Shanna Hanbury

Shanna Hanbury

About

Shanna Hanbury covers breaking news on climate and conservation for Mongabay. Previously she specialized in data-driven and investigative reporting on Latin America, with a focus on the Amazon rainforest, for The Guardian, BBC, Open Democracy, Time Magazine, National Geographic and many more. She is based between Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Barcelona, Spain and has been a regular contributor for Mongabay since 2019.

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255 stories
A new species of pit viper was discovered and is still in the process of being described. Image courtesy of Fauna & Flora.

New species discovered in Cambodia’s rare rocky ecosystems

Shanna Hanbury 2 Apr 2026
Patagonian octopus eggs in Puerto Lobos Protected Natural Area in Argentina. Image courtesy of Martin Brogger.

Baby octopus in Argentina: Photo of the week

Shanna Hanbury 31 Mar 2026

Grasslands and wetlands are being lost to agriculture four times faster than forests

Shanna Hanbury 30 Mar 2026
Northern gannet (Morus bassanus) nest made largely of plastic debris. Image courtesy of Martin Brogger.

Seabird nests built with plastic waste off the coast of Germany: Photo of the week

Shanna Hanbury 25 Mar 2026
The Diavik diamond mine in northwestern Canada. Image from Google Maps.

Canada invests $1m into mining exploration on Indigenous land

Shanna Hanbury 25 Mar 2026
Occupation of Funai’s Altamira branch. Image courtesy of the Medio Xingu Indigenous Women’s Movement.

Indigenous groups demand halt to Belo Sun Amazon gold mine

Shanna Hanbury 23 Mar 2026
Trash bags full of discarded plastic. Image by Adil Edin via Unsplash (Public domain).

Huge amounts of nanoplastics discovered in tap and bottled water

Shanna Hanbury 23 Mar 2026
The Ranitomeya aetherea poison dart frog. Image courtesy of Alexander Mônico.

An ‘ethereal’ new-to-science poison dart frog from the Amazon: Photo of the week

Shanna Hanbury 19 Mar 2026
The Albardão dune fields in the extreme south of Brazil’s southernmost Rio Grande do Sul state. Image courtesy of ICMBio.

Brazil protects huge coastal area with endangered dolphins and megafauna fossils

Shanna Hanbury 18 Mar 2026
Ariel toucans in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Image courtesy of Flávia Zagury.

Toucans reintroduced 50 years ago disperse seeds of endangered trees in Brazil

Shanna Hanbury 17 Mar 2026
An adult kākāpō named Alice and her chick Rupi. Image courtesy of Jake Osborne/New Zealand Department of Conservation.

Critically endangered kākāpō parrot has standout breeding season

Shanna Hanbury 9 Mar 2026
Shark fins seized during the police raid. Image courtesy of Brazilian Federal Police.

Brazilian police seize more than 1.5 metric tons of shark fins

Shanna Hanbury, Karla Mendes 3 Mar 2026
A Yanomami infant intubated at the Santo Antônio children’s hospital in Boa Vista, Roraima. Image courtesy of Emmily Melo/Hutukara Associação Yanomami.

Five Yanomami infants in Brazil die amid whooping cough outbreak

Shanna Hanbury 27 Feb 2026
Demonstrators in Santarém, Pará state, Brazil. Image courtesy of Amazon Watch.

Brazil revokes decree privatizing three Amazonian rivers after Indigenous protests

Shanna Hanbury 26 Feb 2026
A small airplane used for the illegal mining network is set on fire by IBAMA inspectors in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory.

Brazil mining boss sentenced for illegal gold operation on Indigenous land

Shanna Hanbury 12 Feb 2026
Demonstrators on Feb. 8 in Santarém, Pará state, Brazil. Image courtesy of Movimento Tapajós Vivo.

Indigenous protests force Brazil to suspend Tapajós River dredging plan

Shanna Hanbury 10 Feb 2026
Açaí extraction provides income for local communities while helping to keep forests standing.

Brazil declares açaí a national fruit amid biopiracy concerns

Shanna Hanbury 30 Jan 2026
An aerial view of Black River, Jamaica, in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa. Image by AP Photo/Matias Delacroix.

More than 87m people impacted by climate-related disasters in 2025

Shanna Hanbury 29 Jan 2026
After a game of beach footvolley on a sweltering hot day in Beirut, Lebanon, a man cools off by pouring water on himself.

2025 was third-warmest year on record, research shows

Shanna Hanbury 20 Jan 2026
Deforestation in Mato Grosso state. Image © Paulo Pereira/Greenpeace.

Soy giants drop Amazon no-deforestation pledge as subsidies come under threat

Shanna Hanbury 9 Jan 2026
A Samoan coral reef from the air. Image courtesy of Andy Estep.

Marine protected areas expanded in 2025, but still far from 30% goal

Shanna Hanbury 8 Jan 2026
European Parliament plenary session on Dec. 17. Image courtesy of the European Union.

EUDR antideforestation law officially delayed for second year in a row

Shanna Hanbury 6 Jan 2026
An oil refinery in Slovakia. Image by Mariano Mantel via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0).

Record fossil fuel emissions in 2025 despite renewables buildout, report says

Shanna Hanbury 26 Dec 2025
Truphena Muthoni hugging a tree for 72 consecutive hours. Image by Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga via X.

Environmentalist hugs tree for 72 hours for Kenya’s native forests

Shanna Hanbury 25 Dec 2025
Artisanal fishing boats. Image by Mongabay Latam.

Drug gangs in Ecuador and Peru also involved in shark fin trafficking: Report

Shanna Hanbury 19 Dec 2025
: Press conference following the vote to delay the EUDR, again. Image courtesy of Laurie Dieffembacq/European Union.

EU votes to delay EUDR antideforestation law for second year in a row

Shanna Hanbury 19 Dec 2025
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa uses a stick to measure how deep the area is, in the Aguarico 4 oil field where a sign reads in Spanish "Danger. Contaminated area" in Ecuador, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2013. Correa visited the site to call attention to oil contamination in Ecuador's Amazon region. Earlier this year, Ecuador awarded a $19 billion judgment to the residents of this area for Texaco's contamination of this rainforest between 1972 and 1990. But Chevron Corp., which bought Texaco in 2001, said it won't pay because it says Texaco dealt with the problem before it was bought. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

‘Neither appropriate nor fair’: Ecuador ordered to pay oil giant Chevron $220m

Shanna Hanbury 18 Dec 2025
Smoke from wildfires fills the air over Lake Tefé in the Amazon. Image courtesy of Miguel Monteiro.

The Amazon’s lakes are heating up at ‘alarming’ rate, research finds

Shanna Hanbury 11 Dec 2025
BR-319 highway in Amazonas, Brazil. Image © Nilmar Lage/Greenpeace.

Brazil fast-tracks paving controversial highway in Amazon with new licensing rule

Shanna Hanbury 5 Dec 2025
Devastation left behind by illegal gold mining within the borders of the Sararé Indigenous territory in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Image courtesy of IBAMA.

Brazilian Amazon’s most violent city tied to illegal gold mining on Indigenous land

Shanna Hanbury 3 Dec 2025
Flood survivors use logs to cross a river in Batang Toru, North Sumatra, Indonesia, on Dec. 2, 2025. Image by AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara.

More than 1,400 dead across Asia after ‘rare’ cyclone & typhoon converge

Shanna Hanbury 3 Dec 2025
Brazil Environment Minister Marina Silva speaks out against the vote in Congress. Image courtesy of Fábio Rodrigues-Pozzebom/Agência Brasil.

Brazil votes to allow most projects & farms to skip environmental licensing

Shanna Hanbury 2 Dec 2025

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

Yo Yaj at Songkhla Lake, Thailand
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A Mongabay investigation team visited the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon where Mennonites are illegally converting pristine forests in the Peruvian Amazon into agricultural land. Image by Romi Castagnino for Mongabay.
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Creek in the Colombian Amazon. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
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