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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/exploration/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Mon, 12 Oct 2026 16:26:56 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Exploration</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/exploration/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Protecting Vietnam’s vast caves may have sparked a wildlife comeback</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/protecting-vietnams-vast-caves-may-have-sparked-a-wildlife-comeback/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/protecting-vietnams-vast-caves-may-have-sparked-a-wildlife-comeback/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Nov 2025 03:23:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Joshua Zukas]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/11060141/Maze-cave-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309239</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Caves, Conservation, Ecotourism, Environment, Environmental Law, Exploration, Sustainability, Tourism, Travel, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Thirty-five years ago, a Vietnamese hunter stumbled across the biggest cave on the planet — then promptly lost it. Hồ Khanh was deep in the 400-million-year-old karst limestone landscape that straddles central Vietnam and Laos. Beneath Hồ’s feet lay wet cave systems that spanned hundreds of kilometers, but his focus was on the tangled jungle [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Thirty-five years ago, a Vietnamese hunter stumbled across the biggest cave on the planet — then promptly lost it. Hồ Khanh was deep in the 400-million-year-old karst limestone landscape that straddles central Vietnam and Laos. Beneath Hồ’s feet lay wet cave systems that spanned hundreds of kilometers, but his focus was on the tangled jungle above. Here he hunted slow lorises, which he hawked as pets, and pangolins, whose scales are used in traditional medicine (and which perhaps helped spread COVID-19 from bats to humans). What he prized most, however, was agarwood, a rare, valuable and fragrant heartwood that could be carved into ornaments or burned as incense. When a sudden storm broke, Hồ slipped into a cave for cover. The hammering rain blurred the world into noise, yet it couldn’t drown out the blustering chambers from the cave’s dark depths. When the skies cleared, Hồ resumed his hunt. With time, the memory of this small crack in the mountain dimmed, and Hồ returned to his primary income source: looting the jungle. “Back then, we barely saw any wildlife,” recalls Howard Limbert, who began exploring the wilderness’s caves with his wife, Deb, in the 1990s. After several expeditions with the British Caving Association (BCA) in what became Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park in 2001, the Limberts were convinced that the region concealed vast, unknown caves. In 2007, when they heard Hồ’s story of a narrow opening that led to howling chambers, their curiosity was piqued. The three struck up a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/protecting-vietnams-vast-caves-may-have-sparked-a-wildlife-comeback/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/protecting-vietnams-vast-caves-may-have-sparked-a-wildlife-comeback/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309239</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Expedition charts Cook Islands seafloor, amid scrutiny over mining motives</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/expedition-charts-cook-islands-seafloor-amid-scrutiny-over-mining-motives/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/expedition-charts-cook-islands-seafloor-amid-scrutiny-over-mining-motives/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Nov 2025 20:46:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/06115614/Sea-cucumber-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308942</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cook Islands, Oceania, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critical Minerals, Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Ecosystems, Environment, Exploration, Mapping, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Mining, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Thousands of meters below the ocean’s surface, a camera attached to a remotely operated vehicle captured a ghostly white creature gliding above a plain of polymetallic nodules — mineral-rich rocks that resemble blackened potatoes. The animal’s orchid-shaped fins undulated as it cruised through the water, while its spindly tentacles trailed behind. This otherworldly creature was [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Thousands of meters below the ocean’s surface, a camera attached to a remotely operated vehicle captured a ghostly white creature gliding above a plain of polymetallic nodules — mineral-rich rocks that resemble blackened potatoes. The animal’s orchid-shaped fins undulated as it cruised through the water, while its spindly tentacles trailed behind. This otherworldly creature was a bigfin squid (genus Magnapinna), an organism that scientists have spotted fewer than two dozen times, and one that has never been physically captured. Adam Soule, a geologist and oceanographer who directs the U.S.-based Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute, the organization leading the expedition on a vessel known as the E/V Nautilus, said the bigfin squid sighting generated a rush of excitement. (The Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute and its U.S.-based partner organization, the Ocean Exploration Trust, are operating via a 10-year grant worth $200 million from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA). &nbsp; “One of the cool things about the Nautilus is that there&#8217;s a lot of people following online, watching in real time and sending in comments,” Soule told Mongabay. “And they were amazed. They were really excited, as was everyone on the ship.” The footage of the bigfin squid was filmed at a depth of more than 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Cook Islands, a small Pacific island nation located between American Samoa and French Polynesia. The entire Cook Islands EEZ, which spans 1.9 million square kilometers (about 734,000 square miles), also operates as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/expedition-charts-cook-islands-seafloor-amid-scrutiny-over-mining-motives/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/expedition-charts-cook-islands-seafloor-amid-scrutiny-over-mining-motives/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308942</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Only a tiny % of the deep seafloor has ever been visually observed: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/only-a-tiny-of-the-deep-seafloor-has-ever-been-visually-observed-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/only-a-tiny-of-the-deep-seafloor-has-ever-been-visually-observed-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 May 2025 16:24:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/30132656/2-Two-lithodid-crabs-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299946</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Environment, Exploration, Fish, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For national and international policymakers, decisions on how to regulate — and whether to allow — exploitative human activities such as deep-sea mining require good information. A new study suggests that when it comes to the ocean floor, they may not have it. Only 0.001% of the deep seafloor has ever been captured by photo [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For national and international policymakers, decisions on how to regulate — and whether to allow — exploitative human activities such as deep-sea mining require good information. A new study suggests that when it comes to the ocean floor, they may not have it. Only 0.001% of the deep seafloor has ever been captured by photo or video images, the study found. And that which has been captured is “biased” and potentially unrepresentative: 65% of observations have been in the waters of the United States, Japan or New Zealand, according to the study, which was published in the journal Science Advances on May 7. Lead author Katy Croff Bell, president of Ocean Discovery League, a U.S.-based nonprofit, said the study shows how much is still unknown about the deep sea and how much more research is required. “We’ve only seen 0.001%, and look at how much we know [from that] 0.001%,” she told Mongabay. “How much do we not know that’s yet to be discovered?” Ocean Discovery League president Katy Croff Bell prepares a low-cost winch system for deep-sea exploration during trials conducted off the coast of the U.S. state of Rhode Island in September 2023. Image courtesy of Ocean Discovery League/Susan Poulton. The deep sea is one of the hardest areas on Earth to study. The crushing pressure created by gravity, along with absolute darkness, make it hard to reach and navigate safely. “We know more about the dark side of the moon than we do about this, the deep&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/only-a-tiny-of-the-deep-seafloor-has-ever-been-visually-observed-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/only-a-tiny-of-the-deep-seafloor-has-ever-been-visually-observed-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299946</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>To protect the oceans, we must map them (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/to-protect-the-oceans-we-must-map-them-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/to-protect-the-oceans-we-must-map-them-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Aug 2023 15:52:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dawn Wright]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/10151946/Ocean-relief-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272008</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and Southern Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deep Sea, Drones, Ecosystems, Exploration, Green, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Research, Science, Technology, Wildtech, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[How had we missed this until now? An undersea mountain as tall as three Eiffel Towers. DDT contamination spread across an area of the seabed as large as San Francisco. Tens of thousands of undersea volcanoes. All hidden beneath the surface. For decades, my impassioned ocean science colleagues and I have spoken out about the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[How had we missed this until now? An undersea mountain as tall as three Eiffel Towers. DDT contamination spread across an area of the seabed as large as San Francisco. Tens of thousands of undersea volcanoes. All hidden beneath the surface. For decades, my impassioned ocean science colleagues and I have spoken out about the need to “save our ocean.” But to save it, we first have to understand it. About 80% of our ocean remains “unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored,” according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And that’s despite scientists, including myself, who have spent their lives studying and even diving to its unexplored depths. One of Esri&#8217;s marine mapping efforts visualizes ecological marine units (EMU), a comprehensive, standardized analysis layer of the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the oceans. Image courtesy of Esri. Now, we have the right technology to understand — and save — our ocean. Un-crewed, solar-powered marine drones explore with a wide range of sensors. High-resolution satellites and aircraft collect imagery. Remote operating vehicles can go deeper and further while recording data from the environment below. When paired with modern digital mapping, this new information reveals critical insights. There are even plans to build the Proteus research facility, akin to the space station, underwater off a Caribbean coast where researchers will live and work. The timing couldn’t be better as there is growing global urgency to do more to protect our ocean. All the excess heat our human activity is creating? The&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/to-protect-the-oceans-we-must-map-them-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/to-protect-the-oceans-we-must-map-them-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272008</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deep-sea expedition reveals rare octo-nurseries off Costa Rica</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/deep-sea-expedition-reveals-rare-octo-nurseries-off-costa-rica/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/deep-sea-expedition-reveals-rare-octo-nurseries-off-costa-rica/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jul 2023 19:15:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/04184820/FKt230602-S0536-20230612T173630Z-0-scitoo-octoShrimp-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270550</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Baby Animals, Deep Sea, Ecosystems, Exploration, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine, Marine Animals, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2013, scientists found octopuses doing something unusual at Dorado Outcrop, a small seamount off the west coast of Costa Rica. While most octopuses are known to be solitary animals, females had gathered at this spot to brood their eggs near a low-temperature hydrothermal vent. But at the time, scientists didn’t see any octopus babies, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2013, scientists found octopuses doing something unusual at Dorado Outcrop, a small seamount off the west coast of Costa Rica. While most octopuses are known to be solitary animals, females had gathered at this spot to brood their eggs near a low-temperature hydrothermal vent. But at the time, scientists didn’t see any octopus babies, which led them to theorize that the warm water and limited oxygen at the vent wasn’t allowing the eggs to develop fully. Ten years later, in June 2023, researchers plunged a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, back into the deep sea to search for the brooding octopuses at Dorado Outcrop. They got an even bigger surprise when they found them: this time, there were babies, making the outcrop a so-called “octopus nursery.” “​​The ROV mission control room erupted in squeals of amazement,” Beth Orcutt, an oceanographer of the U.S.-based Bigelow Laboratory, who co-led the mission, told Mongabay in an email. “People [were] pointing their fingers at the screens excitedly, clapping, hugging.” Several days later, the researchers discovered a second octopus nursery about thirty nautical miles away from the Dorado Outcrop on another low-temperature vent. Together, these two locations are two of only three known deep-sea octopus nurseries in the world. The third is on the Davidson Seamount off the coast of California. The biggest finding of the expedition is the confirmation that the small Dorado Outcrop in Costa Rica’s Pacific waters hosts an octopus nursery with hundreds of Muusoctopus species brooding viable eggs in low-temperature&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/deep-sea-expedition-reveals-rare-octo-nurseries-off-costa-rica/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/deep-sea-expedition-reveals-rare-octo-nurseries-off-costa-rica/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270550</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Global Ocean Census aims to find 100,000 marine species in 10 years</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/global-ocean-census-aims-to-find-100000-marine-species-in-10-years/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/global-ocean-census-aims-to-find-100000-marine-species-in-10-years/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 May 2023 20:50:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/03203006/OceanImageBank_RenataRomeo_41-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268237</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation Technology, Ecosystems, Exploration, Global Environmental Crisis, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, New Discovery, Oceans, Science, Species, Species Discovery, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On April 29, a team of scientists sailed on a research vessel to the chilly waters of the Barents Sea in the Arctic. They aim to find new marine species around cold seeps — cracks on the seafloor from which hydrogen sulfide, methane and other gases bubble up. Near these fissures, species, including soft corals, glass [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On April 29, a team of scientists sailed on a research vessel to the chilly waters of the Barents Sea in the Arctic. They aim to find new marine species around cold seeps — cracks on the seafloor from which hydrogen sulfide, methane and other gases bubble up. Near these fissures, species, including soft corals, glass sponges, sea pens and crustaceans, could be waiting to be discovered. Scientists estimate that only about 10% of marine species have been formally described, and about 2 million species have yet to be identified. A new global initiative called the Ocean Census aspires to change this. The Ocean Census has set an ambitious goal of finding 100,000 new marine species within a decade. It intends to do this by sending scientists on dozens of expeditions to marine biodiversity hotspots and using advanced technology like high-resolution imagery, DNA sequencing and machine learning. The initiative will undertake seven expeditions in its first year of operation but plans to do even more in the years to come, according to Nekton, a marine science and conservation institute in the U.K that co-founded the initiative with the Nippon Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropic organization in Japan. The first expedition is already underway in the Barents Sea, in partnership with the University of Tromsø. Only about 10% of marine species have been formally described. Image by Ocean Census via AP Images. The Ocean Census seeks to bring together many partners from science institutes, businesses, civil society organizations and media to achieve its&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/global-ocean-census-aims-to-find-100000-marine-species-in-10-years/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/global-ocean-census-aims-to-find-100000-marine-species-in-10-years/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268237</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Sherpas’ real stories are seldom written’: Q&#038;A with authors Ankit Babu Adhikari &#038; Pradeep Bashyal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/sherpas-real-stories-are-seldom-written-qa-with-authors-ankit-babu-adhikari-pradeep-bashyal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/sherpas-real-stories-are-seldom-written-qa-with-authors-ankit-babu-adhikari-pradeep-bashyal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Aug 2022 15:39:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/08135231/Sherpas-and-Sagarmatha-8-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258932</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Books, Climate Change, Exploration, Extreme Weather, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Interviews, Mountains, and Travel]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU – The Sherpa Indigenous community in Nepal has lived in the lap of the world’s tallest mountains for centuries. Ever since Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay and New Zealand climber Edmund Hillary became the first recorded individuals to summit Sagarmatha, the Nepali name for Mount Everest, in 1953, the Indigenous community’s ability to endure treacherous [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU – The Sherpa Indigenous community in Nepal has lived in the lap of the world’s tallest mountains for centuries. Ever since Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay and New Zealand climber Edmund Hillary became the first recorded individuals to summit Sagarmatha, the Nepali name for Mount Everest, in 1953, the Indigenous community’s ability to endure treacherous high-altitude conditions has gained an almost mythical status. Every year, Sherpas, who have now become synonymous with mountaineering in the Himalayas, guide hundreds of foreign adventurers on their excursions to Earth’s highest peaks, both in Nepal and elsewhere around the world. Every spring and autumn, the two mountaineering seasons in the Himalayas, religious leaders from the community offer prayers to the mountains, seeking their permission to start the climbing season. Teams of elite Sherpas, also known as the “icefall doctors,” clad in their climbing gear, trek up mountains such as Sagarmatha to fix the ropes and ladders that make it easier for their clients to climb the mountains. Other Sherpas carry heavy loads on their back so that the clients can travel light. A Sherpa guide and a climber. Teams of elite Sherpas, also known as the “icefall doctors,” clad in their climbing gear, trek up mountains such as Sagarmatha to fix the ropes and ladders that make it easier for their clients to climb the mountains. Image by McKay Savage via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). This service industry that has developed around mountaineering has ensured a much-needed stream of steady income for the people&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/sherpas-real-stories-are-seldom-written-qa-with-authors-ankit-babu-adhikari-pradeep-bashyal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258932</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘We&#8217;ve got to help the oceans to help us’: Q&#038;A with deep-sea explorer Dawn Wright</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/weve-got-to-help-the-oceans-to-help-us-qa-with-deep-sea-explorer-dawn-wright/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/weve-got-to-help-the-oceans-to-help-us-qa-with-deep-sea-explorer-dawn-wright/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Aug 2022 15:05:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/02142308/2-Dawn-Wright-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258798</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deep Sea, Environment, Exploration, Gender, Global Environmental Crisis, Interviews, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Science, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On July 12, oceanographer and geographer Dawn Wright was sealed inside a submersible, traveling to Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. Wright and her travel companion, explorer Victor Vescovo of Caladan Oceanic, managed to reach a depth of 10,919 meters (35,823 feet) below the surface of the ocean, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On July 12, oceanographer and geographer Dawn Wright was sealed inside a submersible, traveling to Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. Wright and her travel companion, explorer Victor Vescovo of Caladan Oceanic, managed to reach a depth of 10,919 meters (35,823 feet) below the surface of the ocean, which is nearly as deep as six Grand Canyons stacked on top of each other. Another way to imagine the vertical extent of Challenger Deep, the deepest known point on the seafloor, is to compare it to the ​​Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building in Dubai: you would need to stack 13 Burj Khalifas on top of each other to match the depth of this part of the ocean. “Challenger Deep is the most difficult place to go to because it is so deep,” Wright, the chief scientist of California-based mapping outfit Esri, told Mongabay. “If you send a signal down to the bottom of Challenger Deep, it is going to take seven seconds to get there. There have been robots that have tried to go down there, but one in particular was lost.” Vescovo, the owner and pilot of the two-person submersible, Limiting Factor, invited Wright on this expedition so they could work together to test out a new piece of technology: a side-scan sonar designed to go down to 11,000 m (nearly 36,100 ft) that will help researchers map the seafloor at any depth. Wright was also the first Black person to visit&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/weve-got-to-help-the-oceans-to-help-us-qa-with-deep-sea-explorer-dawn-wright/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258798</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In the Mekong’s murky depths, giants abound, new expedition finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/in-the-mekongs-murky-depths-giants-abound-new-expedition-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/in-the-mekongs-murky-depths-giants-abound-new-expedition-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 May 2022 10:10:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/23092737/Giant-Stingray-2_WondersoftheMekong-scaled-e1653298512966-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256231</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Mekong Basin, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Dams, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Exploration, Extinction, Fish, Fisheries, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Hydroelectric Power, Rivers, Tropics, Water, Wetlands, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[An underwater expedition has confirmed the presence of some of the world’s largest and most threatened freshwater fish in a remote and barely studied stretch of the Mekong River in northeastern Cambodia. The findings included a 180-kilogram (400-pound) giant freshwater stingray that was captured and released in collaboration with local fishermen, but also revealed several [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[An underwater expedition has confirmed the presence of some of the world’s largest and most threatened freshwater fish in a remote and barely studied stretch of the Mekong River in northeastern Cambodia. The findings included a 180-kilogram (400-pound) giant freshwater stingray that was captured and released in collaboration with local fishermen, but also revealed several “worrisome” threats facing the unique aquatic habitats. During the weeklong investigation in Cambodia’s Stung Treng province earlier this month, the international team of underwater explorers and local fish biologists used remotely operated submersibles, baited video cameras, and dropcams suspended on long cables to capture the first ever videos of life in the Mekong’s deepest pools, which plunge down to 80 meters (260 feet). “No one’s observed what&#8217;s going on underwater in this area before — it’s very deep water, very hard to study, and very inaccessible,” Zeb Hogan, a fish biologist and leader of the Wonders of the Mekong project, told Mongabay. The expedition was partly an effort to corroborate local fishers’ tales of catching giant fish in the pools, he added. In addition to the endangered giant stingrays (Urogymnus polylepis), the area is thought to be home to Mekong giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas) and giant barbs (Catlocarpio siamensis), both of which are listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List due to a range of threats, including overfishing, drought and habitat destruction. The deep pools are also a last refuge for the Mekong’s only remaining population of critically endangered freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/in-the-mekongs-murky-depths-giants-abound-new-expedition-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-256231</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous communities in South Africa sue, protest off-shore oil and gas exploration</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/indigenous-communities-in-south-africa-sue-protest-off-shore-oil-and-gas-exploration/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/indigenous-communities-in-south-africa-sue-protest-off-shore-oil-and-gas-exploration/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Dec 2021 18:08:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/10173739/PHOTO-2021-12-06-09-01-27-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=250460</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and South Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Culture, Ecosystems, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Exploration, Fishing, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Marine, Marine Animals, Natural Gas, Oceans, Oil, Oil Drilling, Politics, Protests, and Whales]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In one of the largest and most spontaneous protests in post-apartheid South Africa, thousands of people gathered on the country’s eastern coastal beaches last Sunday to voice their dissent against an off-shore 3D seismic survey planned by the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell. Many protesters were Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs), for whom the ocean [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In one of the largest and most spontaneous protests in post-apartheid South Africa, thousands of people gathered on the country’s eastern coastal beaches last Sunday to voice their dissent against an off-shore 3D seismic survey planned by the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell. Many protesters were Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs), for whom the ocean not only provides a source of livelihood, but also carries significant cultural meaning. “There was one message: The ocean belongs to the people,” said Sinegugu Zukulu, Deputy Chairperson of Sustaining the Wild Coast, in a phone interview. “The government has no right to make decisions without first talking to those who are going to be most affected.” Amadiba Crisis Committee Protest at Mzamba Beach. Image courtesy of the Amadiba Crisis Committee. Zukulu, a member of the Mpondo community, is also the main applicant in one of two interdict applications submitted against the South African Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, Shell, BG International Ltd and Impact Africa, last week. The court cases aim to challenge the legality of Shell’s exploration. “Our argument is about the lack of consultation,” said Nonhle Mbuthumba, a local resident and spokesperson of the Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC), an organization defending the customary rights of Indigenous communities and opposing destructive mining projects. “There was not even one single meeting where people were told about how Shell is going to drill gas and oil.” The ACC led one of the biggest coastal demonstrations, nearing 1,000&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/indigenous-communities-in-south-africa-sue-protest-off-shore-oil-and-gas-exploration/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-250460</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Experts see no way back for NZ firm blocked from trying to mine the seabed</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/experts-see-no-way-back-for-nz-firm-blocked-from-trying-to-mine-the-seabed/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/experts-see-no-way-back-for-nz-firm-blocked-from-trying-to-mine-the-seabed/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Oct 2021 20:45:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/10/07185342/5201890268_d121e534e7_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=247946</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Deep Sea Mining 2021]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Business, Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Ecosystems, Exploration, Global Environmental Crisis, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Mining, Oceans, Overexploitation, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Conservationists have expressed hope that a New Zealand company whose bid to mine the seabed was blocked by the country’s highest court last month has little chance of winning approval. The Supreme Court of New Zealand ruled unanimously on Sept. 30 to block consent for the mining operation that would extract millions of tons of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Conservationists have expressed hope that a New Zealand company whose bid to mine the seabed was blocked by the country’s highest court last month has little chance of winning approval. The Supreme Court of New Zealand ruled unanimously on Sept. 30 to block consent for the mining operation that would extract millions of tons of iron ore from the seabed off the coast of South Taranaki on the nation&#8217;s North Island. Experts say that the decision was primarily based on the finding that mining company Trans-Tasman Resources Limited (TTR) could not illustrate that its activities would not cause &#8220;material harm&#8221; to the environment. While TTR seems confident that it will be able to reapply for mining consent, conservationists who have spent years campaigning against seabed mining in New Zealand say the company will not find an easy path due to fundamental issues in its application. For instance, they point out that TTR&#8217;s most recent application lacked studies about resident marine life and the impacts of mining on species and the overall ecosystem. &#8220;The company hadn&#8217;t done its homework,&#8221; Cindy Baxter, chair of Kiwis Against Seabed Mining (KASM), one group that opposed the mining application, told Mongabay in an interview. &#8220;It didn&#8217;t even have baseline data for where it wanted to mine, so no one can even measure what the [impacts] would be if it went ahead.&#8221; Duncan Currie, an international environmental lawyer who acted as counsel to KASM and Greenpeace Aotearoa, said it would be &#8220;extremely difficult&#8221; for TTR to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/experts-see-no-way-back-for-nz-firm-blocked-from-trying-to-mine-the-seabed/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-247946</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Gas fields and jihad: Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado becomes a resource-rich war zone</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/gas-fields-and-jihad-mozambiques-cabo-delgado-becomes-a-resource-rich-war-zone/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/gas-fields-and-jihad-mozambiques-cabo-delgado-becomes-a-resource-rich-war-zone/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Apr 2021 19:38:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ashoka]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/04/26192336/mab2018_mozambique_azura_quilalea02-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=242005</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Mozambique]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conflict, Energy, Environment, Exploration, Illegal Logging, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Mining, Natural Gas, Oil Drilling, Resource Conflict, Violence, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On Monday, French energy giant Total declared force majeure on its multibillion-dollar light natural gas (LNG) project in northern Mozambique, formally withdrawing all of its employees from the region and indefinitely suspending its operations. The declaration came after heavily armed militants carried out a surprise attack on the nearby town of Palma, a commercial center [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On Monday, French energy giant Total declared force majeure on its multibillion-dollar light natural gas (LNG) project in northern Mozambique, formally withdrawing all of its employees from the region and indefinitely suspending its operations. The declaration came after heavily armed militants carried out a surprise attack on the nearby town of Palma, a commercial center in the northern coastal province of Cabo Delgado, in late March. Days of sustained fighting in the town took place just 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Total’s worksite, a $20 billion offshore LNG facility that is currently the largest foreign investment project in Africa. The attack on Palma and Total’s subsequent retreat has brought a rush of attention to the growing insurgency in Cabo Delgado, where more than a century of neglect, corruption and abuse has accompanied the extraction of its abundance of lucrative natural resources. The Islamist militia responsible for the assault calls itself Ansar al-Sunna, but is widely known to locals as al-Shabaab (“the youth” – no relation to Somali militants of the same name). Since 2017 the group has waged an increasingly sophisticated and violent campaign against the Mozambican government, targeting police stations, infrastructure and towns throughout the coastal province. At least 2,700 people have been killed in the conflict so far – half of them civilians –  with an additional 700,000 forced to flee their homes, according to the most recent figures from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Just hours before the attack on Palma, Total had announced it was&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/gas-fields-and-jihad-mozambiques-cabo-delgado-becomes-a-resource-rich-war-zone/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-242005</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Secrets revealed: Researchers explore unique, isolated forest in Mozambique</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/10/secrets-revealed-scientists-explore-unique-isolated-forest-in-mozambique/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/10/secrets-revealed-scientists-explore-unique-isolated-forest-in-mozambique/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Oct 2018 14:28:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/10/25184349/bayliss-lico-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=211328</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Mozambique]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Butterflies, Deforestation, Environment, Exploration, Forests, Montane Forests, Mountains, New Discovery, Rainforests, Research, Species Discovery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[G-1710-55576]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There isn’t much primary forest left in eastern Africa. In Mozambique, there’s officially none, according to 2015 numbers from the Food and Agriculture Association (FAO) of the UN. But a tract of undisturbed forest has recently been discovered and surveyed in the country’s Zambezia province – hidden in plain site at the top of a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There isn’t much primary forest left in eastern Africa. In Mozambique, there’s officially none, according to 2015 numbers from the Food and Agriculture Association (FAO) of the UN. But a tract of undisturbed forest has recently been discovered and surveyed in the country’s Zambezia province – hidden in plain site at the top of a mountain. Julian Bayliss, a conservation scientist, initially spotted the forest on Google Earth. This isn’t the first time he’s done so; in 2005, he used the platform to identify an unexplored rainforest on Mozambique’s Mount Mabu. To confirm the presence of this newest forest, Bayliss traveled to the base of Mount Lico and flew a drone to the top of it. Then, in May, Bayliss and a team of more than two-dozen scientists and other experts set out on an expedition to see what kinds of animals and plants lived in this island in the sky. Up they went, using ropes and quickly learned rock-climbing techniques to hoist themselves and their equipment up the 410-foot sheer cliffs. Bayliss was the first to reach the top. As he waited for the rest of his team, he looked around and was filled with an “immense sense of wonder and excitement.” “The first thing that struck me was just how quiet the forest was,” he told Mongabay. “However, there were signs of many animal tracks in the undergrowth which was very exciting. The second thing that struck me was just how open the forest floor was which is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/10/secrets-revealed-scientists-explore-unique-isolated-forest-in-mozambique/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-211328</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Looks like Casper: Expedition captures first-ever live footage of ghostlike fish</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/07/looks-like-casper-expedition-captures-first-ever-live-footage-of-ghostlike-fish/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/07/looks-like-casper-expedition-captures-first-ever-live-footage-of-ghostlike-fish/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jul 2016 14:17:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/07/01195831/Eel-like-fish-520x298.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=187675</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Exploration, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, and Species Discovery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the mysterious depths of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument off of the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean, scientists have filmed a ghostly-looking fish belonging to the Aphyonidae family. This is the first time a fish from this family has been seen alive, NOAA scientists say. Most other Aphyonid fish are known only from single specimens collected with deep-sea trawling or [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the mysterious depths of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument off of the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean, scientists have filmed a ghostly-looking fish belonging to the Aphyonidae family. This is the first time a fish from this family has been seen alive, NOAA scientists say. Most other Aphyonid fish are known only from single specimens collected with deep-sea trawling or dredging, they add. The eel-like fish is just four inches long and has a transparent, gelatinous skin. It also lacks scales and has highly reduced eyes, making it look like “Casper” the deep-sea octopod discovered by scientists last year off of Hawaii, the NOAA team says. “Wow. This is just remarkable,” Bruce Mundy, fishery biologist with the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, said on seeing the live video of this eel-like fish. &#8220;Some of us working with fish have wish lists, you know, a sort of bucket list, of what we might want to see, and a fish in this family was probably first on those lists for a lot of us.&#8221; https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1605/dailyupdates/media/video/0701-fish/0701-fish-640x360.mp4 &nbsp; The video of the fish was captured during an expedition conducted from April 20 to July 10 on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer, a federally funded U.S. ship that explores and documents the unknown reaches of the world’s oceans. The three-cruise expedition aimed to explore the complex and dynamic deep water habitats in and around the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument (MTMNM) and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). The MTMNM protects around 95,216 square miles of area, including bottomfish&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/07/looks-like-casper-expedition-captures-first-ever-live-footage-of-ghostlike-fish/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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<enclosure url="http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1605/dailyupdates/media/video/0707-fish/0707-fish-1920x1080.mp4" length="183" type="video/mp4" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-187675</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bolivian expedition finds seven new species (PHOTOS)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/04/bolivian-expedition-finds-seven-new-species-first-year-photos/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/04/bolivian-expedition-finds-seven-new-species-first-year-photos/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Apr 2016 18:10:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/04/01214224/6_IMG_8065-1-495x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=186104</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Environment, Exploration, Fish, Forests, Frogs, Lizards, Mountains, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The discoveries include three new frogs, three new catfish, and one new lizard species.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[First it was a frog. Then, catfish. Now, researchers on a major expedition in Bolivia&#8217;s Madidi National Park have announced more new species that were, until now, unknown to science. In total, the expedition has uncovered three new frogs, three catfish, and a lizard species. The expedition is called Identidad Madidi, and it comprises dozens of Bolivian researchers traversing Madidi National Park&#8217;s wide variety of ecosystems from lowland Amazon rainforest to the high peaks of the Andes. Along the way, they&#8217;re cataloging all the animals and plants they can find. Their first discovery was made at their very first survey site in June, 2015: a new robber frog of the Oreobates genus. Since then, they&#8217;ve added six more new species to their ever-growing tally. They&#8217;ve also been recording a multitude of species that weren&#8217;t officially known to inhabit the park, and conducting outreach with local communities. “New species for science are of course wonderfully exciting for the team, but Identidad Madidi is as much about connecting Bolivians and others to this natural wonder as it is about gathering knowledge about biodiversity in this record-breaking park and increasing the number of confirmed species for Madidi,” said expedition leader Rob Wallace of Wildlife Conservation Society, one of many of the project&#8217;s participating institutions. The most recent spate of discoveries includes two new frog species of the genus Psychrophrynella found in Madidi&#8217;s Andean valleys, and a new, uniquely cold-adapted Liolaemus lizard that lives up in the mountains at 4,500 meters (14,700 feet). “This&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/04/bolivian-expedition-finds-seven-new-species-first-year-photos/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-186104</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Relief for Kenya’s rare coastal forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/12/relief-for-kenyas-rare-coastal-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/12/relief-for-kenyas-rare-coastal-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Dec 2014 18:19:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/12/relief-for-kenyas-rare-coastal-forest/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Exploration, Forest Loss, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Natural Gas, Oil, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[How conservation groups stopped an oil and gas company from conducting seismic surveys inside Arabuko-Sokoke Forest In October this year, CAMAC Energy, an oil and gas exploration and production company, announced that they would conduct seismic surveys for oil and gas within Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, one of the last remaining fragments of coastal forests in East [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[How conservation groups stopped an oil and gas company from conducting seismic surveys inside Arabuko-Sokoke Forest In October this year, CAMAC Energy, an oil and gas exploration and production company, announced that they would conduct seismic surveys for oil and gas within Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, one of the last remaining fragments of coastal forests in East Africa. This bit of news created uproar. Conservationists and community groups got together, sent letters of protest to the Kenyan government, and started online petitions. Following immense pressure from the environmental front, CAMAC Energy, on 21 November, sent out a letter to various stakeholders announcing that they had cancelled their plans to conduct surveys inside the forest. “This is a great step by CAMAC Energy,” Raphael Magambo, the National Director of A Rocha, a conservation NGO that was one of the protestors, told mongabay.com. “It is good that they were able to listen to communities and conservation organizations.” The golden-rumped shrew (Rhynchocyon chrysopygus) is listed by the IUCN as Endangered, and may now only exist in Arabuko-Sokoke Forest as other coastal forests have been degraded. Magambo, however, is miffed with the Kenyan government and other agencies responsible for protection of habitats and wildlife in the country. “It is a huge shock that these agencies still cannot see the value of conservation sites like Arabuko-Sokoke Forest. Not only does the forest have value in maintaining rare biodiversity, it also has value in what communities gain from the forest today and will be gaining in future,” he&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/12/relief-for-kenyas-rare-coastal-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/12/relief-for-kenyas-rare-coastal-forest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-24353</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Could the Tasmanian tiger be hiding out in New Guinea?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/05/could-the-tasmanian-tiger-be-hiding-out-in-new-guinea/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/05/could-the-tasmanian-tiger-be-hiding-out-in-new-guinea/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 May 2013 16:36:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2013/05/could-the-tasmanian-tiger-be-hiding-out-in-new-guinea/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Australia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Papua New Guinea, Southeast Asia, and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Camera Trapping, Carnivores, Cryptic Species, Cryptozoology, Environment, Exploration, Extinction, Forests, Green, Islands, Mammals, Marsupials, Predators, Rainforests, Science, Strange, Technology, Top Predators, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Many people still believe the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) survives in the wilds of Tasmania, even though the species was declared extinct over eighty years ago. Sightings and reports of the elusive carnivorous marsupial, which was the top predator on the island, pop-up almost as frequently as those of Bigfoot in North America, but to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Many people still believe the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) survives in the wilds of Tasmania, even though the species was declared extinct over eighty years ago. Sightings and reports of the elusive carnivorous marsupial, which was the top predator on the island, pop-up almost as frequently as those of Bigfoot in North America, but to date no definitive evidence has emerged of its survival. Yet, a noted cryptozoologist (one who searches for hidden animals), Dr. Karl Shuker, wrote recently that tiger hunters should perhaps turn their attention to a different island: New Guinea. The Tasmanian tiger, also known as the thylacine, once populated much of Tasmanian and mainland Australia&#8212;where it is also still searched for&#8212;but few know that the animal was present on New Guinea as well. Its prehistoric presence there first came to light in 1960 when archeologists discovered the lower jaw of a Tasmanian tiger. &#8220;Further confirmed fossil remains, dating at over 2 million years old, have subsequently been found on New Guinea; and also in later years, unconfirmed sightings of thylacine-like beasts have been reported from both Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Irian Jaya (the western, Indonesian half of New Guinea),&#8221; Shuker told mongabay.com. A specimen of the Tasmanian tiger in the Natural History Museum at Oslo, Norway. Photo by: L. Shyamal. While Tasmanian tigers are believed to have died out in New Guinea at the end of the Pleistocene, Shuker believes there&#8217;s a chance a population still survives on the mountainous island, which contains some of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/05/could-the-tasmanian-tiger-be-hiding-out-in-new-guinea/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-28987</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Into the unknown mountains of Cambodia: rare birds, rice wine, and talk of tigers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/03/into-the-unknown-mountains-of-cambodia-rare-birds-rice-wine-and-talk-of-tigers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/03/into-the-unknown-mountains-of-cambodia-rare-birds-rice-wine-and-talk-of-tigers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Mar 2013 20:06:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Howie Nielsen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2013/03/into-the-unknown-mountains-of-cambodia-rare-birds-rice-wine-and-talk-of-tigers/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Anthropology, Birds, Camera Trapping, Conservation, Culture, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Exploration, Governance, Green, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mammals, Mining, Photos, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Rhinos, Strange, Tigers, Traditional People, Travel, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Howie Nielsen on a trek earlier this year into a remote portion of Virachey National Park. Photo by: Greg McCann. Ringed with forested mountains forming the borders with Laos and Vietnam, the northeast corner of Cambodia has been an intriguing blank spot among my extensive travels through the country. Nestled up against this frontier is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Howie Nielsen on a trek earlier this year into a remote portion of Virachey National Park. Photo by: Greg McCann. Ringed with forested mountains forming the borders with Laos and Vietnam, the northeast corner of Cambodia has been an intriguing blank spot among my extensive travels through the country. Nestled up against this frontier is Virachey National Park, created in 1993. I began searching for a way to explore this area a couple of years ago, hoping to connect with conservation NGOs to get me into the park; no one seemed to know much about it. I learned that the area had been written off by these groups due to massive land concessions given to logging and rubber concerns. The World Bank abandoned its 8-year effort to create a management scheme for Virachey after the concessions were granted in 2007. A moratorium on the concessions is temporarily in place, but illegal logging incursions into the park continue. The only attempt at a biological assessment came in October 2007, when Conservation International helicoptered 10 researchers into the park for a 2 week stay. Remarkably, no one was there for the birdlife. As a result, little is known about the park’s avifauna, which wet my whistle. I figured that if I reached montane forests near 1200 meters of elevation, I would possibly discover birds never recorded previously in Cambodia (see full bird list from the trip at the end). This trek came to be as a result of an 8-month email relationship&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/03/into-the-unknown-mountains-of-cambodia-rare-birds-rice-wine-and-talk-of-tigers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-29403</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Jaguars, tapirs, oh my!: Amazon explorer films shocking wildlife bonanza in threatened forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/02/jaguars-tapirs-oh-my-amazon-explorer-films-shocking-wildlife-bonanza-in-threatened-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/02/jaguars-tapirs-oh-my-amazon-explorer-films-shocking-wildlife-bonanza-in-threatened-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Feb 2013 14:55:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2013/02/jaguars-tapirs-oh-my-amazon-explorer-films-shocking-wildlife-bonanza-in-threatened-forest/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, and Peru]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animal Behavior, Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Birds, Bushmeat, Camera Trapping, Cats, Conservation, Cryptic Species, Cryptozoology, Endangered Species, Environment, Exploration, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Hunting, In-situ Conservation, Interviews, Jaguars, Logging, Mammals, Parks, Predators, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Rivers, Roads, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Strange, Threats To Rainforests, Top Predators, Travel, Videos, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Watching a new video by Amazon explorer, Paul Rosolie, one feels transported into a hidden world of stalking jaguars, heavyweight tapirs, and daylight-wandering giant armadillos. This is the Amazon as one imagines it as a child: still full of wild things. In just four weeks at a single colpa (or clay lick where mammals and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Watching a new video by Amazon explorer, Paul Rosolie, one feels transported into a hidden world of stalking jaguars, heavyweight tapirs, and daylight-wandering giant armadillos. This is the Amazon as one imagines it as a child: still full of wild things. In just four weeks at a single colpa (or clay lick where mammals and birds gather) on the lower Las Piedras River, Rosolie and his team captured 30 Amazonian species on video, including seven imperiled species. However, the very spot Rosolie and his team filmed is under threat: the lower Las Piedras River is being infiltrated by loggers, miners, and farmers following the construction of the Trans-Amazon highway. &#8220;Most people think of the rainforest and they picture animals everywhere, but in reality, even in healthy forest, you could walk all day and see nothing,&#8221; Rosolie told mongabay.com in a recent interview. &#8220;But the camera traps show a different view. The footage not only allows us to better understand what species visit the colpa and when, but it allows us to observe natural behavior: tapir and deer visiting with their young, birds and deer sharing the colpa, the ocelot tracking an agouti.&#8221; But Rosolie says the number of species captured at this colpa surprised even him. &#8220;Seeing such incredible abundance and diversity at a single location in the forest, in so short a time, is something we have never seen before.&#8221; Using editing and narration, Rosolie then turned his 2,000 plus camera trap videos into a short film that tells&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/02/jaguars-tapirs-oh-my-amazon-explorer-films-shocking-wildlife-bonanza-in-threatened-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-29549</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Exploring Asia&#8217;s lost world</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2012/05/exploring-asias-lost-world/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2012/05/exploring-asias-lost-world/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 May 2012 17:19:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2012/05/exploring-asias-lost-world/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Books, Cats, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Critically Endangered Species, Culture, Dams, Deforestation, Development, Ecological Beauty, Ecotourism, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Exploration, Forests, Governance, Grasslands, Green, Hydroelectric Power, Illegal Logging, In-situ Conservation, Indigenous Peoples, Interviews, Logging, Mammals, Mining, Monocultures, Mountains, Parks, Photos, Plantations, Poaching, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Religions, Rivers, Rubber, Saving Rainforests, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Strange, Threats To Rainforests, Tigers, Traditional People, Travel, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Abandoned by conservationists and the global community, Virachey National Park in Cambodia remains a wildernesses of surprises. An interview with Greg McCann. Haling-Halang and the barrier mountains separating Cambodia and Laos as seen from the Veal Thom grasslands, a place few outsiders have ever seen. Could tigers, Javan rhinos, or saola live in these mountains? [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Abandoned by conservationists and the global community, Virachey National Park in Cambodia remains a wildernesses of surprises. An interview with Greg McCann. Haling-Halang and the barrier mountains separating Cambodia and Laos as seen from the Veal Thom grasslands, a place few outsiders have ever seen. Could tigers, Javan rhinos, or saola live in these mountains? No one knows. Photo by: Greg McCann. Abandoned by NGOs and the World Bank, carved out for rubber plantations and mining by the Cambodian government, spiraling into a chaos of poaching and illegal logging, and full of endangered species and never-explored places, Virachey National Park may be the world&#8217;s greatest park that has been written off by the international community. But a new book by explorer and PhD student, Greg McCann, hopes to change that. Entitled Called Away by a Mountain Spirit: Journey to the Green Corridor, the book highlights expeditions by McCann into parts of Virachey that have rarely been seen by outsiders and have never been explored scientifically, including rare grasslands that once housed herds of Asian elephants, guar, and Sambar deer, before poachers drove them into hiding, and faraway mountains with rumors of tigers and mainland Javan rhinos. &#8220;It is the most jaw-dropping place that I have ever seen in my life, and I have traveled in Nepal, Alaska, Indonesia, and elsewhere,&#8221; McCann told monagaby.com in an interview. &#8220;After two and a half days of tough jungle trekking, you emerge from the canopy into an upland world of sunlight and burnt yellow&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2012/05/exploring-asias-lost-world/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-30964</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Google Earth enhances oceans&#8217; layer</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/06/google-earth-enhances-oceans-layer/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/06/google-earth-enhances-oceans-layer/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jun 2011 21:23:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2011/06/google-earth-enhances-oceans-layer/</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Earth Science, Earthquakes, Ecosystems, Environment, Exploration, Green, Marine, Oceans, Technology, and Tsunami]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Lamont Seamounts are an example of the view from the seafloor synthesized by a team of oceanographers at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. The seamounts are due west of El Salvador, at about 9.55 degrees N, 104 degrees W. How do you celebrate World Oceans Day? Well, if you&#8217;re Google you make the oceans of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Lamont Seamounts are an example of the view from the seafloor synthesized by a team of oceanographers at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. The seamounts are due west of El Salvador, at about 9.55 degrees N, 104 degrees W. How do you celebrate World Oceans Day? Well, if you&#8217;re Google you make the oceans of the world&#8217;s most impressive interactive digital globe, Google Earth, come alive. With oceanographers at Columbia University&#8217;s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Google Earth has fine-tuned its oceans&#8217; resolution in selected areas from 1 kilometer to just 100 meters. &#8220;In spite of the importance of the oceans for life on earth, the landscape beneath the sea is hidden in darkness and poorly mapped,&#8221; says oceanographer William Ryan from Lamont-Doherty in a press release. &#8220;While we can map the surface of planets from spacecraft in a single mission, to obtain comparable detail of the hidden seascape requires visiting every spot with a ship.&#8221; Our general ignorance about the world&#8217;s oceans has led to the common, and accurate, quip that we know about the moon&#8217;s surface than we do our own oceans. Google Earth, however, is working to keep up with the latest data from oceanographers, including nearly 500 cruises covering 3 million miles over the last 20 years. Such expeditions are about much more than simple exploration; mapping the seafloor helps researchers better understand marine ecosystems, and provides better insights into earthquake and tsunami zones, perhaps in the future saving lives. Around 5 percent of the oceans on Google Earth&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2011/06/google-earth-enhances-oceans-layer/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/06/google-earth-enhances-oceans-layer/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-32426</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Exploring Kenya&#8217;s sky island</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2010/08/exploring-kenyas-sky-island/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2010/08/exploring-kenyas-sky-island/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Aug 2010 22:17:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2010/08/exploring-kenyas-sky-island</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Bats, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Climate Change, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Culture, Drought, Ecology, Ecotourism, Environment, Exploration, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Insects, Interviews, Invertebrates, Lions, Mammals, Mountains, Oil, Photos, Plants, Poverty, Predators, Rainforests, Roads, Species Discovery, Threats To Rainforests, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[An interview with Paula Kahumbu of WildlifeDirect. Rising over 2,500 meters from Kenya&#8217;s northern desert, the Mathews Range is a sky island: isolated mountain forests surrounded by valleys. Long cut off from other forests, &#8216;sky islands&#8217; such as this often contain unique species and ecosystems. Supported by the Nature Conservancy, an expedition including local community [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[An interview with Paula Kahumbu of WildlifeDirect. Rising over 2,500 meters from Kenya&#8217;s northern desert, the Mathews Range is a sky island: isolated mountain forests surrounded by valleys. Long cut off from other forests, &#8216;sky islands&#8217; such as this often contain unique species and ecosystems. Supported by the Nature Conservancy, an expedition including local community programs Northern Rangelands Trust and Namunyak Conservancy recently spent a week surveying the mountain range, expanding the range of a number of species and discovering what is likely a new insect. &#8220;It’s really off the beaten track and few people have ever been there because access has been extremely poor until a tarmac road was constructed in recent months,&#8221; says Paula Kahumbu, Executive Director of WildlifeDirect, in a recent interview with mongabay.com. Kahumbu was a member of the expedition. Prior to the construction of the road, which was built by oil companies, the mountains were only accessible by camel or helicopter. &#8220;It is thought that the Mathews range may hold the secretes to many new species because this sky island formed over 10 million years ago separating it from other forested areas allowing sufficient time for evolution to lead to speciation,&#8221; Kahumbu explained, adding that given new development pressures on the region &#8220;the expedition was to establish a baseline of species, to look for new species, and to determine the conservation benefits of saving this spectacular mountain.&#8221; The forests of Mathews Range. Photo courtesy of: Paula Kahumbu. During the expedition, researchers found what is likely&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2010/08/exploring-kenyas-sky-island/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-33756</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The biology and conservation of declining coral reefs, an interview with Kristian Teleki</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2010/08/the-biology-and-conservation-of-declining-coral-reefs-an-interview-with-kristian-teleki/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2010/08/the-biology-and-conservation-of-declining-coral-reefs-an-interview-with-kristian-teleki/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Aug 2010 19:06:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Laurel Neme]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2010/08/the-biology-and-conservation-of-declining-coral-reefs-an-interview-with-kristian-teleki</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Climate Science, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Deep Sea, Ecological Beauty, Ecology, Ecosystem Services, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Services, Exploration, Fish, Fishing, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Interviews, Invertebrates, Islands, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, Photos, Politics, Pollution, Sharks, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Kristian Teleki, Vice President for Science Initiatives for SeaWeb and former Director of the International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN), spoke with Laurel Neme on her &#8220;The WildLife&#8221; radio show and podcast about the biology of corals, threats to coral reefs, and what can be done to halt their decline. This interview originally aired May [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Kristian Teleki, Vice President for Science Initiatives for SeaWeb and former Director of the International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN), spoke with Laurel Neme on her &#8220;The WildLife&#8221; radio show and podcast about the biology of corals, threats to coral reefs, and what can be done to halt their decline. This interview originally aired May 3, 2010. The interview was transcribed by Diane Hannigan. Coral reefs are often considered the &#8220;rainforests of the sea&#8221; because of their amazing biodiversity. In fact, coral reefs are one of the most diverse ecosystems on earth. It is not unusual for a reef to have several hundred species of snails, sixty species of corals, and several hundred species of fish. While they comprise under 1% of the world’s ocean surface, one-quarter of all marine species call coral reefs their home. Fish, mollusks, sea stars, sea urchins, and more depend on this important ecosystem, and humans do too. Coral reefs supply important goods and services–from shoreline protection to tourism and fisheries–which by some estimates are worth $375 billion a year. While people often think of coral as plants or rocks, in fact coral polyps are tiny, soft-bodied invertebrates related to sea anemones and jellyfish. These polyps create exoskeletons that aggregate and connect to one another to form coral reefs. These reefs are under threat from numerous fronts: ocean acidification, climate change, destructive fishing practices, pollution, sedimentation, and coastal development. As Teleki notes, the problem is that &#8220;we know more about outer space than we do&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2010/08/the-biology-and-conservation-of-declining-coral-reefs-an-interview-with-kristian-teleki/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-33767</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Hunting threatens the other Amazon: where harpy eagles are common and jaguars easy to spot, an interview with Paul Rosolie</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2010/08/hunting-threatens-the-other-amazon-where-harpy-eagles-are-common-and-jaguars-easy-to-spot-an-interview-with-paul-rosolie/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2010/08/hunting-threatens-the-other-amazon-where-harpy-eagles-are-common-and-jaguars-easy-to-spot-an-interview-with-paul-rosolie/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Aug 2010 21:35:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2010/08/hunting-threatens-the-other-amazon-where-harpy-eagles-are-common-and-jaguars-easy-to-spot-an-interview-with-paul-rosolie</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animal Behavior, Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Birds, Bushmeat, Carnivores, Cats, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecological Beauty, Ecology, Endangered Species, Environment, Exploration, Fish, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Gold Mining, Green, Hunting, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Interviews, Logging, Mammals, Mining, Monkeys, Oil, Parks, Photos, Poaching, Pollution, Predators, Primates, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Reptiles, Roads, Saving Rainforests, Shifting Baselines, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, Traditional People, Trees, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[If you have been fortunate enough to visit the Amazon or any other great rainforest, you&#8217;ve probably been wowed by the multitude and diversity of life. However, you also likely quickly realized that the deep jungle is not quite what you may have imagined when you were a child: you don&#8217;t watch as jaguars wrestle [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[If you have been fortunate enough to visit the Amazon or any other great rainforest, you&#8217;ve probably been wowed by the multitude and diversity of life. However, you also likely quickly realized that the deep jungle is not quite what you may have imagined when you were a child: you don&#8217;t watch as jaguars wrestle with giant anteaters or anacondas circle prey. Instead life in the Amazon is small: insects, birds, frogs. Even biologists will tell you that you can spend years in the Amazon and never see a single jaguar. Yet rainforest guide and modern day explorer Paul Rosolie says there is another Amazon, one so pristine and with such wild abundance that it seems impossible to imagine if not for Rosolie&#8217;s stories, photos, and soon videos. This is an Amazon where the big animals—jaguars, tapir, anaconda, giant anteaters, and harpy eagles—are not only abundant but visible. Free from human impact and overhunting, these remote places—off the beaten path of tourists—are growing ever smaller and, according to Rosolie, are in danger of disappearing forever. &#8220;Truly pristine sections of forest in Amazonia are free from any sign of human activity—zero annual river traffic, no trails, trash, chemical pollution, and no machete marks or chopped trees,&#8221; Rosolie told mongabay.com in a recent interview. In such places, Rosolie has observed that usually elusive animals behave quite differently. Rescued after her mother was shot by poachers, this baby giant anteater eventually was rehabilitated and released into the wild. Photo courtesy of Paul Rosolie.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2010/08/hunting-threatens-the-other-amazon-where-harpy-eagles-are-common-and-jaguars-easy-to-spot-an-interview-with-paul-rosolie/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-33811</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What is the most unexplored ecosystem on Earth?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2010/08/what-is-the-most-unexplored-ecosystem-on-earth/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2010/08/what-is-the-most-unexplored-ecosystem-on-earth/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Aug 2010 20:44:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2010/08/what-is-the-most-unexplored-ecosystem-on-earth</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Deep Sea, Environment, Exploration, Fish, Green, Invertebrates, Marine, Marine Animals, Oceans, Photos, Species Discovery, Strange, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[One should be forgiven for thinking that the most under-explored ecosystem in the world is tropical rainforests or cave systems since new species are frequently uncovered in such places. But new research in the open-access journal PLoS ONE finds that the least explored part of the world is the deep sea, especially what lies beneath [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[One should be forgiven for thinking that the most under-explored ecosystem in the world is tropical rainforests or cave systems since new species are frequently uncovered in such places. But new research in the open-access journal PLoS ONE finds that the least explored part of the world is the deep sea, especially what lies beneath the open ocean. Ironically, not only does this ecosystem remain the least explored, it is also the world&#8217;s largest habitat. Analyzing seven million records of the world&#8217;s marine life, the researchers found that the majority of our knowledge of marine species comes from shallow waters. &#8220;It&#8217;s shocking that in 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity, the largest habitat on Earth remains virtually unexplored. On a more positive note, being able to highlight gaps in our knowledge is an important step towards filling them,&#8221; said research head Tom Webb, a marine ecologist from the University of Sheffield. The Bathycyroe fosteri is common among midwater plankton communities. Photo by: MAR-ECO/Marsh Youngbluth. Beginning in the 19th Century, marine scientists theorized that the ocean&#8217;s deep waters—between the surface and floor—was largely devoid of life. However, recent research, including the Census of Marine Life, a ten year program to survey life in the world&#8217;s oceans that wraps up in October, has shown that is simply not the case. &#8220;The Census of Marine Life has invested more than $650 million in exploring all of the global ocean realms in the last decade, but we have barely made a dent in this&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2010/08/what-is-the-most-unexplored-ecosystem-on-earth/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-33830</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>&#8216;New continent&#8217; and species discovered in Atlantic study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2007/08/new-continent-and-species-discovered-in-atlantic-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2007/08/new-continent-and-species-discovered-in-atlantic-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Aug 2007 14:30:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Census Of Marine Life]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2008/12/new-continent-and-species-discovered-in-atlantic-study/</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Deep Sea, Environment, Exploration, Green, Oceans, and Species Discovery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#8216;New continent&#8217; and species discovered in Atlantic study &#8216;New continent&#8217; and species discovered in Atlantic study Census of Marine Life August 18, 2007 The Census of Marine Life reports the discovery of previously unknown marine species during a five-week scientific expedition in the North Atlantic. A scientist from the University of Aberdeen is leading a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&#8216;New continent&#8217; and species discovered in Atlantic study &#8216;New continent&#8217; and species discovered in Atlantic study Census of Marine Life August 18, 2007 The Census of Marine Life reports the discovery of previously unknown marine species during a five-week scientific expedition in the North Atlantic. A scientist from the University of Aberdeen is leading a team of international researchers whose work will continue our understanding of life in the deepest oceans, and contribute to the global Census of Marine Life. Exploring life in the North Atlantic Ocean at various depths of 800 to 3,500 metres, a team of 31 scientists are returning from a five-week scientific expedition which has surfaced a wealth of new information and insights, stunning images and marine life specimens, with one species thought to be new to science. The international team will be arriving in Scotland tomorrow (Saturday, August 18) following the expedition along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) between Iceland and the Azores on board the £40 million royal research ship, the Royal Research Ship, James Cook. Professor Monty Priede, Director of the University&#8217;s highly-acclaimed Oceanlab, along with colleague Dr Nicola King, and students Jessica Craig, Claudia Alt and James Hawkins, are part of the science team on board the ship. An international team aboard the RRS James Cook collected hundreds of marine specimens during a 5-week expedition along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Credit: David Shale, copyright 2007 Professor Priede said: &#8220;It is like surveying a new continent half way between America and Europe. We can recognise&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2007/08/new-continent-and-species-discovered-in-atlantic-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-39048</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Down a river of blood into a remote canyon in Madagascar: Exploring the Manambolo River</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2005/04/down-a-river-of-blood-into-a-remote-canyon-in-madagascar-exploring-the-manambolo-river/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2005/04/down-a-river-of-blood-into-a-remote-canyon-in-madagascar-exploring-the-manambolo-river/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Apr 2005 15:19:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett A. ButlerRhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2005/04/down-a-river-of-blood-into-a-remote-canyon-in-madagascar-exploring-the-manambolo-river/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Exploration, Green, Rivers, and Travel]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A photo essay Madagascar has been called the great red island and from space, astronauts have remarked the island looks like it is bleeding to death. Soil conditions and poorly vegetated hillsides mean Madagascar loses more topsoil per hectare than any country in the world. Being one of the poorest nations on Earth, the people [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A photo essay Madagascar has been called the great red island and from space, astronauts have remarked the island looks like it is bleeding to death. Soil conditions and poorly vegetated hillsides mean Madagascar loses more topsoil per hectare than any country in the world. Being one of the poorest nations on Earth, the people of Madagascar can ill afford this loss. In 2004 I set off to see one of the rivers that is carrying away the island&#8217;s soils; the Manambolo of Western Madagascar. Antananarivo The journey begins in the capital city of Antananarivo, better known as &#8220;Tana.&#8221; Tana is located in the central highlands of Madagascar where the climate is mild and the people &#8212; called the Merina &#8212; look ethnically Indonesian. Tana is quite like any city I have ever visited, with colorful houses decorating the hillsides, extensive rice paddies runing through sections of the town, and bustling streets full of cars and Zebu-drawn carts. With the help of an outfitter I charter a Cessna and head west with my Tana-based guide, Benja, and our pilot. With the help of an outfitter I charter a Cessna and head west with my Tana-based guide, Benja, and our pilot. We fly over a largely forest-less landscape pockmarked with lavaka, deeply eroded gullies that bleed red laterite soils into creeks and rivers. While lavaka is often cited as a consequence of deforestation, they are primarily formed as a result of other factors and vegetation clearing is now believed to play&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2005/04/down-a-river-of-blood-into-a-remote-canyon-in-madagascar-exploring-the-manambolo-river/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-62273</doi>				</item>
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