Conservation news

Global marine protected areas fail to safeguard most sharks and rays: Study

Madeline Shaw — 14 Aug 2026 16:41:43 +0000

In 2022, 196 countries agreed to the ambitious conservation goal of “30×30”: setting aside 30% of the planet’s coastal and marine areas for conservation by 2030 as part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Now, halfway to 2030, only about 10% of the ocean is covered by protected areas, leaving many countries far short of meeting this biodiversity goal by the end of the decade. Even within these existing reserves, new research shows significant gaps for one of the most threatened marine groups: sharks and rays. A study published in Conservation Letters in July finds that most species of sharks and rays have less than 10% of their ranges covered by any marine protected area (MPA), with significant shortfalls for threatened and critically endangered species. The analysis also reveals major gaps in reporting on the extent of fishing and harvesting restrictions in these preserves, also known as “take-status”, which is important for assessing meaningful protection for these animals. “Simply increasing the amount of protected ocean doesn’t necessarily mean we’re actually protecting those threatened species,” Amanda Arnold, a marine biodiversity researcher at Simon Fraser University in Canada and the lead author of the study, told Mongabay. “It’s not covering the breadth of biodiversity.” Sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus), a critically endangered species according to the IUCN. Image mattdowse via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0). Research suggests that to offer measurable conservation benefits, marine preserves should cover at least a tenth of a species’ range, with 20-40% coverage maximizing conservation gains. Yet few…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Among the sacred hills of Colombia’s Guainía

Rhett A. Butler — 14 Aug 2026 15:03:37 +0000

I had been struck by photographs of the Cerros de Mavicure rising above the forest and the Inírida River in eastern Colombia. The dark rock, exposed against an almost unbroken expanse of green, seemed unlike anywhere else I had visited in the Amazon. Last month, ahead of Mongabay Latam’s PUMA FEST in Bogotá, I finally had the chance to visit. I traveled with Daniela Quintero Díaz, Mongabay Latam’s investigations editor, and Oilber Díaz, a member of the Puinave people who guided us through the region. The three main hills, Mavicure, Mono and Pajarito, are outcrops of the Guiana Shield. They span two Indigenous territories. Mavicure, the hill visitors climb, lies within El Venado, while Mono and Pajarito are within El Remanso. Each territory has a nearby community of the same name. The hills are regarded as sacred by Indigenous peoples in the region. In Puinave tradition, they are connected to stories of creation, animals, family, and the rules governing relations between people and the natural world. Cerros de Mavicure. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Dreyk, a member of the Cubeo people from the Venado community, led us up Mavicure. The trail crossed steep granite, with forest growing in narrow seams and pockets of soil. From higher ground, the scale of the landscape became clearer. The hills rose abruptly from the canopy, while the Inírida curved around them. We reached a viewpoint in time for a beautiful sunset. On the descent after dark, frogs and geckos appeared along the trail. Cerros…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Caught on camera: Sand cats may have a ‘sizable population’ in Qatar

Alex Megerle — 14 Aug 2026 14:33:32 +0000

Muhammad Ali Nawaz didn’t expect to see so many cats. Nawaz, a wildlife ecologist at Qatar University, had set out to survey Qatar for the sand cat, a tiny, seldom-studied felid that lives in deserts across Southwest and Central Asia, northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Though there were anecdotal reports of the species in Qatar — some cats photographed, some not — there were no systematic records. So, Nawaz and his collaborators set out an array of cameras and waited. “When I collected the cameras, it was a big surprise,” he told Mongabay on a video call. Between 2022 and 2025, the cameras photographed sand cats (Felis margarita) more than 100 times, all in Qatar’s Al-Ureiq Reserve — a protected area of roughly 55 square kilometers (21 square miles). Though it’s unclear how many individual cats triggered cameras, these images provide solid evidence of the species’ range and information on its habitat preferences, data that was recently published in the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science. “This is a remarkable kind of a discovery and gives hope for the terrestrial wildlife in the country,” Nawaz said. Photographs captured during this study provide solid evidence of the species’ range and information on its habitat preferences. Image courtesy of Muhammad Ali Nawaz. A resilient desert-dweller Sand cats are perfectly suited for their desert homes. These diminutive felids’ sand-colored fur provides stellar camouflage. Dense fur on their paws insulates against hot sand. Their keen hearing can detect prey underground. They eat small mammals,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

New studies portray Amazon as surprisingly resilient, but tipping point looms

Amanda Magnani — 14 Aug 2026 14:31:04 +0000

For decades, scientists have been trying to answer a key question: What would the Amazon rainforest look like if deforestation, climate change and fires continue? And, a follow-up question: When would that transformation happen? While several researchers have made progress on the answers over the years, a series of studies in 2026 sheds new light on the prognoses. The three reports published earlier this year examine the health of the rainforest from different angles. In April, a study published in Nature shows the Amazon heals faster than expected, but takes longer to fully recover its biodiversity after extreme events. A PNAS study, based on research conducted over two decades and also published in April, finds that the forest is more resilient to fires than anticipated and shows no sign of transitioning to savanna — a different outcome than has long been suspected. However, the researchers warn that the new ecosystems emerging from the forest recovery process are more vulnerable to future climate disturbances. In May, another paper published in Nature examines the impacts of deforestation, notably the increase in the frequency and intensity of droughts, finding that this increase could push the biome to a tipping point by 2040. Emergent rainforest tree in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler for Mongabay. But according to Luciana Gatti, senior researcher at Brazil’s space agency (INPE), climate in the Amazon has already changed sufficiently that typical rainforest trees no longer find the necessary conditions for survival: abundant water and mild temperatures.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

How women farmers are helping elephants and forests in a Sumatran national park

SuryadiYenni Kwok — 14 Aug 2026 14:22:11 +0000

LUBUK KEMBANG BUNGA, Indonesia — Tesso Nilo National Park, located on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, often makes headlines due to human-wildlife conflict — a byproduct of illegal encroachment and deforestation by oil palm plantations. However, there is a ray of hope, thanks to female farmers who live in a buffer zone of the national park. In the village of Lubuk Kembang Bunga, in the buffer zone next to the park, women are leading an initiative to plant fruit trees that both serve a conservation purpose and provide extra income. To prevent elephants from destroying their fruit plantations, the villagers plant citrus trees, which repel the pachyderms. Elsewhere, they also plant fruits beloved by these large animals, such as jackfruit, its cousin cempedak, and stink beans, known in Indonesian as petai. Ernita, a 33-year-old farmer, said she can now breathe easy after planting citrus trees on the perimeter of her oil palm farm. “Before we had the citrus trees, elephants always ate our oil palm fruits,” she told Mongabay Indonesia. “We had to replant the trees four or five times … Praise be to God, since we planted the citrus trees, the elephants haven’t eaten our oil palm fruits.” Ernita’s farm lies just outside Tesso Nilo, so she can grow various crops, including oil palm. But other parts of Lubuk Kembang Bunga village fall within the park’s borders, where, technically at least, oil palm cultivation isn’t permitted. Ernita, a farmer and member of Perbani, grows citrus trees on the perimeter…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Sand mining plans spark opposition from fishers in Indonesia’s Riau Islands

Basten GokkonYogi Eka Sahputra — 14 Aug 2026 13:37:22 +0000

NUMBING ISLAND, Indonesia — The waters off Numbing Island, part of the Riau archipelago between Sumatra and Singapore, are among Indonesia’s richest fishing grounds. Local fisher Edy says the abundant fish stocks have enabled him to support his family and pay for his children’s university education. He typically earns between 1 million and 2 million rupiah ($55-$110) per fishing trip and makes four trips a month. However, Edy says he fears a proposed sand-mining project will threaten his and other fishers’ livelihoods. He said dredging would make the water more turbid, driving fish away from their traditional habitats and forcing fishers to sail farther out to sea to find them. “That is why I am afraid of this mining project. It will damage the sea. We have experienced this before, when marine sand mining took place near Batam,” he said, referring to one of the largest of the Riau islands, located about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Numbing. “Our waters also became cloudy.” Numbing Island in Indonesia’s Riau Islands province. Image by Yogi Eka Sahputra/Mongabay Indonesia. A wave of opposition to the planned sea-sand mining in the waters around Riau Islands province has emerged among not only fishers from Numbing and surrounding areas, but also Indonesian lawmakers. Local authorities paint the project off Numbing, which is part of the Riau Islands’ Bintan district, as necessary to dredge marine sediment to facilitate large ship traffic. This would make it exempt from Indonesian law that prohibits sand mining in coastal areas and…This article was originally published on Mongabay

How AI helps gather remote biodiversity data: Interview with Microsoft’s Juan Lavista Ferres

Abhishyant Kidangoor — 14 Aug 2026 13:06:01 +0000

At a meeting with conservationists a couple of years back, Juan Lavista Ferres had a eureka moment. As the director of Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, Lavista Ferres has extensively worked on projects that use artificial intelligence technology to process and analyze biodiversity data. At that particular meeting, however, he realized that a glaring gap persisted. “It takes a huge amount of effort to collect data,” Lavista Ferres, who is also Microsoft’s chief data scientist, told Mongabay in a video interview. “We never realized how bad it was until we worked closely with them [the conservationists] to see the whole workflow.” On returning to his lab, Lavista Ferres put together a team to find a solution. The result was Project SPARROW. Short for solar-powered acoustic and remote recording observation watch, SPARROW combines edge computing and AI to monitor biodiversity in real time and continuously. Powered by solar energy, the tool has been developed to function autonomously in remote forests to gather and process visual and audio data. “The whole idea of SPARROW is to make it trivial for conservationists to be able to collect data,” Lavista Ferres said. SPARROW has been deployed in 11 countries across five continents and has demonstrated that it can function continuously without human intervention for more than a year. Deployments in remote forests come with their own set of challenges, however, as devices are difficult to access. Amazon Conservation Association’s Los Amigos biological station. Courtesy of ACA. “Our most important challenge is to make sure…This article was originally published on Mongabay

‘To speak of agroecology is to speak of farmers’ autonomy’: Interview with Olga Muthambe

Far Vubil — 14 Aug 2026 12:34:37 +0000

In Mozambique, southeast Africa, more than 1,600 women participate in agroecological practice programs across the provinces of Maputo and Gaza (both in the south), Tete (central region) and Cabo Delgado (far north). These initiatives are led by Hikone Moçambique, a civil society association founded in 2013 that seeks to empower rural women. The organization’s work focuses primarily on Mozambican women facing social vulnerability. The displacement of local populations, with resulting impacts on livelihoods, along with expropriation and concentration of land and resources, are some of the most common adverse effects associated with extractive industries that often amount to appropriation of nature through labor exploitation. According to Hikone Moçambique, extractive industries also undermine food sovereignty and exacerbate inequalities, disproportionately affecting women, who lose their income-generating alternatives. Hikone was co-founded by Mozambican social activist and current executive director Olga Muthambe. A feminist, community development practitioner, self-taught educator and mother of seven, she has over 30 years of experience with rural communities. In the 1990s, Muthambe worked with women and youth rehabilitation projects following the civil war in Mozambique (1977-1992), where she led initiatives to ensure food security. Decades later, in 2021, in the midst of another armed conflict in Cabo Delgado, the NGO expanded its work to support women affected by violence and forced displacement, which impacted around one million people in that province alone. Throughout its history, the organization has worked with more than 5,000 women across various activities, including training, community gatherings and seminars throughout Mozambique. In 2025, Muthambe also…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Infrastructure and land use behind devastating India monsoon floods

Naina Rao — 14 Aug 2026 11:25:30 +0000

Widespread flooding in northeastern India that affected more than 500,000 people and claimed at least 99 lives between June and August 2026 was primarily driven by human factors like rapid urbanization, deforestation, and destruction of wetlands, new research says. It also points to structural failures rather than climate change. The findings were published by World Weather Attribution (WWA), a global network of researchers who analyze the influence of climate change in extreme weather events. Floods hit India’s Assam state nearly every monsoon as the Brahmaputra River and its tributaries overflow, often submerging the surrounding landscapes. “We decided to focus on the upper Assam, both because of the significant socio-economic and environmental damage reported in the region, and the sheer collective damage of catastrophic floods in the region year on year,” research co-author Arpita Mondal, from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay), said at a press briefing. The scientists analyzed historical weather records and climate models to determine the likelihood of the extreme rainfall that occurred over a three-day period (June 26-29), as well over a 30-day period (June 20 to July 19). They found the heavy rainfall observed in 2026 wasn’t exceptional, recurring every one to two years. The team also found no clear link to human-induced rise in global temperatures. “When we combine the observational results with the climate models, we again found no detectable climate change signal in either type of events,” co-author Mariam Zachariah, from Imperial College London, said at the briefing. Instead, the study…This article was originally published on Mongabay

100 species on the brink get a $200m conservation lifeline

Shanna Hanbury — 14 Aug 2026 08:55:42 +0000

Recovery projects for 100 critically endangered and extinct-in-the-wild species across the world are set to receive new funding under a conservation initiative announced Aug. 4. Re:wild and the Bezos Earth Fund, both U.S.-based environmental organizations, created the Phoenix Species Project and committed $100 million each, for a total of $200 million, to the project. The project’s steering committee said each species will likely receive between $500,000 and $1 million for the duration of the five-year project. Among the 100 species are Mexico’s Charco Azul pupfish (Cyprinodon veronicae), which went extinct in the wild in 1997 after its habitat dried up completely due to a devastating drought. Another is Madagascar’s golden-crowned sifaka (Propithecus tattersalli), a critically endangered lemur whose population has declined by roughly 80% amid rampant deforestation. With new funding, local NGOs will work to reconnect the fragmented forests that the lemurs need to survive. A male Charco Azul pupfish. Image courtesy of Barbara Nicca. “We’ve protected the golden-crowned sifaka for years on a budget that would never match what this species deserves, but letting it go extinct was never an option,” Tiana Andriamanana, executive director of Association Fanamby, the Malagasy NGO leading conservation efforts for the lemur, said in a statement. All 100 species, located across 30 countries, have already been chosen, but funding amounts for each have not yet been finalized. They will be determined on a rolling basis as proposals are submitted, the Phoenix Species Project’s steering committee told Mongabay by email. The sifaka and the pupfish…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Rescued from traffickers, reintroduced orangutan becomes mother in the wild

Ayat S. Karokaro — 14 Aug 2026 07:15:01 +0000

Seven years after being returned to the forests of northern Sumatra from a rehabilitation facility, a female orangutan rescued from traffickers has been found nurturing a baby in the wild, giving new encouragement that reintroduced apes can establish breeding populations. “From victim of illegal wildlife trafficking to a mother in the wild, Bulan’s journey demonstrates the long-term value of orangutan rehabilitation and reintroduction,” said M. Yakob Ishadamy, conservation lead at the Lestari Ecosystem Foundation, an organization that manages the Jantho reservation in partnership with Indonesia’s forestry ministry. Fieldworkers confirmed the birth of the Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii) on May 22 this year after seeing Bulan moving across the forest canopy cradling a male infant believed to be about a month old. Indonesia’s forestry minister named the baby Badar, a Malay word with Arabic origin meaning “full moon.” The mother’s name, Bulan, also means “moon” in Indonesian. “This birth is proof that through consistent habitat protection, we can restore populations of endangered endemic species,” Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antony said in a statement. “Hopefully, Badar can thrive in the wild and bring a new glimmer of hope for the sustainability of our invaluable forest ecosystem.” Diana is a female orangutan who is expected to begin her new, independent life at the Jantho Nature Reserve alongside 103 other orangutans. Image by Junaidi Hanafiah/Mongabay Indonesia. Indonesia established the Jantho Orangutan Release Area within the Jantho Nature Reserve in Aceh province, on the northern tip of Sumatra, in 2011. It serves as a reintroduction…This article was originally published on Mongabay

South Africa school uses cattle dung to generate biogas for cooking meals

Bernard Chiguvare — 14 Aug 2026 02:45:18 +0000

Women preparing meals for more than 1,000 students at Tiyani Secondary School in South Africa’s Limpopo province no longer rely only on firewood. Instead, much of the cooking is powered by biogas generated from cattle dung collected from Tiyani village. This community-led project could reduce pressure on forests while cutting greenhouse gas emissions, experts say. The pilot project was established in 2022 with support from the University of Venda. Every weekday, four community volunteers from Tiyani use an ox-drawn cart to collect cattle dung from nearby households. The manure is then mixed with water and fed into a biogas converter digester, an airtight, oxygen-free container where microbes convert it into methane-rich biogas. The gas is then piped directly to the school kitchen, where it powers the cooking of breakfast and lunch for the school’s 1,054 learners. When there isn’t enough cow dung, the school still supplements with firewood. “We never imagined that something we regarded as waste could become a source of energy,” Fosta Chavalala, the community project manager of the biogas project, told Mongabay in an interview. “In future, we hope to expand the project” to rely more on gas than firewood. In a March 2025 article published in the industry magazine ReSource, David Tinarwo, head of the Biogas Research team at the University of Venda, said the project was designed to reduce dependence on firewood while making productive use of livestock waste. “The demand for firewood was placing pressure on local trees, and the way trees were being…This article was originally published on Mongabay

More people, farms, and drought could mean more elephant conflict in Southern Africa

David Brown — 14 Aug 2026 02:43:26 +0000

A growing human population, expanding croplands, and drier conditions driven by climate change within protected areas could significantly intensify human-elephant conflict in Southern Africa, a recent study finds. Southern Africa is home to almost 300,000 African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana), with many populations rebounding after decades of poaching. The region is also seeing rapidly expanding farms and human populations, leading to instances of crop raiding by elephants. To understand what drives the problem in the region, they used data on crop raiding recorded within 38 community-managed communal conservancies in Namibia from 2004 to 2020, and used statistical methods and machine-learning models to assess the drivers across the broader region, including northern Botswana, Angola, and Zambia. Their analysis showed that human population growth and expansion of farms, settlements and other built-up areas led to higher rates of crop raiding. Conflict was also higher during the wet season, from November to April. Moreover, drier conditions within protected areas were associated with higher human-elephant conflict in nearby conservancies during the wet season, suggesting that poorer habitat conditions within the protected areas may be pushing the animals out, increasing the potential for conflict, the authors say. The researchers also found that projected changes in land use, human population, and climate change would expand the area at risk of crop raiding in Southern Africa by 2085. Evan Patrick, the study’s lead author, told Mongabay by email that local land use and development patterns are the clearest signals driving increases in conflict. “That means the projected…This article was originally published on Mongabay

From one deer’s DNA, a road map emerges to save an endangered Philippine species

Pippo Carmona — 14 Aug 2026 02:18:22 +0000

The net fell with a dull thud. Abraham thrashed once, twice, then went still. A metal notcher clicked against the soft cartilage of his ear, snipping a tiny piece of tissue into ethanol. An antiseptic spray then hissed over the wound, sealing it from infection. Abraham is a Visayan spotted deer (Rusa alfredi), who was born, raised and ultimately died at Silliman University’s Center for Tropical Conservation Studies (CENTROP) in the Philippines. Named for the unique constellation of pale spots running across their flanks, the Visayan spotted deer once roamed across six islands in the central Philippines. Deforestation for agricultural expansion and hunting wiped them from four, leading them to be listed in 1988 as endangered by the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. Now, only the islands of Panay and Negros remain as their refuge. The last count, from 2016, put the wild population at 700 mature individuals. By 2019, Philippine authorities had escalated the national listing to critically endangered. A decade on, with deforestation and hunting persisting throughout the deer’s refuge, conservationists find it hard to say whether that number has held, or slipped further. A few hundred more spotted deer live in captivity, cared for in facilities scattered across the two islands. Before their numbers dwindle even further, researchers from both Panay and Negros have sprung into action to restore deer population. Their first move: unlocking the deer’s genetic secrets. Using the sample taken from Abraham, researchers from Silliman University, in Negros, and the Philippine Genome Center…This article was originally published on Mongabay

UK firefighters out in force to tackle fires on hottest day of the year

Associated Press — 13 Aug 2026 22:35:20 +0000

LONDON (AP) — Firefighters are tackling multiple fires in central England on a day that the U.K. recorded its hottest day of the year as an intense stretch of hot weather continued to grip Europe. Thursday’s fire outbreak across the West Midlands, which saw several houses burned to the ground, have been “one of the most significant” incidents the region’s fire service has ever dealt with, chief fire officer Simon Tuhill said. A child and three firefighters were taken to hospital following the wildfire in Stourbridge. The fires, the cause of which remains to be determined and which could take days to put out, came on a day the mercury struck 38.1 degrees Celsius (100.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in west London. By Pan Pylas and Angela Charlton, Associated Press Banner image: A dog runs over dried grass in front of Tower Bridge during the fifth heatwave of the year in London, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. Image courtesy of Kirsty Wigglesworth via Associated PressThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Big Bear Valley’s beloved bald eagle Jackie is dead

Spoorthy Raman — 13 Aug 2026 21:49:22 +0000

Jackie, a beloved bald eagle who called California’s Big Bear Valley in the U.S. home for all her life, has died. She was 14 years old. She was found on the ground, fighting with two young eagles on July 18 and was taken to the Ojai Raptor Center, where she was being treated for severe anemia and dehydration. The center announced< that she died in the evening hours of Aug. 9, 2026, despite intensive veterinary care and a blood transfusion. Jackie had additional health challenges after she was admitted, including a large blood clot in her wing and kidney, according to the center. Jackie and her mate Shadow gained worldwide attention through the Friends of Big Bear Valley’s live camera feed. The camera, set up in 2015 when another bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) pair used the nest, streamed the happenings at Jackie and Shadow’s 145-meter- (476-foot-) high abode, sitting atop a Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi). Since 2018, when this bonded pair began breeding, the public as they mated, laid eggs, hatched them and fed the chicks until they fledged. The pair successfully raised seven chicks but lost a few over the years. A dedicated Facebook page with 1.3 million followers, run by volunteers, regularly posted highlights about the goings on in the nest, entertaining and educating the public about bald eagles and their behavior. People virtually cheered as each chick reached a milestone and wept when they didn’t survive. Jackie at the Ojai Raptor Center, where she was being treated…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Timor green pigeon nears extinction after decades of inaction, study warns

Timothy Mihocik — 13 Aug 2026 16:31:20 +0000

On April 20, Jafet Potenzo Lopes was surveying the south coast of Manatuto municipality, in Timor-Leste, when he recorded something he had not seen in years: three Timor green pigeons, alive, in a location where the species had never been documented before. Lopes is one of Timor-Leste’s few field ecologists. He was born and raised in the village of Com, inside Nino Konis Santana National Park — the last place on Earth where a viable population of this species, Treron psittaceus, still survives. He has spent more than a decade walking through forests, coastal habitats and mountains across the country, documenting what remains. “Rediscovering the Timor green pigeon was one of the most emotional moments of my life,” he says. “I was almost crying when I saw them in the wild. In my heart and mind, I kept saying, ‘Yes, yes, they still exist.’” Researchers estimate that only 100-500 Timor green pigeons remain globally, and believe the true number is probably toward the lower end of that range. “Seeing them alive gave me hope,” Lopes says. But despite decades of concern for the endangered bird, the species still lacks a dedicated recovery program, regular population monitoring and sustained conservation investment. T. psittaceus inhabits the lowland forests of Timor, a Southeast Asian island divided between Timor-Leste and the Indonesian region of West Timor. Less than 10% of the island’s original forest cover remains. A recent survey of the species published in the journal Oryx, the most comprehensive ever conducted, compiled more…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A mine polluted a Zambian river in 2025: Residents continue to live with the impacts

Victoria Schneider — 13 Aug 2026 16:13:34 +0000

One and a half years after the collapse of a large tailings dam in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province, the environmental and human impacts of the toxic spill continue to affect residents, civil society members have told Mongabay. The dam, which is used to store mining waste and is owned by Chinese copper company Sino-Metals Leach Zambia, failed on Feb. 18, 2025, in the town of Chambishi in north-central Zambia. It released millions of liters of acidic mining waste into waterways connected to the Kafue River. Stretching 1,576 kilometers (979 miles), the Kafue is the longest river lying entirely within Zambia and a lifeline for millions of people in the country. A study by researchers at Zambia’s Copperbelt University published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances in May 2026 is the first independent scientific assessment of the ecological impacts of the incident. The researchers found severely compromised water quality, high concentrations of heavy metals in water, fish, sediments and pastures, and evidence that toxic substances had entered the food chain. The larger Kafue River system provides water to around half of Zambia’s population. It feeds into the Zambezi River and sustains biodiverse wetland ecosystems including the Lukanga Swamp and the Kafue Flats. For the study, the scientists collected water samples from five sites in the affected area and one in the unaffected area as a control in the days following the accident. Their analysis of the samples showed that heavy metal concentrations, including of copper, iron, zinc, lead and arsenic, exceeded…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Land rights and mangroves entwine in a Brazilian quilombo’s resistance

Carolina de Marchi — 13 Aug 2026 15:29:11 +0000

BREJÃO DOS NEGROS, Brazil — It’s hard to tell where one ends and the other starts. Here on Brazil’s Atlantic coast, where the São Francisco River meets the sea, waves ripple across the crystal-clear water. In the vast blue expanse, the green of islands and islets blends with fertile lands covered in Atlantic Forest remnants, white dunes, small docks, marginal lagoons, and mangroves — a biological heritage that serves as a nursery for countless marine species. But this beauty has not always belonged to those who lived there. Remnants of cotton plantations and more than 20 mills tell of an era before the so-called Golden Law of 1888 abolished slavery in Brazil. This region once held the largest number of enslaved people in the lower catchment area of the São Francisco River. Because of its dense native forests, it was also an ideal refuge for those who managed to escape, which earned it the name Refúgio dos Negros. Even after abolition, the people who lived off artisanal fishing and farming here enjoyed little real freedom. The land where they had lived on and worked for generations was claimed by local landowners who, with or without legal titles, exercised uncontested dominance. According to residents of the Brejão dos Negros Quilombola Territory — a group of traditional communities, or quilombos, founded by formerly enslaved Afro-Brazilians — fences and cattle grids went up everywhere, making them feel like prisoners in their own land. “It was like this: if you harvested a field of…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Indonesia’s wildfire season surges as haze spreads into Malaysia

Hans Nicholas Jong — 13 Aug 2026 14:23:57 +0000

JAKARTA — Haze from fires in Indonesian Borneo has drifted across the border into the Malaysian portion of the island, pushing air pollution there to “very unhealthy levels” and causing school closures. On Aug. 12, Sarawak’s Tebedu district, near the Indonesia-Malaysia border, recorded an air pollution index (API) exceeding 200, considered “very unhealthy,” prompting the government to close six schools and shift classes online. IQAir, a Swiss-based air quality technology company, ranked Kuching, the capital of Malaysia’s Sarawak state, as the most polluted major city in the world on Aug. 11. Air quality map of Southeast Asia on Aug. 11, 2026. Image courtesy of IQAir. According to Malaysia’s Air Pollutant Index Management System (APIMS), 11 areas in Sarawak recorded unhealthy API readings on Aug. 11, up from eight on Aug. 9. The worsening air quality in Sarawak comes as fires intensify in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, which neighbors the Malaysian state. The ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC), which monitors and assesses wildfires and transboundary haze in the Southeast Asia region, observed smoke drifting from West Kalimantan into western Sarawak across several days in July. A map from the ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) showing haze coverage and wind direction in the southern ASEAN region on Aug. 11, 2026. Image courtesy of ASMC. As haze blanketed parts of West Kalimantan, authorities in the provincial capital, Pontianak, have suspended schools indefinitely and shifted classes online. Fires also affected parts of Sumatra. Haze from the western Indonesian island has historically drifted north to…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Carbon accounting differences can halve a company’s reported footprint, study finds

Shanna Hanbury — 13 Aug 2026 14:06:42 +0000

Companies can, in theory, appear to cut the carbon footprint of their supply chains in half simply by changing how they calculate emissions, according to a new paper. Researchers found that differences in accepted accounting methods can change how companies crunch their climate numbers and make it difficult to distinguish real emissions cuts from differences in calculations. “It is actually possible … in the current framework that a company can either look like a climate pioneer or a climate laggard just depending on which numbers they pick,” lead author Ramana Gudipudi, a guest lecturer at the European School of Management and Technology in Germany, told Mongabay by phone. “If I am a company, all I need to do is to hire a good mathematician and say like, ‘Hey, this is how much I want to show my progress.’” The analysis, published as a peer-reviewed perspective in the journal Nature Sustainability, looked at 401 European companies and found that 62.5% of their year-to-year variation in supply chain emissions could not be explained by changes to the business, industry, or emission intensity. By contrast, accounting for the companies’ direct emissions only varied by a bit more than 5%. Gudipudi said companies often publicize a final number, without sharing how they arrived at that figure. The lack of transparency, paired with an array of possible baselines and calculations, means that real action on reducing emissions is obscured. “We really don’t know whether there is any genuine decarbonization or not,” he said. “There are companies…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Bat virus fragments turn up in fertilizer sold in Thai markets, study finds

Mongabay.com — 13 Aug 2026 10:08:49 +0000

Researchers have found the first genetic evidence of bat-borne viruses within commercially sold bat guano fertilizer in Thailand. However, the viral strains the team detected are not known to infect humans. Moreover, since the researchers only identified fragments of viral RNA and did not isolate live, intact viruses, they could not confirm if the genetic material poses an active threat to human health, according to a recent study, reports Mongabay’s Carolyn Cowan. But the findings suggest that viral genetic material from bat populations can persist far beyond caves and survive within publicly available retail products, the study says. “The most surprising thing was that these viruses don’t just stay in the caves,” senior author Thachawech Kimprasit, a medical microbiologist at Mahidol University in Bangkok, told Mongabay. “Their material can be found in commercial end products.” The discovery raises concerns over a general lack of biosecurity protocols to protect harvesters, agricultural workers, and retail handlers, Thachawech added. Bat guano or droppings are harvested from caves and widely used as agricultural fertilizer around the world. Researchers screened 41 samples of commercially available bat guano fertilizer commonly sold in Thai markets. They found two samples that tested positive for Alphacoronaviruses, a genus of coronaviruses, and one sample that tested positive for Betacoronaviruses, the genus that includes the Sarbecovirus subgenus, from which the pathogen responsible for COVID-19 originates. The researchers identified the croslet horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus coelophyllus), a cave-dwelling insectivorous species common across mainland Southeast Asia, as the most likely natural host of the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Siraya gain recognition as Taiwan’s 17th official Indigenous group

Yenni Kwok — 13 Aug 2026 09:10:18 +0000

In a significant milestone, the Siraya people of Taiwan have won legal recognition from the government as the island’s 17th officially designated Indigenous group. In late July, the Siraya were the first Indigenous people from Taiwan’s lowland plains, or Pingpu, to gain official status under the Pingpu Indigenous Peoples Status Act. The law, passed in October 2025, offers pathways to redress their erasure as Indigenous peoples. The designation also encapsulates the Siraya’s decades-long fight for legal recognition after centuries of forced assimilation by various colonial powers. “I’ve officially announced in a Cabinet meeting that the Siraya are a legally recognized Indigenous group in Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai said on July 30 to cheers from Siraya community members. Wan Cheng-hsiung, activist and founder of the Tainan Siraya Cultural Association, shouted in Siraya, “We’ve finally come home!” President Lai Ching-te, who backed the Siraya’s fight for cultural and legal recognition during his previous tenures as mayor of the city of Tainan and later as vice president, welcomed the news. “This is a historic moment for the Siraya people and an important milestone in the pursuit of historical and transitional justice for Indigenous peoples,” he wrote on Facebook on Aug. 1, Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Jolan Hsieh, an Indigenous studies scholar at National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan, who’s also known by her Siraya name, Bavaragh Dagalomai, said the impact of the recognition “could be profound, but recognition itself is only the beginning.” “I see official recognition primarily as a process of restoring…This article was originally published on Mongabay

How the first published Indigenous ethnobotanist & elders recorded their people’s medicinal knowledge

Karla Mendes — 13 Aug 2026 07:00:56 +0000

CARAMURU/PARAGUASSU INDIGENOUS TERRITORY, Brazil — Looking at the landscape of dry and cleared mountains around her house, Marta Xavier de Oliveira remembered when it was a forest. “When we got sick, that’s where we got our medicine from,” Oliveira, known as Dona Marta, 87, told Mongabay. An Indigenous elder of the Kariri-Sapuyá people, she stands amid her ancestral land in Brazil’s northeastern Bahia state and her vegetable garden where she’s kept several medicinal plants going. Beside her is an embaúba tree (Cecropia pachystachya), used to treat diabetes and prostate issues, in the backyard of her house in the village of Caramuru. “It was all over there. They knocked everything down. Everything was cleared and they destroyed the forest.” Some native species, including embaúba, were planted here 44 years ago. Others, however, disappeared from the territory over the past decades, when outsiders invaded the area and cleared the forests for cattle pastures, Dona Marta said. She cited a specific plant: puaia, used to treat snake bites, plague — an illness elders said includes fever, headaches, and leaves the body all twisted — and various other diseases. “It was there in the woods,” she said, pointing to the cleared mountains. “It’s gone.” On Dec. 27, 2025, Dona Marta passed away. Her knowledge, however, is alive today in a study published in the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethomedicine, which cited her. The paper is authored by Indigenous ethnobotanist Hemerson Dantas dos Santos Pataxó HãHãHãi and Eliana Rodrigues, a professor and coordinator of ethnobotanical…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Myanmar junta pushes to restart Myitsone Dam project

Esther J — 13 Aug 2026 05:31:26 +0000

Since June, Myanmar’s military government has increased its efforts to restart a massive, controversial hydropower project backed by China that has remained suspended for 15 years. The Myitsone Dam project, launched in 2009 and estimated to cost $3.6 billion then, was to be built along the Mali River, the N’mai River, and their confluence at Myitsone, where the Ayeyarwady River begins. Planned in Kachin state in an earthquake-prone area in northern Myanmar, the project is owned by Upstream Ayeyarwady Confluence Basin Hydropower Company, which is jointly owned by China’s Power Investment Corporation, Myanmar’s Ministry of Electric Power and Asia World Company. The dam was designed to be 1,310 meters (4,298 feet) long and 139.6 meters (458 feet) high. In 2011, then-President Thein Sein suspended the project after widespread public opposition due to its environmental and social impacts. However, at a June 30 press conference in Naypyidaw, the junta’s spokesperson, Khaing Khaing Soe, stated that the Myitsone project would be resumed to generate electricity for Myanmar. The chief minister of Kachin state, Khet Htein Nan, also promoted the project during a public meeting in the state on June 23, offering incentives about electricity and adding that the dam will be built to withstand earthquakes and there will be no need to worry about flooding. He further said that if construction begins this year, the project could be completed within 8.5 years. These statements follow junta leader-turned-President Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to China in early June. The head of the junta’s Myitsone…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Six African countries now support precautionary pause on deep-seabed mining

Victoria Schneider — 13 Aug 2026 05:18:26 +0000

Three more African countries have joined calls for a precautionary pause on deep-sea mining until the environmental, social and economic impacts of such mining are better understood. This brings the number of African countries supporting a moratorium to six. Mauritius, Mozambique and the Republic of the Congo announced support for the precautionary pause during the annual meeting of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Kingston, Jamaica, in July, joining Malawi, Kenya and Madagascar. The government of Mauritius said in its statement during the ISA meeting that “the sustainable development of Mauritius is inextricably dependent on a healthy and resilient ocean.” Mauritius officials stressed that decisions regarding deep-seabed mining must be made based on “best available scientific evidence and by the precautionary approach, as enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.” Malawi was the first African country to support a precautionary pause in May 2026. Kenya and Madagascar followed in June. “The basis for all of these countries, while taking into account their individual contexts, is the lack of sufficient science and the governance gaps that persist,” David Willima from the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC), a group of more than 140 NGOs and organizations, told Mongabay via email. The six African nations are among 46 countries globally that support a moratorium or precautionary pause on deep-seabed mining. The ocean floor in the deep sea has small, hard rocks called polymetallic nodules that contain minerals like nickel, cobalt and manganese. Countries and companies want to mine…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Nepal enlists AI to help fight against crop-raiding macaques

Mongabay.com — 13 Aug 2026 05:00:44 +0000

In a village in central Nepal, growing conflict between farmers and rhesus macaques has prompted researchers to test artificial intelligence-based systems that can swiftly detect and deter the monkeys, reports contributor Praveen Kumar Yadav for Mongabay. A 2026 study that followed rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) in one central Nepal region, found that nearly half of their diet consists of cultivated crops. In villages like Birta Deurali, also in central Nepal, farmers take turns guarding fields every two hours, Yadav reported. To alleviate this burden, researchers in the country are developing AI-driven solutions. Progress Jung Thapa, a researcher at Madan Bhandari University of Science and Technology, has developed a system built on cameras and lightweight computing devices trained on more than 4,000 annotated images. It detects monkeys and interprets their behavior, such as whether the monkeys are moving, feeding, or being vigilant, with an 88% accuracy across 28 field trials. “If a monkey is still watching, the farmer has time,” Thapa said. “If it is already feeding, the response has to be immediate. A machine can detect. But a human decides.” Once a threat is identified, the system sends an alert straight to the farmer’s phone. Meanwhile, Santosh Giri, an assistant professor at Tribhuvan University, is developing a prototype that pairs AI detection with an ultrasonic deterrent to repel monkeys. The deterrent system is, however, yet to be tested in working farm environments. Both Thapa and Giri acknowledged that translating these technologies to field conditions is challenging. Poor visibility from rain…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Indigenous groups renew legal challenge to Indonesian conservation law

Basten Gokkon — 13 Aug 2026 01:20:54 +0000

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indigenous groups in Indonesia have made a legal challenge to parts of a new conservation law. The groups say it could allow the government to designate their ancestral lands as conservation areas without their consent and threaten their land rights. The Coalition for Equitable Conservation, which comprises the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), civil society groups and representatives of Indigenous and local communities, filed the lawsuit on July 8, 2026. The case seeks to overturn provisions of Indonesia’s 2024 conservation law that the groups say threaten the rights of communities living on ancestral lands, community-managed areas, coastal regions, small islands and conservation zones. The new petition follows the Constitutional Court’s rejection of a separate procedural challenge to the law in July 2025, prompting the coalition to pursue a substantive review of the disputed articles. During a hearing on Aug. 6, 2026, the Constitutional Court was due to hear arguments from the government and the House of Representatives (DPR), which drafted the 2024 law. However, Chief Justice Suhartoyo postponed the hearing until Aug. 24 after both the government and the parliament said they were not ready to present their positions. Indigenous peoples and local communities from the Coalition for Equitable Conservation file a judicial review of the 2024 conservation law at the Indonesian Constitutional Court in Jakarta on July 8, 2026. Image courtesy of AMAN. The petitioners expressed their disappointment with the delay. “The government and the DPR’s failure to present their statements before the Constitutional…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Urban heat islands have solutions; many tropical cities can’t afford them

Adam Litchkofski — 13 Aug 2026 00:34:02 +0000

Urban heat islands pose a growing global health threat. But in tropical cities, the peril is surging. Already burdened by hot-humid equatorial weather, global warming, intense poverty, rapid urbanization, and a lack of cooling infrastructure, tropical city officials now face a powerful 2026-2027 El Niño that could put millions of vulnerable urban dwellers at risk. Heat islands form because artificial surfaces, like roads and rooftops, trap heat by day and release it by night, never giving highly-urbanized spaces time to cool. When climate change-induced heat domes stall over cities, temperatures can soar for weeks into the triple digits. Every “city has a rhythm, it has a metabolism,” Matthias Roth, a National University of Singapore researcher, told Mongabay in a video interview. “The metabolism of each city — especially how incoming solar energy is divided between heating surfaces, warming the air, evaporating water, and being stored in the ground and buildings — influences how much energy heats up buildings, surfaces, and air. The prevalence of concrete and asphalt and the absence of vegetation creates a heat island.” But not all tropical urban heat islands (UHIs) are created equally, with the severity of their heat burdens dependent on innovative city planning and the financial clout to keep pace with global warming. In wealthy Singapore (which has devoted high levels of funding to curb UHI effects), air temperatures can still swell; compact high-rise building complexes there can see outdoor temperatures 4.3° Celsius (7.9° Fahrenheit) above rural areas. But in poorer cities, like Lagos,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Brazil Supreme Court upholds laws that led to downfall of Amazon soy moratorium

Associated Press — 12 Aug 2026 23:00:45 +0000

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s Supreme Court has upheld state laws denying tax incentives to farmers who adhered to the country’s soy moratorium. The court also affirmed the constitutionality of the voluntary agreement. For nearly 20 years, the pact barred the purchase of soy grown on deforested Amazon land. Major grain traders withdrew from the moratorium in January after top soy-producing states revoked tax benefits for participating companies. Brazil is the world’s largest soybean producer, accounting for about 40% of global output. The Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries said the ruling ends years of legal uncertainty but is unlikely to revive the pact. By Gabriela Sá Pessoa, Associated Press Banner image: Patchwork of legal forest reserves, pasture, and soy farms in the Brazilian Amazon in Mato Grosso. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.This article was originally published on Mongabay

Decades after religions shaped China’s Tianmushan, authorities tackle protecting reserve

Keith Anthony FabroLatoya Abulu — 12 Aug 2026 16:11:50 +0000

HANGZHOU, China — On a misty morning in Zhejiang province, the peaks of Tianmu Mountain rise like sentinels above the forest canopy, their slopes wrapped in shifting veils of cloud. For centuries, monks and many villagers revered every tree and stream as sacred, a belief that researchers say has guided protection long before the word “conservation” entered common use. “This place is special not only because of its nature,” Lu Senhong, head of the publicity and education division at the Tianmu National Nature Reserve Administration Bureau, told Mongabay. “It is also because people here have long believed that every tree, flower, and bird carries a spirit. That respect has kept the mountain alive.” For more than a millennium, a mix of Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian traditions guided protection of plants and wildlife in this lush reserve, which recently extended twelvefold to create a 54,700-hectare (135,170-acre) Tianmushan–Qingliangfeng UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve — the first such expansion in China. In the past, temples that dotted the land imposed strict punishments on anyone caught cutting trees or damaging parts of the old-growth forest — fines in rice or silver, or even expulsion from the monastery. The same rules bound monks themselves to strict conduct, ensuring they upheld the forest’s sanctity. Today, it is state regulations that provide the legal framework for protection and, along with a management plan developed with local communities, that try to tackle challenges the rich ecosystem faces and negotiate a sustainable development model following earlier community land use conflicts.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Delays, biosecurity failures worsened flu outbreak at Nepal zoo, probe finds

Deepak Adhikari — 12 Aug 2026 11:57:40 +0000

KATHMANDU — Delayed reporting, poor communication and weak biosecurity allowed bird flu to spread through Nepal’s Central Zoo in June and July killing or prompting the culling of at least 65 birds and animals, according to an internal inquiry report obtained by Mongabay. The investigation by the nonprofit National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), the autonomous body that manages the zoo and frequently partners with the government, found that officials failed to act adequately on a warning about avian influenza among crows (Corvus splendens) in Kathmandu. The facility also remained open for five days after a rapid test indicated the virus was present. “The investigation found serious negligence and weaknesses at the management level,” according to the report, a copy of which was provided to Mongabay following a right to information application. The inquiry was led by Rachana Shah, the NTNC’s spokesperson and programs manager, raising questions about a conflict of interest. Shah rejected concerns about a potential conflict of interest, saying the goal was to identify institutional failures and draw lessons from the outbreak. “We treated it as an opportunity to draw lessons from the incident, rather than as a formal investigation into the bird flu outbreak at the zoo,” she told Mongabay. “If a similar incident occurs in the future, we will bring in an external expert.” According to the report, bird flu killed 27 birds and 14 mammals between June 12 and July 2, 2026. Authorities also culled 21 birds on suspicion of bird flu to contain…This article was originally published on Mongabay