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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/community-development/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sat, 15 Aug 2026 15:41:02 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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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 Community Development</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/community-development/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>A Tunisian phosphate plant that sickens children so US, Europe can get fertilizer</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-tunisian-phosphate-plant-that-sickens-children-so-us-europe-can-get-fertilizer/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-tunisian-phosphate-plant-that-sickens-children-so-us-europe-can-get-fertilizer/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jul 2026 02:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dawn KikelElisângela MendonçaKhadija Ben Salah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/21020526/h-KhadijaBenSalah-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324147</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, North Africa, and Tunisia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agrochemicals, Air Pollution, Business, Chemicals, Community Development, Environment, Fertilizers, Health, Industry, Mongabay investigation, Pollution, and Public Health]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Dalila grew up in the Tunisian coastal city of Gabès and is accustomed to the heavy, acrid smell from the state-owned phosphate processing plant about a 10-minute walk from her home. On days when noxious fumes fill the air, Dalila rushes to tightly shut the windows and tells her children to hurry indoors. She washes [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Dalila grew up in the Tunisian coastal city of Gabès and is accustomed to the heavy, acrid smell from the state-owned phosphate processing plant about a 10-minute walk from her home. On days when noxious fumes fill the air, Dalila rushes to tightly shut the windows and tells her children to hurry indoors. She washes them, believing it lessens harmful effects from chemicals. Emissions can last all day. Residents may get little or no advance warning. But one day in September 2025, children were at school when gases spread. Some students fell to the ground, complaining they had difficulty breathing. Others said they felt like they were suffocating. Dalila’s daughter said she felt like she was choking. Dalila rushed her to a government-run hospital. When she asked about test results or the type of substances that may have caused her difficulty breathing, Dalila said she did not get clear answers. The incident sickening the schoolchildren helped spark mass protests in the streets of Gabès, with people waving banners that read “Stop Pollution” and “Move The Plant.” It is not the first time that residents have protested water and air pollution from the factory. Dalila feels that she and others in Gabès are being ignored. They are far from alone. Fishermen report coastal waters were once abundant with fish, but, now, their nets come up empty. Scientific studies provide evidence that environmental damage poses a danger to the health of those living nearby. People take part in a demonstration against pollution&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-tunisian-phosphate-plant-that-sickens-children-so-us-europe-can-get-fertilizer/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-tunisian-phosphate-plant-that-sickens-children-so-us-europe-can-get-fertilizer/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324147</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fighting new oil blocks in the Congo Basin: Interview with activist Pascal Mirindi</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fighting-new-oil-blocks-in-the-congo-basin-interview-with-activist-pascal-mirindi/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fighting-new-oil-blocks-in-the-congo-basin-interview-with-activist-pascal-mirindi/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jul 2026 15:49:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dan Yessa]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/16122152/oil-in-drc-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323702</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Energy, Environment, Fellows, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Mongabay.org, Oil, Oil Drilling, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Pascal Mirindi is a young environmental activist based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, born in Goma. He was a member of a nonviolent movement, La LUCHA, fighting for democracy in the DRC. La LUCHA initiated him into nonviolent activism, but he used that opportunity to fight for Congolese ecosystems. Since 2024, Mirindi has been [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Pascal Mirindi is a young environmental activist based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, born in Goma. He was a member of a nonviolent movement, La LUCHA, fighting for democracy in the DRC. La LUCHA initiated him into nonviolent activism, but he used that opportunity to fight for Congolese ecosystems. Since 2024, Mirindi has been one of the main resistance forces against mineral, oil and gas exploitation inside the Congo Basin. Through campaigns and community awareness, he and his colleagues have successfully driven out oil exploration inside Virunga National Park. Now, Mirindi is fighting against the exploitation of 30 new oil blocks that cover 72% of the Congo Green Corridor, the country’s most emblematic conservation project, which spans a large part of the Congo Basin, home to thousands of animals and a lifeline for many communities in the DRC. Mirindi spoke with Mongabay in June, discussing what it means to resist from the inside and make a difference on a global scale, protecting the homes of endangered species such as mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) and okapis (Okapia johnstoni), endemic to the region. Pascal Mirindi&#8217;s first visit with the director of Virunga National Park, Emmanuel de Merode, in 2022. Image courtesy of Pascal Mirindi. This interview has been translated from French and edited for length and clarity. Mongabay: Who is Pascal Mirindi? Pascal Mirindi: I am Congolese; I was born in Goma in 1999. I have been an activist since I was 15 years old. I started in the citizen&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fighting-new-oil-blocks-in-the-congo-basin-interview-with-activist-pascal-mirindi/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fighting-new-oil-blocks-in-the-congo-basin-interview-with-activist-pascal-mirindi/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323702</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Community conservation under fire: Interview with Myanmar’s Clean Mountains founder</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/community-conservation-under-fire-interview-with-myanmars-clean-mountains-founder/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/community-conservation-under-fire-interview-with-myanmars-clean-mountains-founder/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2026 18:51:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Esther J]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/13175110/4-Local-community-in-Karenni-collect-garbage-2025-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323228</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Myanmar, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Environment, Fellows, forest degradation, Gender, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Mongabay.org, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Myanmar experienced a military coup in February 2021. In the aftermath, widespread repression by the military regime fueled the emergence of armed resistance movements across the country, pushing an ongoing conflict to its most intense level in decades. Starting from 2024, the military&#8217;s conscription law has further threatened the lives and futures of young people, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Myanmar experienced a military coup in February 2021. In the aftermath, widespread repression by the military regime fueled the emergence of armed resistance movements across the country, pushing an ongoing conflict to its most intense level in decades. Starting from 2024, the military&#8217;s conscription law has further threatened the lives and futures of young people, forcing thousands to leave the country. Meanwhile, environmental degradation continues to worsen. People are facing multiple crises, including environmental destruction caused by the overexploitation of natural resources, natural disasters, armed conflict, and human rights violations by the military regime. The democratic freedoms that used to exist during the five years of semi-civilian government before the coup have disappeared. Within this context, environmental activism and conservation efforts have widely faded. Yet, against this backdrop, the environmental group Clean Mountains was established in 2024 and is based in the conflict-affected states of Karenni (Kayah) and Karen (Kayin), areas controlled by resistance forces. The organization — funded through grants and donations — is a small, women-led team of four members between the ages of 22 and 28. The group&#8217;s founder, Ou Ou, 27, leads Clean Mountains in implementing community-based conservation in conflict-affected mountainous regions, focusing on waste management, water conservation, sustainable agriculture and forest conservation. Ou Ou, founder of Clean Mountains, attends an awareness session on waste management in Bago region, 2025. Image courtesy of Clean Mountains. Through both her previous organization and Clean Mountains, waste management systems have been established in more than 130 villages, including 15&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/community-conservation-under-fire-interview-with-myanmars-clean-mountains-founder/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/community-conservation-under-fire-interview-with-myanmars-clean-mountains-founder/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323228</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Could a blighted urban inlet become a global beacon of waterway renewal?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/could-a-blighted-urban-inlet-become-a-global-beacon-of-waterway-renewal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/could-a-blighted-urban-inlet-become-a-global-beacon-of-waterway-renewal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jul 2026 18:52:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jennifer Cole]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/08165500/54032733335_fa695ecfe0_4k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322901</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cities, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Development, Environment, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Pollution, urban ecology, Waste, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[VANCOUVER — Two hundred years ago, Talaysay Campo’s ancestors harvested clams and cockles along the shore of Vancouver’s False Creek. &#8220;It was a huge aquaculture site,&#8221; Campo, a member of the Squamish First Nation and operations manager of Talaysay Tours, a company dedicated to sharing the history of Indigenous peoples, tells Mongabay. Today, little remains [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[VANCOUVER — Two hundred years ago, Talaysay Campo’s ancestors harvested clams and cockles along the shore of Vancouver’s False Creek. &#8220;It was a huge aquaculture site,&#8221; Campo, a member of the Squamish First Nation and operations manager of Talaysay Tours, a company dedicated to sharing the history of Indigenous peoples, tells Mongabay. Today, little remains of the abundance Campo describes. Even the name False Creek obscures the ecological richness that once defined the waterbody. This narrow, 3-kilometer (almost 2-mile) long waterway traversing the heart of Vancouver is not a freshwater creek as the name implies, but a saltwater tidal inlet. It received its name in 1859 from a British sea captain who discovered he’d been mistaken in believing he’d been traveling through a creek and called it False Creek as a warning to other mariners. As European settlement expanded across the region, mandates from newly formed colonial governments permitted the destruction of Indigenous villages along the shoreline of False Creek, forcing First Nations people onto government reserves. The inlet became a mecca for industry. Sawmills, manufacturing plants, railyards and warehouses replaced the sea gardens rimmed with rocks and home to octopus and sea cucumber. Relics of Science World from the World Expo of 1986 on False Creek, Vancouver. Image by Jennifer Cole for Mongabay. In 1986, the World Expo on transportation and communication turned the industrial wasteland on shore into 70 hectares (173 acres) of futuristic pavilions and temporary event space. In the decades since, the pavilions have given way&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/could-a-blighted-urban-inlet-become-a-global-beacon-of-waterway-renewal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/could-a-blighted-urban-inlet-become-a-global-beacon-of-waterway-renewal/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322901</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A fraction of promised climate money reaches Amazon communities: Interview with Latimpacto’s leaders</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-fraction-of-promised-climate-money-reaches-amazon-communities-interview-with-latimpactos-leaders/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-fraction-of-promised-climate-money-reaches-amazon-communities-interview-with-latimpactos-leaders/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jul 2026 13:41:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Beverley Choo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/08133405/Indigenous-peoples-sing-and-dance-as-they-participate-in-an-opening-ceremony-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322870</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Finance, Forests, Funding, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Interviews, Law, philanthropy, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon is the largest rainforest on Earth, with many funders making financial commitments to conserve this crucial ecosystem. Yet, when the declarations are traced to the ground, the capital is rarely there. This is especially true for Indigenous and local communities that steward and depend on this ecosystem but remain severely under-resourced and overlooked. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon is the largest rainforest on Earth, with many funders making financial commitments to conserve this crucial ecosystem. Yet, when the declarations are traced to the ground, the capital is rarely there. This is especially true for Indigenous and local communities that steward and depend on this ecosystem but remain severely under-resourced and overlooked. Carolina Suárez Visbal and Juan David Ferreira know this pattern well. As CEO and programs director of Latimpacto — a Colombia-based network dedicated to mobilizing philanthropic and impact capital across Latin America — they have spent years navigating the gap between what the world promises the Amazon and what actually reaches the communities living within it. &#8220;One thing that worries us at Latimpacto about capital deployment is that people keep announcing funds and initiatives, but when you trace the record, this capital turns out to be very difficult to actually mobilize,&#8221; Ferreira told Mongabay at the Philanthropy Asia Summit 2026 in Singapore. &#8220;The investment thesis or the objectives of the fund do not align with the realities and the territories.&#8221; Latimpacto&#8217;s response has been to create infrastructure to build capacity for regional environmental funding. The organization&#8217;s Pan-Amazon Fellowship reshapes how capital is structured and deployed in the ecosystem by training funders to understand the Amazon not as a monolithic rainforest but as a heterogeneous and dynamic place with nine distinct national contexts, and both isolated Indigenous communities and cities of over 2 million people. Latimpacto&#8217;s initiative InNature Lab redefines what innovation means in an Amazonian&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-fraction-of-promised-climate-money-reaches-amazon-communities-interview-with-latimpactos-leaders/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-fraction-of-promised-climate-money-reaches-amazon-communities-interview-with-latimpactos-leaders/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322870</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Declining carp fishes in Bangladesh&#8217;s Kaptai Lake leave small-scale fishers struggling</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/declining-carp-fishes-in-bangladeshs-kaptai-lake-leave-small-scale-fishers-struggling/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/declining-carp-fishes-in-bangladeshs-kaptai-lake-leave-small-scale-fishers-struggling/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jul 2026 13:37:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sifayet Ullah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/03120854/52968673629_93956cfcf2_4k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322452</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community Development, Conservation, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Habitat Degradation, Lakes, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A faded towel draped over his shoulders, 53-year-old Khokon Jaladas sat quietly in the yard of his home. Just beyond his house, a few fishing boats moored in Kaptai Lake, the largest manmade reservoir in Bangladesh. He watched them quietly. Until a few years ago, he would have been out on the water too, spending [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A faded towel draped over his shoulders, 53-year-old Khokon Jaladas sat quietly in the yard of his home. Just beyond his house, a few fishing boats moored in Kaptai Lake, the largest manmade reservoir in Bangladesh. He watched them quietly. Until a few years ago, he would have been out on the water too, spending long hours casting nets and trying to catch enough fish to feed his family. But now, fishing alone is no longer enough for him. To make ends meet, he works as a laborer in the boat building sector while continuing to fish whenever he can. “There used to be plenty of carp fish. We could catch fish easily and earned Tk 1200 ($10) to 1600 ($13) per day. But now, catches of high-value carp species dwindled,” Khokon said from Old Jelepara, a settlement on the edge of the lake in Rangamati district’s Sadar upazila (sub-district). “Sometimes, I return home empty handed from the lake. For this, it would be difficult to support my six-member family without doing other work,” Khokon said. Around Kaptai Lake, Khokon’s story is becoming far too common. For generations, the fishers met their livelihoods catching high-value carp species. As these fish become harder to find, many have no choice but to leave the profession. Created by a hydroelectric dam on the Karnaphuli River in 1960, the Kaptai Lake is one of Bangladesh’s most important hubs of inland fisheries. Fisherman Khokon Jaladas sits in the yard of his home near Kaptai Lake,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/declining-carp-fishes-in-bangladeshs-kaptai-lake-leave-small-scale-fishers-struggling/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/declining-carp-fishes-in-bangladeshs-kaptai-lake-leave-small-scale-fishers-struggling/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322452</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A coastal Philippine farm offers a blueprint for farming with wetlands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-coastal-philippine-farm-offers-a-blueprint-for-farming-with-wetlands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-coastal-philippine-farm-offers-a-blueprint-for-farming-with-wetlands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jun 2026 23:46:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mavic Conde]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/26091213/Nenieveh-Glinoga-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321890</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Coastal Ecosystems, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Farming, Mangroves, Marine, and Sustainable Forest Management]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PITOGO, Philippines — The Glinoga Integrated Farm in Quezon province sits among brackish fishponds, some active, others long abandoned and slowly reclaimed by the landscape. About a four-hour drive from Manila, the farm in Pitogo municipality can be reached by land or sea. Both routes pass through mangroves. “We raised the embankment and kept the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PITOGO, Philippines — The Glinoga Integrated Farm in Quezon province sits among brackish fishponds, some active, others long abandoned and slowly reclaimed by the landscape. About a four-hour drive from Manila, the farm in Pitogo municipality can be reached by land or sea. Both routes pass through mangroves. “We raised the embankment and kept the mangroves, because the lowest part often floods,” Ninieveh Glinoga, who manages the farm, told Mongabay during a visit in May. The farm’s coconut-covered slopes lead to tidal rice paddies below and wetlands beyond, reflecting the mosaic landscape found across many Philippine coastal communities. As coastal developments across the Philippines erase wetlands that once buffered communities and sustained marine biodiversity, the farm offers a different model: food production intertwined with the coastal ecosystem rather than apart from it. Nipa is seen growing alongside mangroves, during low tide. Image by Mavic Conde for Mongabay. Working with water and natural topography Glinoga’s husband’s family has owned the land for generations. The coconut, cacao and sugarcane that once grew here abundantly sustained the family. But in 2008, the family visited the farm and found it nearly unrecognizable. Years of slash-and-burn farming by a tenant had stripped the land bare. Smoke rose from the ground. “The first thing the tenant fed us was native chicken. There were no greens, just salt,” Glinoga recalled. Her grandmother-in-law, who once managed the farm, could no longer visit due to old age. The relative who next took charge fell ill, leaving the tenant in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-coastal-philippine-farm-offers-a-blueprint-for-farming-with-wetlands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321890</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Three years after Cyclone Freddy, farms remain under water in Malawi’s Elephant Marsh</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/three-years-after-cyclone-freddy-farms-remain-under-water-in-malawis-elephant-marsh/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/three-years-after-cyclone-freddy-farms-remain-under-water-in-malawis-elephant-marsh/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jun 2026 10:39:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/25170622/original-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321815</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Community Development, Conservation, Disasters, Ecosystems, Environment, Extreme Weather, Farming, Fishing, Flooding, Freshwater, Storms, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NSANJE DISTRICT, Malawi — From his canoe, floating in a shallow channel in a corner of southern Malawi’s Elephant Marsh, Fred Nsema points at two palm trees standing knee-deep in a sprawling cover of water lilies and water hyacinth. Nsema used to shelter from the heat under them, sipping a traditional fermented drink prepared from [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[NSANJE DISTRICT, Malawi — From his canoe, floating in a shallow channel in a corner of southern Malawi’s Elephant Marsh, Fred Nsema points at two palm trees standing knee-deep in a sprawling cover of water lilies and water hyacinth. Nsema used to shelter from the heat under them, sipping a traditional fermented drink prepared from millet by his wife. But along with more than a 1,000 other families here in the Lower Shire Valley, home to Elephant Marsh, he and his wife lost their farmland to floods caused by Cyclone Freddy in 2023. “That field was our lifeline,” Nsema says as he uses a long bamboo pole to stop the canoe before it’s drawn into a channel of water rushing past the submerged site of his former farm. “We would harvest half a ton of cabbages there. Beans too, and rice and sweet potatoes. Twice a year for some of the crops. That farm was everything to us.” Fred Nsema’s (left) farm was flooded by Cyclone Freddy in 2023. The waters have still not receded. Image by Charles Mpaka for Mongabay. Hundreds of thousands of people in the Lower Shire Valley rely on the wetland for their livelihoods. According to the 2018 census, the population of the two districts that Elephant Marsh spreads across is 860,000 — a startling five-fold increase from the population figure recorded 10 years earlier. “It’s a vital resource for many people here; but that is also why it is under severe strain, because farming has&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/three-years-after-cyclone-freddy-farms-remain-under-water-in-malawis-elephant-marsh/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321815</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A blueprint for effective activism 10 years after defeating a dam in Borneo (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-blueprint-for-effective-activism-10-years-after-defeating-a-dam-in-borneo-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-blueprint-for-effective-activism-10-years-after-defeating-a-dam-in-borneo-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jun 2026 18:59:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jessica MerrimanJoe Lamb]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/09193920/Baram-dam-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320891</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Analysis, Commentary, Community Development, Conservation, Dams, Development, Ecosystems, Energy, Environment, Forests, Freshwater, Governance, Human Rights, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Rivers, Tropical Forests, and Tropics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In October 2015, Indigenous activists from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Brazil, the United States, and Honduras, together with delegates from longhouse communities throughout the Malaysian state of Sarawak, gathered at Tanjung Tepalit, an Indigenous Kenyah village on the Baram River on the island of Borneo. They called the gathering WISER: the World Indigenous Summit [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In October 2015, Indigenous activists from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Brazil, the United States, and Honduras, together with delegates from longhouse communities throughout the Malaysian state of Sarawak, gathered at Tanjung Tepalit, an Indigenous Kenyah village on the Baram River on the island of Borneo. They called the gathering WISER: the World Indigenous Summit on Environment and Rivers. Tanjung Tepalit hosted the gathering because the village, along with more than two dozen others along the river, was scheduled to be drowned. The Baram Dam, a 1,200-megawatt hydroelectric mega project backed by the Sarawak state government and aligned with a regional industrial development scheme called the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), would have flooded an area of more than 400 square kilometers (more than 150 square miles) and displaced an estimated 20,000 Kenyah, Kayan, and Penan people. Muslims, Catholics, Evangelicals, Buddhists, agnostics, and people who followed traditional Indigenous religions were among the attendees. As we gathered, Peter Kallang, the Kenyah founder and chair of the local advocacy group SAVE Rivers, addressed the assembly: &#8220;We are people of many faiths,&#8221; he said, &#8220;but we are united in one mission. To protect our forest homes and our ways of life.&#8221; In one sense the WISER gathering was a strategy meeting to coordinate an international coalition against a state-corporate project. In another, and perhaps deeper sense, WISER was rooted in something older. It was an assertion that the values that hold communities to their land across generations — the sanctity of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-blueprint-for-effective-activism-10-years-after-defeating-a-dam-in-borneo-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320891</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New study suggests Ethiopia’s protected areas may be impacting local well-being</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/new-study-suggests-ethiopias-protected-areas-may-be-impacting-local-wellbeing/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/new-study-suggests-ethiopias-protected-areas-may-be-impacting-local-wellbeing/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jun 2026 18:24:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Solomon Yimer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/30135620/Rira-village-kids-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320933</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Ethiopia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Conservation, Environment, food security, Governance, Poverty, Protected Areas, and Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study published in the journal Nature shows that Ethiopia’s protected areas successfully slowed deforestation, limited agricultural expansion and helped maintain grasslands. But the study also suggests the same conservation gains may also be linked to declines in food security and well-being for nearby communities — while underlining some caveats in their findings. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study published in the journal Nature shows that Ethiopia’s protected areas successfully slowed deforestation, limited agricultural expansion and helped maintain grasslands. But the study also suggests the same conservation gains may also be linked to declines in food security and well-being for nearby communities — while underlining some caveats in their findings. The study, conducted through collaboration between researchers in Ethiopia and the UK, and the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority, assessed both environmental and social outcomes across 25 protected areas in Ethiopia during the period 2000–2020. They measured forest cover, agricultural expansion, grasslands, food security, dietary diversity and material well-being. While protected areas were broadly effective at reducing environmental degradation despite mounting pressures from population growth, agricultural expansion, and land demand, the researchers found “trade-offs” between environmental and social outcomes in their assessments. Twelve of these protected areas experienced  positive environmental performance at the cost of social well-being. Meanwhile, five of the protected areas had “win-win” outcomes for biodiversity and social outcomes and three protected areas had “lose-lose” outcomes. “Ethiopia is exceptionally biodiverse, but also faces major challenges around poverty, food security and demand for land,” said Sophie Jago, lead author of the study and research assistant at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the UK. “The fact that protected areas are delivering measurable benefits for nature in this context is important … The difficult finding is that these environmental gains have come with costs for nearby communities, particularly around food security.” A ranger discusses with community members&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/new-study-suggests-ethiopias-protected-areas-may-be-impacting-local-wellbeing/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320933</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Movement gives African rural women farmers a voice, but still battles landownership</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/movement-gives-african-rural-women-farmers-a-voice-but-still-battles-landownership/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/movement-gives-african-rural-women-farmers-a-voice-but-still-battles-landownership/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jun 2026 10:56:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/06094714/WomanWithLandCert_ChipataZambia2017_USAIDFlickrBYNCSA2.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320693</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Community Development, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Farming, Food, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CHIRADZULU, Malawi — In Chiradzulu district in southern Malawi, 60 women who are members of the Rural Women’s Assembly grow fruits and vegetables alongside their staple crop, maize. In recent years, there’s been growing demand for their organically produced crops from buyers in the nearby city of Blantyre, Malawi’s commercial capital. The assembly’s chair in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CHIRADZULU, Malawi — In Chiradzulu district in southern Malawi, 60 women who are members of the Rural Women’s Assembly grow fruits and vegetables alongside their staple crop, maize. In recent years, there’s been growing demand for their organically produced crops from buyers in the nearby city of Blantyre, Malawi’s commercial capital. The assembly’s chair in Chiradzulu, Diana Sitima, runs a 3.5-hectare (8.6-acre) organic farm here. She says when she started the farm in 1993, she used to take the produce to consumers in Blantyre. “Now they are coming to us. They say our produce has a good taste,” Sitima says. According to the women, the biggest obstacles they face as farmers is that they lack land titles and capital to invest in their farming. As members of the RWA, these are the issues they discuss at their meetings and bring to their local council and central government for solutions. Ester Samuel spreads maize to dry in Balaka, Malawi. Image by CIMMYT via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) In 1998, not long after she got married, RWA member Lonely Kholowa’s parents gave her a piece of land to cultivate. But after her father passed away in 2009 — her mother had died seven years earlier — her father’s older brother grabbed the land, arguing that according to their culture, she belonged to the family of her mother who came from Machinga district in the east of the country. Today, Kholowa farms land in her husband’s village elsewhere in Chiradzulu. “I don’t have&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/movement-gives-african-rural-women-farmers-a-voice-but-still-battles-landownership/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320693</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rights groups renew call to free jailed Cambodian environmental activists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rights-groups-renew-call-to-free-jailed-cambodian-environmental-activists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rights-groups-renew-call-to-free-jailed-cambodian-environmental-activists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jun 2026 02:51:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/02191933/Phuon-Keorasmey-another-prominent-figure-of-Mother-Nature-Cambodia-is-arrested-on-July-2-2024_banner-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320620</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Climate Change, Community Development, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corruption, Crime, Deforestation, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Governance, Human Rights, Land Rights, Mining, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Seven hundred days after activists from the environmental group Mother Nature Cambodia were imprisoned on charges widely regarded as retaliatory for their activism, 73 international and Cambodian civil society organizations have renewed calls for their unconditional release. After a trial lasting just over a month, 10 activists from Mother Nature Cambodia were sentenced [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Seven hundred days after activists from the environmental group Mother Nature Cambodia were imprisoned on charges widely regarded as retaliatory for their activism, 73 international and Cambodian civil society organizations have renewed calls for their unconditional release. After a trial lasting just over a month, 10 activists from Mother Nature Cambodia were sentenced on July 2, 2024, to between six and eight years in prison. Only five of the defendants attended the hearings, which saw Long Kuntha, 28, Ly Chandaravuth, 26, Phuon Keoraksmey, 25, and Thun Ratha, 34, each sentenced to six years behind bars for plotting against the government; fellow activist Yim Leanghy, 36, received an eight-year sentence for both plotting against the government and insulting the king. The five activists who did not attend the trial were sentenced in absentia. The appeals hearing for all 10 convicted activists was slated to take place on June 2, but has been postponed indefinitely by the Phnom Penh Court of Appeals. “The MNC5 are incarcerated in prisons in overcrowded and harsh living conditions, separated from each other and spread out all across Cambodia, hundreds of kilometers away from their families and legal counsel,” wrote the 73 NGOs in an open letter addressed to Prime Minister Hun Manet. “The … NGOs who have signed this letter sincerely request you take immediate action to ensure the unjust convictions of these five activists are reversed either prior to or at their upcoming appeals court hearing in Phnom Penh, and that their freedom&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rights-groups-renew-call-to-free-jailed-cambodian-environmental-activists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320620</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Malawi, one woman’s farm shows what’s possible with land and support</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-malawi-one-womans-farm-shows-whats-possible-with-land-and-support/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-malawi-one-womans-farm-shows-whats-possible-with-land-and-support/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jun 2026 11:34:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/04111912/1-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320577</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Community Development, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Farming, Food, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CHIRADZULU, Malawi — Diana Sitima’s farm on the outskirts of Malawi’s commercial capital, Blantyre, is both example and an exception. Where neighboring farmers have planted mostly maize for food and for sale in nearby markets, people drive out to buy sweet potato, pigeon peas and vegetables, bananas and avocado, and eggs produced on Sitima’s 3.5-hectare [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CHIRADZULU, Malawi — Diana Sitima’s farm on the outskirts of Malawi’s commercial capital, Blantyre, is both example and an exception. Where neighboring farmers have planted mostly maize for food and for sale in nearby markets, people drive out to buy sweet potato, pigeon peas and vegetables, bananas and avocado, and eggs produced on Sitima’s 3.5-hectare (8.6-acre) property. Sitima started farming in 1993. Unlike her neighbors, farming was a side hustle to begin with: she worked as an office assistant in Blantyre and her husband had a good job with a bank. Over the next seven years, she and her husband took out a series of micro-loans, renting small parcels of land and hiring people from the village to grow tomatoes for sale in the city. Sitima’s efforts went well, and because her family did not have to rely on their harvest for food or an income at that time, she was able to save the money she earned to take a next step. She quit her office job and acquired a farm of her own in Chiradzulu district, 15 kilometers (9 miles) east of the city. “That’s how I made money to be able to buy this land when it was put up for sale in 2006,” she says. While she was still a part-time farmer, Sitima attended several workshops, where she picked up ideas about agroecological farming — an approach combining crops, agroforestry, fish ponds, poultry and livestock, in a self-reinforcing system that protects soil health and reduces the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-malawi-one-womans-farm-shows-whats-possible-with-land-and-support/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320577</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>It&#8217;s time to engage Mennonite communities in reducing deforestation across Latin America (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jun 2026 21:16:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/08174714/CH_20220608_0015-Edit-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320555</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Analysis, Avoided Deforestation, Commentary, Community Development, Deforestation, Development, Forests, Governance, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Rainforests, Religions, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the global debate over tropical deforestation, the usual cast of villains is well established: agribusiness, global supply chains, cattle ranchers, and governments granting land concessions for political support. One actor rarely appears in this narrative yet has played a consequential role in transforming the South American lowland frontier: The Mennonite agricultural colonist. For more [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the global debate over tropical deforestation, the usual cast of villains is well established: agribusiness, global supply chains, cattle ranchers, and governments granting land concessions for political support. One actor rarely appears in this narrative yet has played a consequential role in transforming the South American lowland frontier: The Mennonite agricultural colonist. For more than five decades, Mennonite communities have functioned as systematic agents of agricultural frontier expansion in the Gran Chaco and Andean Amazon, methodically clearing forests, draining wetlands, and catalyzing waves of deforestation that extend far beyond any individual colony. Mennonite communities operate within the law. They purchase land through formal channels, build permanent communities, and transfer agronomic knowledge to surrounding populations. Their values emphasize hard work, communal solidarity, and a theological relationship to land as stewardship. None of this changes the ecological outcome: Wherever a Mennonite colony is established, forests fall. Faith, mobility and colony formation Mennonites are an Anabaptist denomination rooted in the 16-century Reformation, distinguished by pacifism, communal life, and cultural separation from mainstream society. Conservative congregations — whose ancestors moved from Russia to Canada, then to Mexico, Belize and South America — are organized around a local congregation that functions simultaneously as a religious community, governance structure, credit cooperative and social welfare system. When a colony is established, it is an orderly community with collective decision-making, shared infrastructure, and a coherent plan for the future. Forest being cut, burned, and prepared by a Mennonite colony before planting crops. Image courtesy of Mario Silvero.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320555</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>IMF lending programs linked with deforestation should be rethought (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/imf-lending-programs-causing-deforestation-should-be-rethought-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/imf-lending-programs-causing-deforestation-should-be-rethought-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2026 15:34:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kevin P. GallagherRishikesh Ram BhandaryTimon Forster]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/23151222/kalbar_drone_190742-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320324</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Community Development, Deforestation, Development, Environment, Environmental Policy, Finance, Forests, Governance, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Research, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The price of financial stability should not be environmental destruction. Yet when countries turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help, their forests may quietly suffer. The IMF is currently reviewing the design of its lending programs, and it is time for change. Its recipe for getting economies back on track often features required [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The price of financial stability should not be environmental destruction. Yet when countries turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help, their forests may quietly suffer. The IMF is currently reviewing the design of its lending programs, and it is time for change. Its recipe for getting economies back on track often features required reforms such as cutting government expenditure, increasing revenue collection through taxes or utility tariff increases, winding down public ownership of state-owned enterprises and encouraging the private sector to step up: austerity in other words. These policies are meant to restore stability in times of crisis, but growing evidence shows that IMF programs often fall short in helping countries break out of the cycle of economic and financial distress. Instead, they can trigger collateral damage in the form of negative health outcomes, worsened poverty and inequality and eroded social protection. Image by Forster et al., 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Our new research provides evidence that these programs also have an important and often overlooked environmental dimension, revealing that countries experience 9.2% higher annual tree cover loss during years in which they are under an IMF program. In a typical three-year IMF program, this amounts to forest loss the size of Barbados. This finding comes as no surprise as IMF programs are known to generally cut government spending, and environmental protections are often the first to go. These conditions that come in exchange for financial assistance are a major shortcoming when it comes to effects on forests,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/imf-lending-programs-causing-deforestation-should-be-rethought-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/imf-lending-programs-causing-deforestation-should-be-rethought-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320324</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From Virunga to Kinshasa, the DRC embarks on a bold conservation gamble</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/from-virunga-to-kinshasa-the-drc-embarks-on-a-bold-conservation-gamble/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/from-virunga-to-kinshasa-the-drc-embarks-on-a-bold-conservation-gamble/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Apr 2026 13:29:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/24165101/Coffee-and-cocoa-production-around-Virunga-National-Park-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317284</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SALONGA NATIONAL PARK, Democratic Republic of Congo — A year and a half ago, the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, went to the Davos World Economic Forum and announced an ambitious project: the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor. This corridor is considered the largest conservation and development initiative ever proposed in Africa. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SALONGA NATIONAL PARK, Democratic Republic of Congo — A year and a half ago, the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Félix Tshisekedi, went to the Davos World Economic Forum and announced an ambitious project: the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor. This corridor is considered the largest conservation and development initiative ever proposed in Africa. The plan, according to sources within DRC’s government, aims to stretch from the Kivus in eastern DRC to Kinshasa in the west, create 500,000 jobs, conserve over 540,000 km2 (208,500 mi2) of land (roughly the size of France), and improve infrastructure along the Congo River. At the time of the announcement, what was less clear was how the idea had been influenced by the experiences of conservation efforts unfolding hundreds of kilometers away in the Virunga National Park. The Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN in French), institution responsible for managing protected areas in the DRC, delegated management support of the corridor to the NGO Virunga Foundation. One of the people who participated in the initial discussions around the initiative is Emmanuel de Merode, the director of the Virunga National Park. De Merode has been managing Virunga since 2008. In a recent interview with Mongabay in the Salonga National Park, he said the green corridor did not emerge from conservation thinking alone. It grew out of years of trying to answer a harder question in eastern Congo: Hhow do you protect a park when the people living around it are poor, armed groups are profiting from&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/from-virunga-to-kinshasa-the-drc-embarks-on-a-bold-conservation-gamble/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/from-virunga-to-kinshasa-the-drc-embarks-on-a-bold-conservation-gamble/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317284</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A Congo Basin-led bioeconomy could boost Central Africa’s green transition (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Apr 2026 16:27:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Metolo Foyet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/05115844/ForestElephant.Loxodonta.cyclotis_NgounieGabon_marcusgmeineriNaturalistBYNC4.0-BANNER-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317006</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Biodiversity, Bioeconomy, Commentary, Community Development, Environment, Forest Products, Forests, Green, Rainforests, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Trade, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Medicine, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, often referred to as the “second lungs of Earth,” holds immense potential for leading Central Africa’s green transition. Home to the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest and second-largest reserve of drinkable water (holding 50% of all of Africa’s water resources), the region covers more than 3.7 million square kilometers (nearly 1.5 million square [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, often referred to as the “second lungs of Earth,” holds immense potential for leading Central Africa’s green transition. Home to the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest and second-largest reserve of drinkable water (holding 50% of all of Africa’s water resources), the region covers more than 3.7 million square kilometers (nearly 1.5 million square miles), absorbs more carbon dioxide than any other region in the world — with an annual net carbon dioxide absorption six times that of the Amazon Rainforest — and spans six countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon), storing around 30 billion metric tons of carbon. This critical ecological zone harbors immense biodiversity and natural resources, making it a strategic hub for the emerging global bioeconomy. However, learning from the Eastern African experience, realizing this potential requires a shift from extractive industries to sustainable, nature-based economies that prioritize long-term ecological health and local prosperity. Beyond its ecological importance — containing more than 10,000 species of plants, 1,000 species of birds, and 400 species of mammals, including iconic ones like the forest elephant and the critically endangered western lowland gorilla — the region stands at a critical juncture in the global minerals race, holding a significant share of the world&#8217;s strategic assets like lithium, cobalt, gold, and rare earth elements — key components shaping global power and the future of the energy transition. Despite this wealth, the Congo Basin’s economic strategies have often relied on the “dig&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317006</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Far from home, a Rwandan doctor fulfills her calling among CAR forest communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/far-from-home-a-rwandan-nurse-fulfills-her-calling-among-car-forest-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/far-from-home-a-rwandan-nurse-fulfills-her-calling-among-car-forest-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Apr 2026 06:38:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/03134944/image3__IMG-20260316-WA0021-768x446.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316940</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Central African Republic]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Environment, Health, National Parks, and Public Health]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BAYANGA, Central African Republic — Before the consultations, screenings and discreet discussions about disease, a makeshift enclosure is set up in the middle of the village, where residents gradually gather to the sound of music playing — at first they are curious, then attentive. Here, in the heart of the forests of southwestern Central African [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BAYANGA, Central African Republic — Before the consultations, screenings and discreet discussions about disease, a makeshift enclosure is set up in the middle of the village, where residents gradually gather to the sound of music playing — at first they are curious, then attentive. Here, in the heart of the forests of southwestern Central African Republic, Alphonsine Colombe Irahali, a Rwandan medical doctor, spends much of her time traveling from village to village to provide care to communities that rarely have access to it. “What we do is go from village to village to make a significant impact,” she told Mongabay during a recent mobile clinic mission. “In the morning, when we arrive, we start by playing music. Then we raise awareness: What signs to watch for? When to go to the hospital? What to expect?” In her thirties, Irahali could have chosen a different path. Many medical practitioners across Africa are drawn to cities or leave the continent in search of better pay and working conditions. But Irahali chose instead to work in Bayanga, a remote post near Dzanga-Sangha National Park, where the dense forest meets a fragile health care system, and where access to basic care is difficult. Irahali said she applied for the position at least three times before she was finally selected. “I am committed to caring for underserved communities,” she said. “I believe this work is in line with my oath.” For her, it was a conscious choice, as she seized the opportunity to work&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/far-from-home-a-rwandan-nurse-fulfills-her-calling-among-car-forest-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316940</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ethiopian women plant trees, restoring lands &#038; livelihoods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Apr 2026 20:37:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/01202432/IWDOMembersPlanting_SidamaEthiopia_RuhamaGetahun-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316752</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Ethiopia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Environment, Forests, Fuelwood, Landscape Restoration, NGOs, Solutions, Sustainability, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the southern Ethiopian region of Sidama, unsustainable farming practices and tree cutting for fuel are causing land degradation. In response, members of the Integrated Women’s Development Organization are planting indigenous trees, bananas and vegetables as well as desho (Pennisetum glaucifolium) and elephant grass (Cenchrus purpureus) for cattle fodder in an effort to restore damaged [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the southern Ethiopian region of Sidama, unsustainable farming practices and tree cutting for fuel are causing land degradation. In response, members of the Integrated Women’s Development Organization are planting indigenous trees, bananas and vegetables as well as desho (Pennisetum glaucifolium) and elephant grass (Cenchrus purpureus) for cattle fodder in an effort to restore damaged farmland and build more resilient livelihoods. In an email interview, IWDO’s general manager, Ruhama Getahun, told Mongabay that the women and youth who make up the NGO’s membership have planted more than 1,250 hectares (3,080 acres) since 2020. She said these initiatives have begun generating income for community members — particularly women — helping them rely less on forest products such as charcoal and firewood for survival. Negasi Solomon, a land and environment researcher at Tigray Institute of Policy Studies in Mek’ele, Ethiopia, told Mongabay that rapid population growth means the average size of a household’s land in the Sidama region has shrunk. This has pushed farmers to expand their plots onto fragile and steep hillsides. Solomon told Mongabay in an email that women are — or should be — central to land use and land restoration decisions in Sidama, and in Ethiopia in general, because of the role they play in day‑to‑day farm management. He noted, however, that many women in Ethiopia still face obstacles to taking up leadership roles. “Patriarchal norms and customary systems often concentrate land ownership and key decision‑making in men, while limiting women’s inheritance and control over land even where&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316752</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazilian settlers turn to reforestation in ambitious land recovery plan</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/brazilian-settlers-turn-to-reforestation-in-ambitious-land-recovery-plan/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/brazilian-settlers-turn-to-reforestation-in-ambitious-land-recovery-plan/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Mar 2026 14:49:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sibélia Zanon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/23144738/RAE04Cullen_20db_031-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316126</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest and Brazil]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology, Community Development, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Reforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PONTAL DO PARANAPANEMA, Brazil — Sugarcane fields undulate across the landscape as a line of water stretches to the horizon. We travel along a dirt road in western São Paulo, on the banks of the Paraná River — the watery border between the states of São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul. Here, monoculture overwhelms [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PONTAL DO PARANAPANEMA, Brazil — Sugarcane fields undulate across the landscape as a line of water stretches to the horizon. We travel along a dirt road in western São Paulo, on the banks of the Paraná River — the watery border between the states of São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul. Here, monoculture overwhelms a landscape once covered by semideciduous seasonal forest, known as the Inland Atlantic Forest, where trees shed their leaves during the dry season. In his pickup truck, biologist Haroldo Gomes, who holds a master’s degree in agronomy, carries a small forest: ipês (Handroanthus spp.), aroeiras (Myracrodruon urundeuva) and guarantãs (Esenbeckia leiocarpa) are some of the nearly 70 native Atlantic Forest species looking for a place to take root. There was a time when Haroldo’s family, too, had no land. “When we arrived at the encampment, I was 11,” said Gomes, the son of land reform settlers. “During the conflicts, we lived for six years in a makeshift tent. I’ve run from gunfire during land occupations.” Today, Haroldo serves as field coordinator for the Corridors of Life project at the Institute for Ecological Research (IPÊ). Through the initiative, both he and a diversity of native plant and animal species have found a place to call home. Since 2002, the project — driven by land reform families — has restored more than 6,000 hectares (14,800 acres), with 10 million trees planted. The ambitions ahead are even greater: By 2041, the group aims to restore 75,000 hectares (185,000&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/brazilian-settlers-turn-to-reforestation-in-ambitious-land-recovery-plan/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316126</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Nepal, calls for reform grow louder in buffer zones</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-nepal-calls-for-reform-grow-louder-in-buffer-zones/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-nepal-calls-for-reform-grow-louder-in-buffer-zones/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Mar 2026 08:51:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mukesh Pokhrel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/27083832/collecting-firewood-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316416</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Community Forests, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Human-wildlife Conflict, National Parks, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BARDIYA, Nepal — Mewa Lal Pulami, along with  other residents from his village on the fringes of Banke National Park in western Nepal, abstained from voting in the recent parliamentary elections held on March 5, 2026. “How can we vote when no one is paying attention to our suffering from wild animals such as tigers?” [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BARDIYA, Nepal — Mewa Lal Pulami, along with  other residents from his village on the fringes of Banke National Park in western Nepal, abstained from voting in the recent parliamentary elections held on March 5, 2026. “How can we vote when no one is paying attention to our suffering from wild animals such as tigers?” Pulami said to Mongabay over the phone as the mass abstention made headlines across the country. Nepalis such as Pulami live in the ‘buffer zone’ — a designated ‘protective layer’ for national parks where local people’s collection and use of natural resources are governed by separate laws and regulations. The villagers are demanding an urgent overhaul of the program to address human-wildlife conflict, access to resources, excessive bureaucratic power of park wardens, chronic infrastructure deprivation, and growing economic injustice. When it was rolled out in 1996, the buffer zone program aimed to increase community participation and ownership in conservation of iconic species such as tigers (Panthera tigris) and rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis) in the plains and snow leopards (Panther uncia) in the mountains. However, 30 years on, the buffer zones, covering 5,602 square kilometers (2,163 square miles) and 1.2 million people, aren’t as popular among some residents in the plains who say it’s time to revisit or even scrap the whole program. Around 380 kilometers (236 miles) east of Bardiya, for 52-year-old Laxmi Dhakal from one of the communities living around Nepal’s oldest national park, Chitwan, the iconic one-horned rhinoceros has become a symbol of suffering.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-nepal-calls-for-reform-grow-louder-in-buffer-zones/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-nepal-calls-for-reform-grow-louder-in-buffer-zones/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316416</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A nature-based solution to save the Mekong Delta’s water future (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-nature-based-solution-to-save-the-mekong-deltas-water-future-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-nature-based-solution-to-save-the-mekong-deltas-water-future-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Mar 2026 10:01:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Pham Phan Long]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/26082735/52314040736_af2758dde2_3k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316323</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Mekong Basin, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Commentary, Community Development, Conservation, Drinking Water, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Nature-based climate solutions, Rivers, Solutions, Water, Water Scarcity, and Wind Power]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Mekong Delta of Vietnam ranks among the world’s three most climate-vulnerable regions. Known as Southeast Asia’s “rice basket,” the region is home to 18 million people, produces half of Vietnam’s rice and 65% of its aquaculture, but faces escalating threats from rising sea levels, water pollution, groundwater depletion, saltwater intrusion and land subsidence. With [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Mekong Delta of Vietnam ranks among the world’s three most climate-vulnerable regions. Known as Southeast Asia’s “rice basket,” the region is home to 18 million people, produces half of Vietnam’s rice and 65% of its aquaculture, but faces escalating threats from rising sea levels, water pollution, groundwater depletion, saltwater intrusion and land subsidence. With only 20% of wastewater treated and more than 60% of rural residents lacking safe water and sanitation, the region’s environmental and economic stability hangs in the balance. A new proposal, the Nature-Based Mekong Delta Water Replenishment System (MD-GWRS), offers a sustainable, cost-effective solution to restore water security, leveraging the delta’s natural features and proven global technologies. The proposed MD-GWRS will increase Mekong groundwater yield by 1.5 million cubic meters per day to 4 million m3/day (53 million to 141 million cubic feet per day) at a cost of $317 million per year, with a potential benefit of $450 million per year from higher agriculture yield and aquaculture production. A region under threat The Mekong Delta’s challenges are stark. Surface water, often a mix of stormwater and untreated wastewater, is heavily contaminated. Groundwater is increasingly saline due to saltwater intrusion, affecting 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres), while overextraction has led to depletion and land subsidence at alarming rates (1.1-5.7 centimeters per year, or 0.4-2.2 inches, in Can Tho). Sea-level rise (2.2-13.5 millimeters per year, or 0.09-0.5 in), frequent droughts, and reduced dry-season river flows exacerbate the crisis, threatening the livelihoods of millions and the region’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-nature-based-solution-to-save-the-mekong-deltas-water-future-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-nature-based-solution-to-save-the-mekong-deltas-water-future-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316323</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Five more community-led African groups join global landscape restoration network</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/five-more-community-led-african-groups-join-global-landscape-restoration-network/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/five-more-community-led-african-groups-join-global-landscape-restoration-network/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Mar 2026 15:57:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/25153904/U2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316292</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, NGOs, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Amid rapid deforestation in Uganda’s Kalangala district, the School Food Forest Initiative launched a tree-planting project in school premises in 2019, aiming to instill knowledge and value for conservation in local communities by involving students planting and managing trees. The initiative has just become part of the Global Landscapes Forum. Its coordinator, Ngobi Joel, said [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Amid rapid deforestation in Uganda’s Kalangala district, the School Food Forest Initiative launched a tree-planting project in school premises in 2019, aiming to instill knowledge and value for conservation in local communities by involving students planting and managing trees. The initiative has just become part of the Global Landscapes Forum. Its coordinator, Ngobi Joel, said becoming a GLFx chapter will help strengthen the group’s work against deforestation in Uganda. The School Food Forest Initiative has established nurseries where schoolchildren and others in the community grow seedlings for a range of indigenous tree species, other fruit trees and medicinal plants. The NGO has also set up agroforestry and vegetable plots on school grounds that serve both to provide food for students and as demonstration sites for how to make use of the land in ways that conserve the environment, Joel told Mongabay by email from Kalangala town. The project has so far established eight school forests, Joel said. Becoming a chapter of the GLF will enhance this work, he said. “Getting advice on agroforestry design, keeping an eye on biodiversity, and checking climate impact will ensure our projects are sustainable and help school communities as much as possible.” The School Food Forest Initiative is one of 12 new GLFx chapters announced in February, expanding a movement that mobilizes and connects grassroots efforts on restoration of degraded landscapes around the world. Fairness and sustainability: Acting to restore African landscapes By involving school children in planting trees and growing vegetables, the School Food&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/five-more-community-led-african-groups-join-global-landscape-restoration-network/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316292</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate-resilient housing models slow to gain ground in disaster-prone Bangladesh</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-resilient-housing-models-slow-to-gain-ground-in-disaster-prone-bangladesh/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-resilient-housing-models-slow-to-gain-ground-in-disaster-prone-bangladesh/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Mar 2026 06:06:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sadiqur Rahman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/13192957/Billal-Hossain-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315738</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Community Development, Disasters, Environment, Extreme Weather, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, Infrastructure, NGOs, Poverty Alleviation, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Bangladesh’s low-lying terrain combined with the crisscrossed river network, which is cause for recurring floods, tidal surges and river erosion, and frequent cyclones make it vulnerable to climate change-related devastations. Between 2008 and 2024, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) recorded 123 disaster events that triggered huge displacement, including about 11.3 million people who experienced [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Bangladesh’s low-lying terrain combined with the crisscrossed river network, which is cause for recurring floods, tidal surges and river erosion, and frequent cyclones make it vulnerable to climate change-related devastations. Between 2008 and 2024, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) recorded 123 disaster events that triggered huge displacement, including about 11.3 million people who experienced pre-emptive evacuations during cyclones. IDMC assessed that many such movements, however, only last for a short period of time, but every year disasters still leave tens of thousands of people without hope of returning to their homes immediately after. In such a context, safe housing is a survival need instead of merely an infrastructural demand. However, the concept of safe or sustainable housing for the disaster victims still remains a donor-funded matter, as the use of climate-and-disaster-resilient construction plans and materials are not popular in Bangladesh. “Sustainable and safe housing is the first line of defense in disaster risk reduction,” says Mohammad Abu Sadeque, executive director of Centre for Housing and Building Research (HBRC), a private sector research hub focused on creating sustainable, affordable, and climate-resilient housing solutions. Sadeque has observed that conventional housing, especially in Bangladesh’s rural and low-income areas, often lacks structural safety and durability against cyclones and tidal surges, riverbank erosion, flooding, flash floods, salinity intrusion, earthquakes and heat stress. According to the government’s disaster-related statistics of 2021, more than half of the country’s households are non-concrete. Living in fragile tin-roofed or mud-walled structures, millions of families are exposed to the mounting&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-resilient-housing-models-slow-to-gain-ground-in-disaster-prone-bangladesh/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315738</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Thai data center boom sparks fears of water shortage, air pollution</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/thai-data-center-boom-sparks-fears-of-water-shortage-air-pollution/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/thai-data-center-boom-sparks-fears-of-water-shortage-air-pollution/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Mar 2026 03:54:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/10054228/20251216__DATA-CENTER_THAILAND_ANDY-BALL-5-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315482</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Artificial Intelligence, Community Development, data, Data centers, Economics, Ecosystems, Energy, Energy Transition, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Infrastructure, Natural Resources, Planetary Health, Renewable Energy, Resource Conflict, Rivers, Technology, Traditional People, Waste, Water, Water Pollution, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This story was produced in collaboration with the Environmental Reporting Collective (ERC). Read the ERC’s story on the impacts of data centers globally here. CHONBURI, Thailand — The sun had yet to rise at 6 a.m., but Sarayuth Sonlacksa was already crouched on his wooden jetty, hoisting up plastic crates of crabs from his pond [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story was produced in collaboration with the Environmental Reporting Collective (ERC). Read the ERC’s story on the impacts of data centers globally here. CHONBURI, Thailand — The sun had yet to rise at 6 a.m., but Sarayuth Sonlacksa was already crouched on his wooden jetty, hoisting up plastic crates of crabs from his pond to see if any had reached the size needed to sell to restaurants in Bangkok. He’s able to farm crabs this far inland, said Sarayuth, a former biochemist, thanks to the unique ecosystem provided by the mix of seawater, brackish water and freshwater that flows through the Bang Pakong River into the creeks near his home on the border between Chachoengsao and Chonburi provinces in eastern Thailand. But that delicate balance, he fears, may be upended by a new data center being built in Chonburi’s Khlong Tamru subdistrict, 10 kilometers (6 miles) from his crab farm in Chachoengsao province. The facility is one of at least 19 data centers reportedly planned or under construction in Chonburi and neighboring Rayong province. With the data centers springing up in an already heavily industrialized area that has struggled with water shortages and pollution, local residents say they fear the new sector could make the situation worse. “For me, data centers are better than normal factories,” Sarayuth said. “But for sure they will result in more water conflict, with more competition for resources, and more wastewater.” Sarayuth Sonlacksa inspects his crab farm, some 10 km from the construction site&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/thai-data-center-boom-sparks-fears-of-water-shortage-air-pollution/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315482</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Malawi, farmers rebuild soil and livelihoods through agroecology</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-malawi-farmers-rebuild-soil-and-livelihoods-through-agroecology/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-malawi-farmers-rebuild-soil-and-livelihoods-through-agroecology/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Mar 2026 17:03:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kelvin Tembo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/06113706/5B-A-maize-field-cultivated-using-agroecology-concepts-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315323</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Farming, Food, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MZIMBA, Malawi – For years, life was defined by hardship for Grena Banda and her husband, Daniel Mwafulirwa, in Malawi’s northern district of Rumphi. Their small farm was their only reliable source of livelihood, yet it rarely produced enough. Climate change brought erratic rainfall, sometimes drought and sometimes heavy downpours that washed away fragile topsoil. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MZIMBA, Malawi – For years, life was defined by hardship for Grena Banda and her husband, Daniel Mwafulirwa, in Malawi’s northern district of Rumphi. Their small farm was their only reliable source of livelihood, yet it rarely produced enough. Climate change brought erratic rainfall, sometimes drought and sometimes heavy downpours that washed away fragile topsoil. At the same time, the cost of fertilizer kept rising beyond their reach. Each farming season began with hope but ended with anxiety, as yields rarely matched expectations. Feeding their children, paying school fees and meeting basic household needs felt like an ongoing uphill battle. “Year in, year out we were facing food shortages. We depended on fertilizer, but we could not afford enough of it,” Banda tells Mongabay. “Sometimes, we harvested so little that we did not know how we would manage until the next season.” As food insecurity deepened, Banda’s husband resorted to risky survival strategies. When crops failed and hunger loomed, he began entering the nearby Vwaza Game Reserve to hunt illegally. It was a decision driven by desperation. Mwafulirwa knew the risks — patrols, arrests and fines — but he also knew his children needed food. “I had no choice at the time. When you see your children hungry, you do things you never imagined you would do. Look at these scars,” he says, rolling up his sleeves and showing his wrists. “They are from handcuffs as I was arrested multiple times.” But today, Mwafulirwa no longer takes those risks, as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-malawi-farmers-rebuild-soil-and-livelihoods-through-agroecology/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315323</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Malawi’s solar boom is leaving a toxic legacy of lead waste</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malawis-solar-boom-is-leaving-a-toxic-legacy-of-lead-waste/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malawis-solar-boom-is-leaving-a-toxic-legacy-of-lead-waste/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Feb 2026 09:03:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/20080916/MountingSolarPanel_Malawi_JonStrandWikimediaBYSA4-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314494</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Development, Economics, Energy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, NGOs, Poisoning, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[-15.778962096499813, 35.01512751075972]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BLANTYRE, Malawi — On Lagson Gumbo’s side of the stream, BCA is a slum. Running parallel to the trickle of murky water is a narrow, dusty street lined with small, unplastered houses and shops trading in groceries, cheap alcohol and artisan services for residents of this crowded sector of Malawi’s principal commercial city, Blantyre. On [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BLANTYRE, Malawi — On Lagson Gumbo’s side of the stream, BCA is a slum. Running parallel to the trickle of murky water is a narrow, dusty street lined with small, unplastered houses and shops trading in groceries, cheap alcohol and artisan services for residents of this crowded sector of Malawi’s principal commercial city, Blantyre. On the stream’s other bank is an affluent neighborhood with the same name. In the wealthy BCA, Blantyre’s City Council provides waste collection services, removing rubbish to a site on the city’s outskirts. It’s an open landfill where people from low-income settlements scavenge for whatever they find worth for reuse or sale. On the side where Gumbo lives and works, there’s no formal waste management. Residents dump rubbish from homes and shops into the stream. Kitchen waste and used nappies, old tires and plastic bottles and carrier bags get thrown into gullies and any other unoccupied spaces nearby. There are also batteries. At his makeshift workshop, Gumbo sorts through metal plates he has extracted from expired lead-acid batteries. Before him is a smoldering charcoal stove and a plastic bag filled with pellets of lead — also extracted from batteries. He puts the lead in a small tin container, pours acid over it and sets it on the stove to heat. “These pieces were positive cells in the batteries,” he says, gesturing to the plates he’s laid out on a small worktable. “When a battery stops functioning, it is not the negative electrodes that have expired. It&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malawis-solar-boom-is-leaving-a-toxic-legacy-of-lead-waste/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314494</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon villages build autonomous energy systems after mega-dam failed pledges</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-villages-build-autonomous-energy-systems-after-mega-dam-failed-pledges/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-villages-build-autonomous-energy-systems-after-mega-dam-failed-pledges/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Feb 2026 19:22:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jorge C. Carrasco]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/18082413/1.-Instalacoes.-Comunidade-de-Porto-Rico-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314417</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Clean Energy, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Dams, Development, Energy, Environment, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Sustainable Development, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Despite hosting huge hydropower plants, Amazon people still pay high energy tariffs — so they found another way.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Brazil approved the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric complex on the Xingu River, in Pará state, the megaproject promised to profoundly change the national and local energy landscapes, creating a large offer of clean energy to power industries, illuminate homes and bring development to isolated communities that historically had little to no access to power. However, nearly a decade after the operations of the fourth-largest hydropower facility in the world began in 2016, the reality is starkly different. Vulnerable communities that highly depended on fishing have been severely economically affected, and many riverside families remain disconnected from the grid or pay some of the highest electricity bills in the country. A study published in 2024 by researchers from the State University of Campinas in Brazil and Michigan State University in the U.S., funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), identified in a household survey covering 500 families in Altamira, Pará, that a vast majority of these families (86.8%) suffered a negative impact on electricity prices after the construction of Belo Monte. The research shows that not only did the “energy progress” promised in the past never materialize, but also that tariffs soared while communities living in the shadow of the Amazon’s largest dam still face blackouts and prohibitive costs. General view of the solar energy system after installation in the Porto Rico community. Image courtesy of Renato Chalu. Lower-income families in small communities in the Amazon region were hit the hardest, not only paying more for electricity,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-villages-build-autonomous-energy-systems-after-mega-dam-failed-pledges/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314417</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Kenya’s Jomvu Creek, women help restore a vanishing coast through crab farming</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-kenyas-jomvu-creek-women-help-restore-a-vanishing-coast-through-crab-farming/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-kenyas-jomvu-creek-women-help-restore-a-vanishing-coast-through-crab-farming/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Feb 2026 18:13:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Asha Bekidusa]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/11041126/Scylla.serrata_MidaCreekKenya_Titi-UuiNaturalistCCBYNC4.0-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314071</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Aquaculture, Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Ecosystems, Farming, Food, Gender, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MOMBASA COUNTY, Kenya — Five minutes’ walk up the hilly road from the mangroves lining the tidal flats of Jomvu Creek, the sharp scent of sea water fills the air. A dozen women fill a small hall with laughter and conversation. In the coastal villages of Mombasa county, these gatherings of women to manage informal [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MOMBASA COUNTY, Kenya — Five minutes’ walk up the hilly road from the mangroves lining the tidal flats of Jomvu Creek, the sharp scent of sea water fills the air. A dozen women fill a small hall with laughter and conversation. In the coastal villages of Mombasa county, these gatherings of women to manage informal savings and loans schemes are known as chamas. But this is no ordinary chama. Here, discussions revolve around tides, crab feed, cage repairs and mangrove seedlings. The women, aged 35-60 years, are members of Jomvu Women in Fisheries and Culture, a community-based organization determined to transform their livelihoods and their environment through an unlikely venture: mud crab farming. Four years ago, these same women were scattered across the village. Most worked as what is known locally as mama karanga, the Swahili term for the women who fry fish over charcoal fires for sale near the beaches where fishers land their catch. Some would have been selling fresh fish, and a few were at home, tending to children and grandchildren. But dwindling fish stocks, health problems from cooking smoke and the daily uncertainty of small-scale trade had begun to take their toll. When a Kenya Marine Fisheries and Socio-Economic Development (KEMFSED) project offered grants for blue-economy enterprises in 2021, a few of these women decided to take the opportunity. The women have converted crates used for transporting bread into cages for their crabs. Image by Asha Bekidusa for Mongabay. New concepts Crab farming was a completely&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-kenyas-jomvu-creek-women-help-restore-a-vanishing-coast-through-crab-farming/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314071</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Turning the Amazon’s toxic gold mine waste liability into economic opportunity (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/formalizing-amazon-gold-mining-can-transform-a-toxic-liability-into-an-economic-opportunity-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/formalizing-amazon-gold-mining-can-transform-a-toxic-liability-into-an-economic-opportunity-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jan 2026 19:13:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/02225429/25-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312918</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Business, Commentary, Community Development, Deforestation, Development, Drivers Of Deforestation, Gold Mining, Health, Illegal Mining, Mercury, Mining, Pollution, Public Health, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Sustainable Development, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The wildcat gold mining boom that swept across the Amazon beginning in the 1970s left behind an environmental catastrophe of staggering proportions. At least 350,000 hectares (almost 865,000 acres) of forest and wetland habitat have been destroyed by placer mining operations across the Pan Amazon, with the actual figure likely far higher given the limitations [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The wildcat gold mining boom that swept across the Amazon beginning in the 1970s left behind an environmental catastrophe of staggering proportions. At least 350,000 hectares (almost 865,000 acres) of forest and wetland habitat have been destroyed by placer mining operations across the Pan Amazon, with the actual figure likely far higher given the limitations of satellite monitoring for small-scale operations and river dredges. In the Tapajós River Basin in Brazil’s Pará state, particularly the municipality of Itaituba, five decades of alluvial mining have devastated tens of thousands of hectares of riparian forest while releasing an estimated 200-500 metric tons of mercury annually into watersheds. Mercury contamination has become endemic: 75% of the population of the municipality of Santarém shows elevated mercury levels, with some residents carrying four times the WHO limit. The legacy extends far beyond the mining sites themselves, as methylmercury bioaccumulates through aquatic food webs, threatening riverside communities across millions of hectares of downstream habitat. Yet hidden within this toxic legacy lies an economic opportunity that could finance comprehensive remediation while generating more than 200,000 formal-sector jobs. The garimpeiro (wildcat miner) reliance on mercury amalgamation technology is remarkably inefficient, because mercury captures only free gold particles through physical absorption, achieving recovery rates of 40-60% from alluvial placers. The remaining 40-60% of gold remains trapped in “tailings” as fine particles, bound in mineral matrices, or simply lost to processing inefficiency. Those tailings, an existing environmental catastrophe, contain an estimated 1,400-2,100 metric tons of recoverable gold worth $90 billion&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/formalizing-amazon-gold-mining-can-transform-a-toxic-liability-into-an-economic-opportunity-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312918</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Massive Amazon conservation program pledges to put communities first</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/massive-amazon-conservation-program-pledges-to-put-communities-first/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/massive-amazon-conservation-program-pledges-to-put-communities-first/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jan 2026 17:05:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/02182339/Medium_WW1206975-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312524</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Governance, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve in the Brazilian Amazon, locals tap rubber and extract Brazil nuts from the rainforest for a living. It’s a way of life dependent on the forest that goes back generations — and which rubber tapper Chico Mendes, who gave the area its name, was murdered trying to defend in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve in the Brazilian Amazon, locals tap rubber and extract Brazil nuts from the rainforest for a living. It’s a way of life dependent on the forest that goes back generations — and which rubber tapper Chico Mendes, who gave the area its name, was murdered trying to defend in 1988. The reserve has been strengthened in recent years thanks to a massive conservation program known as ARPA, the Amazon Region Protected Areas. First established in 2002 by the Brazilian government, and later expanded with the support of WWF and private donors, ARPA helps protect 120 conservation areas spanning more than 60 million hectares (nearly 154 million acres) — about the size of Ukraine — of the Brazilian Amazon. The program initially worked on creating new protected areas and then on designing a durable financial mechanism to support their protection. A new phase, called ARPA Comunidades (Communities), is now shifting the focus to the traditional communities who live within the forest and help protect it. Half of the conservation areas covered by ARPA are sustainable-use conservation units like the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, inhabited by local communities who live sustainably off the forest’s resources. “We were missing closer attention to the communities living in these sustainable-use conservation units, who were contributing to conservation,” said Fernanda Marques, project development officer at FUNBIO, the Brazilian organization responsible for managing the $120 million fund that underpins ARPA Comunidades. Brazil nuts in the hand of Raimundão. Image © Tessel in &#8216;t&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/massive-amazon-conservation-program-pledges-to-put-communities-first/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312524</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agroforestry grows in popularity among central Colombia&#8217;s coffee farmers (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/agroforestry-grows-in-popularity-among-central-colombias-coffee-farmers-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/agroforestry-grows-in-popularity-among-central-colombias-coffee-farmers-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Dec 2025 18:05:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Juliana Cajiao Raigosa]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/23171032/coffee-lady-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311971</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Analysis, Coffee, Commentary, Commodity agriculture, Community Development, Conflict, Deforestation, Education, Forests, Social Conflict, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Colombia is the world&#8217;s third-largest coffee producer and the main producer of Arabica coffee, which is known worldwide for its quality. The nation began developing commercial production in 1870, which now accounts for 22% of the national gross domestic product (GDP). According to the National Federation of Coffee Growers, there are approximately 560,000 farms in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Colombia is the world&#8217;s third-largest coffee producer and the main producer of Arabica coffee, which is known worldwide for its quality. The nation began developing commercial production in 1870, which now accounts for 22% of the national gross domestic product (GDP). According to the National Federation of Coffee Growers, there are approximately 560,000 farms in the country dedicated to coffee production, most of them small scale and accounting for 15% of total production. Coffee in Colombia has become part of the national identity and is also considered part of its cultural heritage. Besides this, it has been of vital importance for the economy, representing up to 80% of total exports, and is undoubtedly partly responsible for the changes that took place between 1870 and 1930, which allowed for the integration of the country&#8217;s economy and generated positive political and social effects. However, only 5% of smallholder farmers are technically efficient (TE), reflecting poor agronomic management strategies such as inadequate uses of inputs, irrational uses of fertilizers and pesticides, low phytosanitary control and monitoring strategies, lack of labor and substandard production conditions, among other factors. Mr. Arlisson Neussa, an agricultural engineer, assisting with coffee berry borer monitoring on a coffee plantation. The agroforestry coffee system, in which the coffee is interplanted within a native forest, can be clearly seen. Image courtesy of Juliana Cajiao Raigosa. The main coffee-producing departments of the “cafetal zone” are Risalda, Caldas, Antioquia and Quindío. Coffee in these areas is considered a cultural heritage and is mainly&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/agroforestry-grows-in-popularity-among-central-colombias-coffee-farmers-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311971</doi>				</item>
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