Articles by Mactilda Mbenywe
Mactilda Mbenywe is a self-driven, motivated and passionate multimedia science journalist in Kenya, with a knack for environment, climate and conservation stories. She is a journalist with the Standard Group, a mainstream media house in Kenya with a mission of uncovering cross-border critical issues on both land and marine biodiversity through data-based multimedia storytelling. Apart from her passion, Mactilda has been a key pillar in reporting health and gender issues, especially issues touching on vulnerable groups. On the environment beat, she has reported in-depth stories on climate change and investigated impacts and sources of greenhouse gases. Her reporting on environment and climate change has helped communities living around Lake Victoria conserve marine resources, avoid environmental degradation and find sustainable ways of living. Mactilda has covered global conversations on environmental issues such as the COP26 event in Glasgow, Scotland, the UN Environment Programme Summit and the UN Environment Assembly, among others. As a science journalist, Mactilda has been at the forefront of covering the COVID-19 pandemic, linking viral disease to the environment, and attending high-level meetings organized by the World Health Organization and the African Center for Disease Control. She has been honored by the Nile Basin Initiative for balanced reporting on cooperation in the region. She has also been recognized by the Complex Urban Systems for Sustainability and Health project for excellence in reporting environmental concerns, and she has won an Annual Journalism Excellence Award for her reporting on how climate change spurs mental crises. Mactilda is a member of the Association of Media Women in Kenya, Media for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture, and the Kenya Environment and Science Journalists Association networks. She holds honors in journalism studies from Maseno University and is currently a master’s student in environmental communication studies.
Scientists make ‘rare’ new identification of snake family: Micrelapidae
Kenyan science interns turn Lake Victoria’s fish waste into oil and flowers
Kenya’s youngest environmental ambassador: Q&A with 10-year-old Karen Kimani
Humanitarian experts report ‘cascading crises’ as climate, health emergencies soar
Ebola-like African primate viruses ‘poised for spillover’ to humans, study finds
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
- Warming seas push India’s fishers into distant, and more dangerous, waters
- No protection from bottom trawling for seamount chain in northern Pacific
- Annual ocean conference raises $11.3b in pledges for marine conservation
- Caribbean startups are turning excess seaweed into an agroecology solution
Amazon Conservation
- Amid record-high fires across the Amazon, Brazil loses primary forests
- A web of front people conceals environmental offenders in the Amazon
- Brazil boosts protection of Amazon mangroves with new reserves in Pará state
- Cross-border Indigenous efforts in Peru & Brazil aim to protect isolated groups
Land rights and extractives
- Hyundai ends aluminum deal with Adaro Minerals following K-pop protest
- Brazil’s illegal gold trade takes a hammering, but persists underground
- Maluku bone collector unearths troubling consequence of coastal abrasion
- New FPIC guide designed to help protect Indigenous rights as mineral mining booms
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