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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?location=tropics&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/tropics/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 05 Sep 2026 03:11:19 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>Tropics environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/tropics/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Singapore spending billions to adapt to climate change, but deforestation continues</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/singapore-spending-billions-to-adapt-to-climate-change-but-deforestation-continues/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/singapore-spending-billions-to-adapt-to-climate-change-but-deforestation-continues/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Aug 2026 16:49:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Robin Hicks]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/27151420/Save-our-forests-banner-Maju-protest-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327585</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Singapore, Southeast Asia, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cities, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Development, Environment, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, and Impact Of Climate Change]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SINGAPORE — At a rare public demonstration against a state development plan, 22-year-old environmental studies student Saw Yun Ya called on the Singaporean government to redo an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for Maju Forest, arguing that it had overlooked the climate and health effects of clearing the site. The EIA for Maju, a 23-hectare (57-acre) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SINGAPORE — At a rare public demonstration against a state development plan, 22-year-old environmental studies student Saw Yun Ya called on the Singaporean government to redo an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for Maju Forest, arguing that it had overlooked the climate and health effects of clearing the site. The EIA for Maju, a 23-hectare (57-acre) patch of regenerating forest bordered by housing in central Singapore, was announced in July, prompting an unusually impassioned public backlash in the conservative city-state. Maju is one of several secondary forests facing development as the 744-square-kilometer (287-square-mile) city looks to address an acute housing crunch amid a growing population. Forests at Sembawang, Woodlands, Tengah and Gillman Barracks are also on the chopping block. Secondary forests cover about 16% of Singapore’s land area, having regrown over abandoned villages and plantations after much of the population was moved into high-rise housing from the 1960s. The island lost almost all of its primary forests in the British colonial era. Singapore’s EIAs assess the pollution, waste and biodiversity impacts of developing an area, and have identified critically endangered species such as the Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) and straw-headed bulbul (Pycnonotus zeylanicus) at sites including Maju and Gillman Barracks. But residents and environmental groups say EIAs do not adequately account for the climate and health benefits provided by forests. A protester at a rally against deforestation on Aug. 16 holds a banner reading: &#8220;Know your enemy,&#8221; in reference to sites that could be used as alternatives to forest to build&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/singapore-spending-billions-to-adapt-to-climate-change-but-deforestation-continues/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/singapore-spending-billions-to-adapt-to-climate-change-but-deforestation-continues/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327585</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Urban heat islands have solutions; many tropical cities can’t afford them</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/urban-heat-islands-have-solutions-many-tropical-cities-cant-afford-them/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/urban-heat-islands-have-solutions-many-tropical-cities-cant-afford-them/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2026 00:34:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Adam Litchkofski]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/12214622/5-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326095</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, China, East Asia, Global, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Jakarta, Nigeria, Singapore, Southeast Asia, Tropics, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, Cities, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Development, Disasters, Earth Science, Economics, El Nino, Energy, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fossil Fuels, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Heatwave, Impact Of Climate Change, Infrastructure, Natural Resources, Planetary Boundaries, Planetary Health, Plants, Poverty, Public Health, Research, Science, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Temperatures, Trees, Tropical Conservation Science, urban ecology, Weather, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Urban heat islands pose a growing global health threat. But in tropical cities, the peril is surging. Already burdened by hot-humid equatorial weather, global warming, intense poverty, rapid urbanization, and a lack of cooling infrastructure, tropical city officials now face a powerful 2026-2027 El Niño that could put millions of vulnerable urban dwellers at risk. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Urban heat islands pose a growing global health threat. But in tropical cities, the peril is surging. Already burdened by hot-humid equatorial weather, global warming, intense poverty, rapid urbanization, and a lack of cooling infrastructure, tropical city officials now face a powerful 2026-2027 El Niño that could put millions of vulnerable urban dwellers at risk. Heat islands form because artificial surfaces, like roads and rooftops, trap heat by day and release it by night, never giving highly-urbanized spaces time to cool. When climate change-induced heat domes stall over cities, temperatures can soar for weeks into the triple digits. Every “city has a rhythm, it has a metabolism,” Matthias Roth, a National University of Singapore researcher, told Mongabay in a video interview. “The metabolism of each city — especially how incoming solar energy is divided between heating surfaces, warming the air, evaporating water, and being stored in the ground and buildings — influences how much energy heats up buildings, surfaces, and air. The prevalence of concrete and asphalt and the absence of vegetation creates a heat island.” But not all tropical urban heat islands (UHIs) are created equally, with the severity of their heat burdens dependent on innovative city planning and the financial clout to keep pace with global warming. In wealthy Singapore (which has devoted high levels of funding to curb UHI effects), air temperatures can still swell; compact high-rise building complexes there can see outdoor temperatures 4.3° Celsius (7.9° Fahrenheit) above rural areas. But in poorer cities, like Lagos,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/urban-heat-islands-have-solutions-many-tropical-cities-cant-afford-them/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/urban-heat-islands-have-solutions-many-tropical-cities-cant-afford-them/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326095</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Blew us away’: Researchers find nitrogen boost spurs faster tropical forest growth</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/blew-us-away-researchers-find-nitrogen-boost-spurs-faster-tropical-forest-growth/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/blew-us-away-researchers-find-nitrogen-boost-spurs-faster-tropical-forest-growth/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2026 17:10:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/30081255/c-A-root-nodule-on-a-legume-tree-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313530</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Global, Latin America, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Sequestration, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Nitrogen Cycle, Reforestation, Research, Restoration, Soil Carbon, Tropical Conservation Science, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Regenerating tropical forests pull carbon dioxide from the air, but a lack of nitrogen in the soil could slow this process, a new Nature Communications study has found. Restoring tropical forests is widely seen as one of the most important ways to mitigate climate change, but scientists still don’t fully understand how nutrient availability may [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Regenerating tropical forests pull carbon dioxide from the air, but a lack of nitrogen in the soil could slow this process, a new Nature Communications study has found. Restoring tropical forests is widely seen as one of the most important ways to mitigate climate change, but scientists still don’t fully understand how nutrient availability may constrain tree growth. That means we can’t really predict how quickly regenerating forests will accumulate carbon. Both nitrogen and phosphorus are critical for plant growth, but when forested land is cleared, nitrogen in disturbed soils can evaporate or wash away. Phosphorus is also thought to be limited in many tropical soils. Now, a large-scale experiment in Panama finds that a lack of nitrogen in soil limits the early stages of tropical forest regrowth. When researchers added nitrogen to recently cleared land, the trees grew nearly twice as fast. Recovering forest in Panama. Image by Wenguang Tang. The finding “totally blew us away” says study author Sarah Batterman, an ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and associate professor at the University of Leeds. “We didn&#8217;t realize that nitrogen could be that important in tropical forests, and the fact that the forest grew back twice as fast in the first decade was just kind of amazing.” The study took place within the Panama Canal Watershed in lowland tropical forest. To understand the impact of nutrient availability on tree growth, the researchers applied nitrogen and phosphorus, alone or in combination, to forest plots at different stages&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/blew-us-away-researchers-find-nitrogen-boost-spurs-faster-tropical-forest-growth/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/blew-us-away-researchers-find-nitrogen-boost-spurs-faster-tropical-forest-growth/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313530</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ditches on peatland oil palm plantations are an overlooked source of methane: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/ditches-on-peatland-oil-palm-plantations-are-an-overlooked-source-of-methane-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/ditches-on-peatland-oil-palm-plantations-are-an-overlooked-source-of-methane-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Dec 2025 14:18:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/30075343/Tropical-peatland-clearance-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312273</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, Southeast Asia, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Methane, Peatlands, Politics, Research, Soil Carbon, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The water-filled ditches that laced through the oil palm plantation in Sarawak, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, nagged at Kuno Kasak when he saw them in 2022. He knew that these canals, used to draw water out of spongy peatlands to make them suitable for agriculture, had been shown to be sources [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The water-filled ditches that laced through the oil palm plantation in Sarawak, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, nagged at Kuno Kasak when he saw them in 2022. He knew that these canals, used to draw water out of spongy peatlands to make them suitable for agriculture, had been shown to be sources of methane. But just how much remains an open question, with too few data points to make estimates with certainty. Though methane dissipates more quickly in the atmosphere than CO2, it’s more than 20 times more effective at trapping heat. It’s also responsible for nearly a third of the global temperature rise since the industrial revolution, making accurate methane accounting imperative for addressing climate change. Kasak, a professor of environmental technology at Estonia’s University of Tartu, is the lead author of a recent study in which he and his colleagues report that methane from these drainage canals accounted for as much as 10% of the total greenhouse gases from a given hectare of the oil palm plantations they studied. At the same time, the ditches covered no more than 4% of the plantations’ total area. “This is significant because it means that previous estimates of emissions from drained peatlands likely underestimate the contribution from ditches, which are often ignored in global carbon accounting,” Kasak told Mongabay in an email. They also found that the ditches were sources of CO2. One of the oil palm plantations where Kasak and his colleagues sampled emissions from drainage ditches.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/ditches-on-peatland-oil-palm-plantations-are-an-overlooked-source-of-methane-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/ditches-on-peatland-oil-palm-plantations-are-an-overlooked-source-of-methane-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312273</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ethiopian youth groups restore Rift valley lake &#038; livelihoods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/ethiopian-youth-groups-restore-rift-valley-lake-livelihoods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/ethiopian-youth-groups-restore-rift-valley-lake-livelihoods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 12:52:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Solomon Yimer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/22063158/DSC_1259_1-BANNER-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311779</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Ethiopia, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, Lakes, Rivers, Tropics, Water, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Abijata-Shalla National Park, ETHIOPIA — Under the scorching midday sun in the upper catchment of Ethiopia’s Abijata-Shalla National Park, a local youth group toils along the edges of a deep gully carved into the hills by erosion. The young men shovel soil from the loose edges of the gorge, while women fill sandbags they stack [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Abijata-Shalla National Park, ETHIOPIA — Under the scorching midday sun in the upper catchment of Ethiopia’s Abijata-Shalla National Park, a local youth group toils along the edges of a deep gully carved into the hills by erosion. The young men shovel soil from the loose edges of the gorge, while women fill sandbags they stack in the gullies, building barriers to hold back the next rains that strike this battered landscape “The land is healing, and so are we,” says Hamid Belo, chairman of the Mekane Fike Forest Conservation Association. Once covered with acacia woodlands and fed by steady streams, the land here has been steadily stripped bare. The loss of tree cover has allowed erosion to scar the hillsides and upset the flow of water into the lakes in this closed river system. Abijata and Shalla — the two lakes that give the national park its name — now receive less water and more sediment — their boundaries have shrunk and the quality of the water has changed, affecting fish and other aquatic life, along with flamingos and other migratory birds that once crowded their shores. For the past five years, this group of youth has been working to prevent degradation of soil and water in the landscape and begin restoring the ecosystem. Increased sediment and reduced water have caused Lake Abijata&#8217;s shoreline to retreat, but its water levels are now beginning to rise. Image courtesy of Berihun Tadele. Lake Abijata. The satellite image on the right shows lakes&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/ethiopian-youth-groups-restore-rift-valley-lake-livelihoods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/ethiopian-youth-groups-restore-rift-valley-lake-livelihoods/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311779</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A flood of logs post-Cyclone Senyar leaves Padang fishers out of work</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-flood-of-logs-post-cyclone-senyar-leaves-padang-fishers-out-of-work/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-flood-of-logs-post-cyclone-senyar-leaves-padang-fishers-out-of-work/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Dec 2025 05:07:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jaka Hendra Baittri]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/19081807/Banjir-Sumbar-Jaka-2048x890-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311700</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, Tropics, and West Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Climate Justice, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Deforestation, Disasters, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Flooding, Forestry, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Oceans, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Sea Levels, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PADANG, Indonesia — At low tide along Padang&#8217;s coastline, fishing boats sit idle, not because of rough seas, but because the water is clogged with timber. In late November, flash floods from Cyclone Senyar swept through parts of Sumatra, killing residents and damaging roads and homes. Days later, their aftermath surfaced offshore. Logs carried from [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PADANG, Indonesia — At low tide along Padang&#8217;s coastline, fishing boats sit idle, not because of rough seas, but because the water is clogged with timber. In late November, flash floods from Cyclone Senyar swept through parts of Sumatra, killing residents and damaging roads and homes. Days later, their aftermath surfaced offshore. Logs carried from upstream forests poured out of river mouths and spread along the coast here in Padang, the capital of Indonesia&#8217;s West Sumatra province, blocking access to the sea and cutting off the livelihoods of hundreds of fishers. The mass of floating wood has made it impossible for fishers to pass, with some intact logs measuring up to 90 centimeters (35 inches or nearly 3 feet) in diameter. “For the past two days, the logs have been piling up. If we try to go out, the boats could be damaged,” Syafri Juni, a fisher from Patenggangan Beach in Padang, told Mongabay on Dec. 10. Residents look on at piles of logs from the flash floods at Patenggangan Beach, Padang, on Nov. 28. Image by Jaka Hendra Baittri/Mongabay-Indonesia. The formation of a hurricane in the Malacca Strait was an extremely rare occurrence, scientists say, and a devastating one — the storm killed more than 1,000 people across Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Sri Lanka. On the island of Sumatra, torrential rains hit a landscape whose capacity to soak up rainfall has been compromised by decades of rainforest clearance. Syafri had not gone to sea for the past week because&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-flood-of-logs-post-cyclone-senyar-leaves-padang-fishers-out-of-work/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-flood-of-logs-post-cyclone-senyar-leaves-padang-fishers-out-of-work/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311700</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New technologies offer hope in fight to save the world’s imperiled rosewoods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-technologies-offer-hope-in-fight-to-save-the-worlds-imperiled-rosewoods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-technologies-offer-hope-in-fight-to-save-the-worlds-imperiled-rosewoods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Dec 2025 16:14:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Katarina Zimmer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/11134007/rosewood-feet-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311125</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Global, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, Rosewood, timber trade, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, Tropical hardwoods, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[News about the poaching and smuggling of threatened species often centers on products like tiger bone, rhino horn or pangolin scales. But much of the world’s illegally sourced wildlife products are actually trees — in particular, 33 hardwood species in the Dalbergia genus, better known as rosewood. Rosewood can sell for tens of thousands of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[News about the poaching and smuggling of threatened species often centers on products like tiger bone, rhino horn or pangolin scales. But much of the world’s illegally sourced wildlife products are actually trees — in particular, 33 hardwood species in the Dalbergia genus, better known as rosewood. Rosewood can sell for tens of thousands of dollars per cubic meter and has the highest overall trafficking value of any wildlife product in the world: Between 2014 and 2018, rosewood accounted for 32% of the monetary value of illegally traded wildlife products seized by law enforcement. But a recent paper in the journal Biological Conservation finds that new technologies could save the world’s rosewoods from being little more than plunder. Demand for the richly colored, aromatic and durable timber continues to grow in China, where rosewood furniture has long been a symbol of status and luxury. International regulations have failed to stop the rampant harvesting of the tropical trees, whose value only grows with their increasing rarity. Two Southeast Asian species — Siamese (Dalbergia cochinchinensis) and Burmese rosewood (D. oliveri) — are now critically endangered, driving rosewood traders to other rainforests in Africa and South America. This appetite threatens the very existence of the unique trees as well as their important ecological roles, such as enriching soil with nitrogen, reducing soil erosion, and providing habitat for wildlife. But technologies exist that could help stop the trees’ plight, according to the paper by a team of scientists at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden’s Center&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-technologies-offer-hope-in-fight-to-save-the-worlds-imperiled-rosewoods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-technologies-offer-hope-in-fight-to-save-the-worlds-imperiled-rosewoods/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311125</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil leads push for novel forest finance mechanism ahead of COP30 summit</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/brazil-leads-push-for-novel-forest-finance-mechanism-ahead-of-cop30-summit/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/brazil-leads-push-for-novel-forest-finance-mechanism-ahead-of-cop30-summit/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Sep 2025 14:24:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/26101503/0-BANNER-IMAGEimage-1600-2ab20dccc7c703114894d20f2afd80bb-e1758881989101-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306660</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Global, Latin America, South America, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forests, Governance, Politics, Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As nations struggled during Climate Week (Sept 21-28) in New York City to increase their emission-reduction pledges to slow the alarming rate of global warming, Brazil stepped forward to support and showcase a novel, innovative plan of its own design to incentivize the protection of carbon-absorbing tropical forests around the world. Representatives from more than [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As nations struggled during Climate Week (Sept 21-28) in New York City to increase their emission-reduction pledges to slow the alarming rate of global warming, Brazil stepped forward to support and showcase a novel, innovative plan of its own design to incentivize the protection of carbon-absorbing tropical forests around the world. Representatives from more than two dozen countries looked on at the United Nations on Tuesday, September 23, as Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced that his nation will invest the first $1 billion in the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), a planned $125 billion fund that Lula and Brazilian finance experts first described in 2023. “TFFF is an unprecedented tool in this fight against climate change,” said Lula, emphasizing that Brazil is leading by example. “Tropical forests are critical to keeping alive the [goal] of limiting global warming to 1.5° [Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels]. The TFFF is not a charity; it’s an investment in humanity and the planet to counter the threat of climate chaos.” The fund — in which $25 billion is to come initially from sovereign nations, with $100 billion coming later from private investors — is expected to be a centerpiece of the 30th UN climate summit (COP30) in Belém, Brazil from Nov. 10-21. Described as a climate-action fund like no other, TFFF will work in ways similar to how banks operate as lenders. Instead of donations, the billions committed will be invested in capital markets with investors receiving an estimated annual return of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/brazil-leads-push-for-novel-forest-finance-mechanism-ahead-of-cop30-summit/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/brazil-leads-push-for-novel-forest-finance-mechanism-ahead-of-cop30-summit/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306660</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Warming triggers unprecedented carbon loss from tropical soils, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/warming-triggers-unprecedented-carbon-loss-from-tropical-soils-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/warming-triggers-unprecedented-carbon-loss-from-tropical-soils-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2025 15:34:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Asher]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/15140515/39704576121_1a126c447b_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305963</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, North America, Puerto Rico, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Research, Soil Carbon, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Climate warming could cause much greater soil carbon losses in the tropics than previously predicted, with potentially dire consequences for the global climate, according to a new study published in Nature Communications. Tropical forests store around a third of the world’s soil carbon and exchange more CO2 with the atmosphere than any other land biome. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Climate warming could cause much greater soil carbon losses in the tropics than previously predicted, with potentially dire consequences for the global climate, according to a new study published in Nature Communications. Tropical forests store around a third of the world’s soil carbon and exchange more CO2 with the atmosphere than any other land biome. So even a relatively small shift in the balance of carbon uptake and release by tropical soils could have a big impact on atmospheric CO2 levels and the world’s climate. Air temperatures in the tropics are predicted to increase by as much as 6° Celsius (10.8° Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, but how this will impact soil carbon stores is largely unknown. “Tropical forests house the majority of the world&#8217;s biodiversity, but they’re also these incredible biogeochemical engines that cycle huge amounts of carbon into and out of the atmosphere,” says Tana Wood, the study’s lead author and an ecosystem ecologist and biogeochemist at the USDA Forest Service’s International Institute of Tropical Forestry. The prevailing scientific view was that tropical ecosystems would be less sensitive to warming than those in higher latitudes. As a result, research on soil responses to warming in the tropics has lagged behind studies in temperate and Arctic ecosystems. To date, only two long-term field experiments have investigated how tropical soils respond to warming. One of these, which warmed soils in a Panama tropical forest, reported a 55% increase in soil CO2 emissions after two years. Now, results from&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/warming-triggers-unprecedented-carbon-loss-from-tropical-soils-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/warming-triggers-unprecedented-carbon-loss-from-tropical-soils-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305963</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia’s giant Java seawall plan sparks criticism &#038; calls for alternatives</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indonesias-giant-java-seawall-plan-sparks-criticism-calls-for-alternatives/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indonesias-giant-java-seawall-plan-sparks-criticism-calls-for-alternatives/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Sep 2025 01:30:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/10115229/6-Indonesian-village-rising-tidal-floodwaters-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305716</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Java, East Java, Indonesia, Java, Southeast Asia, Tropics, and West Java]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Deforestation, Disasters, Environment, Erosion, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Flooding, Forestry, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Nature-based climate solutions, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Overfishing, Sea Levels, Solutions, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has set up a new authority to build a massive seawall along the north coast of Java, a project aimed at shielding millions of residents from flooding and sinking land, but observers reject it as a true solution while highlighting risks, elite bias and lack of consultation. The president on Aug. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has set up a new authority to build a massive seawall along the north coast of Java, a project aimed at shielding millions of residents from flooding and sinking land, but observers reject it as a true solution while highlighting risks, elite bias and lack of consultation. The president on Aug. 25 officiated the formation of the North Java Coast Management Authority to oversee the construction of a 700-kilometer (435-mile) seawall from Banten to Gresik, aimed at protecting 20 million coastal residents from erosion, tidal flooding and land subsidence. The $80 billion project will cover planning, financing and construction, with officials hoping to attract investors while addressing environmental and social impacts. Prabowo appointed retired Vice Admiral Didit Herdiawan Ashaf, who’s currently the vice fisheries minister, to lead the new government agency, with Darwin Djajawinata and Suhajar Diantoro serving as vice chairs. The agency will oversee planning, financing and construction of the seawall, addressing environmental and social considerations, and its head can adjust plans as needed. “Why two vice chairs? Because managing the North Coast (Pantura) will inevitably involve investment. One vice chair was appointed from Danantara. The other represents the government, specifically the Ministry of Home Affairs, given that this project will span five provinces on Java Island,” State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi told reporters in Jakarta as quoted by local media Tempo. &nbsp; Tidal floodwaters engulf Timbulsloko village. Image by Nuswantoro/Mongabay Indonesia. A 2023 study found that major northern Javan cities, including Jakarta, Pekalongan, Semarang and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indonesias-giant-java-seawall-plan-sparks-criticism-calls-for-alternatives/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indonesias-giant-java-seawall-plan-sparks-criticism-calls-for-alternatives/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305716</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Global warming is altering storms lightning, impacting tropical forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/global-warming-is-altering-storms-lightning-impacting-tropical-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/global-warming-is-altering-storms-lightning-impacting-tropical-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jul 2025 14:37:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/23144404/Adobe-Express-file-8-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303045</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, North America, South America, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Disasters, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Soil Carbon, Storms, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A climate change-induced surge in brief but intense thunderstorms poses a growing but underrecognized threat to trees in tropical forests, a finding that could have major implications for carbon storage and tropical biodiversity under future global warming scenarios. That’s according to a recently published paper, which determines that short-lived but powerful convective storms — combining [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A climate change-induced surge in brief but intense thunderstorms poses a growing but underrecognized threat to trees in tropical forests, a finding that could have major implications for carbon storage and tropical biodiversity under future global warming scenarios. That’s according to a recently published paper, which determines that short-lived but powerful convective storms — combining high winds with lightning — have become a major driver of tree mortality in Panama and elsewhere in the tropics. Researchers estimate storm activity may already cause 30 to 60% of tree mortality in tropical forests globally. Concerningly, that percentage is likely to rise, with data showing tropical storm activity increasing 5-25% every decade, according to study lead author Evan Gora, a forest ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. “If storms are [already] this major driver of mortality as a baseline, and storm activity is [also] increasing, then that would suggest that storms are killing a lot more trees,” Gora says. But, as the paper notes, there are still limited data from around the tropics with most work on storm impacts concentrated in Panama, Brazil and Borneo. Yet for Gora, his team’s findings coincide with observations that tree mortality has been increasing over the past several decades in the Amazon and Australia, suggesting storms may be playing a role. Research suggests that tree mortality due to lightning may be lower in Central African forests compared with other tropical regions, says Bianca Zoletto. There are still high levels of uncertainty as to how intensifying&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/global-warming-is-altering-storms-lightning-impacting-tropical-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/global-warming-is-altering-storms-lightning-impacting-tropical-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303045</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Where there’s political will, there’s a way to stop tropical deforestation, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/where-theres-political-will-theres-a-way-to-stop-tropical-deforestation-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/where-theres-political-will-theres-a-way-to-stop-tropical-deforestation-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2025 16:26:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/23143018/herps_208130-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303044</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Asia, Brazil, Global, Indonesia, South America, Southeast Asia, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation Technology, data, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Research, Satellite Imagery, Saving Rainforests, Tropical Conservation Science, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Political will is among the most important factors in preventing tropical deforestation, according to a group of experts surveyed for a new study — with strong political commitment often arising out of long-term “public pressure” and civil society advocacy for forest protection. The research, published July 22 in the journal Conservation Letters, turns the question [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Political will is among the most important factors in preventing tropical deforestation, according to a group of experts surveyed for a new study — with strong political commitment often arising out of long-term “public pressure” and civil society advocacy for forest protection. The research, published July 22 in the journal Conservation Letters, turns the question of what causes the loss of tropical forests “on its head,” looking instead at what prevents it, says co-author Rachael Garrett, a professor of conservation and development at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. Brazil and Indonesia have managed to slow deforestation rates amid pressure from rapidly expanding agriculture, leading the team to ask, “Why do these places still have so much forest?” Garrett says. Deforestation rates in Brazil, home to more tropical rainforest than any other country on Earth, dipped substantially between 2004 and 2012. And while annual forest loss there climbed back up in the 2010s, it has dropped again in recent years. Similarly, in Indonesia, the expansion of oil palm plantations devastated large swaths of forest in the past, but those rates, too, have slowed. Deforestation for an oil palm plantation in Borneo, Indonesia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Because Brazil and Indonesia boast so much forest, much research has focused on how to stop deforestation there. Often, those studies look at the impact of specific policies and mechanisms (such as Brazil’s Forest Code or Indonesia’s sustainable palm oil certification effort) and their relationship to deforestation declines measured by satellite analysis,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/where-theres-political-will-theres-a-way-to-stop-tropical-deforestation-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/where-theres-political-will-theres-a-way-to-stop-tropical-deforestation-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303044</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study urges legal protection for Sulawesi&#8217;s endangered bear cuscus amid habitat loss</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/study-urges-legal-protection-for-sulawesis-endangered-bear-cuscus-amid-habitat-loss/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/study-urges-legal-protection-for-sulawesis-endangered-bear-cuscus-amid-habitat-loss/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jul 2025 08:35:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/02075755/2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301783</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, South Sulawesi, Southeast Asia, Sulawesi, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Hunting, Islands, Mammals, Poaching, Protected Areas, Research, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildlife consumption]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study has shown the first habitat suitability model for the endangered bear cuscus in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi, showing its limited and fragmented range, much of which is threatened by mining and poaching, and calling for increased legal protection and landscape connectivity. The population of the bear cuscus (Ailurops ursinus), one of the four [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study has shown the first habitat suitability model for the endangered bear cuscus in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi, showing its limited and fragmented range, much of which is threatened by mining and poaching, and calling for increased legal protection and landscape connectivity. The population of the bear cuscus (Ailurops ursinus), one of the four nocturnal marsupials endemic to Sulawesi, is now scattered and disconnected from each other across the declining forests of the island, according to the paper by two Indonesian researchers published in May on the journal Oryx. The research found poaching and mining operations to be the most imminent threats to the survival of the cuscus, which the authors have described to be an overlooked potential flagship species. “Today, unfortunately this bear cuscus is no longer included as a protected species,” Siti Nurleily Marliana, a conservation ecology Ph.D. from the University of Gadjah Mada who is one of two authors of the paper, wrote in an email to Mongabay. An adult female bear cuscus and her baby are resting on a tree branch and observing visitors in the Educational Forest of Hasanuddin University in South Sulawesi. Image courtesy of Rahmia Nugraha. The researchers collected data from October 2020 to January 2021 in the protected areas of Bantimurung Bulusaraung National Park and Hasanuddin University Educational Forest in South Sulawesi — spanning a total of 143,682 hectares (355,000 acres) — which are key habitats for the bear cuscus. They also used inventory data from a 2019 survey of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/study-urges-legal-protection-for-sulawesis-endangered-bear-cuscus-amid-habitat-loss/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/study-urges-legal-protection-for-sulawesis-endangered-bear-cuscus-amid-habitat-loss/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301783</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Tropical Forest Forever Facility needs more local and Indigenous focus (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/the-tropical-forest-forever-facility-needs-more-local-and-indigenous-focus-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/the-tropical-forest-forever-facility-needs-more-local-and-indigenous-focus-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jun 2025 13:33:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Joe Eisen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/18204154/amazon_241209144749x-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300115</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation Finance, Finance, Forests, Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2024, the world lost almost 6.7 million hectares (16.5 million acres) of primary tropical forest, the fastest rate ever recorded. The world’s forests are still falling prey to mining, logging and agriculture, but as the climate crisis intensifies, for the first time on record, the leading cause of tropical primary forest loss is fire. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2024, the world lost almost 6.7 million hectares (16.5 million acres) of primary tropical forest, the fastest rate ever recorded. The world’s forests are still falling prey to mining, logging and agriculture, but as the climate crisis intensifies, for the first time on record, the leading cause of tropical primary forest loss is fire. Burning forests are further supercharging extreme weather by pumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Against this bleak backdrop — and with world leaders’ promise to end and reverse deforestation by 2030 well off track — a planned new $125 billion investment fund to pay tropical countries to halt deforestation offers a lifeline for the world’s forests, and the Indigenous and local communities who live in them. The Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) was proposed by Brazil at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in 2023 and aims to keep forests standing by paying nations an initial annual fee of $4 for every hectare of forest they maintain. The money will come from a permanent endowment fund created by a combination of sovereign and philanthropic capital and private investment. Members of Malinggai Uma Tradisional Mentawai, a grassroots, Indigenous-led conservation organization, takes a break during a forest patrol, South Siberut, Indonesia. Image by Ana Norman Bermudez for Mongabay. The fund’s launch is expected to be a major focal point of the COP30 climate summit in November, hosted by Brazil in the Amazonian city of Belém. Investors, tropical forest governments and the TFFF secretariat are currently negotiating&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/the-tropical-forest-forever-facility-needs-more-local-and-indigenous-focus-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/the-tropical-forest-forever-facility-needs-more-local-and-indigenous-focus-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300115</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rwanda’s Olivier Nsengimana inspires protection for gray crowned cranes in East Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/rwandas-olivier-nsengimana-inspires-protection-for-gray-crowned-cranes-in-east-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/rwandas-olivier-nsengimana-inspires-protection-for-gray-crowned-cranes-in-east-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2025 19:52:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Musinguzi Blanshe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/29184334/Olivier_Nsengimana_Fieldwork_Headshot_Olivier_with_Researcher_during_Rugezi_Biodiversity_Survey_Credit_James_Rooney_NGS-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298353</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Rwanda, Tropics, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, Water, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Just 10 years ago, spotting a gray crowned crane in Rwanda’s wetlands had become a rarity. These elegant birds — tall and statuesque, with golden plumes fanning from their heads — once flourished across East Africa. But by the middle of the last decade, their numbers in Rwanda had collapsed drastically. “It shocked me,” says [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Just 10 years ago, spotting a gray crowned crane in Rwanda’s wetlands had become a rarity. These elegant birds — tall and statuesque, with golden plumes fanning from their heads — once flourished across East Africa. But by the middle of the last decade, their numbers in Rwanda had collapsed drastically. “It shocked me,” says Olivier Nsengimana, a Rwandan veterinarian and conservationist who founded the Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association (RWCA). He says a 2017 census counted fewer than 500 of the birds across the country. “We had more cranes in people’s homes than we had in the wild.” Faced with habitat loss, capture for illegal trade as pets, and other threats, the gray crowned crane (Balearica regulorum) was quietly slipping toward local extirpation in Rwanda. A similar story was unfolding in neighboring countries, including Burundi and Uganda, and elsewhere in the cranes’ range, which extends across East and Southern Africa. In 2012, the cranes were assessed as endangered by the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. Gray crowned cranes: Olivier Nsengimana says nearly 80% of Rwanda’s crane population over the past 50 years. Image courtesy of RWCA. To protect cranes, protect wetlands The survival of these birds rests on the preservation of wetlands. Across Africa, vast areas of wetlands are being lost, frequently drained and converted into farmland or to make way for peri-urban expansion. Nearly 50% of these ecologically vital landscapes were lost over the past 50 years. “[Cranes] find food and breed in wetlands,” Nsengimana says. “In five&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/rwandas-olivier-nsengimana-inspires-protection-for-gray-crowned-cranes-in-east-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/rwandas-olivier-nsengimana-inspires-protection-for-gray-crowned-cranes-in-east-africa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298353</doi>				</item>
						<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>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Restoration Solutions]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central America, China, Global, Panama, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Extinction, Extreme Weather, Forest Regeneration, Forestry, Forests, Impact Of Climate Change, Rainforests, Research, Rewilding, Temperatures, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</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>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/diverse-forests-and-forest-rewilding-offer-resilience-against-climate-change/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297653</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How is conservation preparing for a much hotter world? Experts share</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/how-is-conservation-preparing-for-a-much-hotter-world-experts-share/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/how-is-conservation-preparing-for-a-much-hotter-world-experts-share/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2025 15:30:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/10111148/conservation-future-stag-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297310</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change Denial, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Extreme Weather, Forestry, Forests, Impact Of Climate Change, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Temperatures, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[About 90 kilometers (56 miles) southeast of Cape Town lies the tranquilly-named town of Betty’s Bay in South Africa, home to less than 2,000 people. But it’s not the people that draw Nik Sekhran’s eye. “I enjoy watching the African oystercatchers,” says Sekhran, chief conservation officer at World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Big black birds with [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[About 90 kilometers (56 miles) southeast of Cape Town lies the tranquilly-named town of Betty’s Bay in South Africa, home to less than 2,000 people. But it’s not the people that draw Nik Sekhran’s eye. “I enjoy watching the African oystercatchers,” says Sekhran, chief conservation officer at World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Big black birds with stunning red beaks, African oystercatchers (Haematopus moquini) are only found in South Africa and Namibia — and they only nest on beaches near cold sea water, Sekhran says. Rising sea levels are pushing these birds to nest further inland, where, he says, they are running into people and dogs. “I think a lot about these birds, who have so far managed to adapt and find protected enclaves to lay their eggs. But as tides continue to erode the dunes toward our house, the birds will be hard-pressed,” Sekhran says. In 50 years, will the African oystercatchers still nest at Betty’s Bay? Will they have anywhere to nest? The plight of these little-known birds may soon become the plight of species everywhere. “In 50 years, it’s entirely possible that climate change will have become the largest threat to many species in the world — and thus to ecosystems in general,” says James Deutsch, the CEO of Rainforest Trust. Today, the biggest threat remains habitat loss, but climate change is climbing among the perils for nature. What will the world look like in 2075 when temperatures could be 3-5° Celsius (4.5 to 9° Fahrenheit) higher than the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/how-is-conservation-preparing-for-a-much-hotter-world-experts-share/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/how-is-conservation-preparing-for-a-much-hotter-world-experts-share/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297310</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>With biological and cultural diversity at literal crossroads in the tropics, a new approach is needed (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/with-biological-and-cultural-diversity-at-literal-crossroads-in-the-tropics-a-new-approach-is-needed-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/with-biological-and-cultural-diversity-at-literal-crossroads-in-the-tropics-a-new-approach-is-needed-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2025 18:40:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Karen Masters]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/25074008/Road-linking-Koh-Kong-to-Pursat-resized-Cambodia-April-2024-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295792</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Community Development, Conservation, Culture, Development, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Language, Roads, Social Justice, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The tropics are celebrated as hotspots of biological diversity and renowned as supply houses for food, fiber and pharmacies. They also harbor linguistic diversity, a proxy for cultural diversity, critical to people’s health, well-being and identity. Embedded in linguistic variation is a library of human knowledge, cosmologies and institutions. The correlation between biological and linguistic/cultural [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The tropics are celebrated as hotspots of biological diversity and renowned as supply houses for food, fiber and pharmacies. They also harbor linguistic diversity, a proxy for cultural diversity, critical to people’s health, well-being and identity. Embedded in linguistic variation is a library of human knowledge, cosmologies and institutions. The correlation between biological and linguistic/cultural diversity may offer a “golden opportunity” to combine resources for success. Whether a win-win is realistic depends on how the threats to ecological and ethnolinguistic communities in the tropics are managed. Will emerging conservation frameworks rise to the challenge? The biodiverse Sepik River region in eastern Papua New Guinea is thought to harbor 300+ languages and some 430,000 people. Image courtesy of Willow Zuchowski. A key — and troubling — similarity between biological and language diversity is that both are endangered globally. Experts estimate that about a third to a half of the world’s more than 7,000 languages are likely to “go dormant,” i.e., go extinct, this century. This translates to the loss of about one language per month before the year 2100, and around 120 languages between 2022 and 2032, UNESCO’s designated Indigenous Languages Decade. On the biological front, extinctions of plant and animal species are ticking away at about 1,000 times faster than historical rates. And while the factors behind the diversification of languages, cultures and species are not yet clear, there is a common force driving both species extinctions and linguistic homogenization: roads. Roads have a homogenizing and detrimental effect on natural&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/with-biological-and-cultural-diversity-at-literal-crossroads-in-the-tropics-a-new-approach-is-needed-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/with-biological-and-cultural-diversity-at-literal-crossroads-in-the-tropics-a-new-approach-is-needed-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295792</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Huge deforested areas in the tropics could regenerate naturally, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/huge-deforested-areas-in-the-tropics-could-regenerate-naturally-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/huge-deforested-areas-in-the-tropics-could-regenerate-naturally-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Nov 2024 17:48:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/22095813/bernd-dittrich-cKDCJpXe6lI-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290474</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Ecosystems, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Reforestation, Restoration, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Cleared or degraded tropical forests around the world covering a combined area larger than Saudi Arabia could regrow on its own, according to new research published Oct. 30 in the journal Nature. Restoring 30% of the world’s degraded land by 2030 is a target of the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework, which 196 countries have signed. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Cleared or degraded tropical forests around the world covering a combined area larger than Saudi Arabia could regrow on its own, according to new research published Oct. 30 in the journal Nature. Restoring 30% of the world’s degraded land by 2030 is a target of the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework, which 196 countries have signed. Much of the current focus centers on planting trees in these areas. But restoration also includes allowing forests to recover on their own, a process scientists call natural regeneration, which can be more cost-effective than tree planting in some situations. The Nature study suggests the ecological conditions are right for about 215 million hectares (531 million acres) of land in the tropics to regrow into forests. Tropical forests top the list for restoration because once they grow back, they provide habitat for a multitude of species and at the same time keep carbon out of the atmosphere where it would accelerate climate change. If all of the areas identified in the study grew back, it would pull 23.4 billion metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere in a 30-year period, the analysis found. That’s the equivalent of more than twice as much carbon dioxide as the world emitted for energy in 2023. Study co-author Matt Fagan, associate professor in geography and environmental systems at the University of Maryland, said the paper’s aim isn’t to present tree planting and natural regeneration as an “either/or” choice. Both approaches have their place, he said. But tree planting can&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/huge-deforested-areas-in-the-tropics-could-regenerate-naturally-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290474</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation at 60: A look back and forward</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/association-for-tropical-biology-and-conservation-at-60-a-look-back-and-forward/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/association-for-tropical-biology-and-conservation-at-60-a-look-back-and-forward/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2024 19:26:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Erik Iverson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/09161612/ATBCPanel-BETTER-CROP-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287070</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Global, Latin America, Rwanda, South America, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biocultural Diversity, Biodiversity, Biology, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Research, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KIGALI — When scientists, conservationists and policymakers from around the world gathered in East Africa this July — exchanging ideas, celebrating successes and planning for the future — the international group represented a living showcase of the dramatic transformations in tropical ecology research that has occurred over the last 60 years. Founded in 1963 by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KIGALI — When scientists, conservationists and policymakers from around the world gathered in East Africa this July — exchanging ideas, celebrating successes and planning for the future — the international group represented a living showcase of the dramatic transformations in tropical ecology research that has occurred over the last 60 years. Founded in 1963 by a group of 32 men — mostly white, mostly from the U.S. — and just one woman, the Association for Tropical Biology focused primarily on advancing Neotropical botanical science. A 2003 name change to the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation reflected the expansion of that mission to include tropical conservation. With 1,000 members in 70 nations today, the professional society’s international membership represents an increasingly diverse roster of scientists from the Global North, tropical Latin America, Africa and Asia, with expertise in everything from carnivores to climate change. Participants in a workshop at the ATBC’s 2024 conference in Kigali discuss issues of diversity, equity and inclusion in tropical field science. Image courtesy of the ATBC. The roots of tropical ecology The ATBC was born at the height of the Cold War, a time of intense global geopolitical upheaval. It was also an era in which the study of tropical ecology still heavily reflected the legacy of the 19th-century colonial period, when jungle collections gathered by European and U.S. explorers attracted the interest of scientists who mostly viewed tropical organisms from afar, and as strange but worth learning about. In 1898, at the end of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/association-for-tropical-biology-and-conservation-at-60-a-look-back-and-forward/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287070</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Holistic care for an Ethiopian lake system: Interview with Redwan Mohammed</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/holistic-care-for-an-ethiopian-lake-system-interview-with-redwan-mohammed/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/holistic-care-for-an-ethiopian-lake-system-interview-with-redwan-mohammed/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Aug 2024 17:47:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Solomon Yimer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/06174343/DSC_1679-SMALL-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285774</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Ethiopia, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, Lakes, Rivers, Tropics, Water, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ethiopia&#8217;s Abijata-Shalla Lakes National Park is set in a semiarid landscape of grassy plains, hills scattered with acacia trees, and ravines cut by seasonal streams. Spanning 887 square kilometers (342 square miles) and located some 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of the capital, Addis Ababa, it includes the two Rift Valley lakes it’s named after. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ethiopia&#8217;s Abijata-Shalla Lakes National Park is set in a semiarid landscape of grassy plains, hills scattered with acacia trees, and ravines cut by seasonal streams. Spanning 887 square kilometers (342 square miles) and located some 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of the capital, Addis Ababa, it includes the two Rift Valley lakes it’s named after. Abijatta and Shalla are a pair of connected saline lakes that provide habitat for waterbirds including black-winged stilts, storks, pelicans, and lesser and greater flamingos. Ostriches, African fish eagles and various plover species are year-round residents, while others migrate to Europe and Asia during the warmer months there, returning when northern winter sets in. The forests and grasslands surrounding the lake are home to ungulates like greater kudu and Grant&#8217;s gazelle, and small predators like jackals and bat-eared foxes. Lake Shalla. The satellite image on the right showing lakes Ziway (top), Langano (lower right), Abijata (lower left), and Shala (bottom). Satellite image rendered by Yonas Kidane via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0). Lake Abijata photo by Solomon Yimer for Mongabay. The landscape is also home to 60,000 people who make their living farming and herding more than 300,000 head of livestock; as well as light industry including soda ash production and commercial flowers for export. Redwan Mohammed was born and raised in the region. He’s now a senior staff member with Wetlands International Ethiopia, leading a project focused on restoring the Ziway-Shalla Basin. He tells Mongabay that deforestation and erosion linked to farming and herding in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/holistic-care-for-an-ethiopian-lake-system-interview-with-redwan-mohammed/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/holistic-care-for-an-ethiopian-lake-system-interview-with-redwan-mohammed/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285774</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Small steps towards larger goal of protecting East African wetlands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/small-steps-towards-larger-goal-of-protecting-east-african-wetlands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/small-steps-towards-larger-goal-of-protecting-east-african-wetlands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Aug 2024 17:46:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Petro Kotzé]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/06140206/Lake-Turkana-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285759</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Southern Africa, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, Lakes, Rivers, Tropics, Water, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Three years into an ambitious wetland restoration project in East Africa, conservationist Julie Mulonga says she’s learned the value of small steps. The Source to Sea project set out to protect wetlands in the Rift Valley and mangroves along the Indian Ocean coastline at the same time as strengthening livelihoods and climate resilience. “We started [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Three years into an ambitious wetland restoration project in East Africa, conservationist Julie Mulonga says she’s learned the value of small steps. The Source to Sea project set out to protect wetlands in the Rift Valley and mangroves along the Indian Ocean coastline at the same time as strengthening livelihoods and climate resilience. “We started with a big vision for the Source to Sea project,” says Mulonga, the East Africa director for Wetlands International, “but looking back, I think we might have aimed too big, too soon.” Launched in 2021, the project covers two vast ecoregions: the Rift Valley Lakes ecoregion, stretching from Lake Albert and the Ethiopian Highlands in the north, to Lake Tanganyika in the south; and the East African Mangrove ecoregion, extending from southern Somalia to Mozambique, including the Lamu seascape in Kenya, the Rufiji Delta in Tanzania, and the Zambezi River Delta in Mozambique. Tanzania&#8217;s Rufiji delta. Image by Olly Wright via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0) The Source to Sea project extends across Rift Valley lakes in Ethiopia and Uganda where this black-headed heron was photographed, south to Lake Tanganyika. It also stretches across a mangrove ecoregions that runs along the Indian Ocean coast from southern Somalia to the Rufiji and Zambezi river deltas in Tanzania and Mozambique. Image by Michael Jefferies via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0) The key project sites are in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. These include biodiversity hotspots like Ethiopia’s Abijata-Shalla Lakes National Park, a critical stopover for migratory birds and a designated&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/small-steps-towards-larger-goal-of-protecting-east-african-wetlands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/small-steps-towards-larger-goal-of-protecting-east-african-wetlands/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285759</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists are racing to save South Asia’s butterflies from the threat of extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/scientists-are-racing-to-save-south-asias-butterflies-from-the-threat-of-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/scientists-are-racing-to-save-south-asias-butterflies-from-the-threat-of-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2024 04:00:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hailey Smalley]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/30153245/Common-Jezebel-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285381</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, India, South Asia, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Butterflies, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Extinction, Extreme Weather, Habitat Loss, Heatwave, Impact Of Climate Change, Insects, Pollinators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the dark undergrowth of mangrove forests, an anthology of color stirs. Flickers of turquoise rise like exhales from the brackish marshlands, and flashes of sunset orange spark alive in the shadows. The Sundarbans mangrove forest in Bangladesh and India is largely known as one of the last remaining habitats for the Bengal tiger (Panthera [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the dark undergrowth of mangrove forests, an anthology of color stirs. Flickers of turquoise rise like exhales from the brackish marshlands, and flashes of sunset orange spark alive in the shadows. The Sundarbans mangrove forest in Bangladesh and India is largely known as one of the last remaining habitats for the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), but the coastal groves also thrum with a wealth of smaller animals, including 37 known species of butterfly. The small stature of these butterflies belies their importance; they pollinate flowering plants and nourish the birds that flit through the canopy, ultimately supporting the health of the entire forest ecosystem. But butterflies in the Sundarbans and throughout South Asia are at increasing risk of extinction, mimicking a global trend that some experts have nicknamed “the insect apocalypse.” By some estimates, 250,000-500,000 insect species have gone extinct in the past 150 years, and many more are now on the brink of survival. Climate change and urban development form the largest risks, along with the minimal legal protections and large-scale conservation initiatives focused on butterflies and other insects. “If my government is not aware, [butterfly species] will be lost. It will be coming in probably 10 years because climate change is thriving,” said Monwar Hossain, a professor and lepidopterist at Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh. Bushbrown buterflies feeding on a fallen mango. Image by Manidip Mandal. The unique beauty and vibrancy of Bangladesh’s butterflies first attracted Hossain’s attention nearly three decades ago. Over his career, Hossain has&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/scientists-are-racing-to-save-south-asias-butterflies-from-the-threat-of-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/scientists-are-racing-to-save-south-asias-butterflies-from-the-threat-of-extinction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285381</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Zambian forest reserve rebounds with a little assistance</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/zambian-forest-reserve-rebounds-with-a-little-assistance/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/zambian-forest-reserve-rebounds-with-a-little-assistance/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jun 2024 09:49:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/13093035/BirdSurvey_KataninoForestReserveZambia_WeForest-Pic_6_Kat-MEDIUM-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283190</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, Tropics, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, charcoal, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Ecosystems, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Logging, Mapping, Protected Areas, Reforestation, Research, Restoration, Sustainable Forest Management, Timber, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, there were around 100 families living in the Katanino Forest Reserve, cutting down trees to produce charcoal in mud-covered kilns, and selling the fuel by the bag on a nearby road leading to major cities in Zambia’s Copperbelt province. That same year, conservation group WeForest began working with the Zambian Forestry Department and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, there were around 100 families living in the Katanino Forest Reserve, cutting down trees to produce charcoal in mud-covered kilns, and selling the fuel by the bag on a nearby road leading to major cities in Zambia’s Copperbelt province. That same year, conservation group WeForest began working with the Zambian Forestry Department and members of the local community to restore the reserve. Four years on, hundreds of hectares of degraded forest have grown back from severed stumps. Morton Shanzi, manager of the Katanino Forest Landscape Restoration Project, told Mongabay that before the restoration work, community members and Forestry Department officials had observed a steep decline in animal populations in the reserve. But as the project takes hold, there have been increased sightings of birds, reptiles and mammals. &#8220;Our law enforcement records show that the number of chance encounters with animals in the forest reserve has increased between 2021 and 2023,&#8221; he said. Notable species that have reappeared include near-threatened African crowned eagles (Stephanoaetus coronatus) and vulnerable gaboon vipers (Bitis gabonica), as well as various species of small antelope and even carnivores like side-striped jackals (Canis adustus) and spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta). Wildlife is returning to parts of the Katanino reserve, but species like these southern ground hornbills will only find suitable habitat here again as the reserve&#8217;s trees mature. Image by Brendan Herbert via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) Intact miombo forest within Katanino. The forest type includes a wide range of deciduous trees. Image © WeForest. Nearly half&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/zambian-forest-reserve-rebounds-with-a-little-assistance/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/zambian-forest-reserve-rebounds-with-a-little-assistance/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283190</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>We&#8217;re losing species faster than we can find them, study shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/were-losing-species-faster-than-we-can-find-them-study-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/were-losing-species-faster-than-we-can-find-them-study-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Feb 2024 19:47:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/29185128/Homepage-Banner-20221116_063335-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279240</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birding, Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Herps, Mammals, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Rediscovered Species, Reptiles, Species Discovery, Tropical Forests, Tropics, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“We did it!” Doka Nason shouted as he stared at the screen of a camera trap in Papua New Guinea. He and his team had just captured a long-sought image: that of the black-naped pheasant-pigeon (Otidiphaps nobilis insularis). Believed to be extinct, this rare ground-dwelling bird was photographed as part of the Search for Lost [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“We did it!” Doka Nason shouted as he stared at the screen of a camera trap in Papua New Guinea. He and his team had just captured a long-sought image: that of the black-naped pheasant-pigeon (Otidiphaps nobilis insularis). Believed to be extinct, this rare ground-dwelling bird was photographed as part of the Search for Lost Species program. Scientists hadn’t seen one in the wild for 140 years. Lost species are those that haven’t been observed by scientists in their natural habitat for at least a decade. Yet most have been missing for around 50 years on average, according to a new study in the journal Global Change Biology. Researchers compiled a database of 856 lost and 424 rediscovered amphibian, bird, mammal and reptile species (known collectively as tetrapods) listed since 1800. As the number of lost species globally continues to rise, they’re being lost faster than they’re being found. “The number of lost tetrapod species is increasing decade on decade,” said Thomas Evans, a conservation scientist at the Free University of Berlin and lead author of the paper. &#8220;This means that despite many searches, we are losing tetrapod species at a faster rate than we are rediscovering them.” The results highlight differences in which lost species are more likely to be found again based on location and type of animal. Sometimes, their natural traits like nocturnality or living underground make them difficult to find. Larger animals and those that can live in multiple habitats are more likely to be found again.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/were-losing-species-faster-than-we-can-find-them-study-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/were-losing-species-faster-than-we-can-find-them-study-shows/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279240</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New tool aims to help palm oil firms comply with deforestation regulations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/new-tool-aims-to-help-palm-oil-firms-comply-with-deforestation-regulations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/new-tool-aims-to-help-palm-oil-firms-comply-with-deforestation-regulations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jan 2024 14:02:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/26135356/oil-palm-deforestation-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278072</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Innovation, Mapping, Palm Oil, Rainforests, Technology, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As countries around the world begin to either propose or enforce zero-deforestation regulations, companies are coming under growing pressure to prove that their products are free of deforestation. But this is often a far from straightforward process. Take palm oil, for instance. Its journey from plantations, most likely in Indonesia or Malaysia, to store shelves [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As countries around the world begin to either propose or enforce zero-deforestation regulations, companies are coming under growing pressure to prove that their products are free of deforestation. But this is often a far from straightforward process. Take palm oil, for instance. Its journey from plantations, most likely in Indonesia or Malaysia, to store shelves in the form of shampoo, cookies or a plethora of other goods, is a long and convoluted one. In fact, the cooking oil or cosmetics we use might contain palm oil processed in several different mills, which in turn may have bought the raw palm fruit from several of the many thousands of plantations. For companies that use palm oil in their products, tracing and tracking its origins through these obscure supply chains is a tough task. Often it requires going all the way back to the plot level and checking for deforestation. However, these plots are scattered over vast areas across potentially millions of locations, with data being in various states of digitization and completeness. “We need to be able to trace these plots to the facilities that ultimately are used for processing the crop into commodities which are sold in one of these regulated-demand markets,” Leo Bottrill, CEO of MapHubs, a technology company that uses satellite data to map logging, told Mongabay in a video interview. “If we don&#8217;t have a way to reconcile these things, these laws are not going to be able to work.” Palmoil.io, a web-based monitoring platform that Bottrill&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/new-tool-aims-to-help-palm-oil-firms-comply-with-deforestation-regulations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/new-tool-aims-to-help-palm-oil-firms-comply-with-deforestation-regulations/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278072</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>2023’s top ocean news stories (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/2023s-top-ocean-news-stories-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/2023s-top-ocean-news-stories-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jan 2024 18:04:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ana SpaldingDavid OburaDiva AmonMinna EppsRhett BennettU. Rashid Sumaila]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/16174001/i-LBN2JQ7-4K-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277703</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biocultural Diversity, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Coastal Ecosystems, Commentary, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Deep Sea Mining, Ecosystems, Elasmobranchs, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Politics, Prizes, Saltwater Fish, Sharks, Subsidies, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[1. Record heat in 2023 2023 is widely regarded as the hottest year on record, with monthly, seasonal and annual records spiking in the ocean and atmosphere, and repeated headlines in global media. The graph of last year’s global average temperatures (see below) shows a step-change increase from the temperature records of the last 10 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[1. Record heat in 2023 2023 is widely regarded as the hottest year on record, with monthly, seasonal and annual records spiking in the ocean and atmosphere, and repeated headlines in global media. The graph of last year’s global average temperatures (see below) shows a step-change increase from the temperature records of the last 10 years, themselves clearly separated from the cooler preceding decades. Ocean temperatures through the Northern Hemisphere summer reached record highs, with global sea surface temperatures 0.99° Celsius (1.78° Fahrenheit) above average in July through August due to El Niño development in the eastern Pacific that strengthened and intensified to the end of the year. Mass bleaching of coral reefs is one of the most immediate indicators of ocean heat impacts, and record levels of bleaching occurred in the wider Caribbean from July through September. Reports of coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef soon followed, as its summer season began in late 2023, potentially a harbinger of another multiyear bleaching event that could outdo the last one in 2014 through 2017. As we come out of a relatively stable global temperature regime capped by the three-year La Niña from 2020 through 2022, will the coming years represent a step toward or even past potentially irreversible tipping points in the global climate system? This unprecedented increase in warming formed the backdrop to countries and a wide range of stakeholders gathering at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai in early December to negotiate whether to turn off the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/2023s-top-ocean-news-stories-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/2023s-top-ocean-news-stories-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277703</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tropical deforestation increases even as a few hotspots see respite, new data shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/tropical-deforestation-increases-even-as-a-few-hotspots-see-respite-new-data-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/tropical-deforestation-increases-even-as-a-few-hotspots-see-respite-new-data-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Dec 2023 14:16:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/11140435/toucan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276545</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, carbon, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Innovation, Mapping, Rainforests, Reforestation, Technology, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Greenhouse gas emissions from tropical forest loss increased by 5% in 2022 from the year before, while temperate forests bolstered their carbon-absorbing capacity, according to latest data from a carbon mapping tool developed by California-based nonprofit CTrees. Researchers at the organization used the Jurisdictional Monitoring Reporting and Verification (JMRV) platform to map forests and non-forest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Greenhouse gas emissions from tropical forest loss increased by 5% in 2022 from the year before, while temperate forests bolstered their carbon-absorbing capacity, according to latest data from a carbon mapping tool developed by California-based nonprofit CTrees. Researchers at the organization used the Jurisdictional Monitoring Reporting and Verification (JMRV) platform to map forests and non-forest lands to monitor carbon stocks, emissions and removals across the planet. Despite deforestation increasing in the tropics globally, the data showed that certain hotspots witnessed a reduction in deforestation in 2022. Indonesia, for example, saw a drop in emissions from deforestation in 2022. The findings aligned with data gathered by multiple other sources that have shown a drop in forest cover loss in the country. Data from the JMRV platform also showed a reduction in emissions from deforestation in the Congo Basin. In Brazil, however, emissions only started to drop in 2023, likely due to policies implemented by the new government that took office at the start of this year. On net, the platform estimated tropical deforestation emitted 4.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2022. It was a different story for temperate forests, however. Ivindo River in the Congo Basin in Gabon. Data from the JMRV platform also showed a reduction in emissions from deforestation in the Congo Basin. Image by Zuzana Burivalova. Soy field adjacent to tropical forest in Brazil. In Brazil, emissions only started to drop in 2023, likely due to policies implemented by the new government that took office&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/tropical-deforestation-increases-even-as-a-few-hotspots-see-respite-new-data-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276545</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Community tropical forest management linked to social &#038; environmental benefits: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/community-tropical-forest-management-linked-to-social-environmental-benefits-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/community-tropical-forest-management-linked-to-social-environmental-benefits-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Dec 2023 20:21:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/08201316/Screen-Shot-2023-12-08-at-3.12.28-PM-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276479</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Carbon Sequestration, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Science, Sustainability, Trees, Tropical Conservation Science, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A recent peer-reviewed study finds that community tropical forest management is a predictor of multiple positive outcomes, both socially and for the environment. According to the paper, published in Nature Climate Change, forest patches in tropical regions across Africa, Asia and Latin America that are managed by rural and Indigenous communities are associated with improved [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A recent peer-reviewed study finds that community tropical forest management is a predictor of multiple positive outcomes, both socially and for the environment. According to the paper, published in Nature Climate Change, forest patches in tropical regions across Africa, Asia and Latin America that are managed by rural and Indigenous communities are associated with improved outcomes for carbon storage, biodiversity and forest livelihoods. The 314 tropical forests analyzed in the study were forest patches in rural areas surrounded by agricultural lands, pastoral grazing areas and human settlements. “It&#8217;s these forest patches that we have tried to study because globally when we talk of restoration and conservation, a lot of targets are focused on such forests in mixed-used rural landscapes,” says Harry Fischer, lead author of the study and senior lecturer at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. The authors used a data set from the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI), a research program with substantial information on local institutions and forestry interventions, to collect data on community-managed forests in these mixed-use landscapes. Using these data, the authors compared the forest patches used and managed by Indigenous peoples and local communities in 15 tropical countries. The three outcomes analyzed in the study were carbon sequestered in above-ground biomass, biodiversity and livelihood contributions to people. “We have measures for above-ground biomass that is a proxy for carbon [sequestration], tree species richness, which is a proxy for biodiversity, and contributions for rural livelihoods, measured through the proportion of rural benefits for fuel,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/community-tropical-forest-management-linked-to-social-environmental-benefits-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/community-tropical-forest-management-linked-to-social-environmental-benefits-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276479</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forest restoration to boost biomass doesn’t have to sacrifice tree diversity</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/forest-restoration-to-boost-biomass-doesnt-have-to-sacrifice-tree-diversity/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/forest-restoration-to-boost-biomass-doesnt-have-to-sacrifice-tree-diversity/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Nov 2023 15:52:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/28153043/Light_NK-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275987</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, Southeast Asia, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Ecosystems, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Green, Landscape Restoration, Logging, Plantations, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Reforestation, Research, Restoration, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Sustainable Forest Management, Timber, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tropical forests the world over are in trouble. Vast swaths have been razed to the ground, lost forever, and studies indicate that at least 10% of those that remain standing are severely degraded. As humanity tries to backpedal on the destruction we’ve wrought, restoring degraded areas to their former glory through tree planting and forestry [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tropical forests the world over are in trouble. Vast swaths have been razed to the ground, lost forever, and studies indicate that at least 10% of those that remain standing are severely degraded. As humanity tries to backpedal on the destruction we’ve wrought, restoring degraded areas to their former glory through tree planting and forestry techniques has become a major endeavor. But scientists still know surprisingly little about the long-term effects of different restoration methods on forests. Given that many restoration initiatives are in part motivated by climate change mitigation, methods that focus on the rapid accumulation of aboveground biomass, or tree growth, have drawn particular scrutiny. Some experts have suggested, for instance, that such human-assisted restoration can reduce overall forest diversity by favoring carbon storage at the expense of natural ecological processes. Instead, they advocate leaving forests to regenerate and recover of their own accord. Now, a new study that investigates the long-term effects of forest restoration at sites in Malaysian Borneo indicates that planting trees for biomass accumulation can in some cases boost measures of biodiversity in the long run compared to natural regeneration. Sungai Segama flows through Class I forest reserve, large swaths of which were logged during the 1980s and subsequently restored through various conservation initiatives. Image courtesy of Nadine Keller. The researchers found enhanced adult tree diversity, including the recovery of rare species, in forest plots planted with timber species and subject to basic forestry maintenance, such as cutting climbers, compared to areas where forest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/forest-restoration-to-boost-biomass-doesnt-have-to-sacrifice-tree-diversity/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/forest-restoration-to-boost-biomass-doesnt-have-to-sacrifice-tree-diversity/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275987</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New study pushes for protection of one of Africa’s ‘least understood treasures’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/new-study-pushes-for-protection-of-one-of-africas-least-understood-treasures/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/new-study-pushes-for-protection-of-one-of-africas-least-understood-treasures/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Nov 2023 07:30:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/14104940/Aerial-view-of-the-NGOWP-teams-mekoro-along-the-Cuando-River-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275312</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Angola, Southern Africa, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate Change, Conflict, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Destruction, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Lakes, Peatlands, Rivers, Tropics, Water, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Indigenous residents of the highlands of southeastern Angola have long lived there with a light touch. Ironically, with the end of the country’s civil war and the slow return of central government and development, new activity may threaten the source of water for a vast expanse of Southern Africa, including the Angolan capital, Luanda, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Indigenous residents of the highlands of southeastern Angola have long lived there with a light touch. Ironically, with the end of the country’s civil war and the slow return of central government and development, new activity may threaten the source of water for a vast expanse of Southern Africa, including the Angolan capital, Luanda, and the vast inland delta of the Okavango River. Located on the Bié Plateau, which rises in places to more than 1,800 meters (5,900 feet), this region charges underground aquifers and creates the headwaters for some of the continent’s largest rivers: the Okavango, the Congo, the Zambezi. The Cuanza River also rises here, before flowing nearly 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) north and west to where it supplies water to the 9.2 million inhabitants of Luanda. Using 41 years of precipitation data, Mauro Lourenco estimates that the water tower receives around 423 cubic kilometers (101 cubic miles) of rainfall each year — equivalent to 170 million Olympic-size swimming pools. Angola’s meteorological stations collapsed during the 1975-2002 civil war, so Lourenco relied on data gathered remotely by the U.S.-based Climate Hazards Center, known by the acronym CHIRPS. The rain falling over the highlands is critical for recharging freshwater lakes and marshy peatlands that occur along narrow drainage lines and store up this rainwater during the region’s summer, before slowly releasing it during the dry winter months. Aerial view of the Cuando River. The National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project’s 2018 expedition focused on the eastern-most section of their&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/new-study-pushes-for-protection-of-one-of-africas-least-understood-treasures/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275312</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mongabay wins prestigious 2023 Biophilia Award for Environmental Communication</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/mongabay-wins-prestigious-2023-biophilia-award-for-environmental-communication/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/mongabay-wins-prestigious-2023-biophilia-award-for-environmental-communication/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Oct 2023 11:58:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/18103034/peru_macaws_d2560-crop-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274371</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate, Communication, Conservation, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Journalism, Mongabay Conservation Award, Mongabay.org, Prizes, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay has won the prestigious Biophilia Award for Environmental Communication for its “outstanding track record” in communicating issues related to nature and biodiversity, especially in countries in the Global South. The Biophilia Award was launched in 2019 by the BBVA Foundation, the charitable arm of one of Spain’s biggest banks, to recognize the work of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay has won the prestigious Biophilia Award for Environmental Communication for its “outstanding track record” in communicating issues related to nature and biodiversity, especially in countries in the Global South. The Biophilia Award was launched in 2019 by the BBVA Foundation, the charitable arm of one of Spain’s biggest banks, to recognize the work of professionals and organizations working to improve public understanding of ecological issues through the dissemination of scientific knowledge and sharing of new perspectives. The award comes with a cash prize of 100,000 euros (about $106,000). American journalist Rhett Butler founded Mongabay in 1999. Image courtesy of Rhett A. Butler. Award-winning journalist Karla Mendes (right) interviewing sources for a palm oil investigation in Pará, Brazil. Image courtesy of Karla Mendes. The evaluation committee praised Mongabay for successfully making “the connection between science and journalism by disseminating research on environmental protection and making studies available under conditions of maximum access.” These achievements have enabled Mongabay to “highlight specific situations or serious environmental problems affecting communities that tend to be overlooked by mainstream news sources,” the committee said in a statement. Founded in 1999 by U.S. journalist Rhett A. Butler, Mongabay is a nonprofit digital platform that has built up a network of 800 correspondents in 80 countries and publishes original reporting in six languages, including English, Indonesian, Spanish, French, Hindi, and Brazilian Portuguese. Mongabay reports on issues all over the world, but it has a particular focus on tropical regions within Asia and Latin America, which are home&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/mongabay-wins-prestigious-2023-biophilia-award-for-environmental-communication/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274371</doi>				</item>
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