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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>Mesoamerica environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/mesoamerica/</link>
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				<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>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323354</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brooklyn Rivera, defender of Nicaragua’s Indigenous lands, dies in detention</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2026 16:19:43 +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/20/2026/06/01190642/Brooklyn-Rivera-La-Prensa-1600x900-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320434</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, Mesoamerica, and Nicaragua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Endangered Environmentalists, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, and Obituary]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[La Moskitia, on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, is often treated in Managua as a frontier: timber, gold, cattle, rivers, votes, and military concern. To the Miskitu, Sumu-Mayangna, Rama, Garífuna, and Creole peoples who live there, it is older than the Nicaraguan state. Its forests, savannas, rivers, and marine life are part of a political claim as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[La Moskitia, on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, is often treated in Managua as a frontier: timber, gold, cattle, rivers, votes, and military concern. To the Miskitu, Sumu-Mayangna, Rama, Garífuna, and Creole peoples who live there, it is older than the Nicaraguan state. Its forests, savannas, rivers, and marine life are part of a political claim as well as a homeland. The demand has long been plain enough: land, autonomy, and a say over what happens there. Brooklyn Rivera Bryan spent most of his life carrying that demand into war, negotiation, electoral politics, exile, and prison. Known in Miskitu communities as Taupla Brooklyn, he died on May 30th, aged 73, in the custody of Daniel Ortega’s government. He had been detained since September 2023. For months the government denied holding him. It later acknowledged his imprisonment. No public trial was held. His family was denied visits. His public life began after the Sandinista revolution of 1979, when the new government sought to draw the Atlantic Coast into a national project directed from the Pacific. The Miskitu experience of that project was marked by surveillance, arrests, violence, and forced displacement. In 1981 Rivera was arrested while leading Misurasata, an Indigenous organization whose name linked the Miskitu, Sumu, Rama, and Sandinistas. By 1982, thousands of Miskitu had been moved from villages along the Río Coco. Many fled to Honduras. Rivera’s cause was narrower and more durable than the Cold War frame around him: an autonomous Indigenous territory in Yapti Tasba, the aboriginal homeland. That&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320434</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Joann Andrews, a patient force behind Yucatán’s protected landscapes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/joann-andrews-a-patient-force-behind-yucatans-protected-landscapes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/joann-andrews-a-patient-force-behind-yucatans-protected-landscapes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Dec 2025 21:36:39 +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/20/2025/12/27214052/Joann_Andrews-bw-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312072</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mesoamerica, and Mexico]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Forests, Obituary, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Conservation has a habit of being treated as either romance or emergency. In practice it is closer to logistics: permits, budgets, awkward meetings, long drives, and the slow work of persuading people who would rather be left alone. In places where the state is under-resourced and land is already spoken for, success often depends less [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Conservation has a habit of being treated as either romance or emergency. In practice it is closer to logistics: permits, budgets, awkward meetings, long drives, and the slow work of persuading people who would rather be left alone. In places where the state is under-resourced and land is already spoken for, success often depends less on grand theory than on an ability to make institutions behave decently. That was the terrain in which Joann Andrews operated for more than four decades on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. She helped turn a region better known to outsiders for ruins and resorts into a proving ground for modern Mexican conservation, one that tried to protect wildlife without pretending that communities could be edited out of the landscape. She died on December 22nd 2025 in Mérida, aged 96. She arrived in Yucatán in 1964 after marrying the archaeologist E. Wyllys Andrews IV. When he died of cancer in 1971, she faced the choice that confronts many expatriates after tragedy: return to the familiar, or stay with the life already built. She stayed. The decision kept her in Mexico with six children and anchored her to a peninsula whose natural systems she would come to know with the intimate specificity of a field notebook. Born in New Haven, Connecticut, on January 10th 1929, she studied political science at Columbia University, graduating in 1951, and later took a master’s degree in international economics at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies. Before Mexico, she spent a decade&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/joann-andrews-a-patient-force-behind-yucatans-protected-landscapes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/joann-andrews-a-patient-force-behind-yucatans-protected-landscapes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312072</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>Saving critical winter habitat for monarch butterflies may depend on buy-in from their human neighbors</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/saving-critical-winter-habitat-for-monarch-butterflies-may-depend-on-buy-in-from-their-human-neighbors/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/saving-critical-winter-habitat-for-monarch-butterflies-may-depend-on-buy-in-from-their-human-neighbors/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Dec 2025 13:39:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claudia Steiner]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/03133322/Photo4_Monarch-butterfly-resting-on-a-plant-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310462</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, Mesoamerica, and Mexico]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Butterflies, Community Forests, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Insects, Invertebrates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) population has plummeted by 80% to 95% since the 1990s, depending on the region and monitoring method. A major cause of the species’ decline is deforestation in central Mexico, where eastern monarchs spend the colder winter months of their annual migration from Canada and the northern United States. Since 1980, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) population has plummeted by 80% to 95% since the 1990s, depending on the region and monitoring method. A major cause of the species’ decline is deforestation in central Mexico, where eastern monarchs spend the colder winter months of their annual migration from Canada and the northern United States. Since 1980, the Mexican government has worked to conserve critical winter monarch habitat by cracking down on logging, one of the leading causes of habitat degradation. They ultimately designated 563 square kilometers (217 square miles) of forest as the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, banning logging, hunting, and foraging in certain locations and restricting it in others. Mountains in central/southern Mexico. Photo by José López-García The project has yielded mixed results for the habitat, however, with logging continuing in some areas despite the prohibition. To understand why, a team of researchers studied the protection of the forest with a focus on how the involvement of the local communities affected conservation outcomes in the Reserve over a 50-year period. The study, published in Environmental Conservation, demonstrates that community buy-in can make or break a conservation project. “People must be consulted in order for the conservation strategy to be successful,” said study co-author Gustavo Cruz-Bello, an ecologist and social scientist at the Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City. Oyamel fir trees. Photo by José López-García The Reserve represents a complex web of human and natural interdependence. Monarchs rely on the oyamel fir forest in the mountains of the Michoacán and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/saving-critical-winter-habitat-for-monarch-butterflies-may-depend-on-buy-in-from-their-human-neighbors/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310462</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lost at sea, found in Latin America: the journeys of discarded plastic bottles</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/lost-at-sea-found-in-latin-america-the-journeys-of-discarded-plastic-bottles/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/lost-at-sea-found-in-latin-america-the-journeys-of-discarded-plastic-bottles/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Dec 2025 01:34:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Olivia Maule]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/29183048/OMaule_plastic_bottles_02-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310388</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, Mesoamerica, Pacific Ocean, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Oceans, Plastic, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Sandwiched between the frigid swells of the Pacific and the warm pulses of Latin American cities lie stretches of turquoise beaches that attract migrating whales and beachgoers alike. But these shores have also been collecting an unwanted traveler: plastic bottles, one of the most persistent traces of ocean pollution. Central America, where dense populations and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Sandwiched between the frigid swells of the Pacific and the warm pulses of Latin American cities lie stretches of turquoise beaches that attract migrating whales and beachgoers alike. But these shores have also been collecting an unwanted traveler: plastic bottles, one of the most persistent traces of ocean pollution. Central America, where dense populations and limited waste infrastructure coincide, hosts some of the most contaminated sites in the region, according to new research in the Journal of Cleaner Production.  “It’s the first time a study looking at origin and abundance covers such a vast section of the Latin American Pacific,” said co-author Ostin Garcés-Ordóñez, a marine scientist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Maryland. “We analyzed bottles from cities, continental beaches, and islands, which allowed us to see contamination patterns we hadn’t observed before.” Citizen scientists in Costa Rica collecting plastic from continental beaches. Photo by Juan Manuel Muñoz-Araya. Hundreds of citizen scientists across Mexico, Central America, and South America participated in the research, led by Garcés-Ordóñez and the Chile-based network Cientificos de la Basura (Litter Scientists), tracing where the bottles came from and what their journeys reveal about regional pollution. Working with local researchers and educators, volunteers collected bottles from beaches, rivers, and nearby islands across 10 countries. In Costa Rica, where only five of the country’s 84 municipalities have trash facilities that separate recyclable from non-recyclable waste, co-author Juan Manuel Muñoz-Araya, marine scientist and aquarium coordinator at Pacific Marine Park in Costa Rica, coordinated dozens of students&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/lost-at-sea-found-in-latin-america-the-journeys-of-discarded-plastic-bottles/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310388</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Belize’s blue reputation vs. reef reality: Marine conservation wins, and what’s missing (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/belizes-blue-reputation-vs-reef-reality-marine-conservation-wins-and-whats-missing/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/belizes-blue-reputation-vs-reef-reality-marine-conservation-wins-and-whats-missing/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2025 20:34:12 +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/20/2025/07/08101002/fish-belize-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308680</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Caribbean, Central America, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Green, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Belize sells itself as a small-country answer to a big problem: how to keep the sea alive and the people who depend on it working. The pitch is strong. A debt-for-nature “blue bond” shaved public debt and created a 20-year conservation finance stream. Targets for 30% ocean protection by 2026 are now embedded in policy. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Belize sells itself as a small-country answer to a big problem: how to keep the sea alive and the people who depend on it working. The pitch is strong. A debt-for-nature “blue bond” shaved public debt and created a 20-year conservation finance stream. Targets for 30% ocean protection by 2026 are now embedded in policy. The press has been kind. So have donors. Yet beneath the awards and ribbon cuttings sits a harder question: do the reefs and fish show it? And are day-to-day rules on the water keeping pace with the promises on paper? Start with the wins, because they’re significant. A case study from The Nature Conservancy documents the 2021 transaction that converted Belize’s “Superbond” into a blue loan backed by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) cutting public debt by roughly 12% of GDP and earmarking about $180 million over two decades for marine conservation, alongside a government commitment to protect 30% of its waters by 2026. A new monitoring pilot, using a People-Planet-Prosperity (“3Ps”) framework for results-based finance, sets up a central system to track whether conservation and development targets are being met. In 2024, the government, WWF, WCS and Belize’s Development Finance Corporation launched a pilot credit facility at Glover’s Reef offering compliance-linked loans to licensed artisanal fishers. And in late 2024, Belize formalized new limits by expanding and re-gazetting protected zones at Lighthouse Reef Atoll, one of the crown jewels of the barrier reef system. Officials point to these as proof that Belize’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/belizes-blue-reputation-vs-reef-reality-marine-conservation-wins-and-whats-missing/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308680</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Guarding Mexico’s blue frontiers: A conversation with Alejandro González</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/guarding-mexicos-blue-frontiers-a-conversation-with-alejandro-gonzalez/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/guarding-mexicos-blue-frontiers-a-conversation-with-alejandro-gonzalez/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jul 2025 23:20:59 +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/20/2025/07/30213114/mexico_250611_152532264z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303462</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mesoamerica, and Mexico]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation Technology, Environment, Green, Illegal Fishing, Interviews, Law Enforcement, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Protected Areas, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For nearly two decades, Alejandro González has stood on the front lines of marine conservation in Mexico, from the coral-fringed reefs of Cabo Pulmo to the remote volcanic outposts of the Revillagigedo Archipelago. A biologist by training and a park director by trade, González has built a career navigating the tension between ambition and reality—between [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For nearly two decades, Alejandro González has stood on the front lines of marine conservation in Mexico, from the coral-fringed reefs of Cabo Pulmo to the remote volcanic outposts of the Revillagigedo Archipelago. A biologist by training and a park director by trade, González has built a career navigating the tension between ambition and reality—between vast declarations on paper and the gritty, day-to-day work of enforcement at sea. “I fell in love with nature early on,” González says. “But as I studied more, I began to understand the ocean’s broader role in our lives&#8230; The more you understand the ocean, the more you realize how central it is to life on Earth.” Alejandro González next to a plaque commemorating the Revillagigedo Archipelago&#8217;s UNESCO World Heritage Site status. Courtesy of González. That realization would shape a trajectory that took him from a coastal resource advisor in Quintana Roo to leadership roles in three of Mexico’s most iconic marine protected areas (MPAs), culminating in his directorship of Revillagigedo National Park—the largest in the country, covering over 15 million hectares of ocean. Revillagigedo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located hundreds of kilometers offshore, presented unusual challenges. “It was a very particular case,” González recalls. “In Mexico, we don’t have many oceanic national parks.” Isla San Benedicto, one the Revillagigedo Archipelago&#8217;s islands. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler / Mongabay Isolated and under naval jurisdiction, operating in the archipelago required diplomacy as much as logistics. Establishing trust with the Mexican Navy was essential to enable&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/guarding-mexicos-blue-frontiers-a-conversation-with-alejandro-gonzalez/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303462</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forget decrees; try patience. Martin Goebel plays the long game in conserving Baja California Sur</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/forget-decrees-try-patience-martin-goebel-plays-the-long-game-in-conserving-baja-california/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/forget-decrees-try-patience-martin-goebel-plays-the-long-game-in-conserving-baja-california/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2025 22:54:21 +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/20/2025/07/29222824/WhatsAppImage2021-06-28at13.34.081-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301597</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mesoamerica, and Mexico]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Green, and Interviews]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a world of quick wins and impatient headlines, Martin Goebel is playing the long game. Now Director for Mexico at LegacyWorks Group, a U.S.-based nonprofit, Goebel has spent five decades navigating the complicated terrain where conservation collides with community, politics, and development. Most of that time has been in Mexico, where he has witnessed—and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a world of quick wins and impatient headlines, Martin Goebel is playing the long game. Now Director for Mexico at LegacyWorks Group, a U.S.-based nonprofit, Goebel has spent five decades navigating the complicated terrain where conservation collides with community, politics, and development. Most of that time has been in Mexico, where he has witnessed—and helped shape—some of the country’s most ambitious environmental efforts. The challenges are as persistent as they are familiar: water scarcity, habitat loss, mismanaged tourism, frayed social trust. But Goebel and his collaborators are betting on a different kind of conservation—one that doesn’t begin with maps or mandates, but with conversations. The region he currently focuses on, the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, may be among the most stunning and biologically rich stretches of North America. But it is also among the fastest growing. Coastal oases like La Paz and Todos Santos are rapidly morphing into tourism and retirement enclaves. With that growth come the usual pressures: overdrawn aquifers, degraded ecosystems, rising inequality. The solution, in Goebel’s view, lies not in top-down decrees but in patient, trust-based relationships with local communities. Satellite image of the East Cape region of Baja California Sur. Photo courtesy of Legacy Works. LegacyWorks, where Goebel has worked since 2016, is not your typical conservation outfit. Originally founded to support watershed restoration in Wyoming, the organization now operates across five geographies in the U.S. and Mexico, stitching together a mix of environmental protection, rural development, and what it calls “community readiness.”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/forget-decrees-try-patience-martin-goebel-plays-the-long-game-in-conserving-baja-california/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301597</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>After historic 2024 coral bleaching, hope remains for Mesoamerican Reef</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/after-historic-2024-coral-bleaching-hope-remains-for-mesoamerican-reef/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/after-historic-2024-coral-bleaching-hope-remains-for-mesoamerican-reef/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Dec 2024 19:03:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fritz Pinnow]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/06080649/sea-turtle-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291298</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Mesoamerica, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Global Environmental Crisis, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[2024 brought the hottest Northern Hemisphere summer ever recorded, only narrowly surpassing the record set in 2023. The trend, driven largely by human-caused climate change, according to NASA, caused the worst bleaching event on record among delicate coral populations around the world. This includes the Caribbean Sea, home to the Mesoamerican Reef, the longest barrier [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[2024 brought the hottest Northern Hemisphere summer ever recorded, only narrowly surpassing the record set in 2023. The trend, driven largely by human-caused climate change, according to NASA, caused the worst bleaching event on record among delicate coral populations around the world. This includes the Caribbean Sea, home to the Mesoamerican Reef, the longest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere. The latest instalment of the Mesoamerican Reef Report Card, a periodic health assessment, finds that the 2024 bleaching event reduced the reef’s coral cover. But though the overall health of the Mesoamerican Reef remains “poor,” its health actually improved for the first time in five years, a positive development the report attributes to an increase in fish populations due to effective enforcement of fisheries rules. The Mesoamerican Reef stretches 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) along the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. It is considered a biodiversity hotspot and features more than 60 types of corals and more than 500 fish species, along with endangered sea turtles and the world’s largest congregation of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus). This biodiversity attracts millions of tourist divers every year. Nearly 2 million people also depend on the reef for their livelihoods. The Mesoamerican Reef Report Card is the result of a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation effort by Healthy Reefs for Healthy People, an international partnership program to assess and protect the region’s coral reefs. The group released the first report card in 2008 and issues updates every 2-3 years, drawing on collaborative monitoring&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/after-historic-2024-coral-bleaching-hope-remains-for-mesoamerican-reef/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291298</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>Alternatives to farmwork empower communities and save forests, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/alternatives-to-farmwork-empower-communities-and-save-forests-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/alternatives-to-farmwork-empower-communities-and-save-forests-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Oct 2022 14:09:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kimberley Brown]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/10/01125354/F09_Landscape_Lajes_RN_Brazil_JCVMena-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261317</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Mesoamerica and Mexico]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Farming, Forest Fragmentation, Protected Areas, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Protected areas are important for saving tropical forests and biodiversity, but for them to be effective, local communities living around the reserves need to have access to non-agricultural jobs, a new study says. The research shows that human activity, mainly agriculture, outside of forest reserves has a direct impact on forest cover within the protected [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Protected areas are important for saving tropical forests and biodiversity, but for them to be effective, local communities living around the reserves need to have access to non-agricultural jobs, a new study says. The research shows that human activity, mainly agriculture, outside of forest reserves has a direct impact on forest cover within the protected area itself. This includes the expansion of oil palm plantations, large pasturelands, or even small-scale agriculture, where locals cut down trees to try to expand their crops and increase their profits. “It’s not that people want to deforest per se, but rather people need opportunities so that they are not forced to advance the agricultural frontier in order to obtain benefits that, in the end, only allow them to subsist,” says study lead author Daniel Martín Auliz-Ortiz, a doctoral candidate in biological sciences at the Institute for Research in Ecosystems and Sustainability, at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Morelia. Auliz-Ortiz says his work was highly influenced by his earlier travels in the south of Mexico, where he saw local communities struggle to get by, with minimal infrastructure, access to social services or jobs. “Finding the best practices that allow the sustainable use of resources, that allow for the reduction of pressure on forest systems, but also allow people to obtain benefits from what they do … it’s a win-win scenario,” Auliz-Ortiz tells Mongabay. Cattle ranching remains a major contributor to forest fragmentation. Finding alternatives to farming for local communities next to protected&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/alternatives-to-farmwork-empower-communities-and-save-forests-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261317</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Some hummingbird females display male coloring to avoid being harassed</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/some-hummingbird-females-display-male-coloring-to-avoid-being-harassed/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/some-hummingbird-females-display-male-coloring-to-avoid-being-harassed/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Nov 2021 17:26:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Megan Kalomiris]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/20231112/Header-Florisuga-mellivora-hummingbird-in-hand-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=249731</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, Mesoamerica, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Biodiversity, Birds, Ecological Beauty, Environment, Green, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Female hummingbirds sometimes look like the brightly colored males of their species. Researchers have long pondered the reason for this. Now, a study of hummingbirds in Panama suggests that sporting male-like feathers helps some females avoid intense bullying, researchers recently reported in Current Biology. To find out why this surprising pattern arises, researchers studied the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Female hummingbirds sometimes look like the brightly colored males of their species. Researchers have long pondered the reason for this. Now, a study of hummingbirds in Panama suggests that sporting male-like feathers helps some females avoid intense bullying, researchers recently reported in Current Biology. To find out why this surprising pattern arises, researchers studied the white-necked jacobin (Florisuga mellivora), a hummingbird native to Central and South America. These birds display strong sexual dimorphism: physical distinctions between each sex, such as size or color. The different ornamentations of white-necked jacobins. From right to left: female-like, male-like, juvenile. Illustration by Jillian Ditner With a vibrant sapphire head, glistening green back, and bright white belly, the male white-necked jacobin looks like a jewel-encrusted figurine. The mildly tinted green-and-white female looks drab by comparison. However, discerning a male white-necked jacobin from a female is not so simple, said Jay J. Falk, who led the study at Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology in New York. Why? First, all juveniles of the species flaunt vibrant male coloring, no matter their sex. Second, up to 30 percent of the females retain their male feathers into adulthood, said Falk, who is now at the University of Washington in Seattle. An evolutionary explanation probably accounts for this rare violation of conventional avian plumage, researchers believe. Scientists have speculated that male ornamental mimicry among some female birds evolved for social reasons, rather than for sexual purposes. However, previous teams studied this phenomenon only by examining specimens in museums. Falk and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/some-hummingbird-females-display-male-coloring-to-avoid-being-harassed/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-249731</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Jaguars in Mexico are growing in number, a promising sign that national conservation strategies are working</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/jaguars-in-mexico-are-growing-in-number-a-promising-sign-that-national-conservation-strategies-are-working/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/jaguars-in-mexico-are-growing-in-number-a-promising-sign-that-national-conservation-strategies-are-working/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Nov 2021 17:51:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Guananí Gómez-Van Cortright]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/22175024/GC_Jaguar_river_MX-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=249727</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, Mesoamerica, and Mexico]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Carnivores, Cats, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Jaguars, Mammals, Protected Areas, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The jaguar population in Mexico increased by about 800 animals from 2010 to 2018, according to the first two censuses of the elusive carnivores ever conducted in the country. The news confirms that Mexico’s national strategy to protect jaguars is working, researchers reported recently in the journal PLOS One. “It was incredible to see jaguars [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The jaguar population in Mexico increased by about 800 animals from 2010 to 2018, according to the first two censuses of the elusive carnivores ever conducted in the country. The news confirms that Mexico’s national strategy to protect jaguars is working, researchers reported recently in the journal PLOS One. “It was incredible to see jaguars in so many places where there weren’t any before,” said ecologist Gerardo Ceballos of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, founder of Mexico’s National Alliance for Jaguar Conservation and lead author of the paper. Jaguar drinking from a river in Mexico. Photo credit: Gerardo Ceballos The jaguar (Panthera onca), listed by the IUCN as Near Threatened, ranges from northern Mexico through Central America, the Amazon Basin, and into northern Argentina. Ecologists had never properly counted jaguars in Mexico before, making it difficult to design a conservation program in the iconic cat’s northernmost ranges. The alliance created by Ceballos and his colleagues used the results of the first Mexican jaguar census in 2010 to create a national strategy endorsed by government policy and scientists alike. “This [paper] is very important,” said jaguar researcher Ronaldo Gonçalves Morato, head of the National Predator Center at the Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade in Brazil. He was not involved in the study. “They are connecting science with conservation plans. It can be a good model for researchers—not only working with jaguars, but all the other big cats or other species that are critically endangered.” Jaguar census map: Current&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/jaguars-in-mexico-are-growing-in-number-a-promising-sign-that-national-conservation-strategies-are-working/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/jaguars-in-mexico-are-growing-in-number-a-promising-sign-that-national-conservation-strategies-are-working/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-249727</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For some Indigenous, COVID presents possibility of cultural extinction, says Myrna Cunningham</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/for-some-indigenous-covid-presents-possibility-of-cultural-extinction-says-myrna-cunningham/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/for-some-indigenous-covid-presents-possibility-of-cultural-extinction-says-myrna-cunningham/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Oct 2021 19:12:46 +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/20/2021/10/10230128/Myrna-Cunningham-02-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=248018</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, Mesoamerica, and Nicaragua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation leadership, COVID-19, Forests, Gender, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Land Rights, Medicinal Plants, Public Health, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COVID-19 has devastated communities around the world, but for some Indigenous groups, the pandemic posed an existential threat. Few people are better placed to speak to the impact COVID is having on Indigenous communities than Myrna Cunningham, a Miskitu physician from the Wangki river region of Nicaragua who has spent 50 years advocating for the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COVID-19 has devastated communities around the world, but for some Indigenous groups, the pandemic posed an existential threat. Few people are better placed to speak to the impact COVID is having on Indigenous communities than Myrna Cunningham, a Miskitu physician from the Wangki river region of Nicaragua who has spent 50 years advocating for the rights of women and Indigenous peoples at local, regional, national, and international levels. &#8220;For Indigenous peoples, the arrival of the virus, in addition to putting people at risk, presented the possibility that entire cultures could disappear,&#8221; Cunningham told Mongabay. &#8220;For Indigenous peoples with few members, the situation still endangers their existence as a collective, as a culture, as a people.&#8221; &#8220;We are all in a situation of extreme vulnerability.&#8221; Myrna Cunningham Cunningham, who was hospitalized with COVID and is still recovering, says that COVID has compounded the myriad challenges many Indigenous communities face. “For a lot of peoples and communities, on top of the inequality they face to access health care systems, they’ve also suffered, and still suffer, the impacts of measures adopted by states to tackle the health crisis,” she said. “We have seen cases of communities who live from selling their crops and losing everything if they can’t go out to sell.” “The main problems we’ve seen are the limited access to health care services; the increase in the workload for women as they care for their families; the lack of food; the impact on crop production and trade; loss of jobs; impacts&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/for-some-indigenous-covid-presents-possibility-of-cultural-extinction-says-myrna-cunningham/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-248018</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Former dam executive found guilty in the killing of Berta Cáceres</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/former-dam-executive-found-guilty-in-the-killing-of-berta-caceres/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/former-dam-executive-found-guilty-in-the-killing-of-berta-caceres/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jul 2021 23:41:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/08/01194524/081116-LFendt_LatAmMurders_BertaCaceresMural-520x290.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=244556</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, Latin America, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Business, Dams, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Murdered Activists, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The alleged mastermind of the 2016 killing of environmental and Indigenous rights activist Berta Cáceres was convicted of homicide by a Honduran court on Monday. Roberto David Castillo Mejía, the former head of the hydropower company Desarrollos Energéticos (Desa) and an ex-army intelligence officer, was found guilty of participating in the assassination of Cáceres. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The alleged mastermind of the 2016 killing of environmental and Indigenous rights activist Berta Cáceres was convicted of homicide by a Honduran court on Monday. Roberto David Castillo Mejía, the former head of the hydropower company Desarrollos Energéticos (Desa) and an ex-army intelligence officer, was found guilty of participating in the assassination of Cáceres. The court decision, reached after a 49-day trial, was unanimous. Cáceres was gunned down in her home on March 2, 2016 at the age of 44 after leading opposition to the Agua Zarca dam, which was to be built on the Rio Galcarque, a river that is sacred to the local Lenca people. Cáceres &#8212; herself Lenca &#8212; was the co-founder the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). Cáceres was recognized for her activism against the dam in 2015 when she won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize. Her subsequent murder shocked the world and led to the suspension of the Agua Zarca dam. Berta Caceres at the banks of the Gualcarque River in the Rio Blanco region of western Honduras. Photo credit: The Goldman Prize. Castillo Mejía is the eighth person to be convicted in the murder. According to the Associated Press, seven men were sentenced to prison in December 2019 for their role in the assassination, receiving terms ranging from 30 to 50 years. Castillo Mejía is set to be sentenced in August and is expected to receive 24 to 30 years for allegedly financing the hit and providing support to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/former-dam-executive-found-guilty-in-the-killing-of-berta-caceres/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/former-dam-executive-found-guilty-in-the-killing-of-berta-caceres/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-244556</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists in Costa Rica are growing new corals to save reefs</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/scientists-in-costa-rica-are-growing-new-corals-to-save-reefs/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/scientists-in-costa-rica-are-growing-new-corals-to-save-reefs/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Nov 2020 00:17:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashleigh Papp]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/11/11121536/Coral_garden-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=236740</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, Latin America, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Oceans, Restoration, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Like a mermaid on an underwater picnic, she floats gently in the current as slivers of sunlight reveal a garden of corals in the Golfo Dulce, in southern Costa Rica. Holding a basket filled with round, spiked corals, she collects one last specimen, then begins her ascent. As she breaks the surface, Socorro Avila, a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Like a mermaid on an underwater picnic, she floats gently in the current as slivers of sunlight reveal a garden of corals in the Golfo Dulce, in southern Costa Rica. Holding a basket filled with round, spiked corals, she collects one last specimen, then begins her ascent. As she breaks the surface, Socorro Avila, a research assistant who grew up on this gulf, joins Joanie Kleypas and Tatiana Villalobos – two more mermaids – and they swim towards the boat that idles nearby. The three scientists deliver their bounty, passing round, spiked corals into the waiting boat. Handling each piece requires patience — some trail along a clear fishing line, while others twist into woven strands of a rope. As they untangle each precious item, the corals’ branches jostle, tinkling like porcelain dolls colliding. The team board the boat, doff their scuba gear, and head further into the gulf — one step closer to understanding these mysterious species. For three years, this team that goes by the name of Raising Coral Costa Rica has been snapping off coral pieces from existing reefs to grow them in an underwater nursery. Months later, the team moves the nursery-grown corals and attaches them to skeleton-like structures that once were living, thriving reefs in the Golfo Dulce. Kleypas, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, has spent 30 years spent studying coral reefs, while Villalobos, along with a handful of other researchers involved in the project, are a part of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/scientists-in-costa-rica-are-growing-new-corals-to-save-reefs/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/scientists-in-costa-rica-are-growing-new-corals-to-save-reefs/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-236740</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The turtle egg that pinged back: Tracing a poaching pathway in Costa Rica</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/the-turtle-egg-that-pinged-back-tracing-a-poaching-pathway-in-costa-rica/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/the-turtle-egg-that-pinged-back-tracing-a-poaching-pathway-in-costa-rica/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Oct 2020 15:03:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claudia Geib]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maria Angeles Salazar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/10/22150003/oliveridleybaby-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=236042</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri WildTech Reporting Fellowship]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, Latin America, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Conservation Technology, Fellows, GPS, Poaching, Sea Turtles, Solutions, Technology, Turtles, Turtles And Tortoises, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Early on the morning of Sept. 16, 2018, an olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) hauled herself out of the ocean along a beach on Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula. Moving slowly, methodically, she started a task she had likely done dozens of times before: excavating a nest in which to lay her eggs. But then [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Early on the morning of Sept. 16, 2018, an olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) hauled herself out of the ocean along a beach on Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula. Moving slowly, methodically, she started a task she had likely done dozens of times before: excavating a nest in which to lay her eggs. But then something new happened. Just before 5 a.m., a team of scientists walking the beach crouched beside her, as the nest filled with eggs, and added something to it: a fake egg, fitted with a GPS tracking device that would follow the decoy if a poacher removed it from the nest. A little over 24 hours later, that’s exactly what happened. The clever egg decoy unearthed that day is a project of a team led by Helen Pheasey, a Ph.D. student at the University of Kent, U.K., studying the sea turtle egg trade in Costa Rica. With the help of Pheasey’s team, Mongabay traced the hour-by-hour trip of the furthest-traveled of five decoys taken by poachers, in an effort to understand why sea turtle egg poaching still happens — and what experts think can be done to stop it. A 3-D printed sea turtle egg decoy, which looks and feels like the real thing thanks to a substance called Ninja Flex. The eggs&#8217; creators have since developed newer prototypes with even more realistic exteriors, and more reliable GPS trackers. Image courtesy of Helen Pheasey. Monday, Sept. 17, 2018 Time: 7:27 a.m. Corozalito, Costa Rica The decoy&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/the-turtle-egg-that-pinged-back-tracing-a-poaching-pathway-in-costa-rica/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/the-turtle-egg-that-pinged-back-tracing-a-poaching-pathway-in-costa-rica/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-236042</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Keystone mammal plunges 87% in Mesoamerica</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/keystone-mammal-plunges-87-in-mesoamerica/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/keystone-mammal-plunges-87-in-mesoamerica/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jul 2020 05:35:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Francesca Edralin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maria Angeles Salazar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/07/17053139/featured-1-768x368.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=232567</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Mesoamerica and Mexico]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Mammals, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2000, Dr. Rafael Reyna-Hurtado spotted a herd of white-lipped peccaries (Tayassu pecari) for the first time in the Mayan Forest. The sight, he says, took his breath away. Never before in his life had he seen nearly a hundred animals of the same species move so steadfastly, perfectly in a straight line, he says. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2000, Dr. Rafael Reyna-Hurtado spotted a herd of white-lipped peccaries (Tayassu pecari) for the first time in the Mayan Forest. The sight, he says, took his breath away. Never before in his life had he seen nearly a hundred animals of the same species move so steadfastly, perfectly in a straight line, he says. “I was amazed,” Reyna-Hurtado says of unexpectedly encountering them while helping a friend study tropical deer in Mexico. “It’s a reason why I wanted to study peccaries.” The white-lipped peccary is a heavy, pig-like mammal, most easily identified by the white markings under its snout. It feeds mainly on fruits, vegetation, roots and insects, and, less occasionally, small vertebrates like frogs and lizards. This peccary is most commonly found in the rainforests spanning Mexico to Argentina. White-lipped peccaries always travel single file in large herds. Image courtesy of Rafael Reyna-Hurtado. Twenty years after his first encounter, Reyna-Hurtado is sounding the alarm on the dramatic decline of the white-lipped peccary. In a paper published in February, Reyna-Hurtado and colleagues found the white-lipped peccary population in Mesoamerica, the region that runs from Central Mexico down to Costa Rica, has declined by as much as 87 to 90% over the past 40 years — a decline that is nearly two-thirds higher than the IUCN’s previous estimates. Published in the journal Biological Conservation, the study is the combined effort of 50 scientists and urges a reassessment of the white-lipped peccary’s conservation status and needs. Currently, the IUCN classifies white-lipped&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/keystone-mammal-plunges-87-in-mesoamerica/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/keystone-mammal-plunges-87-in-mesoamerica/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-232567</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The perfect firestorm: COVID-19 in Mesoamerica’s indigenous territories (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/the-perfect-firestorm-covid-19-in-mesoamericas-indigenous-territories/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/the-perfect-firestorm-covid-19-in-mesoamericas-indigenous-territories/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jun 2020 18:07:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Radachowsky]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/06/10175609/baby-howler-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=231242</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, Latin America, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, COVID-19, Deforestation, Encroachment, Environment, Fires, Indigenous Peoples, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Everyone’s lives have been upended by coronavirus, but perhaps nowhere have the impacts been as devastating as in Mesoamerica’s indigenous territories. In March, just before the pandemic really hit the world, we traveled to the Miskitu indigenous territory called Bakinasta, in the heart of Honduras’s Moskitia Forest &#8211; Central America’s second largest rainforest. The 103,000-hectare [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Everyone’s lives have been upended by coronavirus, but perhaps nowhere have the impacts been as devastating as in Mesoamerica’s indigenous territories. In March, just before the pandemic really hit the world, we traveled to the Miskitu indigenous territory called Bakinasta, in the heart of Honduras’s Moskitia Forest &#8211; Central America’s second largest rainforest. Patuca River in the heart of the Honduran Moskitia Forest. Photo: Laurie Hedges The 103,000-hectare Bakinasta territory is under severe threat due to invasions by land grabbers looking to steal indigenous lands to establish illegal cattle estates. The goal of our visit was to establish and train an indigenous ranger team to protect their own territory. Hiking deep in to the forest we encountered “carriles”, straight lines cut through the forest that invaders use to demarcate and lay claim to forest parcels for clearing and burning during the dry season. We also found a few recently felled trees. While tragic, these threats were expected, and the reason for our visit. That evening, we camped on a beach at the edge of the river. Patrolling and camping in Bakinasta Miskitu indigenous territory, Honduras. Photo: WCS We knew that COVID was starting to have an impact across the world, but it seemed so distant. Lying on the sand, we stared in awe through binoculars at the beauty of the endless stars, and mused that the Moskitia Forest might be the best place to be in a pandemic – just about as far from the crowds as one could get.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/the-perfect-firestorm-covid-19-in-mesoamericas-indigenous-territories/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/the-perfect-firestorm-covid-19-in-mesoamericas-indigenous-territories/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-231242</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deforestation clips howler monkey calls, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/deforestation-clips-howler-monkey-calls-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/deforestation-clips-howler-monkey-calls-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jan 2020 12:43:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/01/19041111/1280px-Alouata_palliata_palliata.72a20cc13b3e4b048a7b68a328aaed39-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=226367</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, Latin America, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecology, Environment, Forests, Green, Mammals, Monkeys, Plantations, Primates, Rainforests, Research, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Howler monkeys change their calls when they’re close to deforested areas, a new study has found. A team of researchers, led by anthropologist Laura Bolt of the University of Waterloo in Canada, looked at the frequency and intensity of mantled howler monkey (Alouatta palliata) calls through several different study zones in Costa Rica in 2017 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Howler monkeys change their calls when they’re close to deforested areas, a new study has found. A team of researchers, led by anthropologist Laura Bolt of the University of Waterloo in Canada, looked at the frequency and intensity of mantled howler monkey (Alouatta palliata) calls through several different study zones in Costa Rica in 2017 and 2018. A mantled howler monkey in Costa Rica. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. They found that calls were longer among groups living in more pristine environments. As monkey groups moved closer to forest edges created by humans — breaks in the forest created by agricultural plantations, for instance — their calls grew shorter. Bolt and her colleagues don’t know yet whether this shift points to a change in the monkeys’ chances at survival, she said, but it is clear that the human-caused deforestation that creates forest edges is changing their behavior. “This is just one of the many ways that howler monkeys are affected by deforestation,” Bolt said in a statement. A male howler monkey at a wildlife sanctuary in Costa Rica. Image by Steven G. Johnson via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). The team looked at how the calls morphed as monkey groups moved through the forest interior, along forest edges created by river banks, and near edges created by humans. Scientists aren’t sure exactly why howler monkeys howl, their calls traveling for kilometers through the canopy. But Bolt and her colleagues suspect that the behavior has something to do with warning other monkeys&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/deforestation-clips-howler-monkey-calls-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/deforestation-clips-howler-monkey-calls-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-226367</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Greta and Mesoamerica’s five great forests (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/greta-and-mesoamericas-five-great-forests-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/greta-and-mesoamericas-five-great-forests-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Sep 2019 17:59:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Chris JordanJeremy Radachowsky]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/09/23173033/mosquitia_1210px-768x451.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=222761</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cattle, Climate Change, Commentary, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forests, Global Warming, Indigenous Peoples, Ranching, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This week’s Climate Strike mobilized and inspired millions of people around the world, including us. On Friday, we stood with young protesters in New York’s Battery Park, listening to Greta Thunberg’s speech. Her courageous words, her grit, her honesty, her powerful presence, the overwhelming gravity and urgency of her message coming from such an unlikely [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This week’s Climate Strike mobilized and inspired millions of people around the world, including us. On Friday, we stood with young protesters in New York’s Battery Park, listening to Greta Thunberg’s speech. Her courageous words, her grit, her honesty, her powerful presence, the overwhelming gravity and urgency of her message coming from such an unlikely leader&#8230; Greta brought us to tears. We both belong to conservation organizations and have dedicated our lives and careers to protecting forests and wildlife. In other words, we are already believers in Greta’s message. We know that the world’s intact forests, along with the ocean, sequester half of humankind’s carbon emissions every year, and that protecting them and working to restore ecosystems around the planet are the most efficient ways to mitigate climate change. We have seen firsthand the magic and majesty of Mesoamerica’s last five great, intact forests. Spanning from Mexico to Colombia, this “Amazon” of Mesoamerica covers an area three times the size of Switzerland and is home to more than 7.5 percent of the planet’s biodiversity, such as the jaguar and endangered Baird’s tapir. The five forests hold nearly 50 percent of the region’s forest carbon stocks and provide important ecosystem services to 5 million people, including clean water, clean air, food security, and climate stability. The jaguar&#8217;s range currently extends from Mexico through Central America to South America. The species is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List and the population is declining. Photo Credit: Julie Larsen Maher. Yet&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/greta-and-mesoamericas-five-great-forests-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/greta-and-mesoamericas-five-great-forests-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-222761</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The biggest rainforest news stories in 2018</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/the-biggest-rainforest-news-stories-in-2018/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/the-biggest-rainforest-news-stories-in-2018/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Dec 2018 20:48:40 +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/20/2018/12/29232144/sarawak_2015539-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=214091</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests, Global Palm Oil, and Indonesian Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Australia, Bangladesh, Borneo, Brazil, California, Colombia, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Ecuador, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Latin America, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mesoamerica, Mexico, Myanmar, New Guinea, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Republic of Congo, South America, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, Biofuels, Cacao, carbon, Certification, climate finance, Commodity Roundtables, Conservation, Dams, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Drought, Ecosystem Services, Energy, Environment, Fires, Forestry, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Gold Mining, Green, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Jurisdictional Approaches, Land Rights, Logging, Mining, Orangutans, Palm Oil, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Peatlands, Plantations, Politics, Protected Areas, Pulp And Paper, Rainforests, Redd, Rubber, Sustainable Forest Management, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, timber trade, Tropical Forests, Wildtech, Year-end review, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[2018 was a difficult year for the world&#8217;s tropical rainforests. Below are of some of the biggest rainforest storylines for the year, but we couldn&#8217;t cover everything, so if there are important things missing, feel free to add them via the comment function at the bottom. The outlook for 2019 will be covered in an [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[2018 was a difficult year for the world&#8217;s tropical rainforests. Below are of some of the biggest rainforest storylines for the year, but we couldn&#8217;t cover everything, so if there are important things missing, feel free to add them via the comment function at the bottom. The outlook for 2019 will be covered in an upcoming post: Rainforest storylines to watch in 2019 [1/2/19]. Summary With rising deforestation and/or the election of anti-environmental administrations, things went generally downhill for rainforests in Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Madagascar. Peru had a mixed year for rainforests, declaring a huge new national park, but also having some conservation setbacks. Indonesia had some bright spots between last year&#8217;s decline in deforestation, a three-year renewal &#8212; and strengthening &#8212; of a palm oil moratorium, and the release of One Map. Malaysia&#8216;s rainforests did even better with new conservation areas and a log export ban in Sabah and a conservation commitment from Sarawak (albeit unlikely to be met). But Colombia led major rainforest countries in terms of positive developments, with outgoing president Juan Manuel Santos working to leave a conservation legacy. Outside the tropics, Trump Administration undermined rainforest conservation between his trade war with China that boosted the profitability of deforestation for commodity production in the Amazon; his attacks on science, scientific institutions, and intergovernmental bodies; and his tacit approval of regimes that murder journalists, human rights advocates, and environmental defenders. Europe was more supportive of rainforest conservation with various initiatives to eliminate or&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/the-biggest-rainforest-news-stories-in-2018/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/the-biggest-rainforest-news-stories-in-2018/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-214091</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Light for everyone’: Indigenous youth mount a solar-powered resistance</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/light-for-everyone-indigenous-youth-mount-a-solar-powered-resistance/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/light-for-everyone-indigenous-youth-mount-a-solar-powered-resistance/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Dec 2018 12:53:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ethan Bien]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/12/10124200/EBien_MexicoSolar_Crew_Banner1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=213274</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mesoamerica, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Carbon Emissions, Clean Energy, Conflict, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Development, Energy, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Renewable Energy, Social Conflict, Solar Power, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[CSK2018]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CUETZALAN, Mexico — Rain clouds thicken overhead as a small crew finishes the installation of a pair of rooftop solar panels. The house stands along a dirt road in a small indigenous community in the Mexican state of Puebla. The sun&#8217;s going down, and woodsmoke from a cookstove mingles with the fog. Raindrops begin to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CUETZALAN, Mexico — Rain clouds thicken overhead as a small crew finishes the installation of a pair of rooftop solar panels. The house stands along a dirt road in a small indigenous community in the Mexican state of Puebla. The sun&#8217;s going down, and woodsmoke from a cookstove mingles with the fog. Raindrops begin to fall as the team applies the final touches of silicone caulk and routes wires to a pair of deep-cycle batteries inside the house. The crew on the roof consists of Cuahutemoc Lima, age 25, Manuel Garrido, 30, and Miguel Angel, 26, all members of Tosepan Titataniske, an indigenous cooperative based in Puebla’s Sierra Norte mountains. They&#8217;re still in a sort of apprenticeship; working alongside them are four members of ONergia, a solar social enterprise from Puebla city. The installation underway is their fourth project together: a set of solar panels for Doña Mari, a cooperative member who lives outside the town of Cuetzalan. Solar might seem like an odd investment in the rainy cloud forests of northern Puebla. But photovoltaic panels don&#8217;t need direct sun to produce power, and the panels are part of a plan hatched by these mountain communities to unhook from Mexico&#8217;s federal power company, provide their youth with meaningful employment, and reclaim control of their land and resources. Miguel Angel, one of the Tosepan cooperative’s team of young solar panel installers, hooks up deep-cycle batteries and a fuse box at Doña Mari’s house. Image by Ethan Bien for Mongabay. Sofia Garcia, a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/light-for-everyone-indigenous-youth-mount-a-solar-powered-resistance/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/light-for-everyone-indigenous-youth-mount-a-solar-powered-resistance/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-213274</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Secondary forests in Costa Rica are re-cleared within decades</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/secondary-forests-in-costa-rica-are-re-cleared-within-decades/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/secondary-forests-in-costa-rica-are-re-cleared-within-decades/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Dec 2018 12:18:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rodrigo Pérez Ortega]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/12/07124523/costa_rica_aerial_0372_1280PX-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=213215</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, Latin America, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Recovery, Forests, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Secondary Forests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Secondary forests — those that regrow naturally after being cleared or degraded — constitute more than half of existing tropical forests. When they are old enough, they support a wide range of species and store carbon at a higher rate than old-growth forest because the trees grow more rapidly. But in southern Costa Rica, a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Secondary forests — those that regrow naturally after being cleared or degraded — constitute more than half of existing tropical forests. When they are old enough, they support a wide range of species and store carbon at a higher rate than old-growth forest because the trees grow more rapidly. But in southern Costa Rica, a country with strong environmental commitments, young forests are ephemeral, a new study claims. When Leighton Reid, a restoration ecologist at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, and his colleagues studied the history of secondary forests in a region of Coto Brus canton, Costa Rica, they found that half of them were re-cleared within 20 years. And within 54 years, 85 percent of these young forests were gone, the team reported recently in Conservation Letters. “I wasn’t expecting this at all,” said Reid, who has worked in Costa Rica for more than a decade studying tropical forest restoration. “I was shocked.” A trail through secondary forest at the Las Cruces Biological Station in southern Costa Rica. Photo by J. Leighton Reid. Previous estimates have suggested that 20 years is not enough time for a secondary forest to regain old-growth levels of biomass and biodiversity. To study the persistence of these young forests, researchers used aerial photographs taken from 1947 through 2014 across a 320 square kilometer (123.5 square miles) area in Coto Brus. The photos have a spatial resolution of 10 meters, sharper than the 30-meter resolution of Landsat satellite data other scientists have used&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/secondary-forests-in-costa-rica-are-re-cleared-within-decades/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-213215</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tropical trees grow most easily where they are rare</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/tropical-trees-grow-most-easily-where-they-are-rare/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/tropical-trees-grow-most-easily-where-they-are-rare/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Dec 2018 02:22:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tom Garlinghouse]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/12/01042032/2-tropical-trees-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=212984</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, Mesoamerica, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Botany, Environment, Forests, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tropical forests are incredibly diverse ecosystems, and ecologists have long wondered why. New research studying a specific Panamanian tree – the yellow-flowering Handroanthus guayacan – has provided an answer. But the conclusion is counterintuitive. Rather than growing more abundant in areas where it is common, the tree actually increased its numbers in areas where it [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tropical forests are incredibly diverse ecosystems, and ecologists have long wondered why. New research studying a specific Panamanian tree – the yellow-flowering Handroanthus guayacan – has provided an answer. But the conclusion is counterintuitive. Rather than growing more abundant in areas where it is common, the tree actually increased its numbers in areas where it is rare. Researchers at Brown University and the University of California, Los Angeles, published their findings recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They used high-resolution satellite images to investigate the long-term population of this tree on Barro Colorado, a 6-square-mile [15.5-square-kilometer] island in the Panama Canal. Long distance view of several Handroanthus guayacan trees dotting the forest canopy. Image courtesy of James R. Kellner, Peggy and Henry D. Sharpe Jr. Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown University. Using these data over a 10-year span, they confirmed a scientific hypothesis that has been around, but unproven, for decades. Developed in the early 1970s, it’s called the Janzen-Connell hypothesis after ecologists Daniel Janzen and Joseph Connell, who proposed the idea independently. It maintains that high diversity is a response to predators. Foraging efficiently, predators will hunt for their favorite foods in areas where resources are abundant, rather than in places where these resources are sparse. “If you’re a rodent that eats seeds,” said James Kellner, an ecologist at Brown University and the first author of the study, “you’re going to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/12/tropical-trees-grow-most-easily-where-they-are-rare/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-212984</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Researcher names spectacular new frog after his granddaughter</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/researcher-names-spectacular-new-frog-after-his-granddaughter/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/researcher-names-spectacular-new-frog-after-his-granddaughter/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2018 00:10:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/07/31000944/csylviae-header_1800x942-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=208789</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, Mesoamerica, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Cryptic Species, Frogs, Herps, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A researcher has identified a colorful tree frog as a new species and named the amphibian Sylvia’s tree frog, Cruziohyla sylviae, after his 3-year-old granddaughter. Andrew Gray, Curator of Herpetology at Manchester Museum, conducted genetic and biochemical analysis on frogs that were thought to be a morph of the splendid tree frog, Cruziohyla calcarifer, a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A researcher has identified a colorful tree frog as a new species and named the amphibian Sylvia’s tree frog, Cruziohyla sylviae, after his 3-year-old granddaughter. Andrew Gray, Curator of Herpetology at Manchester Museum, conducted genetic and biochemical analysis on frogs that were thought to be a morph of the splendid tree frog, Cruziohyla calcarifer, a frog that&#8217;s popular among herp collectors for its striking coloration. His research, published in the journal Zootaxa, showed that individuals collected from Panama and northern South America are genetically distinct from individuals found in Costa Rica, indicating that the splendid tree frog is actually at least two species. The new species is more closely related to the fringed tree frog, Cruziohyla craspedopus, which lives in the Amazon rainforest and was only described by science in 1957, than Cruziohyla calcarifer, which was first described in 1902. Sylvia’s Tree Frog, Cruziohyla sylviae. Photo by Andrew Gray Cruziohyla calcarifer. Photo by Andrew Gray Cruziohyla craspedopus. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Gray says the new species is not well documented in the wild and may be under threat. &#8220;It’s remarkable that such a distinctive new species has remained undetected for such a long time,&#8221; he said in a statement. &#8220;However, more importantly, this work highlights that an assessment of the conservation needs for each species is urgently required to ensure these amazing creatures are still around in another 100 years.&#8221; Gray&#8217;s granddaughter Sylvia pictured with the newly described species. Citation: ANDREW R. GRAY (2018). Review of the genus Cruziohyla&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/researcher-names-spectacular-new-frog-after-his-granddaughter/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-208789</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists condemn expansion of industrial monocultures at expense of traditional gardens in Mexico</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/scientists-condemn-expansion-of-industrial-monocultures-at-expense-of-traditional-gardens-in-mexico/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/scientists-condemn-expansion-of-industrial-monocultures-at-expense-of-traditional-gardens-in-mexico/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Jul 2017 20:17:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/07/14200900/cancun_1254_1200-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=197348</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mesoamerica, and Mexico]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Forests, and Palm Oil]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Conservation scientists meeting in Mexico are warning that planned expansion of industrial monocultures in Mexico&#8217;s Yucatán Peninsula poses a threat to traditional agricultural practices that help maintain biodiversity and ecosystem function. At the conclusion of the annual meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC), which involved 750 participants from more than 40 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Conservation scientists meeting in Mexico are warning that planned expansion of industrial monocultures in Mexico&#8217;s Yucatán Peninsula poses a threat to traditional agricultural practices that help maintain biodiversity and ecosystem function. At the conclusion of the annual meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC), which involved 750 participants from more than 40 countries, scientists issued the Mérida Declaration calling for public policies that &#8220;foster and protect&#8221; traditional Mayan agricultural practices, including the Milpa, a poly-cultivation system. “The Yucatán Peninsula is home to an astonishing number of plant and animal species. Its diverse flora and fauna is found in tropical dry to evergreen forests, mangroves, seasonally inundated forests, coastal wetlands and dunes”, said Tony Lynam, co-chair of the ATBC conservation committee, in a statement. “For more than 3,000 years the Maya people have been an integral part of a dynamic living landscape across the region. The Maya domesticated their forest landscape, and have co-created the biodiversity in Yucatán Peninsula through the ancient Milpa-forest garden cycle.&#8221; Forest on the Yucatan Peninsula. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay. &#8220;The Milpa-forest garden cycle is a vital living example of sustainable tropical landscape management that also provides food sovereignty for local human communities,&#8221; added Steve Turton, co-chair of the ATBC conservation committee. But this traditional management approach is under threat from expansion of industrial agriculture, including oil palm plantations and soybean farms. And while Mexico has traditionally been at the forefront of recognizing community forest management and land rights, the current&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/scientists-condemn-expansion-of-industrial-monocultures-at-expense-of-traditional-gardens-in-mexico/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-197348</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Guatemalan authorities destroy secret airstrip in Laguna del Tigre National Park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/05/guatemalan-authorities-destroy-secret-airstrip-in-laguna-del-tigre-national-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/05/guatemalan-authorities-destroy-secret-airstrip-in-laguna-del-tigre-national-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 May 2017 11:48:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sebastián Escalón]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maria Angeles Salazar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/05/19114638/photo_2017-05-16_21-38-51-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=195916</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Central American Cattle Ranching]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, Latin America, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Cattle, Deforestation, Forests, Illegal Logging, Protected Areas, Ranching, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[(This is a collaborative article by Mongabay Latam and Plaza Pública, a Guatemalan investigative news outlet) The spokesperson for the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Julia Barrera, told Plaza Pública and Mongabay Latam on Monday (15th of May) that a secret runway had been found in the area and that the prosecutor was inspecting it. The investigation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[(This is a collaborative article by Mongabay Latam and Plaza Pública, a Guatemalan investigative news outlet) The spokesperson for the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Julia Barrera, told Plaza Pública and Mongabay Latam on Monday (15th of May) that a secret runway had been found in the area and that the prosecutor was inspecting it. The investigation found that the strip &#8211; 8 meters wide by 250 meters long &#8211; wasn’t active. The weeds, trees and potholes would have prevented any aircraft from landing there.  According to a source from the prosecutor for drug-related crimes’ office, “the strip could had been used before and could have been reactivated. For this reason, it was destroyed.” Following judicial authorisation, the strip was destroyed using pickaxes and mattocks (similar to a pickaxe) and not using explosives, as is normally the case. The Selva Beos military brigade dug a ditch about a meter deep and six meters wide, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in order to render the strip useless. Under a judge’s order, the Army destroys a secret runway located next to one of Perenco’s oil wells. Photo courtesy of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Guatemala. But the job is not yet done. “We’ll need to coordinate with local authorities to see if they had any knowledge of the runway, and carry out an investigation to see who could have used the runway (legally or illegally),” explained the prosecutor for the drug-related crimes’ office. As far as the spokesperson for the Army &#8211; William&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/05/guatemalan-authorities-destroy-secret-airstrip-in-laguna-del-tigre-national-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-195916</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Do Costa Rica&#8217;s payments for environmental services work?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2007/09/do-costa-ricas-payments-for-environmental-services-work/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2007/09/do-costa-ricas-payments-for-environmental-services-work/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Sep 2007 14:30:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2008/12/do-costa-ricas-payments-for-environmental-services-work/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, Latin America, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, climate finance, Conservation, Economics, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Green, Rainforests, Redd, and Reforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[While Costa Rica is now known as a world leader for conversation policies and ecotourism, the Central American country had some of the world&#8217;s highest deforestation rates prior to establishing its reputation. Clearing for cattle pasture and agriculture destroyed much of the country&#8217;s biodiverse rainforests in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1990s Costa Rica [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[While Costa Rica is now known as a world leader for conversation policies and ecotourism, the Central American country had some of the world&#8217;s highest deforestation rates prior to establishing its reputation. Clearing for cattle pasture and agriculture destroyed much of the country&#8217;s biodiverse rainforests in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1990s Costa Rica set a new course; one that sought to unlock the value of its ecosystems. While ecotourism was the most obvious path, Costa Rica also pioneered the development of payments for environmental services (&#8220;PSA&#8221; or pagos por servicios ambientales). In 1996 the country established a program to compensate landowners for keeping forests intact and reforesting degraded areas. A new study, published in Conservation Biology, examines these efforts and concludes concludes that while the program pioneered the institutionalization of a policy that can and likely will create meaningful incentives, to this point in Costa Rica, given other policies, it appears to have had little impact on deforestation. Deforestation rates in Costa Rica, 1960-2005. Modified from Sanchez-Azofeifa et al 2007. Image by R. Butler. While the results show little impact on deforestation rates up to this point, a careful consideration of this case provides insight on how that could have happened and how impact could be increased, at a time when ecosystem payments are increasingly on the minds of policymakers, with the world&#8217;s tropical countries seeking compensation in the form of carbon credits for protecting their forests. Some details from the paper: Payments under the PSA program: conservation:&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2007/09/do-costa-ricas-payments-for-environmental-services-work/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-38972</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Golden Toad: Elegy for a jewel of the cloud forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2005/10/golden-toad-elegy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2005/10/golden-toad-elegy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2005 15:19:39 +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/20/2005/10/18113635/golden-toad-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2005/10/renewable-energy-supplier-becomes-first-to-win-epa-and-doe-awards/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, Latin America, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Chytridiomycosis, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Diseases, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Frogs, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Herps, Obituary, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the mist-shrouded highlands north of Monteverde, Costa Rica, a small amphibian once glowed like a living gem. The Golden Toad, with its brilliant male orange skin and the more muted, patterned colors of the female, inhabited scarcely more than a few square kilometers of cloud forest at roughly 1,500 meters elevation. From its discovery [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the mist-shrouded highlands north of Monteverde, Costa Rica, a small amphibian once glowed like a living gem. The Golden Toad, with its brilliant male orange skin and the more muted, patterned colors of the female, inhabited scarcely more than a few square kilometers of cloud forest at roughly 1,500 meters elevation. From its discovery in 1966 by herpetologist Jay Savage, the toad captured imaginations. For years the breeding pools brimmed: in 1987 more than 1,500 adult toads were counted during their extraordinary mating season.Yet its fate turned swift and unyielding. By 1988 only around ten individuals remained; the last verified sighting came on May 15th, 1989—a solitary male in one of its ephemeral breeding pools. The causes of its vanishing are complex, but this much stands clear: the Golden Toad’s realm was fragile and constrained. Its entire known world was measured in square kilometers of cloud-forest and seasonal rain-filled pools. A dramatic drought tied to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation desiccated those pools. At the same time, the emerging fungal disease chytridiomycosis and shifting cloud-forest microclimates conspired against survival. When the rains returned, the toads did not. Last year the species was formally declared extinct. Bufo periglenes. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service What was lost is more than one species. It was a living symbol of a biological miracle—an amphibian so brilliantly colored that its appearance seemed otherworldly; so restricted in range that its demise foretold the fate of many others; so suddenly absent that its&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2005/10/golden-toad-elegy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-61847</doi>				</item>
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