: Q&A with researchers Cheryl Knott and Robert Rodriguez Suro
‘It’s our home’: Pygmies fight for recognition as forest protectors in new film
Carbon pricing could save millions of hectares of tropical forest: new study
Maps tease apart complex relationship between agriculture and deforestation in DRC
New study suggests Borneo’s had elephants for thousands of years
Study: RSPO certification prunes deforestation in Indonesia — but not by much
New study: Gorillas fare better in logged forests than chimps
Entanglements hamper reproduction as right whale population slides
New carbon maps of Sabah’s forests guide conservation in Borneo
Culture keeps cattle ranching going in the Brazilian Amazon
More big mammals found in high-carbon forests, says new study
Recent report: Totoaba trafficking a conservation and security problem
FSC mulls rule change to allow certification for recent deforesters
New study: Risky roads cause more than just environmental harm
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Bolivia’s El Curichi Las Garzas protected area taken over by land-grabbers
- Authorities struggle to protect Bolivian national park from drug-fueled deforestation
- Poverty and plantations: Nigerian reserve struggles against the odds
- Logging, road construction continue to fuel forest loss in Papua New Guinea
Oceans
- Lebanese youths take up rods and reels to learn sustainable fishing
- Japan prepares to mine its deep seabed by decade’s end
- Communities worry anew as PNG revives seabed mining plans
- Huge new no-fishing zones give Antarctic marine predators and their prey a break
Amazon Conservation
- Agribusiness bill moves to block grassland protections in Brazilian biomes
- Amazon prosecutors get sharper impact tool to charge illegal gold dealers
- How to reward tropical forest conservation: Interview with Tasso Azevedo
- Lula’s deforestation goals threatened by frustrated environmental agents
Endangered Environmentalists
- Indonesian activists face jail over FB posts flagging damage to marine park
- Vietnamese environmentalist sentenced to 3 years in prison for tax evasion
- Son of slain Quilombola leader will still strive for community’s rights
- Video: Five Tembé Indigenous activists shot in Amazonian ‘palm oil war’
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- Fenced in by Sulawesi national park, Indigenous women make forestry breakout
- In Borneo, the ‘Power of Mama’ fight Indonesia’s wildfires with all-woman crew
- 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
Conservation Effectiveness
- The conservation sector must communicate better (commentary)
- Thailand tries nature-based water management to adapt to climate change
- Forest restoration to boost biomass doesn’t have to sacrifice tree diversity
- How scientists and a community are bringing a Bornean river corridor back to life
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Study: Indonesia’s new capital city threatens stable proboscis monkey population
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
- To build its ‘green’ capital city, Indonesia runs a road through a biodiverse forest