Articles by Megan Stannard
Megan Stannard grew up collecting snails and sitting on the roof to watch the fox cubs in next door’s garden. Somewhat inevitably, she studied Psychology and Zoology at the University of Bristol, dissecting cockroach rectums to assess their parasite load and sitting in the rain to count ants. For her dissertation, she sat in the snow and assessed whether squirrels take predator attention into account when evaluating threat levels (they don’t). These days she mostly sits in offices; after graduating she went to work for the Zoological Society of London’s Conservation Programme creating and administering a database of their conservation projects, running Hackathons, and occasionally getting away from the desk to wade in the Thames looking for eels. She currently works for the NGO Elephant Family, fighting threats to the Asian elephant through projects focusing on a broad spectrum of conservation issues, from human-wildlife conflict to the illegal wildlife trade. She believes in the transformative power of the written word and in Mongabay’s mission to raise awareness, provide insight into complex issues, and willingness to question the foundational assumptions of the field. In her free time, she writes fiction, ice skates, and swordfights.
Microplastics may be a macro problem for the U.S. Great Plains, too, study finds
China’s wénwan drives a deadly mix-and-match of endangered wildlife
Bouncing back: The recovery of the tenkile tree kangaroo
‘A green desert’: Mammals take a hit in Colombia’s oil palm plantations
Jumping the Shark: The Decline of the North Atlantic’s Shortfin Mako
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
Land rights and extractives
- Global cobalt rush drives toxic toll near DRC mines
- Under the shadow of war in the DRC, a mining company’s actions face impunity
- New report details rights abuses in Cambodia’s Southern Cardamom REDD+ project
- Phantom deeds see Borneo islanders lose their land to quartz miners
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