
Articles by Mireya Mayor
Dr. Mireya Mayor, a primatologist, explorer, author, Fulbright Scholar and NSF Fellow, has for more than a decade been a wildlife correspondent, reporting on wildlife and habitat loss while advocating for solutions to the alarming trends. Mayor has been hailed as a “female Indiana Jones,” in the media and is an inspiration to young women interested in science and exploration. Currently, Mayor has joined Florida International University as Director of Exploration and Science Communications Initiative. A two-time Emmy Award-nominated field correspondent for the National Geographic Channel, Mayor has reported to audiences worldwide on pertinent wildlife and habitat issues. Closest to her heart is her study of a newfound species of Microcebus, or mouse lemur, which she discovered on a 2000 National Geographic funded field expedition in Madagascar. Her work with this rare primate inspired the prime minister of Madagascar to establish a national park to help protect the new species, conserving the 10 percent that remains of the African island nation’s once vast forest. When not deep in the jungle or on assignment, Mayor, a National Geographic Explorer, speaks to audiences across the country and internationally about the importance of conservation for a vigorous and healthy planet. Her lectures are informative, educational and inspirational highlighting the merge of her scientific and journalism career, which spans more than 15 years with some of the most critically endangered animals on the planet, in places often virtually unexplored. Mayor was featured on Explorer, Ultimate Explorer and starred in Mystery Gorilla and Wild Nights on the Nat GeoWILD network. In addition, she also starred in the eight-part series Expedition Africa: Stanley & Livingstone (History Channel) and most recently, Expedition Bigfoot on Travel Channel.

Special series
Forest Trackers
- Deforestation on the rise in Quintana Roo, Mexico, as Mennonite communities move in
- Logged and loaded: Cambodian prison official suspected in massive legalized logging operation
- Bolivian national park hit hard by forest fires in 2022, satellite data show
- Deforestation ‘out of control’ in reserve in Brazil’s cattle capital

Oceans
- Sea level rise looms, even for the best-prepared country on Earth
- Fishy business of squid vessels needs stronger regulation, study says
- Indonesia’s mangrove restoration will run out of land well short of target, study warns
- As U.N. members clinch historic high seas biodiversity treaty, what’s in it?

Amazon Conservation
- Plan to mine ‘clean energy’ metals in Colombian Amazon splits communities
- Peru congress debates stripping isolated Indigenous people of land and protections
- Make it local: Deforestation link to less Amazon rainfall tips activism shift
- In Brazil, criminals dismantle one of the best-preserved swaths of the Amazon

Land rights and extractives
- Plan to mine ‘clean energy’ metals in Colombian Amazon splits communities
- Peru congress debates stripping isolated Indigenous people of land and protections
- Brazil tackles illegal miners, but finds their mercury legacy harder to erase
- Lula government scrambles to overcome Yanomami crisis, but hurdles remain

Endangered Environmentalists
- ‘You don’t kill people to protect forests’: New Thai parks chief raises alarm
- Vietnam’s environmental NGOs face uncertain status, shrinking civic space
- ‘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

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
- For key Bangladesh wetland, bid for Ramsar status is no guarantee of protection
- 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

Southeast Asian infrastructure
- As Indonesia’s new capital takes shape, risks to wider Borneo come into focus
- 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
