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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?post_type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Tue, 23 Jun 2026 20:54:07 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>Conservation news</title>
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				<item>
					<title>Global pressure on ayahuasca threatens Amazonian plants and knowledge systems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/global-pressure-on-ayahuasca-threatens-amazonian-plants-and-knowledge-systems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/global-pressure-on-ayahuasca-threatens-amazonian-plants-and-knowledge-systems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 20:38:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carlos Minuano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/23203123/AP18157600830602-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321692</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biocultural Diversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Community Forests, Conservation, Consumption, Controversial, Culture, Globalization, Indigenous Peoples, International Trade, Medicinal Plants, Overconsumption, Overexploitation, Plants, Rainforests, Religions, Traditional Medicine, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“One of the world’s largest pharmacies is being destroyed,” says Benki Piyãko, a leader of the Ashaninka Indigenous people in the Brazilian state of Acre. The warning points to multiple threats advancing on the Amazon but also to growing debate surrounding one of the so-called forest medicines: ayahuasca. This Indigenous beverage with psychedelic properties is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“One of the world’s largest pharmacies is being destroyed,” says Benki Piyãko, a leader of the Ashaninka Indigenous people in the Brazilian state of Acre. The warning points to multiple threats advancing on the Amazon but also to growing debate surrounding one of the so-called forest medicines: ayahuasca. This Indigenous beverage with psychedelic properties is usually prepared from two native plants: the caapi vine or mariri (Banisteriopsis caapi) and the leaves of the chacrona plant (Psychotria viridis). According to Indigenous leaders and experts, these species are facing increasing pressure and signs of scarcity in some areas. Called kamarãpe by the Ashaninka people, ayahuasca has been used by Indigenous peoples across the Amazon for centuries. It has crossed borders for decades, ceasing to circulate exclusively in its original contexts. Today, it can be found in urban religious centers, therapeutic retreats, and international psychedelic tourism circuits. Scientists and pharmaceutical companies are also turning their attention to this ancestral beverage, which already shows evidence of therapeutic potential for different mental health disorders such as depression and substance addiction. But increasing global interest is also creating concerns. As demand grows, so has the ayahuasca supply chain, without a corresponding growth in management or oversight. In different parts of the Amazon, there are signs of pressure on the species used to prepare the beverage, often collected without planning. At the same time, increasing consumption in nontraditional contexts raises concerns about ancestral knowledge being commodified for the market. The main problem seems to lie in how&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/global-pressure-on-ayahuasca-threatens-amazonian-plants-and-knowledge-systems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/global-pressure-on-ayahuasca-threatens-amazonian-plants-and-knowledge-systems/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321692</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As Canada eyes Arctic road expansion, Indigenous guardians race to understand caribou</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/as-canada-eyes-arctic-road-expansion-indigenous-guardians-race-to-understand-caribou/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/as-canada-eyes-arctic-road-expansion-indigenous-guardians-race-to-understand-caribou/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 19:23:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Moira Donovan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/23184407/IMG_6848-scaled-e1782241676640-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321684</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Canada, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Community-based Conservation, Development, Environment, Fragmentation, Habitat, Hope and optimism, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Mammals, Migration, Roads, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For years, Wayne Mercredi spent hours driving the Tibbitt to Contwoyto winter road. Leaving early in the morning to take advantage of limited daylight, he’d travel the road’s 400-kilometer length (250-mile length) — built atop frozen lakes, to connect the territorial capital of Yellowknife to diamond mines farther north — before turning around at the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For years, Wayne Mercredi spent hours driving the Tibbitt to Contwoyto winter road. Leaving early in the morning to take advantage of limited daylight, he’d travel the road’s 400-kilometer length (250-mile length) — built atop frozen lakes, to connect the territorial capital of Yellowknife to diamond mines farther north — before turning around at the end and driving back home. On those 19-hour days, Mercredi, a North Slave Métis Alliance guardian, kept his eyes peeled. “I would see caribou off in the distance, avoiding the ice road.” As caribou appeared on the snowy expanse, he’d record their information. Occasionally, he’d come across an increasingly rare sight: A large herd of caribou, navigating the landscape. “It’s such a beautiful thing, it would just fill my heart.” The Canadian Arctic is home to once-monumental herds of caribou. These caribou undertake the longest terrestrial migrations on the planet, congregating in large groups at their calving grounds along the way. Historically, caribou existed in the millions, but in the last several decades, their numbers have declined dramatically; the Bathurst herd, for example (whose name derives from their traditional calving grounds in Bathurst Inlet, Nunavut) numbered nearly half a million caribou in the 1980s but has shrunk to just 3,600 in 2025. The reasons for this decline are multifaceted, including climate change, industrial development and, in some cases, overharvesting. But many of these forces intersect around roads, which block migrations and expose caribou to more hunting. Concern over the impacts of roads have promoted Indigenous&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/as-canada-eyes-arctic-road-expansion-indigenous-guardians-race-to-understand-caribou/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/as-canada-eyes-arctic-road-expansion-indigenous-guardians-race-to-understand-caribou/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321684</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deforestation is just a symptom. The disease is de-governance (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/deforestation-is-just-a-symptom-the-disease-is-de-governance-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/deforestation-is-just-a-symptom-the-disease-is-de-governance-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 15:38:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ambrosius Ruwindrijarto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/28002821/brunei_251114141317_0047z-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321618</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For decades, deforestation has been treated as the central problem. It’s measured in hectares lost, monitored through satellites, and addressed through conservation programs, carbon mechanisms, and development interventions. Yet despite billions of dollars invested, forests continue to decline. What if we have been diagnosing it wrong? Deforestation is not the disease. It is a symptom. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For decades, deforestation has been treated as the central problem. It’s measured in hectares lost, monitored through satellites, and addressed through conservation programs, carbon mechanisms, and development interventions. Yet despite billions of dollars invested, forests continue to decline. What if we have been diagnosing it wrong? Deforestation is not the disease. It is a symptom. The deeper problem is the erosion of governance over territory, over resources, and ultimately, over the future itself. To see this more clearly, it helps to begin not with global statistics, but with a people and place, like Namblong, in Indonesian Papua, an Indigenous territory spanning more than 52,000 hectares (128,500 acres) that’s governed by a tribe of 44 clans. Around 42,000 hectares (almost 104,000 acres) remain forested as a living landscape shaped by generations of customary governance. When oil palm concessions entered this territory with legal permits, a fundamental question emerged: Who decides the future of this forest? Is it the company holding the concession, the government that issued it, or the Indigenous community whose identity and survival are inseparable from the land? Deforestation outside of Manokwari, West Papua, Indonesia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. This question points to a broader reality. Across Indonesia, and much of the world, Indigenous territories have been systematically stripped of effective governance. They are treated as empty land available for extraction or intervention. Concessions are issued, projects are introduced, and external solutions are layered onto landscapes that already have their own systems of authority Even well-intentioned efforts often&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/deforestation-is-just-a-symptom-the-disease-is-de-governance-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/deforestation-is-just-a-symptom-the-disease-is-de-governance-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321618</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can globally essential mangroves bounce back from deforestation? New study gives hope</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/can-globally-essential-mangroves-bounce-back-from-deforestation-new-study-gives-hope/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/can-globally-essential-mangroves-bounce-back-from-deforestation-new-study-gives-hope/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 15:17:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Schell]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/23114608/mangroves-and-corals-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321654</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Mangroves, Marine, Marine Conservation, Research, Satellite Imagery, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The world’s mangrove forests, critical coastal ecosystems feared to be on the brink of collapse, are making an unexpected recovery overall, according to research published in June 2026 by scientists at Tulane University in New Orleans in the U.S. The study found that as deforestation and degradation have slowed down over the past decade around [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The world’s mangrove forests, critical coastal ecosystems feared to be on the brink of collapse, are making an unexpected recovery overall, according to research published in June 2026 by scientists at Tulane University in New Orleans in the U.S. The study found that as deforestation and degradation have slowed down over the past decade around the globe, the woody plants have managed to bounce back in many areas. The study analyzed satellite data from the past four decades. It found that unexpected expansion and regrowth across the world began counterbalancing mangrove forest loss around 2010. The rate of gain has nearly outpaced losses, resulting in about a cumulative 1% global decline since the 1980s. The recovery is predominantly driven by expansion of mangroves into new areas rather than recovery of existing forests. Most previous studies on the issue have used radar, which struggles to distinguish mangroves from other ecosystems. This research created a 30-meter resolution annual data set from Landsat satellite images to more accurately identify mangroves around the world from 1984 to 2023. The study also found that mangroves are becoming less degraded. Within mangroves, a greater proportion are closed-canopy forests, which means they are denser, retain more carbon and help secure shorelines. These closed-canopy sections increased from about 50% of mangroves worldwide in the 1980s, to about 58% by 2023. “Our study shows some new ideas about [mangrove] recovery. We find that deforestation and degradation rates are slowing down,” said lead author of the study Zhen Zhang, a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/can-globally-essential-mangroves-bounce-back-from-deforestation-new-study-gives-hope/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/can-globally-essential-mangroves-bounce-back-from-deforestation-new-study-gives-hope/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321654</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rodent-killing baits threaten small wild cats and other wildlife</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rodent-killing-baits-threaten-small-wild-cats-and-other-wildlife/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rodent-killing-baits-threaten-small-wild-cats-and-other-wildlife/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 14:29:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/18054111/Image_6-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321399</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Australia, Global, North America, Oceania, South Africa, Southern Africa, United States, and Washington]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Carnivores, Cats, Chemicals, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Health, Mammals, Poisoning, Predators, Rodents, Small Cats, Toxicology, Wildlife, and Wolves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Cat kills rodent. Cat eats rodent. Cat is exposed to potentially lethal rodenticides. That scenario is increasingly likely for many small wild cat species across the globe, and yet, only a handful of researchers are investigating this underrecognized conservation issue. Thus far, researchers confirmed that one wild cat population has declined from exposure to these [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Cat kills rodent. Cat eats rodent. Cat is exposed to potentially lethal rodenticides. That scenario is increasingly likely for many small wild cat species across the globe, and yet, only a handful of researchers are investigating this underrecognized conservation issue. Thus far, researchers confirmed that one wild cat population has declined from exposure to these poisons. That’s a small bobcat (Lynx rufus) living on Kiawah Island off the South Carolina coast in the U.S., which faces imminent local extinction due to rodenticides. Up until 2019, there was a stable population of these beloved cats, which are considered celebrities there, but that year, three cats died. Among them was a female that bled to death while giving birth. Postmortems revealed concoctions of rodenticides in each of the bobcats’ blood and livers. Over the next four years, there were 12 more victims and the bobcats’ overall survival rate fell to 39%. All tested positive for concentrations of anticoagulant rodenticides; some had been acutely poisoned, said Meghan Keating, a doctoral candidate at South Carolina’s Clemson University. That was a troubling sign for a population that now numbers less than 20 individuals. They are regularly exposed to rodenticides, as rodents (including rats) are a major part of their diet, Keating said. Also troubling is that her team found exposure to not just one, but a cocktail of rodenticides. “We haven&#8217;t had a bobcat test positive for less than two rodenticides,” she told Mongabay. Kiawah Island’s rodenticide-driven bobcat decline may be an outlier, given its&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rodent-killing-baits-threaten-small-wild-cats-and-other-wildlife/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rodent-killing-baits-threaten-small-wild-cats-and-other-wildlife/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321399</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Before tourists can see bonobos, trackers must earn their trust</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/before-tourists-can-see-bonobos-trackers-must-earn-their-trust/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/before-tourists-can-see-bonobos-trackers-must-earn-their-trust/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 13:29:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/11103652/Image-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=321661</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Bonobos, Environment, Great Apes, Mammals, Primates, Research, Tourism, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, researchers and trackers are working to habituate a group of about 60 bonobos. The aim is to help the great apes accept a limited human presence, first for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, researchers and trackers are working to habituate a group of about 60 bonobos. The aim is to help the great apes accept a limited human presence, first for research, and later for carefully managed tourism. The process is slow. Trackers may leave camp around 3 a.m. to reach the previous night’s nesting site before the bonobos (Pan paniscus) wake. They then follow the group through the forest until the endangered apes build new nests in the evening. “The whole idea of habituation is that you meet the group every day in a very friendly, non-interactive way so they accept you as part of the forest,” Felix Bofeko, an assistant researcher in the program, told Mongabay’s David Akana. Habituation requires the same people, same restraint, and same routine, repeated long enough for the animals to stop treating human presence as a threat. When the work began, the bonobos fled at the sight of people. Now, Bofeko says, researchers can sometimes remain with them for two or three hours. Two visitors may be tolerated. Three or four may still be too many. The work has value even before tourism begins. Habituated animals can be observed more closely. Researchers can collect fecal and urine samples for genetic, pathogen, and diet analysis. Salonga is part of the Bonobo Diversity Project gathering standardized data across the DRC. Camera&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/before-tourists-can-see-bonobos-trackers-must-earn-their-trust/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/before-tourists-can-see-bonobos-trackers-must-earn-their-trust/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321661</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Rare animals, photography and Instagram’ could help an Ivorian rainforest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rare-animals-photography-and-instagram-could-help-an-ivorian-rainforest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rare-animals-photography-and-instagram-could-help-an-ivorian-rainforest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 10:31:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/23102330/yellow-bellied-wattle-eye-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321647</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Ecotourism, Environment, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forest Fragmentation, Forestry, Fragmentation, Mammals, Primates, Protected Areas, Restoration, Solutions, Tourism, Trees, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[DJOUROUTOU, Côte d’Ivoire — After a night of heavy rain, the chimpanzees of Taï Forest, in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire, like to sleep in. Early on a late May morning, chimpanzee guide Evariste Tere led a group of scientists and conservationists to a chimp group’s nesting site that he had marked with his GPS the previous [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[DJOUROUTOU, Côte d’Ivoire — After a night of heavy rain, the chimpanzees of Taï Forest, in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire, like to sleep in. Early on a late May morning, chimpanzee guide Evariste Tere led a group of scientists and conservationists to a chimp group’s nesting site that he had marked with his GPS the previous evening. The humans set off at 4:30 a.m., then spent an hour and a half waiting for the chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes ssp. verus) to wake up. Eventually, one of them did. Moisture gathered in her nest from the night’s rain gushed down, and then the other trees began to bend and creak as their occupants — one male, four females and a baby — stirred. One of the females, with the baby clinging to her belly, moved through the treetops to a bigger tree, then used the handholds and footholds of a strangler fig snaking its way up the trunk to reach the canopy. This didn’t seem to impress the male, who was already on the ground and, noticing the humans, wanted to get his group moving. He screamed angrily and beat his hands on the buttress root of a large tree so that the sound echoed through the forest like a drum. “He’s angry that they didn’t follow,” Tere said, adding that while Taï’s chimpanzees are used to seeing tourists, a group of five was bigger than normal, and the male did not want to linger. Instead, he would keep his charges moving until&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rare-animals-photography-and-instagram-could-help-an-ivorian-rainforest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321647</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>First global summit held in Indonesia to tackle animal cruelty content</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/first-global-summit-held-in-indonesia-to-tackle-animal-cruelty-content/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/first-global-summit-held-in-indonesia-to-tackle-animal-cruelty-content/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 10:02:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Asad Asnawi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay User]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/23095021/monkey-in-a-cage-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321642</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Rights, Animal Welfare, Animals, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Ethics, Governance, Law, Pets, Regulations, Social Media, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BALI, Indonesia — The booming market for animal abuse content brought dozens of international animal protection organizations to Indonesia in June for the first in-person summit to confront a growing online entertainment industry founded on suffering. The Asia for Animals Coalition (AfA), a network of more than 400 animal welfare and conservation organizations around the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BALI, Indonesia — The booming market for animal abuse content brought dozens of international animal protection organizations to Indonesia in June for the first in-person summit to confront a growing online entertainment industry founded on suffering. The Asia for Animals Coalition (AfA), a network of more than 400 animal welfare and conservation organizations around the world, established the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACC) in 2020 in response to the spread of animal cruelty online. Afa is the world’s largest network of animal welfare nonprofits. SMACC then organized its first international summit in Bali on June 11 and 12 to gather advocates and experts to plan tangible steps to address online abuse of animals. “Online animal cruelty is spreading at a scale no single organisation, platform or government can solve alone,” Nicola O’Brien, lead coordinator of the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition, said in a statement. Evidence of animal cruelty on digital platforms collected by SMACC. Image courtesy of SMACC. The rise of animal cruelty influencers Animal cruelty influencers, who storyboard, produce, film and edit scenes of anguish and pain for casual viewers and paying subscribers via social media and other content platforms, are on the rise A 2021 SMACC report identified 5,480 videos depicting animal cruelty that had amassed more than 5.3 billion views across platforms. Of the channels that distributed these videos, 17 had more than 1 million subscribers with two of these counting more than 30 million subscribers each. Online cruelty often involves wildlife listed as endangered&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/first-global-summit-held-in-indonesia-to-tackle-animal-cruelty-content/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321642</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous people in Cambodia claim they’re blocked from sacred sites</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/indigenous-people-in-cambodia-claim-theyre-blocked-from-sacred-sites/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/indigenous-people-in-cambodia-claim-theyre-blocked-from-sacred-sites/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 09:04:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Andy BallPhoung VanthaRoun Ry]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/17103412/Ruos-Lim-71-a-Kuy-Indigenous-community-leader-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321346</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Conservation, Culture, Deforestation, Encroachment, Environment, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Law, Protected Areas, Religions, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia — Ruos Lim knows what is at stake as he sets off with 10 men to patrol the Chom Penh forest. Lim is part of the Kuy people who have relied on the forests in northern Cambodia for generations. Despite being in his 70s, Lim leads the men along windy trails as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia — Ruos Lim knows what is at stake as he sets off with 10 men to patrol the Chom Penh forest. Lim is part of the Kuy people who have relied on the forests in northern Cambodia for generations. Despite being in his 70s, Lim leads the men along windy trails as they look for signs of illegal logging and land clearing. “If we lose this sacred place, it’s like losing our Indigenous identity,” he said. The Kuy fear they are at risk of seeing hard-won safeguards stripped away in Chom Penh, and they allege that Santana Agro Products Co. Ltd., one of Cambodia’s leading cashew companies, is encroaching onto their land to expand its farming operations. The company refutes the allegations. The accusations have run so high that, in January 2025, about 200 Kuy people reportedly protested by blocking Santana Agro tractors being driven to clear forests on disputed land in another part of Cambodia. This was not the first time they massed to protest Santana’s activities, and Mongabay detailed Santana Agro’s expansion and deforestation in the region in a 2024 investigation. For Lim and his team of volunteers, the effort to save the forest and take matters in their own hands began a quarter of a century ago. They began patrols and other efforts to protect the forest, in the hope the government would officially recognize their people’s rights to the land. “At that time, patrolling was very difficult and chaotic. The loggers had machetes&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/indigenous-people-in-cambodia-claim-theyre-blocked-from-sacred-sites/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321346</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The case for field stations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-case-for-field-stations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-case-for-field-stations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 07:41:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/22210550/china_2015_0676-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321558</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Environment, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; A field station is usually a working place. It may have bunkrooms, trails, a generator, stored specimens, weathered notebooks, drying boots, a small lab, and staff who know when the road floods, where to find a mobile network signal, or which hillside burned five years ago. Its value is easy to miss because it [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; A field station is usually a working place. It may have bunkrooms, trails, a generator, stored specimens, weathered notebooks, drying boots, a small lab, and staff who know when the road floods, where to find a mobile network signal, or which hillside burned five years ago. Its value is easy to miss because it is often measured through other things: papers, students, monitoring plots, visiting researchers, restored forest, fewer snares, or a longer record of what changed. A new BioScience paper argues that these stations deserve a larger role in conservation policy, especially in the tropics. The authors describe tropical field stations as institutions that can help turn global environmental commitments into local work. Governments have promised to protect more land and sea, restore degraded ecosystems, slow extinctions, and make conservation more equitable. These goals require information, trust, capacity, and persistence. Field stations can supply much of that infrastructure. Cabang Panti research station in Gunung Palung, Indonesia. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler The argument is strongest in places where conservation decisions affect both biodiversity and livelihoods. A station in a forest, savanna, wetland, or coastal ecosystem is more than a base for visiting scientists. It can support long-term monitoring, train local researchers, employ people from nearby communities, and keep conservation connected to park staff, farmers, fishers, Indigenous groups, and officials. More data, harder answers That gap is important because conservation has become data-rich and answer-poor. Satellites can detect tree-cover loss within days. Acoustic sensors can record birds, frogs, insects,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-case-for-field-stations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321558</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bangladesh’s lightning death toll persists as years of gov’t safeguards fail</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/bangladeshs-lightning-death-toll-persists-as-years-of-govt-safeguards-fail/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/bangladeshs-lightning-death-toll-persists-as-years-of-govt-safeguards-fail/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 07:37:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sadiqur Rahman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/23072444/Paddy_Harvest_02-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321633</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Disasters, Earth Science, Environment, Extreme Weather, Farming, Governance, Storms, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The distance between farmer Sudhin Chandra Das’s home and his 150-decimal (0.6-hectare, or 1.5-acre) paddy field in Bangladesh’s northeastern region of Sylhet is more than half a kilometer (0.3 miles). During the boro rice harvesting season, usually mid-April, when thunderstorms are common, he cannot afford to stay at home, he said: He has to go [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The distance between farmer Sudhin Chandra Das’s home and his 150-decimal (0.6-hectare, or 1.5-acre) paddy field in Bangladesh’s northeastern region of Sylhet is more than half a kilometer (0.3 miles). During the boro rice harvesting season, usually mid-April, when thunderstorms are common, he cannot afford to stay at home, he said: He has to go to the vast open field to harvest the ripe crop, even though there is no shelter when lightnings strike. “It’s scary. I don’t know how to protect myself, and I fear I could be killed by a strike at any moment,” Sudhin told Mongabay. Sudhin lives in the Shalla subdistrict, Sunamganj district, in the Sylhet region, one of South Asia’s most lightning-prone zones. According to lightning data for the decade of 2016-25, Bangladesh’s northeastern zone witnesses 64 to 96 fatal lightning events per square kilometer (about 0.4 square miles) annually. Sudhin said he considers himself fortunate to be alive. But he recalled news reports on people in Sunamganj being killed by lightning strikes this year and in previous years. On April 18 this year, at least 13 people, including five in Sunamganj, died by lightning strikes across Bangladesh. An average of 300 people die from lightning strikes every year in the country, with the highest number of fatalities reported in the northeastern districts. According to Meherunnesa, a coordinator at the Disaster Forum, a Dhaka-based national disaster preparedness network, Bangladesh witnessed the deaths of at least 218 people by lightning strikes between January and mid-June this&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/bangladeshs-lightning-death-toll-persists-as-years-of-govt-safeguards-fail/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321633</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Old fire hoses become lifelines for Malaysia&#8217;s endangered langurs</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/old-fire-hoses-become-lifelines-for-malaysias-endangered-langurs/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/old-fire-hoses-become-lifelines-for-malaysias-endangered-langurs/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 07:09:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Naina Rao]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/23070743/Two-dusky-langurs-e1782198544172-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=321635</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cities, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Development, Endangered Species, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Human-wildlife Conflict, Innovation, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Mammals, Monkeys, Primates, Rainforests, Solutions, urban ecology, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On Malaysia’s Penang Island, conservationist Yap Jo Leen is turning old fire hoses into lifesaving bridges that help endangered monkeys cross busy roads in residential areas. The idea took root after she witnessed a female dusky langur and her infant get struck by a vehicle in 2016, Yap told Mongabay’s Phil Jacobson and AFP&#8217;s Isabelle [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On Malaysia’s Penang Island, conservationist Yap Jo Leen is turning old fire hoses into lifesaving bridges that help endangered monkeys cross busy roads in residential areas. The idea took root after she witnessed a female dusky langur and her infant get struck by a vehicle in 2016, Yap told Mongabay’s Phil Jacobson and AFP&#8217;s Isabelle Leong in a joint interview. Dusky langurs (Trachypithecus obscurus) are small primates with dark gray to blackish fur, distinct large white patches around their eyes, and white fur around their mouth. The species is considered endangered on the IUCN Red List, according to the latest assessment, done in 2015. Yap said that in 2016, as a postgraduate student, she started following a family of dusky langurs that included an individual she called Ah Lai. Over the next year, she recorded several instances of the langurs trying to cross a busy road. People living in the residential areas also reported that dusky langurs and macaques frequently made road crossings. Since 2019, Yap’s organization, the Langur Project Penang (LPP), has installed three artificial canopy bridges to help the langurs cross roads safely. The bridges are all made from repurposed fire hoses donated by local fire departments. The initiative has seen remarkable success, said Yap. The first bridge they installed, known as “Ah Lai’s Crossing,” has been credited with zero langur roadkill deaths on that stretch of road. Beyond langurs, the bridge is also used by nine other wildlife species, including macaques, squirrels, and slow lorises. Yap said&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/old-fire-hoses-become-lifelines-for-malaysias-endangered-langurs/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321635</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pulp and paper giant APRIL&#8217;s supplier choices put FSC remedy process to the test</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-aprils-supplier-choices-put-fsc-remedy-process-to-the-test/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-aprils-supplier-choices-put-fsc-remedy-process-to-the-test/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 04:12:34 +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/20/2026/06/23034155/signal-2026-06-01-105626_002-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321620</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Kalimantan, Global, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Certification, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Products, Forestry, Forests, Industry, International Trade, Land Use Change, Logging, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Threats To Rainforests, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL&#8217;s recent decision to lower its deforestation commitments and source wood from two companies associated with extensive recent forest loss has created a new challenge for its relationship with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), with environmental groups urging the world&#8217;s leading forestry certifier to terminate the already suspended reassociation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL&#8217;s recent decision to lower its deforestation commitments and source wood from two companies associated with extensive recent forest loss has created a new challenge for its relationship with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), with environmental groups urging the world&#8217;s leading forestry certifier to terminate the already suspended reassociation process. In late May, APRIL announced it was reviewing its decade-old Sustainable Forest Management Policy (SFMP) 2.0 and lowering its deforestation cutoff date from 2015 to Dec. 31, 2020. The move allows Indonesia&#8217;s second-largest pulp and paper producer to source wood from PT Industrial Forest Plantation (IFP) and PT Mayawana Persada (Mayawana), two companies that have experienced some of the country&#8217;s largest recent forest losses. APRIL said the decision was necessary to address fibre shortages after the Indonesian government revoked the operating permits of four of its long-term suppliers earlier this year, affecting around 15% of its wood supply in Riau Province. According to data from the forest-monitoring platform Nusantara Atlas, together, IFP and Mayawana lost nearly 80,000 hectares (197,684 acres) of forest­­­­­ — an area almost half the size of London — between 2015 and 2024, including more than 54,000 hectares (133,436 acres) after 2020. This is more than any other forestry companies in Indonesia. Deforestation in the concession of PT Mayawana Persada, September 2020–April 2024 © Earthsight. Image source: Sentinel-2 via Copernicus Browser Environmental groups have criticized the move, arguing that it weakens a longstanding no-deforestation safeguard and sends a message that companies&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-aprils-supplier-choices-put-fsc-remedy-process-to-the-test/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321620</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>EU votes to end illegal logging agreement with Liberia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/eu-votes-to-end-illegal-logging-agreement-with-liberia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/eu-votes-to-end-illegal-logging-agreement-with-liberia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 19:47:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Bobbybascomb]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/22194538/8430918514_7f6286b70b_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=321608</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Liberia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Governance, Tropical Deforestation, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The European Union’s parliament voted decisively to end its logging oversight partnership with Liberia on June 17, marking the end of a long-running attempt to reform the country’s timber sector through foreign aid. The vote, which passed with 92% in favor, is expected to lead to a formal decision by the EU to terminate the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The European Union’s parliament voted decisively to end its logging oversight partnership with Liberia on June 17, marking the end of a long-running attempt to reform the country’s timber sector through foreign aid. The vote, which passed with 92% in favor, is expected to lead to a formal decision by the EU to terminate the agreement. The EU’s “Voluntary Partnership Agreement” (VPA) with Liberia was part of its signature effort to tackle illegal logging and deforestation in timber-exporting countries. It was designed to help overhaul Liberia’s logging industry, long associated with corruption and environmental mismanagement, and facilitate legal trade with the EU. Under the terms of the agreement, the EU provided funding for Liberia to set up tracking and transparency systems for timber shipments. Liberia committed to verifying that all logs shipped out of its ports were felled legally and to carve out space for local environmental groups to monitor its compliance with the agreement. Similar agreements were signed with eight other countries, including four in Africa. But more than a decade after the December 2013 agreement was implemented many of the EU’s expectations were unmet, including the development of a licensing system for Liberian logs to access EU markets, a centerpiece of the agreement.  After repeatedly missing deadlines, the licensing system was never implemented. Last year, the EU Commission recommended the VPA be canceled. Environmental groups opposed the commission’s recommendation, saying that despite the agreement’s weaknesses it had been invaluable in promoting local oversight of the notoriously opaque timber&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/eu-votes-to-end-illegal-logging-agreement-with-liberia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321608</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tiwi rangers eradicate invasive tropical fire ants in Australia’s Melville Island</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rangers-eradicate-invasive-tropical-fire-ants-in-australias-tiwi-islands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rangers-eradicate-invasive-tropical-fire-ants-in-australias-tiwi-islands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 19:31:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nick Rodway]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/22184547/Solenopsis_geminata_Francois-Brassard_LR-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321598</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation Solutions, Indigenous Peoples, Insects, Sea Turtles, Seabirds, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[DERBY, Australia — While Spanish sailors packed in dirt to stabilize the bottom of ships sailing from the Americas in the 16th century, they were unaware that they were also helping tiny stowaways aboard. Research suggests that tropical fire ants sailed across the Pacific Ocean, joining Europeans over the centuries as they landed and colonized [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[DERBY, Australia — While Spanish sailors packed in dirt to stabilize the bottom of ships sailing from the Americas in the 16th century, they were unaware that they were also helping tiny stowaways aboard. Research suggests that tropical fire ants sailed across the Pacific Ocean, joining Europeans over the centuries as they landed and colonized landmasses across the world. Then, in the early 2000s, tropical fire ants (Solenopsis geminata) were detected on Melville Island in the Tiwi Islands, a picturesque archipelago off the coast of Darwin, the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory. Here, they were able to flourish, according to researchers, and have since become naturalized in parts of the Australian tropics while dominating the environment, eating small mammals, and potentially deterring nesting birds. “The ants have a huge impact on native birds and animals on the Tiwi Islands,” said Stanley Tipungwuti, a ranger on the islands where most identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. But after two decades of effort, and the work of the Tiwi Ranger team, tropical fire ants are deemed no more on Merville Island: In 2025, the species was completely eradicated, according to Ben Hoffmann, who was part of the eradication program from its inception. That same year, the Tiwi Island Rangers received the Territory Indigenous Natural Resource Management Award in Darwin for their efforts. The Tiwi Rangers were the 2025 winners of the Territory NRM Indigenous Natural Resource Management Award. Image by the Territory Natural Resource Management Award, supplied by Tiwi Resources. Hoffmann, principal research&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rangers-eradicate-invasive-tropical-fire-ants-in-australias-tiwi-islands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321598</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>World Rainforest Day: Deforestation must be nearly halved to meet 2030 target</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/world-rainforest-day-deforestation-must-be-nearly-halved-to-meet-2030-target/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/world-rainforest-day-deforestation-must-be-nearly-halved-to-meet-2030-target/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 16:59:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/22165659/original-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=321592</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Every year, June 22 marks World Rainforest Day, an awareness day launched by Rainforest Partnership in 2017 to advocate for the immediate protection and restoration of the world’s tropical forests. These ecosystems support at least half of all known plant and animal species. They also regulate rainfall and stabilize the global climate. In 2025, less [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Every year, June 22 marks World Rainforest Day, an awareness day launched by Rainforest Partnership in 2017 to advocate for the immediate protection and restoration of the world’s tropical forests. These ecosystems support at least half of all known plant and animal species. They also regulate rainfall and stabilize the global climate. In 2025, less tropical primary forest was cut down compared to 2024, which was a record high year. In total, records showed a 35% drop in forest cover in 2025, largely led by reduced deforestation in Brazil, which hosts the world’s largest area of rainforest in the Amazon. “A drop of this scale in a single year is encouraging — it shows what decisive government action can achieve,” Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of Global Forest Watch, told Mongabay reporter Hans Nicholas Jong following the publication of its yearly report in April 2026. But the overall trend is still cause for concern: According to the Global Forest Review, the total area of tropical primary forest destroyed globally each year remains “46% higher than a decade ago.” And over the past three years, between 2023-25, “fires burned more than twice as much tree cover as they did two decades ago,” worldwide, the review said. In 2026, temperatures are expected to soar as precipitation falls in key rainforest areas such as the northern Amazon and throughout Indonesia’s Sundaland rainforest due to the upcoming El Niño, predicted to be one of the strongest of this century. In 2021, more than 140 countries pledged&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/world-rainforest-day-deforestation-must-be-nearly-halved-to-meet-2030-target/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321592</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Studying giant devil rays through war in Gaza: Interview with Mohammed Abu Daya</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/studying-giant-devil-rays-through-war-in-gaza-interview-with-mohammed-abu-daya/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/studying-giant-devil-rays-through-war-in-gaza-interview-with-mohammed-abu-daya/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 16:12:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lyse Mauvais]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/22140029/a-Mohammed-Abu-Daya-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321575</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Middle East, and Palestine]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, Rays, Saltwater Fish, War, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On the messaging platform WhatsApp, Mohammed Abu Daya’s profile picture features an aerial view of Gaza City before the current war. A clutter of high-rise buildings rises against the sky; at their feet, a strip of sandy beach, bathed by the sun, and the dark blue sea, dotted with small fishing boats. The photograph bears [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On the messaging platform WhatsApp, Mohammed Abu Daya’s profile picture features an aerial view of Gaza City before the current war. A clutter of high-rise buildings rises against the sky; at their feet, a strip of sandy beach, bathed by the sun, and the dark blue sea, dotted with small fishing boats. The photograph bears witness to a landscape that no longer exists — aside from the sea. “Gaza is now a big prison, with two million people living among rubble and destroyed infrastructure,” the Palestinian marine ecologist told Mongabay in May 2026 over the phone. “Life in the Gaza Strip is miserable.” For many months now, he has been unable to go out to sea to carry out research in his field. Before the war, Abu Daya was a lecturer at several Palestinian universities including the University of Palestine in Gaza and a researcher at the now-shuttered National Research Center in Gaza. His research focuses on spinetail devil rays (Mobula mobular), sometimes called giant devil rays, a critically endangered species that can reach up to 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) in width. The Gaza-based conservationist is one among a handful of scientists worldwide who study this species. Historically, it was thought to be endemic to the Mediterranean Sea, until taxonomic revisions in the late 2010s led scientists to consider the Mediterranean populations as genetically connected to others in the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Indo-Pacific region. The majestic rays are thought to roam the entire Mediterranean, from the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/studying-giant-devil-rays-through-war-in-gaza-interview-with-mohammed-abu-daya/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/studying-giant-devil-rays-through-war-in-gaza-interview-with-mohammed-abu-daya/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321575</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil curbs Amazon deforestation in Piripkura, but ranchers’ cattle linger</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brazil-curbs-amazon-deforestation-in-piripkura-but-ranchers-cattle-linger/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brazil-curbs-amazon-deforestation-in-piripkura-but-ranchers-cattle-linger/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 16:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/22144947/cattle-in-mato-grosso-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321585</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cattle, Conservation, Environment, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Law, Protected Areas, and Ranching]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A crackdown by the Brazilian government on land-grabbers who cleared primary Amazon forest for ranching and other agricultural activities in the Piripkura Indigenous Territory is yielding some results, with satellite analysis by Mongabay indicating a decline in deforestation. But one tricky problem remains, according to government agents and Indigenous rights organizations: removing their cattle. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A crackdown by the Brazilian government on land-grabbers who cleared primary Amazon forest for ranching and other agricultural activities in the Piripkura Indigenous Territory is yielding some results, with satellite analysis by Mongabay indicating a decline in deforestation. But one tricky problem remains, according to government agents and Indigenous rights organizations: removing their cattle. The 242,405-hectare (598,995-acre) Piripkura Indigenous Territory in west-central Brazil’s Mato Grosso state is home to the last two — known — Indigenous Piripkura people in voluntary isolation. According to Jair Candor, the coordinator of the Funai unit that protects isolated Indigenous groups, a third Piripkura person left the land and married into another tribe, the Karipuna, several decades ago. Funai, the country’s Indigenous affairs agency, has not yet ruled out the possibility that more isolated people live there. Ranchers coming in with their cattle to graze land have contributed to a large share of forest loss here. According to data from Global Forest Watch, the area lost a total tree cover of 1,769 hectares (4,371 acres) in 2021 — equivalent to 2,500 soccer fields — representing the largest increase since 2004, when the area lost was almost double (3,276 hectares, or 8,095 acres). Since the spike in 2021, due to successful operations by government agencies, deforestation has declined substantially, and despite a slight increase in 2023, losses remained far below 2021 levels and continued to decrease in 2024 and 2025. By 2025, tree cover loss had fallen to 106 hectares (262 acres). While deforestation has slowed&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brazil-curbs-amazon-deforestation-in-piripkura-but-ranchers-cattle-linger/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321585</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study offers first map of Amazon’s climate-resilient upslope corridors</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/study-offers-first-map-of-amazons-climate-resilient-upslope-corridors/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/study-offers-first-map-of-amazons-climate-resilient-upslope-corridors/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 14:26:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/22132538/howler-monkey-in-amazon-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321550</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Andes, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Earth Science, Ecosystems, Environment, Impact Of Climate Change, Mapping, Planetary Boundaries, Planetary Health, Rainforest Destruction, Research, and Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Amazon-based scientists have long known that rapidly rising temperatures mean that places where species live today won’t be where they live tomorrow. For a vast number of species — ranging from insects, birds and primates to all manner of plants — upslope migration could present a potential, though perilous, pathway to resilience and survival during [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Amazon-based scientists have long known that rapidly rising temperatures mean that places where species live today won’t be where they live tomorrow. For a vast number of species — ranging from insects, birds and primates to all manner of plants — upslope migration could present a potential, though perilous, pathway to resilience and survival during the climate crisis. This knowledge has raised a vital question: What are the most likely and best protected routes by which species across the Amazon’s broad expanse can relocate upward, helping preserve biodiversity, and hopefully keeping intact the ecosystem services tropical forests now deliver? In what is deemed the first region-wide assessment of Amazonia’s climate resilience and connectivity, a new study points to the western part of the biome, particularly the Andean spine of Peru, as the most viable upslope corridors. According to researchers, this region has the highest concentration of key components needed to support species survival — including major elevation gradients, large established protected areas, and connected forested corridors to facilitate upslope species migration. The scientists pinpointed additional potential corridors in southwestern Colombia, northern Brazil, northern Bolivia, north-central Guyana, and western Suriname. But these areas are disadvantaged due to fewer protected areas, with connectivity in many locales broken by forest fragmentation due to deforestation and oil and gas drilling. Published in May in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation, the new study, titled “A regional-scale assessment of climate-resilient corridors and connectivity in the Amazon,” was undertaken with the goal of providing findings that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/study-offers-first-map-of-amazons-climate-resilient-upslope-corridors/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321550</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Apes can imagine too</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/apes-can-imagine-too/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/apes-can-imagine-too/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 14:01:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Lucia Torres]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/03213159/463-Group_Surbeck-Kokolopori-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=321574</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Research, Science, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Turns out imagination is not unique to humans. A series of experiments has shown that a language-trained bonobo was able to distinguish real from fake objects and engage in pretend play. Scientists sat down for a “tea party” with Kanzi to understand how the ape would respond to make-believe scenarios. The results have shown that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Turns out imagination is not unique to humans. A series of experiments has shown that a language-trained bonobo was able to distinguish real from fake objects and engage in pretend play. Scientists sat down for a “tea party” with Kanzi to understand how the ape would respond to make-believe scenarios. The results have shown that apes might share the human ability to imagine. The scientists are now planning to expand the research by conducting similar experiments on other apes, including those that have not been language-trained. Watch this video to see how Kanzi engages in pretend play.This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/apes-can-imagine-too/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321574</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>US moves to allow commercial fishing in Pacific marine protected areas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/us-moves-to-allow-commercial-fishing-in-pacific-marine-protected-areas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/us-moves-to-allow-commercial-fishing-in-pacific-marine-protected-areas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 11:49:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bobby Bascomb]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/22114540/38153303875_630004a36b_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=321559</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Culture, Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Marine Animals, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Protected Areas, Saltwater Fish, Sea Turtles, Sharks, Whales, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On June 11, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive proclamation to open additional commercial fishing grounds in remote areas of the Pacific. The proclamation says restoring access to these areas “will promote economic opportunity.” However, local groups warn it will open the door to overfishing in a crucial marine habitat and sacred cultural site. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On June 11, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive proclamation to open additional commercial fishing grounds in remote areas of the Pacific. The proclamation says restoring access to these areas “will promote economic opportunity.” However, local groups warn it will open the door to overfishing in a crucial marine habitat and sacred cultural site. The proclamation, “Restoring American Commercial Fishing in the Pacific,” comes a year after a similar proclamation in April 2025 that opened up commercial fishing in the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument (PIH). Formerly the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, the PIH covers nearly 1.3 million square kilometers (500,000 square miles) of Pacific Ocean. The June 2026 proclamation includes portions of three additional marine national monuments — Rose Atoll, Mariana Trench, and Papahānaumokuākea —  which together include nearly 1.8 million km2 (690,000 mi2) of coral atolls, deep-sea trenches and remote islands. Image courtesy of NOAA Fisheries The new proclamation would roll back protections for roughly 1.3 million km2 (500,000 mi2) of the area to allow industrial fishing. Such commercial fishing could include kilometers of baited hooks, known as long lines, and purse seine nets more than 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) long. Both types of fishing gear are highly effective at catching tuna, the target species, as well as other marine life as bycatch. Conservationists say opening the Pacific monuments to industrial fishing is a significant concern for many species in the area, including threatened sea turtles, whales, dolphins, seabirds, sharks and fish; many are endemic, found&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/us-moves-to-allow-commercial-fishing-in-pacific-marine-protected-areas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321559</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>France sizzles in a week of punishing heat as red alerts spread</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/france-sizzles-in-a-week-of-punishing-heat-as-red-alerts-spread/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/france-sizzles-in-a-week-of-punishing-heat-as-red-alerts-spread/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 11:33:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Associated Press]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/22112752/AP26172519698627-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=321556</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[France]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Disasters, Environment, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Heatwave, Impact Of Climate Change, Planetary Health, and Public Health]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PARIS (AP) — France gritted its teeth Monday for a week of record-busting temperatures, sweltering under a grueling heat wave that combines daytime highs above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) and sleep-robbing sweaty nights. The national weather service, Méteo France, said that most of the country — the largest in the European Union and second most populated — [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PARIS (AP) — France gritted its teeth Monday for a week of record-busting temperatures, sweltering under a grueling heat wave that combines daytime highs above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) and sleep-robbing sweaty nights. The national weather service, Méteo France, said that most of the country — the largest in the European Union and second most populated — is entering what is described as a “plateau” of unrelenting heat-wave conditions that isn&#8217;t forecast to start easing before Friday at the earliest. Multiple towns in western and central France, including the major port of Saint-Nazaire on the Atlantic seaboard, with an overnight low of 23.2 C (73.8 F), experienced their hottest night ever Sunday to Monday, Méteo France said. Paris baked through its hottest night for a month of June, not getting below 24.2 C (75.5 F) — a half-degree hotter than the previous record from 2017. The weather service warned of even hotter nights. “This will continue through the end of the week, with heat levels never before recorded across more than three-quarters of the country on Wednesday and Thursday.” In a country without widespread air-conditioning, people, businesses and services tried to adapt as best they could. Hundreds of schools were closed on Monday and many hundreds more were canceling some classes, the education minister said. Broadcasts on the Paris transport network urged commuters to hydrate. Medical specialists took to the airwaves to warn of the potentially deadly cocktail of drinking alcohol in extreme heat. Authorities cracked down on alcohol consumption in public. Multiple&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/france-sizzles-in-a-week-of-punishing-heat-as-red-alerts-spread/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321556</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>South America’s farms depend, in part, on a healthy Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/south-americas-farms-depend-in-part-on-a-healthy-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/south-americas-farms-depend-in-part-on-a-healthy-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 08:30:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/22052817/amazon_201362-26x-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321533</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Drought, Ecosystem Services, El Nino, Environment, Environmental Policy, Environmental Services, Fires, forest degradation, Forests, Hydroelectric Power, Natural Capital, Nature-based climate solutions, Precipitation, Rainforests, Restoration, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; The Amazon is often described in terms of how much carbon it stores. It also moves vast amounts of water. Its trees draw moisture from the soil and return it to the air through transpiration. Some rain caught by the canopy also evaporates back into the atmosphere. That moisture falls again, some of it [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; The Amazon is often described in terms of how much carbon it stores. It also moves vast amounts of water. Its trees draw moisture from the soil and return it to the air through transpiration. Some rain caught by the canopy also evaporates back into the atmosphere. That moisture falls again, some of it inside the basin and some of it far downwind. For much of South America, the forest helps sustain rainfall, farming, hydropower, and urban water supplies. A recent paper in Nature, by Nico Wunderling and colleagues, gives this hydrological role greater weight in the climate case for the Amazon. The authors used a dynamical systems model and atmospheric moisture tracking to estimate how deforestation and warming interact across the basin. Without deforestation, their model finds a critical global warming threshold of about 3.7 to 4.0 degrees Celsius, beyond which up to a third of the Amazon forest risks losing stability. When deforestation is included, the risk becomes much larger at a lower level of warming. Under deforestation of 22% to 28% of the biome and warming of 1.5 to 1.9 degrees Celsius, the model finds a near system-wide transition affecting 62% to 77% of the forest. Rain over the Amazon. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler Those numbers should be treated carefully. The Amazon is not a single ecological unit. Western forests, southern forests, flooded forests, upland forests, secondary forests, and fire-damaged edges differ in species composition, rainfall, soils, and drought tolerance. A model cannot capture every&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/south-americas-farms-depend-in-part-on-a-healthy-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321533</doi>				</item>
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					<title>Power lines threaten Sri Lanka’s iconic migrant flamingos</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/power-lines-threaten-sri-lankas-iconic-migrant-flamingos/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/power-lines-threaten-sri-lankas-iconic-migrant-flamingos/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 08:21:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Naina Rao]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/22082059/Flamingos-in-Bundala-1986-c-Uditha-Wijesena-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=321545</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Development, Energy, Environment, Governance, Habitat Loss, Migration, Poaching, Pollution, Tourism, Wetlands, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The lagoons of Mannar in northern Sri Lanka attract large flocks of pink and white greater flamingos every year, which drive a vital tourism industry in the region. However, recent fatalities of the migratory birds from collisions with power cables there have sparked urgent concerns regarding the impact of power infrastructure in the wetlands, reports [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The lagoons of Mannar in northern Sri Lanka attract large flocks of pink and white greater flamingos every year, which drive a vital tourism industry in the region. However, recent fatalities of the migratory birds from collisions with power cables there have sparked urgent concerns regarding the impact of power infrastructure in the wetlands, reports contributor Malaka Rodrigo for Mongabay. Three greater flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus) recently died in Mannar after colliding with overhead power lines. Although initial reports suspected electrocution, necropsies performed by the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) veterinary surgeon Balachandran Giritharan revealed the birds’ long necks were slashed mid-flight by the cables. Conservationists warn that energy infrastructure, including proposed wind power projects, increasingly encroaches on sensitive habitats like Vankalai Sanctuary in Mannar. Flamingos are particularly susceptible to collisions with power lines due to their long necks, large wingspans and limited maneuverability, said Sampath S. Seneviratne, an ornithologist and a professor of zoology with the University of Colombo. The birds also fly in large flocks during the low-light hours of dawn and dusk, he added. The threat from power infrastructure is not limited to Sri Lanka. Flamingo fatalities due to power line collisions have been recorded in several African countries, with a report by the IUCN listing 464 flamingo deaths in South Africa alone from 1997-2019. Meanwhile, in the state of Gujarat in western India, a 2011 study reported 76 flamingos that were killed due to collisions with electric wires from 2002-2005. Other protected areas in Sri Lanka offer a cautionary&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/power-lines-threaten-sri-lankas-iconic-migrant-flamingos/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321545</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Community more crucial than snow leopard counting: Interview with Rodney Jackson</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/community-more-crucial-than-snow-leopard-counting-interview-with-rodney-jackson/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/community-more-crucial-than-snow-leopard-counting-interview-with-rodney-jackson/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 07:54:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/19100316/Snow_leopard_-_Uncia_uncia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321499</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Himalayas, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Mammals, Mountains, Snow Leopards, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Rodney Jackson pioneered the radio-tracking study of snow leopards in Nepal&#8217;s Langu Valley in the early 1980s and has, since then, worked across the species&#8217; range from Ladakh to Mongolia to the Pakistani Karakoram ranges. In 1981, he founded the nonprofit Snow Leopard Conservancy (SLC), which focuses on community-based conservation approaches in high [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Rodney Jackson pioneered the radio-tracking study of snow leopards in Nepal&#8217;s Langu Valley in the early 1980s and has, since then, worked across the species&#8217; range from Ladakh to Mongolia to the Pakistani Karakoram ranges. In 1981, he founded the nonprofit Snow Leopard Conservancy (SLC), which focuses on community-based conservation approaches in high mountain landscapes of Asia. Jackson, who holds a doctorate from the University of London, was featured on the cover of National Geographic in 1986 and remains one of the most cited researchers in snow leopard (Panthera uncia) science. After retiring in 2022, Jackson serves as the president of the conservancy’s board of directors, where he works in refining strategic approach and impact, mentoring the next generation of conservationists, and special projects. Jackson spoke with Mongabay — the third time, following interviews in 2008 and 2015 — on the sidelines of Society of Conservation Biologists Congress in Kathmandu, Nepal. Talking to Mongabay’s Abhaya Raj Joshi, Jackson discusses the state of population monitoring technology, the persistent challenge of human-wildlife conflict in mountain communities, and what he describes as a long-standing failure to center the needs of herding families who bear the direct costs of living alongside the species. He also reflects on the lack of collaboration between the two main international snow leopard organizations, and on what he sees as the field&#8217;s continued overinvestment in science at the expense of practical community support. Jackson holds up awareness material. Image courtesy of Anil Adhikari. This interview has been&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/community-more-crucial-than-snow-leopard-counting-interview-with-rodney-jackson/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/community-more-crucial-than-snow-leopard-counting-interview-with-rodney-jackson/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321499</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Antarctica’s first plant risk assessment raises concerns for a rare moss</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/antarcticas-first-plant-risk-assessment-raises-concerns-for-a-rare-moss/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/antarcticas-first-plant-risk-assessment-raises-concerns-for-a-rare-moss/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 07:01:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Bobbybascomb]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/22064853/Blanket-of-mosses-in-Antarctica.-Image-courtesy-of-Peter-ConveyBritish-Antarctic-Survey-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=321539</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Antarctica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Plants, Research, Tourism, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Antarctica’s extreme cold, plants blanket small ice-free areas in bursts of green. These include two native species of flowering plants, 116 moss species, and several liverworts and lichens. Until now, however, none had been assessed for their extinction risk in Antarctica. For the first time, researchers have evaluated the conservation status of an Antarctic [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Antarctica’s extreme cold, plants blanket small ice-free areas in bursts of green. These include two native species of flowering plants, 116 moss species, and several liverworts and lichens. Until now, however, none had been assessed for their extinction risk in Antarctica. For the first time, researchers have evaluated the conservation status of an Antarctic moss, Roaldia revoluta, and found it to be regionally endangered. For Peter Convey, study co-author and a veteran scientist with the British Antarctic Survey, this finding isn’t surprising. “As a field ecologist who has visited many parts of the Antarctic Peninsula over the last 38 years, and made many general moss collections (even though I am not a specialist bryologist) it is very clear that some of the species in the region are only encountered infrequently, or have geographically very restricted or sporadic distributions,” Convey said. “There are about 116 or so known moss species in Antarctica, and I think if this exercise was to be done more widely across these, I think we would get quite a few similar assessments.” Roaldia revoluta. Image © Sequoia Janirella Wrens via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0) Roaldia revoluta is a rusty-brown or yellowish moss found both in the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as in the colder, mountainous parts of Europe, Patagonia and New Zealand. Globally, the species is evaluated as least concern on the IUCN Red List. In parts of its range, however, it’s in decline: near threatened in Romania; critically endangered in the U.K.; and possibly&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/antarcticas-first-plant-risk-assessment-raises-concerns-for-a-rare-moss/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321539</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A few seconds with one of West Africa’s rarest birds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/a-few-seconds-with-one-of-west-africas-rarest-birds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/a-few-seconds-with-one-of-west-africas-rarest-birds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 06:37:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/27093342/White-necked_rockfowl_Picathartes_gymnocephalus_Nyamebe_Bepo_-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=321538</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. The white-necked picathartes is easy to miss. In Taï National Park, in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire, it nests beneath rocky overhangs, shaping mud cups against stone walls deep inside the forest. It may appear for only a few seconds, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. The white-necked picathartes is easy to miss. In Taï National Park, in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire, it nests beneath rocky overhangs, shaping mud cups against stone walls deep inside the forest. It may appear for only a few seconds, long enough to show its bare yellow head, black cheek patches, and long-legged frame, before it vanishes again into the trees. The bird’s elusiveness reflects the kind of habitat it needs, reports contributor Ryan Truscott for Mongabay. Taï is the largest intact remnant of the Upper Guinean rainforest, a forest type that once stretched across much of West Africa. Its boulders, old animal trails, giant mahoganies, duikers, hornbills, monkeys, and river hogs are part of a system that still retains much of its original complexity. The white-necked picathartes (Picathartes gymnocephalus) depends on rocky nesting sites and surrounding forest cover. Other species help maintain the forest itself. Hornbills, primates, and mammals move seeds through the canopy and across the forest floor, helping trees and lianas regenerate far from their parent plants. That makes Taï important beyond the survival of any single rare species. Protected areas are often judged by their boundaries, patrol numbers, and better-known animals. A fuller measure is whether ecological relationships continue: animals using long-established routes, seed dispersers moving between fruiting trees, birds returning to nesting walls, and rangers knowing enough of the forest to find those places again. Keeping those relationships intact depends&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/a-few-seconds-with-one-of-west-africas-rarest-birds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321538</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mona Khalil, who left safety in Europe to protect sea turtles in Lebanon, was killed by an Israeli airstrike</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/mona-khalil-left-safety-in-europe-to-protect-sea-turtles-in-southern-lebanon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/mona-khalil-left-safety-in-europe-to-protect-sea-turtles-in-southern-lebanon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jun 2026 07:59:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/21074513/Mona-Khalil-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321527</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Lebanon and Middle East]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Herps, In-situ Conservation, Murdered Activists, Obituary, Reptiles, and Sea Turtles]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At night on Mansouri beach, the first evidence was often a track in the sand. The beach lies south of Tyre, near the border with Israel, where checkpoints, shelling, and evacuation orders have long shaped daily life. It is also one of Lebanon’s important nesting grounds for loggerhead and green sea turtles. The turtles come [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At night on Mansouri beach, the first evidence was often a track in the sand. The beach lies south of Tyre, near the border with Israel, where checkpoints, shelling, and evacuation orders have long shaped daily life. It is also one of Lebanon’s important nesting grounds for loggerhead and green sea turtles. The turtles come ashore after dark. They dig, lay, cover, and return to the water. For the hatchlings, the distance from nest to sea is only a few yards. It is still dangerous. Dogs and foxes dig up eggs. Crabs and birds take the young. Lights from roads and resorts pull them away from the water. Plastic drifts offshore. Fishing nets catch adults that have survived for decades. Even a footprint can trap a turtle no bigger than a child’s palm. Mona Khalil gave much of her life to that narrow strip of beach. She was 76 when she died on June 19 from wounds sustained after an Israeli airstrike struck her home at Mansouri beach earlier that month. Her assistant was also injured, suffering severe burns. The house, known to visitors and volunteers as the Orange House, had been the base of her conservation work for more than 25 years. Mona Khalil in 2004 in Lebanon. Photo by Joseph Barrak/AFP/Getty Images She had not set out to become a conservationist. Born in Lagos to Lebanese parents, she later left Lebanon during the civil war. In the Netherlands she worked as a porcelain restorer, a trade that required&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/mona-khalil-left-safety-in-europe-to-protect-sea-turtles-in-southern-lebanon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321527</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Accountability advocates ‘shocked’ as Canadian government eliminates watchdog agency</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/accountability-advocates-shocked-as-canadian-government-eliminates-watchdog-agency/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/accountability-advocates-shocked-as-canadian-government-eliminates-watchdog-agency/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jun 2026 09:10:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annie Burns-Pieper]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/20043639/d.-2441949217_f05ceab08b_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321524</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Forced labor, Mining, and Natural Resources]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced last week that the government eliminated an office created to probe overseas human rights complaints about Canadian corporations, including mining conglomerates. This comes only months after the foreign affairs minister said the office was “important.” The announcement shocked environmental and human rights nonprofit organizations and those who said they [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced last week that the government eliminated an office created to probe overseas human rights complaints about Canadian corporations, including mining conglomerates. This comes only months after the foreign affairs minister said the office was “important.” The announcement shocked environmental and human rights nonprofit organizations and those who said they have faced personal risk to alert Canadian authorities about actions by corporations based in the country. The Canadian government created the office of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) in 2019 to evaluate complaints about alleged human rights abuses by Canadian companies operating abroad in the garment, mining, and oil and gas sectors. At a June 11 press conference, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said his government had eliminated the CORE office months before because it considered the agency ineffective, only conducting one investigation in seven years. But his government made no public announcement about the decision, and three weeks earlier had addressed questions from Mongabay about the status of its investigations. While the office failed to complete any investigations for its first four years of operations, it reported on the outcome of five complaints in 2024, its last year with a permanent Ombudsperson. Since then, the office has been without a permanent leader. In April 2024, an interim Ombudsperson took over the post until May 20, 2025; the role has since sat vacant. “The Carney government&#8217;s reasons for disbanding the ombudsman are at best misinformed but much more likely a deliberate favor to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/accountability-advocates-shocked-as-canadian-government-eliminates-watchdog-agency/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321524</doi>				</item>
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					<title>Death and exile: A war plagues Indigenous Jiw and Nukak in the Colombian Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/death-and-exile-a-war-plagues-indigenous-jiw-and-nukak-in-the-colombian-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/death-and-exile-a-war-plagues-indigenous-jiw-and-nukak-in-the-colombian-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jun 2026 19:15:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Pilar Puentes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/19190508/banner-1-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321516</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Crime, Drug Trade, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[By late May, at least 48 people were killed in rural areas of Colombia following clashes between the FARC guerrilla dissident groups controlled by the aliases “Calarcá” and “Iván Mordisco.”]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Since the end of May, rural areas of San José del Guaviare, the capital city of the Guaviare department in the Colombian Amazon, have once again been turned into a war zone. A series of clashes between dissident cells of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), demobilized in 2016, and commanded by Alexander Díaz Mendoza, alias “Calarcá,” and Néstor Gregorio Vera Fernández, alias “‘Iván Mordisco,” has resulted in the deaths of at least 48 people. The warfare between the two armed groups concentrates on a strategic area for illicit economies on the Guaviare River, a tributary of the Orinoco River. The rural community of Cumare, as well as the Nukak and Jiw Indigenous people of the Barranco Colorado Reserve (an ancestral territory in San José del Guaviare), started hearing gunshots and rushed to hide. Since that frightening day, May 26, they have avoided leaving their homes. “People are on maximum alert; no one moves because they fear being caught in the middle of the confrontation,” said a resident of Charras, another rural area of San José del Guaviare, who requested anonymity for safety reasons. “We knew something like this could happen. A bomb fell in the middle of a sports field here in the Siberia rural district,” said a woman who has witnessed the clashes since their very beginning; she also requested anonymity. Colombian Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez stated, “The criminal structures of alias ‘Mordisco’ and ‘Calarcá’ fought in the Barranco Colorado sector, jurisdiction of San José del Guaviare,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/death-and-exile-a-war-plagues-indigenous-jiw-and-nukak-in-the-colombian-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321516</doi>				</item>
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					<title>What’s at stake for the environment in Colombia’s upcoming election?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-colombias-upcoming-election/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-colombias-upcoming-election/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jun 2026 15:55:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/06/21194943/colombia_1875-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321507</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Crime, Deforestation, Development, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Energy Transition, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Land Conflict, Land Use Change, Organized Crime, Politics, Traditional People, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Colombia’s first round of presidential elections on May 31 saw right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella take the top spot with 43.7% of the vote, followed by left-wing candidate Iván Cepeda, with 40.9%. The future of the Colombian Amazon, the fossil fuel phaseout commitments made by current President Gustavo Petro and the rights of Indigenous [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Colombia’s first round of presidential elections on May 31 saw right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella take the top spot with 43.7% of the vote, followed by left-wing candidate Iván Cepeda, with 40.9%. The future of the Colombian Amazon, the fossil fuel phaseout commitments made by current President Gustavo Petro and the rights of Indigenous peoples and other traditional communities are all at stake during the runoff on June 21. Colombia has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by 2030 and has a legally binding net-zero target for 2050. Analysts at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) say Petro’s government made some progress, but deep reductions in emissions are critical, in particular from deforestation and agriculture, as well as reforms to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. As a result, who Colombia elects next will have major implications for the country’s climate ambitions. When Petro took office in 2022, he made the fossil fuel phaseout and environmental protection central features of his government’s agenda. He promised to become a leader in the defense of life, which involved transforming the country’s relationship with nature and “Total Peace” (Paz Total) — his administration’s flagship peace policy aimed to end Colombia’s decades-long armed conflict. Petro opposed new oil and gas exploration contracts and has been vocal about environmental justice and the energy transition at the international level, including at the United Nations General Assembly, the World Economic Forum in Davos and the United Nations Climate Change Conferences (COPs). In April,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-colombias-upcoming-election/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321507</doi>				</item>
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					<title>South African authorities thwart smuggling of 150 venomous scorpions, arrest man</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/south-african-authorities-thwart-smuggling-of-150-venomous-scorpions-arrest-man/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/south-african-authorities-thwart-smuggling-of-150-venomous-scorpions-arrest-man/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jun 2026 13:42:14 +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/20/2026/06/18155148/Scorpion3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321452</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Arachnids, Conservation, Crime, Environmental Law, Illegal Trade, Invertebrates, Law, Pet Trade, Pets, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[South African police arrested a 28-year-old man at Cape Town International Airport on June 12, 2026. Inside his luggage, tucked between his clothing, authorities discovered 150 live venomous scorpions. Each one was individually wrapped in a clear plastic bag, like candies at a supermarket It’s not known where the alleged smuggler intended to take the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[South African police arrested a 28-year-old man at Cape Town International Airport on June 12, 2026. Inside his luggage, tucked between his clothing, authorities discovered 150 live venomous scorpions. Each one was individually wrapped in a clear plastic bag, like candies at a supermarket It’s not known where the alleged smuggler intended to take the scorpions or for what purpose. An intelligence-led operation targeted the suspect: Authorities acted on a tip about a man in possession of wildlife. The bust was conducted by the Kuilsriver Stock Theft and Endangered Species Unit, a special police force, in collaboration with CapeNature, a government agency tasked with environmental protection in the Western Cape. Police spokesperson Sergeant Wesley Twigg told local media that he was arrested on suspicion of being in “possession of a wild animal under the Nature and Environmental Ordinance Act.” An investigation into the case is ongoing. The commercial value of the seized scorpions is yet to be determined, authorities said. The rescued scorpions are being cared for by the Cape of Good Hope SPCA. In a social media statement, the animal rescue organization said they are ensuring the arachnids receive proper care, and they will try to return them “to their place of origin where possible.” The seized scorpions are being cared for at the Cape of Good Hope SPCA. Image courtesy of Cape of Good Hope SPCA/Facebook. Scorpion trade, like other wildlife, is booming The planet is home to more than 2,900 scorpion species; only 25-30 have venom, a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/south-african-authorities-thwart-smuggling-of-150-venomous-scorpions-arrest-man/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321452</doi>				</item>
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