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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/analysis/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Mon, 31 Aug 2026 14:18:04 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Analysis</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/analysis/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Sacred places &#038; living lands: How Indigenous Sámi peoples steward biodiversity (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/sacred-places-living-lands-how-indigenous-sami-peoples-steward-biodiversity-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/sacred-places-living-lands-how-indigenous-sami-peoples-steward-biodiversity-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Aug 2026 17:00:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Emil Siekkinen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/20210251/42563317632_160197344f_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325594</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, Finland, Global, Norway, and Sweden]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Culture, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Religions, Sustainability, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Modern conservation is often traced to the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in the U.S. in 1872. In Sweden, a similar milestone came with the founding of Sarek National Park in 1909, partly intended to protect the endangered brown bear of the far north. Yet, long before states established national parks and environmental agencies, people [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Modern conservation is often traced to the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in the U.S. in 1872. In Sweden, a similar milestone came with the founding of Sarek National Park in 1909, partly intended to protect the endangered brown bear of the far north. Yet, long before states established national parks and environmental agencies, people across the world protected landscapes through religion, customary law, and Indigenous stewardship. In Japan, Shinto shrine forests have been preserved for centuries. In India, villagers continue to maintain sacred groves. Ethiopia’s churches and monasteries are often encircled by protected forests, while parts of rural Italy still contain sacred landscapes rooted in traditions older than Christianity itself. Some are associated with Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and ecology; others may descend from sites once dedicated to Jupiter. A growing body of research suggests that such places have often functioned — intentionally or otherwise — as informal systems of conservation. In 2021, the researcher Piero Zannini and his colleagues published a systematic review of sacred natural sites and biodiversity conservation. Examining studies from around the world, they found that sacred natural sites frequently contained greater biodiversity, more intact vegetation, and better-preserved ecosystems than surrounding landscapes. Sacred places, they argued, often operate as effective forms of conservation grounded not in state bureaucracy or scientific management, but in cosmology, ritual, and local tradition. Sami people in Enontekiö, Finland, at the summit of Saana Fell, which they consider sacred. Image by Ninara via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/sacred-places-living-lands-how-indigenous-sami-peoples-steward-biodiversity-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/sacred-places-living-lands-how-indigenous-sami-peoples-steward-biodiversity-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325594</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A blueprint for effective activism 10 years after defeating a dam in Borneo (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-blueprint-for-effective-activism-10-years-after-defeating-a-dam-in-borneo-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-blueprint-for-effective-activism-10-years-after-defeating-a-dam-in-borneo-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jun 2026 18:59:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jessica MerrimanJoe Lamb]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/09193920/Baram-dam-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320891</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Analysis, Commentary, Community Development, Conservation, Dams, Development, Ecosystems, Energy, Environment, Forests, Freshwater, Governance, Human Rights, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Rivers, Tropical Forests, and Tropics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In October 2015, Indigenous activists from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Brazil, the United States, and Honduras, together with delegates from longhouse communities throughout the Malaysian state of Sarawak, gathered at Tanjung Tepalit, an Indigenous Kenyah village on the Baram River on the island of Borneo. They called the gathering WISER: the World Indigenous Summit [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In October 2015, Indigenous activists from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Brazil, the United States, and Honduras, together with delegates from longhouse communities throughout the Malaysian state of Sarawak, gathered at Tanjung Tepalit, an Indigenous Kenyah village on the Baram River on the island of Borneo. They called the gathering WISER: the World Indigenous Summit on Environment and Rivers. Tanjung Tepalit hosted the gathering because the village, along with more than two dozen others along the river, was scheduled to be drowned. The Baram Dam, a 1,200-megawatt hydroelectric mega project backed by the Sarawak state government and aligned with a regional industrial development scheme called the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), would have flooded an area of more than 400 square kilometers (more than 150 square miles) and displaced an estimated 20,000 Kenyah, Kayan, and Penan people. Muslims, Catholics, Evangelicals, Buddhists, agnostics, and people who followed traditional Indigenous religions were among the attendees. As we gathered, Peter Kallang, the Kenyah founder and chair of the local advocacy group SAVE Rivers, addressed the assembly: &#8220;We are people of many faiths,&#8221; he said, &#8220;but we are united in one mission. To protect our forest homes and our ways of life.&#8221; In one sense the WISER gathering was a strategy meeting to coordinate an international coalition against a state-corporate project. In another, and perhaps deeper sense, WISER was rooted in something older. It was an assertion that the values that hold communities to their land across generations — the sanctity of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-blueprint-for-effective-activism-10-years-after-defeating-a-dam-in-borneo-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320891</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>It&#8217;s time to engage Mennonite communities in reducing deforestation across Latin America (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jun 2026 21:16:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/08174714/CH_20220608_0015-Edit-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320555</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Analysis, Avoided Deforestation, Commentary, Community Development, Deforestation, Development, Forests, Governance, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Rainforests, Religions, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the global debate over tropical deforestation, the usual cast of villains is well established: agribusiness, global supply chains, cattle ranchers, and governments granting land concessions for political support. One actor rarely appears in this narrative yet has played a consequential role in transforming the South American lowland frontier: The Mennonite agricultural colonist. For more [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the global debate over tropical deforestation, the usual cast of villains is well established: agribusiness, global supply chains, cattle ranchers, and governments granting land concessions for political support. One actor rarely appears in this narrative yet has played a consequential role in transforming the South American lowland frontier: The Mennonite agricultural colonist. For more than five decades, Mennonite communities have functioned as systematic agents of agricultural frontier expansion in the Gran Chaco and Andean Amazon, methodically clearing forests, draining wetlands, and catalyzing waves of deforestation that extend far beyond any individual colony. Mennonite communities operate within the law. They purchase land through formal channels, build permanent communities, and transfer agronomic knowledge to surrounding populations. Their values emphasize hard work, communal solidarity, and a theological relationship to land as stewardship. None of this changes the ecological outcome: Wherever a Mennonite colony is established, forests fall. Faith, mobility and colony formation Mennonites are an Anabaptist denomination rooted in the 16-century Reformation, distinguished by pacifism, communal life, and cultural separation from mainstream society. Conservative congregations — whose ancestors moved from Russia to Canada, then to Mexico, Belize and South America — are organized around a local congregation that functions simultaneously as a religious community, governance structure, credit cooperative and social welfare system. When a colony is established, it is an orderly community with collective decision-making, shared infrastructure, and a coherent plan for the future. Forest being cut, burned, and prepared by a Mennonite colony before planting crops. Image courtesy of Mario Silvero.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320555</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Humanity’s ancient bond with biodiversity is visible in rock art (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/humanitys-ancient-bond-with-biodiversity-is-visible-in-rock-art-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/humanitys-ancient-bond-with-biodiversity-is-visible-in-rock-art-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 May 2026 21:22:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kerry Bowman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/20204407/ancient-rock-art-e1779309915617-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319834</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Animals, Arts, Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Ethics, Green, Indigenous Peoples, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Across continents and cultures, one of the most striking features of ancient rock art is how often it places the natural world at its center. Whether etched into sandstone cliffs in the Sahara, painted in hidden shelters in Southern Africa, or drawn on stone faces deep in the Amazon, the recurring subject is not architecture, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Across continents and cultures, one of the most striking features of ancient rock art is how often it places the natural world at its center. Whether etched into sandstone cliffs in the Sahara, painted in hidden shelters in Southern Africa, or drawn on stone faces deep in the Amazon, the recurring subject is not architecture, warfare or abstract political power. It is animals, forests, rivers, spirits of the land and the intimate relationship between people and the living world around them. I have seen rock art in remote regions of the Amazon, left by ancient San communities in Angola, across the Ennedi Plateau in Chad, and in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan, I have come to believe that these works reveal something profound: long before the language of “biodiversity” existed, many human societies understood that their survival, identity and spirituality were inseparable from the ecosystems that sustained them. Modern conservation discourse often treats biodiversity as a scientific concept — a measurable index of species richness, ecological resilience and genetic variation. This framing is useful, but it can obscure an older and deeper truth. For much of human history, biodiversity was not an abstraction. It was immediate, sacred and embedded in daily life. The extraordinary prevalence of animal and ecological imagery in rock art across the world suggests that early human societies recognized, at minimum intuitively, the centrality of the natural world to both material survival and cultural meaning. Ancient rock art depicting wildlife and humans, Ennedi Plateau, Chad. Image courtesy&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/humanitys-ancient-bond-with-biodiversity-is-visible-in-rock-art-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319834</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Laos can do more to mitigate chemical pollution of rivers flowing into Vietnam (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/laos-can-do-more-to-mitigate-chemical-pollution-of-rivers-flowing-into-vietnam-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/laos-can-do-more-to-mitigate-chemical-pollution-of-rivers-flowing-into-vietnam-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2026 02:43:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Pham Phan Long]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/29135516/4008934960_0289182d3a_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318272</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Laos, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Chemicals, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Mining, Politics, Pollution, Rivers, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Southeast Asia’s growing demand for rare earth elements and gold, driven by global needs in electronics, renewable energy, defense and high-value commodities, has accelerated mining across the region. While Myanmar’s unregulated mines have drawn attention for contaminating Mekong River tributaries, monitored by the Mekong River Commission, an equally pressing but less scrutinized issue exists along [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Southeast Asia’s growing demand for rare earth elements and gold, driven by global needs in electronics, renewable energy, defense and high-value commodities, has accelerated mining across the region. While Myanmar’s unregulated mines have drawn attention for contaminating Mekong River tributaries, monitored by the Mekong River Commission, an equally pressing but less scrutinized issue exists along the river systems shared by Laos and Vietnam, where no comparable bilateral treaty provides oversight. River hydrology and the mining footprint The total population of Laos is less than 8 million. In northeastern Laos, particularly Houaphanh province (population 300,000), rapid expansion of rare earth and gold mining along the Nam Ma, Nam Sam and Nam Neun rivers poses significant transborder risks. These waterways flow into Vietnam as the Song Ma, Song Chu and Song Lam rivers, where they sustain drinking water, agriculture and fisheries for approximately 10 million people in Vietnam’s Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces. Pollutants can travel downstream within hours, creating urgent needs for cross-border cooperation. Satellite analysis from the Stimson Center’s interactive River Basins Dashboard shows 21 mines directly impacting these river systems in Laos. Contamination seen in these interconnected basins mirrors contamination patterns seen in Mekong tributaries affected by upstream mining in Myanmar, where toxins have devastated fisheries downstream in Laos and Thailand. Stimson’s dashboard shows 2,539 riverine mines in the region, including more than 500 rare earth mines concentrated in Myanmar and Laos. Many employ in-situ leaching techniques that use large volumes of river water and chemicals&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/laos-can-do-more-to-mitigate-chemical-pollution-of-rivers-flowing-into-vietnam-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318272</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A “good year” for forests changes less than it seems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-good-year-for-forests-changes-less-than-it-seems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-good-year-for-forests-changes-less-than-it-seems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Apr 2026 17:55:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/29175125/drc_2606697x-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318421</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Congo Basin, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Analysis, Climate Change, Conservation, data, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, El Nino, Environment, Fires, Forests, Green, Impact Of Climate Change, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The rate of tropical primary forest loss fell sharply in 2025, reversing the record highs of the year before. On paper, it looks like progress. In reality, the dip is likely only a temporary reprieve. The decline followed an exceptional year for wildfires. In 2024, drought helped drive some of the largest fire-related losses on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The rate of tropical primary forest loss fell sharply in 2025, reversing the record highs of the year before. On paper, it looks like progress. In reality, the dip is likely only a temporary reprieve. The decline followed an exceptional year for wildfires. In 2024, drought helped drive some of the largest fire-related losses on record. In 2025, those climatic pressures eased, and the area lost to fire dropped with them. But the root causes—commodity-driven agricultural expansion, patchy enforcement, and growing climate stress—remain stubbornly in place. A single year’s improvement does not shift that fundamental footing. Tropical primary forest loss by year since 2002 What stands out is the pattern of loss. Forest loss is becoming less predictable, moving in sharper swings tied to weather as much as policy. Fire now accounts for a large share of global tree cover loss, and its behavior tracks temperature and rainfall extremes. When conditions align, losses surge. When they do not, they fall back. But the needle barely moves on the long-term trend: forest loss remains persistently high. Fire does not simply clear land; it hollows out forests in ways that make further loss more likely. Repeated burns thin canopies and dry the forest floor, eroding the processes that allow forests to recover. In parts of the Amazon, clearing has given way to a self-reinforcing cycle of decay, where degradation serves as a precursor to total forest loss. Climate is an increasingly active factor. Forecasts point to a likely El Niño in 2026,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-good-year-for-forests-changes-less-than-it-seems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318421</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deep-sea wildernesses are more important than the promise of seafloor mining (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/deep-sea-wildernesses-are-more-important-than-the-promise-of-seafloor-mining-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/deep-sea-wildernesses-are-more-important-than-the-promise-of-seafloor-mining-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Apr 2026 18:23:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Andrew D. Thaler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/21170043/FK210726-Dive443-BubblegumCoral-20210728-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317523</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Oceania, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and Papua New Guinea]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Business, Commentary, Critical Minerals, Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Ecosystems, Environment, Ethics, Fisheries, Governance, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Mining, Oceans, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When I set sail on the MV NorSky in the summer of 2008 to probe the depths of Manus Basin off the coast of Papua New Guinea, I believed in the promise of deep-sea mining. As an early-career deep-sea ecologist, I was swayed by arguments in favor of this emerging industry. It offered a new [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When I set sail on the MV NorSky in the summer of 2008 to probe the depths of Manus Basin off the coast of Papua New Guinea, I believed in the promise of deep-sea mining. As an early-career deep-sea ecologist, I was swayed by arguments in favor of this emerging industry. It offered a new way to obtain the metals needed for the renewable energy revolution, one allegedly free of the human rights and environmental abuses of terrestrial mining. The company was Nautilus Minerals, and the plan was to mine an active hydrothermal vent field called Solwara I. What is a hydrothermal vent and why would anyone want to mine one? When seawater is drawn down into the earth and heated under enormous pressure, it rises through cracks in the crust, erupting from the seafloor in metal-rich plumes. Those metals are deposited on the walls of a growing chimney. Deep-sea miners call this structure a seafloor massive sulfide. They can be rich in gold and silver, as well as copper, zinc, lead and rare earth elements. By most estimates, Solwara I is among the most valuable seafloor massive sulfides ever discovered. And it is not only rich in metals, it is rich with life. The dumbo octopus is a species only found in the deep sea. Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research. The communities that grow around hydrothermal vents depend on the chemical energy of the vent plume. The geological process that deposits metals also&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/deep-sea-wildernesses-are-more-important-than-the-promise-of-seafloor-mining-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/deep-sea-wildernesses-are-more-important-than-the-promise-of-seafloor-mining-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317523</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A Congo Basin-led bioeconomy could boost Central Africa’s green transition (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Apr 2026 16:27:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Metolo Foyet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/05115844/ForestElephant.Loxodonta.cyclotis_NgounieGabon_marcusgmeineriNaturalistBYNC4.0-BANNER-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317006</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Biodiversity, Bioeconomy, Commentary, Community Development, Environment, Forest Products, Forests, Green, Rainforests, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Trade, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Medicine, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, often referred to as the “second lungs of Earth,” holds immense potential for leading Central Africa’s green transition. Home to the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest and second-largest reserve of drinkable water (holding 50% of all of Africa’s water resources), the region covers more than 3.7 million square kilometers (nearly 1.5 million square [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, often referred to as the “second lungs of Earth,” holds immense potential for leading Central Africa’s green transition. Home to the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest and second-largest reserve of drinkable water (holding 50% of all of Africa’s water resources), the region covers more than 3.7 million square kilometers (nearly 1.5 million square miles), absorbs more carbon dioxide than any other region in the world — with an annual net carbon dioxide absorption six times that of the Amazon Rainforest — and spans six countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon), storing around 30 billion metric tons of carbon. This critical ecological zone harbors immense biodiversity and natural resources, making it a strategic hub for the emerging global bioeconomy. However, learning from the Eastern African experience, realizing this potential requires a shift from extractive industries to sustainable, nature-based economies that prioritize long-term ecological health and local prosperity. Beyond its ecological importance — containing more than 10,000 species of plants, 1,000 species of birds, and 400 species of mammals, including iconic ones like the forest elephant and the critically endangered western lowland gorilla — the region stands at a critical juncture in the global minerals race, holding a significant share of the world&#8217;s strategic assets like lithium, cobalt, gold, and rare earth elements — key components shaping global power and the future of the energy transition. Despite this wealth, the Congo Basin’s economic strategies have often relied on the “dig&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317006</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The ocean’s enforcement gap</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-oceans-enforcement-gap/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-oceans-enforcement-gap/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Mar 2026 22:33:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/09225852/greenpeace-GP1SXQFJ-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315393</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, Indonesia, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and Palau]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, data, Environment, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Infrastructure, Marine, Marine Protected Areas, Monitoring, Oceans, Ports, Protected Areas, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On paper, the sea is increasingly protected. Governments have designated vast marine protected areas (MPAs) and pledged to conserve 30% of the ocean by 2030. Maps shaded in reassuring blues now circulate widely. Yet the reality offshore often looks much the same as before. Industrial vessels still trawl through restricted waters, longliners set gear near [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On paper, the sea is increasingly protected. Governments have designated vast marine protected areas (MPAs) and pledged to conserve 30% of the ocean by 2030. Maps shaded in reassuring blues now circulate widely. Yet the reality offshore often looks much the same as before. Industrial vessels still trawl through restricted waters, longliners set gear near vulnerable habitats, and sanctions for violations are sporadic. The problem is not a shortage of rules. It is the unevenness of enforcement. Creating an MPA is politically attractive. It signals ambition at relatively modest cost, especially when the protected waters lie far offshore. Policing those areas is harder. Patrol vessels are expensive to operate, legal cases can drag on, and fisheries agencies are rarely flush with funds. In many countries, officials face a dilemma: announce new protections and earn international praise, or spend scarce resources enforcing existing ones and risk confrontation with powerful domestic interests. Frozen tuna are transferred from the Hung Hwa 202, a Taiwanese longliner, to the Hsiang Hao, a Panama-flagged reefer operating out of Tokyo, Japan, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise and crew are investigating distant water fishing fleet practices in the Mid-Atlantic during September and October 2019. Photo credit: © Tommy Trenchard Evidence presented in a widely-cited 2014 Nature paper suggests that compliance depends less on the size of protected areas than on whether rules are visible and credible. Studies comparing MPAs across regions consistently find that ecological benefits correlate with enforcement capacity. A&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-oceans-enforcement-gap/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315393</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Hat Yai’s floods are a warning for cities built against nature (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/hat-yais-floods-are-a-warning-for-cities-built-against-nature-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/hat-yais-floods-are-a-warning-for-cities-built-against-nature-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Mar 2026 05:39:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Pakamas ThinphangaRichard Friend]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/18142107/hat-yai-floods-2010-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315898</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Cities, Climate, Climate Change, Disasters, Environment, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, and Infrastructure]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Every year, Chinese New Year festivals in southern Thailand’s Hat Yai attract tourists, mostly from neighboring Malaysia, generating a significant proportion of annual income for a city dependent on tourism. But not this year. Three months after the November 2025 flood disaster, the new year is being celebrated with continuing cleaning, scrubbing mud from people’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Every year, Chinese New Year festivals in southern Thailand’s Hat Yai attract tourists, mostly from neighboring Malaysia, generating a significant proportion of annual income for a city dependent on tourism. But not this year. Three months after the November 2025 flood disaster, the new year is being celebrated with continuing cleaning, scrubbing mud from people’s homes and shops, and clearing away piles of water-damaged vehicles, furniture and rotting rubbish. More than 40% of hotels, shops and restaurants remain shut. Some might not reopen at all. It’s not just about cleaning up and reviving the city with festivals, but convincing businesses and the private sector to stay in the largest economic hub in southern Thailand. The business sector is still reeling from the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns. Somporn Siriporananon, a former vice president of the Chamber of Commerce of Songkhla province, where Hat Yai is located, said he’s extremely anxious about the slow recovery. “The business sector doesn’t have the confidence to invest in recovery or new ventures,” he said. “The risk of another large flood is too high and there is a general feeling it might not be worth it. This is especially the case for the SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises].” Such apprehension is understandable. In the last 40 years, Hat Yai has experienced four major flood disasters, each more costly and deadlier than the last. The 1988 disaster caused losses of 4 billion baht, or about $158 million at the exchange rate back then. The 2000 and 2010&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/hat-yais-floods-are-a-warning-for-cities-built-against-nature-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315898</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The hidden cost of fisheries subsidies</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-hidden-cost-of-fisheries-subsidies/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-hidden-cost-of-fisheries-subsidies/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Mar 2026 01:33:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/09225936/greenpeace-GP0STU67J-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315384</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Economics, Environment, Fishing, Oceans, Overfishing, and Subsidies]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In public finance, some costs are politely kept off the books. The ocean has long been one of them. Governments often speak of “blue growth” and “sustainable use,” yet many policies still treat marine ecosystems as a kind of free input: available, resilient, and cheap to replace. The result is ecological decline. It is also [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In public finance, some costs are politely kept off the books. The ocean has long been one of them. Governments often speak of “blue growth” and “sustainable use,” yet many policies still treat marine ecosystems as a kind of free input: available, resilient, and cheap to replace. The result is ecological decline. It is also a fiscal problem. States end up assuming risks they would not tolerate on land. Fishing provides a clear example. For decades, a large share of industrial effort has been propped up by public money. One influential analysis of high-seas fishing found that governments subsidized high-seas fleets by about $4.2 billion in 2014—more than the estimated net economic benefit of that fishing—and that without subsidies, as much as 54% of the high-seas fishing grounds currently exploited would have been unprofitable at the prices and costs prevailing at the time. The high-seas fishing fleet. High-seas vessels by flag state and gear type, as detected by GFW in 2016. Figure from Sala et al (2018) That framing is useful: some “profitable” activity may depend as much on government support and permissive accounting as on market demand. The subsidy patterns are not subtle. A summary of research on “harmful” subsidies lists the top ten providers in 2018, led by China at $5.9 billion and followed by Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States. It also notes that these subsidizers spent more than $5.3 billion on fishing activity in the waters of 116 other nations, effectively shifting fishing pressure into&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-hidden-cost-of-fisheries-subsidies/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315384</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Are government subsidies undermining conservation efforts in Australia?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/are-government-subsidies-undermining-conservation-efforts-in-australia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/are-government-subsidies-undermining-conservation-efforts-in-australia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Mar 2026 00:43:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/02184406/Duck-billed_platypus_Ornithorhynchus_anatinus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315097</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Analysis, Biodiversity, Deforestation, Economics, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Policy, Finance, and Subsidies]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Australia has long struggled to reconcile its environmental ambitions with the structure of its economy. The country is both a global biodiversity stronghold and a major exporter of resources, agricultural commodities, and energy. A new study led by Paul Elton of the Australian National University suggests that this tension is embedded not only in land [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Australia has long struggled to reconcile its environmental ambitions with the structure of its economy. The country is both a global biodiversity stronghold and a major exporter of resources, agricultural commodities, and energy. A new study led by Paul Elton of the Australian National University suggests that this tension is embedded not only in land use but in fiscal policy. Public spending, the authors argue, continues to favor activities that degrade ecosystems at a scale far exceeding efforts to conserve them. The paper, Biodiversity-harmful subsidies in Australia, offers the first systematic estimate of “biodiversity-harmful subsidies” at the federal level. Using a framework developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the researchers examined direct payments and tax concessions in the 2022–23 budget. They identified A$26.3 billion in subsidies judged by experts to cause at least moderate harm to biodiversity. That amounts to about 1.1% of Australia’s GDP and, by their calculation, far exceeds current federal spending on conservation. The idea of a harmful subsidy is broader than it may sound. Governments rarely pay explicitly to destroy habitats. Instead, they lower costs for activities that transform landscapes or intensify resource extraction. Subsidies can underprice energy, encourage land clearing, sustain fishing effort that would otherwise be uneconomic, or make transport cheaper in ways that expand infrastructure footprints. According to the study, the largest share of damaging support flows to fossil fuel production and consumption, followed by transport infrastructure and support for sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, and forestry. Biodiversity-harmful subsidies by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/are-government-subsidies-undermining-conservation-efforts-in-australia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315097</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Precision conservation: the rise of place-specific strategies where protection works best</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/where-conservation-works-best-the-rise-of-place-specific-strategies/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/where-conservation-works-best-the-rise-of-place-specific-strategies/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Mar 2026 00:04:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/28211141/st_pl_raja-ampat_230617-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315006</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Conservation, Environment, Green, Remote Sensing, and Satellite Imagery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Conservation has long wrestled with a deceptively simple question: not whether to act, but where action will matter most. Forest restoration, protected areas, wildlife corridors, and enforcement patrols all compete for limited funding across landscapes that differ enormously in ecology, governance, and human pressures. A growing body of research argues that improving outcomes depends less [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Conservation has long wrestled with a deceptively simple question: not whether to act, but where action will matter most. Forest restoration, protected areas, wildlife corridors, and enforcement patrols all compete for limited funding across landscapes that differ enormously in ecology, governance, and human pressures. A growing body of research argues that improving outcomes depends less on inventing new tools than on deploying existing ones more selectively — directing interventions to places where they are most likely to deliver benefits relative to doing nothing. A 2025 perspective by Rebecca Spake and colleagues, published in Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution, describes this idea using a new label: “precision ecology.” The authors argue conservation science should move beyond estimating average effects of interventions. The goal is to predict site-specific outcomes, allowing managers to tailor actions to local conditions. The proposal draws inspiration from precision medicine, which uses patient-level data to match treatments to individuals. At its core, the argument is pragmatic. Conservation operates in heterogeneous systems, where the same intervention can succeed in one place and fail in another. As Spake and colleagues note, implementation outcomes vary across landscapes due to complex ecological and social factors, making “one-size-fits-all” strategies unreliable. The paper outlines statistical approaches — many adapted from economics and machine learning — designed to estimate how the impact of a treatment varies with environmental context. In principle, such methods could identify which forest stands would gain the most carbon from restoration, which rivers would benefit most from buffer zones, or where invasive-species&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/where-conservation-works-best-the-rise-of-place-specific-strategies/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315006</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The power of cities over the seas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-power-of-cities-over-the-seas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-power-of-cities-over-the-seas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Mar 2026 14:10:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/24233832/Abu-Dhabi-satellite-esa-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314674</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Cities, Commentary, data, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, food security, Governance, Illegal Fishing, Infrastructure, Marine, Oceans, Overfishing, philanthropy, Ports, Remote Sensing, Supply Chain, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Debates about ocean protection tend to orbit national governments and multilateral treaties. Fisheries quotas, shipping rules, and marine reserves are usually negotiated by states. Yet much of the activity that determines the ocean’s health passes through cities. Ports regulate entry. Municipal buyers decide what seafood is served in schools and hospitals. Urban air-quality rules shape [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Debates about ocean protection tend to orbit national governments and multilateral treaties. Fisheries quotas, shipping rules, and marine reserves are usually negotiated by states. Yet much of the activity that determines the ocean’s health passes through cities. Ports regulate entry. Municipal buyers decide what seafood is served in schools and hospitals. Urban air-quality rules shape how ships fuel and operate at berth. Taken together, these levers suggest that coastal cities may exert more practical influence over the seas than is commonly acknowledged. Consider the modern port, which is less a waterfront than a complex regulatory zone. Ships cannot simply arrive and unload. They must comply with local safety, environmental, and operational requirements. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, for instance, introduced a Clean Air Action Plan that has pushed shipping lines toward cleaner fuels, shore power, and newer vessels. The primary motivation was urban smog, not marine conservation. Still, the result has been a measurable reduction in greenhouse gases and particulate pollution across one of the world’s busiest maritime corridors. When ports tighten standards, global shipping companies adjust, because the trade is too valuable to forgo. Procurement offers another underappreciated channel. Large metropolitan governments purchase enormous volumes of food for public institutions. If those buyers adopt sustainability criteria for seafood, they can influence supply chains in ways that national policy often struggles to achieve. Several U.S. cities now use guidelines informed by organizations such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program. In Brazil, reporting revealed that shark&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-power-of-cities-over-the-seas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314674</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Who actually uses environmental journalism — and why it matters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/who-actually-uses-environmental-journalism-and-why-it-matters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/who-actually-uses-environmental-journalism-and-why-it-matters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Feb 2026 00:02:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/26212604/fiji_250410192644_0424z-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314919</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Environment, Journalism, and Mongabay.org]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2025, Mongabay recorded 111 million unique visitors to its websites, a 46% increase on the year before. Pageviews rose by 72%. Those figures capture direct readership only. They exclude circulation through newsletters, messaging apps and social platforms, as well as republication by more than 100 partner outlets. Yet volume is not the metric we [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2025, Mongabay recorded 111 million unique visitors to its websites, a 46% increase on the year before. Pageviews rose by 72%. Those figures capture direct readership only. They exclude circulation through newsletters, messaging apps and social platforms, as well as republication by more than 100 partner outlets. Yet volume is not the metric we care about most. For our purposes, scale is most meaningful when considered alongside use and influence. Mongabay is not built primarily to maximize general-audience traffic. Pageviews indicate that a page was opened, but on their own they reveal little about whether it informed a decision or changed a course of action. The question I return to is simple: who used the reporting, and for what purpose? Mongabay’s theory of change rests on a different premise: journalism matters when it shapes decisions. What matters most is who reads a story and whether they are in a position to act. Much of our journalism is designed for practitioners, policymakers, researchers, advocates, journalists, and others whose choices shape environmental outcomes. This focus reflects how environmental governance typically operates—through interconnected networks of public agencies, companies, investors, media, non-profit and civil-society groups, researchers, conservation practitioners, courts, and community organizations. The most consequential reader is rarely the most casual one. The geographic distribution of our audience hints at how this works in practice. Asia and the Americas each accounted for more than 46 million unique visitors. In absolute terms, those regions dominate. In per capita terms, the story differs, and that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/who-actually-uses-environmental-journalism-and-why-it-matters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/who-actually-uses-environmental-journalism-and-why-it-matters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314919</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agroforestry offers market-based way to boost Amazon rains &#038; farmer incomes (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/agroforestry-offers-market-based-way-to-boost-amazon-rains-farmer-incomes-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/agroforestry-offers-market-based-way-to-boost-amazon-rains-farmer-incomes-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Feb 2026 19:24:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/11/10131843/IMG_2580-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314788</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Analysis, Biodiversity, Biofuels, Business, Cattle, climate finance, Commentary, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Environment, Finance, Forests, Governance, Green, Livestock, Pasture, Rainforests, Ranching, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon Rainforest generates its own weather. Each day, the forest&#8217;s 390 billion trees release approximately 20 billion metric tons of water vapor into the atmosphere through evapotranspiration, creating what Brazilian scientists call rios voadores — flying rivers. These aerial currents of moisture flow westward from the Atlantic, recirculating water from the forest canopy before [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon Rainforest generates its own weather. Each day, the forest&#8217;s 390 billion trees release approximately 20 billion metric tons of water vapor into the atmosphere through evapotranspiration, creating what Brazilian scientists call rios voadores — flying rivers. These aerial currents of moisture flow westward from the Atlantic, recirculating water from the forest canopy before turning south to deliver rainfall across South America&#8217;s agricultural heartlands. But the mechanism is breaking down. Since the 1970s, Brazil has cleared 88 million hectares (217 million acres) of Amazon forest, most converted into low-productivity pastures, with around 45 million hectares (111 million acres) considered severely or moderately degraded. The consequences extend beyond biodiversity loss, carbon emissions and social disruption: deforestation threatens the continent&#8217;s productive capacity and the economic livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people. Droughts in 2023 and 2024 affected more than 50 million hectares (124 million acres) of forest, and scientists warn that continued deforestation could push the system past a tipping point where the Amazon can no longer sustain its rainfall regime. Yet hidden within this environmental crisis lies an economic opportunity. Brazil&#8217;s Forest Code, revised in 2012, requires private properties in the country’s Amazonian region to maintain native vegetation on 80% of their landholding as a “legal reserve” (reserva legal). Properties that clear forest beyond the 80% threshold carry a &#8220;forest debt&#8221; with a legal obligation to restore equivalent forest cover. Analysis using Brazil&#8217;s Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) indicates about 280,000 properties are noncompliant, with a collective deficit of 10&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/agroforestry-offers-market-based-way-to-boost-amazon-rains-farmer-incomes-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314788</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Measuring what works in conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/measuring-what-works-in-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/measuring-what-works-in-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Feb 2026 13:24:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/23180858/ca_thornwood_20260222_200129873-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314662</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs and Navigating conservation's crisis]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Green, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; Conservation has never lacked ideas. Protected areas, payments for ecosystem services, community management, certification schemes, and public campaigns have all been promoted as solutions to biodiversity loss. What has often been missing is reliable knowledge about how well these interventions work, for whom, and under what conditions. A growing body of recent research argues [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; Conservation has never lacked ideas. Protected areas, payments for ecosystem services, community management, certification schemes, and public campaigns have all been promoted as solutions to biodiversity loss. What has often been missing is reliable knowledge about how well these interventions work, for whom, and under what conditions. A growing body of recent research argues that answering those questions requires moving beyond counting activities to establishing causal impact — determining whether observed outcomes can truly be attributed to conservation actions. Two recent commentaries underscore this shift. One, published on Mongabay by Oxford researcher Tanya O&#8217;Garra, warns that conservation risks spending scarce funds on “well-intentioned but ineffective efforts” without stronger causal evidence. Another, published in Nature, argues that biodiversity policy suffers from an “evidence problem,” with many interventions not grounded in robust research. Together with recent methodological papers, they reflect a field attempting to move from persuasion to proof. From monitoring to impact evaluation Traditional conservation monitoring focuses on trends: forest cover, species abundance, or compliance indicators. These metrics are valuable but insufficient. A forest might remain intact because of protection, or because it lies far from roads, markets, or settlements. Distinguishing between these possibilities requires impact evaluation — assessing changes that can be causally attributed to an intervention. Impact evaluation centers on a deceptively simple question: what would have happened without the intervention? Because this counterfactual world cannot be observed, researchers approximate it using comparison groups or statistical techniques. The aim is to rule out alternative explanations for observed outcomes.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/measuring-what-works-in-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314662</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Thailand’s Hat Yai picks up the pieces in wake of devastating floods (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/thailands-hat-yai-picks-up-the-pieces-in-wake-of-devastating-floods-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/thailands-hat-yai-picks-up-the-pieces-in-wake-of-devastating-floods-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Feb 2026 02:29:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Pakamas ThinphangaRichard Friend]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/04164536/Hat-Yai-2-MGBY-10-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313720</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Disasters, El Nino, Environment, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Impact Of Climate Change, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[HAT YAI, Thailand — Largely forgotten by the public, politicians and the media, the flood crisis that Hat Yai, the largest city in the south of Thailand, experienced in November 2025 is far from over. The waters have receded, but the recovery has only just begun. That the flood occurred should not have come as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[HAT YAI, Thailand — Largely forgotten by the public, politicians and the media, the flood crisis that Hat Yai, the largest city in the south of Thailand, experienced in November 2025 is far from over. The waters have receded, but the recovery has only just begun. That the flood occurred should not have come as a surprise. Hat Yai has experienced devastating floods before, particularly in 2000 and 2010. The south of Thailand experiences seasonal heavy rainfall events, but with this being a La Niña year, additionally heavy rainfall was widely predicted. This time the flood came in two waves, with three-day accumulated rainfall reaching 630 millimeters (nearly 25 inches). On the morning of Nov. 21, it appeared the worst was over. According to Khun Nit, a 70-year-old resident of the low-lying Khet 8 area of Hat Yai, the streets were flooded just below knee level, but this appeared to be the full extent of the flooding. He was out in the street in front of his house posing and taking photos with his wife standing in the water, all smiles. This level of flooding is not uncommon, and while certainly a major inconvenience, nothing out of the ordinary. By the early hours of Nov. 22, heavy rain had begun to fall again, and through to the next day the floodwaters rapidly rose. At the same time, the news coming from the local government was that everything would be fine. The nearby warning system of color-coded flags on a bridge&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/thailands-hat-yai-picks-up-the-pieces-in-wake-of-devastating-floods-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/thailands-hat-yai-picks-up-the-pieces-in-wake-of-devastating-floods-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313720</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Vanuatu communities move to protect taro, an ancestral climate-resilient crop (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/vanuatu-communities-move-to-protect-taro-an-ancestral-climate-resilient-crop-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/vanuatu-communities-move-to-protect-taro-an-ancestral-climate-resilient-crop-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jan 2026 18:50:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Monica Kidd]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/26182316/Richard-Rojo3-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313365</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Oceania, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and Vanuatu]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroecology, Analysis, Climate Change, Commentary, Disasters, Food, food security, Islands, Plants, Storms, Subsistence Agriculture, Sustainability, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The packed-earth trail winds through the dense and tangled forest of Vanuatu, the ocean crashing just meters to our right. Richard Rojo’s feet don’t mind the stones and stumps, and he carries a bush knife and a repurposed rice sack. It’s a path well-trodden for Rojo, who’s lived here in the village of Tasmate on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The packed-earth trail winds through the dense and tangled forest of Vanuatu, the ocean crashing just meters to our right. Richard Rojo’s feet don’t mind the stones and stumps, and he carries a bush knife and a repurposed rice sack. It’s a path well-trodden for Rojo, who’s lived here in the village of Tasmate on Vanuatu’s remote west coast of Espiritu Santo Island as a subsistence farmer and fisher all his 40-ish years. I walk-jog to keep up with him as he talks to me over his shoulder, idly whacking at an occasional vine with his knife. We’ve been traveling together a few days now in his open boat up and down this coast, on a reporting trip with the Sunset Santo Environmental Network (SSEN) team so I can see for myself the way villages here are threatened by climate change. We walk for about 10 minutes as I pepper Rojo with questions. We pass towering trees covered with epiphytic plants and wade across a river before popping out into a clearing the size of a few soccer pitches. Coconut palms edge the far side and, in front of us, earthen berms enclose a shallow rectangular pool maybe 5 by 50 meters (roughly 16 by 164 feet). Inside are rows and rows of chest-high plants with heart-shaped leaves: Colocasia esculenta, or water taro. Rojo sets down his knife and bag and wades into the pool. “I will go replace some that are dying like this one,” he says, finding his&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/vanuatu-communities-move-to-protect-taro-an-ancestral-climate-resilient-crop-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313365</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Turning the Amazon’s toxic gold mine waste liability into economic opportunity (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/formalizing-amazon-gold-mining-can-transform-a-toxic-liability-into-an-economic-opportunity-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/formalizing-amazon-gold-mining-can-transform-a-toxic-liability-into-an-economic-opportunity-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jan 2026 19:13:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/02225429/25-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312918</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Business, Commentary, Community Development, Deforestation, Development, Drivers Of Deforestation, Gold Mining, Health, Illegal Mining, Mercury, Mining, Pollution, Public Health, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Sustainable Development, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The wildcat gold mining boom that swept across the Amazon beginning in the 1970s left behind an environmental catastrophe of staggering proportions. At least 350,000 hectares (almost 865,000 acres) of forest and wetland habitat have been destroyed by placer mining operations across the Pan Amazon, with the actual figure likely far higher given the limitations [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The wildcat gold mining boom that swept across the Amazon beginning in the 1970s left behind an environmental catastrophe of staggering proportions. At least 350,000 hectares (almost 865,000 acres) of forest and wetland habitat have been destroyed by placer mining operations across the Pan Amazon, with the actual figure likely far higher given the limitations of satellite monitoring for small-scale operations and river dredges. In the Tapajós River Basin in Brazil’s Pará state, particularly the municipality of Itaituba, five decades of alluvial mining have devastated tens of thousands of hectares of riparian forest while releasing an estimated 200-500 metric tons of mercury annually into watersheds. Mercury contamination has become endemic: 75% of the population of the municipality of Santarém shows elevated mercury levels, with some residents carrying four times the WHO limit. The legacy extends far beyond the mining sites themselves, as methylmercury bioaccumulates through aquatic food webs, threatening riverside communities across millions of hectares of downstream habitat. Yet hidden within this toxic legacy lies an economic opportunity that could finance comprehensive remediation while generating more than 200,000 formal-sector jobs. The garimpeiro (wildcat miner) reliance on mercury amalgamation technology is remarkably inefficient, because mercury captures only free gold particles through physical absorption, achieving recovery rates of 40-60% from alluvial placers. The remaining 40-60% of gold remains trapped in “tailings” as fine particles, bound in mineral matrices, or simply lost to processing inefficiency. Those tailings, an existing environmental catastrophe, contain an estimated 1,400-2,100 metric tons of recoverable gold worth $90 billion&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/formalizing-amazon-gold-mining-can-transform-a-toxic-liability-into-an-economic-opportunity-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312918</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agroforestry grows in popularity among central Colombia&#8217;s coffee farmers (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/agroforestry-grows-in-popularity-among-central-colombias-coffee-farmers-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/agroforestry-grows-in-popularity-among-central-colombias-coffee-farmers-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Dec 2025 18:05:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Juliana Cajiao Raigosa]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/23171032/coffee-lady-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311971</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Analysis, Coffee, Commentary, Commodity agriculture, Community Development, Conflict, Deforestation, Education, Forests, Social Conflict, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Colombia is the world&#8217;s third-largest coffee producer and the main producer of Arabica coffee, which is known worldwide for its quality. The nation began developing commercial production in 1870, which now accounts for 22% of the national gross domestic product (GDP). According to the National Federation of Coffee Growers, there are approximately 560,000 farms in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Colombia is the world&#8217;s third-largest coffee producer and the main producer of Arabica coffee, which is known worldwide for its quality. The nation began developing commercial production in 1870, which now accounts for 22% of the national gross domestic product (GDP). According to the National Federation of Coffee Growers, there are approximately 560,000 farms in the country dedicated to coffee production, most of them small scale and accounting for 15% of total production. Coffee in Colombia has become part of the national identity and is also considered part of its cultural heritage. Besides this, it has been of vital importance for the economy, representing up to 80% of total exports, and is undoubtedly partly responsible for the changes that took place between 1870 and 1930, which allowed for the integration of the country&#8217;s economy and generated positive political and social effects. However, only 5% of smallholder farmers are technically efficient (TE), reflecting poor agronomic management strategies such as inadequate uses of inputs, irrational uses of fertilizers and pesticides, low phytosanitary control and monitoring strategies, lack of labor and substandard production conditions, among other factors. Mr. Arlisson Neussa, an agricultural engineer, assisting with coffee berry borer monitoring on a coffee plantation. The agroforestry coffee system, in which the coffee is interplanted within a native forest, can be clearly seen. Image courtesy of Juliana Cajiao Raigosa. The main coffee-producing departments of the “cafetal zone” are Risalda, Caldas, Antioquia and Quindío. Coffee in these areas is considered a cultural heritage and is mainly&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/agroforestry-grows-in-popularity-among-central-colombias-coffee-farmers-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311971</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>BRICS+ offers Indigenous &#038; local communities ways to advance environmental and social goals (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/brics-offers-indigenous-local-communities-ways-to-advance-environmental-and-social-goals-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/brics-offers-indigenous-local-communities-ways-to-advance-environmental-and-social-goals-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 21:26:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Metolo Foyet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/18204154/amazon_241209144749x-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311897</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Commentary, Conservation, Environment, Governance, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, and Land Rights]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As the world grapples with climate change, biodiversity loss and resource scarcity, Indigenous and local communities (IPLCs) remain at the forefront of conservation, yet are often sidelined in global environmental governance. Dominant frameworks, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), have made strides in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As the world grapples with climate change, biodiversity loss and resource scarcity, Indigenous and local communities (IPLCs) remain at the forefront of conservation, yet are often sidelined in global environmental governance. Dominant frameworks, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), have made strides in acknowledging Indigenous rights, but IPLCs still face significant barriers to meaningful participation. These barriers include one-size-fits-all legal frameworks, insufficient representation, inadequate capacity within IPLC groups, misaligned priorities between donors and IPLCs, persistent language obstacles, trust issues, and the continued influence of powerful global actors whose priorities often overshadow the needs and knowledge systems of IPLCs. However, as the geopolitical landscape shifts, new opportunities are emerging for IPLCs to assert their influence. One such alternative is the BRICS+ alliance, a coalition that has increasingly positioned itself as a counterbalance to Western-dominated global governance structures. The 10 BRICS+ nations (Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates) account for half the world’s population and two-fifths of trade, and include major energy producers and importers. Twelve more nations have applied, and the bloc is starting to build institutions with important implications for energy trade, international finance, supply chains and technological research. For IPLCs, BRICS+ presents a promising advocacy and trade platform for several reasons. The BRICS framework’s emphasis on multipolar governance aligns well with IPLC desire for more decentralized, locally driven approaches to natural resource management. It offers them an opportunity&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/brics-offers-indigenous-local-communities-ways-to-advance-environmental-and-social-goals-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311897</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rethinking how we talk about conservation—and why it matters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/rethinking-how-we-talk-about-conservation-and-why-it-matters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/rethinking-how-we-talk-about-conservation-and-why-it-matters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2025 21:56:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/18201846/brunei_251114145219_0263z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311674</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, and Indonesia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Health, Hope and optimism, information ecosystem, Journalism, Planetary Health, Remote Sensing, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. For a movement so often framed by loss—and confronting a particularly difficult moment—conservation is relearning how to talk about itself. This shift may signal something deeper than messaging: a recalibration of what persuades people to care, to fund, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. For a movement so often framed by loss—and confronting a particularly difficult moment—conservation is relearning how to talk about itself. This shift may signal something deeper than messaging: a recalibration of what persuades people to care, to fund, and to act, especially as the world edges toward 2030 amid ecological strain, political volatility, and thinning public trust. A few months ago, I put out an invitation to the conservation sector: share how you are navigating this moment, which many have described as a period of crisis. That invitation resurfaced recently when Crystal DiMiceli referenced it during a fireside chat with me at the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders’ 20th anniversary event in Washington, D.C. DiMiceli asked what lessons are emerging so far. One of the most consistent responses has centered on communication: “Less crisis, more agency.” Not because the crisis has abated, but because alarm on its own no longer mobilizes as reliably as it once did. If anything, it exhausts. Years of grim headlines have revealed an uncomfortable truth: when people are offered only catastrophe, many disengage. They stop reading, stop caring, and, in some cases, stop believing that anything meaningful can still be done. What seems to be gaining ground instead is a focus on success—often partial, sometimes fragile, but demonstrable. Not triumphalism, but optimism grounded in evidence. Conservation framed as something people actively do, rather than something that merely happens to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/rethinking-how-we-talk-about-conservation-and-why-it-matters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311674</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sumatra’s ‘natural’ disaster wasn’t natural: How deforestation turned a rare cyclone catastrophic</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/sumatras-natural-disaster-wasnt-natural-how-deforestation-turned-a-rare-cyclone-catastrophic/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/sumatras-natural-disaster-wasnt-natural-how-deforestation-turned-a-rare-cyclone-catastrophic/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Dec 2025 03:02:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/15024510/AP25336127205797-Batang_Toru-Sumatra-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311299</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Aceh, Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, and West Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Deforestation, Disasters, Environment, Flooding, Forests, Plantations, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia’s government has been at pains to stress that the recent catastrophe in Sumatra was triggered by a rare meteorological event. Cyclone Senyar formed in the Malacca Strait, an area where the national weather agency notes such storms are “an extremely rare phenomenon,” before unloading torrents of rain on Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia’s government has been at pains to stress that the recent catastrophe in Sumatra was triggered by a rare meteorological event. Cyclone Senyar formed in the Malacca Strait, an area where the national weather agency notes such storms are “an extremely rare phenomenon,” before unloading torrents of rain on Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra. Meteorologists say the interaction of two cyclones may have produced record rainfall over parts of the island. Scientists are cautious about pinning any single storm on climate change. Yet few now argue that the tragedy was simply an act of nature. Men stand on logs swept away by flash flood in Batang Toru, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. Photo credit: AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara Officials themselves have begun to say the quiet part out loud. Forestry minister Raja Juli Antoni told parliament that “poor forest management” had worsened the disaster, and promised to “review forest governance, consider a moratorium on new permits, and revoke the licenses of violators,” according to Reuters. The environment minister, Hanif Faisol Nurofiq, has suspended permits for several companies in the Batang Toru watershed and warned that criminal proceedings are possible if violations are found. The broader pattern is well documented: Sumatra has lost an estimated 4.4 million hectares of forest since 2001. When the floodwaters receded, viral images showed how extensive clearing shapes disaster impacts on the ground: houses smashed by logs, riverbanks lined with cut timber, and whole slopes stripped to bare soil. Annual primary forest loss in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/sumatras-natural-disaster-wasnt-natural-how-deforestation-turned-a-rare-cyclone-catastrophic/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311299</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Top ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin&#8217;s COP30 reflections on Amazon conservation (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/top-ethnobotanist-mark-plotkins-cop30-reflections-on-amazon-conservation-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/top-ethnobotanist-mark-plotkins-cop30-reflections-on-amazon-conservation-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Nov 2025 21:45:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark J. Plotkin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/17210100/Suriname-2-e1763414931233-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309585</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Latin America, Peru, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Biodiversity, Botany, Commentary, Conservation, Development, Environment, Forest Products, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Medicinal Plants, Medicine, Rainforests, Research, Sustainable Development, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Medicine, Traditional People, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Having studied the healing plants and peoples of tropical South America for well over four decades, I am often asked, “What is the conservation status of the Amazon Rainforest? Is the glass half-full or half-empty?” My reply never changes. “By definition, any glass that is half-full is half-empty!” When I first traveled to the Amazon [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Having studied the healing plants and peoples of tropical South America for well over four decades, I am often asked, “What is the conservation status of the Amazon Rainforest? Is the glass half-full or half-empty?” My reply never changes. “By definition, any glass that is half-full is half-empty!” When I first traveled to the Amazon in the 1970s, the world was a different place. Most people thought of the rainforest, if they thought of it at all, as a green hell to be avoided at all costs. Soon thereafter, public perception of tropical rainforests shifted dramatically, driven by the emerging modern environmental movement. Tropical forest and river in Suriname. Image courtesy of Mark J. Plotkin. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962 and Earth Day in 1970 were milestones in generating global awareness and concern over deforestation, pesticides, pollution and species extinction, particularly in the industrialized world. However, Western scientists like Tom Lovejoy, Richard Schultes and E.O. Wilson — as well as Brazilian scientists like Marcio Ayres, Paulo Nogueiro-Neto and Paulo Vanzolini — presented a compelling case that the biological richness and fragility of tropical forests merited at least as much attention as ecosystems in the temperate regions. These scientists reframed the global image of Amazonia from “green hell” to “treasure trove of biodiversity.” The media also played a positive role. The vast scale of burning and clearing — turning a green wonderland into a red desert through major development projects like ill-planned dams or road building — shocked and horrified&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/top-ethnobotanist-mark-plotkins-cop30-reflections-on-amazon-conservation-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309585</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A slowdown, not salvation: what new extinction data reveal about the state of life on Earth</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-slowdown-not-salvation-what-new-extinction-data-reveal-about-the-state-of-life-on-earth/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-slowdown-not-salvation-what-new-extinction-data-reveal-about-the-state-of-life-on-earth/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Nov 2025 21:21:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/17205718/dodo-bird-icon-256x90-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309675</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Green, Habitat Loss, Impact Of Climate Change, Invasive Species, Islands, Mass Extinction, Overexploitation, Pollution, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For decades, biologists have warned that humanity is precipitating a sixth mass extinction. By some estimates, species are vanishing at up to a thousand times the natural background rate. Yet a new study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests the picture is more complicated. Extinctions, it finds, may have peaked a century ago—and declined [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For decades, biologists have warned that humanity is precipitating a sixth mass extinction. By some estimates, species are vanishing at up to a thousand times the natural background rate. Yet a new study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests the picture is more complicated. Extinctions, it finds, may have peaked a century ago—and declined since. Kristen Saban and John Wiens of the University of Arizona examined 912 documented extinctions among plants and animals over the past 500 years. Their analysis, covering nearly two million assessed species, shows that losses rose steeply through the 1800s and early 1900s before slowing. Extinction rates for vertebrates, arthropods, and plants have generally decreased over the past century. The trend runs counter to the popular narrative of an accelerating biodiversity collapse. The number of extinctions are shown for each century since 1500. From Saban and Wiens (2025) &nbsp; Extinctions over time. The number of extinctions are shown for each decade since 1800 (b). For each time period, Saban and Wiens give the number of species that were inferred to have gone extinct in that time period, based primarily on the dates when each species was last seen. From Saban and Wiens (2025) That finding, however, offers little comfort. The apparent lull in recorded extinctions may reflect where and how humans look, not a reprieve for nature. Most known extinctions occurred on islands, where invasive rats, pigs, and goats devastated native fauna and flora. Today’s drivers—deforestation, pollution, and climate change—are concentrated on continents, where declines&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-slowdown-not-salvation-what-new-extinction-data-reveal-about-the-state-of-life-on-earth/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309675</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Beyond deforestation: redesigning how we protect and value tropical forests (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/beyond-deforestation-redesigning-how-we-protect-and-value-tropical-forests-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/beyond-deforestation-redesigning-how-we-protect-and-value-tropical-forests-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Nov 2025 15:57:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/02172829/vietnam_163028x-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308743</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Biodiversity, Bioeconomy, carbon, Carbon Market, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, Economics, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Services, Forest Carbon, Forest Products, Forests, Governance, Green, Land Rights, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforests, Restoration, Sustainable Development, Technology, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Heading into COP30, where tropical forests are set to be a central theme, it seemed worth looking today’s trajectories a little further forward and imagine where they might lead. Part 1 looked at possible fates of tropical forests. The first act of the forest crisis was destruction. The second, if there is to be one, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Heading into COP30, where tropical forests are set to be a central theme, it seemed worth looking today’s trajectories a little further forward and imagine where they might lead. Part 1 looked at possible fates of tropical forests. The first act of the forest crisis was destruction. The second, if there is to be one, must be design—deliberate, structural, and sustained. The world already knows what is burning; what it hasn’t decided is whether it truly wants to stop it. Last year’s fires tore through more than three million hectares of tropical primary forest, most of it in South America. Drought and El Niño played their part, but so did the same chronic weaknesses: fragmented governance, cheap credit for land clearance, and a market that rewards destruction faster than it rewards restraint. The causes are structural, which means the solutions will have to be as well. Power to those who already protect More than a third of the world’s intact forests lie on Indigenous and community lands. Where rights are recognized, deforestation typically drops. The logic is simple. People with secure tenure have reason to manage land for the long term. Yet only a fraction of community lands in the tropics have legal title. Recognition processes crawl through bureaucracy, while investors and speculators tend to advance quickly. A first-order intervention, therefore, is legal rather than technical: accelerating the transfer of rights. That means repairing broken land registries: mapping who actually owns what and granting legal title to the communities already&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/beyond-deforestation-redesigning-how-we-protect-and-value-tropical-forests-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308743</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What might lie ahead for tropical forests (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/the-forests-future-tense-what-might-lie-ahead-for-the-tropics-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/the-forests-future-tense-what-might-lie-ahead-for-the-tropics-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Nov 2025 18:49:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/02172823/vietnam_163732z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308689</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Congo Basin, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Analysis, Artificial Intelligence, Climate Change, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Regeneration, Forestry, Forests, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Restoration, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Heading into COP30, where tropical forests are set to be a central theme, it seemed worth attempting a thought experiment: to trace today’s trajectories a little further forward and imagine where they might lead. What follows are a series of scenarios—some improbable, others already taking shape. Part II In 2024, the tropics lost 6.7 million [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Heading into COP30, where tropical forests are set to be a central theme, it seemed worth attempting a thought experiment: to trace today’s trajectories a little further forward and imagine where they might lead. What follows are a series of scenarios—some improbable, others already taking shape. Part II In 2024, the tropics lost 6.7 million hectares of primary rainforest—an area the size of Panama, and nearly twice that of the year before. Fires were the main culprit for the first time on record. In Brazil, drought turned controlled burns into infernos; in Bolivia, policy incentives fanned the flames. Even the Congo, long a refuge, began to fray. Some say it might represent an inflection point. The data suggest less a turning point than problems long in motion and now gathering speed. The story, told in hectares and gigatons, is deceptively familiar: forest loss accelerates, restoration lags, and the 2030 pledge to halt deforestation recedes into fantasy. Yet behind the numbers, less visible forces are taking shape. The next phase of the forest crisis could be driven not only by chainsaws or cattle, but by feedback loops—ecological, economic, and technological—that we may not be well prepared to confront. Some are already visible; others may lie just beyond the horizon. Rainforest in Vietnam. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler. The vanishing state Across the western Amazon, authority is slipping away. In Peru’s Madre de Dios, dredges hum along black-water rivers where the police no longer patrol. In Colombia’s Caquetá, armed groups extort miners&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/the-forests-future-tense-what-might-lie-ahead-for-the-tropics-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308689</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How communities in sacrifice zones suffer environmental injustices in Mexico, Chile, Nigeria and Indonesia (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/how-communities-in-sacrifice-zones-suffer-environmental-injustices-in-mexico-chile-nigeria-and-indonesia-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/how-communities-in-sacrifice-zones-suffer-environmental-injustices-in-mexico-chile-nigeria-and-indonesia-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Apr 2025 20:01:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Angélica ArellanoDaniela Sepulveda]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/09190714/Odimodi-4-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297301</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Chile, Global, Indonesia, Mexico, and Nigeria]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Air Pollution, Analysis, Business, Climate Justice, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Development, Environment, Pollution, Social Justice, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Across continents, “sacrifice zones” resemble wounds carved deep into the fabric of our planet. These are regions where ecosystems and livelihoods have been ravaged by fossil fuel and other industries that promise progress but leave devastation in their wake. These are places where big business and transnational corporations are contaminating the rivers, darkening the skies, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Across continents, “sacrifice zones” resemble wounds carved deep into the fabric of our planet. These are regions where ecosystems and livelihoods have been ravaged by fossil fuel and other industries that promise progress but leave devastation in their wake. These are places where big business and transnational corporations are contaminating the rivers, darkening the skies, and making the soil barren; where the toll of development is paid in human suffering and ecological destruction. What unites these “sacrifice zones” is the shared story of areas where prosperity for the few is built on the suffering of many, and where communities fight to mend the fractures inflicted upon their land, health and dignity. Here are four case studies highlighting the experiences of communities and civil society organizations collaborating with us in the Coalition for Human Rights in Development’s Community Resource Exchange. Protectors of the Tula River. Image via the Coalition for Human Rights in Development. Tula, Mexico In the Tula-Tepeji-Apaxco region, where the Toltec plains once supported rich biodiversity and cultural heritage, the water and air are now saturated with pollution. This devastated landscape was declared both in 1975 and again in 2005 by the U.N. as one of the most polluted places on Earth, marking it as an environmental disaster zone. Since the early 20th century, the arrival of cement plants, refineries, chemical factories, a coal-fired power plant and lime kilns has transformed the region. Backed by all levels of government, these industries have destroyed the area’s ecological balance and ruined&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/how-communities-in-sacrifice-zones-suffer-environmental-injustices-in-mexico-chile-nigeria-and-indonesia-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/how-communities-in-sacrifice-zones-suffer-environmental-injustices-in-mexico-chile-nigeria-and-indonesia-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297301</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The effort to save Syria’s northern bald ibis population failed, but much can be learned (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/the-effort-to-save-syrias-northern-bald-ibis-population-failed-but-much-can-be-learned-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/the-effort-to-save-syrias-northern-bald-ibis-population-failed-but-much-can-be-learned-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Mar 2025 22:25:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gianluca Serra]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/28211652/bald-ibis-1-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296668</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Middle East and Syria]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Commentary, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Migration, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita) is an extravagant waterbird adapted to forage in dry, open habitats, and is included in the list of the most genetically and evolutionarily unique creatures of the world. Five centuries ago, it was widespread from Southern and Central Europe to Northern Africa and the Middle East. Since then, it has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita) is an extravagant waterbird adapted to forage in dry, open habitats, and is included in the list of the most genetically and evolutionarily unique creatures of the world. Five centuries ago, it was widespread from Southern and Central Europe to Northern Africa and the Middle East. Since then, it has undergone a steady decline mainly due to human collection of chicks for food, direct persecution, and habitat change, but also, it is suspected, due to the long-term changes of the climate (namely the so-called Little Ice Age, which occurred in Europe mainly between 1550 and 1650, and the current era’s global warming). Following its extinction from Central and Southern Europe more than four centuries ago, the species split into two geographically disconnected populations, one inhabiting northwestern Africa (Algeria and Morocco) and the other one the Middle East (Turkey and Syria), which diverged over time in relation to their behavior outside the breeding season. The western population is more or less resident, while the eastern one (or “oriental”) is a long-range migrant. Unsurprisingly, having been separated for centuries, the populations have proven to be genetically distinct, as evidenced by two independent studies performed in 2001. Extinct from Egypt millennia ago, the so-called oriental population still holds important cultural symbolism in the Middle East. It is mentioned in the Old Testament as a messenger of fertility and was sacred to the ancient Egyptians as the symbol of the afterworld divinity, Akh. In recent history, it used to breed&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/the-effort-to-save-syrias-northern-bald-ibis-population-failed-but-much-can-be-learned-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296668</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The environmental toll of the M23 conflict in eastern DRC (Analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/the-environmental-toll-of-the-m23-conflict-in-eastern-drc-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/the-environmental-toll-of-the-m23-conflict-in-eastern-drc-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Mar 2025 14:55:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fergus O’Leary SimpsonJoel MasselinkLara Collart]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/21102829/Mountain_Gorilla_Humba_family_%E2%80%93_Virunga_National_Park_31-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295333</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and East Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forests, Gorillas, Governance, Illegal Logging, Illegal Mining, Logging, Mammals, Mining, National Parks, Politics, Rainforests, Resource Conflict, War, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The resurgence of the M23 (March 23 movement) rebel group has once again drawn global attention to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The humanitarian crisis—millions displaced, thousands killed, a ‘public health nightmare’ unfolding—rightly dominates headlines. Yet the conflict is having another significant and often overlooked impact: on the environment. The Kivu provinces, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The resurgence of the M23 (March 23 movement) rebel group has once again drawn global attention to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The humanitarian crisis—millions displaced, thousands killed, a ‘public health nightmare’ unfolding—rightly dominates headlines. Yet the conflict is having another significant and often overlooked impact: on the environment. The Kivu provinces, where the fighting is concentrated, are part of one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots, the Albertine Rift. Home to endangered species such as eastern lowland and mountain gorillas, as well as two UNESCO World Heritage Sites — Virunga and Kahuzi-Biega National Parks — the region is under increasing environmental pressure. Its protected areas, with resource-rich and rugged terrains, have historically served as ideal rear operating bases for non-state armed groups. Since the early 1990s, a series of conflicts have led to domino effects and left deep scars on the region’s forests and wildlife. In South Kivu’s Kahuzi-Biega National Park, for example, elephants were nearly wiped out in the early 2000s. Gorilla populations also plummeted, but as the conflict subsided and armed groups gradually withdrew from the park — along with strengthened law enforcement — their numbers began recovering to pre-conflict levels. The most recent round of conflict threatens to undo these hard-won gains. Our analysis highlights a sharp increase in deforestation since the recent conflict started in late 2021. This has been driven by a mixture of population displacements, the disruption of conservation law enforcement, and the involvement of different armed actors in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/the-environmental-toll-of-the-m23-conflict-in-eastern-drc-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295333</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What have we learned from 15 years of REDD+ policy research? (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/what-have-we-learned-from-15-years-of-redd-policy-research-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/what-have-we-learned-from-15-years-of-redd-policy-research-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Mar 2025 00:17:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Grace WongMaria BrockhausMoira Moeliono]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/06234000/44352584784_a723121472_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295437</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Avoided Deforestation, Climate, Climate Change, Commentary, Deforestation, Forests, Governance, Land Rights, Rainforests, Redd, Social Justice, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For decades, efforts to halt deforestation in the Global South have gained much attention within the policy arena, most recently as a powerful and effective measure to mitigate climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. One well-known initiative is the framework on “Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, plus the sustainable [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For decades, efforts to halt deforestation in the Global South have gained much attention within the policy arena, most recently as a powerful and effective measure to mitigate climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. One well-known initiative is the framework on “Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, plus the sustainable management of forests and the conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks,” or REDD+, which was adopted in 2013 at the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP19) in Warsaw and built on the original REDD program, which launched five years earlier. REDD+ is supposed to channel a global willingness to pay for forest conservation through public funds or carbon markets, providing participating countries and jurisdictions in the Global South with incentives for forest protection. REDD+ project in Jambi province, Sumatra, Indonesia. Photo by Icaro Cooke Vieira/CIFOR-ICRAF. Over time, REDD+ has evolved considerably. It has been translated and assembled in highly diverse ways and at various speeds in national forest and climate policy arenas. Initially, REDD+ was considered a “low-hanging-fruit” approach to mitigate climate change — a quick and inexpensive scheme. However, a large body of research has, unsurprisingly, shown that REDD+ is much costlier and more contested than expected. Since 2009, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has led the Global Comparative Study on REDD+ with the aim of understanding which conditions can enable and hinder desired change away from policies and politics that favor deforestation. The study also sought to determine how REDD+ implementation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/what-have-we-learned-from-15-years-of-redd-policy-research-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295437</doi>				</item>
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