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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/caribbean/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 06 Jun 2026 14:52:23 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>Caribbean environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/caribbean/</link>
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				<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>
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						<item>
					<title>Family and friends help sperm whale mother and newborn during birth</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/family-and-friends-help-sperm-whale-mother-and-newborn-during-birth/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/family-and-friends-help-sperm-whale-mother-and-newborn-during-birth/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Mar 2026 21:12:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bobby Bascomb]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/26210909/Photo-01_Photo-by-%C2%A9-Project-CETI-e1774559487604-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=316387</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cetaceans, Communication, Conservation Drones, Evolution, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine Animals, Marine Mammals, Ocean, Research, Whales, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With the notable exception of humans, most mammals give birth alone. But in July 2023, researchers in the Caribbean witnessed something extraordinary:  sperm whales not only attending a birth but actively helping both mother and newborn. Some of the whales present were not even related to the mother, known as Rounder. “Kinship barriers dissolved,” notes [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With the notable exception of humans, most mammals give birth alone. But in July 2023, researchers in the Caribbean witnessed something extraordinary:  sperm whales not only attending a birth but actively helping both mother and newborn. Some of the whales present were not even related to the mother, known as Rounder. “Kinship barriers dissolved,” notes one of two studies published on the observation. A team from the Cetacean Translation Initiative (CETI) was in the area to record sperm whale sounds for their ongoing work to decode whale communication. Equipped with underwater microphones, drones and cameras, Project CETI president and founder David Gruber said it was “a moment of pure serendipity and luck.” The team noticed something unusual. Sperm whales are one of the deepest-diving whales; they spend much of their lives diving up to 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) deep hunting giant squid. But on that day, all 11 whales in a group known as unit A gathered near the surface, only taking very shallow dives and communicating so frequently, “it sounded like being in a popcorn machine,” Gruber said. “Did Rounder communicate that she was about to go into labor and call the unit together? We don&#8217;t know. We just know that they were ready and they were prepared.” What followed is the only known example of marine mammals helping in the birth of a non-kin. The calf emerged, tail first, and after 34 minutes was delivered to a waiting circle of whales who took turns supporting and lifting the newborn to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/family-and-friends-help-sperm-whale-mother-and-newborn-during-birth/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/family-and-friends-help-sperm-whale-mother-and-newborn-during-birth/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>How foreign investor lawsuits stymie environmental protection</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/how-foreign-investor-lawsuits-stymie-environmental-protection/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/how-foreign-investor-lawsuits-stymie-environmental-protection/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Mar 2026 10:59:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Energy Transition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmental Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Governance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Communities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Land Conflict]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Law]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protected Areas]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/30133937/Jacob-Balzani_Mayuriaga-Oil-Spill-2016-WampisNation_3500px_Extra_0073-1-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315928</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation leadership, Energy, Environmental Crime, environmental justice, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Governance, and Law Enforcement]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[New data by the Transnational Institute reveal how an increase in lawsuits by foreign investors is undermining government efforts to protect natural resources and human rights in Latin America and the Caribbean. Countries in the region are facing a total of $36.6 billion in lawsuits from corporations, all through investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) claims, which [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[New data by the Transnational Institute reveal how an increase in lawsuits by foreign investors is undermining government efforts to protect natural resources and human rights in Latin America and the Caribbean. Countries in the region are facing a total of $36.6 billion in lawsuits from corporations, all through investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) claims, which often constrain governments’ ability to implement reforms due to fear of costly punishments. The data identified 419 ISDS claims against countries in the region filed as of mid-October 2025, with Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Peru and Ecuador shouldering the highest costs. Together, they face almost two-thirds of all lawsuits, with 257 claims. Between 2014 and 2024, 212 lawsuits were registered across the region, a 133% increase from previous decades. “We are talking about close to 40 billion dollars LAC [Latin American and Caribbean] states have been ordered to pay already, and there are many cases we don’t know the amount they were asked to pay, so the number is actually higher,” Bettina Müller, an associate researcher at the Transnational Institute and author of the report, told Mongabay over email. “Imagine what could have been done with 40 billion dollars in the region and specifically in the countries which have been ordered to pay the most, like Venezuela and Argentina.” ISDS is a mechanism in international trade agreements that allows foreign investors to sue states before international tribunals when they think that national laws, regulations, legal decisions or other public measures violate their treaty protections. The mechanism&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/how-foreign-investor-lawsuits-stymie-environmental-protection/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/how-foreign-investor-lawsuits-stymie-environmental-protection/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>A small preserve leads a big effort to save native plants in the Bahamas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-small-preserve-leads-a-big-effort-to-save-native-plants-in-the-bahamas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-small-preserve-leads-a-big-effort-to-save-native-plants-in-the-bahamas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Dec 2025 19:37:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marlowe Starling]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/30141924/3290-The-orchids-at-Levy-Preserve--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312307</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bahamas, Caribbean, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Ecosystems, Endangered, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Islands, Plants, Protected Areas, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ELEUTHERA, Bahamas — Tucked away beside the main road that runs along Eleuthera, a narrow island in the Bahamas, the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve holds 12 hectares (30 acres) of dense subtropical dry forest. Black witch moths (Ascalapha odorata), as large as bats, zigzag between the branches as fluorescent wasps hum along the path’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ELEUTHERA, Bahamas — Tucked away beside the main road that runs along Eleuthera, a narrow island in the Bahamas, the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve holds 12 hectares (30 acres) of dense subtropical dry forest. Black witch moths (Ascalapha odorata), as large as bats, zigzag between the branches as fluorescent wasps hum along the path’s edge. Orchard spiders (Leucauge venusta) sit on sprawling webs between mangrove roots. Meter-high termite mounds surround the bases of tree trunks. Native Jamaican slider turtles (Trachemys terrapen) sunbathe in the artificial wetland. Tree lizards, frogs and nonvenomous snakes make the preserve their home, too. Just two decades ago, the same plot of land belonged to a hotel, with stretches of abandoned farmland. After philanthropist Shelby White purchased the land, and after many years of restoring the property, it became an accredited botanical garden. Today, it’s known for its conservation, research and education on native Bahamian plants. The Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve is funded and managed through a partnership between the Bahamas National Trust, which oversees the country’s national parks, and the philanthropic Leon Levy Foundation based in New York City. Now, it’s the island’s standout example of native plant diversity and a hub for Caribbean plant knowledge. Native Jamaican sliders (Trachemys terrapen), freshwater turtles found in the Bahamas and other Caribbean islands, bask in the artificial wetland. Image by Marlowe Starling for Mongabay. Regrowing the forest The Bahamas’ subtropical dry forests are characterized by nutrient-poor soils, lots of limestone, shrubs, hardwood trees, and frequent&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-small-preserve-leads-a-big-effort-to-save-native-plants-in-the-bahamas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-small-preserve-leads-a-big-effort-to-save-native-plants-in-the-bahamas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tiny Caribbean island brings hope for critically endangered iguana</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/tiny-caribbean-island-brings-hope-for-critically-endangered-iguana/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/tiny-caribbean-island-brings-hope-for-critically-endangered-iguana/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Dec 2025 11:12:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/18110356/Lesser-Antillean-iguana-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=311615</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Green, Islands, Lizards, Reptiles, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past decade, Prickly Pear East, a small, privately owned island in the Caribbean, has become a beacon of hope for a critically endangered lizard. The islet, near the main island of Anguilla, a British territory, is one of just five locations where the lesser Antillean iguana (Iguana delicatissima) is breeding and thriving, protected [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past decade, Prickly Pear East, a small, privately owned island in the Caribbean, has become a beacon of hope for a critically endangered lizard. The islet, near the main island of Anguilla, a British territory, is one of just five locations where the lesser Antillean iguana (Iguana delicatissima) is breeding and thriving, protected from invasive iguanas and human disturbances, conservationists say. The latest surveys, from July, show the species’ population on Prickly Pear East has grown to more than 300 adults and adolescents — up from just 23 individuals that were moved there from Anguilla starting in 2016. “This is a wonderful reward after having invested several years of work to plan this reintroduction, engage with their local communities, eradicate the non-native rats, and survey and protect the precious iguana population,” Jenny Daltry, Caribbean alliance director of the NGOs Fauna &amp; Flora and Re:wild, which are supporting the NGO Anguilla National Trust in the iguana’s conservation, told Mongabay by email. The lesser Antillean iguana was once widespread across the Caribbean, but habitat destruction, hunting, and the introduction of invasive species, including the common green iguana (I. iguana), led to its extinction across several islands. It was also on the verge of being wiped out from Anguilla mainland. So, between 2016 and 2021, conservationists translocated Anguilla&#8217;s remaining 23 individuals to the uninhabited Prickly Pear East. The islet had a suitable habitat for the native iguana; it also lacked invasive iguanas, and conservationists had eradicated all invasive brown rats by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/tiny-caribbean-island-brings-hope-for-critically-endangered-iguana/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>New underwater acoustic camera identifies individual fish sounds, helping track threatened species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-underwater-acoustic-camera-identifies-individual-fish-sounds-helping-track-threatened-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-underwater-acoustic-camera-identifies-individual-fish-sounds-helping-track-threatened-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Dec 2025 01:54:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kaia Glickman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/09014858/Atlantic_blue_tang_surgeonfish_Acanthurus_coeruleus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310820</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean and Curaçao]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioacoustics, Bioacoustics and conservation, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Coral Reefs, Environment, Fish, Green, Oceans, Technology, Technology And Conservation, UCSC, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Fish were discovered to make sounds more than 2,000 years ago, but they have gone largely unheard by humans. While a typical, bustling coral reef may be home to dozens of fish species, until recently, identifying specific species’ sounds was practically impossible. Previous methods of studying fish sounds often involved divers interfering in the fishes’ [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Fish were discovered to make sounds more than 2,000 years ago, but they have gone largely unheard by humans. While a typical, bustling coral reef may be home to dozens of fish species, until recently, identifying specific species’ sounds was practically impossible. Previous methods of studying fish sounds often involved divers interfering in the fishes’ habitats, or researchers recording fish in captivity, which frequently meant forcing them to make sounds under stress by handling them or giving them electric shocks. Now, scientists have used a new combination of underwater audio and visual recording to identify the sounds of 46 fish species in their natural environment, the largest collection of wild fish sounds ever recorded. The new device, described recently in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution, can extract individual fish noises from cluttered underwater audio recordings and identify which fish made each sound. The UPAC-360° underwater audio-visual camera isolates individual fish sounds from a sea of different noises. Image adapted from Dantzker et. al, Methods in Ecology and Evolution “We were shocked about how many fish we could record and identify in a relatively short amount of time,” said study coauthor Aaron Rice, an ecologist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. There are more than 4,000 fish species listed by the IUCN as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered. By tracking their sounds, scientists hope to better understand where the fish live, how their numbers are changing, when they are most active, and which behaviors make them vulnerable to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-underwater-acoustic-camera-identifies-individual-fish-sounds-helping-track-threatened-species/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>Study finds important Nassau grouper spawning site in Belize near collapse</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/study-finds-important-nassau-grouper-spawning-site-in-belize-near-collapse/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/study-finds-important-nassau-grouper-spawning-site-in-belize-near-collapse/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Nov 2025 17:18:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marco Lopez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/20105811/4-OceanImageBank_ConnorHolland_25-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309888</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Caribbean, and Central America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Illegal Fishing, Oceans, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[HOPKINS, Belize — The Nassau grouper is drawn by the winter moon, between December and March, to special places where hundreds of the cryptic fish engage in a reproductive dance that sometimes lasts days. Northeast Point at Glover’s Reef Atoll, off the coast of southern Belize, is one of those places. The Nassau grouper (Epinephelus [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[HOPKINS, Belize — The Nassau grouper is drawn by the winter moon, between December and March, to special places where hundreds of the cryptic fish engage in a reproductive dance that sometimes lasts days. Northeast Point at Glover’s Reef Atoll, off the coast of southern Belize, is one of those places. The Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus) is a large-bodied, top-level predatory reef fish. Its pale tan to reddish-brown body with five dark vertical bars makes it easily recognizable. While these fish hide well, spending their days lounging in reef crevices and only emerging to feed at night, their highly predictable spawning aggregations make for an easy catch for opportunistic fishers. The species was once the most abundant and commercially important fish in the Caribbean. In Belize, fisheries records indicate that Nassau grouper was the most-caught fish during the 1960s, with estimated catches of more than 30,000 fish per year from a single aggregation site, Caye Glory. Northeast Point is one of Belize’s 13 officially recognized fish spawning aggregation (FSA) sites for Nassau grouper. The aggregation there was also once an impressive sight, drawing an estimated 15,000 fish in 1975. Today, that moonlit annual gathering has all but vanished. The number of fish attending has declined by 85% over the past two decades and is now “on a trajectory towards local extirpation,” according to a recent study. It attributes the decline to the government’s limited capacity to enforce regulations aimed at protecting the groupers from fishing at this remote site. “Since&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/study-finds-important-nassau-grouper-spawning-site-in-belize-near-collapse/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/study-finds-important-nassau-grouper-spawning-site-in-belize-near-collapse/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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					<title>Belize’s blue reputation vs. reef reality: Marine conservation wins, and what’s missing (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/belizes-blue-reputation-vs-reef-reality-marine-conservation-wins-and-whats-missing/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/belizes-blue-reputation-vs-reef-reality-marine-conservation-wins-and-whats-missing/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2025 20:34:12 +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/20/2025/07/08101002/fish-belize-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308680</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Caribbean, Central America, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Editorials, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Green, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Belize sells itself as a small-country answer to a big problem: how to keep the sea alive and the people who depend on it working. The pitch is strong. A debt-for-nature “blue bond” shaved public debt and created a 20-year conservation finance stream. Targets for 30% ocean protection by 2026 are now embedded in policy. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Belize sells itself as a small-country answer to a big problem: how to keep the sea alive and the people who depend on it working. The pitch is strong. A debt-for-nature “blue bond” shaved public debt and created a 20-year conservation finance stream. Targets for 30% ocean protection by 2026 are now embedded in policy. The press has been kind. So have donors. Yet beneath the awards and ribbon cuttings sits a harder question: do the reefs and fish show it? And are day-to-day rules on the water keeping pace with the promises on paper? Start with the wins, because they’re significant. A case study from The Nature Conservancy documents the 2021 transaction that converted Belize’s “Superbond” into a blue loan backed by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) cutting public debt by roughly 12% of GDP and earmarking about $180 million over two decades for marine conservation, alongside a government commitment to protect 30% of its waters by 2026. A new monitoring pilot, using a People-Planet-Prosperity (“3Ps”) framework for results-based finance, sets up a central system to track whether conservation and development targets are being met. In 2024, the government, WWF, WCS and Belize’s Development Finance Corporation launched a pilot credit facility at Glover’s Reef offering compliance-linked loans to licensed artisanal fishers. And in late 2024, Belize formalized new limits by expanding and re-gazetting protected zones at Lighthouse Reef Atoll, one of the crown jewels of the barrier reef system. Officials point to these as proof that Belize’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/belizes-blue-reputation-vs-reef-reality-marine-conservation-wins-and-whats-missing/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/belizes-blue-reputation-vs-reef-reality-marine-conservation-wins-and-whats-missing/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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					<title>Most Caribbean coral reefs to stop growing by 2040, study warns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/most-caribbean-coral-reefs-to-stop-growing-by-2040-study-warns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/most-caribbean-coral-reefs-to-stop-growing-by-2040-study-warns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Sep 2025 04:22:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Bobbybascomb]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/19041905/6161367886_47a29e8c6e_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=306241</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change And Coral Reefs, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Environment, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Most coral reefs in the Caribbean could stop growing, and even start eroding away, by 2040 if global warming continues unchecked, a new study finds.  Coral reefs, especially those near shores, protect valuable coastlines from flooding during cyclones and storm surges by breaking up wave energy. For the reefs to continue to act as natural [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Most coral reefs in the Caribbean could stop growing, and even start eroding away, by 2040 if global warming continues unchecked, a new study finds.  Coral reefs, especially those near shores, protect valuable coastlines from flooding during cyclones and storm surges by breaking up wave energy. For the reefs to continue to act as natural wave barriers, they need to grow fast enough to keep up with sea level rise. However, coral growth is increasingly under threat from diseases, pollution and the effects of climate change. Climate change, in particular, is causing a decline in reefs worldwide. Rising ocean temperatures are causing corals to bleach and die, making reefs more vulnerable to other threats. Meanwhile, higher carbon dioxide levels are making seawater more acidic, making it harder for corals to build their skeletons. Researchers who monitor coral reefs in the tropical western Atlantic or the Caribbean — including the Florida Keys, Mexico’s Caribbean coast and the Caribbean island of Bonaire — have observed the progressive decline in reef health due to diseases and extreme ocean heat over the last several decades, said Chris Perry, the study’s lead author and a professor at the University of Exeter, U.K. So, the researchers set out to find out how well reefs in the region will continue to grow as the climate warms. They first examined vertical sections of ancient fossil reefs, exposed by coastal uplifting. This allowed them to understand how different coral communities built reefs over time in the past, Perry said. &hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/most-caribbean-coral-reefs-to-stop-growing-by-2040-study-warns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/most-caribbean-coral-reefs-to-stop-growing-by-2040-study-warns/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Belize project seeks out heat-resilient corals to protect its reefs</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/belize-project-seeks-out-heat-resilient-corals-to-protect-its-reefs/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/belize-project-seeks-out-heat-resilient-corals-to-protect-its-reefs/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Aug 2025 19:10:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marco Lopez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/19191745/shark-coral-banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304503</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Caribbean, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change And Conservation, Climate Change And Coral Reefs, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Environment, Green, Invertebrates, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Biodiversity, Marine Conservation, Marine Crisis, Marine Ecosystems, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Oceans And Climate Change, Research, Temperatures, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[HOPKINS, Belize — Heaters, pumps and computerized meters rigged to an everyday picnic icebox may seem like a high school science project. But this heat stress tank may hold the key to finding the most heat-resilient corals in Belize’s waters. As climate change and other human-caused stressors continue to push these rainforests of the sea [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[HOPKINS, Belize — Heaters, pumps and computerized meters rigged to an everyday picnic icebox may seem like a high school science project. But this heat stress tank may hold the key to finding the most heat-resilient corals in Belize’s waters. As climate change and other human-caused stressors continue to push these rainforests of the sea closer toward collapse, finding and protecting coral with the highest chance of surviving in the world to come has become a key method to ensuring marine life and the ecosystem services they provide are preserved. This is what the multinational collaborative effort known as the Super Reefs program hopes to help Belize achieve. The initiative is helmed by experts from the U.S.-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Stanford University and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), along with officials from the Belize government and other Belizean stakeholders. “Not all corals are born the same,” Anne Cohen, a tenured scientist at WHOI, who started the Super Reefs program in 2017, told Mongabay. In 2015, Cohen witnessed how extreme heat killed off 98% of the coral in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, west of Hawai‘i. “That’s just one example of the kinds of things that have been happening since the mid-1990s,” Cohen said. “So, we were in the Pacific, along with many other coral reef groups around the world, we were monitoring these events and the impact on the reefs, but I also noticed that there were some coral reefs and some parts of coral reefs that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/belize-project-seeks-out-heat-resilient-corals-to-protect-its-reefs/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/belize-project-seeks-out-heat-resilient-corals-to-protect-its-reefs/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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						<item>
					<title>More than 10,000 species on brink of extinction need urgent action: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/more-than-10000-species-on-brink-of-extinction-need-urgent-action-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/more-than-10000-species-on-brink-of-extinction-need-urgent-action-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jul 2025 16:55:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Lizkimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Critically Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[forest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wildlife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife Conservation]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/30144030/Black-rhino-a-Critically-Endangered-species-c-ZSL-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303424</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cameroon, Caribbean, Global, Madagascar, South America, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Invasive Species, Logging, Mammals, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Extinction is an overwhelming concept, difficult to grasp in its enormity and finality. Thousands of species are barreling toward that grim fate, unless we help. A comprehensive new study provides the clearest picture yet of Earth&#8217;s most imperiled species, and offers evidence that conservation can work. The study published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity found that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Extinction is an overwhelming concept, difficult to grasp in its enormity and finality. Thousands of species are barreling toward that grim fate, unless we help. A comprehensive new study provides the clearest picture yet of Earth&#8217;s most imperiled species, and offers evidence that conservation can work. The study published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity found that 10,443 species are critically endangered, the worst threat category before extinct in the wild and, finally, extinct. Species qualify as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List when they meet strict thresholds such as rapid population declines, extremely restricted ranges, or having fewer than 50 mature individuals remaining. &#8220;It is surprising that more than 1,500 species, so 15% of the critically endangered species, are estimated to have fewer than 50 mature individuals remaining in the wild, a large number of those plants,&#8221; Rikki Gumbs, research fellow at the Zoological Society of London&#8217;s Institute of Zoology and co-author of the study, told Mongabay. A critically endangered gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) or fish-eating crocodile in Nepal. Image courtesy of  ZSL/ Rikki Gumbs “The good news is that it’s within our power as humans to [save them]. It’s our unsustainable behaviour driving these devastating declines — whether through deforestation or the introduction of invasive species and diseases — so we can turn things around and bring these species back from the brink.” Most critically endangered species, 77%, earned their status because they have extremely limited habitat remaining. Seven species, including three amphibians, three tortoises and the vaquita porpoise (Phocoena&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/more-than-10000-species-on-brink-of-extinction-need-urgent-action-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/more-than-10000-species-on-brink-of-extinction-need-urgent-action-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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					<title>2,000 species at high risk of extinction from natural disasters, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/2000-species-at-high-risk-of-extinction-from-natural-disasters-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/2000-species-at-high-risk-of-extinction-from-natural-disasters-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jul 2025 15:13:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Lizkimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Climate Change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[forest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wildlife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife Conservation]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/25150501/Screenshot-2025-07-25-at-10.04.18-AM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303185</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria&#8217;s assault on the Caribbean island of Dominica in 2017, researchers made a heartbreaking discovery: dead and dying hummingbirds scattered across the forest floor. Among them were purple-throated caribs (Eulampis jugularis), the specialized pollinators of the island&#8217;s Heliconia plants. This single storm threatened an evolutionary partnership millions of years in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria&#8217;s assault on the Caribbean island of Dominica in 2017, researchers made a heartbreaking discovery: dead and dying hummingbirds scattered across the forest floor. Among them were purple-throated caribs (Eulampis jugularis), the specialized pollinators of the island&#8217;s Heliconia plants. This single storm threatened an evolutionary partnership millions of years in the making, killing three-quarters of the hummingbird population and leaving their flowering partners without their primary pollinators. The disaster on Dominica exemplifies a threat that scientists are only beginning to understand: how natural disasters can drive vulnerable species toward extinction. A study identified 2,001 species (834 reptiles, 617 amphibians, 302 birds and 248 mammals) that have at least 25% of their habitat in areas experiencing high impact from hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. Hurricane Maria makes landfall in 2017. Animal populations weakened by human activities are at greater risk from storms and other natural hazards. MODIS/Terra Satellite image posted by Antti Lipponen (CC BY 2.0) &#8220;This is the first attempt to provide a global map of species at risk of extinction due to natural hazards,&#8221; lead author Fernando Gonçalves, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich, told Mongabay. The study analyzed approximately 50 years of historical data on these four kinds of natural hazards. Hurricanes pose the greatest threat, affecting 983 of the high-risk species, followed by earthquakes (868 species), tsunamis (272 species) and volcanic eruptions (171 species). The highest concentrations of at-risk species were found along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/2000-species-at-high-risk-of-extinction-from-natural-disasters-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>Probiotics slow a deadly disease in Florida coral, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/probiotics-slow-a-deadly-disease-in-florida-coral-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/probiotics-slow-a-deadly-disease-in-florida-coral-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jul 2025 17:39:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Bobbybascomb]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/23173342/t3Kt5r9g-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=303083</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean, Florida, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change And Coral Reefs, Climate Change And Extinction, Climate Change Policy, Coral Reefs, Deforestation, Environment, Marine Biodiversity, Marine Crisis, Marine Ecosystems, and Marine Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A bacterial probiotic helped slow the spread of a deadly disease on great star coral, one of the largest and most resistant corals still surviving in the Florida Reef Tract, a 560-kilometer (350-mile) barrier reef off the coast of Florida, U.S., a recent study found. The treatment involved sealing live great star coral (Montaststraea cavernosa) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A bacterial probiotic helped slow the spread of a deadly disease on great star coral, one of the largest and most resistant corals still surviving in the Florida Reef Tract, a 560-kilometer (350-mile) barrier reef off the coast of Florida, U.S., a recent study found. The treatment involved sealing live great star coral (Montaststraea cavernosa) colonies inside large, weighted plastic bags filled with a probiotic seawater solution, creating a temporary aquarium. The corals treated in this way lost an average of 7% of their tissue, compared with 35% in untreated control corals. “It&#8217;s important to understand that this is the very beginning,” lead author Kelly Pitts, a researcher at the Smithsonian Marine Station, told Mongabay by phone. “This is definitely not a cure-all, but we&#8217;re definitely moving in the right direction.” Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) has caused extensive death for more than 30 species of reef-building corals in Florida’s coral reef and is now spreading to other reefs in the Caribbean Sea. Pillar coral (Dendrogyra cylindrus), a species known for its finger-like spires, is now considered functionally extinct in Florida due to SCTLD. Other species have lost up to 97% of their colonies. Researchers had tested two delivery methods to combat its spread with probiotics: a paste and the seawater solution. Both used a bacterial strain called McH1-7, which was isolated from a healthy coral and cultivated in a lab. The paste treatment, where divers applied the probiotic directly onto infected tissue and then spread it by hand&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/probiotics-slow-a-deadly-disease-in-florida-coral-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>World&#8217;s smallest snake spotted by scientists in Barbados after 20-year absence</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/worlds-smallest-snake-rediscovered-in-barbados-after-20-year-absence/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/worlds-smallest-snake-rediscovered-in-barbados-after-20-year-absence/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jul 2025 15:57:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Lizkimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biodiversity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Critically Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Deforestation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[forest]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Destruction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forest Loss]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[green]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Happy-upbeat Environmental]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Herps]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rediscovered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reptiles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Snakes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tropical Forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wildlife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife Conservation]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/23152655/snake-face-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303064</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Barbados and Caribbean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, Reptiles, Snakes, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;I was making a joke and in my head I said, &#8216;I smell a threadsnake,'&#8221; Justin Springer, Caribbean program officer for the NGO Re:wild, recalled. &#8220;I just had a feeling, but I couldn&#8217;t be sure because we turned over a lot of rocks before that and we saw nothing.&#8221; Springer’s intuition proved correct when his [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;I was making a joke and in my head I said, &#8216;I smell a threadsnake,'&#8221; Justin Springer, Caribbean program officer for the NGO Re:wild, recalled. &#8220;I just had a feeling, but I couldn&#8217;t be sure because we turned over a lot of rocks before that and we saw nothing.&#8221; Springer’s intuition proved correct when his colleague, Connor Blades, pried a rock loose from under a tree root. There, in the soil of central Barbados, they found both an earthworm and the world&#8217;s smallest snake. Scientists had been searching for the Barbados threadsnake (Tetracheilostoma carlae) for more than a year. Before this day, the tiny snake, which measures just 7.5-10 centimeters (3-4 inches) long and is about the width of a spaghetti noodle, had not been observed by scientists for 20 years. Barbados threadsnake photographed on a coin in 2005. Image © Blair Hedges, Penn State, via Wikimedia Commons. &#8220;Barbados threadsnakes are blind snakes, so they&#8217;re very cryptic,&#8221; said Blades, a project officer with the Barbados environment ministry, referring to the tendency of blind snakes to spend most of their time underground. &#8220;They&#8217;re quite rare also, it seems. There have only been a handful of confirmed sightings since 1889, so there are not many people who have ever seen it, unfortunately.&#8221; The expedition was conducted in March by the environment ministry and Re:wild as part of the Conserving Barbados&#8217; Endemic Reptiles (CBER) project. On an island where many endemic species have been driven to extinction, finding this rare snake is a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/worlds-smallest-snake-rediscovered-in-barbados-after-20-year-absence/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Small island nations provide big environmental solutions but need finance partners (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/small-island-nations-provide-big-environmental-solutions-but-need-finance-partners-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/small-island-nations-provide-big-environmental-solutions-but-need-finance-partners-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2025 20:09:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gaston Browne]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/15155827/Saint_George_Antigua_and_Barbuda_-_panoramio_1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302547</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Antigua and Caribbean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Finance, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Finance, Governance, Islands, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[These are turbulent times for the global economy and multilateralism. Uncertainty lies at every turn, yet for Antigua and Barbuda — and other Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like ours — navigating uncertainty is not new. It is our lived reality. I have witnessed firsthand how cascading shocks — climate events, market volatility, geopolitical fragmentation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[These are turbulent times for the global economy and multilateralism. Uncertainty lies at every turn, yet for Antigua and Barbuda — and other Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like ours — navigating uncertainty is not new. It is our lived reality. I have witnessed firsthand how cascading shocks — climate events, market volatility, geopolitical fragmentation — strike our shores harder and faster. But while the world grapples with rising division and fraying international cooperation, small island nations are building stronger bonds and leading by example. For us, sustainable development is not ideological or aspirational — it is the foundation of our survival and the only viable path to a just, secure future. Though we represent less than 1% of the global population, SIDS manage nearly 19% of the world’s ocean space. We have emerged as natural leaders in marine stewardship, even as we face the gravest consequences of a crisis we did not cause. What may be manageable for larger economies can be devastating for us. My nation, which was devastated by a category 5 hurricane, Irma, in 2017, stands shoulder to shoulder with nations like the Maldives and Tuvalu, which may witness entire islands disappear beneath the waves. Yet the consequences of inaction ripple far beyond our borders, from coastal displacement to food insecurity and economic instability. And still, we lead. Damage from Hurricane Irma, Barbuda, 2017. Image courtesy of Bennylin via Wikimedia Commons. Despite our vulnerabilities, small islands are driving global solutions. A year ago, Antigua and Barbuda&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/small-island-nations-provide-big-environmental-solutions-but-need-finance-partners-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>Restoration, protection aim to save Belize’s coral reef from extreme heat and disease</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/restoration-protection-aim-to-save-belizes-coral-reef-from-extreme-heat-and-disease/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/restoration-protection-aim-to-save-belizes-coral-reef-from-extreme-heat-and-disease/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jul 2025 04:48:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marco Lopez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/08101002/fish-belize-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302027</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Caribbean, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change And Conservation, Climate Change And Coral Reefs, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Diseases, Environment, Infectious Wildlife Disease, Invertebrates, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Biodiversity, Marine Conservation, Marine Crisis, Marine Ecosystems, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Oceans And Climate Change, Temperatures, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PLACENCIA, Belize — After Hurricane Iris decimated the coral reef at Laughing Bird Caye National Park in 2001, many wrote off the UNESCO World Heritage site as a coral graveyard. But a small group from the coastal village of Placencia, Belize, about 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the island, saw hope. In 2006, the park [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PLACENCIA, Belize — After Hurricane Iris decimated the coral reef at Laughing Bird Caye National Park in 2001, many wrote off the UNESCO World Heritage site as a coral graveyard. But a small group from the coastal village of Placencia, Belize, about 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the island, saw hope. In 2006, the park had just 6% live coral cover. By 2023, it had reached approximately 60% — the result of the group planting more than 92,000 fragments of coral within the 1-hectare (2.5-acre) shallow fringing reef. The group, Fragments of Hope (FOH), is a Belize-based nonprofit organization focused on restoring coral reef habitats. Their work at Laughing Bird Caye is widely regarded as the best example of reef restoration in the Caribbean. But while the park stands as a beacon of hope for coral restoration, it has not been immune to the onslaught of record-breaking temperatures occurring globally. “2024 was the worst bleaching event since we’ve been recording around 2008,” Lisa Carne, FOH’s founder, said during an interview with Mongabay. Many of the corals planted at Laughing Bird have succumbed to extreme heat stress and disease. At Moho Caye, another restoration site, live coral cover dropped from more than 50% to less than 5%, “likely reflecting similar declines at Laughing Bird,” Carne said. It’s not just Laughing Bird and Moho. Unprecedented coral bleaching, a relatively new illness called stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD), and other threats to corals are negatively impacting reef health across Belize, and it&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/restoration-protection-aim-to-save-belizes-coral-reef-from-extreme-heat-and-disease/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>The Caribbean&#8217;s hardiest corals (cartoon)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/custom-story/2025/06/the-caribbeans-hardiest-corals-cartoon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/custom-story/2025/06/the-caribbeans-hardiest-corals-cartoon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jun 2025 17:42:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rohan Chakravarty]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/24173224/thumbs_11-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=custom-story&#038;p=301301</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change And Coral Reefs, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Environment, Marine Animals, Marine Biodiversity, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Despite the Caribbean Sea witnessing some of the worst episodes of mass coral bleaching over the last year, a reef in Honduras&#8217; Tela Bay, nicknamed Cocalito, has withstood pressures from climate change and pollution, surprising and impressing marine biologists.  A Honduran reef stumps conservationists with its unlikely resilience]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Despite the Caribbean Sea witnessing some of the worst episodes of mass coral bleaching over the last year, a reef in Honduras&#8217; Tela Bay, nicknamed Cocalito, has withstood pressures from climate change and pollution, surprising and impressing marine biologists.  A Honduran reef stumps conservationists with its unlikely resilienceThis article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/custom-story/2025/06/the-caribbeans-hardiest-corals-cartoon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/custom-story/2025/06/the-caribbeans-hardiest-corals-cartoon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>New study dismisses Amazon River runoff as primary cause of sargassum blooms</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/new-study-dismisses-amazon-river-runoff-as-primary-cause-of-sargassum-blooms/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/new-study-dismisses-amazon-river-runoff-as-primary-cause-of-sargassum-blooms/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jun 2025 07:00:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Julian Reingold]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/10151433/Abundant-in-the-Sargasso-Sea-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300497</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon River, Atlantic Ocean, Brazil, Caribbean, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amazon River, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Environment, Governance, Land Use Change, Marine, Marine Conservation, Nutrient Pollution, Ocean Crisis, Oceans, Pollution, Research, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A recent study suggests that ocean changes are the primary nutrient source for sargassum blooms since 2011, challenging previous hypotheses.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The macroalgae pelagic sargassum is abundant in the Sargasso Sea, but since 2011, a recurrent Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt (GASB) has been observed on beaches and in satellite imagery, often extending from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico. Millions of tons of sargassum make their way across the Caribbean each year, pushing coastal ecosystems toward collapse. This brownish wave of macroalgae covers the region’s white beaches and blue waters, mostly from May to October, mainly coming from the GASB — a bloom that stretches more than 8,000 kilometers (4,971 miles). In June 2022, it reached a record peak of 6,989 square km (2,699 square mi) of coverage. This equates to an estimated wet biomass of more than 23.3 million metric tons of seaweed, but recent forecasts suggest that 2025 might break a new record for sargassum blooms. As the algae accumulate in the calm Caribbean basins, they begin to decompose, switching colors from orange to brown, while releasing heavy toxic metals and gases that are harmful to human health. The stench of rotten sargassum is tourism&#8217;s worst nightmare, as visitors cannot enjoy white sand beaches and pristine turquoise waters anymore. At the UNOC3 oceans summit, in June, the Dominican Republic President, Luis Abinader, reiterated his call to world leaders to urgently recognize and address the proliferation of sargassum in the Caribbean, calling it an environmental, economic, and health crisis that requires a global and coordinated response. While recalling that the island nations of the Caribbean are being hit hard&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/new-study-dismisses-amazon-river-runoff-as-primary-cause-of-sargassum-blooms/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>Researchers race to understand disease killing Caribbean corals at unprecedented rates</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/researchers-race-to-understand-new-disease-killing-caribbean-corals-at-unprecedented-rates/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/researchers-race-to-understand-new-disease-killing-caribbean-corals-at-unprecedented-rates/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jun 2025 01:35:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/05205502/1-Antonio-Busiello-coral-disease-Honduras-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300271</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Caribbean, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change And Coral Reefs, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Diseases, Environment, Featured, Green, Infectious Wildlife Disease, Invertebrates, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Ecosystems, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This May, divers found stony coral tissue loss disease on corals in Laughing Bird Caye National Park, Belize, for the first time. The team from Fragments of Hope, a nonprofit, regularly monitors the site. A month previously there had been no sign at all of the disease. But on their trip in May, they found [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This May, divers found stony coral tissue loss disease on corals in Laughing Bird Caye National Park, Belize, for the first time. The team from Fragments of Hope, a nonprofit, regularly monitors the site. A month previously there had been no sign at all of the disease. But on their trip in May, they found pillar (Dendrogyra cylindricus), symmetrical brain (Pseudodiploria strigosa) and mountainous star (Orbicella faveolata) corals covered with lesions, a telltale sign of this devastating disease that has slammed reefs in Florida and across the Caribbean over the past 10 years. “That’s how fast it spreads,” says Lisa Carne, founder and director of Fragments of Hope. Maze coral (Meandrina meandrites) with a SCTLD lesion in Babco Chinchorro, Mexico. The telltale lesions quickly spread over corals, sloughing away the living tissue and exposing the white calcium carbonate skeleton. “It’s going and going and never stops,” says Melina Soto, Mexico coordinator with Healthy Reefs for Healthy People. Image by Raul Telcalco. Corals, like humans, sometimes get sick. But stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) is different, researchers say. It afflicts an unprecedented number of species, has spread over a vast area, and kills incredibly quickly. Massive coral colonies, some hundreds of years old, can die within weeks or months, leaving reefs unrecognizable. Miraculously, Laughing Bird Caye had, until now, been spared. The tiny island sits landward from Belize’s main barrier reef, separated by deep channels, and the team had hoped against hope that this might offer some protection. “We’ve been&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/researchers-race-to-understand-new-disease-killing-caribbean-corals-at-unprecedented-rates/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Marine artificial upwelling, problematic climate solution slow to advance</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/marine-artificial-upwelling-problematic-climate-solution-slow-to-advance/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/marine-artificial-upwelling-problematic-climate-solution-slow-to-advance/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jun 2025 16:10:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/30115503/Image_3-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299860</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Australia, Caribbean, China, Global, Hawaii, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Dioxide, Climate Change, Climate Change And Coral Reefs, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Environment, Fish, Geoengineering, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Ecosystems, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Oceans And Climate Change, Saltwater Fish, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Artificial upwelling is a geoengineering climate solution with a long history. The concept: mimic natural ocean upwelling by pumping cold, nutrient-rich seawater up from ocean depths via pipes to the surface. There it can cause a growth surge in CO2-absorbing plankton, nourishing aquaculture and tackling climate change. Closer to shore, the technique could even protect [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Artificial upwelling is a geoengineering climate solution with a long history. The concept: mimic natural ocean upwelling by pumping cold, nutrient-rich seawater up from ocean depths via pipes to the surface. There it can cause a growth surge in CO2-absorbing plankton, nourishing aquaculture and tackling climate change. Closer to shore, the technique could even protect coral reefs from marine heat waves. But as simple as this idea sounds in theory, it has faced complex technological challenges, high costs and failed experiments, though it continues to garner interest. Whether marine upwelling will ever break through as a solution for fisheries or the climate is unclear. Bleached coral reef off Lizard Island, Australia. Researchers there studied the use of “cool water injections” to protect coral reefs from heatwaves and bleaching in 2020 and found that doing so would incur huge energy costs, limiting feasibility. Image courtesy of The Ocean Agency/Ocean Image Bank. Upwelling isn’t a new idea. First proposed in the 1970s as a method to feed fish farms and grow seaweed, it has seen waves of testing come and go. Over past decades, trials have operated with mixed success. In 2008, one test near Hawai‘i pumped cold, nutrient-rich water from a depth of 300 meters (nearly 1,000 feet). But that trial lasted just 17 hours before the pump failed. By contrast, tests in a semi-closed embayment in Aoshan Bay, China, between 2018 and 2020, proved more successful in prompting macroalgae growth. Starting in the 1990s, artificial upwelling was proposed as a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/marine-artificial-upwelling-problematic-climate-solution-slow-to-advance/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>Restoring deep-sea corals after massive oil spill</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/05/restoring-deep-sea-corals-after-massive-oil-spill/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/05/restoring-deep-sea-corals-after-massive-oil-spill/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 May 2025 11:29:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Juan Maza]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Lucia Torres]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/30002108/NOAA-Oceaneering-International-Inc-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=310729</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coral Reefs, Deep Sea, Ecological Restoration, Oceans, Oil Spills, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, and the ensuing blowout spewed oil for the next three months, making it the largest oil spill in U.S. history. The oil coated more than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) of coastline, but an estimated 35% of it sank to the seafloor, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, and the ensuing blowout spewed oil for the next three months, making it the largest oil spill in U.S. history. The oil coated more than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) of coastline, but an estimated 35% of it sank to the seafloor, damaging deep-sea habitats across a vast area including coral reefs. The limited knowledge of these deep, inaccessible habitats is a big challenge to their restoration. To close that knowledge gap, eight scientific expeditions set out in 2022 to collect data, samples, imagery and sonar scans from the depths. Now, researchers are using that information to guide one of the first attempts ever to restore a deep-sea coral community. Scientists and divers with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S Navy, the University of Rhode Island and other institutions have collected more than 200 coral fragments, broken them into smaller pieces and then planted them in the open ocean. Most have survived. At the same time, researchers are growing these deepwater corals in labs for the first time. The next step? Once the lab-grown corals are mature enough, scientists place them in the damaged areas. While this first-of-its-kind deepwater coral restoration project is still in its early stages, researchers are already seeing promising signs of success, including coral spawning in the lab setting.This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/05/restoring-deep-sea-corals-after-massive-oil-spill/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Environmental defenders targeted in 3 out of 4 human rights attacks: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/05/environmental-defenders-targeted-in-3-out-of-4-human-rights-attacks-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/05/environmental-defenders-targeted-in-3-out-of-4-human-rights-attacks-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 May 2025 16:34:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kristine Sabillo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Bobbybascomb]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/11164415/RS13699_Luis_GW_37.width-1440-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=299589</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Caribbean, Global, Latin America, and Pacific]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, agribusiness, Agriculture, Climate, Climate Activism, Climate Change, Climate Change And Conservation, Climate Change Policy, Climate Change Politics, Climate Justice, Conservation, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Politics, Forestry, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Green, Human Rights, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Logging, Mining, Murdered Activists, Protected Areas, Rainforest Conservation, Rainforest Deforestation, Rainforest Destruction, Renewable Energy, Research, Timber, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than 6,400 attacks against human rights defenders were reported between 2015 to 2024, according to a new report from nonprofit Business &#38; Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC). “That&#8217;s close to two attacks every day over the past 10 years against defenders who are raising concerns about business-related risks and harms,” said Christen Dobson, co-head [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More than 6,400 attacks against human rights defenders were reported between 2015 to 2024, according to a new report from nonprofit Business &amp; Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC). “That&#8217;s close to two attacks every day over the past 10 years against defenders who are raising concerns about business-related risks and harms,” said Christen Dobson, co-head of BHRRC’s civic freedoms and human rights defenders’ program, during a media briefing on the report. Dobson said it was “just the tip of the iceberg” since they only used publicly available information, including reporting from journalists and civil society groups, but many attacks are never reported publicly. “We also, over these past 10 years, have seen a consistent pattern of attacks, and that many defenders face multiple attacks, and there&#8217;s often an escalation,” Dobson said. Of the recorded attacks, three in four were against climate, land and environmental defenders. Although attacks happen in almost every business sector, one of the report’s co-authors, BHRRC senior legal researcher and project coordinator Lady Nancy Zuluaga Jaramillo said during the briefing that “mining has consistently been the most dangerous sectors for human rights defenders.” It’s responsible for one in every four reported attacks, the report found. The report said five sectors “intimately connected to the climate crisis” have been linked to the highest number of attacks. A total of 1,681 attacks were attributed to the mining sector, followed by 1,154 from agribusiness, 792 from fossil fuels, 454 from renewable energy, and 359 from logging. “Latin America and the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/05/environmental-defenders-targeted-in-3-out-of-4-human-rights-attacks-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>Farmers turn to living ‘yam sticks’ to grow their crop and spare the forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/farmers-turn-to-living-yam-sticks-to-grow-their-crop-and-spare-the-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/farmers-turn-to-living-yam-sticks-to-grow-their-crop-and-spare-the-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Apr 2025 22:27:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark Hillsdon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/03210813/Q1dJK-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297055</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Caribbean, Ghana, Jamaica, and Nigeria]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroforestry, Climate Change, Conservation Solutions, Crops, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Global Warming, Green, Habitat Loss, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Yams are considered one of the world’s most important crops. A starchy, nutrient-rich root vegetable of the genus Dioscorea, the yam thrives in a tropical belt across West Africa, with outliers in the Caribbean and some Asian countries such as Japan. In 2023, nearly 90 million metric tons of yam were produced globally, according to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Yams are considered one of the world’s most important crops. A starchy, nutrient-rich root vegetable of the genus Dioscorea, the yam thrives in a tropical belt across West Africa, with outliers in the Caribbean and some Asian countries such as Japan. In 2023, nearly 90 million metric tons of yam were produced globally, according to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. But the way in which they’re grown, using traditional “yam sticks,” is now seen as a major cause of deforestation. “The yam is a climber,” says Eric Owusu Danquah, a research scientist at Ghana’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), “it has to climb to expose its leaves to the sunlight.” To do this, it depends on “yam sticks,” staves around 2 meters (6.5 feet) long that are often cut from the nearby forests — a practice that conservationists such as Danquah say prevents trees from developing and forests from regenerating. Each stick only lasts two growing seasons at most. As a result, yam breeders, scientists and local forestry groups are looking at alternatives for the vines to climb. A yam farm in northern Ghana, with wooden stakes used to support the yam plants as they grow. These &#8220;yam sticks&#8221; are often harvested from surrounding forest. Image by Attah Mohammed via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). The yam grows as a tuber, with Ghana and Nigeria producing more than 80% of the world’s output, according to Danquah. It’s a demanding crop. As well&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/farmers-turn-to-living-yam-sticks-to-grow-their-crop-and-spare-the-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Manatees in peril as human pressures push gentle giants toward the brink</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/03/manatees-in-peril-as-human-pressures-push-gentle-giants-toward-the-brink/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/03/manatees-in-peril-as-human-pressures-push-gentle-giants-toward-the-brink/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Mar 2025 14:03:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/25233156/manatees-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=296470</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Caribbean, Central America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Environment, Green, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Biodiversity, Marine Mammals, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay&#8217;s founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Few creatures better embody the notion of peaceful coexistence than the manatee. Slow-moving and largely indifferent to human affairs, these aquatic herbivores graze on seagrasses and algae in the shallow coastal waters of the Americas and West Africa. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay&#8217;s founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Few creatures better embody the notion of peaceful coexistence than the manatee. Slow-moving and largely indifferent to human affairs, these aquatic herbivores graze on seagrasses and algae in the shallow coastal waters of the Americas and West Africa. Yet despite their unassuming nature, manatees are increasingly at the mercy of human activity. The West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus), found along the Atlantic coasts of the United States, the Caribbean and Central America, offers a case in point. Once hunted for its meat, hide and oil, the species now faces more insidious threats: boat strikes, entanglement in fishing gear, and the relentless degradation of its habitat. Florida’s recent surge in manatee deaths — driven by seagrass loss linked to nutrient pollution and algal blooms — has exposed the fragility of the species’ hard-won recovery. Also at risk is the manatee’s elusive cousin, the dugong (Dugong dugon), found across the warm coastal waters of the Indian and Western Pacific oceans. In Asia, dugongs once ranged widely from India to Japan and throughout Southeast Asia, quietly grazing in seagrass beds much like their American relatives. But their numbers have dwindled precipitously. Hunting, habitat loss and accidental capture in fishing gear have driven local extinctions, most recently in China, where the dugong was declared functionally extinct in 2022. Today, scattered populations persist in places like the Philippines and Indonesia, where rapid coastal development and destructive fishing practices&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/03/manatees-in-peril-as-human-pressures-push-gentle-giants-toward-the-brink/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Caribbean reef sharks rebound in Belize with shark fishers’ help</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/caribbean-reef-sharks-rebound-in-belize-with-shark-fishers-help/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/caribbean-reef-sharks-rebound-in-belize-with-shark-fishers-help/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2025 16:43:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marco Lopez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/13143222/Caribbean_Reef_Shark_Research_-CC-Pete-Oxford-MarAlliance-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295736</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Caribbean, and Central America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Islands, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Biodiversity, Marine Conservation, Marine Ecosystems, Oceans, Saltwater Fish, Sharks, Sharks And Rays, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Rosie knows the Lighthouse Reef Atoll like the back of her fin. She calls this atoll home and is a matriarch of the thriving population of Caribbean reef sharks (Carcharhinus perezi) living there. Her signature scar on her dorsal fin makes her easy to identify each year during monitoring surveys conducted by MarAlliance, a U.S.-based [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Rosie knows the Lighthouse Reef Atoll like the back of her fin. She calls this atoll home and is a matriarch of the thriving population of Caribbean reef sharks (Carcharhinus perezi) living there. Her signature scar on her dorsal fin makes her easy to identify each year during monitoring surveys conducted by MarAlliance, a U.S.-based nonprofit that is also registered in Belize. Kirah Forman-Castillo, national coordinator of the group’s Belize program, reported that fishers are observing a flourishing of sharks in the country’s waters. “As we talk to fishers, they are having the same experiences: increased numbers of sharks,” Forman-Castillo said. “They are seeing more and more; they are seeing them in the back reef and in areas where they never saw sharks before.” This constitutes a striking recovery across various shark species after a period of decline from 2009 to 2019. And it arose from a remarkable synergy among shark fishers, marine scientists and management authorities who together implemented restrictions to protect the megafauna across Belize’s three atolls, according to experts Mongabay spoke to for this story. Fishers tag a Caribbean reef shark in Belize. Image courtesy of MarAlliance. Shark fishers&#8217; acceptance The Caribbean reef shark is the most fished shark species in Belize. Globally, it’s classified as endangered due largely to overfishing and the degradation of coral reefs throughout its range. A study published in 2022 based on video footage collected at underwater stations estimated a decline in relative abundance in the reef shark population in a Belizean&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/caribbean-reef-sharks-rebound-in-belize-with-shark-fishers-help/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>To save a Honduran reef, locals craft custom gear and hunt invasive lionfish</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/03/to-save-a-honduran-reef-locals-craft-custom-gear-and-hunt-invasive-lionfish/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/03/to-save-a-honduran-reef-locals-craft-custom-gear-and-hunt-invasive-lionfish/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2025 10:33:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Kristine Sabillo]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/15115754/spearing-lionfish-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=295732</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean and Honduras]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Aquarium Fish, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change And Coral Reefs, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fishing, Green, Impact Of Climate Change, Invasive Species, Marine Animals, Marine Biodiversity, Marine Conservation, Marine Ecosystems, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Without a natural predator, invasive lionfish, which damage coral reefs, have become widespread throughout the Caribbean over the last several decades. To prevent further harm off the northern coast of Honduras, locals have resorted to crafting their own spears to effectively and safely hunt lionfish, reports Mongabay contributor Fritz Pinnow. Julio San Martín Chicas, program [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Without a natural predator, invasive lionfish, which damage coral reefs, have become widespread throughout the Caribbean over the last several decades. To prevent further harm off the northern coast of Honduras, locals have resorted to crafting their own spears to effectively and safely hunt lionfish, reports Mongabay contributor Fritz Pinnow. Julio San Martín Chicas, program coordinator with the NGO Coral Reef Alliance, told Mongabay that lionfish (Pterois volitans and P. miles), a group of venomous fish native to the Indo-Pacific, are believed to have proliferated after being released into the sea from personal aquariums. These fish feed on small native fish that play an important role in keeping harmful algae growth on corals in check. As lionfish reproduce quickly and eat the smaller fish, it puts “coral ecosystem at risk, as it critically disrupts the natural exchange of nutrients,” Chicas said. He added that to address the problem, humans must become lionfish predators and hunt them or teach natural predators like sharks and groupers to eat them. The latter hasn’t shown much success. A lionfish in the coral reef. Image by Fritz Pinnow for Mongabay. In the Honduran town of Tela, a group of locals led by divemaster Mario Motiño Jr. and his father, Mario Sr., have turned to hunting lionfish to limit their spread. Pinnow reports that 68% of Tela Bay has live corals, which are already vulnerable to overfishing and bleaching due to climate change. Lionfish are an additional problem. The Motiños, who own one of the largest metal fabrication businesses&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/03/to-save-a-honduran-reef-locals-craft-custom-gear-and-hunt-invasive-lionfish/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>‘James Bond’ lizard among 35 new species described from Caribbean islands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/01/james-bond-lizard-among-35-new-species-described-from-caribbean-islands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/01/james-bond-lizard-among-35-new-species-described-from-caribbean-islands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jan 2025 15:02:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kristine Sabillo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/24130038/Picture2-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=293255</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, DNA, Endangered Species, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Lizards, Rainforest Conservation, Rainforest Destruction, Reptiles, Science, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Conservation Science, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Shaken, not stirred: That’s how fictional secret service agent James Bond prefers his martini. And now there’s a lizard in the Caribbean that shares his name: the James Bond forest lizard, found close to where author Ian Fleming wrote his iconic Bond novels. Researchers recently described the new species alongside 34 others in a 306-page [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Shaken, not stirred: That’s how fictional secret service agent James Bond prefers his martini. And now there’s a lizard in the Caribbean that shares his name: the James Bond forest lizard, found close to where author Ian Fleming wrote his iconic Bond novels. Researchers recently described the new species alongside 34 others in a 306-page study that has shaken up what researchers understand about Caribbean lizards. The taxonomy of neotropical forest lizards, those found in Central and South America and the Caribbean islands, remains poorly understood, the study’s authors write. Among these are lizards from the subfamily Celestinae, which prefer humid tropical forest habitats and are mostly only known from the Caribbean Islands. To shed light on the taxonomy of Celestinae lizards, researchers from Temple University in the U.S. used modern genetic and morphological tools to compare hundreds of lizards collected over past expeditions from the Caribbean, as well as preserved specimens from museums, some of them 200 years old. In doing so, they identified 35 new-to-science Celestinae species. More than half may be threatened with extinction, the researchers estimate. Fourteen species might even be critically endangered and three may be extinct, they say. “The results revealed a surprising hidden diversity of species, some of which are likely extinct because of human-mediated alterations of habitat and invasive species,” the authors write in the study. The new-to-science species include the James Bond forest lizard (Celestus jamesbondi), described from a specimen collected back in 1987. “We found it to be a species&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/01/james-bond-lizard-among-35-new-species-described-from-caribbean-islands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Almost extinct Caribbean lizard makes a comeback after island restoration</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2024/12/almost-extinct-caribbean-lizard-makes-a-comeback-after-island-restoration/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2024/12/almost-extinct-caribbean-lizard-makes-a-comeback-after-island-restoration/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Dec 2024 04:17:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/20040530/Website-Use-Sombrero-Ground-Lizard-Richard-Brown-Fauna-Flora-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=292090</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, Islands, Lizards, Oceans, Reptiles, Wildlife, and Wildlife Conservation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A tiny lizard found only on one tiny Caribbean island has seen a dramatic 1,500% increase in its population, after just a few years of island restoration efforts. In 2018, researchers estimated there were fewer than 100 individuals of the critically endangered Sombrero ground lizard (Pholidoscelis corvinus) on the small hat-shaped Sombrero Island, part of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A tiny lizard found only on one tiny Caribbean island has seen a dramatic 1,500% increase in its population, after just a few years of island restoration efforts. In 2018, researchers estimated there were fewer than 100 individuals of the critically endangered Sombrero ground lizard (Pholidoscelis corvinus) on the small hat-shaped Sombrero Island, part of Anguilla in the Caribbean. Just six years later, there are more than 1,600 of them, a recent survey has found. “I am beyond thrilled to see the ground lizards on the road to recovery, and this is a fantastic reward for everyone who has worked hard to restore Sombrero,” Jenny Daltry, Caribbean alliance director at conservation NGOs Fauna &amp; Flora and Re:wild, told Mongabay. “Too many island species have been lost already, and we really need to prevent extinctions whenever we can.” Today, Sombrero Island hosts large seabird colonies and several unique and rare species. But invading mice, likely brought to the island on ships or other means by people, as well as climate change impacts, have wreaked havoc on the island’s inhabitants. When mice take over islands, they devour almost everything, from seeds to seabirds, Daltry said. “By preventing plants from regenerating, the mice deprived the lizards of vital shelter and food, including fruits and insects. No doubt they also preyed on the lizards&#8217; eggs and young.” With native vegetation in a precarious state, storm surges and hurricanes striking the island further devasted the island’s lizard populations. To turn things around, Fauna &amp; Flora,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2024/12/almost-extinct-caribbean-lizard-makes-a-comeback-after-island-restoration/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>I’m boycotting COP29 because local Indigenous action matters more (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/im-boycotting-cop29-because-local-indigenous-action-matters-more-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/im-boycotting-cop29-because-local-indigenous-action-matters-more-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Nov 2024 00:23:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Caroline Mair-Toby]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/14182949/IMG_7459-768x504.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290129</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Caribbean, Central America, Latin America, and Trinidad And Tobago]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Climate, Climate Activism, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Commentary, Environment, environmental justice, Governance, Government, Indigenous Communities, Indigenous Cultures, Indigenous Groups, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The first United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that I worked on was in 2009. I didn’t actually go but rather volunteered for Farhana Yamin representing the Marshall Islands, doing some research. She invited me to come and her delegation would pay half of my ticket and accommodation. She said she would give [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[The first United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that I worked on was in 2009. I didn’t actually go but rather volunteered for Farhana Yamin representing the Marshall Islands, doing some research. She invited me to come and her delegation would pay half of my ticket and accommodation. She said she would give me a letter to my government to be a delegate and ask them to fund the other half, or get funding for me to come. I couldn’t, because I had law exams to do toward qualifying for the London Bar at Inns of Court School of Law, now City Law School. My actual first COP was in 2011 with the Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development (FIELD), founded by the eminent international law barrister Philippe Sands, who had advised Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) with our very own legend, Angela Cropper, back in the 1980s. I’ve been involved with each and every COP since then, from working behind the scenes as a junior barrister in London in various think tanks, where I wrote briefing papers and advised on ad hoc requests – in what we affectionately called the “war room” – to going with delegations to field ad hoc queries from Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries as a legal adviser and liaison, and heading my own Institute for Small Islands while going with my country delegation. It has been an exhilarating and intense ride. I loved the mental challenge of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/im-boycotting-cop29-because-local-indigenous-action-matters-more-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>Local groups drive creation of new Puerto Rico marine protected area</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2024/11/local-groups-drive-creation-of-new-puerto-rico-marine-protected-area/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2024/11/local-groups-drive-creation-of-new-puerto-rico-marine-protected-area/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Nov 2024 17:34:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bobby Bascomb]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/12172917/Credit_-Ron-Watkins-_-Ocean-Image-Bank-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=290022</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean, North America, Puerto Rico, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Marine Biodiversity, Marine Ecosystems, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico recently gained ­­­a new marine protected area off the island’s central north coast. The MPA, named Jardines Submarinos de Vega Baja y Manatí or the Vega Baja and Manatí Underwater Gardens, spans 202 square kilometers (77 square miles) and is the culmination of a 16-year effort by ­­a coalition [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico recently gained ­­­a new marine protected area off the island’s central north coast. The MPA, named Jardines Submarinos de Vega Baja y Manatí or the Vega Baja and Manatí Underwater Gardens, spans 202 square kilometers (77 square miles) and is the culmination of a 16-year effort by ­­a coalition of local communities and NGOs. It’s comprised of several critically important ecosystems, including coral reefs, mangrove forests and seagrass beds, and is home to more than a dozen threatened species, including the greater Caribbean manatee (Trichechus manatus manatus) and several species of sea turtles. “Juvenile sea turtles foraging in the shallow coral reef and seagrass habitats will receive added protection with zoning designed to reduce potential conflicts with recreational vessels,” Wildlife Conservation Society scientists told Mongabay in an email. “This will also afford protection to various species of corals that grow there,” they added. The new MPA is also a site for local small-scale fishing and several ecotourism projects. The coalition organized to establish the MPA so it can continue to be used by locals and at the same time protect the resources they rely on for sustenance and revenue. “These ecosystems nourish us and sustain our quality of life,” Ricardo Laureano, leading member of Vegabajeños Impulsando Desarrollo Ambiental Sustentable (VIDAS), said in a press release. VIDAS is one of the local groups that organized to establish the MPA. “It took 16 years of hard work, starting in 2007, to get here. Over the years,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2024/11/local-groups-drive-creation-of-new-puerto-rico-marine-protected-area/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>Lab-grown corals resisted bleaching during Caribbean’s worst marine heat wave</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/lab-grown-corals-resisted-bleaching-during-caribbeans-worst-marine-heat-wave/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/lab-grown-corals-resisted-bleaching-during-caribbeans-worst-marine-heat-wave/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Sep 2024 23:47:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Caitlin Cooper]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/19153952/mexoci-coral-reef-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287569</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change And Coral Reefs, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecological Restoration, Ecosystem Restoration, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine, Marine Biodiversity, Marine Conservation, Marine Crisis, Marine Ecosystems, Ocean Crisis, Oceans, Oceans And Climate Change, Research, and Restoration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In mid-2023, the Caribbean Sea simmered as air temperatures soared, marking the hottest days ever recorded in Puerto Rico and Barbados. Beginning in March, sea surface temperatures throughout the region ranged between 1° and 3° Celsius warmer than normal (1.8°-5.4° Fahrenheit). This unprecedented heat brought on the worst coral bleaching event in the Caribbean’s history: [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[In mid-2023, the Caribbean Sea simmered as air temperatures soared, marking the hottest days ever recorded in Puerto Rico and Barbados. Beginning in March, sea surface temperatures throughout the region ranged between 1° and 3° Celsius warmer than normal (1.8°-5.4° Fahrenheit). This unprecedented heat brought on the worst coral bleaching event in the Caribbean’s history: It whitened 60 to 100% of the reef in some areas, and many patches died. But among the skeletons, a group of young corals kept their color, appearing to have not only survived bleaching, but resisted it altogether. “It&#8217;s pretty devastating when [you look out at] reefs that you&#8217;ve been working on for many, many years and then you see the coral suffering,” Valérie Chamberland, a coral reef ecologist with the Miami-based conservation organization SECORE International, told Mongabay. “But seeing all of our young [coral] recruits faring pretty well was very encouraging.” Under extreme thermal stress, corals expel the symbiotic food-producing algae that live in their tissue, turning pale or completely white. This bleaching can cause death when ocean temperatures surge 1°C greater than the historical maximum monthly average for two months. In 2023, abnormal heating lingered for more than five months in some parts of the Caribbean around Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica, the longest duration on record in the region. In a study published Sept. 18 in the journal PLOS ONE that Chamberland co-authored, researchers found that certain species of coral bred for restoration showed few signs of bleaching despite the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/lab-grown-corals-resisted-bleaching-during-caribbeans-worst-marine-heat-wave/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>Can the circular economy help the Caribbean win its war against waste?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/can-the-circular-economy-help-the-caribbean-win-its-war-against-waste/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/can-the-circular-economy-help-the-caribbean-win-its-war-against-waste/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 May 2024 15:34:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Weiss]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/20140034/2-Erwin-Sprot-with-one-of-his-creations-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282283</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Consumption, Environment, environmental justice, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Environmental Politics, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Trade, Governance, Microplastics, Oceans, Overconsumption, Plastic, Pollution, Protests, Regulations, United Nations, Waste, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Caribbean Basin is drowning in waste, especially plastic trash that’s contaminating rivers and the surrounding sea.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The best place to party on the Caribbean island of Curaçao is Mambo Beach, near the island&#8217;s capital, Willemstad. On weekends, DJs outperform each other, spinning the hottest music at shoreside hotels and beach clubs. Tourists and locals dance the night long, consuming beer, cocktails, rum, soft drinks, and maybe water. Then, at 4 a.m., when the last partyers have fallen asleep on the beach’s sunbeds, the Green Phenix team arrives and starts collecting the garbage strewn by guests. Green Phenix is a local environmental startup that has set itself a big goal: To clean up Curaçao. This is more than a civic duty — it may also be a national imperative: Waste disposal has become a serious problem on the island, which is the size of Manhattan, and it’s getting worse. The same is true on islands across the Caribbean. &#8220;In 2020, each [Curaçao] islander produced an average of 1,200 kilograms [about 2,650 pounds] of waste per year,&#8221; says Ciaretta Profas, a government adviser on environmental policy. “That&#8217;s three times as much as usual in Latin America,&#8221; she adds. Of course, this isn’t because the inhabitants of Curaçao are particularly wasteful, but because all the garbage left behind by tourists is statistically attributed to the 150,000 inhabitants. Profas is now part of an interdisciplinary team overhauling the island nation’s waste management system, which was underfinanced for more than 20 years and of no interest to politicians, according to a study. “Our goal is to transition towards a circular economy,”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/can-the-circular-economy-help-the-caribbean-win-its-war-against-waste/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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