<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" >

	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?post_type=post&#038;byline=nikolas-kozloff" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/by/nikolas-kozloff/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 08 May 2026 10:34:30 +0000</lastBuildDate>
		<language>en-US</language>
		<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
		<generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4</generator>

<image>
	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>Nikolas Kozloff Archives</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/by/nikolas-kozloff/</link>
	<width>32</width>
	<height>32</height>
</image> 
				<item>
					<title>Conservationists fear fires could erase years of orangutan habitat recovery</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/conservationists-fear-fires-could-erase-years-of-orangutan-habitat-recovery/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/conservationists-fear-fires-could-erase-years-of-orangutan-habitat-recovery/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2026 10:34:30 +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/20/2017/01/02083516/sabah_3982-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318990</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Borneo Orangutan, Conservation, Ecological Restoration, Ecosystem Restoration, El Nino, fire, Forest Fires, Great Apes, Landscape Restoration, Mammals, Orangutans, Peatlands, Rainforests, Reforestation, Rehabilitation, Restoration, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, wildfires, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Fires have burned part of a decade-long orangutan habitat restoration site in Indonesian Borneo, raising fears among conservationists that another severe fire season could wipe out years of recovery efforts before the dry season has even fully begun. A decade ago, Yayasan IAR Indonesia (YIARI), the Indonesian affiliate of International Animal Rescue, began [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Fires have burned part of a decade-long orangutan habitat restoration site in Indonesian Borneo, raising fears among conservationists that another severe fire season could wipe out years of recovery efforts before the dry season has even fully begun. A decade ago, Yayasan IAR Indonesia (YIARI), the Indonesian affiliate of International Animal Rescue, began restoring degraded orangutan habitat in Pematang Gadung village in Ketapang district, West Kalimantan province, after villagers repeatedly reported orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) entering farms and eating crops. The incursions were driven by habitat loss. Large parts of the surrounding forest had already been degraded, including during Indonesia’s catastrophic 2015 fire season, when more than 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) of land in and around the village were burned. Since then, YIARI, together with the government and local communities, have worked to restore the damaged landscape by planting trees that provide food for orangutans, with the hope that if enough food is available in the forest, the critically endangered apes will stop venturing into farmland. As of early 2026, the group had restored around 300 hectares (740 acres) with 150,000 trees, including fruit-bearing species favored by orangutans. Local community members planting trees at the restoration site of orangutan habitat in Pematang Gadung village in Ketapang district, West Kalimantan. Image courtesy of YIARI. The work is especially important because the remaining orangutan habitat in the area has become increasingly fragmented. Illegal gold mining operations now surround much of the forest, leaving wildlife confined to shrinking patches of habitat. “Once&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/conservationists-fear-fires-could-erase-years-of-orangutan-habitat-recovery/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/conservationists-fear-fires-could-erase-years-of-orangutan-habitat-recovery/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Mozambique, four isolated mountains yield four new chameleon species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/in-mozambique-four-isolated-mountains-yield-four-new-chameleon-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/in-mozambique-four-isolated-mountains-yield-four-new-chameleon-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2026 07:02:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Naina Rao]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/08070207/chameleon-mozambique-768x512.avif" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=318994</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ecology, Forest Destruction, Mountains, New Species, and Reptiles]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have identified four new-to-science species of chameleons inhabiting four distinct, isolated mountains in northern Mozambique. These mountains — Namuli, Inago, Chiperone, and Ribáuè —are granite inselbergs rising sharply from the arid savanna. They act as “sky islands” or ecological oases that have allowed unique species to evolve in isolation for millions of years. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have identified four new-to-science species of chameleons inhabiting four distinct, isolated mountains in northern Mozambique. These mountains — Namuli, Inago, Chiperone, and Ribáuè —are granite inselbergs rising sharply from the arid savanna. They act as “sky islands” or ecological oases that have allowed unique species to evolve in isolation for millions of years. The research team, led by herpetologists Krystal Tolley of the South African National Biodiversity Institute and the University of Johannesburg, alongside Werner Conradie from Port Elizabeth Museum, explored the inselbergs from 2014 to 2018 to survey the chameleons found there. Their analysis of the chameleons’ DNA and physical traits confirmed that each mountain harbors its own distinct species. The newly described species are Nadzikambia franklinae, N. goodallae, N. nubila and N. evanescens. Two of the chameleons’ names pay homage to women scientists: N. franklinae, found on Mount Namuli, is named after British chemist Rosalind Franklin, while N. goodallae, found on Mount Ribáuè, honors late conservation icon Jane Goodall. The other two chameleons were named for their habitat and microclimate: N. nubila is named after the Latin nubilus, meaning cloudy, referring to the clouds that are key for the mid-elevation wet forest on Mount Chiperone. Meanwhile, the species name of N. evanescens means &#8220;vanishing&#8221; in Latin, to reflect the desperate state of its shrinking home on Mount Inago. C-F: N. franklinae, N. goodallae, N. evanescens, N. nubila. Image courtesy of Tolley &amp; Conradie, 2026, Vertebrate Zoology, (CC BY 4.0). All four chameleons are forest specialists that live&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/in-mozambique-four-isolated-mountains-yield-four-new-chameleon-species/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/in-mozambique-four-isolated-mountains-yield-four-new-chameleon-species/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>African elephant genomes reveal ancient mixing — and modern pressures</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/african-elephant-genomes-reveal-ancient-mixing-and-modern-pressures/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/african-elephant-genomes-reveal-ancient-mixing-and-modern-pressures/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2026 06:35:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Brown]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/08045904/south_africa_kruger_0877-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=318991</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Elephants, Forests, Genetics, Green, Mammals, Protected Areas, Research, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A continent-wide genomic study of both savanna and forest elephants in Africa has found that African elephants once roamed widely, both species exchanging genes throughout their range.  However, as humans decimated elephant populations for their ivory and fragmented their habitats with farms and urban development, the effects of these disturbances appeared in the genomic patterns [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A continent-wide genomic study of both savanna and forest elephants in Africa has found that African elephants once roamed widely, both species exchanging genes throughout their range.  However, as humans decimated elephant populations for their ivory and fragmented their habitats with farms and urban development, the effects of these disturbances appeared in the genomic patterns of both African elephant species.  Forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) and savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) were considered one species until 2021, by when genetic studies confirmed they are two distinct evolutionary lineages that diverged 2 million to 5 million years ago. The recent study, which sequenced 232 genomes of savanna and forest elephants across 17 African countries, confirmed the deep divergence between the elephant species. The researchers also found that the two species have a history of hybridization, especially where forest and savanna habitats meet. In areas such as Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda, the team found evidence of recent hybridization. Meanwhile, some savanna elephants far from forest habitats, such as those in northern Uganda, the Serengeti in Tanzania, and the Zambezi in Southern Africa, also have signs of forest elephant ancestry in their genomes, the study found. This suggests there was hybridization at some point in the deep past, the authors say. They link this to shifts in the extent of tropical forests in response to climate change over millions of years. The researchers also found signals of human impacts on some elephant genomes.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/african-elephant-genomes-reveal-ancient-mixing-and-modern-pressures/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/african-elephant-genomes-reveal-ancient-mixing-and-modern-pressures/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Hope is rooted in action’: Interview with Jane Goodall’s grandson Merlin Van Lawick</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/hope-is-rooted-in-action-interview-with-jane-goodalls-grandson-merlin-van-lawick/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/hope-is-rooted-in-action-interview-with-jane-goodalls-grandson-merlin-van-lawick/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2026 06:00:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Juliette Chapalain]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://news.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/105_JANE_GOODALL_CHANGE_NOW_HD_©_MARYLOU_MAURICIO-1-e1778208414564-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318970</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, and Jane Goodall]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Five months after the passing of conservation icon Jane Goodall in 2025, Mongabay met her grandson, Merlin Van Lawick, at the ChangeNOW 2026 environmental forum in Paris. It was a first trip to the French capital for Van Lawick, who was born, raised and lives today in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He has been connected [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Five months after the passing of conservation icon Jane Goodall in 2025, Mongabay met her grandson, Merlin Van Lawick, at the ChangeNOW 2026 environmental forum in Paris. It was a first trip to the French capital for Van Lawick, who was born, raised and lives today in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He has been connected to the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), the conservation organization founded by his grandmother, for “as long as he can remember,” he says. Now, working for the institute’s conservation science and communications team, Van Lawick’s involvement has grown over the last several years. That’s even more so now that his grandmother has passed, he tells Mongabay. Before starting his MBA at Arden University in the U.K., he spent a lot of time “learning through doing” in the field in Tanzania, connecting with communities and seeing firsthand the complexity of conservation work. In this interview with Mongabay’s Juliette Chapalain, Van Lawick talks about his relationship with his grandmother, how he developed a strong interest in storytelling, and new ways of thinking to scale up impact in a quickly changing world, whether the obstacles are biodiversity loss or the difficulty NGOs face in obtaining funding. He also spoke of the challenges and hope of the JGI in engaging more communities and people in the “environmental mission.” Jange Goodall (second from left) and Merlin Van Lawick (far left) at a Roots and Shoots event in Dar es Salaam. She is accompanied by her other grandchild Nick Van Lawick (second&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/hope-is-rooted-in-action-interview-with-jane-goodalls-grandson-merlin-van-lawick/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/hope-is-rooted-in-action-interview-with-jane-goodalls-grandson-merlin-van-lawick/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Dangerous arsenic levels detected in Thailand’s Mekong mainstream for first time</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/dangerous-arsenic-levels-detected-in-thailands-mekong-mainstream-for-first-time/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/dangerous-arsenic-levels-detected-in-thailands-mekong-mainstream-for-first-time/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2026 02:47:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Agriculture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Energy Transition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[extractives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fish]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fisheries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Freshwater Ecosystems]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hydropower]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Illegal Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Communities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mining]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pollution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[river dolphins]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rivers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Rivers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Water Pollution]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/09223648/Fishers-Mekong-near-Chiang-Khong-3_stefan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318973</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, China, Laos, Mekong River, Myanmar, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Dolphins, Drinking Water, Endangered Species, extractives, Farming, Fish, Fisheries, Freshwater Animals, Freshwater Ecosystems, Governance, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Communities, Mining, Rivers, Tropical Rivers, Water Crisis, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Thai authorities have found what they described as dangerous levels of arsenic contamination in sediment from the Mekong River and three of its tributaries in the northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. Heavy metal pollution has been reported from key tributaries of the Mekong for more than a year now, but [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Thai authorities have found what they described as dangerous levels of arsenic contamination in sediment from the Mekong River and three of its tributaries in the northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. Heavy metal pollution has been reported from key tributaries of the Mekong for more than a year now, but the tests conducted in March by Thailand’s Pollution Control Department mark the first time that arsenic contamination has been detected on the mainstream of the Mekong, a vital transboundary river that supports thousands of plant and wildlife species and the livelihoods of millions of people. The test results published in mid-April show that sediment taken from three separate monitoring stations along the Mekong mainstream contained arsenic concentrations of between 73 and 296 milligrams per kilogram of sediment. According to the Pollution Control Department, concentrations of less than 10 mg/kg are considered broadly safe for aquatic life; levels higher than 33 mg/kg are deemed dangerous. Arsenic levels in sediment taken from various points along the Kok, Sai and Ruak rivers, key tributaries of the Mekong, all ranged from below the 33 mg/kg safe limit up to 57 mg/kg, the Pollution Control Department said via its official Facebook page, noting the contamination appears to be spreading through the river system. Thailand&#8217;s Pollution Control Department posted results of the sediment tests to their official Facebook page on April 10, 2026. Image sourced from the Pollution Control Department&#8217;s Facebook. Heavy metal pollution in the Mekong Basin has been widely&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/dangerous-arsenic-levels-detected-in-thailands-mekong-mainstream-for-first-time/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/dangerous-arsenic-levels-detected-in-thailands-mekong-mainstream-for-first-time/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>What Indigenous youth filmmaking reveals about environmental communication (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/what-indigenous-youth-filmmaking-reveals-about-environmental-communication-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/what-indigenous-youth-filmmaking-reveals-about-environmental-communication-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 16:38:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jamille Pinheiro Dias]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07162429/DSC_1829-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318951</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Rainforest, Arts, Commentary, Communication, Conservation, Environment, Film, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Cultures, Indigenous Peoples, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A machete is typically an instrument for clearing dense brush or, in a certain kind of movie, for fending off a terrifying monster. Yet, deep in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil’s Bahia state, I learned that a machete is also used for a much friendlier purpose: slicing green mangoes to eat with salt. That simple, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A machete is typically an instrument for clearing dense brush or, in a certain kind of movie, for fending off a terrifying monster. Yet, deep in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil’s Bahia state, I learned that a machete is also used for a much friendlier purpose: slicing green mangoes to eat with salt. That simple, unexpected twist — where anticipated horror dissolves into communal joy — captures exactly what happened when we asked the students in the Indigenous Tupinambá villages of Serra do Padeiro and Tukum what kind of movies they liked. The room immediately buzzed with a rapid-fire list: K-dramas, slapstick comedies, high-speed action, or blood-chilling horror. Before anyone had even picked up a camera, the space was already overflowing with a multiplicity of cinematic worlds and different ideas about what a story could be. I had traveled to southern Bahia in March 2026 with Indigenous filmmaker Olinda Tupinambá and a group of creatives. As a researcher at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study, I am co-developing our project titled “Environmental Education and Film in the Atlantic Forest: Eco-Activism Through Indigenous Perspectives” with support from the British Academy. Our goal was simple: to demystify filmmaking by using everyday smartphones as creative tools, and to challenge what audiences often assume about Indigenous cinema. Students, project leads, and facilitators during the workshop in the Serra do Padeiro village, Tupinambá de Olivença Territory (Bahia, Brazil), part of the British Academy–funded Environmental Education and Film in the Atlantic Forest: Eco-Activism Through&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/what-indigenous-youth-filmmaking-reveals-about-environmental-communication-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/what-indigenous-youth-filmmaking-reveals-about-environmental-communication-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Using songlines, elders codify traditional knowledge to care for Country</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/using-songlines-elders-codify-traditional-knowledge-to-care-for-country/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/using-songlines-elders-codify-traditional-knowledge-to-care-for-country/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 16:35:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anthony Ham]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07001403/DSC_8090-scaled-e1778171080149-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318952</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation Solutions, Deserts, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Culture, Indigenous Peoples, Protected Areas, Religions, Solutions, Spirituality and Conservation, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, and Wildlife Rangers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LAJAMANU, Australia — A group of Warlpiri men and women gathered along one of the most remote tracks in Australia and stared intently at the ground. Here in the Tanami Desert, along the dirt back road between Lajamanu and Tennant Creek, they all agreed that the tracks they could see told a story: A dingo, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LAJAMANU, Australia — A group of Warlpiri men and women gathered along one of the most remote tracks in Australia and stared intently at the ground. Here in the Tanami Desert, along the dirt back road between Lajamanu and Tennant Creek, they all agreed that the tracks they could see told a story: A dingo, a black-headed python and a hopping mouse had all passed this way. They argued over the finer points — when exactly the animals had left these signs, whether the python was pursuing the mouse or whether it was an adult or juvenile dingo. But from these seemingly random marks in the sand, they were able to piece together a picture of what had occurred, in what order or when. These were the Warlpiri’s kuyu pungu (expert trackers), capable of reading the deserts of Australia in precise detail. Everyone here was born, and has lived, in the desert for most of their lives. They learned the essential skills of a self-sufficient desert life as their ancestors had, by observing their elders out in the desert. They have a profound connection with the land, and from that flows an intimate understanding of their world, one that encompasses everything from ecology to spirituality. Footprints in the sand along a sandy track outside Lajamanu. Image by Anthony Ham. And yet, often for a younger generation of Warlpiri, many of whom lived in towns with only irregular excursions into the countryside, such opportunities are rare. Which is why the Warlpiri&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/using-songlines-elders-codify-traditional-knowledge-to-care-for-country/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/using-songlines-elders-codify-traditional-knowledge-to-care-for-country/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Crude oil and wood fires fuel Nigeria’s soot pollution, in photos</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/crude-oil-and-wood-fires-fuel-nigerias-soot-pollution-in-photos/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/crude-oil-and-wood-fires-fuel-nigerias-soot-pollution-in-photos/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 15:00:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/08093908/CV_Black_Carbon_Nigeria_17-1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=318860</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Nigeria]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Black Carbon, Energy Politics, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Gas, Health, Oil, Photography, Photos, Planetary Health, Pollution, and Public Health]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Visual storyteller Taiwo Aina-Adeokun traveled across Nigeria over several months from 2025-26, documenting areas of the country where heavy plumes of smoke, containing the sooty pollutant black carbon, are a part of daily life. In some cases, the soot comes from Nigeria&#8217;s smoked-food culinary traditions. In others, it is a byproduct of the country&#8217;s oil industry. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Visual storyteller Taiwo Aina-Adeokun traveled across Nigeria over several months from 2025-26, documenting areas of the country where heavy plumes of smoke, containing the sooty pollutant black carbon, are a part of daily life. In some cases, the soot comes from Nigeria&#8217;s smoked-food culinary traditions. In others, it is a byproduct of the country&#8217;s oil industry. “I didn&#8217;t stay inside the smoke for too long because my eyes were watery and red and I was coughing,” Aina-Adeokun told Mongabay by phone. “I&#8217;m sure if we did a medical scan, we&#8217;d find effects in [residents&#8217;] system, like a respiratory problem. But most of the people there have been in this business for decades, so they are used to being in the smoke.” “Once we breathe [the soot particles] in, they go into our lungs and affect our respiratory health,” Tom Grylls, an air pollution specialist at the Clean Air Fund, told Mongabay in a video call. “But because they&#8217;re so small, they can go beyond the lungs and into your bloodstream and therefore are linked with effects on your heart and on your nervous system.” Black carbon primarily impacts low-income households with limited access to electricity. It also disproportionately affects women, since much of residential exposure occurs while cooking, a task that women often dominate across many cultures. Port Harcourt in Rivers State, a region in Nigeria around 500 kilometers (310 miles) southeast of Lagos, is also famous for its smoked food, including cow skins. Burning wood creates the signature smoky taste&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/crude-oil-and-wood-fires-fuel-nigerias-soot-pollution-in-photos/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/crude-oil-and-wood-fires-fuel-nigerias-soot-pollution-in-photos/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate change could erase most South American cloud forests, study warns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/climate-change-could-erase-most-south-american-cloud-forests-study-warns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/climate-change-could-erase-most-south-american-cloud-forests-study-warns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 14:15:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Lizkimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Climate Change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Climate Change And Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cloud forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[forest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[green]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rainforests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/15172640/03-manu_0230_22-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318942</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Protected Areas, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Up in the misty mountains, teems a kaleidoscope of life: trees drip with epiphytes, hummingbirds sip from bright blossoms, and rare creatures occupy every nook in the cloud forests, which scientists have likened to terrestrial coral reefs. But a new study warns that climate change could strip away the conditions that make cloud forests possible, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Up in the misty mountains, teems a kaleidoscope of life: trees drip with epiphytes, hummingbirds sip from bright blossoms, and rare creatures occupy every nook in the cloud forests, which scientists have likened to terrestrial coral reefs. But a new study warns that climate change could strip away the conditions that make cloud forests possible, and in the worst case, erase nearly all of them within 50 years. The research, published in the Journal for Nature Conservation, used machine learning and modeling to project how cloud forest distribution in South America could shift under two different climate scenarios by 2070. The study reports that under a high-emissions pathway, up to 91% of cloud forest area could be lost. Even under the most optimistic scenario, researchers calculate a 12% reduction, roughly 21,000 square kilometers (8,100 square miles), an area the size of El Salvador. Cloud forests occupy a narrow band of land, typically between 1,000 and 3,000 meters (about 3,300-10,000 feet) above sea level, and are defined by persistent fog, cool temperatures and high humidity. That humidity shapes everything, from the mosses and orchids draped across surfaces, to the birds and amphibians found nowhere else on Earth. Epiphytes in the cloud forest of Peru&#8217;s Kosñipata valley. Image credit: Rhett A. Butler The study notes these ecosystems harbor some 1,946 restricted-range species, representing roughly 8% of the world&#8217;s mammals, birds, amphibians and tree ferns. Among the species endemic to South American cloud forests are the flamboyant Andean cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola peruvianus), whose brilliant&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/climate-change-could-erase-most-south-american-cloud-forests-study-warns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/climate-change-could-erase-most-south-american-cloud-forests-study-warns/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deforestation and warming could push Amazon to tipping point by 2040s: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/deforestation-and-warming-could-push-amazon-to-tipping-point-by-2040s-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/deforestation-and-warming-could-push-amazon-to-tipping-point-by-2040s-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 14:10:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07103744/amazon-forest-fire-burning-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318926</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Destruction, Amazon Rainforest, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Fires, Global Environmental Crisis, Rainforest Deforestation, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, and Threats To The Amazon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation coupled with climate change is rapidly pushing the Amazon Rainforest toward a perilous tipping point that could come much sooner than previously thought. That’s the warning from a new paper, published in Nature, which determined that deforestation of 22-28% of the rainforest, combined with 1.5-1.9° Celsius (2.7-3.4° Fahrenheit) of global warming, could trigger a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation coupled with climate change is rapidly pushing the Amazon Rainforest toward a perilous tipping point that could come much sooner than previously thought. That’s the warning from a new paper, published in Nature, which determined that deforestation of 22-28% of the rainforest, combined with 1.5-1.9° Celsius (2.7-3.4° Fahrenheit) of global warming, could trigger a widespread transformation of the biome as early as the 2040s. Researchers found that crossing this deforestation/global temperature threshold could lead to more than two-thirds of the rainforest becoming degraded or transitioning to a savanna ecosystem. Currently, about 17-18% of the Amazon is deforested and 1.5°C of warming over preindustrial levels is likely to be officially reached by 2030, while scientists say it is increasingly likely 2°C (3.6°F) of warming may be surpassed by 2050. In the worst-case scenario, “This critical [Amazon] threshold could be reached as early as the 2040s,” Nico Wunderling, first author on the paper and a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, told Mongabay in an interview. “Although I&#8217;d be a little bit more optimistic: If current [downward] trends [for] Brazilian deforestation continue, then deforestation-wise, we might not reach [the tipping point] by mid-century.” “I think we can confidently say that the more deforestation happens, the lower this global warming threshold becomes,” said Arie Staal, study co-author and an assistant professor at Utrecht University. For Carlos Nobre, a professor at the University of São Paulo and co-chair of the Science Panel for the Amazon, who wasn’t involved in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/deforestation-and-warming-could-push-amazon-to-tipping-point-by-2040s-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/deforestation-and-warming-could-push-amazon-to-tipping-point-by-2040s-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tanzania cracks down on mining sector, aims for inclusivity and sustainability</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/tanzania-cracks-down-on-mining-sector-aims-for-inclusivity-and-sustainability/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/tanzania-cracks-down-on-mining-sector-aims-for-inclusivity-and-sustainability/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 13:12:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nkwimba Nkwimba]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07123009/Leseni-1-1-e1778157040581-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318933</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Critical Minerals, Ecology, Economics, Environment, Governance, Government, Human Rights, Illegal Mining, mine, and Mining]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tanzania canceled 40 mining exploration licenses and put another 43 license holders on notice in a crackdown linked to the government’s “Mining for a Brighter Tomorrow” program that aims to create a more “inclusive and sustainable” mining sector. Anthony Mavunde, the minerals minister, told journalists on April 15, in Tanzania’s capital, Dodoma, that the government [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tanzania canceled 40 mining exploration licenses and put another 43 license holders on notice in a crackdown linked to the government’s “Mining for a Brighter Tomorrow” program that aims to create a more “inclusive and sustainable” mining sector. Anthony Mavunde, the minerals minister, told journalists on April 15, in Tanzania’s capital, Dodoma, that the government wanted to restore order in the mining sector, and curb violations of license conditions by mine developers who hoard mining blocks without developing them. The concerned concessions cover approximately 900 square kilometers (350 square miles), according to the minister. The government plans to reallocate some of the recovered mining blocks to women, youth and people with disabilities to expand local participation in the sector. “Some investors hold land for many years without any meaningful investment. This is wastage of economic opportunities and a catalyst for environmental destruction and conflicts,” Mavunde said. Besides holding on to the land, the 40 license holders are accused of failing to pay the requisite fees, fulfilling local content requirements (the use of domestically produced goods, services and labor) as well as failing to meet corporate social responsibility obligations. Joyce Andrew, a small-scale miner in Tanzania’s Shinyanga region, examines mined ore. Image courtesy of Shaaban Njia. “We do not want to see our resources turn into a curse. Mining must go hand in hand with environmental conservation,” Mavunde said. Stakeholders interviewed by Mongabay expressed concerns about how neglected exploration sites become hubs for unregulated mining activity, leading to severe land degradation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/tanzania-cracks-down-on-mining-sector-aims-for-inclusivity-and-sustainability/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/tanzania-cracks-down-on-mining-sector-aims-for-inclusivity-and-sustainability/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil police seize devices from bird expert in trafficking probe linked to Vantara zoo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/brazil-police-seize-devices-from-bird-expert-in-trafficking-probe-linked-to-vantara-zoo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/brazil-police-seize-devices-from-bird-expert-in-trafficking-probe-linked-to-vantara-zoo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 12:30:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07071124/Lears-macaw-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318620</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, India, Latin America, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Birds, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Illegal Trade, India-wildlife, Law, Monkeys, Wildlife Conservation, Wildlife Crime, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The famous bird specialist Tony Silva had cell phones and a computer seized by Brazil’s Federal Police at Guarulhos Airport, in São Paulo, according to a source.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A U.S. citizen suspected of international wildlife trafficking had three cell phones and a computer seized on May 1 as he arrived at Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo, Brazil. According to a statement released by the Federal Police, the action is a development in an investigation &#8220;probing the international trafficking of golden lion tamarins and other endangered species of Brazilian fauna.&#8221; The statement doesn’t mention the target&#8217;s name, but a source familiar with the investigations involving golden lion tamarins who asked to remain anonymous identified the man as Tony Silva, a renowned bird expert who was convicted of smuggling exotic birds into the U.S. from South America in 1996. According to the source, Silva is suspected of coordinating the purchase of illegally traded animals for Vantara, a private mega zoo in the state of Gujarat, India, run by billionaire Anant Ambani, son of India’s richest man. In an email to Mongabay, a Vantara spokesperson stated that the zoo “has no connection with the buying of illegal animals” and that “any attempt to link Mr. Silva’s personal affairs to Vantara, directly or by implication, would be factually incorrect and legally untenable.” According to the organization, Silva is not and has never been its employee. “Vantara understands that he [Tony Silva] has been engaged by an independent contractor for limited consultancy relating to enclosure curation, husbandry and nutrition, considering his published work and experience in that field. He does not speak for, act for, or represent Vantara,” the spokesperson wrote. (See&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/brazil-police-seize-devices-from-bird-expert-in-trafficking-probe-linked-to-vantara-zoo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/brazil-police-seize-devices-from-bird-expert-in-trafficking-probe-linked-to-vantara-zoo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>US proposes endangered species protections for an imperiled Jamaican butterfly</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-proposes-endangered-species-protections-for-an-imperiled-jamaican-butterfly/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-proposes-endangered-species-protections-for-an-imperiled-jamaican-butterfly/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 12:04:27 +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/20/2026/05/06171317/Protographium-marcellinus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318851</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean, Jamaica, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Environmental Law, Extinction, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Insects, Islands, Over-hunting, Saving Species From Extinction, Wildlife, Wildlife Conservation, and Wildlife consumption]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently proposed listing Jamaica’s most imperiled butterfly, the Jamaican kite swallowtail, as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The species (Protographium marcellinus), a small, fast-flying butterfly, flutters through its limestone forest home. Its wings, painted in streaks of bright turquoise and black with a dash of red, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently proposed listing Jamaica’s most imperiled butterfly, the Jamaican kite swallowtail, as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The species (Protographium marcellinus), a small, fast-flying butterfly, flutters through its limestone forest home. Its wings, painted in streaks of bright turquoise and black with a dash of red, sport long, narrow tails. These charismatic butterflies live on this island and nowhere else. In recent years, they’ve nearly disappeared. Back in the 1960s, scientists recorded about 750,000 individuals; that number has plummeted to between 50 and 250 today. In some years, they’ve seen none. It’s such an alarming decline that scientists say this swallowtail should jump two categories on the IUCN Red List, from vulnerable to critically endangered. “This listing would be a real turning point for this species,” said Dianne DuBois, senior scientist at the U.S.-based NGO Center for Biological Diversity, which has been fighting for ESA protections for the butterfly since 1994. After a few failed attempts, it sued USFWS in 2021, which resulted in the agency drawing up the current proposal. ESA listings prevent extinction in 99% of the species under the act, but the wait is often quite long, about 12 years on average. Time may not be on its side for the Jamaican kite swallowtail, which hangs on the brink of extinction. “We wish this proposal had come three decades ago,” DuBois said. “We really want to urge the Fish and Wildlife Service to work quickly to finalize these&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-proposes-endangered-species-protections-for-an-imperiled-jamaican-butterfly/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-proposes-endangered-species-protections-for-an-imperiled-jamaican-butterfly/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>52 dead sloths: Inside Sloth World</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/52-dead-sloths-inside-sloth-world/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/52-dead-sloths-inside-sloth-world/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 11:02:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Izzy Sasada]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sam Lee]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/29184800/3433299832_10ac6e7633_k-e1777488976544-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=318932</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Florida, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Mammals, Sloths, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than 50 sloths were recently reported dead due to unsuitable conditions at Sloth World, a proposed so-called “slotharium” in Orlando, Florida. The facility—due to open this month—has permanently closed. Many of the animals had been sourced from the wild in Peru and Guyana, and died either during transport or in holding conditions, according to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More than 50 sloths were recently reported dead due to unsuitable conditions at Sloth World, a proposed so-called “slotharium” in Orlando, Florida. The facility—due to open this month—has permanently closed. Many of the animals had been sourced from the wild in Peru and Guyana, and died either during transport or in holding conditions, according to findings of an investigation by Inside Climate News. While the closure is a win for sloths, the capturing of wild animals for captive facilities isn’t new. It actually has a long history—particularly in the U.S. Learn more about the Sloth World scandal in this episode of Conservation Entangled, with Izzy Sasada.This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/52-dead-sloths-inside-sloth-world/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/52-dead-sloths-inside-sloth-world/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cerrado’s hidden carbon highlights gaps in Brazil’s conservation policy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/cerrados-hidden-carbon-highlights-gaps-in-brazils-conservation-policy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/cerrados-hidden-carbon-highlights-gaps-in-brazils-conservation-policy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 09:47:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Daniel Shailer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandrapopescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carbon Emissions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Carbon Sink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cerrado]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ecosystem health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[field research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Grasslands]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Soil Carbon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07093915/Foto1_GuilhermeAlencar-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318792</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Cerrado, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Carbon Conservation, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Governance, Grasslands, Reforestation, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Fieldwork in the wet grasslands of the Brazilian Cerrado often means long trudges through head-high reeds, following tapir trails and watching for tick nests or boggy pitfalls. All this is made more difficult when your equipment is not waterproof. So in February 2024, when a thunderstorm broke over Chapada dos Veadeiros, a national park in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Fieldwork in the wet grasslands of the Brazilian Cerrado often means long trudges through head-high reeds, following tapir trails and watching for tick nests or boggy pitfalls. All this is made more difficult when your equipment is not waterproof. So in February 2024, when a thunderstorm broke over Chapada dos Veadeiros, a national park in the northeast of Goiás state, ecologist Larissa Verona and her team sprinted for their truck. “The rain passed in about 10 minutes, but when we returned, we saw a fire had started right in the middle of the road,” presumably from a lightning strike, she tells Mongabay in a video call. “Oh my god, we need to go,” she recalls thinking. “We don’t want to be here when the fire chief arrives.” Wildfires have become increasingly more common in the Cerrado, Brazil’s second-biggest biome (after the Amazon), which sprawls across 2 million square kilometers (about 770,000 square miles) and hosts a mix of savannas, grasslands and forested corridors. In the past half-century, some 55% of the Cerrado’s native vegetation has been cleared — largely to support the expansion of industrial monocultures and often with the justification that this biome holds less environmental value than the Amazon Rainforest to the west or the Atlantic Forest to the southeast. This has resulted in degraded soils and dwindling groundwater. But draining and clearing vegetation from the Cerrado’s peaty, wet grasslands, known locally as veredas and campos úmidos, could also threaten a critical carbon stockpile, according to recent research.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/cerrados-hidden-carbon-highlights-gaps-in-brazils-conservation-policy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/cerrados-hidden-carbon-highlights-gaps-in-brazils-conservation-policy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Asia&#8217;s last great free-flowing river faces toxic contamination crisis</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/asias-last-great-free-flowing-river-faces-toxic-contamination-crisis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/asias-last-great-free-flowing-river-faces-toxic-contamination-crisis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 08:21:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Naina Rao]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07082050/drone-shot-of-mining-site-in-Myanmar-EARTH-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=318924</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Critical Minerals, Ecology, Farming, Mining, Pollution, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Salween River, Asia&#8217;s longest free-flowing waterway that briefly serves as a border between Thailand and Myanmar, is facing a crisis as recent testing has found arsenic levels far exceeding the safe limit set by the World Health Organization. Researchers from Thailand&#8217;s Chiang Mai University first raised the alarm in September 2025 after detecting high [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Salween River, Asia&#8217;s longest free-flowing waterway that briefly serves as a border between Thailand and Myanmar, is facing a crisis as recent testing has found arsenic levels far exceeding the safe limit set by the World Health Organization. Researchers from Thailand&#8217;s Chiang Mai University first raised the alarm in September 2025 after detecting high levels of toxic contaminants in nearby rivers. Experts suspect unregulated mining in Myanmar is to blame, reports Mongabay’s Gerry Flynn. Satellite imagery analyzed by the Stimson Center, a U.S.-based think tank, identified 127 suspected mines that opened within the Salween River Basin between 2016 and 2026. What’s being mined is unclear, but some operations likely include rare earth mines, experts say. Chemicals like cyanide, mercury, arsenic and cadmium can be released into ecosystems during rare earth mining. The WHO’s safe threshold for arsenic exposure is 0.01 milligrams per liter. Tests of multiple water samples from the Salween River Basin have found arsenic levels several times that limit. For the millions of people living along the Salween’s 3,300-kilometer (2,050-mile) path, the river is a vital source of drinking water, irrigation and food. Pongpipat Meebenjamart, chair of the in Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province, reported that local fishers are afraid and struggling as buyers avoid potentially toxic catches. “It&#8217;s very urgent that, even if the contamination doesn&#8217;t exceed the safety levels, the government takes swift action to identify the source of the contamination, safe water supplies for affected communities,” Pongpipat said. “We can&#8217;t solve everything downstream here&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/asias-last-great-free-flowing-river-faces-toxic-contamination-crisis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/asias-last-great-free-flowing-river-faces-toxic-contamination-crisis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>In one forest, native rats remain. In another, only invaders.</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/in-one-forest-native-rats-remain-in-another-only-invaders/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/in-one-forest-native-rats-remain-in-another-only-invaders/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 08:17:10 +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/20/2026/04/20194949/Eliurus-Credit-ElisePaietta-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=318923</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Mammals, Nature And Health, One Health, Public Health, Rainforests, Research, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In a lowland forest in southeastern Madagascar, what was missing proved as telling as what was found. Researchers working in the Manombo Special Reserve trapped tufted-tailed rats in intact interior forest. But in the nearby degraded littoral areas, [&#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 a lowland forest in southeastern Madagascar, what was missing proved as telling as what was found. Researchers working in the Manombo Special Reserve trapped tufted-tailed rats in intact interior forest. But in the nearby degraded littoral areas, their traps never caught the endemic rodents. Instead, black rats, an introduced species, dominated those traps. The finding appears in a recent genetic study of two rodents found only in Madagascar: Webb&#8217;s tufted-tailed rat (Eliurus webbi) and the lesser tufted-tailed rat (Eliurus minor). The paper’s primary contribution is technical: it presents the first complete mitochondrial genomes for members of the Nesomyinae rodent subfamily unique to Madagascar. Earlier work relied on shorter gene fragments, which limited the resolution of evolutionary relationships. Whole mitochondrial sequences provide a clearer basis for distinguishing closely related species and identifying variation within them. This matters because the taxonomy of Eliurus remains unsettled. More than a dozen species have been described, and additional diversity is likely. Without reliable genetic baselines, it is difficult to determine how many species exist, where they occur, or whether their populations are changing. The new sequences do not resolve these questions, but they offer a clearer starting point. The ecological observation underscores why that kind of detail matters. Native rodents appear confined to intact forest, while disturbed areas favor generalists like the black rat. The mechanism is unclear: habitat degradation may exclude native species directly, or invasive&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/in-one-forest-native-rats-remain-in-another-only-invaders/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/in-one-forest-native-rats-remain-in-another-only-invaders/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rise in elephant killings reveals conservation gaps in Bangladesh</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/rise-in-elephant-killings-reveals-conservation-gaps-in-bangladesh/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/rise-in-elephant-killings-reveals-conservation-gaps-in-bangladesh/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 05:44:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07051318/old-man-elephant-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318913</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Cruelty, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, human-elephant conflict, Mammals, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On April 25, 2026, a male elephant suffering from illness died in the hilly district of Rangamati in southeastern Bangladesh. Residents from the remote village where it died hacked away at its legs and trunk, which highlight serious failures by the country’s Forest Department as well as a lack of public awareness and sensitivity towards [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On April 25, 2026, a male elephant suffering from illness died in the hilly district of Rangamati in southeastern Bangladesh. Residents from the remote village where it died hacked away at its legs and trunk, which highlight serious failures by the country’s Forest Department as well as a lack of public awareness and sensitivity towards wildlife protection. The 60-year-old elephant (Elephas maximus indicus) had been injured several months earlier in a conflict with humans and later died while receiving treatment, said A.S.M. Jahir Uddin Akon, a conservator of forests in Bangladesh. Prior to this incident, in March, a 3-month-old baby elephant was found killed by humans in a protected forest in the neighboring Bandarban district. Before that, on Jan. 19, a captive elephant was killed following collision with a train in Sylhet district in northeastern Bangladesh. The mutilated elephant in Langadu sub-district, Rangamati. Image by Samir Mallik. According to the latest data from the forest department, between 2017 and 2025, at least 148 elephants — including resident, non-resident and captive ones — were killed in the country. ‘Resident’ here means those who live in the country’s forests, and ‘non-resident’ refers to those who frequently come in from the neighboring countries, India and Myanmar. The deaths of the three elephants this year have brought the total number to 151. Regarding the rising fatal incidents of elephants despite several conservation initiatives, Akon, who leads the Elephant Conservation Project at the Forest Department, told Mongabay, “We are working to resolve the crisis in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/rise-in-elephant-killings-reveals-conservation-gaps-in-bangladesh/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/rise-in-elephant-killings-reveals-conservation-gaps-in-bangladesh/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>The world’s great deltas are sinking — and with them, a global food system</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-worlds-great-deltas-are-sinking-and-with-them-a-global-food-system/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-worlds-great-deltas-are-sinking-and-with-them-a-global-food-system/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 May 2026 19:54:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Petro Kotzé]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/06160303/2-with-people-in-water-BANNER-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318789</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Indonesia, Mekong Basin, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Climate Change And Extreme Weather, Climate Change And Food, Climate Justice, Conservation, Dams, Environment, Flooding, Food, Food Crisis, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Mekong Dams, Mining, Oceans, Oceans And Climate Change, Planetary Health, Rivers, Sea Levels, Sedimentation, and Water Crisis]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“I would like for me and my children to live here forever,” said Lâm Thu Sang, a resident of Vietnam’s Cần Thơ, a city of more than 2 million people located near the mouth of the Mekong River on one of the world’s largest river deltas. But that may not be possible. In the past, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“I would like for me and my children to live here forever,” said Lâm Thu Sang, a resident of Vietnam’s Cần Thơ, a city of more than 2 million people located near the mouth of the Mekong River on one of the world’s largest river deltas. But that may not be possible. In the past, about 160 million metric tons of sediment was annually funneled down the 4,300-kilometer (nearly 2,700-mile) Mekong River to form and nourish the vast delta where the river meets the sea. By 2024, that deposition rate had fallen by 70% per year — starving the delta of much of its source material. The Mekong flows through six Asian nations, draining a roughly 800,000-square-kilometer (309,000-square-mile) basin, until finally releasing its combined sediments into the 40,000-km2 (15,400-mi2) Mekong Delta — a complex ecological system of low-lying fertile lands and a web of waterways the size of the Netherlands, stretching from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to the South China Sea in Vietnam. Unfortunately, the future of Lâm Thu Sang’s community and this great delta are seriously in doubt, with the delta doubly threatened by land subsidence and sea level rise. Mekong Delta residents say life there is changing. For one, annual floods have become longer and more severe. Image courtesy of Anh Duong Community Development and Support Center. Sang, who helps run the Anh Duong Community Development and Support Center, an NGO focused on eradicating poverty in remote areas of Cần Thơ, said that people know their delta home is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-worlds-great-deltas-are-sinking-and-with-them-a-global-food-system/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-worlds-great-deltas-are-sinking-and-with-them-a-global-food-system/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>A baby boom for North Atlantic right whales, but extinction still a threat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/a-baby-boom-for-north-atlantic-right-whales-but-extinction-still-a-threat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/a-baby-boom-for-north-atlantic-right-whales-but-extinction-still-a-threat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 May 2026 17:21:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bobby Bascomb]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/01055739/North-Atlantic-Right-Whales-mother-and-calf-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=318848</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Climate Change And Extinction, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered, Marine Animals, Marine Ecosystems, Marine Mammals, Ocean, Ocean Warming, and Whales]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Calving season for the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale has come to a close with 23 new baby whales, the most calves born in a single year since 2009. Part of the baby boom during the winter calving season can be attributed to females giving birth at closer intervals than in years past: 18 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Calving season for the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale has come to a close with 23 new baby whales, the most calves born in a single year since 2009. Part of the baby boom during the winter calving season can be attributed to females giving birth at closer intervals than in years past: 18 of this year’s moms gave birth within the last six years. “While a healthy right whale can give birth every three to four years, we had been seeing nearly 10 years between calves for some females,” Amy Warren, scientific program officer with the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center, said in a statement. One explanation for the calving delay is the stress of climate change, researchers say. Small crustaceans called copepods, the main food source for baleen whales, including North Atlantic right whales, have started shifting locations over the last decade, and many whales are traveling farther to find sufficient food. There are an estimated 384 North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) today, living along the East Coast of North America. At least one whale was spotted near Ireland, and many are turning up in Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence, over a thousand kilometers from their usual habitat. Swimming to the Gulf makes their 1,600-kilometer (1,000-mile) migration from Florida to New England roughly 50% longer. That equates to more energy put into finding food, potentially leaving less resources for raising babies, Philip Hamilton, a senior research scientist with the New England Aquarium, told Mongabay in an email.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/a-baby-boom-for-north-atlantic-right-whales-but-extinction-still-a-threat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/a-baby-boom-for-north-atlantic-right-whales-but-extinction-still-a-threat/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Venezuela tells UN court that mineral-rich part of Guyana was &#8216;fraudulently&#8217; taken in colonial era</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/venezuela-tells-un-court-that-mineral-rich-part-of-guyana-was-fraudulently-taken-in-colonial-era/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/venezuela-tells-un-court-that-mineral-rich-part-of-guyana-was-fraudulently-taken-in-colonial-era/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 May 2026 16:21:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Associated Press]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/06161831/AP26124346524790-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=318805</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Critical Minerals, Gold Mining, Land Rights, Mining, Offshore Drilling, Oil, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Venezuela insisted Wednesday that a disputed mineral-rich region of Guyana was “fraudulently” taken in a 19th-century example of colonialism, arguing that a 1966 agreement and not the United Nations&#8217; highest court should finalize ownership of the territory. The International Court of Justice is holding a week of hearings between the South American [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Venezuela insisted Wednesday that a disputed mineral-rich region of Guyana was “fraudulently” taken in a 19th-century example of colonialism, arguing that a 1966 agreement and not the United Nations&#8217; highest court should finalize ownership of the territory. The International Court of Justice is holding a week of hearings between the South American neighbors who both lay claim to the Essequibo region, which is rich in gold, diamonds, timber and other natural resources and is located close to massive offshore oil deposits. An 1899 decision by arbitrators from Britain, Russia and the United States drew the border along the Essequibo River largely in favor of Guyana. The U.S. represented Venezuela in part because the Venezuelan government had broken off diplomatic relations with Britain. Venezuela contends the Americans and Europeans conspired to cheat the country out of its rightfully owned land. Venezuela has considered Essequibo as its own since the Spanish colonial period when the jungle-draped region was within its boundaries. The country argues a 1966 agreement sealed in Geneva to resolve the dispute effectively nullified the 19th-century arbitration. “Guyana presents itself as the true, legitimate heir to British and Dutch territories, but the reality is that it is the beneficiary of colonial dispossession, formalized through fraudulent arbitration. The Geneva Agreement seeks to correct this century-old injustice,” Venezuela&#8217;s representative Samuel Reinaldo Moncada Acosta told the world court. He said Caracas rejects the court&#8217;s jurisdiction that was “erroneously imposed” in a 2020 decision and said the 1966 agreement “establishes a framework”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/venezuela-tells-un-court-that-mineral-rich-part-of-guyana-was-fraudulently-taken-in-colonial-era/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/venezuela-tells-un-court-that-mineral-rich-part-of-guyana-was-fraudulently-taken-in-colonial-era/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ted Turner, a media mogul who tried to repair the land</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ted-turner-a-media-mogul-who-tried-to-repair-the-land/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ted-turner-a-media-mogul-who-tried-to-repair-the-land/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 May 2026 16:13:37 +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/20/2026/05/06162828/Turner-in-CNN-newsroom-bw-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318799</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Obituary, and Rewilding]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ted Turner, who died on May 6th, liked to present himself as a businessman who had simply applied the same habits to a larger subject. First he bought a struggling billboard company and made it work. Then he built a television empire, beginning with CNN in 1980. After that, he turned much of his attention [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ted Turner, who died on May 6th, liked to present himself as a businessman who had simply applied the same habits to a larger subject. First he bought a struggling billboard company and made it work. Then he built a television empire, beginning with CNN in 1980. After that, he turned much of his attention to land, wildlife, and the many ways humans damage nature when they treat it as an afterthought. He was rarely subtle about the stakes. “The planet is collapsing all around us,” he told an audience at Stanford in 2010. Turner’s environmentalism was neither ornamental nor detached from power. He did not confine it to speeches, documentaries, or naming rights. He pursued it in three connected ways: by acquiring and managing large landscapes; by funding environmental and public-health groups; and by using his prominence to argue that climate, biodiversity, and population pressures were practical problems, not cultural preferences. The mix could be hard to categorize. He was a billionaire who disliked the idea that capitalism required plunder, and a sportsman who came to talk like a restoration ecologist. His landholdings were central to the story. By the 2010s he was described as one of America’s largest private landowners, with roughly 2 million acres spread across multiple states, and additional holdings abroad. The scale mattered less than his intent. Turner repeatedly tried to keep places “as natural as possible,” and he was willing to spend money and hire people to do it. On his Nonami Plantation near&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ted-turner-a-media-mogul-who-tried-to-repair-the-land/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ted-turner-a-media-mogul-who-tried-to-repair-the-land/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Australia&#8217;s new national park links habitat to protect koalas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/australias-new-national-park-links-habitat-to-protect-koalas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/australias-new-national-park-links-habitat-to-protect-koalas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 May 2026 13:46:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Johan Augustin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/05151344/tarryn-grignet-VPLkgFAPpDI-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318756</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environmental Law, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Government, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Marsupials, National Parks, Protected Areas, Reforestation, Wildlife, Wildlife Conservation, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“When I was a kid, forestry was more sustainable,” Mark Graham said, leaning against a massive tree trunk. “Now 30-tonne industrial machines bulldoze everything in their path.” He’s an ecologist who’s worked for state and federal governments — and has often been at odds with the forest industry. We were walking through the Coffs Harbour [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“When I was a kid, forestry was more sustainable,” Mark Graham said, leaning against a massive tree trunk. “Now 30-tonne industrial machines bulldoze everything in their path.” He’s an ecologist who’s worked for state and federal governments — and has often been at odds with the forest industry. We were walking through the Coffs Harbour Botanic Garden in New South Wales (NSW), southeastern Australia, through a remnant of subtropical coastal rainforest. Graham pointed out flooded gum (Eucalyptus grandis) trees — a fast-growing eucalyptus — as well as Bangalow palm (Archontophoenix cunninghamiana) and other trees, some hundreds of years old. Wild koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus), one of the world’s most beloved animals, also live here. This garden will be linked to the new Great Koala National Park (GKNP) by forest corridors that allow koalas to disperse into new areas. The NSW government says it will finalize designation of the new park in 2026, which it calls “a centerpiece of koala conservation [in the state of NSW],” but no one seems to know when that will be. Its creation was the culmination of a 13-year campaign led by environmental groups and grassroots organizations. One of the most outspoken figures in that struggle was Mark Graham, a veteran environmental activist who’s often been at odds with the NSW forestry industry. In 2023, the state government committed to establishing the GKNP on the mid-north coast. It announced creation of this vast new conservation area in September 2025  — and instituted a temporary moratorium on timber&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/australias-new-national-park-links-habitat-to-protect-koalas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/australias-new-national-park-links-habitat-to-protect-koalas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rethinking conservation through elephants’ sense of time and memory</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/rethinking-conservation-through-elephants-sense-of-time-and-memory/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/rethinking-conservation-through-elephants-sense-of-time-and-memory/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 May 2026 11:39:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/06160058/car_2626790x-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=318790</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Intelligence, Animals, Conservation, Elephants, human-elephant conflict, Mammals, Research, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Historically, conservation has mostly focused on numbers like population and habitat size. However, in the mid-2000s, scientists started to investigate animal emotions, even trauma, when considering conservation success. In a recent Mongabay podcast, Khatijah Rahmat, a geographer at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, shared her research examining how elephants perceive and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Historically, conservation has mostly focused on numbers like population and habitat size. However, in the mid-2000s, scientists started to investigate animal emotions, even trauma, when considering conservation success. In a recent Mongabay podcast, Khatijah Rahmat, a geographer at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, shared her research examining how elephants perceive and navigate time, often differently than humans do, and what that means for conserving them.   “If we want to understand and appreciate animals, we have to consider that they have a meaningful and complex relationship with time that is their own,” Rahmat told Mongabay podcast host Mike DiGirolamo. “Often, we think of time as a socially or culturally neutral phenomenon. We think, ‘Oh, if this is how we experience time, it is [the same] for everyone else.’ I bring up this possibility that elephants may have their own expressions of time.” For elephants, this relationship with time appears to be deeply shaped by memory, including memories of trauma. In 2005, ecologist and psychologist Gay Bradshaw found that African elephants experienced post-traumatic stress disorder in response to witnessing violence such as family members killed by people. The animals she studied later displayed similar trauma responses seen in humans, including abnormal startle reflex, aggression, depression and even infant neglect. Elephants have famously good memories to survive in drought-prone habitats. A herd’s oldest, and typically largest, elephant often serves as a storehouse of memory. She can remember water sources from a decades-old drought and lead her herd to them.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/rethinking-conservation-through-elephants-sense-of-time-and-memory/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/rethinking-conservation-through-elephants-sense-of-time-and-memory/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study finds 40% of soil-dependent species threatened or data deficient</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/study-finds-40-of-soil-dependent-species-threatened-or-data-deficient/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/study-finds-40-of-soil-dependent-species-threatened-or-data-deficient/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 May 2026 07:03:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Bobbybascomb]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/06065732/Notomys_fuscus_Imported_from_ALA_on_14_january_2020-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=318786</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Research, Species, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Researchers have for the first time assessed the extinction risk of soil-dependent animals, invertebrates and fungi. They found that some 40% of these species are either threatened or data deficient on the IUCN Red List, according to a recent study. Soil hosts nearly 60% of life on Earth. These species are key for biogeochemical cycles, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Researchers have for the first time assessed the extinction risk of soil-dependent animals, invertebrates and fungi. They found that some 40% of these species are either threatened or data deficient on the IUCN Red List, according to a recent study. Soil hosts nearly 60% of life on Earth. These species are key for biogeochemical cycles, climate regulation and other ecosystem services. Yet, their risk of extinction is largely unknown, the study authors say. To better understand how soil-dependent species are faring, the researchers first established a working definition of what species are “soil-dependent.” They found that 8,653 species on the IUCN Red List satisfy their definition: species that “spend a key part of their life cycle within a soil profile or predominantly inhabit the soil-litter interface.” The list includes terrestrial vertebrates, invertebrates like arthropods and mollusks, and fungi. However, plants weren’t included in the analysis.   Neil Cox, study co-author and manager of the IUCN and Conservation International biodiversity assessment unit, told Mongabay by email that plants were excluded because nearly all plants are soil-dependent. Including them in the analysis would turn the review into one about the extinction risk of plants, he said. Of the species they examined, more than 20% are listed as threatened with extinction and another 20% are data deficient, meaning there isn’t enough information to determine their conservation status. Some 35 soil-dependent species are classified as extinct. Most of them used structures like burrows for an important part of their life stages, Cox said. For&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/study-finds-40-of-soil-dependent-species-threatened-or-data-deficient/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/study-finds-40-of-soil-dependent-species-threatened-or-data-deficient/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate change, socioeconomic shifts threaten Nepal&#8217;s yak herding traditions</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/climate-change-socioeconomic-shifts-threaten-nepals-yak-herding-traditions/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/climate-change-socioeconomic-shifts-threaten-nepals-yak-herding-traditions/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 May 2026 05:43:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Naina Rao]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/06054227/IMG_1786-1200x800-1-e1778046207389-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=318784</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Habitat, Indigenous Culture, Mountains, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the remote Dolpo region of western Nepal, the ancient practice of yak herding is facing an existential crisis. Traditional herders of domesticated yaks in these alpine rangelands are struggling against the convergence of climate change, rising operational costs, labor shortages, and the spread of lethal diseases, reports Mongabay’s Sonam Lama Hyolmo. According to the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the remote Dolpo region of western Nepal, the ancient practice of yak herding is facing an existential crisis. Traditional herders of domesticated yaks in these alpine rangelands are struggling against the convergence of climate change, rising operational costs, labor shortages, and the spread of lethal diseases, reports Mongabay’s Sonam Lama Hyolmo. According to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), warming temperatures are fundamentally altering Himalayan high-altitude ecosystems. The shifts are disrupting water cycles, affecting vegetation, and drying out wetlands, which then increases fire risks and reduces available grazing areas for domesticated yaks (Bos grunniens). The region is also facing a socioeconomic shift. Massive outmigration of young people to cities or abroad has left a critical shortage of labor for the intensive work of herding. Furthermore, the post-COVID-19 closure of border crossings into China has barred herders from their traditional rangelands, forcing some to switch to goats and cattle, which increases the risk of overgrazing. These challenges extend to the wild yak (Bos mutus). While the total number of wild yaks isn’t established, estimates suggest fewer than 10,000 individuals remain globally. As rangelands are degraded and shrink, the habitats of wild and domesticated yaks increasingly overlap. This proximity leads to crossbreeding, said Krishna Prasad Acharya, a veterinarian officer at the Department of Livestock Services in Nepal. He warned this threatens the genetic purity and adaptive traits of the wild population. While some yak herders once sought to crossbreed their animals to produce stronger calves, the hybrids are often&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/climate-change-socioeconomic-shifts-threaten-nepals-yak-herding-traditions/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/climate-change-socioeconomic-shifts-threaten-nepals-yak-herding-traditions/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Bangladesh, traditional farming methods are being replaced by a modern system</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/in-bangladesh-traditional-farming-methods-are-being-replaced-by-a-modern-system/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/in-bangladesh-traditional-farming-methods-are-being-replaced-by-a-modern-system/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 May 2026 05:29:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Naina Rao]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/06052849/4-bamboo-machan-trellises-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=318782</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Environment, Farming, Indigenous Communities, and Indigenous Culture]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the Chittagong Hill Tracts of southeastern Bangladesh, Indigenous farmers are increasingly abandoning jhum, a traditional method of shifting cultivation. Instead, they’re moving toward the machan method where vegetables are grown above the ground on bamboo trellises. This transition is driven by a growing scarcity of arable land and declining yields, reports Mongabay contributor Sifayet [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the Chittagong Hill Tracts of southeastern Bangladesh, Indigenous farmers are increasingly abandoning jhum, a traditional method of shifting cultivation. Instead, they’re moving toward the machan method where vegetables are grown above the ground on bamboo trellises. This transition is driven by a growing scarcity of arable land and declining yields, reports Mongabay contributor Sifayet Ullah. For generations, Indigenous communities like the Chakma, Marma and Mro in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) have practiced jhum, clearing small forest patches, farming them, then leaving them fallow for up to 20 years to restore soil fertility. However, as the number of farmers in CHT districts like Bandarban has risen, the fallow cycle has plummeted to just two or three years. This constant pressure has exhausted the soil, leading to poor rice yields and increased soil erosion during heavy rains. Government data confirm this decline: land under jhum in Bandarban dropped from 9,050 hectares (22,363 acres) in 2014 to 8,270 hectares (20,436 acres) by 2025. Many farmers are now turning to the machan method, which uses bamboo trellises to grow vine crops like cucumbers, bitter gourds and beans. This system offers several advantages over traditional shifting agriculture, such as the prevention of pests and diseases. “When crops grow close to the soil, they are prone to pests, fungal infection and waterlogging during rains,” said farmer Tipu Tanchangya, from Rowangchari in Bandarban. “Machan farming raises crops like gourd, cucumber, beans 4-5 feet [1.2-1.5 meters] above the ground, which reduces the risk of disease and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/in-bangladesh-traditional-farming-methods-are-being-replaced-by-a-modern-system/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/in-bangladesh-traditional-farming-methods-are-being-replaced-by-a-modern-system/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Overtourism threatens Sri Lanka&#8217;s leopards</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/overtourism-threatens-sri-lankas-leopards/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/overtourism-threatens-sri-lankas-leopards/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 May 2026 05:18:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Naina Rao]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/06051824/leopard-srilanka.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=318780</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Leopards, Tourism, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Yala National Park, Sri Lanka’s most famous wildlife destination, is facing a conservation crisis as overcrowding and speeding safari jeeps increasingly threaten its wildlife, particularly its famed leopards, reports Mongabay contributor Kamanthi Wickramasinghe. Block I of the park, which boasts of one of the world’s highest leopard densities at one animal per square kilometer (2.6 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Yala National Park, Sri Lanka’s most famous wildlife destination, is facing a conservation crisis as overcrowding and speeding safari jeeps increasingly threaten its wildlife, particularly its famed leopards, reports Mongabay contributor Kamanthi Wickramasinghe. Block I of the park, which boasts of one of the world’s highest leopard densities at one animal per square kilometer (2.6 per square mile), attracted nearly 390,000 visitors in the first half of 2025 alone, generating more than $5 million in revenue. Milinda Wattegedara, a wildlife photographer and co-founder of the Yala Leopard Center, attributed the escalating visitor pressure in the park to a social media boom and improved mobile reception, which allow drivers to quickly alert others of sightings, frequently resulting in &#8220;leopard jams.&#8221; Leopards in Block I have become habituated to humans and vehicles, Wattegedara added, but this proximity has often proved dangerous. Past vehicle strikes have claimed the lives of a young leopard and a jungle cat, and a prominent male leopard named Lucas recently made headlines after a close encounter with a safari vehicle. “Usually, when a safari jeep is close to an animal, jeep drivers have been advised to switch off the engine,” Ravindra Kumar, Yala National Park warden, told Mongabay. “But this driver had turned on the engine, and it had scared away the animal. However, Lucas was spotted the following night near Yala junction, the animal’s usual territory, and is in good health.” To address the challenges of speeding and other unethical driving behavior in Yala, the Department of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/overtourism-threatens-sri-lankas-leopards/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/overtourism-threatens-sri-lankas-leopards/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Killings related to land conflicts double in Brazil, most in the Amazon region</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/killings-related-to-land-conflicts-double-in-brazil-most-in-the-amazon-region/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/killings-related-to-land-conflicts-double-in-brazil-most-in-the-amazon-region/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 May 2026 21:50:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Bobbybascomb]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/05214627/WhatsApp-Image-2023-12-25-at-19.40.14-scaled-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=318754</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Reform, Land Rights, Murdered Activists, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On June 12, 2025, Everton Lopes Rodrigues was found beheaded in the state of Paraná in southern Brazil. An Indigenous Avá Guarani, Rodrigues was the 21-year-old son of the chief of the Yvyju Avary Indigenous village, and next to his body was a letter, left by his killers, containing “serious threats” against Indigenous communities. Marcelo [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On June 12, 2025, Everton Lopes Rodrigues was found beheaded in the state of Paraná in southern Brazil. An Indigenous Avá Guarani, Rodrigues was the 21-year-old son of the chief of the Yvyju Avary Indigenous village, and next to his body was a letter, left by his killers, containing “serious threats” against Indigenous communities. Marcelo “Ku’i” Ortiz, a 33-year-old man, also an Avá Guarani, faced the same brutal violence a few months prior. His severed head was placed on a spike. These were two of 26 killings related to land conflicts recorded in 2025 in Brazil, according to a new report by the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), a nonprofit affiliated with the Catholic Church. Seven of the victims were Indigenous; another 10 were landless rural workers. “Extreme violence in rural areas doesn’t happen randomly. It follows relatively well-defined patterns,” report co-author Claudio Lopes Maia wrote. “Murder has turned into an instrument of conflict “resolution” in certain territories.” The number of killings in 2025 is double the 13 recorded in 2024. According to the report, 2025 was “one of the most violent years of the last decade.” CPT logged an additional 66 murder attempts and 105 death threats in 2025. Most of the killings, 62%, took place in the Brazilian Amazon. Pará and Rondônia states, which have some of the Brazil’s highest rates of deforestation, also recorded the most killings: seven each. These included two massacres, defined as three or more people killed on the same date in the same place.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/killings-related-to-land-conflicts-double-in-brazil-most-in-the-amazon-region/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/killings-related-to-land-conflicts-double-in-brazil-most-in-the-amazon-region/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>A new documentary film captures rare mountain gorilla behavior</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/05/a-new-documentary-film-captures-rare-mountain-gorilla-behavior/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/05/a-new-documentary-film-captures-rare-mountain-gorilla-behavior/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 May 2026 21:08:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike DiGirolamo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/01030443/Ben-Cherry-Gorilla-Selection-236-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=podcasts&#038;p=318525</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Rwanda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Apes, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Documentary, Featured, Film, Gorillas, Great Apes, Interviews, Podcast, Science, and Wildilfe]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ “That might be something that you see in a decade, not in two years of filming,” Tara Stoinksi, CEO of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, tells me. The behavior she’s referring to occurs in mountain gorilla groups, such as a “dominance transfer,” where a younger male silverback takes over leadership from an older male, and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ “That might be something that you see in a decade, not in two years of filming,” Tara Stoinksi, CEO of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, tells me. The behavior she’s referring to occurs in mountain gorilla groups, such as a “dominance transfer,” where a younger male silverback takes over leadership from an older male, and infanticide, where an outsider or ostracized gorilla kills the offspring of a new mother within the group. The former of these was captured on camera within days of filming for the new Netflix documentary A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough. Stoinski joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss her role as a scientific adviser on the years-long project, the rarity of the behaviors captured on camera, and her thoughts on gorilla conservation in the Greater Virunga Landscape of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. “These gorillas now live basically in a small island of forests surrounded by some of the highest rural human population densities in Africa,” Stoinski says while discussing conservation challenges for mountain gorillas. Filming for the documentary took place in Rwanda, where the pressures and challenges mountain gorillas face differ from those in Virunga National Park in the neighboring DRC. Threats to gorillas in the latter include armed conflict, poaching, logging, and hunting for the wild meat trade. Stoinski says that within Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, where the documentary was filmed, the threats are different. “Climate change is an issue for the gorillas … also, climate change affects the people&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/05/a-new-documentary-film-captures-rare-mountain-gorilla-behavior/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/05/a-new-documentary-film-captures-rare-mountain-gorilla-behavior/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Despite restrictions, forest loss continued on Ituna land, home to isolated people</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/despite-restrictions-forest-loss-continues-on-ituna-land-home-to-isolated-people/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/despite-restrictions-forest-loss-continues-on-ituna-land-home-to-isolated-people/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 May 2026 19:46:15 +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/20/2026/05/04162414/Ituna_Itata-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318685</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cattle Ranching, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Livestock, satellite data, and Uncontacted Tribes]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Illegal invasions in the Ituna/Itatá Indigenous territory in Brazil’s Pará state, home to isolated Igarapé Ipiaçava Indigenous people, has continued since 2022, during one of the latest land use restriction orders meant to protect the territory, according to satellite analysis by Mongabay. Between 2022 and 2025, data from Global Forest Watch show the area lost [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Illegal invasions in the Ituna/Itatá Indigenous territory in Brazil’s Pará state, home to isolated Igarapé Ipiaçava Indigenous people, has continued since 2022, during one of the latest land use restriction orders meant to protect the territory, according to satellite analysis by Mongabay. Between 2022 and 2025, data from Global Forest Watch show the area lost 2,211 hectares (5,463 acres) of tree cover. But, in the last few years, forest loss has plummeted significantly in what was one of the most deforested Indigenous lands following operations by the country’s Indigenous affairs agency, Funai. Cleiton Gabriel, the coordinator of the Middle Xingu Ethno-Environmental Protection Front, a specialized Funai unit, told Mongabay via WhatsApp that the forest loss in Ituna/Itatá is caused by land-grabbers who clear the forest without authorization for cattle ranching and other agricultural activities. “The deforestation in the Ituna/Itatá region historically stems from the illegal occupation of the territory,” Gabriel explained. “This is driven by land grabbing, the establishment of agricultural activities, especially intensive livestock farming, and also smaller-scale laboratory operations, mainly cocoa processing.” The land use restriction order, which prohibits unauthorized individuals from entering Ituna/Itatá, has been in place since 2011 to protect the isolated people. The precautionary measure has been renewed six times, the most recent being in 2025. Global Forest Watch data show that Ituna/Itatá was the third-most deforested area in Brazil between 2011, the year of the first land restriction order, and 2021. It was the most deforested Indigenous land in 2019. This has affected Funai’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/despite-restrictions-forest-loss-continues-on-ituna-land-home-to-isolated-people/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/despite-restrictions-forest-loss-continues-on-ituna-land-home-to-isolated-people/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Senegal, artisanal fishing kills a surprising number of sharks and rays: study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/in-senegal-artisanal-fishing-kills-a-surprising-number-of-sharks-and-rays-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/in-senegal-artisanal-fishing-kills-a-surprising-number-of-sharks-and-rays-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 May 2026 16:44:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/05112126/BANNER-%40Elasmo-Project-IMG_3393-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318684</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Senegal]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Endangered Species, Fish, and Ocean]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Senegal, artisanal fishing kills a surprising number of sharks and rays, according to a new study — so many, it probably eclipses industrial fishing, which is more commonly blamed for the species&#8217; decline. The study was published in the journal Ecology and Evolution in March. Researchers analyzed landings of sharks, rays and guitarfish at [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Senegal, artisanal fishing kills a surprising number of sharks and rays, according to a new study — so many, it probably eclipses industrial fishing, which is more commonly blamed for the species&#8217; decline. The study was published in the journal Ecology and Evolution in March. Researchers analyzed landings of sharks, rays and guitarfish at two major artisanal fishery processing sites, Kafountine and Elinkine, in southern Senegal’s Casamance region between June 2021 and July 2022. Most of the catches comprised species at risk of extinction, and many were traded abroad without obligatory export permits, the study found. While the researchers directly counted more than 100,000 harvested sharks, rays and guitarfishes, they estimated the actual number to be at least 174,000, as many were stacked or piled together and couldn’t be accurately counted. This number was surprisingly high, according to lead author Rima Jabado, chair of the Shark Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. Jabado is also the founder of the Elasmo Project, a United Arab Emirates-based nonprofit that focuses on shark and ray conservation. “The study should be read as evidence of a serious problem, not as a ceiling on the true scale of exploitation,” Jabado told Mongabay in an email, adding the findings are conservative. Since the researchers covered only two out of dozens of landing sites in the country, the total number of rays and sharks caught and processed annually could be 1.7 million to 3.5 million, the study estimates. Scientists and environmental organizations&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/in-senegal-artisanal-fishing-kills-a-surprising-number-of-sharks-and-rays-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/in-senegal-artisanal-fishing-kills-a-surprising-number-of-sharks-and-rays-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
			</channel>
</rss>