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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 13:34:48 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>Panama environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/panama/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Researchers find ‘remarkable’ hot-pink insect in Panama rainforest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/04/researchers-find-remarkable-hot-pink-insect-in-panama-rainforest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/04/researchers-find-remarkable-hot-pink-insect-in-panama-rainforest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Apr 2026 12:57:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Brown]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/13123725/Fig.-1_slightly_modified_and_higher_res-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=317404</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Environment, Forests, Insects, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In March 2025, biologist Benito Wainwright and his colleagues were searching for katydids — leaf-mimicking insects related to crickets and grasshoppers — in the rainforest of Barro Colorado Island in Panama, when they came across an unexpected sight: a hot-pink katydid individual of the species Arota festae. The researchers captured the katydid and raised her [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In March 2025, biologist Benito Wainwright and his colleagues were searching for katydids — leaf-mimicking insects related to crickets and grasshoppers — in the rainforest of Barro Colorado Island in Panama, when they came across an unexpected sight: a hot-pink katydid individual of the species Arota festae. The researchers captured the katydid and raised her in captivity. Photographing her daily for 14 days, they chronicled her changing color from hot pink to a pastel pink and finally green, the researchers report in a recent study. A. festae, found in Panama, Colombia and Suriname, are typically light green in color, resembling early-growth vegetation, the authors write. The discovery of the hot-pink katydid is very rare, Wainwright told Mongabay by email. “I&#8217;ve spent a total of 8 months in the tropics and have only ever found one, and my collaborators who have spent 2+ years on BCI [Barro Colorado Island] have never seen one,” said Wainwright, from the University of St Andrews in Scotland. “We do most of our sampling around research station lights so it could be that these immature pink adults are hiding in places we&#8217;re not looking. The green morphs are pretty common though so, at least on BCI, the pink morph is a real abnormality.” Jeffrey Cole, an expert in katydid evolution, who wasn’t affiliated with the study, told Mongabay in an email: “The observation of this katydid changing colors within a single life stage is remarkable, as it is the first demonstration of this capability in a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/04/researchers-find-remarkable-hot-pink-insect-in-panama-rainforest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>Captive-bred Panamanian golden frogs released to the wild</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/captive-bred-panamanian-golden-frogs-released-to-the-wild/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/captive-bred-panamanian-golden-frogs-released-to-the-wild/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Mar 2026 23:18:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/20231218/brnxz_663-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=316075</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Diseases, Endangered, Endangered Species, Frogs, Habitat, and Infectious Wildlife Disease]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Since 2009, no one has seen a Panamanian golden frog in the wild. These bright yellow frogs disappeared completely when an amphibian fungal disease, chytridiomycosis, swept through Panama reaching El Valle de Anton, the last stronghold of golden frogs. Researchers at the Smithsonian Institution predicted these declines based on the pattern of disease spread, but [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Since 2009, no one has seen a Panamanian golden frog in the wild. These bright yellow frogs disappeared completely when an amphibian fungal disease, chytridiomycosis, swept through Panama reaching El Valle de Anton, the last stronghold of golden frogs. Researchers at the Smithsonian Institution predicted these declines based on the pattern of disease spread, but to get ahead of the disease, a coalition of organizations built the the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project (PARC) with a mission to safeguard golden frogs (Atelopus zeteki) and other amphibians most at risk of extinction. After successfully breeding them in captivity, the project has begun releasing frogs to understand the science of rewilding these imperiled animals. “We provide care for some of the most endangered amphibians in Panama, and now we are entering a new phase of our work to study the science of rewilding,” said Roberto Ibañez director of PARC. The golden frog is endemic to Panama and was found only near fast-running streams flowing from the mountainous region of central Panama. Chytridiomycosis, the deadly fungus that infects a frog’s skin leading to death, can swim through water and hitch a ride on other wildlife, even on people’s shoes. The disease is still present in many other areas of Panama, so the release trial presents an opportunity to understand how frogs transition from human care to the wild. Researchers released 100 golden frogs in soft-release pens, known as mesocosms, and came back to monitor them post-release. The frogs initially spent 12 weeks&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/captive-bred-panamanian-golden-frogs-released-to-the-wild/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>Panama NGOs face lawsuits, asset seizures in fight over port construction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/panama-ngos-face-lawsuits-asset-seizures-in-fight-over-port-construction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/panama-ngos-face-lawsuits-asset-seizures-in-fight-over-port-construction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Feb 2026 22:07:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infrastructure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mangroves]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marine Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sharks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wildlife]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/23213301/manglares_david_chiriqui_panama-scaled-2-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314668</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Activism, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Infrastructure, Mangroves, Marine Conservation, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For more than a year, dozens of environmental groups have been fighting the construction of a controversial port in Panama, arguing that it will harm marine life and the mangroves they depend on. Now, two of those groups have had their assets seized amid lawsuits filed by the port’s developer — a move environmental advocates [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For more than a year, dozens of environmental groups have been fighting the construction of a controversial port in Panama, arguing that it will harm marine life and the mangroves they depend on. Now, two of those groups have had their assets seized amid lawsuits filed by the port’s developer — a move environmental advocates say is highly unusual. The Puerto Barú project, located in Panama’s northwestern Chiriquí province, has been stalled by legal challenges filed by a coalition of environmental groups, which have also led public campaigns claiming the port could damage the breeding grounds of sharks, rays and other marine life. In response, the port’s developer, Ocean Pacific Financial Services Corp., has filed criminal and civil lawsuits against two of the groups, and a court has ordered the seizure of some of their assets. “It’s a very worrying precedent that the judicial system is being used in this way against actions to defend the environment,” said Joana Abrego, legal manager at the Environmental Advocacy Center of Panama (CIAM), a nonprofit and one of the defendants in the lawsuits. Puerto Barú is designed to improve connectivity with the nearby town of David and the Pan-American Highway while also strengthening tourism and agribusiness, according to developers. But the project also includes a 31-kilometer (19-mile) navigation channel to the Pacific coast that must be dredged deep enough for large merchant ships. The area is home to around 25% of Panama’s mangroves, and parts of it are considered an Important Shark and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/panama-ngos-face-lawsuits-asset-seizures-in-fight-over-port-construction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>Mapping underground fungal networks: Interview with SPUN’s Toby Kiers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/mapping-underground-fungal-networks-interview-with-spuns-toby-kiers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/mapping-underground-fungal-networks-interview-with-spuns-toby-kiers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Feb 2026 10:16:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sarahengel]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/10233608/Banner-Image-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314068</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central America, East Asia, Global, Latin America, Mongolia, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fungi, Interviews, Plants, Research, Soil Carbon, Symbiotic Relationships, Technology, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[All around her, scientists had their eyes set on studying flora and fauna that lived aboveground. But Toby Kiers’s interest always lay in the oft-overlooked biodiversity that existed beneath it. It was the mysterious nature of the vast mycorrhizal fungal networks that so fascinated Kiers. “It’s so alive, but humble and quiet,” Kiers, an evolutionary [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[All around her, scientists had their eyes set on studying flora and fauna that lived aboveground. But Toby Kiers’s interest always lay in the oft-overlooked biodiversity that existed beneath it. It was the mysterious nature of the vast mycorrhizal fungal networks that so fascinated Kiers. “It’s so alive, but humble and quiet,” Kiers, an evolutionary biologist and co-founder of the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN), an organization that’s working to map mycorrhizal fungi around the world, told Mongabay in a video interview. Mycorrhizal fungi, found in almost every soil system on the planet, have a crucial symbiotic relationship with plants. They live on plant roots and extract nitrogen, phosphorus and water from the soil for the plants. The plants, in return, feed carbon dioxide absorbed during photosynthesis to the fungi, which need it for their growth. As a result, a massive amount of CO2 — more than 13 billion metric tons, according to a 2023 study — moves from plants to these fungal networks, making them a crucial tool in carbon sequestration. But there’s more to it than meets the eye. The movement of nutrients and carbon between plants and fungal networks is a calculated barter system in which the fungal networks allocate nutrients for plants based on how much they get in return. “We still don’t understand how they are doing it,” Kiers said. “It’s almost like watching the best poker players in the world play a game of poker.” To understand more about these complicated&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/mapping-underground-fungal-networks-interview-with-spuns-toby-kiers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>Nitrogen may turbocharge regrowth in young tropical forest trees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/nitrogen-may-turbocharge-regrowth-in-young-tropical-forest-trees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/nitrogen-may-turbocharge-regrowth-in-young-tropical-forest-trees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jan 2026 16:41:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bobby Bascomb]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/15163740/panama_240512162306_0722-e1768495168974-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=313025</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Innovation In Tropical Forest Conservation, Reforestation, Research, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[New research finds that tropical forests can grow significantly faster and sequester more climate-warming carbon dioxide when additional nitrogen is available in the soil. “With this information we can prioritise management and conservation practices to maximise forest regrowth,” Kelly Anderson, a research scientist at Missouri Botanical Garden in the U.S., told Mongabay by email. Anderson [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[New research finds that tropical forests can grow significantly faster and sequester more climate-warming carbon dioxide when additional nitrogen is available in the soil. “With this information we can prioritise management and conservation practices to maximise forest regrowth,” Kelly Anderson, a research scientist at Missouri Botanical Garden in the U.S., told Mongabay by email. Anderson wasn’t involved with the study but does work with NEXTropics, a network of scientists who collaborate on forest nutrient studies. During the recent study, researchers “wanted to test how either nitrogen or phosphorus limit forest recovery and specifically if there was a shift in that limitation from really young forests to older forests,” Sarah Batterman, corresponding author of the study with the Cary Institute and the University of Leeds, told Mongabay in a video call. To test both nutrients the research team conducted a long-term field experiment in Panama. Research plots were established in 2015 and 2016 in recovering forests of three different ages: those on recently abandoned pasture; young secondary forest (10 years); and older secondary forests (30 years). They also looked at mature forest plots established in 1997, for a total of 76 experimental plots. For each age of forest, plots received one of four treatments: added nitrogen, added phosphorus, both nutrients, and control plots where nothing was added. They also established several replicate plots where they repeated the experiments. Batterman said the strongest response was in young trees that received additional nitrogen. “So, in the first 10 years of forest recovery, the forests&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/nitrogen-may-turbocharge-regrowth-in-young-tropical-forest-trees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>The vanishing pharmacy: How climate change is reshaping traditional medicine</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/natures-vanishing-pharmacy-how-climate-change-is-reshaping-traditional-medicine/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/natures-vanishing-pharmacy-how-climate-change-is-reshaping-traditional-medicine/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Dec 2025 05:39:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Climate Change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Climate Change And Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Communities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Traditional Knowledge]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/19060634/Yarsa-gunbu-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311312</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Ghana, Global, Himalayas, Panama, Philippines, Samoa, and Tibet]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Green, and Indigenous Peoples]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Gyatso Bista remembers the sacks of kutki. As a child learning to become a healer in Nepal&#8217;s kingdom of Lo Manthang, Bista would watch as heaps of the bitter-tasting herb, prized for treating fever, coughs and liver problems, arrived on horseback from the surrounding mountains. Bista is one of the few remaining practitioners of Sowa [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Gyatso Bista remembers the sacks of kutki. As a child learning to become a healer in Nepal&#8217;s kingdom of Lo Manthang, Bista would watch as heaps of the bitter-tasting herb, prized for treating fever, coughs and liver problems, arrived on horseback from the surrounding mountains. Bista is one of the few remaining practitioners of Sowa Rigpa, an ancient Tibetan healing system used for more than 2,500 years. He remembers harvests of up to 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of the high-altitude herb. But now, the kutki (Picrorhiza scrophulariiflora) has all but vanished. &#8220;Now you barely find 5 kilograms [11 pounds],&#8221; Bista said. What Bista has witnessed in his village reflects a global crisis. More than 80% of the world&#8217;s population relies on traditional medicine for their primary health care. Yet across every inhabited continent, plants that form the backbone of traditional healing are in decline, pushed out by rising temperatures, shifting rainfall, deforestation and overharvesting. Meconopsis grandis, also known as the Himalayan blue poppy, is among many other species are gradually on the verge of extinction. Image by Conall via Flickr(CC BY 2.0). &#8220;For many common illnesses, these traditional remedies are really our first aid,&#8221; Mingay Dakias, a member of the Manobo-Dulangan Indigenous community in the southern Philippines, told Mongabay. &#8220;We usually rely on these treatments first.&#8221; A recent global review published in Frontiers in Pharmacology found that of 367 medicinal plant species studied over the past two decades, climate change has reduced suitable habitats for 106 species. Another 94 species&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/natures-vanishing-pharmacy-how-climate-change-is-reshaping-traditional-medicine/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<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, Pollution, and UCSC]]>
						</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>
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							<![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>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>In Panama, poison dart frog move brings hope amid amphibians’ fight with fungus</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-panama-poison-dart-frog-move-brings-hope-amid-amphibians-fight-with-fungus/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-panama-poison-dart-frog-move-brings-hope-amid-amphibians-fight-with-fungus/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Oct 2025 22:14:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sam Meadows]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amphibians]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation Solutions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Diseases]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Habitat Loss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Threatened species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife Conservation]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/08220528/Pratts-poison-dart-frog-Colostethus-pratti-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307262</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibian Crisis, Amphibians, Bioacoustics and conservation, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Conservation Technology, Diseases, Endangered Species, Infectious Wildlife Disease, Protected Areas, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Measuring a bit more than 20 millimeters (0.8 inches), Pratt’s poison frog (Colostethus pratti) is not the kind of frog that would get attention. Although part of the Dendrobatidae family, known for its bright colors and high toxicity that keep predators away, it can only boast a brown, stripy skin and low poison levels. It’s not [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Measuring a bit more than 20 millimeters (0.8 inches), Pratt’s poison frog (Colostethus pratti) is not the kind of frog that would get attention. Although part of the Dendrobatidae family, known for its bright colors and high toxicity that keep predators away, it can only boast a brown, stripy skin and low poison levels. It’s not even endangered. But in Panama, a recent move of a dozen pairs of these tiny frogs may offer researchers new insights into how to help amphibians worldwide in a decades-long fight against a deadly disease. Pratt’s poison frog has been one of at least 500 amphibian species affected by the chytrid fungal disease, a pathogen that over the last 50 years, is estimated to have wiped out 90 species of amphibians and caused a 90% decline in population abundance in other 124, according to a 2019 study. The disease, caused by the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, was only discovered in 1998 but is known to have peaked in mortality in the 1980s and early 2000s. Pratt’s poison frogs have been hit by chytrid too. Although their populations are not at risk, they have been declining, as the fungus, urban development and agriculture have been encroaching on them. The species can be found in several locations within its range in Panama, but it is believed to have been wiped by chytrid from Altos de Campana National Park, the country’s oldest national park, at least 19 years ago, according to Brian Gratwicke, a conservation biologist at the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-panama-poison-dart-frog-move-brings-hope-amid-amphibians-fight-with-fungus/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Panama upwelling fails in 2025, threatening marine ecosystems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/panama-upwelling-fails-in-2025-threatening-marine-ecosystems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/panama-upwelling-fails-in-2025-threatening-marine-ecosystems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Sep 2025 18:00:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bobby Bascomb]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/19174907/Map-of-Chlorophyll-Concentrations-in-February-2024-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=306281</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Climate Change And Coral Reefs, Coastal Ecosystems, Marine Crisis, Marine Ecosystems, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Oceans And Climate Change]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Every year in the Gulf of Panama, between December and April, trade winds from the north push warm surface water away from the coast, allowing cool, nutrient-rich water from the depths to rise, in a process called upwelling. This is critical for the region’s marine life and fisheries. However, for the first time in at [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Every year in the Gulf of Panama, between December and April, trade winds from the north push warm surface water away from the coast, allowing cool, nutrient-rich water from the depths to rise, in a process called upwelling. This is critical for the region’s marine life and fisheries. However, for the first time in at least 40 years, this upwelling failed in 2025, likely due to altered trade winds, a recent study reports. Researchers compared this year’s data to 40 years of satellite sea surface temperature records and on-site water column temperature recordings. Those decades of data show that northerly trade winds predictably arrive each year between January and April. Historically, upwelling begins by Jan. 20 and lasts for 66 days, cooling the water to roughly 19° Celsius (66° Fahrenheit). But in 2025, the upwelling began 42 days late, on March 4. It lasted just 12 days, an 82% reduction in duration, and never cooled the water below 23.3°C (73.9°F). That meant fewer cold days than any other year on record. Researchers note the change may be linked to the position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCV) during last year’s weak La Niña. The ITCV is an area of low pressure around the equator where trade winds from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres collide, creating wind and thunderstorms. Typically, in the Gulf of Panama, the ITCV shifts to the south between January and April, allowing strong northerly winds to blow through the area and drive upwelling. However, previous research suggests&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/panama-upwelling-fails-in-2025-threatening-marine-ecosystems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>Countries shorten tuna fishing closure at Pacific summit with few conservation ‘wins’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/countries-shorten-tuna-fishing-closure-at-pacific-summit-with-few-conservation-wins/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/countries-shorten-tuna-fishing-closure-at-pacific-summit-with-few-conservation-wins/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Sep 2025 17:39:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/12143715/2-1-scaled-e1757689001461-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305851</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Japan, Pacific Ocean, Panama, South Korea, and Taiwan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Environmental Politics, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Oceans, Overfishing, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[2024 was a record year for tropical tuna catch in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, thanks to a big increase in skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) catch, and stocks are considered healthy. So when the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), a multilateral body that manages tuna and other fish stocks in this region, held its annual meeting Sept. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[2024 was a record year for tropical tuna catch in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, thanks to a big increase in skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) catch, and stocks are considered healthy. So when the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), a multilateral body that manages tuna and other fish stocks in this region, held its annual meeting Sept. 1-5 in Panama, some coastal Latin American countries pushed for more time to fish. The bid was successful: Commission members agreed to shorten an annual fishing closure from 72 days to 64 days. The outcome was a compromise between a U.S. proposal to maintain the 72-day closure and proposals by Latin American countries to lower it, one by as much as 17 days per year, to 55. The 64-day closure, which will go into effect in 2026, is in keeping with recommendations from the IATTC’s scientific committee. “They followed the scientific advice, which is important,” Pablo Guerrero, director of marine conservation at WWF Ecuador, told Mongabay. However, negotiations over the closure and general commission budget matters dominated the meeting, leaving insufficient time for some key conservation proposals, attendees said. “It was a meeting with little to report in terms of big wins for conservation,” said Guerrero, who attended the meeting. The members did agree to move toward adoption, in 2026, of a long-term harvest strategy for bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus), though an NGO representative said the process should have been completed this year. The member countries didn’t adopt proposals to increase monitoring of longline tuna&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/countries-shorten-tuna-fishing-closure-at-pacific-summit-with-few-conservation-wins/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>New study pinpoints tree-planting hotspots for climate and biodiversity gains</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-study-pinpoints-tree-planting-hotspots-for-climate-and-biodiversity-gains/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-study-pinpoints-tree-planting-hotspots-for-climate-and-biodiversity-gains/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2025 15:19:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marina Martinez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/02111641/1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305279</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Global, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Change And Forests, Conservation, data, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Regeneration, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Land Use Change, Mapping, Plants, Reforestation, Restoration, Trees, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Reforestation is gaining global momentum as a climate solution, but scientists warn that planting trees indiscriminately isn’t effective. Its success depends on how and, crucially, where it’s done. A new study in Nature Communications, co-authored by scientists from The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and other institutions, seeks to advance global reforestation efforts by mapping the locations [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Reforestation is gaining global momentum as a climate solution, but scientists warn that planting trees indiscriminately isn’t effective. Its success depends on how and, crucially, where it’s done. A new study in Nature Communications, co-authored by scientists from The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and other institutions, seeks to advance global reforestation efforts by mapping the locations where tree planting and forest regrowth are most likely to deliver climate, biodiversity and community benefits. The authors compiled their findings into a web-based tool called the Reforestation Hub. “Reforestation is a readily-available, scalable, cost-effective carbon removal solution, but we have neither time nor resources to restore trees everywhere,” said study co-author Susan Cook-Patton, lead reforestation scientist at TNC. “Our goal with this research was to help accelerate action by highlighting the places where reforestation holds the greatest promise for people, nature, and climate,” she added in an email interview that Mongabay conducted with the TNC team. Burning within Tesso Nilo National Park in Indonesia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Their research builds on previous maps of tree cover restoration potential, refining them by excluding areas where planting trees could do more harm than good, such as non-forested and fire-prone grasslands and savannas. Kurt Fesenmyer, the study lead author and TNC’s forest spatial data scientist, said earlier maps have been critiqued for three main reasons: how they defined “forest”; the data quality; and the lack of safeguards to ensure positive outcomes for people and the environment. “In developing our new map, we sought to address&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-study-pinpoints-tree-planting-hotspots-for-climate-and-biodiversity-gains/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>Microbiomes may be corals’ secret weapon against climate change: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/microbiomes-may-be-corals-secret-weapon-against-climate-change-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/microbiomes-may-be-corals-secret-weapon-against-climate-change-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Aug 2025 17:00:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marlowe Starling]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/12094137/fish-coral-reef-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304039</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Pacific Ocean, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate Change, Climate Change And Biodiversity, Climate Change And Conservation, Climate Change And Coral Reefs, Conservation Technology, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Biodiversity, Marine Conservation, Marine Ecosystems, Microorganisms, Ocean Warming, Technology And Conservation, and Temperatures]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As ocean temperatures set new heat records, coral reef scientists are on a mission to identify which species and reefs can tolerate heat stress the best. But how and why do some corals cope with heat extremes better than others? A research team led by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama investigated this question [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As ocean temperatures set new heat records, coral reef scientists are on a mission to identify which species and reefs can tolerate heat stress the best. But how and why do some corals cope with heat extremes better than others? A research team led by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama investigated this question by studying not just corals’ genes and environment, but also their microbiomes. By running a series of heat stress tests on two populations of Pocillopora corals — one from the Gulf of Panama and the other from the Gulf of Chiriquí, both on Panama’s Pacific coast — they found that corals exposed to upwelling in the Gulf of Panama were better able to withstand higher temperatures, thanks in part to their microbiomes. The study was published in June in the journal Current Biology. A coral’s microbiome is made up of microorganisms such as algae and bacteria, some of which are considered “symbionts” that co-evolved to live within a host coral. Collectively, the microbiome, symbionts and host are called the holobiont. The new study is the first in the Eastern Pacific to assess coral heat tolerance by looking at the entire holobiont, said Victoria Marie Glynn, an evolutionary biologist and lead author of the study, who at the time was earning her doctorate at McGill University in Canada. “You cannot separate what the host is doing from what its microbiome is doing,” Glynn said. Microbiomes can influence gene expression and adaptation, for example. “All of that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/microbiomes-may-be-corals-secret-weapon-against-climate-change-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Fences, tech and trust help save jaguars in Panama’s Darién</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/fences-tech-and-trust-help-save-jaguars-in-panamas-darien/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/fences-tech-and-trust-help-save-jaguars-in-panamas-darien/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Aug 2025 17:48:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marlowe Starling]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Big Cats]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[biodiversity loss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Community-based Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation Solutions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jaguars]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trafficking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife Corridors]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife Rangers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife Trafficking]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/09151841/JAGUAR-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304035</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Drones, Conservation Solutions, Conservation Technology, Corridors, Deforestation, Jaguars, wildfires, Wildlife Corridors, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[DARIÉN, Panama — In a small town called Metetí, deep in Panama’s Darién province, Luis Gutiérrez manages La Reina, or “The Queen,” a cattle ranch named for his wife. His farm features a solar-powered electric fence that encloses the paddocks on his ranch, keeping the cattle contained and protected from jaguars (Panthera onca). On the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[DARIÉN, Panama — In a small town called Metetí, deep in Panama’s Darién province, Luis Gutiérrez manages La Reina, or “The Queen,” a cattle ranch named for his wife. His farm features a solar-powered electric fence that encloses the paddocks on his ranch, keeping the cattle contained and protected from jaguars (Panthera onca). On the other side of the fence, about 50 yards into the forest, camera traps have been capturing footage of the elusive felines crossing the small stream on Gutiérrez’s land since 2022. It’s common for jaguars to kill cattle in the Darién, and for cattle owners to retaliate by killing the felines. That’s why, for the past three decades, Darién has been the country’s top province for jaguar killings. But near La Reina, the jaguars are safe — and so are the cattle. Gutiérrez is one of a small handful of farmers working with jaguar ecologist Ricardo Moreno and his nonprofit, Yaguará Panamá Foundation, to mitigate conflicts between humans and the big cats. “We need to first help people,” Moreno says. It’s the cornerstone of his nonprofit’s approach to jaguar conservation. Darién National Park extends over 579,000 hectares. Photo courtesy of the Panama’s Ministry of the Environment. Across Panama and Latin America, jaguars face a wide range of challenges, from retaliation to trafficking. But in Darién, which bridges jaguar habitats in South and Central America, conserving these animals through local communities is critical, experts say. A key piece of a long corridor Jaguar habitat extends from Mexico&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/fences-tech-and-trust-help-save-jaguars-in-panamas-darien/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Indigenous leadership and science revive Panama’s degraded lands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/indigenous-leadership-and-science-reviving-panamas-degraded-lands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/indigenous-leadership-and-science-reviving-panamas-degraded-lands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2025 16:47:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Kristine Sabillo]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/22144607/DSC00858-Isidrio-Hernandez-Ruiz-and-his-son--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=303494</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Politics, Forestry, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Groups, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Logging, Plantations, Plants, Rainforest Deforestation, Rainforests, Reforestation, Research, Trees, Tropical Conservation Science, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Tropical hardwoods]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Two Indigenous groups in Panama are collaborating with researchers in a long-term reforestation project that promises them income in return for growing native trees for carbon sequestration, Mongabay contributor Marlowe Starling reported in May. As part of the project, researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) have partnered with the local leadership in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Two Indigenous groups in Panama are collaborating with researchers in a long-term reforestation project that promises them income in return for growing native trees for carbon sequestration, Mongabay contributor Marlowe Starling reported in May. As part of the project, researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) have partnered with the local leadership in the rural district of Ñürüm in the Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca, the largest officially recognized Indigenous land in Panama. With funding support from the U.S.-based Rohr Family Foundation and the U.K. government’s Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate, the project aims to plant native trees across 100 hectares (nearly 250 acres) in Ñürüm. Ñürüm’s landscape has been heavily deforested for decades for agriculture and cattle pasture, as well as government-led plantations of nonnative pine and teak. It doesn’t help that the soil in the area is clay, acidic, phosphorous-deficient and of low fertility. The Smithsonian, through two decades of experience from its Panama Canal Watershed Project in Agua Salud in Colón province, has worked out what types of trees work best on the land. Nearly 30 individuals and families had chosen to participate in the comarca reforestation project at the time of publishing. The community members have already planted several native species on their land, including high-value and low-maintenance trees like cocobolo (Dalbergia retusa), a nitrogen-fixing species whose wood is used for carvings and furniture. “It grows on crappy soils, good soils, grows fast when it’s young, it’s good for covering the land area and it’s got big roots, so&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/indigenous-leadership-and-science-reviving-panamas-degraded-lands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/indigenous-leadership-and-science-reviving-panamas-degraded-lands/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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						<item>
					<title>Tropical forest roots show strain as changes aboveground filter below</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/tropical-forest-roots-show-strain-as-changes-aboveground-filter-below/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/tropical-forest-roots-show-strain-as-changes-aboveground-filter-below/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2025 16:59:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Petro Kotzé]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/15090836/1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302479</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central America, Costa Rica, Global, Latin America, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Singapore]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Climate Change And Forests, Conservation, data, data collection, Deforestation, Drought, Ecosystems, El Nino, Environment, forest degradation, Forests, Fungi, Plants, Precipitation, Rainforest Conservation, Rainforests, Research, Symbiotic Relationships, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The destruction of tropical rainforests — seen in shocking images of huge wildfires, vast clear-cuts and dying drought-stressed trees — is unfolding annually before the world&#8217;s eyes. But some serious changes in growing forests are occurring unseen, below the surface. As aboveground changes in those forests intensify, those effects are also filtering underground, and researchers [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The destruction of tropical rainforests — seen in shocking images of huge wildfires, vast clear-cuts and dying drought-stressed trees — is unfolding annually before the world&#8217;s eyes. But some serious changes in growing forests are occurring unseen, below the surface. As aboveground changes in those forests intensify, those effects are also filtering underground, and researchers are sounding the alarm due to potentially adverse changes to tropical forest roots. Roots are key to how rainforest trees and soils capture and store atmospheric carbon dioxide, especially as climate change progresses, says Daniela F. Cusack, associate professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability at Colorado State University. The hidden world of plant roots, and the impacts of human-caused stressors on them, is not yet well understood, but important clues are emerging. An overlooked science While underground plant growth is more difficult to study than what’s happening aboveground, roots are no less important than forest floor to canopy processes, explains Cusack, who is also a research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Scientists began looking at the complex tropical forest underworld about 40 years ago. Today, they know tropical tree species’ roots grow in a mat on the forest floor to collect nutrients from composting vegetative matter. Some trees have shallow root systems that run for more than 100 meters (325 feet) to steady the tall trees, especially since strong winds often rock the canopy. Others have evolved large, thin extensions of the trunk that begin some 6 m (20 ft)&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/tropical-forest-roots-show-strain-as-changes-aboveground-filter-below/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Inside Panama’s gamble to save the Darién</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/inside-panamas-gamble-to-save-the-darien/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/inside-panamas-gamble-to-save-the-darien/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2025 11:21:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/10111842/pexels-concep-arroyo-1196184080-31209952-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=302192</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Governance, Green, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Rainforest Conservation, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In the dense, humid expanse of the Darién Gap — a forbidding swath of rainforest bridging Panama and Colombia — a tentative transformation is underway. Once synonymous with lawlessness and unchecked migration, this biologically rich frontier is now [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In the dense, humid expanse of the Darién Gap — a forbidding swath of rainforest bridging Panama and Colombia — a tentative transformation is underway. Once synonymous with lawlessness and unchecked migration, this biologically rich frontier is now the focus of an ambitious conservation push by Panama’s government, reports Mongabay’s Maxwell Radwin. Since President José Mulino took office last July, Panama has poured resources into the region. The Ministry of Environment, in partnership with NGOs like Global Conservation, has trained and deployed 30 new guards to Darién National Park, increasing the total to 52. Equipped with Starlink satellite communications, smartphones and GPS mapping tools, the rangers now cover more terrain than ever before. &#8220;We now have more equipment, more personnel, and we can cover more area,&#8221; said Segundo Sugasti, director of the park. These steps are part of a broader campaign to regain control over a region long shaped by external pressures: migration, illegal logging, gold mining, and land grabbing for agriculture. This year alone, two major raids by SENAFRONT, a militarized police unit, dismantled illegal gold mining camps that had generated millions in profits while polluting waterways with mercury and phosphorus. Meanwhile, efforts to regulate logging are showing signs of traction. A moratorium on new timber permits, extended through 2029, has silenced many sawmills in the province. Dozens of forest technicians, many of them recent graduates, have been dispatched to remote Indigenous&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/inside-panamas-gamble-to-save-the-darien/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Nearly half of tree species in Mexico and Central America threatened with extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/nearly-half-of-tree-species-in-mexico-and-central-america-threatened-with-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/nearly-half-of-tree-species-in-mexico-and-central-america-threatened-with-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jul 2025 13:48:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Lizkimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Critically Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[extinction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[forest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Loss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[green]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trees]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/08/30153330/costa_rica_osa_0077-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302104</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Central America, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Lions have been dubbed the king of the jungle, but one could argue the real royalty are the trees, the massive woody beasts that hold down the land and root the web of life that teems around them. In Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America), which hosts 10% of all plant life on Earth despite covering [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Lions have been dubbed the king of the jungle, but one could argue the real royalty are the trees, the massive woody beasts that hold down the land and root the web of life that teems around them. In Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America), which hosts 10% of all plant life on Earth despite covering only 0.5% of the planet’s land surface, nearly half of all tree species are in trouble. Of the 4,046 known tree species found only in Mesoamerica, 1,867, or 46%, are threatened with extinction, according to a new study published in the journal Plants, People, Planet. The research represents the first comprehensive assessment of Mesoamerican trees. The study was part of the Global Tree Assessment, a decade-long initiative to evaluate the conservation status of all the world&#8217;s tree species. Researchers used the standards of the IUCN Red List, which tracks how close species are to disappearing worldwide. The IUCN Red List categorizes species into nine groups, ranging from not evaluated to extinct, by considering factors such as population decline, habitat loss, and population size. Before this assessment, less than 20% (700) of the tree species of the region had been assessed on the IUCN Red List before 2019. Fungi in Costa Rica. Through their entire life cycle and beyond, tropical trees host an abundance of life. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.com. &#8220;It&#8217;s an important study — essentially a clarion call for conserving endangered tree species in Mesoamerica,&#8221; William Laurance, a tropical ecologist at James&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/nearly-half-of-tree-species-in-mexico-and-central-america-threatened-with-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Panama boosts protections in the Darién Gap, but deforestation threats still loom</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/panama-boosts-protections-in-the-darien-gap-but-deforestation-threats-still-loom/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/panama-boosts-protections-in-the-darien-gap-but-deforestation-threats-still-loom/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jun 2025 21:59:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Agriculture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Communities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Groups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infrastructure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Conflict]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Grabbing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/01150303/AP24270727639176-768x487.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301089</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Cattle Ranching, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Governance, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, Land Rights, Logging, Organized Crime, Pollution, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[METETÍ, Panama — Thousands of people used to cross the Darién Gap every day. Emerging from the rainforest, they would stop in small towns across southern Panama, where migrant reception centers provided food, water and medical treatment, before the long journey to the U.S. But last year, the government shut down several crossing routes, leaving [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[METETÍ, Panama — Thousands of people used to cross the Darién Gap every day. Emerging from the rainforest, they would stop in small towns across southern Panama, where migrant reception centers provided food, water and medical treatment, before the long journey to the U.S. But last year, the government shut down several crossing routes, leaving many of these small towns quieter than they have been in years. The government’s crackdown on migration is part of a broader effort to regain control over Darién, a remote province where the rugged, nearly impenetrable jungle provides cover not only for migrants but also drug traffickers, illegal loggers, miners and cattle ranchers. The effort, which began when President José Mulino took office last July, has seen increased funding, a wave of new hires in protected areas, tighter oversight, and more public comments from officials about the importance of conservation. The new policies could help curb deforestation, reduce pollution and protect threatened species in one of Central America’s largest rainforests — even as officials disagree over where to focus their efforts. “We’re aware that if we don’t conserve, we’ll affect this generation and the next, and that’s why we are concerned about what we have to do,” said Pablo Guainora, the general administrator of the Emberá-Wounaan comarca, or Indigenous territory, which borders Darién province. New personnel, better enforcement The Darién Gap straddles Panama’s border with Colombia, and is made up of a series of Indigenous territories, protected areas, and public and private lands, and only a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/panama-boosts-protections-in-the-darien-gap-but-deforestation-threats-still-loom/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Protecting the Darién Gap: Interview with Panama national parks director Luis Carles Rudy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/protecting-the-darien-gap-interview-with-panama-national-parks-director-luis-carles-rudy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/protecting-the-darien-gap-interview-with-panama-national-parks-director-luis-carles-rudy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jun 2025 21:59:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/19171434/WhatsApp-Image-2025-06-09-at-1.02.02-PM-4-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301102</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Cattle Ranching, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Logging, Migration, Pollution, Protected Areas, Rainforest Deforestation, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[METETÍ, Panama — Darién National Park covers around 575,000 hectares, or 1.42 million acres, of rainforest at Panama’s southern border with Colombia, where Central and South America meet. It’s one of the most biodiverse rainforests in the region and a vital stopgap for diseases that might otherwise spread between the two continents, experts say. In [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[METETÍ, Panama — Darién National Park covers around 575,000 hectares, or 1.42 million acres, of rainforest at Panama’s southern border with Colombia, where Central and South America meet. It’s one of the most biodiverse rainforests in the region and a vital stopgap for diseases that might otherwise spread between the two continents, experts say. In recent years, the area has received global attention as a migrant crossing route, with thousands of people from Colombia, Venezuela and other parts of the region making the dangerous journey through the remote jungle each day to reach the U.S. Migrants have left thousands of tons of waste in the rainforest that officials don’t have a cost-effective way to remove. Meanwhile, criminal groups continue to set up mining camps that pollute the Chucunaque River watershed, among others. From outside, cattle ranchers and farmers are pushing ever closer to the park as new road development opens up access to once remote areas. Officials working in the area say they have more support from the government to tackle these problems than they have in years. President José Mulino, who took office last July, has increased the budget and assigned conservationist Juan Carlos Navarro to head the Ministry of Environment. Earlier this year, Mongabay’s Max Radwin met with 30 new Darién National Park rangers, who were training to use new equipment from the NGO Global Conservation. Mongabay also shadowed Luis Carles Rudy, Panama’s national director of protected areas, as he checked in on the issues in and around&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/protecting-the-darien-gap-interview-with-panama-national-parks-director-luis-carles-rudy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mongabay investigation of sketchy forest finance schemes wins honorable mention</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/mongabay-investigation-of-sketchy-forest-finance-schemes-wins-honorable-mention/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/mongabay-investigation-of-sketchy-forest-finance-schemes-wins-honorable-mention/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jun 2025 19:00:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/11185739/5.-Native-community_Mongabay_edit-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=300629</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Panama, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Credits, Carbon Finance, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Ecosystem Finance, Environment, Finance, Forests, Greenwashing, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, and Rainforest Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay contributor Glòria Pallarès earned an honorable mention in the 2025 Trace Prize for Investigative Reporting, announced May 28, for her investigation into how Indigenous communities in Peru, Bolivia and Panama were misled into handing over their rights to millions of hectares of forest. The January 2024 investigation, “False claims of U.N. backing see Indigenous [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay contributor Glòria Pallarès earned an honorable mention in the 2025 Trace Prize for Investigative Reporting, announced May 28, for her investigation into how Indigenous communities in Peru, Bolivia and Panama were misled into handing over their rights to millions of hectares of forest. The January 2024 investigation, “False claims of U.N. backing see Indigenous groups cede forest rights for sketchy finance,” uncovered a network of companies that used false claims of U.N. endorsement to help them win contracts, some lasting several decades, with various Indigenous communities. The economic rights to more than 9.5 million hectares (23.5 million acres) of forest were signed away via these schemes. The agreements were signed without full community consent and were based on unclear promises of jobs, local development projects and, in some cases, a financial return from carbon credits and green bonds, Pallarès found. The 2025 Trace Prize praised the story as “a singular contribution to our understanding of how financial innovations that put a capital value on natural resources can abet the exploitation of vulnerable populations.” One of the most egregious contracts that Pallarès’ uncovered involved 500,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) of the Matsés community’s land in Peru, bordering the territories of several isolated tribes. The company that got the contract, Get Life, had a registered capital of less than $700, and its sole owner told Mongabay that he lacked experience in sustainable finance and carbon markets. Pallarès found that he had been partnering with Ysrael Urday, a former public official investigated&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/mongabay-investigation-of-sketchy-forest-finance-schemes-wins-honorable-mention/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Panama, an Indigenous-led project rewrites the rules of reforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/in-panama-an-indigenous-led-project-rewrites-the-rules-of-reforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/in-panama-an-indigenous-led-project-rewrites-the-rules-of-reforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 May 2025 15:50:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marlowe Starling]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/22143922/DSC00997-Danny-Hernandez-Cuadra--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299400</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Panama, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Conservation, Carbon Sequestration, Community Development, Community Forestry, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Economy, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Groups, Indigenous Peoples, Landscape Restoration, Reforestation, Research, Restoration, Sustainability, Traditional Knowledge, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ÑÜRÜM, Panama — Isidrio Hernandez-Ruiz has a soft spot for the bright yellow flowers of the guayacan trumpet tree (Handroanthus guayacan), a native species that blooms across Panama each spring. It’s one of many reasons why Hernandez-Ruiz, a rural farmer known locally as a campesino, chose to participate in a reforestation effort to plant native [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ÑÜRÜM, Panama — Isidrio Hernandez-Ruiz has a soft spot for the bright yellow flowers of the guayacan trumpet tree (Handroanthus guayacan), a native species that blooms across Panama each spring. It’s one of many reasons why Hernandez-Ruiz, a rural farmer known locally as a campesino, chose to participate in a reforestation effort to plant native trees across his land that will soon earn him income — without harvesting them. Between the nonnative pines on his land now grows a mix of native trees that promise at least 20 years of payments for the carbon they sequester. Hernandez-Ruiz’s plot is part of a larger effort to give reforestation a do-over in Panama. The total project spans 100 hectares (247 acres) of planting across 45,000 hectares (111,000 acres) total in a rural district called Ñürüm in the Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca, an officially recognized Indigenous land. The project is co-led by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and the district’s traditional leadership with financial support from the Rohr Family Foundation and a grant from the U.K. government’s Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate. Nearly 30 individuals and families chose to participate, and landowners keep full ownership of their land. The Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca is the largest Indigenous territory in the country, covering more than 9% of Panama’s land area and encompassing two Indigenous groups, the Ngäbe and the Buglé. In Ñürüm, the landscape has been heavily deforested over the decades from burning for cultivation, clear-cutting for cattle and government-sponsored plantations of nonnative pine and teak.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/in-panama-an-indigenous-led-project-rewrites-the-rules-of-reforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Capuchin monkeys on Panama island seen stealing howler monkey babies</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/05/capuchin-monkeys-on-panama-island-seen-stealing-howler-monkey-babies/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/05/capuchin-monkeys-on-panama-island-seen-stealing-howler-monkey-babies/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 May 2025 08:09:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Bobbybascomb]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/21071545/howler5_streambedonjuvenilecarrier-768x512-1.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=299391</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Green, Islands, Monkeys, Research, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On a remote Panamanian island, researchers have observed for the very first time young male capuchin monkeys stealing howler monkey babies, according to a new study. Since 2017, researchers have used camera traps to study Panamanian white-faced capuchins (Cebus imitator) on Jicarón Island in Coiba National Park, where the monkeys use stone tools to crack [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On a remote Panamanian island, researchers have observed for the very first time young male capuchin monkeys stealing howler monkey babies, according to a new study. Since 2017, researchers have used camera traps to study Panamanian white-faced capuchins (Cebus imitator) on Jicarón Island in Coiba National Park, where the monkeys use stone tools to crack open hard foods like coconuts and crabs. In January 2022, Zoë Goldsborough, a doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany and study lead author, saw footage of a young male capuchin monkey carrying a baby howler monkey (Alouatta palliata coibensis) on its back. Goldsborough reviewed all the camera footage from around that period and found the same individual, named Joker by researchers, carrying four different howler monkey infants. After no new footage appeared for some time, the researchers decided “it was one individual trying something new,” Brendan Barrett, study co-author and Goldsborough’s adviser, said in a statement. This isn’t uncommon among capuchins, which are “deeply curious animals,” he added. But after five months, the researchers spotted four more capuchins with howler monkey babies in their camera footage. In all, they observed five capuchins, all young males from the same group, carrying 11 different howler babies for up to nine days. The infants were all less than 4 weeks old. Initially, the researchers suspected adoption. However, anecdotes of interspecies adoptions mostly involve adult females of one species adopting abandoned babies of another species. Since only male capuchins were seen carrying howler&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/05/capuchin-monkeys-on-panama-island-seen-stealing-howler-monkey-babies/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>Paying to prevent deforestation is positive &#038; not &#8216;nothing&#8217; (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/paying-to-prevent-deforestation-is-positive-not-nothing-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/paying-to-prevent-deforestation-is-positive-not-nothing-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Apr 2025 23:01:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jessica Ausinheiler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/24212058/Amigos-del-Bosque-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298160</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, Carbon Credits, Carbon Offsets, Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystem Finance, Ecosystem Marketplace, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystem Services Payments, Environment, Forests, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[During my 2023-24 IIE Rodman C. Rockefeller Centennial Fellowship research in eastern Panama, I walked through my neighbor Johnson’s land (not his real name), discussing the 18 hectares (44 acres) of steeply inclined secondary forest he has left on his property. As we wandered along the forest&#8217;s edge, he turned to me and asked, “How [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[During my 2023-24 IIE Rodman C. Rockefeller Centennial Fellowship research in eastern Panama, I walked through my neighbor Johnson’s land (not his real name), discussing the 18 hectares (44 acres) of steeply inclined secondary forest he has left on his property. As we wandered along the forest&#8217;s edge, he turned to me and asked, “How much will you pay me not to cut this forest down?” His words stopped me in my tracks. Over the past five years of living and working in eastern Panama, I have met dozens of individuals and groups of landholders who value biodiversity and recognize the importance of preserving intact rainforest. At the same time, my overriding observation is that most of my neighbors, pressured by economic demands and following local tradition, place a higher value on land clearing for farming and cattle ranching. Cutting down trees is called “limpieza” or “cleaning up.” The use of fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides is referred to as “medicina,” or medicine. Fear of the forest, with its snakes and jaguars, and a preference for open, manicured landscapes further reinforce this tendency. The prevailing perception is, ‘There is enough forest here.’ Indeed, our communities abut the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena bioregion, a vast chain of forests stretching from eastern Panama to Peru, that is among the most biodiverse regions in the world. On a clear day, you can see the forest of our Indigenous Guna neighbors as far as the eye can see, down to the shores of the Caribbean. Forest in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/paying-to-prevent-deforestation-is-positive-not-nothing-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>Diverse forests and forest rewilding offer resilience against climate change</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/diverse-forests-and-forest-rewilding-offer-resilience-against-climate-change/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/diverse-forests-and-forest-rewilding-offer-resilience-against-climate-change/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Apr 2025 18:49:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/15134025/china_2015_0497-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297653</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central America, China, Global, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change And Biodiversity, Climate Change And Conservation, Climate Change And Extinction, Climate Change And Extreme Weather, Climate Change And Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Regeneration, Forestry, Forests, Impact Of Climate Change, Rainforest Conservation, Research, Rewilding, Temperatures, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, Tropics, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When it comes to reforestation, planting a diversity of tree species could have a plethora of positive effects on forest health and resilience, climate mitigation and biodiversity. That’s based on research from the world’s largest tree-planting experiment, in China, and one of the world’s longest-running tropical forest planting experiments, in Panama. Florian Schnabel, lecturer and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When it comes to reforestation, planting a diversity of tree species could have a plethora of positive effects on forest health and resilience, climate mitigation and biodiversity. That’s based on research from the world’s largest tree-planting experiment, in China, and one of the world’s longest-running tropical forest planting experiments, in Panama. Florian Schnabel, lecturer and chair of silviculture at Freiburg University in Germany, and his team recently published two papers illustrating how planting diverse forests can buffer them against climate extremes and enhance carbon storage. “The results of our research in Panama and in China really call for preserving and also planting diverse forests as a strategy under climate change,” he says. Researchers with the BEF-China project planted multiple forests, ranging from just one tree species up to 24, then measured microclimate temperatures over six years. They found that the more diverse the forest, the greater the “temperature buffering” effect during hot and cold peaks. The most diverse plantings, those with 24 species, reduced temperatures during peak midday summer heat by 4.4° Celsius (7.92° Fahrenheit) when compared to the project’s monoculture. That finding could have important consequences for biodiversity and forest functions, such as soil respiration, says Schnabel. “What was quite striking to me was how strong this [temperature buffering] effect actually was.” While the paper’s findings are not groundbreaking, says Karen Holl, a professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the study effectively demonstrates the benefits of diverse tree species. “People are making arguments for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/diverse-forests-and-forest-rewilding-offer-resilience-against-climate-change/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>In Panama, Indigenous Guna prepare for climate exodus from a second island home</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/in-panama-indigenous-guna-prepare-for-climate-exodus-from-a-second-island-home/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/in-panama-indigenous-guna-prepare-for-climate-exodus-from-a-second-island-home/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2025 16:33:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Euan Wallace]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/10053136/5-An-Uggubseni-resident-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297350</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate Change, Climate Change And Extreme Weather, Climate Change Policy, Climate Modeling, Development, Environment, Extreme Weather, Global Warming, Governance, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Cultures, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, Islands, Land Rights, Ocean Crisis, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Oceans And Climate Change, Plastic, Sea Levels, Waste, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[UGGUBSENI and ISBERYALA, Guna Yala, Panama — “Our ancestors fought for this land,” says Jair Goporas, 21. He leans forwards into the dim glow of a bare bulb, his eyes shining from a face streaked with red and black paint. “Our ancestors told us: Don’t forget what happened here.” In a square just outside the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[UGGUBSENI and ISBERYALA, Guna Yala, Panama — “Our ancestors fought for this land,” says Jair Goporas, 21. He leans forwards into the dim glow of a bare bulb, his eyes shining from a face streaked with red and black paint. “Our ancestors told us: Don’t forget what happened here.” In a square just outside the small concrete house Goporas sits in, shouts of celebration fill the air. The sun slips behind the hills of the mainland, and night falls on a crowd that flashes with scarlet body paint and the vivid colours of the traditional dress made of mola, a hand-made textile worn by the Indigenous Guna woman. As one of the 2,500 inhabitants of the island of Uggubseni, located in the Guna Yala provincial-level Indigenous region, or comarca, of Panama, Goporas has been raised on stories of the past. The island has spent the month of February participating in region-wide celebrations to mark the centenary of the Guna Revolution. During the bloody 1925 revolt, the Indigenous Guna expelled repressive Panamanian authorities and established their autonomy in the region. Today, Guna Yala remains an autonomous comarca with its own laws, though the Panamanian state retains its obligation to protect and support the region. A representative body, the Guna General Congress, controls access to Guna Yala, manages engagement with the Panamanian government, and prohibits most commercial activity by external businesses in the region. Each Guna community maintains its own local government, led by a chief known as a Saila. On this&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/in-panama-indigenous-guna-prepare-for-climate-exodus-from-a-second-island-home/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Panama conducts large illegal fishing bust in protected Pacific waters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/panama-conducts-large-illegal-fishing-bust-in-protected-pacific-waters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/panama-conducts-large-illegal-fishing-bust-in-protected-pacific-waters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Mar 2025 14:25:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/28135933/OceanImageBank_NicolasJob_6-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296649</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, North America, Pacific Ocean, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, Food Industry, Governance, Illegal Fishing, Illegal Trade, Industry, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Mongabay investigation, Oceans, Overfishing, Saltwater Fish, Surveillance, and Tuna]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Panamanian authorities seized six longliner vessels on Jan. 20 for fishing illegally in protected waters. They also opened an investigation into an additional 10 vessels that surveillance data showed had apparently been fishing in the area but left by the time authorities arrived. The seizures took place in the Cordillera de Coiba, a marine protected [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Panamanian authorities seized six longliner vessels on Jan. 20 for fishing illegally in protected waters. They also opened an investigation into an additional 10 vessels that surveillance data showed had apparently been fishing in the area but left by the time authorities arrived. The seizures took place in the Cordillera de Coiba, a marine protected area that’s part of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor, which connects several MPAs in four countries. It was the largest illegal fishing bust in the history of Panama’s MPAs, according to a government press release. “This was big news, and it came as a surprise for everyone,” Annissamyd Del Cid, the Panama national coordinator at WildAid, a San Fransisco-based NGO, told Mongabay. The group has worked in the Eastern Tropical Pacific since 2010, including helping to bolster authorities’ monitoring capacities, and works with the Panamanian government to help protect the Cordillera de Coiba. The fishing vessels, whose activity is still under investigation, were Panamanian-flagged, meaning they were registered in the country. But no identifying information has been released publicly, so the nationality of the owners isn’t clear. Panama serves as a major “flag of convenience” state, used by vessel owners around the world, often to avoid stricter regulations elsewhere. Panamanian authorities detected the first entry into the MPA on Jan. 10. In the days that followed, three state agencies — the National Aeronaval Service (SENAN), the Aquatic Resources Authority of Panama (ARAP), and the Ministry of Environment — used aerial and satellite-based surveillance to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/panama-conducts-large-illegal-fishing-bust-in-protected-pacific-waters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Chinese business in the Amazon generates controversy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/chinese-business-in-the-amazon-generates-controversy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/chinese-business-in-the-amazon-generates-controversy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Mar 2025 20:28:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law Enforcement]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Threats To The Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/15011814/PORTADA-ecuador_236154-768x396.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295865</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, Ecuador, Latin America, Panama, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Agriculture, Amazon Rainforest, Corporations, Corruption, Deforestation, Infrastructure, Oil, Organized Crime, and Threats To The Amazon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the last decade, the Pan Amazon has seen a substantial increase in the presence of Chinese companies, either as direct investors or as contractors building infrastructure for governments financed by loans from China. The lack of transparency that characterizes their homeland fosters an environment that allows Chinese companies to escape scrutiny. Many analysts assume [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the last decade, the Pan Amazon has seen a substantial increase in the presence of Chinese companies, either as direct investors or as contractors building infrastructure for governments financed by loans from China. The lack of transparency that characterizes their homeland fosters an environment that allows Chinese companies to escape scrutiny. Many analysts assume their contracts have been tainted by bribes and kickbacks, an assumption based on Chinese and Latin American reputations for corruption. Very few scandals have been exposed by the press, however, and most of the purported malfeasance is based on conjecture of what constitutes a good deal and a fair price. Nevertheless, there are several exceptions. In 2016, an unusual set of circumstances revealed a bribery network in Bolivia that linked a major Chinese construction company with functionaries in the Bolivian government.  China CAMC Engineering (CAMC), a subsidiary of the China National Machinery Industry Corporation (SINOMACH), had signed contracts with the Bolivian government for approximately US$ 576 million, including: The sale of three oil drilling rigs in 2009 to the state-owned Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) for US$ 60 million. The design and construction of a sugar mill in San Buenaventura, La Paz, for a state-owned commodity company (Empresa Azucarera San Buenaventura) for US$ 167 million in 2012. The construction of the Bulo Bulo–Montero railway to connect the rail network with a urea factory in the Chapare, a project that was abandoned in 2015 after the company received a down payment of US$ 20 million on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/chinese-business-in-the-amazon-generates-controversy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>‘Fatal Watch’: Interview with documentary makers on fisheries observer deaths</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/fatal-watch-interview-with-documentary-makers-on-fisheries-observer-deaths/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/fatal-watch-interview-with-documentary-makers-on-fisheries-observer-deaths/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Mar 2025 20:47:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/20155919/7-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296195</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond the screen: DCEFF]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Fiji, Ghana, Global, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean, Panama, Papua New Guinea, and Taiwan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[data collection, Environment, Fisheries, Illegal Fishing, Marine Conservation, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Fisheries observers hold a job little known by the general public but essential to the health of the oceans: monitoring the work on industrial fishing vessels. The sector has its share of illegal fishing and even other illicit activity, so the job comes with risks. A new documentary shows just how dangerous it is. Fatal [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Fisheries observers hold a job little known by the general public but essential to the health of the oceans: monitoring the work on industrial fishing vessels. The sector has its share of illegal fishing and even other illicit activity, so the job comes with risks. A new documentary shows just how dangerous it is. Fatal Watch, co-directed by Katie Carpenter and Mark Benjamin, focuses on four unsolved cases in which fisheries observers died or disappeared during the last decade. There have been at least a dozen more worldwide since 2009. The film also casts a critical eye on the industry as a whole, touching on management and transparency issues that the filmmakers see as intertwined with the observer safety problem. The heroes of Fatal Watch are investigators and campaigners seeking justice for harmed observers and fighting for marine conservation more broadly. Elizabeth Mitchell-Rachin, a board member of the Association for Professional Observers, a nonprofit based in the U.S. state of Oregon, is featured as a leading advocate for observer rights. Mitchell-Rachin herself worked as an observer from 1983 until 2008 and knows the dangers firsthand: A captain once threatened to throw her overboard. Fisheries observers are biological technicians who collect scientific data and report on vessels’ compliance with a range of rules, including, for example, those dealing with protected species. They are subject to many of the same dangers and discomforts that fishers face at sea, and then some. As a fisheries observer, “you’re living with the people that you’re reporting&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/fatal-watch-interview-with-documentary-makers-on-fisheries-observer-deaths/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>Agroforestry stores less carbon than reforestation, but has many other benefits, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/agroforestry-stores-less-carbon-than-reforestation-but-has-many-other-benefits-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/agroforestry-stores-less-carbon-than-reforestation-but-has-many-other-benefits-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Mar 2025 17:00:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/03223715/Bayano-jpeg-135-of-175-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295241</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Carbon Credits, Carbon Finance, Carbon Offsets, Climate, Climate Change, Finance, Fires, Forest Fires, Global Warming Mitigation, Green, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Peoples, Reforestation, and wildfires]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A recent study in Ecological Solutions and Evidence shows just how complicated and challenging it is to achieve carbon sequestration goals through forest management — but not impossible. The research evaluates 10 years of a 14-year-long carbon project in Panama run by an Indigenous Emberá community, which collectively owns the land and tried different methods [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[A recent study in Ecological Solutions and Evidence shows just how complicated and challenging it is to achieve carbon sequestration goals through forest management — but not impossible. The research evaluates 10 years of a 14-year-long carbon project in Panama run by an Indigenous Emberá community, which collectively owns the land and tried different methods to store carbon by managing its tropical forest, including planting mixed species of native trees, planting single tree monocultures, and agroforestry, which involves growing food or other crops in combination with useful perennial shrubs and trees. “For us as land stewards, it is important to reforest trees for the well-being of our community and to have carbon credits that we can trade and earn an income, for the well-being of our family,” said Ariosto Guainora, one of the local reforestation project coordinators. The carbon project started in 2008 when the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) initiated the research with the Emberá community. Over the next three years, they’d contract the community for storage of 3,400 metric tons of carbon, assuming that 80% of trees would survive. But the new study found that, in all, the project has only sequestered about half of the carbon anticipated: the surviving plots are underperforming by 23%, while the overall target has been missed by 46% to date. While this result sounds low, it’s still better than the average for carbon offset project. Emberá community member Lidia Barrigón discusses the project with McGill University students. Image courtesy of Smithsonian Tropical&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/agroforestry-stores-less-carbon-than-reforestation-but-has-many-other-benefits-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Yet another abandoned mine erodes — this time, in a Panamanian protected area</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/yet-another-abandoned-mine-erodes-this-time-in-a-panamanian-protected-area/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/yet-another-abandoned-mine-erodes-this-time-in-a-panamanian-protected-area/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Feb 2025 14:57:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/25101830/Photo-2-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294954</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Copper, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Habitat Destruction, Indigenous Communities, Mining, Pollution, Protected Areas, Public Health, Regulations, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ever since the Cobre Panamá mine was forced to shut down in 2023, the copper mine’s infrastructure has been eroding away in a biodiverse jungle on Panama’s Atlantic coast — a situation researchers say is all too common. Without proper maintenance, monitoring and rehabilitation, inactive mines can pose serious threats to environmental and human health. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Ever since the Cobre Panamá mine was forced to shut down in 2023, the copper mine’s infrastructure has been eroding away in a biodiverse jungle on Panama’s Atlantic coast — a situation researchers say is all too common. Without proper maintenance, monitoring and rehabilitation, inactive mines can pose serious threats to environmental and human health. In 2019, the collapse of an iron ore tailings dam in southeastern Brazil led to the deaths of 272 people. Around 10 million cubic meters (353 cubic feet or 2.6 billion gallons) of toxic waste burst from the dam at the time, causing widespread environmental damage in the Brumadinho Valley, Minas Gerais. Between 1915 and 2021, 342 tailings dams failed around the world, 57% of which occurred in the Americas. It was found that these failures happen almost every year, mostly due to heavy rainfall or earthquakes. In the case of the Brumadinho dam, the mine had been shut for three years when it failed without warning. It was later discovered that the accident was caused by a phenomenon known as “creep,” which is a result of slowly accumulating imperceptible deformations in the sediment that make up the dam. Researchers from the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW) analyzed the monitoring reports and audit documents of Minera Panamá, the owner of the Cobre Panamá mine and a subsidiary of the Canadian company First Quantum Minerals. In their report, the researchers revealed that the Panama mine’s tailings dam was at serious risk of failure due to internal&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/yet-another-abandoned-mine-erodes-this-time-in-a-panamanian-protected-area/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>In Panama, major port construction begins at key mangrove site</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/in-panama-major-port-construction-begins-at-key-mangrove-site/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/in-panama-major-port-construction-begins-at-key-mangrove-site/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jan 2025 17:50:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Activism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Infrastructure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mammals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mangroves]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marine Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oceans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sharks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wildlife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife Conservation]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/23174510/Feature-15-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293318</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, Pacific Ocean, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animals, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Infrastructure, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Protected Areas, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Conservation groups in Panama are trying to halt the construction of a new port in the Pacific province of Chiriquí that they say could destroy breeding grounds and nurseries for marine species. The Puerto Barú project, located outside the town of David, would create a new port on Panama’s northwest coast, increasing trade and tourism [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Conservation groups in Panama are trying to halt the construction of a new port in the Pacific province of Chiriquí that they say could destroy breeding grounds and nurseries for marine species. The Puerto Barú project, located outside the town of David, would create a new port on Panama’s northwest coast, increasing trade and tourism for the area. But the port is located deep in a series of channels and lagoons covered in mangroves that support rays, sharks and other emblematic species. They won’t survive construction or the increased maritime traffic, conservationists say. “We have always understood that Chiriquí needs a port; we are not disputing that,” said Guido Berguido, biologist and director of Adopta Bosque, a local environmental NGO. “What we are questioning is why a port is being built on land that is surrounded by a protected mangrove area. We need development, but it shouldn’t have to cost the earth or biodiversity.” The project, which broke ground this month, includes the construction of a navigation channel 31 kilometers long by 100 meters wide (19 miles by 330 feet). It will require dredging parts of the Mangroves of David, a series of channels and lagoons that received protected status in 2007 because they contain around 25% of Panama’s mangroves. Without dredging, the channel won’t be deep enough for larger merchant ships, according to developers. A rendering of the port. Photo courtesy of developers. Because the mangroves are part of the Gulf of Chiriquí, they’re considered an Important Shark and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/in-panama-major-port-construction-begins-at-key-mangrove-site/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>A deadly fly is spreading through Central America. Experts blame illegal cattle ranching</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/a-deadly-fly-is-spreading-through-central-america-experts-blame-illegal-cattle-ranching/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/a-deadly-fly-is-spreading-through-central-america-experts-blame-illegal-cattle-ranching/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Nov 2024 17:03:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Agriculture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Loss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Global Trade]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Conflict]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Grabbing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Rights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wildlife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife Conservation]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/10/15140350/FEATURE1-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290005</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Cattle Ranching, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Forests, Land Rights, Protected Areas, Rainforest Deforestation, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MEXICO CITY — Illegal cattle ranching in Central America has led to the spread of a deadly parasite long thought to be eradicated, and conservationists are calling for tighter controls before it reaches Mexico and the US. An outbreak of new world screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax)  — a fly that infects warm-blooded animals — is the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[MEXICO CITY — Illegal cattle ranching in Central America has led to the spread of a deadly parasite long thought to be eradicated, and conservationists are calling for tighter controls before it reaches Mexico and the US. An outbreak of new world screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax)  — a fly that infects warm-blooded animals — is the direct result of cattle smuggling through protected areas across Central America, conservationists said. Unregulated movement of livestock has accelerated transmission, and could cost the region millions of dollars if officials don’t act soon. “The screwworm outbreak highlights an urgent need for tighter regulation in the cattle trade across Mesoamerica, as the unchecked movement of illegal cattle exacerbates both environmental and health issues,” said Chris Jordan, Latin America Director for Re:wild, a conservation group. “…Tackling this requires cooperation from companies, industry leaders and governments, who must step up to prevent contraband cattle from crossing borders unchecked.” New world screwworms lay their eggs in the open wounds of cattle and other animals, with the resulting larva feeding on live flesh until the host dies. It can be disastrous for agribusiness and countries relying on beef exports. A joint US campaign in the 1980s and 90s helped eradicate screwworm from Central America and Mexico. But last year, the fly reappeared unexpectedly, this time in Panama. Experts believe it traveled from South America through the thick jungles of the Darien Gap, which had previously kept the parasite at bay for nearly thirty years. Experts still don’t know if the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/a-deadly-fly-is-spreading-through-central-america-experts-blame-illegal-cattle-ranching/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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