Articles by Mongabay.com

9/9/14 update below Four Ashaninka were killed last week by illegal loggers in the Peruvian Amazon, reports El Comercio. One of those killed was Edwin Chota, the leader of the…

Morelet's tree frog or the Black-eyed tree frog (Agalychnis moreletii) from Central America is Critically Endangered. September 7 is Threatened Species Day, a designation established by the Australian government to…

California or North Pacific Blue Whales can exceed 100 feet (30m) long and weigh 190 tons. Photo courtesy of Gilpatrick/Lynn/NOAA The population of blue whales in the Eastern Pacific has…

The Bukit Batabuh tiger corridor within the RIMBA Corridor. Courtesy of Tiger in your tank? Major palm oil suppliers may be continuing to buy tainted palm oil despite high-profile commitments…

Coquerel's Sifaka (Propithecus coquereli) September 1 is World Primate Day, a designation intended to raise awareness about apes, monkeys, and prosimians like lemurs, lorises, and tarsiers. Many non-human primates are…

Oil palm fruit. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Indonesia's national airline, Garuda Indonesia, says it will start mixing palm oil-based biofuel with its jet fuel as part of an initiative…

Aposphragisma brunomanseri goblin spider. Courtesy of the Natural History Museum of Berne Swiss researchers have honored the memory of a missing indigenous peoples activist by naming an undescribed species of…

Greenpeace Canada has filed a Statement of Defense in response to a $7 million lawsuit by Resolute Forest Products (NYSE:RFP) over allegations that the logging company destroyed forests in Quebec…

Tropical rainforest. Photos by Rhett Butler. Since 2008 Norway has been the single largest foreign donor to tropical forest conservation, putting more than 10 billion Norwegian Krone, or $1.6 billion,…

At around 7-8 cm long, the Mount Mabu pygmy chameleon (Rhampholeon maspictus) is a relatively large species. Its name comes from the Latin for ‘painted man’, reflecting the striking green,…

Forest conversion for an oil palm plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. Photos by Rhett Butler. U.S. food giant ConAgra has adopted a new sourcing policy that will exclude palm oil produced…

Forest and soybean fields in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Photos by Rhett Butler. Soy consumption in China and Europe is having significant ecological impacts in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso,…

Tropical rainforest. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Governors from 13 states have pledged to reduce deforestation 80 percent by 2020 provided rich companies step forward with adequate levels of financial…

Elephants in Namibia. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Marking World Elephant Day, a designation intended to raise awareness about the plight of elephants that are being widely poached for the…

Shipment of Malagasy rosewood intercepted in Sri Lanka in early April 2014. Courtesy of Sri Lanka Customs. Voluntary guidelines established by the Chinese government won't be enough to curb rampant…

New satellite data from NASA suggests that deforestation is sharply increasing in Bolivia and Mekong countries during the second quarter of 2014. NASA's Quarterly Indicator of Cover Change (QUICC), a…

Roads in the Brazilian Amazon. Courtesy of Google Earth. 94.9 percent of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon occurs on land less than 5 kilometers from a road or navigable river,…

Elephant in Namibia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has signed into law a ban on elephant ivory sales, reports NorthJersey.com. The measure, passed earlier by…

The Brazilian government has released footage showing 'first contact' with an isolated group of indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest, reports G1. The video, released by Brazil's National Indian Foundation…

The spill site in Cuninico, Peru. Courtesy of Google Earth. A ruptured pipeline that spilled tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Marañón River in late June…

Annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon since 1988. Clearing has declined sharply since 2004. Targeted law enforcement efforts via Brazil's green municipalities programs were responsible for reducing deforestation by 10,653…

Agriculture and forest in the Brazilian Amazon Better utilization of its vast areas of pasturelands could enable Brazil to dramatically boost agricultural production without the need to clear another hectare…

This nadir true-color image was acquired by the Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) instrument on August 26, 2000, and shows part of the southern portion of the reef adjacent to the…

Sunda pangolin. Courtesy of the Danau Girang Field Centre Lush Cosmetics has agreed to support an effort to battle trafficking of the Sunda pangolin. Lush will provide funding to an…

The RFCx system. Courtesy of Rainforest Connection After exceeding an ambitious fundraising target to launch a near-real time forest monitoring system in the Congo Basin, a San-Francisco based start-up is…

The number of fires burning in Sumatra's Riau Province doubled on Sunday, raising concerns that dry conditions could unleash an especially severe haze this dry season in Indonesia. An image…

Australia's native mammals have fared poorly since the arrival of Europeans. On Tuesday a prominent group of conservation scientists condemned the Australian government's recent moves to eliminate protections for native…

Greenhouse gas emissions from livestock production have increased by more than 50 percent over the past 50 years and are set to zoom higher as the developing world consumes more…

Despite concerns that the el Niño weather phenomenon could reduce output, palm oil prices have fallen by more than a fifth in local currency terms since their most recent peak…

Aida Greenbury, Asia Pulp & Paper's Managing Director Sustainability, says Indonesia needs to work toward a model that encourages forest protection. An APP acacia timber plantation in Riau. In response…