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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/ngos/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 10 Oct 2026 07:49:21 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on NGOs</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/ngos/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>NGOs call on Vantara to end all wild animal imports permanently</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/ngos-call-on-vantara-to-end-all-wild-animal-imports-permanently/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/ngos-call-on-vantara-to-end-all-wild-animal-imports-permanently/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Sep 2026 18:09:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/25130359/Vantara-Ambani-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=330863</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, India, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animal Rights, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Environment, Ethics, Governance, Illegal Trade, NGOs, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A coalition of 27 global wildlife conservation and animal welfare organizations urged Vantara to permanently end all wild animal imports. The billionaire-run zoo in India, funded by the philanthropic arm of Reliance Industries, the country&#8217;s largest corporation, has been under for fire for questionable acquisitions of its animals. In an open letter dated Sep. 22, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A coalition of 27 global wildlife conservation and animal welfare organizations urged Vantara to permanently end all wild animal imports. The billionaire-run zoo in India, funded by the philanthropic arm of Reliance Industries, the country&#8217;s largest corporation, has been under for fire for questionable acquisitions of its animals. In an open letter dated Sep. 22, 2026, and addressed to Mr. Amit Aggarwal, president of regulatory affairs at Vantara, the NGOs offer Vantara “suggestions for strengthening your practices and improving outcomes.” The letter came in response to a press statement from Vantara on Aug. 19, 2026, where it announced “voluntary commitments” including a 12-month moratorium on all animal imports, backdated to June 5, 2026. It said it has withdrawn all pending import applications and will not make any fresh applications. The statement also included a letter addressed to India’s CITES Management Authority, which oversees international commerce in endangered plants and animals listed under CITES, a global wildlife trade treaty. After the one-year moratorium expires, Vantara said it would import animals only from “a recognised and accredited zoological facility,” a “CITES registered facility” or for “a conservation breeding programme undertaken in cooperation with a range State.” It also announced an “independent” governing council headed by John Scanlon AO, the former CITES Secretary General, and a “mandatory three-stage review” will oversee any future animal acquisition. Vantara has acquired Tapanuli orangutans, one of the rarest apes in the world. Image by Tim Laman via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). Vantara’s announcement came after investigations&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/ngos-call-on-vantara-to-end-all-wild-animal-imports-permanently/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/ngos-call-on-vantara-to-end-all-wild-animal-imports-permanently/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-330863</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lack of data hinders fight against environmental crimes in Angola, says environmentalist</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/lack-of-data-hinders-fight-against-environmental-crimes-in-angola-says-environmentalist/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/lack-of-data-hinders-fight-against-environmental-crimes-in-angola-says-environmentalist/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Sep 2026 12:02:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Tjyakala]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/11072035/image2_DesmatamentoAngola1.CreditoAcervoEcoAngola-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=329430</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Angola]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Deforestation Alert System, forest degradation, Forest Loss, Forestry, NGOs, Parks, Science, Sustainable Forest Management, and timber trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Angola faces severe environmental challenges, and the govern has signed international commitments, such as the Montreal Protocol and the Kigali Amendment, to phase out hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) by 2030 and cut hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by 80% by 2045. However, climate crises such as prolonged droughts affecting the country’s southern region, soil degradation, and floods caused by heavy [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Angola faces severe environmental challenges, and the govern has signed international commitments, such as the Montreal Protocol and the Kigali Amendment, to phase out hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) by 2030 and cut hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by 80% by 2045. However, climate crises such as prolonged droughts affecting the country’s southern region, soil degradation, and floods caused by heavy rains continue to have significant social and economic impacts. It is estimated that more than 2.2 million people are affected by these phenomena. It is against this backdrop that the voice of a new generation of Angolan environmentalists is gaining prominence. Among them is 29-year-old Érica Tavares. She studied Environmental Biology at the University of Nottingham in the UK and now works with environmental conservation and youth mobilization in Angola. She is a co-founder of the NGO EcoAngola and has been at the forefront of forest advocacy, environmental education and youth participation in sustainability debates. In an interview with Mongabay Brazil, Tavares discusses her journey as an environmentalist and the issues that concern her most. Érica Tavares, co-founder of the NGO EcoAngola. Image by EcoAngola Image Bank. Mongabay: How would you describe the state of the environment in Angola in 2026? Is it better or worse than five years ago? Érica Tavares: It’s always difficult to answer that question — which I am often asked — because one of our major challenges is the analysis of [nonexistent] data and information. To conduct a comparative analysis between now and five years ago, we would need to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/lack-of-data-hinders-fight-against-environmental-crimes-in-angola-says-environmentalist/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/lack-of-data-hinders-fight-against-environmental-crimes-in-angola-says-environmentalist/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-329430</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Community programs linked to lower forest loss in Indonesia’s Borneo during COVID-19</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/community-programs-linked-to-lower-forest-loss-in-indonesias-borneo-during-covid-19/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/community-programs-linked-to-lower-forest-loss-in-indonesias-borneo-during-covid-19/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Aug 2026 02:03:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/12215106/kalbar_drone_190946a_sungai_utik-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327673</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, Community Development, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, COVID-19, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Loss, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Illegal Logging, Logging, NGOs, Pandemics, Protected Areas, Reduced Impact Logging, Research, Solutions, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Villages in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan saw less forest loss during the COVID-19 pandemic when conservation groups provided health and livelihood support, a new study has found, suggesting social safety nets can help protect forests during economic crises. The peer-reviewed study, published last month in Lancet Planetary Health, suggests forest loss in West Kalimantan province on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Villages in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan saw less forest loss during the COVID-19 pandemic when conservation groups provided health and livelihood support, a new study has found, suggesting social safety nets can help protect forests during economic crises. The peer-reviewed study, published last month in Lancet Planetary Health, suggests forest loss in West Kalimantan province on the Indonesian part of Borneo fell sharply during the pandemic, as weak timber demand and travel restrictions made logging less profitable and harder to carry out. At the same time, villages with access to alternative livelihoods and other support were less reliant on forests for income, the paper adds. The researchers say their study is among the first to combine household surveys with detailed satellite data to examine how the pandemic affected rural livelihoods and forest loss in the same communities, offering a closer look at how economic shocks and social support can influence pressure on tropical forests. “As the pandemic started, we expected economic hardships to cause illegal logging to increase again,” Skylar Hopkins, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University and the lead author for the new study, said in a statement. Mapping deforestation trends Before the pandemic, average forest loss was 52% lower in NGO-affiliated villages than in unaffiliated villages, the study finds. Indonesia has the world’s third-largest tropical forest area, a major store of biodiversity and carbon, long threatened by logging, agricultural expansion and fires. The researchers surveyed 10 villages in West Kalimantan in late 2021: six communities supported by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/community-programs-linked-to-lower-forest-loss-in-indonesias-borneo-during-covid-19/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/community-programs-linked-to-lower-forest-loss-in-indonesias-borneo-during-covid-19/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327673</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cambodia defies UN call to free ‘arbitrarily jailed’ environmental activists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cambodia-defies-un-call-to-free-arbitrarily-jailed-environmental-activists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cambodia-defies-un-call-to-free-arbitrarily-jailed-environmental-activists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Aug 2026 10:30:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/02191929/Ly-Chandaravuth-addresses-Mother-Nature-Cambodia-supporters-before-the-court-issued-a-verdict-on-July-2-2024-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327551</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Climate Justice, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corruption, Crime, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Environmental Heroes, Governance, Law, Natural Resources, NGOs, Nonviolence, Protests, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CHIANG MAI, Thailand — The Cambodian government has defended its continued imprisonment of five environmental activists, after the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared the five had been arbitrarily detained and called for their immediate release. The activists, from environmental group Mother Nature Cambodia, have since 2024 been serving prison sentences of between [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CHIANG MAI, Thailand — The Cambodian government has defended its continued imprisonment of five environmental activists, after the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared the five had been arbitrarily detained and called for their immediate release. The activists, from environmental group Mother Nature Cambodia, have since 2024 been serving prison sentences of between six and eight years for allegedly plotting against the government. In a 16-page opinion published in February, the U.N. working group said it had found that the imprisonment of Long Kuntha, 28, Ly Chandaravuth, 26, Phuon Keoraksmey, 25, Thun Ratha, 34 and Yim Leanghy, 37, met the conditions for arbitrary detention on the grounds that there was no legal basis for the arrests. It said authorities had targeted the activists for exercising their fundamental freedoms, making the detention discriminatory and resulting in severe violations of their right to a fair trial. The opinion asked Cambodia to take immediate action on the matter in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the latter of which Cambodia ratified in 1992, and to provide evidence of having done so within six months. Contacted by Mongabay in August, six months since the working group’s findings, a government spokesperson said the activists would remain behind bars. “I have no comment on [the working group’s] rulings against us as all detentions have been made under legal and judicial proceeding,” Chan Rothona, spokesperson for Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cambodia-defies-un-call-to-free-arbitrarily-jailed-environmental-activists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cambodia-defies-un-call-to-free-arbitrarily-jailed-environmental-activists/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327551</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New leadership initiative carries on legacy of late Indonesian environmental activist</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/new-leadership-initiative-carries-on-legacy-of-late-indonesian-environmental-activist/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/new-leadership-initiative-carries-on-legacy-of-late-indonesian-environmental-activist/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Aug 2026 10:26:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/19101300/IMG20260814192437-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326637</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Climate Justice, Conflict, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, NGOs, Social Justice, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — It had been 648 days since Nur Hidayati, an Indonesian environmental activist fondly known as Yaya or Mbak Yaya, died of cancer. Rukka Sombolinggi, secretary-general of Indonesia’s largest Indigenous organization, AMAN, had counted every one of those days. “ It makes me sad,” she said at the launch of the Yaya Leadership Initiative [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — It had been 648 days since Nur Hidayati, an Indonesian environmental activist fondly known as Yaya or Mbak Yaya, died of cancer. Rukka Sombolinggi, secretary-general of Indonesia’s largest Indigenous organization, AMAN, had counted every one of those days. “ It makes me sad,” she said at the launch of the Yaya Leadership Initiative in Jakarta on Aug. 14, which would have been Yaya’s 53th birthday. But seeing the initiative launched in Yaya’s name gave Rukka another way to think about the loss. “Although she has gone, there are legacies, ideas and actions she left behind that we can still benefit from,” she said. The initiative, known as the YLI, brings together environmental, Indigenous, agrarian, fisher, human rights, and other movements to develop a new generation of community leaders — particularly from the ranks of women, young people, Indigenous peoples, and grassroots changemakers. Facilitated by the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the country’s biggest green NGO, alongside organizations including the Indigenous alliance AMAN, the Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA), and the Indonesian Union of Traditional Fisherfolk (KNTI), the YLI aims to build the capacity, networks, and support systems of people working for social and environmental justice. The initiative is built around four principles that Yaya championed throughout her career: solidarity, equality, environmentalism, and diversity. But its proponents say the YLI is more than just an effort to preserve the memory of one of Indonesia’s most prominent environmental leaders. They say it’s an attempt to carry forward a particular&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/new-leadership-initiative-carries-on-legacy-of-late-indonesian-environmental-activist/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326637</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>On the frontlines of conservation in Sumatra: Rangers safeguard Batutegi forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-the-front-lines-of-conservation-in-sumatra-rangers-safeguard-batutegi-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-the-front-lines-of-conservation-in-sumatra-rangers-safeguard-batutegi-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Aug 2026 02:21:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/07021006/IMG_5641-copy-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325509</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Lampung, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology, Agroforestry, Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Camera Trapping, Coffee, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Habitat, Human-wildlife Conflict, In-situ Conservation, Monitoring, NGOs, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Slow Loris, Tigers, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife Corridors, and Wildlife Rangers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TANGGAMUS, Indonesia — For more than a decade and a half, forest ranger Wandi Harmoko has walked the ridges and valleys of Batutegi, a landscape in southern Sumatra. He is one of only a handful of officers tasked with patrolling almost 60,000-hectares (148,300 acres) of forest that is not only ecologically significant but also economically [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TANGGAMUS, Indonesia — For more than a decade and a half, forest ranger Wandi Harmoko has walked the ridges and valleys of Batutegi, a landscape in southern Sumatra. He is one of only a handful of officers tasked with patrolling almost 60,000-hectares (148,300 acres) of forest that is not only ecologically significant but also economically vital to Lampung province. The forest Wandi protects today has been shaped by decades of disturbance. Since the turn of the century, waves of encroachment cleared large areas of forest to accelerate conversion to coffee plantations. Nevertheless, the forests here still harbors endangered wildlife, including Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae), siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus), pangolins (Manis javanica), Sumatran slow lorises (Nycticebus coucang) and sun bears (Helarctos malayanus). The survival and recovery of what remains in Batutegi depend on a fragile collaboration between a limited number of rangers, technology-driven monitoring systems, and social forestry farmers whose livelihoods are tied to the landscape. “What affects me most are the moments when we still encounter forest encroachment,” Wandi told Mongabay after joining his team for a day patrol inside Batutegi’s core zone. “It creates an inner conflict, because sometimes we have to arrest people and see them go to prison, even though we understand their situation.” Wandi Harmoko has patrolled the forest of Batutegi for over a decade. Image by Basten Gokkon. The Batutegi landscape, including a reservoir with the same name, stretches across 81,741 hectares (202,000 acres) jointly overseen by two forest management units (KPH), namely KPH Batutegi&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-the-front-lines-of-conservation-in-sumatra-rangers-safeguard-batutegi-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-325509</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Waste, women &#038; environmental justice: Interview with Nubian activist Malasen Hamida</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/waste-women-environmental-justice-interview-with-nubian-activist-malasen-hamida/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/waste-women-environmental-justice-interview-with-nubian-activist-malasen-hamida/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Jul 2026 18:30:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ouma Elvine Tina]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/14131540/img5-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323283</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation leadership, Culture, Environment, Fellows, Gender, Interviews, Mongabay.org, NGOs, Social Justice, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Malasen Hamida, a Nubian Muslim woman from Kibera, in Nairobi, is an aspiring politician and an environmental activist with more than 25 years of advocacy behind her. Kibera, which was named by Nubians, meaning “land of forests,” is Kenya’s largest informal settlement and sits on land that the British colonial government allocated to the Nubian [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Malasen Hamida, a Nubian Muslim woman from Kibera, in Nairobi, is an aspiring politician and an environmental activist with more than 25 years of advocacy behind her. Kibera, which was named by Nubians, meaning “land of forests,” is Kenya’s largest informal settlement and sits on land that the British colonial government allocated to the Nubian community after their forebears served as soldiers in the King’s African Rifles. That allocation once covered 1,698 hectares (4,197 acres). Today, due to urbanization, forced evictions, land-grabbing and successive government projects, only 116 hectares (288 acres) remain under Nubian ownership, with no compensation ever offered. Through the Mazingira Women Initiative, Hamida has spent those years organizing around waste management, smart farming, land rights and women’s leadership. (“Mazingira” is a Swahili word for environment or nature.) She is also a three-time parliamentary candidate for the Kibera constituency and intends to run again in 2027. Hamida spoke with Mongabay on a cold Saturday afternoon, just as she was leaving the largest mosque in Kibera constituency. Her offices are a short walk away. As we moved toward them, several people stopped to greet her. She responded to each, “salaam aleikum,” paused to chat, and cupped a small girl’s face in her hands. She led me through a corrugated iron gate into a quiet compound of mud-walled, iron-roofed houses. The area was noticeably clean, with no stagnant water or litter in sight, unlike the typical sight in Kibera. We settled on the veranda of her home. Malasen Hamida addresses&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/waste-women-environmental-justice-interview-with-nubian-activist-malasen-hamida/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/waste-women-environmental-justice-interview-with-nubian-activist-malasen-hamida/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323283</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>War reveals the isolation of Iran’s scientists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/war-reveals-the-isolation-of-irans-scientists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/war-reveals-the-isolation-of-irans-scientists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jul 2026 18:39:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/03153524/greater-flamingo-Phoenicopterus-roseus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322511</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Iran, and Middle East]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Finance, Funding, NGOs, Politics, Research, Science, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The smiles on the faces of Iman Ebrahimi and his colleagues in the photograph are revealing: After more than a month of war in Iran, a tenuous ceasefire in mid-April offered a brief window for the team to travel to one of Ebrahimi’s favorite field sites. Maharloo Lake is the “hottest spot for flamingo breeding [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The smiles on the faces of Iman Ebrahimi and his colleagues in the photograph are revealing: After more than a month of war in Iran, a tenuous ceasefire in mid-April offered a brief window for the team to travel to one of Ebrahimi’s favorite field sites. Maharloo Lake is the “hottest spot for flamingo breeding in Iran,” he said excitedly on a video call during a rare period of stable internet early in the war. They saw “at least 5,000” greater flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus) that day, he said, though there were probably more beyond the reach of their binoculars. “It was incredible.” A salt lake that tinges pink when summer heat shrinks its footprint, the lake was flush with water when they visited. “This is a very lovely place, but I&#8217;ve never seen Maharloo like this,” Ebrahimi said. The winter rains had been heavier than normal, to be sure, but he said he also suspects that agricultural and industrial activity, muted by the war, were drawing off less water from the lake — an unanticipated impact. Ebrahimi and his teammates from the NGO AvayeBoom Bird Conservation Society are doing their best to track the conflict’s effects on Iran’s environment. They’ve noticed, for example, shifts in bird aggregations, apparently moving away from areas that reverberate with airstrikes. But the war has also laid bare the damage caused by international sanctions imposed by the U.S., the EU and the U.N., along with other moves to cut Iran off from the rest of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/war-reveals-the-isolation-of-irans-scientists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322511</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ethiopian women plant trees, restoring lands &#038; livelihoods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Apr 2026 20:37:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/01202432/IWDOMembersPlanting_SidamaEthiopia_RuhamaGetahun-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316752</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Ethiopia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Environment, Forests, Fuelwood, Landscape Restoration, NGOs, Solutions, Sustainability, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the southern Ethiopian region of Sidama, unsustainable farming practices and tree cutting for fuel are causing land degradation. In response, members of the Integrated Women’s Development Organization are planting indigenous trees, bananas and vegetables as well as desho (Pennisetum glaucifolium) and elephant grass (Cenchrus purpureus) for cattle fodder in an effort to restore damaged [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the southern Ethiopian region of Sidama, unsustainable farming practices and tree cutting for fuel are causing land degradation. In response, members of the Integrated Women’s Development Organization are planting indigenous trees, bananas and vegetables as well as desho (Pennisetum glaucifolium) and elephant grass (Cenchrus purpureus) for cattle fodder in an effort to restore damaged farmland and build more resilient livelihoods. In an email interview, IWDO’s general manager, Ruhama Getahun, told Mongabay that the women and youth who make up the NGO’s membership have planted more than 1,250 hectares (3,080 acres) since 2020. She said these initiatives have begun generating income for community members — particularly women — helping them rely less on forest products such as charcoal and firewood for survival. Negasi Solomon, a land and environment researcher at Tigray Institute of Policy Studies in Mek’ele, Ethiopia, told Mongabay that rapid population growth means the average size of a household’s land in the Sidama region has shrunk. This has pushed farmers to expand their plots onto fragile and steep hillsides. Solomon told Mongabay in an email that women are — or should be — central to land use and land restoration decisions in Sidama, and in Ethiopia in general, because of the role they play in day‑to‑day farm management. He noted, however, that many women in Ethiopia still face obstacles to taking up leadership roles. “Patriarchal norms and customary systems often concentrate land ownership and key decision‑making in men, while limiting women’s inheritance and control over land even where&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316752</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Five more community-led African groups join global landscape restoration network</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/five-more-community-led-african-groups-join-global-landscape-restoration-network/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/five-more-community-led-african-groups-join-global-landscape-restoration-network/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Mar 2026 15:57:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/25153904/U2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316292</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, NGOs, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Amid rapid deforestation in Uganda’s Kalangala district, the School Food Forest Initiative launched a tree-planting project in school premises in 2019, aiming to instill knowledge and value for conservation in local communities by involving students planting and managing trees. The initiative has just become part of the Global Landscapes Forum. Its coordinator, Ngobi Joel, said [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Amid rapid deforestation in Uganda’s Kalangala district, the School Food Forest Initiative launched a tree-planting project in school premises in 2019, aiming to instill knowledge and value for conservation in local communities by involving students planting and managing trees. The initiative has just become part of the Global Landscapes Forum. Its coordinator, Ngobi Joel, said becoming a GLFx chapter will help strengthen the group’s work against deforestation in Uganda. The School Food Forest Initiative has established nurseries where schoolchildren and others in the community grow seedlings for a range of indigenous tree species, other fruit trees and medicinal plants. The NGO has also set up agroforestry and vegetable plots on school grounds that serve both to provide food for students and as demonstration sites for how to make use of the land in ways that conserve the environment, Joel told Mongabay by email from Kalangala town. The project has so far established eight school forests, Joel said. Becoming a chapter of the GLF will enhance this work, he said. “Getting advice on agroforestry design, keeping an eye on biodiversity, and checking climate impact will ensure our projects are sustainable and help school communities as much as possible.” The School Food Forest Initiative is one of 12 new GLFx chapters announced in February, expanding a movement that mobilizes and connects grassroots efforts on restoration of degraded landscapes around the world. Fairness and sustainability: Acting to restore African landscapes By involving school children in planting trees and growing vegetables, the School Food&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/five-more-community-led-african-groups-join-global-landscape-restoration-network/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316292</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate-resilient housing models slow to gain ground in disaster-prone Bangladesh</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-resilient-housing-models-slow-to-gain-ground-in-disaster-prone-bangladesh/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-resilient-housing-models-slow-to-gain-ground-in-disaster-prone-bangladesh/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Mar 2026 06:06:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sadiqur Rahman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/13192957/Billal-Hossain-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315738</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Community Development, Disasters, Environment, Extreme Weather, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, Infrastructure, NGOs, Poverty Alleviation, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Bangladesh’s low-lying terrain combined with the crisscrossed river network, which is cause for recurring floods, tidal surges and river erosion, and frequent cyclones make it vulnerable to climate change-related devastations. Between 2008 and 2024, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) recorded 123 disaster events that triggered huge displacement, including about 11.3 million people who experienced [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Bangladesh’s low-lying terrain combined with the crisscrossed river network, which is cause for recurring floods, tidal surges and river erosion, and frequent cyclones make it vulnerable to climate change-related devastations. Between 2008 and 2024, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) recorded 123 disaster events that triggered huge displacement, including about 11.3 million people who experienced pre-emptive evacuations during cyclones. IDMC assessed that many such movements, however, only last for a short period of time, but every year disasters still leave tens of thousands of people without hope of returning to their homes immediately after. In such a context, safe housing is a survival need instead of merely an infrastructural demand. However, the concept of safe or sustainable housing for the disaster victims still remains a donor-funded matter, as the use of climate-and-disaster-resilient construction plans and materials are not popular in Bangladesh. “Sustainable and safe housing is the first line of defense in disaster risk reduction,” says Mohammad Abu Sadeque, executive director of Centre for Housing and Building Research (HBRC), a private sector research hub focused on creating sustainable, affordable, and climate-resilient housing solutions. Sadeque has observed that conventional housing, especially in Bangladesh’s rural and low-income areas, often lacks structural safety and durability against cyclones and tidal surges, riverbank erosion, flooding, flash floods, salinity intrusion, earthquakes and heat stress. According to the government’s disaster-related statistics of 2021, more than half of the country’s households are non-concrete. Living in fragile tin-roofed or mud-walled structures, millions of families are exposed to the mounting&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-resilient-housing-models-slow-to-gain-ground-in-disaster-prone-bangladesh/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315738</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Malawi’s solar boom is leaving a toxic legacy of lead waste</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malawis-solar-boom-is-leaving-a-toxic-legacy-of-lead-waste/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malawis-solar-boom-is-leaving-a-toxic-legacy-of-lead-waste/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Feb 2026 09:03:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/20080916/MountingSolarPanel_Malawi_JonStrandWikimediaBYSA4-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314494</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Development, Economics, Energy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, NGOs, Poisoning, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[-15.778962096499813, 35.01512751075972]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BLANTYRE, Malawi — On Lagson Gumbo’s side of the stream, BCA is a slum. Running parallel to the trickle of murky water is a narrow, dusty street lined with small, unplastered houses and shops trading in groceries, cheap alcohol and artisan services for residents of this crowded sector of Malawi’s principal commercial city, Blantyre. On [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BLANTYRE, Malawi — On Lagson Gumbo’s side of the stream, BCA is a slum. Running parallel to the trickle of murky water is a narrow, dusty street lined with small, unplastered houses and shops trading in groceries, cheap alcohol and artisan services for residents of this crowded sector of Malawi’s principal commercial city, Blantyre. On the stream’s other bank is an affluent neighborhood with the same name. In the wealthy BCA, Blantyre’s City Council provides waste collection services, removing rubbish to a site on the city’s outskirts. It’s an open landfill where people from low-income settlements scavenge for whatever they find worth for reuse or sale. On the side where Gumbo lives and works, there’s no formal waste management. Residents dump rubbish from homes and shops into the stream. Kitchen waste and used nappies, old tires and plastic bottles and carrier bags get thrown into gullies and any other unoccupied spaces nearby. There are also batteries. At his makeshift workshop, Gumbo sorts through metal plates he has extracted from expired lead-acid batteries. Before him is a smoldering charcoal stove and a plastic bag filled with pellets of lead — also extracted from batteries. He puts the lead in a small tin container, pours acid over it and sets it on the stove to heat. “These pieces were positive cells in the batteries,” he says, gesturing to the plates he’s laid out on a small worktable. “When a battery stops functioning, it is not the negative electrodes that have expired. It&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malawis-solar-boom-is-leaving-a-toxic-legacy-of-lead-waste/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malawis-solar-boom-is-leaving-a-toxic-legacy-of-lead-waste/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314494</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Partnering up to run a DRC reserve: Interview with Forgotten Parks’ Christine Lain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/partnering-up-to-run-a-drc-reserve-interview-with-forgotten-parks-christine-lain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/partnering-up-to-run-a-drc-reserve-interview-with-forgotten-parks-christine-lain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Feb 2026 12:51:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/06123416/Christine-Lain-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313875</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, NGOs, Politics, Protected Areas, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rangers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the early 2010s, Upemba National Park in the southern Democratic Republic of Congo was a case study in the dysfunction of some protected areas in Africa. Park rangers and staff were regularly harassed or killed by armed militias embroiled in the region’s long-running conflicts, and wildlife numbers had declined sharply as a result of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the early 2010s, Upemba National Park in the southern Democratic Republic of Congo was a case study in the dysfunction of some protected areas in Africa. Park rangers and staff were regularly harassed or killed by armed militias embroiled in the region’s long-running conflicts, and wildlife numbers had declined sharply as a result of widespread poaching. After years of fighting and neglect, by 2012 Upemba was in what one conservationist described as a “pitiful state.” In 2016, Robert Muir, a program director with the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), founded Forgotten Parks. FZS had been working with the ICCN, the DRC government institute in charge of the country’s protected areas, on a management strategy for Upemba. But after the park’s chief warden was killed in an ambush in late 2012, FZS pulled out. Muir and Forgotten Parks offered to step in, and in 2017 they signed a 15-year deal with the DRC government to run Upemba directly. The deal was part of a wider trend of public-private partnerships (PPPs) for conservation in protected areas in Africa. In parks where governments are either unwilling or unable to manage day-to-day operations on their own, many have turned to foreign NGOs like Forgotten Parks and the higher-profile African Parks to help. According to a 2024 study published in PNAS, there are now more than 127 protected areas in 16 countries that are managed under this arrangement. Mongabay’s Ashoka Mukpo spoke with Christine Lain, the DRC director of Forgotten Parks and current manager of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/partnering-up-to-run-a-drc-reserve-interview-with-forgotten-parks-christine-lain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313875</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Whale sharks released from nets along India’s coast as fishers turn rescuers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/whale-sharks-released-from-nets-along-indias-coast-as-fishers-turn-rescuers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/whale-sharks-released-from-nets-along-indias-coast-as-fishers-turn-rescuers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Feb 2026 15:37:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[K.A. Shaji]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/04121705/whale-shark-whale-shark-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313709</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, India, Indian Ocean, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fishing, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, NGOs, Oceans, Sharks, Whale Sharks, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On a March morning in the suburbs of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala state’s capital in southern India, a group of fishers were hauling their kambavala — a traditional net fixed between bamboo poles driven into the seabed. The net caught something immense. The fishers saw a dark, speckled shadow thrashing within the mesh. As they drew closer, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On a March morning in the suburbs of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala state’s capital in southern India, a group of fishers were hauling their kambavala — a traditional net fixed between bamboo poles driven into the seabed. The net caught something immense. The fishers saw a dark, speckled shadow thrashing within the mesh. As they drew closer, they saw the white-dotted back and cavernous mouth of a whale shark, the world’s largest fish, trapped in the bamboo frame and nylon webbing. They hesitated for a moment: A torn net could mean the loss of a month’s income for small-scale fishers. However, saving the net would mean killing the animal. On the shore stood Ajit Shanghumukhom, a fisher community representative and a volunteer trained by the nonprofit Wildlife Trust of India (WTI). He made the call: “We can’t let it die,” he said. For half an hour, the fishers worked with knives and ropes, cutting the net section by section. The water frothed as the whale shark struggled. When it finally slipped free, the beach fell silent. The fishing net floated like a wound on the water, but the men smiled. They had lost their income but gained something greater — the feeling that the sea itself had been restored. The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is the world’s largest fish, once caught and slaughtered rampantly along India’s coast for its liver oil and meat. Image courtesy of the Wildlife Trust of India. Fishers turn rescuers Two decades ago, India’s west coast told a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/whale-sharks-released-from-nets-along-indias-coast-as-fishers-turn-rescuers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313709</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New ventures set out to tackle the plastic choking Bangladesh’s ECAs</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-ventures-set-out-to-tackle-the-plastic-choking-bangladeshs-ecas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-ventures-set-out-to-tackle-the-plastic-choking-bangladeshs-ecas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Dec 2025 09:17:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/02085956/Workers-sorting-the-single-use-plastcis-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310419</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Consumption, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Law Enforcement, NGOs, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Plastic, Pollution, Protected Areas, and Regulations]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The amount of single-use plastic that gets recycled as a measure to manage plastic pollution is insignificant in Bangladesh. However, some small-scale ventures working in this sector are trying to improve the situation. Currently, around 300 small-scale ventures are engaged in recycling plastic waste, specifically single-use plastic bottles and other plastics heavier than polybags, which [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The amount of single-use plastic that gets recycled as a measure to manage plastic pollution is insignificant in Bangladesh. However, some small-scale ventures working in this sector are trying to improve the situation. Currently, around 300 small-scale ventures are engaged in recycling plastic waste, specifically single-use plastic bottles and other plastics heavier than polybags, which are used mainly for groceries and kitchen market and thrown away afterwards. As part of the recycling move, Bangladesh has recently started recycling the untreated single-use plastic waste, comprising mostly of polybags. Considering the negative impacts of untreated waste, the NGO BRAC, an international development organization, introduced a project to turn single-use plastic waste into raw materials for plastic products. To start off, the project has been collecting plastic waste from Cox’s Bazar sea beach, one of Bangladesh’s Ecologically Critical Areas (ECAs), and its surrounding communities. Cox’s Bazar sea beach is one of the 13 biodiversity-rich habitats declared as ECAs by Bangladesh, which accords them protection under strict laws. BRAC’s plastic project was initially taken under the Plastic Free Rivers and Seas for South Asia (PLEASE) project by the South Asia Cooperative Environment Programme (SACEP), an intergovernmental organization of the eight South Asian nations. “With the presence of rivers and the ocean, we selected Cox’s Bazar for the initiative and tried to change the behavioral patterns of locals and tourists through different awareness building initiatives. For turning the waste into a resource, we planned to establish a plant to process the most neglected plastic waste&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-ventures-set-out-to-tackle-the-plastic-choking-bangladeshs-ecas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310419</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Malawi, a rural community shines bright with 100% solar power milestone</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-malawi-a-rural-community-shines-bright-with-100-solar-power-milestone/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-malawi-a-rural-community-shines-bright-with-100-solar-power-milestone/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Oct 2025 12:04:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Madalitso Wills Kateta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/30101432/2426874c-15a2-4d41-9465-71bb5d70474c-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308571</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Development, Economics, Energy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, NGOs, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LILONGWE — Four years ago, a U.K.-based charity, SolarAid, set out to provide solar-powered electricity to every home in Kasakula, a village around 90 kilometers, or 56 miles, from Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe. The project was aimed at demonstrating the potential for distributing and maintaining renewable energy in rural Africa. Today, SolarAid says it has installed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LILONGWE — Four years ago, a U.K.-based charity, SolarAid, set out to provide solar-powered electricity to every home in Kasakula, a village around 90 kilometers, or 56 miles, from Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe. The project was aimed at demonstrating the potential for distributing and maintaining renewable energy in rural Africa. Today, SolarAid says it has installed solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in all of the nearly 9,000 households in the village. Kasakula has a population of just over 20,000. Most of the village’s inhabitants grow crops like maize, beans and cassava for their own consumption. Like many other settlements of this size, it boasts of two public secondary schools, 10 primary schools and a health center. It also has various businesses including barbershops, video showrooms, and shops selling assorted groceries. And, also like many other settlements of this size across Africa, few Kasakula homes are connected to the national electricity grid. Residents here, like many of their counterparts in other rural parts of the continent, rely on paraffin lamps or candles for light after dark. This has also meant traders in the area&#8217;s open market needed to shut down earlier. When it launched, SolarAid’s project aimed to make bright, safe, affordable energy available to every household. &#8220;We chose Kasakula because it is a remote and low-income community,” Brave Mhonie, the charity’s general manager in Malawi, told Mongabay by phone. ”We wanted to test the viability of our model in such a setting, and see if it was scalable to other parts of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-malawi-a-rural-community-shines-bright-with-100-solar-power-milestone/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308571</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Turning camera traps into real-time sentinels: Interview with Conservation X Lab’s Dante Wasmuht</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/turning-camera-traps-into-real-time-sentinels-interview-with-conservation-x-labs-dante-wasmuht/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/turning-camera-traps-into-real-time-sentinels-interview-with-conservation-x-labs-dante-wasmuht/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Sep 2025 12:04:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/25114621/camera-trap-puma-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306567</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and New Zealand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Conservation, Conservation Technology, data, Environment, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Monitoring, NGOs, Research, Technology, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Camera traps are ubiquitous in conservation. They’re deployed to monitor biodiversity, study animal behavior, observe habitats over long periods of time, and enforce effective conservation action on the ground. However, they have an inherent shortcoming that’s especially prominent in remote locations like dense forests and cut-off islands. “They&#8217;re largely passive. People put them out and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Camera traps are ubiquitous in conservation. They’re deployed to monitor biodiversity, study animal behavior, observe habitats over long periods of time, and enforce effective conservation action on the ground. However, they have an inherent shortcoming that’s especially prominent in remote locations like dense forests and cut-off islands. “They&#8217;re largely passive. People put them out and then half a year later, or a year later, they go and collect this,” Dante Wasmuht, head of artificial intelligence at the nonprofit Conservation X Labs, tells Mongabay in a video interview. “From the moment something happens in that area until a human knows about it, a lot of time can pass.” To address this issue and encourage early intervention, Conservation X Labs has developed an AI-powered tool that can be attached to camera traps to provide real-time updates on what’s happening in the forests. “It’s as if that camera is connected to a small computer which is the Sentinel,” Wasmuht says. “Whenever the camera trap takes a picture, the Sentinel knows and transfers the image onto its inner computer chip and can run all those AI models completely locally right there in the field.” The Sentinel has been deployed in various countries to track invasive species, monitor wildlife poaching, and keep an eye on threatened animals. In New Zealand, more than 80 Sentinel devices have been used to monitor invasive species on remote islands. On Ulva Island, for example, the device played a critical role in detecting invasive rats that were wreaking havoc on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/turning-camera-traps-into-real-time-sentinels-interview-with-conservation-x-labs-dante-wasmuht/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/turning-camera-traps-into-real-time-sentinels-interview-with-conservation-x-labs-dante-wasmuht/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306567</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>NGOs launch novel community projects to conserve Mexico’s ocelots</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/ngos-launch-novel-community-projects-to-conserve-mexicos-ocelots/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/ngos-launch-novel-community-projects-to-conserve-mexicos-ocelots/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Aug 2025 15:13:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Weiss]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/20132911/17-An-ocelot-hiding-in-a-tree-in-the-Pantanal-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304602</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Mammals, NGOs, Small Cats, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CONHUAS, Mexico — Esteban Dominguez has lived for more than 20 years close to one of the biggest conservation areas in southeastern Mexico — Calakmul Biosphere Reserve on the Yucatán Peninsula. He’s used to spotting monkeys, coatis, eagles, tapirs, deer, wild turkeys, owls, and even pumas and jaguars. But he recalls only a couple times [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CONHUAS, Mexico — Esteban Dominguez has lived for more than 20 years close to one of the biggest conservation areas in southeastern Mexico — Calakmul Biosphere Reserve on the Yucatán Peninsula. He’s used to spotting monkeys, coatis, eagles, tapirs, deer, wild turkeys, owls, and even pumas and jaguars. But he recalls only a couple times when an ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) briefly crossed his path. “They are smaller, harder to see, and disappear much faster than jaguars,” he says. But Dominguez has hard evidence that these small cats with their characteristic spotted coats live in the reserve and its surroundings. “I have set up and monitored 28 camera-trap stations for different researchers since 2014, and there are always photos of ocelots on each camera,” he says. Mostly, these images are accidental, termed “bycatch” by scientists and NGOs that primarily monitor for more charismatic species like jaguars (Panthera onca) or pumas (Puma concolor). The 35-year-old Dominguez was originally a farmer, but his passion is nature, and over the years he has turned into a citizen scientist, aiding biologists, guiding tourists, and teaching his community in the village of Conhuas about environmental protection. “This is very important as we live in the buffer zone of the national park,” he says. The village’s location in the rainforest is beautiful, but also challenging for its 800 inhabitants, most of them settlers from other parts of Mexico who arrived in the 1980s, well before Calakmul was declared a biosphere reserve in 1989. Those settlers first tried&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/ngos-launch-novel-community-projects-to-conserve-mexicos-ocelots/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304602</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Will we still eat beef in 50 years?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/will-we-still-eat-beef-in-50-years/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/will-we-still-eat-beef-in-50-years/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Aug 2025 13:56:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/14123248/janosch-diggelmann-6f9kju5FRqw-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304268</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Alternative proteins, Biodiversity, Birds, Cattle, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Meat, NGOs, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When drought became a perennial visitor to the Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado in the late 1990s, Steve Wooten remembers telling his family, “We got to do something different.” Between 1997 and 2003, the Wootens, who have been raising cattle in this arid landscape since 1929, had to sell off cows — a last resort [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When drought became a perennial visitor to the Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado in the late 1990s, Steve Wooten remembers telling his family, “We got to do something different.” Between 1997 and 2003, the Wootens, who have been raising cattle in this arid landscape since 1929, had to sell off cows — a last resort for any rancher. Steve Wooten figures they lost half a million dollars. “I never want to do that again,” he tells Mongabay. “We felt like one of the things we have to do is create the resilience in the ranch so that we&#8217;re not wiped out by drought.&#8221; Around that time, the family “got more serious” about dealing with drought, and it’s helped the ranch keep going. They made plans to allow the recovery of grasses so that they spring back to life when the rains come, Wooten says. And they&#8217;ve gone all in on a strategy they’d previously experimented with, one that aims to mimic the role that wild grazers played on the grasslands of North America for millions of years. Proponents say a focus on holistic grazing helps the land recover, provides habitat for other species, and pulls carbon from the atmosphere. To Wooten, the proof is in the resurgent grasses that feed the cattle year after year. &#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t venture to say that we&#8217;re always in balance, because we are an extractor of that natural resource,” he adds. “But if your cattle are in balance, and you&#8217;re matching their forage needs …&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/will-we-still-eat-beef-in-50-years/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304268</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How private funding helped one NGO survive the USAID cuts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/how-private-funding-helped-one-ngo-survive-the-usaid-cuts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/how-private-funding-helped-one-ngo-survive-the-usaid-cuts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2025 13:01:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/09213857/Adobe-Express-file-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302148</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Andes and Peru]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Funding, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Mountains, NGOs, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Dramatic cuts to USAID funding earlier this year have slammed conservation organizations around the world. But some NGOs, like World Neighbors, have been able to continue their conservation projects with little disruption — thanks in part to their reliance on private rather than government funding. This approach, which focuses on funding from family foundations and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Dramatic cuts to USAID funding earlier this year have slammed conservation organizations around the world. But some NGOs, like World Neighbors, have been able to continue their conservation projects with little disruption — thanks in part to their reliance on private rather than government funding. This approach, which focuses on funding from family foundations and corporate grants, has so far allowed World Neighbors to weather the unstable financial environment, Kate Schecter, the organization’s CEO, told Mongabay. Only its program in Indonesia and Timor-Leste, which received funding from USAID, was impacted. “We don’t get millions and millions of dollars from these individual donors,” she added. “However, their passion and their commitment to our mission lasts much longer than a one- or two-year grant that you might get from USAID.” In the Peruvian Andes, WN found that its project to help communities build nine qochas, artificial water bodies constructed using ancient agricultural techniques to collect and store water, faced little disruption. The project, still ongoing, has helped save more than 56,000 cubic meters (12.3 million gallons) of water, improving water access for 31,664 people in 44 communities across the regions of Apurímac and Ayacucho. “We&#8217;re not a one-sector organization,” Schecter said. “We don&#8217;t just focus on water or agriculture. We believe that if these communities are going to be self-sustaining and if they&#8217;re going to be able to operate without our support, we need to address all the issues in the community.” For these purposes, private donors work because they allow the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/how-private-funding-helped-one-ngo-survive-the-usaid-cuts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302148</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>WWF’s top leader acknowledges reforms in wake of abuse allegations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/wwfs-top-leader-acknowledges-reforms-in-wake-of-abuse-allegations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/wwfs-top-leader-acknowledges-reforms-in-wake-of-abuse-allegations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jun 2025 08:34:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/27075810/WhatsApp-Image-2025-06-25-at-10.39.17-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301543</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Human Rights, Interviews, NGOs, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[VILLARS, Switzerland — Six years after being shaken by allegations of human rights abuses linked to conservation enforcement, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says it has undertaken considerable reforms — reforms that, according to its leadership, are not just structural but signal a broader rethink of global conservation itself. In an interview with [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[VILLARS, Switzerland — Six years after being shaken by allegations of human rights abuses linked to conservation enforcement, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says it has undertaken considerable reforms — reforms that, according to its leadership, are not just structural but signal a broader rethink of global conservation itself. In an interview with Mongabay, Kirsten Schuijt, director-general of WWF International, described what she called a “deep transformation” within the organization. “So, what started off as a response to a criticism in the external world has now really been internalized at the highest strategic levels of WWF,” she said, “not only because it was the right thing to do, but because conservation doesn’t work without people.” Between 2019 and 2020, WWF faced scathing scrutiny after investigations from BuzzFeed revealed disturbing accounts of violence by park rangers allegedly supported by WWF, including torture, beatings and extrajudicial killings in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India and Nepal. Mongabay also reported considerably about this issue. Critics said the incidents reflected deeper problems with the “fortress conservation” model — one that often excludes the very communities it claims to protect. WWF responded by commissioning an independent panel, which produced a 160-page report recommending more than 170 reforms spanning governance, accountability and social safeguards. According to Schuijt, WWF has now implemented 98% of those recommendations. Among them: the introduction of grievance mechanisms, the creation of an ombuds office (expected to launch soon) and the appointment of the organization&#8217;s first Indigenous board member, Ramy&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/wwfs-top-leader-acknowledges-reforms-in-wake-of-abuse-allegations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301543</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>PNG’s Torricelli Mountains teem with life — and the risk of extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/pngs-torricelli-mountains-teem-with-life-and-the-risk-of-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/pngs-torricelli-mountains-teem-with-life-and-the-risk-of-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Mar 2025 18:13:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/31073348/9043-A-grizzled-tree-kangaroo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296714</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[New Guinea, Oceania, Pacific Islands, and Papua New Guinea]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Infrastructure, Logging, Marsupials, Mongabay Data Studio, NGOs, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Roads, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Millions of years ago, as the Indo-Australian plate pushed into the Pacific plate, a volcanic arc of islands began to emerge near the modern-day island of New Guinea that would one day form the Torricelli Mountains. And in this ancient, slow-motion reordering of Earth’s crust, life inevitably layered on top of the substrata to form [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Millions of years ago, as the Indo-Australian plate pushed into the Pacific plate, a volcanic arc of islands began to emerge near the modern-day island of New Guinea that would one day form the Torricelli Mountains. And in this ancient, slow-motion reordering of Earth’s crust, life inevitably layered on top of the substrata to form one of the most species-rich spots on the planet. “You&#8217;ve got to remember that there was the Sepik River pumping vegetation from the mainland off into the ocean, some of which was clearly reaching this island arc system,” Australian zoologist Tim Flannery of the Australian Museum in Sydney told Mongabay. Along with that botanical foundation came a number of animals: amphibians, to be sure, which seem particularly adept at rafting on plant life from one piece of land to another, according to Flannery, along with a predecessor of the northern glider (Petaurus abidi), a marsupial species with bewitchingly bulbous eyes found only in the Torricellis. “We’re still working out exactly what species came across at that phase,” he said, but it’s clear “there was a rich source of colonists.” Later, the emergence of a mountain range connected this island arc to the Doberai Peninsula of western New Guinea, which is also known as the Bird’s Head, or Vogelkop in Dutch and Indonesian, for its namesake shape. As a result of this “amazing orogeny” in the early Pliocene Epoch and another linkage with New Guinea’s Central Highlands, a number of species that had previously been confined&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/pngs-torricelli-mountains-teem-with-life-and-the-risk-of-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/pngs-torricelli-mountains-teem-with-life-and-the-risk-of-extinction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296714</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Military-backed conservation ‘without firing a single shot’: Interview with Nepal’s Babu Krishna Karki</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/military-backed-conservation-without-firing-a-single-shot-interview-with-nepals-babu-krishna-karki/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/military-backed-conservation-without-firing-a-single-shot-interview-with-nepals-babu-krishna-karki/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Feb 2025 06:51:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/04055638/babu-krishna-karki-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293838</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Crime, Environment, Governance, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Law Enforcement, Military, NGOs, Poaching, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — In the 1970s, Nepal’s government faced major challenges conserving the fertile flood plains of the country’s south. The region is the natural habitat of the iconic greater one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) and Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris), and their populations were declining rapidly due to poaching and conflict with humans. The forested banks of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — In the 1970s, Nepal’s government faced major challenges conserving the fertile flood plains of the country’s south. The region is the natural habitat of the iconic greater one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) and Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris), and their populations were declining rapidly due to poaching and conflict with humans. The forested banks of the Narayani River were also being degraded at unprecedented levels. To address these problems, then government at the time decided to establish the country’s first national park, Chitwan, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The main idea behind the undertaking was to revive the population of rhinos (as well as tigers and other threatened species) by preventing poaching and habitat destruction, Similarly, the park would help manage land degradation and conserve the region’s outstanding flora and fauna. And the park’s operations, led by local communities, would help them and the government generate revenue from tourism. To achieve these objectives, the government decided to deploy the military. This deployment, to Chitwan and the other protected areas that would follow over the years, was a turning point in the country’s conservation history. Proponents say Nepal would have lost its rhinos and tigers without their active role, while critics label it militarized conservation that marginalizes local communities, the traditional custodians of the land. Half a century on, the debate continues. Few people are better placed to reflect on the military’s role in conservation in Nepal than Babu Krishna Karki, a retired military general who worked at several national&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/military-backed-conservation-without-firing-a-single-shot-interview-with-nepals-babu-krishna-karki/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293838</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How conservation NGOs can put human rights principles into practice (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/how-conservation-ngos-can-put-human-rights-principles-into-practice-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/how-conservation-ngos-can-put-human-rights-principles-into-practice-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2025 15:49:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sharanya KanikkannanSushil Raj]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/30084430/uganda-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293570</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Law, NGOs, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Human rights are not just words on paper. Advocates, social movements and government champions have brought much needed positive changes by pushing for the adoption of international human rights standards and putting rights at the forefront of national laws, policy, and governance decisions. In the world of conservation governance, human rights are the key to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Human rights are not just words on paper. Advocates, social movements and government champions have brought much needed positive changes by pushing for the adoption of international human rights standards and putting rights at the forefront of national laws, policy, and governance decisions. In the world of conservation governance, human rights are the key to protecting whole systems — people, wildlife and the natural spaces they live in. However, applying human rights is easier said than done with multiple barriers to implementation. This is the realm we operate in to help bring tangible change. At the end of 2024, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released the “core human rights principles for private conservation organizations and funders,” which build on existing human rights treaties and standards. The drafters received input from many actors, including us. However, there remains insufficient clarity in translating principles into practice. As human rights practitioners with extensive experience in several fields, we have been working in the conservation sector to bring a sharper, more systematic focus on human rights and to develop a better understanding of what works on the ground. When governments fail to uphold human rights, in most instances it is imperative not simply to terminate support but rather to stay on a principled course to protect and respect the rights of affected communities over the long term. Large conservation NGOs often work in extremely remote places where government presence is limited, with few, if any, social services or other civil society actors. This&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/how-conservation-ngos-can-put-human-rights-principles-into-practice-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/how-conservation-ngos-can-put-human-rights-principles-into-practice-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293570</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Introducing wildlife crime to Nepal’s law enforcement: Interview with Prasanna Yonzon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/training-law-enforcement-to-deal-with-wildlife-crime-interview-with-prasanna-yonzon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/training-law-enforcement-to-deal-with-wildlife-crime-interview-with-prasanna-yonzon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jan 2025 04:27:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/28024052/DSC_1263-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293501</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Environment, Governance, Illegal Trade, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Law Enforcement, Military, NGOs, Poaching, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU, Nepal — Wildlife crime continues to plague Nepal, even as the law enforcement strives at the forefront. The country functions both as a source and transit hub for wildlife trade. Most of the wildlife crimes reported here revolve around the illicit hunting and smuggling of its iconic megafauna such as tigers (Panthera tigris), greater [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU, Nepal — Wildlife crime continues to plague Nepal, even as the law enforcement strives at the forefront. The country functions both as a source and transit hub for wildlife trade. Most of the wildlife crimes reported here revolve around the illicit hunting and smuggling of its iconic megafauna such as tigers (Panthera tigris), greater one-horned rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis) and snow leopards (Panthera uncia). Other animals that make it to the black market, according to seizure records, include clouded leopards (Neofelis nebulosa), Himalayan musk deer (Moschus chrysogaster), black bears (Ursus thibetanus) and pangolins (Manis sp.), along with various avian species and turtles. In this context, law enforcement agencies often find themselves challenged by the adaptability, and audacity, of criminal networks that circumvent regulations and exploit security loopholes. Officials say around 120 to 130 cases of wildlife crime are recorded across the country’s protected areas and division forest offices every year, although official data isn’t available. When conservationist Prasanna Yonzon started his work at the NGO Wildlife Conservation Nepal (WCN) 22 years ago, the country’s law enforcement authorities hadn’t yet prioritized tracking and dismantling wildlife crime networks. Yonzon took on the challenge to do something about it and, for the last two decades, has been organizing training workshops, developing resource materials for identifying wildlife products, and conducting awareness activities for enforcement agencies and other stakeholders. Considered as one Nepal’s pioneering NGOs working in the field of wildlife crime, WCN works closely with national park authorities, law enforcement agencies and other related&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/training-law-enforcement-to-deal-with-wildlife-crime-interview-with-prasanna-yonzon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293501</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>NGOs raise concerns over Borneo pilot of ‘jurisdictional’ certification for palm oil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/ngos-raise-concerns-over-borneo-pilot-of-jurisdictional-certification-for-palm-oil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/ngos-raise-concerns-over-borneo-pilot-of-jurisdictional-certification-for-palm-oil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jan 2025 05:01:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rendy Tisna]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/08080918/oil-palm-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292722</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Indonesia, Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Business, Certification, Community-based Conservation, Conflict, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Environment, Farming, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Jurisdictional Approaches, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, NGOs, Palm Oil, Plantations, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANJARMASIN, Indonesia — In October 2023 in the Indigenous Dayak village of Bangkal, Indonesian police fired on farmers demonstrating against PT Hamparan Masawit Bangun Persada (HMBP), a palm oil plantation company owned by Indonesia’s BEST Group. “Without any trigger from the protesters, the security forces shot tear gas and bullets from firearms,” Bayu Herinata, director [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANJARMASIN, Indonesia — In October 2023 in the Indigenous Dayak village of Bangkal, Indonesian police fired on farmers demonstrating against PT Hamparan Masawit Bangun Persada (HMBP), a palm oil plantation company owned by Indonesia’s BEST Group. “Without any trigger from the protesters, the security forces shot tear gas and bullets from firearms,” Bayu Herinata, director of the Central Kalimantan provincial chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), an NGO, told Mongabay at the time. The farmers in Bangkal, located in the Central Kalimantan district of Seruyan, had taken to the streets to press the firm to release 20% of its land concession to local farmers, as many plantations are required to do by law. The demonstrators maintained that the BEST Group subsidiary had neglected to fulfill its legal obligation to smallholders under a required profit-sharing scheme known as “plasma.” One person from Bangkal, named Gijik, was shot dead during the protest, Mongabay reported last year. Now, civil society researchers worry that such conflicts, which are numerous in Indonesia, could be papered over by a proposed change to the way the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the main global body certifying palm oil as responsibly produced, assesses supply chains for compliance. Normally, the RSPO certifies palm oil produced by a single company, which can then sell it for a premium. Under the new methodology, the RSPO would vet the environmental and social credentials of an entire jurisdiction, like a province or a district, treating it as a single&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/ngos-raise-concerns-over-borneo-pilot-of-jurisdictional-certification-for-palm-oil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292722</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>COP29 ends in $300 billion deal, widespread dismay — and eyes toward COP30</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/cop29-ends-in-300-billion-deal-widespread-dismay-and-eyes-toward-cop30/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/cop29-ends-in-300-billion-deal-widespread-dismay-and-eyes-toward-cop30/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Nov 2024 19:20:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/25185725/ProtestAtFinalNegotiations_COP29Baku_KiaraWorthFlickrbYNCSA2.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290638</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Environment, Finance, NGOs, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BAKU, Azerbaijan — As the gavel came down on the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change (COP29), shortly after 2 a.m. local time, a mixed reaction greeted the much-awaited deal. The agreement included a package of $300 billion to fund climate change initiatives in developing countries and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BAKU, Azerbaijan — As the gavel came down on the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change (COP29), shortly after 2 a.m. local time, a mixed reaction greeted the much-awaited deal. The agreement included a package of $300 billion to fund climate change initiatives in developing countries and work toward raising the sum to the needed $1.3 trillion yearly by 2035, among other outcomes. While the host country and others in the plenary applauded the agreement, several stakeholders criticized it, arguing that it did not adequately address the current climate needs of developing countries or align with scientific recommendations. Wrecked cars on the outskirts of Asheville, on the east coast of the United States after Hurricane Helene in September 2024. Image by Bill McMannis via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) Calls for commitment to needs-based goals As the COP opened, the head of the World Meteorological Organization, a U.N. entity responsible for monitoring weather, climate and water resources, told journalists in Baku that the planet is on a &#8220;red alert,&#8221; as 2024 has been the hottest year on record. Referencing a “State of the Climate” report prepared for the COP, Celeste Saulo said that greenhouse gas levels reached record highs in 2023, and ocean temperatures — a key factor in extreme weather — were the highest ever recorded. In light of the growing severity of the climate crisis, particularly for developing countries, and the imminent expiry of a 2009 agreement to make $100 billion&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/cop29-ends-in-300-billion-deal-widespread-dismay-and-eyes-toward-cop30/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290638</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Kenya, a water fund brings to light Indigenous cultural identity issues</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/in-kenya-a-water-fund-brings-to-light-indigenous-cultural-identity-issues/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/in-kenya-a-water-fund-brings-to-light-indigenous-cultural-identity-issues/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Nov 2024 19:06:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Juliet Akoth Ojwang]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/12173157/A-graceful-grey-crested-crane-in-the-Eldoret-Iten-watershed-Image-Courtesy-of-TNC-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290016</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Drinking Water, Environment, Farming, Fellows, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Indigenous Peoples, NGOs, Sustainability, Water, Water Scarcity, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is Part 2 of a two-part series on Kenya’s Eldoret-Iten Water Fund. Part 1 is available here. Two years into the program, Kenya’s Eldoret-Iten Water Fund (EIWF) has seen considerable success so far in its aims to restore degraded forests and protect vital water resources for communities in the region. But several hurdles have [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is Part 2 of a two-part series on Kenya’s Eldoret-Iten Water Fund. Part 1 is available here. Two years into the program, Kenya’s Eldoret-Iten Water Fund (EIWF) has seen considerable success so far in its aims to restore degraded forests and protect vital water resources for communities in the region. But several hurdles have emerged. One is with wetland restoration. “Wetlands pose a unique challenge because they are located in river valleys and take longer to recover, restore and rehabilitate,” explained Fredrick Kihara, Africa Water Funds director for The Nature Conservancy, which implements the EIWF. “Many of these wetlands are bordered by farms, and over time, some have been drained for farming.” He noted that while wetlands may appear large on paper, the reality on the ground often shows a much smaller area remaining intact. Watershed manager Stephen Kibet attributed some of the difficulties in wetland restoration to Kenya’s land tenure system. “The way land is demarcated in Kenya includes environmentally sensitive areas, such as wetlands. This creates issues when trying to intervene, as the land is often privately owned, and farm boundaries extend too close to rivers,” he said. The lack of riparian buffer zones further complicates efforts to protect these vital ecosystems. Recognizing these challenges, TNC has emphasized community engagement to help shift local perceptions about wetland protection. One strategy they’ve adopted is payment for ecosystem services, known as PES, in which farmers are incentivized with fruit trees for protecting watershed areas. “One issue we face is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/in-kenya-a-water-fund-brings-to-light-indigenous-cultural-identity-issues/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290016</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A Kenya water fund partners with farmers to protect vital resources</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/a-kenya-water-fund-partners-with-farmers-to-protect-vital-resources/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/a-kenya-water-fund-partners-with-farmers-to-protect-vital-resources/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Nov 2024 18:02:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Juliet Akoth Ojwang]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/11115411/Paul-Sang-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289927</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Drinking Water, Environment, Farming, Fellows, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Indigenous Peoples, NGOs, Sustainability, Water, Water Scarcity, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is Part 1 of a two-part series on Kenya’s Eldoret-Iten Water Fund. Part 2 is available here. When farmers in the upstream Moiben catchment of Kenya’s Cherangany Hills Water Tower shifted from raising merino sheep to growing Irish potatoes, a more profitable crop, an unexpected issue arose downstream. Unlike the grass that once had [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is Part 1 of a two-part series on Kenya’s Eldoret-Iten Water Fund. Part 2 is available here. When farmers in the upstream Moiben catchment of Kenya’s Cherangany Hills Water Tower shifted from raising merino sheep to growing Irish potatoes, a more profitable crop, an unexpected issue arose downstream. Unlike the grass that once had anchored the soil during rains, potato farming left the land exposed and prone to erosion. This led to increased surface runoff, carrying agricultural effluent draining into rivers like the Moiben, a primary source of water for Chebara Dam, which supplies more than 475,000 residents of the city of Eldoret in Uasin Gishu county and surrounding areas downstream. As a result, Eldoret’s residents and companies began receiving tap water contaminated with mud and other debris. The Eldoret Water and Sanitation Company (ELDOWAS) struggled to treat the water fast enough due to limited resources. Water supplied to residents contained traces of iron and manganese, and on a daily basis, the area suffered a water shortfall of 20 million liters (5.3 million gallons), according to Peter Biwott, who was the ELDOWAS director at the time he spoke. All of this prompted a collaboration with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to establish what is known as the Eldoret-Iten Water Fund (EIWF). &#8220;Ecosystem services from catchment areas are declining due to factors like population growth and deforestation for charcoal and wood fuel,” Biwott told Mongabay. “We also observed that we were using excessive chlorine to purify the water.” He emphasized that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/a-kenya-water-fund-partners-with-farmers-to-protect-vital-resources/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289927</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For Tanzania’s Maasai, adapting to climate change may mean less livestock, more trees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/for-tanzanias-maasai-adapting-to-climate-change-may-mean-less-livestock-more-trees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/for-tanzanias-maasai-adapting-to-climate-change-may-mean-less-livestock-more-trees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Oct 2024 09:18:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Naomi Achieng']]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/29212723/EntrepreneurshipTraining_TerratTanzania_TACCEI-IMG_7494-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289418</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Fuelwood, NGOs, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The village of Terrat, a settlement of around 14,000 people in the semiarid grassland and acacia forests of the Maasai Steppe, is one of many across northern Tanzania that has suffered increasingly frequent and severe drought. Terrat’s residents, farmers and herders alike, are adapting to the challenges of their changing climate with help from an [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The village of Terrat, a settlement of around 14,000 people in the semiarid grassland and acacia forests of the Maasai Steppe, is one of many across northern Tanzania that has suffered increasingly frequent and severe drought. Terrat’s residents, farmers and herders alike, are adapting to the challenges of their changing climate with help from an organization supporting tree planting alongside new farming techniques and economic opportunities. Drought isn’t new to Simanjiro district, where Terrat is found, but beginning in the early 2000s, this part of Tanzania witnessed a 20-year spell of poor rainfall. This posed a significant challenge for the roughly 80% of Terrat’s population who are pastoralists, reliant entirely on rain for pasture for their animals. Kone Medukenya, the Terrat village chair, told Mongabay that with limited pasture and many water sources drying up, cattle weakened and many animals died, and the land could only support goats. This reduced the pastoralists’ primary source of income. Livestock herders were forced to travel farther in search of grazing land, often into neighboring territories, triggering disputes with those communities over dwindling resources. The drought also drove the price of food up across this part of Tanzania. The price of a 100-kilogram (220-pound) sack of maize rose from $11 in 2004 to $66 in 2008 and continued to increase for nearly 10 years. In Simanjiro, residents said they had to travel more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) to the Arusha region to buy reasonably priced leafy green vegetables. &#8220;We witnessed poor living conditions&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/for-tanzanias-maasai-adapting-to-climate-change-may-mean-less-livestock-more-trees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289418</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>DR Congo: environmental activist faces 5 years in prison</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/dr-congo-environmental-activist-faces-5-years-in-prison/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/dr-congo-environmental-activist-faces-5-years-in-prison/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Oct 2024 20:38:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Didier Makal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/28201419/LoadingMukula.2016_KatangaDRC_LuGuangGreenpeace-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289319</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, NGOs, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of Congo — An environmental activist in the Democratic Republic of Congo faces five years in prison over allegations that he threatened a logger allegedly engaged in illegal deforestation in the country’s eastern Maniema province. In a summons issued by the bailiff of the high court in Kasongo, an important commercial town [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of Congo — An environmental activist in the Democratic Republic of Congo faces five years in prison over allegations that he threatened a logger allegedly engaged in illegal deforestation in the country’s eastern Maniema province. In a summons issued by the bailiff of the high court in Kasongo, an important commercial town in Maniema, the plaintiff, identified only as &#8220;Moïse&#8221;, accused Yahya Mirambo Bin Lubangi of having seized some of his timber, threatening to destroy any vehicles sent to transport logs from a village called Wamaza, in Kabambare district, and making death threats against him. Reached by Mongabay,  Moïse’s lawyer declined to provide his client&#8217;s full name or to respond to allegations that the plaintiff’s timber operations in Kabambare are illegal and environmentally destructive. Mirambo is a staff member of the NGO SOCEARUCO, or Congo Environmental and Agro-Rural Society. Josué Aruna, the head of SOCEARUCO, said the accusations are an attempt to intimidate environmental activists in the region who are opposed to illegal logging. “Wood is being cut down in all the forests. This wood is transported by truck through Uvira and Kamanyola [in neighboring South Kivu province], destined for Chinese and Arab markets.” According SOCEARUCO and others, for nearly two years, a group of loggers has been felling large quantities of mukula, the regional term for Pterocarpus tinctorius and related species commonly called African rosewoods, in Kabambare district, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) west of Kasongo. Between 2013 and 2018, P. tinctorius was massively overharvested in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/dr-congo-environmental-activist-faces-5-years-in-prison/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289319</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Local NGO RAINS brings relief to Ghana’s semiarid north with regenerative farming</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/local-ngo-rains-brings-relief-to-ghanas-semiarid-north-with-regenerative-farming/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/local-ngo-rains-brings-relief-to-ghanas-semiarid-north-with-regenerative-farming/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Oct 2024 13:35:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Awudu Salami Sulemana Yoda]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/16123119/40132068671_aea784cf4a_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288824</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Ghana, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Desertification, Environment, Forests, Fuelwood, NGOs, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In northern Ghana, communities are facing food insecurity and declining livelihoods due to erratic weather, degraded soils and loss of forests. Among those working on ways to unpick this complicated knot of challenges in the Northern Savannah Zone is an NGO called the Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems, or RAINS. The NSZ stretches 97,000 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In northern Ghana, communities are facing food insecurity and declining livelihoods due to erratic weather, degraded soils and loss of forests. Among those working on ways to unpick this complicated knot of challenges in the Northern Savannah Zone is an NGO called the Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems, or RAINS. The NSZ stretches 97,000 square kilometers (37,500 square miles) across northern Ghana, where people have long grown maize, millet, yam, groundnuts and soybeans in a landscape dominated by shea nut, baobab and acacia trees. Home to more than 5 million people today, the ecological balance of this semiarid ecosystem is in danger: forest cover here declined by 77% between 2001 and 2015, according to the United Nations Development Programme. “Evidence abounds in Ghana that temperatures in all the ecological zones including the Northern Region are rising, whereas rainfall levels and patterns have been generally reducing and increasingly becoming erratic,” Hardi Tijani, executive director of RAINS, told Mongabay via email. “Soil degradation and erosion caused by alternating floods and droughts are leading to creeping desertification.” He said these changes have affected residents&#8217; harvests, prompting many to turn to felling trees for timber and charcoal to earn additional income, further aggravating damage to the landscape. Charcoal production near Chiana, Kassena Nankana District &#8211; Ghana. Image by Axel Fassio/CIFOR via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). To counter the threats and break this cycle, RAINS is explaining and supporting regenerative agricultural practices to farmers across the region, including intercropping, the planting of cover crops,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/local-ngo-rains-brings-relief-to-ghanas-semiarid-north-with-regenerative-farming/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288824</doi>				</item>
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