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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Tue, 25 Aug 2026 20:54:20 +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>Conservation news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>At global desertification conference, pastoralists call for greater recognition</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/at-global-desertification-conference-pastoralists-call-for-greater-recognition/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/at-global-desertification-conference-pastoralists-call-for-greater-recognition/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2026 20:36:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Joseph Lee]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/23160710/IMG_4465-e1787690019347-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327316</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Environment, Governance, Grasslands, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Livestock, Pasture, Ranching, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Cattle are a central part of the identity of Andrew Msami’s Maasai community in northeast Tanzania. Herd size determines social position, and many people keep all their wealth in livestock, not banks. In recent years, however, Msami and others have been forced to sell the animals and buy goats, which can handle drought better but [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Cattle are a central part of the identity of Andrew Msami’s Maasai community in northeast Tanzania. Herd size determines social position, and many people keep all their wealth in livestock, not banks. In recent years, however, Msami and others have been forced to sell the animals and buy goats, which can handle drought better but are less financially and culturally valuable. Msami says adapting to a shifting climate has been a part of Maasai life for generations, but recent conditions represent an existential threat. “We have to adapt because it&#8217;s like desertification is attacking our identity,” Msami told Grist. a U.S.-based nonprofit media organization. “If you lose your identity, it means you have lost everything.” The Maasai are pastoralists, a term that describes the roughly 500 million people around the world who tend herds of livestock including cattle, goats and sheep. They often move with the animals as they seek grass and water. Because they live and work in places with arid conditions and extreme temperatures, they are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Around the world, drought and land degradation threaten rangelands, which make up roughly half of the planet’s landmass, and the pastoralists from Tanzania and Sudan to Nepal and Mongolia that rely on them. The pace of arable land degradation is 30 to 35 times the historic average, threatening even the most resilient communities, according to the U.N. Pastoralists also face an influx of invasive species, extractive industries, tourists and other threats. To address these overlapping crises, Msami&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/at-global-desertification-conference-pastoralists-call-for-greater-recognition/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/at-global-desertification-conference-pastoralists-call-for-greater-recognition/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327316</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Bhutan, a philosophy of happiness guides a push for food self-sufficiency</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/08/in-bhutan-a-philosophy-of-happiness-guides-a-push-for-food-self-sufficiency/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/08/in-bhutan-a-philosophy-of-happiness-guides-a-push-for-food-self-sufficiency/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2026 20:29:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike DiGirolamo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mikedigirolamo]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/23171856/39504348814_2873f81ce1_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=podcasts&#038;p=326636</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bhutan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Conservation, Development, Environment, Environmental Policy, Food, Food Industry, food security, Food Vs Forests Debate, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Natural Resources, Politics, Subsistence Agriculture, Sustainability, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Bhutan is a Himalayan kingdom sandwiched between China and India. Forty percent of its 800,000 citizens work in the agriculture sector. The mountainous country is famous for its breathtaking landscapes and its unique policy of “Gross National Happiness,” instituted in 1972 by Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the fourth king of Bhutan. My guests on the Newscast [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Bhutan is a Himalayan kingdom sandwiched between China and India. Forty percent of its 800,000 citizens work in the agriculture sector. The mountainous country is famous for its breathtaking landscapes and its unique policy of “Gross National Happiness,” instituted in 1972 by Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the fourth king of Bhutan. My guests on the Newscast this week say this philosophy is the backbone of the nation&#8217;s food system, and its plan for full food self-sufficiency by 2029. “Our food system isn&#8217;t just about producing food. It&#8217;s about sustaining our landscapes, our communities, and our culture,” says renowned chef and restaurateur Bleu Tshering Dorji. She owns two restaurants in the nation&#8217;s capital, Thimpu. She explains the unique challenges farmers she works with face due to climate change and steep mountain terrain. “We are a mountainous landlocked country, and only a small percentage of our land is, I think, actually suitable for agriculture. We don&#8217;t have the luxury of just expanding farmland. We have to make better use of the land that we sort of already have,” she says. “Labor is becoming extremely scarce as young people sort of move away from agriculture, and farmers still have to deal with issues like wildlife conflict, unpredictable weather, and also getting their produce to the market,” Bleu says. She adds the outflow of young people from rural areas, where most of the population currently lives, presents its own set of challenges. “We need our young Bhutanese people to be able to see farming as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/08/in-bhutan-a-philosophy-of-happiness-guides-a-push-for-food-self-sufficiency/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/08/in-bhutan-a-philosophy-of-happiness-guides-a-push-for-food-self-sufficiency/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326636</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>US proposes rescinding Roadless Rule protections for national forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/us-proposes-rescinding-roadless-rule-protections-for-national-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/us-proposes-rescinding-roadless-rule-protections-for-national-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2026 19:31:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bobby Bascomb]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/25192941/dT8MtZHc-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=327304</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Business, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forest Fragmentation, Forest Loss, Forest Products, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Old Growth Forests, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Aug. 25 is a National Day of Action to support U.S. national parks and public lands. One focus of the event is the U.S. government’s intention to rescind a rule that bans road construction and industrial logging across more than 23 million hectares (57 million acres) of national forest land. The 2001 Roadless Rule, has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Aug. 25 is a National Day of Action to support U.S. national parks and public lands. One focus of the event is the U.S. government’s intention to rescind a rule that bans road construction and industrial logging across more than 23 million hectares (57 million acres) of national forest land. The 2001 Roadless Rule, has helped protect some of the country’s most wild public lands, including Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest and the ancestral homeland of several Indigenous peoples. “A rollback on the Roadless Rule means cultural genocide for our people,” Yolanda Fulmer of the Tlingit Indigenous nation and a Tongass representative with the California-based NGO Women Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), said in a statement. “Every part of our culture is intimately intertwined with the Tongass Forest, our traditional homelands.” The Tongass spans 6.8 million hectares (17 million acres) of mountains, rivers, rugged coastline and old-growth forest. Nicknamed “America’s Climate Forest,” the Tongass holds 20% of all the carbon stored in the country’s national forests and provides habitat for some 400 wildlife species including bears, wolves and moose. It also supports roughly 40% of North American bird species. If the Roadless Rule is rescinded, roughly 3.6 million hectares (9 million acres) of the Tongass could lose protections against new road development. Nationwide, 18 million hectares (45 million acres) of national forest system land could be affected. In an Aug. 18 statement, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers national forests through the U.S.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/us-proposes-rescinding-roadless-rule-protections-for-national-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/us-proposes-rescinding-roadless-rule-protections-for-national-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327304</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia charges 72 over fires as haze chokes Borneo and Sumatra</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/indonesia-charges-72-over-fires-as-haze-chokes-borneo-and-sumatra/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/indonesia-charges-72-over-fires-as-haze-chokes-borneo-and-sumatra/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2026 18:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Naina Rao]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/25175923/AP26223596463482-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=327302</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Climate Change, Disasters, Environment, Fires, Health, Orangutans, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian authorities have charged 72 individuals with intentionally igniting forest fires across five provinces on the island of Borneo and four on Sumatra. Fires across both islands have burned nearly 286,000 hectares (about 707,000 acres) of land from January to Aug. 24 alone, according to FireWatch, a satellite-based monitoring tool developed by forest-mapping platform Nusantara [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian authorities have charged 72 individuals with intentionally igniting forest fires across five provinces on the island of Borneo and four on Sumatra. Fires across both islands have burned nearly 286,000 hectares (about 707,000 acres) of land from January to Aug. 24 alone, according to FireWatch, a satellite-based monitoring tool developed by forest-mapping platform Nusantara Atlas. That’s an area half the size of the island of Bali. Officials say prolonged dry conditions and a powerful El Niño this year have severely worsened the wildfires. In a statement, local law enforcement alleged that the 72 suspects used fire to clear land in preparation for planting. Police seized lighters, fuel containers, machetes, axes, and samples of burned soil and tree trunks among various items of evidence. The smoke from the wildfires has caused choking haze clouds that have reduced visibility to just 10 meters (33 feet) in one province, according to the Associated Press. Mongabay previously reported that the fires have also caused hazardous air quality, and the destruction of vegetation has led to food shortages for wildlife like long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis). The smoke has even drifted across the border to neighboring Malaysia. The wildfires have also affected critical conservation work, Mongabay previously reported. In Borneo’s West Kalimantan province, fires came close to an orangutan rehabilitation facility run by the nonprofit YIARI, where more than 60 critically endangered Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) are housed after being rescued from the illegal wildlife trade and habitat loss. Meanwhile, the health toll is rising&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/indonesia-charges-72-over-fires-as-haze-chokes-borneo-and-sumatra/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/indonesia-charges-72-over-fires-as-haze-chokes-borneo-and-sumatra/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327302</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Only 1,325-1,648 wild elephants left in Indonesia, government says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/only-1325-1648-wild-elephants-left-in-indonesia-government-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/only-1325-1648-wild-elephants-left-in-indonesia-government-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2026 17:41:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dyna Rochmyaningsih]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/25160441/AP958512122711-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327276</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Mammals, Ungulates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new 10-year plan for elephant conservation released by the Indonesian government places the country’s wild elephant population at an estimated 1,325-1,648 individuals. The previous figure, published in 2007, was 2,400-2,800 individuals, meaning the new estimate represents a decline of 41-45%. The launch of the 2026-2036 strategy and action plan comes after a long wait. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new 10-year plan for elephant conservation released by the Indonesian government places the country’s wild elephant population at an estimated 1,325-1,648 individuals. The previous figure, published in 2007, was 2,400-2,800 individuals, meaning the new estimate represents a decline of 41-45%. The launch of the 2026-2036 strategy and action plan comes after a long wait. After the 2007-2017 elephant plan expired, the government was supposed to release a new one. While a draft 2019-2029 plan was completed in 2017, then-President Joko Widodo’s administration never finalized the plan or shared it with the public. The draft 2019-2029 plan, seen by Mongabay, placed Indonesia’s elephant population at just 928-1,379 individuals, Mongabay reported in 2022. The plans are drafted by the Indonesian Elephant Conservation Forum (FKGI), a multi-stakeholder group composed of conservationists from NGOs and government agencies, and submitted to the forestry ministry for approval. FKGI deputy head Wishnu Sukmantoro suggested the discrepancy between the new plan and the previous unreleased one was due to the incorporation of new data. “The higher figure [in 2026] doesn’t mean the elephant population has increased” since 2017, Wishnu told Mongabay. The updated number better represents the situation on the ground, he said. “It is a combination of scientific analysis and agreements among elephant conservationists.” Nearly all of Indonesia’s elephants are Sumatran elephants (Elephas maximus sumatranus), a critically endangered subspecies of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), which is itself endangered. Fewer than 52,000 Asian elephants are left, most of them in India, according to WWF. Indonesia’s new&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/only-1325-1648-wild-elephants-left-in-indonesia-government-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/only-1325-1648-wild-elephants-left-in-indonesia-government-says/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327276</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Congo&#8217;s Ebola outbreak records one of its highest weekly death tolls yet</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/congos-ebola-outbreak-records-one-of-its-highest-weekly-death-tolls-yet/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/congos-ebola-outbreak-records-one-of-its-highest-weekly-death-tolls-yet/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2026 17:29:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Associated Press]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/25172559/AP26230686221639-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=327294</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Diseases, Health, One Health, Planetary Health, Public Health, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BUNIA, Congo (AP) — More than 300 people died of Ebola in eastern Congo in the past week, one of the highest weekly tolls yet, government data showed Monday, as health workers struggle to catch up with an outbreak that is spreading at unprecedented speed. Ministry of Health data showed that as of Saturday, the outbreak had recorded [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BUNIA, Congo (AP) — More than 300 people died of Ebola in eastern Congo in the past week, one of the highest weekly tolls yet, government data showed Monday, as health workers struggle to catch up with an outbreak that is spreading at unprecedented speed. Ministry of Health data showed that as of Saturday, the outbreak had recorded 5,514 cases and 2,642 deaths, including 317 deaths reported in the previous seven days. But Congolese experts have said the outbreak that started weeks before it was confirmed could be three times the known size. This is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history, with many people dying outside treatment centers. It has recorded seven times more deaths at this stage than the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak that is the deadliest in history with over 11,000 in all. Most new cases in Ituri province, the current epicenter, still come from outside monitored contacts. Nearly half of people infected have died — 47.9% — but the government data shows much higher rates in hard-to-reach areas such as North Kivu province, which has a fatality rate of 68.6%. Frontline workers to receive vaccine used in past outbreaks A key challenge has been the lack of approved vaccines or treatments for the rare Bundibugyo virus responsible for the outbreak. On Friday, Congo received more than 16,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine that was effective in past Ebola outbreaks caused by a different, more common type. The World Health Organization says it also will be used in clinical trials for a Bundibugyo virus vaccine. WHO&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/congos-ebola-outbreak-records-one-of-its-highest-weekly-death-tolls-yet/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327294</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>EU’s deforestation rule could derail Liberia’s cocoa trade</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/eus-deforestation-rule-could-derail-liberias-cocoa-trade/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/eus-deforestation-rule-could-derail-liberias-cocoa-trade/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2026 15:12:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/15115102/Photo-7-Cocoa-25-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=327240</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Cacao, Community Forests, Conservation, Crops, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, EUDR, Forests, Governance, Law, Natural Resources, and Plantations]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Liberia’s Grand Gedeh county, deforestation for cocoa has soared since 2020, pushing the region’s cocoa trade into an uncertain future. The EU is Liberia’s biggest cocoa customer, but is set to implement the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which bans the import of forest products, including cocoa, made on land deforested after Dec. 31, 2020, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Liberia’s Grand Gedeh county, deforestation for cocoa has soared since 2020, pushing the region’s cocoa trade into an uncertain future. The EU is Liberia’s biggest cocoa customer, but is set to implement the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which bans the import of forest products, including cocoa, made on land deforested after Dec. 31, 2020, reports Mongabay’s Ashoka Mukpo. “If cocoa from Liberia was produced on land cleared after that EUDR cutoff date, it would fail on deforestation grounds,” Owen Gibbons, senior manager for global advocacy and UK public affairs, at the Rainforest Alliance, told Mongabay. In 2024, the EU imported more than 17,000 metric tons of cocoa from Liberia, a 30% increase in two years. Soon, Liberian cocoa producers will have to show their beans weren’t produced on forest land cleared after December 2020. However, most cacao plantations in Grand Gedeh are deep inside forests. In fact, much of the forest loss in the region has occurred since 2020. Before that, 99% of the county was covered by forests. Primary forest loss in Grand Gedeh, 2015-2025. Image by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay. Some forests are communally owned and private individuals can lease them out. However, cacao plantations have also encroached into other forests, including the proposed Kwa National Park area, where commercial agriculture is currently banned. To meet the EUDR requirements, cocoa producers will have to show their EU customers exactly where the cocoa plantations are and when they started production. Tracing every plantation and its production is a massive&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/eus-deforestation-rule-could-derail-liberias-cocoa-trade/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/eus-deforestation-rule-could-derail-liberias-cocoa-trade/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327240</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Inspiring young herpetologists in Sri Lanka: Interview with Anslem de Silva</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/inspiring-young-herpetologists-in-sri-lanka-interview-with-anslem-de-silva/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/inspiring-young-herpetologists-in-sri-lanka-interview-with-anslem-de-silva/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2026 14:53:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/25122934/3.-in-the-field-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327246</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Education, Herps, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Lizards, Reptiles, Science, and Tropical Conservation Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Sri Lankan-born conservation biologist and National Geographic explorer Ruchira Somaweera is internationally recognized for his award-winning wildlife research, photography and storytelling. Despite his global achievements, Somaweera treasures an old journal copy containing a prophecy. When he was 13 years old, Somaweera received a copy of the research journal Lyriocephalus with a handwritten note [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Sri Lankan-born conservation biologist and National Geographic explorer Ruchira Somaweera is internationally recognized for his award-winning wildlife research, photography and storytelling. Despite his global achievements, Somaweera treasures an old journal copy containing a prophecy. When he was 13 years old, Somaweera received a copy of the research journal Lyriocephalus with a handwritten note which read: “One day you will be a great herpetologist,” signed by Anslem de Silva. “Almost 30 years ago, I got hooked into herpetology after reading a series of newspaper articles written by de Silva on Sri Lankan snakes in a local science publication. Those articles inspired me to prepare a small booklet on snakes as my school science project. Most of the herpetologists of my generation were groomed by de Silva, and hundreds, if not thousands, of students have been inspired by him, just like I was,” Somaweera told Mongabay. In 1995, Ruchira Somaweera received a copy of the research journal Lyriocephalus from Anslem de Silva with the signed inscription: “One day you will be a great herpetologist.” Image courtesy of Ruchira Somaweera. Anslem de Silva is widely regarded as as the father of modern herpetology in Sri Lanka, having dedicated more than six decades to studying the island’s reptiles and amphibians. His pioneering research, publications and conservation efforts have transformed scientific understanding of Sri Lanka’s remarkable herpetofauna. Sri Lanka’s herpetofauna represents the island’s extraordinary diversity of reptiles and amphibians, including snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, frogs, toads and caecilians, with many species found nowhere&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/inspiring-young-herpetologists-in-sri-lanka-interview-with-anslem-de-silva/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/inspiring-young-herpetologists-in-sri-lanka-interview-with-anslem-de-silva/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327246</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cambodia targets online wildlife trade on social media, but experts say it’s not enough</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cambodia-targets-online-wildlife-trade-on-social-media-but-experts-say-its-not-enough/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cambodia-targets-online-wildlife-trade-on-social-media-but-experts-say-its-not-enough/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2026 12:42:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/21160626/2-elephant-tusk-offered-for-sale-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326945</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Crime, Environmental Law, Governance, Illegal Trade, Law, Law Enforcement, Social Media, Trade, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Cambodia’s environment ministry has urged the public and social media content creators to stop making or sharing content that encourages the commerce, consumption or capture of wildlife. It has warned that such actions are illegal and pose risks to human health and the country’s wild animals and plants. At a press conference on Aug. 7, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Cambodia’s environment ministry has urged the public and social media content creators to stop making or sharing content that encourages the commerce, consumption or capture of wildlife. It has warned that such actions are illegal and pose risks to human health and the country’s wild animals and plants. At a press conference on Aug. 7, 2026, ministry spokesperson Khvay Atitya called on social media users to refrain from posting wildlife content to garner clicks and promote trade, including sharing photos and videos of eating or preparing dishes made from wildlife and rare plants. “Promoting love for wildlife does not mean keeping wild animals in cages,” Atitya reportedly said in response to questions from the press. “Eating wildlife meat provides no benefit and can pose serious health risks to consumers.” Atitya urged relevant ministries and authorities to take legal action against those involved in online wildlife commerce, stressing that online sales are as illegal as physical trading, according to a report from The Phnom Penh Post. Russell Gray, head of ECO-SOLVE at the Swiss-based Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), who studies the online illegal wildlife trade, said this was a welcome move. “One challenge we consistently see in the online illegal wildlife trade is that it can be treated as separate from the physical wildlife trade, when in reality the two are increasingly inseparable,” Gray said. “Social media, messaging applications and online marketplaces are now the primary infrastructure through which wildlife is advertised, buyers and sellers connect, and trafficking&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cambodia-targets-online-wildlife-trade-on-social-media-but-experts-say-its-not-enough/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326945</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>DNA analysis of Asiatic wild dogs scat in India reveals wild prey preference</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/dna-analysis-of-asiatic-wild-dogs-scat-in-india-reveals-wild-prey-preference/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/dna-analysis-of-asiatic-wild-dogs-scat-in-india-reveals-wild-prey-preference/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2026 11:14:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Naina Rao]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/25111403/Dhole_Asiatic_wild_dogs_in_Bandipur_National_park-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=327243</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, India, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Conservation, Food, Forests, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, National Parks, Research, Science, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Endangered Asiatic wild dogs in central India almost entirely eat wild prey, even where they overlap with livestock, according to a recent study. The findings show that maintaining healthy wild prey populations is key to conserving the species, reports contributor Rajeev Tyagi for Mongabay India. The study, led by the National Centre for Biological Sciences [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Endangered Asiatic wild dogs in central India almost entirely eat wild prey, even where they overlap with livestock, according to a recent study. The findings show that maintaining healthy wild prey populations is key to conserving the species, reports contributor Rajeev Tyagi for Mongabay India. The study, led by the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) in Bengaluru and the Maharashtra Forest Department, analyzed the feces or scat of dholes or Asiatic wild dogs (Cuon alpinus) inside the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in the state of Maharashtra. Instead of scooping up entire piles of dhole scat, forest staff and researchers collected only small pinches of material during the monsoon and winter of 2022-2023. Researchers then used a method called DNA metabarcoding to analyze what the dholes had eaten. It’s a technique that extracts genetic material from fecal samples and matches it against a massive reference database containing information from tens of thousands of species. Traditional methods for analyzing carnivore diets rely on microhistology — examining prey hairs found in animal feces of scat under a microscope. But this method is vulnerable to observer bias, said study co-author and molecular ecologist Abhinav Tyagi. “Different people can categorise hair differently, and it induces a human or an observer&#8217;s bias,” Tyagi said. Arjun Srivathsa, a wildlife biologist affiliated with the Wildlife Conservation Society &#8211; India and not involved in the study, said that traditional methods are also prone to errors like misidentification of species or non-detection of certain species. However, the DNA barcoding method&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/dna-analysis-of-asiatic-wild-dogs-scat-in-india-reveals-wild-prey-preference/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/dna-analysis-of-asiatic-wild-dogs-scat-in-india-reveals-wild-prey-preference/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327243</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Palm oil firms kept zero-deforestation pledges, but forests saw little extra benefit</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/palm-oil-firms-kept-zero-deforestation-pledges-but-forests-saw-little-extra-benefit/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/palm-oil-firms-kept-zero-deforestation-pledges-but-forests-saw-little-extra-benefit/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2026 09:46:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/25084940/oil-palm-deforestation-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327215</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Business, Conservation, Crops, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Food Industry, Forests, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Law, Palm Oil, Plantations, Tropical Deforestation, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A new study of palm oil concessions linked to Indonesian supply chains finds no evidence that corporate zero-deforestation commitments have led to additional reductions in deforestation. Tropical countries such as Indonesia continue to lose their forests at an alarming pace. In 2025, the world lost 4.3 million hectares of tropical primary forest, equivalent [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A new study of palm oil concessions linked to Indonesian supply chains finds no evidence that corporate zero-deforestation commitments have led to additional reductions in deforestation. Tropical countries such as Indonesia continue to lose their forests at an alarming pace. In 2025, the world lost 4.3 million hectares of tropical primary forest, equivalent to more than 11 football fields of forest a minute . To curb this trend, palm oil-producing countries have introduced national policies in the past decade, while companies have increasingly adopted zero-deforestation commitments (ZDCs). When viewed through a before-and-after lens, Indonesian palm oil ZDCs appear highly successful at reducing deforestation. To determine how effective these commitments actually are, an international team of researchers compared deforestation trends in Indonesia’s palm oil sector — the world’s largest producer and exporter of the commodity — between concessions linked to supply chains with ZDCs and those without them. Using public databases to identify companies that have adopted ZDCs, the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), found that companies had largely complied with their commitments. However, it found no evidence that those commitments produced an additional reduction in deforestation in Indonesian palm-oil concessions beyond broader changes affecting the sector. In both ZDC-linked and non-ZDC concessions, the study says, . During the full implementation period for ZDCs from 2018 to 2020, annualized deforestation fell to around 0.5% in both groups. In the researchers’ preferred, the decline was 6.5 percentage points in ZDC-linked concessions and 6.63&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/palm-oil-firms-kept-zero-deforestation-pledges-but-forests-saw-little-extra-benefit/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327215</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Plans of Peru’s new administration spur concern among environmentalists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/plans-of-perus-new-administration-spur-concern-among-environmentalists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/plans-of-perus-new-administration-spur-concern-among-environmentalists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2026 09:38:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/17050949/peru_221217-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327225</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Crime, Development, Energy, Energy Security, Energy Transition, Environmental Policy, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Natural Resources, Organized Crime, Politics, Pollution, Renewable Energy, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi from the Popular Force Party was sworn in as the new president of Peru on July 28. Fujimori, who has pledged to tackle insecurity using greater force and militarization, narrowly defeated her left-wing opponent Roberto Sánchez by fewer than 50,000 votes on June 7. The new president has promised to expand [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi from the Popular Force Party was sworn in as the new president of Peru on July 28. Fujimori, who has pledged to tackle insecurity using greater force and militarization, narrowly defeated her left-wing opponent Roberto Sánchez by fewer than 50,000 votes on June 7. The new president has promised to expand fossil fuel production and mining across the country, raising concerns among environmentalists and Indigenous leaders about the future of the Peruvian Amazon, as well as its international commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) — a national climate action plan under the Paris Agreement. The country submitted its first NDC in 2016, which was then updated in 2020 and 2025. In its plan, it has committed to diversify renewable energy sources, strengthen sustainable transportation, reduce deforestation, protect natural areas and support Indigenous and local communities, among other mitigation priorities. Experts, environmentalists and Indigenous leaders expressed concerns about the government’s plans, particularly Fujimori’s promise to expand the exploration and exploitation of energy resources, such as the promotion of new lots in the Amazon and the northern coast. Peru&#8217;s President Keiko Fujimori, center, poses for a group photo with members of her cabinet at the government palace in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo) “The current government is a bit pragmatic in its decisions because they are really driven by wanting development without considering the consequences for the Amazonian peoples,” Matsés Indigenous leader Leo Chuma Teca Beso told Mongabay&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/plans-of-perus-new-administration-spur-concern-among-environmentalists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/plans-of-perus-new-administration-spur-concern-among-environmentalists/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327225</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bogong moths support Australia’s alpine ecosystems, but face uncertain future</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/bogong-moths-support-australias-alpine-ecosystems-but-face-uncertain-future/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/bogong-moths-support-australias-alpine-ecosystems-but-face-uncertain-future/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2026 08:45:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hannah Thomasy]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Yenni Kwok]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/25073757/bogong-moth-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327204</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biology, Conservation, Ecosystem Engineers, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Insects, Moths, Research, Science, Species, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At first glance, Australia’s bogong moth is a decidedly unspectacular-looking creature. The moths are typically a dark, mottled brown and each weighs less than a Tic Tac mint or half a gram. But looks can be deceiving. Every spring in the Southern Hemisphere, from September to November, billions of bogong moths (Agrotis infusa) undertake an [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At first glance, Australia’s bogong moth is a decidedly unspectacular-looking creature. The moths are typically a dark, mottled brown and each weighs less than a Tic Tac mint or half a gram. But looks can be deceiving. Every spring in the Southern Hemisphere, from September to November, billions of bogong moths (Agrotis infusa) undertake an epic journey. Using the stars and the Earth’s magnetic field, these tiny insects navigate hundreds of kilometers across Australia. Their destination is the Australian Alps, located in the far southeast corner of the country, where they will shelter in cool caves for the duration of the summer. The moths are a critical resource for the many rare and wonderful species that live in these mountains. “The whole [alpine] zone relies on the bogong moths,” said Marissa Parrott, a senior conservation biologist at Zoos Victoria. “They’re the second largest influx of nutrients into the Alps every year, beaten only by the sun.” But the moth’s future is far from certain. Their numbers have been slowly declining since the 1980s, and in 2017, populations crashed, likely due to extreme drought across much of southeastern Australia. A bogong moth in Sydney. Image by John Tann via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). At several locations, cave walls that had once been densely blanketed with moths — several thousand occupying each square meter (equivalent to 11 square feet) — were all but empty. “They went from four billion to nearly undetectable,” Parrott said. The population collapse threatens the alpine ecosystem,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/bogong-moths-support-australias-alpine-ecosystems-but-face-uncertain-future/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327204</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Raja Ampat, children learn that their knowledge can help protect their islands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-raja-ampat-children-learn-that-their-knowledge-can-help-protect-their-islands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-raja-ampat-children-learn-that-their-knowledge-can-help-protect-their-islands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 23:31:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/24232329/IMG_20260825_0810072-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327187</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Energy Transition, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Marine, Marine Animals, Mining, Natural Resources, Oceans, Protected Areas, Rays, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ARBOREK, West Papua, Indonesia — “Rockhead fish, salamander fish, starfish and coral.” That’s what dozens of children from Arborek, a small island in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago, said when asked what they see in nature that is yellow and orange. The children rattled off the fish and other marine life they encounter when they play [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ARBOREK, West Papua, Indonesia — “Rockhead fish, salamander fish, starfish and coral.” That’s what dozens of children from Arborek, a small island in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago, said when asked what they see in nature that is yellow and orange. The children rattled off the fish and other marine life they encounter when they play in the sea, during a reading of a children’s book about Raja Ampat and the threat of nickel mining. A coral reef and marine life in the waters off Raja Ampat in Southwest Papua province, Indonesia. Image courtesy of Econusa. Research suggests that children who grow up closely connected to their surroundings can develop sophisticated understandings of their local environment. A 2014 study of children in 22 villages in Indonesian Borneo, for example, found that they recognized relationships among forests, rivers, wildlife and other environmental changes. So Sekar Bestari, the book’s illustrator, wasn’t surprised by the children’s answers. “Most of the time when we read the books to children, they understand them, so don’t underestimate children’s knowledge,” she said after the reading in Arborek. “We’re not surprised anymore today.” The reading was part of a three-day gathering of Indigenous communities in Arborek that brought together representatives from 20 Indigenous subtribes in Raja Ampat, as well as Indigenous people from other parts of Indonesia and abroad. The gathering, organized by Greenpeace Indonesia and local NGO Institut USBA, was intended to strengthen solidarity among Indigenous communities in protecting their lands, waters and biodiversity. The children’s knowledge of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-raja-ampat-children-learn-that-their-knowledge-can-help-protect-their-islands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-raja-ampat-children-learn-that-their-knowledge-can-help-protect-their-islands/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327187</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How a rare bird sparked a wildlife movement across 16 villages in Guyana</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/how-a-rare-bird-sparked-a-wildlife-movement-across-16-villages-in-guyana/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/how-a-rare-bird-sparked-a-wildlife-movement-across-16-villages-in-guyana/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 23:26:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gentry Hale]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/24145023/red-siskin-Spinus-cucullatus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327131</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Guyana, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Culture, Endangered Species, Indigenous Peoples, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[WICHABAI, Guyana — At sunrise in Guyana’s South Rupununi, Leroy Ignacio stops beside a tree scored with large claw marks. The animal responsible was a giant anteater. “They even rub their backs on the trunk to leave a scent behind,” says Ignacio, president of the South Rupununi Conservation Society (SRCS), as he demonstrates the motion. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[WICHABAI, Guyana — At sunrise in Guyana’s South Rupununi, Leroy Ignacio stops beside a tree scored with large claw marks. The animal responsible was a giant anteater. “They even rub their backs on the trunk to leave a scent behind,” says Ignacio, president of the South Rupununi Conservation Society (SRCS), as he demonstrates the motion. Indigenous researchers had long observed anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) climbing and marking trees, behaviors previously documented by scientists only in isolated cases. Working with four Indigenous communities, SRCS placed cameras at trees identified by locals. The resulting 883 recorded visits suggested the solitary animals use the trees to communicate. For nearly a quarter-century, SRCS has built a multi-community approach to conservation grounded in traditional knowledge. Its members are villagers, farmers and teachers who work with participating communities to research wildlife, develop conservation guidelines and teach local ecology. Before SRCS, Indigenous-led conservation in the Rupununi was mostly in the form of scattered projects and traditional stewardship by Makushi and Wapichan communities. But the discovery of an endangered bird, the red siskin (Spinus cucullatus), gave several South Rupununi communities a reason to organize across village boundaries. A flock of red siskins in Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo, Guyana. Image by Nick Athanas via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). A multi-community movement It all began with a scientific trip, recounts Ignacio. In 2000, researchers from the Smithsonian and the University of Kansas, both in the U.S., came to the South Rupununi to survey birds. Duane De Freitas and other young Indigenous residents&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/how-a-rare-bird-sparked-a-wildlife-movement-across-16-villages-in-guyana/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327131</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Xokleng Indigenous people plant thousands of critically endangered pine in Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/xokleng-indigenous-people-plant-thousands-of-critically-endangered-pine-in-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/xokleng-indigenous-people-plant-thousands-of-critically-endangered-pine-in-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 22:16:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/20151307/8C9A8751-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=327185</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Culture, Endangered Species, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Nature-based climate solutions, Plants, Protected Areas, Reforestation, Solutions, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Xokleng Indigenous people of Santa Catarina state of southern Brazil have planted nearly a  100,000 seedlings of a critically endangered native tree, Mongabay contributor Letícia Klein reported. The Brazilian pine (Araucaria angustifolia), or araucária, can grow more than 50 meters (164 feet) tall and has a straight trunk with a broad crown of branches [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Xokleng Indigenous people of Santa Catarina state of southern Brazil have planted nearly a  100,000 seedlings of a critically endangered native tree, Mongabay contributor Letícia Klein reported. The Brazilian pine (Araucaria angustifolia), or araucária, can grow more than 50 meters (164 feet) tall and has a straight trunk with a broad crown of branches near its top. Araucária pine forests historically covered large swathes of southern Brazil, but their range declined by roughly 97% in the last century. “Just as our pine is endangered, my people are also endangered, and consequently our language and culture are endangered,” Carl Gakran, executive director of the Zág (pronounced zā) Institute, told Klein. The institute was founded in conjunction with Isabel Gakran, his wife, to organize and expand the replanting effort. Carl Gakran began the restoration effort in 2016 after he learned that the Brazilian pine was listed as critically endangered by the IUCN Red List, the global conservation authority. He initially planned to grow just 10 trees on his own property. But the idea gained traction with the community, and they began the project the following year. Araucária pine trees produce edible nuts called pinhão, a staple food in the culinary tradition of southern Brazil. They are also eaten by at least another 22 animal species. Project organizers and volunteers harvest the seeds but leave at least 40% behind for wildlife. “Following our elders’ knowledge, we speak to the seeds, explain what’s happening, and perform harvest rituals. We harvest 60%, no more&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/xokleng-indigenous-people-plant-thousands-of-critically-endangered-pine-in-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327185</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Did you know forests can save themselves?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/did-you-know-forests-can-save-themselves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/did-you-know-forests-can-save-themselves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 21:58:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jonathan Mbu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sam Lee]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/24215742/NTFPs_Thumbnail.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=327183</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Solutions, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Did you know forests can save themselves? (With a little help from us, of course). Turns out, trees can be super valuable apart from being used for timber. Their seeds, nuts, leaves, bark, and more are natural commodities&#8230; and have the potential to prevent logging, support local communities, and protect the health of our precious [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Did you know forests can save themselves? (With a little help from us, of course). Turns out, trees can be super valuable apart from being used for timber. Their seeds, nuts, leaves, bark, and more are natural commodities&#8230; and have the potential to prevent logging, support local communities, and protect the health of our precious ecosystems. These are called non-timber forest products (aka NTFPs). In this 4-part series with @therainforester and Mongabay, we explore the ways that harvesting sustainably from our forests can keep them alive! Follow along for more episodes.This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/did-you-know-forests-can-save-themselves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/did-you-know-forests-can-save-themselves/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327183</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rescue networks built by fire: Saving animals from Australia’s bushfires</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/rescue-networks-built-by-fire-saving-animals-from-australias-bushfires/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/rescue-networks-built-by-fire-saving-animals-from-australias-bushfires/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 21:25:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Starre Vartan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/20122246/1-Koala_in_Zoo_Duisburg-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326765</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Disasters, Environment, Fires, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Marsupials, Research, Threatened species, Water Pollution, Wildlife, Wildlife Rehabilitation, and Wildlife Rescues]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NEW SOUTH WALES, Australia — A wallaby with a joey tucked into her pouch grazes beneath towering eucalyptus trees. Black cockatoos wheel overhead, their wailing calls echoing across the green hills of Vanessa Hartley&#8217;s property on the South Coast of New South Wales in Australia. A kangaroo bounces away, seeking better forage. The russet and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[NEW SOUTH WALES, Australia — A wallaby with a joey tucked into her pouch grazes beneath towering eucalyptus trees. Black cockatoos wheel overhead, their wailing calls echoing across the green hills of Vanessa Hartley&#8217;s property on the South Coast of New South Wales in Australia. A kangaroo bounces away, seeking better forage. The russet and golden horses that wander nearby are used to the wildlife: They ignore the bounding animals and the bird cries. Standing there on a blue-sky autumn afternoon, it was difficult to imagine that just a few years earlier this same landscape was engulfed in flames. &#8220;It was full-on,&#8221; Hartley said, scratching her brindled sheepdog’s ears. &#8220;The horse poo was spontaneously combusting.&#8221; During Australia&#8217;s catastrophic Black Summer bushfires of 2019-2020, roughly 95% of Jerrawangala National Park burned as repeated fire fronts swept through. The park borders Hartley’s property, where she rehabilitates abused and surrendered horses before partnering them with people experiencing mental health challenges and disabilities as support animals. When smoke rolled over the ridgeline behind her pastures, Hartley posted a message on Facebook asking for help. Within an hour, neighbors and strangers arrived with trucks and horse trailers and evacuated all 19 of Hartley’s horses. “It made me cry knowing how supported we were,” she said. After the fires passed, Hartley returned to find another crisis unfolding. The surviving wildlife had little food or water, and the land was quiet. When she finally spotted a bedraggled wallaby (Phascolarctos cinereus), then another, she was relieved. “But they&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/rescue-networks-built-by-fire-saving-animals-from-australias-bushfires/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/rescue-networks-built-by-fire-saving-animals-from-australias-bushfires/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326765</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Spain &#038; South Africa, communities use restoration to &#8216;grow&#8217; fire insurance (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-spain-south-africa-communities-use-restoration-to-grow-fire-insurance-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-spain-south-africa-communities-use-restoration-to-grow-fire-insurance-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 19:24:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire PattersonPenelope Choussat]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/24184231/Screenshot-2026-07-14-at-18.24.44-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327163</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Europe, Global, South Africa, Southern Africa, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Finance, Fires, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Nature-based climate solutions, Restoration, Solutions, and Sustainable Forest Management]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Huddled shoulder to shoulder, a flicker of glowing orange illuminates the faces gathered around. The world quiets. The dark presses in from every side, and the cold with it. At the center of it all, a fire is roaring. Fire warmed us, fed us, and kept the dark at bay long after the sun went [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Huddled shoulder to shoulder, a flicker of glowing orange illuminates the faces gathered around. The world quiets. The dark presses in from every side, and the cold with it. At the center of it all, a fire is roaring. Fire warmed us, fed us, and kept the dark at bay long after the sun went down, allowing us to gather together when solitude was the alternative. But the same flames that draw people together can just as easily tear through a landscape, destroying livelihoods and communities. Whether they do depends on the condition of the land itself. In some cases, fires are a natural part of the ecosystem. But when forests are poorly managed they become fuel waiting for a spark. Invasive vegetation, in particular, can burn hotter and more explosively than the indigenous ecosystems it displaces, turning a landscape adapted to survive fire into one that is destroyed by it. Restore the landscape, and you don&#8217;t eliminate fire, but you can change how fire behaves. In that sense, healthy landscapes act as vital risk infrastructure, reducing the likelihood that a spark becomes a catastrophe. The landscapes of Spain&#8217;s Muga Valley and South Africa&#8217;s Langkloof share a history of poor management that has left them degraded and exposed to wildfire. Today, both areas are discovering that managing fire as a part of restoring ecosystems is vital to protecting both communities and economies from disaster. Two hours north of Barcelona, the Muga Valley is verdant but increasingly vulnerable to fire after&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-spain-south-africa-communities-use-restoration-to-grow-fire-insurance-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-spain-south-africa-communities-use-restoration-to-grow-fire-insurance-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327163</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Local knowledge guides rediscovery of spinach pipefish, not seen in four decades</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/local-knowledge-guides-rediscovery-of-spinach-pipefish-not-seen-in-four-decades/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/local-knowledge-guides-rediscovery-of-spinach-pipefish-not-seen-in-four-decades/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 17:19:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/24155007/Spinach_Pipefish_iv_%C2%A9_New_Guinea_Binatang_Research_Center_edit-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327148</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Melanesia, Oceania, Pacific Islands, and Papua New Guinea]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biology, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Indigenous Peoples, Rediscovered Species, Species, Surveying, Traditional Knowledge, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[By mid-June, Jerrica Agebigo was staring at disappointment. Her nearly two-week-long, exhausting search for a mysterious fish that hasn’t been seen by scientists for nearly four decades was drawing to a close. Her team of researchers had braved Papua New Guinea’s hot, humid summer days, meandering along the Sepik River’s course by boat and canoe [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[By mid-June, Jerrica Agebigo was staring at disappointment. Her nearly two-week-long, exhausting search for a mysterious fish that hasn’t been seen by scientists for nearly four decades was drawing to a close. Her team of researchers had braved Papua New Guinea’s hot, humid summer days, meandering along the Sepik River’s course by boat and canoe — but the spinach pipefish still eluded them. “We had spent days travelling through the Lower Sepik, talking with communities and looking for information about the pipefish,” Agebigo, a researcher at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology and the New Guinea Binatang Research Centre, wrote in an email. “We had almost given up hope.” The spinach pipefish (Microphis spinachioides) is a small, slender pipefish with an elongated snout it uses to capture small prey, reaching maybe 15 centimeters (6 inches) in length. This greenish-brown freshwater creature, a close relative of seahorses and seadragons, is well camouflaged in its only known home here in the Sepik River — the country’s longest waterway — hiding among water lilies and other plants near riverbanks. Just like seahorses, pipefish males carry their embryos in a brood pouch for weeks until the young are born. Much about the spinach pipefish has remained an enigma, because scientists haven’t seen it since 1985. It was last assessed for the IUCN Red List in 2016, and at the time, was classified as data deficient by IUCN, the global conservation authority. The only known museum specimen, on which the taxonomy of the species&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/local-knowledge-guides-rediscovery-of-spinach-pipefish-not-seen-in-four-decades/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327148</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Daniel Janzen and the long work of bringing back a forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/daniel-janzen-and-the-long-work-of-bringing-back-a-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/daniel-janzen-and-the-long-work-of-bringing-back-a-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 14:48:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/21213756/Dan-Janzen-color-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327012</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Biology, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Dry Forests, Ecology, Environment, Evolution, Forests, Insects, Landscape Restoration, Research, Restoration, Science, Solutions, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In northwestern Costa Rica, the forest did not return all at once. First the cattle were removed. Then the fires had to be stopped. Introduced grasses made the old ranchlands burn too easily. Fence lines had to be watched. Seeds had to arrive by wind, birds, bats, and the stomachs of passing animals. People had [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In northwestern Costa Rica, the forest did not return all at once. First the cattle were removed. Then the fires had to be stopped. Introduced grasses made the old ranchlands burn too easily. Fence lines had to be watched. Seeds had to arrive by wind, birds, bats, and the stomachs of passing animals. People had to believe the land could become something other than pasture, and then stay long enough to see it happen. A park on paper can still burn. It can still be poached, logged, ignored, or resented. The work requires science, salaries, political agreements, national investment, school programs, local trust, and daily maintenance. It requires people who remain after the first burst of money and attention has passed. Popular accounts sometimes reduced the story to a solitary figure: an American ecologist with a beard, a camera, a theory, and a park. It was never that simple. For more than half a century, Daniel Hunt Janzen has worked in tandem with Winnie Hallwachs, his wife, scientific partner, and frequent interpreter to the human world. Around them grew a larger Costa Rican undertaking, carried by park leaders, field staff, parataxonomists, teachers, donors, government ministers, neighbors, and families who turned a conservation idea into a working landscape. Janzen is now 87. His field work has slowed, and he has stepped back from university teaching to focus on his role as Chief Scientist of the Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund (GDFCF), the nonprofit conservation organization he and Hallwachs founded with his&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/daniel-janzen-and-the-long-work-of-bringing-back-a-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/daniel-janzen-and-the-long-work-of-bringing-back-a-forest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327012</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Antarctic krill fishery closes months early amid increasing fishing pressure</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/antarctic-krill-fishery-closes-months-early-amid-increasing-fishing-pressure/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/antarctic-krill-fishery-closes-months-early-amid-increasing-fishing-pressure/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 14:37:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Francesco De Augustinis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/24133947/ShawnHeinrichs-20230209-142451-_DSC43001-gentoo-penguin-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327086</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Antarctica and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cetaceans, Conservation, Dolphins, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Law, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, Penguins, Seabirds, and Whales]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On Aug. 12, for the second year in a row, the krill fishery in the Southern Ocean closed early after reaching its annual catch limit of 620,000 metric tons. This precautionary quota is intended to prevent overfishing from affecting populations of this shrimp-like crustacean, which forms the base of the region’s food chain. The fishery’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On Aug. 12, for the second year in a row, the krill fishery in the Southern Ocean closed early after reaching its annual catch limit of 620,000 metric tons. This precautionary quota is intended to prevent overfishing from affecting populations of this shrimp-like crustacean, which forms the base of the region’s food chain. The fishery’s early closure was confirmed by scientists attending the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Open Science Conference, held in Oslo, Norway, from Aug. 10 to 14, 2026. “The fishery has closed early (before the end of November) because it has already caught 620,000t of krill,” Simeon Hill, marine and fisheries ecologist at the British Antarctic Survey, told Mongabay in an email. Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) can grow up to 6 centimeters (2.4 inches) long and live predominantly in schools. The species forms the basis of the diets of a large proportion of wildlife populations in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, including seals, whales, penguins, seabirds, fish and squid. In the last two decades, krill has attracted growing commercial interest owing to its use in aquaculture feed, pet food and omega-3 supplements for human consumption. The early closure of the fishery is linked to the growth of the fishing fleets targeting krill, as well as to the concentration of fishing activities in areas where krill is most abundant. These areas also coincide with the main feeding grounds of wildlife populations, raising concerns about the potential negative impact of this industry on the ecosystem. Antarctic krill (Euphausia&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/antarctic-krill-fishery-closes-months-early-amid-increasing-fishing-pressure/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/antarctic-krill-fishery-closes-months-early-amid-increasing-fishing-pressure/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327086</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A deadly cross over: In South Africa, rabies moves from land animals to seals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/a-deadly-cross-over-in-south-africa-rabies-moves-from-land-animals-to-seals/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/a-deadly-cross-over-in-south-africa-rabies-moves-from-land-animals-to-seals/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 14:21:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nic Bothma]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/24125554/a.-Rabies-Seals-10-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327100</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Diseases, Ecosystems, Environment, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Debbie Hendrikz was walking along her usual route on the shoreline when she crouched to photograph a seal. She is familiar with seals and has captured similar images along the beach. But this was different. “It just went for me,” the 49-year-old said. “I knew instinctively by the sound it [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Debbie Hendrikz was walking along her usual route on the shoreline when she crouched to photograph a seal. She is familiar with seals and has captured similar images along the beach. But this was different. “It just went for me,” the 49-year-old said. “I knew instinctively by the sound it made that I was its prey. It grabbed my arm and bit hard into a metal bracelet I was wearing, which saved me. I knew I had to get away and not let it get my feet in the soft sand. I managed to shake it off my arm and just got away.” &#8220;I never imagined anything like this could happen. It took me a long while to get over it.&#8221; Seals do not normally see humans as prey, but Hendrikz’s encounter is one of a growing list of recent attacks by the marine mammals in Cape Town. According to Gregg Oelofse, the City of Cape Town&#8217;s coastal manager, the city has recorded 135 incidents of aggressive seal behavior toward humans since September 2021. More than half, 73 incidents,  resulted in bite injuries ranging from broken skin to those requiring hospitalization in an intensive care unit. Researchers in South Africa suspect the incidents stem from a disease normally associated with land animals that appears to be leaping to Cape fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus) — rabies. According to South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), reports of rabies in seals around the world prior to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/a-deadly-cross-over-in-south-africa-rabies-moves-from-land-animals-to-seals/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/a-deadly-cross-over-in-south-africa-rabies-moves-from-land-animals-to-seals/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327100</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Dragonflies help protect water and ancestral Indigenous languages in Colombia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/dragonflies-help-protect-water-and-ancestral-indigenous-languages-in-colombia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/dragonflies-help-protect-water-and-ancestral-indigenous-languages-in-colombia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 12:22:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Manuel Fonseca]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/24120153/Hylaeonympha-magoi-1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326671</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity Hotspots, Citizen Science, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Ecosystems, Ecotourism, Freshwater, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Insects, Research, Tourism, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Every dragonfly story starts in the water, and Guainía, known as the land of many waters, should be the Olympus of these insects. The mix of waters from the Orinoquia and the Amazon with the vast pristine rainforest should make this region a dragonfly biodiversity hotspot. But little to nothing is known about the diversity [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Every dragonfly story starts in the water, and Guainía, known as the land of many waters, should be the Olympus of these insects. The mix of waters from the Orinoquia and the Amazon with the vast pristine rainforest should make this region a dragonfly biodiversity hotspot. But little to nothing is known about the diversity of these flying predators in this remote part of eastern Colombia. “When we started, very little was known; there were about 10 reported species,” Yiselle Cano, a doctoral candidate at the National University of La Plata, Argentina, and biodiversity leader of the project Dragones Guainía, told Mongabay in a video call. With rubber boots, long-sleeved shirts, hats and sweeping nets, Cano and her colleague Jenilee Montes go out every day and explore the waters of the Guainía in search of these insects. From small puddles to the deep-red waters of the Inirida River, these Colombian researchers have spent the last three years collecting and identifying dragonflies and damselflies in order to understand what is still left to protect, according to Cano. “I think we must be close to 120 species by now,” Cano said. “It’s a hugely diverse group, because it includes dragonflies native to the Orinoco, Amazonas and dragonflies that are endemic to the Guiana Shield.” Guainía, also known as the land of many waters, is a remote biodiversity hotspot at the meeting point of the Amazon Rainforest, the Orinoco River basin and the Guyana Shield. Image courtesy of Jenilee Montes. This discovery is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/dragonflies-help-protect-water-and-ancestral-indigenous-languages-in-colombia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/dragonflies-help-protect-water-and-ancestral-indigenous-languages-in-colombia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326671</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bangladesh’s green building drive grows beyond factories amid climate pressures</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/bangladeshs-green-building-drive-grows-beyond-factories-amid-climate-pressures/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/bangladeshs-green-building-drive-grows-beyond-factories-amid-climate-pressures/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 11:38:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ibrahim Hossain Ovi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/24110524/mahmudul-hasan-roni-RHj9x0iESvE-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327058</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Business, Climate Change, Developing Countries, Development, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Industry, Pollution, Solutions, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The concept of green building in Bangladesh started solely for its vast apparel industry. Now, the country’s corporates and realtors, too, are constructing green certified buildings, also known as eco-friendly buildings. The vision behind green building is to reduce environmental impacts and to also ensure a healthy workplace for employees. It has become a part [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The concept of green building in Bangladesh started solely for its vast apparel industry. Now, the country’s corporates and realtors, too, are constructing green certified buildings, also known as eco-friendly buildings. The vision behind green building is to reduce environmental impacts and to also ensure a healthy workplace for employees. It has become a part of corporate branding and responsibility towards sustainability to demonstrate care and function as carers of the environment, preserving for the next generation a healthy living. In Bangladesh According to the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), there are 35 certified buildings and corporate offices in Bangladesh representing various sectors like financial institutions, corporate offices and hospitals. Besides these, the country also has many green factories, mostly in the ready-made garments (RMG) sector. According to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Bangladesh houses 290 LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified RMG factories — including 125 platinum-rated, 145 gold-rated and 16 silver-rated. The country also holds 53 of the world&#8217;s top 100 highest-scoring LEED-certified factories. “Green-certified buildings in Bangladesh are typically associated with manufacturing and garments. Breaking this convention, Unilever Bangladesh [UBL] built its corporate building to demonstrate sustainability in corporate office environments as well, earning LEED-gold certification from USGBC in 2023,” said Syeda Durdana Kabir, human resources director of UBL. She said UBL’s initiative was driven by a clear vision: to integrate sustainability into daily operations rather than treat it as a one-time achievement. The corporate office was designed to minimize resource consumption while&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/bangladeshs-green-building-drive-grows-beyond-factories-amid-climate-pressures/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/bangladeshs-green-building-drive-grows-beyond-factories-amid-climate-pressures/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327058</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia integrates Indigenous data in bid to put customary lands on map</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indonesia-integrates-indigenous-data-in-bid-to-put-customary-lands-on-map/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indonesia-integrates-indigenous-data-in-bid-to-put-customary-lands-on-map/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 11:27:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/25122554/dayak-women-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327062</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Culture, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Mapping, Nature-based climate solutions, Social Conflict, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indigenous peoples in Indonesia have long faced a basic problem: Data on their communities, cultures and customary territories are scattered across government agencies and civil society organizations, making them less visible in spatial planning and permitting. The Indonesian government is trying to address that gap by integrating data from the Ministry of Culture, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indigenous peoples in Indonesia have long faced a basic problem: Data on their communities, cultures and customary territories are scattered across government agencies and civil society organizations, making them less visible in spatial planning and permitting. The Indonesian government is trying to address that gap by integrating data from the Ministry of Culture, the Ancestral Domain Registration Agency (BRWA) and the country’s largest Indigenous peoples’ alliance, AMAN, in a dataset covering 3,857 Indigenous communities. The government says the integrated data will strengthen policymaking and protection of Indigenous peoples. BRWA says the bigger significance could be spatial: Customary territory maps, which can show the ancestral lands, traditional territories, languages and more of Indigenous peoples, could eventually become part of the government’s geospatial data and potentially be visible in spatial planning and permitting. BRWA was established in 2010 by Indigenous and civil society organizations, including AMAN, to document and register customary territories amid the government’s slow progress in recognizing Indigenous peoples and their lands. The new integrated dataset was launched on Aug. 19 in Jakarta. Before the launch, data on Indigenous peoples had been scattered across various ministries, institutions and civil society organizations, according to Restu Gunawan, the Ministry of Culture’s director general of cultural and traditional protection. The differences matter, he said during the launch: Even a difference of one community in the datasets could translate into thousands of hectares of difference when it comes to customary territories. Didik Darmanto, director of religion, culture, youth and sports at the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/indonesia-integrates-indigenous-data-in-bid-to-put-customary-lands-on-map/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327062</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil’s unique data center boom rides on clean power despite social burden</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/brazils-unique-data-center-boom-rides-on-clean-power-despite-social-burden/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/brazils-unique-data-center-boom-rides-on-clean-power-despite-social-burden/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 09:00:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Francisco AmorimLaís MartinsNaira Hofmeister]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/21192238/Headerfeat-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326903</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Caatinga, Cerrado, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Artificial Intelligence, Data centers, Energy, Natural Resources, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Technology, and Wind Power]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Corporations benefit from wasted energy, while locals pay for grid upgrades and endure noise and water threats.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The global appetite for artificial intelligence is pushing Brazil to lead an unprecedented move in the world regarding data centers. While around the globe, big tech struggles to find energy to power the infrastructures that store and process data, in Brazil the story is just the opposite: Data center proposers come from the power industry itself — more precisely, renewable energy. An exclusive analysis conducted by The Intercept Brasil and Mongabay (read it in Portuguese) revealed that 65% of the requests to connect data centers to the main power grid originated from renewable energy companies — considering only plans presented to the Ministry of Mines and Energy through December 2025. By that date, 68 connection requests had been reported across 37 Brazilian municipalities. A combination of factors explains this phenomenon, starting with the extraordinary amount of electricity required to power data centers. The International Energy Agency projects that global data center energy consumption will double in the coming years, potentially reaching 945 TWh by 2030 — equivalent to Japan&#8217;s total consumption — with artificial intelligence accounting for 40% of that figure. With a predominantly renewable energy mix, Brazil has become an attractive destination for data centers. “We are a vast source of opportunities for those looking to invest in the decarbonization of energy mixes,” proclaimed Brazil’s Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, in January 2025 during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland — a trip undertaken with the mission of promoting Brazil to global investors, particularly those in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/brazils-unique-data-center-boom-rides-on-clean-power-despite-social-burden/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326903</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wind energy surplus fuels unregulated data centers in Brazil&#8217;s dry land</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/wind-energy-surplus-fuels-unregulated-data-centers-in-brazils-dry-land/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/wind-energy-surplus-fuels-unregulated-data-centers-in-brazils-dry-land/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 09:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Laís Martins]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/21204526/Headerfeat-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326800</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Caatinga, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Data centers, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Law, Natural Resources, Protected Areas, Regulations, Renewable Energy, Resource Conflict, Technology, and Wind Power]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A renewable boom brought high rents and noise, and now, a shadowy tech expansion is arriving unannounced.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GENTIO DO OURO, Brazil — From the main square in Gentio do Ouro, in northern Bahia state, you&#8217;ll see what appears in almost every small Brazilian town: The city hall, a bank branch, a bandstand and a sign with the town’s name. What distinguishes this landscape is on the horizon: Regardless of which direction you look, you&#8217;ll see giant windmills used to generate energy. The town was put on the wind turbine map more than 15 years ago, and now has 28 active wind farms, according to data from the Energy Transition Observatory. The turbines, however, don&#8217;t make Gentio do Ouro, on the outskirts of the beautiful landscapes of the Chapada Diamantina mountains, a sustainable hub. In the main square, a sculpture of a gold nugget is a nod to mining, an activity that runs strong in the region. And yet another outside influence is gaining traction: A plan to make this peaceful town a data center backyard. Similar to factories, these facilities process everything that is done on the internet — using lots of energy, benefiting few people, hiring even less and bringing about a new wave of environmental impacts. Although it has only 11,000 citizens, Gentio do Ouro is targeted by 12 requests to connect data centers to the energy grid. At the front of this race are the same companies that filled the region with wind turbines, impacting threatened biomes and even disturbing the sleep of the wind farms’ neighbors. One of the main streets in Gentio&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/wind-energy-surplus-fuels-unregulated-data-centers-in-brazils-dry-land/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326800</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>World must look to the past to prepare for likely unprecedented El Niño</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/world-must-look-to-the-past-to-prepare-for-likely-unprecedented-el-nino/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/world-must-look-to-the-past-to-prepare-for-likely-unprecedented-el-nino/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Aug 2026 21:47:45 +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/20/2026/08/21164227/12-Angat-river-in-the-Philippines-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326958</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Justice, Climate Science, Drought, Earth Science, El Nino, Environment, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Heatwave, Planetary Boundaries, Planetary Health, Research, and Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Countries across the world are bracing for what is increasingly certain to be a historic El Niño, with latest modeling suggesting the 2026-2027 event will be the strongest ever measured, possibly breaking records by a considerable and dangerous margin. International bodies including the World Health Organization (WHO), World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and World Food Programme [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Countries across the world are bracing for what is increasingly certain to be a historic El Niño, with latest modeling suggesting the 2026-2027 event will be the strongest ever measured, possibly breaking records by a considerable and dangerous margin. International bodies including the World Health Organization (WHO), World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and World Food Programme (WFP) are urging nations to prepare for extreme weather and ensuing impacts to health, food and energy systems. Some nations are already acting: Brazil has hired record numbers of firefighters to tackle expected Amazon blazes. Peru, hit by disastrous rains, floods and landslides in past El Niños, has declared a state of emergency across 40% of the country. Sri Lanka has arranged water deliveries to nearly 72,000 people across seven districts threatened by drought, and India is focusing on 300 drought-vulnerable districts, setting up agricultural contingency plans and boosting irrigation provisions. The African Union is calling on member states to implement early-warning systems to protect “lives, livelihoods and economies in the months ahead.” A severe drought in Ethiopia during the 2015 El Niño triggered a humanitarian crisis affecting over 10 million people. Here, the EU and Oxfam, an NGO, deliver a tanker truckload of urgently needed water. Image by ©EU/ECHO/Anouk Delafortrie via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). But many countries aren’t ready: The WFP has made an urgent $202 million El Niño Joint Anticipatory Action Appeal to aid 22 high-risk nations with safety measures. Experts warn that as climate change fuels increasingly frequent and severe El&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/world-must-look-to-the-past-to-prepare-for-likely-unprecedented-el-nino/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326958</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Patricio Segura, journalist who defended Patagonia’s rivers, died of hantavirus, aged 54</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/patricio-segura-journalist-who-defended-patagonias-rivers-has-died-of-hantavirus-at-54/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/patricio-segura-journalist-who-defended-patagonias-rivers-has-died-of-hantavirus-at-54/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Aug 2026 15:58:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/23155728/El-Ciudadano-Patricio-Segura-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=327034</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Chile, Latin America, Patagonia, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conservation, Dams, Development, Energy, Hydroelectric Power, Infrastructure, Journalism, Obituary, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The fight to stop five dams on the Baker and Pascua rivers began in one of Chile’s least populous regions, far from Santiago, where national energy policy was set. HidroAysén said Chile needed the project to meet rising demand for electricity. Patricio Segura, working from Aysén in Chilean Patagonia, spent years picking apart that case. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[The fight to stop five dams on the Baker and Pascua rivers began in one of Chile’s least populous regions, far from Santiago, where national energy policy was set. HidroAysén said Chile needed the project to meet rising demand for electricity. Patricio Segura, working from Aysén in Chilean Patagonia, spent years picking apart that case. He read the filings, explained what the reservoirs and transmission lines would mean on the ground, and helped residents prepare their own arguments. The dams were never built. There was an obvious complication: Segura was also one of the organizers. Through the Corporación Privada para el Desarrollo de Aysén, or CODESA, he helped organize local opposition and worked on communications for Patagonia Sin Represas. International groups eventually joined, helping make the Baker and Pascua global symbols of river defense. Segura welcomed the wider audience but repeatedly insisted that decisions stay with the people who lived in Aysén. Born in Iquique, he studied journalism at the Universidad Católica del Norte and arrived in Coyhaique in 1995. He wrote about science, tourism, corruption, and politics. His reporting appeared in local outlets and national publications, and for 15 years he contributed investigations and columns to Patagon Journal. HidroAysén’s defeat left plenty else for him to cover. Salmon companies were spreading through the Patagonian fjords, leaving pollution and damaged seabeds while gaining political clout. Mines closed or changed hands without adequately addressing contaminated sites. Rural estates were divided into hundreds of speculative plots, or megaloteos, creating settlements outside normal&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/patricio-segura-journalist-who-defended-patagonias-rivers-has-died-of-hantavirus-at-54/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327034</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pete Brosius brought Penan forest stewardship in Sarawak into court</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/pete-brosius-brought-penan-forest-stewardship-into-court/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/pete-brosius-brought-penan-forest-stewardship-into-court/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Aug 2026 14:03:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/22135913/Pete-Brosius-sarawak-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=327020</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, Sarawak, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, and Land Rights]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the early 1990s, the logging roads running through Sarawak’s Upper Baram became the site of a bitter confrontation. Penan families built wooden barricades and faced off bulldozers, timber trucks, and state security forces. As the protests drew international attention, the government of Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud restricted media access and portrayed the Penan [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the early 1990s, the logging roads running through Sarawak’s Upper Baram became the site of a bitter confrontation. Penan families built wooden barricades and faced off bulldozers, timber trucks, and state security forces. As the protests drew international attention, the government of Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud restricted media access and portrayed the Penan as backward people manipulated by foreign activists. International NGOs presented them as forest dwellers engaged in a timeless struggle to protect an untouched Eden.  Pete Brosius, an anthropologist who conducted research with the Penan for four decades, spent much of his career complicating both versions. Brosius died on July 29th at 72. He had already spent years in Sarawak by the time the logging conflict attracted international attention. His research showed that Penan responses to logging varied substantially between communities. Some resisted through blockades. Others negotiated or sought compensation and employment. For Brosius, those differences reflected distinct histories and relationships. Penan people were making their own decisions under difficult circumstances, rather than simply following the direction of foreign activists. That argument put him at odds not only with the Sarawak government and timber interests, but also at times with environmental campaigners. In a series of papers, Brosius examined how international campaigns changed the way Penan culture and environmental knowledge were described. Complex local disputes over land and political power could become simpler stories designed for audiences in Europe and North America. Brosius argued that this could come at a cost. If Indigenous people were presented&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/pete-brosius-brought-penan-forest-stewardship-into-court/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327020</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Hands On series: stories that build change</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/hands-on-series-stories-that-build-change/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/hands-on-series-stories-that-build-change/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Aug 2026 08:59:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lucia Torres]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Lucia Torres]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/22085853/HandsOnFeatured.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=327018</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples, Solutions, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[How does a community adapt to challenging times? A tiny home built to withstand floods. Ancient floating gardens bringing a canal back to life. Giant fishing nets and the people working to protect a threatened tradition. Across Bangladesh, Mexico and Thailand, communities are finding practical ways to protect their homes, food systems, waterways and livelihoods. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[How does a community adapt to challenging times? A tiny home built to withstand floods. Ancient floating gardens bringing a canal back to life. Giant fishing nets and the people working to protect a threatened tradition. Across Bangladesh, Mexico and Thailand, communities are finding practical ways to protect their homes, food systems, waterways and livelihoods. In Bangladesh, families are building simple, flood-resistant homes designed to keep people and food supplies safe during intense monsoon seasons. In Mexico City, farmers in Xochimilco are restoring ancient floating gardens to support cleaner waterways, local food production and habitat for the endangered axolotl. In Thailand, fishers and researchers are mapping their lake and creating fish shelters as they work to protect a distinctive giant lift-net fishing tradition affected by pollution.These are the stories in Hands On: Stories That Build Change, a Mongabay video series exploring community-led environmental action in a changing world.This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/hands-on-series-stories-that-build-change/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327018</doi>				</item>
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