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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?s=&#038;type=post&#038;topic=ecology" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/ecology/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 12 Sep 2026 14:31:28 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Ecology</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/ecology/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Indigenous knowledge helps reveal the ties between reefs and mangroves</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-knowledge-helps-reveal-the-ties-between-reefs-and-mangroves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-knowledge-helps-reveal-the-ties-between-reefs-and-mangroves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Sep 2026 07:00:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anthony Ham]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/04165859/l.-Phillip-Bibido-McCarthy-%C2%A9ABC-Kimberley-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328795</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Culture, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Fisheries, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Mangroves, Marine, Protected Areas, Research, Science, Solutions, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a recent scientific article in the journal Ocean &#38; Coastal Management, alongside the list of scientist-authors were the Bardi Jawi and Oorany Rangers and the Bardi Jawi Traditional Owners. For the past decade, Bardi Jawi rangers and traditional owners have been working with the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) to study and protect [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a recent scientific article in the journal Ocean &amp; Coastal Management, alongside the list of scientist-authors were the Bardi Jawi and Oorany Rangers and the Bardi Jawi Traditional Owners. For the past decade, Bardi Jawi rangers and traditional owners have been working with the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) to study and protect their mangrove and reef ecosystems, as well as their traditional Indigenous fishing grounds. The Bardi Jawi, according to Phillip “Bibido” McCarthy, are a “Saltwater People” whose traditional diet revolves around healthy oceans. Their land, located in the Kimberley region of northwestern Australia, is of “red earth, blue ocean, and green mangroves,” Bibido, the 59-year-old coordinator of the Bardi Jawi men’s ranger program, tells Mongabay. Bardi Jawi Country forms part of the 95,000-hectare (235,000-acre) Bardi Jawi Indigenous Protected Area (declared in 2013 and administered by the Bardi Jawi) and the 204,000-hectare (504,000-acre) Bardi Jawi Gaarra Marine Park (established in 2022, with a zoning scheme that came into force in July 2026). Among the most important findings in the study was the interconnectedness between reef and mangrove ecosystems for sustaining fisheries — an aspect long recognized in Bardi Jawi traditional ecological knowledge. The overall project and its findings also guided the design of both the IPA and marine park. Cape Leveque on the Dampier Peninsula in Western Australia. Image by Marty Southwell via Unsplash. Goldlined rabbitfish (Siganus lineatus). Image by © Kristin Anderson via iNaturalist. CC BY-NC 4.0. Much scientific work in recent years has focused on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-knowledge-helps-reveal-the-ties-between-reefs-and-mangroves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-knowledge-helps-reveal-the-ties-between-reefs-and-mangroves/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328795</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Key tree species boost Amazon forest restoration, new study shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/key-tree-species-boost-amazon-forest-restoration-new-study-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/key-tree-species-boost-amazon-forest-restoration-new-study-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2026 18:55:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/03074352/1.-LEAF-MPEG_Centro-Capoeira-cortado-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328521</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Biodiversity, Biology, Business, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Climate Science, Conflict, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Culture, Drones, Earth Science, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Finance, Forest Regeneration, Forestry, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Land Grabbing, Mitigation, Plants, Research, Resource Conflict, Restoration, Science, Secondary Forests, Solutions, Species, Sustainability, Sustainable Forest Management, Technology, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Regrowing Amazon forests face a quiet collapse if fast pioneer trees die without stronger successors.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A few tree species are key to restoring biodiversity and carbon storage in deforested areas of the Brazilian Amazon, suggests an article published in June in Global Change Biology. Researchers examined 102 plots under natural regeneration in four municipalities in Pará state — Bragantina, Marabá, Paragominas and Santarém — and concluded that a range of 15 to 25 species accounted for nearly half of the trees present and half of the plots’ carbon stocks. ​Among these species are the embaúba (Cecropia palmata), the tatapiririca (Tapirira guianensis), the ingá-vermelho (Inga alba), and the araticum-bravo (Annona exsucca). ​This relatively short list of hyperdominant species could “guide assisted restoration and enrichment strategies” in the Amazon, the researchers said, and help Brazil meet the goal of restoring 12 million hectares (30 million acres) of forests by 2030, an area roughly the size of North Korea. ​“These areas are already restoring [ecological] services and biodiversity,” Fernando Elias, a researcher in Pará&#8217;s Emílio Goeldi Museum and the coordinator of the study, told Mongabay. “That is why it is so important to understand how these forests behave.” According to Elias, the Brazilian Amazon has more than 140,000 square kilometers (around 57,000 square miles) of regrowing forests in areas previously deforested, known as secondary forests. In many cases, these lands have been abandoned after being used for cattle ranching. ​Most of it has the potential to recover naturally, without the need to plant a single seed. Close monitoring, however, is necessary to control fires, cattle ranching and land&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/key-tree-species-boost-amazon-forest-restoration-new-study-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/key-tree-species-boost-amazon-forest-restoration-new-study-shows/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328521</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Daniel Janzen and the long work of bringing back a forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/daniel-janzen-and-the-long-work-of-bringing-back-a-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/daniel-janzen-and-the-long-work-of-bringing-back-a-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 14:48:44 +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/20/2026/08/21213756/Dan-Janzen-color-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327012</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Biology, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Dry Forests, Ecology, Environment, Evolution, Forests, Insects, Landscape Restoration, Research, Restoration, Science, Solutions, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In northwestern Costa Rica, the forest did not return all at once. First the cattle were removed. Then the fires had to be stopped. Introduced grasses made the old ranchlands burn too easily. Fence lines had to be watched. Seeds had to arrive by wind, birds, bats, and the stomachs of passing animals. People had [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In northwestern Costa Rica, the forest did not return all at once. First the cattle were removed. Then the fires had to be stopped. Introduced grasses made the old ranchlands burn too easily. Fence lines had to be watched. Seeds had to arrive by wind, birds, bats, and the stomachs of passing animals. People had to believe the land could become something other than pasture, and then stay long enough to see it happen. A park on paper can still burn. It can still be poached, logged, ignored, or resented. The work requires science, salaries, political agreements, national investment, school programs, local trust, and daily maintenance. It requires people who remain after the first burst of money and attention has passed. Popular accounts sometimes reduced the story to a solitary figure: an American ecologist with a beard, a camera, a theory, and a park. It was never that simple. For more than half a century, Daniel Hunt Janzen has worked in tandem with Winnie Hallwachs, his wife, scientific partner, and frequent interpreter to the human world. Around them grew a larger Costa Rican undertaking, carried by park leaders, field staff, parataxonomists, teachers, donors, government ministers, neighbors, and families who turned a conservation idea into a working landscape. Janzen is now 87. His field work has slowed, and he has stepped back from university teaching to focus on his role as Chief Scientist of the Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund (GDFCF), the nonprofit conservation organization he and Hallwachs founded with his&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/daniel-janzen-and-the-long-work-of-bringing-back-a-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/daniel-janzen-and-the-long-work-of-bringing-back-a-forest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327012</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How saline drinking water raises preeclampsia risks in coastal Bangladesh (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-saline-drinking-water-raises-preeclampsia-risks-in-coastal-bangladesh-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-saline-drinking-water-raises-preeclampsia-risks-in-coastal-bangladesh-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jul 2026 16:59:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashik Rubaiyat]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/23164359/Water-collection-from-pond-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324396</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Agriculture, Aquaculture, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Commentary, Drinking Water, Ecology, Fisheries, Storms, Water Pollution, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Hypertensive or high blood pressure disorders are among the leading causes of maternal deaths in low-income countries. A pregnancy complication known as preeclampsia, a hypertensive disorder, is listed among the top five causes of maternal deaths in Bangladesh. For expectant women with preeclampsia, timely treatment is required; otherwise, it can lead to issues such as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Hypertensive or high blood pressure disorders are among the leading causes of maternal deaths in low-income countries. A pregnancy complication known as preeclampsia, a hypertensive disorder, is listed among the top five causes of maternal deaths in Bangladesh. For expectant women with preeclampsia, timely treatment is required; otherwise, it can lead to issues such as elevated liver enzymes, low platelet count syndrome, hepatic failure, coma or loss of life.The Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the U.N. set an ambitious target to reduce the maternal mortality rate to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by the end of 2030. While many developed nations have already achieved the U.N. target, low- and middle-income countries are yet to achieve these goals. In Bangladesh, the maternal mortality rate is 196 per 100,000 live births and rates remain significantly higher in the neighboring countries . A recent study reported an association between hypertension, preeclampsia and high-salinity drinking water. The same study argues that, in Bangladesh, preeclampsia is associated with high-salt drinking water. Epidemiological evidence links high salt intake to hypertension in both adults and children. The scarcity of safe drinking water has become a serious global issue due to agricultural expansion, sea level rise caused by global warming and population growth. The IPCC, in its sixth Assessment Report (AR6), stated that climate change affects water availability and water quality. Globally, around 4 billion people face water scarcity for at least one month each year. Storm surges and rising sea levels make it easier for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-saline-drinking-water-raises-preeclampsia-risks-in-coastal-bangladesh-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-saline-drinking-water-raises-preeclampsia-risks-in-coastal-bangladesh-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324396</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Humans’ relationship with nature: Interview with ethnobotanist Pavel Partha</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/humans-relationship-with-nature-interview-with-ethnobotanist-pavel-partha/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/humans-relationship-with-nature-interview-with-ethnobotanist-pavel-partha/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jul 2026 22:56:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Usraat Fahmidah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/13134413/Pavel-Partha-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323233</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Biology, Botany, Conservation, Culture, Development, Ecology, Environment, Fellows, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Mongabay.org, Plants, and Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Pavel Partha and I first crossed paths almost two years ago at a 2024 sit-in protest against the destruction of Panthakunja Park in Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital. In a makeshift tent that housed a few activists, his eccentricity stood out as the researcher made a detailed list of the plants, birds and species affected by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Pavel Partha and I first crossed paths almost two years ago at a 2024 sit-in protest against the destruction of Panthakunja Park in Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital. In a makeshift tent that housed a few activists, his eccentricity stood out as the researcher made a detailed list of the plants, birds and species affected by the felling of trees. When I asked him why such documentation was necessary for a protest, he said the plants, trees and species that make up the ecosystem deserve recognition and justice too. Partha is a trained botanist. For almost two decades, he has researched Bangladesh&#8217;s plant diversity alongside the knowledge of Indigenous and local communities through ethnobotanical research (the study of human-plant relationships). But he is just as likely to be found at a protest advocating for the rights of Indigenous communities and the systems they depend on. He is currently the director of the  Bangladesh Resource Center for Indigenous Knowledge (BARCIK), where he has worked since 2003, and continues his research. For almost two decades, Pavel Partha has researched Bangladesh’s plant diversity alongside the knowledge of Indigenous and local communities through ethnobotanical research. Image by Usraat Fahmidah. In this interview with Mongabay, Partha reflects on his philosophies of research and activism, shares why ecological justice matters and expounds on how scientific research can support Indigenous communities facing environmental destruction. This interview has been edited for length and clarity and has been translated from Bangla. Mongabay: Where does this begin for you? Can you&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/humans-relationship-with-nature-interview-with-ethnobotanist-pavel-partha/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/humans-relationship-with-nature-interview-with-ethnobotanist-pavel-partha/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323233</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wildlife’s unpredictable movements make climate-change planning difficult</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/wildlifes-unpredictable-movements-make-climate-change-planning-difficult/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/wildlifes-unpredictable-movements-make-climate-change-planning-difficult/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jul 2026 10:40:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/30143313/6-Florida-panther-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322109</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Animal Behavior, Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Biology, Carnivores, Cats, Climate, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fragmentation, Habitat, Impact Of Climate Change, Mammals, Megafauna, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Protected Areas, Research, Science, Temperatures, Threatened species, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[New England’s winters have long been a punishing force. Forests fade in and out of deep freezes. Animals pile on fat for warmth in anticipation of the harsh weather to come. Others flee south, seeking warmer refuges. However, over the past 50 years, winters there have become much milder. In the northeastern U.S., winters now [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[New England’s winters have long been a punishing force. Forests fade in and out of deep freezes. Animals pile on fat for warmth in anticipation of the harsh weather to come. Others flee south, seeking warmer refuges. However, over the past 50 years, winters there have become much milder. In the northeastern U.S., winters now average between 4 and 5 degrees Fahrenheit (2.2 and 2.7 degrees Celsius) warmer than in the 1970s. Snowfall can be sparse, and there are usually fewer days of extreme cold. For decades, ecologists have expected that animals living within narrow climate niches would adapt to rising temperatures by moving northwards or upslope to higher elevations. For example, they thought the American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) in the northeastern U.S. would move up into the mountains in search of cold. But in a study published last year, scientists found that despite warmer winters, the squirrels haven’t sought out higher elevations. Rather, they’ve relocated downslope, seemingly drawn by the return of red spruce forest following a period of dieback. The tiny forest critters, it seems, are prioritizing habitat over temperature. The red squirrel isn’t alone. Thousands of plants and animals that scientists thought would be on the move in response to rising global temperatures don’t yet seem to have hit the road. In a 2023 study in the journal Environmental Evidence, scientists reviewed the observed range movements of more than 12,000 species, both terrestrial and marine, to see whether they aligned with what ecologists had expected would&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/wildlifes-unpredictable-movements-make-climate-change-planning-difficult/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/wildlifes-unpredictable-movements-make-climate-change-planning-difficult/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322109</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Robert Ricklefs, ecologist who helped generations understand nature, has died at 83</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/robert-ricklefs-ecologist-who-helped-generations-understand-nature-has-died-at-83/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/robert-ricklefs-ecologist-who-helped-generations-understand-nature-has-died-at-83/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jun 2026 00:42:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/13004208/Robert_Eric_Ricklefs_v2-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321120</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Birds, Ecology, Environment, Evolution, and Obituary]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At the mouth of the Carmel River, a teacher set up a spotting scope and let a boy look through it. The birds were the first thing he saw. The habit of looking came next. He saw that the world could be understood, though not quickly, and that its order did not reveal itself to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At the mouth of the Carmel River, a teacher set up a spotting scope and let a boy look through it. The birds were the first thing he saw. The habit of looking came next. He saw that the world could be understood, though not quickly, and that its order did not reveal itself to those in a hurry. Later he would say he never recovered from that experience. The remark was light, but also true. A childhood near Monterey, with woods behind the house and the Pacific within walking distance, gave him the subject of his life. Robert “Bob” Ricklefs, who died on June 7, a day after his 83rd birthday, spent that life asking how living things came to be where they are, and why they lived as they did. He became one of the most influential ecologists of his generation: an ornithologist, biogeographer, theorist, teacher, author and member of the National Academy of Sciences. His textbooks, Ecology and The Economy of Nature, shaped how thousands of students first encountered the field. Their authority came from clarity. He could take a tangled subject and find a usable path through it. Birds were his beginning. As a boy he joined weekend outings with the local Audubon Society and gained the status, modest but real, of a child with a serious interest. At Stanford he briefly followed the spirit of the space age into engineering, then returned to biology. At the University of Pennsylvania he entered the circle of Robert&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/robert-ricklefs-ecologist-who-helped-generations-understand-nature-has-died-at-83/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321120</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why conservation urgently needs acoustic baselines</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-sound-can-reveal-what-satellite-images-miss/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-sound-can-reveal-what-satellite-images-miss/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jun 2026 00:32:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/29222541/SBP-photos-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320333</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioacoustics, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Conservation Technology, Ecology, Environment, Green, Monitoring, Remote Sensing, Solutions, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[From above, an intact forest can look reassuringly complete. A satellite image may show an unbroken canopy, a block of green still standing amid plantations, roads or logged land. For many conservation programs, that view has become the starting point for measurement. If the canopy remains, the forest is often treated as if much of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[From above, an intact forest can look reassuringly complete. A satellite image may show an unbroken canopy, a block of green still standing amid plantations, roads or logged land. For many conservation programs, that view has become the starting point for measurement. If the canopy remains, the forest is often treated as if much of its ecological value remains as well. The forest itself may tell a more complicated story. Birds, insects, frogs and primates divide the day among them. Some call at dawn, others at night. Some occupy narrow frequency bands; others fill the background with a steady rasp. A forest that looks intact can still lose part of this living structure. The canopy may close after logging. Carbon may remain on a balance sheet. The animal community may not return in the same form. Garnet Pitta. Photo by Hanyrol Hanyzan Ahmad Sah A new paper in Global Change Biology, by Zuzana Buřivalová and colleagues, examines that problem through sound. The study describes the Soundscape Baselines Project, an effort to record the acoustic signatures of some of the world’s remaining intact forests before those reference points become harder to find. The idea is straightforward. To know whether a forest has changed, one needs to know what it sounded like before the change. That baseline is not only a technical convenience. It is a guard against a familiar problem in conservation: each generation tends to accept the nature it first encountered as normal. Daniel Pauly called this shifting baseline syndrome&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-sound-can-reveal-what-satellite-images-miss/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320333</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A year on, Australia’s biggest harmful algal bloom continues to wreak havoc</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-year-on-australias-biggest-harmful-algal-bloom-continues-to-wreak-havoc/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-year-on-australias-biggest-harmful-algal-bloom-continues-to-wreak-havoc/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jun 2026 18:42:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nick Rodway]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/08044105/1-d.-Algae-Bloom-Marine-Life-Washups-Stefan-Andrews_-12-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320708</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[algae, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Citizen Science, Climate, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Dolphins, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Governance, Habitat, Health, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Monitoring, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Penguins, Rays, Research, Sharks, Water, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PORT HUGHES, Australia — Situated midway along the Great Southern Reef that spans Australia’s southern coastline, the waters off Port Hughes typically teem with life. The coastal hamlet northwest of Adelaide plays host to a multitude of coral, bivalve and fish species. But in late March, the largest and longest harmful algal bloom (HAB) in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PORT HUGHES, Australia — Situated midway along the Great Southern Reef that spans Australia’s southern coastline, the waters off Port Hughes typically teem with life. The coastal hamlet northwest of Adelaide plays host to a multitude of coral, bivalve and fish species. But in late March, the largest and longest harmful algal bloom (HAB) in Australian history arrived to Port Hughes, depleting its waters’ rich biodiversity. The bloom had first appeared elsewhere off the state of South Australia’s coast a year earlier, causing eye and skin irritation and respiratory symptoms among beachgoers. Then, along with waves of acrid-smelling sea foam, scores of dead marine animals began washing ashore. In Port Hughes, the HAB’s impacts were most visible below the surface. The town’s wooden jetty had previously been one of the most consistent locations in South Australia to observe temperate species, said Stefan Andrews, co-founder of the Great Southern Reef Foundation, a conservation advocacy group. But by mid-April, when Mongabay joined Andrews on a dive, the site was drab compared with vibrant photographs taken in February and March. Under the jetty, sponges and corals that had previously adorned its pylons in a brilliantly hued mosaic appeared colorless. Apart from a short-headed seahorse (Hippocampus breviceps) — a “sign of hope,” Andrews called it — little life was visible in the murky waters. The reef, he said, had become quieter, lacking the sounds of snapping shrimp and other creatures that once played in the underwater soundtrack. “There’s a sense of loss when you&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-year-on-australias-biggest-harmful-algal-bloom-continues-to-wreak-havoc/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320708</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How small actions can become planetary forces</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-small-actions-can-become-planetary-forces/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-small-actions-can-become-planetary-forces/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jun 2026 00:16:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/30183504/lombok_260514183849_0066z-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320350</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioacoustics, Biodiversity, Books, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecology, Ecosystems, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Rainforests, Reforestation, Restoration, Solutions, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Thomas Crowther begins his book with a snakebite that was not, in any conventional sense, dangerous. The danger came from interpretation. A misidentified species, a surge of fear, and a body that responded as if the threat were real: numbness spread, panic intensified, and the situation escalated until a second opinion dissolved it almost instantly. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Thomas Crowther begins his book with a snakebite that was not, in any conventional sense, dangerous. The danger came from interpretation. A misidentified species, a surge of fear, and a body that responded as if the threat were real: numbness spread, panic intensified, and the situation escalated until a second opinion dissolved it almost instantly. The episode is more than an anecdote. It sets the terms of Nature’s Echo, a book that treats cause and effect not as linear sequences so much as loops that can amplify themselves in either direction. Thomas Crowther That idea—feedback loops as the underlying architecture of the natural world—is the organizing principle of the book. Crowther traces it from cosmology to ecology to human psychology, moving across scales with considerable ambition. The early chapters move outward from the origin of matter, suggesting that the same reinforcing processes that allowed stars to form also underpin biological evolution and social behavior. It is an ambitious framing. At its best, it brings a sense of coherence to subjects that are often treated separately. At times, the scope of the framework requires readers to travel across very different domains and scales of thought. The structure reflects that expansiveness. The table of contents alone signals the range: from “Cause and Effect” and “Feedback Loops” through “Resilience and Tipping Points” and into “The Story We Tell Ourselves.” The progression is deliberate. Crowther starts with physical systems, moves into ecological stability, and then into the social and psychological domains where perception begins&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-small-actions-can-become-planetary-forces/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320350</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How much suffering do invasive species cause? Researchers are measuring that</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/how-much-suffering-do-invasive-species-cause-researchers-are-measuring-that/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/how-much-suffering-do-invasive-species-cause-researchers-are-measuring-that/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 13:03:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Daniel Shailer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/28112829/Anoplolepis_gracilipes_458690499-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320237</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Galapagos, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Welfare, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecology, Endangered Species, Invasive Species, Monitoring, Research, and Threatened species]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Avian vampire flies (Philornis downsi) were not discovered in the Galápagos Islands for almost three decades after they were thought to have arrived from mainland Ecuador in the 1960s. Even then, the first were found by accident. Birgit Fessl, a landbird ecologist, was surveying for native species on the island of Santa Cruz in 1997 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Avian vampire flies (Philornis downsi) were not discovered in the Galápagos Islands for almost three decades after they were thought to have arrived from mainland Ecuador in the 1960s. Even then, the first were found by accident. Birgit Fessl, a landbird ecologist, was surveying for native species on the island of Santa Cruz in 1997 when she reached into the branches of a tree to take down the huge, domed nest of a woodpecker finch. Inside was a surprise. “We found one dying chick, another dead one which just looked sucked dry and 20 large maggots full of blood,” said Fessl, who now leads the Charles Darwin Foundation’s Landbird Conservation program. “I was stunned — the first dead baby in my hands. Then I realized it wasn’t an accident: It was everywhere,” she told Mongabay over a WhatsApp call. Across each of the Galapagos’ human-inhabited islands, vampire flies had already wrought havoc, killing some chicks in nests they infiltrated and leaving others maimed for life. “But it went unseen because people didn’t really know what to look for.” Around the world, more than 37,000 invasive species have been introduced to new environments. Many of these cause suffering, from vampire flies maiming finches to yellow crazy ants (Anoplolepis gracilipes) spraying acid at the eyes of shrikes (Laniidae) on Minami-Daitō Island, Japan, and Australian quolls (Dasyurus) bleeding from the nose after eating toxic cane toads (Rhinella marina). But none of these are measured by the current global standard for assessing the impact&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/how-much-suffering-do-invasive-species-cause-researchers-are-measuring-that/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320237</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ancient tree’s modern voyage from Sri Lanka to Texas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ancient-trees-modern-voyage-from-sri-lanka-to-texas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ancient-trees-modern-voyage-from-sri-lanka-to-texas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2026 15:59:05 +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/20/2026/05/11151046/Edited-banner-1-The-Jaya-Sri-Maha-Bodhic-Dulithi-Nethumsa-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319083</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Ecology, Environment, Governance, Plants, Politics, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ANURADHAPURA, Sri Lanka – Buddhist monks associated with the “Walk for Peace” initiative have carried a sapling of the sacred pipal or “bodhi” tree to the United States, more than 2000 years since the Indian Emperor Ashoka’s daughter, Sanghamitta, a Buddhist nun, carried a sapling of that same lineage from India to Sri Lanka. . [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ANURADHAPURA, Sri Lanka – Buddhist monks associated with the “Walk for Peace” initiative have carried a sapling of the sacred pipal or “bodhi” tree to the United States, more than 2000 years since the Indian Emperor Ashoka’s daughter, Sanghamitta, a Buddhist nun, carried a sapling of that same lineage from India to Sri Lanka. . In both narratives, the pipal tree became more than a plant but a living bridge across cultures and faith, rooting itself in new lands while carrying the same timeless message of compassion and mind’s awakening. Over 2,500 years ago (around 528 BCE), in the tranquil groves of Bodh Gaya in India, prince Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment beneath the shade of a pipal tree (Ficus religiosa) and became known as the Buddha. In the days that followed his awakening, he is said to have observed a week-long meditative silence as an expression of gratitude for the tree that provided him shelter until he attained enlightenment. From that moment onward, the pipal tree ceased to be treated as an ordinary organism, but as a living witness to enlightenment or a symbol of spiritual reverence across the Buddhist world, and the tree became known as the ‘Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi’ – the great bodhi tree. The tree’s historical journey to Sri Lanka is deeply rooted in devotion and early ecological consciousness. In the third century BCE (around 288 BCE), the sapling was ceremonially planted in the royal gardens in Anuradhapura, in North Central Sri Lanka. Since then, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ancient-trees-modern-voyage-from-sri-lanka-to-texas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319083</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tanzania cracks down on mining sector, aims for inclusivity and sustainability</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/tanzania-cracks-down-on-mining-sector-aims-for-inclusivity-and-sustainability/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/tanzania-cracks-down-on-mining-sector-aims-for-inclusivity-and-sustainability/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 13:12:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nkwimba Nkwimba]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07123009/Leseni-1-1-e1778157040581-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318933</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Critical Minerals, Ecology, Economics, Environment, Governance, Human Rights, Illegal Mining, and Mining]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tanzania canceled 40 mining exploration licenses and put another 43 license holders on notice in a crackdown linked to the government’s “Mining for a Brighter Tomorrow” program that aims to create a more “inclusive and sustainable” mining sector. Anthony Mavunde, the minerals minister, told journalists on April 15, in Tanzania’s capital, Dodoma, that the government [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tanzania canceled 40 mining exploration licenses and put another 43 license holders on notice in a crackdown linked to the government’s “Mining for a Brighter Tomorrow” program that aims to create a more “inclusive and sustainable” mining sector. Anthony Mavunde, the minerals minister, told journalists on April 15, in Tanzania’s capital, Dodoma, that the government wanted to restore order in the mining sector, and curb violations of license conditions by mine developers who hoard mining blocks without developing them. The concerned concessions cover approximately 900 square kilometers (350 square miles), according to the minister. The government plans to reallocate some of the recovered mining blocks to women, youth and people with disabilities to expand local participation in the sector. “Some investors hold land for many years without any meaningful investment. This is wastage of economic opportunities and a catalyst for environmental destruction and conflicts,” Mavunde said. Besides holding on to the land, the 40 license holders are accused of failing to pay the requisite fees, fulfilling local content requirements (the use of domestically produced goods, services and labor) as well as failing to meet corporate social responsibility obligations. Joyce Andrew, a small-scale miner in Tanzania’s Shinyanga region, examines mined ore. Image courtesy of Shaaban Njia. “We do not want to see our resources turn into a curse. Mining must go hand in hand with environmental conservation,” Mavunde said. Stakeholders interviewed by Mongabay expressed concerns about how neglected exploration sites become hubs for unregulated mining activity, leading to severe land degradation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/tanzania-cracks-down-on-mining-sector-aims-for-inclusivity-and-sustainability/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318933</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mitchell Byrd, ornithologist who helped bring bald eagles back from the brink in the Chesapeake area</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/mitchell-byrd-ornithologist-who-helped-bring-bald-eagles-back-from-the-brink-in-the-chesapeake-area/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/mitchell-byrd-ornithologist-who-helped-bring-bald-eagles-back-from-the-brink-in-the-chesapeake-area/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Apr 2026 00:58:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/03160558/Mitchell-Byrd-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316952</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Ecology, Endangered Species, Environment, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Hope and optimism, Obituary, Raptors, Reintroductions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the long arc of conservation, recovery is often slow enough to be mistaken for stasis. Populations dwindle, habitats shrink, and the work of reversal depends less on moments of triumph than on decades of patient observation, persuasion, and persistence. Progress is recorded not in headlines but in ledgers: nests counted, territories mapped, landowners convinced, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the long arc of conservation, recovery is often slow enough to be mistaken for stasis. Populations dwindle, habitats shrink, and the work of reversal depends less on moments of triumph than on decades of patient observation, persuasion, and persistence. Progress is recorded not in headlines but in ledgers: nests counted, territories mapped, landowners convinced, protections negotiated. For much of the late 20th century along the rivers and marshes of the Chesapeake Bay, that work took place in small planes flying low over rivers and marshes or on foot through stretches of shoreline that were steadily giving way to development. By the time bald eagles began to return in visible numbers, their recovery was already the product of many such accumulated efforts. The ban on DDT and the framework of the Endangered Species Act created the conditions for resurgence. But translating those conditions into viable populations required sustained attention to where birds lived, nested, and fed—and to the human pressures that continued to erode those places. Mitchell A. Byrd was among those who devoted a career to that task. Over more than half a century, much of it at the College of William &amp; Mary, he became closely associated with efforts to monitor and restore bird populations in Virginia and the wider Chesapeake region. He was widely credited with helping to bring the bald eagle back from the edge of disappearance in the state, though he was inclined to deflect such claims, attributing recovery to broader forces while emphasizing the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/mitchell-byrd-ornithologist-who-helped-bring-bald-eagles-back-from-the-brink-in-the-chesapeake-area/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316952</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate or biodiversity? Global study maps out forestation’s dilemma</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-or-biodiversity-global-study-maps-out-forestations-dilemma/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-or-biodiversity-global-study-maps-out-forestations-dilemma/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Mar 2026 02:45:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/05160753/5343928380_7661771c5f_o-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315265</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Earth Science, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Fungi, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Landscape Restoration, Logging, Mitigation, National Parks, Oceans, Parks, Plants, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Restoration, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Planting trees is a vital strategy to combat both climate change and the biodiversity crisis. As forests grow, they sponge carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and provide renewed habitat for threatened animals, plants, fungi and countless unseen lifeforms. That ability of forests to help slow climate change has driven a push to reforest degraded lands [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Planting trees is a vital strategy to combat both climate change and the biodiversity crisis. As forests grow, they sponge carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and provide renewed habitat for threatened animals, plants, fungi and countless unseen lifeforms. That ability of forests to help slow climate change has driven a push to reforest degraded lands or even plant new forests where none existed before. It’s also spurred other strategies, like the cultivation of bioenergy crops coupled with carbon capture. But these approaches require a lot of land, and they could potentially put pressure on the species that live in these spots — if a forestation project or hectares of bioenergy row crops subsume native grasslands, for example. A recent analysis shows that around 13% of globally important, biodiversity-rich land overlaps with areas earmarked for these types of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) projects. “It&#8217;s unfortunate that we face multiple global problems all at once, including both climate change and biodiversity loss,” said Mark Urban, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut in the U.S., who wasn’t involved in the research. “When we try to fix one, we can make things worse for the other.” Agroforestry in Ethiopia. Image by Trees ForTheFuture via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, used five existing models that guide climate action in line with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting warming to 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels to map out locations tabbed&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-or-biodiversity-global-study-maps-out-forestations-dilemma/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315265</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Beetle known for ravaging mango trees now killing baobabs, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/beetle-known-for-ravaging-mango-trees-now-killing-baobabs-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/beetle-known-for-ravaging-mango-trees-now-killing-baobabs-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Mar 2026 14:18:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/05133804/baobab-in-oman-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315242</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Madagascar, Middle East, Oman, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Dry Forests, Ecology, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forestry, Forests, Plants, Research, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A couple of years ago, Sarah Venter wrote an article gently picking apart alarm over the specter of Africa&#8217;s iconic baobabs dying off due to climate change. Her review found that while a number of famously large and ancient trees had indeed collapsed in worsening conditions, Adansonia digitata were generally proving resilient. When she heard [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A couple of years ago, Sarah Venter wrote an article gently picking apart alarm over the specter of Africa&#8217;s iconic baobabs dying off due to climate change. Her review found that while a number of famously large and ancient trees had indeed collapsed in worsening conditions, Adansonia digitata were generally proving resilient. When she heard about fears that a new pest was killing worrying numbers of baobabs in Oman, she set off to investigate, at the invitation of Oman’s Environmental Authority. There are eight species of baobab, members of the genus Adansonia. A. digitata is widely distributed across East, West and Southern Africa; one species is restricted to northwestern Australia; and the other six are found only in Madagascar, believed to be the center of origin for this striking family of trees that stand majestically on barrel-like trunks and can live for well over a thousand years. Three of Madagascar’s baobab species are threatened — A. grandidieri and A. suarezensis are listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List, and A. perrieri is critically endangered — by logging, charcoal production, wildfires, and mining of the forests they’re found in. Historical records and genetic research suggest baobabs reached Oman, on the Arabian Peninsula, centuries ago as part of the circulation of valuable plants between northeastern Africa, the Persian Gulf and South Asia by nomadic and fishing communities on the Indian Ocean. Batocera rufomaculata adult (a) and larvae (b). Images courtesy of Sarah Venter. It was the health of about 100 baobabs&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/beetle-known-for-ravaging-mango-trees-now-killing-baobabs-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315242</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Falling Amazon river flows trigger reality check at Belo Monte power plant</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/falling-amazon-river-flows-trigger-reality-check-at-belo-monte-power-plant/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/falling-amazon-river-flows-trigger-reality-check-at-belo-monte-power-plant/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Mar 2026 12:16:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rafael Spuldar]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/04115252/AP24255823406395-scaled-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315146</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Drought, Ecology, Energy, Environment, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Rainforests, Rivers, Water, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Brazil bet big on a mega river dam using old data, but climate change is leaving its massive turbines high and dry.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Brazil’s largest Amazon hydropower plants are becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change, and Belo Monte may be the clearest warning sign yet. Built on the Xingu River after years of debate over its environmental impacts and the reliability of its energy output, the mega-dam is facing a problem its planners could not solve with engineering: less water. This reality is reflected in two major studies published in late 2025 — one led by Brazil’s water and sanitation agency, ANA, and the other by the federal energy research office, EPE. From different angles, both reports conclude that climate change is fundamentally reshaping the country’s water and energy systems, requiring urgent adaptation — 43.7% of Brazil’s energy comes from hydropower plants. ANA’s report warns that hydropower plants across the Amazon region could lose up to 40% of their generation capacity over the next 20-30 years if planning continues to rely on historical water flow data rather than climate-adjusted projections. The Xingu River Basin in particular will face significantly longer and more intense dry seasons over the coming decades. Maximum river flows could decline by up to 50%, according to the study published in November 2025, while consecutive dry periods — historically around 20 days — may extend to as many as 40 days by the end of the century, with some dry spells lasting up to 150 days. Those numbers look into the future, but the severity of droughts and their impact on Amazon dams are today’s reality. In 2024, during the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/falling-amazon-river-flows-trigger-reality-check-at-belo-monte-power-plant/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315146</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Profitable cash crop trend in Bangladesh’s hills affects regional ecology</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/profitable-cash-crop-trend-in-bangladeshs-hills-affects-regional-ecology/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/profitable-cash-crop-trend-in-bangladeshs-hills-affects-regional-ecology/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Feb 2026 09:44:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/26093741/Bananas_Pritilata_Hall_University_of_Chittagong_01-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314840</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crops, Ecology, Environment, Farming, Monocultures, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The hill people of Bangladesh have been moving to profitable cash crops for the last couple of decades, dropping traditional agricultural practices. However, the economic gain soon turned into ecological damages, including severe soil erosion and water crisis. The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region in Bangladesh, comprising three districts — Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarbans — [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The hill people of Bangladesh have been moving to profitable cash crops for the last couple of decades, dropping traditional agricultural practices. However, the economic gain soon turned into ecological damages, including severe soil erosion and water crisis. The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region in Bangladesh, comprising three districts — Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarbans — has a unique hill forest landscape and rich biodiversity and is home to several Indigenous communities. The agricultural people of CHT have long been accustomed to the shifting, or slash-and-burn, cultivation process, locally known as jhum. Jhum cultivation is a process where farmers use a piece of land for cropping for one to three years, then leave it fallow for five to 20 years. They later clear rain-fed trees and bushes using the slash-and-burn method to make it arable again. A 2016 study mentioned that, lately, people of the region are farming pineapple, banana, papaya, turmeric and ginger, which are usually cultivated on the same land every year. “Cultivating cash crops has become very common in the region now, and these crops do not need the land to be kept fallow. All the changes come through different initiatives, including government and non-government projects, and also by the social influencers and corporates,” said Ratan Kumar Dey, former project manager at Anando, a Bangladeshi nonprofit that empowers rural populations. Dey worked in CHT for 18 years till 2025. Smoke and fire rise over land used for jhum cultivation on the hills of Bandarban, CHT. Image by Ariful&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/profitable-cash-crop-trend-in-bangladeshs-hills-affects-regional-ecology/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314840</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A hundred-year vision: Gary Tabor on the rise of large landscape conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/a-hundred-year-vision-gary-tabor-on-the-rise-of-large-landscape-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/a-hundred-year-vision-gary-tabor-on-the-rise-of-large-landscape-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Feb 2026 14:04:57 +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/20/2026/02/16003533/gary-tabor-rainbow_1425-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314276</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Australia, Canada, East Africa, Global, North America, Uganda, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecology, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Fragmentation, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Landscape Restoration, Mammals, Mountains, Restoration, Temperate Forests, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Many view conservation as a ledger of discrete gains—acres saved or species rebounded—but for Gary Tabor, the more vital metric is architecture. He focuses on systems that hold when pressure builds. Few careers illustrate that preoccupation better than that of Tabor, an ecologist and wildlife veterinarian whose work prioritizes the relationship between places as much [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Many view conservation as a ledger of discrete gains—acres saved or species rebounded—but for Gary Tabor, the more vital metric is architecture. He focuses on systems that hold when pressure builds. Few careers illustrate that preoccupation better than that of Tabor, an ecologist and wildlife veterinarian whose work prioritizes the relationship between places as much as the protection of the places themselves. Tabor’s conservation instincts were shaped early. As a child, he spent nine summers at a rustic camp in the Adirondack Park, climbing all 46 peaks above 4,000 feet and learning to navigate the portages and open lakes of the New York wilderness. The landscape endured by design, protected by New York’s “Forever Wild” clause and by a civic idea that wilderness and people might coexist. He has returned to those same mountains for decades, seeing the same relatively unchanged woods that inspired the founders of the Wilderness Society. The lesson stuck. (left) Tabor doing a tropical forest wildlife survey. (right) Tabor doing Cock of the Rock research in Suriname. Courtesy of Tabor That early exposure provided Tabor with a sense of scale that would eventually outsize the mountains themselves. Tabor trained as a scientist, but his education accelerated in East Africa, where he lived and worked for nearly a decade. In places like Lake Nakuru, he saw the limits of the &#8220;island&#8221; model; the park was iconic, but it was also entirely fenced in and cut off from the broader landscape. While wildlife crossed boundaries by instinct, governance&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/a-hundred-year-vision-gary-tabor-on-the-rise-of-large-landscape-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314276</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Francis Hallé, the botanist who took a raft into the rainforest canopy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/francis-halle-the-botanist-who-took-a-raft-into-the-rainforest-canopy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/francis-halle-the-botanist-who-took-a-raft-into-the-rainforest-canopy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jan 2026 04:00:24 +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/20/2026/01/22035152/Francis-Halle-Thomas-Samson-AFP-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313216</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Europe, France, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecology, Environment, Forests, Green, Obituary, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In most forests, a visitor’s eye is trained on what can be reached. The trunk can be measured. The leaves can be plucked. A specimen can be pressed, labeled, and filed away. Yet the largest share of life in a tropical rainforest is suspended overhead, in a zone of light, wind, and constant exchange. For [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In most forests, a visitor’s eye is trained on what can be reached. The trunk can be measured. The leaves can be plucked. A specimen can be pressed, labeled, and filed away. Yet the largest share of life in a tropical rainforest is suspended overhead, in a zone of light, wind, and constant exchange. For much of the 20th century, that upper world remained a blank on the map of biology, less from lack of curiosity than from a practical problem: it was hard to work where you could not stand. Science often advances when someone treats a logistical obstacle as an intellectual one. In the 1980s, a group of researchers and engineers devised a way to bring a laboratory to the canopy itself. A balloon could lift a platform, set it down on the crowns of trees, and allow botanists to move and observe without felling what they came to study. The method was unglamorous in its intent, even if the image was memorable: a raft perched in the treetops. It opened a layer of forest that had been described more than it had been examined. The botanist at the center of this project had little taste for grand titles. Asked if he was an explorer, he waved it away. “No, no, no, botanist is more than enough for me.” he said. “Life is too short for a botanist,” he added, as if the subject could never be finished. The remark was not a pose. It reflected a view&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/francis-halle-the-botanist-who-took-a-raft-into-the-rainforest-canopy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313216</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From south to north, Sri Lanka’s cricket dreams undermine fragile ecosystems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/from-south-to-north-sri-lankas-cricket-dreams-undermine-fragile-ecosystems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/from-south-to-north-sri-lankas-cricket-dreams-undermine-fragile-ecosystems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jan 2026 13:51:40 +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/20/2026/01/19123959/1-Mandathivu-island-c-Muhunthan-Balachandiran-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313088</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Development, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fishing, Forest Destruction, Governance, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Infrastructure, Islands, Mangroves, Marine, Planetary Boundaries, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Cricket is more than a sport in Sri Lanka. It is woven into the country’s postindependence identity, a unifying passion that cuts across class, ethnicity and geography. Yet in recent years, the push to expand cricket infrastructure has increasingly collided with fragile ecosystems, triggering uncomfortable questions about development priorities, environmental governance and climate [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Cricket is more than a sport in Sri Lanka. It is woven into the country’s postindependence identity, a unifying passion that cuts across class, ethnicity and geography. Yet in recent years, the push to expand cricket infrastructure has increasingly collided with fragile ecosystems, triggering uncomfortable questions about development priorities, environmental governance and climate resilience. The latest controversy centers around plans to build an international cricket stadium on Mandaitivu, a small island off the Jaffna Peninsula in Sri Lanka’s Northern province. Environmentalists warn that the proposal threatens a sensitive coastal ecosystem already under pressure from sea-level rise, flooding and postwar development. Mandaitivu Island has a traditional fishing community that relies on prawns and crabs for its livelihood, and the mangrove ecosystems are their breeding ground. Image courtesy of Muhunthan Balachandiran. In September, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake launched the construction, stating that the Jaffna International Cricket Stadium will not merely be a venue for cricket, but a symbol of national unity. Prasanna Rodrigo, media spokesperson for Sri Lanka Cricket, confirms a delay in commencing construction due to Cyclone Ditwah but says development work is being carried out as planned to have the project commissioned for international matches by 2027. This international cricket ground is part of Sri Lanka Cricket’s broader initiative to develop a modern sports city in Jaffna covering a total area of 56 hectares (138 acres), Rodrigo told Mongabay. Mandaitivu is a low-lying island of 7.6 square kilometers (2.9 square miles), rising only about 5 meters (16 feet) above sea&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/from-south-to-north-sri-lankas-cricket-dreams-undermine-fragile-ecosystems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313088</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Madhav Gadgil, advocate of democratic conservation, has died at 83</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/madhav-gadgil-advocate-of-democratic-conservation-has-died-at-83/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/madhav-gadgil-advocate-of-democratic-conservation-has-died-at-83/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jan 2026 19:39:11 +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/20/2026/01/08193219/Madhav-Gadgil-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312783</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, India, South Asia, and Western Ghats]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Ecology, Environment, Forests, Governance, Green, Land Rights, Obituary, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In India, arguments about nature are often treated as friction in the path of progress. Madhav Gadgil insisted they were arguments about power: who gets to decide what happens to a forest, a river, a hillside, and on what evidence. He made that case as a scientist, and then made it again as a citizen [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In India, arguments about nature are often treated as friction in the path of progress. Madhav Gadgil insisted they were arguments about power: who gets to decide what happens to a forest, a river, a hillside, and on what evidence. He made that case as a scientist, and then made it again as a citizen who did not care much whether officials found it convenient. Gadgil, an ecologist associated most closely with the Western Ghats and with a democratic approach to conservation, died on January 7, 2025. He was 83. He was born in Pune and grew up with two unusual advantages: access to books and access to the living world. His father, Dhananjaya Ramchandra Gadgil, bought him binoculars and helped him learn birds “in the pre-pesticide days.” A neighbor, the anthropologist Irawati Karve, shaped his outlook in a different way, encouraging him to grow up without religious, caste, or class prejudices. When Gadgil was nine, he accompanied Karve on fieldwork to Kodagu, where he saw wild elephants and a sacred grove at Talakaveri, near the origin of the Kaveri River. It was an early lesson in how landscapes hold meaning beyond their market price. As a young man he was physically tough and competitive—running, swimming, and playing racket sports—traits that suited a field naturalist who preferred to learn by looking closely. Another early lesson arrived through development. In Jawaharlal Nehru’s India, dams were “temples of modern India.” Gadgil learned at 14 about forest destruction and displacement linked to the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/madhav-gadgil-advocate-of-democratic-conservation-has-died-at-83/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/madhav-gadgil-advocate-of-democratic-conservation-has-died-at-83/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312783</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>An inventory of life in California</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/an-inventory-of-life-in-california/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/an-inventory-of-life-in-california/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jan 2026 23:50:58 +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/20/2026/01/06234519/ca_huddart_park_180107197-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312680</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Citizen Science, Conservation, DNA, Ecology, Environment, Fungi, Green, Insects, Invertebrates, and Plants]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; Why Mongabay is reporting on California’s biodiversity Mongabay’s coverage of biodiversity has long been associated with tropical forests and far-flung frontiers. Yet California—wealthy, populous, and intensively studied—presents a different kind of challenge. It is one of the planet’s biodiversity hotspots, and yet much of its life remains undocumented, unnamed, and unaccounted for. That contradiction [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; Why Mongabay is reporting on California’s biodiversity Mongabay’s coverage of biodiversity has long been associated with tropical forests and far-flung frontiers. Yet California—wealthy, populous, and intensively studied—presents a different kind of challenge. It is one of the planet’s biodiversity hotspots, and yet much of its life remains undocumented, unnamed, and unaccounted for. That contradiction sits at the heart of the California All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (CalATBI), a statewide effort to catalogue life before it disappears. Over the past several months, Mongabay has reported on CalATBI and its partners as they attempt something unusually comprehensive: to build a verifiable, statewide baseline robust enough to support decades of future decisions. What follows draws on Mongabay’s reporting on insects, fungi, museum collections, and field science in California. It is not a catalogue of threats, nor a tour of charismatic species. It is a portrait of an infrastructure project—scientific, institutional, and human—designed to answer a basic question that turns out to be surprisingly hard to settle: what lives here? Discovering what still lives here &nbsp; California has never lacked for ambition. Its 20th-century infrastructure projects—like dams, aqueducts, and freeways—are known for their scale and confidence. CalATBI belongs to that lineage, though its raw material is not concrete or steel, but beetles, spores, DNA fragments, and pinned moths. The premise is straightforward. California cannot protect what it has not documented. Despite centuries of natural history, thousands of species remain undescribed, particularly among insects, fungi, and soil organisms. Many exist only as fleeting presences, active for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/an-inventory-of-life-in-california/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/an-inventory-of-life-in-california/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312680</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Up close with Mexico’s fish-eating bats: Interview with researcher José Juan Flores Martínez</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/up-close-with-mexicos-fish-eating-bats-interview-with-researcher-jose-juan-flores-martinez/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/up-close-with-mexicos-fish-eating-bats-interview-with-researcher-jose-juan-flores-martinez/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2025 17:54:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid Arellano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/30230254/murcielago-pescador-cover3-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312388</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bats, Coastal Ecosystems, Deserts, Ecology, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Evolution, Fishing, Green, Interviews, Invasive Species, Islands, Mammals, Marine, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the early 2000s, José Juan Flores Martínez was studying for a bachelor’s degree in biology and working as a volunteer in a program designed to control invasive rodents on islands in the Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico, which are home to several seabird colonies. On one of those expeditions, his group traveled to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the early 2000s, José Juan Flores Martínez was studying for a bachelor’s degree in biology and working as a volunteer in a program designed to control invasive rodents on islands in the Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico, which are home to several seabird colonies. On one of those expeditions, his group traveled to Isla Partida Norte near the city of La Paz, where something surprised them: they heard bats. Accustomed to seeing them in caves, Flores Martínez was intrigued when he saw them coming out from between the rocks and making clicking sounds under his feet. “It surprised me to find out that they were on an island, in the middle of the desert, under extreme conditions: They can resist sub[-freezing] temperatures and heat above 50 degrees [Celsius, or about 122° Fahrenheit],” said Flores Martínez, now an academic technician at the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s (UNAM) Institute of Biology. “But it was much more surprising to me that, when I began to ask questions, I was told that they feed on fish.” They were fish-eating bats (Myotis vivesi), and they fascinated Flores Martínez. This fascination led him, along with researcher Gerardo Herrera Montalvo, to embark on a scientific journey that has lasted a quarter of a century and counting. The fish-eating bat is the largest bat in its genus, reaching up to 16 centimeters (about 6 inches) in length. Its long, shiny fur is waterproof, which comes in handy as it maneuvers above the surface of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/up-close-with-mexicos-fish-eating-bats-interview-with-researcher-jose-juan-flores-martinez/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/up-close-with-mexicos-fish-eating-bats-interview-with-researcher-jose-juan-flores-martinez/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312388</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How are California&#8217;s birds faring amid ever more frequent wildfires?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/how-are-californias-birds-faring-amid-ever-more-frequent-wildfires/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/how-are-californias-birds-faring-amid-ever-more-frequent-wildfires/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2025 14:33:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/30150019/13-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312309</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, Sierra Nevada, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Air Pollution, Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, data, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forests, Monitoring, Owls, Research, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the forests of the Sierra Nevada, the black-backed woodpecker is without parallel. The bird appears almost born of fire, thriving on the flames that flicker through California’s coniferous forests every few years. Swooping in shortly after a blaze subsides, this woodpecker species, Picoides arcticus, nests in the hollowed-out trees the burn has left behind, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the forests of the Sierra Nevada, the black-backed woodpecker is without parallel. The bird appears almost born of fire, thriving on the flames that flicker through California’s coniferous forests every few years. Swooping in shortly after a blaze subsides, this woodpecker species, Picoides arcticus, nests in the hollowed-out trees the burn has left behind, gorging on an abundance of longhorn and bark beetles. Throughout the forest, a steady whack-whack can be heard from the birds&#8217; bills drilling into charred wood. The relationship between wildlife and wildfire is a complicated one. Many bird species, like the black-backed woodpecker, need the occasional inferno to create new habitat by opening up the forest canopy and increasing available food by kicking off a boom in insect populations. “While it’s ephemeral, it’s a native habitat of California that many species rely on and have evolved with over millions of years,” says ornithologist Morgan Tingley, whose research at the University of California, Los Angeles, focuses on the interplay of fire and bird populations. The black-backed woodpecker thrives on fires that burn through California’s coniferous forests every few years, opening the forest and creating an abundance  of insects they feed on. Image by Morgan Tingley/UCLA. But historically, this dynamic rested on moderate or mixed-severity fire — not the raging “megafires” that now scorch through the American West and leave little behind. In California, fires have burned more than 5.3 million hectares (13 million acres) over the past decade. In 2020 alone, blazes ripped through more than&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/how-are-californias-birds-faring-amid-ever-more-frequent-wildfires/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/how-are-californias-birds-faring-amid-ever-more-frequent-wildfires/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312309</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cyclone Ditwah exposes climate risks to nature-based tourism in Sri Lanka</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/cyclone-ditwah-exposes-climate-risks-to-nature-based-tourism-in-sri-lanka/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/cyclone-ditwah-exposes-climate-risks-to-nature-based-tourism-in-sri-lanka/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Dec 2025 16:22:38 +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/20/2025/12/24154243/1-18-bends-road-Kehenpathdoruwa-Yahangala-mountain-ranges-c-Kasun-de-Silva-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312019</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Disasters, Ecology, Ecosystems, Ecotourism, Landscape Restoration, Mountains, National Parks, Storms, Tourism, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s misty hill country, a hub for nature-based tourism, is currently grappling with the aftermath of Cyclone Ditwah. Landslides, flash floods and damaged infrastructure have disrupted the peak tourist season and raised questions about the resilience of these ecosystems in a changing climate. Stretching across the Central Highlands, the region is famed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Sri Lanka’s misty hill country, a hub for nature-based tourism, is currently grappling with the aftermath of Cyclone Ditwah. Landslides, flash floods and damaged infrastructure have disrupted the peak tourist season and raised questions about the resilience of these ecosystems in a changing climate. Stretching across the Central Highlands, the region is famed for its scenic mountains, waterfalls, cloud forests and wildlife-rich protected areas. UNESCO World Heritage sites such as the Knuckles Conservation Forest, Horton Plains National Park, Peak Wilderness and dozens of breathtaking waterfalls form the backbone of Sri Lanka’s nature tourism, attracting visitors from across the globe and generating substantial local income. A landslide-hit sections of a trail leading to the famous Adam’s Peak, a route frequented by thousands of pilgrims and hikers forming a part of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Peak Wilderness. Image by Shaminda Ranshan. Peak season interrupted December to March is traditionally the busiest tourism season for Sri Lanka. In Ella, one of the island’s most popular scenic towns, hotels and homestays reported mass cancellations after access roads were damaged and landslide fears escalated following days of relentless rain. “For many small operators, the peak tourist season supports livelihoods for an entire year,” said Mithila Bandara, spokesperson for the Hill Country Tourism Bureau. “There were many cancellations in early December, but we are hopeful of conditions improving soon.” Local communities dependent on tourism for a living are facing a double blow — from direct landslide damage and the resulting loss of income. Image&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/cyclone-ditwah-exposes-climate-risks-to-nature-based-tourism-in-sri-lanka/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312019</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Project sees long-term success restoring forests in the high Andes: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/project-sees-long-term-success-restoring-forests-in-the-high-andes-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/project-sees-long-term-success-restoring-forests-in-the-high-andes-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 17:26:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/22091350/a.-Thibaud-Aronson-190206459-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311857</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Restoration Solutions]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Andes, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Ecology, Ecosystems, Education, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Livestock, Reforestation, Species, Trees, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[High in the Andes, Polylepis trees, with their stunted gnarled trunks and twisted limbs, cling to steep mountain slopes, boulder fields and sheltered ravines. Growing at altitudes of up to 5,000 meters (about 16,400 feet), they must withstand intense sun, biting wind, nighttime frost and seasonal drought. “They’re just crazy resilient trees,” says Tina Christmann, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[High in the Andes, Polylepis trees, with their stunted gnarled trunks and twisted limbs, cling to steep mountain slopes, boulder fields and sheltered ravines. Growing at altitudes of up to 5,000 meters (about 16,400 feet), they must withstand intense sun, biting wind, nighttime frost and seasonal drought. “They’re just crazy resilient trees,” says Tina Christmann, lecturer in environmental science at Southampton University in the U.K. Over centuries, grazing of the high mountain pastures has pushed Polylepis woodlands, called queñual in the local dialect, into only the most inaccessible locations. Researchers estimate they now cover a tiny sliver of their historic range across the Andes, about 2% of historic distribution in Peru and 10% in Bolivia. Yet the woodlands continue to play vital ecological roles. Polylepis trees have a remarkable ability to capture fog on their tiny leaves and channel water into the soil, feeding streams and rivers that travel all the way to the coast. The trees also weaken floods and stabilize mountain soils. Communities use the woodlands for firewood and medicinal herbs. A mature polylepis tree. Called queñual in local dialects in Peru, the polylepis includes 28 species of trees and shrubs. With their thick peeling bark, small waxy leaves, and stunted growth, polylepis trees are well adapted to the extreme temperatures, frequent droughts, strong winds and periodic fires that characterize the high Andes. Image by Tina Christmann. For decades, various groups have worked to restore Andean forest ecosystems, including the Polylepis woodlands. As part of her Ph.D. research,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/project-sees-long-term-success-restoring-forests-in-the-high-andes-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/project-sees-long-term-success-restoring-forests-in-the-high-andes-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311857</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Statewide survey aims to put California’s fungi on the conservation map</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/statewide-survey-aims-to-put-californias-fungi-on-the-conservation-map/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/statewide-survey-aims-to-put-californias-fungi-on-the-conservation-map/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Dec 2025 13:08:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/19121458/Image_2-LAPTOP-7JODAAGR-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311724</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Citizen Science, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, data, DNA, Drought, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forests, Fungi, Nitrogen Cycle, Plants, Soil Carbon, Species, Species Discovery, Surveying, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Getting to The Cedars, an ecological preserve in California’s Sonoma county, is a slog. Multiple rivers and creeks must be crossed, and it can be tough going on an often storm-destroyed road. But it’s home to a rich diversity of species found nowhere else on Earth that are uniquely adapted to serpentine soil, composed of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Getting to The Cedars, an ecological preserve in California’s Sonoma county, is a slog. Multiple rivers and creeks must be crossed, and it can be tough going on an often storm-destroyed road. But it’s home to a rich diversity of species found nowhere else on Earth that are uniquely adapted to serpentine soil, composed of decomposed rock and rich in heavy metals. If you’re a fungi collector, it’s well worth the trip. Over the past two years, a dedicated team of mycologists — specialists in the study of fungi — and experienced mushroom collectors have combed California’s forests, rivers and mountains in often remote locations such as this, searching for and collecting fungi. Those making the arduous journey out to The Cedars have identified more than 100 new species, 25 of which are only known from the area. They snapped photos, which were then uploaded with all pertinent data to iNaturalist, a citizen scientist biodiversity database. Collections have been sent to labs where scientists extracted DNA for sequencing. Dried specimens are stored for safe keeping at California State University, East Bay, and the University of California, Los Angeles. This is part of an expansive effort to map the state’s fungal diversity, which has yielded thousands of specimens and is the first of its kind in North America, says Harte Singer, who heads genetic research at the California Fungal Diversity Survey (CA FUNDIS). The CA FUNDIS team collected thousands of fungi species from across California. Many of those collected are undescribed.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/statewide-survey-aims-to-put-californias-fungi-on-the-conservation-map/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311724</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cyclone Ditwah takes heavy toll on Sri Lanka’s biodiversity-rich Central Highlands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/cyclone-ditwah-takes-heavy-toll-on-sri-lankas-biodiversity-rich-central-highlands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/cyclone-ditwah-takes-heavy-toll-on-sri-lankas-biodiversity-rich-central-highlands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Dec 2025 09:01:23 +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/20/2025/12/13104517/1.-Damage-at-knuckles-Yahangala-c-Jayantha-Wijesingha-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311285</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Disasters, Ecology, Environment, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Forests, Governance, Mountains, Protected Areas, and Storms]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Two weeks after Cyclone Ditwah struck Sri Lanka, the actual environmental cost of the disaster remains largely unknown, as immediate priorities were human safety, relief and recovery. The worst impact of the cyclone’s downfall is borne by the country’s Central Highlands, recording at least 640  deaths — the highest number of deaths due [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Two weeks after Cyclone Ditwah struck Sri Lanka, the actual environmental cost of the disaster remains largely unknown, as immediate priorities were human safety, relief and recovery. The worst impact of the cyclone’s downfall is borne by the country’s Central Highlands, recording at least 640  deaths — the highest number of deaths due to the cyclone — with another 221 persons still missing, according to the island’s Disaster Management Centre (DMC). Sri Lanka’s Central Highlands are the elevated mountainous region located in the central part of the island. This region is among the country’s most ecologically, hydrologically and culturally significant landscapes and includes some of the highest peaks, rich forests and important wildlife habitats boasting of high endemism. Early field observations by forest officers, wildlife staff and community monitors indicate the damage across these biodiversity-rich landscapes to be extensive. According to Pradeep Samarawickrama, an independent researcher and environmentalist, the Knuckles Mountain Range, a UNESCO-listed biodiversity hotspot, experienced some of the worst ecological impacts, with several major landslips reported. “Access roads to the remote areas are still blocked, so we have yet to conduct a full assessment of the situation. But the devastation is evident,” Samarawickrama tells Mongabay. Vegetation surrounding Glenfall waterfall. Picturesque water cascades in the Central district of Nuwara Eliya, which was impacted by intense rainfall during Cyclone Ditwah, with the topsoil washed away leaving slopes fully exposed — conditions that could seriously hinder natural forest regeneration. Image courtesy of Jinapriya Gallage. Fragile ecosystems under threat One&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/cyclone-ditwah-takes-heavy-toll-on-sri-lankas-biodiversity-rich-central-highlands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/cyclone-ditwah-takes-heavy-toll-on-sri-lankas-biodiversity-rich-central-highlands/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311285</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Africa’s wildlife has lost a third of its ‘ecological power,’ study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/africas-wildlife-has-lost-a-third-of-its-ecological-power-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/africas-wildlife-has-lost-a-third-of-its-ecological-power-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Dec 2025 16:19:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/10105005/e.-julie-larsen-%C2%A9WCS-5403-African-Lion-UGA-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311029</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s a fundamental question for ecologists in this age: How are biodiversity losses reshaping how ecosystems function? A recent study quantifies the impact of biodiversity and abundance losses on ecological functions by tracking the energy flows within them. “African wildlife has lost a third of its ecological power — the energy that drives vital ecosystem [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It’s a fundamental question for ecologists in this age: How are biodiversity losses reshaping how ecosystems function? A recent study quantifies the impact of biodiversity and abundance losses on ecological functions by tracking the energy flows within them. “African wildlife has lost a third of its ecological power — the energy that drives vital ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling, seed dispersal, and carnivory or pest control,” Ty Loft, a conservation biologist at the University of Oxford, U.K., and first author of the paper published in the journal Nature, told Mongabay by email. Conventional approaches that focus only on species abundance can tell us how animal populations have changed, for example, to what extent elephant numbers have fallen in a given region. But translating these changes into ecosystem-wide shifts is difficult, and doing so across thousands of species in a variety of ecosystems is a mammoth challenge. Ecological energetics quantifies how species shape ecosystems through their food intake, their ecological roles, and the energy that flows through them. Energy is constantly being transferred from vegetation to animals, between animals, and from animals back to the environment. The natural realm isn’t a static space with animals tacked onto it; these are living, breathing worlds with which animals inhabit and interact. Take vegetation: animals directly shape the landscape by grazing and browsing (eating), and indirectly through the dispersal of seeds and nutrients (e.g., through pooping). A Jackson’s hartebeest in Uganda. Image by Julie Larsen ©WCS. In the paper, Loft and his colleagues&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/africas-wildlife-has-lost-a-third-of-its-ecological-power-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311029</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>AI system eavesdrops on elephants to prevent deadly encounters in India</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/ai-system-eavesdrops-on-elephants-to-prevent-deadly-encounters-in-india/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/ai-system-eavesdrops-on-elephants-to-prevent-deadly-encounters-in-india/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Oct 2025 15:35:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/23082431/F-1-Elephant_Calf_and_Bar_Headed_Geese_-_Kaziranga_National_Park_Assam-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308169</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Atlantic Forest, India, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Crops, Development, Drought, Ecology, Elephants, Environment, Farming, Food, Forests, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Infrastructure, Technology, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When elephant biologist Seema Lokhandwala, with the Elephants Acoustic Project, visited a village near Balipara in India’s Assam state, as part of her fieldwork in December 2015, she witnessed firsthand what it takes to live alongside elephants. After night fell, a herd of 150 elephants — “I counted them,” she says — devoured all of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When elephant biologist Seema Lokhandwala, with the Elephants Acoustic Project, visited a village near Balipara in India’s Assam state, as part of her fieldwork in December 2015, she witnessed firsthand what it takes to live alongside elephants. After night fell, a herd of 150 elephants — “I counted them,” she says — devoured all of the freshly harvested rice stacked outside a woman’s house. Her entire year’s harvest, gone in minutes. Then, the giants ravaged her kitchen looking for salt, a mineral they need to survive, while the residents hid under the bed fearing for their lives. Just the previous night, elephants had mauled and killed a woman with three young children just across the street. That night left Lokhandwala shattered, but also resolved. That’s when she began thinking of ways to address the increasing human-elephant conflict that often leaves behind a trail of deaths. Assam, in India’s northeast, is one of the few remaining strongholds for Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in the country, with a stable population of nearly 6,000 individuals. It’s also the most populous state in the region, with more than 31 million people. Not surprisingly, Assam has one of the highest incidences of human-elephant conflicts. “Space is a constraint, and humans and elephants both need space,” says Kaushik Barua, a wildlife conservationist and founder of the NGO Assam Elephant Foundation. “It&#8217;s basically a land war between humans and elephants, unfortunately.” Expanding farmlands and increasing human settlements have encroached on what used to be elephant corridors. Linear&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/ai-system-eavesdrops-on-elephants-to-prevent-deadly-encounters-in-india/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308169</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>IUCN downgrades guiña threat status, prompting conservation warning</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/iucn-downgrades-guina-threat-status-prompting-conservation-warning/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/iucn-downgrades-guina-threat-status-prompting-conservation-warning/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Oct 2025 14:34:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/13084256/79fd8a84-da04-43e0-91f5-7bfc618733c6-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307359</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Chile, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Diseases, Ecology, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Destruction, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Research, Small Cats, Temperate Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The guiña, a small cat species found only in Chile and northern Argentina, has just been reclassified as of least concern by the IUCN. Until recently it was listed as vulnerable to extinction. Normally such a downgrading in threat status would be cause for celebration, but in this case some conservationists are hesitant. “It&#8217;s not [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The guiña, a small cat species found only in Chile and northern Argentina, has just been reclassified as of least concern by the IUCN. Until recently it was listed as vulnerable to extinction. Normally such a downgrading in threat status would be cause for celebration, but in this case some conservationists are hesitant. “It&#8217;s not that the species is doing better, it’s that we have better information,” explains Nicolas Galvez, who led the recent IUCN assessment and is an associate professor at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. This new information, he says, includes a higher population estimate and data showing guiña (Leopardus guigna) can survive not only in their native forest habitat, but in some altered agricultural landscapes. “Because of this better information, the species has been listed to least concern,” he says. In 2014, when the species was last assessed, this information was not available. But Galvez expects this status shift “will raise a lot of eyebrows in the environmental world and feline conservation world.” That’s because guiña continue facing a daunting number of threats in the wild, including human-wildlife conflict, habitat loss, disease contracted from domestic dogs and cats, climate change and, increasingly, severe forest fires in parts of its range. https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/10150443/Image_2_Low.mp4 Camera trap footage of a guiña. It is now considered of least concern across the entire distribution of the species, but three of six subpopulations remain in high danger of extinction. Image courtesy of Nicolás Gálvez Like other small cat species, guiña play an important and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/iucn-downgrades-guina-threat-status-prompting-conservation-warning/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/iucn-downgrades-guina-threat-status-prompting-conservation-warning/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/10150443/Image_2_Low.mp4" length="0" type="video/mp4" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307359</doi>				</item>
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