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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/cloud-forests/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Cloud Forests</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/cloud-forests/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Study offers first map of Amazon’s climate-resilient upslope corridors</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/study-offers-first-map-of-amazons-climate-resilient-upslope-corridors/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/study-offers-first-map-of-amazons-climate-resilient-upslope-corridors/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 14:26:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/22132538/howler-monkey-in-amazon-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321550</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Andes, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Earth Science, Ecosystems, Environment, Impact Of Climate Change, Mapping, Planetary Boundaries, Planetary Health, Rainforest Destruction, Research, and Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Amazon-based scientists have long known that rapidly rising temperatures mean that places where species live today won’t be where they live tomorrow. For a vast number of species — ranging from insects, birds and primates to all manner of plants — upslope migration could present a potential, though perilous, pathway to resilience and survival during [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Amazon-based scientists have long known that rapidly rising temperatures mean that places where species live today won’t be where they live tomorrow. For a vast number of species — ranging from insects, birds and primates to all manner of plants — upslope migration could present a potential, though perilous, pathway to resilience and survival during the climate crisis. This knowledge has raised a vital question: What are the most likely and best protected routes by which species across the Amazon’s broad expanse can relocate upward, helping preserve biodiversity, and hopefully keeping intact the ecosystem services tropical forests now deliver? In what is deemed the first region-wide assessment of Amazonia’s climate resilience and connectivity, a new study points to the western part of the biome, particularly the Andean spine of Peru, as the most viable upslope corridors. According to researchers, this region has the highest concentration of key components needed to support species survival — including major elevation gradients, large established protected areas, and connected forested corridors to facilitate upslope species migration. The scientists pinpointed additional potential corridors in southwestern Colombia, northern Brazil, northern Bolivia, north-central Guyana, and western Suriname. But these areas are disadvantaged due to fewer protected areas, with connectivity in many locales broken by forest fragmentation due to deforestation and oil and gas drilling. Published in May in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation, the new study, titled “A regional-scale assessment of climate-resilient corridors and connectivity in the Amazon,” was undertaken with the goal of providing findings that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/study-offers-first-map-of-amazons-climate-resilient-upslope-corridors/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/study-offers-first-map-of-amazons-climate-resilient-upslope-corridors/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321550</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate change could erase most South American cloud forests, study warns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/climate-change-could-erase-most-south-american-cloud-forests-study-warns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/climate-change-could-erase-most-south-american-cloud-forests-study-warns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 14:15:11 +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/20/2022/08/15172640/03-manu_0230_22-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318942</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Green, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Up in the misty mountains, teems a kaleidoscope of life: trees drip with epiphytes, hummingbirds sip from bright blossoms, and rare creatures occupy every nook in the cloud forests, which scientists have likened to terrestrial coral reefs. But a new study warns that climate change could strip away the conditions that make cloud forests possible, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Up in the misty mountains, teems a kaleidoscope of life: trees drip with epiphytes, hummingbirds sip from bright blossoms, and rare creatures occupy every nook in the cloud forests, which scientists have likened to terrestrial coral reefs. But a new study warns that climate change could strip away the conditions that make cloud forests possible, and in the worst case, erase nearly all of them within 50 years. The research, published in the Journal for Nature Conservation, used machine learning and modeling to project how cloud forest distribution in South America could shift under two different climate scenarios by 2070. The study reports that under a high-emissions pathway, up to 91% of cloud forest area could be lost. Even under the most optimistic scenario, researchers calculate a 12% reduction, roughly 21,000 square kilometers (8,100 square miles), an area the size of El Salvador. Cloud forests occupy a narrow band of land, typically between 1,000 and 3,000 meters (about 3,300-10,000 feet) above sea level, and are defined by persistent fog, cool temperatures and high humidity. That humidity shapes everything, from the mosses and orchids draped across surfaces, to the birds and amphibians found nowhere else on Earth. Epiphytes in the cloud forest of Peru&#8217;s Kosñipata valley. Image credit: Rhett A. Butler The study notes these ecosystems harbor some 1,946 restricted-range species, representing roughly 8% of the world&#8217;s mammals, birds, amphibians and tree ferns. Among the species endemic to South American cloud forests are the flamboyant Andean cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola peruvianus), whose brilliant&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/climate-change-could-erase-most-south-american-cloud-forests-study-warns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/climate-change-could-erase-most-south-american-cloud-forests-study-warns/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318942</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate change drives uneven shifts in tree diversity across Amazon and Andes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/climate-change-drives-uneven-shifts-in-tree-diversity-across-amazon-and-andes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/climate-change-drives-uneven-shifts-in-tree-diversity-across-amazon-and-andes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Feb 2026 09:57:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/14100659/amazon_241209124744z-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314949</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Andes, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Fires, Forests, Impact Of Climate Change, Precipitation, Rainforests, Research, Threats To Rainforests, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The tropical forests of the Amazon and Andes are some of the most biodiverse places on the planet, but across both regions, changes in climate and landscape conditions are driving a shift in the number of tree species, recent research has found. Although the overall number of tree species across the Andes and Amazon hasn’t [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The tropical forests of the Amazon and Andes are some of the most biodiverse places on the planet, but across both regions, changes in climate and landscape conditions are driving a shift in the number of tree species, recent research has found. Although the overall number of tree species across the Andes and Amazon hasn’t changed in recent decades, some subregions are gaining species while others are losing them, according to the study published in Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution. Trees provide vital ecosystem services, and changes in their diversity — what experts call tree richness — could have an impact, including on the forests’ role in temperature regulation or carbon storage. Using more than 40 years of tree diversity data, the study found that species richness declined in the central Andes, the Guyana Shield, and the central-eastern Amazon subregions. Meanwhile, it increased in the northern Andes and western Amazon, and didn’t change significantly in the southern Amazon. Researchers used data from 406 different forest plots across 10 countries, paired with records of climate indicators. “Forests are changing and now we have evidence that it’s linked to climate change,” said Belén Fadrique, a research fellow at the University of Liverpool in the U.K. and lead author of the study, which involved more than 160 co-authors. “We do find that a majority of sites are decreasing in richness,” Fadrique told Mongabay in a video interview. In total, 203 plots declined in tree richness and 146 increased, the research found. Overall, the richness&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/climate-change-drives-uneven-shifts-in-tree-diversity-across-amazon-and-andes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/climate-change-drives-uneven-shifts-in-tree-diversity-across-amazon-and-andes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314949</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A new frog species emerges from Peru’s cloud forests — and it’s already at risk</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-new-frog-species-emerges-from-perus-cloud-forests-and-its-already-at-risk/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-new-frog-species-emerges-from-perus-cloud-forests-and-its-already-at-risk/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Dec 2025 22:32:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid Arellano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/30222607/O.shunkusacha-768x466.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312381</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Cloud Forests, Community-based Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Loss, Frogs, Green, Habitat Loss, Herps, Montane Forests, New Discovery, Rainforests, and Species Discovery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Deep within the cloud forests of the San Martín region of Peru lie two places so high, cold and remote that they remained virtually unexplored for decades. In 2022, and again in 2025, monitors from three Indigenous and local associations guided a team of scientists from Peru and France on a series of expeditions to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Deep within the cloud forests of the San Martín region of Peru lie two places so high, cold and remote that they remained virtually unexplored for decades. In 2022, and again in 2025, monitors from three Indigenous and local associations guided a team of scientists from Peru and France on a series of expeditions to unravel their mysteries. It was there, within the Bosques de Vaquero Biocorridor, that one of the most striking discoveries emerged: a small, previously unknown frog hidden among the fallen leaves. They named it Shunku Sacha, which in Kichawa-Lamista means “heart of the forest.” The scientific name of the new species, Oreobates shunkusacha, honors the territory where it was discovered — a place that, along with the frog, is now threatened by the rapid destruction of the forest. O. shunkusacha was formally described in a study recently published in the German journal Salamandra. Due to the threats facing the species and its small known range, the study’s authors say it should be considered endangered. A collaborative effort The research was carried out by local associations and scientists from Nature Conserv’Action and the Ararankha Association–Ecology and Conservation, who have been working in the area since 2022, with the aim of bringing science closer to local organizations that protect the forests. The species has been named Oreobates shunkusacha, with Shunku Sacha meaning “heart of the forest” in Kichawa-Lamista. In their study, researchers propose “Shunku Sacha big-headed frog” as the species’ common name. Image courtesy of Nature Conserv’Action Perú.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-new-frog-species-emerges-from-perus-cloud-forests-and-its-already-at-risk/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312381</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Photos: Top new species from 2025</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2025/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2025/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2025 14:22:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/29141103/Screenshot-2025-12-28-at-5.12.22-PM-1-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312133</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Andes, Angola, Atlantic Ocean, Brazil, Cerrado, Global, Himalayas, India, Peru, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Acoustic, Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Captive Breeding, Climate Change, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Deep Sea, Deforestation, DNA, Ecosystem Services, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Farming, Forests, Fungi, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Invasive Species, Marine, Mining, Oceans, Old Growth Forests, Pollution, Protected Areas, Ranching, Research, Science, Snakes, Species, Species Discovery, Swamps, Threatened species, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The world still holds its secrets. Hidden under wet rocks, in the ocean&#8217;s twilight crevices, and in the minutiae of the genetic code are creatures unknown and unnamed by the human species. Every year, scientists find hundreds of new animals, insects, plants and fungi. This year, researchers described a tiny new marsupial, a new Himalayan [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The world still holds its secrets. Hidden under wet rocks, in the ocean&#8217;s twilight crevices, and in the minutiae of the genetic code are creatures unknown and unnamed by the human species. Every year, scientists find hundreds of new animals, insects, plants and fungi. This year, researchers described a tiny new marsupial, a new Himalayan bat, an ancient tree, a bright blue butterfly, a parrot snake, and a fairy lantern plant, among others. &#8220;I think most people believe that we know most species on Earth,&#8221; Mario Moura, a professor at the Federal University of Paraíba in Brazil, told Mongabay, &#8220;but in the best-case scenario, we know 20% of Earth&#8217;s species.&#8221; Some estimate that only 10% of all the species on the planet have been described. Unfortunately, many species may be threatened with extinction before they’re even formally named — victims of human activities like development and climate change. Some of these species could be food or medicine for humans, but each plays a unique role in Earth’s interconnected web of life. “We’re understanding more and more that every species on the planet has a role, and in one way or another, is linked to our well-being through the part they play in ecosystems,&#8221; said Boris Worm, a marine conservation biologist who co-authored a study that quantifies the number of undescribed species on land and in the ocean. “We can’t protect them … if we don’t know them.&#8221; Atlantic manta ray (Mobula yarae) with a diver off the coast of Mexico. Originally&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2025/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312133</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Jay M. Savage, witness to disappearing frogs and builder of tropical science</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/jay-m-savage-witness-to-disappearing-frogs-and-builder-of-tropical-science/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/jay-m-savage-witness-to-disappearing-frogs-and-builder-of-tropical-science/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Dec 2025 03:38:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/25135219/jay-m-savage-bw-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312062</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, Latin America, and Mesoamerica]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Biodiversity, Chytridiomycosis, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Frogs, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Herps, and Obituary]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the late 1980s, something began to go wrong in places that were supposed to be safe. Protected cloud forests, buffered from chainsaws and bulldozers, started losing animals that had persisted through far rougher times. Amphibians—often abundant, often overlooked—were vanishing in patterns that did not fit the usual explanations. Field biologists, trained to distrust drama, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the late 1980s, something began to go wrong in places that were supposed to be safe. Protected cloud forests, buffered from chainsaws and bulldozers, started losing animals that had persisted through far rougher times. Amphibians—often abundant, often overlooked—were vanishing in patterns that did not fit the usual explanations. Field biologists, trained to distrust drama, found themselves comparing notes with an unfamiliar unease. “A bunch of us got together and started comparing notes,” recalled Jay Mathers Savage, then a professor of biology at the University of Miami, in a 1992 interview with the New York Times. “People were struck by the fact it seemed to be occurring on a worldwide basis.” He had the credibility to make that observation land. For decades he had worked at the seam where taxonomy meets ecology, building arguments from specimens, notebooks, and repeated returns to the same humid places. His specialty was amphibians and reptiles, especially those of Central America—a region he came to know through sustained work rather than brief expeditions. One of those projects produced an animal that later became a symbol. In 1964, in what is now the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in Costa Rica, Savage and a colleague documented a toad that seemed almost designed to defy understatement. Its scientific name was Bufo periglenes. In life it was better known as the golden toad, the male an improbable Day-Glo orange. It spent most of its time underground and then surfaced for an annual, explosive breeding season—a brief, concentrated ritual that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/jay-m-savage-witness-to-disappearing-frogs-and-builder-of-tropical-science/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312062</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>After a hiatus, an endemic plant bursts into life in Sri Lanka’s central hills</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/after-a-hiatus-an-endemic-plant-bursts-into-life-in-sri-lankas-central-hills/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/after-a-hiatus-an-endemic-plant-bursts-into-life-in-sri-lankas-central-hills/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Oct 2025 10:37:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/23100402/1-Nelu-bloom-at-Hortan-Plains-c-Jinapriya-Gallage-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308200</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Ethics, Flowers, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Montane Forests, Plants, Pollinators, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Every dozen years or so, Sri Lanka’s mist-shrouded highlands burst into color. Violet, pink and white carpets of tiny blooms spread across the grasslands of the Horton Plains and other hill country trails, drawing thousands of visitors eager to witness one of nature’s rarest spectacles: the mass flowering of nelu, a group of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Every dozen years or so, Sri Lanka’s mist-shrouded highlands burst into color. Violet, pink and white carpets of tiny blooms spread across the grasslands of the Horton Plains and other hill country trails, drawing thousands of visitors eager to witness one of nature’s rarest spectacles: the mass flowering of nelu, a group of native shrubs belonging to the genus Strobilanthes, known for synchronized mass flowering occurring every 4-12 years. Strobilanthes shrubs bloom together, set seed and then die, transforming the landscape in a breathtaking but fleeting display of sheer floral beauty. Yet, behind this beauty lies a scientific mystery. These plants flower so rarely and in a perfectly synchronized manner. It only adds to the allure of this natural wonder, even as crowds flock to see the floral carpets, exerting new pressure on the fragile montane ecosystem. Sri Lanka is home to 35 nelu species, where 30 of them are endemic to the country, however, only a few species contribute to the scenic mass blooming. Image courtesy of Jinapriya Gallage. What is nelu? “Nelu” is not a single species but a group of shrubs belonging to the genus Strobilanthes in the Acanthaceae family, which includes hundreds of species across tropical Asia. Sri Lanka is home to 35 Strobilanthes species, of which 30  are endemic, with a majority of them found only in the island’s Central Highlands, says Nilanthi Rajapakse of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), whose studies led to discovery of three nelu species new to science. Different&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/after-a-hiatus-an-endemic-plant-bursts-into-life-in-sri-lankas-central-hills/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/after-a-hiatus-an-endemic-plant-bursts-into-life-in-sri-lankas-central-hills/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308200</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Venezuela, natural regeneration helps restore a threatened cloud forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/in-venezuela-natural-regeneration-helps-restore-a-threatened-cloud-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/in-venezuela-natural-regeneration-helps-restore-a-threatened-cloud-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Sep 2024 10:47:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[María Fernanda Rodríguez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/10103331/El-Tambor-is-the-name-of-a-massif-found-in-the-San-Eusebio-cloud-forest-located-in-western-Venezuela-in-the-tropical-Andes.-Photo-El-Tambor-Project-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287190</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Birds, Cloud Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Regeneration, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Protected Areas, and Restoration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;And this big one?&#8221; Ancelmo Dugarte asks his 3-year-old son, Marco Antonio, pointing to a towering pine in front of them. &#8220;Pino laso,&#8221; the little voice replies. &#8220;And this one? What&#8217;s this called?&#8221; Dugarte asks again, now touching the leaf of a plant. &#8220;Laurel baboso,&#8221; Marco Antonio answers. His father repeats it once more, as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;And this big one?&#8221; Ancelmo Dugarte asks his 3-year-old son, Marco Antonio, pointing to a towering pine in front of them. &#8220;Pino laso,&#8221; the little voice replies. &#8220;And this one? What&#8217;s this called?&#8221; Dugarte asks again, now touching the leaf of a plant. &#8220;Laurel baboso,&#8221; Marco Antonio answers. His father repeats it once more, as part of his mission to teach his son all the dozens of native plant species close to his home. This conversation between Dugarte and his son took place in 2019 amid the cloud forest of El Tambor, located in the Sierra de La Culata National Park, in Mérida, Venezuela. They live in San Eusebio, a town close to the cloud forest, where Dugarte volunteers with the El Tambor Project, created in 2018 in order to help restore the forest with native plants with community participation. Over the past four years, El Tambor Project has successfully produced more than 15,000 plants belonging to nearly 50 native tree species, primarily from families such as Myrtaceae, Lauraceae, Podocarpaceae and Melastomataceae. This project seeks to restore approximately 22,000 hectares (54,300 acres) of cloud forest. A biodiversity hotspot, this area hosts more than 200 species of birds, 50 species of mammals, 153 species of orchids and 150 species of bromeliads. El Tambor Project is made up of seven people but they also count on the volunteer work of dozens of people who live in the communities near the cloud forest. Image courtesy of El Tambor Project. Since 2012, Ana Quevedo&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/in-venezuela-natural-regeneration-helps-restore-a-threatened-cloud-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/in-venezuela-natural-regeneration-helps-restore-a-threatened-cloud-forest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287190</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Learning to live with — and love — bears and eagles in Colombia’s cloud forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/learning-to-live-with-and-love-bears-and-eagles-in-colombias-cloud-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/learning-to-live-with-and-love-bears-and-eagles-in-colombias-cloud-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jun 2023 13:55:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[James Hall]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/07160630/2.-spectacled-bear-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=269507</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Bears, Biodiversity, Cloud Forests, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Education, Endangered Species, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Human-wildlife Conflict, Islands, Raptors, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mayra Parra presses play on her laptop, and the video on the screen comes to life for the Perez family in the town of Abriaquí, Colombia. As a spectacled bear ambles into view, scratching its back against a towering roble tree, the smiles on the faces of three generations of the family quickly burst into [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mayra Parra presses play on her laptop, and the video on the screen comes to life for the Perez family in the town of Abriaquí, Colombia. As a spectacled bear ambles into view, scratching its back against a towering roble tree, the smiles on the faces of three generations of the family quickly burst into laughter. The camera trap footage was taken a mere 10 minutes&#8217; walk away, in the dense cloud forest that surrounds the family&#8217;s modest home. But three years ago, the notion of them reacting with such warmth to the sight of a bear would have been unimaginable. Spectacled bears (Tremarctos ornatus) had long been their sworn enemies, to be hunted and killed with barely a second thought. The Perez family’s change of heart is testament to the transformation in attitudes toward wildlife in this cluster of rural communities in the Western Cordillera mountains of Colombia’s Antioquia department. Thanks to a small but dedicated group of conservationists, local people have begun to reconcile with the wildlife on their doorstep and forge a new relationship based on coexistence and conservation. A view of a fragment of cloud forest in the Western Cordilleras of Antioquia. Image by Mayra Parra. Cloud forest in the Western Cordilleras of Antioquia. Image by Mayra Parra. Social workers of the cloud forests A global biodiversity hotspot, the cloud forests of Colombia’s northern Andes house an extraordinary array of plant and animal species found nowhere else. But the region is also a hotspot for human-wildlife&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/learning-to-live-with-and-love-bears-and-eagles-in-colombias-cloud-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/learning-to-live-with-and-love-bears-and-eagles-in-colombias-cloud-forest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-269507</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mountain islands: Restoring a transitional cloud forest in Costa Rica</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/mountain-islands-restoring-a-transitional-cloud-forest-in-costa-rica/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/mountain-islands-restoring-a-transitional-cloud-forest-in-costa-rica/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Mar 2023 17:31:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/29142256/Resplendent-quetzal-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266976</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Cloud Forests, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Islands, Rainforests, Reforestation, Restoration, Solutions, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2002, a couple vacationing in Costa Rica, stunned by deforestation there, bought land and regrew a transitional cloud forest — a grassroots model worth emulating: Part two of a three-part Mongabay mini-series on island habitat restoration.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story is the second article of a three-part Mongabay mini-series on island habitat forest restoration projects. Read Part One and Part Three. In 2001, South African-born couple, Genevieve and Ian Giddy traveled to Costa Rica to climb Mount Chirripó, one of Central America’s highest peaks, protected within Chirripó National Park. Coming down from the 3,821-meter (12,536-foot) summit, the couple viewed a stark divide between the protected biodiverse high-altitude cloud forest and the deforested cattle pasture and farms below. It was a revelatory moment. A year later, they returned and purchased a small cattle farm on the park’s border, with the ambitious intent of restoring a patch of transitional cloud forest — a long-lost bit of habitat located between 1,500 and 2,500 m (5,000 and 8,300 ft). Over the ensuing years, they purchased six more farms, totaling 283 hectares (700 acres). They dubbed their acquisition Cloudbridge, establishing it as a habitat link and buffer between Chirripó National Park and the human communities far below. The couple had much work ahead. The purchased land was “all basically played out, old agricultural land [though] some was in natural regeneration — secondary forests — and some [small amount] was still in old-growth,” recalls Tom Gode, president of the board of directors of the U.S.-based Cloud Forest Conservation Alliance (CFCA), which manages Cloudbridge Nature Reserve today. The Giddys’ planned to expand the forest zone outside the national park, so they quickly started planting trees. But they soon learned that restoring a complex transitional ecosystem isn’t&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/mountain-islands-restoring-a-transitional-cloud-forest-in-costa-rica/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/mountain-islands-restoring-a-transitional-cloud-forest-in-costa-rica/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266976</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Threatened cloud forests key to billions of dollars worth of hydropower: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/threatened-cloud-forests-key-to-billions-of-dollars-worth-of-hydropower-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/threatened-cloud-forests-key-to-billions-of-dollars-worth-of-hydropower-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Dec 2022 08:11:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/13012318/lizard-cloud-forest-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263490</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Drinking Water, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Freshwater, Hydroelectric Power, Impact Of Climate Change, Rainforests, Rivers, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The tiny droplets of condensation in the canopies of the world’s cloud forests are just the first link in a life-giving chain. That water replenishes rivers, streams and reservoirs, filters down to thirsty farmland, and flows through pipes into homes and industry. It is the lifeblood of the human villages, towns and cities downslope, not [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The tiny droplets of condensation in the canopies of the world’s cloud forests are just the first link in a life-giving chain. That water replenishes rivers, streams and reservoirs, filters down to thirsty farmland, and flows through pipes into homes and industry. It is the lifeblood of the human villages, towns and cities downslope, not to mention the rich tapestry of species of plants, animals and fungi that flourish in cloud forest ecosystems. But today, cloud forests are under threat as populations grow and climate change forces farmers to look for cooler climates for key crops, such as coffee. Timber harvesting and charcoal production also endanger cloud forests, many of which are not currently protected. One solution to saving these forests and the water they produce is to generate income for the countries where they exist, according to a new report published Dec. 13 by Earth Security, a U.K.-based consultancy focused on climate and nature-based “asset solutions.” Cloud forests crown mountains in the tropics, typically at heights of 1,500-3,000 meters (about 5,000-10,000 feet). Mosses often drape the trees are often draped in mosses that aid the forest in collecting water from the fog banks that give cloud forests their name. More than 90% of these forests occur in 25 countries, many of which are less industrialized with struggling economies. In these countries, the report found that nearly 1,000 hydropower dams currently provide electricity to their citizens, more than half of which rely on water that comes from these forests. Hundreds more&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/threatened-cloud-forests-key-to-billions-of-dollars-worth-of-hydropower-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/threatened-cloud-forests-key-to-billions-of-dollars-worth-of-hydropower-report/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263490</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon cloud forests need protection (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/amazon-cloud-forests-need-protection-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/amazon-cloud-forests-need-protection-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Aug 2022 17:35:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Enrique Ortiz]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay User]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/15174046/peru_220139_header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=259227</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Cloud Forests, Commentary, Conservation, Ecosystem Services, Forests, Green, Montane Forests, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[If there is an ecosystem that captures my imagination, it is the cloud forests, or perhaps better called, “the forests of the clouds.” Walking underneath their damp and dark canopy brimming with colorful orchids and bromeliads, you enter an enchanted world, as if at any minute a green dwarf could surprise you from behind a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[If there is an ecosystem that captures my imagination, it is the cloud forests, or perhaps better called, “the forests of the clouds.” Walking underneath their damp and dark canopy brimming with colorful orchids and bromeliads, you enter an enchanted world, as if at any minute a green dwarf could surprise you from behind a rock. Cloud forests’ extraordinary colors shine in shimmering shades of fluorescent hot pinks, dark blues, bright purples, and chilling reds. There, hummingbirds seem to be more abundant than bees, sometimes buzzing so close as if wanting to rest on your head. And best of all, there are no mosquitoes! After 40 years working in tropical forests, I chose them as my favorite type. However, these forests are facing enormous challenges, and not many are aware of their importance, nor have experienced their magic. This is an account of what those cloud forests are, how I see them, and why they matter, in the face of our changing world. Waterfall in the Kosñipata valley. Image credit: Rhett A. Butler A creek in the cloud forest of Peru&#8217;s Kosñipata valley. Image credit: Rhett A. Butler The Cloud Catchers  For many the Amazon brings to mind a vast extension of a uniform forest, a green carpet interrupted by wide meandering rivers. But at a closer look, besides its typical tall rainforests, the Amazon is a mixture of many ecosystems, including mountain forests, savannas, dry forests, single-species forests, wetlands, and many other types of vegetation. Hence, it is a mistake&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/amazon-cloud-forests-need-protection-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/amazon-cloud-forests-need-protection-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-259227</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Here&#8217;s how science is trying to conserve the monarch butterfly&#8217;s forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/heres-how-science-is-trying-to-conserve-the-monarch-butterflys-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/heres-how-science-is-trying-to-conserve-the-monarch-butterflys-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jan 2022 16:28:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Thelma Gómez Durán]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/01/17132106/%C2%A9-Alianza-WWF-Telcel10608-2000x890-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=251763</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Mexico and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Butterflies, Climate Change, Cloud Forests, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Forest Carbon, Forest Destruction, Forest Fragmentation, Forest Loss, Forest Recovery, Forest Regeneration, Forestry, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Landscape Restoration, Reforestation, Research, Restoration, Temperate Forests, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For several weeks in 2015, the sound of chainsaws cutting down trees was incessant in the Angangueo municipality in the Mexican state of Michoacán. When a group of people tried to stop the deforestation, it was already too late: 10 hectares (25 acres) of forest had already been destroyed on hillsides in the central area [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For several weeks in 2015, the sound of chainsaws cutting down trees was incessant in the Angangueo municipality in the Mexican state of Michoacán. When a group of people tried to stop the deforestation, it was already too late: 10 hectares (25 acres) of forest had already been destroyed on hillsides in the central area of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. The land on which the illegal logging took place belongs to the government of the state of Michoacán. There are no communal lands nor Indigenous communities that conduct surveillance in the area, which exist in other areas of the reserve that are collectively owned. In order to recover the area that was affected by illegal logging, many public officials initially proposed reforestation, regardless of the fact that it was during the dry season and, was therefore an unfavorable time to plant trees. On the other hand, the directors of the reserve preferred to consult scientists. However, among scientists, there were also conflicting opinions. Some argued that reforestation was the right method. Others advocated that natural regeneration was the way to go by not disturbing the area and waiting for the forest to recover on its own. “It was a complicated discussion among academics,” said Dr. Cuauhtémoc Sáenz-Romero from the Natural Resource Research Institute (INIRENA) at Michoacan University of Saint Nicholas of Hidalgo (UMSNH). “However, when we went to the region, it was clear that the conditions for natural regeneration did not exist: the trees that were still standing were&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/heres-how-science-is-trying-to-conserve-the-monarch-butterflys-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/heres-how-science-is-trying-to-conserve-the-monarch-butterflys-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-251763</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In the Colombian Andes, a forest corridor staves off species extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/in-the-colombian-andes-a-forest-corridor-staves-off-species-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/in-the-colombian-andes-a-forest-corridor-staves-off-species-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jul 2021 09:28:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Veronika Perkova]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Genevieve Belmaker]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/07/02081251/5-header-Spizaetus_isidori_Juv_OsmanLopez-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=244439</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Andes, Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Fragmentation, Forest Loss, Forest Recovery, Forests, Fragmentation, Mountains, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Reforestation, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2006, the world&#8217;s leading hummingbird photographer, Luis Mazariegos, visited La Mesenia, an isolated village in Colombia’s western Andes. He had no idea that besides taking a picture of the recently rediscovered glittering starfrontlet (Coeligena orina), he would find a place that hosts overwhelming biodiversity. The forests here, spanning altitudes from 1,700 to 3,170 meters [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2006, the world&#8217;s leading hummingbird photographer, Luis Mazariegos, visited La Mesenia, an isolated village in Colombia’s western Andes. He had no idea that besides taking a picture of the recently rediscovered glittering starfrontlet (Coeligena orina), he would find a place that hosts overwhelming biodiversity. The forests here, spanning altitudes from 1,700 to 3,170 meters (5,600 to 10,400 feet), are permanently covered in clouds due to high humidity and are home to 374 known species of birds, 183 mammals, more than 600 plants and 5,000 insects, and other invertebrates. However, the northern tropical Andes have lost almost 75% of their natural habitat largely to agricultural expansion and are starting to witness the additional damaging impacts of climate change. Cloud forest species such as ocelots and tanagers are moving upslope to maintain a favorable climate, but the degraded and fragmented landscape has blocked their way. In Peru, 55 bird species were found to have moved an average of 49 m (161 ft) upslope over the course of 41 years. Degraded and fragmented landscape has blocked the way of cloud forest species that are moving upslope to maintain a favorable climate. Image courtesy of Luis Mazariegos. Nestled between the western and eastern slopes of the Colombian Andes, the very narrow corridor of forest in La Mesenia nearly disappeared due to deforestation. There was a threat that 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) of rainforest would be pinched off from the main Andean chain. If that happened, the populations of many big mammals like spectacled&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/in-the-colombian-andes-a-forest-corridor-staves-off-species-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/in-the-colombian-andes-a-forest-corridor-staves-off-species-extinction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-244439</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>[Photos] Tiny frog, venomous viper among 20 new species described in Bolivia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/photos-tiny-frog-venomous-viper-among-20-new-species-described-in-bolivia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/photos-tiny-frog-venomous-viper-among-20-new-species-described-in-bolivia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Dec 2020 10:43:04 +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/20/2020/12/14095110/ci_68870035-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=237836</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Bamboo, Biodiversity, Botany, Butterflies, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, Insects, Orchids, Plants, Rainforests, Rediscovered Species, Snakes, Species Discovery, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[An expedition into the cloud forests of the Bolivian Andes has uncovered 20 species new to science, including a frog that may be the smallest in the Andes, a new venomous pit viper, four butterflies, and four orchid species. Along with the newly described species, the research team also “rediscovered” four species believed to be [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[An expedition into the cloud forests of the Bolivian Andes has uncovered 20 species new to science, including a frog that may be the smallest in the Andes, a new venomous pit viper, four butterflies, and four orchid species. Along with the newly described species, the research team also “rediscovered” four species believed to be extinct, including the devil-eyed frog (Oreobates zongoensis), not observed on record for 20 years, and a satyr butterfly (Euptychoides fida), not recorded for 98 years. The devil-eyed frog (Oreobates zongoensis) was rediscovered on the Zongo RAP expedition in Bolivia. This species was previously known only from a single individual seen more than 20 years ago in the Zongo Valley. Image © Trond Larsen. “These discoveries are the result of 14 days of intense field work spread across the rugged terrain, misty cloud forests and cascading waterfalls of the Zongo — a truly beautiful and diverse landscape,” Trond Larsen, director of Conservation International’s Rapid Assessment Program (RAP), said in a statement. Larsen, along with Claudia Cortez, head of conservation and wildlife management for the municipal government of La Paz, led a group of 17 scientists into Chawi Grande, a locality belonging to the Huaylipaya community in the Zongo Valley, or “heart” valley, region, near the Bolivian capital, La Paz. The expedition was part of Conservation International’s RAP, which began in 1990 to collect information on biodiversity and ecosystem health rapidly to guide conservation policy- and decision-making. The Andean mountains of the Zongo Valley in Bolivia where&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/photos-tiny-frog-venomous-viper-among-20-new-species-described-in-bolivia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-237836</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>On a Philippine mountain, researchers describe a ‘fire flower’ orchid species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/on-a-philippine-mountain-researchers-describe-a-fire-flower-orchid-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/on-a-philippine-mountain-researchers-describe-a-fire-flower-orchid-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Oct 2020 07:58:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Keith Anthony Fabro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Leilani]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/10/03001720/IMG_8622-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=235524</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Cloud Forests, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Fires, Flowers, Food, Food Vs Forests Debate, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, New Discovery, Orchids, Plants, Research, Species Discovery, Tourism, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new tiny orchid species with fiery orange flowers has been discovered on a mountain peak in the northern Philippines’ Cordilleras range. The wild orchid species was named Dendrochilum ignisiflorum and described in a study in the journal Phytotaxa. It belongs to the Dendrochilum genus which prefers the mossy or cloud forests blanketing the high [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new tiny orchid species with fiery orange flowers has been discovered on a mountain peak in the northern Philippines’ Cordilleras range. The wild orchid species was named Dendrochilum ignisiflorum and described in a study in the journal Phytotaxa. It belongs to the Dendrochilum genus which prefers the mossy or cloud forests blanketing the high mountains of Southeast Asia, particularly in the Philippines, Borneo and Sumatra. This new Philippine-endemic orchid has been proposed as vulnerable under the criteria of the IUCN Red List. Botanists recorded the species thriving at an elevation of around 2,300 meters (7,500 feet) on exposed ridges and the mossy forest summit of Mount Komkompol in Benguet province. Because it’s a high-elevation orchid, experts say it’s vulnerable to habitat loss due to climate change and deforestation. Despite each flower measuring no more than 5 millimeters (0.2 inches), this species stands out for its fiery color (the species name in Latin means “fire flower”). “[It’s] not a showy type of orchid like what our mom or aunt collects,” says study lead author Maverick Tamayo of the University of the Philippines Baguio (UPB). “It’s really small but the color of its flower can be easily discerned with the lush green background of the mossy forest.” The new Dendrochilum ignisiflorum stands out for its fiery orange flowers. Image courtesy of Maverick Tamayo/UP Baguio Tamayo discovered the flowers by accident. He was two days into a strenuous climb when he spotted  the bright yellow-orange flowers attached to a nearby tree. Right&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/on-a-philippine-mountain-researchers-describe-a-fire-flower-orchid-species/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-235524</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For Mexico’s forgotten cloud forests, sustainability and protection are key</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/for-mexicos-forgotten-cloud-forests-sustainability-and-protection-are-key/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/for-mexicos-forgotten-cloud-forests-sustainability-and-protection-are-key/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Mar 2020 06:08:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Thelma Gómez Durán]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maria Angeles Salazar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/03/03060204/Bosque-Niebla-5-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=227585</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America and Mexico]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Secondary Forests, and Sustainable Forest Management]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2009, scientists estimated that Mexico’s tropical montane cloud forests — hillside woodlands blanketed in fog and rain — were down to 28% of their original extent. Fifty-three percent of what was left was considered secondary forest, regenerated from primary forest that had been cleared for agriculture or lost due to fires or storms. Conserving [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2009, scientists estimated that Mexico’s tropical montane cloud forests — hillside woodlands blanketed in fog and rain — were down to 28% of their original extent. Fifty-three percent of what was left was considered secondary forest, regenerated from primary forest that had been cleared for agriculture or lost due to fires or storms. Conserving these cloud forests, even the secondary ones, maintains tree cover and protects mountain basins and soil from erosion. It also helps forest corridors develop, connecting the landscape for wildlife to roam. It takes between 10 and 20 years for a secondary cloud forest to grow. Image by Tarin Toledo. Despite their importance, these ecosystems have largely been forgotten and poorly studied; and, to some extent, they are disappearing. In Mexico, they are not recognized in legal frameworks for forest use, resulting in a dearth of programs aimed at addressing their sustainable management. To raise awareness of these forests and to promote actions that support their conservation and management, researchers Tarin Toledo and Luciana Porter of the Institute of Ecology and Patricia Gerez of the Institute of Biotechnology and Applied Ecology of the University of Veracruz in Mexico conducted a study published by the Mexican Civil Council for Sustainable Silviculture. The research and resulting recommendations arose from an April 2019 workshop attended by academics, forest technicians, members of civil society organizations and owners of land with secondary forests. Secondary forests, no less important Cloud forests typically occur in areas that are foggy for much of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/for-mexicos-forgotten-cloud-forests-sustainability-and-protection-are-key/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-227585</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The frog and the university: Meet the niche new species from Sri Lanka</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/the-frog-and-the-university-meet-the-niche-new-species-from-sri-lanka/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/the-frog-and-the-university-meet-the-niche-new-species-from-sri-lanka/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jul 2019 03:46:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/07/18040344/frogsl-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=220556</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Biodiversity, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, and Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[2018SEFD]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A four-year study of streams in the cloud forests of Sri Lanka’s picturesque Knuckles Mountain Range has turned up an unexpected discovery: a new frog species found nowhere else on Earth. Lankanectes pera, a glistening, chocolate-hued frog, is only the second known species in the genus; the other, L. corrugatus, is also endemic to Sri [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A four-year study of streams in the cloud forests of Sri Lanka’s picturesque Knuckles Mountain Range has turned up an unexpected discovery: a new frog species found nowhere else on Earth. Lankanectes pera, a glistening, chocolate-hued frog, is only the second known species in the genus; the other, L. corrugatus, is also endemic to Sri Lanka. The researchers named it in honor of their alma mater and the oldest university in the country, the University of Peradeniya, affectionately referred to as Pera. In their paper published in the journal Zootaxa, the researchers identify the new species as being highly restricted to a habitat of about 360 square kilometers (139 square miles) — an area nearly 40 times smaller than the range inhabited by the more widely distributed L. corrugatus. While there are some subtle physical differences between the two species, it’s in their habitat selection where they differ the most. L.corrugatus mostly occurs in muddy substrates, including marshes and rice paddies, where they can easily burrow into soft mud and leaf litter. L. pera, however, needs pristine conditions and significant canopy cover. It dwells in streams flowing through the montane forests in the highest peaks of the Knuckles Mountain Range, at elevations of more than 1,100 meters (3,600 feet) above sea level. It’s found only in the Dothalugala, Bambarella and Riverston regions of Sri Lanka’s central highlands. And the frog doesn’t simply opt for pristine streams flowing through closed-canopy montane forests, but more specifically slow-flowing, clear and shallow streams, with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/the-frog-and-the-university-meet-the-niche-new-species-from-sri-lanka/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-220556</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘You don’t find orchids; they find you’: Q&#038;A with botanist Edicson Parra</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/06/you-dont-find-orchids-they-find-you-qa-with-botanist-edicson-parra/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/06/you-dont-find-orchids-they-find-you-qa-with-botanist-edicson-parra/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jun 2019 06:17:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gianluca Cerullo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maria Angeles Salazar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/06/06054115/orchids5-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=219224</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cloud Forests, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Interviews, Orchids, and Plants]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When a mining company came to exploit an old-growth cloud forest near Edicson Parra’s hometown of Fusagasuga in Colombia, he decided to take action. He rallied as many relatives and friends as he could and joined a street protest against the looming project. Photos of Parra and his family waving placards and sporting identical Colombian [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When a mining company came to exploit an old-growth cloud forest near Edicson Parra’s hometown of Fusagasuga in Colombia, he decided to take action. He rallied as many relatives and friends as he could and joined a street protest against the looming project. Photos of Parra and his family waving placards and sporting identical Colombian soccer jerseys ran in local newspapers. But Parra had one superpower nobody else at the protest possessed: he had spent 10 years learning how to identify orchids. On entering the tract of forest slated for demolition, Parra, who recently received his Ph.D. in conservation science from Imperial College London, did what any biologist worth their salt would do: he carried out a biological survey. Rooting through mossy treetops and rotten logs, Parra found 24 species of orchids living in the cloud forest. Three were endemic to Colombia. One of these, Epidendrum fusagasugüense, Parra had discovered and named after his hometown only the year before. He provided the information from his botanical survey to a legal team fighting the mining. A court eventually banned development in the ecosystem. A central factor in the ruling was the recognition of the forest as an orchid hotspot, along with the fact that this forest provides freshwater to over 1,000 households. But this wasn’t the first time Parra had used his orchid knowhow in defense of Colombia’s cloud forests. Already once before, his botanical surveys helped divert a road set to cut through a unique forest reserve in the Central&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/06/you-dont-find-orchids-they-find-you-qa-with-botanist-edicson-parra/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-219224</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Altered forests threaten sustainability of subsistence hunting</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/altered-forests-threaten-sustainability-of-subsistence-hunting/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/altered-forests-threaten-sustainability-of-subsistence-hunting/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2019 07:55:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/05/29053604/colombia_5254.6af129f3885540449350584952f1b02e-2-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=219006</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Birds, Bushmeat, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Culture, Deforestation, Ecology, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forestry, Forests, Fragmentation, Global Environmental Crisis, Human Migration, Human Rights, Human-wildlife Conflict, Hunting, Illegal Logging, In-situ Conservation, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Reform, Land Rights, Logging, Mammals, Mining, Natural Capital, Palm Oil, Parks, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Poaching, Pollution, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Primary Forests, Primates, Protected Areas, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Resource Curse, Roads, Saving Species From Extinction, Social Conflict, Social Justice, Solutions, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Forest Management, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, Traditional People, Trees, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The way humans have changed the forests of Central and South America may be making it impossible for subsistence hunters to continue their way of life, according to two conservation scientists. “No longer can subsistence hunting be seen or managed as a sustainable activity carried out by small, isolated human groups occupying large tracts of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The way humans have changed the forests of Central and South America may be making it impossible for subsistence hunters to continue their way of life, according to two conservation scientists. “No longer can subsistence hunting be seen or managed as a sustainable activity carried out by small, isolated human groups occupying large tracts of natural habitat and using traditional hunting methods,” Galo Zapata‐Ríos, who directs the science program for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Ecuador program, said in a statement. “Any approach to the problem must take into account the fundamentally different context in which subsistence hunting occurs in the present day.” Scientists have generally thought that groups that rely on hunting to feed themselves and their families under these conditions — and as it has occurred for generations in some places — could do so without affecting the local survival of certain species. An armadillo taken by hunters. Image by Galo Zapata-Ríos/WCS. But Zapata‐Ríos and his colleague, Esteban Suárez, an ecologist and professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, say the widespread impacts humans have had in the “neotropical” forests of the Americas force a rethink of those assumptions. “Any approach to the problem must take into account the fundamentally different context in which subsistence hunting occurs in the present day,” the authors write in a commentary published May 8 in the journal Biotropica. Deforestation for timber and agriculture has carved through the region’s rainforests, leaving smaller and fewer fragmented refuges for species to inhabit. And an influx&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/altered-forests-threaten-sustainability-of-subsistence-hunting/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-219006</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climb confirms that the world’s tallest tropical tree tops 100 meters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/climber-verifies-that-tallest-tropical-tree-topping-100-meters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/climber-verifies-that-tallest-tropical-tree-topping-100-meters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Apr 2019 18:02:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/04/07034147/GPTempDownload16-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=217234</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, Sabah, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Drones, Ecology, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, LiDAR, Logging, Parks, Peatlands, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Research, Technology, Timber, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There’s a new record for the tallest tree in the tropics, and the scientists who found it say it could add to our understanding of how and why some trees grow so tall. A survey from an airplane in 2014 of the forests of Danum Valley Conservation Area in Malaysian Borneo helped University of Nottingham geographer [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There’s a new record for the tallest tree in the tropics, and the scientists who found it say it could add to our understanding of how and why some trees grow so tall. A survey from an airplane in 2014 of the forests of Danum Valley Conservation Area in Malaysian Borneo helped University of Nottingham geographer Doreen Boyd and her colleagues pick out the sky-scraping tree that they’re calling Menara, the Malay word for “tower.” But it wasn’t until Unding Jami, a local tree climber with the South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, or SEARPP, hoisted himself into the canopy of the yellow meranti (Shorea faguetiana) and lowered a measuring tape back to the ground that they were able to confirm the tree’s height at 100.8 meters (330.7 feet). Unding Jami high in the canopy. Image by Unding Jami. “It was a scary climb, so windy, because the nearest trees are very distant,” Unding said in a statement. “But honestly the view from the top was incredible. I don’t know what to say other than it was very, very, very amazing!” During that 2014 flight over Danum, the University of Nottingham team had pelted the forest canopy from above with laser pulses, a technology known as light detection and ranging, or lidar, to map out the 3D structure of the forest. This helped Boyd’s doctoral student, Chris Chandler, initially identify Menara in 2018. But the hilly terrain where the tree sits in the dense forests of Danum Valley can play tricks&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/climber-verifies-that-tallest-tropical-tree-topping-100-meters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-217234</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Malaysian state chief: Highway construction must not destroy forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/malaysian-state-chief-highway-construction-shouldnt-destroy-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/malaysian-state-chief-highway-construction-shouldnt-destroy-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Mar 2019 09:12:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/03/26021451/Picture5.d01e870de63748b5a3431fd1d4fe7554-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=216880</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Southeast Asian infrastructure]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Malaysia, Sabah, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Amphibians, Animal Behavior, Animals, Apes, Avoided Deforestation, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Birds, Cloud Forests, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Culture, Dams, Deforestation, Earth Science, Ecology, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Fires, Fish, Fishing, Forestry, Forests, Fragmentation, Frogs, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, Human Rights, Human-wildlife Conflict, Illegal Logging, In-situ Conservation, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, Invertebrates, Land Reform, Land Rights, Logging, Mammals, Natural Capital, Peatlands, Plantations, Poaching, Politics, Pollution, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Primary Forests, Primates, Protected Areas, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Reptiles, Research, Roads, Saving Rainforests, Saving Species From Extinction, Social Justice, Solutions, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Forest Management, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, Traditional People, Trees, Tropical Forests, Water, Wetlands, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[DFFF2019]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The chief minister of the Malaysian state of Sabah has called on construction crews working on the multi-billion-dollar Pan Borneo Highway project to avoid breaking up the region’s forests and other sensitive environments where possible. “I hope they take it seriously,” Chief Minister Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said March 21 at the Heart of Borneo [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The chief minister of the Malaysian state of Sabah has called on construction crews working on the multi-billion-dollar Pan Borneo Highway project to avoid breaking up the region’s forests and other sensitive environments where possible. “I hope they take it seriously,” Chief Minister Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said March 21 at the Heart of Borneo conference in Kota Kinabalu, the state capital, according to The Star newspaper. “I told them not to flatten hills and chop trees, but just expand existing roads that we have.” Crews level out a new stretch of the Pan Borneo Highway south of Kota Kinabalu. Image by John C. Cannon/Mongabay. Widening the roadways that are already there, instead of clearing new land for realignments, will also speed up the road’s construction, Shafie added. A group of NGOs and scientific organizations in Sabah called Coalition 3H, short for Humans Habitats Highways, applauded the chief minister’s support for protecting Sabah’s forests in a statement, published March 25 in full by The Borneo Post newspaper. Benoit Goossens, a biologist who directs the Danau Girang Field Centre in Sabah, said Shafie’s stated position on the Pan Borneo Highway was a “big relief,” according to the statement. Danau Girang is a Coalition 3H member. A two-lane road along Sabah&#8217;s northwest coast would cut through delicate mangrove forests, conservation groups say. Image courtesy of Coalition 3H. In recent years, work on the Pan Borneo Highway began as part of a multi-year project to develop and upgrade the &#8220;transportation backbone of the states&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/malaysian-state-chief-highway-construction-shouldnt-destroy-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-216880</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>European Parliament to vote on timber legality agreement with Vietnam</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/european-parliament-to-vote-on-timber-legality-agreement-with-vietnam/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/european-parliament-to-vote-on-timber-legality-agreement-with-vietnam/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Mar 2019 11:22:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/03/11042452/DRC-TRANS-M_de%CC%81bardage5.4d3d61e6dee643a99b0bb20f095a88c6-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=216411</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Animals, Avoided Deforestation, Biodiversity, Birds, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, climate finance, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Environmental Law, Fires, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Fragmentation, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Illegal Logging, Lacey Act, Law, Law Enforcement, Logging, Mitigation, NGOs, Plantations, Politics, Primary Forests, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Roads, Saving Rainforests, Soil Carbon, Solutions, Species Discovery, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, Timber Laws, Traditional People, Trees, Tropical Forests, Wetlands, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[GLO-4060 QZA-16/0047.4]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[UPDATE (19 March 2019): The European Parliament voted March 12 to consent to the VPA with Vietnam by a vote of 632-14 with 23 abstentions. The resolution, including the explanatory statement outlined below, also passed by a similar margin. Members of the European Parliament will vote Tuesday on a resolution to consent to the EU’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[UPDATE (19 March 2019): The European Parliament voted March 12 to consent to the VPA with Vietnam by a vote of 632-14 with 23 abstentions. The resolution, including the explanatory statement outlined below, also passed by a similar margin. Members of the European Parliament will vote Tuesday on a resolution to consent to the EU’s Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with Vietnam, aimed at improving the legality of wood and wood products flowing from the country into the EU. Observers expect the vote to pass in favor of the VPA but have voiced concerns that Vietnam doesn’t yet have adequate enforcement capacity to guarantee that the exported wood comes from legally harvested sources, especially with wood that Vietnam imports from other countries. “If there aren’t rigorous import controls in Vietnam, then there’s no guarantee that illegal timber won’t be running through that supply chain,” Jo Blackman, the head of forests policy and advocacy for the London-based watchdog NGO Global Witness, told Mongabay. Rainforest in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Image courtesy of Global Witness. Representatives from Vietnam and the EU signed a VPA on Oct. 19, 2018, after nearly eight years of negotiations. VPAs are a step toward licensing under the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, with the goal of ending the flow into the EU of wood that has not been harvested in accordance with the laws of the country where it originated. The EU has signed or is negotiating VPAs with 14 other countries around&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/european-parliament-to-vote-on-timber-legality-agreement-with-vietnam/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/european-parliament-to-vote-on-timber-legality-agreement-with-vietnam/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-216411</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Guatemala: Proposed new park on indigenous land treads fine ethical line</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/guatemala-proposed-new-park-on-indigenous-land-treads-fine-ethical-line/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/guatemala-proposed-new-park-on-indigenous-land-treads-fine-ethical-line/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Mar 2019 16:26:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/03/04160113/belize_8749-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=216142</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Cloud Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Deforestation, Development, Environment, Forests, Governance, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Logging, Population, Protected Areas, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[CSK2018]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LA GLORIA, Guatemala — The sun was still rising when Ovidio Yat Sacul set out, machete in hand, in search of a waterfall near the top of the mountain overlooking his village. The mountain is called Cerro Amay, a mix of Spanish and the indigenous Q’eqchi’ language meaning “mountain where one cannot survive.” And at [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LA GLORIA, Guatemala — The sun was still rising when Ovidio Yat Sacul set out, machete in hand, in search of a waterfall near the top of the mountain overlooking his village. The mountain is called Cerro Amay, a mix of Spanish and the indigenous Q’eqchi’ language meaning “mountain where one cannot survive.” And at 2,600 meters (8,530 feet) above sea level, it resembles many of the small, rounded peaks that populate much of central Guatemala. But Cerro Amay is different. It has something special other mountains don’t. At the top sits more than 250 square kilometers (97 square miles) of cloud forest, an extremely rare type of forest that forms in cooler, low-light mountain environments, and exists in a near-constant fog. That would not make Sacul’s hike an easy one. Because Cerro Amay is a cloud forest, it exists in a near-constant fog. Image by Max Radwin for Mongabay. From a plastic container, he took out tortillas, beans and eggs to share with the two friends accompanying him, Elías Barrera and Pedro Chipel. “We’re going to need the energy,” he told them. The three men hiked for nearly three hours through the forest on a trail that was often too overgrown to see. Fallen trees blocked the way. The footing was slippery. Cloud forests have the unique characteristic of gathering water not just from rainfall, but also by stripping it from the air. Almost everything was wet to the touch. Moss covered the ground. Their hike passed through a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/guatemala-proposed-new-park-on-indigenous-land-treads-fine-ethical-line/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/guatemala-proposed-new-park-on-indigenous-land-treads-fine-ethical-line/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-216142</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>DRC’s Virunga to welcome visitors again after 8-month closure</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/drcs-virunga-to-welcome-visitors-again-after-8-month-closure/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/drcs-virunga-to-welcome-visitors-again-after-8-month-closure/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Feb 2019 10:51:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/02/14081913/20140406-112415.62a5cb6cc237443b8b074aba56935b33-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=215465</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests and Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and East Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, charcoal, Cloud Forests, Conflict, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Ecotourism, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Gorillas, Great Apes, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, Montane Forests, Mountains, National Parks, Parks, Primary Forests, Primates, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Tourism, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rangers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[GLO-4060 QZA-16/0047.4]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Virunga National Park in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo will reopen its gates to tourists on Feb. 15 after officials closed them more than eight months ago. A spate of violence in the first half of 2018 led the park’s director, Emmanuel de Merode, to shutter its tourism operations to shore up security for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Virunga National Park in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo will reopen its gates to tourists on Feb. 15 after officials closed them more than eight months ago. A spate of violence in the first half of 2018 led the park’s director, Emmanuel de Merode, to shutter its tourism operations to shore up security for visitors and the 600 guards who patrol the park’s 7,800 square kilometers (3,000 square miles). Despite decades of unpredictable violence in the province of North Kivu where the park sits, Virunga had continued to draw visitors eager to see its mountain gorillas and other diverse wildlife, as well as Mount Nyiragongo, an active volcano. A sign welcomes visitors to a site in Virunga National Park, the oldest national park in Africa. Image by John C. Cannon/Mongabay. But two bloody months in 2018 necessitated a change, de Merode said. In April, members of one of the militia groups that stalk the forests around Virunga killed six guards in an ambush. Then, in May, another guard was killed and two British tourists were abducted in a militia attack as they were being driven through the park. The attackers also injured the driver, though they released the tourists the next day. “The safety of our visitors will always be our highest priority,” de Merode said in a statement as reported by The Guardian newspaper. “It is abundantly clear that the Virunga is deeply affected by insecurity and that this will be the case for some time. For Virunga&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/drcs-virunga-to-welcome-visitors-again-after-8-month-closure/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-215465</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Latam Eco Review:  Industrial fishing in the Galapagos, fracking Colombian cloud forests, whale sharks in Peru</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/latam-eco-review-industrial-fishing-in-the-galapagos-fracking-colombian-cloud-forests-whale-sharks-in-peru/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/latam-eco-review-industrial-fishing-in-the-galapagos-fracking-colombian-cloud-forests-whale-sharks-in-peru/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Sep 2018 09:05:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maria Angeles Salazar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/08/31112558/Chipi-chipi-2-Mileniusz-Spanowicz_WCS-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=209899</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Environment, Fishing, Forests, Fracking, Indigenous Peoples, Mercury, Mining, Pollution, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The most popular stories from our Spanish-language service, Mongabay-Latam, this past week followed high-volume fishing in the Galapagos, oil drilling in Colombian cloud forests, mercury levels in the Peruvian Amazon, whale sharks in Peru, and tiny catfish in Bolivia. A year after Ecuador captured Chinese shark cargo, high-volume fishing continues A year ago, an illegal [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The most popular stories from our Spanish-language service, Mongabay-Latam, this past week followed high-volume fishing in the Galapagos, oil drilling in Colombian cloud forests, mercury levels in the Peruvian Amazon, whale sharks in Peru, and tiny catfish in Bolivia. A year after Ecuador captured Chinese shark cargo, high-volume fishing continues A year ago, an illegal fishing boat was seized with 6,200 sharks of all sizes and weighing 300 tons in the ship’s hull. Most were highly migratory species protected under international law, such as hammerhead (Sphyrnidae), whale (Rhincodon typus), Galapagos (Carcharhinus galapagensis), blacktip reef (Carcharhinus melanopterus) and silky (Carcharhinus falciformis) sharks. A year later, though, high-volume fishing continues in the Galapagos, said Walter Bustos, former executive director of Galapagos National Park, in a recent interview. Juvenile sharks found in the hull of the Fu Yuan Yu Leng ship. Image courtesy of Galapagos National Park. Colombian cloud forest communities brace for fracking The end of Colombia’s rebel conflict has renewed oil interest in the Galilea cloud forest, a strategic headwater for the center of the country, and where an environmental group is scrambling to establish a 330-square-kilometer (127-square-mile) conservation area by August 2019. While conventional exploration has resumed, fracking is also a possibility, and local communities fear that this relatively pristine area is now in the hands of companies with licenses operating without their consent. Always under cloud cover, the Galilea forest is one of the few remaining cloud forests in Colombia. Image by Cortolima. Tons of mercury dumped into Peru’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/latam-eco-review-industrial-fishing-in-the-galapagos-fracking-colombian-cloud-forests-whale-sharks-in-peru/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/latam-eco-review-industrial-fishing-in-the-galapagos-fracking-colombian-cloud-forests-whale-sharks-in-peru/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-209899</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Researchers are looking into the past to help ensure a future for tropical forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/researchers-are-looking-into-the-past-to-help-ensure-a-future-for-tropical-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/researchers-are-looking-into-the-past-to-help-ensure-a-future-for-tropical-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jul 2018 10:06:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/07/30100026/wide-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=208779</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Ecuador, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Archeology, Cloud Forests, Deforestation, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Farming, Forests, History, Rainforests, Ranching, Research, Restoration, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At 1,200 to 3,200 meters above sea level, the montane cloud forests on the eastern Andean flank in Ecuador lie between the Andes’ high-elevation grasslands (known as páramo) and the tropical rainforests of the Amazon Basin. They are incredibly biodiverse and densely populated with moisture-loving trees and plants that cling to the steep Andean slopes, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At 1,200 to 3,200 meters above sea level, the montane cloud forests on the eastern Andean flank in Ecuador lie between the Andes’ high-elevation grasslands (known as páramo) and the tropical rainforests of the Amazon Basin. They are incredibly biodiverse and densely populated with moisture-loving trees and plants that cling to the steep Andean slopes, but the more accessible areas have been cleared for agriculture and cattle ranching, while ongoing deforestation is making landslides and fires worse. Of course, Ecuador’s cloud forests are hardly unique in this respect: forests the world over are being destroyed to make way for agriculture and ranching operations. As we seek to reverse global trends of deforestation and forest degradation, researchers are peering into the past to help chart a course forward for imperiled tropical forests. A study published in Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution earlier this month shows that tropical forests may be more resilient in the face of human pressures than previously thought. The study, led by Nicholas Loughlin of the UK’s Open University (OU), determined that indigenous peoples farmed the land intensively before European colonists arrived. In fact, “prior to European arrival, indigenous peoples in the cloud forests of Ecuador modified landscapes to a greater degree than modern human populations,&#8221; including clearing even more of the cloud forests than we have cleared today, Loughlin told Mongabay. These intensive cultivation practices came to an abrupt end in the late 1500s as a result of the violence perpetrated against the indigenous peoples inhabiting the cloud&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/07/researchers-are-looking-into-the-past-to-help-ensure-a-future-for-tropical-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-208779</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>East Africa’s Albertine Rift needs protection now, scientists say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/east-africas-albertine-rift-needs-protection-now-scientists-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/east-africas-albertine-rift-needs-protection-now-scientists-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Feb 2018 07:54:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/02/14171513/4_Mountain-monkey_A.Plumptre_WCS-768x451.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=203809</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Burundi, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, East Africa, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Amphibians, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Birds, Cats, Chimpanzees, Climate Change, Cloud Forests, Conflict, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Fish, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Gorillas, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Lakes, Mammals, Monkeys, Montane Forests, National Parks, Parks, Poverty, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Rivers, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The equatorial ecosystems of the Albertine Rift are packed with plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth. Formed as tectonic plates in eastern Africa have slowly pulled away from each other for millions of years, the unique habitats in this epicenter of biodiversity have rapidly come under threat in recent decades from conflict, poverty [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[The equatorial ecosystems of the Albertine Rift are packed with plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth. Formed as tectonic plates in eastern Africa have slowly pulled away from each other for millions of years, the unique habitats in this epicenter of biodiversity have rapidly come under threat in recent decades from conflict, poverty and a booming human population. Now, a coalition of conservation groups is working with authorities to mobilize a plan to protect the cloud and lowland rainforests, the lakes and rivers, and the savannas and wetlands that stretch from Lake Albert south to Lake Tanganyika. The six landscapes of the Albertine Rift. Image courtesy of WCS. “The Albertine Rift is the most important site for vertebrate conservation in Africa, with more endemic and globally threatened vertebrates than any other region of the continent,” Andy Plumptre, a conservation biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Africa program and the paper’s lead author, said in a statement. WCS, in concert with local NGOs and the governments of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, has pulled together research spanning 16 years. They’ve used these investigations to better understand the six geographic landscapes selected for the high concentrations of unique and threatened species they contain, and they’ve put forth detailed plans to protect them. According to the report, the scientists estimate that it will cost about $21 million a year to set their proposals in motion, a figure they argue “offers a greater ‘bang for the buck’&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/east-africas-albertine-rift-needs-protection-now-scientists-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-203809</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why losing big animals causes big problems in tropical forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/06/why-losing-big-animals-causes-big-problems-in-tropical-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/06/why-losing-big-animals-causes-big-problems-in-tropical-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Jun 2017 04:20:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/06/14031240/Pyroderus_scutatus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=196551</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Andes, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Defaunation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Hunting, Logging, Megafauna, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There’s no doubt that animals play critical roles in maintaining healthy forests. In these species-rich ecosystems, birds and mammals – especially large ones – ingest seeds from all kinds of plants and, ahem, distribute them around the forest. If those seeds take root and grow, it closes the circle and the forest’s diverse mix of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[There’s no doubt that animals play critical roles in maintaining healthy forests. In these species-rich ecosystems, birds and mammals – especially large ones – ingest seeds from all kinds of plants and, ahem, distribute them around the forest. If those seeds take root and grow, it closes the circle and the forest’s diverse mix of plant life remains intact. However, as large animals – the ones that humans are most likely to hunt and that are most affected by forest loss – disappear from the ecosystem the forest’s plant biodiversity goes down. But why that happens hasn’t been clear. The mountain toucan (Andigena sp.), pictured here in Colombia, is a common fruit-eating bird in the Andes. Photo by Matthias Schleuning. To address this question, a team of scientists from Spain and Germany developed a mathematical model to test the effects of different variables on forest biodiversity, as well as how many seeds actually become seedlings. They reported their results in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B on May 31, demonstrating that the relationship between the sizes of birds and seeds can help explain why large animals can play an outsized role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem. In this case, the team, led by doctoral student and ecologist Isabel Donoso of the University of Oviedo in Spain, looked at large frugivorous, or fruit-eating, birds. “It has been suggested that big frugivores are important, but why?” Donoso said in an interview. Field data collected by Donoso’s coauthors in Peru’s Manu Biosphere Reserve,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/06/why-losing-big-animals-causes-big-problems-in-tropical-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-196551</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>13,000 acres of cloud forest now protected in Colombia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/13000-acres-of-cloud-forest-now-protected-in-colombia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/13000-acres-of-cloud-forest-now-protected-in-colombia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Mar 2017 07:37:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lillie Howell]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maria Angeles Salazar]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/03/30124008/woodnymph-683x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=194056</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Andes, Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Habitat Loss, Jaguars, Monkeys, Protected Areas, Rivers, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The cloud forest ecoregion of the Colombian Andes is arguably the most biodiverse in the world. A moist climate, varying altitudes, and high rates of endemism create idyllic conditions for life. However, cloud forests are also under siege from numerous human-related threats such as climate change, mining, commercial logging, and subsistence hunting. Though there is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The cloud forest ecoregion of the Colombian Andes is arguably the most biodiverse in the world. A moist climate, varying altitudes, and high rates of endemism create idyllic conditions for life. However, cloud forests are also under siege from numerous human-related threats such as climate change, mining, commercial logging, and subsistence hunting. Though there is no foreseeable end to the epic battle between forest loss and forest conservation in South America, conservationists won a small victory in December 2016 with the creation of the 13,000 acre (5,261 hectare) Cacica Noría Regional Protected Area in Colombia. The Regional Environmental Agency, CorAntioquia, as well as the Anorí Environmental Working Group will manage the reserve. The cloud forests of the new Cacica Noría Regional Protected Area &#8211; in all its glory! Photo credit: Adolfo Correa, CorAntioquia “[Cacica Noría Regional Protected Area] is a nature reserve that will place Colombia before the eyes of the world,” said Adolfo Correa with CorAntioquia. “The intention is to widen the area from there to better create local and regional benefits, including improving water supply, climate regulation, wildlife shelter for pest-controlling species, and nesting and reproduction sites for emblematic national species. It will also be a place for visitors who are interested in conservation.” The establishment of the reserve was made possible in part by Nature and Culture International, which funded the scientific research and community outreach. Cacica Noría will protect plant species ravaged by commercial logging such as the black oak (Trigonobalanus excelsa) and the comino tree&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/13000-acres-of-cloud-forest-now-protected-in-colombia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-194056</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate change pledges not nearly enough to save tropical ecosystems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/08/climate-change-pledges-not-nearly-enough-to-save-tropical-ecosystems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/08/climate-change-pledges-not-nearly-enough-to-save-tropical-ecosystems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Aug 2016 16:38:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/08/01193007/final-featured-388x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=188660</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Science, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Ecology, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Extreme Weather, Fish, Forests, Frogs, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Mangroves, Mass Extinction, Mitigation, Oceans, Overpopulation, Politics, Rainforests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Paris Agreement marked the biggest political milestone to combat climate change since scientists first introduced us in the late 1980s to perhaps humanity’s greatest existential crisis. Last December, 178 nations pledged to do their part to keep global average temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over preindustrial levels — [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[US Secretary of State John Kerry signs the Paris Agreement at the UN in New York while holding granddaughter Dobbs Higginson on his lap. Scientists warn that the agreement is insufficient to prevent disastrous climate change. Photo courtesy of US Department of State. The Paris Agreement marked the biggest political milestone to combat climate change since scientists first introduced us in the late 1980s to perhaps humanity’s greatest existential crisis. Last December, 178 nations pledged to do their part to keep global average temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over preindustrial levels — adding on an even more challenging, but aspirational goal of holding temperatures at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). To this end, each nation produced a pledge to cut it’s own carbon emissions, targeting everything from the burning of fossil fuels to deforestation to agriculture. It seems like a Herculean task, bound, the optimistic say, to bring positive results. Yet, less than eight months later, a study in the journal Nature finds that those pledges are nowhere near as ambitious as they need to be to keep temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius, let alone 1.5 degrees. And in August, British scientists reported that this year’s record El Niño has already pushed us perilously close to the 1.5 degree milestone. The Bramble cay melomy (Melomys rubicola) declared extinct in 2016 due to habitat loss due to rising sea levels, the first mammal known to go extinct due to human caused climate change. Photo&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/08/climate-change-pledges-not-nearly-enough-to-save-tropical-ecosystems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-188660</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New orange-black snake discovered in Mexico</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/08/new-orange-black-snake-discovered-in-mexico/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/08/new-orange-black-snake-discovered-in-mexico/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Aug 2016 11:23:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/08/01193051/earth-snake-480x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=188656</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cloud Forests, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Herps, Reptiles, Snakes, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have described a strikingly colored new species of snake from the mountains of east-central Mexico. This snake, with a vivid orange and black banding pattern on its body, belongs to the genus Geophis, a group that is commonly referred to as earth snakes. Researchers have named the new species Geophis lorancai in honor of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Scientists have described a strikingly colored new species of snake from the mountains of east-central Mexico. This snake, with a vivid orange and black banding pattern on its body, belongs to the genus Geophis, a group that is commonly referred to as earth snakes. Researchers have named the new species Geophis lorancai in honor of biologist Miguel Ángel de la Torre Loranca, who collected most of the specimens of the new species from the the mountains of the Sierra Zongolica in west-central Veracruz in Mexico. With the description of G. lorancai, the number of species in this genus increases to 50, the researchers write in a new study published in ZooKeys, making this the most species-rich genus of snake in the Western Hemisphere. G. lorancai is the fourth new species described by biologist Adrian Nieto-Montes de Oca of National Autonomous University of Mexico and his collaborators from the Mexican highlands. Over the last 14 years, the team has discovered other species of earth snakes in Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Puebla in Mexico. A specimen of the new species, Geophis loranca, in life. Photo credit: Miguel Ángel de la Torre Loranca. Snakes of the Geophis group are usually elusive and poorly understood. Moreover, these burrowing reptiles have restricted distribution, making them vulnerable to extinction, scientists say. &#8220;Most of these snakes have notably small geographic ranges and sometimes are only found in one type of vegetation,” the scientists note in a statement. “This makes them particularly vulnerable to the destruction of their habitat. It&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/08/new-orange-black-snake-discovered-in-mexico/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-188656</doi>				</item>
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