
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.


Ebola-like African primate viruses ‘poised for spillover’ to humans, study finds
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Deforestation ‘out of control’ in reserve in Brazil’s cattle capital
- In Brazil’s Amazon, land grabbers scramble to claim disputed Indigenous reserve
- Gold mining invades remote protected area in Ecuador
- ‘Panic’ sets in as armed groups occupy, deforest Colombian national park

Oceans
- Mongabay Explains: What’s the difference between artisanal and industrial fishing?
- Indonesia opens its ‘ocean account’ for sustainable marine management
- The dark side of light: Coastal urban lighting threatens marine life, study shows
- Indigenous Kawésqar take on salmon farms in Chile’s southernmost fjords

Amazon Conservation
- Sonia Guajajara: Turnaround from jail threats to Minister of Indigenous Peoples
- From Japan to Brazil: Reforesting the Amazon with the Miyawaki method
- ‘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

Land rights and extractives
- Tense neighbors: Chinese quarry in Cameroon takes a toll on locals
- FOIA lawsuit suggests Indonesian nickel miners lack environmental licenses
- Shadows of oil in Peru: Shipibo people denounce damage, contamination left by company
- In Liberia, a gold boom leads to unregulated mining and ailing rivers

Endangered Environmentalists
- ‘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
- Worries and whispers in Vietnam’s NGO community after activist’s sentencing
- Scientists call for end to violence against Amazon communities, environmental defenders

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
- 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
- ‘South Asia needs its own tiger plan’: Q&A with Nepal’s Maheshwar Dhakal

Southeast Asian infrastructure
- 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
- Java communities rally as clock ticks on cleanup of ‘world’s dirtiest river’
