<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" >

	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=community-forests&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/community-forests/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:04:16 +0000</lastBuildDate>
		<language>en-US</language>
		<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
		<generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.2</generator>

<image>
	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Community Forests</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/community-forests/</link>
	<width>32</width>
	<height>32</height>
</image> 
				<item>
					<title>For Brazil&#8217;s Xokleng people, saving a sacred tree means saving their culture</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/for-brazils-xokleng-people-saving-a-sacred-tree-means-saving-their-culture/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/for-brazils-xokleng-people-saving-a-sacred-tree-means-saving-their-culture/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jul 2026 13:17:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Letícia Klein]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/20151307/8C9A8751-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324056</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Community Forests, Conservation, Culture, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Habitat Degradation, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Plants, Protected Areas, Sustainable Forest Management, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[IBIRAMA-LA KLÃNÕ INDIGENOUS TERRITORY, Brazil — Zág, pronounced “zã,” is the Xokleng word for the Brazilian pine. This tree species, Araucaria angustifolia, is typical of the Atlantic Forest that runs along Brazil’s south and southeastern coast, and has been evolving on the planet for about 200 million years. Each female tree produces dozens of cones, which [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[IBIRAMA-LA KLÃNÕ INDIGENOUS TERRITORY, Brazil — Zág, pronounced “zã,” is the Xokleng word for the Brazilian pine. This tree species, Araucaria angustifolia, is typical of the Atlantic Forest that runs along Brazil’s south and southeastern coast, and has been evolving on the planet for about 200 million years. Each female tree produces dozens of cones, which in turn carry hundreds of seeds. Known in Brazil as pinhão, the Brazilian pine seed is a nut eaten by at least 22 animal species as well as humans, who rely on it for both nutrition and income. For some Indigenous peoples, however, it means more than food. It’s part of their culture, history, and origin myths. That’s the case for the Xokleng people, also known as the Laklãnõ, in what is today Santa Catarina state. In their villages, people are even named after the tree. “Brazilian pines are sacred to us,” says Carl Gakran, executive director of the Zág Institute. “You can’t tell the story of our people without speaking of them. Our creation myth says the protective animal was made from that tree, so it appears in the very first story.” Carl decided to do something for the pines in 2016, after learning that the species was critically endangered as a result of deforestation, urban expansion, and logging. Currently, Brazilian pine forests are estimated to cover less than 3% of their original range, which once stretched across much of the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, with small patches&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/for-brazils-xokleng-people-saving-a-sacred-tree-means-saving-their-culture/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/for-brazils-xokleng-people-saving-a-sacred-tree-means-saving-their-culture/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324056</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Global pressure on ayahuasca threatens Amazonian plants and knowledge systems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/global-pressure-on-ayahuasca-threatens-amazonian-plants-and-knowledge-systems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/global-pressure-on-ayahuasca-threatens-amazonian-plants-and-knowledge-systems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 20:38:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carlos Minuano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/23203123/AP18157600830602-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321692</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biocultural Diversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Community Forests, Conservation, Consumption, Controversial, Culture, Globalization, Indigenous Peoples, International Trade, Medicinal Plants, Overconsumption, Overexploitation, Plants, Rainforests, Religions, Traditional Medicine, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“One of the world’s largest pharmacies is being destroyed,” says Benki Piyãko, a leader of the Ashaninka Indigenous people in the Brazilian state of Acre. The warning points to multiple threats advancing on the Amazon but also to growing debate surrounding one of the so-called forest medicines: ayahuasca. This Indigenous beverage with psychedelic properties is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“One of the world’s largest pharmacies is being destroyed,” says Benki Piyãko, a leader of the Ashaninka Indigenous people in the Brazilian state of Acre. The warning points to multiple threats advancing on the Amazon but also to growing debate surrounding one of the so-called forest medicines: ayahuasca. This Indigenous beverage with psychedelic properties is usually prepared from two native plants: the caapi vine or mariri (Banisteriopsis caapi) and the leaves of the chacrona plant (Psychotria viridis). According to Indigenous leaders and experts, these species are facing increasing pressure and signs of scarcity in some areas. Called kamarãpe by the Ashaninka people, ayahuasca has been used by Indigenous peoples across the Amazon for centuries. It has crossed borders for decades, ceasing to circulate exclusively in its original contexts. Today, it can be found in urban religious centers, therapeutic retreats, and international psychedelic tourism circuits. Scientists and pharmaceutical companies are also turning their attention to this ancestral beverage, which already shows evidence of therapeutic potential for different mental health disorders such as depression and substance addiction. But increasing global interest is also creating concerns. As demand grows, so has the ayahuasca supply chain, without a corresponding growth in management or oversight. In different parts of the Amazon, there are signs of pressure on the species used to prepare the beverage, often collected without planning. At the same time, increasing consumption in nontraditional contexts raises concerns about ancestral knowledge being commodified for the market. The main problem seems to lie in how&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/global-pressure-on-ayahuasca-threatens-amazonian-plants-and-knowledge-systems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/global-pressure-on-ayahuasca-threatens-amazonian-plants-and-knowledge-systems/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321692</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous people in Cambodia claim they’re blocked from sacred sites</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/indigenous-people-in-cambodia-claim-theyre-blocked-from-sacred-sites/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/indigenous-people-in-cambodia-claim-theyre-blocked-from-sacred-sites/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 09:04:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Andy BallPhoung VanthaRoun Ry]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/17103412/Ruos-Lim-71-a-Kuy-Indigenous-community-leader-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321346</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Conservation, Culture, Deforestation, Encroachment, Environment, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Law, Protected Areas, Religions, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia — Ruos Lim knows what is at stake as he sets off with 10 men to patrol the Chom Penh forest. Lim is part of the Kuy people who have relied on the forests in northern Cambodia for generations. Despite being in his 70s, Lim leads the men along windy trails as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia — Ruos Lim knows what is at stake as he sets off with 10 men to patrol the Chom Penh forest. Lim is part of the Kuy people who have relied on the forests in northern Cambodia for generations. Despite being in his 70s, Lim leads the men along windy trails as they look for signs of illegal logging and land clearing. “If we lose this sacred place, it’s like losing our Indigenous identity,” he said. The Kuy fear they are at risk of seeing hard-won safeguards stripped away in Chom Penh, and they allege that Santana Agro Products Co. Ltd., one of Cambodia’s leading cashew companies, is encroaching onto their land to expand its farming operations. The company refutes the allegations. The accusations have run so high that, in January 2025, about 200 Kuy people reportedly protested by blocking Santana Agro tractors being driven to clear forests on disputed land in another part of Cambodia. This was not the first time they massed to protest Santana’s activities, and Mongabay detailed Santana Agro’s expansion and deforestation in the region in a 2024 investigation. For Lim and his team of volunteers, the effort to save the forest and take matters in their own hands began a quarter of a century ago. They began patrols and other efforts to protect the forest, in the hope the government would officially recognize their people’s rights to the land. “At that time, patrolling was very difficult and chaotic. The loggers had machetes&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/indigenous-people-in-cambodia-claim-theyre-blocked-from-sacred-sites/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/indigenous-people-in-cambodia-claim-theyre-blocked-from-sacred-sites/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321346</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Indonesia’s Lombok, fishers find food security tied to mangrove reforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-indonesias-lombok-fishers-find-food-security-tied-to-mangrove-reforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-indonesias-lombok-fishers-find-food-security-tied-to-mangrove-reforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jun 2026 08:51:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ahmad H. Ramdhani]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay User]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/11080656/IMG-20260419-WA0027-1536x1153-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320971</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Lombok, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aquaculture, Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fishing, Food, food security, Landscape Restoration, Mangroves, Oceans, Restoration, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[EAST LOMBOK, Indonesia — Jamil stood at the water’s edge holding a bucket of fish guts and chicken heads, waiting for signs of life as the late-afternoon sun cast a sheen over the pond. “At this time of day, they’ll start becoming active and feeding,” said Jamil, 63, as the onshore breeze settled and the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[EAST LOMBOK, Indonesia — Jamil stood at the water’s edge holding a bucket of fish guts and chicken heads, waiting for signs of life as the late-afternoon sun cast a sheen over the pond. “At this time of day, they’ll start becoming active and feeding,” said Jamil, 63, as the onshore breeze settled and the light began to fade. “In the morning, they&#8217;re more likely to stay in their holes.” Until recently, the mud crabs (genus Scylla) were almost entirely a product of the wild here in Sugian village on the Indonesian island of Lombok. Fishers would set traps in the estuary and sell their catch to traders, with little incentive to spare juveniles or undersized animals. “If you sell them immediately when they’re small, they&#8217;re cheaper,” Jamil said. But when crab populations fell from overzealous fishing, so too did local earnings here in a region of Indonesia where many families struggle to remain together in the face of economic pressures. Mangrove roots provide shelter, stabilize temperatures, and support the microorganisms and nutrients on which mud crabs depend. Image by Nopri Ismi/Mongabay Indonesia. Few places in Indonesia endure more family separation than the district of East Lombok. Last year it topped the list of Indonesia’s more than 500 districts for the highest number of its residents who left for work overseas. The minimum wage set by the local government for this year is 2.7 million rupiah ($150), less than half that in the capital, Jakarta. Last year, around 14,000 people&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-indonesias-lombok-fishers-find-food-security-tied-to-mangrove-reforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-indonesias-lombok-fishers-find-food-security-tied-to-mangrove-reforestation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320971</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Sumatra, social forestry links conservation with livelihoods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-sumatra-social-forestry-links-conservation-with-livelihoods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-sumatra-social-forestry-links-conservation-with-livelihoods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jun 2026 09:04:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/02070718/IMG_5708-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320463</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Lampung, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroforestry, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Farming, Forestry, Rainforests, Sustainability, Sustainable Forest Management, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TANGGAMUS, Indonesia — When Sri Atmiatun arrived in the hills of the Batutegi region in southern Sumatra’s Lampung province in 2017, the coffee trees were already there, overgrown and neglected, slowly fading back into scrub. Her uncle had asked her to take over the plot. Sri agreed, trading years of labor on oil palm plantations [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TANGGAMUS, Indonesia — When Sri Atmiatun arrived in the hills of the Batutegi region in southern Sumatra’s Lampung province in 2017, the coffee trees were already there, overgrown and neglected, slowly fading back into scrub. Her uncle had asked her to take over the plot. Sri agreed, trading years of labor on oil palm plantations in the central Sumatran province of Riau. Nearly a decade later, she still walks the same uphill path each morning. Now 45, Sri manages more than 3 hectares (7.4 acres) of land within the 1,400-hectare (3,460-acre) Sumber Makmur social forestry area. Sumber Makmur itself sits on the edge of the more than 80,000-hectare (198,000-acre) Batutegi forest landscape, where some areas are strictly protected while others are managed by communities through agroforestry systems. Under the social forestry program, the land remains state-owned, but local communities like Sri’s are granted the right to manage it for their livelihoods under rules designed to protect the forest and its ecological functions. “I stayed because this land feeds us,” Sri told Mongabay in early March. “If I leave, who will take care of it?” Sri’s story reflects a broader shift. Across the Batutegi landscape, land that was once cleared for coffee is now being restored and managed under Indonesia’s social forestry program. Legal recognition has given farmers access to support and training from the government and private organizations. In return, forest clearing and expansion into protected core areas have been reduced, allowing the forest to remain a safe habitat for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-sumatra-social-forestry-links-conservation-with-livelihoods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-sumatra-social-forestry-links-conservation-with-livelihoods/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320463</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Descendants of people pushed out for DRC national park lead forest conservation efforts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/descendants-of-people-pushed-out-for-drc-national-park-lead-forest-conservation-efforts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/descendants-of-people-pushed-out-for-drc-national-park-lead-forest-conservation-efforts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jun 2026 22:30:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jérémie Kyaswekera]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/02221422/Image-4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320504</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[30x30 conservation target, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Forest Loss, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, National Parks, Protected Areas, Solutions, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BUTEMBO, Democratic Republic of Congo — In the lush forests of North Kivu, Gangala Yafali Mangusa Jr. leads a forest patrol with members of his community. Together, they monitor human activity, identify threats and prevent damage to biodiversity, such as large-scale logging, unregulated timber harvesting and artisanal mining. “For example, once a month or once [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BUTEMBO, Democratic Republic of Congo — In the lush forests of North Kivu, Gangala Yafali Mangusa Jr. leads a forest patrol with members of his community. Together, they monitor human activity, identify threats and prevent damage to biodiversity, such as large-scale logging, unregulated timber harvesting and artisanal mining. “For example, once a month or once a quarter, we conduct inspections to check whether there are people in the community who are illegally hunting [protected] animals,” he explains. In his 30s, Mangusa Jr. leads the local management committee in the Bamasobha Local Community Forest Concession (CFCL), located in Lubero, a region threatened by terrorist attacks in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Composed of Indigenous Batwa, Bapiri and local communities, Mangusa Jr.’s team works together to protect this community forest, promote sustainable management of natural resources and strengthen coexistence between communities and the ecosystems on which they depend. According to him, this commitment is rooted in a personal history marked by tensions and, at times, violence experienced around the Maiko National Park — a sprawling park protecting endemic species such as eastern lowland gorillas, okapi, chimpanzees and forest elephants — after the 1970s. Aerial view of forest and river in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. Image by MONUSCO/Myriam Asmani via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0). He recounts that, when the park was established, his family, like so many others, faced park rangers for several years who had been sent to enforce the new park boundaries, particularly in the Batike settlement, within&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/descendants-of-people-pushed-out-for-drc-national-park-lead-forest-conservation-efforts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/descendants-of-people-pushed-out-for-drc-national-park-lead-forest-conservation-efforts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320504</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report alleges élite ties behind logging permits in Cameroon’s Ebo Forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/report-alleges-elite-ties-behind-logging-permits-in-cameroons-ebo-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/report-alleges-elite-ties-behind-logging-permits-in-cameroons-ebo-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2026 14:46:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/10143029/Footage-of-a-male-and-a-baby-gorilla-in-the-ebo-forest-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320290</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Apes, Biodiversity, Community Forests, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Development, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Logging, Primary Forests, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A newly released report alleges that well-placed elites in Cameroon’s government are enabling a cluster of timber and agribusiness companies to log primary forest in the country. These companies include Sextransbois, which was awarded a controversial 68,000-hectare (168,000-acre) logging concession in the Ebo Forest in 2023. The report by Swiss-based advocacy group Global Initiative Against [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A newly released report alleges that well-placed elites in Cameroon’s government are enabling a cluster of timber and agribusiness companies to log primary forest in the country. These companies include Sextransbois, which was awarded a controversial 68,000-hectare (168,000-acre) logging concession in the Ebo Forest in 2023. The report by Swiss-based advocacy group Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) also named SCIEB, which controls another concession in the Ebo Forest covering 65,000 hectares (161,000 acres). The report used corporate registry documents, trade records, and sources in Cameroon’s forestry sector to link both companies, along with Boiscam and Camvert, to prominent businessman Aboubakar Al Fatih. According to an “informal broker” who has worked to connect logging companies with forestry officials and was interviewed by GI-TOC, Al Fatih’s companies have benefitted from his ties to the minister of economy, Alamine Ousmane Mey. Mey is considered an ally of Cameroonian President Paul Biya’s eldest son Franck, who reportedly recommended him for a cabinet post in 2011. Sextransbois was incorporated by relatives of Franck Biya’s in 2014, before being transferred to then-20-year-old Mahmoud Mourtada, Al Fatih’s half-brother. The report implies that Al Fatih&#8217;s connections to figures in Franck Biya’s circle helped Sextransbois and SCIEB obtain their concessions in the Ebo Forest. Those concessions were awarded despite a global campaign to protect the forest, which is a biodiversity-rich habitat for threatened gorillas and chimpanzees. After initially walking back its decision to reclassify the forest as government land in 2020, the government quietly reissued the two&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/report-alleges-elite-ties-behind-logging-permits-in-cameroons-ebo-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/report-alleges-elite-ties-behind-logging-permits-in-cameroons-ebo-forest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320290</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>On Southeast Asia’s largest lake, locals wield tech to defend the flooded forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/on-southeast-asias-largest-lake-locals-wield-tech-to-defend-the-flooded-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/on-southeast-asias-largest-lake-locals-wield-tech-to-defend-the-flooded-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 May 2026 18:04:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Turrell]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/19170820/20231116_Local-guide-was-training-CFi-committees-on-camera-trap-set-up_Photo_Dong-Tangkor-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319745</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Environment, Fires, Forests, Lakes, Landscape Restoration, Nature-based climate solutions, Restoration, Solutions, Technology, Wetlands, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“When the forest [is] healthy, fish can breed and grow. But if the forest burns, the fish disappear — and that affects the livelihoods of our whole community,” says Luon Chanleng, a fisher from Tonle Sap. “I can’t imagine our life without the forest.” Tonle Sap in Cambodia is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“When the forest [is] healthy, fish can breed and grow. But if the forest burns, the fish disappear — and that affects the livelihoods of our whole community,” says Luon Chanleng, a fisher from Tonle Sap. “I can’t imagine our life without the forest.” Tonle Sap in Cambodia is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. Each year, when the dry season sets in from around January to June, the waters of the flooded forest recede, the mangrove roots poke out through the mud, and the flooded forest turns into a tinder box. More than a million people live around the lake and depend on it for their livelihoods, homes and nutrition. Yet, the freshwater mangroves or “flooded forest” that surround the lake are shrinking. A study by the Wonders of the Mekong project, led by the University of Nevada in the U.S., found that nearly a third of forests in flood plains like the Tonle Sap area were lost between 1993 and 2017. “It primarily seems to be driven by two activities: One is conversion of flooded forest for agriculture, and then the second is forest fires,” says Zeb Hogan, director of the Wonders of the Mekong project. Now, the Tonle Sap community is fighting back. Seventy-eight people, including Luon, have trained as community firefighters, and are now using satellite wildfire alerts to help them curb the devastation. According to records kept by U.S.-based NGO Conservation International, which receives the satellite alerts and forwards them to the patrol team,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/on-southeast-asias-largest-lake-locals-wield-tech-to-defend-the-flooded-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/on-southeast-asias-largest-lake-locals-wield-tech-to-defend-the-flooded-forest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319745</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>30-year Himalayan project shows power of community-led forest restoration</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/30-year-himalayan-project-shows-power-of-community-led-forest-restoration/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/30-year-himalayan-project-shows-power-of-community-led-forest-restoration/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Apr 2026 19:41:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shradha Triveni]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/13185228/Kalij_pheasant_Prasanna_Mamidala-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317419</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Himalayas, India, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Ecosystems, Forest Destruction, Landscape Restoration, Mountains, Plantations, Reforestation, and Restoration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A recent study in the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science shows why community engagement in forest restoration is a win-win game. The research documents a three-decade-long land restoration project on a 28-hectare (71-acre) slope of India’s Western Himalayas, in the state of Uttarakhand. The local communities in the surrounding villages cultivated a forest, with the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A recent study in the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science shows why community engagement in forest restoration is a win-win game. The research documents a three-decade-long land restoration project on a 28-hectare (71-acre) slope of India’s Western Himalayas, in the state of Uttarakhand. The local communities in the surrounding villages cultivated a forest, with the help of researchers, and are now reaping the fruits of their collective effort. Before rehabilitation, the slope was inhabited by shrub species, dotted with the occasional longleaf Indian pine (Pinus roxburghii), a native tree that spread through monoculture cropping for resin and timber during British colonial rule. This landscape was prone to wildfire, which led to degradation. A team of researchers from the G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment (GBP-NIHE), an arm of the environment ministry, launched the restoration project in 1992. Now, according to the study’s authors, the land supports rich biodiversity, including more than 160 bird species, more than 100 butterfly species, and many medicinal plants, providing livestock fodder, medicine and livelihoods for the residents of surrounding communities. The researchers named the site “Surya-Kunj,” or “Sun-Grove,” in a nod to the famous Katarmal Sun Temple, located about 12 kilometers (7 miles) away. A fire burns within a longleaf Indian pine (Pinus roxburghii) forest in Uttarakhand. Image by Ramwik via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Indra D. Bhatt, co-author of the study and director of the GBP-NIHE, said the Surya-Kunj site acts as a framework for large-scale forest restoration efforts in the Himalayas&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/30-year-himalayan-project-shows-power-of-community-led-forest-restoration/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/30-year-himalayan-project-shows-power-of-community-led-forest-restoration/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317419</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Peru, Indigenous women work to save an ancestral potato from disappearance</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-peru-indigenous-women-work-to-save-an-ancestral-potato-from-disappearance/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-peru-indigenous-women-work-to-save-an-ancestral-potato-from-disappearance/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Mar 2026 07:02:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid Arellano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/30150135/Copia-de-IMG_2365-1-1200x800-1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316544</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology, Biodiversity, Bioeconomy, Community Forests, Conservation, Culture, Food, Indigenous Peoples, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Kashiri, the Moon, saw the young woman through a window. The celestial body descended from the sky and found her eating soil molded into the shape of a tubercle. “What you are eating is mud, not yuca,” the root of the cassava plant. “I will let you taste the true yuca,” it said. In love [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Kashiri, the Moon, saw the young woman through a window. The celestial body descended from the sky and found her eating soil molded into the shape of a tubercle. “What you are eating is mud, not yuca,” the root of the cassava plant. “I will let you taste the true yuca,” it said. In love with her, Kashiri handed a sacred seed and taught her how to plant it. This is the story that has survived through the tales of grandmothers and grandfathers of the Machiguenga people. Gabriela Loaiza Seri recalls the ancestral anecdote. The account speaks about the origin of crops in her village of San José de Koribeni, in Cusco, in southeastern Peru — the largest Indigenous Machiguenga community in the South American country. “The young woman learned how to plant yuca, magona potatoes, shonaki [an Indigenous name for a type of sweet corn root] and all the tubers we have always consumed,” she says. Since then, women have been responsible for these crops. This time-honored knowledge, however, is now facing increasing threats. The expansion of monocultures and intensive agriculture in Peru has put many of these native species at risk of disappearing, according to Loaiza Seri. To make matters worse, the introduction of new varieties and foreign crops has reduced the diversity of yucas that once secured food to Indigenous communities year-round. The arrival of external projects has also distanced the community from their chacras ( small, traditional farming plots). A member of the association Mujeres Emprendedoras&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-peru-indigenous-women-work-to-save-an-ancestral-potato-from-disappearance/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-peru-indigenous-women-work-to-save-an-ancestral-potato-from-disappearance/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316544</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>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/brazilian-settlers-turn-to-reforestation-in-ambitious-land-recovery-plan/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<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>Nepal signs major carbon deal but community access remains challenging</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/nepal-signs-major-carbon-deal-but-community-access-remains-challenging/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/nepal-signs-major-carbon-deal-but-community-access-remains-challenging/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Feb 2026 02:01:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/05094237/B54E1753-A43D-4A54-905D-88D38E384200-e1772009616560-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314741</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Market, climate finance, Community Forests, Forest Carbon, Indigenous Peoples, and Redd]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Nepal signed an agreement with the LEAF Coalition on Jan. 23, becoming the first country in Asia to secure a deal expected to potentially deliver $55 million in carbon finance to support forest-dependent communities. However, carbon trade experts and forest group members say that ensuring the money reaches communities remains a challenge, as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Nepal signed an agreement with the LEAF Coalition on Jan. 23, becoming the first country in Asia to secure a deal expected to potentially deliver $55 million in carbon finance to support forest-dependent communities. However, carbon trade experts and forest group members say that ensuring the money reaches communities remains a challenge, as this is relatively uncharted territory for Nepal. Also, the agreement’s impact will depend on how transparently the funding is utilized, how strong the safeguards are and how meaningful the inclusion of Indigenous and forest-dependent communities is in decision-making and benefits sharing. “The achievement truly demands a transparent process for communities to access the money and participation of forest communities at the decision-making level,” Buddha Gharti Bhujel, senior vice chair and REDD focal person at the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN), told Mongabay. As part of the agreement with LEAF — a public-private initiative involving the governments of Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Republic of Korea, along with more than 30 companies — Nepal aims to reduce emissions from potential deforestation across Gandaki, Bagmati and Lumbini provinces. “Through the agreement, we are working to ensure forest-dependent communities are paid for their significant roles in forest protection ensured for the period of 2022-2026,” said Nabaraj Pudasaini, joint secretary and chief of the REDD Implementation Center (REDD IC), the agency leading Nepal’s jurisdictional REDD+ program. Forest cover now accounts for more than 44% of Nepal’s land area. Pudasaini said his office is planning&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/nepal-signs-major-carbon-deal-but-community-access-remains-challenging/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/nepal-signs-major-carbon-deal-but-community-access-remains-challenging/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314741</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nepal’s community forests sit on unsold timber</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/nepals-community-forests-sit-on-unsold-timber/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/nepals-community-forests-sit-on-unsold-timber/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Feb 2026 11:28:43 +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/20/2026/02/10111217/Dolakha-central-Nepal-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314009</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Governance, Logging, Protected Areas, Sustainable Forest Management, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — The Khorthali Community Forest User Group in Dolakha, central Nepal, produced 1,189 cubic meters (42,000 cubic feet) of timber in 2025 — roughly 18 standard 40-foot shipping containers in volume. However, the group could not sell all of it. About 340 m3 (12,000 ft3) of wood still lies on the roadside. “Community members [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — The Khorthali Community Forest User Group in Dolakha, central Nepal, produced 1,189 cubic meters (42,000 cubic feet) of timber in 2025 — roughly 18 standard 40-foot shipping containers in volume. However, the group could not sell all of it. About 340 m3 (12,000 ft3) of wood still lies on the roadside. “Community members have asked us to help sell the timber, but potential buyers are not interested,” said Anil Regmi, an official at the district forest office in Dolakha. Across Nepal, other districts face similar challenges. In Bara, the district forest office has 2,605 m3 (92,000 ft3) of unsold timber, while in Nawalpur, the figure reaches 1,100 m3 (40,000 ft3), despite repeated attempts to sell it. According to ForestAction Nepal, 60,000 m3 (2.1 million ft3) of timber remains unsold in Lumbini province alone. The estimate represents timber accumulated across multiple storage locations and years, rather than unsold stock from a single harvesting season. Nepal’s community forests are producing large volumes of timber that remain unsold due to high government taxes and competition from private and imported wood, leaving local user groups without funds to implement sustainable forest management while politicians blame strict conservation laws for not facilitating large-scale infrastructure development. “The government set tax rate for timber is very high compared to the prevailing market rate,” said Nabaraj Pudasaini, joint secretary at the Ministry of Forests and Environment. “When you add collection costs and other charges, the prices get further inflated,” he told Mongabay. Nepal is considered a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/nepals-community-forests-sit-on-unsold-timber/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/nepals-community-forests-sit-on-unsold-timber/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314009</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Brazil, planting forests for carbon credits could help ecosystem restoration</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-brazil-planting-forests-for-carbon-credits-could-help-ecosystem-restoration/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-brazil-planting-forests-for-carbon-credits-could-help-ecosystem-restoration/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jan 2026 11:12:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/23110048/AMAZON-MARANHAO-Entre-Rios-Project-4-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313254</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology, Agroforestry, Business, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, climate finance, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Forest Regeneration, Forestry, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Rainforest Destruction, and Sustainable Forest Management]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Eunápolis, in the south of the Brazilian state of Bahia, the clearing of Atlantic Forest for agriculture started centuries ago, leaving a patchwork of cattle pastures, monocultures and degraded land. Between 11% and 25% of Brazil’s native vegetation is in a process of degradation related to deforestation, while 22% of its pasture is severely [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Eunápolis, in the south of the Brazilian state of Bahia, the clearing of Atlantic Forest for agriculture started centuries ago, leaving a patchwork of cattle pastures, monocultures and degraded land. Between 11% and 25% of Brazil’s native vegetation is in a process of degradation related to deforestation, while 22% of its pasture is severely degraded. To reverse this, efforts are underway across the country to recover ecosystems and their services, a vital help in climate change mitigation. Since 2022, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) away from the city of Eunápolis, restoration efforts have been ongoing on the Ouro Verde farm to bring back Atlantic Forest species on hundreds of hectares of unproductive cattle pasture. Currently, 344 hectares (850 acres) of forest have been restored. “In two years, you’ve gone from degraded pasture, extremely damaged, sandy soil, to a forest with more than 60 species, trees more than 4 meters [13 feet] high. It looks like a forest,” said Miguel Moraes, director of projects at re.green, the Brazilian company behind the Ouro Verde project. Founded in 2021, re.green aims to restore 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of tropical forests across the Amazon and Atlantic Forest, while selling carbon credits and generating benefits beyond carbon capture. “We’d like to be a leader showing that there are different models of monetizing forests and natural ecosystems that don’t just generate benefits for the climate, but also for people and biodiversity,” Moraes told Mongabay in a video interview. Restored forest at re.green&#8217;s Ouro&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-brazil-planting-forests-for-carbon-credits-could-help-ecosystem-restoration/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-brazil-planting-forests-for-carbon-credits-could-help-ecosystem-restoration/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313254</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>World Bank watchdog looks into Nepal cable car project amid Indigenous outcry</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/world-bank-watchdog-looks-into-nepal-cable-car-project-amid-indigenous-outcry/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/world-bank-watchdog-looks-into-nepal-cable-car-project-amid-indigenous-outcry/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jan 2026 05:35:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/31141245/Plantation_PotoBy_Prabin-Seling-Sendow-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313239</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Community Forests, Conservation, Culture, Deforestation, Development, Environment, FPIC, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, and Transparency]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — A cable car line is being built to serve the mountaintop temple of Pathibhara Devi, a popular pilgrimage destination for Hindus in eastern Nepal. But the area is also revered by the region’s Indigenous Yakthung (or Limbu) people, many of whom have objected to the clearing of trees that they say will weaken [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — A cable car line is being built to serve the mountaintop temple of Pathibhara Devi, a popular pilgrimage destination for Hindus in eastern Nepal. But the area is also revered by the region’s Indigenous Yakthung (or Limbu) people, many of whom have objected to the clearing of trees that they say will weaken the spiritual power that the site holds according to their beliefs. The World Bank Group’s Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (CAO) says it is looking into a complaint filed by the Yakthung people against the International Finance Corporation (IFC) — the private sector investment arm of the World Bank Group — for providing advisory support to a controversial cable car project in their ancestral land. The CAO recently confirmed to Mongabay that it had received the complaint filed in August 2025 and it meets the ombudsman’s criteria for formal registration. “As the Nepal cable car complaint met these criteria, it is now in the assessment phase of the CAO process,” Emily Horgan, communications and outreach lead at CAO, told Mongabay via email referring to the ombudsman’s policy of accepting a complaint if it concerns an IFC or MIGA (Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency) project. Horgan said that the Pathibhara issue also falls within the CAO’s mandate to address potential environmental and social impacts of projects. The CAO’s registry states that the complaint was accepted for review on Dec. 12, 2025. Project developer Pathibhara Devi Darshan Cable Car Pvt. Ltd., part of the IME Group led by prominent Nepali tycoon&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/world-bank-watchdog-looks-into-nepal-cable-car-project-amid-indigenous-outcry/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/world-bank-watchdog-looks-into-nepal-cable-car-project-amid-indigenous-outcry/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313239</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>SE Asia’s smallholders struggling to meet EUDR: Interview with RECOFTC’s Martin Greijmans</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/se-asias-smallholders-struggling-to-meet-eudr-interview-with-recoftcs-martin-greijmans/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/se-asias-smallholders-struggling-to-meet-eudr-interview-with-recoftcs-martin-greijmans/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2025 10:59:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/29105530/IMG_6036-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312175</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Europe, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Certification, Coffee, Community Forests, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forestry, Green, International Trade, Palm Oil, Plantations, Regulations, Timber, and Timber Laws]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Smallholders produce significant quantities of Vietnam’s coffee, Indonesia’s palm oil, and Thailand’s rubber exported into the EU. Yet under the bloc’s upcoming deforestation-free regulation (EUDR), industry experts say small-scale producers across Southeast Asia need more support to help prepare them to comply with the new rules. The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is set to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Smallholders produce significant quantities of Vietnam’s coffee, Indonesia’s palm oil, and Thailand’s rubber exported into the EU. Yet under the bloc’s upcoming deforestation-free regulation (EUDR), industry experts say small-scale producers across Southeast Asia need more support to help prepare them to comply with the new rules. The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is set to take effect at the end of 2026, after EU lawmakers voted earlier this month to postpone its implementation for the second year in a row, citing technical concerns. Its goal is to ensure that forest-linked products imported into the EU are deforestation-free by introducing mechanisms that enable companies trading seven commodities — cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and timber — to track their products’ origins throughout the entire supply chain. While experts say increased oversight is a vital step to reduce the footprint of EU consumption on forests, others have warned that without appropriate support and governance mechanisms, the new rules could introduce inequities that harm small-scale producers. Many smallholders lack the capacity and capital to comply with some aspects of the new regulations, for instance. This could see them sidelined in favor of bigger producers who can more easily adapt, according to Martin Greijmans, community enterprise program lead at RECOFTC, a Thailand-based community forest nonprofit. Further complicating matters are limited resources to inform smallholders about how the regulations will affect their businesses, underscoring the need for greater efforts by governments and private companies to help smallholders adapt, he says. “One shocking thing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/se-asias-smallholders-struggling-to-meet-eudr-interview-with-recoftcs-martin-greijmans/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/se-asias-smallholders-struggling-to-meet-eudr-interview-with-recoftcs-martin-greijmans/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312175</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Grassroots forest protection succeeds where planting drives fail in Nepal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/grassroots-forest-protection-succeeds-where-planting-drives-fail-in-nepal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/grassroots-forest-protection-succeeds-where-planting-drives-fail-in-nepal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Dec 2025 01:17:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mukesh Pokhrel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/23002241/Planting-Trees-at-Jyotipunj-Community-Forest-at-Kawasoti-57-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311929</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Himalayas, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Forest Destruction, Freshwater, Mountains, Plantations, and Reforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NAWALPUR, Nepal — At 75, Hasta Bahadur Sathighare Magar says he still remembers the time when the slopes above his village in the rural municipality of Rupsekot, in central Nepal, looked dead. Dust blew freely as cattle marauded the barren land. That view has since changed. The barren slopes have given way to native trees [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[NAWALPUR, Nepal — At 75, Hasta Bahadur Sathighare Magar says he still remembers the time when the slopes above his village in the rural municipality of Rupsekot, in central Nepal, looked dead. Dust blew freely as cattle marauded the barren land. That view has since changed. The barren slopes have given way to native trees like sal(Shorea robusta), sisau (Dalbergia sissoo), jamun (Syzygium cumini) and bakaino(Melia azedarach), which cast a shade with their canopy. “When I’m in the jungle, I feel as if I gain energy from the plants. Many people like me come here to walk and enjoy nature,” Magar says. Hasta Bahadur Sathighare Magar at the Muse Danda forest. Image by Mukesh Pokhrel The barren hill in Muse Danda is now filled wth trees. Image by Mukesh Pokhrel. The recovery of the Muse Danda Community Forest wasn’t funded by large-scale tree-planting campaigns. Instead, it was driven by small local changes. Community members simply protected the land, and the forest grew back. As the government struggles to restore degraded land across Nepal’s Chure foothills through large-scale tree-planting programs, the success of low-cast, community-led efforts signals that natural regeneration could happen if communities protect the land. The Chure range is Nepal’s green spine: fragile, vital, and now fighting to survive. It covers about 13% of the country’s total area and stretches east to west along the southern foothills of the Himalayas. This biologically rich landscape supports a wide range of species — from tigers (Panthera tigris) and sloth bears (Melursus&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/grassroots-forest-protection-succeeds-where-planting-drives-fail-in-nepal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/grassroots-forest-protection-succeeds-where-planting-drives-fail-in-nepal/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311929</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As fish catches fall and seas rise, Douala’s residents join efforts to restore mangroves</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/as-fish-catches-fall-and-seas-rise-doualas-residents-join-efforts-to-restore-mangroves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/as-fish-catches-fall-and-seas-rise-doualas-residents-join-efforts-to-restore-mangroves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Dec 2025 16:18:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ngala Chimtom]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/09073438/Manoka-Island-mangroves-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310842</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Climate Justice, Coastal Ecosystems, Community Development, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Forestry, Governance, Landscape Restoration, Mangroves, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Reforestation, Restoration, Sea Levels, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[DOUALA, Cameroon — Henry Belle Ekam, 37, cuts a frustrated figure as he paddles his boat to the shore in the Bojongo neighborhood of Cameroon’s largest city, Douala. The fisherman has been out on the waters of the Wouri Estuary for hours, and all he’s brought back to show for his effort is a tiny [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[DOUALA, Cameroon — Henry Belle Ekam, 37, cuts a frustrated figure as he paddles his boat to the shore in the Bojongo neighborhood of Cameroon’s largest city, Douala. The fisherman has been out on the waters of the Wouri Estuary for hours, and all he’s brought back to show for his effort is a tiny catfish. “It’s so frustrating,” he says, putting away the empty net. “A few years back, you didn’t need to go far to have a good harvest. Everything has changed.” The coastal landscape here has changed, and with it the fishing fortunes of resident communities. Experts point to retreating mangrove forests as one of the reasons for the troubles Ekam and other fishers here are facing. The Cameroon Mangrove Ecosystem Restoration and Resilience (CAMERR) project, launched in November 2022 by a group of international NGOs in partnership with the Cameroonian government and local organizations, is one of the largest mangrove restoration projects in the country. It aims to restore 1,000 hectares (nearly 2,500 acres) of mangroves over 30 years. The focus of the initiative is the estuary of the Wouri River, with the city of Douala on its southeastern shore. The Watershed Task Group (WTG), a local nonprofit leading the effort, says it has restored more than 100 hectares (250 acres) of mangroves in the Cameroon and Ntem river estuaries. In Bojongo (part of the Douala or Cameroon estuary), under another initiative of the local administrative council and with funding from the United Nations Environment Programme&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/as-fish-catches-fall-and-seas-rise-doualas-residents-join-efforts-to-restore-mangroves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/as-fish-catches-fall-and-seas-rise-doualas-residents-join-efforts-to-restore-mangroves/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310842</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Philippine mangroves survived a typhoon, but now confront a human-made challenge</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/philippine-mangroves-survived-a-typhoon-but-now-confront-a-human-made-challenge/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/philippine-mangroves-survived-a-typhoon-but-now-confront-a-human-made-challenge/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Dec 2025 15:56:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Keith Anthony Fabro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/04131402/d.-Paraiso_Mangrove_Eco_Learning_Park_boardwalk_floating_cottage_Tacloban_Leyte__09-09-2022-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310611</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Extreme Weather, Forestry, Forests, Infrastructure, Landscape Restoration, Mangroves, Marine Conservation, Nature-based climate solutions, Oceans, Reforestation, Restoration, Solutions, Storms, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mangroves in the Philippine city of Tacloban, the area hit hardest by one of the most powerful typhoons ever recorded, have recovered and even expanded beyond their pre-disaster extent, thanks largely to community-led reforestation. But scientists caution that ongoing coastal development could threaten the recovering forests. In a recently published study, Hiroshi Takagi, a professor [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mangroves in the Philippine city of Tacloban, the area hit hardest by one of the most powerful typhoons ever recorded, have recovered and even expanded beyond their pre-disaster extent, thanks largely to community-led reforestation. But scientists caution that ongoing coastal development could threaten the recovering forests. In a recently published study, Hiroshi Takagi, a professor at the Institute of Science Tokyo, examined mangrove recovery in the Paraiso neighborhood in the innermost part of Tacloban’s Cancabato Bay. He used satellite imagery to track the decline and rebound of mangrove canopy following the devastation wrought by Typhoon Haiyan (known in the Philippines as Typhoon Yolanda) in November 2013. He also applied wind, wave and storm surge modeling to assess the extent of typhoon-induced impacts on the forest. His modeling showed that Haiyan generated storm surges of 4.7 meters (15.4 feet), waves up to 1.3 meters (4.3 feet), and wind gusts of around 148 kilometers per hour (92 miles per hour) — strong enough to flatten the area’s mature Rhizophora apiculata mangrove trees. Satellite images also revealed a sharp drop in vegetation after the storm and minimal coastal recovery in the following three years. Growth began accelerating around 2018, and by 2023, the mangrove area had expanded even beyond pre-Haiyan levels, reaching an estimated 3.6 hectares (8.9 acres) compared to about 1.9 hectares (4.7 acres) before the storm. This rebound corresponded with reforestation efforts carried out between 2015 and 2018, when residents, assisted by NGOs and the Philippine and Japanese governments, planted some&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/philippine-mangroves-survived-a-typhoon-but-now-confront-a-human-made-challenge/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/philippine-mangroves-survived-a-typhoon-but-now-confront-a-human-made-challenge/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310611</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Saving critical winter habitat for monarch butterflies may depend on buy-in from their human neighbors</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/saving-critical-winter-habitat-for-monarch-butterflies-may-depend-on-buy-in-from-their-human-neighbors/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/saving-critical-winter-habitat-for-monarch-butterflies-may-depend-on-buy-in-from-their-human-neighbors/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Dec 2025 13:39:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claudia Steiner]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/03133322/Photo4_Monarch-butterfly-resting-on-a-plant-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310462</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, Mesoamerica, and Mexico]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Butterflies, Community Forests, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Insects, Invertebrates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) population has plummeted by 80% to 95% since the 1990s, depending on the region and monitoring method. A major cause of the species’ decline is deforestation in central Mexico, where eastern monarchs spend the colder winter months of their annual migration from Canada and the northern United States. Since 1980, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) population has plummeted by 80% to 95% since the 1990s, depending on the region and monitoring method. A major cause of the species’ decline is deforestation in central Mexico, where eastern monarchs spend the colder winter months of their annual migration from Canada and the northern United States. Since 1980, the Mexican government has worked to conserve critical winter monarch habitat by cracking down on logging, one of the leading causes of habitat degradation. They ultimately designated 563 square kilometers (217 square miles) of forest as the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, banning logging, hunting, and foraging in certain locations and restricting it in others. Mountains in central/southern Mexico. Photo by José López-García The project has yielded mixed results for the habitat, however, with logging continuing in some areas despite the prohibition. To understand why, a team of researchers studied the protection of the forest with a focus on how the involvement of the local communities affected conservation outcomes in the Reserve over a 50-year period. The study, published in Environmental Conservation, demonstrates that community buy-in can make or break a conservation project. “People must be consulted in order for the conservation strategy to be successful,” said study co-author Gustavo Cruz-Bello, an ecologist and social scientist at the Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico City. Oyamel fir trees. Photo by José López-García The Reserve represents a complex web of human and natural interdependence. Monarchs rely on the oyamel fir forest in the mountains of the Michoacán and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/saving-critical-winter-habitat-for-monarch-butterflies-may-depend-on-buy-in-from-their-human-neighbors/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/saving-critical-winter-habitat-for-monarch-butterflies-may-depend-on-buy-in-from-their-human-neighbors/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310462</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As agroforestry declines in Indonesia&#8217;s Flores, a traditional ecological lexicon fades with it</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/as-agroforestry-declines-in-indonesias-flores-a-traditional-ecological-lexicon-fades-with-it/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/as-agroforestry-declines-in-indonesias-flores-a-traditional-ecological-lexicon-fades-with-it/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Nov 2025 15:44:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Keith Anthony Fabro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/28151355/manggarai-village-flores-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310297</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Community Forests, Conservation, Development, Environment, Food, food security, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Monocultures, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the cool highlands of Indonesia’s Flores Island, where mist settles over rice fields and coffee gardens, the Manggarai people have cultivated a close relationship with the forest. Their land is known as the rice granary of East Nusa Tenggara province, but it also produces cacao, vanilla and other crops that sustain families and the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the cool highlands of Indonesia’s Flores Island, where mist settles over rice fields and coffee gardens, the Manggarai people have cultivated a close relationship with the forest. Their land is known as the rice granary of East Nusa Tenggara province, but it also produces cacao, vanilla and other crops that sustain families and the wider region. For generations, Manggarai farmers practiced agroforestry: cultivating diverse crops at the forest’s edge and blending agriculture with biodiversity conservation. These practices were carried in language. Words described not only crops and tools, but also the actions of harvesting, the stages of plant growth, and the sacred spaces of the forest. “It is encouraging to see how much of this traditional ecological knowledge still lives in community memory,” said Mel Engman, an ethnolinguist at Queen’s University Belfast, in the north of Ireland. But much of that vocabulary is now fading. Since 1960, monoculture farming has spread rapidly across the Manggarai land. Sorghum and upland rice, once staples, have given way to wet paddy rice and plantation crops. Upland rice, cultivated on dry uplands with other crops, kept soils healthy and limited forest clearing — unlike paddy rice that needs flooded fields and fertilizers. As forests shrink to clear land for new monoculture farms, so too do the words that once guided sustainable ways of farming. A recent study seeks to turn the tide. Working with the Ruteng Pu’u community, researchers from Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) documented 253 agroforestry-related words at risk&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/as-agroforestry-declines-in-indonesias-flores-a-traditional-ecological-lexicon-fades-with-it/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/as-agroforestry-declines-in-indonesias-flores-a-traditional-ecological-lexicon-fades-with-it/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310297</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What was achieved for Indigenous peoples at COP30?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/what-was-achieved-for-indigenous-peoples-at-cop30/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/what-was-achieved-for-indigenous-peoples-at-cop30/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Nov 2025 08:27:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/08133206/AP25100772908645-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310250</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Central Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Crime, Culture, Environment, Extreme Weather, Finance, FPIC, Gender, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Reform, Land Rights, Mining, Politics, Rainforests, Social Justice, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[After two weeks of negotiations in Belém, Brazil, the COP30 U.N. climate summit delivered mixed outcomes, Indigenous delegates say. The event saw the largest Indigenous participation in COP history and landmark pledges made, but also heated protests and last-minute disappointments. “The summit was historic for Indigenous peoples, and this is the result of the Indigenous [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[After two weeks of negotiations in Belém, Brazil, the COP30 U.N. climate summit delivered mixed outcomes, Indigenous delegates say. The event saw the largest Indigenous participation in COP history and landmark pledges made, but also heated protests and last-minute disappointments. “The summit was historic for Indigenous peoples, and this is the result of the Indigenous struggle working to be at this COP not only in numbers but also in quality of participation,” said Kleber Karipuna, executive coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), one of the main Indigenous organizations in Brazil. “Not everything has been won as we expected — much more Indigenous lands [still need] to be demarcated.” Promises on securing land rights A major outcome of the summit was the Intergovernmental Land Tenure Commitment (ILTC), a historic pledge to recognize Indigenous land tenure rights over 160 million hectares (395 million acres) — an area the size of Iran — across tropical forest countries, including Brazil, Colombia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, by 2030. “It is one of the most positive outcomes we hoped to achieve at COP30,” Kleber said. “In Brazil alone, 63 million hectares [156 million acres] of Indigenous lands are pledged for protection, management, and land ownership.” In addition, the Forest Tenure Funders Group (FTFG) announced a renewed pledge, totaling $1.8 billion, to support Indigenous peoples, local and Afro-descendant communities in securing land rights over the next five years. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also signed decrees for 28 quilombos&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/what-was-achieved-for-indigenous-peoples-at-cop30/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/what-was-achieved-for-indigenous-peoples-at-cop30/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310250</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous Dayak resist new southern Borneo national park amid global protection deficit</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indigenous-dayak-resist-new-southern-borneo-national-park-amid-global-protection-deficit/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indigenous-dayak-resist-new-southern-borneo-national-park-amid-global-protection-deficit/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Nov 2025 10:10:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rendy TisnaRiyad Dafhi Rizki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/18100750/1001354092-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309722</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conflict, Conservation, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Use Change, National Parks, Protests, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANJARMASIN, Indonesia — A growing coalition of Indigenous communities, students and civil society organizations from Borneo is rallying against fast-moving plans to establish a new national park in the remote Meratus mountain range. “The Meratus forest is our mother,” said Anang Suriani, a spokesperson for the Dayak Indigenous community from Kambiayin, a village in South [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANJARMASIN, Indonesia — A growing coalition of Indigenous communities, students and civil society organizations from Borneo is rallying against fast-moving plans to establish a new national park in the remote Meratus mountain range. “The Meratus forest is our mother,” said Anang Suriani, a spokesperson for the Dayak Indigenous community from Kambiayin, a village in South Kalimantan province that falls within the borders of the proposed Meratus Mountains National Park. “It&#8217;s a place where we live, farm, forage, practice tradition and obtain medicine,” he added. “Making it a national park is tantamount to destroying us.” The government plans to zone Meratus Mountains National Park over 119,779 hectares (295,980 acres), an area twice the size of the city of Chicago, or more than 50% larger than the country of Singapore. Since Indonesia’s independence in 1945, successive governments have established 57 national parks across the country, the largest of which is Lorentz National Park in Papua, at around 2.5 million hectares (6.2 million acres), an area 30 times larger than Singapore. The smallest, Kelimutu National Park on Flores island, is slightly smaller than the city state. South Kalimantan is one of only four of the 38 provinces across Indonesia that doesn’t have a national park. However, in April this year, UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural office, designated the Meratus Mountains as a Global Geopark for its “fascinating geological record of complex tectonic evolution beginning in the Jurassic period, 201 to 145 million years ago.” Officials in Indonesia unveiled the national park draft in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indigenous-dayak-resist-new-southern-borneo-national-park-amid-global-protection-deficit/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indigenous-dayak-resist-new-southern-borneo-national-park-amid-global-protection-deficit/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309722</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous delegates prepare for COP30 with focus on justice, land and finance</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indigenous-delegates-prepare-for-cop30-with-focus-on-justice-land-and-finance/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indigenous-delegates-prepare-for-cop30-with-focus-on-justice-land-and-finance/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Nov 2025 00:51:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/01153722/53201636099_d14aa65731_c-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308941</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Crime, Culture, Environment, Extreme Weather, Finance, FPIC, Gender, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Grabbing, Land Reform, Land Rights, Mining, Politics, Rainforests, Social Justice, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As the Brazilian city of Belém prepares for this year’s U.N. climate conference, COP30, Indigenous leaders worldwide say they’re getting ready to have their demands addressed. Dubbed the “nature COP” by some delegates, the 2025 conference is set to see the largest participation of Indigenous leaders in the climate conference’s history, with more than 3,000 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As the Brazilian city of Belém prepares for this year’s U.N. climate conference, COP30, Indigenous leaders worldwide say they’re getting ready to have their demands addressed. Dubbed the “nature COP” by some delegates, the 2025 conference is set to see the largest participation of Indigenous leaders in the climate conference’s history, with more than 3,000 Indigenous people registered. The conference will run from Nov. 10-21 in Belém, a city known as the “gateway” to the Amazon Rainforest. Mongabay spoke to Indigenous leaders from Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Pacific to find out what they want from COP30. “Upholding Indigenous peoples&#8217; rights is only possible by placing them at the center of discussions, negotiations, and decision-making,” said Dinaman Tuxá, executive coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), one of the country&#8217;s main Indigenous advocacy groups. “We aim to demand Indigenous land demarcation and direct financing as climate mitigation tools for combating global warming.” At the COP30 World Leaders Summit on November 6, in the lead up to the conference, dozens of countries made major commitments to advance land rights and finance to Indigenous peoples, local and Afro-descendant communities, including recognizing 160 million hectares (395 million acres) of land and pledging $1.8 billion. Indigenous delegates also plan to tackle a range of other issues, including climate adaptation, a just energy transition, carbon markets, loss and damage funding, and the protection of Indigenous peoples’ rights as the world eyes their forests for climate solutions. Clouds above the rainforests in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indigenous-delegates-prepare-for-cop30-with-focus-on-justice-land-and-finance/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indigenous-delegates-prepare-for-cop30-with-focus-on-justice-land-and-finance/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308941</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forest sanctuaries and spiritual balance in the Karen highlands of Thailand</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/forest-sanctuaries-and-spiritual-balance-in-the-karen-highlands-of-thailand/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/forest-sanctuaries-and-spiritual-balance-in-the-karen-highlands-of-thailand/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Oct 2025 23:32:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/22122519/Banner-image_Noraeri-Thungmueangthong-is-a-village-leader-in-Huay-Ee-Khang-village-in-northern-Thailand-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308116</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Conservation and Religion]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Botany, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Environmental Law, Food, food security, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Protected Areas, Religions, Sustainable Forest Management, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Medicine, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[HUAY EE KHANG, Thailand — “Do you hear the birds calling?” asks Noraeri Thungmueangthong, as the vibrant trill of a blue-throated barbet rings through the pine trees looming up ahead. “That’s a sign we’re entering the sacred forest.” Noraeri is a leader in Huay Ee Khang village, an Indigenous Pgaz K&#8217;Nyau Karen community of 125 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[HUAY EE KHANG, Thailand — “Do you hear the birds calling?” asks Noraeri Thungmueangthong, as the vibrant trill of a blue-throated barbet rings through the pine trees looming up ahead. “That’s a sign we’re entering the sacred forest.” Noraeri is a leader in Huay Ee Khang village, an Indigenous Pgaz K&#8217;Nyau Karen community of 125 households nestled between undulating hills in the highlands of northern Thailand’s Chiang Mai province. Within the sanctuary of the forest, she points out a wooden receptacle attached to the trunk of a tree. “When a baby is born, we place its umbilical cord in a bamboo container like this one and hang it on a young tree in this forest,” Noraeri explains. The ritual establishes a spiritual link between the child and the tree, she says. And because their souls effectively grow together, it is understood that any harm to one equates to comparable ill for the other. This acts as a powerful deterrent against cutting the trees, she notes. “In our culture, we live our lives together with the forest and the trees,” Noraeri says. “Our beliefs protect the forest and all of its resources.” Traditional Pgaz K&#8217;Nyau ways of managing the land are underpinned by Karen animist beliefs, where people, plants and animals each possess a spirit and are inseparably linked through their inner nature. Living in balance with nature is considered paramount to maintain harmony between all beings, ensuring people’s health, food security and environmental stability. With a population of 500,000 spread&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/forest-sanctuaries-and-spiritual-balance-in-the-karen-highlands-of-thailand/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/forest-sanctuaries-and-spiritual-balance-in-the-karen-highlands-of-thailand/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308116</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Nepal’s hills, a fight brews over the country’s biggest iron deposit</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-nepals-hills-a-fight-brews-over-the-countrys-biggest-iron-deposit/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-nepals-hills-a-fight-brews-over-the-countrys-biggest-iron-deposit/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Oct 2025 08:36:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/16140316/7-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307814</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Chemicals, Community Forests, Conservation, Culture, Development, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Fungi, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, Land Rights, Medicinal Plants, Medicine, Mining, Pollution, Social Justice, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — When the monsoon arrives in Jhumlabang village in Nepal’s far west, 35-year-old Til Kumari B.K. spends hours in the community forest harvesting mushrooms. The rest of the year, she goes there to collect bark from the allo plant (Girardinia diversifolia), or Himalayan nettle, which is processed into a fiber for weaving fabric. During [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — When the monsoon arrives in Jhumlabang village in Nepal’s far west, 35-year-old Til Kumari B.K. spends hours in the community forest harvesting mushrooms. The rest of the year, she goes there to collect bark from the allo plant (Girardinia diversifolia), or Himalayan nettle, which is processed into a fiber for weaving fabric. During the dry season, Til Kumari also tends her farm. “The farm feeds my family, while money from the mushrooms and fibers help pay for books and pens for my four children,” she says. But all that could soon change, with her once sleepy village now in the headlines as home to Nepal’s “biggest iron deposit.” The area, which once provided copper ores for community use, now sits on a potential iron deposit. There’s no full-scale mining operation here, for now. But officials have recently granted a concession, and community members are crying foul over what they say is the lack of meaningful community consultation, threats of displacement, and potential environmental harm even — as the government and mining companies emphasize economic development and resource self-sufficiency. Government and company sources told Mongabay that Jhumlabang mine which contain a hematite deposit of around 200 million tonnes is twice as big as Dhaubadi iron mine that has an estimated 96.3 million metric tons of iron ores and that the new mine has the capacity to create job opportunities and reduce dependency on iron imports from neighboring countries. But first it would have to overcome stern opposition from locals,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-nepals-hills-a-fight-brews-over-the-countrys-biggest-iron-deposit/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-nepals-hills-a-fight-brews-over-the-countrys-biggest-iron-deposit/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307814</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>COP26 pledge to support Indigenous &#038; local forest tenure was just met. What was learned?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/cop26-forest-pledge-to-support-indigenous-local-rights-was-just-met-what-was-learned/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/cop26-forest-pledge-to-support-indigenous-local-rights-was-just-met-what-was-learned/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Oct 2025 23:57:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/29131237/ecuador_20241208_120026539-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307338</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Culture, Environment, Environmental Policy, Finance, Forests, Funding, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, and Land Rights]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Four years after several governments and private funders pledged $1.7 billion at the COP26 U.N. climate summit to support the land tenure rights of Indigenous and local communities, funders have announced that the pledge has surpassed its original financial target one year ahead of schedule. In light of this news, Mongabay spoke with several stakeholders [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Four years after several governments and private funders pledged $1.7 billion at the COP26 U.N. climate summit to support the land tenure rights of Indigenous and local communities, funders have announced that the pledge has surpassed its original financial target one year ahead of schedule. In light of this news, Mongabay spoke with several stakeholders to discuss what was accomplished, what worked and what didn’t, and the lessons learned. The COP26 Forest Tenure Pledge was launched in 2021 to help boost Indigenous and local community land tenure rights, following findings that less than 1% of climate finance was directed to projects supporting these groups’ tenure and forest management between 2011 and 2020. Rebeca Sandoval, a program officer at the Ford Foundation, one of several private funders that contributed to the pledge, told Mongabay over email that the pledge has accomplished its aims. “It was meant to encourage members and the broader donor community to continuously prioritize the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants, and local communities in their funding agendas and strategies,” she said. “And that is what happened.” While the share of direct support for Indigenous and local community organizations remains low, over the last four years, there has been a positive trend in overall direct funding to these groups and an increase in the number of local community organizations receiving direct funding, from 22 in 2021 to 112 in 2024, according to the latest report by the FTFG. South Kalimantan&#8217;s Walhi measures the trees on Mount Hauk, the sacred&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/cop26-forest-pledge-to-support-indigenous-local-rights-was-just-met-what-was-learned/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/cop26-forest-pledge-to-support-indigenous-local-rights-was-just-met-what-was-learned/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307338</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Indigenous tradition sustaining Nepal’s alpine pastures amid climate change</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-indigenous-tradition-sustaining-nepals-alpine-pastures-amid-climate-change/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-indigenous-tradition-sustaining-nepals-alpine-pastures-amid-climate-change/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Sep 2025 13:42:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mukesh Pokhrel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/30132719/upscalemedia-transformed-2-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306800</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Himalayas, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Culture, Grasslands, Indigenous Peoples, Mountains, Snow Leopards, Sustainable Forest Management, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As the monsoon clouds recede in Nepal in late September, herders Karma Gurung and Dhana Raj Ghale, who have spent three summer months at an elevation of 4,044 meters (13,270 feet) above sea level, are returning to lower lands with their cattle herds. In Nepal’s rugged Himalayan mountains, life follows the rhythm of the seasons. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As the monsoon clouds recede in Nepal in late September, herders Karma Gurung and Dhana Raj Ghale, who have spent three summer months at an elevation of 4,044 meters (13,270 feet) above sea level, are returning to lower lands with their cattle herds. In Nepal’s rugged Himalayan mountains, life follows the rhythm of the seasons. During the short summers, pastoralists move their livestock to high-elevation pastures where melted snow reveals fresh, nutritious grass and herbs, while in winter, they descend to lower valleys to escape the bitter cold. “We have descended to an elevation of 3,100 meters [10,170 ft], and we will reach our village in Ghermu at 1,140 meters [3,740 ft] elevation by November 1,” Gurung tells Mongabay over the phone. Their journey was planned in March, when around 300 households from Ghermu village in Marsyangdi Rural Municipality, Lamjung district, gathered on the edge of their alpine pastures. They were there for an annual age-old tradition: deciding how and where to allow livestock to graze for the year under the guidance of thiti, a Gurung community institution passed down through generations. Sheep herd moving to lower altitudes with the end of summer. Image courtesy of Sita Ram Guragain. “This system has guided our community for generations,” says Ghanashyam Ghale, an elected ward chair of the municipality. “It allows us to live in this harsh environment while conserving our natural resources.” As climate change threatens alpine grasslands, conservationists are pointing to the centuries-old thiti system, which combines rotational grazing, collective&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-indigenous-tradition-sustaining-nepals-alpine-pastures-amid-climate-change/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/the-indigenous-tradition-sustaining-nepals-alpine-pastures-amid-climate-change/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306800</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Women-led patrols and fire prevention restore forests in northern Thailand</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/women-led-patrols-and-fire-prevention-restore-forests-in-northern-thailand/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/women-led-patrols-and-fire-prevention-restore-forests-in-northern-thailand/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2025 01:16:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/07121601/905a2de0-2c62-44cb-a6bf-97045a5af337-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306038</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Dry Forests, Environment, Fires, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Reforestation, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BAN PONG, Thailand — “Look at these ones over here!” calls Chamran Tahpan, as she crouches next to a mound of damp leaves on the forest floor. A cluster of mushrooms sprouts from the center of the earthy-smelling pile. “These are hed khon, termite mushrooms,” says Rachaprapa Kamphud, 55, who leads the Ban Pong community [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BAN PONG, Thailand — “Look at these ones over here!” calls Chamran Tahpan, as she crouches next to a mound of damp leaves on the forest floor. A cluster of mushrooms sprouts from the center of the earthy-smelling pile. “These are hed khon, termite mushrooms,” says Rachaprapa Kamphud, 55, who leads the Ban Pong community forest and fire management group in northern Thailand’s Lampang province. Edible mushrooms like hed khon, along with a variety of other nontimber products, such as bamboo shoots, leafy greens and red ant eggs, can fetch high prices in local markets, she says, offering villagers a modest income. By keeping the forest soil moist using small check dams designed to slow the flow of minor streams, Rachaprapa says they need only pile up humid leaves and soil to yield wild mushrooms year-round. There’s no need to set fire to the leaf litter to stimulate their growth — a common but risky method many nearby communities rely on. “The moist fallen leaves are a natural fertilizer and give the trees the nutrients they need to grow tall,” Rachaprapa says as she leads 10 members of the community forest group — eight of them women — through the trees to harvest edible items and carry out repairs to a newly built check dam. “Even in the dry season, there’s moisture in our forest soil.” Rachaprapa and her fellow volunteers began restoring the 40-hectare (100-acre) forest from a peanut plantation in 2007. They planted native trees and revived the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/women-led-patrols-and-fire-prevention-restore-forests-in-northern-thailand/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/women-led-patrols-and-fire-prevention-restore-forests-in-northern-thailand/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306038</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New report recommends ways to increase women’s access to funding</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-report-recommends-ways-to-increase-womens-access-to-funding/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-report-recommends-ways-to-increase-womens-access-to-funding/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Sep 2025 07:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/29140348/20-Gurung-women-harvesting-foxtail-millet-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305443</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Finance, Funding, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Solutions, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new report, published ahead of the International Day of Indigenous Women on Sept. 5, analyzed structural barriers faced by Indigenous, Afro-descendant and other local community women’s organizations in accessing funding for conservation, land rights and gender equality projects — and it offers several recommendations to address these challenges. “When women have secure land and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new report, published ahead of the International Day of Indigenous Women on Sept. 5, analyzed structural barriers faced by Indigenous, Afro-descendant and other local community women’s organizations in accessing funding for conservation, land rights and gender equality projects — and it offers several recommendations to address these challenges. “When women have secure land and resource rights, deforestation rates fall, food security improves, and communities are more resilient,” Omaira Bolaños, Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) program director and research project lead, told Mongabay via email. “Yet despite this central role, women remain underrepresented in decision-making and severely underfunded.” The latest report by global coalitions RRI and the Women in Global South Alliance (WiGSA) found that most of the grants that organizations in the WiGSA network receive are short-term, lasting two years or less, and very little funding reaches women directly, instead going through intermediaries such as international NGOs. “It is necessary for philanthropists, donors and cooperation agencies to understand that it is important, and the moment has come, to provide direct access to financing for communities,” said Sara Omi Casamá, an Emberá Indigenous woman from Panamá and president of the Coordination of Territorial Women Leaders of the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests, who contributed to the report as a member of WiGSA. “This is crucial as a form of justice, as reparation for the constant violations of rights that communities face, particularly affecting children and women.” Along Colombia’s Pacific coast, women belonging to the Afro-Colombian community who harvest piangüa&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-report-recommends-ways-to-increase-womens-access-to-funding/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-report-recommends-ways-to-increase-womens-access-to-funding/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305443</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Let’s understand the value of the forest’ says Liberia’s Silas Siakor</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/lets-understand-the-value-of-the-forest-says-liberias-silas-siakor/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/lets-understand-the-value-of-the-forest-says-liberias-silas-siakor/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Sep 2025 11:25:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/01093841/edb884ea-00f1-4a96-b10e-b1e414790373-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305234</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Community Forests, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Foreign Aid, Forests, Governance, Human Rights, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Logging, Plantations, Politics, Rainforests, Timber Laws, timber trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Rainforests have long played a central role in Liberia. Home to hundreds of thousands of people, they’re a source of sustenance, a site for cultural practice and habitat for forest elephants, western chimpanzees, and pygmy hippos. Massive rubber plantations carved out of them dominated the country’s economy for decades, and during the country’s civil war [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Rainforests have long played a central role in Liberia. Home to hundreds of thousands of people, they’re a source of sustenance, a site for cultural practice and habitat for forest elephants, western chimpanzees, and pygmy hippos. Massive rubber plantations carved out of them dominated the country’s economy for decades, and during the country’s civil war they provided timber that funded rebel groups. After the guns fell silent, Liberia overhauled its forestry laws to give communities a bigger role, with foreign donors pledging vast sums to support the reforms. Today, some of those donors are pulling back on their commitments, and new threats to Liberia’s forests are emerging. Nobody knows the importance of Liberia’s forests — or the challenges of protecting them — better than Silas Siakor. A prominent voice pushing for community rights in forest management, he was instrumental in designing the postwar legal reforms as well as the exposure of logging corruption scandals. In 2006, Siakor was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for his work investigating illegal logging under former President Charles Taylor. With the prize money, he set up an environmental watchdog group, the Sustainable Development Institute. Now, he’s helping to run an innovative pilot project in Liberia’s southeast Sinoe county, where 28 communities are set to begin receiving direct “area-based payments” from the Irish government in exchange for conserving their forests. “Two things came to mind when I first started to think about this approach,” he told Mongabay. “How do we incentivize forest owners to keep their&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/lets-understand-the-value-of-the-forest-says-liberias-silas-siakor/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/lets-understand-the-value-of-the-forest-says-liberias-silas-siakor/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305234</doi>				</item>
			</channel>
</rss>