Sonam Lama Hyolmo

Sonam Lama Hyolmo

About

Sonam Lama Hyolmo is a staff writer at Mongabay and a Kathmandu-based multimedia journalist writing at the intersection of environment, Indigenous rights, climate science, and conservation.

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63 stories
Canada Jay in Sax-Zim Bog. Canada Jays are a quintessential northwoods bird that utilize Black Spruce and Tamarack Bogs for foraging and nesting. Image by Friends of Sax-Zim Bog (FOSZB).

Local communities join global push to protect European, Arctic & US peatlands

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 5 Feb 2026
Hyena in Tanzania. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.

Viral hyena incident reveals Nepal’s growing online information disorder

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 31 Jan 2026
In the weeks since the deforestation in May, banda organizers launched a campaign to replant 20,000 saplings.

World Bank watchdog looks into Nepal cable car project amid Indigenous outcry

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 23 Jan 2026
A Magar local affected by the Tanahu Hydropower project. Image by Sanjog Laapaa Magar, INWOLAG.

Fights against development projects marks 2025 for Nepal’s Indigenous people

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 29 Dec 2025
A tree kangaroo.

Malaysian companies dominate PNG forest-clearance permits: report

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 15 Dec 2025
Herders cross the Lungasamba pass with their yaks. Image by Chyamtang-Kathmandu Welfare Society.

Nepal Indigenous leaders refile writ petition against hydropower project

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 12 Dec 2025
Indigenous participants at the Free Land Camp on April 10, where they discuss rights, territorial protection, and their role in COP30. Image by AP Photo/Eraldo Peres.

What was achieved for Indigenous peoples at COP30?

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 27 Nov 2025
Fledglings of Lesser Adjutant in the Parsa-Koshi Complex. Image by Hem Bahadur Katuwal.

Bird diversity drops in human-dominated habitats, Nepal study suggests

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 26 Nov 2025

Indigenous delegates prepare for COP30 with focus on justice, land and finance

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 7 Nov 2025
Annapurna mountains.

Ousted Nepal gov’t cleared easier path for controversial cable cars, documents show

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 29 Oct 2025
Community people in Jhumlabang gathered in a community meeting in July. Image courtesy of Jhumlabang Village Foundation (JVF).

In Nepal’s hills, a fight brews over the country’s biggest iron deposit

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 17 Oct 2025
Amazon peoples have insisted on the urgency of having their voice and vote taken into account in biodiversity negotiations. Photo by UN biodiversity.

Indigenous leaders gather at the IUCN Indigenous Peoples and Nature summit

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 8 Oct 2025
Tromsø Arctic Reindeer and Sami Experience in Krokelvdalen, Norway. Image by Nicolas Lafargue via Unsplash.

Climate change puts pressure on reindeer populations, both wild & domestic herds

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 1 Oct 2025
Tiger on a rock.

Amid challenges, Nepal plans its latest tiger & rhino counts

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 1 Oct 2025
A black-and-white ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata), an endangered species of ruffed lemur.

Rights of nature concept creates room for life, but it’s still ‘fuzzy’: Study

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 25 Sep 2025
Drone shot of a mining site in Myanmar.

Satellite data show burst of deforestation in Myanmar rare earth mining hotspots

Latoya Abulu, Sonam Lama Hyolmo 16 Sep 2025

Nepal’s Supreme Court halts industrial development in Buddha’s birthplace

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 29 Aug 2025
A camera trap image of a southern red muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak) in Temburong.

Brunei built Southeast Asia’s longest bridge. What does this mean for wildlife?

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 29 Aug 2025
Magar people stage protest against the Tanahun Hydropower project. Image by Sanjog Laapaa Magar, INWOLAG.

Development banks under fire for backing disputed Nepal hydropower project

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 22 Aug 2025
Waterfowl at Patlai River in Tanguar Haor, Bangladesh.

Global wetlands conference results in resolutions for protection & restoration

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 12 Aug 2025
A loggerhead hatchling in Boa vista. Image courtesy of The Turtle Foundation.

Former poachers guard Cabo Verde’s endangered sea turtles

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 4 Aug 2025
Black crowned crane (Balearica pavonina). Image by Saverio Savio via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

The sacred humans-bird connection in Ethiopia’s wetlands: Interview with Abebayehu Aticho

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 25 Jul 2025
The Nepalese paper plant is used to make the traditional lokta paper.

Nepal sees positive outcome from reforestation project using local knowledge

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 8 Jul 2025
Indigenous leaders at the first congress in Brazzaville. Image by Maribel Arango.

First congress of forest basin leaders results in call for direct financing

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 24 Jun 2025
A woman in the field in the Bien La commune.

Study shows Vietnam’s ethnic communities’ grapple with hydropower plant impacts

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 5 Jun 2025
Limbu locals stage protest against the project. Image courtesy of Mukkumlung Protection and Struggle Committee.

In Nepal, confrontation looms over controversial cable car project as court lifts stay order

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 27 May 2025
Horseback patrolling in a community-based conservancy

Community conservancies in Kyrgyzstan see conservation success against illegal hunting

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 26 May 2025
Tsimi Judith harvesting the Gnetum (okok) in the village of Minwoho, Lekié, Center Region, Cameroon.

Report shows policy gaps in safeguarding the carbon rights of forest communities

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 8 May 2025
Limbu locals stage protest against the project. Image courtesy of Mukkumlung Protection and Struggle Committee.

Cable car project in Nepal under fire for flawed environmental review

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 5 May 2025
Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae).

‘We belong to one ocean’: Indigenous leaders push for seat at the table of high seas biodiversity treaty

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 29 Apr 2025

Ecuador communities resist Canada-backed gold mine in sacred highlands

Aimee Gabay, Sonam Lama Hyolmo 17 Apr 2025
Tiwai Honey Initiative product picture. Image © Ezekiel Kargbo for The Iris Project.

How a young beekeeper’s initiative brought hope and profit to Sierra Leone communities

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 31 Mar 2025

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Coastline of Big Sur in California. In 2013, a group of researchers found eggs of California condors in the coastal redwoods of Big Sur contaminated with DDT, even though the pesticide has been banned in the U.S. since 1972. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
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