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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/controversial/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 10 Oct 2026 07:49:21 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Controversial</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/controversial/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Sri Lanka elephant found with a gunshot wound. How can tuskers be protected?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/sri-lanka-elephant-found-with-a-gunshot-wound-how-can-tuskers-be-protected/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/sri-lanka-elephant-found-with-a-gunshot-wound-how-can-tuskers-be-protected/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Oct 2026 16:39:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/09151713/1.-the-tusker-Kavanthissa-in-middle-with-Chandi-left-and-Raghu-right-c-Pathum-Bandara--768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332143</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[South Asia and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation Solutions, Controversial, Elephants, Endangered Species, flagship species, Habitat, Human-wildlife Conflict, Ivory, Mammals, Solutions, Wildlife, Wildlife Corridors, and Wildlife Rescues]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO –- Wildlife enthusiast Pathum Bandara watched Kavantissa, believed to be Sri Lanka’s tallest living tusker, moving gently through the landscape on Sept. 20 around Galgamuwa in the island’s northwestern dry zone, a well-known human-elephant conflict zone. The following day, Bandara noticed that the elephant was limping. A closer look revealed a gunshot wound on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO –- Wildlife enthusiast Pathum Bandara watched Kavantissa, believed to be Sri Lanka’s tallest living tusker, moving gently through the landscape on Sept. 20 around Galgamuwa in the island’s northwestern dry zone, a well-known human-elephant conflict zone. The following day, Bandara noticed that the elephant was limping. A closer look revealed a gunshot wound on his right foreleg, close to the knee. The discovery was alarming because an untreated gunshot wound could become infected and cause severe trauma, potentially threatening an elephant’s ability to walk, feed and survive. The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) dispatched a team to treat the elephant. DWC’s veterinary surgeon Isuru Hewakottage said Kavantissa was sedated to enable the cleaning and treatment of the wound. He received several rounds of powerful antibiotics and remains under observation. Following treatment, Kavantissa has begun moving between small forest patches, sometimes crossing human settlements and the well-known elephant passage near Galgamuwa. The tusker appeared to be recovering but became aggressive after the gunshot injury, sometimes even chasing villagers and wildlife officers, exposing the tusker to renewed threats including the possibility of being fired at, Bandara told Mongabay. Iconic tusker Kavantissa, left, with Sankha, a young elephant, photographed in 2022. Sankha had a mobility restriction caused by a previous gunshot injury and died after falling into a pit. Image courtesy of Pathum Bandara. Bandara recalls the plight of another young tusker once closely associated with Kavantissa. Sankha, a young tusker, was about half Kavantissa’s age and was often seen together during&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/sri-lanka-elephant-found-with-a-gunshot-wound-how-can-tuskers-be-protected/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/sri-lanka-elephant-found-with-a-gunshot-wound-how-can-tuskers-be-protected/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332143</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia threatens prison time for unauthorized downloads of forest data</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesia-threatens-prison-time-for-unauthorized-downloads-of-forest-data/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesia-threatens-prison-time-for-unauthorized-downloads-of-forest-data/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Oct 2026 02:59:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dyna RochmyaningsihPhilip Jacobson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/05121818/orangutan-indonesia-maps-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331637</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Communication, Conservation Technology, Controversial, data, Environmental Law, Freedom of Information, Governance, Law, Law Enforcement, Mapping, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia’s government is imposing new restrictions on access to geospatial data, raising concerns among researchers and activists that it will suppress environmental science and advocacy work in one of the world’s most biodiverse countries. For around a month, visitors to an interactive mapping platform maintained by the Ministry of Forestry have been greeted with a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia’s government is imposing new restrictions on access to geospatial data, raising concerns among researchers and activists that it will suppress environmental science and advocacy work in one of the world’s most biodiverse countries. For around a month, visitors to an interactive mapping platform maintained by the Ministry of Forestry have been greeted with a pop-up legal notice warning that the information is “view-only” and that anyone who “downloads” or “extracts” it without the ministry’s written permission “will be prosecuted” under the 2008 Electronic Information and Transactions, or ITE, Law. Anyone who wants to use the once freely accessible platform, known as SIGAP, must first agree to “terms and conditions” stating that the relevant articles in the ITE Law “carry penalties of up to 9 years in prison and/or a fine of up to Rp 3 billion [$170,000],” the notice says. On Sept. 21, the ministry’s Directorate General of Forestry Planning posted a video to Instagram outlining a new application process that requires prospective users to disclose their research aims and submit supporting documents. Doni Prabowo, the department’s head of forest monitoring and geospatial information, told Mongabay that restrictions were needed because geospatial data had been uncontrolled for a long time, creating opportunities for manipulation and illegal trading of the country’s precious information. “What if somebody manipulates the data and says certain areas are not protected forest [when they really are]? It could be dangerous,” Doni said by phone. He said he’d heard of the ministry’s geospatial data being listed&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesia-threatens-prison-time-for-unauthorized-downloads-of-forest-data/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesia-threatens-prison-time-for-unauthorized-downloads-of-forest-data/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331637</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Vantara in talks with Brazil on ‘strategic cooperation’ on threatened species, FOIA documents reveal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/vantara-in-talks-with-brazil-on-strategic-cooperation-on-threatened-species-foia-documents-reveal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/vantara-in-talks-with-brazil-on-strategic-cooperation-on-threatened-species-foia-documents-reveal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Oct 2026 11:01:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda WenzelSpoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/29135733/two-Spixs-macaws-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331147</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Brazil, India, Latin America, South America, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Controversial, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Law, Parrots, Trade, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Vantara, the billionaire-run Indian private zoo that houses more than 150,000 animals, discussed a “strategic conservation partnership” with authorities in Brazil, the world’s most biodiverse country, according to documents obtained by Mongabay under Brazil’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Correspondence between Vantara representatives and Brazilian officials reveal that negotiations, initiated by Vantara, began in August [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Vantara, the billionaire-run Indian private zoo that houses more than 150,000 animals, discussed a “strategic conservation partnership” with authorities in Brazil, the world’s most biodiverse country, according to documents obtained by Mongabay under Brazil’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Correspondence between Vantara representatives and Brazilian officials reveal that negotiations, initiated by Vantara, began in August 2025, and involved some of Brazil’s threatened species. The zoo, which is located in Gujarat state in western India, was founded in 2025 by Anant Ambani. He’s the youngest son of India’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani, who heads Reliance Industries, a conglomerate valued at $167 billion as of press time. On Aug. 30, 2025, a Vantara representative sent a letter by email to three officials at the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), the governmental agency responsible for protecting Brazil&#8217;s biodiversity. The sender’s identity was redacted in the FOIA response. The subject line reads, “Proposal for Strategic Conservation Partnership with the Government of Brazil.” The letterhead uses Vantara’s official name, the Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (GZRRC). The letters are addressed to Mauro Pires, president of ICMBio; Marcelo Marcelino de Oliveira, the agency’s director; and Raul Fontoura, its head of international affairs. The letter sent by Vantara to ICMBio proposing a “strategic conservation partnership.” Obtained by Mongabay through FOIA. The letter states that Vantara was “well-positioned to assist with other Brazilian species requiring urgent ex-situ intervention,” referring to the conservation strategy of keeping a population surplus in zoos and breeding centers, rather than&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/vantara-in-talks-with-brazil-on-strategic-cooperation-on-threatened-species-foia-documents-reveal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/vantara-in-talks-with-brazil-on-strategic-cooperation-on-threatened-species-foia-documents-reveal/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331147</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>An Indigenous take on Colombia’s new gov’t: Interview with a Putumayo Indigenous leader</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/an-indigenous-take-on-colombias-new-govt-interview-with-a-putumayo-indigenous-leader/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/an-indigenous-take-on-colombias-new-govt-interview-with-a-putumayo-indigenous-leader/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jul 2026 14:12:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/22132247/Santa-Sofia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324278</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Controversial, Culture, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Interviews, Law, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In just a few weeks, Colombia will have a new leader. Right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella won Colombia’s runoff election on June 11 with 49.6% of the vote, securing a razor-thin victory over the left-wing candidate Ivan Cepeda, who received 48.7%. De la Espriella has promised to expand fossil fuel production and mining in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In just a few weeks, Colombia will have a new leader. Right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella won Colombia’s runoff election on June 11 with 49.6% of the vote, securing a razor-thin victory over the left-wing candidate Ivan Cepeda, who received 48.7%. De la Espriella has promised to expand fossil fuel production and mining in the country, leaving the future of conservation in the Colombian Amazon, the fossil fuel phaseout commitments made by current President Gustavo Petro’s administration and the rights of Indigenous peoples and other traditional communities open to question. Ahead of de la Espriella’s inauguration on Aug. 7, Mongabay interviewed Marino Peña, an Indigenous Inga leader and president of the Indigenous Zonal Organization of Putumayo (OZIP), to get his take on how the incoming president’s policies might impact communities in the department of Putumayo, in southwestern Colombia. De la Espriella has also promised to reduce the state budget to a minimum and tackle violence using greater force and militarization. For communities in Putumayo, the implications of these promises hold weight. Colombia’s Putumayo region, which has historically been a drug production and trafficking hotspot, is “one of the deadliest regions in Colombia for social leaders.” Illegal mining by armed groups has also grown exponentially in recent years, fueling conflicts, violence, mercury contamination and accelerated deforestation. Due to their critical role as vocal defenders of their territories and of environmental and Indigenous rights, social leaders have frequently found themselves in the crossfire between armed groups and the state. In addition,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/an-indigenous-take-on-colombias-new-govt-interview-with-a-putumayo-indigenous-leader/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/an-indigenous-take-on-colombias-new-govt-interview-with-a-putumayo-indigenous-leader/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324278</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Global pressure on ayahuasca threatens Amazonian plants and knowledge systems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/global-pressure-on-ayahuasca-threatens-amazonian-plants-and-knowledge-systems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/global-pressure-on-ayahuasca-threatens-amazonian-plants-and-knowledge-systems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 20:38:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carlos Minuano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/23203123/AP18157600830602-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321692</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biocultural Diversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Community Forests, Conservation, Consumption, Controversial, Culture, Globalization, Indigenous Peoples, International Trade, Medicinal Plants, Overconsumption, Overexploitation, Plants, Rainforests, Religions, Traditional Medicine, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“One of the world’s largest pharmacies is being destroyed,” says Benki Piyãko, a leader of the Ashaninka Indigenous people in the Brazilian state of Acre. The warning points to multiple threats advancing on the Amazon but also to growing debate surrounding one of the so-called forest medicines: ayahuasca. This Indigenous beverage with psychedelic properties is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“One of the world’s largest pharmacies is being destroyed,” says Benki Piyãko, a leader of the Ashaninka Indigenous people in the Brazilian state of Acre. The warning points to multiple threats advancing on the Amazon but also to growing debate surrounding one of the so-called forest medicines: ayahuasca. This Indigenous beverage with psychedelic properties is usually prepared from two native plants: the caapi vine or mariri (Banisteriopsis caapi) and the leaves of the chacrona plant (Psychotria viridis). According to Indigenous leaders and experts, these species are facing increasing pressure and signs of scarcity in some areas. Called kamarãpe by the Ashaninka people, ayahuasca has been used by Indigenous peoples across the Amazon for centuries. It has crossed borders for decades, ceasing to circulate exclusively in its original contexts. Today, it can be found in urban religious centers, therapeutic retreats, and international psychedelic tourism circuits. Scientists and pharmaceutical companies are also turning their attention to this ancestral beverage, which already shows evidence of therapeutic potential for different mental health disorders such as depression and substance addiction. But increasing global interest is also creating concerns. As demand grows, so has the ayahuasca supply chain, without a corresponding growth in management or oversight. In different parts of the Amazon, there are signs of pressure on the species used to prepare the beverage, often collected without planning. At the same time, increasing consumption in nontraditional contexts raises concerns about ancestral knowledge being commodified for the market. The main problem seems to lie in how&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/global-pressure-on-ayahuasca-threatens-amazonian-plants-and-knowledge-systems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321692</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Rio Indio, farmers fight Panama Canal reservoir project — and displacement</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-rio-indio-farmers-fight-panama-canal-reservoir-project-and-displacement/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-rio-indio-farmers-fight-panama-canal-reservoir-project-and-displacement/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jun 2026 15:20:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Monica Pelliccia]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/16150742/6-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321305</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Global, North America, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Canals, Controversial, Corporations, Dams, Development, Encroachment, Endangered Species, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Resource Conflict, and Shipping]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LIMÓN DE CHAGRES, Panama — In Panama’s Rio Indio Basin, a $1.5 billion reservoir project aims to meet water demand for the next 50 years. But the project would displace dozens of farming communities, sparking widespread opposition to the reservoir’s construction. “We will give our lives to save Rio Indio! I came from Limón de [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LIMÓN DE CHAGRES, Panama — In Panama’s Rio Indio Basin, a $1.5 billion reservoir project aims to meet water demand for the next 50 years. But the project would displace dozens of farming communities, sparking widespread opposition to the reservoir’s construction. “We will give our lives to save Rio Indio! I came from Limón de Chagres, the first community that could be flooded to make space for the dam,” shouts Maricel Sanchéz at the microphone from a stage during a May 1 march in Panama City. “Today, I’m so proud to see how united we are in our resistance.” Sanchéz, 25, is the spokesperson for the Rio Indio farmers’ assembly, which is part of Coordinadora Campesina por la Vida (Peasant Coordinator for Life), a grassroots social and community organization of farmers, Indigenous communities and civic groups in Panama. During the march, she spoke out about their mobilization against the Río Indio reservoir: a $1.5 billion project by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), Panama’s government agency responsible for managing the canal. Rio Indio is a 98-kilometer (about 61-mile) river in central Panama, flowing through the Costa Abajo area (home to 231 farming communities) to the Caribbean Sea. Here, the ACP plans to create a reservoir to provide water to nearby Gatun Lake (the northern entrance of the Panama Canal in the Atlantic Ocean) to meet water demand for the next 50 years for human consumption and for canal operations, especially during droughts. The construction is expected to begin in 2027 and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-rio-indio-farmers-fight-panama-canal-reservoir-project-and-displacement/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321305</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Experts caution Nepal’s plan to open doors to private zoos</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/experts-caution-nepals-plan-to-open-doors-to-private-zoos/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/experts-caution-nepals-plan-to-open-doors-to-private-zoos/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2026 15:17:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Deepak Adhikari]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/30145802/481768235_1086437106855534_3058871533111109011_n-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318492</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Biodiversity, Business, Conservation, Controversial, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Wildlife, Wildlife Rescues, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Nepal has proposed legalizing private zoos, wildlife rescue centers and hospitals, but experts warn weak safeguards could fuel wildlife capture and undermine conservation efforts. Officials say the move could improve infrastructure and raise awareness, but critics warn it lacks clarity on oversight, enforcement and animal welfare standards. “There are so-called mini zoos in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Nepal has proposed legalizing private zoos, wildlife rescue centers and hospitals, but experts warn weak safeguards could fuel wildlife capture and undermine conservation efforts. Officials say the move could improve infrastructure and raise awareness, but critics warn it lacks clarity on oversight, enforcement and animal welfare standards. “There are so-called mini zoos in Nepal, but many function more like killing centers,” said Dibya Raj Dahal, president of Kathmandu-based NGO Small Mammals Conservation and Research Foundation (SMCRF). “Small wild animals are captured from the wild and sold to these facilities under the guise of rescue. In reality, it is extraction,” he said, adding that many animals die in captivity. Nepal’s only federal government-recognized and functional zoo, the Central Zoo in Kathmandu, was established in 1932 as a private collection. The zoo, which opened its doors to the public in 1956, was managed by the government until 1995 when it was handed over to the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), a semi-governmental nonprofit. Although different “mini zoos” have been set up in different parts of the country, their legal status has been dubious and their treatment of animals criticized by conservationists. In response, the government had been saying it plans to introduce new guidelines for the establishment and running of different categories of zoos across the country. Dahal said that despite its gaps, the draft was an improvement on the current regulatory vacuum. “It is a positive step, but the draft remains incomplete.” The guidelines also come as the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/experts-caution-nepals-plan-to-open-doors-to-private-zoos/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/experts-caution-nepals-plan-to-open-doors-to-private-zoos/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318492</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Paul Ehrlich, ‘Population Bomb’ ecologist, dies at 93</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/paul-ehrlich-population-bomb-ecologist-dies-at-93/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/paul-ehrlich-population-bomb-ecologist-dies-at-93/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Mar 2026 17:54:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/18154036/Paul_R_Ehrlich-1-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315912</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Controversial, Environment, Obituary, Overpopulation, and Population]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The modern environmental movement acquired many of its arguments from scientists who studied forests, oceans and the atmosphere. Few supplied it with a warning as stark, or as controversial, as that delivered by Paul Ehrlich. A population biologist trained on insects, he became one of the most recognizable public intellectuals of the environmental age. His [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The modern environmental movement acquired many of its arguments from scientists who studied forests, oceans and the atmosphere. Few supplied it with a warning as stark, or as controversial, as that delivered by Paul Ehrlich. A population biologist trained on insects, he became one of the most recognizable public intellectuals of the environmental age. His predictions of famine and ecological strain in The Population Bomb helped shape debate about limits to growth in the late 20th century. They also made him a lightning rod. Ehrlich, who died March 13 at 93, spent most of his professional life at Stanford University. His formal training was in entomology and population biology. As a young researcher, he studied butterflies with the meticulous patience of a field naturalist, cataloging how species dispersed across landscapes and how small populations survived. Those studies, often conducted with his wife and collaborator, Anne Ehrlich, helped illuminate ideas about population structure, extinction risk and habitat fragmentation. They were technical contributions, widely respected within ecology. Public fame arrived by a different route. In 1968, Ehrlich published The Population Bomb, a short, urgent book that argued that rapid human population growth threatened to outstrip the planet’s capacity to provide food and resources. Its opening pages were deliberately blunt. Ehrlich wrote that “the battle to feed all of humanity is over,” predicting that hundreds of millions might die in famines during the following decades. The book appeared at a moment when global population growth rates were historically high and food shortages had&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/paul-ehrlich-population-bomb-ecologist-dies-at-93/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/paul-ehrlich-population-bomb-ecologist-dies-at-93/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315912</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forest advocates accuse EU energy firm of Dutch biomass certification fraud</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/forest-advocates-accuse-eu-energy-firm-of-dutch-biomass-certification-fraud/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/forest-advocates-accuse-eu-energy-firm-of-dutch-biomass-certification-fraud/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2026 16:21:42 +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/20/2023/05/25141443/wood-pellets-burning-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315699</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, European Union, Global, Malaysia, and Netherlands]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Controversial, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Industry, Politics, Renewable Energy, Sustainability, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For years, a battle has raged between EU nations that claim their forest biomass certification policies safeguard against deforestation, promote sustainability and enable carbon-emissions reductions, even as forest advocates have argued that those policies fail to combat climate change, are badly flawed or outright fraudulent. EU policymakers remain entrenched today, defending their certification schemes as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For years, a battle has raged between EU nations that claim their forest biomass certification policies safeguard against deforestation, promote sustainability and enable carbon-emissions reductions, even as forest advocates have argued that those policies fail to combat climate change, are badly flawed or outright fraudulent. EU policymakers remain entrenched today, defending their certification schemes as a means of complying with laws to stop burning coal and for achieving national net-zero goals, despite evidence that burning wood pellets to make energy is dirtier than coal. But now forest advocates are turning up the pressure in the Netherlands in an unprecedented way. In a possible first-of-its-kind action, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service is considering a criminal investigation against RWE, one of the Netherlands’ largest energy providers. RWE faces allegations made by two forest advocacy groups that the company, which has collected billions of euros in Dutch biomass subsidies, misrepresented itself by claiming that hundreds of thousands of tons of wood pellets imported from Malaysia came entirely from sawmill waste. The two advocacy groups, Comite Schone Lucht and Biofuelwatch, say their research establishes that those pellets come mostly from whole trees, contributing to Malaysian deforestation. The Public Prosecution Service, the sole authority responsible for investigating and prosecuting Dutch criminal offenses, is expected to decide how to proceed by the end of March. Research shows that “biomass burning power plants emit 150% the CO2 of coal, and 300-400% the CO2 of natural gas, per unit energy produced.” Image by GIZ Bush Control and Biomass&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/forest-advocates-accuse-eu-energy-firm-of-dutch-biomass-certification-fraud/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/forest-advocates-accuse-eu-energy-firm-of-dutch-biomass-certification-fraud/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315699</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Park guardians or destroyers? Study dissects 2 narratives of DRC’s Indigenous Batwa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/park-guardians-or-destroyers-study-dissects-2-narratives-of-drcs-indigenous-batwa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/park-guardians-or-destroyers-study-dissects-2-narratives-of-drcs-indigenous-batwa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Sep 2025 19:05:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Blaise Kasereka Makuta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/11083545/1-Young-Grauers-Gorillas-in-Kahuzi-Biega-national-park-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305766</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, charcoal, Conflict, Conservation, Controversial, Fellows, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, National Parks, Population, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Long celebrated by some NGOs and Indigenous rights activists as the guardians of the forest, the Batwa of South Kivu had lived inside what is now Kahuzi-Biega National Park (KBNP) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) until the 20th century, when they were expelled by the Congolese government, at that time MPR (Popular Movement [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Long celebrated by some NGOs and Indigenous rights activists as the guardians of the forest, the Batwa of South Kivu had lived inside what is now Kahuzi-Biega National Park (KBNP) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) until the 20th century, when they were expelled by the Congolese government, at that time MPR (Popular Movement of Revolution), which demanded the creation of the park. As the park expanded into the mid-1970s, Batwa people were displaced from one location to another without their agreement or consent. According to their accounts and to those of researchers, evicted people suffered from a lack of support for their material needs, discrimination, social marginalization and poverty. “In October 2018, after multiple promises to provide them with land outside the park were broken … groups of Batwa started to return to the park’s highland sector,” write the authors of a recent study published in World Development. “Around 2,000 members of the Batwa community, including men, women and children, returned to the park over the following months.” “After we returned to the park, we relocated some of our former villages and began to rebuild our old houses, our churches, and prepare our former fields for cultivation,” Amos Bahiya Bikulo, a Batwa resident of Kalehe in South Kivu and secretary at the Center for Supporting People with Disabilities for Development, told Mongabay. In a forceful manner, Congolese authorities and park managers deployed military personnel to dislodge them from this land, deeply significant as the birthplace and burial ground&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/park-guardians-or-destroyers-study-dissects-2-narratives-of-drcs-indigenous-batwa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/park-guardians-or-destroyers-study-dissects-2-narratives-of-drcs-indigenous-batwa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305766</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>After controversy, Plant-for-the-Planet focuses on the trees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/after-controversy-plant-for-the-planet-focuses-on-the-trees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/after-controversy-plant-for-the-planet-focuses-on-the-trees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jun 2025 16:50:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/13065918/54569783250_24e8f68a07_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300730</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Restoration Solutions]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Europe, Ghana, Latin America, Mexico, North America, Spain, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agroforestry, Animals, Climate Change, Conservation, Controversial, data, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Reforestation, Restoration, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CONSTITUCIÓN, Mexico — At an empty outpost deep in a forest in Mexico, biologists were checking whether the windows had been broken or the furniture stolen, or if any animals had made a home inside. The outpost had been built in 2015 for a tree-planting and forest restoration project, but it was paused in 2023. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CONSTITUCIÓN, Mexico — At an empty outpost deep in a forest in Mexico, biologists were checking whether the windows had been broken or the furniture stolen, or if any animals had made a home inside. The outpost had been built in 2015 for a tree-planting and forest restoration project, but it was paused in 2023. The land had been degraded by decades of farming; massive flooding every few years made restoration work too difficult and expensive for Plant-for-the-Planet, the organization that had purchased it. Researchers with Plant-for-the-Planet know they’ve fallen victim to overambition before, attempting to restore complex ecosystems they didn’t fully understand, and often with a very tight budget. At this idle site, they still hoped to get some support through a government wildlife program. But until that happened, the outpost would remain empty. “For it to make sense to restore a forest, we really need to be thinking in terms of decades and centuries,” Anna Gee, the group’s forest restoration and conservation project manager, told Mongabay. “How do you create a forest that’s going to be able to sustain itself and self-perpetuate into the future and isn’t just going to get cut down again in 20 years?” Reforestation is hard. For decades, it’s been touted as a catch-all solution to climate change and biodiversity loss, with corporations buying up carbon offsets and governments launching tree-planting campaigns, despite many of the trees dying before they reach maturity. In some instances, programs prioritize the number of trees planted over how&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/after-controversy-plant-for-the-planet-focuses-on-the-trees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/after-controversy-plant-for-the-planet-focuses-on-the-trees/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300730</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rail and port project in Amazon wetland stirs angst among Quilombola fishers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/rail-and-port-project-in-amazon-wetland-stirs-angst-among-quilombola-fishers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/rail-and-port-project-in-amazon-wetland-stirs-angst-among-quilombola-fishers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2025 06:00:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/29190333/Capture-decran-le-2025-12-29-a-14.02.52-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293596</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Conservation, Controversial, Environment, Environmental Policy, Infrastructure, Law, Mangroves, Ports, Transportation, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Plans to construct a sprawling port and railway line in Brazil’s northeastern state of Maranhão is sparking concerns among some residents and civil society groups about its potential impact on the environment and lands used by marginalized communities. Some residents fear the construction of the Grão-Pará Maranhão (GPM) project, which includes the 1,180-hectare (2,916-acre) Alcântara [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Plans to construct a sprawling port and railway line in Brazil’s northeastern state of Maranhão is sparking concerns among some residents and civil society groups about its potential impact on the environment and lands used by marginalized communities. Some residents fear the construction of the Grão-Pará Maranhão (GPM) project, which includes the 1,180-hectare (2,916-acre) Alcântara Port Terminal in the municipality of Alcântara and the 520-kilometer (323-mile) Maranhão Railway (EF-317), will destroy the homes, agricultural lands and fishing areas of the local communities. While some approve of the project, others point to the project’s irregular consultation and environmental licensing process. The company behind the GPM project, Grão-Pará Multimodal, Brazil’s Ministry of Environment, and the State Secretariat for the Environment of Maranhão (SEMA) did not respond to Mongabay’s requests for comment by the time of this publication. The port will be constructed within a large mangrove wetland, the Reentrâncias Maranhenses, a protected area and Ramsar site on Brazil’s northeastern Amazonia coast. The site covers a vast area of mangroves and is home to 50% of the country’s coastal bird population, including the Hudsonian godwit (Limosa haemastica) and the whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus), as well as lush forests and babassu palm (Attalea speciosa) groves. “The construction can end up killing all the biodiversity in the mangroves and in the flooded areas,” Gilberto Lima, the regional secretary of the Pastoral Council of Fishermen (CPP), told Mongabay over WhatsApp voice messages. “It can even kill the fish that artisanal fishers depend on. On top of that,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/rail-and-port-project-in-amazon-wetland-stirs-angst-among-quilombola-fishers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293596</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Armed conflict, not Batwa people, at heart of Grauer’s gorillas&#8217; past decline in DRC park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/armed-conflict-not-batwa-people-biggest-factor-in-decline-of-grauers-gorillas-in-drc-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/armed-conflict-not-batwa-people-biggest-factor-in-decline-of-grauers-gorillas-in-drc-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2024 18:09:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimable TwahirwaLatoya Abulu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/07/06145853/Grauers-Gorillas_Kahuzi-Biega_April-2014-34-scaled-e1734369681806-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291739</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Controversial, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Forests, Gorillas, Indigenous Peoples, Mammals, National Parks, Population, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study has concluded that the decline in Grauer’s gorillas in a sector of their main stronghold in the Democratic Republic of Congo was the result of the impacts of armed conflict, rather than the presence or absence of Indigenous communities. With the end of the Second Congo War in 2003, gorilla populations in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study has concluded that the decline in Grauer’s gorillas in a sector of their main stronghold in the Democratic Republic of Congo was the result of the impacts of armed conflict, rather than the presence or absence of Indigenous communities. With the end of the Second Congo War in 2003, gorilla populations in Kahuzi-Biega National Park’s highland sector rose back up, where they’ve remained since one of the latest estimates. The international group of authors said their analysis challenges two opposing narratives around the Indigenous Batwa people native to the area: on one hand, some conservation authorities view the Batwa as forest destroyers responsible for gorilla decline; on the other, some Indigenous rights activists say the decline occurred because the Batwa were evicted and no longer present to care for the forest. The situation is more complex than this dichotomy, the researchers told Mongabay. Kahuzi-Biega National Park used to be home to thousands of Indigenous Batwa people before they were forcibly evicted in the 1970s, with no alternative lands. Today, the highland sector of the park serves as a center for tourism of Grauer’s gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri), a critically endangered subspecies of the eastern gorilla, and the park’s headquarters. In the last several years, Indigenous rights advocates and conservation authorities have debated over the imposition of “fortress conservation” and the Batwa peoples’ role in biodiversity loss. According to field survey data analyzed for the new study, after the Batwa were removed from the park, gorilla numbers remained&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/armed-conflict-not-batwa-people-biggest-factor-in-decline-of-grauers-gorillas-in-drc-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/armed-conflict-not-batwa-people-biggest-factor-in-decline-of-grauers-gorillas-in-drc-park/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291739</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biomass power grows in Japan despite new understanding of climate risks</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biomass-power-grows-in-japan-despite-new-understanding-of-climate-risks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biomass-power-grows-in-japan-despite-new-understanding-of-climate-risks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2024 20:55:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/29162909/logs-wood-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285289</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, California, Canada, East Asia, Japan, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Bioenergy, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Controversial, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, International Trade, Law, Mitigation, Plantations, Politics, Pollution, Research, and Temperate Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Japan is at a crossroads in its controversial use of burning forest biomass to make electricity. While the government and private sector’s understanding of the fuel’s harmful environmental and climate impacts is growing, biomass power plants long in the pipeline continue to come online, requiring ever-greater volumes of imported wood pellets from primary forests in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Japan is at a crossroads in its controversial use of burning forest biomass to make electricity. While the government and private sector’s understanding of the fuel’s harmful environmental and climate impacts is growing, biomass power plants long in the pipeline continue to come online, requiring ever-greater volumes of imported wood pellets from primary forests in Canada or plantations in Vietnam. Biomass importers and users in Japan are being forced to reevaluate their supply chains after U.S. wood pellet producer Enviva declared bankruptcy in March and prominent ecologists visiting Japan from Canada warned of the pellets’ environmental risks. In addition, new biomass policies from Japan’s biggest banks emphasize the importance of sustainable sourcing, which forest advocates say they hope will encourage biomass users to improve their practices. But ultimately, forest advocates argue that, no matter which supply chain biomass users choose, burning wood to generate electricity is fundamentally untenable, as it puts significant amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere despite the global need to drastically reduce emissions. In 2022, burning biomass accounted for roughly 6% of Japan’s total CO2 emissions, according to a Japanese climate expert. Still, under international carbon accounting rules, Japan is able to count biomass emissions as zero because trees sequester CO2 throughout their lives. Many experts say this is a misguided policy. Using forest biomass for electricity generation took off in Japan in 2012, when the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry introduced a feed-in tariff (FIT) with 20-year fixed rates to support renewable energy projects. “Before the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biomass-power-grows-in-japan-despite-new-understanding-of-climate-risks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biomass-power-grows-in-japan-despite-new-understanding-of-climate-risks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285289</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mongabay investigation is turned into art for World Press Freedom Day event</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/mongabay-investigation-is-turned-into-art-for-world-press-freedom-day-event/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/mongabay-investigation-is-turned-into-art-for-world-press-freedom-day-event/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 May 2024 19:13:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Karla Mendes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karla Mendes]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/21100844/art-installation-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282320</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Arts, Consumption, Controversial, Environmental Law, Health, Indigenous Peoples, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mongabay investigation, Overconsumption, Palm Oil, Planetary Health, Plantations, Plastic, Roads, Social Justice, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay’s award-winning investigation that revealed water contamination from palm oil plantations in Indigenous territories in the Brazilian Amazon inspired an art installation at UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day Conference in Santiago; the artwork was also exhibited at Chile’s Museum of Contemporary Art.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network where Karla Mendes is a fellow. SANTIAGO, Chile — An award-winning investigation by Mongabay that revealed water contamination from oil palm plantations in Indigenous territories in the Brazilian Amazon was featured at an art installation at UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day Conference in Santiago this month. The artwork was also exhibited at Chile’s Museum of Contemporary Art. A supermarket cart, tipping over under a mountain of products and spilling waste in river water — represented by melted plastic bottles — was placed at the entrance of the main pavilion of the Gabriela Mistral Library, where UNESCO’s event took place from May 3-4. Inspired by the Mongabay investigation, theater design students from the University of Chile worked together with this reporter to create the concept of an art exhibition to highlight the hidden environmental damages of “sustainable” palm oil coming from the many products found in grocery stores that consumers buy with no awareness of the impacts. “Here are all the things that we people go to the supermarket, take the offers, take the sales — oferta in Spanish — we just take them from the supermarket and put them in our cart. And we see here the cart is already full and it spills everything else, it spills all the contamination that’s coming from the palm oil industry,&#8221; says Cristian Canto, manager of the artwork, explaining that the plastic bottles represent the Amazon region visited by this reporter and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/mongabay-investigation-is-turned-into-art-for-world-press-freedom-day-event/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/mongabay-investigation-is-turned-into-art-for-world-press-freedom-day-event/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282320</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Enviva bankruptcy fallout ripples through biomass industry, U.S. and EU</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/enviva-bankruptcy-fallout-ripples-through-biomass-industry-u-s-and-eu/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/enviva-bankruptcy-fallout-ripples-through-biomass-industry-u-s-and-eu/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Apr 2024 14:45:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/25141443/wood-pellets-burning-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280563</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Circular economy, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, North America, North Carolina, 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, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Industry, Law, Logging, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, Politics, Pollution, Renewable Energy, Solutions, Timber, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With the bankruptcy of the world’s biggest wood pellet maker, Enviva and the forestry industry are reaching out to the Biden Administration for subsidies that could offer it a lifeline, but environmentalists are pushing back.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The bankruptcy filing in March by Maryland-based Enviva — the world’s largest maker of wood pellets from forest biomass — is rattling a European Union that relies heavily on biomass as a significant though contested renewable energy source. The bankruptcy is also invigorating U.S. forest advocates determined to keep the Biden Administration from using new renewable energy credits to bail out the flailing company. On March 21, officials from five federal agencies visited North and South Carolina to see an Enviva pellet-making plant firsthand and hear environmental justice complaints over the impacts it is having on low-income communities. But the company faces immediate threats to its ongoing viability that transcend its $2.6 billion debt and negative community impacts, according to a former maintenance manager at two Enviva pellet-making plants in North Carolina and Virgina between 2020 and 2022, and an exclusive Mongabay source. As many as eight of Enviva’s 10 pellet mills in the U.S. Southeast, he said, are in such poor condition that they are producing fewer pellets monthly at a much higher cost due to intractable and costly maintenance issues. “There’s no way Enviva is coming out of Chapter 11,” the former employee told Mongabay, referring to a court-ordered reorganization process by which the firm has a set time to restructure its debt and begin paying back creditors. “Their manufacturing equipment is not fit for the service it’s required to deliver. Only two of its 10 plants (one in Florida, one in Georgia, neither built by Enviva) are&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/enviva-bankruptcy-fallout-ripples-through-biomass-industry-u-s-and-eu/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/enviva-bankruptcy-fallout-ripples-through-biomass-industry-u-s-and-eu/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280563</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study: Burning wood pellets for energy endangers local communities’ health</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/study-burning-wood-pellets-for-energy-endangers-local-communities-health/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/study-burning-wood-pellets-for-energy-endangers-local-communities-health/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jan 2024 16:27:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/18153235/wood-pellets-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277821</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Circular economy, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Controversial, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Finance, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Industry, Law, Logging, Politics, Renewable Energy, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Forest and air quality advocates in the United States have long argued that manufacturing wood pellets from leveled forests and burning the compressed wood for energy is neither a green nor clean climate solution as biomass industry advocates have long claimed. Now, a recent study in Renewable Energy purports to put unique, broad and scientific [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Forest and air quality advocates in the United States have long argued that manufacturing wood pellets from leveled forests and burning the compressed wood for energy is neither a green nor clean climate solution as biomass industry advocates have long claimed. Now, a recent study in Renewable Energy purports to put unique, broad and scientific rigor behind arguments against the ongoing expansion of biomass production for energy. The researchers find, for the first time, that U.S. biomass facilities emit on average 2.8 times the amount of pollution as that emitted by traditional fossil fuel facilities like oil and coal.  A wide range of hazardous air pollutants are emitted from burning wood pellets for energy, including particulate matter and dioxins, that are harmful to human health, the study finds. The study finds that thousands of tons of toxic, health-harming air pollutants, from nitrogen oxide to volatile organic compounds, are also emitted in the pellet-making process, especially in the Southeast where most pellet plants are located. Researchers report that 55 hazardous pollutants collectively exceeded by two times the allowable pollution permitted by state air-quality agencies. Higher concentrations of this pollution, the study confirms, adversely impact social justice communities, or mainly poor, minority communities where the pellet plants are located. “Fourteen million people in the United States live within a few miles of bioenergy facilities and breathe potentially harmful toxins and pollutants,” says Edie Juno, co-author of the study and a forestry specialist with the National Wildlife Federation in Washington, D.C. “As the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/study-burning-wood-pellets-for-energy-endangers-local-communities-health/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/study-burning-wood-pellets-for-energy-endangers-local-communities-health/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277821</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Paradise lost? Brazil’s biggest bauxite mining firm denies riverine rights</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/paradise-lost-brazils-biggest-bauxite-mining-firm-denies-riverine-rights/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/paradise-lost-brazils-biggest-bauxite-mining-firm-denies-riverine-rights/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Nov 2023 15:04:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue BranfordThais Borges]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/30163052/8-Jesi-Ferreira-de-Castro-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274785</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Controversial, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Mining, Pollution, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Rivers, Traditional People, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MRN, a mining company and aluminum producer, denied consultation rights to long-established Amazon riverine communities when it launched a new mine, impacting their way of life, say local people.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story was produced with support from the Rainforest Journalism Fund/Pulitzer Center. ORIXIMINÁ, Pará state, Brazil — Raimunda de Souza is 62 years old. She was born in the Amazon, in a vast region of rainforest fed by pristine lakes and streams. &#8220;A paradise&#8221; is how she defines the place where she, her parents, grandparents and great-grandparents first opened their eyes. Oriximiná municipality, their long-time home territory, covers 107,603 square kilometres (41,546 square miles), an area larger than Portugal. It was in this vast expanse of forest that Raimunda&#8217;s daughters and her grandchildren were also born, in the community of São Tomé, one of four villages located on Lake Maria Pixi, where 183 other families live. But paradise is on the cusp of disappearing according to Lake Maria Pixi area residents, because of events that began to unfold in 2018. Traditional communities “invisibilized” That’s the year, say the riverine communities, that they were totally ignored by Mineração Rio do Norte (MRN), Brazil&#8217;s largest bauxite producer, as it wrote up an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for a new mine the company was planning on the Aramã Plateau in proximity to the four communities (São Tomé, São Francisco, São Sebastião and Espírito Santo). EIAs — required as part of Brazil’s federal environmental licensing process —assess the likely environmental and social impacts of new mines, along with other projects, and lists necessary mitigating and compensatory measures. But in this case, the EIA was written as if the four villages didn’t exist at all.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/paradise-lost-brazils-biggest-bauxite-mining-firm-denies-riverine-rights/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/paradise-lost-brazils-biggest-bauxite-mining-firm-denies-riverine-rights/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274785</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Enviva, the world’s largest biomass energy company, is near collapse</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/enviva-the-worlds-largest-biomass-energy-company-is-near-collapse/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/enviva-the-worlds-largest-biomass-energy-company-is-near-collapse/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Nov 2023 18:09:00 +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/20/2023/11/20155604/enviva-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275620</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Covering the Commons, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America, North Carolina, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Controversial, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Finance, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Industry, Law, Logging, Politics, Renewable Energy, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The company’s rapid downfall raises questions about how it can supply its annual 6 million metric tons of wood pellets to the UK, EU and Asia, and how nations relying on biomass to meet energy and climate commitments will cope.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This year has been a financial disaster for Enviva, the world’s largest producer of wood pellets for the biomass energy industry. With more than $250 million in losses to date and worsening results expected in the fourth quarter, the once high-flying company’s viability, by its own admission, is in grave doubt. Also in question is where Enviva’s European Union and Asian customers will source the pellets they burn in their converted coal power plants and — without those pellets — how nations will meet their energy needs and their pledged Paris Agreement carbon emission cuts. To many financial analysts who closely follow company performance, Enviva’s near collapse this month appears to have happened rapidly and suddenly. But did it? “The problems have been there for years. There are lots of issues, but they stem from fundamental challenges Enviva faces in wood costs and keeping its manufacturing plants operating at full capacity,” a former Enviva maintenance manager told Mongabay. “It’s all coming home to roost in a kind of cumulative way.” In exclusive interviews with Mongabay, the former Enviva employee detailed critical problems he witnessed and grappled with as a top operations manager at two of Enviva’s 10 Southeast U.S. plants between mid-2020 and mid-2022. His insights help explain why Enviva is now in dire financial straits. Small mountains of forest wood, chipped from whole trees and loaded into tractor-trailers for delivery, are piled up outside the Enviva wood pellet mill in Ahoskie, North Carolina. According to a former Enviva maintenance&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/enviva-the-worlds-largest-biomass-energy-company-is-near-collapse/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/enviva-the-worlds-largest-biomass-energy-company-is-near-collapse/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275620</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study links pesticides to child cancer deaths in Brazilian Amazon &#038; Cerrado</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/study-links-pesticides-to-child-cancer-deaths-in-brazilian-amazon-cerrado/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/study-links-pesticides-to-child-cancer-deaths-in-brazilian-amazon-cerrado/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Nov 2023 17:30:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shi En Kim]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/10151036/pesticide-in-bahia-cerrado-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275270</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Chemicals, Conservation, Controversial, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Farming, Food, Food Industry, Green, Health, Indigenous Peoples, Industrial Agriculture, Pesticides, Planetary Health, Plantations, Poisoning, Pollution, Public Health, Soy, Sugar, Threats To Rainforests, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The researchers estimate that 123 childhood deaths during the 2008-19 period are associated with exposure to pesticides from the soy fields, amounting to half the deaths of children under 10 from lymphoblastic leukemia in the region.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Marin Elisabeth Skidmore visited Brazil in 2019, she heard rumblings among the locals about elevated childhood cancers and tragic premature deaths. At that time, she was conducting research in the state of Rondônia, a sparsely populated area in west Brazil that was pressing up against the edge of the Amazon Rainforest. The region, like many other locales encroaching upon the rainforest stronghold, was facing a boom in soybean production. Cleared tracts that were once used for livestock grazing were rapidly repurposed for growing soybeans. With this transition from pastureland into cropland came a spike in pesticide use over the years. These pesticides, the community leaders bemoaned, were likely behind the rise in pediatric cases of leukemia. The link between agricultural chemicals and cancer risk has been previously established by medical experts. But few studies had mapped these substances’ footprint at a population level in Brazil. After Skidmore returned home to the United States, she crunched the numbers. Her latest study in the journal PNAS reports that Brazil’s rise in soybean production may have come at a cost: between 2008 and 2019, an estimated half of the leukemia deaths of children under 10 in soy-expansion regions were connected with pesticide exposure. “We&#8217;re just seeing new populations being exposed to these pesticides that have not been exposed in years prior,” Skidmore tells Mongabay, now an applied economist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “We want to shed light on the costs and benefits of this [agricultural] intensification.” Brazil is the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/study-links-pesticides-to-child-cancer-deaths-in-brazilian-amazon-cerrado/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/study-links-pesticides-to-child-cancer-deaths-in-brazilian-amazon-cerrado/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275270</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ahead of COP28, pope spurs policymakers, faith leaders to push climate action</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/ahead-of-cop28-pope-spurs-policymakers-faith-leaders-to-push-climate-action/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/ahead-of-cop28-pope-spurs-policymakers-faith-leaders-to-push-climate-action/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Oct 2023 15:11:33 +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/20/2023/10/30141412/the-pope-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274769</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Controversial, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environment, Extinction, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Politics, Pope, Religions, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Pope Francis is calling on policymakers, corporations and the world’s people to act decisively on climate. His plea comes as the faith-based climate movement — which built momentum after the 2015 Paris agreement — is lagging.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Pope Francis pulled no punches in his latest papal proclamation, calling out world leaders — who for decades have failed to protect the planet and its most vulnerable people — and spurring the world’s most powerful to take decisive action on climate change. The timing isn’t coincidental; those leaders will meet Nov. 30 for the 28th U.N. climate summit, which some are calling a “do-or-die moment” and a &#8220;last chance&#8221; for the U.N. negotiating process to make deep, rapid and sustained cuts to greenhouse gas emissions and avoid the world’s headlong rush into a far hotter, far more dangerous future. “Our responses have not been adequate,” Francis wrote in Laudate Deum, published Oct. 4. As a result, he warned, “The impact of climate change will increasingly prejudice the lives and families of many. … We will feel its effects in … healthcare, sources of employment, access to resources, housing, forced migrations.” He lambasted, too, the capitalistic appeal of unproven technology — easy fixes to the climate crisis — that fail to address the hard work of phasing out fossil fuels and ending global deforestation: “To suppose that all problems in the future will be solved by new technical interventions is a form of homicidal pragmatism,” he wrote bluntly. And to those about to gather in the United Arab Emirates (a petrostate) for COP28, the Conference of the Parties conference, which this year is being led by a Middle Eastern oil company head, the pope warned: “To the powerful, I can&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/ahead-of-cop28-pope-spurs-policymakers-faith-leaders-to-push-climate-action/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/ahead-of-cop28-pope-spurs-policymakers-faith-leaders-to-push-climate-action/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274769</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pope Francis condemns world leaders for deeply flawed UN climate process</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/pope-francis-condemns-world-leaders-for-deeply-flawed-un-climate-process/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/pope-francis-condemns-world-leaders-for-deeply-flawed-un-climate-process/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Oct 2023 21:58:41 +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/20/2023/10/05214325/15875462075_22c5d7d4a3_h-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274012</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Controversial, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environment, Extinction, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Politics, Pope, Religions, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the runup to the COP28 climate conference in December, which critics say has been largely co-opted by fossil fuel interests, Pope Francis has issued a strongly worded document critical of world leaders who make bold climate promises then fail to act.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Pope Francis emerged this week as a blunt critic of past United Nations climate summits, calling out world leaders for their empty rhetoric and broken promises while their nations continue relying heavily on fossil fuels, even as Earth’s climate grows more unstable and violent. He called for real and urgent action before the planet reaches “the point of no return.” “International negotiations cannot make significant progress due to positions taken by countries which place their national interests above the global common good,” Francis writes in Laudate Deum, a document released by the Vatican on October 4. “Those who will suffer the consequences of what we are trying to hide will not forget this failure of conscience and responsibility.” The pope’s unsparing assessment of repeated failures by global leaders to address the rapidly escalating climate crisis is contained in an 18-page addendum to his historic encyclical on climate change and environmental protection titled Laudato Si, On Care for Our Common Home which was released in June 2015, receiving worldwide attention. That encyclical, the Catholic church’s highest teaching document, was aimed at influencing the 21st UN climate summit held in Paris in December 2015. And it did. Laudato Si’s principles were woven throughout the preamble of the historic Paris Agreement as 190 nations agreed for the first time to work collectively to hold global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above a 1900 baseline. “We can do this, if we act now,” reads a slogan at COP26, the climate&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/pope-francis-condemns-world-leaders-for-deeply-flawed-un-climate-process/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/pope-francis-condemns-world-leaders-for-deeply-flawed-un-climate-process/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274012</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate emergency may channel millions in resources toward corn-based ethanol in the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/climate-emergency-may-channel-millions-in-resources-toward-corn-based-ethanol-in-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/climate-emergency-may-channel-millions-in-resources-toward-corn-based-ethanol-in-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jul 2023 17:15:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fábio BispoO Joio e o Trigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/30201207/1-usina-lucasdorioverde-FS-divulgacao-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270431</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Cattle, Climate Change, Conservation, Controversial, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Food, Forests, Green, Industrial Agriculture, Land Use Change, Pasture, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, Soil Carbon, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Agribusiness magnate from the USA, who is already the biggest producer of corn-based ethanol in Brazil, plans to leverage “green” investments from governments and banks to meet negative carbon emissions using an unproven method.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The American agribusiness magnate Bruce Rastetter, who is already the biggest producer of corn-based ethanol in Brazil, has plans to triple processing at his plants by relying on the generosity of governments and banks with green credits and incentives destined to combat climate change. In 2021 and 2022, Rastetter’s businesses received more than 2.2 billion reais ($459 billion) in offsets and credits from compliance with environmental targets through FS Agrisolutions. All this money went to Rastetter’s ethanol plants in Mato Grosso, as well as resources from the National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES). Now, the company plans to further leverage its businesses by selling itself as a negative carbon producer. Its promise is to implement a system for capturing carbon from plants and storing the gas below ground. The system is called CCS (carbon capture and storage), and it was considered by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to be an option for the mitigation of climate change. Nevertheless, over the years, the system still hasn’t proven to be effective on a large scale. In more recent bulletins, the IPCC warned that the capture of carbon is facing various restrictions in terms of viability, including high implementation costs, as well as demonstrating adverse impacts on human rights and ecosystems. What Rastetter is trying to implement in Brazil is practically a copy of the Midwest Carbon project that he is spearheading in the United States with a promise to capture 12 million tons of carbon in ethanol plants. The&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/climate-emergency-may-channel-millions-in-resources-toward-corn-based-ethanol-in-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/climate-emergency-may-channel-millions-in-resources-toward-corn-based-ethanol-in-the-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270431</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can the EU’s deforestation law save Argentina’s Gran Chaco from soy?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/can-the-eus-deforestation-law-save-argentinas-gran-chaco-from-soy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/can-the-eus-deforestation-law-save-argentinas-gran-chaco-from-soy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jun 2023 17:35:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kimberley Brown]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/06133922/giant-anteater-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=269454</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Conservation Potential]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Chaco, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Business, Controversial, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Food Industry, Forests, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, International Trade, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Law, Soy, Trade, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Large-scale soy production for European markets has long been associated with deforestation in South America’s forests, including in the continent’s second-largest, but lesser-known, forest, the Gran Chaco in Argentina and Paraguay. A new historic deforestation legislation by the European Union is trying to bring an end to the destruction, by prohibiting the import of products [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Large-scale soy production for European markets has long been associated with deforestation in South America’s forests, including in the continent’s second-largest, but lesser-known, forest, the Gran Chaco in Argentina and Paraguay. A new historic deforestation legislation by the European Union is trying to bring an end to the destruction, by prohibiting the import of products found linked to deforestation abroad, including soy. The new EU regulations were met with scorn by several industries globally that will have to drastically change their production practices. Soy is a commodity that’s economically vital for many nations, including Argentina, which is seeking to expand its soy exports to meet global food demand and tackle an ongoing economic crisis. The South American nation’s soy sector says it’s ready for the regulations — though the changes will be a massive challenge for the industry. For a few years now, the industry has been working on a centralized online platform to trace and track soy production, in response to external demands for more transparency, like the new EU regulations. This system is known as the Sectorial Vision of the Argentine Gran Chaco, or ViSeC by its Spanish acronym, and was established by, among others, CIARA, the business association for the oilseeds and grains industries. “The whole Argentine market will have to mutate to a more integrated market in terms of information management,” said Lucas Larraquy, purchasing manager with the Argentine Federated Farmers (AFA), told Mongabay via video call. “Operationally, no, I can&#8217;t say it&#8217;s going to be&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/can-the-eus-deforestation-law-save-argentinas-gran-chaco-from-soy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/can-the-eus-deforestation-law-save-argentinas-gran-chaco-from-soy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-269454</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Militarized conservation: Insecurity for some, security for others? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/militarized-conservation-insecurity-for-some-security-for-others-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/militarized-conservation-insecurity-for-some-security-for-others-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jun 2023 14:00:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fergus O’Leary SimpsonLorenzo Pellegrini]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/10/08082716/2016-09-29-nicolon-18_edited-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=269399</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Conflict, Conservation, Controversial, Deforestation, Forests, Human Rights, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Military, Mining, Mongabay Data Studio, Rainforests, Traditional People, Tropical Deforestation, War, and Wildlife Rangers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The past decade has seen a wave of academic and activist writings criticizing the use of militarized conservation to protect nature. In this commentary piece, we argue that the use of armed park guards and soldiers from national armies to secure protected areas leads to violent outcomes for some Indigenous and local communities who venture [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The past decade has seen a wave of academic and activist writings criticizing the use of militarized conservation to protect nature. In this commentary piece, we argue that the use of armed park guards and soldiers from national armies to secure protected areas leads to violent outcomes for some Indigenous and local communities who venture into these areas — often their traditional lands. However, other people living around protected areas see militarized conservation as providing a source of security in regions where the state is weak and multiple violent actors vie for control of land and resources. Militarized conservation, in other words, has ambivalent effects on security and stability in regions where armed conflict is present. As such, it is viewed both positively and negatively by the different people affected by it. In 2022, Minority Rights Group shocked the world with the release of its report “To Purge the Forest by Force,” which detailed reported violent attempts by armed park guards to expel Indigenous Batwa people from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kahuzi-Biega National Park — their ancestral lands — which some groups had forcibly returned to. With accounts of murder, torture and gang rape committed by armed park guards and government soldiers, for many observers the report epitomized the evils of militarized conservation that prevents Indigenous peoples from living on and off of their traditional lands by the threat of a gun. The report’s publication has fed into debates questioning and rebuking the use of these approaches in Kahuzi-Biega&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/militarized-conservation-insecurity-for-some-security-for-others-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/militarized-conservation-insecurity-for-some-security-for-others-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-269399</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Financial downturn at Enviva could mean trouble for biomass energy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/financial-downturn-at-enviva-could-mean-trouble-for-biomass-energy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/financial-downturn-at-enviva-could-mean-trouble-for-biomass-energy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 May 2023 14:19:15 +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/20/2023/05/25141443/wood-pellets-burning-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268957</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Covering the Commons, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Controversial, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Finance, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Industry, Law, Logging, Politics, Renewable Energy, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The world’s largest producer of biomass for energy, Enviva, has seen its stock price tumble, as operational, financial and legal problems pile up, with investors possibly also concerned about the company’s tarnished green image.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Enviva, the world’s largest maker of wood pellets for bioenergy, is struggling through its most significant financial downturn ever, a problem potentially compounded by a class-action lawsuit alleging the company has misrepresented its environmental sustainability and growth potential. Wall Street reacted harshly on May 3 when Enviva announced a first-quarter loss of $117 million, nearly three times worse than predicted. Enviva also eliminated its shareholder dividend, a red flag for a company in distress. The firm’s balance sheet also indicates trouble. In April, Enviva management had been buoyant with investors about its revenue prospects for 2023. But one month later, it projected an annual net loss of between $136 million and $186 million. Its original annual net-loss projection was far smaller; just $18 million to $48 million, associated largely with new plant construction in the U.S. Deep South. As a result, Enviva’s stock price, which has been sliding since late last year, plunged from $21 per share to less than $8, an all-time low since the company went public in 2015. In April of last year, Enviva’s stock peaked at $85 a share. Its shares have since dropped about 90%. “We know what the specific issues are,” CEO Thomas Meth said in a statement. “Contract labor is too high, discipline around [pellet mill] repairs and maintenance spend[ing] is insufficient, wood input costs need to come down further and stay there, and [production] rates at specific plants need to improve and stabilize at those improved levels.” Wood chips piled in mounds&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/financial-downturn-at-enviva-could-mean-trouble-for-biomass-energy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/financial-downturn-at-enviva-could-mean-trouble-for-biomass-energy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268957</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For Dutch farming crisis, agroforestry offers solutions: Q&#038;A with Lennart Fuchs &#038; Marc Buiter</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/for-dutch-farming-crisis-agroforestry-offers-solutions-qa-with-lennart-fuchs-mark-buiter/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/for-dutch-farming-crisis-agroforestry-offers-solutions-qa-with-lennart-fuchs-mark-buiter/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Mar 2023 18:37:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Peter Speetjens]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/21172402/tractor-g5c2af3dda_1920-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266679</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Commodities]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, and Netherlands]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Beef, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Community Development, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Controversial, Crops, Environmental Law, Farming, Fertilizers, Food, Food Industry, food security, Industrial Agriculture, Law, Law Enforcement, Meat, Mitigation, Mongabay Data Studio, Nature-based climate solutions, Nitrogen Cycle, Nitrous Oxide, Politics, Pollution, Protests, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Last year, farmer protests erupted throughout the Netherlands, riding a wave of rural anger at government plans to drastically halve nitrogen emissions by downsizing and closing farms. This quickly swept the newly founded agrarian party, the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BoerBurgerBeweging, or BBB), to victory in last week’s provincial elections, making it the country’s biggest political party. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Last year, farmer protests erupted throughout the Netherlands, riding a wave of rural anger at government plans to drastically halve nitrogen emissions by downsizing and closing farms. This quickly swept the newly founded agrarian party, the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BoerBurgerBeweging, or BBB), to victory in last week’s provincial elections, making it the country’s biggest political party. In the face of the farmer and nitrogen crisis, Dutch agriculture and environmental experts are calling for a change to the food system in a way that both reduces nitrogen emissions while addressing the financial and livelihood concerns of farmers, many of whom are in debt. “As they say in Dutch, ‘You can’t be green if you are in the red,’” says Lennart Fuchs, an agriculture researcher at Wageningen University &amp; Research in the Netherlands. Among the solutions the experts propose are agroforestry systems that harmoniously integrate reduced livestock with profitable trees and crops such as hazelnut, walnut, cider apple and timber trees, Fuchs tells Mongabay in an interview. Also known as silvopasture, this is a climate change solution that reduces emissions and can bring large returns on investments by producing multiple streams of income. A computer-generated image of what a future farm could look like in the Netherlands if it used an agroforestry system. Image by Lennart Fuchs. The Netherlands has long been a global agricultural powerhouse, and farms there have often been managed by the same families for generations. Home to some 17.5 million people, the country is Europe’s largest meat exporter and the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/for-dutch-farming-crisis-agroforestry-offers-solutions-qa-with-lennart-fuchs-mark-buiter/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/for-dutch-farming-crisis-agroforestry-offers-solutions-qa-with-lennart-fuchs-mark-buiter/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266679</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>Poisoned by pesticides: Health crisis deepens in Brazil’s Indigenous communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/poisoned-by-pesticides-health-crisis-deepens-in-brazils-indigenous-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/poisoned-by-pesticides-health-crisis-deepens-in-brazils-indigenous-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jan 2023 20:57:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/16203216/pexels-gilmer-diaz-estela-6345502-scaled-e1673901240276-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264619</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Commodities]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Air Pollution, Bees, Biodiversity, Chemicals, Controversial, Corn, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Farming, Food, Food Industry, Green, Health, Indigenous Peoples, Industrial Agriculture, Insects, Law, Law Enforcement, Pesticides, Planetary Health, Plantations, Poisoning, Pollution, Public Health, Regulations, Soy, Sugar, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Brazil’s use of pesticides has spiked in recent years, growing by over 300,000 tonnes since 2010, according to experts. A recent report, published by the NGO Operação Amazônia Nativa (OPAN) in partnership with the Federal University of Mato Grosso’s institute of public health, reveals the harmful effects of these chemicals on Indigenous populations living in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Brazil’s use of pesticides has spiked in recent years, growing by over 300,000 tonnes since 2010, according to experts. A recent report, published by the NGO Operação Amazônia Nativa (OPAN) in partnership with the Federal University of Mato Grosso’s institute of public health, reveals the harmful effects of these chemicals on Indigenous populations living in Mato Grosso, the region with the highest pesticide concentrations in the country. According to its findings, each inhabitant of Mato Grosso is estimated to have been exposed to 65.8 liters of pesticides—some of these substances banned—in 2018. The situation is worse for people living in the state’s rural cities where exposure is estimated to exceed 300 liters per inhabitant each year. A machine sprays pesticides on soybean crops in Mato Grosso, a state in the Brazilian Amazon. Supporters of the Safer Food Bill say it will reduce food prices for consumers, provide food security for the country, and boost Brazil’s economy. Image © Bruno Kelly/Greenpeace. Mato Grosso is a high-producing agricultural region in the country and the leading producer of cotton among all Brazilian states. Cotton is the crop that uses the most pesticides in the state and is the second-largest pesticide-using crop in the country. Mato Grosso lies at the intersection of the Amazon rainforest, the Cerrado tropical savannah and the Pantanal wetlands—areas of great importance for global climate stabilization. To assess the impact of the agriculture sector in the region, samples were taken from plants, trees and water on Indigenous lands for laboratory&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/poisoned-by-pesticides-health-crisis-deepens-in-brazils-indigenous-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/poisoned-by-pesticides-health-crisis-deepens-in-brazils-indigenous-communities/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264619</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Netherlands to stop paying subsidies to &#8216;untruthful&#8217; biomass firms</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/the-netherlands-decides-to-stop-paying-subsidies-to-untruthful-biomass-firms/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/the-netherlands-decides-to-stop-paying-subsidies-to-untruthful-biomass-firms/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Dec 2022 17:52:31 +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/20/2022/12/23182000/10-Drone-shot-Enviva-Ahoskie-2a-768x479.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264081</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Netherlands, 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, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Industry, Law, Logging, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, Politics, Pollution, Renewable Energy, Solutions, Timber, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A Mongabay story featuring a whistleblower who debunked the green claims of Enviva — the world’s largest wood pellet maker — has prompted the Dutch to ban subsidies to biomass firms who make false sustainability claims.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Prompted by exclusive reporting from Mongabay, the House of Representatives in The Netherlands’s Parliament has approved a motion that compels its government to stop paying subsidies to wood-pellet manufacturers found to be untruthful in their wood-harvesting practices. On December 14, the Dutch House, by a 150-114 vote, approved a motion introduced by Rep. Lammert van Raan of Amsterdam, a member of the progressive Party for the Animals. In his motion, van Raan noted that up to €9.5 billion ($10 billion) have been reserved by the government through 2032 to subsidize the purchase of domestic and foreign-produced wood pellets for energy and heat generation. “The risk of fraud with sustainability certification of biomass is significant,” van Raan wrote. Then, in reference to a Mongabay story published December 5, he added: “A whistleblower who worked at Enviva, the biggest maker of wood pellets, has reported that all of Enviva’s green claims are incorrect [and] according to an important recent scientific study… Enviva contributes to deforestation in the southeastern U.S.” Van Raan concluded his motion by writing that the House “calls on the government to ensure that all subsidies do not end up at parties that cheat with sustainability certification.” The approved motion requires the Dutch government to seek a higher level of proof under the third-party Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) certification process. Enviva already participates in the SBP, but critics note that the certification process is inherently weak and unreliable, especially regarding the climate and biodiversity impacts of tree harvesting. Van Raan&#8217;s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/the-netherlands-decides-to-stop-paying-subsidies-to-untruthful-biomass-firms/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/the-netherlands-decides-to-stop-paying-subsidies-to-untruthful-biomass-firms/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264081</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Australia rejects forest biomass in first blow to wood pellet industry</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/australia-rejects-forest-biomass-in-first-blow-to-wood-pellet-industry/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/australia-rejects-forest-biomass-in-first-blow-to-wood-pellet-industry/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Dec 2022 17:54:59 +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/20/2022/12/21175151/BANNER-IMAGE-wood-pellets-1-768x456.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263978</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and European Union]]>
						</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[An existing regulation designating the burning of forests to make energy as being renewable has been reversed in Australia. That decision seems unlikely to alter the EU’s heavy commitment to biomass burning.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Forest advocates in Australia — the world’s 13th largest economy — say they scored a major environmental victory on December 15 when the ruling Labor Party revised a key regulation, rejecting the renewable energy classification of wood harvested from native forests and burned to make energy. Previously, under the country’s renewable energy policy, woody biomass had been classified as a renewable energy source. The impact of this regulatory change is perhaps most significant for the setback it may pose to the biomass industry globally, hindering the multibillion-dollar wood pellet industry from getting started Down Under at a time when pellet production is rising in the U.S. Southeast and British Columbia in order to supply growing demand to the EU, UK and Asia. “The changes [in Australia] mean that native forest biomass is no longer considered an ‘eligible renewable energy source’ for the purposes of [the nation’s] Renewable Energy Target, and electricity it generates cannot be used to create tradable Large-scale Generation Certificates [for replacing coal],” Chris Bowen, Australia’s minister of climate change and energy, said in a statement. “We have listened to the community and acted to address their concerns.” Australia, by its decision, is taking a very different course than the European Union, where woody biomass — despite growing public opposition — remains defined as a renewable energy source, is heavily government subsidized as a result, and makes up 60% of the EU’s renewable energy mix. Australia is among the few G20 countries without a thriving biomass industry; at&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/australia-rejects-forest-biomass-in-first-blow-to-wood-pellet-industry/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/australia-rejects-forest-biomass-in-first-blow-to-wood-pellet-industry/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263978</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As EU finalizes renewable energy plan, forest advocates condemn biomass</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/as-eu-finalizes-renewable-energy-plan-forest-advocates-condemn-biomass/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/as-eu-finalizes-renewable-energy-plan-forest-advocates-condemn-biomass/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Dec 2022 21:05:50 +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/20/2022/12/07210054/FINAL-BANNER-IMAGE-768x447.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263342</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, North America, 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, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Law, Logging, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, Politics, Renewable Energy, Solutions, Timber, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Policymakers could finalize revisions to the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive by year end, even as forest activists offer new evidence denouncing wood pellets as an energy source, and calling for an end to subsidies.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As European Union policymakers move to finalize revisions to the Renewable Energy Directive in coming weeks, forest advocates continue calling for tougher regulations that would reduce the amount of woody biomass for energy used and slash the billions in EU subsidies that encourage the transformation of native forests into wood pellets for burning. The advocates’ arguments have been given a boost by a recent commentary published in Nature arguing that the EU’s overarching goal of reducing emissions by 55% by 2030 is being thwarted by land-use policies that encourage the diversion of vast quantities of European cropland and forests to bioenergy, thus undermining habitat conservation and carbon storage in both Europe and overseas. Commentary co-author Tim Searchinger, an expert on bioenergy policy at Princeton University, wrote that the EU’s “own modeling predicts that yearly use of bioenergy will more than double between 2015 and 2050, from 152 million to 336 million tonnes of oil equivalent. That requires a quantity of biomass each year that is twice Europe’s present annual wood harvest.” A section of the Kurgjia forest in Estonia after clearcutting by a wood pellet maker, as documented by environmentalists commissioned by Greenpeace Netherlands. The currently proposed RED biomass amendments offer no indication as to how the EU will monitor or enforce its biomass policies with the forestry industry. Image by Karl Adami. The majority of that wood for bioenergy now comes from forests being cut in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, with the rest coming from U.S. Southeast forestlands. As&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/as-eu-finalizes-renewable-energy-plan-forest-advocates-condemn-biomass/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263342</doi>				</item>
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