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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/anthropology/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 04 Sep 2026 16:59:34 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Anthropology</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/anthropology/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Birds are changing — and Indigenous memory is the longest record we have</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/birds-are-changing-and-indigenous-memory-is-the-longest-record-we-have/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/birds-are-changing-and-indigenous-memory-is-the-longest-record-we-have/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Mar 2026 15:37:04 +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/20/2026/03/02034439/Royal-Flycatcher-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315034</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Anthropology, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Culture, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Monitoring, Rainforests, Research, Traditional Knowledge, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Conservation has long depended on measurement. Populations are counted, habitats mapped, trends plotted against baselines that often extend back only a few decades. Yet many ecosystems began changing long before systematic monitoring began. In much of the world, the longest continuous records of environmental change reside not in databases but in memory, language, and daily [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Conservation has long depended on measurement. Populations are counted, habitats mapped, trends plotted against baselines that often extend back only a few decades. Yet many ecosystems began changing long before systematic monitoring began. In much of the world, the longest continuous records of environmental change reside not in databases but in memory, language, and daily practice. A growing body of research suggests that these forms of knowledge are not merely anecdotal supplements to science; they can reveal patterns otherwise invisible, including shifts in species composition, behavior, and condition. A recent global study illustrates the point with clearly. Researchers worked with ten Indigenous and local communities across three continents, asking adults to recall the most common birds around their territories today and during their childhoods. The survey produced nearly 7,000 reports covering 283 species over roughly eighty years. When matched with scientific data on body size, the responses indicated a consistent shift toward smaller-bodied birds, amounting to an estimated 72% reduction in average body mass across sites. Locations of the 10 study sites. Figure from Fernández-Llamazares, Á. et al. (2025) This finding echoes scientific literature documenting widespread avian decline. Long-term studies in tropical forests, for example, have recorded large drops in abundance even in areas with little direct disturbance, with capture rates in some Amazonian sites falling by about half over two decades. What is striking in the new work is not only the pattern itself but the method. The signal emerges from lived experience accumulated across generations, a type of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/birds-are-changing-and-indigenous-memory-is-the-longest-record-we-have/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/birds-are-changing-and-indigenous-memory-is-the-longest-record-we-have/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315034</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>José Zanardini, the priest who tried to reconcile faith and Indigenous autonomy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/jose-zanardini-the-priest-who-tried-to-reconcile-faith-and-indigenous-autonomy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/jose-zanardini-the-priest-who-tried-to-reconcile-faith-and-indigenous-autonomy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jan 2026 00:59:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/24134322/260124-FATHER-GIUSEPPE-ZANARDINI-OBIT-1811567-e1769006160838-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313292</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Paraguay, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Anthropology, Environment, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Obituary, and Religions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For much of South America’s history, the arrival of a missionary has carried two reputations at once. One is charitable: a figure with medicine, schooling, and a language of human dignity that can be useful in a state that is often absent. The other is coercive: an agent of conversion and acculturation, sometimes entangled with [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For much of South America’s history, the arrival of a missionary has carried two reputations at once. One is charitable: a figure with medicine, schooling, and a language of human dignity that can be useful in a state that is often absent. The other is coercive: an agent of conversion and acculturation, sometimes entangled with land seizures, forced settlement, and abuses that Indigenous communities still live with. Among the peoples of the Gran Chaco, the story of “contact” is still unfolding, with some groups settled and others choosing isolation. In that setting, the line between accompaniment and intrusion has never been simple. Anthropology, too, has had its double role. At its best it records languages, histories, and ways of seeing that outsiders once dismissed as obstacles to “progress.” At its worst it becomes another instrument for ordering Indigenous people into categories designed by others. The most careful scholars learn to doubt their own categories. They also learn that a field notebook can outlast a sermon. That tension framed the life of Father José (Giuseppe) Zanardini, a Salesian priest and anthropologist who arrived in Paraguay in 1978 and spent decades working among Indigenous communities, especially the Ayoreo in the Chaco. He died on January 19th 2026, aged 83. Zanardini was born in Brescia, Italy, in 1942. He studied engineering in Milan before turning to philosophy and theology. The Salesians chose him for Paraguay, and he chose, in turn, to study anthropology, completing a doctorate in social anthropology in England. He would&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/jose-zanardini-the-priest-who-tried-to-reconcile-faith-and-indigenous-autonomy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313292</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous myths reveal Amazon&#8217;s past truths: Interview with Stéphen Rostain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-myths-reveal-amazons-past-truths-interview-with-stephen-rostain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-myths-reveal-amazons-past-truths-interview-with-stephen-rostain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Oct 2025 14:14:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Peter Speetjens]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/01063151/1988_Rostain-French-Guiana-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306877</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, French Guiana, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Climate, Conservation, Culture, Drought, Environment, History, Indigenous Peoples, LiDAR, Mapping, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Now a leading archaeologist, Rostain was discouraged at first. “No one is interested in archaeology of the Amazon.”]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Born in the French city of Brest in 1962, archaeologist Stéphen Rostain has worked in the Amazon for more than 40 years, primarily in French Guiana and Ecuador. He has authored or co-authored more than 450 publications on the rainforest’s past and present, including some 45 books. In January 2024, Rostain made a big splash as the lead author of a Science paper on the Upano Valley’s “urban garden culture” in the eastern Ecuadorian Amazon. It led to an avalanche of headlines around the world, many of which overly claimed a “lost city” had been found, and sparked new interest in Amazon archaeology. “I thought perhaps 10 journalists would contact me for an interview. But I did 10 to 20 interviews a day,” Rostain told Mongabay. As director of research at the French Institute for Scientific Research, Rostain isn’t very positive about the future of the Amazon. As deforestation continues and global temperatures continue to rise, he said the Amazon has already reached a turning point and is on its way to partially becoming a savanna. The profound changes in Western thinking about the rainforest that have taken place over the past decades offer a glimmer of hope. This includes the shift in our perception of the Amazon’s past and an end to the centuries of prejudice toward Indigenous people. “Our preconception has long been that the ‘Indians’ are just savages and their oral traditions just crazy legends,” Rostain told Mongabay in June. “Thankfully, that has changed. Twenty years ago,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-myths-reveal-amazons-past-truths-interview-with-stephen-rostain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306877</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>An ancient Indigenous civilization endures beneath an Amazon urban soy hub</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/an-ancient-indigenous-civilization-endures-beneath-an-amazon-urban-soy-hub/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/an-ancient-indigenous-civilization-endures-beneath-an-amazon-urban-soy-hub/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2025 07:00:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Peter Speetjens]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/15130802/IMG_3640-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305898</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Climate Change, Colonization, Conflict, Conservation, Culture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Soy, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Santarém’s ceramics grace museums around the globe, yet the city’s heritage remains largely unknown in Brazil.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SANTARÉM, Brazil — Praça Rodrigues dos Santos has seen better days. The triangular plaza at the center of Santarém is broken and filled with potholes and piles of garbage. Amid the trees stands the statue of a priest. His right arm seems disproportionately large, and he holds a bible under his left arm. Next to the statue is a small pillar, too damaged to read the text on it. The plaque underneath the robed figure offers solace. “In this place used to be Ocara-Açu [the large terrain] of the Tupaiu or Tapajós indians,” it reads in Portuguese. “Here, on the day of June 22, 1661, the Jesuit father João Felipe Betendorf installed the mission of Our Lady of the Conception, which gave birth to the city of Santarém.” Praça Rodrigues dos Santos is the historic heart of the city, the place where it all began. Yet anyone passing the site would be forgiven for thinking it was just a parking lot. Overlooking the Tapajós River, one of the largest tributaries to the mightiest river of them all — the Amazon — Santarém is home to some 330,000 people. Its façade has long been dominated by the hundreds of fishing boats and ferries docked along the shore. Since 2003, the enormous Cargill soy terminal has been an added feature to the urban silhouette. Ferry boats lie neatly lined up at the Tapajós River port. Image by Peter Speetjens. Away from the happy hustle and bustle along the river, the city is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/an-ancient-indigenous-civilization-endures-beneath-an-amazon-urban-soy-hub/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305898</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Soy crops squeeze Amazon park with 11,000-year-old rock paintings in Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/soy-crops-squeeze-amazon-park-with-11000-year-old-rock-paintings-in-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/soy-crops-squeeze-amazon-park-with-11000-year-old-rock-paintings-in-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Aug 2025 18:30:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Peter Speetjens]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/12200305/Solar-Calendar-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303448</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Archeology, Climate Change, Conflict, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Remarkable discoveries in an Amazon cave rewrote human history, but it remains largely unknown as farmers advance closely.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MONTE ALEGRE, Brazil — Despite its name, all is not well in Monte Alegre, or “Happy Mountain.” Situated on the north bank of the Amazon River, some 120 kilometers (74.5 miles) from Santarém, a town with some 50,000 inhabitants, Monte Alegre guards one of Brazil’s best-kept secrets. Founded as a conservation area in 2001, the Monte Alegre State Park (PEMA in Portuguese), protects a forested complex of canyons, valleys and caves, home to some 600 prehistoric rock paintings dating back some 11,000 years. Measuring 3,678 hectares (9,090 acres), PEMA’s cultural value and natural beauty would be a top attraction anywhere in the world. In 2002, it was chosen as one of 25 global heritage sites by World Monuments Watch (WMW), a flagship advocacy program of the nonprofit World Monuments Fund. Yet, the park struggles to attract visitors. “It’s one of our biggest challenges,” said PEMA’s general manager Jorge Braga. “We have some 4,000 visitors annually. That’s not a lot.” Sitting at the Monte Alegre main square, Braga blamed a combination of visibility and accessibility. He estimated that only one in ten people living in the region knew about the park’s value. Among Brazilians living elsewhere and foreign visitors, the ratio will be way lower. It’s hardly the only problem the park is facing. While PEMA offers the highest possible level of environmental protection, the surrounding area is increasingly falling prey to deforestation. Park guide Luana Wanessa Assunção looks to Serra da Lua, or “Moon Mountain,” where the famous image of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/soy-crops-squeeze-amazon-park-with-11000-year-old-rock-paintings-in-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303448</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Villagers in Sumatra bring ancient forest flavors back to the table</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/villagers-in-sumatra-bring-ancient-forest-flavors-back-to-the-table/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/villagers-in-sumatra-bring-ancient-forest-flavors-back-to-the-table/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jun 2025 08:13:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Turrell]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/04071834/07-Paduka-community-cooking-for-visitors_credit-Javara-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300043</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, Oceania, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Ancient Civilizations, Animals, Anthropology, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Crops, Environment, Fish, Food, Food Industry, Forests, Freshwater Fish, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Plants, Rainforests, and Rivers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Nurul Nazipah’s favorite dish to cook is one that involves going into the Muaro Jambi forest to pick from among 120 different types of herbs and edible greens that grow wild. To the untrained eye, they could be weeds in the Sumatran forest, but to Nazipah each one has its own identity. It could taste [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nurul Nazipah’s favorite dish to cook is one that involves going into the Muaro Jambi forest to pick from among 120 different types of herbs and edible greens that grow wild. To the untrained eye, they could be weeds in the Sumatran forest, but to Nazipah each one has its own identity. It could taste mild, earthy or sometimes bitter. To complete her prized rempah ratus belut dish, she also needs an eel caught fresh from the Batang Hari River. “This richly spiced traditional dish has a distinct, fresh flavor and was historically prepared only during special occasions,” Nazipah says. But it’s not just the taste of the dish that fills her with pride. She says it also showcases how rich the forest is as a resource. “Through this dish, we can highlight the potential of local food sources that are still abundant in our surroundings.” Nazipah is among the local women from the Dusun Karet Market, popularly known as Paduka, near the 7th-century Buddhist temple complex of Muaro Jambi, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The Paduka women, who cook for temple visitors, concoct their dishes using diverse traditional ingredients. They say they want to do their part to show how their home is a living landscape steeped in heritage. Dining in the grounds of the temple. Image courtesy of Javara. As their eight villages are found within the Muaro Jambi temple complex, also spelled Muarojambi, they wanted to make sure the recipes remained authentic. While they say they&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/villagers-in-sumatra-bring-ancient-forest-flavors-back-to-the-table/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300043</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Meet Pedro Porras, the priest who first rediscovered Amazon ancient cities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/meet-pedro-porras-the-priest-who-first-rediscovered-amazon-ancient-cities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/meet-pedro-porras-the-priest-who-first-rediscovered-amazon-ancient-cities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 May 2025 07:00:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Peter Speetjens]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/23170708/52782351580_f31489bcfe_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299353</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Archeology, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, and Rainforest Destruction]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A Catholic priest, Pedro Porras, was the first to research and document the Amazon rainforest’s Upano Valley culture dating back 2,500 years.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Pedro Porras can, quite literally, be called the “father of Ecuadorian archaeology.” Wearing a black cossack and white collar, the Catholic priest did extensive research in just about every corner of the country. This includes the Amazon rainforest, where Father Porras was the first to research and document the ancient Upano Valley culture, a complex network of earthen platforms, roads and canals in eastern Ecuador dating back 2,500 years ago. “In February 1978, by a stroke of luck, and a mention by missionary Salesiano P. Juan Butasso, I discovered the ceremonial site of Guapula,” Porras wrote in the foreword to his book Investigaciones Arqheologicas a las faldas del Sangay (Archaeological Investigations in the Foothills of Sangay). The Guapula platform — more widely known as Huapula — is one of the largest sites within the human-altered landscape of the Upano Valley. Overlooked by the 5,286-meter-high (17,341-feet-high) Sangay volcano, this is the part of Ecuador where the Andes mountains and Amazon rainforest meet. Pedro Porras reading at his Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE) office. In 1964, he was appointed professor of archaeology at PUCE, where he established a center for archaeological research. Image courtesy of Museo Weilbauer. Led by Porras, a team of students and archaeologists from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE in Spanish) conducted the first Upano Valley excavation in August 1978. Fourteen more digs followed over the next six years, according to Porras, totalling 210 days, or 29,400 hours, of field work, which ultimately resulted in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/meet-pedro-porras-the-priest-who-first-rediscovered-amazon-ancient-cities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299353</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>500,000 barrels of DDT in the sea: Interview with documentary directors on California coast crisis</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/500000-barrels-of-ddt-in-the-sea-interview-with-documentary-directors-on-california-coast-crisis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/500000-barrels-of-ddt-in-the-sea-interview-with-documentary-directors-on-california-coast-crisis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Mar 2025 20:44:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/17193828/Out-of-Plain-Sight-Poster_RGB-691x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295949</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond the screen: DCEFF]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, Pacific Ocean, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Anthropology, Deep Sea, forever chemicals, Health, Marine, Oceans, Pollution, Sedimentation, Waste, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Half a million barrels of toxic waste lurking beneath the waves just miles from California&#8217;s coastline sounds like the plot of a Hollywood thriller. Yet this environmental catastrophe is real, as documented in the award-winning film Out of Plain Sight, co-directed by journalist Rosanna Xia and filmmaker Daniel Straub. The documentary follows Xia, a Pulitzer [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Half a million barrels of toxic waste lurking beneath the waves just miles from California&#8217;s coastline sounds like the plot of a Hollywood thriller. Yet this environmental catastrophe is real, as documented in the award-winning film Out of Plain Sight, co-directed by journalist Rosanna Xia and filmmaker Daniel Straub. The documentary follows Xia, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and coastal reporter for the Los Angeles Times, as she investigates a haunting discovery made by University of California, Santa Barbara, professor David Valentine. During a routine research expedition, Valentine&#8217;s underwater robot captured images of corroded barrels scattered across the seafloor near Catalina Island — remnants of a massive toxic dumping operation dating back to the post-World War II era. Rather than presenting a retrospective account of events, the film unfolds in real time. Viewers experience each revelation alongside Xia as she connect the dots between Valentine&#8217;s discovery, historical records, and the ongoing health and environmental consequences of the once widely used insecticide DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane). &nbsp; The documentary illustrates how DDT, although banned in the U.S. in the 1970s, continues to impact marine ecosystems and human health today. &#8220;DDT is the original &#8216;forever chemical&#8217; before that term even existed,&#8221; Xia told Mongabay. Xia&#8217;s reporting carries the torch of Rachel Carson, whose 1962 book Silent Spring first drew public attention to the dangers of DDT. &#8220;Rereading Silent Spring decades later and seeing how these messages are still concerns and themes we&#8217;re living with today was striking,” Xia said. &#8220;The public would not know about&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/500000-barrels-of-ddt-in-the-sea-interview-with-documentary-directors-on-california-coast-crisis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/500000-barrels-of-ddt-in-the-sea-interview-with-documentary-directors-on-california-coast-crisis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295949</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Borneo’s ‘omen birds’ find a staunch guardian in Indigenous Dayak Iban elders</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/borneos-omen-birds-find-a-staunch-guardian-in-indigenous-dayak-iban-elders/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/borneos-omen-birds-find-a-staunch-guardian-in-indigenous-dayak-iban-elders/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Nov 2024 16:09:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/15123532/4-Dayak-elder-with-a-young-member-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290167</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Conservation and Religion]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Anthropology, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Culture, Endangered Species, Environment, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Religions, Subsistence Agriculture, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Deep in the rainforests of Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, the piercing calls of birds reverberate to the rhythm of the gushing Utik River that has long nourished wildlife and the lifeways of the Dayak Iban people. For others, the bird calls might not warrant attention, but here, members of the tribe pause to listen for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Deep in the rainforests of Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, the piercing calls of birds reverberate to the rhythm of the gushing Utik River that has long nourished wildlife and the lifeways of the Dayak Iban people. For others, the bird calls might not warrant attention, but here, members of the tribe pause to listen for what they believe are the omens and warnings from spirits. In recent decades, songbird populations have declined in the country due to deforestation and the songbird trade. However, in the face of this declining biodiversity, the Dayak Iban of Sungai Utik village continue to care for a Paris-sized swath of rainforest and maintain customary laws to protect what they call their “omen birds.” These include species like the white-rumped shama (Copsychus malabarincus), scarlet-rumped trogon (Harpactes duvaucelii) and Diard’s trogon (Harpactes diardii), whose songs reverberate over the treetops of Borneo’s forests. “The culture of listening to omen birds is getting rare now, but we still view the birds as messengers in Sungai Utik,” says Hermanus Husin, 66, a Dayak elder from Sungai Utik. Omen birds are sacred species that bring messages, he says. “To protect these birds, we know that we have to protect their homes: the forests.” For generations, the Iban of Sungai Utik have maintained their stewardship of the land, for which they were recognized with an Equator Prize from the United Nations Development Programme in 2019. The elders have physically defended thousands of hectares of lush Bornean rainforest against illegal logging, oil palm&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/borneos-omen-birds-find-a-staunch-guardian-in-indigenous-dayak-iban-elders/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290167</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>If all life mattered, what would decision-making look like? (Analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/if-all-life-mattered-what-would-decision-making-look-like-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/if-all-life-mattered-what-would-decision-making-look-like-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Oct 2024 05:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashish KothariShrishtee Bajpai]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/24165202/Oracle-in-Rumtse-village-Ladakh-India-decision-making-involves-spirits-of-the-land-and-water-%40-Ashish-Kothari-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289170</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, India, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Anthropology, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Religions, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In April 2013, the Supreme Court of India delivered a historic judgement recognizing the cultural, religious and spiritual rights of the Dongria Kondh Adivasis, an Indigenous community residing in the Niyamgiri Hills of Odisha state in eastern India. The community fighting against bauxite mining in their sacred landscape had articulated that “our way of life [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In April 2013, the Supreme Court of India delivered a historic judgement recognizing the cultural, religious and spiritual rights of the Dongria Kondh Adivasis, an Indigenous community residing in the Niyamgiri Hills of Odisha state in eastern India. The community fighting against bauxite mining in their sacred landscape had articulated that “our way of life allied to the ‘sacred law,’ as prescribed by Niyamraja (King of Law, the deity presiding over the hills) disallows exploitation of the forest and the land.” The Niyamgiri judgement is one of those rare moments where the modern state and law came close to recognizing the interconnectedness that communities have with the more-than-human world (the web of life). Indigenous and other nature-dependent communities across the world have often articulated, as part their resistance to external domination, an inseparability of nature from humans. At this year’s COP16 U.N. biodiversity conference to implement a plan to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, Indigenous leaders say this relationship with nature is necessary to reach the goal. To cite a few more examples of what this worldview looks like: “For you the river might be megawatts of electricity, but for us, the river is our mother,” said Adivasis of 300 villages gathered on the banks of the Indravati River, in Maharashtra state, central India, to protest plans for two mega-hydropower dams in the 1980s (both were abandoned). “When we cross the river, we pray to her; we have a connection with her, she is a living being and water is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/if-all-life-mattered-what-would-decision-making-look-like-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/if-all-life-mattered-what-would-decision-making-look-like-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289170</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>It’s not the end, we have several possible futures: Interview with Indigenous author Ailton Krenak</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/its-not-the-end-we-have-several-possible-futures-interview-with-indigenous-author-ailton-krenak/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/its-not-the-end-we-have-several-possible-futures-interview-with-indigenous-author-ailton-krenak/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jul 2024 14:39:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jaqueline Sordi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/30113006/Krenak-side-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285383</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Anthropology, Arts, Books, Conservation, Culture, Development, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Rainforests, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For decades, scientists have been warning that the world is heading toward catastrophic scenarios due to climate change. But Ailton Krenak refuses to think about an apocalypse. On the contrary, he argues that there are several possible futures — but they will only be achievable when we realize that “being is more important than having.” [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For decades, scientists have been warning that the world is heading toward catastrophic scenarios due to climate change. But Ailton Krenak refuses to think about an apocalypse. On the contrary, he argues that there are several possible futures — but they will only be achievable when we realize that “being is more important than having.” For the Brazilian Indigenous leader, environmentalist, philosopher, poet and writer, Western society is facing an urgent need for a paradigm shift that challenges the ideas of progress and development themselves. “I’m not a pessimist, but I’m sure that the only way to move forward in this world is to reconnect with ancient wisdom. We have long been divorced from this living organism that is the Earth,” Krenak said in an interview with Mongabay. Born in Itabirinha, in the state of Minas Gerais, the 71-year-old Indigenous leader has been a prominent figure and an advocate for Indigenous rights for decades. In the late ‘80s, he became famous for his appearance at Brazil’s National Constituent Assembly, where he functioned as a representative of Indigenous peoples in constitutional debates. While giving his speech at the Congress in 1987, he stood on a platform, in front of those who threatened the land rights and culture of Indigenous peoples, and painted his face in black jenipapo paste (from the genipap fruit, Genipa americana). It was a form of protest against the setbacks and violent attacks on his rights and those of his Krenak relatives by the Brazilian dictatorship. The following&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/its-not-the-end-we-have-several-possible-futures-interview-with-indigenous-author-ailton-krenak/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/its-not-the-end-we-have-several-possible-futures-interview-with-indigenous-author-ailton-krenak/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285383</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>DNA testing proves that cocoa originated in the Amazon and reveals robust pre-Columbian trade</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/dna-testing-proves-that-cocoa-originated-in-the-amazon-and-reveals-robust-pre-columbian-trade/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/dna-testing-proves-that-cocoa-originated-in-the-amazon-and-reveals-robust-pre-columbian-trade/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2024 11:46:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sibélia Zanon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/29103110/Digital_Inclusion_in_the_Peruvian_Amazon_-_48138694956-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285230</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Biodiversity, Cacao, Conservation, DNA, Environment, Food, Forests, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s hard to imagine the history that lies behind the cacao trees grown on agroforestry farms in the Amazon today. For a long time, people believed that cacao’s origins lay elsewhere. Archaeological evidence had pointed to what is today southern Mexico and Central America — Mesoamerica — as the birthplace of the domesticated form of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It’s hard to imagine the history that lies behind the cacao trees grown on agroforestry farms in the Amazon today. For a long time, people believed that cacao’s origins lay elsewhere. Archaeological evidence had pointed to what is today southern Mexico and Central America — Mesoamerica — as the birthplace of the domesticated form of the Theobroma cacao tree some 4,000 years ago. It was only believed to have arrived in South America later. “We would always find cacao trees in the native forest on the Upper Amazon [in Ecuador] and think of the peoples who had lived in the region thousands of years before, but at the time, we had no idea that cacao was native to the region,” says Francisco Valdez, an archaeologist at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD). At the start of the 2000s, Valdez began studying evidence that would bring new knowledge about the ancient peoples who once prospered in the Upper Amazon. His research focused on the Andean region of the Amazon River Basin, straddling modern-day Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. Among numerous findings was the surprising detection of cacao DNA on ceramic artifacts dating back thousands of years that had been used inside homes and as burial items. This led to a reevaluation of the fruit’s origin: with South American roots, the evidence showed that cacao was already circulating between 19 different pre-Columbian cultures some 5,500 years ago. “The most important characteristic of our research is the fact that it&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/dna-testing-proves-that-cocoa-originated-in-the-amazon-and-reveals-robust-pre-columbian-trade/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285230</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Shaping the next generation of Indigenous rangers: Interview with Manni Edwards</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/shaping-the-next-generation-of-indigenous-rangers-interview-with-manni-edwards/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/shaping-the-next-generation-of-indigenous-rangers-interview-with-manni-edwards/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jul 2024 10:30:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/18085400/8-Goondoi-rangers-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284515</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Anthropology, Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Coral Reefs, Culture, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Law, Marine Conservation, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rangers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Manni Edwards credits his journey to preserving the wisdom of his elders to an encounter with goondoi 40 years ago. At the age of 8, Edwards says, he saw up to 14 colorful goondoi, or southern cassowaries (Casuarius casuarius) moving together in herds, socializing and breeding across the vast wetlands of the cassowary coast in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Manni Edwards credits his journey to preserving the wisdom of his elders to an encounter with goondoi 40 years ago. At the age of 8, Edwards says, he saw up to 14 colorful goondoi, or southern cassowaries (Casuarius casuarius) moving together in herds, socializing and breeding across the vast wetlands of the cassowary coast in Dyirribarra Bagirbarra Country, what is today the far north of Australia’s Queensland state. But over the years, these sights have become rare. Along with the bird’s declining numbers, traditional knowledge and the cultural significance of cassowaries have diminished among the young. Also fondly known as a “rainforest gardener” for spreading the seeds of the fruits that it eats, the southern cassowary is listed as endangered in Australia, with only 4,400 left in the wild in the wet tropics region there. (Much larger populations of the bird are found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, and the species’ global conservation status is least concern.) “Spotting them in herds to now only one single female, or three to four males over a distance of about 55 acres [22 hectares] of land, is different now,” Edwards says. “There is a quick change of knowledge. Some experts now even view cassowaries as solitary beings, but we [Dyibal people] have known them to be social animals for generations.” To stop the ongoing loss of knowledge and culture, local leaders bought part of their ancestral land from the state in 1982. They then created a conservation area where the young act&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/shaping-the-next-generation-of-indigenous-rangers-interview-with-manni-edwards/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284515</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Secrets from the rainforest’s past uncovered in Amazonian backyards</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/secrets-from-the-rainforests-past-uncovered-in-amazonian-backyards/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/secrets-from-the-rainforests-past-uncovered-in-amazonian-backyards/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2024 10:53:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolina Pinheiro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/08104711/IMG_3010-colecao-provada-em-Parintins-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281827</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Archeology, Biodiversity, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Forests, Rainforests, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Small fragments of ancestral Amazonian culture are emerging from the ground in the backyards of homes in the rural and urban parts of Parintins, Amazonas: pieces of broken pots, chips with clear drawings, elaborately sculpted figures of human and nonhuman beings, decorative objects and burial urns — all made of pottery. Among these particles of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Small fragments of ancestral Amazonian culture are emerging from the ground in the backyards of homes in the rural and urban parts of Parintins, Amazonas: pieces of broken pots, chips with clear drawings, elaborately sculpted figures of human and nonhuman beings, decorative objects and burial urns — all made of pottery. Among these particles of time that include stone instruments as well, people and objects are intertwined amid diverse landscapes composing an ancient biocultural mosaic called a sustainable agroecological system in archaeology. In this municipality located on Tupinambarana Island, a “floating terrace” as researchers describe, the population of some 96,000 people are discovering remnants of what were at one time the pre-Columbian societies in the region. The place, some 420 kilometers (260 miles) from the state capitol of Manaus, was given the name Tupinambarana by passing visitors who came into contact with the territory’s Indigenous people, the Tupinambá. Today, the collective work of scientists and local communities is filling in gaps with pieces to the historical jigsaw puzzle of this region. This new understanding is opening new paths to the study of South America’s history. These fragments reveal important information about pre-Columbian occupation in the state and are commonly found by those living in Parintins. The city is also home to Brazil’s two most famous Boi, or sacred folkloric steer entities: the Caprichoso and the Garantido. The stage of a world-famous folkloric festival celebrating the Boi, Parintins is also becoming famous for the ancient remains driving an investigation that connects&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/secrets-from-the-rainforests-past-uncovered-in-amazonian-backyards/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281827</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A short walk through Amazon time: Interview with archaeologist Anna Roosevelt</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/a-short-walk-through-amazon-time-interview-with-archaeologist-anna-roosevelt/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/a-short-walk-through-amazon-time-interview-with-archaeologist-anna-roosevelt/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2024 19:06:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Peter Speetjens]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/10180436/ACR-high-res-e1712772532240-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280726</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Archeology, Conservation, Environment, Forests, History, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Interviews, Rainforests, Research, Traditional People, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Roosevelt said the recent hype regarding the “garden cities” in Ecuador is “annoying”, as it is not a new discovery and it ignores older research from Latin American archaeologists.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois Chicago, Anna Roosevelt has been dubbed the “matriarch” of archaeology in the Amazon River Basin. In a career spanning some 40 years, she has authored more than a hundred scientific articles and a dozen books, which helped accomplish a radical shift in the way we perceive the past of the human presence in the Amazon. Known as environmental determinism, the dominant view for decades was that the tropical rainforest was too hostile, too wet, too infertile to bring forth any complex culture. Additionally, the human presence in the Amazon was thought to be a relatively recent phenomenon, consisting mainly of small bands of hunters and gatherers and simple gardeners. Having worked from the Orinoco floodplains to the Monte Alegre caves and from Marajó Island to the tropical forests of the Congo River Basin, Roosevelt smashed the pillars upon which the “false faith” was built. Today, thanks to archaeologists like her, almost everything regarding the human past of the Amazon is the exact opposite of what was taught in academia only 50 years ago. Erudite and witty, Roosevelt is the first to acknowledge that she did not do it alone. Too many before her remained ignored for far too long. “From an ecological point of view, the significance of the [archaeological] sequence is that the Amazonians have always very much managed the rainforest and rivers,” she said. “They didn’t deforest, but further developed and enriched the natural diversity.” Despite the many existential&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/a-short-walk-through-amazon-time-interview-with-archaeologist-anna-roosevelt/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/a-short-walk-through-amazon-time-interview-with-archaeologist-anna-roosevelt/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280726</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ancient ocean water found in Himalayas could offer insights about evolution</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/ancient-ocean-water-found-in-himalayas-could-offer-insights-about-evolution/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/ancient-ocean-water-found-in-himalayas-could-offer-insights-about-evolution/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Nov 2023 02:30:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Niladry Sarkar]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/21103925/himalayas-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275640</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, India, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Archeology, Biodiversity, Conservation, Earth Science, Environment, Fellows, Geology, History, Mountains, Oceans, Paleontology, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A team of scientists from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Japan’s Niigata University have unearthed water droplets trapped in mineral deposits in the Kumaon mountains in the central sector of the Himalayas, in the north Indian state of Uttarakhand. The scientists say they believe these droplets were remnants of an ancient ocean that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A team of scientists from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Japan’s Niigata University have unearthed water droplets trapped in mineral deposits in the Kumaon mountains in the central sector of the Himalayas, in the north Indian state of Uttarakhand. The scientists say they believe these droplets were remnants of an ancient ocean that existed around 500-700 million years ago and that they could enhance our understanding of how complex life forms evolved on Earth. In their paper, published in the journal Precambrian Research in September, three scientists from IISc’s Centre for Earth Sciences and two from Niigata University wrote that they had discovered mineral deposits in the Kumaon mountains, in a region also known as the Lesser Himalayas, that contained marine carbonates from a sea of the Neoproterozoic era, estimated to have existed between 1 billion and 540 million years ago. The team found sparry magnesites, which are stratigraphically associated with dolomite, a kind of limestone that is rich in magnesium carbonate and calcium carbonate, and stromatolite, which is a sedimentary rock formed by microbial organisms. But the deposits the researchers found had lower amounts of calcium and higher amounts of magnesium, suggesting a different origin and environment of precipitation, the researchers wrote in their paper. “In present-day environmental conditions, precipitating magnesium carbonate in the oceans is difficult. However, during the Neoproterozoic era, extreme environmental and climatic factors favored magnesium carbonate precipitation because the calcium input in the oceans was significantly low due to the freezing of rivers,”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/ancient-ocean-water-found-in-himalayas-could-offer-insights-about-evolution/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/ancient-ocean-water-found-in-himalayas-could-offer-insights-about-evolution/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275640</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Australia crackdown on climate protesters grows amid fight against gas project</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/australia-crackdown-on-climate-protesters-grows-amid-fight-against-gas-project/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/australia-crackdown-on-climate-protesters-grows-amid-fight-against-gas-project/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2023 14:43:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tessa Fox]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/31133108/protest-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274832</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Archeology, Arts, Business, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, COVID-19, Culture, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, History, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industry, Infrastructure, Land Rights, Politics, Pollution, Protected Areas, Protests, Social Justice, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BRISBANE, Australia — Formed billions of years ago from volcanic magma, the red rocks and hills of Murujuga arise in striking contrast to the surrounding green native grasses. This area, in what is known today as Western Australia (WA), holds the world’s largest and oldest collection of petroglyphs, dating back at least 40,000 years. Described [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BRISBANE, Australia — Formed billions of years ago from volcanic magma, the red rocks and hills of Murujuga arise in striking contrast to the surrounding green native grasses. This area, in what is known today as Western Australia (WA), holds the world’s largest and oldest collection of petroglyphs, dating back at least 40,000 years. Described as a “bible” for local Indigenous groups, some of the rocks even depict the now-extinct Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus). Murujuga also encompasses 42 islands that are surrounded by passageways for various migratory whale and dolphin species. All this dynamic land is tied together by the Turtle Dreaming story. It details how the freshwater meets the ocean through the acts of a turtle, says Raelene Cooper, a Mardudhunera woman and former board member of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation. This is one of the greatest creation stories for the Indigenous groups, referred to as original custodians — as in caretakers — of Murujuga. “We have an enormous responsibility in terms of creating a safe space for all plant life, land animals, marine animals and the underwater systems and especially the &#8230; connection with the rock art,” Cooper tells Mongabay. And part of this landscape is an expanding industrial site that protrudes from the rich, red earth. Environmentalists and Indigenous advocates say the sacred site is threatened by the upcoming expansion planned by Australia’s largest petroleum company, Woodside Energy. The project entails expanding two processing plants and building two new offshore gas fields in what will produce billions&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/australia-crackdown-on-climate-protesters-grows-amid-fight-against-gas-project/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274832</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Amazon’s archaeology of hope: Q&#038;A with anthropologist Michael Heckenberger</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/the-amazons-archaeology-of-hope-qa-with-anthropologist-michael-heckenberger/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/the-amazons-archaeology-of-hope-qa-with-anthropologist-michael-heckenberger/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Oct 2023 07:00:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Peter Speetjens]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/11092436/Kuikuro-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274170</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Anthropology, Archeology, Biodiversity, Cities, Conservation, Culture, Drought, Forest Loss, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Savannas, urban ecology, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A professor at the University of Florida, Michael Heckenberger has been visiting and studying Indigenous peoples at the Upper Xingu River for decades and says the Amazon is already facing its tipping point: “It’s a tipping event.”]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Michael Heckenberger has lived among the Kuikuro people at the Upper Xingu River for at least part of the year for the past 30 years. A professor of anthropology at the University of Florida and an archaeology expert, Heckenberger’s research has shown that, prior to European conquest, the region on the southern edge of the Amazon was not “pristine forest” as was firmly believed for centuries. The Kuikuro used to live in clusters of settlements, protected by palisades and ditches, surrounded by canals, bridges and ponds, connected by an impressive network of roads. While only a few thousand Kuikuro remain today, these “garden cities” of the Upper Xingu were once home to more than 50,000 people and maybe twice that many in 1492. Heckenberger returns to the Kuikuro almost every year and has witnessed firsthand the rapid deforestation affecting the protected Xingu Indigenous Park and its people. “When I started working with the Kuikuro, I could not have imagined there would no longer be an Amazon Rainforest in my lifetime. But, some 15 years ago, I realized that scenario could actually become a reality.” Part of his work now deals with working with the Kuikuro to prepare them for living in an environment very different from the one they had lived in for thousands of years. By looking at the past, Heckenberger hopes to find solutions that could help people in the Amazon and beyond help cope with a very different future. It’s what he calls an “archaeology of hope.”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/the-amazons-archaeology-of-hope-qa-with-anthropologist-michael-heckenberger/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/the-amazons-archaeology-of-hope-qa-with-anthropologist-michael-heckenberger/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274170</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Many features of the Amazon are man-made’: Q&#038;A with archaeologist Eduardo Neves</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/many-features-of-the-amazon-are-man-made-qa-with-archaeologist-eduardo-neves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/many-features-of-the-amazon-are-man-made-qa-with-archaeologist-eduardo-neves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 May 2023 18:44:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Peter Speetjens]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/03175619/Portrait-Neves-Marina-Garcia-Burgos-cropped-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268168</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Archeology, Climate Change, Conflict, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Neves has studied human occupation of the Amazon for 30 years and found evidence of rice, manioc and palm tree cultivation dating back thousands of years.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon Rainforest is often considered the ultimate wilderness. Here, nature rules ruthlessly in all its grandeur. There’s no room for agriculture here and, hence, none for humankind, except for a few small groups of hunter-gatherers. For many people across the globe, this would be their idea of the Amazon. However, recent archaeological research turns that image on its head. Human presence in the world’s largest tropical rainforest is not only much older than previously thought, but also much more significant and varied than long presumed. Until the turn of the 21st century, the ruling paradigm was that the soil in the Amazon was too poor to support agriculture. And, without enough food, it’s not suited for humankind. Today, there’s little doubt among archaeologists that the Amazon was, in fact, a hotspot for plant cultivation. Eduardo Neves is well-versed in this paradigm shift in Amazonian archaeology and its consequences on our view of the past, present and future of the rainforest. A professor of archaeology at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, he’s worked for more than 30 years in the central and southwest Amazon. He recently published his latest book, Sob os tempos do equinócio: Oito mil anos de história na Amazônia central (“Under the times of the equinox: 8,000 years of history in central Amazon,” not yet translated into English.) “Archaeology in the Amazon is pretty unique, as we not only work with the past, but also with the present and the future,” says Neves, 56. “Even in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/many-features-of-the-amazon-are-man-made-qa-with-archaeologist-eduardo-neves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268168</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sri Lanka aims to restore ancient irrigation tanks in climate change plan</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/sri-lanka-aims-to-restore-ancient-irrigation-tanks-in-climate-change-plan/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/sri-lanka-aims-to-restore-ancient-irrigation-tanks-in-climate-change-plan/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Apr 2023 15:00:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/22142124/Cover-photo-Cascade-tank-system-c-IUCN-Sri-Lanka-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267775</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Ancient Civilizations, Environment, Mitigation, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ANURADHAPURA, Sri Lanka — Current climate models forewarn that Sri Lanka’s dry zone is likely to become drier due to climate change, resulting in water shortages for agriculture. A country that has twice been ranked among the top 10 countries in the climate risk index, Sri Lanka intends to revive its village tank cascade systems, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ANURADHAPURA, Sri Lanka — Current climate models forewarn that Sri Lanka’s dry zone is likely to become drier due to climate change, resulting in water shortages for agriculture. A country that has twice been ranked among the top 10 countries in the climate risk index, Sri Lanka intends to revive its village tank cascade systems, a neglected but highly efficient series of ancient irrigation systems as part of its climate adaptation strategy. A tank cascade system is a hydrologically interconnected series of tanks organized within micro-catchments in the dry zone landscape. The water released to paddy fields from one tank flows to the next, effectively sharing water from the top to the bottom and feeding many paddy lands. Each component in a cascade system adopts a specific functional purpose that can be explained in modern science even though they were designed centuries ago, according to research. A graphical representation of the tank cascade system. Image courtesy of IUCN Sri Lanka. “Restoring the tank cascade system has a wider implication from the point of view of climate change as the system has proved its resilience to extreme weather events,” said P.B. Dharmasena, former research officer at the Department of Agriculture and a specialist in soil and water management. The system can absorb shocks of natural disasters such as floods, which can be controlled by storing water, and drought impact, by reducing water loss from tanks through absorption in the surrounding environment. The cascaded tank-village system also contributes to efficient water management&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/sri-lanka-aims-to-restore-ancient-irrigation-tanks-in-climate-change-plan/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267775</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazilian Indigenous anthropologists turn the tables from ‘objects of study’ to active voices</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/brazilian-indigenous-anthropologists-turn-the-tables-from-objects-of-study-to-active-voices/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/brazilian-indigenous-anthropologists-turn-the-tables-from-objects-of-study-to-active-voices/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Feb 2023 09:00:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Max Baring]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karla Mendes]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/17152904/4.-Gliceria-in-parliment-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265690</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Anthropology, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Politics, Saving Rainforests, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ST ANDREWS, Scotland — Francineia Fontes Baniwa laughs enthusiastically as she tells of a conversation she had with her traveling companion, Nelly Marubo while on the train to Scotland: “Nelly looked at me and said, ‘One day we are also going to be university professors!’ And I said, ‘for sure.’” Nelly and Fran are examples [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ST ANDREWS, Scotland — Francineia Fontes Baniwa laughs enthusiastically as she tells of a conversation she had with her traveling companion, Nelly Marubo while on the train to Scotland: “Nelly looked at me and said, ‘One day we are also going to be university professors!’ And I said, ‘for sure.’” Nelly and Fran are examples of an emerging generation of Brazilian Indigenous anthropologists who are turning the tables on the traditional relationship between anthropologists and the peoples they study. Both are PhD candidates and visited the UK in September 2022, along with Glicéria Tupinambá, an Indigenous activist and artist. The purpose of the trip? It was precisely to lecture at St Andrews, one of the UK’s top universities. Here, Glicéria lectured to first-year anthropology students about the Tupinambá’s land struggle, while Fran’s and Nelly’s lectures advocated the advantages of themselves as graduating Amazonian women anthropologists. Nelly talks to the gathered faculty of anthropology about growing up in the forests. She remembers her mother telling her, “Anthropologists write everything wrong. You have to go there and write from our voice [because] anthropologists talk about us in their way, not in our way.”  And it was exactly what the three Indigenous women went to Scotland for. Francineia Bitencourt Fontes lectures to hundreds of undergraduate anthropology students at St Andrews University, in Scotland, about being an Indigenous women anthropologist. Image by Max Baring for Mongabay. While they come from very different regions of Brazil, all three women share the experience of struggling with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/brazilian-indigenous-anthropologists-turn-the-tables-from-objects-of-study-to-active-voices/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265690</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sulawesi hydropower dam could flood important archaeological sites</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/sulawesi-hydropower-dam-could-flood-important-archaeological-sites/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/sulawesi-hydropower-dam-could-flood-important-archaeological-sites/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Dec 2022 08:17:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Agus Mawan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/11/28021227/Karama-river-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=262970</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, Sulawesi, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Archeology, Conservation, Dams, Development, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Flooding, Governance, History, Hydroelectric Power, Infrastructure, Rivers, and Tropics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KALUMPANG, Indonesia — In January, as representatives of a hydropower company explained their plan to dam the river near his home, Kasman wondered if he was staring at annihilation. Kasman is the head of the village deliberation body in Kalumpang, a village on the Karama River in western Sulawesi, one of Indonesia’s biggest islands. Jakarta-based [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KALUMPANG, Indonesia — In January, as representatives of a hydropower company explained their plan to dam the river near his home, Kasman wondered if he was staring at annihilation. Kasman is the head of the village deliberation body in Kalumpang, a village on the Karama River in western Sulawesi, one of Indonesia’s biggest islands. Jakarta-based PT DND Hydro Ecopower wants to harness its fast-flowing waters as part of a 190-megawatt clean energy project meant to help wean the nation off coal. As the pitchmen assured locals that the reservoir formed by the dam would not inundate their village, Kasman wasn’t convinced. “How do we know they can be believed?” he told Mongabay. Indonesia runs on coal. The fossil fuel accounts for 63% of the energy mix in the archipelagic Southeast Asian nation, whose 275 million people make it the world’s fourth-most populous country. To reduce Indonesia’s reliance on coal, President Joko Widodo urged business leaders to develop hydropower, taking advantage of the some 4,400 big and medium rivers dotted throughout the country’s thousands of islands. But while hydroelectric dams can help cut carbon emissions, they have also displaced tens of millions of people worldwide, submerging huge areas of land and forcing rural communities to pick up and relocate. A settlement near the Karama River. People living near the river have been assured their homes won&#8217;t be inundated if a planned hydroelectric dam is built, but not all residentsare convinced, fearing they will lose land and possibly even their homes if&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/sulawesi-hydropower-dam-could-flood-important-archaeological-sites/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/sulawesi-hydropower-dam-could-flood-important-archaeological-sites/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-262970</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Chimpanzee nut cracking leaves telltale marks on stones, providing clues to human evolution</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/chimpanzee-nut-cracking-leaves-telltale-marks-on-stones-providing-clues-to-human-evolution/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/chimpanzee-nut-cracking-leaves-telltale-marks-on-stones-providing-clues-to-human-evolution/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Dec 2022 07:02:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kate Hull]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/09013520/Hull-1_NutCracking_upscale-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263415</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Apes, Archeology, Chimpanzees, Culture, Environment, Evolution, Great Apes, Primates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The dents and dings on the surfaces of rocks used by chimpanzees to crack open nuts preserve a history of how the animals used the tools and how those patterns change from one troop to the next, researchers reported recently in Royal Society Open Science. This archaeological data can offer insights into the ways similar [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The dents and dings on the surfaces of rocks used by chimpanzees to crack open nuts preserve a history of how the animals used the tools and how those patterns change from one troop to the next, researchers reported recently in Royal Society Open Science. This archaeological data can offer insights into the ways similar stone tool technology arose millions of years ago among hominins, the ancestors of humans. Scientists examined nut-smashing rocks used by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Taï National Park, in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa. Measurements and 3D scans of the tools revealed distinct patterns of damage related to how the animals wielded the rocks. Geographic locations of Djouroutou and Bossou chimpanzee sites in West Africa. Purple shading marks their distribution. Map Credit: IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) 2018. Pan troglodytes. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2022-1 The team then compared these marks to those from prior study that described nut-cracking tools used by chimpanzees about 300 kilometers away in Bossou, Guinea — the only other study to examine tools in this way. Even though the Guinea chimps used their stone tools for the same purpose, differences in the damage patterns clearly showed which tools came from which troop. The study focused on “percussive” tools used for hitting or pounding. Most archaeological research on tool use has focused on “flake” technology — tools used for cutting and slicing. However, percussive tools probably came first, researchers believe. Example of an anvil&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/chimpanzee-nut-cracking-leaves-telltale-marks-on-stones-providing-clues-to-human-evolution/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/chimpanzee-nut-cracking-leaves-telltale-marks-on-stones-providing-clues-to-human-evolution/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263415</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Giant kangaroo fossil points to previously unknown species in New Guinea</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/giant-kangaroo-fossil-points-to-previously-unknown-species-in-new-guinea/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/giant-kangaroo-fossil-points-to-previously-unknown-species-in-new-guinea/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jul 2022 18:42:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jim Tan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/07/27150803/Nombe-nombe-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258620</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Oceania and Papua New Guinea]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Archeology, Biodiversity, Environment, Extinction, Fossils, Islands, Marsupials, New Discovery, Rainforests, Research, Science, and Species Discovery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A previously unknown genus of primitive giant kangaroo that once roamed the rainforests of New Guinea has been described by a team of paleontologists from Flinders University in Australia. The researchers say they hope the findings, published in June, will reenergize the field of paleontological research on New Guinea, helping to uncover the island&#8217;s history [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A previously unknown genus of primitive giant kangaroo that once roamed the rainforests of New Guinea has been described by a team of paleontologists from Flinders University in Australia. The researchers say they hope the findings, published in June, will reenergize the field of paleontological research on New Guinea, helping to uncover the island&#8217;s history and thus better understand its diverse and often unique modern-day flora and fauna. The chance discovery came about as lead author Isaac Kerr, a Ph.D. candidate at Flinders University, was reexamining a fossilized jawbone thought to belong to a giant kangaroo from the extinct genus Protemnodon, a cousin to the modern-day eastern gray and red kangaroos (Macropus giganteus and Macropus rufus) found in Australia and the focus of Kerr’s research. On closer examination, distinct differences to Protemnodon in the molar teeth led the research team to believe they were in fact looking at a previously undiscovered genus most likely unique to New Guinea. Flinders University palaeontology researcher Isaac Kerr with an Australian kangaroo jaw bone, and an Australian megafauna fossil jaw used in the latest Royal Society study. Image courtesy of Flinders University. The jawbone was originally found during an expedition led by Mary Jane Mountain in the 1970s at an archaeological site in central Papua New Guinea called the Nombe Rockshelter. Kerr and his colleagues have named the new genus Nombe after the site and the type species will be called Nombe nombe. “The New Guinean fauna is strange and unique, and the fossil&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/giant-kangaroo-fossil-points-to-previously-unknown-species-in-new-guinea/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258620</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘What’s lacking is respect for Mayan culture’: Q&#038;A with Pedro Uc Be on Mexico&#8217;s Tren Maya</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/whats-lacking-is-respect-for-mayan-culture-qa-with-pedro-uc-be-on-mexicos-tren-maya/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/whats-lacking-is-respect-for-mayan-culture-qa-with-pedro-uc-be-on-mexicos-tren-maya/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 May 2022 18:19:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Thelma Gómez Durán]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/30181009/41830040_1925804764142511_8651833059374530560_n-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256473</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Anthropology, Conservation, Culture, Developing Countries, Development, Environment, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Land Conflict, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[*UPDATE: On March 30, 2021, a press release announced that the Collegiate Court of Circuit in Work and Administration Matters had reversed the decision to suspend activity on Sections 1, 2, and 3 of the Tren Maya project, giving the go-ahead for the works to continue.  In a statement, the members of the Múuch´ Xíinbal [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[*UPDATE: On March 30, 2021, a press release announced that the Collegiate Court of Circuit in Work and Administration Matters had reversed the decision to suspend activity on Sections 1, 2, and 3 of the Tren Maya project, giving the go-ahead for the works to continue.  In a statement, the members of the Múuch´ Xíinbal Assembly said: “This [ruling] is yet further evidence of the authoritarian decisions of the Powers of the Union with which they seek to impose a project on the peninsula. Attempts to defend people’s rights also continue to be hindered by political interests over Mayan territories, which thereby leave human rights defenders in a state of high risk and vulnerability.” &nbsp; Pedro Uc Be is a poet and intellectual, but he is also a campesino. He is a teacher, a cultural ambassador and a priest. But, above all, for Pedro, he is Mayan and a defender of his territory. His story as a land defender is a long one. For Pedro, this story started after he left his hometown of Buctzotz, in the state of Yucatán, Mexico, to study his first degree in theology in a seminary. “[It was] very conservative, [and] it distanced me from my own culture”, he recalls. It was in the mid-1980s that Pedro encountered liberation theology. “It questioned so many things that it changed my life. It is such a generous [outlook] that it liberates you from [the confines of] theology. That’s what happened to me,” he said. He soon left&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/whats-lacking-is-respect-for-mayan-culture-qa-with-pedro-uc-be-on-mexicos-tren-maya/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/whats-lacking-is-respect-for-mayan-culture-qa-with-pedro-uc-be-on-mexicos-tren-maya/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256473</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Bring back burning culture’ to save seabirds: Q&#038;A with Wudjari ranger Jennell Reynolds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/bring-back-burning-culture-to-save-seabirds-qa-with-wudjari-ranger-jennell-reynolds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/bring-back-burning-culture-to-save-seabirds-qa-with-wudjari-ranger-jennell-reynolds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 May 2022 15:12:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/12142553/6-Elder-Donny-Abdullah-in-yellow-hi-vis-and-ranger-Kenny-Spratt-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255774</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Anthropology, Biodiversity, Birds, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Culture, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Fires, Indigenous Peoples, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Islands, Landscape Restoration, Marine, Protected Areas, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rangers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In February 2020, lightning struck Figure of Eight Island in Western Australia’s Recherche Archipelago, igniting a fire that burned through most of its vegetation in just a few days. While Figure of Eight has no human inhabitants, it is a nesting spot for short-tailed shearwaters (Ardenna tenuirostris), seabirds that spend most of their lives migrating [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In February 2020, lightning struck Figure of Eight Island in Western Australia’s Recherche Archipelago, igniting a fire that burned through most of its vegetation in just a few days. While Figure of Eight has no human inhabitants, it is a nesting spot for short-tailed shearwaters (Ardenna tenuirostris), seabirds that spend most of their lives migrating across the ocean, only to return to land to breed. But after the recent fire, very few shearwaters managed to nest on Figure of Eight Island, according to a forthcoming study. With climate change predicted to multiply the frequency and intensity of global fire events, experts say the 105 islands in the Recherche Archipelago will be at increased risk, especially since the region has been experiencing particularly hot, arid weather. Fifty-eight of these islands are known breeding spots for seabirds, not only for short-tailed shearwaters, but also flesh-footed shearwaters (Ardenna carneipes), white-faced storm petrels (Pelagodroma marina), and little penguins (Eudyptula minor), rangers and researchers say. Jennell Reynolds, a 46-year-old Wudjari woman of the Nyungar nation and senior ranger in the Tjaltjraak Ranger program, says Aboriginal cultural burning can help protect shearwaters and other species by slowly burning parts of an island to clear fire-prone vegetation, which can help stabilize breeding grounds and other critical areas. By contrast, fires lit by lightning or human negligence will burn “everything in its path,” Reynolds told Mongabay. Reynolds, who hails from Esperance, Western Australia, was one of the first to join the Tjaltjraak Rangers after its establishment in 2018.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/bring-back-burning-culture-to-save-seabirds-qa-with-wudjari-ranger-jennell-reynolds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255774</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Elephant protector and fossil hunter Richard Leakey leaves outsized legacy in Kenya</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/elephant-protector-and-fossil-hunter-richard-leakey-leaves-outsized-legacy-in-kenya/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/elephant-protector-and-fossil-hunter-richard-leakey-leaves-outsized-legacy-in-kenya/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jan 2022 22:06:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/01/25214937/Richard_Leakey_1944-2022-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=251986</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Anthropology, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Elephants, Environment, Green, Obituary, Paleontology, Parks, Poaching, Protected Areas, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On July 19th, 1989, Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi lit the match on twelve tons of elephant tusks soaked in gasoline. The elephants had been the victims of a relentless poaching spree in Kenya, and the ensuing blaze was meant to send a message: Kenya was putting new muscle behind the fight to save its [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On July 19th, 1989, Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi lit the match on twelve tons of elephant tusks soaked in gasoline. The elephants had been the victims of a relentless poaching spree in Kenya, and the ensuing blaze was meant to send a message: Kenya was putting new muscle behind the fight to save its elephants—and it wanted the world to do the same by banning the ivory trade. The brains behind the burning—which made press around the world—was Richard Leakey, the new head of Kenya’s Wildlife Conservation and Management Department (WMCD), soon to be resurrected by Leakey as Kenya’s Wildlife Service (KWS). Leakey was, arguably, an odd choice. The Kenyan was world famous, but not for preserving species or places. Instead, it was for digging up new fossils that helped prove that humans evolved in Africa, a continuation of his parents’ groundbreaking work. But in 1989 Leakey gave up digging in the dirt and was now burning tusks in an escalating battle to save Africa’s megafauna from obliteration. Leakey—who leaves behind a massive and, at times, controversial legacy—died on January 2nd, 2022. Richard Leakey. Photo credit: Stony Brook University Origin in Africa As the son of famed archeologists, Louis and Mary Leakey, Richard was practically born and raised in Kenyan archeology and paleoanthropology. Louis and Mary had become renowned after finding numerous fossils of early hominins, helping to prove that the human species started in sub-Saharan Africa. For example, Mary found the first australopithecine in East Africa, classified today&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/elephant-protector-and-fossil-hunter-richard-leakey-leaves-outsized-legacy-in-kenya/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-251986</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The controversial hunt for a multibillion-dollar treasure in a Chilean park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/the-controversial-hunt-for-a-multibillion-dollar-treasure-in-a-chilean-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/the-controversial-hunt-for-a-multibillion-dollar-treasure-in-a-chilean-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Feb 2021 11:38:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Barinia Montoya]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maria Angeles Salazar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/02/12112805/Robinson-Crusoe_Panora%CC%81mica-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=239538</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Chile, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Archeology, Biodiversity, Environment, National Parks, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A two-and-a-half hour flight separates the Chilean capital of Santiago and the Archipiélago de Juan Fernández National Park. The archipelago is rich in marine and terrestrial biodiversity and comprises three islands: Santa Clara, Alejandro Selkirk, and Robinson Crusoe, which is home to San Juan Bautista, the islands’ only permanently inhabited settlement. According to legend, a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A two-and-a-half hour flight separates the Chilean capital of Santiago and the Archipiélago de Juan Fernández National Park. The archipelago is rich in marine and terrestrial biodiversity and comprises three islands: Santa Clara, Alejandro Selkirk, and Robinson Crusoe, which is home to San Juan Bautista, the islands’ only permanently inhabited settlement. According to legend, a treasure lies in the sea around the island. For two decades, treasure hunters used shovels and picks in their search. But in November 2019, methods changed radically with the introduction of a backhoe with a mechanized hammer. The advent of this shift sparked controversy around the potential destruction of the environment in the national park, which was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1977. The History of the Treasure In 1994, historian and businessman Bernard Keiser, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Dutch descent, arrived for the first time on Robinson Crusoe Island. More than just a tourist, he had evidence that pirates had lost treasure in the area. The local community knows Keiser by the nickname “El Gringo.” Keiser had found “significant writings” dating from the 18th century in Selkirk’s Cave on the small bay of Puerto Inglés, according to Victorio Bertullo, a historian and close friend of Keiser. Buoyed by his discovery, Keiser went to Seville, Spain, to examine historical naval records from that period in the General Archive of the Indies, which houses documents related to the Spanish Empire’s activities in North and South America as well as the Philippines. His research confirmed&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/the-controversial-hunt-for-a-multibillion-dollar-treasure-in-a-chilean-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-239538</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Māori push for pandemic stimulus spend to save ancestral forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/maori-push-for-pandemic-stimulus-spend-to-save-ancestral-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/maori-push-for-pandemic-stimulus-spend-to-save-ancestral-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jun 2020 11:38:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Monica Evans]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Genevieve Belmaker]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/02/07193724/kiwi_denisbin-Flickr-CC2.0_small-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=231347</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[New Zealand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Anthropology, Biodiversity, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Deforestation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, and Indigenous Peoples]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Two Māori iwi, or tribal groups, are campaigning for a portion of the New Zealand government’s new COVID-19 economic stimulus package to help save their treasured, ancestral Raukūmara Forest from being overrun by introduced pests. The Raukūmaras stretch across around 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) of national park and private land along the North Island’s East [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Two Māori iwi, or tribal groups, are campaigning for a portion of the New Zealand government’s new COVID-19 economic stimulus package to help save their treasured, ancestral Raukūmara Forest from being overrun by introduced pests. The Raukūmaras stretch across around 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) of national park and private land along the North Island’s East Cape. The forest has major cultural and spiritual significance for local Māori, who believe the park’s centerpiece — steep, craggy Mount Hikurangi — is the resting place of the canoe that the demigod Māui used to “fish” the island out of the ocean. But the forest is dying, said Ora Barlow-Tukaki of the Te Whanau ā Apanui iwi group. Since the 1970s, brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula), red deer (Cervus elaphus), wild goat (Capra aegagrus), Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus), stoat (Mustela erminea), ferret (Mustela putorius furo) and weasel (Mustela nivalis) populations have skyrocketed. “Unsuppressed pest invasion has wreaked havoc on the Raukūmaras,” Barlow-Tukaki said. “We’re facing an ecological crisis.” That’s why a group of representatives from Te Whanau ā Apanui and neighboring iwi group Ngāti Porou (who share traditional custodianship of the Raukūmaras), alongside the Department of Conservation (DOC) and partners from local government, academia and civil society have put forward an ambitious $21 million plan to save the forest from ecological collapse. They say they’re hopeful that a recent government decision — to support “shovel-ready” projects that will boost employment during the economic downturn from the COVID-19 pandemic — will boost their chances of making&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/maori-push-for-pandemic-stimulus-spend-to-save-ancestral-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/maori-push-for-pandemic-stimulus-spend-to-save-ancestral-forest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-231347</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In a Philippine indigenous stronghold, traditions keep COVID-19 at bay</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/in-a-philippine-indigenous-stronghold-traditions-keep-covid-19-at-bay/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/in-a-philippine-indigenous-stronghold-traditions-keep-covid-19-at-bay/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Apr 2020 21:00:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Karlston Lapniten]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Leilani]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/04/20211750/covid-in-mt-province-12-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=229223</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Anthropology, COVID-19, Culture, Diseases, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, and Law]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BONTOC, Philippines — Each weekend since March, no one has crossed the boundary into the town of Bauko, in the northern Philippine region of Cordillera. The prohibition,  a municipal advisory, was prompted by the invocation of a tengao by community elders, many of whom are also local officials. A tengao is the indigenous variation of a [&#8230;]]]>
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							<![CDATA[BONTOC, Philippines — Each weekend since March, no one has crossed the boundary into the town of Bauko, in the northern Philippine region of Cordillera. The prohibition,  a municipal advisory, was prompted by the invocation of a tengao by community elders, many of whom are also local officials. A tengao is the indigenous variation of a lockdown; once invoked, it means no one can enter or leave the community for a day or more, depending on the consensus of the council of elders. Different towns across Mountain Province, one of six that make up the Cordillera region, have invoked this practice, which is also called te-er, to-or, sedey, far-e, ubaya, or tungro by varying ethnolinguistic groups. The Cordillera region is inhabited predominantly by indigenous peoples, with more than 15 distinct ethnolinguistic groups, according to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP). As such, tribal leaders and councils of elders play influential roles in governance. Municipal councils across Cordillera have a quota for indigenous representation. Known as indigenous people mandatory representatives (IPMR), these are elders who are appointed through customary laws to ensure the participation and welfare of indigenous peoples in crafting laws and policies that affect their rights. Mountain Province Governor Bonifacio Lacwasan Jr. says the judgment of community elders, especially in critical situations involving public welfare, is held in high regard and often taken into consideration in local governance. Since towns in the Cordillera region are familiar with indigenous lockdowns, it&#8217;s easier for local governments to scale up the lockdown&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/in-a-philippine-indigenous-stronghold-traditions-keep-covid-19-at-bay/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-229223</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Reviving an ancient way of aquaculture at Hawaii&#8217;s Heʻeia fishpond</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/reviving-an-ancient-way-of-aquaculture-at-hawaiis-he%ca%bbeia-fishpond/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/reviving-an-ancient-way-of-aquaculture-at-hawaiis-he%ca%bbeia-fishpond/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Apr 2020 16:03:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shannon Brown]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Genevieve Belmaker]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/04/20153328/DSC4942-1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=229170</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Hawaii and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ancient Civilizations, Anthropology, Aquaculture, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Culture, Fish, Fisheries, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Solutions, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[OAHU, Hawaii — Tucked at the base of the Ko’olau Mountains on the eastern side of the Hawaiian island of Oahu lies He’eia fishpond. Built around 800 years ago by indigenous Hawaiians, it was a thriving aquaculture site for hundreds of years, before falling into disrepair after a flood damaged its wall in 1965. Fishponds [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[OAHU, Hawaii — Tucked at the base of the Ko’olau Mountains on the eastern side of the Hawaiian island of Oahu lies He’eia fishpond. Built around 800 years ago by indigenous Hawaiians, it was a thriving aquaculture site for hundreds of years, before falling into disrepair after a flood damaged its wall in 1965. Fishponds had been declining even before then; culture and land use patterns started to change with the arrival of Captain James Cook in 1778. Ancient Hawaiians originally built almost 500 fishponds throughout the Hawaiian islands. At the time, they managed to support themselves entirely from the ponds, island agriculture, and occasional forays into the ocean for offshore fish. Today, 87% of Hawaii’s food is imported, including 63% of its seafood. Of the original 488 ponds, 20 have received restoration permits through the state of Hawaii. However, it’s difficult to determine an exact number. Some ponds have had only minor restoration work done, and don’t have a permit. At 36 hectares (88 acres) and with a perimeter of 2.1 kilometers (1.3 miles), He’eia is one of the largest. In 2017, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded a Saltonsall-Kennedy grant to the Oceanic Institute at Hawaii Pacific University (HPU) and Conservation International. The goal for the grant was to study the logistics of producing fish at three fishponds, including He’eia, and determine whether they could again be turned into productive aquaculture sites. He&#8217;eia fishpond construction utilizes ancient technologies and techniques. Photo by Shannon Brown. The three-year&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/reviving-an-ancient-way-of-aquaculture-at-hawaiis-he%ca%bbeia-fishpond/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-229170</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Humans have been transforming Earth for thousands of years, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/humans-have-been-transforming-earth-for-thousands-of-years-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/humans-have-been-transforming-earth-for-thousands-of-years-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Aug 2019 10:42:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/08/30073139/stephens9HR-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=222052</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Archeology, Climate Change, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Land Use Change, Livestock, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Look around, and you’ll see examples of how we’ve modified our planet’s land surface: roads, buildings, farms, plantations. But is the widespread human impact on Earth a modern occurrence? No, according to a new study published in Science. Some 3,000 years ago, our ancestors were already stripping away forests and substantially transforming Earth’s surface through [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Look around, and you’ll see examples of how we’ve modified our planet’s land surface: roads, buildings, farms, plantations. But is the widespread human impact on Earth a modern occurrence? No, according to a new study published in Science. Some 3,000 years ago, our ancestors were already stripping away forests and substantially transforming Earth’s surface through farming and grazing livestock, researchers have found by crowdsourcing the expert knowledge of more than 250 archaeologists from the around the world. Archaeologists typically focus on a particular region and time period. But this massive collaboration, termed the ArchaeGLOBE project, has helped build the first ever global picture of how human activities were altering the planet’s surface from 10,000 years ago, long before there were written records to keep track of the same, right up to 1850, or after the industrial revolution. “Our open access dataset provides the first globally consistent dataset on land use over the past 10,000 years that is based on the expert knowledge of archaeologists,” Erle Ellis, a co-author of the study and professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, told Mongabay. “It describes both the global patterns of this knowledge over time, and the timing of the emergence of agriculture, pastoralism and urbanism, and the decline of hunter-gatherer land use.” To piece together humankind’s history of land use, the researchers divided Earth’s surface into 146 analytical regions spanning all continents except Antarctica. Then they sent out questionnaires to more than 1,300 archaeologists, asking them to contribute their understanding of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/humans-have-been-transforming-earth-for-thousands-of-years-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-222052</doi>				</item>
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