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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/biofuels/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Tue, 25 Aug 2026 08:45:18 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Biofuels</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/biofuels/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Clean cooking expands at record pace in Africa, but lags behind population growth</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/clean-cooking-expands-at-record-pace-in-africa-but-lags-behind-population-growth/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/clean-cooking-expands-at-record-pace-in-africa-but-lags-behind-population-growth/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jul 2026 16:13:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ini Ekott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/20120122/54990932592_5f43be3de8_b-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324023</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biofuels, charcoal, Energy, Environment, Finance, Fires, Forests, Natural Resources, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Sub-Saharan Africa is on track to record its fastest-ever annual expansion in access to clean cooking in 2026, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency. But population growth continues to outpace those gains, leaving more than 1 billion people without access to clean cooking. The region is home to the world&#8217;s largest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Sub-Saharan Africa is on track to record its fastest-ever annual expansion in access to clean cooking in 2026, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency. But population growth continues to outpace those gains, leaving more than 1 billion people without access to clean cooking. The region is home to the world&#8217;s largest population still reliant on firewood, charcoal and kerosene for everyday cooking, according to the IEA. The World Health Organization says household air pollution, much of which is generated by these polluting cooking fuels, is linked to around 2.9 million premature deaths annually, with women and children bearing the greatest burden. The “Clean Cooking in Africa 2026: Progress Report” estimates that around 15 million people gained access to clean cooking in sub-Saharan Africa in 2025, about 35% above the average annual gains recorded for the previous five years. If confirmed, this would be the highest annual increase on record. Côte d&#8217;Ivoire, Kenya and Nigeria made the most notable gains. The estimate is based on a mathematical model that combines data on imports of cookstoves (cooking appliances combining a stove and an oven) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), investments in the infrastructure, fuels and technology needed for clean cooking, and policy tracking, rather than household surveys, which remain the most reliable measure of clean cooking access but take years to compile. The IEA said the 2025 figures should, therefore, be treated as preliminary until confirmed by future household surveys. Even so, Fatih Birol, the IEA&#8217;s executive director,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/clean-cooking-expands-at-record-pace-in-africa-but-lags-behind-population-growth/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/clean-cooking-expands-at-record-pace-in-africa-but-lags-behind-population-growth/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324023</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>South Africa’s move away from coal marred by legacy of abandoned mines: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/south-africas-move-away-from-coal-marred-by-legacy-of-abandoned-mines-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/south-africas-move-away-from-coal-marred-by-legacy-of-abandoned-mines-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jun 2026 07:46:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anna Weekes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/02115929/251103_Ermelo_Imbabala_CER_dp-13-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320479</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and South Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[charcoal, Coal, Economics, Environment, Governance, Illegal Mining, Mining, Pollution, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As South Africa transitions away from coal-fired electricity, hundreds of former coal mines are turning into abandoned dumping sites for waste and polluted water, which a new report warns will continue to contaminate surrounding land and waterways for decades. Nor is the South African government taking action to force mine owners to clean them up, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As South Africa transitions away from coal-fired electricity, hundreds of former coal mines are turning into abandoned dumping sites for waste and polluted water, which a new report warns will continue to contaminate surrounding land and waterways for decades. Nor is the South African government taking action to force mine owners to clean them up, environmentalists told Mongabay. South African law requires mining companies to set aside money to clean up and restore the land after mining ends &#8211; either in trusts or through bank or insurance guarantees. But a report by the Centre for Environmental Rights found that none of the 412 coal mines that closed between 2006 and 2023 had enough money set aside to pay for the full cost of rehabilitation. The full extent of the problem is unknown as the government has failed to keep any records of mines that closed in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2021, the report said. Mining companies must clean up and rehabilitate mines, pay for the damage, and remain responsible until the government officially signs off on the closure, according to the regulations. But most mines do not keep enough money aside to cover even a fraction of the rehabilitation costs, according to the report, titled “No More Ghost Towns : Lessons From Mpumalanga’s Mine Closure Crisis” and released May 22 in Johannesburg. With more than 100 coal mines and most of the country’s aging coal-fired power stations, the Mpumalanga region is the center of South Africa’s fossil fuel-based power&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/south-africas-move-away-from-coal-marred-by-legacy-of-abandoned-mines-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/south-africas-move-away-from-coal-marred-by-legacy-of-abandoned-mines-report/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320479</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ethiopian women plant trees, restoring lands &#038; livelihoods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Apr 2026 20:37:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/01202432/IWDOMembersPlanting_SidamaEthiopia_RuhamaGetahun-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316752</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Ethiopia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Environment, Forests, Fuelwood, Landscape Restoration, NGOs, Solutions, Sustainability, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the southern Ethiopian region of Sidama, unsustainable farming practices and tree cutting for fuel are causing land degradation. In response, members of the Integrated Women’s Development Organization are planting indigenous trees, bananas and vegetables as well as desho (Pennisetum glaucifolium) and elephant grass (Cenchrus purpureus) for cattle fodder in an effort to restore damaged [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the southern Ethiopian region of Sidama, unsustainable farming practices and tree cutting for fuel are causing land degradation. In response, members of the Integrated Women’s Development Organization are planting indigenous trees, bananas and vegetables as well as desho (Pennisetum glaucifolium) and elephant grass (Cenchrus purpureus) for cattle fodder in an effort to restore damaged farmland and build more resilient livelihoods. In an email interview, IWDO’s general manager, Ruhama Getahun, told Mongabay that the women and youth who make up the NGO’s membership have planted more than 1,250 hectares (3,080 acres) since 2020. She said these initiatives have begun generating income for community members — particularly women — helping them rely less on forest products such as charcoal and firewood for survival. Negasi Solomon, a land and environment researcher at Tigray Institute of Policy Studies in Mek’ele, Ethiopia, told Mongabay that rapid population growth means the average size of a household’s land in the Sidama region has shrunk. This has pushed farmers to expand their plots onto fragile and steep hillsides. Solomon told Mongabay in an email that women are — or should be — central to land use and land restoration decisions in Sidama, and in Ethiopia in general, because of the role they play in day‑to‑day farm management. He noted, however, that many women in Ethiopia still face obstacles to taking up leadership roles. “Patriarchal norms and customary systems often concentrate land ownership and key decision‑making in men, while limiting women’s inheritance and control over land even where&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316752</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Oil surge sharpens calls for Indonesia to shift away from fossil fuels</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/oil-surge-sharpens-calls-for-indonesia-to-shift-away-from-fossil-fuels/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/oil-surge-sharpens-calls-for-indonesia-to-shift-away-from-fossil-fuels/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Apr 2026 03:23:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/01031350/5A269589-C332-4BC2-B240-4088D4141843-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316691</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biofuels, Carbon Tax, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Coal, Conflict, El Nino, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Just Transition, Oil, Palm Oil, Politics, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — As the U.S.-Israel war on Iran drives oil prices above $100 a barrel and disrupts global supply routes, Indonesia is once again confronting the costs of its dependence on fossil fuels — with growing calls not only to accelerate its renewable energy adoption, but also to make oil and gas companies help pay [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — As the U.S.-Israel war on Iran drives oil prices above $100 a barrel and disrupts global supply routes, Indonesia is once again confronting the costs of its dependence on fossil fuels — with growing calls not only to accelerate its renewable energy adoption, but also to make oil and gas companies help pay for the transition. The crisis is already testing the country’s energy system. Disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for global oil flows, have constrained supply, sending prices sharply higher from around $70 a barrel before the war began at the end of February. For Indonesia, the impact has been immediate. The country of 280 million people has been a net oil importer since 2003, and its economy remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels to power transport, industry and electricity. That dependence is now translating into rising fiscal pressure, currency risks and broader economic vulnerability. Yet the same shock is also sharpening calls to speed up the transition to renewable energy, even as policymakers move to secure more fossil fuel supplies and ramp up coal output at home. The ongoing global energy crisis, which the International Energy Agency (IEA) describes as the worst in recorded history, has laid bare the risks of Indonesia’s energy mix. The country consumes around 1.5 million barrels of oil per day but produces less than 700,000 barrels, leaving it highly reliant on imports. That exposure carries a direct cost. An analysis by the Institute for Development of Economics and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/oil-surge-sharpens-calls-for-indonesia-to-shift-away-from-fossil-fuels/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/oil-surge-sharpens-calls-for-indonesia-to-shift-away-from-fossil-fuels/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316691</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Shipping’s biofuel gamble could deepen Africa’s land squeeze and food insecurity (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/shippings-biofuel-gamble-could-deepen-africas-land-squeeze-and-food-insecurity-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/shippings-biofuel-gamble-could-deepen-africas-land-squeeze-and-food-insecurity-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Mar 2026 15:10:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Million BelaySusan Chomba]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/07145348/container-ship-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316050</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Biofuels, Business, carbon, Climate, Climate Change, Commentary, Farming, Food, food security, International Trade, Land Rights, Mitigation, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Shipping, Social Justice, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Africa&#8217;s future prosperity depends on how fast we can reduce emissions, especially from large polluting sectors like shipping. But using crops as fuel to cut emissions risks causing more harm than good. As countries gather at the UN&#8217;s International Maritime Organization (IMO) meeting in April to lay down the rules for future clean energy to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Africa&#8217;s future prosperity depends on how fast we can reduce emissions, especially from large polluting sectors like shipping. But using crops as fuel to cut emissions risks causing more harm than good. As countries gather at the UN&#8217;s International Maritime Organization (IMO) meeting in April to lay down the rules for future clean energy to power shipping, African governments must ensure that crop-based biofuels are not part of the solution. If that does happen, Africa might once again find itself paying the price for a transition from which it may not benefit. Shipping, as with other heavily polluting sectors, must decarbonize. But not all climate solutions are equal. The expansion of biofuels, often portrayed as ‘green’ in international shipping dialogues, could intensify pressures on land and food systems that are already stretched to the limit. As our work has shown, competition for land has reached a breaking point across Africa. Since 2000, hundreds of large-scale land deals have been recorded for industrial farming, carbon credits, mining, and biofuels. What is often presented as ‘unused’ or ‘marginal’ land is, in reality, the basis of livelihoods for small-scale farmers and Indigenous communities who are being displaced or stripped of control over their territories, which drives land inequality, rural poverty, and food insecurity. Biofuels for shipping risks accelerating this trajectory. Farmers at Yangambi, Democratic Republic of Congo. Image by Axel Fassio/CIFOR via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Shipping consumes roughly 300 million tons of fuel each year, and is responsible for 3% of global&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/shippings-biofuel-gamble-could-deepen-africas-land-squeeze-and-food-insecurity-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/shippings-biofuel-gamble-could-deepen-africas-land-squeeze-and-food-insecurity-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316050</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agroforestry offers market-based way to boost Amazon rains &#038; farmer incomes (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/agroforestry-offers-market-based-way-to-boost-amazon-rains-farmer-incomes-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/agroforestry-offers-market-based-way-to-boost-amazon-rains-farmer-incomes-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Feb 2026 19:24:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/11/10131843/IMG_2580-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314788</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Analysis, Biodiversity, Biofuels, Business, Cattle, climate finance, Commentary, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Environment, Finance, Forests, Governance, Green, Livestock, Pasture, Rainforests, Ranching, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon Rainforest generates its own weather. Each day, the forest&#8217;s 390 billion trees release approximately 20 billion metric tons of water vapor into the atmosphere through evapotranspiration, creating what Brazilian scientists call rios voadores — flying rivers. These aerial currents of moisture flow westward from the Atlantic, recirculating water from the forest canopy before [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon Rainforest generates its own weather. Each day, the forest&#8217;s 390 billion trees release approximately 20 billion metric tons of water vapor into the atmosphere through evapotranspiration, creating what Brazilian scientists call rios voadores — flying rivers. These aerial currents of moisture flow westward from the Atlantic, recirculating water from the forest canopy before turning south to deliver rainfall across South America&#8217;s agricultural heartlands. But the mechanism is breaking down. Since the 1970s, Brazil has cleared 88 million hectares (217 million acres) of Amazon forest, most converted into low-productivity pastures, with around 45 million hectares (111 million acres) considered severely or moderately degraded. The consequences extend beyond biodiversity loss, carbon emissions and social disruption: deforestation threatens the continent&#8217;s productive capacity and the economic livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people. Droughts in 2023 and 2024 affected more than 50 million hectares (124 million acres) of forest, and scientists warn that continued deforestation could push the system past a tipping point where the Amazon can no longer sustain its rainfall regime. Yet hidden within this environmental crisis lies an economic opportunity. Brazil&#8217;s Forest Code, revised in 2012, requires private properties in the country’s Amazonian region to maintain native vegetation on 80% of their landholding as a “legal reserve” (reserva legal). Properties that clear forest beyond the 80% threshold carry a &#8220;forest debt&#8221; with a legal obligation to restore equivalent forest cover. Analysis using Brazil&#8217;s Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) indicates about 280,000 properties are noncompliant, with a collective deficit of 10&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/agroforestry-offers-market-based-way-to-boost-amazon-rains-farmer-incomes-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/agroforestry-offers-market-based-way-to-boost-amazon-rains-farmer-incomes-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314788</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cameroon cookstove project looks to slow forest loss</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cameroon-cookstove-project-looks-to-slow-forest-loss/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cameroon-cookstove-project-looks-to-slow-forest-loss/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2026 09:13:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Leocadia Bongben]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ashoka]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/30073019/Pabamis-daughter-in-the-Kitchen-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313523</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Black Carbon, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Food, Forest Loss, Fuelwood, Research, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GAROUA, Cameroon — One morning during the July monsoon in Bang, a village of 3,000 in North Cameroon, people woke up to heavy rains. The Mayo Tefi, a small river which runs through the village, swelled as the water level rose. Astha Pabami, a mother of 11 in her 50s, could not go out to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GAROUA, Cameroon — One morning during the July monsoon in Bang, a village of 3,000 in North Cameroon, people woke up to heavy rains. The Mayo Tefi, a small river which runs through the village, swelled as the water level rose. Astha Pabami, a mother of 11 in her 50s, could not go out to fetch firewood, as crossing the river would have meant being swept away. Instead, she used some of the wood stacked behind her hut, lighting a fire to prepare a meal on her new cookstove. The cookstove looks like a traditional oven, with one opening for firewood and another for the pot. But it’s a big improvement over what she used to use: an open three-stone fireside. Pabami is one of about 250 women in Bang who were using these stoves when Mongabay visited the town. They were distributed as part of a project run by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), with support from the European Union. The stoves are meant to burn cleaner and use less wood — saving forests and protecting people’s health in the process. “The open fireside consumes more firewood and dirties our pots, and we inhale smoke. We could use about 8-10 pieces of wood to cook a meal; presently, a maximum of four pieces of wood is enough,” Pabami tells Mongabay. Since the improved stoves need less firewood, she doesn’t have to collect as much during the dry season, and what she puts into storage behind her hut&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cameroon-cookstove-project-looks-to-slow-forest-loss/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cameroon-cookstove-project-looks-to-slow-forest-loss/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313523</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia backs away from coal exit test case amid financial and political pushback</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-backs-away-from-coal-exit-test-case-amid-financial-and-political-pushback/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-backs-away-from-coal-exit-test-case-amid-financial-and-political-pushback/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jan 2026 13:44:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/15133656/8437-768x507.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312999</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Emissions, charcoal, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Coal, Energy, Environment, Finance, Fossil Fuels, Just Transition, Politics, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has scrapped a plan to retire a major coal-fired power plant, after having promised for years to do so. Airlangga Hartarto, the country’s chief economics minister, said in December that it would be unfeasible to shut down the 660-megawatt Cirebon-1 plant by 2035, which is seven years ahead of its [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has scrapped a plan to retire a major coal-fired power plant, after having promised for years to do so. Airlangga Hartarto, the country’s chief economics minister, said in December that it would be unfeasible to shut down the 660-megawatt Cirebon-1 plant by 2035, which is seven years ahead of its scheduled end of operation. But energy analysts and civil society groups say the decision reflects deeper political and financial resistance to moving away from coal — resistance that could undermine Indonesia’s energy transition at a time when global climate finance is becoming harder to secure. The failure of the early retirement plan for Cirebon-1 exposes how government policies that continue to protect and subsidize coal make it costly to shut plants early, they warn, even as Indonesia seeks international funding to do so. Airlangga said the decision was “based on technical considerations,” arguing that the plant, which went into operation in 2012, is still relatively young and therefore has a long operating life ahead. He also said Cirebon-1 uses “relatively better” technology that results in lower emissions, making it a less suitable candidate for early retirement compared with older, dirtier coal plants. As such, he said, the government will focus on shutting down older units, where the environmental benefits would be greater. “We will look for an alternative — one that is older and whose environmental impacts clearly mean it should already be retired,” he said on Dec. 5, as quoted by state news agency&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-backs-away-from-coal-exit-test-case-amid-financial-and-political-pushback/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-backs-away-from-coal-exit-test-case-amid-financial-and-political-pushback/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312999</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Park guardians or destroyers? Study dissects 2 narratives of DRC’s Indigenous Batwa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/park-guardians-or-destroyers-study-dissects-2-narratives-of-drcs-indigenous-batwa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/park-guardians-or-destroyers-study-dissects-2-narratives-of-drcs-indigenous-batwa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Sep 2025 19:05:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Blaise Kasereka Makuta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/11083545/1-Young-Grauers-Gorillas-in-Kahuzi-Biega-national-park-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305766</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, charcoal, Conflict, Conservation, Controversial, Fellows, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, National Parks, Population, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Long celebrated by some NGOs and Indigenous rights activists as the guardians of the forest, the Batwa of South Kivu had lived inside what is now Kahuzi-Biega National Park (KBNP) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) until the 20th century, when they were expelled by the Congolese government, at that time MPR (Popular Movement [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Long celebrated by some NGOs and Indigenous rights activists as the guardians of the forest, the Batwa of South Kivu had lived inside what is now Kahuzi-Biega National Park (KBNP) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) until the 20th century, when they were expelled by the Congolese government, at that time MPR (Popular Movement of Revolution), which demanded the creation of the park. As the park expanded into the mid-1970s, Batwa people were displaced from one location to another without their agreement or consent. According to their accounts and to those of researchers, evicted people suffered from a lack of support for their material needs, discrimination, social marginalization and poverty. “In October 2018, after multiple promises to provide them with land outside the park were broken … groups of Batwa started to return to the park’s highland sector,” write the authors of a recent study published in World Development. “Around 2,000 members of the Batwa community, including men, women and children, returned to the park over the following months.” “After we returned to the park, we relocated some of our former villages and began to rebuild our old houses, our churches, and prepare our former fields for cultivation,” Amos Bahiya Bikulo, a Batwa resident of Kalehe in South Kivu and secretary at the Center for Supporting People with Disabilities for Development, told Mongabay. In a forceful manner, Congolese authorities and park managers deployed military personnel to dislodge them from this land, deeply significant as the birthplace and burial ground&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/park-guardians-or-destroyers-study-dissects-2-narratives-of-drcs-indigenous-batwa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/park-guardians-or-destroyers-study-dissects-2-narratives-of-drcs-indigenous-batwa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305766</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sustainable biomass certification scheme is flawed, degrades forests, report finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/sustainable-biomass-certification-scheme-is-flawed-degrades-forests-report-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/sustainable-biomass-certification-scheme-is-flawed-degrades-forests-report-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Aug 2025 15:58:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/29131303/Drax-is-the-largest-consumer-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304702</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Canada, Europe, Global, Indonesia, Japan, North America, South Korea, Southeast Asia, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Biofuels, carbon, Certification, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Politics, Renewable Energy, Sustainability, and Sustainable Forest Management]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) is a leading global biomass certification scheme offering assurances to end users (especially nations in the EU and Asia) that biomass (especially wood pellets for energy) is “sourced both legally and sustainably.” But a recent report by a group of environmental NGOs alleges SBP is approving biomass fuel projects linked [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) is a leading global biomass certification scheme offering assurances to end users (especially nations in the EU and Asia) that biomass (especially wood pellets for energy) is “sourced both legally and sustainably.” But a recent report by a group of environmental NGOs alleges SBP is approving biomass fuel projects linked to forest destruction. While SBP-certified biomass meets minimum legal requirements, it often falls short of genuine sustainability, according to the July 2025 report written by Canada-based forest certification and governance expert Richard Robertson. The analysis was commissioned by five nonprofits: Solutions for Our Climate (SFOC), the Global Environmental Forum (GEF), Mighty Earth, Biofuelwatch, and the Environmental Paper Network (EPN). The booming biomass-for-energy industry touts wood pellets and chips as a winning climate solution. But the report notes that this assertion is based on a faulty carbon accounting loophole that counts significant smokestack emissions from biomass as zero. Numerous studies have shown that biomass burning is more carbon-intensive than coal per unit of energy produced. Billions of dollars in green energy subsidies have been paid out by European and Asian nations to the biomass industry, spurring demand for woody biomass and putting pressure on carbon-rich forests in the United States, Canada, Vietnam, South Korea, Europe, Indonesia and elsewhere. Many end-user nations have put their trust in SBP for sustainability certification. But years of criticism from forest advocates and climate experts have led major importers, such as the U.K. and Japan, to tighten sustainability requirements for subsidized&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/sustainable-biomass-certification-scheme-is-flawed-degrades-forests-report-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/sustainable-biomass-certification-scheme-is-flawed-degrades-forests-report-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304702</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Community-based biofuels offer ‘sensible’ alternative to palm oil for Indonesia, analysis shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/community-based-biofuels-offer-sensible-alternative-to-palm-oil-for-indonesia-analysis-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/community-based-biofuels-offer-sensible-alternative-to-palm-oil-for-indonesia-analysis-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 May 2025 10:11:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/12115412/oil-palm-fruit-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299547</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Alternative Energy, Biodiesel, Biofuels, Climate Change, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forests, Palm Oil, Plantations, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s push to meet its ambitious biofuel targets by expanding oil palm plantations could cost the country billions in environmental damage and social conflict, a new analysis by environmental NGO Madani Berkelanjutan warns. But if Indonesia diversifies its biofuel feedstock sources at community level, it could cut the ecological and social costs to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s push to meet its ambitious biofuel targets by expanding oil palm plantations could cost the country billions in environmental damage and social conflict, a new analysis by environmental NGO Madani Berkelanjutan warns. But if Indonesia diversifies its biofuel feedstock sources at community level, it could cut the ecological and social costs to zero while still meeting its energy goals, the analysis found. Indonesia, the world’s top palm oil producer, has aggressively pursued biofuel development in recent years, especially palm-based biodiesel, to boost energy sovereignty and reduce fossil fuel reliance. As of January this year, Indonesia requires all diesel sold at the pump to contain 40% palm-based biodiesel, a blend known as B40. The government plans to increase this to B50 next year, making it one of the most ambitious biodiesel transition programs in the world. The current B40 mandate alone requires a supply of 14.2 million metric tons of crude palm oil (CPO). The B50 plan would raise that to 18 million metric tons, fueling concerns over the industry’s heavy environmental footprint. This heavy reliance on palm oil has raised major environmental, economic and social concerns. In its analysis, Madani compared the business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, where Indonesia continues to develop palm oil to meet its biodiesel mandate, with an alternative scenario where communities are given the opportunity to develop their own biodiesel crops other than oil palm. Oil palm fruits harvested in Kalimantan. Image by Cooke Vieira/CIFOR via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Business as usual Under the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/community-based-biofuels-offer-sensible-alternative-to-palm-oil-for-indonesia-analysis-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/community-based-biofuels-offer-sensible-alternative-to-palm-oil-for-indonesia-analysis-shows/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299547</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil bets on macaúba palm to make renewable diesel and aviation biofuel</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/brazil-bets-on-macauba-palm-to-make-renewable-diesel-and-aviation-biofuel/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/brazil-bets-on-macauba-palm-to-make-renewable-diesel-and-aviation-biofuel/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 May 2025 17:23:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/21140601/macauba-palm-fruits-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299415</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Alternative Energy, Biodiesel, Bioenergy, Biofuels, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, Land Use Change, Palm Oil, Plantations, Politics, Pollution, Research, Soy, Transportation, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Macaúba palm, also known as macaw palm, grows all over the Americas. Now, a drive by the Brazilian government to incentivize the decarbonization of the transportation and aviation sectors has resulted in numerous companies turning to this palm as a potential feedstock to be refined into liquid biofuels and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) across the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Macaúba palm, also known as macaw palm, grows all over the Americas. Now, a drive by the Brazilian government to incentivize the decarbonization of the transportation and aviation sectors has resulted in numerous companies turning to this palm as a potential feedstock to be refined into liquid biofuels and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) across the Latin American nation. On paper, macaúba palm appears to be a miracle plant: It thrives on degraded, unproductive land, so won’t compete with food crops or cause new deforestation, and, in testing, it has yields eight to ten times higher than soy, depending on whom you ask. Soybeans already feed Brazil’s vast biofuels industry but, along with sugarcane, soy is tied to environmental harm, especially deforestation and CO2 emissions, and environmental justice issues. According to proponents, macaúba promises to sidestep these issues; it’s already dubbed as “green gold” and “rainforest-friendly palm oil.” But there are significant environmental and financial risk too, say critics. Macaúba’s promotion closely parallels past hype from investors and entrepreneurs who backed a would-be biofuel called jatropha, so offers a cautionary tale. In the 2000s, jatropha — also hailed as “green gold” — ticked many of the same boxes and its boom saw dozens of projects planting the energy crop across the tropics, only to then fail spectacularly, as it proved far more challenging to grow than claimed. The effort cost millions of dollars, and spawned widespread accusations of land grabbing, while resulting in land-use change and biodiversity loss in tropical countries.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/brazil-bets-on-macauba-palm-to-make-renewable-diesel-and-aviation-biofuel/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/brazil-bets-on-macauba-palm-to-make-renewable-diesel-and-aviation-biofuel/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299415</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As renewable diesel surges, sustainability claims are deeply questioned</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/as-renewable-diesel-surges-sustainability-claims-are-deeply-questioned/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/as-renewable-diesel-surges-sustainability-claims-are-deeply-questioned/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 May 2025 14:02:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/12093102/Image_6-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298931</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, European Union, Global, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Business, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Oil, Politics, Pollution, Renewable Energy, Research, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Renewable diesel is a biofuel made from vegetable oils and animal fats touted by proponents as an almost miraculous “drop-in” transition fuel able to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions while easily replacing fossil diesel in all manner of engines. But this biofuel’s recent sudden surge in production and rapid expansion in applications is alarming environmentalists, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Renewable diesel is a biofuel made from vegetable oils and animal fats touted by proponents as an almost miraculous “drop-in” transition fuel able to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions while easily replacing fossil diesel in all manner of engines. But this biofuel’s recent sudden surge in production and rapid expansion in applications is alarming environmentalists, who warn unfettered growth could fuel climate change and tropical deforestation. Renewable diesel, or RD, can be made from a wide range of feedstocks, including waste vegetable oils, animal tallow, corn, canola (rapeseed), soy and oil palm. The feedstock used, where and how it is produced, and whether forests are felled to make way for biofuel crops, all determine RD’s carbon emissions as compared to fossil diesel. RD is often manufactured in retooled fossil fuel refineries using complex biochemical and thermochemical technologies requiring lots of energy — adding to its carbon footprint. Chevron, BP, Shell and other major fossil fuel companies are now converting excess refinery capacity to make RD and enter the market in a big way. A freight train in the U.K. run on renewable diesel. Replacing red diesel (fossil diesel specifically earmarked for rail or agricultural vehicles) with RD can cut a train’s emissions by “as much as 90%,” according to the industry. But such claims can be erroneous since some feedstocks have high carbon intensity (such as oil palm) over others (like used cooking oil). Image by Rob Reedman via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). A big selling point for renewable diesel&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/as-renewable-diesel-surges-sustainability-claims-are-deeply-questioned/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298931</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia defies global coal retreat with captive plant boom</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/indonesia-defies-global-coal-retreat-with-captive-plant-boom/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/indonesia-defies-global-coal-retreat-with-captive-plant-boom/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Apr 2025 13:33:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/26141014/nickelmainphoto-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298076</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Carbon Emissions, charcoal, Climate, Climate Change, Coal, Energy, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Mining, Politics, Pollution, Renewable Energy, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — As much of the world shutters coal power plants and shelves new proposals, Indonesia is bucking the trend — adding the third-highest volume of coal capacity globally in 2024, driven largely by the need to power a growing fleet of metal smelters. This places Indonesia among a shrinking group of nations still expanding [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — As much of the world shutters coal power plants and shelves new proposals, Indonesia is bucking the trend — adding the third-highest volume of coal capacity globally in 2024, driven largely by the need to power a growing fleet of metal smelters. This places Indonesia among a shrinking group of nations still expanding their coal use, according to a new report by U.S.-based nonprofit Global Energy Monitor (GEM). The annual “Boom and Bust Coal” report found that global coal-fired power plant capacity growth reached its lowest point in 20 years last year, increasing by just 44 gigawatts, compared to an annual average of 72 GW between 2004 and 2024. Yet Indonesia added 1.9 GW of coal capacity in 2024, the third most in the world, behind China and India. Some 80% of this new capacity came from so-called captive coal plants, built specifically to serve industrial estates processing nickel, cobalt and aluminum for the booming electric vehicle market. Indonesia is the only country in Southeast Asia that proposed new coal plants in 2024, according to the report. This unchecked coal expansion pushes Indonesia to “the brink of failing its energy transition,” said Zakki Amali, a research manager at Indonesian NGO Trend Asia. Indonesia’s metals-processing focus, which the government calls “downstreaming,” has turbocharged the expansion of captive coal plants. Since 2019, captive coal capacity has tripled from 5.5 GW to 16.6 GW, and the fleet now comprises 130 plants of at least 30 megawatts each, with 21 more in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/indonesia-defies-global-coal-retreat-with-captive-plant-boom/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298076</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Chauffeur at Indonesia energy nonprofit drives uptake of biogas by Java farmers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/chauffeur-at-indonesia-energy-nonprofit-drives-uptake-of-biogas-by-java-farmers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/chauffeur-at-indonesia-energy-nonprofit-drives-uptake-of-biogas-by-java-farmers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2025 07:55:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Toto Sudiarjo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/13070548/biogas-man-indonesia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295717</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Clean Energy, Community-based Conservation, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Natural Gas, Natural Resources, Nature-based climate solutions, Pollution, Renewable Energy, Solutions, Sustainability, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SLEMAN, Indonesia — A decade ago, Suyono’s neighbors found his antics collecting the goat and quail droppings outside his home verging on the strange. Today, it’s become the norm in many households in Minggir, a Javanese village producing its own gas. “A lot of people just laughed,” Suyono, 50, told Mongabay Indonesia. “‘Um, pak, you [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SLEMAN, Indonesia — A decade ago, Suyono’s neighbors found his antics collecting the goat and quail droppings outside his home verging on the strange. Today, it’s become the norm in many households in Minggir, a Javanese village producing its own gas. “A lot of people just laughed,” Suyono, 50, told Mongabay Indonesia. “‘Um, pak, you can just buy it [gas] at the food stall.’” In 2014, after a period living abroad in Malaysia as a low-paid migrant worker, Suyono returned home to Minggir village, which is located a few kilometers west of the city of Yogyakarta. Once settled, he took a job as a driver at Yayasan Rumah Energi, a foundation that works on household renewable energy projects, like biogas. Biogas is produced via anaerobic digestion, where microorganisms break down animal manure, biological waste or plant residues in a sealed environment deprived of oxygen. The chemical reaction produces methane and other gases, which can be burned as alternatives to propane and butane cylinders, which governments burn billions of dollars a year on subsidizing (and whose price is determined by international markets). Chauffeuring Yayasan Rumah Energi staff sparked Suyono’s interest in the foundation’s work on biogas. After studying the basics, Suyono went to work and began producing around 1.8 kilograms (4 pounds) at a time. Within a few years, people increasingly began asking Suyono for help installing biogas infrastructure at local Islamic boarding schools and in nearby homes. Later, he helped build 500 units in farther-flung East Nusa Tenggara province. Yayasan&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/chauffeur-at-indonesia-energy-nonprofit-drives-uptake-of-biogas-by-java-farmers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295717</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Nepal, a eucalyptus boom became an ecological cautionary tale</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-nepal-a-eucalyptus-boom-became-an-ecological-cautionary-tale/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-nepal-a-eucalyptus-boom-became-an-ecological-cautionary-tale/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Feb 2025 15:02:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mukesh Pokhrel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/25134224/18-e1740491052940-768x512-1.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294957</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Dry Forests, Farming, Fuelwood, Global Environmental Crisis, Invasive Species, Reforestation, Timber, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SARLAHI, Nepal — In 1984, Bharat Kumar Pokhrel was a young forester with a mission to turn theory into practice. Fresh out of forestry school, he joined Nepal’s Sagarnath Forest Development Project. Primarily based in Sarlahi district and extending into neighboring Mahottari in the southeastern Terai landscape, the project’s star crop was red river gum [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SARLAHI, Nepal — In 1984, Bharat Kumar Pokhrel was a young forester with a mission to turn theory into practice. Fresh out of forestry school, he joined Nepal’s Sagarnath Forest Development Project. Primarily based in Sarlahi district and extending into neighboring Mahottari in the southeastern Terai landscape, the project’s star crop was red river gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), a fast-growing, low-maintenance eucalyptus species that’s a popular source of easy fuelwood. It’s also not native to Nepal, hailing from far-flung Australia. “Eucalyptus grows rapidly, ready for harvest in five to 10 years,” Pokhrel told Mongabay. “Once established, it requires minimal replanting for decades. It seemed ideal.” Nearly four decades later, Pokhrel watches on as farmers across the plains uproot these very trees, calling them a mistake that drained their soil, killed their crops, and left them worse off than before. What he thought was an exemplary means of reforestation has now become a cautionary tale of how imported solutions can fail when local conditions are ignored. Launched in 1977 with a budget of $13.2 million, and later revised to half that amount, the Sagarnath project aimed to reforest 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of degraded land. (This, too, was later revised down to 4,150 hectares, or 10,250 acres.) The project was spearheaded by Australian forestry expert Kevin Joseph White, whose team recommended eucalyptus for its resilience in arid regions. The initiative came as Nepal’s forestry sector faced a crisis following the nationalization in 1957 of all forests within the country. Although that policy&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-nepal-a-eucalyptus-boom-became-an-ecological-cautionary-tale/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294957</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Certified ethanol produced in Brazil for global airlines linked to slave labor</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/certified-ethanol-produced-in-brazil-for-global-airlines-linked-to-slave-labor/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/certified-ethanol-produced-in-brazil-for-global-airlines-linked-to-slave-labor/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Dec 2024 11:00:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Poliana Dallabrida from Repórter Brasil]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/11/18115348/Sugarcane-harvest-in-Sa%CC%83o-Paulo-state-Brazil.-Edrossini-at-English-Wikipedia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291208</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biofuels, Fossil Fuels, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Human Rights, Plantations, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As major global airlines embark on decarbonization plans, Brazil, the world&#8217;s largest producer of sugarcane ethanol for fuel, could become a key supplier of sustainable aviation fuel. In January, LanzaJet, the first ethanol-based aviation fuel producer, was launched in the United States. The company, backed by shareholders such as British Airways and Southwest Airlines, plans to source [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As major global airlines embark on decarbonization plans, Brazil, the world&#8217;s largest producer of sugarcane ethanol for fuel, could become a key supplier of sustainable aviation fuel. In January, LanzaJet, the first ethanol-based aviation fuel producer, was launched in the United States. The company, backed by shareholders such as British Airways and Southwest Airlines, plans to source primarily from Brazil and requires sustainability certification from its suppliers. However, according to a new report from Repórter Brasil, at least two certified plants involved in supplying ethanol have been implicated in recent slave labor scandals. The &#8220;Enslaved in Ethanol&#8221; report also reveals other previously unknown links between multinational corporations and ethanol suppliers involved in severe human rights violations. The increasing investment in Brazilian ethanol, seen as an alternative to fossil fuels and their climate impact, coincides with a surge in reports of slave labor on sugarcane farms. In 2019, after seven years without any cases reported by the Brazilian federal government, 45 workers were rescued from such conditions in sugarcane fields. These numbers have steadily increased, reaching 361 cases in 2022. The following year saw 258 people rescued, while new cases were identified in 2024. Most reported cases occurred during sugarcane planting, an activity impacted by a significant regulatory change. The 2017 outsourcing law facilitated the recruitment of rural laborers by independent contractors, known as gatos, instead of direct hiring by mills or farmers. Experts consulted noted that this shift reduces protections and dilutes accountability for living conditions, food and payment provided to seasonal&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/certified-ethanol-produced-in-brazil-for-global-airlines-linked-to-slave-labor/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291208</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Defending the hidden forest gems of Zambia&#8217;s Copperbelt Province</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/defending-the-hidden-forest-gems-of-zambias-copperbelt-province/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/defending-the-hidden-forest-gems-of-zambias-copperbelt-province/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2024 20:25:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/04063525/Imanda-forest-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289453</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, charcoal, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Dry Forests, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Products, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Protected Areas, Reforestation, Restoration, Sustainable Forest Management, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MPONGWE, Zambia – The Chimfuneme swamp forest in central Zambia’s Copperbelt province got its name — which means “hiding place” in the local language, Lamba — long ago when strife tore apart rival clans and those living near this impenetrable natural fortress hid inside it to escape invaders. These days, the invaders come armed with [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MPONGWE, Zambia – The Chimfuneme swamp forest in central Zambia’s Copperbelt province got its name — which means “hiding place” in the local language, Lamba — long ago when strife tore apart rival clans and those living near this impenetrable natural fortress hid inside it to escape invaders. These days, the invaders come armed with chainsaws, not spears, and their target is the forest itself. But the local community has a new defense: honorary forest rangers armed with smartphones. “If they [illegal loggers] are here with a truck, we take the number plate, even capture a picture of their truck, which we send to the office,” says one of the rangers, 21-year-old Rhodah Kabunda. “They will not go anywhere, they [Forestry Department officials] will catch them.” WeForest extension officer Jackson Mkandawire shows honorary forest rangers a map on his phone that delineates boundaries around the Imanda forest, within which no commercial timber harvesting is permitted. Image by Ryan Truscott for Mongabay. Recently, she and her fellow rangers, whose full title is honorary community forest rangers confronted a group trying to cut and remove logs in one of the mushitus, as the swamp forests are known locally. They forwarded pictures of the loggers’ vehicle plate number to the local office of the Forestry Department in Mpongwe, 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) away. The vehicle was impounded and the case is now before the courts. “Right now I think it [the truck] is at the police station,” Kabunda says. The vehicles used in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/defending-the-hidden-forest-gems-of-zambias-copperbelt-province/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289453</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For Tanzania’s Maasai, adapting to climate change may mean less livestock, more trees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/for-tanzanias-maasai-adapting-to-climate-change-may-mean-less-livestock-more-trees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/for-tanzanias-maasai-adapting-to-climate-change-may-mean-less-livestock-more-trees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Oct 2024 09:18:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Naomi Achieng']]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/29212723/EntrepreneurshipTraining_TerratTanzania_TACCEI-IMG_7494-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289418</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Fuelwood, NGOs, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The village of Terrat, a settlement of around 14,000 people in the semiarid grassland and acacia forests of the Maasai Steppe, is one of many across northern Tanzania that has suffered increasingly frequent and severe drought. Terrat’s residents, farmers and herders alike, are adapting to the challenges of their changing climate with help from an [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The village of Terrat, a settlement of around 14,000 people in the semiarid grassland and acacia forests of the Maasai Steppe, is one of many across northern Tanzania that has suffered increasingly frequent and severe drought. Terrat’s residents, farmers and herders alike, are adapting to the challenges of their changing climate with help from an organization supporting tree planting alongside new farming techniques and economic opportunities. Drought isn’t new to Simanjiro district, where Terrat is found, but beginning in the early 2000s, this part of Tanzania witnessed a 20-year spell of poor rainfall. This posed a significant challenge for the roughly 80% of Terrat’s population who are pastoralists, reliant entirely on rain for pasture for their animals. Kone Medukenya, the Terrat village chair, told Mongabay that with limited pasture and many water sources drying up, cattle weakened and many animals died, and the land could only support goats. This reduced the pastoralists’ primary source of income. Livestock herders were forced to travel farther in search of grazing land, often into neighboring territories, triggering disputes with those communities over dwindling resources. The drought also drove the price of food up across this part of Tanzania. The price of a 100-kilogram (220-pound) sack of maize rose from $11 in 2004 to $66 in 2008 and continued to increase for nearly 10 years. In Simanjiro, residents said they had to travel more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) to the Arusha region to buy reasonably priced leafy green vegetables. &#8220;We witnessed poor living conditions&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/for-tanzanias-maasai-adapting-to-climate-change-may-mean-less-livestock-more-trees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289418</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Action against forest biomass subsidies gains momentum at COP16</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/action-against-forest-biomass-subsidies-gains-momentum-at-cop16/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/action-against-forest-biomass-subsidies-gains-momentum-at-cop16/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Oct 2024 14:55:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/29131303/Drax-is-the-largest-consumer-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289353</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Biodiesel, Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Law, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Industry, Planetary Boundaries, Politics, Renewable Energy, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CALI, Colombia – For years, at annual United Nations climate summits, forest advocates eager to draw critical attention to the scientifically dubious benefits of burning forest biomass to make energy were ignored, and their recommendations never added to official UN agendas for discussion or a vote. But here at the UN Biodiversity summit, known as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CALI, Colombia – For years, at annual United Nations climate summits, forest advocates eager to draw critical attention to the scientifically dubious benefits of burning forest biomass to make energy were ignored, and their recommendations never added to official UN agendas for discussion or a vote. But here at the UN Biodiversity summit, known as COP16, forest campaigners have attained some traction as national representatives — dedicated to addressing biodiversity loss and global deforestation — hear about how wood pellet production and biomass burning are tied intrinsically to both problems. On October 21, the first day of COP16, the Biomass Action network, a coalition of 200 civil society groups in 60 countries, held a series of events (including in Cali) to highlight research and evidence of environmental harm caused by harvesting trees for wood-pellet manufacture, and the burning of those pellets in former coal-fired power plants. This broadening awareness comes at a crucial moment: The demand for forest biomass energy is surging in the United Kingdom, European Union, Japan and South Korea, where national governments erroneously claim burning pellets produces zero emissions. Meanwhile, the supply of pellets to meet that demand (so far sourced mostly from forests in the Southeastern United States and British Columbia, Canada), is expanding rapidly into the tropics, with new pellet mills planned and opening in Vietnam and especially Indonesia. The clear cutting of forests to supply biomass is happening despite a rapidly escalating climate crisis in which intact forests — with their ability to store&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/action-against-forest-biomass-subsidies-gains-momentum-at-cop16/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289353</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Local NGO RAINS brings relief to Ghana’s semiarid north with regenerative farming</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/local-ngo-rains-brings-relief-to-ghanas-semiarid-north-with-regenerative-farming/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/local-ngo-rains-brings-relief-to-ghanas-semiarid-north-with-regenerative-farming/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Oct 2024 13:35:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Awudu Salami Sulemana Yoda]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/16123119/40132068671_aea784cf4a_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288824</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Ghana, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Desertification, Environment, Forests, Fuelwood, NGOs, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In northern Ghana, communities are facing food insecurity and declining livelihoods due to erratic weather, degraded soils and loss of forests. Among those working on ways to unpick this complicated knot of challenges in the Northern Savannah Zone is an NGO called the Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems, or RAINS. The NSZ stretches 97,000 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In northern Ghana, communities are facing food insecurity and declining livelihoods due to erratic weather, degraded soils and loss of forests. Among those working on ways to unpick this complicated knot of challenges in the Northern Savannah Zone is an NGO called the Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems, or RAINS. The NSZ stretches 97,000 square kilometers (37,500 square miles) across northern Ghana, where people have long grown maize, millet, yam, groundnuts and soybeans in a landscape dominated by shea nut, baobab and acacia trees. Home to more than 5 million people today, the ecological balance of this semiarid ecosystem is in danger: forest cover here declined by 77% between 2001 and 2015, according to the United Nations Development Programme. “Evidence abounds in Ghana that temperatures in all the ecological zones including the Northern Region are rising, whereas rainfall levels and patterns have been generally reducing and increasingly becoming erratic,” Hardi Tijani, executive director of RAINS, told Mongabay via email. “Soil degradation and erosion caused by alternating floods and droughts are leading to creeping desertification.” He said these changes have affected residents&#8217; harvests, prompting many to turn to felling trees for timber and charcoal to earn additional income, further aggravating damage to the landscape. Charcoal production near Chiana, Kassena Nankana District &#8211; Ghana. Image by Axel Fassio/CIFOR via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). To counter the threats and break this cycle, RAINS is explaining and supporting regenerative agricultural practices to farmers across the region, including intercropping, the planting of cover crops,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/local-ngo-rains-brings-relief-to-ghanas-semiarid-north-with-regenerative-farming/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288824</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Madagascar, Taniala Regenerative Camp aims to heal deforestation scars</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-madagascar-taniala-regenerative-camp-aims-to-heal-deforestation-scars/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-madagascar-taniala-regenerative-camp-aims-to-heal-deforestation-scars/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Oct 2024 16:57:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mino Rakotovao]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/03144815/TanialaPhoto5-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288164</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Madagascar, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Desertification, Environment, Forests, Fuelwood, NGOs, Protected Areas, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Menabe Antimena Protected Area in midwestern Madagascar is badly scarred by deforestation; farmers from the surrounding communities have encroached on this unique dry forest ecosystem in search of new and fertile land to grow crops like maize and peanuts. But amid the damage, in the village of Lambokely, is a carefully tended exception. Roland [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Menabe Antimena Protected Area in midwestern Madagascar is badly scarred by deforestation; farmers from the surrounding communities have encroached on this unique dry forest ecosystem in search of new and fertile land to grow crops like maize and peanuts. But amid the damage, in the village of Lambokely, is a carefully tended exception. Roland Frédéric Tahina and a group of volunteers tend baobabs, Indian siris and a range of indigenous species they’ve planted on a small plot they’ve named the Taniala Regenerative Camp. Local communities in Menabe depend on agriculture, hunting, charcoal production and the extraction of timber and non-timber forest products for their livelihood and income. Because of limited rainfall, poor soil quality and an increasingly arid climate, they face acute food insecurity. Their primary farming method — using fire to clear new areas to grow crops — depletes the soil and accelerates desertification. Additionally, migrants from the south are increasingly involved in this practice in forested areas, leading to severe deforestation, especially in the Menabe Antimena Protected Area. Preparing holes for tree lines on an agroforestry test plot. Image courtesy Roland Frédéric Tahina. Menabe’s dry forests include numerous endemic tree species, including rosewood, hazomalany (Hernandia voyronii) and baobab. The protected area is also a refuge for critically endangered species like flat-tailed tortoises (Pyxis planicauda), giant jumping rats (Hypogeomys antimena) and Madame Berthe’s mouse lemurs (Microcebus berthae). This unique ecosystem is projected to vanish by 2050, making it one of the most endangered protected areas in the country.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-madagascar-taniala-regenerative-camp-aims-to-heal-deforestation-scars/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288164</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ever-smarter consumer electronics push world toward environmental brink</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/ever-smarter-consumer-electronics-push-world-toward-environmental-brink/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/ever-smarter-consumer-electronics-push-world-toward-environmental-brink/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Sep 2024 15:15:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerry McGovernSue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/24083313/Agbogbloshie-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287749</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Costa Rica, Global, and Taiwan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, charcoal, Climate Change, Coal, Consumption, E-waste, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fossil Fuels, Global Environmental Crisis, Industry, Mining, Overconsumption, Pollution, Recycling, Research, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In recent decades, the electronics industry experienced meteoric growth as it swiftly invented and marketed a galaxy of novel products for consumers hungry for the next innovation, better performance and greater convenience. In 2024, the consumer electronics market alone is expected to top $809 billion, exceeding $1.4 trillion by 2034. But there’s a dark side [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In recent decades, the electronics industry experienced meteoric growth as it swiftly invented and marketed a galaxy of novel products for consumers hungry for the next innovation, better performance and greater convenience. In 2024, the consumer electronics market alone is expected to top $809 billion, exceeding $1.4 trillion by 2034. But there’s a dark side to this tech miracle: Our digital age love affair with ever-more-powerful cell phones, smart TVs, laptops, tablets, gaming consoles and other devices comes with a high price. The environmental and social costs of producing the trillions of silicon semiconductor chips needed to run our gadgets and to operate remote data centers is escalating incredibly fast and “fostering an environmental time bomb,” warns Ian Williams, professor of applied environmental science at the University of Southampton, U.K. “The environmental impact of making semiconductor chips is already huge and increasing rapidly,” Williams tells Mongabay. Today, the complex integrated circuitry inside an electronic device is a miracle of miniaturization and nanometer-accurate precision with each millimeter-thick, fingernail-sized silicon chip incorporating 30-100 sandwiched layers of etched interconnected transistors and electronic components. But chip structure and computing power doesn’t stand still: It must keep pace with new tech innovations. “Each new generation requires more energy and water and generates more greenhouse gases than the previous generation,” Williams explains. However, few seem aware of the looming risk. Competition among tech giants to produce faster, more advanced devices is leading to unbridled demand for increasingly sophisticated semiconductors, worsening global impacts. Unless urgent action is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/ever-smarter-consumer-electronics-push-world-toward-environmental-brink/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/ever-smarter-consumer-electronics-push-world-toward-environmental-brink/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287749</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As Malawi government struggles to protect a forest, communities show the way</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/as-malawi-government-struggles-to-protect-a-forest-communities-show-the-way/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/as-malawi-government-struggles-to-protect-a-forest-communities-show-the-way/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Aug 2024 16:44:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/30134926/Peter-Kamowa-CROP-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286635</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, charcoal, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Governance, Landscape Restoration, Protected Areas, Reforestation, Restoration, Sustainability, and Sustainable Forest Management]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ZOMBA PLATEAU, Malawi — The Zomba Forest Reserve is a tale of two faces. A large part of the northern section of the plateau is stripped to its last undergrowth by cultivation and charcoal production by communities. Meanwhile, its southern section, covering almost a tenth of the reserve and managed by communities, is a spectacle [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ZOMBA PLATEAU, Malawi — The Zomba Forest Reserve is a tale of two faces. A large part of the northern section of the plateau is stripped to its last undergrowth by cultivation and charcoal production by communities. Meanwhile, its southern section, covering almost a tenth of the reserve and managed by communities, is a spectacle of a glorious forest. On this southern edge of the mountainous forest reserve in Malawi’s old capital city of Zomba is Peter Kamowa’s home — a one-room, mud-brick and grass-thatched house, the only one this far up the slope in the village. Its roof is partially covered by flourishing passion fruit vines, which also creep over a row of several young indigenous trees around the house. It weaves a tapestry under which Kamowa likes to rest during the day. Down below, there’s the sound of water gurgling in a stream, one of the two perennial creeks descending from the forest. “These streams are the lifeline of this community,” Kamowa says. On the rich loam soils along the streams are maize, cassava, cabbages, tomatoes, carrots, bananas, sugar cane and strawberries, which the community grows. “Here, we don’t know drought. We don’t know dry season. We grow crops throughout the year because of these streams; so I decided to settle here to help protect these rivers by protecting their source,” he tells Mongabay, pointing at an impressive indigenous forest that’s scaling up the slope to the peak of the mountain. This forest is a section of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/as-malawi-government-struggles-to-protect-a-forest-communities-show-the-way/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286635</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Birdsong rings out once again in Togo’s sacred forest of Titiyo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/birdsong-rings-out-once-again-in-togos-sacred-forest-of-titiyo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/birdsong-rings-out-once-again-in-togos-sacred-forest-of-titiyo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Aug 2024 14:25:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Kolou]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/07134921/Red-throated-bee-eaters-Merops-bulocki-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285822</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Togo, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, charcoal, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Policy, forest degradation, Forestry, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Reforestation, Research, Restoration, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KARÈ, Togo — Under the hot sun of an April afternoon in northern Togo, we made our way by motorcycle across the impoverished prefecture of Kozah. It wasn’t a long journey, about 30 minutes, but threading between trucks and cars on National Highway No. 1, it was a treacherous one. When we arrived, we were [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KARÈ, Togo — Under the hot sun of an April afternoon in northern Togo, we made our way by motorcycle across the impoverished prefecture of Kozah. It wasn’t a long journey, about 30 minutes, but threading between trucks and cars on National Highway No. 1, it was a treacherous one. When we arrived, we were greeted with a smile by “Dadja” Pékémassim Ali, the 57-year-old chief of the canton of Kouméa, where the village of Karè is located. “We’re glad you’ve come to talk about this forest, whose restoration we’re delighted to see,” he told us. “Out of ignorance, and in a desire to satisfy our needs, our people set fire to the forest and cut down all the trees. And for years, we suffered from scarce rainfall, no timber, and even hotter temperatures. Our children no longer knew of the area’s birds and other animal species.” Ali gave us his approval to climb Karè’s mountain and visit the sacred forest known as Titiyo forest. As we entered the forest, we were greeted by a cool breeze and the sound of birdsong. Koudjabalo Ayouguele, the Kara regional representative for the NGO AJEDI, holds a sign pointing to the sacred forest of Titiyo in northern Togo. Image by Charles Kolou for Mongabay. Since the 1800s, the sacred forest of Titiyo has been the site of annual rituals that involve traditional dances and the celebration of various deities. People come from throughout the canton of Kouméa and the entire Kozah prefecture. It’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/birdsong-rings-out-once-again-in-togos-sacred-forest-of-titiyo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285822</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Zambian forest reserve rebounds with a little assistance</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/zambian-forest-reserve-rebounds-with-a-little-assistance/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/zambian-forest-reserve-rebounds-with-a-little-assistance/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jun 2024 09:49:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/13093035/BirdSurvey_KataninoForestReserveZambia_WeForest-Pic_6_Kat-MEDIUM-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283190</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, Tropics, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, charcoal, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Ecosystems, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Logging, Mapping, Protected Areas, Reforestation, Research, Restoration, Sustainable Forest Management, Timber, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, there were around 100 families living in the Katanino Forest Reserve, cutting down trees to produce charcoal in mud-covered kilns, and selling the fuel by the bag on a nearby road leading to major cities in Zambia’s Copperbelt province. That same year, conservation group WeForest began working with the Zambian Forestry Department and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, there were around 100 families living in the Katanino Forest Reserve, cutting down trees to produce charcoal in mud-covered kilns, and selling the fuel by the bag on a nearby road leading to major cities in Zambia’s Copperbelt province. That same year, conservation group WeForest began working with the Zambian Forestry Department and members of the local community to restore the reserve. Four years on, hundreds of hectares of degraded forest have grown back from severed stumps. Morton Shanzi, manager of the Katanino Forest Landscape Restoration Project, told Mongabay that before the restoration work, community members and Forestry Department officials had observed a steep decline in animal populations in the reserve. But as the project takes hold, there have been increased sightings of birds, reptiles and mammals. &#8220;Our law enforcement records show that the number of chance encounters with animals in the forest reserve has increased between 2021 and 2023,&#8221; he said. Notable species that have reappeared include near-threatened African crowned eagles (Stephanoaetus coronatus) and vulnerable gaboon vipers (Bitis gabonica), as well as various species of small antelope and even carnivores like side-striped jackals (Canis adustus) and spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta). Wildlife is returning to parts of the Katanino reserve, but species like these southern ground hornbills will only find suitable habitat here again as the reserve&#8217;s trees mature. Image by Brendan Herbert via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) Intact miombo forest within Katanino. The forest type includes a wide range of deciduous trees. Image © WeForest. Nearly half&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/zambian-forest-reserve-rebounds-with-a-little-assistance/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283190</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sugarcane megaproject poses latest threat to Papua’s forests, communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/sugarcane-megaproject-poses-latest-threat-to-papuas-forests-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/sugarcane-megaproject-poses-latest-threat-to-papuas-forests-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jun 2024 15:56:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas JongSarjan Lahay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/03/28063848/IMG_5021-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283450</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Alternative Energy, Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Climate, Climate Change, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Food, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Plantations, Rainforests, Renewable Energy, Sugar, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government plans to establish 2 million hectares, or nearly 5 million acres, of sugarcane plantations in the eastern region of Papua, home to the last great expanse of rainforest in Southeast Asia. The country’s investment minister, Bahlil Lahadalia, said the land, spanning an area 30 times the size of Jakarta, was available in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government plans to establish 2 million hectares, or nearly 5 million acres, of sugarcane plantations in the eastern region of Papua, home to the last great expanse of rainforest in Southeast Asia. The country’s investment minister, Bahlil Lahadalia, said the land, spanning an area 30 times the size of Jakarta, was available in Merauke district. He denied that this biodiverse landscape constituted “natural forest,” and justified clearing it in the interest of weaning Indonesia off sugar imports entirely by 2027. The government also has plans to develop cane-derived bioethanol as part of its transition away from fossil fuels. “Our country is one of the world’s largest in size. But [when] sugar price increases, we always import. We keep importing [sugar],” Bahlil said in Jakarta on April 29. Bahlil leads a task force formed by President Joko Widodo to allocate land for the project and streamline the licensing process for interested companies. To date, five consortiums, consisting of Indonesian and foreign companies, are confirmed to be participating in the 130 trillion rupiah ($7.9 billion) project, with roles ranging from developing sugarcane plantations and processing mills, to building the power plants to run them. One of the first orders of business is to rezone 419,000 hectares ( million acres) of forested area, six times the size of Jakarta, into non-forest area, thereby allowing it to be deforested — legally. In South Papua province alone, this amounts to 25,654 hectares (63,392 acres) of intact forest that’s been approved for clearing, according&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/sugarcane-megaproject-poses-latest-threat-to-papuas-forests-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283450</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pressure grows on banks to end business with Indonesian coal giant Adaro</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/pressure-grows-on-banks-to-end-business-with-indonesian-coal-giant-adaro/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/pressure-grows-on-banks-to-end-business-with-indonesian-coal-giant-adaro/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2024 16:11:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/28153018/1f950c97-8927c4d9-3c8e-4663-bc4a-8a3ebe191d94-2048x1366-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282585</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Carbon Emissions, charcoal, Clean Energy, Climate, Climate Change, Coal, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Finance, Fossil Fuels, Fossils, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Just Transition, Mining, Politics, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Calls are mounting for global financiers to cut ties with Adaro, one of Indonesia’s biggest coal companies, as the miner shows no sign of moving away from the fossil fuel despite its net-zero pledge. More than 33,000 people have signed an online petition calling on JPMorgan, Citi and Deutsche Bank to drop Adaro [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Calls are mounting for global financiers to cut ties with Adaro, one of Indonesia’s biggest coal companies, as the miner shows no sign of moving away from the fossil fuel despite its net-zero pledge. More than 33,000 people have signed an online petition calling on JPMorgan, Citi and Deutsche Bank to drop Adaro as a client. Citi has loaned $400 million to Adaro, while JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies don’t rule out financing the company. Adaro is a major emitter, responsible for 0.28% of global CO2 output since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015, according to research by the Carbon Major Database. But the company lacks credible plans to reduce its emissions, according to the petition, organized by global consumer watchdog Ekō. Apekshita Varshney, campaigner at Ekō, called Adaro’s business model “toxic,” with 70% of its total revenue still coming from sales of thermal coal, the type used to generate electricity. “Banks considering it as a client while at the same time trying to present a green face to the world risk serious harm to their reputation,” she said. Amid environmental concerns, major banks like BNP Paribas and DBS have refused to underwrite any future bonds for Adaro, while South Korean automaker Hyundai scrapped a deal to source aluminum from an Adaro-built smelter, Varshney pointed out. “It’s a clear signal that coal miners cannot get away with greenwash and fake transition plans,” she said. In April 2022, Adaro Energy’s CEO, Garibaldi&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/pressure-grows-on-banks-to-end-business-with-indonesian-coal-giant-adaro/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282585</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mangrove forestry only sustainable when conservation zones respected: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/mangrove-forestry-only-sustainable-when-conservation-zones-respected-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/mangrove-forestry-only-sustainable-when-conservation-zones-respected-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 May 2024 04:28:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/30152229/Banner_Transport-of-mangrove-logs-from-forest-for-charcoal.-Image-courtesy-of-Behara-Satyanarayana-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281581</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[charcoal, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Fuelwood, Governance, Mangroves, Marine, Protected Areas, Research, Sustainability, Sustainable Forest Management, Timber, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mangroves are recognized globally for their impressive carbon storage potential and plethora of social and ecological benefits. Beyond their outsize role in buffering the world against greenhouse gas emissions, their extensive root systems protect and stabilize coastlines and provide habitat for commercially important fish and shellfish. However, these crucial coastal tropical forests also have a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mangroves are recognized globally for their impressive carbon storage potential and plethora of social and ecological benefits. Beyond their outsize role in buffering the world against greenhouse gas emissions, their extensive root systems protect and stabilize coastlines and provide habitat for commercially important fish and shellfish. However, these crucial coastal tropical forests also have a long history of exploitation. Mangrove timber has sustained local livelihoods for generations. The need to preserve mangroves and the ecosystem services they sustain, while also providing for the social and economic needs of the people who depend on them, is one of coastal conservation’s greatest conundrums. Now, new research based on long-term data from a mangrove production forest in Malaysia suggests that, in some cases, it is possible to reconcile mangrove protection with resource needs — but only when the correct management is implemented and enforced. Mangrove timber pile at a forest thinning site in Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve in Malaysia. Image courtesy of Behara Satyanarayana. The study, published in Journal for Nature Conservation, evaluated more than a century of 10-year forestry management plans from Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve, one of the world’s longest-managed reserves of its kind, to investigate the drivers behind recent changes in mangrove biomass and productivity. “Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve is a unique case demonstrating that mangrove exploitation does not need to result in degradation, or at least not within a century,” Behara Satyanarayana, an associate professor at the University of Malaysia Terengganu and a co-lead author of the study, told Mongabay.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/mangrove-forestry-only-sustainable-when-conservation-zones-respected-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281581</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pakistan bucks global trend with 30-year mangrove expansion</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/pakistan-bucks-global-trend-with-30-year-mangrove-expansion/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/pakistan-bucks-global-trend-with-30-year-mangrove-expansion/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Feb 2024 18:19:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ayaz Khan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/21051442/Workers-busy-handling-in-seed-planting-in-a-mangrove-nursery-at-Dam-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278537</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Pakistan, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Fuelwood, Global Environmental Crisis, Landscape Restoration, Livestock, Mangroves, Marine, Marine Conservation, Nature-based climate solutions, Oceans, Plastic, Pollution, Reforestation, Restoration, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KARACHI — His sandaled feet drenched in black mud, Rashid Rasheed points to one of the mangrove nurseries he’s been looking after for the past few years. With wooden walls topped by green netting, a dozen nurseries shelter thousands of saplings. Rasheed, a researcher and nursery expert with the government of Balochistan province in Pakistan, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[KARACHI — His sandaled feet drenched in black mud, Rashid Rasheed points to one of the mangrove nurseries he’s been looking after for the past few years. With wooden walls topped by green netting, a dozen nurseries shelter thousands of saplings. Rasheed, a researcher and nursery expert with the government of Balochistan province in Pakistan, has been leading a drive to establish nurseries in the coastal town of Dam. The goal is to expand and enhance the town’s scattered patches of natural mangrove forest, which have shriveled due to human activities. “These nurseries have 50,000 saplings that are ready to be transported to the creeks for planting” Rasheed tells Mongabay. Rasheed’s work is part of a five-year project initiated in 2019 by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ South China Sea Institute of Oceanography that has planted mangroves on 16 hectares (40 acres) at Dam, and at other sites in Balochistan and neighboring Sindh province. It’s one of many projects aiming to restore Pakistan’s mangroves. These semiaquatic trees offer a host of benefits, such as protecting coasts against storms and rising sea levels, providing habitat for fish, birds, and other wildlife, sequestering carbon better than most other ecosystems on Earth, and sustaining the livelihoods of some 120 million people globally, according to the IUCN. Around the world, mangrove forests have undergone a decades-long decline that’s just now slowing to a halt. But Pakistan bucks this trend. The country’s mangroves expanded from 48,331 hectares in 1986 to 143,930 hectares in 2020 (119,430&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/pakistan-bucks-global-trend-with-30-year-mangrove-expansion/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278537</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian utility PLN ordered to disclose coal plants’ emissions data</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/indonesian-utility-pln-ordered-to-disclose-coal-plants-emissions-data/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/indonesian-utility-pln-ordered-to-disclose-coal-plants-emissions-data/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jan 2024 03:03:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/26091749/10-Suralaya-coal-fired-power-plant-in-Indonesia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278263</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, and West Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Air Pollution, charcoal, Climate Change, Coal, data, Energy, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Fossils, Pollution, Public Health, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government’s freedom-of-information clearinghouse has ordered state-owned electricity utility PLN to disclose emissions data for some of the country’s biggest coal-fired power plants. The decision by the Public Information Commission (KIP) comes in response to a complaint filed in 2023 by Margaretha Aquina, a lawyer for the international program at U.K.-based advocacy [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government’s freedom-of-information clearinghouse has ordered state-owned electricity utility PLN to disclose emissions data for some of the country’s biggest coal-fired power plants. The decision by the Public Information Commission (KIP) comes in response to a complaint filed in 2023 by Margaretha Aquina, a lawyer for the international program at U.K.-based advocacy group Earthsight. The complaint centered on PLN’s refusal to disclose upon request emissions and waste management data for its coal plants in Suralaya, Banten province, and Ombilin, West Sumatra province. In its Jan. 18 decision, the KIP said the data in question are public information, given that PLN is owned by the state and thus funded by the public, and should therefore be released to the public. But while the KIP ordered the release of the emissions data from Suralaya, a fleet of eight coal-fired plants, and Ombilin, a single plant, it ordered the release of waste management data only from the Ombilin plant. PLN had argued that the requested data constituted trade secrets and could be misused to spread disinformation, and thus should be kept out of the public view. “If data like this that benefits the public [if disclosed] is treated like a trade secret, then imagine the consequence,” Margaretha said at a press conference last year. “Imagine how journalists could assess where does the pollution in Jakarta come from. Imagine if there’s a captive coal plant that’s so polluting and its emission data is treated as confidential.” She cited past instances in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/indonesian-utility-pln-ordered-to-disclose-coal-plants-emissions-data/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278263</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deforestation continues in Kenya’s largest water capturing forest, satellites show</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/deforestation-continues-in-kenyas-largest-water-capturing-forest-satellites-show/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/deforestation-continues-in-kenyas-largest-water-capturing-forest-satellites-show/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Nov 2023 22:13:07 +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/20/2023/11/07220430/elephants-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275130</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conflict, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Loss, Forests, Fuelwood, Global Warming, Governance, Green, Habitat Loss, Logging, Mongabay Data Studio, Protected Areas, Resource Conflict, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[New satellite data analysis reveals that Mau Forest in Kenya, the largest montane forest in East Africa, is continuing to lose tree cover, likely due to illegal logging and agricultural expansion, despite efforts at protection. The Mau Forest is vital as the country’s biggest water catchment area, covering some 2,700 square kilometers (1,042 square miles) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[New satellite data analysis reveals that Mau Forest in Kenya, the largest montane forest in East Africa, is continuing to lose tree cover, likely due to illegal logging and agricultural expansion, despite efforts at protection. The Mau Forest is vital as the country’s biggest water catchment area, covering some 2,700 square kilometers (1,042 square miles) in western Kenya, about twice the size of London or Las Angeles. Forest monitoring groups report that approximately 25% of the forest was lost between 1984 and 2020 due to human pressures. Mau Forest lost 19% of its tree cover, around 533 square kilometers (205 square miles), between 2001 and 2022, according to satellite data from the monitoring platform Global Forest Watch (GFW). Data and satellite imagery for 2023 show deforestation is continuing in the Mau Forest protected area complex this year, particularly in Londiani, Mount Londiani, Mau Narok, Eastern Mau and Olpusimoru forest reserves. “Some people are cutting trees to survive. No one cares about how it’s affecting the community,” resident Daniel Koros told Mongabay last year. He settled in the Olpusimoru Forest Reserve 45 years ago before it was designated a reserve. Most deforestation in Mau is caused by agricultural expansion, using slash-and-burn methods to clear land for cattle and crops. Small-scale agricultural fires are common in the reserve and surrounding buffer zones. Fires contributed up to 14% of annual forest loss in the reserve between 2012 and 2017, according to research by geospatial data analyst Stefanie Mehlich. Residents also selectively log valuable tree species such&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/deforestation-continues-in-kenyas-largest-water-capturing-forest-satellites-show/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275130</doi>				</item>
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