
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
- Pasture replaces large tract of intact primary forest in Brazilian protected area
- Deforestation on the rise as poverty soars in Nigeria
- Refuge of endangered ‘African unicorn’ threatened by mining, poaching, deforestation
- Endangered chimps ‘on the brink’ as Nigerian reserve is razed for agriculture, timber

Oceans
- Indonesia cancels fisheries infrastructure projects in Maluku region amid lack of funds
- Murky provenance of a Chinese fleet clouds Madagascar shrimp fishery
- What’s popping? Humpbacks off South Africa, new acoustic study finds
- Fisher groups are the marine militia in Indonesia’s war on illegal fishing

Amazon Conservation
- Pasture replaces large tract of intact primary forest in Brazilian protected area
- Ecuador’s Pastaza province, Indigenous groups collaborate on forest conservation
- ‘Giving up’: Amazon is losing its resilience under human pressure, study shows
- Pharmaceutical water pollution detected deep in the Brazilian Amazon

Land rights and extractives
- Open-pit mining ban lifted in Philippine province, clearing way for copper project
- Ousted anti-mining mayor heads back to Philippine city hall after landslide win
- Thai gold mine blamed for sickening local villagers is set to reopen
- “Indigenous people are fighting to protect a natural equilibrium”: Q&A with Patricia Gualinga

Endangered Environmentalists
- Citizen participation: a key achievement at the first COP to the Escazú Agreement
- “We are on the front line”: Q&A with Indigenous land defender Adiela Jineth Mera Paz
- Death threats and friction with military force Guatemalan rangers to flee
- Amazon mining threatens dozens of uncontacted Indigenous groups, study shows

Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- From Flores to Papua: Meet 10 of Indonesia’s mangrove 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

Conservation Effectiveness
- In prioritizing conservation, animal culture should be a factor, study says
- Young forests can help heal tropical aquatic ecosystems: Study
- How sharing and learning from failures can transform conservation (commentary)
- Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?

Southeast Asian infrastructure
- In Laos, a ‘very dangerous dam’ threatens an ancient world heritage site
- Bali’s new highway project sparks concerns about agriculture and conservation areas
- Deforestation notches up along logging roads on PNG’s New Britain Island
- Plantations and roads strip away Papua’s forests. They’re just getting started
