<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" >

	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?s=&#038;type=post&#038;location=central-asia" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/central-asia/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 12 Sep 2026 14:31:28 +0000</lastBuildDate>
		<language>en-US</language>
		<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
		<generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4</generator>

<image>
	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>Central Asia environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/central-asia/</link>
	<width>32</width>
	<height>32</height>
</image> 
				<item>
					<title>Tracing the origins of tulips: Interview with botanist Brett Wilson</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/tracing-the-origins-of-tulips-interview-with-botanist-brett-wilson/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/tracing-the-origins-of-tulips-interview-with-botanist-brett-wilson/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Aug 2026 06:32:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Yenni Kwok]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/26062941/Tulipa-anadroma-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327342</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, and Kyrgyzstan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Flowers, Genetics, Interviews, Plants, Research, Science, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The universally beloved tulips are synonymous with the Netherlands. The low-lying European country dominates the global market, producing nearly 90% of the world’s tulips. Every year, from March to May, tourists flock to tulip gardens and fields in the Dutch countryside to see the flowers in full bloom. The origins of Tulipa, however, are believed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The universally beloved tulips are synonymous with the Netherlands. The low-lying European country dominates the global market, producing nearly 90% of the world’s tulips. Every year, from March to May, tourists flock to tulip gardens and fields in the Dutch countryside to see the flowers in full bloom. The origins of Tulipa, however, are believed to lie elsewhere. A massive genetic analysis of wild tulips has confirmed that broader Central Asia is the birthplace of tulips, dating back roughly 32.5 million years. The researchers also traced the closest ancestors of the popular garden tulips down to two possible candidates. This study “is a foundational piece of our understanding of the [Tulipa] group,” study lead author Brett Wilson, co-founder of the IUCN SSC Wild Tulip Specialist Group, told Mongabay by email. “We now know — rather than assume — that tulips originated in Central Asia, and that urgent action is needed there if we are not going to lose a great many of these species.” Wilson, a botanist and conservationist whose Ph.D. research was focused on tulips at the University of Cambridge, U.K., spoke with Mongabay’s Shreya Dasgupta about the new study. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. Botanist and conservationist Brett Wilson. Image courtesy of Brett Wilson. Mongabay: It&#8217;s been generally believed that tulips originated in Central Asia. Why is this study important now?  Brett Wilson: Central Asia has always been the obvious suspect — it holds more wild tulip species than anywhere else on Earth&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/tracing-the-origins-of-tulips-interview-with-botanist-brett-wilson/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/tracing-the-origins-of-tulips-interview-with-botanist-brett-wilson/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327342</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientific &#038; traditional knowledge are key for effective &#038; community-centered conservation (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/scientific-traditional-knowledge-are-key-for-effective-community-centered-conservation-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/scientific-traditional-knowledge-are-key-for-effective-community-centered-conservation-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jul 2026 15:52:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charudutt Mishra]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/20151938/Tsetsen-Collared-Snow-Leopard-Tost-Mongolia-by-Lkhagvasumberei-Tomorsukh-Snow-Leopard-Trust-SLCF-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324063</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bhutan, Central Asia, China, Global, Himalayas, India, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Commentary, Mammals, Snow Leopards, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A group of women often climbs steep cliffs to set up camera traps for snow leopards around Kibber in Spiti Valley, India. The senior women know the landscape intimately, like what areas the animals use and where cameras are likely to capture movement. They have walked these mountains all their lives and know how to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A group of women often climbs steep cliffs to set up camera traps for snow leopards around Kibber in Spiti Valley, India. The senior women know the landscape intimately, like what areas the animals use and where cameras are likely to capture movement. They have walked these mountains all their lives and know how to navigate the most rugged and inaccessible terrain safely, even in snow and ice. This is a kind of access that visiting researchers simply cannot replicate.  Back at the village, they gather around two computer screens. The younger women, who are typically more adept at handling technology, organize and sort the photographic data. Together, they identify individual snow leopards from their coat patterns, building scientific monitoring skills over time. Their work contributes directly to regional and global assessment and monitoring of snow leopard populations. Women hold up their camera traps after completing training. Image courtesy of Kibber women/NCF/HPFD. Who are these scientists conducting camera-trap monitoring of snow leopards? They are not trained researchers. They are women from the Indigenous community of Kibber in Spiti Valley. This work is done alongside their other chores: Livestock rearing, farming, household responsibilities, and community work. They do this, because they are interested in knowing how many snow leopards they are helping protect on their community lands; they take pride in learning research techniques; and they see themselves as part of the global effort to study and protect them.  Lobzang Yangchen, the coordinator of the Kibber team of 11 women, says,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/scientific-traditional-knowledge-are-key-for-effective-community-centered-conservation-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/scientific-traditional-knowledge-are-key-for-effective-community-centered-conservation-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324063</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Meme-face Pallas’s cat traverses a complex conservation landscape</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/meme-face-pallass-cat-traverses-a-complex-conservation-landscape/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/meme-face-pallass-cat-traverses-a-complex-conservation-landscape/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2026 17:43:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/08101628/1-Pallass-cat-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322829</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia and Central Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Cute, Ecosystems, Environment, Habitat, Mammals, Small Cats, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Many already know Zelenogorsk — a manul, or Pallas’s cat, from Russia’s Novosibirsk Zoo — who became an internet sensation in 2022 after a video of him warming his paws on his tail was posted on YouTube. That clip has garnered more than 14 million views. Many of the world’s 30-plus small cat species are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Many already know Zelenogorsk — a manul, or Pallas’s cat, from Russia’s Novosibirsk Zoo — who became an internet sensation in 2022 after a video of him warming his paws on his tail was posted on YouTube. That clip has garnered more than 14 million views. Many of the world’s 30-plus small cat species are relatively unknown, but thanks to its online fame as the world’s grumpiest cat, the manul bucks this trend. “Pallas’s cats are known for being these really cranky-looking animals,” said Jan Janecka, a professor of biology at Duquesne University in the U.S. “It&#8217;s almost like a meme, how the facial expression they have is just really unique and funny.” But while the manul’s oft-miffed visage is well known, perhaps less so is the complex conservation picture it faces rangewide. Its “least concern” status on the IUCN Red List somewhat obscures troubling declines at the national level. It inhabits a huge expanse of territory across South and Central Asia, including the Himalayas and on into the Caucasus and Caspian Sea region. Some countries — such as Mongolia and China — are considered strongholds, with healthy, if patchy, populations. But in the south and west, little is known about them. “A lot of what we know is focused on these strongholds,” said Katarzyna Ruta, conservation manager at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and coordinator with the Pallas’s Cat International Conservation Alliance (PICA). Elsewhere in their range, populations are often small, isolated and “very clearly understudied,” she added.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/meme-face-pallass-cat-traverses-a-complex-conservation-landscape/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/meme-face-pallass-cat-traverses-a-complex-conservation-landscape/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322829</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Kyrgyzstan, a climate-ready corridor gives snow leopards and herders room to roam</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/in-kyrgyzstan-a-climate-ready-corridor-gives-snow-leopards-and-herders-room-to-roam/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/in-kyrgyzstan-a-climate-ready-corridor-gives-snow-leopards-and-herders-room-to-roam/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 May 2026 15:19:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/22132936/Ibris_snowleopard-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319984</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Pastoralists in a Changing World]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, Himalayas, and Kyrgyzstan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Climate Change, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Governance, Happy-upbeat Environmental, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Snow leopards haunt the rocky ridgelines of Central Asia, vanishing into terrain so rugged that researchers rarely catch more than a brief glimpse on camera traps. Locals call them “ghosts of the mountains.” Their elusive nature, paired with the remote landscapes the cats inhabit, make them notoriously difficult to count. An estimated 3,500 to 7,500 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Snow leopards haunt the rocky ridgelines of Central Asia, vanishing into terrain so rugged that researchers rarely catch more than a brief glimpse on camera traps. Locals call them “ghosts of the mountains.” Their elusive nature, paired with the remote landscapes the cats inhabit, make them notoriously difficult to count. An estimated 3,500 to 7,500 snow leopards (Panthera uncia) remain across 12 countries. The IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, lists the species as vulnerable to extinction. Kyrgyzstan, where the snow leopard is a national symbol, is thought to be home to around 300. Now, a stretch of high-altitude terrain in central Kyrgyzstan has been stitched into an ecological corridor linking several of the country’s protected areas. The Ak Ilbirs corridor covers roughly 800,000 hectares (nearly 2 million acres) of pastureland, forest and other ecosystems across 14 rural municipalities. Ak ilbirs translates to “white leopard” in Kyrgyz. A snow leopard (Panthera uncia) caught on camera trap by Ilbirs Foundation. Set up in 2025, it’s the first corridor in the region designed with the future climate in mind, project officials say. People still live, herd and work inside it, and the rules are built around them as much as around the wildlife. “Projects like this are good for hope, because you can see changes at the policy level and changes in people’s mindsets on the ground,” Maarten Hofman, associate program management officer at the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), told Mongabay in a video call. “You can see people from many backgrounds&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/in-kyrgyzstan-a-climate-ready-corridor-gives-snow-leopards-and-herders-room-to-roam/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/in-kyrgyzstan-a-climate-ready-corridor-gives-snow-leopards-and-herders-room-to-roam/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319984</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Endangered Persian leopards persist across borders, despite hunters and landmines</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/endangered-persian-leopards-persist-across-borders-despite-hunters-and-landmines/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/endangered-persian-leopards-persist-across-borders-despite-hunters-and-landmines/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 May 2026 16:15:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kayleigh Long]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/15145758/captive-leopard-cat-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319523</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, and Georgia (Country)]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Leopards, Mammals, Predators, Top Predators, War, Wildlife, Wildlife Corridors, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Last September, zoologist and conservationist Bejan Lortkipanidze received a video file from a collaborator, Zurab Gurielidze, the head of Georgia’s Tbilisi Zoo. Gurielidze offered no details, but told his friend to &#8220;just watch.&#8221; For several moments, Lortkipanidze saw nothing remarkable — just nighttime footage of a high fence topped with razor wire. Then a leopard [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Last September, zoologist and conservationist Bejan Lortkipanidze received a video file from a collaborator, Zurab Gurielidze, the head of Georgia’s Tbilisi Zoo. Gurielidze offered no details, but told his friend to &#8220;just watch.&#8221; For several moments, Lortkipanidze saw nothing remarkable — just nighttime footage of a high fence topped with razor wire. Then a leopard entered the frame. Lortkipanidze, who is co-founder of the Georgian conservation NGO NACRES, was stunned: It was just the third sighting of a Persian leopard (Panthera pardus tulliana) in the south Caucasus nation in 20 years. The footage wasn&#8217;t from a wildlife camera trap. It came from a standard CCTV camera that surveilled the perimeter of a new breeding enclosure for endangered Caucasian red deer (Cervus elaphus maral) in Algeti National Park, situated an hour west of Tbilisi. The video quickly circulated around the conservation community. Vazha Kochiashvili, a biologist with WWF Caucasus, saw it: It was sent to him by the man tasked with checking the deer enclosure footage for Georgia&#8217;s National Agency of Wildlife, Sergo Tabagari, who called him immediately after he saw the cat while reviewing footage. Kochiashvili said he had a hunch and asked his friend: &#8220;Does the leopard have three legs?&#8221; It did. The male leopard’s name is Aren and, over the last few years, he’s roamed across at least two international borders. Persian leopards once traversed a vast territory that lies between Russia, the Middle East and the Caspian and Black seas. They’re wide-ranging animals, and Aren’s journey underscores&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/endangered-persian-leopards-persist-across-borders-despite-hunters-and-landmines/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/endangered-persian-leopards-persist-across-borders-despite-hunters-and-landmines/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319523</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From Africa to Central Asia, the European roller’s migration builds relationships</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/from-africa-to-central-asia-the-european-rollers-migration-builds-relationships/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/from-africa-to-central-asia-the-european-rollers-migration-builds-relationships/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 May 2026 07:05:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/08162937/European.roller.Coracias.garrulus_BostonliqUzbekistan_bereztletikINaturalistBYNC4.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319029</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, China, Europe, India, Kenya, Somalia, South Africa, Southern Africa, Tanzania, and Uzbekistan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Habitat Loss, Migration, Research, Species, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The European roller is a small, striking migratory bird that breeds in open woodlands — or farms and orchards — across Europe and Central Asia. Coracias garrulus is also well-known to Southern and South Africa&#8217;s avid birdwatching communities, including many citizen scientists who participate in the Southern African Bird Atlas Project. But the rollers that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The European roller is a small, striking migratory bird that breeds in open woodlands — or farms and orchards — across Europe and Central Asia. Coracias garrulus is also well-known to Southern and South Africa&#8217;s avid birdwatching communities, including many citizen scientists who participate in the Southern African Bird Atlas Project. Image courtesy of Lourenço Afonso. But the rollers that spend November to March in South Africa appear to be mostly the C. g. semenowi subspecies. The routes these populations follow to their breeding grounds as far as 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) away in Central Asia are not known. Image courtesy of Ma Ming. Since 2024, scientists at BirdLife South Africa have fit tiny 3.8-gram (0.1-ounce) trackers to seven birds to investigate the birds’ migration routes and stopover sites. Image courtesy of Jean-Richard Snoer. The tagged rollers traveled north through Tanzania and Kenya, paused in Somalia, and then flew on to Central Asia via Oman and India. One individual ended up in China, two others in Uzbekistan. Image courtesy of BirdLife SA One year&#8217;s tracking of just seven birds has connected South Africa to bird clubs in Gujarat, India, and a Chinese researcher studying the rollers&#8217; breeding behavior in Xinjiang, China. Image courtesy of Ma Ming. BirdLife SA&#8217;s tiny staff dedicated to the European Roller Monitoring Project is supported by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. The tracking devices are paid for by individual donors. Image courtesy of Jean-Richard Snoer. In the years ahead, Flyway and Migrants Project&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/from-africa-to-central-asia-the-european-rollers-migration-builds-relationships/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/from-africa-to-central-asia-the-european-rollers-migration-builds-relationships/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319029</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Outlook for migratory species worsens amid habitat loss &#038; avian flu, report finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/outlook-for-migratory-species-worsens-amid-habitat-loss-avian-flu-report-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/outlook-for-migratory-species-worsens-amid-habitat-loss-avian-flu-report-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Mar 2026 16:03:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/12132145/Sea-Turtle-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315646</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Arctic, Asia, Central Asia, Chad, East Africa, Europe, Global, Kenya, Serengeti, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Diseases, Elasmobranchs, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Freshwater Fish, Habitat Loss, Hunting, Jaguars, Mammals, Mapping, Migration, Mining, Poaching, Sea Turtles, Sharks, Species, Turtles, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[From shorebirds flying between their Arctic breeding grounds and southerly foraging ranges to freshwater fish returning to native spawning streams, migratory animals are struggling. About half of all migratory species populations protected under a global treaty are now in decline, with the situation worsening in just the last two years, according to a new United [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[From shorebirds flying between their Arctic breeding grounds and southerly foraging ranges to freshwater fish returning to native spawning streams, migratory animals are struggling. About half of all migratory species populations protected under a global treaty are now in decline, with the situation worsening in just the last two years, according to a new United Nations-backed report. When the first State of the World’s Migratory Species report was published in 2024, 44% of migratory species populations listed under the U.N. Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) were declining, according to data from the IUCN Red List, the world’s most comprehensive guide to global extinction risk. Since then, the proportion of imperiled CMS-listed species rose to 49%, according to updated Red List data and new research. Though the next status report isn’t due until around 2030, conservation advocates said the deteriorating situation required an interim report, as many countries are moving in the wrong direction when it comes to conserving wildlife that depend on various habitats to complete their life cycles. “This [interim report] is saying there are some alarming trends in the meantime; that we don’t want to wait six years to talk about this,” said CMS executive secretary Amy Fraenkel. Jaguars have no subspecies. Their range extends from Mexico to Argentina, but some populations are cut off, at risk of inbreeding and the demise that comes with it. Image by Gregoire Dubois. The convention, established in 1979, aims to conserve migratory species by protecting&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/outlook-for-migratory-species-worsens-amid-habitat-loss-avian-flu-report-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/outlook-for-migratory-species-worsens-amid-habitat-loss-avian-flu-report-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315646</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>US proposes zero new protections for traded wildlife at upcoming CITES CoP</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/us-proposes-zero-new-protections-for-traded-wildlife-at-upcoming-cites-cop/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/us-proposes-zero-new-protections-for-traded-wildlife-at-upcoming-cites-cop/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Aug 2025 15:09:58 +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/20/2025/08/15082624/india_165187-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304329</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, Global, North America, United States, and Uzbekistan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Crime, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Politics, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Sustainability, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At the end of 2025, representatives from 185 countries will convene in Uzbekistan to discuss the fate of sharks, African hornbills, hyenas, vultures, palm trees and other threatened species. The group’s decisions will, in part, decide the survival and the future of widely traded fauna and flora as they vote whether to set limits on or [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At the end of 2025, representatives from 185 countries will convene in Uzbekistan to discuss the fate of sharks, African hornbills, hyenas, vultures, palm trees and other threatened species. The group’s decisions will, in part, decide the survival and the future of widely traded fauna and flora as they vote whether to set limits on or bar the international trade of these species and their parts, including fins, heads and skins. This will be the 20th meeting of signatories to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES), one of the world’s oldest conservation treaties. These “Conference of the Parties” (CoP) discussions, held once every three years, will convene from Nov. 24 to Dec. 5 in Samarkand. They offer an opportunity for the world to rein in the unsustainable, multibillion-dollar wildlife trade, both legal and illegal. For species like the elephants, rhinos, tigers and numerous others, trade is the greatest threat to their long-term survival. The United States has traditionally been a leader in conservation, affording and securing protections to species at risk, including those exploited by trade. But this year, the country&#8217;s role seems to have weakened as a leader at CITES: It has sponsored only four proposals for consideration at the upcoming CoP, the lowest in the last 10 CoPs — 25 years. In total, 51 proposals are up for discussion to regulate or ban the international commercial trade of wildlife and its products. For the first time, none of the U.S.-backed proposals support&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/us-proposes-zero-new-protections-for-traded-wildlife-at-upcoming-cites-cop/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/us-proposes-zero-new-protections-for-traded-wildlife-at-upcoming-cites-cop/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304329</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Community conservancies in Kyrgyzstan see conservation success against illegal hunting</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/community-conservancies-in-kyrgyzstan-see-conservation-success-against-illegal-hunting/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/community-conservancies-in-kyrgyzstan-see-conservation-success-against-illegal-hunting/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 May 2025 11:08:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/26092602/H-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299635</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, and Kyrgyzstan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Hunting, Indigenous Peoples, Poaching, Protected Areas, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the rugged mountainous terrains of northern Kyrgyzstan, populations of roe deer, red deer and wild boar are increasing. About a decade ago, these vast terrains that hosted numerous flora and fauna, many of them endemic to the country, were a hub for the illegal hunting and poaching of the species. But community-based conservancies established [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the rugged mountainous terrains of northern Kyrgyzstan, populations of roe deer, red deer and wild boar are increasing. About a decade ago, these vast terrains that hosted numerous flora and fauna, many of them endemic to the country, were a hub for the illegal hunting and poaching of the species. But community-based conservancies established by local NGOs are helping species make an effective comeback, conservationists say. “The local community’s ownership and attitude shift towards species conservation has made this possible,” says Zairbek Kubanychbekov, director of the Ilbirs Foundation, which currently supports 10 community-based conservancies (CBCs) spread across nine districts. They support their member conservancies with trainings and GPS, camera traps, patrolling gear, walkie-talkies, horses and vehicles to patrol the protected areas. “About 80 local community members in 10 CBCs have been trained,” Kubanychbekov says. Local people who are members of the CBCs know their territory and therefore have knowledge of the wildlife species, their habitats and threats. This, he tells Mongabay, makes their participation significant in the conservation effort. Community members on patrol in one of the community-based conservancies. Image courtesy of Ilbirs Foundation. Why community-based conservancies? Local community NGO Shumkar-Tor established one of the earliest conservancies in Chüy Region in northern Kyrgyzstan in 2012. This was an initial step to community conservation following years of political and social unrest since the country’s independence in 1991. “The Soviet Union&#8217;s collapse brought in a deficiency of resources, so people depended on hunting wildlife for food, and poaching was widespread,” says&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/community-conservancies-in-kyrgyzstan-see-conservation-success-against-illegal-hunting/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/community-conservancies-in-kyrgyzstan-see-conservation-success-against-illegal-hunting/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299635</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Financing conservation of Central Asia&#8217;s endangered mammals on World Wildlife Day and every day (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/financing-conservation-of-central-asias-endangered-mammals-on-world-wildlife-day-and-every-day-commentarycommentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/financing-conservation-of-central-asias-endangered-mammals-on-world-wildlife-day-and-every-day-commentarycommentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Mar 2025 12:03:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anne NeumannChristiane RöttgerJohannes Stahl]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/08/16183224/Saiga_antelope_at_the_Stepnoi_Sanctuary-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295225</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Afghanistan, Asia, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Carbon Market, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Ecotourism, Finance, Payments For Ecosystem Services, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Central Asia hosts some of the world’s largest and still relatively interconnected yet fragile grassland and mountain ecosystems. These landscapes provide essential habitats for migratory and threatened species, including the snow leopard, saiga antelope, argali sheep, Mongolian gazelle and wild ass. While these species are essential for maintaining ecological balance, they face growing threats from [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Central Asia hosts some of the world’s largest and still relatively interconnected yet fragile grassland and mountain ecosystems. These landscapes provide essential habitats for migratory and threatened species, including the snow leopard, saiga antelope, argali sheep, Mongolian gazelle and wild ass. While these species are essential for maintaining ecological balance, they face growing threats from habitat fragmentation, climate change, and poaching. Despite their ecological significance, conservation efforts in the region remain severely underfunded, hindered by high financial risks and a lack of investment-ready opportunities. The 2025 edition of U.N. World Wildlife Day (March 3, 2025, themed Wildlife Conservation Finance: Investing in People and the Planet) rings the alarm bell: financial solutions to support conservation efforts in regions like Central Asia are urgently needed. As part of these efforts, the Central Asian Mammals Initiative (CAMI), under the Convention on Migratory Species, provides a strategic framework to safeguard migratory wildlife across the region’s arid steppes and mountains. However, without effective financing mechanisms and stronger international collaboration, conservation efforts will struggle to keep pace with mounting threats. New financing solutions needed Conservation finance in Central Asia faces inadequate funding levels, high perceived risks, and limited data on biodiversity projects. The complexity of conservation initiatives, coupled with the long-term nature of economic returns, often deters potential investors. While new financing mechanisms have succeeded elsewhere in the world, their potential in Central Asia remains largely untapped. Adapting and implementing these approaches could unlock sustaining investment flows, providing the necessary resources to protect these ecosystems. Saiga&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/financing-conservation-of-central-asias-endangered-mammals-on-world-wildlife-day-and-every-day-commentarycommentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/financing-conservation-of-central-asias-endangered-mammals-on-world-wildlife-day-and-every-day-commentarycommentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295225</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>With Turkmenistan set to join CITES, wildlife trade regulation in Central Asia gets a boost</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/with-turkmenistan-set-to-join-cites-wildlife-trade-regulation-in-central-asia-gets-a-boost/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/with-turkmenistan-set-to-join-cites-wildlife-trade-regulation-in-central-asia-gets-a-boost/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Dec 2024 13:05:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/29154716/Persian_Leopard-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290929</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia and Turkmenistan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Law Enforcement, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Turkmenistan is set to join the global wildlife trade convention as of January, in a move that could bolster conservation efforts in Central Asia. This makes Turkmenistan the 185th party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and the last country in Central Asia to join. “Turkmenistan [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Turkmenistan is set to join the global wildlife trade convention as of January, in a move that could bolster conservation efforts in Central Asia. This makes Turkmenistan the 185th party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and the last country in Central Asia to join. “Turkmenistan is ready for active cooperation within the framework of CITES at both the regional and international levels,” Babanyyazov Charygeldi, the minister of environmental protection, said in a press release announcing the country’s accession. CITES Secretary-General Ivonne Higuero said the move “underscores the Central Asia region’s commitment to CITES implementation”. For Turkmenistan, joining CITES helps build capacity for enforcement authorities, including customs and border agencies, to detect illegal wildlife trade and properly handle live specimens when they’re seized. In addition, it will now be able to share seizure information with other countries in Central Asia and beyond so they can collectively prevent illegal networks of trade. “As a Party to CITES, Turkmenistan will be eligible to receive technical assistance and other support from the CITES Secretariat in regulating the international trade in CITES-listed species.” a spokesperson for the CITES Secretariat said in an email to Mongabay, explaining the benefits of joining. On the country’s part, it’s obligated to enforce CITES resolutions and decisions designed to address wildlife crime. The steppe tortoise is often traded in the thousands across the borders for pet trade, say conservationists. Image courtesy of Yuriy75 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Tatjana&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/with-turkmenistan-set-to-join-cites-wildlife-trade-regulation-in-central-asia-gets-a-boost/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/with-turkmenistan-set-to-join-cites-wildlife-trade-regulation-in-central-asia-gets-a-boost/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290929</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rio Tinto-linked mine still not fulfilling promises to Mongolian herders</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/rio-tinto-linked-mine-still-not-fulfilling-promises-to-mongolian-herders/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/rio-tinto-linked-mine-still-not-fulfilling-promises-to-mongolian-herders/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Aug 2024 15:09:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/28143855/B-Battsengel-Lkhamdoorov-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286609</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Pastoralists in a Changing World]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, and Mongolia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Copper, Degraded Lands, Deserts, Environment, Environmental Law, Gold Mining, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Mining, Pollution, public lands, Rivers, Social Justice, Traditional People, Water Pollution, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2004, nomadic herders in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert faced a daunting prospect. One of the world’s largest copper-gold mines, Oyu Tolgoi, was settling in, and herder communities were being forced to resettle without consultation. For many of them, everything fell apart that year when they faced the prospect of losing access to water and lush [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2004, nomadic herders in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert faced a daunting prospect. One of the world’s largest copper-gold mines, Oyu Tolgoi, was settling in, and herder communities were being forced to resettle without consultation. For many of them, everything fell apart that year when they faced the prospect of losing access to water and lush pasturelands. But they turned to an accountability group for help, filed two complaints against Oyu Tolgoi — and, in a rare success story, reached a deal with the mining company in 2017. Herders, local government officials and company representatives met, formed a three-party council to resolve disputes, and reached an agreement on 60 separate commitments. “It was the least we could do. The water wells and springs that the herders and animals survived on were drying right in front of our eyes after the mining operated,” says Battsengel Lkhamdoorov, one of the herders who lost his occupation and initiated the complaint. “We were not consulted before the mining operation and impacts, so we had to speak up.” But years later, experts say important commitments remain unmet. A report by the three-party council, Accountability Counsel (an NGO that advocates for communities affected by internationally funded projects) and the NGO Oyu Tolgoi Watch found that two-thirds of the commitments were either complete or in progress as of June 2020. Four years on, little has changed, they tell Mongabay. Some of the most significant commitments — on ensuring herders’ access to water, pasture and markets — are making&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/rio-tinto-linked-mine-still-not-fulfilling-promises-to-mongolian-herders/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/rio-tinto-linked-mine-still-not-fulfilling-promises-to-mongolian-herders/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286609</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Uzbekistan plants a forest where a sea once lay</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/uzbekistan-plants-a-forest-where-a-sea-once-lay/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/uzbekistan-plants-a-forest-where-a-sea-once-lay/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2024 15:38:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/29125751/7-plantation-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282631</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, and Uzbekistan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Afforestation, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Desertification, Drought, Environment, Forest Loss, Forestry, Forests, Nature-based climate solutions, Solutions, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Between the borders of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the Aral Sea, once the lifeblood of peoples in both countries, is parched, shrouded in a layer of toxic salt and dust that’s now taking a heavy toll on the health and farmlands of these very communities. Since the Aral Sea, technically a lake, began shrinking in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Between the borders of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the Aral Sea, once the lifeblood of peoples in both countries, is parched, shrouded in a layer of toxic salt and dust that’s now taking a heavy toll on the health and farmlands of these very communities. Since the Aral Sea, technically a lake, began shrinking in the 1960s, governments on both sides of the border led initiatives to revive tiny fractions of it. But Soviet-era dams, diverting waters feeding the sea to cotton monocultures, squelched the dream. As the Aral Sea dried out, a desert, the Aralkum, emerged and continues to expand on what used to be the lakebed. Today, the bed is caked with a thick layer of salt and of pesticide runoff that crystallized, creating a toxic cocktail of sediment on the ground. When the wind blows, this salt and dust can coat entire communities. Now, instead of trying to restore the lake, officials from the Uzbekistan Forestry Agency and locals are trying to plant a new forest where it once rested. The main purpose of the afforestation project it to curb the harmful sandstorms and improve the ecosystem by planting desert-tolerant plants like saxaul (Haloxylon ammodendron) on the lakebed. The current plan is to establish forests covering a total area of 150,000 to 200,000 hectares (371,000 to 494,000 acres) in 2024. Karakalpakstan, an Uzbek region that’s home to the Karakalpak people, is one of the most sandstorm-impacted areas in Uzbekistan. More than 300 residents of Karakalpakstan and around 150&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/uzbekistan-plants-a-forest-where-a-sea-once-lay/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/uzbekistan-plants-a-forest-where-a-sea-once-lay/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282631</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Shining a spotlight on the wide-roaming sand cat ‘king of the desert’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/shining-a-spotlight-on-the-wide-roaming-sand-cat-king-of-the-desert/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/shining-a-spotlight-on-the-wide-roaming-sand-cat-king-of-the-desert/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Dec 2023 15:28:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Petro Kotzé]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/11130750/sand-cat-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276459</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Central Asia, North Africa, and Sahara Desert]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Desertification, Deserts, Ecology, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Research, Small Cats, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The sand cat is small, elusive and adapted to life in some of Earth’s most inhospitable deserts — that makes it hard to study and conserve, with lots of unknowns about its behaviors and populations across its range.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The sand cat flourishes in arguably some of the most inhospitable places on Earth. Felis margarita, also called the sand dune cat, is superbly adapted to the extreme heat and drought of the African Sahara, the largest desert on the planet. But while the species also inhabits a vast home range stretching across the driest parts of Southwest and Central Asia, the individual animals are nearly impossible to see by day and challenging to track by night. They rarely if ever drink water, relying on the prey they eat for the H2O they need. Their creamy striped coats blend perfectly into sand and rock landscapes. Their tiny bodies, weighing no more than six pounds, slip easily under the small bushes that shade them from scorching desert sun, or into underground burrows that hide the cats from prying eyes. Thick black fur between their toes protects paws from the burning sand. This, and strong howling desert winds, are why these nocturnal hunters leave no prints behind. Their large ears can swivel and funnel desert sounds to an exceptionally large middle ear cavity, allowing the cats to hear the faint scratching of burrowing rodents up to 600 feet away, as well as detect and evade scientists who want to radio collar and study them. A sand cat (Felis margarita ) seeks shelter in a tiny patch of shade in the Sahara Desert. Image courtesy of Alexander Sliwa. When ‘stars align’ Little is known about F. margarita. Historical records are rare, with the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/shining-a-spotlight-on-the-wide-roaming-sand-cat-king-of-the-desert/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/shining-a-spotlight-on-the-wide-roaming-sand-cat-king-of-the-desert/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276459</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Asian Development Bank’s climate commitments require greater accountability (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/asian-development-banks-climate-commitments-require-greater-accountability-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/asian-development-banks-climate-commitments-require-greater-accountability-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jul 2023 15:01:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Radhika Goyal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/04153107/indonesia_sulawesi_171067-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270815</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Climate Justice, Commentary, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Mitigation, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This July marks the deadline by when the Asian Development Bank (ADB) – which describes itself as Asia and Pacific’s Climate Bank – committed to achieving full alignment with the goals of the 2016 Paris Agreement that aims to cap the rise in global temperatures. This comes on the heels of ADB’s May 2023 announcement [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This July marks the deadline by when the Asian Development Bank (ADB) – which describes itself as Asia and Pacific’s Climate Bank – committed to achieving full alignment with the goals of the 2016 Paris Agreement that aims to cap the rise in global temperatures. This comes on the heels of ADB’s May 2023 announcement of the Innovative Finance Facility for Climate in Asia and the Pacific, which aims to invest billions of dollars to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build resilience for communities already suffering the impacts of the climate crisis in Asia – an important goal. Yet these ambitions have no chance of success without an increased commitment to safeguards and accountability. From our work at Accountability Counsel with communities harmed by international investments, we know that development projects intending to do good can cause harm to people and the planet. In fact, even money intended to address the climate crisis can cause ecological destruction and unintended human rights impacts, and therefore be guilty of climate-washing. ADB should already know of these risks and commit to ending the cycle of ineffectiveness and harm. Climate finance requires climate justice  All types of investments, including those that fund climate solutions and those that the ADB – alongside other multilateral development banks, now classify as universally aligned with the Paris Agreement – have the potential to cause environmental and social harms. From a hydropower dam-associated project in Nepal that impacts the livelihoods, health, and safety of vulnerable populations, to a conservation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/asian-development-banks-climate-commitments-require-greater-accountability-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/asian-development-banks-climate-commitments-require-greater-accountability-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270815</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Honey production sweetens snow leopard conservation in Kyrgyzstan</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/honey-production-sweetens-snow-leopard-conservation-in-kyrgyzstan/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/honey-production-sweetens-snow-leopard-conservation-in-kyrgyzstan/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 May 2023 22:34:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Monica Pelliccia]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/08/23175248/Snow-leopard-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268478</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, and Kyrgyzstan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Animals, Bees, Big Cats, Carnivores, Cats, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Development, Ecotourism, Endangered Species, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Mountains, Predators, Snow Leopards, Solutions, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Technology, Top Predators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SHAMSHY, Kyrgyzstan — “I was only 9 when I first saw a snow leopard with my father. He was a ranger bringing injured animals found in the mountains to the veterinarian,” says Asanbek Sasukilov, 62, a beekeeper and herder. “I was sitting close to the cage. Suddenly, the snow leopard started to roar, and I [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SHAMSHY, Kyrgyzstan — “I was only 9 when I first saw a snow leopard with my father. He was a ranger bringing injured animals found in the mountains to the veterinarian,” says Asanbek Sasukilov, 62, a beekeeper and herder. “I was sitting close to the cage. Suddenly, the snow leopard started to roar, and I ran away.” For Sasukilov, snow leopards (Panthera uncia) have always been a part of his life. The same is true for those in other communities living in the area surrounding the Ala-Too mountains, in northern Kyrgyzstan. The difference is that they’re now involved in big cat conservation programs being implemented by the Snow Leopard Trust (SLT) and the Snow Leopard Foundation in Kyrgyzstan (SLFK) that promote beekeeping, agroecology and ecotourism as alternative livelihoods to herding, in an effort to avoid conflict with wildlife like the rare big cats. Here, locals have always seen snow leopards on mountaintops while herding cows or sheep. The big cats are also part of popular stories like farmer Beisheukaz Balasy&#8217;s memory of a snow leopard that was filmed for a movie during the Soviet era. Beekeeper and conservationist Asanbek Sasykilov (r)  with his wife (l) and granddaughter in their home, Shamshy, Kyrgyzstan, December 2022. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay. Both Sasukilov and Balasy now keep bees in Shamshy, a village of 1,000 inhabitants that’s a 90-minute drive from the capital, Bishkek. Once outside the city, the gray cityscape disappears, melting into blue skies and snowy mountains. Flocks of sheep,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/honey-production-sweetens-snow-leopard-conservation-in-kyrgyzstan/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/honey-production-sweetens-snow-leopard-conservation-in-kyrgyzstan/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268478</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The EU banned Russian wood pellet imports; South Korea took them all</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/the-eu-banned-russian-wood-pellet-imports-south-korea-took-them-all/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/the-eu-banned-russian-wood-pellet-imports-south-korea-took-them-all/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jan 2023 22:27:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/24221907/30452172090_3fc11c6305_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264936</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[European Union, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Bioenergy, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Logging, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, Politics, Renewable Energy, Solutions, Timber, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Last July, as the Ukraine war raged, the EU barred all Russian woody biomass imports; even as South Korea took in Russia’s supply. Illicit woody biomass may also still be flowing to the EU from Turkey, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Despite European countries becoming ever more reliant on woody biomass for energy generation, the European Union last July chose to ban the import of wood pellets from Russia during a fifth round of economic sanctions tied to the unprovoked war with Ukraine. As a result, South Korea — which is in the process of accelerating its energy transition from coal burning to wood pellets — found itself in a geopolitical quandary that also offered a domestic energy-making opportunity.  Not wanting to alienate either Russia or Western allies aligned with Ukraine, South Korea has reportedly opted to ignore the ongoing war and take advantage of the entire surplus of Russian wood pellets on the open market. Since late July 2022, South Korea has been the exclusive destination for Russian produced pellets, tripling its imports in November alone to 65,000 tons, according to a report in late December by LesProm, a European timber holding and wood-products conglomerate. Through November of last year, South Korea paid $69 million to Russia for 377,000 tons of wood pellets — double what it imported from Russia in 2021. Forest advocates in Asia, Europe and the United States are livid at South Korea’s actions, noting that Russian imports now make up 15% of South Korea’s total wood pellet supply. They also say that South Korea is paying little attention to third-party certification programs that would help ensure that wood pellet supplies are not contributing to net deforestation and biodiversity loss in Russia. “South Korea, taking advantage of market&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/the-eu-banned-russian-wood-pellet-imports-south-korea-took-them-all/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/the-eu-banned-russian-wood-pellet-imports-south-korea-took-them-all/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264936</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Blue jeans: An iconic fashion item that’s costing the planet dearly</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/blue-jeans-an-iconic-fashion-item-thats-costing-the-planet-dearly/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/blue-jeans-an-iconic-fashion-item-thats-costing-the-planet-dearly/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Nov 2022 15:04:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jenny Gonzales]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/11/16205355/BANNER2-768x445.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=262672</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Global, India, Pakistan, Southwest United States, and Uzbekistan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Business, Climate Change, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Drought, Farming, Fashion industry, Fertilizers, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Impact Of Climate Change, Industrial Agriculture, Pesticides, Pollution, Sustainability, Water, Water Pollution, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Likely the world’s most popular garment, jeans use huge amounts of water to grow irrigated cotton, a major factor in destroying the Aral Sea. Today, the industry, though making sustainability pledges, still does much harm.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Eternally current and always fashionable, blue jeans are among the most-worn articles of clothing on Earth, transcending time, trends, and social class. Their popularity is ubiquitous, so much so that legendary designer Yves Saint Laurent once declared: “I wish I had invented blue jeans. The most spectacular, practical, relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity — everything I hope for in my clothes.” Unfortunately for the planet, the production of this garment takes a huge environmental toll. A single pair of cotton jeans consumes between 10,000 and 20,000 liters (2,600-5,300 gallons) of water along its supply chain. Add to that large doses of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, dyes and other chemicals that pollute soils and waterbodies, impacting wildlife and people, plus major energy expenditures that generate high greenhouse gas emissions. Those consequences haven’t slowed sales, with more than 70 jeans-related garments sold per second, according to the Science and Industry Museum, a Parisian institution that recently presented the exhibition “Jean.” That equates to more than 2.2 billion items bought yearly. While some companies are acting as early innovators in sustainability and have taken steps to make blue jeans “green,” the majors of the fashion industry, though declaring themselves committed to sustainability and to “the Jeans Redesign” circular economy guidelines, still work with oil-derived synthetic fibers and with conventional cotton, while chasing the idea that more production is always better. Fishing boats resting on the bottom of what was once the Aral Sea. Image by Arian Zwegers via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/blue-jeans-an-iconic-fashion-item-thats-costing-the-planet-dearly/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/blue-jeans-an-iconic-fashion-item-thats-costing-the-planet-dearly/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-262672</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For World Tiger Day, bold new commitments are needed to expand tiger ranges (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/for-world-tiger-day-bold-new-commitments-are-needed-to-expand-tiger-ranges-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/for-world-tiger-day-bold-new-commitments-are-needed-to-expand-tiger-ranges-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2022 02:09:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Coalition for Securing a Viable Future for the Tiger]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/01/31164529/Screen-Shot-2022-01-31-at-11.44.50-AM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258686</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Cats, Commentary, Conservation, Endangered Species, Extinction, Mammals, Tigers, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2010, in the Lunar Year of the Tiger, the governments of 13 Tiger Range Countries met in St Petersburg, Russia and agreed to work together to double global tiger numbers. This commitment to tiger conservation has resulted in increasing tiger numbers in many countries and landscapes across Asia. But, despite these increases in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2010, in the Lunar Year of the Tiger, the governments of 13 Tiger Range Countries met in St Petersburg, Russia and agreed to work together to double global tiger numbers. This commitment to tiger conservation has resulted in increasing tiger numbers in many countries and landscapes across Asia. But, despite these increases in the total population of wild tigers, tigers continue to disappear from much of their historical range. Tigers are currently found in fewer locations than at any time in history. Tigers have gone extinct from three countries in Southeast Asia since 2000 and the species is now absent from many of the diverse range of habitats that represent the extraordinary adaptability of tigers. If we want to conserve and recover tigers, and restore their full ecological role as top predators in habitats across much of Asia, we need to increase the total area and diversity of ecological settings in which tigers occur. Expanding the range (i.e. the area occupied) of tigers can occur in two ways: 1) the natural movement and dispersal of tigers from places where they currently occur into neighboring lands and 2) active conservation translocations such as reintroductions when tigers are transported into new landscapes or protected areas from which they have been extirpated. Both of these mechanisms are feasible, and both are currently happening with tigers across Asia. These two processes also drove the impressive recovery of other carnivore populations, including Eurasian lynx, grey wolf, and bears, both in mainland Europe and across&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/for-world-tiger-day-bold-new-commitments-are-needed-to-expand-tiger-ranges-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/for-world-tiger-day-bold-new-commitments-are-needed-to-expand-tiger-ranges-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258686</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Protect Persian leopards, and their defenders, for World Environment Day (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/protect-persian-leopards-and-their-defenders-for-world-environment-day-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/protect-persian-leopards-and-their-defenders-for-world-environment-day-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jun 2022 01:20:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hedieyeh TehranyJane Goodall]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/02140504/persian-leopard-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256735</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Afghanistan, Asia, Central Asia, and Iran]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Cats, Charismatic Animals, Commentary, Conservation, Endangered Environmentalists, Endangered Species, Human-wildlife Conflict, Leopards, Poaching, Social Justice, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At times of anguish and confusion we turn to nature to quiet the mind and find healing. We hold on to the miraculous survival of wildlife and ecosystems, to persist in the face of struggles we have no control over, leaving us often drained and hopeless. For us, one of those miracles is a beautiful [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At times of anguish and confusion we turn to nature to quiet the mind and find healing. We hold on to the miraculous survival of wildlife and ecosystems, to persist in the face of struggles we have no control over, leaving us often drained and hopeless. For us, one of those miracles is a beautiful feline, the Persian leopard (Panthera pardus tulliana), roaming mountains and cold winter deserts of Central Asia and the Middle East. Persian leopard range spans across 11 countries: Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were part of the range but they are now considered extinct there. Almost 80% of these leopards are found in Iran, followed by Turkmenistan. In the Caucasus, long-term conservation efforts have led to the unique recovery of a small population in the Zangezur region, including the south of Armenia and southeast of Azerbaijan’s Nakhchevan Autonomous Republic (Persian Leopard Working Group (2022) Range-Wide Strategy for the Conservation of the Persian Leopard Panthera pardus tulliana, draft). During the summer of 2021, a Persian leopard was camera trapped in Tusheti Protected Areas in Georgia after a 12 year-long absence. Shortly after, Persian leopards (not related to the reintroduction program in the Russian Caucasus) were spotted in Russian Kabardino-Balkaria, Chechnya and Dagestan. In Kazakhstan, Persian leopards were re-discovered in 2018, though unfortunately the only animal known there died in 2021. Recently in Turkey, leopards were recorded at four different locations, some of which are dispersing male individuals&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/protect-persian-leopards-and-their-defenders-for-world-environment-day-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/protect-persian-leopards-and-their-defenders-for-world-environment-day-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256735</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>To fund biodiversity conservation, redirect subsidies from these three industries (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/to-fund-biodiversity-conservation-redirect-subsidies-from-these-three-industries-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/to-fund-biodiversity-conservation-redirect-subsidies-from-these-three-industries-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Dec 2020 10:31:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Michelle Chong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/10/03164710/madagascar_5781-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=237866</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Kyrgyzstan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Business, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, COVID-19, Environment, Finance, Subsidies, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, biodiversity conservation funding from tourism and donations has dried up. Yet a new report published by The Paulson Institute, Cornell University, and The Nature Conservancy outlining the current state of conservation finance makes the case that the most powerful fiscal measure to halt species extinction need not require new funding, but [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, biodiversity conservation funding from tourism and donations has dried up. Yet a new report published by The Paulson Institute, Cornell University, and The Nature Conservancy outlining the current state of conservation finance makes the case that the most powerful fiscal measure to halt species extinction need not require new funding, but rather the reallocation of existing funds, particularly agricultural, fishing and forestry subsidies that are harmful to biodiversity. The report highlights how taxpayers could be unknowingly subsidizing farming, fishing and logging practices that directly drive species to extinction. Changes in land and sea use was the biggest cause of biodiversity loss in the last 50 years. It’s predicted that 70% of terrestrial and 50% of freshwater biodiversity loss will be attributable to unsustainable agricultural practices by 2050. The report found that in 2019, farming, fishing and logging subsidies that degraded nature (US$ 273 &#8211; 542 billion) exceeded the global total spend on biodiversity conservation by two to four times. Comparison of 2019 global funds flows towards subsidies harmful to biodiversity versus biodiversity conservation financing. Graphic taken from &#8220;Financing Nature: Closing the Global Biodiversity Financing Gap.&#8221; The report estimates that in order to halt biodiversity decline by 2030, an extra US$ 711 billion in annual global finance is needed, but that 37% of the financing gap can be closed with subsidy reform. So how do current food and timber subsidies threaten endangered species? Subsidies are government grants paid to producers in strategic sectors. Most subsidy models pay&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/to-fund-biodiversity-conservation-redirect-subsidies-from-these-three-industries-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/to-fund-biodiversity-conservation-redirect-subsidies-from-these-three-industries-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-237866</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Afghanistan, a new national park carries hopes for conservation and peace</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/in-afghanistan-a-new-national-park-carries-hopes-for-conservation-and-peace/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/in-afghanistan-a-new-national-park-carries-hopes-for-conservation-and-peace/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Mar 2020 07:52:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Erich Orion]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maria Angeles Salazar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/03/11074223/featured-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=227787</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Afghanistan and Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, National Parks, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ibrahim Abrar’s first visit to Afghanistan’s Bamyan province, where he encountered the Dar-e-Bozurk, or Grand Canyon, is an experience he says he’ll never forget. He describes it as “a vast emptiness of gigantic and deep canyons, pristine rangeland, and rather intimidating dignified, old juniper trees.” In November 2019, more than a decade after that first [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ibrahim Abrar’s first visit to Afghanistan’s Bamyan province, where he encountered the Dar-e-Bozurk, or Grand Canyon, is an experience he says he’ll never forget. He describes it as “a vast emptiness of gigantic and deep canyons, pristine rangeland, and rather intimidating dignified, old juniper trees.” In November 2019, more than a decade after that first encounter, Abrar, now a project manager with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Afghanistan program, returned with government officials to announce the establishment of the Bamyan Plateau Protected Area. Only the fifth protected area in Afghanistan, and the second-biggest at 4,200 square kilometers (1,600 square miles), roughly the size of the U.S. state of Rhode Island, it’s a landscape rich with ecological, social and cultural significance. Work on the Bamyan protected area began in 2006 after biological surveys revealed an abundance of rare wildlife and undisturbed habitat. Over the following decade, WCS Afghanistan worked closely with local officials, scientists and communities to coordinate funding and ecological monitoring. Officials reveal the stone signage dedicating Bamyan Plateau Protected Area during an on-site ceremony. Image courtesy of WCS Afghanistan. A ribbon-cutting ceremony by WCS Afghanistan operations director Qais Sahar and Afghan officials marked the opening of the protected area. Image courtesy of WCS Afghanistan. “In this area, the long and intertwined histories of wildlife and human inhabitants have preserved a rich and spectacular biological and cultural landscape,” says John Robinson, the WCS chief conservation officer and executive vice president of conservation and science. The wildlife found in Bamyan include&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/in-afghanistan-a-new-national-park-carries-hopes-for-conservation-and-peace/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/in-afghanistan-a-new-national-park-carries-hopes-for-conservation-and-peace/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-227787</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As climate change disrupts the annual monsoon, India must prepare (Commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/as-climate-change-disrupts-the-annual-monsoon-india-must-prepare-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/as-climate-change-disrupts-the-annual-monsoon-india-must-prepare-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Sep 2019 09:47:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[S. Gopikrishna Warrier]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/09/18170241/BANNER-in-768x455.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=222633</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering Climate Now]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, and India]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Disasters, Drought, Emission Reduction, Environment, Environmental Policy, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Mitigation, Politics, and Precipitation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Research and recent events demonstrate that climate change is intensifying and destabilizing the annual monsoon, with impacts not just for India but the world.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A house lies submerged in the flood-affected part of Kodagu in Karnataka, India. Image by Abhishek N. Chinnappa. From the time settled agriculture started on the Indian subcontinent millennia ago, farmers have been able to largely depend on the calendrical reliability of the monsoon rains to sustain crops. Every year, winds from the southwest picked up moisture from the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, and delivered it as soaking rain over the land, spread out between June and September. Then, between October and December, the same winds returned from the northeast, carrying moisture to the eastern coastline. However, this consistent seasonal cycle has been disturbed in recent years, and has become a cause of great concern not only for India, but also other countries of the subcontinent, where 1.8 billion people live. The director-general of the India Meteorological Department has confirmed to Mongabay-India that the seasonal reliability of the annual monsoons has been changing. What used to be a steady combination of rains and sun is giving way to long periods of inadequate rainfall followed by intense rain; in short — drought and floods. For instance in 2019, in the state of Kerala, at the southwestern tip of the Indian peninsula, June and July were months of inadequate rains, followed by a burst of intense storms in early August, causing floods and landslides in northern districts. The Kodagu and Chikkamaguluru districts in Karnataka state, northeast of Kerala, saw the same pattern. Avalanche, a river valley in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/as-climate-change-disrupts-the-annual-monsoon-india-must-prepare-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/as-climate-change-disrupts-the-annual-monsoon-india-must-prepare-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-222633</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>With new protections, saiga antelope may continue to be a symbol of Central Asia (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/with-new-protections-saiga-antelope-may-continue-to-be-a-symbol-of-central-asia-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/with-new-protections-saiga-antelope-may-continue-to-be-a-symbol-of-central-asia-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Aug 2019 12:53:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Enkhtuvshin Shiilegdamba]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/08/30120739/saiga-antelope_1210px-768x451.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=222077</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, and Mongolia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Commentary, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Illegal Trade, Poaching, Research, Species recovery, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Traditional Medicine, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The saiga antelope has great cultural, historical, and ecological importance to Mongolia. So I was proud to be advisor to the Mongolian Government Delegation at the 18th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Geneva to ensure that the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The saiga antelope has great cultural, historical, and ecological importance to Mongolia. So I was proud to be advisor to the Mongolian Government Delegation at the 18th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Geneva to ensure that the saiga received critically needed extra trade protections that will safeguard its survival for generations to come. Saiga antelope are classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN “Red List” of threatened species. Disease and poaching have taken their toll on this ancient animal. Saiga antelope historically ranged into Yukon and Alaska and co-existed with woolly mammoths during the Ice Age. Today, they roam the vast areas of Eurasia, including Mongolia, but they are facing significant threats to their survival. The majority of the 183 governments that are Parties to CITES gathered this week for their global meeting to regulate or prohibit commercial trade in threatened and endangered species. The Mongolian Government introduced a proposal to transfer the saiga antelope from CITES Appendix II to Appendix I. Appendix II allows sustainable and legal international trade; Appendix I prohibits all international commercial trade and thus provides strengthened protection. Mongolia has been a Party to CITES since 1996, and this was our first CITES proposal. We are a small and developing country, but we are rich in the precious biodiversity of Central Asia. Global saiga populations used to be widespread and numbered well over 1 million individuals in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/with-new-protections-saiga-antelope-may-continue-to-be-a-symbol-of-central-asia-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/with-new-protections-saiga-antelope-may-continue-to-be-a-symbol-of-central-asia-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-222077</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservation may offer common ground in Afghan conflict</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/conservation-may-offer-common-ground-for-combatants-in-afghan-conflict/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/conservation-may-offer-common-ground-for-combatants-in-afghan-conflict/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Apr 2019 19:50:35 +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/20/2019/04/10183734/ManwithLeopard_Credit_WCS_LisaYook-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=217363</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Afghanistan, Asia, and Central Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Interviews, Mammals, Protected Areas, Snow Leopards, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[War, drugs, corruption, and terrorism are terms Westerners are more likely to associate with Afghanistan than biodiversity conservation. But Alex Dehgan, a conservation technologist who runs the Washington D.C.-based Conservation X Labs and formerly served as the Chief Scientist at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), says conservation has the potential to offer a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[War, drugs, corruption, and terrorism are terms Westerners are more likely to associate with Afghanistan than biodiversity conservation. But Alex Dehgan, a conservation technologist who runs the Washington D.C.-based Conservation X Labs and formerly served as the Chief Scientist at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), says conservation has the potential to offer a bridge toward a more peaceful Afghanistan. Camera trap picture of a snow leopard in Lower Wakhan-Badakhshan. Photo credit WCS Dehgan lays out his case in The Snow Leopard Project And Other Adventures In Warzone Conservation, a book published this past January. The book, which traces Dehgan&#8217;s unorthodox career from a biologist and legal expert who helped craft environmental laws in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union to his work with lemurs in Madagascar to his time with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) setting up Afghanistan&#8217;s first national park, argues that there is &#8220;an implicit understanding&#8221; among Afghans &#8220;of the links between conservation of the natural environment and their survival&#8221;. &#8220;Most people don’t realize that Afghanistan contains the western end of the Himalayan range, verdant coniferous and deciduous oak and cedar forests on steep hillsides, blistering red sandy deserts, Utah-like canyons and mesas, nor are they aware of its rich species diversity. Afghanistan is a country of brown bears, wolves, and caracals, hyenas, jackals and cheetahs, and elusive snow leopards, and at one point, tigers, and Asiatic cheetahs,&#8221; said Dehgan. &#8220;Eighty percent of the country is dependent on natural resources, and the fate of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/conservation-may-offer-common-ground-for-combatants-in-afghan-conflict/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/conservation-may-offer-common-ground-for-combatants-in-afghan-conflict/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-217363</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Corruption-riddled caviar trade pushes fish closer to extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/corruption-hampered-caviar-trade-pushes-fish-closer-to-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/corruption-hampered-caviar-trade-pushes-fish-closer-to-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Feb 2019 08:46:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/02/17095349/medium_ww129890_4.67b9cdffb8904a0cb1813491ed75bb5b-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=215585</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, and Russia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Corruption, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Fish, Fishing, Food, Illegal Fishing, NGOs, Oceans, Overconsumption, Overfishing, Poaching, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Corruption fuels the illegal harvest and sale of caviar, potentially hastening the slide of many fish species toward extinction. That’s the conclusion of a report published Feb. 13 by the NGO TRAFFIC, WWF, Northumbria University in the U.K., Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and a nonprofit research organization called U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre in Norway. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Corruption fuels the illegal harvest and sale of caviar, potentially hastening the slide of many fish species toward extinction. That’s the conclusion of a report published Feb. 13 by the NGO TRAFFIC, WWF, Northumbria University in the U.K., Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and a nonprofit research organization called U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre in Norway. Two sturgeons caught by illegal fishermen. Image © Evgeniy Polonskiy, courtesy of WWF. “Effective elimination of corrupt practices is a pre-requisite to enable regulation of the caviar trade in a sustainable manner [and] to protect sturgeon stocks from over-exploitation,” Louisa Musing, a research officer with TRAFFIC, said in a statement. The report’s authors surfaced evidence of bribery, conflicts of interest, poaching and improper labeling in getting the highly prized, salty fish eggs that often cost consumers thousands of dollars per kilogram. Caviar typically comes from large, long-lived fish like sturgeon and paddlefish. Sixteen of the 27 species of sturgeon are listed as critically endangered by the IUCN, as is one of the six species of paddlefish. Fishing, dams and pollution have exacted a toll on these animals, so CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, has overseen the trade of caviar since the late 1990s. Since that time, most caviar has come from fish farming, also known as aquaculture. A critically endangered Russian sturgeon in the Black Sea near Tendra, Ukraine. Image © Andrey Nekrasov/WWF. But the high prices that eggs from wild-caught fish command have enticed some traders&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/corruption-hampered-caviar-trade-pushes-fish-closer-to-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/corruption-hampered-caviar-trade-pushes-fish-closer-to-extinction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-215585</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agroforestry helps Tajikistan farmers overcome resource pressures</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/agroforestry-helps-tajikistan-farmers-overcome-resource-pressures/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/agroforestry-helps-tajikistan-farmers-overcome-resource-pressures/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jan 2019 20:20:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Daniyar Serikov]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/01/02195944/IMG_5070-copy-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=213732</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, and Tajikistan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, food security, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Poverty Alleviation, Solutions, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[2017-9870]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ISFARA, Tajikistan — Ayubhudja Yahyehudjaev stands between rows of fruit trees in the hills above town, glad and proud that this agroforestry test garden of nearly 0.6 hectares (1.5 acres) created by the local farmers is providing promising yields. “Here we grow plums, apples, cherries, merry [or bird cherries, Cerasus avium], apricots, pears. We also [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ISFARA, Tajikistan — Ayubhudja Yahyehudjaev stands between rows of fruit trees in the hills above town, glad and proud that this agroforestry test garden of nearly 0.6 hectares (1.5 acres) created by the local farmers is providing promising yields. “Here we grow plums, apples, cherries, merry [or bird cherries, Cerasus avium], apricots, pears. We also use [spaces between the tree] rows to plant cabbages, tomatoes, pumpkins, red peppers,” the agricultural cooperative chairman says. “Annually we get about two or three thousand grafts of apples and apricots, which we sell to other farmers that want to grow these gardens, and receive sound income of about two to three thousand dollars from every row. It is a good earning, hard work, but good income.” The Isfara area is arid and surrounded by tall dry hills. Photo by Daniyar Serikov for Mongabay. Isfara borders Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in the valley of Fergana, and arable land is scarce here due to the high population density. As a result, some of the area’s young people migrate to Russia and Kazakhstan, but many remain and make a living through low-paid manual labor. To use the limited land more effectively and in an environmentally friendly way, some Isfara farmers are adopting the agroforestry practice of “alley cropping,” where vegetables or forage crops are grown between alternating rows of fruit trees, allowing for doubled harvests. This results in better use of scarce water resources and cuts soil erosion and wind damage to tender vegetables. The experimental garden has&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/agroforestry-helps-tajikistan-farmers-overcome-resource-pressures/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/agroforestry-helps-tajikistan-farmers-overcome-resource-pressures/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-213732</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agroforestry saves soil and boosts livelihoods in Tajikistan</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/agroforestry-saves-soil-and-boosts-livelihoods-in-tajikistan/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/agroforestry-saves-soil-and-boosts-livelihoods-in-tajikistan/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Nov 2018 17:34:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Daniyar Serikov]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/11/13170502/IMG_6430-copy-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=212177</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, and Tajikistan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, food security, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Poverty Alleviation, Solutions, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[2017-9870]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[FAIZOBOD, Tajikistan — Mirzoli Azizov, a 54-year-old farmer, is sorting apples from the second harvest this year from his agroforestry gardens in this district 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe. It’s still warm and sunny in early October in this mountainous part of Central Asia, which is enjoying a new bounty [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[FAIZOBOD, Tajikistan — Mirzoli Azizov, a 54-year-old farmer, is sorting apples from the second harvest this year from his agroforestry gardens in this district 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe. It’s still warm and sunny in early October in this mountainous part of Central Asia, which is enjoying a new bounty from what used to be a heavily degraded landscape. “Here we grow [varieties] like Krepson, Golden Delicious, Khuboni, and Simirenko, including [its] tender type for winter, which is called Red Simirenko,” Azizov says, handling the yellow, green and red apples. Mirzoli Azizov holding some of his apples. Image by Daniyar Serikov for Mongabay During the Soviet era, incessant windy weather contributed to harvest losses here, so to survive, the local community opted for agroforestry gardens and pasturing. The main agroforestry technique used here is the growing of fruit-bearing trees or shrubs in rows, with forage crops or vegetables in the alleys between, in a system called alley cropping where the perennials shield the tender annuals from incessant wind and sun. “In my garden on the slope of the mountain, we planted the apple, grape and nut trees during the FAO project,” Azizov says of the agroforestry technologies supported by the U.N.’s food and agriculture agency here from 2003 to 2005. “We do not have [wide] alleys of potatoes or tomatoes between the apple trees, only tiny rows of them, because the distance is rather narrow. We did not expect that the trees will become so tall, now&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/agroforestry-saves-soil-and-boosts-livelihoods-in-tajikistan/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/agroforestry-saves-soil-and-boosts-livelihoods-in-tajikistan/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-212177</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Business and biodiversity benefit from Kyrgyz agroforestry systems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/10/business-and-biodiversity-benefit-from-kyrgyz-agroforestry-systems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/10/business-and-biodiversity-benefit-from-kyrgyz-agroforestry-systems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Oct 2018 10:11:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Cholpon Uzakbaeva]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/10/03131203/Batken-agroforestry-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=210851</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Kyrgyzstan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, food security, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Poverty Alleviation, Solutions, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[2017-9870]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KOK-TALAA, Batken province, Kyrgyzstan — The Batken region is located in the southern part of the Fergana Valley, on Kyrgyzstan’s border with Uzbekistan. Like the rest of Kyrgyzstan, much of its territory is mountainous, so the amount of land suitable for human settlement is small. The village of Kok-Talaa is located in the heart of Batken. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KOK-TALAA, Batken province, Kyrgyzstan — The Batken region is located in the southern part of the Fergana Valley, on Kyrgyzstan’s border with Uzbekistan. Like the rest of Kyrgyzstan, much of its territory is mountainous, so the amount of land suitable for human settlement is small. The village of Kok-Talaa is located in the heart of Batken. It experiences soil-baking summers, so 80 percent of the land around it is planted with gardens; the lack of irrigation and drinking water means large croplands would wither. Since 1994, local farmers have reoriented from animal husbandry and cultivation of major agricultural crops to gardens based on the principles of agroforestry — a method of growing useful trees and bushes in combination with vegetables and fruits, where the taller plants shelter the shorter ones from the sun and provide soil moisture from their deep underground root systems. Batken is an arid region, yet agroforestry can make the land bloom. Image by Cholpon Uzakbaeva for Mongabay. Elsewhere in Kyrgyzstan, there is a moratorium on the transformation of lands like these to other uses, like the growing of trees. But this doesn’t apply to the Batken region. “The case of Batken is a unique example of agroforestry in Kyrgyzstan. Since the Soviet period the local farmers specialized in growing fruit trees, especially the famous Batken apricot trees,” says Klara Dzhakypbekova, coordinator of the SUSWALFOOD Research Project, a program of the Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences in Germany. “The National Land Use legislation actually hinders the growth of trees on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/10/business-and-biodiversity-benefit-from-kyrgyz-agroforestry-systems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/10/business-and-biodiversity-benefit-from-kyrgyz-agroforestry-systems/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-210851</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Traditional Kyrgyz walnut-apple forests provide map for sustainable future</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/traditional-kyrgyz-walnut-apple-forests-provide-map-for-sustainable-future/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/traditional-kyrgyz-walnut-apple-forests-provide-map-for-sustainable-future/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Sep 2018 09:39:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Cholpon Uzakbaeva]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/09/26180323/RZV_3316-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=210606</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, and Kyrgyzstan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, food security, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Poverty Alleviation, Solutions, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[2017-9870]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KYZL-UNKUR, Jalalabad region, Kyrgyzstan — The mountain road leading to Kyzyl-Unkur winds through a gorge. Three hours later, on a broken road, one finds the village surrounded on all sides by unique relict walnut forests. Here, the local Kyrgyz population lives from generation to generation. Everyone knows each other and who does what. Because of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KYZL-UNKUR, Jalalabad region, Kyrgyzstan — The mountain road leading to Kyzyl-Unkur winds through a gorge. Three hours later, on a broken road, one finds the village surrounded on all sides by unique relict walnut forests. Here, the local Kyrgyz population lives from generation to generation. Everyone knows each other and who does what. Because of its remoteness from large settlements, a traditional way of life has been preserved here. All the inhabitants are farmers, engaged in raising livestock and growing crops. The total forest area of ​​Kyzyl-Unkur is 520 square kilometers (200 square miles), of which 225 square kilometers (87 square miles) are forested and the rest pasture. The walnut forests alone cover 37 square kilometers (14 square miles). But a recent sharp increase in livestock numbers has taken a heavy toll on the pastures, causing land degradation and a decrease in the productivity of the vegetative cover. Because of this, the cattle have begun to enter the forests and impact the ecosystem. Agroforestry delivers multiple products for sale. Samidinov Kazybek&#8217;s dryer makes mushrooms, fruits and herbs ready for sale. Image by Cholpon Uzakbaeva for Mongabay The villagers have begun to change their stance on this practice, though, trying not to move the cattle into the forest and looking at the forests from a different angle: not as a free source of fuel and grazing pasture, but rather from the angle of agroforestry. Historical arc of agroforestry At the heart of agroforestry is the growing of different crops in a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/traditional-kyrgyz-walnut-apple-forests-provide-map-for-sustainable-future/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/traditional-kyrgyz-walnut-apple-forests-provide-map-for-sustainable-future/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-210606</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Range countries to lead new estimate of global snow leopard population as downgraded threat status remains controversial</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/range-countries-to-lead-new-estimate-of-global-snow-leopard-population-as-downgraded-threat-status-remains-controversial/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/range-countries-to-lead-new-estimate-of-global-snow-leopard-population-as-downgraded-threat-status-remains-controversial/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Mar 2018 17:20:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/03/26163259/Snow_leopard_-_Uncia_uncia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=205218</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Afghanistan, Asia, Bhutan, Central Asia, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, South Asia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Cats, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Human-wildlife Conflict, Hunting, Mammals, Poaching, Population, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[No one really knows for sure how many snow leopards there are left in the world, but an initiative spearheaded by snow leopard range countries and scientists announced last week aims to change that. The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is found in 12 countries in Central and South Asia. Its elusive nature and inaccessible, mountainous [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[No one really knows for sure how many snow leopards there are left in the world, but an initiative spearheaded by snow leopard range countries and scientists announced last week aims to change that. The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is found in 12 countries in Central and South Asia. Its elusive nature and inaccessible, mountainous habitat were once believed to be keeping the snow leopard population relatively stable, but in recent years habitat loss and degradation, declining prey due to illegal hunting, human-wildlife conflict, and poaching for the illegal wildlife trade have all taken their toll, and the species is widely believed to be in decline. The species had been listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1986 until late last year, when its threat status was downgraded to Vulnerable — ostensibly welcome news that ultimately proved quite controversial. The IUCN reported that &#8220;new available data&#8221; had led to the threat status downgrade. But even the IUCN notes in its assessment of the snow leopard population that “There are no robust estimates of Snow Leopard global population size and the various figures available are best regarded as guesses.&#8221; Those best guesses place the global snow leopard population anywhere between about 4,000 to 7,500 individuals, according to the IUCN Red List. The newly announced Population Assessment of the World’s Snow Leopards initiative, called PAWS for short, will be overseen by the Steering Committee of the Global Snow Leopard &amp; Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP), which is comprised of the Environment&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/range-countries-to-lead-new-estimate-of-global-snow-leopard-population-as-downgraded-threat-status-remains-controversial/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/range-countries-to-lead-new-estimate-of-global-snow-leopard-population-as-downgraded-threat-status-remains-controversial/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-205218</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A saiga time bomb? Bad news for Central Asia’s beleaguered antelope</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/a-time-bomb-for-the-saiga-bad-news-central-asias-beleaguered-antelope/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/a-time-bomb-for-the-saiga-bad-news-central-asias-beleaguered-antelope/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jan 2018 16:51:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/01/17164114/kock1HR-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=202964</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Atlantic Forest, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Antelope, Bacteria, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Diseases, Environment, Global Warming, Grasslands, Hunting, Mammals, Over-hunting, Poaching, Research, Saiga, Temperatures, Ungulates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In May 2015, more than 200,000 saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) suddenly died. Entire herds perished, their bodies littering the steppe grasslands of central Kazakhstan as if dropped from the sky. Biologists were left stunned, baffled and very concerned. Already critically endangered, the mass die-off reduced the species by two-thirds globally. Only around 31,000 remained in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In May 2015, more than 200,000 saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) suddenly died. Entire herds perished, their bodies littering the steppe grasslands of central Kazakhstan as if dropped from the sky. Biologists were left stunned, baffled and very concerned. Already critically endangered, the mass die-off reduced the species by two-thirds globally. Only around 31,000 remained in Kazakhstan and 100,000 worldwide. Research indicated the saigas were likely killed by hemorrhagic septicemia caused by a type of bacteria called Pasteurella multocida. But P. multocida generally exists harmlessly in healthy saigas and other animals, so the question remained: Why did so many saigas become infected so suddenly and severely by a normally benign type of bacteria? Dead saigas litter the ground during at Torgai Betpak Dala, Kazakhstan, in May 2015. Photo by Photograph courtesy of the Joint saiga health monitoring team in Kazakhstan (Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity, Kazakhstan, Biosafety Institute, Gvardeskiy RK, Royal Veterinary College, London, UK) A newborn saiga calf nestles in the arms of a scientist of the joint health monitoring team. Scientists think the saiga&#8217;s distinctive nose helps filter out dust kicked up during summer migrations and warms up inhaled air in the winter. Photo by Photograph courtesy of the Joint saiga health monitoring team in Kazakhstan (Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity, Kazakhstan, Biosafety Institute, Gvardeskiy RK, Royal Veterinary College, London, UK) In 2016, disaster struck the saiga again. This time in Mongolia and from a known entity: a virus from domestic goats and sheep. Between December 2016&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/a-time-bomb-for-the-saiga-bad-news-central-asias-beleaguered-antelope/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/a-time-bomb-for-the-saiga-bad-news-central-asias-beleaguered-antelope/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-202964</doi>				</item>
			</channel>
</rss>