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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/costa-rica/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 22 Aug 2026 18:09:48 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>Costa Rica environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/costa-rica/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>How Costa Rica&#8217;s extreme climate changes the social behaviors of white-faced capuchin</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-costa-ricas-extreme-climate-changes-the-social-behaviors-of-white-faced-capuchin/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-costa-ricas-extreme-climate-changes-the-social-behaviors-of-white-faced-capuchin/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jul 2026 18:15:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Adam Litchkofski]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/16221627/6-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323804</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, Global, Latin America, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Biology, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Deforestation, Disasters, Drought, Dry Forests, Earth Science, Ecosystems, El Nino, Environment, Extreme Weather, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Impact Of Climate Change, Mammals, Monkeys, Primates, Science, Tropical Deforestation, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COSTA RICA: Dawn is yet to break when primatologist Susan Perry and her field research team move through Costa Rica’s tropical dry forest for a day in the field studying Central American white-faced capuchin monkeys. Despite the darkness, the forest is humming. Perry calls this juncture “the changing of the guard,” when nocturnal animals end [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COSTA RICA: Dawn is yet to break when primatologist Susan Perry and her field research team move through Costa Rica’s tropical dry forest for a day in the field studying Central American white-faced capuchin monkeys. Despite the darkness, the forest is humming. Perry calls this juncture “the changing of the guard,” when nocturnal animals end their day and diurnal species are just beginning theirs. As the team approaches the site where the capuchin (Cebus imitators) sleep, the location of which changes nightly, spiders&#8217; glittering eyeshine emblazons the ungraspable dark of the forest. Perry, an evolutionary anthropology professor at UCLA, has researched capuchin monkeys living in and near the Lomas de Barbudal Biological Reserve for the past 33 years. She documents their complex social behaviors and group dynamics with a revolving team of scientists, capturing the intricacies of capuchin society while remaining on the periphery. A new study analyzing Perry’s observations of 12 neighboring capuchin groups over her 33 years in the field documents how extreme climate events, such as El Niño, alter the costs and benefits of living in large groups for capuchins. In the field, the researchers go through a highly intentional process to remain separate: Perry leaves her study subjects untagged and uncollared, and instead, identifies and gets to know each individual. These monkeys are listed as vulnerable by IUCN. They live in one of the most endangered and biodiverse habitats in the world:tropical dry forest. Due to deforestation and fire damage, just 1% of the original primary&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-costa-ricas-extreme-climate-changes-the-social-behaviors-of-white-faced-capuchin/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-costa-ricas-extreme-climate-changes-the-social-behaviors-of-white-faced-capuchin/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323804</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ronald Sanabria sought to make tourism more sustainable</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/ronald-sanabria-sought-to-make-tourism-more-sustainable/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/ronald-sanabria-sought-to-make-tourism-more-sustainable/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jul 2026 00:13:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/14125659/Ronald-Sanabria-wall-facebook-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323354</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Certification, Ecotourism, Obituary, and Tourism]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tourism often reaches small places with large promises. It can bring money to forests, beaches, villages, parks, and old towns. A family guesthouse may become viable. A young person may have a reason to stay. It can help persuade a government that a forest has value if left standing. The same industry can also strain [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tourism often reaches small places with large promises. It can bring money to forests, beaches, villages, parks, and old towns. A family guesthouse may become viable. A young person may have a reason to stay. It can help persuade a government that a forest has value if left standing. The same industry can also strain the places it sells. In many places, roads arrive before rules. Hotels take the best land. Water and waste are handled after the money has begun to flow. Wildlife, wages, and culture are folded into the business later, if they are dealt with at all. The traveler leaves with photographs. The community is left with the consequences. Ronald Sanabria spent much of his career between what tourism said it could do and what it actually did. For him, sustainable tourism meant work: credible standards, training, certification, purchasing decisions, local capacity, and steady persuasion. Tourism, he knew, was too fragmented for simple answers. The same trip might involve a hotel, a guide, a tour operator, a booking platform, a transport company, and a village association. The work had to reach those relationships, or sustainability would remain a claim. Sanabria, who died on July 1st, aged 57, was a Costa Rican engineer who became a central figure in sustainable tourism in Latin America and beyond. He joined the Rainforest Alliance in 1998, first in sustainable agriculture. Two years later, he began building its sustainable-tourism program. Over the next two decades, he worked with hotels, tour operators, community&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/ronald-sanabria-sought-to-make-tourism-more-sustainable/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/ronald-sanabria-sought-to-make-tourism-more-sustainable/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323354</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Most wildlife AI focuses on the ground. This model looks up in the trees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/most-wildlife-ai-focuses-on-the-ground-this-model-looks-up-in-the-trees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/most-wildlife-ai-focuses-on-the-ground-this-model-looks-up-in-the-trees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 06:46:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/28053452/Saimiri_sciureus-1_Luc_Viatour-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320225</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Central America, Costa Rica, French Guiana, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Artificial Intelligence, Birds, Camera Trapping, Conservation, data, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Mammals, Primates, Research, Seed Dispersal, Species, Technology, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When it comes to decoding camera-trap images, artificial intelligence has become all the rage, especially for terrestrial animals, or those that dwell on the ground. But for more evasive species living high up in trees, the technology is still lacking. A newly developed AI model aims to fill that gap. TropiCam-AI was developed to detect [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When it comes to decoding camera-trap images, artificial intelligence has become all the rage, especially for terrestrial animals, or those that dwell on the ground. But for more evasive species living high up in trees, the technology is still lacking. A newly developed AI model aims to fill that gap. TropiCam-AI was developed to detect and identify arboreal, or tree-dwelling, species in a part of the world where they abound: the tropical forests of the Americas. Scientists built the model to address the voids that exist in identifying arboreal mammals and birds. “We set up TropiCam-AI with the objective of developing a tool that is specifically meant for neotropical camera-trapping surveys targeting the canopy,” Andrea Zampetti, lead author of the study and Ph.D. candidate in animal biology at the Sapienza University of Rome, told Mongabay in a video interview. Zampetti’s work was done in collaboration with the TROPECOLNET project at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, led by Ana Benítez-López. Arboreal species play a key role in ecosystems. They serve as important seed dispersers, with studies finding that primates, small mammals and birds consume up to 90% of plant species in tropical rainforests. However, these are tree-dependent species that, by their very nature, are especially threatened by deforestation, underscoring the need to study, track and monitor them for conservation purposes. A study published earlier this year by Zampetti and colleagues notes that “arboreal camera trapping remains severely underrepresented compared to AI trained on terrestrial images.” AI models for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/most-wildlife-ai-focuses-on-the-ground-this-model-looks-up-in-the-trees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/most-wildlife-ai-focuses-on-the-ground-this-model-looks-up-in-the-trees/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320225</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Listening to forests reveals signs of recovery beyond tree cover</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/listening-to-forests-reveals-signs-of-recovery-beyond-tree-cover/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/listening-to-forests-reveals-signs-of-recovery-beyond-tree-cover/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Apr 2026 14:12:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/16140215/Banner-Image-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317628</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioacoustics, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, data, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Research, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Can listening to forests help us understand if the life inside them is thriving? Apparently, yes. Giacomo Delgado likens it to a doctor examining heart health. “A doctor has listened to many people&#8217;s hearts, and knows what healthy hearts sound like,” Delgado, a doctoral researcher in the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zürich, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Can listening to forests help us understand if the life inside them is thriving? Apparently, yes. Giacomo Delgado likens it to a doctor examining heart health. “A doctor has listened to many people&#8217;s hearts, and knows what healthy hearts sound like,” Delgado, a doctoral researcher in the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zürich, told Mongabay in a video interview. “She then starts to compare your heart to other heart sounds to see if you have a healthy heart.” A team of researchers, led by Delgado, has used the same logic to assess the success of a forest protection and restoration mechanism in Costa Rica. Using more than 16,000 hours of audio recordings of the forest, they found that biodiversity was restored in naturally regenerated forests. These forests were also found to sound similar to forests that have been protected for years. In 1950, half of Costa Rica was forested; by 1995, forest cover had been reduced to 25%, driven in part by cattle ranching and agriculture expansion in the 1970s and 1980s. Since then, however, Costa Rica became something of a pioneer in the payment for ecosystem services (PES) system, a mechanism where landowners and local communities are financially compensated for protecting and preserving forests. The country’s PES initiative, launched in 1997, is one of the first national-level programs of its kind in the world, and to date has covered more than 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres). “Costa Rica’s PES program is notable not only for its&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/listening-to-forests-reveals-signs-of-recovery-beyond-tree-cover/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/listening-to-forests-reveals-signs-of-recovery-beyond-tree-cover/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317628</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous &#038; community leaders say, ‘secure forest financing with us, not for us’ (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indigenous-leaders-say-secure-forest-financing-with-us-not-for-us-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indigenous-leaders-say-secure-forest-financing-with-us-not-for-us-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Apr 2026 19:27:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Inés Morales LastraJosé IvanildoLevi Sucre]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/18204154/amazon_241209144749x-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317133</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[climate finance, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Rainforests, Redd, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Forest Management, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In recent years, we have seen clear signs that the global market for forest and nature-based carbon credits is gaining momentum. More and more companies and governments are turning to forests as part of their climate strategies, and analysts expect this trend to continue as demand grows for solutions that deliver real and verifiable benefits for the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In recent years, we have seen clear signs that the global market for forest and nature-based carbon credits is gaining momentum. More and more companies and governments are turning to forests as part of their climate strategies, and analysts expect this trend to continue as demand grows for solutions that deliver real and verifiable benefits for the climate, nature and people. Recent market assessments show sustained activity in the voluntary carbon market in 2025 and project further growth toward 2026, particularly for high-integrity credits linked to nature and forests. For those of us who live in and protect tropical forests, this is an important moment. As government forest protection programs, known as jurisdictional REDD+, begin to operate on a larger scale, covering entire forest countries or states, more funding will flow through systems that affect our territories, our livelihoods and our future. Whether this expansion strengthens our autonomy and benefits our communities or repeats old patterns of exclusion will depend, above all, on the full participation of our peoples in the process that determines how the benefits and revenues from these transactions are shared. We write as Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and traditional forest harvesting community leaders. From our perspective, how benefits are shared is not a technical detail or a box to check for governments seeking to sell credits, or companies buying them. It is central to ensuring that transactions are fair and that our rights are respected, and central to the very survival of our way of life. Indigenous and community leaders like this Kichwa guide in the Ecuadorian Amazon should help point the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indigenous-leaders-say-secure-forest-financing-with-us-not-for-us-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317133</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Costa Rica’s head start may mask tougher EUDR road ahead</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/costa-ricas-head-start-may-mask-tougher-eudr-road-ahead/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/costa-ricas-head-start-may-mask-tougher-eudr-road-ahead/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2026 17:49:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claudia Geib]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/13171951/Examining-coffee-plants-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315717</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, European Union, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Coffee, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, International Trade, Sustainability, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Costa Rica’s famous coffee industry says it’s nearly ready for EUDR. The upcoming European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requires that all coffee shipped into the EU not come from recently deforested land, prompting Costa Rica to develop a pilot program with its largest coffee cooperative. The initial program provided tools and training to help growers, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Costa Rica’s famous coffee industry says it’s nearly ready for EUDR. The upcoming European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) requires that all coffee shipped into the EU not come from recently deforested land, prompting Costa Rica to develop a pilot program with its largest coffee cooperative. The initial program provided tools and training to help growers, processors, roasters and exporters comply with the new rules. Over the past year, this pilot has expanded, giving these resources to all coffee producers nationally — and bringing Costa Rica closer to being one of the first nations to certify an entire sector as EUDR-ready. Costa Rica’s success serves as an important case study for the coffee industry, both in how others might prepare for the new rules, and why they may struggle in comparison. “I think we’ve seen a lot of discourse that says it&#8217;s basically impossible to comply with this law, and pilots like [Costa Rica’s] showcase that this is a wrong narrative,” said Janina Grabs, associate professor of sustainability research at the University of Basel in Switzerland, who studies agricultural commodities. “But they also showcase the alternative narrative, which is more truthful, which is that it&#8217;s going to be harder for some to comply than others.” Coffee is one of seven commodities covered by the EUDR; the others are cattle, cocoa, palm oil, rubber, soy and timber. While coffee’s impact is fractional compared to the massive deforestation undergone for cattle, palm oil and soy, the World Resources Institute estimates that between 2001&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/costa-ricas-head-start-may-mask-tougher-eudr-road-ahead/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315717</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Jay M. Savage, witness to disappearing frogs and builder of tropical science</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/jay-m-savage-witness-to-disappearing-frogs-and-builder-of-tropical-science/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/jay-m-savage-witness-to-disappearing-frogs-and-builder-of-tropical-science/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Dec 2025 03:38:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/25135219/jay-m-savage-bw-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312062</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, Latin America, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Biodiversity, Chytridiomycosis, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Frogs, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Herps, and Obituary]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the late 1980s, something began to go wrong in places that were supposed to be safe. Protected cloud forests, buffered from chainsaws and bulldozers, started losing animals that had persisted through far rougher times. Amphibians—often abundant, often overlooked—were vanishing in patterns that did not fit the usual explanations. Field biologists, trained to distrust drama, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the late 1980s, something began to go wrong in places that were supposed to be safe. Protected cloud forests, buffered from chainsaws and bulldozers, started losing animals that had persisted through far rougher times. Amphibians—often abundant, often overlooked—were vanishing in patterns that did not fit the usual explanations. Field biologists, trained to distrust drama, found themselves comparing notes with an unfamiliar unease. “A bunch of us got together and started comparing notes,” recalled Jay Mathers Savage, then a professor of biology at the University of Miami, in a 1992 interview with the New York Times. “People were struck by the fact it seemed to be occurring on a worldwide basis.” He had the credibility to make that observation land. For decades he had worked at the seam where taxonomy meets ecology, building arguments from specimens, notebooks, and repeated returns to the same humid places. His specialty was amphibians and reptiles, especially those of Central America—a region he came to know through sustained work rather than brief expeditions. One of those projects produced an animal that later became a symbol. In 1964, in what is now the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in Costa Rica, Savage and a colleague documented a toad that seemed almost designed to defy understatement. Its scientific name was Bufo periglenes. In life it was better known as the golden toad, the male an improbable Day-Glo orange. It spent most of its time underground and then surfaced for an annual, explosive breeding season—a brief, concentrated ritual that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/jay-m-savage-witness-to-disappearing-frogs-and-builder-of-tropical-science/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/jay-m-savage-witness-to-disappearing-frogs-and-builder-of-tropical-science/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312062</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Costa Rica&#8217;s ‘shocking’ wildlife crisis: Nation must move to prevent animal electrocution (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/costa-ricas-shocking-wildlife-crisis-nation-must-move-to-prevent-animal-electrocution-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/costa-ricas-shocking-wildlife-crisis-nation-must-move-to-prevent-animal-electrocution-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Dec 2025 21:03:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elena Kukovica]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/17203029/elena-2-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311592</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Commentary, Conservation, Development, Energy, Environment, Ethics, Infrastructure, Mammals, Monkeys, Sloths, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Costa Rica is world-renowned for its commitment to preserving biodiversity and wildlife. The country’s fervor to protect its ecosystems recently earned it the Earthshot Prize for Protecting and Restoring Nature, a significant international recognition for environmental protection. However, even a country as environmentally conscious as Costa Rica apparently cannot steer clear of the ongoing spread [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Costa Rica is world-renowned for its commitment to preserving biodiversity and wildlife. The country’s fervor to protect its ecosystems recently earned it the Earthshot Prize for Protecting and Restoring Nature, a significant international recognition for environmental protection. However, even a country as environmentally conscious as Costa Rica apparently cannot steer clear of the ongoing spread of urbanization and deforestation that threatens local wildlife. As forests and jungles give way to new homes and roads, animals are forced to adapt to their new surroundings and human neighbors. A vast and deadly obstacle in this process is electrical wires and transformers, which cause fatal wildlife electrocutions. This deadly problem is primarily caused by the fact that most of Costa Rica’s electrical infrastructure is installed aerially using conductive materials that lack insulation (e.g., aluminum conductors without protection). Combined with the high voltages carried by these wires, this creates a highly hazardous situation, putting any living being at risk of electrocution when coming into contact. As animals face intrusions into their natural habitats and need to move, they begin using electrical wires like they typically use tree branches, particularly when crossing roads. Combining constant contact with high-voltage power lines, it is therefore not difficult to believe that electrocution is one of the biggest causes of wildlife deaths in Costa Rica. In particular, 6,262 reported cases of wildlife electrocution happened just between June 2022 and June 2023, with the most affected species among mammals being squirrels, foxes, monkeys, kinkajous and sloths. A howler monkey traverses&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/costa-ricas-shocking-wildlife-crisis-nation-must-move-to-prevent-animal-electrocution-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/costa-ricas-shocking-wildlife-crisis-nation-must-move-to-prevent-animal-electrocution-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311592</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Stricter rules adopted to protect sloths from pet trade and selfie tourism</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/stricter-rules-adopted-to-protect-sloths-from-pet-trade-and-selfie-tourism/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/stricter-rules-adopted-to-protect-sloths-from-pet-trade-and-selfie-tourism/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Dec 2025 13:36:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/08190645/1.-Neil-D_Cruze-Manaus-9376-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310800</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Costa Rica, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Defaunation, Illegal Trade, Pet Trade, Rainforest Destruction, Sloths, Threats To Rainforests, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Known for their peaceful appearance and the impression that they&#8217;re always smiling, sloths now have extra protection to prevent their exploitation by a cruel and illegal pet trade. CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, agreed at its recent summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to include two sloth species in a list that imposes stringent requirements for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Known for their peaceful appearance and the impression that they&#8217;re always smiling, sloths now have extra protection to prevent their exploitation by a cruel and illegal pet trade. CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, agreed at its recent summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to include two sloth species in a list that imposes stringent requirements for their international trade. This means that all 185 parties to CITES (184 countries plus the European Union) will be subject to strict rules including a requirement that exporting countries provide studies proving that the transaction will not affect the species’ conservation. The two species newly listed in CITES Appendix II are Linné’s two-toed sloth (Choloepus didactylus), native to the Amazon, and Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni), which lives in the southern Amazon and parts of Central America. Two-fingered sloths are known to be more aggressive and faster than their three-toed relatives. The proposal to strengthen their protection came from Brazil, Costa Rica and Panama, as a way “to prevent illegal trafficking from increasing and its populations from declining.” According to delegates from the three countries, wildlife traffickers have been tearing the sloths from the forests to be presented as attractions in tourist itineraries through South America; some tourists even buy a baby sloth to take home as a kind of exotic pet. Researchers have recorded instances of this illegal trade in public markets in Iquitos, Peru, and Manaus, Brazil. “Demand for sloth species has increased in recent years, particularly for live animals taken from the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/stricter-rules-adopted-to-protect-sloths-from-pet-trade-and-selfie-tourism/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/stricter-rules-adopted-to-protect-sloths-from-pet-trade-and-selfie-tourism/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310800</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tropical forest roots show strain as changes aboveground filter below</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/tropical-forest-roots-show-strain-as-changes-aboveground-filter-below/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/tropical-forest-roots-show-strain-as-changes-aboveground-filter-below/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2025 16:59:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Petro Kotzé]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/15090836/1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302479</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central America, Costa Rica, Global, Latin America, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Singapore]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, data, Deforestation, Drought, Ecosystems, El Nino, Environment, forest degradation, Forests, Fungi, Plants, Precipitation, Rainforests, Research, Symbiotic Relationships, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The destruction of tropical rainforests — seen in shocking images of huge wildfires, vast clear-cuts and dying drought-stressed trees — is unfolding annually before the world&#8217;s eyes. But some serious changes in growing forests are occurring unseen, below the surface. As aboveground changes in those forests intensify, those effects are also filtering underground, and researchers [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The destruction of tropical rainforests — seen in shocking images of huge wildfires, vast clear-cuts and dying drought-stressed trees — is unfolding annually before the world&#8217;s eyes. But some serious changes in growing forests are occurring unseen, below the surface. As aboveground changes in those forests intensify, those effects are also filtering underground, and researchers are sounding the alarm due to potentially adverse changes to tropical forest roots. Roots are key to how rainforest trees and soils capture and store atmospheric carbon dioxide, especially as climate change progresses, says Daniela F. Cusack, associate professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability at Colorado State University. The hidden world of plant roots, and the impacts of human-caused stressors on them, is not yet well understood, but important clues are emerging. An overlooked science While underground plant growth is more difficult to study than what’s happening aboveground, roots are no less important than forest floor to canopy processes, explains Cusack, who is also a research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Scientists began looking at the complex tropical forest underworld about 40 years ago. Today, they know tropical tree species’ roots grow in a mat on the forest floor to collect nutrients from composting vegetative matter. Some trees have shallow root systems that run for more than 100 meters (325 feet) to steady the tall trees, especially since strong winds often rock the canopy. Others have evolved large, thin extensions of the trunk that begin some 6 m (20 ft)&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/tropical-forest-roots-show-strain-as-changes-aboveground-filter-below/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/tropical-forest-roots-show-strain-as-changes-aboveground-filter-below/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302479</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nearly half of tree species in Mexico and Central America threatened with extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/nearly-half-of-tree-species-in-mexico-and-central-america-threatened-with-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/nearly-half-of-tree-species-in-mexico-and-central-america-threatened-with-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jul 2025 13:48:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/08/30153330/costa_rica_osa_0077-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302104</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Central America, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Extinction, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Green, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Lions have been dubbed the king of the jungle, but one could argue the real royalty are the trees, the massive woody beasts that hold down the land and root the web of life that teems around them. In Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America), which hosts 10% of all plant life on Earth despite covering [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Lions have been dubbed the king of the jungle, but one could argue the real royalty are the trees, the massive woody beasts that hold down the land and root the web of life that teems around them. In Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America), which hosts 10% of all plant life on Earth despite covering only 0.5% of the planet’s land surface, nearly half of all tree species are in trouble. Of the 4,046 known tree species found only in Mesoamerica, 1,867, or 46%, are threatened with extinction, according to a new study published in the journal Plants, People, Planet. The research represents the first comprehensive assessment of Mesoamerican trees. The study was part of the Global Tree Assessment, a decade-long initiative to evaluate the conservation status of all the world&#8217;s tree species. Researchers used the standards of the IUCN Red List, which tracks how close species are to disappearing worldwide. The IUCN Red List categorizes species into nine groups, ranging from not evaluated to extinct, by considering factors such as population decline, habitat loss, and population size. Before this assessment, less than 20% (700) of the tree species of the region had been assessed on the IUCN Red List before 2019. Fungi in Costa Rica. Through their entire life cycle and beyond, tropical trees host an abundance of life. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.com. &#8220;It&#8217;s an important study — essentially a clarion call for conserving endangered tree species in Mesoamerica,&#8221; William Laurance, a tropical ecologist at James&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/nearly-half-of-tree-species-in-mexico-and-central-america-threatened-with-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302104</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Without vultures, carcasses are slow to rot and disease-carrying flies abound</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/without-vultures-carcasses-are-slow-to-rot-and-disease-carrying-flies-abound/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/without-vultures-carcasses-are-slow-to-rot-and-disease-carrying-flies-abound/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 May 2025 15:46:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/22144809/COVERCreditAndrewWhitworth-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299508</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Diseases, Environment, Forests, Green, Insects, Rainforests, Raptors, Vultures, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;Absolutely disgusting, so grim, the worst fieldwork of my life, but also extremely rewarding in a very odd way,&#8221; said Julia Grootaers, describing her three months collecting data among rotting pig carcasses in Costa Rica&#8217;s Osa Peninsula. For her master&#8217;s thesis at the University of Exeter, U.K., Grootaers was part of a study examining how [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;Absolutely disgusting, so grim, the worst fieldwork of my life, but also extremely rewarding in a very odd way,&#8221; said Julia Grootaers, describing her three months collecting data among rotting pig carcasses in Costa Rica&#8217;s Osa Peninsula. For her master&#8217;s thesis at the University of Exeter, U.K., Grootaers was part of a study examining how vultures affect carrion (decaying flesh) decomposition in neotropical ecosystems. Their findings, published recently in the journal Ecology and Evolution, reveal that in the absence of vultures, carcasses take twice as long to decompose, and fly populations double, with significant implications for ecosystem health and potential disease transmission. &#8220;There&#8217;s a reason why carcasses smell bad. We&#8217;re not meant to be near them,&#8221; Grootaers told Mongabay. The fieldwork involved spending day after day amid decomposing pig carcasses, some weighing up to 130 kilograms (nearly 290 pounds). &#8220;We&#8217;d have to obviously wear gloves and a mask, because you have so many flies flying around and they are trying to get into any orifice at all.&#8221; King vultures and black vultures descend upon a carcass in the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. In the absence of vultures, carcasses took twice as long to decompose. Photo courtesy of Andrew Whitworth. The experiment consisted of 32 pig carcasses deployed in the southern Pacific region of Costa Rica, half in grassland and half in forest habitats. Eight carcasses were covered with exclusion cages for each habitat to prevent vulture access, while eight control carcasses remained uncovered. Half the experiment took place during the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/without-vultures-carcasses-are-slow-to-rot-and-disease-carrying-flies-abound/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/without-vultures-carcasses-are-slow-to-rot-and-disease-carrying-flies-abound/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299508</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lures that attract seed-dispersing bats could aid tropical reforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/lures-that-attract-seed-dispersing-bats-could-aid-tropical-reforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/lures-that-attract-seed-dispersing-bats-could-aid-tropical-reforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2025 19:36:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/30091431/Sebas-short-tailed-bat-Carollia-perspicillata-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293623</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America and Costa Rica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bats, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystem Engineers, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Mammals, Reforestation, Research, Restoration, Seed Dispersal, Trees, Tropical Conservation Science, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Attracting seed-dispersing bats to degraded landscapes and aiding in tropical forest restoration efforts has long been an alluring prospect for conservationists: potentially a cheaper, less labor-intensive technique than media-hyped plantings of millions of trees. Researchers have experimented with a variety of seed disperser lures for decades, but a recent project in Costa Rica may show [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Attracting seed-dispersing bats to degraded landscapes and aiding in tropical forest restoration efforts has long been an alluring prospect for conservationists: potentially a cheaper, less labor-intensive technique than media-hyped plantings of millions of trees. Researchers have experimented with a variety of seed disperser lures for decades, but a recent project in Costa Rica may show an efficient, less costly way forward. Researchers successfully utilized synthetic chemical compounds derived from the fruit of Piper plants to attract wild fruit-eating bats. “To locate fruits in the dark, bats rely on their sense of smell. In our study, we used synthetic volatile molecules that mimic the scents of fruits preferred by fruit bats to attract them,” Mariana Gelambi, study lead author and Virginia Tech postdoctoral researcher, writes in an email. The research team placed these synthetic bat lures at sites within the La Selva Biological Research Station. They then observed fruit-eating bats from the genus Carollia drawn to the scent and also noted a slight increase in the quantity of seeds dispersed. This work builds on past research that tested the potential of essential oils collected from tropical fruits to attract seed dispersers. The chemical scents used in the Costa Rica experiment could cut the costs of extracting essential oils from fruit, making this new approach a possible candidate for large-scale future use, Gelambi says. In the past, researchers have explored other ways of attracting seed dispersers to deforested areas, deploying artificial bird nests and roosts and making sounds to attract a variety&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/lures-that-attract-seed-dispersing-bats-could-aid-tropical-reforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293623</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Illegal cockfighting threatens endangered sea turtles across Central America</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/illegal-cockfighting-threatens-endangered-sea-turtles-across-central-america/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/illegal-cockfighting-threatens-endangered-sea-turtles-across-central-america/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Dec 2024 18:05:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tina Deines]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/06112525/hawksbill-sea-turtle-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291591</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Rights, Animal Welfare, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Law Enforcement, Marine, Sea Turtles, Turtles, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Rescues, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Cockfighting has been illegal in Costa Rica for more than a century, but this violent tradition persists underground across the country. To make the birds deadlier, their owners often tie razor-sharp blades to their legs, known as gaffs or cockspurs. Aside from the roosters, which get seriously injured or killed during fights, another species has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Cockfighting has been illegal in Costa Rica for more than a century, but this violent tradition persists underground across the country. To make the birds deadlier, their owners often tie razor-sharp blades to their legs, known as gaffs or cockspurs. Aside from the roosters, which get seriously injured or killed during fights, another species has become an unlikely victim of the cockspur trade: the hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), a critically endangered species whose shell is often used to make these deadly implements. Hawksbills have long been targeted for their black-and-brown mottled shells, used in jewelry, combs and other decorations going back to ancient Rome. The species was also historically hunted for its meat as far back as the fifth century B.C.E. in China. Maike Heidemeyer, a Costa Rica-based marine biologist and head of biodiversity and community for the nonprofit conservation group Natural Capital Reserve, first noticed tortoiseshell spurs at holiday markets about two decades ago after moving to the country from Germany. The spurs were openly displayed, mixed in with other hawksbill-shell products like bracelets and trinkets. Though she says these types of bold exhibitions of hawksbill products have tapered off in recent years, demand remains, despite the nationwide ban on cockfighting. The critically endangered hawksbills (Eretmochelys imbricata) are found in tropical and subtropical waters in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans where they prefer coral reefs. Image by Kanenori via Pixabay. “There are associations, groups that openly defend their right to fight cocks, even in Costa Rica,” says&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/illegal-cockfighting-threatens-endangered-sea-turtles-across-central-america/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/illegal-cockfighting-threatens-endangered-sea-turtles-across-central-america/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291591</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Costa Rica, sustainable tourism is no longer enough for conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-costa-rica-sustainable-tourism-is-no-longer-enough-for-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-costa-rica-sustainable-tourism-is-no-longer-enough-for-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Oct 2024 21:43:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Michele Bertelli]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/21213420/Jurgen-Stein-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289037</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystem Services, Endangered Species, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Infrastructure, Logging, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Reforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LIMÓN, Costa Rica — On board Jurgen Stein’s two-seat gyrocopter, tourists can see the rainforest like never before. From the sky, the Selva Bananito Reserve looks like an endless stretch of broccoli. “We have 11 life zones. Almost 5% of the global biodiversity exists here,” Stein says, pointing at the reserve that’s part of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LIMÓN, Costa Rica — On board Jurgen Stein’s two-seat gyrocopter, tourists can see the rainforest like never before. From the sky, the Selva Bananito Reserve looks like an endless stretch of broccoli. “We have 11 life zones. Almost 5% of the global biodiversity exists here,” Stein says, pointing at the reserve that’s part of the Bosque de las Madres biological corridor. Nestled in the Talamanca Mountains in southeastern Costa Rica, his private reserve stretches to the fringe of La Amistad International Park, the largest nature reserve in Central America that straddles more than 400,000 hectares (988,422  acres) of the border region between Costa Rica and Panama. Stein’s own reserve, a more modest 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres), was inherited largely from his father, who purchased the area in 1974 for farming and logging. But Stein refused to continue clearing the forest, and instead turned 1,250 hectares (3,088 acres) into an ecological reserve in 1994, keeping only a third of the property devoted to farming. Selva Bananito is home to birds such as the great jacamar (Jacamerops aureus), anteaters like the northern tamandua (Tamandua mexicana) and the silky anteater (Cyclopes didactylus), and the Central American agouti (Dasyprocta punctata). It also hosts jaguars (Panthera onca) and pumas (Puma concolor). “When my father was 90, I gave him the footprint of a jaguar and a photo of a puma looking at one of our trap cameras. He stared at the picture and cried the whole day,” Stein says. Birds enthusiasts can explore Selva Bananito&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-costa-rica-sustainable-tourism-is-no-longer-enough-for-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-costa-rica-sustainable-tourism-is-no-longer-enough-for-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289037</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For ranchers in Costa Rica, jaguars and pumas become unexpected allies</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/for-ranchers-in-costa-rica-jaguars-and-pumas-become-unexpected-allies/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/for-ranchers-in-costa-rica-jaguars-and-pumas-become-unexpected-allies/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Oct 2024 10:08:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Darío Chinchilla]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/03100316/Jaguar-capturado-por-una-camara-trampa-en-una-finca-con-problemas-de-depredacion-en-el-Area-de-Conservacion-La-Amistad-Caribe-2014-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288158</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Conservation, Environment, Human-wildlife Conflict, Jaguars, Mammals, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In February this year, a jaguar walked onto Wagner Durán’s family ranch, located near Tortuguero National Park in Costa Rica, and, in an unusual event, killed a calf. This area has the highest density of jaguars in Costa Rica, so it wasn’t unusual for that reason. What made it stand out was that it was [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In February this year, a jaguar walked onto Wagner Durán’s family ranch, located near Tortuguero National Park in Costa Rica, and, in an unusual event, killed a calf. This area has the highest density of jaguars in Costa Rica, so it wasn’t unusual for that reason. What made it stand out was that it was the first time something like this had happened in seven years. But Durán says he doesn’t hold any grudges. In the Lomas Azules community back then, every time a jaguar preyed on a cow it would mean up to $1,000 in losses for the rancher. The environmental authorities were treated as the enemy because they offered no solution, instead prohibiting the hunting of the big cats. “It was decided that you can’t touch the jaguar. What did that do? Make farmers angry and they’d kill the animal [even] faster,” Durán says. His story is a common one among ranchers in the areas close to where jaguars (Panthera onca) and pumas (Puma concolor) hunt in Costa Rica. However, the situation took a turn with the arrival of a collaborative project between the wildcat conservation NGO Panthera and the Costa Rican environmental authorities. The Unit for the Attention for Conflicts with Felines (UACFel) is a pioneering initiative in Latin America, taking in reports of predation and working on solutions for those affected. The initiative promotes peaceful coexistence between ranchers and wildcats through the implementation of advanced technologies and policies that have the added benefit of improving production&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/for-ranchers-in-costa-rica-jaguars-and-pumas-become-unexpected-allies/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/for-ranchers-in-costa-rica-jaguars-and-pumas-become-unexpected-allies/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288158</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ever-smarter consumer electronics push world toward environmental brink</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/ever-smarter-consumer-electronics-push-world-toward-environmental-brink/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/ever-smarter-consumer-electronics-push-world-toward-environmental-brink/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Sep 2024 15:15:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerry McGovernSue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/24083313/Agbogbloshie-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287749</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Costa Rica, Global, and Taiwan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, charcoal, Climate Change, Coal, Consumption, E-waste, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fossil Fuels, Global Environmental Crisis, Industry, Mining, Overconsumption, Pollution, Recycling, Research, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In recent decades, the electronics industry experienced meteoric growth as it swiftly invented and marketed a galaxy of novel products for consumers hungry for the next innovation, better performance and greater convenience. In 2024, the consumer electronics market alone is expected to top $809 billion, exceeding $1.4 trillion by 2034. But there’s a dark side [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In recent decades, the electronics industry experienced meteoric growth as it swiftly invented and marketed a galaxy of novel products for consumers hungry for the next innovation, better performance and greater convenience. In 2024, the consumer electronics market alone is expected to top $809 billion, exceeding $1.4 trillion by 2034. But there’s a dark side to this tech miracle: Our digital age love affair with ever-more-powerful cell phones, smart TVs, laptops, tablets, gaming consoles and other devices comes with a high price. The environmental and social costs of producing the trillions of silicon semiconductor chips needed to run our gadgets and to operate remote data centers is escalating incredibly fast and “fostering an environmental time bomb,” warns Ian Williams, professor of applied environmental science at the University of Southampton, U.K. “The environmental impact of making semiconductor chips is already huge and increasing rapidly,” Williams tells Mongabay. Today, the complex integrated circuitry inside an electronic device is a miracle of miniaturization and nanometer-accurate precision with each millimeter-thick, fingernail-sized silicon chip incorporating 30-100 sandwiched layers of etched interconnected transistors and electronic components. But chip structure and computing power doesn’t stand still: It must keep pace with new tech innovations. “Each new generation requires more energy and water and generates more greenhouse gases than the previous generation,” Williams explains. However, few seem aware of the looming risk. Competition among tech giants to produce faster, more advanced devices is leading to unbridled demand for increasingly sophisticated semiconductors, worsening global impacts. Unless urgent action is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/ever-smarter-consumer-electronics-push-world-toward-environmental-brink/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/ever-smarter-consumer-electronics-push-world-toward-environmental-brink/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287749</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Failed U.S. ‘war on drugs’ endangers Central American bird habitats, study warns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/failed-u-s-war-on-drugs-endangers-central-american-bird-habitats-study-warns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/failed-u-s-war-on-drugs-endangers-central-american-bird-habitats-study-warns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2024 16:47:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Boris van der Spek]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/03154121/Golden-cheeked_Warbler_male-Kerr_WMA-TX_-_2015-05-24at13-39-5312_21618131341-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286890</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, and Nicaragua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Deforestation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Rainforests, Research, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Every year, between November and February, the golden-cheeked warbler makes its way down from the U.S. state of Texas to Central America. But as it travels to find refuge from the winter, this tiny, endangered bird, Setophaga chrysoparia, with its bright-yellow cheeks and a buzzing song, seems unable to evade habitat loss. More than 90% [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Every year, between November and February, the golden-cheeked warbler makes its way down from the U.S. state of Texas to Central America. But as it travels to find refuge from the winter, this tiny, endangered bird, Setophaga chrysoparia, with its bright-yellow cheeks and a buzzing song, seems unable to evade habitat loss. More than 90% of the golden-cheeked warbler population winters in a region that is at increased risk of deforestation, experts are warning. It isn’t alone. Dozens of migratory and native forest birds in Central America could see as much as two-thirds of their habitats threatened by encroaching narco-trafficking activity that drives deforestation, according to recently published research. More than half of the migratory species analyzed had more than a quarter of their global populations in landscapes that have become more vulnerable to drug-related deforestation in Central America. And this is only for the migratory species that breed in North America, the study authors say. The Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. Large-scale deforestation in the region has been linked, in part, to narco-trafficking, say experts. Image courtesy of CIFOR via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). They found that antidrug policies can push narco-trafficking into more remote forest areas, many of which represent important bird landscapes. Some of the areas that have become more vulnerable as a result lie within Central America’s Five Great Forests: the Maya Forest in Guatemala, the Indio-Maiz in Nicaragua, the Tortuguero in Costa Rica, and the Moskitia in Honduras. The study found that since 1970, deforestation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/failed-u-s-war-on-drugs-endangers-central-american-bird-habitats-study-warns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/failed-u-s-war-on-drugs-endangers-central-american-bird-habitats-study-warns/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286890</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>3D ‘digital twin’ rainforest maps could help reforestation programs in Costa Rica</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/3d-digital-twin-rainforest-maps-could-help-reforestation-programs-in-costa-rica/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/3d-digital-twin-rainforest-maps-could-help-reforestation-programs-in-costa-rica/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Aug 2024 11:09:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark Hillsdon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/15151106/IMG_9066-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286078</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Loss, Forests, Rainforests, Reforestation, Research, Restoration, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[New technology is helping scientists to create 3D maps of tropical rainforests and gain a much clearer understanding of their volume, health and biodiversity. Creating “digital twins” provides new levels of data that can support more effective reforestation programs as well as produce an accurate record of the forest’s carbon storage potential, something that could [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[New technology is helping scientists to create 3D maps of tropical rainforests and gain a much clearer understanding of their volume, health and biodiversity. Creating “digital twins” provides new levels of data that can support more effective reforestation programs as well as produce an accurate record of the forest’s carbon storage potential, something that could prove attractive to companies looking to invest in forest restoration programs. Digital twins are virtual models that are continuously updated by new, incoming data and are more commonly associated with industrial sites such as oil rigs or factories. While mapping nature, which is in a constant state of flux, rather than something man-made, does pose new problems, scientists are using the technology to produce accurate reproductions of the natural world to support conservation programs. “Digital twins are potentially game-changing when it comes to rainforest preservation and species conservation,” Robert Muggah, co-founder of Igarapé Institute, a Brazilian social and environmental think tank, tells Mongabay in a written response. “The fusion of remote sensing and machine learning techniques could revolutionize our understanding of forests and biodiversity, as well as approaches to protecting and regenerating nature.” Flight over Piedras Blancas National Park. In the foreground is Golfo Dulce, in the background Fila Cal. COBIGA Biological corridor connects the lowland forests with the mountain forests. Image by Anton Weissenhofer. Digital twins can also support better forest management, he explains, particularly when assessing threats to “hotspot” areas that are prone to forest dieback or savannization. “In creating a digital copy&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/3d-digital-twin-rainforest-maps-could-help-reforestation-programs-in-costa-rica/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/3d-digital-twin-rainforest-maps-could-help-reforestation-programs-in-costa-rica/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286078</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservation pays and everyone’s benefitting from it (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/conservation-pays-and-everyones-benefitting-from-it-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/conservation-pays-and-everyones-benefitting-from-it-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2024 07:05:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Diego Vincenzi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/15000432/costa_rica_siquirres_0578-2560-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284325</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, Latin America, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity credits, Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Forests, Green, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforests, Reforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In just one generation, Costa Rica halted deforestation and reversed land degradation. Currently, Costa Rica boasts 57% forest cover, with 25% of its land territory protected. All of this has been achieved while the country&#8217;s agricultural sector became the most robust per capita agricultural exporter in Latin America. Remarkably, Costa Rica’s agricultural sector produces net [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In just one generation, Costa Rica halted deforestation and reversed land degradation. Currently, Costa Rica boasts 57% forest cover, with 25% of its land territory protected. All of this has been achieved while the country&#8217;s agricultural sector became the most robust per capita agricultural exporter in Latin America. Remarkably, Costa Rica’s agricultural sector produces net zero emissions! But how can a small country with limited space achieve this? Years ago, we discovered that conservation pays. For some, this notion might sound contradictory, but for us Costa Ricans, it&#8217;s a reality. During the 1990s, environmental legislation in Costa Rica shifted towards a greener framework. We moved from a &#8220;subsidy&#8221; concept in forest conservation to an &#8220;economic recognition&#8221; of the ecosystem services our forests provide. Percent forest cover in Costa Rica since 1940. Data from Hector 2008 and Reid 2018. The Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) scheme is primarily funded by a tax on fossil fuels. Traditionally, PES was granted to estates or people with ownership rights to the land meant for protection. This scheme is institutionalized through a fund called Fondo Nacional para el Financiamiento Forestal (FONAFIFO), a state-of-the-art institution that has gained the necessary experience and expertise to understand the needs of conservation and the flexibility required to meet those needs. Now, FONAFIFO is introducing new components to the traditional PES scheme. Over the past couple of years, one of the first changes is that PES now pays for land that has not been titled. This directly benefits many of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/conservation-pays-and-everyones-benefitting-from-it-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284325</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Are carbon credits another resource-for-cash grab? Interview with Alondra Cerdes Morales &#038; Samuel Nguiffo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/are-carbon-credits-another-resource-for-cash-grab-interview-with-alondra-cerdes-morales-samuel-nguiffo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/are-carbon-credits-another-resource-for-cash-grab-interview-with-alondra-cerdes-morales-samuel-nguiffo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 May 2024 12:29:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Latoya AbuluSonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/22112931/herps_192039-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282347</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering Climate Now and Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cameroon, Costa Rica, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Mitigation, Politics, Redd, Solutions, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There’s a quiet divide among Indigenous and traditional community advocates on the topic of carbon markets. On one hand, some believe carbon credit projects operating on their lands should be suspended or stopped. They say the projects perpetuate land rights violations, offer low benefits, and often breach Indigenous people’s free, prior and informed consent. Others [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There’s a quiet divide among Indigenous and traditional community advocates on the topic of carbon markets. On one hand, some believe carbon credit projects operating on their lands should be suspended or stopped. They say the projects perpetuate land rights violations, offer low benefits, and often breach Indigenous people’s free, prior and informed consent. Others say carbon projects create important jobs in materially poor communities and compensate them for conservation work they’ve been doing for generations. Like most debates, there are overlaps: both sides tend to believe more stringent land rights and human rights protections should be implemented in the market through regulations and the law. But there’s no agreement on the way forward, either in the form of a temporary moratorium, renouncing the markets as greenwashing altogether, or buckling down to flesh out and enforce regulations. Even within factions, there are differences and nuances in the approach. But one topic in the debate around carbon markets that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention is the commodification of community lands, especially those of Indigenous peoples — and what it means about how people relate to nature, wildlife and their ancestral territories. Indigenous peoples and traditional communities often hold deep cultural and spiritual connections to their lands and ecosystems. But carbon credit projects seemingly introduce a different, transactional relationship. Managed by NGOs, the state or a community itself, they put a price tag on protecting a forest or ecosystem on community land to offset greenhouse gas emissions from elsewhere. Does this&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/are-carbon-credits-another-resource-for-cash-grab-interview-with-alondra-cerdes-morales-samuel-nguiffo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/are-carbon-credits-another-resource-for-cash-grab-interview-with-alondra-cerdes-morales-samuel-nguiffo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282347</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Costa Rican community struggles to stop an airport ‘destroying our country’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/costa-rican-community-struggles-to-stop-an-airport-destroying-our-country/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/costa-rican-community-struggles-to-stop-an-airport-destroying-our-country/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Apr 2024 15:55:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alice PistolesiMonica Pelliccia]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/08154008/14-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280721</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Costa Rica, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community Development, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Loss, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Protected Areas, Tourism, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PALMAR SUR, Costa Rica — “Once, we were digging to build a fence for the animals and we discovered by luck some archaeological artifacts,” says Ana Isabel Vargas Ortiz, a 55-year-old farmer. She lives in Finca 9, a village close to the Diquís Delta archaeological site in the Puntarenas region of southeast Costa Rica. “It [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PALMAR SUR, Costa Rica — “Once, we were digging to build a fence for the animals and we discovered by luck some archaeological artifacts,” says Ana Isabel Vargas Ortiz, a 55-year-old farmer. She lives in Finca 9, a village close to the Diquís Delta archaeological site in the Puntarenas region of southeast Costa Rica. “It was a strong emotion and not only for the historical value. We still hope that our ancestors will save us from the construction of the new airport, which will make us lose our houses and lands.” Vargas Ortiz, a mother of seven, is one of the community leaders opposing the construction of the AIZS airport project that would overlap with her village and the neighboring Finca 10. The airport, planned in the vicinity of a UNESCO World Heritage Site that’s home to pre-Columbian artifacts, will have a 2.6-kilometer (1.6-mile) runway, whose construction threatens to evict the roughly 350 families living in the two hamlets and affect the four archaeological sites inside the Diquís park. The airport is among many projects related to tourism development expanding across the country. “From the Pacific to the Caribbean coast, we witness the commodification of nature in Costa Rica,” says Tania Rodríguez Echavarría, a professor of political ecology at the University of Costa Rica. “Monoculture [farming] and tourism on a large scale are part of the same agro-exporter and extractivist vision, which leaves local people behind.” Ana Isabel Vargas Ortiz, 55, lives in Finca 9, a village close to Diquís&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/costa-rican-community-struggles-to-stop-an-airport-destroying-our-country/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/costa-rican-community-struggles-to-stop-an-airport-destroying-our-country/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280721</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A tiger cat gains new species designation, but conservation challenges remain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/a-tiger-cat-gains-new-species-designation-but-conservation-challenges-remain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/a-tiger-cat-gains-new-species-designation-but-conservation-challenges-remain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Apr 2024 13:38:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/01222118/Image-1-Leopardus-tigrinus-pardinoides-Cuenca-3-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280510</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals and Global Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Central America, Colombia, Costa Rica, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Ecology, Endangered Species, Environment, Genetics, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Research, Species, Species Discovery, Tigers, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2024, Latin America’s tiger cat, previously recognized as two species, was determined by scientists to be three species — a taxonomic reshuffling that has major conservation implications for these small cats.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Many of the world’s small wildcats are enigmatic, elusive and roam beyond the media spotlight enjoyed by their big cat cousins. But you could be forgiven for never having heard of Latin America’s cloud forest-dwelling small cat Leopardus pardinoides, as researchers only recently described it as a new species. A team comprised of dozens of researchers and conservationists presented the finding in a paper published in January this year in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.  Tiger cats are diminutive felids, about the size of a house cat, that range across the Americas from Costa Rica to Bolivia and Argentina. Until this year, only two tiger cat species were officially recognized: the southern tiger cat (Leopardus gutullus), found in the Atlantic Forest, and the northern tiger cat (Leopardus tigrinus), with a presumed massive range stretching from Brazil through Colombia, north to Costa Rica and across the Andes into Bolivia and Peru.  But a change is in the wind with the description of L. pardinoides. Researchers assessed characteristics of all the tiger cats known, including their morphology and ecology, and concluded that populations dwelling in the Andes and cloud forests of countries such as Colombia, Peru and Costa Rica are a separate species from the savanna-dwelling L. tigrinus. That designation follows a paper published in late 2023 that analyzed the genetics of tiger cats and reached a similar conclusion that the clouded tiger cat is a distinct species. Colombia and Costa Rica are key locations for the conservation of Leopardus pardinoides. But&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/a-tiger-cat-gains-new-species-designation-but-conservation-challenges-remain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/a-tiger-cat-gains-new-species-designation-but-conservation-challenges-remain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280510</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Critics fear catastrophic energy crisis as AI is outsourced to Latin America</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/critics-fear-catastrophic-energy-crisis-as-ai-is-outsourced-to-latin-america/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/critics-fear-catastrophic-energy-crisis-as-ai-is-outsourced-to-latin-america/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Mar 2024 13:19:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerry McGovernSue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/21123024/fog-4666170_1920-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280106</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Chile, Costa Rica, Global, Latin America, Mexico, South America, and Taiwan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Artificial Intelligence, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, data, Drought, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Extreme Weather, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Politics, Protests, Renewable Energy, Technology, Tropical Forests, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With exponential AI energy demand threatening to soon overwhelm the U.S. electric grid, analysts fear that AI’s rapid entry into Latin America could bring massive energy and water consumption, putting communities at risk.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“We walk for the water we need. If we don’t walk, who will give it to us?” asks Juan, a middle-aged man born in the Indigenous rural community of Maconí, Mexico. “It’s a four-hour journey each day to fetch water … Since last year, there hasn’t been rain, and this year it’s the same.” The bean crop has withered and there’s no corn to make tortillas, he told Ana Valdivia, an AI expert from the U.K.’s Oxford Internet Institute. Adding to Maconí’s climate change-driven water crisis is the extreme suck placed on its water supply by an influx of new internet data centers, whose already astronomical consumption of limited community water and electricity is about to surge again as AI drives an exponential leap in global demand for computer chips and data capacity. Valdivia, who is about to publish a paper titled “The supply chain capitalism of AI,” met Juan during an October 2023 community protest in Querétaro state, north of Mexico City, where rural people demanded fundamental water access rights. Querétaro is the only Mexican state with its entirety at high risk of drought. It is also where Big Tech has chosen to develop what could become the largest data center hub in Latin America. “Querétaro is already hosting 10 functioning data centers, and planning to install 18 more, some of them to support the growing demand of ChatGPT,” says Valdivia. “Data centers are extracting drinking water for their economic businesses, whereas Juan has to walk almost a day&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/critics-fear-catastrophic-energy-crisis-as-ai-is-outsourced-to-latin-america/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/critics-fear-catastrophic-energy-crisis-as-ai-is-outsourced-to-latin-america/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280106</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tech to recover rainforest: Interview with Osa Conservation’s Carolina Pinto &#038; Paulina Rodriguez</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/tech-to-recover-rainforest-interview-with-osa-conservations-carolina-pinto-paulina-rodriguez/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/tech-to-recover-rainforest-interview-with-osa-conservations-carolina-pinto-paulina-rodriguez/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Feb 2024 14:54:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/21143304/Geoffroys-spider-monkey-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279055</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America and Costa Rica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Drones, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Rainforests, Research, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Technology, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For Carolina Pinto and Paulina Rodriguez, the story of the Osa Peninsula embodies one of hope. The diverse rainforest ecosystem in Costa Rica, home to plants and animals seen nowhere else on the planet, had been subjected to destruction and deforestation for decades. But since the 1970s, Rodriguez says, the peninsula has seen a slow [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For Carolina Pinto and Paulina Rodriguez, the story of the Osa Peninsula embodies one of hope. The diverse rainforest ecosystem in Costa Rica, home to plants and animals seen nowhere else on the planet, had been subjected to destruction and deforestation for decades. But since the 1970s, Rodriguez says, the peninsula has seen a slow and gradual recovery. “We had seen destruction a long time ago, and now they&#8217;re forests. It&#8217;s a great example that it&#8217;s possible to have recovery,” Paulina Rodriguez, the conservation technology strategist at the nonprofit Osa Conservation, tells Mongabay in a video interview. Pinto, the organization’s wildlife conservation manager, nods in agreement. The Osa Peninsula is a unique ecosystem where the rainforest meets the Pacific Ocean. A favorite among researchers and tourists alike, this small strip of land, spanning about 1,800 square kilometers (700 square miles), is estimated to be home to 2.5% of global terrestrial biodiversity. In a bid to protect and monitor the ecosystem better, Pinto, Rodriguez and their team members have been working to gather more data that will inform and improve their conservation strategies. Over the years, they’ve used a wide array of technology, ranging from camera traps and acoustic recorders, to thermal drones and GPS tags, to track, trace and monitor animals including sea turtles, tapirs, jaguars and spider monkeys. “It’s not just about using the tech, but also evaluating if it has been successful or not and then seeing how we can improve them,” Pinto says. Osa Conservation uses a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/tech-to-recover-rainforest-interview-with-osa-conservations-carolina-pinto-paulina-rodriguez/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/tech-to-recover-rainforest-interview-with-osa-conservations-carolina-pinto-paulina-rodriguez/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279055</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>2024 outlook for rainforests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/outlook-for-rainforests-2024/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/outlook-for-rainforests-2024/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jan 2024 05:16:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/03051316/indonesia_sulawesi_171067_24header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277302</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Ghana, Global, Indonesia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, El Nino, Environment, Forests, Green, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Tropical Forests, Year-end review, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Last week, Mongabay published a recap of the major trends in the world’s tropical rainforests for 2023. Here’s a glimpse into some of the key issues to monitor in 2024. Brazil The deforestation rate in the Brazilian Amazon has declined significantly during President Lula&#8217;s first year of his third term, following the reinstatement of various [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Last week, Mongabay published a recap of the major trends in the world’s tropical rainforests for 2023. Here’s a glimpse into some of the key issues to monitor in 2024. Brazil The deforestation rate in the Brazilian Amazon has declined significantly during President Lula&#8217;s first year of his third term, following the reinstatement of various rainforest protection programs. However, Lula faces substantial opposition from Congress and state governments regarding his environmental policies. Despite these challenges, international support for the Amazon is bolstering his administration&#8217;s conservation efforts. Elections in DRC and Indonesia Presidential elections will loom large in two countries with extensive tropical forests, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Indonesia. In the DRC, President Felix Tshisekedi was re-elected in December amid controversy, with observers and opposition claiming the vote was neither free nor fair. Given Tshisekedi&#8217;s presidency coincided with persistently high deforestation rates and strong demand for the country’s minerals, his re-election likely indicates little substantial change in the current trend. However, escalating instability in the East, potentially aggravating the existing humanitarian crisis, could introduce further uncertainty. In Indonesia, Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto has emerged as the presidential frontrunner. Prabowo, a vocal critic of the E.U.’s Zero Deforestation Regulation, has drawn concerns from NGOs about the future of environmental protection in Indonesia. The nation&#8217;s consistent, albeit underrecognized, reduction in deforestation since raises questions about its continuation under Prabowo’s potential leadership. Wallace&#8217;s Passage in Indonesia&#8217;s West Papua. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler Carbon Markets After a challenging year marked&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/outlook-for-rainforests-2024/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/outlook-for-rainforests-2024/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277302</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Restoring degraded forests may be key for climate, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/restoring-degraded-forests-may-be-key-for-climate-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/restoring-degraded-forests-may-be-key-for-climate-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Oct 2023 15:41:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/04151943/Pesalat-Reforestation-Project-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274049</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Central America, Costa Rica, Global, Guatemala, Latin America, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Ecosystems, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Logging, Mapping, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Reforestation, Research, Restoration, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Sustainable Forest Management, Timber, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new global analysis focuses on the climate benefits of restoring degraded forest areas instead of replanting trees in deforested areas. Researchers mapped forests worldwide to find areas that could support more trees and wildlife if restored. The study reveals that degraded forests, which retain 50-80% of their potential tree density, cover more than 1.5 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new global analysis focuses on the climate benefits of restoring degraded forest areas instead of replanting trees in deforested areas. Researchers mapped forests worldwide to find areas that could support more trees and wildlife if restored. The study reveals that degraded forests, which retain 50-80% of their potential tree density, cover more than 1.5 billion hectares (3.7 billion acres) worldwide. Focusing restoration efforts in these damaged forest ecosystems may deliver rapid gains for carbon storage and wildlife habitat connectivity. Degraded forests are those with reduced canopy cover, biodiversity loss, soil erosion, altered water cycles, heightened susceptibility to pests and diseases and diminished overall health and functionality. Causes range from unsustainable logging and shifting cultivation to wildfires, overgrazing and climate change impacts. Forest restoration potential by intervention type. Areas with reforestation potential are mapped together with areas of degraded forest with potential for recovery. Figure from Rayden et al 2023. Degraded forests are cheaper and easier to restore than completely cleared lands, the authors say, and allowing them to regrow naturally (via natural or assisted natural regeneration) can rapidly recapture lost carbon. The authors argue that considering degraded forests significantly expands the area that could be targeted by restoration programs and would better reflect the full range of opportunities to pull carbon from the air into the plant biomass and soil of the forest. The study combined remote sensing data on current tree cover with models of forest biomass potential. This allowed the researchers to map degraded forests globally that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/restoring-degraded-forests-may-be-key-for-climate-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274049</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Counting dead cats on Costa Rica’s highways: Q&#038;A with Daniela Araya Gamboa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/counting-dead-cats-on-costa-ricas-highways-qa-with-daniela-araya-gamboa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/counting-dead-cats-on-costa-ricas-highways-qa-with-daniela-araya-gamboa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Apr 2023 15:02:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid Arellano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Astridarellano]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/05145629/04-Panthera-onca-crossing-2015-Costa-Rica-Credits-Helder-Casanova-ICE--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267247</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Costa Rica and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Cats, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Interviews, Jaguars, Roadkill, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The nature of her father’s work, as an aerial fumigation pilot, meant that Daniela Araya lived in many areas of Costa Rica when she was a child. She usually traveled with him in rural areas on roads with slow speed limits. On these journeys, whether at dawn or at night, they admired the numbers of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The nature of her father’s work, as an aerial fumigation pilot, meant that Daniela Araya lived in many areas of Costa Rica when she was a child. She usually traveled with him in rural areas on roads with slow speed limits. On these journeys, whether at dawn or at night, they admired the numbers of animals that crossed their path and continued naturally on their way. On occasion, they helped the animals to cross. “This was exciting for us: to go on rural roads, where no one drove fast, rescuing the animals on the road. With time, it became more frequent to find them not alive, but run over,” says Araya, now a biologist. “It was frustrating to see so many dead animals on the road — and this is how I started to look for ways to make an impact, but now focusing on cats,” she says. Daniela Araya Gamboa counting animals run over in national parks; there were 68 animals on a stretch of 45 kilometrs (28 miles) during just one morning. Image courtesy of Panthera. Daniela Araya Gamboa is the coordinator of the Caminos Amigables con los Felinos (Cat-Friendly Roads) project, from Panthera Costa Rica, where she has worked for 10 years. Her daily routine consists of pulling on her rubber boots, putting on a reflective jacket, getting in a car at dawn with sirens and lights and driving along dangerous roads, which are risky not only because of fast-moving vehicles, but also because organized criminals sometimes&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/counting-dead-cats-on-costa-ricas-highways-qa-with-daniela-araya-gamboa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267247</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mountain islands: Restoring a transitional cloud forest in Costa Rica</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/mountain-islands-restoring-a-transitional-cloud-forest-in-costa-rica/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/mountain-islands-restoring-a-transitional-cloud-forest-in-costa-rica/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Mar 2023 17:31:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/29142256/Resplendent-quetzal-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266976</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Cloud Forests, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Islands, Rainforests, Reforestation, Restoration, Solutions, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2002, a couple vacationing in Costa Rica, stunned by deforestation there, bought land and regrew a transitional cloud forest — a grassroots model worth emulating: Part two of a three-part Mongabay mini-series on island habitat restoration.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story is the second article of a three-part Mongabay mini-series on island habitat forest restoration projects. Read Part One and Part Three. In 2001, South African-born couple, Genevieve and Ian Giddy traveled to Costa Rica to climb Mount Chirripó, one of Central America’s highest peaks, protected within Chirripó National Park. Coming down from the 3,821-meter (12,536-foot) summit, the couple viewed a stark divide between the protected biodiverse high-altitude cloud forest and the deforested cattle pasture and farms below. It was a revelatory moment. A year later, they returned and purchased a small cattle farm on the park’s border, with the ambitious intent of restoring a patch of transitional cloud forest — a long-lost bit of habitat located between 1,500 and 2,500 m (5,000 and 8,300 ft). Over the ensuing years, they purchased six more farms, totaling 283 hectares (700 acres). They dubbed their acquisition Cloudbridge, establishing it as a habitat link and buffer between Chirripó National Park and the human communities far below. The couple had much work ahead. The purchased land was “all basically played out, old agricultural land [though] some was in natural regeneration — secondary forests — and some [small amount] was still in old-growth,” recalls Tom Gode, president of the board of directors of the U.S.-based Cloud Forest Conservation Alliance (CFCA), which manages Cloudbridge Nature Reserve today. The Giddys’ planned to expand the forest zone outside the national park, so they quickly started planting trees. But they soon learned that restoring a complex transitional ecosystem isn’t&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/mountain-islands-restoring-a-transitional-cloud-forest-in-costa-rica/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266976</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Swinging to safety: How canopy bridges may save Costa Rica’s howlers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/swinging-to-safety-how-canopy-bridges-may-save-costa-ricas-howlers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/swinging-to-safety-how-canopy-bridges-may-save-costa-ricas-howlers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Feb 2023 14:23:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Noah Tobias]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maria Angeles Salazar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/15141856/Photo-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265566</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Costa Rica and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Fellows, Forests, Monkeys, Primates, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[One of the first times Inés Azofeifa Rojas saw a dead howler monkey, it was lying on a road with its body curled up in a ball. The monkey’s palms were charred, its muscles seized and contorted. While traveling between two patches of forest, the monkey was forced to traverse the tarmac that separated them [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[One of the first times Inés Azofeifa Rojas saw a dead howler monkey, it was lying on a road with its body curled up in a ball. The monkey’s palms were charred, its muscles seized and contorted. While traveling between two patches of forest, the monkey was forced to traverse the tarmac that separated them — using an overhead electrical cable. Somewhere between the two safe ends, the monkey touched a live wire. “Seeing them burned, all the injuries from the electrocutions — that’s what sensitized me to continue researching,” Azofeifa said. Driven by anger at a needless death, Azofeifa, a primatologist at the University of Costa Rica, gathered a team and began looking for strategies to save lives. According to her new study, published in the journal Folia Primatologica and based on six years of fieldwork in Costa Rica’s Guanacaste province, Azofeifa may have found a way to keep golden-mantled howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata palliata) safe by building rope bridges between the treetops. “If we want a healthy planet,” she says, “we need to maintain connectivity for howlers, who are in charge of keeping forests biodiverse.” A howler monkey and its young cling to a tree. Howlers have active social lives, and often move between groups in search of mates – a journey that sometimes leads across roads to new forest patches. Image by Inés Azofefia Rojas. Bridges for monkeys Between 2018 and 2019, electrocution killed nearly 1,000 monkeys across Costa Rica, according to research from the Ministry of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/swinging-to-safety-how-canopy-bridges-may-save-costa-ricas-howlers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265566</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Costa Rica announces ban on fishing of hammerhead sharks</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/costa-rica-announces-ban-on-fishing-of-hammerhead-sharks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/costa-rica-announces-ban-on-fishing-of-hammerhead-sharks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Feb 2023 20:43:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maxradwin]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/10200742/FEATURE-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265500</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environmental Law, Fish, Fishing, Governance, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, Protected Areas, shark finning, Sharks, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MEXICO CITY — Fishing for hammerhead sharks is now illegal in Costa Rica, thanks to the signing of a new executive decree this month by President Rodrigo Chaves Robles. The decree prohibits the capture, transportation, storage or sale of hammerhead sharks or their byproducts, such as fins and teeth. Banned species include the smooth hammerhead [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MEXICO CITY — Fishing for hammerhead sharks is now illegal in Costa Rica, thanks to the signing of a new executive decree this month by President Rodrigo Chaves Robles. The decree prohibits the capture, transportation, storage or sale of hammerhead sharks or their byproducts, such as fins and teeth. Banned species include the smooth hammerhead (Sphyrna zygaena), scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) and great hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran). Despite being critically endangered — and protected under CITES Appendix II — hammerhead sharks have been bought and sold in Costa Rica for years. The animals are prized for their fins, which are often sent to countries like China to be used in shark fin soup, considered a delicacy. “This is too late and it’s way too little,” said Randall Arauz, a biologist with Marine Watch International. “Of course I’m happy they banned hammerhead shark fishing. But hammerhead sharks were listed under CITES by initiative of Costa Rica in 2013 and it was their obligation to ban hammerhead shark fishing commercialization, extraction, everything. That’s been our battle for the last ten years.” In that time, Arauz said hammerhead shark populations in Costa Rica have declined by around 90%. A Scalloped Hammerhead Shark. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia) Different presidents have, over the last decade, gone back and forth about hammerhead shark protections, in part over concern for the wellbeing of the fishing industry. Former president Luis Guillermo Solís issued a decree in 2017 legalizing much of the shark trade only for the decree to be&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/costa-rica-announces-ban-on-fishing-of-hammerhead-sharks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265500</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deliberate dumping of plastic trash in the Pacific: How widespread is it? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/deliberate-dumping-of-plastic-trash-in-the-pacific-how-widespread-is-it-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/deliberate-dumping-of-plastic-trash-in-the-pacific-how-widespread-is-it-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jan 2023 19:48:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Saam Shams]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/07/14053427/26356574503_1b0b886e88_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264553</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, Latin America, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Ecosystems, Environment, Illegal Trade, Marine, Microplastics, Oceans, Plastic, Pollution, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Pacific coast of the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica is one of the most remote destinations in the country, and the whole of Central America. The peninsula, which is largely composed of the renowned Corcovado National Park, has the largest remaining tract of Pacific lowland wet forest in Mesoamerica, and harbors 2.5% of global [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Pacific coast of the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica is one of the most remote destinations in the country, and the whole of Central America. The peninsula, which is largely composed of the renowned Corcovado National Park, has the largest remaining tract of Pacific lowland wet forest in Mesoamerica, and harbors 2.5% of global terrestrial biodiversity. In late August of 2022, the sea turtle conservation team of Osa Conservation noticed a significant increase in ocean debris arriving on the beaches of Piro and Pejeperro. The debris accumulated in a short period of time, no more than several days. After this event, the rate of debris accumulation returned to more normal levels. An analysis of this debris determined that the majority of the items were water bottles manufactured in Asia within the last one to two years, however other unusual debris such as large pieces of melted plastic, a large (and fortunately, sealed) container of used motor oil, hiking boots, and a soccer ball were also found. Osa Peninsula beaches regularly receive flows of plastic water bottles and other debris, but rarely do the majority of them originate from outside of the Americas, furthermore it is rare for relatively clean and recently manufactured bottles to arrive in such a large quantity. The nature of these water bottles, their age, relative cleanliness, and point of origin suggest that they were dropped by a ship somewhere close enough where local currents could bring them ashore to the remote beaches of the peninsula.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/deliberate-dumping-of-plastic-trash-in-the-pacific-how-widespread-is-it-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264553</doi>				</item>
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