European tuna boats dump fishing debris in Seychelles waters ‘with impunity’
In 2019, when Jeremy Raguain turned up for a cleanup campaign on Aldabra Atoll, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, he bagged a marine monstrosity like no other: a beached fish…
Articles by Malavika Vyawahare
Madagascar staff reporter, international news. Formerly science and environment reporter at Hindustan Times, India. Columbia Journalism School Alum. Words in The New York Times, The Guardian, Al Jazeera and Scientific American.
Tweets at @MalavikaVy
Red flag: Predatory European ships help push Indian Ocean tuna to the brink
Until Jan 9, 2014, the Playa de Anzoras, a 2,200-ton tuna fishing vessel named for a beach in Spain, built in Spain and owned by Spaniards, sailed under the Spanish flag. On…
Study sounds latest warning of rainforest turning into savanna as climate warms
As the planet warms, it isn’t just humans who are feeling the heat — trees are too. Rising temperatures are disrupting a primary engine of life on Earth: photosynthesis. A…
As climate change brings more floods, mosquito numbers could swell: Study
The Aedes aegypti mosquito, with its distinctive white-spotted spindly legs, is one of our species’ most irksome foes, sucking blood and capable of spreading dangerous diseases like dengue. Attempts to control their…
Developing nations pay for rich countries’ hunger for healthy, exotic food
Luísa Carvalheiro says she remembers a time when açaí was just a humble berry, a staple for the Amazon's Indigenous communities. That was before the inky purple berries became all…
Corals are struggling, but they’re too abundant to go extinct, study says
A new study that counted half a trillion coral colonies between Indonesia and French Polynesia found that most corals are not in imminent danger of being wiped off the planet. Desolate reefs…
Reforested areas rival mature forests in securing water, study finds
That forests are good for the environment is a no-brainer. What isn’t as clear-cut: how do newly planted woodlands affect water availability? New research from Madagascar has drawn up some…
As Bahamas offshore project falls flat, oil driller island-hops across Caribbean
Bahamas Petroleum Company’s controversial bid to drill for offshore oil near the Florida coast hit a wall after its exploratory well did not find commercially viable reserves. Environmentalists in the Bahamas and…
Newly described chameleon from Madagascar may be world’s smallest reptile
Frank Glaw is no stranger to discovery. The German herpetologist has helped describe scores of new species from Madagascar, but the latest one is special: Brookesia nana is arguably the…
Mozambique’s new fisheries law expands protections but old problems persist
A new fisheries law enacted this month in Mozambique is being hailed as a landmark by conservationists. It seeks to empower communities and extend protection to an array of threatened marine species,…
Study warns of ‘biotic annihilation’ driven by hunting, habitat destruction
Humans are driving species to extinction 1,000 times faster than what is considered natural. Now, new research underscores the extent of the planet's impoverishment. Extinctions don't just rob the planet of species…
In Madagascar’s hungry south, drought pushes more than 1 million to brink of famine
Aid agencies amass nutrition data diligently from the scorched south of Madagascar. But on the ground, the sale of kitchen utensils is a real red flag for aid workers —…
Environmentalists seek to block Bahamas oil drilling bid near U.S. coast
The entry of STENA ICEMAX, a hulking 750-foot drilling vessel, into Bahamian waters this week signaled that a months-long battle over the blue waters of the Caribbean nation had come…
As minister and activists trade barbs, Madagascar’s forests burn
A long and intense fire season is exacting a grim toll across Madagascar. At its onset in May, a wave of fires ate into the dry forests that line the…
A Malagasy community wins global recognition for saving its lake
For centuries, Lake Andranobe in Madagascar's central highlands has nourished the surrounding communities. Over the past 16 years, its dependents have come together to restore the ailing lake. Now, that…
The riddle of Madagascar’s megafauna extinction just got trickier
The growing consensus that the earth is in the throes of a sixth mass extinction has focused attention on a centuries-old ecological puzzle: why do species suddenly disappear by the…
The crypto-creature from the deep: Researchers get rare video of bigfin squid
A sighting of one of the deep ocean's most mysterious beings, the bigfin squid, in Australian waters for the first time is creating waves among the scientific community's squid squad.…
Lemurs might never recover from COVID-19 (commentary)
The DreamWorks version of Madagascar is exactly that, a fantasy. The island nation is no unpeopled paradise teeming with dancing lemurs, as depicted in the animated Madagascar film. On the contrary,…
Blooms driven by climate change threaten to smother marine life in Arabian Sea
On Feb. 26, 2003, a group of scientists set out to sea from Goa, India, on a routine mission. They called it "sea truthing," verifying data gathered by satellites eyeing…
Flip-flops, fishing gear pile up at Aldabra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
The Aldabra coral atoll is a place of mythical beauty, uninhabited and so lost to the world that chartered flights and boats are the only way to get there. But…
Global wildlife being decimated by human actions, WWF report warns
Wildlife populations around the world have shrunk by 68% on average in the past nearly 50 years, according to a new report from WWF and the Zoological Society of London. In that…
Mauritians take to the street over oil spill and dolphin and whale deaths
Thousands of people demonstrated in Mauritius on Aug. 29 over the government's handling of a recent ship grounding that spilled 1,000 tons oil in the seas around the island nation.…
Mauritius’s plan to dump part of wrecked ship sparks controversy
On the morning of Aug.15, a wrecked ship, longer than the Titanic, broke in two in Mauritian waters. The Japanese-owned bulk carrier, M.V. Wakashio, had rammed into the island nation's…
‘We are losing’: Q&A with The Orangutan Project’s Leif Cocks on saving the great ape
To some humans, the idea of treating an orangutan as a person is absurd. For Leif Cocks, spending billions of dollars to find life on Mars while living beings are…
Mauritius grapples with worst environmental crisis in a generation
Mauritius, envied the world over for its azure waters, alluring beaches and marine riches, is facing one of its worst environmental disasters after a ship ran aground on a coral…
Say hello to Madagascar’s newest mouse lemur, a pint-sized primate
When searching for mouse lemurs in Madagascar's forests, scientists seek out their gleaming eyes in the dark. Their eyes are large for an animal about the size of a fist…
World Bank-backed attempt to commercialize Madagascar’s beef industry falters
When Hans Peter Lankes, a top official at the International Finance Corporation, visited Madagascar in February, he made it a point to tour the IFC-backed BoViMa facility near the southern…
A fire and a firing: Double whammy for Madagascar environmental regulator
A fire tore through the office of Madagascar's top environmental agency on the night of July 15, eviscerating documents that lie at the heart of its work as a regulator.…
An export boom threatens to put Madagascar’s mud crabs in hot water
For crab fishers on the western coast of Madagascar, where incomes are less than a thirtieth of those in the U.S., the Lunar New Year brings some cheer. Demand spikes…
A third of Madagascar’s lemur species on the brink of extinction, IUCN warns
Human actions have pushed 13 more lemur species, the iconic primates native to Madagascar, to the brink of extinction, according to an update to the list of the world’s threatened…
Special series
Forest trackers
- New palm oil frontier sparks scramble for land in the Brazilian Amazon
- Deforestation rises in Colombia’s Chiribiquete National Park as cattle invade
- ‘What other country would do this to its people?’ Cambodian land grab victims seek int’l justice
- Deforestation surge threatens endangered species in Tanintharyi, Myanmar
Oceans
- Sea turtles under threat as Indian government weighs development in Andaman Islands
- European tuna boats dump fishing debris in Seychelles waters ‘with impunity’
- Red flag: Predatory European ships help push Indian Ocean tuna to the brink
- Surge in seizures of giant clam shells has Philippine conservationists wary
Amazon conservation
- As COP26 looms and tropical deforestation soars, REDD+ debate roars on
- ‘We are made invisible’: Brazil’s Indigenous on prejudice in the city
- Intimidation of Brazil’s enviro scientists, academics, officials on upswing
- Government inaction prompts voluntary REDD+ carbon credit boom in Brazil
Land rights and extractives
- Cambodia puts its arduous titling process for Indigenous land up for review
- Recognizing the true guardians of the forest: Q&A with David Kaimowitz
- Nearly half the Amazon’s intact forest on Indigenous-held lands: Report
- Pension and endowment funds linked to conflict-plagued oil palm in DRC
Endangered environmentalists
- Intimidation of Brazil’s enviro scientists, academics, officials on upswing
- Thailand’s Indigenous Peoples fight for ‘land of our heart’ (commentary)
- Brazilian woman threatened by Amazon loggers wins global human rights award
- Indonesian fishers opposed to dredging project hit by ‘criminalization’ bid
Indonesias forest 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
- Indigenous Iban community defends rainforests, but awaits lands rights recognition
Conservation effectiveness
- A Malagasy community wins global recognition for saving its lake
- Scientists in Costa Rica are growing new corals to save reefs
- Technology innovations look to change the cacao landscape in Colombia
- In mangrove restoration, custom solutions beat one-size-fits-all approach
Southeast asian infrastructure
- Indonesian governor’s arrest in road project points to more tainted contracts
- Papua deforestation highlights eastward shift of Indonesia forest clearing
- Podcast: Omens and optimism for Sumatran orangutans
- Planned coal-trucking road threatens a forest haven for Sumatran frogs
